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A lawyer in Zurich has released a photo from May 21, 2018 of Joseph Mifsud, making it the most recent known photo of the mysterious Maltese professor, who has been in hiding since emerging as a key figure in the special counsel’s probe in October 2017.
Stephan Roh, a lawyer for Mifsud, provided the photo of his client to the Daily Caller News Foundation and other news outlets on Tuesday. The photo shows Mifsud in front of a power of attorney letter dated May 21, 2018. A Swiss newspaper has the date May 17, 2018.
That was around seven months after Mifsud found himself caught up in the Mueller probe firestorm. His current whereabouts remains a mystery, though Roh says Mifsud is believed to be in Italy.
What also remains a mystery is how Mifsud fits into the puzzle that is the special counsel’s investigation. The special counsel’s team has painted Mifsud as a possible Russian agent. Roh has denied that claim, as did Mifsud in a single interview before he fell off the grid nearly two years ago. (RELATED: DNC Said Joseph Mifsud Could Be Dead — His Lawyer Pours Cold Water On That Theory)
Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in the special counsel’s probe on Oct. 5, 2017 to lying to the FBI in a January 2017 interview regarding the extent and timing of his contacts with Mifsud, who was a professor at several European universities.
Papadopoulos said in his plea agreement that he first met Mifsud in March 2017, just after joining the Trump campaign. Both worked at the time at the same London-based think tank, though Papadopoulos says they had not previously met. The pair struck up a friendship, and met and corresponded frequently over the next few months.
Papadopoulos also said that Mifsud told him in an April 26, 2016 meeting in London that he had learned that Russia had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands” of her emails. Papadopoulos said he did not handle Clinton emails or tell anyone on the Trump campaign about Mifsud’s remarks.
It is still not clear what the special counsel’s team learned about Mifsud, or whether prosecutors consider him a Russian agent, or something else.
The special counsel’s report paints him as a Russian asset, but does not provide evidence to back up that claim.
Mifsud often rubbed shoulders with Western diplomats. He was also a participant at a State Department-hosted event in the U.S. in February 2017. FBI agents interviewed Mifsud during that trip to the U.S. The special counsel’s report says that Mifsud lied about the extent of his contacts with Papadopoulos. But unlike the Trump aide, Mifsud was not charged with making false statements to investigators.
Roh, who has served as Mifsud’s spokesperson, has said that Mifsud worked closely with Western intelligence agencies, though the DCNF has not independently verified that claim.
Roh also said on Tuesday that he does not know Mifsud’s current whereabouts.
“Unfortunately, Prof Mifsud does not contact our law firm for unknown reason. We have been informed that he is in Italy, at least until recently,” Roh said in an email authorizing publication of Mifsud’s photo.
Italian news outlets reported earlier this year that Mifsud stayed for about six months after he went into hiding at an apartment in Rome owned by LINK University.
The Washington Post reported Monday that Attorney General William Barr met with Italian government officials last week as part of an investigation into FBI and CIA activities aimed at the Trump campaign in 2016. According to The Post, Barr expressed interest in Mifsud.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. | {
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The novel coronavirus outbreak has forced a lot more people to work from home these days, and many of them are keeping in touch via video conferencing software like Zoom. If you find yourself in that position, you may have suddenly realized that the piles of toys, equipment, dirty clothes, and dust bunnies that you always took for granted are going to be very visible as you try to convince your co-workers that you are an expert in your field.
Don’t despair. If your company (like many others) uses Zoom in order to do its teleconferencing, you can hide all of that detritus using Zoom’s Virtual Background feature. The feature lets you use a still image or a video in the background to hide whatever is really going on back there — that is, if your computer can handle it.
There is a long list of requirements on Zoom’s support site, depending on the type of system you’re using. If you have a high-end system — usually a later version of your OS of choice with an Intel Core i5 or i7 quad-core processor — you can use a virtual background immediately. If you have a slightly lower-end system, you may still be able to use the feature, but you’ll need to have a physical green screen behind you.
Related The best laptop you can buy right now
Here’s how you can set up a virtual background using Zoom’s desktop client for a Mac or PC:
Open up your Zoom client
Click on the gear “Setup” icon on the upper-right corner
Select “Virtual Background” in the left-hand menu
Zoom has provided some sample backgrounds. Click on the one you’d like to use.
If you would rather supply your own background, click on the plus sign above and to the left of the sample backgrounds, choose an image from your computer, and add it. And if your computer isn’t capable of handling a virtual background without a physical green screen, you will get a warning and be urged to check the “I have a green screen” box below the sample images.
You can also add a virtual background during a meeting.
In your Zoom client, click on the up-arrow next to the video symbol on the bottom left
Select “Choose a virtual background...” That will bring you to the same Virtual Background page as before.
That should do it. Now you can attend any virtual business meeting without fear of exposing your lack of talent in either home design or cleaning methods. | {
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サブスクリプション型の翻訳メディアを手がける日本のPeraPeraは4月20日、East Venturesおよび複数のエンジェル投資家から合計で37万3000ドル（約4000万円）を調達したと発表した。
PeraPeraは、海外著名人のブログポストなどを中心にシリコンバレー発の情報を翻訳して日本向けに提供するメディアだ。
例えば、ポール・グレアム氏が書いたブログポストなどにはスタートアップ業界からの注目が集まる。だが、英語が苦手な日本人にとって、それは読みたくても読めない情報だった。海外の情報に敏感なTechCrunch Japan読者のなかには、Google翻訳などを駆使して苦戦しながらも情報を集めているという人もいるかもしれない。辞書を引きながら読むという人もいるだろう。
そのような注目度の高い海外コンテンツを集め、日本語に翻訳して提供するのがPeraPeraだ。
現在、PeraPeraは無料プランと月額500円のプレミアムプランを用意している。無料プランのユーザーは記事の60%しか読めないという制限がある一方、プレミアムユーザーは記事の全文を読むことができる。また、プレミアムユーザーは次に翻訳される記事を決める「投票」に参加することも可能だ。
同社によれば、無料プランからプレミアムプランへのコンバージョン率は今のところ6%だという。
PeraPera CEOのMike Eidlin氏は、「ユーザーが増えて来れば、ブログポストの著者に収益の一部を還元する仕組みができる可能性もある」と語る。
ところで、TechCrunch JapanがEidlin氏に取材した当初、PeraPeraにはユーザー自身が日本語で読みたい海外記事を選んで翻訳料を少しずつ負担するという、いわゆるクラウドファンディング・プラットフォームに近い構想があった。
しかし、同社はその後に行ったユーザーへのヒアリングで「毎回読みたい記事を自分で選び、1つの記事ごとに支援する仕組みは面倒くさい」という声を聞き、よりメディアの形に近い、現在のビジネスモデルへとピボットしたようだ。
だが正直、Eidlin氏が当初から掲げている「記事翻訳料の負担をパブリッシャーからユーザーにシフトすることで、より多くの人が海外記事を読めるようにする」というPeraPeraのミッションが、このピボットによって薄れてしまったようにも思う。
ただ、前述したように、PeraPeraではユーザーが次に読みたい記事に「投票」することができる。つまり、人数が一定数以上集まると記事が翻訳されるという、ある意味でクラウドファンディングに近い仕組みがあるということだ。個人的に、僕はこの新しい仕組みがどの程度ワークするのかに注目している。
東京で生まれ、UCデイビスで日本語を専攻したMike Eidlin氏、そして彼のパートナーであるRaymond Lau氏は、PeraPeraを共同創業する以前にも「Bookmarq」やペットをテーマにしたSNSの「Cutesy」と呼ばれるサービスを開発してきた。「Bookmarq」は米500 StartupsのPre-acceleratorプログラム（2015年）にも選ばれている。
その後、Cutesyは約4万5000人のユーザーを獲得するまでに成長。元々、Eidlin氏は同サービスの拡大に必要な資金を調達するために来日していたが、その際に彼は、海外の良質な情報が翻訳されず日本のユーザーに十分に行き届いてないという状況を知る。そこで彼は成長していたCutesyを閉鎖し、Lau氏とともにPeraPeraを創業する決意をしたという。
同社は2017年2月よりPeraPeraのβ版を公開している。 | {
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would posthumously award activist Fred Korematsu with the Congressional Gold Medal for his efforts fighting against Japanese-American internment during World War II.
The legislation was introduced on what would have been Korematsu's 100th birthday. Sens. Mazie Hirono Mazie Keiko HironoDemocrats unveil plan declaring racism a public health issue Overnight Defense: US, Russia trade blame over Syria incident | Pentagon calls out China's 'counterproductive' military exercises, missile test | Democrats press Esper on COVID-19 response Democrats press Esper on 'concerning' rise in Pentagon's COVID-19 cases MORE (D-Hawaii), Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiMomentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Collins: President elected Nov. 3 should fill Supreme Court vacancy Barrett seen as a front-runner for Trump Supreme Court pick MORE (R-Alaska), Chris Coons Christopher (Chris) Andrew CoonsBiden promises Democratic senators help in battleground states Shakespeare Theatre Company goes virtual for 'Will on the Hill...or Won't They?' The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Pence lauds Harris as 'experienced debater'; Trump, Biden diverge over debate prep MORE (D-Del.), Cory Gardner Cory Scott GardnerJeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Momentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Gardner on court vacancy: Country needs to mourn Ginsburg 'before the politics begin' MORE (R-Colo.) and Rep. Mark Takano Mark Allan TakanoCongress missed the point when it came to helping veterans During Suicide Prevention Month, Trump needs to do more for troops' mental health The Hill's Coronavirus Report: Fauci says focus should be on pausing reopenings rather than reverting to shutdowns; WHO director pleads for international unity in pandemic response MORE (D-Calif.) introduced the bill.
"As a son of Japanese Americans who lived through Japanese internment during World War II, I find Mr. Korematsu’s legacy to be a guiding light for the work that I do in Congress," Takano said in a statement.
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"His life’s work placed civil rights at the forefront and it has been one of the cornerstones in the movement to build an America where everyone can be treated equally under the law.
“Fred Korematsu stood up for the rights of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, and continued his fight for decades to expand civil rights and overturn his own false criminal conviction,” Hirono said. “Awarding the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest civilian honor, to Fred Korematsu is a fitting tribute to his lifelong pursuit of justice and equality.”
Korematsu was ordered to relocate to an internment camp in 1942 but refused. He was convicted of violating government orders and sentenced to five years probation. He legally challenged his internment, but the Supreme Court ruled against him 6-3 in 1944.
His conviction was overturned in 1983 and he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998.
Korematsu died in 2005 at the age of 86. The Supreme Court last year formally repudiated its previous ruling in his case. | {
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india
Updated: Jun 06, 2016 12:59 IST
VA Arun Kumar, son of CPI (M) veteran VS Achuthanandan, appeared too busy to strike up a conversation. He had just returned from a daylong house-hunting marathon in Thiruvananthapuram to Cantonment house, the official residence of the Opposition leader in Kerala. “We are looking to rent a house that is close to the main road, so that the people who come to meet him (VS) don’t face any difficulty,” he said.
Two days before that, the nonagenarian leader was called the “Fidel Castro of Kerala” by his party’s general secretary Sitaram Yechury. This might have once been the biggest praise VS could hope for. But today, it came with a price. It shattered the hopes of his supporters that, after his party’s thumping victory in the latest state elections, he would be moving from Cantonment House to Cliff House, the official residence of the chief minister.
Instead, Yechury declared the party’s politburo member and VS’ bete noire Pinarayi Vijayan as the chief minister designate. “Like Castro in Cuba today, VS will continue guiding and inspiring the party,” Yechury said at the press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on May 20, as VS kept his silence.
Read: Left scrambles to placate VS in Kerala
At Cantonment House, VS was surrounded by supporters, including women and children. He was wearing a T-shirt and was about to leave for jogging. It’s an improbable detail that someone like VS gets to after several lifetimes of playing politics: he had also worn a T-shirt when Vijayan visited him to seek his blessings after Yechury’s announcement. “VS knows that the photograph of Vijayan’s visit would be on the front page of every newspaper. He must have worn a T-shirt deliberately to show that he’s not as old as his party thinks. After all, VS is 92 and Vijayan is 72 years old. In the photo, Vijayan looked older than VS,” a VS supporter joked. Yechury had cited VS’ age and health for not considering him for the top post, though he called him “the war horse” who had led the Left Democratic Front (LDF) to victory with 91 seats in the state’s 140 constituencies.
Over the years, VS and Vijayan have created a sense of representing two streams of politics in Kerala. Or, they have at least given an impression of two types of political leadership within the Left. Such debates of leadership are not insignificant to the Left, especially these days when its parties are facing a major ideological and political crisis after the electoral setbacks in West Bengal.
Read: Kerala CM Pinarayi’s ad blitz raises eyebrows in Leftist circles
In Kerala, VS/Pinarayi has become a binary opposition similar to Mammootty/Mohanlal in the Malayalam film industry. Professional rivalry among public figures is a popular theme in Kerala’s public discourse. It’s not uncommon to hear conversations about the differences between writers MT Vasudevan Nair and T Padmanabhan, or how Yesudas suppressed fellow-singer Jayachandran. Even after 40 years of sharing the throne in the film industry, Mammootty is still asked by fans, “Mohanlalumayitt enganeya…? (What is it like between you and Mohanlal?)”
A former close aide of VS said that VS and Vijayan are of “different genus”. “They may be rivals in politics,” he told me. “But I have seen Pinarayi watching VS’ steps with utmost care and affection when he walks.”
According to supporters, VS’ disappointment was evident in the statements he made after Vijayan’s elevation. “Did you find anything wrong in me (during the campaign)? Do I look weak to you now?” he reportedly asked a group of students who visited him. During the run-up to the election, he had led more than 60 rallies across 13 districts in 13 days, travelling about 200 km a day. “I am perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with my health,” he told the students, which made headlines in the media. On May 21, VS stated that he would stand as the “sentinel” of the people of Kerala, which was widely interpreted as a warning to the new government under Vijayan.
There have been reports of the party considering various posts for VS, including that of an advisor to the government. A close VS aide told me that he has not responded to such an offer from the party, and he seems in no mood to end his struggle despite winning the elections. “I will continue the fight till the last breath,” he has said. “As a communist, I had certain responsibilities to shoulder in this election. That is the reason why I decided to contest in the election as per the directive of the party’s central leadership.”
Read: Superstitious Communists? BJP says Kerala ministers refuse car no 13
The Malayala Manorama had photos of VS passing a note to Yechury at Vijayan’s swearing-in ceremony. It outlined three possible posts for the veteran – advisor to the government with cabinet rank, chairman of the LDF or a member of the state secretariat.
Many people in the state – both inside and outside the party – believe it was VS’ high voltage campaign that led the LDF to victory in Kerala. During the run-up to the elections, VS went all out against the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government. He turned offensive in his characteristic style against SNDP chief Vellappalli Nateshan, whose alliance with the NDA threatened to take away a large chunk of Ezhavas who form the CPI(M)’s largest voter base.
At his age, VS created a sensation with his various posts on his Facebook page. He launched his social media handles just before the elections, and rapidly acquired a huge following. He mocked the UDF’s election slogan Valaranam ee nadu, thudaranam ee bharanam (This state should grow. This government should stay) by tweeting, Thadayanam ee kolla sanghathe, Rakshikkanam ee Nadine (These bandits should be stopped. This state should be saved). After PM Narendra Modi infamously compared Kerala to Somalia, VS promptly said, “Kerala is not Somalia. But Ommen Chandy and gang are as bad as Somalian pirates.”
His campaign events yet again established that he is the biggest crowd-puller in the state, drawing massive numbers even in Vijayan’s constituency Dharmadam. After all, the previous LDF government led by VS had lost the election in 2011 only by four seats. Many even believe that LDF would not have got its thumping majority this time had it projected Vijayan as the chief ministerial candidate. Congress’ Kerala chief VM Sudheeran had even mocked the LDF’s 2016 election slogan, LDF varum ellam shariyakum (LDF will arrive and everything will be alright) by saying that if the LDF comes to power, they should ‘set right’ VS first (LDF vannal adyam shariyakkuka VSne).
The Communist Party of India (CPI) formed the world’s first democratically elected communist government in Kerala under EMS Namboodiripad’s leadership in 1957. The party split and formed the CPI(M) in 1964. VS is the only surviving member of the 32 National Council members who left the CPI to form the CPI(M).
VS and Vijayan both come from humble backgrounds. VS worked as a tailor while Vijayan was a handloom weaver who emerged as a student leader from Kannur, a political hotspot in the state. VS began his political activism among agricultural workers and trade unions in his home district, Alappuzha. He was at the forefront of the famous Punnapra-Vayalar uprising in 1946, in which young communists rose up against the princely state of Travancore.
Both men are known for their political steadfastness. VS is a traditionalist who sticks to ideology, while Vijayan is considered an organisation man with more pragmatism in economic matters like development through private capital. VS often takes his fights from political circles to the courts; he once managed to get Kerala Congress (B) leader and former minister R Balakrishna Pillai convicted for corruption he had committed 20 years ago as the minister for electricity.
Vijayan can be equally sharp. He did not hesitate to question a Muslim cleric (in spite of the fact that the cleric’s group, the All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama, usually supports the LDF in elections) who launched a drive to build a mosque for a strand of hair that reportedly belonged to Prophet Mohammed. Vijayan dismissed the drive, and said one should focus on the Prophet’s words rather than “a strand of removed hair that constituted body waste”.
The most striking example of the VS-Vijayan binary was perhaps in how each responded to the brutal murder of CPI(M) rebel TP Chandrashekharan in 2012. Chandrashekharan, who had left the CPI(M) to form a splinter party called Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), was stabbed 51 times. Amidst a huge controversy over the CPI(M)’s alleged involvement in the killing, Vijayan called Chandrashekharan a “kulamkuthi” (one who goes against the clan) while VS described him as a “brave communist”.
Read: Political hurdles, ghosts of hydel scam await new Kerala CM P Vijayan
During the VS government’s famous Munnar demolition drive in 2007, where the government reclaimed many acres of land illegally occupied by resorts and real estate lobbies, Vijayan reportedly stood against the government’s action. Both leaders were suspended by the party from its politburo due to their infighting over the Munnar issue in 2007. Both were eventually reinstated to the politburo, but VS was suspended once again in 2009 – and remains suspended till date.
Events like these have given VS a pro-people and pro-environment image, in stark contrast to Vijayan’s reported friendship with business magnates. However, Vijayan has also built his own supporter base with his no-nonsense, iron-fisted attitude.
Vijayan might have become chief minister, but his headaches may just be starting. Despite being cleared of charges, he continues to face the spectre of the 1995 SNC Lavalin scam – the next hearing of which will come up in the Kerala high court on June 9. The case alleges that several ministers, including then-electricity minister Vijayan, caused financial losses of hundreds of crores to the Indian exchequer in a hydroelectric project contract awarded to the Canadian company SNC Lavlin. VS has frequently publicised the scandal, written to his party’s leadership, and made public statements against Vijayan in this regard.
The latest reports suggest that the CPM politburo has decided to give VS a post in the state government with cabinet rank, but VS and Vijayan don’t seem to have arrived at a compromise yet. It seems like Vijayan has found backing within the party, while VS has captured support in the wider world.
There are already reports of VS writing a letter to the state and central leadership of his party against Vijayan’s controversial statement that the Mullaperiyar dam is not unsafe. On the decision of the new government to go ahead with the Athirappilli hydro-electric power project, VS stated that the CPI(M) government would not execute any anti-people project.
Many people believe VS must not be too happy with the LDF government’s open call for corporate investments, and Vijayan’s full-page ads on national newspapers ahead of his swearing-in ceremony. The infighting between Vjayan and VS is going to continue, and only time will say which way the party will ultimately move.
Many VS supporters describe him as the wall that stops the Left from leaning towards the right. His interventions have provided the Left with a roadmap in the post-globalised world, and his resoluteness is held as the correct way to resolve the party’s ongoing ideological crisis. Some say they never expected VS to become chief minister at the age of 92. They even doubt whether the leader himself was sincere about getting the top seat. However, the way he has been sidelined is indicative of how the party is going to treat his kind of politics. And that should worry voters.
(In arrangement with GRIST Media) | {
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It’s been just over 24 hours since Mark Shuttleworth’s bombshell announcement that Ubuntu as we’ve come to know it is no more.
His company, Canonical, the financial backers of Ubuntu, is to refocus its investment in the project away from phones, tablets and convergence and towards cloud, server and IoT.
We do know that Ubuntu desktop is not going away as it’s too profitable for Canonical to dismiss. But it is going to undergo a rebirth of sorts.
But it’ll survive this. After all, Ubuntu is more than a Compiz plugin and a purple wallpaper.
Other questions, such as what happens to Mir, Ubuntu Phone support, and so on, remain (as yet) unanswered.
How are you feeling about the news?
Naturally you all had a lot of say after the news broke. The number of comments on our initial post set a brand new site record: over 1.5k comments — and still growing!
I read nearly every comment (!) and saw a few of you ask us to run some sort of poll to sample the emotional temperature of the community.
So, here I am, doing just that. I want to know how you feel about the news as it stands today.
While I appreciate that a few of you may have a mixture of emotions, or feel you fall in-between the following options, try to pick one. A poll with 20 shades of grey tells us little —
Taking thew news as a whole, are you feeling positive (e.g, happy, thankful, vindicated, optimistic? Are you confused, uncertain or indifferent? Or has the whole thing left you feeling sad, negative, and/or angry? | {
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Fahrbericht Hyundai Nexo Elektroauto 2.0
Kürzer laden, länger fahren - der Hyundai Nexo zeigt, dass Wasserstoffautos viele Vorteile gegenüber normalen E-Autos haben. Das Beste beim Nexo ist allerdings das Ausrollen an der roten Ampel. | {
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After Pat Jones said on Monday that Mike Gundy was offered the Florida Gators job last week, we have a new SEC East pursuer in the mix. According to multiple reports, Tennessee has contacted and is interested in Gundy.
Tennessee botched its hiring of Greg Schiano over the weekend in unprecedented fashion, but radio host Jimmy Hyams noted that Tennessee has locked in on an even better candidate (who also happens to wear orange).
With Duke's David Cutcliffe and Iowa State's Matt Campbell out of the picture, Tennessee has turned its coaching search focus to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy. Three sources told me UT has interviewed Gundy, perhaps in Dallas. UT offered Gundy in 2012 but he said declined. — Jimmy Hyams (@JimmyHyams) November 28, 2017
What’s next in Tennessee’s American Idol-style coaching search? Look for Brohm and Gundy to be prime targets. https://t.co/49R1GDi32m — Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 28, 2017
Additionally, Robert Allen is reporting that Gundy will meet with Tennessee in Dallas on Tuesday morning.
Go Pokes knows that Gundy will meet with Tennessee athletic director John Currie at 11 am this morning (Tuesday) in Dallas. Gundy was in Oklahoma City recruiting on Monday and was asked by Tennessee to meet on that day but, Gundy told them he was busy. The two parties agreed to meet Tuesday in Dallas. Tennessee, after the debacle after trying to hire Greg Schiacno, is in a desperate mode to come up with a suitable football coach for their program and fan base. [Go Pokes]
We’ve been here before. Heck, it feels like we’re here every year. But we’ve been here before with Gundy and Tennessee. Back in 2012, before Butch Jones was hired in Knoxville, Gundy apparently almost took the job. Here’s Jeremy Fowler of CBS Sports on that saga.
Anyway, there were the Gundys on an early December night. Tennessee had approached him — more like applied a full-court press, actually. According to sources, Governor Bill Haslam and Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, a UT alum and Bill’s brother, were involved in the three-day courtship. The Vols pursued Gundy and Louisville’s Charlie Strong, who both declined, before hiring Cincinnati’s Butch Jones. One of Gundy’s three sons was Googling Knoxville schools. Another asked him what a Volunteer was. He didn’t know, but for a moment, he thought he wanted to find out full-time. “At some point, that’s where we thought we were going to go,” Gundy said. He and wife, Kristen, weighed their options, then slept on it. He drove to work the next morning and realized he just couldn’t do it. He cared deeply about OSU, and he wanted to find common ground with athletic director Mike Holder. He called Tennessee and told them he was flattered but couldn’t take the job. [CBS Sports]
Things are more settled for Gundy now, though. He has a lifetime contract in Stillwater, and he recently told Guerin Emig of the Tulsa World that only silly money would compel him to leave.
“I’m rooted here,” he told the Tulsa World over the weekend. “Knock on wood, if you’re doing good, you get calls. I get calls every year. But my stability here is more than it ever has been.
“I’m very happy in the situation I’m in. But one guy said, ‘Well what if they call and give you a six-year deal at nine million dollars a year?’ I don’t know. I’d probably have to listen. You know? Something crazy.”
The problem now is that after the Schiano disaster, Tennessee might be desperate enough to give him $9 million. According to Robert Allen, anyway.
Robert Allen says on @TriplePlayRadio that Tenn is willing to double Gundy's salary ($4.2 mil) — Kieran Steckley (@Kieran_Steckley) November 28, 2017
The concerning part, if there is one, is that you could always say before that Gundy was leveraging talk like that for a bigger, better contract in Stillwater (even last year with Baylor). Now he has that … so what exactly is he doing?
Allen noted that Gundy made Mike Holder aware of the meeting. | {
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The crowd at a Q&A session with President Trump Donald John TrumpUS reimposes UN sanctions on Iran amid increasing tensions Jeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Trump supporters chant 'Fill that seat' at North Carolina rally MORE at the World Economic Forum booed after he attacked the media.
“It wasn’t til I became a politician that I realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be, as the cameras start going off in the back,” Trump said at the session Friday.
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The crowd at the event then booed.
“But overall the bottom line, somebody said, ‘But they could have been that bad because here we are, we’re president,’” Trump continued.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the press throughout his presidential campaign and into his administration.
He has blasted reports about him and his administration as “fake news,” and named CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post among the winners of his “Fake News Awards” earlier this month.
Trump also called a report that he attempted to fire special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE last year but was blocked by the White House counsel “fake news” earlier Friday.
The founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, was also booed on Friday after he said Trump's leadership was victim to "biased interpretations." | {
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Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 At indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates MORE (R-Wis.) on Wednesday invited French President Emmanuel Macron to address a joint session of Congress during his April 25 visit to Washington.
“France is not only our oldest ally but one of our strongest,” Ryan said in a statement. “This is a special opportunity to build on the historic relationship between our countries and to reaffirm our commitment to defeating terror both domestically and around the world."
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The address will mark the second joint meeting during Ryan's time as speaker.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed Congress in 2016.
The White House announced last month that Macron had been invited for the first state visit of President Trump’s administration.
“This visit will advance American and French cooperation on economic and global issues and deepen the friendship between the two countries,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
While several world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May, have visited the White House during Trump's administration, Macron will receive the first ceremonial welcome, including a state dinner.
Trump is notably the first president in decades who did not host an official state visit in his first year in office.
Macron and Trump have enjoyed a relatively friendly relationship throughout Trump's presidency, but they have clashed on various issuesm including climate change and Trump's decision to pull the U.S. from the multination Paris climate agreement.
The two discussed the issue during Trump's visit to Paris last year.
"He understood the reason for my position, notably the link between climate change and terrorism," Macron said. “He said he would try to find a solution in the coming months. We spoke in detail about what could allow him to return to the Paris deal."
The two leaders have also held meetings at various global summits, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year. | {
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White South African farmers aren't the only ones who are fearing for their lives in the face of persecution by the African National Congress. Increasingly, members of the party have been struggling to survive amid a surge in violent retribution. As the New York Times reports, South African politicians are being assassinated with alarming frequency as party members hire mercenary assassins to eliminate rivals (or, more often, anti-corruption whistleblowers). Even as murders proliferate and public outrage intensifies, prosecutions are rare. Killings soared under former President Jacob Zuma, but Cyril Ramaphosa, the "reform" candidate who ousted Zuma, has ignored calls to try and stop them, fostering suspicions that these lethal intraparty feuds extend all the way to the party's leadership.
With political will to stamp out the killings within the ANC virtually nonexistent, they have become a potent reminder that the rule of law in one of Africa's largest economies is virtually nonexistent. They're also a sign of just how far the party has strayed from its roots. One politician who took a stand against corruption in a rural South African province told the NYT that he felt like he was being "hunted like an animal." In its story, the NYT shares how one local politician, a man named Sindiso Magaqa, was ambushed in his red BMW by a hit squad who riddled him with bullets. He survived the attack, but died a few weeks later from his wounds.
Magaqa's crime? He tried to expose ANC politicians involved in the construction of a public project to build a new Memorial Hall in Umzimkhulu after obtaining documents showing that the municipality had paid contractors more than $2 million with little to show for it.
The documents, which were reviewed by The New York Times, showed that after the contractor won the renovation contract in 2013, worth $1.2 million, the municipality paid the company and its subcontractor nearly two-thirds of the money, even though the project was far behind schedule. Two years later, after the company and its subcontractor failed to finish, the municipality hired a different contractor for another $1 million. In all, the documents do not unequivocally prove corruption on their own, but they show the municipality spent nearly all of the money it had budgeted for the hall - and ended up with little to show for it. Mr. Zulu said he had grabbed the files and promised to pursue the case with his contacts in the police. But over the following months, Mr. Magaqa brandished the documents in the council and challenged leaders of the dominant A.N.C. faction, leading Mr. Zulu to wonder whether his old friend was also trying to use the issue to his personal political advantage.
The attack that eventually killed Magaqa occurred several months later.
Meanwhile, a friend of Magaqa's who is presently in hiding for fear he might be next on the ANC's hit list compared the party to the Italian mafia.
All of the assassination targets had one thing in common: They were members of the African National Congress who had spoken out against corruption in the party that defined their lives. "If you understand the Cosa Nostra, you don’t only kill the person, but you also send a strong message," said Thabiso Zulu, another A.N.C. whistle-blower who, fearing for his life, is now in hiding. "We broke the rule of omertà," he added, saying that the party of Nelson Mandela had become like the Mafia.
One notable aspect of the recent spate of killings that differentiates them from the political violence of the past is that, today, ANC members are killing other ANC members as they struggle for turf and power. In the past, violence was confined mostly to members of rival political parties.
Political assassinations are rising sharply in South Africa, threatening the stability of hard-hit parts of the country and imperiling Mr. Mandela’s dream of a unified, democratic nation. But unlike much of the political violence that upended the country in the 1990s, the recent killings are not being driven by vicious battles between rival political parties. Quite the opposite: In most cases, A.N.C. officials are killing one another, hiring professional hit men to eliminate fellow party members in an all-or-nothing fight over money, turf and power, A.N.C. officials say.
Of all the trappings of corruption now borne by the ANC, the killings are perhaps the most serious, and the most difficult to ignore.
The party once inspired generations of South Africans and captured the imagination of millions around the world — from impoverished corners of Africa to wealthy American campuses. But corruption and divisions have flourished within the A.N.C. in recent years, stripping much of the party of its ideals. After nearly 25 years in power, party members have increasingly turned to fighting, not over competing visions for the nation, but over influential positions and the spoils that go with them.
Since the beginning of 2016, the rate of killings has almost doubled, prompting police to release data about political killings for the first time earlier this year.
The death toll is climbing quickly. About 90 politicians have been killed since the start of 2016, more than twice the annual rate in the 16 years before that, according to researchers at the University of Cape Town and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime. The murders have swelled into such a national crisis that the police began releasing data on political killings for the first time this year, while the new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has lamented that the assassinations are tarnishing Mr. Mandela’s dream.
The wave of killings has done so much damage to the national psyche, that some believe the country was better off before it achieved democracy.
"It was better before we attained democracy, because we knew the enemy - that the enemy was the regime, the unjust regime," said Mluleki Ndobe, the mayor of the district where Mr. Magaqa and five other A.N.C. politicians have been assassinated in the past year. "Now, you don’t know who is the enemy," he said.
In a sign that the people could soon act to unseat the corrupt ANC, dissatisfaction has festered even as Ramaphosa has pushed the expropriation of land from white farmers (while also tacitly endorsing violence against white farmers). Markets have lost confidence, too, sending the South African rand spiraling lower earlier this year, though it has begun to claw back some of its losses in recent days. But exactly one year from now, South Africans will have an opportunity to vote out the ANC during a general election in October 2019. But given this propensity for violence, we imagine it wouldn't go peacefully. | {
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Over the weekend, Alex Jones posted a video on his Infowars website in which he claimed that, by his own “conservative” estimate, he already “had over 150 women” by the time he turned 16.
Jones was laying out his theory that most people today are nothing more than children until they reach the age of 40 … unlike himself, who achieved full manhood by the time he was 16 years old.
“You’re supposed to have children in every culture, biologically, by 16,” Jones claimed. “If you’re not having them by 16, there’s something wrong with you. Oh, but see, there’s college—the priesthood you’ve got to get into—and then by then, oh, you’ve got to make money because you’re in debt, oh, you don’t have time for kids.”
“Oh, you’re 40, you’re finally halfway out of debt, oh, you want to have some fun now, oh, you try to find a woman,” he continued. “Oh, she’s barren, she’s doing the same thing. By the time you figure out you want to live, by the time you hit 16 at 40—I’m giving you the big knowledge, folks—at 40, on average—and they do this by design—you are the equivalent of a 16-year-old.”
