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Solar Communications news
As part of our drive for transparency and Future Ready policy we are determined to inform you about achievements and developments within our company on the regular basis.
Below you will find latest news and events of Solar Communications.
Nxt Cryptocurrency
Excellent news! Solar Communications is happy to announce that we now accept Nxt Cryptocurrency as a hassle-free form of payment. <break> As a descendant of Bitcoin, this new virtual currency offers its users many advantages. As we strive to make things more user-friendly for our clients, we are now accepting this new browser-based program as an alternative payment method. This 100% decentralized e-currency makes payment fast and secure from any location worldwide.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Leave a comment Name * Email * Comment * Captcha * As part of our drive for transparency and Future Ready policy we are determined to inform you about achievements and developments within our company on the regular basis.Below you will find latest news and events of Solar Communications. News archive:
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Blissful and soothing reruns of Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting can make even hardened Internet users drift away to a sublime dream world, complete with happy little trees and happy little clouds. Now, for those that can’t get enough during the day—and have trouble drifting off at bedtime—there’s a happy little audio series.
The maker of popular meditation app Calm is recasting audio from episodes of The Joy of Painting to create “ Sleep Stories” narrated by Ross that help users relax and slip off to a peaceful slumber.
The series marks the first time that Bob Ross Inc., which manages the late painting star’s estate and brand, has agreed to license audio from the show, according to a report by The New York Times.
“We asked ourselves, ‘What would Bob do?’” Joan Kowalski, the president of Bob Ross Inc., told the Times. “Using his voice to help put people to sleep? Well, he would love that.”
She went on to explain that Ross’ tranquil tone is well known to have a soporific effect.
“We hear from people almost daily who are going on to YouTube to hear his voice,” she added. “People back in the day were shy to tell him they fell asleep listening to him. They thought it would insult him. He loved it.”
Indeed, in an interview with The Orlando Sentinel in 1990, Ross acknowledged the unintended role of this work, which he seemed to regard as a happy little accident.
“The majority of our audience does not paint, has no desire to paint, will never paint. They watch it strictly for entertainment value or for relaxation,” Ross told the paper. “We’ve gotten letters from people who say they sleep better when the show is on.”
Moreover, Kowalski added that the birth of the audio series helps Ross’ legacy live on. Ross, who died in 1995 at the age of 52 from cancer, had a desire to be a household name, she said. “He wanted to go on and on forever.” | {
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Just a few days short of its official debut at retail stores, BioWare's Mass Effect 2 has become widely available on file-sharing networks. The leak has resulted in massive piracy as more than 300,000 gamers have either downloaded or are in the process of downloading a copy of the highly anticipated game via BitTorrent.
Last Thursday, both the PC and Xbox360 versions of the upcoming Mass Effect 2 game leaked to BitTorrent, which didn’t go unnoticed by the masses.
The game is scheduled to be sold in stores starting Tuesday in North America and Friday throughout Europe, but many curious customers couldn’t wait until then and have downloaded an unauthorized copy instead.
At the time of writing, tens of thousands of people are downloading the game, which is more than 14 gigabytes worth of data for the PC version and over 13 gigabytes for the Xbox360 version. According to the latest statistics gathered by TorrentFreak, more than 300,000 people started downloading the files in the past days.
All purchased copies of Mass Effect 2, developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts, will come with a ‘Cerberus’ Network Card. The card is required to download in-game items and new missions that will become available when the game is officially released, but it’s possible to play the game just fine without it.
According to reports from many downloaders, the game lives up to its expectations. Hundreds of people have reported their successful completion of the game already, in playing times ranging from 10 hours to well over 30 hours.
Although the ‘Cerberus’ Network Card might not prevent people from grabbing an early copy of the game on BitTorrent, it might help to convert illegal downloaders who like the game into buying customers, if it’s not hacked or cracked itself.
Whether Mass Effect 2 will come close to the massive popularity of Modern Warfare 2 among BitTorrent users is doubtful, but the game will certainly make an appearance in the 2010 most pirated games list later this year. | {
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I don't always find a topic on reddit that i can contribute to But when I do, it's already ten hours old and no one will see my post ever
442,493 shares | {
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米国では究極の経費節減策として、「紙」を捨ててオンラインのみに移行する日刊紙が珍しくなくなりました。あるいは、毎日、サイトは更新しても、「紙」の新聞の印刷、配達は週に何回かに限定する、という新聞もあります。
デジタル化の進展の中で、紙の新聞は徐々に追い詰められているかのような状況ですが、オンラインのみに移行したら、紙の時代の読者はどうなるのか、その新聞の影響力はどうなるのか、経営はよくなるのかーーー様々な問題が浮かびます。
それに答える興味深い調査研究が発表されたのでかいつまんで紹介します。
調査したのはドイツ・ルートヴィヒ・マクシミリアン大のNeil Thurman教授とオックスフォード大ロイタージャーナリズム研究所のRichard Fletcher主任研究員の2人で、2016年2月、英国全国紙では初のオンラインオンリーに移行したThe Independent（略称：Indy)について精査しています。
その一つの結論はこれです。「紙の新聞を止めると、その読者をデジタル機器で紙の時のようにニュース消費に駆り立てるようなことは起きない」
それを示すのがこのグラフ。
[画像をブログで見る]
左半分は紙とオンライン併用時代の記事を読むために費やされた時間数です。ブルーがパソコンとモバイル、緑が紙の新聞で読まれた時間数。右半分は、紙がなくなった後、パソコンとモバイルで読まれた時間数。
つまり、紙がなくなったら、元の読者がパソコンやモバイルでIndyの記事を熱心に読むかというと、そんなことは全くないということを示しているんですね。だって、紙があった時代と、無くなってからのパソコン、モバイルでの記事消費時間にはほとんど変化がないのですから。
この件を取り上げたハーバード大Nieman Labの記事ではこう書きます。「Indyの紙の読者は、紙が消えた瞬間に消失した。彼らは＜independent.co.uk＞に移行しなかった。別のニュースサイトに行ったか、数分間のFacebookのスクロールに向かったか、NetflixやビデオゲームのFortnite、はたまた昼寝に向かったか」と。
Indyが紙をやめた時点での紙の部数は4万部程度でした。一方、月間のユニークユーザー（UU)は5800万人だったそう。それでも、ニュース消費時間は、上のグラフで明らかのように、その4万部を読む人が圧倒していて平均81%を占めていました。5800万人のUUはたったの19%。ということは、計算すると、紙の読者が記事を読む時間はUU読者1人の6100倍に達するということです。
そういう、本来、熱心な紙の読者が、紙を止めた途端に蒸発してしまったわけです。紙の競争相手は限定的ですが、オンラインには無数のライバルがいるわけですから。
そこで研究者の1人、Thurman教授はブログに書きます。「オンラインオンリーになったことで、Indyはかっては受けていたattentionを無くしてしまった。今や、ちらっと見られるだけで、貪り読まれるものではなくなった」「新聞ビジネスとは、Indyの元の編集長、Amol Rajanが示唆しているように『影響力が全て』なはずなのに」
ただし、Thurman教授らの調査では、Indyの収支は、紙をやめて、印刷、配達経費がなくなったことで改善しているようです。
[画像をブログで見る]
棒グラフの赤はIndynoプリント会社の赤字、緑はオンライン会社の収支で、2017年には緑の黒字が赤の赤字を上回っているようです。（2017年に、まだ印刷会社の赤字が計上されている理由はわかりません。累積債務の返済ということかもしれません）
なので、教授はブログ記事の後段に「SUSTAINABILITY BUT LESS CENTRALITY」という小見出しをつけています。「紙を止めたIndyの持続可能性はあるが、ジャーナリズムの中心的存在としての立場は失った」というところでしょうか。
Nieman Labの記事でも「紙を止めたことで最低ラインの助けになったとしても、オーディエンスがついてきそうにない。それはリーチ、影響力、インパクトの劇的な低落を受け入れるということだ」と切り捨てます。
そして、教授は結論としてこう断言するのです。「新聞は給与支払者（＝経営者）が許容する限り、我慢して紙の新聞を維持すべきだと私は信じる」
なお、Nieman Labの記事では、英国と米国の新聞事情の違いに言及していて、「英国では全国紙が13紙もあるので、Indyのようにオンラインのみになると他紙に乗り換えやすいが、ローカル紙主体の米国では、ある都市の新聞がオンラインのみになったら代わりが見つけにくい」と指摘しています。
とすると、日本の事情は英国に近い。どの全国紙も、おいそれとはオンラインオンリーには向えないということになりますね。 | {
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tech2 News Staff
Motorola has started rolling out Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Moto X Style in India. A similar update has been released for the Moto X (2nd Gen) and the Moto X Pure Edition (2015).
The new update will offer features and improvements such as Doze mode, app standby, expandable storage, Do not disturb, Now on Tap, Direct Share and more.
The company recommends installing this update when the battery in the phone is at least 50 percent charged and one is connected to a Wi-Fi network.
There is a complete list of changes in the new update listed on a page by Motorola.
Earlier this month, Senior Director, SW Product Management at Motorola Mobility David Schuster confirmed via a Google+ post that Android M has been made available via OTA to Moto X Style (3rd gen) in Brazil and India, whereas the Moto X (2nd gen) is getting the update only in Brazil.
The Moto X Style features a 5.7-inch QuadHD display offering a 515ppi pixel density. The phone houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC with a 1.8GHz hexa-core processor paired with 3GB of RAM.
It will come with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop on board with Motorola’s proprietary features such as Moto Voice, Moto Assist, Moto Display, Moto Actions and so on. The Moto X Style will come in 16/32/64GB storage variants with microSD card slot to add in an additional 128GB.
On the camera front, you get a 21MP rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture and a 5MP front-facing camera which will be accompanied with a flash as well. The camera is capable of shooting 4K videos. It will be powered by a 3,000 mAh battery.
The Moto X Style will support the Moto Maker program letting you customise the phone according to your preferences. You can choose between leather, and natural wood covers. | {
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A drunk off-duty state narc turned the Upper West Side into a shooting gallery Friday night, blasting a woman and her boyfriend in a struggle over his gun after the three spent a boozy night together in a bar, police sources said.
Victor Zambrano Jr., 49, handed his firearm to the 31-year-old woman when she asked to hold it as they all stood on West 82nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue — then tried to grab it back at about 9 p.m., cops say.
The gun went off as the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement agent and the woman fought over it, sources said.
The bullet ricocheted off the street. First it struck her foot, then slammed into her 42-year-old boyfriend’s shin.
The boyfriend limped after the fleeing cop up Amsterdam until the narc spun around at 83rd Street and tried to shoot him — but his gun misfired, according to the sources.
Zambrano — who lives near the incident — is being charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon, resisting arrest and reckless endangerment, police say.
“We heard like a pop first, and then we saw cops outside with their guns drawn,” said Carolyn Frankel, who was in a local pub when the shots rang out.
“Everybody just started running towards the middle of the bar and getting down on the ground. You’re just thinking of a stray bullet, and you don’t want that anywhere near you.”
A manager at Organic Avenue on 82nd Street told The Post he gave the female victim water and wrapped paper towels around her foot.
“He ankle was bleeding,” he said. “She was calm and in shock. She was not crying. She said she was just going out to dinner with her boyfriend and heard a pop and realized she was bleeding.”
Police disarmed and collared Zambrano at the scene.
The victims, who were being treated at St. Luke’s Hospital, did not suffer life-threatening injuries.
Police found the gun on the ground near 83rd Street, a source said.
A 2008 report on misconduct within the narcotics bureau said Zambrano was issued 11 summonses worth $1,015 for improper parking of his vehicle with state-issued placards.
According to the state Inspector General probe, Zambrano’s tickets were unpaid when the report was issued even though the IG informed him of the outstanding summonses.
Additional reporting by Josh Saul, Matt McNulty and Gabrielle Fonrouge. | {
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Laptop motherboard
Motherboards are the core of any computer. We provide an extensive range of motherboards from all the major motherboard brands like Acer, Asus, Sony, Apple, Dell, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, Compaq, IBM, Samsung, Gateway, and Toshiba. We offer motherboards for a variety of computer devices such as laptops, PCs and netbooks for all vendors. All the products listed here are brand new and tested for functionality. You can purchase brand new laptop motherboards here at cheap prices in wholesale lot as well. Make a purchase and enjoy our amazing customer support or contact us for hardware specification or wholesale order queries. | {
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By PTI
PANAJI: BJP candidate in Goa Vishwajit Krishnarao Rane's ex-driver was detained by police after a video went viral on social media where he claimed to have witnessed a murder of a man by the leader.
"Witness Pandurang Adarkar who is from Kolhapur in Maharashtra has been detained. He has confessed to being witness to the murder of one Shanu Gaonkar, who is missing since 2006," said inspector Dipak Pednekar.
In the video, Adarkar purportedly claimed he was witness to Rane shooting Gaonkar dead in Sattari tehsil of Goa in 2006 to avenge the killing of his brother Prithviraj Rane.
Prithviraj was murdered at Saleli village of Sattari tehsil in 2005.
Preliminary inquiry had begun under the supervision of Superintendent of Police Karthik Kashyap, Pednekar told PTI.
No one had been arrested yet, but the statements of all the people named by Adarkar would be recorded, he said.
The police officer, however, ruled out questioning Rane at this juncture.
Vishwajit Krishnarao Rane could not be reached for comments. He contested the Assembly election earlier this month on the BJP ticket against Congress' Pratapsinh Rane from Poriem constituency. | {
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Epic Games, maker of the ultra popular Battle Royale game Fortnite, is putting up another $100 million in prize cash for competitive tournaments in 2019.
The company made waves in the esports world last year, announcing a $100 million prize pool for the 2018 competitive year, dwarfing every other competitive title in one fell swoop.
This year, a significant portion of the $100 million will be awarded to participants of the first-ever Fortnite World Cup. Each of the 200 players who qualify and compete will walk away with at least $50,000, with the winner taking home $3 million.
The Fortnite World Cup will take place July 26 – 28 in New York City, offering $30 million total in prizes. One hundred of the top solo players will be invited, along with the top 50 duos teams.
So how do you get in on this?
Fortnite is holding weekly open online qualifiers, each worth $1 million, from April 13 to June 16. Eligible players who consistently place well will have a shot at being one of those top 200 players.
This announcement comes at an interesting time for Fortnite. While the game still reigns supreme in terms of popularity, other Battle Royale games are picking up traction. Apex Legends (an EA and Respawn title), in particular, is growing in popularity. Several of the top Twitch streamers, including Ninja, Shroud, Timthetatman, High Distortion and Annemunition have started playing more Apex and participated in the first Apex Legends Twitch Rivals tournament.
Keeping the attention of these streamers is surely a priority for Fortnite, and for a game that pulls in some $300 million a month in in-game purchases, spending $100 million a year is a small price to pay. | {
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education
Updated: Nov 25, 2017 07:41 IST
The Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow is in a state of “complete and practically irreversible decline and collapse”, a government-backed audit report has said, highlighting divisions on caste lines in the central institution that have resulted in “physical, academic and administrative rowdyism at all levels”.
The “final death knell” of the university is the “role of caste and the part it has played in completely polarising the institution into various groups, special interests, political groupings”, the report said.
Hindustan Times has a copy of the report, which also said the quality of students was not at par with the desired standard of a central university, set up in 1996 and named after the Dalit icon of the country.
“The teachers are sub-standard and the students are sub-standard,” it said.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had set up five committees on April 25 to conduct an “academic, research, financial and infrastructure audit” of 10 central universities, including BR Ambedkar University, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Pondicherry University and Allahabad University.
The human resource development (HRD) ministry directed the UGC to conduct the audit following complaints from different groups from some universities about the functioning of these institutions.
Though open to students from all caste and religious groups, the Lucknow-based university was set up to achieve a specific objective of helping students of lower caste groups. 50% of the seats in the insititute are reserved for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) in all its programmes.
In 2016-17, 6,226 students were enrolled in various academic programmes of the 21-year-old university.
Established with an aim to become a centre of excellence in the field of higher education, the university has failed disastrously in achieving this objective, the audit report concluded.
The university’s vice chancellor, RC Sobti, confirmed the audit but said the management is yet to receive a copy of the report.
However, sources said the shortcomings raised during the audit were passed on to the vice chancellor and remedial measures have been taken to fix them.
The report mentioned “rebellious and destructive attitudes of some of the SC/ST staff and their feelings of entitlements cross reasonable limits and doubtless they are a major polarising and debilitating influence on the students and non-teaching community”.
“The victims of this entire educational ‘experiment’ are the students. The student community is totally divided on caste lines and even the staff and faculty have the similar divisions,” the report said.
The audit team said they received complaints that several teachers were not teaching the students regularly.
The report has recommended improvement in the university’s admission mechanism so that quality students are given seats based on merit.
It pointed out that there was complete absence of any kind of working relationship between the three principal administrative functionaries of the university— the V-C, the registrar and the finance officer.
Emphasis has been laid on infrastructural development through civil construction activities at the expense of academic development.
“Lush five-star type buildings for administrative authorities, guest houses, elegant gardens and first-class roads between these buildings co-exist jarringly with shabby classrooms, filthy hostels, insanitary eating places for students and derelict labs,” said the audit report. | {
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Winter Storm Paralyzes Roads In North Carolina, Despite Warnings
Enlarge this image toggle caption Lance King/Getty Images Lance King/Getty Images
They knew it was coming. But drivers in North Carolina still fell prey to the winter storm that the National Weather Service predicted would be "potentially crippling" to the area. Even those who left just after noon have been trapped by the heavy snow that arrived today.
"Snow arrives in the Triangle as expected but causes gridlock anyway," reads the headline in the Raleigh News Observer, referring to the Research Triangle of the cities Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. The intense traffic came one day after Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency ahead of the winter storm.
From what we're seeing, people are blaming the problem on two factors: The snow came on fast and immediately stuck to roads; and most commuters who worked Wednesday tried to leave at the same time, adding to the gridlock.
The worst of the conditions may be yet to come, as officials expect freezing rain and sleet to hit the area as the storm moves out. That's been the story in Texas and Georgia, where ice has coated streets and cars (you can follow the broader effects of the storm in our main post from Wednesday).
In Charlotte, Raleigh, and other parts of North Carolina, commuters have been sitting in their cars for hours to make trips that often take less than 30 minutes. And in scenes like those seen in Atlanta two weeks ago, some are leaving their cars in the road, creating new challenges for other drivers and work and rescue crews.
By around 1:30 p.m. in Chapel Hill, the sky was gray and the air was clouded with snow. Many people headed for home just after lunch, says North Carolina Transportation Department spokesman Steve Abbott.
"It was like a rush hour, only instead of between 4 and 6, it was from 1 o'clock until now — and then you throw in cars that may be broken down along the road, or have slid sideways, and that's adding to it," he said.
The gridlock has come despite warnings and preparations, Abbott says.
"Just in the Raleigh area, we put down more than 114,000 gallons of salt brine," he says. "We've been warning folks for two days: This is going to be bad."
The News Observer spoke to Bob Hofstadter, who had left work in Durham at 2 p.m. but was still on the road in Raleigh — 25 miles away — at 4 p.m. as he tried to get home:
"He'd slogged down the highway, came up a blanketed South Saunders Street, and ran into a clog of cars on the hill coming into downtown Raleigh. " 'I thought I was going to go through town, but now I'm not sure we're going anywhere,' Hofstadter said, scraping ice from the windshield wipers of his Chevy Tahoe. Up ahead, several lanes of cars wound into the white haze that had settled over downtown."
The situation led officials to postpone tonight's planned basketball game between archrivals North Carolina and Duke — a game that, earlier today, the state's governor had urged people not to try to attend.
Member station WUNC spoke to UNC-Chapel Hill student Jessica Isom, who said she had traveled 3 miles in three hours. Isom said the roads weren't prepared well enough.
"Plus the buses stopped working so that left students on campus stranded so more cars came on campus to get students, and that made the traffic worse," she said.
The station passed along this update from Ryan Ellis of the National Weather Service in Raleigh: "We expect accumulations of anywhere from 4 to 7 inches of snow here. It will transition this afternoon and has in some areas south and east of the Triangle into sleet and perhaps freezing rain."
The News Observer reports that hotels are scrambling to find space for people stranded by the storm; a mall has stayed open to give stranded drivers a place to go, even after most of its stores closed at 2 p.m.
In a situation mirrored in other coastal Southern states, much of southeast North Carolina escaped the worst of the snow — but ice and sleet have played havoc with that area's power grid.
More than 50,000 customers have lost power in that area, reports WUNC's Eric Mennel, including in Wilmington, where some streets were lined with downed tree limbs. He spoke to resident Jason Tyson, who said:
"We didn't get any snow per se. It's mostly freezing rain and ice. And the heaviness of that ice just laid on some of these old limbs or limbs that were ready to go anyway. I can see right now, there's a limb about ready to go down, laying on a power line. I think that may be the case all over the city."
The local utility, Duke Energy, has 3,300 workers trying to help, Mennel reports. But, he adds, "The company is telling customers to plan for lengthy outages." | {
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Source: http://gall.dcinside.com/board/view/?id=nf&no=314007&page=1
Edit: these pictures are actually not leaked, they come from Russian wikipedia, were reposted on the Korean site as a “leak”
Continuing the previous post, this time with US ships.
Smith class destroyer
Farragut class destroyer
Fletcher class destroyer
Gearing class destroyer
Chester class light cruiser
St.Louis class protected cruiser
Omaha class light cruiser
Cleveland class light cruiser
Pensacola class heavy cruiser
New Orleans class heavy cruiser
Baltimore class heavy cruiser
Des Moines class heavy cruiser
Michigan class battleship
Colorado class battleship
New Mexico class battleship
North Carolina class battleship
Wright class seaplane carrier
USS Independence
USS Essex | {
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In a year as incredible as 2012, ranking the 25 drivers who took part in the races is a tricky challenge, but it's one we've decided to do anyway. The end of season rankings have become a fixture on F1Zone.net over the last couple of years and there have been a few controversial placings. The competitiveness of F1 2012 means this year will probably be no different. In Part One we start with 25th to 16th...
25 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Lotus F1 Team (Monza only)
It’s only fair to rank d’Ambrosio at the bottom of the rankings because F1’s favourite Belgian only took part in one event. Romain Grosjean’s misdemeanour at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix meant that Lotus turned to d’Ambrosio for Monza and he did himself no discredit by qualifying only seven tenths slower (using Q2 times) than Kimi Raikkonen. Although he was only 13th in the race, d’Ambrosio grappled with a KERS failure and did far better than pure results suggest.
High point: Getting to race at Monza | Low point: KERS failure in the race
24 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT F1 Team
What can you say? Karthikeyan was thoroughly outclassed by Pedro de La Rosa all season, even if he did gain more publicity – usually for the wrong reasons. His best moment had to have been running as high as tenth during the rain afflicted Malaysian Grand Prix while racing at the Indian Grand Prix will be a personal memory for him.
High point: Running in the top ten in Malaysia | Low point: The rest of the season
23 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham F1 Team
The very fact that Jarno Trulli (remember him?) took part in the first pre-season test shows this deal was all down to money over talent. Nevertheless, Petrov showed fairly strong pace against Kovalainen, considering the CT01 was not built with the tall Russian in mind. Even though his race pace has been far better than many credit him for, a Russian Grand Prix could come a couple of years too late for him. Nevertheless, how valuable was his 11th place in Brazil..?
High point: 11th in Brazil | Low point: Engine failure before the start at Silverstone
22 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham F1 Team
After a couple of seasons of out-performing his machinery, Kovalainen seemed subdued in 2012. But even in such a year, there were stand out moments. Take Monaco, where he qualified just a couple of tenths down on the midfield and a full eight tenths of a second ahead of Petrov. Most Formula One drivers have an indifferent season once in a while, but at the back such a year can be terminal.
High point: Battling with Button in Monaco | Low point: Problems in China meant he was 23rd.
21 | Pedro de La Rosa | HRT F1 Team
A class act at the back of the field; not only is he still driving competently, but his eloquence and determination will serve him well in the future. It took until Monza for Karthikeyan to beat him in qualifying, while he claimed his qualifying lap in Monaco was his best ever. In a season where HRT struggled, he remained continuously upbeat.
High point: Monaco qualifying | Low point: Failing to see the project through - but not his fault.
20 | Jean Eric Vergne | Scuderia Toro Rosso
Vergne was close to the points in Australia and succeeded in atrocious conditions in Malaysia a week later. But his form dipped and despite a strong showing in Monaco, he received criticism for his move on Kovalainen in Valencia. It was a year in which Vergne showed flashes of promise but his qualifying pace and especially the number of times he found himself eliminated in the first segment is a concern. Portuguese racer Antonio Felix da Costa is waiting in the wings and Dr. Helmut Marko is notoriously fickle. Vergne has a 2013 contract and needs to impress.
High point: Composed drive in Malaysia | Low point: Idiocy in Valencia.
19 | Charles Pic | Marussia F1 Team
Pic has beaten the curse of the second Virgin/Marussia seat to move on in Formula One with Caterham in 2013. Pic was by far the most impressive of Glock’s team-mates since the start of 2010, excelling in the Hungarian Grand Prix where his pace against the German all weekend was outstanding. Pic also kept the car out of the barriers, an important and rare trait.
High point: Entire Hungary weekend | Low point: lack of pre-season testing
18 | Timo Glock | Marussia F1 Team
It was another indifferent season for Glock, who remained at the back of the grid with Marussia. The team was denied tenth place in the championship in Brazil when Vergne hit the back of Glock, ensuring that the German’s heroics in Singapore were swiftly forgotten. 2013 promises more, although as Caterham’s struggles testify, KERS isn’t a guarantee of progression.
High point: Fine drive in Singapore | Low point: Food poisoning in Valencia
17 | Bruno Senna | Williams
In a season where the midfield was competitive, someone has to be ranked lower down than they might be in other years. It wasn’t that Senna did a bad job, far from it, as he scored in more races than Maldonado. But his pure pace was frequently lacking, condemning him to a Q2 exit and having to make up too much ground. When he did make it to Q3, he raced well and took home a good handful of points. But that was few and far between and when Maldonado was near the front, Senna was in the midfield.
High point: Strong drive in Hungary | Low point: Messy weekend in Singapore
16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Scuderia Toro Rosso
Although Ricciardo ended the season with fewer points than Vergne, he was frequently in front of his team mate both in qualifying and the races. The STR7 was not a strong car, a fact acknowledged by the team, and the acquisition of James Key will give them hope for 2013. Ricciardo’s starring moment was qualifying sixth in Bahrain, but his Lap One tumble down the order epitomised his season. Like Vergne, he will be under pressure from Felix da Costa in 2013.
High point: Bahrain qualifying | Low point: Bahrain Lap 1
Part Two of the F1 2012 driver rankings will come next week | {
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You voted for it! Starting today you can pay with Dogecoin Ɖ on KeyPunk!
Hello! You can decide what we should add next to KeyPunk! Poll end in 48 Hours. #retweet and show your support! #steamgames #steamkeys — KeyPunk (@KeyPunkCom) 17. Mai 2017
Also we changed the main currency in our Store to Dogecoin Ɖ! Due to the low transaction fees, you can pay directly with Dogecoin at the checkout page. You don’t need to buy coins before.
Also we want to add more Games to our Store. Thanks to our new partner, we can offer games like Call of Duty, Battlefield or Fifa in the future. We would like to add these games step by step. The first game that we added with this way is Far Cry 3 – Blood Dragon! It is also the first Game on KeyPunk that coast over 1k Coins. Products with a price over 1000 coins are not sent directly. The key will be sent in 5 minutes – 24 hours.
We also know that you love to earn more Coins. We are working on new ways to earn Coins but this is not ready yet.
FAQ – Dogecoin on KeyPunk
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Nothing! 1Ɖ = 1 Coin
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Not yet but we already work on it!
Can I combine the payment with Dogecoin with my coin balance?
Yes! You can create a Coupon using your Coin Balance on the Cart Page! | {
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With over 100 characters you can befriend in Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, Kirito will have plenty of ladies to choose from to take on dungeons and going on dates. So, you might be wondering “what about the male characters?” Bandai Namco recently shared a bit on the subject.
During the “Dengeki Game Festival 2014” that took place over the weekend, Bandai Namco producer Yosuke Futami, Kirito voice actor Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, and others got together to talk about the upcoming PlayStation Vita title.
After showing a live stream of gameplay footage, featuring Kirito taking on monsters with Philia, and then walking around town holding Asuna’s hands and then carrying her in his arms. They also showed a look at some pillow talk with the Beast Tamer Silica.
“You’ll also be able to hold hands and more with male characters,” revealed Bandai Namco producer Futami during the session.
“A manly friendship!” he exclaimed. While we don’t know what are the other things you’ll be able to do as part of the Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment bromance, Bandai Namco will be sharing more on that in the near future.
Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment will be released on April 24, 2014 for PlayStation Vita. | {
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Oświadczenie Komendy Wojewódzkiej Policji w Lublinie Data publikacji 27.06.2017 Powrót Generuj PDF Drukuj Oświadczenie w sprawie podjętych przez policjantów czynności wobec grupy cudzoziemców w dniu 21 czerwca br.
Od połowy czerwca br. na terenie Lublina liczba policyjnych patroli była znacznie zwiększona. Powodem był odbywający się turniej UEFA EURO U21. Zadaniem policjantów było czuwanie nad bezpieczeństwem kibiców oraz mieszkańców miasta. W czasie tego okresu policjanci nie odnotowali, żadnego niepokojącego incydentu z udziałem grup kibiców wśród których było wielu obcokrajowców. Pomimo tego wczoraj w niektórych mediach ukazały się informacje świadczące o niechęci a nawet rasizmie wobec grupy cudzoziemców z Niemiec. Grupa ta w czasie trwającego EURO U21 przebywała w Lublinie na wycieczce edukacyjnej. Do jednego z opisywanych przez dziennikarzy zdarzeń miało dojść w dniu 21 czerwca br w centrum miasta a powiadomieni o tym fakcie policjanci mieli zareagować w sposób niewłaściwy.
Ustalenia policjantów w tej sprawie:
W dniu 21 czerwca jeden z patroli w godzinach 16.40-19.00 pełnił służbę w rejonie Placu Litewskiego oraz tzw. „Deptaka”. Był to dwuosobowy umundurowany patrol pieszy. W trakcie służby około godziny 17.00 podeszła do nich kobieta narodowości Japońskiej, która trzymając mapę pytała o wskazanie kafejki internetowej. Policjanci wskazali na mapie potencjalne adresy. Przed godziną 18.00 podeszło do nich dwóch młodych mężczyzn. Według policjantów posługiwali się łamaną angielszczyzną. Najprawdopodobniej chcieli o coś zapytać, jednak nie mogli się porozumieć i odeszli. Ich zachowanie nie wskazywało, że coś się wydarzyło, byli spokojni. Później już żaden z innych obcokrajowców do nich nie podchodził.
Drugi z patroli w tym czasie pełnił służbę w rejonie skrzyżowania ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście/ ul. H. Kołłątaja. Byli nimi dwaj policjanci na co dzień pełniący służbę w II komisariacie Policji. Około godziny 17.00 podszedł do nich mężczyzna mówiący po angielsku. Po chwili doszła grupa kolejnych kilku osób w tym kobiet. Byli to cudzoziemcy, którzy posługiwali się językiem angielskim. Policjanci nie znali w stopniu komunikatywnym tego języka w związku z tym skorzystali z pomocy kilku przechodniów. Dialog w języku angielskim toczył się między tymi osobami. W związku z barierą językową i szumem informacyjnym wynikającym z przekazu kilku osób policjanci mogli nie zrozumieć wszystkich intencji zgłaszających. Nie usłyszeli jednak żadnej informacji, która świadczyłaby o przestępstwie lub wykroczeniu popełnionym wobec którejkolwiek z tych osób. Mundurowi zaproponowali wezwanie kolejnego radiowozu. Na koniec policjanci usłyszeli od osób tłumaczących, że nie ma już żadnego problemu. Osoby wymieniły grzecznościowe uśmiechy.
Następnego dnia Pełnomocnik Komendanta Wojewódzkiego Policji w Lublinie ds. Ochrony Praw Człowieka podinsp. dr Edyta Naja odebrała telefon od jednej z pracownic z Państwowego Muzeum na Majdanku. W rozmowie telefonicznej usłyszała, że 21 czerwca w centrum miasta doszło do incydentu podczas którego jakiś mężczyzna splunął obok jednej z uczestniczek wycieczki. Pracownica muzeum nie była świadkiem tego zdarzenia a informację o nim uzyskała od opiekunki grupy młodzieży niemieckiej, która biegle mówi po polsku. Z dalszej rozmowy wynikało, że sama opiekunka także nie była świadkiem a informację o tym zdarzeniu uzyskała później od swoich podopiecznych. W tym czasie grupa miał mieć czas wolny i spędzać go indywidualnie na terenie miasta. Podinsp. Edyta Naja tuż po zakończeniu rozmowy, informację przekazała do Naczelnika Wydziału Prewencji Komendy Miejskiej Policji w Lublinie. Dzięki temu niezwłocznie powiadomione zostały wszystkie patrole, które pełniły służbę w następnych dniach w tym rejonie miasta. Policjanci otrzymali instrukcję o miejscach w których ta grupa nocuje oraz spędza wolny czas. W ten rejon zostały dodatkowo skierowane patrole ponadnormatywne. Wszystko po to aby osoby przebywające na wycieczce edukacyjnej mogły czuć się w naszym mieście bezpiecznie.
Po informacjach jakie ukazały się wczoraj w niektórych mediach wszczęte zostały czynności wyjaśniające. Policjanci zabezpieczyli i przejrzeli nagrania z kamer miejskiego monitoringu gdzie miało dojść do opisywanego zdarzenia. Z nagrań nie wynika aby doszło do jakiegokolwiek incydentu z udziałem cudzoziemców czy przemieszczających się grup kibiców.
Do żadnego z lubelskich komisariatów nie zgłosiły się uczestnicy tej wycieczki ani też ich opiekunka. Nie zostało złożone formalne zawiadomienie w tej lub innej sprawie pomimo, że grupa ta przebywała na terenie naszego miasta jeszcze przez kilka kolejnych dni a opiekunka grupy znała biegle język polski. Uczestnicy wycieczki nie zgłosili też żadnej skargi na jakiekolwiek czynności lubelskich policjantów.
podkom. Andrzej Fijołek
Zespół Komunikacji Społecznej
KWP w Lublinie | {
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“My family and I evacuated the Sunday before Katrina. We intended on staying and riding out the storm, but when we saw how much strength it had gained during the previous days of tracking it, we had no choice but to pack a couple of days’ worth of clothes and food, and head out on a journey that we never would have expected.” More... | {
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78 Coins
Why we're probably not alone in the universe | {
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Seung Min Kim, Politico, May 10, 2015
Just days before Robert Menendez was hit with federal corruption charges, Bill Richardson reached out to his longtime friend with a simple question: How can I help?
Details of the Justice Department’s case against Menendez–that he had improperly used his Senate office to aid a wealthy donor–had been leaking out for weeks. So Richardson, who’s known Menendez since their days together as back-bench Latino members of the House, pledged over breakfast in the Senate Dining Room that he would defend the senator.
“I told him I wanted to stand behind him,” the former New Mexico governor and Energy secretary said in a recent interview. “I stand behind Bob Menendez’s integrity, his word, his values.” Since then, Richardson said he has donated $5,000 to Menendez’s legal defense fund and plans to raise more to aid his friend.
Richardson’s unwavering allegiance mirrors how the larger Latino community has rallied behind Menendez–and remained by his side in the weeks since the indictment–as he faces 14 federal corruption charges spanning bribery accusations to making false statements. As he fights to keep alive a four-decade political career, Menendez is relying on support from Latino politicians, advocacy groups and voters to bolster his public image, raise money and give counsel behind the scenes.
The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce talked with New Jersey’s other Democratic senator, Cory Booker, about efforts to show public support for Menendez, according to officials at the group. Menendez has been asked to be the grand marshal at the Elizabeth, New Jersey, Cuban Day Parade later this month, and he’s scheduled to be honored as the distinguished Cuban-American of the year at another Cuban Day Parade in North Bergen, New Jersey.
About two weeks after Menendez was indicted, La Casa de Don Pedro–a community development and social services organization based in Newark–bestowed the group’s annual award on Menendez to honor him for his work on immigration reform. On Thursday, Menendez rushed for the train home to New Jersey as one of two dozen honorees by the newspaper El Cambio, a Spanish-language publication that covers northern New Jersey, for work on behalf of the Latino community.
{snip}
“When he was the only … Hispanic senator, he would get issues from California to Texas that had very little to do with New Jersey. And he would repeatedly step up for the Latino community,” said Javier Palomarez, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “Because of that record, we are stepping up and saying, ‘Listen. We can talk about the Bob Menendez we know.’”
{snip}
If Menendez were to be found guilty, it would lead to the loss of the only Latino Democrat currently serving in the Senate–and so the broader Hispanic community is rallying behind Menendez not just because of their histories with the senator, but to prevent losing their core of influence in the chamber.
{snip}
The accusations laid out by federal prosecutors in a 68-page indictment are serious: Menendez allegedly took nearly $1 million worth of gifts and contributions from a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist, Salomon Melgen, and then used the resources of his Senate office to bolster the eye doctor’s business interests, while supporting visa applications for three of Melgen’s girlfriends. Melgen was also charged in the Menendez indictment.
Menendez has pleaded not guilty and defiantly proclaimed he will be vindicated. Meanwhile, Melgen is facing 76 additional federal charges, separate from the Menendez case, in Florida, where he is accused of engaging in an elaborate Medicare scheme that included falsely diagnosing patients for eye conditions and then profiting off them.
{snip}
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, a longtime Menendez friend, waited for hours on April 1 until the indictment was made public. Once he saw the charges were official, Gutiérrez dialed Menendez on his iPhone and left him a voicemail: “I want you to know that when you pick up tomorrow’s clips, my statement should be in there, and I’m with you.” In a recent interview, Gutiérrez said he is also willing to help beef up Menendez’s legal defense fund, although the Illinois Democrat acknowledges he’s not a prolific fundraiser.
