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Members of the local chapter of the
led a public meeting to discuss the impending zombie apocalypse this past Saturday, September 18.
The ZRS is an international non-profit organization dedicated to "raising the level of zombie scholarship in the Arts and Sciences." To become a member, pay the $25 one-time fee to get a ZRS tee shirt and laminated membership card -- your first necessary supplies in defense against zombies (and getting laid).
The Arizona chapter, led by zombie expert Zoe Mora, concentrates on desert survival tactics. The meeting provided hand-outs on water sterilization and pasteurization, bug-out bags (72-hour survival packs), and other tips for surviving in a post-apocalyptic land infested by zombies. The presentation was delivered with total sincerity.
Mora noted that the greatest danger during a zombie apocalypse will be marauders -- fellow human survivors searching for supplies. All marauders should be killed. Stemming from a lifetime of limited social contact, this group's lack of human empathy is one of their most valuable weapons.
Audience attendance was surprisingly high on Saturday as 20 more people than expected showed up to listen to ZRS leaders cover the basics of improvised weapons (IWs), fortifications and traps in an urban setting.
The group of 22 concerned citizens listened intently as they learned to use wood dowels, masking tape and dental floss to create dangerous snares and traps. A passionate discussion followed as attendees debated the following important questions:
What are the legal ramifications of killing a zombie?
Would a bomb kill a zombie?
Can zombies have babies?
Does a zombie have a heartbeat?
The room filled with heated opinions as this writer avoided eye contact.
www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley
According to the experts,
; a bomb would only kill a zombie if it destroyed the zombie's brain; zombies cannot have babies; and they may or may not have a heartbeat -- this depends whether the zombie in question is the "undead" type of zombie or the kind of zombie that caught a disease.
As the meeting moved on to discuss zombie updates in pop culture, this writer learned that, in addition to their obsession with living human brain tissue, zombies love proms.
To learn more about ZRS, visit www.zombieresearch.org or attend October's meeting at Bookmans Entertainment Exchange. Keep tabs on the store's calendar for the date announcement. | {
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Bud leaf trimmers
Bud leaf trimmers : also known as cannabis trimmers, harvest cannabis plants by cutting the flowers of the plants from their stems. … This is an entry-level position that often serves as a foot in the door for higher-level jobs in the marijuana industry, such as cultivator or even grow master. | {
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Ah, Sally Yates. Defender of liberty and freedom and victim of an oppressive Trump regime. The poor lass had it rough, didn’t she?
She was the acting attorney general after Barack Obama left office and fought tooth and nail over the Travel Ban executive order currently being fought over in court. Liberals hailed her as a hero, when in all reality, she was a hack. Her testimony before Congress today just proves it.
Sally Yates admitted today in an exchange with Senator Cornyn that the Office of Legal Counsel reviewed Trump’s immigration EO and found it to be completely legal. Yet she had the audacity to overrule the Office of Legal Counsel and deem it unconstitutional. She did what a few of the federal courts did that overruled it. She looked outside the language and detail of the actual order itself to Trump’s campaign statements in 2016 to deem it unconstitutional, which is only something a liberal hack would do.
Yates is no hero of liberty. She was and still is a partisan hack who played the victim in order to boost her own profile.
What she did and what the courts did is a perversion of the law, and these actions are symbolic of the Left’s inability to play by the rules and instead make them up as they go along.
Pathetic. | {
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This clip from Saturday was advertised over the weekend by some as a plan to oust Trump and Pence so that Pelosi can become president. Not true — it’s even weirder than that. What Jill Wine-Banks, a former Watergate prosecutor, is proposing is a way to oust Trump and Pence so that Pelosi doesn’t become president. A “President Pelosi” scenario is preposterous inasmuch as Senate Republicans would never allow it, but as a melodramatic plot arc it’s perfectly straightforward. “Democratic coup! First Trump goes, then Pence goes due to his own role in the Ukraine matter, then Pelosi takes over as next in line in the order of succession.”
Wine-Banks recognizes that that’s a complete nonstarter for Senate Republicans and Republican voters. What she’s offering here is a way around it, a sort of compromise in which Trump and Pence both end up booted but a Republican nonetheless remains as president. Essentially we’d just reprise the sequence of events from 1973-74 but on an expedited timeline, and with the VP removed from office instead of forced to resign. Step one: Pence is impeached and removed. Step two: Trump is told that he’ll be impeached and removed too — but not until after he nominates a new VP, who’ll be confirmed by the Senate. Step three: Once the new VP is installed, Trump is impeached and removed and the new Trump-appointed VP takes over.
To which I say: What?
There’s no scenario in which Senate Republicans would agree to remove Trump *and* Pence. Absolutely none. If Trump wants to make Pence the fall guy for all this somehow, the Senate might conceivably and reluctantly remove the veep *if and only if* they had reason to believe that that would placate the public and Trump would remain as president. Alternately, if the Senate GOP arrived at the point where they felt Trump had to go, they’d remove the president but grasp at any excuse they needed to in order to leave Pence in place. Everyone understands this. Except, I guess, Jill Wine-Banks and the Russiagate junkies in the MSNBC audience who have been jonesing since March for a reason to believe Trump might leave office early, destroyed by scandal. Wine-Banks is giving them a deep drag off that pipe here.
Even in the outlandish scenario she proposes, in which Pence is ousted and Trump is given an ultimatum to appoint a new VP with the prospect of his own removal looming, you know what he’d do: Nothing. He’d refuse to nominate anyone and dare Democrats and Republicans in Congress to remove him knowing that it would mean Pelosi would succeed him. That would be enough to make Senate Republicans balk from removal. The only move Democrats would have would be to get Pelosi to somehow disclaim her right to succeed Trump if he’s removed, which would push Senate president pro tem Chuck Grassley up into the top spot. We still get a Republican as president once Trump’s gone! An … 86-year-old Republican. And needless to say, the party would be reduced to chaos as a bunch of Republican candidates jumped into the presidential primaries belatedly to be the party’s nominee next year.
I feel myself getting a contact high from how completely hallucinatory the whole thing is. Although, in fairness to Wine-Banks and MSNBC, they’re not the only ones who have retreated into hallucinations to cope with the stress of impeachment:
In numerous recent conversations with colleagues, including last week’s senior staff meeting, White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has said he thinks President Trump could win 45 states in 2020 after the impeachment process — a magnitude of landslide that few if any independent pollsters would dare predict. Between the lines: People who’ve heard Mulvaney make this remark say he wasn’t joking or even exaggerating. He appears to genuinely believe that impeachment will have a profoundly positive effect on Trump’s political fortunes, according to 3 sources who have heard Mulvaney make the 45-state prediction. Mulvaney also believes that the longer the impeachment process drags on, the better it is, politically, for Trump, these sources added.
Mick Mulvaney was also known to claim in the past that Republicans care a lot about spending and deficits. Oh, and that a Republican Congress would certainly stand up to a Republican president who overreached on executive power instead of cowering before him. The guy is barely in touch with reality anymore. A much safer bet about impeachment’s effect on the election is that it won’t have much at all. It’ll be over and done with within a few months, a distant memory by November of next year. To the extent that it changes anyone’s pre-impeachment opinion about a second Trump term, it might make swing voters marginally more likely to vote Democratic in hopes of avoiding another four years of maximum drama. It’s not going to benefit Trump much, if at all. No candidate in hyperpolarized America circa 2019 is getting anything close to 45 states, especially not one whose job approval is below 45 percent. This must simply be something Mulvaney’s taken to saying because he knows he’s wearing out his welcome with Trump and thinks flattering the guy’s ego is the way to keep him happy. | {
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Week One of the 2018 Super Rugby season will feel a little strange. This year, Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby sides must sit ‘in wait’ for their African Conference colleagues to complete the opening weekend alone.
Usually, all teams have a big turnout. In years past, that has meant Thursday matches, double and sometimes triple-headers. But with the revised competition, a change has been made that only provides a ‘soft opening’.
Why? The International rugby calendar and a priority internal tour for the South African Rugby Union (SARU) means that they must start a week earlier than desired. Therefore, the partner unions have ceded to SARU, as negotiations of rugby fixtures are more complicated than a US Senate budget.
If fans are confused, the bigger picture will make them happy. Back to 15 teams is a better fit. Reduced to three conferences, it eases the stress and while the new relationships of the African and Australian groups need time to bed-in, consensus is that it is a better product.
We're starting to feel Super Rugby fever, are you? In the first installment of our season preview we've assessed the chances of each side in the South African conference: https://t.co/BgwOHZfw04 pic.twitter.com/AC1ivYwbWp — TAB Sport (@TAB_Sport) February 12, 2018
So while the early start by the five South African conference sides means their SANZAAR partners sit idle, they won’t be relaxing.
Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby sides sit ‘in wait’ for African Conference
Having just completed the Brisbane Global Rugby Tens tournament, the nine Australasian Super Rugby teams each still have targets to reach. Their run under the Queensland sunshine will have done plenty for the sides conditioning. True, a 10 minute half is nowhere near the physical conditioning required for a 40 minute stretch. But, the players had to both ‘run and think’ in Brisbane. So game fitness will have benefited greatly.
Combinations too played their part. Whether the first-pick players were involved or not, many of the core teams will have enjoyed the preseason opportunities. Coaches of course have an idea of how the primary team members can handle the playbook. But, it is the ‘substitutes’ who can often impact the season goals.
Preseason Time – Substitutes’ time to Impress
So the Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby sides used the time post-Brisbane, to digest their combinations. Head coaches like Chris Boyd will look to his next best player input. The individuals who could be needed to compliment his star players. Boyd and all Super Rugby coaches know it is a long season -a well developed squad can be instrumental to compliment the leading 23 men to perform.
Across both conferences, the last weekend was used to give their wider-squad a run. The men who bonded well in Brisbane, could be the same players who will offer benefits for the side during the course of the next five months.
And those benefits will now play-on to the final warm-up before the season proper starts. Looking to be prepared for his sides long trip to Africa for their important Week Two clash against the Bulls, the ‘Canes will use this final week to gain even more match readiness, with a mock-local derby.
Hurricanes Travel North for final Warm-up Match
After weeks, and months of preparation, the Hurricanes will be eager to have some ‘actual’ 80 minute pressure applied. They will do that in their last preseason match against the Blues this Thursday.
Meeting at the Mahurangi Rugby Club, it is an encounter which both coaches will want to run-out the majority of their squads in. It will be a vigorous face-off, conditions aside. The ‘heat will be on’.
TEAM RELEASE: 32 players named for final preseason hit out against the @BluesRugbyTeam in Warkworth tomorrow. Read more – https://t.co/bPvWp7kXQW pic.twitter.com/JFbTu4YMGL — Hurricanes Rugby (@Hurricanesrugby) February 14, 2018
With a near-to 100% squad to name his run-on side from, Chris Boyd and his coaching group have the same needs as their opponents–to be as ready as possible for the first match of the season.
“We were also delighted with how the group progressed through the Brisbane Global Rugby Tens tournament, it was also really pleasing to return to New Zealand and get such positive reports about the work the remaining squad had put in.
“Hopefully we will be able to continue that progress against the Blues who have already shown that they are progressing nicely in 2018.”
2018 Super Rugby Season begins with African Conference Matches
So while the African conference gets a ‘start’ on their rivals, the Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby sides will likely sit in wait for their rivals – but not sitting idly.
Even with the Crusaders fancied to retain their Crown, only now will the groups be able to judge better, how their full compliment has returned from breaks. Sam Whitelock, Israel Folau, Ben Smith, Rieko Ioane and Ardie Savea play their first full-contact matches this week.
Across the four Australian teams, and the five NZ sides, the time between now and Week Two cannot come soon enough. The two months between the end of the November tour, and the beginning of Super Rugby is a comfortable break. However, professional sportsmen and women all want to get out on the field and perform their best. And for local fans in Warkworth, Waimumu and at Brookvale Oval, the gains will all be similar. Team work, structure and to fully utilize all squad members before the opening Week Two fixtures.
_____________________________________________________________________
Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby teams preseason match schedule:
Thursday Feb 15 – Waratahs vs Melbourne Rebels, Brookvale Oval, Sydney
Thursday Feb 15 – Highlanders v Crusaders, Fred Booth Park, Waimumu (NZL)
Thursday Feb 15 – Blues v Hurricanes, Mahurangi Rugby Club, North Auckland.
“Main photo credit”
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Related Everything You Need to Know About Super Bowl LIV
None of this seems real. None of this seems possible. But it is, so it must be. The Kansas City Chiefs are world champions. After wandering in the wilderness for my entire sporting life, I have seen the two great loves of my fandom—the Chiefs and the Royals—both claim titles in the last five years. Kansas City, incredibly, is Titletown. It feels like too much to process. But I will enjoy spending the offseason trying to do just that.
The notion that either team would get to this point was laughable as recently as seven years ago. In late 2012, the Royals were coming off their 17th losing season in the past 18 years, while the Chiefs were picking up the pieces from the smoking ruin of a 2-14 campaign, their fourth season with at least 12 losses in six years. But it is clear in retrospect that both franchises were bottoming out together, and within the span of four weeks around the holidays, both made a single momentous decision that reversed course and sent them on a path that would lead directly to a title.
On December 9, the Royals completed the gutsiest trade of the decade, shipping top prospect Wil Myers to Tampa Bay for James Shields and Wade Davis. Less than four weeks later, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt cleaned house, firing his head coach and general manager and flying to Philadelphia to implore the newly unemployed Andy Reid to come to Kansas City.
The experience of rooting for the Chiefs changed overnight. A franchise that had won nine games only once in the six years before Reid’s arrival won its first nine games under his supervision. The Chiefs have had a winning record in all seven seasons of Reid’s tenure, making the playoffs in six of them. But the end of the team’s 21st-century run of mediocrity brought a return to the Chiefs fan experience of the 1990s, one marked by regular-season dominance and playoff heartbreak. We needed a reset. We needed a miracle.
We got Patrick Mahomes. And now I can die in peace.
It would have been enough for the Chiefs to just win the Super Bowl, much like it would have been enough for the 2015 Royals to just win the World Series. Championships are like children: They all have different personalities, but they are all gifts from God, and fans should love them all equally. At least that’s what you’re supposed to say. But let’s be frank: Even by championship standards, the 2019 Chiefs title, like the 2015 Royals title, was special. As a Kansas City sports fan, the comparison between the two teams is downright eerie.
Like the 2015 Royals, the story of the 2019 Chiefs starts with how close they came to winning it all the year before. The 2014 Royals fell one swing short of a championship, losing Game 7 of the World Series at home by one run when Alex Gordon was famously held at third base after San Francisco Giants outfielder Grégor Blanco made an error with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was the right call, but was nonetheless debated all winter long after Salvador Pérez popped out to strand Gordon and end the game and the season. The 2018 Chiefs came nearly as close to winning a title, because a team that had gone 33-15 the previous three years while snapping the ball to Alex Smith had given his job to The Quarterback That Was Promised. And Mahomes torched the NFL from the start, throwing 13 touchdowns over his first three games en route to recording the second 50-touchdown, 5,000-plus-yard passing season in NFL history. The Chiefs went 12-4, earned the no. 1 seed in the AFC, and hosted the New England Patriots in the conference championship game. But they lost in overtime because the Pats won the coin toss mere minutes after Dee Ford was flagged for being 4 inches offsides on what should have been the game-sealing interception in regulation.
The 2015 Royals used the previous year’s near-miss as emotional fuel to power their way to the best record in the AL, going 95-67 to take the AL Central by 12 full games. But the 2019 Chiefs used their near-miss as a stepping stone in a far more tangible way: They tore down and rebuilt the defense that had wasted an MVP performance by Mahomes. Defensive coordinator Bob Sutton was fired and replaced by Steve Spagnuolo, the architect of the 2007 Giants defense that had held the 18-0 Patriots to 14 points in one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets of all time. Justin Houston was allowed to leave; Eric Berry wasn’t re-signed; Dee Ford was traded to the San Francisco 49ers. In their place, the Chiefs signed Tyrann Mathieu as a free agent and traded substantial draft capital to acquire Frank Clark from the Seattle Seahawks.
Just as the Royals probably wouldn’t have won the 2015 World Series had they not endured 2014’s baptism by fire, I don’t think this season’s Chiefs would have won the Super Bowl had last season’s defense not let them down and motivated them to have major corrective surgery. This is the first way that this Super Bowl victory feels even sweeter than most—it pardons, if not vindicates, the heartbreak and failure of the past.
After Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, I thought I would spend a full decade agonizing over “what-if” hypotheticals about the decision to hold Gordon at third. By winning the title the next year, the Royals forever erased that worry from my mind. It’s not simply that the missed opportunity the year before was washed away by the championship. It’s that the missed opportunity was necessary for the championship. The same goes for these Chiefs.
The other reason this Super Bowl victory feels even sweeter than most is also the other thing the 2019 Chiefs have in common with the 2015 Royals: Both teams rank among the greatest postseason comeback kings in sports history.
The 2015 Royals won playoff games in which they were trailing after four innings, after five innings, after six innings, after seven innings (twice), and after eight innings (twice). They won seven playoff games after being down by two runs or more; no other team in baseball history has won more than five such games. They were six outs away from elimination, losing 6-2 in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the ALDS against the Houston Astros, and came back to win. They were a Hollywood script that languishes in development hell for years because it’s just too unrealistic.
The 2019 Chiefs started their playoff run by spotting the Houston Texans 24 points in the divisional round—and then their offense went off, scoring four touchdowns in the second quarter to take the lead by halftime. They were the first team in NFL history, regular season or playoffs, to lead at the half after trailing by 24 points, and they went on to win, 51-31. A week later, they trailed the Tennessee Titans 10-0 and 17-7 before Mahomes delivered the most iconic play of his career to date, a 27-yard scamper down the sideline for a touchdown with 11 seconds before halftime to give the Chiefs the lead. They won, 35-24.
As impressive as those comebacks were, the very speed with which they were accomplished capped the desperation we fans could feel; the Chiefs led for every moment of the second half in both games. And neither the 10-6 Texans nor the 9-7 Titans had the kind of defensive talent to make a comeback feel daunting, no matter how improbable the scoreboard made one seem.
Which is why the comeback Sunday night was the sweetest of all. The 49ers had not only a smothering defense, led by perhaps the best defensive line the Chiefs had encountered all season, but also a seemingly unstoppable rushing offense designed to drain the precious time the Chiefs offense would require to pull another comeback. So when Mahomes’s pass to Tyreek Hill bounced off Hill’s arm and into the hands of Niners cornerback Tarvarius Moore with less than 12 minutes left, giving San Francisco the football to go with a commanding 20-10 lead … well, I am ashamed to admit that I started to lose hope.
It wasn’t just that Mahomes, for 48 minutes, was having arguably the worst game of his career, passing for 172 yards on 29 attempts and throwing interceptions on back-to-back drives after throwing picks in back-to-back games just once all season. It was that no one on the Chiefs offensive line—except for right tackle Mitchell Schwartz, who had a postseason for the ages—could stop the 49ers front four. Nick Bosa spent so much time in the Kansas City backfield that he should have been paying rent. I still had faith that Mahomes could work his magic. I just didn’t have faith that his linemen would give him the time to do so.
The game reminded me of Super Bowl XLII, when the undefeated Patriots, with the highest-scoring offense of all time to that point, were held to just 14 points. That only happened because Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time in his greatest season, was incessantly harassed by the New York Giants defensive line, getting sacked a season-high five times. In this game, Mahomes was sacked a season-high four times. When Mahomes threw his second interception, I gave the Chiefs maybe a 10 percent chance of pulling out a victory. If I had seen a win expectancy chart, I would have been even more pessimistic. When San Francisco had the ball with a 10-point lead and under 12 minutes left, ESPN listed the Chiefs’ odds of winning at less than 5 percent.
ESPN might need to make another version of their win probability software for Mahomes... pic.twitter.com/RhkAFxdJwh — Nick Mehta (@nrmehta) February 3, 2020
But like those Royals barely four years ago, the Chiefs took those odds as merely an irritating suggestion. A defense that had let the 49ers running game gash it for yards and minutes suddenly held firm. The Niners got the ball four times in the final 12 minutes of the game, and on those four drives the Chiefs held them to a combined total of 47 yards, three first downs, and zero points.
The defense did its part by giving Mahomes a chance to do his, and with the game on the line, Mahomes has done his job as well as any quarterback in NFL history. When things looked bleakest—when a Niners challenge overturned a 16-yard Tyreek Hill catch, leaving the Chiefs staring at third-and-15 from their own 35-yard-line—Mahomes dropped back a ridiculous 14 yards behind the line of scrimmage before unleashing a wrong-footed throw 57 yards in the air as a defender crashed into him. It fell perfectly into Hill’s waiting arms for a 44-yard gain. It was the 10th time in the last two years that Mahomes had converted on a third down of 15 yards or more.
For 48 minutes, the 49ers defense played Mahomes as well as any defense ever had. But then San Francisco gave him the tiniest opening imaginable, and he used it to flip the outcome of a Super Bowl. Four plays later, the Chiefs were in the end zone. Kansas City’s defense held San Francisco to a three-and-out, and then Mahomes led the Chiefs 65 yards in seven plays, passing or rushing for every yard, including a gorgeous floater to Sammy Watkins down the sideline that went for 38. Damien Williams reached for the pylon on third-and-goal, and after an interminable wait for official review, the touchdown was confirmed. The Chiefs, unfathomably, had the lead with under three minutes remaining.
Chris Jones batted down one pass and deflected another to help the defense hold one more time, prompting a turnover on downs with 1:25 to go. Damien Williams, who was simply looking for a first down to run out the clock, instead found daylight and broke free for a 38-yard touchdown. The impossible had become inevitable. Three weeks after mounting the fourth-largest comeback in playoff history, the Chiefs mounted the second-largest comeback in Super Bowl history. No NFL team had ever won three games in a single postseason in which they had trailed by double digits. Not only had the Chiefs done that: They won all three by double digits. It was the fifth time this season that Mahomes had trailed by 10 points or more. He led the Chiefs to victory in all five games.
Kansas City’s first Super Bowl victory in 50 years was more than just catharsis for a city that questioned if this day would ever come. It was also catharsis for Andy Reid, who had waited nearly as long as Chiefs fans for a title. Given Reid’s infamous history with clock management, it felt like poetic justice that 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan made the boneheaded error of the game by inexplicably electing not to call timeout to get the ball back with 1:45 left in the first half, seemingly content to go into the break with the score tied. Only after Reid bizarrely called a timeout on third down with 20 seconds remaining—he is still Andy Reid, after all—did Shanahan decide to try to put up points. Jimmy Garoppolo threw a 20-yard pass to Jeff Wilson Jr. and then a 42-yard bomb to George Kittle that appeared to move the 49ers into field goal range until a soft offensive pass interference call nullified the gain. For a fan base that has spent 20-plus years seeing ticky-tack OPI calls go against tight ends Tony Gonzalez and Travis Kelce, it was delivered at the perfect time.
And while Shanahan was inexcusably conservative on offense—he also chose to settle for a field goal rather than go for a key fourth-and-2 on the Niners’ first possession of the second half—Reid proved on the biggest stage that he has moved to the forefront of the analytics movement as it pertains to fourth-down aggressiveness. Twice, the Chiefs faced fourth-and-1 situations in field goal range; twice, Reid chose to go for it successfully. The Chiefs have converted 21 first downs on fourth-and-1 or fourth-and-2 over the last two seasons; no other team has done so more than 17 times. On the first such play in Sunday’s game, offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy dialed up a 72-year-old formation from Michigan’s Rose Bowl victory over USC in 1948, adding a dance routine to the pre-snap motion. The Chiefs would go on to score a touchdown on that drive.
In a game decided by the smallest of margins, it only makes sense that this was a total team effort. Reid coached beautifully and Mahomes overcame three quarters of struggles to win Super Bowl MVP honors. Williams rushed for 104 yards on just 17 carries while scoring two touchdowns, and Jones, who suffered a practice injury that caused him to miss the Texans game and play limited snaps in the AFC championship, was restored to full health in time to be an absolute beast on the interior of the defensive line, batting down multiple passes and forcing Garoppolo into an ill-advised throw for his first interception.
And in the end, Kansas City exacted a measure of revenge on the city of San Francisco for the 2014 World Series and paid back the Shanahan family for what Kyle’s father, Mike, did to the Chiefs as head coach of the rival Denver Broncos for 14 years. The Chiefs settled all family business on Sunday night.
Once before I had seen a team win a championship this way, time and again waiting until almost all hope had been extinguished before calmly and ruthlessly snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. I had made my peace that I would never experience that kind of a championship again. And yet here I am, walking around in a daze, a goofy grin permanently plastered on my face, not entirely convinced that my eyes and ears aren’t lying to me about what just happened.
We don’t deserve this. No one deserves this. To win a championship once in a generation is sufficient. But to win one this way—by repeatedly coming back in the playoffs, by spitting on the odds, by laughing at win expectancy charts to end a title drought that had lasted for decades—is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Somehow, we Kansas City fans have had that experience twice in less than five years. Our cup—cups!—runneth over. It wasn’t long ago that we were among the most hapless fan bases in America. Now, we are one of just two fan bases (along with Boston, of course, because Boston) to have won a Super Bowl and a World Series in the last decade.
This is where the comparison between the 2019 Chiefs and 2015 Royals ends. The Royals were a comet that flashed through the sky, and we knew it was only a matter of time before it turned back toward deep space as contracts expired, the farm system went fallow, and ownership couldn’t or wouldn’t spend the money necessary to keep the roster intact. The Chiefs are different. The Chiefs are built to last. The Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes.
This may sound presumptuous, but there’s simply no way to sugarcoat it: Mahomes is the most valuable asset in American sports, and it’s not particularly close. He is the best player in football, good enough to be the league MVP in his first season as a starter and Super Bowl MVP in his second. He is the youngest player in NFL history to accomplish both those things, and he’ll still be 24 when the 2020 season begins in September. He plays the position that has arguably the greatest impact on a team’s chances of winning its respective sport’s title. And for better or worse, the NFL’s restrictive free-agency rules will keep Mahomes tied to the Chiefs far tighter than any player would be to his franchise in any other sport.
From the moment Bryce Harper debuted with the Nationals in 2012, everyone believed he would sign with the highest bidder after the 2018 season. LeBron James sprinkles victorious fairy dust on whatever franchise he deigns to sign with for four years at a time. But Mahomes is likely a Kansas City Chief for at least the next decade, and hopefully for life, barring some sort of nasty public divorce between him and the franchise. Right now, the two are the epitome of the model sports marriage.
As long as the Chiefs have Mahomes, they will perennially be considered a Super Bowl favorite. Now throw in one of the greatest football coaches of the 21st century, a young GM with a proven track record, elite skill players on both sides of the ball, and the fact that the Chiefs didn’t mortgage their future to win this Super Bowl, the way the Rams tried to last season by trading away every draft pick they had from now until the heat death of the universe. If you had to bet on one franchise to become the next great NFL dynasty, well, you could pick a team other than the Chiefs. It’s just not clear why you would.
But that’s a debate for another time. The great privilege of winning the Super Bowl is that it renders questions about the future academic. The Chiefs are Super Bowl champions right now. The flag they hoist above Arrowhead Stadium will fly forever. And no matter what happens next, I can live out the rest of my days knowing that whenever it is my time to shuffle off this mortal coil, I will do so having seen the two teams I’ve devoted my entire life to rooting for obtain the very thing for which I rooted. Sunday night brought closure. From now on, I am playing with house money.
And the thing about playing with house money is that, by definition, you can’t really lose. It’s just a matter of how much more you will win. Granted, maybe that takes some of the edge off being a Kansas City sports fan. Maybe each season won’t be quite as much of an emotional roller coaster. Maybe playoff games won’t have the same life-or-death feel. Sure, finishing another season without a title won’t be nearly as devastating as it was before, but maybe it will never feel as good to win it all as it did this first time.
But maybe it will. And I can’t wait to find out. First, though, we have some obligations to attend to. They’re holding a parade in Kansas City today.
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WATCH: Dying with dignity is a hot-button issue across Canada, one that’s about to be reignited when a landmark case goes before the supreme court. But, the federal government is now asking for an absolute prohibition on the practice. Vassy Kapelos explains.
OTTAWA – Federal government lawyers will argue for an “absolute prohibition” on assisted suicide in Canada, a position that could also impact provincial laws when a landmark case goes before the Supreme Court this fall.
In a factum filed with the court this summer, lawyers for the Attorney General of Canada say that assisted suicide must remain illegal to protect the most vulnerable in society.
“The preservation of life and the protection of vulnerable people – the poor, the elderly, people with disabilities – are societal interests of the highest order,” it says.
“An absolute prohibition sends the message that all lives are valued, and worthy of protection from those who may subtly encourage vulnerable people to terminate their lives.” Tweet This
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Lawyers cite the ongoing ethical debate even among physicians, and reference the “slippery slope” of where to draw the line for patients who ask for assisted suicide – last dealt with by the high court in the case of Sue Rodriguez in 1993.
READ MORE: ‘Growing demand’ for euthanasia and assisted suicide, health documents say
They also draw on examples from other countries such as Belgium, where euthanasia is approved when there is a “fear of future suffering.”
The Canadian Medical Association, which is acting as an intervener in the case, changed its position in August to allow physicians to follow their conscience on providing medical aid in dying – but only within the bounds of existing legislation.
“If the law were to change, the CMA would support its members who elect to follow their conscience,” reads the association’s factum.
It goes on to say the challenges physicians would face in making assessments about medical aid in dying “have been understated.”
Provincial jurisdiction?
The Supreme Court case is scheduled to be heard on Oct. 15. It comes from British Columbia, where two terminally-ill women challenged the government’s laws against assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada.
Gloria Taylor, who was terminally ill with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Kathleen Carter, who suffered from spinal stenosis, a degenerative condition which confined her to a wheelchair, have both since died.
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Carter’s daughter, Lee, is one of the plaintiffs.
If upheld, the ban could impact provinces such as Quebec, which earlier this year passed a “medical aid in dying” bill for terminally-ill patients.
Related News BCCLA takes assisted suicide fight to the Supreme Court
Lawyers for the department of justice argue that criminal law applies to provinces, even when addressing health care.
“Federal criminal law power has always reflected concerns for public health and safety, itself a broad and compelling constitutional interest,” the document says.
“The answer must be that there is no ‘core’ of provincial health jurisdiction that would include the power of physicians to euthanize patients or permit physicians to prescribe drugs for the purpose of allowing patients to kill themselves.’”
Dominique Talarico, a Montreal lawyer representing a doctor who is among four plaintiffs challenging Quebec’s law as unconstitutional, said his province’s legislation would be “dead in the water” if the court accepts the federal government’s arguments.
“The paramountcy or predominance of the Criminal Code would prevail over the rights that a province may have in legislating in health matters,” Talarico said.
A spokeswoman for Quebec’s justice minister said the province won’t comment until the Supreme Court makes its decision.
‘People should have a choice’
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For Maureen Taylor, the widow of Donald Low, the matter is about choice.
“All I’m advocating for is that people should have a choice over how they die. Not that this should be hoisted on anyone who doesn’t want it,” Taylor said in an interview.
Low, an infectious disease specialist who guided Toronto through the 2003 SARS outbreak, died from a brain tumour in September 2013. In a video made eight days before he died, Low pleaded for legalizing doctor-assisted suicide.
WATCH: Making the case for assisted suicide
Taylor believes her husband’s final days could have been different if he had been allowed to choose how he died.
“I lived it. I lived watching my husband,” said Taylor.
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“Instead of living his last weeks enjoying his moments with his grandchildren, and with his family, I saw him anxious, and nervous, and really agonizing over trying to find a way that he could have control over how he died.” Tweet This
She describes her husband’s final days as “awful.”
Taylor, a physician’s assistant in the emergency room at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital, believes assisted suicide will not lead to a “slippery slope” if regulated properly by the federal government.
“This has to be decriminalized. You cannot prosecute physicians who out of compassion help patients who ask for it to end their life,” said Taylor.
“But to address the concerns of those who worry about the vulnerable and a slippery slope…I think we need regulation, and that’s what I’d like to see.”
A spokeswoman for Justice Minister Peter MacKay said the minister was not available for an interview, and reiterated the government’s position regarding assisted suicide.
“Assisted suicide is an emotional and divisive issue for many Canadians. It is our government’s position that the Criminal Code provisions prohibiting assisted suicide and euthanasia are in place to protect all persons, including those who are most vulnerable in our society,” spokeswoman Clarissa Lamb said in an email.
Lamb referenced the previous time Parliament debated a Bloc Quebecois “die with dignity” bill in April 2010 – which was defeated by a majority of votes in the House of Commons.
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“We will respect democratic will on this issue,” she said. | {
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A third Portland businessman and longtime supporter of Republican candidates backed away from Donald Trump on Monday, saying he never agreed to be listed as a host of the presidential nominee's Seattle fundraiser.
Portland investor Peter Stott said in a statement Monday he has no role in Trump's campaign and has asked the campaign and Republican Party to remove his name from materials for the Washington event. An invitation to the fundraiser was obtained and reported by the Seattle Times.
"While I have been a longtime supporter of Republican candidates and causes, I have no role in the Trump campaign and did not approve the use of my name in conjunction with any Trump campaign event in Seattle," Stott said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive. "I have requested that the campaign and Republican Party correct their records and remove my name from any invitations or other materials."
Portland hotelier Gordon Sondland and his business associate Bashar Wali, who was also listed as a host of the Seattle event, are also withholding support from Trump, a spokeswoman told The Oregonian/Oregonlive on Sunday. The Trump campaign had announced in July Sondland help fundraise for the candidate in Oregon as a state victory finance chair.
-- Hillary Borrud
503-294-4034; @hborrud | {
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The UCI Presidency After One Year
A year ago this week Brian Cookson was elected president in a contest that was close and at times bitter. Today the role of the UCI President is barely a talking point. Still as the sport’s top official Cookson’s role matters.
Feargal McKay has done a good job for cyclingnews.com reviewing Brian Cookson’s manifesto pledges to see what’s happened since. Bear in mind these pledges are ongoing, there was no commitment to achieve everything by now but it allows us to see the direction of travel. With this in mind, let’s take a wider look at the cultural and managerial changes.
On those campaign pledges the Independent Reform Commission carries on its work and feels like a promise that had to be kept. It is costly and we’ll have to wait for the report to see if it’s value for money.
Institutional Change
Brian Cookson isn’t a messianic figure with a powerful charisma and this is one reason he got elected. The voting delegates wanted someone calm to handle sensitive cases. So we can’t expect him to change everything alone. To effect change Cookson and Martin Gibbs, the UCI’s new Director General, have had clear out of old regime. Several names high on the UCI organigramme have moved on, especially from management and in the legal department. Normal as some the incumbent stuff where found to be working on Pat McQuaid’s election campaign, notably Christophe Hubschmid who was the UCI Director General and the architect of McQuaid’s awkward search for a nomination. Chuckle.
All of the UCI’s commissions, their word for committees, feature a woman. Symbolic for now as it’s too early to see more changes. There are still plenty of easy fixes in place, for example there’s still a rule for the World Championships stipulating six “maids of honor” must deliver the medals.
Sporting Change
Jens Voigt owes Brian Cookson a drink, maybe even a case of fine wine. If the Hour Record was reset it’s because of a new and more relaxed approach to bike technology. The Hour had become track cycling’s version of L’Eroica thanks to its requirement for a vintage “Merckx” position. But the rules were changed to allow riders to use current track bikes, for example a bike approved for the 4,000m pursuit today can be used for the Hour. There’s more due to change with a review of the 6.8kg weight limit, an arbitrary limit set in 1999 when today’s technology have evolved.
Not all modernity is attributable to the new boss. This year’s novelty of on-bike cameras is coincidental and the result of long-running discussions. The same for the mooted calendar changes and World Tour reform, it’s all part of an ongoing process that Cookson has perpetuated rather than innovated. What matters is how he manages this.
Management Style
At times Brian Cookson seems to react to events. It’s trivial when there’s silly fuss on Twitter about the kit design of a Colombian women’s team he wades in with a view, a bit clumsy here as it doesn’t look too Presidential. We all tweet in haste and his appearance on Twitter is welcome and a useful communications tool.
To the many who have raised the issue of a certain women’s team kit, we are on the case. It is unacceptable by any standard of decency. — Brian Cookson OBE (@BrianCooksonUCI) September 14, 2014
But it’s more fundamental at times. For example when accused of a conflict of interest over his son Oliver’s job at Team Sky he’s forced to deny it rather fall back on conflict of interest management procedures. This story blew up in with the fuss following the leak about Chris Froome’s TUE at the Tour de Romandie where the UCI had to tighten up its procedures for TUE issuance, a point raised by an audit two months before the scandal erupted. Again the UCI was responding and tightened things up for the Tour de France.
We had another case with the news of Dennis Menchov. The UCI has started quietly uploading a PDF list of doping cases to its website rather than publicising cases… only for everyone to be astounded at the catch of Dennis Menchov. In a Kafka-esque moment the UCI issued a press release to confirm what its own PDF said. To be clear we don’t need a fanfare for every bust but when a grand tour winner is caught by the passport system a brief one or two line announcement is fitting, especially as it’s more significant that a lot of the UCI’s worthy press releases about coaching days in its car park. There are more examples, see Diego Ulissi being provisionally suspended the day after Lampre-Merida put him in the Coppa Bernocchi race rather than before.
Not Pat McQuaid
Pat McQuaid had his strengths but his weaknesses too. The tendency to charge into issues and make a clumsy mess caused divisions and provocation. Sometimes it was way to get things done but it undermined the governing body’s image and authority at times too and McQuaid paid the price for it a year ago. It’s here that we see one of the most attractive changes, it’s not what the UCI is doing but rather what’s it stopped doing. There are no more turf wars, awkward interviews and rule-bending ruses.
Not that it’s perfect, for example Cookson felt moved to describe Roman Kreuziger’s bio-passport, telling cyclingnews.com “there are very serious anomalies” when it would have been wiser to avoid comment.
Cookson’s comment on Kreuziger’s passport brings us to the UCI’s anti-doping efforts which are described as independent but obviously the President is getting briefed on matters which makes you wonder about the independence. The Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation is still listed as “c/o Union cycliste internationale”. If it’s independent, it’s in an adolescent phase as the CADF still living at home with its parents and reliant on the UCI to manage its funding.
The UCI today announced it’s creating a new independent tribunal to hear some doping cases rather than entrust other National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs). This could be a strong move to ensure more consistent and speedier rulings but the tension between one part of the UCI tasked with prosecuting cases and another that will be hearing them creates obvious traps.
Where’s Pat McQuaid?
In case you wondered the former UCI President has retired to Dublin and made only a few appearances at races and given even fewer interviews. He cuts a discreet figure but in his interviews remain defiant, the same combative stance he took in office. In fact he’s just blasted Brian Cookson over the loss of the Tour of Beijing.
Conclusion
If the UCI Presidency were a bike race then Cookson’s out on the course and has reached the first intermediate checkpoint. There’s a long way to go before any finish line or judgement. So far so good? To stretch the race metaphor Cookson’s less accident-prone and made fewer handling errors than his predecessor but he’s not immune to a wobble. Tactically the UCI President seems prone to reacting to moves rather than controlling events.
The UCI Presidency isn’t a race nor a competitive role but there is a time limit. Like any new arrival Cookson’s brought a stock of goodwill to the UCI and deploying this to get stuff done early matters, it’ll get used up as difficult decisions over reforms, budgets and more have to be taken. There have been visible changes whether increased women’s representation, the UCI’s website or technical alterations which allowed Jens Voigt’s Hour Record but it’s the bigger reforms that matter. These aren’t Cookson’s creations but they are now his responsibility. | {
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祭nine.のリーダー寺坂頼我、モデルとしても活躍中の高野海琉
ほか2.5次元若手俳優が魅せる
青春ヴァンパイア・ホラーの決定版！
男性エンターテインメントグループ“BOYS AND MEN”の弟分として活躍する“祭nine.”のリーダー寺坂頼我がヴァンパイアと戦う高校生を演じる青春ホラー映画『バイバイ、ヴァンプ！』が、2020年2月14日(金)よりユナイテッド・シネマ アクアシティお台場ほか全国公開。
本作品は、日本の茨城県のある町の高校で、ヴァンパイアに噛まれた生徒が同性を好きになるという事件が勃発するという、突拍子もないストーリーで描かれる本作は、高校生の異性に対する恋愛感情や友情といったものを、予想外の展開で描かれた笑いもある青春ホラー映画となっています。
出演は、“祭nine.”のリーダーであり『ＢＤ〜明智探偵事務所〜』で主演を演じた寺坂頼我、モデル・俳優としても活躍中の高野海琉、祭nine.の先輩グループであるBOYS AND MEN で活躍し、『人狼ゲーム インフェルノ』ほか俳優としても活躍中の平松賢人に、舞台「刀剣乱舞」、「あんさんぶるスターズ！」の橋本祥平、ツキプロ「S.Q.S(スケアステージ)」の瀬戸啓太、舞台「B-PROJECT」のとまんなど、話題の2.5 次元舞台で活躍する男優陣と、ミスセブンティーンのマーシュ彩、モデルや女優としても活躍中の工藤美桜、『ちはやふる』の美月音寧といった期待の若手女優陣、そして澤山瑠奈、渡辺裕之、ガレッジセールのゴリ、なべおさみ、川平慈英、SIZUKUと豪華な顔ぶれが周りを固めています。
監督は「特命係長只野仁」シリーズや「チーム・バチスタの栄光」等のテレビドラマ監督を務めた植田尚が手掛けています。 | {
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Watching A Real Rally Driver Play DiRT Rally Will Leave You Speechless
Will Orders won the 2011 Australian Junior Rally Championship, and has piloted a Nissan Silvia rally car, so he's cool in our book. Here he displays superhuman reactions in the virtual world, often counter-steering and settling the car in the blink of an eye | {
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United States federal prosecutors are reportedly building a case implicating North Korea's government of orchestrating an $81 million cyber heist from the Bangladesh central bank's account at the New York Federal Reserve.