But not Jones.
“When I was 16, I didn’t want to party any more, I didn’t want to play games any more. I grew up,” he said. “I’d already been in the fights, all the big rituals. I’d already had, probably—I hate to brag, I’m not bragging, it’s actually shameful—probably 150 women or more, that’s conservative. I’d had over 150 women, I’d already been in fights with full-grown men, I was already dating college girls by the time I was 15-years-old. I was already a man at 16.” | {
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CoinCola to partner with Dash in Venezuela launch
CoinCola is going international, starting with Venezuela! Our website and app (Android and iOS) are now available in both Spanish and English. Buying and selling through the CoinCola OTC marketplace remains completely free. Traders are only charged a transaction fee when creating OTC advertisements and completing a trade.
To celebrate our international launch, CoinCola is offering all international users*, a discounted transaction fee of 0.5% when advertising and completing OTC trades.
CoinCola is also excited to announce a new strategic partnership with Dash as part of our international launch. As part of the partnership, we’ll be adding the dash coin to our OTC trading platform. We’ll also be offering a 0% transaction fee on all dash OTC trades, for a limited time only. This will enable users to trade and purchase the cryptocurrency at no additional cost.
Promotional offers for Venezuelan users:
0% transaction fee when buying and selling on the CoinCola OTC platform (without posting a trade advertisement).
0.5% transaction fee when posting advertisements and completing trades on the CoinCola OTC Marketplace for Bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), litecoin (LTC), tether (USDT) and bitcoin cash (BCH). Offer ends on 31st December 2018. Normal fee: 0.7%.
0% transaction fee when posting advertisements and completing trades on the CoinCola OTC platform for the dash (DASH). Offer ends on 31st October 2018. Normal fee: 0.7%.
50% commission reward through the CoinCola refer a friend program. Additional rewards are available through the CoinCola affiliate partnership program.
On the new listing and partnership with Dash, CoinCola Founder and CEO Allan Zhang, said “CoinCola is averaging 100,000 transactions every month on our platform. We are the second largest public OTC platform in the world by transaction volume and at this time, 95% of total transactions are from China. With our partnership with Dash, we will be truly global. We decided to partner with Dash because it is the one most efficient digital currencies for payments, offers low fees, and provides ‘InstantSend’ technology. Dash represents a strong presence in Venezuela, Latin America, and the rest of the world. We are very selective in with which coins we list to our platform and we are proud to now offer Dash to Venezuelan users.”
See also: CoinCola: Yes! We’re launching in Venezuela. Why?
Dash is a payments-focused cryptocurrency that, as of September 2018, holds a market cap of over $1.5 billion. Dash already has a significant presence in Venezuela with over 1,450 merchants accepting the cryptocurrency, including brand names such as Subway and Calvin Klein. The Dash organization also provide startup capital and support for entrepreneurs with the Dash Treasury DAO, a pool of mining rewards that allows people to submit proposals and vote on which ideas get funding. The August 2018 payout alone is expected to give around $920,273 worth of dash, including grants for programs in Venezuela.
*International users include all CoinCola traders excluding China. Click here for the latest promotions and announcements for users in China. | {
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Blockchain's Thunder Network Aims at Faster Refunds
Blockchain is improving its Thunder Network for faster settlement and refund times in off-chain transactions, according to a project update.
Also read: Ethereum-Competitor Lisk Unveils Roadmap
Stress Tests Underway
Released as an alpha-stage prototype for testing in May, Thunder is a version of Bitcoin’s proposed Lightning Networks, which handles transactions instantly between users and settles at a later time on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Solutions like this are intended to take some pressure off the main Bitcoin network, allowing a far greater volume of transactions of all sizes — while avoiding the politics of the block size debate.
Blockchain co-founder Nicolas Cary told Bitcoin.com his company is “currently stress testing the network and running internal code and security.” The focus is on hardening both the capacity and security of the network.
Cary said Thunder will move from alpha to beta phase when it’s ready for more testing.
Finding the Ideal Refund Mechanism
Processing off-chain transactions is not as simple as it sounds, so Blockchain is still testing new methods.
In the latest update, the developers talk about how Thunder handles payment refunds — important, since a key feature of Bitcoin is transaction finality.
Blockchain’s initial “dual-layer” approach to transactions meant that if a Thunder user wanted to claim a refund on a payment, they could be subject to lengthy delays — even up to a whole year — especially if one of the parties is offline for a length of time.
The company’s blog post explains it thus:
Dual-tx adds a second layer between broadcasting the settlement and claiming a payment which allows us to clearly separate the process of claiming a payment from waiting out the revocation delay. If the receiver of a payment wants to redeem a payment, he has to broadcast the second transaction which will allow them to claim the output of the second-tx after the revocation delay.
Problems arise, however, if one party to the transaction is dishonest and tries to cheat the system. Blockchain explained that the second transaction acts as a kind of safety net, allowing the party who actually broadcasts the initial transaction to claim a refund.
The counterparty can also claim a transaction directly from the originator’s payment channel.
This solution provides a 1-day payment window with a 2-week revocation delay, much faster than the existing implementation.
Please ‘Battle-Test’ Thunder
While it’s hoped Blockchain’s anti-cheating code never needs to run, Bitcoin and more general online services have revealed an innate human desire to game any new system for curiosity or profit.
Blockchain has done “rigorous unit testing in Thunder to cover all the cases of payments.” The code is open-source and the company encourages users to “battle-test” it.
A more technical explanation of how the layered-transaction system works is available on Blockchain’s site.
Do Thunder and other off-chain payment networks offer a viable solution to Bitcoin’s transaction volume issues? Is Blockchain’s refund solution satisfactory?
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Blockchain.com
Do you want to talk about bitcoin in a comfortable (and censorship-free) environment? Check out the Forums at Bitcoin.com — all the big players in bitcoin have posted there, and all opinions are welcome. | {
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After successful demonstration of the tunnel prototype in Hawthorne and interest from CERN, The Boring Company found a new potential customer.
“Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has recommended selecting Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to build and operate a “people mover” at Las Vegas convention center” says Steve Hill, LVCVA’s President and CEO.
The Las Vegas convention Center where Consumer Electronics Show is set to again take place in January 2021 was looking for means to move people between different exhibition halls. Few different applications where submitted using technologies light rail or monorail. At the end only two companies prevailed out of which the TBC submission was chosen. At the moment, the LVCVA’s directors’ approval is needed.
The plan is to start with a relatively small project of transporting people across the convention center, but with a potential of expanding the tunnel in the next stages. It’s way smaller comparing to other Musk’s plans, like Chicago Express Loop or Mineta Airport, not only because of the scale of the project but also reduced number of landowners.
“I think the system is an attraction in and of itself,” Hill says.
On the 12th of March, the directors of the LVCVA will vote, and the Boring Company won’t make any move, construction plan or specific design until then. In accordance with the LVCVA press release, rough cost estimates are between $30 million and $55 million with a one-year construction time for the whole project.
As usual, the proposed solution is an underground system that allows passengers to go directly from their station to another one, this time in the convention center. Due to many stations, It is a more ambitious and complicated project than the current test tunnel in Hawthorne. It’s not yet specified what kind of vehicles will be used in the system – Model Xs, Model 3s, or modified electric, 16-person people movers. The number of stations and positions for the stations at the convention center isn’t known yet either but the map below shows an early proposal:
Ideas like trams, gondolas, and monorails were all competition to the Boring Company’s application in response to LVCVA December’s request. The costs of The Boring Company’s proposal were “considerably cheaper” than the other options the LVCVA considered. Additionally, going below the ground was also seen as a major competitive advantage. | {
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TIBOR KÁRPÁTI
Twice already Marie had pointed out the brilliance of the autumnal sun on the perfect field of corn, because the brilliance of the autumnal sun on the perfect field of corn put her in mind of a haunted house—not a haunted house she had ever actually seen but the mythical one that sometimes appeared in her mind (with adjacent graveyard and cat on a fence) whenever she saw the brilliance of the autumnal sun on the perfect etc. etc., and she wanted to make sure that, if the kids had a corresponding mythical haunted house that appeared in their minds whenever they saw the brilliance of the etc. etc., it would come up now, so that they could all experience it together, like friends, like college friends on a road trip, sans pot, ha ha ha!
But no. When she, a third time, said, “Wow, guys, check that out,” Abbie said, “O.K., Mom, we get it, it’s corn,” and Josh said, “Not now, Mom, I’m Leavening my Loaves,” which was fine with her; she had no problem with that, Noble Baker being preferable to Bra Stuffer, the game he’d asked for.
Well, who could say? Maybe they didn’t even have any mythical vignettes in their heads. Or maybe the mythical vignettes they had in their heads were totally different from the ones she had in her head. Which was the beauty of it, because, after all, they were their own little people! You were just a caretaker. They didn’t have to feel what you felt; they just had to be supported in feeling what they felt.
Still, wow, that cornfield was such a classic.
“Whenever I see a field like that, guys?” she said. “I somehow think of a haunted house!”
“Slicing Knife! Slicing Knife!” Josh shouted. “You nimrod machine! I chose that!”
Speaking of Halloween, she remembered last year, when their cornstalk column had tipped their shopping cart over. Gosh, how they’d laughed at that! Oh, family laughter was golden; she’d had none of that in her childhood, Dad being so dour and Mom so ashamed. If Mom and Dad’s cart had tipped, Dad would have given the cart a despairing kick and Mom would have stridden purposefully away to reapply her lipstick, distancing herself from Dad, while she, Marie, would have nervously taken that horrid plastic Army man she’d named Brady into her mouth.
Well, in this family laughter was encouraged! Last night, when Josh had goosed her with his GameBoy, she’d shot a spray of toothpaste across the mirror and they’d all cracked up, rolling around on the floor with Goochie, and Josh had said, such nostalgia in his voice, “Mom, remember when Goochie was a puppy?” Which was when Abbie had burst into tears, because, being only five, she had no memory of Goochie as a puppy.
Hence this Family Mission. And as far as Robert? Oh, God bless Robert! There was a man. He would have no problem whatsoever with this Family Mission. She loved the way he had of saying “Ho HO!” whenever she brought home something new and unexpected.
“Ho HO!” Robert had said, coming home to find the iguana. “Ho HO!” he had said, coming home to find the ferret trying to get into the iguana cage. “We appear to be the happy operators of a menagerie!”
She loved him for his playfulness—you could bring home a hippo you’d put on a credit card (both the ferret and the iguana had gone on credit cards) and he’d just say “Ho HO!” and ask what the creature ate and what hours it slept and what the heck they were going to name the little bugger.
In the back seat, Josh made the git-git-git sound he always made when his Baker was in Baking Mode, trying to get his Loaves into the oven while fighting off various Hungry Denizens, such as a Fox with a distended stomach; such as a fey Robin that would improbably carry the Loaf away, speared on its beak, whenever it had succeeded in dropping a Clonking Rock on your Baker—all of which Marie had learned over the summer by studying the Noble Baker manual while Josh was asleep.
And it had helped, it really had. Josh was less withdrawn lately, and when she came up behind him now while he was playing and said, like, “Wow, honey, I didn’t know you could do Pumpernickel,” or “Sweetie, try Serrated Blade, it cuts quicker. Try it while doing Latch the Window,” he would reach back with his non-controlling hand and swat at her affectionately, and yesterday they’d shared a good laugh when he’d accidentally knocked off her glasses.
So her mother could go right ahead and claim that she was spoiling the kids. These were not spoiled kids. These were well-loved kids. At least she’d never left one of them standing in a blizzard for two hours after a junior-high dance. At least she’d never drunkenly snapped at one of them, “I hardly consider you college material.” At least she’d never locked one of them in a closet (a closet!) while entertaining a literal ditchdigger in the parlor.
Oh, God, what a beautiful world! The autumn colors, that glinting river, that lead-colored cloud pointing down like a rounded arrow at that half-remodelled McDonald’s standing above I-90 like a castle.
This time would be different, she was sure of it. The kids would care for this pet themselves, since a puppy wasn’t scaly and didn’t bite. (“Ho HO!” Robert had said the first time the iguana bit him. “I see you have an opinion on the matter!”)
Thank you, Lord, she thought, as the Lexus flew through the cornfield. You have given me so much: struggles and the strength to overcome them; grace, and new chances every day to spread that grace around. And in her mind she sang out, as she sometimes did when feeling that the world was good and she had at last found her place in it, “Ho HO, ho HO!”
Callie pulled back the blind.
Yes. Awesome. It was still solved so perfect.
There was plenty for him to do back there. A yard could be a whole world, like her yard when she was a kid had been a whole world. From the three holes in her wood fence she’d been able to see Exxon (Hole One) and Accident Corner (Hole Two), and Hole Three was actually two holes that if you lined them up right your eyes would do this weird crossing thing and you could play Oh My God I Am So High by staggering away with your eyes crossed, going “Peace, man, peace.”
When Bo got older, it would be different. Then he’d need his freedom. But now he just needed not to get killed. Once they found him way over on Testament. And that was across I-90. How had he crossed I-90? She knew how. Darted. That’s how he crossed streets. Once a total stranger called them from Hightown Plaza. Even Dr. Brile had said it: “Callie, this boy is going to end up dead if you don’t get this under control. Is he taking the medication?” | {
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In an interview with Forbes Magazine, President of ARM, Tudor Brown, revealed that the next sweet treat name for Android after Honeycomb is in fact “Ice Cream”. There seem to be very little chances that he would be mistaken, as ARM’s processors are being used in over 95% of all mobile phones out there.
Google has been naming its Android releases after desserts ever since early last year, when it unveiled Android 1.5 Cupcake and the next two versions of Android are also to be named Gingerbread and Honeycomb. So going by this code-name convention of naming releases after desserts, the codename “Ice-Cream” for Android 4.0 does not seem to be too vague.
Thus far, Google has used the following dessert names to identify the different versions of Android:
Android 1.5 – Cupcake
Android 1.6 – Donut
Android 2.1 – Eclair
Android 2.2 – Froyo [Frozen Yogurt]
Android 2.4 – Gingerbread
Android 3.0 – Honeycomb
The Ice Cream name also makes sense, as there are not too many desserts that begin with the letter “I.” In addition, many have been suspecting for quite a while now that Ice Cream would indeed be used to name the seventh iteration of Android.
Google has not, however, said anything regarding this. Since they already have two versions of Android on the way, it is unlikely that Google will reveal any details of Ice Cream for a while. Actually they have not even announced much details about Gingerbread and Honeycomb.
Gingerbread is expected to be released before the end of the year and Honeycomb in early 2011. So, Ice Cream likely won’t be introduced until mid-2011.
It is not the first time an Android partner divulged such details. Android phone maker Samsung had unveiled the existence of Honeycomb before Google officially announcing it, which suggests that ARM’s President Tudor Brown might have got the name right in the end.
via Forbes | {
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Ontem conversei por telefone com um deputado federal do PR amigo íntimo de Eduardo Cunha. Ele tinha estado com Cunha minutos antes em sua residência oficial. Fez algumas afirmações que são de arrepiar os cabelos. Talvez não seja próprio revelar todas, mas uma, com certeza, já deve ter chegado a Michel Temer. Eduardo Cunha disse em alto e bom som a seguinte frase: "Se eu for abandonado não vou sozinho para o sacrifício. É bom que alguém diga a Michel (Temer) e a (Romero) Jucá que eu posso ser o início do fim de um governo que nem começou". O amigo de Cunha me revelou que nunca tinha visto Eduardo no estado que o encontrou nessa visita. Cunha estava abatido, ansioso e com espírito de vingança.
Em um certo momento da conversa ele deixou transparecer que, na sua opinião, o Supremo não tomaria a decisão que tomou sem uma sondagem prévia ao presidente do Senado, Renan Calheiros e ao próprio Michel Temer. Cunha desconfia de traição embora Temer tenha sido um dos primeiros a ligar para ele assim que o ministro Teori Zavascki concedeu a liminar para suspender o mandato e afastá-lo da presidência da Câmara. Uma das afirmações que chamou a atenção do deputado do PR amigo de Eduardo Cunha foi a seguinte: "Não sou bobo. Tem gente que manda matar e depois vai chorar no velório ao lado da viúva. Se estão pensando que vou aceitar solidariedade sem uma solução concreta estão enganados". Disse também que sabia que uma parte da assessoria próxima de Michel, referindo-se a Moreira Franco, estava dando graças a Deus pela sua situação. Demonstrou ainda grande irritação com Leonardo Picciani, que resistiu, segundo informações que chegaram a ele, a assinar uma nota de solidariedade pelo momento que estava vivendo. Eduardo também reafirmava que não renunciaria chegando a dizer que seu substituto, o deputado Waldir Maranhão (PP-MA) é uma espécie de Severino Cavacanti (ex-presidente da Câmara) melhorado e que não duraria nem 15 dias no cargo.
Foram feitas outras afirmações que prefiro não revelar porque, afinal de contas, são quase que uma chantagem a ministros do STF a quem Eduardo Cunha afirma categoricamente que lhe devem muitos favores.
Como a fonte é altamente confiável é bom Michel Temer se preparar para dias nervosos, afinal Eduardo Cunha como amigo é um perigo, e como inimigo é mais perigoso ainda. Imaginem na situação de ex-amigo. Eu não sei porque sou casado com Rosinha há 34 anos e nunca tive outra esposa. Mas dizem que os piores estragos que podem ser feitos na vida de um homem são por ex-mulheres e ex-amigos.
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Starting today, SoundCloud will let you share songs from its app directly to Instagram Stories, the company announced in a blog post.
To post a SoundCloud track to Instagram Stories, navigate to the song you want to share in the SoundCloud app, then tap the share icon at the bottom of the screen. Depending on the phone you’re using, you’ll either select the Instagram icon or tap “Share to Instagram Stories.” It will then open in Instagram Stories, with the album art as the background, and a movable sticker that’s also a link with the SoundCloud logo and name of the song.
Spotify introduced a similar feature for Instagram Stories back in May, and Instagram also recently added the ability to directly add background music to Stories, with thousands of songs offered in-app by artists like Demi Lovato and Cardi B.
SoundCloud has been on a tear of announcements over the past week, including a partnership with rights clearance startup Dubset, opening its monetization program, Premier, for everyone, and new integrations with DJ softwares like Traktor and Virtual DJ. The new feature is rolling out today to users with the latest versions of the SoundCloud app and Instagram on iOS and Android. | {
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Blankfein, Simpson & Bowles on the Record
Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO & chairman, says the U.S. is in the best competitive place in the world. Meanwhile Erskine Bowles, Deficit Commission, says if no action on the fiscal cliff is taken, the jobless rate will rise above 8 percent. Alan Simpson, Deficit Commission, also weighs in on the U.S.' tipping point, with CNBC's Steve Liesman. | {
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In the hopes that this petition reaches it signature goal. It will be included in a proposal to Dublin City Council to commission an artist to make a statue of Star Trek's Chief Miles O'Brien to be displayed on the streets of Dublin. | {
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'Seven Ukraine troops die' in deadliest post-truce attack Published duration 29 September 2014 Related Topics Ukraine conflict
image copyright EPA image caption Ukrainian troops have been battling pro-Russian rebels across the east of the country
Seven Ukrainian soldiers are said to have died in a clash with pro-Russian rebels near Donetsk airport - in what would be the deadliest single incident for the military since a truce deal.
A tank shell hit the vehicle carrying the troops, an official said.
Three civilians were reportedly killed in other incidents.
Ukrainian activists earlier toppled a statue of Lenin in the eastern city of Kharkiv - a move likely to be seen as a provocation by pro-Russians.
Nationalist protesters had gathered around the statue on Sunday night for a "Kharkiv is Ukraine" rally. The governor of Kharkiv region, Ihor Baluta, then signed an order to dismantle the statue.
The mayor of Kharkiv, Gennady Kernes, said on a local government website that the monument would be restored, calling its destruction unlawful.
Pro-Russian demonstrators defended the statue in February, as similar monuments were being taken down in other parts of the country in a wave of protests that accompanied the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych.
Kharkiv has largely escaped the violence which subsequently swept through east Ukraine's other regions, Donetsk and Luhansk.
image copyright AFP image caption Ukrainian flags flutter where Kharkiv's statue of Lenin stood - until Sunday night
The latest deaths cast fresh doubt on a ceasefire agreed between the Ukrainian government and the rebels on 5 September.
The seven soldiers were killed in a vehicle near Donetsk airport, which the rebels have been trying to capture from the Ukrainian military.
"During the evening attack, the Ukrainian armoured transporter, with its crew and a paratroop unit, took a direct hit from a tank," Ukrainian military spokesman Col Andriy Lysenko told reporters.
"Intensive fighting broke out. Our paratroopers sustained losses," Col Lysenko said.
He said a total of nine soldiers had been killed and 27 wounded in the past 24 hours.
Separately, authorities in Donetsk told AFP news agency that three civilians had been killed over the same period. The city is a base for the pro-Russian rebels.
The OSCE security organisation, which is monitoring the ceasefire, confirmed there had been heavy shelling around Donetsk airport.
There was also heavy shelling of the eastern outskirts of Mariupol on Friday and Saturday, OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw told the BBC.
Just before the ceasefire took effect heavily armed rebels moved close to Mariupol, a strategic port city on the main route to Crimea.
Russia denies Western allegations that it has armed the rebels and sent troops into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. About 3,200 people have died in fighting since April.
Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March - a move condemned by Ukraine and the West.
The European Union and the US later imposed sanctions against Russia over its role in the Ukraine conflict.
Last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the "most dangerous" part of the crisis in the east had passed, predicting that his peace deal with the pro-Russian rebels would hold.
'Suspicious graves'
For several days Russian state television has reported on "mass graves" allegedly unearthed by rebels near Nizhnya Krynka, a village near Donetsk. At least four bodies have been found there, according to the Russian reports.
The television reports said Ukrainian army and national guard units had occupied the area and were suspected of shooting captives at close range.
Last week Anton Herashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser, dismissed the mass grave allegation as "outright lies".
OSCE spokesman Bociurkiw confirmed that "about half a dozen" bodies, some of them decomposed, had been seen by OSCE monitors at the site.
"We observed unmarked graves, it was not possible to establish gender, and there were shell casings nearby," he said.
"We were not able to do a proper investigation because the OSCE doesn't have the ability to do a forensic assessment," he told the BBC.
"We had no way of establishing if they were shot or who put the weapons there."
He also said the OSCE had been unable to check whether Russia was bringing more military equipment into Ukraine or taking it out. No inspection was carried out on Russian humanitarian aid lorries that entered the conflict zone, he said.
"We don't have an inventory of what existed, so it's very difficult to establish what if anything has moved. Equipment was also unmarked," he said. | {
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Workers at a Miramar McDonald's protested Thursday morning, demanding better working conditions and a $15 minimum wage.
“I have seven children to take care of, and I can’t do that on $8.05 an hour,” said Marianne Raney, who has been working at the restaurant for three years. Until recently, she’d been clocking close to 35 hours a week, but then management hired new employees and cut her hours. She now gets scheduled for no more than 23 hours a week, making it even harder to get by.
Employees at the McDonald's (3306 S. University Dr.) were joined by representatives from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Florida, which is currently leading the “Fight for $15” campaign. A growing number of cities around the country — including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle — have already approved a $15 minimum wage, but the movement has struggled to gain traction in Florida. Last year, state Senator Dwight Bullard introduced a bill to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15, but it died in committee.
Some companies have independently pledged to begin paying their employees more. This week, Starbucks and Chase announced they would phase in a $15 minimum wage for all employees.
For McDonald's workers, the $15 minimum wage seems unlikely for now. But workers at the Miramar location would at least like the kitchen's air conditioner fixed.
Laurie Rollins, who has been working the grill for six years, says she can’t remember a time when it worked properly. “One week it’s working, the next week it’s broken,” she said. “It feels like a sweatshop in there — at least 100 degrees.”
To make matters worse, employees are banned from taking breaks in the dining area, which has working air conditioning. (Ironically, customers have complained online that the restaurant is too cold.) Instead, they’re forced to stay in the hot kitchen.
“It’s my 30 minutes — that’s my time,” Rollins said. “I don’t think they should be able to do that.”
The manager on duty declined to explain the reasoning behind this policy.
A small crowd formed by the entrance to the McDonald’s while protestors stood in front of the counter with signs and bullhorns. Some customers went ahead and ordered breakfast, while others stopped to document the event on Snapchat. “I wanna get $15 an hour when I work in this bitch!” one teenager shouted in support.
The protest lasted about half an hour. Not long after the group left, several Miramar police cars rolled up to the parking lot. No arrests were made, but protestors were told that they’d be trespassing if they re-entered the store.
“You have the right to protest on public land, and I will defend your right to do that,” Officer Steven McGillicuddy explained. “But we got a call that you were inside the store, blocking sales.”
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A federal appellate court ruling threatens to raise the price of health insurance for millions of Americans who bought through HealthCare.gov. (Theresa Poulson/The Washington Post)
A federal appellate court ruling threatens to raise the price of health insurance for millions of Americans who bought through HealthCare.gov. (Theresa Poulson/The Washington Post)
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down a major part of the federal health-care law Tuesday, ruling that the insurance subsidies that help millions of Americans pay for coverage are illegal in three dozen states.
Less than two hours later, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, handed down a contradictory ruling on the issue in a separate case, raising the possibility of yet another high-stakes battle over the law playing out before the Supreme Court.
The conflicting rulings give traction to the most serious current threat to the Affordable Care Act, which has been battered by a series of legal challenges since it was enacted four years ago. The dispute centers on whether the subsidies may be awarded in states that chose not to set up their own insurance marketplaces and instead left the task to the federal government.
About 5.4 million people had signed up for coverage on the federal exchange as of this spring, federal figures show. About 87 percent of them received subsidies.
The Obama administration said it will ask the full D.C. Circuit court to review the decision in the District case, Halbig v. Burwell. The ruling will not have an immediate effect on consumers, because the judges allowed time for an appeal, and administration officials stressed that people receiving the subsidies will continue to do so as the cases are sorted out in the courts.
View Graphic Now, nearly 3.3 million people have enrolled in a health plan between Oct. 1 and Feb. 1.
“We feel very strong about the sound legal reasoning of the argument that the administration is making,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “You don’t need a fancy legal degree to understand that Congress intended for every eligible American to have access to tax credits that would lower their health-care costs regardless of whether it was state officials or federal officials who are running the marketplace.”
If the decision going against the government it upheld, it will be more damaging to the law than a Supreme Court decision last month that limited coverage of contraceptives.
In his dissent, D.C. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards noted that the subsidies case went to the core of the law, calling it a “not-so-veiled attempt to gut the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
Conservatives have spent years laying the groundwork for the challenge, which they considered their last, best chance at hollowing out the federal program. Activists had lobbied state legislatures, urging them not to set up their own marketplaces in part to magnify the effect if the courts ruled their way. Four cases have been moving through the courts relying on a similar rationale, among them the D.C. and Richmond cases.
The suits argued that Congress intended for the subsidies — in the form of tax credits — to go only to people in states that set up their own insurance exchanges, also referred to as marketplaces. They said they were meant as a “carrot” to entice states to embrace this part of the law. They cited a section of the law that said the subsidies would be available to those “enrolled through an Exchange established by the State.”
Lower courts have sided with the government, which contended that Congress meant for the subsidies to be available in all states, including those that left the job of setting up a marketplace to the federal government. It said the intent was obvious from the law’s context, which is why the Internal Revenue Service wrote rules clarifying that the subsidies would be available everywhere.
In the 2-to-1 opinion Tuesday in the D.C. case, Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith wrote that this interpretation is incorrect. Although the federal government may establish an exchange on behalf of a state, he wrote, “it does not in fact stand in the state’s shoes when doing so.”
But in the Richmond case, King v. Burwell, which was decided unanimously by that three-judge panel, 4th Circuit Judge Roger L. Gregory wrote that it is not specified as to whether the subsidies should be available in states that declined to set up marketplaces.
Because of this ambiguity, the court concluded that the IRS acted appropriately, and that it is “clear that widely available tax credits are essential to fulfilling the Act’s primary goals and that Congress was aware of their importance when drafting the bill,” Gregory wrote.
The D.C. Circuit panel was made up of two judges appointed by a Republican and one by a Democrat. The 4th Circuit panel consisted of two judges appointed by a Democrat and one — Gregory — who was nominated by President Bill Clinton and renominated by President George W. Bush.
Supporters of the health-care law predicted that these legal challenges will not succeed.
“Today’s decision represents the high-water mark for Affordable Care Act opponents, but the water will recede very quickly,” Ron Pollack, executive director of the consumer health organization Families USA, said in a statement.
Republicans, however, cited the decision as more evidence that the legislation is flawed.
“Today’s decision rightly holds the Obama administration accountable to the law. The plain text of Obamacare authorizes subsidies only through state exchanges, not the federal exchange,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. “The court considered the administration’s justifications and came to an unmistakable conclusion: President Obama overreached.”
If the D.C. decision is upheld, it will have wide-ranging consequences for states that declined to set up their own marketplaces.
The ruling would affect 27 states, most with Republican leaders who oppose the health-care law, and nine states that partly opted out of setting up marketplaces. Those states are instead being served by the federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov.
Legal experts said that under the D.C. ruling, companies in those states would no longer be penalized for not offering their workers health insurance under the employer mandate, which will take effect next year. This is because under the law, employer penalties for not providing health coverage are triggered only when a worker receives a subsidy.
Lack of subsidies also would put insurance financially out of reach for the millions of people who are relying on the help this year to pay their premiums. That, in turn, would weaken the law’s requirement that most Americans carry health coverage by increasing the number who qualified for a hardship exemption based on insurance prices.
About 9 in 10 people in states relying on the federal marketplace bought health plans with the help of the subsidies. The average tax credit for a person this year is $276, lowering the person’s premium from an average price of $345 per month to an average of $69, federal figures show.
If the D.C. Circuit grants the administration’s request for a full “en banc” hearing, legal experts say, the law’s supporters will be more likely to prevail. The court has four relatively new judges nominated by Obama, and the partisan split on the court is now 7 to 4 in favor of those appointed by Democratic presidents.
If the full court overturns the panel decision, there will be no split among the circuits.
The losers in the 4th Circuit Court’s decision have the same option to ask for a review of the full court. But that court also is now dominated by judges nominated by Democrats, and the challengers may think their chances are better at the Supreme Court and take their appeal there.
The question the courts address — how to handle insurance subsidies in the three dozen states relying on the federal marketplace — was one that neither Democrats nor Republicans had anticipated when the Affordable Care Act was written. Even though the measure squeaked through Congress without GOP support, lawmakers and health policy specialists anticipated that virtually all states would create their own insurance exchanges. Exchanges were designed to make coverage more accessible to the minority of Americans who cannot obtain an affordable health plan through a job.
The law offered states money to set up marketplaces. And the thinking was that even states with Republican leaders would be eager to run their own marketplaces in the name of state autonomy. So it was a surprise that Republican antipathy to the law proved so intense that three dozen states balked at setting up exchanges, making the federal marketplaces — intended as a lightly used fallback — the main source of new health plans in the country when the exchanges opened for enrollment in October.
Robert Barnes and Ann Marimow contributed to this report. | {
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In every league campaign there are always heroes. There are the defensive lynchpins, the midfield generals, and maybe even a goalkeeper, but those who stand out more than anyone are usually the players who are directly involved in goals. In the case of Real, shining a light on these pivotal contributors would not be flattery, for Madrid’s goal scorers and creators played a pivotal role in their side’s path to success. As impressive as a haul of 93 points is, this was not a pretty league campaign. As Zidane likes to note, Madrid "suffered" their way through various comebacks and tight victories, secured by Real's valiant offensive stalwarts again and again.
Thus, it is only right to identify just which players were most crucial to all these enthralling wins, if not to learn something, but as homage to the heroes of La Liga 2016/17.
The Methodology
From my previous stat-pack article:
Goals. We obsess over them, count them, objectify them, youtube them, and idolize their scorers - and not without good reason. Goals are the currency by which football operates. For all our fawning over pre-assists and vertical passes, goals are the direct actions that win games - it’s as simple as that. But are all goals created equal? The surface-level answer is "yes", since every goal is worth a unit of 1 (except for away goals, but let’s ignore them since they bear little relevance to my article). But when you take into account the order in which goals are scored, one finds that some goals contribute more to the attainment of results than others. For example, Ronaldo’s winning goal against FC Barcelona in last season’s El Clásico at the Camp Nou, was a crucial strike that moved Real Madrid from potentially gaining one point to winning three points. That sort of goal importance contrasts with his last minute goal against Real Betis in 2016/17, which added to Madrid’s 5-1 lead, but had little to no effect on the outcome. Such contextual information makes it easier to analyze a players’ importance to his team’s results, especially when the types of goals are broken down further: winning goals, opening goals [some of which overlap with winning goals], equalizing goals, go ahead goals that aren’t winners, goals that end up being cancelled out, goals that secure a lead by 2, goals that secure a lead by 3, goals that secure a by 4, goals that secure a lead by 5, [and goals that cut into a deficit].
While what is outlined above was previously designed for goals, the exact same methodology applies to assists. Each category remains the same for the final ball, with the goal of separating the assists that truly mattered and the ones that didn’t.