{snip} | {
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Liberals unhurt, Tories not helped by scathing SNC-Lavalin report: Poll
OTTAWA — A new poll suggests a scathing ethics report on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's handling of the SNC-Lavalin affair hasn't so far hurt the Liberals' chances of re-election this fall — and it hasn't helped the Conservatives.
Indeed, the Leger poll suggests the two parties were locked in a dead heat, with the support of 33 per cent of voters, as they jockey for position at the starting gate for the Oct. 21 vote.
Liberal support was unchanged from last month, despite last week's damning report from federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion, who concluded that Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act by pressuring his former attorney general to halt a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.
Conservative support was down three percentage points from last month, despite the party's best efforts to re-ignite public outrage over the SNC affair, which propelled the Tories into a commanding 13-point lead over the Grits at the height of the controversy last April.
The poll put support for the Green party at 13 per cent, up one point and ahead of the NDP at 11 per cent. Maxime Bernier's fledgling People's Party of Canada stood at four per cent.
The online survey of 1,535 eligible voters was conducted Aug. 16-19 for The Canadian Press and weighted to reflect the makeup of Canada's population. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.
Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque said the latest results suggest voters have largely put the SNC-Lavalin affair behind them and moved on to issues that affect them more directly — at least for now.
The two main parties are back in a "neck-and-neck race," which is where things stood in February before the SNC controversy rocked the Liberal government, costing Trudeau two cabinet ministers, his most trusted aide and the country's top public servant.
"I think that those who changed their mind on the PM and turned their backs on him did that in the spring already," Bourque said in an interview.
But he said other Canadians appear to be fatigued with the issue and may be thinking "regardless of what I think of the behaviour of the PM, at the end of the day how does this change my life and that of my children, which is nil."
Still, Bourque warned that "doesn't mean that it won't come back to haunt the prime minister" during the campaign, particularly should the RCMP decide to investigate, as Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has repeatedly pressed the Mounties to do.
The Conservatives and New Democrats tried to revive the controversy at a meeting Wednesday of the House of Commons ethics committee, where they moved to invite Dion, Trudeau and others to testify about the ethics report.
However, the Liberals used their majority on the committee to block the bid to magnify the report just a couple of weeks before Trudeau officially fires the starting gun for the election.
The poll put the Liberals back into a solid lead in the Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. The Conservatives enjoyed a commanding lead in Alberta and Manitoba/Saskatchewan, with 55 per cent support in both regions.
The Liberals had the advantage in the two most populous provinces, where more than half of the country's 338 seats will be up for grabs.
In Ontario, home to more than one-third of the seats, the Conservatives appear to be suffering a "spillover effect" from the unpopularity of Doug Ford's provincial Progressive Conservative government, Bourque said. The Liberals enjoyed the support of 38 per cent of Ontarians, compared to the Conservatives' 30 per cent, the Green's 14 per cent, the NDP's 13 per cent and the People's party's three per cent.
In Quebec, home to SNC-Lavalin, the Liberals stood at 34 per cent, compared to the Tories' 27, the Bloc Quebecois' 18, the Greens' nine, the NDP's eight and the People's party's four per cent.
Dion concluded that Trudeau broke ethics law by improperly pressuring former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene to stop the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin on corruption charges related to contracts in Libya.
Trudeau has acknowledged that he wanted Wilson-Raybould to reconsider her refusal to overturn a decision by the director of public prosecutions, who decided last fall not to invite the Montreal-based engineering and construction giant to negotiate a remediation agreement. Such an agreement would have allowed the company to avoid the risk of a criminal conviction, which would result in it being barred from federal contracts for 10 years.
While he has taken full responsibility for the mistakes that were made, Trudeau has refused to apologize. He has insisted that he was only standing up for the interests of SNC-Lavalin's 9,000 employees, pensioners and suppliers, who stood to be negatively affected by the potentially crippling cost of a conviction.
Scheer maintains Dion's report suggests the prime minister's conduct went beyond a violation of ethics law and warrants a criminal investigation into possible obstruction of justice.
Wilson-Raybould resigned from cabinet over the affair in late February, followed shortly by cabinet ally Jane Philpott. Both women were subsequently booted out of the Liberal caucus and are running for re-election as Independent candidates.
Joan Bryden , The Canadian Press | {
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Como um adoçante virou centro de uma batalha entre indígenas e multinacionais
Crédito, AFP Legenda da foto, Grandes multinacionais estão começando a usar a estévia como adoçante
Os índios guaranis do Paraguai e do Brasil a chamam de "Ka'a He'e". No mercado, porém, ela é a estévia, uma planta que virou alvo de disputa de propriedade intelectual entre comunidades ancestrais dos dois países e poderosas empresas multinacionais.
A estévia entrou no radar por suas características de adoçante - grandes empresas de refrigerantes e outras multinacionais de alimentos a veem como uma alternativa potencialmente mais saudável que o açúcar.
Mas líderes guaranis das comunidades Paî Tavyterâ e Kaiowa, com respaldo de organizações não governamentais europeias, afirmam que os indígenas não estão sendo recompensados de forma apropriada pelo descobrimento das funções adoçantes da planta e exigem que os direitos de propriedade intelectual sejam reconhecidos.
"Em novembro de 2015, publicamos um relatório que denunciava o lado obscuro do 'boom' econômico da estévia", disse à BBC Mundo, serviço em espanhol da BBC, Laurent Gaberell, responsável por agricultura, biodiversidade e propriedade intelectual na Public Eye, uma das entidades europeias que encabeçam a campanha.
"Os guaranis, que são os que descobriram as características de adoçante da estévia, não estão recebendo sua parte dos benefícios da exploração econômica de seu conhecimento, tal como exige a Convenção sobre Diversidade Biológica e o Protocolo de Nagoya", afirmou Gaberell.
O grupo de organizações não governamentais fez essa e outras reivindicações para as comunidades guaranis.
Um ano depois do relatório, elas começam a ver resultados da campanha, segundo Gaberell.
"Contatamos várias empresas que utilizam ou produzem derivados de estévia para perguntar se estariam dispostoa a cumprir com suas obrigações e negociar com os guaranis um acordo de distribuição dos benefícios", disse.
Crédito, AFP Legenda da foto, Alguns especialistas afirmam que a estévia é mais saudável que o açúcar
"E já temos várias empresas que se declararam dispostas a negociar com eles", completou.
Um relatório recente do grupo apresenta os avanços da campanha e pontua que a multinacional suíça Nestlé "apoia o princípio de participação justa e equitativa na distribuição dos benefícios derivados da utilização do material genético.
Segundo o mesmo documento, a empresa ainda afirma que está "avaliando a possibilidade de se envolver mais no tema."
Outras empresas suíças de alimentos, como Goba e Bernrain, também tiveram uma recepção positiva quanto à reivindicação, de acordo com o relatório.
Resposta
Mas a campanha afirma não ter obtido respostas parecidas de outras grandes multinacionais, como a Coca-Cola e a Pepsi.
"Eles não querem saber nada a respeito disso", disse Gaberell à BBC.
Crédito, AFP Legenda da foto, A estévia é cultivada no Paraguai e no Brasil, entre outras partes do mundo
A Coca-Cola se manifestou por meio de nota.
"Nós, provedores da estévia, somos membros do Conselho Internacional de Estévia, que está envolvido com camponeses paraguaios para promover um ambiente para o cultivo comercial da planta com maior retorno para eles. Como uma empresa, nós acreditamos em gerar oportunidades econômicas para todos os associados de nossa rede de fornecimento e buscamos obter nossos ingredientes agrícolas de uma maneira mais sustentável."
A BBC Mundo também procurou a Pepsi, mas não obteve resposta até a publicação desta reportagem.
Representante da Public Eye, Gaberell afirma que o grupo de ONGs está ajudando as comunidades guaranis a se organizarem para estabelecer quais serão as estratégias e exigências de negociação para as conversas com as multinacionais.
Crédito, AFP Legenda da foto, O mercado de refrigerantes e bebidas doces é multimilionário
Até 60 mil beneficiados
Ele explica que o processo de negociação entre as multinacionais e os indígenas será longo.
"Levará pelo menos três anos", avalia, para que as primeiras conversas gerem os eventuais benefícios concretos e comecem a chegar às comunidades.
Ainda de acordo com o representante da Public Eye, nem o governo brasileiro, nem o paraguaio, estão envolvidos na negociação até o momento.
As comunidades de guaranis que podem obter algum benefício na negociação têm uma população de cerca de 46 mil pessoas do lado brasileiro e cerca de 15 mil do lado paraguaio. | {
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Find LAN Party meetups in your area! We are dedicated to uniting the LAN Party scene and PC gamers in real life. Discover gaming meetups, conventions, esport tournaments and game development jams near you!
The LAN Party is the classic social video game event dating back to Quake.
Harnessing the power of a local network for intense, lag-free multiplayer. Having your friends in the same room enables levels of interaction, coordination and smack talk unseen online.
Esports Tournaments are competitive events where players compete for a combination of prizes, cash or fame. Spectators are usually welcome to sit back and enjoy!
Gaming Conventions and Meetups are social events which may feature a variety of video game enthusiast related sub-events, cosplay, game music bands, tabletop board games and card games (such as Warhammer 40K, Battletech, and Magic the Gathering), and more. | {
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ADVERTISEMENT
The WWE is heading to India this spring to hold their first-ever tryouts in the country. The company has confirmed that they looking for 40 athletes from India to give the opportunity to attend the four-day tryout in Mumbai in March, 2019.
In a press release via Yahoo News India, Triple H stated “India has an extremely large and passionate fanbase and remains a top priority for WWE as we continue to localize content globally,”
Beginning today, the WWE Performance Center website will be taking applications in Hindi ahead of the tryouts.
The WWE’s television rights deal in India renews in early 2019, and analysts believe this will be another milestone in giving the companies stock a push. | {
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Sweet Dreams for SNP as Annie backs independence
ANNIE Lennox, one of the most successful musicians in the world, has always refused to be drawn into the debate over independence in her native Scotland. Yesterday, however, in a massive boost for the SNP, she became the most high-profile convert to the cause for nearly 40 years.
By The Newsroom Thursday, 26th June 2008, 1:00 am
The star, who is due to perform at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert in London today, told The Scotsman that she now believed Scotland could set a global example for what a small country could do.
Lennox, who has sold 80 million records worldwide and won an Academy Award for her songwriting, said she wanted to see a modern, forward-thinking and environmentally friendly Scotland.
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"In that way, if Scotland was to be independent, and it had that kind of vision, I would back it completely," she said.
Her public endorsement of independence represents a major fillip for a cause that has previously had to rely on the actor Sir Sean Connery as its only internationally known celebrity supporter.
But her backing of independence – even though it is conditional on Scotland becoming an ecologically sound, nuclear-free country – also shows how far she has moved politically.
In the past, the Aberdeen-born former Tourists and Eurythmics star kept out of debate on the future direction of the country, backing a referendum on independence but insisting that she did not know enough about it to get involved and that it was up to Scots to decide their future.
Now, though, Lennox has decided to speak out for the first time to give her support to at least the principle of independence, without necessarily backing the SNP's policy platform.
Speaking ahead of her appearance at this year's Festival of Politics at the Scottish Parliament, she said: "You know when the first idea of Scotland being independent came to people's ears, in the late 1960s early 1970s, and I was living in Scotland then, it seemed very eccentric at the time. You know, why? What do you need that for? Is not this some sort of very sentimental view where we are looking inwards rather than outwards?
"But, as time has gone on, I think I can see some benefits to Scotland in a certain kind of way."
She went on: "I wouldn't like to see Scotland missing out on the bigger picture, but at the same time I think Scotland has missed out on things as a country.
"I think Scotland could take a stand in a wonderful way, ecologically and morally and ethically. Scotland could stand for something in the way that Norway has done historically. We could say, this will be a country which is a nuclear-free zone and this will be a country which will tackle the issues like the depletion of the environment around the coastline, for example, and our fishing stocks are so depleted now we are going to have a no-take zone; this type of thing. I would love to see those things, the visionary things, in Scotland."
Asked whether she was open to the arguments over independence, she replied: "Oh, completely. There is an opportunity for something innovative and visionary. I can see that happening. Yes.
"Scotland could have some kind of new, ethical, visionary stance and it could take on some fresh ideas. That could be amazing, really amazing.
"If you think about the issues of the planet, it could be so sweetly represented in a small country like Scotland, in terms of the environment, in terms of trying to tackle issues of inner-city violence, of drug problems, these things.
"All the issues that contemporary society has today, Scotland could be a beautiful example of a way forward, if it was open and not too reactionary – just to say 'no we are not going to have genetically-modified crops, we are not going to have that' – I could see that as a blueprint for something."
Lennox, 53, has been active in international political movements for decades. When she was in the Eurythmics, the band backed Amnesty International and Greenpeace.
Later, she supported charities such as Children in Need and Hear the World, a campaign to spread awareness about deafness, as experienced by her late father, who had worked in Aberdeen's shipyards.
Now Lennox is campaigning on behalf of women in southern Africa who are affected by the HIV/Aids pandemic and has launched a music movement, Sing, to raise money for HIV/Aids education.
She told The Scotsman she did not plan on returning to Scotland to live but insisted Scotland was always with her. "I have always felt a little homeless. It's a strange thing. Although I have lived in London, I have never really considered London my home because it was always going to be a stopping-off point for me, and it has been too.
"I have lived a very peripatetic existence. I have always travelled and travelled and arrived back and then left. I see myself as a traveller. I don't see myself as someone who's too strongly identified with a national identity."
But she added: "I am certainly deeply identified with aspects of Scotland. I have never lost my accent and Scotland is with me every day because, in my mind, it comes into my head; there isn't a day it doesn't come in. But I suppose the Scotland that I left is a different one from what it is now."
The SNP spent much of the run-up to last year's Holyrood elections trying to woo the country's business community, aware that the backing of senior financiers and business leaders would help ease doubts about its ability to govern.
The party secured the endorsement of Sir George Mathewson, the former chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the money and public backing of Stagecoach millionaire Brian Souter and the entrepreneur Sir Tom Farmer.
But while the Nationalists have been successful in securing business support, they have really had only Sir Sean Connery to promote their message on the international stage, until now.
Sir Sean was first identified as a Nationalist in 1969 and was on the long-list for the West Fife seat at that stage – but then it was realised that he was not a party member.
The former James Bond star's pro-independence leanings were well known through the 1970s and the 1980s, but it was not until 1991 that he actually got involved with the SNP, doing a voiceover for a party political broadcast.
That involvement deepened as Sir Sean started to use some of his own money to help fund the SNP, and he developed a close relationship with Alex Salmond, now First Minister, which has continued to this day.
However, the addition of someone as respected and well known in the music industry as Lennox, particularly as she has a track record of political involvement, will take the Nationalists' message to a much wider audience than before.
Connery by far the biggest name in list of Nationalists' celebrity supporters
THE SNP's most famous backer is the former James Bond star Sir Sean Connery, whose Nationalist sympathies have been well known for decades.
However, it was not until 1991 that he got actively involved with the SNP, recording a voiceover for a political broadcast.
Since then, he has donated about 50,000 to the party and developed a close relationship with Alex Salmond, the party's leader.
Other stars have turned to the SNP after losing faith with Labour. Robert Carlyle, the actor, made it clear last year that he was going to vote SNP – even though he did not believe in independence – because he had become disillusioned with Labour.
Elaine C Smith, the comedian and actor, moved to the SNP after years as a Labour supporter, while the Nationalists can also count on the support of one of the two Proclaimers (Charlie Reid now backs the Scottish Socialists, but brother Craig is still SNP).
Highland rockers Runrig were mostly SNP supporters and even provided the party with an MP, in the shape of bass player Pete Wishart. But Donnie Munro, the former lead singer, went the other way and became a Labour candidate. | {
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“There were a lot of tears.”
The words from Alabama baseball coach of Brad Bohannon sadly sounded through the earpiece of the phone as the third-year coach detailed the reactions of his players upon hearing the news on March 12 that the rest of the season had been cancelled.
Bohannon is currently self-quarantining at his home like many others in the Tuscaloosa area during the current pandemic. Along with all of the other coaches, staff and players, he is not allowed to do work on university property and is having to resort to working from home.
Just because he’s had some time to contemplate his team and its season’s early end doesn't mean that it's gotten any easier emotionally.
“I think if you’re not a college athlete it’s hard to understand the energy and passion and work and all that that we put into it,” Bohannon said. “I think in our particular situation we had some older kids that had been a part of two or three really tough seasons.
"The thing about baseball is we play all the time and when it’s going well there’s nothing better and when it’s not going well there’s nothing worse. You just get beat all the time every day.”
This year was different, though. A 16-1 start — the best for the Crimson Tide since 2010 — had fans and friends alike feeling positive about the direction of the program.
Alabama Athletics
After going 30-26 last season and missing the third straight SEC tournament, Bohannon emphasized that his team was made up of ingredients that formed a recipe for success after several years of disappointment.
“We had a team this year where we had a mix of some older kids that were just absolutely sick of losing and just really really determined to get over the hump and we also had some young new people that thought they were 10-feet tall and bulletproof and just thought that we were supposed to win because they were on the team and it was a really nice mix," he said.
“This group of kids liked each other and enjoyed being around each other as much as any group I’ve ever been a part of. I mean they genuinely like each other. There were no cliques on the team. I mean you can walk in the dining hall at any point in time and see any mix of kids. Age, whatever background, so I think that probably added to the emotion of it coming to an end.”
When Bohannon first heard news on March 11th that the NBA was cancelling its games, the first feelings of concern began to course through him.
This was serious.
What soon followed was the announcement the subsequent day that the Crimson Tide’s weekend series against Missouri had been cancelled.
Still determined to maintain his team, Bohannon had his players work out as scheduled on that fateful day and had scheduled scrimmages on both Friday and Saturday to keep the players sharp.
“Everyone was just hopeful that it was going to be [a] short-term interruption of the season,” Bohannon said. “Even at that point in time that was pretty upsetting to our group. We had done such a good job in the preseason and our kids were just so hyped for SEC play to start because you know that’s why you come to Alabama is to play in the league.”
It was in the middle of that Thursday workout that Bohannon received the news of the cancellation of the postseason.
Alabama Athletics
“We were out on the field in the middle of a workout when we found out that the NCAA had cancelled the postseason so you know once that happened I think it kind of resonated with everyone like ‘Oh my gosh our season is in real jeopardy’ and that was a really emotional time,” Bohannon said. “I guess I’m thankful that we were together when that came out. I called the team up and shared that with them and it was really emotional for all of us. Coaches, players, staff.”
Later that same day the NCAA announced the cancellation of the entire season.
Bohannon now struggles with being a confident, steadfast leader in an uncertain world. With the canceling of the season players, particularly seniors, understandably began approaching him with questions regarding the futures of themselves and program.
While the job of head coach is typically associated with being the person with all the answers, Bohannon admits that in this current unpredictable state that college baseball and sports in general are in he must strive to provide the best support he can despite not knowing what might come next for the sport.
“You know really my message at that point in time and even now is just ‘hey I don’t know, we’ll work through it together as we learn more,’” Bohannon said. “There still isn’t a lot of concrete information out there as far as what exactly is the eligibility relief, scholarship relief, roster limits.
"We also have the Major League Baseball draft that has a huge impact on our roster every year. It’s really hard as a coach. You feel like you’re supposed to have all the answers and right now I just keep saying a lot of ‘hey I don’t know and we’ll figure it out together as we move forward.’”
With growing uncertainty as each day passes, it is understandable why players are concerned. The NCAA recently announced that it is pursuing an option to give athletes in all spring sports an additional year of eligibility, but with that comes even more questions.
“For me I gotta wait and see what the NCAA says and what Major League Baseball says,” Bohannon said. “I can’t do anything in regards to a fall roster until I know if the seniors truly have the opportunity to come back what’s the scholarship situation gonna be.
"You start adding more players to the puzzle you know are we still going to have the same roster and scholarship limits? Is there gonna be a Major League Baseball draft and if so how many rounds is it gonna be and are the spending pools gonna be the same?”
With every question answered, more questions seem to appear. While his job has gotten much more unpredictable and he experiences new challenges on a daily basis, Bohannon appears to be handling the difficulties at hand in stride.
Alabama Athletics
With the season over and in the books and now being forced to work from home, Bohannon hasn’t let the outside distractions and obstacles keep him from doing his job as head coach.
“If we were in the season right now I would be in the office,” Bohannon said. “I would be watching video of our next opponent or more focused on game activities. I’ve probably been able to spend more time on recruiting even though we’re not allowed to go out and watch kids play right now and we’re not allowed to have kids on campus. Spent some more time doing things that I wouldn’t have time for.”
Bohannon is also using this time to grow not just professionally but personally as well.
“I’ve got to spend a lot more time with my wife than I normally do in March and my yard looks better than it probably did this time last year,” Bohannon said. | {
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(CNN) Stefani Carroll-Kirchoff always checks the washer and dryer to make sure none of her three cats have climbed inside. Well, almost always.
Last week, after fetching more clothes for a load of laundry, she shut the door without thinking. She set the machine to express wash -- warm water, cold rinse -- and walked away.
Thirty-five minutes later, when the cycle was done, she noticed the clothes were still dripping wet. She was just about to shut the door again when she saw a single white paw sticking out from the wet laundry.
Somehow, her 1-year-old cat Felix had found his way into the machine. She quickly took him out and called her father, who raced them to the Animal Emergency and Referral Center of Minnesota.
Although Felix had lost his vision and had pneumonia from the amount of water in his lungs, he survived and is doing better now -- he can see and has started eating. He's still on oxygen.
Read More | {
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In 60 days you can take Wisconsin back. It's that simple.
This morning citizens from around the state took the first steps by filing recall papers against key Republican Senators who have stood with Scott Walker and pushed his partisan power grab that will strip thousands of middle class teachers, nurses, librarians and other workers of their right to collective bargaining. And we learned just last night that their disastrous budget that will cut millions from our schools and universities.
In 60 days you can take Wisconsin back by recalling the Republican Senators who have decided to push Scott Walker's divisive attack on the rights of workers and his assault on schools, universities and local communities. Can you contribute $60 today to support the Democratic Party's recall efforts?
Make no mistake, these Republican Senators are vulnerable to recall for their radical partisan overreach. Senator Randy Hopper won his last election by just 184 votes. And Alberta Darling won her last race by only 1,007. By recalling just three of the eight Senators we are targeting, we can regain control of the Senate.
But we need your help today. The clock is ticking and we have just 60 days to collect the signatures we need to force a recall. Every day and every dollar counts.
[snip]
If we can recall at least three Senators and regain control of the Senate, we can end the ugly games Republicans in the legislature have played in the last few days -- unplugging phone lines, bolting windows inside the Capitol shut, and withholding the paychecks of Democratic legislators. | {
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Inflation, the euro crisis – for years there has been one worry hype after another. Yet fear frequently turns out to be wrong. We need a committee of wise men in charge of dealing with the real risks.
This article originally appeared on Der Spiegel
Rarely has there been so much fear. At least according to the index that a well-known insurance company employs for their annually conducted surveys to determine what Germans worry about most. It indicates that in 2016 a wide range of fears shared by an unusually high number of respondents has surged tremendously to the top of the list of greatest worries. Which at first may not come as a surprise – considering the news we are presented with on a daily basis, news covering yet another attack, for example, or a newly appointed British foreign secretary.
What’s puzzling is that most of the worries ranking at the top of the fear-charts in Germany over the past 15 years turned out to be unfounded in the end. A reason to be relieved? Well, it might also be that we have an inclination to drift into neuroses – with dangerous side effects: For example, when this hype distracts us from recognizing a real risk. Then we are in urgent need of a fear reform.
Clearly, inflation is one of the favorite fears Germans have. No other nation jitters as much at the thought of prices going up. And indeed: Since the first survey was conducted in 1992, the fear of rising living costs has ranked first every other year – higher than the fear of unemployment, illness or one’s own children becoming addicted to drugs. At a time, mind you, when inflation was as low as rarely ever before. From the year 2000 onwards the rate of price increase has averaged at around 1.5 percent. A little absurd, isn’t it?
And no rolling out the old argument of everything being much more expensive because of the euro! At the beginning some merchants exploited the currency changeover. True. If anyone sees this as lasting inflation, they should try ordering a cup of coffee or rent an apartment in London or New York - and report back afterwards.
So what if the sky is falling?
Since 2011 the number-one fear has been a different one: The fear of the “costs of the euro crisis to the German taxpayer.” And even this fear has not really materialized in full. A few loans had to be written off. Sure. Yet the bulk of the loans has dutifully been paid back by Greece to this day with the German finance minister even collecting interest on them. And what’s more: Because with every episode of crisis an increasing number of investors have resorted to German government bonds, Wolfgang Schäuble by now no longer needs to pay interest on newly issued public debt. According to the calculation of the Halle-based IWH-Institut (a German institute for economic research), the German treasurer thus had saved nearly 90 million euros by mid-2015 alone.
Hence, the German taxpayer has made a net profit from the crisis. Even if the Greeks were to default on all of their loans. After all, taxes haven’t been increased in Germany either – instead Mr. Schäuble is promising tax relief. That would be the opposite of the number-one fear through which people in Germany have been brought to their heels throughout the course of the past five years.
As a matter of fact, only in 2003 and 2009 was the Germans’ number-one fear bang on target: Recession. Although the crisis was over already in 2010. Then – wouldn’t you know it? – inflation moved back to the top of the list. In the current year 2016 fear of terrorism is at the top of the list for the first time – with rather good reasons. Even though, from a sober perspective and to our great fortune, there has been no attack on German soil.
The Extremists’ Strategy Pays Off
One might add here – according to commonplace kitchen sink psychology – that fear grows incrementally with the gravity of potential harm, even though the likelihood of it occurring is low. That’s understandable. And a certain amount of fear is beneficial as it may be helpful to us in eliminating dangers
What’s treacherous is that for fear of inflation money is kept scarce whereby the actual problem comes from lack of investments. As a result, fear turns into a highly counter-productive agent. More or less the same is true for the euro crisis. For fear of incurring high costs for the poor Germans the wildest political contortions were performed and financial aid was delayed – instead of employing that energy on finding the best possible strategy for Greece (as well as Spain and Portugal); the more so as the risk for greater costs would decrease significantly with swifter aid.
Just how fatal the effect of fear can be is seen in terrorism. In a flash the extremists have managed to become our number-one fear. Even though the real likelihood of being killed in an attack, despite last night’s renewed act of terror in Nice, is still extremely low. Their scheme plays out nevertheless, as fear now feeds into a more or less blind hatred for everything having to do with Islam – at the same time they can set themselves up as the saviors of all Muslims. Mission accomplished.
What’s true for the big picture also applies to a smaller scale. Since many parents have a statistically unrealistic fear that their child could be involved in an accident on their way to school, unnecessary car trips to take their children to school are undertaken – which has been proven to increase the risk of accidents occurring.
Less German fear in the euro crisis would have saved us a lot of troubles
We urgently need clarification and better communication of what really is dangerous – and how it is dangerous. A sort of bureau for risk or threat assessment. Or an anti-fear advice council of wise men. Or even a risk minister. Whatever. In any case, someone who will provide knowledgeable information about the levels of risk to the best of their knowledge. Even if a lot of factors cannot be determined accurately; sometimes knowing the magnitude of the risk already helps. We need someone who will let us know how matter-of-fact experts assess the risk – instead of hearing assessments only from those, often grand economists, whose presence in the public arena does not necessarily align with how well balanced and sound their prophecies are.
Knowing the (low) statistical probability of children having an accident on their way to school, one would most likely leave the car parked. Self-test. If one knows that hyperinflation is damn unlikely to occur today, chances are that many would sooner give up their reservations when central bankers tackle the (real) danger of deflation with generous amounts of money allocations. Less German angst would very likely have spared us the escalation of the euro crisis.
We would probably also need a few new economists. What is the use of experts who constantly warn against rigors that never occur? Against minimum wage allegedly bringing about large numbers of unemployed. Embarrassing. Experts who instead failed to alert us when real disasters were looming as in the case of the ongoing financial crisis of 2007. Such negligence could still be excused if at least at this point in time a revision of those models would follow which suggest that the market will fix it all in the end. Not a bit of it! Doing so might even help us to not always be pursued by stupid fears.
Or we take on a couple of new politicians, who will give us the impression that things are under control again. In 2016 two thirds of the Germans fear that their politicians might be fundamentally and generally overtaxed.
There’s lots to do. | {
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Pixabay.com/PublicDomainPictures
This won't be good news for criminals who forget their gloves.
Researchers at Flinders University in South Australia have developed a new test that can measure the amount of DNA we "shed", the university revealed Friday. This could mean that a single tap of a finger on a door handle can be used to link potential suspects to a crime, and also potentially reveal who an item last came into contact with.
In a test involving 11 donors, the researchers took 264 fingerprints, getting participants to wash their hands, then give prints of their thumbs at intervals of 180 minutes.
"We know that some people pass on more of their DNA because when they touch something more of their cells are left behind," lead researcher Adrian Linacre said. "They are called shedders but it's very difficult at the moment to see who is a shedder."
The researchers developed a dye which can identify deposits of DNA at a crime scene, accurately pointing investigators to where DNA samples lie, instead of leaving them to guess.
"The dye binds within a number of seconds... certainly within 10 seconds we can see all the DNA that's there, and we can count it," Linacre told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Friday. This lets the researchers determine whether someone is a "shedder".
"By counting the amount of cellular material, which appears as green dots, we know if someone's a heavy shedder or a poor shedder," Linacre told the ABC.
The researchers discovered that men shed more DNA than women, and the finger which leaves the most accurate traces of DNA is the thumb. The ABC reports that scientists have contacted criminal investigators internationally about using the new research.
You can read the full paper in ScienceDirect.
Genealogy site credited with helping ID Golden State Killer suspect.
Scientists may have uncovered what dinosaur DNA looked like. | {
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Pompeo said there will be a time to make sure that “we get this right” and to make sure that the US is not dependent on China for its pharmaceutical goods. (Reuters photo)
Blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it has caused a “huge challenge” for the global as well as the US economy by not sharing the information they had and the ruling Communist Party “will pay a price” for it.
China has come under increasing pressure from nations across the world, including the US, over the lack of transparency in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed more than 190,870 lives globally, with America leading the tally with nearly 50,000 deaths.
President Donald Trump had said his administration was looking into reports that the novel coronavirus “escaped” from a Wuhan virology laboratory before it spread to the world. “I am very confident that the Chinese Communist Party will pay a price for what they did here, certainly from the United States. I don’t know exactly what form that will take,” Pompeo told Fox News in an interview on Thursday night.
However, he underlined that the focus was not on China now but the US administration’s goal is to control the virus and revive the American economy. “It’s on making sure we keep Americans safe, take down the health risk, keep people healthy as we can, and get this economy going back,” he said. “But I am very confident. I talk to business people all around the country. I talk to ordinary citizens — people who have put their lives at risk over the last weeks. They know that this is a result of this virus that originated in Wuhan, China, and they know that the Chinese government didn’t do the things it needed to do. There will be a cost associated with that,” Pompeo asserted.
Pompeo said there will be a time to make sure that “we get this right” and to make sure that the US is not dependent on China for its pharmaceutical goods. The top US diplomat said Americans are angry over China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and President Trump also feels the same way.
“China caused an enormous amount of pain, loss of life, and now a huge challenge for the global economy and the American economy as well, by not sharing the information they had. We still don’t have full transparency from the Chinese Communist Party…there are things we don’t know…We haven’t been able to get our team on the ground to do the work that it needs to do,” Pompeo said.
“This is an ongoing challenge in that the Chinese Communist Party and the World Health Organisation have failed to do the things they have the responsibility to do when they have a pandemic inside of their country,” he said. | {
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Guys... I've read this guide before and it has worked for many men.
This is the NO PILLS, NO PUMPS, NO SURGERY technique.
As a matter of fact, many Websites CHARGE for this information, and for the videos, so please keep that in mind.
PLEASE read in it's entirety, watch the videos, and then jot down your questions.
Most probably will be answered if you review the materials first.
Also, it may be beneficial to print it out, and keep it handy - no pun intended.
Big-Al thank you for this guide
Ive got videos and a bigger writeup..but it's copywrited, and I had to pay for it, so I can't re-produce it here.
Click to expand... | {
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A photo of a man hanging bacon rashers over the halal meat section has caused outrage after it was shared on a controversial Facebook group.
The photo snapped, in what looks like a Coles supermarket, shows a man proudly giving the camera the middle finger after removing bacon from its packaging and placing it over the halal products.
The photo shared on a Facebook page called We Are One Australia-National drew immediate criticism for representing what many considered to be a "anti-Islamic statement".
"It's this type of childish behaviour that makes me ashamed of my country," one person wrote.
"I don't know why you feel the need to glorify such d***heads," another wrote in response to the image.
Another person wrote: "There is nothing patriotic about disrespecting Muslim Australians in such a vulgar, ignorant manner".
View photos The picture has been liked more than 2,700 times. Source: Facebook More
However, there was also an overwhelming show of support for the bacon-hanging "patriot".
Another comment said: "He's a legend I do it all the time".
"Nice work there patriot," one man said.
"You are a true blue Aussie legend mate, love your work," another Facebook user wrote.
View photos Not everyone agrees with the image's apparent statement. Source: Facebook More
Amid all the criticism and Facebook arguing, a defensive admin member attempted to downplay the controversial post, saying there had been a large overreaction to it.
"The person is anonymous, and location at this point also. The purpose of the photo is a large majority of people don't like paying a tax on food for an Islamic ideology," the admin said.
"And as you should know Muslims don't eat pigs and to them that section is contaminated now and is why they are so offended as by comments you can see."
Halal food has been prepared according to Islamic law, which prohibits Muslims from eating blood, alcohol and meat from forbidden animal including pigs.
Coles declined to comment after being contacted by 7 News Online. | {
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Both Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 were launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in desert of Kazakhstan. It has since served as a launch pad for generations upon generations of spacecraft, including the International Space Station. Take a tour of Baikonour as it looks today.
The photo above was taken by Bill Ingalls/NASA.
The Cosmonaut Hotel, where some astronauts have been accommodated before and after their flights
(via Alexpgp)
Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA pauses for a photo while signing a hotel room door at the Cosmonaut Hotel, 2013
(Photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft is rolled out by train on its way to the launch pad, 2012
(via NASA/Carla Cioffi)
Extreme Danger Zone
(via NASA/Bill Ingals)
An Orthodox Priest blesses members of the media, the crew and the Soyuz rocket, photos from 2012 and 2013
(Photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls 1 – 2 and Carla Cioffi)
The Soyuz TMA-05M launches in 2012
(Photo by NASA/Carla Cioffi)
The Energia Launch Site and its flame bucket
(via alexpgp 1 -2)
The crawlers for Energia and Buran
(via Baikonur and EnglishRussia)
Abandoned facilities, pipes, and launch pads
You can see more abandoned Soviet space facilities here, including a secret laboratory, a military town, and the first flight control center used during Gagarin's mission.
The Fading Grandeur of Abandoned Soviet Space Facilities The Soviet Union launched Sputnik and gave the United States a run for its money in the Space Race. Read more
(via Baikonur and drugoi)
The Buran test model OK-M, now restored to its original condition
(via drugoi)
Abandoned military buildings
(via EnglishRussia)
A big sign commemorating space exploration on the Main Street in the city
(via Ken & Nyetta)
The Proton Club at Area 95 at the Baikonur Space Port – it has an auditorium, a kitchen, a hall with pong-pong, and pool tables
(via Alexpgp)
A full-size Soyuz rocket is on display near the main post office
(via Alexpgp)
On the fields of Baikonur
(via Neil Berrett)
There are some interesting things near the street
(via Neil Berrett)
The SS-17 ballistic missile as a monument
(via Baikonur)
"Peace to the World!"
(via alexpgp)
A tower block with a cool space-themed artwork
(via Baikonur)
The former officer's club, now a disco on the main square
(via Baikonur)
The house of Yuri Gagarin
This is the bed where the famous cosmonaut spent his last night before flight.
(via Russia Blog/Photo by Anton Verstakov and Baikonur)
The statue of Gagarin
(via Baikonurfest)
A bronze bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky (known as Bloody Felix or Iron Felix), the founder and first leader of the Soviet Secret Police Cheka in 1917
(via Russia Blog/Photo by Anton Verstakov)
Skateboard park
(via Russia Blog/Photo by Anton Verstakov)
The many former names of Baikonur (Zarya village, Leninski village and Leninsk city – it was renamed to Baikonur only in 1995)
(via Esther Dyson)
Bonus: Parts of the Russian Moon Rocket N1 on a Baikonur playground in 1998
(via Leuband) | {
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HE MAY BE one of the country’s best known and most accessible explainers of science, but Bill Nye, a former mechanical engineer, got his showbiz start in comedy. A role he played on a local Seattle sketch-comedy TV show eventually evolved into the gag-laden syndicated program for which he’s best known: “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” Although the show wrapped in 1998, after 100 episodes, Mr. Nye retains the moniker, as well as his mission to explain at times complex scientific principles in plain English. His latest book, “Undeniable,” unpacks evolution—which he believes to be “the fundamental idea in all of life science.”
... | {
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Inktober day 13/14
“Where’s Mabel? What have you done to my sister?!”
“Hey kid, don’t give me that look! I only gave her what she wished for. She’s right where she wants to be.”
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Pentagon survivor Stephen McHale says he didn't hear anything because his car windows were rolled up. | {
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Review: Red Pill Orgasm by Halfbreed
January 20, 2014
Recently I got in touch with Halfbreed, a fellow writer over at redpillgame.com about checking out his new book Red Pill Orgasm. I decided “hell, why not?” and it ended up being one of the best guides I’ve come across in recent years.
What’s Red Pill Orgasm?
