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You may tune into “Real Housewives of Miami” for drama. Me? I google “bitcoin.” The virtual currency’s a vortex of intrigue and high adventure—not to mention volatile and high-flying returns. Some think it might be the future of money.
After notching stratospheric highs in April, bitcoin crashed hard. Some seven months on, its dollar exchange rate (how many dollars a bitcoin is worth) is nearing $500. That’s almost 100 times its value on January 1 and roughly double its earlier peak.
It pays to be skeptical when pundits pin market movements on any one thing—usually, there’s too much going on to tease out all the underlying causes.
That said, bitcoin’s latest run may be partly thanks to surging demand in China—where companies are IPOing in bitcoin, and the primary exchange, BTC China, recently surpassed Japan’s Mt. Gox, traditionally the world’s bitcoin hub.
In fact, China is second only to the US for bitcoin downloads.
Beyond frenzied investment, Bitcoin’s backers still ardently believe in its value as a medium of exchange that bypasses central bank fiddling and Wall Street fees. So, how easy is it to use bitcoin as money, its stated raison d’être?
Austin Craig is making a documentary on the phenomenon, and he and his fiancée attempted to live on bitcoin alone for a time. Craig told the Wall Street Journal, “It’s been consistently inconvenient and occasionally frustrating but never impossible.”
The couple went hungry one night in Stockholm, but otherwise, they made it work for over three months. Bitcoin in no way rivals major currencies, but Craig’s experiment shows how many small venders will accept the currency, along with higher profile firms like WordPress or China’s search engine, Baidu.
To capitalize on bitcoin’s widely-heralded returns this year, entrepreneurs hope to navigate regulatory uncertainty and open organized financial vehicles to investors.
SecondMarket is offering a fund called Bitcoin Investment Trust to qualified high-net-worth investors (because of bitcoin’s inherent risk), and the Winklevoss twins will launch an ETF that would track bitcoin’s exchange rate and trade like a stock.
The two tech investors think bitcoin’s market value has room to grow 100 times bigger. Cameron Winklevoss told CNBC “that payments are increasingly going to use a network like the bitcoin network to move money around the world.”
He may be right. But for the time being, dealing in bitcoin can still feel like the Wild West. In October, the feds shut down the black market site, Silk Road, that traded largely in bitcoin, and a long list of scams and thefts dog the currency.
In one of the most notorious, Trendon Shavers set up a fund called the Bitcoin Savings Bank, took in “investor” cash promising 7% weekly returns, then shut it down and fled with some 263,000 bitcoins. The SEC has since charged Shavers with running a Ponzi scheme.
More recently, a Chinese bitcoin exchange, Global Bond Limited (GBL), disappeared without a trace, taking $4 million with it. A study (PDF) by SMU’s Tyler Moore and Carnegie Mellon’s Nicolas Christin found 18 of 40 known bitcoin exchanges have shut their doors (some due to fraud, but not all). Of the closed exchanges, a significant fraction failed to reimburse clients.
Victims have little recourse. Transactions in the currency are irreversible, anonymous, and hard to trace. Unsurprisingly, the year’s flurry of headlines, volatility, and scams is attracting regulators and lawmakers in addition to investors and technophiles.
Two Senate subcommittees, one on banking and the other homeland security, will soon meet to discuss virtual currencies. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department earlier this year decreed fraud and money laundering rules for traditional money services like Western Union also apply to virtual currency exchanges.
In response, bitcoin backers formed the Bitcoin Foundation to act as advocate for the otherwise decentralized currency. The group believes bitcoin will survive heavier regulation and maybe even thrive thanks to increased credibility.
Not everyone agrees. Evoking Wall Street during the New Deal, some favor self-regulation, and believe compliance with new rules could prove too expensive for businesses. One group created the Digital Asset Transit Authority (DATA) to hold off federal regulators by encouraging bitcoin firms to police themselves.
Is Bitcoin poised to go mainstream as Cameron Winklevoss suggests? It’s tempting to say, “Yes!” just look at its rising exchange rate. But torrid demand shouldn’t be confused with viability as money.
The former depends largely on speculators expecting to make a return. The latter depends on bitcoin being accepted and used widely to buy things.
And here’s the problem: Given the present state of affairs, the two are mutually incompatible. Why spend an asset that gains 10,000% in a year? Bitcoin is, at the moment, less a medium of exchange, and more a speculative investment. According to Nicholas Colas of ConvergEx Group, up to 90% of bitcoin buyers are investors.
If bitcoin really is the future of money, the first thing it needs is a more consistent value. People want to know how much their cash will buy tomorrow or the next day. The second thing it needs is wider acceptance by vendors. Even as more businesses daily decide to accept bitcoin—stability remains elusive.
Image Credit: btckeychain/Flickr (banner and body); thierry ehrmann/flickr | {
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Utredningen av fallet där en 63-årig man sprängdes till döds efter att ha plockat upp en handgranat i Vårby gård läggs ner. Det rapporterar TT.
Efter att snart ett år har gått är brottet fortfarande olöst efter att vittnen vägrar prata och därmed läggs utredningen ner. Två unga män satt anhållna i februari misstänkta för inblandning, men släpptes i brist på bevis.
Det var mitt i morgonrusningen som mannen plockade upp handgranaten.
– Man ska inte behöva dö bara för att man åker ner på Ica, för att någon dumjävel har kastat en handgranat, säger Lars Bröms, mångårig polis och utredare. | {
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Bayern may have finished the season with a Bundesliga/DFB Pokal Double, but that hasn't quite lifted the skepticism surrounding manager Niko Kovac. This team looks headed for a rebuild and a revamp in the summer, and there are plenty of resources available.
Rafinha, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben are all leaving, freeing up space on the wage bill, and so is James Rodriguez, whose loan won't be renewed. Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard are already on their way, but there is clearly more work to do for Oliver Kahn, who is on his way in as sporting director. The club is expected to spend up to €150 million in net terms, maybe a little more. The fact that last season Bayern made a transfer profit of around €75m gives them further flexibility.
Raphael Honigstein and Gabriele Marcotti assess Bayern's squad ahead of what should be a busy summer.
GOALKEEPERS
Manuel Neuer (33 years old, contract expires in 2021)
HONIGSTEIN: "They really like Alexander Nubel, from Schalke [as a future No.1]. He's a year away from free agency, which means you can hopefully get him at a good price, maybe €15 million. You would wait to extend Neuer's contract if he comes."
MARCOTTI: "Given his injuries and how much they like Nubel, I agree on waiting to extend Neuer."
VERDICT: Keep, but wait to extend his contract
Bayern's league and cup double was impressive given how they started the 2018-19 season, but they can't afford to rest. Sina Schuldt/picture alliance via Getty Images
Sven Ulreich (30, 2021)
HONIGSTEIN: "The desire to sign a new goalkeeper makes Ulreich expendable. And there will be a market for him, given he was the No. 1 at Stuttgart for several years. If not, keep him and let him go in a year's time."
MARCOTTI: "That's the Bayern way, isn't it? Exploit expiring contracts to get talent from your rivals. Agree on Ulreich. No need to keep him around."
VERDICT: Sell if Nubel does join (Estimated price: €5m)
- Sources: Bayern out of the running for De Ligt
- Honigstein: Are Robben and Ribery irreplaceable at Bayern?
- Bayern: Will they get Germany's latest rising stars?
Christian Fruchtl (19, 2020)
VERDICT: Keep and extend by a season
DEFENDERS
Niklas Sule (23 years old, contract expires in 2022)
VERDICT: Keep
Mats Hummels (30, 2021)
HONIGSTEIN: "I'd definitely keep him, though there's some who want him gone. He's still very good and is in fact underrated."
MARCOTTI: "I'm not sure you'll get a crazy fee for Boateng, and if you're not going to give him a new deal -- and you shouldn't, because of his age -- maybe for the right price you let him leave. Pavard and Hernandez can both play at center back."
VERDICT: Mixed
Boateng, in red, has made no secret of his desire to leave Bayern, so now they need to get a premium purchase price from someone for his services. Easy, right? Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images
Jerome Boateng (30, 2021)
HONIGSTEIN: "I really like him and I'd love for him to stay, but he's made it clear that he wants to leave and injuries have hurt him too. So it's a case of getting the best price for him."
MARCOTTI: "You have to sell either him or Hummels, and I see the logic in selling him, but he's got some baggage at this point. I'm not sure how easy it's going to be."
VERDICT: Sell (Estimated price: €35m)
David Alaba (26, 2021)
HONIGSTEIN: "I'd obviously want to extend his contract and keep him, but he might say no. There will be interest from other big clubs if they believe he might want to leave."
MARCOTTI: "I agree you try to extend his deal, but if he doesn't sign, maybe you try to sell, because this year and next are your last chance to get a really big fee for a guy who is one of the best in the world at his position."
VERDICT: Keep and extend
Joshua Kimmich (24, 2023)
VERDICT: Keep
Rafinha (33, 2019)
VERDICT: Out of contract, leaves on a free
Marco Friedl (21, 2021)
VERDICT: Already sold to Werder Bremen for €4m
MIDFIELDERS
Martinez is a solid player, but he doesn't have a future at Bayern given his age and injury history. TF-Images/Getty Images
Javi Martinez (30 years old, contract expires in 2021)
HONIGSTEIN: "Kovac loves him, but plenty of observers think he's one-dimensional. Assuming Kovac stays, you might keep him. But I'd sell. You don't need him as a stand-in central defender, and he's injury prone. You can get €20m."
MARCOTTI: "If he's fit, you can get more than €20m and he fills a very specific role as a defensive midfielder. I don't care how much Kovac loves him: Bayern already has Corentin Tolisso, Thiago and Joshua Kimmich to play in midfield."
VERDICT: Mixed
Thiago (28, 2021)
VERDICT: Keep and extend
Leon Goretzka (24, 2022)
VERDICT: Keep
Corentin Tolisso (24, 2022)
VERDICT: Keep
Renato Sanches (21, 2021)
HONIGSTEIN: "You definitely sell him. He has shown glimpses of talent, but Bayern's game isn't suited to him."
MARCOTTI: "He's had enough chances, and given how young he is, €30m might be a realistic target."
VERDICT: Sell (Estimated price: €30m)
James Rodriguez (27, 2021)
VERDICT: Loan ended, returned to Real Madrid
Meritan Shabani (20, 2020)
VERDICT: Sell (€500,000)
FORWARDS
Kingsley Coman (22, 2023)
VERDICT: Keep
Alphonso Davies (18, 2023)
HONIGSTEIN: "Some reckon he'll never be a Bayern player because he's just so behind the rest technically. I think it's too early to make a judgment, but he has a long way to go. Loan him out."
MARCOTTI: "He needs time and he needs to play so we find out whether he's any good or whether he's the second coming of Julian Green. Loan him out, please."
VERDICT: Loan
Franck Ribery (36, 2019)
VERDICT: Out of contract, leaves on a free
Serge Gnabry (23, 2023)
VERDICT: Keep
Arjen Robben (35, 2019)
VERDICT: Out of contract, leaves on a free
Woo-yeong Jeong (19, 2022)
HONIGSTEIN: "Kovac doesn't like him and doesn't give him minutes, but the club rate him highly. If Kovac stays, loan him out."
MARCOTTI: "No point having a youngster who the manager doesn't rate. Loan."
VERDICT: Loan
Thomas Muller (29, 2021)
HONIGSTEIN: "Do nothing. He's been very good the last two seasons, with a poor World Cup in between. You don't need to give him a new deal because he's so attached to the club, he won't think of leaving."
MARCOTTI: "I basically agree, the only thing is if he wants a deal, you may give him one out of loyalty. But at this stage, he's not leaving, that's clear."
VERDICT: Keep, but don't extend ...
Maja Hitij/Bongarts/Getty Images
Robert Lewandowski (30, 2021)
HONIGSTEIN: "There's talk that the club may want to extend, but I'd wait. I don't think it makes that much of a difference if a guy has one or two years left. You have to make a decision next year, not this year."
MARCOTTI: "Given how much of a pain his agent has been all those years when he pretended as if he wanted to leave, I'd call his bluff and wait to extend. Bayern got a lot of use out of him, but I'd imagine his minutes will decline."
VERDICT: Keep, but don't extend
OVERVIEW
If all our projected sales go through, we've raised around €75m. Throw in the €150m budget and subtract the €115m spent on Pavard and Hernandez and you're left with €110m. That's where things get tricky.
If you sign Nubel for €15m, that leaves you with €95m. You have to get another wide player, ideally a guy who can also fill in on those rare occasions when Lewandowski is not available. Timo Werner is an obvious choice, and given that he's a year away from free agency, you can get him for as little as €40m. Given his goal-scoring record and age (23), that would be great business, leaving you with €55m.
Then what?
Bayern love Kai Havertz -- though Bayer Leverkusen reportedly won't take less than €90m -- and they've been strongly linked to Leroy Sane (again, we're talking north of 70m). You need to raise some more cash to get one of those done, which means you need to sacrifice either Javi Martinez or Mats Hummels to have any kind of shot. Either that, or you need to increase your budget even further ... | {
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Product Description
We are preparing this kit for an up-grade and are taking pre-orders on this product for September 2020. All 6mm single and double joint will now by fully CNC manufactured as standard. All kits will be shipped on a first come first served basis. Pre-order now to avoid the 2020 price increase across this range.
NOW WITH CNC machined joints: This is a masivly anticipated and welcomed up-grade to the already super popular Anibild Three kit. CNC joints are stronger and perform better for longer. They are smoother in opperation and braze/solder with ease.
The Anibild Creature kit is designed to deliver multiple options and maximum effect required by model makers and animators. The kit contains over 100 stainless steel parts which offers limitless possibilities for character and creature construction. With an easy to follow assembly guide, you can create anything from a simple human skeleton (an armature) to four legged friends, dinosaurs and mythical beasts. Use these armatures to flesh out in clay or other material (not included) to create your fully realised characters. Through incremental movements, your characters can then be animated in sequences to create your very own film. The joints are compact, strong and robust perfect for amateur or professional filmmakers. The armature also features rigging points, which can be fully integrated with the Anibild Rig system to support and execute technical and dynamic animation moves. The Anibild Creature kit, although technical in it’s specification, is incredibly easy to assemble. All balls and bars are M3 threaded and can be secured into the balls using a strong thread-lock (not included) for a permanent fix. Anibild will also require basic hand tools to put together (not supplied).
Please note that you will need Locite thread-lock glue to make a permanent fixing off balls to threaded rod (not included) available to purchase here.
Key features:
20 engineered stainless steel joints
Hardened stainless steel balls and socket head screws
Jointed feet and toe with tie down
Magnetic 416 stainless steel feet for magnetic tie-down option
Integrated rigging system
Contents:
10 x 6mm stainless steel double joints
10 x 6mm stainless steel single joints
30 x 6mm stainless steel balls
20 x steel socket head grubs screws
2 x stainless steel t section hip and shoulder boss
5 x stainless steel hand/toe/head paddles
1 x Allen Key
10 x 10mm M3 threaded bar
10 x 25mm M3 threaded bar
10 x 50mm M3 threaded bar
10 x 75mm M3 threaded bar
4 x 100mm M3 threaded bar
1 x Allen key
1 x 1mm x 3m spool of aluminium wire (for fingers etc)
2 x M3 thread/washer/wing nut tie down
1 x Instructions | {
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The Golden State Warriors just couldn’t quite do it, there will be no “Back to Back” championship for the Bay Area as the Warriors came just a few crucial points short against the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight in Oakland… meanwhile the City of Cleveland is enjoying the end of a lengthy championship drought.
The Warriors would have been the first back to back NBA champions since the 2012-2013 Miami Heat.
Below is a collection of what would have been sold in stores to fans had the Warriors capped off their record-setting season with a championship, as you’d expect most of the merchandise features the “BACK 2 BACK” tag, some make note of the 73-wins the team had during the regular season. (there’s also a piece of merch in the collection below that misspells “Warriors” as “Warrios”… see if you can find it!)
We’ll start with what the players would have worn while celebrating on the court following the game, the “locker room” collection. Everything else is what would have been made available to fans, known as “retail-only”.
“LOCKER ROOM” COLLECTION
CAPS
SHIRTS
(click any thumbnail for larger version)
COLLECTIBLES
(click any thumbnail below for larger image)
Sorry Golden State, but you have nothing to be ashamed of. You’ll always have 2015.
Check out our other phantom championship merchandise posts here. | {
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What question do you wish Google were able to answer? If the survey commissioned by the TV channel Dave is to be believed, chances are your burning questions are what tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers will be, do aliens exist and what will happen to you when you die.
The top 25 questions mostly fall into four categories: conspiracies (Who shot JFK? Did Donald Trump rig the election?); desires for worldly success (Will I ever be rich? What will tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers be?); anxieties (Do people like me? Am I good in bed?); and curiosity about the ultimate questions (What is the meaning of life? Is there a God?).
Google, it seems, has taken on the jobs of oracle, soothsayer, sleuth, psychotherapist and priest. But although it might seem omnipotent, its ability to meet our deepest needs is clearly limited. Our desire for it to do so reveals much about us.
First, it shows that even though the world is rapidly changing, people’s preoccupations remain remarkably consistent. As Buddhists know, life is dukkha (unsatisfactory), so, as long as we remain attached to it, we will always be worried about being fitter, more attractive, wealthier and more successful.
We are also pattern-seekers, which is why we are perennially fascinated by the thought of hidden orders or secret plots. And because we are both blessed and cursed by intelligence and self-awareness, we will always wonder what life is all about.
What has changed is how we scratch these mental and emotional itches. We have become so used to getting what we want with a few clicks or swipes that, even when it comes to the biggest issues, we look to Google for immediate satisfaction.
A Google search, however, cannot give us the two things we most need: time and other people. For our day-to-day problems, a sympathetic ear remains the most powerful device for providing relief, if not a cure. For the bigger puzzles of existence, there is no substitute for long reflection, with help from the great thinkers of history. Google can lead us directly to them, but only we can spend time in their company. Search results can help us only if they are the start, not the end, of our intellectual quest. | {
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Stardew Valley is an amazing game, and the Switch port has perfected the few small issues I had with it. Goodbye social life.
Stardew Valley comes out on the Switch tomorrow, and playing it that way is is a no-brainer. The Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games, from which Stardew Valley is inspired, have long made their home on handheld consoles. The idea of taking the charm of a rural community with you on the subway, bus or other stressful mode of public transit is very appealing. What makes the game so great on the Switch is a bit more than its portability, however.
Stardew Valley has always had a few minor UI problems. On PC, everything is pretty much right except that the fishing minigame is nearly impossible with a mouse and keyboard. Using a controller, the fishing minigame is great, fun even, but you have to swing around an unwieldy cursor to do most other things. The cursor isn’t entirely gone from the Switch version, but you’ll never have to see it if you don’t want to. The game works entirely just using the JoyCon’s buttons, and it feels smooth and natural. You pick up items with A, scroll through your tools with the trigger buttons and use tools with Y. After a minute or two of getting used to the new scheme, I felt right at home.
In the Switch port, the controls are finally as intuitive as they should be, making Stardew Valley feel more at home here than on PC or other consoles. No longer do I dread doing the one really tedious task where I have to fight with the UI just to fill out the community center. Stardew Valley has always been hard to stop playing, but now that everything has been fine-tuned, this game has become very dangerous for me. In this middle of writing this very post, I absentmindedly picked up my Switch and played for another half hour, not even realizing that time was a-wasting. (Editor’s note: I did.)
I’m excited to visit Pelican Town in the park and on a plane, but more than that, Stardew Valley’s Switch port has perfected the few remaining problems with the game. It also looks great docked and on a TV. Now my only problem is who I’m going to marry this go-around. Abigail? Maru? Honestly I have no idea. | {
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“They wanted things by credit hours, they wanted a spring semester and a fall semester and deadlines for enrollment,” he told me. He wanted to charge students a fixed price for the course, since they’d be taking as much time as they needed, but the university wanted to charge for semesters and have differences for in-state and out-of-state students and to be able to impose tuition increases.
Most schools also have little financial incentive to structure themselves like WGU. If students can pass out of competencies and finish their degrees in just a few years, the college doesn’t earn as much money.
“If you’re certifying learning that they’ve done somewhere else, that doesn’t help you get money for learning that’s done on your campus,” Josh Wyner, the executive director of the College Excellence Program at the Aspen Institute, told me.
But schools like WGU also have no interest in completely replacing traditional colleges. WGU’s goal, Mendenhall told me, is to serve the students who can’t afford traditional colleges, or who don’t have schedules that would fit into the traditional college format. Just 66 percent of people who graduate from high school enroll in college the following fall, a recent study showed. And just 56 percent of students who embark on a bachelor’s degree program finish within six years, according to a 2011 study.
“The American our college system works fine for 20 or 30 percent of the population,” Mendenhall said. “But what are we doing about the other 60 percent?”
It might be difficult for competency-based programs to scale anyway. Since they are so focused on the relationship between a student and a mentor, the more students that enroll, the more mentors are needed, which can get costly.
Nevertheless, it’s a good sign that some universities are thinking about new ways to educate students, some of which are derived from the competency-based model. The competency-based takeaway of allowing students to bypass courses they already know, if they show familiarity, is being implemented at places like the University of Central Florida, which is making it easier for students to transfer community college credits to four-year degree-granting programs, saving time and money.
More schools are thinking about what they want their students to get out of a degree. And many schools are moving to incorporate an online-delivery model to serve students who live elsewhere.
“One of the great strengths of American higher education is diversity, and that will continue to be the case,” Merisotis told me. “But this model of education is not likely to endure for decades longer. We’re on the cusp of an evolution.”
This is a relief for people such as Daniella Kippnick. Her husband is from Germany, and whenever she looks at the contrast between the European education system and the American one, she feels frustrated with the lack of progress here. In Europe many universities are free, or cost very little. Kippnick’s husband actually got paid to attend school, because he got good grades.
It heartens Kippnick to think that her sons will be able to choose their own path, whether it be a German university, an American university, or an online school like WGU. One of the triplets wants to be a veterinarian, which Kippnick knows could be challenging to do online. But, she says, hopefully, in 10 years when he’s ready to go to school, he’ll have more options about how and where he learns whatever subject he chooses.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected]. | {
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Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamLincoln Project mocks Lindsey Graham's fundraising lag with Sarah McLachlan-themed video The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by Facebook - Republicans lawmakers rebuke Trump on election Trump dumbfounds GOP with latest unforced error MORE (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that President Trump should be allowed to repeal Obama-era protections for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children.
“If our current president (Trump) cannot repeal or replace an Executive Order of the prior president (Obama), then the most recent presidential election is nullified,” Graham tweeted Tuesday after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case over the matter in question.
Graham added that he finds it “hard to believe” the court “would deny President Trump the ability to cancel an Obama-era Executive Order on immigration.”
I find it hard to believe the Supreme Court would deny President Trump the ability to cancel an Obama-era Executive Order on immigration.
The way to solve the DACA issue has ALWAYS been through legislation, not an Executive Order. — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 12, 2019
“The way to solve the DACA issue has ALWAYS been through legislation, not an Executive Order,” he said.
The justices are divided over whether to allow Trump to end protections under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The DACA program protects nearly 700,000 undocumented young adult immigrants from deportation.
Questions from conservative justices during oral arguments suggested they appear to think the administration has supplied legally sound reasons for eliminating DACA. Many of the court’s liberal members suggested they view the DACA repeal as within the court’s purview. | {
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REUTERS - U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said on Monday he was “not 100 percent” certain he would participate in a debate this week co-hosted by Fox News Channel because he did not think moderator Megyn Kelly could treat him fairly.
Trump told CNN he would probably participate, but added: “I’m not 100 percent; I’ll see. If I think I’m going to be treated unfairly, I’ll do something else. But I don’t think she can treat me fairly, actually, I think she’s very biased. But that doesn’t mean I don’t do the debate.”
Trump added he had won every debate so far. “So I want to do the debates, they’re good for me, but I don’t think she can treat me fairly and I’m not a big fan of hers. Maybe I know too much about her.”
Thursday’s debate, also co-hosted by Google, is the last one before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the nomination race for the Nov. 8 presidential election.
Later on Monday, Fox News responded to Trump’s remarks in an emailed statement it attributed to a network spokesperson.
“Sooner or later Donald Trump, even if he’s president, is going to have to learn that he doesn’t get to pick the journalists - we’re very surprised he’s willing to show that much fear about being questioned by Megyn Kelly.”
Following a debate hosted by Fox News last August, the real estate billionaire accused the network and Kelly of asking him tougher questions than those asked of the other candidates. Kelly responded that probing questions were part of her job.
Trump also drew criticism at the time for comments that many people interpreted as suggesting that Kelly was affected by hormones during the debate.
Trump’s blunt speaking style has boosted ratings for the Republican presidential debates. The August debate on Fox News drew 24 million viewers, a record for a presidential primary debate and the highest non-sports telecast in cable TV history. | {
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Crypto Valley report shows rise in blockchain companies
842 companies are now operating in Crypto Valley.
The latest CV VC Top 50 Report has found a moderate rise in blockchain companies from 810 in the first half of 2019 to 842 in the second half
The report’s fourth edition takes into account blockchain companies with over 4,400 employees, and includes new additions such as Bittrex and CasperLabs.
Compiled by investment firm Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CV VC), the report also found that the valuation of the top 50 blockchain companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein adds up to $25.3 billion.
Despite the amount of companies growing, the collective valuation of the market has seen a decrease, with a main reason found to be the decline in value of Ethereum; this almost halved during the second half of 2019.
Excluding Ethereum, the value of blockchain companies in Crypto Valley remained almost unchanged from the first half of 2019, adding up to $10.8 billion.
“The latest figures from the CV VC Top 50 Report show that Crypto Valley, with its 842 companies, has become more stable and mature,” said Mathias Ruch, founder and CEO of CV VC. “Switzerland and Liechtenstein are still attractive hubs, which bring important companies, platforms and projects to Switzerland.”
Eight blockchain hotspots were found within Crypto Valley, with just over half of the companies being based in Zug.
Other thriving hubs for blockchain include Zurich (139 companies), Geneva (45), Ticino (42), Vaud (27), Lucerne (16) and Berne (14).
The amount of companies in Liechtenstein, meanwhile, doubled to 80 within the last six months.
A factor that’s been credited with aiding the rise in companies is the emergence of crypto banks such as SEBA Bank and Sygnum Bank, which have been approved by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), a financial regulatory body.
Additionally, other companies such as Bitcoin Suisse have applied for a banking licence.
“The strength of the Swiss Blockchain ecosystem is obvious,” said Daniel Diemers, partner at Strategy& Switzerland. “Not only are crypto brokers and now crypto banks causing a stir, but also large-scale tokenisation projects.
“Added to this is the generally higher level of activity in the area of blockchain, especially among traditional industrial companies in Switzerland.”
Strategy&, along with Inacta and Cointelegraph, collaborated with CV VC to collate the report.
This article is tagged with: | {
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Anything I write on KPS Gill cannot be unbiased. There is a story from the time of Partition that he often related. Living in Lahore, as apprehensions of violence grew, his mother handed him a sword and charged him with killing his younger sister before taking on any possible attackers. Thankfully he never did have occasion to wield that sword on that young girl, my mother.
He often related this story, not simply as an anecdote but as an expression of one of his fundamental beliefs, that the illusion of order that we take for granted in society lies only a few events or moments away from a destructive chaos. The use of an anecdote to illustrate a larger point, one which he always left up to his listener to draw, was typical of his thinking. It was also the reason why he was so largely misunderstood by those who cannot think for themselves, whether they be Left liberals or from the Right.
This is not the place to outline my personal debt to him, which is considerable – from my passion for science and chess as well as a love for literature. This is where I want to argue that not only have the Left liberals made a mess of their understanding of what happened in Punjab, the Right-Wing chest-thumpers who hold him as model for counter-insurgency also have very little idea of what they are talking about.
There is just one thing both Left liberals and Right Wingers seem to agree on, that Gill’s “brutal approach” was what worked in Punjab. These liberals, loath to admit that policing by itself can tackle terrorism, which they believe must always be rooted in some genuine grievance, prefer to qualify Gill’s success by claiming terror in Punjab had lost public support. Right Wingers attribute Gill’s success in full measure to his “brutal approach”, and see it as a vindication of their call for brutal policing or counterinsurgency measures in tackling armed opponents of the Indian State.
The numbers tell the story
Such claims can be endlessly debated with words, so it is best to stay with the numbers. Just consider the following table (based on Institute for Conflict Management data) showing the fatalities with some care.
Data Source: Institute of Conflict Management
I have used the figures of killings/month across categories during the years of Punjab terrorism (militancy is a cringe-worthy description) to assess the impact of Gill as the person in charge of the Punjab Police. If command responsibility and credit are to be judged, they must be judged from the overall situation in the state, not from isolated incidents or anecdotal reportage.
The table makes it evident that that Gill’s tenure as DGP saw an overall decline in killings as compared to the tenures of both his predecessor and his successor. His predecessor was Julio Ribeiro, who is continually cited by liberals because he speaks against Modi today, while they ignore the fact that in his tenure the police was losing control as violence in the state mounted, which is why Gill had to take over. He was succeeded by DS Mangat, who presided over the worst period of killings in Punjab, but virtually no rights organisation brings up his name.
Image: Hindustan Times
Gill first took over as Director General of Police of Punjab in May 1988 just prior to Black Thunder II, the operation conducted under Gill’s command and control that, unlike the disastrous Blue Star, saw the security forces oust terrorists from the Golden Temple without entering the premises. By the end of 1989, terror in Punjab had been constricted to a narrow portion of the state. In his piece Endgame in Punjab, Gill writes,
“Almost 76 percent of all terrorist incidents in 1989 were contained within four police districts along the border (out of a total of 15 police districts in the state)…By the 4th quarter of 1989, just 13 police stations (out of a total of 217 in the entire state) accounted for nearly 65 percent of all terrorist crime (and 64 percent of all civilian casualties)…I was then, and still remain, absolutely convinced that terrorism, at this juncture, could have been wiped out …within another six months.”
Instead, VP Singh became prime minister. Gill writes,
“…’healing hearts’ he (VP Singh) believed, was all that was needed…All that was required was a little symbolism, a few sympathetic, sentimental gestures, and the violence, the terror, would melt away…For over five years (since Bhinderanwale’s death) the movement had been divested of a public voice…But now elected MPs openly spoke of ‘Khalistan’.”
The numbers tell their own story. Monthly killings in the state across categories doubled. By the end of 1990, VP Singh ceded power to Chandra Shekhar and Gill was moved out of the state. Gill returned to Punjab in November 1991. But the intervening 10 months in 1991 when Gill was not even in the state, till October (with Chandra Shekhar in charge till June), saw the worst stretch of violence in Punjab through the years of terrorism.
It is one thing that on the average civilian killings increased by 16% in his absence, it is quite another that the average monthly number of terrorists killed by the Punjab Police in Gill’s absence was a staggering 67% higher (184 as compared to 110) than when he had been in charge. From 13 police stations in 4 police districts, the Left liberals’ favoured approach in tackling Khalistani terror had seen it spread to 47 police stations across 11 police districts.
Within a month of Gill’s return to Punjab, civilian killings dropped by 42% and the killings of terrorists declined by 9%. In another year, civilian killings came down from 232 to 4 per month, the number of terrorists killed from 184 to 67 and terrorism virtually ended by the end of 1993. Gill’s return saw a steep decline in civilian killings along with a decline in the killings of terrorists and it brought peace to Punjab. If Gill’s success was born out of brutality, then it seems strange that as soon as he left the state the killing of terrorists rose dramatically (the spread of terror also increased dramatically), and as soon as he returned the number of terrorists killed declined while terror got constricted and was finally erased from Punjab.
The credit for peace in Punjab goes almost entirely to the combination of his leadership and the political climate he was allowed to operate in. Moreover, those who accuse him of succeeding through unchecked force simply do not know what they are talking about.
Image: Hindustan Times
Brutality or ruthlessness were hardly what distinguished him, as the numbers suggest, what distinguished him was his strategic brilliance and I can only point readers here to his piece Endgame in Punjab cited above and it needs to be read in its entirety. Right Wingers have taken away nothing of his methods and insights into fighting terror, they have only fallen prey to an image he carefully cultivated in a state where braggadocio counted for much.
A few days ago, as guests arrived to pay their condolences after his death, there was no shortage of policemen telling their favoured Gill anecdotes. One of them recalled a missive by Gill soon after he took over as DGP, summoning a meeting of the top brass of the Punjab Police at a village in the heart of the terrorist-affected district of Tarn Taran (the media had begun terming it the Republic of Khalistan). But the 2 am timing seemed a mistake, “No one,” he recalled, “dared check with Gill”.
“One officer finally mustered the courage to show him the message and hesitantly ask if the timing was a misprint. Gill looked at it, kept it to one side and continued with what he was doing. The officer, already having dared more than most would ever do, withdrew. A few nights later the hesitant officers sped through the Tarn Taran night, each in a convoy of a dozen vehicles, red lights flashing. Most, still unsure, expected Gill to be fast asleep in Chandigarh but sure enough when they alighted he was there, a towering figure in the dead of the night. He looked at the assembled officers, told them the meeting was over, and that was that, everyone headed back. It took us a while to realise the convoys had conveyed the impression of overwhelming force descending on the area. Operation Night Dominance had begun without a word being said, a bullet being fired. The police would soon take back the night.’’
Human Rights Watch
The Right Wingers with their misconceptions, and no understanding of the methods Gill employed, tend to play into the hands of organisations such as Human Rights Watch, which have continued to distort what happened. The Human Rights Watch report titled “Protecting the Killers, A Policy of Impunity in Punjab, India” hinges on the claim that
“In the early 1990s, Director General of Police (DGP) KPS Gill expanded upon a system of rewards and incentives for police to capture and kill militants, leading to an increase in “disappearances” and extrajudicial executions of civilians and militants alike.”
The sourcing for this claim is the same article by Gill that I have quoted from. The report says:
In “Endgame in Punjab: 1988-1993”, Gill describes how he developed “a radical policy of postings and promotions.”
Let me cite the full quote from Gill to put this in context,
“Two parallel elements constituted the strategy to create an active and accountable police leadership. One involved a radical policy of postings and promotions through which sensitive areas and critical operations were headed by officers (often very young officers) who were willing to confront dangers and take personal initiatives, and most of whom volunteered for these high-risk assignments.”
Somehow it doesn’t quite sound so venal when quoted in its entirety. Now if this policy was responsible for increasing the number of killings of terrorists, why did the number of terrorists killed start declining as soon as Gill took over in 1991 and continue to fall till terrorism ended? Whatever the policy that the Human Rights Watch believed was in place actually seems to have led to a continual decline ‘in “disappearances” and extrajudicial executions of civilians and militants alike’ with Gill in charge.
Interestingly, the report which deals with the period from 1984 to 1995 has not a single mention of Mangat, VP Singh or Chandra Shekhar, each of whom should be culpable for the worst period of violence in Punjab (which registered the highest average number of terrorists deaths) when Gill was not even present in the state. Even Julio Ribeiro finds no mention in the report, but KPS Gill who takes over only in 1988 is mentioned 20 times.
Simply put, the facts in Punjab do not support the narrative built up by organisations such as the Human Rights Watch. For such organisations, Gill is a target not because he was the most brutal officer in charge (as the numbers suggest quite the opposite), but because he was the most capable, because he succeeded. They have done so to avoid facing up to the truth that a policy of healing hearts and minds in a state where terrorism never had the support of more than a tiny minority led to the worst bloodletting, a bloodletting in which the confusion they continue to propound by calling terrorism militancy, was culpable. The Khalistanis endorse this because nothing suits them more.
Distorted figures
None of this is to deny that there are systemic patterns of human rights violations wherever the Indian security forces operate, and these do rise and fall in synch with the intensity of the violence they combat. But we should be careful of how such violations are processed. The oft-repeated figure of 25,000 disappearances in Punjab between 1985-1994 is a complete fabrication. The figures (2,059) for unidentified cremations in three crematoria in Amritsar, Majitha and Tarn Taran police districts (the areas by far worst affected by terrorism) were multiplied by all the crematoria in Punjab to arrive at this absurdity. It is like taking fatalities at the busiest traffic crossing in Delhi and multiplying this by every blinking light to arrive at traffic deaths in Delhi. Looking at killings in various violent incidents in Punjab between 1981 to 2000, suggests that 27% of all violent incidents took place in these three districts (an overestimate since data is for 23 districts but there were only 14 police districts when the evidence was collected), which would suggest the extrapolation (still an overestimate) should take us to a figure of 7,650 unidentified cremations in the state over 11 years.
Crucially, no effort was made to place this in context by examining such figures from preceding and succeeding periods. For example NCRB data indicates that 1,004 unidentified bodies were disposed of in Punjab in 2011 and 928 in 2015, that is the state averaged about a 1,000 such bodies at a time of complete calm. Over 11 years this would amount to 11,000 such bodies. In 2015, the number of such bodies disposed of across India added up to 34,600.