But before we dive into the heady stats, let’s plot down the basic stuff so you can more easily wrap your mind around the analysis to come.
Basic Goal Scoring Data
<a href="#" mce_href="#"><img alt='Total Goal Stats ' src="https:&#47;&#47;public.tableau.com&#47;static&#47;images&#47;Ba&#47;BasicGoalStats_RealMadrid_LaLiga&#47;TotalGoalStats&#47;1_rss.png" mce_src="https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Ba/BasicGoalStats_RealMadrid_LaLiga/TotalGoalStats/1_rss.png" style="border: none" mce_style="border: none" /></a>
Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo has been far and away Real Madrid's most prolific goal scorer in the league. While his haul of 25 is the lowest he has managed since joining the capital club, his excellent goal per 90 minute (goal p90) ratio of 0.9 means that this is down to the lesser minutes he has received. Alvaro Morata is some ways off in 2nd place, with 15 strikes to his name, but considering that he has only received 1334 minutes (often in bite-sized pieces), his goal scoring record is nothing short of remarkable. In fact, he even beat out Ronaldo for the team's best goal ratio at 1 every 90 minutes. Morata's main competitor, Benzema, managed far less spectacular, but still respectable, statistics. His end-of-season form pushed him to 11 league goals, 1 ahead of Isco, who managed by far his largest ever goal scoring total. Not to be left behind, James found the back of the net 8 times and at an even more impressive goal per minute ratio than Isco and Big Benz. After the aforementioned top five, ties begin to arise between players as the number of goals scored begins to descend into the lower echelons of the numerical order. Nevertheless, it is truly impressive to see the number of players that have scored in the league (19), though it is clear that only select individuals can lay claim to being crucial to Real's goal scoring exploits (at least according to this basic statistical analysis). In-Depth Goal Scoring Data
<a href="#" mce_href="#"><img alt='Detailed Goal Stats Pres ' src="https://public.tableau.com/static/images/De/DetailedGoalStats_RealMadrid_LaLiga/DetailedGoalStatsPres/1_rss.png" mce_src="https://public.tableau.com/static/images/De/DetailedGoalStats_RealMadrid_LaLiga/DetailedGoalStatsPres/1_rss.png" style="border: none" mce_style="border: none" /></a>
While the top scorers in the basic statistics section seem to dominate this segment, the thorough breakdown above has allowed Sergio Ramos to rise in the fore. In danger of being forgotten when looking at the rawer arrangement of the data, we can now see that Ramos was indeed incredibly important to Real's title success. All 7 of his goals came in periods where they were sorely needed: 4 won the game, 2 equalized play, and 1 opened the scoring. Especially memorable was his header vs. FC Barcelona, which bought Madrid a point out of nothing, and his dramatic late winner in a 3-2 win vs. Deportivo La Coruña.
However, while Ramos' heroics must not be forgotten, Real Madrid's greatest goal scorer was undoubtedly Cristiano Ronaldo. Unfairly pegged for stat-padding in insignificant moments since the beginning of time, any real analysis of his numbers puts that narrative to bed. His 6 winning goals, 8 opening goals (2 of which were winners), 4 equalizing goals, and 2 deficit reduction strikes, are touched by nobody and they make up 18 of his total 25 goals. When factoring in the less decisive, but still significant, "secured Real's lead by 2" goals, the Portuguese ace has only netted 4 shots that can be considered to be "fluff."
And just to be clear, these well-timed blows have come against "quality "opponents: a hat-trick against Alavés and another vs. Atlético Madrid, 3 goals in 2 games vs. Sevilla, 2 goals in 2 games vs. Valencia, an equalizing spot-kick vs. Villarreal, a double vs. Las Palmas to salvage a draw, and a brace vs. Celta Vigo on the penultimate match day of the season.
To be sure, Ronaldo didn't do it all by himself. Aside from Ramos, the much maligned Benzema managed 3 winning goals, which were matched by Isco and Morata, who both also picked up one equalizer each. After them, the numbers get thinner, but the sheer volume of players that netted at least one winning, opening, or tie-ing goal, demonstrates the strength of the supporting cast behind main man Ronaldo and his title-snatching exploits.
Basic Assist Data
As key as goal scorers are, it would be a woeful mistake to forget the men who set them up.
<a href="#" mce_href="#"><img alt='Total Assist Stats ' src="https:&#47;&#47;public.tableau.com&#47;static&#47;images&#47;Ba&#47;BasicAssistStats_RealMadrid_LaLiga&#47;TotalAssistStats&#47;1_rss.png" mce_src="https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Ba/BasicAssistStats_RealMadrid_LaLiga/TotalAssistStats/1_rss.png" style="border: none" mce_style="border: none" /></a>
Just like with the goals chart, right off the bat you notice a few standout players. Unsurprisingly, (or perhaps surprisingly, if you're one of those people who still thinks Kroos only passes sideways) German cyborg Toni Kroos leads the pack with 12 assists, at a pretty good rate of 0.4 p90. Marcelo matches the p90 statistic but trails by two in his assist total. That pattern continues past Isco and until Lucas Vázquez, who managed 7 assists at a world class ratio of 0.5 p90. James Rodríguez is the only other player who matched that assist per minute brilliance, as everyone lower than the Colombian delievers a maximum of 0.3 assists p90 (with the exception of Coentrao and Mariano, whose figures are greatly inflated by a tiny sample size). So based on these rudimentary figures, a noticeable difference in quality has seemingly appeared. On the one hand you have the elite creators: Toni Kroos and co., and on the other hand you have the respectable but unexceptional providers: Ronaldo and co. In-Depth Assist Data | {
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Plant Power Fast Food’s entirely vegan menu debuted in San Diego’s Ocean Beach back in 2016, with a second location opening in Encinitas a year later. The chain has new locations coming to nearby Redlands and Long Beach later this year, and its most significant feature is the drive-thru that serves animal-free breakfast sandwiches, burgers, and shakes.
According to co-founder Zach Vouga, Plant Power Fast Food just signed leases in both cities, and construction is underway. The future 2,100 square foot Long Beach location will be in the former University Burgers space at Clark and Pacific Coast Highway. Plant Power’s second Southern California store is moving into the Redlands Packing House District, a fairly new dining and retail destination.
LongBeachize’s Brian Addison first noticed Plant Power Fast Food’s expansion. There’s a car-centric culture around Plant Power Fast Food. The Ocean Beach location has a drive up where diners can park and order and eat in their cars, along with drive-thru service in Encinitas. Vouga tells Eater that Long Beach is an ideal location, and that drive-thrus are part of the company’s long-term plan.
Plant Power Fast Food Long Beach
5095 Pacific Coast Hwy
Long Beach, CA | {
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That day, the provider had eight kids in her care. Investigators say one of those children, Joseph Allen, was left behind. He was discovered in an upstairs bedroom more than 35 minutes after firefighters arrived. "Joseph Allen, the young boy that was transported to the hospital from our fire on Valerie Court died from injures he suffered at the fire," Lt. Jason Elmore of Chesterfield County Fire & EMS said. | {
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Roxanne Pelletier , PhD ∗, Nadia A. Khan , MD, MSc †, Jafna Cox , MD ‡, Stella S. Daskalopoulou , MD, PhD §, Mark J. Eisenberg , MD, MPH ‖, Simon L. Bacon , PhD ¶, Kim L. Lavoie , PhD #, Kaberi Daskupta , MD, MSc ∗∗, Doreen Rabi , MD, MSc ††, Karin H. Humphries , DSc ‡‡, Colleen M. Norris , PhD §§, George Thanassoulis , MD ‖‖, Hassan Behlouli , PhD ¶¶, Louise Pilote , MD, PhD ∗ , §∗ ( louise.pilote{at}mcgill.ca ) , for the GENESIS-PRAXY Investigators ∗ Divisions of General Internal Medicine and of Clinical Epidemiology , Department of Medicine , The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre , Montreal, Quebec, Canada † Department of Medicine , Center for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Science , University of British Columbia , Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada ‡ Division of Cardiology , Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre , Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada § Division of Internal Medicine , Department of Medicine , McGill University Health Centre , Montreal, Quebec, Canada ‖ Divisions of Cardiology and Clinical Epidemiology , Department of Medicine , McGill University Health Centre , Montreal, Quebec, Canada ¶ Department of Exercise Science , Concordia University , Montreal, Quebec, Canada # Department of Psychology , University of Quebec in Montreal , Montreal, Quebec, Canada ∗∗ Division of Clinical Epidemiology , McGill University Health Centre , Montreal, Quebec, Canada †† Department of Community Health Sciences , Faculty of Medicine , University of Calgary , Calgary, Alberta, Canada ‡‡ Division of Cardiology , University of British Columbia , Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada §§ Faculty of Nursing , University of Alberta , Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ‖‖ Division of Cardiology , Department of Medicine , McGill University Health Centre , Montreal, Quebec, Canada ¶¶ Division of Clinical Epidemiology , McGill University Health Centre , Montreal, Quebec, Canada ↵ ∗ Reprint requests and correspondence:
Dr. Louise Pilote, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and General Internal Medicine, McGill University and McGill University Health Centre, 1001 Decarie Boulevard, Room D05.5021, Montreal, Quebec H4A 3J1, Canada.
Abstract Background “Gender” reflects social norms for women and men, whereas “sex” defines biological characteristics. Gender-related characteristics explain some differences in access to care for premature acute coronary syndrome (ACS); whether they are associated with cardiovascular outcomes is unknown. Objectives This study estimated associations between gender and sex with recurrent ACS and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) (e.g., ACS, cardiac mortality, revascularization) over 12 months in patients with ACS. Methods We studied 273 women and 636 men age 18 to 55 years from GENESIS-PRAXY (GENdEr and Sex determInantS of cardiovascular disease: from bench to beyond-Premature Acute Coronary SYndrome), a prospective observational cohort study, who were hospitalized for ACS between January 2009 and April 2013. Gender-related characteristics (e.g., social roles) were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire, and a composite measure of gender was derived. Outcomes included recurrent ACS and MACE over 12 months. Results Feminine roles and personality traits were associated with higher rates of recurrent ACS and MACE compared with masculine characteristics. This difference persisted for recurrent ACS, after multivariable adjustment (hazard ratio from score 0 to 100: 4.50; 95% confidence interval: 1.05 to 19.27), and was a nonstatistically significant trend for MACE (hazard ratio: 1.54; 95% confidence interval: 0.90 to 2.66). A possible explanation is increased anxiety, the only condition that was more prevalent in patients with feminine characteristics and that rendered the association between gender and recurrent ACS nonstatistically significant (hazard ratio: 3.56; 95% confidence interval: 0.81 to 15.61). Female sex was not associated with outcomes post-ACS. Conclusions Younger adults with ACS with feminine gender are at an increased risk of recurrent ACS over 12 months, independent of female sex.
Key Words
Gender reflects social norms and expectations ascribed to women and men, in contrast to biological characteristics that are captured by sex. Gender can be referred to as the nonbiological aspects of being male or female (e.g., social roles, personality traits) (1–4). The increased risk of mortality in young females compared with males after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) (5,6) may relate to gender-related characteristics (7–9). For example, hours of paid work have increased significantly among women in the past 20 to 30 years, which in addition to child care responsibilities, may lead to increased psychosocial stress (7,8,10). This stress may be exacerbated post-ACS and may even be a trigger of poor outcomes (11,12).
Consistent with this idea are the results from the Variation in Recovery: Role of Gender on Outcomes of Young AMI Patients study, demonstrating that women with premature ACS have a worse pre-event mental and physical health status, and a worse quality of life than men, regardless of their history of cardiovascular (CV) disease (13). However, traits typically ascribed to men, including denial of weakness and vulnerability, are thought to undermine health promotion activities (14). Unlike sex characteristics, gender-related characteristics, such as personality traits and social roles, can be present at different levels in both women and men. Therefore, it is possible that there are gender-related attitudes and roles that are important to health behaviors apart from biological sex.
We previously observed that poorer access to care for young women compared with men with ACS was partly explained by gender-related attitudes and roles traditionally ascribed to women (15). Whether attitudes and social roles traditionally ascribed to women are associated with adverse CV outcomes after premature ACS is unknown. Our objectives were to determine whether gender-related attitudes and roles and/or sex are associated with recurrent ACS over 12 months following hospital discharge for the index ACS and/or major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and all-cause mortality over 12 months post-ACS, and to explore pathways of these associations. We hypothesized that gender-related attitudes and social roles traditionally ascribed to women would be positively associated with recurrent ACS, MACE, and all-cause mortality at 12 months. We also hypothesized that such patient health behaviors, clinical risk profiles, and medical management characteristics are plausible pathways for these associations.
Methods Study design GENESIS-PRAXY (GENdEr and Sex determInantS of cardiovascular disease: from bench to beyond-Premature Acute Coronary SYndrome) is a multicenter prospective follow-up of young patients (age ≤55 years) with ACS. Between January 2009 and April 2013, a total of 24 centers across Canada, 1 in the United States, and 1 in Switzerland participated in the recruitment of patients. Participants were followed for a 12-month period post-ACS. A detailed description of the design and methods of GENESIS-PRAXY has previously been published (16). The reporting of the present analyses follows the STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) guidelines for observational studies (17). Ethics In Quebec, a multicenter ethics review allowed for the McGill University Heath Centre to act as the central review board and coordinate ethics approval for all centers. All other centers received ethics approval from their respective hospital ethics review boards. Study population and data sources Eligible patients were between the ages of 18 and 55 years, fluent in English or French, able to provide informed consent, and admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of ACS. On recruitment (within 24 h of admission), participants were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire (discussed in later text) and anthropometric measurements were obtained. Medical chart reviews undertaken by the research nurse and the self-administered questionnaires were used to collect participants’ medical history, health behaviors, and index ACS characteristics; clinical risk profile; and medical management data. At 12 months following ACS, participants’ outcome data were reported based on medical chart reviews, and a telephone interview was conducted by the research nurse to complement and/or confirm data. For the present analyses, 909 patients with baseline and follow-up data were included. Gender-related factors According to the Women Health Research Network of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the concept of gender includes 4 interrelated aspects that encompass the gender construct: gender roles (e.g., child care), gender identity (e.g., personality traits), gender relationships (e.g., social support), and what is termed “institutionalized gender” (e.g., education level, personal income) (1). As part of the GENESIS-PRAXY study, several gender-related variables relevant to cardiovascular disease (CVD) research were measured to cover most of these 4 aspects. These variables were initially hypothesized to be gender-related as traditionally defined (i.e., historically different in men and women). The following variables were therefore measured using a self-administered questionnaire: household’s primary earner status (assessed using the question: “Are you the primary earner in your household?”); employment status; number of hours of work per week; level of responsibility for caring for children (assessed using the question: “For the children that live with you, to what level are you responsible for caring for them” on a scale from 0 to 6); level of responsibility for child discipline (using the same question as the previous but replacing “caring” by “disciplining”); number of hours per week spent doing housework; status of household’s primary responsibility; gender-related personality traits assessed using masculinity and femininity scores on the BEM Sex Role Inventory (18); stress level at work, at home, and overall (on a scale from 1 to 10); level of confidence in stress management abilities (assessed using the question: “How confident do you feel in managing your stress?”; participants chose between “Not confident,” “A little confident,” “Moderately confident,” “Very confident”); social support-related variables, found in the items of the ENRICHD Social Support Instrument (19); civil status; personal income; level of education; perceived social standing within patient’s community and country, assessed using the MacArthur Perceived Social Standing Scale (20); and job value and job quality deficit-related variables, assessed using a previously modified version of the Canadian Policy Research Network–Ekos Changing Employment Relationships Survey Questionnaire (21). Gender-related score A detailed description of methodology used to construct the gender index has been published (22). Briefly, a composite measure of the gender-related characteristics was created, whereby the previously named variables were included in a principal component analysis. To determine which variables were actually gender-related in our cohort, the 17 variables identified on the retained components from the principal component analysis (23,24) were included in a logistic regression using biological sex as the dependent variable. This choice of dependent variable was made because to date, gender-related characteristics have mostly been defined historically based on social norms and expectations typically ascribed to men and women (1–4). These norms and expectations are likely to evolve with time, and to differ between subpopulations. We therefore aimed to define objectively the variables that were associated with the reality of being biologically female or male in the GENESIS-PRAXY cohort. For this purpose, a first logistic regression was conducted, including sex as the dependent variable and the variables retained from the principal component analysis as the independent variables. The 7 variables that were independently associated with biological sex and included in the gender-related score (according to their own weight based on their coefficient estimate) are: 1) status of household primary earner; 2) personal income; 3) number of hours per week spent doing housework; 4) status of primary person responsible for doing housework; 5) level of stress at home; 6) Bem Sex Role Inventory masculinity score; and 7) Bem Sex Role Inventory femininity score (Online Tables 1 and 2). The gender-related score represents the probability, between 0% and 100%, for each patient to be a “woman.” The lower the score, the more the patient reported characteristics traditionally ascribed to men; and vice versa, the higher the score the more the patient reported characteristics traditionally ascribed to women. Intermediate scores represent patients with an equivalent level of characteristics traditionally ascribed to women and men. Outcome measures The primary outcome was recurrent ACS over 12 months, and the secondary outcome measures included MACE and all-cause mortality over 12 months, determined using medical chart review and complemented by a telephone interview conducted by the research nurse. The first occurring event between hospital discharge following the index ACS and 12 months was included in the analyses. MACE included recurrent ACS, cardiac mortality, and revascularization procedures (percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting). Potential pathways of the association between sex, gender-related score, and outcomes Participants’ behavior-related variables included cocaine and recreational drug use, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and cigarette smoking. Clinical risk profile-related variables included anxiety and depression symptoms, diabetes, dyslipidemia, family history of CVD, hypertension, obesity, previous CVD events, having been diagnosed with an ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction as opposed to a non–ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction or unstable angina, and the GRACE (Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events) score (a validated score used to predict in-hospital and long-term mortality or reinfarction). Depression and anxiety symptoms present before the index ACS were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (25). Body mass index was calculated from measured height and weight, and obesity was defined as a body mass index ≥30 kg/m2. Previous CVD events included myocardial infarction, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, coronary artery bypass grafting, and percutaneous coronary intervention. The GRACE score was calculated using chart review data and the Risk Calculator for 6-Month Postdischarge Mortality After Hospitalization for Acute Coronary Syndrome (26). Medical management-related variables included delay between the onset of chest pain and presentation to the emergency department; number of medical visits as outpatient at 12 months; discharge referral for smoking cessation, diet, and cardiac rehabilitation counseling; and discharge medication prescriptions. Statistical analyses Descriptive statistics were used to compare baseline characteristics among patients in the different tertiles of the gender-related score. Tertile 1 included the third of patients (0% to 33.3%) with the highest level of gender-related characteristics traditionally ascribed to men; tertile 2 included the third of patients (33.4% to 66.6%) with an equivalent level of gender-related characteristics traditionally ascribed to women and to men; and tertile 3 included the third of patients (66.7% to 100%) with the highest level of gender-related characteristics traditionally ascribed to women. Rates of recurrent ACS, MACE, and all-cause mortality at 12 months were also compared among tertiles of the gender-related score and between sexes. Continuous variables were compared using Student t tests or Wilcoxon tests as appropriate, and dichotomous variables were compared using chi-square tests. Tertiles of the gender-related score were used to compare patients in descriptive analyses, whereas the gender-related score as a continuous variable was used in the Cox proportional hazards regression models. To assess the relationship of sex and gender-related characteristics with recurrent ACS and MACE, Cox proportional hazards models were constructed. The multivariable models included the gender-related score, sex, age, GRACE score, previous CVD events, and the number of traditional CV risk factors (including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, cigarette smoking, and family history of CVD). Regression analyses were not conducted for all-cause mortality because of insufficient statistical power. To explore potential pathways of the association between gender-related characteristics and recurrent ACS, only the health behaviors, clinical risk profile, and medical management characteristics that were associated with the gender-related score in univariate analyses were used. These variables included anxiety; depression; family history of CVD; smoking; dyslipidemia; hypertension; diabetes mellitus; and prescription of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, antiplatelet, and statin medications at hospital discharge. As such, 10 Cox regression models were conducted, where each of the previous 10 variables were included, in rotation, in the initial multivariable model (see previous paragraph). In these models, changes in the effect size of the gender-related score that were induced by the inclusion of each potential pathway-related variable were assessed. Statistical analyses were performed using SAS version 9.2 (SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina). Statistical tests were 2-sided; differences with p ≤ 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results Baseline characteristics Our study population included 273 (30%) women and 636 (70%) men (Online Figure 1), for whom the gender-related score distribution is presented in Figure 1. In our cohort, the mean gender-related score was 30.5 ± 30.2, and the median age was 48 years (interquartile range: 6 years). Recurrent ACS at 12 months occurred in 35 (3%) patients, and 75 (8%) and 9 (<1%) patients sustained a MACE and died, respectively. Patients with characteristics traditionally ascribed to women (tertile 3 of the gender-related score) were more likely to be women, unmarried, to report high levels of anxiety and depression, to be smokers, have diabetes, hypertension, family history of CVD, and prior CV events before the index ACS than patients in tertiles 2 and 1. Patients with characteristics traditionally ascribed to women were also less likely to be prescribed antihypertensive, antiplatelet, and statin medication at hospital discharge (Table 1). Central Illustration Gender-Related Characteristics Versus Sex: Cardiovascular Outcomes Gender identifies both men and women who are at increased risk through their high level of characteristics traditionally attributed to women. Sex distinguishes between males and females independent of their gender-related characteristics. ACS = acute coronary syndrome. Figure 1 Gender Score Distribution in Men and Women With Premature Acute Coronary Syndrome Adapted with permission from Pelletier et al. (22). Table 1 Baseline Characteristics According to Tertiles of the Gender-Related Score Sex, gender, and outcomes The proportions of men and women with recurrent ACS (3% for both), MACE (8% for both), and all-cause mortality (<1% for both) at 12 months were similar. The risk of events according to sex in adjusted Cox proportional hazards regressions for recurrent ACS (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.45 to 1.92; p = 0.85) and for MACE (HR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.41 to 1.23; p = 0.22) was inconclusive. In contrast, when patients were categorized according to tertiles of the gender-related score, the rate of recurrent ACS in patients with characteristics traditionally ascribed to women was 5% compared with 2% in the other 2 groups. Results of the multivariable Cox regression analysis adjusted for sex, age, ethnicity, previous CV events, the GRACE score, and the number of traditional CV risk factors further supported the univariate results: patients with characteristics traditionally ascribed to women were more likely to experience a recurrent ACS than patients with characteristics traditionally ascribed to men (HR: 4.50; 95% CI: 1.05 to 19.27; p = 0.04) (Figure 2A, Table 2). Figure 2 Unadjusted Proportions of Patients Free of Recurrent Events According to the Tertiles of the Gender-Related Score (A) Unadjusted proportions of patients free of recurrent acute coronary syndrome (ACS) over 12 months according to tertiles of the gender-related score. (B) Unadjusted proportions of patients free of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) over 12 months according to tertiles of the gender-related score. Table 2 Multivariable Cox Proportional Hazards Regressions: Association Between the Gender-Related Score and Recurrent ACS The rate of MACE was 9% in patients in tertiles 3 and 2 of the gender-related score, whereas it was 6% in patients from tertile 1. Results of the multivariable Cox regression analysis adjusted for sex, age, ethnicity, previous CV events, the GRACE score, and the number of traditional CV risk factors yielded a trend toward patients with characteristics traditionally ascribed to women to be more likely to experience a MACE than patients with characteristics traditionally ascribed to men (HR: 1.54; 95% CI: 0.90 to 2.66; p = 0.12) (Figure 2B). In addition, mortality rate was 1% in patients in tertile 3 and in tertile 2 of the gender-related score, whereas it was 0% in patients in tertile 1. No multivariable analyses were conducted because of insufficient statistical power. Potential pathways of association between gender-related characteristics and outcomes Results of our exploratory analyses indicated that higher levels of anxiety decreased the effect size of the gender-related score by over 10%, and rendered its association with recurrent ACS nonstatistically significant. No other variables had a notable decremental effect on the effect size (range of decrease for other plausible pathways, 0% to 3%). This result indicates that elevated anxiety may be a pathway through which personality traits and social roles traditionally ascribed to women increase the risk of recurrent ACS (Table 3). Table 3 Stepwise Proportional Hazard Regressions: Potential Pathways of the Association Between the Gender-Related Score and Recurrent ACS
Discussion This study suggests that personality traits and social roles traditionally ascribed to women are associated with adverse CV outcomes in young patients with ACS. Specifically, event rates at 12 months were higher in patients with personality traits and roles traditionally ascribed to women compared with patients with personality traits and roles traditionally ascribed to men. In contrast, event rates did not differ between sexes (Central Illustration). This study also indicates that reported increased anxiety may represent a means by which gender-related characteristics are associated with adverse CV outcomes. The reason why characteristics traditionally ascribed to women increase the risk of adverse CV outcomes after a premature ACS independent of biological sex is likely multifactorial. One possibility is that in younger adults, personality traits, family, and institutional roles influence CV health more substantively than biological/anatomic sex characteristics. An association between gender roles and coronary heart disease incidence has previously been reported in middle-aged women (27). In this study, Japanese women living with both a spouse and children had a 2.1-fold higher risk of coronary heart disease compared with women living with a spouse but no children. It is noteworthy that the expectations with regards to family roles may differ between Japanese and American culture. Nonetheless, results of this Japanese study suggest that an increased children-related burden may adversely affect CV health. Previous studies have further shown that being married is associated with a better prognosis after myocardial infarction in men, whereas married middle-aged women have a greater fatality risk than unmarried women (28,29). The discrepancy between married women and men is thought to be partly explained by men enjoying social support and control provided by the wife, because women have the tendency to take greater responsibility over organizing health care and providing care (30). However, such feminine gender roles (i.e., the organizing and care tendency toward the husband) may represent a burden and a daily stress for married cardiac women. Moreover, in the last decades, there has been a continuous increase in women’s economic participation and opportunities, and educational attainment (7,9). Nevertheless, in today’s high-performance and consumer-focused era, most women continue to retain some of the traditional “feminine” responsibilities (e.g., child care) even when employed outside the home. Similarly, men whose wives work outside the home are also likely to be faced with increased household and childcare responsibilities (7). Middle-aged men and women also often face divorce and have to deal with single parenting, debts, and/or lack of resources (31). These gender-related characteristics are present at different levels in both women and men, and in the present study, they adversely affect health processes, independent of biological sex. In our cohort, characteristics traditionally ascribed to females seemed to adversely affect health outcomes potentially through increased levels of anxiety. Previous studies have shown that anxiety increases the risk of CVD via excessive activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system, and via poor health behaviors (32). There are likely multiple and various reasons to explain the presence of increased anxiety in men and women with characteristics traditionally ascribed to women in our sample. For example, marital strain as described previously, and financial difficulties and/or the need to manage housework, child care, and work may represent a daily burden and chronic anxiety may result. Study limitations This study contains some methodological limitations. First, the low mortality rate at 12 months led to low statistical power. This limitation may explain why we did not observe significant associations between sex and adverse CV outcomes, which is in contrast to previous studies with higher ACS rates and comparable proportions of men and women (1). Second, given the limited numbers of recurrent ACS, the interpretation of the stepwise analyses is limited. Insufficient statistical power may be a reason why anxiety was not associated with the outcome in the multivariable model. As such, we hypothesized that increased anxiety may represent a pathway for the association between gender-related characteristics and recurrent ACS, but larger studies are needed to replicate this finding. Third, a small proportion of our patients were recruited in the United States and in Switzerland. Despite the fact that gender-related characteristics are culturally sensitive, only 19 (2%) and 42 (5%) patients were recruited in the United States and in Switzerland, respectively, and thus it is unlikely that our results have been affected. We still cannot exclude possible cultural differences within Canada. Fourth, participants who did not complete follow-up were more likely to be diabetic, smokers, depressed, obese, and nonwhite than those with follow-up data who were included in the analyses. Three of these variables (diabetes, depression, and cigarette smoking) were associated with gender-related characteristics traditionally attributed to women in our study. As such, the inclusion of patients with missing follow-up data would have likely increased the outcomes risk in the group of patients with more feminine gender-related score and would have likely strengthened even more the association we observed between the gender-related score and the risk of recurrent ACS. Finally, there exists no gold standard for a measure of gender and as such, our gender-related score is internally derived without external validation.
Conclusions Overall, our study allowed the assessment of the role of variables that are traditionally ascribed to each sex in society, and may shed light on unexplained sex differences in ACS. Specifically, this study shows that personality traits, such as being shy and sensitive to the needs of others, and social roles, such as being responsible for housework, which are traditionally ascribed to women, increase the risk of adverse CV outcomes in young patients with ACS. Gender-related characteristics might impact adverse CV outcomes through increased anxiety. Perspectives COMPETENCY IN MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE: Gender-related characteristics like personality traits and social roles (psychosocial sex) may be as important as biological sex in predicting adverse cardiovascular outcomes in young patients with acute coronary syndromes. Both women and men with personality traits and social roles traditionally attributed to women are at increased risk of subsequent adverse events. TRANSLATIONAL OUTLOOK: Further studies in larger cohorts are needed to confirm these findings and explore the mechanisms responsible for the associations between feminine gender scores and adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
Appendix Online Data [S0735109715073556_mmc1.docx]
Footnotes This study was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundations of Quebec, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Ontario, Yukon, and British Columbia, Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The study sponsors had no role in the design of the study; the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data; the preparation of the report; review; or approval of the manuscript. Dr. Pelletier is supported by a CIHR award. Dr. Khan is supported by a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Scientist award. Dr. Daskalopoulou is Chercheur-Boursier Clinicien, supported by a Fonds de Recherche du Quebec–Sante (FRQS) salary award. Dr. Bacon is supported by an FRQS salary award; has received investigator initiated grant funding from GlaxoSmithKline and Abbvie; has received personal fees from Kataka Medical Communication; and has received speaker fees from Novartis. Dr. Lavoie is supported by CIHR New Investigator and FRQS salary awards; and has received consultancy and/or presentation fees from Takeda, AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen, Bayer, Mundi Pharma, AstraZeneca, and Merck. Dr. Daskupta holds a Senior Clinician Scientist salary award from the FRQS. Dr. Thanassoulis is on the speakers bureau of Servier Canada; and has received a grant from ISIS pharmaceuticals. Dr. Pilote holds a James McGill Chair in medicine. All other authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.
Listen to this manuscript's audio summary by JACC Editor-in-Chief Dr. Valentin Fuster.
Abbreviations and Acronyms ACS acute coronary syndrome CI confidence interval CV cardiovascular CVD cardiovascular disease GRACE Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events HR hazard ratio MACE major adverse cardiac events
Received September 1, 2015.
September 1, 2015. Accepted October 20, 2015. | {
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The battle to reduce food waste and increase access to nutritious food just got a whole lot cheaper and uglier in Australia.
In early December, Woolworths launched its “odd bunch” campaign, becoming the latest retailer to offer consumers “ugly” food at discount prices.
Mainstream food outlets tell us that fruit and vegetables are ugly when they are blemished, misshapen (perhaps with an extra appendage or two), or otherwise fail to meet their usual standards.
Ugly food is marketed as a way to reduce food waste. But selling it cheap won’t help, because it doesn’t address the underlying issue: that we’re buying too much food.
Wasting away
Australian households throw out up to A$8 billion worth of food each year. The environmental impacts range from wasted water and fertiliser, to significant methane emissions from rotting food in rubbish tips.
In affluent nations like Australia, most wasted food has already been bought and brought home (so-called “post-consumer food waste”). Developed countries have largely eradicated the problems that lead to food wastage in poorer countries, such as pest infestation and inadequate storage or transportion. Yet rates of food waste seem to be similar everywhere, equating to about a third of the food produced.
Research shows that 72% of Australians feel guilty when they waste food, yet still do it. Over the past decade numerous initiatives have appeared, courtesy of charities such as SecondBite, Ozharvest, and The Yellow Van, which redistribute food to those in need, as well as consumer awareness campaigns such as Love Food Hate Waste and FoodWise.
Supermarket swoop
By offering discounted imperfect food, retailers are now positioning themselves as part of this broader effort to cut food waste.
Woolworths’ “Odd Bunch” campaign and Harris Farm Market’s “Imperfect Picks” are part of a worldwide trend started by French supermarket Intermarché’s “Inglorious” initiative, launched earlier this year. Tied to the European Union’s year against food waste, Intermarché’s campaign aimed to “rehabilitate and glorify” ugly food. It led to a 24% increase in store traffic and attracted global attention.
Advertisements show Intermarché’s inglorious fruit and vegetables in all their wayward glory, accompanied by descriptions such as “grotesque apple”, “ridiculous potato”, “hideous orange”, “disfigured eggplant” and “failed lemon”.
Alongside the tongue-in-cheek descriptions are reminders that under these deformed exteriors lies fresh, nutritious, tasty food, such as “a grotesque apple keeps the doctor away as well”.
The undesirable natural packaging of inglorious foods is presented as beneficial to consumers because they are 30% cheaper than their more aesthetically pleasing counterparts. But this message also reinforces the notion that “ugly” (even if only skin-deep) equals “cheap” when it comes to food.