The Wall Street Journal, citing officials familiar with the matter, reported on Wednesday that prosecutors also believe Chinese middlemen helped Pyongyang plunder Bangladesh Bank's funds. The case implicates the country of North Korea, rather than any particular North Korean officials, and also includes charges against the Chinese middlemen or businesses allegedly involved.
The US Treasury is reportedly also considering sanctions against the middlemen.
It follows public statements made by Richard Ledgett, the deputy director of the US National Security Agency, on Tuesday, in which he suggested North Korea could be linked to the incident. Private firms have reportedly long suspected the reclusive state's involvement.
The Bangladesh central bank was victim of one of the biggest cyber heists in modern times.
'One of the biggest heists in modern times'
FBI officials have been leading an international investigation after the Bangladesh Bank's funds went missing in February 2016, amounting to one of the biggest bank robberies in modern times.
The breach saw hackers infiltrate Bangladesh Bank's systems and use the SWIFT message network to try to withdraw up to $1 billion from its New York Fed accounts over a series of requests.
While the Fed rejected most requests, some still ended up being processed. That resulted in $81 million being transferred from the account into casinos and other entities in the Philippines. The hackers successfully transferred the funds by using authenticated international bank transfer codes in the SWIFT system, rather than hacking the bank.
A Dhaka police investigator reported back in December that officials within Bangladesh Bank had intentionally exposed its computer to allow the hackers to get in.
The incident exposed major communication flaws between central banks, and for months left all parties involved trading the blame.
SWIFT - or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication - has admitted that its systems had been targeted a "meaningful" number of times last year using approaches similar to the Bangladesh incident. However, it has denied responsibility for the hack or any other weaknesses in how Bangladesh installed and operated the system.
dm/jr (Reuters, AFP) | {
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American voters believe free market competition will protect Internet users more than government regulation and fear that regulation will be used to push a political agenda.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 21% of Likely U.S. Voters want the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the Internet as it does radio and television. Fifty-four percent (54%) are opposed to such regulation, and 25% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The survey was conducted shortly after the FCC decided on a party line vote to impose so-called “net neutrality” regulations on the Internet world. Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly oppose FCC regulation of the Internet, while Democrats are more evenly divided. Those who use the Internet most are most opposed to FCC regulations.
By a 52% to 27% margin, voters believe that more free market competition is better than more regulation for protecting Internet users. Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly share this view, but a plurality of Democrats (46%) think more regulation is the better approach.
Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters believe that the FCC would use its regulatory authority to promote a political agenda. Half that number (28%) disagree and believe the commission would regulate in an unbiased manner. The partisan divide is the same on this question as the others. A plurality of Democrats sees an unbiased regulatory approach, while most Republicans and unaffiliated voters fear a political agenda.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide was conducted on December 23, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted byPulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology. | {
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Cyprus and Greece have expanded their tripartite cooperation agreements beyond the Eastern Mediterranean region by including Armenia in their regional cooperation formations, Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday.
Armenia is the newest addition to a series of tripartite cooperation agreements Cyprus and Greece have forged with Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his counterparts from Greece and Armenia, Christodoulides said the three countries set the ground for closer cooperation and decided to hold a summit soon.
“The aim of the tripartite cooperation agreement is to promote peace, security, stability and prosperity through an enhanced political dialogue,” Christodoulides said.
He added that sectors of common interest were explored for joint action, while Cyprus and Greece expressed their intention to promote the strengthening of relations between the European Union and Armenia.
Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said the new platform was very important, adding that the three countries set down their next joint effort moves.
He said that Armenia will host a summit for the three countries in the near future. Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Katrougalos said that the three countries share historical ties and common positions.
“We agreed to cooperate in international organizations on issues such as the recognition of the Armenian genocide,” Katrougalos added.
[Xinhua] | {
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The Minnesota Wild have been looking to make a move to bolster the Minnesota Wild's depth. Chuck Fletcher's solution? Sean Bergenheim.
No doubt with Jason Zucker, Ryan Carter, and Matt Cooke out with injury for two weeks- not to mention Dallas, Winnipeg, and Nashville beefing up- Fletcher had been looking to make a move to offset the injury bug. However, a move had not been made as of yet because the prices have been high due to lack of sellers.
Fletcher's patience paid off, as a 3rd-round pick in 2016 is a fairly small price to pay for a player you feel is an upgrade to your team.
Which will now lead to the question- is Bergenheim, in fact, an upgrade to the Minnesota Wild?
Bergenheim is a player that may not stand out as an outstanding trade deadline acquisition. Bergenheim is 31 years old, which means that the odds he'll factor into the Wild's long-term plans aren't great. Bergenheim had also been a healthy scratch for the Panthers since February 12th. In 9 NHL seasons, Bergenheim has only played 65+ games twice, and his career-high in points is only 29.
So why has Bergenheim generated some buzz among certain segments of the blogosphere? Well, here's The Hockey News' scouting report of Bergenheim.
Can play the role of an all-around winger. Skates very well and loves to shoot the puck from anywhere. Is versatile and defensively sound. Is also capable of going on major hot streaks on offense.
A Left-Winger with speed who will shoot the puck from anywhere? Sounds a lot like a decent replacement for Jason Zucker's skill-set. It should come as no surprise that he's defensively sound, considering his Finnish nationality, and that aspect of his game should mean that he can contribute either in a Top-6 or Bottom-6 role, which will be great for the Wild, who've been moving guys up and down the lineup since Zucker's clavicle injury.
That scouting report is very much supported by his advanced stats, which is pretty encouraging to most of the Hockey Wilderness staff. He's shown a good ability to drive possession, he scores at a pretty decent rate, and he does in fact shoot the puck a ton. His 9.08 Shots/60 at 5-on-5 surpasses the shooting frequency of Phil Kessel, Jeff Carter, Corey Perry, Gabriel Landeskog, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares, and some guy named Sidney Crosby. No big deal.
For a pretty good visualization of Bergenheim's per-minute production, let's use his HERO chart, developed by Domenic Galamini of ownthepuck.com. This data goes back to the 2012-13 season, meaning there's a pretty meaningful sample of data to work with here.
As you can see, Bergenheim gets the 5v5 ice time of a second-liner, has the point production to earn that ice time, scores goals like a first-liner, drives possession and shoots at an elite level.
So, why is his highest single-season point total only 29?
As we've mentioned earlier, he tends to get a bit sidetracked by injuries. He surely would've cracked the 30-point mark last season, for example, had he played 82 games rather than the 62 he played last season. In addition to this, his Power Play opportunities have been limited throughout his career. Since 2012-13, Bergenheim is only 14th among Panther forwards in Power Play time, despite his prolific shooting. As we saw with Jason Zucker this season, being injured and not getting PP time can really bog down point totals.
Overall, this is a really solid move from Chuck Fletcher to show his team that he's not going to stop trying to improve just because the Wild are currently back in a playoff spot. Bergenheim should add some of the speed, shooting, and scoring they lost when Zucker broke his clavicle, and Bergenheim should fit pretty much anywhere in the lineup. For the price of only two third-round picks, Fletcher has saved his team's season (with the Dubnyk trade), and upgraded in areas of need for the stretch run. You should all be pleased with this trade.
Some more perspective from fellow HW writer Angelica Rodriguez: | {
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finally been at company long enough for Xmas Bonus Boss says no bonuses this year
332 shares | {
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Promotion valid on Prezzee only when you purchase a $150 Prezzee eGift Card. Once you purchase a $150 eGift Card you will receive a separate email within 3 hours with your bonus $15 Prezzee eGift Card.
Offer ends 5:30pm 8.12.19. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. | {
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The 2018 midterm elections are the most important elections of our lifetimes … at least since the previous election. It’s a topic discussed in this week’s Political Gabfest podcast, which is hosted by Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and John Dickerson. Special guest David Axelrod, former chief strategist for Barack Obama, dropped by to discuss the intersections of politics and violence and also Trump’s attempts to steer the election coverage leading up to the midterms.
Below you’ll find a partial transcript of their conversation. For the full discussion, listen to Political Gabfest via the audio player below, or get the show via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.
David Plotz: The midterm elections are Tuesday. This election has felt like it’s been building up for, really, for two years practically—since the moment Donald Trump was elected, it feels like Democrats have been waiting for this moment. David, how do you feel?
David Axelrod: I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to friends on both sides, and everybody seems to agree on a few things. One is that it’s highly likely that Democrats will take the House but probably not by that many seats. Nobody’s sure of anything, by the way. But I think the general sense is that Democrats will win the House, and that Republicans will win the Senate, and they may expand their majority there. And it could be anywhere from one to three additional seats.
I think the other storyline is going to be governorships, though. I think Democrats are going to win a bunch of governorships. And they’re gonna do very well in the very places where Donald Trump took the presidency, in states like Michigan, perhaps Ohio and Wisconsin, maybe Florida. And, in all those states, I think Democratic senators are going to be re-elected. So I expect a mixed result with the president claiming victory, whatever happens.
Plotz: Emily, there’s been this sensation of dirty tricks. There was an attempt to smear Robert Mueller, just moments before the election, as a sexual harasser, which was exposed as being pure trickster-ism, pure criminal activity of the people trying to smear him.
But then, also you had the president—and I think all presidents attempt to gain an advantage for their party during a midterm or a presidential election campaign, so it’s no surprise that President Trump is trying to do that—but the [president’s] mechanisms, with the caravan, the sending troops to the border, the birthright citizenship nonsense, seem particularly blatant this time around.
Emily Bazelon: Yeah. And also, we, the media, keep falling for [the tricks] over and over again. And I don’t know what to do about that. I feel like I keep reading these smart analyses of the problem, but we keep covering it because it’s sensational and incendiary. And it’s sticking to us like these bits of, I don’t know, detritus or tar, something. And we keep falling into the trap.
Even as I’m reading these helpful, smart op-ed pieces explaining why birthright citizenship is a constitutional right by people like George Conway, a lawyer married to Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s closest advisers, I feel like the whole thing is an exercise in futility because we’re giving attention to the topic that the president wants us to be talking about in the week before the election. Instead of pre-existing conditions of sick people, and what the Republican plan would really do to expose people to a lot of risk who have health problems.
It’s so hard to figure out how to break this pattern on television, online, and here on the Gabfest. And that problem is distracting me from paying attention to the elections. Which, I don’t know, I also feel like the last few days before the election is always so confusing. It’s just really hard to know exactly what’s going on.
Axelrod: But isn’t that the genius of—I mean, it’s a diabolical genius, of Donald Trump. He understands the modern media environment better than anybody. He came out of it. He thinks of life in terms of ratings. He’s probably been thinking about that question for some time: What grenades can I launch, in the last week [before the election], to really torque this thing up? So that is his genius. The question is whether you cover it as a tactic, or you cover it as a serious issue. I think it should be covered as a tactic. I think it should be made clear—
Bazelon: And also given less airtime, right?
Axelrod: —just like his phantom tax cut, that he said was coming before the election, even though Congress was out of session.
Bazelon: I’m agreeing with you but also arguing that it’s a matter of volume, right? That yes, it’s a tactic. And also, it shouldn’t crowd out other substantive issues, the way it is doing.
John Dickerson: We covered it as a tactic [on CBS]. Everything David says I think is right. It could have been embedded in stories which were also running that day, about 5,000 troops being sent to the border. Now, that you can’t ignore. The military is being mobilized in the move to the border. That’s a piece of news.
Axelrod: Or so we’re told.
Dickerson: Well, but I mean, when the secretary of defense says—
Axelrod: Well, now it’s 15,000, John. And the question is, where will it be next Wednesday? It may go the way of the phantom tax cut.
Bazelon: And it’s another tactic.
Dickerson: Stipulating that it’s a tactic—I’m trying to draw a distinction between the president winging off something in conversation, and something that he’s got the Defense Department, at least at some level, mobilizing to do. And as a way of packaging it so that people can understand the distinctions, here.
The question I have for you, David, is, in conversations I’ve been having recently, with Republicans, some have marveled at the discipline from Democrats, at continuing to talk about pre-existing conditions all through the last several months, and not taking the bait on some of these issues, not getting into a war that takes place on turf that the president wants it to take place on. What’s your take on the apparent discipline, among Democrats, on the health care issue?
Axelrod: No, I think that is absolutely true. I just watched the cascade of ads, sitting in Chicago. We’ve got some hot congressional races out there. And the Democratic ads are almost all focused on that, and I think it’s been smart. You hear a lot of people that [say,] Democrats love to wring their hands and talk about how the Democratic Party has no message, and so on. And the truth is, there’s rarely a national message when you don’t have the White House.
But there is this insight that this issue has touched a chord in people, and the proof of it isn’t just that Democrats have been disciplined—now Republicans all over the country are forced to run ads saying, Oh, no. We want to protect people with pre-existing conditions. And it tells you how powerful that issue is.
Plotz: On the right, this issue of immigration, which to me, is mostly a mirage issue—immigration is not a crisis, in my mind—but, clearly, Republicans are galvanized about it. Should Democrats have found a way to engage on that issue? It feels like they’ve totally ceded the territory to Republicans.
Axelrod: I’ve had Democratic strategists talk to me about that and proposed that there should be a sane alternative to what to do about the caravan, and so on. I think that there is some merit to that. There’s also merit to keep on doing what appears to be working for you. I think where the caravan thing is going to work for Trump, is in places where he might have gotten Republicans to flow his way on in these red states. He may profit in these Senate races.
I will say this: Every single person I’ve spoken to, Republican and Democrat, who are involved in these races said something changed after the events of last week—whatever momentum the Republicans had was halted. And the president has lamented about that, more than he has about particularly the bomber. One Republican, a top Republican, said to me, We’re sort of back to where we were before the Kavanaugh hearings. Except in those red states, where this, I think, this immigration issue has galvanized the president’s base.
Plotz: John, does the Senate seem generationally doomed for Democrats? Is the institution completely lost? Or is it just the circumstance, that is that they just happen to be defending a lot of seats, and in years to come, they’ll recover? There is this issue of the small states, the population distribution makes the Senate a much harder get. Do you feel like the Democrats are completely hosed on it?
Dickerson: I don’t think so, just because I have that general feeling, which I know I’ve expressed before—I’ve always felt like, and we’ve seen this a few times, people say, Oh, the Democratic Party is dead. Suddenly after John Kerry lost [people said,] The Democratic Party’s got nothing, and then Barack Obama comes along. Then it turns into, The Republican Party is over. And then they retake the House. So I think this is a bad map for Democrats—
Axelrod: Worst in 100 years.
Dickerson: Yeah. I think one thing to keep in mind is incumbents usually get re-elected. This is a Democratic year. Presidents usually … lose Senate seats. So all the momentum is going in the Democrats’ direction. And yet, as David said, the Republicans might even pick up seats, which tells you something about how things have changed in the diehard partisanship that was not always a part of American elections. I was going back and looking at ’86 and ’82, and there are these great long articles about dealignment and the idea that, basically, politics wasn’t partisan anymore. There was this free-floating electorate that would kind of pick and choose candidates—
Bazelon: Hmm, what a fantasy.
Dickerson: —regardless of their parties. But I guess I feel like I don’t know the answer to your question, David. I feel like the next election, in 2020, is a better map for Democrats. And also, remember how people were saying, Oh, the Midwest is dangerous territory for Democrats. As David pointed out, all the Senate races in the Midwest are pretty much looking fine for Democrats, in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and Wisconsin … I guess the point is a lot of things that people think are the case actually change pretty quickly.
Axelrod: I think one of the reasons Mitch McConnell feels a sense of urgency about trying to get as many seats as possible is that he looks forward to 2020, and the map isn’t very good for Republicans—he wants to bankroll as many seats as he can here. These states tend to go tribal and follow their presidential picks in Senate races. The fact that six or seven Democrats might survive, I’d feel pretty good about that. I don’t think they necessarily will, but I think that’s probably a pretty good batting average, given the proclivities of the country right now.
Plotz: Emily, what’s your sense about whether the ballot access fights are going to energize or depress voting, especially among Democrats?
Bazelon: You can’t overstate the significance of kicking people off the registration rolls. Because when you do that, then they just literally can’t vote. And there are states like Georgia, where hundreds of thousands of people have had their registrations rejected or been taken off the rolls. Ohio is another state with tens of thousands of people [purged from the rolls]. So that has a real impact. I do think that telling people that the franchise is threatened, in some way, can make it seem more valuable to them.
But everything we know about messaging and voting suggests that you have to say, Hey, here’s this good candidate who is interested in this, that connects to you, and Voting is something that everybody does, that you wanna be a part of. [It’s not about] the sort of hectoring or scolding people into making them feel like they have to perform this duty. So that makes me think that the fears about losing [the right to] vote are not going to be super powerful for people who aren’t already engaged.
I’m just constantly struck, going about life, by how many people are not engaged. I think one of the reasons, John, that you’re right, that maps change, and party alignments change, is that people are persuadable, in part because they’re not paying very much attention. Maybe at a different point in the nation’s history, or maybe we’ll see more turnout now, but the number of people who just don’t really know a whole lot about this, and don’t really care, remains huge. I mean, I run into those people lots and lots [where I live] in Connecticut.
Axelrod: On the positive side—this has been kind of a beat down on Donald Trump, and I want to give him credit. I think he’s actually responsible for what is likely to be the biggest turnout in a midterm since the mid-’60s. For the first time in my lifetime Democrats are actually outspending Republicans in most of these districts because of small donations that have come through. I expect that there’s going to be a very, very big vote next Tuesday.
Dickerson: When people ask you why they should vote, what do you tell them?
Axelrod: Well, I don’t have to work very hard to say we’ve had examples in the last 10 years of how politics matter. And I can point to things that were done over the Obama administration that have had a palpable impact on people’s lives. The Affordable Care Act, pulling the country out of a potentially catastrophic economic disaster, and so on. And then we’ve seen the impact that this president has had. Anybody who says elections don’t matter, at this point, simply isn’t paying attention. And this is the fundamental way in which we grab the wheel of history and turn it in the direction we think is right. | {
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A slightly conservative Christian mother has become an unwitting overnight internet celebrity after asking her modest group of 117 followers to tell her what the device she found in her son’s bathroom was. It has since been retweeted 8,000 times. | {
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TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott has financial ties to the vendor that operates the troubled SunPass toll-collection system.
Scott's financial link to the SunPass vendor is at least the seventh reported example of the wealthy governor's personal investments in corporations that do business with or are regulated by the state he governs.
Here's how public documents explain the latest link:
• By late June, records show, a manager of a hedge fund called Highline Capital Management held 7 million shares of stock worth $127 million in Conduent Inc.
• Scott and his wife Ann have invested at least $5 million in the fund managed by Highline, according to a financial disclosure Scott filed in July because of his U.S. Senate bid.
• A Conduent subsidiary, Conduent State and Local Solutions, won a $287 million Florida contract in 2015 to manage SunPass.
• The contract, which has grown to $343 million, was awarded by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) whose secretary is appointed by Scott. Direct oversight of Conduent is the responsibility of the Florida Turnpike Enterprise, an arm of FDOT.
• Scott attended a Senate campaign fund-raiser in Dallas in May at which his hosts included Darwin Deason, a Texas investor and a major shareholder in Conduent.
Florida suspended payments to Conduent in July and slapped the company with $780,000 in penalties in August for missing deadlines specified in its contract with the state.
The state said in August it would reimburse motorists who were charged bank fees and overdraft charges because of glitches with SunPass, which millions of residents and tourists must use on state and local expressways.
Scott's office asked for an investigation by the transportation department's Office of Chief Inspector General. But the governor took no action for nearly two months, WTSP Channel 10 reported, and he continued to defend FDOT's handling of the SunPass debacle as customer complaints mounted.
At least 170 million transactions were delayed because of a billing system upgrade.
"We will not let Conduent off the hook," Transportation Secretary Mike Dew said in August. "The bill for reimbursements will be sent directly to Conduent."
FDOT formally apologized to affected motorists last month.
At least seven other states have reported problems with Conduent's customer service operations: California, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Texas.
The Scotts' 125-page financial disclosure statement, filed on July 27, lists four separate investment accounts with Highline Capital Partners.
The largest account, valued at $1 million to $5 million, is listed solely in the governor's name. Three other accounts valued at $1 million each are listed in the name of Ann Scott or a dependent child. The Scotts have two daughters.
Scott, a wealthy former hospital executive, saw his net worth skyrocket in 2017 by more than $83 million to more than $232 million — a 55 percent increase over the previous year.
The Scotts' investment in Conduent isn't trivial. Conduent's sixth-largest shareholder,according to public documents, is Highline Capital Management.
Private investments made by the Scotts have raised alarms before about a possible conflict between the governor's duties and his personal life. Other investments that posed questions involve health care, a high-speed rail system, a natural gas pipeline, prescription drugs, mosquito control and an oil services company.
Scott, a Republican, is in a tight battle for the U.S. Senate against Bill Nelson, a Democrat who's seeking a fourth term. Voters will elect one of them on Nov. 6 in a race that's seen as critical in deciding which party will control the Senate.
"This is another example of how Mr. Scott's investments have included companies that stood to benefit from his administration's actions," said Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for Nelson.
Scott's campaign declined to directly address questions about his SunPass-related investment, including whether it represented a conflict of interest for the governor.
The Scott campaign criticized the Times/Herald for asking what it said were "redundant questions" about the governor's personal finances.
"Has the Times assigned you to exclusively comb through the governor's financial disclosure?" campaign spokeswoman Lauren Schenone wrote in an email. "Is the Times going to cover Bill Nelson's investments, which he has total control over?"
The campaign referred the Times/Herald to a set of questions and answers it released in July and noted that Scott's investments are in a blind trust managed by an "independent third party" to shield investments from Scott's control to avoid potential conflicts of interest.
"The governor has no control over what is bought or sold in the blind trust," Scott's campaign said.
However, a Times/Herald analysis showed that for years, Scott's family bought and sold assets that closely mirrored those in the blind trust. The trust is managed by a trustee, Alan Bazaar, who had been a Scott business associate before he became governor.
The blind trust was approved by the Florida Commission on Ethics in 2011, the year Scott became governor. Scott has not said whether he would continue to use a blind trust if he is elected to the Senate.
The blind trust has been a subject of legal challenges. A case pending in the First District Court of Appeal would require Scott to disclose more details about his blind trust.
Tampa Bay Times staff writer Hannah Denham contributed to this report. Contact Steve Bousquet at [email protected] and follow @stevebousquet. | {
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ロンドンは「自転車革命」で自転車が激増しているのですが、それが如実に見えるのはやはり都心の話。東京都の3分の2ほどの面積があるロンドン市全体に目を向けると、外側の区では都心のように自転車の利用が伸びていません。これに取り組むことも市の急務です。そこで、市が2013年にロンドンの郊外18区を対象に募集したのが、自転車や歩行者のための施策で街全体の環境改善をはかる「ミニ・オランダ」案でした。選ばれた3つの区には、それを実行に移すための予算55億円がそれぞれ与えられるというものです。
昨年秋にテスト規制を実施
「首都の交通対策におとなりの国の名前をつけちゃうの？ 大胆！」と最初は思ったものですが、たしかにオランダが自転車大国であることはイギリスでもよく知られているので、「人や自転車にやさしい町にする案を」というメッセージ効果には優れていると思います。変なプライドにこだわらず実をとろうというのは、いい姿勢です。
選ばれた3つの区のひとつ、市北東部のウォルサムフォレスト区は、2014年10月にいちはやく住宅地でクルマの通行規制など期間限定のテストを行いました。それについて、住民や地域事業主などからの聞き取り調査などがこの春までに概ねまとまってきたので、推移をご報告します。
ウォルサムフォレスト区が市に提出した応募計画は、PDFファイルでウェブサイト上に一般公開されています。自分たちの区がいかに自転車のプロモートに努力してきたかの自己紹介から、自転車レーンや交差点の整備計画、自転車レッスン、駐輪スペースの大規模増設など、この55億円で何をしたいのか、いまは自転車に乗っていない人たちを自転車に一歩近づけるための具体的なプランが見られます。なかなか情熱的なこのビジョンだから選ばれたのだな、と感心させられる内容です。
ハッピーな空間が生まれた一方で…
10月の通行規制テストはわたしも実際に足を運んで見てきたのですが、かなり波乱の幕開けでした。この通行規制は、ウォルサムストウという静かな住宅地と小さな商店街をベースに、ここを裏道利用ですり抜ける通勤などのクルマをなくすための取り組みでした。
しかし、ラジオなどで規制を知ったドライバーたちが、自分がはまっている渋滞もそのせいだと早合点したうえ、ツイッターなどで感情的な怒号を発し、路上の係員に食ってかかり、一方でオランダ化賛成派が猛烈に反論をし…口角泡を飛ばすことに躊躇しないイギリスならではの大バトルになってしまったのです。マスコミも、オランダ化に賛成しつつ、反対の声が多いことを報道していました。
実際の路上は、ふだん道沿いの店舗が見えないほどびっしりととまっている駐車車両が消え（テスト終了後の商店街の動画はこちらで見られます）、植木鉢の街路樹に囲まれた人工芝のスペースで編み物をする人、子どもを遊ばせる人などでとてもハッピーな空間になっていました。けれど、その明るい空間にやってきて区の担当者にガミガミ文句を言う人も。住民や、交通整理をしていた人たちの話を総合すると、テスト規制の周知が2週間前とかなり急だったこと、周知の手紙を書いたのが道路計画エンジニアで共感を得にくい冷たい文面だったことなどもマイナスになったようです。
せっかくのオランダ化がどうなることやらとかなり心配されたスタートでしたが、その後の住民への聞き取り調査結果を見ると、なんとか６割強の賛成を得て、引き続き住宅地へのクルマ流入規制案の策定、クルマの流れを穏やかにするコペンハーゲン式（なぜかここだけはデンマーク）交差点づくり、隔離された自転車レーンづくり―などが着工に向けて進むことになったようです。そのことは市民向け特設サイトで説明されています。
「ハイクオリティ」を意識する理由
自転車の活用をプッシュすべきはロンドン全市の課題なのに、今回のこの「ミニ・オランダ」計画ではたったの3区が選ばれ、比較的手厚い55億円ずつが配られたのは面白い手法だとも思います。これは、同じ限られた予算なら、薄く広く配って印象の薄いまま終わってしまうよりも、やる気のある狭い地域に大きな変化を生み出し、何が成功するのか（失敗するのか）を見極めよう、そして市民住民の意識の変化も見ようということなのです。
「自転車ユーザーを優遇するために55億円なんて使いすぎだ！」という短絡した声も、もちろん上がってきます。これに対しウォルサムフォレスト区は、いますでに自転車に乗っている人を優遇するためではないこと、歩行者の安全向上、交通量緩和による一帯の環境改善、植樹やくつろぎ空間の増加、自転車や歩行者増による商店街の活性化―などの理由を挙げ、結果的には市民の健康増や、市民のクオリティ・オブ・ライフ向上につながると説明しています。
また、ミニ・オランダ化をめぐっては「ハイクオリティ」という表現がよく出てきます。これは、以前レポートした全長29kmの新自転車道「東西サイクルスーパーハイウェイ」の敷設計画書にも現れ、キーワードになっているようです。ハイクオリティが意味するものは、路上に設置する仕切りの素材であったり、デザインであったり、プランそのものであったりしますが、その場しのぎの策ではない本物の解決策を目指すと強調しているのだと思うのです。
隔離された自転車レーンひとつにしても、いいデザインで高品質な素材を使うことで、社会における自転車交通の重要性を市民にアピールすることができるという説明がありました。本当にその通りだと思います。
とはいえ、ウォルサムストウでの実験に多くの批判が相次いだのを見ると、目指すべき社会の姿を多くの人に伝えて理解してもらい、まだ形がない取り組みに支持を得ることの難しさ・もどかしさも感じます。まして、反対にしろ賛成にしろ少数派の声をマジョリティであるかのように拡大解釈してしまうSNS時代。行政の担当者の苦労はかなりのもののはずです。
2015年4月には、実際の交差点の改良工事や、隔離自転車レーンの着工、植樹なども始まるとのこと。ここが成功すれば、ロンドンの自転車革命はさらにスピードに乗ることは確実です。いずれまた報告したいと思います。 | {
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American Muslims deserve a break. There are as many as 6 million to 8 million Muslims living in the United States and contributing to the country as doctors, engineers, artists, actors and professionals, but for a decade many have found themselves and their religion wrongly equated with the acts of terrorists like Osama bin Laden. Many have been the victims of fear, suspicion, prejudice, Muslim-bashing, unlawful surveillance, illegal search, arrest and imprisonment.
Efforts to build Islamic centers and mosques in New York, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Tennessee have been equated with building monuments to terrorism. Prominent American public figures and politicians -- including Bill O'Reilly, Sarah Palin, Rep. Peter King and Newt Gingrich -- openly spoke against Muslims and encouraged unfounded social suspicion of them. The net result is an increase in anti-Islam and anti-Muslim bashing, witnessed in the hysteria that has led to a movement across some 20 states in America to ban sharia.
Today's historic changes, the death of Osama bin Laden and the Arab Spring offer an opportunity to redress anti-Islam and anti-Muslim bias (Islamophobia) and to reaffirm that American Muslims, like other mainstream Americans, desire a secure and democratic America. Despite the fact that American Muslims years have had to explain that neither they -- nor their religion -- sanction terrorism.
Major polls have consistently shown American public opinion of Islam plunging. The furor over the proposed Islamic center (Park 51) in New York City resurfaced hostility toward Islam and Muslims. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, large minorities said they could not think of anything positive to say about Islam. In one study, 38 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Islam, compared to 30 percent who reported a positive view. Another study conducted by The Washington Post found Islam's unfavorable image creeping up to 49 percent among Americans.
This fear and hostility has been reinforced by the American public's basic ignorance and misunderstanding of Islam: The Pew Forum's September 2010 survey of religion literacy found that only about half of Americans know that the Quran is the holy book of Islam. It also found that less than a third know that most people in Indonesia -- the world's most populous Muslim nation -- are, in fact, Muslim. What many did know and fear were stereotypes based on misinformation.
Mainstream American Muslims have too often been equated inaccurately with terrorists and people who reject democracy. Muslim Americans cherish the freedoms guaranteed by the American Constitution as much as others and, as the Gallup World Poll of 35 Muslim countries reported, like all Americans, majorities of Muslims globally desire democracy and freedom and fear and reject religious extremism and terrorism.
Failure to recognize and appreciate these facts continues to feed a growing Islamophobia in America that threatens the safety, security and civil liberties of many American Muslims despite the fact that, as Gallup and Pew polls have shown, they are as educationally, economically and politically integrated as other Americans. It is time to remember and act on the words of President George W. Bush in calling upon all American to distinguish between the religion of Islam and the acts of a fraction of Muslims who commit acts of terrorism and President Barack Obama's words reminding Americans that: "the United States is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam. ... Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own."
It's time to turn a deaf ear to our preachers and politicians of hate and get it right with our American Muslim fellow citizens.
John L. Esposito, the author of 'The Future of Islam,' is the founding director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Sheila B. Lalwani is a research fellow at the center.
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An underground conservative newspaper at Taylor University was recently pressured into temporarily suspending publication for striking “fear in some students.”
The anonymous paper, called Excalibur, was launched in February by a group of professors as a means to articulate “conservative stances boldy, extensively, and without fear of editorial filter,” according to a copy of the print edition obtained by Campus Reform.
"While our administration did not specifically tell the writers of Excalibur/Res Publica to take their website down, they did make their concerns about the direction of the comments known to them."
[RELATED: Former prof recounts her ‘escape’ from political correctness]
“We are Taylor University faculty, staff, and students who heartily affirm the historic orthodox theological doctrines, as expressed in the Apostles creed and other classical ecumenical creeds,” the founders of the publication declared, claiming that the current campus publications “offer insufficient means to counter leftist trends.”
In particular, Excalibur took aim at campus social justice movements, arguing that “a conservative-libertarian approach to race relations is most respectful of racial minorities and holds out the most promise for long term racial justice in this country.”
The publication immediately sparked controversy, with students and alumni objecting to both the authors’ anonymity as well as their stances on current issues
In fact, a March 7 letter addressed to the “faculty behind Excalibur” collected more than 100 signatures and claimed that “in an anonymous publication, the authors have no credibility, however deserving they may be.”
“In absence of coherence, substantive rationale, or originality, the paper is thus left with no redeeming quality,” the letter stated, offering lengthy responses to several of Excalibur’s articles.
“Rather, this paper has served to deepen fault lines on campus, strike fear in some students, and evoke anger among some parents, students, faculty, and alum,” it added.
[RELATED: Students ‘fear’ Chick-fil-A will jeopardize their ‘safe place’]
According to Inside Higher Ed, University President Paul Lowell Haines expressed similar disdain for the publication, saying the “anonymous and suspect distribution of the publication sowed discord and distrust, hurting members of our community.”
“I am disappointed in the drafters and distributors of Excalibur for their method of addressing these issues, and especially for their lack of foresight and sensitivity regarding how this approach could impact community members, especially those of color,” he continued, saying that “whatever their good intentions, they failed.”
The student newspaper The Echo also joined in the discussion, condemning Excalibur for remaining anonymous.
“Anonymity does not provide adequate means of contact. This, in turn, robs those with counter insight the space to meet with the writer and voice their thoughts,” The Echo’s Editorial Board wrote.
Amid mounting pressure, four professors behind Excalibur revealed their identities and temporarily took down their website.
Director of Media Relations James Garringer confirmed to Campus Reform that “while our administration did not specifically tell the writers of Excalibur/Res Publica to take their website down, they did make their concerns about the direction of the comments known to them,” referring to the comments section on Excalibur’s website.
“They took the site down on a temporary basis and plan to go live again in the days/weeks to come,” he added.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowski | {
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Illustration by Christoph Niemann
In 1980, the third-party Presidential candidate John Anderson succinctly summed up Ronald Reagan’s promise to simultaneously cut taxes, increase defense spending, keep government services intact, and balance the budget: “Reagan’s budget is constructed with mirrors.” Sure enough, Reagan presided over eight years of deficits that tripled the national debt. Yet the Republican faith that you can tax-cut your way to deficit reduction has never dimmed. This year’s Republican race is dominated by candidates whose budgetary plans make Reagan’s look downright reasonable.
Not surprisingly, the most extreme plan is Donald Trump’s. He would slash taxes across the board, reducing revenues by nine and a half trillion dollars over the next decade, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Yet he has also promised to balance the budget, protect Social Security and Medicare, and not cut services. How? Well, he says he’ll get rid of “waste and fraud and abuse,” and abolish the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency. And he thinks that the tax cuts would spur an economic boom, so that revenues will actually increase.
This is pure fantasy. Those spending cuts would save just a tiny fraction of what he claims, and the revenue projections have no basis in reality. Yet, unrealistic as Trump’s ideas are, they differ from those of his chief opponents only in degree, not in kind. Marco Rubio wants to couple a $6.8-trillion tax cut with significant increases in defense spending, while Ted Cruz has proposed an $8.6-trillion tax cut with—guess what?—significant increases in defense spending. Naturally, Rubio and Cruz have been vague about where they’d find the necessary trillions in cuts, and about how what the government does would be affected. This is par for the course. Paul Ryan’s infamous budget of 2012 would have effectively eliminated nearly all the federal government’s non-defense discretionary spending, even as he insisted that he wanted to “strengthen” the social safety net and keep the government investing in infrastructure.
The candidates are engaged in a familiar dance. Voters always say that they’re worried about the deficit, but, as Brendan Nyhan, an assistant professor of government at Dartmouth, put it to me, they’re skittish when cuts are specified: “They may have a symbolic preference for cutting spending, but that’s different from their actual preference for spending on programs they like.” (A 2012 Pew poll found that the only program that voters were happy to cut was foreign aid.) So talking about spending cuts is risky: it’s safer to emphasize just the tax-cut part of your message. Still, we’ve now had thirty-five years of Republican candidates promising tax cuts, spending discipline, and balanced budgets, without ever delivering. Why haven’t voters woken up to this?
For one thing, decades of rhetoric about waste in Washington—one of Reagan’s favorite talking points—have skewed voter perceptions. “People think that there are a lot of ways to end fraud that would help balance the budget,” Nyhan says. Forty-nine per cent of those surveyed in a 2013 Fox News poll agreed that cutting “waste and fraud” could eliminate the national debt. In addition, voters have a poor sense of how government money is spent. When Trump says that he wants to close the Department of Education and the E.P.A., it might sound like a big saving. Yet their combined budgets amount to a small fraction of his proposed tax cut. Likewise with foreign aid: polls show that Americans think as much as a quarter of the federal budget goes to other countries, when it’s actually less than one per cent of total spending.
Voters have also been led to believe that tax cuts unleash such a tidal wave of growth that they pay for themselves. This supply-side dogma holds that, because tax cuts encourage people to work more and invest more (which is true), they can increase tax revenues relative to holding rates steady (which is not true). The empirical evidence is by now unequivocal that, with tax rates at U.S. levels, this doesn’t work; cutting tax rates simply leads to lower tax revenues, which is why, in the wake of the Reagan tax cuts, tax revenues as a share of G.D.P. fell. Yet for thirty-five years, through the Contract with America and the Bush Administration’s $1.6-trillion tax cut, the message has remained essentially the same: lower taxes, higher tax revenues. This message has been fact-checked and refuted over and over again, but, once something becomes an article of political faith, it’s difficult to dislodge. Indeed, Nyhan and the political scientist Jason Reifler carried out a study demonstrating that attempts to set the record straight can even reinforce misperceptions: self-described conservatives were shown evidence that the Bush tax cuts had lowered over-all revenues, but, Nyhan told me, “the information actually made them more likely to believe that the tax cuts had increased revenue.”
Voters didn’t come up with these misperceptions on their own. “The ideas spread because politicians and pundits told people they were true,” Nyhan says. “And once misperceptions are out there they’re very difficult to overcome.” In proffering a tax plan that seems self-evidently absurd, Trump is merely building on the foundation that Republican predecessors laid down and, as is his wont, pushing their ideas further than anyone thought they could go. In Trump, the Republican establishment has met its enemy: itself. ♦ | {
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Special counsel Robert Mueller asked former Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente to be interviewed as part of the probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Maddow's team said they had obtained a letter from Boente to Associate Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools, informing him of Mueller's request.
"The requested interview concerns activities occurring within the bounds and scope of my duties with the Department of Justice. I have no reason to believe that I am a subject or the target of the investigation," Boente wrote.
Boente served as acting deputy attorney general in 2017 after Sally Yates was fired.
He currently serves as the acting assistant attorney general of the National Security Division.
"As Acting Deputy Attorney General, I was responsible for the overall operation of the Department of Justice, and given the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the investigation of the Russian government's interference in the 2016 presidential election," Boente said in the letter.
The letter comes a day after the FBI raided the office of President Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Cohen's attorney said the raid by the U.S. attorney's office came "in part" from a referral from Mueller. | {
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SAN JOSE — With his team stumbling out of the starting gate and playing below .500 at home, Sharks coach Todd McLellan acknowledged Monday that he’s aware his job could be in jeopardy.
“I feel confident with myself and the coaching staff, but I’m also a realist,” McLellan said. “I know that the team hasn’t performed to the level that any of us are happy with — not just ownership and management, but also coaches and players aren’t happy with the results.”
The Sharks started the season with 16 of 21 games on the road, going 10-9-2. At home, however, they are 2-3-2 after suffering shootout losses to the Florida Panthers and Arizona Coyotes to start a six-game homestand that continues Wednesday night against the Calgary Flames.
“I understand the business,” McLellan said, “but I can tell you that we show up for work every day and that we put our work boots on and we try to make this group better. And we will over time. We just have to keep at it and see where it goes from there.”
More than one national hockey columnist, including respected Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com, has suggested McLellan, who has one year remaining on his contract, could lose his job if San Jose does not turn things around.
General manager Doug Wilson declined to respond to the outside speculation.
“We’re focused on getting some good practice time under our belts and the next game,” Wilson said.
After the Sharks suffered their epic playoff defeat to the Los Angeles Kings last spring, the general manager wasted no time in announcing that McLellan and the coaching staff would return this season.
While that created some stability, the offseason turned into one of mixed messages.
Wilson initially indicated his team was going through a rebuild and might have to take one step backward to take the next two forward. The general manager later noted that the process actually began at the 2013 trade deadline with the decision to go younger, though it was called a “refresh and reset” at the time.
And, Wilson later added, he and McLellan still expected the Sharks to make the playoffs.