It’s a 96-page downloadable PDF e-book — read it on mobile or your computer
It takes you through the nitty-gritty of sexual intercourse with a woman…
…anatomy, foreplay, sex, climax, you name it
…it’s detailed enough for a beginner
…it contains enough information to teach an old dog some new tricks
Overall, I was impressed by this book and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to read through it and actually try many of the techniques out for myself. I’d say about half of it was review for me, but review keeps the knowledge fresh in your mind.
My experience with Red Pill Orgasm
I’m not a sex master, nor do I bang a new girl every night, but it’s not my first rodeo either. That said, I learned a lot of interesting techniques and this book has just about anything for any man curious about sexual technique.If you’re new to sex (hey, everyone’s gotta start somewhere) Halfbreed doesn’t skimp here. He explains everything as if he were talking to a virginal man who had never taken Sex ed, let alone fingered a girl. Hell, I’ve done that before plenty of times and I still learned some new things.
If you’re the type who would be put off by how “analytical” it seems, just realize that once you’ve internalized Halfbreed’s tips and techniques you won’t even be thinking about it. It’s just like learning any new skill.
As far as sexual technique goes, inside Halfbreed covers:
Foreplay — women are water, men are fire — bring her to a simmer!
— women are water, men are fire — bring her to a simmer! Oral sex — positions and techniques
— positions and techniques Slow entry — a great way to transition from foreplay
— a great way to transition from foreplay “Screwing” — not what you think! It’s a technique.
— not what you think! It’s a technique. Basic Sex Positions — Great if you don’t want to refer to the godawful techniques by Cosmo on the internet
— Great if you don’t want to refer to the godawful techniques by Cosmo on the internet The Sets of Nine — a great thrusting technique
— a great thrusting technique Making It Last — techniques to delay ejaculation, great for premature ejaculators
First of all, I have to say that “The Sets of Nine” technique is killer! The way Halfbreed explained it was much better than a similar, more dated technique I had come across once before and never tried again until now. Make sure to lube it up though since it can get dry after a while. If she’s in the mood for hard-and-fast, save this one for a lazy night. (And I use lazy ironically since it’s a hell of a core workout.)
Interestingly, the book centers around the female orgasm. Men pretty much know how to have an orgasm for themselves, but women are usually out of luck.
Halfbreed explains that the orgasm keeps the girl coming back for more, making it a win-win for the both of you. In this regard, this makes men the sexual “gatekeepers” since female orgasm is like an arcane magical power to most men.
However, with Red Pill Orgasm, you don’t have to be a sexual wizard carrying a big staff. Whether you are a quick-fling kind of guy or you have a steady girl, an orgasm a day keeps the hamster at bay. What’s more, if you pick up a copy of this book, it’s a great excuse to try out and learn some new things.
In fact, there’s a lot of things I didn’t know about or need to try. Halfbreed wrote about some “energy techniques,” and I have yet to try it out, but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s just New Age woo-woo — A lot of these things are good for getting yourself out of your head and ready to shake the bed. In Red Pill Orgasm, there’s something for everyone, like the chapter on anal sex.
One other interesting thing is that Red Pill Orgasm also centers around themes of male dominance and its role in the bedroom. Halfbreed discusses this in terms of Game, relationships, and how sex plays a very central role for both the man and the woman. If this knowledge sounds oppressive to you, don’t read this book. But let me tell you, you’re missing out on some prime sexual knowledge.
Conclusion
Red Pill Orgasm is a great sexual guidebook for men from all walks of life. The author, Halfbreed, is experienced in just about everything he’s written about here, and he genuinely knows what he’s talking about.
If you’re like curious old me, you’ve probably pored through sex books and magazines like Maxim or even Cosmo looking for techniques and came short with irrelevant, non-factual and even dangerous information.
Don’t bother with those anymore and just download a copy of Red Pill Orgasm while it’s still just $20. You’ll thank yourself later. | {
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Cramer: Here's why the market's down
CNBC's Jim Cramer explains why Washington is less of an issue for the markets than the upcoming earning season. | {
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Tom Izzo on 1130 The Fan:
I’m upset with the media, because somebody’s sitting in the basement making up stuff. And it’s embarrassing to me. It’s embarrassing to me for the Detroit Pistons. When it comes on a across a headline “Tom Izzo says he has no interest” or whatever, that wasn’t even the case. The problem is nobody’s even talked to me. I get all these things. “I know you’ve talked to this person.” “I know you’ve talked to that person.” Because that makes it look embarrassing, like the Pistons have called me, and said something, and I’ve said I had no interest. First of all, nobody has contacted me in any way, shape or form. I don’t have an agent, so they can’t go through my agent. It’s just so ridiculous. Somebody can just make it up. And that’s the Twitter generation. You wonder why I don’t like it.
First of all, to media out there that started that thing, shame on you.
I’ve never met or talked to Tom Gores. I have a great respect has done. I pull for the Pistons every day. I feel for what Joe Dumars is going through. Never once met or talked to him. So, all the all the people who tell me how many times I’ve talked to him or done this, to be very blunt about it, Matt, it gets sickening. | {
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Jaxson Hayes is the latest product to come out of Shaka Smart’s University of Texas Big Man Factory. Hayes is a player most draft analysts are falling in love with, and we think several NBA scouts and GMs could leading up to draft night as well.
Hayes is a player that looked like he would need a few years at Texas before transitioning to the NBA, but he’s been projected everywhere from the lottery to the late 20s.
Hayes is a freak athlete, with the size and upside that will make teams want to take a flyer on him. He is raw, but he was a late bloomer when it comes to basketball as he experienced several growth spurts and is still getting used to his 6-11 frame, but he is so young, turning 19 just before the draft, that there is a chance he could still grow, and there’s tons of potential for growth in his game as well.
As he is currently, he could probably carve a role out on a team as a low utility player that is used in screen-and-roll situations and in clean up around the rim on offense as a lob threat, while providing some above average rim protection on defense. Hayes seems to have a nose for the ball and has good enough instincts where he knows to double at the rim for a block. He also has good recovery speed when he has to come out to the perimeter to defend and is able to close out even if he is beat.
He has great speed going coast-to-coast and closes on breaks fast, getting ahead of the defense for dunks and lobs. He’s quick off pick-and-rolls and is good at finding open spots and driving lanes as a rim runner, but he may have some trouble against more physical bigs in the NBA.
Strengths • Freak athlete
• Gifted shot blocker
• Good finisher and high-percentage scorer Weaknesses • Needs to improve rebounding, especially on defense
• Needs to add some strength to defend at next level
• Face-up offense needs work
Best Landing Spot Los Angeles Lakers or San Antonio Spurs – Hayes is projected all over the board. If he is picked in the lottery, the Lakers could be a nice landing spot because the Lakers utilize rim runners and defenders in the paint and don’t ask a lot of them on offense. This could be a nice spot to develop if veterans JaVale McGee and Tyson Chandler are there to take him under their wing. San Antonio could use a mobile big man and are known for being patient with developing their talent. Worst Landing Spot Any teams with a ton of frontcourt depth or a team that may expect too much of him too quickly would not be ideal. Cleveland and Oklahoma City come to mind. Draft Range Late lottery to mid 20s. NBA Comparison Clint Capela, Jarett Allen Hayes’ game reminds me a lot of another former Longhorn in Brooklyn Nets big man Jarrett Allen, but he’s got a few more tools that are also similar of Clint Capela, especially in the screen and roll game. Ratings Breakdown Ball IQ: 8
Shooting (Inside): 6
Shooting (Outside): 6
Passing: 7 Dribbling: 7
Hustle: 9
Defense: 8 | {
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OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 30, 2019 – The Oklahoma City Thunder signed guard/forward DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell, guard Abdul Gaddy, forward Myke Henry and forward/center Eric Moreland, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti. Per team policy, terms of the agreements were not released.
Akoon-Purcell (6-6, 200) was a two-way player for Denver during the 2018-19 season, appearing in seven games with the Nuggets. In two games with the Delaware Blue Coats, the Illinois State product averaged 24.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.00 steals in 29.0 minutes.
Gaddy (6-3, 200) spent last season with the Oklahoma City Blue where he appeared in 49 games (48 starts) and averaged 9.5 points, 7.2 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 29.4 minutes, shooting 52.3 percent from the field and 43.3 percent from three-point range.
Henry (6-6, 215) played for Ironi Nahariya of the Israeli BSL last year, appearing in 33 games (31 starts) and registering averages of 14.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.52 steals in 31.3 minutes. The Chicago native previously spent two seasons with the Oklahoma City Blue from 2016-18 before being signed to a Two-Way Contract by Memphis midseason where he played in 20 games with the Grizzlies and averaged 5.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.55 steals in 18.9 minutes.
Moreland (6-10, 240) is a four-year NBA veteran who previously played for Sacramento, Detroit, Phoenix and finished the 2018-19 season with Toronto. The NBA Champion has appeared in 83 career games and holds averages of 1.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.0 assist in 10.8 minutes, shooting 53.7 percent from the field. | {
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As some American eggheads say, there could not have been 1787 without 1215. The legacy of Philadelphia starts at Runnymede. Put more bluntly, the U.S. Constitution would not exist without the Magna Carta that was signed by King John of England.
America’s political culture, ideals, and most of its founding stock come from the British Isles. As such, arguing that American documents have an English lineage is entirely sensible. America’s Bill of Rights is based on and not much different from the Bill of Rights that English Protestants ratified in 1689 following the Glorious Revolution.
There a few documents in the world that receive such undue reverence as the Magna Carta. Conservative MP Daniel Hannan has called the signing of the document a “secular miracle”, the logic being that it was the Magna Carta that enshrined limited government in the English, then British soul. Hannan and others sincerely believe that the 1215 document is the root and origin of modern Anglo governance, with its protection of individual freedom, liberties, etc. Let us show that this is bunk.
Historical Context
The Magna Carta, which can be read in translation here, was signed by a king so loathed that no subsequent English monarch took his name. Although King John‘s story has been colored over the centuries by writers who hated him, it is true that John was a tyrant and a bumbler who lost most of the Angevin holdings in France to King Philip II of the House of Capet. Even worse, insofar as the Anglo-Norman barons of England were concerned, John was not the legitimate king because he ruled in the stead of the brave Richard the Lion-heart, who spent years languishing in an Austrian jail.
Beginning in 1215, the same year that John affixed his emblem to the Magna Carta, the Anglo-Norman barons of England’s north and east rose up in rebellion. Their main grievances were over John’s misrule in England and Normandy as well as his steep taxes that were raised in order to fight new campaigns in France. This rebellion would become known as the First Barons’ War, an unnecessary conflict that further weakened the monarchy in England.
The Magna Carta had already been signed by the time the war broke out, so it neither prevented the war nor ended it. In fact, haggling over the Magna Carta following its signing led both parties to be dissatisfied with the document, ultimately putting all on a war footing. The “secular miracle” was ineffectual insofar as internal English politics were concerned. The main reason for this is that King John had the document annulled not long after signing it by a decree from Pope Innocent III. The Pope and the King agreed that the document had been signed under coercion. The Pope even went further by excommunicating those barons who had forced John’s hand. Even in its own time, the Magna Carta meant nothing to either the English monarch or the barons who fought him.
The Document Itself
Those who claim that the Magna Carta is the origin of Anglo-American freedom often point to one line in particular:
“No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will we not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.”
This passage is often cited as the foundation of the notion that all governments should be held to the rule of law. This is a strange assertion, given that no English or British court case has been decided based on either this passage or the Magna Carta generally, and that the Romans had a legacy of protecting legal authority long prior. The Magna Carta is therefore of no legal importance. It is merely a symbolic gesture that signals the king’s willingness to compromise on his authority. When the English sovereign faced a much greater revolt in the 17th century, many Parliamentarians echoed the work of barrister Sir Edward Coke, who often invoked the Magna Carta during his injunctions against outlawry, unlawful arrests, and other formerly common practices of medieval (and Catholic) England.
Another criticism of the Magna Carta from the perspective of the Catholic or hard Protestant Right is the fact that the document makes God a mere observer in English affairs, not the creator and ultimate judge of all human actions:
“FIRST, THAT WE HAVE GRANTED TO GOD, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired. That we wish this so to be observed, appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and our barons, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church’s elections – a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to it – and caused this to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity.”
This moment then could be seen as the first stirrings of a legally encoded separation of church and state (an idea that is un-Christian down to its vary marrow) even though, as said before, the Magna Carta is ultimately a useless document. More to the point, legal codices and other documents have shown to be poor restraints on the state. Formerly, a Pope could excommunicate kings (and even that was not always effective) because the Pope in Rome was seen as having power in both the secular and ethereal realms. Nowadays, thanks to the Enlightenment, rulers are only constrained by contracts that can be changed thanks to the democratic and chaotic process of voting. Amendments are poor substitutes for excommunication; thus these weak constraints have empowered bureaucrats and managers at the cost of weakening sovereigns.
Third, the Magna Carta’s constant talk of “freemen” is meant to only apply to those Anglo-Norman barons who stood so threateningly beside King John as this document was signed. As G. K. Chesterton famously quipped, “the poor object to being governed badly, while the rich object to being governed at all.” This pithy statement is certainly apt when viewing the situation in England in the early 13th century. After all, the raising of taxes is one of the few duties of a king, and from the perspective of the Angevin crown, John was raising taxes in order to defend those lands that were his by birthright in France.
King John’s taxes did constitute a threat to baronial privilege, however. For a legitimate monarch, taxes are rent charged to tenants by the private property owner. In the case of King John, he enacted import and export taxes and pseudo-income taxes, most of which were only applicable to England’s barons. Those barons who could not or would not pay their taxes or debts saw their lands given to the crown. While the barons were wrong to draft the Magna Carta, King John was equally wrong to enact unfair taxes that went against precedent.
While the Magna Carta does speak out against the illegal seizure of non-English land (“If we have deprived or dispossessed any Welshmen of land, liberties, or anything else in England or in Wales, without the lawful judgment of their equals, these are at once to be returned to them”), it certainly does not articulate anything close to equal rights between the Celtic and Germanic subjects of the British Isles. Indeed, as discussed on Episode 77 of the Myth of the 20th Century podcast, the Magna Carta enshrined and justified the popular business of buying and selling English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh slaves to foreign and domestic markets. Similarly, the passage in the Magna Carta absolving Christians from debts to Jews (“If anyone who has borrowed a sum of money from Jews dies before the debt has been repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt for so long as he remains under age, irrespective of whom holds his lands. If such a debt falls into the hands of the Crown, it will take nothing except the principal sum specified in the bond.”) is really nothing less than an a way for debt-ridden nobles to cover their own hides after several failed crusades in the Holy Land.
It must also be mentioned that the “security clause” of the Magna Carta (Clause 61) does not offer up protection from unjust land theft, but rather tried to enshrine the rights of those twenty-five barons present at Runnymede:
“The barons shall elect twenty-five of their number to keep, and cause to be observed with all their might, the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter. If we, our chief justice, our officials, or any of our servants offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is made known to four of the said twenty-five barons, they shall come to us – or in our absence from the kingdom to the chief justice – to declare it and claim immediate redress. If we, or in our absence abroad the chief justice, make no redress within forty days, reckoning from the day on which the offence was declared to us or to him, the four barons shall refer the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who may distrain upon and assail us in every way possible, with the support of the whole community of the land, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children, until they have secured such redress as they have determined upon. Having secured the redress, they may then resume their normal obedience to us. Any man who so desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty-five barons for the achievement of these ends, and to join with them in assailing us to the utmost of his power.”
This clause gave the English public the right to forgo oaths of allegiance to the king, and in its opening passage (“SINCE WE HAVE GRANTED ALL THESE THINGS for God, for the better ordering of our kingdom, and to allay the discord that has arisen between us and our barons”) Clause 61 places man ahead of God in terms of the creation and structuring of civil society. Taken together, Clause 61 might be the most egregious in the Magna Carta for undermining the Christian nature of monarchy and the rights of the English sovereign. Historian Wilfred Warren argued in his book King John that Clause 61 made civil war inevitable in England because it so drastically upset the balance of power in the country in favor of the barons.
Other clauses, such as Clause 53 (“…when we have hitherto had this by virtue of a ‘fee’ held of us for knight’s service by a third party; and with abbeys founded in another person’s ‘fee’, in which the lord of the ‘fee’ claims to own a right. On our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once do full justice to complaints about these matters”) and Clause 55 (“All fines that have been given to us unjustly and against the law of the land, and all fines that we have exacted unjustly, shall be entirely remitted or the matter decided by a majority judgment of the twenty-five barons referred to below in the clause for securing the peace”) gave the barons the right to default on their debts and the right to refuse to pay certain fees. Many of these fees, including taxes on land, had been a part of English Common Law prior to the Norman Conquest. Clause 50 (“We will remove completely from their offices the kinsmen of Gerard de Athée, and in future they shall hold no offices in England. The people in question are Engelard de Cigogné, Peter, Guy, and Andrew de Chanceaux, Guy de Cigogné, Geoffrey de Martigny and his brothers, Philip Marc and his brothers, with Geoffrey his nephew, and all their followers”) lays bare the true nature of the Magna Carta—it was a document conjured up by aggrieved nobles looking for a way to increase their power against their rivals.
If the Magna Carta had been enacted in 1215, then England would have become a baronial oligarchy that could easily manipulate any sovereign. The Magna Carta would have also offset the possible dismantling of the Norman state back to its Anglo-Saxon origins (more on this later), for the barons would have seen the clear benefits of dominating both London and their estates in the country. Had the Magna Carta become law in 13th century England, it would have further centralized the English state at the cost of weakening the sovereign and legitimate monarch.
By the 17th century, the process of England’s pull away from the sovereign was completed by the Glorious Revolution. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 is one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the English-speaking peoples. Not only did it remove the legitimate heirs to the throne—the Catholic and Norman-Scot Stuart family—but it threw the British North American colonies into chaos. After all, the signing of a new English constitution suddenly rendered the American charters null and void. While the men and women of Massachusetts originally cheered the revolution and the destruction of the Dominion of New England, the revolution threw the legitimacy of colonial governments into question. The mother country responded by taking a more active approach in North American affairs, a result that quickly rubbed the New England and Virginia colonists the wrong way, eventually contributing to the American Revolution.
An Anglo Alternative
Again, it bears repeating that the original Magna Carta was never ratified or nor put into law. The reissued Magna Carta of 1217, for instance, added that all castles built during the First Barons’ War would be destroyed. Signed by King Henry III and sealed by the papal legate Guala, the 1217 document is also noteworthy for the fact that French Prince Louis resigned all claims to any land formerly held in England.
King Henry reissued the document eight years later in 1225. This version of the document, known as the Great Charter of 1225, became the definitive version of the Magna Carta. The purpose for its issuance was Henry’s desire to raise new taxes—the very same issue that got his predecessor, King John, in so much trouble. The Great Charter also removed any wording or suggestions that the original document had been written under coercion. This probably seemed pleasant to England’s barons, except that the 1225 document placed a tax on the fifteenth part of their movable property.
The final incarnation of the original Magna Carta occurred in 1258 with the Provisions of Oxford. This document, which was also signed by King Henry and saw promises of financial aid to the monarch from the barons, is actually considered the first true constitution in English history. After a military blunder in Sicily, Henry groveled before Parliament, which forced the king to agree to a 24-man royal commission which included at least twelve men handpicked by the barons themselves. The Provisions of Oxford officially made England’s barons part of the royal power structure, and for twelve years, Henry was under the control of a Council of Fifteen along with chief ministers, a Justiciar, and a Chancellor.
While the absolutism of the 17th century, which is itself a perversion of the kingly ideal based in early Enlightenment and Protestant thinking, caused the growth of sharp anti-monarchical feeling in the British Isles, it was the Magna Carta and its offspring that set in motion the weakening of the sovereign’s authority. Instead of one ruler constrained by God, natural law, and inherited privileges, 13th century England concocted a witch’s brew that reeked of proto-democratic oligarchy. King John and Henry III, because of their poor military adventures, relinquished their power to petty barons and the court mandarins in London. England, and indeed the entire West, have never fully recovered.
The Stuarts had an alternative to absolutism that was based in the ancient soil of England. According to historian and sociologist Spencer Heath, “heathen anarchism” was the state of affairs in England prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066. Now called “anarcho-feudalism”, this state of relations emphasized the Anglo-Saxon tradition of decentralized power, chieftains, and property. Take for instance the Anglo-Saxon custom of paying voluntary rent and/or customs to local lords. Prior to 1066 and the creation of the “Norman yoke”, Anglo-Saxon England did not have a centralized system of tax collection. Once taxation became official government policy, feudalism, which up until that point had been voluntary, became coercive. It was also the Norman Domesday Book which codified centralized authority, especially the authority that the king had over his nobles. It could be argued that had England retained Anglo-Saxon style governance, then the Magna Carta would never have been written.
Sadly, Norman rule in England brought about greater state centralization and coercion, and yet, the Magna Carta, which nominally tried to reign in King John and subsequent monarchs, only created greater synergy between the nobility and the monarch. The Magna Carta left unanswered the question: who has greater power, the nobles or the king? Such a vexing question would plague England for centuries and lead to yet another barons’ war. While the Anglo-Saxon system was far from fully voluntary (land tenure regulations and compulsive military service did exist), its more decentralized nature and the nature of tax collection in pre-Norman England was much closer to the spirit of liberty than either the Magna Carta or subsequent English laws written by either the monarch or Parliament.
Conclusion
The reverence given to the Magna Carta must be cast aside. The document meant nothing just weeks after it was written, and it means little now. Kings have a right to rule, so long as they rule in accordance with natural law. By restricting the king’s prerogative by instituting written constitutions, societies set themselves up for oligarchic exploitation. During the Second Barons’ War, Anglo-Norman knight Simon de Montfort captured London and the surrounding area. One of the first things he did was to create a parliament, subsequently known as Simon de Montfort’s Parliament. Because of this, Baron Montfort is often called the founder of the House of Commons, which means that this baron kick-started the engine that would decapitate King Charles I and dismantle any meaningful power invested in the English (later British) crown.
The Magna Carta was also invoked by the Protestant anarchists known as the Levellers during their resistance to both King Charles I and his Long Parliament. Ironically, when the Parliamentarian warlord Oliver Cromwell took power in London, he dispensed with the notion that he would abide by the 13th century document. Cromwell famously called the Magna Carta the “Magna Farta.”
Would one rather be ruled by a roster of barons or a single king? For libertarians and reactionaries, the answer is quite obvious. The Magna Carta was not some “secular miracle”; rather, it was a failed document that spawned other failed documents.
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Here’s a recap of how Florida’s players on national award watch lists are faring this season:
LB Jon Bostic
Watch lists: College Football Performance Award Linebacker Trophy, Butkus Award, Rotary Lombardi
Last week’s stats: Five tackles, one QB hurry
Season stats: 18 tackles, one sack, one QB hurry, one pass break-up
Comment: Did a solid job in pass coverage and helped UF hold Tennessee to minus-3 yards rushing in the fourth quarter.
FB Trey Burton
Watch list: CFPA Running Back Trophy
Last week’s stats: Three rushes for 91 yards and two TDs, two catches for 38 yards
Season stats: Five rushes for 92 yards and two TDs, six catches for 66 yards
Comment: Had a huge day against the Vols, and showed off his speed on the 80-yard TD run. He ran away from a DB.
P Kyle Christy
Watch list: CFPA Punter Trophy
Last week’s stats: Averaged 48.6 yards on five punts, had three of at least 50 yards
Season stats: Averaging 45.2 yards on 14 punts, four inside the 20, four of at least 50 yards
Comment: Helped the Gators flip field position several times against the Vols, including after their first possession.
WR/KR Andre Debose
Watch lists: CFPA All-Purpose Trophy, CFPA Kickoff Returner Trophy, CFPA Wide Receiver Trophy, Biletnikoff
Last week’s stats: One punt return for 13 yards, averaged 21.0 yards on four kickoff returns, two carries for 1 yard
Season stats: Averaging 24.2 yards on six kickoff returns, averaging 11.8 on five punt returns, two carries for 1 yard
Comment: Made little impact for second consecutive week.
DE Dominique Easley
Watch list: Ted Hendricks Award
Last week’s stats: One tackle
Season stats: Eight tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack for minus-5 yards, two QB hurries
Comment: Left the UT game in the fourth quarter with a minor knee injury.
S Matt Elam
Watch lists: CFPA Defensive Back Trophy, Jim Thorpe Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy
Last week’s stats: 10 tackles, one sack for minus-10 yards, one interception
Season stats: 16 tackles, one sack for minus-10 yards, one interception, two pass breakups
Comment: Led the Gators in tackles against the Vols and his interception set up the go-ahead touchdown.
DT Sharrif Floyd
Watch lists: Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Outland Trophy, Rotary Lombardi Award, Walter Camp Award
Last week’s stats: Four tackles, one QB hurry
Season stats: 13 tackles, one QB hurry
Comment: Helped UF hold UT to 16 yards on the ground in the second half.
C Jonotthan Harrison
Watch list: Rimington Award
Last week’s stats: UF rushed for 336 yards.
Season stats: Gators are averaging 232.7 yards per game rushing.
Comment: UF is third in the SEC in rushing yards per game.
LB Jelani Jenkins
Watch lists: Butkus Award, Rotary Lombardi Award
Last week’s stats: DNP (thumb)
Season stats: Five tackles, one tackle for loss
Comment: UF coach Will Muschamp said Jenkins is out against Kentucky.
LB Lerentee McCray
Watch list: Butkus Award
Last week’s stats: Two tackles, one interception, two QB hurries
Season stats: Nine tackles, one interception, two QB hurries
Comment: Caused Elam’s interception by putting pressure on UT QB Tyler Bray.
TE Jordan Reed
Watch lists: John Mackey Award, CFPA Tight End Trophy
Last week’s stats: Five catches for 60 yards and one TD
Season stats: 13 catches for 152 yards and one TD
Comment: Reed made a critical block on a blitzing DB on Burton’s 32-yard catch against Tennessee.
K Caleb Sturgis
Watch lists: CFPA Place-kicker Trophy, CFPA Specialist Trophy, Groza award
Last week’s stats: 3-for-3 on field goals, including a 49-yarder
Season stats: 7-for-8 on field goals, two of those are from 51 yards.
Comment: He has 11 touchbacks on 18 kickoffs. | {
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The lady had dropped her napkin.
More accurately, she had hurled it to the floor in a fit of disillusionment, her small protest against the slow creep of mediocrity and missed cues during a four-hour dinner at Per Se that would cost the four of us close to $3,000. Some time later, a passing server picked up the napkin without pausing to see whose lap it was missing from, neatly embodying the oblivious sleepwalking that had pushed my guest to this point.
Such is Per Se’s mystique that I briefly wondered if the failure to bring her a new napkin could have been intentional. The restaurant’s identity, to the extent that it has one distinct from that of its owner and chef, Thomas Keller, is based on fastidiously minding the tiniest details. This is the place, after all, that brought in a ballet dancer to help servers slip around the tables with poise. So I had to consider the chance that the server was just making a thoughtful accommodation to a diner with a napkin allergy.
But in three meals this fall and winter, enough other things have gone awry in the kitchen and dining room to make that theory seem unlikely. Enough, also, to make the perception of Per Se as one of the country’s great restaurants, which I shared after visits in the past, appear out of date. Enough to suggest that the four-star rating it received from Sam Sifton in 2011, its most recent review in The New York Times, needs a hard look.
With each fresh review, a restaurant has to earn its stars again. In its current form and at its current price, Per Se struggled and failed to do this, ranging from respectably dull at best to disappointingly flat-footed at worst. | {
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© US Army Staff Sgt. Johancharles V. Boers
Media Quiz
Answers
As if by chance, each massacre took place just before an important meeting to justify some Western measures: an embargo against the Serbs (92), a NATO bombing (94), a final offensive (95)
About the author
Michel Collon is the author of Media Lies and the Conquest of Kosovo, NATO's Prototype for the Next Wars of Globalization. He organised a network of civil observers in Yugoslavia and in Iraq and is a member of the anti-imperialist conference Axis for Peace. Visit his website here.
It becomes a little less difficult to determine whether we have been informed correctly about Yugoslavia. Did they have a right to present the Nato war as "humanitarian"? Did the Great Powers have secret strategies? Were there media lies told and war propaganda spread?We recommend that you take this brief Media test in order to have a clear view, and to test how your media is going to inform you in current and coming wars.How good is our information on the destruction of Yugoslavia?1 Did the war begin in 1991 with the secessions of Slovenia and Croatia?O Yes O No O Don't know2 Did Germany deliberately provoke the civil war?O Yes O No O Don't know3 Did the US really remain 'passive and disinterested' during this war?O Yes O No O Don't know4 Did the World Bank and the IMF help destroying this country?O Yes O No O Don't know5 Did the media give a phony image of 'our friends' Tudjman & Izetbegovic?O Yes O No O Don't know6 Did the media hide the essential history and geography of Bosnia?O Yes O No O Don't know7 Was the topic 'Serb aggressors, Croat and Muslim victims' correct?O Yes O No O Don't know8 Did Serbia initiate a program of ethnic cleansing?O Yes O No O Don't know9 Did the media correctly report on Srebrenica?O Yes O No O Don't know10 Were the first victims of the war killed by the Serbs?O Yes O No O Don't know11 Was the famous image of the 'concentration camps' false?O Yes O No O Don't know12 Were we given the true stories on the three large massacres in Sarajevo?O Yes O No O Don't know13 Was the largest ethnic cleansing of the war committed by the Croat Army?O Yes O No O Don't know14 Did the US use depleted uranium weapons also in Bosnia?O Yes O No O Don't know15 Was the war against Yugoslavia the US's 'only good war'?O Yes O No O Don't knowDid the war begin in 1991 with the secessions of Slovenia and Croatia?NO.. Germany supported and financed this Croatian Le Pen, and sent him arms before the war.To what end? Berlin never acknowledged the existence of the unified Yugoslav state which had courageously resisted German aggression in the two world wars. By once more breaking Yugoslavia into easily dominated mini-states, Germany sought to control the Balkans. An economic zone it could annex in order to remove it from local authority, to export German products to it, and to dominate it as a market. And a strategic route toward the oil and gas of the Middle East and the Caucasus. In 1992, the Bavarian Interior Minister declared: "Helmut Kohl has succeeded where neither Emperor Guillaume nor Hitler could." (see the parallel maps 'Yugoslavia in 1941 - in 1991′, Liars' Poker, pp 68-69)Did Germany deliberately provoke the civil war?YES. At the beginning of the Maastricht Summit in 1991, German Chancellor Kohl was alone in wanting to break up Yugoslavia and precipitously to recognize the 'independence' of Slovenia and Croatia, in defiance of both International Law and the Yugoslav Constitution. But the rise of German power would impose this madness on all its partners. Paris and London fell right in line.According to The Observer of London: "Prime Minister Major paid dearly for supporting German policies toward Yugoslavia which all observers said precipitated the war."In effect, all the experts had warned that this 'recognition' would provoke a civil war. Why?1. Nearly every Yugoslav Republic was a mix of diverse nationalities. Separating the territories was as absurd as dividing Paris or London into ethnically pure municipal districts.2.Only Tito's Yugoslavia had been able to bring about peace, equality and coexistence.(see question 4).Did the US remain 'passive and disinterested' during this war?NO. Lord Owen, special European Union envoy to Bosnia, and later a well-placed observer, wrote in his memoirs: "I greatly respect the United States. But in recent years (92-95) this nation's diplomacy has been guilty of needlessly prolonging the war in Bosnia."What was its aim? While the Germans were busy taking control of Slovenia, Croatia and, eventually, Bosnia, Washington put pressure on Izetbegovic, the Muslim nationalist leader in Sarajevo: "Don't sign any peace agreements proposed by the Europeans. We will win the war for you on the ground." Washington then prolonged for two years the horrible suffering inflicted on all the people of Bosnia.By what means?Because the war against Yugoslavia was at the same time a non-declared war against Europe.. So everything was done to weaken Europe militarily and politically.Did the World Bank and the IMF help destroying this country?YES. In December 1989, the IMF imposed draconian conditions on Yugoslavia which forced liberal prime minister Markovic to beg for aid from George Bush Sr. This 'help' was aimed at destabilizing and bankrupting all large state-owned businesses.These policies and the growing incidence of work stoppages in solidarity with displaced workers in all the Republics heightened the contradictions among the leaders of the various Republics to whom Belgrade could no longer provide financing. To get themselves out of this mess, the leaders had to resort to divisive tactics and invested greatly in nationalist hatreds.The war against Yugoslavia was a war of globalization. All the great Western powers sought to liquidate the Yugoslav economic system which they found too Leftist: with a strong public sector, important social rights, resistance to the multinationals... The real reason for these various wars against Yugoslavia can be read in this reproach (this threat?) from the Washington Post: "Milosevic was unable to grasp the political message of the fall of the Berlin wall. Other Communist politicians accepted the Western model,." (4 August 1996).Did the media give a phony image of 'our friends' Tudjman & Izetbegovic?YES. The hyper-nationalist Croat and Muslim leaders were presented as the pure victims, great anti-racist democrats. But their past as much as their present should have alerted us:When he took power, Franjo Tudjman declared: "I'm happy my wife isn't a Jew or a Serb."During his 1990 electoral campaign, Izetbegovic reissued his 'Islamic Declaration': "There can be neither peace nor coexistence between the Islamic religion and those social and political institutions that are non-Islamic." He set up a corrupt and mafia-ridden regime based primarily on the lucrative black market and the hijacking of funds from international aid.Once the war had started, serious crimes were committed by all three camps, but by hiding these histories, the situation was rendered incomprehensible.Did the media hide the essential history and geography of Bosnia?YES. We were made to believe that the Serbs were the aggressors, that they had invaded Bosnia from outside its borders. In reality, three national groups had been living in Bosnia for a long time: the Muslims (43%), the Serbs (31%), the Croats (17%). And one should not forget that 7% of 'Yugoslavs' were born of mixed marriages or preferred to eschew narrow national identities.Dividing Bosnia according to nationalities, as the EU did, was absurd and dangerous. Because this diverse population was completely intermingled: the Muslims lived primarily in the cities while the Serbs and Croats made up the peasantry and were dispersed throughout the sub-regions. Bosnia could not be divided without civil war.. It was an absurd and bloody situation, with all the ravages of a civil war, but this civil war was provoked by the great powers.Was the presumption of "Serb aggressors, Croat and Muslim victims" correct?NO. In command of the UN forces in Bosnia from July 1993 to January 1994, Belgian general Briquemont was well placed to declare: "The disinformation is total (...) Television needs a scapegoat. For the moment, there is complete unanimity in condemning the Serbs, and that in no way facilitates the search for a solution. I don't think one can view the problem of ex-Yugoslavia and of Bosnia-Herzegovina only from the anti-Serb angle. It is much more complicated than that. One day in the middle of the Croat-Muslim war, we gave some information on the massacres committed by the Croatian army. An American journalist said to me:It is not a question of denying the crimes committed by the Serb forces. The ideology one finds in the writings of Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic is extremely right wing. But in reality,. In the three camps - Croat, Muslim and Serb - militias committed grave crimes. To the detriment of all the people. Thus, in August 1994, the Muslim nationalist leader in Sarajevo, Izetbegovic, attacked the Muslim region of Bihac, controlled by Fikret Abdic, who had distanced himself from Izetbegovic and wanted to live in harmony with his Serb and Croat neighbors.Remaining silent to the crimes of 'our friends' but demonizing whoever resists us is classic war propaganda.. Colleagues of the famous Hill & Knowlton, who created the media lie about Kuwaiti incubators stolen by the Iraqis.Did Serbia initiate a program of ethnic cleansing?NO. If one believes that ethnic cleansing was actually the program of 'the dictator Milosevic', one has to admit that this program was sadly ineffective. Because throughout the war years and still today, one of every five inhabitants of Serbia is a non-Serb. In Belgrade there are and have always been many minorities living without any difficulty: Muslims, Gypsies, Albanians, Macedonians, Turks, Hungarians, Gorans . . .In reality, contrary to the image given by the press, Serbia is today the only state of the ex-Yugoslavia, along with Macedonia, that remains 'multinational'. On the other hand, all the NATO protectorates - Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo - practiced an almost total ethnic purification.Milosevic objected to the excesses committed by the Serb militias in Bosnia. His wife made several declarations against them.Did the media correctly report on Srebrenica?NO. First element. Even if it's a matter of condemning abominable crimes, historical truth - necessary for reconciliation - is not served by the propagandistic processes that unreflexively use the term 'genocide', by the obfuscation of the fact that that some of the victims died in combat or by the systematic exaggeration of the numbers.This information was and remains obscured. We won't here go into the argument over numbers which only serious historians will be able to sort out definitively.Second element. Why did the media hide the events essential to an understanding of this drama? In the beginning, this region was inhabited by Muslim AND Serbs.. French general Morillon, who commanded the UN force there, charges: "On the night of the Orthodox Christmas, the holy night of January 1993, Nasser Oric led raids on Serb villages. . . . There were heads cut off, abominable massacres committed by the forces of Nasser Oric in all the neighboring villages." (Documents of information from the French National Assembly, Srebrenica, t 2, pp. 140-154) The desire for vengeance does not excuse the crimes committed later. But why systematically hide the crimes of 'our friends'?Third element. Like other so-called demilitarized 'safe havens', Srebrenica was in reality an area used by the forces of Izetbegovic to regroup, the UN protecting them from total defeat. Astonishingly, Oric's troops retreated from Srebrenica just a week before the massacre. French general Germanos: "Oric had widely declared that they had abandoned Srebrenica because they'd wanted Srebrenica to fall. The 'they' was Izetbegovic."And why? It is interesting to return to a curious UN report, written a year and a half earlier by Kofi Annan: "Izetbegovic had learned that a NATO intervention into Bosnia was possible. But it would happen only if the Serbs forced their way into Srebrenica and massacred at least 5,000 people [sic]."! (UN Report of 28-29 November)General Morillon also informed us that "It is Izetbegovic's people who opposed the evacuation of all those who had asked to be taken out, and there were many." His conclusion: "Mladic fell into a trap at Srebrenica."Were the first victims of the war killed by Serbs?NO. June 28, 1991, the Slovenian police executed (at least) two unarmed soldiers of the Yugoslav national army who had surrendered at Holmec, a post on the Austrian border. This was acknowledged by the newspaper Slovenske Novice. It has also been 'established from the very beginning' that three soldiers of this same Yugoslav army were executed at a post on the Italian border after surrendering themselves. (Facts and testimony reported to the ICY at The Hague, cfr Forgotten Crimes, Igor Mekina, AIM Ljubljana, 11/02/99).Was the famous image of the 'concentration camps' false?YES., this image showed some 'prisoners' held, seemingly, behind barbed wire. One of them had terribly protruding ribs.. He thus abetted a campaign of demonization launched by the US public relations firm Ruder Finn.But the whole thing was faked and taken from a report by British TV channel ITN. The trickery became obvious when one viewed the footage shot at the same time by a local TV news crew. In reality, the British camera had been deliberately placed behind the two lonely strands of barbed wire that formed a fence surrounding an old enclosure for farming equipment. The 'prisoners' were on the 'outside' of the barbed wire. Free because they were refugees in this camp to escape the war and the militias who would force them to fight. In the complete film, the only prisoner who speaks English declares to the ITN journalist three times that they are being well treated and are safe. The man with the protruding ribs (gravely ill) was called to the foreground when all his mates looked to be in too good a shape. Kouchner's montage was a gross falsehood. (Cfr Liars' Poker, p. 34)There certainly were camps in Bosnia. Not for extermination, but rather for the preparation of prisoner exchanges. Violations of Human Rights were committed here. But why were the UN reports on this subject hidden from us? They accounted for six Croat camps, two Serb camps and one Muslim camp.Were we given the true stories on the three large massacres in Sarajevo?NO. Three times Western public opinion was shocked by these terrible images: dozens of victims blown to bits in front of a bakery or in the marketplace of Sarajevo. Immediately the Serbs were accused of having killed civilians by bombarding the city. This despite numerous contradictions in official communications.But never was the public informed of the results of inquiries made outside the UN. Nor of the reports which accused the forces of president Izetbegovic. Furthermore, high Western officials knew about them but kept them carefully hidden. It was only much later that the editor-in-chief of the Nouvel Observateur, Jean Daniel, admitted: "Today I have to say it.They would have brought carnage upon their own people! Was I afraid of this observation? Yes, the Prime Minister answered me without hesitating... "(Nouvel Observateur, August 21, 1995)Why these manipulations?The official version of the siege of Sarajevo hides several points:1. The Serb forces certainly committed serious crimes. But the civilians who wanted to flee through a tunnel that permitted them to leave the city were stopped by the Izetbegovic regime. He wanted to maximize the clientele for his black market, hijacking international aid money.2. It was especially important to present a black and white image of a victim people and their aggressors. In reality, even in Sarajevo, Izetbegovic's snipers regularly killed the inhabitants of Serb sections of the city without anyone ever speaking of it.3. Some equally grave atrocities went down, for example, at Mostar. But here they were due to fighting between the Croat and Muslim forces who had long before run off all the Serbs.Was the largest ethnic cleansing of the war committed by the Croat army?YES. On August 4, 1995, a hundred thousand Croat soldiers, a hundred and fifty tanks, two hundred troop transports, more than three hundred pieces of artillery, and forty missile launchers attacked the Serb population of the Krajina. More than 150,000 Serbs were forced to leave this region which they had inhabited for centuries.Clinton called the offensive 'useful'. His Secretary of State said: "The retaking of the Krajina could lead to a new strategic situation which might be favorable for us." Worse yet:, according to an admission by the Croatian foreign minister. Furthermore, it was Washington that took charge of the 'democratic' training of this army. (Liars' Poker, pp. 193-194)Did the US use depleted uranium weapons also in Bosnia?YES. At an international conference, "Uranium, the victims speak", organized in Brussels in March 2001, a Bosnian doctor presented a Bosnian Serb forest ranger, a victim like many others of multiple atypical and fast moving cancers. after having been exposed to DU in areas of US bombardment.A Bosnian health official laid out some statistics: the population of a Serb neighbourhood of Sarajevo bombed by US planes in 1995, (a population later expelled from that city), showed a five-fold increase in various types of cancer.. These by-products seriously pollute the earth as well as the underground water table, causing cancer, leukemia and monstrous birth defects (including babies born to contaminated GIs). In short, use of these depleted uranium arms transformed several countries into nuclear waste dumps for eternity. (video and brochure "Uranium, the victims speak").Was the war against Yugoslavia the US's only good war?NO. The United States tried to make-believe that it had fought a humanitarian war. And to present itself, for once, as a defender of Muslims.The USA has never fought a humanitarian war. And it was not the fireman in this war against Yugoslavia, it was the firebug. It was the most guilty of inflicting suffering on all the people. The USA can not be, on the one hand, the friend of the Muslims in the Balkans, and, on the other, their worst enemy in Palestine and Iraq. The US is the Muslims' enemy everywhere.And the most dangerous enemy of all the people of the world. It threatens Syria, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and some day even China. BecauseThis is why it is so important to unmask all the media lies and to make the truth known about the war against Yugoslavia: It was a war of aggression.In conclusion, an appeal.We will not give you a 'score' to evaluate the degree to which you have suffered from media manipulations. That would be indecent. During this decade, too many innocents suffered and suffer still because of the disinformation orchestrated by the great powers in order to advance their imperialist domination.And other people, closer to you, or yourself perhaps, have suffered another injury: knowing what was traumatizing you behind these orchestrated lies, but not being able to do anything about it. Such was the powerful indoctrination of the public consciousness.The answers that we set forth here are the results of long research, which took a great deal of time and required detailed investigation to break out the truth. We would like only to show you that it is possible for each of you to escape the media's hypnotic spell meant to make us accept the unacceptable.What to do? It's not enough, after the lies of each conflict, to say: "Never again!" We must search without ceasing to understand what is truly at stake economically and strategically in each war. To yank the curtain on the puppeteers who pull the strings from off-stage. To organize collectively, to investigate more rapidly. And to spread more widely the results of these 'media quizzes'.You can help reinforce the effects of the media quiz by contacting us. We must never become inured to this horror and cynicism. | {
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A new UCLA environmental report card gives Los Angeles County a “C” in energy use and persistent air pollution, while rating parts of the region slightly higher for addressing other challenges.