Sell it cheap, waste it anyway
In affluent countries like France and Australia, access to cheaper food doesn’t mean less household food waste. What’s more, charging lower prices for ugly fruit and vegetables also neglects the fact that the same labour is required to produce and harvest crops, regardless of their appearance. Thus ugly food helps to perpetuate a food system that undervalues food, in which consumers routinely buy too much and throw away the leftovers.
My research has investigated the food waste behaviours of consumers of mainstream supermarkets and alternative food networks such as community gardens and farmers’ markets. The results suggest that people who grow some of their own food or talk directly to producers go to great lengths to prevent food waste. These consumers speak of the time, effort and care that underpins food production, and are motivated to avoid waste out of respect for the food itself as well as its producer.
This attitude values food not in terms of its appearance or cost, but as a source of nutrition and pleasure painstakingly produced by a combination of factors, both human and non-human (such as water, weather and soil nutrients).
Cheaper food — ugly or not — is not really the way to encourage people to rethink and reduce our wasteful behaviours. Ugly food should be sold and eaten, not wasted. It should be priced fairly. But we must also learn to respect and value our food beyond its appearance and price. Only by promoting ethical and sustainable practices will we really get a grip on the problem of food waste. | {
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President Donald Trump kicked off Thanksgiving with a well-wish to the world and double-down on the Chief Justice John Roberts situation. Now, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s attorney husband George has chimed in to say that the president is using a “misleading” statistic to criticize the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The president repeated the claim Thursday morning that the “9th Circuit is a complete & total disaster,” which has been legislating the security of America while not knowing anything about this. On Wednesday he advised Chief Justice Roberts to “study the numbers.” On Thursday, Trump trotted out a number: “Justice Roberts can say what he wants, but the 9th Circuit is a complete & total disaster. It is out of control, has a horrible reputation, is overturned more than any Circuit in the Country, 79%.”
Take it away, George Conway, the man with the stats:
The number of Ninth Circuit cases reviewed and reversed was high, but the Ninth Circuit is by far largest federal circuit by number of judges and size of docket. — George Conway (@gtconway3d) November 22, 2018
“The reversal rate for all courts in the Supreme Court last year was 74%. All these statistics tell us is that one major factor in the Supreme Court’s selection of which cases to review is whether they may have been wrongly decided,” he said.
Conway added that while the “number of Ninth Circuit cases reviewed and reversed was high […] the Ninth Circuit is by far [the] largest federal circuit by number of judges and size of docket.”
“Anyway to put the point more simply, the Supreme Court doesn’t usually take cases to affirm them, which is why the statistic is citing is misleading,” he continued. “As Adam Liptak wrote in yesterday’s New York Times, the Ninth Circuit covers ‘a fifth of the nation’s population and a third of its land, in nine states and two territories’ —hence the huge docket.”
Anyway, to put the point more simply, the Supreme Court doesn’t usually take cases to affirm them, which is why the statistic the President is citing is misleading. — George Conway (@gtconway3d) November 22, 2018
Conway wasn’t alone in this criticism of the president.
University of Texas Law Prof. Steve Vladeck pointed out many of the same issues with Trump’s tweet.
4. Now, let's turn to the attack on the Ninth Circuit itself. Trump's claim that it's the appeals court most often reversed by #SCOTUS is categorically false, whether over the last two years, five years, or longer. In fact, that honor goes to the Third Circuit (NJ, PA, DE, VI). — Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 22, 2018
5. As I've noted previously, over the past five Terms, three other circuits have been reversed in a higher percentage of the cases #SCOTUS has reviewed from those courts (the Third, Sixth, and Eleventh Circuits):https://t.co/IsWYUxDkRI So here, @realDonaldTrump is just lying. — Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 22, 2018
7. Because it is, by far, the largest appeals court in the country, both geographically and by docket size. As these statistics show, far more cases were filed, decided, and remained pending in the Ninth Circuit last year than in any other appeals court:https://t.co/VcB3CcMlY7 — Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 22, 2018
8. Some folks still insist that being reversed in 48/60 cases over five Terms is high. Keep in mind, though, that #SCOTUS chooses almost all of the cases it hears. 99.9% of lower-court rulings, _including_ those by the Ninth Circuit, are never reviewed by the Justices. — Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 22, 2018
14. To be sure, progressive plaintiffs often choose the Ninth Circuit, just as conservatives choose the Fifth. But that's not to get a "guaranteed result" so much as it is to try to take advantage of favorable precedents, something all good litigants do. — Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 22, 2018
Or, put another way:
For example, in 2014, the 2d Cir. had a SCOTUS reversal rate of 100 percent. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT REVERSAL!!! Of course, SCOTUS only took two cases from the 2d Cir. that year. You see the problem. — Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) November 22, 2018
To circle back: no, the 9th Cir. isn't the "most overturned" circuit. That wasn't true when conservatives claimed it during the Bush years. It wasn't during the Obama years. It wasn't true last year (that honor goes to a tie bw 1st, 3d, 6th Cirs.). — Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) November 22, 2018
As for the 79% overturned rate for the 9th Cir. claimed by Trump, that number comes from SCOTUS decisions between 2010 and 2015. So it's already out of date. But more importantly, in that same time frame the 6th Cir. was overturned 87% of the time and the 11th 85%! — Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) November 22, 2018
In short: Trump is either ignorant or lying, the Fox News hosts who are repeating his 79% claim all morning are also ignorant or lying. — Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) November 22, 2018
Most recently, Conway took President Trump to task for replacing Jeff Sessions with acting Attorney Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, calling the move “illegal.”
He’s also a founding member of the new conservative lawyers group “Checks and Balances,” which was started to “protect constitutional principles that are being undermined by the statements and actions of this president.”
[Image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] | {
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JavaScript Synth in 4K
Want to let your browser do some number crunching?
This small JavaScript program will generate and play a two minutes long piece of music.
Small? Yes, it's just 3822 bytes, which is actually less than the size of the HTML document that you're currently reading!
The sound is generated with CD quality (44.1KHz, 16 bits stereo), and the size of the generated tune is 21 megabytes (all done client side, in your browser!). As a little bonus, the demo also has some animated graphics (courtesy of HTML 5 canvas).
PLAY IT!
Be prepared to wait for the sound generation to complete!
Browser compatibility
This demo requires a browser with support for the <audio> and <canvas> elements (HTML 5). The following browsers have been tested:
Browser Version Generation time* Comments Opera 11.01 24 s Sweet! Chromium 12.0.733.0 39 s Works nicely! Firefox 4.0 55 s Audio and graphics can be a bit out of sync. No looping. Firefox 3.6.16 643 s Slow JavaScript! Choppy sound. No looping.
* Time for the synth to generate the music (lower is obviously better). Measured under Ubuntu 10.04 (64-bit) on an AMD Athlon X2 4850e (2.5 GHz).
Technical
Quite frankly, this is a technical demo more than anything else (the music is just a simple composition in the proof-of-concept spirit, and the animated graphics was put there as a replacement for dull HTML text output).
So, here's a quick technical break down of the demo:
The core synth was actually ported from C (Sonant, originally written by Jake "Ferris" Taylor of Youth Uprising), and modified for optimal JavaScript performance. It's not the most advanced software synth, but: It has a portable C code implementation (good starting point) It comes with a ready-to-use music authoring tool (handy!) It was written to be as minimal as possible It makes it easy to compare C performance vs JavaScript performance (the fastest browsers are actually near native C performance!)
The software synth features: Several independent channels of sound (7 currently used) A handful of different waveforms Instrument envelope Stereo echo Filters Per channel polyphony Panning, LFO controllers, etc.
The audio data is generated in a CanvasPixelArray (in anticipation of true typed arrays), since it's much more memory efficient than a regular ECMAScipt array
The generated data is played back in an HTML audio element using a huge (56 MB!) base64-encoded data URI (in anticipation of a cross browser audio API)
The program was compressed using: The Google Closure Compiler, and... ...the CrunchMe JavaScript compressor
Want to see the compressed source? Obfuscation warning!
...if you have any comments, you can leave them here.
Resources | {
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Vahl’s wife, Mary, who was at the restaurant as well, posted about her experience on social media, and as of Sunday night the post had been shared more than 4,400 times and generated nearly 3,000 comments. | {
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Get paid while improving the profitability of your farm. Many of the farming practices being incentivized are also shown to increase soil health and increase farm enterprise profitability in and of themselves. We’re working to improve that equation in the farmer’s favor. Now it’s an easy yes! | {
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Some old and new ones. | {
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to participate in the APEC summit in Vietnam, which President Donald Trump will also attend. | Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool photo via AP White House won’t rule out a Trump-Putin meeting in Asia
The White House did not rule out the possibility that President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his 12-day trip to Asia.
Asked during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday whether a Putin meeting was in the works, a senior administration official said, “The president is going to have a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines, but we’re not prepared yet to confirm those other than the ones that are being hosted by the host countries themselves.”
Asked for clarification, a White House official said, “No further details on the schedule at this time.”
Putin is expected to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam, which Trump will also attend.
The senior administration official also confirmed that Trump will not visit the demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea during the trip. Instead, he’ll visit U.S. troops at Camp Humphreys, which is south of Seoul.
Trump is leaving on Friday for the high-profile foreign trip, which comes as the White House is facing increased pressure after special counsel Robert Mueller revealed the first wave of indictments against former Trump campaign aides.
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The White House is also trying to push forward on multiple policy fronts, especially tax reform, with Trump saying on Tuesday he would like the House to pass a tax reform bill by Thanksgiving and legislation on his desk by Christmas.
A White House official on Tuesday confirmed that Ivanka Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn will not participate in Trump’s trip to Asia, and that they’ll remain in Washington to focus on tax reform.
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, will travel to Japan on Nov. 3 to participate in a series of events, but she’ll return to the U.S. before the president arrives.
In addition to Ivanka Trump, Mnuchin and Cohn, several Cabinet secretaries will also promote tax reform next week while the president is abroad, the White House official said.
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Has social media helped the world lose its their hold on reality?
For years, there has been speculation about how the online world and the real world, for so long considered separate domains of human activity, would affect the other. What aspects of online interaction, we wondered, would bleed in to our real-world relationships?
This year we really began to find out, and it wasn’t like anybody predicted. Social media, in particular Facebook and Twitter, had a profound impacts on the real world in 2016, with disastrous results.
Twitter’s harassment problem and instant outrage mob culture has led to a bombardment of indignation and confrontation that has desensitised us in a profound way.
The impact of Facebook is even more insidious. With so many people relying on their newsfeeds to get their news and current affairs, the long-waning power of the mainstream media to act as a gatekeeper to the public’s understanding of the world is being fatally undermined.
In the newsfeed, all news sources resemble one another, meaning they all have the same “credibility” for the average reader. With people more likely to click on and share stories that confirm their existing biases, and with circles of friends likely to share more of those biases, a filter-bubble effect has become extremely pronounced, with people less likely to see news that contradicts or challenges their worldview.
Quite apart from the proliferation of so-called “fake news” that this incentivises, and which was widely cited as a factor in the election of Donald Trump, this corrodes the sense of a commonly accepted version of reality.
What were once widely agreed-upon facts are now open to “debate”. Reality itself becomes a partisan game of “he said, she said”. Climate change becomes the new evolution, merely another theory to be disputed. Opportunists thrive in an environment where they aren’t accountable to facts or accuracy.
Such massive disruption to the dissemination of information was bound to have dramatic social effects. This year, we found out exactly how dramatic those changes can be.
Was there any great sport this year?
When the real world is turbulent and unpredictable, we tend to turn our attention to the world of entertainment for diversion and distraction. Neither cinema nor music served up anything that really caught the public imagination, never mind capture the spirit of the age, so it was to the sporting arena we had to pin our hopes.
Unfortunately, for a year with both an Olympiad and a European Championship, 2016 was not a classic.
The lavishly expensive Olympics, against the striking backdrop of Rio, served only to highlight how out-of-touch elite sport has become. That it will be remembered more for swimmer Ryan Lochte’s drunken antics and Patrick Hickey’s early-morning hotel arrest speaks volumes for the standard of entertainment. Not even the O’Donovan brothers and Annalise Murphy could entirely salvage the dubious defeats of Michael Conlan and Katie Taylor.
France hosted Euro 2016, and the Irish fans offered more entertainment than most of the soccer on display, with Robbie Brady’s header against Italy a genuine highlight, along with Iceland’s hilarious elimination of England days after the Brexit vote. But the tournament never took off, and an average Portugal side prevented France from enjoying what would have been a cathartic triumph.
The 2016 conversation might be rather different had Mayo managed to defy the curse of 1951 and overcome an underwhelming Dublin in that first All-Ireland final, but a flurry of own-goals undermined their committed display.
Instead of giving us a fairytale, Cillian O’Connor’s last-gasp missed free in the replay merely confirmed that the Dubs are emerging as a hegemonic power in football. The hurling championship, on the other hand, was far from memorable, with Tipperary lasting longest after a distinctly ordinary summer’s hurling to claim the Liam McCarthy.
It was arguably only Leicester in the English Premier League who caught the imagination, surmounting 5,000/1 odds, not to mention an array of expensively assembled rivals, to swash and buckle their way to one of the most improbable sporting triumphs ever.
However, in a year of Brexit and Trump, Leicester’s unlikely triumph now resembles a sort of sporting augury, a hint that the natural order of things was about to be upended. Less a fairytale, then, and more a symptom of an unsettling surrealism. | {
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reference implementation of a wayland compositor
Part of the Wayland project is also the Weston reference implementation of a Wayland compositor. Weston can run as an X client or under Linux KMS and ships with a few demo clients. The Weston compositor is a minimal and fast compositor and is suitable for many embedded and mobile use cases. | {
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Con calidad de vida
El alcalde Renán Barrera Concha recibió ayer en la mañana de manos del presidente de la República, Enrique Peña Nieto, el índice de Ciudades Prósperas elaborado por ONU Hábitat que posiciona a Mérida como la ciudad con mejor calidad de vida, en una ceremonia que se realizó en el Centro Banamex de Lomas de Sotelo en Ciudad de México.
La directora ejecutiva de ONU Hábitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, entregó el documento integral del estudio al presidente Peña Nieto y éste a su vez entregó de manera simbólica el correspondiente a tres ciudades, entre ellas Mérida.
El Índice de Ciudades Prósperas, que realizan en conjunto ONU Hábitat e Infonavit, permite gestionar políticas acordes con las necesidades y condiciones detectadas en las ciudades.
Barrera Concha dijo que en el caso de Mérida se ha hecho un uso avanzado de ese índice para la planeación y establecimiento de programas y proyectos de la Nueva Agenda Urbana, enfocada al desarrollo sostenible.
El Índice de las Ciudades Prósperas, explicó, mide el desarrollo de las ciudades mediante seis aspectos de la prosperidad: productividad, infraestructura, calidad de vida, equidad e inclusión social, sostenibilidad ambiental, gobernanza y legislación urbana.
Ese índice, continuó, permite elaborar proyectos con el objetivo de tener ciudades más seguras y resilientes, ya que no solo mide la prosperidad económica, sino también la ambiental y Mérida marcha a buen ritmo en este aspecto.
Destacó el hecho de que Mérida ocupe el primer lugar en calidad de vida entre las 305 ciudades medidas, lo que constituye un acicate para continuar con el trabajo municipal para lograr posicionarla como ciudad sustentable.
Mediante análisis como éstos, dijo, los gobiernos locales pueden identificar oportunidades y áreas potenciales de intervención para definir políticas públicas con una visión futura de ciudad basada en la Nueva Agenda Urbana y los objetivos del Desarrollo Sostenible.
Además de los alcaldes de las ciudades incluidas en las mediciones, asistieron al evento los secretarios de Relaciones Exteriores, Luis Videgaray, y de Desarrollo Agrario, Territorial y Urbano Rosario Robles Berlanga.
Por otra parte, Barrera Concha asistió el miércoles 7 pasado a la presentación del proyecto inmobiliario Tamara, en la colonia San Antonio Cucul. Ante socios del proyecto, encabezados por Juan Manuel Ponce Díaz, el presidente municipal agradeció la confianza de los empresarios para seguir invirtiendo en Mérida.
Este tipo de proyectos es garantía y confianza de que estamos en una ciudad con altos estándares de calidad, que nos exigen a las autoridades seguir ofreciendo las condiciones para que la inversión se siga dando.
Agradeció a los empresarios que apuestan por el desarrollo de la ciudad, arriesgando su capital y con una iniciativa que por su magnitud es digna de celebrar, como el proyecto Tamara. | {
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When BTSC asked it's readers to grade the Pittsburgh Steelers through the first week of free agency, thousands voted, but the average grade for the organization was a solid, middle of the road 'C'. When ESPN.com's Insider graded all 32 teams through free agency, they agreed with the extremely knowledgeable and dedicated fans here at BTSC giving the team a 'C' grade. See what they had to say:
Pittsburgh Steelers Grade: C Key re-signings/additions: RB DeAngelo Williams, OLB James Harrison, WR Darrius Heyward-Bey Key subtractions: CB Antwon Blake, RB Ben Tate, DE Brett Keisel, CB Brice Mccain, DE Clifton Geathers, CB Ike Taylor, OLB Jason Worilds, WR Justin Brown, WR Lance Moore, TE Michael Palmer, S Robert Golden, S Will Allen, FB Will Johnson The Steelers resemble the Ravens in that both teams remain competitive without much offseason activity. Having stability in the front office, on the coaching staff and at quarterback helps. "Nice job as usual," Bill Polian said. "DeAngelo Williams provides a terrific backup, which was badly needed. That is the perfect role for him at this stage of his career." Williamson felt better about the Steelers' offseason once the team signed Harrison. "They have watched a ton of outside linebackers and corners sign everywhere else," Williamson said. "They did get Harrison and I like that now. He played very well last year. So if you go into next season with Jarvis Jones, who might be a bust, plus Moats and then Harrison as a rotational guy, that is OK. But their secondary is still junk. The need at corner is so huge now that you wonder if they finally have to take one in the first round."
Outside of this report listing the three restricted free agents (Antwon Blake, Robert Golden and Will Johnson) the team gave one-year tenders to as subtractions, it is a pretty spot-on depiction of the team's free agency thus far. The Steelers seem to have secured their OLB position enough where they can turn to cornerback in the first round of the upcoming NFL Draft, something which hasn't been done in a long time in the steel city.
Nonetheless, fans should remember grades as this one don't depict championships. After all, championships aren't won in March. | {
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Plans are moving ahead for the rehab of Metro transit's former headquarters on Laclede's Landing.
An $8.5 million rehab of the building at 701 North First Street will make way for the expansion plans of Abstrakt Marketing Group, located next door at Raeder Place. The firm has said it plans to grow from about 200 employees to around 300.
Advantes Development Group, led by Brian and Mike Minges, has tweaked plans a bit from when the project was first announced earlier this year. Now, the number of apartments planned for the upper floors of the building has doubled, to 52.
"This is huge for the Landing," said Dave Sweeney, an attorney representing the developers. | {
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It seems to have failed in awareness creation
Exactly a year after the State launched the comprehensive Kerala Antimicrobial Resistance Strategic Action Plan (KARSAP), there are worries that the project could be losing its momentum.
It was on October 25 last year that KARSAP was launched, making Kerala the first State in the country to come out with an action plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance AMR, an emerging public health concern across health and allied sectors, on the One Health platform.
“A year later, many of the one-year goals -- such as antibiotic stewardship programmes in hospitals, infection control protocols and setting up an AMR surveillance laboratory network -- have been achieved. Where we seem to have failed is in ‘Awareness creation and Knowledge,’ the first strategic priority in our action plan,” a senior health official said. Another major issue is that the State government is yet to allocate a budget for the implementation of KARSAP.
Strategic priority
KARSAP’s first strategic priority spoke about how important it was to improve the awareness among the public, schoolchildren, medical fraternity and health personnel on antibiotic abuse, antimicrobial resistance, antibiotics in food, labelling of food derived from animals, etc. It spoke about investing in creating educational resources for each group and organising massive awareness programmes on the One Health approach so that the importance of AMR reaches people.
“We are yet to engage with the public and a chunk of medical fraternity too remains unaware of what the State has envisaged under KARSAP. Unless we convey clearly to the public that antibiotics are vital for us and that its rational use is what is aimed at, we may play right into the hands of quacks and other regressive forces,” he added.
KARSAP is founded on the platform of One Health, a fairly recent global concept that the health of humans is inextricably linked to the health of animals and environment. Officials point out that while various initiatives have been kicked off in the animal husbandry, fisheries and poultry sectors, environment sector initiatives for AMR surveillance have been lagging.
Efforts towards strengthening AMR surveillance in the community through capacity building and networking with laboratories in the private sector had resulted in nearly 20 NABH/NABL-accredited labs from the private sector joining the State AMR surveillance network (KARSNET). These labs are expected to provide regular reports from next month so that ground-level data on AMR pattern from across the State can be obtained. A proper review of the first year of KARSAP could be the need of the hour so that the programme can be put right back on top of the State’s public health agenda. | {
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On This Day
Friday 6th June 1941
79 years ago
Swiss-born American Louis Chevrolet, founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911 and later the Frontenac Motor Corporation which made racing parts for Ford’s Model T, died at the age of 62. In 1900, at the age of 21, Chevrolet left Switzerland moved to Canada, then New York. The things that he accomplished there started a chain of events that left a huge impression on the American automotive industry. Chevrolet established a reputation in the United States as a race car mechanic, and was soon driving them. On May 20, 1905, his passion for racing and performance led him to win his first road race on a cinder track in Morris Park, New York. With a new-found reputation in racing, Chevrolet met W.C. Durant in 1907. Durant was considered to be the “father" of General Motors and noticed Chevrolet's genius and eye for perfection. He put him to work designing Buick concept cars that led the Buick Racing Team to many victories. In 1911, Chevrolet and Durant founded the Chevrolet Motor Company. Even with little formal education, Chevrolet designed and built the first Chevrolet automobile. Durant believed that they would need to make their cars cheaper to compete with the automotive market. Chevrolet wanted his cars to be the most impressive on the road and wanted them only to be built for the rich, which led to his resignation in October 1913. With his talent for designing automobiles Chevrolet went back to his first love, racing. By 1917, he had built a new, advanced race car. With it, he again became a leader in the automotive racing industry. He completed his first laps at the Indianapolis race track in 1926, as the official pace car driver. During his career on the famous brick track, he won 10 races and 27 major races elsewhere, making him the most successful driver in his family. He formed the Frontenac Motor Corporation to build high-performance engine heads. However, the corporation was fated to go out of business. | {
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The iPhone 6 is official, and so is the iPhone 6 Plus. Neither device, as usual, is necessarily cheap, but AT&T is offering a new limited time initiative that is aiming to make upgrading a bit easier wanting to get their hands on the new devices.
According to a report published by Bloomberg on September 10, following a phone interview with Fletcher Cook of AT&T, the Big Blue wireless network will be offering up to $300 in credit towards a new iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus if you trade in an older iPhone. The new offer will begin on September 12, the same day that Apple is opening up pre-orders for their new flagship handsets. Unfortunately, specifics for the deal were not revealed in the initial report.
AT&T is also extending two of its current offers, to include the upcoming iPhone models. That includes a $100 bill credit when you buy a new iPhone on a Next plan, and add a new line to your plan. If you decide to buy an iPhone 6 with AT&T’s Next plan, you can also get $200 off an iPad.
This news follows T-Mobile’s own guarantee that the Magenta Network will offer the best trade-in values in the mobile industry. Sprint, on the other hand, just announced their “iPhone for Life” plan, which lets subscribers pay $70 per month, and “rent” the iPhone 6 — then upgrade to a new iPhone every two years.
Do you plan on trading in an old iPhone (or other phone) to get one of the new iPhones?
[via Bloomberg | {
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Anyone who complains about the number of bowl games isn't a gambler.
Is there anything better than day-game college football betting the week leading into Christmas while you're at work? Not for my money.
We have 40 different bowl games this year (yes, I'm counting the Celebration Bowl -- there's a gambling line for it). And that's before we get to a potential national championship game between Alabama and Clemson.
Here's the complete 2018-19 college football bowl schedule, along with the gambling lines on all 40 games.
Bowl game betting lines
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF (Dec. 29)
No. 2 Clemson (-11.5) vs. No. 3 Notre Dame, 4 p.m. ET
No. 1 Alabama (-14) vs. No. 4 Oklahoma, 8 p.m. ET
OTHER NEW YEAR'S SIX
Peach Bowl (Dec. 29): Florida vs. Michigan (-6), noon ET
Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 1): LSU (-7) vs. UCF, 1 p.m. ET
Rose Bowl (Jan. 1): Ohio State (-6) vs. Washington, 5 p.m. ET
Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1): Georgia (-13) vs. Texas, 8:45 p.m. ET
REST OF THE BOWLS
Celebration Bowl (Dec. 15): North Carolina A&T (-7.5) vs. Alcorn State, noon ET
New Mexico Bowl (Dec. 15): North Texas vs. Utah State (-11), 2 p.m. ET
Cure Bowl (Dec. 15): Tulane (-4.5) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette, 2:30 p.m. ET
Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 15): Fresno State (-3) vs. Arizona State, 3:30 p.m. ET
Camellia Bowl (Dec. 15): Eastern Michigan (pick'em) vs. Georgia Southern, 5:30 p.m. ET
New Orleans Bowl (Dec. 15): Middle Tennessee State vs. Appalachian State (-7.5), 9 p.m. ET
Boca Raton Bowl (Dec. 18): Northern Illinois vs. UAB (-2.5), 7 p.m. ET
Frisco Bowl (Dec. 19): Ohio (-5.5) vs. San Diego State, 8 p.m. ET
Gasparilla Bowl (Dec. 20): South Florida vs. Marshall (-3), 8 p.m. ET
Bahamas Bowl (Dec. 21): FIU vs. Toledo (-6), 12:30 p.m. ET
Potato Bowl (Dec. 21): Western Michigan vs. BYU (-8), 4 p.m. ET
Birmingham Bowl (Dec. 22): Memphis (-2) vs. Wake Forest, noon ET
Armed Forces Bowl (Dec. 22): Houston vs. Army (-5), 3:30 p.m. ET
Dollar General Bowl (Dec. 22): Buffalo (-2.5) vs. Troy, 7 p.m. ET
Hawaii Bowl (Dec. 22): Louisiana Tech vs. Hawaii (-2.5), 10:30 p.m. ET
First Responder Bowl (Dec. 26): Boston College vs. Boise State (-4), 1:30 p.m. ET
Quick Lane Bowl (Dec. 26): Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech (-3), 5:15 p.m. ET
Cheez-It Bowl (Dec. 26): TCU vs. Cal (-1.5), 9 p.m. ET
Independence Bowl (Dec. 27): Duke vs. Temple (-3.5), 1:30 p.m. ET
Pinstripe Bowl (Dec. 27): Miami (-3.5) vs. Wisconsin, 5:15 p.m. ET
Texas Bowl (Dec. 27): Vanderbilt (-7.5) vs. Baylor, 9 p.m. ET
Music City Bowl (Dec. 28): Purdue vs. Auburn (-5), 1:30 p.m. ET
Camping World Bowl (Dec. 28): Syracuse vs. West Virginia (-7.5), 5:15 p.m. ET
Alamo Bowl (Dec. 28): Washington State (-7) vs. Iowa State, 9 p.m. ET
Belk Bowl (Dec. 29): Virginia vs. South Carolina (-7), noon ET
Arizona Bowl (Dec. 29): Nevada vs. Arkansas State (-1.5), 1:15 p.m. ET
Military Bowl (Dec. 31): Cincinnati (-6.5) vs. Virginia Tech, noon ET
Sun Bowl (Dec. 31): Pitt vs. Stanford (-6.5), 2 p.m. ET
Redbox Bowl (Dec. 31): Oregon vs. Michigan State (pick'em), 3 p.m. ET
Liberty Bowl (Dec. 31): Missouri (-12.5) vs. Oklahoma State, 3:45 p.m. ET
Holiday Bowl (Dec. 31): Utah (-7) vs. Northwestern, 7 p.m. ET
Gator Bowl (Dec. 31): N.C. State vs. Texas A&M (-3.5), 7:30 p.m. ET
Outback Bowl (Jan. 1): Mississippi State (-3.5) vs. Iowa, noon ET
Citrus Bowl (Jan. 1): Penn State (-2.5) vs. Kentucky, 1 p.m. ET
Based on 5Dimes lines as of 6 p.m. ET Sunday
Bowl game notes
-Alabama is a two-touchdown favorite to return to the College Football Playoff championship game. BetOnline was offering a total of 79.5 on Alabama-Oklahoma as of Sunday evening. That indicates a score in the range of 49-31 or 46-34 in favor of Alabama.
-Before you rush to the betting window, it would be a good idea to monitor the health of QB Tua Tagovailoa as well as Oklahoma WR Marquise Brown, both key players who suffered injuries that could impact the Orange Bowl matchup.
-The SEC managed 11 bowl-eligible teams this year, including an impressive four in New Year's Six games. As a result, there were no SEC teams left for the Birmingham and Independence Bowls to select. Birmingham will settle for Memphis and Wake Forest.
-Two-loss Georgia got some debate for inclusion into the College Football Playoff field after playing Alabama to a one-possession game Saturday, getting backing from media personalities like Paul Finebaum and Kirk Herbstreit. The crux of the argument: Georgia is not one of the four most deserving teams, but it is one of the four best.
-Georgia finished No. 5 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, behind Oklahoma and ahead of Ohio State. Interestingly, Georgia plays Texas in the Sugar Bowl and opened as a 13-point favorite. Oklahoma closed as a 9.5-point favorite against the Longhorns on Saturday in the Big 12 championship, though the Sooners did win by 12.
-If you're an SEC fan who is annoyed at UCF for claiming a national championship last year, and for talking smack against the conference since beating Auburn in a bowl last season, you're relying on LSU to carry water for the conference. The Tigers are a touchdown favorite against the Knights in the Fiesta Bowl set for 1 p.m. ET on New Year's Day.
-Dan Mullen can get Florida to 10 wins in his first season if it can upset Michigan in the Peach Bowl. The Wolverines are a 6-point favorite as of Sunday evening.
-Auburn-Purdue in the Music City Bowl features two programs who have dealt with drama surrounding their respective head coaches in Jeff Brohm and Gus Malzahn. Brohm surprised some when he turned down alma mater and hometown Louisville to stay at Purdue, while Malzahn seems poised to coach Auburn into 2019 despite resentment among fans.
-Kentucky can win 10 games for the first time since 1977 if it beats Penn State in the Citrus Bowl.
-Vanderbilt may surprise some people in the Texas Bowl against Baylor. I have the Commodores all the way up to No. 38 in my power rankings, and think the 'Dores will want to send out players like QB Kyle Shurmur on a positive note.
-There are eight SEC teams in the current AP Top 25 poll. Missouri probably will need to beat Oklahoma State and Texas A&M probably will need to beat N.C. State to stay in the final poll.
-South Carolina (7-5) didn't even receive votes in the latest AP poll after a somewhat disappointing season. But the Gamecocks still can get to 17 wins in the last two seasons under Will Muschamp by beating Virginia.
-UAB will play MAC champion Northern Illinois in the Boca Raton Bowl on Dec. 18.
Christopher Smith is a professional handicapper. He's the founder of Sports Locksmith and also works full-time for MyBookie out of Costa Rica. | {
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+ 40
Airport • Daxing, China Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects
Year Completion year of this architecture project Year: 2019
Photographs Photographs: Hufton+Crow
Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Sika Manufacturers:
Architects In Charge : Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and ADP Ingeniérie (ADPI)
Design : (ZHA) Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher
Project Directors: (ZHA) Cristiano Ceccato, Charles Walker, Mouzhan Majidi
Project Design Director : (ZHA) Paulo Flores
Project Architect : (ZHA) Lydia Kim
Project Coordination : (ZHA) Eugene Leung, Shao-Wei Huang
Project Team: (ZHA) Uli Blum, Antonio Monserrat, Alberto Moletto, Sophie Davison, Carolina Lopez-Blanco, Shaun Farrell, Junyi Wang, Ermis Chalvatzis, Rafael Contreras, Michael Grau, Fernando Poucell, Gerry Cruz, Filipa Gomez, Kyla Farrell, Natassa Lianou, Teoman Ayas, Peter Logan, Yun Zhang, Karoly Markos, Irene Guerra
Beijing Team: (ZHA): Satoshi Ohashi, Rita Lee, Yang Jingwen, Lillie Liu, Juan Liu
Local Design Institutes: BIAD (Beijing Institute of Architecture & Design) + CACC (China Airport Construction Company)
Consortium Team (Competition Stage): Pascall + Watson, BuroHappold Engineering, Mott Macdonald, EC Harris Consultants, McKinsey & Company, Dunnett Craven, Triagonal, Logplan, Sensing Places, SPADA
Security System + Baggage Systems Design: China IPPR International Engineering Co. Ltd.
Information And Weak Power Systems Design: China Electronics Engineering Design Institute + Civil Aviation Electronic Technology Co. Ltd.
High Speed Rail Design: The Third Rail Survey and Design Institute Group Corporation Ltd.