Similarly, the accusations of custodial torture in Punjab are likely not just to be true but just what we should expect. Custodial torture is widely practiced by the Indian police across the country at any time, without it arousing anywhere near the revulsion it should. All this would suggest the police excesses during the years of terror in Punjab are in keeping with the pattern of policing in this country in ordinary times. This does not wish away the question of serious rights violations, what it does is bring into question the claim that these were the basis for the police’s success in Punjab. If success could be achieved by such means, terror would fail to thrive or continue anywhere in India. Organisations failing to focus on day to day rights violations actually are making the absurd demand that the police should be held to higher standards during counter-terror operations than they should be at other times.
The end result of such propaganda is a complete misunderstanding of what was achieved in Punjab. Brutality as policy is destined to failure, as is the desire to disregard policing as the first and the most necessary response to terror. The few times where Gill’s methods have been replicated, in Tripura and Andhra Pradesh against the Maoists, they have met with the same success as they did in Punjab. Unfortunately, our policy makers are yet to learn from him, and in the current scenario where ideology trumps evidence both for the Left liberals and the hardliners, it seems they never will.
Hartosh Singh Bal is the political editor at The Caravan, and is the author of Waters Close Over Us: A Journey Along the Narmada. | {
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Rand Paul’s Pandering To Social Conservatives Likely To Turn Off Other Supporters
Rand Paul has been cozying up to social conservatives lately, but he risks alienating the people most likely to support his campaign for the White House.
Doug Mataconis · · 44 comments
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who seems to be engaging in some heavy pandering toward social conservatives in recent weeks:
Earlier this week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made an about-face on defense spending. He also shifted on same-sex marriage. Speaking to a group of pastors in Washington on Thursday, Paul said that a moral crisis is leading people to believe that same-sex marriage is acceptable. There is a “moral crisis that allows people to think there would be some other sort of marriage,” aside from traditional marriage, Paul said, according to a video from CBN News/The Brody File. Attendees included Jerry Johnson, chief executive of National Religious Broadcasters, and David Lane of the American Renewal Project. The video and amendment that Paul put forward to boost defense spending show a sharp tack to the right from the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican as he moves toward an expected presidential bid announcement next month. In an interview with CNN in October, Paul said he believes in “old-fashioned marriage,” but he said that the government shouldn’t be involved and that the Republican Party can “have people on both sides of the issue.” When asked if he could rethink his opposition to same-sex marriage, Paul shrugged. A spokesman for Paul said the senator’s position “has not changed” and “continues to believe that marriage is an issue that should be dealt with at the state level.” Paul told the pastors that they have a role in Washington and that prayer is a part of government. “The First Amendment says keep government out of religion. It doesn’t say keep religion out of government,” Paul said, according to the video. Paul also called for “another Great Awakening, with tent revivals” of people calling for reform. “Or see what’s going to happen if we don’t reform,” he said.\
On a related note, Buzzfeed reported yesterday on a previously unnoticed 2013 interview in which Paul said that he did not believe in gay rights, because being gay is a behavior:
Sen. Rand Paul said he doesn’t buy into the concept of gay rights because they are defined by a gay person’s lifestyle. “I don’t think I’ve ever used the word gay rights, because I don’t really believe in rights based on your behavior,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters in a videotaped interview that has received little attention since it was recorded in 2013. But it’s unclear how far — and to whom — Paul extends the argument that rights cannot be defined by behavior. Practicing religion, for example, is a behavior enshrined as a primary American right. Free speech is behavior protected by the Bill of Rights. Likewise, a person’s right to be free from discrimination for his or her nation of origin — which entails the behavior of moving from one country to the United States — is embedded in America’s civil rights laws and broader code of values. Does Paul believe those behaviors are protected rights? Eleanor May, a spokesperson for Paul’s 2016 re-election campaign to the U.S. Senate, said the rights that count are those in the country’s founding charter. “What he is saying in this video is that he does not classify rights based on behavior, but rather recognizes rights for all, as our Constitution defines it,” May told BuzzFeed News. “Sen. Paul is the biggest proponent for protecting the Bill of Rights, which, as you know, protects the rights of all Americans as stated in our Constitution,” May said.
Explicitly religious rhetoric like this isn’t new for Republicans, of course, but it’s generally something you’d expect to hear more from Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, or Ben Carson than from a candidate who has spent most of his time in the political limelight trying to walk a very fine line between the libertarians that have been the strongest supporters of him and his father and the social conservatives that make up an important constituency in the Republican Party, and especially in states such as Iowa and South Carolina that will play a big role in deciding who the front runners for the GOP nomination in 2016. Previously when it came to the marriage issue, Paul walked that line by taking the position that marriage is an issue that should be left to the states, that the Federal Government had no role in the matter, and in some cases even that marriage itself should be something that the state wasn’t involved in at all. With comments like this, though, Paul seems to be clearly coming down on the side of the social conservatives more than he has in the past, and as Olivia Nuzzi notes, in doing so he risks alienating another part of the political coalition that he depends on:
Paul supporters will tell you they like him because he is different. Compared to someone like Ted Cruz, who arrives onstage looking like he has just climbed out of a vat of oil, speaking in tongues and promising everyone liberty and candy, Rand Paul, who talks slowly but thinks fast like Daria and isn’t particularly good at shaking hands, is about as real as it gets. But Paul keeps testing their patience. With the rise of ISIS, we learned that Paul’s skepticism of military intervention was milder than he advertised. By signing the GOP’s open letter to Iran, it became clear that the senator values political expediency to the degree that he will sign a document explicitly designed to do the opposite of what he claims he wants, which was to halt the nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran – the very negotiations Paul claimed (and continues to claim) to be in favor of. And, now, in the setting of an intimate gathering of evangelicals, Paul transforms from keep-the-government-out-of-it to a full-fledged gay marriage interventionist.
Paul’s recent comments, as well as the interview from 2013, have the potential to undermine another part of the coalition his strategists seem to be relying upon in the upcoming campaign. One part of that coalition, of course, are libertarian oriented voters including, but not necessarily limited to, the people who supported his father’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012. Seemingly anti-gay rhetoric such as this from Paul doesn’t seem as though it is going to go over very well with this crowd. As one of those potential supporters, I can say that my opinion of Senator Paul has diminished the more he has pandered to the social conservative wing of the GOP, and rhetoric like this just makes that pandering seem all the worse. This group of voters may not be very large in many primary states, but it has been enthusiastic in the past but in terms of willingness to volunteer for campaigns and turn out to vote. If Paul starts to turn those voters off, then that makes the task of staying near the top of the GOP pack all the more difficult.
It isn’t just with the libertarian wing of the GOP that Paul risks discrediting himself with his supporters, though. More so than any of the other potential Republican candidates, Senator Paul has made a conscious effort to appeal to younger voters, primarily by emphasizing his positions on civil liberties issues, sentencing reform, and other issues. As Shane Goldmacher noted in National Journal recently, this is a risky strategy to begin with given the fact that Republican primary voters tend to be older, and the fact that younger voters don’t tend to vote in large numbers to begin with, particularly in Republican primaries. Given their strength in states like Iowa and South Carolina, it’s not surprising that Paul is trying to appeal to social conservatives. He’s going to be competing for those voters with a number of other candidates, though, many of whom have far deeper ties to that wing of the Republican Party than he does. As it stands, his current round of pandering seems as likely to turn off others who might be inclined to vote for him as it does to help him with that one segment of the party. | {
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This story appears in the August 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine.
The set is simple: a little fabric, a chair, maybe some flowers. Its inhabitants are more complex: an American mother who takes her children to visit their Mexican father every weekend. A recent deportee trying to rebuild his life. They pause what they’re doing, sit for a portrait, and leave with a printed copy. Behind the camera is Alexia Webster, a South African photographer who sets up street studios around the world. At Studio Transfronterizo, her project in Tijuana, Mexico, passing characters offer a glimpse of life on the world’s busiest land border.
View Images NGM Maps
Every day nearly 100,000 people—commuters, students, visitors—legally cross from Tijuana to San Diego, California, at the San Ysidro border. Webster built her first studio in Tijuana near a café where new arrivals often stop for legal advice and a free lunch. She set up a half dozen more in the city: at a migrant shelter, on the beach where the border fence ends, in the Undocumented Café near the binational Friendship Park.
View Images In 2018 caravans of migrants from Central America began walking toward the U.S. border. Besy Samileth, a 17-year-old from Honduras, traveled with her father to pursue a dream of becoming a teacher.
Passersby who asked what she was doing often sat for a portrait. Lourdes Santiago González posed with her daughter, Brenda. She’d arrived decades earlier with her family to cross the border but after multiple failed attempts had stayed in Tijuana. At each set, lines of people waited: a former gang member deported from California. A celebrity impersonator performing on the nightclub circuit. Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador en route to the United States.
Nine-year-old Jaime Preciado nudged his dad onto the set. He wanted to “have a memory of us together” before his father went back to California.
More than a decade ago Webster was photographing for the United Nations in a refugee camp in Kenya when a man told her he’d watched photographers visit for 15 years but didn’t have a single picture of himself or his family. Webster thought of a studio shot of her grandparents with her mom as a child soon after they emigrated from Greece to South Africa. “It’s the most precious photograph I own,” she says. “It’s a connection to who I am.” Many of Webster’s subjects had fled war, leaving personal archives behind. One photo could help them rebuild.
In 2011, with a printer and a temporary portrait studio on a corner in Cape Town, Webster invited people to pose for a free session. She printed their picture on the spot. “Primarily it’s for them, for their kids, their grandkids, their lovers, their friends,” she says. “It’s a record of who they are.” Webster has since put up studios in other places, from the streets of Mumbai, India, to a refugee camp in South Sudan.
She gives few instructions from behind the camera. “The idea of the project is for people to rebuild their archive and reaffirm their identity,” Webster says. “I like for them to determine how they want their photo to be. How do you want to be represented?”
View Images Webster hopes her street studio series allows migrants like Guillermo Antonio Escobar, a construction worker from El Salvador, to rebuild the photo archives they may have lost during difficult times. | {
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With so much media-manufactured controversy surrounding President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that our president possesses superpowers unlike any we have seen in his recent predecessors.
Trump can get Democrats to oppose virtually anything, even something they have supported for their entire careers, simply by coming out in favor of it.
One example was on display last week when the president defied conventional wisdom and party stereotypes by holding a Prison Reform Summit at the White House. The purpose was to find ways to reduce recidivism and to help ex-offenders become employees and taxpayers instead of simply “felons.”
In holding this conference and starting on the serious and much needed path to reform, Trump once again showed that he is not beholden to conventional political paradigms. He has attempted to include in this process such diverse groups as elected Republicans, elected Democrats, the Koch brothers and even people from the entertainment world.
The concept has been driven by Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner Jared Corey KushnerAbraham Accords: New hope for peace in Middle East Tenants in Kushner building file lawsuit alleging dangerous living conditions Trump hosts Israel, UAE, Bahrain for historic signing MORE who proposed a prison reform bill, in addition to an unlikely union between CNN commentator Van Jones and Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist.
Let me first add that I am loyal supporter of the president and his agenda, a member of the “base” of the conservative movement and more akin to members of the House Freedom Caucus than House leadership. My flavor of conservatism is that of Rep. Thomas Massie Thomas Harold MassieGOP lawmaker praises Kyle Rittenhouse's 'restraint' for not emptying magazine during shooting Rep. Dan Meuser tests positive for COVID-19 Liz Cheney wins Wyoming GOP primary in reelection bid MORE (R-Ky.) and Sens. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzTrump argues full Supreme Court needed to settle potential election disputes Press: Notorious RBG vs Notorious GOP The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by Facebook - Washington on edge amid SCOTUS vacancy MORE (R-Texas), Mike Lee Michael (Mike) Shumway LeeMcConnell shores up GOP support for coronavirus package McConnell tries to unify GOP Davis: The Hall of Shame for GOP senators who remain silent on Donald Trump MORE (R-Utah) and Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulSecond GOP senator to quarantine after exposure to coronavirus GOP senator to quarantine after coronavirus exposure The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by National Industries for the Blind - Trump seeks to flip 'Rage' narrative; Dems block COVID-19 bill MORE (R-Ky.). As a strong conservative I see this bill as a tremendous opportunity to advance the cause of smaller government, individual liberty, and to cut spending.
As reported by CNBC, the bill would “require the federal prison system to evaluate inmates after sentencing and provide services to help them avoid becoming repeat offenders, including drug treatment, job training and mental health counseling.”
Sound controversial? It shouldn’t. It should sound like common sense, but it doesn’t in a nation so divided that both sides are in the business of manufacturing argument.
Democrats were immediately outraged by this blatant attempt on the part of the president to take positive action on something for which they have long been in favor. Rounding up the usual suspects, Rep. Sheila Jackson (D-Texas) and Sens. Cory Booker Cory Anthony BookerBipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death DHS opens probe into allegations at Georgia ICE facility Democratic lawmakers call for an investigation into allegations of medical neglect at Georgia ICE facility MORE (D-N.J.), Dick Durbin Richard (Dick) Joseph DurbinTumultuous court battle upends fight for Senate McConnell focuses on confirming judicial nominees with COVID-19 talks stalled Senate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden MORE (D-Ill.) and other Democrats issued a statement urging Democrats to oppose Trump ideas because his plan does not yet speak to sentencing guidelines and requirements.
For a group that is supposedly so concerned with the unfairness of the American prison system, it's some stunning hypocrisy. But it's an example of Trump employing his mind-control power to make Democrats oppose something they previously supported.
The idea that serious people would oppose something that is a major step in the right direction simply because it isn’t everything they can imagine illustrates and exposes their true agenda; they don’t want to solve a problem for their constituents, they just want to have the problem to run on in the next election.
It continues. The rapper Meek Mill grabs a microphone anywhere he goes and rails against the unfairness of the criminal justice system. President Trump invited him to the summit so he would have a chance to contribute ideas and be part of the solution. Pressure from fellow rapper Jay-Z publicly shamed away Meek Mill from attending. You see, when Meek Mill gets a chance to sit down and attend a meeting with the president of the United States, who has the power to create change, he declines because it might hurt his record sales. Suddenly he is against something he was for, before he was against it.
The facts surrounding this are clear and the numbers are staggering. Right now, more than two million Americans are in prison, of which nearly 95 percent will eventually be released. This year alone, America will release almost 700,000 prisoners and if patterns hold, well over 50 percent will commit another crime and go back to prison. It is a sad truth that the people statistically most likely to commit a crime are the people who already served time for committing one.
From a math perspective, this is a no-brainer. The bill authorizes a mere $50 million annually to create the risk and assessment system and carry out anti-recidivism programs. On the other hand, the White House Council of Economic Advisors says that the reforms can save taxpayers $1.47 billion to $5.27 billion. For some further perspective, Congress appropriated $7.2 billion for the federal prison system in FY 2018. The authorization for this program would amount to 0.68 percent of that annual total. Considering the additional savings associated with reduced crime and recidivism, the bill will easily save taxpayer dollars.
There are 183,881 inmates under Bureau of Prison custody held in federal prisons, with 54 percent under 40 years old. Of that population, 71 percent are serving sentences of 15 years or less, and 95 percent will be released at some time. Do we want to condemn those people to a revolving door of prison-to-release to prison-to-release? Do we want to try something else? Democrats have long wanted to. Until now, when they no longer want to because the president also wants to.
This recidivism comes at a great cost to society, and it leads to the complete and total ruination of the individual. Americans almost universally embrace the notion of redemption when it comes to fictional stories or celebrity downfalls. Conservatives have long had a weakness in this area when it comes to those convicted of a crime because of their reflexive “law and order” posturing. Trump is trying to help them get past that.
Democrats, social justice warriors, on the other hand, have no excuse. Their self-righteous professing of compassion for the least among us has been relentless and deafening. Presented with an opportunity to create meaningful change and make a real difference in the lives of real people, they balk. They posture, they protest, and they whine. Using his superpowers, President Trump has exposed them to be both dishonest and pathetic.
As a loyal Trump supporter, member of the conservative base, and grassroots organizer, I call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellPelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Senate GOP aims to confirm Trump court pick by Oct. 29: report Trump argues full Supreme Court needed to settle potential election disputes MORE to immediately bring this bill to the Senate floor for a vote and rally his members to pass the most impactful prison reform in American history.
Charlie Kirk (@CharlieKirk11) is the founder and president of Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit that aims to educate students on free-market values. | {
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LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A bizarre case is unfolding in a Los Angeles courtroom where a mother is accused of keeping her special-needs son locked away in a closet, ultimately causing his death.His nickname growing up was "chubby."But when detectives found 11-year-old Yonatan in a closet, he was a shocking 34 pounds."I saw a very gaunt, frail-looking child. Who at that time to me looked like a 5, 6 or 7 year-old boy," said LAPD Det. Abel Munoz.Veronica Aguilar, a mother of four, is accused of neglect, causing Yonatan's death.Investigators are bewildered at how she and her other children kept Yonatan hidden in a closet in a tiny one-bedroom house in Echo Park - a secret to his stepdad for three years.The boy's stepdad, Jose Pinzon, testified that she had told him that she sent the boy away to Mexico for treatment.Yonatan had special needs and behavior problems in school.Pinzon testified through interpreters that consultations with psychologists didn't seem to help, that his mother spoke often of sending him back to Mexico where he might get better treatment. And that she was undocumented and felt helpless."She would cry a lot because she would say she didn't know what to do," Pinzon testified.Pinzon says he never saw any sign that Yonatan was in the house. He worked 18 hours a day, and he slept on the floor away from the kids and his wife.He was baffled, then hysterical when Aguilar told him she had not sent the boy to Mexico, that he was dead in their own house.How did the child die? There's evidence that Aguilar was feeding him an alcohol-based cold medicine that made him sleepy.The preliminary hearing is continuing for several days. Also set to testify are Yonatan's siblings and the coroner. | {
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Italian tennis player Daniele Bracciali has partially admitted to match-fixing, according to an Associated Press report.
The admission came during a hearing last week in which "he admitted a few things and he denied a few things," investigator Roberto Di Matino said.
A five-time ATP tour event doubles champion, Bracciali, 36, was being investigated by Italian authorities for comments made during a 2007 Skype conversation with his accountant.
His doubles partner, Potito Starace, is also under investigation. Starace, 33, is ranked 166th on the singles tour; Braccialli focuses on doubles. The pair reached the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2012.
According to the AP,
In a July 2007 conversation on Skype between Bracciali and an accountant who was arrested in 2011, Bracciali discussed arranging a match in Newport, Rhode Island, against American player Scoville Jenkins. Jenkins won 6-2, 6-1.
In 2011, an owner of a betting parlor who was later arrested was heard saying Starace agreed to sell the final of a tournament in Casablanca. Pablo Andujar of Spain won the final 6-1, 6-2.
This is not Bracciali or Starace's first rule-breaking incident. They are among five Italian players suspended during the 2007-2008 ATP tour season in relation ot betting.
Investigators first spotted the conversations while looking into separate match-fixing allegations related to soccer. | {
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Description:
Mary Albert, the daughter of the prominent noble Albert house, remembers that this world is an otome game she played in her past life. And she is the game protagonist... Er, the protagonist's enemy, the typical noble villainess who bullies the protagonist.If matters proceed like that in the game, her family will fall into ruin and she herself will be incarcerated in the northernmost ends. "I will not accept a life like that!" She makes up her mind to avoid her ruin――Or NOT?!'On the contrary, I will take the Ruin Course, and the one to have the last laugh won't be me! Together with my sarcastic attendant, I will aim for ruin!' | {
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An anchor for Iran's state-run TV resigned today because of "lies" surrounding Iranian airstrikes that downed a Boeing 737-800 passenger plane above Tehran last week.
"Iran State TV's anchor resigns saying, 'It was very hard for me to believe the killing of my countrymen. I apologize for lying to you on TV for 13 years,'" it was reported.
Journalists in Iran have struggled to report factually on the events surrounding the recent airstrikes due to the government's strong grasp on media outlets. President Trump demanded the Iranians "turn your internet back on" yesterday after the Iranian government moved to shut off communications to the outside world.
Iran initially refused to take responsibility for the crash and said they would not allow the United States or Boeing to investigate the contents of the flight's black box recorder.
Days later, after a video was released showing a missile striking the Ukrainian airliner, the Iranian government claimed a missile "unintentionally" hit the plane, instantly killing all 176 passengers on board. More than 80 Iranians died as a result of the plane crash.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that "preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces: Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster." | {
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Kesha is gaining more star power in her fight against record producer Dr. Luke as P!nk and Avril Lavigne personally sign off on documents in support of the singer.
According to documents obtained by The Blast, both P!nk and Avril filed sworn affidavits in the defamation case Luke filed against Kesha.
Both women of rock, who had each previously worked with Luke in the past, stated that their decisions to stop working with the producer had nothing to do with Kesha.
The "What About Us" singer states, "The reason I have not worked with Dr. Luke since 2006 has nothing to do with Kesha Sebert, her words, or her actions."
The Blast
Avril's document has the same statement, except her end date with Luke wasn't until 2007.
The support of both stars is important because Luke is accusing Kesha of costing him millions of dollars in work over her claims of sexual assault. He previously said he could have made over $10 million with Katy Perry that he believes he lost because of Kesha's influence.
As we reported, Kesha sent a text message to Lady Gaga alleging Luke had raped Perry. However, Kesha now claims she was not the first one to reveal that information to Gaga, and says someone else had told them both at the same time. She also says Luke is trying to drag out the defamation case and cause her to become bankrupt due to legal fees.
In the most recent document filing, it was also revealed both Kelly Clarkson and Adam Levine were deposed in the case.
The war between the two remains ongoing in what's turning out to be a celeb-packed legal showdown.
The Blast | {
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(Reuters) - There are 600,000 homes in Texas and Florida alone that need re-roofed or repaired and results over the next month will give some sign of how much the resulting squeeze on building materials will benefit suppliers over the next year.
A resident of a mobile home park lies near a home that was destroyed by a falling tree in the wake of Hurricane Irma in Kissimmee, Florida, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Gregg Newton
Shares in firms like USG Corp USG.N, Owens Corning OC.N, Eagle Materials Inc EXP.N, Beacon Roofing Supply Inc BECN.O and GMS Inc GMS.N have jumped about 10-20 percent since Hurricane Harvey and Irma struck the region a month ago.
But data and industry estimates suggest there may be more to come as sector firms unveil their results for the third quarter and give clearer guidance on the impact on the prices they pay and charge for materials now in high demand.
As the attached graphic shows, the impact of past storms has taken months to work through in the value of suppliers and will typically boost the shares by far more. (bit.ly/2ytLTN0)
“Prior storm events suggest prices can increase 10 percent or more for many kinds of materials, with those price effects moderating in a few quarters and returning back to economic fundamental trends,” National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Chief Economist Robert Dietz told Reuters.
Local government estimates used by analysts from brokerage Jefferies suggest that around 10 percent of housing stock affected by the storms in the two states requires work.
That should spur low to mid-single digit annual rises in sales volumes for wallboard, flooring, insulation and roofing analysts say.
Up to Wednesday’s close, USG shares are up 18.4 percent since markets began to prepare for an unusually stormy hurricane season, GMS-19.6 percent, OC-18 percent, BECN-15.2 percent and EXP-13.9 percent. Hurricane Harvey struck on Aug. 25.
For comparison, in the six months after Hurricane Katrina’s catastrophic landfall in Louisiana in 2005, shares in USG rose 94.7 percent, Eagle Materials’ 58.6 percent and Beacon Roofing 27.9 percent.
Some supply chain disruptions due to the hurricane could increase raw material costs for manufacturers, tempering some of the benefits that they get from higher demand.
“There are going to be some short term headwinds (for building products companies) due to cost and reduced volumes,” Jefferies analyst Philip Ng told Reuters.
But he also added that the companies should still benefit just because Houston and Florida are very large markets.
“We’re having a hard time keeping anything in stock, and that includes wallboard, plywood, related building products,” GMS Chief Executive G. Michael Callahan said on the earnings call last month.
USG and GMS declined to comment while Eagle Materials, Owens Corning and Beacon Roofing were not immediately available for comment.
EMPTY SHELVES
The other side of the coin is the squeeze on costs and supplies for U.S. homebuilders who are already grappling with a shortage of skilled labor.
“Construction labor is already relatively tight in most parts of the country. So their building effort will likely worsen in an already tight labor market,” Fitch Ratings analyst Robert Rulla said.
NAHB expects repairs to require 10-20,000 construction workers to be redirected or recruited in Texas alone.
“Construction employment typically peaks from 10-12 months after a major storm – so prices (of building materials) should remain high for quite some time,” said Aaron Terrazas, senior economist at online real estate marketplace Zillow.
No. 2 U.S. homebuilders Lennar Corp LEN.N said on Tuesday it expected its fiscal fourth quarter gross margin to be negatively impacted by 50 basis points due to delays caused by the storms.
Lennar said it saw a 4 percent increase in year-over-year direct construction costs in the fiscal third quarter ended August, driven by about 5 percent increase in labor cost and 3 percent in material costs.
For now the company's overall gross margins are buoyant but bigger rival D.R. Horton Inc DHI.N has also drastically cut its 2017 forecast for cash flow from operations, citing delays related to the hurricanes. | {
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TLDR: Do it if you enjoy it, don’t do it for the money
“A.I. Researchers Are Making More than $1 Million at a Nonprofit” declares the NYT [1]. It’s certainly not the first article where commentators have opined upon how much top AI researchers make and how it reflects the rosy economics of young people going into a career in machine learning or data science.
The article reports that OpenAI co-founder, Ilya Sutskever, was paid USD 1.9mio and Ian Goodfellow, the inventor of GAN, was paid USD 800k in 2016. While the 800k that the AI superstar pulled in is nothing to scoff at, especially for the average thirty-something year-old, hundreds of relatively unknown quants in finance are paid this much every year. In fact, in 2003 I left my first job to join Wall Street because a senior manager showed me a Financial Times advertisement:
For Hire: Hedge Fund Quantitative Analyst
PhD in Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Econometrics
Mathematics Olympiad winner or similar
£500k base + discretionary bonus
In his heyday, a big name like Emanuel Derman would have been paid much more than 800k (perhaps an order of magnitude more). So, rather than be a cause for bullishness, the numbers suggest to me that AI researchers and data scientists are underpaid relative to their quant brethren.
As a quantitative trader, and an erstwhile algorithmic trading quant, I think I’ve seen this movie before and I believe it should be more accurately interpreted as a continuation of a long trend of high-tech coolies coding themselves out of their jobs upon a backdrop of global oversupply of skilled labour that is now fueling right-wing political movements in developed economies.
The First Quants
The first Wall Street quants worked on derivatives — the most famous of whom were academic luminaries like Fischer Black, Myron Scholes and Robert Merton (of Black-Scholes formula fame) and later on, industry practitioners such as Emanuel Derman. Derman continues to have a long and illustrious Wall Street career while Scholes and Merton became (in)famous, making and losing billions through their involvement in the Long-Term Capital Management saga during the 1998 financial crisis, which not only brought down their fund, but was implicated in almost bringing down the global financial system. Their academic successors, armies of physics, mathematics and economics PhDs drained out academia (a common accusation in the AI and robotics space today) and moved to Wall Street between the late 1990’s to 2007 to create ever more complex derivatives using increasingly sophisticated mathematical and numerical methods.
But within the space of about 15 to 20 years, options quants managed to largely model themselves out of existence (there are only so many double lookback Himalayan options one can invent). The 2008 financial crisis hastened their decline, and desks of 20 or more derivative quants and structurers shrank to teams of one or two.
Not just quants…
The Second Wave of Quants: Algorithmic Trading
As a computer scientist and ANN enthusiast with an interest in market micro-structure, I was part of the second wave of quants to hit Wall Street in the early 2000’s. By this time, PhDs in mathematics or computer science on a trading desk were no longer a rare sight, and at a time when exchanges became fully electronic, tattooed truck drivers hustling the pits were beginning to see the writing on the wall. We turned their fears into reality.
Contrary to the industry outsider’s idea of what “algorithmic trading” is, algorithmic trading doesn’t involve making money by deciding what to buy or sell. Algorithmic trading quants worked mostly in banks and our mission was to automate the manual art of executing large orders by splitting them into small chunks and sending them to the stock exchange in a way that minimised our information leakage and market impact. The better we were at minimising the cost of buying and selling stocks, the more business our hedge fund clients would give us.
As a twenty-something, my boss at the time told me that the algorithms we were creating would replace the sales traders, who were responsible for talking clients into giving us orders and giving them to the dealers (execution traders) to actually work in the market. This assertion always struck me as strange, and it was only later that I realised my manager was only saying that to reduce the suspicions of the dealers whom he also managed. Within a few short years, as the first bulge bracket investment bank to invest heavily in algorithmic trading, our firm went from having a 4% market share to a 10%+ market share in Hong Kong. During this time, the number of execution dealers fell from from six to two.
Trading and execution before algorithms
For a junior quant, those were exciting days, and we felt like we were the new Black and Scholes. While the derivative quants worked on boring variations of 40 year-old ideas, the field of market micro-structure, the study of short-term supply and demand, and market design, was in relative infancy. There were very few people in investment banks with this knowledge and there was no real consensus on how to even measure trading performance. Top academics would reach out to us to obtain data on trades and exchanges consulted us for advice. We were developing new products with outrageous names like Sniper and Guerrilla (yes, really) and soon every other investment bank would follow with similar strategies.
While even today, many problems regarding order book dynamics remain unsolved (at least in the public domain!), many of my ex-colleagues in algorithmic trading now work on staid variations on the theme. We automated the dealers, and eventually ourselves out of existence in the space of about ten years.
Buy-side Quants
The third class of quants, some say the most prestigious group, work on the buy-side (e.g. hedge funds) as quantitative portfolio managers. Our job is to try to identify ways to predict the future movement of securities. We have a harder job, but for the most successful quantitative traders, the payoffs can be huge. It’s much harder work than it used to be. Computing power has increased, data sets are commoditised, and now everyone knows the same tricks (even university students can try their ideas on Quantopian and there are videos that explain many of the core concepts of our craft ~ albeit naive!)
The quantitative investing revolution has largely been very successful, and quant strategies have been able to offer superior returns with lower risk than most other traditional investment strategies, which along with historically low interest rates, have allowed quant firms to become huge, collectively managing hundreds of billions of dollars of assets. But even in today’s crowded trading environment, unlike our predecessors in derivatives and algorithmic trading, we’re still not yet completely replaceable. Quants are still required to develop new research ideas to outsmart the market and other quants.
Different funds take varying approaches to the arms race. While funds such as the ultra-successful and ultra-secretive Renaissance Technologies continue to outperform by hiring relatively few (<100) elite researchers, others such as WorldQuant have taken the opposite approach, hiring teams of hundreds of mutually segregated quants working independently, allowing the firm to collect to the order of 100,000 alpha signals. Still other funds such as Quantopian take this to the extreme — and have attempted to completely crowd-source quantitative research (with questionable success).
While there are not many funds that publicly and provably claim to be successful in the use of machine learning in financial markets (unlike in tech, the best hedge funds usually try to keep a low profile), machine learning promises to allow funds to find new predictive relationships (“alpha signals”) automatically. Technologies such as reinforcement learning promise to take the process one step further by automating the actual trading decisions (“the strategy”). If and when machine learning finally fulfills its promise of conquering the financial markets, buy-side quants might discover that they have gradually automated themselves out of the research cycle and funds with large quant contingents may lose some of their economies of scale.
Capital vs Labour
The first Industrial Revolution allowed for capital to replace physical labour, reaching its peak in Britain in the tumultuous 1840’s and prompting Marx to write his Manifesto, forever transforming global society and political thought. Soon, AI researchers may enable capital (via GPUs and data centers) to replace intellectual labour. Who knows what sort of sociological tsunami that might bring about?
It’s all fun and games until the machines replace the intelligentsia
If three generations of quants’ experience in automating financial markets is anything to go by, the automation of rank-and-file AI practitioners across many industries is perhaps only a decade or so away. After that, a small group of elite AI practitioners will have made it to managerial or ownership status while the remaining are stuck in average paid jobs tasked with monitoring and maintaining their creations. Given the current level of the hype-cycle, the levels of pay given to AI researchers while they write the code that ultimately replaces them suggests to me that the relative power of capital versus labour is only getting worse. Add to this a continually increasing supply of STEM graduates from developing and post-communist-bloc countries, and it’s hard to imagine how short-term labour shortages in AI can continue for too much longer.
A career in sales anyone?
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/technology/artificial-intelligence-salaries-openai.html | {
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A 22-year-old burglary suspect trying to evade authorities was killed by an 11-foot alligator last month, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office said.
Deputies said Matthew Riggins drowned as a result of the gator attack. He was missing his lower extremities and part of an arm, according to deputies.
Riggins and another man were in Barefoot Bay to commit house burglaries in the late evening hours of Nov. 12 and early morning hours of Nov. 13. A resident called deputies around 2 a.m. to say the two men, dressed in black, were walking behind houses near Tequesta Drive.
Riggins and the other man were spotted on Royal Palm Boulevard, but they fled.
A K-9 and helicopter search were unsuccessful.
According to deputies, Riggins called his girlfriend to say he was being chased by authorities.
Riggins was reported missing later on Nov. 13 after he didn't come home.
His body was found in a Barefoot Bay lake just north of Ocean Avenue Way on Nov. 23.
While sheriff dive team members were recovering Riggins' body, they encountered a large gator "aggressively approaching" them.
The gator was trapped by the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and euthanized.
"A forensic examination of the alligator located remains consistent with the injuries to Riggins inside the alligator's stomach," deputies said.
The other man who was with Riggins has been identified, but is not cooperating with the investigation. Deputies didn't say if he was charged.
© 2015 Orlando Sentinel | {
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Geeks and sports together? It’s a beautiful thing. Well, at least that’s what ESPN is hoping with the announcement of its brand, spanking new Developer Center, which marks the first time that it will open its doors to third-party developers and provide access to its enormous array of editorial content, stats, and other data.
As Y Combinator Founder Paul Graham tweeted recently, APIs are self-serve business development. Many startups are catching on to the business development catalyst that APIs can be, but certainly few would say that ESPN, the self-tagged “world leader in sports,” needs as much help in that department as the many startups out there just trying to get off the ground.
That being said, this marks a big step forward for ESPN, and all those entrepreneurs and developers who have been itching to gain access to ESPN’s content. As one would guess, the sports behemoth’s new Developer Center is a web resource that allows developers to join the company’s API program for the purpose of gaining access to ESPN data to create new web and mobile apps for the rabid, sports-consuming public.
As part of the launch, ESPN is making its “Headlines API” available to the public, which will allow third-parties to tap into the site’s daily news stories and headlines, find content related to any ESPN story, create a “Top Stories” summary, etc.
The Developer Center also includes a Research Notes API, which is now only available for strategic partners, giving them access to ESPN’s archive of facts and figures compiled by the stats geeks in the ESPN Stats and Information Group.
It will also be launching several other APIs in private beta (only for select partners at this point), including its Scores and Schedules API that provides start times, venues, competiros, scores, and stats across every major sport, as well as a set of other APIs that offer standings, team, and athlete information.
Developers looking for access to an ESPN API can head over to the Developer Center now to request a developer key. access to an ESPN API can now go to the ESPN Developer Center and request a developer key. The ESPN crew will be at SXSW to meet with developers and give a tour of its new resources.
The launch of the Developer Center, Jason Guenther, Vice President of ESPN Digital Media Technology, tell us, is the culmination of 7-months of effort. The Developer Center has been in private beta since last fall, in testing internally and with a few select partners. Foursquare, one of these early partners, has been testing ESPN’s Research Notes API, allowing its users to check in to sports-related events to receive relevant factoids powered by ESPN.
What’s more, as MG reported back in August, Pulse became one of the first partners with which ESPN syndicated its content — other than its own, and the team tells us that Pulse — as well as Flipboard — have been instrumental as early adopters in helping to test its Headlines API while in beta.
Chris Jason, director of ESPN’s API program, and Guenther said that its new Developer Center is “fundamental to its business strategy going forward,” and that they view its API program as “transformational.” And that’s not only because third-parties will be able to access its data to create a mind-numbing array of sports apps replete with ESPN data, but to ESPN’s internal development as well. The company now has one distinct resource it can point to when asked about its data resources, both internally and externally.
“As digital and TV are really starting to collide,” Guenther said, “making sure that we have a comprensive data strategy is extremely important.”
ESPN has been hosting a number hackathons to give developers an opportunity to access its data and create cool, sports-related apps, which you can check out here.
The team said that it is going to continue to pushing forward with its APIs, and will at some point in the not-so-distant future be launching a “Labs” section that will list products and product enhancements, and give fans opportunities to weigh in on what types of products or features they would like to see become part of the ESPN app ecosystem.
But, for now, ESPN is just concerned with lowering the barriers to innovation, and when asked about its plans for the future, Jason said, “first and foremost is to set our content free.” And what’s better than free data?