The 2017 Sustainable LA Environmental Report Card for Energy and Air Quality handed the region that mediocre grade based on what it calls a failure to reduce fuel use, increasing commute times and some of the worst smog in the nation.
On the upside, researchers noted that local cities are developing crucial sustainability plans, air quality is at its best in 40 years and county voters recently approved a sales tax measure to build more public transit.
UCLA’s environmental report card, released Thursday, is an assessment of the region’s energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and air quality.
Researchers say the report will help keep local governments accountable and track progress by identifying successes and failures of environmental efforts.
“This year’s grades ranged from C- / Incomplete to B,” researchers said.
“Although there is progress toward meeting local and state goals, and a number of new standards and regulations that will undoubtedly have a positive impact in years to come, these grades would not get you on the UCLA dean’s list.”
These grades would not get you on the UCLA dean’s list. UCLA environmental report card
Building on the 2015 environmental report card, this year’s research dug deeper into energy use, transportation, renewable energy resources, greenhouse gas emissions, air quality and the environment’s effect on health.
According to the study, the region’s fuel purchases have remained relatively constant, and emissions of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming and climate change, have not changed much.
Initial findings indicate that over the last decade, as the area’s population grew by 4%, energy use in buildings, which accounts for 40% of the region’s greenhouse gas emissions, declined only 2% to 3%.
However, the city of Los Angeles reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% in 2013 from 1990 levels and is on target to meet its 45% reduction goal by 2025.
“While modest greenhouse gas emission reductions have been realized in recent years, few cities have developed climate action plans or greenhouse gas emissions inventories,” the study says.
The report says that the total number of miles traveled by motor vehicles in the county did not change from 2005 to 2014, while miles traveled per person declined about 3.3%.
For the same period, researchers found that driving alone increased by 3.5%, carpooling dropped by 24% and public transit use decreased by 6%, though the miles commuters traveled on transit increased by 22%.
The study gives the county a B grade, its highest, for continuing to increase the use of renewable energy sources, such as solar power. In some cities, such as Glendale and Burbank, about 33% of the power comes from renewable sources.
Researchers stated that the county also has become one of the top three producers of distributed solar power in the state, and Los Angeles is second only to San Diego in the amount of electricity generated by solar power.
Though air quality has improved across the county, the report states that asthma-related emergency room visits increased between 2010 and 2015 due to air pollution, and the health impacts of smog will only continue to be aggravated by climate change.
Researchers mentioned that the state’s most populous region has shown promise with the development of the Sustainable City plan in Los Angeles and voter approval of Measure M, a countywide sales tax earmarked for transportation projects.
The Sustainable City plan aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2025, 60% by 2035 and 80% by 2050 compared with 1990 levels.
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The latest in a long series of Saudi airstrikes against targets inside Yemen, Saudi warplanes on Wednesday reportedly attacked a military police camp and adjoining prison in the capital city of Sanaa.
At least 39 people were killed in the seven strikes against the facility, and over 90 others were wounded. Details on the split between police, bystanders, and prisoners in the casualties are as yet not available, though the Houthi movement said at least four of the presumed killed haven’t been recovered yet.
The Saudis offered no details on the attacks, including why a prison was targeted int he first place. The Houthis reported the prison holds some 180 prisoners, though they didn’t say what sort of prisoners they are.
Rescue teams are still going through the rubble, which may suggest that the casualty levels are not finalized. | {
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Adesso che la pandemia del Covid-19 sta sconvolgendo il mondo, in molti hanno iniziato a domandarsi cosa succederà quando questa crisi sarà terminata e quale sarà l’eredità che la gestione della pandemia ci lascerà. Il mondo accademico sta già studiando e pubblicando report per valutare le conseguenze economiche e l’impatto dei mesi che a quanto pare ci aspettano prima di uscire dall’incubo.
E per quanto riguarda le conseguenze politiche? Anche quelle saranno da valutare e la prospettiva è quella di ritrovarci in un mondo diverso da quello a cui siamo abituati. A navigare nel mare dell’incertezza e a fornirci un possibile quadro di quello che ci aspetta ci aiuta Massimo Cacciari, uno dei più lucidi intellettuali italiani che in esclusiva per Business Insider Italia ci offre una sua preziosa e non rosea analisi.
Professore, come sarà l’Europa del futuro, cosa ci aspetta dopo questa crisi?
Sarà un disastro per i paesi più deboli come il nostro. Non so cosa aspettarmi perché per tenere in piedi la situazione ci vorrebbe una volontà politica fortissima, coesa, con la Bce che davvero dovrebbe essere ancora più europeista di Draghi.
Viste le politiche dei partners europei di questi giorni, crede che la crisi legata al diffondersi del coronavirus sarà una pietra tombale a una maggiore integrazione europea o rappresenterà invece una spinta a una maggiore unità?
Mi pare proprio che sarà una pietra tombale, per quanto la speranza sia l’ultima a morire. Soprattutto viste le ultime decisioni della Germania. L’assassino non è certo il coronavirus sia ben chiaro, hanno cominciato a massacrare l’Europa vent’anni fa quando hanno gestito la moneta unica come fosse il fine e non l’inizio. Dopo il terrorismo e dopo la Grecia, adesso finirà anche Schengen quindi mi pare che ormai il sogno europeo dobbiamo metterlo via. Il coronavirus è stato il colpo di grazia per una situazione già compromessa. Mi auguro ardentemente di sbagliare però.
Nemmeno con una Von Der Leyen che ha cercato di rassicurare e di gestire la situazione con una prospettiva più unitaria?
Purtroppo la Commissione non conta niente, quello che conta è il Consiglio e abbiamo visto tutti cosa sta succedendo.
E la Bce?
La Lagarde è stata messa lì per cambiare radicalmente le politiche di Mario Draghi, lo sapevano tutti. Ha combinato un pasticcio retorico che ha avuto conseguenze disastrose, ma le conseguenze ci sarebbero state comunque. È evidente che con la sua nomina le difficoltà sarebbero cresciute soprattutto per il nostro paese e per i paesi più deboli come Grecia e Spagna. Dopodiché c’è la flebilissima speranza che una situazione che sta travolgendo tutti spinga tutti quanti a politiche un po’ più coese e quindi che la Bce non segua le prime battute della Lagarde. Staremo a vedere, qualche strategia comune ci sarà senz’altro ma i paesi più deboli si indeboliranno ancora di più.
Anche dall’altra parte dell’Atlantico sembra che il coronavirus stia sparigliando tutte le carte. Alcuni analisti affermano che la rielezione di Trump, data finora per quasi certa, sia ora a rischio. Cosa ne pensa?
Penso che Trump non stia rischiando nulla, sta adottando queste politiche proprio in vista delle elezioni. È evidente che situazioni di emergenza tipo guerra come quelle che stiamo vivendo, rafforzino gli esecutivi, è naturale che accada. Nel modo più assoluto, nessuno dei politici rischia, nemmeno quelli europei rischiano. Sarà dopo il problema, quando la crisi sanitaria sarà finita e ci sarà da tentare una ripresa che io vedo, soprattutto per l’Europa, praticamente impossibile. Allora sì nasceranno i problemi per i governi ma finché questa crisi sanitaria persiste non rischiano proprio niente.
Per il dopo coronavirus c’è chi vede un nuovo “piano Marshall” in abiti cinesi. E’ fantapolitica o c’è qualcosa di concreto?
È una prospettiva non impossibile. La Cina ha tutto l’interesse in una ripresa dell’Occidente e che lo sviluppo riprenda anche da noi affinché i suoi piani non vadano in fumo. Per la Cina è necessario che riprendano i consumi e l’export perché ne ha bisogno.
Se questo si verificasse quali sarebbero le conseguenze politiche e geopolitiche?
Ci sarebbe un rafforzamento strategico a tutti i livelli della Cina. Se il regno di mezzo prendesse in mano le redini e la bandiera dello sviluppo ci sarebbero conseguenze di enorme rilievo. Se Pechino ha la possibilità, la forza, la volontà di emergere da questa crisi con questo ruolo, con questa funzione. Bisognerà vedere. Certo hanno tutto l’interesse che lo sviluppo riprenda al più presto. Non c’è dubbio.
E l’Italia da che parte starà?
Un’Europa nello stato attuale non può che seguire la corrente e se la Cina assume una posizione da leader seguiremmo Pechino, volenti o nolenti. Se invece non lo facciamo ci barcameneremo un po’ con la Via della Seta, un po’ con i Trump. L’Europa non ha più alcuna voce in politica estera.
Come vede le tanto criticate politiche del Regno Unito di Boris Johnson che in questo momento si discostano radicalmente da quelle del resto d’Europa?
Le politiche del Regno Unito sono quelle degli Stati Uniti. È stato un sogno anche quello di agganciare finalmente la grande isola britannica al resto del continente europeo ma la storia è più forte delle buone volontà. Le due grandi potenze britannica e americana sono indistricabilmente unite nel bene e nel male. Ci hanno salvato dal fascismo, dal nazismo e bisognerà ringraziarli da qui alla fine del mondo ma l’idea di poter fare della Gran Bretagna una parte integrante di un grande disegno europeo si è dimostrata utopia e bisogna lasciar perdere le utopie. | {
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Microsoft Teams, the software giant's collaboration platform for work, has over 20 million daily active users and is one of the biggest Slack competitors. It bundles chat, video conferencing, file storage, and app integration tools into a single platform. However, Microsoft Teams users experienced a brief outage earlier today that kept them from signing in to their respective teams. But the reason behind the service outage was a pretty embarrassing one. In Microsoft's own words, the company forgot to renew a security certificate for its collaboration platform, which resulted in an HTTPS error for users trying to sign in.
Responding to reports of users unable to access Microsoft Teams, the official Microsoft 365 Status Twitter handle shared that "an authentication certificate has expired." An hour later, the team announced that it has started deploying the updated certificate for Microsoft Teams service. And roughly after five hours, Microsoft notified affected users that the fix has been deployed to resolve the log-in issue, and that additional remedial actions have been conducted to address the glitch.
Needless to say, Microsoft Teams users were not very happy with the disruption, especially after learning that the issue was caused by an embarrassing blunder. But it appears that the company has learnt the lesson. Microsoft further noted that it is reviewing its certification deployment and provisioning steps to make sure that such service outage incidents are not repeated in the future.
However, this is not the first time that a Microsoft service has experienced widespread disruption due to certificate expiration. Back in 2013, Microsoft Azure was hit by a global outage, thanks to the expiration of an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. The mistake affected HTTPS operations on a large scale. On the same day, Microsoft reported issues with Xbox Music and Video services as well. | {
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Busy day today, so no blogging until late. But a quick thought in passing: reading what the three tweeters of Brussels had to say, it struck me that they have a habit of mind that, to my mind, is more disturbing than a bit of incivility here and there. In fact, they sound remarkably like George W. Bush.
What do I mean? Well, one of the truly awful things about the Bush years was the deliberate conflation of the person sitting in the White House with the nation. If you criticized Bush, you were anti-American; if you denounced the Iraq war, you were attacking the troops.
And the reach of this kind of argument seemed limitless. Yes, there were Republicans arguing that you had to support Social Security privatization for national security reasons, because the president was advocating it, and the president’s credibility was essential to the War on Terror (TM).
Of course all that changed as soon as a Democrat was in the White House. But it was an object lesson in the wrongness of confusing respect for the institution with unthinking support of the people currently running the institution.
So, look at what the Brussels tweeters are saying — namely, that an attack on the wrongheaded economic doctrine of Olli Rehn is an attack on Europe, that anyone who criticizes the hash they are making of policy must be an American who hates Europe. Um, no.
As it happens, I’m very much pro-European; I consider the European project, the path of peace through prosperity and integration, one of the best things to have happened to humanity over the past century. I’ve seen the good work Europe has done in promoting democracy.
My problem isn’t with Europe, it’s with the bad policies that are ripping Europe apart, and with the officials who for whatever reason — intellectual inflexibility, ideological blinders, or, I suspect, sheer personal vanity, an unwillingness to admit that they were wrong — have refused to consider any modification of these policies despite years of disastrous results.
And the attempt of these officials to wrap themselves in the mantle of European unity is truly contemptible. | {
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Der Traum von der Schweizer Atombombe Während des Kalten Krieges versuchte die Eidgenossenschaft auf abenteuerliche Weise, zur Atommacht zu werden. Die streng geheimen Pläne wurden erst 1988 endgültig begraben.
Der Physiker Paul Scherrer, hier während einer Vorlesung, spielt eine zentrale Rolle für die schweizerischen Nuklearpläne. (Bild: Keystone)
«Little Boy» und «Fat Man» verfehlen ihre Wirkung nicht. Mit dem Abwurf der beiden Atombomben auf Hiroshima und Nagasaki im August 1945 erzwingen die USA die Kapitulation Japans und läuten gleichsam ein neues Zeitalter des Wettrüstens ein. Die Schweiz reagiert blitzschnell auf die sicherheitspolitische Zäsur. Der freisinnige Verteidigungsminister Karl Kobelt setzt nur wenige Monate nach Kriegsende eine Expertengruppe ein. Offiziell soll die Schweizerische Studienkommission für Atomenergie (SKA) die Forschung auf dem Gebiet der Kernphysik koordinieren und Pläne für eine Versuchsanlage zur Produktion von Atomenergie entwickeln. Doch hinter der zivilen Tarnung verbergen sich auch handfeste militärische Interessen: Laut einem Geheimpapier soll die SKA «die Schaffung einer schweizerischen Uranbombe oder anderer geeigneter Kriegsmittel, die auf dem Prinzip der Atomenergie beruhen, anstreben». Als im Parlament Zweifel an der rein wirtschaftlichen Erforschung aufkommen, lügt Kobelt im Wissen um die Brisanz des Projekts: «Wir haben weder die Absicht, noch wären wir in der Lage, Atombomben herzustellen.» | {
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PHILADELPHIA, PA – Cory Booker made a campaign stop in the city of Philadelphia today and surprised everyone, including his staff, by delivering his entire stump speech in Esperanto, an obscure international language constructed in the 19th century that mixes elements of Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages. Below is an excerpt:
“Ameriko. Ameriko ni konas nian historion. Ĝi estas eterna atesto al senpaciencaj, postulemaj, nesentemaj homoj, kiuj en ĉiu generacio kun amo staris por justeco. Generacioj de usonanoj montris al ni, kio eblis, kiam ili rifuzas atendi kaj nun estas nia vico.
Kaj ni havas laboron por fari. Ameriko, ni ne povas atendi Ameriko, ni ne atendos. Kune ni kurados ĉe la malfacilaj defioj. kune Ni faros la aferojn, kiujn diras aliaj homoj. Kune ni plenumos nian promeson esti nacio de libereco kaj justeco por ĉiuj. Kune ni venkos, kaj kune Usono, ni leviĝos.”
“Ni vidu ĉi tiun fojon falsa meksika altestimo!”
Esperanto is believed to be spoken by as many as 60,000 Americans, but reliable data isn’t available. However, with Booker currently polling in 6th place at 2.5%, it couldn’t hurt to add a few of those people. Booker said he’s practicing his Yiddish as well hoping to shore up the bubbe vote.
Follow @natlfreepress | {
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A Saudi-led coalition spokesman has insisted that an airstrike that killed 40 children in Yemen did not hit a school bus, and raised doubts about the authenticity of photos depicting the aftermath of the deadly attack.
The bus attacked on August 9 was “a legitimate target,” Colonel Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, told CNN on Sunday. He also claimed that the target could not have been a school bus because “there [was] no school at that time when the incident happened.”
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“We never observed any kids on the bus,” al-Maliki said, adding the coalition had targeted “Houthi commanders and some Houthi element fighters in that bus.”
Al-Maliki also suggested that video footage and photographs from the scene of the airstrike were untrustworthy, because they may have been taken by “the Houthi” or unidentified sources.
The spokesman’s firm denial of wrongdoing comes just a day after a probe conducted by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) concluded that “mistakes” were made while carrying out the airstrike, which killed more than 50 civilians in total. The coalition’s investigative body, The Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT), also said that those behind the air raid in Saada province should be held accountable. However, a JIAT spokesman clarified that the coalition still believed that the bus was a “military target.”
The State Department welcomed the JIAT’s report, saying that its findings are an “important first step towards full transparency.” The deadly attack has led to closer scrutiny of Washington’s role in the ongoing violence in Yemen, after it was revealed that an American-made, 500lb (227kg), laser-guided MK 82 bomb was used in the strike.
Human Rights Watch called the bombing of the school bus an apparent war crime, and urged countries to “immediately halt weapons sales” to Riyadh.
The United States is Saudi Arabia’s largest weapons supplier, and the US military has provided intelligence and logistical support for the Kingdom’s bombing campaign against Yemen. It was recently revealed that the Pentagon plans to train Saudi military pilots on US soil.
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The Economics of Apologies
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The Indicator from Planet Money The Economics of Apologies The Economics of Apologies Listen · 9:39 9:39
Companies know that when they screw up big time they need to issue an immediate and comprehensive apology. But what about the smaller stuff? If a company gets your order wrong or sends you a faulty product, what should they do? That's the topic of a new paper on the economics of apologies. A group of economists partnered with the ride-sharing app Uber to try and figure out the most effective way for a company to apologize to a wronged customer.
Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.
Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One. | {
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Zain al-Abideen Majid’s father lifts him over a coil of glittering razor wire in the moonlit darkness of a Serbian farm, stretching to hand the boy to a relative on the other side.
Though Zain is only 4, this is by no means his first surreptitious border crossing, and he remembers his father’s admonition at the very start of their journey, when they slipped from their homeland of Syria into Turkey: Don’t make a sound, or the guards will beat us.
On this night, as Zain is passed over the wire from Serbia into Hungary, the barbs rip two bloody gashes in his right shin, like the flicks of a scalpel.
He stays silent.
Zain was born in Syria as the fighting there was beginning. Ever since, he and his extended family have been living in the shadow of conflict, surrounded by a chaotic mix of fear, threats, extortion and kidnapping.
This summer, Zain, his father, Ahmad Majid, and a band of determined relatives — eight adults, including Zain’s pregnant mother, and five other children, a baby and a toddler among them — became part of a remarkable chapter in human migration.
Over nearly two months, the family journeyed from Syria through Turkey and eight European countries, through much of the trip not even sure of a destination. The group was cheered and cursed, encountering the best of Europe, and the worst. They endured exhaustion and despair, stranded for five days in a train station in Budapest and imprisoned in Denmark with seemingly no hope of moving forward. And they had moments of triumph, outwitting border guards and benefiting from the camaraderie of fellow travelers.
“It’s better than dying,” says Ahmad.
The sheer number of people trudging alongside them has often led to impersonal descriptions: a wave, a mass, a crisis. But up close they were very much individuals living through an unsettling and sometimes terrifying journey. For the Majids, that journey took them from the olive groves of the village in Syria that had nurtured their family for generations toward an uncertain future in an alien culture.
For much of the trip, I traveled with them, along with a team of other journalists from The New York Times, documenting their joys and sorrows, and sometimes becoming part of their experience.
The Majids are a tight-knit family, resourceful and relatively well off. For years, Ahmad cautiously plotted how best to survive in Syria, even as it was deteriorating and splintering into fiefs run by rival warlords and militias. Prosperous and with considerable social standing, he had many reasons to try to wait out the violence and upheaval, even as it threatened his family more directly.
When he did leave, reluctantly and after long deliberation, he and his family were swept into a stream of humanity, and forced to improvise at every step. He faced wrenching decisions about keeping the family together. He weighed the odds of maintaining his family’s physical safety, worried about the effects of the trip on his children. He went into debt.
Behind him, he left a lifetime of expectations and assumptions. Ahead, he saw security and opportunity. Yet he had little idea of how he was going to get there, no sense of the challenges or setbacks he would face along the way or the specter of disillusionment waiting for his family at the end of their journey.
No Second Thoughts
To one side of the railroad tracks in Idomeni, Greece, near the border with Macedonia, a group of about 20 people rest on the ground under a spreading shade tree, one day in late August. Standing in the middle, examining his cellphone, is a man in an orange shirt, at 6-foot-2 appearing unusually tall among the other refugees.
This is Ahmad Majid and he stands out, not just for his height, but also for his air of command, his detachment, and the small village of men, women and children that appear to be following him. His brow is often knitted in an expression of apprehension, even when he smiles.
I begin chatting with him, the first in what will be weeks’ worth of conversation, in which he and his family gradually entrust me with the details of their lives and allow me to witness their struggle to maintain hope, pride and dignity over their long journey.
They have already traveled a long way by the time I meet them. Four days earlier they had crossed the Aegean from Turkey to Greece, with Ahmad helping to navigate. They show me a cellphone video of them bouncing across the waves in a sturdy rubber boat with a good motor. In the video, they are wearing life jackets and laughing.
Ahmad’s wife, Jamila Khalil, 22 and head-turningly pretty, with pale skin and a faraway look that conjures Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” says the boat ride was the easiest part of the trip. Even after a harrowing journey out of Syria, they are still eager and to a large degree naïve.
Edremit ... where the group waits three days for a boat. On Saturday, the family leaves for Lesbos by dinghy. Turkey Mytilene LESBOS The group travels to Edremit ... GREECE Then the group takes a government-chartered ferry to the port of Piraeus in Athens, about 12 hours away. The family arrives in Izmir on a Tuesday, Aug. 18. To Athens Izmir Aegean Sea Edremit ... where the group waits three days for a boat. On Saturday, the family leaves for Lesbos by dinghy. Turkey Mytilene LESBOS The group travels to Edremit ... GREECE Then the group takes a government-chartered ferry to the port of Piraeus in Athens, about 12 hours away. The family arrives in Izmir on a Tuesday, Aug. 18. To Athens Izmir Aegean Sea The family travels to Edremit, where the group waits three days for a boat to Lesbos. Turkey LESBOS GREECE Aegean Sea Then the group takes a government-chartered ferry to Athens, about 12 hours away. The family arrives in Izmir. By Derek Watkins; Satellite image by NASA/USGS Landsat.
The reality of what they would face in Europe became apparent only after they landed on the Greek island of Lesbos. There was no shelter awaiting them or the thousands of others streaming there. They slept on the street, and had to walk more than a mile to use a bathroom in a public park.
By the time the family reached Idomeni in late August, refugees were well on their way to carving a trail through Southern and Central Europe toward the prosperity of Germany and Scandinavia. National governments, caught off guard and worried about anti-immigrant sentiment, initially reacted slowly and inconsistently to this migrant torrent. Just before the Majid clan’s arrival in Idomeni, Macedonia had closed its border with Greece and then reopened it, opting, like other nations along the route, to keep the stream of people moving as fast as possible through its territory and on to the next country.
Even then, Jamila, who at this point is six months pregnant, says she has no second thoughts. “I wanted to go away from Syria,” she says, “and deliver somewhere else.”
The Lives Left Behind
Once they cross into Macedonia, refugees are put onto trains that will take them to the border with Serbia. The Majids board a train that evening, Aug. 26, around 6. It is packed, and the family shoehorn into the blue-vinyl bench seats, adults taking the children on their laps to make more room. Ahmad plays a counting game with his 7-year-old daughter, Widad, and high-fives her each time she gives a correct answer.
I start to piece together the family’s story.
Ahmad, 30, is a natural leader who charms strangers and gains their trust with his good looks, confidence, air of authority, easy laugh and affectionate way with children. His brother Farid, 35, burly, with darker hair and sunken eyes, is more street-smart and cynical, a behind-the-scenes presence whose counsel Ahmad has always sought before making a decision. Together they ran a small clothing factory in Aleppo, making and exporting jeans, shirts and sweaters to Iraq.
The factory was looted by forces on both sides of the Syrian civil war, they say, and at the beginning of 2013 they were forced to close. They retreated to their ancestral home, a stone house where they had always spent part of the year, in the small farming village of Ereb Werane, in Afrin. It is less than two miles from the Turkish border and about an hour’s drive north of Aleppo, before military checkpoints choked off the road. They are Sunni Kurds, from a prominent clan, the Rashwans, they tell us, and held an honorary title: “aghawat,” a privileged landowning class.
The Majids’ relatively secular lifestyle made them a target of Islamic fundamentalists. The women wore pants and no veils. Ahmad fasted during Ramadan but drank beer at other times. The fundamentalists called them “kuffar,” unbelievers.
“We are in the middle and everyone is against us — the Turks, ISIS, al-Nusra, the Free Syrian Army, even the Kurds are harassing us to fight and pay taxes,” Ahmad says of those days.
Their sophisticated lives devolved into a world of forcible conscription into militias, domination by warlords and the threat of violence and kidnapping. The warlords imposed tributes, like taxes on olive oil (the family also owned olive trees and an olive press), wheat, anything valuable.
“They say they’re fighting for us and protecting us, and we have to give them everything we have,” Ahmad recalls. “They take young people and just brainwash them; give them weapons, tell them they want to give them a car. These are kids — 14, 15 years old.”
Ahmad favored leaving; Farid argued that they should wait — the war could not last forever. In the fall of 2013, they bought a house across the border in Gaziantep, Turkey, as a safe haven, should they need one.
The deciding jolt came in the summer of 2014. Farid was kidnapped — to protect relatives left behind they would not say who did it — and they were forced to sell the Turkey house to raise the $120,000 ransom. At that point, staying began to seem much riskier than leaving.
Ahmad originally planned to make the trip alone, then apply for family reunification, but his mother objected, saying they should not risk the family being split up.
So the three eldest brothers, Ahmad, Farid and Mohammad, 36, decided to go together, with their wives and children. Three months before they left, however, their plan fell apart. Mohammad’s oldest son, Nabih, who is 9, developed welts on his body. At first they thought he had had an allergic reaction to a hunting dog. But tests showed it was a potentially fatal blood cancer.
They had to take him to Turkey for treatment. But he was given second-class care, Ahmad said. When the beds were full, the hospital would postpone his chemotherapy so Turkish citizens could go first.
The family wanted to take him to Europe, but the doctor said his immune system was too weak. So his parents stayed behind with him and his younger brother. But Ahmad and Farid took Mohammad’s daughter, who like Zain’s sister bears the family name Widad. She is a wide-eyed, round-faced girl of 11 with a thick braid hanging down her back. She has not been told her brother has cancer.
The Majids had once been able to travel relatively freely between Syria and Turkey, but by the time the family decided to leave Syria for good, Turkey had closed the border to Syrians, forcing the Majids to sneak across. Farid and his family went first. It took Ahmad’s family two tries to make it.
During the first attempt, on July 15, they heard someone being beaten so badly by border guards that he could not make intelligible words, and Ahmad decided to retreat. They tried again on July 21.
This time he contracted with a smuggler to bribe the border guards, $100 per adult, half-price for the children. They told Zain not to make any noise, and crossed into Turkey just after midnight with a large group.
On the train through Macedonia, I ask Ahmad if he thinks he will ever return to Syria. “Inshallah,” he says: God willing. Then he turns his head and looks out the window, trying to hide the tears he is wiping off his cheek.
In the Crush
When night falls on the train through Macedonia, people without seats sack out on the floor and in baggage compartments, leading to jokes about how they are always sleeping in five-star hotels. News photos often show the migrants sleeping, and there is some truth to that. Sleep deprivation is a constant element of life spent in motion at all hours of the day and night, and everyone learns to rest whenever the opportunity presents itself.
The Majid brothers receive a cellphone picture of their sick nephew. It shows a sad-eyed boy in a red shirt, bald from chemotherapy.
The train arrives at the Serbian border just before 11 p.m., and most of the refugees will not sleep well for the rest of the night. Babies cry as they are woken.
A volunteer hands out plastic-wrapped hamburgers. Vendors — another constant — sell blankets, soda, cookies and water.
The refugee processing center on the Serbian side is several miles away. Among the refugees is a boy in a wheelchair.
Many of the refugees find the distance impossible at this hour and simply bed down for the night on the pavement. The Majids walk for a while, then pitch their tent. In the morning, they come upon taxis and pay 100 euros for one to take Farid to the camp with the women and children.
Ahmad and the young men plan to walk, but are picked up by a relief agency bus that has recently begun plying the route. Meanwhile, the taxi driver, not the last of the unscrupulous people they will encounter, dumps Farid and the others after less than two miles. But Ahmad spots them in a field, and the relief agency bus rescues them.
Long lines of refugees stand in the blistering sun outside a rusting fence, begging guards to let them into the Serbian reception center, on the outskirts of Presevo. Refugees have no choice but to register if they want to travel farther through Serbia. Countries like Greece, Macedonia and Serbia recognize that few if any of the migrants want to stay in those countries because of the poor economic prospects. So they have come up with a system that gives the refugees the legal right to pass through, without necessarily applying for asylum. In Serbia, they register to stay in the country for 72 hours, gaining the right to travel, and even to stay in a hotel.
It is like the “letters of transit” in the movie “Casablanca,” which allowed the bearer to travel through Nazi-occupied countries. Without that piece of paper, they were stuck.
In the camp, refugees stand in various lines to have their bags searched and their paperwork processed. I am permitted inside the fence for 15 minutes and see uniformed guards holding thin switches. Later, several refugees complain angrily that the guards use the switches to hit people who do not do as they are told.
Ahmad answers a call by the guards for volunteers to keep order. The volunteers are given switches, but he refuses to use his and tells the others not to beat anyone — because they are all Syrians, he says later.
In the camp, Ahmad says, women and children are given two cans of sardines per person, a half-round of bread, a small bottle of water and a croissant. But the men, he says, are not fed. His family had to wait 11 hours for their papers. During that time, he says, he shared his family’s rations, but many single men, including three of his relatives, are so hungry that they go outside the fenced area to get food, and then are not allowed to return to complete their registration.
Presevo is like a whistle-stop town in the Wild West. The main street bordering the camp teems with refugees and the hustlers and merchants who profit off them. The two cafes across from the camp are doing booming business. The local seller of Serbian SIM cards is making a mint from refugees, who buy new phone and data cards in every country; he jokes that after this, he is going to retire.
Communal Spirit
After spending the day registering in Presevo, they are placed on buses to Belgrade, the Serbian capital. They arrive there at 6 a.m. the next morning, Aug. 28, and are deposited at a public park. Like parks in major cities across Europe, it has become a refugee tent city. People are just waking up, washing their faces and clothes in the public fountains.
Maintaining some sense of dignity is an ongoing struggle. This is a world of fetid portable toilets and communal sleeping. Volunteers and authorities approach them wearing masks and gloves, as if they are diseased. The refugees are often accused of leaving behind piles of trash, though there are usually no trash cans at the railroad tracks and border crossings where they gather in large numbers.
Ahmad, who fastidiously puts on a clean T-shirt each morning, leaves his family in the Belgrade park and sets off in search of a hostel where they can rest, shower and do laundry. But to rent a room for €15, about $17, per person, they need Serbian letters of transit for everyone, and the three young men in the group traveling with the Majids do not have them.
In a display of the communal spirit that generally prevails among the refugees — back on Lesbos, the Majids gave away one of their two tents to a family with four children who were cold and wet — they borrow papers from another group in the park.
At the Razor Wire
In Belgrade, they are tantalizingly close to Western Europe. Almost as if superstitious about wanting too much, the Majids had started out saying they would be happy almost anywhere. Then they began talking about going to Germany. Now they are becoming confident enough to talk about going to Sweden. In the group is Ahmad’s cousin Nisrine Majid. Her brother lives near Malmo, a city with a large immigrant population; he arrived there a year earlier via the more dangerous route, going to Libya and then across the Mediterranean to Italy.
But their next hurdle will be Hungary, where open hostility to migrants has led to construction of a border fence. On top of that, the discovery of the bodies of 71 migrants decomposing in a truck southeast of Vienna has by this point prompted renewed calls to clamp down on the migration.
Ahmad weighs his options. To get from Turkey to Greece, they had used a smuggler, a former employee of the Majids in Syria. The smuggler now offers to get them to Austria for €1,350 per adult, with a discount for the children.