Subway Design: Beijing City Construction Design Research General Institute Co. Ltd.
Viaduct/Bridge Design: Beijing General Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute Co. Ltd.
Fire Performance Design: ARUP
Public Art: Central Academy of Fine Arts
Green Technology: Beijing TsingHua TongHeng Urban Planning and Design Institute
Bim Design : DTree Ltd.
Architecture Façade: XinShan Curtainwall Ltd. + Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (Group) Co. Ltd. Complex Structure Division
Metro System: Lea+Elliott
Lighting: Gala Lighting Design Studio
Identification/Signage System: East Sign Design & Engineering Co. Ltd. (East)
Landscape: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (Group) Co. Ltd (BIAD) Landscape Design Division
City: Daxing
Country: China
More Specs
Less Specs
Text description provided by the architects. Beijing Daxing International Airport is a new airport in the Daxing district 46km south of the city centre (20 minutes by express train). Developed to alleviate congestion at the capital’s existing airport, Beijing Daxing will be a major transport hub for the region with the world’s fastest-growing demand for international travel and is fully integrated within the country’s expanding transport network.
Initially serving 45 million passengers per year, Beijing Daxing will accommodate 72 million travellers by 2025 and is planned for further expansion to serve up to 100 million passengers and 4 million tonnes of cargo annually. Beijing Daxing’s 700,000m2 passenger terminal includes an 80,000m2 ground transportation centre offering direct connections to Beijing, the national high-speed rail network and local train services, providing a catalyst for economic development in Tianjin and Hebei Province.
Recently assigned the airport code ‘PKX’ by the International Air Transport Association, Beijing Daxing sets a new standard in air transport services, serving the region’s growing population within a compact and efficient passenger terminal that is adaptable for future growth.
Echoing principles within traditional Chinese architecture that organise interconnected spaces around a central courtyard, the terminal’s design guides all passengers seamlessly through the relevant departure, arrival or transfer zones towards the grand courtyard at its centre – a multi-layered meeting space at the heart of the terminal.
Six flowing forms within the terminal’s vaulted roof reach to the ground to support the structure and bring natural light within, directing all passengers towards the central courtyard. Natural light also enters the terminal via a network of linear skylights that provide an intuitive system of navigation throughout the building, guiding passengers to and from their departure gates. Structural spans of up to 100m create the terminal's generous public spaces and allow the highest degree of flexibility for any future reconfiguration.
The compact radial design of the terminal allows a maximum number of aircraft to be parked directly at the terminal with minimum distances from the centre of the building, providing exceptional convenience for passengers and flexibility in operations. 79 gates with airbridges connect directly to the terminal which can rapidly process the passengers of six full A380 aircraft simultaneously.
Five aircraft piers radiate directly from the terminal’s main central court where all passenger services and amenities are located, enabling passengers to walk the comparatively short distances through the airport without the need for automated shuttle trains. As a result, the terminal’s compact design minimises distances between check-in and gate, as well as connections between gates for transferring passengers. This radial configuration ensures the farthest boarding gate can be accessed in a walking time of less than 8 minutes.
Photovoltaic power generation is installed throughout the airport to provide a minimum capacity of at least 10MW. Beijing Daxing's centralised heating with waste heat recovery is supported by a composite ground-source heat pump system incorporating a concentrated energy supply area of nearly 2.5 million m2.
The airport also implements rainwater collection and a water management system that employs the natural storage, natural permeation and natural purification of up to 2.8 million cubic meters of water in new wetlands, lakes and streams to prevent flooding and counter the summer ‘heat island’ effect on the local microclimate. | {
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Not Just Storage
Australian firm Mineral Carbonation International (MCi) recently demonstrated the potential of a unique carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology that converts stored carbon into building materials. MCi unveiled the technology and its concurrent research program during a public event held at a facility run by the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER) of the University of Newcastle (UON).
More and more, CCS is becoming a leading option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The technology offers a way to lock down carbon dioxide wastes and prevent them from escaping into the atmosphere. MCi’s technology makes captured carbon useful.
Mineral carbonation is an hour-long process that involves binding CO2 with crushed serpentinite, turning it into solid carbonates. “This mimics but greatly speeds up the natural weathering by rainfall which produces common types of rocks over millions of years,” MCi said at Friday’s demo, according to The Guardian. “These carbonates and silica by-products have the potential to be used in building products such as concrete and plasterboard to create green construction materials.”
What is mineral carbonation? from Marcus Dawe on Vimeo.
Scaling Up
The MCi project has been under development for the past four years now, with help from The University of Sydney and Columbia University. By 2020, MCi expects a full-scale production plant to be up and running, which could produce 20 to 50 million kilograms (20,000 to 50,000 tons) of these carbonate and silica by-products.
As interest in green architecture and engineering grows, MCi expects a huge demand for this material. “There is a big demand among consumers for green building products,” Marcus Dawe, MCi’s chief executive, told The Guardian. “The interest around the carbon brick has been extraordinary, but we’re going beyond that.”
An early investor into this breakthrough CCS process is Orica Limited, whose Kooragang Island operation is located near MCi’s mineral carbonation research pilot plant. Orica chief scientist Jez Smith explained how this technology could benefit construction. “By investing in this technology Orica seeks to help our own business and those of our customers to deal positively with CO2 emissions by providing a long term, safe, storage and utilization option, which can also create valuable products,” he said in a press release. “The MCi technology may eventually help entire supply chains lower their carbon intensity.” | {
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Just as the Quebec government revealed it was backing away from its own, controversial hate crimes legislation, the city of Montreal announced it was setting up a specialized police unit to document and analyze not just hate crimes but hate “incidents.”
Defined as any incident “that is not a crime but that can affect the sense of security of a person or identifiable group because of their race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation or disability,” hate incidents, real or perceived, will be investigated wherever they take place – whether at work, school or on the Internet, said Mayor Denis Coderre.
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“Despite our irreproachable reputation of being a safe city, every year there are hate crimes and incidents,” Coderre told reporters gathered at City Hall. “Some make headlines, some don’t. Two weeks ago, for example, I was profoundly shocked to see that two gay men were attacked in the street for the simple fact that they were kissing.…When something happens should we close our eyes and say this is an isolated incident, and tell ourselves it doesn’t happen here? No. You have to react, denounce and intervene.” | {
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A federal judge ruled Friday that Lev Parnas, a known associate of President Trump Donald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MORE's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani Rudy GiulianiJuan Williams: Breaking down the debates Giuliani criticizes NYC leadership: 'They're killing this city' More than 160 executives critique de Blasio's leadership amid pandemic MORE, can turn over documents and data to Congress as a Senate impeachment trial awaits Trump.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Oetken's ruling allows Parnas to turn over documents and data that were seized by federal investigators when Parnas was arrested on campaign finance charges in October, The Associated Press reports.
“Review of these materials is essential to the Committee’s ability to corroborate the strength of Mr. Parnas’s potential testimony,” Joseph Bondy, Parnas’s attorney, said in a filing.
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Parnas has already provided the House Intelligence Committee with some documents through congressional subpoena.
Parnas and Igor Fruman, also an associate of Giuliani's, aided the former New York City mayor in opening an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenThe Memo: Warning signs flash for Trump on debates Senate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden National postal mail handlers union endorses Biden MORE and his son, Hunter Biden, in Ukraine.
In October, Parnas and Fruman were indicted for federal campaign finance violations centered around a large donation that the pair made to a group that is supporting Trump's reelection campaign. Both have pleaded not guilty. | {
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New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going to save America with a “Green New Deal,” and she’s not opposed to jacking taxes up to 70 percent to push “a lot of rapid change that we don’t even conceive as possible right now.”
The 29-year-old socialist sat down with CNN’s Anderson Cooper for an interview set to air this weekend in which she compares herself to Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and other so-called “radicals” in American history.
“You’re talking about zero carbon emissions, zero use of fossil fuels within 12 years,” Cooper said. “How is that possible? You’re talking about everybody having to drive an electric car?”
“It’s going to require a lot of rapid change that we don’t even conceive as possible right now,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?”
Cooper pointed to the biggest obvious barrier – money, but “Alex from the Bronx” has an answer for that problem, as well.
“There’s an element where, yeah, people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes,” she said. “You look at our tax rates back in the 60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your tax rate, say, from zero to $75,000 may be 10 percent or 15 percent, etceteria.
“But once you get to like the tippy-tops, on your ten-millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent,” Ocasio-Cortez explained.
Essentially, the more successful businesses and individuals are, the more they’re punished by the government.
“It means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
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It’s a radical agenda, Cooper suggested, “compared to the way politics is done right now.”
Ocasio-Cortez claims that’s because she’s something special and likened the Green New Deal to freeing African Americans from slavery or rebuilding the country after the Great Depression.
“I think it has only ever been radicals who have changed this country. Abraham Lincoln made the radical decision to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like Social Security. That is radical.”
“Do you call yourself a radical?” Cooper questioned.
“Yeah,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “you know if that’s what radical means, call me a radical.” | {
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Liverpool have today confirmed Adam Lallana has suffered a knee injury in training and is set to miss the start of the new season.
The midfielder, who moved to Anfield from Southampton earlier this month, sustained a knock to his lateral collateral ligament during a session at the Reds' Harvard University training base in Boston.
Lallana has been assessed by Liverpool's medical staff and does not require surgery.
No specific timeframe has been placed on a return to fitness, but injuries of this nature can result in a spell of anywhere up to six weeks on the sidelines.
The England international will undergo further assessment by the club's medical team in the United States and on return to Liverpool. | {
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Last weekend, the Scientific American blogger community blew up as only a blogger community can, over a somewhat complex issue. Many of us are blogging in response, and as much as I hate to I’m joining in the madness.
I’ll try not to dwell on what actually happened, because it’s barely what I want to talk about. Danielle Lee, Ph.D., has been blogging regularly for SciAm for a couple years as the Urban Scientist. She was contacted by another website that asked her to blog for free, which she politely declined to do. The site responded by calling her a dirty name: “whore.” She responded -- again politely -- by blogging about the issue, on Urban Scientist.
The post mysteriously came down. SciAm editor Mariette DiChristina tweeted an almost equally mysterious message explaining the post was somehow “not apropriate,” and then basically the world came to an end. Everybody knew what had happened, and everybody was yelling to each other about it at the same time -- it was censorship! it was marginializing! how could Scientific American have shut up on of our free voices! it had to do with Lee being a woman! It was because she was black! It was because, oh, for pity’s sake, what wasn’t it because.
And here’s me, sitting quietly at home, thinking, “Lawyers.” I bided my time.
My own small contribution to the chorus came when, sometime on Oct. 12, along with all SciAm bloggers I got an email from DiChristina saying I was right. Lee had apparently named names and hither or yon crossed the kind of boundaries that get lawyers all worked up. They were currently about the business of figuring out what was what. So I tweeted, “I profoundly trust @sciam et al. to get this right and explain it once it is.”
Since then not much has slowed down. From what I can tell, SciAm is getting this right, and in the meantime has explained it quite to my satisfaction. A lawyer got his underpants up his butt, and so everything shut down. If I had a dollar for every time that happened to me as a writer, I’d have -- well, I’d have a lot more than I’m getting for this blog post.
But like I said, the straightforward facts haven’t slowed anybody down. The current batch of blog-counterblog is already on the reactions to the reactions to the reactions, on things like whether various apologies were sufficiently abject. The volume hasn’t come down, so I’m hoping to get people to recognized this one thing: It’s not a bad thing to keep your mouth shut and wait for more information. I’m a little confused how scientists and science bloggers -- a group of people who more than any other ought to know that the truth is usually complex and that data always helps in drawing conclusions -- had so much to say on a topic about which they all knew they were missing at least some information, but hey, it’s the blogosphere. People post first and ask questions later, which is the nature of the thing.
And that’s the nature we ought to think about here. In any dead-tree publication, a piece like Lee’s would have raised editorial eyebrows -- back when there were editors -- who would have made darned sure they got to the person Lee named and made sure her accusations were accurate. The piece would have come out later, and that would have been it. These days aren’t those. Lee wrote her post, under the SciAm aegis, with no editorial guidance but her own. Lawyers, paid to get their underpants up their butts, got their underpants up their butts. Not a bad thing, mind you -- if Lee was wrong? And the person who called her a whore was actually pretending to be from the website? Or she had misinterpreted? Or been tricked? Or any of a number of other things were happening that I can’t even say? Because more lawyers would get their underpants up their butts? Then it would be a pretty good thing that the post had come down.
See: bloggers appear not to understand. An editor’s job is hard. She has to balance the constituencies of writers, readers, lawyers, publishers, sources, subjects, advertisers, and others, who collectively make the Hobbesian “warre of every one against every one” look like a quilting bee. Sometimes she has to say no; sometimes she has to act defensively for the good of the publication. Sometimes in explaining what is happening in a way that will not cause further lawyerly hyperventilation she may be obtuse or even in error. But in the fullness of time, she’ll usually get things right. That’s how she -- or he, or whomever -- ended up as an editor. Trust me -- it’s not because of the high pay and the groupies.
So let me speak as a long-term writer here. In the last decades we writers have had to learn to function in a completely new ecosystem, learning that speed often trumps quality, that getting your voice in the rumpus is sometimes more important than getting the right tone, that we’re all out here on our own doing what we can, without the editorial support we learned to depend on. In some ways that’s wonderful. The new everything everywhere all at once all the time story ecosystem is amazing and opens doors for great work and new voices.
But it utterly ignores something the old ecosystem actually used to do pretty well: accuracy. It often forgets to take a breath. Think about who else is involved. Consider the sources. Address accuracy. Measure tone. Mind you, I’m not criticizing Dr. Lee here. I’m criticizing the people who defended her from that noted long-term oppressor of women and minority voices: Scientific American. The site that for years had been happily sharing her work, and that in one moment of imperfectly managing a complex situation has found itself chased by towns’ worth of the self-righteous with torches and pitchforks.
I’m not putting a single link in this piece. You can find anything you want just by googling, plus I'm not looking to pick fights. But I will say this. Scientific American has worked for closing in on 200 years to earn its reputation, and people who drew conclusions and cast stones based on their imperfect understanding of incomplete sets of facts regarding a single decision may be wonderful scientists. But I fear they have some work to do as writers.
I’m proud to write for this site. I’m proud to have my work here. And if removing a possibly actionable post for a day or so while facts are corroborated is the worst mistake Scientific American ever makes it can count on my continued support. I hope that’s the worst thing that ever happens to Dr. Lee. Honestly? It sounds to me like SciAm had her back, but I can certainly understand if she didn’t feel that way at first. Though I won’t be able to understand it if she doesn’t feel that now. And I hope a lot of other bloggers put some time into thinking about whether their own posts might not occasionally profit from a day or two’s wait. | {
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Illustration: Giacomo Gambineri
When the first episode of Chappelle’s Show aired in January 2003, audiences were blown away by an audacious Frontline parody about Clayton Bigsby, a blind black man who also happened to be a leader in the white-supremacy movement. Among the many offensive lines: “The message of my books is very simple: niggers, Jews, homo-sexuals, Mexican, A-rabs, and all different sorts of chinks stink, and I hate ‘em!” Created by Dave Chappelle and white comedian, actor, and director Neal Brennan, the nine-minute bit was an immediate hit among fans and remains a historically daring sketch. Vulture caught up with Brennan — whose one-man show 3 Mics will be coming to the Lynn Redgrave Theater March 3 — to discuss how the segment was inspired by Dave’s blind grandfather, Comedy Central’s reaction, and why they didn’t think it was any different from their other sketches.
What were the origins of the sketch?
It was based on Dave’s grandfather, who was mixed-race and blind. The day Martin Luther King got shot, apparently he was on a bus and a bunch of black dudes came up to him and were like, “What you doing on this bus, cracker?” and Dave’s grandfather apparently thought, Man, this cracker is in a lot of trouble, before he realized, Oh, I’m the cracker. Dave explained to me, “He’s a black guy who doesn’t know he’s black,” and it just never made sense. I never knew what he meant, and then he explained to me that the character went to boarding school, and that’s why he didn’t know. Nobody told him he was black. It came rushing in, like I completely got it immediately.
How did the concept evolve from that seed to the guy being a hero of the white-supremacist movement?
That was just the natural progression in sketch comedy. It’s like, “Well, then he’s the head of the KKK, isn’t he?” It’s obviously the most extreme way to go. Then ultimately you want to just do every different kind of joke you can do in terms of variations on it. Him explaining himself to the reporter at his house is one thing, and from there it’s like, “Well, he should yell at some white kids.” Him yelling at white kids and white kids being excited is funny, and then going to the rally and pulling the mask off is really funny.
And Dave introduced it by saying that he hadn’t been canceled yet but this sketch might do it, and that he showed it to a friend who looked at him like he had just set black people back with a comedy sketch.
Yeah, that was a guy named Cey Adams, who was the art director for Def Jam for, like, 15 years. He’s a black dude, and we showed it to him in editing, and he looked at us like, You guys are in trouble. He said, “This is like the time Horovitz [Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys] said the N-word at the Apollo.” At the time we had a show at Caroline’s, and Dave used to show sketches during it. The audience hated that, by the way. They’d go for a stand-up show, and Dave would be like, I’m going to do ten minutes of stand-up, then I’m going to show some sketches, and they’d be like, Fuck you! — though I’m sure they all brag about it now. So Dave showed the sketch there one night, and it killed. Cey happened to be there, and when I saw him I gave a look like, Well? and he said, “Man, people will laugh at anything.”
When you were writing it, did you feel like it was going to have the impact that it did?
No! That was the thing. We never thought, This is going to be a banger. You just hope. That was back in the days before things went viral. They would go, like, spoken viral, whatever the fuck that’s called. There was no map, like, And then BuzzFeed’s going to pick it up.
Did you have a sense that it would push more buttons than some of the other sketches you were airing?
We didn’t, because it didn’t feel any more button-pushing than anything else we were doing. The next episode we had a white woman singing black thoughts. She said crack was invented and distributed to intentionally destroy the black community; AIDS was too. Every episode had something insane.
Looking back, do you think that the lack of information about who’s working on the show, and the absence of online critics and social-media users picking things apart the next day, gave you more comfort to do this?
Yeah, I’m glad that didn’t exist. I don’t think it would’ve helped. If everyone’s looking over their shoulders, it’s not going to make the stuff better.
Was Comedy Central concerned about the content at all?
Not really. I mean, obviously it’s inflammatory, but Comedy Central’s thing was If an intelligent, well-regarded black comedian is saying this stuff about race, it’s not our place to say, “Hey, wait!” which is a good policy. Their two biggest money-makers have been South Park and The Daily Show, the two most subversive shows of all time. So when people are like, “Did they mess with you guys?” I’m like, “No!” They’re better off when shit is inflammatory. It needs to be inflammatory for it to be successful in some ways.
That said, for some reason, Comedy Central didn’t want the sketch in the first episode because they didn’t think it was emblematic of the show. We were like, Wait, what? It’s entirely emblematic. It was just a really potent piece of comedy, if that makes sense. It was like Chris [Rock’s] niggers-versus-black-people bit where it’s searing. You can almost feel the ripple effect. It’s abrasive in the best possible way. | {
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Experienced striker agrees terms on deal to remain at Macron Stadium
Emile Heskey has extended his stay with the club by agreeing a one-year contract following his stint at Macron Stadium during the 2014/15 campaign.
The experienced frontman initially joined the Whites on a short-term deal last December, going on to make 18 appearances for Wanderers.
Scoring a solitary goal on his debut against Blackburn Rovers, the striker has now agreed terms on a deal which will see him remain a Bolton Wanderers player for the upcoming 2015/16 season.
Heskey will retain the number 19 shirt as was worn by the former England international last term.
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Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.
The 90th Academy Awards show is tonight, Sunday, March 4, starting at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT, with comedian and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel serving as emcee.
As in previous years, the Oscars won’t be the easiest show to stream online. ABC, which televises the Oscars, will offer a livestream on its website, abc.com, and via the ABC app for various mobile and smart-TV platforms.
But in a display of how much ABC still really wants you to watch the Oscars via an old-school TV service, the stream is restricted to people living in specific markets who subscribe to participating TV providers.
Those markets: Chicago, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco. The provider list includes the major companies: Comcast, Charter Spectrum, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon and DirecTV, as well as YouTube TV.
By the way, you can watch it for free if you have an antenna attached to your TV. Crazy, right?
In addition, DirecTV subscribers in some other markets will also be able to access the stream, according to ABC’s Oscars FAQ. Those are: Albuquerque, Boston, Ft. Smith/Fayetteville, Jackson (Mississippi), Kansas City, Milwaukee, Monterey-Salinas, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Pittsburgh, Portland-Auburn (Maine), Savannah and West Palm Beach.
The broadcast will also be available to stream through a Sling, Hulu Live TV or YouTube TV subscription.
This year, you’ll be able to watch some red carpet and backstage moments through Facebook Watch starting at 6:30 pm ET / 3:30 pm PT. The Oscars livestream, or what Facebook and ABC are calling “The Oscars: All Access,” will be on both the Academy’s page on Facebook Watch and ABC’s Facebook page, as well as on Oscar.com and ABCNews.com.
ABC is touting that, this year, “the Facebook community watching the ‘The Oscars: All Access’ live stream may also receive a digital autograph from one of their favorite stars on the red carpet.” We’re not sure exactly what that means, but if you try it out, let us know.
Amazon is also making a play for Oscar coverage. Alexa is prepared to answer any questions you may have, such as, “Who is going to win Best Picture?” and “When are the Oscars airing?” Alexa users can also enable skills for Oscar trivia and challenge each other on past Oscar winners by asking, “Alexa, play Best Picture Oscars.”
One big award to watch: Everyone’s favorite actress, Meryl Streep, is nominated for Best Actress again. She’s breaking her own record this year with her 21st Oscar nomination.
Happy viewing, and may the best Meryl win.
Sign up for the newsletter Recode Daily Email (required) By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. Subscribe | {
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By Larry O’Hanlon
What a difference a planetary flyby makes. Pluto’s moon Charon — once no more than a fuzzy blob of pixels beside a larger blob — now has its first geological map, published in AGU’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
The new map was made with data and images collected by the 2015 flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft, which managed to gather enough data to map about a third of Charon’s surface.
In that area, the scientists have identified 16 different kinds of geological units, or areas with similar landscapes, along with 10-kilometer-tall cliffs; more than a thousand grooves and other long, linear features; and a patchwork of light and dark ground.
To get the elevations of the cliffs, troughs, craters and other features, the team used multiple images of Charon taken as the spacecraft flew past to create stereo 3D images. These images are taken from different positions, so they can be processed using the same principle that our own brain uses to take images from two eyes and give us depth perception.
The new map shows possible evidence of a world that may have once split open like a chapped lip, or a rising cake, then released icy materials from its interior to flood over large areas – what are called cryoflows. In fact, the researchers have found that Charon has perhaps one of the most convincing examples of large cryoflows found in the solar system so far.
Crater Enigma
The new map has revealed many puzzling features of Charon, including its craters.
“Surprisingly we see very, very few degraded craters,” said Stuart Robbins of the Southwest Research Institute and lead author of the new paper. “On Mars we see old (degraded) and new craters. On Charon pretty much every crater we see looks like it was created recently.” Either that or the craters they see have been around a long time without anything changing them, he added.
One explanation for the lack of aged-looking craters might be that some process erased the older craters. That process might be ancient icy flows – cryoflows – that welled up through cracks in the surface of Charon and buried the older craters.
If so, then perhaps sometime in Charon’s past its interior warmed up and underwent a chemical or physical change that caused it to expand slightly. That expansion cracked the surface – analogous to how the surface of a cake cracks as the cake rises while baking, Robbins explained. Then warmer materials from below oozed out over Charon’s surface. That material would have hidden a lot of Charon’s original surface, along with craters that were on that surface. This would also explain features that look like broken blocks of the moon’s crust caught and surrounded by a flood of fresher material.
Geomorphologic unit map of Charon’s encounter hemisphere in (A) cropped Molleweide projection and (B) polar stereographic projection. Credit: Robbins, et al., 2019.
Oz, Vulcan and Spock
To organize Charon’s features based on the cryoflows, the authors of the map described and named three major epochs in the history of Charon: Ozian, Vulcanian and Spockian.
The Ozian epoch was more than 4 billion years ago, when the informally named Oz Terra part of the crust of Charon was formed, shown in the upper part of the map.
The Vulcanian came next, perhaps starting more than 4 billion years ago as well, with cryoflows forming the Vulcan Planum in the lower part of the map, near Charon’s equator. The Vulcanian probably continued for quite some time as different parts of Charon cooled.
The final epoch, the Spockian, represents the time after the Vulcan Palum solidified. That’s the period of time when the same area got pockmarked with impact craters, up until the present day.
This is just one possible plot for Charon’s story, Robbins points out.
“We could be entirely wrong,” he said about the cryoflows.
It’s a matter planetary scientists can puzzle over while they await more data from Charon, which could be a very long time coming since no follow up missions are currently in the works to that very remote part of the solar system.
Larry O’Hanlon is a freelance science writer, editor and online producer. He manages the AGU Blogosphere. | {
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Ceci n’est pas une Pence. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Among political professionals and media, it is a settled fact that, in televised debates, appearance matters more than substance. Think of the legend of polished John F. Kennedy defeating sweaty-but-experienced Richard Nixon, or Al Gore annoying America with his incessantly nerdish assaults on good ol’ George Dubya Bush. It was a version of this belief that led conventional wisdom to the immediate conclusion that Mike Pence won his debate against Tim Kaine. Certainly, by theater standards, Pence outperformed his adversary. A polished talk-show host by training, Pence spoke in calm, measured tones and swatted away Kaine’s rapid-fire attacks on his running mate with genial head-shaking or confident-sounding denials.
“Mike Pence’s cool-headed performance on Tuesday night’s debate stage has Republicans wistful that the Indiana governor is not their nominee and hopeful that Pence’s prowess will rub off on Donald Trump before Sunday’s crucial rematch with Hillary Clinton,” reported Politico’s Ben Schreckinger. “More disciplined than Trump, and with a baritone voice that evoked a sense of seriousness, Pence battled back,” observed the Washington Post’s Dan Balz.
One might complain with the voters for prioritizing surface appearance over substance. One might also complain with the news media for internalizing voters’ superficiality and feeding it back to them as theater criticism rather than sorting out the underlying claims. But the fact remains that the rules are the rules, and as they exist, there is usually little penalty for lying incessantly as long as you do it with proper body language and a reassuringly manly baritone.
There is, however, an exception to that rule: You should not lie about things that can be easily disproven with short video clips. So, if Pence had simply insisted that Donald Trump’s tax plan would balance the budget and mostly help the middle class, and that he would allow coal plants to spring up everywhere without impacting the climate, and that his plan would crack down on Wall Street, he’d have walked away the undisputed winner. Instead, Pence claimed over and over again that his running mate had never said the things that Tim Kaine was quoting verbatim. It was all too easy for the Hillary Clinton campaign to respond with this devastating video:
The way debates work is that they play out over time, with an initial impression usually overwhelmed by subsequent messages rippling through the media. In this case, whatever small gains Pence made are likely to be canceled out by days of him looking ridiculous. Lying: It usually works! But not always. | {
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Previously VRFocus reported on the NBA basketball All-Star weekend. NBA commissioned NextVR to create a virtual reality (VR) experience for basketball enthusiasts to experience the game without being there. Now it looks like NextVR have intentions of bringing live sports events to VR head-mounted displays. This is something which has been the subject of much debate as the requirements to stream 360 degree video are quite strenuous.
Not only has the company been working with the NBA but now it announced the completion of the second test shoot with the NHL hockey association. On the 21st February the company filmed the NHL Stadium Series LA Kings vs. San Jose Sharks. NextVR has stated the belief that VR will bring a new medium for sports fans to get involved in the action. Rather than seeing it through a screen, sports fans can be watching it as if the audience is on the ice with the hockey team.
NextVR is keen on bringing the same experience to a live audience. As a way of bringing sports fans closer to the action, the company is looking at providing live broadcast quality video straight to the VR HMD. The company believes that it alone has the technology to bring this quality live. Next VR states it has patents in video compression, broadcast quality transmission and display of VR content.
VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest from NextVR as this unfolds. | {
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Dear Professor Kant,
Thank you for submitting your MS ‘On the Common Saying: “This May be True in Theory, but it does not Apply in Practice”‘ to The Journal of Practically Applied Ethics. We have now received referee reports, and on the basis of these will not be proceeding with publication. I have appended reports below.
The main complaint was that too little was done, and too late, on the main issue of interest: the possibility of applying principles of international right in a cosmopolitan framework. Perhaps in future you should abandon the earlier parts of this article, and concentrate on articulating a theory of international relations in response to the established ius gentium accounts offered by Pufendorf, Grotius, and Vattel. This might help you get beyond Hobbes, which all your reviewers agreed currently represents a disproportionate influence on your thought.
With regards,
The Editor.
[…]
Referee 1
The MS proposes to examine the relationship between theory and practice in three key areas: individual morality, political duty, and the rights of states. An examination of this sort is certainly over-due. There can be few scholars working in the field today who have not felt aggrieved at the remarks of friends and colleagues that theory is fine, but practical experience knows best. And this MS starts well: emphasising that judgement is the irreducible link between theory and practice, and that there can ipso facto be no theory of judgement. Yet hopes of an appropriately Aristotelian emphasis on phronesis are soon dashed as a peculiarly idiosyncratic approach takes over.
Regarding the role of theory in relation to moral practice, the author initially seems concerned with repeating his established views against a recent critic of his. Yet it readily becomes apparent that the real claim being made here is that the best way of making moral judgements is to follow the dictates of duty. The author’s argument boils down to the contention that it is harder to make judgements based on calculations of consequences, than on the contents of duty. This, however, is support by the most inadequate of examples. It may be true that a child would answer that stealing is simply wrong – but so what? An adult wants to know why it is wrong, what it means for there to be a duty not to steal, and how we come to know and act upon that duty. Given the author’s own introduction, he of all people should know that judging as regards to the content of duty is no easier than judging with regards to consequences. The claim that his own moral theory thus vindicates the usefulness of theory to practice by showing us the path of duty is unduly self-aggrandising, and achieved only by begging the question quite spectacularly.
As regards the connection between theory and practice in politics, the author apparently sets out to deliberately mislead. The section is entitled ‘Against Hobbes’, but this is manifestly Hobbes’s system in the skimpiest of new guises. (The influence of Rousseau is also apparent, as evidenced by a conception of the General Will, but one I must confess to finding incomprehensible.) Ultimately, the author’s position is the same as Hobbes’s notorious conclusion: that the sovereign must be absolute. The only difference is that we are reassured that Hobbes’s tyrannical system will be avoided because citizens may write public letters of disapproval. They are not, however, allowed to do anything practical to resist tyranny. Instead they must trust that their leader will always act in line with what he can sincerely imagine would be the General Will, if such a thing could be known. Given recent events in France, one is disappointed by the author’s reactionary attitude. Rather than vindicating the rights of man, and the collective right of the people to live under a free republic, he opts instead to be a sorry comforter for the old politics of despotism. This is political theory 140 years past its sell-by-date.
The final section shows promise but is fundamentally under-developed. The author appears to presuppose a providential conception of nature whereby mankind is inevitably progressing to a higher plane of cosmopolitan world peace. Yet no better reason for believing in this is given than that the author cannot bear the thought of a directionless world in which all is the play of chance. This is hardly adequate. Perhaps some more explicit teleological justification would help, say with regards to man as an animal with a natural function or direct appeal to the role of God as creator. In any case, I am confused by the author’s stance given his earlier Hobbism. If the author follows Hobbes in his theory of the state, and yet desires the attainment of international peace, does he therefore advocate a world state? Yet Hobbes is explicit that a world state is unnecessary and anyway impossible. I would like to see the author work out this aspect of his thought. However, a fundamentally different work is manifestly required for what is interesting here to be properly brought out.
[…] | {
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to the United States this week damaged Israel diplomatically, undermined the country's relations with the U.S. administration and showed Netanyahu up again as a rejectionist who does nothing but look for excuses and delays to avoid making decisions.
Netanyahu flew to the annual conference of the United Jewish Communities and the Jewish Federations of North America in New Orleans; from there he went on to New York. Strengthening ties with Diaspora Jewry is certainly a worthy cause, but Netanyahu took advantage of the stage he was given to embarrass the Obama administration.
His public call on the Americans to create a "credible military threat" against Iran merely exposed the disagreements between him and the administration, portraying Israel as a warmonger trying to drag America into another entanglement in the Middle East. No wonder Netanyahu's declaration evoked a dismissive response from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Netanyahu focused on issuing warnings about Iran and the "delegitimization" of Israel, pushing the peace process with the Palestinians to the sidelines. His messages sounded coordinated with the scandalous speech by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman at the UN General Assembly.
Then came the reports about Israel's approval of large construction plans in Har Homa and other East Jerusalem neighborhoods. Netanyahu again found himself in a public controversy with U.S. President Barack Obama and insulted Vice President Joe Biden, shortly after Biden had praised him enthusiastically in a speech.
