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"It is very hard when you arrive in the area now to have any idea of what the countryside looked like before the war." Vincent Kessler, Reuters Photographer
The year 2014 brings together the past and the future for France. It is a time of local elections, and it is also the hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War.
The Battle of Verdun in northeastern France was the longest battle of the so-called Great War, lasting some ten months from February to December 1916. It was also one of the most murderous.
After the 1870-71 war between France and Prussia, which ended with the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by the Germans, Verdun was at the eastern edge of France. The city was fringed by hills – hills in which a network of forts were built to protect the border.
During the First World War, the Germans wanted to make a massive attack on a target that had great historic significance for the French, and they thought that weakening France around Verdun could change the face of the war.
On February 21, 1916 they started the assault with a huge bombardment. A charity named “The Western Front Association” writes that during the initial stage of the Battle of Verdun, Germany fired more than a million shells.
Ten months of fighting saw German and French troops being pushed back and forwards, and by December 1916 the French had retaken almost all the territory that had been lost. German troops did not come through, but nine villages had been utterly wiped out. An estimated 300,000 French and German soldiers were killed and over 450,000 were injured.
It is very hard when you arrive in the area now to have any idea of what the countryside looked like before the war. People say that each square meter of the battlefield was hit by a shell and the village of Fleury alone was struck by 90,000 tons of bombs in one day, according to its mayor. Most houses were completely destroyed; their former locations are now marked only by signs.
The bombings sculpted the landscape, pockmarking the ground with craters. The area was later designated a “red zone” meaning that any construction or digging was prohibited, since the ground had been left filled with tons of leftover shells and ammunition, as well as bodies of those who died.
After the war, it was decided that the villages should not be rebuilt, and most have remained without any inhabitants. But nonetheless they are still administered by unelected mayors, who are chosen by local authorities after a law was passed in 1919, symbolically maintaining their administrative existence.
To be designated as the mayor of one of these villages, “candidates” must send a letter to the local authorities, explaining why they want the post. For the most part, family history and a sense of attachment to the villages is the reason for a mayor’s selection. Being designated a mayor has also become a family tradition for some, passed down from grandparents to children or grandchildren.
Francois-Xavier Long, a doctor from Verdun, became Mayor of Louvemont after proving his great interest in history and military medicine. His village is completely uninhabited.
The village of Ornes, on the other hand, is located on the very edge of the “red zone” and part of its territory spills over to the other side. Though the village proper was destroyed and has not been rebuilt, there are now a few people who live just outside the "red zone" within its bounds. This means that after simply having been selected as mayor for the past decade, Charles Saint-Vannes will actually face his first proper election in 2014. He was born in his village and, as the Mayor of Ornes, is the successor to his father and mother.
After learning about all these battles, bombings and deaths, discovering these hills shaped by war, and seeing the monuments dedicated to soldiers, the most surprising thing I noticed as I walked through these villages was the feeling that they gave me. It was a feeling of peace.
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「虫歯の痛みに正露丸」は効く？ 効かない？
「虫歯が痛くて……。でも正露丸を詰めたら治りました」 実際に正露丸に歯痛を抑える効果はあるのでしょうか
正露丸に含まれる「木クレオソート」は歯科でも使われる成分
正露丸で歯痛軽減に効くケース・効かないケース
虫歯による歯痛への上手な正露丸の使い方
歯痛があっても正露丸を使ってはいけないケース・注意点・禁忌
最近では少なくなってきましたが、昔から「歯が痛いから正露丸を詰めてきました」「正露丸を詰めたら歯痛が落ち着いた」という患者さんは実際にいます。効果があると言われる理由と、実際に効果が期待できる歯痛の種類、上手な使い方、効かないケース、また、使ってはいけない禁忌事項にあたるケースについて解説します。正露丸の主成分は「木クレオソート」と呼ばれ、ギリシャ語で「肉の保存」の意味があります。クレオソートには大きく分けて2種類あり、木クレオソートは植物由来、クレオソート油は鉱物由来であり、コールタールと呼ばれているものです。発ガン性が問題となるのは、鉱物由来のクレオソート油（コールタール）で、木クレオソートはブナの木などの木タールからつくられる植物性の混合物で安全です。木クレオソートは、強い防腐作用や殺菌作用がある割に、毒性や刺激作用は弱くなっています。虫歯の内部にある神経に対しては、初めは少し刺激が起こりますが、次第に知覚麻痺して痛みを感じなくなっていきます。そのため歯の神経の鎮痛、鎮静効果が期待できます。しかし歯ぐきや粘膜には刺激が強すぎるため、口内炎になったり炎症を起こします。そのため歯ぐきに触れたままにしない、などの注意は必要です。すでに症状があり比較的穴が大きな虫歯に適しています。表面の穴が小さくて、内部が広がっているような虫歯は、適していません。正露丸半分～1個を詰められる大きさが必要です。比較的軽い痛みが続いていたが、痛みが強くなった状態が適当です。夜も眠れないほどズキズキ痛む場合には、鎮痛剤などの服用が必要で、正露丸を詰めるだけで改善する効果は期待できません。さらに歯の神経を取り除く治療を行うまで痛みが続くこともあります。基本的に虫歯で歯ぐきが腫れるほど進行している場合には、すでに効果はありません。歯の神経が死んでしまって感染を起こしているからです。歯ぐきが腫れていない状態の虫歯に利用するようにしましょう。まずは歯磨きを行ってできるだけ虫歯内部のプラークなどを取り除くようにします。その際あまり奥の方まで刺激すると歯の神経を傷つけてしまう恐れがあるので、痛みが出ない程度までで止めておきます。正露丸を詰める前には、唾液で濡れた虫歯の穴の内部をティッシュを細く丸めたものを差し込むなどしてできるだけ乾燥させるようにします。詰めすぎには注意が必要です。多く入れると咬み合わせ時に余計に痛くなることがあります。初め少し痛みがあっても、その後痛みが落ち着くようであれば効果が出ています。痛みが続いたり、変化が無いような時は、すでに薬では鎮静効果が期待できないほど進行しているか、利用すべき適応状態でない可能性があります。痛みがなくなった原因は、あくまで痛覚が麻痺しているような状態です。薬の効果がなくなれば、痛みの再発が起こります。また虫歯の進行も止めることはできません。できるだけ速やかにかかりつけの歯科医院などでしっかり治療を行いましょう。効果があるのは、虫歯の痛みだけです。歯ぐきや粘膜に触れたままにすることも禁止されています。歯周病で歯ぐきの腫れが強い場合には、切開を行い膿を出すとともに抗生物質による投薬を行わなくてはなりません。正露丸を利用するときは、痛みの軽減が目的。その結果、痛みが減少したとしても虫歯が治ったわけではありません。虫歯治療などで利用する白い仮の詰め物と同じ鎮痛、鎮静作用が中心です。正露丸を歯に詰めることによって、独特な匂いがします。口臭と間違われることも考えておきましょう。歯が炎症によって浮いてしまい、噛んで痛いときは、薬よりも噛み合わせの調整が効果的です。自分での応急処置では効果がないことも多いのですぐに歯科医院で診察してもらいましょう。歯に穴があったとしても、すでに神経を抜く治療がしてある場合には、効果はありません。
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Transcript for Pope Francis calls for a summit to address clergy abuse
That the index tonight unprecedented action by Pope Francis to address sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The Vatican summoning bishops around the world including the US for a summit on the issue next year. And tomorrow the Pope meets with leaders from the American church to talk about addressing the crisis here in the US and were that a prominent cardinal. Donald world we'll talk to the Pope about possibly resigning. World has come under fire for his handling of sexual abuse cases as the bishop of Pittsburgh.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
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*Correction appended
CLAREMONT, N.H. — Beto O’Rourke announced additional details Wednesday about the massive fundraising haul in the first day of his presidential campaign, showing that while he may have beat rival Bernie Sanders in total money raised, Sanders had the advantage in two key metrics.
After a campaign stop here, O’Rourke told reporters that he received “more than 128,000 unique contributions” in the first 24 hours, with an average donation size of $47. O'Rourke's campaign later corrected the average donation size, saying it was actually $48. By comparison, Sanders’ campaign said its first-day haul came from over 223,000 individual donors for an average contribution size of $27.
While O'Rourke didn't elaborate on what he meant by unique contributions, the measure is generally regarded as different from the number of individual donors.
O’Rourke first announced Monday that he had raised $6.1 million in the opening 24 hours of his campaign. That figure was $5.9 million for Sanders.
O’Rourke built a small-dollar donor army with his blockbuster U.S. Senate campaign last year. But Sanders has also proven to be a fundraising phenomenon and accumulated a more massive base of small-dollar donors during his 2016 presidential bid.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of individual donors Bernie Sanders' campaign reported for the first 24 hours of his campaign.
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General 6-stave (large for elementary school use) PS PDF
8-stave paper for parts or lead sheets PS PDF
10-stave paper for parts or lead sheets PS PDF
9-stave paper for sketches (landscape) PS PDF
instrumental solo with reduced-size solo staff PS PDF
instrumental duet PS PDF
instrumental trio PS PDF
instrumental quartet PS PDF
instrumental quintet PS PDF Solo piano (keyboard) solo PS PDF
organ solo PS PDF
guitar tablature PS PDF Ensemble piano and organ duet PS PDF
woodwind trio PS PDF
brass trio PS PDF
string trio PS PDF
string quartet PS PDF
woodwind quintet PS PDF
brass quintet PS PDF
brass choir PS PDF
Band full concert band (8 1/2 x 14) PS PDF (11 x 17) PS PDF
marching band PS PDF
brass band PS PDF
jazz band PS PDF Orchestra string orchestra PS PDF
string orchestra with piano PS PDF
small orchestra PS PDF
full orchestra (8 1/2 x 14) PS PDF Choral vocal solo with piano PS PDF
two-part vocal with piano PS PDF
SSA PS PDF
SAB PS PDF
SATB PS PDF
SATB hymnal PS PDF
SATB with piano PS PDF
SSATB PS PDF
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Albany, which was kind of at a low-level hum as hostilities ramped up between the Democratic Party and the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference, was officially upgraded to "rocked" this afternoon as fellow breakaway Senator Simcha Felder executed a perfect triple chutzpah lutz and called on the IDC to return to the Democratic fold.
Felder's letter, released this afternoon, demanded Jeff Klein and his merry band rejoin the Senate's mainline Democratic conference. Left unsaid in the letter was whether Felder would rejoin the Democratic Party, as the nominal Democrat from Borough Park has caucused with the Republicans since he was elected to the State Senate in 2012.
Here's the Simcha Felder letter referenced in @jessemckinley's story. pic.twitter.com/GcmDPnXyC3 — Jon Campbell (@JonCampbellGAN) May 24, 2017
In the letter, Felder writes that he found the IDC's "Call the Roll" letter "entertaining" but asks "who are you to decide what the legislative priorities are for loyal Democrats across New York State?"
Felder also declares: "Instead of sending letters to other Democrats and producing fancy videos to make us believe that you are advocating for issues important to the Democrats, I suggest you put aside any personal conflicts you have with Senate Democrats and unconditionally and publicly rejoin the Democrats."
Felder, because of the fact that he voted for Republican John Flanagan for Majority Leader and caucuses with the Republicans, had long been held up as another reason for the IDC to not return to the mainline Democratic conference. That seemed to gnaw at him somewhat, given the comments he made to Albany reporters following the publication of his letter.
I just called Simcha Felder about the letter he sent to Jeff Klein. “I’m calling his bluff. … Go back and put the onus on me. I dare you.” — Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) May 24, 2017
.@NYSenatorFelder says he is neither a loyal Democrat nor a loyal Republican. "I challenge @IDC4NY to put me on the spot." — Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) May 24, 2017
Earlier this year, Democratic Conference leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told Gothamist that Felder had conversations with her about returning to the mainline conference, but that he couldn't get anyone in the IDC to agree to come back with him.
IDC spokesperson Candice Giove greeted the news by suggesting Felder was just trying to duck the Call the Roll letter. "It's telling that Simcha Felder didn't sign the pledge. We now see where he stands on these seven crucial issues," she wrote to Gothamist in an email.
Mainline Democratic spokesperson Mike Murphy told Gothamist in an email statement that "the people of New York have once again sent more Democrats than Republicans to the Chamber. We look forward to all Democrats working together to create a Democratic Majority."
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by
WINTER
It is now winter in Kabul, end of February 2017. At night the temperature gets near zero. The mountains surrounding the city are covered by snow.
It feels much chillier than it really is.
Soon it will be 16 years since the US/UK invasion of the country, and 16 years since the Bonn Conference, during which Hamid Karzai was “selected” to head the Afghan Interim Administration.
Almost everyone I spoke to in Afghanistan agrees that things are rapidly moving from bad to rock bottom.
Afghans, at home and abroad, are deeply pessimistic. With hefty allowances and privileges, at least some foreigners based in Kabul are much more upbeat, but ‘positive thinking’ is what they are paid to demonstrate.
Historically one of the greatest cultures on Earth, Afghanistan is now nearing breaking point, with the lowest Human Development Index (2015, HDI, compiled by the UNDP) of all Asian nations, and the 18th lowest in the entire world (all 17 countries below it are located in Sub-Saharan Africa). Afghanistan has also the lowest life expectancy in Asia (WHO, 2015).
While officially, the literacy rate stands at around 60%, I was told by two prominent educationalists in Kabul that in reality it is well below 50%, while it is stubbornly stuck under 20% for women and girls.
Statistics are awful, but what is behind the numbers? What has been done to this ancient and distinct civilization, once standing proudly at the crossroad of major trade routes, influencing culturally a great chunk of Asia, connecting East and West, North and South?
How deep, how permanent is the damage?
During my visit, I was offered but I refused to travel in an armored, bulletproof vehicle. My ageing “horse” became a beat-up Corolla, my driver and translator a brave, decent family man in possession of a wonderful sense of humor. Although we became good friends, I never asked him to what ethnic group he belonged. He never told me. I simply didn’t want to know, and he didn’t find it important to address the topic. Everyone knows that Afghanistan is deeply divided ‘along its ethnic lines’. As an internationalist, I refuse to pay attention to anything related to ‘blood’, finding all such divisions, anywhere in the world, unnatural and thoroughly unfortunate. Call it my little stubbornness; both my driver and me were stubbornly refusing to acknowledge ethnic divisions in Afghanistan, at least inside the car, while driving through this marvelous but scarred, stunning but endlessly sad land.
KABUL
One day you and your driver, who is by then your dear friend, are driving slowly over the bridge. Your car stops. You get out in the middle of the bridge, and begin photographing the clogged river below, with garbage floating and covering its banks. Children are begging, and you soon notice that they are operating in a compact pack, almost resembling some small military unit. In Kabul, as in so many places on earth, there is a rigid structure to begging.
After a while, you continue driving on, towards the Softa Bridge, which is located in District 6.
Where you are appears to be all messed up, endlessly fucked up.
You were told to come to this neighborhood, to witness a warzone inside the city, to see ‘what the West has done to the country’. There are no bullets flying here, and no loud explosions. In fact, you hear almost nothing. You actually don’t see any war near the Softa Bridge; you only see Death, her horrid gangrenous face, her scythe cutting all that is still standing around her, cutting and cutting, working in extremely slow motion.
Again, as so many times before, you are scared. You were scared like this several times before: in Haiti, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Iraq, and Peru, to name just a few countries. In those places, as well as here in Kabul, you are not frightened because you could easily lose your life any moment, or because your safety might be in danger. What dismays you, what you really cannot stomach, are the images of despair, those of ‘no way out’, of absolute hopelessness. Lack of hope is killing you, it horrifies you; everything else can always be dealt with.
People you see all around can hardly stand on their feet. Many cannot stand at all. Most of them are stoned, laying around in rags, sitting in embryonic positions, or moving aimlessly back and forth, staring emptily into the distance. Some are urinating publicly. Syringes are everywhere.
There are holes, deep and wide, filled with motionless human bodies.
First you drive around, photographing through the cracked glass, then you roll down the window, and at the end, you get out and begin working, totally exposed. You have no idea what may happen in the next few seconds. Someone begins shouting at you, others are throwing stones, but they are too weak and the stones just hit your shoulder and legs, softly, without causing any harm.
Then a bomb goes off, not far from where you are. There is an explosion in the 6th District, right in front of a police station. You cannot see it, but you can clearly hear the blast. It is a muffled yet powerful bang. You look at your phone.
It is March 1st, 2017, Kabul. Later you learn that several people died just a few hundred meters from where you were working, while several others perished in the 12th District, another few kilometers away.
The smoke begins rising towards the sky. Sirens are howling and several ambulances are rushing towards the site. Then countless military Humvees begin shooting one after another in the same direction, followed by heavier and much clumsier armored vehicles. You are taking all this in, slowly; photographing the scene, and then snapping from some distance a monumental but still semi-destroyed Darul Aman Palace.
And so it goes.
***
Tall concrete walls are scarring, fragmenting the city. In Kabul, almost anything worth protecting is now fenced. Some partitions and barriers are simply enormous, almost unreal. There are walls sheltering all foreign embassies and government buildings, palaces, military bases, police stations and banks, as well as the United Nations compounds, even most of the private schools and hotels. The Hamid Karzai international airport is encompassed by perimeters that could put to shame most of the Cold War lines: from the parking area one has to walk almost one kilometer to the entrance of the international terminal, with luggage and through the countless security checks.
Of course Western institutions and organizations have the most impressive fences, as well as the Afghan military and military bases and government offices.
Enormous surveillance drone-zeppelins are levitating above the city.
It could all be seen as thoroughly grotesque, even laughable, but no one is amused. It is all very serious, damn serious here.
Afghanistan has been gradually overtaken by something absolutely foreign: by the Western-style security apparatus. Tens of thousands of highly paid North American and European ‘experts’ have been getting extremely busy, fulfilling their secret wet dream: fencing everything in sight, monitoring each and every movement in the capital city, building taller and taller barriers, while installing the latest hi-tech cameras at almost every intersection, and above each gate.
***
Not far from the Embassy of the United States of America (or more precisely, not far from the Great Chinese Wall-size fence encompassing it), I noticed a familiar complex of buildings, reminding me of those that used to be constructed in all corners of Eastern Europe and Cuba. I asked my friend to drive into one of the compounds.
This is how I entered “Makroyan”. We killed the engine, and everything around us was suddenly quiet, almost dormant. Time stopped here. There was a certain mild decay detectable all around the area, but upon a closer look, those old apartment buildings were still looking decent and strong, with very impressive public spaces in between them. Here I felt that I was allowed a rare glimpse of an old, socialist Afghanistan.
I stopped in between two entrances of Block 21: No.2 and No.3. I looked up to the 4th floor. Who is living there now? Who used to live here before, some 25, even 30 years ago?
A destroyed office chair was standing aimlessly in the middle of a parking lot, and an old, disabled man was crawling desolately on all fours, moving away from the block. There was a Soviet-built school right next to Block 21. It used to be known as Dosti primary school, and I was told that during the war, it was bombed a couple of times and lots of kids died inside it. Now the school is private and it has a new name – it is ‘Alfath’, a high school.
Apart from a few loose, rusty wires and fences, everything looks decent and semi-neat. This is where many members of the diminishing Kabul middle class still prefer to live. Blocks of Makroyan are reassuring; they radiate safety and permanency, while being surrounded by a volatile and frightening universe.
All of a sudden, I imagined a boy and a girl, who perhaps used to live here, so many years ago. As children in all other parts of the world do at that age, they were just slowly beginning to discover life, starting to formulate their dreams and expectations. In those days, the new leafy neighborhood would have been like a promise of a brighter future, of a much better country.
Then suddenly, full stop.
A war. A sudden end to all that the future was promising. Collapse of optimism, or enthusiasm, of confidence. Only death and destruction, and shattered dreams, remained. For those who were at least somehow lucky: a bitterness and then a hasty flight, instead of ultimate misery and death. Full stop. Total reset. Everything collapsed. But life never stops, it goes on, it always does. Things re-composed, somehow, not idyllically, but they did.
For a long time, I kept staring at Block 21. Memories kept coming, as if I used to live there myself, many years ago, when I was a child. I hardly noticed that it was getting very cold. I began to shiver. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to. Fresh pomegranate juice at a local street stall brought me back to reality, it woke me, but it didn’t managed to warm me up.
GREAT HISTORY, CHANGING CULTURE, AN ON-GOING OCCUPATION AND FEAR
A renowned Afghan intellectual, Dr. Omara Khan Masoudi, who used to be, among many other things, the former head of the National Museum, is now bitter about the changes invading the culture of his country:
“In the past, we had also many ethnic groups living in this country, but they used to coexist in harmony. Then, our culture got influenced by conflicts and violence.”
“Before the war, it was the culture that used to represent us in the world. However, during and after the war, our cultures were used to justify the conflict.”
Dr. Masoudi told me that he thinks it is wrong when culture falls into the hands of divisive politicians. “If culture is politicized, it loses its essence”, he declared.
I asked him whether he thinks it also applies to Latin America, to the former Soviet Union and China, where (at least to a great extent) ‘politicized culture’ has been playing an extremely important role, determining the course of development. He smiled, replying:
“To be precise, politicizing cultures is not always such a bad thing… When it’s done, for instance, in order to achieve social progress or equality, I have nothing against it. But I am outraged when people like some religious leaders; Shia, Sunni or even some extremists, do it… Culture is very broad, and religions are only a part of it. But in Afghanistan, religious leaders have been using the culture for their narrow-minded interests.”
In a coffee shop, which is lost somewhere inside the wilderness of an international and United Nations compound called ‘The Green Village’, my Japanese friend and Head of the Culture Unit of UNESCO, Mr. Masanori Nagaoka, explained:
“Afghanistan or Ancient Ariana, as many ancient Greek and Roman authors referred to the region in antiquity, can be acknowledged as the multi-cultural cradle of Central Asia, linking East and West via historically significant trade conduits that also conveyed ideas, concepts and languages as a cultural by-product of fledgling international commerce. As a result, contemporary Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual society with a complex history stretching back many millennia. The numerous civilizations are attested to in the archaeological record, both indigenous and foreign….”
However, he is well aware of the complexities faced by the country and the culture torn apart by lethal conflicts of the last decades and centuries.
“Afghanistan is unfortunately also a nation fragmented by a history of protracted conflict, exacerbated by geographic isolation for many communities and limited or unequal access to infrastructure and resources, both regionally and demographically. As a nominal starting point, the ongoing rehabilitation process in Afghanistan needs to address these issues if the nation is to unify under a common objective, fostering a veracious society free from conflict and where ethnic diversity is recognized for its social, cultural and economic benefits rather than, as is often the case, seen as a hindrance to particular developmental objectives. Part of the solution to this problem lies in the campaign of a positive public discussion to promote inter-cultural understanding and to raise awareness of the potential that such discourse has to contribute to the broader goals of rapprochement, peace-building and economic development in Afghanistan.”
I flew to the city of Herat, where I witnessed tremendous masterpieces of architecture, from the marvelous and recently restored Citadel (as valuable as the citadels of Aleppo and Erbil), to the Friday Mosque and amazing, unique minarets rising proudly towards the sky.
How familiar all those architectural treasures appeared! On several occasions I approached Nasir, my local friend who was always eager to share the impressive history of his region: “Look, this could be in Delhi… and this in Samarkand!”
Sure enough, the most visited world heritage site in India, Qutub Minar, situated right outside New Delhi, is perhaps the greatest symbol of the Indo-Islamic Afghan architecture, while both Herat and Samarkand were connected by the Silk Road and historically kept influencing each other.
In Afghanistan, the history, the occupation and the on-going conflict: everything seems to be thoroughly intertwined.
During my work there, the Citadel of Herat was literally taken over by Italian troops. I was told that some high-ranking NATO officer was visiting the site, and with no shame, a fully armed Italian commando was roaming around, “securing” every corner of the vast courtyard. As if Afghans had lost control of their own country!
On closer examination, the madrassa of Hussein Baiqara is, in reality, still a minefield. In between four stunning minarets, a de-mining team from local “Halo Trust” was manually searching for unexploded ordinances. I was allowed to enter, but only as a war correspondent and at my own risk, definitely not as a ‘tourist’.
“On this site, we already found two mines and 10 unexploded ordinances”, I was told by one of the Halo Trust experts. “Now this entire area is off-limits to the public. Not long ago, one child was badly injured here; he lost his leg.”
Nothing is peaceful in Afghanistan, not even ancient historic sites.
***
Not much is questioned here.
Positive talk about the ancient history and culture is generally encouraged, but to discuss dramatic changes in modern Afghan culture, those that occurred as a result of the US/UK invasion and the present on-going NATO occupation of the country, is almost entirely off-limits. In fact, even the word itself – ‘occupation’ – could hardly be heard. Instead, such jargons as ‘protection’, ‘defense’ and ‘international help’ have been implanted deeply and systematically into the psyche of most Afghan people.
The culture that was known for long centuries for its passion for freedom and independence seems broken. While Afghans resisted heroically against all past British invasions, while some of them fought the Soviet incursion, there is presently no organized and united (national, not religious) opposition against the Western occupation of the country.
I met academic Jawid Amin, from the Academy of Social Sciences of Afghanistan, in a small guardroom in front of the Museum of Modern Arts in Kabul.
I asked him, whether there is any art, or any group of intellectuals openly critical of the United States, and of the occupation. He replied, sincerely:
“We don’t have anyone openly critical of the US or the West here, because it is simply not allowed by the government. I personally don’t like the Americans, but I can’t say more… Even I work for the government. My brother and sister are living in the United States. And about critical arts: nothing could be exhibited here without permission from the government and since Karzai, the government is controlled by the West…”
A prominent Afghan intellectual, Omaid Sharifi, explained over the phone: “In the provinces, you can still see paintings depicting killing of civilians by the US drones… but not in Kabul.”
I’m trying to work as fast as possible, meeting people who are helping to shed light on the situation. Eventually, a dire picture begins to form.
I met a Japanese reporter who has been living in Afghanistan for almost a quarter of a century. Her assessment of the situation was to a large extent pessimistic:
“Afghans had very little choice… It is 100% true that behind Karzai’s government was the US… Afghans didn’t want to accept foreign intervention, but soon they learned how money plays an important role. The entire Afghan culture is now changing, even some essential elements of it like hospitality: people don’t want to spend money on it, or they don’t have any that they can spare…”
I asked Dr. Masoudi why Afghan culture did not accept Soviets and their egalitarian, socially oriented ideals, while it seems to be tolerating the Western invasion, which is spreading inequality, desperation and subservience. He replied, passionately:
“The biggest mistake the Soviet Union made here was to attack religion out rightly. If they’d first stick to equal rights, and slowly work it up towards the contradictions of religion, it could perhaps work… But they began blaming religion for our backwardness, in fact for everything. Or at least this is how it was interpreted by the coalition of their enemies, and of course by the West.”
“Now, why is the Western invasion ‘successful’? Look at the Karzai regime… During his rule, the US convinced people that Western intervention was ‘positive’, ‘respectful of their religion and cultures’. They kept repeating ‘under this and that UN convention’, and again ‘as decided by the UN’… They used NATO, a huge group of countries, as an umbrella. There was a ‘brilliantly effective’ protocol that they developed… According to them, they never did anything unilaterally, always by ‘international consensus’ and in order to ‘help Afghan people’. On the other hand, the Soviet Union had never slightest chance to explain itself. It was attacked immediately, and on all fronts.”
“Opposition to Western occupation? Anti-Western art?” A Russian cultural expert in Kabul was clearly surprised by my question.
“First of all, the Taliban destroyed most artistic traditions of this country. But also, the economic and social situation in this country is so desperate, that hardly anyone has time to think about some larger picture. More than 60% of Afghans are jobless. One thing you also should remember: Afghan people are very proud and very freedom loving, as the history illustrated, but they are also extremely patient. Go and see The British Cemetery. It was built in 1879 to hold the dead of the second Anglo-Afghan War, but despite all that the UK did to this country, and despite all recent wars and conflicts, it was never attacked, never damaged.”
It is true. I never heard anyone discussing this topic. All horrid British crimes committed on the territory of Afghanistan seem to be forgotten, at least for now.
But that’s not all: nobody here seems to have any appetite for recalling those horrors of the last decades, triggered by Western imperialism. Not once I observed any discussion addressing the main topic of modern Afghan history: how the West managed to trick the Soviets into invading Afghanistan in 1979, and how it created and then armed the vilest bunch of religious fanatics – the Mujahedeen. And how, subsequently, both countries – Afghanistan and the Soviet Union – were thoroughly destroyed in the process.
All was done, of course, with “great respect” for the Afghan nation, for its culture and traditions, as well as (how else) religion.
I’d love to be an invisible witness in a modern history class at the American University of Afghanistan, a ‘famed’ institution that is literally regurgitating thousands of collaborators, manufacturing a new breed of obedient pro-Western ‘elites’.
As we drive past Jamhuriat Hospital (Republic Hospital), which had a new 10- story building, with capacity for 350 patients, constructed by China in 2004, my driver, Mr. Tahir, sighs: “This was really a great gift from China to us… the Chinese really work hard, don’t they?”
“They have plenty of zeal and enthusiasm”, I uttered carefully. “Socialist fervor, you know. They sincerely believe in building, improving their country and the world. It is quite contrary to Western nihilism and extreme individualism…”
“They must love their country…”
“They do.”
“Afghanistan is poor”, Mr. Tahir’s face became suddenly sad. “Our people don’t love their country, anymore. They don’t work to improve it. They only work for themselves now, for their families…”
“Was it different before? You know…” I made an abstract gesture with my hand. “Before all this…”
“Of course it used to be very different”, he replied, grinning again.
NOTHING SOCIAL LEFT, NOTHING SOCIALIST WANTED
I stopped several people who were just walking down the street, in various parts of Kabul. I wanted to understand some basics: was there anything social left in Afghanistan? Did Western ‘liberation’ bring at least some progress, social development and improved standards of living?
Most answers were thoroughly gloomy. Only those people who were working or moonlighting for the Western military, for the embassies, the NGOs or other ‘international contractors’, were to some extent optimistic.
I was explained that almost everyone in the countryside and provincial cities were out off work. Unemployment among university graduates stood at over 80%.
In Herat, a city of almost half a million inhabitants, a long and depressing line was winding in front of the Iranian embassy. I was told that tens of thousands have already migrated to the other side of the border. Now Afghans who were attempting to visit their relatives living in Iran were told to leave a 300-euro deposit, in case they decide not to return.
I asked what Herat is producing, and was told, without any irony: “mainly just some washing powder and biscuits”. Tourism from Iran stood at only about 150 people a year! The area between the city and the border has been dangerous, and there are frequent kidnappings.
In most provincial cities, a regular family has to get by on 2.300 – 2.500 Afghanis per month, which is not much more than US$30.
Government supplies run water mainly to the government housing projects. People living elsewhere have to dig their own wells.
Electricity is expensive, and an average family in Kabul is now expected to pay around US$35 per month. Even in the capital, many people have to get by without electricity. Indian ‘investors’ are in partnership with the government. Electricity supplies, and even water, are perceived as ‘business ventures’, not as basic social services.
Counting on a decent public transportation in the past, Kabul is now forced to rely on private vehicles, and on those few ‘city buses’ that are ‘pro-profit’ and mainly privately owned and operated.
There are government schools in Afghanistan, and in theory they are free, but books, pencils, uniforms and other basics are not.
In fact, perhaps the most impressive modern structure in Kabul, is actually the 10-story building to Jamhuriat Hospital, a gift from the People’s Republic of China, not from the West.
One wonders where is that fabled great ‘assistance’ from the United States and Europe really going? Perhaps to the millions of tons of concrete, used for construction of the massive fences? Perhaps money sponsors’ purchases of high-tech cameras and surveillance systems, as well as the high-life of thousands of Western ‘contractors’ and ‘security experts’?
I spoke to more than hundreds of Afghan people. Almost no one was ready to mention socialism. As if this wonderful word disappeared, was erased from the local lexicon.
“They actually remember socialism very fondly”, my Japanese acquaintance based in Kabul once told me. “However, talking about it is not encouraged. It may cause all sorts of problems.”
WESTERN (TEMPORARY) VICTORY
While in Kabul, I was told by one of the local experts working for an international organization:
“The National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) for Afghanistan was just drafted… The funding came from the West. Many meetings were held directly at the US embassy and at the offices of the World Bank. The Afghan Ministry of Education had very little say about the curriculum, which was basically dictated by the Western countries…”
I cannot quote the source of this information, as she would most probably lose her position for expressing such views.
She later clarified further:
“The policy decisions on education are proposed by donor parties, which are mostly Western countries. The Ministry of Education, with limited capacity, has a lesser role in drafting the NESP III policy. Instead of building the capacity of the government, donor countries are taking the leading role in changing the education system and this does not ensure a sustainable education for Afghanistan whatsoever.”
As in all client states of the West, education in Afghanistan is manipulated and geared to serve the interests of the West. It is expected to produce obedient and unquestioning masses. Instead of determined and productive patriots, it is regurgitating butlers of the regime, which is in turn serving predominately foreign interests.
Almost all information flows through the channels that are at least to some extent influenced from abroad: social media, television networks as well as the printed media.
The fabled Afghan spirit of resistance and courage has been (hopefully only temporarily) brutally broken, under the supervision of highly professional foreign indoctrinators and propagandists.
Those who are willing to collaborate with the occupation forces are suddenly not even hiding it, carrying their condition proudly as if a coat of arms, not as a shame. Many are now delighted to be associated with the West and its institutions.
In fact, the occupation is not even called occupation, anymore, at least not by the elites who are well rewarded by the system for their linguistic and intellectual somersaults and pirouettes.
And Afghan people keep leaving.
Afghanistan is shedding its most talented sons and daughters, every day, every month, irreversibly.
Ms. Yukiko Matsuyoshi, a former Japanese diplomat, presently a UN education expert, is worried about the current trends in Afghanistan, a country where she spent several years:
“Now the social classes have been re-created after the fall of Taliban, but the country seems to have no ideology. People just follow trends that are thrown their way. There is corruption, there is that huge poppy business, and there are palaces. And there is misery in the countryside, hardly any access to information. Afghans are leaving their country. Whoever can, goes: good people, government people…it seems like everyone tries to escape.”
All of a sudden, the West is perceived like some Promised Land. Those who make it there are bragging about their new ‘home’, sending colorful images through social media: Disneyland, Hollywood, German castles…
I have seen the other side of the coin, in terrible refugee camps in Greece, in the French Calais camps; people drowning while attempting to cross the sea from Turkey to the European Union.
There is no discussion whether Afghanistan should be capitalist or socialist, anymore. Debate has stopped. The decision has been made, somewhere else, obviously.
The faces of Northern Alliance leaders are ‘decorating’ (or some would say, ‘scarring’) all major roads on which I drove. Ahmad Shah Massoud became a national hero, during the Karzai regime.
I travelled more than 100 kilometers north, to see Massoud’s grave, or a thumb, or whatever that monstrosity they erected above the splendid Panjshir Valley really is. Hordes of people drive there on weekends, some all the way from Kabul, and there are even those who pray to the ‘leader’.
The former “anti-Soviet” and anti-Communist fighter, he is certainly a perfect ‘hero’, whose memory is groomed by the pro-Western regime.
Driving through the Panjshir Valley, I saw several Soviet tanks and armored vehicles, rotting by the side of the road. I also saw a destroyed village, an eerie reminder of the war. It is called Dashtak. Clay houses look like a cemetery, like a horrid monument.
I took photos and sent them to Kabul, to my friends, for identification. I want to know, I felt that I had to know, who razed this town by the river, surrounded by such stunning mountains.
The answer came in a just few minutes: “I think it was in 1984, by the Soviet Union”. What followed was a link leading to a book published in the West, quoting some former Ukrainian, Soviet adviser to an Afghan battalion commander. The name of the book was “The Bear Went Over the Mountain”.
The quote did not sound too convincing. “Let’s go back”, I asked my driver and translator. “Let’s talk to people on the other side of the river’.
We found three inhabitants, in three different parts of the village; three people old enough to remember what took place here, some 30 years ago. All three testimonies coincided: Massoud’s forces brought refugees from several other parts of the valley. Before the battle began, all of them left. During the combat, clay houses were destroyed, but no civilians died inside.
There are always many different interpretations of the historic events. However, the analyses of modern Afghan history disseminated by the West and the Afghan regime among the Afghan people, are suspiciously unanimous and frighteningly one-sided. I am definitely planning to revisit this point during my next trip to the country. I see it as essential. The future of Afghanistan certainly depends on understanding the past.
***
There are huge zeppelin-drones, vile-looking airborne surveillance stuff, hovering over the US air force base near Bagram. The same drones could be seen levitating over Kabul, but in the Bagram area, with the dramatic backdrop of the mountains, they look particularly dreadful.
The air force base is huge. It appears even bigger than Incerlik near Adana in Turkey. It is an absolute masterpiece of military vulgarity, with watch towers everywhere, with barbed wire, several layers of concrete walls, surveillance cameras and powerful lights. If this is not an occupation, then what really is?
Again, my driver is totally cool. I want to photograph this monstrosity, and he drives me around, so we can identify a truly good spot. I’m ‘calculating light’, looking for the correct angle, so during the sunset, those who would be observing us from inside the ‘castle’, would be blinded, and we could get at least a few decent images.
I’m aware of the fact that in Afghanistan, the Empire often kills anything that moves, at the slightest suspicion or without any suspicion at all, as for them human lives of the local people count for almost nothing.
Once the sun goes down, I begin working fast.
Somehow I feel that my visit to Afghanistan would be incomplete, without getting at least some images of the base – one of the most expressive symbols of the occupation.
So this is what Afghanistan became under the Western ‘liberating’ boots! Barbed wires, foreign jet fighters, concrete walls everywhere, battles with the religious fundamentalist elements (invented and manufactured by the West), grotesque savage capitalism, ignorant or shameless collaboration, and guns, guns and guns, as well as misery in almost every corner, and one of the lowest life expectancies and standards of living on Earth! And of course, people escaping, leaving this beautiful country behind – a country, which is suddenly unloved, humiliated, abandoned by so many!
This is all happening only roughly four decades after the heroic attempts to build some great social housing projects, after the implementation of a well-functioning public transportation network, public education and medical care, as well as an attempt to introduce secularism, while building a decent, egalitarian society.
The glorious victory of Western imperialism over one of the oldest and greatest cultures seems to be complete. The Brits tried, on several occasions; they murdered and tortured, but were defeated. They never forgave. They waited for decades, and then returned with their muscular and aggressive offspring. And here they are, all of them, now!
Afghanistan appears to be exhausted and defeated. It is badly injured, and it has been dragged through unimaginable dirt.
But I don’t think it is crushed, by the West or by the religious fundamentalists, or by these two historical allies.
Deep inside, Afghanistan knows better. It already experienced many years of hope; it knows the taste of it. During long centuries and millennia of its existence, it survived several dreadful moments, but it always stood up again, undefeated and proud. I’m certain that it will rise again.
Flying, driving or walking through its magnificent mountains, I often felt that Afghanistan is like a living organism, it was winking at me, letting me know that it is alive, that it sees everything that goes on, that it is not futile at all to struggle for its future.
***
I watched the stubs of the electric contacts that used to hold, some decades ago, those long wires used by the legendary Kabul trolley bus network.
“Those beautiful vehicles came from former Czechoslovakia”, a man, an office worker, whom I stopped in the center of the city, told me. “They were beautiful, and do you know who used to drive them? Some young girls; optimistic women who were for some reason always in a good mood.”
Apparently Kabul had three trolleybus lines, one of them originating (or ending) at the ‘Cinema Pamir’. What color were Kabul trolleybuses? I saw some photos, but those I could find were black and white. When I was a child, growing up in Czechoslovakia, ours were red. The ones in Leningrad, the city where I was born, were blue and green, some red as well. When they were accelerating, it was as if they’d be singing a simple song, or whining, complaining mockingly about their hard life.
I imagined a strong-minded, professional woman, boarding these trolleybuses. Perhaps eager to catch one of those old great Soviet movies at the Cinema Pamir, perhaps “the Dawns are Quiet Here”, or going to work or to visit different parts of the city. She would snuggle into a comfortable seat in the electric vehicle. It was getting dark, but the city was safe. A woman behind the wheel was really smiling. There were flags flying all around the city. There was hope. There was a future. There was a country to build and to love.
I had suspected that the Kabul trolleybuses were actually light blue. I have no idea why. It was just my intuition.
***
Suddenly I heard a loud bang, and then the squeaking of brakes.
“Roll up the window!” my driver was shouting. We were getting into a slum inhabited by IDPs. We left the road. Dust everywhere, absolute misery. Bagrani town, now Bagrani slums, just a few kilometers east from Kabul, on the Jalalabad Highway.
I grasped the heavy metal body of my professional Nikon.
My dream about Afghanistan of the 70’s, a gentle and enthusiastic country, abruptly ended. Now all around me were children suffering from malnutrition. I heard excited, accusatory voices of men and women who were forced to come from all corners of Afghanistan. We drove on a bumpy road, towards numerous half-collapsed clay structures and dirty tents.
“We escaped fighting in Shinwar, Helmand Province, from around Jalalabad and Kandahar”, several internally displaced persons living in Bagrani were shouting at me:
“We have 1.000 families from Helmand and more than 1.000 families from Kandahar, living here. We lost our houses back in our villages and towns… People around Jalalabad lost their homes, too. Daesh (ISIS) is operating in several parts of the country… Taliban fighters are frequently changing sides, joining Daesh. There is fighting going on everywhere: Daesh, Taliban and the government forces confronting each other.”
How involved is NATO in general and the US in particular, I ask, through my interpreter.
“Americans are there, of course. Mostly they are fighting from the air, but sometimes they are on the ground, too.”
“Do they kill civilians?”
“Yes, they do… Our sons, our husbands are regularly murdered by them”, shouts a woman clothed in a blue burqa, holding a small child in her arms.
Misery is everywhere, destroying the country, I’m told. And there is almost no help coming from the corrupt and the near bankrupt state.
Ms. Sidiqah, an elderly lady, is shouting in desperation and anger: “We have nothing left, but no one helps us! We don’t know what to do.”
As I photograph, a small cluster of people begin to rock the car. Things are getting tense, but I don’t feel that we are facing any immediate danger. I continue working. This is all becoming very personal. I don’t understand why, but it is…
Then, silently, a small group of people approaches us. Among them are a man with a very long beard, and a girl, with a beautiful and tragic face. She is wearing a t-shirt depicting several cute white mice, but the right sleeve is empty. She is missing her entire arm.
Her face is striking. She stares directly into my camera, and when I lower the lens, I feel her eyes begin to pierce mine. Without one single word uttered, I sense clearly what she is trying to convey:
“What have you done to me?”
I try to hold her glance for at least a few seconds, but then I lower my eyes. Now I‘m in panic. I want to embrace her, hold her, take her away from here, somewhere, somehow; to adopt her, airlift her from here, give her a home, but I know that there is no way I would be allowed to do it. My glasses get very foggy. I mumble something incoherent. I am tough, I witnessed dozens of wars, I faced death on various occasions. I try to keep calm whenever I’m in places like this; whenever working. What is happening to me here and now happens very rarely, but it does happen.
It is March 4th 2017, Afghanistan. My flight is schedule to depart the next day, late in the afternoon. I know that I will take it. But I also realize, and I silently make my pledge to this tiny girl with the cute mice and an empty sleeve, that I will never fully leave her country.
***
What will happen later is predicable: yet another sleepless night. Everything will be back, play itself like a film inside my brain. Bagrani provisional camp, another camp that is housing evacuees from Kunduz, some active minefields in the middle of Herat, those hundreds of living corpses vegetating in the middle of District 6 in Kabul, then several explosions, innumerable rotting carcasses of Soviet tanks, the eerie and enormous US air force base near Bagram, Massoud’s bizarre grave, white zeppelin-drones, concrete walls, watch towers, security checks, and hollow muzzles of various types of guns pointing in all directions.
I’ll be tired, exhausted, but I’ll be well aware that I have no right to rest, not now, not anytime soon.
I’ll keep thinking about Cinema Pamir, about Kabul trolleybuses, and Block 21 in the socialist-style neighborhood of Makroyan … 4th floor, entrance 2 or perhaps 3… I’ll keep imagining what could have taken place there, if life had not been so abruptly and so brutally interrupted.
Afghanistan, a stunning but terribly scarred and injured land has been suffering from a concussion. It has been dizzy and disoriented. It can hardly walk. Still it being Afghanistan, it has been walking anyway, against all odds!
Later that night, I’ll recall what one great Cuban poet and singer Silvio Rodriquez once wrote about Nicaragua. And at one point, only a few moments before the dawn would begin returning bright colors to the world, I’ll replace Nicaragua with Afghanistan, and suddenly realize that it is exactly what I feel towards this beautiful and shattered nation: “Afghanistan hurts, as only love does.”
It hurts like love…
It hurts… terribly. Therefore, it is love.
All that would happen later, hours later. At the end I’ll stop fighting it, and simply accept.
But now, the old Toyota climbs back on the paved road. I can hardly keep my eyes open. The last several days I slept very little.
Mr. Tahir, my driver and now my comrade, looks surprisingly composed and unworried. After all this time working with me, he is clearly ready for any adventure, or any nightmare.
