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”Poltamme vuosi vuodelta enemmän kivihiiltä”, kirjoitti nimimerkki Koti-isä. Koska tämä keskustalaisten poliitikkojen aktiivisesti levittämä väärä tieto alkaa muuttua ihmisten mielissä totuudeksi, lienee syytä katsoa tilastoja.
Oheisessa kuvassa on kivihiilen käyttö tällä vuosituhannella 12 kuukauden liukuvana summana. Se ei ole suinkaan noussut vuosi vuodelta, vaan trendi on selvästi laskeva. Erityisesti kannattaa huomata, että istuvan hallituksen kaudella kivihiiltä on käytetty vähemmän kuin edellisen hallituksen aikana.
Kivihiilen käytössä oli lyhytaikainen nousu, koska turvetuotanto oli vaikeuksissa sateen vuoksi, liuskekaasu painoi kivihiilen hinnan alas ja koska päästöoikeuksien hinta lähenteli nollaa.
Europarlamentissa äänestettiin vähän aikaa sitten kivihiilen käytön suitsimisesta vetämällä markkinoilta pois päästöoikeuksia. Jos keskustalaiset olisivat huolissaan kivihiilen lisääntyneestä käytöstä, luulisi heidän myös äänestävän sen puolesta, että käyttöä vähennetään, mutta niin he eivät tehneet. Jos itse äänestää kivihiilen runsaamman käytön puolesta, ei pitäisi syyttää sen lisääntymisestä muita.
Ilmeisesti keskustalaiset olivat huolissaan, että päästökauppa haittaa myös turpeen käyttöä, niin kuin pitää haitatakin, koska turpeesta tulee energiayksikköä kohden enemmän hiilidioksidia kuin kivihiilestä – minkä lisäksi turpeen nosto pilaa vesistöjä.
Olemmepa turpeesta mitä mieltä tahansa, jokaisen joka investoi turveteknologiaan pitää ymmärtää, että investointiin liittyy suuri riski. Jos ilmastonmuutosta ryhdytään tosissaan torjumaan, ei ole mahdollista, että tämä ei koskisi myös turpeen polttamista. Jos päästöoikeuksien hinta nousee vaikkapa vain 50 euroon tonnilta, turpeella ei ole mitään kilpailukykyä. Turveväki esittää epätoivoisena, että tässä vaiheessa turvetta ryhdyttäisiin tukemaan valtion varoin! Ne jotka uskovat Fennovoiman ydinvoimalan kannattavuuteen, luottavat siihen, että päästöoikeuksien hinta nousee tätäkin korkeammaksi.
Jos siis olette rakentamassa turvevoimalaa, laittakaan siihen kunnollinen kattila, joka tekee mahdolliseksi polttaa myös pelkkää puuta ilman turvetta. Jyväskylä sitoi vastikään itsenä turpeen polttoon tekemässä toisin. | {
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In response to President Obama’s upcoming action on immigration, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has vowed to retaliate by sabotaging the federal court system in his own state.
No, that’s not how he phrased it, but that would be the impact of his vow. Yesterday in Politico, Cruz wrote how he thinks the Senate should respond to the president’s policy decisions on immigration enforcement:
If the president announces executive amnesty, the new Senate majority leader who takes over in January should announce that the 114th Congress will not confirm a single nominee—executive or judicial—outside of vital national security positions, so long as the illegal amnesty persists.
While such a refusal to perform one of the basic functions of the Senate would harm the entire nation, the damage in Texas would be particularly severe. No state has more judicial vacancies than the Lone Star State. No state even comes close.
As of today, Texas is suffering from eleven current federal court vacancies, with another four known to be opening in the next few months. The White House has worked closely with Sens. Cruz and Cornyn to identify potential nominees, but progress has been slow: Only six of the vacancies even have nominees; three of these have not yet had their committee hearings.
But the other three – for the Eastern and Western Districts – advanced through the Judiciary Committee this morning and are now ready for a confirmation vote by the full Senate. All three would fill vacancies formally designated as judicial emergencies by the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. Confirming them would be a good start at addressing the vacancy crisis in Texas.
And that’s what is it: a crisis. As we wrote earlier this month in a Huffington Post piece entitled Lame Duck Opportunity and Obligation: Confirm Judges:
The situation is even more dire in Texas, where the Senate has a chance to fill three vacancies in the Eastern and Western Districts. The Western District judgeship has been vacant since 2008, and the Judicial Conference has asked for five new judgeships there to carry the load on top of filling all the existing vacancies. Chief Judge Fred Biery discussed the need for new judges last year, saying, “It would be nice to get some help. We are pedaling as fast as we can on an increasingly rickety bicycle.” Judge David Ezra, formerly of Hawaii, explained why he was moving to Texas to hear cases in the Western District: “This is corollary to having a big wild fire in the Southwest Border states, and fire fighters from Hawaii going there to help put out the fire.” The Eastern District of Texas is in similar need of getting its vacancies filled during the lame duck: Of the nation’s 94 federal districts, only two have had more weighted filings per judgeship than the Eastern District, according to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts’ most recent statistics. Small wonder, then, that the Judicial Conference has asked for two new judgeships there: Even if every judgeship were filled, that just isn’t enough. To make matters worse, two more judges in the Eastern District have announced their intention to retire or take senior status next year, making it all the more important to fill the current vacancies now.
Even if the three nominees are confirmed during the lame duck, as they should be, more vacancies in both of those districts will open up early next year. Texas would still have eight vacancies, a number that would rise to twelve in the next few months.
To express his fury at President Obama and rally his right-wing base, Cruz would work to make sure that all these vacancies remain unfilled, which would hurt a lot of innocent Texans.
Cross-posted from the PFAW blog. | {
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The increase in cocaine use among young British people placed the UK in the top league for the abuse of psychotropic drugs in Europe in 2009, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction has said.
The United Kingdom not only tops the list among the 27 members of the community area with the highest rates of drug addiction among youth and adults, but also exceeds the observed record in the USA, reports 'The Guardian'.
The consumption of cocaine among British people aged 18 to 34 increased by almost 15 percent in 2009 from that in 2008, according to EMCDDA statistics released on Wednesday.
So far in 2010, EMCDDA received certification of 31 variants, especially the so-called designer drugs or those imitating the effects of ecstasy and cannabis.
The EMCDDA expressed concern because of the rise in cocaine use in some parts of London. The same trend has been noted in the 27-member European Union since the 90's, related to the hallucinogen, which ranks as the second most widespread illicit drug after cannabis, with over three million addicted young adults each year.
The number of deaths in Europe associated with consumption of this substance also increased to nearly a thousand deaths a year, with double the deaths in the UK, from 161 cases in 2003 to 325 in 2008.
ALSO READ Spanish princess accused of corruption, summoned to testify in court
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Click here to unlock the full scene and the rest of Cobie Smulders clips! | {
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Ayer se desveló la enésima vulnerabilidad que afecta a procesadores Intel , las cuales han sido bautizadas como Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) , o llamada más coloquialmente como ZombieLoad . Además, se ha confirmado otro de los temores: su parche afecta negativamente al rendimiento, perdiendo hasta un 20%.
Casi todos los procesadores de Intel lanzados en los últimos 8 años, afectados por ZombieLoad
Entre los procesadores afectados encontramos los Intel Xeon, Broadwell, Sandy Bridge, Skylake, Haswell, Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake y Whiskey Lake, además de todos los Atom y Knights. Básicamente, todos los procesadores lanzados después de 2011 son vulnerables. Los Cascade Lake y Coffee Lake-R cuentan con soluciones vía hardware ante estos problemas, por lo que no están afectados. El listado completo de procesadores inmunes está en este enlace.
ZombieLoad se aprovecha de un proceso de ejecución especulativa de manera similar a Meltdown y Spectre. Este tipo de ejecución mejora el rendimiento del procesador a través de intentar predecir qué va a hacer una aplicación o un sistema operativo, de manera que procesa los datos con antelación para tener el resultado ya listo. Gracias a esto, es posible acceder a información sensible como contraseñas, mensajes, tokens de acceso a servicios, etc. Es posible además que un malware, ejecutado en un proceso aislado, pueda acceder a información de otros procesos.
Las cuatro vulnerabilidades relacionadas con ZombieLoad son:
CVE-2018-12126: Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data Sampling (MSBDS)
CVE-2018-12130: Microarchitectural Fill Buffer Data Sampling (MFBDS)
CVE-2018-12127: Microarchitectural Load Port Data Sampling (MLPDS)
CVE-2019-11091: Microarchitectural Data Sampling Uncacheable Memory (MDSUM)
Las principales compañías, como Apple, Microsoft y Google, han lanzado en las últimas horas parches para solucionar todas estas vulnerabilidades. El problema es que el rendimiento se verá afectado tras aplicar este parche, de la misma manera que ocurrió cuando fue parcheado Meltdown. AMD, por su parte, dice que sus procesadores no están afectados por este ataque gracias a las comprobaciones y protecciones que tienen a nivel de hardware.
El rendimiento se ve afectado hasta un 19% en procesadores de consumo
Tampoco están afectados los chips ARM, ni tampoco se ha detectado ningún ataque a nivel global que haya aprovechado esta vulnerabilidad, aunque los descubridores afirman que la vulnerabilidad no deja rastro. Un atacante puede aprovecharse de esta vulnerabilidad simplemente ejecutando el código en una página web, haciendo que navegadores como Tor Browser sean inútiles, ya los datos se filtran entre procesos.
El parche que ya está aplicándose de estos procesadores afecta hasta un 19% el rendimiento para los procesadores de consumo, y hasta un 9% para los servidores, según ha anunciado la propia Intel. Los procesadores lanzados este año ya están protegidos ante este fallo, pero todos los anteriores lanzados de la 8ª generación hasta 2011 rendirán menos a partir de ahora.
El parche lo que hace es eliminar todos los datos del buffer cuando se supera un límite de seguridad, de tal manera que los datos no puedan ser robados. Intel afirma que el parche ya soluciona todos los problemas, pero los investigadores de seguridad han llegado a recomendar que se desactive el HyperThreading. Por suerte, no hay que llegar a esos extremos, ya que el rendimiento para ejecuciones en paralelo se vería gravemente afectado. | {
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Nintendo’s Game Boy made its Japanese debut on April 21, 1989. With a murky screen and chunky physical design, Game Boy wasn’t the most impressive of game systems — but what it lacked in power, it made up for in affordability ... and, over time, an incredible library. Ask any Game Boy owner for a list of their favorite games and you’ll get a huge variety of answers thanks to the fact that the system saw north of 1000 games over its lifetime, many of which were good and some of which were truly great.
Ahead of Game Boy’s 30th anniversary on Sunday, here are the 30 greatest games and franchises ever to appear on the system.
30. X
(Argonaut/Nintendo, 1992)
An absolute tour-de-force of Game Boy technical prowess, X came to us from the same people who would deliver Star Fox a year later for Super NES. Obviously, running on a monochrome handheld with no enhancement chips leaves X technologically inferior to its 16-bit sibling, but the spirit is much the same. In some ways, X hints more toward Star Fox 2. Its fully 3D wireframe engine allows for free-range movement across a planetary surface rather than being restricted to rail-based motion, and there’s even a mission structure at work. It’s a bit rough, but this is a cart worth owning just to show to your friends as a fun party trick: True 3D action on Game Boy!
29. Trip World
(Sunsoft, 1993)
This rare and highly sought-after Japan- and Europe-exclusive release looks like your typical action platformer at a glance, but in truth Trip World takes an unconventional approach to the genre. It downplays conflict and combat in favor of simply allowing the player to take a journey — a trip, if you will — through its world. Along the way, you encounter unique creatures and charming little pantomime scenarios, punctuated occasionally by brief and challenging face-offs against the few hostile characters that appear along the way. All of this is framed with some of the finest graphics and sound ever to grace the Game Boy. It’s a little hard to describe what makes Trip World so appealing, but there’s no denying its excellence.
28. Game Boy Wars/Turbo
(Intelligent Systems/Nintendo/Hudson, 1991)
We know this series as Advance Wars in America, but it actually got its start on Famicom under another name before marching along to Game Boy. While it doesn’t look quite as pretty or have the wacky leader personalities of the later games, the fundamental design and appeal remains the same. You control an army unit-by-unit, jockeying for territory by putting your forces against the other side and allowing the computer to determine the winner of each engagement. While never officially localized into non-Japanese languages, there’s a partial fan translation for the Turbo re-release that significantly reduces the CPU’s thinking time and greatly speeds up the pace of the experience.
27. The Sword of Hope (series)
(Kemco-Seika, 1990)
Remember Shadowgate and those other classic Icom computer adventure games that showed up on NES? Those were converted to the system by Japanese publisher Kemco, and the company took notes. A year after Shadowgate, Kemco reworked the Icom interface and style into something that hewed closer to the likes of Dragon Quest. The result is an interesting and one-of-a-kind hybrid of American adventure game and Japanese RPG, where players navigate the world and solve environmental puzzles in the style of the former but need to fight off monsters with a combat system taken from the latter. An overlooked high point of the Game Boy’s early days.
26. Chalvo 55
(Japan Supply System, 1997)
Here’s an odd one: Chalvo 55 came out incredibly late in the Game Boy’s life, and it was a sort of semi-sequel to a Virtual Boy game that never actually shipped. Like Game Boy Wars, this one never made its way to the U.S. Chalvo 55 takes the form of a pure action game, a sort of puzzler in which you play as a bouncing robot trying to work your way through tricky platforming challenges with a combination of brains and twitch skill.
25. Avenging Spirit
(Jaleco, 1992)
You ever play one of those games that feels like it showed up way too early to earn the praise it deserved? Avenging Spirit is one of those. An adaptation of an obscure arcade game, Avenging Spirit centers around a play mechanic that came back around a decade or more later in the likes of Abe’s Oddysee, Omikron, and The 3rd Birthday: You can possess and control other characters. By default, you play as a more or less helpless ghost who will vanish altogether without a host, which forces you to jump into the enemies you encounter along the way. The character you possess determines your powers and potential at any given moment, which lends the action a great deal of variety. Avenging Spirit has become one of Game Boy’s “holy grail” titles and commands a high price, but for now you can easily check it out for $2.99 on Virtual Console for 3DS.
24. Harvest Moon GB
(Natsume, 1998)
Harvest Moon on a handheld works for the same reason Animal Crossing typically fares best in its portable incarnations: The systemic, schedule-based, conflict-free approach is the kind of thing you can jump into pretty much any time you want to chill out and enjoy some low-stress gaming. Manage a farm, befriend the critters, find a gal to settle down with and marry — Harvest Moon is a far cry from your typical Game Boy fare. And admittedly, this version is considerably more simplistic than the sequels that followed, with fewer systems and no real-time clock. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s a perfectly pleasant way to while away some time, which is precisely what Game Boy was designed for.
23. Cave Noire
(Konami, 1991)
One of the things that helped propel Game Boy to its epic success was the system’s suitability for quick, pick-up-and-play game sessions — that’s what made Tetris such a perfect pack-in. This Japan-only release (yeah, there’s a fan translation) from Konami applies that philosophy to the roguelike genre, presenting players with the ability to take on an enormous string of procedurally generated mini-dungeons in brief sessions. Each session allows you to take on one of several different mission types and challenges to complete that task with the use of whatever tools you acquire along the way. While less action-oriented than Spelunky, it scratches the same itch.
22. Kid Dracula
(Konami, 1993)
NES owners were cheated out of a localized version of Konami’s goofball Castlevania spin-off Boku Dracula-Kun, which remained stranded in Japan. But that’s OK, because this handheld rendition was a pretty faithful recreation of the console release, with colors stripped out and sprites scaled back to fit the format but with all the freewheeling action intact. Kid Dracula presents the main bad guy of the Castlevania series as a tow-headed tyke out to reclaim his castle from the villain Galamoth. It’s kind of weird to imagine the murderous, blood-drinking tyrant as a happy-go-lucky kid, but this isn’t really the sort of game experience where you’re intended to question the underlying morality. Just burn through the comical monsters with your undead fireballs and reclaim Dracula’s place as King of the Damned, OK?
21. Space Invaders
(Taito/Nintendo, 1994)
Space Invaders shipped early in the Game Boy’s life in a Japan-only release. This isn’t that one. No, the game we’re highlighting here came several years later, toward the end of Game Boy’s life and nearly two decades after Space Invaders first took over arcades around the world. This was a U.S.-exclusive release, and it’s an amazing piece of work. Plug it into a Game Boy and it’s just, you know, the same Space Invaders that shipped four years prior. But insert it into a Super Game Boy to run on Super NES and suddenly it transforms into a different experience altogether. Not only do you get special frames and color palettes for Super Game Boy, you also open up unique SGB-only alternate modes. Oh, and on top of that, you can also boot the system to run the Super NES version of Space Invaders, which could also be purchased separately. Yes, this Game Boy cartridge contained an entire Super NES game. It’s one of the wildest things ever to have been done with a Game Boy.
20. Metroid II: Return of Samus
(Nintendo, 1991)
While Metroid II is admittedly the weakest of the numbered Metroid games, that doesn’t make it a bad game in its own right. A mediocre Metroid is still a heck of a Game Boy release, and if this sequel falls short of true excellence it’s only because it tries to do so much. Metroid II’s world is bigger than that of the original game, and heroine Samus Aran has to acquire more kinds of equipment to take on more and deadlier metroids than before. Although Metroid II is a bit sluggish at times and suffers from visual repetition that makes orienteering your way through its massive caverns a hassle at times, it really builds on the foundations of the first game and does a lot more with both Samus and the universe she inhabits.
19. Mole Mania
(Nintendo, 1997)
Long overlooked by fans due to its late release, Mole Mania was one of the few Game Boy projects designed by Shigeru Miyamoto’s team at EAD (most first-party Game Boy releases were managed by Gunpei Yokoi’s R&D1 division). And as with EAD’s three other Game Boy projects, this is a smart game that maximizes the hardware and shines with thoughtful choices from start to finish. In a lot of ways, it feels like the Nintendo take on the box-pushing Game Boy standard puzzler seen in Boxxle (aka Soukoban): While built around similar principles of navigating an object to a goal through mazes, it introduces player actions beyond pushing while incorporating additional play elements and hazards. An inventive take on the box puzzler, it’s proof that Soukoban games can be fun when modernized.
18. Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge
(Konami, 1991)
The first and third Castlevania releases for Game Boy were, to be frank, quite poor. Belmont’s Revenge is the one stand-out, a game that actually ranks with the finest entries in the franchise. Although it makes use of many of the same not-quite-canon mechanics of its portable predecessor (Castlevania: The Adventure), it incorporates them into a journey that feels much better designed. There are fewer pixel-perfect jumps and unavoidable enemy traps to deal with, while the action moves at a speedier clip. On top of that, you have the freedom to mix up each playthrough a bit by choosing to tackle the first four stages in any order you like, in classic Mega Man style. The difference between Belmont’s Revenge and the other Game Boy Castlevania titles highlights the importance of getting the little details right when you’re playing on a little system.
17. Gargoyle’s Quest
(Capcom, 1990)
Kind of like Kid Dracula, Gargoyle’s Quest dared to put players in the shoes (figuratively speaking) of a hated villain — in this case, the Red Arremer from Ghosts ’N Goblins. In casting players as the most vexing monster in that franchise, Capcom’s designers took a radically different approach to design for this spin-off. While Gargoyle’s Quest sticks to the side-scrolling platformer format of Ghosts ’N Goblins, it works more as an action RPG. Protagonist Firebrand starts weak and underpowered, just like his foe Arthur, but unlike Arthur he grows in strength through the course of the action: His health meter expands, his attack options improve, he improves his flight abilities, and he even acquires skills that let him navigate the world more easily. A bit short and ultimately fairly easy if you can overcome the crushingly difficult introductory stage, Gargoyle’s Quest remains a standout of the Game Boy library.
16. Heiankyo Alien
(Mindwave/Meldac, 1990)
Heiankyo Alien is a fairly simplistic title compared to most of the works chronicled here, but it merits a mention for its historic importance. The original version of Heiankyo Alien was a PC classic released all the way back in 1979, and it only ever saw an arcade conversion at the time; this Game Boy reissue was its first-ever home release. It’s a key title, the missing link between Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Lode Runner, and a bunch of other early ’80s classics, where players evade monsters in a maze and attempt to trap the marauders by digging holes in the ground. On top of that, Heiankyo Alien for Game Boy is one of gaming’s very first proper remakes: In addition to including a straight conversion of the decade-old arcade game, the cart also includes a remixed mode with updated graphics and new gameplay mechanics. That sort of thing is old hat these days, but you didn’t see many developers treating vintage software with such reverence in the Game Boy era. And the game is still pretty addictive even now.
15. Final Fantasy Adventure
(Squaresoft, 1992)
Another game in the Legend of Zelda vein that isn’t quite as good as a real Zelda — so who cares, right? Wrong! Final Fantasy Adventure takes the Zelda action-RPG format and pushes the role-playing mechanics even further than games like Golvelius and Crystalis, integrating Final Fantasy touchstones like chocobos, spell conventions, and even partner characters. It’s a rambling mess of a game in places, with bafflingly moronic companion A.I. and a few needlessly obtuse puzzles. But before Link’s Awakening landed on Game Boy, fans found lots to love in the brisk sprawl of this classic, which went on to inspire some amazing sequels in the form of the Mana games.
14. Mega Man 5
(Capcom, 1994)
Capcom made a bunch of Game Boy Mega Man carts, but the first four consisted entirely of hacked-together stages taken from the NES games. It wasn’t until the fifth and final Game Boy Mega Man that the company ran out of existing material to mine and created something new. Mega Man 5 doesn’t quite stand up to the franchise’s all-time greats due to the handheld’s cramped proportions and sluggish hardware. As handheld action platformers go, though, this inventive rendition of an 8-bit standard (which sends Mega Man on a journey through the solar system to fight planet-themed bosses) is hard to top. The game’s late release, low print run, and great reputation make for an unusually pricey pick-up, but happily it’s also available on 3DS Virtual Console for a pittance.
13. Bionic Commando
(Capcom, 1992)
Another NES-to-Game Boy conversion, this one’s an example of how to do it well and truly right. Capcom comprehensively reworked the source material to fit the reduced scale of the Game Boy, bringing across the classic NES game’s excellent physics and controls to allow players to swing triumphantly across the tiny screen without compromise. The remake also retools a number of the original levels to edit out the dead-end parts that didn’t quite work and ensure a brisker flow through the action. It even adds material, including a rousing new final stage that puts players’ grappling skills to the test.
12. Balloon Kid
(Pax Softnica/Nintendo, 1991)
The title only obliquely references the fact that this is a proper sequel to and expansion upon the NES black box classic Balloon Fight. Specifically, Balloon Kid takes the engrossing bonus mode Balloon Trip, a sort of proto-endless-runner concept set entirely in the air, and turns it into a proper adventure featuring traditional stages, secrets, and bosses. Balloon Kid introduces new play mechanics, including the ability to let go of the balloons that keep heroine Alice aloft to run and jump in traditional platform action style, and in doing so it introduces a load of surprisingly engrossing strategies to the mix. It’s easily one of the finest hidden treasures in the Game Boy library.
11. Game Boy Gallery (series)
(TOSE/Nintendo, 1995)
Before Game Boy, there was the Game & Watch. Gunpei Yokoi’s long-running handheld line presented players with a far more primitive entertainment proposition than Game Boy would, but the line was popular enough that the final Game & Watch units shipped after Game Boy’s debut. Fittingly, Game & Watch’s successor paid tribute to what had come before with a series of brilliant remakes. Each Game & Watch Gallery cart revisited multiple iconic Game & Watch handhelds, giving players the option to play a faithful recreation of the self-contained LCD games or a fancied-up remake sporting ’90s-appropriate graphics. The games here are simple, of course, but they remain fun — making this series both a testament to Nintendo’s long-running commitment to play and its ability to recognize the value of game history ... or at least the high points of its own history. It’s a start.
10. Super Mario Land (series)
(Nintendo, 1989)
The two Mario adventures for Game Boy don’t feel nearly so much of a piece as, say, Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 do. The first Mario Land showed up at launch and clearly demonstrates Nintendo’s developers getting their heads around the capabilities of the Game Boy while playing it somewhat safe: It features tiny, simple sprites and only about half as many stages as Super Mario Bros., all of which tend toward the basic side. On the other hand, it does let Mario take on a few stages in a submarine and biplane. By comparison, its sequel scales up the graphical detail, sends Mario through a series of strange worlds unlike any other in the franchise, and gives him weird new powers. What both games have in common is the way they both feel like, well, Mario ... despite their unconventional styles. It took a little while for the devs to get comfortable working within Game Boy’s constraints, but in its best moments, the Mario Land duology shows off how surprising and weird Mario can be when Papa Miyamoto isn’t watching.
9. Mario’s Picross (series)
(Jupiter/Nintendo, 1995)
This picture crossword concept has become a mainstay of Nintendo’s library, with more than a dozen entries appearing on 3DS alone! Yet the franchise began here, ushered into the world by none other than Mario himself: Players are presented with a grid in which each row and column is assigned numeric values that represent consecutive filled-in blocks. The challenge comes in figuring out which blocks need to be filled and which should remain empty, a task that requires a touch of math skill and a great deal of logical intuition. When completed, the filled and empty blocks form a simple black-and-white image — in the case of Mario’s Picross, the image ties back to Mario series sprites. The Picross concept hasn’t changed much since 1995, though, and it’s every bit as addictive now as it was then ... even on Game Boy. Note that only the first Mario’s Picross was localized to the U.S. and Europe, with Picross 2 remaining stranded in Japan, making it an obvious get for import fans.
8. Kirby’s Dream Land (series)
(HAL Labs/Nintendo, 1992)
HAL’s big breakout title, and the one that cemented its status as a de facto Nintendo second party, arrived on the scene in 1992. The hero, a voracious little fellow named Kirby, became an instant fan favorite, despite not having been entirely defined in his first outing. In Kirby’s Dream Land, our hero is shown as white on the packaging, and he doesn’t gain new powers by swallowing monsters. Still, Dream Land nailed the uptempo vibe and overall look that continues to define the franchise’s annual installments to this day. The sequel, 1995’s Kirby’s Dream Land 2, brought the concepts and improvements introduced in Kirby’s Adventure on NES back to the Game Boy before Kirby spun into a variety of handheld block puzzlers and pinball games for the remainder of the platform’s life. Approachable, adorable, and possessed of hidden depths, the Kirby series occupies a unique place in Nintendo’s character pantheon, and it was established right here.
7. The Final Fantasy Legend (series)
(Squaresoft, 1990)
The Final Fantasy Legend trilogy isn’t really Final Fantasy, but neither is it too far removed. Designed by Akitoshi Kawazu, Squaresoft’s most idiosyncratic director, Legend and its sequels took some of the unusual concepts that appeared in the unpopular Final Fantasy II for Famicom and ran with them. Set in strange worlds, including physically impossible spaces and lands beset by banana-smuggling cartels, these adventures allow players to built their own teams of distinct races ranging from combat-capable humans to monsters capable of transforming into more (or less!) powerful species by devouring the meat of defeated foes. Weapons break with repeated use, magic-casters randomly learn and unlearn spells, and you can use a chainsaw to kill God Himself (who, in fairness, is kind of a jerk here). The Legend series stands out as being the world’s first portable RPG series, and its creators took advantage of the fact that they were painting on a fresh canvas to do their own weird thing. Maybe that’s why the games still hold up 30 years later.
6. Tetris
(Bulletproof Software/Nintendo, 1989)
Nintendo included Tetris with the Game Boy hardware in America, and for good reason: It practically sold the system all on its own. With simple design that cascades into mind-gripping addiction, Tetris works as well for a quick fix of entertainment as it does for a lengthy engagement. Despite its lack of color, Tetris on Game Boy actually ended up being a better game than its NES counterparts — Nintendo and Bulletproof gave it multiplayer link capabilities, brilliant music that showed off the console’s packed-in earbuds, and a visual design that didn’t need color to work. For many people, Game Boy Tetris remains the definitive Tetris experience, despite the fact that there are flashier versions of the game that integrate things like virtual reality and mass-scale competitive multiplayer.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
(Nintendo, 1993)
The Zelda series has two faces: The rock-solid, genre-defining adventure face, and the weird stuff face. Link’s Awakening hovers somewhere in between the two. It makes a lot of interesting changes to the top-down Zelda formula, not least of which is making Link’s sword an optional piece of equipment; he can swap it out for other weapons, a shield that can be used actively as a defensive weapon, and even a magical feather that allows him to jump. This quest also takes place entirely within the bounds of an island, a surreal place inhabited by oddball characters and a certain dream logic. Yet the game also set many standards: Link’s Awakening was the first Zelda game to feature a complex trading chain subquest and the first in the series to make musical instruments a key element of the quest. But most of all, Link’s Awakening combined the feel of the original Zelda for NES with the complexity and depth of A Link to the Past for Super NES, proving once and for all that the Game Boy was capable of delivering an experience on par with its 16-bit sibling.
4. Wario Land (series)
(Nintendo, 1994)
Technically, you could count this as part of the Super Mario Land series; the first game is properly titled Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. But Mario was nowhere to be found in that game, nor in the sequel (which debuted on the original Game Boy before resurfacing a year later in color). No, this duology — along with its sequels on Virtual Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance — centered entirely on bad boy Wario, who debuted as the villain of Super Mario Land 2. By making Wario the lead, the designers at Nintendo R&D1 were freed to change up the dynamics of play from nimble platform athleticism that didn’t necessarily mesh with the Game Boy’s tiny resolution to a slower, more exploration-based design. The Wario Land games feature more intricate puzzle-like stage designs than Mario’s adventures, tasking players with the need to hunt for secrets and treasures. At the same time, Wario himself has a more aggressive physicality about him, bashing into enemies and smashing through walls in a way that Mario simply can’t — and Wario Land II makes the protagonist effectively indestructible, turning his suffering into a gameplay mechanic. All of Nintendo R&D1’s best and weirdest instincts come through in the Wario Land games, and they created two of the finest Game Boy adventures in the process.
3. Pokémon (series)
(Game Freak/Nintendo, 1998)
Nearly a decade after the Game Boy’s debut, the system enjoyed an unexpected second life thanks to the arrival of Pokémon. Nothing about Pokémon screamed “global success” on paper. It was a role-playing game, a genre that had experienced its first major console success in the U.S. a year earlier thanks to Final Fantasy 7, which succeeded on the strength of flashy visuals that the humble Game Boy could never hope to equal. Game Freak’s game lacked anything resembling a real story, instead following a nameless kid in his quest to capture a bunch of weird monsters. Its battles played out slowly through menus, minimal animation, and cascades of explanatory text. And it was a phenomenon. Pokémon’s strengths were the same things that initially appeared to be weaknesses: Its unnamed protagonist allowed the player to place themselves in the adventure. All those monsters had to be captured one by one and integrated into the player’s combat roster, creating a real connection between human and digital critter. But that wasn’t the only connection Pokémon created! Even more essential was the real-world, person-to-person connection that allowed two Pokémon trainers to battle and trade their creatures head-to-head through the Game Boy’s Link Cable. It didn’t hurt that Pokémon was buoyed by a brilliant marketing scheme that included a card game and a television show that’s still running more than two decades later, but in the end it was the deep, appealing gameplay that made Pokémon such an incredible showcase for Game Boy.
2. Game Boy Camera
(Nintendo, 1998)
Is Game Boy Camera a game? Well, not in the purest sense; it’s really an accessory, a tiny digital camera capable of snapping and saving about 20 low-resolution images to the built-in memory. You could even print them to the thermal printer Nintendo sold alongside the camera. But it wasn’t just an accessory; Nintendo infused its ultimate Game Boy gadget with the company’s enduring love for play. So Game Boy Camera doesn’t use a normal camera interface; it launches from an RPG-style menu featuring weird cartoon people. If you select “RUN” from the menu instead of “SHOOT,” a horrifying face appears and demands, “WHAT ARE YOU RUNNING FROM?” Once you take photos, you can draw on them and decorate them with illustrated frames. There’s also a send-up of Game Boy shooter Solar Striker on the cart. What makes Game Boy Camera a work of genius is the way it takes advantage of the portable nature of the system and turns it into a device that straddles the fence between gizmo and game: Suddenly Game Boy became a practical tool for self-expression. At the same time, it made photography fun, and its lo-fi appearance became an iconic emblem of the system ... even now, Game Boy Camera remains a popular format for hobbyist photography.
1. Donkey Kong
(Nintendo, 1994)
The greatest Game Boy game was also one of the greatest arcade games of all time. Were Game Boy Donkey Kong simply a reissue of a 1981 coin-op title, though, it wouldn’t be worth making much fuss about. There’s so much more to this game than a simple remake; it’s a massive reinvention of the old arcade favorite, adding dozens upon dozens of puzzle-platform stages that embrace concepts from the entirety of Mario’s history. Donkey Kong also serves as a comprehensive embodiment of the Game Boy’s sum total existence. It’s a look back to Nintendo’s own past that simultaneously paved the way for its future: It was here that Mario first learned the chain-jumps and handstands that would become a part of his repertoire a few years later in Super Mario 64. It’s both a perfect portable game (containing 100 bite-sized stand-alone levels) and a brilliant console title (thanks to its full embrace of the Super Game Boy peripheral that allowed it to be played on Super NES). And it showed just how far both Nintendo and Game Boy had come in 1994 by expanding greatly on the game that launched the company to the heights of fame, while also being vastly more refined and complex than the original Super Mario Land. A masterpiece of a game. | {
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This week we’ve been to OggCamp, played with Bash on Windows and received a GPD Pocket computer. In this episode we chat to the organiser of OggCamp 17, Jon Spriggs, serve up another virtual private love and go over your feedback.
It’s Season Ten Episode Twenty-Six of the Ubuntu Podcast! Alan Pope, Mark Johnson, Martin Wimpress and Jon Spriggs are connected and speaking to your brain.
In this week’s show:
We discuss what we’ve been upto recently: Mark has been at OggCamp. Martin has got a GPD Pocket. Jon has been playing with Bash on Windows.
We discuss OggCamp 17 with the events organiser Jon Spriggs.
We share a Virtual Private Lurve: streisand – Streisand sets up a new server running L2TP/IPsec, OpenConnect, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, Shadowsocks, sslh, Stunnel, a Tor bridge, and WireGuard. It also generates custom instructions for all of these services. At the end of the run you are given an HTML file with instructions that can be shared with friends, family members, and fellow activists.
And we go over all your amazing feedback – thanks for sending it – please keep sending it!
This weeks cover image is taken from Wikimedia.
That’s all for this week! If there’s a topic you’d like us to discuss, or you have any feedback on previous shows, please send your comments and suggestions to [email protected] or Tweet us or Comment on our Facebook page or comment on our Google+ page or comment on our sub-Reddit.