The coach also had been presiding over the transition of locker room leadership, which Wilson said needed to happen. Eventually Joe Thornton lost the captaincy, though he and another former captain, Patrick Marleau, later were named alternate captains along with Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. On the ice, there were changes, too. Wilson announced that Brent Burns was moving back to the blue line after a full season at power forward. That transition has had mixed results, with Burns continuing to be an offensive force with 19 points while a minus-7 overall because of problems in his own end.
For whatever reason, the Sharks have looked listless and uninspired most nights — though McLellan took issue with that description.
“I would say the output is infrequent, it’s not consistent enough,” the coach said. “That’s concerning. When you look at the group as a whole, the level of battle can go up, the level of execution can go up. At the end of the day, we as a coaching staff are responsible for that, but the players also have to bring it.”
And what percentage of that falls on the coaches? How much is on the players?
“The minute you start breaking things down into who and what, I think it’s not a healthy thing for a hockey club,” McLellan said. “We’re in this together. The players and the coaching staff are all responsible for the product that’s on the ice.”
For more on the Sharks, see David Pollak’s Working the Corners blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/PollakOnSharks. | {
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Another week, another influx of intriguing pieces of crypto news. This week saw an array of interesting industry happenings, as the Bitcoin (BTC) price kept relatively flat. While there were some harrowing pieces of news, developments in this space were arguably positive overall.
Comments issued to NewsBTC at Token2049 would confirm this sentiment. Like many others we spoke to, Justin Sun, the chief executive of Tron, expressed optimism, explaining that the growth of the Lightning Network, the impending arrival of the block reward reduction, and his company’s BitTorrent integration is why he expects for the coming year to be strong.
Crypto Tidbits
Barclays Analyst Estimates Facebook to Net $19 Billion From Crypto Offering By 2021: Per CNBC, which cited research compiled by Barclays’ Ross Sandler, the Silicon Valley-based Facebook may stand to gain $19 billion in revenue by 2021 for the launch of Facebook Coin (FBCoin). Sandler explained that if worst comes to worst, the social media giant may ‘only’ net $3 billion revenues from the digital asset, a (centralized) cryptocurrency reported to be a USD-backed stablecoin for that social media ecosystem. This means that the Silicon Valley firm’s first consumer-facing blockchain product could be integral in the company’s future, which is now uncertain due to privacy concerns, executive departures, and the ever-present #deletefacebook movement.
Per CNBC, which cited research compiled by Barclays’ Ross Sandler, the Silicon Valley-based Facebook may stand to gain $19 billion in revenue by 2021 for the launch of Facebook Coin (FBCoin). Sandler explained that if worst comes to worst, the social media giant may ‘only’ net $3 billion revenues from the digital asset, a (centralized) cryptocurrency reported to be a USD-backed stablecoin for that social media ecosystem. This means that the Silicon Valley firm’s first consumer-facing blockchain product could be integral in the company’s future, which is now uncertain due to privacy concerns, executive departures, and the ever-present #deletefacebook movement. CBOE Puts A Pause On Bitcoin Futures: On Thursday afternoon, the CBOE made waves in the American cryptocurrency market. In a brief announcement, released to the trading platform’s clientele, the Chicago-headquartered exchange revealed that it would not be offering an XBT (Bitcoin) contract for trading in March 2019. This means that by June 2019, the company’s clients will have no open interest in any of the Bitcoin contracts the CBOE has to offer. No explicit reasonings were cited for this move, but it is believed that the platform’s competitor, the CME, was stealing much of its thunder.
On Thursday afternoon, the CBOE made waves in the American cryptocurrency market. In a brief announcement, released to the trading platform’s clientele, the Chicago-headquartered exchange revealed that it would not be offering an XBT (Bitcoin) contract for trading in March 2019. This means that by June 2019, the company’s clients will have no open interest in any of the Bitcoin contracts the CBOE has to offer. No explicit reasonings were cited for this move, but it is believed that the platform’s competitor, the CME, was stealing much of its thunder. South Korean Tech Giant Kakao Raises $90M For Blockchain Platform: Per a report from Bloomberg, Ground X Corp, South Korean technology firm Kakao’s blockchain branch, has just finished (publicly announced) a $90 million raise, which flew under the radar of most in the public audience. The branch purportedly raised this nearly nine-digit sum in classic crypto startup fashion, through a private coin offering, and plans to raise a similar amount starting now. With the initial $90 million and the expected second cheque, the startup, whose parent company’s, Kakaotalk, has over 50 million active users, intends to prepare for a June launch of its blockchain platform. Klaytn will start its life as a blockchain platform for third-party applications, from games to travel apps, instead of a direct feed to Kakao. More specifically, Ground X purportedly has 26 partners, including gaming company Wemade, streaming service Watcha, and travel agency Zanadu, lined up for integration.
Per a report from Bloomberg, Ground X Corp, South Korean technology firm Kakao’s blockchain branch, has just finished (publicly announced) a $90 million raise, which flew under the radar of most in the public audience. The branch purportedly raised this nearly nine-digit sum in classic crypto startup fashion, through a private coin offering, and plans to raise a similar amount starting now. With the initial $90 million and the expected second cheque, the startup, whose parent company’s, Kakaotalk, has over 50 million active users, intends to prepare for a June launch of its blockchain platform. Klaytn will start its life as a blockchain platform for third-party applications, from games to travel apps, instead of a direct feed to Kakao. More specifically, Ground X purportedly has 26 partners, including gaming company Wemade, streaming service Watcha, and travel agency Zanadu, lined up for integration. Stellar Lumens Now Live On Coinbase Pro: XRP’s long lost brother, Stellar Lumens (XLM) has been added to Coinbase Pro. In an announcement made last week, the San Francisco-based exchange unveiled support for the popular cryptocurrency, backed by IBM and the recent victim of a logo redesign. Funnily enough, the cryptocurrency barely budged off this news, posting minimal gains following its addition to Coinbase’s professional-facing, order book-centric exchange.
Inbound transfers for XLM are now available in the regions where trading is supported. Traders cannot place orders and no orders will be filled. Order books will be in transfer-only mode for a minimum of 12 hours. https://t.co/NgCiWEkii8 — Coinbase Pro (@CoinbasePro) March 13, 2019
Binance To Launch Next Fiat-To-Crypto Platform In Argentina: Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance, recently took to Twitter to quip, “guess where we will have a new fiat-to-crypto exchange next?” in response to a tweet regarding the Argentinian government’s stamp of approval of blockchain technologies. This, of course, heavily implies that the startup will be launching a fiat-supported exchange in the South American nation in the coming months. Binance Argentina, as the venture will most likely be known, will follow similar ventures based in Singapore, Lichenstein, Jersey, and Uganda.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance, recently took to Twitter to quip, “guess where we will have a new fiat-to-crypto exchange next?” in response to a tweet regarding the Argentinian government’s stamp of approval of blockchain technologies. This, of course, heavily implies that the startup will be launching a fiat-supported exchange in the South American nation in the coming months. Binance Argentina, as the venture will most likely be known, will follow similar ventures based in Singapore, Lichenstein, Jersey, and Uganda. Tether Drops 100% Fiat Backing For USDT: Popular stablecoin Tether’s website once read that each USDT was backed one-to-one by “traditional currency,” namely the U.S. dollar and the Euro. Now, the official description of the popular crypto asset reveals that USDT isn’t solely backed by government-issued currencies, but by alternative assets too. Sure, the statement is rather nebulous, skirting around the details, but many industry commentators and investors are convinced that this means USDT could be utilizing a fractional reserve system. Others claim that Tether is looking to invest much of its reserves, as it sees potential in buying Bitcoin and other digital assets at such valuations.
Featured Image from Shutterstock | {
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Apple's iPhone 6 could feature Sony's Exmor IMX220 camera sensor, according to a post on Chinese Sony enthusiast forum Digi-Wo (Google Translate, via G for Games). The Exmor IMX220 features a 13-megapixel, 1/2.3'' sensor and can record videos in 1080p. The sensor would also be a sizable improvement over the camera currently in the iPhone 5s, which uses an 8-megapixel, 1/3.2'' sensor.
Sony's Exmor IMX220 camera sensor (via Alibaba)
Past rumors have suggested that the iPhone 6 will retain the same 8-megapixel sensor found in the iPhone 5s, with Apple instead choosing to offer improved image stabilization for more clear photos. A report last month also noted that an optical image stabilization system will be exclusively featured in the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6, while the smaller 4.7-inch version utilizes an improved lens module.
Notably however, the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPhone 5s have used incremental versions of Sony's IMX145 sensor, as Apple could choose implement a new sensor from the company for the iPhone 6. Sony is also expected to use a 20-megapixel version of the IMX220 in its Sony Xperia Z3 flagship device that is slated to ship later this year.
While Digi-Wo does not have a track record with Apple-related rumors, the website has offered accurate information on past Sony products before their release, and recently offered leaked photos of the Xperia Z3.
Apple's iPhone 6 is expected to be announced this fall at a special media event. The device is expected to come in two sizes of 4.7 and 5.5-inches, although it is not known if the larger sized iPhone 6 will ship alongside the smaller version. In addition to an improved camera, the iPhone 6 will feature a thinner profile, a faster A8 processor, and Apple's new iOS 8 mobile operating system. | {
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Many pixels have been burned over the looming L train shutdown and the day-to-day effects losing the BMT’s Canarsie Line will have on the city. We’ve talked bus bridges and Peopleway; and we’ve talked holistic solutions to an 18-month problem that will lead to longer, more crowded daily commutes for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. We have not talked about how the L train repairs will start over six years after Sandy’s floodwaters swept through the subway tunnels, and we have not talked much about whether the MTA could weather another storm.
Last week, Neil deMause in the Village Voice shifted the focus from the Fix aspects of the MTA’s Fix & Fortify plan to the Fortify piece, and the picture is not a pretty one. Although the MTA has access to billions of dollars in relief money, the pace of spending has been slow, and the fortification efforts are far from complete. If another storm with a surge as high as Sandy’s swept through the region, the subway tunnels and stations would flood all over again, and as climate change outpaces the MTA’s ability to close nearly 6000 entry points from water can get in, it still seems as though damage from another storm is a question of “when” rather than “if”.
deMause offers up his story in the context of these fortification efforts and begins with an anecdote about covering station entrances:
Only fourteen Flex-Gates have been installed to date — subway entrances aren’t standardized, so each entrance plug has to be individually designed. ILC Dover is under contract to eventually provide another nine, with more than forty additional locations still waiting for the MTA to bid them out. It’s an exceedingly deliberate pace, considering that nearly four full years have passed in the city since the flooding that resulted from Superstorm Sandy, inundating much of the subway system beneath a thirteen-foot storm surge, and resulting in damage that is still awaiting repair. But the MTA proudly points to the Flex-Gate as a major improvement in response to Sandy. “Right now, today, both with our temporary measures as well as what we’re working on long term, we are far better prepared to address flooding than we were back in October of 2012,” says authority spokesperson Kevin Ortiz. Better prepared doesn’t mean fully prepared, though…In lower Manhattan alone, the subway system has over 5,600 such street openings that the MTA considers “vulnerable” access points for floodwaters. “It’s stairs, it’s vent bays, it’s hatches, it’s manholes, it’s duct entries, it’s elevators, it’s escalators,” says Ortiz. And to effectively protect the subways, every one of them has to be sealed in the day or two between a storm’s approach and its arrival. Ortiz says the MTA is working on deployable vent covers that can be triggered by subway workers in advance of a storm. But they’re not even in the prototype stage, and asking workers to cover up 5,600 openings would leave a lot of opportunity for simple human error to let the water in.
As the MTA completes its tunnel reconstruction work, various key systems such as signals and communications wires are better protected than they were four years ago, but climate experts tell deMause that the city and state and MTA do not have a long-term plan sufficient enough to address rising sea levels and more frequent storms. “We are fiddling around on the edges, and have no plan for a sea level–rise resilient, sustainable transit system,” Klaus Jacob, an expert in climate change, said. “These are all repairs post-Sandy. That does not really prepare the system for the next Sandy.”
deMause’s piece delves into familiar territory (the L train outage will over six years after the storm), but he adds some stark numbers to this tale. He notes that 30 subway entrances sit below the level of the Sandy storm surge and “dozens” more sit only four feet above that storm surge. With Sandy-like storms now 1-in-30 years events (and increasingly frequent as the climate changes) rather than 1-in-100 years, the MTA’s systems and low-lying tunnels will remain vulnerable for the foreseeable future.
As with many things MTA, there is enough blame for the slow pace of spending to go around. The governor and mayor haven’t been particularly receptive of calls to fund the MTA, and the MTA can’t spend the money it has fast enough as either the projects aren’t in the construction stage or there simply aren’t enough qualified contractors to execute. One might even call it the perfect storm.
The long endgame here is another catastrophic flood and a race to stave off destruction. The MTA would have to rethink station ventilation throughout Lower Manhattan, parts of the Upper East Side, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens as water levels inch upward without the help of a storm. As deMause notes, though, no one knows just how much it would take (or cost) to keep Sandy-like water out of the subways entirely, and as water will always seek out the lowest point, it may be a fool’s errand. There is no strategic retreat for the subway system, and that’s a sobering thought for New York City’s future. | {
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Demmy Blaze strolls around the beachside resort in her one-piece swimsuit designed to show her big, shapely boobs without totally exposing them. Out of the studio with its limited space, Demmy can walk around in the tropical sun, the sea breeze blowing her wrap behind her.
"There's so much of me," Demmy softly says in her accented English. "So much boobies." Her voice is as sexy as the rest of her. Demmy likes to take things slow and easy. She likes to build up the anticipation. A topless-only model who kept her bottoms and panties on at first, Demmy went totally nude in the tropics, showing her pussy for the first time since she began posing at SCORELAND. After slipping off her swimsuit, Demmy gets on a lounger to show what no camera has ever photographed before. She takes a garden hose and soaks her statuesque body, cooling off from the heat of the day.
"This Ukrainian girl-next-door pulled off a big surprise when she captured 2017 Voluptuous Model of the Year,…
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Nirmala Sitharaman presents her first budget on July 5, for the fiscal year ending March 2020.
Government is likely to overshoot the budget deficit target previously set for the current fiscal year, three officials have warned, as a slowing economy creates a big shortfall in tax collections and prompts new stimulus plans.
New Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents her first budget on July 5, for the fiscal year ending March 2020. It is also the first budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term.
Since becoming prime minister in 2014, PM Modi succeeded in improving public finances, trimming the fiscal deficit to 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from 4.5 per cent in 2013/14, mostly through subsidies cuts and fuel taxes.
He is now, however, under pressure to loosen the purse strings to follow through on election promises such as increased spending on roads and housing and tax cuts for companies and individuals.
"There is no other option but to defer the fiscal consolidation target as boosting economic growth and reviving private investment is our top priority," a senior finance ministry official involved in the budget discussions, told Reuters.
Such a decision would ultimately be made by the prime minister's office after consultation with advisers, he said.
That may well mean raising the fiscal deficit target to as much as 3.6 per cent of GDP from an already upwardly revised target of 3.4 per cent, set in February's interim budget, he said. The original goal, set in February 2018, had been 3.3 per cent.
Slipping fiscal discipline would hurt the "credibility" of the budget and in turn hit investment, the bond market and the rupee, analysts say.
"If the (fiscal) target does slip by 10 or 20 bps it will be seen as a setback," said A. Prasanna, chief economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership in Mumbai.
He said bond markets are particularly vulnerable given they still assume the government will maintain the deficit target from February's interim budget due to a higher expected dividend from the central bank's market investments.
DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES
Officials said the main factor behind the expected slippage is a big shortfall in net tax collections that could exceed 1 lakh crore rupees ($14.36 billion) or about 6 per cent of the initial target set in February's interim budget.
That puts the government in a particularly difficult place given recent signs of economic weakness, which has put political pressure on PM Modi to inject rapid fiscal stimulus.
Such measures would include increased infrastructure spending and tax incentives to corporate and individual taxpayers to boost private investments and consumer demand, the officials said.
Last Saturday, PM Modi met state chief ministers and advisers to discuss possible stimulus and ways to grow GDP to $5 trillion by 2024, from about $2.7 trillion in the March quarter. A 3.6 per cent deficit target would free up about Rs 42,000 crore ($6.03 billion) to cut tax rates or offer new investment sweeteners, another official said.
A finance ministry spokesman declined to comment for this story.
In pre-budget consultations, economists, government advisers, think-tanks and officials have suggested "sector specific-packages" for small businesses, food processing, electric vehicles, exporters, the tourism industry, farmers and the rural sector, rather than general tax cuts, the first official said.
In the last fiscal year, tax revenue slumped more than 11 per cent, forcing the government to cut spending by more than Rs 1.45 lakh crore in the current fiscal year to meet the 3.4 per cent of GDP deficit target, said an official in the budget division.
Providing a possible boost to overall revenues in the current fiscal year is an increase in the central bank dividend to Rs 1 lakh crore from Rs 69,000 crore while the Rs 90,000 crore in privatisation receipts could be revised upwards slightly, one of the officials said.
However, the bigger risk now is that a prolonged slowdown in private investment and consumer demand, as seen in a 20 per cent fall in May auto sales, could erode tax collections even further.
These problems could be compounded if a weak monsoon season, with rainfall already well behind schedule, adds to household sector pain.
LIMITED SCOPE FOR STIMULUS
Business groups have urged the government to consider cutting the corporate tax rate and introducing incentives to boost new investments.
They also complain banks have only cut lending rates 10-15 basis points despite the central bank reducing its benchmark rate by 75 basis points this year.
Given these constraints, there may be focus on measures that help free up financing to parts of the economy that need it most, particularly small businesses, which account for one-third of GDP.
Bank credit to small businesses grew less than 3 per cent in the year to March compared with over 8 per cent for big firms and 17.8 per cent for services like transport and trade.
One of the government advisers said there are plans for an additional Rs 30,000 crore in capital injections to help state banks clean up an estimated $150 billion in bad loans, which would in turn help banks more easily lend.
"We believe the fiscal channel in India is more direct and quicker and the Indian financial system is in need of some serious repair," Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economist at country's largest bank, State Bank of India said in a note last week. | {
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A man who killed seven people and injured 22 more in a shooting spree in Texas had been sacked from his job just hours before.
Seth Aaron Ator, 36, hijacked two separate vehicles and fired at random as he drove through the the cities of Odessa and Midland in the west of the state on Saturday afternoon, before being shot down by police.
He had been fired from his truck-driving job that morning, law enforcement officials said, and started shooting after being pulled over by Texas state troopers for failing to indicate before turning.
Image: Postal worker Mary Granados, 29, was killed in the attack. Pic: GoFundMe
Image: Rodolfo Arco, 56, had a trucking business. Pic: GoFundMe
Victims of the massacre include Mary Granados, a 29-year-old postal worker identified by the US Postal Service.
Her twin sister Rosie, who said they had planned to celebrate their 30th birthday together, told NBC News: "She was so special. "I don't know what I'm going to do without her."
Rodolfo Arco, 56, father to three daughters, was returning from work at a trucking business when a bullet hit him in the head, according to his wife.
Bari Arco said the couple had been married for 20 years. "Now he's gone," she told NBC.
Odessa High School student Leilah Hernandez, 15, was also among the victims. A GoFundMe page set up to raise money for funeral expenses said her brother Nathan, 18, was among those injured.
Her grandmother, Nora Leyva, told the Washington Post the pair were walking out of a truck dealership and that their mother and nine-year-old brother were also with them when they were shot.
Image: High school student Leilah Hernandez, 15, was among the victims. Pic: GoFundMe
Ms Leyva said Leilah's mother pushed their young brother under a car, while Nathan wrapped his arms around Leilah and was shot in the arm.
The youngest person named as wounded was a 17-month-old girl, Anderson Davis, who is being treated in hospital for injuries to her chest and face.
In a post on Facebook, her mother Kelby Davis said: "We are laying here tonight holding our babies tight, exhausted, relieved, anxious, thankful, hurting, and experiencing many other emotions."
The bullet, she said, went through their car at a red light and "hit Anderson in the mouth and chest".
She will have further surgery on Monday to remove shrapnel from her chest, Texas governor Greg Abbott told reporters on Sunday.
Edwin Peregrino, 25, was killed outside his parents' house, his sister Eritizi Peregrino, 23, told the Washington Post.
Paying tribute, she said: "You could always count on him for anything. He would always help my parents and his siblings. I knew I could always rely on him and call on him."
Father-of-two Joseph Griffith, 40, was sitting at a traffic light with his wife and children when he was shot dead, his sister, Carla Byrne, said.
"This maniac pulled up next to him and shot him, took away his life, murdered my baby brother. Like nothing," she said. "We are so broken."
Great job by Texas Law Enforcement and First Responders in handling the terrible shooting tragedy yesterday. Thank you also to the FBI, @GregAbbott_TX and all others. A very tough and sad situation! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2019
Ator opened fire on police who had stopped him and then took off in a gold car, shooting at random for more than 10 miles (16km).
At some point during the chase that followed, he abandoned the car and stole a postal vehicle, killing Ms Granados.
Police disabled the vehicle by ramming it with an SUV and shot Ator dead at a cinema complex car park.
The massacre came exactly a month after a mass shooting in the Texas border town of El Paso, which killed 22 people. | {
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THECOUNT.COM "ALWAYS OPEN! Since 2005!" - June 6, 2012
SHELBY, NC — Cops say they arrested a woman over the weekend after she literally squeezed a man’s balls out of his scrotum, that pouch of skin that contains the testicles.
Joyce Maxine Gregory, 35, is charged with malicious castration and assault inflicting serious bodily injury, according to Police.
Apparently, Gregory got in a fight with a man who didn’t want to fight, and when he exited the residence, attempting to call 911, she somehow got a hold of him by his scrotum and squeezed so tightly, his nuts literally popped out their sack.
The injured man hightailed it to a nearby building for help.
Police were sent in and eventually arrested Gregory. While in the patrol car, she pulled down her pants and peed in the backseat.
Gregory’s bond was set at $20,000. | {
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If you’ve been following the news, you know how serious Microsoft is when it comes to privacy and data protection. According to ZDNet, the company disagrees with the forcing of U.S.-based companies by the U.S. government to hand over data that is stored overseas, expressing worries that it would further harm relations between the U.S. and the E.U..
Mirosoft's outside counsel, Joshua Rosenkranz, has recently posted a letter to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in which he argues that the matter of cross-border data transfers “easily gives rise to international discord”. Rosenkranz further added that the Congress should decide whether allowing the U.S. government to extend its email privacy laws overseas “outweighs the risks to U.S. industry and U.S.-E.U. relations.”
The letter comes right as the European Court of Justice ruled the legal framework for Europe-U.S. data transfers – called the Safe Harbor Framework – invalid. The decision could mean that as many as 5000 businesses will have to revisit their data transfer procedure as a result.
Last year, Microsoft was found in contempt of court over the refusal to comply with a U.S. court search warrant that ordered the company to hand over personal information of customers undergoing investigation that was stored in a Dublin datacenter.
Source: ZDNet | {
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Haunted Mansion Tightrope Walker Cosplay Dress By glimmerwood Watch
72 Favourites 9 Comments 7K Views
The tightrope walker was the last cosplay I tried to put together before I started sewing again myself, I never really finished putting it together and always wanted to make one myself. I was thrilled when I was commissioned to create one!
I felt like hidden details were important to me in creating this piece. I hid a ghost face in the center of the daisies and I hid loads of spiders in the lace embellishments to add to the creepy vibe. The capelet is lined with a luxouriously soft fabric to help ease having something tight around your neck (a personal pet peeve). I built a petticoat into the skirt so the shape will always be ideal.
~
My Facebook:www.facebook.com/glimmerwood
My Instagram: www.instagram.com/glimmerwood
Website and Commission Requests: www.glimmerwood.com
IMAGE DETAILS Image size 2838x1200px 2.08 MB Show More
Published : Jul 31, 2015 | {
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---Author's Note---
This is a loose continuation of my previous work - the Uyghur Empire. While it has nothing to do with the former directly, the map does set in the same timeline so keep that bare in mind. The series I'm writing will be nothing more but a collection of sprawling Islamic Gunpowder Empires growing more in numbers and prominence compare to OTL. The gunpowder empires is pretty much an underrated concept that never been tapped before so this is my chance to shine amongst the rest, especially since people mostly make maps revolving either Europe or North America.Anyway, enough rambling. Enjoy!With the successful siege of Malacca drove all the very last Portuguese interlopers from the peninsula, Sultan Iskandar has finally secured the entire strait for his kingdom; securing the vast richness that was provided from the illustrious city and the gateway to the archipelago.Since then, his empire grows exponentially; not only they've secured most of Sumatra to his will and miraculously curb all their rivals from taking power, they've expanded rapidly toward the east. At the end of 1640, the sultanate has secured a giant chunk of the sprawling islands: securing not only Sumatra, but the Malay Peninsula, Southern Siam, most of Sunda and all of Java, Brunei and it's former territories, Maluku, and the Timor Islands. They've even reached to the farthest corners of the world, settling in the alien environment while exchanging with the locals.Not only they've grown into a juggernaut of an empire through sheer size, their society has developed into something reminiscent of their Ottoman benefactors. Their military marches through the archipelago through the sheer mass of their numbers and gunpowder, their navy filled with countless galleys feared by their neighbors, science and theology flourished under the core province, and Kutaraja has become a sprawling metropolis; encompassing tens of thousands from every corner of the Ummah trying to settle on the gateway of the Malacca Strait.With Iskandar Muda successfully build a powerful empire, what else could come next. | {
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David Rachline, maire de Fréjus, Stéphane Ravier, maire du 7e secteur de Marseille, et Steeve Briois, maire d'Hénin-Beaumont, lors du rassemblement du Front national à Paris, le 1er mai. Cyril Bitton/French-politics pour "Le Monde"
C'est une nouvelle digue qui saute. Le Front national envoie deux sénateurs au Palais du Luxembourg, Stéphane Ravier dans les Bouches-du-Rhône et David Rachline dans le Var. Jamais depuis sa création en 1972, le parti d'extrême droite n'avait réussi à pénétrer cette Assemblée.
En revanche, le FN peut nourrir des regrets dans le Vaucluse. Le parti lepéniste n'a pas réussi à s'entendre avec la liste emmenée par Marie-Claude Bompard. La division de l'extrême droite les empêche d'avoir un troisième élu.
Les deux sénateurs frontistes sont issus de la zone-force du parti d'extrême droite : la région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Tous deux ont déjà deux mandats. Stéphane Ravier, 45 ans, est conseiller régional et maire du 7e secteur de Marseille depuis les élections municipales de mars. David Rachline, 26 ans, est également élu à la région et il est maire de Fréjus. Deux cas de cumul des mandats, contraires au vote des deux députés frontistes sur le sujet. David Rachline annonçait d'ailleurs, lundi matin, qu'il renonçait à ses fonctions de conseiller régional.
Les résultats de dimanche 28 septembre sont la preuve pour Marine Le Pen du « potentiel » de son parti. « C'est une grande victoire. Il se passe quelque chose. C'est une marche psychologique supplémentaire que nous venons de franchir », a-t-elle déclaré au Monde. Et de sourire : « A chaque scrutin, c'est la même chose, nous sommes la surprise. » Le FN ne s'était, jusqu'alors, jamais vraiment intéressé aux sénatoriales, qui demandent une forte implantation locale et où le mode de scrutin ne favorise pas les campagnes populistes. Par ailleurs, Marine Le Pen s'est prononcée pour la suppression du Sénat.
Si le FN n'obtient « que » deux élus, il faut souligner que le parti réalise des scores bien au-delà de ce qu'il pouvait espérer. En tout, le parti d'extrême droite réunit 3 972 suffrages de la part des grands électeurs, alors même qu'il ne disposait que d'un millier de voix acquises. Il quadruple donc son réservoir théorique de voix.
Dans certains départements, les scores sont édifiants lorsque l'on met en regard le nombre de grands électeurs dont disposait le FN – selon le décompte du parti – et les voix obtenues. Ainsi, dans le Var, le parti lepéniste disposait de 215 grands électeurs. David Rachline a recueilli 401 voix. Dans les Bouches-du-Rhône, Stéphane Ravier pouvait compter sur 210 grands électeurs, selon le décompte du FN. Il devient sénateur avec 431 voix.
La même chose s'est passée dans les départements où le FN n'a pas eu d'élus. Par exemple, dans l'Ain, le parti avait trois grands électeurs. Il recueille 68 voix. Dans l'Aisne, il y avait 37 grands électeurs FN, pour un résultat de 167 suffrages. Dans le Vaucluse, le Front national disposait de 90 grands électeurs. Il recueille 127 voix.
UN PARI STRATÉGIQUE
De tels scores signifient que le Front national a su séduire au-delà de son camp. Il a su convaincre des « grands électeurs » qui sont souvent des « petits élus », pour beaucoup sans appartenance partisane. Ces derniers sont une cible de longue date de Marine Le Pen. La présidente du FN a toujours rejeté les alliances entre appareils politiques pour privilégier les accords locaux avec les élus de terrain, ceux qui maillent le territoire.
Un pari stratégique qui commence, donc, à porter ses fruits. « Cela montre que notre discours est en adéquation avec les revendications des élus de terrain. La disparition des services publics, la réforme des territoires, l'immigration… C'est en bas que l'on subit les conséquences des politiques décidées en haut », avance encore l'ancienne candidate à la présidentielle.
Pour Joël Gombin, doctorant en sciences politiques à l'université de Picardie, les scores du FN dans le Var et les Bouches-du-Rhône, ne peuvent s'expliquer seulement par l'apport des suffrages des grands électeurs « sans étiquette ». Le FN a dû forcément mordre sur l'électorat de droite. « Dans ces départements, le corps électoral est fixé. Il y a peu d'électeurs flottants. Gagner autant de voix, c'est remarquable. On ne peut pas exclure que des élus étiquetés à droite aient voté pour les candidats FN », note M. Gombin.
Ces bons résultats constituent une étape essentielle dans la stratégie de crédibilisation du FN. L'arrivée de deux sénateurs frontistes, si elle ne change pas fondamentalement les choses, banalise encore un peu plus le parti d'extrême droite et l'installe dans le paysage politique. Marine Le Pen entend faire de ces deux élus la preuve que son parti est aux portes du pouvoir. « La victoire de l'UMP est une victoire en trompe-l'oeil, c'est l'effet mécanique des municipales. La dynamique est de notre côté », plastronne-t-elle.
Surtout, Marine Le Pen veut faire des sénatoriales un marchepied vers les échéances électorales de 2015. En visant d'abord les élections départementales du mois de mars où Mme Le Pen prédit une arrivée en masse dans les conseils généraux. Puis les élections régionales fin 2015, dans lesquelles le Front national place de grandes espérances.
Voir la carte des résultats du Front national aux sénatoriales : | {
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COLUMBUS — Columbus Crew SC today announced that it has acquired $50,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM) from D.C. United for the 2019 Major League Soccer season. In exchange, the Black & Gold traded $50,000 in Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) for the 2019 MLS season.
Crew SC returns to action this Saturday, August 10, when it hosts FC Cincinnati at MAPFRE Stadium [7:30 p.m. ET / FOX Sports Ohio, FOX Sports GO (Stream) / 97.1 The Fan, 971TheFan.com (English); ColumbusCrewSC.com (Spanish)].
TRANSACTION: Columbus Crew SC acquires $50,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM) from D.C. United for the 2019 Major League Soccer season in exchange for $50,000 in Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) for the 2019 MLS season on August 8, 2019. | {
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This cute Iron Man figure can ‘fly’
This has got to be one of the coolest Iron Man figures out there. Beast Kingdom has done a bang up job in creating this cute Iron Man 3 Mark II figure. It is super shiny and has the ability to float (thanks to electromagnetism).
The figure includes LED lights for the eyes, chest reactor, hands and feet.
If you want the Egg Attack Iron Man 3 Mark II Special Floating Edition figure, you can pre-order at HobbyLink Japan. It’s pretty pricey and is going for $134.11. | {
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The future of robots is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. For every mental image of sweet Wall-E, there’s one of Terminator‘s invincible red eye. Will our robotic overloads be task-oriented, adorable, and friendly… or will they try to murder us in our sleep?
Well if you believe the latter, then the future is already here! A 52-year-old South Korean woman was brutally attacked by a robot vacuum, and the fire department had to be called in to rescue her.
The woman’s Roomba-esque device was doing its thing, vacuuming the floor, when it happened upon her sleeping body. In the robot’s defense, a pile of hair on the floor could easily be mistaken for trash of some sort. My own floor contains enough of my shedding that you could make a quilt out of it.
So, you know, this isn’t entirely the robot’s bad.
Still, it would be horrific to wake up with a metal mouth trying to suck your skull into its garbage-filled body. The woman, who was home alone, called for emergency help and the fire department soon showed up to free her from her robot maid’s clutches.
We’ve learned a lot here today. 1) If there’s any hair on your floor, the Roomba’s got your back. 2) If you have a Roomba, sleep with one eye open. Or just not on the floor. Maybe get some cinder blocks for that mattress.
Update 12:15pm CT, Feb. 9, 2015: The makers of Roomba, iRobot, reached out to us with a comment on the story.
The robotic vacuum cleaner that got tangled in the hair of a woman from Changwon, South Korea is not an iRobot product. The safety of our customers is paramount for iRobot, and all of the company’s products undergo strict development processes and testing before going to market. This includes safety mechanisms in Roomba that deactivate its cleaning system when it is not placed on the ground.
Sleep easy, Roomba owners.
H/T Kotaku | {
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West Ham were the first English team to play behind closed doors in European club competition when they hosted Real Madrid Castilla - aka their B team - at an "eerie" Upton Park in 1980
They are known as 'ghost games' for good reason - playing in a top-class competitive match without a crowd is an "eerie experience" according to some of those to have done it.
That is the test that awaits England on Friday and, when Gareth Southgate's side line up at a virtually empty Stadion Rujevica for the Nations League tie against Croatia, it will also be a journey into the unknown.
No matter what happens on the pitch, the Three Lions will make history in Rijeka - because of Uefa sanctions against their hosts after a swastika was marked on their pitch before a game in 2015, England's 988th senior international since 1872 will be their first to be held behind closed doors.
It is a rare experience for English clubs too - only three have done it in the history of European club competition - West Ham external-link in 1980, Aston Villa external-link in 1982 and Manchester City in 2014.
English clubs to play behind closed doors in Europe Season Competition Game Score 1980-81 European Cup Winners' Cup West Ham v Real Madrid Castilla 5-1 aet 1982-83 European Cup Aston Villa v Besiktas 3-1 2014-15 Champions League CSKA Moscow v Man City 2-2
So, what will it be like? Hammers legends Trevor Brooking and Phil Parkes both played against Real Madrid Castilla - the Spanish giants' B team - in what went down in folklore as one of the most famous matches to be played at their old Upton Park home, because there were no fans there to watch it.
"It was a very, very surreal game," Parkes told BBC Sport. "Even now, I think: Did I dream that, or did it really happen?"
'The players could hear the radio commentary'
Brooking played 643 games in all competitions across 18 seasons during his glittering career for the Hammers, but the unique and peculiar circumstances of Wednesday, 1 October 1980 mean it stands out in his memory.
West Ham trailed 3-1 after the first leg of their European Cup Winners' Cup tie against Castilla - a game that had been marred by the trouble that led to the crowd ban - but back in east London they eventually prevailed 6-4 on aggregate after extra time.
The goals, including a hat-trick by David Cross, and the comeback are not what Brooking and Parkes remember most, however.
And, by the sound of things, John Murray and Ian Dennis, BBC Radio 5 live's co-commentators in Rijeka, might have an unusual audience.
Upton Park had a capacity of 39,500 in 1980. The attendance for the game against Real Madrid Castilla was recorded as 262, which is the lowest in the club's history, but no fans were present
"It was very odd from the moment we ran out to warm up," Brooking explained.
"Normally you would have the noise of the crowd lifting you before the game and during it. There was always a fantastic atmosphere at Upton Park for the big games.
"But that night was very eerie. You could hear the radio commentary drifting across the pitch, and what the coaches were saying to themselves in the dugouts.
"In fact that was the only game in my whole career that I could hear everything that was said from the bench.
"One voice stood out above the others - Eddie Baily, a World War Two veteran as well as a former England international. He was our chief scout, and a man who definitely liked to see commitment from his players.
"Let's just say he was very vocal about it, and pretty volatile! Lots of his encouragement was related to the use of a bayonet.
"His voice could always be heard even when there was a crowd there and, that night, I am sure his cries of 'get stuck in' would have been heard from a long way away."
Applauding policemen - but no players' wives
TV cameras were allowed into Upton Park but live coverage was not allowed and Uefa turned down requests to show the game via 'beamback' at local cinemas and Leyton Orient's Brisbane Road ground. Highlights of the game can been seen on YouTube, although one TV show at the time appears to have dubbed in crowd noise when the goals go in
Parkes, who played 444 games in goal for the Hammers between 1979 and 1990, says the Castilla game was the only one in his career that his wife was not able to watch.
Players were not given any tickets for family or friends, and the official attendance of 262 consisted of the players, match officials, administrative staff and the media.
That figure did not include some West Ham supporting policemen, whom Brooking recalls clapping the home goals from otherwise deserted terraces.
Unlike Friday's game, Uefa's ban included preventing any live TV coverage - just three minutes of action were permitted to be shown on the news. external-link
And because so few people were present, there are plenty of claims about what else went on - including that Parkes listened to commentary of the match on a ball boy's radio behind his goal in the second half.
"That's a myth, I'm afraid," Parkes said. "Most of the time I was listening to what was going on in the other box, which never happens in a normal game.
"But I do remember talking to one of our apprentices, who was stood behind the goal, in a quiet moment.
"We actually had all of the youth players spaced around the ground, in every stand. We only had one ball and there was no-one else to get it back when it went in there.
"They were flying around, doing their best, but even so, if the ball went up to Row Z of the Chicken Run, it would still take two or three minutes to come back if there was nobody near it."
How can England prepare for a unique occasion?
Playing under floodlights made the experience an even stranger one for Hammers goalkeeper Phil Parkes because he could not see beyond the edge of the pitch
The size of HNK Rijeka's tiny temporary home, which will become their training facility once their own ground is rebuilt, means getting the ball back is unlikely to pose a problem on Friday, but how can England prepare for such a unique challenge?
"We were certainly not looking forward to it," added Brooking. "But we did not want to lose in those circumstances.
"Our manager, John Lyall, organised a full-blooded practice game at Upton Park against our reserve side and asked them to treat it like a competitive game, to give us some idea of what it will be like to play there when it was so eerie, without any atmosphere."
Even that did not help the players too much, according to Parkes. While England will not get to train at Stadion Rujevika before the game, it is unlikely to affect their preparations.
"We trained at Upton Park during the day in the build-up to the game," says Parkes. "But the game was at night under floodlights, and that is what made it weird.
"During the day you can see everything around and outside the ground, but when you are playing and the floodlights are on you cannot actually see much beyond the edge of the pitch.
"So, when we scored it was almost as though you expected the crowd to cheer. There was no-one there of course, but you couldn't see that there was no-one there."
'It will feel like England are being punished if we lose'
England will face Croatia under the floodlights on Friday night at the 8,279-capacity Stadion Rujevika, which will be empty apart from media, FA delegates, Uefa officials - and the players
According to newspaper reports at the time, hundreds of Hammers supporters gathered outside the ground to celebrate at the final whistle - the journalists who were present heard the club anthem 'I'm forever blowing bubbles' being sung.
Something similar could happen on Friday night because several England fans are still travelling to Rijeka, but it is unclear how close they will be able to get to the action.
"I am sure there are plenty of England fans who will still go across," added Brooking, who also played 44 times for England, including in front of crowds of more than 90,000 on eight occasions at Wembley, Hampden Park and in Eastern Europe.
"But it is a shame really - it will be an eerie night and another weird atmosphere and it just does not seem right for two of the top countries in the world to play in a little stadium like that, without a crowd.
"I would have thought Croatia switched it from Zagreb or Split to try to get some benefit but Gareth will not use it as an excuse whatever happens, and I am sure the players won't either - but it is certainly not ideal for such a prestigious match.
"The total lack of atmosphere will not do any justice to the game and I know from our experience that not having fans there will not help either team, the managers - anyone.
"It is not something I would want our players to suffer but West Ham got through it, which was great and I would like to think England will get something from it too.
"This is supposedly happening to punish Croatia but it will feel like England have been punished if we lose." | {
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Kia and DC Comics team up for some special creations.
Fighting hunger, one superhero car at a time.
No upholstery worn on the outside.
The collection of Kia Superhero cars at the 2012 SEMA Show is timed perfectly for the Halloween season. It’s that time when kids in Spider-Man and Iron Man costumes roam the neighborhood in search of candy. Kia is doing something similar for this year’s Specialty Equipment Market Association event, except the intention is to feed starving children thousands of miles away.
A black and green 2013 Kia Soul is kitted out with a Green Lantern theme. Check out the lantern symbols in the wheels and fog lamps. Red paint and yellow graphics mark the Flash 2013 Forte Koup. A 2013 Rio hatchback gets the Aquaman treatment, with green paint and yellow fish-scale-like graphics on the outside, and scenes from Aquaman’s comic book adventures depicted in the trunk. A silver exterior and red interior 2013 Forte 5-door pays homage to man-machine Cyborg. (This superhero was co-created by Marv Wolfman–you couldn’t make it up, could you?)