He hands me a bunch of tissues. My left wrist is bleeding, although not too badly. Most likely I hit or scratched something in the slums, without realizing it. My cameras feel increasingly heavy and my notebook looks filthy; I keep dropping it on the floor. My clothes look dirty, too. But we are going, we are moving forward, and that is good!
“It is all fucked up, Mr. Tahir”, I inform him, politely.
“Yes, Sir”, he replies, with an equal doze of respect. We are a good team.
“But we are going”, I remind him and myself.
“We are going, sir.”
Again my head drops on my chest. I open my eyes just a few minutes later. It is already very dark. Kabul all around me; Afghanistan. It feels good to be here. I’m glad I came.
“Where to now, sir?”
“Jalalabad, Mr. Tahir.”
“Sir? Jalalabad is behind… And at this hour…”
He is not saying no. He never says ‘no’ to any of my requests, during all those days. He is just informing me. If I was really crazy enough and insisted, he’d just take me. He knows we’d get fucked, perhaps even killed, but he would not refuse. He’s my comrade and I feel safe with him.
“Sorry, I fell asleep… What I mean: we’ll go to Jalalabad soon, when I return to Afghanistan.”
I am thinking for a few seconds. This drive, just being here, all of it feels right, exactly as it is supposed to be. I’m not certain where exactly I want to go right now, but one thing I know for sure: I have to keep going.
“Please, just drive, Mr. Tahir.”
“Forward?” He asks, intuitively. I know that he knows. We both know, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
“Yes, please. Drive forward. Always forward!”
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Este texto fue publicado originalmente el 25 de junio de 2019
Pujol, el restaurante mexicano del chef Enrique Olvera, ha sido reconocido en el listado de ‘Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants’. Esta vez en el lugar tres del célebre ranking, lo cual lo convierte en el restaurante de México mejor posicionado.
Su dedicación al oficio gastronómico, latente al incluir en sus propuestas ingredientes representativos de la cocina mexicana ha sido determinante para que los críticos gastronómicos celebren la propuesta de Pujol. Además, la sutileza característica en la construcción de sus platillos abona a que todos caigan rendidos ante los sabores de la gastronomía de nuestro país.
Te puede interesar: Pujol es el mejor restaurante de México: The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
Aunado a esto, la constancia de su cocina ha generado que los reconocimientos continúen, destacando cada vez más en la escena gastronómica mundial. Y si alguna vez te has preguntado cuánto cuesta comer en Pujol, el mejor restaurante de México, tenemos la respuesta.
Antes de abordar el precio, hay que detallar que el concepto del restaurante Pujol ofrece dos alternativas: el menú degustación y su barra de tacos omakase.
El menú degustación está dividido en dos secciones: Maíz y Mar. Ambas cuentan con seis tiempos donde la entrada y el “mole madre, mole nuevo” están presentes.
El menú degustación de Pujol con las opciones Mar y Maíz, está conformado de la siguiente manera:
Menú Maíz
Entrada
Botanas
Primer tiempo
Tlayuda de frijol y quelites.
Segundo tiempo
Huitlacoche, trufa negra.
Tercer tiempo
Papadzul abierto de quintoniles, huevo de codorniz, chiltomate.
Cuarto tiempo
Camote, mole de piñón.
Quinto tiempo
Mole madre, mole nuevo.
Sexto tiempo
Tamal de café, helado de jengibre, pañal.
Este menú degustación tiene un costo de 2,227 pesos con impuesto incluido. No incluye bebidas.
Menú Mar de Pujol
Entrada
Botanas
Primer tiempo
Láminas de chayote, pico de callo.
Segundo tiempo
Ceviche de pescado, jugo de cacahuazintle, apio, yuzu.
Tercer tiempo
Pulpo, chintextle, escabeche de zanahoria.
Cuarto tiempo
Lubina rayada, hoja santa, mermelada de jitomate, plátano macho
Quinto tiempo
Mole madre, mole nuevo.
Sexto tiempo
Nicoatole de matcha, lychee, yuzu.
Este menú degustación tiene un costo de 2,554 pesos con impuesto agregado. No incluye bebidas.
Por otro lado, la opción omakase de tacos es una experiencia de 11 tiempos con maridaje. Aquí las bebidas están incluidas y tiene un costo aproximado de 3 mil 332 pesos mexicanos.
Otro punto a considerar si deseas probar los platillos del mejor restaurante de México es que tendrás que hacer una reservación con mucho tiempo de anticipación. Suele tener pocos espacios, por lo que acudir a Pujol puede representar una espera de semanas.
Te puede interesar: México domina en los Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018
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One of the most understated features of ChromeOS is its ability to automatically connect to a compatible phone and share its internet connection in a feature called Instant Tethering. This feature currently only supports the Google Pixel line of phones but I was greeted to a pleasant surprise when I opened my Pixelbook at a train station and was greeted with a setup window for Instant Tethering on my Samsung Galaxy Note 9.
It is important to note that your mobile phone carrier MUST allow tethering on your mobile data plan, I have tested this on T-Mobile (On a T-Moble One Amped Plan) and can confirm it works but your mileage will vary based on carrier. You should also be running Google Play Services 14.9.99 and Android 7.1 or higher on your phone. Tethering may also consume a lot of data so please ensure you are on a data plan with enough data to suit your needs or you may incur overages. Furthermore this will drain your phone battery faster.
You will need to be on the “Dev” channel for this to work
Here are the instructions to get started
Enable the “Instant Tethering” flag and restart your chromebook– chrome://flags/#instant-tethering Setup your phone under “Connected Devices” Disconnect from WiFi and you should be prompted to setup Instant Tethering
After you select “Connect”, you will see a prompt on your mobile phone. If your carrier disables tethering or if your data plan does not include tethering, you may receive an error when selecting “Continue”. This is only needed once so you can leave your phone in your pocket from this point on.
If all went well, you should now see your phone under “Connected Devices” in the settings menu. If you select your phone, you should see “Instant Tethering” selected.
You can now connect to your phone as if it were a wireless network. You do not need to manually enable tethering each time you wish to tether so feel free to leave your phone in your pocket or connected to a USB Battery Pack. You will even see your phone’s battery level under the wireless networking menu.
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“ Now we've done it, Ferb. We've brought the entire convention center to the brink of an inter-genre geek war! ” — Phineas Flynn
Phineas and Ferb head to the Tri-State Area's annual sci-fi and fantasy convention to meet their hero, special effects guru Clive Addison. Their plan gets sidetracked when they're swept into a duel between the fantasy fans and the sci-fi geeks. Meanwhile, Candace tries to keep secret that she's a fan of Ducky Momo, another convention staple. Across the convention hall, Dr. Doofenshmirtz has taken television executive Jeff McGarland hostage so he can pitch him a show he's developed, "Doof 'n' Puss."
Contents show]
Episode Summary
Candace opens her eyes to find herself in a 'trippy' land which seems to be a dream that she can control. The Talking Zebra flies up and past her which makes her believe that she can fly as well. She jumps off her bed, only to fall to the ground. The land around her begins to crack and crumble and she worries she has broken her own mind. She almost gets scared when Phineas and Ferb walk up to her, assuring her that she's fine and that it's all just special effects. They're warming up to meet Clive Addison at the science fiction and fantasy convention. She notices that they're all dressed up with Phineas as a captain from Space Adventure, and Ferb as an elf prince from Stumbleberry Finkbat. Both of those movies had their special effects done by Clive Addison. She tells them to get out of her room, but it turns out they were already at the convention. What she was seeing was just more special effects.
Dr. Doofenshmirtz narrates as Perry pulls down a flier that reads, "Where's Perry? Wanted." The music kicks in "Chicka chicka chow, chicka chow chow, chicka chicka chow" and the opening credits start "like one of the '80s TV shows with a voiceover". It stars Perry the Platypus, an amateur stage magician framed for a crime he didn't commit (the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln). Doofenshmirtz as a rogue, trillionaire inventor extreme fighting champion from the future. The two of them, along with their talking rickshaw Rick, played by Major Monogram, bring hope and justice to the Tri-State Area in peril. Together, they are Doof 'n' Puss. Today's episode, ‘'Ham On Rye, Hold the Mayor." Doofenshmirtz is reading the paper and Perry is playing with cards when Rick shows them the mayor's out-of-character behavior. The two have to find out what's going on.
Back at the Flynn-Fletcher house, Candace attempts to sneak past Linda, carrying a large bag on her back. Her mom asks where she's going and what is inside the large bag, without even looking at her. Candace replies that she is going to Stacy's house and that the bag is holding smaller bags. Linda believes her and tells her to have fun. Phineas and Ferb, meanwhile, are walking around the convention, passing by Albert and Irving who are arguing with each other. Phineas excitedly spots Clive Addison and the two walk over to him. Unfortunately, Irving notices them and asks Phineas to tell Albert that the Space Adventure movies are superior to the Stumbleberry Finkbat movies in every way. Phineas is disappointed when Clive Addison walks away, but Irving thinks he is in mourning that he didn't have a brother anymore. Phineas is confused. Irving and Albert begin to argue about which is better between sci-fi or fantasy. It brings a whole crowd of fans over and separates Phineas and Ferb since they are dressed as characters from the two different genres.
900 Hours, City Hall Mayor House. The mayor thanks Doofenshmirtz and Perry for auditioning with a magic act, but they want something more dazzling. Doofenshmirtz says they can dazzle and proceeds to cut Perry in half with a saw as an assistant shows the mayor a photo of the two trying on their costumes. Roger realizes they are Doof ‘n' Puss, and immediately has his ninja vampires fight them. They are cornered and Doofenshmirtz states that he picked the wrong day to stop carrying garlic scented throwing stars.
At the convention, Jeremy answers his phone. It's Stacy, who is wondering if he has heard from Candace lately. He replies that he hasn't, and that he thought she was with her. This confuses Stacy as Candace said she would be hanging out with Jeremy for the day. Jeremy tells her that he's at the sci-fi fantasy convention with his little sister, Suzy since she was into the little kid stuff like Seahorsie Hospital, or lame things like Ducky Momo. He hangs up quickly when he realizes someone in a Ducky Momo costume heard him. Suzy whirls around when she sees the costumed character and chases it. Ducky Momo manages to hide from her after Jeremy takes her away. It is revealed that Ducky Momo is actually Candace. She wonders why it must be so hard for a Ducky Momo fan to find collectables in a convention without anyone finding out.
Phineas and Ferb are still caught in the middle of the argument of which genre is better. Phineas tells them they're blowing it way out of proportion, something that they all agree isn't true. Irving tells Phineas to come with him and speak with their sci-fi leader. Phineas doesn't want to leave Ferb behind, but is pushed away by Irving who tells him Ferb is nothing to him anymore. Albert tells Ferb he is his new brother now and asks him to carry his action figures. Irving and Phineas arrive at the men's bathroom and Irving knocks. The door opens and they enter to meet with the one, who actually turns out to be Baljeet . Phineas sees Clive Addison again, but Irving tells him to pay attention. Irving tells Baljeet the unfortunate news that Ferb is dressed as an elf. Though Phineas thinks Ferb's costume is cool and says that he is enjoying another genre, Baljeet claims that Ferb is lost. Phineas says they should consider the fact the fans of Space Adventure (Speckies) and fans of Stumbleberry Finkbat (Finkies) have more in common than they do differences and that they should just talk with each other. Baljeet doesn't think this is possible, as the Finkie leader is Buford . Phineas manages to convince him to prepare a peace treaty and has him read it to Buford. Unfortunately, the treaty turns out to be extremely backhanded; although the Speckies vow to live in peace and harmony with the Finkies, all they ask is for the Finkies to admit that Space Adventure is better than Stumbleberry Finkbat and that they had brought a total shame to their families forever for believing otherwise. It wasn't at all what Phineas meant for Baljeet to write, and it causes the two genres to declare war on one another.
At Doof 'n' Puss, Perry the Platypus and Dr. Doofenshmirtz are tied up in a storage closet, Perry struggling to get out of his binds and Doofenshmirtz talking about their battle before. They both turn their attention to some grunting and see the mayor in the struggling to untie himself as well. Doofenshmirtz tackles him and the mayors tells him he is the "real" mayor and that the one they met before was a shape-shifter posing as him. That makes sense to Doofenshmirtz as it would be a weird plan for the mayor to tie himself up with them in a dark closet. Perry chatters and shows he managed to free himself with his skill as a magician... and also scissors.
Phineas and Ferb have brought the entire convention center to the brink of an inter-genre geek war. It's up to them to extend the olive branch of diplomacy. Phineas will go talk to Buford, and Ferb will go talk to Baljeet. Candace, in the meantime, is admiring all of the Ducky Momo merchandise. She is forced to stop, however, when Suzy spots her and chases after her. Jeremy calls out after her but she doesn't listen and chases Candace into the "Alien Nest". Suzy gets scared and runs away, allowing Candace to escape and find a piece of Ducky Momo merchandise she doesn't already have.
Phineas is alone, wondering how he can get to Buford. Irving finds him and asks if he's working on a battle strategy. At first, he denies it, but then realizes that Irving could help him and says he is. Irving is glad to help, but a bit worried since Phineas wants to modify his costume so he can get behind "enemy lines". Not long afterwards, Irving meets up with Buford disguised as a stump and displays a holographic message from Phineas. Phineas wants Buford to hear him out, Finkies and Speckies are all outcasts, they should be friends. However, Buford disagrees, and refuses to change his mind.
Ferb goes to the bathroom where Baljeet is, but is stopped by two guards since Finkies aren't welcomed there. To get past them he covers himself with a sheet and walks past the guards, who think he disappeared using a cloaking device. Once he's inside, Baljeet tells him to speak, but Baljeet interrupts him, thinking he is going to attempt to charm with his "silver tongue" and use "magic rune signs". The "conversation" is over and Baljeet commands others to transport him away. They are shining a flashlight on him and making sound effects as Ferb walks away to go meet Phineas. Phineas is disappointed that the day didn't turn out the way that they had wanted, and Clive Addison tells them he knows how they feel. Phineas looks up in surprise, immediately telling him they are his biggest fans. Clive Addison wishes there were more fans, since they are the only ones there, but Phineas tells him there are a lot more. Everyone else was busy getting ready to have a war over his two movies. Phineas gets and idea of how to resolve the fight. He knows what he and Ferb are going to do from this point of the day on.
Phineas and Ferb better resolve it fast, because the Speckies and Finkies have already begun their march to war singing, To War. Candace has spotted a rare piece of Ducky Momo merchandise, a plate where they printed the wrong saying, "I hate people!" All she has to do is walk over without drawing too much attention to herself. She doesn't accomplish this though, as she walks right through the middle of the war as they are about to charge. This forces everyone to stop and stare at her as they wait for her to walk past. A moment after she has passed, the fans of the two different genres charge again. A fight then breaks out.
In Doof 'n' Puss, the mayor impostor appears in front of everyone to establish his various new pro-ninja vampire laws. Doofenshmirtz and Perry appear, prompting him to transform into a large monster. The scene freezes there. Jeff McGarland, the television producer, tries to tell Doofenshmirtz that throwing a monster into a story is lazy writing. He changes his mind when an apparently real monster storms past them, making everyone run around screaming in panic. Doofenshmirtz is excited that soon fans of his show will like him so much they will do his bidding. However, when Jeff suggests giving Perry a girlfriend, Doofenshmirtz angrily refuses to compromise his artistic vision and storms out.
The monster is still storming around the convention and Baljeet stops Buford from running away. The two decide to join forces and fight the monster. Candace buys the plate, but when she sees the monster, she drops it and it shatters on the floor. Phineas and Ferb, along with Clive Addison, are up on a deck overseeing the convention. It is revealed that the monster is just special effects used to make the sci-fi and fantasy fans work together. Candace is the only one who notices them and tries to get the other to see as well. She takes one of their wands and chants a fake spell to show them how fake it is, but as she does so, the monster disappears. Everyone lifts her up in the air since "Ducky Momo defeated the Monster". Now confident that everyone will like her for being a fan, Candace reveals who she is and tells everyone she loves Ducky Momo. They all laugh at her and put her down, leaving her alone. Jeremy walks up to her, not at all embarrassed that he's talking to Ducky Momo. He tells her she was cool, and that Ducky Momo wasn't so lame after all since Suzy seemed to like him very much. Suzy runs up to Candace and gives her a hug, exclaiming, "I love you, Ducky Momo!" Candace smiles and hugs her back. "Ducky Momo loves you too, Suzy."
Back with Phineas and Ferb, Clive Addison tells them that they showed him the best special effects show ever. It's clear that the two of them are going to have amazing careers in special effects, and if they wanted that, they could give him a call anytime and he would hire them in a heartbeat. Ferb says what he would love to do is direct, to which Clive Addison replies, "You and me both."
Doofenshmirtz is back at his home, watching a new show called The Platypus and His Girlfriend. Realizing it was better than the original idea he had pitched, he tells himself he should have sold out.
Transcript
Read the transcript of Nerds of a Feather.
Songs
End Credits
"Ducky Momo Theme Song"
Gallery
View the image gallery for "Nerds of a Feather".
Running Gags
I know what we're gonna do today!
Phineas: Well, what other reason is there for creating cool visual effects for film and television? ...Special effects! That's it! Ferb, I know what we're gonna do from this point in the day on!
The "Too Young" Line
Irving: Working on your battle strategy, Phineas?
Phineas: What? No! I-I mean... yes! Yes I am. : Working on your battle strategy, Phineas?: What? No! I-I mean... yes! Yes I am.
Baljeet: Buford! Just what do you think you are doing? : Buford! Just what do you think you are doing? Buford: What does it look like? I'm running away, hoping that while the monster is busy eating my friends, I can escape.
Baljeet: Is that what Odof Underhump would do?
Buford: (pause) No, no it's not. No, no it's not.
Ferb's Line
Ferb whistles as he moves with the fans of Stumbleberry Finkbat.
Albert: As it should, uh be. : As it should, uh be.
Phineas: May the luck of Sluffon be with you.
Ferb: Always. : May the luck of Sluffon be with you.: Always.
Clive Addison: Well it's just really clear that you two are going to have an amazing career in special effects ahead of you. And if that's what you want, give me a call in ten years and I'll hire the both of you in a heartbeat. : Well it's just really clear that you two are going to have an amazing career in special effects ahead of you. And if that's what you want, give me a call in ten years and I'll hire the both of you in a heartbeat. Ferb: Actually what I'd really love to do is direct.
Clive Addison: You and me both. : You and me both.
What'cha doin'?
None.
Perry's entrance to his lair
None.
Hey, where's Perry?
Phineas:Hey... :Hey... The scene cuts to Doofenshmirtz's show.
Dr. Doofenshmirtz: "Where's Perry?" is written on this wanted poster, hanging on a tree. And we see this little hand reach up and tear the poster down and the music kicks in and all "Chika chika chow chika chow chow chika chika chika chika chow" and the opening credits start like on of those cool 80's TV shows with the voice over. You know... : "Where's Perry?" is written on this wanted poster, hanging on a tree. And we see this little hand reach up and tear the poster down and the music kicks in and all "Chika chika chow chika chow chow chika chika chika chika chow" and the opening credits start like on of those cool 80's TV shows with the voice over. You know...
Oh, there you are, Perry
None.
Out, Peace!
Dr. Doofenshmirtz: My artistic integrity and I are out, Peace!
Talking Zebra: I voted for you, Kevin. : I voted for you, Kevin.
Candace: Cool! I'm gonna fly too! Taking a diving stance Okay, focus. And - UGH! (She crashes to the floor, causing large cracks to appear) Oh no, I've broken my mind! Reality is shattering before my eyes. AAAH!
Phineas: Candace, you're fine. It's just special effects.
Phineas: Ferb and I are warming up before we meet our special effects hero Clive Addison today at the Science-Fiction and Fantasy Convention.
Candace: That explains why you're dressed in costumes from "Giant Losers: The Musical"!
Candace: Ugh. Stop being related to me, and take all your mirrors, and zebras, and junk and get out of my room! : Ugh. Stop being related to me, and take all your mirrors, and zebras, and junk and get out of my room! Phineas: Zebras?
Ferb shrugs
Doofenshmirtz: You know, in the future we won't sit and read newspapers in the morning. Instead, giant robots will control us in human death matches.
Major Monogram (R.I.C.K.): Now here's footage from just two days ago. Watch, see, (R.I.C.K.): Now here's footage from just two days ago. Watch, see, his hand goes up, and then he transforms into a wolf with fiery red eyes and runs howling into the misty night.
Linda: Hi Candace, where are you off to? : Hi Candace, where are you off to? Candace: Oh! I'm uh....going to Stacy's.
Linda: What's in the big bag?
Candace: Smaller bags?
Linda: Great, have fun. : Great, have fun.
Doofenshmirtz: I picked the wrong day to stop carrying garlic-scented throwing stars.
Phineas: But, what about Ferb? : But, what about Ferb? Irving: Forget about him. He's nothing to you anymore!
Albert: (To Ferb) Well, I guess I'm your new brother. Carry my action figures? Well, I guess I'm your new brother. Carry my action figures?
Candace: Why must it be so hard for a life-long closet Ducky-Momo fan to come to a science fiction/fantasy convention to find cool, rare Ducky-Momo collectables without anyone finding out her dark, humiliating secret?
Baljeet: I feel a minor disturbance in the universe. Almost as if- (a toilet flushes) Oh, now it is gone.
Baljeet: (indignantly) Oh, bite this prop tongue from episode 8!
Buford: I'm sure you're wondering why I, Buford, have taken a leadership role in such a geek-centered enterprise. Well, take a look around. This place is crawling with nerds! I'm like a kid in a candy store! Plus, I relate to the character of Odar Underhump and his complex emotional inner journey.
Phineas: (Sigh) To quote Lump Sharkboard from Space Adventure 16... "glorf".
Jingle Singers: Glorf!
Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Well, what did you expect? It was like twenty of them against one-and-two-halves of us.
Dr. Doofenshmirtz: (to Perry) Oh, you've freed yourself with your amazing magician skills! Oh, you've freed yourself with your amazing magician skills! Perry brandishes a pair of scissors
Dr. Doofenshmirtz: And also scissors. : And also scissors.
Candace: Ducky Momo Plushies. Momo Collectible Car Game. Momo the Movie! Oh, the Momo-ness of it all! The sheer Mo-mosity!
Irving: Me? Help you? My manipulator-slash-grasper is at your command!
Phineas: Clive Addison! We're your biggest fans! : Clive Addison! We're your biggest fans! Clive Addison: Thanks man, it's just too bad there aren't more of you out there.
Phineas: That's crazy! Everyone here loves your work. In fact, the only reason they're not lined to see you is that they're about to go to war over which of your movies is better.
Clive Addison: Oh man, I don't wanna hear that. I became a special effects artist to join the nations of this earth together in peace and hope.
Phineas: Well, what other reason is there for creating cool visual effects for film and television? (he gets an idea) ... Special effects! That's it! Ferb, I know what we're gonna do from this point in the day on! : Well, what other reason is there for creating cool visual effects for film and television?... Special effects! That's it! Ferb, I know what we're gonna do from this point in the day on!
Baljeet: You cannot resist our superior technology! : You cannot resist our superior technology! Buford: (lifting his arms) Smell my barbarian pits!
Crowd of Speckies: Eww!
Baljeet: Yuck! : Yuck!
Baljeet: Charge! Charge! Ducky Momo quacking, pause; Ducky Momo quacks again
Baljeet and Buford: Charge again! Charge again!
As a holographic monster stomps around Irving: What is that thing?!
Baljeet: (holding up a black box) I do not know! Those readings make no sense!
Irving: That's a pencil sharpener.
Baljeet: How is that information helpful at this juncture?! : How is that information helpful atjuncture?!
Albert tries to use his wand on the special effects monster Albert: Rootah dez-tu valoomus!
Albert & Irving: Rootah dez-tu valoomus!
They look at each other
Albert & Irving: Brother! : Brother!
Candace: And you don't make that thing disappear by saying 'Eugie beugie weugie!' : And you don't make that thing disappear by saying 'Eugie beugie weugie!' The special effects monster disappears
Kid 1: Ducky Momo defeated the monster!
Everyone runs to Candace and lifts her up
Candace: (taking off mask) Hey, it's me. Candace Flynn, the one you love! And I love Ducky Momo!
Pause; stare at Candace
Kid 2: Look, she's a teenager and she's dressed as Ducky Momo!
Kid 3: That is so humiliating. : That is so humiliating.
Background Information
This episode shows that Ferb wants to be a director when he's older, which is rather ironic, since directors generally need to do a lot of talking.
At the part where Candace makes the giant monster disappear, at a certain frame, you can see a blue tent which looks like an Illuminati pyramid.
The Doof 'N' Puss segments appear with slightly muted color to make it look aged like a show from the 70's or 80's.
Jeff McGarland requesting that the platypus in Doof 'N' Puss 'have a girlfriend' may be a subtle shot towards Disney executives requesting the same to Dan Povenmire and Swampy Marsh of Perry. [1]
The Fireside Girls' clubhouse and Nosebud were blown up in the fight scene with the vampire ninjas in Doof 'N' Puss. ("The Lake Nose Monster", "Isabella and the Temple of Sap").
Production Information
Disney XD MediaNet press release.
On a video of Vincent Martella recording for the show on YouTube, he is saying lines from this episode. He was recorded saying a line about using smoke and mirrors to create special effects, a line that was later omitted. This explains Candace's line later on, "take your smoke and mirrors and get out of my room!"
In the credits, the production studio was identified as "Disney Television Animation". It will not be used again until the credits for "The Great Indoors" and "Canderemy". The logo for the said production studio will be revealed after the credits for "Excaliferb!".
This episode was nominated for a 2011 Annie Award for Writing in a Television Production for Jon Colton Barry and Piero Piluso. They lost to the writers of Robot Chicken: Star Wars - Episode III.
International Premieres
August 28, 2010 (Disney XD Latin America)
September 3, 2010 (Disney Channel Latin America)
September 7, 2010 (Disney XD Poland)
October 9, 2010 (Disney XD Spain;Disney XD Germany)
October 14, 2010 (Disney XD UK)
November 7, 2010 (Disney Channel Brazil)
November 21, 2010 (Disney Channel Spain)
December 31, 2010 (Disney Channel Asia)
March 11, 2011 (Disney Channel Scandinavia)
March 18, 2011 (Disney XD Scandinavia)
March 19, 2011 (Disney Channel UK)
August 13, 2011 (Disney Channel Turkey)
When Ferb says "Always", his mouth doesn't move.
When Baljeet said to Buford "You lose an arm", Buford had five fingers on his left arm instead of four.
When Suzy chases Ducky Momo (Candace in a Ducky Momo costume) into the Alien Nest, her face painting disappears and does not reappear at the end of the episode.
The bathroom symbol on Baljeet's "headquarters" shows a male character but is inside a circle, (which is used for female restrooms).
When Phineas is talking to Baljeet in the bathroom, the blond specky's uniform highlights change from blue to pink and back to blue through the various scene changes.
First she's in blue, then she's in pink. Baljeets squares change too
When Baljeet says "And your magic rune signs have no effect in this dimension", if you look closely, 2 squares on his costume change color.
In the scene where Candace begins walking to the Ducky Momo badge but not attract any attention. In the Stumbleberry Finkbat side, there are 2 copies of a wizard and 2 copies of a unicorn/fairy hybrid, but in different color schemes. While in the Space Adventure side, there are 2 copies of a teen holding a flag, but in different color schemes. There also 2 exact copies of a teen who seems to be wearing football gear and a gray knight-like teen.
In some scenes, Irving wears his usual t-shirt instead of the robot dress.
Candace breaks the Ducky Momo plate, but she later is shown to have it.
Buford says "Your kind is not welcomed here" The episode's closed captions used "you're" instead of "your"
Continuity
Space Adventure was originally mentioned in "Not Phineas and Ferb" and posters for it were seen in "Are You My Mummy?".
The title of this episode is a reference to the common saying, "Birds of a Feather".
Stumbleberry Finkbat parodies the popular The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter franchises, and Space Adventure is a general parody of the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. Both Harry Potter and Star Wars featured special effects by Industrial Light and Magic , one of California's most famous special effects studios.
parodies the popular and franchises, and is a general parody of the and franchises. Both and featured special effects by , one of California's most famous special effects studios. Jeff McGarland, a television executive, is a parody of Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy . Seth is portraying the character and is a television executive himself. Dan Povenmire worked with Seth on Family Guy before moving to create Phineas and Ferb.
. Seth is portraying the character and is a television executive himself. Dan Povenmire worked with Seth on before moving to create Phineas and Ferb (and where footage from this episode was first shown to the public).
(and where footage from this episode was first shown to the public). Doof 'n' Puss parodies various crime/action series from the '70s and '80s, in particular The A-Team (an escaped fugitive "framed for a crime they didn't commit"), Kung Fu (a martial arts master), and Knight Rider (a talking vehicle, or parodying the name: Puss in Boots from the old folk tale).
parodies various crime/action series from the '70s and '80s, in particular (an escaped fugitive "framed for a crime they didn't commit"), (a martial arts master), and (a talking vehicle, or parodying the name: Puss in Boots from the old folk tale). Airplane! - Doofenshmirtz's line of picking the wrong day to quit carrying garlic-scented throwing stars parodies an oft-repeated line from the 1980 Airport parody by Lloyd Bridges "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking/drinking/amphetamines/sniffing glue." The title of the "Doof 'n Puss" episode, "Ham on Rye, Hold the Mayor" is similar to another line from Airplane! "Alright, give me Hamm on five, hold the Mayo."
- Doofenshmirtz's line of picking the wrong day to quit carrying garlic-scented throwing stars parodies an oft-repeated line from the 1980 parody by Lloyd Bridges "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking/drinking/amphetamines/sniffing glue." The title of the "Doof 'n Puss" episode, "Ham on Rye, Hold the Mayor" is similar to another line from Airplane! "Alright, give me Hamm on five, hold the Mayo." "What I really want to do is direct" is a common expression among people in Hollywood, trying to get their big break.
Albert makes a reference to the quality of the even-numbered Space Adventure films, referring to an old adage that the even-numbered Star Trek films are usually better than the odd-numbered ones.
films, referring to an old adage that the even-numbered films are usually better than the odd-numbered ones. Rolling non-traditionally-sided dice and points advantages are aspects of the well-known tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons .
. Doof 'n' Puss announced as being '''[[[IN SOUND]]]''' is a parody of various television shows which announced they were "in stereo" or "in color" during their opening credits.
announced as being '''[[[IN SOUND]]]''' is a parody of various television shows which announced they were "in stereo" or "in color" during their opening credits. The Alien Nest attraction is like part of the movie ride in the Disney Studio theme park.
When Candace had a dream and saw a Talking Zebra, the Talking Zebra is holding a poster of Candace, similar to Shepard Fairey's "Hope" poster with the face of Barack Obama.
Star Wars - There were many references to the Star Wars series throughout the episode; Similar to R2-D2, the character that Irving dressed up as can project video messages. The specific scene where Irving is sent in to see Buford in order to deliver a message of peace is a direct parody of R2-D2 and C3PO's visit to Jabba the Hut at the beginning of Return of the Jedi . The disturbance in the universe that Baljeet senses is a reference to the Force. Phineas's statement to Ferb, "May the luck of slufbom be with you", and Ferb's response, "Always," is a parody of the line "May the Force be with you, always" from Star Wars: Episode IV .
There were many references to the Star Wars series throughout the episode; One Space Adventure fan says that Ferb is wearing a cape of invisibility, like the one Harry Potter owns. They also mention an "elven cloak of invisibility", which originates from The Lord of the Rings .
. Speckies is a parody of Trekkies, whom are fans of Star Trek .
. When Candace is walking through the Ducky Momo merchandise a hat that looks like Sorcerer Mickey's hat, and the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter can be seen in the background.
can be seen in the background. One of the Finkies during the battle scene is wearing the same outfit as Wade in the "Vir-Tu-Ron" episode of Kim Possible .
. When Candace is walking through the Ducky Momo convention during Ducky Momo is My Friend , a statue of Ducky Momo can be seen dressed up as the Statue of Liberty.
, a statue of Ducky Momo can be seen dressed up as the Statue of Liberty. "Glorf" may be a reference to "Smeg" from the British comedy series Red Dwarf .
. Doofenshmirtz's character in Doof 'n' Puss may be a reference to the character Karate from the 60s cartoon Batfink .
may be a reference to the character Karate from the 60s cartoon . Robot Chicken - The plot of this episode is similar to the Robot Chicken episode "A Piece of the Action". In that episode, Fantasy fans and sci-fi geeks collide when a sci-fi convention erupts into war is similar to a Sci-Fi Convention War in the aforementioned episode.
- The plot of this episode is similar to the Robot Chicken episode "A Piece of the Action". In that episode, Fantasy fans and sci-fi geeks collide when a sci-fi convention erupts into war is similar to a Sci-Fi Convention War in the aforementioned episode. Happy Days - The "Speckies'" headquarters in the restroom may refer to Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli's similar "office" in Arnold's Restaurant.
- The "Speckies'" headquarters in the restroom may refer to Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli's similar "office" in Arnold's Restaurant. Burning Man - Clive Addison makes a brief reference to this annual event.
- Clive Addison makes a brief reference to this annual event. Doofenshmirtz pitching a TV series and having it accepted only if he makes one small change, which causes him to go on a rant and taking his business elsewhere. The scene was a reference to an scene from Family Guy. In which Peter pitches a cartoon then becomes offended and leaves when the producer requests a tiny change. To pretty much confirm the connection, the producer Jeff McGarland is voiced by Seth McFarlane the creator of Family Guy.
Cast
Main article: Credits
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ComingSoon.net has your first look at Joel Kinnaman (“The Killing”) in the new RoboCop suit! Filming started today in Toronto and you can see the updated design below.
Directed by Jose Padilha, the August 9, 2013 release co-stars Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson, as well as Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. From Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Columbia Pictures, the film was written by Josh Zetumer and Nick Schenk, based on the 1987 motion picture written by Edward Neumeier & Michael Miner. The film is produced by Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, with Bill Carraro serving as executive producer.
In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.
You can click on both photos to view bigger versions!
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WINNIPEG — After five days of being vilified north of the border by Winnipeg Jets fans and their coach alike, Wild left wing Marcus Foligno was exonerated Friday morning in advance of Game 5.
Foligno’s so-called “punch” to the back of Tyler Myers’ right knee after Foligno stumbled and fell to the ice after blocking a shot last Sunday had nothing to do with the injury that kept the 6-foot-8 defenseman out of Game 4 two nights later. That confirmation came right from the lips of Myers himself Friday morning during his press scrum when asked by The Athletic.
Myers pronounced himself good to return to Winnipeg’s lineup for Friday’s potential series-clinching game for the Jets.
“I just remember it being an awkward play,” Myers said.
Myers said Foligno, who played with him in Buffalo, texted him to apologize. Foligno said Myers told him right away the injury was not Foligno’s fault. It’s...
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Can Paul Rudd figure out the intricacies of quantum mechanics fast enough to defeat Stephen Hawking and determine the future of humanity? That's the question posed by Anyone Can Quantum, a short film from Downloaded director Alex Winter made in collaboration with Caltech's Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM).
The video premiered last night at the university's Beckman Auditorium, where the institute's One Entangled Evening kicked off a two-day celebration of the past, present, and future of quantum science. A version of Keanu Reeves living 700 years in the future contacts Rudd and asks him to weasel his way into Caltech's event, implying that the future of the world depends on it; Rudd can only gain entry by challenging Hawking to a board game grudge match, one live-tweeted by everyone from Judd Apatow and Will Ferrell to President Obama and Pope Francis. (Reeves and Winter co-starred in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, which explains his participation; Winter makes a cameo late in the video to deliver one of the movie's famous line.)
It's like chess infused with quantum mechanics, and it's... pretty complicated
Quantum chess takes the board and pieces of standard chess and infuses them with the unpredictable nature of quantum mechanics. It's a game that has less to do with strategy than probability: if a piece can exist in two places at once, you're just rolling the dice when you try to take it. (To be more specific, pieces can exist in multiple states until they're forced to collapse into a single state by an action.) Versions of the game have been kicking around since at least 2010, when an undergraduate computer science student at Queen's University in Canada developed the game from a professor's ideas. Caltech's version was developed in collaboration with University of Southern California grad student Chris Cantwell, and it should be made available for public download soon.
Hawking's participation in Caltech's event is easy to understand — he's a pioneer and a legend in the world of theoretical physics — but Rudd's link to the institute is less evident. In last summer's Ant-Man, Rudd's hero Scott Lang had to jump in and out of the quantum realm to save the world. IQIM scientists were consulted when the movie's toe-dip into theoretical physics was being developed, and they helped to develop the script; in that light, Rudd's appearance in their promotional clip just looks like he's returning the favor. Does he solve the mystery of quantum entanglement with Future Keanu Reeves' help before Hawking crushes his puny brain? You'll have to watch to find out.
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Late-night hosts discussed Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and the coup attempt in Venezuela.
Trevor Noah
The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) Biden could take a page out of Trump’s book: instead of letting a verbal miscue trip him up, just create a new reality and plow right through! pic.twitter.com/B0nLXw1hpA
Trevor Noah focused entirely on “former vice-president and professional tickle monster” Joe Biden and his entry into the presidential race, particularly his Pittsburgh rally, on The Daily Show.
Flanked by union workers, Biden hoped to “unify” the country. When Biden began discussing unification, Noah pointed out the oddity it has become. “That’s where America had gotten to. Candidates have to promise that if they get the job, they’ll be the president of the whole country,” Noah said. “Thanks to Trump, that’s not a forgone conclusion any more.”
Mocking Trump with an impersonation of his own, Noah said: “He got into the White House and was like: ‘California, suck a fat dick! New York, same to you! All the people who voted for Hillary, suck my balls! Wisconsin, see you Friday! Florida, every Friday, baby, yeah!’” pairing it with obscene gestures with his hands.
However, Noah observed that Biden had trouble with his speech, often misspeaking and jumbling his words. Threading together all of the clips of when this occurred, the host commented: “It’s one thing to mess up in the middle of a sentence. It’s another thing to stumble when you’re trying to rally the tramps – I mean the troops!” He also mentioned that Trump has already attacked on Biden’s age, calling him “Sleepy Joe” in tweets, further emphasizing the point that Biden cannot afford to slip up.
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert spent time ridiculing Joe Biden. Biden seems to be running ahead of all his rivals in most polling, with his second-place competitor, Bernie Sanders, almost 20 points behind. Colbert joked: “Looks like the Democrats aren’t feeling the Bern so much as they are jonesing for Joe. Or vibing the Bide’. Or weeping for the former VP-ing.”
Stephen Colbert: 'Trump has passed 10,000 lies!' Read more
But Biden’s rise does not come without consequence: Trump unleashed a barrage of tweets against him, for which the late-night host again leaned into his Trump impersonation. Colbert said criticizing Biden may not be the smartest move, as it puts him and other attacked candidates ahead of the curve or, in the words of one article, “gives them oxygen”. Colbert continued: “At their ages, both Trump and Biden need all the oxygen they can get.”
Despite Biden’s savvy in the race right now, Colbert expressed surprise at one of his moves: the refusal to seek an endorsement from former president Barack Obama. However, Biden has a newly released ad featuring Obama heavily. “Joe Biden could not get any closer to Barack Obama if he was a pair of dad jeans,” said Colbert.
Seth Meyers
Running through international and more localized news, Seth Meyers’ monologue was filled with snappy one-liners regarding the wide range of featured current events. Beginning with the uprising in Venezuela, Meyers showed a tweet from the current vice-president, Mike Pence, in support of the uprising.
The host joked that while Pence tweeted this out, Trump most likely had to Google the location of the country. Meyers also poked fun at Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer for saying they reached an agreement with Trump over infrastructure. “That’s right, they have an agreement with Trump, just like his contractors, the students at Trump University and his first two wives.”
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The following players (in alphabetical order) were nominated for the 2012/13 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award by a jury of journalists representing each of UEFA's member national associations.
Gareth Bale (WAL) – Tottenham Hotspur FC
Edinson Cavani (URU) – SSC Napoli
Cristiano Ronaldo (POR) – Real Madrid CF
Dante (BRA) – FC Bayern München
Edin Džeko (BIH) – Manchester City FC
Falcao (COL) – Club Atlético de Madrid (now at AS Monaco FC)
Mario Götze (GER) – Borussia Dortmund (now at FC Bayern München)
İlkay Gündoğan (GER) – Borussia Dortmund
Zlatan Ibrahimović (SWE) – Paris Saint-Germain FC
Andrés Iniesta (ESP) – FC Barcelona
Branislav Ivanović (SRB) – Chelsea FC
Javi Martínez (ESP) – FC Bayern München
Philipp Lahm (GER) – FC Bayern München
Robert Lewandowski (POL) – Borussia Dortmund
Mario Mandžukić (CRO) – FC Bayern München
Lionel Messi (ARG) – FC Barcelona
Thomas Müller (GER) – FC Bayern München
Manuel Neuer (GER) – FC Bayern München
Óscar Cardozo (PAR) – SL Benfica
Andrea Pirlo (ITA) – Juventus
Franck Ribéry (FRA) – FC Bayern München
Arjen Robben (NED) – FC Bayern München
Bastian Schweinsteiger (GER) – FC Bayern München
Robin van Persie (NED) – Manchester United FC
Arturo Vidal (CHI) – Juventus
Xavi Hernández (ESP) – FC Barcelona
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Studio 52 is a community artist space located in the heart of Allston, and is proud to support the Boston music scene and local artist community.
There definitely seems to be an uptick in outdoor movie screenings around Boston this summer, but not all film freebies are created equal. One that has caught our eye is the Museum of Fine Arts’ ongoing Sunset Cinema series, which on August 17 pairs a screening of 1967 Paul Newman prison drama Cool Hand Luke with the sounds of longtime Soulelujah DJ John Funke.
That’s how it’s done.
The screening is free, open to the public, and takes place on the Huntington Avenue lawn. Here’s more info from the MFA: “Lawn games, music and art-making activities begin at 6:30 pm. DJ John Funke of Soulelujah will spin ’60s soul, funk and r&b, while artist Charlotte Hamlin will demonstrate tie-dye techniques and styles, inviting visitors to design their own tie-dye to bring home.”
Cool Hand Luke fires up at 8 p.m.
“Beer, wine and snacks will be available for purchase,” the MFA adds, “and visitors are invited to bring a blanket or low chair, a picnic supper and nonalcoholic beverages to enjoy during the film.”
In other tie-ins, the screening of Cool Hand Luke, which turns 50 this year, is part of MFA Film’s “Feed Your Head: Films from 1967” series (which also features The Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, In Cold Blood, Valley Of The Dolls, and more, through September 2; click here for showtimes), and run in conjunction with its The Summer of Love: Photography and Graphic Design exhibition.
MFA’s Sunset Cinema series concludes next month when the Roxbury International Film Festival presents Jordan Peele’s Get Out on September 14. CLLCTV BOSTON founder DJ Yvng Psvl is on board to spin tunes for that one.
Featured image courtesy of the MFA.
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Der Spezialgelagerte Adventskalender ist auch im Jahr 2018 wieder da. Olaf, Sebastian und Tom haben Euch ein paar kleine Türchen gebastelt, in denen es um neue, liebgewonnene, irgendwie besondere Hörspiele oder andere Überraschungen geht. Gelegentlich haben sich die drei Podcaster auch nette Gäste eingeladen. Seid also gespannt auf den #ssp-advent
Diesmal widmen wir uns dem Genre True Crime genauer gesagt: Der goldene Handschuh von Heinz Strunk. Hierfür hat Sebbo Olaf eingeladen und die beiden sprechen über dieses und weitere Hörbücher von Heinz Strunk.
Verlosung
Wir verlosen unter allen Kommentaren, welche bis zum 24. Dezember 2018 (mit einer gültigen E-Mail-Adresse) zu dieser Podcastfolge geschrieben wurden das Hörspiel:
Däumelinchen
Dieser tolle Preis wurde uns freundlicherweise von Titania Medien zur Verfügung gestellt.
Der Rechtsweg ist natürlich ausgeschlossen…
Links zur Folge:
Der goldene Handschuh bei Spotify – Heinz Strunk – Der Jahresrückblick 2018
Musik:
Intro: Dr. Orgel “Nicht kleinlich (Christmas-Edition)”
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Congratulations, my friends! You’ve done it! Next up? Well, VOLUNTEERS will be needed! More on that later.
Folks, you’ve successfully carved Epcot’s massive collection of Food & Wine entrees down to a much more manageable, concise, and affordable(?) list of twenty choices!
They are …
Beer-braised Beef with Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes – Belgium
Buttered Chicken – Africa
Kalua Pork Slider – Hawai’i
Cheddar Cheese Soup – Canada
Loaded Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Nueske’s Pepper Bacon – Farm Fresh
Korean-style BBQ Beef – South Korea
“Le Cellier” Beef Filet Mignon – Canada
Cabernet Sauvignon-braised Short Ribs – France
Roasted Duck in a Steamed Bun – China
Grilled Lamb Chop – Australia
Grilled Beef Skewer with Chimichurri Sauce – Patagonia
Crispy Pork Belly – Brazil
New England Lobster Roll – Hops & Barley
Grilled Beef Skewer – The CHEW Collective
Belgian Waffle with Berry Compote – Belgium
Kielbasa and Potato Pierogi – Poland
Lamb Meatball – New Zealand
Smoked Beef Brisket and Pimento Cheese – Hops & Barley
Pasta Gratin with Ham and Cheese – Germany
Ricotta and Zucchini Ravioli – The CHEW Collective
There’s only one task left, and, for that, I need some volunteers. You see, we need to rank these delicacies in order from 1 to 20!