Join us in the Ubuntu Podcast Chatter group on Telegram | {
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Quinnen Williams missed one day of training camp as his agent and the Jets hammered out some details of his contract. For the first-round pick from Alabama, that was long enough.
“It was a huge relief just to be back with my brothers, be back with my team, be back in New York, New Jersey,” Williams said Friday morning, just a few hours after he signed his contract. “It’s just an amazing feeling to get everything done and get everything situated so I can focus on football and ball out with my team. It’s just a blessing, an amazing feeling, to be out here and be able to sweat and grind with your brothers again.”
The 21-year-old defensive lineman was a spectator for his first practice. He ran the team conditioning test in the morning, but coach Adam Gase did not want to overdo things on Williams’ first day. The plan is for Williams to practice for the first time Saturday.
Gase said how smart Williams is about football stands out when you are around him.
“With him, his intelligence and how he picked everything up in the spring, he’s a quick study,” Gase said. “His football intelligence is off the charts, and they’re able to move him around. The way that Gregg’s system is, they do a good job of teaching it and guys do a good job of learning it.”
The Jets expect an immediate impact from Williams, whom they chose No. 3 overall in the draft. They hope the Williams team of Quinnen and Leonard up the middle (along with defensive coordinator Gregg on the sideline) can create enough pressure up the middle to hide other deficiencies on the defense.
Gase said Quinnen Williams will line up “all over the place.” He played mainly nose tackle at Alabama, but the Jets want him to move around.
“Quinnen can do whatever Gregg asks him to do because he’s smart and he picks things up so fast,” Gase said.
Williams said he spent most of this week in Atlanta working out as he waited for his agent to finalize his contract. The dispute was over how much of Williams’ signing bonus would be deferred. The Jets wanted more than 30 percent deferred into 2020. They ended up compromising at 25 percent deferred with Williams getting 75 percent at signing.
Williams said it was difficult to remain patient.
“It definitely was tough seeing your guys at practice and having fun with each other, competing against each other,” Williams said. “It’s always a hard thing to see. I trusted my agent. She did a great job. I trusted upstairs in the Jets facility to get everything handled and put my interests in front. Everything went well, everything went great. I’m just glad to be a Jet and to be here to work and compete.”
The big defensive lineman has a childlike quality to him, accentuated by the braces on his teeth. He laughs a lot when he speaks and punctuates many sentences with “man.” His teammates got on him Friday, calling him “Big Money” after he signed his four-year, $32.5 million deal.
Williams said there is nothing he wants to buy immediately with his new riches. He was asked whether he worked with any elite performance coaches in the offseason and had a funny reply.
“I can YouTube everything,” Williams said. “I don’t have to pay a super performance dude. I can just YouTube it. You’re on the field by yourself. You can’t take the performance coach with you.”
He also started running a lot, inspired by a wide receiver.
“I ran track a lot because I saw DeSean Jackson running track all the time,” Williams said. “I got me some track cleats and started running track. It got me in great shape.”
Williams said he weighs 295 pounds, down from his playing weight of 304 last year.
Gase expects big things for the big man.
“He’s in the backfield a lot. He’s a good player,” Gase said. “[His intelligence] just helps him. That helps get another extra step outside of his athletic ability. You look at the guys that have a lot of success like Aaron Donald – he’s smart and he’s a freak athletically. If you put those two things together, it makes it tough to stop.” | {
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Bear sighted in Banksville Park
A 150-pound bear was spotted by at least four people in Banksville Park this afternoon.
Three young men and another person walking a dog reported that the bear ran when they encountered it in a wooded area around 1 p.m., said Gary Fujak, wildlife conservation officer for Pennsylvania Game Commission in western Allegheny County.
Mr. Fujak, who came out to the park when the sighting was reported to police, said the bear is most likely a yearling black bear, recently pushed from its mother's territory and looking for a place to call home.
"I think it'll keep a low profile until later in the day and start moving again," he said.
The wooded area is near a baseball field and tennis court and the park is surrounded by homes, but Mr. Fujak said the bear's behavior indicates that there's no reason for residents to worry.
"There's no threat to the local population from this bear," he said.
If the bear reappears the game commission will try to scare it up a tree, tranquilize it and then relocate the animal at least 100 miles away.
He said attempts to trap the bear would be futile unless it is seen more than once or near food sources, which could indicate that it's taken up residence.
He has no idea where the bear might have come from.
There are 15,000 bears in Pennsylvania and about 1,200 complaints about them every year.
Less than 25 people have been injured by bears since 2000 and no one has been killed by a bear in the state since at least 1900, when officials began keeping records.
The first bear killed in Allegheny County during a legal hunting season since the state began keeping records in 1949 happened just last year.
Although sightings are uncommon in the county, Mr. Fujak said there are usually a few every year.
A bear was already spotted in Shaler earlier this year, but the game commission never found it.
Sightings are more common in rural regions, like Indiana, Somerset and Westmoreland Counties.
Mr. Fujak advises anyone who sees the bear not approach it, stay a safe distance away and call 911 or the game commission at 724-238-9523.
First published on April 18, 2012 at 1:40 pm | {
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The student loan crisis in the U.S. grows by millions of dollars every day. The cost of tuition is growing, and wages aren’t keeping up. Which means that people are defaulting.
But a default can stay on your record for a long time, making common goals like purchasing a house more difficult.
But it isn’t right for everyone.
It Does Not Make Sense To Refinance Your Student Loans If:
Your private student loans have high prepayment penalties
You have federal student loans and rely on federal protection, like access to income based repayment options
You have a very low credit score and don’t have anyone who could co-sign
You are working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
You are still in school and have subsidized loans (the government pays your interest while you’re enrolled)
Advertisement | {
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A couple of years ago, people started talking about the notion of “bimodal IT,” sometimes known as “ambidextrous IT.” The formal definition, according to Gartner, is “the practice of managing two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery, one focused on stability and the other on agility.”
The idea was that an organization with legacy products would have parallel developments—one for continued enhancement to legacy systems and a second agile one to develop products quickly to take advantage of new technologies. To a certain extent, it’s a way to deal with the issue of Shadow IT, where business organizations set up unapproved parallel IT organizations because they don’t find traditional IT responsive enough.
In fact, bimodal IT even represents the two types of IT organizations, beyond just development, writes Dave Michels in No Jitter. “Mode 1 represents the IT department that we love to hate,” he writes. “It’s the mode that ensures things are reliable and secure. It’s the mode that says ‘no’ to just about every request, usually due to limitations (of staffing, budgets, testing, etc.) or concerns (related to security, support, experience, integration, compatibility, etc.).”
In contrast, “Mode 2 is the innovative and friendly IT,” Michels continues. “Its charter is exploration and responsiveness. In this mode, IT says ‘yes’ to most requests because the request itself is indicative that an unmet need exists. Speed and agility are king, and mode 1 simply can’t respond quickly enough. Mode 2 enables the company to benefit from newer technologies while they are still new.”
Bimodal problems
But the concept of bimodal IT is starting to get some pushback.
The theory behind bimodal is, “Disrupt thyself, before someone else disrupts you.” But that’s the wrong way to look at it, writes Laurence Hart in Word of Pie.
“Going bimodal is an unnatural way to run a team, group, or product,” Hart writes. “Running a more rapid, innovative set of teams alongside separate teams that are essentially keeping the lights just doesn’t work long term in a healthy organization.”
Part of the problem is that dividing IT into two groups creates conflict, writes Bernard Golden in CIO. “It’s likely that these two different IT groups will joust with one another for power,” he warns. “More importantly, despite the neat separation implied by the model, the fact is that they will need to cooperate. Setting up two organizations won’t necessarily resolve the tension, and may, in fact, exacerbate it as the two groups vie for resources and influence.”
Moreover, bimodal IT promotes the same sort of silos that the industry has been trying to get rid of, writes Mark A. Campbell in CIO Insight. “This is the opposite direction of every IT and organizational health trend since the term ‘functional silo syndrome’ was coined by Phil Ensor in 1988,” he writes. “Bimodal IT’s reliance on silos is simply muddle-headed thinking as proven out by countless studies over the past four decades.”
Worst of all, it isn’t clear how bimodal development would work over time. “I’ve seen two party systems in the past that have degenerated into ‘them’ vs ‘us’ and with no consideration of how things evolve they are not sustainable,” writes Simon Wardley in the Gardeviance blog.“There is no effective process for how the new (i.e. tomorrow’s industrialized components) become industrialized. The idea that somehow the two groups will work together in a ‘dance’ is fanciful. Brawl would be more like it.”
Even Gartner, which is one of the big proponents of bimodal IT, notes that it is fraught: While it predicted that 75 percent of enterprises would have a bimodal capability by 2017, it also predicted that half of them would make a mess of it.
Bimodal and beyond
So if bimodal IT doesn’t work, what should companies do instead?
What’s really needed is not bimodal IT, but trimodal IT, Michels writes. “Trimodal IT is the trick to making mode 2 sustainable and successful,” he writes. “IT must recognize the transitioning of new services into stable and scalable solutions as a separate, strategic function. It must assign a distinct group, even by selection of ambassadors from the other two modes, and specifically charter that group to integrate and adapt practices for ensuring operational success.”
Wardley also agrees with the trimodal concept. He postulates three teams: Pioneers, Settlers, and Town Planners. Basically, Pioneers are the innovators, Settlers turn innovations into products (like Michels’ transition team), and Town Planners turn the products into commodities or utilities. “If you want to create a bimodal / dual operating system structure out of this then you really have to give up on one part,” he warns.
And perhaps even trimodal isn’t enough, Campbell writes. “The agility vs. stability postulate is a false dichotomy,” he writes. “Bimodal is too trivial–the real-world is multi-modal. You need as many solution approaches as you have business drivers. It is not as simple as an ‘either-or’ bifurcation.”
Ultimately, bimodal IT can hurt the organization by cutting legacy apps off from technology that could improve them, warns Steven Murray in Computer Business Review. “Companies have decades of high value IP wrapped up in their legacy IT and mainframe applications making it critical for them to become more agile to remain relevant in today’s digital world,” he writes. “Those that don’t adopt a widespread agile approach will miss a major opportunity to fully enrich the customer experience and drive unprecedented value for the business.”
“Everyone in IT should be given the freedom to look into new technologies that might improve either system efficiency or provide possible value to the users,” Hart agrees. “Everyone in IT should be working with the business to learn what the business needs to be more effective.”
Get more information on the top trends affecting today’s workplace – including cloud, mobility and workflow automation – in this exclusive IDC research, “The Future of ECM: Code-Free Integrations and Anywhere Access.” | {
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"There's one thing I'll tell you about my brother," said Jeb (!) Bush. "He kept us safe."
And everybody cheered.
I ran out of patience long ago with The Great Mulligan. C-Plus Augustus ignored the terrorist threat for nine months. He told his Attorney General to shift focus from counterterrorism to weed and porn. He told his National Security Advisor to worry about the Russians. He blew off a Presidential Daily Briefing and a CIA briefer. Then, on September 11, 2001, there were 3000 Americans who were not kept safe on his watch. He then stonewalled any real investigation of his negligence. He then launched a war of choice after allowing the architect of the attacks to go free. There were more than 4000 American soldiers who were not kept safe. And now his blithering brother suggests that time began on September 12, 2001. Scott Walker then chimed in about how it was all Barack Obama's fault. Then there was Mike Huckabee, stressing the importance of "good intelligence" on formulating foreign policy. This would have been a good idea in, say, 2003, when Jeb(!)'s brother was cooking the books to start his pet war. But everybody cheered. Nobody called them on this. Nobody, except Rand Paul, had second thoughts on sending more American troops back into Iraq. But Donald Trump, whose combat experience is limited to punching out a music teacher in prep school, said that he thought the president lacked courage. I wouldn't hire any of these guys as a crossing guard.
There was a long closing colloquy about the Supreme Court in which Ted Cruz wished that liberal squish John Roberts never had been raised to the court, wishing instead that we were dealing with Edith Jones, who is a nut hankering to bring us back to the Lochner economy, and Michael Luttig, an interesting chap who resigned from the Fourth Circuit under circumstances best described as curious, but having a lot to do with how C-Plus Augustus helped keep us safe, except when he wasn't doing that.
Late in the game, Jake Tapper threw out a quote from George Schultz—Secret memos! Last Minute Pardons!—about how Saint Reagan approached climate change. "Because we are not going to destroy our economy the way the left wants to do," replied Marco Rubio. "You can measure the climate. You can measure it. I am skeptical of the remedies the Left wants to enact."
"This is an issue where, in my state, is thousands of manufacturing jobs, put people at risk for something its own EPA considers marginal," Scott Walker burbled, startling those of us watching who didn't think there were thousands of manufacturing jobs left in Wisconsin. Ted Cruz futilely hollered that, if Tapper wanted to hear from a real denialist, he should call on Cruz. Am I wrong to wish that some of those northern California wildfires began edging toward Simi Valley at right about this time?
And Huck wants an Apollo program to find cures for diabetes, cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's. Much of the research into said cures at the moment relies on, you know, fetal tissue experimentation. This goes sailing by everyone in the audience, most of whom seem to be ice sculptures at this point. Jeb (!) wants to put Margaret Thatcher on the $10 bill. I think he'd given up and started drinking mojitos with both hands during the break. Kasich wanted Mother Teresa, who was Albanian. But I am not going to comment on the concluding That's So Reagan question, although I think the whole event would have been livened up had that airplane started to taxi out of the hall.
I have to admit I found Chris Christie's one-man performance—Gateway Drug!—of Reefer Madness, also starring Carly Fiorina, mildly diverting, and I was struck by how proud Ted Cruz was to have thwarted even limited gun-control laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. Which seemed of a piece with Bush's invocation of The Great Mulligan, which is about where the whole debate left the earthly plane and ascended to the rarefied air of the top of the conservative information bubble. You have to forget a considerable amount of history to maintain belief in The Great Mulligan. In both cases, in lower Manhattan and in Newtown, it helps to be completely deaf to the cries of the dead. That's takes a special kind of person. It truly does.
Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.
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Trading volume at one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges has plummeted by 40 percent in three days after it temporarily stopped opening new user accounts.
South Korea’s Bithumb exchange – which suffered a $31 million hack in June – said in a blog post on July 31 that it will suspend the opening of new customer accounts from Aug. 1 as it is undergoing a “service improvement process” regarding so-called virtual customer accounts.
While the exchange did not give further details as to the reason for the suspension, a report from Business Korea on Tuesday cited banking industry sources as saying that the exchange was forced to into the suspension because its banking partner, NH Nonghyup Bank, has yet to renew Bithumb’s contract following the hack.
Twenty-four-hour trading volume on Bithumb was around $350 million on Tuesday, according to archived CoinMarketCap data. Yet, over the past three days, volume has declined to around $200 million (as of press time on Friday), reflecting an over 40-percent drop.
The exchange has not responded to CoinDesk’s request for comment on the trading volume drop and the banking issue.
While new accounts are suspended for now, Bithumb said that customers who already have identity-linked virtual accounts – effectively, sub-accounts that link individual users back to the exchange’s bank account – can still use them for deposit and withdrawal services, the report adds.
Bithumb reportedly said it has a “consensus” with Nonghyup Bank on the renewal of the contract and is “planning to iron out our different views on some legal expressions and start issuing virtual accounts soon.”
Should a final agreement not be reached, Business Korea states that Bithumb can still collect service customer deposits and withdrawals through what’s called a “hive account,” though the option would be far less convenient for users.
Alongside the more negative news for the exchange, it also announced Thursday that deposits and withdrawals in 10 cryptocurrencies will be reinstated this coming Saturday, including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and XRP. The platform said the move comes after it had completed security checks and improvements after the June breach.
It further noted that, after observing a 10 percent disparity between prices on Bithumb and those on external exchanges, it will delay reinstating services for another batch of cryptocurrencies until prices stabilize.
South Korean regulators mandated the use of so-called real-name virtual accounts from the end of January over fears that the anonymous accounts permitted previously provided greater risk of money laundering.
Following recent hacks and other issues, the country is also moving to further regulate crypto exchanges, with a number of new bills being prepared by lawmakers across the political spectrum.
On July 26, an executive at the Financial Services Commission called on politicians to pass a bill regulating cryptocurrency exchanges “as soon as possible.”
Bithumb image via Shutterstock | {
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The 2017 Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses is underway this weekend at the Freeman Coliseum and Expo Hall in San Antonio where 18,400 Witnesses have gathered for one of 481 such meetings across the United States – all with identical schedules, timing, preaching, lectures, teaching sessions, and videos.
With the theme of “Don’t Give up!” Jehovah Witness are encouraged to be strong and faithful in today’s world when hearing reports of persecution in other countries, dealing with personal struggles and life’s hardships here at home, and when meeting resistance to their evangelizing in an increasingly secular culture.
Conventions for Jehovah’s Witnesses are primarily teaching and preaching opportunities, not business sessions or a gathering for decision-making.
Research: Witnesses Highly Religious And Highly Diverse
Jehovah’s Witnesses began in late 19th century in Pennsylvania under the leadership of Charles Taze Russell and a group of students studying the Bible. Taze’s followers believed that Jesus would soon return to establish a 1,000-year era of peace on Earth and usher in a righteous social system that would eradicate poverty and inequality.
The Pew Research Center reflects that “Jehovah’s Witnesses are one of the most highly religious major U.S. religious groups. Nine-in-ten Jehovah’s Witnesses say religion is very important in their lives, say they believe in God with absolute certainty (90%) and that the Bible is the word of God (94%).”
When it comes to weekly worship, Witnesses attend at a rate of 82% versus the 39% average for all other religions in the U.S.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are the third-most most racially and ethnically diverse religious group in the U.S., according to Pew Research. No more than four-in-ten members of the group belong to any one racial and ethnic background: 36% are white, 32% are Hispanic, 27% are black, and 6% are another race or mixed race. The most ethnically diverse religious group in the U.S. is the Seventh-day Adventists, followed by Muslims.
Sheena and Michael Detroy, a local biracial couple married for 33 years, explained that the racial and cultural diversity and acceptance of the Witnesses is deeply embedded in the life of Witnesses worldwide.
“We have congregations in almost every country on Earth and our publications have been translated into 897 languages and dialects,” Michael said. “Being accepting and welcoming is at the core of who we are.”
Michael (left) and Sheena Detroy smile at one another during the 2017 Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Freeman Coliseum. Credit: Bonnie Arbittier / San Antonio Report
Facing Today’s Challenges
Witnesses have often been regarded as outside of mainstream American religion.
Early controversies involved refusal to serve in the military or refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. Witnesses remain targets of oppression in some parts of the world today, most recently in Russia. Last month, the Witnesses were designated as an extremist group and banned from operating.
Constitutional issues involving Jehovah’s Witnesses have expanded safeguards for religious liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of conscience for all religions both in the U.S. and Europe.
A major challenge for Jehovah’s Witnesses is their low retention rate relative to other U.S. religious groups.
Among all U.S. adults who were raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses, two-thirds or 75% no longer identify with the group. By contrast those who were raised as evangelical Protestants (65%), Mormons (64%), Jews (74%), and Muslims (77%) still say they are members of those respective groups. On the flip side, about two-thirds of adult Jehovah’s Witnesses are converts.
A large crowd gathers in the Freeman Coliseum for the 2017 Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Credit: Bonnie Arbittier / San Antonio Report
Jehovah’s Witnesses have the widest gender gap of any denomination. Roughly two-thirds are women. This gender gap is particularly large in the context of U.S. Christian groups. For instance, 54% of U.S. Catholics are women.
Compared with other U.S. religious groups, Jehovah’s Witnesses tend to be less educated, according to Pew. A solid majority, 63%, of adult Jehovah’s Witnesses have no more than a high school diploma, compared with, for example, 43% of evangelical Protestants and 37% of mainline Protestants.
Some consider the Jehovah Witnesses’ preponderance of women, the lower education levels, and the ethnic diversity encompassing marginalized peoples to be a direct reflection of the earliest days of Christianity which spread primarily in urban areas and Roman cities among women, slaves, the disenfranchised poor and non-citizens in the Empire.
But Jehovah’s Witnesses also adhere to conservative positions on social issues. Three-quarters say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases and say that homosexuality should be discouraged by society. Almost 75% of Witnesses also reject evolution, saying humans have always existed in their present form since the beginning of time.
Michael Detroy, who is one of the media spokespersons for the convention, says that the strict moral code of their faith is sometimes unacceptable to many in a world that sees biblical morality as antiquated. “We take what we believe the Bible teaches very seriously,” he said.
Ken Williams is an overseer who travels among the Kingdom Halls through the area. There are more than 100 congregations in the San Antonio area including Korean, Vietnamese, French, Russian, as well as English and Spanish-speaking communities.
Ken Williams speaks to the audience at the 2017 Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Credit: Bonnie Arbittier / San Antonio Report
“My role is to go from community to community to preach and to encourage and uplift our sisters and brothers,” Williams said. “When I started witnessing 35 years ago, this was a different world. Back then most people had some exposure to the Bible and religion. Today we encounter countless people who have never been exposed to faith of Jehovah’s word in the Bible.
“Even harder is that in the past people might be indifferent to faith and the Bible, but today we often encounter open hostility,” Williams said. “But then, so did Jesus in His day. We need Jesus’ strength and perseverance, regardless of what it will cost us personally.”
Message To The Faithful: ‘Don’t Give Up!’
The need to persevere strikes home for Bob Jones, 69, who is now legally blind. The onset of his blindness began in 1999. Less than four months later his wife died, leaving Jones to care for a 7-year-old son and 81-year-old father.
“I certainly could not have done what I needed to do without the strength that came to me from Jehovah,” Jones said. “But I don’t think I could have done it without the strength and faithfulness of the Jehovah Witness community standing there with me every day. They were right there when I needed anything, especially getting around because I couldn’t drive.”
The Gaffney family from San Antonio heard the inspiration and support they most need to persevere in their ministry of witnessing the Gospel to others because that has become the focus of their lives individually and as a family.
(From left) Mike, Sky, and Gloria Gaffney share a laugh during the 2017 Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Credit: Bonnie Arbittier / San Antonio Report
“I gave up a successful aerospace career so that we could simplify our lives, focus on raising our daughter, and devote ourselves to preaching Jehovah’s words in the Bible, Gloria Gaffney said. “It is hard, but that is our calling. We need the support of our faith and our faith community.”
Sky Gaffney, 15, spoke of the joy she receives by sharing her faith with other teens and how close it brings her to her peers. Her greatest excitement comes from witnessing in different languages. Sky says that she has developed enough proficiency in Vietnamese to assist native speakers who are evangelizing the community.
“Plus we have translation apps on our smart phones and tablets that can help us talk to just about anyone,” Sky added.
“We chose our career and our lifestyle in a way that it will support our ministry,” Mike Gaffney said. “I still have my aerospace job, but we live as we should and as the Bible teaches. Through our faith we learned to simplify our lives and to focus on what Jehovah wants for us.”
All three members of the Gaffney family are Jehovah Witness pioneers. Being a pioneer means committing to at least 70 hours of public witnessing per month.
Membership in Jehovah’s Witnesses
Witnesses worship in religious services that include Scripture reading, preaching, and song. They gather as a congregation in “Kingdom Halls,” buildings that look small conference centers rather than traditional religious edifices. The inside of a typical Kingdom Hall is simple, with little adornment – usually just a podium for speakers and chairs for the congregation.
A full member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious denomination is called a publisher. The baptized publishers are the members who go door-to-door to explain their faith or are often seen distributing religious reading material in public venues. Publishers “witness” to others in both public and private settings.
There are both baptized and unbaptized publishers.
Unbaptized publishers are prospective members engaged in a study program and who participate in public witnessing to determine if they want to fully join. Public witnessing, considered an essential ministry, is highly encouraged and expected, but not required by doctrine for salvation.
Those seeking to learn about the Witnesses are “interested persons.”
“We welcome anyone to join our worship services and sit in on our education sessions at any time,” Michael Detroy said. “We are completely open and transparent. Come to any of our Kingdom Halls to get to know us.”
Baptisms Bring Excitement and Fulfillment
Public baptisms at the convention began just after noon during the Saturday sessions. Jehovah Witnesses practice full immersion baptism in which the candidate for baptism is fully immersed under water by a minister who performs the ritual.
Prior to the baptism the candidates must affirm that they have repented of their sins and dedicate themselves to do the will of Jehovah. They also must state they understand that their baptism identifies them as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in association with God’s spirit-directed organization.
“This is the most exciting and awesome day of my life,” said Shane Johnson, 25. “I’m dedicating my whole life to Jehovah, I’m dedicating myself to Him. I have been studying and preparing for over a year.” | {
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Former National Security Adviser and documented liar Susan Rice complained on Sunday that President Donald Trump did not inform former President Barack Obama about the raid in which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed.
“Well obviously it’s a major milestone and it’s one that we all should be welcoming quite plainly, but it doesn’t mean that the fight against ISIS is over. And it doesn’t mean that we can declare mission accomplished, and just walk away,” Rice said. “What we’ve seen time and time again in this part of the world is that when the pressure is relieved on terrorist organizations, whether al-Qaeda or ISIS, they are able to reconstitute. So we need to be vigilant. We need to maintain a minimal presence in order to ensure that the pressure stays on ISIS and they don’t come back roaring.”
“Do you know, was President Obama informed of the death of al-Baghdadi by the administration?” Brennan asked.
“There’s no reason why I should know. There is a tradition of common courtesy of presidents informing their predecessors of things of significance like this,” Rice responded. “Since the White House seemingly didn’t feel it necessary to inform the leadership of the intelligence committees on a bipartisan basis, I’m quite confident that they didn’t do the normal protocol with respect to predecessors either.”
Rice continued by saying that Trump should have informed Obama “as a matter of courtesy,” despite the fact that Obama holds no power in government anymore and was not needed for any of the decision-making that went into authorizing the raid to get al-Baghdadi.
WATCH:
.@AmbassadorRice on @realDonaldTrump ‘s announcement that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid conducted by U.S. special forces: “it doesn’t mean the fight against ISIS is over.” pic.twitter.com/PJiSmhQpOL — Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 27, 2019
Rice has been in the news recently after appearing on a far-left podcast where she repeatedly called Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) a “piece of s**t.”
“Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice called Senator Lindsey Graham a piece of s*** during the recording of a podcast episode,” The Daily Mail reported. “The short clip shows Rice’s outburst as a preview for this week’s episode of ‘Pod Save the World,’ where the panel discuss the 2012 Benghazi controversy.”
“He’s been a piece of s***,” Rice said. “I said it, I said it, da s***. Finally. He’s a piece of s***.”
“In the weeks immediately after the [Benghazi] attack, Republicans, often led by Lindsey Graham, accused Rice, who was U.S. Ambassador to the UN at the time, of ‘misleading the public’ with her representation of the situation,” The Daily Mail added. “Rice had claimed that the jihadist military action was not premeditated and told the public that the attack had evolved from a protest. This was all later found to be false. “
Graham responded to Rice last week on Fox News, saying, “Everything she touched turned to a piece of crap, national security-wise. It does bother me that the person who lied about Benghazi is still relevant. Here’s her greatest hits: The Iran nuclear deal, withdrawal from Iraq, the rise of ISIS. At the end of the day, the Rwanda genocide, the Syrian red line. The bottom line is I hope the American people will remember that it’s Susan Rice and Barack Obama who brought you ISIS, who gave the Ayatollah $150 billion, and at the end of the day, if she doesn’t like me, I must be doing something right.”
WATCH: | {
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President Trump tagged an account that has made several references to the QAnon conspiracy theory in a tweet calling for stronger election security through the use of voter ID.
“We should immediately pass Voter ID @Voteridplease to insure the safety and sanctity of our voting system. Also, Paper Ballots as backup (old fashioned but true!). Thank you!” the president tweeted.
The account @voteridplease the president tagged has tweeted and retweeted the #QANON conspiracy theory, an unsupported claim that there is a “deep state” against Mr. Trump and his supporters and the existence of a Democratic-run pedophilia ring.
The theory originated on the message board 4chan but gained notoriety after Trump rally attendees held up signs in 2018 promoting the theory.
The QAnon conspiracy is also suspected to be tied to a D.C. shooting Comet Ping Pong, where a man fired three shots with an AR-15 in the restaurant after the gunman read a viral theory that listed the eatery as harboring child sex slaves.
The president has claimed voter fraud several times without any evidence, alleging he lost his popular vote loss because of illegal immigrants and said during a conference last week that people were voting two or three times as a “rigged deal.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly called for increased voter ID laws, which critics say would result in fewer individuals of color from voting.
The Republican Party has faced criticism recently over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refusing to bring election security bills up for a vote, claiming the bills were partisan.
When media outlets accused him of treason and being a “Russian asset,” he called himself a victim of “modern-day McCarthyism.”
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
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Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. | {
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Repackaging political problems without actually solving them is emerging as a hallmark of Scott Morrison’s brief prime ministership.
Last week it was a “Climate Solutions Fund” to badge a policy that in fact was not coming up with any new – let alone meaningful – solutions to our rising greenhouse gas emissions.
This week it is a record number of seven women in his cabinet, topping Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd’s achievement of six female senior ministers.
On his way to announcing Western Sydney Airport would be named after a woman aviator – the illustrious Nancy-Bird Walton – the prime minister boasted to the media that his weekend appointment of Linda Reynolds to his cabinet gives the “highest number of women ever in a federal cabinet in Australia”.
“That is something a Liberal/National government has delivered and it is something I would certainly continue should we be successful on the other side of the election,” Mr Morrison said.
The proud boast left one of his long-serving backbenchers unimpressed.
“Wow,” he said.
“Twenty per cent of our parliamentarians are women and we think we can cover it by having 33 per cent of cabinet female.”
By contrast, 46 per cent of Labor’s federal politicians are women and it is set to reach 50 per cent at the election. Its quota system ensures women are preselected not only in marginal but also safer seats.
One of the PM’s closest allies, Special Minister of State Alex Hawke, says this dearth of female representation is a “huge problem” for the party.
Mr Hawke told the Nine papers: “We will suffer as a political movement if we don’t get serious about electing women.”
Mr Hawke’s timing coincided with the Liberals’ highest-profile woman, Julie Bishop hitting out at the men in the party who blocked her run for the leadership even though she was in the best position “to beat Bill Shorten”.
This was a point Labor’s deputy leader Tanya Plibersek pounced on.
“Julie Bishop consistently rated above the blokes, but the blokes couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Julie Bishop,” Ms Plibersek said.
Repackaging is a time-honoured technique for advertising agencies when their clients are looking for new ways to sell their old product.
By marketing himself as a record-breaking nominator of women to his inner circle, Mr Morrison is aiming to at least neutralise Labor’s hard-won quota-driven advantage.
For that to work he will be hoping no one will notice that even at 33 per cent in cabinet, he still hasn’t achieved 50 per cent.
It’s a bit like trying to sell “clean coal,” that was suggested by a lobbyist to his coal conglomerate client a decade ago. An oxymoron that has obviously failed to fly.
One fundamental issue Mr Morrison is struggling to deal with is the turmoil the Liberals have delivered in their six years of government.
Ms Bishop is even more unforgiving, blaming senior ministers Peter Dutton and Mathias Cormann for an unexplained assault on Mr Turnbull “causing enormous instability within the Liberal Party”.
Mr Morrison at the weekend tried to ignore that by attacking Mr Shorten for not naming who his home affairs minister would be.
Mr Shorten’s comeback was devastating: “This current prime minister can’t guarantee from one week to the next who will be in cabinet.”
He said they have had 22 reshuffles since they were elected.
Putting lipstick on this pig is a very hard ask. In five years the government has had three prime ministers, three deputy prime ministers, four treasurers and four defence ministers.
It is hard to disagree with Mr Shorten that this is a revolving door government. | {
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ALLENDALE, MI - Grand Valley State University is exploring the possibility of providing a sex assault nurse examiner on campus for students, part of ongoing discussions college staff began last week with Ottawa County's prosecutor and sheriff.
Adding the rape kit services - a vital step in preserving evidence after a sex assault - in a place that's close to students was one of four areas the parties agreed to continue discussing after a 90-minute meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
Right now, the closest exam site to the Allendale campus is the YWCA Nurse Examiner's Program in Grand Rapids, in neighboring Kent County.
This recent discussion came after Prosecutor Ron Frantz last month criticized GVSU, saying the school was discouraging prompt reporting of sex assaults by not having a greater sense of urgency when dealing with student victims.
Frantz has said it sometimes takes weeks or months before sex assault cases reported to GVSU staff land at his office. This time lag creates missed opportunities to gather immediate evidence - such as a rape kit - that could lead to successful prosecutions.
"The meeting was important, constructive, and very helpful," said Jesse Bernal, vice president for the division of inclusion and equity at GVSU, one of five staffers at the meeting.
"The meeting provided clarity on our various practices and procedures and the complex dynamics of both overlapping and distinct requirements for each of our areas."
Questions about how sex assaults are reported and prosecuted arose after four off-campus rapes this semester, and another four were reported on-campus this year. No arrests have been made by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department in the off-campus rapes. Of the on-campus rape reports, GVSU police said none were forwarded to Frantz's office for prosecution.
GVSU President Thomas Haas and staff have reiterated the university takes a victim-centered approach to sexual assault, encouraging reporting but allowing the victim to decide when, and if, to talk to police.
If sex assault victims do want to preserve evidence of a crime, rape kits are essential. They're also time-sensitive. Documentation of injuries and collection of DNA evidence need to be done within 120 hours or five days of an assault, the limit for such a forensic exam under state law.
Bernal said GVSU is reviewing its "victim-centered and trauma-informed best practices." The school and authorities are working to make the investigative process a priority, while simultaneously maintaining its prioritizing victims and survivors.
Ottawa County Sheriff Gary Rosema and Frantz agree with GVSU that the meeting at the Ottawa County Administrative Building was helpful. They were joined by Jennifer Kuiper-Weise, assistant prosecuting attorney, Ottawa County Sheriff's Capt.Mark Bennett and Services Capt. Valerie Weiss.
"Our meeting was productive," Frantz said. "We collectively agreed on several areas of emphasis and continued discussion.''
Besides the nurse examiner services, the other three subject areas of discussion were:
• Ongoing and renewed emphasis on the timely preservation of evidence through the nurse examiner's program.
• Expanding on sexual assault response team training among the GVSU Police Department, the college's Women's Center and Title IX office, the sheriff, the prosecutor and other local agencies that do anti-violence work.
• Establish a multi-agency task force that would meet regularly to discuss incidents, investigations, and best practices toward improving the readiness for prosecution of sexual assault cases when victims choose to involve law enforcement.
Bernal said the task force was only discussed in concept, and details have not been confirmed but are in process. He said the sheriff's department already serves in their Sexual Misconduct and Assault Response Team (SMART) and initial discussions are to invite representatives from the prosecutor's office to join.