But with 14 people in the group, Ahmad decides he cannot afford the smuggler’s price. So he has to sneak his family past the razor wire at the Hungarian border. He makes a flurry of calls to Syrians who have already made the passage, seeking advice. You will see two towers, one tells him. Walk between them, they are not manned.
They catch a bus to Kanjiza, a border town that houses a refugee camp, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30. One bus after another pulls out of the Belgrade bus station at about the same time, making the same trip.
The bus tears down a two-lane country road at top speed. A steeple rises above every village, and farmers drive horses pulling wagons filled with hay. Ahmad looks through the bus windows at the fields of cornstalks and sunflowers and sees not the picture-postcard view that a tourist might register, but the promise that they can hide among the crops if necessary.
As the bus approaches Kanjiza, their enterprising bus driver offers to continue on to Horgos, closer to the border, for another €5 per seat. The Majids agree, and take the children on their laps. After letting out half the passengers, the driver fills the rest of the bus with other refugees willing to pay.
They reach Horgos around twilight. As they walk along the railroad tracks toward the border, one of the refugees, an old woman with a gimpy leg, blithely picks yellow wildflowers, as if out for a picnic. Her daughter chats in rapid-fire English about wanting to join her fiancé living in England.
They veer off into a freshly plowed field of powdery brown earth, which smells faintly of manure. The children pick plums while the women nestle down to rest. Someone’s cellphone sounds a call to prayer. Groups of refugees walk past them in the dusk without exchanging a word, as if, by silent agreement, they have decided it is better not to speak.
Two towers loom beyond, as described by Ahmad’s phone contact, one in Hungary and one in Serbia. It is the second night of the full moon, which rises orange and casts a neon glow over the fields.
Around 10 p.m., Ahmad’s brother Farid and a cousin find a weathered wooden extension ladder and take it to the border. Those in light clothing change to dark, and everyone creeps forward. The border is marked by a trench, deeper than a man is tall. It is wet at the bottom, screened by bamboo and shrubbery on the Serbian side, and blocked by coils of new-looking silvery razor wire on the Hungarian side.
... to here, where smugglers offer a ride to Budapest, about 100 miles away. HUNGARY Train tracks The family makes its way through forest and fields ... Roszke The group waits until nightfall before crawling under a razor-wire fence, avoiding frequent border patrols. International border SERBIA On Monday evening, Aug. 31, the family walks along the train tracks from the Serbian town of Horgos. Horgos ... to here, where smugglers offer a ride to Budapest, about 100 miles away. HUNGARY Train tracks The family makes its way through forest and fields ... Roszke The group waits until nightfall before crawling under a razor-wire fence, avoiding frequent border patrols. International border SERBIA On Monday evening, Aug. 31, the family walks along the train tracks from the Serbian town of Horgos. Horgos HUNGARY Here, smugglers offer a ride to Budapest. Train tracks After nightfall the grpup crawls under a razor-wire fence, avoiding border patrols. International border SERBIA On the evening of Aug. 31, the family walks along the train tracks from the Serbian town of Horgos. By Derek Watkins; Satellite image by DigitalGlobe via Google Earth.
A border patrol drives back and forth along a road on the Hungarian side every 15 minutes or so, and the car sometimes pivots to point its headlights directly into Serbia, as if it knows someone is there. When it does, everyone in the group falls flat on the ground behind the bamboo.
A helicopter circles overhead. Now and again, Farid’s 8-month-old baby, Widad, fusses, and his wife, Roujin Sheikho, stuffs a bottle in her mouth to keep her quiet. In a striking display of empathy, no one shushes the baby or scolds her mother. It is like a war movie, only real.
The men scout several spots, laying the ladder over the razor wire like a bridge, and at 1 a.m., Farid and two of the young men scramble across. As the women and children begin descending the embankment to follow, the police spot them and come running and shouting. Family members scurry back, and Ahmad stays behind to distract the guards.
“Please, Mister. Please, Mister,” he says, pacing back and forth below, raising his hands in surrender. “I have baby.” The guards look down at him and at the farmer’s ladder and laugh uproariously.
After Ahmad retreats, the cat-and-mouse game begins again. As everyone waits, a separate group of some 15 men dash out of the trees to the same spot and slip under the wire, eluding the police. The officers move their car to the point where the men have crossed.
Ahmad motions his group back to a spot they had tried earlier. At 3 a.m., they descend into the ditch in single file, slosh across and climb up the other side. The men leverage the barbed wire with a tree branch, and the adults crawl under while the children are handed over. The lame old woman snags her dress but manages to wriggle through. Ahmad passes his boy, Zain, over the wire and waits for everyone else to pass. He is the last to cross.
At 3:12 a.m., they have vanished into the woods across the way.
Lost Laughter
They spend the rest of the night hiding in a farmer’s field. In the morning, one of the many opportunists who appear along the migrant trail, a blond woman in a peach dress, comes into the field looking for customers, knowing some migrants are likely to have made it across. The Majids agree to pay €2,500 for three cars to drive them two hours to the Keleti train station in Budapest.
The Majid men settle down on their blankets in the station’s underground concourse. Shoes neatly piled to one side, they smoke Gauloises and play Trex, a Middle Eastern card game, to pass the time. A group of Hare Krishna devotees play their drums and cymbals and sing and dance nearby. Ahmad tries to charge the solar battery for his cellphone under the skylight.
Men without mirrors lather one another’s faces and trade shaving services.
Farid warms up to us only slowly and does not smile easily. But he has discovered that I drink espresso, and he brings us each a cupful several times a day. I never do figure out where he gets it from.
Farid has a habit of slinging his toddler, Silva, over his shoulder and carrying her everywhere. It seems strange until Ahmad tells us that Silva, once a bubbly baby and the favorite of her grandparents, has changed. They blame the Turkish border crossing. Turkish soldiers fired over their heads, and Silva, about 18 months old, opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out.
They have been trying to make her laugh ever since.
Rules in Flux
Though my journalist colleagues and I spend much of our time with the Majids and other refugees, we are able to sleep in hotel rooms when we want to. We have valid passports. We know that at any moment, we have the option of pulling out and going home. Those facts create an inescapable distance between us and the Majids.
But there are moments when the distance narrows or even disappears amid the intensity and distress of the voyage. One such moment comes soon after our arrival in Budapest. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been allowing refugees who have made it this far to move on to Austria and then Germany.
The refugees seize the chance, and those who want to buy multiple train tickets face lines running the length of the station. Non-refugees can walk into a glass-fronted ticket office.
Ahmad asks if I will buy the family’s tickets to Berlin, promising to pay me back. I know that to say yes would be to cross a line that journalists do not like to cross, from observer to participant. But this is a desperate family that has helped us at many points along the way, right down to sharing food with us and taking offense at our attempts to say no.
Flashing my United States passport, I am whisked to the front of the line, where I purchase the tickets. The woman behind the counter gives me a withering stare. “I have a family,” I add.
The woman hisses something to a nearby police officer that sounds like “migrants.” The officer shrugs. I try to look nonchalant. “No refunds,” she says, in what I take to be a final attempt to dissuade me from purchasing tickets for the following day.
Overnight, though, there is a fresh complication. The rules of the game have changed and train travel is cut off for anyone lacking proper documents. The Majids are barred from boarding, the tickets wasted. My effort to help has gotten them nowhere.
Hope at a Hurdle
On Friday, Sept. 4, the train station is abuzz with people trying to hire smugglers. They pass around a printout in Arabic, taken from a Facebook site. It lists the nicknames, nationalities and phone numbers of smugglers, like “The American,” or “From Ahvaz,” a city in Iran.
We have been in Budapest five days now, longer than in any other place on the route. Ahmad’s former-employee-turned-people-smuggler tells him it is too dangerous to move. “The border is so closely watched, not even a bird can fly over,” he says.
In the middle of all the hubbub, a wild-haired man threads his way between the blankets. Over a bullhorn, he exhorts refugees to get up and walk to Austria, days away. He is trailed first by TV cameras, then by a growing line of young men carrying sleeping bags. Ahmad has an impulse to join in, but he has made a deal with a Romanian smuggler to get them to Germany for €300 per person.
The problem is that their cash has run out. Desperate to get out of Hungary, the Majids decide to borrow some money until they can sell a piece of property in Syria, and to have the amount transferred to Budapest through a hawala network, a money transfer system that relies on trust and connections.
Ahmad is nervous that if he leaves the station, he will be caught and fingerprinted by the police, which could mean being forced to stay in Hungary. A Kurdish Syrian with an Austrian passport, in the station visiting relatives among the refugees, agrees to go for him.
The Austrian rings the bell at a “Money Change” office in a vintage lime-green building in downtown Budapest. A Hungarian man wordlessly leads the way down one street and into another, then drops us off at a cramped, unmarked office with a receptionist at the front door.
The hawala broker sits behind a desk in a separate office at the back, surrounded by security monitors and a television feeding a constant stream of prayer services from Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
He is Syrian, he says, and has lived in Hungary for 25 years. He takes out €6,000, divided into three equal stacks of €20 bills, and runs them through a counting machine. Then he puts the bills in an envelope and hands it over. There is no receipt.
When the Austrian returns with the money, the Majids, however, are dejected. The smuggler has stood them up for someone else who has made a better offer.
Instead it is the wild-haired man who bails them out. He has attracted about 1,000 marchers, paralyzing traffic on the highway to Austria. A few hours later, yielding to the marchers, the Hungarian government organizes bus transport to the Austrian border. It is after midnight when the Majids pick up their backpacks and say goodbye to the yellow tent they have had with them since Lesbos. They will not need it anymore.
They walk out of the train station and into a light drizzle to board a bus. The city lights sparkle as we drive slowly across the Danube and into the night.
Daring to Dream
Arriving in Vienna on Saturday, Sept. 5, Farid’s wife, Roujin, and his cousin Nisrine, take off the white head scarves they have been wearing. Jamila, Ahmad’s wife, paints eyeliner across her eyelids in two Brigitte Bardot-like swoops. Nisrine’s brother drives from Sweden to pick her up. She was a last-minute addition to the trip, and they are not sorry to see her go; they have quarreled with her over the last few days.
The refugees are calling the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, “Mama Merkel” for being so welcoming, and the Majids quickly reach Munich before moving on to Hamburg the next day. When they identify themselves as refugees, they are allowed to ride the train for free.
On the train, they talk about what drove them out of Syria. About their hopes of giving their children a better education than what they could get in Syria. About building a new life.
Ahmad and Farid say they plan to open a Middle Eastern supermarket once they settle in Europe. Or maybe it will be an Arab bakery, serving immigrants like themselves. They admit they don’t know how to bake.
“It’s not about that, it’s about management,” Ahmad says. “Farid and I don’t know how to sew a pair of jeans, but we are good managers.”
But having reached Germany, where bystanders applaud them and they can apply for refugee status and live legally, they decide to push on, having concluded that Sweden is the best destination for them.
After 18 Emojis
We have barely crossed the German border into Denmark, en route to Sweden, when the police stop our train and remove all the migrants.
About 100 passengers, including the Majids, are taken to an unused school in Padborg, down the street from a “Discount Sex” shop.
They have had the bad luck to arrive on the same early-September day that the center-right minority government of Denmark has begun running ads in Lebanese newspapers, essentially telling refugees not to come, that social benefits are being cut and asylum rules stiffened.
The police herd the refugees into a school gymnasium, where they are fed lasagna and given foam mattresses to spread on the floor. Red X’s are inked on the backs of their hands.
After a sleepless night, Ahmad and Jamila fall asleep with Zain between them. It hurts them to know that Nisrine, Ahmad’s cousin, who barely said goodbye, has made it to Sweden. The next day, as the Danes continue plucking refugees from trains, Ahmad, Farid and their families are taken out of the school and driven to a prison 50 miles away. A police spokeswoman, Lisa Dissing, says the family was moved to separate it from a less cooperative group of refugees.
The two families are locked in separate cells. Ahmad worries that his brother will relive the trauma of his kidnapping in Syria. Ahmad records the prison scene on a cellphone video, saying bitterly that the Syrian people would be better off risking barrel bombs at home than coming to Europe.
Ahmad remembers being offered some milk for the children, but they refused to eat.
Related Coverage On Migrant Trail, Melding Words and Images How a reporter and photographers worked together to capture the daily struggle of Syrian refugees on the march through Europe. Read More >>
The next day, they are taken back to a police station in Padborg. They ask for food for the children. Ahmad says they are given five sugar cubes, one for each child but the baby.
They are so outraged that they tell the police they would never want to live in Denmark. “My son now knows the meaning of the word prison because of you,” Ahmad says he told them.
The police warn them that if they return to Denmark they will be imprisoned, and drop them off at the German border, where they head back to Hamburg to seek asylum.
While the Majids are being held, several hundred migrants break out of the Danish school and start walking to Sweden, and I go along, interviewing people at the back of the pack. In one of those moments that gives me a small taste of what it might be like to be in a migrant’s shoes, the police push me and about 30 other stragglers to the ground. Despite my protests, I am put in a bus and returned to the school. A female officer marks the back of my right hand in blue pen: 1919.
Eventually I just walk out of the school.
Overnight — too late for the Majids — the Danish police reverse course and say they will let migrants pass through Denmark to Sweden.
But word of the Danish about-face rekindles the Majids’ determination to get to Sweden. In Hamburg, they pick up once again and move.
This time, still smarting from their humiliation, they bypass Denmark and cross by boat from Rostock, Germany, to Trelleborg, Sweden. At 9:22 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, Ahmad sends a joyful WhatsApp message, “We are now in Sweden,” in Arabic, accompanied by 18 emojis: 13 smiley faces, three winking faces and two faces with hearts for eyes.
It has been unbearably hard, Ahmad later says, though he initially expresses little concern about the future. The family adopt Swedish spellings of their names and observe Eid al-Adha with a picnic in the woods. “I can meld with the Swedish people,” he says.
A few weeks later, he seems much less upbeat. Speaking by phone from the refugee center where his family is staying, he tells me their days are spent in enforced idleness. There is no school or organized activity for the children. The promise of Swedish lessons has not materialized.
He is frustrated that their asylum interview is three months off. His wife, Jamila, is set to give birth in November, and had to wait a month before she could see a doctor.
When he complained, he says, he was told, “We didn’t ask you to come here.”
The last time I speak with him, he says that if things were better in Syria, he would go back tomorrow. | {
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RABAT, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Qatar and Morocco have signed an aid deal worth $1.25 billion, part of a five-year package of financial assistance extended by wealthy Gulf states to the North African kingdom to help it weather 'Arab Spring' protests.
Four Gulf states - Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates - agreed in 2012 to provide aid worth a total $5 billion to Morocco in the period 2012-2017 to build up its infrastructure, strengthen its economy and foster tourism.
Each of the four countries has committed $1.25 billion to Morocco for the whole five year period.
The aid is very welcome to King Mohamed - who signed the accord late on Friday with the visiting emir of Qatar - as he seeks to quell the kind of social discontent that helped to oust rulers elsewhere in North Africa, including Tunisia and Egypt.
Morocco is under heavy pressure from international lenders to reduce its budget deficit after spending heavily on food and energy subsidies and higher public sector salaries in 2011 and 2012 to help defuse social tensions.
Morocco has budgeted to receive a total $1 billion in aid from the Gulf states for 2014. It hopes to cut its budget deficit to 4.9 percent of gross domestic product next year from an estimated 5.5 percent in 2013.
Qatar was the last of the four Gulf states to sign the aid accord with Morocco. It was not immediately clear whether Qatar would disburse the aid installments for both 2012 and 2013, each worth $250 million, together.
The Gulf states have agreed a similar package of aid, also worth a total $5 billion over a five-year period, for Jordan. (Reporting By Zakia Abdennebi, writing by Aziz El Yaakoubi, editing by Gareth Jones)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | {
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Sale thought they had the game’s first try in the 74th minute but it turned out to be moment of farce. After a series of picks and forward drives, Peter Stringer, the replacement scrum-half, had a dart himself. He was short, play continued for a good minute and eventually referee Luke Pearce went back for a penalty advantage. He then decided to check with Trevor Fisher, the TMO, to see if Stringer had scored. Ultimately, Fisher decided he was short. Back we went and Cipriani, unperturbed, knocked over a tough penalty before sealing the match – and emulating Daly – with a late dropped-goal of his own. | {
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Get the shirt here: https://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forgotten-weapons/products/unisex-t-shirt-51
http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
The sharpshooters of the French colonial forces in Indochina (the Tirailleurs Indochinois) had never been issued Lebel rifles, and were still using single shot Gras rifles at the turn of the century. The Indochinese soldiers were rather short statured, and the Lebel was simply too long of a rifle for them to use efficiently. The colonial government requested a special weapon for these men, and the result was the 1902 Berthier.
The Berthier carbine was much more compact than the Lebel, and it was also less expensive to manufacture and simpler to instruct troops with. So after some brief experimentation, a version was produced with a 25 inch (635mm) long barrel, which was a nice balance between the carbines and the Lebel rifle. In my opinion, the 1902 is the ideal size for a Berthier, and I think it handles best of all the different variations made.
An initial production run of 22,500 of these 1902 rifles was made by Chatellerault between 1902 and 1912. A second batch of about 25,000 more would be produced in the 1920s, but we will discuss these in a separate video, as they were made with the 1916 upgrades.
With the successful implementation of the Berthier in the Indochinese colonial forces, it would stand out as an obvious solution for the need to upgrade the arms of France's African colonial troops as well. These soldiers were not short, but also had outdated Gras rifles, and Lebel production was no longer active by 1907. As a result, a further lengthened Berthier was suggested for the Senegalese troops, with a barrel 31.5 inches (800mm) long; equal to that of the Lebel. This was accepted into service, and 25,000 were manufactured by Chatellerault between 1907 and the beginning of the Great War in 1914.
With the urgent need for more rifles because of World War One, the 1907 Berthier (renamed to the 1907 Colonial and issued to colonial troops besides just the Senegalese as of 1908) would attract the interest of the military because it was cheaper to manufacture than the Lebel, and still in active production. The result would be the 07/15 Berthier, which would become a dual standard infantry rifle alongside the 1886 Lebel in the war. | {
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Washington — As President Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, all his top aides and Cabinet members will be in attendance — except one. This year, it's Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.
The "designated survivor" is the member of Mr. Trump's Cabinet who will be whisked away from D.C. by U.S. Secret Service, just in case catastrophe strikes at the Capitol and decimates the president and the top government officials. The designated survivor would ensure continuity of government by taking over the presidency in that case.
The novel concept inspired a primetime show, "Designated Survivor," in which a fictional Housing and Urban Development secretary, played by Kiefer Sutherland, is the sole survivor when a terrorist attack takes out the president and the rest of his Cabinet during a State of the Union address. The show ran on ABC in 2016, and when it was canceled after two seasons, Netflix picked it up, but canceled it again after one season.
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Here are a couple of other things to know about the designated survivor:
Who is the designated survivor this year?
The White House hasn't told us yet but typically makes the announcement shortly before the speech. Last year, then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry was chosen. Check back for updates.
Why is there a designated survivor?
The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 created a line of succession if the president dies or is incapacitated: first to take office would be the vice president, followed by the speaker of the U.S. House, the president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, the secretary of state, the treasury secretary, the defense secretary, and so on.
What happens when you're the designated survivor?
In 2017, when then-Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin was selected, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus gave him a call several days before the joint address to Congress to ask him to serve as the designated survivor. Hours before the speech, the Secret Service spirited him away to an undisclosed location, where he watched the address on TV. At the time, Shulkin was 17th in the line of succession to the presidency, next to last, just before the Homeland Security secretary. He remained at a secret location until the president and others in the line of succession had been safely returned to their homes.
Who's invited to the address?
Current and former members of the House and Senate
Vice president
Cabinet (except the designated survivor)
Supreme Court justices
Joint chiefs of staff
Diplomatic corps
The president also invites several guests, and members of Congress are allowed to invite a guest, too.
Mark Knoller contributed to this report.
For complete coverage of the State of the Union address, download the CBS News app.
| {
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Using a friend's bathroom that is attached to the living room pee beside water to avoid noise
262 shares | {
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The Virginia Motor Lodge Motel in Tulare is seen in an image from Google Maps.
This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
Police arrested a mother on suspicion of drowning her twin 10-month-old sons whose bodies were found Thursday in a motel in central California.
Heather Langdon was taken into custody a day after police officers helped arrange for her and her children to spend the night in the motel after she was told she could no longer remain at a women’s shelter in Tulare because she was causing a disturbance.
Tulare police Sgt. Jon Hamlin said officers had no previous contact with the 37-year-old Langdon and would have called for mental health assistance if they believed she was a danger to herself or the children.
He said the officers didn’t want to leave without finding shelter for them on the cold, rainy night, so they found a nonprofit agency willing to pay for the motel room.
Investigators haven’t yet identified the victims’ father.
The boys were not breathing when officers arrived at the motel early Thursday. They were pronounced dead at a hospital.
Langdon was being held in jail without bail. Jail records don’t indicate if she is represented by an attorney.
Tulare is about 46 miles south of Fresno.
36.207729 -119.347338 | {
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When I told people I was going skiing on a ski field that wasn’t Whakapapa or Turoa, I was met with blank stares or confused looks. Tukino ski field is basically unheard of – it is by far the less known of the three ski fields on Mt Ruapehu. This is partly because both Whakapapa and Turoa are owned by the same company (Ruapehu Alpine Lifts Limited), whereas Tukino is dominated by the three ski clubs who call it home. So Tukino is a completely different set up and vibe to commercial ski fields.
However, Tukino is still completely open to the general public, and the clubs are also welcoming new members all the time. This is on the other side of Mt Ruapehu to Whakapapa or Turoa, so it is a great day trip to take from Taupo as well.
Because it is such an obscure place to visit, I couldn’t find any information online (apart from the Tukino website itself, which wasn’t always clear) about what to expect there or how to get there. So I decided to write this guide to Tukino Ski Field to make it a bit easier for those who visit after me, as well as to let you know what I thought of it.
Ski season at tukino ski field
The ski season generally lasts from June until the end of September, but it is weather dependant. If you’re not sure, you can check out their website to see if they are open. Sometimes, even during winter, the rope tow might still not be operating due to bad weather conditions.
Even if the skifield is closed, you can still stay in the lodges up the mountain, if you wish.
Price of Ski Passes at Tukino Ski Field:
We scored a half price deal on Grab One, so make sure you check that out first. Otherwise, the day passes are:
$65 for an adult
$50 for a student
$35 for a child.
TIP: If you are planning to head up to the slopes for several days or stay in a lodge up the mountain, you will be much better off to become a member of one of the three Tukino clubs. This way you can enjoy the discounted prices they offer to members.
Tukino ski field clubs:
Annual membership fee:
$70 for an adult
$50 for a student
$100 for 3+ members of the same family
Accommodation:
Accommodation for adult members is $44.50 per night during Winter. Children under 5 stay for free. This price includes meals as well. They also have options for Summer lodging.
Annual membership fee:
$80 for an adult
$50 for a child
$200 for a family of any number of siblings
Note: Apart from Tukino, Aorangi ski club also covers Whakapapa Ski Field and Turoa Ski Field. The prices listed above are only for membership to their Tukino club.
Accomodation:
Lodging at Aorangi Ski Club is $37 per night for adult members.
Annual membership fee:
$75 for an adult
$40 for a child (under 18)
$200 for a family
$50 for a student or pensioner
Note: you have to download and fill out a form and they only accept new members between the 1st of January to the 31st of May.
Accommodation:
Accommodation starts from $32 per night for adult members, including meals. Children under 5 stay for free.
As you can see, the membership fees are actually quite affordable and are really worth it if you are planning to spend more than a day or two up the mountain. They also all have really good rates for family memberships which can save you a lot of money per person. All three lodges are within close proximity to each other and to the ski slope, so you can get up and hit the slopes straight away.
Getting to Tukino Ski Field
Getting to Tukino Ski Field is probably one of the hardest parts about going to Tukino. Because the ski field is in such an isolated area, arriving there is no easy feat. Here are some of the reasons why it’s such a challenge.
1. The road leading to the ski field doesn’t exist according to Google Maps
As the sadly technology-dependant millennials that we are, my partner and I rely on GPS to get basically anywhere. Unfortunately, in this particular case it won’t work as Tukino gets so little attention that even Google isn’t very well informed about its location. So, my advice: do not try to Google the address or put ‘Tukino ski field’ into your Google Maps (unless you want to end up in the middle of nowhere). Instead, what you should do is drive along Desert road until you see the signs for Tukino Access Road. Sounds old fashioned, but they really are hard to miss. This will involve driving along this road for 46km if you’re coming from Turangi, and 22km if you’re coming from Waiouru. So calculate the distance and look out for the signs and you’ll be alright.
2. You need a 4WD to access the ski field – if you don’t have one you have to book a shuttle
If you don’t have a 4WD, do not attempt to drive up to the ski field. It’s a steep, narrow and dangerous road, even IN a 4WD. What you should do instead is book a shuttle, which basically means a staff member will come down in a van to fetch you.
How to book a shuttle to Tukino Ski Field:
Call 06 387 6294 or 0800 005 446. If you’re travelling from the south, call them when you reach Waiouru. If you’re travelling from the north, call when you are at Turangi.
Call again when you are turning off State Highway onto Tukino Access Rd. It is important that you call at that point because after that, you might not have coverage on your cellphone. It is quite sporadic around there
Drive to the carpark on Tukino Access Road and wait for the shuttle
The shuttle ride costs $20 per adult.
3. Even the 2WD road is not very pleasant.
The “2WD road” that will take you to the carpark to be picked up is not the best road for cars. It is uncovered, rocky and uneven. At some points you might have to drive through a stream and you have to be constantly on the lookout for rocks in your path. The 6km drive took us about half an hour to complete (and it definitely wasn’t due to the traffic!).
What to expect up at Tukino Ski Field
Congratulations, you’ve made it through the ordeal of finding and getting to the ski field! Now what?
food options at tukino
There are no food outlets at Tukino Ski Field. I recommend you to pack your own lunch if you’re going on a day trip, otherwise meals are usually provided if you are staying in a lodge. You can still purchase hot drinks and packets of chips or chocolate bars from the ticket office, but the options are very limited.
tukino Ski Fields & Ski Lift
At Tukino, the only way you can get up the mountain is by nutcracker rope tows. This means you wear a metal contraption around your hips and attach it to a rope which pulls you up the mountain. My first time using a nutcracker rope tow was at Tukino, and honestly, it is difficult to get the hang of. They have some staff there who might help you and tell you how to do it the first couple of times, but after that you’re basically left to your own devices.
Tukino has a number of different slopes; the higher up you get, the more advanced the slopes will be. However, again, the only way to get up to the higher slopes is by using the nutcracker, so if you haven’t got the hang of that you’ll be confined to the lower slope.
If you’re a beginner, you should stay on the lower slope anyway, as this is where the only beginner trails at Tukino Ski Field are located. The majority of the trails they have further up the mountain are intermediate trails.
Learn to Ski at Tukino
They do offer ski lessons at Tukino, which you can purchase from the ticket office when you’re there. An hour group lesson is $45 per adult (discount for students to $30 and children to $20). If you’re wanting a private lesson just for you, you can purchase one for $70. These lessons are available for all ability levels.
Cat Skiing at Tukino
Something unique about Tukino Ski Field is that they offer an activity called ‘cat skiing’, which is where you get taken in a snowcat from the top of the highest nutcracker tow all the way up to the highest point of Tukino, and then you get a guided run down the mountain with your skis or snowboard. This is only for intermediate or advanced skiers or snowboarders.
This experience can be purchased for an extra $35 for members ($40 for non-members). They do have a discount deal if you purchase 5 at once, however.
Bathroom at tukino
There is a bathroom at the bottom of the skifield. When I say ‘bathroom’, what I mean is a small shed with a long drop toilet. It’s pretty primitive, but the service is ther.
Ski Hire near tukino
There is no ski or snowboard hire service available at Tukino Ski Field. What you will have to do is either bring your own equipment, or hire it before you go up. You can find ski and snowboard hire places in Turangi if you’re travelling from the North and Rangataua if you’re travelling from the South.
Where to stay near Tukino Ski Field
As I mentioned above, the accommodation rates at the lodges are pretty affordable, especially if you’re already a member of one of them. That said, if you don’t want to stay up in the mountain, you can stay in a nearby town and still be able to enjoy a full day on the slopes.
The biggest nearby town is Taupo, which is only an hour’s drive from the turnoff to Tukino Access Road.
> Where to stay in Taupo
Turangi is the closest town which also has ski hire outlets, and it is only half an hour away from the access road.
> Where to stay in Turangi
Should I visit Tukino Ski Field?
If you’re trying to decide whether you should visit Tukino, here are some things to consider.
Benefits of skiing at Tukino
Cheapest option for skiing on Mt Ruapehu
To start off with, Tukino Ski Field has by far the cheapest lift prices, with Turoa and Whakapapa ranging from $85-$125 for a single day pass.
Location
Tukino Ski Field is good because it is accessible from the east side of the mountain, whereas Turoa and Whakapapa are on the west side. If you’re coming from Taupo, Napier or Palmerston North it will save you a lot of time to go to Tukino Ski Field instead of one of the other two ski fields.
Less crowds
Tukino is also a lot less crowded than any other ski field on Mt Ruapehu. Because it is less known and not as easy to access, very few people visit Tukino Ski Field. Whereas in Whakapapa and Turoa, you have to constantly watch out for and dodge other people, in Tukino you can basically ski or snowboard in peace.
Change of scenery
Since Mt Ruapehu has the only real ski slopes in the North Island, if you’re a North Islander who likes to ski or snowboard, you might be bored to tears of Whakapapa and Turoa by now. Why not try something new – different scenery, different vibes – and spend some time at Turangi next winter?
Shortcomings of Tukino:
Less options for ski and snowboard hire
There’s absolutely no option to rent any form of ski or snowboard equipment at Tukino Ski Field. The only thing they give you is the nutcracker harness when you purchase your lift passes.
Not only that, but the nearest outlets which offer ski hire are a fair bit more expensive than what you can find in Ohakune. So even though you’re paying less for the lift passes than in other places, you will probably actually end up paying more for your equipment.
Staff attitude
We found the staff to be a little aloof; they mostly seemed that they would rather be doing something else than helping us. There was no-one attending the rope tows most of the time, which is a hazard in itself. There were quite a few people struggling with how to use it – children and beginners – and most of the time we were just left to our own devices.. Also, at the end of the day they all just sort of disappeared without saying anything. We had to go knocking on the lodge doors to find someone who could take us back down the mountain. This lack of customer service (and just service in general) was one of the biggest let downs.
Access problems
If you don’t have your own 4WD, you have to pay an extra $20 per person for your ride up and down the mountain. This is another thing to budget in to the price of your trip. As I mentioned, it is a bit difficult to find the road to the carpark – which is not well maintained at all.
Ski lift problems
The nutcracker rope tow system is one of the most primitive types of ski lift. At Tukino, there are no chair lifts or even poma lifts. If you’re a beginner or you haven’t seen a rope tow before, you’ll spend at least half a day figuring out how to use it.
Is tukino ski field worth it? My Recommendation
In all honesty, Tukino Ski Field unfortunately comes with a lot of inherent problems. It is cheaper, yes, but it’s easy to see why. It is lacking a lot of the basic amenities and services that you see at other ski areas, and come to expect when you go skiing.
To be completely honest, Tukino is just less than the other options out there. Less to do, fewer places to go, less service, the list could go on. It’s a very no-frills snow experience, you could say. I guess I’m used to a lot of commercialisation and a lot of distractions around when I go skiing. Without that, it feels very primitive and isolated.
I would recommend Tukino only to people who really want to get off the beaten path and experience skiing in a different way. It is really only suited to intermediate to advanced skiers or snowboarders who are looking for a change of scenery from the conventional slopes. Otherwise, if you want to visit Mt Ruapehu, just stick to Whakapapa and Turoa. It will make your trip a lot easier, and leave you more time to enjoy yourself.
>> Have you been to Mt Ruapehu? Would you ski at Tukino? Tell me in the comments!
Don’t forget to pin this post for reference!
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After the 14 June 2017 shooting of Republican congressman Steve Scalise, a purported Vox infographic circulated on social media contrasting deaths of Republican lawmakers against deaths related to healthcare legislation.
Twitter account @DudeSlater (purporting to be Vox’s editor-in-chief) was (presumably) the first to share the graphic (which can be seen here in full):
However, the origin of the “Vox infographic” was unclear, and we were unable to locate a legitimate branded graphic on which it was based. We contacted Vox Media for more information about the image. A spokesperson confirmed to us that the claim is false and the image was not created by the outlet: | {
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Have you ever been so lost in your toughts that you don't feel the time passing? Maybe someone called you and you didn't even hear or see them? Probably. When that happens to you, you just shifted your level of awareness. Human awareness has 3 levels and the more levels you can master and control, the more you can use that control to change and improve yourself more effectively.
Below are the 3 levels of awareness:
Level 1 : External Awareness
This one is the most basic level that everyone uses to talk to other people, think about something, do everyday tasks, and so on. It's the easiest level and it's called external because it focuses on the outside stimulation such as changes in the environment, noises, people, and any external change that occurs in the surroundings.
Level 2 : Emotional Awareness
The second level is not so easy to pick up. It requires a higher degree of emotional intelligence that allows you to recognize your own emotions accurately, which grants you the awesome skill to control them to a certain extent and avoid falling victim of your own impulses.
So basically, it's the recognition and understanding of your emotions in a way that allows you to manipulate them in such a way that you become the master of your emotions
Level 3 : Subconscious
The subconscious is the most famous of them all. This level is definitely the hardest one to access or to change, but there are techniques that are used to control dreams, as well as the visualization technique which is believed to change your subconscious in 21 days of practice. It's also backed-up by scientific research that you can find.
So, on which level are you ? Post comments and I'll be happy to answer. | {
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To Cambridge University now, where the Conservative Association has been caught literally laughing off a scandal about one of its members trying to burn a £20 note in front of a homeless man.
The Tab student newspaper revealed a video of tuxedoed Cambridge Tory Ronald Coyne taunting rough sleeper Ryan Davies earlier this year.
The Tory Association said they “shocked and outraged” by the actions of their communications officer, who was dismissed from the club.
But just two weeks later people attending the Association’s “dessert party” with Tory MP Alan Mak were laughing about the incident, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by the Tab.
One student asked Mak: “Do you think Ronald Coyne did a greater disfavour to Cambridge University or the Conservative party?”
Mak replied his actions were “not representative of the Conservative party in any sense of that word.”
But the recording reveals he was interrupted by an attendee shouting: “It should have been a £50 note”.
That’s a reference to rumours that burning a £50 note in front of a homeless person is an initiation to the notorious Bullingdon Club – alumni David Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osborne.
The Tab reports that the tasteless joke was followed by 11 seconds of guffawing.
Despite that, Mak continued: “People are smart enough to understand it’s probably just the isolated attitudes of one individual.”
Isolated attitudes of one party more like… | {
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All it took was a white van, a team of three hackers and a phishing email to remotely unlock Johanna Kenwood and Peter Yarema's front door.
The couple's home in Oakville, Ont., is automated with a number of smart devices, including their lights, thermostat, security cameras and the deadbolt on their door.
"I like the security and knowing what's going on in my house when I'm away," said Kenwood.
Watch Marketplace at 8 p.m. on Friday on CBC TV or online.
And the couple enjoys the "convenience" of an automated home, said Yarema, for "some of the simpler things," like when your hands are full, and you need a light on.
They aren't alone. According to Orbis research, the global industry for smart home devices is predicted to grow more than 300 per cent by 2023.
But a Marketplace investigation shows that this convenience may come at a cost to your privacy, especially if you lack the know-how to properly secure these devices.
Normally hired to check the security of complex IT systems, a three-person team from Scalar Decisions was hired by Marketplace and tasked with testing the security of a family's smart home. (CBC)
Security was a key consideration for Kenwood and Yarema when they shopped for their devices. So the couple was shocked by how easily a team of ethical, or "white hat", hackers hired by Marketplace took control of their devices — a series of tests done with the family's permission.
Normally hired to check the security of complex IT systems, the team from Scalar Decisions was instead tasked with testing the security of the family's smart home.
Could smart home devices be vulnerable to hackers? Earlier, CBC Marketplace's Makda Ghebreslassie and security expert Theo Van Wyk answered your questions.
Sitting in a van on the street outside, the Scalar team managed to crack the family's Wi-Fi password in less than two hours. The same password had been used to set up the thermostat, allowing them to remotely turn the heat up or off completely.
'We have a child in here'
The hackers then turned their attention to the family's front door. Using a sophisticated phishing email, the ethical hackers managed to trick Kenwood into giving them her log-in details for her home hub.
The family uses a Wink Connected Home Hub, allowing them to control their lights and front door with a smartphone app.
After receiving the email, Kenwood believed she was logging onto the Wink website, when instead she was handing her password over to the hackers. With full access to her account, they were able to unlock the couple's front door and enter the home.
That password had also been used by Kenwood across other accounts, including the family's Nest security cameras, allowing the team to log in and view what was happening inside the home.
Marketplace tracks down a homeowner whose unsecured security camera is streaming live online 1:21
And it gave the hackers the ability to send voice commands to the couple's Amazon Echo, where they could potentially place Amazon orders using Kenwood's stored credit card information.
"It's terrifying that they're able to get into so many devices," said Kenwood. "It's our home ... we have a child in here."
After seeing how their smart home could be hacked, the family's first step would be "taking the door lock off the Wi-Fi," said Yarema.
'Be alert for phishing emails'
Reusing the same password across multiple accounts — something many of us are likely guilty of — made the family's home less secure, said Arsenii Pustovit, leader of Scalar's ethical hacker team.
"You want to have different passwords for each of your online accounts," he said.
Since most of us struggle to remember multiple passwords, he suggests using something called a password manager. It generates complicated passwords for each of your online accounts, but you only have to remember one password — for the manager — to unlock them all.
Another suggestion is to use passphrases by grouping three or four words together, creating longer codes that you can still easily remember.
And "be alert for phishing emails," Pustovit warns. Hackers can often send very convincing emails, asking you to provide your username and password.