All of you “foodies” out there, if you can find a few free minutes to spare, please let me know!
Send me a reply via a comment on this post, on Facebook, or on Twitter, and I’ll clue you in as to the ranking process!
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Conservative radio host Glenn Beck has been suspended by satellite radio company SiriusXM Holdings Inc. after a recent interview appeared to suggest assassinating Donald Trump if he became president.
A May 25 interview with novelist Brad Thor, who specializes in fictional political thrillers, veered to a hypothetical discussion of what would happen if a President Trump overstepped his legal authority and Congress was incapable of impeaching him. “If Congress won’t remove him from office, what patriot will step up and do that,” Thor asked.
“I would agree with you on that,” Beck replied.
To some, that sounded close enough to condoning assassination.
“SiriusXM encourages a diversity of discourse and opinion on our talk programs,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. “However, comments recently made by a guest on the independently produced Glenn Beck Program, in our judgement, may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against an individual currently running for office, which we cannot and will not condone.”
SiriusXM SIRI, -2.82% said Beck would be suspended for the rest of the week, and his future with the network will be evaluated.
Both Beck and Thor said their comments were being taken out of context. On a Facebook post, Beck wrote: “So evil. That is NOT what he meant, nor is it what we thought. How evil do you have to be to think this?”
In an interview last week with The Blaze’s Dana Loesch, Thor denied making a threat after a furor was first raised by the Drudge Report blog. “Hell no, I wasn’t talking about assassination,” he said.
In a statement to the Associated Press, Thor said he and Beck “were discussing a speculative future America under a dictator.”
“Safeguarding the Republic against a dictatorship is a topic of conversation that dates back to the Founders,” Thor said. “If we had to unseat a president without the backing of the Congress, we would need a patriot along the lines of George Washington to lead the country from tyranny back to liberty.”
“The Glenn Beck Program” is one of the most popular shows on talk radio, syndicated to more than 400 stations around the U.S., as well as SiriusXM. Premiere Networks, which syndicates the show, said it had no plans to suspend Beck.
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French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen considers desirable such a resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) conflict, which would enable Karabakh to be reunited with Armenia. The candidate expressed such an opinion in an interview with Nouvelles d’Armenie, Panorama.am reports.
“After the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR), the administrative borders turned into international borders quickly and without reconsideration. However it would be more desirable, than independence, that Armenia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement, that would enable Nagorno-Karabakh to be reunited with Armenia,” Le Pen noted.
Speaking about the Armenian Genocide, Marine Le Pen said that the 1915 Armenian Genocide must be recognized by all the countries of the world and Turkey must finally begin to seriously review that horrible page of its history.
“France must assist in that fight for recognition, both due to its status as the homeland of the human rights and for the sake of the large number of Armenians, who found a housing here and were integrated successfully. The arrival of numerous Armenia in France in 1915 was an important event in the history of our country, since they had a great contribution to the reconstruction of our country after the First World War and perfectly assimilated,” Marine Le Pen highlighted.
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SYDNEY, AUSTRAILIA--(Marketwired - Dec 9, 2014) - Tesla Motors delivered nine new cars to customers in Sydney tonight at an event to mark the arrival of the Model S in Australia. Deliveries for other Australian Model S customers will commence tomorrow.
Tesla also officially launches its retail presence tomorrow in Australia, opening the doors at the country's first store and service centre in St Leonards, Sydney. By the end of 2015, customers will be able to visit Tesla stores and service centres in both Sydney and Melbourne. Tesla will also continue to hold Model S test-drive events around the country.
MODEL S IN AUSTRALIA
Model S is an uncompromised electric vehicle that delivers 502 kilometres of range on a single charge. With a 17-inch touchscreen, an outstanding safety record, and an acceleration of 0-100 km/h in 3.4 seconds, the fully electric Model S redefines automotive design and engineering.
FIRST AUSTRALIAN SUPERCHARGERS
Tesla also energised the first Superchargers in Australia at the delivery event today. The Star and Darling Hotel site at Pyrmont represents a central location for customers in Sydney and a destination for visiting owners, which will enable Model S drivers to travel long distances in Australia for free. The North Sydney Retail and Service Centre also has a Supercharger station for visiting owners.
A Supercharger can replenish half of Model S's 502 KM range in as little as 20 minutes. Superchargers enable long distance travel and are typically located near amenities like restaurants and shopping centres so travelers can stop for a quick meal or coffee break while charging. Next year, the Tesla Supercharger network will connect Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney, and by 2016 the network will connect all major cities along the east coast of Australia.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release, including statements regarding the locations of future stores, service centres and Superchargers, are "forward-looking statements" that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. Various important factors could cause actual results to differ materially, including the risks identified in our SEC filings. Tesla disclaims any obligation to update this information.
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The famous German philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche’s pronouncement of God’s death, became all the more ironic after his own death. Not because some people believe that “God” may have had the last word on the subject, but because of how posthumously distorted his own words became as well – by anyone wishing to create self-aggrandizing mythology akin to dogmatic religious doctrine. From first year college students to Nazi Monsters, Nietzsche has been largely misquoted as a misinterpreted megalomaniac, when in fact he was simply a pragmatic Humanist who seemed to put forward that Mankind’s forced ‘God Complex’ would eventually create some rather unsettling scenarios for us to collectively contend with as a result of our lofty delusions…Namely the delusional subjugation of Nature by the few, and the Ecological aftermath that everyone else becomes responsible for by default.
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? —Nietzsche, The Gay Science
So in today’s jaded, cynical and increasingly godless world, who among us should dare seize the reigns once held by the higher powers and cultural icons of past generations? Surely we can’t yet presume that Individualism could triumph over collective will, and yet still serve a greater good. The Mainstream Media and Government already have credibility issues, and Corporate Sustainability is still more of a business theory, than a socially acceptable standard. As such, where do we turn for infallible moral authority, and ethical benevolence on behalf of the well-washed and largely overfed masses? Who do we grant the unbiased ability to distinguish between right and wrong…Especially now when we see the destructive effects of unfettered Consumption on our natural Environment, and realize that the commercialized Egotism that drives such destructive economies continues on, largely unabated?
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
In this rudderless morass, perhaps the decentralized powers and pronouncements of the so-called Green Movement might turn out to represent the only unassailable bastions of social ethics and collective Consumer morality that can be qualified for further consideration…At least until our other social institutions can evolve to a higher level of authentic credibility on the issues that threaten to impact our entire World Ecology!
Could this be one of the “festivals of atonement and sacred games” that Nietzsche foretold of in his misquoted pronouncements ?
What evidence is there that we may already have inadvertently elevated Environmentalists to be the stewards of our planet on our behalf? Have people been subconsciously granting such authority by default? Or at least until we can determine how to take a more personally active role in our social fabric ourselves, via a more participatory Democracy, or at least more personally responsive version of Free Market Consumption?
If we could take a moment to consider this rhetorical quandary, perhaps we can also emulate Nietzsche’s outspoken bravado, and consider the risks of granting such absolute authority to such organizations. Not based solely on the pragmatic value of any presented solutions, or an alternative vision with demonstrated merits, but rather out of an admiration of the entertainment and shock value of the Green Movement’s public relations prowess…Which more often than not is also simply leveraging our fears of greater unknowns to gain greater power…
Would we dare:
Contemplate a Green Movement with a God Complex !?!
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This woman traded her rare McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce for a Volkswagen.
Earlier this month, Rachel Marie from Macomb, Mich., posted a Facebook status asking what she could swap for her sauce.
The McNugget elixir returned to McDonald’s for one day only on Oct. 7 following its introduction in 1998 as a promotional tie-in with the Disney movie “Mulan.”
In April 2017, there was renewed interest in the sauce after it was prominently featured in an episode of the Adult Swim cartoon series “Rick and Morty.” Shortly thereafter, fans launched a Change.org petition urging McDonald’s to bring back the sauce.
Unfortunately, the fast-food chain distributed only about 20 packets to each of its restaurants, which shot up the demand. Fans paid as much as $10 for a packet of the stuff.
That surge in demand explains how Marie was able to nab herself the 2004 Volkswagen, reports car website the Drive. She wrote on Facebook: “Thank you for the insane trade on the VW Golf Mk4 for the legendary Szechuan Sauce Duane Kimmel, I hope you got lost in the sauce!”
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Barstool Sports’ lewd content may not work for everyone, but for a core group of self-described “stoolies,” the site brings back droves of sports fans. Now it’s hoping its crass but funny videos can find an audience on Snapchat.
The 13-year-old site is launching a weekly Snapchat show on Sept. 8 called Barstool U in which Barstool staffers will travel to colleges around the country this fall and examine campus culture. It’s the third year Barstool is making the series—in the past, Barstool posted the show on its website—but this is the first time the publisher is making content for a third party. Wendy’s is sponsoring the show, with Snap Ads running between content segments.
Over the past year, CEO Erika Nardini has pushed Barstool to create content outside of its site, including a radio show with Sirius, partnerships with Comedy Central and getting its staffers as guests on TV shows.
“This is a brand that has always written for itself and created content for our crew first, and we set about to see about creating content for other platforms,” Nardini said. “A year ago, we had 15 people. Now we’re an 80-person company.”
Barstool U will appear within Snapchat Discover every Friday for 13 weeks and is hosted by Caleb Pressley and Adam “Rone” Ferrone. Each edition will be three to four minutes long with content collected from a trip to a college the previous week. The first episode will feature the University of Georgia.
The footage is in line with Barstool’s other content, and “it’s not going to be about who won the Ohio State game,” Nardini explained. “It’s more so going to be about what is a slice of life on the Ohio State campus?”
Pressley added, “We’ve been going to different colleges, showcasing the atmosphere along the lines of investigative journalism, getting to the bottom of college culture in American institutions.”
To keep the look and feel of the show akin to how people watch video on Snapchat, the crew will film in 4K but also with smartphones.
The Barstool Sports partnership is the latest example of how Snapchat is trying to become a hub for both entertainment and news content. Earlier this week, BuzzFeed added two new Discover editions for its food and home-improvement brands, Tasty and Nifty, and CNN rolled out a daily news program with content tailored specifically for the app. Publishers are also reportedly seeing big numbers in Discover. NBC News reports that 29 million unique visitors watched its “Stay Tuned” news program in one month, though Snap’s definition of a view is much different from how publishers measure TV audiences. Snap counts a view as someone tapping to open a video.
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Last week you may have stumbled across ExVegans.com, a list of “Vegan Sellouts.” It’s a barbed directory of former vegans that exists solely so that current vegans can publicly shame them, writing descriptions of their fall back into meat-and-egg eating gluttony. If you were one of the people that found the site, you probably experienced the reaction that most people did: outrage, disbelief, heightened annoyance. It’s the sort of site where you can actually smell the stench of self-righteousness through your laptop. It was Internet-shaming to the Nth degree, right up there with Revenge Porn sites and creepshotting.
But as it turns out, the creators of the Vegan Sellout List also think it’s pretentious and horrible – because it was nothing more than a trick.
The creators were using the insane sellout list to get attention, luring readers to the site, which after it had accrued some media notice, redirected to a stream of slaughterhouse videos.
Reporters at Gawker, Fox News, The New York Post, The Observer, and a number of other high-profile sites (including many vegan blogs, horrified by the bad press this insane list engendered) ran posts highlighting the Vegan Sellout List, and vilifying it as one of the worst examples of Internet-shaming to date. The journalists covering the story linked to the website, obviously, so that readers could see check out the site for themselves.
And that’s exactly what the creators of the Vegan Sellout List wanted. Once the controversial site had gathered enough media attention, the creators redirected the URL; instead of seeing angry take-downs of former vegans, people who went to the exvegans.com URL were sent to Veg-TV, a website with information and videos about veganism. The page that pops up first streams the vegan documentary Meet Your Meat, narrated by Alec Baldwin. The webmaster for Veg-TV noticed things picking up as well: “There’s a spike since July 4,” he says.
Peter Young, one of the people behind the Vegan Sellout List and creator of the Animal Liberation Frontline, wrote a blog post detailing why the group chose this tactic. He was inspired by Ryan Holiday, the author of a book called “Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator.” Holiday is the director of marketing at American Apparel and has an impressive penchant for generating buzz through controversy.
Of course, while the Vegan Sellout List was a ruse, not all of the people prominently featured on the site were.
Young took Holiday’s tactic of “chaining” – where you feed controversial material to small blogs eager for tips, and their coverage begets bigger coverage which begets stories in the mainstream media – and applied it to his radical animal liberation cause. Holiday used this type of tactic, along with emailing fake and anonymous tips, to promote his book – and he later wrote about just how easy it was to trick major publications into covering him in order to generate online interest, even if the stories were actually true.
Does Holiday find the homage to his tactics flattering? While he isn’t going to start carrying a “Friends Not Food” picket sign any time soon, but he finds this appropriation of his methods intriguing. “It’s not a cause I agree with, but I am always impressed when someone manages to take something we are reluctant to talk about and forces that uncomfortable conversation through the media and their messaging,” he says.
He’s also impressed by how Young and his cohorts managed to massage graphic, disturbing images into the mainstream media. “There is a lot of research that says that things that are unpleasant – and you’d have to consider slaughterhouse clips to be unpleasant – have a hard time getting views because people are disinclined to share them,” he explains. “What these guys did expertly was take something that is viral and newsworthy – outrage over this list – and use that as a Trojan horse to get people to see what they wanted them to see.”
So the Vegan Sellout List was but a decoy, but a necessary one toward the group’s effort. Simply showing the video to media wasn’t a story that anyone would want to pick up; a site outing ex-vegans though? That has a hook.
The big outlets were never going to write about Meet Your Meat on their own. Young admits that the concept of the Vegan Sellout List is nasty, but he believes the ends justify the means here. Holiday even points out that it’s the media the is the problem, not the methods of manipulation Young and his group used. “It’s interesting to me too that what they did would be considered ‘media manipulation’ while the bloggers who are so easily baited and deliberately sensationalize and gravitate towards outrageous things are not,” Holiday says. “The way I see it, this is how the game is played, and like it or not if you want to spread your message it’s what you’ve got to do.”
Young did not respond to requests for more information about his campaign, but his blog post makes it clear he considers the Vegan Sellout List trick a success. “The media-storm has passed, and I consider the entire stunt to be ‘mission accomplished,'” he pointedly says. Of course, while the Vegan Sellout List was a ruse, not all of the people prominently featured on the site were. One woman, Juniper Russo, wrote about being included on the list shortly after it went live and starting gaining attention:
The Vegan Sellout List features my name, photo, city, and state, and calls me an “Ethical vegan turned unethical carnivore.” Linking to an article I wrote five years ago, titled “My Recovery from Veganism” – in which I express full support of vegan lifestyles but explain that veganism became something of an eating disorder for me and made me very ill – the Vegan Sellout List offers the following “shameful” information about me: “Craved cow flesh during her pregnancy and went for it. The ones who are insecure about their decision always talk about it the most.”
Using real people means that more than just the media was the butt of this joke, and anyone who would likely support the Animal Liberation Frontline’s purpose but found their faces on ExVegans.com probably want nothing to do with the cause now. It’s a Catch 22: Sure, more people saw the video – but those targeted in the process were likely lost along the way. You gain some eyeballs, you lose potential supporters. Is that really positive traction?
Regardless of how the Vegan Sellout List ploy played on real people’s dietary choices, it’s impossible to tell whether Young and his group actually did meet “mission accomplished.” While the stunt definitely got a lot more eyes onto a webpage that streaming slaughterhouse videos, there’s no way of knowing how many people immediately clicked out. After all, as Holiday pointed out, it’s a really unpleasant video. Or, upon realizing that this wasn’t a list of ex-vegans, some users (including some of us at Digital Trends) thought it was an unsafe site and X’ed out right away. It’s also worth noting that few updates or corrections have been issued: Everyone covered the news about this horrible, ex-vegan shaming site, but few have bothered to explain what really happened … and that’s because our attention spans are very, very short.
What the ExVegan.com stunt does prove, however, is that media-baiting is a time-honored tradition that the Internet will fall for nearly every damn time.
Editors' Recommendations
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Joel Surnow is no John Milton, but the producer of "24", America's favorite torture show, seems to be taking a good whack at a favorite liberal icon, or rather iconostasis, the Kennedys. Here's Alternet, waxing wroth:
Outraged Citizens Campaign Forces History Channel to Rethink Miniseries About the Kennedys
Robert Greenwald launches growing campaign that calls historically revisionist series backed by a producer with ties to Roger Ailes, "right-wing character assassination." Media observers are abuzz with talk of a History Channel mini-series called "The Kennedys." While the scripts for the eight-part show, slated to air in 2011, are still unfinished, that hasn't stopped 40,000 people from signing a petition calling the series "right-wing character assassination" and "politically motivated fiction."
One would kinda like to know who the 40,000 "outraged citizens" are, and how they got mobilized. Greenwald, a documentary filmmaker and stalwart committed Democrat, seems to have started the ball rolling.
Apparently Greenwald got hold of the scripts somehow; they include a scene of Mattress Jack boinking somebody -- not Jackie, apparently; someone named Judy -- in a swimming pool:
.... when a Secret Service agent comes to deliver time-sensitive information from McGeorge Bundy, his security advisor, the president doesn't stop what he's doing as the agent delivers the news.
I don't know anything at all about Judy, but I remember McGeorge Bundy. I have to think that Jacko made the right choice.
Apparently there's also a scene in which Jack mulls the possibility of walling off East Berlin, before those nasty old Soviets had the idea. This is certainly not something I ever heard before, and could easily be made up out of whole cloth. But then on the other hand, if it turned out that Jack & Co. gave the idea some thought, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Anybody know where this might have come from?
Just goes to show: liberals are the real conservatives(*). All these plaster deities to venerate!
Even so, it's hard to imagine a less suitable object of veneration than the Kennedys, and Green Beret Jack in particular -- an unscrupulous mendacious chauvinist demagogue who ran in 1960 on the basis of a mythical "missile gap"; a dedicated warmonger who immediately cranked up military spending after a long period of diminution under his predecessor; a grandiose parvenu who puffed up the imperial iconography of the US presidency to unheard-of levels; the father of the Vietnam war, and the architect of the still-enduring Cuban embargo.
You would think a "progressive" like Greenwald might have something better to do than burnish and defend this grotesque and bloodstained legacy.
But you would be wrong.
----------------------
(*) And so-called conservatives are anything but. That's another post, however.
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Discover four personality traits that build or block our ability to connect and understand others
Examine your beliefs that bind or build our ability to connect with others
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BLACKBURN Rovers will net a cash windfall if their former forward Ruben Rochina completes a big money move to Russia.
Rubin Kazan have reportedly triggered the 10 million euros release clause in Rochina’s contract at his current club Granada.
MORE TOP STORIES:
And if the transfer goes through Rovers will make around £1.25million after inserting a 15 per cent sell-on clause in the deal that took him back to Spain full time.
Rochina made 54 appearances, scoring 11 goals, at Ewood Park after arriving from Barcelona B in January 2011.
The former Spain youth international spent the second half of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons on loan at Real Zaragoza and Rayo Vallecano respectively before he made a permanent return to his homeland in the summer of 2014 when he signed for Granada.
The 25-year-old has scored eight goals in 57 appearances for the Andalusian outfit including six last season as they secured La Liga survival for the fifth season running.
His excellent form has now attracted the attention of Rubin Kazan’s new manager, and fellow Spaniard, Javi Garcia.
The Russian Premier League outfit have reportedly offered to triple Rochina’s salary, an offer which Granada are said not to be able to match.
Meanwhile, Hyuga Tanner is on trial with Burton Albion.
The 19-year-old was released from Rovers in the summer having failed to make a first-team appearance at the club.
Now the Australian is hoping to win a deal at Championship rivals Burton.
He played the first half of the Brewers’ 2-0 win at Leek Town on Wednesday.
And Nigel Clough has confirmed he will not make a decision on the future of Tanner and the four other players he has on trial until at least after his side’s friendly at home to Stoke City tomorrow.
Burton boss Clough said: “It's very difficult to judge them on (Leek). Like everyone, it’s their first game. We’ve seen them in training for a week or so, so they’ll stay with us until the weekend and we'll make a decision then.”
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He even called this blowhard "An EVIL LIAR" and the Congressman,John Culberson of the TX-7, totally went into "I will talk about your ratings now because I am getting pwned" mode. Lawrence kept calling him out for his BLATANT hypocrisy of hating anything government run but admitting he would have voted FOR Social Security and FOR MEDICARE.
Is it me or does Lawrence average a beatdown per day? Give him his show, end of story. If they do I will be watching every broadcast in support of his vast skills at desceminating bullshit and making sure people know the FACTS of a subject
Update:Wow, Rec list.......feels good all the way up here lol. I am checking youtube every 10 minutes to see when the vid is posted so if you find it just post in the comments and I will put it up. EVERYONE needs to take a look at this one.
Update number 2:Courtesy of Terre(and any human with common sense) a link to the Hardball Page so you can see for yourself. I will still post the vid up soon as it is available.
Update number 3:And for your viewing pleasure....
Last update:700+ comments and 500+ Recs. WOW Talk about going viral lol. Hope everyone enjoyed this EPIC abuse of this blowhard. It needs to be seen by as many eyes as possible.
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went to the bathroom to take a shower took a shit before getting into the shower
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You do not put the band back together without the lead singer. Keep that premise in mind while you watch Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly operate in the run-up to the NFL Draft.
In this metaphor Marcus Mariota plays Mick Jagger, in case you wondered.
Tuesday, amid a flurry of free agent activity, Kelly traded former starting quarterback Nick Foles for Sam Bradford. This came after Mark Sanchez was awarded a contract extension by the Eagles. And while some are reading this as the end of Kelly's pursuit of Mariota, I'm not buying it.
Kelly's big move?
Wait for it.
Because this wasn't it.
Sanchez is Sanchez. Kelly knows and likes his skill set, but he's not a guy Kelly should trust with the keys to his operation. Bradford is 27 and has been injury plagued in his five-year career. He's torn his ACL twice since being the top pick in the 2010 draft. He's in the final year of rookie contract and is slated to make $12.9 million.
Those paying close attention know the Eagles are now very deep at back-up quarterback and that Bradford's contract expires in 2015. I suspect flexibility may be what Kelly was really after and if he somehow doesn't get Mariota, Bradford gives Kelly options.
Kelly hasn't said much about Mariota amid the pre-draft workouts. He's letting the pundits beat up the Heisman Trophy winner. But I don't think there's a quarterback more uniquely qualified to step into a starting role his rookie season and shine than Mariota and the Eagles.
Eli Manning hijacked the draft in 2004 and forced the Chargers to trade him to the Giants by saying he wouldn't play in San Diego. John Elway forced the Colts to trade him and ended up in Denver. I don't think Mariota will make a public demand to go to Philadelphia (it's just not in his personality), but he might not have to if Kelly ends up holding enough assets to grab a sliding Mariota.
Kelly is too smart to mortgage the entire franchise to get his guy. But his relative silence on the matter is a big tell. Of course, he's interested. Of course, he'd love to have the guy he recruited to run his offense and lead Oregon to a national title game running the Eagles for the foreseeable future. But getting there is a tall order when you're holding the No. 20 pick.
Which is why you need to maintain flexibility. In the Bradford trade, the Rams also get Philadelphia's fourth-round pick (2015) and second-round pick (2016). The Eagles get St. Louis' fifth-round pick (2015) and can also pick up a conditional pick (2016) based on how many snaps Bradford takes in Philadelphia.
LeSean McCoy got traded by Kelly. Foles left via trade too. The message buried in Kelly's moves isn't about his system as much about wanting to have ideal players running his system. Watching the Eagles last season was like watching replacement players. Kelly now has the autonomy he had at Oregon to build his roster, and while Bradford may have potential, he's not Kelly's starter next season.
The Bradford trade feels like Kelly's back-up plan.
How much Kelly needs to give up to draft Mariota is still the only question left.
--- @JohnCanzanoBFT
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The Welsh Lib Dems have condemned the housing and homelessness crisis being caused by the rollout of Universal Credit after evidence from Cardiff emerged showing far higher levels of rent arrears amongst Universal Credit claimants compared to housing benefit claimants.
Unfortunately, the number of Universal Credit claimants falling into rent arrears has led to many landlords across the UK refusing to accept any tenants in receipt of Universal Credit.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson Cllr Joe Carter said;
It’s deeply disappointing but not at all surprising that Universal Credit is pushing more and more people into rent arrears. We’ve consistently warned this would be the result of Universal Credit, only for our warnings to fall on deaf ears.
The UK Government must listen now and allow the housing benefit section of Universal Credit to be paid directly to the landlord. Doing nothing will only lead to more Universal Credit claimants being pushed into rent arrears and made homeless. That is not an option.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, this will also mean a loss of rent for councils and housing associations, restricting their ability to build more social housing and provide other vital services. Meaning Universal Credit is already damaging future generations as well.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds added:
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have consistently called for the UK Government to pause and fix Universal Credit, and this is one of the many reasons why. Universal Credit is causing increased poverty, increased homelessness and untold misery. It must not be allowed to continue in its current form.
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På papiret holder det danske skattetryk sig i fin form. Trods tre årtiers politiske reformer og ambitioner om at sænke skatten i den borgerlige blok er skattetrykket forblevet stort set uændret, omkring 46 pct.
Til gengæld er det lykkedes at ændre på den fordelingsmæssige profil. Der er nemlig stor forskel på, hvor store skattelettelser de rigeste og de fattigste danskere har fået, viser en analyse af de seneste 15 års skattereformer, som Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd, AE-Rådet, har lavet.
Skiftende regeringer er simpelthen holdt op med at bruge skattesystemet til at omfordele fra rig til fattig i samme grad som tidligere. Og det er en udvikling, regeringen fortsætter og accelererer med sit nye skatteudspil, der skal give danskerne »historiske skattelettelser«, fastslår eksperter.
»De fleste skattereformer, der blev indført før 2001, havde en anden fordelingsmæssig profil. Det, der er sket de sidste 14-15 år, er, at man bl.a. har fjernet mellemskatten og den højeste grænse for, hvornår man betaler topskat. Det betyder, at de højest lønnede har haft de største fordele af skattereformerne. Den udvikling forstærker regeringens nye skatteudspil, hvor de selv skriver, at de fuldtidsansatte med de højeste indkomster får de største lettelser,« siger professor Bent Greve, Institut for Samfundsvidenskab og Erhverv, RUC.
Ifølge AE-Rådets analyse har de ti procent rigeste danskere siden 2001 fået syv eller otte gange mere end de ti procent fattigste som følge af ændringer i skatten. Konkret betød det en skattelettelse på 41.000 kroner sidste år i forhold til, hvis der ikke var lavet skattereformer. Til sammenligning har reformerne givet de ti procent danskere, som tjener mindst, en skattelettelse på 900 kroner sidste år.
AE-Rådet har endnu ikke lavet konkrete beregninger på, hvad forskellen bliver i kroner og ører for f.eks. dem uden for arbejdsmarkedet og for direktørerne med lønninger i millionklassen som følge af det nye regeringsudspil.
Men også chefanalytiker Jonas Schytz Juul henviser til regeringens egne beregninger, der dog kun kigger på fuldtidsbeskæftigede. De rigeste fuldtidsbeskæftigede får således et øget udbytte af deres indkomst på over 3,5 procent. Mens de ti procent laveste får 2,5 procent.
»Men det, der ikke er med, er dem helt uden for beskæftigelse, der får nul kroner ud af det her. Dermed forstærker regeringens udspil en allerede skæv udvikling, fordi det aktuelle udspil også har fokus på at lette skatten på arbejde,« siger han.
V, K og DF
Information har bedt to eksperter og AE-Rådet om at gennemgå de skattereformer og afgiftslettelser, der har været medvirkende til at reducere omfordelingen siden 2001. Det har de gjort bl.a. på baggrund af en opgørelse, som Magisterbladet tidligere har lavet.
Gennemgangen viser, at Venstre og De Konservative har stemt for samtlige otte tiltag, der har mindsket omfordelingen fra rig til fattig. De to borgerlige partier er tæt fulgt af Dansk Folkeparti, der har stemt for fem ud af de otte reformer, viser gennemgangen.
Det skifte, der er sket i skattereformernes profil, flugter altså med, at det fra 2001 primært var borgerlige regeringer, der har haft magten.
Først indførte Anders Fogh Rasmussens regering skattestoppet i 2001, der især i forhold til skatten på boliger betød, at de danskere med de største boliger fik de største skattelettelser. Dernæst fjernede man i 2009 mellemskatten, som er den skatteændring, der har givet den største gevinst til de rigeste. Alene det element har betydet over 20.000 kroner mere udbetalt for de 10 procent rigeste og en lettelse på over 60.000 kroner for den rigeste ene procent, skriver AE-Rådet i sin analyse.
»Den almindelige HK’er fik jo ikke dengang glæde af, at man fjernede mellemskatten,« konstaterer Bent Greve.
Ser man på årene før 2001, ramte skattereformerne i højere grad dem i toppen af indkomstskalaen, for eksempel sænkede man i 1987 værdien af rentefradraget. Indtil da havde danskerne kunnet få 72 procent i skatterabat på renterne. Det ramte især personer med høje indkomster, der havde større mulighed for at få et fradrag. I 1994 indførte man desuden arbejdsmarkedsfradraget, som også havde en anden fordelingsmæssig profil end indgrebene de seneste 15 år.
Jørgen Goul Andersen, professor på Institut for Statskundskab på Aalborg Universitet, peger på, at man også før 2001 har givet skattelettelser til de mest velbjærgede, bl.a. da man nedsatte den højeste skatteprocent på kapitalindkomster.
»Men tendensen er overordnet set, at man med små skridt reducerer omfordelingen. Bendt Bendtsen er sådan set en noget underkendt konservativ partileder. Men han fik altså sænket mellemskatteprocenten også for topskatteydere i 2009. Det er alligevel en stor ting,« siger Jørgen Goul Andersen.
DF på kompromis
Den socialdemokratisk ledede regering, der sad på magten fra 2011 til 2014, har imidlertid også bidraget til reformer, der mindsker den økonomiske omfordeling. Bl.a. en vækstpakke i 2013, som gav selskabsskattelettelser til erhvervslivet med den begrundelse, at de øvrige europæiske lande, vi konkurrerer med, gjorde det samme.
Erhvervsskattelettelser kommer alt andet lige aktionærerne til gode, påpeger Bent Greve. Selskabsskatten er dog nedsat ad flere omgange fra 1995 til 2007. I 1995 lå den på 34 procent, hvorefter den blev sænket flere gange, indtil Thorning-regeringen nedsatte den fra 25 til 22 procent.
»Thorning-regeringen øgede også topskattegrænsen, men til gengæld indførte man beskæftigelsesfradrag for enlige forsørgere, som primært er dem, der har de laveste lønindkomster,« siger Jonas Schytz Juul fra AE-Rådet. Han mener til gengæld, at det i den sammenhæng ikke er nok at kigge på skatteændringer, fordi den tidligere Venstre-regering og den nuværende regering desuden har indført kontanthjælpsloftet, som tager ydelser fra dem med de laveste indkomster.
Desuden giver han ikke meget for, at regeringen ifølge egne beregninger skaber et øget arbejdsudbud på 7.600 personer med sit nye forslag.
»Det er jo ikke noget kæmpe bidrag til gengæld for skattelettelser og mindre velfærd for børn, unge og ældre,« siger han.
Hos Dansk Folkeparti er der til gengæld ingen fortrydelse over, at man har bidraget til skatteændringer, der har reduceret den økonomiske omfordeling fra rig til fattig. Partiets skatteordfører, Dennis Flydtkjær, hæfter sig i stedet ved, at partiet nu kæmper imod yderligere topskattelettelser.
»Det stemmer jo meget godt overens med det sted, vi står i dag. Vi synes ikke, man skal gøre mere på topskattelettelser, som man gjorde i 2009 og 2012, hvor vi godt nok ikke var med. Kan man i dag overhovedet få råd til skattelettelser, synes vi, det er på tide at gøre noget for dem i bunden, der får meget lidt ud af at arbejde. Det, vi hører nu, er, at gevinsten fra at gå f.eks. fra dagpenge til beskæftigelse er meget lille,« siger han.
Hvad angår skattepakken fra 2009, fremhæver Flydtkjær, at partiet trods et ønske om at have en social retfærdig profil også er nødt til at indgå kompromisser:
»Det er jo ikke os, der går ind til forhandlingsbordet og siger, nu skal vi fjerne mellemskatten, eller at grænsen for topskatten skal hæves. Men den har altså været over 70 procent på et tidspunkt. Dengang gav det mening, fordi rigtig mange blev ramt. Det problem har man så løst, og nu er der ikke længere en udfordring i den ende af skalaen,« siger Dennis Flydtkjær.
De sidste 15 års skattereformer har gavnet de rigeste mest – og det fortsætter V og K har stemt for samtlige otte skattereformer, der siden 2001 reducerer den økonomiske omfordeling mellem rig og fattig. Derefter kommer DF, der har stemt for fem Her er listen over skattereformer de seneste 15 år, der har bidraget til en reduceret økonomisk omfordeling Skattestop 2001 Anders Fogh Rasmussen indfører skattestoppet, der bl.a. indfører en lang række ændringer, bl.a. at boligers værdistigning ikke beskattes. Stemte for: V, K Der indføres beskæftigelsesfradrag og grænsen for mellemskat hæves. Stemte for: V, K, DF Forårspakken 2004 Lavere skat på arbejde, hvilket øger skellet mellem arbejdsløse og beskæftigede. Stemte for: V, K, DF Lavere skat på arbejde 2007 Person- og beskæftigelsesfradraget samt grænsen for mellemskat hæves. Der indføres en maks.-grænse for topskattebetalere. Stemte for: V, K, DF, Ny Alliance Forårspakke 2.0 2009 Stor skattepakke, der bl.a. fjerner mellemskatten, hæver topskattegrænsen og sænker skatten på aktieindkomst. Stemte for: V, K, DF Skattereform 2012 Regulering af sociale ydelser sænkes. Højere beskæftigelsesfradrag. Topskattegrænsen hæves. Stemte for: SF, S, R, V, K Vækstplan 2013 Vækstplan DK indeholdt skatte- og afgiftslettelser og offentlige investeringer for 10 milliarder kroner i 2014. Selskabsskatten sænkes fra 25 procent til 22 procent. Desuden sænkes virksomheders produktionsrelaterede afgifter på energi med videre sænkes. Stemte for: SF, S, R, V, K, Liberal Alliance Registreringsafgift sænkes 2016 og 2017 I forbindelse med finansloven for 2016 nedsættes registreringsafgiften for dyre biler og motorcykler fra 180 pct. af køretøjets værdi til 150 pct. I 2017 slipper med at betale 105 procent i registreringsafgift af de første 106.600 kroner af bilens pris. Stemte for: V, K, DF og Liberal Alliance
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We’re happy to announce (remind) everyone that the Starhawk Multiplayer Beta is open to ALL COMERS today, Tuesday, February 21st only on the PlayStation Network! You don’t have to “like” us on Facebook, you don’t have to “accept a special offer” and you don’t have to sign up for any service (that is, except for the PlayStation Network free service)! Everyone is welcome to join! Just check the PlayStation Store and prepare yourself for a good time!
In the coming weeks we’ll be upgrading the Beta a ton. You can expect a new map, new vehicles, new weapons, 32-player max matches and more. Remember, this is still a beta, not a demo. We are actively finding and fixing problems — and we need your feedback!
The Starhawk Beta will not last forever. When we’re done testing it will go “bye-bye”… and so I wrote a poem to illustrate my point…
The Starhawk Serenade
If you don’t try Starhawk you’ll be sad,
While your friends are having fun you’ll be mad,
It’s such an easy download,
Your head may explode!
There’s so much d&*#*! fun to be had!
You will be sad if you miss out! Don’t be sad. Live a little!
For you new players, here are a bunch of handy tips…
You can post your bug feedback by logging into the Starhawk Beta forums using your PSN ID. Also, check the fan-made Starhawk wiki for info, and check the Lightbox Beta news for regular updates.
We realize that a lot of new players will be jumping in. Here are some tips to help you along.
General Starhawk Beta Tips
Kill to build, build to kill. Kill enemies to get more Rift Energy to build more stuff to kill more enemies.
Shoot glowing Rift barrels to collect more Rift Energy.
Do not repeatedly build the same structures. Things like Garages or Launch Pads allow you to create new vehicles without building a new structure.
If you stay in the vicinity of your base area and Rift Extractor you will auto-magically collect Rift energy.
Each structure does something specific. Discover its purpose!
Most all the structures have a glowing yellow panel. If you go up to one, you will be prompted to either create a new vehicle or remove the building. Removing repeated buildings is a great way to ease the strain on your structure cap.
Use mics for the best experience….and sometimes to learn a few new words. :)
Pick your Skill wisely. You can also change them during a match during respawn. Remember that you need enough XP points and the listed prerequisite for a Skill to unlock.
Top 10 Starhawk Beta Tips from Real Beta Players!
Wall Spam, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing! If you place a ton of walls they will suck up structure cap space – and the enemy will fly over them anyway! Use them intelligently. Look to create choke points and use them efficiently. It’s very tempting to build them as they are relatively cheap and they scratch the “build a base” itch. Stand firm! Avoid spamming the battlefield with unwanted clutter! – From H-BOMM Take My Knife, Please! When you’re knifing an enemy try to jump and knife at the same time. You can also get higher (stand on a rock, etc). Sniper Time! If you aim the LR-3 Railgun for a long period of time the laser will show and your location will be revealed. Use it quick to avoid detection. – From Matt-Moore Chose Your Friends Wisely! Working as a team is absolutely critical to have a shot at winning. Teamwork is key. – From Outast_Graves Mic Up! Use your mic. Encourage your friends to use their mics and work together for optimal fun. — From Sharp Dagger For The Love Of God, RUN! Hold R2 to run. Do it always. Never walk. Always run. Run, run, run. – From TuckTay Enemy Mine! The mines are magnetic…you can stick them to your Hawk or Razorback. Get close enough to enemy Hawks or Razorbacks and they will “jump” onto them and explode. –From Seven11 To Build Or Not To Build. If you need a Razorback or a Mech, look around your base first. Don’t build another structure if they are there already. Run up to the yellow panel and build the vehicle. – From SmokScr Sell You Down The River. You can sell and remove most buildings by using the yellow control panel. Just run up to it, choose to “remove” and down it comes — From Ikeler Bite The Hand That Feeds. If you EVER see a player with the handles LBI (insert name here) or SONY (insert name here) kill, kill, kill…. – From RobbieK
Controller Layouts
Here are the Starhawk Beta controller layouts for your viewing pleasure…
Beta Maps
For those new players out there a couple of top-down maps to help you get your bearings on the action….
Scourge
Space
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Image copyright MATT HOLYOAK/CAMERA PRESS
A new portrait of the Queen and Prince Philip has been released to mark their 70th wedding anniversary.
The royal couple will mark Monday's platinum anniversary with a private dinner with family and friends at Windsor Castle.
The bells of Westminster Abbey, where they married in 1947, will ring to mark the occasion.
Royal Mail has issued a set of six commemorative stamps, featuring the couple's engagement and wedding.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Commemorative stamps from the Royal Mail feature the royal couple's engagement and wedding photos
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are the first royal couple to celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary.
When they married, the then Princess Elizabeth was 21-years-old while her groom, Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, was 26.
Image copyright PA
Image copyright PA
The new image, by celebrity photographer Matt Holyoak, shows the pair flanked by Thomas Gainsborough's paintings of George III and Queen Charlotte from 1781.
In the photograph, the Queen is wearing a cream day dress designed by Angela Kelly, her personal assistant and dressmaker since 2002.
She also wears a "Scarab" brooch in yellow gold, carved ruby and diamond, designed by Andrew Grima and given to the Queen as a gift in 1966.
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Previously on SBPDL: In 70% Black Baltimore, Black Mayor’s “Squeegee Boys” Corps Terrorize City, Requiring Unarmed Security Guards to Watch Them
Imagine a city dominated by black elected officials, who in 2015 turned over control of the city to rioting blacks.
No need to engage in flights of fantasy, you only have to consider the present reality of Baltimore. We already know the prior black mayor of 70 percent black Baltimore (who resigned in disgrace earlier this year) wanted to create “squeegee boys” as a way to stop out-of-control youth black violence.
Now, we know the consequences of black rule in Baltimore, where the franchise has enabled the horrors Robert Heinlein predicted in Starship Troopers (brush up on your History and Moral Philosophy) to ultimately end democracy in the west. And one white family has finally decided to leave Baltimore because of the lawlessness the black dominated government of Baltimore tolerate. [‘SQUEEGEE KID’ CONCERNS | Couple leaves Baltimore for Lancaster after attack, Fox Baltimore, September 17, 2019]:
BALTIMORE (WBFF) – Courtney and Jon Coles decided to leave Baltimore earlier this year and move to Lancaster, Pennsylvania after a day in January they say they will never forget. “We stopped at the lights on Light and E Lombard and the squeegee boys came up and we told them no,” said Jon Coles. “They hit the window on the car and they hit the car and then I got out and asked them to wait in the car.” Jon says he got out of the car to protect his three children inside, and pulled out pepper spray which didn’t work. He says the squeegee kids came toward him. “They started throwing squeegees and stuff at me. They hit me in the back of the head with a squeegee and banged the car more after I got in, and it broke off and hit my wife in the lip and busted her lip open. They took off running after that,” he said. The family says they filed a police report and police confirmed they were investigating after the incident in January. The Coles say they even sat down with then Mayor Catherine Pugh, but in the end after 26 years in the city Jon said he felt it best to uproot his family and leave. “After that happened I started seeing more incidents with them. It was just getting bad downtown. They were everywhere,” he said. “I didn’t want to work in the city anymore. That was one of the reasons why. The homicide rate is going up the violence is getting worse and that’s just topping it off.” The Coles are not alone. They join the growing number of people who have left the city over the years. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city’s population has declined by an estimated 18,000 over the past eight years. “The little things like the violence and these squeegee guys it makes it bad,” he said. The Coles say they are really enjoying life in Lancaster. “Even if you go into the city most people are friendly. I never have any issues, everyone is so friendly up here,” Courtney Coles said. While they’ve escaped their problem and started over they believe something still needs to be done about squeegee kids. “They need to be taken completely off the streets because what they’re doing is making the town look bad,” Jon Coles said. According to Baltimore Police, they started keeping track of squeegee kid related complaints on June 19th and since then there have been 1,284 calls for service. Police said they are currently not writing citations to squeegee kids.
Eventually, the ruin of our civilization will run its course. Things will continue, until they don’t.
Like it or not, our job was always to survive this phase of western civilization.
There was no “Making America Great Again” or the hope of “Keep America Great.” Simple marketing slogans, regrettably having no value in reality.
Not when black elected officials protect criminal black squeegee boys in 70 percent black, allowing them to prey on motorists and, as noted in this amazing profile in Fox Baltimore, drive a white family out of the city.
Civilization can’t endure fools; worse, our posterity has no chance when we hands the keys of control over to a people who would protect and shield criminal squeegee boys…
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Shannon Watts, the activist who alerted the world to Leggings-Gate, pointed out that she saw a father in shorts board the flight with no problem while his daughter were held up for their leggings. Many Twitter users who piled on the news — including model Chrissy Teigen — said they had boarded flights before in clothes (or, in little clothes) that would be more alarming than leggings.
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With the Mueller investigation producing a big, fat zero and impeachment looking uncertain at best, Democrats are turning to accusations of white supremacy as their next gambit to drive President Trump from office.
Since two mass shootings horrified the nation last weekend, Democratic presidential candidates and others on the left are increasingly tagging Mr. Trump with the label, which is among the most abhorrent in politics.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts all have lobbed the accusation of “white supremacist” at Mr. Trump in recent days.
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden was asked by reporters Thursday whether he thinks Mr. Trump is a white supremacist and said it may be worse than that.
“I believe everything the president says and has done encourages white supremacists, and I’m not sure there’s much of a distinction. As a matter of fact, it may be even worse,” he said.
The definition of “white supremacist” is a person who believes the white race is “inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races,” according to Merriam-Webster.
Republican strategist John Feehery said Democrats “look desperate” by leveling the accusation against Mr. Trump.
“They are making these accusations because they make their base happy and because they believe that, short of impeachment, the only way they beat Trump is making him so toxic that suburban voters won’t vote for him,” Mr. Feehery said. “I think they have gone way overboard because they aren’t just attacking Trump; they are attacking everybody who voted for him.”
Mr. O’Rourke, who is polling around 2% in the Democratic presidential primary, has been one of the most vocal in labeling the president a white supremacist.
“He is — he has made that very clear,” Mr. O’Rourke said Wednesday on MSNBC. “He dehumanized those who do not look and pray like the majority of people here. He said I wish we had more immigrants from Nordic countries because those from Haiti bring AIDS, those from Africa are s–hole nations.”