Netanyahu was then forced to have "clarification talks" with Biden, whom he had embarrassed in similar circumstances only eight months ago with the declaration of the building plan in East Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood during the vice president's visit to the capital.
Toward the end of the visit, Netanyahu hinted he would agree to an additional construction freeze in the settlements, but in exchange for some far-reaching demands. He wants extensive American security assistance and all the Arab states (apart from Saudi Arabia ) to sign peace agreements with Israel at the same time as the Palestinians.
Netanyahu apparently tried to show that the Republicans' victory in the congressional elections rendered him immune to the administration's pressures and that he had the upper hand in the controversy over the settlements. This is a shortsighted approach that endangers Israel's interests. Israel needs a steadfast friendship with the United States. | {
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（ＣＮＮ） 米国のトランプ大統領が難民の受け入れを停止し、イスラム教徒が多数を占める国からの渡航者を拒否する大統領令に署名したことを受け、イラン外務省は２８日、声明を出し、「イスラム世界、とりわけイランに対する明らかな侮辱だ」と非難。今回の大統領令に対する法的、政治的な報復措置を検討する可能性を示唆した。
イラン外務省はまた、「テロと戦い米国民の安全を守ると主張しているが、逆に過激派やその支援者を大きく利する政策として歴史に残るだろう」と述べた。
イランは市民の米国への入国が禁止された７カ国のひとつ。そのほか、シリアやイラク、リビア、ソマリア、スーダン、イエメンが名指しされ、入国禁止の対象者は計１億３４００万人に上っている。
イランと米国は、在イラン米大使館人質事件を受け、１９８０年以降、正式な外交関係はない。
大統領令ではシリアからの難民が無期限に、それ以外の全ての難民についても１２０日間、受け入れが停止された。この措置に対しても国際人権団体などから非難の声が相次いでいる。国際非政府組織（ＮＧＯ）の国際救済委員会（ＩＲＣ）を率いるデービッド・ミリバンド氏は「難民はテロから逃れようとしている人々で、テロリストではない」と強調した。 | {
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Chrysalis Hive By RaikohIllust Watch
412 Favourites 36 Comments 9K Views
Or Changeling Hive, or however it could be called. Anyway, this is what I picture the home of the Changelings might look like, with the huge rock formation looking like the Changeling Queen's horn.
IMAGE DETAILS Image size 1100x1422px 176.58 KB Show More
Published : May 14, 2012 | {
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Successive days have brought unbearable news:
A 25-year-old Salvadoran, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, and his young daughter drowned during their attempt to swim across the Rio Grande to get from Mexico to the United States.
In Jharkhand, a 24-year-old Muslim man, Tabrez Ansari, was added to the long list of Muslim men who have been lynched to death by Hindu mobs since 2014. He was tied to a pole and forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman”, while being beaten for hours.
In Assam, a 14-year-old Muslim girl [name withheld], allegedly hanged herself with her dupatta because she believed her name was not in the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is being updated in order to target undocumented immigrants.
A six-year-old Indian girl died of dehydration in the Arizona desert. She had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her mother, who had gone to find water. It was reported that the number of Indians detained at the border rose from 2,943 in 2017 to 8,997 in 2018.
As a mother of three boys, aged 24, 21 and 11; as an Indian immigrant living in the U.S.; and as a community activist who has spent the last eight years mobilising Hindu Americans to connect their faith to the service of humanity, the world where Oscar, Tabrez and others die such cruel deaths, is not a world I can bear or accept.
The Taittiriya upanishad teaches: Matru devo bhava/ Pitru devo bhava/ Acharya devo bhava/ Atithi devo bhava (Be one for whom mother, father, teacher and guest/stranger are god). We are taught to see god in our nearest and dearest, and in those who are foreign, different or other.
Of course there are complex political machinations at play, but what the entire world needs right now is the ethic of love, compassion and reverence for all of humanity that is contained in that shloka.
Hindus — in the U.S., India, and beyond — whose hearts, like mine, cannot withstand such inhumane treatment of our young should stand up and give voice to their opposition to such atrocities, and be counted as ones with conscience. This dark hour calls for it.
[email protected] | {
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MONTREAL -- Montreal police are looking for other victims of a 19-year-old man who police allege has committed several sex-related crimes involving minors.
Investigators from the sexual exploitation squad of the Service de police de la Ville de Montreal say Alexandre Bosse, 19, was arrested Oct. 2 and charged with inciting sexual contact with three girls aged between 13 and 16.
Investigators say they have reason to believe Bosse may have other victims.
Bosse contacted his victims over social media, police allege, using the online handles alexandre.bosse.545 and alexandre.boe.5, and quickly convinced them to perform sexual acts.
The suspect stands 1.83 metres and weighs 109 kg. He has a distinctive tattoo of a dragon on his left forearm.
Bosse appeared in court in Montreal on Oct. 21 and was charged with luring, producing child pornography and communicating with a minor to incite sexual contact.
Police are asking anyone who believes they were a victim of Bosse's to visit their local police station or call 911 to file a report.
Investigators note that Bosse has no fixed address, and so may have victims in different cities. | {
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: From the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic Veli Yadirgi Cambridge University Press , 25 jul. 2017 0 Recensies In recent years, the persecution of the Kurds in the Middle East under ISIS in Iraq and Syria has drawn increasing attention from the international media. In this book, Veli Yadirgi analyses the socioeconomic and political structures and transformations of the Kurdish people from the Ottoman era through to the modern Turkish Republic, arguing that there is a symbiotic relationship between the Kurdish question and the de-development of the predominantly Kurdish domains, making an ideal read for historians of the region and those studying the socio-political and economic evolution of the Kurds. First outlining theoretical perspectives on Kurdish identity, socioeconomic development and the Kurdish question, Yadirgi then explores the social, economic and political origins of Ottoman Kurdistan following its annexation by the Ottomans in 1514. Finally, he deals with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the subsequent foundation and evolution of the Kurdish question in the new Turkish Republic. Voorbeeld weergeven » | {
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Ree Drummond's daughter Paige, 19, was arrested for 'public intoxication' in Oklahoma, according to E! News.
Paige — who recently finished her freshman year at the University of Arkansas — was also charged with possession of alcohol by a person under 21 years of age.
Court documents revealed that the district attorney noted Paige appeared to be 'in a drunken condition' when she was booked by authorities.
Trouble: Ree Drummond's daughter Paige, 19, was arrested for 'public intoxication' in Oklahoma, according to E! News (seen on Instagram
Her charges are punishable by 'up to one year in jail' in addition to a 'fee of up to $500,' according to docs.
RadarOnline reported that Paige was 'taken to jail' in mid-April, and 'did unlawfully possess and consume a non-intoxicating beverage, containing more than one-half of one percent of alcohol measured by weight, in a public place.'
Possession charges for a minor can carry a punishment of up to 30 days in jail 'or a fine of up to $100.'
Not great: Paige — who recently finished her freshman year at the University of Arkansas — was charged with possession of alcohol by a person under 21 years of age (seen on Instagram)
Cooking queen: Ree — who's real name is Ann Marie — catapulted to fame as a star on the popular Food Network with her own show, The Pioneer Woman; seen in 2017
Paige, so far, has 'paid a total of $404.50 thus far in court fees for the alleged crimes,' according to the site.
Ree — who's real name is Ann Marie — catapulted to fame as a star on the popular Food Network with her own show, The Pioneer Woman.
The program highlights her favorite recipes, and tips and tricks around the kitchen from her southern vantage.
In addition to her widely successful television show, her culinary career includes a line of cookbooks and cookware, all of which spawned from a simple blog.
Columbia Pictures acquired the film rights to her book From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels in March 2010, but hasn't made any forward progression since. | {
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The Note: Trump has sights set on belittling Sessions Trump is criticizing his attorney general on Twitter this morning.
-- WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY
Is Jeff Sessions in danger of losing his job? The president is continuing his public attacks against Sessions, tweeting this morning: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" Trump has been talking with advisers about firing Sessions, The Associated Press reports.
It's a make-or-break moment for the GOP: Senate leadership plans to hold a procedural vote today to move health care legislation forward.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, returns to the Senate today to cast a crucial vote. Small problem: If the motion to proceed passes, the Senate won't know on what measure it's voting.
President Trump holds a news conference at the White House this afternoon followed by a "Make America Great Again" rally in Ohio tonight.
Another day of questioning for Trump's son-in-law: Jared Kushner goes before the House Intelligence Committee today as part of its Russia probe.
THE TAKE with ABC News' MaryAlice Parks
After years of scorning Democrats for ramming the Affordable Care Act through, Republican leadership is asking senators to vote on a health care bill today, even though Monday night they still could not specify which one. But President Trump is getting desperate. Though he was largely absent from the final stages of the debate, rarely weighed in on policy specifics and sent conflicting tweets about how senators should move forward, the president is throwing his hands up and pointing blame at his colleagues. It's now or never on health care, he says. The president Monday night even jokingly threatened to fire a member of his Cabinet if this can't get done. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price could face “The Apprentice” treatment if the votes fall short. Despite the latest replacement options' polling terribly, of which lawmakers are well aware, the president predicted Republicans would suffer at the polls if they do not pass something now. Chastising them might have been enough to push them over the final hurdle Monday. (More likely Senate leadership made some last-minute deals). Either way, leader Mitch McConnell clearly thinks he has the votes, just barely, to move the bill forward today. There is no other reason to ask Sen. John McCain to fly back from his recovery in Arizona.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I go to Washington and I see all these politicians, and I see the swamp, and it's not a good place. In fact, today, I said we ought to change it from the word 'swamp' to the word 'cesspool' or perhaps to the word 'sewer.'" -- President Trump
WHAT TO WATCH
President Trump holds a news conference today alongside Lebanon Prime Minister Saad Hariri from the White House Rose Garden.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump then head to Youngstown, Ohio for a "Make America Great Again" rally.
Aug. 19: Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman who is now a candidate for Virginia governor, will be the keynote speaker at Americans for Prosperity's Defending the American Dream Summit.
NEED TO READ with ABC News' Daksha Sthipam
Trump criticizes Senate GOP for not doing "their job" in Obamacare fight. "Any senator who votes against starting debate is telling America that you are fine with the Obamacare nightmare, which is what it is," the president said while standing in front of a group of Americans to whom the White House referred as "victims of Obamacare." http://abcn.ws/2vCFqL0
Kushner denies colluding with Russia, says Trump ran "smarter campaign." Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, publicly denied that he colluded with Russia during and after the election season. "I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds for my businesses. And I have been fully transparent in providing all requested information," Kushner said after meeting with Senate Intelligence Committee investigators in a closed-door session. http://abcn.ws/2uQ7xbL
What's in the Russia sanctions bill that Trump might veto. President Trump is facing a stark foreign policy choice: Sign off on punishing new sanctions against Russia for its interference in the 2016 presidential election or veto a rare bipartisan piece of legislation that would hurt his push for better relations with Russia. Congress reached an agreement on a bill to slap Russia, Iran and North Korea with new sanctions while removing some of President Trump's power. http://abcn.ws/2usZWiY
WHO'S TWEETING?
@pkcapitol: Team Scalise lashes out at Mo Brooks, accusing him of exploiting shooting for his AL Senate race. Via @daveweigel http://wapo.st/2vVw6Bc
@lpolgreen: What a jamboree! Trump said he wouldn't talk politics at the Boy Scout event. (Then he did.) http://bit.ly/2gZ5uwM
@burgessev: Republicans say CBO scores on new proposals, including Cruz amendment not likely this week
@sahilkapur: Rep @Farenthold blames "female senators" for health bill's woes, saying he'd settle it with a duel if they were men. http://bit.ly/2gXBDF2
The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the key political moments of the day ahead. Please check back tomorrow for the latest. | {
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Prenez note que cet article publié en 2015 pourrait contenir des informations qui ne sont plus à jour.
Le Saint-Laurent risque de dégager une odeur nauséabonde à partir du 18 octobre. De façon exceptionnelle, la Ville de Montréal va laisser une partie de ses égouts se déverser directement dans l'eau pendant sept jours, sur sa rive sud.
Thomas Gerbet Un texte de
13 mètres cubes par seconde pendant sept jours, c'est 8 millions de mètres cubes ou 8 milliards de litres, l'équivalent de 2600 piscines olympiques de déchets des toilettes, rejets d'hôpitaux et d'entreprises. Un festival de bactéries, de virus et de produits pharmaceutiques directement dans le fleuve, sans passer par l'usine d'épuration.
La dernière fois qu'un tel événement s'est produit, c'était il y a six ans, indique Philippe Sabourin, porte-parole de la Ville de Montréal. « Il n'y a pas d'autre choix possible », explique-t-il.
Les travaux majeurs pour abaisser la structure de l'autoroute Bonaventure exigent de déplacer la chute d'un méga-égout du sud de la municipalité, situé directement dans la zone de travaux. En résumé, pendant 7 jours, sur un total de 40 jours de travaux, il faudra retirer ce qui fait barrage [des cintres] dans l'intercepteur situé sous la rue Mill, entre les rues Riverside et Bridge.
Sont concernés les arrondissements Lasalle, Verdun, Sud-Ouest, Ville-Marie, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve et Rivières-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles.
Agrandir l’image (Nouvelle fenêtre) Deux intercepteurs recueillent toutes les eaux usées de la métropole.
Le fleuve a une capacité de dilution importante, avec un débit de 6000 à 7000 mètres cubes par seconde. Ce n'est pas une préoccupation majeure pour l'environnement Philippe Sabourin, porte-parole de la Ville de Montréal
Philippe Sabourin s'estime tout de même « très préoccupé » pour les pêcheurs sportifs, les kayakistes et les surfeurs, notamment ceux qui pratiquent derrière Habitat 67. Des panneaux d'information destinés aux résidents seront installés sur les berges et des « communications ciblées » sont menées.
La Ville de Montréal assure par ailleurs avoir obtenu l'autorisation du ministère de l'Environnement du Québec. Jusqu'aux années 1970-1980, il était de pratique courante de déverser le contenu des égouts dans le fleuve, ce qui n'est plus acceptable aujourd'hui.
Pour écouter l'entrevue du directeur de la station des eaux usées sur votre appareil mobile, cliquez ici (Nouvelle fenêtre) .
Agrandir l’image (Nouvelle fenêtre) Déversement d'eaux usées dans le fleuve Saint-Laurent Photo : ICI Radio-Canada
L'opposition demande qu'une autre solution soit trouvée
« On ne remet pas en question les travaux de construction d'une nouvelle chute à neige dans le Sud-Ouest, mais on a de la difficulté à concevoir qu'aucune mesure de mitigation ne pouvait être mise en place pour éviter que les eaux usées non traitées soient déversées directement dans le fleuve pendant une semaine », déclare Sylvain Ouellet, porte-parole de Projet Montréal en matière d'environnement.
N'aurait-il pas été possible de pomper ces eaux usées vers une déviation temporaire pour éviter que le fleuve ne soit contaminé? Sylvain Ouellet, porte-parole de Projet Montréal en matière d'environnement
« N'aurait-il pas été possible d'utiliser une technologie portative de traitement des eaux usées, ne serait-ce qu'un dégrillage? », demande par ailleurs Sylvain Ouellet. « S'est-on entendu avec les industries situées en amont afin qu'elles cessent temporairement de rejeter à l'égout des produits nocifs? »
On ne peut pas demander aux résidents de ne plus utiliser leurs salles de bain répond Philippe Sabourin, il y aurait des toilettes bleues partout. | {
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Se siete fotografi e avete un vostro streaming su Flickr lo saprete già: la piattaforma ha deciso che dall’8 gennaio 2019 gli account gratuiti non potranno caricare più di 1.000 foto o video.
Flickr nacque nel 2004 come tool di Game Neverending, un mondo virtuale sviluppato dalla canadese Ludicorp. La piattaforma fu poi acquisita da Yahoo! che in seguito la cedette a Verizon. Infine SmugMug ha rilevato Flickr da Verizon.
Fotografi virtuali sono fotografi veri
La notizia ha generato un certo trambusto all’interno della comunità di utenti di mondi virtuali come Second Life, The Sims, World of Warcraft e simili.
I fotografi “virtuali” temevano di non essere considerati fotografi a tutti gli effetti e che le loro immagini potessero essere eliminate dall’8 gennaio 2019. Intervenendo in un forum online il Ceo della piattaforma, Don MacAskill, ha tuttavia smentito questa indiscrezione. “I fotografi virtuali sono fotografi”, “a voi interessa la fotografia, così a noi interessate voi, è semplice” ha spiegato MacAskill.
“Non so da dove sia nata l’idea che voi non siate veri fotografi, o che la fotografia sia una sorta di spam, ma non è venuta da me. Voi siete i benvenuti su Flickr” ha concluso.
Da gennaio nuovo e più stringente Tos
Essere considerati fotografi a tutti gli effetti significa anche dover sottostare a tutti i nuovi termini del servizio (Tos) di Flickr. Quindi anche non utilizzare Flickr per attività commerciali non autorizzate.
“Se avete un account gratuito e non avete un account Flickr Pro, non potete linkare direttamente ad una shopping cart, una pagina di checkout o un prezziario contenuto su un altro sito, come pure non potete inserire un listino prezzi nelle descrizioni delle vostre foto su Flickr”.
Insomma: Flickr ama Second Life e i mondi virtuali in genere, le “fotografie virtuali” e le numerose e ancora molto attive comunità che sono sorte attorno ad esse. Tra queste vi è il gruppo Mondi Virtuali – Virtual Worlds (questo il link: https://www.flickr.com/groups/mondivirtuali) da cui sono tratte anche le immagini di questo articolo di Paola Mills, Giovanna Silvestri e Brida Skynny.
Come altri social media, Facebook in primis, il nuovo proprietario della piattaforma ha semmai deciso di provare a monetizzare i suoi servizi. I pasti gratis, se sono mai esistiti, stanno diventando un ricordo anche sul web.
Se volete sapere come andrà a finire continuate a seguire Mondivirtuali.it, anche tramite il nostro account su Twitter e la nostra fanpage su Facebook (ma ricordate: Mondivirtuali è anche su Flickr, su Pinterest, su Scoop.it e su Paper.li, oltre che su Youtube) e magari iscrivetevi alla nostra newsletter! | {
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Malware that runs inside GPUs (graphics processing units) can be harder to detect, but is not completely invisible to security products.
Researchers from Intel division McAfee Labs teamed up with members of Intel's Visual and Parallel Computing Group to analyze a proof-of-concept GPU malware program dubbed JellyFish that was released in March.
Their conclusion, which was included in McAfee's latest quarterly threat report, is that running malicious code inside GPUs still has significant drawbacks and is not nearly as stealthy as its developers suggested.
JellyFish's creators claimed that one of the advantages of GPU malware is that it can snoop on the host computer's memory through a feature called DMA (direct memory access).
While this is true, exposing critical portions of the system's memory to the GPU requires kernel privileges and must be done through a process that runs on the host computer.
Security products can monitor for and restrict such operations, the Intel researchers said. Furthermore, "this dependency is subject to existing kernel protections."
If the installation of the GPU malware is achieved without detection, the user code and kernel driver used in the process can theoretically be deleted from the host operating system. However, this might cause problems.
For example, on Windows, orphaned GPU code triggers a Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) process that resets the graphics card, the McAfee researchers said. The default timeout before this mechanism kicks in is two seconds and any attempt to alter that value can be treated as suspicious behavior by security products, they said.
In addition, long-running GPU processes will lead to the OS graphical user interface becoming non-responsive, which can betray the presence of malware.
Therefore, the best option for attackers would be to keep a process running on the host computer, the researchers said. This code can be minimal and harder to detect than a full-blown malware program, but is nevertheless something that security products can identify.
Another claim made by the JellyFish developers was that code stored on the GPU persists across system reboots. This refers to data storage rather than code that automatically executes, according to the Intel researchers.
"The idea of persistence claimed here is that a host application is running at system startup, retrieving data from GPU memory, and mapping it back to userspace, which is not nearly as daunting because malicious usermode code must also persist outside of the GPU," they said.
While it's true that there is a shortage of tools to analyze code running inside GPUs from a malware forensics perspective, endpoint security products don't need such capabilities because they can detect the other indicators left by such attacks on the system.
On one hand, moving malicious code inside the GPU and removing it from the host system makes it harder for security products to detect attacks. But on the other, the detection surface is not completely eliminated and there are trace elements of malicious activity that can be identified, the researchers said.
Some of the defenses built by Microsoft against kernel-level rootkits, such as Patch Guard, driver signing enforcement, Early Launch Anti-Malware (ELAM) and Secure Boot, can also help prevent the installation of GPU threats. Microsoft’s Device Guard feature in Windows 10, which allows only Microsoft-signed and trusted applications to run, can be particularly effective against such attacks, according to the researchers.
While both attackers and defenders will likely continue to refine their moves on the GPU battleground, the researchers said that the recent focus on this area has made the security community consider improving its approach to these threats. | {
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Vorschau, Live-Ticker, Live-Timing, TV-Streaming-Übersicht, Twitter und und und – wir haben eine große Liste an Informationen zusammengestellt, damit das schönste Rennen des Jahres noch besser wird.
Wie mittlerweile schon gewohnt wird es auch in diesem Jahr einen Non-Stop 24 Stunden Racingblog Live-Ticker geben. Außerdem haben wir zwei Experten vor Ort, die uns laufend mit Neuigkeiten, Bildern etc. versorgen und sich auch in den Live-Ticker einklingen werden.
Vorschau
Teil.1 Racingblog 24h Le Mans & Garage 56 Vorschau
Teil.2 Racingblog LMP2 Vorschau
Teil.3 Racingblog LMP1 Vorschau
Teil.4 Racingblog GTE-PRO & GTE-AM Vorschau
Teil.5 Racingblog Training- Qualifying Analyse und News
Teil.6 Racingblog Le Mans Podcast
Von unserem Autor FloausN gibt es zu dem eine Excel-Tabelle, die alle technischen Werte der LMP1 beinhaltet und genau ausrechnet, welches Team wie weit kommen wird (exklusive Reifenstints). Ihr könnt mit den Werten auch selber spielen, aber so wie sie Flo ausgefüllt hat, habt ihr die perfekte Übersicht über das Rennen in Le Mans!
Excel Performance Liste LMP1 2014 Download (xls)
Live-Ticker/Social Media
Racingblog Live-Ticker
Racingblog & RacingblogLIVE Für tägliche Updates von der Strecke
Dailysportscar Live-Twitter (en)
24H Le Mans offizielle Twitter-Seite
24H Le Mans offizielle Facebook-Seite
FIA WEC offizielle Twitter-Seite
FIA WEC offizielle Facebook-Seite
Le MansLIVE
Twitterliste Racingblog
Twitterliste Stefan (RB)
Twitterliste Thomas Baekdal
Twitter-Tracker Thomas Baekdal
Twitter Hashtags: #LM24 #LeMans24 #FIAWEC #WEC
Racingblog Le Mans Tippspiel
Live-Timing
24H Le Mans
24H Le Mans (nur Live-Timing)
Le MansLIVE (nur Live-Timing)
FIA WEC
Livestreams
Eurosport zeigt in diesem Jahr die gesamten 24 Stunden aus Le Mans ununterbrochen live. Allerdings nur dann, wenn man auch Eurosport 2 empfangen kann. Eine Lösung ist der Eurosportplayer, der sowohl beide Programme enthält, als auch einige Sonderkanäle für Le Mans bereitstellt. Der Player kostet knapp 6 Euro für einen Monat, eine Investition, die sich lohnt. Dazu kommt, dass das Training, Qualifying, Rahmenprogramm und auch das Warm-Up live gezeigt werden. Sollte man etwas verpasst haben und es gerne zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt schauen wollen, dann gibt es die Möglichkeit in der Video-on-Demand Sektion.
24 Le Mans TV: mit französischen Kommentar (fr)
24 Le Mans TV: mit englischen Kommentar (en)
Eurosportplayer: Zusatzkanäle, Sprachoption + VoD (kostenpflichtig)
Eurosportplayer: Für iOS und Android
FIA WEC App: bietet einige nette Extras + Livestream (kostenpflichtig)
RTBF Livecenter: Livestream (Geoblock)
FOX Sports Go: Livestream (Für US-Fans vorbehalten)
Radio Le Mans: Audio-Livestream, absolut zu empfehlen (en)
Radio Le Mans: für iOS/Android
Live-Onboard Streams
LMP1
Audi Sport Team Joest #3 #2 #1
Toyota Racing #7 #8
Porsche Team #14 #20
LMP2
Oak Racing #35
Garage 56
Nissan Motorsports Global #0
Stream II
GTE-PRO
Porsche Team Manthey #91 #92
Corvette Racing #73 #74
Entry-List Le Mans 2014
FIA WEC
Group C via Dailysportscar
Porsche Carrera Cup
Streckendaten
Circuit de la Sarthe
Streckenlänge: 13,6 km
Kurvenanzahl: 38
Durchschnittsgeschwindigkeit: (LMP1 ca. 240 km/h), (LMP2 ca. 220 km/h), (GTE ca. 205 km/h)
Höchstgeschwindigkeit: (LMP1 ca. 338 km/h), (LMP2 ca. 305 km/h), (GTE ca. 295 km/h)
Schnellste Runde (LMP1): 3:18.7, Stéphane Sarrazin (Peugeot 908 HDi FAP 2008)
Le Mans Klassensieger 2013
LMP1: Audi Sport Team Joest – Tom Kristensen/Loic Duval/Allan McNish
LMP2: Morgan-Nissan Oak Racing – Bertrand Baguette/Martin Plowman/Ricardo Gonzalez
GTE-PRO: Porsche AG Team Manthey – Marc Lieb/Richard Lietz/Romain Dumas
GTE-AM: Porsche IMSA Performance Matmut – Raymond Narac/Christophe Bourret/Jean-Karl Vernay
Le Mans Spotter Guide 2014 by Andy Blackmore
Dokumentationen
Truth in 24 I
Truth in 24 II
A Matter of Seconds
Wetter
Wettervorhersage
Regenradar
Zeitplan
11.06.2014 16:00 Uhr – 20:00 Uhr FIA WEC Freies Training 22:00 Uhr – 00:00 Uhr FIA WEC Qualifying 1 12.06.2014 16:00 Uhr – 17:00 Uhr Le Legend Group C Qualifying 17:30 Uhr – 18:00 Uhr Porsche Carrera Cup Qualifying 19:00 Uhr – 21:00 Uhr FIA WEC Qualifying 2 21:30 Uhr – 00:00 Uhr FIA WEC Qualifying 3 14.06.2014 09:00 Uhr – 09:45 Uhr FIA WEC Warm-Up 10:05 Uhr – 10:50 Uhr Le Legend Group C Rennen 11:15 Uhr – 12:00 Uhr Porsche Carrera Cup Rennen 15:00 Uhr FIA WEC 24-Stunden-Rennen
TV-Termine Übersicht
Eurosport (Euro, Euro 2 & Euro-Player) überträgt das gesamte Rennen live. Die Sendezeiten sind wie folgt:
Eurosport ändert während der Übertragung täglich den Zeitplan, demzufolge weichen die hier angegeben Zeiten um etwa 30 Minuten ab. Wir bitten dies zu entschuldigen. *update*
11.06.2014 LIVE 16:00 Uhr – 20:00 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Freies Training Euro 2 LIVE 22:00 Uhr – 00:00 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Qualifying 1 Euro 12.06.2014 LIVE 19:00 Uhr – 21:00 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Qualifying 2 Euro 2 LIVE 22:00 Uhr – 00:00 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Qualifying 3 Euro
13.06.2014 Aufz 03:35 Uhr – 05:30 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Qualifying Euro 2 Aufz 15:40 Uhr – 17:00 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Qualifying Euro 2 Aufz 18:30 Uhr – 20:30 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Qualifying Euro 2
14.06.2014 LIVE 08:55 Uhr – 09:55 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Warm-Up Euro LIVE 09:55 Uhr – 10:45 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Group-C Rennen Euro LIVE 14:55 Uhr – 16:30 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Startphase Euro LIVE 16:30 Uhr – 18:30 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen Euro 2 LIVE 18:30 Uhr – 23:30 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen Euro LIVE 23:30 Uhr – 00:30 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen Euro 2
15.06.2014 LIVE 00:30 Uhr – 08:30 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen Euro LIVE 08:30 Uhr – 09:15 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen Euro 2 LIVE 09:15 Uhr – 15:30 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Schlussphase Euro
ORF überträgt in Österreich einige Stunden live vom Geschehen. Die Sendezeiten sind wie folgt:
14.06.2014 LIVE 14:50 Uhr – 16:10 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Startphase ORF 1 LIVE 23:10 Uhr – 23:40 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen ORF 1
15.06.2014 LIVE 02:10 Uhr – 02:40 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen ORF 1 LIVE 05:10 Uhr – 06:00 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen ORF 1 LIVE 11:20 Uhr – 12:00 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen ORF 1 LIVE 14:00 Uhr – 15:40 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Schlussphase ORF 1
France (France 2) überträgt, wie der Name schon vermuten lässt in Frankreich, allerdings nur sehr eingeschränkt und nur vom Samstag. Die Sendezeiten:
14.06.2014 LIVE 14:50 Uhr – 15:50 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Startphase France 2 LIVE 16:55 Uhr – 18:40 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen France 2 LIVE 23:00 Uhr – 23:10 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen France 2
RTL überträgt in den Niederlanden fast das komplette Rennen live. Die Sendezeiten staffeln sich wie folgt:
14.06.2014 LIVE 14:00 Uhr – 19:50 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Startphase RTL 7 LIVE 20:30 Uhr – 02:00 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen RTL 7
15.06.2014 LIVE 02:00 Uhr – 15:30 Uhr 24 H Le Mans Rennen/Schlussphase RTL 7
FOX Sports (FS1, FS2 und FS Go) überträgt in den USA (Zeiten – EST) das komplette Rennen live. Die Sendezeiten sind wie folgt:
14.06.2014 LIVE 08:30 AM – 04:00 PM 24 H Le Mans Start FOX Sports 1 LIVE 04:00 PM – 05:00 PM 24 H Le Mans Race FOX Sports 2 LIVE 05:00 PM – 06:30 PM 24 H Le Mans Race FOX Sports Go LIVE 06:30 PM – 01:00 AM 24 H Le Mans Race FOX Sports 2
15.06.2014 LIVE 01:00 AM – 07:30 AM 24 H Le Mans Race FOX Sports 1 LIVE 07:30 AM – 09:30 AM 24 H Le Mans Race/Finish FOX Sports 2
J-Sports überträgt in Japan (Zeiten – JST) einen Großteil des Rennens live. Die Sendezeiten sind wie folgt:
14.06.2014 LIVE 09:30 PM – 06:00 AM 24 H Le Mans Start/Rennen J-Sports 3 15.06.2014 LIVE 04:00 PM – 11:30 PM 24 H Le Mans Rennen/Schlussphase J-Sports 3
Es sei noch gesagt, dass der Racingblog-Guide täglich bis zum Rennbeginn aktualisiert wird, sofern es sich um nützliche Informationen handelt.
Unser Live-Ticker beginnt am Samstag gegen 14:00 Uhr und endet am Sonntag 16:00 Uhr. Ihr könnt euch gerne interaktiv daran beteiligen, indem ihr euch in unserem Chat registriert und mitdiskutiert oder uns auf Rennsituationen hinweist, die uns entfallen bzw. nicht aufgefallen sind. Wir werden die Meldung im Live-Ticker verarbeiten.
Das gesamte Team wünscht euch ein fantastisches 24-Stunden-Rennen an der Sarthe, Ausdauer und die nötige Kraft, die 24 Stunden ohne Schlaf durchzustehen, die hoffentlich ohne schwere Unfälle bleiben. | {
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REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders have released veteran receivers Rob Bagg, Bakari Grant and Chad Owens., along with offensive lineman Travis Bond.
Rob Bagg and Bakari Grant among #Riders cuts today. — Jamie Nye (@jamienye) June 9, 2018
Hearing Chad Owens as well. https://t.co/qSVK0pZsuN — Jamie Nye (@jamienye) June 9, 2018
Bagg had been a member of the Roughriders since 2008, playing his entire CFL career with the team. The 33-year-old had suited up in 139 games with Saskatchewan and tallied 364 receptions for 4,705 yards and 24 touchdowns. In 2017, Bagg played in 17 regular season games and collected 339 yards and a touchdown.
The Kingston, Ont. native tweeted a thank you to fans in Saskatchewan on Saturday afternoon.
THANK YOU RIDER NATION. — Rob Bagg (@R_Bagg6) June 9, 2018
Grant joined the Roughriders last season after spending time with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2011-2015) and Calgary Stampeders (2016). In 2017, the 30-year-old played in all 18 regular season games and amassed 1,033 yards and five touchdowns.
After the news broke, the Grant tweeted, “thank you for one of the most fun years of football Rider Nation! Every good thing must come to an end.”
Thank you for one of the Most fun years of football Rider Nation! Every good thing must come to an end…#calilife pic.twitter.com/YoLnY01J0I — BG (@BGrant84) June 9, 2018
Owens played just three games in 2017, his first season with Saskatchewan, after an injury sidelined him until Week 18. In the regular season games he did suit up in, the 36-year-old caught 17 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown. Owens spent the majority of his career with the Toronto Argonauts (2010-2015) while also making stops with the Montreal Alouettes (2009) and Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2016).