Check to make sure the email comes from an address the company has previously used to communicate with you, Pustovit advises."If you are still in doubt, consider contacting the company directly," he said, to confirm it is genuine.
Why manufacturers could be doing more
Device manufacturers should be doing more to keep us secure, according to Pustovit.
Had companies like Nest and Wink required two-step authentication, he says his team wouldn't have been able to so easily access the family's cameras or open their front door.
Two-step authentication ensures you can only access your account using a trusted device. If someone tries to log in on a new device, a code is automatically sent to the trusted device, like your phone. Without this code, a hacker can't access your account — even with your password.
The global industry for smart home devices, like this Amazon Echo speaker, is predicted to grow more than 300 per cent by 2023. (Norm Arnold/CBC)
Marketplace reached out to Wink, Nest and Amazon to share these findings.
In response, Wink said it was taking "immediate steps" to implement two-step authentication. Nest and Amazon, meanwhile, both say they already offer two-step authentication, but users have to proactively turn this feature on.
These extra layers of security are especially important for "critical" technology, Pustovit says, like your email, smart locks or security cameras.
"The camera is a window into your life," he said.
Thousands of private cameras streaming live
And web-connected cameras are opening a window into the lives of thousands of people around the world — sometimes unknowingly.
A website called Insecam, thought to be hosted in Russia, live streams footage from thousands of cameras still using factory-default passwords, often without the knowledge of the cameras' owners.
The site grabbed headlines last year when it was found to be streaming detailed images of students inside a school in Nova Scotia, prompting an investigation from the province's privacy commissioner.
CBC Marketplace found nearly 300 feeds from unsecured cameras in Canada streaming live online, including seemingly private moments in people's homes and backyards. (Insecam.org)
Marketplace found the site is still hosting nearly 300 Canadian feeds, constantly broadcasting seemingly private moments online.
Families could be seen in their kitchens and bedrooms, or relaxing by their swimming pools. One showed small children playing in their backyard.
The website taps into unsecured cameras where the default log-in credentials have not been changed by the user at setup. It further allows users to filter the streams by country, time zone or camera manufacturer.
Marketplace hired three 'white hat' hackers to find flaws in a family's smart home setup 0:45
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada threatened the website owner with "enforcement action" in 2014 if it continued to show Canadians in private places without their knowledge.
When Marketplace notified the privacy commissioner that the issue is still ongoing, the office said it is "considering next steps" and shifted some of the blame to camera manufacturers, saying they need to "build in privacy protections from the start."
Insecam said it's employees "do their best" to filter out cameras showing private places, and that Canadians can ensure their cameras never make it onto their site by simply setting a password.
'I don't know how you make that right'
Marketplace attempted to locate some of the camera owners to warn them that their privacy was being violated.
Although IP addresses can give an approximate region, for most cameras, it was impossible to pinpoint an exact location. But licence plates spotted on a couple of the streams allowed Marketplace to find the names of the vehicle owners, and track them down to two addresses in Ontario.
When Marketplace knocked on the doors of these homes, those living there were shocked.
"It's quite upsetting and disturbing, I'm not gonna lie," said one homeowner, who didn't want to be identified. "That's the privacy of my home being invaded.... I don't know how you make that right."
Johanna Kenwood and Peter Yarema, shown here with the three ethical hackers, said security was a key consideration when they were shopping for smart devices. (Luke Denne/CBC)
Both homeowners had purchased cameras from OOSSXX: a Chinese manufacturer that only sells through Amazon. The systems consist of four or more cameras connected wirelessly to a network video recorder (NVR) that's connected to the internet.
Marketplace purchased its own OOSSXX cameras, and found the username for the NVR is "admin" — with no password attached. This means anyone could find and view OOSSXX cameras where the default log-in details haven't been changed. The user manual also doesn't warn users that their cameras could be accessed by others if they don't set their own password.
Both homeowners said they thought their cameras were password-protected, as you are required to set up a password for the smartphone app. But that password only protects the app, leaving the NVR itself unprotected.
The streams of many other camera brands were also visible on the same website, including companies like Panasonic, Axis and Vivotek.
Panasonic said it recognizes there is a problem with cameras having default credentials. To remedy this, the company now forces users to create secure passwords during installation.
For its part, OOSSXX didn't respond to questions about why it doesn't require mandatory passwords.
That's not good enough for the homeowners located by Marketplace; both pulled the plug on their cameras.
"Obviously, I just want to take it off the internet right away," one said. | {
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A ministra brasileira da Mulher, da Família e dos Direitos Humanos, Damares Alves, chegou nesta quinta-feira (30) na Argentina com o propósito de estreitar os contatos com os grupos pró-vida e antiaborto no país e criar políticas públicas regionais em conjunto. A visita ocorre na mesma semana em que o movimento feminista argentino, referência na América Latina, entrou com um novo projeto de Lei no Congresso pelo direito a essa prática.
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Márcio Resende, correspondente da RFI em Buenos Aires
A visita da ministra Damares Alves à Argentina para a Reunião de Altas Autoridades de Direitos Humanos do Mercosul (RAADH) coincidiu com mais um capítulo da chamada "onda verde", cor do movimento pelo direito ao aborto que, na terça-feira (28), entrou com um novo projeto de Lei pela interrupção voluntária da gravidez, depois de o tema ter sido aprovado pela Câmara de Deputados da Argentina em 14 de junho passado e rejeitado pelo Senado em 8 de agosto.
Esse avanço do movimento feminista a favor do direito ao aborto foi contra-atacado com uma reação dos militantes pró-vida, caracterizados pela cor azul celeste. Assim que aterrissou nesta quinta-feira em Buenos Aires, Damares Alves veio diretamente ao Congresso argentino reunir-se com os legisladores conservadores.
"É uma coincidência eu estar aqui nesta semana. Nós, pró-vida, acreditamos que, no continente, precisamos estar mais juntos porque entendemos que o aborto não é solução para nenhum problema. Como pró-vida, poderemos apresentar sugestões de políticas públicas de planejamento familiar", defendeu a ministra.
Para Damares Alves, Brasil e Argentina devem “valorizar a vida”. "Gostaríamos que as nossas nações defendessem as duas vidas, a da mãe e a do bebê", apontou. Embora ressalte que não usa o cargo de ministra para fazer militantismo contra ou a favor do direito ao aborto e que o Executivo tem o cuidado de respeitar a independência do Legislativo e do Judiciário, a ministra se reconhece como uma “ativista pró-vida”.
“Governo Bolsonaro defende a vida”
Indagada pela RFI se Brasil e Argentina partirão para uma luta conjunta para frear o crescimento dos movimentos pelo acesso ao aborto, Damares Alves disse que a luta pró-vida entre os dois países já é grande. "Nós estamos unidos há muito tempo e um se inspira no outro. Este governo [Bolsonaro] defende a vida desde a concepção. Esta é a posição oficial do Brasil. Esta é a posição do presidente: um Brasil pró-vida, pró-família, isso foi discurso de campanha dele e está acontecendo", disse Damares, arrancando aplausos dos demais legisladores argentinos presentes.
"Vejo que, na Argentina, a adesão popular nas ruas tem sido maior do que no Brasil. A nossa marcha nacional contra o aborto está muito longe da marcha nacional que eles fazem aqui", ressalta Damares. "Mas, por outro lado, vejo uma militância brasileira muito forte nas redes sociais no Brasil. Então, talvez onde sejamos fortes, a Argentina não seja tão forte. E onde a Argentina é mais forte, nos movimentos de rua contra o aborto, nós ainda não somos", ponderou.
A deputada argentina, Cornelia Smith, presidente da comissão de Relações Exteriores da Câmara de Deputados, integrante do movimento pró-vida, explicou à RFI que "Brasil e Argentina procuram uma política regional que defenda os direitos humanos a partir da concepção". Segundo Smith, essa união regional quer contrabalancear o crescimento do movimento pró-aborto.
"A luta pelo aborto despertou nas pessoas a necessidade de sair também para defender a vida. Este é um primeiro encontro para criarmos um movimento de união regional. Na cidade de Buenos Aires, é muito difícil contra-atacar a onda verde. Falta-nos um marketing que permita aos jovens abraçar a causa pela vida. No interior, há uma essência pró-vida", afirmou Cornelia Smith. "No Brasil, chegamos onde chegamos a partir da força dos jovens com as novas tecnologias. Estamos levando esse debate pela vida adiante", concluiu Damares Alves.
NewsletterReceba a newsletter diária RFI: noticiários, reportagens, entrevistas, análises, perfis, emissões, programas. Me registro | {
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As we continually search for ways to improve gender inclusivity in Spanish, we have come up with a myriad of broad language such as Latino/a and Latin@. The most recent of these solutions is the term “Latinx.” In our opinion, the use of the identifier “Latinx” as the new standard should be discouraged because it is a buzzword that fails to address any of the problems within Spanish on a meaningful scale. This position is controversial to some members of the Latino community here at Swarthmore and beyond, but the other positions within the community also deserve to be heard. We are Latinos, proud of our heritage, that were raised speaking Spanish. We are not arguing against gender-inclusive language. We have no prejudice towards non-binary people. We see, however, a misguided desire to forcibly change the language we and millions of people around the world speak, to the detriment of all. Under the “degenderization” of Spanish advocated by proponents of words such as “Latinx” words such as latinos, hermanos, and niños would be converted into latinxs, hermanxs, and niñxs respectively. This is a blatant form of linguistic imperialism — the forcing of U.S. ideals upon a language in a way that does not grammatically or orally correspond with it.
The term “Latinx” is used almost exclusively within the United States. According to Google trend data, “Latinx” came into popular use in October of 2014 and has since been widely popularized by American blogs and American institutions of higher education. The term is virtually nonexistent in any Spanish-speaking country. This is problematic for many reasons. It serves as a prime example of how English speakers can’t seem to stop imposing their social norms on other cultures. It seems that U.S. English speakers came upon Spanish, deemed it too backwards compared to their own progressive leanings, and rather than working within the language to address any of their concerns, “fixed” it from a foreign perspective that has already had too much influence on Latino and Latin American culture. The vast majority of people in Latin America from personal experience, would likely be confused and even offended by this attempt to dictate for them how their language is to be structured and how they ought to manage their social constructs. It is interesting to observe how many “Latinx” activists become outraged when a non-Latino person wears traditional Latino costumes such as sombreros without understanding the significance of what they are wearing when they themselves participate in a form of reverse appropriation. To be clear – this is not to say these Latinos are detached from the culture, but rather taking American ideals and social beliefs and inserting into a language that has widespread use in places outside of the U.S. Rather than taking from a culture or people a part of them without respect or reverence for it, this reverse appropriation aims to put into a culture a part of one’s own beliefs. This is not the forced and unwarranted taking of culture but rather the forced and unnecessary giving of incompatible segments of U.S. culture.
Perhaps the most ironic failure of the term is that it actually excludes more groups than it includes. By replacing o’s and a’s with x’s, the word “Latinx” is rendered laughably incomprehensible to any Spanish speaker without some fluency in English. Try reading this “gender neutral” sentence in Spanish: “Lxs niñxs fueron a lx escuelx a ver sus amigxs.” You literally cannot, and it seems harmless and absurd until you realize the broader implication of using x as a gender neutral alternative. It excludes all of Latin America, who simply cannot pronounce it in the U.S. way. It does not provide a gender-neutral alternative for Spanish-speaking non-binary individuals and thus excludes them. It excludes any older Spanish speakers who have been speaking Spanish for more than 40 years and would struggle to adapt to such a radical change. It effectively serves as an American way to erase the Spanish language. Like it or not, Spanish is a gendered language. If you take the gender out of every word, you are no longer speaking Spanish. If you advocate for the erasure of gender in Spanish, you then are advocating for the erasure of Spanish.
What then, is the solution if not “Latinx”? It may surprise you to learn that a gender-neutral term to describe the Latin-American community already exists in Spanish. Ready for it? Here it is: Latino. Gender in Spanish and gender in English are two different things. Even inanimate objects are given gendered -o/s and -a/s endings, although it is inherently understood that these objects are not tied to the genders assigned to them. In Spanish, when referencing groups, we only use the feminine ending when referring to an exclusively female group. On the other hand, when we refer to groups using the masculine ending, the group could either be exclusively males or a mix of people. For example, when someone says “los cubanos” an English speaker may instinctively interpret this as “the male Cubans,” but a Spanish speaker simply hears “the Cubans.” In fact, the only way to refer to a group that is not exclusively female in Spanish is by using the masculine ending. Therefore, according to the grammatical rules of Spanish, the term “Latinos” is already all-inclusive in terms of gender. For those that want the singular form of “Latino” without the association with gender, alternate forms exist — one can state their ancestry (“soy de Cuba/Mexico/Venezuela/etc”) or “soy de Latinoamerica”. Ultimately, the problem here is that “Latinx” does not fit within Spanish, and never will. X as a letter at the ends of words in Spanish is unpronounceable, not conjugatable, and frankly confusing. These alternate options both respect those on the non-binary spectrum and respect the dignity of the Spanish language.
We understand that some people may still support the term “Latinx”. Ultimately, we will never attempt to force anyone to personally define themselves in any way. If after reading this article anyone still feels that calling themselves “Latinx” instead of any other term brings them more happiness, we will respect that choice. However, we are strongly opposed to and cannot support this particular terminology becoming the new norm or creeping any further into a language it does not belong in. Some may be put off by gender in Spanish. But we are offended by the attempted degradation of our language at the hands of a foreign influence. “Latinx” undoubtedly stems from good intentions but is ultimately also clearly representative of a poorly thought out and self-defeating execution as well as a lack of respect for the sovereignty of Spanish. | {
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Theatrical trailer for Jack Reacher.
When a gunman takes five lives with six shots, all evidence points to the suspect in custody. On interrogation, the suspect offers up a single note: "Get Jack Reacher!" So begins an extraordinary chase for the truth, pitting Jack Reacher against an unexpected enemy, with a skill for violence and a secret to keep. | {
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She is the best dragon in MLP FIM and my favorite as well. Also, my second favorite character overall (behind rainbow dash). | {
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Cheese corn toast recipe with step by step by step photos. Cheese toast recipe with sweet corn,bell peppers and onions. Sharing an easy corn cheese toast recipe that I make for easy breakfast fix.
Cheese toast is an all time favorite and also very easy to make for a quick breakfast or snack. I saw this easy cheese toast recipe with corn here and was tempted to try. The procedure was little different from how I make cheese toast. We love easy bread recipes and I often make tasty bread toast recipes like bread besan toast, sooji toast, eggless french toast, veg cheese toast.
In this recipe of cheese toast I have added boiled sweet corn, green bell pepper and onions.
You can also add vegetables like finely chopped carrots (par boil), salad tomato etc.
Serve corn cheese toast as quick breakfast after school snack. This will also make for a great starter along with a drink for parties and functions.
Also you make cheese toast sandwich with the same filling.
If you want to add some quick breakfast ideas to your repository this corn cheese toast recipe is your best bet. Do try out and you will love it.
More toast recipes you might like
masala toast
milk toast
chilli cheese toast
pizza toast
How To Make Cheese Corn Toast Recipe?
To make cheese corn toast recipe first we should prepare a white sauce.
The veggies and boiled corn are mixed with the white sauce and then you spread on the bread.
Toast the bread till the cheese melts. Your delicious cheese corn toast is ready.
You can also make pasta, pizza, sandwich with this white sauce.
Can I Make Cheese Corn Toast Without Oven?
To make corn cheese toast on stove top here are the instructions.
Prepare white sauce and veggies spread as mentioned in the recipe.
Heat a tava and toast the bread slices on one side.
Spread the corn cheese mixture on toasted side and return to tava. Cover and cook in low till the cheese melts.
How To Make Cheese corn Toast With Paneer?
You can make this corn toast more wholesome by adding paneer to it. Just crumble the paneer and add to the veggie-white sauce mixture and proceed.
You can also add boiled corn in this paneer cheese toast recipe.
More easy snack recipes you might like
tacos, tandoori aloo, bread cutlet, hara bhara kabab
How To Make Corn Cheese Toast In Oven-Step by Step
1. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a pan until it lightly browns. In the meanwhile toast 4-6 bread slices in the preheated oven for 5 minutes at 180C or until the bread slices turn crisp. You can also toast the slices in tava. Do not add oil or ghee for toasting.
2. keep the flame low and add maida/ flour. Whisk very well in low heat.
3. Add milk and mix very well. Keep whisking so that no lumps form. Do all the whisking in low flame.
4. Whisk well till the mixture turns smooth and thick.
5. Add salt, pepper powder and mix well.
6. Add grated cheese and mix very well. turn off the flame. now add boiled sweet corn kernels, sliced onions and bell pepper. Mix well.
Making Cheese corn toast
1.Take the toasted bread slices and arrange in a baking tray.
2. Spread 2-3 teaspoons of prepared white sauce vegetable spread on each bread slice. Add some chilli flakes and oregano.
3. Bake at 180C for 5-6 minutes. Serve corn cheese toast hot.
Cheese toast recipe on stove top.
1. Spread 2-3 teaspoons of prepared white sauce vegetable spread on each bread slice.
2. Heat a tava and toast the bread slices until crisp, do not flip. Serve hot.
Corn Cheese Toast Recipe | {
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A sheikh from Jordan's prominent Adwan tribe caused a stir recently when he said that Israel belongs to the Jews, and that Palestinian claims to the territory are false.
Sheikh Ahmed Aladoan of Amman, who made the remarks on his Facebook page, based his assertions on the Koran. In a post earlier this month he said that those who "distort the word of the Koran" are liars, and questioned the origins of the word Palestine.
"Allah is the protector of the Children of Israel," he insisted, also saying that there was no such place as Palestine.
The Muslim cleric also accused Palestinians of violence, saying that they kill children, the elderly and women, that they hide behind human shields and have no mercy for their own children.
The sheikh's remarks reportedly caused controversy in the Arab media, and the Adwan tribe released a statement distancing themselves from the assertions.
Last year, Sheikh Aladoan came to Israel, and paid a visit to Safed Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu. The visit was filmed by Orot TV in Israel. The Jordanian told the rabbi “there is no name ‘Palestine’ for this land," in the Koran, and that the Arabs should not therefore fight for the land.
According to the U.K.-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, the cleric's supports the idea that Jordan is Palestine, and he believes that many Arabs, including Palestinians in the West Bank, would like to be Israeli citizens. | {
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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Argentina on Wednesday told the International Monetary fund that Buenos Aires cannot continue servicing unsustainable debt, as the IMF encouraged it to enact efficient restructuring policies.
Pope Francis greets International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva (C) and Argentina's Economy Minister Martin Guzman during a conference hosted by the Vatican on economic solidarity, at the Vatican, February 5, 2020. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Argentine Economy Minister Martin Guzman exchanged views at the conference in Vatican City hosted by Pope Francis.
Guzman told the conference Argentina would under no circumstances continue servicing debt that was unsustainable and that pushed the country deeper into recession.
“We are going to be very firm on that,” he said.
He balked at the 9% interest rate that Argentina is scheduled to pay to the Paris Club of country creditors in 2020 and 2021.
“That is not only unsustainable, it marks a very bad anchor for the rest of the restructuring,” Guzman said.
He emphasized his opposition to fiscal austerity as a recipe for over-indebted countries and called for clear international rules to govern sovereign debt crises.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
“Fiscal austerity in situations of unsustainable debt doesn’t work. On the contrary, it’s self-defeating,” he said.
Georgieva and Guzman held what both said were 2-1/2 hours of constructive talks on Argentina’s debt crisis on Tuesday night ahead of the conference.
“It is very important moment for Argentina to put in place policies that are going to stabilize the economy, lead to successful debt restructuring and respond to the expectations of people that those who are the most vulnerable not be left out,” Georgieva told Reuters at the conference on economic solidarity.
Argentina needs to restructure $100 billion in sovereign debt with creditors, including the IMF, amid a steep recession with inflation above 50%.
The pope, who did not specifically mention the current Argentine crisis, called for “new forms of solidarity” to help indebted countries, saying “we are not doomed to universal inequality”.
“Poor people in heavily indebted countries bear overwhelming tax burdens and cuts in social services as their governments pay debts contracted insensitively and unsustainably,” Francis said, adding that a country’s debt policy “can become a factor that damages the social fabric”.
Guzman said Argentina will need cooperation from bondholders to restructure sovereign obligations.
He stood by the government’s deadline of having a bond revamp deal done by the end of March. An IMF technical mission is expected in Buenos Aires next week to discuss obligations owed to the fund.
The Vatican conference at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences brought together more than 25 government officials, religious authorities, and economists, including Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobel economics laureate.
Last Friday, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez met the pope and said the pontiff, who lived through a previous debt crisis when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, had promised to do everything he could to help with the current one.
Fernandez has promised to bridge social divisions and roll out a massive credit system with low rates to bolster domestic demand, and to boost spending to address hunger and poverty. | {
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Many students and employees bring their own lunch to campus as a way to save money and avoid long lines at the Silo or CoHo. I ask the UC Davis dining administrators to act in the interest of the students they aim to serve by providing practical-minded students a place where they can peacefully heat up their food.
The Silo used to have 3 microwaves but they are now gone. I will personally donate a microwave if cost is an issue. | {
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This is perhaps the funniest parody of a film trailer I have ever seen. Based on the trailer for P.T. Anderson’s masterpiece of a film, There Will be Blood , Benver Droncos & Brain Spray Media bring you their own “420” slant on the storyline with There Will be Bud . What makes this so funny is how well done it all is — the music (by Band of the World), the incredible accuracy in comparing it to the actual film, and the uncanny portrayal of Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview by Ross Marquand (his voice is dead on). If you know the movie, I think you’ll find this pretty hysterical and if you don’t know the movie (shame on you), I think it will bring some laughs anyway. | {
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Hello and welcome to the 278th installment of the SWD .
Military events/news are listed below by the governorates:
Aleppo:
Syrian Arab Army heavily shelled Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-held Siyala village, south of Khanaser. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham responded to the shelling, which resulted in the eruption of clashes between the two sides.
Abu Amara Special Task Brigade claimed responsibility for the assassination of Mohammed Farah, son of Hussein Farah, member of the People’s Council of Syria and the National Reconciliation Committee. However, several sources reported that Mohammed Farah’s death was an incident, which occurred as he was cleaning his personal weapon in Al-Sheikh Taha neighborhood of Aleppo.
Raqqa:
Islamic State’s VBIED exploded in the grain silos area north of Raqqa, killing two civilians. Furthermore, left over Islamic State’s improvised explosive device killed two civilians as they were inspecting their house in the center of Raqqa.
Hama:
Free Syrian Army’s Jaysh al-Izza, backed by Jaysh al-Ahrar and Turkestan Islamic Party launched an attack against the Syrian Arab Army and allies on Halfaya front. The rebels’ attack was led by Jaysh al-Izza’s Colonel Mustafa Bakour and resulted in a brief capture of Al-Zilaqiat and Zalin checkpoint. The rebels also captured six elements belonging to the Syrian Arab Army and allies. Syrian Arab Army and National Defense Forces entered Al-Zilaqiat and Zalin checkpoint after the rebels were forced to retreat due to air raids and shelling. Reports suggest that the Russian troops based in a camp south of Halfaya, completely retreated from the area as the rebels made initial advances.
Leader of Jaysh al-Usrah and former leader of Jaysh al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and Caucasus Emirate in Sham (Imarat Kavkaz v Shame), Salahuddin al-Shishani was killed by a Russian air strike in the northern Hama. Deputy leader of Jaysh al-Usrah, Khayrullah al-Shishani is expected to be Salahuddin’s successor as the leader of the group.
Approximate situation in the northern Hama, before the SAA and allies recaptured Al-Zilaqiat and Zalin checkpoint, HD version of this map can be found here. Source: Step News Agency
Deir al-Zour:
Syrian Democratic Forces captured Al-Zeir and Al-Sihlia neighborhoods of Abu Hammam from the Islamic State.
Left over Islamic State’s improvised explosive device reportedly killed four and wounded two elements of the Syrian Arab Army and allies in Al-Quriyah. The incident occurred as the elements were inspecting a house in the locality.
Islamic State and Syrian Democratic Forces clashed near the village of Abu Hardoub. Islamic State’s Amaq Agency reported death of three elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces due to the clashes.
Approximate situation in the eastern Deir al-Zour. Source: Emmanuel
Damascus:
Syrian Arab Army’s artillery shelled Zamalka, Douma, Harasta, Al-Nashabiyah, and Ain Terma in the East Ghouta. Syrian Civil Defense (The White Helmets) reported injury of 11 civilians due to the shelling of Douma.
Evacuation of foreign Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s fighters and their families was postponed due to an internal dispute between the fighters. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in the East Ghouta has been split into two camps, those that want to leave the area towards Idlib and those that want to stay in the East Ghouta.
Spokesman of the rebel Jabal al-Sheikh operations room, Abu Rami al-Janani confirmed Syrian Arab Army’s capture of Tell al-Ziyat and Al-Duhur al-Aswad from the rebels in Beit Jinn pocket. Al-Janani stated that the reasons that SAA captured the aforementioned areas are the small number of fighters and a lack of better equipment.
Daraa:
Four Free Syrian Army’s factions; Al-Wiyat Mujahidi Hawran, Al-Wiyat Jaydour Hawran, Al-Liwa al-Awal Maham Khasat Tawirsh, and Liwa Osama ibn Zeid formed a coalition/operations room Thalif Thuwar al-Jaydour in preparations for the Syrian Arab Army and allies’ attack on the “Triangle of Death” area. Commander of Liwa Osama ibn Zeid, Maher Hawish said that the coalition was formed after they witnessed large SAA & allies reinforcements arriving in the “Triangle of Death” area. Hawish also stated that the newly-established coalition consists of a thousand fully armed and trained fighters. Member of the media office of the newly-established Thalif Thuwar al-Jaydour coalition, Abu Qais Nasser said that the main idea for the formation of the coalition was to prepare for the upcoming battle against the SAA & allies. Nasser indirectly confirmed that the new coalition doesn’t have any plans for attacks, but rather it is an attempt for a more effective defense, in case of an attack.
Iraq
Diyala:
Islamic State’s improvised explosive device killed an element of the Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) in Sherwin area of Dali Abbas district, according to the Amaq Agency.
Afghanistan
Faryab Province:
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) denied casualty numbers released yesterday by the Afghan Ministry of Defense, regarding the clashes in Khaja Sahib Posh and Shirin Tagab districts. Ministry of Defense stated yesterday that Afghan National Security Forces killed 20 and wounded 26 fighters of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Khaja Sahib Posh and Shirin Tagab districts, as a part of the “Prophet 8” operation. According to the IEA , there were no casualties from the clashes in the aforementioned districts and that the ANSF were unable to make any progress.
Sar-e Pol Province:
Afghan National Army launched another attack against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Tabor area of Sangjark directorate, as a part of “Alborz 20” operation, aimed at eliminating the group’s presence in the directorate. However, IEA repelled today’s attack in the area, losing two fighters in the process.
Laghman Province:
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ambushed Afghan National Army’s convoy in Aziz Khan Kaj directorate of Qarghayi district. One ANA ‘s vehicle was destroyed in the ambush.
Badghis Province:
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan captured Afghan National Army’s checkpoint and killed two soldiers in Ab Kamari district.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ambushed a vehicle of the Afghan National Army’s commander, Sabour Khan in Nuri Khail directorate of Muqur district. The vehicle was destroyed in the ambush, commander Sabour Khan killed and another commander Sobtullah wounded.
Farah Province:
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ambushed Afghan National Security Forces’ military convoy in the village of Tudenakah, Bala Buluk district. Spokesman for the Farah’s Afghan National Police, Iqbal Bahar stated that five IEA fighters were killed and eight wounded in the encounter. IEA ‘s take on the event claimed destruction of four tanks, six fuel tankers, and two trucks, as well as death of nine and injury of 12 ANSF ‘s elements.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s improvised explosive device destroyed Afghan National Police’s tank and wounded two policemen in Anar Dara district.
Nimruz Province:
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ambushed Afghan National Security Forces’ logistical convoy in Delaram directorate. Reports suggest that ten fuel tankers were destroyed and a number of ANSF ‘s elements killed and wounded in the ambush.
Helmand Province:
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan captured two checkpoints from the Afghan National Army in Lashkar Gah district. IEA claimed that 16 ANA ‘s elements were killed and three vehicles destroyed during the clashes for the two checkpoints. IEA seized two heavy machine guns, two RPG launchers, three assault rifles, two pistols, and large quantities of ammunition from the checkpoints.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s improvised explosive devices destroyed four Afghan National Security Forces’ vehicles, including an armored vehicle in Jerash district.
Kandahar Province:
SVBIED targeted a convoy of the NATO troops in the province, reportedly killing one and wounding four soldiers.
Two Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s improvised explosive devices destroyed Afghan National Police’s vehicle and killed two elements of the Afghan National Army. Another two IEA improvised explosive device targeted Afghan National Police’s elements in the city of Kandahar, killing and wounding 15 elements.
CJTF-OIR :
CJTF-OIR announced a change in their publishing policy. Now two strikes reports will be published each week, on Mondays and Fridays.
Amaq Agency:
Pakistan:
Islamic State took responsibility for an inghimassi (suicide fighters) attack on a church in the city of Quetta. Two suicide bombers reportedly killed at least nine and wounded more than 50 civilians.
Other:
Intellectual credited property used may vary from an edition to edition.
Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments section below, constructive criticism is welcomed.
For those of you interested, you can follow us on an official Twitter account @SyrianWarDaily, or me personally on my biased twitter @joskobaric where I occasionally tweet some things. | {
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Police have identified the suspect who allegedly paid the hitmen who shot Red Sox legend David Ortiz at a bar in Santo Domingo earlier this month.
Dominican authorities say the suspect, Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota, is a known fugitive. He allegedly paid nearly $8,000 for the hit.
On Monday, a judge held a closed hearing for another suspect, Gabriel Alexánder Pérez Vizcaíno. Pérez Vizcaíno, whose nickname is "Bone," turned himself in on Friday. He allegedly met with the gunman at a gas station before the shooting to show him a photo of the target, although Dominican officials have not confirmed if the photo was of Ortiz. The suspected shooter, Rolfy Ferreyra Cruz, previously told reporters that Ortiz was not his intended target.
The judge ordered Pérez Vizcaíno to one year in preventative prison during a closed hearing. Nine other suspects will also be held for up to a year. Neither the suspect or his attorney commented as they left the courtroom Monday.
So far, Pérez Vizcaíno is the 10th person detained in connection to the attack. Dominican police are still looking for at least four others, including Rodriguez Mota.
CBS Boston reports that prosecutors have discovered a motive for the alleged hit, and will release that information later this week.
An attorney for Ortiz says he's satisfied with how the investigation is going so far. Ortiz is still recovering in intensive care at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. | {
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of strippers he would fly with and when he went home to Michigan, more would be on call - but doesn't like lap dances
Witnessed at first hand how boxer embraced his lifestyle of Bentleys, private jets and shopping sprees - all of it paid for in cash
The cash-rich and often bizarre world of boxer Floyd 'Money' Mayweather Jr. is today exposed by his former executive assistant.
Tasha Robinson-White worked for Mayweather, 37, for 12 years operating within his inner circle as the boxer's 'right hand' woman - and has now written a tell-all book about her extraordinary career.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Online she reveals how she witnessed 'Pretty Boy' Floyd's extraordinary rise from a cocky young sportsman to undefeated boxing champion of the world in five different weight classes.
In a sensational account of the sportsman's personal life Tasha, 42, reveals how Mayweather became deeply consumed by the trappings of wealth; lost $15 million after being duped by a conman; surrounded himself with an entourage of paid strippers and hangers on; and gave cash and presents to strangers.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
At his side: Tasha Robinson-White was with Floyd Mayweather for 12 years and witnessed the dramatic highs and lows experienced by the boxer as he became a multimillionaire
Raining money: Floyd Mayweather would throw money around - and once dropped $100,000 from above a group of strippers he had invited to compete for it as a prize at a stripping contest in a disused club.
All about the money: Floyd Mayweather hated credit cards and would withdraw vast sums of cash to keep his lifestyle maintained - with an almost daily trip to a Las Vegas bank to take out $100,000 in bills
Key aide: Tasha Robinson-White was assistant to Mayweather until 2009. She says that when he would go back to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she was thanked for her service (above) he would have strippers on call
Expensive car: Floyd Mayweather's flash lifestyle also extended to what he had parked in his garage
Mayweather watches an NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday
She also exposes a vulnerable side to the arrogant champ who at his lowest point had talked about his own funeral after a domestic dispute with the mother of his children.
Tasha, whose book Right Hand To The Champ is published this week, was by Mayweather's side almost every day, fitting in around his unusual routine.
When the fighter was not in training he would sleep from 6am until 3pm each day before spending two hours dressing and grooming himself.
He selected what designer outfit to wear from his vast walk-in wardrobe, which included a separate room for his furs and a room for his leathers.
Then at 4.55pm he and Tasha would drive in separate cars to see his personal banker at a Bank of America branch near his Las Vegas home where he would withdraw, on average, a staggering $100,000 in cash.
'He didn't like credit cards,' explains Tasha. 'So he always wanted large amounts of cash with him at all times.
'He kept it in a large duffel bag which his staff called the 'pregnant duffel' because it was always bulging with money.'
Two burly security guards follow Mayweather wherever he goes to keep him and the cash safe.
Tasha said the boxer lived and breathed money and became more and more 'flashy and flamboyant'.
He even made his friends sit in the back of his car so he could ride with the duffel bag up front.
Tasha says he blew his money during extravagant shopping sprees, on expensive fine dining and lavish nights out.
He also liked to splash out on new cars, collecting luxury vehicles like 'toy cars'.
'I remember him buying six or seven cars in one day,' recalls Tasha.
Strippers in his entourage: Floyd Mayweather would sit down in a strip club and tell a stripper he would like they had the rest of the day off. His entourage includes some of the strippers he he has met
Bling's the thing: Robinson-White has seen Mayweather spent up to $2 million at one time on jewlery
Close: Robinson-White was with Mayweather as he enjoyed the lifestyle of a millionaire celebrity - including a meeting with Barack Obama
Box fresh: Floyd Mayweather insists on only wearing shoes once - meaning he has a huge collection of boxed trainers and other shoes and spent a fortune on shoes and clothes at Las Vegas stores
'Then he'd fly us around on private jets. I've seen him drop $1-2million on pieces of jewelry, it got crazier and crazier,' said Tasha.
MAYWEATHER AT A GLANCE Full name: Floyd Joy Sinclair Mayweather Age: 37 Family: Floyd Mayweather Sr. and his uncles Jeff and Roger Mayweather were all professional boxers Childhood: Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and spent time in New Jersey but his troubled family included his drug-addict mother, an aunt who died of AIDS and a father who went to prison Amateur career: Twice won the Golden Gloves, took bronze in the 1996 Olympics as a featherweight Professional career: Undefeated, ten world titles and champion in four different weight categories In the ring: Height 5ft 8 in, reach 72 in, last recorded weight 146.5 lb (September 2014) Wealth: Forbes listed him as best-paid athlete of any sport 2012, 2013 and 2014. Currently estimated earnings in 2014 alone of $105 million Personal life: Four children, three with his former partner Josie Harris. He went to prison for attacking her and has two other domestic abuse convictions Advertisement
'When he bought me my Mercedes the dealer told me that that was the 33rd Mercedes Benz Floyd had bought from them.'
'Money' Mayweather – who can earn $15,000 a second during some of his big pay-per view fights and is said to be worth $85million - once tossed $100,000 in cash around like it was confetti at a strip club.
In 2008 he hired out a recently closed strip club in Las Vegas to host a wild 'strip-off' contest to impress his close friend, hip hop artist T.I.
He arranged for dozens of professional strippers to be flown in from around America to compete in the event as part of one of his infamous 'Mayweather weekends'.
The girls were battling to win a $100,000 cash prize but as the night wore on an excited Mayweather decided everyone should come out a winner.
Tasha, who watched on in astonishment, recalls: 'He went up on to the balcony and tossed wads of cash out on to the floor below, $10-$20,000 a time, there were strippers on their hands and knees picking $100 bills, it was crazy.'
Later Mayweather hosted an after-party at his Vegas mansion and during the wild night the boxer threw more cash into his swimming pool.
He and his pals laughed as several strippers dived in to the retrieve the cash from the bottom.
Tasha said Mayweather's favorite hobby was shopping, regularly visiting high-end department stores in Vegas, splurging on designer clothes and jewelry.
He would spend more than $35,000 on clothes and shoes at a time, sometimes every day.
But she says his generosity bordered on the ridiculous when he also insisted on buying all his staff clothes as well, including the bodyguards.
Private jets: Mayweather would fly his aides on private planes and more of his entourage would fly in first class on scheduled airlines
Money, money, money: Floyd Mayweather would put $100,000 in notes in a duffel bag - known to his aides as the 'pregnant bag' because it bulged so much and drive it home in the front seat of his car
Mercedes fan: When Mayweather bought one of the brand for Robinson-White the dealer told her it was the 37th Mercedes he had bought. His collection includes Ferraris (right)
She said: 'Floyd would buy $1,000 jackets, $300 jeans, dozens of shirts but then he'd buy stuff for everyone with him, which ever girls he was with, me, the body-guards.
'He'd even stop strangers in the store and buy them clothes or take care of their tab at the counter, it was crazy spending.'
Most of the time ladies' man Mayweather would insist on travelling with a minimum of a three girls by his side.
The women, mostly strippers he had met at strip clubs, were paid to accompany him on his private jet or in one of his Bentleys.
And Tasha says she would see one girl or another leaving his house most days.
When the boxer traveled back to his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, he'd insist on paying for all of his entourage to fly first class.
When he arrived at his destination city he had a network of strippers on hand to meet him at the airport.
But Mayweather was never interested in getting lap dances.
'One minute he'd call a stripper over at a strip club and she'd be butt naked, the next she's sat next to him fully clothed and they're hanging with us,' said Tasha.
'He'd tell them to tell their boss they're taking a leave of absence.'