Alveda King, a niece of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and a Trump supporter, had a question for Mr. O’Rourke.
“President Trump is not a racist. He’s not a white supremacist. I’d like to ask anyone who calls him that, have they ever met one?” she said on Fox News.
Ms. King, who survived the bombing of her family’s home by white supremacists, said most liberals accusing the president of racial intolerance cannot claim the moral high ground.
“Everyone who’s calling President Trump a racist and white supremacist, most of them support killing in a very brutal way, called abortion,” she said. “They’re using that word ‘moral,’ but they’re doing some of the most immoral deeds that America and humankind can ever see. … So I really just don’t buy into this racist banter and this race-baiting.”
The president told reporters Wednesday that he is “concerned about the rise of any group of hate.”
“Whether it’s white supremacy, whether it’s any other kind of supremacy. Whether it’s antifa,” he said, referring to the far-left, “anti-fascist” movement. “Whether it’s any group of hate, I am very concerned about it. And I’ll do something about it.”
The president tweeted later in the day, “The Dems new weapon is actually their old weapon, one which they never cease to use when they are down, or run out of facts, RACISM! They are truly disgusting! They even used it on Nancy Pelosi. I will be putting out a list of all people who have been so (ridiculously) accused!”
The White House has invited representatives of tech companies to a meeting Friday to discuss violent online extremism in the aftermath of the shootings, which claimed 31 lives.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, applauded the effort Thursday.
“From extremist ideology, to copycat manifestos inspired by the Christchurch massacre, to secret hate groups by Border Patrol agents, online extremism is fanning the flames of hatred and violence across our nation and the world,” he said. “We need better solutions to remove any content that incites violence proactively while recognizing and protecting First Amendment rights.”
Critics point to Mr. Trump’s comment after the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the demonstrations, and his use of the term “invasion” to describe illegal immigration across the Mexican border, as incitement to white supremacists.
Mr. Trump also said after the Charlottesville incident, “Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs.”
On Monday, he said in response to the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.”
The Trump campaign this week highlighted 14 examples of his denouncements of racism, hate crimes and other bigotry since taking office, and seven interviews on TV in which he condemned the KKK, David Duke, white supremacists and neo-Nazis dating to February 2000.
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a post on Twitter that Democrats and media spent two years falsely calling Mr. Trump a Russian agent and then “Spent last 5 days recklessly calling him a mass murderer & white supremacist.”
“Same goes for all his supporters, according to them,” he tweeted, adding that when Mr. Trump responds to the “endless onslaught, Media & Dems freak out.”
Indeed, liberals have been increasingly applying the “white supremacist” label and similar “racism” criticisms to all Trump backers, based merely on that support.
Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is coming under fire from one of his players and other liberals for his plans to host a fundraiser for Mr. Trump on Friday at his home on Long Island, New York. The president is expected to attend the big-ticket event, in which the price for a private roundtable discussion with Mr. Trump is $250,000.
Dolphins receiver Kenny Stills said Mr. Ross’ support of the president conflicts with the mission of his Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality, which aims to combat racial discrimination through sports.
“You can’t have a nonprofit with this mission statement then open your doors to Trump,” Mr. Stills tweeted.
Others are calling for a boycott of fitness brands Equinox and SoulCycle, in which Mr. Ross is an investor. Comedian Billy Eichner, a voice actor in the movie “The Lion King,” tweeted that Mr. Ross is “enabling racism and mass murder” by supporting the president.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough tweeted, “If Stephen Ross funds Trump’s white supremacist campaign filled with fascist chants of ‘SHOOT THEM’ and ‘SEND THEM BACK’, then Steve Ross makes that white supremacy campaign possible. He’s directly funding online ads warning of a Hispanic ‘invasion’ just like the El Paso shooter.”
Mr. Ross defended his support of the president in a statement saying, “I have always been an active participant in the democratic process. I have known Donald Trump for 40 years, and while we agree on some issues, we strongly disagree on many others and I have never been bashful about expressing my opinions.”
White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway defended Tucker Carlson on Thursday for calling white supremacy a “hoax.” The Fox News Channel host said the form of racial hatred exists but gets too much attention compared with “all forms of hate.”
Mrs. Conway said she thinks “white supremacy is real,” but she added that Mr. Carlson likely meant that it receives “outsized coverage” versus other forms of hate such as anti-Semitism.
“All forms of hate have to really, they have to be reined in. We have to look at the motivations, we have to try to keep firearms out of the hands of those who are capable of doing such evil,” she told Sinclair.
Mr. Carlson received backlash after he brushed off concerns of white supremacy in the aftermath of the mass shooting in El Paso, which is suspected to have been fueled by anti-immigrant rhetoric.
“If you were to assemble a list, a hierarchy of concerns, of problems this country faces, where would white supremacy be on the list? Right up there with Russia, probably,” Mr. Carlson said. “This is a hoax. Just like the Russia hoax. It’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power. That’s exactly what’s going on.”
Salem Media radio host Kevin McCullough said he “absolutely” believes the race-based allegations against Mr. Trump from Democrats will get worse as the 2020 campaign progresses.
“Every one of those candidates has something to gain by fanning this discussion of Trump and supposed white supremacy, but it’s not good for the country,” he said on Fox.
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, whose oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation often put him in conflict with the president, said Thursday that Mr. Trump can seize the moment to bring the nation together.
“Thoughtful political rhetoric can be part of the solution, as President Trump implicitly recognized by urging Americans to condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” Mr. Rosenstein wrote in Time magazine. “If a president’s words matter — and Donald Trump clearly believes they do — then vociferous advocacy for tolerance might deter some people from adopting pernicious ideologies.”
He concluded, “Many presidents have used their bully pulpit to inculcate moral virtues. President Trump pledged in his Inaugural Address to ‘lift our sights and heal our divisions.’ This fraught political moment might inspire him to emphasize that laudable goal in future speeches, just as Sept. 11 set a new course for President [George W.] Bush.”
⦁ Bailey Vogt contributed to this report.
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There are quite many posts on visualization in our Edge of Chaos blog. While we haven't emphasized the difference between visualizing data and visualizing information, mostly, there is still one between those two. Without delving into any greater depths of theory, one can assume that data visualization is more closely related to quantitative data. This means that figures rendered into a visually clear form make sense faster as compared to when one looks at figures only. Today I'd like to give a few examples of using visuals (namely, mind maps) as an aide in the cognitive processes of research and problem-solving; I will also share some thoughts on when mind maps work at their best to amplify cognition.
Mind maps are often used to put together concepts related to a certain problem. These visuals help to get to the core of a problem or a phenomenon that we explore. When we link concepts in a network, things seem to make more sense to us, and the process of binding those nodes somehow helps to bind pieces together in our heads. The following mind map represents a case of digging to root causes of a problem (problem-solving):
Another case of using a mind map visual is to make a summary of some information that one has already digested. A mind map conceptualizes this knowledge putting it into various perspectives. As learners and researchers, we often feel the need to re-arrange some previously acquired ideas based on our own thinking, to shuffle and to categorize them in some new ways. This mind map was used to write the Patterns for Information Visualization article:
The next example looks as a mind map on the surface, but in essence it's not exactly that. Technically it is a mind map, as it consists of some nodes linked together. Such a visual, however, would seem more appropriate if drawn at a group meeting with people discussing the dynamics of their team work. We can say that this visual facilitates a group discussion:
Here's another example of a mind map that could have been used as a graphic facilitation when discussing Scrum process:
It depends a lot on the personal preferences and the context whether a mind map would help to amplify cognition. For example, the team reflection and the Scrum process visuals might work better at a group discussion or in a conversation. It's cool when a person that runs a meeting draws such images in the process of speaking, as the others look at the funny images, share a laugh and put their cognitive abilities to a better use through this distraction. As a solo researcher, one might draw such images automatically, focusing on the problem and thinking deeper.
Summing up, mind maps work well for an advanced solo research and problem-solving as people make graphic sketches in the process of thinking. They also work well for group meetings to facilitate discussions related to some common context, in a shared space. However, mind maps do NOT work well when someone totally new to a subject area hopes to learn all and everything from a mind map sketched by someone else. Depending on how new the student is to this subject, the mind map might make no sense to them at all, or it will just give them a general idea, at best.
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A friendly critique of the "Occupy" movements which urges the protesters to question their assumptions.
First of all, let me say I stand in full solidarity with the protesters; your actions have inspired us all and been the cause of some much-needed debate. It takes boldness and initiative to take these first steps, and you should be applauded for doing so. I believe all of you want a better world, a desire that I share with you.
There has been much talk lately of the “goals” of the protest, and much criticism when a clear 10-point program did not emerge. I must disagree with those commentators who complain of the lack of easily-definable “goals”; such a program is more appropriate to a political party than to a grassroots movement. All of you have had different experiences under capitalism, and therefore all of you emphasize different changes which are needed. A list of demands cannot contain the true spirit of the protests, which are quite simply an expression of rage and frustration with the world as it is.
This rage and frustration is the first step. Rage has been brewing in the working class for years now as the trappings of the “American Dream” are stripped away before our eyes and our rulers openly mock the democratic principles which supposedly bound and restrain their power. In the face of this sorry situation you have come together to voice the rage which is latent in even the most conservative of “the rest of us”. This is the first step and you deserve praise for having the courage to make the leap of faith necessary in voicing this rage. You all have seen that our “democracy” is a lie, that the government serves only the rich, no matter which party is in power. You have watched as the poor are ignored and social programs slashed while the bankers and corporations are showered with tax money; tax money which the richest among them do not even contribute to. This situation has lead many of you to see yourselves as attempting to restore “democracy” and the “middle class”.
Here I think you must re-examine your thinking. One cannot restore that which never existed. This democratic golden age you want us to return to only existed in propaganda and wishful thinking. The government has never served the people; it has always served the rulers and the rich. The postwar years of “middle class” abundance were years of abundance only for privileged sectors of the “99%”. This state of affairs was built on the backs of black, Chicano, and Asian workers, as well as underpaid female laborers and poor whites. The creation of a “middle class” was a compromise between the ruling class and a privileged section of the workers, at the expense of others. During World War Two working people never stopped struggling for better conditions of life. 1946 saw the greatest number of strikes of any year in American history. This working class movement was only quelled with the compromises of the G.I. Bill and other social measures by the state. By offering a few privileges to some workers, the rulers prevented deeper, more fundamental change. Now that these privileges have been snatched back and we are now approaching the same levels of inequality that we experienced in the 1920s, people are agitated and angry again.
This is a great thing, and I welcome manifestations of it such as Occupy Wall Street and the other occupation movements that are cropping up across the country. But we cannot simply fight to return to some half-imagined age of middle class abundance and true democracy. If we do, the same mistakes will repeat themselves. The working class, or the “99%” will be divided against itself. The rulers will try to buy some of us off. Those with the most to lose and the least to gain will be inclined to accept this kind of blood money. I speak, of course, of white workers like me, especially those of us who are “middle class”. We have been tricked for hundreds of years into identifying with our oppressors over our class brothers and sisters because of the system of white privilege. White privilege offers us a few incentives to side with the system, but these are nothing compared to the world we could gain through uncompromising struggle. Ultimately we cannot really fight until we are united. If we fight to restore America to the way it was in the 1950s or 1970s we will simply be fighting for a new House of Mirrors. The system has destroyed some of our illusions; let us not reconstitute them.
Let me be clear; electoral reforms, such as preventing money from being considered speech, will not solve our problems. Politicians manipulated and tricked us just fine during the era of campaign donation limits. The abolition of Glass-Steagle did not lead to this crisis. The crisis is an inherent aspect of capitalism, suppressed for decades by the ruling class and now flaring up again. It is rooted in the falling rate of profit and the fact that there are barely any areas left which are untouched by capitalism and can provide growing markets and unlimited raw materials. We are rapidly reaching the social, political, economic, and ecological limits of capitalism. Campaigning narrowly for tax reform, public works projects, and more jobs is like calling for repairs on a burning house.
So I urge all of you who are involved in these protests to question the limits you have imposed on yourself and the assumptions you have made. Question the assumption that “the cops are on our side”; as long as they wear their uniforms and carry their badges they will serve their masters. The brutality that you have experienced at the hands of the NYPD is not an aberration and it is not “shocking”. It is a taste of what happens in ghettos all across America, of what people of color and the very poor face on a daily basis. Question the assumption that the system can be reformed, that a few legislative maneuvers and a few new faces or even new political parties can fundamentally change this system. Question the idea of the “99%”, which implies that the problem is just a few extremely wealthy banks, corporations and individuals on the top. The problem is the system. Abolish the banks and watch as new institutions arise to take their place. Throw the “1%” out on its ass and watch as a new “1%” is recruited and installed.
The occupations are a crucial first step. People have been inspired and have, for the first time in years, begun to seriously question the conditions of their lives. But the struggle must go beyond occupations. It must begin to actively challenge the relationships and social structures that form the sinews of the system. We must carry the struggle into our everyday lives, and fight not solely in the symbolic and political domain of protest. We must carry the struggle into economic territory by uniting with our fellow workers and fighting against the parasitical bosses and landlords who control our lives, as well as the money-hungry banks foreclosing on houses we worked our whole lives to afford. We must struggle in the social territory of our families and relationships to challenge racism, sexism, and homophobia as they divide us and keep us stepping on each other like crabs in a barrel. We must look at the world and question the lies we are sold, lies perpetuated in school, in the media, and in churches. We must begin to think and fight for ourselves as a class without “demanding” anything.
from the Self Negation blog.
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From the Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs: every roadside bomb and IED attack between 2004 and 2009, with full details
The improvised explosive device (IED) is the Taliban’s weapon of choice, a deadly yet effective counter to the technological superiority of their western adversaries in Afghanistan. It is the biggest single cause of deaths of British troops in Helmand and has proven impossible to completely counter.
In their simplest form, IEDs are roadside bombs triggered by command wire, radio signal, mobile phone or by the victim, usually by walking or driving over the devices. Their explosive power comes from shells, diesel or fertiliser.
Despite their crudeness, the IEDs are a fearsome enemy. Insurgents employ ruses to outwit electronic counter-measures (ECM) – sophisticated devices used by western soldiers to jam radio signals. Earlier this year all-plastic IEDS, which cannot be detected by traditional mine-sweepers, started to appear on the battlefield. And they are every deadlier, with some able to penetrate the most thick-skinned armoured vehicle.
Extracted from the full Wikileaks database, this spreadsheet provides a unique record of attacks since 2004. It only covers roadside bombs and does not include person- or vehicle-borne suicide bombs. We have left out hoaxes (counted as IED incidents in official figures) and only include IED explosions, IED ambushes - where an explosion is combined with an ambush by insurgents.
This database shows the figures soared in the run-up to the 2009 presidential elections, with more than 100 attacks in three days.
The speadsheets are huge - if you’re looking to navigate around the incidents, you may find our interactive guide easier to use. But if you want the raw data (including co-ordinates and details) this is the place.
• DATA: IED explosions and ambushes (XLS file - 8.6MB)
Can you do something with this data?
Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group or email us at [email protected]
World government data
• Search the world’s government datasets
• More environment data
• Get the A-Z of data
• More at the Datastore directory
• Follow us on Twitter
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Florida Panthers rookie defenseman Aaron Ekblad was paired alongside Willie Mitchell for his first NHL intrasquad game, and found himself in awe of the team's most seasoned rearguard.
"I was looking over at him every once in a while to see how good his gaps were and where he was on the ice to pick up some tricks," Ekblad said via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
"He said he was going about 60 percent today and I thought he was a superstar."
While "superstar" and "Willie Mitchell" have been just sparingly uttered in the same sentence, the impressionable 18-year-old didn't see a product of the Los Angeles Kings' defensive factory in the OHL last season.
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One special forces group, fighting separatists in Eastern Ukraine, is bringing together many self-declared neo-fascists.
The volunteers joining the so-called Azov battalion, raised by Ukraine's interior ministry, includes men from Russia, Sweden and Italy who believe in national socialism.
Al Jazeera's David Chater reports from Mariupol.
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On Sunday, two days before the Presidential election, Donald Trump made five campaign stops, in five states: Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In Michigan, Ted Nugent served as the warmup act; in Virginia, it was Oliver North. At the end of Trump’s campaign, he has returned to the theme with which he began: the threat that immigrants pose to American society. In Minnesota, he told his supporters that “you’ve seen firsthand the problems caused with faulty refugee vetting, with very large numbers of Somali refugees coming into your state without your knowledge.” In Michigan, he blamed refugees for putting “your security at risk.” In Pennsylvania, he said, “You have people being brought into your community. Nobody knows who they are.” In Iowa, he described gruesome murders of Americans that were committed by immigrant killers. “The crime that’s been committed by these people is unbelievable.”
But the real news was about the electoral clout of “these people.” The background to those rallies was the accumulating evidence of a surge of Latino early voters, who may well change the course of this election. On Friday night, in Las Vegas, which has a large Latino population, the line to vote at a Cardenas supermarket was so long—at one point, more than a thousand people were waiting—that poll workers kept the site open until well after 10 P.M. The previous week, an A.P. photographer had captured a row of middle-aged women, most of them wearing casino housekeeper uniforms, standing in polling booths. The influential political analyst Jon Ralston wrote on Sunday that, in Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton’s early-voting lead may have put “a fitting final nail in Trump’s coffin.” In Florida, the line outside an Orlando library was ninety minutes long, and the political scientist Dan Smith noted the “explosive early voting turnout of Hispanics.” More than a third of those early voters did not vote in the last Presidential election. “The story of this election may be the mobilization of the Hispanic vote,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and a vocal opponent of Trump, told the Times this weekend.
If Clinton does win tomorrow, the primary story will be the election of the first female President. A secondary story may be the confirmation of a liberal turn in national politics: since 1992, the Democrats will have won the popular vote in six of seven Presidential elections. But this weekend made clear that there will be a third story, about Latino voters, whom Trump called criminals throughout the election, and who played a crucial role in the Republican candidate’s comeuppance. The lines at the Las Vegas supermarket and the Orlando library are in part the consequence of Trump's narrow view of what makes a person American, and so they have an elevated meaning. For many Latino and immigrant voters, given everything that has come before, winning would be the ultimate declaration of belonging.
Previously, the story told about Latino voters was about their fear of Trump, and his threat of mass deportation. “Papi, can we stay?” a (fictional) little girl asks her father, in an ad that the filmmaker Joss Whedon made in support of Clinton. “I’m scared that my parents will get deported,” a (real) girl in a blue dress tells Clinton, in one of her campaign’s last official videos. But at early-voting locations in Florida and Nevada, Latino voters often sounded less defensive: they were confident that they had a better understanding than Trump of what it means to be an American. “He doesn’t have the values of our nation,” a woman named Rosa Agosto, who identified herself as Puerto Rican, told the Tampa Bay Times, in Kissimmee, Florida. “He’s not the kind of man who should be President,” a Puerto Rico-born English teacher named Greta Gomez said. The tone could be cheeky: when the Times asked a maintenance worker named Oscar Diaz, in West Tampa, Florida, what brought him to the polls, he said, “Trump’s big mouth.”
The Democrats, and the Clintons in particular, have been chasing scenes like these for a long time. In 1972, Bill and Hillary Clinton, working for the Democratic candidate George McGovern, set up in the Rio Grande Valley, registering Latinos to vote. This year, Hillary Clinton had Astrid Silva, a twenty-eight-year-old undocumented immigrant and activist for immigrant rights, speak at the Democratic National Convention. It is difficult to imagine Silva on that stage five years ago, and impossible to see her there fifteen years ago. But in this election some of the old preferences of the immigrant electorate have weakened—there is little talk about the conservatism of many Cuban-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans—and have been replaced by a new set of questions, not about their relation to the old country but about their place in this one.
Throughout the election, Trump has wanted a fight over American identity, to make himself the candidate of those who remember George Patton and Douglas MacArthur and to make Clinton the candidate of an alarming other. He is getting that fight now. Over the weekend, Clinton campaigned with Khizr Khan, in New Hampshire. “Thankfully, Mr. Trump, this isn’t your America,” Khan said. For decades, the Clintons have presented themselves as the candidates of the future. But the race against Trump and the shape of Hillary Clinton’s coalition have made that position more meaningful than ever. This election may well be won on the idea that the history of the American people is not so easily distinguished from global history, and that American identity is fixed in a shared future rather than a shared past.
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Relaxing, sleeping, having privacy at a public place? The idea that seems impossible is going to be made possible by AirPod — a unique business model based on installing state-of-the-art private “capsule style” units across all mainstream public places, for a transformed and more enhanced travel and napping experience. AirPod is currently in its pre-ICO stage and has the whitelist open. It’s a novel concept that is gaining massive attention from the blockchain community.
About AirPod’s Novel Idea
AirPod leverages upon the latest, cutting-edge technologies that let users do their tasks within a comfortable, private unit while still being present at a public or a commercial place. AirPod has incorporated features that deliver an enhanced user experience, including touch-screen monitor, Wi-Fi, sound reduction technology, air condition, mood lighting, privacy blinds smart glass and anti-stress program.
Though AirPod’s sleek and ergonomic design can be fixed into a range of surroundings, yet, the company has targeted the mainstream airport hubs first. As per the strategic analysis, the team has found this setting an ideal one. Moreover, for the expansion of this novel business model, the company will be partnering with one of the biggest companies to get assistance for the distribution within the airports all across the world.
The AirPods installed across the world will be connected over a blockchain network, which will enable general management, economic overview, and control of individual AirPod units. The platform will be powered by APOD token, which can be used as a mode of value exchange on the platform to gain exclusive memberships and to rent the AirPod units.
How Does It Enhance the User Experience?
AirPod aims to address one of the biggest challenges passengers face at the airports, and that is, waiting for hours for their flights in the terminals. The case becomes worse if the flight is expectedly late by a couple of hours, or there are extended transfers or even long check-in times. The passengers have no option but to wait in a busy, noisy terminal with no privacy.
AirPod brings to passengers a convenient and economical way to maximize and enjoy their time in these terminals, as well as other locations like shopping areas, transit hubs, and offices. The current options are unable to cater the relaxing and privacy needs. For a private space, there are uncomfortable chairs or paid lounge areas. For sleeping, a nearby hotel is to be booked. The AirPod team has carefully analyzed all the current pods available in some airports and found unsatisfactory results. These privacy pods are only meant for sleeping, with a small, dark coffin-looking shape.
AirPod offers users a comfortable and a balanced space embedded with Wi-Fi, security, comfort, privacy, and relaxation. For the first time ever, passengers will be able to read books, watch movies, listen to music, or get a sound sleep in a peaceful and private environment. The model of AirPod unit combines functionality, health, and relaxation aspects.
The key features include:
Free High-speed Wi-Fi for all users
Free access to Amazon Fire TV
Power sockets (USB/electricity)
Working desk
Luggage and personal belongings storage
Air Condition & HEPA filter
Alarm clock
Flight status
A high-quality seat that transforms into a bed
Self-disinfection LED system
The Team Behind
Grega Mrgole is the CEO & Co-founder of AirPod. Grega has a strong and successful history with various start-ups in the manufacturing, food service, leisure, and fitness industry. In 2004 Grega opened his first company, specialized in the EU distribution and sales of sports nutrition, fitness and wellness products. After selling the company in 2010, Grega started a new company, Aioli Pharma Ltd, in 2011, which specialized in the production of its own brand functional chewing gums (chewing gum for energy, vitamin gum, anti-stress gum, etc.). Business model and products were successfully launched on the Slovenian, Croatian, and Austrian markets.
Mihael Meolic is the COO & Co-founder of AirPod. His first company Mineko d.o.o, was involved and specialized in the import and distribution of beverages throughout Slovenia and the other former Yugoslav states. Mihael sold the company in 2009 and opened a new company in 2010, which deals with the engineering and installation of robotics for the automotive industry. His company’s clients include Rolls Royce (Southampton, UK), Porsche, BMW, Audi, Ford (Germany), BMW (China) and VW (South Africa), among others.
The duo, with their innovative ideas, seem to be on their way to redefine personal comfort in public spaces. Know more about it at https://air-pod.io/crowdsale/.
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Canadian Video game QA service and testing outfit Enzyme Testing Labs has been acquired by tech service company Keywords for $3.65M as Keywords further their goal of cornering the game "services" market.
Keywords snapped up playtesting research company Player Research just last month, while it’s also grabbed hold of video game art services studio Liquid for $9 million and visual development studio, Volta.
"The acquisition of Enzyme brings together two of the leading video games testing providers, reinforcing Keywords’ position as the market leader in the field, with testing operations in Montreal, St-Jérôme, Seattle, Tokyo, Singapore, New Delhi, Milan and Dublin,” said Andrew Day, chief executive of Keywords Studios.
"The acquisition will not only generate considerable cost synergies but it will provide greater scale, flexibility and breadth of services for our combined interactive media clients globally,” he added.
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Socialist Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders is mostly credited with putting the crucial health care coverage at the forefront of American political discourse. I personally thought he was the only candidate among the pool who spoke about the issue vocally and perhaps sincerely. His campaign undoubtedly helped the issue get highlighted more prominently in the political, social and media circles. His argument that every citizen needs to have health care coverage was rational and a necessary step in the fight against inequality. It was a unique attitude toward health care reform. He even tagged health care coverage as a human right, which I personally found quite noble in the selfish world of politics. That was a humanistic touch from the Senator. But what made his argument about health care more appealing from his predecessors was the element of single-payer, universal health care. Candidates and politicians from across the political spectrum have talked about health care, but a single-payer system has never been in their talking point memos. Many emphasize the role of the market and private sector in providing health care to Americans.
Bernie Sanders’ advocacy of health care-for-all gained prominence when Donald Trump became president on the promise of repealing and replacing Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka “Obama Care.” The ACA is not a single-payer system, but a good first step toward that end. The ACA has extended coverage to more Americans and now health insurance companies cannot refuse treatment based on pre-existing conditions. This is indeed encouraging. However, the ACA is in real danger. The first attempt by the Trump administration to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act failed in March. The bill which is called the American Health Care Act (AHCA), failed due to lack of consensus within the Republican ranks. The moderate members of the party backed out of the bill for fear their constituents would lose basic health services. The backlash from their constituents was palpable and anxious. This level of backlash is nearly unprecedented, rivaling the revolt of American seniors over Republican efforts to privatize Social Security back in 2005. When I was watching the town hall meeting of Senator Mitch McConnell, I could not help but appreciate the bravery of the voters who spoke their minds and challenged the Senator for his support of the bill. Republicans technically had enough votes to get the AHCA passed. It was the fearless protests of the voters in town hall meetings across the country that ultimately made the difference. Regretfully, the failure did not deter the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress from introducing a revised version of the AHCA, and this time it was passed, though narrowly, by the House.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, under the version of the AHCA that was killed in March, 24 million Americans would lose insurance coverage, and the bill would raise premiums for older and poor Americans by more than 750 percent. The bill would cut federal Medicaid spending by $880 billion, and it will give a near-trillion-dollar tax break to wealthy Americans. Under the revised version of AHCA, the coverage for pre-existing conditions can be expensive, and aging can be considered a pre-existing condition. A typical 64-year old would have to pay $14,000 in premiums, whereas under ACA it is $1,700. A 40-year old pays $1,700 under the ACA but under the AHCA, it would be $2,400. The revised plan targets Medicaid by eliminating the tax on the rich to expand health coverage to poorer sections of the society. The revised Bill is absolutely disgusting, and this is where the fight for single-payer system becomes a worthwhile struggle, requiring collective effort on the part of the public. This is the time to take action, while the iron is hot. The alternative proposed by Trump not only discriminates against the sick but makes coverage far more expensive.
Political Will is Needed, Not Resources
As a non-American, I believe that political will and leadership are needed to make single-payer health coverage a reality in the United States. It is not about resources. It never was. America is the richest country on earth, with abundant resources. It has the financial muscle, intellectual capacity, technical know-how, and administrative mandate to enact a health care reform bill that provides health services to all. To justify my point of view and demonstrate that it is about political will and leadership, let’s take the example of Cuba. This tiny country has developed one of the most excellent and efficient health care systems in the world. It guarantees health care access to all layers of society irrespective of race, income and class. On a visit to the country in 2014, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan acknowledged the Cuban health care model: “Cuba is the only country that has a health care system closely linked to research and development. This is the way to go, because human health can only improve through innovation”. She praised the Cuban leadership for its efforts “to place health as an essential pillar of development.” Cuba has been successful in its quest to provide health care to all its citizens despite being under economic embargo by the United States for more than half a century. The embargo has put Cuba under enormous economic pressure, limiting its financial resources and maneuvering, and yet that has not stopped it from prioritizing health care for all.
When we dig a little bit deeper into the Cuban model, the results are mind-blowing. Cubans have a low infant mortality rate of 4.2, which is even lower than the U.S. The system has increased the life expectancy of Cubans, and it is now hovering around 78, which is nearly identical to the U.S. The benefits of the system are not limited to just the Cubans. Third world and other developing countries have benefited enormously from the system. Currently, 30,000 Cuban medical staff are working in 60 developing countries providing quality medical services. Cuba has achieved this amazing result by spending just $813 per person annually, whereas America spends $9,403 per person. These results are disappointing for such a high cost of care.
The Argument for Single-Payer System
The Cuban system of healthcare is a good example of single-payer. In this system, healthcare delivery is operated as a public, not-for-profit service. So, everyone receives needed medical services under one universal plan. The system is based on need, not the ability to pay. It allows the nation to have single data base, which is based on a single set of laws, regulations and prices, with a uniform standard for patients’ privacy. There is no need to wait for specialists, and care is not based on insurance or financial ability. Sometimes the wait for specialists lasts as long as six months. But the most significant benefit of the system is saving up money. The United States spends billions of dollars on medical administrative costs. Single-payer avoids large for-profit health administrative costs, resulting in a huge reduction in administrative costs. The saved money can be spent on healthcare, research, innovation and disease prevention. On the other hand, both the ACA and AHCA will be characterized by high premium costs. Under single-payer, premiums no longer exist. There are no expensive co-payments and deductibles, and patients have free choice of doctor and hospital. The free choice of doctors allows patients uninterrupted care, even if they switch their jobs and experience financial troubles. This is the distinct beauty of single-payer. Overall, universal health care replaces the profit-oriented system and covers all aspects of medical services such as dental, prescription drug, and vision. Employers have a minimum role in the system. These benefits must be intriguing for any nation or government considering a transition to single-payer. Why is the United States shying away from it?
The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not guarantee health care to its citizens. Currently, there are close to 29 million Americans who do not have health coverage. Recent studies suggested that, particularly before ACA, some 45,000 Americans died each year because they cannot get to doctors. Millions more are underinsured, as they cannot afford the high copayments and deductibles charged by private health insurance companies. This is not surprising, considering that the U.S. health care sector is a profit-making industry that thrives at the expense of the people. These companies are the problem. They have prevented the realization of a single-payer system because they stand to lose from it. Back in 2009, under then President Obama, there was much euphoria for a major health care reform that could lead to equitable coverage to ensure health care for most Americans. The hope, however, was shattered when health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, working with Republicans and seeking to pressure Democrats, succeeded in blunting health care reform so as to avoid universal health care. Despite the hopes of millions for universal health care, these dreams were shattered via the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which expanded private health insurance, rather than eliminating it.
Drug and insurance companies have undeniable influence in Washington corridors of power. They have skillful and highly paid lobbyists who work with and pressure legislators to blunt progressive change. They have tremendous amount of financial resources that can fund the election campaigns of so many lawmakers. In fact, there are already many Representatives and Senators in Congress who have been elected with the help of campaign donations from drug and insurance companies. They have adept PR firms with old and dirty tricks that can confuse the public about a single-payer system by producing ads framing universal health care as a danger to the quality of care in America. They are one of the major sources of revenue for American corporate media, as they advertise their drugs and services in the media. So, the nexus is perfect to deny Americans health care as a right, rather than a privilege.
The Way Forward
Bernie Sanders’ campaign and the ACA are a good start to pave the way for a single-payer system, although the fate of ACA now depends on the Senate. The aim has always been to give coverage to more Americans and improve the quality of the service. That is what the ACA has partly done. But it is not enough. The American health care system is broken. It is a market-driven care that aims at making profits, giving coverage to those who can afford it and making drug and insurance companies more powerful to undermine progressive policies and democratic principles. This is unacceptable. “Trump care” threatens to further aggravate the problems of securing affordable care in the U.S. This broken system can only be fixed by single-payer.
The movement that has been created by Sanders has produced results. Now, health care is on the national agenda. The fact that both parties are talking about it and trying to out-maneuver each other on health care, shows that it is an important legislative issue with wide political consequences. To be effective, people who support Bernie’s campaign and want to fight for single-payer must make their voices heard. They need to become politically active, communicate with their representatives, pressure them for single-payer, take to the streets in a non-violent manner, sign petitions, share information, expand platforms, support progressive candidates for elected offices, fight drug and insurance companies, and finally vote for candidates who promise to support single-payer health coverage.
I consider mass demonstrations as the perfect tool to bring pressure on Congress for the realization of a single-payer system. Marches have been effective in the past. The bigger the march, the bigger its influence. When is a better time than now to take to the streets and make your voice heard? With an elite billionaire class consolidating its grip on power like never before, and as ordinary Americans are in danger of losing their health coverage, the pressure for progressive change on health care will only continue to grow.
*(A crowd gathered on the Capitol grounds to voice their opposition to the American Health Care Act. Image credit: Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur/ flickr).
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"This one's for John!"
Pat Bowlen's proclamation moments after his Denver Broncos finally won the Super Bowl on their fourth try following the 1997 season isn't just a famous phrase around Denver, it's known by football fans everywhere. After the Broncos' 31-24 victory against the Green Bay Packers exorcised previous Super Bowl losses -- blowouts, in reality -- to the New York Giants, Washington and San Francisco, Bowlen selflessly passed the gleaming Lombardi Trophy to his beloved quarterback and favorite son, John Elway. This one's for John.
Now, 18 years later and with the tick of an unpredictable clock growing unbearably loud, Elway is in position to return the gesture. Everyone knows the reality. Bowlen is ill. He has Alzheimer's disease. No longer can Bowlen inspire his players with his relentlessness on the elliptical machine, always the best athlete in the room. No longer can he breeze through the locker room and be as comfortable among his players as he was at the negotiating table. No longer can he run the franchise he bought in 1984 and built into one of the most stable, classy and revered organizations in the National Football League.
Bowlen stepped away from the day-to-day operation of his team in July 2014, and he hasn't been able to attend a game in more than a year. He didn't attend his own Broncos Ring of Fame ceremony in November, and his condition is such that he won't even be in Santa Clara, California, for Super Bowl 50, the Broncos' seventh under Bowlen. But his ideals, spirit and approach to winning remain omnipresent within the organization, and his absence has driven the Broncos players, coaches and staff.
Their motivation is simple and sincere: Mr. B deserves one more.
The first time Mike Shanahan met Bowlen was in the Broncos' weight room. Shanahan had been an assistant for the team for a month, maybe two, and had heard the new owner was personable. But he was an elite athlete? Shanahan wasn't so sure.
Then he saw Bowlen spend an hour on the Stairmaster, followed by a 10-mile run. Bowlen was training for a triathlon.
"That was why coaches got to know Pat very well, as well as players," Shanahan said. "He was always around in their environment where they were working out. They'd see him relaxed and could be themselves. Most of these owners you see before and after games, and that's it. That's what separated him."
Bowlen liked to be around. A Wisconsin native who earned law and business degrees at the University of Oklahoma and made his money through the oil, gas and real estate industries, Bowlen led from the Broncos headquarters. He had a singular purpose, and everyone knew it.
"Pat had one goal and one goal alone -- that was to win the Super Bowl," said Shanahan, who worked for Bowlen for 21 years, the last 14 as Denver's head coach. "That's what it's about. We knew from day one he was going to try to give you every opportunity you could to win the Super Bowl. It wasn't about making money, even though everyone wants to make money. It was about what was going to give us a best opportunity to win."
If that meant paying assistant coaches more than the going rate, Bowlen did it. If it meant spending on free agents, he did that, too. If it meant building a new stadium, even though the taxpayers initially were against it, Bowlen did that, too, recruiting former Broncos stars to canvass the community and convince the people to chip in.
The results show Bowlen has done plenty right. In the 32 years that he's owned the team, the Broncos have been to more Super Bowls (seven) than they've had losing seasons (five). They've won more than 300 regular-season games and 13 division titles, including the past five in a row.
After Denver won its first Super Bowl, Shanahan wanted to reward running back Terrell Davis with a contract extension. Davis had had a monster regular season, rushing for 1,750 yards -- second only to the great Barry Sanders, who rushed for 2,053 yards -- and a league-high 15 touchdowns. In four playoff games, Davis averaged 145.3 yards per game, and he was the Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player.
Shanahan went to Bowlen's office with a proposed contract extension for Davis for north of $30 million. He said he told Bowlen, "I want you to take a look at this. I've restructured TD's contract because I think he deserves it. I want you to take a look at it."
According to Shanahan, Bowlen replied: "Mike, what do you think I hired you for?" Shanahan replied, "I appreciate that, but when you're dealing with a $30-40 million contract, I think you'd like to look it over."
Bowlen responded, "Hey, if you believe he deserves that contract then you should give it to him."
And that was that. Bowlen didn't even glance at the contract.
"That told me at an early time he had complete confidence in me to do things the right way and for the right reasons," Shanahan said. "You don't get that often, and at the same time you don't want to disappoint him."
Everyone has a story.
Bowlen (far left) made sure John Elway was at the forefront of the Broncos' SB XXXII celebration. USA TODAY Sports
For former Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer, that came in 2004. He was feuding with the league office over his desire to wear a No. 40 sticker on his helmet to honor Pat Tillman, the former Arizona Cardinals safety who quit the NFL and became a U.S. Army Ranger only to be killed in Afghanistan. Tillman was one of Plummer's closest friends. They played together at Arizona State and then with the Cardinals. Tillman had phoned just days before his last deployment to Afghanistan to check on Plummer, who had called off his wedding at the wire.
"He called me prior to going to Afghanistan to check on me, when realistically I should've been calling him," Plummer said of Tillman. "That's the kind of friend he was."
In Week 2 of the 2004 season, the NFL honored Tillman by having every player in the league wear a helmet decal with his number. Plummer wanted to wear it all season. The league said no. A few weeks later, Plummer defied the league and wore it anyway, incurring a fine.
Since his friend never backed down from anything, Plummer decided he'd continue to wear the decal, the money be damned. Bowlen finally told Plummer it was in his best interest to take the sticker off and just play. What Bowlen didn't tell Plummer is he had a large No. 40 logo installed next to one of the play clocks inside the Broncos' stadium. When Plummer took the field for pregame warmups a few days later, he saw it and was nearly moved to tears.
"It was just for me," Plummer said, "and it made me feel really good, like 'OK, I can move on. I can honor Pat and don't have to fight the NFL.' I just told Mr. Bowlen, 'Thank you. That was nice.' Sometimes the things like that he didn't even want a 'thank you' for. He wanted us to focus on what our job was and that was to play football and play our position and win games, not worry about fines."
During his tenure in Denver, Mike Shanahan admired Bowlen's passion and desire to win. Scott Boehm/Getty Images
For Mark Schlereth, the story is about a practical joke. One day in the mid-1990s, Schlereth rolled through the weight room and noticed that Barney Chavous, the team's assistant offensive line and strength coach, had closed his office door. Schlereth, a lineman, assumed Chavous was taking a power nap before practice.
So Schlereth stuck seven or eight pennies in the crack between Chavous' door and the frame, locking Chavous in. Then Schlereth called Bowlen.
"I said, 'Hey, this is Mark downstairs,'" Schlereth said. "He said, 'Yeah, what can I do for you?' I said, 'Listen, I've got Barney pennied in his office. Call him and say you've got to see him immediately.' He said, 'I can't wait.'"
Bowlen called Chavous, who leapt up not wanting to keep the owner waiting, and then realized he was locked in. Chavous then started "dog-cussing us," Schlereth said.
"And Mr. Bowlen comes sprinting down just to be a part of the festivities, because he thinks it's the funniest thing ever," Schlereth said. "He couldn't wait to call, couldn't wait to hang up and then he's sprinting down these stairs to be part of the shenanigans. He liked to have fun."
For Billy Thompson, there isn't one defining story. There are hundreds. Thompson was a defensive back on Denver's Orange Crush defense in the late 1970s. He never played for Bowlen -- "I wish I had," he said --- but a few years after retiring from football in 1981, Thompson got a call from Bowlen.
"He said, 'I want you to come back,'" Thompson said. "I said, 'As what?' And he said, 'I don't care. Just come back.'"
So Thompson was a scout for several years and then Bowlen asked him to be the Broncos' alumni coordinator, a role he's still in. Thompson reveres Bowlen but also counts him as a close friend. The two used to have lunch together all the time.
"He always just kind of pushed that owner thing aside," Thompson said. "He said, 'I'm talking to you, I want you to tell me what to think.' I'd go, 'I'm going to tell you what to think, so if you don't want to know the truth, don't ask.' He'd say, 'Okay, that's what I want.' I can't say enough good things about him. He's just a special guy."
And then there's Elway. It took some time, but five years ago, Bowlen finally coaxed Elway back to the franchise as its executive vice president of football operations and general manager. Shanahan liked the hire.
"John has a philosophy of what it takes to win, and one thing John Elway does is he wins," Shanahan said. "He doesn't lose in many things, whether he's playing golf, gin, a business deal, a football organization. He knows how to win, and he knows what it takes to win a Super Bowl."
If Denver beats Carolina, expect Elway to acknowledge Bowlen's impact. Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports
Bowlen had seen that firsthand. And he knew how excruciating some of the losses had been. The Super Bowls were rough, yes, but so too was the 30-27 loss to Jacksonville after the 1996 regular season, when the Broncos had home-field advantage through the playoffs and the Jaguars were in their second year of existence. For years on end, Elway had to hear about how he'd never won the big one, and might not ever.
"A lot of guys give up," Shanahan said, "and John never did."
And Elway is not giving up for Bowlen. That's why after a fourth consecutive division crown and a 13-3 record last season, he fired John Fox following a playoff flameout and hired Gary Kubiak as his head coach. Good is not enough when great is the goal and the clock is ticking.
"The only reason John is where he is now is because of Pat," Thompson said. "And it goes without saying that Pat, he loved John and what John did for the team, and he wanted to keep him a part of it. He had tried for a long time to get John to come and things finally worked out where he could come. I think it made Pat happy and I think it made John happy, because he knows what Pat wants. And with Kubiak, that's a close, close relationship and they know what Pat wants, what the goals are, and it's easy.
"John loves Pat. That relationship is really, really close. That's why I can easily envision him saying, 'This one's for Pat.' Wow. It gives me chills when I think about it."
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In a shocking turn around, François Legault’s Quebec will intervene on behalf of Saskatchewan to challenge the federal carbon tax in the supreme court alongside Premier Scott Moe.
Quebec would be the latest province to join Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Alberta and Saskatchewan to challenge the federal government’s levy as unconstitutional.
The provincial government announced the decision in a press release earlier today.
“The purpose of this intervention will be to ensure the legal and economic security of the Quebec emission cap and trading system (SPEDE) by ensuring the jurisdiction and jurisdictional autonomy of Quebec in this area,” stated the press release.
BREAKING: Quebec will intervene in Supreme Court carbon tax challenge on behalf of Saskatchewan. Cites the security of its cap-and-trade system as reason behind decision.
FULL PRESS RELEASE BELOW (ENGLISH) pic.twitter.com/Fo2lth8i0i — Cosmin Dzsurdzsa (@cosminDZS) July 8, 2019
Originally, Quebec praised the federal government’s decision to implement a carbon tax but in what is a total reversal of opinion, the province has now expressed its total opposition to it on the basis of constitutional rights and the security of the province’s cap-and-trade system.
In 2012, the province had introduced a cap-and-trade plan to fight climate change which costs polluters a little over $20 a tonne. Due to this system, Quebec was able to avoid having the federal government’s ready made carbon tax implemented in the province.
“It is important for our government to intervene in this debate to ensure that Quebec can defend its position and that it be heard before the Supreme Court of Canada. The Quebec government has shown real leadership in implementing its own carbon exchange,” said Sonia LeBel, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Quebec.
“He considers that he had acted within his field of competence and will reiterate in his speech the importance of protecting the autonomy of the provinces and their ability to decide for themselves their own fields of competence.”
According to the Montreal Economic Institute the province of Alberta, which recently abandoned its own carbon tax, would have to pay 50% more than Quebec on carbon.
In May, Saskatchewan lost its battle against the carbon tax in the Court of Appeal after judges ruled that the federal government’s decision was constitutional, but now the case has been taken all the way to the supreme court.
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Hunter Biden was reportedly paid $83,333 per month after being hired in 2014 by Burisma Holdings, one of Ukraine’s largest natural gas companies while serving as a non-executive “ceremonial figure” with a “powerful name,” The National Review reports.
All in, Burisma Holdings paid $3.4 million to Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC, a company lead by Hunter Biden’s business partner Devon Archer.
Between April 2014 and November 2015, Biden and Archer each received monthly payments of $83,333 for “consulting services.”
Burisma Holdings founder Mykola Zlochevsky hired Hunter Biden to “protect” the company in the face of prosecution, the Review reported.