The news of the trio of receivers cut comes one day before teams are mandated to trim their rosters down to 46 players by Sunday morning.
Bond’s time a short one in Riderville
There is also a report out of Regina that the club has released offensive lineman Travis Bond, according to Justin Dunk . Bond signed with the Riders as a free agent in February.
Bond played in 16 games for the Bombers last season and helped anchor an offensive line in Winnipeg that saw Andrew Harris finish 2017 with the league’s most rushing yards. The 27-year-old was listed as the 13th ranked free agent on CFL.ca’s top 30 pending free agents.
The Windsor, N.C. native signed with the Bombers in 2016 and played in 12 games. That year he was named a CFL and West Division All-Star.
Before joining the Bombers, Bond was drafted by the Minneosta Vikings in the 2013 NFL Draft. He spent time with the Vikings (2013), Carolina Panthers (2013) and the St. Louis Rams (2014). | {
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With her awesome space adventure series Killjoys kicking off its second season on Syfy and Space this Friday, writer-producer Michelle Lovretta pulls herself away from the edit bay to talk about another space adventure: James Cameron’s Aliens, the 1986 sequel that rewrote the rules for an entire franchise. Your genial host Norm Wilner apologizes for his terrible cold. | {
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If you've just downed your fifth cup of coffee and you seem to be hearing things that aren't actually there, well, you might want to blame the caffeine in your cup of Joe.
Australian researchers found that drinking five regular cups of caffeinated coffee may raise the risk of auditory hallucinations, according to a small study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
LaTrobe University researchers asked 92 people with varying levels of caffeine intake and stress listen to three minutes of white noise via headphones. The study participants were told that Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" would be playing in the headphones, and when they heard it, to hit a buzzer.
While the song never actually played, the people who were hopped up on five or more cups of coffee buzzed three times on average, while the low-caffeinated people buzzed just once on average, the Herald Sun in Australia reported.
Though this particular study size was small, it's worth noting that the findings match up with that of a study published in 2009 in the same journal. That study showed that highly caffeinated people -- those who had consumed the equivalent of three brewed cups of coffee -- were three times more likely to hear or see things that aren't there, LiveScience reported.
The theory is that caffeine may worsen the effects of stress on the body. The body naturally releases a hormone called cortisol when it is under stress, but caffeine seems to increase the amount of cortisol that is released. | {
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The Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
More and more, the so-called "alt-right" and the far-left leverage each other for the longevity of their respective causes. Nowhere is this clearer than online. On the Internet, the two movements continue to thrive despite recent censorship efforts by some social media platforms to ban the alt-right. More specifically, the volume of antifa and anarchist chatter spiked before the recent neo-Nazi rallies, and the alt-right, though in ways more muted, seems to be retooling its digital tactics.
For anyone even broadly interested in keeping the two movements non-violent, while also respecting freedom of expression and assembly, it's important to investigate the changes in online behavior on each side. Indeed, both have plotted on the Web, sometimes with violent consequences, and both use the Internet to recruit and circulate propaganda. As organizations, they're nascent, decentralized, and highly vulnerable to trolling and hacking attempts by the opposition, which in turn only increases the possibility of violence in the blink of an eye.
How We Got Here
To address this tenuous relationship, it's key to understand how it came about. In 2017, neo-Nazi and affiliated militia groups went through specialty military training in rural parts of America. With expertise flown in from places like Germany and Scandinavia, where neo-Nazi activities date back at least to the 1970s, they discussed the new political environment frothing in countries from Austria to the United States on account of an insurgent alt-right. They wore fatigues, practiced shooting and mob control, and generally bonded through their shared experiences, values, and worldviews.
Then, utilizing content-specific websites and chat rooms, as well as mainstream social media platforms, they planned the violence that eventually ensued at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August and that claimed the life of a counter-protester. Discord alone was their key planning tool: Between June and the rally, there were over 35,000 vitriolic messages on 44 "channels" on the Charlottesville 2.0 server on the gaming platform Discord.
Almost immediately after the rally, neo-Nazi groups found themselves banned from major social media sites. Domain managers also closed down websites like Stormfront, the alt-right's No. 1 Web forum. Meanwhile, crowdsourcing websites like PayPal, GoFundMe.com, and Patreon, which had removed some alt-right accounts prior to Charlottesville, entirely kicked them off their websites when these groups attempted to raise money for various legal defenses.
And yet, despite all that, the alt-right's online activities grew. They adapted accordingly, using Gab.ai, Discord, and other so-called "alt-tech" platforms, and they also increasingly put their operational details in encrypted chat rooms and on apps like Signal and Telegram.
The Left Responds
While the neo-Nazis basked in their perceived victory, anarchist and antifa groups on the far-left mobilized. The Charlottesville rally, combined with the careless, cavalier police there, gave antifa and their allies not only a cause to rally behind, but also sympathy from the public in a much broader sense. A look at Google Trends shows that searches for "antifa" exceeded those of "Nazi" and "alt-right." Unlike neo-Nazis, who primarily recruit on the Web's fringes, antifa is more overt about its intent to recruit for its causes, using major social media platforms to that end. And in contrast to the public's reactions to neo-Nazis' digital content, antifa's is largely ignored.
Notably, antifa has become bolder in its exploits. Doxxing, or the practice of revealing personally identifiable information about individuals or organizations online with malicious intent, has became a common move. After last year's Charlottesville rally, dozens of websites, forums, and social media channels appeared that were dedicated to doxxing rally attendees and people associated with them or the alt-right, including unaffiliated family members.
To mark the first anniversary of Charlottesville, neo-Nazi and white-supremacist groups planned another "Unite the Right" rally for Charlottesville and D.C. Forty-eight hours before the D.C. rally, sources with knowledge of right-focused media noted that there was a surprising lack of alt-right activities online, whereas antifa and anarchist groups had a massive online presence. In an analysis of keywords used by supporters of both groups, between noon on August 10th and noon on August 13th, antifa and counter-protest group mentions far exceeded those of rally supporters in postings, content, and hashtags by almost 14 to one for the top post related to each ("antifa" and "UniteTheRight"). The total volume of counter-protest posts in the sampling both for and against antifa made it seem like the self-proclaimed "white civil rights" rally didn't even happen.
But it did happen, of course, and hundreds of counter-protesters, including several antifa and anarchist groups, showed up in force in Charlottesville. They organized strategically, fanning out along the cordoned areas. Some of the most hard-line counter-protesters harassed police and journalists, resulting in at least a few arrests. Some also showed up with protective gear, medical kits, and makeshift weapons, ready for confrontation.
Counter-protesters were similarly outfitted and even more organized in D.C., where two dozen neo-Nazis and white supremacists, including Jason Kessler, one of the main organizers of the Charlottesville rally in 2017, showed up under heavy police protection (much to many people's anger). The final tally of counter-protesters isn't clear, but some estimates put the number around 5,000. Organizing websites indicate that approximately 40-plus groups showed their support and pledged to come; as with the Charlottesville rally, some of the organizers suggested that if you can't join the counter-protests in D.C., then you should "occupy an ICE office, shut down a police station, or demonstrate at the home of a local racist, ICE agent, or prison profiteer"—a message that underscores how people beyond just neo-Nazis have been swept up in some far-left activities.
What This Means for the Future
With the massive failure of the recent D.C. rally to bring together a strong group of alt-right members, the online activities of far-right and far-left groups will likely shift. The alt-right seems to be going further underground, to more secure, invite-only chat rooms via encrypted apps. This will make it harder to monitor by advocacy groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center. Its rhetoric will likely continue, albeit at a more terms-of-service-friendly pace. How much this will stem its behavior, though, is anyone's guess. A keyword analysis of the approximately 500,000 Discord chat logs showed that the top five to 10 words used were either racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic, or related to fascism. Some researchers argue that this language still dominates conversations, and that calls to action persist, even if they avoid outright threats of violence.
The far-left, meanwhile, will probably continue largely unabated on more open platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Vimeo. It will also probably use its relative online freedom (the Southern Poverty Law Center doesn't consider antifa a hate group, and its activities have so far avoided terms-of service-violations) to openly recruit and promote its own agenda, alongside anarchist and socialist groups, with whom it's now openly affiliating.
Doxxing on both sides will probably escalate further. And it's likely that the fake accounts being set up by both anti-antifa and anti-Nazis to troll each other will be used by adversarial actors, such as Russia, to breed discord and sow confusion, as happened before Charlottesville in 2017. In all that is a cautionary tale—of how each side's perceived success only adds legitimacy and thus fuel to the fire. As these groups grow in size and boldness, it's crucial to understand and keep a close watch on both extremes—and the ways in which future interactions between them may lead to violence.
This story originally appeared in New America's digital magazine, New America Weekly, a Pacific Standard partner site. Sign up to get New America Weekly delivered to your inbox, and follow @NewAmerica on Twitter. | {
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In recent weeks, we here at Inside NU have talked a lot about Justin Jackson’s ascent up the record book. Here are all of his current records.
Rushing Yards (5,139)
Northwestern History: 1st.
Active Players: 2nd. Seems unlikely he will catch Royce Freeman, who is 360 yards ahead of him, with both having 2 games left.
Big Ten History: 5th, literally 1 yard behind Montee Ball and 160 yards behind Anthony Thompson, became the second B1G running back with 1,000 yards in four seasons other than Dayne last week
Major Conference History: 11th, closest to Ball, Thompson, and Herschel Walker (120 yards behind), 9th player ever to have 1,000 yards in four season. (The other ones, in case you were wondering are Tony Dorsett, Amos Lawrence, Denvis Manns, Ron Dayne, Cedric Benson, Dontrell Moore, Tyrell Fenroy, and Damion Fletcher.)
FBS History: 17th. 164 rushing yards in the final two games puts him at 12th, 249 passes LaDainian Tomlinson to slot in at 11th, and if he somehow got to 401 he would slot into the top 10 over Cedric Benson.
Rushing Attempts (1,092)
Northwestern History: 1st.
Active Players: 1st.
Big Ten History: 3rd. 69 carries behind Thompson.
Major Conference History: 6th.
FBS History: 8th. Passes Cedric Benson with 21, Travis Prentice with 47, and Charles White with 56.
Yards From Scrimmage (5,974)
Northwestern History: 1st.
Active Players: 2nd. Royce Freeman is 319 ahead.
Big Ten History: 3rd. Just passed Archie Griffin, just 80 behind Thompson.
Major Conference History: 9th.
FBS History: 14th. Can vault into the top 10 with 233.
(Jackson also sits in 4th in career offensive plays from scrimmage, which is another way of saying touches, or combined rushes and receptions. He is 42 from passing Ron Dayne and 54 from passing Anthony Thompson, which would slot him into 2nd. It seems unlikely that he will get the 134 required to unseat Steve Bartalo for first.)
Northwestern Section
Tied for first in rushing touchdowns with Damian Anderson at 38.
8th in overall touchdowns with 39, 5 behind Dan Persa.
Individual total yards doesn’t officially include receiving, but that seems dumb so I’m including it. Jackson is 7th in Northwestern history in my altered total yards stat with 5,986, passing Trevor Siemian last week and trailing Mike Greenfield for 6th by a probably unreachable 721 yards.
Most chants of “the ball carrier” elicited from a student section: definitely in first place by a wide margin.
Did I leave anything out? Please let me know in the comments. | {
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday threw US President Donald Trump's letter "in the bin", reported BBC News. The US president warned his Turkish counterpart in a letter dated October 9, to work out "a good deal" and avoid being branded as a "devil".The letter was "thoroughly rejected" by Erdogan, reported Turkish presidential sources."President Erdogan received the letter, thoroughly rejected it and put it in the bin," they said.President Erdogan launched the Syrian operation on the same day.“Let’s work out a good deal,” Trump had urged in the letter.“You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy – and I will.”“History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way,” Trump said. “It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen.”The US leader told Erdogan a “great deal” was possible if he negotiated with the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces' Mazloum Abdi, whom Turkey has labelled a “terrorist” for his ties to the Kurdish PKK militants in Turkey.“Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool,” he finished, adding: “I will call you later.” | {
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BlackBerry is still in the process of redefining itself.
Today’s version of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company is a different BlackBerry than it was a decade ago, taking a dramatically altered approach to the industry when compared to the glory days of its ‘Pearl’ and ‘Curve’ smartphones. BlackBerry’s new focus, as the company has stated repeatedly at press conferences and briefings, is the enterprise space.
The changes to BlackBerry operations initially began subtly, but over the past 12-months, the company has moved rapidly to set up strategic licensing partnerships in an effort to remove the constant worry of handset inventory from its books.
In today’s increasingly connected world, BlackBerry is now building upon its 33-year history to focus on protecting governments, healthcare, financial institutions, businesses and your daily drivers such as smartphones, tablets and cars, with its various security solutions.
Marty Beard, COO of BlackBerry, has been with the company since 2014 and has seen a significant shift in its operations.
In a recent interview with MobileSyrup, Beard opened up about the challenge the company is currently facing and how BlackBerry aims to use the brand you trust to protect your data in the future.
Question: Where is BlackBerry today?
Beard: We are almost 100 percent a software company now. We have dramatically moved the company from where we were from when John Chen first came in a few years ago, to where we are now. We’ve really moved towards being focused on selling our software and we’ve moved very dramatically towards selling towards enterprise and selling around this “Enterprise of Things” vision.
The reason is because we are seeing an increase in connectivity in the enterprise environment that is beyond smartphones, which needs to managed and secure. That is a very real trend. This is sometimes referred to as IoT, which I think is some people’s minds is a consumer-focused expression.
Q: What does BlackBerry Secure mean?
Beard: What we see our enterprise customers facing is that they want to get ahead of all this connectivity to make sure it’s secure, so it was a natural place for BlackBerry to go in and really focus and leverage our legacy, leverage our technology, and leverage our brands.
Over the past twenty-four months, we have made several acquisitions and much has been integrated, such as Good Technology and AtHoc. This holistic platform is what we referred to as “BlackBerry Secure.”
Q: How many people are on your enterprise sales force?
Beard: Several hundred. I’m probably guessing here at least doubled if not tripled within the past year. We started with a pretty small group because you know it was primarily people that were focused on carrier sales.
If you go back three years, we really did not have an enterprise sale force. It was primarily selling hardware devices to carriers. Today, we have several hundred people in the field selling our technology solution. What we’re doing is just going out and telling the message. It’s almost like a political campaign. So, it’s just that it’s a challenge of managing towards what were what were focused on, which is the Enterprise of Things.
“We want partners to say, ‘I’m BlackBerry Secure.'”
We think it’s a huge market and we have an incredible product stack to manage and secure that environment for companies. The BlackBerry brand is still largely associated with smartphones — which is a good problem and a challenge.
We’re starting the marketing of the brand and we have work to do. Enterprise of Things represents more than just our phones, so laptops, smartphones, wearables, sensors, basically anything that your company, hospital, government entity wants to manage and be secure.
Q: How is BlackBerry different than its competitors in the enterprise market?
Beard: We released recently our BBM enterprise SDK, similar to Twilio. We like this one a lot and it’s also indicative of our developer focus, so BlackBerry is going to get a lot more focused on building up our developer community around our software. You can’t win in the software enterprise space without having a big developer community around you. We will target application developers within ISP’s.
So you might be working at Concur or Salesforce.com, or think of an app on your phone, any enterprise-oriented app, and if that app needs communications capabilities or notifications, we want them to use our SDK to build an app. Then they push their apps out and every time that app is used we make money.
So that’s how Twilio brilliantly got so many developers around their stuff and went public and has done great. We are differentiated as we are security focused. It’s IP based, this is not SMS. Therefore, it’s immediately available anywhere. Whereas in SMS you have to provision short codes and carriers.
Q: Why BlackBerry?
Beard: Security. This is BlackBerry. It addresses the market of more and more connections and more and more endpoints within the enterprise. We actually think Enterprise of Things sits behind IoT and is everything that the companies need and we’re going to be the guys to secure, manage and connect that and we call it BlackBerry Secure — which is both secure in a name for the entire product as well as a state of being.
We want we want our customers to say, “I’m BlackBerry Secure.” We want partners to say ‘I’m BlackBerry Secure.’ We want devices to show they are BlackBerry Secure. Alarms and medical devices to say they are BlackBerry Secure. Similar to “Intel Inside.”
We would love that when you’re in the car and it’s got that shield BlackBerry Secure and that means something in your mind.
Q: What are your thoughts on the KeyOne?
Beard: KeyOne came out and I think it did pretty well in the launch. I’ve been doing this too long to declare victory. Hopefully, there will be a lot of sales. I think there was a lot of interest in it but it’s the same old questions, such as is there interest in a keyboard? Is there interest from enterprise oriented buyers that care about security?
It’s very encouraging so far and TCL has been fantastic to work with. Our economic relationship is when that phone sells we make money.
Q: How many new models are you coming out with this year?
Beard: I cannot talk about the specifics of the agreement or give you any of those details. We have three signed partners so more than one. TCL was a global agreement, minus Indonesia. So we signed an Indonesian agreement except for India. Then we signed an Indian agreement.
There is only one Earth so we have it covered. But this does not stop us from doing more licensing with smartphone manufacturers.
It also does not stop us from going into non-smartphone areas. Think of other types of hardware that might need security capabilities. We want to make sure that when someone is buying a BlackBerry branded device they really get a professional, highly secure feeling.
Q: Do you have any final thoughts?
Beard: It’s pretty amazing that we are here right now with money in the bank and making money but we have got a long way to go.
Photography by Patrick O’Rourke. | {
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EDF gets approval to restart nine units
16 January 2017
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France's nuclear regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN), has approved the restart of nine of the 12 reactors affected by the carbon concentration anomaly in the steam generator channel heads manufactured by Japan Casting and Forging Corporation (JCFC). The approval, which followed ASN's examination of the results of inspections and technical demonstrations provided by EDF for the 900 MWe reactors, was announced on 12 January.
In June last year, ASN said it had identified 18 French nuclear power reactors operated by EDF - of both 900 MWe and 1450 MWe capacity - whose steam generators could contain high carbon concentrations. Of these, 12 are equipped with channel heads manufactured by JCFC "liable to contain a particularly high carbon concentration". A high carbon content in steel can lead to mechanical properties lower than expected.
The nine that can now be restarted are Bugey 4, Dampierre 3, Fessenheim 1, Gravelines 2 and 4, Saint-Laurent B1, and Tricastin 1, 3 and 4. All of these are 900 MWe units.
The regulator had ordered EDF in October to carry out additional inspections on the steam generator channel heads of certain reactors, within three months.
On 11 January, the company asked that the inspection deadline for unit 2 of the Tricastin plant be postponed by two weeks.
"This request was explained by the risks posed to the electricity grid as a result of the wave of cold weather expected next week," ASN said, adding it considered this postponement to be acceptable from the safety viewpoint. It has set a new deadline of 3 February.
EDF also asked that the inspection deadline set for Civaux 1 be postponed to the end of March. ASN said it is examining data provided by EDF for the 1450 MWe Civaux units 1 and 2, with the assistance of France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety. On that basis, ASN will analyse the conditions for the restart of unit 2 - on which inspections have been carried out - and will shortly issue a position statement on the request for postponement of these inspections on unit 1.
ASN announced in April 2015 the discovery of an anomaly in the composition of the steel in certain zones of the vessel closure head and the vessel bottom head of the Flamanville EPR reactor. The detection of this anomaly led ASN to ask Areva NP and EDF to "learn all possible lessons from this event".
There are three processes currently under way, ASN said. Firstly, the search for technical anomalies on other EDF reactor components similar to those detected on the Flamanville EPR vessel, which has enabled EDF to identify similar anomalies on the channel heads of certain steam generators. Secondly, manufacturing quality reviews on parts at Areva NP manufacturing plants, which enabled Areva NP to detect irregularities in the manufacturing files from Creusot Forge. Thirdly, initiation of a review of basic nuclear installation licensee monitoring of their contractors and subcontractors, of ASN oversight and of alert mechanisms.
Steam generators are heat exchangers between the water circulating in the reactor's primary coolant circuit - at a temperature of about 350°C and a pressure of 155 bar - and the water in the secondary circuit that supplies steam to the turbines. Their domed lower head is part of the primary circuit and therefore has an important safety role in ensuring cooling water is always available. There are three steam generators in the 900 MWe pressurized water reactors, while the 1450 MWe reactors feature four.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
Related topics | {
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It didn’t take long for lies and misinformation to spread in the wake of Friday’s Texas school shooting that left 10 people dead. Within minutes, fake Facebook accounts popped up showing the suspected shooter with a doctored image of him wearing a “Hillary 2016” hat, for example.
Some of the fakes were quickly flagged by users and deleted by the social network. But according to Chris Sampson, a disinformation analyst for a counterterrorism think tank, new fakes were being spawned fast and filled out with false information that included images trying to link the 17-year-old suspect, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, to anti-fascist groups, while others had “Trump/Pence 2020” as his banner image.
The onslaught of fake and false information has become a regular feature in the aftermath of mass shootings and terrorist attacks in the U.S. and elsewhere. The perpetrators are typically trying to sow discord, score political points or simply make readers question the very concept of truth.
Sampson was watching the clock to see how fast it would take for a fake account to be created after law enforcement officials released the suspect’s name: less than 20 minutes. After a second fake account was taken down, another popped up in only four minutes.
FACEBOOK HIT WITH ANOTHER DATA BREACH, 3 MILLION USERS EXPOSED
“It seemed this time like they were more ready for this,” he said. “Like someone just couldn’t wait to do it.”
Facebook officials told the Washington Post that the suspect’s real account was removed and they were working to shut down the impersonating accounts. The tech giant, which has come under fire for its response to disinformation and questions about users’ data privacy, said this week that it disabled more than 500 million fake accounts in the first three months of 2018.
According to Christopher Bouzy, whose site Bot Sentinel tracks more than 12,000 automated Twitter accounts that are often used to spread disinformation, four of the top 10 phrases tweeted by bot or troll accounts in the immediate 24-hour aftermath were related to the Santa Fe shooting — which he called “significant activity,” reports the Post.
FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE STILL STRUGGLING TO STOP TERRORIST CONTENT
Hoaxes, conspiracy theories and fake news reports have spread like wildfire in our digital age, often blossoming on message boards like 4chan or platforms like Reddit before being picked up by far-right news sites.
Misinformation can also reach the mainstream, as happened in the wake of the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, when a video labeling a shooting survivor a “crisis actor” zoomed to the top of YouTube’s “Trending” list and eventually resulted in the student being forced to respond and YouTube apologizing.
Facebook has 10,000 human moderators monitoring the site, plans to hire many more in the coming year and utilizes artificial intelligence to remove certain types of banned or fake content. Mark Zuckerberg’s firm recently announced a partnership with the Atlantic Council, a think tank that has received money from a wide range of foreign corporations and governments, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to battle disinformation.
YouTube seems to have avoided some of the mistakes following the Parkland rampage, but there were seven videos posted as of Sunday morning claiming without evidence that the incident was a “false flag” operation. | {
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Trump turned in a truly extraordinary performance at his Trump Tower press conference just now that was probably meant, in part, as a middle finger to his advisers who convinced him to read yesterday’s remarks. He stood by his specific denunciation of the Nazis and white supremacists but justified his vague statement on Saturday by saying he needed more facts. That might hold water if he was, say, only addressing the car attack (the identity and the likely motive of the driver weren’t clearly established until later). But he didn’t need more facts to forthrightly and immediately denounce the Nazis and associated low-lifes. Then, he went on today to praise the rally on Friday night, which was a torch-lit Nazi march, and to say there were good people just concerned with defending Robert E. Lee on the alt-right side of the protests. This is, needless to say, outrageous (good people don’t march together with protesters holding Nazi flags). The press is exercised about two further contentions that I think are correct, namely that there was violence on both sides (even if the Nazis were the instigators and had a murderer in their midst) and that there is potentially a slippery slope from removing Confederate statues to statues of the Founders. Many of his supporters no doubt loved this characteristically combative performance, but it shows that Trump couldn’t just let his Charlottesville statement from yesterday stand and rather than trying to rise above it, he’s happy to be no-holds-barred participant in the angry national debate in the aftermath of last weekend. | {
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The FCC cleared the last hurdle on the path to eliminating net neutrality regulations earlier this week, starting a final 60-day waiting period that sets the effective date of repeal to April 23. To commemorate his success at shepherding the agency through the repeal process, the National Rifle Association conferred upon him its Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award, which includes a plaque and a real, actual gun. "It’s a Kentucky handmade long gun," said the NRA's Carolyn Meadows, "and you’ll love it."
In his introduction of Pai at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Dan Schneider of the American Conservative Union said that after Pai was appointed to the FCC board by Barack Obama "because the Senate Republicans insisted that Ajit Pai be put on there," he fought tooth and nail, and ultimately unsuccessfully, against the Obama administration's efforts to "take over the internet."
"As soon as President Trump came into office, President Trump asked Ajit Pai to liberate the internet and give it back to you," Schneider told the audience, conveniently omitting the previously debunked claims from Pai and other Republicans that the Obama White House improperly used its power to influence the FCC's decisions regarding net neutrality.
"Ajit Pai is the most courageous, heroic person that I know. He has received countless death threats. His property has been invaded by the George Soros crowd. He has a family and his family has been abused in different ways."
Regardless of what you think about net neutrality, there's no ignoring the obvious question: Why would the NRA give someone a gun for repealing FCC regulations? The answer is not exactly crystal clear.
"This award, which is not given every year, only when someone had stood up under pressure with grace and dignity and principled discipline," Meadows explained. "The awardees have included people like Rush Limbaugh, Phyllis Schlafly, Roy Innis, Vice President Mike Pence, and Sheriff David Clarke. And we are honored to have you as part of this distinguished pantheon."
As we said in our earlier report, what will happen in the wake of net neutrality deregulation is unclear. Opponents say it will enable ISPs to throttle or charge extra for services, effectively creating a tiered internet; those who support it believe that the marketplace will ensure that pricing and services remain competitive. Whatever happens, it's extremely relevant to PC gamers, as we broke down in this November analysis: PC gaming is an online endeavor, and these changes could have a serious impact on our ability to play.
Ironically—really ironically—the NRA wasn't allowed to actually bring the gun to CPAC. Both it, and the plaque, are waiting to be picked up at the NRA Museum.
Pai's award ceremony, via Media Matters, can be seen below. | {
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年内をもって解散することを発表したSMAPの代表曲「世界に一つだけの花（シングル・ヴァージョン）」（最高1位：2003年3月発売）が週間5.0万枚を売り上げ、2016年9月19日付オリコン週間シングルランキング（集計期間：9/5〜9/11）にて、先週9月12日付の12位（週間売上1.4万枚）から再浮上し、3位にランクインした。
同作のTOP3入りは、年明けに分裂・解散の危機が表面化した直後の集計週にあたる今年2月1日付以来で、週間売上5万枚超えは2003年5月5日付以来、13年4カ月ぶり（※2週合算集計週をのぞく）となる。
また、SMAPがCDデビュー25周年を迎えた9日には2.7万枚（同日付デイリーシングルランキング2位）を売り上げ、現時点での累積売上枚数は“実売300万枚突破”に迫る284.6万枚。歴代シングル売上ランキングでは、CHAGE＆ASKAの「SAY YES」（1991年7月発売：累積282.2万枚）を上回り、6位に上昇した。 | {
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The designer responsible for renovating Zandvoort ahead of Formula 1’s returns to the circuit next year has been told its gravel traps are part of the “heritage of the track” and should not be replaced with asphalt run-off.
The Dutch Grand Prix will form part of the 2020 F1 calendar as Zandvoort is set to hold its first world championship race for 35 years.
The seaside track 30 kilometres west of Amsterdam has been heavily revised since Niki Lauda won the last Dutch Grand Prix in 1985. However unlike many modern courses almost all of its corners, including the high-speed Scheivlak right-hander, are bordered by gravel traps.
Many other circuits have replaced gravel traps with asphalt run-offs. But Jarno Zaffelli, owner of circuit architects Dromo who have been commissioned to bring the track up to F1 standards, told RaceFans “we have no asphalt planned in the run-offs”.
Documents seen by RaceFans indicate the current gravel traps will remain in place, with no additional asphalt border between them and the track limits. Hugenholtz, the left-hand hairpin which leads the cars away from the paddock, will retain its asphalt run-off.
Zaffelli confirmed the circuit owners and Formula 1 Management both want to keep the gravel traps. “We are keeping the gravel,” he said. “This was one of the requests from all the parties.
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“FOM requested it because of the heritage of the track. The track [owners] asked for it. And as you know we are more than happy to have gravel instead of asphalt if we think that it is not necessary.”
The incline in Zandvoort’s gravel traps should be sufficient to prevent cars making heavy contact with barriers, said Zaffelli.
“[It has] dunes, run-offs that are unique in the world. So it’s very difficult to arrive to barriers in many places because they are too steep. So it will be an immense challenge.”
The news is likely to be welcomed by drivers, many of which have criticised the growing use of asphalt run-offs for making tracks too forgiving. George Russell, who last raced at the track in 2016, said earlier this year he hopes its gravel traps are left untouched.
Other upgrades are planned at the circuit to bring it into line with modern F1 standards. These changes, including the addition of an 18-degree banking at the final corner, require approval from the FIA Circuits Commission before building work begins in next for next year’s race.
Zaffelli confirmed all changes to the track configuration, including the banking, should be ready in time for the 2020 race. “The works we start in November,” he said. “We’re planning to finish the work by March.
“So there is plenty of time to do what we need to do on-track and all the rest. We are not concerned about the delivery, only about the weather.”
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2020 F1 season | {
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‘Oumuamua, shown in this artist’s illustration, became the first known interstellar object to visit the solar system when it was spotted in 2017. Now there seems to be a second visitor. | {
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Study: Texas rate of uninsured children double national average
Texas has double the national rate of uninsured children and the numbers are climbing after years of declines, according to a new national study./Blend Images Texas has double the national rate of uninsured children and the numbers are climbing after years of declines, according to a new national study./Blend Images Photo: LWA/Dann Tardif/Getty Images/Blend Images RM Photo: LWA/Dann Tardif/Getty Images/Blend Images RM Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Study: Texas rate of uninsured children double national average 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Texas led the nation in both the number and percentage of uninsured children in 2017, more than doubling the national rate, according to national findings released Wednesday.
More troubling is that the percentage of Texas children without health coverage is on the rise, growing to 10.7 percent in 2017 from 9.8 percent the previous year.
That translates to 833,178 children without coverage. Texas vastly outnumbered other states as Florida had the second highest overall number at 320,913.
Sparsely populated Wyoming had the next highest percentage of uninsured children in 2017 at 10 percent.
"We're very concerned that the state is not taking this seriously enough," said Patrick Bresette, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund of Texas on Wednesday, calling the findings "disturbing."
"In a state that has more uninsured children than any other we are short-cutting their development is so many ways," he said.
RELATED: Texas says not so fast to big health care changes
Nationally, the percentage of uninsured children was about 5 percent, or about 3.9 million children, the study found. That number is also on the rise, jumping from about 3.6 million in 2016.
The annual study, using U.S. Census data, was a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a national health philanthropy, and the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
What concerns both the researchers and children's advocacy groups is that after nearly a decade of improvement, the numbers are starting to go the wrong way again, said Elizabeth Lukanen, deputy director of the Minnesota program.
She added that early indications show that 2018 numbers may be even worse.
"Research has shown that uninsured children have fewer physician visits, less health maintenance for chronic conditions such as asthma, and not surprisingly these things have broader implications for children's future," Lukanen said.
RELATED: Health care to be top issue in 2020 after Texas judge strikes down Affordable Care Act
Compared to children whose families have health coverage, children's whose families have health coverage are less likely to miss school, more likely to have better overall academic success which ultimately translates into future economic success, she said other research has shown.
One noteworthy finding is that even as the economy improves, the number of Texas children in families with employer-sponsored health plans has remained mostly unchanged across income levels.
Further analysis of the Texas numbers showed that the rate of uninsured children was double the national average across several criteria, including Hispanic families, those with low-incomes, and children whose parents have lower levels of education.
Texas also continues to lead the nation in the number and rate of uninsured adults, and that number, too, is rising again after making steady gains.
Overall, an estimated 4.7 million Texans are without coverage, according to health care data. After falling to a little over 16 percent uninsured in 2016, more recent estimates show the rate has more recently climbed to around 19 percent, health economists have said.
"There's so much more we could be doing that we just aren't," said Bresette of the Children's Defense Fund. | {
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By APOLINARI TAIRO More by this Author
Hardly five years since its triumphant entry into the Tanzanian market in 2015, Dangote Cement has fallen out with a government that touted it as a model investor.
This past week, the company was accused of not filing its operations report with the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) as per government regulations, and was given seven days starting September 30 to do so.
Speaking in Lindi region during an inspection tour of industries and a meeting with investors, Angellah Kairuki, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office in charge of Investment, said it is only through the report that TIC and the government would get to know of the company’s project history, plans for expansion, taxes paid, profits, challenges and recommendations.
She asked the company to file the report as soon as possible and henceforth every six months.