Lucrative: Mayweather has had no difficulty bringing in money - he made $41.5m from his fight with Saul Alvarez in September 2013 thanks to a Showtime contract, which included the rights to the weigh-in
Travelling with cache: Floyd Mayweather shows how he likes to move around - on a private jet, with plenty of cash because of his dislike of credit cards
Box fresh: Mayweather would wear shoes only once - giving him a vast collection of trainers of all kinds. He even went into a shoe shop to buy a pair identical to the ones he was wearing to take home
Gamble: As well as a fondness for betting, Mayweather staked $15 million on a scheme to become a billionaire. It failed and he was left trying to pursue a figure known as Three Comma Joe for his missing millions
Mayweather's generosity did get Tasha in trouble with her husband Kevin, however.
Her boss would buy her extravagant gifts, jewelry, designer clothes and once a white gold Cartier watch.
But the star crossed the line when he offered to have his personal jeweler clean Tasha's wedding ring.
She said: 'When it was returned I discovered Floyd had paid for a $10,000 diamond to be installed in the ring.
'As you can imagine my husband Kevin wasn't impressed at all.'
Despite his generosity Mayweather's staff would often go months without being paid their salary.
He always wanted large amounts of cash with him at all times. He kept it in a large duffel bag which his staff called the 'pregnant duffel' because it was always bulging with money.
'He would say things like, 'well I bought them a Rolex didn't I,' explained Tasha.
'Getting paid by Floyd was completely unpredictable, if the wind was blowing south, if he was in a good mood, then he may decide to pay you, or you'd just have to wait.
'But he was so generous other times that you put up with it.'
To frustrate his staff further, Mayweather often placed large bets of $40,000 plus on football or basketball games.
Tasha says Mayweather was obsessed with his closet and would instruct staff to clear it out every 60 days, throwing away clothes that he deemed 'not in fashion' any more.
She says most things he only ever wore once before they were discarded.
On one occasion she recalls the boxer wearing a brand new box-fresh pair of Adidas sneakers to go on a shopping spree. 'I went with him to the Adidas store and he bought an identical pair of sneakers to the ones he was wearing.
'He handed that pair to the store worker and told me, 'I need another pair to go back to the hotel.'
Floyd is so worried about germs that he takes his own set of silverware to restaurants so he doesn't have to use theirs. He has gold ones, platinum ones, some with diamonds and with his initials FM engraved on them. We carried them around in a box we called the coffin.
'If he got the tiniest scuff on his shoes he'd throw them away. 'They always had to be perfect, bright white. It was the same with t-shirts, he didn't like to wear them again.'
Tasha says Mayweather would often check out of hotels and leave all his clothes and toiletries behind.
Tasha says Mayweather, nicknamed 'Pretty Boy' in the ring, is equally obsessed with keeping a perfect physical appearance.
He likes his body to be completely 'hair free' and shaves his whole torso every day as part of a two hour grooming routine.
The tough boxer has a 'mani and pedi' twice a week to keep his nails immaculate, two massages a week and he visits a dermatologist every six weeks for a chemical peel on his face and other treatments.
Mayweather's obsessive nature also spilled over in to his personal habits.
Tasha said the boxer had OCD over his cleanliness and was terrified of germs.
He has a housekeeper who cleans his home top to bottom every day and he stands over her making sure she does it properly.
He also has a member of his staff whose sole job it is to clean his fleet of luxury cars.
But the obsessive star refuses to drive any of the already spotless vehicles unless they have been 'freshly' sanitized on the day he drives them.
Tasha added: 'Floyd is so worried about germs that he takes his own set of silverware to restaurants so he doesn't have to use theirs. He has gold ones, platinum ones, some with diamonds and with his initials FM engraved on them.
Motoring: Mayweather with a Bentley (left) and Ferrari (right) in his Las Vegas garage
Planes, he trains, and automobiles: Boxer Floyd Mayweather with both his private jet and his collection of three Bugatti Veyrons
'We carried them around in a box we called the coffin.'
Clean-living Mayweather also never drank alcohol or experimented with drugs, preferring instead to sip cranberry juice, coke or water when on a night out.
Tasha, originally from Saginaw, Michigan, first met Mayweather when she was a club promoter in Vegas in 1998.
Mayweather asked Tasha to work for him after being impressed that she could attract so many celebrities to her parties.
'He asked her to help set up his music label called Philthy Rich,' said Tasha.
'I liked him, he was respectful and pretty cool, I had some experience in the record industry so I thought why not.'
She claims in the early days Mayweather was 'a little wet behind the ears' and desperate to emulate the likes of 50 Cent and Jay-Z as a music mogul.
'Floyd aspires to be Floyd, but he wanted to be part of that scene, he wanted what those guys had,' said Tasha.
But his attempts to break into the hip-hop industry weren't very successful, mainly because of a lack of planning.
'We moved when Floyd moved,' Tasha said. 'We didn't have a plan and if Floyd was in the boxing gym everything would stop.
'I was enjoying my job, but nothing was the same from one day to the next.
Gold-wrapped: Little of Mayweather's lifestyle was unaffected by his bling style, says Tasha.
Million dollars baby: With at least $100,000 in fresh bills in the bed, this represents an average day's bank withdrawal for Mayweather, according to his former aide
Spending time: Mayweather would wonder why his entourage were asking for their salaries when he had paid them in Rolexes - just some of the watches in his collection. he once said it was worth $6.4 million
'My job responsibilities grew to include going to the bank with him to shuffle money off to people he was taking care of. He often put money on the books of friends in prison back in Grand Rapids, and across the country.
'We went everywhere together, he even added me to his auto insurance plan just in case I ever needed to drive one of his cars.'
In the latter days of their relationship Tasha was made CEO of Mayweather Music and Founding President of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. Foundation.
She was earning $8,000 a month with bonuses ranging from $20,000 to $100,000.
As their relationship grew Tasha became closer with Mayweather and was a trusted confidante.
But she says, the star had his ups and downs, and the money began to consume him.
'He's always had wealth, but he used to say, 'I'm a thousand-aire now but when I become a millionaire…' and when he became a millionaire he'd say 'when I become a billionaire…'.
'It just escalated and he'd always say more money more problems and that actually came true, I witnessed it first hand.'
The worst of his problems came in 2008 when Mayweather faced a series of financial disasters.
That same year the sportsman publicly announced his retirement from boxing - only to be sensationally duped by a conman called 'Three comma Joe' in an elaborate scam.
Drop top: Sunshine Las Vegas is the perfect place for Mayweather to parade in his open-topped Rolls Royces
All white: This Bugatti Veyron boasts matching interior and exterior
High Roller: Yet another of the cars in Mayweather's collection - a cabriolet Rolls Royce
The alleged fraudster convinced Mayweather to hand over a staggering $15million to him for a get quick rich scheme.
Mayweather was told it would make him a $5 billion return. Unsurprisingly the man ran off with his cash.
Weeks later burglars robbed his luxury mansion in Vegas stealing an estimated $7million in jewelry alone.
The IRS were also chasing him for an unpaid $6.2 million tax bill.
Tasha said: 'It was a tough time for Floyd. The biggest blow was being scammed out of $15million.
'Floyd met with a group of middle-men who introduced him to a guy called Three Comma Joe.
'He was impressed by Joe, he came in with the flossy blonde girl, he wore a nice big icy watch, he had the flash and Floyd was like, 'that's my kind of guy'.
'After the deal was done they shook hands and began to hang out a lot, they were inseparable.
'Floyd wired $15million to a Canadian bank account and he was told to see a return very soon.
'But eventually Joe left Vegas and stopped returning phone calls, and the money train came to an abrupt halt. Nobody could find Joe, and no one could find Floyd's money.
'Not the $15 million Floyd originally invested, and definitely not the $5 billion he was promised to make in return. Life in the Mayweather camp got really nasty for everybody.'
Tasha tells how furious Mayweather hired a team of private investigators to look for Three Comma Joe.
Family: Author Tasha Robinson-White whose memoir 'Right Hand to the Champ', chronicles the twelve years she spent working for the Floyd Mayweather Jr, with her husband Kevin White.
And she says at one point he took her, his girlfriend and two burly security men on a failed mission to retrieve his missing cash from Joe's attorney's office in Vancouver.
By the time she stopped working for him, Mayweather had not seen a cent of the $15million.
Around the same time, in August 2008 Mayweather's home was robbed and the thieves stole $7 million in jewelry.
The series of events deeply affected Mayweather – voted the world's highest-paid athlete for 2011, 2012 and 2013 by Forbes - and he was forced to come out of retirement to 'maintain the lifestyle he had', says Tasha.
She said the money 'changed' Mayweather for the worse.
'He became that little bit more controlling, he became like a spoiled child,' she said.
'He would say, 'I can do it my way', 'I wanna do it this way'. He wasn't as humble as when I first met him.'
He became that little bit more controlling, he became like a spoilt child. He would say: 'I can do it my way', 'I wanna do it this way'. He wasn't as humble as when I first met him. How money changed Mayweather by Tasha Robinson-White
In one of his darkest moments Tasha says he kept his girlfriend 'captive' in his home for two days.
The paranoid boxer became suspicious that a then girl was somehow behind the robbery and he had also learnt she had slept with one of her ex-boyfriends behind Mayweather's back.
He kept her inside his movie room for two days as he berated her with the accusations, Tasha claims.
Tasha said: 'When I returned to the theater room, Floyd was still pacing and hollering incoherently. He instructed his security guards to camp out in front of the door.
'In the room, Floyd was very domineering. I was now not only concerned for his state of mind, I was growing concerned that this woman was being held against her will.
'He taunted her to try to leave. She appeared to be frightened and confused. He threatened to cut off all of her hair, and let the crew take turns with her.
'She didn't say anything. She kept her eyes fixed on the floor. We were in a circular argument that kept branching, and branching. I pulled Floyd aside and told him to try to calm down.
'He had to let [her] go home if that's what she wanted to do.'
But Mayweather's lowest point came a few months later when he got into a domestic dispute, assaulting the mother of three of his children in 2012.
Tasha says he discussed with her his plans for death and his funeral arrangements including which custom suit he wanted laid out on his bed to wear and how Tasha had to tell his four children he loved them. 'This is not gonna end well,' he told a concerned Tasha.
'I was very concerned for him, he was crying and in a dark place, I've never seen him like that.'
His ex-girlfriend, Josie Harris, said that Floyd flew into a violent rage once he learned she was dating another man, stole her cell phone and beat her, in front of their children.
If convicted of all eight charges, Mayweather faced up to 34 years in prison.
'That would qualify as not ending well,' said Tasha. He eventually served just 60 days inside.
Tasha had ended her working relationship with Mayweather in April, 2009 after she began to feel certain people within his entourage were blaming her for the $15million fraud, but the two remained friends.
'I wasn't going to take that,' she said.
'Working for Floyd Mayweather eventually broke my spirit but I didn't dislike him.
'I believed in him, we believed in a lot of things we were building together, but the elephant in the room was money.
'To me money isn't everything, to him it was.'
After they parted ways, Tasha's father died after a battle with lung cancer.
Mayweather called her to offer his condolences and offered to pay for the funeral.
He gave $9,000 to Tasha as a gift to cover the ceremony which she thought was very kind of him.
But on the day of her father's funeral in a move that shocked Tasha, Mayweather had his associate ring her and ask for the money back which caused her great distress.
'It hurt me, it all boiled down to $9,000 which I knew he didn't need. I still haven't put my finger on why he did it, I just thought it was really mean.
'Floyd likes it his way, he likes to be in control.'
Tasha recently spoke to Mayweather about her memoir and he told her: 'Write whatever you want, it keeps me relevant.'
She said: 'He knows he has always been a villain to a lot of people and he likes to play up to that.'
Representatives for Mayweather did not respond to requests for comment. | {
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Enjoy the classic English sandwich with a twist when you make this Cheese and Pickle Baguette. It’s delicious and packed with flavor!
Have you ever had a meal on vacation that you kept thinking about long after you’d returned home and finally unpacked your bags?
A meal that was simple but delicious and had your mouth salivating at just the thought of it?
A dish that you worked to recreate at home because it was just that good?
This sandwich is that dish.
How can a simple sandwich be all that?! You may ask.
I have no idea, but after several trips to the UK and much dining at Pret a Manger, a delicious take-away shop, I am convinced that the Cheese and Pickle sandwich is the bomb.
There’s a reason why this sandwich was rated #1 in the UK and at Pret, specifically, was rated the #1 Pret sandwich. And there’s a reason why I love it so much.
Cheese and Pickle Baguette Sandwich
Crispy/chewy baguette bread, tangy English Pickle, nutty white cheddar, sweet-tart sun-dried tomatoes, crisp greens, and kicky onion? So good together that you’ll want to enjoy this sammie on the weekly.
While I can’t hop a plane for the UK today, I can make this awesomely delicious, super satisfying sandwich at home. With a few tweaks for the American kitchen, this copycat version of the Pret a Manger Posh Cheddar and Pickle Baguette will have you nodding your head in agreement.
If you’ve ever watched the BBC detective series Endeavour, you may already be familiar with the cheese and pickle sandwich. DI Thursday’s wife packs him such a sandwich each week — on Mondays, to be exact.
What is a cheese and pickle sandwich?
The cheese and pickle sandwich or cheese and chutney sandwich is a very British sandwich, in the same way that PB&J is for Americans.
A traditional cheese and pickle sandwich is made on sandwich bread with English pickle, cheddar, butter or mayo, and sometimes lettuce or arugula. This version is a bit more upscale.
Pret a Manger’s Posh Cheddar and Pickle Baguette is an elevated tweak to a classic. And now, you can have it at home in the States.
A note to my fellow Americans: even if you’re not the Anglophile that I am, and even if the idea of English pickle sounds really weird to you, I urge you to give this baguette sandwich a try.
The combination of tangy pickle with creamy, nutty cheese is really amazing!
Now, first some clarification…
What is pickle in the UK?
English Pickle is not cucumber pickles like we’re used to in the States, but more like a tangy, fruit and vegetable jam. It’s delicious!
While Pret a Manger does have select locations in the US, the cheese and pickle sandwich is not part of their American menu. You have to hop across the pond to enjoy it.
Second, the ingredients in this recipe are not exact to what you’ll find in the UK because of availability issues. Sprouts of any kind are difficult to source in American grocery stores, so I’ve substituted baby spinach for the mustard cress that Pret uses and the arugula often seen in the UK.
Of course, to make this sandwich you’ll also need to make a batch of English pickle or grab a jar of Branston Pickle from World Market. Trust me; it’s worth it!
How do you make a Posh Cheddar & Pickle Baguette?
This is a super simple sandwich recipe, so simple, yet so packed with flavor. Here’s how to make it:
Cut a baguette into 6-inch lengths. Split each length in half through the middle. Separate the two halves. Layer sliced cheddar, a smear of English pickle, and a sprinkling of julienned, sun-dried tomatoes, onions, and spinach on one half. Top with the other half of the baguette and serve.
How to save money making cheese and pickle baguettes:
Here are some of the strategies I use to make this recipe more economical:
Bake your own bread. Homebaked bread is delicious and can be more economical than purchased sandwich bread. Homemade baguette is easier than you think.
Do a price comparison. I know that Costco is the best place for me to buy good quality cheddar cheese when there isn’t a great sale elsewhere. I keep track of prices so that I know who has the best deal where.
Make you own English pickle. Depending on where you can find the imported English preserve, you’ll likely do better making your own, at least in the States,
Tools you might need to make this recipe easy:
This is a pretty straight-forward dish. You don’t need any fancy equipment. However, having some good basic kitchen tools can really make your time in the kitchen more enjoyable. Over time, I’ve honed my collection so that they are perfect for my needs. Here are the tools that I like to use in this recipe.
If you prepare this recipe, be sure to take a picture and hashtag it #GOODCHEAPEATS. I can't wait to see what you cook up! If you prepare this recipe, be sure to take a picture and hashtag it. I can't wait to see what you cook up! | {
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Kia Motors has today revealed the updated exterior styling of the Korean domestic market all-new Kia Cadenza (known as ‘K7‘ in Korea) in the first official photos of the new modelKia . The all-new Cadenza boasts a purposeful new design and will feature high levels of interior quality and contemporary luxury when it goes on sale in overseas markets in 2016.
The next-generation Cadenza maintains the progressive, contemporary image of the current model, and the sharper, more defined lines and wider, lower stance give the new model a modern and thoroughly distinctive new look – with key design elements ensuring the new Cadenza remains recognizable as a Kia.
Inspired by European luxury sedan styling, the all-new Cadenza’s long bonnet, gently rising shoulder line and swept-back roofline give the car a sleek, elongated silhouette. The window-line tapers slightly as it draws towards the back of the cabin, and kicks up sharply as it meets the C-pillar, giving the Cadenza a more purposeful, ‘lean-forward’ stance.
At the front of the car, a new reinterpretation of Kia’s signature ‘tiger-nose‘ grille, sharp wraparound LED headlamps, and muscular fenders give added confidence and definition to the design. Distinct lines characterize the rear of the car, with squared-off bumpers, wide LED lamps joined by chrome detailing, twin exhausts and bold styling lines serving to emphasize the car’s width and convey a more assertive appearance. | {
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Article content
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shrugged off calls Friday for a decision on whether to send troops to Mali, saying his government will take the “appropriate” time needed to decide on a peacekeeping mission.
Diplomatic sources have expressed growing impatience and frustration with what they call foot-dragging by the government after the Liberals promised last August to make up to 600 troops available for peacekeeping.
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Trudeau shrugs off pressure to make decision on Mali peacekeeping mission Back to video
The government was leaning toward a deployment to Mali, where the UN has been charged with stabilizing the country after the central government and Tuareg rebels signed a peace agreement in 2015. The UN was hoping Canada would contribute transport helicopters as well as intelligence capabilities and even a force commander to the endeavour, considered the most dangerous peacekeeping mission in the world.
Several cabinet ministers visited the West African country last year, as did military planners, development officials from Global Affairs Canada and others to see how Canada could contribute to the UN mission. | {
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Lyudmilla Ignatenko was sleeping when her new husband, a firefighter, said he was going to the Chernobyl reactor to put out a fire. What would she say to the young brides and husbands of the brave Fukushima 50?
So much can change in only a few hours. Cells are destroyed, lives are broken.
At the Pripyat Hospital later that morning, she could barely recognize her 25-year-old love, Vasily Ignatenko. He was bloated, his eyes swallowed by flesh.
She still didn’t know the nuclear reactor had exploded during a routine maintenance check, spewing uranium fuel and radioactive graphite. But she knew something was terribly wrong. Over the next two weeks, she watched her beloved die a grotesque death.
“Every day I met a brand-new person,” she told Ukrainian journalist Svetlana Alexievitch 10 years later. (Her story is captured in Alexievitch’s wounding book, Voices from Chernobyl.)
Lesions broke out on his precious lips and cheeks, and then peeled off in white film. His body turned blue, red, grey-brown. The skin cracked on his arms and legs. Boils swelled into place. His hair fell out in clumps.
“He was producing stool 25 to 30 times a day. With blood and mucus,” she recounted.
“The last two days in the hospital — pieces of his lungs, of his liver, were coming out of his mouth. He was choking on his internal organs. I’d wrap my hand in a bandage and put it in his mouth, take out all that stuff.”
The army buried him, shoeless because his feet were so swollen, in a sealed zinc casket, under cement tiles. In Moscow. He was a national hero. He was also a radioactive threat. (Many orderlies refused to work in the hospital. They were right to worry. Soldiers changed the bedding.)
Fukushima’s Dai-ichi is not Chernobyl. Hydrogen explosions and fires have damaged some buildings, but the reactors’ inner cores have not been breached, we’ve been told. The highest reported radiation level in areas accessed by workers is 600 millisieverts, according to the operator. The nuclear plant workers and firemen like Vasily who died of acute radiation syndrome in the weeks after the Chernobyl explosion were blasted with up to 13,400 millisieverts, according to one UN report.
Lyudmilla says her love left for the fire dressed in a T-shirt. The Dai-ichi team of rotating workers are protected from radioactive dust by goggles, plastic suits and respirators. They carry dosimeters — instruments that gauge their cumulative exposure to radiation rays, so they can ensure they don’t exceed Japan’s newly heightened legal limit, we’re told.
Five workers have died, but none from radiation. No workers have been hospitalized for radiation exposure, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. But we just don’t know. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, isn’t offering many details. We don’t even know how many workers in total are rotating through the plant, what their jobs are. We are left to troll the Internet for blogs from workers.
What risks are these volunteers taking to fulfill their prime minister’s plea to save the country? What will the repercussions be?
Two radiation experts I spoke to on Friday said they will be fine, as long as the crews are successful in pouring water on the spent uranium rods — which the U.S. government says are exposed to air in one reactor. But then nuclear toxicologist Dr. Janette Sherman told me: “They are going to be profoundly sick. Many are not going to survive.” She just published Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and Nature.
I know this: I’d claw my husband to death before allowing him to volunteer for the job.
Two months after Vasily died, his 23-year-old bride rode back up to Moscow by train to visit his grave. She was eight and a half months pregnant. While talking to his spirit at the cemetery, she went into labour.
She named their baby girl Natashenka — the name he’d chosen. The infant died four hours later of cirrhosis of the liver and congenital heart disease.
The army took her body too.
But she wasn’t a hero.
Catherine Porter’s column usually runs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. She can be reached at [email protected] | {
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Homicides in England and Wales are at their highest rate for decade, as official statistics reveal a rise in fatal stabbings, with largest increases in the numbers of young, male, and black victims.
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) data from the Home Office Homicide Index released Thursday revealed that there were 695 homicides in the year to March 2018, 15 per cent higher that in the preceding period.
Adding in fatalities from terror attacks in London and Manchester, that figure rises to 726, with the total homicides at their highest since the year ending March 2008, where 729 people were killed.
The most common method of murder was as a result of knives or other sharp implements, where there was an increase of 73 fatal stabbings on the year before to 285 — a rise of 34 per cent — and representing the highest number since the Homicide Index began in 1946.
UK Police Force Doubles Down on ‘Non-Crime Hate Incidents’ After Social Media Backlash https://t.co/bUIl7FAiNY — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 12, 2018
In terms of gender distribution, the report authors note that “The rise in homicide seen in recent years has been most pronounced in male victims and those in younger age groups.
“There were 12 offences of homicide per million population, and the homicide rate for males (17 per million population) was just over double that for females (8 per million population).”
Overall, 69 per cent of homicide victims were male, with younger people more likely to be victims. Of the 726 killed in the year ending to March, 152 victims (21 per cent) were aged 16 to 24.
Homicide victims aged 16 to 24 increased by nearly a half (45 per cent, 105 to 152), with researchers nothing that the number of deaths in the age group has been relatively flat, this increase seen mainly amongst male victims and, “in part, reflects the increase in serious violence in London and other cities where young adults have been disproportionately affected.”
In terms of race, two-thirds of stabbing victims were white and one quarter black — the highest proportion of black victims since data on ethnicity was first recorded in 1997 and disproportionate to the total population of black people in England and Wales (3.3 per cent, according to the last census). The sharpest rise amongst black victims was of youths aged 16 to 24 — a 78 per cent increase from 23 to 41.
Of the 70 black people stabbed to death, 55 of the homicides were recorded by London’s Metropolitan Police.
London’s Khan Demands Gang Database Overhauled as 4 in 5 Named Are Black https://t.co/9C85rAerbc — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 24, 2018
These statistics were released in the week that London saw its 10th fatal stabbing of 2019, with four other victims injured in stabbings since Sunday.
On Wednesday, a teen male was stabbed on a bus in broad daylight in Hackney, south London, and was taken to hospital with non-fatal injuries. In the early hours of Tuesday, a teen was stabbed repeatedly in the head after being run over by a 4×4 in Camden, north London, and has been left with what were described as life-changing injuries.
Also on Tuesday, 19-year-old black youth Lejean Richards was stabbed to death in the evening near the primary school attended by Prince George, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, in Battersea, central London.
And on Sunday, two teens suffered non-fatal injuries in separate stabbings in Feltham, west London, police believing the attacks are connected.
Since Labour’s Sadiq Khan became mayor of London, the capital has seen its highest level of knife crime.
While Mayor Khan has been largely resistant to active policing and against stopping and searching suspects for weapons, over concerns of racial profiling, the left-liberal politician has opted for a “public health” approach to stopping the crime wave — Khan later admitting it could take a decade to bring down knife crime. | {
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Preservation of life is the top priority as five units of the Kilkenny fire service and gardai attend the scene of major fire in the centre of the city.
Smoke is billowing through John Street and John's Quay after Dr Mitchell's House (a listed building), at the front of the River Court Hotel, went up in flames.
Visibility is very poor and onlookers are being kept a safe distance away
The roof has caved in and no one knows if there was anybody in the building when the fire started.
Gardai's first priority is making sure that no one is injured and the centre of the city has been cordoned off.
Avoid John Street, John's Quay, Bateman Quay and Rose Inn Street for the day.
Click here to see a video of scene of the fire.
Click here to see a video of the flames leaping through the roof of the historic building.
Jim Delaney who rang 999 to alert the emergency services to the fire, said that within 20 minutes the entire building was 'gone.'
The Dickboro GAA Club volunteer said he was shocked at the speed at which the fire took hold.
The River Court hotel is in the process of being evacuated.
Updates on this story to come.... | {
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Scott Alexander recently posted an interesting and provocative article: “Beware the man of one study” (and see the follow up post here).
In the post, he points out that it’s not uncommon to find two meta-analyses with opposite results on the same question.
Indeed, especially when it comes to a politically divided issue, both sides can sometimes produce apparently overwhelming evidence in support of their case. He uses the example of whether minimum wages decrease employment. He points out that the political right, if selective about which studies they pick, could correctly claim:
Economic theory has always shown that minimum wage increases decrease employment, but the Left has never been willing to accept this basic fact. In 1992, they trumpeted a single study by Card and Krueger that purported to show no negative effects from a minimum wage increase. This study was immediately debunked and found to be based on statistical malpractice and “massaging the numbers”. Since then, dozens of studies have come out confirming what we knew all along – that a high minimum wage is economic suicide. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (Neumark 2006, Boockman 2010) consistently show that an overwhelming majority of the research agrees on this fact – as do 73% of economists. That’s why five hundred top economists recently signed a letter urging policy makers not to buy into discredited liberal minimum wage theories. Instead of listening to starry-eyed liberal woo, listen to the empirical evidence and an overwhelming majority of economists and oppose a raise in the minimum wage.
While the left could correctly claim:
People used to believe that the minimum wage decreased unemployment. But Card and Krueger’s famous 1992 study exploded that conventional wisdom. Since then, the results have been replicated over fifty times, and further meta-analyses (Card and Krueger 1995, Dube 2010) have found no evidence of any effect. Leading economists agree by a 4 to 1 margin that the benefits of raising the minimum wage outweigh the costs, and that’s why more than 600 of them have signed a petition telling the government to do exactly that. Instead of listening to conservative scare tactics based on long-debunked theories, listen to the empirical evidence and the overwhelming majority of economists and support a raise in the minimum wage.
What does this mean?
Our thought is that you shouldn’t update too much based on a meta-analysis or data on expert consensus, unless you’ve also done a comprehensive survey to check for similar evidence with opposite results, making sure the view does actually reflect consensus. You should be especially cautious when dealing with a politically sensitive issue, or using sources who may be biased. And you should probably be generally more cautious about how much weight to put on the results of a single study, even if it’s a meta-analysis.
At 80,000 Hours, I think we may have sometimes been too quick to update based on a single meta-analysis or data on expert consensus in the past, and will consider adding a clause to our research principles page about the need to survey the evidence more comprehensively before strongly updating. | {
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By George Will - May 16, 2010
WASHINGTON -- When Chancellor Angela Merkel decided that Germany would pay part of Greece's bills, voters punished her party in elections in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. How appropriate.
The 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, ratified Europe's emerging system of nation-states. Since the end of the Thirty-One Years' War (1914-1945), European elites have worked at neutering Europe's nationalities. Greece's debt crisis reveals this project's intractable contradictions, and the fragility of Western Europe's postwar social model -- omniprovident welfare states lacking limiting principles.
Greece represents a perverse aspiration -- a society with (in the words of Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan) "more takers than makers," more people taking benefits from government than there are people making goods and services that produce the social surplus that funds government. By socializing the consequences of Greece's misgovernment, Europe has become the world's leading producer of a toxic product -- moral hazard. The dishonesty and indiscipline of a nation with 2.6 percent of the eurozone's economic product have moved nations with the other 97.4 percent -- and the United States and the International Monetary Fund -- to say, essentially: The consequences of such vices cannot be quarantined, so we are all hostages to one another and hence no nation will be allowed to sink beneath the weight of its recklessness.
Recklessness will proliferate.
"The coining of money," said William Blackstone more than two centuries ago, "is in all states the act of the sovereign power."
But the EU is neither a state nor sovereign enough to enforce its rules: No eurozone nation is complying with the EU requirement that deficits not exceed 3 percent of GDP.
The EU has a flag no one salutes, an anthem no one sings, a president no one can name, a parliament (in Strasbourg) no one other than its members wants to have power (which must subtract from the powers of national legislatures), a capital (Brussels) of coagulated bureaucracy no one admires or controls, a currency that presupposes what neither does nor should nor soon will exist (a European central government), and rules of fiscal behavior that no member has been penalized for ignoring. The euro currency both presupposes and promotes a fiction -- that "Europe" has somehow become, against the wishes of most Europeans, a political rather than a merely geographic expression.
The designs of the paper euros, introduced in 2002, proclaim a utopian aspiration. Gone are the colorful bills of particular nations, featuring pictures of national heroes of statecraft, culture and the arts, pictures celebrating unique national narratives. With the euro, 16 nations have said goodbye to all that. The bills depict nonexistent windows, gateways and bridges. They are from ... nowhere, which is what "utopia" means.
Since European integration began in 1951 with creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the question has been: Will there be a Europe of states or a state of Europe? The euro is part of the attempt to create the latter, a Leviathan constructed from the surrendered sovereignties of Europe's nations.
If money represents, as Emerson said, the prose of life, the euro reflects a determination to make European life prosaic. It is an attempt to erase nationalities and subsume politics in economics in order to escape from European history. The euro pleases dispirited people for whom European history is not Chartres and Shakespeare but the Holocaust and the Somme. The euro expresses cultural despair.
It also presupposes something else nonexistent. The word "democracy" incorporates the Greek demos -- people. As the recent rampages of Greece's demos, and the reciprocated disdain of Germany's demos, demonstrate, Europe remains a continent of distinct and unaffectionate peoples. There is no "European people" united by common mores. Henry James wrote to William Dean Howells: "Man isn't at all one, after all -- it takes so much of him to be American, to be French, etc." Still true; still perilous to ignore.
It is said that, two decades after the end of Europe's East-West political division, there is a North-South cultural division. But Ireland's and, even more, Britain's debt problems refute that distinction. Britain's debt, Europe's worst, is the result of increasing government spending from 37 percent of GDP to 53 percent in a decade. The London Spectator says no other European nation "has expanded its government as quickly -- over this or any other decade in postwar history."
The U in the EU -- the unifying thread -- is indiscipline. Increasingly, it also is the unifying characteristic of the USA. | {
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Vancouver
The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada passed a resolution July 11 to amend its constitution to make representatives of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP) full voting members of General Synod 2019.
The Rev. Iola Metuq, Canon Norm Wesley, Canon (lay) Donna Bomberry, Judith Moses and Freeman Bell are the two clergy, two laypersons and one youth representative elected to attend General Synod as ACIP partners.
“For some years, General Synod has invited representatives of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP) as partners to sit in General Synod in voice but not vote,” the explanatory note to the resolution, which was brought by General Synod Chancellor David Jones and seconded by Canon Randall Fairey, reads.
“The purpose of this amendment is to transition ACIP representatives from partner status to membership in General Synod….The amendment would take effect immediately and if passed would apply to General Synod 2019.”
The amendment will add a paragraph to section eight of the constitution (“Membership”) that states ACIP will be “entitled to elect or appoint two licensed members of the clergy, two communicant lay persons, and one youth”—between the ages of 16 and 26—as members of General Synod.
Bishops from ACIP are already members of General Synod.
The resolution was required to be passed by two-thirds majority in the orders of laity, clergy and bishops. The vote was taken verbally by Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, who declared the motion carried.
Members of General Synod stood and applauded upon hearing the resolution passed.
Hiltz called the ACIP members forward, saying, “We’re going to present to them appropriate coloured lanyards and the all-important clicker”—the keypad members will use for electronic voting throughout the synod.
Hiltz clasped the hand of each member as they came forward and were given lanyards and keypads by General Synod Prolocutor Cynthia Haines-Turner, while General Synod gave another standing ovation.
The amendment took effect immediately, meaning the ACIP members will be able to vote on resolutions throughout General Synod 2019. | {
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Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware speaks to the press, April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley) Ad Policy
There's been a river of ink already spilled over Louisville guard Kevin Ware's horrific leg injury during the Cardinals' Elite Eight victory over the Duke Blue Devils. Most, with some notable exceptions, have tested the bounds of hokey sentimentality: the classic story of an injured player inspiring his shaken team to victory. Now, however, we’ve reached the point where tragedy becomes farce. On Wednesday we learned that Adidas, in conjunction with the University of Louisville athletic department, will be selling a $24.99 t-shirt with Kevin Ware’s number 5 and the slogan “Rise to the Occasion” emblazoned across the back. His team will also be wearing warm-ups with Ware’s name, number and the slogan “All In." (This tragically is not a tribute to Chris Hayes.)
You almost have to tip your cap: no non-profit does buccaneer profiteering quite like the NCAA. What other institution would see a tibia snap through a 20-year-old's skin on national television and see dollar signs? In accordance with their rules aimed at preserving the sanctity of amateurism, not one dime from these shirts will go to Kevin Ware or his family. Not one dime will go toward Kevin Ware’s medical bills if his rehab ends up beneath the $90,000 deductible necessary to access the NCAA’s catastrophic injury medical coverage. Not one dime will go towards rehab he may need later in life. "Going forward, we don't know what's going to happen in terms of medical expenses," said Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, a group trying to organize NCAA athletes. "If Kevin has lifelong medical bills associated with his injury, he could be squarely responsible for this…These are things that are not guaranteed to players that are injured, and no matter how hard it might be for people to understand, that's the truth. And that should change."
Where will the t-shirt money go? Well, Coach Rick Pitino makes more than $4 million a year and will likely see his current five-year deal torn up and renegotiated following the season. The assistant coaches, trainers and support staff will also surely get a taste.*** The Final Four ratings boost spurred from the buzz surrounding Kevin Ware's story will also translate into quite the windfall for the NCAA. The multi-billion-dollar slop bucket of March Madness money, which makes up 96 percent of the NCAA’s operating budget, will pay organization president Mark Emmert's two million dollar salary as well as the paychecks for their 14 vice presidents, each of whom make at least $400,000 a year. They will also to be able to continue to pay off the mortgage on their new $50 million, 116,000-square-foot headquarters in Indianapolis.
The Kevin Ware story is why any person of conscience should support former UCLA player Ed O’Bannon’s lawsuit against the NCAA. The 1995 Final Four star's legal journey began when he came home from work and saw his likeness being used in EA Sports's college basketball video game. O'Bannon v. NCAA has morphed into a mass class action suit demanding that players be compensated if their name and image are being used in the pursuit of profit without permission. Others have joined O’Bannon including one of the great legends and gentlemen in the history of the sport, Oscar Robertson. He was provoked after he noticed that his alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, was producing playing cards with his likeness. As he said to Yahoo! Sports, “The arrogance of the NCAA to say, ‘we have the right to do this’… is what troubles me the most. The University of Cincinnati gets a fee each time my picture is used on a card. I don’t. When I played there, there was nothing like this ever agreed to.”
Athletic directors, like Pat Haden at USC, are already lamenting that if they lose this lawsuit, it could mean no more funding for non-revenue sports. But here’s an idea. Why not just make every coach’s salary no greater than the average wage of a tenured professor? Why not end the practice that has football and basketball coaches stand as the highest paid public employees in their states? That money alone should allow for the funding of non-revenue sports while also allowing players a piece of the four billion dollars in revenue earned off of their images in videogames, commercials and memorabilia.
As for Kevin Ware, he returned to Louisville this week, his coach by his side. Coach Pitino announced that he is healthy enough to be in Atlanta for the Final Four, cheering on his teammates. Ware is now a newly minted media star: a 21st century George Gipp with the benefit of having a story that’s actually true. Unfortunately the school won’t even say publicly, if rehab doesn’t go as planned, whether he’ll still have a scholarship waiting for him when he returns in the fall. The official word from Louisville is that the question is irrelevant because “doctors are expecting a full recovery.” One thing is certain. At least he’ll get a lousy t-shirt.
*** after this article went to print, the Louisville athletic department announced that they would not take any direct funds from these t-shirt sales. Instead profits will go to Adidas as well as Louisville's general scholarship fund. As Brian Frederick of the Sports Fan's Coalition put it, "We can say that shirt money is being laundered."
For the private prison industry—and Gang of Eight leader Chuck Schumer—immigrant-unfriendly legislation means profit. Read Aura Bogado's take. | {
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Biden not running for president
Vice President Joe Biden ended months of intense speculation on Wednesday, announcing in the Rose Garden that he would not seek the presidency.
Family members had signed off on a campaign, but Biden decided that he had too little time left to launch a meaningful challenge to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
"As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I've said all along what I've said time and again to others," Biden said, flanked by his wife, Jill, and President Barack Obama. "It may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president. ... I've concluded it has closed."
Biden, 72, has been grieving and weighing family needs since his 46-year-old son Beau, Delaware’s former attorney general, died of brain cancer on May 30. Reports that Beau, in his final days, urged his father to run for president stoked national speculation about a possible bid.
Biden raised questions a number of times over recent months about whether his family could sustain a campaign, including during an emotional interview with Stephen Colbert on CBS.
“I don’t think any man or woman should run for president unless, number one, they know exactly why they would want to be president, and, two, they can look at folks out there and say, ‘I promise you, you have my whole heart, my whole soul, my energy, and my passion to do this,’” he told Colbert on Sept. 10. “And I’d be lying if I said that I knew I was there.”