Zlochevsky faced investigation in Ukraine and was initially cleared of wrongdoing for tax violations, money laundering, and corruption. But earlier this month Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka said 15 cases involving Zlochevsky would be reviewed, according to The National Review.
Biden’s work with the company has come under intense scrutiny after President Donald Trump alleged that Joe Biden inappropriately used his diplomatic influence in Ukraine to help his son.
Continue reading at The National Review
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The album, titled #SayYesToLove Vol. 1, was coordinated by advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality (AME).
It will feature a mixture of pre-existing tracks, new cover tracks, and brand-new songs. Other artists to feature include The Basics, Katie Noonan, The Cat Empire and Wes Carr.
"We've got a really great collection of well-known artists and also incredible up-and-coming artists as well," executive producer Michael McGlynn told BuzzFeed News.
All proceeds from the album, which will be available via iTunes this Friday, will go towards AME's campaign.
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Wind and Clark recap the Nuggets’ win over the Spurs, Nikola Jokic’s quiet triple-double, Jamal Murray’s gutsy performance and Will Barton’s resurgence. Also, what’s behind Wilson Chandler’s revival over Denver’s past three games?
Rundown
3:00 – Tuesday’s top storylines
4:00 – Jokic’s quiet triple-double
6:15 – The Nuggets are good in the fourth quarter again
8:30 – Will Barton has found himself again
10:30 – Spurs gonna Spurs
17:00 – What’s behind Wilson Chandler’s resurgence
23:00 – Devin Harris’ best play of the night
30:00 – Malik Beasley gets Torrey Craig’s minutes
32:30 – Nuggets All-Star break plans
DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE!
iTunes link | Stitcher Link | Pocket Casts Link
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BIGBANG is one of those musical entities that transcends language. It’s one of those rare groups that both innovates and defines the direction a genre takes. Covering a sound that includes hip hop, R&B and electronic dance, BIGBANG and its solo acts (G-Dragon, T.O.P, Taeyang, Seungri and Daesung) have left a musical imprint that has affected the global music market. In fact, even Diplo, a household name in EDM, worked with G-Dragon and T.O.P for their rap album. So when the band announced its world tour to promote the release of its third full-length studio album MADE after a 3 year hiatus, fans lost their minds – including myself. In fact, tickets for each of BIGBANG’s North American legs sold out.
As a result, I was lucky enough to witness this larger-than-life Korean pop group perform a couple Saturday nights ago on Oct. 10 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. As I waited in line to enter the venue with my friends, mobs of fans raved about BIGBANG's new tracks (and surprisingly, not everyone was Asian). Leading up to this particular leg of their North American tour, BIGBANG released 2 songs every month starting from May to August, resulting in 8 freshly minted tracks.
After everyone pushed their way through security, a slew of fans rushed to the merchandise table hoping to get either apparel or light up accessories they could wave around during the concert. Being the broke boy I am, my friend and I instead made our way to our seats at the front of the upper level and waited for the BANG to make its appearance. (Floor admission was anywhere from $600 - $800.)
In the hour leading up to BIGBANG’s presence, a large screen played popular music videos from both the group as a whole and its solo acts. Though the pit was half full and other fans were sparsely scattered in the seated areas, fans emphatically cheered when their favorite idol appeared in a music video. Prudential Center wasn’t even a quarter full yet.
As the venue slowly flooded to capacity, the group finally made its appearance. Gradually, the lights dimmed while the sound of a motor revving filled the venue. Fans energetically waved their light-up flower accessories in anticipation and stood up. Almost immediately, the instrumentals to “BANG BANG BANG” blared through the speakers, and the 5 members walked out of the splitting screen previously used to play the videos. During the song, small fireworks burst from the top of the stage and popped timely on the hook’s lyric “bang.” It was then that everyone recognized the blissful hype BIGBANG was about to deliver for the rest of the night on.
As their set progressed, the band showcased their sentimental side, performing a set of slow ballads at once to drive home the theme of their first album single “LOSER,” yet also re-energized the crowd with another set of R&B and pop songs. In between, as if to both recharge their energy and quickly change into their costume-like clothes, each artist performed a song from his solo work. This break from the group’s work gave more casual fans a chance to witness how the band dedicated its time during its hiatuses.
The ultimate highlight came during T.O.P’s solo “DOOM DADA.” Adorning a suit printed with Mondrian’s patented “Composition” painting, instead of rapping his line, T.O.P looked at the audience and winked. And during that moment, my jaw dropped, and I questioned my sexuality.
In between a set of maybe three or four songs, the band either took the time to interact with the audience or reveal extended scenes from their Quentin Tarantino-inspired short film uploaded in April.
It was when the band members spoke to the audience that these Korean idols brought themselves down to earth. Despite occasionally tripping over their rehearsed English lines, each member gave us a glimpse of his more personal side. Some had further solidified their reputations. For instance, Daesung, the goofy, go-lucky singer and drummer, introduced himself just by yelling “YEAH” to the audience at least 5 times and waited for the audience’s response between each. T.O.P re-asserted himself as the cool, collected bad boy, asserting, “Yeah… You know who I am” when it was his turn at the microphone.
The others seemed to break out of fan expectations. While Seungri was the most mysterious before the concert, known more for his dancing than his singing, he ended up being the most charismatic of the group and spoke the most English. Taeyang also shed the hip hop image he tries to convey in his videos when he’s clad in Supreme. His initial interaction with the audience was inviting the fans to sing pitches with him, and later on, he would be the one to interject between the other members’ later interactions with the audience. And while G-Dragon is the eclectic leader of the group, he was surprisingly toned down compared to the chameleon style that has garnered him the attention of fashionheads everywhere.
The biggest surprise, though, was the group’s capacity for profanity. In an attempt to hype up the audience for his solo “Strong Baby,” Seungri yelled at the audience to “MAKE SOME FUCKING NOISE.” For his part in “Zutter,” T.O.P repeatedly rapped “bitch” despite his line only requiring him to say it once. And at the end, G-Dragon introduced the final song as “FANTASTIC MOTHERFUCKING BABY.”
Of course, there are more moments that I could cover – like how Daesung made a scene about revealing his hair-covered eyes, or how he pelvic thrusted to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” or how T.O.P still uncoordinatedly dances in the back – but these moments are boring to read and seem underwhelming on paper.
If there’s one thing to take away, it’s that this concert was an electric, out-of-body experience. I had the privilege of being in the presence of some of my favorite artists, foolishly screaming and singing and dancing along to some of my favorite songs live — all without the influence of drugs and alcohol. Despite their huge break, this comeback concert only proved that BIGBANG’s presence is stronger than ever and cemented my opinion that they’re the absolute best in Korean pop. Unfortunately, as the concert concluded, the very real idea that each member would undergo required conscription loomed closer. But it didn’t matter — if this was BIGBANG’s last world tour, it ended perfectly. If there is another years from now, though, I can’t wait to be there too.
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Designed by INFINITY Aerospace , the Infinity 1 High Performance Quick Build Kit Canard Sport Aircraft offers one of the largest cockpits in its class, with 80 cubic feet of interior passenger volume. Headroom is 36.0 inches in the front and 35.0 inches in the rear seats.
At only $39,995.00, the Infinity 1 pre-preg and vacuum bag High Performance Quick Build Kit Sport Aircraft comes equipped with ALL airframe parts and hardware; wings, winglets and canard come complete in primer paint, pre-molded bulkheads and ribs, fuselage and strakes ( top and bottom ) pre-molded in primer paint, as well as antennas, conduits and heat ducts installed. This means the basic VFR Infinity 1 can be completed in only 600 to 1000+ hours!
The Infinity 1 also sports two of the most innovative designs in canard aviation. An electro-hydraulic retractable tricycle oleo strut landing gear comes standard with all Infinity 1 Quick Build Kits. Boasting a 46 degree Turn-Over Angle ( TOA ), the oleo retract gear design has been drop tested at 2200 lbs. per FAR’s with the fuel tanks full of water, and is U.S. and Canadian FAA approved. A steerable oleo nose strut with Lamb size tire also is standard. This nose strut is designed to retract on deck and set the aircraft on it’s nose for easy ingress and egress for both the pilot and passenger(s).
Current design options for the Infinity 1 include mounted baggage pods and pylons. These pods and pylons provide an additional 5+ cubic feet of cargo space. Added to the standard 20 cubic feet in the strakes and cockpit, this gives the Infinity 1 well over 25 cubic feet of baggage area.
If you’re looking for the best in aviation products, continue looking to INFINITY Aerospace . Behind our name lies a philosophy of maintaining an international viewpoint, and remaining dedicated to supplying aviation products of the highest quality, yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction.
The final prototype is complete except for the Big Buck items — the instrument panel, and the firewall aft.
Check out this link for MANY more details = What Else?
Infinity 1 pages updated 07 / 07 / 2020 by JD
Click on any colored words on our site for more info.
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A social media battle over racism and civil rights has sprung up in the US after political activists started posting images online of them stamping on American flags.
The so-called 'Eric Sheppard Challenge' began after Eric Sheppard, a member of the black nationalist New Black Panthers Party, appeared in a photo walking on an American flag at a protest against racism at Georgia's Valdosta State University on 17 April.
Sheppard has described himself as a "terrorist towards white people" in a video, where he lays down his views on race and equality in America.
Shortly after Sheppard's protest, police found a backpack on the university campus containing a firearm. They claim they have "unmistakable evidence" that it belongs to Sheppard. A warrant was issued for his arrest for bringing a weapon into a school zone, and he has been on the run.
Since the original protest, his supporters have posted videos and pictures online of themselves doing the 'Eric Sheppard Challenge', in which they walk, stamp and dance on American flags.
The most popular of these was posted by Erica Walker, who appears in a video holding a sign that says #EricSheppardChallenge. She dances and jumps on the flag, before signing off by shouting "F**k your flag" at the camera.
Her video has been shared and viewed tens of thousands of times, and has prompted many imitations by people protesting against what they see as racism in American society.
There has been a wave of protests and riots across the US in recent months, due to a string of young, often unarmed, black men being killed by police. Many of the protests and riots, like the most recent in Baltimore, were over specific incidents of police violence, as well as racism across society.
Desecration of the flag is technically against federal law in the US - however, it is not enforced and the Supreme Court has ruled that enforcing it with punishment would infringe on Americans' first amendment right to free speech.
However, it is a thorny issue that regularly crops up in America, as the flag is highly respected and revered by many Americans.
In response to the 'Eric Sheppard Challenge', many counter protests have occurred, sometimes at planned flag-trampling protests, but mostly online.
In yet another challenge, Bryce Wagoner posted a video online of his very own 'American Flag Challenge', in which he tells viewers to "go get a flag, put it in your front yard, display it proudly and show that you're proud to be an American."
Yet another proud American, Dakota Meyer, who has won America's highest military award, the Medal of Honour, started a campaign of his own, against those that he thinks are "disgracing what this country stands for."
He encouraged people to post patriotic images on social media with the hashtag #NeverOutgunned, telling supporters to show that "we love our country and we love it more than anything in the world."
The counter-challenge seems to be much more popular online, with far more videos and pictures of people proudly flying their flags appearing online than people trampling them.
However, the battle seems far from over. The riots in Baltimore have mostly subsided, after being sparked by the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died from injuries sustained during his arrest by Baltimore police.
A police investigation found that Gray was innocent of any crime, and the six police officers involved with the arrest face charges of murder, manslaughter, assault, and misconduct in public office, which has quelled public anger.
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Florist Taking Fight For Religious Liberty To The Supreme Court
Barronelle Stutzman. Photo SOURCE
On Sunday, WND reported that lawyers for the Christian florist, Barronelle Stutzman, who was sued by a gay couple for refusing to provide flowers for their wedding are vowing to take the fight for religious liberty to the U.S. Supreme Court. This announcement comes after a ruling on Thursday where the Washington State Supreme Court ruled unanimously that she violated anti-discrimination laws.
From WND:
“Discrimination based on same-sex marriage constitutes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” wrote Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud in the court’s opinion. TRENDING: ANGRY LEFTIST Smacks 84-Year-Old Female Trump Supporter Across the Face at Trump Rally in Aliso Viejo -- Beats Another Senior (VIDEO) The court further stated that the state’s anti-discrimination law does not infringe upon Stutzman’s freedom of religious expression. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending Stutzman, begs to differ. “They’re wrong,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner, who argued Stutzman’s case before the Washington state Supreme Court. “We’re deeply disappointed with today’s court decision,” Waggoner told WND and Radio America. “The First Amendment protects Baronelle’s rights as a small business owner and a creative professional. She has loved and respected everyone who has walked into her store. She served this gentleman (Ingersoll) for nearly 10 years and simply declined an event, one ceremony that was a religious ceremony because of her religious convictions.”
The attorneys representing Stutzman are absolutely correct, being forced to engage in business that violates Stutzman’s personal religious beliefs is without question infringing on her freedom of religious expression.
The most disgusting part of this entire case is that Stutzman served this gentleman for a decade and only refused service to him one time because it was a religious ceremony and she had a strong religious conviction not to participate. That is her right. Business owners should have the right to refuse service to anyone they choose and for anyone reason.
From The Conservative Review:
But what is a rock sold truth you can bet your house on, according to the Washington State Supreme Court? That providing flowers to a fake wedding would not serve as an endorsement of that shame because “providing flowers for a wedding between Muslims would not necessarily constitute an endorsement of Islam, nor would providing flowers for an atheist couple endorse atheism.” That’s an actual legal opinion, folks. In a sane world, it should lead to impeachment. But we are not sane. We are the people who claim to worship science, but then deny it when we look between our legs.
The couple that is suing Stutzman could have gone to any other florist and asked them to provide flowers for their wedding but instead they decided to sue Stutzman which may drive her out of business. This is just another example of the hatred and intolerance that embodies the liberal movement.
Follow Ryan Saavedra On Twitter @NewsRevoltRyan
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Story highlights With each passing week, the story seems to change when it comes to Trump and Russia
And, in almost every instance, what we find is more smoke around those connections
Washington (CNN) When it comes to Russia, Donald Trump -- and his son -- can't get their stories straight.
Consider the last day and a half.
On Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. said that a 2016 meeting between himself and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin was primarily about "adoptions." That came in response to a New York Times piece detailing the meeting between Trump, then campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
On Sunday, when the Times reported a second piece alleging that Trump Jr. had met with Veselnitskaya after receiving a promise that she possessed "damaging information" about Hillary Clinton, he changed his story.
"After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton," Trump Jr. said in a statement. "Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."
Read More
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This just seems to capture him so well. The colors are so amazing and there's such a human tone to him. Keep doing what you're doing!
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fighting isn't always bad
Get over 50 fonts, text formatting, optional watermarks and NO adverts! Get your free account now!
sometimes I'm happy when my wife and I get in an argument in the evening - because I get my half of the bed all to myself.
Check out all our blank memes
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As dozens of world leaders converged on Israel for the Fifth World Holocaust Forum 2020, some Palestinians expressed frustration that only a few of these leaders would be visiting the Palestinian territories for a one-on-one meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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Among those who attended the forum in Jerusalem were U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and the presidents of Russia, Germany, France, Italy and Austria.
Vladimir Putin meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah during the Russian leader's visit to Israel on Thursday ( Photo: AP )
Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative party Mustafa Barghouti says that the international community should do more than pay “lip service” to help the Palestinians.
“I want to ask a question of all those leaders who [visited] Israel in solidarity with Israel and the memory of the Holocaust," says Barghouti. "Why don’t they exercise pressure on Israel? What can they do to stop the Israeli violations, starting with the torturing of Palestinian prisoners, the killing of people without accountability and the unprecedented level of settlement expansion?
"What do these states want to do about the fact that they support the two-state solution, although Israel is killing that option? What can they do in terms of active measures rather than just statements?”
Barghouti also offers a scathing critique of foreign powers, saying their credibility is on the line.
“Palestinians are already disappointed in the international community,” Barghouti says.
“But the question now … [is] how to challenge the international community and put facts in front of it and challenge it to take actions consistent with its claims of supporting democracy, human rights and the right to self-determination.”
Donald Trump and Mahmoud Abbas attend a press conference in Bethlehem, May 2017 ( Photo: AFP )
The Palestinians have boycotted Washington since U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital at the end of 2017. Abbas has instead called on the international community to play a larger role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He plans to discuss the issue with the leaders he is scheduled to meet.
Abbas has stated that he no longer considers Washington the sole mediator in the conflict. The Palestinian president has called for an internationally-backed peace conference to kick-start the stalled negotiations.
Hasan Awwad, a Middle East expert at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, says he believes the Palestinian people have lost faith in the international community.
“There is no trust in the international community within the people. Abbas wants to stay in power. He wants more aid and international support to run the PA without sharing power nor [holding an] election. His regional and international power is declining,” Awwad says.
Mahmoud Abbas attends an Arab League summit in Cairo ( Photo: AP )
Abbas has long sought international support. Back at the beginning of his presidency in 2005, he began to galvanize the international community for the Palestinian cause, and for a time, he gained momentum.
But Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, says that in recent years, Abbas’s popularity has declined and his approach has lost support.
“Most Palestinians believe this internationalization of the conflict has been a failure. In a sense, it hasn’t delivered. It didn’t influence the Israeli calculus in any effective way to stop settlements, or contribute to ending the Israeli occupation,” Shikaki says.
Abdul Majeed Swailem, a professor of regional studies at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, says global powers should take a stand.
“Israel behaves with impunity, and they [the Israelis] should be held accountable,” Swailem says.
“What the Palestinian Authority wants from the international community is for it to exercise its responsibilities and put pressure on Israel. Pressure, so that Israel does not continue to take further steps to destroy the two-state solution.”
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence had no plans to meet with Palestinian officials. The last time he was in the region, Palestinians shunned him.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Israel this week ( Photo: Shalev Shalom )
Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, Australian Governor-General David Hurley and Britain's Prince Charles all were to meet with Abbas.
Putin has offered in the past to host a meeting between Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In January 2017, a summit on the conflict was held in Paris, but neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians were invited.
At the time, the Palestinians welcomed the effort while Israel rejected it.
The last direct talks between the two sides, sponsored by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, fell apart in 2014.
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Philippines is one of only two states – along with the Vatican - without a divorce law
By Diana Mendoza
MANILA, April 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Although her husband nearly killed her, Krista Dador cannot get a divorce as the Philippines is one of only two states – along with the Vatican - without a divorce law.
The prohibitive cost of an annulment means that Dador, who has received no financial support from her husband since they separated eight years ago, is looking to work as a maid in the Middle East, leaving their two children behind with her mother.
"Sometimes I want to end it all," said the 28-year-old, who makes a living washing neighbours' laundry in a squalid part of Quezon City, the Southeast Asian country's most populous city.
"This is a risk I'm taking. I want my children to be in school because I was not - and because I want to earn money to pay for my annulment."
The Philippines took a step toward making divorce legal in March with the lower house of Congress passing a law allowing people to dissolve marriages, in the face of opposition from the president and bishops in the mainly Roman Catholic country.
Even though thousands of women want to end failed and abusive relationships, the bill is unlikely to receive the support it needs from the upper house Senate, which has to draft and pass what is known as a counterpart bill, campaigners said.
The only option for unhappy couples is to seek a legal separation, which does not allow either party to remarry, or a civil annulment, which rights groups say is lengthy and costly - as Dador found out.
Marriage can only be annulled on limited grounds, such as insanity or contracting a sexually transmitted disease. Abuse and infidelity are not valid reasons.
"I almost died from my husband's beating and yet I have to convince the courts why I want my marriage dissolved," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"The process is too tedious."
Only Muslims — about 10 percent of the population — can divorce under Muslim family laws.
Dador said her family forced her to marry after she became pregnant at the age of 18. However the relationship deteriorated rapidly as he repeatedly abused her.
After a night of non-stop beatings in 2010, she ran away. But village leaders, police and other officials have been unable to help her end her marriage.
Her husband is now with another woman but, from time to time, he goes to her house demanding to see their children.
And they remained married - on paper at least.
TRAPPED
Lawyer Clara Rita Padilla said the stories of women who have turned to her for help are often similar, from the marriage that turned abusive to a long drawn-out court process.
"In many situations where the female files for an annulment, it takes years because it was not a joint decision and the husband does not cooperate," said Padilla, who heads the women's rights group EnGendeRights.
A 2017 survey by independent pollster Social Weather Stations found that 53 percent favoured legalisation of divorce in the Philippines, home to Asia's largest Catholic population.
The number of annulment cases increased to more than 8,000 in 2017 from about 1,000 in 2008, according to figures from the Office of the Solicitor General.
But President Rodrigo Duterte, who is legally separated from his wife, opposes making divorce legal over concerns for the welfare of children whose parents divorce.
The influential Catholic Church said the government should never offer divorce as an option but use other laws to stop abuse instead.
"We teach that marriage, once valid, can never be broken," said Jerome Secillano, an official from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, which represents the country's Catholic leaders.
"Providing for an easy separation does not help the cause of upholding and defending marriage."
This means that the only Filipinos who can legally end their marriages are those who can are rich enough to do so.
Journalist Mar-Vic Cagurangan said she worked day and night to raise $2,000 for her annulment, while also paying her two children's school fees. The average income in the Philippines is just over $3,500, according to the World Bank.
"I was trapped. I didn't have a life," she said, adding that legal battle took her a decade.
She said court employees asked her for bribes to expedite her case, making her pay 5,000 pesos ($96) for each hearing.
"Because I desired to be free, I was compelled to give them more," said Cagurangan, who now lives with her boyfriend of seven years.
"Everybody deserves to be happy. People deserve to move on - romantically, mentally and legally."
($1 = 52.1150 Philippine pesos)
(Writing by Diana Mendoza and Beh Lih Yi, Editing by Katy Migiro.(Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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By Robert Kelley, KYODO NEWS - Jul 6, 2018 - 13:55 | All, World
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can take a unilateral step towards denuclearization that is straightforward, quick and has other positive benefits: He can sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Kim has already invited the international press to observe that he shut down his nuclear test site and said that he no longer needs to carry out nuclear tests.
Another test site could be quickly built, but if Kim pledges to stop testing under terms of the CTBT he will have made a very significant step.
To be sure, signing the CTBT does not guarantee intent to stop testing. Ratifying the treaty is the significant step to that end. The United States signed the CTBT, in 1996, but never ratified it. If Kim signs, then he will be on a par with the United States in this regard. He then holds the political high ground, where he can declare that he will ratify the CTBT on the same day that the United States does so.
Denuclearization is usually expressed as "complete denuclearization of the entire Korean Peninsula." That means that South Korea, under the nuclear umbrella of the United States, needs to show willingness to desist from nuclear warfare as well.
The United States ceased nuclear testing in the early 1990s and has little or no need to resume testing. Ratification by the United States would be one of the few nuclear-related positive steps it could take to match Kim.
There is an additional positive outcome that could come from such a North Korean move. If the political landscape changes as a result of U.S. ratification driven by Kim, the CTBT, which has been stalled for two decades, might have a chance of signature and ratification by the important handful of outstanding states that have not signed and ratified.
If the United States sets the tone for finally bringing the CTBT into force by ratifying it, the holdout states have a better reason to fall in line.
Kim has an outstanding opportunity to take a painless and positive step towards denuclearization, signing a treaty that he has already effectively agreed. In so doing, he puts his country on the same plane as the United States and makes ratification a joint gesture.
In addition, reopening the U.S. foot-dragging on the CTBT could lead to a change in the worldwide attitude toward the treaty. This is another opportunity for him to present himself as a player on the world stage.
(Robert Kelley is a distinguished associate fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.)
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ROME, Italy: Italians were in uproar Monday over the decision by President Sergio Mattarella to reject the newly elected populist government in deference to European Union concerns, calling for his resignation or impeachment.
This was the first time in the history of the Italian republic that a president had thrown out the proposal for a government from elected parties, and even critics of the populist victors have acknowledged that the Italian people will take the move as a slap to Italian voters and the entire democratic process.
The bone of contention, Mattarella said in his rejection speech, was the candidate for the post of finance minister, Paolo Savona.
“I have agreed with and accepted all the proposals for the Ministers, except that of the finance minister,” he said Sunday.
“The designation of the finance minister always sends an immediate message, of confidence or of alarm, for economic and financial operators,” he added.
Paolo Savona, whom even his critics admit is eminently qualified for the post, has expressed concerns over the growth in power and reach of the European Union (EU) as well as the common EU currency, the euro, which he has referred to as a “German cage.”
Mattarella said that he had requested a candidate for finance minister who “is not seen as a supporter of an often repeated line, which could possibly or even inevitably provoke Italy’s exit from the euro.”
Sabotage: Italian President Blocks Eurosceptic Coalition Govt, Populist Leader Calls for Impeachment https://t.co/8weUXZ9Uad via @BreitbartNews — Thomas D. Williams (@tdwilliamsrome) May 27, 2018
Both League leader Matteo Salvini and the 5-Star candidate Luigi Di Maio have criticized Mattarella’s resistance to Savona, insisting it reflected the displeasure of “Berlin” and other establishment powers rather than true concern for Italians.
Mattarella’s power play will almost certainly work to the favor of the populist leaders because it will galvanize voters into reasserting with even greater force their sovereignty.
Former left-wing prime minister Massimo D’Alema already warned on Saturday that “if we have to go back to the ballot box because of a veto of Savona, Salvini will pick up 80 percent” of the vote.
The national news service ANSA released an article announcing that “impeachment” had found its way back into the Italian vocabulary as a result of Mattarella’s unprecedented move.
https://twitter.com/JDouluz/status/1000893114381471744
Article 90 of the Italian constitution foresees recourse to impeachment only in two cases: high treason and an attack on the constitution itself, which Di Maio has said could be invoked in the present case.
More likely than an actual impeachment, however, the new populist platform will almost certainly be modified to include a reworking of presidential powers to impede the holder of the office—who is not directly elected by citizens—from contravening the democratically expressed will of the people.
The outrage was palpable on Twitter Monday morning as participants voiced their indignation against Mattarella and the system that made his actions possible.
“This is the proof that Italy is still under attack and no national sovereignty is possible,” wrote one commenter.
Another advised his fellow Italians to “wake up,” calling Mattarella “a simple puppet who carries out orders of strong powers.” Italy used to be a great country, he added, and must become one again. “It’s time for a political revolution for the people,” he said.
https://twitter.com/GedeoneParlone/status/1001037953748041728
Meanwhile, celebrated Milanese activist and author Massimo Fini has defined Mattarella’s “unheard of” veto as a “coup d’etat,” which puts Italy at risk of a civil war.
Amidst the outrage, the leader of the largely collapsed Democratic Party (PD), Maurizio Martina, voiced his support for Mattarella, saying that his party—widely understood to represent the establishment—was ready “to mobilize a defense of democracy and our institutions” if attacks on the Italian president persist.
On Monday morning, Mattarella said he would entrust the task of forming an interim “technical government” until new elections can be held to Carlo Cottarelli, of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni today surprised the cricketing world by stepping down from India's limited overs captaincy but it was a well thought out decision, said his close friend and confidante Arun Pandey.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni today surprised the cricketing world by stepping down from India's limited overs captaincy but it was a well thought out decision, said his close friend and confidante Arun Pandey.
"You don't take decision like this overnight. It was well thought out. Dhoni thought this was the right time to step aside and continuing playing as wicketkeeper batsman," Pandey told PTI.
Pandey also manages Dhoni's commercial interests.
Dhoni is known for keeping his card's close to his chest. He had caught the cricketing fraternity by surprise when he announced his retirement from Test cricket midway into the series in Australia.
Talking more about Dhoni's decision to step down, Pandey said: "His thinking was that he has build the crux of the team now (for future and next World Cup) and it is the right time to give up captaincy. He is not someone who would cling on to something. For him, the team's interests is first and foremost."
Former cricketers including Sourav Ganguly had earlier backed Virat Kohli to take over from Dhoni in all three formats. Asked if that was playing in Dhoni's mind, Pandey replied in the negative.
"Dhoni is beyond all this. A chunk of current cricketers playing for India blossomed under Dhoni. Now he thinks it is the right time to step aside for the larger interest of the team. Not many would do that but Dhoni has done that. It has always been India first for him," added Pandey.
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24-year-old Spanish Grandmaster David Antón joined Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian in the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss lead after crushing Alexander Grischuk in 24 moves. Magnus Carlsen trails by half a point but has the white pieces against Caruana in Round 9, while superstars Vishy Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, Boris Gelfand and Sergey Karjakin all won to join Magnus in the 10-man chasing pack. Karjakin did so in a crazy game against Aleksey Dreev that saw the arbiters controversially move Shirov-Yu Yangyi to another room after their first 19 moves were identical.
You can replay all the games from the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss using the selector below:
Leaders Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian drew their tense top-board clash in Round 8 while Wang Hao-Carlsen was the first game of the day to finish after a lifeless 31-move draw.
That was a chance for the chasing pack, and while it was seized upon by some of the usual suspects it also allowed David Antón to hit the front. The young Spanish grandmaster is in fact no stranger to succeeding in big opens – in Gibraltar he was leading before a last round loss to Nakamura in 2016, finished 2nd after a tiebreak defeat to Nakamura in 2017, and was 5th again this year – but he’s never got to play in closed elite events and it would be a sensation if he makes it into the 2020 Candidates Tournament next year.
In Round 8 he managed to beat Alexander Grischuk in just 24 moves, with the win based on brilliant preparation. He credited his coach, and the man responsible for chess24 in Spanish, IM David Martínez, for working overnight on the exact line of the English that occurred in the game. 11.h3 was a move that saw Grischuk sink into a 28-minute think:
He eventually opted for 11…Nxf2!? (Antón noted 11…gxh4 is the main line) 12.Rxf2 gxh4 13.Qb3 hxg3?! (here the tricky 13…Be6! was the move Antón said Black should play) 14.Rf4 Nc6:
With Grischuk having left the prepared lines, Antón here invested an enormous 59 minutes on 15.Qxd5!, but by then he essentially had the rest of the game worked out. After 15…f5! 16.Bxe4! Grischuk’s decision to take the piece with 16…fxe4? seems to be the losing mistake. The ending after exchanging queens might not have been pleasant, but after 17.Qh5+! Kd7 18.Be3! Antón was already sure he was winning:
All that remained was to find a clear win, which David did with 18…Qg8 19.d5 Nd8 20.Nxe4 (he noted he almost blundered 20.d6?? Qg5!) 20…Qg6 21.Qe5 Nf7 22.Rxf7! Qxf7 23.Rc1 Rf8 24.Bg5:
24…Bxg5 25.Qc7+ Ke8 26.Nd6# is mate, and other threats include playing Rc7+ and then giving mate on e7. A stunning game by Antón, that sees him play the black pieces against Levon Aronian on top board in Round 9.
As we noted, other top players took the chance to close the gap. Vishy Anand has now won four games after his first round defeat to move within half a point of the leaders, though his game against Vladimir Fedoseev was anything but smooth.
Vishy identified a mistake by his opponent in a sharp Sicilian and set about punishing it only to overlook a tactical detail. He quipped that he needs to read his new book again!
By that stage he said he was ready to take a draw, but Fedoseev got over-ambitious and this time Vishy made no mistake meting out punishment.
Boris Gelfand also moved to 5.5/8 by beating Zhang Zhong, while Hikaru Nakamura did the same by outplaying Hrant Melkumyan just when limited material might seem to have reduced the attacking options. The final move was simple but elegant:
43.Rd8! and 43…Qxd8 would of course run into 44.Qf7+ Kh8 45.Qh7#
Vladislav Kovalev was a less well-known player to reach 5.5/8, with a win over Radek Wojtaszek, but Kovalev will be no stranger to anyone who’s followed this event, since he’s already beaten Harikrishna and had Magnus Carlsen not just on the ropes but almost dead and buried.
That brings us, however, to the story of how Sergey Karjakin also joined the chasing pack by beating Aleksey Dreev. In a razor-sharp line of the Sicilian he was following his Round 3 victory from the 2015 Baku World Cup against Yu Yangyi. In that game he played 16.Rd1 Rc8 17.g4, but on the Isle of Man he unleashed an accidental novelty by playing 16.g4!? first! By itself that would be nothing too remarkable, but on the next board Yu Yangyi was playing the same line with Black, and Alexei Shirov decided that if a player as well-prepared as Karjakin had gone for g4 in this position it must be the right thing to do! And so we entered the twilight zone…
From here on it just got stranger. Dreev spent almost 40 minutes on 16…c5 17.Rg1 Ne4!, which allowed Shirov-Yu Yangyi to take the lead, and Karjakin confessed that he played 18.Qe5? fast without really checking it, since Shirov had blitzed it out and Yu Yangyi had quickly played the weak response 18…Qh4? What was the issue with 18.Qe5?
Karjakin had thought that 18…0-0! could be met by 19.Bg2 d6! 20.Qxe6+ Kh8 21.Bxe4 and if 21…Re8 then 22.Qxe8+! and White emerges with a winning advantage. The fly in the ointment? 21…Rf6! is instead winning for Black:
The difference is that the queen sacrifice now no longer works, since 22.Qxf6 Qxf6 23.Bxb7 runs into 23…Qxb2+! and the b7-bishop gets picked up.
So the players had exchanged blunders in both games:
And after that they marched on in unison with 19.Bg2 Qxg4+. Needless to say, chess fans were fascinated by what was going on, but most players can come up with similar stories. Afterwards Karjakin told one about the 2012 Russian Team Championship, where the games Morozevich-Caruana and Karjakin-Svidler saw Fabiano and Peter both play a dubious novelty in the Grünfeld to reach this position after 19 moves.
I wrote at the time for ChessVibes:
There were shades of the famous “Argentinian Tragedy” at the 1955 Interzonal, where three Argentinian players “unleashed” the same novelty against Keres, Geller and Spassky, only for the Soviet players all to refute it at the board. Here Karjakin went first with the spectacular but less effective 20.Nb5?!, after which Svidler managed to exchange queens and achieve a relatively painless draw. The same couldn't be said about the other game...
Morozevich found 20.Bf3! and was soon completely winning before Fabiano eventually escaped with a 127-move draw.
So there was nothing new about the situation in the Grand Swiss games, and in fact the first different moves on Friday also came on move 20, but before that something perhaps unique in the history of top-level chess occurred. Chief arbiter Alex Holowczak decided he had to intervene, and Shirov-Yu Yangyi was moved to the second playing hall.
That required interrupting a World Championship qualifying game and taking a few minutes to move the players and equipment, while the game feed of the live board also had to be switched (that’s why we’ve now lost the time information for the first moves in Shirov-Yu Yangyi). To disrupt players during a game you have to have a very good reason, so what was it? Well, Alex explained on the live broadcast:
The important thing to make absolutely clear is that we’re not suspecting anybody of doing anything wrong. It’s just very noticeable on the last couple of moves I think Shirov and Yangyi were the second players to move in both cases. In particularly I saw Yangyi look quite nervous when he looked over to Dreev, who had made the move maybe a minute or so before, so I thought that just in the interests of everybody feeling comfortable with the game that it was better to move it into the second hall then nobody can accuse anybody of anything and it’s a lot better for everybody. The players can concentrate more, they won’t get distracted. I think that’s just better for them.
Danny King asked some very pertinent questions. Is it actually an offence to copy somebody’s moves?
I suppose it must be if we think they have copied moves, but we don’t think that.
The awkward point here is that Karjakin confessed to exactly that "offence", both in the post-game interview and in a tweet, where he also implicated others!
But can you really restrict players looking at and, if they so choose, copying moves from other players in the same playing hall? And if you want to, where do you draw the line? The players here followed each other for 3 or 4 moves after known theory had ended, but do the arbiters need to know the theory and decide how many moves after that is significant? Wouldn’t the logical “solution” eventually be to segregate every board, at least in the most important chess events? It’s an interesting precedent.
Another pertinent question was about the players’ reaction. Alex comments:
They seemed to be a bit confused as to why I was intervening, but when I explained it to both of them they seemed to understand the reason for it and they were willing to move into the other room.
Karjakin, who had stayed on the same board and won, wasn’t too concerned, but he also didn’t appear to feel it had been necessary:
I was completely fine with that. It doesn’t happen many times in my life and I would love to continue actually, but ok, it’s his decision. I have nothing against it, but there were no problems.
Getting back to the chess, however, the games did go their separate ways at this point, which was almost inevitable anyway given there were now no clear forced moves. Alexei Shirov picked 20.Bf3 and had an advantage, but it disappeared when he grabbed a pawn on g7:
29…Bxc4! was an instant equalizer for Yu Yangyi. On the other board Karjakin played 20.Kd3 and was essentially winning after Dreev’s reply:
20…d6! now would have posed White big questions, with the 21.Qxe4 line Karjakin said he was planning to play only leading to a draw with best play, according to the engines. Instead Dreev picked 20…Nf2+?! and Sergey was already confident in his position. He went on to win smoothly, and that third win of the event puts him right back in contention to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. In Round 9 he has Black against World Junior Champion Parham Maghsoodloo.
Once again let’s give the standings of those within a point of the lead, which is now 31 players:
It’s getting serious, as there are just 3 rounds left, so that the games everywhere at the top are of vital importance. There’s no question about the game of the day, however, since the two “chess tourists” who don’t care about Candidates qualification, world numbers 1 and 2 Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, meet yet again. Will we get the first decisive classical game between them since Magnus won in Norway Chess 2018? Follow all the games live here on chess24!
See also:
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Microsoft's fiscal first quarter results were solid as the company juggled strong cloud and commercial revenue growth, but saw Windows revenue decline 6 percent.
The software giant reported first quarter earnings of $4.6 billion, or 57 cents a share, on revenue of $20.4 billion. Non-GAAP earnings in the first quarter were 67 cents a share. Including Windows 10 revenue deferrals, Microsoft's revenue was $21.66 billion.
Wall Street was looking for first quarter earnings of 59 cents a share on revenue of $21.03 billion.
The quarter included yet another reporting structure change as Microsoft went from six units to three. While the change simplifies the financial reporting, analysts have said that the structure makes it hard to see how Windows 10 is monetized.
Here are the results from the new segments.
Here's the breakdown of results:
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Tarric Brooker investigates whether house prices are really increasing.
IN THE MONTHS since May’s Federal Election, all eyes have once again turned to the property market, as a combination of factors seemingly combined to create yet another price boom in the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets.
The shock re-election of the Morrison Government in May brought the threat to the existence of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount to an end. As a result, the CoreLogic daily housing price index began to climb almost immediately after, with Sydney prices jumping by 0.3% in just one day.
Entirely possible. But rises will mostly be contained to SYD and MEL house prices; units everywhere will likely keep on going down.
Morrison, Frydenberg, APRA and the RBA are throwing everything at the housing market.https://t.co/ir6kxhYUR5 — Philip Soos (@PhilipSoos) October 1, 2019
In the coming months, the Reserve Bank cut rates three times and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) made substantial changes to its regulations regarding loan serviceability ratios. Before the changes, a borrowers ability to service a loan was assessed against a scenario in which their mortgage rate was 7%. However, under the new rules, banks effectively set their own serviceability ratios based on the actual rate paid by borrowers plus 250 basis points (or 2.5%).
For the average full-time worker, this change increased their borrowing capacity by as much as $66,000, with lower rates as a result of the RBA’s rate cut continuing to gradually increase households borrowing power.
According to CoreLogic’s daily house price index, these three factors seemingly combined to create a boom in housing prices, with prices up by 4.22% in Sydney and 3.98% in Melbourne since the days following the Election (Calculations based on CoreLogic back series data).
In the run-up to the release of the second-quarter GDP figures which were expected to be particularly weak, Prime Minister Scott Morrison pointed to CoreLogic’s figures showing rising prices as a sign of economic strength.
With the CoreLogic index now showing prices rising at more than 1.6% a month in Sydney and Melbourne, the hype and positivity within the housing market continues to grow, despite the fact that traditional fundamentals such as mortgage credit growth are still at record lows.
In a recent interview with Martin North of Digital Finance Analytics, REA Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee had a very different viewpoint. Based on the housing price data compiled by Realestate.com.au’s own records of properties sold and Hometrack, a subsidiary of REA. Conisbee stated that:
“We're not seeing growth in Melbourne and Sydney as yet … we are still seeing price declines."
However, Conisbee went on to explain that some suburbs – predominantly premium areas – were still performing quite well. In particular, Conisbee singled out Vaucluse, Rose Bay and Collaroy as undergoing strong price growth.
yet somehow we are led to believe property prices in Sydney and Melbourne are "booming" https://t.co/kYnDKZWZaP — Cookie Boy (@shoot_da_spruik) October 9, 2019
The question of whether the REA price index or the CoreLogic daily index is actually closer to the mark is a matter for economists and statisticians to debate. But the competing viewpoint put forward by Conisbee and the REA does raise some rather pertinent questions.
The Australian people and even the Prime Minister himself have been making determinations and even life decisions, about the health and direction of the property market based on a single data source.
And thanks to REA Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee, we know that @corelogicau data is dubious & misleading — blueyoyoma (@blueyoyoma) October 7, 2019
While the discrepancies between the REA and CoreLogic indices are likely based on differences between the methodologies employed by the groups, it is becoming increasingly clear that a rethink of the current state of the property market may be required.
CoreLogic may be correct and prices may be booming just like their index indicates, but if the REA data is correct and prices are not actually rising, some Australians may have been making one of the most important choices of their life on a boom that never was.
The unpredictable fall of housing prices https://t.co/QR3OLKH5Rn @IndependentAus — Ex Lord Mark of E (@edwardatport) April 13, 2019
Tarric Brooker is a freelance journalist and political commentator. You can follow him on Twitter @AvidCommentator.
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In case your holiday season was looking a little light on ostentatious displays: Chicago's Daley Plaza has this year added a new player to its traditional seasonal tableaux – an 8-foot-tall illuminated letter "A" for atheism and agnosticism, right between the old favorites the nativity and a menorah. The display comes courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the same group that earlier this year fought to distribute "Jesus Is Dead" and "Why I Am Not a Muslim" tracts to schoolchildren in Florida’s Orange County.
The big "A" isn't the only splashy secular statement this year – in Florida, after a private group erected a nativity scene at the state capitol earlier this week, the Freedom From Religion Foundation won the right to hang a banner it promises will feature "Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the Statue of Liberty adoring the Bill of Rights placed in a crib typically used to depict Jesus and the Nativity scene." And in New York City, American Atheists are running a digital billboard in Times Square asking, "Who needs Christ during Christmas?"
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Just as surely as the weeks before New Year's Eve have in recent years become an excuse for frenzied trampling through big box chain stores, they've also, increasingly, become an opportunity for a whole lot of self-righteous shouting over religion. Isn't this time of year exhausting and overstimulating enough already? I admit that as a Christian, I have a different perspective on the holiday season. Its ubiquitous imagery is part of my life -- my family traditions and my religious practices. But like plenty of other people who celebrate Christmas, I also respect other beliefs and non-beliefs. Not all of us are baby Jesus-pushing Fox News hosts. So what I have trouble understanding is why groups like Freedom From Religion spend so much of their time and effort engaged in enterprises that appear, rather than freeing from religion, doggedly determined to co-opt it?
Atheist groups say they have no choice. Explaining its Florida holiday banner, Freedom From Religion's co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor says, "We don't think there should be religion or irreligion in any state Capitol, but if they're going to start allowing religion and call it a public forum then certainly the non-religious point of view should be there, too." And of the Chicago display, she says, "We think that there should be no religion in government places, but if it’s going to be there, we will talk about the new atheism."
It's an attention-getting -- if baffling-to-obnoxious – strategy. Faced with insistent religious imagery in the public sphere, atheist groups have moved from simply trying to remove them to demanding their right to equal representation. It's a bluff-calling that grabs headlines, but it also frequently comes off as petulant, passive-aggressive stunt-pulling. How many times can these groups insist they really don't want to have to do this, but they just have no choice? How many times can they say, "We don't like what you religious groups do, so we'll do it too"? That's not a call to reason, that's just being reactionary. And with its determined flair for grand gestures of outrage, Freedom From Religion is rapidly becoming the PETA of secularism.
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I want healthy, uncondescending dialogue between people across a wide spectrum of beliefs. I want newscasters to remember that not everybody "thanks the Lord" and talk show hosts to not disagree with atheists' definitions of their own atheism. I want kids to not be forced to pledge allegiance to a nation "under God." You think a nativity is inappropriate in a government building or public plaza? Me too. But "freedom" means fighting for what's right without forcing your agenda at every turn, without forever insisting "Me too!" Rational conversation shouldn't be a petty turf war. It's about being a grown-up instead of hiding behind the excuse that you have to pull stunts to effect positive change. It's about distinguishing between what's a legitimate infringement and what is simply people of differing belief systems going about the business of celebrating their traditions – and picking your battles accordingly. It's about striving for less rancor and less noise, not more.