These four heroic Kia models have been unveiled at the SEMA show, while another car, the Batman 2013 Optima, was recently introduced in Gotham–sorry, New York City. Together they form a tribute to the Justice League of America, which consists of characters from DC Comics. Instead of fighting crime, they’re dedicated to fighting hunger in the Horn of Africa through the charity We Can Be Heroes.
Specially designed pieces of art will be auctioned off, along with We Can Be Heroes license plates and other items of merchandise. Proceeds go toward the charity and toward events such as SEMA to help raise awareness.
Kia is promising a total of eight superhero cars, so expect Superman and Wonder Woman models in the near future. (We hope the Wonder Woman one isn’t invisible, like her airplane.) And rumors of a Transformers Optimus Prime model are currently unfounded.
What it means to you: It’s good to be reminded of how poverty impacts other parts of the world, and Kia has reminded us in a fun way.
See more of our SEMA coverage | {
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There was an unfortunate series of events on Blue Planet Live over the weekend when a reporter was helping to save some baby sea turtles, only to have one eaten by a seagull on live television.
BBC presenter Liz Bonnin was drawing needed attention to the plight of endangered sea turtles by taking part in sea turtle release on Heron Island, Australia, as part of Sunday night’s episode. Bonnin and wildlife worker Janine Ferguson released six baby green turtles, so they could crawl across the sand to the sea. As the tiny turtles struggled, Bonnin spoke of how important it is to protect the “precious individuals” from predators in the hopes that they make it to the ocean to help rebuild the declining sea turtle populations. As she discussed the risk of predation, a seagull swooped in to prove her point. It appeared behind her and snatched one of the hatchlings, much to the horror of viewers watching at home, who took to Twitter to express their dismay:
The BBC provided the following statement about the regrettable, if natural, event:
“We’ve been working with scientists from the Heron Island Research Station to explore their lives, from hatching to returning to the beaches to nest. Green sea turtle populations, like sea turtles across the world, are in trouble so the work being done here is crucial to the future survival of the species. As part of their ongoing studies, researchers on Heron Island check nests for any hatchlings left behind, 48 hours after the others naturally emerge. Those turtles still alive are carried out at either dawn or dusk for release, as we saw last night on #BluePlanetLive.”
“They can’t be released directly into the ocean as the turtles need to “imprint” the beach by walking across the sand to the water. In this case, as with the turtles that emerge naturally, some opportunistic predation occurs by other species either looking to feed themselves or their own young. If this happens we are unable to intervene and have to let nature take its course. The survival rates of turtles are extremely low, as explained in the first episode of Blue Planet Live last Sunday, with only roughly 1 in 1000 turtles making it to adulthood. Making it safely into the depths of the ocean is a tough, but crucial, first test for these captivating creatures if those that survive to adulthood are going to return to breed on these beaches.”
David Godfrey, Executive Director of the nonprofit Sea Turtle Conservancy, thinks the “unfortunate event” highlights a larger issue involving sea turtles and people who want to help them. Resorts and tourist organizations have been “allowing tourists to release turtles for a fee or a photo op,” but do so in a way that Godfrey believes can harm the very critters they are hoping to save. “When hatchlings emerge naturally from a nest they almost always do that at night for a reason-they are less visible to predators,“ he said in an interview with TIME. Unfortunately, many of these tourist events happen in the daytime, when the turtles are vulnerable, so tourists can take photos of their good deed. “The fact that these hatchlings were released in the day is where the mistake was made,” Godfrey said. “If the bird hadn’t gotten the hatchling, then a predatory fish waiting just offshore would have.”
That said, Godfrey hopes the fact that this story is going viral will “get the message out about these amazing animals” and encourage viewers to “feel compassion for their survival.”
“We should be thinking of whether these staged hatchling releases should be happening at all and if they should happen during the night,” Godfrey said. “If you’re a tourist traveling to these places, you should not participate in [sea turtles] releases happening during the day.”
Contact us at [email protected]. | {
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In recent months we have introduced a lot of new ways for players to experience content, and one of the biggest adjustments that we’ve made is to open up play options for the D&D Adventurers League Epics and Competitive Adventures that were played in previous seasons – but there’s a catch.
See, the D&D Adventurers League (and of course, Wizards of the Coast) really, really want to support charities. Our core charity is Extra Life, but other options abound! If you’re looking to run one of these retired Epic adventures you just need to select a valid charity and fill out the usual Convention Support Form – and be sure to tell us what charity you’re looking to support. Charity events are part of our special events program and fall under the same rules as conventions, gamedays, retail events, and so on so you WILL need to have a Code of Conduct available prior to requesting your event.
What do we need from you?
your event details (date, location, all that jazz)
your chosen charity’s information, including website and any other contact information that you have
a little patience – please give us 10 days to review and fulfill requests, just like any other special request. Please remember that your submission is only a request and in no way a guarantee
What do we want from you?
well, all the above for sure, plus:
hype your event! talk up the charity impact and why you chose that charity
an awesome event! keep people excited with some of the additional things that charity epics can offer
a little recap of the event. How much did you raise? Was it, well, epic? Post on Twitter and Facebook, and be sure to let us know at [email protected] !
What is different about running a charity Epic versus an in-season Epic?
charity games do not have printable certificates
you can allow players to purchase rerolls for their d20s. The suggested donation for this is $1, but so long as 100% of the proceeds go to the chosen charity it can be any reasonable amount that your players can support. This does not grant advantage and does not negate disadvantage (it’s just a reroll and we’re not creating new rules!), but a player can reroll that d20 as long as they keep donating. Any player or spectator can purchase a reroll for any other player, so long as the d20 roll does not result in a negative experience (for the player; see the DM notes below), such forcing a character to fail a saving throw, get that character killed/ rendered unconscious, and so on. Players can do this as many times as they desire on a player’s d20 roll.
NOTE: DMs cannot purchase re-rolls for their d20s. A DM is subject to the charitable wrath of the players (though they may pay for a player’s reroll if they wish, so long as they observe the guidance above). They must rely on their cunning and use sound tactics if they are to challenge the characters during these events!
You needn’t have prior approval to run a charity event, but if you want special content – such as an old Epic or Competitive Adventure – or if you want to sell any sort of in-game benefit (certs, rerolls, etc.) for donations, then you must petition for and receive approval by the AL Campaign Staff. This guidance is effective immediately. Events that run charity games that do not comply with the details listed here may, at the campaign staff’s discretion, be denied future content, promotional considerations, and the like.
We’ve approved events for Extra Life, other children’s charities, local food banks, community organizations in good standing, no-kill pet shelters, and more.
Tell us what you’re passionate about and we’ll check it out! | {
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Every kid dreams about having a pet monkey. Inspired by Indiana Jones or Aladdin, they picture a peanut-loving sidekick perched on our shoulder, wearing a funny little vest and pulling pranks on unsuspecting grown-ups.
Thankfully, most of us grow out of the dream of a pet monkey. Having a pet monkey won’t be anywhere near as cute or charming as you hope. Primates aren’t meant to live with people. Bringing them into our homes courts could mean disaster for us and our neighbors.
“There’s this myth that they can be domesticated and sort of fit this human mold to be companion pets, but it’s just not the reality,” Eileen Dunnington, Executive Director of Lexington, Kentucky’s Primate Rescue Center, said. “There’s a general safety and public safety issue. It’s not just the individual that has the pet monkey in their home, but the people in their community. Because if that monkey gets out, it can be a danger to others.”
At best case monkey pets require ‘round the clock care, including diapering. At worst, they violently turn on their owners, like the Connecticut chimpanzee who chewed off its owner’s face and hands in 2009.
Really, any adult who actually buys a monkey would have to be an overgrown and over-indulged child with limitless resources and no one who ever tells them no. So it’s no surprise music stars from Elvis to Michael Jackson and Justin Beiber, have owned monkeys as pets.
The pet monkey fad exploded after World War II when the American economy was booming and suburbs were sprouting up all over the country. In the late 1960s, men thumbing through magazines like Field & Stream or Boy’s Life could encounter ads offering a “Darling Pet Monkey” for $18.95. The monkeys were described as “almost human with its warm eyes.” The dealers, writing from Animal Farm in Florida, said a monkey ate the same food as humans and “even likes lollipops.” The ad promised monkeys were easy to care for and train and even guaranteed live delivery.
While living in California in the early 60s, Johnny Cash had a pet monkey, Jethro, named after the Kenneth C. “Jethro” Burns of the popular country duo Homer and Jethro. In her book I Walked the Line, Cash’s wife Vivian remembered adoring him, writing “he was so much fun.” Vivian would walk down the street with Jethro hand in hand or pull him in a wagon. “And I swear,” Vivian said, “Homer had Johnny’s personality. He was funny and smart, but that little monkey had a mind of his own.” I’m not sure what became of Jethro, but Cash kept a lot of pets around into his later life, including a testy ostrich that gored Cash one day at the singer’s farm in Bon Aqua, Tennessee. Cash had to have surgery and blamed the incident for getting him hooked on painkillers.
Cash’s fellow Sun Records alumnus Elvis Presley had a three-foot-tall, 40 pound chimp named Scatter. Scatter belonged to a Memphis cartoonist before accompanying the King to Hollywood during Elvis’s film career. Scatter became the pride of perpetually adolescent prankster Elvis, who had no problem changing the chimp’s diaper or turning him loose on couples copulating behind closed doors. Scatter had free rein to drink, paw at women and generally raise hell. According to controversial Elvis biographer Albert Goldman, Elvis had his chauffeur drive Scatter around town just to get a reaction out of bewildered onlookers.
Elvis and his cronies apparently found such behavior hilarious. Eventually, though, the King lost interest in his pet chimp. Scatter was shipped back to Graceland. Scatter might have enjoyed his time with the King. But even the Jungle Room wasn’t enough to keep him happy forever. In the late 1960s, he bit one of Elvis’ maids and was found dead in his cage not long afterward. When Elvis sang his cover of Chuck Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business” in his 1968 film Stay Away, Joe, it was a fitting end of the Scatter era.
Perhaps the most famous of all music celebrity chimps was Michael Jackson’s Bubbles. Born in April, 1983, as the popularity of Thriller was at its height, Bubbles became a fixture of Jackson’s “Wacko Jacko” phase, wandering the halls of Neverland and traveling with his master. Bubbles became a celebrity in his own right who sipped tea with the mayor of Osaka and inspired Jeff Koons’ 1988 porcelain sculpture “Michael Jackson and Bubbles,” which fetched $5.6 million at a 2001 art auction. The darling of the King of Pop, Bubbles, as is true of all chimps, became more aggressive as he got older. In 2004, he was shipped off to an ape sanctuary in Florida. Jackson died in 2009, but Bubbles is still with us.
While some states have banned private ownership of primates, there’s no national law, just a confusing patchwork of regulations that vary state by state; sometimes county by county. Thousands of monkeys are kept as pets in the United States but with the monkeys acquired through black market sources and kept in secrecy, exact numbers are elusive. Project ChimpCARE estimates there are 2,200 chimpanzees living in United States sanctuaries, zoos, research facilities and private residences today, more than twice the number estimated in their home range country of Tanzania in East Africa.
Recent monkey pet owners include musicians Chris Brown and Justin Bieber. Brown’s monkey business was short-lived. In 2018, an Instagram video of Brown giving his daughter a capuchin monkey as a birthday present prompted authorities to seize the monkey and charge Brown with two counts of having a restricted species without a permit.
German authorities seized Bieber’s capuchin monkey, “O. G. Mally,” who the Canadian singer named for hip hop producer, animal trafficker and alleged prostitution ring runner Mally Mall. Bieber tried to bring Mally into Munich against the advice of wiser counsel in his entourage. As the Biebs told GQ, “honestly, everyone told me not to bring the monkey. Everybody. Everyone told me not to bring the monkey. I was like ‘It’s gonna be fine, guys!”
Despite the pop star’s confidence, the Germans were, characteristically, sticklers for rules. After German authorities determined the monkey lacked proper vaccination records or proof of purchase, they took the monkey. Bieber would later concede, “It was the farthest thing from fine.
Mally found a new home in a German zoo but had trouble adjusting. Like many primates who wind up as pets, he was taken from his mother at a too early age. “These little guys are taken from their mothers within days after birth,” Dunnigan said “That is in and of itself one of the most traumatic things that can happen to them.”
Dunnigan added: “In the wild, they stay attached to their mothers and don’t leave her body for almost an entire year after they’re born.” | {
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Simona Halep kept her bid to regain the World No.1 spot alive with a defeat of Wang Qiang in the Miami Open quarterfinals, erasing a 1-5 deficit and saving three set points in the second set.
MIAMI, FL, USA - No.2 seed Simona Halep remains on course to retake the World No.1 at the Miami Open after a 6-4, 7-5 victory over No.18 seed Wang Qiang in one hour and 37 minutes - in which she had to recover a 1-5 deficit and save three set points in the second set.
GALLERY: Semifinal stars: Kontaveit, Barty battle into Miami last four
It is the Romanian's second win in as many meetings with fellow 27-year-old Wang in the March hard court swing, following her 7-5, 6-1 triumph in the fourth round of Indian Wells last year, and puts her just one win away from moving back up to the top spot two months after being deposed by Naomi Osaka.
In a match characterized by probing baseline rallies, it was Halep who proved more successful at opening up the court and retaining her consistency over the longer exchanges. With neither player able to hit through each other early in the point, the Roland Garros champion was able to gradually shift from neutral into aggressive, steering the ball around the court until Wang was unable to keep up - finding particular joy by wrongfooting the Chinese No.1 repeatedly.
Halep, who survived a marathon third round against lucky loser Polona Hercog before straight-setting Venus Williams for the fourth time in a row, was a touch more error-prone than she would have liked, committing 19 in the first set and dropping serve twice. But the Doha runner-up was razor-sharp on return, coming up with some of her finest shotmaking just when Wang was on the verge of holding: the Nanchang and Guangzhou champion dropped her second and third service games from 40-15 and 40-0 up respectively, unable to take enough control to close the door.
After a scrappy start that saw five breaks in the first six games, the final four games of the first set all went to the server, with Halep delivering an authoritative hold to close it out with a forehand down the line winner on her first set point.
Read more: Halep announces Daniel Dobre as new coach, talks Andreescu rise at Miami Open
Though the former World No.1's form carried over for an immediate break with another forehand winner - this time set up immaculately with heavily topspun backhands that pushed Wang off the court - the second set would be one of dramatic momentum shifts. Down a set and a break, Wang finally had enough of being pushed around the court - and stepped in to use her own power to dictate proceedings.
The Wuhan and Beijing semifinalist edged through two multi-deuce tussles on Halep's serve to break twice and move up 3-1, and then started zoning, smacking winners from all corners of the court to reel off 12 points, and five games, in a row for a 5-1 lead.
But with the set seemingly on the verge of going to a decider, the pendulum swung again. Halep, swinging freely and even approaching the net with intent and success, broke back - and suddenly, the Montréal champion was back in business.
Almost unable to miss, Halep was magnificent on both defence and offence as she stormed back to erase Wang's lead as quickly as the World No.18 had built it, rushing through 25 out of the last 31 points to deliver a 'hidden bagel' - six straight games from 1-5 down.
In the midst of this stretch, Wang's best opportunity to force the decider had been when she held three consecutive set points as Halep served at 4-5 - but the 2018 Australian Open finalist saved all of them in fine style with a sharp volley, an inside-out forehand winner on the line and a punishing extended rally before levelling the score with the shot of the match - a breathtaking backhand winner down the line, bunted into the far corner at full stretch.
Wang's errors were mounting in the face of Halep's comeback, and in the final game her backhand in particular collapsed, offering up three unforced errors to take her total to 25. Halep, though, will be proud both of her fighting spirit in a second set that seemed all but lost - and her impeccable execution to raise her level and steal it from Wang.
Back in the Miami semifinals for the second time, and first time since 2015, Halep will bid to make her first final in Florida - and with it, retake World No.1 - against either No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova or 19-year-old Marketa Vondrousova, her conqueror two weeks ago in Indian wells. | {
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In September 2015, the company that owns Miami's Magic City Casino — West Flagler Associates — tried to apply for a license to open up a new poker room in downtown Miami, through an arcane licensing process involving "summer jai-alai" permits. The state Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering denied the application, but in April of this year, a state appeals court ruled that the board was wrong — and that West Flagler should be able to apply for a gambling license and build downtown.
Now, according to recently published documents, West Flagler says it wants to open up a new casino at 3000 Biscayne Blvd. in Edgewater.
According to an application first published by the anonymously written development website the Next Miami, West Flagler filed a new application with the state board on April 20.
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"On Behalf of West Flagler Associates, LTD ("West Flagler"), please find attached the amended location for our pari-mutuel permit application submitted in conformance with section 550.0745, Florida Statutes," the application says. "On September 3, 2015, West Flagler submitted an application for a new summer jai-alai pari-mutuel permit to operate jai alai games at a location in Miami-Dade County."
The new location for the card room, the application states, is 3000 Biscayne Blvd., which sits across the street from a Starbucks on U.S. 1. The property, which is owned by a company called Crescent Heights, formerly contained the Legal Services of Greater Miami, a pro-bono law firm that helps low-income people file fair-housing complaints, among many other services.
EXPAND via Google Maps
The application comes just as the Florida House of Representatives and the Senate are moving closer on a comprehensive gambling bill, which could pave the way for a new casino license elsewhere in Miami-Dade County. While the Florida Senate has long been receptive to the idea of building more casinos in Miami, the House has been reluctant to agree — until this week, when House lawmakers surprisingly proposed letting a developer build a new, 1,500-slot-machine casino somewhere across Dade, as long as the property is more than five miles from any other casino, and is chosen via a competitive bidding process.
The Miami Herald reports that the two prime movers for the new casino are Genting, the Malaysian giant that bought the newspaper's former headquarters, and the owners of the Fontainebleau Hotel. The Herald's editorial board called that proposal "a reckless gamble" on Wednesday, pun presumably intended.
Likewise, neighborhood associations across midtown Miami are likely to strongly oppose West Flagler's separate plan in Edgewater, provided it moves forward. Edgewater and the Design District have gentrified to the point that most of the new residents moving in are high-income condo owners looking to live near the Design District's luxury fashion shops and Wynwood's nightlife scene.
Shrinking low- and middle-class neighborhoods border West Flagler's proposed site to the west and north. Both the Buena Vista and Little Haiti neighborhoods are already battling extremely one-sided gentrification fights — neighborhood associations like Faynm Aysisen na Miyami, a Haitian-American group, are likely to strongly oppose any plans for a casino in that stretch of town.
There are also questions as to whether a new casino could destroy the Design District's reputation as an upscale shopping mecca for the wealthy. Multiple studies show that casinos aren't actually good for their nearby economies: The National Association of Realtors warned in a study that casinos have an "unambiguously negative" impact on their surrounding communities, and don't encourage new businesses to build nearby.
Casino patrons, the study noted, typically stay inside the building for hours and don't get out to wander and frequent shops nearby. Casino patrons also tend to be 50 and over, a demographic currently at odds with downtown Miami's new image as the capital of millennial South Florida.
Correction: This article previously misidentified the location of the Legal Services of Greater Miami. The firm moved from 3000 Biscayne last year.
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My Hero Academia series creator Kohei Horikoshi is not shy about his love of other works, and some of them even go on to influence his work. But it turns out that one character in his series is inspired by another famous character, Dragon Ball's Goku.
But which one? When asked about the inspiration behind All Might at San Diego Comic-Con, fans got a surprising answer.
.@shonenjump @ #SDCC18 Q: “All-Might is such a supportive mentor. Do you base him on anyone in your life?” Horikoshi: “No, not anyone in real life. I based him on Goku in Dragon Ball.” pic.twitter.com/oBzBUUuLtG — Deb Aoki (@debaoki) July 22, 2018
According to Twitter user @debaoki, who attended the Shonen Jump panel Horikoshi was a part of, and a question from the audience was, "All Might is such a supportive mentor. Do you base him on anyone in your life?" and Horikoshi responded that the character isn't from his life at all, and instead is inspired by fiction.
Horikoshi stated, "No, not anyone in real life. I based him on Goku in Dragon Ball." The inspiration might be surprising, but it also makes a ton of sense. All Might was the symbol of peace in My Hero Academia, a lone hero with immense strength bringing him to an almost iconic level. This is a direct parallel to Goku.
In Dragon Ball, Goku is basically a symbol of peace as well. His immense strength makes others rely on him, and in most cases each of them feels a sense of relief when he arrives. If you want a direct comparison, take Goku's late arrival on Namek when he saves Krillin, Gohan, and Vegeta from the Ginyu Force.
Their relief in seeing Goku following their intense struggle alone mirrors the League of Villains' attack on the USJ early on in My Hero Academia. All Might arrives on the scene after Midoriya and the others struggled alone, and also had a huge sigh of relief. It's definitely a cool tie between series.
For those unfamiliar with the My Hero Academia juggernaut, the series was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has super powers but he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he's eventually scouted by the world's best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been collected into 15 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.
My Hero Academia's first movie, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, is scheduled to open August 3 in Japan and later in the U.S theaters this Fall. The film recently premiered at Anime Expo 2018 to heaps of praise from those in attendance. The film will cover a story not seen in the original manga with series creator Horikoshi noting that, "Of course the movie will be filled with Class A’s great efforts, that character’s past that hasn’t been in the manga yet, flashy action scenes, and much more." The film also previously revealed its first key visual depicting a character fans have never seen before, and a trailer revealing an All Might in his prime.
Dragon Ball Super is currently airing its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on Funimation, VRV, and Crunchyroll. | {
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After four and a half years of exploring Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover has made a new discovery that only deepens a long-standing mystery about the Red Planet — namely, how the world used to be so wet. Pretty much all Mars scientists agree that billions of years ago the planet had flowing rivers and lakes on its surface. But there’s a problem: no one can quite explain how ancient Mars was warm enough back then to support liquid water. And Curiosity is unearthing clues that only make things more confusing.
Curiosity is unearthing clues that only make things more confusing
Since its landing in a region called Gale Crater, the rover has found critical signs that liquid water once pooled on the Martian surface. Curiosity has been scouring over hundreds of meters of sedimentary rocks that are thought to have been deposited by a lake that existed in the crater 3.5 billion years ago. But there’s an issue with timing: back when Mars supposedly had water on its surface, the Sun wasn’t cranking out that much heat. It’s a conundrum known as the “faint young Sun paradox,” and it’s the idea that our Solar System’s star was only producing about 70 percent of the energy as it does today. That means there must have been some other factor that warmed Mars up enough so that surface water existed as a liquid.
One leading idea is that the Martian atmosphere was thick with carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat. If the amount of CO2 was high enough, it could have theoretically warmed Mars up to the necessary temperature for lakes and rivers to flow on the surface. But Curiosity has all but torpedoed that theory. A new study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, reveals that the rover hasn’t found a crucial byproduct of an ancient carbon dioxide atmosphere.
If Mars did have a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, the gas would have dissolved into the water on Mars and formed something called carbonic acid. This acid tends to weather rocks underneath the water, eventually producing a substance known as carbonate minerals. However, these minerals haven’t been found by Curiosity. “Under a very thick CO2-rich atmosphere, the sediment that forms in lakes and rivers are expected to have carbonate minerals,” Thomas Bristow, a scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center and lead author on the study, tells The Verge. “But we haven’t seen them in any of the rocks at Gale Crater.”
It doesn’t mean that carbonates are absent from Mars. Researchers have certainly found the mineral on the Red Planet before. The new findings just means that Curiosity’s CheMin instrument — a tool that beams X-rays onto samples of rocks to look for minerals — hasn’t been able to detect any of this substance in Gale Crater. The CheMin instrument can pick up carbonates if they make up just a few percent of a rock that’s being analyzed. But since Curiosity hasn’t picked up any signs of carbonates, the mineral is under the detection limits of the instrument. “If there are carbonates there, they’re in teeny tiny amounts,” says Bristow.
That doesn’t bode well for the thick CO2 atmosphere theory
That doesn’t bode well for the thick CO2 atmosphere theory. In order for ancient Mars to be warm enough to support liquid water, the planet would have needed carbon dioxide at a pressure of one bar. That’s about one Earth atmosphere’s worth of CO2. However, given the detection limit on Curiosity’s CheMin instrument and the lack of carbonates found, NASA estimates that the atmospheric carbon was tens to hundreds of times less than one bar of pressure.
It’s a finding that backs up what spacecraft have found in orbit around Mars. Numerous vehicles circulating the planet haven’t found as many carbonates on Mars as researchers had expected either, and Curiosity’s findings seem to confirm that the compound isn’t as abundant as previously thought on the Red Plant. “When you make your observations from space, there’s always a way to kind of explain the lack of carbonate that’s been found. Perhaps the satellites are looking in the wrong place,” says Bristow. “But now we’re able to ground the truth in what’s been seen from space.” So it’s looking more and more unlikely that Mars’ ancient atmosphere was saturated with CO2.
Of course, there are numerous other greenhouse gases that could have heated up ancient Mars, such as sulfur dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and even hydrogen. There’s one theory that early Mars was plagued by many volcanic eruptions, which put sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere and kept the planet warm. But that model doesn’t seem to totally fit, since such a warming from eruptions would have only lasted for hundreds to thousands of years, says Bristow. “That’s not what we see in the rock records,” he says. “It implies the surface was warm for hundreds of thousands or millions of years.”
There’s also the idea that perhaps Mars wasn’t that hot, and that the lake in Gale Crater was capped off with a layer of ice. That ice may have acted like a blanket and kept the water warm enough underneath to remain as a liquid. But this theory also isn’t satisfying, says Bristow, because Curiosity hasn’t seen any signs of ancient glacial processes in the sedimentary rocks at Gale Crater.
And then there’s the idea that perhaps Mars’ orbit changed and that the planet somehow got closer to the Sun billions of years ago. That concept is a bit hard to test, though, which means this mystery is far from being solved. “It really is a puzzle,” says Bristow. “People have been thinking about carbon dioxide-rich atmospheres on Mars for a really long time... Perhaps there is some kind of localized mechanism for keeping lakes warm that hasn’t been considered before.” | {
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An attorney for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Friday told the Henrico Circuit Court in Virginia that the anonymous user or users behind the Twitter account “Devin Nunes’ Cow” could be sitting in the courtroom watching the proceedings, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Nunes’s attorney likely made the suggestion because approximately 20 people–more than half of the public spectators who showed up to the courthouse–wore T-shirts adorned with cows and carried toy stuffed cows with them. At one point, they also reportedly signed a card which was addressed to “Devin Nunes’ Cow.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, the genesis of Friday’s hearing stemmed from a lawsuit Nunes filed in March against Twitter, Liz Mair, Mair Strategies, LLC, and Twitter accounts @DevinNunesMom and @DevinCow (Devin Nunes’ Cow). Nunes claims that Twitter discriminated against him and other conservative social media users by permitting them to be defamed by anonymous users and “shadow banning” their accounts.
The lawsuit specifically claims that the accounts @DevinNunesMom and @DevinCow attacked and disparaged Nunes with false claims, which harmed his re-election campaign. While @DevinCow and its fanbase are still clearly active, the account of @DevinNunesMom has since been suspended.
“How do we know [Devin Nunes’] cow and mom aren’t in Henrico? They won’t tell us,” Nunes’ attorney Steven Biss asked of Judge John Marshall during Friday’s preliminary arguments.
The claim against Mair stems from her response to a Nunes tweet from June 2018, in which she said: “To be fair, I think the @fresnobee writing up your investment in a winery that allegedly used underage hookers to solicit investment –an allegation you’ve known about for years, during which you’ve stayed invested in it, I might add — did surprise you.”
Nunes is seeking “compensatory damages and punitive damages in an amount not less than $250,000,000” for alleged “negligence, defamation per se, insulting words, and civil conspiracy.”
According to the Times-Dispatch, Judge Marshall said he would rule on whether or not the case will be permitted to proceed within the next two weeks.
[image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
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We used to fear Mary Jane, then we laughed about her, and now many of us think she's downright wholesome. Marijuana's public image has undergone a stunning transformation since the scare-mongering of Reefer Madness and the dope comedies of Cheech and Chong, but many doctors believe that weed's rehabilitation as a virtual wonder drug may be distracting us from its real health dangers.
It seems that plenty of people have bought the idea that marijuana is a harmless herb, or better. Stories proclaiming the benefits of "medical marijuana" – for ailments as varied as arthritis, MS, glaucoma and Alzheimer's – abound in mainstream media like International Business Times, and at patient support sites such as Livestrong.org. Voters in Washington and Colorado recently approved measures to begin legalizing pot, and a reinvigorated movement in B.C. is pushing for similar changes. A poll in the summer showed that two-thirds of Canadians are okay with decriminalizing weed for personal use.
Pot supporters promote its supposed benefits at big trade shows like the Treating Yourself Expo, which celebrated its third annual edition in May in Toronto. Doctors aren't nearly so well mobilized on the issue, but many say the health risks of smoking marijuana are more extensive and better understood than ever before.
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"There's a pretty potent lobby that makes claims about the medical benefits of cannabis, and anybody who disputes them is labelled part of the war on drugs," says Dr. Meldon Kahan, medical director of the Substance Use Service at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. "But there's no role, or hardly any role, for smoked cannabis in the treatment of chronic pain. There are safer alternatives, such as cannabis in pill form or inhalers. There are toxins in cannabis smoke that are carcinogens, and that accelerate heart disease. Smoked cannabis is addicting, unsafe during pregnancy and especially dangerous for young people, in terms of triggering psychosis, depression and mood disorders."
According to Health Canada, addiction is a complex phenomenon that includes psychological cravings, difficulties in controlling use, symptoms of withdrawal, and persistence in the addictive activity even when it is obviously damaging one's health, relationships and day-to-day functioning. All can apply to heavy cannabis smokers, says Kahan.
Teens are still developing neurologically, he says, which makes them more vulnerable than adults to the adverse effects of marijuana, especially of the powerful strains for which B.C. is famous. A recent report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about a long-term study of more than 1,000 pot-using teens in New Zealand said that those who continued smoking into their 30s suffered significant cognitive deficits related to memory, reasoning and ability to process information.
According to a 2007 report by Health Canada, 8.2 per cent of young people use cannabis on a daily basis. Many teens smoke weed to cope with the anxieties of adolescence, and find it very tough to quit.
"People who take cannabis regularly get a mood-leveling effect," Kahan says. "When they stop suddenly, there's a tremendous rebound anxiety that can go on for days or weeks, and that makes them want to take it again."
Many young users smoke it with tobacco, a combo that researchers are finding to be much more addicting than marijuana alone. Dr. Bernard Le Foll, a leading researcher at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, says his research shows that when nicotine and tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC, the element in pot that delivers the "high") are received together, they magnify each other's effects on brain chemistry.
A 2009 study at the University of B.C. led by Dr. Wan Tan found "a significant synergistic effect between marijuana smoking and tobacco smoking" that increases risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. COPD (which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis) can aggravate the risk of pneumonia, heart problems, glaucoma and lung cancer.
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John Westland, a social worker at the Hospital for Sick Children's Adolescent Substance Abuse Outreach Program, says many of his teenaged patients combine weed and tobacco in the quick-hit form known as "poppers" (not to be confused with the amyl nitrites inhaled at clubs and raves). They use a modified water pipe that delivers a head rush they don't get from smoking straight marijuana.
"From my experience with my patients, I would say the addiction potential is higher for sure," Westland says. The relative cheapness of poppers is also a draw, as is the societal notion that pot is pretty much okay, and that a few cigarettes won't hurt you. "As their perception of risk goes down, use goes up," Westland says. Withdrawal is an ugly process that deprives jittery patients of sleep and appetite, he says, and can drag on through cycles of relapse and repeated efforts.
So why is weed regarded as relatively benign? How can any kind of smoking seem okay in 2012?
Pot's current reputation has certainly benefited from growing skepticism about established medicine. Marijuana is seen as whole and natural, not a refined pharmaceutical produced by a big corporation. Weed as a painkiller or treatment for nausea may appeal to the same people who seek out herbal equivalents of pharmaceuticals such as Valium, whose effects can be mimicked by valerian root.
Pot also benefits from current demographics. In contrast to seniors of, say 20 years ago, aging boomers today have fond memories of sharing a joint in their college dorm, and may not be aware that today's marijuana is probably much more potent than what they smoked in '68.
The widespread feeling that prohibition has failed both users and society as a whole has also helped. Surely a little pot smoking can't be more harmful, say weed activists, than a harsh legal regime that has cost us so much in money and damaged lives.
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"Whatever people think the harms of cannabis are, those are best reduced by a legally regulated system," says Dana Larsen, leader of a Sensible B.C. initiative to decriminalize weed in B.C. In any case, he says, "The use of cannabis since the 1960s has pretty much steadily risen in Canada, as has the severity of the laws, so the idea that prohibition is doing anything to keep cannabis out of the hands of youth is totally wrong."
No doubt. What does work is information. A 2011 survey report from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse found that while cannabis use is increasing among American high school students, tobacco smoking has dropped by half since 1997. In those 15 years, tremendous societal scorn has come down on smoking, the ill effects of which are pictured on every cigarette pack. Marijuana, meanwhile, has acquired a public image almost as benign as wheatgrass. Perhaps our long-running relationship with Mary Jane is due for another change.
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Pills vs. joints
Health Canada permits people to take marijuana to relieve "severe pain" or "debilitating symptoms" of several illnesses, "if a specialist confirms the diagnosis and that conventional treatments have failed or [are] judged inappropriate." But there's fierce debate about whether smoked cannabis is a good way to deliver the pain and nausea-suppressing effects of THC.
"There's no other medicine that people would even think of smoking," says Meldon Kahan, medical director of the Substance Use Service at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. Cannabinoid pills and inhalers are safer, he says, and deliver medication over a longer period. Smoked marijuana delivers a surge of THC that is uncontrolled, intoxicates the patient and wears off sooner.
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But Dana Larsen, a marijuana activist who runs the Medical Cannabis Dispensary in Vancouver, says that smoked weed does negligible harm to patients. Pills, he said, would be a worse option.
"The idea that people should turn away from a natural herb that's been used for thousands of years, and instead use synthetic pharmaceutical products, is a failed argument," Larsen says. "Those products are going to cost a lot more, they're not going to have the same therapeutic benefits, and I would say they often present more harms."
In any case, Larsen says, many of his customers opt for non-psychoactive extracts of cannabis, including tinctures, capsules and lotions. | {
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Lucifer, by Feel Addicted. (Yes the same guys that brought you Hotdolls on .org, the designer sex toys for your pups.) This is one of the most gorgeous implementations of matchbooks i’ve seen in some time. Interactions from shaking the match out (reminiscent of some of those toothpick dispensers), the satisfaction of pulling it out and having it light, being able to see all the matches inside yet untouchable… | {
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It’s been a while since we have blogged. We cannot believe it has been already two months since we started with our blog and challenges! As you know, we are building it up in a way that we are adding challenges every two weeks. Building up is challenging for us and we did fail a couple of times. So what kind of situations challenged us?
Being a vegan guest in India
Probably this problem sounds familiar to many vegans in India. Maybe you did not announce your conversion loudly or maybe people could not understand or accept your decision. For us it was difficult to REFUSE already prepared chai (tea with milk) which is traditionally served in every Indian home. In that situation, we decided that we value the host so much that we will not refuse her offer. We explained later that we are not consuming dairy anymore and we will really appreciate if we can simply say no to this traditional serving.
Bread and palm oil
“What the hell?” Even if we got used to reading the labels, we totally forgot to check the ingredients since we thought about bread as “flour and water”. From all of the challenges, we found saying no to palm oil as the most difficult one. But this challenge showed us, how serious is the problem with palm oil and since it is everywhere, we did spend time to check out brands and companies that are using sustainable palm oil.
Reading and time
This one we did not completely fail, but we are a little behind on the schedule. We both read some amazing books and we both believe that we have to continue with this challenge in the future as well.
Overall, the last month our biggest challenge was finding time to write blogs, since we both had an insane month of work and life. Going forward, we will be more punctual and hopefully, you will hear from our side at least once a week.
Katja and Yash | {
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23-year-old Barkha Menghani says every commuter who is harassed on local trains should stand up and bring the bullies to book.Bullying in local trains, something most people tend to ignore or shrug off, has come into focus with a gutsy executive getting seven women booked for harassment on Tuesday.Barkha Menghani, 23, who was being harassed almost every day for close to a month by a bunch of women on the 8.10 am local from Ambernath to CST, put her foot down despite an initial tepid response from authorities. Menghani, who works in BKC, takes a train from Ulhasnagar to Ambernath and from there another train to Kurla.On Monday, one of the women from the gang sat on her lap, after which the others started taunting her and clicking photos on their mobile phones. Menghani first tried calling the Government Railway Police’s helpline number. Though there was no response, she eventually managed to reach Alok Bohra, the Senior Divisional Security Commissioner of the Railway Protection Force.Bohra then arranged for RPF lady constables in civilian clothes to accompany Menghani the next day. When the women started abusing and harassing the constables also, taking them for civilian commuters, the RPF women took them off the train at Ambernath and booked them for creating nuisance and preventing a passenger from boarding a train. The magistrate fined the women Rs 1,000 each and made them to sit in the court till 6 pm.Menghani now hopes other women follow her lead and stand up to bullying on trains. “I would advice every woman who faces this problem to raise their voice and lodge formal complaints,” said Menghani. “It might take time and even mean being late for work, but it will teach a lesson to those who trouble others for no reason. They will not dare do it again.”To prove her point, Menghani, who had to go to the court to testify against the bullies, said her bosses were very supportive of her and even encouraged her to take the day off. Menghani said she is not afraid to face the women the next time. “I am not afraid of them. I will stick to my routine. Ihave also filed a complaint with the GRP to prevent any future harassment,” she said.Local mafiaBullies on local trains are usually a close group of people who know each other. They largely fall under three groups: Those who ‘reserve’ seats for their friends, those who form a group and play games, and those who crowd the entrances and prevent passengers from either boarding or getting off.Mengani’s bullies were of the first kind. The gang first gave her a verbal warning to avoid the middle women’s coach. When she refused to comply, she was subjected to abuse, first verbal and then physical. As she persisted, the abuse became a daily ritual.“I ignored them,” said Menghani. “But when the woman sat on my lap, something snapped inside me.”During rush hour, gangs crowd the footboards and block people from entering. Groups on Churchgate-bound trains from Virar do not let commuters from Borivali station board the train. The situation is similar at Badlapur, Ambernath, Ulhasnagar and Kalyan stations. Then there are groups that form a circle and play cards, not allowing commuters to stand comfortably.Lauding Menghani’s action, Bohra told Mirror: “If we get any such complaints we will immediately send our staff to check. If it is true, we will take action against the troublemakers. Any commuter can lodge a complaint on the RPF or GRP helplines.” | {
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Deal avoids U.S. takeover of Oakland cops Tentative pact avoids U.S. takeover of department - but adds a wrinkle
Judge Thelton Henderson, the U.S. Justice Department’s first black attorney, recruited minorities to Stanford Law School. Judge Thelton Henderson, the U.S. Justice Department’s first black attorney, recruited minorities to Stanford Law School. Photo: Mike Kepka / The Chronicle Photo: Mike Kepka / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Deal avoids U.S. takeover of Oakland cops 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
Oakland officials cut a last-minute deal Wednesday with civil rights attorneys that staves off an unprecedented federal takeover of the city's police force, but hands tremendous power - including the ability to seek the firing of the police chief - to a court-appointed outsider.
The settlement, which must be approved by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, would create a "compliance director" charged with driving home a set of reforms that were ordered 10 years ago after a police-brutality scandal.
The civil rights attorneys had asked Henderson to place the police force into receivership, saying a broken culture had fouled the reform effort, endangering citizens - minorities, in particular - and prompting costly police-abuse lawsuits.
While the deal avoids an outright takeover, it nonetheless grants broad new powers to the federal court. The compliance director would be appointed by Henderson and answer to him, but would be paid from city coffers.
The appointee would be able to discipline or demote deputy chiefs and assistant chiefs and could punish or fire Chief Howard Jordan - though only after giving written notice and gaining court approval. The director could spend up to $250,000 at a time and direct City Administrator Deanna Santana in connection with the reform effort.
A promising path
City leaders lauded the settlement Wednesday, saying it offered a promising path toward emerging, at long last, from federal court oversight.
"It's the best-case scenario for us based on the alternatives. We had always been opposed to a receiver," said Jordan, who took part in the negotiations. "If you look at the duties and responsibilities, the compliance director will be charged with actually finding solutions and working with all stakeholders to get us into compliance."
Jordan said the difference between a receiver and compliance director is that under a receiver the city would have had no say in who that person would be or what they could do. With a compliance director, the city can nominate candidates for the job and work with the appointee to help meet goals.
'Would have no say'
"With the receiver we would have no say in the future of our department," Jordan said.
Civil rights attorney Jim Chanin, who helped craft the settlement along with attorney John Burris, said he sees little difference in the titles. He said it was important to city officials that the compliance director not be referred to as a receiver but called it a matter of semantics, saying, "I see this as a receiver with a different name."