SMART reviews specific cases while also looking holistically at practices, trends and policy.
"We remain committed with our resources to work with GVSU in making these cases a priority," said Rosema, who also characterized the meeting as productive.
"The focus remained on the victim, the GVSU community and the Allendale community as well. All this with making the investigative process a priority in an effort to bring resolution to cases and identifying those responsible."
Grand Valley Police Chief Renee Freeman, who attended the meeting, said GVSU is committed to addressing sexual assault from a victim-centered approach while maintaining the integrity of a solid and thorough investigation.
"We urge early reporting, which affords us an opportunity to gather information, preserve evidence and prepare for successful prosecution, should a victim-survivor choose to do so,'' she said.
Besides Freeman and Bernal, the other GVSU staff present for the meeting included: Matt McLogan, vice president for university relations; Marlene Kowalksi-Braun, associate vice provost for student affairs and assistant vice president for inclusion and equity; and Tom Butcher, GVSU counsel. | {
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やはり官邸、文科省そしてマスコミによる出来レースだったのか・・・そう断じざるを得ない答弁が文科官僚の口から飛び出した。加計学園・岡山理科大学今治獣医学部の認可の件である。
立憲民主党がきょう、国会内で文科省、内閣府などから加計疑惑についてヒアリングした。
焦点となったのは「2日に文科省の大学設置審が開かれ、今治獣医学部の設置が了とされた」「設置審は10日、開設を認める答申を林芳正大臣にする」というマスコミ報道だ。
立憲民主党の議員たちが「2日に設置審が開かれた事実はあるのか？」と質問すると、文科官僚は「お答えできない」とした。「設置審の議論の内容や日程は公表できない」と理由を説明した。
ところが、ほとんどのマスコミは「2日に設置審が開かれ、10日に認可を答申」と報道している。真っ先に伝えたのはNHKである。
疑惑追及チーム座長（就任予定）逢坂誠二議員によれば、これまで設置審の答申は “しばり” 付きでマスコミに事前説明していた。そして発表の日時になったらマスコミは一斉に報道するのである。
逢坂議員が重ねて文科官僚を追及した。「加計学園の認可も “しばり” をかけて発表する予定はあるのか？」
文科省・安井順一郎大学設置室長「今後調整する」
逢坂議員「なぜ？」
安井室長「マスコミと調整しながら日程をやらなければならない」。
逢坂議員は激怒し声を荒げた。「国会に言う前にそういうこと（マスコミへの事前発表）をやるのか？」
会場は凍りついた。野党議員には「2日に開いた」とも、「10日に認可の答申をする」とも言わないのに、マスコミには事前に知らせるのである。記者クラブの面々は鼻白んでいた。
「選挙が終わったらモリカケは沙汰やみになるとマスコミが言ってる」。選挙直前にメディア出身の議員が話していた通りの展開となりつつある。
新聞社とテレビ局は軽減税率の適用とテレビ電波割り当ての独占で政府に急所を握られている。
「10日に認可の答申があったら、そこまでは報道していいからね。その後は言わなくても分かっているだろうね」。官邸からこう言われたら、新聞・テレビはグウの音も出ない。
～終わり～
◇
『【総選挙・写真集】大義を貫いた候補者たち』
を発表しました。https://note.mu/tanakaryusaku から入って下さい。「沖縄の高江・辺野古」「ソウル」「ガザ」の戦いも写真で記録しています。 | {
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The Central Europeans have essentially refused to take migrants or refugees, rejecting the idea of quotas to help reception countries like Greece and Italy. The leaders of the four main countries of Central Europe — Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — have not even been invited to the Sunday meeting. And it was only with great trouble that Ms. Merkel convinced the new Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, to come after he objected to an early draft of proposals made by the commission.
While the numbers of asylum seekers are way down, the long crisis still threatens one of the European Union’s greatest accomplishments, the “border-free” Schengen zone.
Countries have set up “emergency” border checks within the Schengen zone to block uncontrolled flow of migrants and possible terrorists, but those border controls are unlikely to be lifted. Mr. Seehofer’s desire to stop registered migrants from entering Germany would effectively mean setting up extensive new border controls with Austria, now run by a government in coalition with populists that also has decried uncontrolled migration.
But this is where anti-migrant policy, populism and nationalism create confused and sometimes contradictory positions. The border would antagonize both Austria and the new populist, anti-migrant government in Italy because it would stall migrants in Austria and mean sending back large numbers to Italy, where many migrants first registered. Having taken in some 650,000 boat migrants in the last five years, Rome objects to the idea of asylum seekers having to be returned to the country where they first registered.
Mrs. Merkel also fears that such a border would be copied by other countries within Schengen, effectively destroying it, perhaps forever. That is why she is trying to find a broader European solution, even if a temporary one.
But the tone is hardening generally toward migrants in Europe, with politicians of many stripes demanding better control over the bloc’s external borders, including as many as 10,000 more European border police. Yet no country seems eager to pay more into the European Union budget to cover the costs.
Hubert Védrine, a former French foreign minister and a Socialist, said recently that “populism is a measure of the failure of elites” to understand that “people want to retain an important level of identity, sovereignty and autonomy — and that means controlling migration.” Speaking at a meeting at the Château de Tocqueville, where Alexis de Tocqueville wrote “Democracy in America,” Mr. Védrine warned that if “migratory flows” are not controlled, “our democracy is at risk, and we will have populism or a form of European Trumpism, country by country.”
Ms. Merkel is also working on bilateral agreements with partners like Italy and Greece to reduce the burden on Germany, possibly similar to the deal struck with Turkey two years ago. She will also discuss the issue with Spain’s new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, on Tuesday in Berlin. Spain displayed a kind of European solidarity when it agreed to accept the more than 600 migrants on a ship, the Aquarius, that the Italians turned away. | {
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We’ve Moved!!!!
Come check us out at http://www.KeegansList.com
And the 2017 SXSW RSVP List will be Posted at http://www.KeegansList.com/SXSW
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Federal immigration agents have joined the search for the suspect in a fatal hit-and-run that left a Knoxville woman dead last week.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is assisting in the search for 54-year-old Juan Francisco, ICE spokesman Bryan Cox confirmed Tuesday.
Knoxville police have identified Francisco as the suspect who struck and killed Debbie Burgess, 52, as she walked along Pleasant Ridge Road near the Custom Foods of America plant June 8.
Authorities have active arrest warrants for Francisco on charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident.
The suspect's local criminal history includes a DUI conviction in 2017.
He also was convicted of theft in 2002 for forging another man's name on a Tennessee driver's license and Social Security card while working a local landscaping company, according to an arrest warrant. The warrant identifies Francisco as an undocumented immigrant.
Cox said Wednesday that Francisco's immigration status has not changed in the years since.
Related:ICE: Driver accused in Pierce Corcoran death has been deported
In 2004, Francisco was charged with driving without a valid license. That arrest warrant notes he had a Guatemala driver's license at the time, but no permit to drive in the U.S. The violation was retired in 2010.
Anyone with information on Francisco's whereabouts is asked to call the Knoxville Police Department's crime hotline at 865-215-7212. | {
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“I look in the mirror and it just isn’t me. I’ll never look the same again. I’ve always been outgoing and confident in my job and in my personal life, used to getting attention for the way I dress or my hair, but now I don’t want anyone looking at me,” she told the Evening Standard. | {
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FOF #1830 – Lady Bunny is on Top of the World
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Always opinionated and outrageous– everybody loves the she-larious Lady Bunny for creating Wigstock, her raunchy parody song videos and her unabashed celebrity roasts.
Today the queen of obscene, Lady Bunny, joins us to talk about her favorite types of music, why drag queens steal her material and RuPaul’s “prairie drag look” she wears at her soulmate George’s ranch in Wyoming. | {
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If I wanted to know what happened on Dancing With The Stars Wouldn't I Just watch dancing with the Stars?
418 shares | {
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A far-right, viciously antisemitic website that made headlines last November when it was revealed to have received media accreditation from the White House has been kicked off the YouTube platform.
TruNews, founded by Pastor Rick Wiles, was permanently banned from YouTube on Thursday, after repeatedly violating the website’s rules regarding hate speech.
US Jewish leaders welcomed the ban on the outlet, which actively promotes a diet of Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Jonathan Greenblatt — CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — said on Twitter that he hoped other social media platforms would follow YouTube’s example by removing TruNews-related accounts.
Related coverage White House Says Five More Countries Seriously Considering Israel Deals White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Thursday that five more countries are seriously considering striking a normalization...
Wiles infamously let rip against what he called a “Jew coup” on his talk show last November, as impeachment proceedings against US President Donald Trump were launched in Congress.
Wiles raved: “That’s the way the Jews work, they are deceivers, they plot, they lie, they do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda.”
He continued: “People are going to be forced, possibly by this Christmas, to take a stand because of this Jew coup in the United States. There will be a purge. That’s the next thing that happens when Jews take over a country, they kill millions of Christians.”
The White House has consistently denied that it had provided TruNews with press credentials. | {
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Watch Vanderbilt Commodores Vs Georgia Bulldogs Live Stream
When: Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET
Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET Where: Vanderbilt Stadium, Tennessee
Vanderbilt lost both of their matches to Georgia last season, on scores of 14-45 and 13-41, so they’re hoping to turn the tables this season. Vanderbilt and Georgia are opening their 2019 seasons against one another at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium. Last year was nothing to brag about for Vanderbilt (6-7), so the team is looking forward to a new start. On the other hand, after an 11-3 record last year and an appearance in the Sugar Bowl, Georgia is coming in with an eye to spark another quality season.
A couple numbers to keep in mind before kickoff: Vanderbilt threw only six interceptions last season, the 14th best among all teams in the nation. As for Georgia, they threw only six interceptions last season, too. So expect both teams to feel comfortable airing the ball out.
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Was school good for me? I do believe so.
There are some very positive values that were inculcated in me through the way the teachers dealt with us, the stories we were told, the structure of the school: compassion, gratitude, sharing, discipline, respect, charity, hope, love.
The 3 Worst Things We Learned As Children
However, there are some aspects that get deeply driven in to us as children that I don’t think are helpful to our productive adult life:
Conformity – Society crushes the outsiders, school is brutal on those who are outside the “norm”, grades push you to meet the pre-existing answer – not explore other options. Most of life’s important decisions can not be calculated in an excel spreadsheet and solved with calculus.
– Society crushes the outsiders, school is brutal on those who are outside the “norm”, grades push you to meet the pre-existing answer – not explore other options. Most of life’s important decisions can not be calculated in an excel spreadsheet and solved with calculus. Perfectionism – “Don’t make mistakes!” is reinforced day after day after day by the exam and school work feedback that we receive over years and years.
– “Don’t make mistakes!” is reinforced day after day after day by the exam and school work feedback that we receive over years and years. Validation – “how did you do on the exam?” “I don’t know, I haven’t received the results yet.” We learn to stop looking at how much of our potential we delivered into a course, a project, a homework – and start to only evaluate our performance based on someone else’s judgement of our finished work. I know whether I gave 10% or 50% or 90% of myself to a piece of work – this should matter more than A, B or C.
Leadership requires breaking free from these 3 things. Great leaders don’t seek external validation (No: “how did I do?”), understand that mistakes allow improvement (No: “who screwed this up?”) and that diverse people and diverse ideas (No: “that will never work!”) need to be brought together to see more fully the paths that are available.
Your School?
What are the important values that you took from your schooling? What are the attitudes that do not serve you that were conditioned by school?
Further Reading: Posts on Schooling and Learning | {
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Lonestar and Barf
we're not doing this for emotions
we're doing it for a poopload of emotions!
these captions aren't guaranteed to be correct | {
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UNC Chancellor Carol Folt intends to release a message later this morning when there is more information, according to the release.
The victims are Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, of Chapel Hill; Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, of Chapel Hill; and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh.
Police have charged Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, of Chapel Hill, with three counts of first degree murder. Hicks is being held in the Durham County Jail.
The clock ticks to 7:42 p.m. Another woman breaks down after inquiring from police about her daughter and son-in-law.
At 8:05 p.m., a father screams, “It’s been hours! Just tell me if he’s alive!”
At 8:28 p.m., an uncle runs toward officers, begging for information about his nephew.
These were the scenes on Summerwalk Circle in Chapel Hill Tuesday night as police responded to a triple homicide at Finley Forest Condominiums.
Officers responded to a call about gunshots in the complex at 5:11 p.m. They discovered three victims, who were pronounced dead at the scene.
Chapel Hill police questioned a person of interest Tuesday night and did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the public, according to a press release from the department.
At press time, police hadn’t released any identifying information about the three victims or the person in custody.
With little information available, officers patrolling the street could only direct distraught family members to the complex’s clubhouse and try to keep things under control.
“We just have to calm them down the best way we can,” said Officer Ron Telfair.
Telfair said the police department’s investigations team was responsible for notifying family members of those involved in the incident.
Even neighbors who were home at the time of the shooting have no answers from police.
Kristen Boling, a UNC psychology student who lives in the building where the shooting occurred, said she arrived home at 3:45 p.m. but didn’t hear or see anything until police arrived on the scene.
“It was a regular day when I got off the bus,” she said. “Now it’s chaos and confusion and they’re not telling us what’s going on.”
Another Finley Forest resident, Bethany Boring, said she didn’t expect something like this to happen in her neighborhood.
“It’s a really quiet community, a lot of graduate students, professionals and families,” she said. “I thought it was pretty safe.”
By 9 p.m., the dark street, lit only by flashing blue and orange police lights, was empty except for four police officers and a few lingering reporters.
Lt. Josh Mecimore, a spokesman for Chapel Hill police, said no more information would be available until Wednesday.
The University made counseling services available overnight. Students can call 919-966-3658 during regular business hours.
“We know many of you may be feeling unsettled by this news,” an Alert Carolina message said.
[email protected]
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Toronto
It’s the height of ugly fiction to call Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “white supremacist.”
But it’s not the first low blow from Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLMTO) co-founder Yusra Khogali’s sometimes loud and offensive mouth.
First, there was her infamous tweet: “Plz Allah give me strength to not cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today. Plz plz plz.”
Then there was a two-week sit-in at police headquarters to protest “racist” Toronto officers. Next — with friends — she was demonstrating outside of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s home.
Not long after that came the BLM sit-down in which protesters blocked Toronto’s Pride Parade while demanding organizers ban police officers from participating in the event.
Furey: It's time to talk about the hateful alt-left
However, her performance outside the United States Consulate on University Ave. on Saturday has many wondering what’s next?
“There was a hashtag that went viral on social media saying we needed to pray for Quebec City,” yelled Khogali. “Quebec City is a white supremacist settler colony.”
Pathetic.
Especially, since tens of thousands of bereaved people took to the streets in solidarity and in absolute outrage and disgust over the beyond-the-pale slaughter — allegedly by a white French-Canadian man — of six innocent people at a mosque.
But this was smear time.
“When Justin Trudeau responded to the Muslim ban, that this white supremacist coward Donald Trump put forward, what did Justin Trudeau say? He said he wanted to let everybody who is not allowed into the U.S. border in to Canada,” said Khogali.
“We know what that manipulation is. It is what this country is founded on — erasing and silencing of the real history of this land. Enslavement and genocide of black people in which this state is founded on.”
Khogali also yelled Trudeau “is a liar, he is a hypocrite, he is a white supremacist terrorist. That is what he is.”
As Canada’s prime minister, Trudeau has focused on bringing in refugees and helping countries around the world with tax-funded handouts. As someone wanting peace, he is the exact opposite of what she alleges.
No one in authority seems to have the guts to condemn the University of Toronto student’s hateful and threatening words. However, it is interesting that at the same rally, a man before the courts on previous hate-related charges was handcuffed and arrested “for his own safety” for making comments critical of Islam and immigration.
Meanwhile, Khogali seems to be able to do and say whatever she wants.
She’s entitled to her free speech but with there having been 80 homicides since January 2016, politicians, police and authorities should stop kissing her ring.
She, and BLMTO, don’t seem to protest or rail against the dozens of black people murdered by black people while the people they criticize work around the clock on that very issue.
Still, while this protest movement continues to use their vile tactics, so many seem to be afraid to confront or gain face time with its leaders. BLMTO even won a City of Toronto-affiliated William P. Hubbard Award for being “committed to eradicating all forms of anti-black racism, supporting black healing and liberating black communities.”
Sad when there are so many legitimate people actually working on this very issue.
Giving BLMTO a pat on the back sends out the message that it is not only OK to go to the premier’s house, temporarily halt one of our most important summer events, tweet threats, disparage police, and call the prime minister a racist terrorist, but that it’s all acceptable.
The award should be revoked. There should be no more invitations to meet with leaders.
The irrelevant movement should be declared hostile and its protesters should be left to cling to the fringes and be held accountable like everybody else.
[email protected] | {
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Le #5 des « Livrets de la France insoumise » aborde le thème du numérique. Il a été préparé par un groupe de travail animé par Enora Naour, étudiante, Matthieu Faure, docteur en informatique. Thomas Champigny, ingénieur R&D en informatique, en était le rapporteur.
Il a été diffusé à l’heure où les grandes multinationales du numérique évitent l’impôt et où certains constituent des grands fichiers de données personnelles des gens honnêtes (fichier TES).
Pour nous faire part de vos remarques sur le document, suggérer un évènement de campagne thématique, merci d’écrire à l’adresse suivante :
[email protected] | {
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But that’s not accurate. Trump Jr. declined to be interviewed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about the Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer – the only campaign official who did so. That fact is in the Mueller report, and it is immediately followed by a redaction for grand jury material. Based on my prosecutorial experience, I believe it’s a reasonable surmise that the redacted material concerns Trump Jr.'s saying that he planned to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify before a grand jury.
AD
AD
Trump Jr.’s stance was of a piece with his father’s: trumpet full cooperation with the probe even while doggedly, and successfully, eluding all efforts to have him testify or even speak cooperatively with the special counsel.
Current reports are that Trump Jr. intends again to rebuff the committee by invoking the Fifth Amendment. That is of course his right, but only on the ground that his truthful answers would tend to incriminate him, not as a form of crass political resistance. Of course, if he truly believes the truth would incriminate him here, that puts his fine fury in a different light.
The second tenet: Claim there is no legitimate law-enforcement or congressional oversight, only politically motivated harassment of the other party.
AD
Thus, the exasperation and surprise because it was the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee that issued the subpoena -- which prompted a fierce and nakedly political pushback from the Trump political machine. A senior adviser to the president’s reelection campaign tweeted to the committee chair, Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who is retiring in 2022: “I’m sure that you and your non-retiring colleagues are going to put an end to this embarrassment now.” And Trump allies in the Senate jumped all over Burr while threatening other Republicans with election challenges if they supported him.
AD
The third tenet: The normal rules of citizenship and public responsibility do not apply. The committee’s position is that Trump Jr., who has previously been questioned only by committee staffers, always knew he was subject to being recalled for questioning by senators themselves. That’s similar to what happened with Jared Kushner, who was interviewed in July, then appeared without fanfare for a closed-door session in March.
And a recall became particularly exigent once a later witness -- Michael Cohen -- testified in conflict with the younger Trump. Yet Trump Jr. resisted cooperation over weeks of negotiation before the subpoena was issued.
AD
Like his father, Trump Jr. has zero regard for the public need for his testimony. The Intelligence Committee is not merely duplicating Mueller’s work, which was fundamentally a criminal probe. The Senate’s lookout is, as committee member Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) explained, “an intelligence investigation about the Russia threat and about the way our agencies performed.” It is arrogant of Trump Jr. to treat that vital work as an irritant he can ignore.
AD
Furthermore, whether Trump Jr. lied in his prior testimony is an entirely legitimate and important topic for any congressional investigation. That brings us to the fourth tenet: Lies don’t matter. Trump Jr.’s exasperation is particularly shameless if he previously gave a false account to Congress, as well as to the American people, in his accounts of the Trump Tower meeting. (Remember how they said it was all about the Magnitsky Act and adoptions from Russia, until inculpatory emails emerged?) That possibility is sufficiently concrete to merit further investigation.
The fifth and final page from the Trump playbook: profess outrage, however brazenly, and attack the good faith of the investigators at every turn. As with the president’s attacks on Mueller and the upper echelons of the FBI, party affiliation, reputation for integrity, and legitimacy of the inquiry are all of no moment: any effort even to question the probity of a Trump must be borne of deep-state corruption.
AD
With the acquiescence of Republicans in Congress, who know that it is not true, that toxic party line has worked surprisingly well. But it may not be enough to close the books on Trump Jr. | {
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"I am not a hero," he said in the bedside interview with New York reporters. "I would have done what any other person would have done, but he picked me. I'm glad he picked me. There were a lot of women and children on the train who couldn't defend themselves. He picked me and instinct kicked in." | {
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The golfer who wins The Open Championship on Sunday at Royal Birkdale will get the Claret Jug. He’ll also take home $1.845 million in prize money out of a total purse of $10.25 million. That payout will come in American dollars for the first time ever.
“We are operating in an increasingly global marketplace and have made the decision to award the prize fund in US dollars in recognition of the fact that it is the most widely adopted currency for prize money in golf," R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said. He didn’t mention that the British pound is down considerably from last summer.
The $10.25 million total purse makes The Open the second-most lucrative event in golf behind the U.S. Open, which this year leapt to a $12 million total. For The Open, it’s a considerable jump from last year’s purse of $8.5 million at Royal Troon.
Golf’s biggest tournaments have engaged in an arms race for the last few years, with virtually all of them raising their purses in an effort to stay prestigious. The Open doesn’t need to pay a ton to be a huge deal, because it’s historic and the most international tournament the sport has. But some extra cash doesn’t hurt, and neither does paying it out to the players in American dollars.
The differences in prize money, as in most tournaments, are sharpest at the top of the leaderboard. The gap between the winner and the runner-up is $778,000, and it gets progressively tighter from there. The difference between Nos. 69 and 70 on the leaderboard is a just slightly more mild $200.
When players are tied in a given spot on the leaderboard, the payouts for their respective places are averaged and evenly distributed among them. Amateurs, of course, are excluded from the payroll. Here’s how the prize money breaks down for the top 70 professional finishers at the at Royal Birkdale:
1. $1,845,000
2. $1,067,000
3. $684,000
4. $532,000
5. $428,000
6. $371,000
7. $318,000
8. $268,000
9. $235,000
10. $213,000
11. $193,000
12. $172,000
13. $161,000
14. $151,000
15. $141,000
16. $129,500
17. $123,000
18. $117,000
19. $112,000
20. $107,000
21. $102,000
22. $97,000
23. $92,000
24. $87,000
25. $84,000
26. $80,000
27. $77,000
28. $74,000
29. $71,000
30. $68,000
31. $65,500
32. $62,000
33. $60,000
34. $58,000
35. $56,000
36. $53,500
37. $51,000
38. $49,000
39. $47,000
40. $45,500
41. $43,500
42. $41,500
43. $39,500
44. $37,500
45. $35,500
46. $33,500
47. $32,000
48. $30,800
49. $29,500
50. $28,900
51. $28,200
52. $27,600
53. $27,200
54. $26,800
55. $26,400
56. $26,000
57. $25,600
58. $25,500
59. $25,400
60. $25,200
61. $25,000
62. $24,900
63. $24,800
64. $24,700
65. $24,500
66. $24,400
67. $24,200
68. $24,000
69. $23,800
70. $23,600 | {
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Villagers in Tetuara village of Purulia district in West Bengal beat a leopard to death after it strayed into the village. There has never been any leopard attack or sighting near the village. In panic the villagers ran helter-skelter. People chased the leopard and locked it inside a toilet.
After the arrival of policemen and forest department, the door was opened and, as expected, panicked animal tried to defend itself, which is being called an attack. When villages begun to assault it, in retaliation, the leopard injured a couple of villagers while some others received minor injuries.
Afterwards, around 2000-3000 villagers cornered the leopard, stoned it, beat it with sticks until it was dead. There after they proceeded to their victory rally where the claws and tail were chopped and carcass was hanged from a tree.
Watch A footage from regional channel:
Once again, Indian crowd displayed extremity of cruelty against animals that did not deserve to die such brutal and painful death.
The forest department and the police failed to tranquilize the animal, rather they opened the door in unsafe way. A cage would have been placed infront of the door or perhaps a few men with a net would have captured it and safely removed from the village.
A Villager Gayaram Kumar said.
“It probably strayed into the village from the Dalma forest in Jharkhand which is about 25 km away.”
On the other hand, range officer Samir Ghosh pleaded :
“The mob was 2000-3000 strong and the police couldn’t control it, especially after the leopard injured the villagers. But we will file an FIR about the incident. We tried our best to save the animal. The police also tried. But we were just about 15 people on the spot and couldn’t help the situation.”
Cases have been filed against culprits, but the incident has shocked animal right activists and animal lovers.
The Indian government must take steps to aware village people about how to deal with such situations in such a way that no harm occur to people and to the animal. They must be educated about the man and animal conflict. The people must know that these animals are being deprived of their home. That’s why they stray into villages.
Human kind must not hate animals for they are a threat. These animals don’t kill for fun, they kill for need. It’s really a heartbreaking news. | {
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Beavers often work quite hard to build their great constructions. Unfortunately, in this way, they can really destroy a lot. In this picture is an example of the beaver’s devastation, however for me it looks stunning.
__________________________________________________________
Bobry ciężko pracują nad swoimi budowlami i w ten sposób niszczą środowisko. Na zdjęciu widać skutek “bobrowej pracy”. Gdyby bobry nie zostały sprowadzone w te okolice, wszystko wyglądałoby inaczej. Jednak muszę przyznać, że ten widok robi na mnie pozytywne wrażenie. | {
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Calls have been made for police to review CCTV after images of people dressed as Ku Klux Klan members believed to be outside an Islamic prayer house in Co Down surfaced.
Images circulating online appear to show a group dressed up as Ku Klux Klan members outside what is thought to be the local Islamic prayer house in Newtownards.
Last year a pig’s head was placed outside the same centre on Greenwell Street in the town.
Strangford MLA Kellie Armstrong branded the latest incident "disgusting" and called on police to review CCTV to identify the group.
It is understood the images were taken on Saturday night and a number of local people reported seeing the group in the town.
The Alliance MLA said: "Everyone knows exactly what the KKK stands for. The KKK represents a brand of hatred not wanted or welcome in the area. This group did not simply dress up for Halloween, rather they deliberately posed outside the prayer house in Newtownards.
"This is a clear demonstration of aggression and bullying towards one particular religion and that is a hate crime. These people were then photographed brazenly walking around Newtownards.
"I call on the PSNI to review CCTV to identify which bars this group visited. I call on all the bars in Newtownards to contact the PSNI to help identify these people. Racism, religious intolerance and bullying of a minority group is disgusting and illegal. Anyone with information should contact the PSNI by calling 101. Let's stamp out hate in our area once and for all."
The PSNI were unavailable for comment.
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John Devlin kept trying to think of a lasting way to honor his mother’s memory.
Sixteen years after Eileen Devlin’s death, everything fell into place this year, the retired Atlantic City police officer said.
Growing up in Buzby Village, the then-Eileen Dayton always struggled to get a new winter coat each year.
So, her son decided to put together a plan to get coats for kids whose families couldn’t afford them.
He got the names and sizes of kids and, bought 100 coats with donations from The Forza Insurance Group and help from the city’s former first lady, Nynell Langford, and her son Elijah, who has made it his mission to do things for the community.
On Saturday, Devlin returned to the now-empty storefront on Atlantic Avenue that his grandparents owned as Devlin’s Seafood since 1965.
It’s where his mother went to work and met his dad. It’s also downstairs from the apartment where Devlin and his five siblings grew up.
“It just all fell into place,” Devlin said. “That we got sponsorship from (insurance company owner) John D’Angelo. That Nynell did something like this a few years ago. That this spot was open.”
Devlin now hopes this can be a yearly event with help from the community.
In addition to coats, there were also some toy donations as well.
“It’s a team thing,” Devlin said. “We’re helping a lot of kids. It’s something good for the neighborhood. Something good for the kids.” | {
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WASHINGTON The first major operation launched with the additional troops ordered to Afghanistan by President Obama is devised to clear Taliban havens across a strategic southern province and then, in a marked departure from past practice, to leave clusters of Marines in small bases close to the villagers they were sent to guard and aid, according to senior military officers.
Despite the troops’ substantial numbers and firepower, the strategy is not without risks. Indeed, on Thursday, the first Marine was killed in the operation.
Image U.S. Marines waited for helicopter transport as part of an operation in Helmand Province on Thursday. Credit... Manpreet Romana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Although American and allied forces have previously swept through the province, Helmand, killing or capturing as many guerrillas as they could, often with airstrikes, the military has never before had enough ground troops to hold onto large areas that were cleared of insurgent fighters in combat operations. | {
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Ukip’s leader Gerard Batten has thrown his support behind a candidate from rival party Change UK who was criticised by Muslim community groups for her views about Islam.
Nora Mulready’s selection for the European Parliament elections was condemned as a “joke” by racism reporting service Tell MAMA and criticised by the Muslim Council of Britain.
But the remain-supporting centrist party has found an unlikely ally in arch-Brexiteer Mr Batten – who himself has been criticised for an alleged “fixation” with Islam.
The Ukip leader expressed hope that the presence of views like Ms Mulready’s in a remain-supporting party would make his own politics more acceptable in the mainstream.
“Change UK MEP candidate is apparently someone ‘with the guts to say things as they are’. That can get you called names these says,” Mr Batten said, sharing a link to an article about the row.
He added: “Maybe ‘saying things as they are’ will become more acceptable if Remainers do it. It could even catch on.”
Change UK has stood by their candidate and claims she is subject to a “smear campaign”. The party has already seen two candidates resign over racially-charged tweets since its European elections launch on Tuesday. One had suggested he would support Brexit if it stopped "Romaining pickpockets", while the other had made a series of historic offensive tweets, including one referring to a "crazy black wh***".
Ms Mulready was accused by the Muslim Council of Britain of being “all too ready in othering people, in this case, conflating Islam with terrorism”.
Comments had emerged in which she appeared to conflate Islam with terrorism, questioned Pakistani immigration, and suggested the concerns of far-right leader Tommy Robinson should be acknowledged.
Ukip leader Mr Batten himself faced a backlash last year after he appointed Mr Robinson, former face of the English Defence League, as an advisor.
That row resulted in Nigel Farage quitting the party, with the former leader accusing the MEP of an “obsession” with Robinson and a “fixation” with Islam.
Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Show all 12 1 /12 Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Change UK Details on the individual MPs are in the following photos Reuters Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Heidi Allen Anti-Brexit MP for South Cambridgeshire resigned from the Conservative party on February 20 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Chuka Umunna MP for Streatham since 2010 and prominent People's Vote supporter PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Anna Soubry The prominent anti-Brexit MP for Broxtowe resigned from the Conservative party on February 20 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Luciana Berger MP for Liverpool Wavertree since 2010, resigned from the Labour Party over bullying and anti-semitism PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Sarah Wollaston Anti-Brexit MP for Totnes resigned from the Conservative party on February 20 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Joan Ryan MP for Enfield North resigned from the Labour party on February 19 citing its tolerance of a "culture of anti-Jewish racism" PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Ann Coffey MP for Stockport since 1992 Chris McAndrew / UK Parliament Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Gavin Shuker MP for Luton South since 2010 Getty Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Chris Leslie MP for Nottingham East since 2010 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Mike Gapes MP for Ilford South since 1992 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Angela Smith MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge since 2010
“I believe he is entirely unsuitable to be involved in any political party," Mr Farage wrote of Robinson. “The fact is that his entourage includes violent criminals and ex-BNP members.”
Writing in The Independent, Ms Mulready defended her record: “Ever since the announcement yesterday of my candidacy as a London MEP for Change UK – The Independent Group, I have been subjected to an online campaign of false allegations of racism, including an accusation by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) that I am Islamophobic,” she said in a comment piece.
“I have never – not once – expressed anti-Muslim hatred or bigotry. I have always been clear that any criticisms I may make are about Islamism, and conservative Islamic cultures or beliefs; never Muslims. | {
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Marvel is no doubt the king of the comic book movie world and that all comes down to their strategy. The studio has had plans for this year’s film releases laid out since 2009 and they’re already laying down plans for film releases for the next decade. One of the films they have in development is the long awaited Black Panther movie.
According to Kevin Feige, the man behind the brilliant Marvel strategy, Black Panther is indeed in development, though he failed to be as aggressive with the use of the word “active” as he was when addressing the Doctor Strange movie.
Per an interview with BlackTreeTV:
“In terms of Black Panther, it’s absolutely in development. And when you have something as rich as Wakanda and his back story…and clearly vibraniums been introduced in the universe already…I don’t know when it will be exactly, but it’s certainly…we have plans to bring it to life someday.”
Marvel plans on releasing at least one new movie per year for the rest of the decade, and news of both a Doctor Strange and Black Panther seems to suggest this plan could end up coming to fruition. Time will tell but new wheels are clearly turning at Marvel and more exciting films can be expected in the coming years. | {
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While monitoring the retreat of the Teardrop Glacier in the Canadian Arctic, scientists have found that recently unfrozen plants, some of which had been under ice since the reign of Henry VIII, were capable of new growth.
While in the field, the researchers from the University of Alberta discovered that the receding ice–which has doubled from 2 meters per year in the 1990s to 4.1 meters per year in 2009–had uncovered lots of mosses and other non-vascular plants, including more than 60 plant species. Upon careful examination, the scientists were impressed by how well preserved the delicate bodies were; the stems and leaf structures were perfectly intact, although some of them were only one-cell layer think. Using radiocarbon dating, they determined that those plants have been frozen for 500 years since the Little Ice Age when the glacier was at its maximum.
The most surprising thing, however, was that many of the plants were showing signs of life: they had green tips and fresh off-shoots, even though they have only been ice-free for less than a year and were just a few centimeters away from the glacier margin.
In vitro culture of Aulacomnium turgidum regenerated from emergent Little Ice Age population beneath the Tear Drop Glacier, Sverdrup Pass, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Credit: Image courtesy of Catherine La Farge.
Plants have long been reported to emerge from beneath Arctic glacier ice. One study from 1966 stated that “vigorous new moss shoots appear in places to be growing directly out of the underlying dead moss.” It concluded the new growth was a result of germination of either dormant or migrant spores on the “dead moss mats.”
That and all other publications since then, presumed that the emergent vegetation was dead. Now for the first time, researchers realized that at least part of that re-growth is coming from the Ice Age plants themselves. “This is an important distinction,” explains the lead scientist Dr. Catherine La Farge from University of Alberta.
Emergent population of Aulacomnium turgidum from beneath the Tear Drop Glacier, Sverdrup Pass, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Credit: Image courtesy of Catherine La Farge.
To confirm their observations in the field, the team of scientists collected samples of these recently uncovered plants and grew them in the lab under careful monitoring. The results were unprecedented: a third of the plants re-grew! The discovery was reported in the prestigious journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) this week.