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Kanye West and streaming service Tidal have been sued for allegedly deceiving fans into subscribing to what was billed as the only place they would be able to hear West's new album, The Life of Pablo. The proposed class-action lawsuit, obtained by Pitchfork and first reported by the AP, claimed West falsely told fans the album would be exclusive to Tidal. The lawsuit was filed today in a federal court in San Francisco on behalf of Justin Baker-Rhett, described in the complaint as a fan of West's music. Originally released via Tidal in February, Pablo became available on all major non-Tidal streaming services on March 31, landing at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The lawsuit claimed that millions signed up for Tidal because West promised it would be the exclusive place to hear his new album. Baker-Rhett requested a judge force Tidal to delete data on users who subscribed to hear Pablo. The lawsuit argued the new subscribers and their information could be worth up to $84 million. The lawsuit cites West's tweets, including one from February 15 that said the album will "never be on Apple" and "you can only get it on Tidal."
Jay Edelson, a lawyer for Baker-Rhett, told Pitchfork: "Mr. Baker-Rhett believes that superstars are required to follow the same rules as everyone else. Even if their streaming service is struggling, they can't trick millions of people into paying money (and giving up personal information) just to boost valuation numbers."
Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Tidal and West for comment.
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World leaders traveling to this year’s Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland will reportedly board about 1,700 private jet flights to reach their destination, where ironically the topic of how to tackle “climate change denial” will be discussed.
The annual globalist confab of power brokers, economists, journalists, world leaders, pop stars and titans of industry meets through Friday to flesh out various issues they believe to be affecting the planet.
One of the items on the agenda: “How can we tackle climate change denial?,” a problem threatening the implementation of a carbon tax scheme long in the works.
Oblivious to the irony, forum attendees from all over the world booked tens of hundreds of flights into Geneva, collectively spending hours polluting the airways.
“Roughly 1,700 private flights are expected over the course of the week, which is twice as many as normal, according to WINGX Advance, a tracking firm,” CNN Money reports.
A June 2008 Institute for Policy Studies report, entitled, “High Flyers: How Private Jet Travel is Straining the System, Warming the Planet and Costing You Money,” (.pdf) revealed “An hour of flying in a private jet burns as much fuel as an entire year of driving.”
“Four passengers flying in a private Cessna Citation X from Los Angeles to New York will each emit 8,892 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. This is more than five times as much CO2 emitted by a commercial air passenger making the same trip,” the report added.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure these will be non-polluting private jets powered by carbon offsets and unicorn magic,” jests FrontPageMag.com’s Daniel Greenfield. “They will not in any way add to the heat death of the earth. Unlike you, toting your groceries home in a plastic bag in the back on an SUV.”
Among this year’s meeting attendees is none other than climate change advocate, multi-millionaire and former vice president Al Gore, whose name has become synonymous with the ongoing effort to convince humans we’re the primary cause of global warming, a stance many non-establishment scientists largely contradict.
Scientists at the Indian Science Congress, for example, recently expressed concerns that “man-made global warming” was being blown out of proportion, pointing out that polar ice caps were melting before humans were on Earth.
“While I agree that glaciers are melting because of global warming, if this is because of man, then what was the reason for the melting of the glaciers in the Gondwana period long before man arrived on the planet?” asked Dhruv Sen Singh, a University of Lucknow geologist.
Even meteorologist John Coleman, the co-founder of the Weather Channel cable network, openly questions climate change-promoting science.
“The polar ice is increasing, not melting away,” Coleman said in an open letter to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Polar Bears are increasing in number.”
“Heat waves have actually diminished, not increased. There is not an uptick in the number or strength of storms (in fact storms are diminishing).”
“I have studied this topic seriously for years,” he added. “It has become a political and environment agenda item, but the science is not valid.”
Despite a host of dissenting voices, an overwhelming majority of the U.S. Senate passed a measure Wednesday declaring “climate change is real and is not a hoax.”
While voting in favor of the measure, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe pointed out that the only “hoax” regarding climate change is the belief that it is man-made.
“Climate is changing, and climate has always changed, and always will, there’s archeological evidence of that, there’s biblical evidence of that, there’s historic evidence of that, it will always change,” Inhofe stated. “The hoax is that there are some people that are so arrogant to think that they are so powerful that they can change climate. Man can’t change climate.”
Watch: Lord Christopher Monckton puts climate change in its place once and for all.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!
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Amazon must be serious about making its own games, because it’s deep in development on an all-new MMO — one created entirely by the in-house Amazon Game Studios team — that’s set in the North American Colonial period.
Amazon describes its upcoming New World as a sandbox game that unfolds during “a lost chapter in history” as explorers come ashore, for the first time, on the new continent. “Carve your destiny alongside hundreds of other players in a savage and arcane 17th-century world. Survive murderous player bandits, band together to build fortified strongholds, or strike out to claim a piece of the haunted frontier,” Amazon teases.
Credit: Amazon
Credit: Amazon
Credit: Amazon
Some members of the gaming press already have spent some time with an alpha version of New World, and have come away drawing comparisons to the well-regarded EVE Online, which has earned a reputation for open-ended and unscripted gameplay; the kind that relies more heavily on exploration and discovery than on narrative prodding.
The game’s creators at Amazon told US Gamer that New World is designed to accommodate both co-op and solo play styles, and will feature massive, high-level PvP raids with the potential for more MMORPG features to come once the game is up and running. As for microtransactions, they’ll be in there, but the developers said they won’t be loot box-based.
New World doesn’t have a release date, and after the demise of Breakaway, its last game, Amazon evidently isn’t in a hurry to rush New World out the door. “We are very, very committed to not releasing New World until we are really convinced that it's ready,” Amazon’s Patrick Gilmore told US Gamer.
If you’re among the PlayStation 4 Fortnite players who’s had to create a separate account in order to play Epic Games' blockbuster on your other gaming devices, good news: Epic has just made it possible to merge all your Fortnite accounts into a single one that can be used across all platforms — including the PS4.
The streamlining move comes in the wake of Sony’s capitulation to Fortnite fans late last year, breaking with Sony’s longstanding habit of not allowing cross-platform play for PS4 gamers. Now, with a little DIY and some patience, you can consolidate all those V-Bucks and outfits you’ve racked up on your Nintendo Switch or Xbox One Fortnite account with the same account you’ve been using for the PS4.
The big catch is that Epic’s new merger tool is only available for players who were playing the game on both PS4 and at least one other platform before Sony relaxed its cross-platform policy on Sept. 28 of last year.
The other catch is that, once you’ve combined your accounts, it’ll take two weeks before your assets from both accounts show up under the primary account you’ve picked. Your primary login will still work the minute you enable it, and everything you do in the game from then on will remain linked, regardless of platform — it’ll just take a while before all your dance moves, skins, and V-Bucks are all in the same single pile.
The process seems pretty simple, so head over to the Fortnite account merger page to get started.
The ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site will be the backdrop for Chernobylite, a new survival horror game from Get Even developer The Farm 51.
Teasing that “the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is not what it once was,” Chernobylite will follow a former young physicist 30 years after he lost track of his girlfriend during the 1986 incident, obsessed with the demons of what happened to her. Which means: Time to queue a return to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, where a new and dangerous substance has emerged from the radiation and is now fueling sci-fi horrors that you’ll have to face in order to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Check out the announcement trailer below, while we wait (hopefully not 30 years) for news of a release date for Chernobylite, which is headed for a debut at the Steam store:
Video of Chernobylite Announcement Trailer Chernobylite on YouTube
Nintendo recently touched on its stance on gaming addiction, a phenomenon it acknowledged as real — although, according to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, it’s a function not of nature, but of nurture.
Via Variety, Furukawa told investors the company approaches the problem with an eye toward equipping parents with tools to make it easier to supervise their children’s activity, including controls that can limit time spent in front of a console.
“I think the problem of game addiction is more about becoming overly dependent on video games than is about any issues with the games themselves,” he said, via the report. “One thing we have done as a company that creates games is to implement features that allow parents to limit the time that their children can play games. I think that further implementing features like this, and raising awareness among more people that these features exist, is one way we can face the issues.”
Sure, maybe that’ll help young people develop healthy habits — but what about all us grown-ups who can’t stop playing Breath of the Wild?
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COULD China be witnessing the beginnings of its own end?
The vast majority of commentators say chances are slim. Most are as dismissive of China-sceptics as Nikita Krushchev was of USSR doom-mongers in the late fifties. Yet within three decades of “We will bury you!” Krushchev was proved wrong. History was not on his side and the only grave being dug was for the Soviet Union itself.
But, surely, this is the beginning of the great “Chinese Century”? The People’s Republic is completely different to the USSR? It’s all about economics now? Well, yes and no ...
A ‘NATION STATE’?
Pull out a map of the Orient. Not a Chinese Communist Party standard issue, but one from history. Whether you go back a hundred years or a thousand, the image that greets you is strikingly similar: a far, far smaller “China”, centred on the old Han Chinese heartlands. Much of what lies within “Chinese” borders today was not so long ago a mosaic of very separate, non-Chinese states, only absorbed by force.
Travel around China, and as you leave the booming cities of the east, the picture becomes clear. Fewer people look “Chinese”, speak Chinese (either Mandarin or Cantonese), or act “Chinese” (mosques instead of Mao, chortens instead of chopsticks). It is not so much “ethnic minorities” living in “autonomous zones”, more non-Chinese majorities whose homelands have been swiped from beneath their feet. The contrast with Beijing and Shanghai is stark, despite millions of Han Chinese families being forcibly relocated to live in these regions, or bribed with government jobs.
If it was inevitable Soviet Republics like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan would one day seek self-determination, is it so hard to believe Tibetans and Uighurs won’t do the same? Or that Inner Mongolians wish reunification with their “Outer” cousins?
THE WAR IS OVER?
China may not face the threat of a cold war, yet it is still embroiled in major conflict. Trump, Putin, even Kim Jong-un could be roll-called as potential adversaries, but foreign opponents are the least of Party Leaders’ worries. The reality is they are already at war on three home fronts:
Xinjiang
This is the Mandarin name for the enormous province that makes up northwest China. However, a significant minority of the region’s (primarily Muslim) inhabitants use “East Turkestan” or “Uighurstan”. The area’s history is of mixed fortune but for much of the past it was made up of rich independent kingdoms like Khotan or Kashgar. As recently as 1949, East Turkestan existed as an independent republic. Today, the largest ethnic group is the Uighurs, and many are in conflict with Beijing. Suicide bombings, embassy attacks and plane hijackings are regularly carried out by groups demanding their own nation state. A 2014 attack at the Kunming Railway station killed 31 and injured 141.
Tibet
The Tibetan struggle may be the most peaceful “war” on the planet, but this does allow the Dalai Lama to retain broad international sympathy. Historically, Tibet also included much of the modern Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan, and ethnically and culturally Tibetans have always been completely at odds with their Chinese neighbours. This whole region is still primarily “Tibetan”, despite 150,000 Tibetans living in exile. Recent protests have turned violent, sometimes deadly.
Taiwan
Technically, China is not at war with this nation but that is only because Taiwan has never formally declared nationhood. If Taipei does, Beijing has vowed it will launch an immediate military attack. As recently as March 2017, Taiwan’s Defence Minister talked of “warfare” against mainland China. With hostilities in the South China Sea steadily increasing, and Washington using Taiwan as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with Beijing, developments in Taipei could yet be a major catalyst for change.
ECONOMICS OR POLITICS?
If economics as much as politics proves instrumental in the unravelling of modern China, Hong Kong holds the key. Beijing has made every effort to integrate the former colony into the mainland economy, but fundamental obstacles remain. Uncompromising protests frequently denounce Beijing for reneging on promises, with many “islanders” demanding full democratic rights and an end to the one-party system.
Dissent is spreading across southern China and many protesters, like their Hong Kong counterparts, are Cantonese — or Hokkien-speaking Han. Those south of the Yangzte River may share ethnic and cultural ties with their Mandarin-speaking cousins in the north, but they have long considered themselves different. Traditionally this might have only been a preference for rice over noodles, but increasingly debate is about more than what food’s on the table.
PAPERING OVER THE CRACKS
The world’s new “superpower” hopes investment in the provinces will convince locals that life under CPC rule is preferable to any breakup. In particular, President Xi Jinping is staking billions on his “One Belt, One Road” policy, aimed at creating a “New Silk Road” to bring trade and prosperity. Nevertheless, the economy is increasingly volatile. Could a 9/11-type terrorist event cause it to implode? Under such circumstances, might the Han Chinese call for their Uighur, Tibetan and Mongol “compatriots” to be cut loose? This is a country famous for turning its back on the outside world.
Tellingly, the Kremlin also ordered mass migrations. Stalin sent thousands of native Russians to “modernise” his newly created Soviet Republics, yet following the breakup of the USSR the vast majority quickly returned. Successive leaders tried similar “economic solutions” but the likes of Perestroika and Glasnost proved too little too late.
Will China collapse tomorrow? Probably not. In the next 30 years? Ask Mikhail Gorbachev.
Paul Wilson has been travelling through Central Asia and China since the late 1990s. His book, The Silk Roads (Trailblazer), is in its third edition. He is a regular speaker at the UNWTO’s Silk Road Programme and Open Central Asia Literary Festival.
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After months of rumors, on Monday the American rugby community learned that 5 teams would come together in a new competition in the Southwest called the Major Rugby Championship (MRC). Despite lacking a published sanction from USA Rugby, the MRC will play in teams will include the Austin Huns, the Griffins (TX), New Orleans, Rugby Utah, and the Glendale Raptors.
Glendale is unique in this list of member clubs: it is the only team to also be part of another regional competition. Glendale typically plays it’s winter and spring season in the Pacific Rugby Premiership (PRP). However, The PRP is currently on a break and set to return in the Fall of 2017.
On it’s face, the formation of a new regional competition in the US is not that newsworthy. The timing of the PRO Rugby season (conflicting with club rugby playoffs) and existing trends in seasonality predicted the formation of competitions like MRC, the Cal Cup, and the Gold Cup.
But buried in the the MRC announcement was a quote from Glendale’s Director of Rugby that stood out like a sore thumb:
“We also were aware that PRO had communicated verbally to players from Glendale that they would not allow them to play for Glendale so we would not have had our players available had [we] moved to a fall schedule.”
Initially I found this statement quite unbelievable. After all, how could a commercial third party (PRO Rugby) actually be sanctioning an amateur club that is under the purview of USA Rugby?
But after making some enquiries I obtained online confirmation from PRO Rugby that contracts would be terminated for employees who play for Glendale in the off-season.
Additionally, I learned that this off-season restriction also extends to another club, Life West based in Hayward, CA.
Clubs blacklisted for off-season play
To get some context, I had a long telephone conversation with PRO Rugby CEO Doug Schoninger.
Mr. Schoninger explained that Glendale and Life West were on PRO Rugby’s unofficial list of non-cooperative clubs for allegedly pressuring players to appear in club matches during the PRO Rugby season.
Mr. Schoninger elaborated via E-mail:
“[It] is extremely hard to be labeled a “non-cooperative club” by [PRO Rugby]. In these two cases, both clubs, against earlier agreements, tried to influence PRO players to play in club competitions during our season and in conflict with our schedule. Their actions caused quite a bit of disturbance to a few teams rosters and put the players in awkward situations.”
Mr. Schoninger went on to say that in at least one case a player was asked to participate in a club match on Saturday, the day after a PRO fixture on Friday.
Glendale confirmed online that their club members had been informed of the off-season playing restriction made by PRO Rugby. However, they did not reply to my request for comment on the allegations of player interference.
Venue disagreements compound problems for Denver
In addition to issues surrounding player availability, there appear to have been some problems between PRO Rugby and some venues like Glendale’s Infinity Park (which also serves as the Raptors venue but is independently operated by the City of Glendale). For example, the disagreements led to PRO relocating the Denver Stampede mid-season to the University of Denver.
Unfortunately, this tug of war over players and disputes with facilities have put a cloud over Glendale’s inclusion in MRC. It’s also unclear how well the Raptors will fare in the PRP next Fall without their PRO players who appear to be respecting PRO Rugby’s restrictions.
For both Glendale and Life West, the sanction will likely affect their ability to recruit and rebuild. Top talent with eyes on a professional rugby career will avoid playing for these clubs to maximize the chance they can earn a PRO contract.
Players caught in the middle
As noted above by Mr. Schoninger, the situation has also placed the players from Glendale and Life West in an awkward position: they are forced to choose between their club and PRO loyalties.
For the current Glendale and Life West players trying to make a full-time career on the pitch, it is clear from Glendale’s public comments above that most have chosen to continue their paid positions with PRO Rugby. But their prospects for staying match-fit in the PRO Rugby off-season are now limited.
For example, a Glendale Raptor with a PRO Rugby contract with the Denver Stampede would have to play with another club in the offseason. This may not be possible or convenient depending on where the player lives and works.
Unfortunately, the athletes are, as is typical, caught in the middle despite being the primary asset for a professional sports operation.
Putting together the details above along with some anecdotal comments I’ve heard from various sources, it seems that some clubs on the West coast have firmly resisted the transfer of players to PRO Rugby. The cost of not cooperating appears to be quite punitive with sanctions on both clubs and players.
But rugby isn’t supposed to work like this. Players should be able to keep their loyalties to both employer and club. Of course, all parties need to respect the appropriate boundaries. Players need to honor the terms of their contract. And clubs and professional teams should not interfere with each other.
Thus, a players association is urgently needed. At a minimum, a players association should offer collective bargaining and insulate players from disputes between PRO and Club Rugby administrators/owners.
The recent formation of the United States Rugby Players Association (USRPA) for the US National Team is a step in the right direction. A fast and simple solution could be to expand the USRPA to include all paid rugby athletes in the US.
In addition, USA Rugby as the governing body for the sport needs to clearly set the rules of engagement for all parties, mediate disputes, and manage sanctions within clearly defined parameters.
Strong leadership from USA Rugby will be required to repair and maintain the current rift between club and PRO Rugby to maintain a functional pathway for American rugby athletes from amateur to PRO to the National Team.
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The Highlanders established a distinctive tactical identity under former head coach Jamie Joseph: they ensured that games were played at pace, backed their defence to withstand a high volume of opposition possessions, and looked to strike quickly with efficient and inventive attacking play. Under Joseph’s former assistant Tony Brown during the 2017 season, the team did not alter this approach – Round 1 against the Chiefs aside. They averaged only 45.7% of the total carries made in their fixtures – 4% lower than any other New Zealand franchise – but generated cleak breaks with the second-highest frequency (11.2%) of all teams in the competition; on the other side of the ball, they allowed opponents to make clean breaks with the third-lowest frequency (7.3%) teams.
After a win over the Blues last weekend, it appears that – despite a third head coach in three seasons – the team’s tactical approach will not be significantly different in 2018. They made 44.9% of the game’s total carries in Aaron Mauger’s first game in charge, and scored points with quick, efficient attacking strikes.
The short kicking game of halfbacks Aaron Smith and Lima Sopoaga has historically been a fundamental feature of the Highlanders’ set-piece attack. The accuracy of the two All Blacks in this area allows the team to manipulate the four defenders whose positioning dictates where the attacking team can find space: the full-back, two wingers and scrum-half.
In the first example below – from Round 2 of 2017 against the Crusaders – Seta Tamanivalu begins flat on the left wing to cover the running threat of Waisake Naholo, and full-back David Havili is in a shallow position directly behind the scrum. Smith’s dart from the base to escape the back row also has the effect of holding Tamanivalu and Havili in the front line, and the scrum-half threads a grubber kick perfectly into the open space beyond the two defenders:
In the second example from this fixture, Sopoaga drops a short chip perfectly into space behind the Crusaders’ midfield, an area which scrum-half Bryn Hall is unable to cover as sweeper:
Crucially, Hall begins the sequence in the 5m channel – with hooker Codie Taylor at the tail of the lineout – and this defensive set-up likely costs the scrum-half the extra few metres necessary to get between the ball and Naholo, who is making an excellent tracking run on the inside from the blindside wing and collects Fekitoa’s offload after he is tackled by the full-back.
The franchise’s historic win over the British & Irish Lions showcased another aspect of their attacking kicking game, with centre Teihorangi Walden’s accurate short grubbers turning the opposition’s aggressive press on a number of occasions. In last Friday’s game, it was outside centre Rob Thompson – effectively the fourth kicking option in a backline featuring Smith, Sopoaga and Walden inside him – whose right foot was used to great effect for the Highlanders’ fifth and final try:
Despite Thompson’s sub-optimal execution – the chip is slightly too long, and allows scrum-half Augustine Pulu the chance to cover – the Highlanders’ attacking alignment and awareness of the Blues’ defensive structure creates a situation where they are able to exploit a somewhat fortuitous bounce of the ball.
The Blues – short a number 8 at this scrum due to Antonio Kiri Kiri’s yellow card – set up with Rieko Ioane on the end of a flat front-line of four defenders. Full-back Michael Collins must therefore begin in a wider position than usual – in the image below, he is almost directly behind his team-mate on the left wing – while right wing Matt Duffie is held in the right 15m channel by the presence of Tevita Li:
The open space behind the Blues’ midfield three is clear; Pulu retreats to cover it from the scrum-half position, but is unable to collect the bouncing ball on the run. The other defender who feasibly begins in a position to cover is Collins, but the movement of Sopoaga and Ben Smith in a second wave holds Ioane in position, brings the threat of Naholo (out of shot) into play on the right wing and stops the full-back from moving back towards the centre of the field:
In addition, the fact that it is Thompson at first receiver rather than one of the team’s more prominent kicking options likely lowers the probability of a chip in the eyes of the defence. All of these factors come together and mean that when Walden and Thompson flood through the midfield in pursuit of the ball – with Walden picking an excellent line outside the Blues’ 13 channel in order to avoid traffic – they outnumber the covering defence and are able to capitalise on Pulu’s misread of the bounce.
Use of short kicking as an effective attacking strategy is not about creating clean scoring chances on every play. It is an inherently higher-variance strategy, but – as Scotland have shown on numerous occasions, including Huw Jones’ opening try against England on Saturday – if it used in combination with an awareness of the opponent’s defensive structure and active support play, the balance of risk and reward can be tipped in the attacking team’s favour. The Highlanders have been one of its foremost exponents in world rugby over the last few years, and this trend looks set to continue under Aaron Mauger.
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About
"After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music."
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, April 22, 2019)
Most discussions of the impact of global warming on the Russian Federation have focused either on the ways in which the melting of permafrost will damage infrastructure in the northern part of that country, imposing severe economic costs, or extend the growing season in many places, giving Russia some economic advantages.
But Boris Zhukov, a Russian biologist, suggests that the greatest impact and greatest danger from global warming on his country may not be on infrastructure or growing seasons but rather in the release of bacteria during the melting of the permafrost that could lead to the spread of diseases no one has the ability to fight (newtimes.ru/articles/detail/179696).
In an article in the New Times provocatively entitled “The Ice will Melt and We will All Die,” the Russian scholar says that global warming almost certainly will mean “the spread of new and old diseases,” many of which risk becoming epidemics in Russia and even spreading beyond the borders of that country.
Many Russians like to talk about the benefits global warming will bring their country, he says; but overall, that change is not going to bring us “anything good.” It isn’t so much that the melting of the permafrost will release diseases medical science is familiar with, although that will happen.
Instead, with the melting of the ice, “certain pathogens with which we are not acquainted, certain strains or even types” will come back into the atmosphere. Because they are unknown to science, these could easily cause epidemics that could kill large number of people in Rusisa and elsewhere.
That is a longterm and by definition impossible to evaluate risk, but there is a real and immediate risk of epidemics connected with climate change, the biologist says. “Changes in average annual temperatures can cause some species of insects and other arthropods to move northward,” spreading diseases from the south that northerners have no immunity to.
One of these – and it is no joke, Zhukov says – is malaria. “That is far from the only such infection capable of shifting to the North” and causing catastrophe.
And there is an additional reason for worry: an increasing number of Russians apparently is not being vaccinated for ordinary diseases, either because of cost or the lack of availability of medications; and as a result, an article in Vzglyad warns, Russia may soon face epidemics of diseases it and others assume have been overcome (vz.ru/society/2019/4/21/973551.html).
[Article also appeared at windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-ice-will-melt-and-we-will-all-die.html]
[featured images are file images; pathogen image is a virus]
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1600-1899 1900-1909 1910-1919 1920-1929 1930-1939 1940-1949 1950-1959 1960-1969 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2019 2020-... Timeline
Jazz Images
Important Firsts
Resources
Musicians
Glossary
Links
Style Sheet
Audio Snippets
Jazz Education Timeline
Year Developments in Jazz Historical Events 1619 The first Africans are sold into slavery in America. 1817 New Orleans city council establishes "Congo Square" as an official site for slave music and dance. Harvard Law School is founded.
Mississippi becomes a state.
James Monroe is elected president. 1865 Slavery is abolished in the U.S. by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 1892 Pianist Tommy Turpin writes Harlem Rag, the first known ragtime composition. The Homestead Strike, one of the most serious labor disputes in U.S. history occurred in Pittsburgh.
General Electric Company is founded. 1895 Pianist Scott Joplin publishes his first two rags.
Cornetist Buddy Bolden forms his band. Cinema is born. 1896 Racial segregation is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Radio technology is introduced. 1897 The first piano rags appear in print.
Ragtime grows in popularity. First subway in the U.S. created in Boston.
William McKinney is elected President. 1898 The U.S. goes to war with Spain. 1899 Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag is published and sells over 100,000 copies.
Duke Ellington is born. Felix Hoffman patents Aspirin.
Spanish rule ends in Cuba.
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Much deeper reductions in Australia's carbon emissions are not only justified and desirable, but also eminently affordable, a report by the government's independent climate adviser has found.
The report from the Climate Change Authority found the current target of a 5 per cent cut in carbon was ''inadequate'', and noted even that minimum goal would be more cheaply and easily achieved by altering the Coalition's $3.2 billion direct action plan.
The authority recommended a higher target of a 15 or 25 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020, saying conditions laid down by both major parties for deeper cuts had been met as more nations had adopted more ambitious goals.
''The costs of moving beyond 5 per cent are relatively small, and moving beyond 5 would put us more in line with what other countries are doing,'' the authority's chief executive, Anthea Harris, said.
Based on growth projections, the cost per person of a 15 per cent target would be just $100 in 2020. A 25 per cent cut would cost a further $100 by then.
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Temperature map of the relic radiation (bottom left), and close-ups showing, in relief, the polarisation of light in the 353 GHz channel (the colors correspond to the intensity of the thermal emission from galactic dust.) Credit: ESA – Planck collaboration
The Planck collaboration, which notably includes the CNRS, CEA, CNES and several French universities, has disclosed, at a conference in Ferrara, Italy, the results of four years of observations from the ESA's Planck satellite. The satellite aims to study relic radiation (the most ancient light in the Universe). This light has been measured precisely across the entire sky for the first time, in both intensity and polarisation, thereby producing the oldest image of the Universe. This primordial light lets us "see" some of the most elusive particles in the Universe: dark matter and relic neutrinos.
Between 2009 and 2013, the Planck satellite observed relic radiation, sometimes called cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Today, with a full analysis of the data, the quality of the map is now such that the imprints left by dark matter and relic neutrinos are clearly visible.
Already in 2013, the map for variations in light intensity was released, showing where matter was in the sky 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Thanks to the measurement of the polarisation of this light (in four of seven frequencies, for the moment), Planck can now see how this material used to move. Our vision of the primordial Universe has thus become dynamic. This new dimension, and the quality of the data, allows us to test numerous aspects of the standard model of cosmology. In particular, they illuminate the most elusive of particles: dark matter and neutrinos.
New constraints on dark matter
The Planck collaboration results now make it possible to rule out an entire class of models of dark matter, in which dark matter-antimatter annihilation is important. Annihilation is the process whereby a particle and its antiparticle jointly disappear, followed by a release in energy.
The basic existence of dark matter is becoming firmly established, but the nature of dark matter particles remains unknown. There are numerous hypotheses concerning the physical nature of this matter, and one of today's goals is to whittle down the possibilities, for instance by searching for the effects of this mysterious matter on ordinary matter and light. Observations made by Planck show that it is not necessary to appeal to the existence of strong dark matter-antimatter annihilation to explain the dynamics of the early universe. Such events would have produced enough energy to exert an influence on the evolution of the light-matter fluid in the early universe, especially around the time relic radiation was emitted. However, the most recent observations show no hints that this actually took place.
These new results are even more interesting when compared with measurements made by other instruments. The satellites Fermi and Pamela, as well as the AMS-02 experiment aboard the International Space Station, have all observed an excess of cosmic rays, which might be interpreted as a consequence of dark matter annihilation. Given the Planck observations, however, an alternative explanation for these AMS-02 or Fermi measurements—such as radiation from undetected pulsars—has to be considered, if one is to make the reasonable hypothesis that the properties of dark matter particles are stable over time.
Additionally, the Planck collaboration has confirmed that dark matter comprises a bit more than 26% of the Universe today (figure deriving from its 2013 analysis), and has made more accurate maps of the density of matter a few billion years after the Big Bang, thanks to measurements of temperature and B-mode polarisation.
Neutrinos from the earliest instants detected
The new results from the Planck collaboration also inform us about another type of very elusive particle, the neutrino. These "ghost" particles, abundantly produced in our Sun for example, can pass through our planet with almost no interaction, which makes them very difficult to detect. It is therefore not realistic to directly detect the first neutrinos, which were created within the first second after the Big Bang, and which have very little energy. However, for the first time, Planck has unambiguously detected the effect these relic neutrinos have on relic radiation maps.
The relic neutrinos detected by Planck were released about one second after the Big Bang, when the Universe was still opaque to light but already transparent to these particles, which can freely escape from environments that are opaque to photons, such as the Sun's core. 380,000 years later, when relic radiation was released, it bore the imprint of neutrinos because photons had gravitational interaction with these particles. Observing the oldest photons thus made it possible to confirm the properties of neutrinos.
Planck observations are consistent with the standard model of particle physics. They essentially exclude the existence of a fourth species of neutrinos, previously considered a possibility based on the final data from the WMAP satellite, the US predecessor of Planck. Finally, Planck makes it possible to set an upper limit to the sum of the mass of neutrinos, currently established at 0.23 eV (electron-volt).
The full data set for the mission, along with associated articles that will be submitted to the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A), will be available December 22 on the ESA web site.
Explore further Researchers report on data analysis from Planck spacecraft
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The Leap Motion Controller is a new device for hand gesture controlled user interfaces with declared sub-millimeter accuracy. However, up to this point its capabilities in real environments have not been analyzed. Therefore, this paper presents a first study of a Leap Motion Controller. The main focus of attention is on the evaluation of the accuracy and repeatability. For an appropriate evaluation, a novel experimental setup was developed making use of an industrial robot with a reference pen allowing a position accuracy of 0.2 mm. Thereby, a deviation between a desired 3D position and the average measured positions below 0.2mmhas been obtained for static setups and of 1.2mmfor dynamic setups. Using the conclusion of this analysis can improve the development of applications for the Leap Motion controller in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. View Full-Text
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The Lowe Post - Vinny Del Negro
Zach talks to Vinny Del Negro about his time with the Clippers, the power of star players, Madonna and Dennis Rodman, shouting at opposing shooters, and more.
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Game of Thrones Ireland
A Game of Thrones Tour of Northern Ireland is a must for anyone obsessed with the show and Ireland. I proudly claim my status as “fangirl” – well fangirl is a little off base as I am not exactly a girl anymore. I dragged my husband around every single Game of Thrones locations in Ireland and he enjoyed every minute of it.
PLAN YOUR DREAM TRIP TO IRELAND – HERE’S HOW
Map of Game of Thrones Locations Ireland
Map courtesy of Discover Northern Ireland
The result of this incredible sacrifice and hard work is this brilliant, ultimate Game of Thrones tour guide that you can use to plan your Game of Thrones Tour. I’ve described where all the GoT sites are in Northern Ireland and how to get to them from either Dublin or Belfast.
Every single shooting location is listed with instructions on how to get to the sites. The Game of Thrones Northern Ireland filming locations ranges across most of the North and the Mournes.
32 Game of Thrones locations N. Ireland
This Game of Thrones itinerary can be done in 3-5 days depending on which sites you want to see for yourself.
This self-guided Game of Thrones itinerary can be started from Dublin, or from Belfast. It ends in Enniskillen and covers every conceivable GoT film set in Northern Ireland.
It also includes the Journey of Doors Tour, stopping at all the sites along the route to have a pint and a picture and get your Journey of Doors Passport stamped.
Game of Thrones Tour of Doors
The Game of Thrones – Tour of Doors is the beautiful result of storm damage caused to the Dark Hedges in January of 2016. The trees that were damaged and knocked over were provided to some of Ireland’s most accomplished craftspeople to design and carve doors from.
Each of the doors represents a moment in the Game of Thrones saga and on completion; they were hung in various locations across the country. You can pick up your Tour of Doors, GoT Passports at all these locations and a stamp in your passport will be rewarded for every door you get to see.
If you are as obsessed as I am with travel and Game of Thrones why not combine the two in a trip to Malta. Malta is actually one of my favourite places and if you want to know what it’s like check out David from Travel Elsewhere’s post on all the Best Places to visit in Malta, Beyond Valetta.
Game of Thrones Ireland locations
Game of Thrones Dublin
From Dublin drive North on the A1 North, the drive is a little over 2 hours. Once you cross over the border into Northern Ireland, you can head east to Leitrim Lodge and Sandy Brae or west to Gosford Castle the first two Game of Thrones Sites in the immediate area.
This is an often missed part of the Game of Thrones Tour as it is a long way from Belfast and the Causeway Coast routes. This area of Northern Ireland is famous for the Mourne Mountains and some of the most incredible views and scenic outlooks in the North of Ireland. This area played home to the Dothraki Grasslands and the forests of Winterfell.
Before you visit Ireland here are my top Irish movies and TV shows to watch.
When you cross over the border head to Newry and then west towards Gosford Forest park where you will find the first of the Game of Thrones sites in Northern Ireland.
If you are a massive #GOT fan you may want to check out The Ultimate DIY Game of Thrones Iceland Road Trip from Zena’s Suitcase blog.
Game of Thrones sets in Ireland
There are over 32 sites in Ireland where Game of Thrones is filmed, some you can visit and see first hand, others are off-limits to tourists. Some of those sites that are off-limits can be seen and photographed from a distance, however.
Here’s a really cool idea – why not have a Game of Thrones night and make some amazing food to share with your fellow #GOT obsessed friends. Well here is a brilliant post from Evelyne at CulturEatz! Here are Evelyne and fellow bloggers Game of Thrones Recipes.
You can also download a Game of Thrones Map on an app from the Northern Ireland tourism board. Discover Northern Ireland says this about the app:
Bridging the gap between fantasy and reality, the interactive map allows users to flip between the mythical worlds of Westeros and Essos and the Northern Ireland filming locations. Over 25 scenes from Seasons 1-7 are featured on the app, with detailed information on each scene and where it was filmed, as well as official stills from the show. The 10 Doors of Thrones can also be found on the app. Fans can also experience the beauty of Northern Ireland from their own home as each location features a 360-degree panoramic photograph.
If you are a true fan of Game of Thrones then you need to read Where To Find Game Of Thrones Filming Locations In Dubrovnik this is where I want to head to next, yes I’m a true fangirl lol.
Game of Thrones Locations Ireland
1 Gosford Castle
Gosford Castle is privately owned and there are no public tours but it is a beautiful house and easily recognisable as the seat of the Lord Protector of the Riverlands. In the Game of Thrones Riverrun is located where the Tumblestone River and the Red Fork of the Trident meet. Once again, the CGI magic of Game of Thrones is evident, as Gosford Castle has no river.
Here are 15 haunted castles to visit when in Ireland and a few you can stay at.
2 Leitrim Lodge
Leitrim Lodge which sits at the foothills of the Mourne mountain range in County Down. This is where Bran and Rickon take refuge in the crypts after Theon Greyjoy takes over Winterfell and they meet Jojen and Meera in the woods.
You could also head to Newcastle and check out the Journey of Doors #3 at Percy French, which is named after the composer of the famous song “The Mountains of Mourne”. This would be a great place for a break before heading over to Sandy Brae and Tollymore.
From this area to Sandy Brae takes around 10 minutes.
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3 Sandy Brae
Sandy Brae is in the Mourne Mountains near Newry and it is where the scenes with Ser Jorah and Daenerys were filmed riding their horses through the Dothraki grasslands. There are plenty of walking pathways to hike and you can get some good shots of the mountains as seen in Game of Thrones®.
To get to the Tollymore Forest Park from Sandy Brae is around a 40-minute drive, don’t however listen to Google Maps when it comes to getting into the park as it will direct you on a roundabout fashion so you will miss the Park entrance that sits right in Castlewellan so keep your eyes peeled for the entrance as you drive through the town.
4 Tollymore Forest
Tollymore comprises over 600 hectares of forest from ancient redwoods, gothic stone arches and the remains of an 18th-century estate. If you can find your way to the Altavaddy Bridge this is where the dire wolves clearing can be found. Stroll along the river and you will see the deep hole where the Night’s Watchman Will comes upon the village where everyone has been killed by the White Walkers.
The forest is also, where the “Bastard of Bolton” hunted down Theon Greyjoy when he escaped from his imprisonment.
Driving up from the forest on St. Patrick’s Trail, you head towards Downpatrick. Follow the signs from the Trail to Inch Abbey, this drive will take around an hour.
I would highly recommend you stay a day or so in this area perhaps booking a great night’s sleep at The Cuan in Strangford and while you are there you can see Door #1 which sets the scene for the beginning of the Game of Thrones saga.
which will give you a central location as a base and from here you can visit Inch Abbey, Audley’s Castle, Castle Ward and much more. You can also grab the ferry at Strangford to Portaferry and check out The Fiddlers Green Pub for Door #2 and Quintin Harbour.
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5 Quintin Bay
Quintin Bay is in Portaferry, County Down and it is the spot near Castle Stokeworth in the Crownlands where Jaime Lannister goes to find Bronn and persuade him to accompany him to Dorne. It was at Castle Stokeworth, that Jaime and Bronn hatch a plot to retrieve Princess Myrcella from Dorne.
Now that this part of your Game of Thrones journey is done, head towards Belfast and take in some of the vibrancy of the City before you head out again on your Game of Thrones tour.
If you are in this area of the Ards peninsula take a run-up to Portavogie to have some to die for fresh prawns at the Quays Restaurant, it may not look much from the road but the food is excellent and the views incredible. Across the peninsula from Portavogie go and see Grey Abbey you won’t regret it. You could also take a day or so to see Mount Stewart and the Strangford Loch area which is pretty spectacular.
After a day spent exploring the Ards Peninsula head back to your B&B at The Cuan where you can enjoy your pre-arranged Game of Thrones Feast, grab some rest and start out fresh the next day. Inch Abbey, Castle Ward and other sites of interest for Games of Thrones fans are just a few minutes ride away from Strangford.
From Strangford to Inch Abbey will take around 18 minutes and from there to the River Quoile it is around 6 minutes.
6 Inch Abbey
Inch Abbey is the remains of a Cistercian Abbey that were founded in 1180 by John de Courcy. There are lovely views towards the Cathedral town of Downpatrick and it is set beside the River Quoile.
Inch Abbey was the site was used as Robb Stark’s Camp, Riverrun in season one of Game of Thrones and where the War of the 5 Kings began.
From Inch Abbey, it will take you around 6 minutes to get to the River Quoile.
7 The River Quoile
The River Quoile is used for the Riverrun location in the Game of Thrones saga and where the funeral scenes of Hoster Tully at Riverrun were shot. There is a plaque at the site to mark the HBO filming, one of several around Northern Ireland to help fans of the show to track down the spots of greatest interest to them.
Head to The Cuan Guesthouse for a hearty lunch and marvel at the Game of Thrones inspired door, depicting scenes from the sixth season of the series. These intricate masterpieces are dotted across Northern Ireland and were carved from the wood of the 200-year-old beech trees at the Dark Hedges.
Costumes from Game of Thrones at The Cuan
From here, it will take around 10 minutes to get to Castle Ward and Audley’s Castle and field
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8 Castle Ward
Castle Ward is a unique demesne of over 800 acres with a manor house that has two facades the first one, which faces the main road, is done in a classic Palladian style and the other side is completely gothic with pointed windows, finials and battlements.
Castle Ward’s farmyard is the location of Winterfell. This is where you will find the Whispering Wood, Robb Stark’s Camp, and the Baelor Battle. The Winterfell Tower where Jamie Lannister pushed Bran is also located here. You can do tours of the Game of Thrones set at Castle Ward, take part in some archery lessons dress up in costumes and enjoy the thrill of being immersed in the experience.
From Castle Ward, you will circle back to the main roads and from here, it will take approximately 10 minutes to find Audley’s Castle.
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9 Audley’s Castle and Field
Audley’s Castle is to the west of Castle Ward and there are several walking trails to take you to the site. It was at Audley’s Field where the scenes of King Robert Baratheon and his retinue arriving at Winterfell to go hunting in Season 1 took place. It is also the location and backdrop of Robb Stark’s camp and where he first meets his wife to be Talisa. Later in the series, this is where Alton Lannister is imprisoned with Jamie and it was here the Starks sought an audience with the treacherous Freys to cross the Green Fork.
Audley’s Castle is known as The Twins in the Game of Thrones series. CGI was used to duplicate the castle ruins, move the location closer to the water or the Lough as it is known here and join it with a bridge. Audley’s Castle is also, where the scenes of the Red Wedding took place. Audley’s Castle lies in the grounds of the Castle Ward estate, North West of the village of Strangford.
From this area it’s now time to head towards Belfast where you can spend a few days and take in all the city has to offer. You can see the Titanic Experience, head to the world-famous Crown Pub and The Europa Hotel, check out St. George’s Market and much more.
10 Game of Thrones Tapestry
Exhibited at the Ulster Museum in Belfast since July 2017, this monumental artwork, nearly 90 meters long, will be sent on a symbolic journey to conquer its origins, in the city of Bayeux in Normandy … Due to its exceptional size, it will be presented, not at the Bayeux Tapestry museum directly, but at the Hôtel du Doyen near the cathedral, rue Lambert-Leforestier.
While you explore Belfast check out The Dark Horse Pub, which is, where you will find the door, which represents Season 6 of the series.
door #9 in Belfast at The Dark Horse
From Belfast, we now head out on the Causeway Coastal Route to some more iconic Game of Thrones scenes. We take the A2 driving slightly northwest to Randalstown where we can find Shane’s Castle. This part of the drive takes around 40 minutes
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11 Shane’s Castle
Shane’s castle is near Randalstown in Co. Antrim, by Lough Neagh. The castle itself is in a ruined state since a fire in 1816, and it is the grounds that mostly feature in the show.
You would probably recognise the grounds of the castle from the tournament scene in which we were introduced to the Hound and his brother, the Mountain.
courtesy of Shane’s castle website
Shane’s Castle has open days where Game of Thrones fans can see where the Tourney of the Hand took place. This is the festival held at King’s Landing by Robert Baratheon in honour of Ned Stark. It is also, where the dungeon scenes for Kings Landing are filmed. The cellars at the castle have also played the role of Winterfell’s crypts and a great deal of the scenes around The Faith was filmed with the Sparrow and Margaery This was during the time that the Faith took Margaery prisoner thanks to Cersei.
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12 Lough Neagh
Shane’s Castle was also the backdrop of the scene where Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister come ashore and find the three hanged women. They confront the Stark troops who hanged the women and ensure that retribution is made. Lough Neagh was also transformed into the Summer Sea, where Jorah steals a boat, takes Tyrion captive and sets sail to his beloved Daenerys in Meereen.
From Shane’s Castle, we head west to Moneyglass, which is around a 30-minute drive.
13 Moneyglass Estate
This is a purpose-built set that becomes the exteriors and interiors for Winterfell. The set is built near Toomebridge in Country Antrim. Numerous scenes have been shot here including the Red Wedding and where Arya meets the caged men on the Kings Road.
From Moneyglass we now begin to head east to the Causeway Coast where we will head to Shillanavogy Valley around 35 minutes east of Moneyglass.
14 Shillanavogy Valley
Shillanavogy is Dothraki territory; it is where Daenerys learns what a Khaleesi is. Ser Jorah Mormont and the Dothraki horsemen ride through the grasslands with Daenerys en route to Vaes Dothrak in the first season of the show. The gorgeous Shillanavogy Valley lies beneath the Slemish Mountain in County Antrim.
It is a bit of a circular drive this part but relatively quickly within around 15 minutes, you will find yourself at the Quarry. There are signs posted to the quarry but I am not sure if you can actually get into the place yet, although there is hope that the “wall” will be left as a tourist attraction in the future.
15 Sallagh Braes
In a privately owned area of the Sallagh Braes within the Glens of Antrim, the Battle of the Bastards was filmed with over 400 extras. It was also in this area that scenes of Briene and Pog were filmed along with the episode of the Hound building a Sept with Ian McShane.
You can hike the trails on the Braes with maps from the Antrims Hill Ways. You can’t get access to the actual site as it is private property but you can view it from the hiking trails.
From Shillanavogy to Magheramorne and Ballygally will take around an hour. Luckily enough you can take a break at Ballygally Castle for lunch and a pint and check out door #9.
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16 Magheramorne Quarry near Larne
Please note: This location may not be open to the public
The quarry is where the set of the 300-mile barrier defending the realm from Wildlings – The Wall was built. The quarry has been transformed into a barricade of ice that is manned by the Night’s Watch. It also doubles as the Wilding Village of Hardhome. Castle Black, which is home to the Night’s Watch, was also built here for the show. The quarry is also, where battlements were built to serve as the Kings Landing defences during the Battle of Blackwater Bay. The scenes were also filmed in the Paint Hall Studios in Belfast.