He said the compliance director's power to fire the chief is unlike any other department he knows of in the nation.
Burris said he is "cautiously optimistic that we can set a more positive direction for the department and get it into compliance. If this is done properly, this department will be in a position to engage in constitutionally sound policing."
Jordan said the city is in the process of identifying possible compliance directors, though it may be some time before that's decided. According to Wednesday's deal, the city and the civil rights lawyers would try to agree on a candidate, with Henderson making the final decision.
Mayor Jean Quan said the new agreement would help the department reach compliance. "We're very grateful to the judge for this opportunity," she said. "This will help us move on faster. It's been months and months in the making and a lot of hard work."
Involving officers
Rocky Lucia, an attorney for the Oakland Police Officers Association, said the deal gives officers a bigger stake in the reform effort, in stark contrast to previous agreements.
Under the settlement, the compliance director would meet with the union president at least once every three months to gain insights from the rank-and-file. The director could not alter union contracts.
"It formalizes the requirement that we get a seat at the table," Lucia said.
Sgt. Barry Donelan, the union president, said the deal "lifted a cloud of uncertainty. All this talk of a receiver has moved us away from focusing on dealing with crime in Oakland. I'm hoping this is the blueprint for leadership to get into compliance and let the officers focus on serving the citizens."
Crime is up
Major crimes are up 23 percent this year in Oakland. The police force has 626 officers, down from a high of 837 in December 2008. And The Chronicle reported last week that officers arrested 44 percent fewer people in 2011 than they did just three years before.
Chanin and Burris represented more than 100 people who sued the city after four officers, who called themselves the Riders, were accused in 2000 of imposing vigilante justice in West Oakland. In a resulting settlement, Oakland had to implement dozens of reforms - some that remain incomplete.
10 tasks to complete
The city still needs to complete 10 tasks before it can emerge from court oversight, including improving the way officers report use of force and gather racial data on people they stop. In an example of the failures in Oakland, a court-appointed monitor overseeing the reforms said officers often do not articulate a constitutional reason for making a stop.
The settlement reflects the city's desire to diminish the power of the monitor, Robert Warshaw, who has been critical of the city's progress since his appointment in January 2010.
The deal calls for status conferences to be held in front of Henderson, starting roughly six months after the appointment of the compliance director. If the judge finds the city is not making adequate progress on the reforms, he may impose "any appropriate remedy," including receivership. | {
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Last night the newest primetime attraction on the Fox News Channel ventured off the reservation to hype her program on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In the process Megyn Kelly delivered some of the most unintentionally funny perversions of reality you can imagine.
From the outset, the interview was a fluff piece designed to promote Kelly and her new role as a primetime anchor at Fox News. But the conversation devolved into the absurd when Leno started to ask a modestly interesting question, but swerved midway through and turned it into an open-ended (and false) compliment.
Leno: People assume that if you’re on Fox News, just as they do if you’re on MSNBC, you have a certain bias. How do you deal with…you seem pretty straight down the line. Kelly: I am, thank you. I’m a straight news anchor. I’m not one of the opinion hosts at Fox. But I always laugh because I’ll have a conservative pull me aside and say “I love your conservative principles,” and I’ll say “You assume too much.” And then the liberals will pull me aside and say, “I know you’re one of us,” and I’ll say, “You assume too much.” But I always say that if you assume that I’m this conservative operative, ask Karl Rove if that’s true.
It’s a pretty safe bet that, if challenged, Kelly could not produce a single liberal that ever claimed that she is one of them. It was just a line that Kelly used to feign balance. The same is true of her reference to Karl Rove. Kelly was likely harking back to the incident on election night November 2012, when Rove refused to concede defeat. But Kelly’s performance did nothing to refute Rove’s conservatism, just his obstinance in light of the polling results. Rove certainly regards Kelly as a reliable conservative and an ideological ally. She has made him a frequent guest despite his role as one of the most prolific fundraisers for the GOP, which she never bothers to disclose to her audience.
However, the real whopper of the evening was Kelly’s assertion that she’s a “straight news anchor” and “not one of the opinion hosts on Fox” Kelly has been a rabid right-winger for as long as she has had a perch at the painfully conservative network. She rudely lambastes Democratic guests and has pushed numerous fallacious stories aimed at discrediting liberals and progressive policy. In fact, her editorial bias generally produces little more than partisan tripe and manufactured outrages that have little basis in fact. For example, her near-obsession with the irrelevant New Black Panther Party was a months long excursion into fantasy. She was also one Fox’s most virulent proponents of the phoney IRS/Tea Party affair. And her stubborn attachment to a trumped up Benghazi scandal wasted hundreds of hours of valuable airtime. And then there were these crackpot diversions:
Kelly defended a criminal anti-Islam filmmaker as a “patsy” of the Obama administration.
Kelly asserted that Americans have “gotta get a little squeamish” about the prospect of being killed by drones.
Kelly told her colleague Bill O’Reilly that pepper spray used against student protesters was just “a food product, essentially.”
Kelly moderated a discussion that was based on a series of “Fox Facts” that were cribbed directly from a Republican National Committee press release.
Kelly featured a disreputable reporter with a history of violence (who was later arrested for sexually assaulting a four year old girl) in her frequent attacks on the funders of the Islamic Center that Fox derisively referred to as the “Ground Zero Mosque.”
Kelly misrepresented the results of a Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll to argue that Democrats are defying the will of the people.
Kelly helped to cover up the extra-marital affair of GOP senator John Ensign and failed to disclose her personal involvement in the story.
These are not the sort of stories attributed to a straight shooting, non-opinionated journalist. It is this record of partisan propagandizing that led to my article three years ago asking “Is Megyn Kelly Worse Than Glenn Beck?” More recently Media Matters conducted a survey of Kelly’s new primetime program and found that she “has hosted conservatives (56%) significantly more often than progressives (18%) and has surpassed even Fox’s Hannity in its divide between guests on the left and right.”
For Kelly to go on the Tonight Show and tell Jay Leno that she’s a straight news anchor is a blatant and deliberate lie. There is no question about her political leanings. She would not have been hired by Roger Ailes if she were anything but a rightist tool and a willing mouthpiece for the conservative agenda that Ailes, and his boss Rupert Murdoch, are peddling. And anyone who falls for her dishonest self-appraisal is terminally naive (I’m lookin at you Leno).
[Addendum:] The day after Kelly appeared the Tonight Show, this “straight news anchor” returned to her own program and, speaking to her kiddie viewers, said that “Santa Claus just IS white.” She later included Jesus as well saying that it is “a historical fact.” It’s pretty safe to say that this is how Fox sees it: | {
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ℂDuce is a modern XML-oriented functional language with innovative features. A compiler is available under the terms of an open-source license. ℂDuce is type-safe, efficient, and offers powerful constructions to work with XML documents.
2019, January: The theoretical bases for gradual typing in polymorphic ℂDuce are being presented at POPL 2019 in the paper Gradual Typing: a New Perspective.
2018, October:If you want to know the dirty details of implementation of ℂDuce typing and subtyping algorithms you can find it in this paper: Covariance and Contravariance: a fresh look at an old issue (a primer in advanced type systems for learning functional programmers).
2017, September: The theoretical bases for gradual typing in monomorphic ℂDuce are being presented at ICFP 2017 in the paper Gradual Typing with Union and Intersection Types.
2016, September: Type inference for ℂDuce polymorphic types is being presented at ICFP 2016 in the paper Set-Theoretic Types for Polymorphic Variants. You can also try the online prototypes for an OCaml-like language using this inference. There are two versions: a classic inference that implements the inference of the paper and a biderectional inference which allows the programmer to add explicit type annotations to help the inference algorithm.
2016, August: Try our subtyping constraint resolution algorithm, by using the debug tallying directive in the CDuce toplevel (development version). This finds a principal set of substitutions that solves a set of type constraints of the form {t1<:s1; ... ; tn<:sn} . For the syntax of this and other directives enter in the CDuce toplevel #help debug .
2016, January: Experimental implementation of Polymorphic ℂDuce is available on CDuce gitlab repository. For the latest developments use the cduce-next branch:
git clone https://gitlab.math.univ-paris-diderot.fr/cduce/cduce.git
git checkout cduce-next
./configure && make
The only difference in your programs: use 'a for type variables (see the summary of the type syntax at the end of this page).
2015, January: The theoretical bases of CDuce are being presented at POPL, the ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, in two papers: Polymorphic Functions with Set-Theoretic Types. Part 1: Syntax, Semantics, and Evaluation (in POPL '14) and Polymorphic Functions with Set-Theoretic Types. Part 2: Local Type Inference and Type Reconstruction (in POPL '15).
2014, April 9: EAPLS Best Dissertation Award for polymorphic ℂDuce. The European Association for Programming Languages and Systems conferred the 2013 Best Dissertation Award to the thesis Parametric Polymorphism for XML Processing Languages which provides the foundations for the (ongoing) polymophic extension of ℂDuce. See the official announcement.
2014, March 5: ℂDuce 0.6.0 is out. See the Download page for download information, or the CHANGES file to know what's new.
2013, July 14: Server migration is over. We finally moved all ℂDuce servers and everything is working again. Please signal us any problem.
2013, July 12: Navigational ℂDuce (or, ℂDuce+XPath). ℂDuce currenty provides a limited form of navigational patterns which does not comply with the XPath standard. We are implementing a new version which integrates with ℂDuce patterns, is XPath-compliant, and is precisely typed even for backward axes. Details in this paper.
2013, May 30: Zhiwu Xu's PhD defense. The thesis, titled Parametric Polymorphism for XML Processing Languages, provides the foundations for a polymophic extension of ℂDuce. More details in this page.
2013, March 15-23: cduce.org not reachable. Moving all the servers (see news below) was not painless and caused cduce.org to disappear for a week. We set up a temporary mirror site and redirected towards it while the problems with Paris Diderot DNS server are not solved. Until then online demos of ℂDuce will not work and svn site cannot be accessed: we apologize for the problem.
2013, February 2nd: We are moving. The PPS Lab (with all its servers) is moving to a new building. Online demos of ℂDuce may not work in next weeks.
2012, June 7th: Post-doc position open position at Paris Diderot to implement the (forthcoming) polymorphic extension of ℂDuce
The research will take place in the context of the ANR project Typex: Typeful and Certified XML.
See Polymorphic Functions with Set-Theoretic Types and Set-theoretic Foundation of Parametric Polymorphism and Subtyping for the theoretical foundation of this work.
For more information, contact [email protected].
Older News ... . | {
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CNN aired a private recording of President Trump discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would purchase rights to Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story about their 2006 affair.
The private recording is from a conversation between Trump and Cohen in September of 2016; Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis provided the recording to CNN.
McDougal sold her story to the National Inquirer for $150,000 but the tabloid, favoring Trump, didn’t run the story – a practice known as “catch-and-kill.”
Via CNN:
TRENDING: This Is America? Young Mother TASED, CUFFED AND ARRESTED for Not Wearing Face-Mask at Mostly Empty Stadium to Watch HS Football Game
Cohen told Trump about his plans to set up a company and finance the purchase of the rights from American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer. “I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” Cohen said in the recording, likely a reference to American Media head David Pecker. Trump interrupts Cohen asking, “What financing?” according to the recording. When Cohen tells Trump, “We’ll have to pay.” Trump is heard saying “pay with cash” but the audio is muddled and it’s unclear whether he suggests paying with cash or not paying. Cohen says, “no, no” but it is not clear what is said next.
Rudy Giuliani previously said Trump had no idea he was being recorded, didn’t make a payment and that he had done nothing wrong.
A clip of the private recording was aired on Chris Cuomo’s show “Cuomo Prime Time” on CNN Tuesday evening.
It’s a very short clip and the audio is muddled and inaudible; it’s basically a nothing-burger.
AUDIO:
CNN obtained the tape of the Cohen-Trump conversation about Karen McDougal. Here the first part of it, which was just played live on @ChrisCuomo‘s show. pic.twitter.com/5N4X6Ew8GC — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 25, 2018
On Saturday, President Trump lashed out at Michael Cohen for taping a private conversation between them and said it was probably illegal.
The FBI seized the recording during a pre-dawn raid of Michael Cohen’s home and office earlier this year.
Trump tweeted: Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) – almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client – totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!
Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) – almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client – totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2018
The Deep State and Democrats are desperate to pin any type of ‘hush payment’ Trump may have made to any woman during the election as a campaign finance violation.
Michael Cohen also made a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks leading up to the election, which the FBI is also investigating.
Meanwhile, as many as 40 state Democrat parties are implicated in a large scheme to circumvent campaign finance laws in order to illegally funnel $84 million to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and there is no FBI investigation into the DNC.
Story developing…please refresh page for updates. | {
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The legalization of medical marijuana has sparked debate across the nation for decades. Some have argued that medical marijuana's legalization will lead to higher crime rates. But according to a new study at UT Dallas, legalization of medical cannabis is not an indicator of increased crime.
It actually may be related to reductions in certain types of crime, said Dr. Robert Morris, associate professor of criminology and lead author of the study published in the journal PLOS ONE.
"We're cautious about saying, 'Medical marijuana laws definitely reduce homicide.' That's not what we're saying," Morris said. "The main finding is that we found no increase in crime rates resulting from medical marijuana legalization. In fact, we found some evidence of decreasing rates of some types of violent crime, namely homicide and assault."
The UT Dallas team began its work in summer 2012 after repeatedly hearing claims that medical marijuana legalization posed a danger to public health in terms of exposure to violent crime and property crime.
The study tracked crime rates across all 50 states between 1990 and 2006, when 11 states legalized marijuana for medical use: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Since the time period the study covered, 20 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana for medical use.
Using crime data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, the researchers studied rates for homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft, teasing out an effect for the passing of medical marijuana laws.
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None of the seven crime types increased with the legalization of medical marijuana.
Robbery and burglary rates were unaffected by medical marijuana legalization, according to the study. These findings run counter to the claim that marijuana dispensaries and grow houses lead to an increase in victimization because of the opportunities for crime linked to the amount of drugs and cash that are present.
Morris said the models accounted for an exhaustive list of sociodemographic and econometric variables that are well-established links to changes in crime rates, including statistics on poverty, unemployment, college education, prison inmates and even the amount of beer consumed per person per year. Data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"The results are remarkable," Morris said. "It's pretty telling. It will be interesting to see what future studies hold."
Once data are available, the researchers plan to investigate the relationship between recreational marijuana legalization and crime in Washington and Colorado, where the legalized marijuana marketplace is taking shape.
While it's too soon to say if there are definitive drawbacks to legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, Morris said, the study shows that legalization does not pose a serious crime problem, at least at the state level.
"This new information, along with continued education of the public on the realities of the negative aspects of smoking marijuana -- which there are considerable negative attributes -- will make the dialogue between those opposed and in favor of legalization on more of an even playing field," Morris said. "It takes away the subjective comments about the link between marijuana laws and crime so the dialogue can be more in tune with reality."
UT Dallas doctoral student Michael TenEyck, assistant professor Dr. J.C. Barnes and associate professor Dr. Tomislav V. Kovandzic, all from the criminology program, also contributed to the study as co-authors. | {
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The market rumors continue to circle Carlos Bacca. The player has long been among those on their way out of Milan and is keen on his return to Sevilla, the team from which Milan bought him in 2015. The arrival of Andrè Silva, in addition to the ongoing search for a point striker (Kalinic, Aubameyang, Diego Costa) closes the door on the Colombian. Thus Bacca will be relieved to be in a squad again that values him, leaving Milan to avoid losing his spot ahead of the 2018 World Cup.
WORDS - The confirmation of the possibility of Bacca coming back to Andalusia comes from the Spanish club's sports director, Oscar Arias, who said, "We always take into consideration the possibility of getting good players. I do not want to go into the specific case of Carlos Bacca. We are aware that it is complicated and difficult to get him, but Sevilla never neglects anything."
Bacca came to Milan directly from Sevilla for a total of 30 million EUR. Mirabelli and Fassone evaluate him closer to 20 million, a figure that perhaps can be achieved by inserting some bonus. Milan have long been open to a sale for the Colombian striker and are only waiting for the right offer. In the past there was interest from Turkey and England, with Ligue 1 side Marseille now looking to be in pole to acquire Bacca, but still has not made a final offer. As Milan wait for the right proposal, Sevilla search their strategies to bring the player back... | {
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Wanaka-based Dr Fiona MacLean and primary care assistant Zivvy Zivkovich-Rankin perform the Covid-19 version of Lorde's Royals.
Busy medical staff in Wanaka have found time to write, perform and post their own coronavirus safety video.
Based on Lorde's debut single Royals, it features Aspiring Medical Centre primary care assistant Zivvy Zivkovich-Rankin and backing singer Dr Fiona MacLean.
"We dress normal (normal) ... We all dressed in our scrubs, This new virus just ain't for us. We crave to stop this crazy bug," the pair croon.
Supplied Aspiring Medical Centre's Dr Fiona MacLean and primary care assistance Zivvy Zivkovich-Rankin perform the Covid-19 version of Lorde's Royals.
Performed while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), the video was made at the start of a shift so no PPE was wasted, the video states.
READ MORE:
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* Coronavirus: Full coverage
Aspiring Medical Centre general manager Caroline Stark said the idea for the video followed a nursing staff dance-off, held as light relief through a challenging time.
Zivkovich-Rankin and MacLean both had definite musical talent and there was a possibility they could abandon their medical careers to chase fame in the spotlight, she said.
"But I hope not."
The video was meant to be shared only internally but was put on YouTube because the file was too large to email.
"All staff members have found it really positive and a bit of a laugh at a challenging time."
The medical centre remained fully staffed and was a designated Covid-19 testing centre, Stark said. | {
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Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian, talks with Rachel Maddow about the resignation of Defense Secretary Mattis in the context of U.S. history and past presidents' disagreements with defense secretaries. | {
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Samuel Topaz, of New Jersey, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State, is pictured in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters May 1, 2018. Essex County Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey man was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to taking part in a conspiracy to support Islamic State, federal prosecutors announced.
Samuel Rahamin Topaz, 24, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark, who also imposed a lifetime term of supervised release. A lawyer for Topaz could not immediately be reached for comment.
Topaz was arrested in June 2015 and pleaded guilty to conspiring to support Islamic State. He admitted that he made plans with several other young men to travel to the Middle East to join the militant group, prosecutors said.
One of the others in the group, Nader Saadeh, actually traveled to Jordan in 2015 and was arrested by authorities there. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison by Wigenton on Monday.
Topaz was the last of five people arrested in connection with the plot to be sentenced. The others, who all pleaded guilty, were Saadeh’s brother, Alaa Saadeh, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in May 2016; Munther Omar Saleh, who was sentenced to 18 years in February; and Fareed Mumuni, who was sentenced to 17 years last week.
The Saadehs were also charged and sentenced in New Jersey federal court, while Saleh and Mumuni were charged and sentenced in Brooklyn federal court. Prosecutors said Saleh and Mumuni made plans to detonate homemade bombs in Manhattan’s Times Square and World Trade Center. | {
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NEW YORK – Toronto Maple Leafs forward Joffrey Lupul has been fined $10,000, the maximum permitted under the CBA, for cross-checking Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Eaves in NHL Game No. 610 in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Wednesday, Jan. 1, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.
The incident occurred at 11:04 of the first period. Lupul was assessed a minor penalty for cross-checking.
The fine money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund. | {
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Need For Speed No Limits merupakan game seri terbaik yang beraliran racing untuk pengguna perangkat android. Keunggulan game racing ini yaitu memiliki mobil sport yang beragam jenis dan penuh gaya. Selain itu, NFS No limits juga menghadirkan kontrol kendaraan mobil yang sangat mudah.
Dengan mengunduh Need For Speed No Limit versi APK, maka pengguna bisa melakukan upgrade atau custom kendaraan mobil secara bebas. Selain itu, pengguna juga mendapatkan unlimited money yang bisa digunakan untuk membeli beberapa item atau yang lainnya untuk meningkatkan performa mobil.
Review Game Need For Speed No Limits Mod APK
Need For Speed No Limits atau NFS No Limits merupakan game balap mobil terkenal yang dikembangkan oleh Firemonkeys Studio dan diluncurkan oleh perusahaan Electronic Art. Pengembang Firemonkeys studio sebelumnya juga sudah merilis game populer lainnya, yaitu Real Racing 3.
Perbedaan Need For Speed No Limits dengan versi sebelumnya adalah tidak adanya storyline yang terdapat dalam game. Selain itu, tampilan visual yang dihadirkan pada game bisa membuat pengguna menjadi nyaman dan menyenangkan ketika bermain NFS.
Tampilan interface yang realistis membuat game Need For Speed No Limits mempunyai keunggulan dibandingkan dengan game balap mobil lainnya. Salah satunya yaitu ada pada bangunan pendukung yang bertingkat tinggi hingga ruang bawah tanah yang digunakan sebagai jalur balapan.
Pengembang juga memperbanyak karakter dan jenis kendaraan yang bisa digunakan para pengguna untuk melakukan balapan. Jenis kendaraan ini mencapai 30 mobil yang bisa di custom dan ditingkatkan sesuai keinginan pengguna. Tentunya ini membantu pengguna untuk membuat mobil yang super cepat.
Gameplay Need For Speed No Limit APK
Dalam memainkan game Need For Speed No Limits, pengguna tidak perlu melakukan akselerasi gas dan rem untuk memacu kecepatan mobil. Cukup mengendalikan setir mobil dan menyalakan nitro boost serta melakukan drifting, maka pengguna sudah bisa bermain game Need For Speed No Limits.
Game Need For Speed No Limits versi terbaru juga dikembangkan untuk pengguna agar bisa berfokus pada balapan mobil, menghindar dari kejaran polisi, dan mengkostumisasi kendaraan sesuai keinginan pengguna. Dalam mode permainan, hanya tersedia dua opsi yaitu mode kampanye dan mode balap.
Pada mode balap ini hanya mobil tertentu saja yang bisa digunakan untuk berpartisipasi. Pertandingan dalam mode balap memiliki batasan waktu. Hal ini yang membuat pengguna harus memacu mobil secara cepat agar bisa memenangkan pertandingan untuk mendapatkan rewards atau hadiah.
Hadiah yang didapatkan dari setiap pertandingan bisa digunakan oleh para pemain untuk melakukan kustomisasi mobil pada game NFS No Limits. kustomisasi ini menyangkut roda kendaraan, body kit, wide body kit, stiker mobil, balutan kursi pengemudi dan warna kendaraan.
Fitur – Fitur Need For Speed No Limits APK
Kelebihan game Need For Speed No Limits versi modifikasi adalah tersedia berbagai fitur yang bisa digunakan secara bebas oleh pengguna. Fitur ini juga bisa digunakan untuk membeli berbagai item agar bisa meningkatkan kecepatan dan model mobil.
Berikut ini fitur–fitur yang bisa digunakan oleh pengguna dalam memainkan game Need For Speed No Limit versi modifikasi.
Bisa menggunakan Gold secara bebas. Terdapat berbagai jenis kendaraan mobil yang siap digunakan oleh pengguna. Bisa melakukan kustomisasi mobil untuk variasi hingga 250 model. Tersedia Nitro Boost untuk menambah kecepatan mobil. Tidak ada kecelakaan mobil saat melakukan pertandingan. Menampilkan grafik HD dan audio terbaik. Tersedia Super Car khusus edisi eksklusif untuk pengguna. Terdapat mode VR yang bisa digunakan dalam game. Tidak adanya iklan yang bisa mengganggu pengguna. Tersedia jalur trek yang beragam dan didesain sangat nyata. Pengguna bisa memiliki uang tanpa batas dan bisa digunakan untuk membeli berbagai item
Pada game Need For Speed No Limits APK versi terbaru, pengguna bisa merasakan tantangan baru yang sebelumnya tidak ada pada versi pendahulu. Berikut ini fitur–fitur pembaruan yang bisa didapatkan oleh pengguna dengan memainkan game Need For Speed No Limits pada versi modifikasi.
Pengguna bisa mendapatkan jenis kendaraan Ferrari F355 Berlinetta setelah menyelesaikan misi Proving Grounds. Selain itu, jalur ini juga sudah mengalami pembaruan secara keseluruhan. Tersedia kompetisi Survival of The Fastest dan bisa mendapatkan mobil kendaraan Blackridge Royale. Terdapat tanda baru untuk pengguna yang bisa menyelesaikan misi tertentu.
Download Game Need For Speed No Limits Mod APK
Game Name Need for Speed No Limits Mod APK Android Version Minimal 4.1 atau Jelly Bean Category Racing Size 82 MB
Adanya game Need For Speed No Limits dalam versi modifikasi membuat pengguna bisa mengakses berbagai fitur premium secara gratis dan unlimited. Pengguna hanya perlu mengunduh file dari APK data NFS no Limit versi Mod melalui link dibawah. Minimal versi android yang digunakan adalah Jelly Bean.
Link APK : https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1IdVJCWvDs-WHbv3emUJXnOmwmWKlGtwD
Cara Install Game Need For Speed No Limit Mod APK
Untuk bisa merasakan semua fitur premium pada versi modifikasi, maka pengguna bisa melakukan pemasangan aplikasi pada perangkat yang digunakan sesuai dengan instruksi. Berikut ini langkah-langkah pemasangan game Need For Speed No Limits untuk penggunaan perangkat android.
Langkah pertama yaitu dengan melakukan unduhan file game Need For Speed No Limits APK versi modifikasi melalui link sebelumnya dan lakukan ekstrak pada file data. Setelah file APK berhasil di unduh, maka pengguna perlu membuka membuka pengaturan pada perangkat android, lalu pilih izinkan terlebih dahulu pada bagian kolom “sumber tidak diketahui” agar proses instalasi game dapat berjalan lancar. Selanjutnya, pengguna bisa melakukan pemasangan file game seperti aplikasi lainnya dan tunggu hingga selesai. Jika sudah berhasil dipasang, buka game Need For Speed No Limits versi modifikasi dan rasakan fitur premium secara gratis dan selamanya.
Cara Memainkan Game Need For Speed No Limits Mod APK
Memiliki sistem kontrol yang mudah membuat game Need For Speed No Limits bisa dimainkan oleh para pembalap amatir. Pengguna hanya perlu melaju pada jalur dan menekan drift untuk setiap tikungan. Selain itu, tersedia juga tombol Nitro Boots untuk menambah kecepatan.
Buka terlebih dahulu game yang sebelumnya sudah dipasang pada perangkat. Setelah game berhasil dibuka, maka akan tampil halaman login. Di sini pengguna bisa melakukan pendaftaran baru atau memasukan akun yang sebelumnya sudah terdaftar. Setelah login akun berhasil dilakukan, maka pengguna akan diberikan beberapa opsi pilihan mobil yang bisa digunakan beserta komponenya. Lakukan upgrade terlebih dahulu pada komponen mobil hingga mencapai maksimal agar bisa melaju dengan kecepatan tinggi saat melakukan balapan. Tekan pada mode trek jalur untuk memilih jalur yang ingin digunakan sebagai tempat untuk melakukan balapan. Setelah trek jalur berhasil dipilih, maka mobil pengguna siap untuk melakukan balapan. Melajulah dengan super cepat, lalu kalahkan lawan dan jadilah pemenang.
Kesimpulan
Game Need For Speed No Limits adalah game racing terbaik untuk pengguna perangkat Android. Game ini memiliki banyak keunggulan dibandingkan lainnya. Seperti memiliki berbagai macam jenis kendaraan super car yang mewah dan penuh gaya. Selain itu, fitur–fitur yang ditawarkan juga tergolong banyak.
Pengguna juga bisa menggunakan Need For Speed No Limits versi modifikasi untuk mendapatkan fitur premium secara gratis. Adanya versi modifikasi, membuat para pengguna bisa membeli berbagai macam komponen untuk meningkatkan performa mobil agar memenangkan pertandingan.
Download Juga Games Seru Lainnya Dibawah Ini : | {
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Maps
Best of 3 * Upper bracket quarter-final Veto process: 1. TSM removed Nuke 2. Without a Roof removed Train 3. TSM picked Cobblestone 4. Without a Roof picked Cache 5. Dust2 was randomly selected out of the remaining maps | {
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It looks like Beware the Batman has taken its last breath. The TV show, which debuted in July 2013 and was taken off the air without warning last fall, does not appear on Cartoon Network’s recently released 2014-2015 schedule (the official press release from Cartoon Network announcing the schedule can be found reprinted below.) While Teen Titans Go! will remain on the air, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting any new DC content to replace Beware the Batman next year, though TV fans who love DC will surely have their hands full with Arrow, Gotham, Flash, and Constantine.
While we’re sad to see Beware the Batman go, we’ll be paying tribute to the series next week by offering reviews of the 13 episodes currently available on DVD, from Tuesday to Sunday.
Get your news and reviews about all kinds of Bat-media right here From the Batcave, and be sure to like From the Batcave on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to get the scoop first!
Over The Garden Wall: Headlined by an all-star voice-cast that includes Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings Trilogy), Collin Dean (The War at Home) and Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men), Over the Garden Wall is Cartoon Network’s first event mini-series, an animated comedy/fantasy story about two brothers, Wirt and Greg, who are trapped in a mysterious world. In this ten-part mini-series, Wirt and Greg must travel across this strange land until they find their way home, aided by a wise old Woodsman who gives them directions and a bluebird named Beatrice. Music plays an important role in the series with a soundtrack full of Americana-influenced original songs. Over The Garden Wall is created by Pat McHale and produced by Cartoon Network Studios.
Clarence: From creator Skyler Page and premiering Monday, April 14 at 7 p.m.,Clarence is a new, original animated series about an optimistic boy who wants to do everything. Because everything is amazing! Clarence was conceived as part of the prolific shorts development program at Cartoon Network Studios, which has resulted in six original series for the network: Regular Show, Uncle Grandpa, Steven Universe, Clarence, Over the Garden Wall and We Bare Bears .
We Bare Bears: We Bare Bears is a comedy about three bear siblings, named Grizzly, Panda and Ice Bear. Each episode follows their awkward attempts at assimilating into human society, whether they’re looking for food, trying to make human friends, or scheming to become internet famous. Whatever the situation, it’s obvious that being a bear in the civilized, modern world is tough—but at least they have each other. Created by Annie Award-winner Daniel Chong (Toy Story of Terror!), We Bare Bears is produced by Cartoon Network Studios.
The Tom and Jerry Show: The iconic cat and mouse rivals are back in The Tom and Jerry Show, a new, fresh take on the classic series. Preserving the look, characters and sensibility of the original, the all-new series shines a brightly colored, high-definition lens on the madcap slapstick and never-ending battle that has made Tom and Jerry two of the most beloved characters of all time. The Tom and Jerry Show is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and will premiere Wednesday, April 9 at 5:30 p.m.
Be Cool Scooby-Doo!: Be Cool Scooby-Doo! is an all-new 22-minute animated comedy series from Warner Bros. Animation. The Scooby gang is back with a modern comedic twist on the beloved classic. With high school over and one last summer to live it up, the gang hits the road in the Mystery Machine, chasing fun and adventure. But monsters and mayhem keep getting in the way.
Wabbit—A Looney Tunes Production: The hilarious, heroic and mischievous Bugs Bunny you love is back! From Warner Bros. Animation, Bugs stars in an all-new series consisting of comedic shorts that find the iconic carrot-loving rabbit matching wits against (and getting the best of) classic characters like Yosemite Sam and Wile E. Coyote. Along the way, Bugs will encounter brand-new foes…and he’ll have some help from new friends like Bigfoot and Squeaks the squirrel.
LEGO® NINJAGO: Masters of Spinjitzu: Continuing its robust partnership with The LEGO Group, Cartoon Network will re-introduce viewers to the awesome world ofNINJAGO: Masters of Spinjitzu with six new half-hour animated specials in 2014, followed by all-new episodes of the highly popular series slated for 2015.
Sonic Boom™: Sonic the Hedgehog has been one of the world’s biggest gaming icons for over 20 years and this year a new branch of the Sonic universe debuts, entitled Sonic Boom™. With a new look for Sonic and friends, the franchise’s first-ever CG animated television series, an action-packed comedy adventure, will premiere on Cartoon Network with support from an extensive video game release of the same name. The Sonic Boomtelevision series, coproduced by SEGA® of America, Inc. and OuiDO! Productions, will debut on Cartoon Network in the 2014/2015 season.
Total Drama: Pahkitew Island: All-new island! All-new cast! Same old disregard for human safety! The Total Drama series returns as Chris and Chef put the newest generation of contestants through the craziest challenges yet—all for a chance to win one million dollars! Total Drama Island is produced by Fresh TV Inc.
Numb Chucks: Woodchuck brothers Dilweed and Fungus didn’t always see themselves as mystical Kung Fu saviors until they stumbled upon an infomercial featuring mega legend Woodchuck Morris’ mullet-fueled motivational kung-fu video “The Way of the Chuck!” With an endless supply of confidence but a limited supply of brain cells, and countless hours of watching the video, this dimwitted duo transmorph-ified into THE NUMB CHUCKS! | {
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Join us for our ninth annual party during San Diego Comic-Con. Catch up with friends you didn't see on the Comic-Con show floor and make new ones as you trade notes on best panels, booths, and parties.
We will be at the new Nason's Beer Hall at the Pendry Hotel. look for us in the game room with the Jenga, Connect 4, cornhole, darts and video games. Free popcorn.
Steve Sievers, the creator and voice of Daniel the Turtle in Supa Pirate Booty Hunt the award winning animation series will be giving out signed posters celebrating its digital release via Amazon video.
Comic-Con badges NOT required for entry. May be 21+. Arrive early to avoid the line. RSVP does not guarantee admittance. Subject to capacity. First come first serve.
Partners:
- IVY Entertainment: Ivy League alumni in entertainment ivyentertainment.org
- Superhero Day: Twice a year dress-up superhero day at Disnelyand park. facebook.com/superherodaydl | {
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Former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has left the Justice Department, a spokesperson confirmed Monday, and his last day was Saturday.
The departure was first reported by the Los Angeles Times’ Del Quentin Wilber, who said Whitaker’s next move had not yet been settled.
Some DOJ News: Matthew Whitaker, former acting attorney general, has left the department. His last day was Saturday. He has not yet solidified plans on his next steps, according to Justice Department officials. — Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) March 4, 2019
Whitaker was Sessions’ chief-of-staff and took over as Acting AG when Trump successfully demanded Sessions’ resignation after Nov. elections. Whitaker served as Acting AG until William Barr was sworn in mid-Feb. — Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) March 4, 2019
Whitaker then switched roles & served as senior counselor in the associate attorney general’s office. AAG is vacant. Rachel Brand abruptly quit the job last year. The White House has struggled to find someone to take that post. It is expected to announced a nom in coming weeks — Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) March 4, 2019
Whitaker, who also served as ex-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ chief of staff, was a source of controversy for the Department due to the perception that he was elevated to his former boss’s position by President Trump to serve as a Trump loyalist.
Attorney General Bill Barr took over the role after his Senate confirmation last month. Whitaker was serving in another position at the Department before his reported departure. | {
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Under söndagen, på mindre än fem timmar, skedde tre skjutningar i olika områden i Stockholm. I Sollentuna blev två män i 20-respektive 25-årsåldern, skjutna. Den yngre avled, den äldre skadades.
Senare samma kväll sköts en man i benet vid Kallhäll i nordvästra Stockholm. Han klarade sig med livet i behåll, men bara några timmar senare sköts en man i 20-årsåldern till döds i Blackeberg i västra Stockholm. En man i 25-årsåldern är nu anhållen för mordet.
Från årsskiftet till 15 juni i år har 21 personer mist livet i skjutningar i Sverige, enligt färska siffror från polisen som SVT Nyheter begärt ut. Med söndagens dödsskjutningar i Stockholm är siffran uppe i 23 människoliv.
Utöver det tillkommer det uppmärksammade dubbelmordet i Köpenhamn på två svenska medborgare. En man, som uppges tillhöra ett rivaliserande kriminellt gäng från Järvaområdet i Stockholm, är anhållen för morden.
Utvecklingen ligger i linje med hur det har sett ut de två senaste åren. Förra året sköts 23 personer till döds i Sverige de första sex månaderna, enligt polisens statistik. Totalt dödades 45 personer i skjutningar 2018. Året innan, 2017, var siffran från januari till och med juni 26 personer och 43 personer på helåret.
– Vi ser en ökning av det dödliga skjutvapenvåldet över tid, särskilt det dödliga skjutvapenvåldet inom kriminella miljöer, säger Daniel Vesterhav, kriminolog på Brottsförebyggande rådet.
”Skjutningar svar på skjutning”
I Stockholm sticker siffrorna ut. Där har elva personer skjutits ihjäl hittills i år. Det kan jämföras med elva personer under hela 2018.
– Det är vanligare med skjutningar i storstäderna. Vi vet också att det är vanligt med skjutningar kopplade till socialt utsatta områden och många av dem ligger i storstadsområden, säger Daniel Vesterhav.
När en skjutning sker ökar också risken för att det ska komma ytterligare en i närheten, enligt honom.
– Många skjutningar är ju svar på en skjutning. När det har dragit igång en konflikt genererar det flera skjutningar. Det kan vara en förklaring till ökningen.
”Vänskapen driver på konflikter”
För att förhindra att det sker fler dödsskjutningar behöver man få bort den tyngsta kriminaliteten och den öppna narkotikahandeln i utsatta områden, för det är där man gör sina första pengar, menar Daniel Vesterhav.
– Om man måste gå genom den öppna narkotikahandeln på väg till skolan blir det en naturlig del av ens vardag. Då är inte steget så långt för vissa individer att själv hamna i kriminalitet.
I februari i år publicerade Brå en studie där man intervjuat personer inblandade i skjutningar. De beskriver det som att man inte rekryteras in i gängen – man glider in i dem. Till skillnad mot till exempel MC-gäng, finns få tydliga organisatoriska strukturer.
– Man var ett kompisgäng redan innan och när man börjar tjäna pengar och det kommer in avundsjuka uppstår konflikter. Men eftersom det inte finns några strukturer som håller ihop gänget kan det gå så långt som till skjutningar. Vänskapen blir paradoxalt det som driver på konflikter. Många skjutningar är just mellan tidigare kompisar, säger Daniel Vesterhav.
– Våldet är också ett sätt att nå status och få andra att respektera en. | {
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Derechos de autor de la imagen Thinkstock Image caption La eñe no existió hasta la Edad Media.
La ñ no entró en el diccionario de la Real Academia Española hasta 1803. Pero el origen de esta letra, genuinamente española, se remonta casi 1.000 años atrás.
Para conocer cómo surgió esta icónica letra hay que retroceder a la Edad Media.
En latín, ni la letra ni el sonido correspondiente a la eñe existían.
Pero a medida que el latín evolucionó y empezaron a surgir las lenguas románicas, como el castellano, el francés o el italiano, apareció este sonido nasal (el aire sale por la nariz) palatal (al pronunciarlo el dorso de la lengua se apoya contra el paladar) que identificamos como "eñe".
Al no existir en el alfabeto latino, los escribas tuvieron que inventar formas de reproducir ese sonido en los textos de las lenguas romance.
Así, desde el siglo IX, los copistas empezaron a transcribir el sonido de la eñe de tres formas diferentes:
Formas de reproducir el sonido de la eñe Ejemplos Como una doble n (nn) canna (caña), anno (año), donna (doña) Como un gn lignu (leño), agnus (cordero), Como "ni" seguido de una vocal Hispania (España), vinia (viña)
"En un mismo texto podíamos encontrar las tres variaciones fonéticas de la eñe, según la procedencia del copista. No había una norma generalizada", le dice José J. Gómez Asencio, catedrático de la lengua española en la Universidad de Salamanca, a BBC Mundo.
Los escribas que optaban por usar la doble ene (o ene geminada) empezaron a abreviar esta forma, dejando una solaene y poniendo una vírgula encima (el sombrerito tan característico de la ñ).
"Esto fue una solución para ahorrar pergamino y facilitar el duro trabajo de los monjes escribanos. Es por eso que el uso de abreviaturas era muy común en la época", recalca Gómez Asencio.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images Image caption Los monjes eran de las pocas personas que sabían leer y escribir en la Edad Media, y para ahorrar tiempo y pergamino, simplificaron la doble n.
Y es que los monjes eran prácticamente las únicos que sabían leer y escribir en la Edad Media, por lo que la mayor parte de la cultura antigua se transmitió a través de la labor de estos copistas.
La victoria de la ñ
El uso generalizado de estas tres formas de reproducir el sonido de la eñe en un mismo texto generó una situación caótica, en la que en un mismo texto se podían encontrar las tres variantes -ñ, gn y ni más vocal- sin que hubiese ningún tipo de uniformidad.
Esto fue así hasta que en el siglo XIII, la reforma ortográfica del rey Alfonso X el Sabio, que buscaba establecer las primeras normas del castellano, se decantó por la ñ como la opción preferente para reproducir ese sonido.
Durante el siglo XIV la eñe se extendió en su uso y Antonio de Nebrija la incluyó en la gramática de 1492, la primera del castellano.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images Image caption La reforma ortográfica del rey Alfonso X el Sabio estableció que el sonido eñe se representaría solamente con la letra ene con vírgula.