Ms Kairuki said in a release seen by The EastAfrican that Dangote Cement has not submitted its operation reports for the past three years contrary to the legal framework agreement between the government and investors in Tanzania.
Dangote Cement management said they were preparing the report, but did not say why they had failed to submit it in the first place despite it being mandatory.
Slowdown
Last month, Dangote Cement, Africa’s largest cement manufacturer, reported a slowdown in performance at home in Nigeria and other key African markets such as Ethiopia and South Africa in the first half of this year, but recorded improvement in Tanzania.
The company tripled its market share in Tanzania to 22 per cent from seven per cent last year, after resolving operational challenges that resulted in a significant rise in sales.
In the first half of 2018, Dangote suspended operations in its Mtwara plant due to the high cost of fuel for its diesel generators after the Tanzanian government banned importation of coal from South Africa.
And in September last year, Dangote Cement started running its Mtwara plant on gas instead of coal, posting a 172 per cent rise in cement sales to 543,000 tonnes in the first half of 2019, up from 200,000 tonnes in the same period last year.
The switch to gas was a significant turnaround in saving costs and uninterrupted production, with uptake driven by the government’s vast investments in infrastructure projects that are driving construction activity.
The Tanzania cement sector has been complaining of high costs of fuel and taxes and market unreliability.
Tanga Cement managing director Reinhardt Swart said in September that higher taxes imposed on locally produced clinkers were a burden to cement manufacturers.
Mr Swart said that some cement manufacturers were importing cheaper clinker and other raw materials. Tanga Cement processes its own clinker. | {
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David Cameron has vowed to bulldoze 'sink estates' where he claims "poverty has become entrenched".
The Prime Minister pledged that "brutal high-rise towers" and "bleak" housing will be "torn down" in an effort to tackle drug abuse and gang culture.
Mr Cameron also claimed decades of neglect of estates were behind the riots which swept Britain in 2011.
The £140 million programme is to be overseen by Lord Heseltine , who helped to transform the Liverpool and London docks in the 1980s.
His estate regeneration advisory panel has been told to produce a full blueprint by the time of the Chancellor's Autumn Statement.
Read more:
(Image: PETER POWELL)
Details of the scheme will be set out in a keynote speech being delivered by the premier on Monday, in which he is also due to outline plans to double government funding for relation-ship counselling for troubled families and relaunch a coalition proposal to issue vouchers for parenting classes.
Writing in The Sunday Times, Mr Cameron said: "Within these so-called sink estates, behind front doors, families build warm and welcoming homes.
"But step outside in the worst estates and you're confronted by concrete slabs dropped from on high, brutal high-rise towers and dark alleyways that are a gift to criminals and drug dealers.
(Image: Steve Bainbridge)
"Decades of neglect have led to gangs and antisocial behaviour. Poverty has become entrenched, because those who could afford to move have understandably done so."
Promising to transform the worst estates, Mr Cameron added: "For some, this will simply mean knocking them down and starting again. For others, it might mean changes to layout, upgrading facilities and improving local road and transport links."
The Government will inject £140m to rehouse occupants and tear up planning rules to speed up the process.
(Image: Getty)
Tenants and homeowners will be given "binding guarantees" that their right to a home is protected.
Mr Cameron said three out of four rioters in 2011 came from sink estates.
"The riots of 2011 didn't emerge from within terraced streets or low-rise apartment buildings. The rioters came overwhelmingly from these postwar estates. That's not a coincidence," he wrote.
The housing developments being targeted reportedly include the Winstanley estate in Wandsworth, south London.
Others could include the Lower Falinge estate in Rochdale, Greater Manchester and Broadwater Farm in Tottenham, north London. | {
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(CNN) Vice President Mike Pence once argued that homosexuality was a choice during his fight in the early 1990s against local efforts in Indiana to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Pence's opposition to LGBT equality has long drawn the scorn of gay rights activists and made him a champion of the Religious Right. But scrutiny of Pence's record on LGBT issues intensified recently when White House Deputy press secretary Judd Deere suggested last week in a tweet that the vice president wasn't anti-gay because he was having lunch with the Irish prime minister, who is gay, and his partner during a state visit.
The little-explored episode in the 1990s, unearthed in local newspaper clippings during a deeper KFile review of Pence's record on LGBT issues, highlights an early window into the now-vice president's public activism and views in opposition of gay rights.
Darin Miller, a spokesman for Pence, told CNN in a statement that the vice president "has always opposed discrimination in any form and defends the Constitution's protection of the rights of all Americans regardless of race, sex or religion."
Pence argued in the 1990s that, unlike protections for African Americans, homosexuals choose or learn to be gay and was part of a "grassroots-generated movement for recognition of homosexual rights" nationwide.
"Once you identify homosexuals as a minority, then by definition they would need to be afforded constitutional protection," Pence added. "Up to this point, our legal tradition in America has drawn a line over those things. I do not choose whether I am a black American ... the great vast majority of the psychological community says homosexuality at a very minimum is a choice by the individual, and at the maximum, is a learned behavior."
The arguments made in the 1990s by Pence would echo those he later emphasized when he ran for Congress in 2000 when his platform protested extending civil rights protections to gay Americans. But the 1990s comments show for the first time Pence calling homosexuality a choice and offer a clearer view into Pence's view on gay Americans at the time.
As president of the conservative think tank Indiana Policy Review Foundation, Pence opposed a vote by the city council of Lafayette, Indiana, to make itself the first city in the state to add sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination law. Designating gay Americans worthy of such protections under the law, Pence said, would open "a Pandora's Box of legal rights and legal difficulties" and was part of grassroots movements by gay activists for increasing their rights.
Pence became president of the Indiana Policy Review in 1991. His tenure there, along with his years following as a statewide radio and TV host, helped transform Pence's reputation from that of a twice-failed congressional candidate into an influential conservative voice in the state.
Public opinion polls in the US at the time were equally divided over whether homosexuality should be accepted by society and many of the ballot initiatives in 1992 aimed at denouncing homosexuality or repealing measures that protected homosexuals from discrimination had mixed results . Bill Clinton would be elected that year campaigning on ending the ban on homosexuals serving in the military.
Pence argued the issue of gay rights would become one of the most important issues of the 1990s.
"They're discussing (in Lafayette) what I suspect will be one of the biggest issues of the '90s," Pence said . "You've got a tiger by the tail."
A vote on the ordinance originally failed narrowly, with some members voting against it to wait for a city council member to return from vacation to vote. With issue momentarily tabled, an eight months-long debate began with panels and news forums across the state covering the issue
Though some residents and religious ministers argued against the measure because they said homosexuality was a sin and they did not want to hire or rent to homosexuals, Pence and the Indiana Policy Review opposed the measure on public policy grounds.
"It represents a very bad move in public policy," Pence said in January 1993. "It opens up from a legal standpoint ... a Pandora's Box of legal rights and legal difficulties once you identify homosexuals as a discrete and insular minority."
The ordinance passed in May 1993 by a 5-4 vote with Pence saying it was an attempt to reform the 1964 Civil Rights Act. | {
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The United States House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill calling on the Trump Administration to sanction Chinese officials responsible for mass detentions and other human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
The Uighur Act of 2019 was approved by a vote of 407 to 1, and will now head to the U.S. Senate, where it must be reconciled with a similar bill that passed in September.
The legislation’s approval comes just over a week after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published its China Cables investigation, which revealed the secret operations manual for China’s internment camps in Xinjiang.
The investigation showed that the camps hold detainees in prison-like conditions and force them to undergo ideological indoctrination, contrary to the Chinese government’s insistence that they are humane vocational training centers. It also uncovered the mechanics of China’s massive surveillance and data collection system in Xinjiang, which uses artificial intelligence to select entire categories of the population for detention.
The House bill includes a call for sanctions against Chen Quanguo, the Communist party chief in Xinjiang who is believed to be a leading architect of China’s crackdown. Chen is a member of China’s 25-member Politburo, the highest committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and China reacted angrily to news of the bill’s approval.
“The issue that Xinjiang faces is not about ethnicity, religion or human rights. Rather, it is about fighting violence, terrorism and separatism,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, according to a report by CNN.
Hua warned the U.S. against further action. “It’s impossible that it will not affect China-U.S. relations or cooperation in important areas,” she said.
In addition to sanctions against senior officials, the bill also calls on the Administration to consider prohibiting sales of U.S.-made goods and services to Chinese government agencies in Xinjiang, and for U.S. companies to publicly demonstrate that their commercial activities in China are not contributing to human rights abuses.
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The bill’s approval comes as prominent technology companies are facing additional scrutiny for potential connections to repression in Xinjiang. On Oct. 7, the Trump Administration blacklisted eight Chinese companies, including the massive video surveillance firms Hikvision and Dahua, for their role in mass surveillance of Uighurs and other minorities.
Last week, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute published a report detailing new activities in Xinjiang by other major companies, including ByteDance, the parent company of popular communications app TikTok, and the telecommunications giant Huawei.
The report found that ByteDance had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China’s Ministry of Public Security to promote Chinese police departments on a video-sharing app called Douyin. The agreement also calls for unspecified offline cooperation between ByteDance and police departments, according to the report.
In addition, ByteDance has helped Xinjiang authorities use Douyin and another of its apps in a campaign to burnish the image of Hotan, a region in Xinjiang that is the site of numerous internment camps.
Huawei, which has already been blacklisted by the U.S. on unrelated national security grounds, has collaborated extensively with security agencies in Xinjiang, the Australian report found. This cooperation included a program called “Safe Xinjiang” that it described as “code for a police surveillance system,” and an agreement with the Xinjiang Public Security Department to set up an “intelligent security industry” innovation lab in Urumqi, the region’s capital.
Neither ByteDance nor Huawei responded to ICIJ’s email inquiries. ByteDance has previously said that it is not involved in surveillance, and simply is allowing security services to set up user accounts, according to a report in the Washington Post.
ICIJ’s partners at Kyodo News reported that Japanese multinationals Sony and Sharp are providing parts used in Hikvision’s security cameras, despite Hikvision’s blacklisting by the U.S.
A spokesman for Sharp declined to comment on the company’s customers, but cited other news reports that specified the information was based on its previous product brochures.
Sony did not respond to ICIJ’s email inquiry. | {
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West Coast streetwear retail staple Bait has teamed up with brands including Diadora, Saucony and Asics for its sought-after collabs. And now, the store is adding Lacoste to the list.
The Bait x Lacoste Inca “Dark Crocodiles” is scheduled to be released on Saturday and retail for $150. The shoes will be available via online raffle, which is going on now on baitme.com.
Bait x Lacoste Inca “Dark Crocodiles.” CREDIT: Courtesy of Bait.
Another look at the Bait x Lacoste Inca “Dark Crocodiles.” CREDIT: Courtesy of Bait.
Bait’s next collab reimagines Lacoste’s Inca model, giving it a more modern look and feel. The retailer modified the shoe’s quarter panel with ventilation perforations, and also changed up its bootie construction with an added collar to improve its comfort.
The shoe is executed with premium black crocodile embossed nubuck on the quarter panel and heel strap, which Bait said is a nod to the Lacoste brand, as well as premium black smooth nubuck is on the toe panels next to a neoprene bootie underlay. Bait also added 3-M Bait-branded print on the extended tongue webbing, and leather insoles with sewn-in co-branded Lacoste and Bait woven labels. The look is completed with a white outsole.
The perforation on the Bait x Lacoste Inca “Dark Crocodiles.” CREDIT: Courtesy of Bait.
Watch on FN
The insoles of the Bait x Lacoste Inca “Dark Crocodiles.” CREDIT: Courtesy of Bait.
The heels of the Bait x Lacoste Inca “Dark Crocodiles.” CREDIT: Courtesy of Bait.
Want More?
Check Out Bait’s Take on Allen Iverson’s Reebok Question Mid
Bait x DreamWorks x Diadora ‘Skeletor’ Collab Arrived Aug. 13
Bait’s ‘Felix The Cat’ Collab With Diadora Dropped At Comic-Con On July 23 | {
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AndroidTV
Android TV is a version of the Android operating system designed for digital media players. It features a user interface designed around content discovery and voice search, surfacing content aggregated from various media apps and services.
AndroidTV vs AOSPTV
The difference between AndroidTV and AOSPTV is the same as Android vs AOSP.
AOSPTV is Open-Source which means that you can download the source, modify it according to your needs and compile it. However, It doesn’t give you access to any Google services like play-store etc.
AndroidTV is the locked down variant of AOSPTV, the source isn’t available and its only available through OEM consumer products. They do provide full access to Google services for a more complete experience.
AOSPTV on 96Boards Hikey and Hikey960
Recently Google added minimal functionality to AOSP source which allowed us to setup AOSPTV builds.
This resulted in me sending a patch to enable AOSPTV builds for Hikey and Hikey960, which have now been merged upstream.
Patch
Build AOSPTV
Just follow the official guide for building AOSP
And replace lunch hikey960-userdebug with lunch hikey960_tv-userdebug or lunch hikey-userdebug with lunch hikey_tv-userdebug
Pitfalls
WiFi connection UI doesn’t have a “next” button. To be able to connect we have to use third-party apps
hikey boots to UI with kernel 4.4 or less Just enter the following command before make export TARGET_KERNEL_USE=4.4
Demo | {
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Technical Article => Programming => Java
Java 9 is going to introduce a disruptive change to the Java platform -- Module System. The module system will change how Java applications work in the future. It's like changing the foundation of a house without impacting the house functionality and its top level structure. This obviously is a big challenge for the whole Java community.
To bring as little pain as possible to migrate existing applications to Java 9 without refactoring the whole application, Java 9 will introduce a few different module types. In following sections, these different module types will be covered.
But before covering these module types, you have to understand what the new module system can achieve.
Reliable configuration . This ensures that a specific class can be found and loaded easily in its execution path since a module explicitly declares the modules it requires/reads and it only needs to find the module to find the class. It eases the pain of searching through the classpath to find and load a class.
. This ensures that a specific class can be found and loaded easily in its execution path since a module explicitly declares the modules it requires/reads and it only needs to find the module to find the class. It eases the pain of searching through the classpath to find and load a class. Strong encapsulation. This is ensured because the module declared will have to explicitly export its packages so that other modules can access. The packages which are not exported explicitly cannot be accessed outside of the module.
Now let's get to know the three types of module in Java 9.
Named module
A named module is a module created with a module declaration file module-info.java in its root folder. The module-info.java is just like a normal Java class file and it usually has below structure.
module module_name { requires other_module_1; requires other_module_2; exports package_name_1; exports package_name_2; }
The module has a name and it depends on some other modules. This means that when compiling and running this module, the required modules have to be present, otherwise compilation error or runtime error may happen. It also indicates it will access packages in other_module_1 and other_module_2. The requires ensures reliable configuration.
Also a module needs to export some packages which other modules can access. This ensures strong encapsulation. You can also export a package to a specified module by declaring something like
exports package_name to other_module;
This is called qualified exports. It means only other_module can access the package_name, no other modules can access it.
Unnamed module
An unnamed module is a jar built without module-info.java declaration. This means all current jars built in Java 8 and earlier releases are unnamed modules.
An unnamed module will require all other modules and will export all its packages as well. This provides great convenience to current applications to use Java 9. Since an unnamed module can read all other modules, this doesn't require current application to be modularized before using Java 9.
One thing to note is an unnamed module exports all its packages doesn't mean a named module can access an unnamed module packages. This is because there is no way in module-info.java to declare requires unnamed_module. Java 9 doesn't allow named modules to read unnamed modules. This only ensure other unnamed modules can access its packages.
Automatic module
What if a named module wants to read the existing jars built without module-info.java created? Automatic module can be a great help in this case. The only thing you need to do is to put the jar file in the module path instead of the class path. Once a jar without module-info is put in the module path, it becomes an automatic module automatically.
An automatic module can read all other modules and all other modules can read it as well. Even the named modules can read an automatic module. An automatic module will have a module name derived from its jar name.
Conclusion
Module system is a big change to Java platform. It requires lots of effort to make it work properly for as many as applications. It requires lots of changes to existing tools, IDEs, frameworks to adapt to this new design. But it will definitely bring you much good in the future. And to help users migrate to Java 9 without causing much trouble, Java 9 introduces these different module types for free.
For more information about Java 8 and module system. Below are some useful links : | {
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Popcorn Sutton Recipe
Discovery Channel's "Moonshiners" broke new ground in the long tales of moonshining in the U.S. The tv series surged in popularity with its portrayal of individuals who produce illicit alcohol, what's known to us as moonshine.
Among the guys featured in the show, a great Appalachian bootlegger named Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton had the limelight. In 1999 (prior to his life being featured in the show), Mr. Sutton published “Me and My Likker,” an anecdote of his life and moonshining practices. In his book, a couple of times he mentioned a basic moonshine recipe, with a few different variations that he used when he was "putting up a barrel of beer". Here's Popcorn's recipe from his book:
Ingredients:
25 pounds coarse ground white corn meal, enough to fill half of your barrel/container
50 pounds of sugar – 1 pound of sugar per gallon of water of total volume
1 gallon of malt – can be corn, barley, rye or a combination.
Directions:
Boil the water and pour over the cornmeal to cook. Allow them to cool to the touch. Add sugar and malt and stir in well. Leave it for a day. The following day the mix should be bubbling on top, stir it one last time and then leave it.
You see here that we did not mention any addition of yeast, Popcorn said that the malt (any kind or combination of corn, barley, rye) is what makes it work — so he's using it here as alternative to distiller's yeast. Also, he's after the idea that wild yeast will start the fermentation within the mash.
After a couple of days, when all activities in the mash has stopped, it should be ready to be distilled. Use a siphon or a bucket to transfer the wash to the still.
For instructions on how to distill, click here. | {
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Café Nostos, a cafe featuring a variety of authentic Greek pastries, opened its doors for business near Downtown Berkeley on Wednesday.
The cafe is located at 1930 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Co-owner Yiannis Samaras anticipates the grand opening will be sometime this September. The exact date, however, has not been decided.
“We hope to give the public here a taste of the Greek experience with the food,” Samaras said.
The name of the cafe, Nostos — which comes from Ancient Greek — means “homecoming, the idea of returning home from a long journey,” according to the cafe’s website. According to Samaras, the idea of the name came from his support for Greeks in the United States, many of whom are immigrants and who may be missing their home country.
The people craving a taste of their home country of Greece can find a small part fulfilled from the food at this cafe — quite literally.
The Greek delicacies served here come directly from Greece through the Greek pastry company Alfa, which co-owner Lili Grigoriou-Samaras described as “the best product in Greece.” Grigoriou-Samaras added that these Alfa pastries can only be found at this cafe, Washington, D.C. and Greece.
Greek pastries such as bougatsa — a crisp, custard-filled phyllo sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar — and Kozani olive swirl — a type of Greek street food made of authentic Greek feta cheese filling and Kalamata olives — can be found at the cafe.
“It’s homey food; it makes people feel good. You cannot find Greek pita like this anywhere in the Bay Area,” Grigoriou-Samaras said.
Besides specialty Greek pastries, the cafe serves common American pastries like croissants and scones from Semifreddi’s, a bakery in Alameda; coffee from Illy, described as “top of the line” by Samaras; and paninis.
Adonis Garefalakis, a customer and Oakland resident, said the cafe’s staff was “friendly” and that the cafe had an ambience that was “really enjoyable.” He added that the cafe is going to be his new hangout spot in Berkeley.
“(Among the savory pastries), I really loved the Kozani olive swirl. It’s very unique — never had anything like that before,” Garefalakis said.
Garefalakis expressed delight at the fact the cafe marinates and cooks the chicken in-house for their sandwiches and salads.
The decor of the cafe holds an overall earthy tone — the green of the walls was selectively chosen by Grigoriou-Samaras, as it was a reminder of the olive tree leaves back in Greece.
Peter Fikaris, the owner of The Butcher’s Son, a nearby business, said Café Nostos “sounds like a very interesting place,” and said he would like to check it out.
“We want to be friends with everyone. We see this cafe as a neighborhood cafe,” Grigoriou-Samaras said.
Contact Robin Hyun at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @robinnhyun. | {
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Under the proposed revision, as informally agreed with the Greek Presidency of the Council, EU legislation on aviation emissions allowances would cover only intra-EU flights until the start of 2017, and all flights to or from the EU thereafter. The Environment Committee rejected this deal by 29 votes to 29, with no abstentions.
But despite this outcome, Peter Liese (EPP, DE), who is steering the legislation through Parliament, remained “optimistic that the plenary will support the compromise”.
"I understand that many colleagues are unhappy with the attitude of member states and the poor ambition of the EU environment and transport ministers in this issue. But in politics you need to live up with reality. Parliament's delegation achieved a lot in the negotiations with the Council. Compared to the Commission proposal, the compromise is more ambitious because we go back to full scope in 2016, instead of 2020” he added.
Groote: “MEPs do not like being bullied by third countries”
“Today’s vote simply means that MEPs do not like being bullied by third countries into dismantling EU climate legislation. We are committed to making aviation emission reductions contribute to our climate change policies. We proposed to earmark ETS revenues for climate action, so as to show our partners that the ETS is not a tax but the cornerstone of our climate policy. Unfortunately, EU member states don't seem to like this idea. As a result, the ETS legislation could be back with full scope after April” said Environment Committee chair Matthias Groote (S&D, DE).
Background
The International Civil Aviation Organization agreed at its 38th assembly to adopt a global market-based measure (MBM) to reduce aviation emissions in 2016, to be implemented by 2020. In response, and in order to further promote the global MBM momentum, the European Commission proposed to reduce the proportion of emissions (from flights to and from countries outside the EU) to which the EU ETS applies for the period up to 2020, when the global MBM begins.
In the chair: Matthias Groote (S&D, DE)
@peterliese
#carbon
#aviation | {
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What are the top three cartoons ever created? Hopefully you answered in the following order: 1) Futurama 2) King of the Hill 3) Dragon Ball Z series. Aside from being one of the greatest cartoons ever created, what do these cartoons have in common?
Simple, these shows exhibit great examples of friendship. Whether it’s Krillin and Goku in Dragon Ball Z, Fry and Bender in Futurama, or Boomhauer, Bill, Hank, and Dale in King of the Hill, you can learn from these cartoon characters.
Today we will focus on King of the Hill and how we can build a rock solid friendship. What makes Hank, Dale, Boomhauer, and Bill a great example of friendship?
1) Well, they have been friends since elementary school and despite all the troubles they have experienced, they have overcame the problems, whether big or small, because their friendship was worth more to them. For example, during their years in high school, Boomhauer, an individual who loved his cars, had his car stolen. Boomhauer was led to believe that his 1965 Ford Mustang nicknamed “Ms. Sally” was stolen by some “Yankees” for twenty years. But little did Boomhauer know, it was his three friends that stole it and lost it during their high school years. The lost of Ms. Sally had devastated Boomhauer as a teen, but imagine how he felt after finding out it was his friends. Boomhauer could have ended their friendship, which his friends would understand, but he did not. After some brief time and some thinking on Boomhauer’s part, Boomhauer realized the importance of their friendship. It is never easy to let such big events in life go especially when it involves trust, but Boomhauer did it because he knew that materialistic things of this world are not greater than friendship. This example of overcoming adversity to keep a friendship is much harder to apply in real life, but it shows that it is possible. And plus, what you will realize is that years after the incident you would have developed a greater bond like Hank, Dale, Boomhauer, and Bill did. It is not a guarantee. It takes effort.
2) These friends all have issues, but they do not let their issues prevent them from treating each other with respect. For example, Hank was born with a narrow urethra, a flat butt, and has had various constipation issues. Boomhauer has a speech impediment. Bill has an eating disorder and is sometimes depressed. And lastly, Dale is a conspiracy theorist and is naive to his wife’s infidelities, despite its obvious nature. Some of these issues could be joking points for each friend, but they take their privacy and situations seriously and determine how to respond to each others’ difficulties based off what is in the best interest of their friends. Personally, I would have told my friend about his cheating spouse, but sometimes it’s best to stay out of situations that wouldn’t bring greater satisfaction to that particular individual. Hank, Boomhauer, Dale, and Bill are all very calculating in how they go about responding to their friends. We should do the same. Never let your friends personal issues prevent you from treating them with respect and sincerity. It’s a two way road when it comes to respect so limit the jokes when it comes to personal issues that are out of their hands.
3) Hank, Bill, Boomhauer, and Dale all make each other better with their unique traits. Instead of replicating what their friends do, they are themselves and help their friends improve. They love beer, “mmhmm,” but they make sure to be themselves. Their uniqueness make their friendship fun and exciting. Out of the group of individuals, Hank is the serious one, kind of reminds me of myself, and Hank demonstrates what hard work can do for you; hardwork can lead to loving “propane and propane accessories” and may allow you to purchase a midsized home, so your loving wife and child can live in and enjoy. Bill, despite his depression, is very caring. He just seems to love to please his friends. Do not over please your friends in real life some may take advantage, some will not and will return the favor. Boomhauer is a lady’s man and shows us that despite disabilities such as speech impediments, it’s how we treat people that really matters.
And Dale is always finding new ways to start and make conversations lively though jokes, and shows us that despite a child not being ours, we should treat them just like they are ours.
Yes, some cartoons seem a little too extreme and do not add any value to life but certain shows such as King of the Hill, Futurama, and Dragon Ball Z when analyzed have take aways that can benefit all of us. | {
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Ben Foden has scored three tries for Northampton this season
Full-back Ben Foden will leave Northampton Saints at the end of the season after 10 years with the club.
Foden, who signed from Sale in 2008, will play his 250th and final Saints match against Worcester on Saturday.
The 32-year-old helped Northampton win one Premiership title and two European Challenge Cups, and won 34 England caps during his spell with Saints.
"Fodes has been a remarkable player for both Northampton Saints and England," said interim coach Alan Dickens.
"We'll miss having him around Franklin's Gardens, both in terms of what he offers on the pitch as a player and a leader, but also as a character in the dressing room."
Northampton have endured a difficult season in the Premiership and are currently ninth in the table, while Foden adds to the growing list of star names to be departing in the summer.
Fly-half Stephen Myler is also set to play his final Saints game against Worcester, while wing George North has agreed to return to Wales on a national dual contract.
Paul Tupai: Northampton and Bedford stalwart prepares to bow out from rugby
"I've enjoyed some incredible highs at this club over the last 10 years, winning trophies both in this country and across Europe," said Foden.
"I want to thank all of the team-mates and coaches that I have worked with in that time, as well as wishing everyone that is staying here all the best for the future.
"I'm also so grateful to the club's supporters, who have been behind me right from the beginning and made me feel loved every time I ran out at Franklin's Gardens, and I leave with memories of them that I will cherish forever."
Analysis
BBC Radio Northampton summariser Ian Hunter
"Saints have a long and proud tradition of attacking full-backs and Ben fulfilled that role for the past 10 years brilliantly.
"I've always loved watching him play and the club will miss him on and off the pitch.
"But it's time for him to move on to his next adventure. He still has plenty to offer the game and I'm sure he'll be a great success." | {
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Chris Hughton has denied there is a relegation clause that would allow Ricky van Wolfswinkel to wriggle out of joining Norwich City in the summer. The Carrow Road club have agreed an £8.5m four-year deal with Sporting Lisbon for the 24-year-old Dutch striker but the player's agent, Louis Laros, was reported earlier this week as saying the move was dependent on Norwich staying in the Premier League.
With five games remaining, Hughton's side lie in 14th position on 35 points, just four points above 18th-placed Wigan who have a game in hand.
Laros was reported as claiming: "There is a special clause in the deal accepted by all parties that stipulates if Norwich leave the Premier League then the future of Ricky van Wolfswinkel will be open again."
Hughton, however, slammed the door shut on that possibility as he prepared for Saturday's vital home match against bottom club Reading. He said: "I have heard those reports but the facts are that he has signed for Norwich City and I expect to see him on the first of July. Any talk of a relegation clause in the contract is not fact. That is where we are and we look forward to seeing him next season."
Hughton was less forthcoming on the future of the striker Kei Kamara whose loan spell with Norwich is due to finish two games before the end of season.There is a chance, however, they might try to keep the Sierra Leone striker who is on loan from the Major League Soccer side Sporting Kansas City.
"We are conscious that a decision has to be made on him," Hughton said: "He has made a good impact. We still have a bit of time. It's not for a few weeks that we need to make that decision and we are putting our heads together to see what we want to do."
The Norwich manager, however, insisted his focus was the match against Reading, following last weekend's unfortunate defeat against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium when Norwich conceded three goals, including a harsh penalty, in the last five minutes in a 3-1 defeat.
"We are coping very well. We know we have to get points," Hughton said. "We are on the back of a very good performance at the Emirates last week and there is confidence in the team. There's no getting away from the fact that we have five very big games, starting at home against Reading on Saturday. They are going to be fighting, they are a proud football club and a good team. They'll be giving everything to get a result.
"We have lost three matches at home all season. These are the positives you have to grab hold of. There is a good spirit in the squad and we have nigh-on a fully fit squad. You have to look forward to these challenges. It's a wonderful division to be in. We felt aggrieved last Saturday but that is in the past. We have left that frustration behind."
The goalkeeper John Ruddy is back in training and has played two development matches but is unlikely to be rushed back against Reading. Meanwhile, the midfielder Anthony Pilkington is back in contention following his hamstring injury and Bradley Johnson has recovered from a knock suffered against Arsenal.
Hughton insists there are no nerves in the dressing room and prefers to stress the positives of a long season as Norwich battle for their Premier League survival.
"We still have six very good clubs below us at this moment and it is our intention to stay where we are," he said. "We have five games, three of them at home. It is in our hands. It could be worse, we could be in 17th or 18th place. Apart from the early part of season we have not been in the bottom three. That indicates that overall it has been a decent season. We just need to make sure we finish it well." | {
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Something extraordinary just happened. I had wanted to go to an event today but had expected to be out of town. My schedule changed so I hadn’t had to travel but I’d forgotten all about the event. Then, this morning, two hours before start time, a friend contacted me to say he had an extra ticket if I wanted it.
At first I was going to say no. I had other plans and work I wanted to get to, but something about the event and the serendipitous invitation pulled me, so I went and wound up listening to an extraordinary woman. Soraya Deen is co-founder of the Muslim Women’s Speakers Movement. She was in my hometown, Bend Oregon, to share her story of being a Muslim woman in America. Her message is one of peace, mutual respect, kindness and taking action to make our world a more peaceful and beautiful place.
As I was listening to her powerful story and wisdom I realized that just a few feet from me at the next table were two people who had piled onto the media attacks against me. One had lied about me to reporters, trying to capture five minutes of fame at my expense. The other was his girlfriend who had also been unkind. Just a year and a half before this man lied about me to the press he had asked me, because I was in a fairly prominent position, to write a chapter and help promote a book he’d been working on. One moment I was good enough to help him write a book, the next he was publically maligning me.
As I covertly looked at him while he watched the speaker, emotions surged and my first reaction was to confront him, call him out on his nasty, dishonest behavior. Then I remembered all the hard work I’ve done these past two years to forgive and to avoid putting into the world the same ugliness I’d received. Just as I was experiencing this, a teenager in the audience asked Soraya what advice she had for the youth. She said, “Be kind. It’s the most important thing. Be kind even to people who harm you.”
I snapped back into the present moment. I knew she spoke truth and I knew I was being given a chance to act on it. So I re-envisioned what I might say if the two approached me. I would not accuse or hit back. I would merely say, “I hope you’re doing well and that your wounds have healed.”
As it turned out as soon as they realized I was there, they got noticeably uncomfortable and took off immediately at the end of the speech. Half an hour later after a wonderful visit with Soraya and some of the other guests I was leaving the building just as another woman was coming in. I realized it was the girlfriend. She saw me and flushed. I held the door open for her. She kept her head down, avoided eye contact and mumbled “thank you” as she nervously scurried through. I said, “You’re welcome.”
One of my favorite metaphors lately is that choosing not to forgive is like drinking poison expecting the other person to die. Forgiveness isn’t saying what they did was OK – forgiveness is choosing to take your power back.
My head was high and my heart light as I walked from the building into the sunshine.
Cylvia Hayes
If you find this post of value please share it (and a little kindness) on Facebook. Thank you.
#CylviaHayes #ResiliencyMuscles | {
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La Francia è uno dei paesi europei dove la benzina è più cara, anche se costa meno che in Italia.Da agosto a novembre, secondo i dati di Global Petrol Prices, il prezzo medio per un litro di carburante in Francia è stato di 1.55 euro, con un minimo di 1.49 il 12 novembre 2018 e un massimo di 1.59 toccato l’8 ottobre. Il prezzo medio nel mondo nello stesso periodo è stato di 1.41 euro.
In Italia, dati al 12 novembre, un litro di benzina costa 1,65 euro. Da agosto a oggi il picco è stato raggiunto il 22 ottobre: 1,67 euro.La riforma del governo francese stabilisce che dal 1 gennaio il diesel aumenterà di 6.5 centesimi e la benzina di 2,9 centesimi.Le proteste dei gilet gialli si sono scatenate contro la politica di riduzione degli sgravi fiscali per il diesel decisa dal presidente Macron. Ma nonostante le manifestazioni, il ministro per la Transizione ecologica ha confermato che il governo andrà avanti con la riforma. | {
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