The second important finding about this scientific discovery is that the plant cells grown in the lab acted as stem cells: they were capable of regenerating the entire plant regardless of which part of the body did the original cell come from. This capability is known as totipotency. Spontaneous plant regeneration from a few viable cells is well-known in mosses. But until now it had never been observed in 500 year old specimens.
These results demonstrate that plants buried by ice hundreds of years can remain dormant and serve as an unrecognized genetic reservoir on recently uncovered land, concludes Dr La Farge.
CITATIONS: La Farge C, Williams KH, England JH “Regeneration of Little Ice Age bryophytes emerging from a polar glacier with implications of totipotency in extreme environments” PNAS. 2013.
Falconer G (1966) Preservation of vegetation and patterned ground under thin ice body in northern Baffin Island, N.W.T. Geogr Bull 8(2):194–200.
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New species of bioluminescent cockroach possibly already extinct by volcanic eruption
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(09/12/2012) In a massive, wildlife-rich, and largely unexplored rainforest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), researchers have made an astounding discovery: a new monkey species, known to locals as the ‘lesula’. The new primate, which is described in a paper in the open access PLoS ONE journal, was first noticed by scientist and explorer, John Hart, in 2007. John, along with his wife Terese, run the TL2 project, so named for its aim to create a park within three river systems: the Tshuapa, Lomami and the Lualaba (i.e. TL2), a region home to bonobos, okapi, forest elephants, Congo peacock, as well as the newly-described lesula.
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(06/29/2012) With the death of Lonesome George, the world lost the last member of a subspecies and Ecuador its greatest symbol of the Galapagos Islands, but Fausto Llerena lost his best friend. | {
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David Guttenfelder / AP People watch a dolphin show at a newly-built amusement park in Pyongyang, North Korea on Sept. 8.
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BEIJING -- The NBA and a Chinese partner say they plan to open a basketball center near Beijing.
The partners say the facility in Tianjin, a port city east of the Chinese capital, will include NBA-style basketball courts, a fitness center, a restaurant and other features, according to NBA China and the Yatai Lanhai Investment Group.
The announcement was made as the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Clippers played exhibition games in Beijing and Shanghai.
Basketball in China is hugely popular and the NBA has made faster progress in developing a fan base and business opportunities than other American sports such as baseball, football and ice hockey.
The 120,000-square foot NBA Center is to become part of a mixed-use development by Yatai Lanhai with housing for 150,000.
. | {
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A nationwide manhunt was underway Thursday for three men suspected of kidnapping and raping teenage sisters in Ohio. On Thursday, authorities arrested one of the suspects, David Ramos Contreras, who had been on the run since last week.
Contreras is one of three suspects who detectives say sexually assaulted the two sisters who are 13 and 14.
"Based on the crime that they're accused of we would consider them violent offenders so they would be dangerous," said Lt. Dan Mancuso.
From left, men whose names are unknown and David Ramos Contreras, subjects of a nationwide manhunt for their alleged rape and kidnapping of 2 teen sisters in a Bowling Green, Ohio Days Inn on June 28, 2018 Bowling Green, Ohio police / WTOL-TV
Investigators believe the men are in the U.S. illegally. U.S. marshals and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have joined local police in the manhunt.
The suspects allegedly kidnapped and raped the girls last Thursday. According to police, it happened at a Days Inn, where the teens and their parents were staying at the same time as the men.
Police still haven't been able to confirm the identities of the two men who are still on the run.
"They had fraudulent immigration paperwork or identifications," said Mancuso.
Police say the suspect arrested on Thursday was deported from the U.S. in October of last year. He was found hiding under a bed in Lubbock, Texas and will be extradited back to Ohio to face charges. | {
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The Labour Party is proposing a no-confidence vote in Parliament to dethrone Boris Johnson and force new elections. The strategy has been billed as a “fail-safe” way of preventing a no-deal Brexit from moving forward.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will meet with leaders of other political parties on Tuesday to discuss the looming October 31 Brexit deadline – and how to ensure Britain doesn’t leave the EU without a deal.
“We are offering a fail-safe procedure in order to stop no deal, and that is by a vote of no confidence in the government, a temporary government to set up a general election,” Labour’s trade spokesman Barry Gardiner told Sky News on Sunday. He said that Labour wanted new elections so it could offer to hold a second Brexit referendum, which would include options to leave the EU with a deal or remain in the bloc.
In order for the scheme to work, Labour will have to join forces with other opposition parties. The Conservatives currently hold 311 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, while Labour has only 247.
Also on rt.com Leaving the cheap way: BoJo to tell Tusk that UK won’t pay £39bn under no-deal Brexit
If Labour succeeds in organizing the vote, it would mark the second time in a little over half a year that Corbyn has tested Parliament’s confidence in the government. In January, the Labour leader put forward a motion of no confidence in the government of Theresa May. The motion was narrowly defeated, but May resigned months later amid Conservative disillusionment over her handling of Brexit.
Johnson, who replaced May as prime minister in July, has vowed that Britain will leave the European Union, with or without a deal, by the current October 31 deadline.
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Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper engaged in a lengthy and contentious back-and-forth Friday night over the recently freed Democrat's record and claims he's made about his criminal case.
Their frustration with one another appeared to reach a boiling point, with Cooper accusing Blagojevich on air of spouting "bulls---," and Blagojevich using the same profane term in his reply.
CNN did not bleep the remarks.
During their discussion, Blagojevich continued to maintain his innocence regarding the corrupion charges on which he was convicted, telling Cooper he was a "political prisoner" of an unjust criminal justice system -- until President Trump commuted his sentence this week, freeing Blagojevich from prison.
ROD BLAGOJEVICH'S SENTENCE COMMUTED: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT FORMER ILLINOIS GOVERNOR'S CASE
The CNN host balked at the claim, accusing Blagojevich of essentially comparing himself to Nelson Mandela -- the late South African leader who was long imprisoned because of a racist apartheid system.
"I bet if you were to ask Nelson Mandela whether he thought it was fair in the early ‘60s in South Africa he would say what I'm saying today," Blagojevich fired back.
Cooper interjected: "I've just got to stop you. As someone who worked in South Africa and saw apartheid, the idea that you are comparing yourself to somebody who has actually been railroaded by an apartheid system is just nuts and, frankly offensive."
Blagojevich reminded Cooper that it was he, not Blagojevich, who brought Mandela's name into the conversation.
Blagojevich then told Cooper a more apt comparison would be to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., whose own federal corruption case was thrown out by a Newark federal judge in 2018. The U.S. Justice Department ultimately opted against retrying the Menendez case.
"What I’m saying is, I was thrown in prison and spent nearly eight years in prison for practicing politics -- for seeking campaign contributions without a quid pro quo. No express quid pro quo -- and I was given the same standards Senator Menendez was given," Blagojevich said. "I could very well have been in the U.S. Senate instead of where I was."
Blagojevich repeated his claim that he was the victim of corrupt federal prosecutors with "uncontrolled" power, and began to invoke chief prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald before Cooper cut him off to ask about a previous remark.
Cooper said Blagojevich was not only convicted by a jury of Illinoians but had his case upheld by a circuit court and denied a hearing by the Supreme Court.
"Your argument doesn't hold up," he said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Later in the interview, when Blagojevich defended his "requests for campaign contributions," a bemused Cooper interjected "extorting a children's hospital." Blagojevich again went on defense, saying there was no "quid pro quo" in that situation.
Cooper later claimed Blagojevich was engaging in the usage of a "whole new alternate universe of facts" and failing to admit guilt.
"That may be big in politics today but it’s still frankly just bulls---," Cooper said.
"It's not bulls---, I lived it myself, it's not bulls--- at all," Blagojevich shot back. | {
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One very embarassed "furry fan" has a go at defining "Furry".
by Charla Trotman
I remember when being a pervert was a bad thing.
If you were warped, you tried to hide it, and good for you if you did. If you were going to polish your rod to autopsy photos or bugger a Shetland pony, you did it in the privacy of your own sick, sad home. No one else, especially not me, had to know, and that was great. The best part was, if you decided to crawl out on the roof and inform the neighborhood via midnight megaphone that being urinated on got you hot, you would be told, in no uncertain terms, how very diseased you were. Most people I know don't have too much trouble distinguishing between a "lifestyle choice" and a "warning sign." Yep, in many parts of the world, the idea of making love to Andy Panda is still regarded as somewhat misguided. Most parts, that is, except "Furry Fandom."
I don't know what the hell happened here.
"Live and Let Live" is an excellent, tree-hugging philosophy, but it doesn't do much when the ones you refuse to kill are dragging you down with them. If you like animal-based stories, cartoons, or art, you're a furry. And like it or not, "Furry" means "Pervert." This didn't come out of nowhere, either.
To me, and a lot of other people, "Furry" simply means a fondness for animal-human combinations in art, movies, books... whatever. If you're biased towards Redwall novels, have a soft spot for Anime "cat girls," or can't drag yourself away from "The Secret of NIMH," chances are excellent that you're at least *slightly* fur-inclined. That's pretty cool by me. The Simple Definition is probably what started "furry fandom" in the first place. But you would NOT believe some of the baggage the term "furry" has taken on.
The most obvious one so far would be suspicions of bestiality. This wouldn't a problem if the furs that did it weren't so damn proud of it. For those of you that were out sick that day in Sex Ed class, DON'T FUCK YOUR PETS. Raping Fido is a 100% BAD IDEA. You're making us all look bad, Goddamit. Do you know what all the other fandoms.. Trekkies, X-Philes, Lovecrafters... call Furries? SKUNK-FUCKERS. And we have these morons to thank for it. "Zoophile" is a cute way of saying "I violate animals for sexual gratification." Period. It's not okay, It never was okay, and declaring yourself "furry" doesn't give you the right to insist that any level of bestiality is a part of the "furry experience."
Getting your rocks off on lower orders of the animal kingdom is bad enough without your partner being licensed by Disney. Yes indeedy, as we descend just a step deeper into Hell, we stumble across the path of the Plushophile. That's shorthand for "I find this Meeko doll intensely erotic." These are the people who use FAO Schwarz as a singles bar. I don't know who decided that this was a valid excuse for a sex life, but he probably still lives in his mother's basement. You don't have to earn a degree in psychology to figure out how thickly laden with sexual dysfunction the very concept of Plushophilia is. How badly was your id stomped on to get you to the point where you would consider wanking a child's toy? I'm not sure I want to know. But I *DO* know Plushophiles have latched onto Furriness like a swamp leech. When people call furries "perverts," THIS is the kind of crap they're talking about.
Sigh... moving on.
Down, down, down we go... oh, look, the Seventh Level of Furry Hell. Furry Lifestylers. Glee. We've got us some self-righteous little pokers down here. Ya see, just drawing cartoon animals or enjoying "Watership Down" doesn't make you furry. Nooooo, you're not GOOD enough. You're not furry if it's just a hobby. If you don't think you're the astrally projected soul of a wolf trapped in a human body, or you don't answer the phone with a "meow," you're not furry. Yep. Don't you feel terribly inferior now? Christ on a fire engine, what some people will try and force on you. I've always found the fact that 90% of Lifestylers consider themselves misplaced foxes, wolves, dragons, lions, tigers, or something equally powerful and noble, open to a special brand of mockery. Amazing coincidence how fantastically superior they all were in their animal lives, isn't it? Maybe if I occasionally came across a Lifestyler who claimed to be a reborn cockroach, I wouldn't be so cynical. I'm sure Freud would have a great, detailed explanation as to why people build up fantasy worlds for themselves like this, but I'm content to call these types Crackpots.
Slightly less obstinate but equally buttock-chafing are the the random groups who try their damndest to Super-glue a witch's brew of lycanthropy, shamanism, and veganism to a once-enjoyable subculture. Don't misunderstand me; Werewolves are fun. Role-playing a werewolf? Knock yourself out. Drawing werewolves? E-mail me some pointers, I can't do 'em to save my life. Claiming to BE a werewolf? SEEK HELP. You're not a werewolf. THERE ARE NO WEREWOLVES. Anyone who claims to turn into a giant dog at the whim of a celestial body should be mercilessly ostracized and laughed at with maximum cruelty.
Then there's the matter of Spirit Animals. I don't have one. I don't want one, I don't need one. And according to some, that disqualifies me as a furry. Gee, didn't realize I had to realign my entire belief system to ensure acceptance into an already-decrepit fanbase. Once again, the question of personal tastes intruding on a once-meaningful practice comes to mind. You'll find a good thousand spastics claiming the protection of the Fox, But I've yet to hear a furry fan thank the Earwig Spirit for his wisdom. Yes, I'm taunting you. Cope.
And YES, there's even a special breed of nutboys out there who insist a major component of Furriness is the practicing of Veganism. For those of you who don't live in California, that's the total shunning of all animal products. No eggs, no leather, no beef, no fish, no clubbing baby seals until their skulls are soft and dough-like. For reasons beyond my comprehension, THIS sort of self-denial is supposed to put you "more in touch with your furriness." God knows how. I've never seen a pride of lions abandon a mule carcass to chase down a fleeing herd of Garden Burgers. Animals have a strange way of mutilating OTHER animals. That's nature, welcome to it. And there's nothing more furry and natural than gnawing some flesh, kids. Human beings are omnivorous, and that means meat. If you don't believe me, fetch yourself a mirror and smile. See those pointy things? Canines. So enough with the tofu and bean sprouts, your Spirit Animals are laughing at you.
And finally, we confront the long-held notion that Furries secretly wish they WERE animals. I'm sure there are some that do, but they're in the minority. Trust me. I'm rather fond of being a homo sapien. I've grown quite attached to the idea of opposable thumbs, full-color vision, and the dawning of self-awareness. Space travel, Chinese food, swing dancing... the perks ain't bad, either. No, I'm holding my own on this end of the evolutionary ladder, thank you. Most furries are. But for the poor shmucks who want nothing more than to transform into an elk or bear or something equally ridiculous, a stay in an institution, not a fandom, is in order.
Whew. I think I'm done for now. Any survivors, Alpha Team? Heh. If you've actually read this far, I must say I'm impressed. If I made you mad, good. If you agree with me, even better. Either way, I want to hear from you. Let me know what you think. Any and all mail received may be posted and/or responded to at my discretion. | {
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A standout season in which Buffalo Sabres winger Victor Olofsson scored 20 goals and 42 points in 54 games has earned the Swede a spot on the NHL’s All-Rookie Team.
Olofsson’s goal total ranked second among rookies, trailing only Chicago Blackhawks winger Dominik Kabulik, who scored 30 times.
An ankle injury (15 games) and the COVID-19 pandemic (13 games) cost Olofsson a chance to become the Sabres’ first rookie 30-goal scorer since Ray Sheppard in ... Read the full article | {
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Da lunedì 3 dicembre l’Unione Europea ha vietato il cosiddetto geo-blocking: quell’insieme di pratiche con cui i negozi online limitavano gli acquisti dei clienti che si collegavano da altri paesi dell’Unione Europea, applicavano loro condizioni di vendita diverse o li costringevano a comprare da altri siti registrati nei loro paesi di provenienza. Ora per chi si trova in un paese dell’Unione Europea è possibile fare acquisti online su tutti i siti di e-commerce dei paesi dell’Unione Europea, senza essere bloccati perché non si risiede nello stato del venditore o perché si effettua il pagamento con una carta di credito di un altro paese.
Il nuovo regolamento sul geo-blocking era stato approvato da Parlamento e Consiglio dell’Unione Europea lo scorso febbraio ed è entrato in vigore il 3 dicembre: fa parte di una serie di nuove regole per l’e-commerce che mirano a creare il mercato unico digitale europeo e che tra le altre cose permetteranno di abbassare le tasse per la spedizione di beni tra i paesi dell’Unione e aumentereranno le protezioni per i consumatori. L’eliminazione del geo-blocking porterà benefici soprattutto i consumatori, che avranno più scelta a disposizione e più garanzie sui prodotti che acquistano, ma anche i rivenditori visto che il commercio online tra paesi europei aumenterà.
Prima, grazie al geo-blocking i rivenditori online potevano applicare delle barriere e imporre delle restrizioni ai consumatori in base alla loro nazionalità o al luogo di residenza: ad esempio bloccando l’accesso dei siti oltre i confini nazionali o negando la possibilità di completare un ordine, comprare dei prodotti o scaricare dei contenuti quando l’accesso al sito proveniva dall’estero. Anche il fatto che alcuni siti non prevedessero consegne oltre il confine nazionale era un caso di geo-blocking, così come l’avere tariffe e condizioni diverse che discriminavano tra consumatori nazionali e esteri.
Ora, il nuovo regolamento vieta qualsiasi tipo di blocco geografico ingiustificato e qualsiasi altra forma di discriminazione bastata sulla nazionalità o la posizione dei consumatori, se questi si trovano all’interno del mercato unico europeo, e consentirà ai consumatori di scegliere tra prodotti con prezzi più competitivi.
«Nel 2015 il 63% dei siti non consentiva agli utenti di effettuare acquisti da un altro Paese dell’Unione Europea, di conseguenza due terzi dei consumatori che volevano fare acquisti online all’estero non hanno potuto farlo», ha spiegato il vicepresidente della Commissione Europea per il Mercato unico digitale Andrus Ansip durante una conferenza stampa con la commissaria per il Mercato interno Elżbieta Bieńkowska, quella per la Giustizia Věra Jourová e quella per l’Economia digitale Mariya Gabriel. «Il 3 dicembre mettiamo fine a questa pratica. Vogliamo un’Europa senza barriere, e questo vuol dire anche eliminare gli ostacoli agli acquisti online» hanno detto i quattro commissari. | {
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Blockmason, a developer of foundational, base-layer blockchain technologies, today announced the addition of TRON blockchain support to the official Link development roadmap.
Developers of web, mobile and other decentralized applications that interact with smart contracts on the TRON blockchain will be able to use Blockmason’s Link to speed up their development cycles while reducing overhead and costs.
Blockmason’s Link is a new blockchain infrastructure-as-a-service that allows app, web and other software developers to use smart contracts and programmatic blockchains like TRON in their applications without requiring any blockchain experience. Using Link, a developer can create classic, conventional web-based APIs for any smart contract written on a programmatic blockchain. At the heart of Link is BLINK, the utility token which provides Link users with API transaction capacity.
A favorite of decentralized application (DApp) developers, the TRON blockchain is quickly growing into one of the most popular with users as well. As of February 2019, TRON is the top-ranked blockchain in terms of total DApp users and daily active DApp users.
Link can be viewed as a missing component in blockchain-based app development. With Link, developers and users alike can interact with smart contracts like any other web API. There are no “gas” cryptocurrencies to acquire, browser plugins to install or other unnecessary hurdles. There’s also no servers or web infrastructure to maintain or monitor. A developer simply adds the smart contracts they want to use in their app to Link. Once added, they can read from and write to these smart contracts just like any other API. | {
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What had the makings of being another horrible night for the Komets turned into a rousing 8-6 victory, albeit over what’s currently the ECHL’s worst team. Fort Wayne's Shawn Szydlowski and the Indy Fuel's Josh Shalla both scored four times.
Shawn Szydlowski finished a hat trick with a picturesque shot through his own legs from the left side of the net 16:42 into the third period and netted his fourth goal into an empty net – he is now second in the ECHL with 42 points, five behind Allen's Chad Costello – and he led the Komets back from a 6-2 deficit in front of 6,411 spectators at Memorial Coliseum.
Szydlowski is the second Fort Wayne player to have a hat trick this season, joining Mike Cazzola, who had one goal and two assists tonight to take over the lead among ECHL rookies in goals (13) and points (31). Mike Embach scored for a third straight game, on the heels of scoring only once in 14 games for the Komets.
Coming off one of the worst games in their 65-year history, a 6-1 loss Friday to the Brampton Beast in which they mustered only 12 shots on goal, things looked almost as dreadful early as Shalla scored on each of his first four shots.
Fort Wayne improved to 17-8-3.
No player had scored four goals against the Komets since Andrew Martens of the Central Hockey League’s Wichita Thunder in 2011, and Fort Wayne won that game 5-4. Tonight marked the second time in the last six games that an opposing player had at least three goals – Adam Krause had a hat trick in Wheeling’s 6-5 victory Dec. 16.
Szydlowski had a 5-goal game last season against Missouri in a 6-4 victory.
Indy (8-18-2), which has lost 13 straight games, the last 12 in regulation, couldn’t hold on against goaltender Garrett Bartus, who stopped 7 of 8 shots after replacing Eric Hartzell 6:50 into the second period.
Defenseman Will Weber was back from his groin injury but the Komets were still without six regulars – Garrett Thompson (lower body), Cody Sol (knee), Gabriel Beaupre (concussion), Taylor Crunk (ankle), Pat Nagle (ankle) and Trevor Cheek (with Tucson of the American Hockey League) – and Hartzell was pulled after stopping only 11 of 16 shots.
The Fuel opened the scoring 3:55 into the first period when Shalla got to the rebound of a Tristan King shot and put it past Hartzell, who had stopped all 31 shots he faced in the only previous meeting this season with Indy, a 4-0 victory Nov. 4.
Indy’s Alex Guptill circled the net to set up Shalla for his second goal, which was answered by a Szydlowski goal from the blue line during a Fort Wayne power play.
Cazzola, who had been foiled by Fuel goalie Jake Hildebrand on a shot from 12 feet out, atoned by netting a 35-footer at 16:56.
The first intermission didn’t help the Komets’ momentum. Just after the second period started, Gabriel Desjardins got a charging penalty and Shalla scored on the ensuing power play as Hartzell fell to the ice for a 4-2 lead.
After the puck caromed off Hartzell’s glove and to the left circle, Indy’s Zach Miskovic scored for a 5-2 lead. A goal by Indy’s Kevin Lynch, who put the puck between the legs of Bartus, was followed by Fort Wayne’s Brady Vail netting a shot from the right circle at 11:00 of the second period.
Seconds after Bartus foiled Guptill at the end of a 3-on-1 rush, Weber’s shot from the blue line sailed through a crowd and into the top of the net at 18:10, cutting Indy’s lead to two at 6-4.
Embach scored for the Komets at 4:21 of the third period, thanks to a spinning pass from Cazzola. Szydlowski redirected a Bobby Shea shot at 7:04 to tie it at 6.
Notes: King played 12 games for the Komets in 2013-14, tallying one assist with a minus-12 rating. … Ramsay left the game late in the second period after a Dan Milan hit, for which he was penalized for interference by referee Sean Fernandez. … The Komets play host to the Cincinnati Cyclones on Thursday night. | {
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The Black Cauldron
Game information
Play this game online
You can play The Black Cauldron on this website so you don't need to download and install the game on your computer. We recommend to use Google Chrome when playing DOS games online.
Online game Play this game online »
Download from this site
File File type File size The Black Cauldron.zip
executable: The Black Cauldron.1987/BC.COM
Full version
MS-DOS 289 kB
(0.28 MB)
Instruction/comment
Author Al Lowe generously released this game as freeware.
NOTE: This game can be played under Windows using the ScummVM engine recreation (see the links section below).
Screenshots
Description (by Al Lowe)
The Black Cauldron was the last of the pre-Michael Eisner Disney animated feature-length movies. Disney had no software developers back then and had seen my very early game, Troll's Tale. They asked me to do a movie spinoff using its simplified Spacebar & Enter key-only interface. They gave me complete access to the original hand-painted backgrounds, the original Elmer Bernstein score, even the original animation cells, which were still literally lying in heaps, before being sent off to the dump! (Eisner fixed that tradition quickly!) The story echoes the movie, but anywhere you could do something different from the action in the movie, you received more points for doing so. There are at least six different variations of the ending, based on decisions made throughout game play.
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Rating
What do you think of this game? Please rate it below on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the lowest and 10 is the highest score. | {
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Note: this new system is for reproducible bug reports. It is not a support forum for general issues/complaints. If you spam the bug report platform, we won't be able to response as quickly. So, please only submit a bug report if you have an actual bug to report. Thanks!
Hey everyone,As you probably know, we have a pretty robust beta program that allows you to follow our software updates and provide feedback, every step of the way. We also have a comprehensive internal testing process for both hardware and software. This means that every OnePlus product goes through extensive testing before ever being distributed. Today, we hope to make that process even better.Starting today, you can submit official bug reports for OnePlus devices and OxygenOS (open beta builds and official releases). Go check it out here:Why are we doing this? First of all, there's that whole community thing, and we want to make it easier for you to let us know if something is broken. It's also about improving our hardware and software as efficiently as possible, and we've made this new Bug Report platform particularly powerful in a few important ways:Before, it wasn't super easy for us to find and verify bugs. People would submit bugs informally on the forums, on our social media, or through our customer service channels. We'd then have to reach out and gather information manually, which was a slow and imperfect process. With this new system, we'll have logs, reproduction steps, images, and more right from the beginning. This means that we can reproduce and squash bugs much faster.You can go see the bugs that everyone else has submitted, and whether or not they have been addressed. This is a risky thing for a company to do, but we're doing it. This is our way of showing how serious we are about addressing your concerns and making our products even better.Not only are bug reports publicly visible, but you can also see whether or not each bug has been reproduced, and how close we are to fixing it. Every bug report will be followed up on by a OnePlus product and/or customer service representative.When you submit a bug report, other users can "watch" the bug to let us know how many users are experiencing the same issue. This way, we'll immediately know if an issue is affecting a lot of people, so we can quickly find real bugs and fix them as quickly as possible.It's about streamlining our processes. It's about making our hardware and software even better. Most importantly, It's about giving you an even bigger voice. Go ahead and check it out now.Never Settle. | {
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It was one of the hardest times in Brent Carpenter's life. His girlfriend of three and a half years had broken up with him. He had a major project due the next morning, and was working into the night.
He suddenly realized he couldn't keep going.
"I was definitely home alone, it was like 4 in the morning. The project was due at 8:30 in the morning," Carpenter remembers. "I was feverishly trying to get it done, and that was the point where I stopped, I just stopped doing it. And then I said I can't finish this, I didn't even go to that class."
Instead he emailed his professor.
"I told him I was really stressed, I was really upset over my relationship problems, and I said, I'm really embarrassed to come to class today without the project done and that's why I didn't come in…"
Mental stress among students at universities and colleges across North America is an increasing trend. At Toronto's OCAD University, where Carpenter attends, more than half the students surveyed say they've felt so depressed at some point in the past year, they found it difficult to function.
A recent national survey on mental health at Canadian universities showed OCAD has significantly higher stress levels among its students compared with other Canadian universities.
Many of OCAD's teaching staff worry about their students, even before they saw the results of a survey quantifying the stress they're seeing in their classrooms. Brent still remembers his own professor's response.
"I just thought he wouldn't care. I just thought he would be like, '10 per cent late, or 20 per cent late,' whatever the policy was," he says. "But then, he actually suggested things. I thought that was really nice, he suggested going to see someone, stuff like that. I wasn't expecting a friendly reply, that's for sure."
Keesic Douglas teaches photography, film and lighting at OCAD. He says the rigours of the art school are intense.
"We're a university that has university-level expectations but we're also asking students to, every week, come up with brilliant and creative ideas," he says. "It's almost like they have to create something unique every day."
University is a major life change — stressful enough on its own. On top of that, says Keesic, many of his students are routinely exhausted. "All-nighters and all-weekenders. Students are showing up at 17 years old, moved from a very small towns, trying to figure out university, how to make art and how to survive in downtown Toronto."
At OCAD, the pressure is intensified by a tradition of often-punishing critiques of student art work. Jennifer Robinson, clinical director of OCAD's health and wellness centre, says that’s a tremendous factor.
This week CBC Toronto focuses on mental health in Canada's universities and colleges. Listen to Metro Morning and watch CBC Toronto for more stories like this in our Off Course On Campus series.
"We have so many students that have almost a panic attack because they find it really stressful," she says. "Part of it is when students are doing their art, it's personal and vulnerable."
When Robinson first came to OCAD as a counsellor, she was shocked at how stressed the students were who walked through her doors.
"I was surprised by the severity of mental health issues and the number of students expressing thoughts of suicide, it's alarming — 70 per cent of them were expressing thoughts of suicide," she says. "And we're inundated, I mean the staff between appointments, we see people walking in, line-ups at the door, so we're very inundated. We can't keep up with the demand."
The National Collegiate Health Assessment research has measured that stress. It surveys university students across North America. It found that 66 per cent of OCAD students said they'd felt hopeless at some point in the past 12 months. Fifteen per cent said they'd seriously considered suicide.
Robinson begun a series of training sessions with professors to help them respond to students at risk.
A professor who understands the stress can make a huge difference.
For Brent Carpenter, the response from his instructor was a turning point. Now in his third year, he checks in regularly with a counsellor at the health and wellness centre.
“We discussed small strategies to do during the week, early on, just breathing techniques, de-stressing early on, putting down work, sitting, taking a minute to do deep breathing, relaxing, breaking projects down into small steps,” he says. “Having someone to talk to is really helpful.”
Simple strategies that are helping one student keep his head above the complex and pervasive pattern of anxiety affecting college and university students across the country. | {
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I see what you did there I don't like it
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This is an Inside Science story.
People in Egypt's western desert are drinking groundwater with naturally high levels of radium, a radioactive element, according to research presented last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Washington. Experts disagree on the cancer-related health risks, but babies who rely on the most radioactive wells could get more than 100 times the maximum levels recommended by the World Health Organization for long-term exposure from drinking water, according to the researchers. Many communities across the Middle East and northern Africa are likely also using water with elevated levels of radiation.
Identifying the danger
Most people in Egypt get their water from the Nile River. But in the adjacent deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, people rely instead on groundwater, said Neil Sturchio, a geochemist at the University of Delaware in Newark, who conducted the study with graduate student Mahmoud Sherif. In many cases, this groundwater is pumped from an ancient reservoir called the Nubian aquifer -- a sandstone formation that extends some 2 million square kilometers (about 800,000 square miles) beneath Egypt, Libya, Chad and Sudan.
Long ago when the climate was wetter, water soaked into the pores of the now-buried sandstone, said Sturchio. The oldest water in the Nubian aquifer has been there for about a million years. It is a nonrenewable resource; the more people pump out, the lower the levels drop. But it is vast. The aquifer waters in Egypt alone would be enough to keep the Nile flowing for 500 years, according to Sturchio.
Sturchio and Sherif were inspired to test the Nubian aquifer after Avner Vengosh, a geochemist at Duke University, found high levels of radioactivity in a similar fossil aquifer in Jordan in 2009. These fossil aquifers are tempting resources for communities to tap because they contain fresh water that is low in most types of contaminants and disease-causing organisms. Vengosh initially assumed they would also be low in radioactive chemicals such as radium. Instead, he found radium levels up to 20 times higher than international standards.
Radium forms naturally from uranium and thorium in rocks, and it is removed when it binds to certain minerals. But in the studied aquifers, the types of minerals that remove radium tend to be scarce, said Sturchio.
To see how widespread the radiation problem was, Sturchio and Sherif tested groundwater from sites across Egypt. They consistently found that radium levels in wells that tapped the Nubian aquifer exceeded safety thresholds set by the WHO. The deeper and more ancient the water, the more radioactive it tended to be, said Sherif.
The researchers published their findings from the eastern desert in 2017, and from the Sinai Peninsula in 2018. Last week they presented findings from 64 wells in the desert west of the Nile, which is drier than the other two regions and relies almost exclusively on the Nubian aquifer for irrigation and drinking water, said Sturchio.
In the western desert, the wells with both the highest and lowest radium levels came from the Bahariya Oasis, which lies about 230 miles southwest of Cairo and is home to 27,000 people. The WHO recommends that people take in no more than .1 millisieverts of radiation per year from drinking water. If people's drinking water contained radium levels equal to the average of all the Bahariya wells, an adult would be expected to take in about 5.4 times more than the WHO-recommended maximum, while a baby would take in about 54 times the WHO-recommended maximum, according to the researchers. Babies take in more radiation from the same water because they incorporate radium into their growing bones.
If a baby drank exclusively from the most radioactive well in Bahariya, it would be expected to receive nearly 138 times the WHO-recommended limit, according to the researchers' calculations. That's the radiation equivalent of nearly 690 chest X-rays or two chest CT scans per year.
And that's just from drinking water. People also use the water for irrigation, and radium can accumulate in crops and livestock, said Sturchio.
Unknown health impacts
Radium presents a potential health risk because as it decays, it produces ionizing radiation -- a high energy emission that can damage DNA and cause cancer. But to the best of Sturchio and Sherif's knowledge, there is no direct evidence that people who rely on the Nubian aquifer are getting more cancer than people elsewhere. Still, the researchers suspect that health impacts in those regions could go unrecognized. People who use the aquifer water are often poor and have little access to medical care, said Sturchio.
But Amal Ibrahim, a cancer epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute at Cairo University and director of Egypt's National Cancer Registry, disagrees. While there may not be many hospitals in the western desert, he said, there are more than a dozen cancer care centers along the Nile that offer treatment free of charge.
"Once there are symptoms of cancer, people seek help," said Ibrahim. "And we give it to them."
Some parts of Egypt have elevated cancer rates due to hepatitis C, said Ibrahim, but so far he has seen no evidence for other regional differences in cancer rates. Still, he said, the radiation risk from groundwater deserves more study. He would like to see data on exactly how much aquifer water people are consuming, and whether the radium is making its way into crops, dairy products and bottled water.
Vengosh agrees that more research would be helpful, but he sees no need to wait before taking action to protect the public, either from the Nubian aquifer or from the Disi aquifer he studied in Jordan.
"There are several studies in the U.S. and Canada that show that communities that were drinking these types of water -- much lower [radiation] than what we see in Disi -- had elevated and high prevalence of cancer," said Vengosh. "We don't need to invent the wheel."
Marc Serre, an environmental geostatistician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, conducted one such study in North Carolina, where many people rely on private wells with elevated levels of radon. Like radium, radon releases ionizing radiation as it decays, and Serre and his graduate student Kyle Messier found a correlation between radon levels in groundwater and rates of lung and stomach cancers. According to Serre, such findings suggest that radioactive groundwater could indeed pose a threat in the Middle East.
"They need to be concerned about how people consume this water," he said.
The Middle East may face even more pressure to use fossil aquifers in the future, with a rapidly increasing population and a climate that is projected to become even drier. Libya already relies on the Nubian aquifer for almost all its water needs, said Sturchio, and Jordan pumps 100 million cubic meters (about 26 billion gallons) of water per year from the Disi aquifer to its capital city of Amman.
But even if fossil aquifers are dangerously radioactive, the downsides of using them must be weighed against the alternatives. The WHO cautions that while its thresholds are established to protect public health, they "should not be interpreted as a limit above which drinking-water is unsafe for consumption," since the health risks of inadequate drinking water are likely to be worse than those of radiation.
Moreover, there are ways to use radioactive water safely, said Sherif. People can treat it to remove radium or blend it with water from other sources to reduce the concentration.