Update: While the ESPN APIs are still just in their infancy, VentureBeat noticed a few things in its terms of service that may not rub app developers the right way:
Branding. All Apps must include an approved ESPN trademark, logo or other intellectual property (each, an “ESPN Mark”). Advertising. No advertising or sponsorship of any kind may appear on or be associated with any App (unless included in the Content made available by ESPN). No Charge. All Apps must be offered free of charge to download or otherwise access and may not contain any in-App purchase features.
That’s going to make monetization a little bit trickier for third-parties. Kevin Ota, ESPN’s Director of Communications for Digital Media, said in response: “The vast majority of the feedback we’ve received has been very positive, and the response to the Developer Center and our API program from developers seeking to use our APIs has been overwhelming. We’re just getting started, literally. We’ll continue to evolve and make improvements to all aspects of our API program as we keep this going.” | {
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Provident and pension funds of thousands of middle-class salaried people face the spectre of losing thousands of crores of their nest egg as analysts estimate these funds’ investments in Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services and group companies to be between Rs. 15,000 to Rs 20,000 crore, said three people familiar with the matter.Many of these funds handling the retirement funds are owning either bonds or given money as loans to the failed infrastructure lender amid hopes that the triple A rated paper would be safe and was fetching higher returns, said those people who did not want to be identified.While there are no precise numbers available due to the very opaque nature of these funds, experts say that the amount could be as high as Rs. 20,000 crores after providing for holdings by others such as banks, mutual funds and other wealth management schemes. UBS analysts project various scenarios and estimate that lenders may have to take haircuts ranging from Rs 11,300 crore to Rs 28,500 crore.Of IL&FS’ total Rs. 91,000 crores, 61 percent is in bank loans and 33 percent is in debentures and Commercial Papers, regulatory filings show. While loans from banks show that Yes Bank IndusInd Bank and Bank of Baroda have high exposure, there is little data to know which provident, pension funds own how much of the junk debt paper."Provident funds are now estimated to be holding 40% of total bond IL & FS group outstanding,’’ said an investment banker who had sold many such bonds. He preferred to be anonymous.IL&FS declined to comment on the matter.The moratorium granted by the National Company Law Tribunal on payments by IL & FS to creditors has thrown the market into disarray. While there is little resolution in sight, even some of the companies generating cash have stalled payments to lenders. In this, it is not clear how pension funds would account for their losses.“As per IBC guidance, bond holders are expected to be financial creditors with equal right,” said Dhaivat Anjaria, a distressed assets specialist. “However, if those debt securities are unsecured vis-à-vis the banks, their claims could be subordinate to other secured lenders including banks.’’Privately managed retirement funds may be running a bigger risk as these firms have to make good any losses as per the condition laid out by Employee Provident Fund Organisation wherever it permitted such funds management.“Unlike banks provident funds need to provide for investment losses every quarter,” said Amit Gopal, senior vice-president, India Life Capital, which advises many standalone provident funds. “While some large companies have already started providing for their losses, the rest is waiting for more clarity on the IL&FS cases. | {
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Williams's release of computer renderings of its 2015 Formula 1 car, the FW37, provided a first chance to see a nose designed to the new regulations.
The nose, like many of those from 2014, stretches the interpretation of the rules to create the least blockage to the airflow.
A small thumb-like tip is formed to wrap the nose into the smallest package allowed under the regulations. The resulting shape is much shorter and more square-edged than the FW36's.
Although the main wedge-shaped nose merges into a U-shape with the front wing pylons, similar to the 2014 Mercedes, its structure and aerodynamics differ from last year's title-winner.
The nose's thumb tip meets the new rules by creating the first minimum cross section (9000mm2 at 50mm behind the nose tip) and the wide secondary leading edge forms the second regulatory cross section (20,000mm2 at 150mm behind the nose tip). This lifts the nose as clear of the front wing as possible to free up airflow under the front of the car.
Making such a short nose meet the more stringent crash tests will have been a challenge. Not every team will have had the resources to conform to the rules with a nose at its minimum length.
These new nose rules for 2015 not only affect the nose shape, but also the slope of chassis from the front bulkhead upwards to the towards the cockpit.
Pat Symonds alluded to this being a problem and it is clear the front suspension is mounted as high as the structure allows, with the top wishbone being nearly level with the top of the monocoque.
The lower wishbone is a conventional 'A' arm, and not the conjoined version that Mercedes ran last year, which is expected to be a much-copied design in 2015.
Further back, similarities to the FW36 are obvious, but expect these wings and other add-on aero details to change before testing and again before the first grand prix.
Around the rollhoop a new cooling inlet has been created, which is likely to feed a cooler for the ERS, while the sidepod openings are far smaller, being both narrower and shallower.
The remaining sidepod shape retains the deeply undercut design of the 2014 car and tightly wraps around the back of the engine, in a trademark Williams style.
The decrease in sidepod cooling is also reflected in the apparent loss of the permanent cooling outlets near the rollhoop, themselves unique to Williams last year.
Little is known about under-skin changes so far, with the car running a 2015-specification Mercedes engine paired with Williams's own gearbox.
The FW37 seems to be a logical, if not aggressive, approach to a 2015 design - probably the most pragmatic option given Williams's pace in late '14. | {
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INSOLITE L’Héraultais Pierre Guiraud est un habitué des happenings humoristiques. Il y a quelques années, il était allé payer sa TVA avec un chèque en vrai bois…
Pierre Guiraud, lundi, devant le siège du PS. — Pierre Guiraud / D.R.
Pierre Guiraud, qui se fait appeler « Pierrot le zygo », a encore frappé. Cet habitant de Lodève (Hérault) était à Paris lundi où il a « pompé les derniers souffles du socialisme » devant le siège du PS, à Solférino. Le vigile, interloqué par l’initiative, l’a malgré tout laissé faire, lui expliquant qu’il était « sur le domaine public ».
L’homme, connu pour avoir joué les trublions à plusieurs élections locales dans le département de l’Hérault, rapporte France Bleu, a gonflé un ballon d’air de deux mètres de diamètre à l’aide d’une pompe.
Une boîte pour François Hollande à Noël
Avec l’air recueilli à Solférino, Pierre Guiraud a une petite idée derrière la tête : il a prévu d’en faire des boîtes de conserve et de les vendre au prix de 3,50 euros l’unité, « avec le certificat de garantie », confie-t-il à la station héraultaise. François Hollande devrait également en recevoir une sous le sapin, pour Noël.
Cet inventeur loufoque s’est déjà fait remarquer dans le passé en allant payer sa TVA avec un chèque en « vrai bois », ou en vendant de l’air du Larzac en flacon. | {
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It sounds complex (and it is), but it leads to one clear advantage: you can take snapshots of the gas and examine the inner workings of its structure. This could help understand the behavior of ball lightning, of course, but it could be also be useful for the next generation of computing. Quantum computers need to maintain a coherent state despite the outside environment -- since skyrmions can be deformed without losing their properties, they could be ideal for quantum machines that can function outside of ideal conditions. | {
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Federal workers may violate Hatch Act restrictions on "political activity" if they urge President Trump's impeachment as he seeks re-election, according to a government office that enforces the law.
If the president is not seeking re-election, however, advocating impeachment would not be banned, the Office of the Special Counsel said in new guidance circulated by email Tuesday.
"Advocating for a candidate to be impeached, and thus potentially disqualified from holding federal office, is clearly directed at the failure of that candidate's campaign for federal office," the office said.
The unsigned guidance noted that advocating impeachment of "someone who is not a candidate for partisan elective office would not be considered political activity."
The office similarly found that use of the term "resistance" while Trump is a candidate for re-election could violate the law's restriction on political speech by federal workers.
"Now that President Trump is a candidate for reelection, we must presume that the use or display of 'resistance,' '#resist,' '#resistTrump,' and similar statement is political activity unless the facts and circumstances indicate otherwise," the guidance says.
[Also read: Ted Cruz: 'We may well see impeachment' against Trump by House Democrats]
The memo was highlighted by the group American Oversight, which is calling on the OSC to rescind the guidance.
"With the Trump administration already corruptly trying to root out the 'deep state,' the OSC should not empower Trump appointees to target people who 'resist' administration policies like family separation," the advocacy group said in a statement.
Broad public notice of the new guidance comes the same day as reports that the OSC found six Trump administration officials responsible for violating the Hatch Act by issuing tweets that featured the hashtag #MAGA, an abbreviation of Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."
The Hatch Act was passed in 1939, and its precise prohibitions and penalties are routinely subject to debate. A "less restricted" employee, for example, can participate in partisan political campaigns while off-duty.
The act doesn't prohibit all political talk. In one notable case, the U.S. Supreme Court found in 1987 that a Texas government employee was constitutionally entitled to a personal conversation celebrating the shooting of former President Ronald Reagan, when she turned to a coworker and said, “I hope if they go for him again, they get him." | {
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Increasing numbers of children are dropping dead on the long trek to refugee camps. Those who do get there are more severely malnourished than ever before. And, says the UN, the number of people under threat has now reached 11 million – equivalent to every man, woman and child in Belgium facing starvation. Thus, the chronic food crisis of the Horn of Africa edges with every hungry day towards full-blown famine.
One image captures the degrading awfulness now facing millions. It is not that of a wide-eyed, swollen-bellied child crying for food – although there are countless numbers of them. It is the sight of mothers using rope to bind their stomachs so they will deaden the pangs of hunger as they give what little food they can get to their children – a grotesque parody of the gastric bands used for slimming in the West.
This potentially life-threatening practice has been highlighted by ActionAid. Zippora Mbungo, an 86-year-old grandmother from Makima, Kenya, told the agency's workers: "I tie this rope around my waist to hold my stomach in and avoid feeling hungry. Most of the time we have very little food, so I give it to my grandchildren first, leaving little or nothing for me. That is why I tie this rope around me. Only the rich people around here don't tie a rope in times like this." She added: "This is one of the worst droughts I have ever seen in my life." Philip Kilonzo, of ActionAid Kenya, said: "This practice shows just how desperately hungry women are. But it can be lethal – women have died after suddenly untying their stomachs once food is available."
The disaster, described by Unicef as "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world", is the result of one of the most terrible droughts in 60 years, which has led to repeated harvest failures and the death of large numbers of livestock. About 2.9 million people in Somalia – a third of the population – need humanitarian aid, while some 4.5 million, out of a population of 80 million, are affected in Ethiopia. In Kenya, the region's economic powerhouse, some 3.5 million are at risk of starvation, the UN says. Duncan Harvey, the acting country director for Save the Children in Ethiopia, said: "In terms of the sheer numbers of people affected, this is one of the worst droughts the world has seen in a long time."
Hunger and hopelessness in their own areas have driven hundreds of thousands to trek for days across arid lands to camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. Late last week, for instance, US officials spoke to a mother who had arrived at one camp with six children, including a seven-year-old suffering from polio, whom she had carried on her back.
The severity of this long-distance ordeal can be measured by those who do not make it. Outside the vast refugee complex of Dadaab in Kenya, young, lifeless bodies abandoned by their parents lie on the sandy path to the camp. No one knows how many have died before they reached even that point, and, in other cases, parents have perished on the journey, leaving children to trek through the wilderness alone. Andrew Wander, a spokesman for Save the Children, said his agency has provided care to more than 300 unaccompanied children found on roadsides after their parents died or abandoned them.
The UN's refugee agency says about 40 per cent of the Somali children arriving at Dadaab are malnourished. More children have died here in the first four months of the year than all of last year. Every day, more than 1,400 arrive at this sprawling complex filled with makeshift homes of sticks and tarpaulines, where more than 440,000 people are crammed into and around a camp built for 90,000. Alexandra Lopoukhine, of Care International, said: "This has led to the registration process taking much longer. As opposed to a few hours, or a day at most, it is now taking us three to four weeks at the least." She said the UN and the Kenyan government are currently holding meetings for permission to expand the camp.
Cases of rape and other violent attacks against women have doubled among refugees fleeing conflict and hunger in East Africa, according to member agencies of the Disasters Emergency Committee. Care International staff at two reception centres at the camp say reported cases have risen to 136 in the first six months of this year, compared with 66 in the same period in 2010. Ms Lopoukhine said: "The most dangerous period for refugees is when they are on the move. Women and girls are especially vulnerable to rape, abduction, illness and even being killed on the journey. Many women set out on the journey alone with their children, leaving husbands behind, and they may walk for weeks in search of food and safety."
In Ethiopia, Somalis fleeing drought and intensified fighting have been arriving at the rate of more than 1,700 a day. The overall mortality rate at the camps in Ethiopia is seven people out of 10,000 per day, when a normal crisis rate is two per day, a US government official said. The reason deaths are so high here and across the region is not just hunger but because disease is getting a formidable grip on people weakened by many months of malnourishment. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that there is now a high risk of infectious diseases spreading, especially polio, cholera and measles.
Five million people are at risk of cholera in Ethiopia, where acute watery diarrhoea has broken out in crowded, unsanitary conditions, the WHO said on Friday. Cholera, an acute intestinal infection, causes watery diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not given promptly. And, said the WHO, nearly nine million are at risk of malaria. There is also measles, with two million Ethiopian children at risk: the disease can be fatal for children. Ethiopian officials reported 17,584 measles cases and 114 deaths during the first half of the year. It has also broken out in the Kenyan camps, with 462 cases confirmed, including 11 deaths, the WHO said.
In response to the food and health crises, a massive aid operation is swiftly gathering force. Over eight days, the British public has given £18m to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal (see panel). The British Government yesterday announced a further £52m in aid, which will, among other things, provide treatment for nearly 70,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia, give healthcare and clean water to 130,000 in the Dadaab camps, similar assistance to 100,000 in Ethiopian camps, and provide extra aid to 300,000 Kenyans, including special rations for malnourished children.
Reuben E Brigety, a US State Department official responsible for assistance to refugees and conflict victims in Africa, said: "There are many seasoned relief professionals who would tell you we haven't seen a crisis this bad in a generation." He added: "It will get worse before it gets better."
What the aid agencies are doing
Some £18m has so far been raised by the Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa appeal. Here's what DEC agencies are doing:
ActionAid Food, water and income-generation for more than 220,000 in Kenya and Somaliland.
AgeUK Together with Cafod, cash grants to older people for food, job creation, plus animal feed and care.
Red Cross Food aid, safe water, community health. Somali Red Crescent has 44 mobile and static clinics.
Care International Food, water and primary education in Dadaab, plus help going to Ethiopia and Somalia.
Christian Aid Water supplies for 77,400 people in Kenya, plus 25,210 in Ethiopia. Animal feed provided.
Concern Worldwide Cash transfers and food vouchers,in Somalia. 400,000 beneficiaries across region.
Islamic Relief Food aid, nutrition, water and sanitation across region.
Merlin Food, plus 15 new clinics, health facilities and feeding centres in Kenya. Plus programmes in Somalia.
Plan UK Food, water, shelter, medical assistance, child protection, education, health and food in Ethiopia.
Save the Children Cash transfers for acutely malnourished families in Somalia. Treatment of malnourished children in Kenya being scaled up.
Tearfund Cash for work programmes in Ethiopia, and, in Kenya, water trucking. | {
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We were out on the streets this week to march against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement in the U.S. Capitol. We were there to demonstrate the beginning of a unified movement of diverse organizations calling on officials to review and reject the deal based on its substance, which we can finally read and dissect now that the final text is officially released.
Image of the final, officially-released version of the TPP agreement printed double-sided, taken at the Public Citizen Access to Medicines office. This photo by Maira Sutton can be reused under CC-BY 4.0
Contained within these 6,000-plus pages of the completed TPP text are a series of provisions that empower multinational corporations and private interest groups at the expense of the public interest. Civil society groups represent diverse concerns, so while we may disagree on our specific concerns about the TPP, we commonly recognize that this is a toxic, undemocratic deal that must be stopped at all costs.
Our TPP protest signs, slogans based on suggestions from Twitter users @ronmexicolives and @GabeNicholas. This photo by Maira Sutton can be reused under CC-BY 4.0
So on Monday, we kicked off the new phase of TPP campaigning to call on U.S. Congress members to reject the entire deal in the coming ratification vote in a few months.
Beginning of the rally in front of the Chamber of Commerce in downtown Washington D.C. This photo by Maira Sutton can be reused under CC-BY 4.0
Roughly a couple of hundred people came out to meet in front of the Chamber of Commerce. Some organizers and leading activists gave speeches about the impacts of the TPP on our local and global communities. Maira Sutton, EFF's Global Policy Analyst, spoke about the effects of the TPP's restrictive digital policy provisions that empower the rights of Hollywood and other corporations, and that it does little to nothing to safeguard the rights of the public interest on the Internet or over our digital devices. Other speakers discussed how the TPP would impact environmental protections and the raise the costs of affordable life-saving medicines and treatments.
We then started the march, with large banners and people carrying dozens of toilet paper-shaped lanterns with the words "flush the TPP" written across it.
This photo by Maira Sutton can be reused under CC-BY 4.0
The rally picked up many more people as we snaked around the downtown area and marched towards the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center:
This photo by Maira Sutton can be reused under CC-BY 4.0
Another rally was held on Tuesday morning, where we marched to each of the TPP country embassies to demonstrate our support of those who have been protesting it in other regions of the world. Protesters carried a 10-foot-tall figure of Mr. Monopoly, which puppeteered the flags of the 12 TPP countries participating countries. Others carried flags with "stop TPP" in all the languages of the TPP countries, and a gigantic globe of the earth on their shoulders to signify our common responsibility for the rights and interests of people and environments worldwide:
This photo by Maira Sutton can be reused under CC-BY 4.0
This photo by Maira Sutton can be reused under CC-BY 4.0
People from all over the United States came to attend these events in DC this week. We met people from Texas, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, and Washington state. They all traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to voice their opposition against the TPP, as well as the other secretive trade deals that harm our digital rights and actively erode transparent, public-interest driven policymaking.
While we had a pretty good turn out of several hundred people at these events at the Capitol, a recent poll showed that 60% of people in the United States have no opinion on the TPP. Clearly, we still have a lot of work to do to make more people in the United States aware and actively working to stop this deal before it goes to Congress.
Stay tuned as we develop more materials and resources to spread the word about the TPP's impacts on your digital rights. For now, you can start by taking this action to urge your lawmakers to call a hearing on the contents of the TPP that will impact your digital rights, and more importantly, to vote this deal down when it comes to them for ratification: | {
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2018年のモデルチェンジ以降圧倒的人気を誇る新型ジムニーが青島文化教材社の「ザ☆スナップキット」シリーズに登場！ 色違いの2アイテムでのキット化です！
スズキ ジムニー（キネティックイエロー）
本格オフローダー、4代目「スズキジムニー」！ 各種シリーズでも人気の車種が1/32スケールの「ザ☆スナップキット」にもついにラインナップ！
こちらは開発中のサンプルで、製品版ではボディ色がプラスチック材料の着色で再現され、未塗装でもイメージ通りに仕上がります。
接着剤不要のスナップフィット仕様に加え、1/32スケールとお手軽サイズ＆お求めやすい価格で、初心者にも優しいカーモデルシリーズです。
DATA
ザ☆スナップキット No.8-A スズキ ジムニー（キネティックイエロー）
プラモデル
1/32スケール
発売元：青島文化教材社
価格：1,500円（税別）
2019年10月発売予定
※画像は開発中のイメージ、またはサンプルです。実際の商品とは異なります。
スズキ ジムニー（ジャングルグリーン）
こちらは色違いのキットです。未塗装でも楽しめるシリーズなので、カラーバリエーションキットの充実はうれしいですね。
DATA
ザ★スナップキット No.8-B スズキ ジムニー（ジャングルグリーン）
プラモデル
1/32スケール
発売元：青島文化教材社
価格：1,500円（税別）
2019年10月発売予定
※画像は開発中のイメージです。実際の商品とは異なります。
関連情報
関連記事 | {
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A story of youthful misadventure set against the backdrop of a lawless border terrain during the last gasps of the Irish boom - Black Ice charts the story of Alice as she is seduced into the rhythmic rumbling world of local boy racers. Alice is beckoned from her middle-class existence by the growling engine of Jimmy's slick, black, Skyline. Racing, dicing, drifting together on the winding back roads, Alice and Jimmy dream of rally cars and make great plans to escape the cloying town. Alice is swept away, beyond the danger of the boy racer scene, and into the underworld of the borderland, where Jimmy doesn't believe in playing it straight. He likes the taste of money and he likes to take short-cuts. Despite her brother Tom's warnings, Jimmy's criminal behavior only makes Alice want him more, while the greed that has taken hold of the community is about to claim its price in young lives. Two years later an estranged Alice returns home to deal with the aftermath of the high-speed boy ... Written by Johnny Gogan and Nicky Gogan | {
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The Trump administration is following through on its plans to include a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census, an effort Democrats have decried as an attempt to suppress California's population reporting and cost the state at least one congressional seat.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday night announced the decision to include the citizenship question over the objections of Democrats and civil rights groups in a post on the Commerce Department website.
Ross cast the decision as a "reinstatement" of the citizenship question, which last appeared on the decennial census in 1950. He argued that collecting citizenship data has been a "long-standing historical practice" and continues among sample populations in the regular Census "to this day."
In response to a request from the Department of Justice to include the citizenship question, Ross said he has spent months considering all the "facts and data relevant to the question," including a comprehensive review commenced by the Census bureau.
Ross said he had determined that including the question would provide the most "complete and accurate" citizen voting age population (CVAP) data. The DOJ and the courts use CVAP data for the enforcement of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits the drawing of election districts in ways that improperly dilute minorities' voting power.
Ross argued that the additional question wouldn't create an added imposition for the approximately 90 percent of the U.S. population who are citizens. He also said it wouldn't overly burden the non-citizens because approximately 70 percent of them already answer the question correctly on the annual American Community Survey, an ongoing survey of U.S. population that generates data that help determine how more than $675 billion in federal and state funds distributed every year.
He stressed that the question poses no additional imposition because "census responses by law may only be used anonymously and for statistical purposes."
Democrats have vowed to fight the inclusion of the question, viewing the decision as another front in the Trump administration's ongoing war with California over illegal immigration and the state's passage of so-called sanctuary laws that limit local law enforcement communication with federal immigration authorities.
They argue that adding the question would result in depressing populations in areas with a high number of illegal immigrants because they would be afraid to fill out the questionnaire out of fear that the federal government would use it to locate them and try to deport them and their loved ones.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Monday night said he would be "filing suit" against the Trump administration's decision.
"Including the question is not just a bad idea—it's illegal," Becerra tweeted, and included a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed he co-wrote with Alex Padilla, California's secretary of state titled "Citizenship question on 2020 census may result in undercount."
Becerra is one of 17 Democratic state attorneys general who wrote Ross a letter last month, arguing that including the citizenship question would be unconstitutional and would scare illegal immigrants into not participating in the decennial questionnaire and result in an undercount of the population.
"This undercount would frustrate the Census Bureau's obligation under the Constitution to determine ‘the whole number of persons in each state,' threaten our states' fair representation in Congress, dilute our states' role in the Electoral College, and deprive our states of their fair share of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds that are allocated in part on decennial Census data," the attorneys general argued.
After Ross's decision became public Monday night, several civil rights groups denounced it and pledged to work to overturn its inclusion.
"This was the wrong decision. Despite overwhelming bipartisan and multi-sector opposition, Secretary Ross capitulated to President Trump and Attorney General Sessions," Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said in a statement.
"This untimely, unnecessary, and untested citizenship question will disrupt planning at a critical point, undermine years of painstaking preparation, and increase costs significantly, putting a successful, accurate count at risk," she said. "We will work with our coalition, the business community, bipartisan state and local officials, and other civic leaders to overturn this ill-advised decision."
Three Republican senators on Tuesday applauded the move, calling it a commonsense addition and the only way to achieve an accurate count of the country's citizens.
Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and James Inhofe of Oklahoma argue that accurate census data is a vital part of the country's democracy. The trio said they previously sent a letter to Ross imploring him to add the citizenship question.
"I applaud Secretary Ross for honoring this request by my colleagues and me," Cruz said in a statement. "It is imperative that the data gathered in this census is reliable, given the wide-ranging impacts it will have on U.S. policy."
"A question on citizenship is a reasonable, commonsense addition to the census," he added.
"Counting the number of U.S. citizens in the country should be a high priority of the census, and the only way to get an accurate count is to add a question about citizenship to the census itself," Cotton said.
UPDATE 10:00 A.M.: Comment from senators has been added. | {
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The 40-year-old son of an Illinois state senator has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman as she slept in June — while he was out on bail in a another sex assault case.
Kenwahn Van Pelt, the son of Sen. Patricia Van Pelt (D-Chicago), was at a hearing Friday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on a charge of criminal sexual assault in which he is accused of raping a sleeping woman at his Gresham home.
At the time, Van Pelt also was facing charges of criminal sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse in a second case, accused of assaulting one woman and abusing another in a Matteson hotel room in February 2017, according to court records.
Van Pelt was identified in a report by ABC7 in March 2017 as the senator’s son when he appeared for a bail hearing on the earlier charges.
Reached for comment Friday, Sen. Van Pelt would not confirm Kenwahn is her son. She said “thank you” and hung up. Subsequent attempts to reach her were unsuccessful, and a spokeswoman for the senator did not respond to requests for comment.
In the most recent case, a 29-year-old woman reached out to Kenwahn Van Pelt, who works as a club promoter, through social media when she was looking for job opportunities, Assistant State’s Attorney Jamison Berger said in court Friday.
Van Pelt met the woman on June 26 at Club O, 17038 S. Halsted St. in south suburban Harvey, for a club promotion, Berger said. The woman drank at the club and Van Pelt later drove her and another woman to his apartment in Gresham.
At the apartment, Van Pelt had consensual sex with the other woman in his bedroom, and the 29-year-old fell asleep in the living room, Berger said. According to the prosecutor, the woman woke later to find Van Pelt sexually assaulting her and ran into a bathroom. Van Pelt then left, and she called someone to come pick her up, was taken to a hospital.
Van Pelt surrendered to detectives on Wednesday after learning he was the subject of an investigative alert, Berger said.
In the earlier incident, Van Pelt is accused of giving alcohol to two 22-year-old women at a club and taking them to a hotel room. After falling asleep, one woman woke up to find Van Pelt touching her sexually and told him to stop, and the other woman woke up later as Van Pelt was sexually assaulting her, officials said.
Van Pelt was charged with sexual assault and sexual abuse and released on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond at a March 2, 2017, hearing, according to court records. He pleaded not guilty.
On Friday, Van Pelt’s attorney Camilo Oceguera asked Judge John F. Lyke to set a reasonable bail in the new case, saying Van Pelt came from a “prominent family” with longtime ties to the city, was working and had several children.
Sen. Patricia Van Pelt was elected in 2012. Her district encompasses much of the West Side.
Oceguera also said the two women in the most recent case were sisters, which led to a combative back-and-forth with Lyke.
“How is that mitigating?” the judge asked. “That’s aggravating.”
“Possibly there are some issues there,” Oceguera replied.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Lyke said. “Are you saying they set him up?”
“Yes, judge, I’m saying the second act may have been consensual as well,” Oceguera said.
Prosecutors had earlier asked for Lyke to revoke Van Pelt’s bail on the 2017 case, a request the judge granted.
“He got a huge kiss on that one,” Lyke said of Van Pelt’s previous release on an I-bond. “And he’s right back here with similar charges.”
Lyke also denied Van Pelt bail on the new charges.
“The aggravation in this case trumps the mitigation by a trillion,” Lyke said. | {
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Article content continued
These companies become only more dangerous if they think of themselves as invested with some societal mission
A business would only care about its “societal impact” if it is trying to do something for and to “society,” that is, in favour of some individuals and against others in the wider society. Milton Friedman correctly argued that no private business has or should have such a mandate. Realistically and morally, a business should care only for its owners, which it does by competing, trying to maximize its profits, and serving consumers.
Some rare businesses have, for a certain period of time, a significant impact on the economy and society. They are the bearers of great innovations, exemplified by such disruptive tech giants as Google, Amazon and Facebook. These companies become only more dangerous if they think of themselves as invested with some “societal” mission.
Another reason why a business would care about its “societal impact” is if it wants to please political cronies. Indeed, “societal” is preferred to “social” precisely to convey the idea that businesses must, over and above (and sometimes against) basic honesty, obey what politicians and government bureaucrats decide in cahoots with busybody mobs guided by the intelligentsia. Societal businesses were bound to discriminate against black people in South Africa and to collaborate with the Nazi government, instead of serving any profitable clientele on the market.
Nobody knows what societal impact means except intelligentsia language engineers
But isn’t “societal” just a word? The late Nobel prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek criticized “our poisoned language,” by which he meant the faddish buzzwords and related theories with which the intelligentsia justifies social engineering. Like “sustainable” and other magical words, “societal” is a mantra hiding the political agenda that some individuals want to impose on other individuals. If “social justice” has turned into a killer, wait to see what “societal justice” can do.
Nobody knows what “societal impact” means except the intelligentsia’s language engineers who manipulate words for political purposes, using them as Trojan horses to attack economic freedom. If businesses end up submitting to a mandate of “societal impact,” it wouldn’t be first time they’ve been intellectually eaten alive.
Pierre Lemieux is an economist affiliated with the Department of Management Sciences of the Université du Québec en [email protected] | {
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The “Go Lo” gas station’s letters have been stripped, the sun permanently etching their faded shape on a blue background. Nearby, the “Buy N Save” still has signs for the $1 money orders that folks used to purchase before plywood was nailed over the windows and doors.
Closer to downtown, the abandoned post office and train terminal stand as reminders of what Gary, Ind., used to be.
The unemployment rate here is twice the Indiana average, and Gary has long struggled with one of the highest murder rates among small American cities – even higher than Chicago, just 30 miles away.
But beneath that veneer of blight, this city reveals a gritty spirit. Many in the community are striving to establish a new narrative — one of progress earned through taking on Gary’s deep segregation, stagnant politics, and repressive self-image. Over the past two years, that push has come in part from an unlikely source: a call for civility.
Even before Donald Trump’s blunt and often vulgar rhetoric made civility a buzz word, Gary's Chamber of Commerce partnered with the Times of Northwest Indiana newspaper to take on the increasingly uncivil discourse in the world and help rebrand the city’s negative image. Now, they hope to broaden Gary’s initiative into a grass-roots movement to reclaim civility in society.
Measuring progress is difficult, but the diverse crowd coming to Gary for World Civility Day Thursday – from nine states as well as Canada, Ghana, Haiti, Nigeria, Gambia, and Kenya – shows the appetite many have for reclaiming civility, from City Hall to the playground to the workplace. The two-year “Community Civility Counts” (CCC) initiative has also prompted lawmakers in eight local governments as well as the Indiana House and Senate to pass resolutions promising to uphold civil discourse.
“I think there is definitely a model here,” says Summer Moore, audience engagement editor at the Times, which has encouraged civility on its editorial page, pushed for a civility curriculum in schools, held student essay contests, and is hosting World Civility Day, among other activities. “Everything we’ve done can be replicated … and the great thing is that it’s easily molded to what other cities need to focus on. Take the big ideas and make it your own.”
Deeper impact than expected
One of those big ideas is to ensure that more students graduate from high school, and, when they do, that they’re prepared for a college setting that might intimidate them. African Americans, who make up 80 percent of the population in Gary, often arrive to find they’re in the minority for the first time.
The civility curriculum at two Gary charter schools, Lighthouse Academies and Steel City Academy, has become the ideal forum to address those issues and even the deep angst that comes with a lack of self-esteem.
“I knew it would have an impact,” Lighthouse teacher Erica Young said in an interview about the civility curriculum. “I didn’t know it would be so deep – how far it could go.”
Students have gained poise and confidence, in themselves and where they come from.
“It helped us to understand one another – trying to understand what people go through, where they’re coming from,” says Dorothy Lewis, a Lighthouse student who says she’s a happier person because of the course. “We are like a family, for real.”
How it started
The notion of civility is somewhat fraught in the wake of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, which showed that many of his supporters conflate it with unnecessary political correctness. On the left, some feel that political vulgarity, which a recent Current Affairs piece traced to the French Revolution, can be powerful and even necessary to make a point. The push for “safe spaces” in academic settings and backlash against controversial speakers have led to concerns that university officials are engaging in censorship under the guise of civil discourse.
Talking about civility can also have unintended racial undertones. Ms. Moore, the Times editor, says that when she presented the program at a conference some activists felt that the civility initiative looked like white do-gooders were telling black youth how to behave.
“It was the first time I realized that civility could be seen as an oppressive term,” says Moore, who describes the experience as “humbling.” Now, she makes sure to cite the definition from the Institute for Civility in Government, which reads in part: “Civility is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences.”
Indeed, it shouldn’t be confused with political correctness, says Karen Freeman-Wilson, Gary’s mayor. “It’s that you have a responsibility to exhibit a level of respect even if you disagree with people,” she says.
To a certain extent, that comes naturally to a community that, in the words of local activist Sam Love puts it, combines “Indiana friendliness with that Chicago grittiness.” But even as he and others see beyond the blight, crime, and limited financial resources to a city rich with potential, thorny problems around race and violence often feel entrenched. Mr. Love recounts a jarring run-in with a woman at a county fair, who blamed the city’s problems on its African-American majority. “Look what these [people] did,” she said to him, using a racial slur.
“We’re challenged – that part is no different from any other community. I think where Gary is different is we’ve made a concerted effort,” says Chuck Hughes, president of the Gary Chamber of Commerce, who worked with the chamber’s public policy committee and the Times to implement the civility initiative. “We started thinking broader…. We started thinking, ‘Let’s look at what’s happening around the world … board-room quarrels, bullying. Any situation that needs some kind of resolution or mediation, you have to inject an ounce of civility.”
A 'sacred space' for conversations
In the classroom, educators see benefits of the curriculum far beyond basic tenets of politeness or civics. Principal Katie Kirley of Steel City Academy, where the curriculum has been adopted in its ninth-grade class, was especially grateful to have time allotted for the civility course after Trump’s election. Many of the students, mostly African American from impoverished backgrounds, were fearful. “Am I getting sent back to Africa? … Ms. Kirley, do you hate black people?” she was asked.
Kirley was relieved there was a “sacred space for those conversations to happen,” she said.
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One of the civility teachers, Joshua Moore, remembers those fraught conversations about Trump and race, but says the course’s greatest strength is what happens in the margins. For example, it has allowed him to open up about what it means to be a black male in society.
The conversation often turns back to Gary — a place many students view with shame. Now, he said, the course has infused pride in these young teens, enabling them to “see the good in the community they’re in.” | {
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BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese workers fled a high-rise office building on Friday after mysterious explosions in the northeastern city of Changchun, video posted on media showed, in what police have labeled a “criminal case”.
Reuters could not independently verify the video.
The city government said in a statement one person was killed in one of two explosions - one in the basement car park of the Wanda Plaza building, owned by Dalian Wanda Group, and one on the 30th floor - but did not give details.
The statement did not elaborate on the blasts or the motive and said merely that a criminal investigation was under way.
A spokesman for Wanda, a Chinese conglomerate with interests in property development and entertainment, told Reuters the group was aware of the situation but did not comment further.
Footage and images circulating on Twitter and Chinese social media platform Weibo showed people running from a building through white smoke, with one video showing a series of blasts in the same place at ground level, several seconds apart, as a crowd looked on. | {
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Dr Lowe said the economy had grown below trend over the past year, with household consumption "weighed down by a protracted period of low income growth and declining housing prices". While employment growth had been strong, there had been little inroads made into the economy's spare capacity, which meant overall wages growth "remains low". Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "A further gradual lift in wages growth is still expected and this would be a welcome development," he said. "Taken together, these labour market outcomes suggest that the Australian economy can sustain lower rates of unemployment and underemployment."
Dr Lowe said there were some tentative signs that house prices in Sydney and Melbourne had stabilised, pointing out that mortgage rates were now at record lows. But he gave no signs that this was the last cut by the RBA in this current cycle. "Today's decision to lower the cash rate will help make further inroads into the spare capacity in the economy," he said. "It will assist with faster progress in reducing unemployment and achieve more assured progress towards the inflation target."
The Australian dollar dipped from 69.79 US cents to 69.70 US cents following the announcement before climbing back to 69.81 US cents by 1435 AEST. Ahead of the decision, markets had put the chance of a rate cut on Tuesday at 77 per cent, with another cut priced in by February next year. If passed on in full, the quarter percentage point cut would save $58 a month in repayments on a $400,000, 30-year mortgage. Loading But analysts are sceptical about whether banks will be able to pass on all of the reduction due to the impact it would have on their deposit rates, which in many cases would approach zero.
KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne said the move to 1 per cent put pressure on the Morrison government to consider other ways to boost the economy. "The RBA is sending a signal to the market, to politicians and to the community at large, that the Australian economy is not firing on all cylinders, and as one of the guardians of national welfare, the RBA is looking to help out where it can," he said. "So this really puts the onus on the government to bring forward fiscal stimulus – by getting new targeted infrastructure projects up and running and ensuring the proposed tax breaks are brought into law soon as possible." Loading Figures from property analysts CoreLogic this week showed dwelling values lifting in Sydney and Melbourne through June, the first increase in the two cities since 2017. However, values fell in almost every other capital city. | {
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For over 40 days, Arabi has been on a hunger strike, including more than 10 days of a dry hunger strike, as he protests the IRGC’s (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) harassment of his family. As the condition of his health rapidly deteriorates, human rights activists and agencies are demanding Arabi’s unconditional release.