El español y el gallego optaron por la ñ (España) pero cada lengua románica adoptó su propia solución gráfica para el sonido palatal nasal. Así el italiano y el francés se quedaron con la gn (Espagne, Spagna), el portugués con la nh (Espanha) y el catalán con la ny (Espanya).
¿Qué otras lenguas la utilizan?
Tanto la letra ñ como el sonido (o fonema) de la ñ no son exclusivas del español.
En la Península Ibérica, el gallego y el asturiano usan esta letra. En América Latina muchas lenguas indígenas como el mixteco, el zapoteco, el otomí, el quechua, el aymara, el mapuche y el guaraní también cuentan con la eñe.
Pero, ¿cómo llegaron a incorporar esa letra tan castiza a sus abecedarios?
"Muchas lenguas amerindias no tenían escritura en el siglo XVI, cuando los españoles llegaron al continente. Las lenguas que tenían ese sonido fuerte, palatal y nasal, tomaron la ñ del español", le dice a BBC Mundo Julio Calvo, profesor de la Universidad de Valencia, en España.
De hecho, los sistemas de escritura de las lenguas indígenas fueron implementados en la mayoría de los casos por lingüistas del reino de España.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Thinkstock Image caption La letra y el fonema de la eñe no son exclusivos del español.
"Hubo una directiva que, para facilitar a los indígenas el manejo tanto de su lengua como del español, señalaba que debían seguir el sistema del español", le cuenta Klaus Zimmermann, catedrático de lingüística románica de la Universidad de Bremen, en Alemania, a BBC Mundo.
"Por un lado se puede decir que (la eñe) fue un préstamo del español y por otro que fue una imposición, ya que la directiva no fue decretada por los mismos indígenas sino por lingüistas o indígenas obedeciendo a un raciocinio pedagógico propuesto por la cultura y política hispana", dice Zimmermann.
Otras culturas que también tuvieron contacto con el español cuentan con la ñ, como el papamiento de Curazao, el tagalo y el chabacano de Filipinas, el bubi de Guinea Ecuatorial o el chamorro de Guam.
Internet, enemigo de la ñ
El español es una de las lenguas más extendidas del mundo.
Según las cifras de este año del Instituto Cervantes, hay casi 472 millones de hispanohablantes nativos en el mundo, lo que sitúa al español como la segunda lengua materna más hablada del mundo, justo después del chino mandarín.
A pesar de esto, la ñ encontró obstáculos en la era digital.
En 1991, la entonces Comunidad Económica Europea propuso comercializar teclados sin la letra ñ, una iniciativa rechazada por políticos e intelectuales hispanohablantes, entre ellos Gabriel García Márquez.
La eñe es un salto cultural de una lengua romance que dejó atrás a las otras al expresar con una sola letra un sonido que en otras lenguas sigue expresándose con dos" Gabriel García Márquez, premio Nobel de Literatura Getty
¿Por qué ese rechazo a esta letra tan icónica?
"El problema es que el inglés es la lengua dominante y no tiene ni esa letra ni ese fonema, y todo lo que no tenga el inglés parece extraño en el mundo", dice el profesor Calvo a BBC Mundo.
A pesar que en 1993 el gobierno español consiguió salvar la ñ acogiéndose al Tratado de Maastricht, uno de los tratados fundacionales de la Unión Europea y que admite excepciones de carácter cultural, aun no podemos usar direcciones de correo electrónico que contengan la eñe.
Porque no es lo mismo Mariño que marino, ni Peña que pena, ¿verdad?
Este artículo es parte de la versión digital del Hay Festival Arequipa, un encuentro de escritores y pensadores que se realiza en esa ciudad peruana entre el 8 y 11 de diciembre de 2016. | {
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Hugh Jackman breaks down while remembering how his mother abandoned him at the age of eight during emotional TV interview
He is known for playing tough and hardened characters in his films, but when it comes to his family Hugh Jackman becomes emotional, especially when it comes to his family's past.
During an intimate interview on Sunday night, the Les Miserables star openly cried as he recalled the morning his mother Grace left...and never came back.
As he remembered the fateful day his mother said goodbye for the last time before fleeing to England and leaving Jackman, his four older siblings and his dad Chris alone to fend for themselves, the 44-year-old actor couldn't hold back the tears.
Scroll down for video...
Emotional: Hugh Jackman breaks down as he recalls when his mother left him aged eight on 60 Minutes on Sunday
Jackman was on 60 Minutes to promote Les Miserables but also opened up to interviewer Scott Pelley about the sad details of his childhood.
He said: 'I can remember the morning she left, it's weird the things you pick up.
'I remember her being in a towel around her head and saying goodbye, must have been the way she said goodbye. As I went off to school, when I came back, there was no one there in the house.
'The next day there was a telegram from England, Mum was there. And then that was it.
Heartbreaking: His mother abandoned his four older siblings as well as his father also Abandoned: His mother left and never came back one day. Then a telegraph arrived saying she was back in her native England 'I don't think she thought for a second it would be forever. I think she thought it was "I just need to get away, and I'll come back".
'Dad used to pray every night that Mom would come back.'
The Wolverine star also became emotional when talking about his father, who he called his 'rock'.
He said: 'My father is a rock. My father is my rock. It's where I learned everything about loyalty, dependability, being there day in, day out, no matter what.
'It's always about the family.
'It's not about work. And I think that's him living with probably some of his regrets.
'And feelings of maybe he at the wrong time put too much in his career.
Suffering: It turned out his mother Grace suffered from post natal depression
'And he doesn't want me to make me that mistake. In his gentle way, he always reminds me this the most important thing.'
Jackman said he never spends more than two weeks apart from his wife Deborra-Lee Furness and their two adopted children, Oscar, 12, and Eva, seven.
He explained: 'We choose not to. We don't like it.'
According to a previous interview in Australia’s Women’s Weekly magazine Jackman's English-born mother suffered from post natal depression and 'struggled' being so far away from home.
Reconciled: Jackman has since forgiven his mother and the pair see each other three or four times a year. Pictured at the W Hotel in London in June He also admitted that it took him until the age of 12 or 13 to realise that Grace was not coming back. He said: 'For many years, I thought it was not going to be forever, so I clung on to that. Up until that age of about 12 or 13, I thought Mum and Dad would get back together. 'Finally realising it wasn't going to happen was probably the roughest time to be honest.' Doting dad: Pictured out with his wife Deborra-Lee Furness and their two adopted children Oscar, 12, and Eva, seven in Sydney in June
But although his mother's leaving scarred him, Jackman said he never felt she stopped loving him. He said: 'But the thing I never felt, and I know this might sound strange, I never felt that my mum didn't love me.' In recent years, Jackman and his mother have reunited and he has forgiven her. Close bond: Jackman describes his father Chris as his rock He added: 'There comes a certain point in life when you have to stop blaming other people for how you feel or the misfortunes in your life. 'You can't go through life obsessing about what might have been. 'We see each other three or four times a year.'
Dashing: Hugh was pictured leaving his New York City abode on Tuesday with his wife Deborra-Lee Furness to pick up their children from school
Hand in hand: Deborra held hands with Ava as they walk back from the Manhattan school. The actress and her husband had just attended a luncheon for Les Miserables
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When Bad Weather Happens To Good Travelers
“The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day.” Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat
I’m a planner. When I plan a trip, I research the weather and I try to travel when the weather in that country is great. I have always had good weather luck. The bad weather usually clears up before I arrive or begins after I leave. Until now. I just returned from a road trip through New Zealand. It is really the best way to see New Zealand. Whether you are staying in a different hotel every night, camping or driving a motor home, as long as you can drive on the opposite side of the road, it’s the way to go. (Tongariro National Park)
The first half of the trip was great. (Hawkes Bay)
It was unseasonably cold for a New Zealand summer but sunny and beautiful.(Marlborough)
We had the ten-hour drive detour because of the damage from the Kaikoura earthquake (me after ten hours in Methven) .
I’m not a great passenger or driver so road trip were not words in my vocabulary.
Music helped. Prepare your playlists beforehand. Stretching and peeing every time you have a rest stop is useful. Your body will thank you later. Bring food, snacks and water with you. I’m always prepared to be the lifesaver in a threatening situation. Work out your anger before you sit in a van for two to four weeks. You don’t want it stuck in your head. If being a whiner is your normal state, try to get it under control. The thing about being in a van for ten hours is that you are doing something, but you aren’t really doing anything. (Canterbury)
The great part of road trips is that every day is different. Tomorrow brings new landscapes, new towns, new attractions, and new hotel rooms. (Lake Tecapo)
We drove the next day for several hours to Mount Cook. I was looking forward to taking a helicopter to the top of that glacier. I was ready. I had my glacier hiking gear which I lugged from Los Angeles. The next morning it was raining, windy, and very foggy.
It was not the kind of rain that was going to clear up in an hour. It was animals lining up in pairs rain. This was only the beginning. It rained for the next several days. There was snow on the mountains in summer. Activities were canceled. We kept driving.
New Zealand is all about outdoor adrenalin rush activities. There aren’t a lot of museums on the road and if there are any, they are closed. It is not fun driving for hours looking at nothing but rain and fog. There aren’t a lot of photographic pit stops. Having ice-cream blended with fresh fruit served by a cute guy was the highlight of the day. (Cromwell- the fruit bowl of New Zealand)
Life’s trials will test you and shape you. When I got to Queenstown after two wet days of driving, I was riding up a mountain in a gondola with a Swiss mother and daughter. I was cold, wet and depressed. The last thing that I wanted to be doing was still sitting. They were smiling.” Why are you smiling?,” I asked. ”We are on holidays. We are having fun. We are happy.”
They were right. Optimism is a choice. It was funny, laughing about the road food, weather and the fact that everything was closed most of the time. Those are the travel stories. I got off the gondola. The view of Queenstown is magical and the rain gives it an other worldly middle earth quality. It took my breath away.
At the top of the mountain, far away from the US was a Jelly Belly store. For those of you who don’t know me, Jelly Bellys are my favorite candy. I never leave the country without them but they quickly run out. It was one of those stores with individual flavors that you can mix and match. I took it as a sign from God to get my act together. They were right. I was on holiday – just different from what I planned. I carefully picked thirteen flavors (They were in packages). The girl told me that if I picked seven more it would be almost the same price (which was high for Jelly Bellys). I can’t resist a deal but I also knew I would make myself sick. I saw two little boys and told them it was their lucky day and to choose seven packets of Jelly Bellies. They ran into the store. Their grandparents followed and I explained why I did it. They laughed and the whole family started telling me things they loved to do there when it was raining.
I walked back from the gondola to the hotel in the rain. It was Queenstown, full of young adventure seeking people and everything was open late. I found myself in front of Fergburger – a Queenstown hamburger institution and got in the queue. I forgot for a minute how lucky I was to be in New Zealand and about to have the famous Fergburger. Rain will do that to you if you let it.
Fly safe,
JAZ | {
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These humble-looking contraptions were revealed in a Google patent application for a "heliostat control system" that automatically adjusts solar thermal mirrors to their optimal energy-harvesting angle. A camera and computer are housed in the central tower that receives heat from the mirrors, and together they detect when a heliostat is misaligned and then correct it using actuators. Sound like a strange distraction for an Internet company? Google thinks not. It's already invested $168 million in the world's largest solar tower in the Mojave Desert as part of its effort to both reduce its own massive electricity bill and diversify its business. It's also currently hiring three new technical staff to make this happen. Interested? | {
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Original 5/25/19 at 12:15 a.m.: The latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation reveals Atelier Ryza: The Queen of Eternal Darkness and the Secret Hideout for PlayStation 4. It will launch this fall in Japan for 7,800 yen. 10,800 yen and 19,540 yen limited editions will also be available.
It is worth noting that this was revealed through Dengeki PlayStation, so while there is likely also a Switch version, this information has yet to be confirmed. We will update this post when that information is available.
Gust recently launched a teaser website teasing the announcement for Atelier Ryza, which will be updated on May 28.
Atelier Ryza is a coming of age story The world is constructed through a new method of expression, the scenario is written by Gust and Shakugan no Shana manga creator Yashichiro Takahashi, and character design is by Toridamono.
The protagonist is Ryzalin Staud (voiced by Yuri Noguchi), a normal girl who feels uneasy in her tranquil everyday life. Seeking excitement, she is always on the lookout for something interesting with her friends. She is a freewheeling girl with a strong sense of justice. When she thinks she is right, it is not easy to tell her otherwise. This is her story about finding something she never thought was so dear to herself after discovering alchemy and meeting a certain someone.
Three other characters are introduced by illustration only: a male soldier, a female priest, and a child scholar.
As for the field, in order to depict daily life and adventuring even deeper than previous Atelier titles, the height of the sky, flower thickets, and the like are being made more realistically in order for players to get a greater sense of the land than before.
Battles utilize an all-new turn-based command system, and are more tense and aggressive than before. There is also a new system in which players get a sense of their bonds with other characters.
Synthesis utilizes a new system in which “creation” is the keyword. It uses an easier to understand and more responsive format. Rather than the tile-based systems of recent Atelier titles, it is now more of a a skill tree-like tree system.
For gathering, items change depending on the tool used, even at the same gathering points.
Here are some tidbits from the magazine’s interview with producer Junzo Hosoi:
“Development is led by Gust’s Nagano studio, with myself as the sole producer.”
“The concept itself was developed alongside Atelier Lulua. Full-blown development began around July 2018 at about the same time as Atelier Lulua.”
“For the concept, I wanted to depict a coming of age story of boys and girls. So the concept of this game is something like, ‘summer memories.'”
“The graphics are more realistic and have life-like proportions, which is a significant change from our visual expression on PlayStation 4 thus far starting with Atelier Sophie, but this time we are doing a complete overhaul.”
“We’re working hard on the visual side to depict summer memories and the new expressions we want to see.”
“We’re also trying to find a balance between photo-realism and ‘toon rendering’ using graphics we are capable of making.”
“There won’t be any romance, but there are some more or less bittersweet moments. They won’t develop into love though (laughs).”
“There are character episode and side story-like elements, but there won’t be any individual endings.”
“Development is simply difficult all around! (Laughs.) From here on it will be even more rigorous as we continue to polish the game to ensure it’s fun.”
“We chose Toridamono as character designer because he is able to draw appealing illustrations, but also because his art has a certain charm that’s unique to himself.”
“Ryza is a lively one! She is similar to Lulua in a way, but not as impulsive as her. She’s a lively child who really doesn’t know much about the world.”
“The three others aside from Ryza are her friends who she spends her time with. This is a story of these children growing up.”
“Toridamono really fixated on getting Ryza’s thighs right. There were even staff on the Gust side that followed his lead (laughs).”
“The catch copy (Bye-bye, Atelier. I will never forget this adventure.) is a reference to the Atelier in which Ryza and her friends spend their days, not a goodbye to the Atelier series.”
“The scenario is being produced in the way that we did Blue Reflection. The plot feels like it was written by Takahashi while coming up with it at Gust.”
“For the subtitle, we wanted to sound fresh and new, so our subtitle is made up of the game’s keywords.”
“For the music, we’ve asked for those charge of previous Atelier games, as well as new folks to create high-quality music befitting of the game.”
“Synthesis, gathering, and battle being the core three elements of the game has not changed.”
“For players, the feelings of familiarity and relief [in games staying the same] have gradually become a groove that haven’t been able to get out of, so this time there is big change at the core of the game.”
“Our goal is for Atelier Ryza to utilize all of our experience thus far, what makes our games interesting, and what we do best, while also challenging the game systems. Since we are evolving and revising various parts, I think it will be a game of considerable change.”
“Since both the story and systems are changing, some players might be dissatisfied, but we’re prepared for that. But this is the first step towards a new Atelier , so we want people to experience it.”
, so we want people to experience it.” “We want to release it before it gets cold out. Development is currently 45 percent complete.”
Thanks, Ryokutya2089 (2).
Update 5/27/19 at 11:07 a.m.: Famitsu has gone up with its online preview of this week’s issue of Weekly Famitsu, which features Atelier Ryza and confirms plans for release on Switch and PC in addition to PlayStation 4. While the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions are due out this fall in Japan, a release date for the PC version has yet to be announced. | {
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When I first became friends with Griffin Newman, he was an actor whose biggest screen credit was the guy Kevin Costner spills coffee on in “Draft Day” — and I was a freelancer with no idea if I’d ever get a full-time job. Since then, things have improved for both of us, and with Newman’s new series “The Tick” debuting on Amazon, I’m in the unprecedented position of recusing myself from a review. (My colleague Maureen Ryan will be covering it instead). With that caveat, I thought it might be fun to chat with my friend about how much his life has changed, and how jumping from being a fan to having fans is a unique transition. I talked with Newman about his upcoming role starring as Arthur Everest in “The Tick” — a role that has already generated fan enthusiasm — and now that he’s making rent, his most fervent desire: an action figure of himself.
So I watched the first four episodes of “The Tick.” And my first thought was, “Wow, Arthur is a lot like Griffin!”
Yeah. He is very similar. There were all these parallels, between Arthur trying to become a superhero and with me trying to become an actor who could play a superhero. You know? That amount of self-doubt, and the amount of criticism from people around you.
That thing that everyone always quotes — the definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results — you can argue that point until the end of time. It’s a little blankety for my taste. But that’s what show business is, you keep on doing the same thing over and over again hoping it’s going to work sometime — especially when you’re struggling to make your mark to convince anyone to let you do anything. That’s what it is. You’re going for audition, after audition, after audition, and it’s like a bunch of blind dates that don’t go anywhere. You have to be insane. You have to be somewhat delusional to keep doing it, because everything around you is telling you to stop — and that’s even if you’re wildly successful. There’s just a certain amount you have to swim through.
I’m a neurotic, small, fragile person, and so most of my life has been, or most of my career — since I dropped out of college nine years ago and started auditioning — most of what I get to audition for are characters who are the butt of the joke in one way or another. Playing a lot of people who are there to prop up the lead, or allow them to dunk successfully, and maybe you get a bit of vindication at the end.
I would always, growing up, get so angry when I felt like I saw a character like that in a movie where I felt like the actor was making fun of them, too. I feel like that happens a lot, and I think it sometimes happens from a place of ego. Well I’m cooler than this guy is. So I need to play more of a dork.
What became my north star, was like: OK, I know what I look like. I know what I sound like. I’m not delusional. I want to work, but what I’d like to do — what would make me happy — is if I was able to take those parts and dimensionalize them a little more than I think other people do sometimes. I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’m going to do it well. I don’t know if anyone will let me have the chance. But that was always that very specific ambition of mine. And what I’d been used to hearing, for most of the last decade, is OK, that was good, but you have to make it a little funny, a little like it’s a sitcom.
I read this script. I was a fan of the previous versions, but Arthur had always been a little more of a comic relief character — a character I found very funny, but was always an archetype, in the same way that the Tick was. Then I read this, and it has this whole backstory, this whole examination of psychology. And I went like, oh I know how to play that. But I know what’s going to happen. I’m going to go in there and they’re going to go, “Lighter, a little lighter. Remember it’s a comedy, remember it’s a comedy.”
I had that moment where I went like, “Should I just be strategic? Should I just play it the way they probably want to see it?”
The industry can be egocentric. It can make you focus on yourself instead of on the narrative.
Very much so. As a child I just watched stuff and I would go, like: Why is that bad? Why didn’t they just make it good? Or see people who have these super-inflated heads and go, How does that happen? Is he just a jerk? Then you step into the industry and it’s scary because you see those paths immediately. They’re like water slides. You take one step and you’re gone, you’re down it.
So I went like, “No, I’m going to do my thing.” I did my thing. And everyone went, “Oh.” Then Ben [Hedlund, creator and showrunner] reached out. We met and talked just about all the stuff that we’re talking about right now. He’s a very philosophical guy, who’s equally interested in the macro and the micro. He loves thinking of the large implications and he loves focusing in on the little details.
And we just talked about comedy. He said, I need this to be a guy that the audience is very worried about, but really rooting for. So he can’t be the butt of the joke. He has to be funny and there are jokes that he has to sell and there are jokes around him but they can’t feel like they’re selling out the integrity of this guy.” I said to him, Look, I know how to do that. I don’t know if I can do everything else the show requires. I don’t know if I can work the number of hours you need me to work without passing out from exhaustion! But I know that’s the one that I spend a lot of time thinking about.
Whatever Arthur was struggling against in his world was always very close to whatever I was struggling against trying to do this part right — trying to do right by this character and right by the history of this character, and hopefully do something a little different with it.
For a while your most well-known role was as the guy Kevin Costner spilled coffee on in “Draft Day.” I guess there was also a small role on “Vinyl,” and later an arc on “Search Party.” But for a while, “Draft Day” was kind of it.
It’s quite a journey. Everyone saw that performance and went, “This guy is going to be a superhero.” What an obvious stepping stone.
“The Tick” is such a weird superhero story. There’s a line the Tick says at some point — “mano-a-monomyth” — I had to write it down because it made me laugh so much.
At times it feels like a fever dream. There’s just a density of ideas going on and you can’t tell which things you’re supposed to take at face value.
There’s so much in “The Tick” about being a fan of this type of story, which I know that you are. And Arthur is a super-fan, even, at the beginning. He’s following all these people, he knows their mythology, and then he’s suddenly among them.
The show has a pretty classical hero’s journey, but it feels weird because I think we’ve been given a lot of broken hero’s journeys, trying to apply the hero’s journey to Tom Cruise, or Marvel characters. Right?
Yes, totally.
It doesn’t really work. I think Tom Cruise broke something in a certain way. Tom Cruise is this weird guy who you always root for, even though the arc of every great Tom Cruise movie is, here’s a guy who’s the best. People around him question whether or not he’s the best. He overcomes and proves them wrong. There is weirdly something vulnerable about Tom Cruise as an actor that makes the movies work, even though every Tom Cruise character, on paper, is a bully. I’m not only putting this at the feet of “Top Gun” [Laughs.] But I think over time people have gotten the wrong lesson from it. In a lot of superhero movies where you get to the refusal of the call moment, you just feel like they’re slowing down the story for no reason. You look like Ryan Reynolds. Why wouldn’t you do this? The whole first third of this movie, every situation, has been about how capable you are. Why are you doubting yourself suddenly?
But Arthur really is someone who shouldn’t be at the center of a story like this. The hope is that anyone watching will understand — yeah I know where this guy is going, because I’m looking at him right now and he’s going to get killed the second he steps out into battle. Aside from the fact that physically I am not equipped to be in a show like this — which is where a lot of the comedy comes from— it also is just that he’s a guy who has been essentially told his entire life, Hey, don’t aim too high. He experiences this traumatic event. It functions as this big trigger, this catalyst for complete psychological collapse. And over the years he’s been institutionalized, he’s been medicated.
What Arthur has been told the entire time is — don’t aim for great, you are not capable of greatness. Just be good. Just have an apartment, pay your bills, and have a job. You should be happy with the fact that you’re not a disaster. He has no reason to believe that he can make it. And Dot [Valorie Curry] — who I think is a really interesting character — is very supportive of him, but also pragmatically has every reason to believe that he’s stepping headfirst into danger, that he’s going off the handle, even once she knows who the Tick is and sees that he’s real. The first half the season is him convincing himself that he’s a hero. And the second half of the season, which will be coming out next year, is a little more of him having to convince everyone else that he is a hero.
It must be very interesting to cross the line from an engaged and passionate fan to the other side, where you are attracting a lot of fans. You were just at Comic-Con. What is that like?
It’s the most loaded question, and something I’m honestly trying to wrestle with on a day-to-day basis. Because it’s a very weird thing to be on the other side of. It helped me in certain ways, because when doing a scene I would go: What would I want to see out of the show right now? I was always just trying to find that pitch of what felt fundamentally like Arthur to me, and then trying to match that with Peter’s pitch so that we could harmonize because that’s a big thing that fans are going to accept or not.
But I was also always trying to think about it in those larger ways. I love, as an actor when you’re doing a type of scene — this type of scene that establishes this, or this type of emotional scene that we’ve all seen — and are finding little moments to throw it off the hump.
To make it different, you mean?
I think often, the way to make it different is to throw in a greater sense of specificity or honesty into it. Sometimes it’s literally just doing the opposite, or doing something that’s one degree away, just because we’re so used to it. You see so many movies and TV shows that I feel like are referencing other movies and TV shows more than they’re referencing real life.
I did this movie a couple of years ago, and there was a moment at the end where… I don’t even know how to phrase this in a way that doesn’t make me want to vomit. But the guy gets the girl, the girl gets the guy, we end up together, and we have this moment where we kiss and then we look at the sun setting. They wanted us to put our arms around each other. I put my arm around the actress and I put my head on her shoulder. The director came out and went, “OK, that was funny, but you can’t do that.” I said, “Why?” He said, “Well that’s not what the man does.”
I got so frustrated. I bit my tongue and didn’t say anything because I couldn’t afford to get fired. I could barely afford my rent that month. I was taking whatever job I could get. But it was such a frustrating thing to me. Not just that he was that narrow-minded, in terms of the roles that characters need to play, that genders need to play. But also, just, why do you feel the need to stick that strongly to what’s come before? As someone who always really sparks when I see a moment like that in a film — and how those moments can often speak really loudly… you and I are people both overanalyze movies and you see these little moments where you go, I don’t know if that was intentional…
… but that was exciting.
And then it reverberates across the entire thing in one way or another, and sometimes it’s the way someone cocks their head, sometimes it’s the way they phrase a line. The scary part of that is knowing that you’re being part of something that will be scrutinized thoroughly, that will be studied that much. There is a fan base who is going to really pick apart everything you did.
What was the most fun scene to do?
The one I weirdly keep on coming back to, and it’s not a fun scene per se, it’s the scene Dot and I have in the pilot where she’s picking me up from the police station and drives me home and is just trying to keep me on a straight line — and I’m just fighting to get her to believe me and take me seriously and trust that I can take care of myself, that I know what I’m doing. It was fun to do because they weren’t stopping us. We kept on going like, I can’t believe we’re getting away we doing a scene like this on something that is a comedy.
What were you getting away with? Just the fact that it was so serious?
Yeah. Well, I think there are funny things in that scene, but we’re playing it really real. And not worrying about — OK, there are too many pauses, we have to speed it up and make it punchy. Or there hasn’t been a laugh line in two minutes, we need to throw something in there. The dialogue scenes are so great, and we have such a focus on dialogue in the show, that it doesn’t make the action sequences then feel like obligatory punching.
Last question: I know that your campaign to make yourself into an action figure is very important to you.
Yeah. I love toys. I think they’re the best, super cool. I love collecting stuff, probably because I’m an obsessive person. I love characters being depicted in physical tangible forms or things like that, these totems. It just feels like a certain benchmark of a kind of pop culture resonance. I’ve never been part of anything that has come even close to stepping into that. It’s certainly not any character I’ve played. But from the moment at casting, I was like, oh s—t. This is the property that has a lot of toys in the past and this is a superhero, it’s a costume, it’s a really cool-looking.
It could happen.
It could happen! I spend a lot of time online tweeting at companies and asking if they’re making some. A: I think that’s the greatest strain of narcissism I have, is being able to have a totem representation of myself. But B: Not to inflate this too much, but I have a sense that it wouldn’t be made unless people actually cared. There was never going to be a “Draft Day” toy, never [laughs] but this is very possible. | {
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It is hard to know exactly what he is worth, for the Bono stash is managed with unusual sophistication. Estimates range up to £250 million, but he shows few signs of wanting to let much of it go, and why, you might reasonably ask, after 20 years at the rockface, should he? His band is, undeniably, one of the best, most enduring and creative in popular music's history. Yet Bono's enthusiasm for amassing and creatively sheltering his personal fortune carries with it a smack of hypocrisy that many, even those prepared to listen to his message, find troubling. | {
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2017年1月29日（土）に、東京・東洋文庫にて、声優やアーティストとして活動する上坂すみれさんが『わが心のロシア♡』と題するトークショーに登壇しました。上坂さんといえば、出身大学ではロシア語を専攻し、自他ともに認める旧ソビエト連邦（ソ連）やロシアを愛するひとり。今回のイベントも、その「ロシア好き」を請われたことから出演されました。
東洋文庫では2017年1月7日（土）から4月9日（日）まで、展覧会『ロマノフ王朝展―日本人の見たロシア、ロシア人の見た日本―』を開催。上坂さんは展覧会のオフィシャルサポーターを務めており、会期中の展示室内には上坂さんによる音声ガイドが流れています。
今回はその活動の一環として、名古屋外国語大学学長でロシア文学や文化に関する著書多数の亀山郁夫先生とのトークショー開催の運びとなりました。ロシア愛を語り合うのにこれ以上ないほどの会場と座組で行われたイベントは、時間を変えて二部制で開かれました。今回はそのうち第一部をレポートします。
……しかしながら、旧ソ連や現在のロシアにも通ずるロマノフ王朝をテーマに置き、ロシアを愛するふたりだけに、トークでは人物名や歴史用語が頻発。ただ、今回はそんなイベントの雰囲気を味わっていただくべく、あえて補足は少なめにまとめてみました。
アニメイトタイムズからのおすすめ
ふたりはソ連国歌を聞くと「気持ちが高まる」
会場となった東洋文庫は、アジア全域の歴史や文化に関する東洋学の専門図書館・研究所であり、「世界5指の1つに数えられる」というほどに国内外からも評価の高い施設です。ソ連国歌が鳴り響く中、上坂さんと亀山郁夫先生が登場。早速、司会者から「ロシアの魅力は？」と尋ねられると、上坂さんは「ロマノフ王朝展ですけど、いきなりロシアの話で大丈夫ですか……？」と気遣いつつも、好きになったきっかけはソ連国歌にあったと話します。「私はソ連の国歌をきっかけにハマったんです。イントロから勢いのある、そして自分たちの謳っていることを疑わない力強い歌声。レーニンは偉大だ！という一点のくもりもない歌声です。亀山先生も著作の中で、ソ連国歌を聞いたら気持ちが高まって、出勤中にエンドレスリピートしながら腕を振って歩いていたと書かれていて、私と同じ経験をした方がいるんだと感激しました」これには亀山先生も「あの歌は聞いていると、だんだん洗脳されていきますね（笑）」と返し、上坂さんとの“同志感”が観客にも伝わるワンシーンとなりました。
上坂すみれさんが好きなウォッカの銘柄は？
ロシアといえば、お酒の「ウォッカ」が愛される土地。亀山先生から「上坂さんもウォッカは好きですか？」と話を振られると、上坂さんは好きな銘柄を挙げて答えます。
「イベントでもよくウォッカをお土産でいただくので、自動的に晩酌はウォッカになったりします。常温より凍らせて飲む方が美味しいですよね。フレーバー付きの『ヴァン ゴッホ』や、20歳の誕生日に飲んだという理由で一番思い入れもある『ストリチナヤ』も好きです」
ここで会場に「みなさんの中でウォッカを飲んだことがある人は？」と、さすが上坂さんのファンと言うべきか、半数以上が手を挙げていました。
ロシア事情に詳しい亀山先生は「かつては自家製のウォッカもありました。ゴルバチョフ時代の禁酒令のもとでは、靴墨やヘアトニックからウォッカを作ったそうです」と明かされると、上坂さんも観客も驚きの表情。
止まることないソ連トーク！「推し書記長」は誰？
ゴルバチョフ書記長の名前が出たところで、まだまだ続くソ連トーク。亀山先生からの「上坂さんはどの書記長が好きですか？」と、まるで好きな芸能人やアニメの推しキャラを聞かれるかのごとき質問にも、上坂さんは嬉々として回答していきます。
上坂すみれさん：私は順位もよく入れ替わるので一概にはいえないのですけれども、最近は読んでいる本から発見する情報もあって、ブレジネフさんの株の上がりようがすごいです。
亀山先生：ブレジネフは悪の帝王みたいに言われていたけど、実はあの時代がもっともソビエト人にとっては気持ちが豊かであり、なおかつ幸せだった時代といわれているんですね。
上坂すみれさん：大学でロシア語を勉強している時にそういう資料を読みました。あとは亀山先生のご本を読んでいる時に、ブレジネフが地方を訪問して「暮らしはどうだ？」と聞いた話が好きです。「同志、肉が足りません」と言われると、「そうか！肉を食わんといかんなぁ」と言って、その直後だけ肉が食べれるようになるとか（笑）。
インテリで読書量もすごかったというスターリンに比べて、ブレジネフとフルシチョフって、そんなに「賢くない系」の書記長だと思うんです。でも、フルシチョフは本当に共産主義やスターリンを信じていて、まっすぐ一途な……「ガチ恋系」だったんですね、つまり。ブレジネフは、もうちょっとゆるい感じがあって。
亀山先生：たしかに、スターリンが厳しいお父さんで、それに対してブレジネフはやさしいお父さんというイメージですね。
ロシアを愛する人はMっぽい？
書記長だけじゃない！ 「推しロマノフ王朝皇帝」は誰？
ロシア文学や歴史にも話題が移る中、「ロシアを愛する人はマゾヒストが多い」という亀山先生の発言には観客からも大きな笑いが起きます。上坂さんも「そうなんですか?!」とたまらず返しますが、亀山先生はロシア文学の傑作『カラマーゾフの兄弟』を書いたドストエフスキーの言葉を引きながら答えました。「ドストエフスキーは絶対的な君主の支配のもとでこそ完全な自由が得られる、と言っているんです。絶対的な君主は民衆や市民を支配しようとして、いじめるわけです。そのいじめを受け入れる中にあって、彼らは何かしら自分の自由を感じてきた。どんなに皇帝が強くても彼らは限りなく自由で、その自由を支えてくれる処方箋がウォッカだったんです」この論には上坂さんも「たしかにその言葉は、どの時代のロシア人にも当てはまりますね……だからこそ禁酒されると暴れ出すんですね」と頷きます。亀山先生は「ゴルバチョフはそれが失敗だったんです。飲酒を制限した政策さえなければロシアは本当にいいところまでいっていたはず」と目を伏せると、上坂さんも「グラスノスチやペレストロイカよりも、それがまずかった可能性がありますね……」と、ソ連解体には実はウォッカが大きな役割を担っていた（かもしれない）という発見に、頭をめぐらせる様が見えました。トークショーは会場からの質問を受け付けながら、いよいよ展示とも関連するロマノフ王朝に関する話題へ。観客から「上坂さんが今回のロマノフ王朝展の中で、いちばん好きなものは何でしたか？」と問われると、「ロマノフ王朝歴代皇帝がイラスト付きでわかりやすく、ゆるめな文体で紹介されていたことですね。それをきっかけにロシア皇帝にもっと興味をもってくれる人が増えるのではと思って嬉しかったです」と答えます。また、東洋文庫の公式YouTubeにアップされた動画でも紹介された、今回の目玉展示である1855年に描かれた『プチャーチン来航図』も、上坂さんの心を射止めたそう。「プチャーチン来航図は日本人とロシア人が描かれているのがかわいくて、日本で言う……なんというか、『まんがタイムきらら系』というんですか。ゆるタッチ文化があの時点で完成されていたかのような絵で、聞き取ったであろうロシア人のお名前も横に書いてあって。一緒に船を作って喜んでいるステキな交流の様子が伝わって、いいなぁ、と嬉しく思いました」さらに、歴代書記長だけでなく「ロマノフ王朝の歴代皇帝で好きな人は誰か？」という質問にも、上坂さんは軽やかに返答していきます。「変動はあるのですが、私はアレクサンドル1世、2世、3世とみんな好きです。総合優勝は農奴解放などをしたのに、たくさんアンチがいて暗殺未遂もたくさんあって、なかなか恵まれないところにグッとくるアレクサンドル2世だと思います。そういえば最近は、歴史上では活躍しない方なんですけれども、アレクサンドル3世がすごくキュートだったという文章を読みました。大柄でよく笑うパワータイプの方で、火かき棒を素手で曲げて『曲げたぞー！』って自慢したり、コインを曲げて『曲げたぞー！』って自慢したりする人です。なんだかクマさんのようで可愛くて、抱きつきたい1位はアレクサンドル3世かなって」
この答えに亀山先生は、ロマノフ王朝の血塗られた歴史を引き合いに出し、話を広げていきます。
亀山先生：アレクサンドル2世も殺されちゃいますし、歴史的には1867年以降、どこへいっても暗殺の可能性があった。改革をしたがゆえに恨まれるという結果ですね。私が「自由は恐ろしい」と思うのは、農奴は自由を与えられるとさらに欲しくなるわけです。だからこそ、中途半端な自由を与えた皇帝に対しては強い憎しみを抱いたんですね。
上坂すみれさん：ドラマチックでもある一方で、ロシアの特殊な民衆の心というか……土地の持つ力というか。他の国なら、自由を与えたら逆に反発してくるなんて考えにくいですから……。
亀山先生：そうですね。中途半端な自由を与えた皇帝に対して、知識人はそれを進めようと皇帝に反発、憎しみを抱きました。ほとんどの民衆はこの状況に安住していましたが、知識人は中途半端な改革というものに対して、自尊心が許さないんです。なにしろ民衆の代理でもある皇帝を民衆が一番愛していたので、知識人の言うことなんて聞きません。すると、ますます知識人の立場がなくなり、民衆を引き従える皇帝は愛されていきました。
上坂すみれさん：民衆と皇帝、という関係性がいいのですね。その間はない、というか。
今回のトークショーは、ロマノフ王朝に秘められたドラマを紐解きながら、ソ連、ロシアへ結びつくトークは休むことなく続いていきました。観客の中には熱心にメモを取る人や、関心して頷く人の姿も見られ、多くの笑いも交えながら展開。あっという間に、予定の1時間は過ぎていきました。
最後は亀山先生の著作に、亀山先生と上坂さんのサインを入れたものを座席番号のくじ引きでプレゼント。終始、和やかな雰囲気の中でトークショーは進行し、知的な熱気と登壇者のロシア愛で満ちた会場に、大きな拍手が響き渡りました。
［取材・文・写真＝長谷川賢人］>> 東洋文庫公式サイト >> 上坂すみれ公式Twitter >> 上坂すみれ公式ブログ | {
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NEW DELHI/PARIS (Reuters) - Indian budget carrier IndiGo has placed an order for 300 Airbus AIR.PA A320neo-family jets worth at least $33 billion at recent catalog prices, handing the European planemaker what could be its biggest ever order from a single carrier.
The mammoth deal includes Airbus’s newest jet, a long-range version of the single-aisle A320neo family called the A321XLR, the country’s biggest airline said in a statement on Tuesday.
This will take IndiGo’s total A320neo family aircraft ordersto 730 making it the world’s biggest customer for these planes.
“This order is an important milestone, as it reiterates our mission of strengthening air connectivity in India,” said Ronojoy Dutta, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo.
The deal follows a fierce contest between Airbus and Boeing, which is seeking a new endorsement for its competing 737 MAX, grounded following two fatal accidents. Airbus’ A320neo family competes directly with the 737 MAX and the European planemaker has a strong grip on the Indian market. IndiGo’s announcement came hours after Reuters first exclusively reported the deal.
It also came days after IndiGo’s biggest quarterly loss, with the company hurt by issues surrounding engines from a former supplier on A320neo-family jets already in the airline’s fleet.
In June, IndiGo dropped its original engine supplier, UnitedTechnologies UTX.N unit Pratt & Whitney, in favor of French-U.S. engine venture CFM by agreeing a record $20 billion deal for more than 600 engines to power Airbus jets already on order.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
CFM is jointly owned by France's Safran SAF.PA and GeneralElectric GE.N of the United States.
The choice of engine manufacturer for this order will be made at a later date, said Riyaz Peermohamed, IndiGo’s chief aircraft acquisition and financing officer.
A new deal for 300 A320neo-family aircraft would be worth$33 billion at the most recent list prices, published in 2018,but a deal of this scale would come in well below half that after discounts, according to aircraft valuation experts.
Airbus stopped publishing list prices earlier this year.
In Paris, shares in Airbus rose as much as 1.4% after Reuters reported the expected order.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
RAPID TURNOVER
Many of the latest batch of aircraft are not expected to be delivered until mid-way through next decade, replacing others only just joining the IndiGo fleet.
The carrier is known for turning over aircraft quickly to keep its average fleet age low, but such a strategy depends on overall strong demand in the jet market.
IndiGo was among the first carriers to buy the re-enginedA320neo in early 2011, in what Airbus at the time called a record single deal involving 180 aircraft. It went on to become one of Airbus’s largest customers after a series of orders.
Two years ago, an unrelated U.S. private equity company called Indigo Partners placed a blockbuster order for 430 Airbus jets spread between four airlines.
In 1997, U.S. Airways placed an order for up to 400 AirbusA320 jets including options, but many were not delivered.
IndiGo has expanded rapidly to claim almost half the Indian market as rivals such as bankrupt Jet Airways fall by the wayside. Its closest competitor is budget carrier SpiceJet LtdSPJT.NS, a Boeing operator.
However its two co-founders, Rakesh Gangwal and RahulBhatia, have been embroiled in a dispute about corporate governance of the airline that shows no signs of easing. | {
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It's never too early to look ahead, and even if it is, it's not against the law or anything.
And so we have our way-too-early 2012 power rankings.
By the way, schedule does not factor into these. This is a projected pecking order based on where a team stands right now -- Jan. 10, 2012.
And, by the way No. 2, if you don't like where your team is in the way-too-early power rankings, then I'd suggest whining about it until you get to play better.