"There is a health risk from drinking the water if it's untreated," said Sturchio. "It's one thing that needs to be addressed before people use the water more widely."
Inside Science is an editorially-independent nonprofit print, electronic and video journalism news service owned and operated by the American Institute of Physics. | {
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French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has warned against a bellicose spiral of reactions on an international agreement on Iran nuclear activities.
In an interview published online by Le Parisien on Saturday, Le Drian said it was a pity that the United States was not complying with the terms of the deal signed between Iran and six major global powers in 2015 in Vienna, admitting the move prompted Iran to retaliate by suspending parts of its commitments.
“It is a pity that the United States is not honoring its commitments,” he said while stressing the “responsibility” of the Americans and the importance of dialogue with Tehran on the issue.
The comments came after Iran announced on Wednesday that it will halt implementing some terms of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), until parties to the deal other than US take action to mitigate the negative impacts of US decision in May 2018 to withdraw from the agreement.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has set a two-month deadline for the parties to either do the necessary actions to save the JCPOA or face Iran resuming a nuclear enrichment program which had been suspended as part of the deal in return for lifting of international sanctions on Tehran.
Le Drian warned that the chain of reactions on JCPOA could intensify into a “bellicose spiral”.
The top French diplomat described Iran decision to suspend sale of excess uranium and heavy water as a “bad reaction” in response to a similar “bad decision” by Washington to not honor its commitments.
“Iran has had a bad reaction, faced with a bad US decision to withdraw from the Vienna agreements and impose sanctions,” said Le Drian while urging Tehran to “show its political maturity”. | {
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It will need to if it wants to keep up its electoral momentum.
Last-ditch efforts to woo the Kurds failed. The Kurds tipped the outcome in Imamoglu’s favor in even greater numbers than they had in March. That their role proved so central is one of the most hopeful developments of the past months. Should the CHP sustain its newly liberal stance, it may nurture a sense of greater participation and belonging amid Turkey’s estimated 16 million Kurds, who live in far greater numbers in Istanbul than any other city in the world.
Western diplomats cynically intoned that Erdogan would do so, cheating his way to victory if need be. But few counted on the apocalypse that was in store. Cheating was apparently not an option: AKP strongholds like Fatih and Uskudar, where Erdogan maintains his private residence, fell to the opposition, a resounding signal that his oversize sense of entitlement coupled with a poorly managed and polarizing campaign had backfired spectacularly. Rising inflation and joblessness are however among the AKP’s biggest woes.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the once obscure former Republican People’s Party (CHP) mayor of Beylikduzu, an ugly urban sprawl on the edge of Istanbul, defeated his governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) rival Binali Yildirim by a whopping 800,000 votes compared with the measly 13,000 ballots in the first run. The result is widely seen as the biggest setback faced by the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who pressured electoral authorities to invalidate the March 31 results in Istanbul in the hope of winning this time.
The opposition’s stunning landslide victory in yesterday’s controversial redo of the Istanbul municipal polls has reignited hopes that Turkey’s democracy, which seemed to be in its death throes, has some fight in it still.
The secular elite that long dismissed the Kurds, the country’s fastest growing demographic, as “mountain Turks” and oversaw their brutal repression by Turkey’s once omnipotent generals had to rely on their generosity to wrest Istanbul from the AKP and its Islamist forerunners who governed the megapolis for the past 25 years.
Equally heartening, Turkey’s urban secular class has decisively shaken off its reliance on the army to maintain order — and a facade of democracy — embracing coalition-building with pious conservatives to alter its fate.
In a perfect world, Imamoglu, with his pledges of inclusiveness, justice and transparency, could erect a model of governance for the entire country — one where a tight circle of cronies no longer laps at the trough, where ever shrinking green space is not forfeited for narrow commercial gain and gender equality becomes the norm. Just as critically, Kurds, Armenians, Alevis and Jews among a host of other minorities would finally be granted all the rights bestowed on the Sunni Turkish majority.
But will the affable 49-year-old mayor elect be allowed to do so? What will a bloodied Erdogan’s next move be? Amid all the euphoria, the hard truth is that this hopeful moment could presage a darker hell, depending on which path Turkey’s longest serving leader takes.
Ideally, the trouncing in Istanbul will shake him into more rational behavior. Erdogan will dump his informal coalition partner, the far-right nationalist Devlet Bahceli, together with his son-in-law, Economy Minister Berat Albayrak, and hawkish (and proudly homophobic) Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. He will seek relief from the IMF, disentangle Turkey from Russia and mend fences with the United States. Tens of thousands of political prisoners will be freed starting with philanthropist Osman Kavala, who appeared in his first courtroom hearing on bogus terrorism charges today, and politician Selahattin Demirtas, the most consequential Kurd to emerge in Turkey since the imprisoned Kurdish militant boss Abdullah Ocalan.
Erdogan and his party do not face reelection until 2023. Hence, in theory, he could take urgently needed measures to put the country back on track. And his initial reaction to the Istanbul result, congratulating Imamoglu in a tweet, could be seen as heralding a return to reason.
But it may be too late. Since elbowing his way into his coveted executive presidency in 2017, Erdogan appears to have lost the political instincts that helped him survive and thrive in the face of unremitting challenges to his rule. Bahceli’s men and instinctively anti-American others are said to have filled the vacuum in the judiciary and security services left by the massive purge of suspected followers of his archnemesis Fethullah Gulen. A divorce would be messy, to say the least. A pundit told Al-Monitor on condition that he not be identified by name, “Erdogan and the AKP are political corpses that cannot be brought back to life.”
Scenting the end, a paranoid Erdogan may double down, burning Turkey’s bridges with the West and driving the economy further into the ground. He could, among other things, cut off government funding for Imamoglu and fellow opposition candidates who won the other major cities of Ankara, Mersin and Antalya. Worse, he might even lock some of them up. Ominously, Erdogan recently alluded to his own stint in jail after being elected Istanbul’s first Islamist mayor in 1993 for reciting verses from a nationalist poem deemed to incite religious insurrection, saying Imamoglu might suffer a similar fate.
Some say this overwrought scenario could be averted if Erdogan’s former allies ride to the rescue, paradoxically, by targeting the AKP. There have been long running rumors that in addition to former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who is launching a new party, former President Abdullah Gul and former Economy Minister Ali Babacan are in the midst of forming their own party that could become a magnet for a swelling body of disgruntled AKP members, including pious Kurds. They could strike a deal with Erdogan, offering him a safe and dignified exit when his term expires, the hopeful reasoning goes.
Timing is of essence. Should the famously risk-averse Babacan and Gul fail to strike when the iron is hot, they could well become the next victims of Erdogan’s crusade against his adversaries. Turkey, in the words of the pundit, would then go, figuratively speaking, from “being a partial open air prison to a fully fledged one for all.” The safest prediction is that Turkey will remain unpredictable for the foreseeable future. | {
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Patric Hornqvist’s goal with 1:35 left in the game broke a scoreless tie to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead over Nashville in game six of the NHL’s 2017 Stanley Cup Final.
The Penguins added an empty net goal from Carl Hagelin to win the game 2-0 and claim the 2017 Stanley Cup with a 4-2 series win vs. the Predators. It’s the second straight Stanley Cup title for the Penguins.
We’re going dancing with Lord Stanley! Your Pittsburgh Penguins are the 2017 Stanley Cup Champions. pic.twitter.com/CXNamxnPk0 — Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) June 12, 2017
They are the first team to win back-to-back Stanley Cups in 19 years (Detroit 1997-98). Nashville has never won a Stanley Cup. | {
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Comtois has nabbed six so far for the study, all close to his home near the Rhode Island border, but in February he began setting live traps in Hartford—and in the most unlikely places, such as culverts beneath I-91 and I-84. Although he had not caught one in the city at this writing, his critter-cams have documented the species taking subterranean shortcuts to get to their hunting grounds. One hangs out near the MDC sewage treatment plant in south Hartford, less than a quarter mile east of I-91. | {
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida will be a key prize in the 2020 presidential election as Donald Trump seeks a second term in office, and the most prominent Democratic voice working against him is someone who wasn’t even on political radars two years ago.
Nikki Fried was a little-known lobbyist and former public defender in South Florida who just barely won her race for agriculture commissioner in 2018. For the Democratic presidential candidates who will soon be searching Florida for a path to beating Trump, Fried may seem an unlikely guide.
But as the only Democrat in statewide office, Fried is all they’ve got. She has energetically promoted key issues for Democrats, plastered her picture on gasoline pumps to boost her profile and tweeted aggressively at the president — all as part of an effort to revitalize the state’s battered Democratic party with a more combative style.
She’s been a clear contrast to the man she replaced as the state’s de facto Democratic leader — former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who lost his bid for a fourth term at age 76 last year — and she’s even earned respect from political opposites.
Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of Trump’s most vocal supporters and a favorite punching bag for liberal Democrats, said Fried brings “more energy and enthusiasm” to the party.
“Bill Nelson was a throwback to a different Democratic Party. Nikki represents the more in-your-face, progressive wing of the party for sure, but at the same time, she’s able to roll up her sleeves when it comes to governing because she actually is quite competent,” he said.
Now, Democratic candidates are seeking her advice on how to win in Florida — an interesting position for a former political unknown who isn’t shy about handing compliments to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Fried certainly waves the flag on issues dear to Democrats — from abortion rights to equal rights for the LGBTQ community — but she also asked Republicans to sponsor her most important legislative priorities during her first year as a Florida Cabinet member, including bills to create an agricultural hemp program.
“We do our best to put state before party. That always comes first,” Fried said. “While it’s lonely being the only Democrat, there’s a lot of things that we’re doing that are bipartisan and we’re able to cross party lines to get some good things accomplished together. … On policy issues, it’s not so lonely because we are seeing eye to eye on a lot of things that are impacting our state.”
Most of the Democratic presidential candidates or their representatives have met with Fried; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has several times.
“Since taking office, she’s worked on everything from addressing the immediate threat of climate change to LGBTQ consumer advocacy, and she has done so with integrity and transparency,” Warren said in a statement her campaign provided to The Associated Press. “Nikki has proven to Floridians the difference it makes when we elect Democrats and elevate women.”
The advice Fried hands out is to focus on issues that concern Republicans and voters with no party affiliation instead of just preaching to the base.
“Find issues that matter to the masses,” she said.
It’s why she’s not afraid to praise DeSantis, a fierce Trump loyalist, on issues like the environment and medical marijuana.
But, as Gaetz noted, there’s the “in-your-face” side of Fried.
“For f(asterisk)(asterisk)ks sake, who does @realDonaldTrump think he is?!?” Fried, who is Jewish, tweeted after Trump said Jewish voters who vote for Democrats show “great disloyalty.” ″Nobody owns the Jewish vote, especially him.”
She also has said Trump “must be out of his mind” to shift money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create more immigrant detention centers as Hurricane Dorian approached the U.S. coast, and she’s featured in a state Democratic Party video using Trump’s crude language about grabbing women’s private parts to build a case that he and Republicans are anti-women.
“I’m so disappointed with what our current president is doing to the institution,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“He’s going to put the entire world into a recession by his tweets, which I just find is so irresponsible from somebody who is supposed to be not just the leader of our country, but the leader of the free world and somebody who is supposed to inspire the next generation,” she said.
Floridians may not universally know Fried’s name, but they’re certainly getting to know her face. Her department oversees consumer services, including regulation of gasoline pumps. One of the first things she did in office was to include a photo of herself smiling on the stickers stamped on every pump to certify their accuracy. Previous stickers had only the commissioner’s name and signature.
Republican Party of Florida Chairman Joe Gruters, who is also a state senator, recognizes that Fried is the face of Florida’s Democrats but thinks DeSantis’ bigger platform and a high approval rating will win the day for Trump.
“I don’t think the governor would’ve been elected without the president’s support and help, and now it’s fitting to say that I don’t think the president could win Florida without having DeSantis. It’s a great payback,” Gruters said.
LATEST STORIES: | {
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What the developers have to say:
Why Early Access?
Why call it POSTAL 4 when you’ve disowned POSTAL III?
But it’s not going to suck like POSTAL III… Right?
Are you guys aware you’ve spelt ‘No Regrets’ wrong?
Why a new Voice actor for the POSTAL Dude?
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
Design
Humour/Satire
Game world
Main Errands
Prison Guard- While functional, this errand is currently missing some elements from the design such as a section that explains how the Taser Baton will work, polished cinematics and more scripted gameplay. Overall, this is the errand that needs the most work still in the current build.
Sewer Worker - The core of this errand is implemented. Future updates will improve some of the platforming and include more integrative puzzles. We’ll also include an event that takes place once all the tasks in this errand are complete as you leave the sewer to make completion more rewarding.
Animal Catcher - The animal AI and animations will receive more attention during the early stages or Early Access.
Cat Errands - The Cat Dude mechanics are still heavily work-in-progress and will eventually be expanded to function as a new mechanic to work with Cat Grenades, etc.
Border Smuggler - All of the major elements are in place and working. This errand will receive continue to receive additioonal fine tuning to make the gameplay smoother and more balanced, as well as a potential new surprise or two in the future.
Tag Turf - The majority of the elements are in place. The cinematics will receive improvements, and the new characters are not yet final.
Pay Fine - Both routes are fully functional, but there is still need for adjustments and balancing to the combat. More helpful signage will be added to the police station to direct players to the important areas.
Side Errands
Weapons, items, and vendors
Bystanders/AI
Bystanders will randomly stop and chat to each other, as well as use their cell phones
Bystanders will react to the POSTAL Dude when holding weapons, doing something weird, or forgetting to up his zipper after watering the flowers
Basic combat AI and reactions
Living their (soon to be cut short) lives with purpose - NPCs will go about their day visiting various establishments and performing actions then they get there.
Home invasion – NPCs will not like you just barging into their house uninvited!
Routines – Many bystanders will be going about their day and you can follow them and see what shenanigans they get up to, assuming you can resist the urge not to ruin it!
Better pathfinding – Rather than randomly wandering around, Bystanders will take more logical routes with purpose.
Police
Dress up!
In-game cinematics
Optimization
Menus and save system
Controller support
Crashing
Co-op
What is the current state of the Early Access version?
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“To date, we’ve been 100% self-funding this title through Steam royalties, but now we need to grow the team further, and we believe involving the community is the best approach towards making the best POSTAL game ever happen. We considered a few alternative options of funding, such as approaching publishers, many of whom showed interest but ultimately backed away due to fears around the controversy P4 may generate. We also considered a Kickstarter but then decided selling a paper pitch to the community was not our style. We want to show and demonstrate actual gameplay before looking to the community for help.Working with a publisher this early on would have no doubt seen us having to hold back on some of the more outrageous ideas we have planned (not to mention most of them wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot dildo), so going at it our own way with the community’s support is an exciting prospect for us. This way, we can make sure we’re prioritizing the things that are central to our fans and players as well as getting a clear idea of what features you would like for us to implement and what aspects of the game you feel are the most important.We had entertained the idea of calling it something like The Real POSTAL 3 or even POSTAL 2x2 as a play on words. We could have also confused everyone and done the whole reboot thing by simply calling it “POSTAL”. Ultimately, though, POSTAL 4 makes it clear that it’s the next big game in the POSTAL franchise.Fuck no! POSTAL 4 is being made in-house by much of the same team that brought you POSTAL 2: Paradise Lost and POSTAL Redux – a team that understands and respects the community and what made POSTAL 2 the timeless classic it is. POSTAL 4 will be the true sequel that fans have been craving for well over a decade!We Regert Nothing!Rick Hunter was not available to reprise his role as the Dude for POSTAL 4. We are, however, excited to announce that industry veteran Jon St. John, best known as the voice of Duke Nukem among many other memorable characters in his venerable career, has joined us, and we are very pleased with his take on the Dude.”“Until Mike J’s bidet runs out of water. Most important is that we work our asses off to give you our best effort, and of course we’ll be providing updates after its official release to add new features and make improvements.”“POSTAL 4, much like POSTAL 2, will be split up into 5 days (Monday to Friday) with a new set of errands to finish each day. As you progress through the days, the game’s map will open up to reveal more of the world.See our tentative road map for upcoming updates!We have a bulk of the design and concept art done for areas of the game not yet implemented. We won’t be sharing the core design of the game ahead of time in order to not spoil some of the things we have planned (or have someone like Rockstar steal our ideas for GTA 6!), but rest assured, we know where we are going with it. Future errands will get ever more outlandish and involved.We may, however, share some design documents that focus on various game mechanics and planned features.We plan for the humor to be more outrageous than ever! With the addition of Tuesday and other updates since Early Access launch, we've had the time to incorporate more of our trademark satire, parodies, and other pop culture tomfoolery into the game. However, we are still planning to improve and further revise what's already present for Monday and Tuesday, and there is still much more to come in the upcoming weekdays. Plenty more satire and parodies will be hitting you hard and fast in true no holds barred, low brow, RWS-style!Around half of the planned final world is explorable, although the art and level design will undergo many improvements. Many buildings that are inaccessible or incomplete at the moment will be opened up in future updates. Others will have their artwork improved, and we will also be working to improve the overall lighting in the maps.Each day, when fully implemented, will open up new areas of Edensin, each having their own theme and style. Monday’s part of the map includes the suburbs in the northern end of town, and Tuesday introduces the Commercial District and Mexican border in the southern desert area. Future areas will include more city-like built up areas and more lush green sections. There will be more variation in the overall world design.The main errands for Monday and Tuesday are implemented and fully playable in a “Janky Alpha State”™. These errands will receive much more polish throughout the course of Early Access development.Of course, we’ll be adding more errands as we expand the map and implement the rest of the days of the week.As for the state of the existing errands:As well as the main errands, optional varied side errands will be added which will be activated through different means. So far we've added two: Put out raging fires with your Hose! Steal fancy art for a shady art dealer! Next up - Race Mobility Scooters!Each preceding day will have its own set of side errands to complete in the future as well.Side errands will grant the player rewards, such as a secondary means of earning money which can buy weapons, power-ups, or maybe to bribe yourself out of trouble with the law, and other unique bonuses.POSTAL 4 is planned to have guns. Lots of guns And other household items that aren’t guns being used as guns. For now, a small selection is currently available in Early Access, including the return of several classics as well as some handy new weapons. The arsenal will be expanded throughout development, and additional variations in the forms unique ammo types and weapon modes will also come into play to support different playstyles. Try out the Spurt’n’Squirt 9000’s different canister types and imagine what’s to come!Additionally, the Catnip and Energy Drink return and are present in EA, and the new Vitamin X has been implemented which supercharges your melee abilities. There will be some new power-up types and items that allow new abilities and actions. To acquire all of these things (aside from scavenging and theft), we plan for a more elaborate economy in POSTAL 4 where players can use their hard earned (or stolen) cash to purchase various power-ups and weapons. Vendors and vending machines will return.Right now, the AI already an improvement over what it was in POSTAL 2 with NPC's having a wider verity of animations and actions. They live their lives with more purpose and some have routines. We plan to take this much further in coming releases to make the AI more engaging and varied to interact with, as it is the attention to the little detail here that made P2 somewhat ahead of its time back in the day.What’s there:What’s coming:The first inclusion of the police system is in and is fairly rudimentary - akin to what was seen in POSTAL 2, but we have plans to take it much further over the course of EA.Not a fan of the Dude’s new threads? While you’re objectively wrong to think it’s not totally awesome, fear not! In a coming update, the POSTAL Dude will be able to acquire his iconic trench coat, or dress up in any number of ways to fit your mood. Dressing up, much like in P2, will also influence the gameplay, especially if you sneak a uniform out of the police station.The in-game cutscenes are implemented on a basic level and functional. We have started making significant improvements to these and future cinematics, as well as improving overall lip syncing and animation work.We have come a long way in this area since the launch of P4 onto Early Access and it is an ongoing effort throughout development.While it needs more work, we have now finished implementing all the fundamental features such as volume sliders and keybinding. Should there be a demand for a certain menu option, we’ll prioritize based on feedback and look at implementing them sooner rather than later.While the game did launch onto EA without a proper save system, it's now been implemented. We have a bit of work to do to make it more fluid and respawn points make more sense.Full controller support is implemented and we will work on improving things like aim assist in future updates.Crashing frequency will vary from build to build, it's just the nature of developing a PC game that's targeting so many different configurations. After each update we compile a list of reported crashes and make sure they get dealt with. We will not call the game final until we have eradicated all crashing issues.How soon we implement this into development will depend on the sort of feedback we get from the community, but we have designed the game with it in mind and are making our game mechanics network friendly, so when the time comes, we’ll be ready for a smooth implementation!”“In the current Early Access release, Monday and Tuesday are fully playable, although much is in a state of alpha jankiness. The meat and potatoes are in place for everyone to jump in and start going POSTAL to see the potential of where we are going with it.”“We plan to make incremental increases to the price as we add content and progress through Early Access, leading towards the final release and price.”“We are using the in-game Feedback system (where players can submit feedback, along with a screenshot, directly from within game) along with the Steam Community Hub, our own community forums (postal4isjanky.com) and our Discord server to monitor feedback and collect information as well as post updates about our progress. We will be making updates with various minor improvements often and aim to have bigger content updates each month, all accompanied by full changelogs.We’d like to take this opportunity to say that we do not believe in the crunch culture. We care about our members’ (and their families’) well-beings. For this reason, we ask for your understanding should we miss a milestone we set for ourselves. We’re a small team undertaking BIG goals. We have always been honest and open, and that will not stop now. We appreciate your consideration.” | {
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It is not a great time to be a journalist in America.
The assault on the First Amendment by militarized police in Ferguson, Mo., continues unabated, and the press is not spared. Since the start of protests against the August 9 killing of Michael Brown, journalists in Ferguson have been arrested , fired on , threatened , and assaulted .
After more than a week of heavy-handed police violence – through the use of tactics and weapons better suited for a warzone than an American suburb – freedoms of speech and the press were dealt a major legal blow on Tuesday. A federal court denied a motion from the ACLU of Missouri for an emergency order to prevent police from enforcing a ban on standing in place for more than five seconds. The "keep-moving mandate" (also known as the five-second rule ) remains in place, criminalizing constitutionally protected activity and placing a dangerous barrier on the ability of the media to bring us stories from this city under siege. As Tony Rothert, the legal director of the ACLU of Missouri, told MSNBC , "In many ways, the First Amendment has been suspended in Ferguson."
This defeat came on the heels of an earlier victory, in which the ACLU of Missouri reached an agreement with the police, stating that members of the public and the press can record on-duty police officers. That was good news – except it should never have been up for debate, because you always have the right to photograph what's plainly visible in public. Including the police.
Addressing events in Ferguson, President Obama had some encouraging words last week that defended this country's proud tradition of media freedom. "Here, in the United States of America," he said, "police should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs and report to the American people on what they see on the ground."
But those strong words, a reflection of the foundational role of the media in our democracy, belie what has become a sustained attack by the government on press freedoms.
The Obama administration is the most aggressive in U.S. history when it comes to prosecuting journalists' sources for disclosing unauthorized leaks. It has gone after the journalists, too. In just one example, it continues to pursue a Bush-era subpoena of James Risen , a New York Times journalist, to testify against a source accused of leaking information about CIA efforts to derail Iran's nuclear program. In an effort to sever journalists from their sources, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper recently went so far as to sign a directive forbidding intelligence officials from talking to the press – even about unclassified matters – without securing permission in advance.
Widespread government surveillance, in addition to imperiling the privacy rights of millions of Americans, has also severely undermined the freedom of the press. A recent ACLU-Human Rights Watch report shows that many journalists have found information and sources increasingly hard to come by. To make matters more burdensome, they've had to resort to elaborate techniques to keep their communications secret. The result? We get less information about what our government is doing in our name.
The right to record the actions of the government without it interfering is a basic prerequisite to a functioning democracy. Restrictions on media freedom – whether via surveillance, prosecutions, or tear gas – rob us of the information we need to engage in informed debates, assess our government's policies and practices, and hold it to account. Journalists aren't criminals, and they shouldn't have to act like spies.
But there's still a fight to be fought. A media shield law taken up last year by the Senate gives journalists important protection from having to disclose their sources (though it does have some problems, including a deeply concerning national security exception ).
In Ferguson and elsewhere, the ACLU remains vigilant, making sure protesters and journalists know their rights and challenging restrictions on speech. So be sure to brush up – and if your rights have been violated, we want to know about it . | {
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Dr. George Tiller, the OB-GYN who performed late-term abortions, was shot and killed this past weekend and this week much has been coming out about his past and possible connections between what happened and Fox News.
The alleged murderer, Scott Roeder, supposedly posted the following on an Operation Rescue web site in 2007:
It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the “lawlessness” which is spoken of in the Bible. Tiller is the concentration camp “Mengele” of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgement upon our nation.
There were 29 episodes of The O’Reilly Factor that mentioned Dr. George Tiller with hateful, sometimes violent, language. Some examples were mentioned on BradBlog.
O’Reilly continued his series of programs focusing on the Kansas physician, charging him with “operating a death mill” (video here), and alleging that he was “executing babies” (video here).
O’Reilly had previously been highly critical of the state’s Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, charging, during his “Talking Points” commentary in 2007, that she was “allowing [Tiller] to continue the slaughter.”
The idea that Bill O’Reilly‘s inciteful language was influential for people, like Roeder, was furthered by Salon’s Gabriel Winant.
Tiller’s name first appeared on The Factor on Feb. 25, 2005. Since then, O’Reilly and his guest hosts have brought up the doctor on 28 more episodes, including as recently as April 27 of this year. Almost invariably, Tiller is described as “Tiller the Baby Killer.”
Tiller, O’Reilly likes to say, “destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000.” He’s guilty of “Nazi stuff,” said O’Reilly on June 8, 2005; a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida, he suggested on March 15, 2006. “This is the kind of stuff happened in Mao’s China, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union,” said O’Reilly on Nov. 9, 2006.
O’Reilly has also frequently linked Tiller to his longtime obsession, child molestation and rape. Because a young teenager who received an abortion from Tiller could, by definition, have been a victim of statutory rape, O’Reilly frequently suggested that the clinic was covering up for child rapists (rather than teenage boyfriends) by refusing to release records on the abortions performed.
The New York Times also reported on the possible connection, providing quotes and details from several sources.
Within nine hours of Dr. Tiller’s death, Salon magazine had catalogued references to him on 29 episodes of “The O’Reilly Factor” from 2005 to 2009. In one, Mr. O’Reilly talks about him and the lawmakers who supported his “business of destruction,” saying, “I wouldn’t want to be these people if there is a Judgment Day.”
Bloggers quickly found new examples of Mr. O’Reilly’s condemnation of Dr. Tiller. A commenter on Daily Kos noted that Mr. O’Reilly once sent a producer to ambush the doctor at his home in Kansas. After the producer told him that some people called him a “baby killer,” the doctor tried to leave his house and called 911. The camera crew ended the confrontation.
The murderer is responsible for his own actions, but influences cannot be denied. The question then becomes, was he influenced by the hateful and violent rhetoric from people like Bill O’Reilly. We’re not likely to know unless he specifically states what incited his actions. Regardless, the use of such language is sickening, to say the least.
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If they had lived out their lives as they should have, the children killed in one US city would have 818 years between them. Years to have relationships, careers, mistakes and successes.
Since April 2019, 13 children have been killed by gun violence in the city of St Louis, Missouri. The oldest among them were just 16, the youngest was Kayden Johnson, a two-year-old baby.
In St Louis, the life expectancy of the average adult is 74.1 years (based on data from 2008 to 2016 published by Missouri’s department of health). If you assume that these children reached that average life expectancy had they not been killed by guns, they would have together had an extra 818 years between them. But averages are more complicated than that. In a city as deprived of resources as St Louis, even your zip code matters – in some parts of the city, the life expectancy is as low as 69 years.
If those children had been born outside of St Louis, they could have expected longer lives. Nationally, the life expectancy of people born today in the US is 78.6 years. But none of these children were white – a fact which also cuts short the lives of millions of people in the US. Black children born today are expected to live almost four years less than their white peers. | {
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Lisa Marie decorated to Elvis's unique specifications at a cost of $600K and features a queen-size bed, gold bathroom fixtures and teak conference room
Neither 'museum piece' is fit to fly -- the Lisa Marie last flew on the day of Elvis's funeral
Two private jets once owned by Elvis Presley have appeared for sale on an aviation classified website amid their owner's ongoing feud with The King's estate.
Long a fixture at Elvis's Tennessee home, Graceland asked the owner of the Lisa Marie and smaller Hound Dog II in April to remove the jets by early 2015.
A furor soon erupted within circles of dedicated fans accustomed to seeing the jets at Graceland for 30 years.
Piece of history: Two private jets once owned by Elvis Presley have appeared for sale on an aviation classified website amid their owner's ongoing feud with The King's estate. Pictured is the larger of the planes, the Lisa Marie, a 1960 Convair 880
Hound Dog II: The Lisa Marie's smaller companion is also for sale. It served as a backup while renovations and additions were being made to the Lisa Marie
Now, for a 'serious offer,' one deep-pocketed superfan could call the 1960 Convair 880 and Lockheed Jetstar their own, according to sales site Controller.com.
Fans enjoy touring the planes for their direct connection to Presley and his jet-setting lifestyle, a sort of touchstone to the life of the King of Rock and Roll and his family.
By April of next year, the planes named Lisa Marie and Hound Dog II could be gone.
Elvis Presley Enterprises, which operates the Graceland tourist attraction, has written to the planes' owners saying they should prepare to remove the jets from Graceland by next spring.
Feud: The planes have appeared on an airplane classifieds site amid owner K.G. Coker's ongoing feud with the Graceland estate. Graceland announced in April that the planes would need to be moved, causing a fa uproar. Coker said that if forced to move the planes, he'd likely sell them off
Cilla responds: Graceland devotees were upset enough that Priscilla Presley was forced to respond
The planes have been a tourist attraction since the mid-1980s. They had been sold after Presley's death, and were eventually purchased by OKC Partnership in Memphis.
Seen here in 1955, Presley mainly used the Lisa Marie, which he had graciously appointed to his specs, using the Hound Dog II as a back-up jet
OKC Partnership and Graceland agreed to bring the two jets to Graceland.
The agreement called for OKC Partnership to receive a cut of ticket sales in return for keeping the planes there.
In an April 7 letter to OKC Partnership's K.G. Coker, Elvis Presley Enterprises CEO Jack Soden says the company is exercising its option to end the agreement and asks Coker 'to make arrangements for the removal of the airplanes and the restoration of the site on or shortly after April 26, 2015.'
When news of Graceland's wishes that the planes be removed broke, fan outcry was enough to force Priscilla Presley to respond.
'I see your posts about the planes,' Priscilla tweeted in early July. 'Please calm down, we're in the midst of negotiations. It's as simple as that. Thank you.'
In November, New York-based Authentic Brands Group bought Elvis Presley Enterprises and the licensing and merchandising rights for Presley's music and image from CORE Media Group.
As part of the deal, Joel Weinshanker, founder of the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, acquired the operating rights to Graceland, which attracts about 500,000 visitors each year.
After the sale, Authentic Brands said upgrades to the tourist attraction were planned. Earlier this year, Elvis Presley Enterprises announced plans to build a 450-room hotel, theater and restaurant, with a projected opening date of August 2015.
Flying limo: Named after Presley's daughter, the Lisa Marie is like a customized flying limousine, complete with a large bed, a stereo system, conference room and gold-plated bathroom fixtures. It was renovated after Presley bought it from Delta Air Lines. Presley took his first flight on it in November 1975
Fit for a King: Presley bought the Lisa Marie for $250,000 and according to its owner then put hundreds of thousands more into its renovations
Eye-catching: Lime and yellow seats are in Elvis' smaller plane, a Lockheed Jetstar named 'Hound Dog II'
Their plan was approved Tuesday by the Memphis City Council.
Today, Graceland visitors can buy a ticket that includes a tour of Presley's home-turned-museum and the two airplanes. Fans climb into the airplanes for an up-close look at their interiors.
The larger plane, a Convair 880 named after Presley's daughter Lisa Marie, is like a customized flying limousine, complete with a large bed, a stereo system, conference room and gold-plated bathroom fixtures.
It was renovated after Presley bought it from Delta Air Lines. Presley took his first flight on it in November 1975.
When Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977, Presley's pilot flew the Lisa Marie to California to pick up Presley's ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, to bring her back to Memphis.
The Lisa Marie's last real flight saw Priscilla Presley and actor George Hamilton flown from California to Memphis for Presley's funeral, after which it was returned to Memphis for good
Elvis's flying limo has dozens of custom speakers among top of the line other amenities for its day. It was designed by a team that had previously designed Air Force One
Bye ya'll: The beloved plane, long seen as a glimpse tourists could take inside the King's storied inner sanctum, may wind up somewhere other than Presely's Tennessee home next April
'Taking Care of Business': At one point, after the planes were sold following the singer's death, the Lisa Marie was owned by Raymond Zimmerman, owner of the Service Merchandise chain, according to Coker. The Hound Dog II was in the hands of Hustler head Larry Flynt for a time, Coker said
Sad end: When Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977, Presley's pilot flew the Lisa Marie to California to pick up Presley's ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, to bring her back to Memphis. They've not been moved since the 80s
The smaller jet, a JetStar named the Hound Dog II, was also used by Presley.
At one point, after the planes were sold following the singer's death, the Lisa Marie was owned by Raymond Zimmerman, owner of the Service Merchandise chain, according to Coker.
The Hound Dog II was in the hands of Hustler head Larry Flynt for a time, Coker said. | {
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First terrestrial discovery of an extremely rare mineral called ringwoodite confirms theory about huge water ‘reservoirs’ 410 to 660 km beneath the surface of our planet, says a team of researchers led by Prof Graham Pearson from the University of Alberta, Canada.
Ringwoodite is a form of the mineral peridot, believed to exist in large quantities under high pressures in the transition zone.
Ringwoodite has been found in meteorites but, until now, no terrestrial sample has ever been unearthed because scientists haven’t been able to conduct fieldwork at extreme depths.
Analysis of the mineral shows it contains a significant amount of water – 1.5 per cent of its weight.
The mineral was found in 2008 in the Juina area of Mato Grosso, Brazil, where artisan miners unearthed the host diamond from shallow river gravels.
The diamond had been brought to the Earth’s surface by a volcanic rock known as kimberlite – the most deeply derived of all volcanic rocks.
“This sample really provides extremely strong confirmation that there are local wet spots deep in the Earth in this area. That particular zone in the Earth, the transition zone, might have as much water as all the world’s oceans put together,” Prof Pearson said.
The discovery was almost accidental in that scientists had been looking for another mineral when they paid about USD 20 for a 3-mm-wide, dirty-looking brown diamond.
The ringwoodite itself is invisible to the naked eye, buried beneath the surface, so it was fortunate that it was found by Prof Pearson’s team member, John McNeill, in 2009.