In November 2013, the 32-year-old Iranian blogger and Facebook activist was arrested by the IRGC’s Sarallah Headquarters agents for the contents of his Facebook posts and sentenced to hang for “insulting the prophet.” He was then tortured in the prison’s solitary confinement ward.
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Arabi posted content, including photos of the 2009 uprising and a cartoon of Khameini, under different names on eight different Facebook pages, one titled “the generation that no longer wants to be the burnt generation.”
In September 2014, combined with seven and a half years of prison, Arabi received additional charges for “insulting the Supreme Leader and “propaganda against the state,” which carried three years of prison and a fine of 30 lashes. A year later, after he conceded to writing the posts in “a poor psychological condition,” his death sentence was commuted to “reading 13 religious books and studying theology for two years.”
According to the Guardian, the state-owned Jamejam newspaper said Arabi is required to prepare a 5-10-page summary of each of the 13 religious books he is mandated to read and then write an article about religion and reference at least five to ten of those books. He is required to report to the authorities every three months on the progress of his “theological studies.”
As Arabi commenced his hunger strike, he wrote in a letter: “Today is the third year that my daughter goes to school and I am not with her. I have gone on dry and liquid hunger strike since I do not want her to see me behind bars, anymore.”
He also wrote: “I have forgiven all the injustices against myself, but I can never stay silent in the face of your [the Iranian government’s] constant and unjust harassment against my family.”
“The expression of truth is forbidden here,” Arabi penned. “We were convicted to prison-term by the judges who are the most corrupt human beings in the world,” he added.
Arabi has a young 7-year-old daughter. His wife, Nastaran Naimi, was arrested by plainclothes officers in July 2017, held for eight days, and questioned about her social media posts and international interviews in support of her husband. She was also fired from her job and now faces constant harassment and death threats.
According to the NCRI Women’s Committee, in an audio file circulating the Internet, Mrs. Farangis Mazloum, Soheil Arabi’s mother, calls out:
I am reaching out for your support. Soheil’s only crime was expressing his beliefs on his personal page (in the social networks). It has been four years that he is being tried, tortured and issued death sentences. His family were not made exception. I have had three heart attacks and a heart surgery. My only dream is to be able to hug my son once more… I am going to the Parliament on Monday to seek justice. I urge you not to leave your brother alone.
Referring to other political prisoners, she urges: “All of those who are detained there innocently must be freed.”
Soheil Arabi is one of the countless innocent Iranian citizens who has had to pay the ultimate price simply for exercising their basic human right to freedom of speech and expression. In January 2016, Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi posited that more than 800 Iranians are behind bars, “imprisoned for their political beliefs, their journalism or their human rights work.”
In the RSF’s (Reporters Without Borders) 2017 World Press Freedom Index, Iran is ranked 165th out of 180 countries.
Human rights activist and international journalist Kaveh Taheri, once a political prisoner who was subjected to solitary confinement, psychological torture, and worse in the Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz, knows the reality Arabi faces all too well.
When we spoke with him, Taheri told us:”I have not seen many who can survive a long-term hunger strike, especially those who start a dry hunger strike (refusing to consume both food and water) after a while, and under the critical conditions which the imprisoned blogger Soheil Arabi has undergone since his arrest.”
Arabi’s state is critical. In his “taped will,” he speaks of his deteriorating physical condition as he suffers from gastric bleeding and extremely low blood pressure.
“A hunger strike is the final stand prisoners take to try and come out against all harassment they have endured, and bring the international community’s attention to their situations,” Taheri added.
Taheri, along with independent netizens and activists, has initiated an urgent global call to action with the #Call4Soheil campaign to raise awareness for Arabi’s case and demand his unconditional release.
“The cost of freedom is always high. It’s exactly what Iranian blogger Soheil Arabi has paid for, and that’s why we came out in support of him through #Call4Soheil,” Taheri says.
How can we get involved in the fight for Arabi’s release and justice for all Iranian political prisoners?
“Just spend five minutes a day promoting human rights and join the Iranian Stormers Movement (@IranianStormers) to help Iranians to Make Iran Great Again. But particularly for Soheil, please tweet out #Call4Soheil and help us make the call as viral and widespread as they can. We really appreciate all global villagers’ support.”
Would you like to join us in the fight for freedom of online expression? Get involved with the cause at Unblock The Web. | {
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Tôi đã đặt 1 cái chuồng bồ câu tại Phú Long, cũng đã gần 2 năm mà vẫn bền. Cảm ơn ông chủ nhiều nhé. | {
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El momento de tensión que se vivió en la recta final del juego entre Cruz Azul y Santos, luego de que el árbitro Fernando Hernández expulsaba a Walter Sandoval y a Julio César Furch, también generó un intercambió de palabras y señas entre la afición de La Máquina y Osvaldo Martínez y Jonathan Rodríguez.
En un video obtenido por MARCA Claro, se observa como Martinez se enfrenta de forma verbal con algunos aficionados celestes, esto mientras era conducido a la zona de bancas entre una 'lluvia' de objetos.
Segundo después se aprecia a Jonathan Rodríguez unirse a la agresión 'pintándoles' el dedo a los fans del conjunto capitalino.
Pero las cosas no terminaron ahí, ya que el examericanista continuó con el intercambio de palabras, e incluso, le contó a la afición el número de estrellas que tenía en la camiseta entre risas. | {
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Disney’s Animal Kingdom welcomed a brand new signature restaurants to its dining line-up today with the opening of Tiffins.
For the first time, Disney’s Animal Kingdom offers high-end dining, with pricing comparable to some of Walt Disney World’s established guest favorites, such as California Grill and Citricos.
It might sound ambitious to put a high-end restaurant in a park like Animal Kingdom, and it is yet to be seen if the risk will pay off. But the team at Disney has not tip-toed around the idea, and has instead gone all out to create a restaurant that could be equally at home in one of the deluxe resort hotels.
The motivation behind the new restaurant more than likely originate from Disney’s desire for the park to become an all-day venue. The new nighttime offerings, such as the upcoming Rivers of Light, and Kilimanjaro Night Safaris, mean there is much more to do once the sun goes down. And perhaps a signature dinner is the perfect addition to the new after-dark line-up.
The Tiffins Building
Built onto the back of the existing Pizzafari with new construction, Tiffins is currently somewhat tucked away in the corner of the park. It sits on the side of the walkway to what was Camp Minnie-Mickey, and although it's just a dead-end now, come 2017 it will be the main walkway to Pandora - The World of AVATAR.
There isn’t a great deal to see on the exterior. It fits in well with the nearby Pizzafari, but keeps a fairly low profile. To the left of Tiffins is the Nomad Lounge, which although part of Tiffins, has its own name, menu and space. We'll be back for a separate look at the Lounge.
Arriving at the main entrance you immediately get a sense that this is not your normal theme park restaurant. The Tiffins sign is simple and elegant, complete with a row of Tiffin boxes on the top of the sign.
The menu display is equally elegant, and will give diners the first indication that this restaurant is indeed signature.
Stepping through the doors, which are covered with beautiful hand carved animals, you find yourself in the lobby.
A beautiful gold ceiling is a highlight of the room, along with a wooden carved map of the world behind the check-in desk.
Tiffins is a gallery of art based on the travel and adventure that inspires the creation of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and the restaurant stays true to that throughout.
There are three dining rooms, the Safari gallery, the Grand gallery and the Trek Gallery.
Tiffins Safari Gallery
Perhaps the most detailed of the three dining rooms, the Safari Gallery, is decorated with photos and artifacts of the Imagineer’s exploration of Eastern and Southern Africa, which was the inspiration for Harambe at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
You’ll find signs, artwork, photographs, and even one of the electrical boards from Tusker House.
The dining room is beautiful to look at. While covered in interesting things to see, it still feels very luxurious and high-end.
The seating is leather, and includes a combination of tables and booths. A wooden ceiling and thick wood paneling throughout adds to the air of luxury.
Tiffins Grand Gallery
The largest of the three dining rooms, the Grand Gallery reflects folk influences that led to the design of the park.
In the center are wooden carvings that once lined the walkway to Camp Minnie Mickey.
At the rear of the building are intricately carved wooden animals and insects, that also once had a home on Pizzafari.
Like the Safari Gallery, the room looks and feels beautiful, with leather seats, wooden paneling, and a combination of booths and tables.
Tiffins Trek Gallery
Similar to the Safari Gallery, this third dining room represents the adventures of Imagineers overseas, but this time in South Asia, and specifically the creation of Anandapur.
Artwork, photographs and artifacts cover the walls, and there are things that you are sure to recognize from Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Tiffins - The Food
The physical menu is one of the best menu presentations at Walt Disney World. Bound in a heavy leather book, it adds to the feeling of adventure and word travel, and underlines that you are dining in a special restaurant. (View full menu)
A complimentary bread basket starts your culinary adventure at Tiffins, giving you a chance to look over the menu and make some hard decisions.
The appetizer line-up is very different, and includes some interesting ingredients. A Marinated Grilled Octopus, Flash Fried Icy Blue Mussels, Cheese and Chicken Liver Pate, and a Fish Crudo are some of the more unusual dishes.
We tried the Black-Eyed Pea Fritters, accompanied with the Tiffins Signature Bread Service.
The fritters were a great way to get started. Light, with a satisfying crisp outside, you get a serving of three for $11.
The Tiffins Signature Bread Service at $10 is beautifully presented in a stack of containers, with three types of bread on the top, and a set of four accompaniments below. There is a Harissa Yogurt, Lime Chutney and a Black-Eyed Pea Hummus.
Something to be aware of, is that there is a complimentary bread basket which is delicious, but contains one of the three breads that is also part of the appetizer bread service.
Moving to entrees, there is a solid line-up of proteins, including a Chermoula-rubbed Chicken, a Berkshire Pork Tenderloin, Pan-seared Duck Breast, a Berbere-spiced Lamb Chop, a Hoisin-glazed Halibut, and the most expensive dish on the menu - the Wagyu Strip Loin and Braised Short Rib. A Vegetable Curry is the only entree without a meat.
The lowest price entree with a meat is the Chermoula-rubbed Chicken at $34, and the majority of dishes are in the $40 range.
The Wagyu Strip Loin and Braised Short Rib was without question our favorite dish at the restaurant. Cooked to absolute perfection at a medium-rare, it had a depth of flavor that is hard to find. Wagyu Beef isn’t cheap, and at $53, you only get 4 slices, but it is most definately worth it.
The Whole-Fried Snapper at $43 was our second entree, and although nothing could really compare to the Wagyu Beef, it was wonderfully prepared and had a great flavor. The fish was moist and tender, and the accompanying fermented black bean sauce complemented it perfectly.
Finally for dessert, we tried two interesting sounding dishes - the Passion Fruit Tapioca Creme and the restaurant’s signature Calamansi Mousse.
Both were incredibly fresh tasting, light, and were the perfect sweet ending to the meal. Priced at $12, the desserts are on the small side, but ooze quality.
As you would expect, there is an extensive range of specialty drinks, beers and wines, along with a couple of non-alcoholic options.
The Verdict
Disney’s Animal Kingdom has been crying out for a good restaurant, and we are happy to say that Tiffins is it.
Fans of Jiko and Sanaa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be pleased that Tiffins follows in a similar mold. There is very much a depth of flavor that you don’t see in many restaurants, and it is thankfully far superior to the recently opened Jungle Cruise Skipper Canteen that attempts a similar world traveller inspired menu.
The ambiance of the restaurant is calm and relaxing, and although it is a signature location, families visiting with young children can be easily accommodated. The kid’s menu is one of the better ones, including short ribs and salmon.
Service of course varies, but on our visit, everything was exactly as expected.
It is likely that drinks, and a three course dinner will cost around $100 per person, and that’s a lot, especially inside a theme park. Tiffins perhaps is not a place that you visit in between rides on Everest and Kilimanjaro. But it is perfect for an evening out when you have the proper time to enjoy the experience.
With the opening of Tiffins at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, it goes right into the top 10 of Walt Disney World restaurants. Once inside, you quickly forget you are in a theme park, and the break from the hustle and bustle of the park is very welcome. This is not a restaurant pretending to be high-end, it is high-end. It is a close call with Jiko, and the only way to find out is to make it part of your next trip to Walt Disney World.
Tiffins is open daily for lunch and dinner. Lunch is served 11:30am to 3:30pm, and dinner from 4pm to 9:30pm. The Disney Dining plan is accepted with two credits. As Tiffins is an in-park restaurant, there is no dress code beyond that required to enter the park.
As always, WDWMAGIC restaurant reviews are paid in full by the reviewer, and are not part of any promotional tasting.
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Public housing has a long and troubled history in the United States. In recent years, the demolishing of public housing in cities like Chicago has been one of the most prominent images of decline. For sociologists, it is important to understand not just the problems with and eventual failures of post-war public housing, but also the social forces and sentiments behind their creation.
Consider why the federal government would even see a role for itself in the building of public housing structures in the first place. The origin of public housing legislation can be traced back to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, a series of laws and executive orders focused on providing more basic necessities for the poorest in America.
However, public housing would eventually become associated with racial segregation. The design of public housing projects ultimately worked to concentrate poor non-white communities into relatively cut-off neighborhoods in the middle of cities. This segregation, combined with heavy degradation of the buildings and a lack of proper care from government officials, led to a heavily stigmatized view of public housing buildings. | {
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The 80/20 rule, the Pareto principle, the law of the vital few. Whatever you want to call it, the implications of bringing this theory into your daily living practice is a powerful tool to simplify.
What is the 80/20 Principle?
In the late 1800s, an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto found an interesting pattern while studying the pea pod plants in his garden. He had assumed that the amount of pea’s being grown would be evenly distributed across the pea pods. However, it turned out that consistently about 20% of the pea pods where growing 80% of his peas. Amazed by his findings, he tried looking at other scenarios. Not long after, he did another study found that 20% of the families in Italy, owned 80% of the land.
The concept of the 80/20 principal was born. The theory is that 80% of the effects are created by 20% of the causes.
Since those initial studies by Pareto, case after case of this same pattern has been found in business, sociology, software development, sports, biology, and more. It appears to be principle that is not just true in human behavior, but in many natural patterns as well.
Simplifying with 80/20
Not long after I learned about the 80/20 principle from a business book that I was reading, I thought about ways I may be able to apply this to the rest of my life. What are the 20% of other areas of my life that provide the most value?
I looked for both the positive and the negative things that could be discovered with this perspective. From an organization of my closet standpoint, what 20% of my clothes do I wear 80% of the time? Or if I’m looking at how I waste time on the computer, what 20% of websites do I find myself spending 80% of my internet browsing time on?
Very quickly it became clear that the 80/20 principle was a powerful tool for simplifying my life. Once I identified the 20% that provided the most value, I was able either eliminate the rest, or at the very least, make better decisions going forward in that area of my life.
Material Items – Electronics, books, furniture, children’s toys, you name it, the 80/20 rule can be applied. Before simplifying my life, I had a near addiction to always needing the latest and greatest electronic. After identifying the 20% of the devices I used most, I was able to reduce my existing electronic stash, and knowing what I actually used, purchase less gadgets going forward.
Clothing – One of the most fun areas of your life to apply the 80/20 rule is with your clothing. You probably already know that you have some “favorite” items to wear. But if you watch the patterns, you almost certainly have about 20% of your clothes that are your go-to’s. You can drastically clean up your closet by donating many of the items you don’t usually wear, as well as have a better sense of what style you prefer for future clothing purchases.
Relationships – Best friends are not just best friends, they are 20% friends. Knowing that you spend a majority of your time with a small subset of your friends is important, so make sure that you appreciate who you are around most often.
Spending – Where does all your money go!? With some consistency, the 80/20 rule can be applied to personal finances as well. We tend to spend a majority of our hard earned money on a few areas in our budget. Identifying these areas can allow you to make better purchasing decisions.
Productivity – 80% of your productivity comes from about 20% of your effort. This principle can be useful both at work and at home. As a sales manager for our business, I use this principle to determine what activities, clients, and projects lead us to the most profitable outcome.
The Power of Less
By focusing on less, you can do more. More time, money, and better results. Understanding and implementing the concept of 80/20 to your life allows you to focus on that extra valuable 20%. If you strive for a more minimal life, you can also selectively eliminate the non-20% components that don’t provide as much value. | {
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Check out local reports on CNN affiliates WMC, WPTY, WSIL, KFVS, WPSD and WREG. If you're in an affected area, share your story with CNN's iReport.
Tunica, Mississippi (CNN) -- As a historic crest of the swollen Mississippi River rolls southward, residents throughout the river region are on high alert and braced for the possibility of more flooding in the days ahead.
Residents and officials are especially concerned about the Morganza Spillway above Baton Rouge, which was last opened in 1973. Opening it could help spare Baton Rouge and New Orleans from some damage, but it would flood populated and rural areas in the swampy Atchafalaya Basin. The basin is home to the Atchafalaya River and myriad tributaries.
In Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, residents of towns emptied out by the waters of the Mississippi faced flood recovery even as they still remembered too well a series of earlier natural disasters.
"I went through (Hurricane) Katrina," said Lynn Magnuson, a New Orleans resident. "I would not wish flooding on anyone, and this city is the last place on Earth that needs any more high water."
The river crested Tuesday at Memphis, Tennessee, just short of a record set in 1937.
"We've never seen anything like this, I was scared not knowing what's going to happen or where we can go from here," said flood victim Tamara Jenkins of Frayser, Tennessee, who was evacuated from her house on Tuesday.
Fourteen Mississippi counties affected by flooding have been declared major disaster areas eligible for federal assistance, Gov. Haley Barbour announced Wednesday in a statement released by his office.
"We are grateful to President (Barack) Obama and FEMA for quickly fulfilling our request for assistance," Barbour said. "The flooding situation will last for several weeks, and this declaration gives Mississippians in flooded areas access to federal assistance that can help families through this difficult time," he added.
The river in Memphis measured 47.8 feet Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service. Flood stage in Memphis is 34 feet.
In Natchez, Mississippi, the river surpassed its record early Wednesday, exceeding 58 feet. Forecasts predict the river will crest in Natchez on May 21 at an overwhelming 64 feet. Flood stage in Natchez is 48 feet.
Mississippi has already had to close some of its casinos at Tunica, a key economic driver in that part of the state.
Additionally, the Rainbow Casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi, was closed Wednesday. Only the Ameristar and Riverwalk casinos remain open.
"The gaming commission is conducting daily assessments at the casinos to determine their status," said Allen Godfrey, deputy director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission.
About 600 people in the community of Cutoff in Tunica have been driven from their homes, said Larry Liddell, a county spokesman.
"My house is completely submerged. You can't even see it from a photograph," said Michael Dewes, who fled the Cutoff community and is staying in a shelter. "It's completely gone."
In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal said as many as 3 million acres could be affected by the flooding. Some 500 National Guard members have been mobilized so far, and 21 parishes have issued emergency declarations.
The river's crest is expected to begin arriving in Louisiana next week. Flooding is expected to be a major setback in the southern part of the state.
"After hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike -- as well as the oil spill -- Louisiana can ill-afford another large-scale disaster," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat. "Billions of dollars in property is at stake, not to mention the threat to human life."
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it was closing a major lock that allows for the transfer of barge traffic between the Mississippi and the Red River Basin.
The Corps opened 38 more spill gates to the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Norco, Louisiana, north of New Orleans on Wednesday, sending millions of gallons of water rushing into Lake Pontchartrain and, eventually, the Gulf of Mexico.
On Monday, 28 gates were opened and an additional 44 gates were opened on Tuesday to divert floodwater.
As the swollen waters inch closer, anxious Louisiana residents are demanding answers.
Some have posted on Facebook pages operated by the Corps, demanding answers about when certain spillways will be opened and what other areas are facing flooding.
In Arkansas, meanwhile, the Farm Bureau estimated damage to the state agriculture could top $500 million as more than a million acres of cropland are under water. In Helena, Arkansas, the river was at over 56 feet Wednesday. Flood level in Helena is 44 feet.
A crest is defined as the high point of the water during a flood before it begins to recede. Observers generally know that cresting is occurring when the gradual rise stops and the water level becomes stable. The crest is estimated to be in New Orleans on May 23, Jindal said.
President Barack Obama has signed disaster declarations for Tennessee, which will help direct federal aid toward recovery efforts in areas hit by severe storms, flooding and tornadoes.
Flooding also continues to be a problem in southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois, though the Mississippi and Ohio rivers have already crested in those states.
The 4,800-foot spillway includes 125 gate bays, said operations manager Russell Beauvais. In 1973, 42 of them were opened.
At a news conference in Louisiana on Wednesday, Louisiana's Jindal said the decision on whether to open the Morganza Spillway is still under way but a "necessary step."
The current flow is at 1.36 million cubic feet per second but when the river's flow reaches 1.5 million cubic feet of water per second at Louisiana's Red River Landing, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will open the spillway and send a torrent of water down the Atchafalaya River, Jindal said.
The Corp predicts the opening threshold will be reached sometime between Saturday and Tuesday.
"If the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decides to open the Morganza Spillway, it could take approximately a week from the day they start, and roughly 3,900 people and 2,600 structures would be impacted in by the high water," Jindal said.
After gates are opened, Beauvais said, it would take about three days for the water to fully reach Morgan City, a town of about 12,000 near the coast.
CNN's Dave Alsup, Craig Bell, Ed Lavandera and Tracy Sabo contributed to this report. | {
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by
The announcement that Israel will construct 3,000 new homes in settlements in Jerusalem and in the West Bank has been followed by the usual international outcry against it. Despite protests by leading industrialized nations Israel will probably build them as planned. Those that claim that Palestine recognition at the United Nations is a threat to peace will, again, miss the obvious point. The real threat to peace is the construction of illegal settlements in Palestinian land.
The location of these settlements is particularly relevant. It will make the two-state solution practically impossible to be achieved, since it would close off East Jerusalem from the West Bank. As UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement, “If implemented, these plans would alter the situation, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, increasingly difficult to achieve. They would undermine Israel’s international reputation and create doubts about its stated commitment to achieving peace with the Palestinians.”
Settlement construction is controversial issue on which most nations, except Israel, agree: they are illegal under international law. On May 14, European Foreign Affairs Ministers stated, “The European Union expresses deep concern about the marked acceleration of settlement construction following the end of the 2012 moratorium, the recent decision of the government of Israel regarding the status of some settlement outposts as well as the proposal to relocate settlers from Migron within the occupied Palestinian territory…”
Last July, however, a report by an Israeli government appointed committee led by Retired Supreme Court Judge Edmond Levy recommended legalizing West Bank outposts and easing settlement restrictions. The committee claimed that settlements do not breach international law.
Several United Nations resolutions have stated that both the building and existence of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are a violation of international law, particularly UN Security Council resolutions in 1979 and 1980. UN Security Council Resolution 446 refers to the Fourth Geneva Convention as the appropriate legal instrument. It calls upon Israel to desist from transferring its own population into the territories or changing their demographic makeup.
Although Israel maintains that the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply to the territories occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War because of a lack of a legal sovereign of these territories, the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Court of Justice and High Contracting Parties to the Convention have all stated that the Fourth Geneva Convention does indeed apply.
In 2004, an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice determined that Israel had breached its obligations under international law by establishing settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It also concluded that Israel cannot rely on a right of self-defense or on a state of necessity in order to preclude the wrongfulness of imposing a régime which is contrary to international law. The Court also determined that the Israeli régime violates the basic human rights of Palestinians by impeding the liberty of movement of the inhabitants of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (with the exception of Israeli citizens) and their exercise of their right to work, to health, to education and to an adequate standard of living.
Furthermore, Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the International Criminal Court Rome Statute defines “the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” as a war crime. Although Israel initially signed the statute, it later declared its intention not to ratify it.
According to the UN, Israeli governments have built about 150 settlements in the West Bank –including East Jerusalem- since 1967. During that same period, more than 100 ‘outposts’ have been erected by the settlers without official authorization. Between 2002 and 2012, the Middle East Quartet, which includes the European Union, United Nations, United States and Russia, has made 39 joint statements calling on Israeli governments to halt the expansion of settlements. Yet, during that period, the number of settlers living in settlements has risen by more than one third – from approximately 377,000 to 500,000.
To pretend that Palestine incorporation into the United Nations is a threat to peace is to ignore these facts, that have caused so much damage to all those involved. This wrong assumption is a perverse use of language that makes a travesty of justice and basic human rights.
Dr. Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights. | {
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HISAR: Refusal to work in the fields of two upper caste men proved fatal for a dalit labourer in Kharia village of Hisar district. Victim Mahaveer, 47, was brutally attacked on the night of August 16 and eventually died of injuries at a private hospital on Wednesday. His family refused to accept his body after postmortem and blocked the road adjacent the civil hospital. One of the accused has been arrested and police have registered a case of murder against the two persons and also booked them under Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act.
Victim's younger brother Dharampal Kharia alleged in the police complaint that on August 15, Vikram and his friend Ajeet had asked Mahaveer to work in their fields, but he had refused. He said that the two men started to thrash Mahaveer. "They fled from the spot when they saw us approaching," alleged Dharampal.
He further mentioned in the complaint that on August 16, Mahaveer was found in a pool of blood in the fields near the village. He was rushed to civil hospital where the doctors referred him to Post Graduate Institute of Medcial Sciences ( PGIMS ), Rohtak. However, Mahaveer was shifted to a private hospital for treatment where he died. Acting on the complaint by the victim's brother, the police arrested Ajeet while Vikram is on the run. Police said that the other accused would soon be arrested.
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if a boxer no longer boxes. And he recently took up playing xbox Would that make him an ex-boxer who is also an x-boxer?
398 shares | {
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The recent rulings in both the states of Washington and Colorado show that legalization of marijuana can and will work, and that the rest of the country could soon follow suit. The State of New York, by becoming the third state in the country to legalize such use of marijuana, can not only be one of the first and foremost leaders in the War on the War on Drugs, but can also improve our state's citizens' quality of life by putting our tax dollars and law enforcement resources towards prosecuting more serious offenses, such as violent crimes and more serious drug offenses (i.e, trafficking of narcotics). By preceding the federal government by making these changes in our state's current penal code (where possession of small amounts of marijuana are already decriminalized), this action could very well convince the rest of the United States of America and the state/federal governing bodies that be to follow suit. | {
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Laws that force wealthy owners of private businesses to divulge their business income and how much tax they paid will do nothing to bring in revenue, but instead are a gross invasion of privacy, advisers say.
Tax advisers to wealthy Australians say most of their clients are European immigrant families who came to this country with little, and have built up their wealth but are not avoiding tax.
Tax message: Search engine Google made a loss of more than $60,000 in New Zealand last year. Credit:Reuters
"They don't spend big and they don't live it up big," says adviser to Australia's richest families, Mark Leibler, who runs law firm Arnold Block Leibler.
He is among a raft of tax advisers that say the tax laws should be scrapped, or at the very least amended to take out private companies. | {
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New in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, Apple’s AirPrint is getting some welcomed improvements including ‘AirPrint Bluetooth Beacon’, the ability to create PDFs from the print panel in iOS, and support for multi-user and password-only printing.
AirPrint Bluetooth Beacon
For the new AirPrint Bluetooth Beacon feature, Apple is using its Bluetooth beacon technology similar to its iBeacon platform to allow for more reliable wireless connection to printers from iOS devices. The feature can be configured using many of the third-party Bluetooth beacons on the market and Apple said the feature would be built-in to future AirPrint-enabled printers sold by partners. Once set up, the beacon sends out the connection information, which Apple says helps avoid any network complexities by allowing a connection to an iPhone so long as it’s in range of the beacon and an IP address is reachable. It can also be set up to work with print servers with each printer on network having a beacon advertising the server’s IP address.
Create PDF
Also new in iOS 10, you’ll now be able to create a PDF from the print panel much like you have long been able to do on the Mac. After selecting Print, you can access the feature by pinching out from the print preview screen with two fingers and hitting the share menu in the upper right corner (or use peek and pop with 3D Touch instead of pinching). Any app that can accept PDF sharing will be under the share menu and you can send your newly created PDF from there.
Multi-user & password only printing
With AirPrint there is already support for username/password protected printing and Apple stores that info in the keychain. With iOS 10 you’ll be able to forget that information to allow for multi-user printing setups on a single device and you can also now do password-only printing without the need for a username in both iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.
Catch up with our other iOS 10 and WWDC coverage below:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: | {
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Toyota Motor Corp. says a renovated version of its Aqua hybrid going on sale next Monday will overtake Honda Motor Co.’s Fit compact as the world’s most fuel-efficient vehicle apart from plug-in hybrids.
The increased fuel efficiency of 37.0 km per liter achieved by Toyota’s mainstay Aqua hybrid surpasses the 36.4 km of the fully renovated Fit, which went on sale in September, Toyota boasted Tuesday.
Toyota further remodeled the Aqua after launching a renovated version in May as the Fit became the best-selling car in Japan in October after it was fully updated the previous month.
The automaker said it enhanced the Aqua’s fuel efficiency by 1.6 km by reducing frictional resistance in the engine and improving motor control.
The new Aqua lineup will be priced starting at ¥1.7 million, ¥10,000 higher than the existing models. Toyota will begin selling a sports model of the Aqua for ¥2.22 million on Dec. 9.
Honda expands in Brazil
New York KYODO
Honda Motor Co. has started construction on its second auto assembly plant in Brazil, and it is scheduled to open in 2015.
Honda is investing about 1 billion real (roughly ¥44 billion) in the Sao Paulo plant to meet growing demand in Brazil, the fourth-largest auto market in the world.
At a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday, Honda President Takanobu Ito boasted that the new plant will enable the firm to supply a broad range of products that will exceed the expectations of Brazilian customers. He also said the factory will be easy on the environment. | {
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Artist and programmer Darius Kazemi has been running his own social network site, Friend Camp, since August 2018. Friend Camp has 50 users, which makes it an "intentionally small" social network. Most of the members are friends. Kazemi describes it as a Slack channel where you can subscribe and talk to people who are in other Slack groups.
What makes Friend Camp different from Slack, Facebook, and Twitter, though, is that users can customize their groups and make their own rules and policies using open-source social media software. And the whole thing is run off of user-owned servers—basically cutting out the corporations and the risks that come with that.
"Friend Camp does not have the annoyances of big social network sites," Kazemi said. "We sell no data, we collect no extraneous data, there are no advertisements at all, and no major features get changed unless I talk to the campers about it first."
Based on his experience setting up Friend Camp, Kazemi has released "Run your own social," a guide to creating your own small social network.
Running your own social site "gives you the flexibility to [communicate] in the context of a broader internet," Kazemi said.
The guide outlines why people should consider creating small social network sites, how to solve social problems, ways to introduce new users to the network, and what the future of these small networks looks like.
The guide also includes information on the technical side: how to set up servers or what to do if you lack the skills to do it yourself.
Friend Camp uses open-sourced software Mastodon that lets users modify its social network framework. Users can also hard-code bans against other communities—such as Nazis—and essentially removing them from the group's existence.
"I have friends who have their own servers and they're like, 'Oh, we don't think that blocking or muting Nazis is enough,'" Kazemi said. "'We need to put up a firewall and have it so they don't even know this exists."
But because Mastodon is a decentralized network, it means that groups are free to use its own social network as it pleases, including for hate. Mastodon is sort of the connective thread between these servers, so it's up to individual communities to decide whether or not those groups "exist" to their communities.
Kazemi pointed back to Friend Camp. "If I find a server that allows hate speech against transgender people, then I'll just block that on a server level so I'm blocking it on behalf of all 50 of my users."
Keeping the social network sites small is essential for customization that will meet everyone's needs. Kazemi doesn't suggest going over 100 users. Smaller communities are easier to manage both technically and socially, but it also creates an intimacy where it's possible to know everyone in the group, creating a truly private, curated space.
One problem is that social media sites—even the open-source ones—are typically designed to spread messages far and wide. But small social media sites should have the option to send messages only to the group. Kazemi said he's working to solve this problem by releasing a modification of Mastodon that's got all the features he wishes it had, like giving people the option to send messages only to their communities.
Kazemi told VICE he'll release this "soon," alongside other software options that offer "commodity options" for users. | {
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ロッテアイス、酒粕を使用した「大人のひととき レディーボーデン 甘酒ミルク」を発売
有料会員の方のみご利用になれます。保存した記事はスマホやタブレットでもご覧いただけます。
ご利用には会員登録が必要です
発表日:2017年12月27日
[アイス]
「酒粕」を使用したコク深い味わい！
ロッテ 大人のひとときレディーボーデン
甘酒ミルク
2018年1月15日（月）に全国で発売
ロッテアイスは1月15日に、「大人のひとときレディーボーデン」シリーズから、＜甘酒ミルク＞を発売いたします。酒粕を使用したコク深い「甘酒ミルク」味で、上質な「大人のひととき」をお楽しみください。
※商品画像は添付の関連資料を参照
＜商品特長＞
1.「大人のひととき」シリーズは、シニア世代の「適量な商品を手軽な価格で楽しみたい」という要望にお応えし、誕生しました。
2.甘酒の風味を再現するために、酒粕をパウダー状に加工したものを使用しました。
3.厳選した乳原料で作るレディーボーデンと混ぜ合わせることで、コク深い味わいが楽しめます。
●商品名:大人のひととき レディーボーデン 甘酒ミルク
●発売日:2018年1月15日（月）
●発売地区:全国
●種類別名称:アイスクリーム
●内容量:85ml
●価格:オープン価格（想定小売価格 100円前後(税抜)）
※以下は添付リリースを参照
【この件に関するお問い合わせ先】
■一般の方からのお問い合わせ先
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●TEL:0120-106-244(フリーダイヤル)
リリース本文中の「関連資料」は、こちらのURLからご覧ください。
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添付リリース
http://release.nikkei.co.jp/attach_file/0467336_02.pdf | {
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Everyone agrees something is broken. Can we make it better?
Everyone agrees something is broken. Can we make it better? POLITICO Magazine asked dozens of big thinkers to tell us their boldest solutions to America’s problems.
What should we do about the influence of money in our campaigns and our government?
Congress is stuck. Here’s how we can jolt it into action — or work around it.
How can we bring more Americans into the political process? Should we?
Yes, Americans are deeply divided. But there are ways to reduce partisanship.
White men still dominate politics. There are racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The income gap has widened. What should we do?
How to tackle fake news, voter ignorance, our social media addiction and more.
Illustration and animation by Ben Fearnley.
Photos: Getty Images; AP; Wikipedia Commons; Flickr; Chris Lehmann, courtesy of New Republic; Gary Shteyngart, photo by Brigitte Lacombe; Kevin Kosar, courtesy of R Street Institute; Michael Anton, courtesy of Hillsdale College; Matthew Continetti, courtesy of Washington Free Beacon; Rebecca Sandefur, courtesy of John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Myrna Pérez, courtesy of Brennan Center.
Art direction by Megan McCrink. Design and development by Erin Aulov, Andrew Briz and Lily Mihalik. Editing by Margaret Slattery, Chris Suellentrop, Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna and Zack Stanton. Photo research by Katie Ellsworth and Bill Kuchman. Videos produced and edited by Brooke Minters, Krystal Campos, Eugene Daniels and Mary Newman. | {
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(CNN) — Alabama, Florida and Mississippi are preparing for states of emergency as Subtropical Storm Alberto heads toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott issued the declaration for all 67 counties in his state. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant authorized the use of the National Guard, his office said in a statement.
11 PM advisory on Alberto in the SE Gulf about 200 miles from Key West (but moving north). *This is the closest approach to the Keys. pic.twitter.com/hTl78e2qni — 7 Weather (@7Weather) May 27, 2018
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency for 40 counties that will go into effect at 6 a.m. Sunday, according to a statement from her office. Ivey activated the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Clanton, the statement said. The Alabama National Guard also activated its High Water Evacuation Teams.
The first named storm of this season, Alberto is expected to strengthen as it moves up the Gulf this weekend, the National Hurricane Center said, bringing heavy rains and possible floods to Florida and much of the Southeast in the coming days.
“Do not think that only areas in the cone will be impacted — everyone in our state must be prepared,” Scott said in a statement.
Click here to track the storm
Cuba is expected to get as much as 15 inches of rain, the hurricane center said in an advisory Saturday morning, and the Florida Keys and South Florida could get as much as 10 inches.
“Swells from Alberto will create dangerous surf and rip currents along the Gulf Coast,” the National Weather Service said.
Tracking the tropics as Alberto swirls through the eastern Gulf @7weather pic.twitter.com/2TABRnuoNZ — Brent Cameron (@bcameron7) May 27, 2018
The center of the storm is expected to be move close to the western tip of Cuba on Saturday afternoon, then track up the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the night through Monday.
The city of New Orleans urged residents and businesses to “get prepared and stay informed” about the storm. The main threat is from heavy rain that could lead to flooding, the city said, but also high winds and storm surge could cause problems.