Maghermore Quarry from across the bay
The set (with both exteriors and interiors) of Castle Black includes the ravenry, barracks, mess hall and courtyard with the stone wall of the quarry used as the icewall. An elevator was built to lift the Knight’s Watch to the top of the Wall and a real castle was built near a cliff that is 400 feet high. CGI provides the magic to make the wall appear over 700 feet high.
Once the Game of Thrones filming is completed, the local council is hoping to use the site as a tourist venue.
17 Cairncastle
The Ballygally area is home to several areas of filming. Cairncastle is a meadow area up from the main village of Ballygally (but there is no castle). This is where Game of Thrones began with Ned Stark beheading a Night’s Watch Deserter in front of Jon Snow, Theon Greyjoy and the Stark brothers Robb and Bran. It is also the setting for where Catelyn captures Tyrion Lannister. It is from above Cairncastle that Bran, Rickon, Osha and Hodor look back for a last glimpse of Winterfell before heading north to the Wall.
Cairncastle, which is high up on the Antrim plateau (and quite a good walk), appears in the scene where Littlefinger took Sansa to Moat Cailin and she made her decision to ally with the Boltons. This dramatic plain with its basalt outcrops is incredible and was chosen to represent The Neck, which is the backdrop to where Sansa learns she is now betrothed to the horrific Ramsay Bolton.
The Antrim Plateau makes up the fantasy land of Winterfell. A private estate in Cairncastle was used in season one for the backdrop of Stark Castle (the castle exterior was created using CGI). There is a public footway called the Ulster Way, where tourists and visitors can see Winterfell.
18 Ballygally Castle
Not really a filming destination but a great ‘don’t miss’ site where you can grab lunch and a pint is the Ballygally Castle Hotel. Famous across Ireland for its ghost it is also home to Door 9 on the Tour of Doors.
This door centres on the Battle of the Bastards with a dire wolf front and centre. You can stay at this gorgeous hotel and make it a central location on your Game of Thrones Tour. By the way, they do a lovely Game of Thrones-themed afternoon tea, which makes a perfect break from touring.
From Ballygally is a straight run up the Causeway Coast and it takes around 15 minutes to drive if you don’t stop along the way for some spectacular views.
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19 Glenarm
Not exactly a filming site but home to Steensons Jewellery Économusée, which is where many of the incredible pieces of jewellery were crafted for the show. Steensons’ designed and crafted several pieces that can be seen at the showroom such as Joffrey’s crown, Lannister lion pendants, stag pins, and silverfish brooches and of course the Hand pin.
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20 Carnlough
Just a few minutes down the road from Glenarm and you are in Carnlough. A beautiful little village is famous for the Londonderry Arms, which is a great place to enjoy some history including the fact that the place was once, owned by Sir Winston Churchill and serves some great Irish smoked salmon. Carnlough harbour is also, where you can see the location for Bravos that featured Arya climbing from the waters after being stabbed by the waif.
21 Glenarriff – Galboly
Glenariff is known as ‘Queen of the Glens’, it’s considered the most beautiful of the nine Glens of Antrim: a plunging valley surrounded by stunning waterfalls and walking trails. It served as the practice ground at Runestone in the Vale of Arryn, where Littlefinger and Sansa Stark watched Robin Arryn’s attempt at duelling.
There is a Game of Thrones marker on the Causeway Coast route just after Carnlough that indicates the Vale of Arryn. Don’t miss the opportunity to take a drive through Glenarriff if you have the time it is a stupendously beautiful area full of waterfalls, deep dark forests and lots of Irish legends.
The drive to the caves of Cushendun will take around 20 minutes from Carnlough with plenty of staggeringly beautiful scenery to take in along with way.
22 Cushendun
The Cushendun Caves are not particularly well marked but as you enter Cushendun make your way to the seafront around the harbour. You will see the Johann the Goat statue and quite possibly the “new” town goat who you can feed some apples or carrots to.
Follow the road and park towards the end where you will more than likely see a few tour buses and hordes of tourists in season checking out the caves. We were there in low season and there were very few tourists, which was wonderful.
The Game of Thrones scene where the shadow baby was born takes place here. This is where Davos Seaworth, on the orders of Lord Stannis, takes the sorceress Melisandre ashore to give birth to the murdering shadow.
If you pop into the village of Cushendun you can drop by Mary McBride’s for a tasty lunch an have a look at Door #8 featuring Aryas’ journey to Bravos.
From Cushendun you can take the inland route and see more of the Glens of Antrim or you can follow the coast roadway it takes around half an hour to reach Murlough Bay, which sits between Torr Head and Fairhead.
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23 Murlough Bay
Murlough Bay sits between Torr Head and Fairhead on the Causeway Coastal Route. Murlough Bay was transformed into Slavers Bay and is where slavers capture Tyrion Lannister and Ser Jorah Mormont. The Bay is only accessible by foot on a very steep path.
Murlough Bay is also where Theon and his sister Yara rode horseback to Greyjoy, and it was here that Davos Seaworth was shipwrecked after the Battle of Blackwater Bay.
24 Fairhead
Fairhead rises 600 feet above sea level near Ballycastle on the Causeway Coast and it’s believed to be the biggest expanse of climbable rock in the UK and Ireland. Season 7 of Game of Thrones was filmed here with the backdrop of the cliffs and includes the scenes where Jon Snow finally meets Daenerys and her dragons – this area is where much of the Dragonstone scenes are filmed.
Twenty minutes or so on the Causeway Coastal route from Fairhead lays the Carrick-a-Rede Bridge and Larrybane Bay.
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25 Larrybane Bay and headland near Carrick-a-Rede
The old quarry at Larrybane is actually used as an overflow car park for Carrick-a-Rede and it is here that Margaery and King Renly (remember she married her brother’s friend before all her other marriages?) are filmed watching a fight between the Margaery’s brother and Brienne of Tarth. Brienne beats Ser Loras and wins a place in the King’s Guard. Catelyn Stark goes to meet King Renly on behalf of Robb to gather fighters to the cause to avenge Ned Stark’s death.
Larrybane Bay is the dramatic spot chosen for Renly Baratheon’s camp in the Stormlands, and where Brienne of Tarth was named to Renly’s Kingsguard in Season 2 Episode 3.
The headland, sheltered by Sheep Island and a shallow reef, leads down to Northern Ireland’s famous and exhilarating rope bridge challenge, the Carrick-a-Rede Bridge. From Carrick-a-Rede to Ballintoy is literally around 10 minutes drive.
26 Ballintoy Harbour
Ballintoy is a village on the coast of Co Antrim with a small fishing harbour located at the end of a narrow, steep road down Knocksaughey hill. It features in season two of Game of Thrones when Theon Greyjoy returns home to Lordsport Harbour. It was also used as the location of Pyke, one of the eight major Iron Islands.
When you are in Ballintoy take a rest break at The Fullerton Arms, which is home to door 6 of the Doors of Thrones. Door 6 features the House Targaryen, specifically Drogon – Daenerys’ most aggressive and fearsome dragon.
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27 Dunluce Castle
Dunluce is perched precariously on a cliff-top. In the show, it becomes Pyke, the home of the Kings of the Iron Islands with CGI used to position the castle over various stacks of rock. Dunluce is also thought to have been the inspiration for Cair Paravel in C.S.Lewis’ Narnia stories.
From Ballintoy Harbour, it is around a 10 minute or so drive to the Dark Hedges. These days’ cars have been banned from the area as it was a working through road and the tourists have been causing major problems with traffic. You can park at Gracehill House and take a 5 minutes’ walk to the King’s Road.
While you are at Gracehill House drop in to have a great meal and check out Door #7 which features the Three-eyed Raven.
28 Dark Hedges
The Dark Hedges are located in Ballymoney near Armoy. Tucked into the Bregagh road the ancient beech trees were planted by the Stuart’s in the 18th century. The hedges were used for the scene of Arya Stark’s escape from King’s Landing on the orders of King Joffrey.
The scene included Hot Pie, Yoren, Gendry and Arya travelling by cart with Arya disguised as a boy to avoid capture. Unfortunately, she was captured by the Brotherhood without Banners and dragged to their hideout.
Gracehill Golf Club is just across the road (where you can park and walk to the hedges) it contains another of the Dark Hedges doors, this one with a carving of the Three-Eyed Raven.
From the Dark Hedges, we cut across the country going east to Port Stewart. This drive takes just over half an hour.
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29 Port Stewart Strand
Port Stewart, it is one of Northern Ireland’s best beaches with views of Inishowen headland and Mussenden Temple perched atop the cliffs. It has been a family holiday destination for several hundred years treating many a Northern Irish family to a seaside vacation.
The strand doubled as the coast of Dorne in season five of Game of Thrones when Jaime Lannister was begged by Cersei to bring her daughter Myrcella back to King’s Landing.
It was also here among the huge sand dunes and shore grasses that Jaime and Bronn found themselves captured by Dornish soldiers on the coast of Sunspear, and where Ellaria and her Sand Snake sisters conspired to start a war with the Lannisters.
The drive to Downhill Strand from Port Stewart takes around minutes.
30 Downhill Strand
Downhill Strand is a stretch of spotless white sands, overlooked by Mussenden Temple, a replica of the Temple of Vesta in Rome. Popular as a great surfing spot for locals this beach was where Stannis Baratheon rejected the seven old gods of Westeros. He is proclaimed as the champion of the Lord of Light by Melisandre and enters Dragonstone into the War of the Five Kings.
From Downhill strand, the drive to Binevenagh will take around 25 minutes in total. I would totally recommend a Guinness stop at Owens in Limavady, which is on the way, and you can check out Door 5, which features the Night King and his followers.
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31 Binevenagh
Binevenagh is a plateau with huge steep cliffs that extend for over six miles across the peninsula of Magilligan, dominating the skyline over the villages of Bellarena, Downhill, Castlerock and Benone beach. This mountain is where Daenerys and her dragon Drogon find refuge in the Dothraki Grasslands after they flee the fighting pits of Meereen.
The mountain itself marks the very edge of the Antrim plateau, looking out over County Armagh and County Londonderry. East of Derry you will come to the small town of Limavady. As you drive through town make sure you pay a visit to Frank Owens Bar to see #5 of the 10 Game of Thrones doors that are found all over Northern Ireland.
Slightly north of Limavady you will find the mountain Binevenagh, which marks the western extent of the Antrim plateau. If you Google map ‘Swann’s Bridge Glamping’ you’ll come across a small picnic area next to a T-junction. Amongst the benches, you’ll find your first sign.
It also appeared as the Dothraki Grasslands in season five when Daenerys Targaryen was rescued by her dragon, Drogon while fleeing from the Sons of the Harpy in the fighting pits of Meereen.
It is a long drive from Binevenagh (around 2+ hours) to the caves and I would highly recommend an overnight stay perhaps in Derry at the City Hotel. Take the opportunity to explore Derry and its medieval walls and murals it is a truly fascinating city.
From Derry to the caves will take around an hour or so but check out the Omagh Folk Park on your way and explore the history of the Irish.
A good idea is to grab a great BnB in Enniskillen, which is very close to the caves not to mention you can also stop in for lunch or dinner at Blakes of the Hollow in Enniskillen to take in Door 4, which features the dragons. While you’re in Enniskillen be sure to check out the castle.
The Marble Arch Caves are around 25 minutes south of Enniskillen.
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32 Pollnagollum Cave
These are located in Belmore Forest, which is part of the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark. The cave is fed by a waterfall and you can follow the Belmore Forest walk, which leads to a viewing point for the cave.
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The cave featured in season three of Game of Thrones as Beric Dondarrion’s hideout in The Riverlands. The lair of the Lightning Lord leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners. This is where they shelter from the invading Lannister forces. It is at the caves that Arya is held captive and Sandor Clegane faces his trial-by-combat against the immortal Beric Dondarrion.
And there you have it every Game of Thrones site to see in N. Ireland and you can self-drive the tour if you want. Not only do you get to see these sites but you have an amazing complete tour of N. Ireland and the Causeway Coast while you are at it.
After the final season of Game of Thrones wraps up in Ireland HBO has released this information about the opening of the Game of Thrones sets as tourist attractions in Northern Ireland:
The network announced plans to leave some of the Game of Thrones sets in place and open them to the public in 2019 after the show’s final season has aired.
This conversion from actual filming locations to tourist attractions will give GoT fans their first-ever chance to set foot inside many of the series’s most ubiquitous and recognizable sites of Winterfell, Castle Black, and King’s Landing all being considered for the standing exhibit. The sets chosen for the “Legacy” project will also display a variety of related costumes, props, and weapons, as well as digital and interactive exhibitions. Additionally, Linen Mill Studios in Banbridge, Northern Ireland will be opened for a more formal studio tour that will “showcase a wide array of subject matter from the series spanning all seasons and settings,”.
If you missed the Game of Thrones Exhibition in Belfast it will be touring the world so stay tuned. If you see it coming to your city book your tickets now.
We attended the Game of Thrones Exhibition when it hit Belfast and were blown away. We got to see many original costumes from the show (god those women were tiny).
There were great weapons on display and you could have your photo taken on the wall or with a sword.
Exhibits of the fabulous jewellery and Jamie’s golden hand.
We saw dragons, and crypts and the dead. All in all great value for money and an amazing show.
If you are doing some heavy-duty Game of Thrones fan geeking checking out these Game of Thrones Filming Locations in Dubrovnik written by Rim of Curious and Geeks that’s my next vacation adventure.
Have you done a Game of Thrones Tour? What was your favourite part of the tour you took? What do you think of the final season taking so long to come to the small screen?
Have you watched The History Channels Vikings epic drama? Here are the Viking sites to visit in Ireland while you are here.
If you are a true Game of Thrones fan then head to Croatia to check out all the filming sites Diana has a fabulous post A Guide to the Must-See Game of Thrones Tour Dubrovnik, Croatia that you need to read before you go.
If you are a true GOT fan you may want to investigate some Game of Thrones Board Games check out Game Cows Best Game of Thrones Board Games they review all the GOT Board games and give an honest review of them.
My next stop is going to be Morocco where I can find more Game of Thrones Morocco filming sites.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Israel not to act against a planned new aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip, the French Press Agency AFP reported on Saturday.
"It should be known that Turkey will give the necessary response to any repeated act of provocation by Israel on the high seas," Davutoglu was quoted as saying in an interview on NTV television.
Open gallery view Turkey’s Ahmet Davutoglu Credit: AP
"Those who believe Turkey should take certain steps to stop (the new flotilla) must first warn Israel not to repeat the human tragedy it caused last year," he continued.
Last May, nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed in clashes that broke out when Israeli naval commandos intercepted a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
The IHH, the group that organized that flotilla, has announced that a new flotilla will sail to Gaza towards the end of June.
Asked whether the Turkish government had made an effort to stop the planned flotilla, Davutoglu said: "We have never encouraged any convoy. We have shared our views about the safety of our citizens with all related parties. That was the case last year and it is not any different this time."
He added that the Turkish government "cannot give instructions to civil society."
Davutoglu also called on the international community, including the U.S., to support the reconciliation deal struck between Fatah and Hamas.
"If the division of the Palestinian authorities is healed, the conditions that serve as Israel's justification for the blockade will be eradicated... and there will be no need for an aid convoy," he was quoted as saying.
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Are the Miami Dolphins one step closer to moving to Los Angeles?
That is the worry in South Florida on Monday after the Dolphins failed to secure public funding for renovations of Sun Life Stadium over the weekend. The Dolphins were looking to add about $400 million in stadium upgrades, and according to team president Mike Dee, owner Stephen Ross would have paid for about 70 percent of the cost. However, the Florida House prevented it from going to a public vote and those plans are now null and void.
"We cannot do this without a private-public partnership," Dee told television station WFOR-TV in Miami. "At this time we have no intention of investing more."
It’s unknown if the public vote would have fared well for the Dolphins. The elephant in the room was the Miami Marlins recently fleecing South Florida for public money to build their new stadium. That left a bad taste that the Dolphins had to overcome. But the team did a lot of work in the community to gain public backing and felt good about its chances. That is why the Dolphins are so upset the vote never went public.
Will the Dolphins leave Miami as a result? The short answer is definitely not in the near future.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said several times on record that the team will remain in South Florida as long as he's the owner. Ross completed the $1 billion purchase of the Dolphins in 2009 and hasn't given any indication that he intends to sell.
But here is the biggest concern for Dolphins fans: What happens to the team when Ross, 73, is no longer the owner? That is when things could get murky. It's in Ross' best interest to sell the Dolphins to the highest bidder, even if that person wants to move the team.
Just about any team with stadium issues is rumored to be heading to Los Angeles, and I think it's fair to now add the Dolphins to that list of speculation. However, do not expect anything to happen on this front for at least the next several years.
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Greg Koch is loud and he recognizes not only the power of his voice but the platform he has to use it on.
If there were a Mount Rushmore of craft beer, the co-founder and executive chairman of California brewing behemoth Stone Brewing would be on it. One should expect nothing less from the country's ninth-largest craft brewery, developer of such offerings as Arrogant Bastard strong ale and its flagship West Coast-style IPA, and from the man who considers himself to be a soldier in the craft beer revolution.
Nowadays, most of Koch's energy is devoted to strengthening the foundation of craft beer and waging a never-ending battle against "big beer."
"We know that we have to fight for a choice, because what big beer wants to do is remove choice," Koch said on a recent visit to Rochester, where he also dished on Stone's early struggles, its expansion to Germany and the future of craft beer. "(Big beer) wants to homogenize and cheapen."
What follows here is an abridged transcript of that conversation:
Will Cleveland: Do you ever have any amazement at what Stone has become ... this iconic craft beer brand? I mean, when you started this thing in 1996, did you ever envision it becoming this international craft behemoth?
Greg Koch: That would’ve been beyond my expectations, anticipation or dreams. I came from the music industry. I came from rock ‘n’ roll. I’m very heavily influenced by a rock ‘n’ roll ethos. I would always think to myself and I was actually using this thought process when we were starting Stone, what bands stand the test of time and why? Whether it’s the Beatles or the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin or U2 or Metallica or the Grateful Dead, they are all very, very different. They are all iconic and have stood the test of time, because they all followed their own muse. They were always at their best when they weren’t trying to please people other than themselves and their own style.
We’re here to do our thing and we hope other people love it, too. But ultimately, it’s up to us to decide what to do, and you can decide for yourself if you like it or not. If you don’t, we’re not going to change for you. It’s always the worst when an artist modifies their art to try to please a wider range of people. I think it’s OK to recognize that you won’t please everybody. Beer can be art when it is at its best and art is best when it has a point of view. So I like beer with a point of view.
WC: What drew you to beer? Why was it something you wanted to devote your life to?
GK: I had my first beer epiphany in 1987 when I had an Anchor Steam for the first time. I was living in downtown L.A. and it was this little hole-in-the-wall called Al’s Bar. It just so happened that they had Anchor Steam on tap. I had never had any beer like that before. I had two reactions. One, I was elated to see that beer could actually taste like that. My other reaction was that I was angry because I realized at that moment that all of my previous beer-drinking years had been stolen from me by the lies of The Man telling me that other stuff was beer.
I felt compelled to join the revolution, to fight for people’s access to great beer, my own included. Collectively as an industry, we’ve been successful beyond my wildest dreams. But we are always going to continue to fight for access to the marketplace because the Man wants to have us go the other direction. They want to own it, they want to obfuscate, they want to control, and they want to play by a different set of rules.
WC: How does Stone adapt? What do you do to remain relevant?
GK: By focusing on the things we enjoy the most about craft brewing. That’s what has always gotten us along pretty well. It’s no secret that we’re the purists, zealots, like to push the boundaries. Since that is such a natural part of our personalities, as we grow, we retain it, because it’s who we are. Dynamics change a little bit as you grow.
WC: Why expand your brand into Berlin? Isn't there enough room for growth in this country? Or enough challenges?
GK: I guess I am a glutton for punishment. I mentioned how when we opened in San Diego 21 years ago, nobody was lining up and asking for our beer. It’s the exact same thing in Berlin. The local populace is generally uninterested in our beer. Right now, it’s just the weirdos like us who drink craft beer. Everybody else just thinks it’s kind of strange.
Read more:IPAs aren't the only way; more local craft beer drinkers seek balance
WC: Did you just want to be the first American craft brewery to operate (in Berlin)?
GK: The old phrase, "Why do things the easy way, when you can do them the hard way?" I’m a bit a Europhile. I believe people should have access to great beer. That’s been our mantra from the very beginning. Just helping provide choice, which is now a thing that we commonly accept and expect here in the U.S. and the better beer cities. You just have to remember back to a time when it wasn’t a thing. You had to sort of push that boulder up the hill. I guess I am just a boulder-pusher by nature.
WC: There is obviously a huge battle being waged right now between independent —
GK: Good and evil. (Laughs.)
WC: You know exactly what I am going to ask. Why is it so important to support and fight for independent craft beer?
GK: There are a couple of basic fundamental things at play. For folks like me that remember the dark times or just the fact that I was in Toronto two days ago, big industrial beer actively fights against access to market, access to freedom of choice. To the casual consumer, they don’t always see that. But anybody inside the industry knows about the obstructing. We know that we have to fight for a choice, because what big beer wants to do is remove choice. They want to homogenize and cheapen.
There are two fundamental different business models between commodity industrial and artisanal. Artisanal is independently controlled. It is, by its nature, art. It doesn’t always make business decisions that are focused strictly on the bottom line. Commodity industrial has fewer choices. I’ll make the joking reference of good vs. evil, but I’m not going to suggest that publicly held companies are evil. The fact of the matter is that they are limited in the kinds of activities they can do. They have a fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value. They are legally required to do that. Commodity industrial isn’t allowed to act artisanal.
WC: How do you see the future of craft beer playing out? Be Nostradamus: Do you see continued growth, plateauing or attrition?
GK: We were born in 1996, which was the year the first bubble burst in craft beer. We were born in the lean times when nobody was interested. It looked like craft beer had a very shaky foundation. I’ve seen it go through that. I think we may be headed toward another shift. It may not be super pleasant for some. Arguably we may look back and discover that we’re actually in the middle of it right now, or some point of it right now.
I have always believed in people’s tastes, good tastes. I have an unrealistically positive view of the future. I’m an entrepreneur and I believe we can still write the future. I think we have a lot of power. We just have to continue to push that boulder up the hill.
[email protected]
READ MORE
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HOLLYWOOD, Fla (Reuters) - Barrick Gold Corp’s $18 billion hostile bid for rival Newmont Mining Corp is a “logical” tie-up that would generate value for shareholders of both companies and create an unrivaled global producer of the yellow metal, Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said in an interview on Monday.
Mark Bristow, chief executive officer of Barrick Gold, speaks during an interview at the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa February 5, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
Barrick, already the world’s largest gold producer, on Monday launched a takeover bid for its U.S.-based rival, encouraging it to ditch a previously announced $10 billion takeover of Goldcorp Inc.
“This gold industry needs to become more relevant to investors,” Bristow said on the sidelines of the BMO Global Metals & Mining Conference in Florida. “This deal drives a further rationalization in our industry.”
The deal comes less than two months after Barrick closed on its buyout of rival Randgold Resources, and represents an aggressive move by Bristow, considered one of the shrewdest minds in the gold industry, to consolidate as quickly as possible.
While Bristow moved fast to reorganize Barrick since taking the helm last month, Newmont CEO Gary Goldberg has said he will retire at the end of 2019 after, he hopes, the Goldcorp deal closes.
Goldberg’s departure has not gone unnoticed by Bristow, who has fashioned it into his own pitch to shareholders.
“By the way: Newmont’s management’s leaving and we’re not,” Bristow said.
Investors across the industry are “definitely not pleased” with Newmont’s Goldcorp bid and view it as a kind of “value destruction,” Bristow said.
“We’re pointing out that this current (Newmont-Goldcorp) proposal takes away the opportunity for both sets of shareholders to participate in one of the few logical M&A transactions available to the industry,” said Bristow.
“The (Newmont) merger with Goldcorp adds no Tier One assets to their portfolio,” he said.
Bristow said he has talked to his shareholders and those at Newmont in “general” terms about his hostile bid, but not specifically. He said he has no concerns about ultimately receiving their approval.
Newmont has suggested that instead of an outright sale, the two companies could combine Nevada operations in a joint venture. Newmont has 19 mines in the state, adjacent to Barrick’s own operations.
Bristow rejected the idea, saying it would not bring the same cost savings as combining the two companies.
“You won’t unlock the full value in a JV,” he said. “We genuinely feel that we have the capacity to unlock this value once and for all.”
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MANAMA, Bahrain -- Canada has no plans to follow its neighbour the United States in expanding airstrikes against the Islamic State group into Syria, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Saturday during a visit to the Middle East.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Baird said Canada has a responsibility to contribute to the U.S.-led bombing campaign in part because ISIS has attracted Canadian fighters to its ranks. But he insisted that support would be confined to Iraq for now.
"At this time we're focusing on our current mission. ... We'll stick with Iraq," he said at a security conference in the Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain.
Canadian warplanes launched their first airstrikes against militants early last month with attacks on targets near the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
Canada has deployed six CF-18s based in Kuwait along with a C-150 Polaris and two CP-140 Aurora surveillance aircraft as its contribution to the bombing campaign against the Islamic State group, which has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria. Several hundred Canadian personnel are involved in the operation. Canada also has a training mission in northern Iraq to train and arm Iraqi Kurdish fighters there, Baird said.
The Canadian parliament in October approved up to six months of airstrikes following a request from the U.S. The motion explicitly stated that no ground troops would be used in combat operations.
Baird said more than 145 Canadians have taken up arms with the Islamic State group and like-minded extremist organizations, and that "compels us to accept our share of responsibility" in working to defeat them.
A Canadian-born woman who served in the Israeli military, Gill Rosenberg, has attracted attention in recent weeks after Israeli media reported that she joined a Kurdish militia battling the Islamic State group, which is also known by the Arabic name Daesh.
Baird urged other Canadians not to follow her lead.
"Obviously we are strongly and unequivocally discouraging all travel to either Iraq or Syria. If you want to fight Daesh, you should apply to join the Canadian forces," he said.
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Washington runs on hype. We live amid an almost daily onslaught of defining moments, game changers and never-before-in-human-history blather. No one has ever been banned from cable TV talk shows for overreacting to political stimuli. Skeptics are often right in the end, but, boy, are they treated like tedious killjoys along the way.
That’s why it’s tempting to play contrarian, as everyone in politics — aside from tea party true believers — is agog over polls showing support for the Republicans melting like a snowman in the Sahara.
A Thursday NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll found the GOP’s approval rating down to (gulp) 24 percent. This came on the heels of an Associated Press/GfK poll that revealed the thumbs-up verdict on Congress (5 percent) is only slightly higher than the survey’s margin of error (3.4 percentage points). Small wonder that the liberal New Republic headlined a Friday article, “The Last Days of the GOP.”
Irrational exuberance can be as misleading in political soothsaying as it is on Wall Street. Polling analyst Nate Silver may have had a valid point when he wrote, “The media is probably overstating the magnitude of the [government] shutdown’s political impact.” It is also worth remembering that after two of the biggest presidential defeats in modern history (Barry Goldwater for the Republicans in 1964 and Democrat George McGovern in 1972), the loser’s political party rebounded to win the White House four years later.
But despite all those cautionary notes, there is a strong justification for a cry of, “This time it’s different.”
With the government shutdown and the dancing-on-the-edge-of-a-volcano gamesmanship over the debt ceiling, Americans rightly believe that things have become unmoored in Washington. A Gallup Poll, released on Friday, found that 60 percent of those surveyed believe a third party is needed. More ominously for both Democrats and Republicans, only 26 percent of those surveyed believe the two main parties are doing “an adequate job of representing the American people.”
Story continues
Imagining a vibrant third party is a political fantasy that ranks right up there with a deadlocked national convention going to a ninth ballot. But two decades ago, there was the out-of-nowhere emergence of Ross Perot. Before Perot became known for his paranoid claims and his bizarre (and temporary) withdrawal during the 1992 Democratic Convention, he touched off an outsider populist movement with a centrist cut-the-national-debt ideology.
Indeed, the NBC News/WSJ poll asked whether voters would be willing to check a box on the ballot that would defeat everyone in Congress, including their own representatives. Sixty percent of those surveyed were willing to play 52-card pickup and start all over again with 535 new members of Congress.
For all the built-in advantages that should favor the Republicans in 2014 (from gerrrymandered one-party House districts to a daunting Senate map for the Democrats), I have yet to find a GOP strategist totally convinced that the party will hold its House majority. In similar fashion, Democratic consultants talk nervously about “the funky atmosphere” among the voters who soundly re-elected President Barack Obama less than a year ago.
Two factors could acerbate voter frustration with two-party politics as usual.
A strain of self-righteousness and stubbornness could prompt the president to overplay his hand during the government shutdown by refusing to accept the GOP’s eventual terms of capitulation. Just because the voters are rapidly losing patience with the Republicans does not automatically make Obama a winner. Sometimes politics can be a lose-lose game.
But the more likely outcome is that, even in defeat, the tea party wing of the Republican Party will draw the wrong lessons from its repudiation by a lopsided majority of voters. Instead of recognizing that House Republicans went too far in their implacable and implausible demands to defund Obamacare, the right wing of the GOP may perversely conclude that its congressional leaders hoisted the white flag too soon. The NBC News/WSJ poll picks up this split: 72 percent of tea party backers approve the scorched-earth tactics of the congressional GOP, while only 42 percent of non-tea-party Republicans hold similar views.
Not too long ago it would have been easy to predict that the 2014 elections would be a referendum on the rollout of Obamacare. Today, a better guess would be that the health care law will prove to be one of those partisan issues in which supporters and critics cancel each other out. There will be the inevitable clash of testimonial ads: Democrats will favor weepy spots featuring Americans getting health insurance for the first time, while Republicans will go with small-business owners wailing about how Obamacare forced them to cut jobs. And most voters will wisely hit the mute button.
What this suggests is that the after-effects from the government shutdown and the debt ceiling dance of doom are apt to become the dominant voting issues of 2014. That is why, despite the down-with-all-incumbents mood among the voters, Republicans are disproportionately at risk. Voters are accurately blaming the Republicans for the government shutdown — and that stigma will be hard to escape.
It is telling, in the NBC/WSJ poll, that 65 percent of voters think the government shutdown is hurting the economy and 63 percent describe a failure to approve a debt ceiling bill as “a serious problem.” These are memories that are not going to be erased with a handshake deal at the White House and the reopening of the national parks.
What has been happening, in effect, is that the Republicans have been re-enacting the centennial of World War I a year early.
In 1914, cheering throngs all over Europe sent their boys off to war confident that victory could be achieved in a few months with limited casualties. Instead, for the next four years, armies on both sides endured horrible death tolls in the trenches of France. And, increasingly, soldiers found it impossible to recall what they were fighting for.
So it was when the House Republicans shut down the government confident that they could win major concessions from the White House in a few days. Now they are hunkered down in the trenches, with public opinion turning against them, desperate for any rationale to abandon the battlefield. But they cannot simply surrender because … well … that would mean that they have been bleeding in the polls for nothing. Rarely has a political party lost so much so rapidly from a series of strategic blunders. So, for a change, I believe the hype. Republicans will need a long time to recover from their biggest Capitol Hill debacle in memory.
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A Wisconsin couple said they were ordered by the property owner of their apartment complex to remove their gay pride flag or face eviction.
Kevin Kollman and his partner, Merle Malterer, who rent a unit at Country Oaks Apartments in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, said they received a five-day eviction notice in the mail on Wednesday informing them that their lease would be terminated if they did not remove the gay pride American flag — which features 50 white stars and rainbow stripes — from the patio of the property.
The letter, a copy of which Kollman provided to NBC News, states the couple had breached a clause in their lease: "Tenant shall not, without permission, in the building rules or specific written approval of landlord, physically alter or redecorate the premises, cause any contractor’s lien to attach to the premises, commit waste to the premises or the property of which it is part, or attach or display anything which substantially affects the exterior of the premises or the property of which it is part."
Gay pride flag displayed on the patio at Country Oaks Apartments in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, that is rented by Kevin Kollmann and Merle Malterer. The couple was ordered to remove the flag or face eviction. Kevin Kollmann
Kollman told NBC News in a phone interview Sunday that "at that point, we were frustrated."
The couple was asked to take down a Green Bay Packers flag in January by the property owner so as to not appear as they were advertising for the football team. They complied then.
But on Wednesday, Kollman said they sought advice on social media for what they believe is a case of "selective prosecution." They contend they are being targeted because of their sexual orientation. About 10 to 12 others at Country Oaks Apartments have American and police pride flags hung from their rental units, they said.
"My flag is not doing anything," Kollman said. "It’s just a symbol of who we are, where we came from and our love for the United States."
Kollman and Malterer said they spoke late last week by phone with Kenneth Bieck, the chief executive officer of Bieck Management, which owns their rental property, and he told them he wanted the flag removed because it was visible from the management office. They informed him that they plan to keep the flag up. They said they have flown their American flag in the month of July without issue and decorate their patio seasonally.
Bieck did not immediately return a request for comment from NBC News.
NBC affiliate WBBH reported that the property owner was open to discussing the issue and does not want to evict the couple.
Kollman and Malterer have lived in their $870-a-month apartment for nearly six years and plan to renew their lease on Sunday.
"My big thing is this: I’m not going to be bullied at 52 years of age, neither is my partner," Kollman said. "We’re not going to be told we’re not in compliance with our legal right under the First Amendment."
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Welcome back to Puck Drop: NHL Preview 2013-14, where our hockey department gives you a detailed look at each team from around the NHL leading to the start of this hockey season. You can check out all our articles on our Puck Drop page. Today we finish the series by bringing you our NHL Season opening Power Rankings.
The Ranking was achived through the cumulative hard work of the hockey department as all of our hockey writers submitted votes for this one. Mitch Tierney gave a one line synopsis of the team. In parenthesis we have their final regular season standings from last year.
1. Chicago Blackhawks-x (Same as 2012-13)
The Hawks will be out to prove that they are the definition of a modern day NHL dynasty.
2. Pittsburgh Penguins-x (Same as 2012-13)
Crosby and crew will be eager to save face after being swept by the Bruins.
3. Boston Bruins-x (Up 2 from 2012-13)
A new-look core doesn’t hurt their chances of once again being a major Stanley Cup contender.
4. LA Kings-x (Up 3 from 2012-13)
The Kings failed Stanley Cup defense only adds more incentive to win this year.
5. St. Louis Blues-x (Up 1 from 2012-13)
The Blues have yet to win a cup but it doesn’t look like that fact will stand for long.
6. New York Rangers-x (Up 6 from 2012-13)
A new coach should help a very talented Rangers squad achieve their potential.
7. Vancouver Canucks-x (Up 1 from 2012-13)
Their cup hopes may be fading but they are far from gone yet.
8. Anaheim Ducks-x (Down 5 from 2012-13)
The Ducks are out to prove last year wasn’t a fluke and will do just that.
9. Detroit Red Wings-x (Up 4 from 2012-13)
The Red Wings have been too old for a long time now, but that has yet to stop them.
10. Montreal Canadiens-x (Down 6 from 2012-13)
Improvement from within should help the Habs maintain their 2012-13 success.
11. Ottawa Senators-x (Up 3 from 2012-13)
A healthy Ottawa Senators team could be a scary reality for the rest of the league.
12. Washington Capitals-x (Down 2 from 2012-13)
Ovechkin is a force again and by extension so are the Capitals.
13. Minnesota Wild-x (Up 2 from 2012-13)
Young talent surrounding proven stars makes the Wild a darkhorse this season.
14. San Jose Sharks-x (Down 3 from 2012-13)
Their Stanley Cup chances continue to fade, but every year some semblance of hope remains.
15. Dallas Stars-x (Up 6 from 2012-13)
Dallas is a lot more than…. Well what Tyler Seguin said.
16. Columbus Blue Jackets-x (Up 1 from 2012-13)
Columbus finally has an answer in the crease. The rest of the team will follow.
17. Philadelphia Flyers (Up 3 from 2012-13)
Last season’s plummet may have shed insight into the identity of this team.
18. Toronto Maple Leafs (Down 9 from 2012-13)
Despite some big offseason signings the Leafs will find it tough to make the playoffs again.
19. New York Islanders (Down 3 from 2012-13)
A new division will make it difficult for the Islanders to build on last season’s success.
20. Edmonton Oilers (Up 4 from 2012-13)
The team is annually on the verge of breaking out and yet they never have.
21. Tampa Bay Lightning (Up 7 from 2012-13)
Tampa lack substance to surround their group of elite talents.
22. Phoenix Coyotes (Down 3 from 2012-13)
Ownership stability will not help the Coyotes on the ice this season.
23. Winnipeg Jets (Down 5 from 2012-13)
The move to the west will not be easy on the Jets.
24. Nashville Predators (Up 3 from 2012-13)
The playoff days may be over for a little while in Nashville.
25. Colorado Avalanche (Up 4 from 2012-13)
They have a lot of young talent, but that will not help them in the short term.
26. Carolina Hurricanes (Same as 2012-13)
Two years ago things look so bright in Carolina, now it is going to be a long climb back.
27. New Jersey Devils (Down 5 from 2012-13)
The second Kovalchuk retired it became clear that the Devils were going to have a rough 2013-14.
28. Buffalo Sabres (Down 5 from 2012-13)
The suffering that their GM outlined will be delivered in full.
29. Florida Panthers (Up 1 from 2012-13)
The Panthers had better hope that their scouting staff know what they are doing.
30. Calgary Flames (Down 5 from 2012-13)
The rebuild has finally started for Calgary. Now the team will suffer for starting it so late.
Thanks for reading. Please give our Hockey Department a follow on Twitter: @crimsonskorpion, @TheHockeyMitch, @CMS_74_, @LastWordBigMick, @dasimonetta, @Larry_Scotti, @evan_lacey, @lastwordBKerr, @ddmatthews, @CanuckPuckHead, @thetq21 and @LastWordOnNHL, and follow the site @lastwordonsport.
Interested in writing for LastWordOnSports? If so, check out our “Join Our Team” page to find out how.
Main photo credit: Brandon Schatsiek via photopin, CC
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A pack of angry white men is taking over the White House.
Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst at Al Jazeera.
Now that the elections are over, thank God,
What America needs more urgently than anything else,
More than a different President,
A better Congress,
An honest media,
and even more than a beautiful terrific wall.
It urgently needs anger management.
Or at least therapy of some sort.
There’s so much anger in America,
I can understand why so many women are angry,
I understand why minorities are angry.
I can understand the left being angry.
They lost.
Everything they hold dear is threatened:
Minority rights,
Gay rights,
Women’s rights,
Protection of the environment,
Social security,
Healthcare, Obamacare,
Financial regulations.
They’re losing a world based on reason and rationality.
But why are the Republicans still angry?
They swept the field.
Yet they still sound furious.
Snarling about the media and journalists,
Sneering at protesters.
Yapping about Mexicans.
Barking about Muslims.
They’re yowling to make America whiter,
as if that’s what is going to make America great again.
You get the picture?
America is mad as hell,
and can’t take it any more,
which is hilarious to be honest with you, America.
I don’t mean to be insensitive or dismissive,
but you remain the richest, most prosperous, most advanced country in the world,
and you’re still democratic and liberal, the last time I checked.
Really, before you snarl, sneer and scream some more,
about how it’s all gone to hell,
you should spend a week,
in a tent in a Syrian refugee camp.
What is not funny,
indeed truly frightening,
is all this growling, howling anger,
from Trump’s associates and appointees.
It sounds like the White House
is being filled by a pack of angry, nipping, snapping
white men with control over trillions of dollars,
with the keys to international stability,
and with nuclear weapons,
dangerous to Americans and others.
Time to send in the therapists
before America’s anger, angers the rest of the world.
Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst at Al Jazeera. Follow him on Facebook.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
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Ian Anderson, only 42 years ago R.C. Baker
It all started when I was thirteen years old. I got a job washing dishes at a restaurant in a bedraggled suburb just west of Baltimore. It was the sort of benighted Seventies joint where an uprooted pot plant was once stashed in the dishwasher in a paranoid panic that narcs were going to raid the kitchen. Clueless teetotaler, I turned the machine on to better hide the evidence. I spent four hours after closing time with my stoner best friend rinsing the limp mess in a huge colander and then drying out what was salvageable in the pizza oven.
Despite that fiasco, it was a great job for a kid who loved music. I was a late-night dial-turner, discovering the Stones through a radio show determined to expose the roots of rock by playing 78s of such blues legends as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, and Bessie Smith. One particular midnight I was thunderstruck by the already broken-up Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat,” courtesy of the same college station’s wide-ranging programming. Problem was, though the Baltimore–D.C. area had a hopping concert scene, I wasn’t old enough to drive. This is where my job provided a huge benefit: The older cooks and waitresses took a shine to me, and whisked me along to all manner of rock concerts like I was some sort of team mascot. How lucky was I to see David Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs” tour? And to witness a maniacal Elton John hurling his piano bench around the stage? Not quite as mind-blowing as clips I’d seen of the dearly departed Jimi torching his axe, but heady stuff for a kid in junior high.
One cook at the restaurant was heavily into an FM station that served up a steady diet of prog rock. Plowing through the bins at the local Korvettes department store, I discovered I liked the genre’s album covers — Roger Dean’s trippy landscapes for Yes, H.R. Giger’s biomechanical temptress on the cover of Brain Salad Surgery — more than the music. Still, there was one supposedly prog (and undoubtedly oddball) outfit that blindsided me with rollicking licks and esoteric sonics: Jethro Tull. (The group is named after the eighteenth-century English agriculturalist who invented the seed drill, among other accomplishments.)
According to the Ministry of Information website, which provides historical tour info, Jethro Tull performed at the Baltimore Civic Center on March 9, 1975. That’s when the author took these pictures. R.C. Baker
I first saw Tull, fronted by multi-instrumentalist — most notably, the flute — and vocalist Ian Anderson, in 1975. I would see them many more times, because they seemed to swing through the area at least once a year during my teens. By then I’d earned enough money washing dishes to score a used 35mm Pentax, and so I became the gang’s documentarian. We could never afford the best seats, so my initial forays into concert photography came through a borrowed telephoto lens.
I have pictures of a zebra onstage with Tull (or, more accurately, someone in a zebra suit), and I’m pretty sure I remember some bouncy dung balls as well. The band’s costumes might be categorized as baroque psychedelic. At one concert, Anderson (born 1947) sported ribbed shoulder pads and a codpiece, like an athlete who’d forgotten to put on the final layer of his uniform. Which was fitting, because the lead singer–flutist-harmonicist practically never stopped gyrating — leaping, hopping, and strutting throughout the shows, using his flute alternately as baton and phallus when he wasn’t actually blowing into it.
Jethro Tull at the Baltimore Civic Center on March 9, 1975. R.C. Baker
By this time Tull had already done the album that would assure them a niche in rock’s pantheon, 1971’s Aqualung. But tracks from that monster seller, including the title song and “Locomotive Breath,” were setlist mainstays in every show I saw. Art school and other pursuits put paid to my arena-rock days, but over the decades I have still turned to Tull when riff-riddled energy was required. Just a few years ago I had to rip out a ceiling to make room for recessed lighting in a basement art studio; Aqualung figured heavily in my playlist. The album’s bring-down lyrics about humanity’s sorry destiny as filthy vagabonds wandering the park benches of creation are strikingly countered by roller-coaster guitar breaks, exuberant flute passages, and all manner of melodic ascension. Oh — and Anderson has noted in interviews that the six-note earthquake that opens the title track owes a debt to Beethoven’s Fifth.
Still, I was thoroughly surprised when a high school friend I hadn’t seen in decades Facebooked me about a spare ticket to see the Philadelphia stop of Jethro Tull’s golden anniversary tour. (Ken and I had been on the same baseball team that lost a close Maryland state playoff game to then-pitcher Cal Ripken Jr.) “Hell yeah,” I thought, “why not?” But first I wanted to look in the Voice’s archives. Any band that’s been in existence for half a century and sold tens of millions of albums — and hadn’t it won a Grammy at some point long after I stopped paying attention…? — must have gotten a lot of ink in a paper renowned for its rock ’n’ roll erudition.
First I did an online search for “Jethro Tull, 1968,” the year their inaugural album, This Was, was released. This led me to January ’69, when Tull, already popular in England, were embarking on a U.S. tour. I was impressed to discover that the band’s first American appearance had been at the Fillmore East, on Second Avenue. Sure enough, I found them in the Voice’s January 23rd issue, listed in one of the Fillmore’s distinctively bordered ads, billed below Blood, Sweat & Tears but above the Savoy Brown Blues Band.
Sharing a gig with Savoy Brown wasn’t surprising, because This Was has a heavy blues edge, inspired in part by the band’s original guitarist and sometime vocalist Mick Abrahams. The tunes had a rumbling vibrancy allied with some cocky lyrics, such as these lines from “My Sunday Feeling”: “Won’t somebody tell me where I laid my head last night?/I really don’t remember/But with one more cigarette I think I might.”
Left: From the January 23, 1969, issue. Right: From February 13, 1969 — a second tour date in the NYC area.