“It’s so small, this inclusion, it’s extremely difficult to find, never mind work on, so it was a bit of a piece of luck, this discovery, as are many scientific discoveries,” said Prof Pearson, who is the first author of a paper appearing in the journal Nature.
The sample underwent years of analysis using spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction before it was officially confirmed as ringwoodite.
The discovery confirms about 50 years of theoretical and experimental work by geophysicists, seismologists and other scientists trying to understand the makeup of the Earth’s interior.
Scientists have been deeply divided about the composition of the transition zone and whether it is full of water or desert-dry. Knowing water exists beneath the crust has implications for the study of volcanism and plate tectonics, affecting how rock melts, cools and shifts below the crust.
“One of the reasons the Earth is such a dynamic planet is because of the presence of some water in its interior. Water changes everything about the way a planet works,” Prof Pearson concluded.
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D.G. Pearson et al. 2014. Hydrous mantle transition zone indicated by ringwoodite included within diamond. Nature 507, 221–224; doi: 10.1038/nature13080 | {
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Many old maps have lines like below. Is there a term for a map with that type of lines? (from http://r-russell0912-dc2.blogspot.com/2011/01/pirate-maps-and-old-maps.html)
My best hypothesis is that the lines may be related to Rhumb lines and therefore Mercator projections.
Beautiful Example. | {
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Hana and chums relive their Hong Kong neon nightmare
Square Enix have announced that, 17 years after the Cyberpunk adventure's original PlayStation release, Fear Effect is being remade/reimagined/rebooted/whatever, for modern gaming platforms.
Set for release in 2018, French studio Sushee, who were responsible for the recent tactical-action game Fear Effect: Sedna, will be handling the task of bringing the cult adventure game screaming into this generation. I doubt it will still be on four discs.
"As support for Fear Effect: Sedna quickly built up steam, we realised how much love Fear Effect, as a franchise, still had amongst gamers," says Sushee founder Benjamin Anseaumee. "At the same time, we realised that as well as offering established fans something new with Sedna, it would be great to introduce fresh players to Fear Effect by remaking that first great adventure."
Fortunately, Sushee appear aware of the original game's troubled visuals, fuzzy sound and abysmal control system, as Anseaumee specifically makes mention of the tweaks that will be a big part of new game's build.
"Fear Effect Reinvented will capture the same spirit and atmosphere as the original game, but it’ll bring it into the present with drastically improved visuals, tweaked controls and other exciting extras."
Fear Effect, though it has a strong cult following, suffered with a lot of issues that kept it from achieving its true potential. Stiff animations, bad sprite layering, juvenile dialogue, clunky combat and lengthy load times. But at its heart were cool characters, slick puzzles, an intriguing plot, creepy villains and a fascinating, highly-stylised world. Hopefully this new vision of the 1999 release can re-energise the franchise, iron-out the creases and put the Fear Effect universe on the map.
Fear Effect Reinvented is coming in 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. | {
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Two separate car bombings in Baghdad on January 5 killed more than a dozen people and wounded numerous others, with the Islamic State (IS) extremist group claiming responsibility for one of the attacks.
Iraqi officials said a vehicle exploded in a predominately Shi'ite neighborhood in the Iraqi capital, killing at least six people and wounded 15 others.
Police said the explosives-laden car was parked near a market in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Al-Obaidi when it detonated.
IS claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted a gathering of Shi'a, considered apostates by the Sunni militants.
The second blast hit a security checkpoint in central Baghdad's Bab al-Moadham district, killing eight people.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the second car bombing.
Attacks across Baghdad over the past week, some claimed by the IS group, have killed dozens of people.
The attacks came as Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S. air strikes and militia fighters, battle to retake the northern city of Mosul from IS fighters.
Iraqi military officials said the country's forces on January 5 had launched an offensive against IS militants near the Syrian border in a bid to recapture towns in the area.
"A military operation has begun in the western areas of Anbar [Province] to liberate them from" IS forces, AFP quoted Lieutenant General Qassem Mohammedi, head of Jazeera Operations Command, as saying.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa | {
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Boxing superstar Canelo Alvarez is envisioning a return to the ring in September -- provided COVID-19 conditions allow it -- though he refrained from mentioning potential challengers.
"In my mind, I'm fighting in September," Alvarez told Mexican TV program Box Azteca. "Hopefully all of this will pass and that date will still be possible."
Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) said he has been training at his gym despite restrictions while part of his team -- including trainer Eddy Reynoso -- remains at home.
"Right now, everything is on standby," Alvarez said. "There's nothing going on, nothing discussed -- not even about when the next fight is going to be -- because of the situation. They say there won't be any fights until after July, so we're waiting, since everything is backtracked because of people who don't follow or believe in rules."
The reigning middleweight world champion, who also holds a secondary super middleweight title, has won belts in four weight classes, including light heavyweight after he scored an 11th-round knockout of Sergey Kovalev in his most recent fight in November. Alvarez is dropping to super middleweight, where he has only fought once.
Gennady Golovkin or Billy Joe Saunders are possible rivals at that class for Alvarez, who is considered by many to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Alvarez and Golovkin have faced each other in two controversial bouts, with one resulting in a draw and the other a win for Alvarez. The fighters had agreed to meet a third time, but Golovkin's trainer, Johnathon Banks, told iFL TV this week that they wouldn't seek a September fight against Alvarez since GGG first plans a mandatory IBF middleweight title defense against Kamil Szeremeta.
That could open the door to a bout with Britain's Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs). That fight had been scheduled for May 2 in Las Vegas before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the sports world. However, the British Boxing Board of Control suspended Saunders' license last month over a social media post in which he claimed to demonstrate ways men could abuse their wives. Saunders later apologized for posting the video.
"I don't really know what's next," Alvarez said. "Everything is shut down, so I don't know. We had a good plan for 2020, but unfortunately this happened. We had really big plans, and hopefully in July or a month afterward, we'll see positive results with this situation. We'll see what happens."
Alvarez also ranted about promoters whose fighters challenge him publicly then ask for large paydays that he says they have not earned.
"It's been one of the biggest issues. People scream and shout that I'm afraid to face them, but at the end, when we're in negotiations, the first thing they seek is a very big amount, more than they've ever earned," Alvarez said. "It doesn't make sense. Instead of seeking glory, they look for money. That's fine, but don't exaggerate." | {
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Gov. Paul LePage has long cast a wide net for programs that he says fit the definition of welfare. On Wednesday, in a media release written as an alternative take on new personal-income data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, he lumped Social Security and Medicare into that definition.
The federal data released Tuesday put Maine’s personal-income growth at 0.5 percent in the first three months of 2014, which ranked 39th nationally, last in New England and well below the national rate of 0.8 percent. One of the biggest reasons cited for the low ranking was Maine’s refusal to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
LePage, however, said in the media release that Maine’s net personal earnings increased by 0.8 percent, in line with other New England states and slightly higher than the national rate of net personal earnings, 0.7 percent.
The governor arrived at his number by excluding what the federal bureau calls “personal current transfer receipts” and dividends, interest and rental income.
Personal current transfer receipts include payments from the federal government to states for Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits and Medicaid expansion. Maine is one of only four states (Indiana, Tennessee and Wyoming are the others) where transfer receipts declined in the first quarter of this year. Nationally, transfer receipts grew by $41.1 billion.
LePage said he chose not to follow the federal bureau’s definition because it conceals welfare benefits.
“It doesn’t matter what liberals call these payments, it is welfare, pure and simple,” LePage said in the statement. “Liberals from the White House all the way down to Democratic leadership in Augusta believe that redistribution of wealth – taking money from hard-working taxpayers and giving it to a growing number of welfare recipients – is personal income. It’s not. It’s just more welfare expansion. Democrats can obfuscate the numbers any way they want. The fact is that we have created thousands of jobs, more Mainers are working, and their income is going up.”
The LePage administration’s version of the Bureau of Economic Analysis report supports the narrative that Maine’s ability to rebound from the recession will be dictated by private-sector growth and the addition of jobs.
However, while personal current transfer receipts include programs that are commonly considered welfare, such as food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, his inclusion of Social Security and Medicare – entitlements for seniors who have paid into the programs over many years – prompted quick criticism.
U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, LePage’s Democratic opponent in this year’s race for governor, called LePage’s comments “an insult to Maine seniors.”
“These two programs have helped to provide a secure retirement to thousands upon thousands of hard-working men and women who have earned them one paycheck at a time,” Michaud said in a prepared statement. “They deserve much better than to have their monthly Social Security checks called ‘welfare handouts.’ The governor should be embarrassed that he ever suggested such a thing.”
Independent candidate Eliot Cutler was similarly critical.
“I can’t believe he meant to do that because it’s extraordinarily insulting to the thousands of Maine people who worked all their lives and are now retired and trying to make ends meet by relying on Social Security and Medicare, programs to which they – and for that matter, Gov. LePage – are entitled,” Cutler said in an interview. “I understand that we have welfare challenges in Maine and we need reform. I just don’t talk about it in the way he does. I want to talk about how we can fix the problem. He is simply demonizing people and now expanding the definition of welfare beyond any definition I’ve ever observed.”
LePage’s comments also drew a rebuke from AARP Maine, the state’s largest advocacy group for senior citizens.
“AARP Maine is surprised and disappointed that Governor LePage would describe Social Security and Medicare as welfare,” said state director Lori Parham. “Mainers have paid into these vital programs all their working lives. Amid all the uncertainty that Americans face these days, it is a relief to know that Social Security and Medicare will be there for them, providing a solid foundation for retirement.”
Parham said 95 percent of Mainers who are 65 and older receive Social Security, and more than 270,000 Mainers are enrolled in Medicare.
“Calling Social Security and Medicare ‘welfare’ is not only inaccurate, it is offensive to the hundreds of thousands of Mainers who have paid into these programs all their working lives,” she said.
Stuart Dexter, 79, of Orono, a registered Republican who supports LePage, said he doesn’t think Social Security and Medicare are welfare in the traditional sense.
“It’s government money, I guess, but you also pay in, so it’s not really the same,” Dexter said in a phone interview late Wednesday. “The governor says things sometimes I don’t always understand. I’d like to ask him exactly what he meant.”
Adrienne Bennett, the governor’s spokeswoman, said in an interview that the governor doesn’t necessarily think Social Security and Medicare are welfare, even though they were described that way in Wednesday’s written statement. She did not clarify the distinction and did not respond to calls and emails seeking additional comment.
The federal category of personal current transfer receipts includes Medicaid, which some states expanded last year under the Affordable Care Act. Had Maine expanded its Medicaid program, an estimated $300 million in federal funds would have come to Maine this year. LePage said the state would not be able to afford the cost once the federal government dropped its full reimbursement for expansion and began reducing federal coverage to 90 percent by 2020.
Democrats have been relentless in their criticism of LePage for refusing to expand Medicaid.
“Since January 2014, Maine has turned away more than $160 million in revenue by not expanding Medicaid – economic investment that would have helped create thousands of jobs,” the Maine Democratic Party said in a statement Tuesday. “In total, Maine will lose out on $300 million this year alone, making the economic result of his highly ideological decision clear: Maine ranks dead last among the six New England states when it comes to personal income growth and is the only state not to expand Medicaid in the region.”
Bennett, however, said the governor is more proud of Maine’s growth in net earnings, which were partially attributed to boosts in the construction industry and manufacturing of nondurable goods, with growth of $96 million and $60 million, respectively.
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Kodai Senga battled through seven innings for the win Saturday as the Pacific League-leading Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks came from behind for an 8-4 victory over the error-prone Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
The Hawks ace improved to 11-4 after striking out 10, while allowing four runs on seven hits and two walks at Yafuoku Dome.
Nippon Ham starter Kohei Arihara (11-6) took the loss after surrendering four earned runs on seven hits and a walk, while striking out six over 6-1/3 innings.
In a game-turning moment, Haruki Nishikawa dropped a catchable fly ball from Takuya Kai in the bottom of the seventh, allowing two Hawks runners to score for a 5-4 lead.
The Fighters had jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the fifth when Ryo Watanabe crushed a three-run homer against Senga.
Kensuke Kondo had put Nippon Ham on the board earlier in the frame when he brought home Takuya Nakashima on a fielder’s choice.
With Kondo and Nishikawa on the corners, Watanabe launched Senga’s 2-2 breaking ball into the stands behind center field.
SoftBank closed the gap to 4-3 in the sixth on RBIs from Kai, Seiichi Uchikawa and Alfredo Despaigne.
The Hawks went ahead the following inning after center fielder Nishikawa made a crucial error on a deep fly ball from Kai.
As he sprinted back, Nishikawa looked set for the catch, but he dropped the ball onto the warning track, allowing Nobuhiro Matsuda and Shuhei Fukuda to score.
That spelled the end of the night for Arihara after 6-1/3 innings, but the Fighters immediately surrendered another run on an error with reliever Naoya Ishikawa on the mound.
First baseman Kotaro Kiyomiya fumbled what should have been a routine groundout of Kenji Akashi, allowing Kai to round the bases from second.
Fukuda drove in two runs against Taisho Tamai in the eighth, bouncing a grounder over the infield to score pinch runners Taisei Makihara and Seiji Uebayashi.
Lions 8, Marines 3
At Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium, Seibu’s high-octane offense got home runs from Sosuke Genda, Shuta Tonosaki and Ryusei Sato in a rout of Chiba Lotte.
Buffaloes 8, Eagles 4
At Sendai’s Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi, Orix rallied for five runs in the sixth inning on the way to beating Tohoku Rakuten.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
Giants 8, Swallows 4
At Tokyo Dome, Hayato Sakamoto extended his CL-leading home run tally to 31 for the season as Yomiuri hammered Tokyo Yakult.
BayStars 5, Dragons 4
At Yokohama Stadium, Yokohama pinch hitter Masayuki Kuwahara scored on a Tomo Otosaka sacrifice in the bottom of the ninth for a sayonara victory over Chunichi.
Tigers 6, Carp 5
At Osaka’s Kyocera Dome, Yusuke Oyama smacked a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth against Hiroshima closer Geronimo Franzua to give Hanshin a walk-off win. | {
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Brad Friedman Byon 3/11/2009, 1:11pm PT
Broward County, FL, has dropped all charges against a local Election Integrity advocate whose arrest, described by an election official and other colleagues at the time as "outrageous," was captured on video tape late last year.
Ellen Brodsky, who had been a non-partisan candidate for Supervisor of Elections in last November's election, was arrested at the apparent behest of the office of the county's current Supervisor of Elections --- Brodsky's Democratic opponent in the race --- Dr. Brenda C. Snipes, while trying to view public, post-election counting and canvassing of ballots.
She was charged, at the time, with "disorderly conduct" and "trespassing," forced to spend the night in jail, and not released until nearly 6:00am the next morning, even though her son had posted the required $25 (twenty-five dollar) bail for her by 8:30pm on the evening of her arrest.
The "disorderly conduct" charges were dropped some time later, following the release of a video tape of the incident as posted by The BRAD BLOG in the days following the arrest. The tape, reposted again at the bottom of this article, revealed that Brodsky's conduct had been anything but disorderly when the county police were summoned by Fred Bellis, a deputy election official from Snipes' office, and Brodsky was thrown into handcuffs and hauled away.
While Brodsky's trial on a "trespassing" charge had been set to start today, a last-minute offer to drop all charges, in exchange for admissions by Brodsky that she would not be disruptive in the future, was sent to her last night from Snipes' attorney.
"There was no way I was gonna agree to such demands," Brodsky told The BRAD BLOG today, following the county's dismissal of the court case. "We offered our own compromise," she said. "We will accept a withdraw of all charges, and will, as I've always done, agree to follow Florida law regarding public meetings." It was an oral agreement.
Her attorney, Tanner Andrews, echoed her sentiment. "We agreed to do what we're already doing. We'll obey the law," he explained during a phone call this afternoon. "I could agree not to rob the bank next Sunday and it'd have the same legal effect," he added...
"I guess they were afraid to go to trial based on the evidence," Brodsky told us.
The trespassing charge was based on her attempt to gain access to a "rented space, inside the Lauderhill Mall, in Broward County," where the Supervisor of Election had leased space to canvass the election --- property which Brodsky contends she "never stepped on."
After reviewing a copy of the county's lease, she found that "the lease demonstrated that...the majority is a public area, as part of the mall."
As to SoE "property" being accessible to the public, nonetheless, under Florida's Sunshine Laws governing public meetings, Brodsky explained that such access is granted "only as 'an invitee.' Which means they put up a notice that there's going to be a meeting of some kind, counting, or recounting. Broward County is famous for not putting up public noticing. So I had to do fishing to find out when they were meeting." That's when she was arrested, while inquiring about a meeting, outside of the leased space, as seen in the video tape.
"Anytime there is a public meeting, the public must be allowed in, and they can't consider which members of the public they consider members of the public," she said.
'Outrageous Abuse of Power'
Brodsky told us: "Brenda Snipes is ready to arrest people as a first resort, rather than only in a serious situation. You don't go arresting people as a first resort. It's a matter of the discretion of the use of power....It's an irresponsible abuse of power. I really see a danger there."
At the time of Brodsky's arrest last November, Snipes' colleague, Ion Sancho, the legendary Supervisor of Elections in Leon County (Tallahassee), noted similar concerns: "For a candidate, or a member of the public who wishes nothing more than to observe the process, to be taken into custody would be outrageous absent really extraordinary reasons --- none of which I've heard articulated in this matter," he The BRAD BLOG back in November.
Sancho, who was chosen by the FL Supreme Court to oversee the state's eventually-aborted Presidential Election recount in 2000, explained that in twenty years as an election official, "not even one time has it become necessary to even threaten someone's removal by law enforcement at any kind of meeting that I've ever attended."
"Elections officials in Florida really are uniquely placed, because of the power we have over the process --- and it's pretty immense --- so there's a tendency, a lot of times, for election officials to act in an autocratic manner," he told us at the time. "I'm not saying [Snipes] did, but it wouldn't surprise me."
Other colleagues of Brodsky's, including Ellen Theisen, of the non-partisan election integrity watchdog organization VotersUnite.org, and David Earnhardt, director of the documentary Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections were similarly troubled by the arrest last year.
"It's outrageous," Theisen said, calling the disruption charges "nonsense." Earnhardt described Brodsky as "a remarkable woman who has dedicated the better part of the decade to demanding fair and honest elections." He described the arrest as "offensive" and "ridiculous."
"The power that we as elected officials have, has to be used very, very, very judiciously," Sancho said. "I would caution officials over the removal of any observer from the elections process, because only by keeping the process as open as possible can we maintain credibility within the elections process."
"Quite frankly, I've never found the use of police powers an effective answer to people who are looking for the truth," Sancho told us.
Brodsky's arrest in November had the been the latest in what appears to be a growing trend of arrests of Election Integrity advocates attempting to excercise their rights to participate in the public process of voting and overseeing election counts. In August of last year, a Missouri activist was arrested while attempting to vote, because he had legally refused to offer a photo ID to pollworkers who had illegally required one before voting. In September, an Arizona activist was arrested after noticing, and questioning officials about seals that had been broken on ballot bags during a post-election audit.
"The power that we as elected officials have, has to be used very, very, very judiciously," Sancho, himself an Election Integrity advocate, said following Brodsky's arrest last year.
Pending Suits Against Snipes
Brodsky already has two pending civil suits on file against Snipes' office for violations of Sunshine Laws, requiring public access to public meetings.
One was filed last August when she says she was barred from attending a recount following Florida's primary election last Summer. She says that Fred Bellis, the same deputy who summoned county police prior to her arrest in November, had told her during the August incident that "Brenda Snipes doesn't want you in the building."
Her second suit was filed in January of this year, in response to her November arrest which barred her from overseeing the canvassing of even her own election against Snipes. Florida's Sunshine Law "requires that the public's business, be done in public," Brodsky's attorney Tanner told us. "We intend to uphold that portion of the law."
As to whether or not a civil suit would be brought against Snipes and the county for false arrest, Tanner refused comment. "We're not talking about any litigation that is not filed."
Brodsky's comments, however, seemed to indicate that such a suit might be forthcoming.
"There is no way we would let this thing slide by like this," she said. "There's been too much of abuse of power, too much cruelty. I believe it should be exposed. If we're going to have any kind of meaningful change in how our government is conducted, we can't let them get away with this stuff."
According to the election results as posted at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections website, Broward County Supervisor of Elections Snipes defeated Brodsky in November's election for Broward County Supervisor of Elections, 81.79% to 18.21%.
Snipes' office did not immediately return a voice message seeking comment for this story.
* * *
The video tape of the November arrest, outside of Broward County's leased election facility, following a call to authorities from Snipes' deputy Fred Bellis, as also seen on the tape, is reposted below...
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I've been studying inequality for more than 30 years, and for most of that time it's been an issue well out of the limelight. And so I've been delighted to see it enter the political conversation in a big way recently.
But something major is missing from that conversation, which centers on questions of fairness. Fairness clearly matters, but focusing on it presupposes a zero-sum competition between different classes. That's consistent with the conventional view that inequality is good for the rich and bad for the poor, and so the rich should favor it while the poor should oppose it. But the conventional view is wrong.
High levels of inequality are bad for the rich, too, and not just because inequality offends norms of fairness. As I'll explain, inequality is also extremely wasteful.
It's easy to demonstrate that growing income disparities have made life more difficult not just for the poor, but also for the economy's ostensible winners — the very wealthy. The good news is that a simple change in tax policy could free up literally trillions of dollars a year without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. If that claim strikes you as far-fetched, you'll be surprised to see that it rests on only five simple premises.
1) Frames of reference matter. A lot.
Which of the two vertical lines below is longer?
If you suspect a trick, you may say they're the same, and indeed they are. But if you really think they LOOK the same, you should schedule a neurological checkup. To the normal human brain, the line on the right looks longer, simply because of where it sits.
Economists have been slow to recognize that similar framing effects shape our evaluations of almost every good we buy. Long ago, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, I lived in a two-room house with no electricity or plumbing. If I lived in that house in the United States, my children would have been ashamed for their friends to see where we lived. Yet in Nepal it was completely fine; I never hesitated to invite friends over.
If my Nepalese friends could see my house in Ithaca, New York, they'd think I'd taken leave of my senses. They'd wonder why anyone would need such a grand house. Why so many bathrooms? But most Americans don't think that. These aren't bizarre judgments. They follow naturally from the fact that our evaluations depend so heavily on what's nearby. An immediate consequence of these framing effects is that...
2) Each person's spending depends in part on what others spend
Standard economic models assume that each person's spending is completely independent of what others spend.
But if framing effects matter, that can't be right.
People spend more when their friends and neighbors spend more. This isn't some fantastic new discovery made by a young economist. It's a dynamic we've known about basically forever. Many have called it "keeping up with the Joneses." But I've never liked that expression, because it summons images of insecure people trying to appear wealthier than they are. Peer influences would in fact be just as strong in a world completely free of jealousy and envy. And rising inequality has made those influences much stronger.
The median new house in the US is now 50 percent larger than it was in 1980, even though the median income has grown only slightly in real terms. Houses are growing faster than incomes because of a process I call "expenditure cascades."
Here's how it works. People at the top begin building bigger houses simply because they have more money. Perhaps it's now the custom for them to have their daughters' wedding receptions at home, so a ballroom is now part of what defines adequate living space. Those houses shift the frame of reference for the near-wealthy — who travel in the same social circles — so they, too, build bigger.
But as the near-wealthy begin adding granite countertops and vaulted ceilings, they shift the frames of reference that define adequate for upper-middle class families. And so they begin going into debt to keep pace. And so it goes, all the way down the income ladder. More spending by the people who can afford it at the top ultimately creates pressure for more spending by people who can't afford it at the bottom.
The best response might seem to be simply to exhort people to summon more discipline, except for the fact that...
3) The costs of failure to keep pace with community spending norms are not just hurt feelings
The process I describe isn't a law. Congress isn't mandating that people buy bigger houses. So if it's optional, why don't people simply opt out? Because opting out entails real costs that are extremely hard to avoid.
Failure to keep pace with what peers spend on housing means not just living in a house that seems uncomfortably small. It also means having to send your children to inferior schools. A "good" school is a relative concept, and the better schools are almost always those in more expensive neighborhoods.
Here's the toil index, a simple measure I constructed to track one important cost of inequality for middle-income families. To send their children to a school of at least average quality, median earners must buy the median-priced home in their area. The toil index plots the monthly number of hours the median earner must work to achieve that goal. When incomes were growing at the same rate for everyone during the post-World War II decades, the toil index was almost completely stable. But income inequality began rising sharply after 1970, and since then the toil index has been rising in tandem. It's now approximately 100 hours a month, up from only 42 hours in 1970.
The toil index
The median real hourly wage for men in the US is actually lower now than in the 1980s. If middle-income families must now spend more than before to achieve basic goals, how do they manage? Census data reveal clear symptoms of increasing financial distress among these families. Of the 100 largest US counties, those where income inequality grew most rapidly were also those that experienced the largest increases in three important symptoms of financial distress: divorce rates, long commutes, and bankruptcy filings.
In OECD countries, higher inequality is associated with longer work hours, both across countries and over time. Standard economic models predict none of these relationships.
Expenditure cascades have also occurred in other areas, such as celebrations to mark special occasions. Like a good school, a "special" celebration is a relative concept. To seem special, it must stand out from what people expect. But when everyone spends more, the effect is merely to raise the bar that defines special. The average American wedding now costs $30,000, roughly twice as much as in 1990. No one believes that couples who marry today are happier because weddings cost so much more than they used to.
The multi-million-dollar coming-of-age parties staged by the wealthiest families have similarly raised the standards that govern spending on such events by families further down the income ladder. Many middle-income children are now disappointed when birthday parties fail to feature a professional clown or magician.
Concerns about relative income are a hard fact of human nature. No biologist is surprised that positional concerns loom so large in human psychology, since relative position was always by far the best predictor of reproductive success. People who didn't care how well they were doing in relative terms would have been ill-equipped for the competitive environments in which we evolved. That's why no thoughtful parents would want their children to be stripped of positional concerns completely.
But even though positional concerns are an essential component of human psychology, not all of their consequences are benign. That's because...
4) Positional concerns spawn wasteful spending patterns, even when everyone is well-informed and rational
Charles Darwin, the great British naturalist, was heavily influenced by Adam Smith and other economists. He saw that competition in nature, like competition in the marketplace, often produced benefits for both individuals and larger groups, just as in Smith's fabled Invisible Hand theory. Keen eyesight in hawks, for example, made both individual hawks and hawks as a species more successful. Yet Darwin also saw clearly that many traits and behaviors helped individuals at the expense of larger groups. When success depends on relative position, as it almost always does in competitive struggles, wasteful positional arms races often result.
Consider the antlers in modern bull elk, which span four feet and weigh as much as 40 pounds. Because they impair mobility in wooded areas, bulls are more easily surrounded and killed by wolves. So why doesn't natural selection favor smaller antlers? Darwin's answer was that large antlers evolved because elk are a polygynous species, meaning that males take more than one mate if they can. But if some take multiple mates, others are left with none. That's why males fight so bitterly with one another for access to females. Mutations that coded for larger antlers spread quickly because they made any bull that had them more likely to win.
But bulls as a group would be better off if each animal's antlers were smaller by half, since they'd be less vulnerable to predators, and each fight would be decided as before. The inefficiency in such positional arms races is exactly analogous to the inefficiency of military arms races. It's also like when everyone stands to get a better view: no one sees any better than if all had remained comfortably seated.
Beyond some point, additional spending on mansions, coming-of-age parties, and many other goods becomes purely positional, meaning that it merely raises the bar that defines adequate. Because much of the total spending in today's economy is purely positional, it is wasteful in the same way that military arms races are wasteful.
These observations are not new. In a 1993 book, the Dutch economist Ruut Veenhoven observed that average happiness levels in Japan were essentially static during the three decades following 1960, even though real per-capita income rose more than three-fold during that period. His explanation was that happiness depends more on relative than absolute income, and when everyone's income rises in tandem, relative incomes are unaffected.
We see a completely different pattern when we plot happiness against income at a given point in time. As the psychologist Edward Diener and his co-authors interpreted this scatter plot based on early 1980s US data, for example, people with higher incomes are happier on the average precisely because they feel relatively well off.
Although positional concerns spawn trillions of dollars of unproductive spending each year, the good news is that...
5) A simple change in the tax system would eliminate many wasteful spending patterns
Elk lack the cognitive and communication skills to do anything about their particular positional arms race. But humans can and do enact positional arms control agreements. We spend too much on houses and parties because as individuals we have no incentive to take account of how our spending affects others. The tax system offers a simple, unintrusive way to change our incentives. We could abandon the current progressive income tax in favor of a much more steeply progressive consumption tax.
Here's how it would work: people would report their incomes as they do now, and also their annual savings, as many now do for tax-exempt retirement accounts. Their income minus their savings is their annual consumption, and that amount less a large standard deduction would be their taxable consumption. For instance, a family that earned $100,000 and saved $50,000 in a tax year would have annual consumption of $50,000. If the standard deduction was $30,000, the family's taxable consumption would be $20,000.
The tax rate would start out low and would then rise steadily as taxable consumption rises. Under the current income tax, rates can't rise too high without choking off savings and investment. But higher marginal tax rates on consumption actually encourage savings and investment.
Many wealthy think higher taxes would make them less able to get what they want. But what happens when everyone spends less is very different from what happens when an individual spends less. In a society with a progressive consumption tax, the wealthiest drivers might buy a Porsche 911 Turbo for $150,000 rather than a Ferrari F 12 Berlinetta for more than twice that amount. But since everyone would be scaling back, that society's Porsche owners would be just as excited about their cars as Ferrari owners are under the current tax system.
There's another important dimension to the argument: a progressive consumption tax would generate additional revenue that could help pay for better roads. Under the current tax structure, the rich can afford their Ferraris but must drive them on poorly maintained roads. Can anyone doubt that the experience of a Ferrari driver on roads riddled with potholes would be less satisfying than that of a Porsche driver on well maintained roads?
My basic claim, in short, is that a simple change in our tax structure would enable us to put trillions of dollars a year to better uses without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. On its face, this claim will strike most people as as implausible. Yet my argument in favor of it has few moving parts, and none of the premises on which it rests is controversial in the least. Everyone agrees that most income gains have been going to top earners, which has led them to build bigger houses. No one disputes that, beyond some point, across-the-board increases in mansion size don't make the rich any happier. Nor does anyone dispute that larger houses at the top have shifted the frame of reference that shapes the demands of those just below them, and so on, all the way down the income ladder.
Nor is there any dispute that the resulting financial squeeze on middle-income families has not only made it more difficult for those families to pay their bills, it has also made it more difficult for governments to raise revenue. And that, in turn, has led to a decline in the quality of infrastructure and public services. So despite their higher incomes, the rich are now worse off on balance. Their higher spending on cars and houses has simply raised the bar that defines adequate in those categories, while the corresponding decline in the quality of public goods has had significant negative impact.
The encouraging news is that the profoundly wasteful spending patterns caused by rising income inequality could easily be changed. But that's unlikely to happen until our political conversation begins to focus on inequality's practical consequences. | {
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Home India Activists float paper, thermocol boats to remind Nitin Gadkari of clean Yamuna promise
Activists float paper, thermocol boats to remind Nitin Gadkari of clean Yamuna promise
The protest by the 'River Connect Campaign' saw the fragile boats float some distance towards the Taj Mahal before they collapsed one by one, as a huge crowd cheered and raised slogans.
New Delhi: A man offers prayers as a priest walks past at a ghat of the polluted Yamuna river in New Delhi on Monday. PTI Photo (PTI7_17_2017_000173B)
River activists on Sunday evening floated paper and thermocol models of boats and ships as a mark of protest to remind Union Minister Nitin Gadkari of his “forgotten” promise made two years ago that Yamuna would be dredged and cleaned up for launching a ferry service between Delhi and Agra. Tourists, he had said, would be able to visit the Taj Mahal in a steamer boat.
The protest by the ‘River Connect Campaign’ saw the fragile boats float some distance towards the Taj Mahal before they collapsed one by one, as a huge crowd cheered and raised slogans. The gathering demanded uninterrupted flow of water in Yamuna, cleaning of the river and effective check on people who defecate and litter on the banks. They also demanded a National Rivers policy with a central rivers authority.
Activist Padmini Iyer of the River Connect Campaign told reporters that their movement has been going on for more than two years with a daily Yamuna arti and sabha to connect local people with the “dying” river. The group was trying hard to sensitise locals about cleanliness, she said.
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For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App. | {
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Grumpy is a dwarf in the Shrek franchise. He is based on Grumpy from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as being based loosely on one of the dwarfs from the fairytale, Snow White and a loose allusion to the Prince from The Princess and the Pea.
He is the father of Lord Farquaad.
Contents show]
Appearances
In the musical, it was revealed that he married Princess Pea of Duloc, who left her throne to marry him. They eventually had a son which they named Farquaad. Sometime during Farquaad's early childhood, Pea died when she fell from the top mattress of their bed, leaving Grumpy to raise Farquaad.
Farquaad claimed that his father had abandoned him in the woods as a child. However, when the fairytale characters brought Grumpy to his son's wedding, he reveals that he kicked Farquaad out because he was twenty-eight years old and living in his basement.
Grumpy is present along with all the other fairy tale creatures who were banished to Shrek's swamp. He is later seen at Shrek and Fiona's wedding.
Snow White gave him away as a baby shower gift to be a nanny to Fiona's newborn babies. He does the cleaning, feeding, and, as he says, the "burping". He later appears at the end of the movie ringing the doorbell of Shrek's house, saying that he was here to babysit, prompting Shrek to stick a bottle in his mouth and slam the door shut in his face. | {
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For the Bristol Bay Times - Dutch Harbor Fisherman
NOAA is announcing more than $25 million in recommended funding for 88 projects under the 2014-2015 Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program. This is the most significant amount of funding ever granted by NOAA under this decades-old program.
"NOAA is committed to helping communities become more resilient environmentally as well as economically," said NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan, Ph.D. "These awards will create jobs, increase economic opportunities for fishing communities, improve the kinds of data and observations we collect about the health of our nation's fisheries and oceans, and make sound investments in mitigating future risk."
This year's recommended projects fall into four broad categories:
Maximizing fishing opportunities and jobs,
Improving key fisheries observations,
Increasing the quality and quantity of domestic seafood, and
Improving fishery information from U.S. territories.
"With projects in every region of the country and in U.S. territories, these grants underscore that communities have different goals and needs across the country and they all have something significant to bring to the table as far as their approach to research and project development," said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries. "The grants we are recommending touch every aspect of marine research including socioeconomics, fishing gear and bycatch, aquaculture, fisheries management and the effects of climate."
Established in 1954, the Saltonstall-Kennedy grants program is designed to address the needs of fishing communities, optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining sustainable fisheries, and increase other opportunities to keep working waterfronts viable.