“I strongly encourage everyone to be safe and stay informed,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement.
Hurricane season doesn’t officially begin until June 1, but Alberto apparently missed the memo. The tropical system became a subtropical storm Friday, the hurricane center said. As it travels up the warm waters of the Gulf, it could well become a full tropical storm.
As of 11 a.m. ET Saturday, parts of Cuba and the Florida Keys were under a tropical storm warning, and a tropical storm watch is in effect for parts of Florida, Georgia and Louisiana, meaning the conditions for a full storm are possible in the next 48 hours.
The early storm doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a busier-than-usual hurricane season though. The official National Hurricane Center forecast released Thursday said the season is likely to be near or above normal.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. | {
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Sandy Hilliker has been in the nursing industry for nearly 50 years, working in management roles, critical care and surgery.
Despite retiring in 2012, Hilliker wasn't quite ready to lose her nursing skills and touch with the community. She started her next chapter in her 50-year nursing tenure as a volunteer nurse with the St. Matthews Medical Clinic in 2013.
With added personnel at the clinic, St. Matthews Medical Clinic is expanding its available services to patients by adding an extra clinic a week to accommodate more patients. The clinic currently has 54 volunteers to serve patients.
ER options increase for some patients:Banner Fort Collins now accepts Anthem Blue Cross
The clinic, founded in 2012 located inside the HNS Life Center at 1511 E. 11th St., Suite 170 in Loveland, is one of two completely free primary care clinics available in Larimer County. It does no financial screenings and doesn't ask for insurance information.
As the clinic adds more staff capable of serving patients in the area, Hilliker said it is trying to expand the client base as well.
"I do think that we are kind of a best kept secret," she said. "Not a lot of people know we exist here in a certain community."
The clinic, which considers itself primary care, can provide patients with a number of services, ranging from prescribing simple medications to caring for patients with long-term chronic health issues.
St. Matthews is completely funded by grants and individual donations, Hilliker said, and all staff members are volunteers to keep operational costs low.
Flying ICU:Summer a stressful time for UCHealth's Loveland-based medical helicopter crews
The only other clinic of its kind is Christ Clinic, which was founded in 2012 after Rich and Kathy Simmons noticed a critical shortage of accessible health care for people in the Fort Collins area.
Christ Clinic operates two locations in Fort Collins, one out of Faith Church, 3920 S. Shields St., and one out of Mountain View Community Church, 328 Remington St.
Christ Clinic is a set-up and take-down clinic, Rich Simmons said, so the setup inside the churches is only temporary. During the scheduled clinics, the volunteer staff can provide patients with standard primary care up to and excluding pregnancy and chronic pain care.
Both Christ Clinic and St. Matthew's Medical Clinic take clients by appointment only.
Christ Clinic has continued to grow its operations to accommodate more patients, Simmons said. The clinic now has the ability to schedule as many as 20 patients in a day at the Faith Church location and 12 at Mountain View Community Church.
As both clinics expand services to accommodate more people, the stigma that can come with the idea of a free clinic looms over their potential patients. At Christ Clinic, Rich Simmons said simply showing up to a church can present challenges.
"It takes a real need, particularly if you don’t go to church, to go into a church building, to admit that you need free care," he said.
For others, it can simply be the idea that they do not qualify as someone who should access free care, Hilliker said.
"People think there is a stigma attached and it is not for them," Hilliker said. "And if you are working with insurance, you might not even think to look for a free clinic or find yourself on a break when it comes to health insurance.
"So we’re thinking we do see some of those clients now, but we are hoping to expand that."
Free and low-cost medical clinics in Larimer County
Christ Clinic
Location: Faith Church at 3920 S. Shields St. in Fort Collins and Mountain View Community Church at 328 Remington St. in Fort Collins
Hours: 6 to 8 p.m. Mondays at Faith Church; 9 to 11 a.m. the first Saturday of every month and 6 to 8:30 p.m. the third Friday of every month at Mountain View
Cost: Free
Services available: Simple ambulatory procedures, well woman exams, student sport physicals, limited laboratory testing. All visits by appointment only.
For more information: christclinicfc.org
St. Matthew's Medical Clinic
Location: Inside the HNS Life Center, 1511 E. 11th St., Suite 170 in Loveland
Hours: Open some Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings and most Thursday evenings
Cost: Free
Services available: Preventive care services and treatments are available as well as chronic and acute disease management. Labs and x-rays are not available at the clinic, but patients can be referred to the most affordable option in the area. Spanish-speaking staff are available. All visits are by appointment only.
For more information: stmatthewsmedicalclinic.org
Salud Family Health Centers
Location: Fort Collins Blue Spruce Clinic at 1635 Blue Spruce Drive and Fort Collins West Clinic at 1830 Laporte Ave.
Hours Blue Spruce location: Medical services available from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays and 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays Dental care available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays Pharmacy services from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays West Clinic location: Medical services offered from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays Dental care available from 8 a.m. through 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
Cost: Sliding scale
Services available: Salud clinics provide a range of services, from family and pediatric medicine to pregnancy care and cancer screenings.
For more information: saludclinic.org
Alpha Center
Location: 1212 S. College St. in Fort Collins
Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays
Cost: Free
Services available: Alpha Center provides health care and services related to sexual health, including pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, STD testing and treatment, and counseling, among others. The center does not perform or refer abortion services.
For more information:thealphacenter.org
Sunrise Community Health
Location: Loveland Community Health Center at 302 Third St. SE in Loveland and Sunrise SummitStone Clinic at 1250 N. Wilson Ave. in Loveland
Hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
Cost: Sliding scale
Services available: Sunrise Community Health provides a range of services, including medical, dental, lab work and health education, among others.
For more information:sunrisecommunityhealth.org
Meredith Spelbring is a multimedia reporting intern for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @mere0415. | {
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In Major League Baseball, the 300-300 club is a grouping of players who have hit at least 300 home runs and collected at least 300 stolen bases in their career. It is an accomplishment that requires both speed and power and has only been achieved by eight players. The combination of skills and longevity required to join this club gives it high prestige among baseball fans. This is in relation to the 30-30 club, which is a measure of power and speed for a single season.
History of the 300-300 club [ edit ]
In baseball history, 133 players have hit 300 or more home runs, and 160 have stolen at least 300 bases, yet only 8 have done both. The most recent member to join the club is Carlos Beltran then of the St. Louis Cardinals, who stole his 300th career base against the Kansas City Royals on June 15, 2012. Among recently retired players, Craig Biggio fell just shy of joining the club, finishing his career with 291 home runs to go with his 414 stolen bases; Rickey Henderson was even closer, missing out by just 3 homers.
Players capable of hitting for power and stealing bases tend to display defensive excellence on the field as well, as evidenced by the members of the club. Willie Mays (12), Andre Dawson (8), Barry Bonds (8), Steve Finley (5), Bobby Bonds (3), Carlos Beltran (3) and Alex Rodriguez (2) have combined for a total of 41 Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. Seven members were outfielders and spent a long time in centerfield; the exception is Rodriguez, who was a shortstop and third baseman.
All of the members of the club had played a majority of their careers in the National League, until Rodriguez became a member. Two members of the club are currently in the Hall of Fame, Willie Mays and Andre Dawson.
The club and the Giants [ edit ]
The San Francisco Giants dominate this club, as three of the eight members (Mays, Barry Bonds, and Bobby Bonds) have played more games with the Giants than any other team, and the only members not to have played for the Giants are Andre Dawson and Alex Rodriguez, whose entire career has been spent in the American League. The Giants are the only team to field two members of the club at the same time, as Barry Bonds and Steve Finley played for them together in 2006. Willie Mays and Bobby Bonds also played together on the Giants from 1968 to 1972; in addition Reggie Sanders played for the Arizona Diamondbacks with Steve Finley in 2001 and on the Giants with Barry Bonds in 2002, but in those instances one or both members were yet to join the club. Three of these Giants have a family tie; Barry Bonds is the son of Bobby Bonds and the godson of Willie Mays.
Members of the 300-300 club [ edit ]
Dates in bold denote the date players joined the club
Ballpark refers to the ballpark in which the players joined the club, and age refers to the age they were at the time they joined.
Steve Finley and Barry Bonds played in the outfield together on the San Francisco Giants in 2006, the year that Finley joined the club.
Subsets of and clubs similar to the 300-300 club [ edit ]
400-400 and 500-500 clubs [ edit ]
Along with being one of seven members of the 300-300 club, Barry Bonds is also the only member of the 400-400 and 500-500 clubs.
400-400 club [ edit ]
500-500 club [ edit ]
300-300-2000 club [ edit ]
Another subset of the 300-300 club is the 300-300-2000 club, which is 300 home runs, 300 stolen bases, and 2000 base hits (which is considered by many to be a feat equivalent to 300 home runs or 300 stolen bases, in the hits category). Willie Mays is the only one to have 3000 hits. This club boasts five members:
Bobby Bonds finished his career with 1886 hits and Reggie Sanders with 1661.
300-300-3000 club [ edit ]
Dates in bold denote the date players joined the club
Ballpark refers to the ballpark in which the players joined the club, and age refers to the age they were at the time they joined.
Single Season clubs [ edit ]
See 30-30 club and 40-40 club.
Combined home runs and stolen bases [ edit ]
The record for most combined home runs and stolen bases doesn't belong to any members of this club, but rather to Rickey Henderson, who retired with 1703, but three home runs short of the 300-300 club. Barry Bonds is a distant second.
Top five all time combined home runs and stolen bases: [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Further Reading [ edit ] | {
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A Twitter campaign using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls has focused global attention on the plight of some 276 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram. Three photos of girls have been posted and reposted thousands of times, including by the BBC and by the singer Chris Brown (who himself has had issues with anger management and violence against women).
One problem: The photos are of girls from Guinea-Bissau, more than 1,000 miles from Nigeria, who have no relationship to the kidnappings.
The use of these pictures raises troubling questions of representation, and misrepresentation. Ami Vitale, the photographer who made the original images as part of a long-term project, spoke with James Estrin on Thursday. Their conversation has been edited.
Q.
Tell me about the photos.
A.
There were three photos that were taken from either my website or the Alexia Foundation website, and someone made these images the face of the campaign. But these photos had nothing to do with the girls who were kidnapped and sexually trafficked.
There are many times when I get upset when people take my photos without permission, but this isn’t about that. I support the campaign completely and I would do anything to bring attention to the situation. It’s a beautiful campaign that shows the power of social media. This is a separate issue.
This is about misrepresentation.
These photos have nothing to do with those girls who were kidnapped. These girls are from Guinea-Bissau, and the story I did was about something completely different. They have nothing to do with the terrible kidnappings. Can you imagine having your daughter’s image spread throughout the world as the face of sexual trafficking? These girls have never been abducted, never been sexually trafficked.
This is misrepresentation.
I know these girls. I know these families, and they would be really upset to see their daughters’ faces spread across the world and made the face of a terrible situation.
The photos were taken from two separate stories. I was there in 1993, in 2000 and then in 2011 for the Alexia Foundation. I lived there for six months, learned the language, learned about their lives and became very close to all the people in these pictures.
Q.
What was the story?
A.
I wanted to put a human face on conflict. But when I got there my story changed. Because I realized the way Africa is generally portrayed in mainstream media is either wars, famine or stories like this terrible abduction. You see the horrors or the other extreme, beautiful safaris and exotic animals. There’s nothing in between.
So it’s ironic the story I was telling was that there is a beautiful world that lies between these two truths. Why don’t we ever tell these stories that show the dignity and resilience of these people?
And this is why I feel so enraged, because I was trying to not show them as victims. They are not victims. Using these images and portraying them as victims is not truthful. The story I did was a hopeful story.
Photo
Q.
Tell me about the girls.
A.
The picture of the girl outside the school was the image used most frequently. The girl’s name is Jenabu Balde, and she is a cousin of the family I lived with. Umou Balde is a relative and she is a dear friend. I lived with them and went back in 2011 to visit them. The point of the story was to show that the girls were going to school and life was getting better in many ways.
Q.
How did you learn the pictures had been misappropriated?
A.
Eileen Mignoni from the Alexia Foundation spotted this first, and the whole board of the foundation was very quick to respond. Mickey H. Osterreicher [a lawyer with the National Press Photographers Association] has been incredibly helpful as well, citing the legal issues and ramifications.
Q.
How do you feel that someone found it acceptable to substitute these girls for the Nigerian girls who were abducted?
A.
This is personal. Even if they weren’t dear friends, it’s the principle. We can’t pick up any photo and use it out of context.
I can’t help but wonder that they thought this was O.K. just because my friends are from Africa. If it were white people from another country in the photos, this wouldn’t be considered acceptable.
Q.
What was your arrangement with the subjects of your story?
A.
I feel a sense of responsibility to the people I photograph.
I go into communities and I make a promise that I will be responsible with their images and that I will deliver the message that they articulate to me.
We are responsible as photographers and journalists when we make promises to do justice to their stories and honor them in the way that they have honored us by sharing their stories.
I need to follow through with this one.
Q.
How are you following through?
A.
I spent my whole day Wednesday trying to track down the people who are spreading these images.
I tweeted back to scores of people asking them to remove the photos. The BBC and Chris Brown retweeted it and it was everywhere. At first the woman from the BBC refused to take it down because it was already out there in the Twittersphere, But after a long exchange they removed it.
Chris Brown did not respond.
Ami Vitale is a photographer and filmmaker who has worked in more than 85 countries. She is a contract photographer for National Geographic and works with the Photo Society and Ripple Effect Images, and is represented by Panos Pictures. Her photos of Kenyan communities protecting their wildlife from poaching were featured on Lens earlier this year.
Follow @JamesEstrin, @Amivee and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook. | {
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Ronald Smits
If you've ever traveled to a country where you've been advised to avoid the water, you know that sometimes it's easier to get a can of Coca-Cola than a glass of clean drinking water. That's part of what inspired Netherlands-based multidisciplinary artist Helmut Smits to create a contraption called "The Real Thing," which turns Coca-Cola into pure water.
"The Real Thing" is basically a still that boils off water from a Coke in the form of vapor, then condenses it back down, adds some minerals and produces clean drinking water. Smits has no intention to manufacture the device. It was simply part of the "Sense Nonsense" exhibition unveiled at Dutch Design Week, which just wrapped up in Holland at the end of last month, and was meant to point out the absurdity that Coke can be easier to get than clean water in some parts of the world.
"A machine that filters Coca-Cola into pure drinking water suddenly makes a lot of sense in a world in which drinking water can be harder to come by than the multinational soft drink," exhibit co-curator Thomas Widdershoven told online design magazine Dezeen.
Ronald Smits
Smits originally had the idea for his Coke converter in 2006 but it took an invitation to exhibit at "Sense Nonesense" (which will be running at the
Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven till November 9) and collaboration with masters student Martien Würdemann of the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Group at the University of Amsterdam to make the idea a reality.
"I try to look at the world and the things around us as a child or as an alien, like I see things for the first time," Smits told Dezeen.
"When I looked at Coca-Cola that way, I saw dirty brown water, so it was logical to filter it back into clean drinking water, just as we do with all our waste water." Smits also said that he found it "absurd" when his research revealed that one liter of Coke (about a quart) can take nine liters of clean water (about 2.5 gallons) to produce.
As for his future as a Coke converter Smits told Dezeen: "I'm not planning on turning all the Coke in the world back into water, it's more to let people think about how we humans create the world around us and ask questions. I just want people to laugh and then hopefully think about the sh*t that they consume." | {
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Georges St-Pierre, UFC welterweight champion, defends his belt November 16th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena at UFC 167 against Johny “Big Rig” Hendricks. A highly anticipated bout that has fans clamoring as the biggest challenge to GSP’s current reign as champion or some are panning as a potential snoozer with GSP wrestling his way to another lopsided decision. Regardless of the outcome at UFC 167, what is next for the current champion?
Now if Hendricks can shock the world on the 16th and defeat GSP, the likely outcome of this is going to be a rematch setting up Hendricks-GSP II. This has been a pattern the UFC has been consistent with for some time offering up rematches for long-time champions after losing their belt. BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, and Frankie Edgar were all granted immediate rematches after losing their championship belts.
If GSP leaves UFC 167 with the belt still around his waist, where does he go from there? If Rory MacDonald can earn a decisive victory over Robbie Lawler, he would likely be the next man up. However, as training partners, MacDonald and GSP have stated that they would never fight one another. Ben Askren is another name that comes up; however with contractual obligations to Bellator, this is likely to delay any potential fight with the current welterweight champion.
When you round out the rest of the top ten ranked welterweights in the world, it is a who’s who of people who have already a lopsided loss to GSP in a recent fight or others who are still a few wins away from being viewed as a legitimate number one contender.
Two potential directions for St-Pierre post-UFC 167, provided he wins.
GSP vs. MacDonald/Lawler
If Rory MacDonald and Robbie Lawler can put on a show for the fans and the UFC at 167, the winner of the fight stands to be in the best position for the next title shot. Robbie Lawler is 2-0 since coming back to the UFC with a first-round knockout of Josh Koscheck that gave him Knockout of the Night from the UFC brass and a second round knockout over Bobby Voelker. MacDonald is on his own five fight win-streak with wins over Nate Diaz, BJ Penn and Jake Ellenberger. A potential match-up, if they were to agree to it, between St-Pierre and MacDonald, could be a massive event held north of the border as both are beloved Canadian fighters. However, a lot has to go right for any of these fights to happen. A lackluster win for either MacDonald or Lawler does little to hype a potential with GSP, who’s often criticized as a boring fighter himself.
GSP Moves to Middleweight
This is an intriguing career move for St-Pierre, who has cleared out the welterweight division for the better half of a decade. A fight down the line with current Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman is one that could interest fans; however it’s unlikely GSP would be granted a title shot without a couple wins in the division and Weidman still has the whole rematch with the greatest fighter of all-time standing in his way. Regardless of who sits atop the division, a potential move to the higher weight class seems more and more like a bad idea by the day. With Lyota Machida recently moving from Light-Heavyweight down to the 185 division, the size of these fighters seems to be bigger than ever. Is the higher weight class becoming too big for St-Pierre? He would have to put on an awful lot of weight and do a cut down to 185 to be comparing in size to some of the top middleweights in the division.
When you start to play out the possible directions Joe Silva, Dana White and the UFC can take coming out of UFC 167, it starts to become clear that Hendricks shocking the world just might be in their best interest, from a business stand point and to give them the small pause they need with the division to reload and line up some legitimate number one contenders.
Otherwise, it appears the only other options are previously recycled ones that nobody is more interested in seeing the second time around.
Thanks for reading. You can follow me on Twitter: @rickw10, and follow the site @lastwordonsport.
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The Education Department originally said that teachers from the reserve might be placed in schools that are part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Renewal program, in which the city is spending more than $500 million to turn around failing schools, but this week said that would not happen.
As of Oct. 4, schools listed approximately 800 teacher vacancies, according to an Education Department spokesman, though that might not reflect the exact number of jobs available; he said he could not give a breakdown of where the vacancies were.
In a system in which only 1 percent of teachers earn the lowest possible ratings, of ineffective or unsatisfactory, 12 percent of the teachers who were in the Absent Teacher Reserve at the end of the last school year had received one of those ratings in 2015-16.
Nearly 40 percent worked in schools that were closed for poor performance. Another 30 percent were “excessed” from their positions because of budget cuts or because the number of students enrolled at their schools fell. Principals are sometimes forced to let go of teachers they would like to keep for those reasons, but they can also use them as a way to get rid of low performers. The rest landed in the pool because of legal or disciplinary charges.
Troubling Histories
As of last spring, roughly a quarter of the teachers in the reserve were in it five years earlier. These teachers are the most likely to be problematic, since their history suggests that no principal has been willing to hire them, or that they have actively avoided getting a permanent assignment. Among this group, principals say, are teachers who are incompetent or mentally unstable.
“So many of them, in my opinion, weren’t capable of leading a classroom again, or ever were,” said Matt Williams, the founding principal of a small high school, Bronx Design and Construction Academy, who left the department in 2014.
To identify teachers from the reserve with troubling histories, The New York Times cross-referenced two sets of records: the Education Department’s Excessed Staff Selection System, which lists available staff and openings in the system, and arbitrators’ decisions in disciplinary cases, which are available from the New York State Education Department. | {
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No matter how often he is shown the footage, what Ray Houghton remembers most from the day Irish football changed forever is not, as you might expect, the moment he headed past Peter Shilton. Instead it is the stifling heat from that remarkable afternoon in the Neckarstadion, Stuttgart. By the end the Ireland players were foaming at the mouth, exhausted and oblivious to the scale of what they had just achieved. “We were absolutely drained,” Houghton says 28 years later. “We put everything into it.”
England had entered the tournament with, as Bobby Robson said, their “best squad for six years” and harbouring genuine ambitions to rule the continent. The Republic of Ireland, it seemed to almost everyone including certain members of Jack Charlton’s squad, were just happy to participate.
“We’ve been preparing for two years,” Robson said on ITV before the game. In contrast, Charlton claimed: “We’ve been preparing for three weeks.”
Even now Houghton says “we didn’t want to embarrass ourselves,” admitting that, to an extent, they were making it up as they went along. “Winging it. Nobody gave us a prayer. I don’t think anybody in Ireland gave us a prayer. We were certainly the underdogs by a long way, but it was a case of making sure you went out there and did your job.”
We didn't want to embarrass ourselves. Nobody gave us a prayer Ray Houghton
If there was pressure on England to perform – much of it self-inflicted – from Ireland’s point of view the buildup was inconspicuous. Expectations were scant, their priority merely to compete with pride. A pre-tournament friendly against Poland attracted only 18,500 to Lansdowne Road, and before travelling to Germany the players recall being taken to the races and the Hill 16 pub for a pint or three by Charlton without being bothered by too many, if any, supporters. A stark contrast, then, to the barriers erected around the training pitch and a team hotel closed to the public before this year’s journey to France.
Houghton’s goal, though, would soon turn the Irish public’s apathy into ardor. The Charlton era was two years old, but 12 June 1988 marked the beginning of a golden period.
Pre-match, a troubling undercurrent of crowd trouble led to questions over England being allowed to participate. Colin Moynihan, the British sports minister, came to Stuttgart “with a heavy heart” and warned: “If we continue to get incidents like these, we will have to consider very seriously whether the English can continue in international football.”
Forty-five arrests were made on the night before and day of the game – mostly for drunkenness and vandalism. All but one were English, according to the Guardian’s reporter Ed Vulliamy. The other was from Luxembourg.
But away from melodramatic headlines of fans behaving badly, there was an unmistakeable expectation for Robson’s team to perform. Gary Lineker, Chris Waddle, John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Bryan Robson … Glenn Hoddle only on the bench. This was a team to be feared. Yet England went out with barely a whimper, succumbing in all three games. It may look on paper like a pronounced failure but this was, in truth, a campaign beset by ill-fortune.
As Rob Smyth wrote in 2008: “The cumulative effect of their three games is incontrovertibly awful – three defeats, two goals scored, seven conceded – but there are enough mitigating circumstances to suggest that, in qualitative terms, it was nowhere near that bad.”
To give a sense of the lofty predictions, an ITV preview a couple of days before the match centred on whether England could win the tournament. Potentially losing to Ireland was not contemplated. “Any team that has Gary Lineker in the front line, who I think is the best striker in Europe, must have a chance,” Trevor Francis reckoned.
Brian Clough, sat to his right, said Ireland had reached Germany on merit but gave them no chance of beating England. “I don’t think they will cause the English lads too many problems because they know them. I don’t mean it will be a walkover, but England will triumph in this particular match.”
Then there is a delightful moment during the show when Robson and Charlton are introduced via video link from their separate Stuttgart hotels and Clough tells Charlton he expects the Irish players to be relaxed come game-time.
“Is that Brian?” Charlton asks on camera.
“It is pal,” comes the response. “You look nice and relaxed and I think you might play like that on Sunday.”
“We’re 28-1, I think, and we’re not expected to do anything in this competition. We just hope to surprise a few people.”
By Sunday night, more than a few were stunned.
It is near-unanimously agreed that Ireland were fortunate to keep a clean sheet, though they equally could have scored more than once. Packie Bonner was exceptional in goal but Lineker, who would later be diagnosed with hepatitis B, was off-colour and England spurned several good chances to equalise.
“It was one of those days where everything seemed to happen for me,” Bonner told an RTE documentary years later. The goalkeeper, a devout Catholic, had passed some rosary beads to his team-mates prior to kick-off. “Packie gave us some bands before the game saying they were blessed and holy and would bring us luck, but I don’t think too many of us believed him before,” Houghton says. “Maybe afterwards he had a point.”
Gary Lineker looks to the skies after another England chance fails to find the net. Packie Bonner, the Ireland goalkeeper, was in inspired form. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images
The goal was perhaps archetypal Ireland under Charlton. Consensus suggests little subtlety existed in their play under Big Jack but it was a tad more nuanced than kick and rush. As the manager said: “We are direct but we also have some very skilful players.”
Another factor was the limpness of England’s defence without Terry Butcher, who broke a leg before the tournament. An inexperienced partnership of Mark Wright and Tony Adams started at centre-half instead.
Within six minutes they were exposed. Kevin Moran’s long free-kick down the left resulted in Wright and Trevor Stevens attacking the same ball. It broke kindly for Tony Galvin, who wasted no time in hooking it towards the box.
Kenny Sansom egregiously mis-cued his clearance, the ball spinning into the air and behind him. John Aldridge knocked it on and there was Houghton, neck muscles tensed, to drive his forehead through the iconic Adidas Tango, across goal and into the right of Shilton’s net.
The Irish fans, situated at that end of the stadium, erupted. Houghton, Aldridge and others ran jubilantly in their direction but the best reaction of all came from Charlton: the manager stood incredulous.
Almost three decades on, the footage remains brilliant, raw and stirring. Charlton’s unfancied team have just scored against his country, the team he won the World Cup with 22 years previously. He turns away from the bench and rubs the top of his head in disbelief. Has this just really happened?
That the goal came so early in the game meant a gargantuan defensive effort was required. Yet it was so hot in the stadium that Charlton, who would usually stand for the duration of games, sought shade in the dugout for a while. “We sat back and said to England: ‘OK, we’ve got one. Now you’ve got to come and get one’,” he remembered some time later. “In the last five or six minutes England were a bit unlucky actually, but we had enough people in between and competing to make sure they didn’t have any opportunity too easily.”
Ireland’s players celebrate, with their band of travelling fans in the background, after their first goal in a major tournament. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images
For those on the pitch, the heat took its toll too.
“It’s much easier when you have the ball,” Houghton adds. “When you haven’t got it and chasing the ball from side to side you do get tired very quickly and that was certainly the case. We gave it everything we had to keep England at bay.
“There was some fortune involved but we defended well. Packie Bonner made some good saves but in reality they missed some golden opportunities that on another day they wouldn’t have done.”
But Ronnie Whelan was also a couple of inches from making it 2-0 with an hour played. Another direct ball forward was headed down by Frank Stapleton, the Ireland captain, and England could only half clear. Whelan arrived on the edge of the area and connected sweetly only for his shot to cannon off the bar.
The remaining half an hour saw several England chances come and go, Bonner a match for everything that came his way. Robson, left to ponder what might have been, said: “As they were always in the lead they had the spirit to keep it going. Had the equalising goal come, I feel that they would have perhaps lost their nerve a little bit and collapsed but we will never know.”
By the time Siegfried Kirschen blew the final whistle, those in green were exhausted and in something of a daze.
The moments of celebration that immediately followed are what Houghton remembers most evocatively. “There’s a great picture – it’s something I remember vividly – from after the game where Mick Byrne, our physio, went behind the goal where all the Irish fans were and was blessing himself on his knees. But next to him was Kevin Moran and he had this white stuff around his lips because he was so dehydrated.
“For all the things I remember, that’s the one that sticks out for me: looking at Kevin and thinking ‘My goodness, look at him’. As I said, we put everything into it.”
That image made it onto the front of newspapers around the world. As Peter Byrne, the Irish Times’ correspondent, said: “I could visualise Ireland beating England and I could even visualise Ireland winning the Championship. But in my wildest dreams I could never have pictured Mick Byrne following the Pope, General De Gaulle and Ronald Reagan onto the front page of The Daily Telegraph.”
England would lose 3-1 to a Marco van Basten-inspired Holland and by the same scoreline against Soviet Union, but Ireland were left to ruminate on what might have been. In their second game Whelan put Charlton’s team ahead in the first half but the Soviet Union equalised 16 minutes from the end through Oleh Protasov. Holland scraped past Ireland 1-0, but, as Houghton asserts, if luck was not against them in the second game, a result would not have been needed against the eventual winners to progress.
Ray Houghton and Ronnie Whelan celebrate in Stuttgart but, looking back now, there is an element of frustration that they did not progress beyond the group stage. Photograph: Colorsport/Rex/Shutterstock
Looking back on the tournament now, there is a certain element of frustration. Holland defeated the Soviet Union 2-0 in the final but such was the lack of expectation among the Ireland squad a sense of what might have been did not register at the time.
“There wasn’t frustration when we were knocked out, but a few years later I think that was there,” Houghton admits. “When we look back, you think after making one competition you were going to make another one and another one. It’s only later on in life … I remember sitting down with a few of the lads, and it came down to ‘Wow, what an opportunity that was and how close we were’.
“In truth, the Holland game shouldn’t have really mattered because in the game against USSR in Hannover we played so well that coming away from it I still can’t believe to this day that we didn’t win. If England were unlucky against us, we were even more unlucky against Russia. We had two or three penalty claims that were absolutely stonewall. I still can’t believe the referee didn’t give it to us.”
While Ireland made their World Cup bow in Italy two years later and also reached the USA in 1994, another European Championship appearance would take 24 years to come about. Reflecting upon 1988, it seems odd to view them as apparent no hopers with no chance. Certainly if their clubs are to serve as a gauge of capability, there should have been greater expectations on the 1988 group compared to the current incarnation, who face far more intense focus and criticism.
It was only years later that we thought: ‘Wow, what an opportunity that was and how close we were' Ray Houghton
The top two in English football that year, Liverpool and Manchester United, made up 30% of the squad. Everton, fourth in the league that season, provided Kevin Sheedy and there were only three of the 20-man group playing in the second division or lower.
Of the 23 heading to France this summer, the highest-placed finisher was Shane Long at sixth-placed Southampton and just 12 ended last season with Premier League clubs. Three of those were in teams relegated to the Championship, and two others are second-choice goalkeepers.
While lacking in experience, Charlton’s squad were more talented than they would have you believe. Still, their achievement elevated football in Ireland to a new level and for that they will be remembered with immense fondness.
In the space of a few days they captured the imagination, a cocktail of accessibility, likeability and (relative to the time) success.
On the flight home there were, as Houghton puts it, “high-jinks”. Some players’ shirts had collars clipped off while they slept. Others found Mickey Mouse drawn on their clothing. And there was, of course, alcohol flowing. As the plane began its descent into Dublin airport they were told some dignitaries would be waiting to greet them.
Not quite. A breathtaking mass of supporters had turned out. Thousands were at the airport – a significant amount even made it onto the terminal roof – to cheer as they disembarked the aircraft. A throng continued from outside the grey, brutalist building and they headed into town on an open-top bus.
“If you look at the footage of us coming off the plane,” Houghton recalls, “we had Aer Lingus T-shirts on with ties. The scene when we got there was amazing – it was quite humbling to see so many there to welcome us back. We had no idea of the impact we made.”
An impact that would affect Irish football to this very day. | {
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To arrive here, a place of nonsensical truth, you must answer two questions. First, what type of person is Donald Trump? Second, what type of political and social environment is Trump operating in?
On Trump the man: here, a personality profile of dictators is useful, created by University of California neuroscientist and professor emeritus James Fallon. Dictators are not all the same: Moammar Gadhafi is not Adolf Hitler, Xi Jinping is not Gadhafi – but Fallon finds striking psychological similarities among most. Dictators are charismatic, grandiose, manipulative, remorseless, emotionally shallow, unempathetic, hypersexual, impulsive, irresponsible pathological liars. Many exhibit poor marriage choices, paranoia, abusive behaviour, sexual deviancy and – perhaps most conspicuously – awful taste in art.
True, nobody is qualified to diagnose Trump, because he would never go to a therapist. But one doesn’t need to know him to know him. Through his attention-dependency, Trump has happily demonstrated dictatorial tendencies in full public view.
His charisma: manifested in his reality show and rally devotees.
His grandiosity: in boasts about the hugeness of his entrepreneurial brilliance, stamina and ability to murder someone and still win an election.
Manipulation: in planting negative stories about actresses who wouldn’t date him.
Remorselessness: in admitting he never expresses remorse.
Shallowness: in having no friends.
Inability to empathize: in cruelly attacking journalists, women, minorities, anyone, really, except the daughter he says he’d be attracted to.
Hyper-sexuality: in hyperventilating about reflexively sexually assaulting women.
Irresponsibility: in insisting that his problems are because the media, his opponent, the electoral system itself are unfair.
Pathological dishonesty: in … where to begin.
Paranoia: in susceptibility to conspiracy theories.
Impulsivity: in allowing any of these embarrassments to become a matter of record through Twitter, the Howard Stern Show and B-roll.
Not all psychopaths become dictators; they merely become politicians. But Trump’s anti-social behaviour is disturbingly extreme. Equally disturbing is the opportunity he has, for a con man is nothing if not an opportunist.
Trump’s opportunity is this: he will govern, if we must call it that, when, internationally, strongman authoritarianism is resurgent in Europe, Asia and Eurasia, and when, domestically, millions of Americans would seem to tolerate or welcome a dictatorial president.
Internationally, Trump is part of an authoritarian gang that includes, among others, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Erdogan and, increasingly, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte. These men – big strong men, according to themselves – are too weak to withstand critics.
They sue them, jail them, mock them, put them out of business. They’re no kinder to the rule of law or democratic institutions. They make enemies of outsiders and outsiders of people within their communities, not necessarily because they hate their victims, but because by victimizing people they look even bigger and stronger. And at least two of them, Putin and Erdogan, even share Trump’s penchant for retching neo-classical gilt all over modern structures.
These supposed lone wolves give each other cover in their mutual disdain for basic liberties. And Trump can find cover at home, too. A critical mass of Americans, large enough to win him the electoral college, is looking for a big, strong man to protect them from whoever, whatever can be blamed for their anxiety and anger: Latinos, Muslims, journalists, experts, free trade, you name it. Enough of them will stand by him, I suspect, for the same reason that many men befriend bullies and women date them: they want a fighter on their side, never imagining that one day the bruises will be their own.
American institutions may still hold Trump in check. But checks and balances can fail, and Trump has a clear shot at them. It would be absurd for a man like him not to take it. | {
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A chi gli ha chiesto il motivo di una campagna tutta virata sul colore verde, il governatore uscente ha risposto: «Un verde sostenibile, per l’ambiente»
Niente simbolo nel Partito Democratico nei manifesti elettorali di Stefano Bonaccini nella corsa alla rielezione alla presidenza dell’Emilia-Romagna. Nella campagna di comunicazione, per la conquista della regione rossa per antonomasia, il colore preponderante è il verde: una scelta inimmaginabile fino a qualche anno fa, visto che il colore è da sempre associato alla Lega, principale avversario del Pd alle elezioni Regionali.
Bonaccini compare in camicia e lo slogan che campeggia sui cartelloni è «Emilia-Romagna, un passo avanti». A chi chiedeva spiegazione al governatore almeno sulla scelta cromatica della campagna, Bonaccini ha risposto sorridendo che si tratta di «un verde sostenibile, per l’ambiente».
La scelta di non inserire il simbolo del Pd potrebbe essere dettata dal riscontro di un consenso personale del presidente più ampio di quello del suo partito e probabilmente per segnare una distanza dal governo nazionale giallorosso, che non gode di buonissima salute nei sondaggi. Sul tema della plastic tax Bonaccini si era scontrato con l’esecutivo visto che la nella sua regione il comparto della produzione della plastica è una fetta non trascurabile dell’economia locale.
Dal Pd ricordano che anche nel 2014 Bonaccini corse senza mettere in vista il simbolo del partito. Nei manifesti di allora (sempre a cura dell’agenzia modenese di comunicazione “Tracce”) l’aspirante presidente compariva sempre in camicia (ma in quel caso blu) e sempre senza cravatta). Lo slogan di quella campagna (vincente) era stato l’identitario “Siamo l’Emilia-Romagna”.
Sulla scelta comunicativa di Bonaccini ha ironizzato Ilaria Giorgetti, ex presidente di circoscrizione di Forza Italia del quartiere Santo Stefano di Bologna che supporta oggi Lucia Borgonzoni: «Scompaiono Pd e il rosso, forse Bonaccini si vergogna?». Non è tardata la risposta del dem Davide Di Noi: «Dimostrare di non conoscere nemmeno i colori della bandiera della regione che si vorrebbe governare è clamoroso. Ma intanto grazie per le numerose e gratuite condivisioni sui vostri profili» .