By the way No. 3, Nos. 1 & 2 were easy. The rest is pretty darn murky, not in small part due to four new coaches.
1. USC: The Trojans welcome back 19 starters from a top-five team, including quarterback Matt Barkley. They beat Oregon in Autzen Stadium on Nov. 19. USC might be the preseason No. 2. Or No. 3.
2. Oregon: The Ducks have a strong mix of talent coming back from a team that won the Rose Bowl, but it's not just about 16 returning starters. If you want a reason to favor the Ducks over the Trojans, it's depth. Oregon welcomes back most of its two-deep. By the way, old Ducks fans probably grin about the idea of their team having better depth than USC.
3. Utah: The Utes welcome back 18 starters, though replacing both offensive tackles will be a huge task this spring. The defense has a chance to be beastly. The key? Utah proved it can win eight games with poor-to-middling quarterback play. But does a healthy Jordan Wynn -- back to late 2009, early 2010 form -- mean 10 wins?
4. Stanford: Many will count out the Cardinal, post-Andrew Luck. The Pac-12 blog will not. The over-under with this team is eight wins. Two gigantic holes on the offensive line and at both safeties are major issues, as is quarterback.
5. Washington: The Huskies welcome back seven starters on both sides of the ball, including up-and-coming quarterback Keith Price. The question is how quickly the defense can improve under Justin Wilcox.
6. California: While Cal only welcomes back 11 starters, there's plenty of intriguing talent on the roster, particularly on defense. Will quarterback Zach Maynard take a step forward? And what about his receivers after Keenan Allen? The pressure is on Jeff Tedford to win inside a renovated Memorial Stadium in 2012. If things come together, he just might do that.
7. Arizona: The Wildcats have more potential than most realize, starting with five returning starters on the offensive line and three defensive starters returning from injury, as well as an experienced quarterback in Matt Scott, who looks like a nice fit for Rich Rodriguez's spread-option offense.
8. Washington State: With 18 starters back, I'll go ahead and type it: New coach Mike Leach will lead the Cougars to a bowl game. And, hopefully, someone tips their cap to former coach Paul Wulff for collecting some solid talent, including two quarterbacks, Jeff Tuel and Connor Halliday, who appear capable of flinging the rock as Leach likes to, as well as a potential All-American receiver in Marquess Wilson.
9. Oregon State: The Beavers could be a surprise team if all the young players who were inconsistent in 2011 grow up in 2012, starting with true freshman quarterback Sean Mannion. With 17 starters back, experience won't be an issue. But those returning players went 3-9, so it's difficult to project a top-half finish. At least, not at this point.
10. UCLA: New coach Jim Mora doesn't start with an empty cupboard -- 16 starters are back. But the overall talent is dubious and, even more challenging, Mora needs to rebuild a culture. Further, taking the Bruins back to a pro-style offense, if that's the ultimate plan, might be a struggle in Year 1. First question: Is Kevin Prince the quarterback, or does Mora go with talented redshirt freshman Brett Hundley?
11. Arizona State: The Sun Devils tumbled in these rankings when quarterback Brock Osweiler, curiously, opted to enter the NFL draft. With just 10 starters back, a quarterback with no real game experience -- whoever wins the job -- and a challenging locker room, new coach Todd Graham might find the going rough in Year 1.
12. Colorado: The Buffs welcome back 13 starters from a team that went 3-10 and ranked last in both scoring offense and scoring defense. The rebuilding job on offense, in particular, will be significant with the loss of quarterback Tyler Hansen, running back Rodney Stewart and receiver Toney Clemons. The rebuilding job in Boulder won't happen overnight-- or over two seasons -- for second-year coach Jon Embree. | {
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The development of state-of-the-art robots capable of operating in outer space will begin in Russia this year, media reports said.
Russian scientists will begin the development of sophisticated robots capable of operating in outer space later in 2016, according to media reports.
A source in the country's space industry said that at least three of these robots will be built in Russia by 2025.
"The three space robots will be constructed before the end of 2014. They will be able to perform various operations outside the International Space Station," the source said.
More than 2.5 billion rubles will be allocated for the implementation of the project.
According to the source, the scientists must solve the problem of allowing mechatronic systems to survive prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation and drastic temperature changes.
A multi-purpose robotic system in the form of an android-type 200-kilogram robot is expected to be created, the source said, adding that the android will be remotely controlled by an astronaut.
Earlier, it was reported that about 1.4 trillion rubles from Russia's state budget will be earmarked for the implementation of the space robotics program. | {
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Japan recently tested its brand new Maglev train having the ability to cruise at hyper speeds of more than 300 miles per hour. 100 passengers boarded the maglev train for its inaugural run to have an experience of their lives. This trial run was conducted along a 42.8km (27 mile) route between the cities of Uenohara and Fuefuki, where the maglev train zoomed to reach a top speed of 500km/h (311mph). The on-board passengers had a chance to track the ever increasing velocity via monitoring screens fitted inside.
The name “Maglev” comes for the term Magnetic Levitation. As the train doesn’t use any wheels but Magnetic Levitation to ‘float’ directly above the train tracks hence allowing the train to achieve rocking speeds. Another advantage of the levitating trains in addition to their top speeds is noise reduction. The use of magnetic levitation minimizes the friction encountered by ordinary trains therefore making the journey much more comfortable and noise proof by eliminating the squeaking sounds produced by the wheels.
The new Maglev train is even faster than Japan’s famous bullet trains which currently can travel upto 320km/h (200mph). Once the project is completed in 2027, the Maglev Trains would be capable of carrying 1000 passengers at one time at exceptional speeds while operating between Tokyo’s Shinagawa Station and Nagoya. These trains will help to cut the travel time to half bringing the current 80 minutes travel time down to 40 minutes. | {
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Fifteen years after Switzerland voted to introduce European-wide free movement laws, the country voted today to cap immigration from the European Union.
The country of eight million narrowly voted in favour of a motion to set an upper limit on the number of foreigners immigrating from the European Union.
Final results indicated that 50.3 per cent voted in favour of the referendum, with voters in the German and Italian-speaking areas in the east of the country voting in favour of the motion, and those in the French-speaking west of the country opposing the motion.
The vote is likely to generate a cool response from Brussels, which has already criticised Swiss moves to alter free movement rules.
It is estimated that one in five workers in Switzerland are foreign, while thousands of workers from France, Germany and Italy travel across the border each day to work. Switzerland has one of the highest levels of immigration in the developed world, according to the OECD.
Pressure on housing availability, particularly in cities such as Geneva and Zurich, prompted the government to introduce a 12-month limit on residence permits on EU citizens last year, a move that was criticised by the union.
As with many countries in Europe, anti-immigration sentiment has been on the rise in Switzerland, with parties, including the influential Swiss People’s Party, supporting a cap on immigration.
Those in favour of tighter restrictions argue that the number of immigrants far outweighs the number of people leaving the country, with net immigration now estimated to have reached an average of 70,000 per year.
Business groups have strongly criticised the proposed change in immigration laws, arguing that it will hurt the Swiss economy. In a country that has a highly-developed level of research and development activity, Switzerland has traditionally needed skilled migrants to fill jobs.
Foreigners are also responsible for a large number of start-up companies in the country.
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Random facts build from CM stats:
- Most CM devices are from India these days: about 10%
- Yu Yureka (tomato) makes about 60% of India's CM market.
- Cyanogen OS devices, OnePlus One (bacon) and Yu Yureka (tomato) make about 15% of CM
- OnePlus One is most popular in USA and India, with notably high usage in Isreal
- Samsung Galaxy S3 and OnePlus One are the most popular CM devices world-wide
- Top 5 German CM devices are all Samsung Galaxy: S3, S2, S, S3 Mini, Nexus
- In Yemen, over 80% of CM installations are on the HTC EVO 4G (supersonic)
- Yemen uses NAT a lot, 90% of Yemen's CM devices are registered through TeleYemen with the IP Addresses 82.114.168.157 or 82.114.168.158
- Nexus devices are popular in China, about 15% of Chinese CM users run on Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus S or Nexus 5
- The Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 (codina) ranks third in Poland and Russia
- Tablets make between 5% and 10% of CM installs
Notes:
- CM stats include Cyanogen OS devices. | {
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By Chris Sonderby, Facebook Deputy General Counsel
Today, we’re releasing our third Government Requests Report, which provides information about the number of government data and content removal requests we received for the first half of 2014, as well as updated information about national security requests we received under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and through National Security Letters.
Since our first report, we’ve seen an increase in government requests for data and for content restrictions. In the first six months of 2014, governments around the world made 34,946 requests for data — an increase of about 24% since the last half of 2013. During the same time, the amount of content restricted because of local laws increased about 19%.
As we’ve said before, we scrutinize every government request we receive for legal sufficiency under our terms and the strict letter of the law, and push back hard when we find deficiencies or are served with overly broad requests.
Indeed, over the past year, we’ve challenged bulk search warrants issued by a court in New York that demanded we turn over nearly all data from the accounts of nearly 400 people. This unprecedented request was by far the largest we’ve ever received. We’ve argued that these overly broad warrants violate the privacy rights of the people on Facebook and ignore constitutional safeguards against unreasonable searches and seizures. Despite a setback in the lower court, we’re aggressively pursuing an appeal to a higher court to invalidate these sweeping warrants and to force the government to return the data it has seized. We’re grateful for the support of others in industry and civil society who’ve filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of our fight. We expect the case to be decided by a New York appellate court later this year, and we look forward to updating you on the results of this important case.
More broadly, we continue to work with our industry and civil society partners to push governments for additional transparency and to reform surveillance practices necessary to rebuild people’s trust in the Internet. While we recognize that governments need to take action to protect their citizens’ safety and security, we believe all government data requests must be narrowly tailored, proportionate to the case in review, and subject to strict judicial oversight.
As such, we support recent efforts in the U.S. Senate to pass the USA FREEDOM Act, and we’re hopeful that Congress will update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to codify our requirement of a warrant to compel disclosure of the stored contents of an account. We will continue to work on our own and with partners, such as the Reform Government Surveillance coalition, to protect the information of the people who use our services. | {
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If you’re a working or aspiring writer, you already likely know about the classic best books on writing–King’s On Writing, Strunk and White’s Elements of Style–but for a craft as varied and personal as writing, you’ll always benefit from learning from more voices, with more techniques.
That’s why this list is full of writers not only talking about the bare-bones craft of writing (and there’s plenty of fantastic advice there), but also how becoming a writer changed their lives and what role they believe writers play in an ever-changing world. From craft to writer’s lives, get ready to dig into 100 of the must-read, best books on writing for improving your own work.
1. A House of My Own: Stories from My Life by Sandra Cisneros
“Written with her trademark lyricism, in these signature pieces the acclaimed author of The House on Mango Street shares her transformative memories and reveals her artistic and intellectual influences. Poignant, honest, and deeply moving, A House of My Own is an exuberant celebration of a life lived to the fullest, from one of our most beloved writers.”
2. A Little Book on Form by Robert Hass
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“Brilliantly synthesizes Hass’s formidable gifts as both a poet and a critic and reflects his profound education in the art of poetry. Starting with the exploration of a single line as the basic gesture of a poem, and moving into an examination of the essential expressive gestures that exist inside forms, Hass goes beyond approaching form as a set of traditional rules that precede composition, and instead offers penetrating insight into the true openness and instinctiveness of formal creation.”
3. A Personal Anthology by Jorge Luis Borges
“After almost a half a century of scrupulous devotion to his art, Jorge Luis Borges personally compiled this anthology of his work—short stories, essays, poems, and brief mordant ‘sketches,’ which, in Borges’s hands, take on the dimensions of a genre unique in modern letters. In this anthology, the author has put together those pieces on which he would like his reputation to rest; they are not arranged chronologically, but with an eye to their ‘sympathies and differences.'”
4. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
“Virginia Woolf imagines that Shakespeare had a sister—a sister equal to Shakespeare in talent, and equal in genius, but whose legacy is radically different. In this classic essay, she takes on the establishment, using her gift of language to dissect the world around her and give voice to those who are without. Her message is a simple one: women must have a fixed income and a room of their own in order to have the freedom to create.”
5. About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, & Five Interviews by Samuel R. Delany
“Taking up specifics (When do flashbacks work, and when should you avoid them? How do you make characters both vivid and sympathetic?) and generalities (How are novels structured? How do writers establish serious literary reputations today?), Delany also examines the condition of the contemporary creative writer and how it differs from that of the writer in the years of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and the high Modernists. Like a private writing tutorial, About Writing treats each topic with clarity and insight.”
6. The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby
“Based on the lessons in his award-winning class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of Story draws on a broad range of philosophy and mythology, offering fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes alongside Truby’s own unique approach to building an effective, multifaceted narrative.”
7. Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland
“Explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn’t get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. The book’s co-authors, David Bayles and Ted Orland, are themselves both working artists, grappling daily with the problems of making art in the real world. Their insights and observations, drawn from personal experience, provide an incisive view into the world of art as it is experienced by artmakers themselves.”
8. The Art of Death by Edwidge Danticat
“At once a personal account of her mother dying from cancer and a deeply considered reckoning with the ways that other writers have approached death in their own work.”
9. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner
“Gardner’s lessons, exemplified with detailed excerpts from classic works of literature, sweep across a complete range of topics—from the nature of aesthetics to the shape of a refined sentence. Written with passion, precision, and a deep respect for the art of writing, Gardner’s book serves by turns as a critic, mentor, and friend. Anyone who has ever thought of taking the step from reader to writer should begin here.”
10. The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
“Karr synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and ‘black belt sinner,’ providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre.”
11. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
“The seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist’s life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published twenty five years ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work.”
12. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
“With profound empathy and radiant generosity, Gilbert offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives.”
13. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
“Lamott’s miscellany of guidance and reflection should appeal to writers struggling with demons large and slight. Among the pearls she offers is to start small, as their father once advised her 10-year-old brother, who was agonizing over a book report on birds: ‘Just take it bird by bird.’ Lamott’s suggestion on the craft of fiction is down-to-earth: worry about the characters, not the plot. “
14. Black Milk: On the Conflicting Demands of Writing, Creativity, and Motherhood by Elif Shafak
“She intersperses her own experience with the lives of prominent authors such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, Ayn Rand, and Zelda Fitzgerald, Shafak looks for a solution to the inherent conflict between artistic creation and responsible parenting. With searing emotional honesty and an incisive examination of cultural mores within patriarchal societies, Shafak has rendered an important work about literature, motherhood, and spiritual well-being.”
15. Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of My Ancestors by Louise Erdrich
“Erdrich takes us on an illuminating tour through the terrain her ancestors have inhabited for centuries: the lakes and islands of southern Ontario. Summoning to life the Ojibwe’s sacred spirits and songs, their language and sorrows, she considers the many ways in which her tribe—whose name derives from the word ozhibii’ige, ‘to write'”—have influenced her. Her journey links ancient stone paintings with a magical island where a bookish recluse built an extraordinary library, and she reveals how both have transformed her.”
16. Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer’s Guide to Getting It Right by Bill Bryson
“An essential guide to the wonderfully disordered thing that is the English language. With some one thousand entries that feature real-world examples of questionable usage from an international array of publications, and with a helpful glossary and guide to pronunciation, this precise, prescriptive, and–because it is written by Bill Bryson–often witty book belongs on the desk of every person who cares enough about the language not to maul or misuse or distort it.”
17. Bullies, Bastards and Bitches: How to Write the Bad Guys of Fiction by Jessica Morrell
“A truly memorable antagonist is not a one-dimensional super villain bent on world domination for no particular reason. Realistic, credible bad guys create essential story complications, personalize conflict, add immediacy to a story line, and force the protagonist to evolve.”
18. Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo
“In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo, one of our leading Native American voices, details her journey to becoming a poet. Narrating the complexities of betrayal and love, Crazy Brave is a memoir about family and the breaking apart necessary in finding a voice.”
19. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
“Former editor Lynne Truss, gravely concerned about our current grammatical state, boldly defends proper punctuation. She proclaims, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are.”
20. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
“You know the authors’ names. You recognize the title. You’ve probably used this book yourself. This is The Elements of Style, the classic style manual. This book’s unique tone, wit and charm have conveyed the principles of English style to millions of readers. Use the fourth edition of ‘the little book’ to make a big impact with writing.”
21. The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface by Donald Maass
“Veteran literary agent and expert fiction instructor Donald Maass shows you how to use story to provoke a visceral and emotional experience in readers. Readers can simply read a novel…or they can experience it. The Emotional Craft of Fiction shows you how to make that happen.”
22. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley
“A go-to guide to attracting and retaining customers through stellar online communication, because in our content-driven world, every one of us is, in fact, a writer. If you have a web site, you are a publisher. If you are on social media, you are in marketing. And that means that we are all relying on our words to carry our marketing messages. We are all writers.”
23. The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman
“With exercises at the end of each chapter, this invaluable reference will allow novelists, journalists, poets and screenwriters alike to improve their technique as they learn to eliminate even the most subtle mistakes that are cause for rejection. The First Five Pages will help writers at every stage take their art to a higher — and more successful — level.”
24. The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner
“From blank page to first glowing (or gutting) review, Betsy Lerner is a knowing and sympathetic coach who helps writers discover how they can be more productive in the creative process and how they can better their odds of not only getting published, but getting published well.”
25. Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors by Jewell Parker Rhodes
“Free Within Ourselves is is meant to be a song of encouragement for African-American artists and visionaries. A step-by-step introduction to fictional technique, exploring story ideas, and charting one’s progress, as well as a resource guide for publishing fiction.”
26. Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors by Brandilyn Collins
“Want to bring characters to life on the page as vividly as fine actors do on the stage or screen? Getting Into Character will give you a whole new way of thinking about your writing. Drawing on the Method Acting theory that theater professionals have used for decades, this in-depth guide explains seven characterization techniques and adapts them for the novelist’s use.”
27. The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
“In The Heart of a Woman, Maya Angelou leaves California with her son, Guy, to move to New York. There she enters the society and world of black artists and writers, reads her work at the Harlem Writers Guild, and begins to take part in the struggle of black Americans for their rightful place in the world.”
28. If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
“In this book, Ueland shares her philosophies on writing and life in general. She stresses the idea that ‘Everyone is talented, original, and has something important to say.’ Drawing heavily on the work and influence of William Blake, she suggests that writers should ‘Try to discover your true, honest, un-theoretical self.’ She sums up her book with 12 points to keep in mind while writing. Carl Sandburg called If You Want to Write the best book ever written on how to write.”
29. Immersion: A Writer’s Guide to Going Deep by Ted Conover
“Conover distills decades of knowledge into an accessible resource aimed at writers of all levels. He covers how to “get into” a community, how to conduct oneself once inside, and how to shape and structure the stories that emerge. Conover is also forthright about the ethics and consequences of immersion reporting, preparing writers for the surprises that often surface when their piece becomes public.”
30. In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri
“On a post-college visit to Florence, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri fell in love with the Italian language. Twenty years later, seeking total immersion, she and her family relocated to Rome, where she began to read and write solely in her adopted tongue. A startling act of self-reflection, In Other Words is Lahiri’s meditation on the process of learning to express herself in another language—and the stunning journey of a writer seeking a new voice.”
31. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker
“Alice Walker speaks out as a black woman, writer, mother, and feminist, in thirty-six pieces ranging from the personal to the political. Here are essays about Walker’s own work and that of other writers, accounts of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the antinuclear movement of the 1980s, and a vivid, courageous memoir of a scarring childhood injury.”
32. It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences: A Writer’s Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences by June Casagrande
“Great writing isn’t born, it’s built—sentence by sentence. But too many writers—and writing guides—overlook this most important unit. The result? Manuscripts that will never be published and writing careers that will never begin. So roll up your sleeves and prepare to craft one bold, effective sentence after another. Your readers will thank you.”
33. The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, and Earn Your Audience by Chuck Wendig
“The journey to become a successful writer is long, fraught with peril, and filled with difficult questions: How do I write dialogue? How do I build suspense? What should I know about query letters? Where do I start? The best way to answer these questions is to ditch your uncertainty and transform yourself into a KICK-ASS writer.”
34. The Language of Fiction: A Writer’s Stylebook by Brian Shawver
“Grand themes and complex plots are just the beginning of a great piece of fiction. Mastering the nuts and bolts of grammar and prose mechanics is also an essential part of becoming a literary artist. This indispensable guide, created just for writers of fiction, will show you how to take your writing to the next level by exploring the finer points of language.”
35. The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction by John Dufresne
“Finally, a truly creative―and hilarious―guide to creative writing, full of encouragement and sound advice. Provocative and reassuring, nurturing and wise, The Lie That Tells a Truth is essential to writers in general, fiction writers in particular, beginning writers, serious writers, and anyone facing a blank page.”
36. The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein
“Editor Cheryl B. Klein guides writers on an enjoyable and practical-minded voyage of their own, from developing a saleable premise for a novel to finding a dream agent. She delves deep into the major elements of fiction―intention, character, plot, and voice―while addressing important topics like diversity, world-building, and the differences between middle-grade and YA novels.”
37. Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger
“Making a good script great is more than just a matter of putting a good idea on paper. It requires the working and reworking of that idea. This book takes you through the whole screenwriting process – from initial concept through final rewrite – providing specific methods that will help you craft tighter, stronger, and more saleable scripts.”
38. Memoirs by Pablo Neruda
“In his uniquely expressive prose, Neruda not only explains his views on poetry and describes the circumstances that inspired many of his poems, but he creates a revealing record of his life as a poet, a patriot, and one of the twentieth century’s true men of conscience.”
39. The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction by Stephen Koch
“Stephen Koch, former chair of Columbia University’s graduate creative writing program, presents a unique guide to the craft of fiction. Along with his own lucid observations and commonsense techniques, he weaves together wisdom, advice, and inspiring commentary from some of our greatest writers.”
40. Naked, Drunk, and Writing: Shed Your Inhibitions and Craft a Compelling Memoir or Personal Essay by Adair Lara
“Packed with insights and advice both practical (‘writing workshops you pay for are the best–it’s too easy to quit when you’ve made no investment’) and irreverent (‘apply Part A [butt] to Part B [chair]’). Naked, Drunk, and Writing is a must-have if you are an aspiring columnist, essayist, or memoirist—or just a writer who needs a bit of help in getting your story told.”
41. Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing by Margaret Atwood
“In this wise and irresistibly quotable book, one of the most intelligent writers working in English addresses the riddle of her art: why people pursue it, how they view their calling, and what bargains they make with their audience, both real and imagined. To these fascinating issues Booker Prize-winner Margaret Atwood brings a candid appraisal of her own experience as well as a breadth of reading that encompasses everything from Dante to Elmore Leonard.”
42. On Writing by Eudora Welty
“Eudora Welty was one of the twentieth century’s greatest literary figures. For as long as students have been studying her fiction as literature, writers have been looking to her to answer the profound questions of what makes a story good, a novel successful, a writer an artist.”
43. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
“Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.”
44. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser
“Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher.”
45. One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers by Gail Sher
“Based on the Zen philosophy that we learn more from our failures than from our successes, One Continuous Mistake teaches a refreshing new method for writing as spiritual practice. Here she introduces a method of discipline that applies specific Zen practices to enhance and clarify creative work. She also discusses bodily postures that support writing, how to set up the appropriate writing regimen, and how to discover one’s own ‘learning personality.'”
46. Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K.M. Weiland
“Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer’s arsenal.”
47. The Paris Review Interviews, Vols. 1-4 by The Paris Review
“For more than half a century, The Paris Review has conducted in-depth interviews with our leading novelists, poets, and playwrights. These revealing, revelatory self-portraits have come to be recognized as themselves classic works of literature, and an essential and definitive record of the writing life.”
48. The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux
“Presents brief essays on the elements of poetry, technique, and suggested subjects for writing, each followed by distinctive writing exercises. The ups and downs of writing life―including self-doubt and writer’s block―are here, along with tips about getting published and writing in the electronic age.”
49. The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets by Ted Kooser
“Using examples from his own rich literary oeuvre and from the work of a number of successful contemporary poets, the author schools us in the critical relationship between poet and reader, which is fundamental to what Kooser believes is poetry’s ultimate purpose: to reach other people and touch their hearts.”
50. The Portable MFA in Creative Writing by New York Writers Workshop
“Have you always wanted to get an MFA, but couldn’t because of the cost, time commitment, or admission requirements? Well now you can fulfill that dream without having to devote tons of money or time. The Portable MFA gives you all of the essential information you would learn in the MFA program in one book.”
51. Paula: A Memoir by Isabel Allende
“Irony and marvelous flights of fantasy mix with the icy reality of Paula’s deathly illness as Allende sketches childhood scenes in Chile and Lebanon; her uncle Salvatore Allende’s reign and ruin as Chilean president; her struggles to shake off or find love; and her metamorphosis into a writer.”
52. Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
“In her fifteen years of teaching, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett has found that the biggest stumbling block for aspiring writers (especially women) is not fear of the blank page but frustration with the lack of time. What woman doesn’t have too much to do and too little time? Finding an hour free of work, children, or obligations can seem impossible.”
53. Pixar Storytelling: Rules for Effective Storytelling Based on Pixar’s Greatest Films by Dean Movshovitz
“Pixar Storytelling is about effective storytelling rules based on Pixar’s greatest films. The book consists of ten chapters, each of which explores an aspect of storytelling that Pixar excels at. Learn what Pixar’s core story ideas all have in common, how they create compelling, moving conflict and what makes their films’ resolutions so emotionally satisfying.”
54. Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot That Grips Readers from Start to Finish by James Scott Bell
“How does plot influence story structure? What’s the difference between plotting for commercial and literary fiction? How do you revise a plot or structure that’s gone off course? With Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure, you’ll discover the answers to these questions and more. Award-winning author James Scott Bell offers clear, concise information that will help you create a believable and memorable plot.”
55. Reading and Writing: A Personal Account by V.S. Naipaul
“In this essay of literary autobiography, V. S. Naipaul sifts through memories of his childhood in Trinidad, his university days in England, and his earliest attempts at writing, seeking the experiences of life and reading that shaped his imagination and his growth as a writer.”
56. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
“Long before there were creative-writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose. In Reading Like a Writer, Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters.”
57. Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels (How to Write Kissing Books) by Gwen Hayes
“Romancing the Beat is a recipe, not a rigid system. The beats don’t care if you plot or outline before you write, or if you pants your way through the drafts and do a ‘beat check’ when you’re revising. Pantsers and plotters are both welcome. So sit down, grab a cuppa, and let’s talk about kissing books.”
58. Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
“This ultimate insider’s guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a show biz veteran who’s proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat!”
59. Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living by Manjula Martin
“In the literary world, the debate around writing and commerce often begs us to take sides: either writers should be paid for everything they do or writers should just pay their dues and count themselves lucky to be published. It’s an endless, confusing, and often controversial conversation that, despite our bare-it-all culture, still remains taboo. In Scratch, Manjula Martin has gathered interviews and essays from established and rising authors to confront the age-old question: how do creative people make money?”
60. Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field
“From concept to character, from opening scene to finished script, here are easily understood guidelines to help aspiring screenwriters—from novices to practiced writers—hone their craft.”
61. Singing School: Learning to Write (And Read) Poetry by Studying with the Masters by Robert Pinsky
“Quick, joyful, and playfully astringent, with surprising comparisons and examples, this collection takes an unconventional approach to the art of poetry. Instead of rules, theories, or recipes, Singing School emphasizes ways to learn from great work: studying magnificent, monumentally enduring poems and how they are made— in terms borrowed from the ‘singing school’ of William Butler Yeats’s ‘Sailing to Byzantium.'”
62. The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick
“Taking us on a reading tour of some of the best memoirs and essays of the past hundred years, Gornick traces the changing idea of self that has dominated the century, and demonstrates the enduring truth-speaker to be found in the work of writers as diverse as Edmund Gosse, Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, or Marguerite Duras.”
63. Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Video Games by Robert Denton Bryant and Keith Giglio
“Writing for the multibillion-dollar video-game industry is unlike writing for any other medium. Slay the Dragon will help you understand the challenges and offer creative solutions to writing for a medium where the audience not only demands a great story, but to be a driving force within it.”
64. Something to Declare by Julia Alvarez
“From the internationally acclaimed author of the bestselling novels In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents comes a rich and revealing work of nonfiction capturing the life and mind of an artist as she knits together the dual themes of coming to America and becoming a writer.”
65. Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin
“This handbook is a short, deceptively simple guide to the craft of writing. Le Guin lays out ten chapters that address the most fundamental components of narrative, from the sound of language to sentence construction to point of view.”
66. Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies by Sol Stein
“With examples from bestsellers as well as from students’ drafts, Stein offers detailed sections on characterization, dialogue, pacing, flashbacks, trimming away flabby wording, the so-called ‘triage’ method of revision, using the techniques of fiction to enliven nonfiction, and more.”
67. Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel by Lisa Cron
“Takes you, step-by-step, through the creation of a novel from the first glimmer of an idea, to a complete multilayered blueprint—including fully realized scenes—that evolves into a first draft with the authority, richness, and command of a riveting sixth or seventh draft.”
68. Story Trumps Structure: How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking the Rules by Steven James
“All too often, following the ‘rules’ of writing can constrict rather than inspire you. With Story Trumps Structure, you can shed those rules – about three-act structure, rising action, outlining, and more – to craft your most powerful, emotional, and gripping stories.”
69. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall
“Humans live in landscapes of make-believe. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. Now Jonathan Gottschall offers the first unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life’s complex social problems–just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival.”
70. Take Off Your Pants! Outline Your Books For Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker
“When it comes to writing books, are you a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’? Is one method really better than the other? In this instructional book, author Libbie Hawker explains the benefits and technique of planning a story before you begin to write.”
71. TED Talks Storytelling: 23 Storytelling Techniques from the Best TED Talks by Akash Karia
“Essentially, the best speakers on the TED stage were the ones who had mastered the art of storytelling. They had mastered how to craft and present their stories in a way that allowed them to share their message with the world without seeming like they were lecturing their audience.”
72. This Is The Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
“Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder, Run, and Bel Canto, examines her deepest commitments—to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband—creating a resonant portrait of a life in This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.“
73. This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley
“No more excuses. ‘Let the lawn get shaggy and the paint peel from the walls,’ bestselling novelist Walter Mosley advises. Anyone can write a novel now, and in this essential book of tips, practical advice, and wisdom, Walter Mosley promises that the writer-in-waiting can finish it in one year.”
74. Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy
“In fifteen essays on the craft of fiction, Percy looks to disparate sources such as Jaws, Blood Meridian, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to discover how contemporary writers engage issues of plot, suspense, momentum, and the speculative, as well as character, setting, and dialogue. An urgent and entertaining missive on craft, Thrill Me brims with Percy’s distinctive blend of anecdotes, advice, and close reading, all in the service of one dictum: Thrill the reader.”
75. To Show and To Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction by Phillip Lopate
“Combining more than forty years of lessons from his storied career as a writer and professor, Lopate brings us this highly anticipated nuts-and-bolts guide to writing literary nonfiction. A phenomenal master class shaped by Lopate’s informative, accessible tone and immense gift for storytelling, To Show and To Tell reads like a long walk with a favorite professor—refreshing, insightful, and encouraging in often unexpected ways.”
76. The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: The Essential Guide to Fantasy Travel by Diana Wynne Jones
“Imagine that all fantasy novels—the ones featuring dragons, knights, wizards, and magic—are set in the same place. That place is called Fantasyland. The Tough Guide to Fantasyland is your travel guide, a handbook to everything you might find: Evil, the Dark Lord, Stew, Boots (but not Socks), and what passes for Economics and Ecology. Both a hilarious send-up of the cliches of the genre and an indispensable guide for writers.”
77. Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing by Roger Rosenblatt
“The revered novelist, essayist, playwright, and respected writing teacher offers a guidebook for aspiring authors, a memoir, and an impassioned argument for the necessity of writing in our world.”
78. Upstream by Mary Oliver
“Throughout this collection, Oliver positions not just herself upstream but us as well as she encourages us all to keep moving, to lose ourselves in the awe of the unknown, and to give power and time to the creative and whimsical urges that live within us.”
79. Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques by Evan Skolnick
“Game writer and producer Evan Skolnick provides a comprehensive yet easy-to-follow guide to storytelling basics and how they can be applied at every stage of the development process—by all members of the team.”
80. Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle
“In this classic book, Madeleine L’Engle addresses the questions, What makes art Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian artist? What is the relationship between faith and art? Through L’Engle’s beautiful and insightful essay, readers will find themselves called to what the author views as the prime tasks of an artist: to listen, to remain aware, and to respond to creation through one’s own art.”
81. The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling by Charles Johnson
“Johnson shares his lessons and exercises from the classroom, starting with word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice, and delving into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot and storytelling before exploring the larger questions at stake for the serious writer. What separates literature from industrial fiction? What lies at the heart of the creative impulse? How does one navigate the literary world? And how are philosophy and fiction concomitant?”
82. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
“While simply training for New York City Marathon would be enough for most people, Haruki Murakami’s decided to write about it as well. The result is a beautiful memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid memories and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer.”
83. What Moves at the Margin by Toni Morrison
“Collects three decades of Toni Morrison’s writings about her work, her life, literature, and American society. The works included in this volume range from 1971, when Morrison was a new editor at Random House and a beginning novelist, to 2002 when she was a professor at Princeton University and Nobel Laureate. These works provide a unique glimpse into Morrison’s viewpoint as an observer of the world, the arts, and the changing landscape of American culture.”
84. Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir by Amy Tan
“By delving into vivid memories of her traumatic childhood, confessions of self-doubt in her journals, and heartbreaking letters to and from her mother, she gives evidence to all that made it both unlikely and inevitable that she would become a writer. Through spontaneous storytelling, she shows how a fluid fictional state of mind unleashed near-forgotten memories that became the emotional nucleus of her novels.”
85. Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer
“This all-new definitive guide to writing imaginative fiction takes a completely novel approach and fully exploits the visual nature of fantasy through original drawings, maps, renderings, and exercises to create a spectacularly beautiful and inspiring object.”
86. Woolgathering by Patti Smith
“A great book about becoming an artist, Woolgathering tells of a youngster finding herself as she learns the noble vocation of woolgathering, ‘a worthy calling that seemed a good job for me.’ She discovers―often at night, often in nature―the pleasures of rescuing ‘a fleeting thought.’ Deeply moving, Woolgathering calls up our own memories, as the child ‘glimpses and gleans, piecing together a crazy quilt of truths.'”
87. Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels by Brian Michael Bendis
“One of the most popular writers in modern comics, Brian Michael Bendis reveals the tools and techniques he and other top creators use to create some of the most popular comic book and graphic novel stories of all time.”
88. Write Naked: A Bestseller’s Secrets to Writing Romance & Navigating the Path to Success by Jennifer Probst
“Learn how to transform your passion for writing into a career. New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Probst reveals her pathway to success, from struggling as a new writer to signing a seven-figure deal. Write Naked intermingles personal essays on craft with down-to-earth advice on writing romance in the digital age.”
89. Write Your Novel in a Month: How to Complete a First Draft in 30 Days and What to Do Next by Jeff Gerke
“Author and instructor Jeff Gerke has created the perfect tool to show you how to prepare yourself to write your first draft in as little as 30 days. With Jeff’s help, you will learn how to organize your ideas, create dynamic stories, develop believable characters, and flesh out the idea narrative for your novel–and not just for the rapid-fire first draft.”
90. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler
“Explores the powerful relationship between mythology and storytelling in a clear, concise style that’s made it required reading for movie executives, screenwriters, playwrights, scholars, and fans of pop culture all over the world.”
91. Writer’s Market 2018: The Most Trusted Guide to Getting Published by Robert Lee Brewer
“Want to get published and paid for your writing? Let Writer’s Market guide you through the process with thousands of publishing opportunities for writers, including listings for book publishers, consumer and trade magazines, contests and awards, and literary agents. These listings feature contact and submission information to help writers get their work published.”
92. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
“For more than thirty years Natalie Goldberg has been challenging and cheering on writers with her books and workshops. In her groundbreaking first book, she brings together Zen meditation and writing in a new way. Writing practice, as she calls it, is no different from other forms of Zen practice—’it is backed by two thousand years of studying the mind.'”
93. Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma by Melanie Brooks
“What does it take to write an honest memoir? And what happens to us when we embark on that journey? Melanie Brooks sought guidance from the memoirists who most moved her to answer these questions. Called an essential book for creative writers by Poets & Writers, Writing Hard Stories is a unique compilation of authentic stories about the death of a partner, parent, or child; about violence and shunning; and about the process of writing.”
94. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
“Slender though it is, The Writing Life richly conveys the torturous, tortuous, and in rare moments, transcendent existence of the writer. Amid moving accounts of her own writing (and life) experiences, Dillard also manages to impart wisdom to other writers, wisdom having to do with passion and commitment and taking the work seriously.”
95. The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work by Marie Arana
“Culled from ten years of the distinguished Washington Post column of the same name, The Writing Life highlights an eclectic group of luminaries who have wildly varied stories to tell, but who share this singularly beguiling career. Here are their pleasures as well as their peeves; revelations of their deepest fears; dramas of triumphs and failures; insights into the demands and rewards.”
96. Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Caron Levine
“Gail Carson Levine shows how you can get terrific ideas for stories, invent great beginnings and endings, write sparkling dialogue, develop memorable characters—and much, much more. She advises you about what to do when you feel stuck—and how to use helpful criticism. Best of all, she offers writing exercises that will set your imagination on fire.”
97. Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark
“Ten years ago, Roy Peter Clark, America’s most influential writing teacher, whittled down almost thirty years of experience in journalism, writing, and teaching into a series of fifty short essays on different aspects of writing. In the past decade, Writing Tools has become a classic guidebook for novices and experts alike and remains one of the best loved books on writing available.”
98. Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
“This poignant, intimate, and hilarious memoir explores Shonda’s life before her Year of Yes—from her nerdy, book-loving childhood to her devotion to creating television characters who reflected the world she saw around her. The book chronicles her life after her Year of Yes had begun—when Shonda forced herself out of the house and onto the stage; when she learned to explore, empower, applaud, and love her truest self. Yes.”
99. Your Creative Writing Masterclass by Jergen Wolff
“If you dream of being a writer, why not learn from the best? In Your Creative Writing Masterclass you’ll find ideas, techniques and encouragement from the most admired and respected contemporary and classic authors, including Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Anton Chekhov.”
100. Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
“Part memoir, part philosophical guide, the essays in this book teach the joy of writing. Rather than focusing on the mechanics of putting words on paper, Bradbury’s zen is found in the celebration of storytelling that drove him to write every day. Imparting lessons he has learned over the course of his exuberant career, Bradbury inspires with his infectious enthusiasm.”
Writing is a big messy topic, so obviously I’ll have missed some of your favorite and best books on writing. Make sure to hit the comments to talk about your favorite books about the writing life and craft. Find more of our posts on the writing life here. | {
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شركة جلي بلاط بينبع – وجلي رخام
تقدم لكم أحباب طيبة شركة جلي بلاط بينبع أعلى مستويات الجلي لأن الشركة تقدر وتعلم جيداً أهمية نظافة المنزل، ومدى الراحة النفسية والاطمئنان والسعادة التى تشعر بها داخل منزلك مع الإحساس فيه بالنظافة التامة واللمعان الملفت للأرضيات، بالإضافة إلى نظافة باقي أجزاء المنزل والتي توفرها لكم أحباب طيبة بكل سهولة ويسر.
اتصل من هنا ↓↓
” تنظيف بلاط بينبع “
تتعرض الأرضيات يومياً للعديد من البقع والاتساخات التي تشوّه المظهر الجمالي العام للمكان وتخفي لمعته وبريقه وتجعله يبدو بمظهر غير لائق كأنه قديم، وهذا الأمر يستدعي التنظيف اليومي للأرضيات من خلال عملية الغسل بالماء والمنظف العادي الخاص بالأرضيات وغيره من مواد التنظيف التي تعيد للبلاط مظهره لفترة مؤقتة، ولكن مما لا يعلمة الكثير أن بعض هذه المنظفات قد تؤدي إلى إصابة الأرضيات بأخطار جسيمة يصعب عليك رؤيتها أو معالجتها بالطرق التقليدية للتنظيف المنزلي للتخلص من تلك المشاكل يجب عليك اللجوء للمختصين في شركة جلي بلاط بينبع .
شركة جلي وتلميع رخام بينبع
للتخلص من جميع المشكلات التي تواجهك بالارضيات من أي نوع يجب عليك حلها وتلافيها من خلال شركة جلي بلاط بينبع لأنها تتعامل مع أرضيات منزلك أيا كان نوعها عن طريق استخدام أحدث الآلات والماكينات الخاصّة بعمل سنفرة الرخام والبلاط وجلية وتلميعه، وتختلف عملية التنظيف من منزل لأخر بحسب نوع الأرضيات وحالتها وحالة القشرة الخارجيّة لها، مما يحافظ على الأرضية ويعيد لها اللمعان الطبيعيّ والتألق الذي يجعلها تبدو كأنها جديدة وبراقة.