Biden and Jill told advisers on Tuesday night to prepare for an announcement Wednesday that he would not be running for president, according to former U.S. Sen. Ted Kaufman, who had been Biden's Senate chief of staff before he was appointed to fill the seat when Biden won the vice presidency in 2008.
"We had the financial commitments, we had the top people for our organization but it was clear that we didn’t have the time and that the window had closed," Kaufman said.
Delaware supporters expressed disappointment on Wednesday, but understanding for Biden's decision. "The man has given us 40 years of public service. I'm not sure we're entitled to ask for anything more," said Stuart Grant, a Wilmington lawyer and longtime Biden supporter and fundraiser.
Said Delaware labor leader Sam Lathem, a longtime Biden supporter: "I think he really wanted to run. But being a realist, he just ran out of time. I think he is still the best for the country. Absolutely. If you just listen to what he had to say, you could feel the compassion, the love, the love of country, the love of state, the love of family. It was all there in what he was saying. If anybody could have brought this country back together, it was Joe," Lathem said.
Biden's months-long decision-making process and Wednesday's statement were closely watched in Delaware, where supporters and friends gave Biden space to deliberate after Beau's death.
"He's obviously been through a lot," said Rhett Ruggerio, a Delaware lobbyist and former national committeeman for the Delaware Democratic Party. "Everybody understands this decision is very personal. For Delawareans, he is beloved. I think everybody is supportive of the decision, considering what he has been through."
Joe Conaway, the former Sussex County administrator and longtime Biden friend and political ally, spoke briefly with the vice president at the Sussex County Democratic Jamboree in late August. "How much can we expect from one person?" Conaway said in an earlier interview. "He's done so much for this county, the state, the United States."
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell said he did not know what to expect from Biden as he neared a decision. "What I know is that everybody in Delaware is with the Bidens," Markell said. "We all support him no matter what he decides. I had no idea. People have been asking me for months. I thought it was 50/50 because it was such a personal decision."
Biden represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate for 36 years before he was elected vice president. He took his first oath of office in January 1973 next to Beau Biden’s hospital bed about a month after a car accident that killed his first wife, Neilia, and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi. The accident injured Beau and his brother, Hunter.
Biden spoke about Beau and his family's grieving process during his remarks on Wednesday.
"As I've said many times, my family has suffered loss, and .. .I hope there would come a time, and I've said this to many other families, that sooner rather than later when you think of your loved one, it brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eyes," Biden said.
"Well, that's where the Bidens are today. Thank god. Beau – Beau is our inspiration."
He used his remarks to say that the U.S. should increase its efforts to find a cancer cure.
"I believe that we need a moonshot in this country to cure cancer. It’s personal. But I know we can do this," Biden said. "The president and I have already been working hard on increasing funding for research and development, because there are so many breakthroughs just on the horizon in science and medicine, the things that are just about to happen. And we can make them real with an absolute national commitment to end cancer as we know it today.
"And I’m going to spend the next 15 months in this office pushing as hard as I can to accomplish this, because I know there are Democrats and Republicans on the Hill who share our passion, our passion to silence this deadly disease," Biden said. "If I could be anything, I would have wanted to have been the president that ended cancer, because it’s possible."
U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, a Democrat who served with Biden in the Senate, said he spoke with the vice president in recent weeks, and "encouraged him to listen to his family as they all continue to grieve the terrible loss of their beloved Beau. I know he heard from people across the country who urged him to run and offered to help, but the most important influences on his decision were his wife, Jill, their children and grandchildren, and God."
Biden, who has maintained a busy schedule while he simultaneously mourned the loss of his son and considered another presidential campaign, still pledged to be involved politically. And he urged Democrats to embrace President Obama's record and political priorities.
"I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation," Biden said on Wednesday. "And this is what I believe. I believe that President Obama has led this nation from crisis to recovery, and we're now on the cusp of resurgence. I'm proud to have played a part in that. This party, our nation, will be making a tragic mistake if we walk away or attempt to undo the Obama legacy."
The vice president urged Democrats to work across the political aisle, saying Republicans should not be viewed as "enemies." Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton included Republicans among her enemies during the first Democratic presidential debate on CNN, and Biden appeared to be criticizing those remarks in recent days. His statements appeared to draw a contrast with Clinton, leading some to believe that he was preparing to enter the race. But that speculation ended Wednesday.
"I believe that we have to end the divisive partisan politics that is ripping this country apart," Biden said. "And I think we can. It's mean-spirited, it's petty, and it's gone on for much too long. I don't believe, like some do, that it's naive to talk to Republicans. I don't think we should look at Republicans as our enemies. They are our opposition. They're not our enemies. And for the sake of the country, we have to work together. As the president has said many times, compromise is not a dirty word."
Former Delaware House Speaker Bob Gilligan, a top Democratic party officer in Delaware, said he listened to Biden's statements from his car. "When I heard it was going to be from the Rose Garden, I knew he wasn't running," Gilligan said. "He did what was best for his family. I'm sure it was a very, very difficult decision, a very emotional decision. I still think you'll hear a lot from him."
U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, who now occupies Biden's old Senate seat, reacted to the decision on Wednesday. "As always in his career, Joe Biden is putting his family first, and I am confident he will continue to add his important voice to our nation's ongoing debate about security in an uncertain world and opportunity for the middle class," Coons said in a statement. "I support his decision and look forward to continuing to work together."
Biden had been the subject of an intense effort to lure him into the race. The Draft Biden super PAC hired staff in early voting states, raised funds for independent expenditures in support of his possible candidacy, and launched national television advertisements urging Biden to join the 2016 campaign. Close Biden supporters even joined the group, including Josh Alcorn, who had been Beau Biden's political director and top fundraiser.
"We are so grateful for the gigantic outpouring of support from hundreds of thousands of Americans around the country in our effort to encourage the vice president to run," said Will Pierce, executive director of Draft Biden. "While the vice president has decided not to run, we know that over the next year he will stand up for all Americans and articulate a vision for America's future that will leave no one behind."
Had he joined the race, Biden would have faced significant organizational challenges. Armies of volunteers and staff already are helping former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and other candidates.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump celebrated Biden's exit from the presidential discussion on Wednesday, tweeting that he would prefer to face Clinton in a general election "because her record is so bad."
Biden’s candidacy presumably would have taken away some support from Clinton. He was capturing about 18 percent support in Democratic polling this week. In a statement, Sanders called Biden a "good friend" and thanked the vice president for a "lifetime of public service and for all that he has done for our nation."
Clinton called Biden a "good man and a great vice president," saying "history isn't finished with Joe Biden."
The national Democratic party also applauded Biden's record.
“I appreciate Vice President Joe Biden giving thoughtful consideration to seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2016," U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat and chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a written statement after Biden's announcement. "While Vice President Biden will not be a candidate next year, his unwavering commitment to America’s working families is a legacy each of our candidates will proudly carry forward."
Before becoming vice president, Biden served stints as chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees. He has been an unusually active vice president, partly because of his long-standing relationships with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
He has negotiated down-to-the-wire agreements on fiscal issues, including proposals to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, legislation to increase the nation’s borrowing limit, and a strategy for avoiding the “fiscal cliff” of spending cuts and tax increases in 2013.
Biden was dubbed “Sheriff Joe” for his oversight of the 2009 economic stimulus program and he oversaw the drawdown of troops in Iraq in 2010.
More recently, the White House tapped Biden to lobby members of Congress to support the nuclear agreement with Iran. Biden withdrew from the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses. He dropped out of the 1988 race amid reports he had plagiarized a portion of a speech that he said he had forgotten to attribute.
G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, said he expects Biden to write his memoirs now that the presidential campaign question is behind him. And Biden still could put his decades of experience at public speaking to work.
“He’ll be very popular on the lecture tour. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” Madonna said.
Contact Jonathan Starkey at (302) 983-6756, on Twitter @jwstarkey or at [email protected]. | {
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O Diretório Nacional do PMDB decidiu nesta terça-feira (29), por aclamação, romper oficialmente com o governo da presidente Dilma Rousseff. Na reunião, a cúpula peemedebista também determinou que os seis ministros do partido e os filiados que ocupam outros postos no Executivo federal entreguem seus cargos.
O vice-presidente da República e presidente nacional do PMDB, Michel Temer, não participou da reunião que oficializou a ruptura com o governo sob o argumento de que não desejava "influenciar" a decisão. No entanto, ele teve participação ativa na mobilização pelo desembarque do partido e passou toda a segunda-feira (28) em reuniões com parlamentares e ministros do PMDB em busca de uma decisão “unânime”.
Comandada pelo primeiro vice-presidente do PMDB, senador Romero Jucá (PMDB-RR), a reunião durou menos de cinco minutos. Após consultar simbolicamente os integrantes do partido, Jucá decretou o resultado da votação.
"A partir de hoje, nessa reunião histórica para o PMDB, o PMDB se retira da base do governo da presidente Dilma Rousseff e ninguém no país está autorizado a exercer qualquer cargo federal em nome do PMDB", enfatizou.
Após a reunião, Jucá disse que, com a decisão, o PMDB deixava bem clara a sua posiçào em relação ao governo e disse que quem quiser tomar uma decisão individual terá que avaliar as consequências.
"A partir de agora, o PMDB não autoriza ninguém a exercer cargo no governo federal em nome do partido. Se, individualmente, alguém quiser tomar uma posição, vai ter que avaliar o tipo de consequência, o tipo de postura perante a própria sociedade. Para bom entendedor, meia palavra basta. Aqui, nós demos hoje a palavra inteira", afirmou.
A decisão do PMDB aumenta a crise política do governo e é vista como fator importante no processo de impeachment de Dilma. Há a expectativa de que, diante da saída do principal sócio do PT no governo federal, outros partidos da base aliada também desembarquem da gestão petista.
Atualmente, o PMDB detém a maior bancada na Câmara, com 68 deputados federais. O apoio ao governo, porém, nunca foi unânime dentro da sigla e as críticas contra Dilma se intensificaram com o acirramento da crise econômica e a deflagração do processo de afastamento da presidente da República.
Resumo da reunião
- Presenças: o presidente nacional do partido e vice da República, Michel Temer, o presidente do Senado, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), e os seis ministros do partido não compareceram. O presidente da Câmara, deputado Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), estava presente.
- Local: o evento foi realizado no plenário 1 do Anexo 2, o maior da Câmara dos Deputados. O plenário, com capacidade para 138 pessoas sentadas, mas o número de presentes era superior porque a maioria estava de pé.
- Duração: a reunião durou 4 minutos e 12 segundos. Não houve discursos, somente um pronunciamento do senador Romero Jucá (PMDB-RR), que presidiu a reunião.
- A decisão: a moção aprovada prevê que o partido se desvincula imediatamente do governo e entrega todos os cargos que detém na administração federal.
- Aprovação: a aprovação da saída do governo se deu por aclamação, sem votação. Todos os presentes levantaram as mãos sinalizando concordância com a decisão. Após a aprovação, houve gritos de "Fora PT".
Ministros
Na reunião desta terça, os peemedebistas decidiram que os ministros da legenda que descumprirem a determinação de deixar o governo poderão sofrer sanções, como expulsão do partido.
Após a decisão do Diretório Nacional do PMDB, o G1 procurou as assessorias dos ministérios da Agricultura, da Aviação Civil, de Portos, de Ciência e Tecnologia, de Minas e Energia e da Saúde.
Por meio da assessoria, o Ministério da Saúde informou que Marcelo Castro permanecerá "por enquanto" tanto no cargo de ministro quanto no PMDB e aguardará os "próximos passos do partido", como o prazo que será dado pela legenda para que os ocupantes de cargos no Executivo deixem as vagas. Pela decisão aprovada pelo diretório, os peemedebistas devem sair "imediatamente".
Até esta segunda-feira, o PMDB ocupava sete cadeiras no primeiro escalão do governo Dilma. No entanto, Henrique Eduardo Alves, um dos peemedebistas mais próximos de Michel Temer, se antecipou à decisão da cúpula e entregou seu cargo a Dilma.
Dilma também lançou mão dos últimos esforços para tentar resgatar o apoio do partido. Na manhã de segunda, ela chamou ao seu gabinete no Palácio do Planalto seis dos sete ministros do PMDB para avaliar o cenário. No entanto, no fim do dia, Henrique Alves, um dos presentes ao encontro, apresentou a sua carta de renúncia.
Apesar do desembarque, Temer continuará na Vice-Presidência da República sob o argumento de que foi eleito pela população na chapa de Dilma e de que não ocupa, portanto, cargo de submissão à presidente.
Afastamento
A decisão de afastamento já estava tomada, mas o PMDB decidiu dar uma espécie de “aviso prévio” ao governo. Reunião da convenção nacional do PMDB no dia 12 de março foi marcada por discursos em defesa do impeachment de Dilma e do rompimento com o governo.
Na ocasião, ficou decidido que o partido anunciaria em 30 dias se desembarcaria ou não do governo. Também ficou estabelecido que o PMDB não assumiria novos ministérios até que o fosse definido se haveria o rompimento.
No entanto, dias depois, a presidente Dilma ignorou a decisão e empossou o deputado licenciado Mauro Lopes (PMDB-MG) como ministro da Secretaria de Aviação Civil. A nomeação foi vista como uma afronta pelo partido, que abriu um processo no seu Conselho de Ética para expulsá-lo da legenda. O episódio ajudou a agravar a crise e acelerou a decisão do partido.
Escalada da crise
A relação do PMDB com o governo do PT tem se deteriorado nos últimos anos. Quando Dilma se preparava para disputar o segundo mandato, o partido deu mostras claras de que estava rachado quanto ao apoio à petista.
Na época, em junho de 2014, a manutenção da aliança foi aprovada pela convenção nacional do PMDB, mas recebeu mais de 40,8% de votos contrários. A ala dissidente reclamava que o partido não era ouvido pelo governo federal e que os ministros da legenda não tinham real poder de comando.
Ao longo do primeiro ano do segundo mandato de Dilma, a crise se agravou. O primeiro embate entre PT e PMDB ocorreu na disputa pela presidência da Câmara, quando o governo federal iniciou uma campanha ostensiva para que Arlindo Chinaglia (PT-SP) vencesse a eleição e derrotasse o candidato peemedebista Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), que se elegeu em primeiro turno.
Sob o comando Cunha, a Câmara derrotou o Planalto em diversas ocasiões neste ano, com a votação de matérias desfavoráveis ao governo. Além disso, no ano passado, houve na Casa a instalação da CPI da Petrobras, para investigar o escândalo de corrupção na estatal.
Para tentar conter a rebelião na base, a presidente promoveu, em 2015, uma reforma ministerial para ampliar o espaço do PMDB no governo, que chegou a ter sete ministérios. No entanto, a estratégia não foi bem sucedida.
Para agradar os parlamentares na Câmara, o governo entregou ao líder da bancada, Leonardo Picciani (PMDB-RJ), a incumbência de indicar nomes para duas pastas, incluindo a da Saúde, com o maior orçamento da Esplanada. Essa aproximação descontentou ainda mais a ala rebelde do partido, que se voltou contra Picciani quando ele indicou integrantes menos críticos a Dilma para a comissão do impeachment.
Ele chegou a ser destituído do posto em dezembro por oito dias em uma articulação patrocinada diretamente por Temer e Cunha, mas conseguiu reaver o posto com o apoio da maioria.
Para ser reeleito neste ano, foi preciso uma atuação direta do Planalto para garantir a ele votos suficientes, inclusive com a exoneração temporária do ministro da Saúde, Marcelo Castro, para reassumir como deputado e votar a favor de Picciani.
Apesar da entrega de cargos, a ala do PMDB descontente com o governo ganhou força com a queda continuada de popularidade da presidente, agravada pela escalada de denúncias relacionadas à Operação Lava Jato.
A moção aprovada pelo diretório nacional do PMDB (Foto: Reprodução) | {
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LONDON (AFP) – An 18-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker on Friday received a life sentence with a minimum 34-year jail term over the botched bombing of a rush-hour London Underground train that injured 30 people.
Judge Charles Haddon-Cave said Ahmed Hassan had constructed a homemade bomb “to kill as many members of the British public as possible”.
Hassan left the improvised bucket bomb filled with screwdrivers, knives, nuts, bolts and “Mother of Satan” TATP explosives in a carriage carrying 93 passengers on September 15 last year.
It partially exploded at Parsons Green Tube station in west London, one stop after he had alighted, triggering a stampede that injured tens of other passengers.
Parsons Green: Alleged Bomber Told Immigration Office He Had Been ‘Trained to Kill’ by Islamic State https://t.co/cFCatFy6Zf — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 8, 2018
The judge in the London court called Hassan a “dangerous and devious individual” who had let down the country that gave him shelter, the foster charity that cared for him and the college he attended.
Hassan had benefited from “every kindness” since arriving in Britain in October 2015, yet was consumed with “dark thoughts” against Britain.
“One can only imagine the sense of betrayal felt by all those at Barnardo’s and Brooklands College whom you duped,” said Haddon-Cave.
The judge said he believed Hassan had trained with the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq, and that he may be older than 18.
Hassan told jurors that he did not intend to hurt people, and that he was “bored and stressed” and wanted to start a fire. | {
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Мнения 15-янв, 19:309 3 151 0
1. Сначала они посадят всех проклятых барыг. Весной.
2. Потом они отберут у богатых и раздадут бедным. Всё отберут. Особенно отберут деньги, пианины, богатства вот эти всякие, которые я очень люблю и уважаю.
3. После того, как все бедные разбогатеют, а барыги понесут заслуженную кару, мы тут же прекратим войну. И зсыпем вон ту гигантскую яму, потому что там уже скоро заведутся кашалоты. И перенесём государство в смартфон. И неприкосновенность ещё снимем.
Таня Адамс
Вы же помните, на чем въехали в Раду все эти парикмахеры, заправщики и двоюродные племянники внучатых собачек? Я вот помню.Зацени, как мощны победы на фронте и как шикарен мой экономический рост!Ну и пока ховрахи пялятся на мурчащее из телевизора говно, пока планируют как потратят богатства на празднование побед, слуги служат. Изо всех сил, конечно.В конце декабря Давид Арахахамия высказал отличную мысль, что заради выполнения предвыборных обещаний он пойдёт вот буквально на всё. Но начнёт с повышения зарплат нардепам. До 100 тысяч гривен.Потому чтоМы-то, упыри донецкие, сами уехали, чё нам дома не сиделось? Какая вам ещё помощь? Не пи"дят палкой и на том спасибо.В пути они плакали, скреблись и просились на волю, но жестокий мир не внял мольбам. И теперь бедолаги заседают сил в ВР, повышая себе зарплаты. Ну как тут не расплакаться?Давид, давай мож мы им на карту скинемся? Сто тысяч, право, такая мелочь, как можно прожить на вот эти гнутые копейки?А зарплата топ-чиновников вырастет в 3,5 – 5 раз.В общем и целом, хочу поздравить депутатов.Цены ж растут, через пару месяцев палюбому надо будет проиндексировать ваши зарплатки.Разве ж мы хотим, чтоб вы там в голодные обмороки падали? Разве ж мы всем скопом не прокормим вас, п#доров, досыта?Ну ниче, у нас территория большая, есть куда отступать.Младший медперсонал сосёт? Так зато они с гораздо большей любовью и уверенностью будут клизмы пациентам ставить!Лишь бы вы, простые пацанчики из регионов, хорошо себя чувствовали! | {
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Detectives & Fire Marshal back at Suspicious fatal fire in 2100 blk W Susquehanna. pregnant woman died. @6abc pic.twitter.com/LcGAhqu4m1 — Annie McCormick (@6abcAnnie) May 21, 2017
EMBED >More News Videos Pregnant woman found dead in North Philadelphia fire. Annie McCormick reports during Action News at 6 on May 21, 2017.
EMBED >More News Videos Pregnant woman found dead in North Philadelphia fire. Annie McCormick reports during Action News at 11 p.m. on May 21, 2017.
NORTH PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Police kept watch Monday morning over a home in the 2100 block of West Susquehanna Avenue in North Philadelphia.They were guarding the scene of what authorities are calling a suspicious fire.It broke out before 7:30 a.m. Sunday."I came to the door, and my son told me there were flames coming out," said neighbor Rochelle Acosta.Inside, on the second floor, police found the body of a 35-year-old woman who was five months pregnant."I just think it's sad," said Cynthia of North Philadelphia, "because someone lost their daughter, their sister and a baby.Police have stopped short of ruling the blaze an arson pending further investigation and an autopsy.Neighbors are stunned that arson is not being ruled out."That's just crazy," said Rasheed Napper, "because I don't see why somebody would want to kill a pregnant person and a baby.""I walk past here every day with my son going to school," said another resident. "It is kind of weird to realize a fire happened over here and somebody possibly set it to kill that person."The woman was visiting her boyfriend from out of town.Police are withholding her name until family members are notified.---------- | {
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Police said Henderson convinced the woman he had a gun. After giving his horrifying ultimatum, he tied up the son, 25, in another room with wire and an extension cord from a fan and a light, and raped the woman, authorities say. | {
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Kommunen planerar att bygga en restaurangpaviljong på Järntorget och enligt kommunen ska byggandet starta i höst.
NA kan nu avslöja att kommunen så gott som gjort klart med en entreprenör och enligt NA:s källor är det artisten Petters restaurang Käk.
–Det har funnits ett intresse och dialog men inget som jag tycker vi ska skriva om nu, säger Petter till NA.
Förhandlar ni med kommunen?
–Nej, vi sitter och väntar och vet inget mer och det vore olyckligt om vi skrev om det nu för då blir det ingen rolig överraskning.
Enligt Björn Sundin (S) var flera entreprenörer intresserade och nu är det en kvar.
–Det är en som det har varit diskussioner om nu, säger han.
"När jag berättar vilken kommer många att haja till", sa Björn Sundin till NA i maj.
Vi har uppgifter som säger att det är Petters restaurang Käk, stämmer det?
–Jag kan inte svara på det men jag tror att du vet hur det ligger till, säger Sundin och skrattar.
Entreprenören ska även ha haft åsikter om restaurangens utformning vilket fått bygglovet att dra ut på tiden.
–Om jag har förstått det rätt så är det den kommunala processen som man väntar på men restaurangen är klara på vad de vill, säger Björn Sundin.
Restaurangen Käk finns i dag i Stockholm och serverar enligt sin egen hemsida hållkäften-burgare. | {
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President Donald Trump praised Paul Manafort for going through with a trial rather than taking a plea deal that could potentially have involved him turning against Trump. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Trump doesn't rule out pardoning Manafort
President Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to rule out pardoning his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who was convicted this week on eight counts of tax and bank fraud.
The president, who sat for an interview Wednesday with Fox News's "Fox & Friends," praised Manafort for going through with a trial rather than taking a plea deal that could potentially have involved him turning against Trump.
"One of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial. You know, they make up stories. People make up stories," Trump said.
Manafort had been charged with 18 counts of tax and bank fraud as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A jury found Manafort guilty on eight counts, and U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis declared a mistrial on the other 10 counts. Manafort also faces a second criminal trial, to begin next month in a federal court in Washington, on charges of money laundering, witness tampering and failing to register as a foreign agent.
Wary that the president could move to protect his former campaign chairman, congressional Democrats have been outspoken in recent days, warning the president against taking such a step.
Trump compared Manafort favorably to Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer who pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight counts, including tax evasion, financial fraud and campaign-finance violations. In his guilty plea, Cohen implicated the president, telling the court he violated campaign-finance law "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office."
Asked directly whether he would grant a pardon to his former campaign chairman, the president did not deny the possibility. Instead, he said he has "great respect" for the legal morass Manafort has been through.
"I would say what he did, some of the charges they threw against him, every consultant, every lobbyist in Washington probably does," Trump said.
Asked at the Wednesday news briefing whether Trump was considering a pardon for Manafort, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "I am not aware of any conversations regarding that at all."
The president insisted in his Fox News interview that Manafort's guilty verdict and Cohen's plea do not implicate him, and that the wrongdoings of Cohen and Manafort had nothing to do with his campaign.
"I didn't know Manafort well. He wasn't with the campaign long. They got him on things totally unrelated to the campaign. By the way, they got Cohen on things totally unrelated to the campaign. I'm not involved. I wasn't charged with anything. People don't like to say that, I wasn't charged," Trump said.
The president had harsher words for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, complaining that the former Alabama senator has failed to root out what Trump said are partisan Democrats embedded in the Justice Department. Trump told Fox News that he only appointed Sessions because he was an "original supporter" on the Trump campaign.
Lamenting Sessions' decision to recuse himself from any investigation involving the 2016 campaign, a move that has sidelined him from Mueller's Russia probe, Trump did not rule out the possibility that he might fire Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
"I put an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions. Never took control of the Justice Department and it's sort of an incredible thing," Trump said. "He took the job and then he said, 'I'm going to recuse myself.' I said, 'What kind of a man is this?' And by the way, he was on the campaign. You know, the only reason I gave him the job was I felt loyalty." | {
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LANDOVER, Md. -- Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott entered Sunday’s game without an interception in 164 passes in six games against the Washington Redskins.
NFL PrimeTime on ESPN+ NFL PrimeTime continues this postseason with extended highlights and analysis following the conclusion of each day's playoff games. Watch on ESPN+
On Sunday, Prescott was intercepted on his sixth pass in the first quarter, but after that he was virtually flawless in the Cowboys’ 31-21 win against the Redskins.
After the turnover, Prescott completed all but two of his passes and threw touchdown passes to Devin Smith, Jason Witten and Amari Cooper. Prescott did not miss a pass in the second half of the game either, on his way to tying a personal best with 18 straight completions.
In case you’re wondering, Brandon Weeden holds the team record with 21 straight completions.
Dak Prescott, who was 26-of-30 for 269 yards and three TDs, also threw an early interception. Brad Mills/USA TODAY Sports
Clearly, Prescott is no Weeden.
Prescott finished with 26-of-30 for 269 yards with three touchdowns and also ran for 60 yards, including a career-long 42-yarder. Through two games, he has completed a ridiculous 82.2% of his passes.
Prescott’s seven touchdown passes through two games are tied for the most in Cowboys history. In 1966, Don Meredith opened the season with seven touchdown passes in two games. Prescott did not throw his seventh touchdown pass last season until the sixth game of the year.
The Cowboys have said they will be an Ezekiel Elliott-led offense, but through two games Prescott is changing perceptions about what not only the passing game can be, but what he can be as the quarterback.
Promising trend: Witten has touchdown catches in consecutive games for the second time in his past two seasons. He had three in 2017, his last season with the Cowboys before his one-year retirement to ESPN’s Monday Night Football booth. It is the fourth time he and Prescott have connected for scores in back-to-back games since 2016. Witten’s snaps might not be the same as they had been in his first 15 seasons, but he figures to be a big part of the red zone offense. He now has 70 career touchdowns, just three off Dez Bryant’s franchise record.
Pivotal play: Things were not going well for the Cowboys early in the second quarter and trailing by a touchdown. DeMarcus Lawrence was flagged for roughing the passer, negating a third-down chance. Antwaun Woods jumped offside and was hurt on the next play. On third-and-11 from the Dallas 48, Tyrone Crawford dropped Case Keenum for a 13-yard loss to force a Washington punt. The Cowboys offense finally woke up with scores on their next four possessions, but they started it off with a 97-yard drive after Crawford’s sack that ended in a 51-yard touchdown catch by Devin Smith to tie the score. Crawford, whose work goes largely unnoticed, was limited during the week of practice because of hip issues but he changed the momentum of the game with his first sack of the season.
Silver lining: It didn’t take Elliott long to get up to speed. Just six practices, two in pads, and a regular-season game. After being mindful of his work in the season opener because of his summer holdout, the Cowboys used Elliott in 28 of 30 first-half snaps. And after giving him a breather in the third quarter, they went back to Elliott in the fourth and he clinched the game with a 2-yard touchdown run with 5:07 to play. He finished with 111 yards rushing. | {
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We The North: Building a basketball brand with bounce Almost 25 years since its original logo was unveiled, the Toronto Raptors are a part of the fabric of the North.
This story originally appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of Strategy.
On May 15, 1994, a confident John Bitove announced the “newest, freshest and hungriest look in the NBA,” while surrounded by tropical plants on a stage at Ontario Place’s Cinesphere during a half-hour TV special. The screen cut to show the first-person perspective of something quickly moving through a forest, arriving at a basketball arena. A curtain was pulled down and the Toronto Raptors name and logo were finally revealed following a months-long national naming contest.
There have been many variations of the Toronto Raptors over the years, from those featuring the original dino mascot to ones featuring a more sleek design.
The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) first team outside of the U.S. launched its merch line the very next day, with items being sold in stores across five continents in more than 40 countries. Canadian retailers sold everything from T-shirts to caps to coffee cups and shot glasses. About 100,000 T-shirts per week were being produced, according to a 1994 Toronto Star report.
“There was a real buzz in the city. Basketball was kind of reaching its zenith in terms of fandom,” recalls Rod Black, sportscaster and host of the Raptors’ unveiling, which took place 25 years ago this spring. “[However] people were cautiously optimistic this would work.”
There was good reason to be cautious. The Vancouver Grizzlies team came to Canada during the same heady era as the Raptors. But the country’s second NBA team didn’t last, leaving for Memphis by 2001.
But before all of that, Raptors founder Bitove – along with fellow majority co-owner Allan Slaight and minority owners David Peterson, Phil Granovsky and Borden Osmak of the Bank of Nova Scotia – were true believers that the Toronto Raptors (and basketball) would not only survive, but thrive, here. They were right, but it wasn’t easy.
The Toronto Blue Jays and SkyDome had run naming contests in the ‘70s and ‘80s, inspiring Bitove to launch the Raptors’ nationwide “Name Game” to build buzz for his future team. There were more than 2,000 entries, whittled down to the top ten: Beavers, Bobcats, Dragons, Grizzlies, Hogs, Raptors, Scorpions, T-Rex, Tarantulas, and Terriers. The ultimate winner was influenced by the immensely popular Jurassic Park movie, released in the summer of 1993.
To traditionalists’ dismay, the Raptors’ branding was a marked departure from the Toronto Huskies, a short-lived team from the Basketball Association of America (the BAA was a forerunner to the NBA) that lasted only one season in 1946. The Huskies logo featured a simple line drawing of its namesake dog and a staid blue-and-white colour scheme – a stark contrast from the 1994 Raptors branding, which featured a red dinosaur dribbling a silver basketball on a purple background.
John Bitove at a Toronto Raptors game at the SkyDome (now called the Rogers Centre) was always confident basketball would become as beloved as hockey in Canada.
Battle for position
But in the mid-1990s, the Raptors – and the NBA – weren’t going after the traditionalists.
“Our target market from the day we got the team was to go after children, women and new Canadians. We were kind of leaving the older, white establishment to hockey,” says Bitove, who left the Raptors in 1996 and has since invested in everything from satellite radio to QSRs. “With all three of those stakeholder groups, [the branding] resonated well. As you would expect, an older white person was scratching their head going ‘What the hell is that?’ And that’s fine. That’s what we wanted.”
The Raptors came into being just as the NBA was resonating with the next generation of sports fans and finding new ways to monetize that fandom. The league makes money from ticket sales, but it also increasingly brings in revenue from TV deals, sponsorships and licensed merchandise. As the sport grew in popularity through the ‘90s and into the new century, league revenues grew in tandem. By the 2017-2018 season, the league’s 30 teams generated a whopping US$7.4 billion in record-setting revenue, according to Forbes. That’s up 25% from the year before, due in part to the league benefitting from a $24-billion TV deal with ESPN and TNT, as well as the NBA’s growing popularity in overseas markets such as China.
Popular Raptors x OVO apparel has helped Canada’s NBA team bring in the fans and the dough.
In February 2018, the Raptors was the league’s 12th most valuable team worth an estimated $1.4 billion. But before it reached that valuation by Forbes, the Raptors had to fill the SkyDome (now Rogers Centre) – a difficult task since the 53,506-person stadium was meant for baseball, not basketball.
There were tons of marketing challenges in those early days, says Michael Downey, who joined the nascent team in 1995 as VP, sales and marketing. Toronto “was an uneducated basketball market,” says Downey, who is now president and CEO of Tennis Canada. To help Canadians get better acquainted with the sport, Downey led what was internally dubbed “Basketball 101,” and included handing out leaflets to fans on basic basketball etiquette and rules. There was also a mass awareness campaign, with Cossette as the team’s first AOR.
The original owners paid a then-record setting $125-million expansion fee, leaving little budget for marketing, notes Downey. As a result, much of the advertising in those early days were contra deals with OOH, print and broadcast media companies, says Downey. And since Slaight was also a broadcast mogul who had ownership stakes in several radio stations, the Raptors ran loads of radio spots, he says.
While the team’s debut on Nov. 3, 1995 managed to draw 33,306 fans, Downey recalls later enticing warm bodies to the cavernous stadium by selling a “boatload” of $5 tickets. Those cheaper passes almost sold out just a few days after the inaugural game, with Shopper’s Drug Mart then selling seats for $26.25 a pop, according to a 1995 Star report.
By 1998, the Raptors were purchased by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), which also owns the storied Toronto Maple Leafs. The 19,800-person capacity Scotiabank Arena, then called the Air Canada Centre (ACC), opened in 1999 as the home of MLSE’s NHL and NBA teams. The new arena provided a much more intimate game experience for basketball fans, says Vijay Setlur, a marketing instructor at York University’s Schulich School of Business.
After the Grizzlies left for Memphis, the Toronto Raptors tried to capitalize on being Canada’s only NBA team, but a more radical shift was needed, says Setlur.
After the initial excitement of having an NBA team in Canada faded, the Raps entered a long “dark period,” he says. American NBA players viewed Canada as a provincial backwater and openly griped about it.
“Combine that with the team not winning,” he says. “It wasn’t very positive. The brand was kind of waffling and not really progressing.”
Shannon Hosford scored a slam dunk when she oversaw a radical rebranding of the Toronto Raptors.
Bringing the house down
The 20th anniversary of the first game in 2015 presented an opportunity to rebrand the team and shift perceptions, says Shannon Hosford, SVP marketing and fan experience for MLSE.
“There were a number of items we wanted to achieve, one was to be regarded as a global basketball destination, not only for fans but for players,” says Hosford, who joined MLSE in 2000.
Agencies were invited to pitch a new brand identity. Sid Lee Toronto was the shop that ultimately got called into the game.
“We weren’t just branding the Raptors, we were branding Canadian basketball,” recalls Tom Koukodimos, ECD and partner at Sid Lee Toronto. “How do you turn a hockey nation into basketball fandom? The answer wasn’t obvious – maybe it is now looking back – but we tried to lean into ‘How do you land on something that unites?’”
The team at Sid Lee ended up landing on the now iconic “We The North” campaign, essentially a battle cry that celebrates Canada’s status as an outsider. The new branding launched in the lead-up to the anniversary with a gritty 60-second anthem spot in 2014. The video had a voiceover proclaiming Canada (“the North”) to be “in a league of our own, one step removed, just beyond the boundaries,” featuring shots of Toronto landmarks, snow and people playing basketball. It ended with an image of the now ubiquitous black-and-white “We The North” flag.
The successful campaign resulted in the team selling out season tickets for the 2014/15 season, with about 12,500 sold. It also resulted in a stream of merch – from flags to hats to sweaters – becoming commonplace on the streets of Toronto and beyond. The SVP marketing and fan experience for MLSE also won many accolades for the rebranding, including being named one of Strategy‘s Marketers of the Year in 2015.
“We had heard the laundry list of complaints by players… they didn’t respect us,” acknowledges Hosford. “So we took the opportunity to turn that narrative on its head and say, ‘Here’s all the reasons why we are great and why the North is amazing and is a destination’ and really put our stamp on being an outsider and owning that.”
The Raptors received international praise, and it didn’t hurt that Drake had also become the team’s first, and only, “global ambassador” around the same time. Over the years the Toronto born-and-bred rapper has collaborated with the team on everything from Raptors x OVO jerseys to building basketball courts in underserved communities.
This partnership with a global superstar, in combination with the “We The North” movement has helped the Raptors connect with many demographics, says Setlur.
“That’s where the cool factor comes into play when you’re trying to reach a multi-ethnic audience; the Filipino community is different than the South Asian community, which is different than the Italian community,” he says. “The one constant is no matter what the idiosyncrasies are for their ethnicities they all like to be following what’s cool, what’s now, what’s popular.”
The Raptors’ updated brand has proven so popular that it’s here to stay. “It’s our brand identity. It’s what we’re entrenched in. It’s similar to Nike’s [Just Do It],” says Hosford. “We’re never stepping away from ‘We The North’. We create campaigns on top of ‘We The North,’ but that’s our identity.”
Dino-mite partnerships
Scotiabank
The Air Canada Centre (ACC) changed its name to the Scotiabank Arena last year in a $800 million, 20-year sponsorship deal. And the bank’s Tangerine brand was named the Raps’ official bank.
Sun Life Financial
The Canadian insurance company became the team’s first jersey patch sponsor, starting in the 2017/2018 season as part of a NBA-wide three-year pilot program.
Drake
The rap superstar became the official global ambassador for the Toronto team in 2013 (pictured above in a throwback photo with Hosford). Since then, Drake and his hometown team, have partnered on everything from branded jerseys to “Welcome Toronto” nights.
NBA 2K League
The team joined the NBA 2K League last year with its Raptors Uprising GC (Gaming Club). Co-founded by the NBA and Take-Two Interactive Software, the league features 17 teams of gamers competing in regular-season games, tournaments and playoffs.
Nike
The NBA signed an eight-year partnership with Nike, which started in the 2017-2018 season. The iconic Nike swoosh logo appeared for the first time on NBA jerseys, including the Raptors, as part of a reported $1 billion deal.
McDonald’s
The QSR signed a three-year deal with the Raptors last year, kicking off with the “Beyond the Arch” campaign. Every time the team makes more than twelve 3-point shots in a single game, fans with the My McD’s app can get a free medium French fries the day after the game. | {
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