Leggo qualche polemica, da parte di alcuni leghisti, sulla scelta dei colori per la campagna elettorale di Stefano… Gepostet von Davide Di Noi am Dienstag, 26. November 2019
Se il logo Pd non compare nei manifesti della campagna, il partito però sembra iperattivo sul fronte delle liste dei candidati. La selezione sta cadendo su amministratori uscenti, come l’assessore Palma, che ieri ha presentato la sua candidatura a Modena, così come i consiglieri Enrico Campedelli, Giuseppe Boschini, Luca Sabattini e Luciana Serri, ma anche di new entry in salsa giallorossa: fra tutti spicca l’avvocato Piergiorgio Rebecchi, ex attivista della prima ora del Movimento 5 Stelle.
Foto copertina: da La Pressa
Leggi anche: | {
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Conforme a la Ley Nº 20.730 que regula el lobby, es deber del Consejo para la Transparencia poner a disposición del público los registros de agenda pública y la nómina sistematizada de lobistas y gestores de intereses particulares, pero no es responsable del contenido y la exactitud de los datos que se informan. Cualquier solicitud de corrección de los datos publicados, deberá ser presentada directamente ante el organismo correspondiente, no encontrandose esta Corporación autorizada para efectuar modificaciones en los registros que le han sido proporcionados. | {
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Title: CP 4-4-4 #2929 - Canadian Pacific Description: Great view of the Canadian Pacific 4-4-4 #2929 built by the Canadian Locomotive Company ion March of 1938 while it stands in the Montreal yard. Specs - serial #1943, class F-1a,, 75" drivers, 16.5x28" cylinders, The loco was retired in June of 1959 and sold to the Edaville RR. J.R Quinn photo Photo Date: 7/19/1958 Upload Date: 8/31/2020 8:38:01 AM Location: Montreal, QC Author: Gary Everhart Categories: Roster,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 61 Comments: 0
Title: Canadian Pacific steam around Montreal, Quebec Description: Canadian Pacific steam around Montreal, Quebec. Date is approximative. Photo Date: 12/31/1960 Upload Date: 11/17/2019 11:00:28 AM Location: Montreal PQ, QC Author: Unknown photographer. Collection of the late Yves St-Hilaire Categories: Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 206 Comments: 1
Title: CP 1246, 2929 Description: CP Pacific #1246 and #2929 CP 4-4-4 Photo Date: 9/5/1964 Upload Date: 7/14/2013 5:31:48 PM Location: North Walpole, NH Author: Ted Houghton Categories: Steam Locomotives: CP 1246(4-6-2) CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 1264 Comments: 0
Title: Canadian Pacific #2929 [4-4-4] at Steamtown USA Description: Photo Date: 8/1/1974 Upload Date: 12/24/2012 2:32:37 PM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Philip M. Goldstein Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 1165 Comments: 0
Title: Lined up Description: CP 2929 faces a line up of display power at Steamtown. Photo Date: 8/30/1974 Upload Date: 3/1/2016 4:32:04 AM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Tom Beckett Categories: Roster,Yard,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 263 Comments: 0
Title: That's me in the cab! Description: Photo Date: 9/14/1975 Upload Date: 1/22/2012 2:54:39 PM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Bob Krug Categories: Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 803 Comments: 2
Title: Steamtown Bellows Falls Vermont October 1980 Description: Canadian Pacific Jubilee 4-4-4 steam locomotive Photo Date: 10/25/1980 Upload Date: 10/6/2016 10:56:49 PM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Denis Chartrand Categories: Yard,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 408 Comments: 1
Title: Steamtown Bellows Falls Vermont October 1980 Description: Preparing steam locomotive for trip Photo Date: 10/25/1980 Upload Date: 10/6/2016 10:56:57 PM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Denis Chartrand Categories: Steam Locomotives: CP 2317(4-6-2) CP 1246(4-6-2) CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 647 Comments: 1
Title: Steamtown Bellows Falls Vermont July 1981 Description: Photo Date: 7/1/1981 Upload Date: 2/17/2017 3:34:38 PM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Denis Chartrand Categories: Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) GTW 6039(4-8-2) CN 47(4-6-4) Views: 412 Comments: 0
Title: Steamtown Bellows Falls Vermont July 1981 Description: Photo Date: 7/1/1981 Upload Date: 2/17/2017 3:35:17 PM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Denis Chartrand Categories: Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 689 Comments: 1
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 9/26/1981 Upload Date: 2/12/2012 8:53:45 PM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Bob Krug Categories: Yard,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 718 Comments: 0
Title: CPR 2929 Description: Jubilee class 4-4-4 sits on the turntable at Riverside. Photo Date: 10/24/1981 Upload Date: 2/12/2007 2:36:06 PM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Carl Weber Categories: Roster,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 3536 Comments: 1
Title: CPR 2929 Description: Photo Date: 10/24/1981 Upload Date: 9/8/2005 5:05:46 PM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Carl Weber Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 2166 Comments: 6
Title: Three way Description: CP 1246 rolls toward Riverside station past future Steamtown star 2317 and display piece CP 2929 Photo Date: 10/23/1982 Upload Date: 7/8/2014 1:15:17 AM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Tom Beckett Categories: Steam,Passenger,Action Locomotives: CP 2317(4-6-2) CP 1246(4-6-2) CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 710 Comments: 1
Title: CP power from another era Description: CP 2317 and 2929 at Steamtown. Photo Date: 10/23/1982 Upload Date: 5/6/2013 12:56:15 AM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Tom Beckett Categories: Roster,Yard,Steam Locomotives: CP 2317(4-6-2) CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 458 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Atlantic type Photo Date: 10/23/1982 Upload Date: 5/6/2013 12:34:50 AM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Tom Beckett Categories: Roster,Yard,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 379 Comments: 0
Title: CP 4-4-4 #2929 - Canadian Pacific Description: Saved from the scrapper's torch when retired in June of 1959, it went into the growing roster of Steamtown USA originally at Bellows Falls, VT. The 4-4-4 "Jubille" type steam locomotive was built by the Canadian Locomotive Company in March of 1938. Specs - Serial #1943, F-1a class, 75" drivers, impressive 300 psi boiler pressure, 16.5x28" cylinders, engine weight of 240,000 lb, tractive effort of 25,918 lb. An unknown photographer took this photo (a poor quality reprint) of it on display in Vermont. Photo Date: 6/1/1983 Upload Date: 7/24/2020 8:23:19 AM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Gary Everhart Categories: Roster,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 50 Comments: 0
Title: Early morning at Steamtown Description: CP Pacific 1246 switches its train for the days run before picking up passengers, seen here passing some engines on display Photo Date: 10/23/1983 Upload Date: 6/12/2011 2:41:37 AM Location: Bellows Falls, VT Author: Tom Beckett Categories: Yard,Steam,Passenger,Action Locomotives: CP 1246(4-6-2) CP 2317(4-6-2) CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 997 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: This 4-4-4 is parked here rusting away in the joint Scranton Yard. A phptographer could go nuts in this yard. Photo Date: 7/31/2003 Upload Date: 7/28/2005 2:09:11 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Matt Florack Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 1429 Comments: 1
Title: MEC 519, CP 2929 & NSL 210 Description: Photo Date: 8/19/2005 Upload Date: 1/23/2014 1:36:02 AM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Andrew Goblirsch Categories: Track Locomotives: MEC 519(2-8-0) CP 2929(4-4-4) NSL 210(2-6-0) Views: 690 Comments: 2
Title: NSL 210 Description: Photo Date: 8/20/2006 Upload Date: 11/8/2016 2:27:01 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Nicholas Katz Categories: Roster,RollingStock,Yard,Steam,Track Locomotives: NSL 210(2-6-0) CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 274 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 7/6/2007 Upload Date: 7/9/2007 8:26:40 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: John McCluskey Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 818 Comments: 0
Title: CN 2929 Description: Photo Date: 7/6/2007 Upload Date: 7/9/2007 8:44:26 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: John McCluskey Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 661 Comments: 0
Title: CN 2929 Description: Photo Date: 7/6/2007 Upload Date: 7/9/2007 9:32:08 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: John McCluskey Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 774 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: The only 4-4-4 in the Steamtown collection. Photo Date: 11/3/2007 Upload Date: 7/14/2008 11:23:28 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Paul Koprowski Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 425 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2317 Description: Photo Date: 11/3/2007 Upload Date: 11/3/2007 7:52:15 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Collin Reinhart Categories: Steam Locomotives: CP 2317(4-6-2) CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 574 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 7/4/2008 Upload Date: 7/19/2008 2:07:51 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: John Gray Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 484 Comments: 0
Title: Canadian Pacific 2929 at Steamtown Description: Overhead shot of CP 2929. Photo Date: 5/24/2009 Upload Date: 5/25/2009 9:04:11 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Mark Obrzut Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 1844 Comments: 0
Title: Canadian Pacific 2929 at Steamtown Description: A look at CP 2929. Photo Date: 5/24/2009 Upload Date: 5/25/2009 9:07:46 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Mark Obrzut Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 343 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 7/5/2009 Upload Date: 7/15/2009 3:55:00 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Derek Buel Categories: Roster,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 357 Comments: 0
Title: 4-4-4 "Jubliee" - Canadian Pacific Railway No. 2929 Description: Photo Date: 7/18/2009 Upload Date: 12/22/2009 3:58:27 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Michael Burke Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 381 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 7/25/2009 Upload Date: 7/26/2009 11:46:38 AM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Tim Darnell Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 358 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Sad..... Photo Date: 7/25/2009 Upload Date: 7/26/2009 11:46:33 AM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Tim Darnell Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) CN 3377(2-8-2) Views: 443 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 6/22/2010 Upload Date: 6/23/2010 7:22:44 AM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Bob Vogel Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 395 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 7/16/2010 Upload Date: 7/17/2010 1:11:19 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Ollie Shortridge Categories: Yard,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 412 Comments: 1
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 7/28/2010 Upload Date: 8/13/2010 1:32:55 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Geoff Devers Categories: Roster,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 280 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 9/4/2010 Upload Date: 9/16/2010 8:12:11 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Greg Wiltsie Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 279 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 9/4/2010 Upload Date: 9/19/2010 10:35:05 AM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Greg Wiltsie Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 341 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 9/4/2010 Upload Date: 9/20/2010 6:54:32 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Greg Wiltsie Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 282 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 9/4/2010 Upload Date: 9/20/2010 7:29:52 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Greg Wiltsie Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 588 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 9/4/2010 Upload Date: 9/4/2010 5:08:37 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Jason Maino Categories: Roster Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 291 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 10/23/2010 Upload Date: 10/23/2010 10:39:10 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Matthew Voelker Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 414 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 CN 3377 Description: Photo Date: 1/3/2011 Upload Date: 1/24/2011 3:48:08 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: J d Categories: Roster,Yard,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) CN 3377(2-8-2) Views: 486 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 4/12/2012 Upload Date: 4/13/2012 1:39:15 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Trey Holland Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 309 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 4/15/2012 Upload Date: 6/12/2012 8:29:56 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Selkirk Sub Rail Photography Categories: Yard,Steam Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 428 Comments: 0
Title: CP 2929 Description: Photo Date: 6/11/2013 Upload Date: 6/14/2013 11:32:33 PM Location: Scranton, PA Author: Ben Margherone Categories: Locomotives: CP 2929(4-4-4) Views: 294 Comments: 0 | {
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“I hope that it turns out the Senate is an opportunity that [Steve Bullock] can consider at some point. But he wants to try for the big prize,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin. | Jose Luis Magana, File/AP Photo 2020 elections Dems plead with Steve Bullock to abandon White House bid for Senate Like Beto O’Rourke, John Hickenlooper and Stacey Abrams, the Montana governor is rebuffing pressure to redraw the Senate map.
Top Democrats in Montana and Washington are really excited about Gov. Steve Bullock running — for the Senate, not the presidency.
The Montana governor's seemingly quixotic presidential run comes as nearly everyone in the party is begging him to challenge GOP Sen. Steve Daines and transform the 2020 Senate map. Unlike any other Democratic candidate in the country, Bullock could make a virtually unwinnable Senate race competitive and give the party a real shot at knocking off a GOP incumbent and getting closer to a Senate majority.
“I wish he would have run for the Senate,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). “Sure, you’d rather have Beto [O‘Rourke] in the [Texas Senate] race. But it doesn’t go from solid red to toss-up instantly. This is the one that would change the game.”
Bullock has been unequivocal in shrugging off the Senate recruitment, which has included conversations with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democratic senators. He doesn’t want to be one senator of 100, people who know him say, and fashions himself an executive, not a legislator.
“His answer on this question has been consistent and it is the same today. Gov. Bullock is not running for Senate,” said Galia Slayen, a spokeswoman for Bullock.
After announcing his presidential bid in Montana on Tuesday, Bullock told reporters he had at times been "frustrated at the inaction in Congress" and would be "more effective" as an executive. He said he had planned to pass on a run for Senate since winning reelection in 2016.
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So party leaders have settled on a strategy: Let Bullock pursue the presidency, try not to antagonize him and wait until he realizes there’s little room for him to run in such a crowded field. Bullock argues that his 2016 reelection in deep red Trump country shows he’s got exactly what the party is missing, but Joe Biden appears to have locked up the centrist lane so far and there are a handful of other white men running.
Democrats hoping Bullock runs for the Senate don’t have many options other than that plan, but even a brief White House bid brings risks. A 2020 run could lead him to take more liberal positions to appeal to the party base and also be seen as a snub of his home state.
“I hope that it turns out the Senate is an opportunity that he can consider at some point. But he wants to try for the big prize. This is a world of ambition that we’re in, so you can’t be critical of that,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Some Democrats felt bruised after Stacey Abrams in Georgia, John Hickenlooper in Colorado and O’Rourke in Texas passed on competitive Senate races. But they’ve recruited a talented candidate in Texas in veteran MJ Hegar, have a crowded field of viable candidates in Colorado and see other strong Democrats considering a run in Georgia.
They find Bullock’s presidential run far more confounding.
“He’d be a great Senate candidate,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). “He’s terrific. And there’s such a huge field right now. So it’s hard to sort of understand more people getting in at this point in terms of the presidency.”
Democrats face an uphill battle to retake the Senate. They need to net at least three seats in 2020 and few are easy pickings. Right now, they are staring at toss-up races in Colorado and Arizona and trying to oust incumbents in North Carolina and Iowa, while holding on to Alabama. Making Montana competitive would make the GOP truly sweat.
“There are three or four people in L.A. that are excited about his [presidential] candidacy. Otherwise, everyone else wants him to run for the Senate out here,” said one Democratic senator. This senator said it’s still realistic for Bullock to change his mind because his presidential plan is “so f-ing stupid.”
Publicly, Democrats are laying off Bullock.
"God bless him," Schumer said when asked about the Montana governor Tuesday.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Catherine Cortez Masto said of Bullock: "It's his decision," adding that the party could come up with another candidate in the race. Wilmot Collins, a Liberian refugee and mayor of Helena, became the first Democrat to challenge Daines on Monday, though he lacks support from party leaders at this point.
Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, the GOP’s campaign arm chairman, predicted the party would keep the seat regardless of who runs. And Daines himself shrugged off Bullock’s decision.
"We are more than ready for whoever gets into the race,” he said in a brief interview.
In Montana, Democrats are universally complimentary of Bullock for his ability to push through Democratic priorities in a red state. But a number of Democrats wish he would advertise those accomplishments in a campaign for the Senate.
“I’d love to see him run against Steve Daines,” said Jean Lemire Dahlman, a Democratic National Committee member in the state. “Unless someone else emerges who is a strong candidate, I would assume a lot of people would like to see him run against Steve Daines. But that person has not emerged yet and it's really hard to unseat an incumbent senator regardless of party.”
Kim Gillan, a former Democratic state legislator who lost to Daines for a U.S. House seat in 2012, said Bullock would be the “perfect person” to run against the first-term senator.
“He’s still pretty young. There would be opportunities in the future and certainly serving in the Senate would provide a good launch pad in the future to run for president,” Gillan said. “The game plan everyone is hoping for is that after a couple months that he may change his mind.”
State Sen. Jon Sesso, the Democratic leader in the chamber, said Bullock would be “formidable” against Daines, but said the two-term governor can run for wherever he sees fit.
“If he wants to take a run for the presidency, that's great. If he were wanting to take a run for the nomination for the Senate, that'd be great too,” Sesso said. “He's earned his stripes to do whatever he wants to do.”
Some Democrats shrugged off Bullock's pass, arguing that little-known candidates can come from nowhere to win key Senate races. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) was a state senator when he first ran and won in 2006, and he went on to survive two difficult reelection campaigns.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he seemed to understand the ambivalence of people like Bullock because there’s little reason to be excited about the Senate, which he referred to as an “expensive lunch club.”
“I get it, Senate recruitment is hard these days,” he said. “But I think by winning back the Senate we can start to make it work again.”
Of course, Bullock running for the Senate would make that goal a lot more realistic. | {
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It’s fair to say that I’m one of life’s cynics. I’m prone to look for the potential negatives in any given situation, wondering about people’s ulterior motives, naturally assuming that if something can go wrong, then it inevitably will.
Weirdly, my blind spot is Sunderland AFC. In spite of decades of emotional abuse inflicted on me by the club, my outlook is always sunny.
Take this season. Until last night, I was convinced that a side that has won six Premier League matches all season would be more than capable of triumphing in another four from its eight remaining games.
But the 5-1 capitulation at Tottenham caused the scales to fall from my eyes.
We’re down. Gone. It’s over. The patient is dead. There’s nothing more that can be done.
For months, I’ve believed that we could haul ourselves away from the bottom three, buoyed by a run of good form either side of Christmas and the League Cup campaign that led to a day out at Wembley. My positivity was merely delusion. The task was always going to be too immense and I’ve finally got my head around the fact that we’ve ballsed it up.
There isn’t one overriding factor behind our failure. In truth, the club has been sliding towards the Premier League trapdoor for the past eighteen months, using up what little luck it has ever been afforded.
The almost hallucinogenic appointment of Paolo Di Canio, slap bang in the middle of that slow, slide towards relegation, is probably the most significant of a string of bad decisions. The Italian seemed to live his life trapped in some kind of angry sugar rush, which is far from ideal when his job was to successfully motivate a bunch of millionaire man-children.
Throw in a catastrophic whirl in last summer’s transfer market, mix with Gus Poyet’s recent inability to find a winning tactical and team selection formula in order to dig out the wins that we needed, and it all adds up to one clanging calamity.
I see that now, but for so long, I was off my head on hope. A cock-eyed optimist, when cold, analytical reasoning was required.
So, now that it’s finally dawned on me that our longest top-flight spell since the 1950s is at an end, am I swathed in grief?
No! In fact can’t wait for the Championship!
I’ve watched the Black Cats win just 15 out of the last 69 league matches and the side is more or less made up of the same core group of underachievers that were here when Steve Bruce was shown the door in 2011.
It’s a dysfunctional relationship – we fans are sick of the sight of them all and they’re probably sick of us as well. It’s probably why only a few of the millionaire man-children bothered acknowledging the travelling supporters after last night’s battering (we know who you are).
Wholesale changes are needed, and nine of the clueless chancers will be exiting in the summer when their contracts expire, along with this season’s five loan players.
Those who remain will all have 40 per cent slashed from their weekly wage and Gus Poyet will have the luxury of building a young, hungry team that will attempt to bounce back into the Premier League, instead of being lumbered with the proven failures that are stinking out the Stadium of Light right now.
I should be angry that it’s come to this but like someone who has come through the various stages of grief, I’m in a state of serenity right now.
Chances are that we’ll see better football from Sunderland next season, more matches and more wins. The young foreign players we signed last summer who were all ill-equipped for the top flight have had a year at the club and will be nicely bedded in for a promotion push starting on August 9.
How can anything possibly go wrong? | {
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Wenn weder die USA noch Russland in Syrien liegen, warum fliegen dann ihre Flugzeuge dort?
Damaskus (dpo) - Damit hat nun wirklich niemand gerechnet: Eine aktuelle Studie des Geografischen Instituts der Universität Stockholm hat ergeben, dass weder die USA noch Russland in Syrien liegen. Dies ist umso verblüffender, weil die beiden Staaten seit geraumer Zeit dort Krieg führen und über Waffenruhen verhandeln."Eigentlich wollten wir nur ausfindig machen, wo genau in Syrien Moskau und Washington liegen, um die Kriegsbeteiligung beider Parteien besser zu verstehen", erklärt Professor Magnus Holmgren, der in Stockholm ein sechsköpfiges Forschungsteam leitet.In einer komplexen Datenanalyse glichen die Wissenschaftler die Koordinaten des jeweiligen Territoriums der USA und Russlands mit dem Staatsgebiet Syriens ab. Das verblüffende Ergebnis: Es gibt nicht einen Quadratzentimeter Überschneidung."Die USA liegen mit rund 10.000 Kilometern Entfernung sogar besonders weit von Syrien entfernt", so Holmgren. "Doch auch das Staatsgebiet Russlands ist hunderte Kilometer entfernt und liegt nicht etwa im Großraum Damaskus."Dass weder die USA noch Russland in Syrien liegen, werfe zahlreiche Fragen auf, so die Wissenschaftler. Etwa: Warum wird der Krieg in Syrien als "Bürgerkrieg" bezeichnet? Oder: Was, verdammte Scheiße nochmal, haben die USA und Russland dort eigentlich zu suchen? | {
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For all we know, the guy in this photograph is pictured at the very moment of enlightenment, uniting with the wider cosmos via his body. So it goes without saying that there is nothing wrong with what he is doing.
It should be noted, though, that his spine is curved back and to the side at angles way beyond what is considered functional for the human body; similarly his rear leg is extended far beyond natural range, with powerful effects on his hip joint and pelvis. Again, no problem – it’s his body, he can do whatever he wants with it.
What is a problem, however, is that the shape he is producing here is frequently offered in yoga classes as a reasonably standard, basic posture called Reversed Warrior, sprinkled into flowing sequences of poses, or vinyasas, for a bit of variety.
As the teacher – perhaps hypermobile, as many in the yoga game are – arches beautifully into the shape, burbling the instruction “now reverse your Warrior”, mere mortals attempt to do so and swiftly discover the natural limitations of a healthy human spine and hip joint. If this were the point that the posture was being used to demonstrate, that would be a good lesson.
However, the suggestion is more often that if we keep practising our yoga, one day we too will be able to make this shape; this despite the fact that if we were to continue to do so, there’s a reasonable chance that we might never get close – cue potential feelings of inadequacy – and indeed might hurt ourselves somewhere down the road.
But almost worse than the risk of injury, to my mind, is the fact that instead of the practice being a means of exploring what is happening in the body, mind, the universe, right here and now, yoga becomes something that has to chased after, a goal to be achieved in the future, like a mansion, or an expensive car, or £1million in the bank. And the future, as we know, is something that is by no means guaranteed, considering that we do not even know whether we will be alive in a minute’s time.
I am categorically not suggesting that people should stop doing Reversed Warrior, or any number of other modern yoga postures that similarly require joints to be taken far beyond functional range (that for which the body has evolved to be healthy). If this is the kind of yoga you want to do – if making shapes you consider to be aesthetically pleasing is what the practice is all about to you, if striving and goal-setting and achievement are your thing – then by all means go wild.
However, if you simply want to move your body in a functional way, building useful degrees of strength and flexibility while practising the art of being in the present moment – which is what I think yoga is really all about – it is perhaps worth thinking carefully before you start trying to push yourself into positions like this.
(If, by the way, you find positions like this easy to get into, it is probably worth investigating whether you are hypermobile, and how you might adapt what you do for the health of your joints.)
Remember, you do not have to do what any teacher tells you to do – when it comes to your body, they do not know better than you – and if a teacher tries to physically push you into positions like this, remember you absolutely have the power to tell them to back the hell off.
Remember, too, that there is nothing sacred or special about yoga poses – they are mere positions in which to put the body. The postures that are offered in mainstream yoga classes are generally modern, 100-odd years old, and were mainly invented by blokes who knew little about anatomy and who history has often shown to be pretty nasty pieces of work.
This is not to say there is not plenty of value in these poses; they can be excellent body laboratories in which to explore the deeper layers of who you are. But it is important to reinvent them as you will to suit your own body, or to find ones that work better for you. Just make sure they are serving you in a healthy way.
Fortunately, more teachers are coming round to the approach that empowers practitioners rather than the image-based studio industry. A leading figure helping to inspire the process is Alexandria Crow, whose work I particularly recommend if you are a teacher wanting to learn more. I also strongly recommend Peter Blackaby’s book Intelligent Yoga: Listening to the Body’s Innate Wisdom; and if you ever have a spare hour and a quarter, there’s a deeply inspiring talk by Blackaby here.
In my own quiet way, this is the kind of yoga I am trying to teach in my classes in London. If you happen to be near Woodford Green and are interested, please get in touch. Full details on my website.
A note on the photo
The picture with my post was taken from an online repository of open-source stock photos available for anyone to use as they please. I would never pull a picture at random off a yogi’s personal website or social media feeds. I have used this photo under an open-source licence purely as an illustration of a posture as it is often taught and encouraged in yoga classes, not as a comment on the model. | {
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Dream Chaser® Spacecraft Passes Another NASA Milestone
Ground and Flight Operations Enabled, First Flight in 2021
SPARKS, Nev., March 21, 2019 – Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Dream Chaser spacecraft passed NASA’s Integrated Review Milestone 5 (IR5), a key status check on SNC’s performance of a variety of ground and flight operations.
IR5 demonstrates that the Dream Chaser team is on track to operate the space vehicle in advance of the first mission to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services Contract 2 (CRS-2).
“This milestone is a great accomplishment for the team focused on operations development and demonstration. It shows we can operate the Dream Chaser from the ground, including getting critical science in and out of the vehicle,” said John Curry, CRS-2 program director within SNC’s Space Systems business area.
The review included development of the vehicle’s flight computers and software, mission simulator and Mission Control Center. SNC also performed cargo demonstrations using high fidelity mock-ups of the vehicle and its cargo module, showing loading and unloading time and efficiency.
Milestone testing took place at SNC’s Louisville, Colorado and NASA Kennedy Space Center facilities. Data was also used from the Dream Chaser 2017 free-flight test at Edwards Air Force Base, California, with the help of NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center.
“Our Dream Chaser team continues to successfully execute milestones as we move closer to getting this spacecraft into space,” said Fatih Ozmen, SNC’s owner and CEO. “The orbital spacecraft is being built and this milestone demonstrates the vehicle keeps passing key reviews and is making great strides.”
Dream Chaser continues to meet technical and scheduled milestones on its way to first flight in spring 2021. The Dream Chaser will conduct at least six orbiting flights to the space station, delivering equipment and supplies to advance space exploration and then safely return life science and other time-critical items on a conventional runway.
About Dream Chaser Spacecraft
Owned and operated by SNC, the Dream Chaser spacecraft is a reusable, multi-mission space utility vehicle. It is capable of transportation services to and from low-Earth orbit and is the only commercial, lifting-body vehicle capable of a runway landing. The Dream Chaser Cargo System was selected by NASA to provide cargo delivery and disposal services to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) contract. All Dream Chaser CRS-2 cargo missions are planned to land at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility.
About Sierra Nevada Corporation
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is a trusted leader in solving the world’s toughest challenges through advanced engineering technologies in Space Systems, Commercial Solutions, and National Security and Defense. Honored as one of the most innovative U.S. companies in space, SNC’s Space Systems business area designs and manufactures advanced spacecraft and satellite solutions, space habitats and environmental systems, propulsion systems, precision space mechanisms and subsystems, and SNC’s celebrated Dream Chaser® spacecraft. With decades of space heritage working with the U.S. government, commercial customers, and the international market, SNC has participated in more than 450 successful space missions and delivered 4,000+ systems, subsystems and components around the world. For more information, visit www.sncorp.com.
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Dream Chaser engineer Liz Antognoli works on the payload mock-up demonstration. Click to open full-resolution image in new window. | {
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A taxa de adopção de cães no canil municipal de Loures, no distrito de Lisboa, aumentou 100% em 2019, tendo sido adoptados 110 animais, disse à agência Lusa o vice-presidente da autarquia, Paulo Piteira.
Em 2018 tinham sido adoptados 53 cães, o que representa uma duplicação do número de adopções registados no Centro de Recolha de Animais de Loures (CROAL).
“Esta evolução resulta da implementação de uma política de incentivo à adopção responsável e a um programa regular de acções descentralizadas de campanhas” de adopção, justificou à Lusa o vice-presidente da Câmara Municipal de Loures, Paulo Piteira (CDU), ressalvando que estas medidas têm ajudado a cumprir a nova lei que proíbe o abate de animais como medida de controlo da população.
A esse propósito, o autarca referiu que, durante este ano, foram realizadas 24 acções descentralizadas de adopção e sensibilização. “Temos vindo a melhorar e acho que este ano de 2019 fica marcado, muito positivamente, por um avanço significativo no domínio do bem-estar animal”, apontou.
O autarca destacou o facto de todos os cães que são dados para adopção serem entregues vacinados e chipados e de a autarquia disponibilizar aulas gratuitas de treino “para que os donos saibam lidar melhor com os seus animais”.
Os animais disponíveis para adopção podem ser consultados num portal do animal de companhia, acessível através da página de internet da Câmara de Loures.
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Paulo Piteira realçou que, além dos cães, a autarquia tem vários programas de esterilização de gatos, como é o caso do programa “Aqui há gato”. Este programa, explicou o autarca, abrange cerca de 150 colónias de gatos, num universo de 1400 animais recenseados e 40 cuidadores inscritos.
Para este programa de esterilização de gatos, a Câmara de Loures alocou este ano 46 mil euros. Para o ano de 2020, a autarquia de Loures prevê um reforço de meios humanos, de meios operacionais, com a criação de um posto veterinário móvel e a capacitação das instalações do CROAL.
O investimento previsto até ao momento do município nesta área é superior a 220 mil euros. | {
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There are many proxy services offersin shared and private proxies to be used with seo software for account creation and google scraping. Yet it is hard to choose the best one for your needs, so i made a comparision of most used services, their prices and how do they work – so you can save time and money while seeking for extra IPs to use.
How Do People Seek for Proxies ?
Of course – by using Google queries. I had a look at top ones in seo industry and they are most likely: shared proxies for scrapebox, cheapest shared proxies,shared proxies for scrapebox,shared proxies for sale,private proxies for senuke,best private proxies for scrapebox,private exclusive proxies,private proxies for senuke,private proxies for xrumer,private proxies paypal,reliable private proxies,private proxies scrapebox,private proxies service,private proxies sick submitter,private proxies twitter,zennoposter private proxies,proxy bonanza review,seo proxies blackhat,best seo proxies,google proxy captcha,private proxies for scraping,proxies for scraping google,scrapebox proxies,private proxies for scraping,using proxies for scraping,best proxies for youtube,cheap private proxies,best private proxies. What can we see here? Most people seeking non-web proxies for just browsing web seek for blackhat seo software like Scrapebox, SEnuke or ZennoPoster. Only smart portion looks for google or scraping, and VERY small seeks just for services. That means – by seeking in Google most def you wont find what works for SEO. After checking all the top10s and services me and people i know use, ive choosen a few services to review and compare.
Shared Proxies Review
Just as name say they are at SharedProxies.com and offer this features:
@ USA Hosted – fine for scraping
@ Instant Activiation – that is sweet if you are in need of some usage asap
@ Unlimited bandwith (especially good for posting/account creation – spamming shortly
@ Good price – 10 proxies for $8 – thats $1,25 price per shared proxy
@ Use authorized IP access – just 1 to be added, extras have to be paid
@ Very fast and respnsive support
Usage review: They are really good for creatign accounts and posting esp with GSA SER, Scrapebox or Magic Submitter or speaking shortly – any spamming program. They are actually really decent for google scraping also – which is not usual with cheap shared proxies.They dont get many bans compared to others.
SEO-Proxies Review
They go with name Premium Private Proxy Service and url seo-proxies.com. Features are:
@ rotating IPs on the fly – you add their 1 proxy and it changes at choosen time to other IPs
@ you can switch them in profile between http and https proxy type
@ IPs are issued non-sequential
@ 1 proxy costs $9,99
@ Non-instant setup
Usage review: this proxies are really good for google scraping, as they are fully private and clear. Clear because if you use them for any posting/spamming you will get banned and many porsts are blocked. Speaking shortly they are preety much unusable for any SEO work other than scraping Google or making accounts at Twitter/Craiglist. Price is also preety high but goes down $2,26 per proxy when you order 230 ones ;))))))
Proxy Bonanza Review
One of the most famous proxy sales services at proxybonanza.com with features:
@ Shared, International and Exclusive Proxy to buy
@ usual price for 1 proxy starts at $7,99 and ends at $9,99
@ you can also find deals like 90 proxies on 3 c-classes for $18 but with limited bandwith – good for account creation but bad for scraping
Usage review: While their usual deals simply suck, the special deal pages is decent – you can find there cheap proxies for both scraping and account creation in big number. The bandwith is not too big so you have to watch out but mainly if you buy proxy promotions its worth the money to be used for seo.
My Private Proxy Review
This bros have deal with Blackhatpwnage so if you go trough this link, order 10 proxies and use my private proxy coupon bhpwnage you wil lget 11 adresses instead of 10 and 5% lifetime discount on all invoices. As you can imagine there is a good reason they are affiliated with this seo blog 😉 Features:
@ 100 threads per proxy – you can create 100 of accounts same time at 100 of services on 1 proxy
@ 1gbit speeds – nothign will stop you other than your internet
@ password and ip protection – choose what you like and what your software uses
@ Unlimited Bandwidth – superb for spamming links or just browsing the web/youtube in school or job
@ Non Sequential IPs – perfect proxies for scraping google
@ Non-instant setup
@ Shared proxies for $0,65 cents and best private proxy you can get for $1,49
Usage review: I love this service, i recommend it for everybody and this stuff really works decent. Superb for spamming, superb for scraping google. Im not saying to use them as your only one service but this is definately a must have in the mix of others – if you need many proxies for big spamming, account creation or some Software as as Serivce.
Buy Proxies.org Review
The guys from buyproxies.org
@ Password and IP authentication
@ $1 per shared proxy, $2 per dedicated proxy – they work with sick submitter, senuke etc – just like most others
@ Non-instant setup – but id say they are preety fast
@ Unlimited bandwith – great for spamming links
@ New IPs every month automatically
Usage review: Shared proxies get banned really fast in Google when scraping yet they work really good for posting and they allow all programs to spam like even Xrumer. Propably thats why they suck for scraping but rock for posting 😉 Highly sugested to use with your programs like GSA SER etc.
SSL Private Proxy Review
Guy from SSLPrivateProxy contacted me after i did this post to review them, and while normally i dont add stuff i think they shouldnt be missed.
@ Multiple cities [you will have cities in panel next to each proxy]
@ 100 threads and 1gbit speeds
@ nonsequential ips – you dont have to ask, you get all stuff randomized by classes
@ $1,40 for private proxy and only $0,60 cheap shared proxies price
@ They also have private and shared VPN services
Usage review: Due to really randomized ips, ranges and cities bans on google scraping happen really slow compared to others. They seem decent for check google queries, account creation and posting. I also love the multiple cities feature. I did not test their VPN but i assume getting shared for posting/hiding your browsing if you dont do illegal stuff would be great. Check their deals here.
Proxy Providers Comparision
To top this list of best private and shared proxies to be used with software i will try to put everything shortly for lazy readers of the seo blog here 😉 When going for scraping google with hrefer or scrapebox its best to use private ones esp from BuyProxies.org, MyPrivateProxies or Ssl Private Proxies – depending on your budget. Google is currently banning preety fast on queries esp complex ones like inrul: intitle: etc. so you wont play much on shared or even worse – free scraped ones. The time and nervest wasted just dont add up. I have to add that the last ones are perfect craightlist posting proxies.
Scraping is a must so while you already have the private proxies mentioned for ripping search engine queries esp that both have unlimited bandwith and MyPP/SslP have 100 threads too. While MyPP are on close ranges + when doing much posting you will need more, with SslPrivProxies you will be fine just with 10 or 15 – but then it gets expensive.
Thats where come best shared proxies for account creation/posting and i surely suggest SharedProxies.com but also each of companies i mentioned before have shared ips in their stack. Its up to you to decide whom to use on the end. When you need twitter proxies or proxy for pinterest then often priv is the way to go ie in MyPP just make ticket with staff sayign for which social site you need ips and they will give you best ranges to work with. Other proxy providers mentioned here you can use or not, but just with this 3 services imo you are 100% set.
This proxy providers review is my opinion only – if you are owner of one this services please dont blame me 😉
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Match Information
When: Saturday March 9th, 3:00 PM (PT)
Where: Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, Utah
How: TSN 1, TSN 1040 (Radio), ESPN +
The Vancouver Whitecaps (0-1-0) head out on the road for the first time this season on Saturday to take on Real Salt Lake (0-0-1). While the Whitecaps handed Minnesota United what was only their fifth MLS road victory in the history of the franchise by a score of 3-2, Real Salt Lake managed to secure a 1-1 road draw with the Houston Dynamo at BBVA Compass Stadium.