ماذا تعرف عن فوائد جلي الرخام ؟
الكثير منا لا يعلم فائدة جلى الأرضيات وخصوصاً الرخام وإليكم بعض هذه الفوائد:
عملية جلى البلاط تجعلها متساوية جداً حتى تصير وكأنها قطعة واحدة. عملية جلي الأرضيات تزيد من لمعان ونعومة الأرضيات بشكل فائق وجودة عالية. عملية جلي الرخام تغلق جميع المسام في الرخام، ويصبح طبقة واحدة مما يؤدي إلى عدم تسرب الماء والرطوبة إلى أعماق الرخام، وهذا يزيد من عُمر الأرضيات ويساعد في المحافظة على جمالها. جلي الأرضيات يزيل أي زوائد في الأرضيات ويصلح جميع العيوب الفنية الموجودة بها، ويساوي الأرضيات بشكل رائع جدا مما يجعل عملية التنظيف سهلة، ومن الصعب تجمع الأوساخ على سطح الارضيات. عملية جلي الأرضيات تمنع وجود أي فواصل أو تشققات من شأنها تهيئة بيئة خصبة لوجود الحشرات بها، وإن وُجدت فلا تقلق فنحن شركة مكافحة حشرات بينبع في خدمتك أيضا. عملية جلي الأرضيات تجعل منزلك يبدو كقطعة فنية بأبها صوره تحب أن ترى منزلك بها.
ماهي أنواع عمليات جلي الأرضيات ؟
دائما نريد الأرضيات لمعة نظيفة وهذا مما يجعل الأرضيات تخضع للعديد من عمليات التنظيف والجلي ومنها:-
الجلي اليدوي للارضيات :
يعتمد الجلي اليدوي للارضيات على استخدام نوعيات مختلفة من المواد الكيماوية مثل (حمض الكبرتيك) المعرف بإسم ماء النار، ويكون ذلك عن طريق سكبها على الأرضيات وتركها عليها لفترة كافية حتى يتم تفتيت طبقة الاتساخات التي تعلو الأرضيات والتخلص منها، ولكن هذه الطريقة تعد خطرة جدا حيث أن ماء النار له مخاطر جسيمة في حالة ملامسته لجلد الإنسان ويؤدي إلى حروق شديدة، وأيضا يؤدي لمشكلات شديدة بالجهاز التنفسي قد تؤدي للاختناق.
وفي حالة استعمال هذه المادة يكون هناك خطر كبير في حالة وجود اطفال بالمنزل، لذلك يجب إخراجهم خشية إصابتهم بمكروه ويترك ماء النار علي البلاط حوالي ساعة ونصف ويجب فتح شبابيك المنزل عند استخدامه، ويجب علينا لإزالته استخدام كمية كبيرة من الماء لتخفيف تركيز المحلول، وأيضا لإزالة الرائحة وسحبه على بالوعة مياه الصرف.
ربما يلجأ البعض إلى استخدام هذه الطريقة الخطرة طمعاً في الحصول على مستوى عالي من النظافة مع توفير تكاليف التعامل مع شركات الجلي أو شركة جلي بلاط بينبع ،ولكن نحذر من استخدام هذه الطريقة حيث أنها خطرة جدا.
جلي الأرضيات بالماكينات:
نعتمد في هذه الطريقة دائماً على استخدام الماكينات المتخصّصة التي تقوم بسنفرة الأرضيات وتنظيفها وجليها دون حاجة لإستخدام مواد كيماوية قوية أو مخففة، كما أن هذه الطريقة تتميّز بسهولة التنفيذ في خلال وقت قصير، وذلك دون الاضطرار إلى استخدام الدعك والفرك اليدوي.
تنظيف ارضيات بينبع
في الكثير من الأحيان نتعرض إلى الزيارات المفاجئة من بعض الأصدقاء والأقارب، وفي حالة عدم الاحساس بالنظافة على أعلى مستوياتها نشعر بالضيق والحرج الكبير وعدم الرغبة بوجود الزائرين، وعلى العكس في حالة النظافة التامة وخصوصاً نظافة الارضيات وقتها نشعر براحة البال و التباهي بجمال ونظافة المنزل.
شركة جلي رخام بينبع
تستخدم شركة جلي رخام بينبع في عمليات جلي وتنظيف الرخام أفضل وأحدث المعدات والماكينات الأصلية المستوردة من ألمانيا خصيصاً لهذا الغرض للحصول على أعلى مستوى للبريق واللمعان يمكن أن نحصل عليه، مع الاستعانة بأكفأ عمال مهرة مدربين بمستوى عالي جدا على تلك الأجهزة، وكل هذا من أجل الحصول على ثقة و إرضاء عملاء الشركة الكرام.
ومن أهم هذه الماكينات شنيور التلميع وهو يعمل على تلميع الارضيات عن طريق كشط جزء خفيف جدا من الطبقة الخارجية للرخام، وذلك دون أن يؤثر على سمكة أو قوته ثم شطف الأرضية بعد ذلك بالماء والمنظف العادي.
شركة جلي سيراميك بينبع
شركة أحباب طيبة تعتمد في عملية الجلي للاماكن الواسعة على جاليات حديثة ضخمة جدا ومتخصصة لعمل الجلي بأعلى مستوي باستخدام الحجر الماسي لأداء عملية الجلي وتلميع السيراميك والبلاط والرخام والمزايكو والاشاني سواء كان بالمطبخ او الحمام او درج السلم او الارضيات.
جلي الرخام بينبع
يعمل الكثيرون في مجال جلي الرخام ولكن في العادة نلاحظ كثيراً الإهمال في تنظيف الفواصل الموجودة بين البلاط مما قد يؤدي إلى عملية تسريب للمياه تحت البلاط أو الرخام مما يؤدى بنا إلى مشكلات كبيرة، يمكن لنا أن نتفاداها مع الاهتمام الجيد بعملية الجلي والقيام بها بصورة جيدة.
شركة جلي رخام بينبع تستخدم في عمليات الجلي والتنظيف أجود وأعلى أنواع المنظفات المحلية والمستوردة، وذلك للحصول على أعلى مستويات النظافة التي تتمنى أن تصل إليها.
تستخدم في عمليات الجلي والتنظيف أجود وأعلى أنواع المنظفات المحلية والمستوردة، وذلك للحصول على أعلى مستويات النظافة التي تتمنى أن تصل إليها. وفى بعض الحالات الصعبة التي يصعب علينا التنظيف فيها بالمنظفات العادية يلجأ على الفور إلى إستخدام ماكينة الجلي الألمانية والتي تحدثنا علنها مسبقا لجلى الرخام والبلاط وإتمام عملية التنظيف على الوجه الأكمل.
أيضا لدى شركة جلي بلاط بجدة ماكينات جلي صغيرة الحجم وخفيفة الوزن للأماكن الصغيرة والضيقة في المطابخ والمراحيض وثنايا الدَّرج.
متى نحتاج لعملية جلي وتلميع الرخام ؟
تنظيف رخام بينبع
عملية جلي الرخام ليست من العمليات السهلة كما يظن البعض بل إنها عملية تتم وفق أسُس ومعايير خاصة لا يستطيع القيام بها إلا المختصون بعمليات الجلي، فخبراء “شركة جلي الرخام بينبع” يقومون بعمليات الجلي بخبرة و عناية شديده وفق حالة الرخام ونوعية المادة والآلة التي يمكن أن تستخدم معه، فتقوم الشركة بعملية الجلي للرخام القديم الذي مر على جليه أكثر من ست أشهر أو لم يتم جليه من قبل.
تنظيف سيراميك بينبع
ربما أن تنظيف وجلي أرضيات منزلك بجودة عالية تقوم بها كل فترة ثابتة أو كلما احسست بأنه يحتاج للجلي، ولكن السيراميك وخاصة سيراميك المطبخ يحتاج للعناية اليومية من ربة المنزل حتى يتم له عملية الجلي، وإليك بعض النصائح للحفاظ عليه نظيفاً:-
يجب الحرص على كنس السيراميك يوميا، بإستخدام المكنسة اليدوية الناعمة.
يجب مسح السيراميك يومياً بقطعة من القماش الناعم، مع مراعاة البعد عن استخدام قماش الصوف لخشونته.
يجب تجنب استخدام أي أدوات حادة عند تنظيف البقع العالقة، حتّى لا تخدش السيراميك.
يجب مسح وتنظيف السيراميك بمخلوط من الماء والخل.
يجب الابتعاد عن استخدام المواد المبيّضة وأنواع المنظفات التي يحتوي تركيبها على مواد كيماوية، لأن أغلبها يؤثر على لون السيراميك ويجعل لونه باهتاً.
يجب تنظّيف السيراميك فور إتّساخه، وذلك بسكب كمية من الماء على فواصل الجبس بين البلاط، لا سيّما في حالة تلوثها بالمواد التي تحتوي على ألوان أو زيوت أو سكريات.
تنظيف باركيه بينبع
بما أن شركتنا أحباب طيبة أفضل شركة تنظيف بينبع حيث تهتم بمنزلك إهتمام كامل متكامل فإننا لم ننسى غرف منزلك التي تحتوي على (الأرضيات الخشبية) الباركيه ومن المعروف أن الباركيه من أفخم الديكورات في المنازل وغيرها، فإننا نعتني به عناية خاصة ومميزة على يد خبرائنا المميزون بخبرتهم الطويلة في هذا المجال، سنقدم لكم فيما يلي بعض النصائح للحفاظ على الباركية.
اتصل من هنا ↓↓
كيف نحافظ على الأرضيات الخشبية ( الباركيه )؟
تجنب ترك المياه على الباركيه لفترات طويلة لأن ذلك يعرضه للذوبان والتلف ثم العفونة و التقشر.
تجنب تعرض الأرضيات الخشبية للحرارة العالية مثل أشعة الشمس لفترة طويلة.
يجب المحافظة على الباركيه من الخدش أثناء تحريك قطع الأثاث، وذلك بمراعاة عدم جر قطع الأثاث على الباركيه.
يجب تنظيف الباركيه بمنظّفات مخصصة له، ومراعاة الإبتعاد نهائيا عن المنظفات التي يحتوي تركيبها على مواد كيماوية شديدة.
اسعار جلي الرخام
شركتنا احباب طيبة افضل شركة جلي بلاط بينبع تقدم لكم خدمة جلي الرخام وجلي السيراميك والبلاط والباركية وجميع أنواع الارضيات بأحدث الأجهزة والماكينات وأجود أنواع المنظفات، وأيضا أفضل أسعار في الأسواق لدينا في شركة جلي رخام بينبع. | {
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Joe Minicozzi, principal of the econometric consulting firm Urban3, challenges assumptions about land use and development. With tools like basic arithmetic, maps, and 3D visualization using ArcScene and CityEngine, he makes the case against suburban sprawl and reaffirms the value of mixed-use urban development. | {
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Subscribe to Future Europe on iTunes, Spotify and Acast.
Future Europe features a podcast episode from each of the EU’s 28 Member States. Each episode tells the story of a project that illuminates the way Europeans will live in the future. All the stories are told through the voices of people like Rimas Rusinas—people involved in the projects.
Lithuania gas investment a gateway to the world
Rimas Rusinas gazes out across the dark grey waters before the port city of Klaipeda towards a long concrete jetty a few hundred meters from shore. “This is the gate from the world to our country, so it’s very important,” he says.
Alongside the jetty a massive vessel is moored. The word ‘Independence’ is painted on its hull. Rusinas is the manager of the liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in Lithuania’s main port and the concrete jetty is an essential component.
‘I am in charge of efficient, reliable, and safe operation of this terminal,’ Rusinas told the European Investment Bank’s Future Europe podcast. Gas reaches the ‘Independence’ by ship and is then pumped via the pipes contained in the jetty to the country’s national network. This vital infrastructure keeps the Baltic nation powered and heated. It also brings what industry experts call “security of supply”, because it frees Lithuania from a previous monopoly supplier. That’s key to the country’s future.
Cutting Russia dependence—and prices
The Klaipeda jetty and the LNG vessel were built in 2014, when the country faced an energy crisis. At that time, it was dependent upon Russia for its gas supplies. The prices Lithuania paid were the highest in Europe.
The ‘Independence’ can store huge amounts of liquid natural gas and convert it for supply around the country. Standing on the bridge of his ship, Captain Damagoj Miskovic says the ‘Independence’ “is basically everything. It is an LNG tanker, it’s a storage facility and it’s a factory.”
Captain Miskovic says that the vessel offered a number of advantages to building a similar onshore facility. “It’s cheaper, more cost efficient and has less of an impact upon the environment and surroundings.”
The ship offered a cheaper, cleaner and quicker alternative than building a similar onshore facility.
Investing in a pipeline to Independence
To ensure a safe, reliable and affordable supply of natural gas, Lithuania:
built an offshore jetty including gas handling facilities
constructed a mooring for a specially built vessel capable of storing and converting liquid natural gas
dug and assembled 18 km of pipeline connecting the jetty to the Lithuanian gas grid
The EIB lent Klaipedos Nafta, the state-owned company responsible for the importing the gas, €73 million to get the terminal working. The terminal and the vessel, which is rented from a Norwegian company, came online at exactly the same time, ensuring a critically important supply of natural gas for the country.
EU bank backs Lithuania gas investment
Mindugas Yussus, Klaipėdos Nafta’s chief executive, told the Future Europe podcast the EIB’s involvement helped make the plan a reality.
“It was very doubtful that we could have implemented this project without the EIB’s support. First of all, financially it was a very important injection, and having such a strong financing background helped us gather the best possible services for the price.”
For the EIB, assisting Klaipėdos Nafta fulfilled its objectives for the country and the surrounding region. “This was the perfect project for EIB,” says Andrius Sokolovskis, an EIB loan officer with responsibility for the area of the Baltic Sea. “We look for projects that really make wide-scale changes. And not only Lithuania benefited from this independent supply, but also the countries around, such as Latvia and Estonia.”
Lithuania gas investment brings self-sufficiency and self-confidence
The jetty and ship have given Lithuania a reasonably priced supply of energy. But at the same time it has begun to diversify with alternative sources of power, including renewable energy. All this has helped stabilize the Lithuanian economy.
The liquid natural gas facility has also become a point of national pride. Martinas Abrozaitis, a senior engineer for Klaipėdos Nafta, is one of a team responsible for ensuring an uninterrupted and safe supply of gas. He told the Future Europe podcast that, for him, the work is more than just a job.
“Sometimes it’s dangerous for me and my colleagues. But it’s a huge and very successful project and I am very happy to be here. I think it’s very, very important not just for me not for my colleagues but for all us – for all Lithuanians. | {
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The small touches, like the change of focus with the lower right corner of foreground, really make this look great. | {
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President Trump will reportedly name Wall Street financier and long-time supporter Anthony Scaramucci as his new White House communications director, according to a new report.
Axios reports that two sources familiar with the situation say that Trump will appoint the Republican donor to the post left vacant by Mike Dubke. Axios also reported that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus wasn’t made aware of the appointment until after the arrangements were finalized.
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Scaramucci is the founder of the global investment firm SkyBridge Capital. It was previously thought the hedge fund manager would be appointed to lead the White House Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs under Trump, but he didn't enter the position.
Scaramucci was also previously linked to the ambassador position to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development but ultimately was not named to that post. He currently serves as a senior vice president at the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
The position of communications director has been vacant since late May when Dubke resigned. He had only been on the job for three months when he submitted his resignation.
"I want to thank Mike Dubke for his service to President Trump and this administration,” Priebus said in a statement at the time. “We appreciate Mike and are very grateful for his service to President Trump and our country.” | {
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In the epic finale to The Maze Runner Saga, Thomas leads his group of escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary last city, a WCKD controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get the answers to the questions the Gladers have been asking since they first arrived in the maze. Will Thomas and the crew make it out alive? Or will Ava Paige get her way?
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Enjoy Maze Runner 3 Or Maze Runeer The Death cure Online free | {
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Download the PDF here.
Access to abortion is a key component of women’s comprehensive health care. The ability to choose if, when, and how to give birth is linked to women’s economic success, educational attainment, and general health and well-being.
Anti-choice advocates, unfortunately, often use women’s health and maternal mortality as justifications for abortion restrictions. Although abortion has been proven to be one of the safest medical procedures, anti-choice policymakers at state and federal levels continue to use the guise of protecting women’s health to promote restrictions on abortion providers and procedures such as medication abortion; add requirements for women to fulfill in order to receive an abortion; and limit the procedure after an arbitrary number of weeks into a pregnancy. Research shows, however, an inverse relationship between abortion restrictions and both maternal and child health outcomes and the number of policies intended to support women and children’s well-being, including Medicaid expansion and protections for pregnant workers, among others. Additionally, persistent structural racism plays a significant role in the connection between abortion restrictions and maternal mortality.
State and federal abortion restrictions and maternal mortality rates are on the rise. Between 2010 and 2015, states enacted more abortion restrictions than during any other five-year period since Roe v. Wade in 1973. The maternal mortality rate in the United States grew by 136 percent in the years between 1990 and 2013. This connection is no coincidence: Restrictions on women’s health care—including abortion—can have devastating impacts on women’s health. Although the anti-choice movement continues to posit abortion as dangerous for women, the procedure should be uplifted as what it often really is—life-saving, affirming, and integral to women’s health.
States with more abortion restrictions have higher rates of maternal and infant mortality
Abortion restrictions—especially gestational bans, which seek to ban abortion at an arbitrary point of gestation during pregnancy—are often proposed by anti-choice lawmakers as a way to protect women’s health. However, research has shown that the more abortion restrictions a state has, the worse women and children’s health outcomes in the state are. The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) conducted a study that created a state-level scoring system with the following categories: abortion restrictions; policies that support women and children’s well-being; women and children’s health outcomes ; and social determinants of health. The study used indicators such as parental involvement in and waiting periods for abortion, as well as expanded Medicaid and the existence of a maternal mortality review board. Ultimately, researchers found an inverse relationship between abortion restrictions and women and children’s health outcomes as well as the number of evidence-based policies passed to support women and children’s well-being. South Carolina, for example, has 14 abortion restrictions—one of every type identified by the study—and also some of the worst outcomes for women’s health in the country. In 2015, one-third of South Carolina had no dedicated health care provider, plus maternal mortality rates had risen 300 percent.
This study shows that women’s health and well-being is a talking point the anti-choice movement wields in their favor—rather than a legitimate goal. If such individuals were genuinely invested in improving maternity outcomes, they would prioritize access to health care, Medicaid expansion, paid family and medical leave, affordable child care, and other public policies that support maternal health. They would also ensure access to safe, affordable abortion and contraception so that women can choose when and if to have a child. The CRR study indicates that the lack of these investments in the anti-choice movement’s priorities shows the movement is more interested in controlling women’s bodies than in supporting their reproductive decision-making and overall health.
Racism contributes to poor health outcomes for women of color
It is crucial to examine the extent to which racism worsens maternal and infant mortality. Communities of color, and primarily African Americans, are disproportionately affected by limitations to abortion and experience elevated rates of maternal and infant mortality compared with non-Hispanic white mothers. Indeed, racism is a motivating factor behind legislation that seeks to strip autonomy from women of color and limit their reproductive decision-making; restrictions on abortion and contraception disproportionately impact women of color, and anti-choice proponents intentionally target communities of color in their advocacy and outreach. Furthermore, racism can sometimes fuel neglect within the medical industry: Health care providers have been known to ignore the pain of women of color, which contributes toward preventable death, maternal mortality, and distrust of health care providers. Additionally, women of color—in particular, black women—experience higher levels of stress and discrimination compared with non-Hispanic white women across all age levels, which contributes to lower health outcomes and increased maternal mortality. The ways in which women of color are discriminated against and excluded from the health care system provide insight into how reduced access to abortion may contribute to high rates of maternal mortality.
Abortion restrictions can lead to unsafe abortions
Limiting abortion through various restrictions—such as waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds, and parental consent—has been shown to increase rates of unsafe abortion rather than eliminate the need for abortion. Limitations place women in desperate situations, and some may attempt to have abortions through unsafe methods as a result. When the United States legalized abortion in 1973, pregnancy-related deaths and hospitalizations due to complications of unsafe abortions reduced significantly. The number of abortion-related deaths fell from 40 deaths per one million live births in 1970 to eight deaths per one million in 1976. After 1975, mortality due to legally induced abortion fell from three deaths per 100,000 abortions in 1975 to about one death per 100,000 abortions in 1976.
Unsafe abortion is uncommon in the United States, but with the increase in policies that restrict access to reproductive health care—including state-based abortion restrictions, the restructure of Title X family planning clinics to distribute more funding toward crisis pregnancy centers rather than clinics that provide comprehensive information, and policies that reduce access to affordable contraception—there is a chance that the number of abortion-related deaths may rise. State-based abortion restrictions have grown in the 45 years since Roe v. Wade and have potentially contributed toward rising maternal mortality rates. For instance, in Texas, the rate of maternal deaths rose from 72 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2010 to 148 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2012. Reproductive health experts linked the uptake in maternal deaths to state-based limitations on abortion and reproductive health funding—including cuts to family planning services and a defunding of Planned Parenthood—that occurred during the same window of time. Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics often serve as a gateway into the health care system—providing health care and referrals for patients that may not otherwise have a regular provider. Thus, it is plausible that the unmet need for abortion and family planning services—such as cancer screenings and STI testing and treatment—that resulted from restrictions on funding led to increased maternal mortality in Texas.
Barriers to abortion access may delay critical prenatal care
In the case of an unintended pregnancy, the restrictions and barriers women face in pursuit of an abortion can result in stress and delay of critical prenatal care, further contributing to maternal mortality rates.
Unintended pregnancy in the United States has declined slightly over the past few years—51 percent of pregnancies were unintended between 2006 and 2010, while 45 percent were unintended in between 2009 and 2013. Increased access to contraception has been cited as at least partially responsible for this decline. However, these rates are still high compared with those of other developed countries and, importantly, vary disproportionately by race. In 2011, the unintended pregnancy rate for black women was more than double that of non-Hispanic white women. While increased access to contraception may have helped improve the average unintended pregnancy rate, communities of color still experience significant barriers to contraception and abortion—including cost and geographic limitations—that could decrease maternal mortality rates.
Many unintended pregnancies end in abortion, and those that do not often result in poor health outcomes for both mother and child. Unintended births are linked to negative physical and mental health outcomes for children compared with intended births. Women who experience unintended pregnancy and are forced to carry the pregnancy to term are likely to delay the initiation of prenatal care, which can result in higher incidences of maternity-related health problems.
From 2008–2011, there was a slight increase in the share of unintended pregnancies that ended in abortion. However, there are still restrictions on abortion that can impact maternal and child health and well-being. Abortion restrictions vary by state and can require significant amounts of time, money, and other resources to acquire—especially depending on how far along a pregnancy is. If a pregnancy is unintended, overcoming hurdles to obtaining an abortion—such as travelling hundreds of miles for a procedure, missing multiple days of work because of mandatory waiting periods, lack of access to child care for women who are already mothers, or fundraising as the cost of the procedure rises—can create negative stress for maternal and child health. This stress can take a significant toll on the health and well-being of children if the woman pursuing the abortion is already a mother—and about 60 percent of women who get abortions are. Additionally, the restrictions placed on abortion can prolong the process indefinitely. If the outcome of the pregnancy in this situation is birth rather than abortion, then the child and mother may be predisposed to negative health outcomes as a result of delayed prenatal care. Finally, delays in accessing care can move women to consider unsafe abortion methods. In one study, women considered self-induced abortion using unsafe methods such as blunt-force trauma as a result of frustration with delays in accessing safe abortion.
Conclusion
Access to comprehensive reproductive health care—including safe and legal abortion—is critical to promoting better maternal and infant health outcomes. Research suggests the delays, costs, and complications that result from barriers to abortion access could be contributing to poor maternal health outcomes—and even death—contrary to messaging from anti-choice proponents. Proactive measures, including improving access to abortion and other critical women’s health care services, must be taken in order to help address the maternal mortality crisis. A women’s right to choose abortion should be key to strengthening maternal and child health.
Anusha Ravi is a research assistant for the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress.
Endnotes | {
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The word ‘change’ should be considered a curse word in the NASCAR world. All jokes aside, the Quaker State 400 failed to live up to its expectations, as expected. From my vantage point behind my television screen and microphone, attendance looked poignant. The state of NASCAR is a sad one, but fans and NASCAR should share the blame.
I pointed out on Twitter that this race was very difficult to broadcast. Aside from the head-shaking gaffes made by TNT and the poor coverage, the racing was mediocre at best. As a result, I had to pull random factoids out of my head to keep the flow running.
Apparently stating my opinion makes me a hater. After the race, I learned that in order to be knowledgeable about the sport, I need to never, ever talk poorly about anything NASCAR related. In other words, I need to shut up and just do my job.
Thankfully, I decided not to in this matter. If I do not speak my mind about topics that concern me, that would be a dereliction of my duty. It is our job as media folks to ask the hard questions and make the ‘controversial’ statements. Also, I hate the word ‘controversial.’ Why does everything have to be controversial?
The fact of the matter is, the fans are at fault for what happened this evening. Is it all the fans? No, not at all. For those already offended, please keep on reading. The fans pushed for Kentucky Speedway to be added onto the schedule. As a result, NASCAR gave the fans what they wanted. Now, those same fans are complaining the race was boring.
Do not get me wrong, Kentucky is a nice track, but, it is not built for Sprint Cup Series racing. I have not seen a single exciting cup race there so far. Some may disagree, but there are a lot of factors that come into play, including debris cautions and double-file restarts, which some claim is manufactured.
Where do we see the most exciting racing? It certainly has not been at 1.5 mile tracks. Bristol, Martinsville, and Richmond, for example, have provided some amazing racing this season! “Did you see that finish at Richmond?” We, the fans, want to hear more of those questions! “Did you see that finish at Kentucky?” It’s unlikely anyone will hear such a question.
Did anyone get a chance to read what Humpy Wheeler had to say? In my opinion, I wish he were helping run things. The man knows business and that is what puts rears in the seats. NASCAR lacks emotion. Sure, anyone could get onto a driver’s radio feed and listen to curse words, but that is not what I mean. NASCAR needs villains and the cars need to be slower.
As Mr. Wheeler said, “You can’t really race when you’re more than 200 mph on an intermediate track. They should slow ’em by at least 10 mph. And they need to attack the dreaded “aero push” problem. They haven’t done it yet, but they’re starting to look at it. Downforce is creating aero push, so they have to figure that out.” NASCAR should really consider this. At first, I was against it. I thought it was all about the speed. It really is not. The extra speed is what is causing a lot of the problems, especially at 1.5 mile tracks.
Wheeler also talked about the lack of personalities. The lack of personalities is NASCAR’s own fault, for example, NASCAR had an opportunity to gain from the Ambrose-Mears fight after Richmond. Instead, Ambrose was fined $25,000 and Mears, fined $15,000. Why did NASCAR fine Mears, eating a straight right-hand to the face?
Despite the outcome, NASCAR will foolishly use the fight as hype for the race, but everyone knows there will not be a sequel. Thankfully, the race is at Richmond, where the Gen 6 has had some exciting racing.
Why is NASCAR having attendance issues at the 1.5 mile tracks? Sure, technology plays a part of the factor; however, that factor is minimal. Some folks can stream races live, while others may follow Twitter instead of making the expensive commute to see it live. How come we are not seeing the same problem with every other sport? We do not, which means there is something we can do better.
I have talked to many fans about our future as a sport. Boy, we have some passionate fans out there. They proudly represent the driver they love and go bananas with everything. Answer this question: does the best car usually win in NASCAR today? In regards to this evening, the best car won. Brad Keselowski was the class of the field. At tracks 1.5 miles or longer, every race should be just as exciting as Saturday.
On Sunday, there was only one debris caution and it was a legitimate one. From my standpoint, NASCAR generally throws a random debris caution to help the “show.” If NASCAR was confident that its racing would deliver, there would be no need for it.
NASCAR needs to get rid of the lucky dog and wave around. Eliminate anything that rewards drivers for not doing well enough to be on the lead lap. Given, sometimes things happen. A driver decides to pit during the green flag and someone blows a right-front, putting you down a lap. Tough beans, work your way back up to the lead lap. Line up on the inside of the leader and good luck.
In boxing, one boxer may be getting dominated in every category. All of a sudden, one pop opens up a huge cut over the right eye, bleeding and causing his vision to be blurred. In NASCAR land, this is a car that is not performing well enough to be on the lead lap. If NASCAR were in control of the World Boxing Council, this boxer would get the wave around. For one round, the boxer will get to wave around the ring. Meanwhile, the boxer who drew first blood will not be allowed to hit his opponent to allow his man to recover. At the end the commentators exclaim, “What a finish!”
I have a better idea! How about we regulate how much a boxer can train? For example, the world champion cannot train for his title bout. Only the fighter who has not won a world title can train. In the blue corner, the defending champion, Jimmie Johnson! In the red corner, the challenger, Timmy Hill! Let’s get ready to rumble! Oh, Hill got knocked out in round 1. So much for the new regulation.
What am I getting to? No matter what NASCAR does to regulate the big, macho teams, the little guys will get squashed every track they visit, with the exception of Daytona and Talladega. Think about it for a second. From 1984-1990, Hendrick Motorsports saw 28 victories in its first six years in existence. Fast forward to today. In the past six years, Hendrick Motorsports has won 57 races, just over twice that amount. How did Mr. Hendrick make his team so successful? The man knows how to run a business, the man knows people. NASCAR did not build that team to the way it is today.
I will always be loyal to NASCAR, but I think we should really consider making changes to help things in the long run. If we do so, we will see improvements made and we will see more races sell out. It’s time to put innovation to work. | {
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ROME — Roberto Saviano’s best-selling 2007 book, “Gomorrah,” his reportage about the Neapolitan crime syndicate the Camorra, was dark. Matteo Garrone’s award-winning 2009 film adaptation was darker. And the hit Italian television series of the same name is by far the darkest.
“Gomorrah” the TV show, which makes its United States debut on SundanceTV on Wednesday, Aug. 24, tells the story of a newly invented fictional crime family. And its depiction of a brutal underworld has broken new ground in Italy, where television tends toward sap and kitsch. It has also prompted a debate about whether it paints too sympathetic a picture of the criminals and too grim a picture of Naples (and Italy) at a time when grass-roots opposition to organized crime is thriving.
“There were two polemics about the series,” said Aldo Grasso, the television critic for Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading daily. “The first is that it presents a bad image of Italy. The second is that it could be seen as a ‘bad teacher’ and that by watching the series a lot of young people might go to the other side.”
The show follows the drug-dealing Savastano clan after the arrest of its boss, Don Pietro, played with understated rage by Fortunato Cerlino, a veteran actor from Naples. Realizing that his teenage son and only heir, Genny (Salvatore Esposito), isn’t up to the job, he hands the reins to a trusted deputy, Ciro Di Marzio (Marco D’Amore). But it is his wife, Donna Imma (Maria Pia Calzone), who also takes on a leading role. | {
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Host Stephen Colbert held up a copy of “The Book of Gutsy Women” at the start of the segment, but quickly set it aside to get Clinton’s take on the Trump-Ukraine controversy.
“Your fault for coming on Ukraine week,” he quipped.
Clinton was game. Asked by Colbert whether it was time to, “dare I say, lock him up,” she said that launching an impeachment inquiry to look at the evidence was the right step. The Founding Fathers, she said, created a provision for impeachment for times when the president has “subverted the Constitution, has abused power, has put the nation at risk.”
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“I believe strongly that this particular incident has had such a huge impact because we’ve known for a long time that he was a corrupt businessman who cheated people, and we’ve known that he and his campaign asked for aid from Russia,” she said of Trump. “We’ve known that. But to see him in the office of the president putting his own personal and political interests ahead of the national security of our country just pierced through whatever confusion or denial people had.”
Shortly before the show was taped, the Wall Street Journal reported that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was listening in on the phone call at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, in which Trump sought the Ukrainian president’s assistance in investigating his main political rival, former vice president Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden.
Colbert didn’t miss the chance to get Clinton’s thoughts on the revelation.
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“How many times when you were secretary of state did you have to say to Barack Obama, you can’t extort foreign countries to get dirt on your political enemies?” he asked.
“Yeah, that never happened,” Clinton responded, laughing.
She said that in a moment like that, the secretary of state’s job is to “make sure that, number one, he knows what the president is going to say on those calls,” which she described as “usually highly prepared” with the help of the State Department, Pentagon and others.
“And because you’ve got a president who doesn’t listen to anybody and doesn’t follow instructions whatsoever,” she continued, drawing laughs from the audience, “I’m not sure [if] they’ve even given up on trying to give him any sorts of preparation because they don’t know what he’s going to say."
How would she feel as secretary of state, Colbert asked, if the president was “sending Rudy Giuliani out to actually handle foreign policy.”
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Clinton didn’t mince words: While presidents or secretaries of state might use an envoy or special adviser to relay a message, she said, “again, it is supposed to be carefully thought through.”
“And from what we’ve seen on television,” she continued, “carefully thinking through is not one of Rudy’s strong points.”
From there, the talk finally turned to the book, with the co-authors chatting about the experience of writing a book together for the first time — a process Chelsea Clinton said was made more difficult by her mother’s insistence on writing longhand. But when Colbert held up a page of Clinton’s handwritten notes, joking that they “look a bit like you’re up in a cabin writing your manifesto,” she was ready for a change of topic.
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“That is so embarrassing,” she said between belly laughs. “Let’s go back and talk about impeachment.” | {
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Many of my close friends are irreligious, and sometimes have a hard time completely comprehending why I decided to become religious, much less Christian, much less a Roman Catholic. Unfortunately, it is often difficult for me to answer them. It might be easier to list the reasons that don’t influence me into Christianity than the ones that do. “Why wouldn’t I be Catholic?” would be perhaps a better question than “Why would I be?”
I hope, though, through this blog and these sorts of posts, at least begin to explain why I have found myself irrevocably drawn to Rome, to that faith derived from a First Century Nazarene who claimed to be the Son of God, and God besides.
G K Chesterton, one of my favourite authors, summarizes, in Orthodoxy a brief summary of modern philosophical and religious thought. Two figures he refers to are the German atheist, anti-theist philosopher Nietzsche and the Russian philosopher and writer Lev Tolstoy, who was decidedly Christian, though a more liberal and anarchic one. He might be made akin to say, the Anabaptists or Anglicans of our times.
Chesterton compares these two men to St. Jean D’Arc, Joan of Arc. He writes that:
“Joan of Arc was not stuck at the cross-roads, either by rejecting all the paths like Tolstoy, or by accepting them all like Nietzsche. She chose a path, and went down it like a thunderbolt. Yet Joan, when I came to think of her, had in her all that was true either in Tolstoy or Nietzsche, all that was even tolerable in either of them. I thought of all that is noble in Tolstoy, the pleasure in plain things, especially in plain pity, the actualities of the earth, the reverence for the poor, the dignity of the bowed back. Joan of Arc had all that and with this great addition, that she endured poverty as well as admiring it; whereas Tolstoy is only a typical aristocrat trying to find out its secret. And then I thought of all that was brave and proud and pathetic in poor Nietzsche, and his mutiny against the emptiness and timidity of our time. I thought of his cry for the ecstatic equilibrium of danger, his hunger for the rush of great horses, his cry to arms. Well, Joan of Arc had all that, and again with this difference, that she did not praise fighting, but fought. We know that she was not afraid of an army, while Nietzsche, for all we know, was afraid of a cow. Tolstoy only praised the peasant; she was the peasant. Nietzsche only praised the warrior; she was the warrior. She beat them both at their own antagonistic ideals; she was more gentle than the one, more violent than the other. Yet she was a perfectly practical person who did something, while they are wild speculators who do nothing. It was impossible that the thought should not cross my mind that she and her faith had perhaps some secret of moral unity and utility that has been lost.”
A meaty passage, and much could be said about it. But for now, I’d like to focus on how Chesterton notes that Joan walks between the philosophies of Tolstoy and those of Nietzsche. She embodies all of what is useful in both of them, and none of what is not useful. “She was more gentle than the one [Tolstoy] and more violent than the other [Nietzsche].”
Beautiful.
Indeed, it is that “middleness,” noted by Chesterton and embodied by St. Joan, that draws me strongly to Christianity on an intellectual level. Most of the philosophies of the world view man as either inherently evil or inherently good. Only Christianity is at once both aware of the Imago Dei, and the Fall; man bears the image of God, so is capable of great goodness, but is also fallen, and so is capable of great evil. Other philosophies and individuals have most assuredly noted this duality of man, but only Christianity fully explains a rational basis for it.
The Marxist spits venomously that the rich are evil and greedy, while the Randian says that it is the poor who are. The Christian, however, if he is doing it right, recognizes sloth and envy in both of them, and, even moreso, in himself.
This is just one example of Christianity walking the middle path. There are fragments of truth on either side; most assuredly there are robber barons just as there are slovenly welfare recipients. But either side overemphasises one aspect of the truth, and, in doing so, loses the whole thing.
Indeed, that is how much heresy begins.
Also, consider, specifically, Catholicism. From the Reformation to about the 1920s, the Catholic Church was considered by many to be lax, pagan, and lawless. However, when the world became more lax, pagan, and lawless, the Church then fell under accusations of being puritanical and tyrannical. The Puritan world spurned the Church for being Pagan; the Pagan world spurns it for being too Puritan.
Many of the ancient gnostic sects once saw matter as inherently evil, and believed that there were two gods; one who created spirit and the heavens; a Good God. And one who created flesh and matter, an evil god.
Nowadays, the modern world seems to abhor anything that cannot be empirically proven (IE, anything that isn’t matter), and elevates “matter” to too high of a state. We eliminate unborn children on the grounds that we can’t “give them what they need”, erroneously forgetting that even the poorest Westerner lives greater than 90% of the human population ever has. Our material concerns outweigh our spiritual ones. We think it better to destroy the poor and the sick and the injured than see them suffer any discomfort. Our society is terrified of material discomfort.
(It’s actually really frightening from a geopolitical perspective. Consider how quickly Americans gave up many of their freedoms after 3 000 people were killed in a terrorist attack. I would not discount the tragedy and the loss of life, but the likelihood that 9/11 would happen again was low, and, indeed, the deaths themselves, on a purely mathematical level, were negligible.)
Only Christianity walks the threadbare line between gnosticism and materialism. It at simultaneously proclaims the sanctity of the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit and the eternal truth of the immortal soul. Catholicism acknowledges that Jesus is at the right hand of God, but that He is also present in the Eucharist.
These are just a few examples that I thought of today while working. I’m sure I will think of more, though. | {
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The original Emergent Task Planner (ETP for short) pad uses smooth, fountain pen friendly paper and does a great job for a full-sized pad. But, after using the smaller ETP notebook for several months, it's won me over. Despite the smaller amount of planning and notes space, I love the size and utility of this notebook. It's the size of a regular Rhodia (or Moleskine) notebook, which I've always enjoyed. It's small enough to stay out of the way on my desk, but large enough to adequately plan my day and react to changes that pop up.
The covers are plain black vinyl with no branding and the spirals are doubled and very sturdy. I haven't put the notebook through hell, but I know it could take a lot of abuse if needed.
46 sheets mean you can plan about 3 months of stuff in one book. For me, it ends up being a 4 month book since I don't use it on the weekends.
I remember loving the fact that I could tear off the previous day's sheet in the morning -- felt like the perfect way to mentally start afresh for the coming day -- but I've come to appreciate the utility of having those previous days in the same notebook. There have been several times that I've forgotten exactly what I did throughout the week when it's time to fill out my timesheet, and the archive always helps me remember. It's a planner, but also serves as a logbook. Personally, I love the utility of a simple logbook of tasks, events, and random little things that happen during the day. For many, this is the exact purpose of the Hobonichi planner. | {
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WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington police officer has already been indicted on charges related to a use of force investigation involving a 16-year-old. Now drafts of a motion and an affidavit from the DA’s office show the officer choked that teen while the boy was handcuffed in the back of his patrol car.
According to a draft motion, Cpl. James “Coley”Johnson asked Tyrell Rivers, “Do you want to die in this patrol car tonight?” while choking him in the back of his patrol car back in April.
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The documents say Johnson choked Rivers not once, but twice after his arrest.
However in Johnson’s use of force report filed a few days later, he did not mention the use of these tactics, which he later told investigators are approved defensive techniques taught at past in-service and other trainings, the documents show. But the SBI says it interviewed several Wilmington Police training officers, who said those techniques are not approved defensive tactics.
Rivers’s lawyer Katy Parker says dealing with this case has not been easy for the teen.
“Tyrell didn’t choose to be a spokesperson and speaking out against excessive force,” Park said. “It’s something that happened to him. It’s something that happens to a lot of kids in our community.”
A grand jury indicted Johnson in June on charges of simple assault and failure to discharge duties.
Wilmington Deputy Police Chief Marshall Williamson responded to the discovery of the documents on a city e-mail server with a statement.
“We realize that there is pending litigation and court action regarding specific training techniques used by the Wilmington Police Department, therefore we will not make any comment on this matter at this time,” Williamson said.
Assistant DA Temple Barrett sent the draft motion to Johnson’s attorney J. Michael McGuinness and a city attorney to outline her intent to request access to Johnson’s personnel records.
Rivers was arrested the night in question for resisting an officer, trespassing and drug charges. He was convicted of the resisting and trespassing charges and received an 18-month suspended sentence and probation for each. The drug charges were dismissed. | {
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