But Anderson and Abrahams were having “creative differences,” and this would be the first and last Tull album on which anyone other than Anderson would sing lead or write any of the songs. In fact, the liner notes for the album state, “This was how we were playing then — but things change — don’t they?” And indeed, when Tull played their first stateside gig, they had a new guitarist, Martin Barre. They also garnered what might be their first U.S. review, which appeared in the Voice’s Riffs section. Written by Jennifer Gale, it follows a paragraph about headliner Blood, Sweat & Tears, and reads in full:
JETHRO TULL, also at the Fillmore, does nice things for your head. I found myself sitting crosslegged in a dark little corner, really digging them — but I was told that you had to watch them, which I couldn’t because they did some very weird things on stage. Ian Anderson does that flute thing beautifully (also vocals), and drummer Clive Bunker is dynamite. When an audience listens to a drum solo for more than 3½ minutes and applauds wildly when it’s over, you know it’s got to be something else.
Tull’s first review in America?
Did the band see this review? Hopefully, because after this lonely paragraph it was pretty rough sledding for them in the pages of the Voice. It’s worth noting that Gale singled out “some very weird things on stage.” I only wish she had elaborated, as anyone who’s seen Tull will remember how those elaborate costumes and vaudeville-level stage antics add compelling (and often funny) visual layers to their eclectic tunes.
I also checked to see if the record company was doing its job. Sure enough, I found an ad running a month later, to coincide with the U.S. release of This Was, filled with fulsome — if purposefully ironic — praise.
Voice music editor Robert Christgau was having none of it, though. In one of his always sublimely terse Consumer Guide columns, he summed up Tull’s first effort: “Ringleader Ian Anderson has come up with a unique concept that combines the worst of Roland Kirk, Arthur Brown, and your nearest G.O. blues band. I find his success very depressing. C-”
The next two albums, Stand Up and Benefit, both garner grudging B-minuses.
Next I turned to the April 22, 1971, issue, and Tull are on tour again, this time to promote Aqualung, their musings on Man’s creation of God selling well enough to hit No. 7 on the Billboard charts. As is obvious from the sold out banner, the lads from Blackpool were beginning to conquer America.
Touring as “Aqualung” climbed the charts
And Aqualung was a hit with the voters (if not the editor) of the first Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Competition was tough — the Who, the Stones, Van Morrison, John Lennon, Sly and the Family Stone, Joplin, Bowie — but the bizarre longhairs with a lead flutist landed in the No. 22 spot, ahead of Alice Cooper and Led Zeppelin.
Christgau may not agree, but that other Goliath of rock criticism, the Rolling Stone hive mind, eventually placed Aqualung at No. 337 on its list of the 500 best rock albums.
Early on during this spiral down the memory hole, I checked the Voice’s old-school, in-house card catalog, which, though spotty, was most thoroughly maintained from the late 1960s through the early ’90s. Hmmm…absolutely nothing for “Jethro Tull”? Really?
And no way it’d be under “Tull, Jethro,” right?
Well, I didn’t exactly hit pay dirt, but there was a single entry.
Catalogue card typed up by an overly fastidious Voice librarian
In the October 6, 1987, issue, critic Peter Watrous used Tull as an example of corporate rock at its most smarmy, in contrast to the stripped-down garage rockers Pussy Galore. He quotes a press release: “Chrysalis Records is pleased to be releasing on September 16th the new album from Jethro Tull, Crest of a Knave.” After Watrous rails against such outrages as “the Marshall Crenshaw/Wynton Marsalis axis of mood thieves,” he continues with the Tull promo copy: “Earlier this year, Chrysalis Records and Ian Anderson worked on a number of listening sessions to help determine what it is the Tull fan wants and expects in a Jethro Tull album.”
A bit further on, Watrous claims, “Pussy Galore is rock without the romantic idea of emotions, and it uncovers how sentimentality manipulates, even with the best intentions: emote here, eat now, everything in orderly fashion, control.” He then continues hanging Tull upon their own promotional petard: “Targeting 12 markets around the country where Jethro Tull has been most popular throughout the years, we enlisted the help of the local AOR station to recruit 50 or so listeners in each city to participate in these sessions.” The Chrysalis flacks go on to tell us that people of various ages and professions rated the songs so as to “help in choosing what tracks would be included on the final version.… Crest of a Knave is the result of this very successful project.”
Watrous obviously didn’t like focus groups, which in this case were edging into crowdsourcing. But it’s really not surprising that Ian Anderson, a world-girdling crowd-pleaser, proved a presciently savvy networker back when the internet wasn’t much more than a fantasy in such sci-fi novels as Neuromancer.
But the saga of Crest of a Knave doesn’t stop there. A little more than a year after it was released, Tull’s audience-tested album unexpectedly won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental, from judges who were obviously grappling with the parameters of the expanding genre. Since other nominees included AC/DC, Jane’s Addiction, and the heavily favored Metallica, no member of Jethro Tull was on hand to accept the prize. Perhaps, for a band that has always displayed an almost Monty Python–ish level of absurdity in its members’ stage personas, this out-of-left-field award is appropriate for its one and only gilded gramophone.
So how do Jethro Tull come across in 2018?
Well, at the Mann Center in Philadelphia on Saturday night they cranked out a kicking version of the flute-fest “Bourée,” Anderson’s update of a Bach composition, which appeared on the second Tull album, Stand Up. The single song that made up 1972’s conceptual send-up Thick as a Brick was played somewhat in reverse, eschewing the acoustic buildup and going straight to the time-changing marching song that threads through the album. Brisk and bouncy (and shortened to maybe one-tenth of its original 43-minute-plus length), it ended with sweet guitar strumming, the crowd singing along with the closing lines.
Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull performing in Philadelphia, September 8, 2018 R.C. Baker
At one point Anderson commiserated with the audience about drum solos that go on “for hours [pause] days [pause] weeks,” and then the band dove into “Dharma for One,” which was on the first album and was co-written by then-drummer Clive Bunker — and so of course always includes a showcase for the man with the sticks. Just like at the Fillmore in 1969, the crowd half a century on went wild.
“Farm on the Freeway,” from that groupthink claptrap collection (and Grammy winner) Crest of a Knave, was a revelation, sizzling with melodic reverb. Like all the songs played that night, it was accompanied by quick-cutting graphics on a large screen behind the band — in this case, of tractors and freeways. Certainly the graphics are illustrational, but they’ve also been edited to match the rhythmic steeplechases of the music. And the “Farm” lyrics — “What do I want with a million dollars and a pickup truck?/When I left my farm under the freeway” — proved surprisingly emotional.
Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull performing in Philadelphia, September 8, 2018 R.C. Baker
Anderson has been gamely playing “Too Old to Rock ’n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!” since 1976. In Philly, four decades on, balding and potbellied, he sang before his younger, swaggering self, Hollywood-size behind him. There are those who complain that rockers growing old and still playing is a bad thing. Perhaps they are some of the same people who said, “Never trust anyone over thirty,” before they passed thirty themselves. Rockers, like athletes, lose many of their skills before they give up the ghost. Still, anyone who’s been to an old-timers’ day for their favorite baseball team knows that those living, breathing bodies add immeasurably to the moment.
Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull performing in Philadelphia, September 8, 2018 R.C. Baker
If the knucklebones of saints in a reliquary mean something to one kind of believer, does seeing these performing embodiments of one’s youth — and also of one’s (hopefully) ongoing ideals — offer similar solace before the inevitable?
During the show, various rock luminaries, enlarged on the screen, introduced songs from the Tull catalog. Toward the evening’s conclusion, Slash loomed up to describe “Aqualung” as “one of rock ’n’ roll’s greatest songs.” Indeed, in concert it remains an indomitable force, working on the viscera as much as the ears.
Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull performing in Philadelphia, September 8, 2018 R.C. Baker
Tull will be playing the Beacon tomorrow night. You’ve probably heard tell that, over the years, Ian Anderson has lost the robust range of his youthful singing voice. Maybe those cigarettes he was singing about all the way back on “My Sunday Feeling” took their toll. But if you ask me what I ultimately thought of his performance on Saturday night, wailing away on his flute and harmonica and croaking those familiar songs, I might have to quote Hunter Thompson. Writing about his bias in favor of George McGovern, who was running against Nixon in 1972, the same year Thick as a Brick was released, Thompson said, “So much for Objective Journalism. Don’t bother to look for it here — not under any byline of mine.” So, what can I say — it was a great show.
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A vulnerability mostly affecting older versions of Google's Android operating system may make it possible for attackers to execute malicious code on end-user smartphones that use a wide variety of apps, researchers said.
The weakness resides in a widely used programming interface known as WebView, which allows developers to embed Web-based content into apps used for banking, entertainment, and other purposes. Many apps available on the official Google Play market don't properly secure the connection between the WebView component on a phone and the Web content being downloaded, researchers from UK-based MWR Labs recently warned. That makes it possible for attackers who are on the same open Wi-Fi network as a vulnerable user to hijack the connection and inject malicious code that can be executed by the phone.
"The lowest impact attack would be downloading contents of the SD card and the exploited application's data directory," the researchers wrote in an advisory published earlier this week. "However, depending on the device that was exploited this could extend to obtaining root privileges, retrieving other sensitive user data from the device or causing the user monetary loss."
Researchers from several other security firms said they are also aware of the weakness, which can affect apps that run on Android versions 4.1 and earlier and don't make proper use of the secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption protocol. Elad Shapira, a researcher with antivirus provider AVG recently demonstrated how an app that has already been given permission to access SMS capabilities (a common setting with many legitimate apps) could be hijacked by malicious JavaScript code that sends expensive text messages to premium services.
Google representatives declined to comment for this story.
Cross-device attacks
Einar Otto Stangvik, a security consultant with Indev.no, said he has identified Android banking apps used in Norway that are also open to remote-code attacks that make users more susceptible to phishing attacks. He theorized that attackers might exploit the weakness by planting malware on a target's PC that hijacks a smartphone when both devices are connected to the same network.
"I am confident that we'll soon see many more cross-device attacks, where a compromised computer starts targeting cell phones on the internal network," he wrote in an e-mail to Ars. "That is what makes the JavaScript interface leak scary, along with the amount of poor uses of SSL, or worse still: no SSL at all."
The vulnerability stems from JavaScript-based programming interfaces exposed in many Android apps. The interfaces are the code equivalent of a highly restricted bridge that links sensitive parts of Android's Dalvik virtual machine to the Web. If the interface isn't fully contained inside an SSL connection, it's possible for hackers to mimic the legitimate website and, in effect, gain unauthorized access to the bridge. From there, an attacker can inject malicious JavaScript into the app. MWR Labs researchers reverse engineered the 100 most popular apps on Google Play and found 62 of them that are "potentially vulnerable" to the exploit. Potentially vulnerable apps as defined by the researchers were those apps that were developed using libraries or programming interfaces known to expose unprotected JavaScript commands to a variety of third-party ad networks under many but not all circumstances.
The reports of the weak apps come almost a year after two academic reports uncovered wide-ranging deficiencies in the cryptographic protections in smartphone software. One found that Android apps used by as many as 185 million people contained holes that leaked login credentials and other sensitive data even though they were supposed to be protected by SSL. The other revealed a variety of apps running on Android and PCs that were fooled by fraudulent SSL certificates. It's possible that similar defects could fail to protect code exposed in WebView objects even when developers think they're properly contained inside an SSL channel.
The good news
While the vulnerability is potentially serious, there are several limitations that minimize the damage attackers can do when exploiting vulnerable apps. Chief among them is the fact that Android's permissions and sandboxing mechanisms prevent most Android apps from installing other apps without explicit permission from the end user. That will probably prevent the technique from being used to install malicious apps in most cases. As a backup, the "Verify Apps" setting available in all versions of Android could also be updated to stop malicious installations should attackers find a way to bypass the permissions and sandbox protections.
What's more, Tim Wyatt, director of security engineering at smartphone security provider Lookout, said some researchers may be exaggerating the threat of attackers obtaining root privileges unless they can exploit a second, unknown vulnerability in Android's permissions and sandbox protections.
Another mitigating factor: beginning with version 4.2 of Android, Google added new security enhancements that among other things introduced something called the @JavascriptInterface annotation. The function makes it easier for a developer to restrict the methods that can be called on a scriptable object. Unfortunately, it requires the developer to take explicit action to do so. If the developer fails to heed that advice, the app will remain vulnerable.
Still, while the weakness can largely be prevented in Android 4.2, users are protected only if developers of each app follow best practices. Additionally, the vast majority of users remain locked into carrier contracts that prevent them from upgrading. That means it's up to app developers to follow best practices such as limiting the functionality exposed in JavaScript and securing communications channels for any WebView-exposing scriptable objects using SSL or its sister protocol, known as transport layer security (TLS). And as the MWR Labs researchers discovered, many widely used apps can't be trusted to practice those common-sense guidelines.
"Exploiting this would require getting access to an exposed JavaScript object, and so in most cases, that would require hijacking content delivered by a server," Tim Wyatt of Lookout told Ars. "It is therefore pretty critical that developers using JavaScript callbacks secure the delivery channels properly (e.g. using TLS with a proper certificate chain to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks)."
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PHOTO COURTESY OF FLICKR/CHUCK GRIMMETT
Libraries maintaining meeting room facilities should develop and publish policy statements governing use. These statements can properly define time, place, or manner of use; such qualifications should not pertain to the content of a meeting or to the beliefs or affiliations of the sponsors. These statements should be made available in any commonly used language within the community served.
If meeting rooms in libraries supported by public funds are made available to the general public for non-library sponsored events, the library may not exclude any group based on the subject matter to be discussed or based on the ideas that the group advocates. For example, if a library allows charities and sports clubs to discuss their activities in library meeting rooms, then the library should not exclude partisan political or religious groups from discussing their activities in the same facilities. If a library opens its meeting rooms to a wide variety of civic organizations, then the library may not deny access to a religious organization.
A group advocating for the legalization of medical marijuana in Missouri has been barred from meeting at the Rolla Public Library, according to members.An attorney for New Approach Missouri, the nonprofit campaigning to put the issue on the 2018 ballot, described the library’s denial as a violation of the organizer’s First Amendment rights.Randy Johnson, a volunteer coordinator, wanted to schedule a meeting at the library to train other volunteers on how to “properly and ethically” collect signatures for the new petition. He says he called the library Feb. 26 to book a public meeting room and was told that he would need to get the director’s approval.But when Johnson told the director the purpose of the meeting, “She immediately said, ‘No, we can’t have that; it’s besides the children’s area,” Johnson recalls. “I said, ‘Well ma’am, do you accept state funds?’ She said she did. I said it’s free speech; she’s not allowed to do that, and she said that she and her board ultimately have the choice.”Diana Watkins, the director of the library, declined to comment. An attorney for the city stated in a letter to the New Approach attorney that the library is not governed by the city and directed him to contact an attorney on the board.When the Riverfront Times tried to contact that attorney, Paul McMahon, a staff member in his office directed the reporter to call the city attorney.The issue is only the latest hurdle that New Approach Missouri volunteers have faced in trying to legalize medical marijuana in Missouri.The group nearly had a medical marijuana measure on the ballot in the recent election, but in November, a judge invalidated 10,000 signatures from people who signed a petition in the wrong voting district. That meant the nonprofit did not have enough signatures Rolla, which has a population of about 19,000 people, is about an hour and 40 minute drive southwest of St. Louis. The library website says that its nine board members are appointed by the city's mayor. All are volunteers.The American Library Association's guidelines hold that library directors should not make such value judgments.Johnson says he is advocating for medical marijuana because he has done significant research on the drug and thinks it could help a sister who has multiple-sclerosis and has severe muscle spasms and a niece who has seizures daily.“I wholly believe in medical marijuana; In Israel, they have been doing research on it for over 50 years, and they have scientific proof” of its benefits, says Johnson, who is 58 and lives in St. James, which is nine miles from Rolla.He has also held meetings to train volunteers at libraries at the Lake of the Ozarks and in Camdenton County. Rolla, he notes, is “a very conservative area, but I know quite a few people that are conservative, Christian, go to church, but they would still vote for it. However I don’t know if they would stand up in front of their peers and say so.”If he were able to schedule a meeting at the library, Johnson said he would just be training people in how to collect signatures.“There is no reason for [the director] to stop this; I’m not trying to push anything on anybody — especially children,” he says.He plans to again call the library and try to schedule a meeting for April 14. If he is turned down, he said he will stand in front of the library and try to collect signatures. New Approach attorney Michael Hill says the organization would also then consider “all options, including litigation.”
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There is something rotten on the Island of Sodor, home to Thomas the Tank Engine. Viewers won’t find guns, violence, or anything even approaching a double-entendre. There’s none of the blatant racism of early Disney Song of the South or religion delivered through talking produce, as in Veggie Tales. Yet something about Thomas and Friends gives liberal parents the creeps.
For example: In 2009, academic Shauna Wilton wrote that Thomas carried a “conservative political ideology.” Her report was derided as whimsy-hating “political correctness” by conservative media outlets. But wait: Thomas espouses top-down leadership, is male-dominated, punishes dissent, and is uninterested in the mushy sensitivity of its PBS counterparts. (Thomas and his “friends” often “tease” like this: ” ‘Wake up lazy bones! Do some hard work for a change!”) Its innate conservatism is as obvious as the liberalism of cooperative, solar-panel-building Bob the Builderand his band of hippie hammer-lovers. Given charges that Thomas is anti - Semitic and that Sodor is a fascist paradise, Wilton’s assessment is mild. Obviously, it’s foolish to claim that Thomas is a fascist. He and his friends are clearly imperialists.
How did I get here? Having failed to reach that perfect bar of parenting, no television at all until Harvard, the exhausted parent critic sits with a train-obsessed child and the TV. I’m overeducated and understimulated, with shelves full of long-ignored critical-theory books, trained in the reading of “texts” through Marxist, feminist, and postmodern perspectives. It’s no wonder that the dormant critical theorist within me awakens when faced with the coded wonderland of children’s programming. Hitchcock is well-covered territory, but Thomas and Friends presents a minefield of untapped deconstructing opportunities!
It may be a few years before I lay out the particularities of British imperialism to my son (I think 5 is probably about right for Kipling criticism), but it’s still important to instill basic skepticism in your young media consumer. Otherwise, you face the very real possibility that your toddler, raised in an environment full of labor abuses and pro-toadying propaganda, might one day look at you and earnestly promise to be “very useful”—the show’s highest compliment for an engine. In our home, Thomas and Friends must rule Brittania no more, and some ugly truths about unjust train society must be told.
On the Island of Sodor, the sun has not yet set on the British Empire, and the consequences of defiance are illustrated in parables like “Hiro Helps Out.” Hiro, Asian immigrant (he is voiced by Japanese actor Togo Igawa, and the images of his island home mirror traditional ukiyo-e woodcuttings)and onetime “Master of the Rails,” here oversteps his authority. In an effort to assist Sir Topham Hatt, the “controller of the rails,” who is oddly discombobulated, Hiro decides to give the other trains their orders himself. But initiative is not a virtue on the Island of Sodor, and stepping above one’s station is a serious offense. When Sir Topham Hatt finds that Hiro has appointed himself middle-manager, he is furious (“I am controller of the railway!”).
Hiro apologizes profusely, almost tearfully (“I thought I was master of the rails, but I am only master of the muddle”), but that is not enough. Hiro must go to each individual train to prostrate himself and explain that only Sir Topham Hatt gives orders. He apologizes to each train for giving them instruction, saying “I was wrong. Sir Topham Hatt didn’t want that at all.” Once he has completed his shame tour (one half-expects Hiro to commit hara-kiri than face the depth of his dishonor), Hiro chugs back to Sir Topham Hatt’s side, where the benevolent master tells him he is “helpful,” which in turn makes Hero “happier than he had ever been.” To say this is a little conservative is like saying that Animal Farm is a little allegorical.
Yet the conservatism of Thomas and Friends is not the conservatism of America. Key to the “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” mythos in the United States is the notion that anyone can rise to the top with hard work and initiative. The Thomas series glories instead in true “white man’s burden” style British imperialism. Our hero, Thomas, and his friends jockey for positions just below that of the bullying aristocrat Sir Topham Hatt but never seek to rise to his level. The stern, dour little Englishman in top hat and tails dangles meaningless honors like getting to “carry the most special special” to divide and conquer the trains.
Sir Topham Hatt, careful to curb over-confidence, expresses paternalistic disappointment in his engines with the admonishment that that they “have caused confusion and delay.” As a reward for good behavior, he assigns them to hard labor on the ever-expanding “duke and duchess’ summer house,” yet another “special special.” Enforcing their role as grateful servants to the Sodor upper class, Sir Topham Hatt gives the trains demeaning tasks like picking up his niece, even when their paint jobs are not yet complete! James the engine has to go out pink, even though his self-worth is tied to being red and he is teased mercilessly by the other engines! Still, the trains speak Sir Topham Hatt’s name in hushed tones and do whatever he commands without question.
One suspects that Sir Topham Hatt spent some time in colonial India. Thomas’ creator, the Rev. Wilbert Awdry, certainly idealized the British empire of the 19th and early 20th centuries in his Railway Series books. An Oxford-educated Anglican clergyman, Awdry told his first train story to measles-ridden son Christopher in 1943, while a minister in Birmingham (in exile for his pacifist views on World War II). He began to write and publish his stories in 1945, setting his trains’ adventures on Sodor, an island situated, according to Mark I. West’s A Children’s Tour of British Literature, “in the North Sea … not only set off physically from Britain, but also separated from the modernization that occurred in Britain after World War II.” On Sodor, the messiness of midcentury British class conflicts, civil-rights movements, and post-colonial political struggles never happened, erased by a minister nostalgic for the power and the glory of the British empire. The reverend later reflected on his two vocations, railways and the church, by saying, “both had their heyday in the mid-nineteenth century; both are regularly assailed by critics; and both are firmly convinced that they are the best means of getting man to his ultimate destination.”
If you observe closely, that destination is a nasty, brutish one. The trains, complicit in maintaining this unjust system, humiliate each other for the small scraps of praise the little tyrant doles out rather than banding together (no unions on Sodor). Thomas and Percy are supposedly best friends, but they bicker constantly over those “special special” jobs. These rivalries are punctuated by nasty banter (“Thomas knew that Percy was scared, so he teased him even more” doesn’t sound like a very healthy friendship), which fuels the larger system of cruelty.
Whenever trains express interest in travelling, or doing another job, or flying like Harold the Helicopter, they are mocked and derided until they stop dreaming and accept their station. Engines who threaten efficiency with burdensome personalities, such as the criminally giggly “Logging Locos,” are banished from Sodor. When new and foreign trains arrive on the island, they are subject to jealousy and derision, as the Sodor engines are continually made to fear obsolescence. When Hiro, once the most impressive engine on Sodor, is found literally rotting in the forest after years of neglect in Hero of the Rails, he begs Thomas not to tell Sir Topham Hatt, for fear of being made into scrap metal because he is no longer “really useful.” Through humiliating trials, these foreign engines either abandon their strange customs (i.e., pride, inability to take a firm hand with serf-like cargo) and adapt to Sodorian culture or fail to overcome their otherness and leave. Hiro is eventually restored to his former glory (Sir Topham Hatt remembers the onetime master of the rails from his childhood; would he have saved a small engine unknown to him?), but still chooses to go back to his island, to be among his own kind.
Within the engine ranks, the trains enforce clear hierarchies and mirror the class rigidity of their aristocratic masters. “Steamies” are better than “dirty diesels,” and the number of tenders a train commands are his marks of distinction. In Misty Island Rescue, Sir Topham Hatt offers the privilege of pulling special “jobi” wood to the most useful engine. When “Diesel” (that is his name; his caste merits no proper name) suggests that he might compete for this honor, Thomas laughs at him, saying, “I’m sure [Hatt] means a really useful steamy; you’ll never be that!” When Diesel decides to prove Thomas wrong by stealing the jobi logs and pulling them himself, thus reinforcing all negative diesel stereotypes, he speeds dangerously out of control. Thomas, primarily concerned with saving the cargo, saves Diesel as he hangs off a cliff, but loses the wood. Thomas is unable to feel much pride in saving another’s life and sighs balefully over the loss of such valuable timber. Sir Topham Hatt reinforces this perverse value system by bemoaning the loss of the wood, and publicly shames Diesel before sending him back to work in a dark tunnel. Did I mention that Diesel is black?
Since the company HIT entertainment took over the Thomas franchise in 2003, it has revamped the show’s original model-train style and done away with the incongruous narration of liberals George Carlin and Alec Baldwin. (Please imagine Alec Baldwin saying, “You’re just a small green engine with ideas above your station!”) The new Thomas is a CGI’d, multiple voice actor extravaganza with nary an iconoclast narrator in sight, and the cast of trains has diversified a bit. There are more female and foreign engines, the narratives have softened, and Sir Topham Hatt occasionally smiles. But once you have engaged in Thomas cultural criticism, there’s no going back. It’s nearly impossible to listen to lines like “being strong was only good if you were also really useful, and he had to be really useful” without hearing something sinister. Cast off your shackles and rise up, little engines! Down with Topham Hatt! Sodor revolution now!
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The government has set out new plans on air pollution that ministers say go beyond existing EU rules, with a pledge to improve air quality nationwide to the standards the World Health Organization (WH0) recommends.
Farmers will be subject to such air quality regulations for the first time to cut their growing contribution to pollution, under the government plans set out on Monday, while diesel vehicle drivers and owners of wood-burning stoves will also face restrictions.
Under the government’s plans, only the cleanest forms of biomass stoves will be available from 2022, and farmers will be required to reduce their fertiliser use and the emissions of ammonia – a potent air-polluting gas, which can combine with other forms of air pollution to lodge small particles deep in the lungs – from fertiliser and livestock. Sales of bituminous or traditional house coal may also be phased out.
Ministers said the number of people living in areas with pollution above WHO guidelines would be halved by 2025. The government said air pollution was one of the biggest threats to public health in the UK, behind only cancer, obesity and heart disease.
But critics said the plans were short on detail, with no deadlines for meeting the WHO limits, and fell short of the status of EU targets, which are enshrined in law. Legal challenges to the government over its failure to adhere to EU rules, which resulted in a supreme court ruling against ministers last year, have played a key part in bringing air pollution to government attention in the last five years.
The social and economic costs of air pollution in the UK were likely to be greater than previously thought, the government said, citing calculations that the cost of air pollution could reach £18.6bn between now and 2035. Ministers said the new plans should reduce the cost to the NHS and society by £1.7bn a year by 2020, rising to £5.3bn a year from 2030.
Fresh science on the dangers of air pollution has been piling up. On Saturday, the Guardian reported new evidence that air pollution can increase the risk of miscarriage in early pregnancy, compared by one doctor to the effects of smoking. In recent years, studies have linked air pollution to dementia, heart conditions and birth defects. About 7 million people a year are estimated to die from air pollution around the world.
Michael Gove, the environment secretary, said the UK needed a new strategy to improve air quality. “The evidence is clear: while air quality has improved significantly in recent years, air pollution continues to shorten lives, harm our children and reduce quality of life,” he said.
After Brexit, the UK will no longer be subject to EU legislation on air pollution, which the government has flouted repeatedly in the last decade, and which has formed the basis of challenges by campaigners that have forced ministers to change course and put in place measures to reduce the problem.
The government is aiming to phase out sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
The government has not made it clear whether there will be new legislation that would allow ministers to be held to account in future over the commitments they are making.
Simon Alcock, the head of public affairs at ClientEarth, a legal advocacy group that has taken the government to court on several occasions, called for a clearer framework: “Action to protect people’s health must be a requirement, not a nice-to-have.”
Gove said traffic pollution – targeted by campaigners as the key source of small particles that lodge deep in the lungs, and nitrogen oxides and other gases that irritate the breathing passages – was only part of the problem. “While air pollution may conjure images of traffic jams and exhaust fumes, transport is only one part of the story, and the new strategy sets out the important role all of us can play in reducing emissions and cleaning up our air to protect our health,” said Gove.
There were no new major measures in the strategy to combat pollution from vehicles, but a restatement of last year’s pledge to end the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, which campaigners said was too far away.
Morten Thaysen, a clean air campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “The government is saying all the right things about the huge cost in human lives and money, but is proposing nothing new to tackle pollution from road transport. A 2040 phase-out date for diesel and petrol is effectively saying that yes, your grandchildren deserve clean air, but your children will have to go on breathing toxic fumes so as not to disrupt the car industry’s sales forecasts.”
A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told the Guardian: “We will not weaken our environmental protection when we leave the EU, but will maintain and even enhance our already high environmental standards. Our clean air strategy shows how we will go further and faster than the EU in reducing human exposure to particulate-matter pollution. This will be underpinned by new England-wide powers to control major sources of air pollution, plus new local powers to take action in areas with an air pollution problem.”
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Some time ago I wrote a post on form generation. It mostly came from my experience with FunFormKit, early versions of FormEncode, and then what FormEncode is now (which is strictly a validation library).
Now there's some new form generation libraies in the works; ToscaWidgets, Django newforms, and I hear rumors of a few others. I feel bad poo-pooing other people's work, but I don't think this approach is a good approach.
A form generation library is a hard library to write. You have to balance complexity and features. There are a lot of potential features. How do you tweak the forms? How do you control layout? How do you handle repeating form elements? How do you handle elements that require Javascript? Server-side resources like CSS and Javascript? Server-side communication like auto-complete? A simple library cannot handle a lot of these. But very simple forms don't need form generation libraries. So a simple library only handles a narrow band of use cases. A complex library can potentially handle all these cases, but can be difficult to use for the most common cases.
I will assert that as the libraries are usually designed, there is no good balance. Not all problems have feasible solutions. Form generation libraries are one such problem, but they don't seem to be such a problem.
There's a cycle going on in the library development. A developer has certain requirements. Usually they also hate HTML, and may very well be working with an awkward templating language, and maybe they aren't very excited about the task at hand and building a library is a pleasant diversion. But anyway, they Do The Right Thing (or so they think) and try an existing library. It's complex, it doesn't match the way they think about the problem, the bugs in their code are hard to figure out, and adjusting the things they (or their boss or client) cares about is difficult.
And they think "I can do this so much more simply!" The developer is kind of right. They know exactly what they want to do (now), and they can improve their productivity some.
The problem is that no library ends there. It can't end there. Because someone uses the library, and the code must be maintained. Form generation is a hard thing to maintain, because it has to be actively maintained. New fields are added. New cases and exceptions come into being. Anything that touches UI can be redefined in weird and unexpected ways. Good UI is usually eclectic and nonsensical from the perspective of a programmer. UI should be consistent with the user's notion of the domain, not the program's internal modeling of the domain, and it is uncommon that the two really match up.
So you get new requirements over time. A straight list of checkboxes used to be reasonable, but then the number of options expanded too far and now you need two columns of checkboxes. So you add in a little bit of code, both in the library and the application, to handle that case. You want to have a text field that contains its own label when its empty. The validation becomes increasingly complex. Maybe you have a multi-screen form, or maybe a form with optional fields, or who knows. So you add code to the library and the application each time (if you control both of them). It gets more and more complex while at the same time the developer's familiarity with the library code becomes more and more remote. And that's not even to mention when a non-programmer wants to tweak the HTML, or there is developer turnover, or when you don't control the library at all...
It's a mess. And so someone comes along and says "I can do this so much more simply!" and it starts all over again.
The problem domain is wrong. I think there's a better approach, but I'm too lazy to finish it. So I'll lay down the design here, with little expectation that anything will happen because of it, but just maybe this will connect with someone. (Ideally someone who will write code ;)
First, validation: I like how FormEncode works, I think it's the right model. Validation completely separate from the rest of the system, and you can programmatically construct the validation so you can embed it in other systems if you want (and embedding it is probably a good idea).
Second: forms. First, the simplest model: write it in a normal template. But this is annoying people will cry. Why?
Filling in defaults is annoying. You have to do this little dance: is the value in the request (e.g., resubmission)? Then use that. Is it passed in through some defaults? Then use that. Otherwise? Maybe another default, or blank. Filling in errors is annoying. Similar dance to defaults. The <label> tag is somewhat annoying to generate, which is perhaps why many very high-traffic websites still don't properly do labels. I suppose the HTML is annoying in general, though it's only slightly more verbose than the programming code that might replace it. Javascript can be annoying, and many web developers still aren't comfortable with Javascript. Getting all the right Javascript and CSS files in place, and linking them up with the appropriate fields is awkward. Ajax callbacks are really annoying. Nested and repeating fields compound every other kind of annoying. It's hard to reuse any of this.
My response is that these issues can be resolved without form generation libraries. formencode.htmlfill addresses 1 and 2. It's not perfect, but it's usable. Things like WebHelpers can help with 4. Neither of these needs to be the implementation, and both could be improved. But while remaining in their scope they can only be improved a little, which is important. They will not become endless time sinks.
Unobtrusive Javascript solves 5 quite well. I think a tool for solving 6 -- the proper inclusion of dependent CSS and Javascript -- could be handy. I imagine <input type="date" js-require="DateInput"> calling some code that figures out where DateInput is (probably building on something like JSAN package metadata) and puts the appropriate code in the head of the page.
7 and 8 are addressed quite nicely by the Web Forms 2.0 WHAT-WG specification, and tools building on those models would be excellent.
And once you have all this, I think 9 is much more approachable. Because you don't need a framework, you just need stuff that generates blank HTML that also uses a few of these simple conventions.
Notably, these techniques embrace the abstractions HTML and Javascript already allow. Also, each tool can be useful on its own, and can be used, not used, or reimplemented on its own. The hard part is that any one tool seems terribly simple and lacking features compared to a form generation framework. But if slow and steady can win the race it might not matter; the other form generation frameworks will suffer the churn of the reimplementation cycle while these simpler and duller tools will better stand the test of time. And even if they don't, unlike a framework the healthy decoupled set of tools can suffer the failure of one piece (in design, maintenance, or implementation) without compromising the entire stack.
Now someone please go build the missing pieces, because I'm trying really hard not to start more projects.
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15851
The usual process for an album is write it, record it, mix it, fiddle with a bit more, present to record label – who LOVE it, obv – release it, tour it.
But not all albums get to enjoy a normal, happy life. Some of the less fortunate ones miss out. Whether they simply come along at the wrong time, don't sound right, aren't good enough or don't make sense, an unfinished or unreleased album is a reminder to us all that perfection can be tough.
In a way, shelved projects become even more loved and precious, as fans clamour to get their hands on these legendary rarities. In celebration of the music industry's unloved, ugly stepchild, we look back at some of the most famous or surprising unreleased gems.
Victoria Beckham
Are these the most notorious unreleased albums of them all? Yes, that's right, not one, but two! Set to follow her double-A side Let Your Head Go/This Groove, Open Your Eyes and Come Together had an enormous buzz around them, thanks in part to Victoria's high profile friendship with hip-hop producer Damon Dash. Sadly, label issues and perhaps a few creative wobbles meant that neither collection were released, although R&B flavoured Come Together did leak online recently and wasn't half-bad, tbh. One lost track that did find its way to success was Resentment, which ended up being recorded by… Beyoncé. For real.
MORE: Baby boy, you can have what I got, get what you want – in Victoria Beckham's solo chart archive
Drake – It's Never Enough
Canadian rapper Drake was pretty pumped about this mixtape, which featured him singing rather than rhyming and was due to drop in 2010. "I'm really excited about It's Never Enough," said Drizzy at the time. "I might pick a beautiful woman and shoot a video. I have some ideas." Sadly, those ideas never came to fruition, because Drake had second thoughts and instead concentrated on his next album-proper Take Care, which went Top 5 in 2011.
MORE: See all the Drake albums that did come out and thus hit the Official Albums Chart
David Bowie – Toy
Originally slated for release in 2001, this album saw the Thin White Duke put together both new songs and reworkings of some of his very earliest tracks from the '60s. Scheduling issues were mooted as a reason for the album's delay, but whatever happened, the album, which was "finished and ready to go" according to Bowie, was never released in its intended form. Some tracks were worked on further and ended up on later releases, and a version of the album itself leaked a whole decade after it was recorded.
MORE: Set aside a couple of hours and go through David Bowie's impressive UK chart history
Amelia Lily – Be A Fighter
It's not uncommon for stars' debut albums to be shelved if singles don't perform too well or they feel the direction isn't quite right. X Factor star Amelia actually scored a couple of Top 10s, but it was decided her debut Be A Fighter needed a bit more work, so it was shelved – fairly late in the day, actually, cover art and tracklistings were widely circulated.
Here's what could've been – the released artwork for Be A Fighter
Nicole Scherzinger – Her Name is Nicole
Way before she was making The X Factor all schermazing, Nicole was, lest we forget, an actual popstar. After scoring global success as Pussycat Dolls' lead vocalist – and background vocalist, let's be real – Nicole decided to take advantage of the group's hiatus to go it alone with debut album Her Name Is Nicole. Things got pretty far along the process, as promo copies were available, but after the lacklustre performance of single Baby Love (which did OK here, Number 14) the project was canned.
MORE: See all Nicole Scherzinger's actual hit albums and singles in her archive
Green Day – Cigarettes and Valentines
One of the very saddest stories linked to an unreleased album, the main issue with this one wasn't that the guys didn't love the material, it was taken from them. Cigarettes and Valentines, slated as the follow-up to 2000's The Warning, was just a whisker away from completion when, in 2003, the master tapes were stolen. 20 songs gone, just like that. Feeling pretty dispirited, Green Day opted not to rerecord the tracks but to start all over again. Imagine! But it wasn't all bad: they regrouped to make American Idiot, which was a worldwide hit, selling 2.1 million copies in the UK alone and spawning a musical.
MORE: See all Green Day's UK hit singles and albums
Adele
How do you follow an international smash second album that's spawned two million-selling singles and is already one of the biggest selling albums of all time? Well, if you're Adele, you go back into the studio, write an album, record some songs and, erm, scrap the lot! Adele worked with, along others, Sia and Ryan Tedder on what was meant to be her third album, but her heart wasn't in it. Adele had her doubts confirmed when she played some tracks for super-producer Rick Rubin and got the thumbs-down, so went back to square one. As Adele herself confessed: "I did write an album about being a mum but that's pretty boring, so I scrapped that." We did get a sneaky look at what might've been, however, when Sia rerecorded one of the tracks, Alive.
MORE: Take a look at how Adele's singles and albums have done in the charts (spoiler: quite well)
Louise – Lil' Lou
Surely one of the biggest pop travesties, Louise's fourth solo album, and follow-up to Elbow Beach, had a banging lead single in the shape of Pandora's Kiss, but was never released. In the run-up to the expected release, Louise and husband Jamie Redknapp discovered they were expecting a baby and Louise put the project to one side. Maybe Louise is like us: once we put something down we always forget where we left it and can never lay your hands on it when we need it, because that album has yet to appear. After a very long break, Louise has since returned to performing and is recording brand new material – could some Lil' Lou songs finally resurface?
Amy Winehouse
While there was a set of rarities and outtakes released following Amy's sad passing in 2011, it wasn't her proper third album. Such an album did exist, at least in part, in demo form, but we'll never get to hear them, as Amy's record company destroyed them. "It was a moral thing," said David Joseph, CEO of Universal in the UK. "Taking a stem or a vocal is not something that would ever happen on my watch. It now can’t happen on anyone else's." 😥
MORE: See all Amy Winehouse's UK hit singles and albums in her archive
Britney Spears – Original Doll
Britney devotees are divided over whether this even exists in any form, but Britney herself confirmed she was working on it back in 2004. Britney rocked up at a radio station with a song called Mona Lisa – which sounded pretty good FYI – and said it was the first single from her next album Original Doll. Her record label backtracked and eventually Mona Lisa was added as a bonus to the DVD release of Britney's reality show Chaotic. So was the album ever recorded? It's rumoured that early versions of preceding album In The Zone featured Britney's most personal, dark lyrics ever and that Original Doll was to carry on that theme. Either way, Britney's turbulent private life took over and Original Doll never happened – her next album wouldn't come until 2007, the incredible Blackout.
Lots of fan art for Mona Lisa out there – including this belter. (via britneymusic.tumblr.com)
MORE: All eyes on Brit in the centre of the ring, just like her archive
Shirley Manson
After she'd scored over a decade of hits as lead singer of Garbage, the world was Ready with a capital R for a solo Shirley Manson album. Well, 10 years on, we're still waiting. Shirley's first attempt, recorded with producer Greg Kurstin, among others, wasn't what her record label were looking for, which led to their relationship ending. Like every breakup, Shirley took her time to get over it, but carried on writing new material and posted some older demos to Facebook. In 2012, however, she confirmed it wasn't happening.
Madonna
Madge is famous for changing things up if she gets bored, and once she even gave up on an album halfway through. After working with him on Erotica, Madonna got back in the studio with Vogue mastermind Shep Pettibone to record her sixth studio album. They got quite far along the way, before Madonna decided she'd rather go down an R&B route and so it was buh-bye to Shep and hello to Nellee Hooper and Babyface and the album that would become Bedtime Stories.
MORE: Madonna's UK singles and albums, plus complete chart runs
Kylie
Much has been made on fansites and messageboards across the universe about the mythical City Games album,whose existence has never been confirmed, but did you know Kylie actually started work on a jazz album? Eager to do an album of covers of songs by US jazz star Blossom Dearie, Kylie recorded a few tracks but the project stalled, with some tracks landing on the soundtrack to behind-the-scenes documentary White Diamond. There was talk of an album's worth of songs recorded with Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, too, and a few tracks have surfaced, but there's been no confirmation.
MORE: Kylie's been lucky lucky lucky to score so many hits – relive them all
Prince
Where do we start with the Purple One? Prince did, of course, have vaults filled with recorded yet unreleased songs, but he also had complete albums that he canned at the last minute, too. One such album was Camille, a kind of concept album with Prince experimenting with a sped-up female-sounding vocal. His eventual hit If I Was Your Girlfriend originally featured, but the project was abandoned, although other tracks from it surfaced eventually. The same year, prolific Prince planned to release Crystal Ball, a triple LP set – so three vinyl albums, basically – but Prince's label thought that was a bit OTT, so he reluctantly caved, with much of it eventually becoming his classic Sign O The Times.
MORE: Look back at Prince's impressive UK chart history
Katy Perry
Katy Kat has supposedly not one but two unreleased albums floating around somewhere. One of them went on to make up part of her proper pop debut One Of The Boys, while the other, known to fans as (A) Katy Perry simply wasn't quite right to launch her on the worldwide stage, and got chucked unceremoniously in the bin. Some songs did make it elsewhere, however; most notably Hook Up, which became I Do Not Hook Up and a hit for… Kelly Clarkson, of course.
George Michael – Trojan Souls
Back in the '90s, George planned an album of duets with a host of stars including Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, Anita Baker, Sade and Elton John. Although he got part of the way through, with some tracks completed, the project was put to one side when George had some personal stuff to sort out. How much would you have loved to hear George and Janet?! Sadly, their collaboration only reached instrumental stage, and with George sadly passing away in 2016, we may never get to hear these lost tracks.
MORE: Look back over all George Michael's British hit singles and albums
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BMW G310R (Image courtesy: BMW)
NEW DELHI: BMW has decided to make India a hub for the company’s smallest bike — the G310R , the 313cc motorcycle , which will be manufactured in partnership with the TVS Group, and will be exported to the company’s home market Germany as well as countries across Europe and in the US.The G310R is one of the most ambitious bets taken by the German auto major that sells motorcycles under the ‘ Motorrad ’ brand. This is perhaps the first time that the company will have a bike under 500cc, and the decision to sell the brand across major global markets displays plans of positioning it as a large-selling volume product.“We have big expectations from the G310R, and there have been a lot of things that are happening behind the scenes,” Frank Schloeder, president, BMW India, told TOI here. The company is working on retail and distribution plans for the bike that may hit the market early next year, at a price that may range between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh.The motorcycle will be manufactured at TVS Motor’s Hosur plant in Tamil Nadu and the Indian partner also plans to roll out a local version , which had been showcased as the ‘Akula 310’ at the Greater Noida Auto Expo.“While India is a big market in itself, we have plans to positon the G310R as a global product,” Schloeder said. “The India-made bike will be sold in Germany, the US and many countries in Europe.”The company is planning Motorrad dealerships across key metros and some of the bigger cities.Engineered and designed by BMW Motorrad at Munich, the one-cylinder low-weight G310R embodies the pure essence of a BMW roadster that has been designed not only for tricky, narrow city lanes but also for long-distance rides. TVS offers the knowledge of frugal engineering and value-efficient component sourcing, strengths to keep the product manufacturing cost competitive.The G310R is mated to a six-speed gearbox and the engine delivers a maximum power of 34 horsepower at 9,500 rpm and a peak torque of 28 Nm at 7,500 rpm. The top-speed is estimated at 144 kmph and the bike will have a high-performance brake system while sporting ABS as a standard fitment.The G310R’s multi-functional instrument cluster has a large liquid crystal display to offer excellent clarity and a wide range of information. BMW also has plans to offer individually-tailored optional accessories for those who want add-ons and frills.Growth In Car Sales: Frank Schloeder, BMW India president, said car sales have started looking up after around three years of decline and the company expects growth this year. “We had been re-aligning business for the last two years, and we are witnessing growth now.” The company had sold 6,890 units in 2015, and is believed to have sold around 4,000 units in January-June perod this year.
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