Although the Dynamo were handed a red card in the 80th minute after a reckless challenge from midfielder Matias Vera, Real Salt Lake can probably count themselves fortunate to have emerged with a single point from the match.
In the 76th minute (2:08 of the highlight package), the Dynamo’s Boniek Garcia had his goal called back on a tight offside call (it was the right call). However, had Alberth Elis released the ball from his central position a moment or two sooner, Garcia would still have had acres of space and plenty of time to slot the ball home past RSL keeper Nick Rimando.
On both this play and the initial Dynamo goal (1:12 in the highlights), RSL was exposed on the right side of their defensive line, as right back Brooks Lennon found himself caught upfield, causing centre backs Marcelo Silva and Nedum Onuoha to scramble in an attempt to mark multiple Dynamo attackers. This is a weakness that the Whitecaps should look to exploit through Yordy Reyna and Lass Bangoura or Lucas Venuto this upcoming weekend.
Who’s Available?
Vancouver Whitecaps:
OUT: Michael Baldisimo (M) - left knee contusion
OUT: Jasser Khmiri (D) - left knee injury
OUT: Brett Levis (D) - right hamstring strain
QUESTIONABLE: Russell Teibert (M) - left ankle sprain
Real Salt Lake:
OUT: Jordan Allen (M) - out for season
Who’s Worth Watching?
Real Salt Lake’s attack is centred largely around the European midfield duo of Albert Rusnak and Damir Kreilach. Rusnak scored Salt Lake’s only goal in the 2019 season opener and the dynamic duo was responsible for 22 of RSL’s goals and 15 of RSL’s assists in 2018.
The team also boasts the reigning MLS Rookie of the Year in homegrown forward Corey Baird. Despite Salt Lake expecting Baird to be a fringe MLS player heading into the 2018 season, the California native forced his way into the starting lineup, registering 8 goals and 5 assists in 21 starts. Baird also received his first call-up to the USMNT this January, making one start in two appearances.
The 22-year-old (signed as a Homegrown on Jan. 5, 2018) put up 8️⃣ goals & 5️⃣ assists while featuring in 31 games. https://t.co/y0jQx8QmA6 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) November 5, 2018
Potential Lineups:
Vancouver Whitecaps (4-3-3) Crepeau, PC, Henry, Godoy, Nerwinski, Erice, Rose, Hwang, Reyna, Venuto, Montero.
Real Salt Lake (4-3-3) Rimando, Herrera, Onuoha, Silva, Lennon, Luiz, Beckerman, Rusnak, Baird, Savarino, Kreilach
Who’s Going to Win?
In their MLS history, the Whitecaps have 8 wins, 5 losses and 5 draws with Real Salt Lake. RSL has also gone 15 straight matches in MLS play and 3 straight matches against Vancouver without keeping a clean sheet. Meanwhile, after allowing 3 goals on opening day, the Whitecaps have now extended their “no clean sheet” streak to a whopping 18 matches.
Last season, the Whitecaps and Salt Lake split their season series at one game a piece, with each team securing a victory on home soil. On April 7th, RSL dominated the Caps for most of the contest, although Brek Shea did snatch a late extra-time goal to make the scoreline a more respectable at 2-1. Twenty days later, the Whitecaps got their revenge in the return fixture as they won by a score of 2-0 in what was one of the more memorable games of the 2018 season. Cristian Techera scored a goal from the penalty spot in the 76th (and then was promptly sent off for removing his jersey and receiving his second yellow). Just three minutes later, Anthony Blondell tapped home an Alphonso Davies cross to double the lead, his first and only goal in MLS.
All that being said, this Vancouver Whitecaps squad is almost entirely different than the one we saw last season, and therefore past results probably don’t really serve as much of a baseline for predicting this weekend’s match.
I believe that the Whitecaps will tighten up some of their defensive and communication issues from last weekend, but Rio Tinto is a tough place to play, so the best result I can see them achieving is a low scoring draw.
Real Salt Lake ( 1 - 1 ) Vancouver Whitecaps | {
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey will testify next Thursday before a U.S. Senate panel investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, in a hearing that could add to difficulties facing President Donald Trump.
FILE PHOTO: A combination photo shows U.S. President Donald Trump (L) in the House of Representatives in Washington, U.S., on February 28, 2017 and FBI Director James Comey in Washington U.S. on July 7, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool, Gary Cameron/File Photo
In his first public appearance since Trump fired him on May 9, Comey will address the Senate Intelligence Committee in both an open session and behind closed doors, which would allow him to discuss classified information, the committee said on Thursday.
Comey was leading the FBI’s probe into the allegations, and his firing sparked a political uproar. Facing rising pressure, the Justice Department last month named Robert Mueller, another former FBI chief, as a special counsel to investigate the matter.
The Justice Department and multiple U.S. congressional committees are investigating Russia’s actions in the 2016 presidential election and questions about possible collusion between Russian officials and Trump campaign associates.
At next week’s hearing, Comey is expected to be asked about conversations in which Trump is reported to have pressured him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, whose ties to Russia are under scrutiny.
Controversy erupted again this week after the Republican head of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, approved subpoenas to the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency for information relating to the “unmasking” of the names of Trump campaign advisers inadvertently picked up in top-secret foreign communications intercepts.
The White House and Nunes have alleged that former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration eavesdropped on Trump’s campaign, an assertion that Comey has disputed and current U.S. officials dismiss as absurd.
Four current and former U.S. officials who have reviewed the materials told Reuters there was no evidence that political motives drove Obama’s aides to request the names be unredacted.
“There is no substance to this, so the only way to look at it is as an attempt to distract the headlines and the public from Comey’s public testimony and Mueller’s investigation, both of which are serious,” said one of the U.S. officials familiar with the information Nunes subpoenaed.
Committee aides complained Nunes had acted unilaterally, and the top Democrat on the panel, Representative Adam Schiff, said Nunes’ actions violated his earlier decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe.
Democratic Representative Jackie Speier said it appeared that Nunes was “more concerned with pushing the White House narrative than seeking the truth.”
TRUMP REPEATS CHARGE
Trump on Thursday renewed his allegation, without citing evidence, that his campaign communications were monitored, saying in a tweet: “The big story is the ‘unmasking and surveillance’ of people that took place during the Obama administration.”
Nunes followed suit hours later, tweeting: “Seeing a lot of fake news from media elites and others who have no interest in violations of Americans’ civil liberties via unmaskings.”
The names of U.S. citizens mentioned in foreign communications intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies are normally redacted, or “masked,” in intelligence reports.
The requests to unmask the names of Trump associates underwent the same stringent evaluations that U.S. privacy laws and intelligence regulations require for all such applications, and they produced nothing out of the ordinary, said the four officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At most, only one of the requests related to Russia in any way, and the rest pertained to other countries, two of them said.
The requests involved between 30 and 40 top-secret reports on intercepted communications in which foreign officials outside the United States mentioned the Trump campaign and people involved in it, the officials said. The reports contained no evidence that any Americans were targets of U.S. eavesdropping operations, they said.
Russia has repeatedly denied any effort to interfere in the U.S. election, but Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday some Russians might have acted on their own without their government’s involvement.
Trump has denied any collusion between Russia and his campaign. He has repeatedly questioned the U.S. intelligence finding that Putin directed an operation that included computer hacking, fake news and propaganda intended to swing the election in Trump’s favor against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. | {
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Esports Tip - Why Do Pros Wear Earphones and Headphones at Events?
So, this morning I woke up with a recurring question I seem to ask myself when watching esports - why do professionals need so many pairs of headphones? Wouldn't it just make sense to have one pair only? What exactly do the earbuds do? It's a great question, one with massive implications and strong reasoning behind it. For those new to esports or even experienced members of the community, here's a small break down of how it all works! First off, let's discuss audio in esports. What is its function? Arguably, audio is as essential as the visuals provided by a monitor. To begin with, there's the in-game sound. Certain in-game queues provide players with a world of information - incoming footsteps, bomb plants and defuses, weapon arming, flashbangs and grenades, ultimate/ability usage, alerts, gunfire, engine noise and many other noises can be game-changing in those clutch moments. Simultaneously, player communications are just as essential. Live comms allow for teams to share strategies, make in-game decisions, to hype one another up in clutch situations, pinpoint enemies, to work as a unit and most importantly, to scream 'Rush B' at one another. Jokes aside, without communication, no team esports could possibly be played out. At live events, esports players may wear up to three pairs of audio devices. Within the ears, a pair of eabuds snugly sit, covered by another, bigger pair of headphones sealing the ear entirely. Then, at times, a third pair of headphones may be found hanging around the neck for certain reasons. So, what purpose do these all serve? Here's a quick summary which applies to most esports/events: Earbuds - used for all output present, as in, in-game sounds and communications Headphones (head) - used mainly for noise cancellation, aviation-style. Otherwise, oftentimes offer the microphone input for communications. Headphones (neck) - not always present. If so, it's due to sponsorship by a headphone producing company. In rare cases, these 'neck headphones' have been used for the microphone input. Do note that apart from players, coaches in certain esports scenes may also be armed with their own audio. The Importance of Noise Cancelling In competitive poker, there's no crowd to not give away the cards of competitors and potentially fluff up a bluff due to this interference. For esports, it's the same concept. Noise cancelling is essential to block out both the castors' audio blasting through the stadium and the crowd's chanting to avoid giving away game-changing information. Due to this, esports 'booths' are sometimes used as contained rooms purpose-built to further cancel out audio. However, despite this, there have been multiple occasions when the audio makes it to the ears of players, making them aware of a defuse or an enemy player. This is mainly seen in Call of Duty and CS:GO where the crowds become awfully passionate. For CS:GO there was one event where crowds were shouting out where an attacking team was taking the bomb each round. Of course, this is unacceptable and completely smashes competitive integrity. Despite this, a balance needs to be struck - you cannot completely eliminate the crowd. And why would you? The roaring and rumble of a crowd is what allows players to rise to the occasion despite the pressure and truly make a name for themselves - that's the difference between a LAN and online event. This argument is especially valid nowadays in our little pandemic. Online variants of esports events may have the same name, but the community is in mutual agreement that these victories carry less weight. Not to take away from the hard work of teams, no, but to consider the fact that playing from home eliminates so much of the pressure found on the live-stage. No lights, no sound, familiarity with a home environment - nonetheless, I'm really grateful to still be able to enjoy esports in this weird time. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below! Need some headphones and earphones for a live event? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Visit our store to benefit from our great prices! | {
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Uncomfortable Situation Seal
"do any potential jurors know anyone in this courtroom?"
"i do. we went out once, your honor, and you never called me back." | {
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Washington (CNN) The former US special envoy for Ukraine told House investigators that he urged Ukraine's leadership not to interfere in US politics in a conversation that followed the phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, according to two sources familiar with the testimony.
Volker appeared Thursday before three committees that are investigating allegations made by a whistleblower that the President sought Ukraine's assistance digging up dirt on his political rival and then the White House tried to cover it up.
In the interview, Volker told lawmakers that the Ukrainian government had a lot of questions about why the military aid was being held up and he did not have a good explanation, according to the sources describing the testimony.
Volker also testified that the Ukrainian government was concerned that a meeting with the Ukrainians and Trump was being put on hold but did not understand the reason.
JUST WATCHED Sources: Special envoy to Ukraine resigns Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Sources: Special envoy to Ukraine resigns 00:56
The meeting was important to Zelensky, who pushed to come to Washington on the July 25 call. According to the rough transcript, the President responds first that he will have Attorney General William Barr and Rudy Giuliani get in touch and then says: "Whenever you would like to come to the White House, feel free to call. Give us a date and we'll work that out. I look forward to seeing you."
But the meeting never happened. A planned meeting in Poland ended up being scrubbed because the President stayed in the United States to deal with a hurricane and he sent Vice President Mike Pence in his place.
Volker also told congressional investigators that he raised concerns with Giuliani about using former Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko as a source for information about the Bidens and other controversies, warning that Lutsenko was not credible.
Volker, who resigned one day after he was named in the release of the whistleblower report last week alleging Trump was using the power of the presidency to ask Ukraine to investigate the Bidens for political gain in the 2020 election. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Republicans, however, said that Volker's testimony did not provide any evidence to support the Democrats' claims of impeachment.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, told reporters after leaving the interview that "not one thing" Volker said "aligns with the Democratic impeachment narrative."
"I do not believe that Volker's testimony advanced Schiff's impeachment agenda," Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican and House Intelligence Committee member, said in a statement after attending Wednesday's interview. "It is deeply unfortunate and regrettable that Schiff's show trial investigation has clearly affected Volker's ability to advance U.S. interests with Ukraine."
A rough transcript of Turmp's July phone call with Zelensky shows he repeatedly pushed Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump's potential 2020 political rival, and his son, Hunter Biden. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe or Hunter Biden.
The allegations prompted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to declare Trump had betrayed his oath of office and announce that she was opening a formal impeachment inquiry into the President even before the whistleblower complaint was made available to lawmakers.
The complaint labels Giuliani as a "central figure" in the controversy.
US officials were concerned, the whistleblower said, with Giuliani and his contacts with Ukrainian officials. The whistleblower alleges that US officials believed Giuliani was a conduit for messages between the President and officials in Kyiv and that he was at the helm of a problematic "circumvention of national security decision making processes."
Speaking to CNN last week, Giuliani said he has "no knowledge of any of that crap" in the complaint.
Ahead of his deposition Thursday, dozens of pages of documents were delivered to the House Intelligence, Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs committees on behalf of Volker, two sources familiar tell CNN.
Analysts previously told CNN that Volker's testimony could be damaging to the President and his allies.
Volker is seen as "a well-respected straight shooter who is likely to testify in ways that will damage other Trump allies," wrote Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, in an emailed analysis. "It's possible others, including key administration members like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr would also be forced out."
This story has been updated with additional developments Thursday. | {
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The new coaster being built at Universal’s Islands of Adventure is really starting to take shape! This thrilling “family” coaster will take place within the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and will feature familiar locations, characters, and creatures from the beloved stories. If you’d like to learn more about the story, track layout, and details for the new ride be sure to check out my new video!
New track is being laid for the attraction every week and a great little bunny hop has just been installed close to the entrance to the Hogsmeade train station. There are several tall cranes on site to help move these large pieces of steel around, and work can be heard all day at the park. At the same time, work is continuing on the old Dragon Challenge queue building as well. Check out the photo update below and stay tuned for more theme park news and updates coming soon!
Check out the video above for more details. The new coaster is expected to open in the summer of 2019. For help booking your next trip to Universal Orlando request your free quote from Elizabeth at Destinations in Florida today! She’ll help you plan the perfect vacation with the best rates on ticket packages and on-site hotels, and her services are totally FREE to you.
Stay tuned for details about this new ride as they become available. Subscribe to the news feed or enter your email below to never miss an update. Photos: Alicia Stella
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Greetings True Christians!!
Did you know that God is punishing the Philippines for their tolerance of homosexuality, prostitution, Catholicism, and other sins? The Philippines are about to feel God’s wrath in the powerful form of a cyclone so great that the world has never experienced one of this intensity. If those of you in the Philippines had repented, you would not need to be punished. But you tolerate prostitution, homosexuality, and adultery, and God will make an example of you, much like he has with Haiti.
Pay heed to this coming disaster, True Christians. God can and will punish the wicked. After all, he killed everyone on Earth besides Noah and his family with the Flood. God detests wickedness and hates sin. God will, when He feels like it, bring about the death of sinners by His hand to quickly toss them into Hell. God hates the wicked, and the wicked will die by His hand so that they may be punished eternally in Hell.The True Faithful in the Philippines will survive this trial. However, sinners will continue to perish unabatedly by God’s hand through this super-typhoon named Haiyan. God has killed at least 1200 heathens with Haiyan, and there may be more to come! Join with me, my brothers and sisters in Christ, to pray that God’s plan of retribution against the heathens and sinners will be complete. God will bring complete devastation upon the Philippines, and they will be wiped clean.Do not cry to God for mercy now, you sinful heathens. You have already rejected Him, and now that you face impending punishment, there is nothing that you can do. God will not help you now. God hates the Philippines, as is clear by the impending cyclone. Repent, sinners, or you may be next on God’s hit list!
I will be praying for you.
Yours in Christ,
Jim Solouki
P.S. See my followup post here. Also, I explain exactly WHY God hates the Philippines here.
Also, join me in praying for the Filipinos and other sinners! I talk about it here.
UPDATE: I will be in the Philippines very soon! For more details on my trip to Manila and Passi City, see here! I’m boarding my last flight now! | {
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ALL NEW PROGRAM!
Program curated by Kier-La Janisse
Remember when Saturday mornings were a wonderland of animated adventures, toy commercials and diabetes-inducing breakfast foods?
On Saturday June 24th at 10:00am, the Mayfair Theatre will tune back in those fuzzy UHF memories of childhood as we present the Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat-Cereal Cartoon Party!
The program features THREE HOURS of classic cartoons (including some retro commercial breaks!), PLUS a BOTTOMLESS BOWL OF CEREAL for everyone who attends. Feel free to bring your own spoon and (reasonably sized) bowl. Pajamas encouraged!
Admission is value-priced at just $5 Kids Cub members / $7 children | $8 members | $12 non-members | $9 seniors. | {
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Most of the dust has settled in free agency, yet 23-year old forward Jabari Parker is still awaiting an offer.
Entering his fifth season, Parker has many factors that make it possible he won’t pan out, the biggest being injury concerns. He has torn the ACL in his left knee twice in three seasons, a truly rare happening. But in his return to action, he showed off a skill set that- in theory -could work in Chicago.
Parker played in 31 games last season for the Bucks. And while it is true that his primary position is power forward, the thought that he can’t play small forward full-time is more founded in the idea that he will never become a sufficient 3-point shooter. Which, if last year is any indication, is not necessarily true.
In his 31 games last season, Parker shot 38.3 percent from the 3-point line on 2.6 attempts per game. And he played 40 percent of his minutes at small forward and 60 percent at power forward. His 3-point percentage has increased every season in his career, and if that upwards trajectory continues he will be one of the more effortless scorers in the league.
Of course he would have to be given ample opportunity to prove himself. Because last season he showed flashes of what he can become.
In Chicago, the presence of Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn gives the team two capable ball-handlers in the starting lineup. And Denzel Valentine and Cam Payne allow the second unit to have similar dual ball-handler capabilities, but Parker has some playmaking skill of his own that would allow the Bulls to truly buy-in to head coach Fred Hoiberg’s quick-hitting offense.
The last two seasons Parker’s assist percentage has been between 13 and 14 percent, a figure that would make him one of the best passing forwards on the Bulls. And perhaps the biggest asset he would bring to the Bulls is the fact that he is quite proficient at grabbing the rebound and pushing the ball up the floor himself. So in a world where Parker does not become a better floor-spacer, the issue would be mitigated by making him the primary playmaker off the bench.
Last season Parker scored one-point per possession as the pick-and-roll ball handler, a mark that put him in the 89th percentile of pick-and-roll scorers. Interestingly enough, Milwaukee only allowed Parker to be the ball handler in pick-and-rolls 13.9 percent of their possessions, compared to the enormous over 40 percent share that both LaVine and Dunn received last season. Even Valentine was give a chance to shine in the pick-and-roll with the Bulls, acting as the PnR ball-handler just over 27 percent of the time.
The idea is, with developing stretch fours like Bobby Portis and Markkanen- both above 36 percent from 3-point range - Parker could actually play an important role in Chicago. And with all due respect to Portis, Sixth Man of the Year could be in Parker’s grasp if he could get in a full season of basketball.
Even coming off of injury, his 55 percent true shooting percentage last year would've made him one of the top-five scorers efficiency-wise on the Bulls. Parker also took 34.9 percent of his shots zero-to-three feet from the basket, a higher share of inside shots than any of the Bulls starters. His 62 percent shooting in the zero-to-three foot range was not as high as Markkanen (67.6 percent) or Lopez (72.9 percent), but he got their at a much higher rate.
Parker’s lack of free throw attempts don’t do much to help a Bulls team that was 26th in the league in that category. But being aggressive in getting to the rim is the first step to a higher free throw rate, and Parker has at least shown the ability to do that.
Some Bulls fans were upset at the idea of matching LaVine’s four-year, $78 million offer, not exactly understanding the value of “asset retention”. And that same subsection of Bulls fans would be in hysterics should the team sign Parker, the former No. 2 overall pick with a well-documented injury history. But the idea is the same as matching LaVine’s offer from Sacramento.
No one is arguing that LaVine will have to prove that he is worth the four-year commitment from the Bulls. And no one is saying that Parker would be a perfect fit on the Bulls, as clearly the team would have to cater some aspects of the offense to him to maximize his potential. But the idea of nabbing a player who put up 20.1 points per game on a 56 percent true shooting percentage just two seasons ago should be an enticing one for a franchise trying to make real progress through their rebuilding years. | {
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Sign language interpreters who work at Purple Communications in Oakland went on an unfair labor practice strike in Oakland. They were joined in the strike by workers in Colorado and Arizona. They are faced with carpal tunnel syndrome and pay cuts to pay for healthcare.
CWA-TNG ASL Interpreters United In ULP Strike Against Purple CommunicationsCWA-TNG Local 39521/Pacific Media Workers ASL interpreterswent on a one-day unfair labor practice ULP strike against PurpleCommunications on May 5, 2014 in California, Colorado andArizona. Purple Communications is a video relay servicewhich employs American sign language interpreters throughoutthe country and receives millions in public funding.The union CWA Local 39521 has been seeking to get a contractfor over a year. The company has also made flagrant violationsof labor rules and imposed increased healthcare costs andextended time required on VRS machines that is causing serioushealth problems including carpal tunnel syndrome for the interpreters.These interviews were conducted in Oakland, CaliforniaFor more informationProduction of Labor Video Project http://www.laborvideo.org Photo from http://www.mediaworkers.org More video atAmerican Sign Languages Interpreters United ULP Strike in Oakland May 5 2014Purple gets an earful during ULP strikeLocal executive officer Carl Hall, center, played harmonica during picketing at the Oakland Purple Communications worksite Monday morning. Photo by Local 39521 staff 2014.American Sign Language interpreters struck Purple Communications Inc. on Monday in a lively show of outrage over the company’s latest unfair labor practices.Members of ASL Interpreters United, an affiliate of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521, carried picket signs outside unionized Purple worksites in Oakland, Denver, San Diego and Tempe, Ariz., declaring the interpreters were “stronger together.”Only a handful of union-covered workers showed up intending to work at the four sites. In some locations, strike participation was close to 100 percent.Members made video testimonials to help explain why the battle with Purple is so important. The mother of an interpreter in San Diego made 90 tamales for the picket line participants. Supporters joined the picket lines in a steady show of public and labor support that included teachers, nurses, postal workers and truck drivers.ASLIU members in San Diego were treated to tamales by a supportive mom. Photo courtesy CWA staff 2014.“I love all the strong community support,” Laurie Rivard, an ASL interpreter and union leader, said during the Oakland picketing, where horns honked throughout the day.Anthony Brown, one of the more energetic Oakland strikers, kept in nearly constant motion, trotting along beside cars and city buses passing in front of Purple’s office along a busy downtown intersection.It was chilly in California. In Tempe, Ariz., the thermometers were reading in the triple digits.The Arizona picketers included three supporters from the deaf community. Local media picked up the story and the union press release was posted on social media.Email access through the company’s servers appeared to be blocked at least temporarily at some locations, according to unconfirmed reports.ASLIU members in one-day ULP strike against Purple Communications. Photo courtesy CWA staff 2014.The unfair labor practice strike was a one-day protest called when the company chose to implement changes in health care benefits, without bothering to reach an agreement with union negotiators. The strike ended at 6 p.m. Monday.Changes in terms and conditions generally must remain status quo without a union agreement, except in cases of bona fide impasse or other rare exceptions. At Purple, health care is a critical issue, because the interpreters have been forced to skip breaks in a profit-driven speedup.The company, based in Rocklin, Calif., provides video-relay-service interpretation through the telephone network, through a program regulated and subsidized by the federal government. ASL interpreters suffer a high risk of workplace injury if they are forced to keep signing more than 20 minutes at a stretch.ASLIU supporters Anthony and Earl picket outside of Purple Communications in Oakland as part of a one-day Unfair Labor Practice strike. Photo by Local 39521 staff 2014.That’s one of the main reasons the interpreters organized 18 months ago. The ASL unit has been in negotiations for an initial labor agreement. One of the main issues in the talks involves how much time the interpreter must spend on calls.Monday’s strike focused on the unfair manner in which the company changed the terms of employee health coverage. The ongoing threat to on-the-job safety was a major topic of conversation as well.“This is about safety and health care,” said Carol Day, a veteran ASL interpreter who was picketing and handing out leaflets in downtown Oakland.Fifteen picketers started at dawn outside Purple’s San Diego worksite. The crowd nearly doubled by mid-day, as members of SEIU and other unions, students and community activists joined in. Passing drivers kept up a steady soundtrack with horns honking in solidarity.Emmalyn Spencer, snug in her baby stroller while her mom, Susan, carried a picket sign outside the Denver worksite, was the youngest participant in the Monday street action.Emmalyn Spencer was the youngest participant in the Monday street action at Purple’s offices in Denver.Denver members arrived at 6:20 a.m. and kept up a continuous presence throughout the morning. Five Purple workers have been with us: JoLinda, Beth, Crystal, Sara and Mariah. Representatives of the Denver Guild local, Jobs With Justice and the Postal Workers helped raise the volume.Purple-colored leaflets proved popular on the Oakland streets, along with chants about the need to put workers, customers and taxpayers ahead of profit interests.Sara Steffens, acting secretary-treasurer of the Newspaper Guild sector of CWA, joined in at Oakland, her hometown. She recalled serving as an election observer when Purple workers organized as she wielded a plastic clapper noisemaker.“I’ve been inspired by the workers at Purple,” she said.Monday’s strike happened to follow announcement last week by the Federal Communications Commission that the agency plans to fine Purple $11.9 million for alleged billing fraud. The company issued a transparent denial Monday at the same time Steffens was making noise at 10th and Broadway.“We’re not the only ones noticing that this company doesn’t seem to be playing by the rules,” she said. | {
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by Erica Goode
OKEMOS, Mich. — When the standoff began on a humid August night, it seemed destined to become one more case of a returned soldier pulled down by a war he could not leave behind.
Staff Sgt. Brad Eifert circled through the woods behind his house here, holding a .45-caliber pistol. The police were out there somewhere and, one way or the other, he was ready to die.
He raised the gun to his head and then lowered it. Then he fired nine rounds.
“They’re going to take me down, they’re going to finish me off, so,” he remembers thinking, “finish me off.”
Leaving his weapon, he ran into the driveway, shouting, “Shoot me! Shoot me! Shoot me!” The police officers subdued him with a Taser and arrested him. A few hours later, he sat in a cell at the Ingham County Jail, charged with five counts of assault with intent to murder the officers, each carrying a potential life sentence.
In daring the police to kill him, Mr. Eifert, who had served in Iraq and was working as an Army recruiter, joined an increasing number of deployed veterans who, after returning home, plunge into a downward spiral, propelled by post-traumatic stress disorder or other emotional problems.
Their descent is chronicled in suicide attempts or destructive actions that bring them into conflict with the law — drunken driving, bar fights, domestic violence and, in extreme instances, armed confrontations with the police of the kind that are known as “suicide by cop.”
Such stories often end in death or prison, the veteran in either case lost to the abyss.
But something different happened in Mr. Eifert’s case. Headed for disaster, he was spared through a novel court program and an unusual coming together of a group of individuals — including a compassionate judge, a flexible prosecutor, a tenacious lawyer and an amenable police officer — who made exceptions and negotiated compromises to help him.
If he takes advantage of the chance to recover his life, he is likely to avoid incarceration and receive the care he needs to move forward.
How this came about — it evolved over more than seven months, during which Mr. Eifert remained in jail — says much about what is required to pull a psychically wounded soldier back to safety and raises questions about the limitations of the systems in place to deal with troubled veterans, whose trespasses can in many cases be traced to a lack of adequate help earlier on.
Some officials believe that war trauma should not qualify veterans for special treatment in the criminal justice system, especially in cases where public safety is endangered. “P.T.S.D. is not a get out of jail free card,” said a prosecutor in a Missouri case involving a veteran who had a faceoff with the police.
Yet a growing number of legal and law enforcement experts argue that when a veteran’s criminal actions appear to stem from the stresses of war, a better solution than traditional prosecution and punishment is called for. The society that trained them and sent them into harm’s way, they say, bears some responsibility for their rehabilitation. And they point to other exceptions in the legal system like diversion programs for drug offenders and the mentally ill.
“I don’t interpret it as excusing behavior, but as addressing what the behavior is,” said Judge Robert T. Russell Jr. of Buffalo City Court, who founded the first special court for veterans there in 2008. It can provide an alternative to punishment, mandating treatment and close supervision and holding them to strict requirements.
“The benefit is, you increase public safety, you don’t have a person reoffending and, hopefully, that person can become functioning and not suffer the invisible wounds of war,” Judge Russell said.
Mr. Eifert, 36, was fortunate that, just months before, his county had become one of 80 jurisdictions around the country that have adopted the veterans court model. But the resolution of his case took more than that.
The judge had to take an interest in his case and accept him in the court, which did not normally hear serious cases involving the use of a firearm.
The prosecutor had to ultimately decide that Mr. Eifert’s emotional difficulties warranted leniency.
The police officer, who, although he had feared for his life during the standoff — “This is probably not going to end well,” he remembers thinking — had to agree to drop the charges of assault with intent to murder.
A judge advocate general officer at Fort Knox, Ky., where the Army’s recruiting command is based, had to argue to reverse the discharge under other than honorable conditions set in motion by the Army after his arrest, which would have deprived him of most of his military benefits, including the services of the Department of Veterans Affairs. A lawyer, Frank Reynolds, had to work to put all the pieces together.
“The justice system is a system of black and white, and most cases of warriors are gray,” said Jeff Murphy, a retired lieutenant and crisis team intervention coordinator for the Chicago Police Department who conducts training on dealing with veterans. Mr. Eifert’s case, he said, offered a template of how to resolve such situations. “You need champions that understand the dynamics of the stresses that military veterans are experiencing,” he said, adding, “And if everybody doesn’t agree, it falls apart.”
A War That Lingered
Even as he returned home from Iraq to Fort Carson, Colo., in 2006, his uniform covered with medals, Mr. Eifert knew something was wrong. The finely honed aggression that had carried him through deployments as an infantry gunner and a truck commander during two of the war’s most violent years was still very much alive inside him.
He was irritated by bad drivers: “You’re so used to being king of the road, to having people get out of the way,” he said.
He was irritated by the seeming obliviousness of the people around him. “None of these people are thinking about people over there sweating and bleeding and struggling right now,” he would think in a store or on the street.
Mr. Eifert wanted to go back into combat, but the Army had other plans, sending him to Michigan as a recruiter. At a mental health screening, he told an Army psychiatrist that he was drinking too much, having panic attacks, waking up from nightmares — his house exploding, his hand being blown off.
“It’s normal,” he said she told him. “You’ll get over it.”
But as he moved through his life — divorcing his first wife, taking up his new job at the Great Lakes Recruiting Battalion, marrying a woman with three children he had met through eHarmony — the volatile emotions stayed with him. He won honors as a recruiter, but he continued drinking, sometimes as much as a fifth of Jack Daniel’s a day.
He was haunted by memories: friends being killed; the day he shot up a house filled with women and children, killing many of them; another when he watched a truck full of military contractors burn and did nothing to save them.
He no longer believed in the war or in his recruiting job. “Everybody I put in I know is going to get deployed,” he kept thinking, “and I have to look their parents in the face and be like, ‘It’s not that bad, look at me, I’m great after two deployments. Your son will be fine.’ ”
An operation for a shoulder injury did not heal properly and added to Mr. Eifert’s depression. In February 2010, he put a gun to his head in his garage, and after seeking help the next day went to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Ann Arbor. But he was released after a four-hour evaluation with prescriptions for psychiatric medication and counseling. A few months later, he made a second suicide attempt.
“I just felt totally hopeless in every situation in my life,” he recalled, “like I had no control over anything, I couldn’t do anything. I was just living, you know, like floating.”
The day of the standoff, Aug. 9, 2010, started badly. Mr. Eifert did not sleep well. He got a Facebook message from his brother, a soldier stationed in Afghanistan, saying that the base there had been hit by truck bombs. He had a minor argument with his father-in-law, a man he respected greatly.
In the afternoon, he went to his grandparents’ house in nearby Mason and sat on the patio, smoking cigarettes and drinking. When his grandmother asked him what was wrong, he told her that he felt like a failure and that he hated his life.
“And we cried, she cried, and she held me,” he said.
He called his commanding officers and told them he needed help. “I’m tired of drinking, I’m tired of feeling hopeless, I’m tired of feeling depressed, I’m tired of feeling angry,” he said he told them. “I’m tired of my life.”
A first sergeant and a captain from the recruiting command met him at his grandparents’ house, and said they would drive him to a hospital in two cars, the sergeant driving his. An Army document filed in the case said that, during a stop at a 7-Eleven along the way, Mr. Eifert became “belligerent,” demanding his car keys. When they refused, Mr. Eifert shoved the sergeant, ripped the first sergeant stripes off his chest, grabbed the keys and drove off, the document said.
Mr. Eifert said the officers had agreed to let him stop at his house to say goodbye to his wife and then reneged. To him, it seemed “another handshake and a smile, just a false promise.”
At 4:45 p.m. that day, his wife, Michelle, got a text from him, saying “You don’t need me.” When he came home, he was drunk and unreachable.
“He just kept repeating: ‘They lied to me. They lied to me. They’re coming after me,’ ” she said.
Mr. Eifert said that much of what happened that night is hazy. But he remembers telling his wife to leave and to take the children with her.
He grabbed three guns and went into the woods. He made calls on his cellphone — to a commanding officer he trusted, to a friend.
Four police officers called to the scene were positioned across the street, their rifles trained in his direction. He was only dimly aware of them, he said, but he was seized with the same adrenaline he had felt in Iraq. “It was a fight or flight situation,” he said.
He raised the .45-caliber pistol to his head, “but I didn’t know how hard I was going to have to squeeze the trigger,” he said. “I started thinking, ‘What if I don’t squeeze it hard enough?’ ”
So he aimed the gun at tree trunks, he said, and fired. The police later said that he was shooting at them.
“I was just so angry, I wanted to die,” Mr. Eifert recalled, “and they took me to the hospital and I woke up in jail.”
An Alternative Approach
Sitting at his kitchen table in East Lansing the next morning, Judge David L. Jordon of Ingham County District Court read an article about the standoff in Okemos and was immediately interested in the case.
“I thought, boy, that sounds like an attempted suicide by cop and it sounds like a veteran who just gave up and wanted to be done with things,” he said.
Local blogs covering the standoff were tapping mixed reactions.
“I hope they lock him up for the rest of his life,” one commenter wrote, shortly after Mr. Eifert’s arraignment.
“Thank you for your service Sergeant Eifert,” another wrote. “I hope you get the help you need, and can return to Okemos a healthy man.”
The son of a World War II pilot, Judge Jordon is passionate about veterans’ issues, an ardent fan of “Achilles in Vietnam,” Jonathan Shay’s book on combat trauma. After hearing about the veteran’s court in Buffalo, he started a similar one in East Lansing. The court, which meets twice a month, not only gets veterans into treatment, it also provides them a mentor who is also a military veteran. The veterans have a chance to avoid jail by meeting a set of rigorous criteria.
Mr. Eifert’s case, Judge Jordon said, was “at the core of anyone’s concept of a treatment court.”
But the court was not normally open to defendants charged with crimes involving guns or other violence, and the move there could not take place unless the prosecutor, Stuart Dunnings III, was willing to reduce the charges. Initially, the prosecutor “was not going to play at all,” said Mr. Reynolds, the defense lawyer.
Mr. Murphy, the retired Chicago police lieutenant, noted that in high-profile cases like Mr. Eifert’s, prosecutors are often placed in an awkward position.
“If you have a highlighted situation of a veteran out of control out there in the community,” he said, “it becomes more difficult to adjudicate using an alternative method to conventional prosecution.”
And in some cases, no alternative is available. In Platte County, Mo., which has no special court, the veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who had a faceoff with the police is scheduled to stand trial on Sept. 12 on charges including felonious assault on a police officer, though no shots were fired. He had called 911 for help.
As the prosecutors in Michigan learned more about Mr. Eifert’s history, however, the move to the veteran’s court began to seem more feasible.
“We charge based on what we know at that time,” Mr. Dunnings said, “but hopefully we’re open to further evidence and information that comes along, and as we become aware of things, we adjust our positions accordingly.”
One fact that swayed the prosecutors was that Mr. Eifert was a trained marksman. Had he really wanted to kill the police officers, he could have, they believed. Another was that he had asked for help on several occasions before the standoff.
When the defense argued that Mr. Eifert had severe post-traumatic stress disorder, “it was more believable than it might have been had two or three of those facts been different,” said Catherine Emerson, an assistant prosecutor.