As in past years, the competition for funding was robust. The agency received 279 applications from state and local governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and academia, totaling more than $76 million in requests.
Proposals underwent extensive and rigorous technical review, both within the agency and by an external constituent panel, before final agency review, resulting in the list of recommended projects.
"These grants once again underscore NOAA Fisheries' commitment to addressing the needs of our fishing communities," said Sobeck.
At this point in the selection process, the application approval and funds obligation is not final. Divisions of NOAA and the Department of Commerce, NOAA's parent agency, must still give final approval for the projects, and successful applicants will receive funding in the near future.
For more information on research priorities, visit http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/mb/financial_services/skhome.htm, and the grants.gov weblink at http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html?keywords=Saltonstall-Kennedy. | {
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Las élites globales están usando tipos de interés negativos para hacer lo mismo que la inflación: hacer desaparecer tu riqueza. Una forma de evitarlo es tener dinero en efectivo. Pero para impedir esa opción, las élites han lanzado una guerra contra el efectivo.
La guerra contra el efectivo tiene dos métodos principales. El primero es dificultar la obtención del efectivo. Los bancos estadounidenses reportarán a cualquiera que coja más de 3.000 euros en efectivo como si se tratara de alguien involucrado en actividades sospechosas.
El segundo es eliminar los billetes de gran denominación. Estados Unidos se deshizo de sus billetes de 500 dólares en 1969 y el de 100 dólares perdió casi 85% de su poder de compra desde entonces. Con un poco más de inflación, el de 100 dólares será reducido a la nada.
La guerra contra el efectivo no es noticia, pero hay algunas novedades. Este mes de mayo, el Banco Central Europeo anunció que estaban discontinuando la producción de nuevos billetes de 500 euros. Los existentes todavía serán moneda de curso legal pero no se producirán nuevos.
Esto significa que, con el tiempo, habrá poco suministro de estos billetes y aquellos en necesidad de grandes denominaciones podrían aumentar el precio por arriba del valor nominal. Por ejemplo, pagando 502 euros por cada uno de 500. Esta prima de dos euros es como un tipo de interés negativo sobre las tenencias de billetes de menor denominación.
¿Por qué los bancos centrales como el ECB están imponiendo tipos de interés negativos? ¿Cuál es el fin de esta política?
Los tipos de interés negativos son un impuesto al ahorro disfrazado. El modo tradicional de robarles dinero a los ahorradores es la inflación. Podrías tener un tipo de interés positivo del 2% en tu caja de ahorro, pero si la inflación es del 3%, entonces tu retorno real es negativo en un 1%.
Si tenemos en cuenta un depósito bancario de 100.000 euros y aplicamos un tipo de interés positiva del 2%, ganarías 2.000 euros en intereses, dejando un saldo de cuenta de 102.000 después de un año. Pero después de ajustarlo con una inflación del 3%, el poder de compra del saldo de 102.000 será de sólo 98.940 euros.
El ahorrador está peor. Esa es la realidad.
La segunda respuesta es la teoría académica detrás de los tipos de interés negativos. En teoría, los ahorradores estarán descontentos con las NIRP (Negative Interest Rate Policy) y reaccionarán gastando su dinero. Asimismo, los empresarios encontrarán atractivas a las tipos de interés negativos porque pueden pedir dinero prestado y pagarle menos al banco.
Esta combinación de préstamo y gasto por los consumidores y empresarios llevará a un consumo e inversión que estimulará la economía, especialmente después de que los famosos multiplicadores keynesianos se sumen.
Esta teoría es ciencia basura. La realidad es lo opuesto de lo que los académicos de la élite proyectan. Los ahorradores están ahorrando para alcanzar alguna meta en el futuro. Podría ser para su jubilación, la educación de sus hijos o gastos médicos. Pero cuando se imponen los tipos negativos, los ahorradores no ahorran menos, sino más, para compensar la diferencia e intentar cumplir sus metas.
La otra consecuencia accidental de esta política es la señal que envía. Los ahorradores concluyen correctamente que si los bancos centrales están usando tipos de interés negativos, deben estar preocupados por la deflación. En la deflación, los precios caen. Los consumidores aplazan los gastos para conseguir precios más bajos en el futuro.
En vez de inducir a los ahorradores a ahorrar menos y gastar más, los tipos negativos hacen que ahorren más y gasten menos. Es un ejemplo perfecto de la ley de las consecuencias no intencionadas. Cuando las teorías académicas abstractas son aplicadas en el mundo real por banqueros centrales sin experiencia del mundo real, se obtiene el resultado opuesto al buscado.
Estas consecuencias ya han aparecido en Japón y Europa.
Se ha cuestionado la habilidad de los banqueros centrales para extender la política de tipos negativos más allá de los niveles actuales. Prohibir el efectivo haría que esos planes fueran mucho más fáciles de implementar.
Una solución para esta nueva situación es comprar oro físico. Pero los gobiernos siempre usan el terrorismo, el tráfico de drogas y el lavado de dinero como excusa para controlar a los ciudadanos honestos y privarlos de la habilidad de usar alternativas monetarias como el oro y el dinero en efectivo. Cuando empiezas a ver noticias sobre criminales usando oro en vez de efectivo, eso es un pretexto para la regulación gubernamental del oro.
Y adivina qué. Un artículo sobre el tema de los criminales haciendo uso del oro se ha publicado recientemente en Bloomberg. Esta es otra razón para obtener ahora tu oro físico, mientras puedas.
Y por si la inflación, la confiscación y los tipos negativos no fueran suficiente, las élites globales están planeando un nuevo plan de impuestos. Como siempre, existe un nombre técnico para los impuestos globales, así quienes no son parte de la élite no entienden el plan. Se llama BEPS, que son las iniciales de Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, que en español se traduciría como Erosión de la Base Imponible y Traslado de Beneficios.
El proyecto BEPS está siendo gestionado por la OCDE y el G-20, con el FMI contribuyendo a modo de soporte técnico. Vale la pena interesarse por este proyecto. Citando la famosa frase atribuida a Trotsky: “Podrás no estar interesado en BEPS, pero BEPS está interesado en ti.”
El plan de la élite global no acaba ahí. También está la agenda del cambio climático liderada por las Naciones Unidas. La ciencia del cambio climático es un tema difícil, pero no tenemos que meternos en él para nuestros propósitos. Es suficiente con saber que el cambio climático es una plataforma conveniente para imponer el dinero mundial y el impuesto global.
Esto es porque el cambio climático no respeta las fronteras. Si tienes un problema global, puedes justificar las soluciones globales. Un plan de impuestos globales para pagar por la infraestructura del cambio climático con dinero mundial es el objetivo.
No creas que el cambio climático no se relaciona con el sistema monetario internacional. Christine Lagarde casi nunca da discursos sobre finanzas sin mencionar el cambio climático. Lo mismo ocurre con las otras élites monetarias. Saben que el cambio climático es el camino para el control financiero global.
Ese es el plan de la élite global. Dinero mundial, inflación mundial e impuestos globales, con el FMI como el Banco Central del mundo y los líderes del G-20 como la junta de directores. Nada de esto es secreto.
Pero se irá desarrollando en los próximos años.
Atentamente,
Jim Rickards | {
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Android is better How I fell in love with Android and how you can too
It was just meant to be a quick experiment. I started using a Nexus 4. I was going to go right back to my iPhone after a week. I was designing more and more Android interfaces at Twitter and realized I needed to more intimately grok Android UI paradigms. A week in it started feeling normal; the larger form factor was no longer a nuisance. A month in I didn't miss anything about my iPhone. Two months in I sold my iPhone 5 and iPad Mini. It has now been three months since I made the switch. I'm loving Android. I only missed having a good camera so I just upgraded to a Google Edition Samsung Galaxy S4.
Obligatory hipster stuff and gadgets shot.
Apple Lock-in? It only took that first week to realize I wasn't really locked into the Apple ecosystem and certainly not iCloud. Photo Stream? Nope, total garbage.. why should the user need know about a rolling 1,000 photo buffer. Dropbox and Google+ Auto Backup do this better. I can take a photo and it's already on my computer without opening iPhoto.
Nope, total garbage.. why should the user need know about a rolling 1,000 photo buffer. Dropbox and Google+ Auto Backup do this better. I can take a photo and it's already on my computer without opening iPhoto. Safari syncing? I use Chrome and browser sync is amazing.
I use Chrome and browser sync is amazing. iTunes and iTunes Match? I no longer maintain an iTunes library and haven't for the last few years. I'm more than covered with music podcasts, Hype Machine, Rdio and Spotify.
I no longer maintain an iTunes library and haven't for the last few years. I'm more than covered with music podcasts, Hype Machine, Rdio and Spotify. What about iCloud Calendar, Contacts & Mail? My calendars are hosted by Google and I don't use an iCloud email account. Contact syncing was a great feature, but I made do by exporting from the OS X Contacts app and importing to GMail Contacts.
My calendars are hosted by Google and I don't use an iCloud email account. Contact syncing was a great feature, but I made do by exporting from the OS X Contacts app and importing to GMail Contacts. Find my Phone? I use Lookout for this and Google just released Android Device Manager.
I use Lookout for this and Google just released Android Device Manager. Reminders.app? I switched to the more feature-rich Wunderlist.
I switched to the more feature-rich Wunderlist. Facetime? There's always the Facetime app on my Mac. There's also Google Hangouts but I don't think it's quite there yet. I do, however, miss iMessage. I ended up setting Facebook Messenger as my default SMS app (yes you can set default apps!). "No other company has embedded itself this deeply into my life." Most services I rely on daily are owned by Google. My world revolves around GMail and Google search. I could start listing Android features I adore, but this succinctly states why Android makes sense for me: Gabor is a friend and previous investor in Notifo that happens to have been the founding PM of Google Now. My world revolves around GMail and Google search. I could start listing Android features I adore, but this succinctly states why Android makes sense for me: The list of Apple products I use daily largely amounts to OS X and Apple hardware. People identify themselves as Mac users and Windows users... zoom out a bit and you'll find another Venn diagram where Google almost entirely encompasses all of these users. How I fell in love It started with the larger and wider screen. I read a lot on my phone, particularly in Chrome. Responsive sites look fantastic. The Android back button makes this browsing experience even more pleasurable when going back and forth between pages on news sites.
Obligatory bokeh product shot. (Google Edition Samsung Galaxy S4 in Alamo Square Park)
Then I got used to the Google Calendar widget I placed on my home screen. Then it was the glorious Gmail app. It's much better on Android and more frequently updated. Switching between multiple GMail accounts on Android is quicker, you can customize which messages you receive notifications for, assign different sounds for individual labels and more. But when it comes down to it my love of Android lies heavily with the way Android handles notifications. These aren't your useless "read-only" iOS notifications that just launch the app. I've thought about notifications a lot while I was working on the notifications team; how to keep the user in control and make it clear what each notification is actually saying. Android just knocks it out of the park here.
Always cloudy in SF.
The first thing I do every morning is a simple down swipe from the top to reveal the drawer. Notifications can be individually or bulk dismissed; iOS only does it at the app level. Depending on the app, notifications may be expanded with a simple down swipe to reveal additional information and inline actions. For example Gmail app email notifications have inline actions like Archive and Reply. They can also digest notifications together when multiple come from the same app. If you don't open the notification drawer, you'll see app icons in the top status bar. Also, it's common for apps to scroll notifications line-by-line in that status bar when they come in. This bar can also be used for brief status messages. Anything longer can be pushed to the drawer as an "ongoing notification" type: things like uploading/downloading or playing music. That way you know where to go to easily open up that app again. Basically, it's your entire phone command center. You can get a lot done there without opening up every app. If you have multiple devices, Google announced user notifications at I/O this year, allowing developers to let users dismiss notifications from all of their devices after they have been interacted with on one device. That being said, there is one stark difference with Android notifications: they don't light up the screen nor do they display on the lock screen. Android devices have a small indicator LED (with sound and vibration depending on your settings) for this purpose like the good ol' Blackberry days. Not your cup of tea? You can do just about anything with Android... There really is an app for that I set out to write an article about how I feel Android provides unique affordances that create a unique cohesive mobile experience (more on that below) rather than talking openness, features and apps. However, the more time I spent living with Android it became obvious that being able to do anything and suit a variety of needs is a pillar of the Android experience. Mainly I'm talking about a less restrictive canvas for developers. You can access the file-system, the hardware, use intents to pass data to other apps and services, and much more. Don't like the lack of lock screen notifications? Install DashClock (example) or NiLS. Want to customize the LED color or each type of notification? Light Flow is just the ticket. I predict many more lock screen notification apps will emerge soon; Android 4.3 brings needed notification APIs (current lock screen solutions hackily register as an accessibility service). For example, you can bring Moto X style notifications that light up your screen when notifications arrive with ActiveNotifications. You can display all Android notifications on your desktop so you never have to pull your phone out. You can send scheduled messages via SMS, Facebook, Twitter or Gmail. Get caller ID and block calls with a myriad of apps like Truecaller. Use Shush to automatically unmute your phone after a set duration. You can radically personalize the OS with launcher alternatives like GO Launcher EX, Nova Launcher and Everything.me. Want a picture emailed of the person trying to unlock your phone emailed to you? Lookout Security & Antivirus does that. Don't want to use Dropbox to sync your photos? Roll your own with BitTorrent Sync or the powerful FolderSync. Learn to type faster by changing your keyboard to SwiftKey or Swype. Send text messages from your desktop using your own phone number with MightyText. Set different power profiles when you really need to conserve battery life with JuiceDefender. You can use Farebot to read your NFC public transit card to display recent trips and value left. Don't like texting while driving? Use Drive Agent to automatically respond to messages when driving. Want to automate repetitive tasks? Use NFC Task Launcher to automatically change your settings based on location. Want to easily switch to playing music over bluetooth speakers without diving into settings? You don't need an app for that, it's built into Android. Welcome to the world of "tap-and-bluetooth-pair" with NFC-enabled bluetooth audio receivers. And of course, you can tether your fast LTE connection (30 down/20 up in SF with AT&T) right out of the box. You can do anything with Android. And if you find out that app you just purchased doesn't quite do what you want, you can return it. Don't like your paid app? Google Play lets you get a refund within the first 15 minutes. The smallest things annoyed me in iOS, like not being able to delete the Newsstand app. I can do whatever I want in Android, including disabling default apps I don't use like Google Play Magazines. This is the part where you start talking about horrible battery life, right Stammy?? Not anymore. This is not 2010 where you need a task killer (since 2.2 Froyo brought dalvik). I won't talk about battery life much since you can find anyone that either has great or horrible battery life on any device, but I've been able to squeeze more life out of my Android devices.
441ppi.. it's just ridiculous. App developers, make sure you create xxhdpi 3x assets :)
One fluid experience I was trying to find out why Android felt so remarkably different to use, beyond aesthetics. I found there are a few pieces that help contribute to this magical user experience: the global back button, intents and Google Now. I was trying to find out why Android felt so remarkably different to use, beyond aesthetics. I found there are a few pieces that help contribute to this magical user experience: the Each app has its own interactions, design and purpose as it should. Android helps coalesce each of these siloed experiences together into something a bit more fluid. The back button allows you to navigate through your history of pages, apps and menus. Didn't mean to do that? No worries, no cognitive load required, no need to parse how that new app implements its navigation or drawer. Just hit back. Remember the first time you discovered those shortcuts in Ikea? Felt pretty neat to save time navigating through a useless section when you knew exactly where you wanted to go. That's Android and the back button. I rarely need use the app switcher in Android. That's something iOS users rely on to get around, especially if their home screen is filled with folders. There's a similar design convention in Android called the "up" arrow often found on the top left corner of apps. It's used to "navigate within an app based on the hierarchical relationships between screens." Basically it lets you go up one level in the screen hierarchy regardless of how you entered the app (notification, intent, et cetera). Android establishes these navigation standards so the user doesn't have to think. Next up we have intents. Android intents let apps to interact with each other and share data. In layman's terms, an intent is a message from an application along with a piece of data saying it wants to perform an action or has already completed one. The OS or other apps are able to listen to these intents and act on them. Apps tell the OS what they can do and with what kind of data by registering intent filters. To the user, it appears as a modal dialog asking what app they would like to use to complete the intended action and if they would like that app to handle all such requests in the future. This is a very simplified explanation but it begins to show how the Android OS allows applications more visibility to the environment. They know what other apps are installed, what activities are currently going on and more.
A simple intents example to open a Foursquare link in the Foursquare app.
Intents continue this feeling that using Android is one fluid experience. You're seamlessly going about your business completing a task. With iOS you are pausing what you were doing to open another app, find the image you just edited to post, or paste what you copied over from another app. Instead, it's all the same flow in Android. One key component to this experience is that my identity follows me around. Given that the majority of the services I rely on are Google products, I'm already logged in or just need to select an account. This is a significant convenience that also extends to apps using Google for sign-in. Chrome browser sync adds on to this singular experience by letting you access tabs you have browsed to on other devices. I also find this handy for my browsing history: I'll start typing a URL I know I have visited on one of my laptops and have it autocomplete on my phone.
Chrome browser sync works flawlessly. I can easily fetch tabs open on other devices.
However, Google Now is what genuinely makes this experience magical. Google Now is responsive design. When you hear about responsive design you're primed to think websites that adjust with the width of the browser. But there are many other changes aside from browser width to which a design can respond. Location, time, calendar events, previous searches, nearby transportation, interests, voice, emails: Google Now responds to all of these. It responds to who you are. Step back a bit and you'll quickly realize why Google made Glass. But it’s magic when the software generates a disproportionately meaningful output from that minimized input. Khoi Vinh So how do you use Google Now? Well, you don't. You just go about your life and when it's appropriate, Google Now will send you a notification to something relevant. It reminds me when I should leave to make it in time for a meeting at another location. It notified me that a new episode of Top Gear was about to air since it knew I had previously watched the show on Google Play. I had previously searched traveling to Tokyo and Now displayed more information about Tokyo for me to explore at my leisure. Each such piece of information is displayed in a card. There are some 20+ cards with more on the way.
Google Now and Android notifications drawer showing a Google Now notification
Google Now also ties into voice search. I cannot overstate the usefulness of having voice search just a tap away on my home screen. I'll be the first to say that I hate talking to my phone. But when no one's around I just won't stop talking to it. It's uncannily accurate and it's good for a myriad of things beyond just search like calling someone, creating reminders and fetching directions. I think people are delighted by walking into an airport and seeing a boarding pass from Google Now. Sundar Pichai, SVP Android, Chrome & Apps Delight. It's what designers strive to produce in the experiences they craft. Google Now has hit the nail on the head. I can't even count the number of times friends have pulled out their phone to show me the smart things Google Now did for them. Using Android feels like one fluid experience. Android design "We made a conscious decision to embrace modern typographic design and avoid the excesses of skeuomorphism. But like skeuomorphism, flat design also has excesses. […] Tactile cues are important in touch interfaces, giving users a sense of what they can expect that’s touchable, and how it’s going to behave." —Matias Duarte, Android head of design I tend to find purely flat design nauseating and a hindrance to usability. There's a sweet spot to be found and Android is close to it. The visual language is very no-frills, if a little basic at times. Like all Google products, Android appears to have been designed with form following function in mind. Take a look at this comparison of Android and iOS styles. Responsive layouts are more popular among Android apps, but on the corollary they need to be: Why responsive design really matters for Android #fragmentation #rwd pic.twitter.com/qtwYVIfmNO — Paul Stamatiou (@Stammy) July 30, 2013
If you're interested in learning more about Android design, take a look at Android Design in Action and the Android design principles. First impressions: Galaxy S4 After I knew I wanted to stick with Android, it was time to get a phone I could actually live with. The Nexus 4 was a great starter phone with but 8GB of storage, a lackluster camera and speaker that wasn't loud enough, I didn't want it to be my long-term device. I ended up going with the S4 over the HTC One. Both have After I knew I wanted to stick with Android, it was time to get a phone I could actually live with. The Nexus 4 was a great starter phone with but 8GB of storage, a lackluster camera and speaker that wasn't loud enough, I didn't want it to be my long-term device. I ended up going with the S4 over the HTC One. Both have pretty good cameras (for phones), so you can't go wrong. Big device not for you? There's a growing range of smaller devices like Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and HTC One Mini.
31mm f/2.2 13MP camera, microSDXC slot, SIM card slot and NFC-enabled battery
I wanted the ability to travel with an easily swappable second battery. Also, given that I take a lot of photos and the S4 only has 16GB of internal storage, I wanted to take advantage of the microSDXC slot. The HTC One also felt fat compared to the lithe S4. I went with the $649 Google Play Edition Galaxy S4, which comes without any extra Samsung software or clunky TouchWiz UI add-ons. This also means you get Android software updates quickly (GPE S4 owners saw the 4.3 update just 9 days after the announcement). Migrating my data from the S4 was a non-issue. I just logged into my Google account and my apps began installing along with preferences intact. Even things like Wi-Fi passwords were restored. Photos did not automatically transfer but I had them all on Dropbox so I was good to go.
Slight lock screen differences between the Nexus 4 and the Google Play Edition S4.
The vibrate motor of the S4 was actually the first difference I noticed with the S4. It produced more pronounced and quicker vibrations, which I found to be an improvement with keyboard haptic feedback. The most confusing part was that the back button was now on the right side and the admittedly rarely-used dedicated task switcher button on the Nexus 4 was replaced with a menu button. I've only had the S4 for three weeks, but one annoyance is actually the tiny bezel. I keep accidentally opening apps in my bottom row when I meant to activate a hardware button and vice versa. The most unexpected S4 feature that ended up being useful is the IR port. I quickly installed the lovely Smart IR Remote app and was able to control my TV a minute later. I also set it up to control our Apple TV and projector.. it's a powerhouse.
I'm very happy with this device. The 5-inch screen doesn't feel overbearing compared to having lived with the Nexus 4 for a while. I'm still amazed by the clarity and sharpness, particularly when reading text or viewing photos. And of course the only metric that matters for me: the camera opens fast and shots are taken quickly without hesitation. The only issue I have with the camera is that it struggles with dark parts of a composition. I'm not talking about low light shooting (though that is another concern) but rather when shooting I can't tap on a dark part of the photo and have the levels adjust accordingly to prevent washed out areas (something I could do on the iPhone 5). For that I need to resort to HDR mode.
Taken with the Galaxy S4. This image was actually a portrait photo. Top and bottom portions cropped.
Taken with the Galaxy S4
Taken with the Galaxy S4
Taken with the Galaxy S4
Taken with the Galaxy S4
Difference between a camera phone and a DSLR: The S4 struggles to find detail in darker parts of the photo.
Future of Android Just a year ago it was a valid excuse to avoid Android if there were certain types of apps needed that you could only find on iOS. I truly don't think that is the case any more. There are now many high-quality Android apps out for a variety of things just like on the App Store. Just a year ago it was a valid excuse to avoid Android if there were certain types of apps needed that you could only find on iOS. I truly don't think that is the case any more. There are now many high-quality Android apps out for a variety of things just like on the App Store. Beautiful, polished Android apps now exist. The Android community lacks a champion. An evangelist that doesn't obsess over hardware specs and has a broader appeal. Someone that vividly illustrates how Android can fit into the ebb and flow of your daily life as it has mine. And sure, even someone to encourage budding developers to take their next idea to Android. Where is the Marco Arment or John Gruber of Android? We'll get there. Android is better. Come take a look. Follow @Stammy on Twitter to learn more about Android. Thanks to Gabor Cselle, Chad Etzel and Anand Sharma for proofreading this post.
Sidebar: Chromecast first impressions I'm a so-called cord cutter. I haven't had cable or satellite TV service I'm a so-called cord cutter. I haven't had cable or satellite TV service since 2009 . I don't mind paying a few bucks to watch an episode of Breaking Bad or $5-7 to rent a 1080p movie on Vudu. I've been an avid Vudu user since 2007 ; it's my killer app for movie rentals with a great selection. I probably watch anywhere from 2 to 5 Vudu movies a month. All that to say that the $35 Chromecast streaming media player dongle wasn't exactly a needed purchase. But at that price it was worth a look. Currently, the Chromecast only works with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Music and Google Play Movies/TV but there are talks of Vimeo, Pandora, Redbox Instant, HBO GO and Plex integrations. Unfortunately, it's a waiting game until developers add casting support to their apps once the SDK becomes available.
The Chromecast installed behind our older wall-mounted TV. Fortunately, this TV has USB to power the Chromecast.
Google has tried to play in this space before. There was Google TV and the desultorily Nexus Q. They're obviously thinking about a multi-device future. In fact, everything at Google I/O 2013 was about multiple devices. The Chromecast feels like the first turn in the right direction. I had no qualms about the casting experience with the Android Netflix app and the lockscreen remote integration was a nice surprise. However, given that I live in a 2 TV and one projector household with roommates, we already have the media situation solved with an Apple TV and Roku 3. Roku still has the best feature among all devices: I can search for a movie title and it will tell me which sources ("channels" as they call it) have it.
Netflix takes advantage of Android affordances by creating lock screen controls when you are casting.
My roommates and I mostly use the Chromecast to cast a Chrome tab to show to everyone rather than use Netflix or YouTube. While the Chromecast doesn't stream content directly from devices, you are able to get around this and cast local video files dragged into Chrome (mp4/m4v). | {
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Recently by Gary North: David Frum: Hatchet Man for Ben Bernanke
Before I explain the title of this report, I want to prove to you that Americans are losing their liberties, day by relentless day. I also want to prove to you why it is that, unless there is an economic breakdown so severe that Washington D.C. goes broke, we will not get back these surrendered liberties. My demonstration will take approximately three minutes. For skeptics, it may take five minutes.
The United States Government Printing Office publishes the Federal Register. Each issue is a 275-page book, three columns per page. There are about 250 issues published each year, totaling approximately 69,000 pages. These are pages of incoherent rules that apply to every area of our lives. They are written by government lawyers to be interpreted by lawyers and debated by lawyers. Unless the public, including Congress, demands a hearing on a rule within 15 days of publication, the rule becomes the law of the land.
Congress rarely protests. It is too busy with its infighting to pay attention to the Federal Register. The public rarely protests. It takes a team of lawyers to gain a hearing. Only if the rule generates a huge outcry from the media or the public is a rule repealed.
I have been involved in only one such protest, which was successful: the IRS’s 1979 rule to withdraw tax exemption from any private school founded after 1960 that did not have the same racial percentages of students and faculty as prevailed in the community in which it operated. It took 125,000 letters of protest in 30 days, plus Congressional hearings, to get that rule reversed. The public buried the IRS in written protests — the most it had ever received on a ruling. I generated this protest by pulling copyright on my Remnant Review report on that ruling. This led to the letters of protest generated by the second newsletter after mine went out. The snowballing effect took over.
To head off such protests by the public, the limit was cut to 15 days. We would have failed in 1979 under this limit. Almost no voter has ever heard of the Federal Register. Of those who have, only a tiny percentage have ever read a single page.
I am asking you to spend three minutes reading one column of one page. Read it carefully. See if you understand it. Pick your page here.
After you read that column, ask yourself this question: “At 69,000 pages per year, meaning 207,000 columns just like this one, what is happening to Americans’ freedom of choice?”
To ask this question is to answer it.
“POWER TO THE PEOPLE!”
Back in the late 1960’s, “Power to the people!” was a well-known phrase of Black power activists. I remember it as being up there with “never trust anyone over 30” and “make love, not war.”
The people have gained no increase in power. The under-30 crowd is now over 60. Viagra is selling well, but America is still at war.
We have come a long way, baby: in the Federal Register — maybe two million pages (it used to be shorter), or six million columns.
We think of the Presidency as the culmination of American political power. Yet the Presidency is a shell of what it was under Franklin Roosevelt.
Apart from some perceived national emergency, either terrorist or financial, nothing gets done in Washington. In the financial crisis of 2008, Bush was invisible. Paulson ran the whole media show: nationalizing the mortgage market on his own authority, bailing out the financial sector along with silent Ben Bernanke.
This is not new. Richard Nixon became the symbol of authority after Lyndon Johnson left the scene. He succeeded Johnson, who refused to stand for re-election. I cannot think of any two Presidents in American history who possessed greater knowledge of the details of the political process. I also cannot think of any two Presidents who were more chewed up and spit out by this process. Both men achieved enormous electoral victories: 1964 and 1972. Both left the office as beaten men, consumed by the system they had overseen. Johnson was heralded by the Left in 1964, as well he should have been. The Left drove him out of office in 1968. Nixon was seen by the Left as a bastion of the Right in 1968. The Right did not lament his departure in 1974.
Meanwhile, gridlock in Congress now prevails.
What’s going on here? If the people have lost power, and the Presidency has become a shell, and Congress is in gridlock, who grabbed all that power?
The bureaucrats.
In every nation, it is the same story. The politicians centralize power. The bureaucrats exercise this power. Politicians come and go. Political parties exchange the trappings of authority. The bureaucrats keep their jobs, extend their reach, and consolidate power.
In the 1980’s, the British sitcom Yes, Minister showed us how the system really works. It is on Netflix, and we can watch it on our computers. It is just as funny today and just as true as it was then.
In 1983, Harvard University’s legal historian Harold Berman summarized the story in a 45-page introduction to his book, Law and Revolution. We are losing our liberties in the West, he said, because of a quiet but relentless legal revolution that has been underway for a century: the transition to administrative law. The executive bureaucracies are writing the regulations and enforcing them through administrative law courts. You can read 90% of his introduction here.
Nothing reverses this process. Only one thing can: budget cuts. No other force can reverse the relentless extension of administrative law over the lives of citizens. No other reform ever takes hold, for the system is self-enforced. It takes a bureaucrat to hedge in a bureaucrat. The best we can hope for, apart from budget cuts, is bureaucratic gridlock. But bureaucratic gridlock restricts progress, economic growth, and the recovery of lost liberties. The status quo prevails until such time as one or the other bureaucracy prevails. Then the process resumes.
Liberty expands these days by being able to stay two jumps ahead of the bureaucracies. Digital technology surely helps. The bureaucrats are slow learners and slower movers. By the time they write new regulations, the technology has moved on. But, when the grasping hand of bureaucracy slows economic growth, the capital available to entrepreneurs gets more scarce. Innovations cannot get as much funding as before. It becomes more expensive to stay ahead of the regulators.
Ludwig von Mises wrote in 1922 that the goal of every bureaucrat is to structure that sector of the economy which he oversees in terms of a working model: the Post Office. No one has described it any better than this.
VETOING THE VETO POWER
The crucial power to restrict the growth of bureaucracy is the power of the veto. This power used to be imposed by juries. This became the great threat to the power of bureaucracies. This is why they began to substitute administrative law courts for civil courts. There are no juries in administrative law courts. There are only judges on the payroll of the bureaucracies. These administrative law judges interpret the law of their employers. They are funded by their bureaucracies. The defendants must hire their own lawyers to play the legal game of “look it up.” Then the administrative law judge decides which lawyer is correct.
This system is what Berman has described as the greatest single threat to freedom. He was correct.
Best of all from the point of the bureaucracy is the principle of the Napoleonic Code: the accused is guilty until proven innocent . . . at his expense. This is contrary to the common law tradition. Common law is being reversed today. The Internal Revenue Service operates in terms of the Napoleonic Code.
Then where is the veto power? Congress has 15 days to veto a rule in the Federal Register. That is not enough time.
The rule can be vetoed by an Executive Order signed by the President. Presidents rarely issue vetoes of executive enforcement procedures; they sign extensions of executive powers.
The agency with the greatest immunity to a veto is the Federal Reserve System. The Board of Governors is appointed by the President. Legally, it is under Congress. But until Ron Paul’s bill to audit the FED got the support of 317 House members, no previous attempt to veto any aspect of the FED had come out of Congress since the FED began operating in 1914. Paul’s bill sits in the House. The Senate has ignored it. Obama will surely veto it if it ever gets to him, which is unlikely.
The FED almost always goes along with the President in order to get along. The only major exceptions were these. First, the FED’s refusal in 1951 to keep buying Treasury debt at a below-market rate. That decision had taken ten years. Second, the decision by Volcker’s FED in late 1979 to let the Federal Funds rate shoot upward in 1980. The resulting recession cost Carter his re-election.
The FED must henceforth supply the fiat money to keep the economy going. It must either inflate directly or impose a charge on the commercial banks’ excess reserves in order to get banks lending again. The push is inflationary. It has been ever since 1914. This will not change.
For as long as the FED controls the money supply, it can keep the Federal government going. This was stated clearly by the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank (and the inventor of income tax withholding in 1943), Beardsley Ruml, in 1945. To read his speech, click here.
The end of the FED’s power could come in one of two ways:
It inflates continually until hyperinflation destroys the dollar. It inflates but then draws back, allowing another Great Depression.
It will do its best to steer through these rapids, but the size of the Federal deficit will make this middle path difficult to navigate.
Ultimately, Congress can nationalize the FED to force it to inflate. The Board of Governors knows this. That would mean the end of the FED’s semi-autonomy and the end of the dollar.
ESCAPING THE PUBLIC’S VETO
The international trade system, 1815 to 1914, rested on an agreed-upon gold standard by major nations. They agreed to redeem their nations’ currencies in gold coins.
This kept power in the hands of the people. The person holding a receipt from a bank or a bank note could demand gold coins for these paper receipts. The veto power was in the hands of citizens.
After World War I began and the central banks stole the depositors’ gold in the commercial banks, this veto power was renewed only briefly in Europe: England, 1925 to 1931. It ended in the United States in 1933, by Roosevelt’s Executive Order. He confiscated the people’s gold at $20 an ounce. Then, in 1934, he hiked gold’s price to $35.
That act of national theft unshackled the bureaucrats. Before this, the bureaucracies had to be funded by governments. There were limits on this funding: tax revenues and the interest rates on borrowed funds. With the end of the various government-enforced gold standards, nation by nation, the governments reduced these restraints. Their central banks could always buy the governments’ debt by creating fiat money.
The great winners have been the bureaucrats. They have escaped vetoes by governments, because governments have escaped the public’s vetoes that were created by gold-redeemable currencies.
This is why all big-government politicians and their obedient, salaried intellectuals hate anything even remotely resembling the nineteenth-century gold standard. They resent the veto power of gold over the expansion of credit by the banking cartel. This is why they never challenge the central banks. They know who butters their bread: the central banks. They know what the butter is: borrowed fiat money used by governments to expand power.
The politicians and their many hired spokesmen — economics professors, newspaper columnists, think-tank intellectuals — dismiss the gold standard because they understand that this system placed a veto power in the hands of individual holders of IOU’s from banks. This restrained the banks. This also limited the ability of governments to borrow money in order to defer tax increases.
The IOU-holding citizen had the power to say: “You’re lying. I’m calling your bluff.” He could walk into a bank and demand gold coins. That legal authority was the greatest single tool of decentralized power in the world — yes, even greater than the right to keep and bear arms. People rarely take up arms against their governments. They could impose a veto on their governments by walking into a bank and demanding their gold.
A gold-redeemable currency was to the economy what the jury system is to courts: a way to veto the lawmakers and law-enforcers. The lawmakers and law-enforcers deeply resent such decentralized authority.
THE ULTIMATE BUREAUCRACY
When you read the sneering comments of the gold-hating, central bank-defending hired intellectuals, know what motivates them most of all: to eliminate the ultimate veto power in the hands of the common man and woman. This is the power to say: “I am cutting off your access to additional fiat money. I am therefore cutting your budget.”
The average person does not think in these terms. He thinks only: “I want gold, not an IOU to gold.” That is all it takes to cut the budgets of the bureaucrats.
When you hear an intellectual attack gold, think to yourself: “A well-paid performer.” Think: “The bureaucrats’ best friend.”
We are losing our liberties to the bureaucrats. There is only one sure defense: cut their budgets. Until central banks are eliminated, simply by revoking their charters and thereby eliminating all of their governmental authority, there is no way to veto the expansion of bureaucracy.
So, if we ever want to recover our lost liberties, we must get the Federal government to take three steps.
Revoke the Federal Reserve’s charter.Repeal all legal tender laws.Enforce contracts, including gold contracts.
Simple! Also nearly impossible . . . until the Federal Reserve visibly ruins the economy.
I trust the Federal Reserve to achieve this in full public view. Why? Because it is the ultimate bureaucracy, for it prints its own money. It sets its own budget. It has almost unchallenged power, yet its employees are not its owners. There are no owners — not owners who can pocket the profits. This is a universal recipe for disaster.
CONCLUSION
The case for gold as money is the case for cutting the bureaucrats’ budgets. It is therefore the case for the restoration of our liberties.
Gary North [send him mail] is the author of Mises on Money. Visit http://www.garynorth.com. He is also the author of a free 20-volume series, An Economic Commentary on the Bible.
Copyright © 2010 Gary North | {
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The storm began early
And she was dropped in the middle
Of the cyclone
Words, letters, twirling like Alpha-Bits cereal.
It’s raining milk and somehow
She has to bring it all together
She has to contain the storm inside the bowl
Taste it
See that it is palatable
Add sugar, spices, something
To make it good.
Until then she will blow
This way and that
Down the street like a drunkard
Sopping wet
Lost
Confused
Words are the anchor that gets her going
In a straight line
And at least for now
She is marked safe. | {
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Instead of ballooning into spheres, as once thought, early supernovae ejected jets that may have seeded new stars
Several hundred million years after the Big Bang, the very first stars flared into the universe as massively bright accumulations of hydrogen and helium gas. Within the cores of these first stars, extreme, thermonuclear reactions forged the first heavier elements, including carbon, iron, and zinc.
These first stars were likely immense, short-lived fireballs, and scientists have assumed that they exploded as similarly spherical supernovae.
But now astronomers at MIT and elsewhere have found that these first stars may have blown apart in a more powerful, asymmetric fashion, spewing forth jets that were violent enough to eject heavy elements into neighboring galaxies. These elements ultimately served as seeds for the second generation of stars, some of which can still be observed today.
In a paper published today in the Astrophysical Journal, the researchers report a strong abundance of zinc in HE 1327-2326, an ancient, surviving star that is among the universe's second generation of stars. They believe the star could only have acquired such a large amount of zinc after an asymmetric explosion of one of the very first stars had enriched its birth gas cloud.
"When a star explodes, some proportion of that star gets sucked into a black hole like a vacuum cleaner," says Anna Frebel, an associate professor of physics at MIT and a member of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. "Only when you have some kind of mechanism, like a jet that can yank out material, can you observe that material later in a next-generation star. And we believe that's exactly what could have happened here."
"This is the first observational evidence that such an asymmetric supernova took place in the early universe," adds MIT postdoc Rana Ezzeddine, the study's lead author. "This changes our understanding of how the first stars exploded."
"A sprinkle of elements"
HE 1327-2326 was discovered by Frebel in 2005. At the time, the star was the most metal-poor star ever observed, meaning that it had extremely low concentrations of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium -- an indication that it formed as part of the second generation of stars, at a time when most of the universe's heavy element content had yet to be forged.
"The first stars were so massive that they had to explode almost immediately," Frebel says. "The smaller stars that formed as the second generation are still available today, and they preserve the early material left behind by these first stars. Our star has just a sprinkle of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, so we know it must have formed as part of the second generation of stars."
In May of 2016, the team was able to observe the star which orbits close to Earth, just 5,000 light years away. The researchers won time on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope over two weeks, and recorded the starlight over multiple orbits. They used an instrument aboard the telescope, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, to measure the minute abundances of various elements within the star.
The spectrograph is designed with high precision to pick up faint ultraviolet light. Some of those wavelength are absorbed by certain elements, such as zinc. The researchers made a list of heavy elements that they suspected might be within such an ancient star, that they planned to look for in the UV data, including silicon, iron, phosophorous, and zinc.
"I remember getting the data, and seeing this zinc line pop out, and we couldn't believe it, so we redid the analysis again and again," Ezzeddine recalls. "We found that, no matter how we measured it, we got this really strong abundance of zinc."
A star channel opens
Frebel and Ezzeddine then contacted their collaborators in Japan, who specialize in developing simulations of supernovae and the secondary stars that form in their aftermath. The researchers ran over 10,000 simulations of supernovae, each with different explosion energies, configurations, and other parameters. They found that while most of the spherical supernova simulations were able to produce a secondary star with the elemental compositions the researchers observed in HE 1327-2326, none of them reproduced the zinc signal.
As it turns out, the only simulation that could explain the star's makeup, including its high abundance of zinc, was one of an aspherical, jet-ejecting supernova of a first star. Such a supernova would have been extremely explosive, with a power equivalent to about a nonillion times (that's 10 with 30 zeroes after it) that of a hydrogen bomb.
"We found this first supernova was much more energetic than people have thought before, about five to 10 times more," Ezzeddine says. "In fact, the previous idea of the existence of a dimmer supernova to explain the second-generation stars may soon need to be retired."
The team's results may shift scientists' understanding of reionization, a pivotal period during which the gas in the universe morphed from being completely neutral, to ionized -- a state that made it possible for galaxies to take shape.
"People thought from early observations that the first stars were not so bright or energetic, and so when they exploded, they wouldn't participate much in reionizing the universe," Frebel says. "We're in some sense rectifying this picture and showing, maybe the first stars had enough oomph when they exploded, and maybe now they are strong contenders for contributing to reionization, and for wreaking havoc in their own little dwarf galaxies."
These first supernovae could have also been powerful enough to shoot heavy elements into neighboring "virgin galaxies" that had yet to form any stars of their own.
"Once you have some heavy elements in a hydrogen and helium gas, you have a much easier time forming stars, especially little ones," Frebel says. "The working hypothesis is, maybe second generation stars of this kind formed in these polluted virgin systems, and not in the same system as the supernova explosion itself, which is always what we had assumed, without thinking in any other way. So this is opening up a new channel for early star formation."
###
This research was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation.
Written by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office
Additional background
PAPER: "Evidence for an aspherical Population III supernova explosion inferred from the hyper metal-poor star HE 1327-2326."
https:/ / iopscience. iop. org/ article/ 10. 3847/ 1538-4357/ ab14e7
ARCHIVE: Anna Frebel is searching the stars for clues to the universe's origins
http://news. mit. edu/ 2019/ faculty-anna-frebel-stars-universe-origins-0102
ARCHIVE: 3 Questions: Anna Frebel on searching for the oldest stars
http://news. mit. edu/ 2015/ 3-questions-anna-frebel-searching-oldest-stars-1203
ARCHIVE: A "wimpy" dwarf fossil galaxy reveals new facts about early universe
http://news. mit. edu/ 2014/ wimpy-dwarf-fossil-galaxy-reveals-new-facts-about-early-universe-0501
ARCHIVE: Researchers identify one of the earliest stars in the universe
http://news. mit. edu/ 2014/ researchers-identify-one-of-the-earliest-stars-in-the-universe-0209
ARCHIVE: An element that's rare on Earth is found far, far away | {
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This week was a mixed bag on the trade front.
On the bright side, the Trump administration managed to strike a bilateral agreement with Mexico that ostensibly set the table for Canada to return to the negotiating table on the way cementing a final deal to rewrite NAFTA.
On the not-so-bright side, multiple sources told Bloomberg that the President is all set to move ahead with tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods as early as next week, when the public comment period expires. Additionally, Trump told Bloomberg in a sweeping interview published Thursdsay that the E.U.’s proposal to “go to zero” on auto tariffs contingent on reciprocation from the U.S., “isn’t good enough“, a comment that sent European auto shares tumbling to close the month.
On balance, then, the news was bad, because an escalation with China and the renewed tensions with Europe on auto tariffs far outweigh the deal with Mexico, which is itself likely contingent on Canada joining up.
“While we have long viewed a NAFTA termination announcement to be possible, we do not believe that termination would take effect without a replacement policy”, Goldman wrote, in a note out earlier this week, adding that “Congress is unlikely to approve a US-Mexico agreement unless Canada is party to that deal or something similar, which would leave the White House with a choice between a revised pact among the US, Canada, and Mexico, or no trade agreement at all.”
Well as it turns out, Trump had some harsh words for Canada in his wide-ranging Bloomberg interview. Those comments were supposed to be off the record, because, to quote the President, “it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal.” Unfortunately, the Toronto Star got ahold of those comments and published them. Here they are:
Here’s the problem. If I say no — the answer’s no. If I say no, then you’re going to put that, and it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal … I can’t kill these people. Off the record, Canada’s working their ass off. And every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala.
It’s not at all clear what any of that means (apparently there’s a GM plant in Oshawa), but it certainly has a negative feel to it. If you’re wondering whether he actually said that, the Star has this to offer:
Trump made the remarks in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg. He deemed them off the record, and Bloomberg accepted his request not to reveal them. But the Star is not bound by any promises Bloomberg made to Trump. The Star was not able to independently confirm the remarks with 100 per cent certainty, but the Canadian government is confident they are accurate. Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, who was one of the journalists in the room, did not dispute their authenticity.
The White House did not did not deny the general thrust of the comments.
Clearly, this is all kinds of insulting for Trudeau’s emissaries and only serves to heighten tensions between Trump and “Justin”, as the U.S. President derisively refers to the Canadian Prime Minister.
According to the Globe and Mail, talks between the U.S. and Canada soured materially on Thursday evening. A deal before the weekend was thought to be unlikely as of late Friday morning. To wit:
Talks between Canadian and U.S. trade negotiators turned sour Thursday night and Trudeau government officials are privately expressing genuine concern that a final NAFTA deal will not be concluded on Friday, the deadline set by U.S. President. The pessimism was heightened after the Toronto Star obtained a transcript of off-the-record remarks from an Oval office interview the President gave to Bloomberg on Thursday, where he was quoted as saying he is not making any compromises at all in the talks with Canada.
“Both the Canadian and U.S teams have been working hard this morning, but we are not there yet,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Friday morning, adding that while Canadians are a people that are adept at “finding win-win” solutions, “at the end of the day, we are only going to sign a deal that’s good for Canada.”
Maybe she just needs to see another picture of Trump’s Chevy Impala.
Here's a fuller version of Trudeau's response to the leaked Trump remarks. By sheer coincidence, Trudeau was in Oshawa, home of the Chevy Impala Trump claims to have wielded a picture of. pic.twitter.com/EBe7kFm9MR — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 31, 2018 | {
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Doctor Who fans prepare to be bitterly disappointed. You won't be getting your timey-wimey fix this year, because season 10 won't hit our screens until 2017, the BBC has confirmed.
The reason? Long-running showrunner Steven Moffat has run out of puff. He will pass the baton (OK, Sonic Screwdriver) to Chris Chibnall—the creator of ITV's gripping whodunnit, Broadchurch—who will take over the iconic British sci-fi drama at the start of season 11.
The BBC, which fiendishly buried this news late on Friday night in the hope that no-one would notice, has promised a Christmas Day special, but that will be the first and only time a new episode of the much-loved show will appear on the TV this year.
Whovians may recall that the last time we saw the Doctor was on a date with his wife, River Song. The Time Lord explained that a night on Darillium lasted 24 years. Who knew that this translated as an entire year on planet Earth though, eh?
Moffat—who replaced Russell T. Davies in 2010—will leave Doctor Who after six years heading up the production. He oversaw Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi as the 11th and 12th Doctors and led the sci-fi's 50th anniversary special in 2013 (it starred John Hurt).
"At the start of season 11, Chris Chibnall will become the new showrunner of Doctor Who. And I will be thrown in a skip," Moffat jovially said.
Chibnall, as tends to be the tradition on Doctor Who, won't be stepping on to the TARDIS cold-footed, however. To date, he has written five episodes of the drama. His first—42—was penned during Davies' reign. Additionally, Chibnall wrote seven episodes of Torchwood. Could we at last see the return of Captain Jack Harkness?
Meanwhile, will Moffat's final series—set to air in Spring 2017—go out with a bang? Chibnall says it will. One can't help but wonder, then, if a new showrunner will bring with it a new Doctor. Or, might Capaldi's Doctor regenerate much sooner than that?
One thing is clear in answer to all of these questions: we'll have a long wait to find out. | {
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Description
All the world's a stage, and you'll never feel out of the spotlight when you look like a star! Step on stage and let the show begin with any of the pieces from our scorching and sizzling Show Stopping Style Collection! | {
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An unseasonably strong spring storm hit San Diego on Sunday, postponing a Padres game for only the third time in the history of Petco Park, setting a number of rainfall records and dusting local mountain peaks with snow.
The system moved ashore late Saturday. By 7 p.m. Sunday, more than 2 inches of rain had fallen in Fallbrook while Valley Center got 1.56 inches and Kearny Mesa got 1.18 inches.
The National Weather Service said that 10 inches of snow had fallen on Palomar Mountain, and about an inch in Julian. The Palomar reading broke the snow record for May 7 by 7 1/2 inches. The previous record was set in 1964.
San Diego had recorded 0.65 inches of an inch of rain by 7 p.m., breaking the May 7 record of 0.32 set in 1971.
“This is basically a winter storm that happens to be occurring in May,” said James Brotherton, a weather service forecaster.
“There’s snow in the mountains, rain everywhere else, and cold air.”
The daytime high temperature only reached 59 degrees Sunday in San Diego — almost 10 degrees below its seasonal average. It was the coldest May day in 64 years, according to the National Weather Service. The high hasn’t been below 60 in May since May 15, 1953, when it was 58.
Last week, the region was in the middle of a warm spell.
San Diegans made their way to Mount Laguna after a snow fall on Sunday. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)
Sunday’s storm was still packing plenty of energy late in the afternoon, and was expected to last until about midnight. Monday will be mostly dry, but showers could return on Tuesday, forecasters said.
The storm follows a wetter-than-average winter and should push fire season back further into the year, forecasters say.
The system formed off the Pacific Northwest and slid down the California coast, bringing significant rain to Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties before slumping into the San Diego area. Those counties also reported lightning.
The Padres had been scheduled to play the Los Angeles Dodgers at 1:40 p.m. but the team postponed the game until Sept. 2 because of the weather and the possibility that lightning would develop.
The Padres had not postponed a game at Petco since July 19, 2015 — or 134 games ago, the team said in a statement.
The storm varied greatly in intensity, with the heaviest precipitation occurring across inland valleys and foothills, with lesser amounts at and near the coast.
San Diego International Airport reported 0.52 inches of rain through 4 p.m. Sunday. The airport only averages 0.12 inches for the entire month of May.
OTHER RAIN RECORDS FOR MAY 7:
The 0.98 of an inch of rain that fell in Alpine broke the record set there on that date in 2013. The previous record was 0.31.
El Cajon recorded 0.90 of an inch, breaking its previous record of 0.23 of an inch set in 2013.
Vista got 0.84 of an inch of rain, breaking its record of 0.40 of an inch set in 2013.
Chula Vista got 0.84 of an inch, breaking its record of 0.34 of an inch set in 2013.
Escondido received 0.83 of an inch, breaking its record of 0.78 of an inch set in 1912.
Palomar Mountain got 0.63 of an inch of rain, breaking its record by 0.01, which was set in 1964.
And Campo got 0.63 of an inch of rain, breaking its record of 0.22 of an inch, set in 1948.
RAINFALL TOTALS
Sample of rainfall during 48-hour period ending 7 p.m. Sunday: Mesa Grande (near Santa Ysabel), 2.62 inches; Mount Woodson, 2.26 inches; Pine Hills (near Julian), 2.15 inches; Descanso, 1.97 inches; Poway, 1.27 inches; Valley Center, 1.56 inches; Rancho Bernardo, 1.24 inches; Kearny Mesa, 1.18 inches; Alpine, 1.24.inches; Ramona, 1.02 inches; Escondido, 1.20 inches; La Mesa, 1.15 inches; Santee, 1.01 inches.
Rain soaked much of La Jolla, Del Mar and the Sorrento Valley on Sunday morning. (NWS)
Twitter: @grobbins
[email protected]
UPDATES:
Padres game today has been postponed until September due to unstable weather. | {
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The Tottenham forward is showing no signs of stage fright and says he is looking forward to the World Cup in Russia
There is nothing like a World Cup for making one feel old. It is not only the reminder that four years have passed every time one comes round, or even that four or five decades have flown by since events that still seem real and recent. More alarming still is the sudden realisation that what one regards as well-known modern history means little or nothing to the present generation of participants.
Take Dele Alli, for instance. Spurs’ midfielder-cum-secondary striker has an impetuous side to his nature that has led to the odd disciplinary issue over the past couple of years, so it seemed reasonable to ask whether he was aware that World Cup referees were often stricter and less forgiving than those encountered in club football.
“You know, Dele, like what happened with the David Beckham challenge on Diego Simeone in 1998?”
“I haven’t seen it.”
“It was one of those classic World Cup moments. Beckham was sent off for a really innocuous foul and England ended up losing the game. Obviously you won’t remember the match against Argentina if you were only two years old at the time but you must have seen replays of the incident since?”
“No. What did he do?”
Newcastle’s Jonjo Shelvey sees red as Dele Alli has last laugh for Tottenham Read more
Almost nothing compared with what people have been getting away with since would have been one answer, though it was clearly time to move on. Alli can be excused a sketchy recollection of World Cup history. Though a keen footballer throughout his childhood, where he developed his skill-set playing on a concrete court after school, he has no particular memories of World Cups past other than the neighbourhood buzz he used to notice around England games when “everyone was in their front gardens with flags and barbecues”.
This time four years ago Alli was in Ireland on a pre-season tour with MK Dons. “I remember watching Brazil once but I can’t say which game it was,” he says. This is a player who has represented England at every youth level – under-17, U18, U19 and U21 – yet has nevertheless managed a meteoric rise. Even though his potential was spotted early, everything has still happened extraordinarily quickly since making the step up to Spurs.
“It’s been crazy, a lot of ups and downs, but I have enjoyed every minute of it,” he says. “Being called up for a World Cup squad is an unbelievable feeling. To be recognised as one of the best players in England and be given a chance at 22 is a real honour. I’m excited and I definitely feel ready. We’re all excited actually. We have a young team and we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but we are going to the World Cup to try to win it. We have to have that attitude. We know the quality we have in the squad and we feel anything is possible.”
Times have changed, clearly. Starting all over again with a young squad at least affords the chance to lose the baggage of the past and play with a fresh attitude. No one embodies that idea better than Alli, who apart from being one of the country’s most talented footballers is almost as proud of his prowess at PlayStation games. “I am the best Fortnite player, I’ve won over 100 games, but a lot of the boys have only just started playing it,” he says.
It does not seem that long ago since footballers were being discouraged from spending too much spare time on computer games, though Fortnite, in particular, is a survival game that can be played by a team, and the whole world will be at it in Russia in the coming weeks, as will be evidenced by some baroque goal celebrations.
“You need something to lighten the mood when you are away for four weeks,” Alli says. “You need to relax and rest your body and PlayStation is a great way to do that. We’ve been playing Fortnite since we started on this trip and we play in teams so it actually brings us together. It’s not a solitary activity any more.”
Last season Mauricio Pochettino described Alli as the best 21‑year‑old in the world, praise the Tottenham manager clearly believes the player can handle. He appears to be right. “Hopefully he said that because he believes it,” Alli says. “I didn’t feel any extra pressure because of what he said. I know I have to keep my feet on the ground. Football is all about opinions and you hear plenty of negative ones. So, if someone comes along with a compliment, I’ll happily take it.
“For me, personally, the manager is a big reason why I signed for Spurs. He’s not afraid to play youngsters. He’s not going to hang you out to dry but he’ll play you when the time is right and he’s not scared to put all his trust in you. For a young player, having a manager who trusts you more than you trust yourself is a real confidence booster.
“Mauricio Pochettino brought the best out of all the young English players he’s had, whether at Spurs or Southampton. I know he’s helped me, Harry Winks, Kyle Walker‑Peters, even Harry [Kane] and Eric [Dier]. Everyone trusts him and he’s a pleasure to work with. I feel I’m in a great place where I can come into training every day with people who feel like family.”
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Alli joined the MK Dons youth system aged 11, and a career in football beckoned from that point on, but did the schoolboy who used to practise nutmegs on older opponents inside the concrete “cage” of his formative years ever dream of being called up for a World Cup? “Of course you dream of it,” he says. “That’s what schoolboys do. It doesn’t mean you expect it to happen. I once heard the American rapper Russ do an interview about his rise and he said it felt unbelievable and believable at the same time. I can relate to that.
“There are times when I can’t believe I’m going to the World Cup with England but at the same time I know this is what I’ve been working towards the whole time I’ve been playing. It’s what I’ve wanted and what I have been determined to achieve.”
This might be the nearest thing to a fairytale England have at the moment, so one can only wish Alli good luck in Russia and hope he is aware that players of his temperament are often the target of opposition wind-ups in tournaments. “It’s not something I worry about,” he says with a smile, the street footballer in him suddenly returning. “I feel I’ve got everything under control.” | {
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By Nikkei Asian Review
TOKYO — The defense ministers of Japan and the Philippines agreed here Thursday to boost cooperation on maritime security, a move designed to curb China’s expansion on the seas.
Gen Nakatani and Philippine counterpart Voltaire Gazmin discussed the Chinese navy’s activities in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, as well as the new air defense identification zone declared unilaterally by Beijing. They agreed that all conflicts must be settled in a legal and peaceful manner, and reaffirmed the need for freedom of navigation in international waters and airspace.
They also signed a memorandum of understanding before the meeting on nine specific areas for collaboration, including high-level exchanges and joint exercises. Japan’s Defense Ministry will offer its air transport know-how to the Philippine air force to boost its humanitarian and disaster relief capabilities. They will plan joint exercises between their maritime forces as well, in order to avoid accidental collisions at sea.
Japan and the Philippines will also launch working-level talks for a possible partnership on defense equipment.
Courtesy of Nikkei Asian Review (NAR), © 2015 Nikkei Inc. | {
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Hundreds of thousands of giant spider crabs have been caught on camera stacked on top of each other, in some cases 10 deep, in the shallow waters off the coast of Melbourne, Australia.
"It's a moving blanket of legs and claws really, it's pretty awesome," Australian marine scientist Sheree Marris, who shot video of the phenomenon while scuba diving in Port Phillip Bay, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
These large crustaceans that resemble spiders with their eight nearly 2.5-foot legs and 6-inch-wide bodies, make their way every year to southern Australia's shores between May and July as the ocean waters cool. There, they molt and sometimes mate, finding safety among their masses.
"I've been diving for 15 to 20 years and I've seen a lot of cool things, but this is the largest aggregation I've ever seen – a never-ending mass of crabs," Ms. Marris told Australia's 9News.
During their annual molting process, the crabs shed their shells in order to make room for larger ones that can accommodate their growing bodies. While they wait for their hard, protective shell to form, they are left vulnerable to predators such as stingrays and sharks, says Marris.
Coming together in the thousands allows the crabs to molt safely, as they stretch across the ocean floor in a moving blanket that can stretch for hundreds of yards, according to Marris's video.
"It's gobsmackingly amazing," Marris told Australia's 9News.
Another diver last year filmed the giant crabs that had gathered at the same location. This time, they were stacked in a giant, crawling pyramid. The scuba diver, PT Hirschfield, said she had never seen the crabs stacked in such an arrangement.
"That's really unusual," she told 9News at the time.
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"When they usually come in for their pre-migration, they usually stack about five or seven high," she said.
One type of the crab, the giant Japanese spider crab, is the largest known species of crab and can live up to 100 years. It's body can be 15 inches in diameter, with their legs stretching to 15 feet, according to the Tennessee Aquarium. | {
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Keith Elwin announces he will be working for Stern Pinball!
This is a Good Thing ™ to have happened in the world of pinball. We have been wondering when we would be getting new pinball designers in the industry. Well, how about a designer who happens to be the best pinball player in the whole wide world?
Keith Elwin announced that he will be working at Stern Pinball as a designer starting March 1st of this year. Congratulations and well deserved for both Keith and for Stern Pinball.
About this time you may have realized that now, Keith Elwin and Lyman Sheats now work for the same company. When can we start the hype train for that first Keith Elwin designed /Lyman Sheats programmed game? Hurry up everyone, the hype train is leaving the station! Get on it!
Now it’s time for some gross, unsubstantiated speculation:
Are there any bands with a decent license with rockets as part of their theme?
Could Stern Pinball really get the Archer license?
Dinosaurs vs Monster Trucks, or nah?
Or perhaps an Elwin original theme will be in the works?
Do you hear that? That’s the sound of people’s faiths in pinball being restored. That’s also the sound of people taking back (some) of the bad things they’ve said about Stern Pinball.
#MyWalletIsOut
Fun With Bonus is the home of the semi-coherent, misguided ramblings of professional and amateur pinball players.
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Indian Bank has embraced of a continued spotlight on CASA and center term store development and is wagering on the expansion of its credit portfolio with a more noteworthy presentation to the RAM retail, horticulture, and MSME area, Padmaja Chunduru, MD and CEO, reveals to Sajan C Kumar. Selections: has embraced of a continued spotlight on CASA and center term store development and is wagering on the expansion of its credit portfolio with a more noteworthy presentation to the RAM retail, horticulture, and MSME area, Padmaja Chunduru, MD and CEO, reveals to Sajan C Kumar. Selections:
The bank confronted difficulties in scaling up gainfulness in the initial seventy-five percent of FY19. By when do you hope to change this situation?
Gainfulness has been affected in the last couple of quarters attributable to factors like solidifying of security yields and IL&FS presentation. Some high-esteem accounts which had been alluded to the NCLT are required to get settled soon. There are additional signs of relaxing of market yields.
With our recharged spotlight on quality RAM division resources, the impulse to CASA store development and endeavors for cost control.
How would you intend to control the bank into a development direction? What are the real difficulties you face?
In the nine months finished December 2018, Indian Bank accomplished net business development of near 9% with the two stores and net advances contributing in practically break even with the measure. To add energy to this direction, we have received a two-dimensional technique of a supported spotlight on CASA and center term store development and are additionally expanding our credit portfolio with a higher quality introduction to the RAM area. We are adding aggressive highlights to the present record and reserve funds bank store plans, remembering diverse classifications of clients. On the advantages side, while our home advance rates are equivalent to the best in the business, we are investigating approaches to improve the highlights of retail credit items. We are increasing supply and chain financing for MSMEs. With 'quality' being at the center of our business mantra, we will tap openings with very much educated endorsing
choices.
What extra measures do you plan for rapid recuperation of NPAs?
We are seeking a multi-pronged technique for NPAs by enlivening the pace of recuperation and forestalling slippage in resource quality. Among the measures we have taken for the reason for existing are setting up of Stressed Asset Management SAM branches at exceedingly critical focuses, auspicious activity through the SARFAESI mode, compelling commitment of Recovery Agents, web-based following of OTS proposition, dynamic investment in Lok Adalats, holding of uber e-closeouts, and clearance of advantages for ARCs. Truth be told, the prospects for some expansive NPAs being settled are splendid. We had recouped around '838 crores through the NCLT up to Q3 FY19 and recuperation of over Rs 600 crore is normal from NCLT-alluded accounts in Q4.
What might your loaning system be? While your RAM book is right now at 57.8% and corporate at 40%, is there an extension for the corporate pie being diminished further?
I would take a gander at credit development that is scattered crosswise over agribusiness, retail, MSME and corporate areas. Notwithstanding, the heft of loaning would occur in divisions in which the standpoint is great, the rating of the borrower high and the bank comprehends the business. There is no compelling reason to pare down the corporate book; actually, we might want to grow the base by covering more businesses and segments, accomplishing hazard enhancement. The RAM book would ideally be at around 60%.
Peruse ALSO | Embassy Office Parks REIT IPO sees lukewarm interest, bought in 12% on Day 1 up until this point
What do you make of the predominant intrigue routine versus the ongoing rate cut by the RBI?
The MPC's choice to cut the strategy repo rate was driven by expansion being range-bound and desires for development in private CAPEX and utilization. It is normal that the worldwide log jam driven by China mellow rough costs, making a setting for further rate cuts. In the wake of considering different elements, our bank will before long accept an approach MCLR update. Fundamentally, the upward development of strategy rates twice after June 2018 saw us overhauling MCLR in a stunning way more than a half year, even as the rate climb was not passed on to clients completely.
What are your desires from FY20?
Given the development prospects and the facilitating of liquidity conditions, we would in a perfect world be taking a gander at credit development of 13-14% in FY20. With the normal store development of 10– 12%, our CD proportion may improve further to 78– 80%.
The bank's advanced channels are developing essentially. Is it accurate to say that you are hoping to offer GenNext items to clients?
Remembering twenty to thirty-year-olds, we offer versatile applications studded with the best of highlights, tie-ups with online dealers, faithfulness focuses and improved the net financial office. We are executing sure advancements/arrangements that would improve consumer loyalty. These incorporate man-made consciousness empowered chatbot on the site to address client questions, information examination to empower the correct situating of items, and upscaling of our other conveyance channels like web banking and portable banking.
How is your present capital ampleness proportion CRAR? Any arrangement to raise capital?
The bank, with a CRAR of 12.67% is all around promoted. With government holding at 81.73%, there is likewise adequate headroom to raise capital from the market. We have an endorsement from the top managerial staff.
How is your CASA position? What plans do you need to improve it?
We enrolled in a development of 7% in CASA stores toward the finish of Q3. As term stores have become in front of CASA stores, the offer of CASA in all-out stores has descended somewhat. The attention is on preparing minimal effort stores and going into new business connections. We are likewise hoping to present division explicit items for ladies, senior residents, and so on. Government accounts is another region where we are gaining critical ground.
What are the plans for system development?
Branch opening has been a continuous exercise for the bank. Notwithstanding, with the main concern being of principal significance, such recommendations would be said something terms of the possibility to make back the initial investment early and be a productive suggestion. | {
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I’m working in Social Media and Digital Journalism at BILD in Berlin – as Editorial Head of Social Media/News Platforms. I am leaving this role towards the end of 2020 and I am looking for new opportunities.
Formerly, I was a Social Media Manager and Digital Project Manager at Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in Magdeburg.
I am also a fan of everything around Northern Soul music and professional road cycling. You will probably meet me somewhere in Europe dancing at an Allnighter or a Weekender – or on the road cycling myself (well, it's more likely to find me watching a pro-race while drinking coffee). | {
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At 5 p.m., the center of Tropical Storm Lester was located near latitude 26.6 North, longitude 161.5 West. Lester is moving toward the northwest near 17 mph (28 km/h) and this motion is expected to continue through Sunday night. Lester is forecast to gradually turn toward the north at a slower speed Monday night and Tuesday.
Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph (95 km/h) with higher gusts. Little change in strength is forecast during the next 48 hours.
Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles (220 km) from the center.
The estimated minimum central pressure is 1002 mb (29.59 inches).
Summary information:
Location : 26.6N 161.5W about 430 mi NNW of Honolulu about 345 mi NNW of Lihue
: 26.6N 161.5W Maximum sustained winds : 50 mph
: 50 mph Present movement : NW or 315 degrees at 17 mph
: NW or 315 degrees at 17 mph Minimum central pressure: 1002 mb
Did You Know: The Central Pacific Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for Oahu at 5 p.m. on Sept. 1. It’s the first time Oahu has been under a hurricane watch since 1982 for Hurricane Iwa.
Discussion:
The satellite representation of Lester is less impressive than earlier today with the low level center once again removed from the deep convection. The latest subjective Dvorak satellite intensity estimates range from 3.0/45 kt PHFO and 2.5/35 kt from SAB and JTWC. Based on the current appearance of Lester in satellite imagery and these intensity estimates, we have lowered the intensity to 45 kt for this advisory.
The initial motion for this advisory is 315/15 kt. The latest track guidance remains tightly clustered, taking Lester along a northwestward path through about 24 hours, followed by gradual slowing and a northward turn during the 36 to 48 hour time frame. Lester is then forecast to accelerate northeast on days 3 through 5. Lester is currently being steered by the subtropical ridge north of latitude 30N. However, a weakness in this ridge due to an upper level trough northwest of system is causing Lester to move northwestward. The latest forecast track closely follows the previous one, and lies close to consensus and reliable model guidance. The Ocean Prediction Center was coordinated with for the 72, 96 and 120 hour positions.
Strong southwesterly wind shear continues over the system with the UW-CIMSS estimate at 33 kt while the SHIPS estimate is 23 kt. Most of the intensity guidance indicates that the system will remain near or at its current intensity through 48 hours with slow weakening on days 3 through 5 mainly due to cooler water and extra-tropical transition. The latest intensity forecast follows along with this, keeping the system at it present intensity through 48 hours. Beyond 48 hours, Lester is forecast to transition to an extra-tropical gale low over the North Pacific in around 72 hours. Lester is then forecast to gradually weaken on days 4 and 5. This intensity forecast closely follows the latest SHIPS and the IVCN consensus guidance. | {
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INTERNATIONAL - The world’s biggest diamond producer says it’s tracked its first diamonds all the way from the mine to jewelry retailers using the technology behind bitcoin.
De Beers, which is piloting a scheme using blockchain to create a virtual ledger of diamond sales, said that 100 high-value stones were tracked through the cutting, polishing and manufacturing process to a final retailer. The company plans to roll out the platform later this year.
The technology allows De Beers to show transactions to all participants while keeping their identities and the values hidden.
It is meant to give buyers confidence that the stones they are buying aren’t fakes or so-called conflict diamonds-- gems used to finance war, terrorism or tyranny. It could also reassure bankers, who’ve been stung by fraud in a business cloaked in secrecy.
The program, known as Tracr, gives each stone a unique ID that stores diamond characteristics such as weight, color and clarity. | {
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