Soldier With a Gun
Still, they could not drop the charges if the victims of the crime, the Meridian Township police officers, would not agree.
A call to deal with “a man with a gun” is one of the most dangerous that police officers face. Entering an unpredictable situation, they are trained to act to protect their own safety and the public’s.
When the suspect is a soldier, the situation grows more complicated. In Gresham, Ore., a veteran was killed by the police when he stepped out onto his front porch carrying a rifle; his family had called 911 saying he was suicidal. In Glendale, Ariz., a soldier newly returned from Afghanistan shot a man in a bar and then fired at a police officer, who killed him.
Officer John Free was the first to respond to Mr. Eifert’s house that night. As he crouched with his AR-15 rifle behind the pine trees across the street waiting for a clear shot, he said, he thought of his 7-month-old daughter and wondered if he would see her first birthday. He saw muzzle flashes in the darkness and heard bullets whiz through the trees.
“Your mind plays tricks on you when you’re out there for 2 1/2 hours in the dark,” he said. “You would hear something in the woods and it would turn out to be a deer, and then O.K., it’s just a deer, but is the deer moving because he’s moving towards us?”
Officer Free took off his reflective badge and smeared mud on the illuminated dial of his radio. At one point, an officer crawled across a hornet’s nest, and when a sharp pain went through his leg, he thought he had been shot.
Still, when Ms. Emerson called Officer Free to ask about the charges, he said he bore Mr. Eifert no hard feelings.
“I said, ‘I don’t think any of us would not want him to get treatment,’ ” he said.
“There’s a difference between somebody who’s a criminal and someone who’s just in a perfect storm of things going wrong.”
A Chance for a Future
On Aug. 2, Mr. Eifert, having pleaded guilty to a single charge of carrying a weapon with unlawful intent, a felony, will officially enter the veterans court program. He separated from the Army on June 9. Twelve to 18 months from now, if he adheres to the strict regimen of treatment through the Veterans Affairs hospital in Battle Creek and supervision set by the court, the charge could be dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor.
He is at home now, with his wife and stepchildren, slowly learning to cope more constructively with his problems. He has abstained from drinking since his arrest — he wears a monitor on his ankle that records any alcohol he consumes. He is working part time at a family farm.
He has ups and downs, but on most days, he sees some possibility of a future.
Someday, he said, he would like to sit down with the police officers who arrested him “and just kind of say ‘Wow, that was a big crazy mess and I’m glad you didn’t kill me and I’m sorry that I put you guys through that.’ ”
But that will not happen tomorrow or the next day.
“We’re a long way from this being over,” said Sgt. Maj. David Dunckel, the mentor assigned to Mr. Eifert by the veteran’s court, who keeps a close eye on him. “There is some resolution to his legal problems, but the demons that haunt him are still pretty deeply embedded.”
Still, Sergeant Major Dunckel said, “I’ll put my money on Brad getting through this O.K.”
Author Details Author Details G M This is a general posting account for VT | {
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The fall of one-party dominant system or what famous political scientist Rajni Kothari termed as ‘Congress System’ in the 1970s led to an era of coalition politics. From the ‘Janta Government’ to ‘National Front’ government, the era of coalition government witnessed parties cutting across different ideologies coming together to form a government.
Even in states, stretching from Uttar Pradesh to Bihar to Maharashtra, all of it witnessed the formation of coalition governments. But, in most of these cases, the coalition governments failed to complete its full terms as it became evident that most of the parties that came to form the coalition government, came together to share the “spoils of power” rather than with an aim of providing a ‘stable government’.
Also, it was seen that the ‘senior partners’ in these coalition often took the parties with lesser numbers of legislators for granted and showed complete disregard for ‘coalition dharma’.
In this context it would not be an exaggeration to say that the only party that was able to honor its ‘coalition dharma’ was the party that could for the first time complete its term in a coalition government.
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And that party was Bharatiya Janta Party under Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister.
In 2011, when the nation was witnessing problems like rising prices and massive corruption and Congress-led UPA that was in power and was not able to take decisive steps to check these problems, they blamed ‘coalition politics’ for it.
Read: Hindu massacres and a demand for Sharia: The story of Rahul Gandhi’s ally IUML, an offshoot of Jinnah’s Muslim league
In February 2011 when asked at a press conference about the reappointment of A Raja as telecom minister in 2009 despite the allegations of corruption, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that he had to accept the DMK supremo M Karunanidhi’s choice since “compromises have to be made in the interests of coalition politics”.
It was the same Congress which in March 1991 had withdrawn support from Chandra Shekharover the allegation of ‘snooping’. Congress had alleged that on the orders of Chandra Shekharpolice was snooping on Rajiv Gandhi.
And, as chronicled in the political history of India, Congress time and again, because of petty reasons and personal ambitions showed complete disregard for its coalition partners.
After many twists and turns Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeraywas sworn in as Chief Minister of Maharashtra last month. Shiv Sena could form the government with the help of Sonia Gandhi-led Congress and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.
Following his oath, it was the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was among the first to congratulate Uddhav Thackeray. “Congratulations to Uddhav Thackeray Ji on taking oath as the CM of Maharashtra. I am confident he will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra”, PM Modi tweeted.
While PM Modi’s message was a reflection of mature democracy where ideological differences never stop a person to honor a constitutional office, it is upon Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena to understand that definition of ‘coalition dharma’ is very different for Bharatiya Janata Party and for Congress.
History is testimony to the fact that Congress has never cared about its coalition partners when it came to perusing its own self-interest. And, in this context the comment made by Union Home Minister during the debate on Citizenship (Amendment) Bill earlierthis week is of great importance.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah while rubbishing the Congress party’s claim that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is communal in nature made a ‘spot on’ remark that the Congress is such a secular party that it has Muslim League as a coalition partner in Kerala and the Shiv Sena as an ally in Maharashtra.
The fact that Congress partners with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and ties up with the Muslim League in Kerala is testimony to the fact that it has least regard for any ideology when it comes to forming a government or else how is it possible to support two parties placed at two farthest ends of the spectrum at one point in time.
It goes on to show that for Congress coalition has always been an instrument of power-sharing whereas for Bharatiya Janata Party it has always been a need for providing stable government.
Read: Shiv Sena agrees to uphold ‘secular values’, work for ‘minorities’ in Maharashtra: Read details of Common Minimum Program
Bharatiya Janata Party has always honored its coalition partners and never seen them as an instrument to reach ‘magic number’ to form a government. It is evident from the fact in spite of getting a majority on its own in 2014 Lok Sabha elections Bharatiya Janata Party honored its ‘coalition dharma’ and gave all its coalition partners their due place in the government.
Similarly, in 2019 even after getting the massive mandate; that shocked all political pundits, Bharatiya Janata Party included its ‘smaller partners’ like Shiromani Akali Dal and Shiv Sena in the Union Cabinet.
The true litmus of ‘coalition dharma’ is honoring the constituents of the coalition even when their presence is insignificant for the purpose of the stability of the government.
The most honest yardstick of ‘coalition dharma’ is to keep ‘national interest’ at the front and let any coalition crumble if it tends to compromise with it.
Touchstone of ‘coalition dharma’ is honoring constituents, providing stable government and keeping national interest at front and not just being guided by the lust of power.
And Bharatiya Janata Party has always done this and Shiv Sena shall learn this sooner or later. | {
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A Brooklyn woman has been charged with mail theft after a stolen gift card that was used to buy sex toys was traced back to her home address.
A woman from West Nyack, New York told authorities that a $100 American Express gift card she had sent a relative was missing when the envelope and greeting card she sent along with it were delivered in the mail. She contacted American Express and discovered that the card had been used to purchase three sex toys from online retailer Groupon.com. The toys were allegedly delivered to the home of 48-year-old postal worker and Brooklyn resident Iesha Conley.
The card had been sent to a Long Island address, and according to a filed complaint, Conley worked at the US Postal Service’s Brooklyn Processing and Distribution Center the day the card was processed.
A criminal complaint has been filed against Conley by the Office of the Inspector General for the Postal Service, and she is charged with stealing mail between the dates of Sept. 9 and Dec. 20, 2016. It’s also alleged that she used the American Express card to pay off a cable bill, according to the New York Post.
According to the complaint, the American Express card was not all the Conley took from the mail. In early December, the same employee was allegedly filmed “ripping open and removing the contents from dozens of greeting card envelopes” by a surveillance camera.
If convicted, Conley could serve up to five years in prison. | {
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Sad to say this is America..Little Kid getting picked on, not cool..*Not my video | {
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On the campaign trail, Donald Trump vowed that if he was elected president, he would resurrect Operation Wetback of 1954. Operation Wetback, the story goes, was the single largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, resulting in more than one million deportations to Mexico and a dramatic reduction in the number of unlawful entries at the U.S.-Mexico border.
As president, Trump has begun to make good on his pledge by issuing two executive orders that promise to ramp up deportations and expand fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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But mass deportation never happened during Operation Wetback of 1954. And border enforcement did not follow. As I detail in my book, “Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol,” Operation Wetback was, in fact, a mass legalization campaign chased by an easing of immigration law enforcement in the U.S.-Mexico border region.
Operation Wetback is often cited as a moment when mass deportation and border enforcement reduced the size of the undocumented population living in the United States and ended unlawful entry at the U.S.-Mexico border. They did not. It is time to put this false history to bed.
Texas uprising
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In 1942, the U.S. and Mexican governments negotiated a labor agreement, known as the Bracero Program, which allowed millions of Mexican immigrants to temporarily work in the United States.
U.S. and Mexican authorities created the Bracero Program as a way to control Mexican migration. In the U.S., anti-Mexican sentiment generally opposed mass Mexican immigration. In Mexico, political leaders wanted Mexican workers to go to the United States, learn modern farming techniques and bring that knowledge home.
But many agricultural employers rebelled against the program. They preferred the unregulated labor practices they had used for decades to squeeze profits from Mexican workers marginalized by their undocumented status. The Bracero Program, among other things, guaranteed Mexican contract workers a minimum wage and sanitary housing. In South Texas, in particular, farmers and ranchers not only refused to use the Bracero Program but took up arms against the U.S. Border Patrol when they came to apprehend their workers.
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Operation Wetback of 1954 was a campaign to crush the South Texas uprising and force their compliance with the Bracero Program. However, Mexican workers paid the greatest price.
Operation Wetback
Operation Wetback’s first iteration began in 1953 when Harlon B. Carter, the head of the U.S. Border Patrol in the southwestern United States, concocted a plan to use the U.S. military to round up and deport undocumented Mexicans. The plan, called Operation Cloudburst, made it all the way to President Eisenhower’s desk. Eisenhower considered it but nixed the idea since the Posse Comitatus Act largely prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. Instead President Eisenhower appointed Joseph Swing, a former military general, to head the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
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Carter was a convicted murderer. In 1931, at the age of 17, he killed Ramon Casiano, a Mexican-American teen, in Laredo, Texas. Carter had been upset that Casiano and his friends had been hanging out in front of the Carter home. So Carter hunted them down, aimed a shotgun at Casiano’s chest and pulled the trigger. A jury convicted Carter of the killing, but the conviction was later overturned on a procedural technicality. Several years later, Carter joined the U.S. Border Patrol.
In May of 1954, the U.S. attorney general, Swing and Carter issued a press statement announcing Operation Wetback. Soon, they promised, an unprecedented, paramilitary surge of Border Patrol officers would sweep across the southwestern United States to find, detain and deport unauthorized Mexican immigrants. As Carter explained to the Los Angeles Times, “an army of Border Patrol officers complete with jeeps, trucks, and seven aircraft” would soon unleash an “all-out war to hurl… Mexican wetbacks back into Mexico.”
Panic whipped through Mexican immigrant communities in southwestern states. Deportations and forced removals had been on the rise for a decade, spiking from 10,613 expulsions in 1942 to 905,236 in 1953. Carter and Swing promised more. So many more that the Border Patrol was already converting public parks into “concentration camps” for detaining at least 1,000 people at a time.
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The officials’ rhetoric forecast a callous, dehumanizing and warlike campaign, priming immigrants, employers and the American public in general for a spectacular show of force.
The show began at dawn on June 10, 1954 when Border Patrol officers set up checkpoints across southern California and western Arizona. During the next seven days, officers nabbed almost 11,000 unsanctioned Mexican immigrants. By June 30, 1954, 22,000 more were apprehended. In the following three months, Border Patrol task forces swept through California, Arizona, Texas, Chicago, Illinois and the Mississippi Delta, unleashing fast raids on farms, restaurants and Mexican majority communities.
Everywhere the Border Patrol went, reporters followed, snapping photos and broadcasting stories of Mexicans being rounded up, detained and deported back to Mexico. In many cases, the deportees were crammed onto buses, trains, planes or boats to be forcibly relocated into the interior of Mexico and abandoned far from both home and the border. A congressional inquiry into conditions on one of the deportee boats would later describe it as an “18th-century slave ship” and a “penal hellship.”
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By October 1954, large numbers of Mexicans had been publicly rounded up, detained and deported. INS Commissioner Joseph Swing declared that the historic campaign had hurled more than one million Mexicans deep into Mexico.
It is true that U.S. Border Patrol reported apprehending more than one million people for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1954. But the patrol apprehended only 33,307 people between the start of Operation Wetback on June 10, 1954, and the close of the fiscal year on June 30, 1954. And they apprehended only 254,096 people between July 1, 1954 and June 30, 1955. In other words, the Border Patrol apprehended, at most, fewer than 300,000 people during the 1954 campaign.
The unreported story
There’s a story that General Swing did not invite journalists to cover. Without reporters in tow, Carter dispatched teams of Border Patrol officers to hold meetings with employers across the Southwest during the summer of 1954.
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In particular, they met with South Texas employers, promising them constant raids if they refused to use the Bracero Program. And to appease the employers’ complaints about the program’s requirements, the officers offered two stripped-down versions of the Bracero Program. They were known as the the I-100 and Specials programs, which met some of the employers’ demands for fewer provisions for Bracero workers, and more control over the hiring and firing process.
If employers still declined to use the program, Border Patrol officials threatened to permanently station a two-man team on the grower’s farm until the grower signed a pledge to use braceros instead of unauthorized workers. It worked. The number of Mexican workers signed up with the Specials and I-100 programs in Texas surged from 168 in July of 1953 to 41,766 in July of 1954, around the same time Operation Wetback was underway. Across the country, the number of Mexicans participating in the Bracero Program also rose.
As more employers used the Bracero Program, which became increasingly broken and corrupt, the number of deportations fell. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1954, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1,035,282 apprehensions. In 1955, that number plunged to 254,096, and in 1956, it plummeted to 58,792. The number of Mexican nationals apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol remained under 100,000 until 1967.
But the declining number of deportations was about more than the use of the Bracero Program, which, until terminated in 1964, provided a form of legalization for many Mexican men working in the southwestern United States.
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The U.S. Border Patrol also radically changed its police practices. Between 1944 and 1954, the Border Patrol routinely used 12-man task forces bolstered by planes and buses to ramp up apprehensions in the U.S.-Mexico border region.
After Operation Wetback of 1954, the Border Patrol retired the task forces and deescalated its activities in border states, resulting in far fewer apprehensions and deportations. In particular, the Border Patrol assigned officers to two-man patrols, and most were on foot or horseback. As one Border Patrol officer put it, the two-man patrols struggled to just “grab one or two and hang on to ‘em.”
In other words, after General Swing declared “conquest” at the border, he kept apprehensions low at the U.S.-Mexico border by changing patrol tactics.
To date, President Trump is pulling from the 1954 playbook. The executive orders and Department of Homeland Security memos announced sweeping plans to deport millions of unauthorized immigrants. And although swiftly retracted, a leaked memo regarding the possibility of the National Guard assisting in mass deportation churned fears that the federal government is preparing a warlike campaign on undocumented immigrants, namely Mexicans and Central Americans.
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But there is no precedent for President Trump’s immigration plan. If Congress fully funds President Trump’s executive orders, including 10,000 new ICE agents, 5,000 new Border Patrol officers and an expansion of the border wall, they will hurl us into uncharted territory, unleashing an era of mass deportation and border enforcement to which not even Operation Wetback of 1954 will compare.
Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Associate Professor, History and African-American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles | {
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Each month, Kerrang! examines the history and current scene of one of the 50 United States in order to better understand the American landscape united under metal. These are the States of Metal. *** To an outsider, Arkansas might appear to be a typical Southern territory, full of good ol’ boys and laid-back livin’. There are mountains to the north, swamps to the south, and the mighty Mississippi along the eastern border. Meanwhile, the state’s most famous public figures include Bill Clinton, Billy Bob Thornton, Johnny Cash and Al Green. On paper, Arkansas is a picture-perfect snapshot of the American south. Talk to the metalheads from 29th state, though, and they paint a very different picture. While Arkansas’s headbangers are quick to tell you about the local scene’s creative figureheads and strong DIY work ethic, they’ll also tell you about something that lurks beneath the surface — something way less Faulkner, way more Stephen King. “Little Rock makes Salem’s Lot look like fucking Disneyland,” says Nate Garrett. A former resident of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Nate is best known as frontman for epic doom metallers Spirit Adrift and guitarist for OSDM crew Gatecreeper, both from Arizona. Perhaps it’s that distance that allows him to so hauntingly describe Arkansas’s undercurrent of menace. “People have different theories about it — there are Native American burial mounds there, for example. I don’t think it’s something anyone can quantify. But the people that have grown up there their whole lives, it’s as accepted as gravity.”
Above: Nate Garrett and Deadbird’s Chuck Schaaf in Schaaf’s studio, circa 2009. The darkness that runs through Arkansas might surprise some people, who take its musical history of gospel and country at face value. But as any metalhead knows, religious fervor often hides intentions more hellish than heavenly, and even the dulcet tones of church music can lead a God-sick listener down the left-hand path.
“My dad ran a gospel quartet, so I was pretty much on the road with him any time I wasn’t in school, and I think hearing those four-part harmonies my entire life has something to do with my songwriting,” says Jacob Sawrie, frontman for Arkansas stoner doom band Sumokem. With a mixture of grinding guitars and ecclesiastical vocals, Sumokem use each album to examine ancient philosophies from different cultures — none of them Christian. “And the religion part of it has a lot to do with all of those bands. Being in the bible belt has affected all our attitudes.”
Though its early musical development matched that of other southern states, violence and fear have alwasy pervaded Arkansas’s sound. Johnny Cash’s outlaw country was filled with violent junkies (Cocaine Blues) and the ghosts of everymen (Dark As A Dungeon and Long Black Veil). Al Green’s songs were soulful and sexy, but he didn’t really find Jesus until his girlfriend scalded him with hot grits and committed suicide. In his autobiography, Miles Davis describes coining his sound while thinking of “them spook-filled Arkansas back-roads after dark.” It only makes sense, then, that when the ‘70s and ‘80s rolled around, rock music in Arkansas took a turn towards the distorted and depressive. On one side, the mainstream media was feeding the local kids arena hair metal shows and MTV’s Headbangers Ball. On the other, from areas within the state like North Little Rock and Batesville, a burgeoning skateboarding scene brought hardcore and punk into the mix.
“I thought punk was just old British guys,” laughs Alan Short, guitarist/vocalist for legendary Batesville sludge artists Deadbird, whose new album III: The Forest Within The Tree dropped last week. As a teenage skateboarder, Alan grew up listening to speed metal and hardcore — but like many kids from way outside New York and LA, he was forced to find his own way. “All I’d seen on TV were huge stage, bright lights, the metal barrier in front of the stage, and all of a sudden I was at an all-ages show at a club called Vinos. I saw two local bands, Trusty and Fishwagon, opening for Jawbox. Next thing I knew, my friends and I were listening to a Minor Threat tape and practicing slam-dancing in my garage.” “And while Alan was seeing punk shows, I was going to the arena to see Cinderella!” laughs Deadbird guitarist and local legend Chuck Schaaf. “I will admit, when I was twelve or thirteen, I had a Winger cassette!” For many metalheads, Deadbird is the quintessential Arkansas band; their mixtures of chugging riffs and harsh chanting sound like woody hymns to rotting trees. But for Alan and Chuck, Arkansas of the late-’80s and ’90s was a beautiful time, when lifers like themselves had to build the scene from the ground up and touring bands helped each other out (“Mastodon slept on my couch one time,” laughs Chuck. “Brent left his sleeping bag at my house!”) To these dudes, the fact that acts like like furious political hardcore band Econochrist and dark experimental metallers Sickshine never received widespread recognition is a fuckin’ tragedy.
“It’s a shame that no one outside of here got to hear Sickshine,” says Chuck. “The problem was these guys were all just so unlike everything else. People like music that sounds like what they know, and Arkansas bands are just weird.”
While cock rock and hardcore gave Arkansas’s metal scene its base, the secret ingredient to its signature flavor bubbled up from further south. The humid sludge metal of New Orleans, championed by ugly-sounding acts like Eyehategod, Crowbar, and Acid Bath, slowed down the riffs coming out of Arkansas and created what most consider the Arkansas sound: a catchy yet harrowing form of doom, full of venomous honesty and spooky backwoods spirituality. The style, present before its time in Sickshine’s terrifying sludge-core, was championed by bands like Deadbird and Seahag, and then later refined and streamlined by modern doom crew Pallbearer. These bands rallied around Little Rock’s central venues, specifically Vino’s and Downtown Music, the latter owned and operated by local musicians and created solely to give AK bands a place to hear cool new music. “Downtown Music was sort of the mecca during the heyday of the Little Rock metal scene,” says Pallbearer bassist Joseph D. Rowland. With their powerful brand of infectiously mournful doom, Pallbearer introduced fans around the world to the Arkansas sound. “It was a venue that some folks in the local scene (particularly Alan Wells, who was the original owner) started in the early 2000s in the then-languishing downtown part of Little Rock. If not for that venue, Pallbearer wouldn’t even exist. Our first goal as a band was to play a show there. Sadly, I think the building is getting turned into condos.”
In other states, Pallbearer’s success might have sparked envy or bitterness among local stalwarts — but after striving to get their sound heard for so long, Arkansas’s musical veterans are just happy to see their countrymen succeed. “We’re so proud of those guys,” says Chuck Schaaf. “They were part of this wave, and they really blew this scene wide open.”
For Joseph, this attitude is Arkansas embodied. “I think what has stood out to me about the Arkansas metal scene is how inclusive it has been. It’s always been relatively small, so there’s not a lot of room to be clique-y. You would, and still do, see a lot of the same folks at shows no matter what type of music it is.”
To be fair, not every band from Arkansas is an underground sludge act — Little Rock is also the hometown of goth metal chart-toppers Evanescence, who channel the state’s inner blackness in a more dramatic and palatable fashion. And yet for all their international acclaim, Evanescence aren’t on anyone’s lips when they’re asked about the band that most embodies Arkansas metal. “If I was going to die tomorrow, and could see only one more band, it would be Rwake for sure,” says Sumokem’s Jacob Sawrie. “That band does something live that no one else touches.”
Ask a young Arkansas metalhead about Little Rock’s Rwake (it’s just pronounced “Wake” — the ‘R’ was added due to a mispronunciation of the name after a long night of drinking Robitussin), and you’ll hear equal parts fanboy devotion and superstitious fear. If Deadbird’s music is a prayer to an old god, then Rwake’s is a plea for mankind. The band, led by Christopher Terry (a.k.a. “CT”) is known for their unique combination of thousand-ton groove metal, far-out experimentalism, and crushing emotionality, which feels like a natural reaction to living somewhere that is karmically poisoned. “Dude, I don’t even know how to explain it,” Nate Garrett says, voice tinged with awe. ”I think what they channeled is the most evil, scary shit that has ever fucking existed. There’s some profound misery, and torment, and dark shit about that band. They’re as real as it gets. Period.” “When I write for other bands, it’s not the same…and I hate it!” laughs CT, who also plays in Deadbird, black metal act Ash of Cedars, and hard rock band Iron Tongue, all from Little Rock. “Rwake just comes very naturally, and it hurts…and feels good. It’s all about sad, sad moments that have helped us grow. And when it comes, it comes. Jeff [Morgan, drummer] makes this joke that it’s Rwake and not us, and it does what it wants when it’s time to do it.”
“To me, Arkansas is that extra element in our band,” continues CT. “Rwake is the compass of that weirdness. When I think about the lyrics in Stoner Tree, or The Finality, or It’s Beautiful, But Now It’s Sour, those songs are all Arkansas songs. It’s something that happens by living here, and knowing it, and being sucked into it. It’s a weird Twilight Zone black hole kind of place, for sure.” But like his fellow Arkansans, CT talks about the overwhelming darkness of his home state with good humor and a positive view of the future. He sees Arkansas, and the people in it, as growing into their own. The void is still there, but those that experience it are a little more mature in how they channel it. “Us old guys see the Downtown Music era as a heyday, but these days, the people coming to shows are way more open-minded,” says CT. “Jeff used to have four serial killers tattooed on his arm, and he had it covered up with a pretty lady’s face. I used to have a Confederate flag tattooed on my hand, and I got it covered up with a pink and purple butterfly. The kids who used to come out to those shows years ago are now business owners. We’re parents. We’re still very much full of contempt…but it’s on a different level these days. We have a different fight.” *** Every month, we update our States Of Metal playlist with killer tracks from the state we’re currently featuring. Scroll through to listen to music from Arkansas and all of the states we’ve profiled!
*** WORDS: Chris Krovatin FEATURED PHOTO: Deadbird, by Adam Peterson.
Posted on October 18th 2018, 4:00pm | {
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Maria Herrera is scraping at the earth on a hill in the town of Huitzuco, in southern Mexico, looking for the mounds or sunken spots that indicate a decaying corpse.
At 70 years old, Herrera is hoping against all odds to find her four missing sons – two who disappeared in 2008, and two who vanished in 2010 looking for their brothers.
Forensic personnel work to exhume human remains found during the fourth National Search Brigade, in Huitzuco de los Figueroa
“Every time we come to one of these nasty places, we suffer … Who heard their screams of pain? Who heard their last words?” she said through tears as she dug in the dirt with a group of 100 other activists in the violent state of Guerrero.
The small, grey-haired grandmother is the face of a dirty secret that has haunted Mexico for years: the countryside of Latin America’s second-largest economy is littered with bodies.
Maria Herrera, who is lookings for four missing sons, in Huitzuco de los Figueroa.
More than 40,000 people are missing in Mexico, which has been swept by a wave of violence since the government declared war on the country’s powerful drug cartels in 2006.
Herrera regularly goes out searching for her sons with other relatives of the “disappeared”.
But she is also part of a smaller, even more tragic group: some 20 families who have lost children not once but twice, when the ones who remained went looking for their missing siblings and ended up disappearing too.
Herrera’s family comes from Pajacuarán, a small town in western Mexico where most people are farmers or emigrate to the United States.
A mass held as part of the activities of the fourth National Search Brigade, in Huitzuco de los Figueroa
She and her husband decided they wanted something different for their eight children. They started a small business selling household goods door to door, then used the profits to launch a nationwide gold exchange.
Part of the business, she said, involved traveling the country to buy and sell gold – which is what Jesus Salvador, then 24, and Raul, then 19, were doing in Guerrero in 2008.
Traveling with five employees in an SUV carrying nearly $90,000 (£70,000) in cash and gold, they did not realise a bloody cartel turf war was just breaking out in the state.
A police dog is used during the fourth National Search Brigade
“My brothers had no idea when they arrived,” said Juan Carlos, 41, their older sibling.
He and his family believe a local cartel mistook the brothers and their co-workers for members of a rival group and had some crooked cops arrest them.
Such stories are not uncommon in Guerrero. It is the state where 43 student protesters disappeared in 2014 after being arrested by state police, who apparently handed them over to cartel hitmen – a notorious case that drew international condemnation, and remains unsolved.
A boy (right) assists the Search Brigade (top). Left: Mario Vergara, who is looking for his brother, displays a banner
With no news of their sons, and fed up with the lack of answers from the authorities, the Herreras hired private investigators and began searching on their own.
Their situation got more desperate in February 2009, when Herrera’s husband died of a stroke.
Taking up the family gold business – and using their travels to search for Jesus and Raul – two more brothers, Gustavo, then 27, and Luis Armando, then 25, started criss-crossing the country.
Children dress in white for a march in Huitzuco de los Figueroa organised by the Search Brigade
“Sometimes the drug traffickers take their victims somewhere else. Maybe we’ll find them in another state,” Herrera said Gustavo told her.
They were on such a trip when they, too, disappeared.
Moments after Gustavo called his wife to check in, on 22 September 2010, the brothers were detained by police in Poza Rica, in the eastern state of Veracruz – another cartel hotspot known for hit squads run by corrupt cops.
More than 40,000 people are missing in Mexico, which has been swept by a wave of violence since declaring war on its powerful drug cartels in 2006
The family believes the police decided to get rid of the pair when they realised they were searching for missing persons.
Looking for the missing can be dangerous in Mexico.
Herrera’s latest group, the Fourth National Missing Persons Search Brigade, had to be escorted by federal police.
Juan Carlos, her 41-year-old son, was attacked by an unknown gunman six months ago while organising another search party. He managed to escape by jumping over a wall.
Members of the Brigade concentrate their search
Herrera joined her first search party in 2016, in Veracruz, and has since become an expert, learning the trade from forensic anthropologists – things like how to hammer metal rods into the ground in a T to release any smells of decaying flesh.
Her latest group found seven bodies during its two-week search. Others like it have found many more.
Officials say there are probably more than 1,000 unmarked burial sites in Mexico.
“Unfortunately, the country has become a giant clandestine grave,” Mexico’s under-secretary for human rights, Alejandro Encinas, said recently.
Forensic personnel of the Mexican attorney general work in the exhumation of human remains found by the fourth National Search Brigade in Huitzuco de los Figueroa
On top of that, there are about 26,000 unidentified bodies in the forensic system, according to the government of the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office in December.
His government recently announced a new plan to search for the missing, including a new forensic institute.
Identifying the bodies languishing in the system would be a good start, said Herrera.
“We’ll keep looking. But please, for the love of God, let them identify the ones we’ve already found,” she said. | {
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To instruct your neighbor is the same things as reproving him. Do not do your own will; you need rather to humble yourself before your brother. —-Abba Poeman
The concept of being a good neighbor is addressed in all sorts of literature. The ringing sound of these two quotes from Abba Poeman is to practice humility and selflessness with our neighbors. We are trained from a very early age to take care of ourselves and those who are dependent on us. Even the Bible tells us that a man who does not care for his family is worthless. In accomplishing these lofty goals, we sometimes neglect our relationships with others. At times we see ourselves as superior to those around us and feel the need to correct them.
The Abba’s words and the words of Jesus take us in a slightly different direction. Bible words like “go the second mile and loving my neighbor as myself” provide a different model. They serve to remind us that our lives are bigger than just doing what is best for me and mine, but find their true meaning when we are mindful of others. | {
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By Jason Ganz on February 26, 2015
Tags: GoCanvas Marketing
Editor's update: The contest ended Friday, March 27th, at 11:59 PM. We'll be picking winners Tuesday, March 31st.
What does 49 minutes mean to your business? For Pebble, makers of the Pebble smartwatch, it means $1 million. At least it did on this Tuesday, when the company launched the Kickstarter for its new smartwatch, the Pebble Time. Over the next day, the company raised over $9 million, shattering all records for the first day of Kickstarter campaigns.
So why are so many people excited about the new Pebble Time? From the awesome now color e-ink screen to the improved time notification system that intelligently manages your alerts, the new Pebble looks like an incredible pickup both for smartwatch first-timers and enthusiasts alike.
While smartwatches have traditionally been thought of as consumer devices, they have serious potential in the enterprise world as well. Want some examples? We’ve come up with 5 scenarios* where having a smartwatch might improve your business.
The Pebble Steel
Check them out below – but if you already know you want a smartwatch and you can’t justify the purchase right now, we’ve got a solution for you.
Just Tweet this blog post link, with the hashtag #WinAPebble to be entered into a contest to win one of three Pebble Times.
1. Respond to emergencies with up to date information
Scenario: You’re a first responder entering into a burning house. You were told that there were three people inside who need rescuing. You’re frantically searching for them. Then you feel it – three quick pulses of vibration on your wrist. The all clear signal, meaning everyone is safe. Relieved, you head towards the exit.
One of the most exciting applications for smartphones is in dangerous, rough and time sensitive jobs. Last month, Pebble announced a partnership with first-responder software maker, Commandware. The integration will allow first responders to use the smartwatch messaging capabilities, as well as using vibration alerts to let inform them of truly crucial information that can’t be missed. The deal will help firefighter and paramedics get access to smart watches to help keep them informed but not distracted.
2. It is Uber convenient to take a Lyft to your next destination
Scenario: You have a meeting ending at 11:30 and another one starting at noon. With a half hour car trip in between, waiting until your 11:30 to call your ride will make you late. But pulling out your phone in the middle of a discussion would be rude. Without missing a beat, your order a car from your watch while keeping your meeting undisturbed.
Using transportation apps is already very convenient, but there are some times when you need a ride and just can’t pull out your phone to order a car. In the past you’d be torn between disrupting a conversation and losing time. With Pebble Time, you won’t have to.
3. Be the first to know about safety incidents
Scenario: You are a field safety technician on an oil rig. You aren’t on shift, but you are always on alert. Suddenly, you get an alert. Incoming Dispatch – incident report. Something has gone wrong and now you’ve got fix it. Fast.
The current GoCanvas integration with Pebble elegantly shown off by GoCanvas CEO James Quigley (note that this is the original Pebble, not the updated Pebble time)
There are many industries where the crucial minutes after an incident can make a world of difference. Though we often have our phones on us, we all go an hour or two without checking our sometimes.
With GoCanvas Dispatch, you can send your crucial business processes straight to your field workers. They won’t have to check their phones to be notified of the business apps waiting for them to complete – they’ll get them within moments of sending the dispatch.
Setting up GoCanvas Dispatch notifications to work with Pebble is a breeze and a great way to integrate your smartwatch into your business.
4. Get approval on the fly to speed up your decision-making
Scenario: You are the shift supervisor at a manufacturing plant. Your employees send you their equipment inspection through GoCanvas. You want to be able to approve or reject these on the fly. Using your smart watch, you can do this all from your wrist.
Approval based workflows are the center of many crucial business applications. Oftentimes, waiting an approval can be holding back other important processes. While you want to make sure you’re giving each approval a thorough examination, real time access to these documents allows you to see them faster and help your organization to keep running smoothly.
5. Order a pizza with your smartwatch
Scenario: You don’t need a scenario for this. It’s always a good time for pizza.
It is a universally accepted that everyone loves pizza. Far less exciting is the act of picking up your phone and dialing in an order or entering it in an app. Especially employees working a long night unexpectedly at the office.
But soon – you won’t have to. Dominoes recently released an app that allows you to track a pizza on your smartwatch. Immediate pizza ordering is the logical next step.
The ability to order a pizza at the single press of a button, immediately is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
If you want to start sharing information, travelling and ordering pizzas in style with a new Pebble Time, share this blog post with the hashtag #WinAPebble before the end of the Pebble Time Kickstarter next month.
May the odds be ever in your favor
*Not all of the applications listed for the smart phones are available yet. But they are all totally technically feasible on the Pebble Time and there is reason to believe they might be available soon.
#WinAPebble Rules
1. OFFICIAL RULES. The following are the official rules (“Rules”) for the #WinAPebble Promotion (“Promotion”). In order to enter the Promotion, you must agree to these Rules. You agree that submission of an entry form and/or participation in the Promotion constitutes your agreement to these Rules.
NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. ALL FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS APPLY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW.
2. SPONSOR. The Promotion is sponsored by GoCanvas. (“Sponsor”), a Virginia-based corporation with its principal place of business at 11911 Freedom Drive, Suite 8500, Reston, VA 8 20190.
3. ENTRY & ELIGIBILITY. To enter the Promotion, follow the directions on the #WinAPebble Promotion page located at (“the Promotion Website”). There is one way to enter:
a. Twitter entry. To enter the Promotion through Twitter, participants must follow the rules on the Promotion Page, including tweeting a message with #WinAPebble during the Promotion Period.
Limit one entry per person per day through Twitter. All entries must be received by the end of the Promotion Period in order to participate. The Promotion Website’s database clock will be the official time keeper for the Promotion.
Entries that are lost, late, incomplete, misdirected or altered for any reason, including hardware, software, browser or network failure, malfunction, congestion, or incompatibility will be ineligible.
Only legal residents of the fifty (50) United States who are 18 years of age or older may enter and participate in the Promotion, except employees, agents, or representatives of the Sponsor or any of its subsidiaries, or members of their immediate family.
4. WINNER SELECTION. After the Promotion Period, Sponsor will conduct a random drawing using randomization methods selected by Sponsor, in its sole and absolute discretion, and select three (3) winners from Twitter Entry. All decisions of Sponsor on all matters relating to this Sweepstakes, including, without limitation, related to its selection and determination of the winners of this Sweepstakes shall be final and binding and not subject to challenge or appeal. The potential winners will be notified by phone, e-mail or otherwise as Sponsor may determine using the contact information provided at the time of entry. Winners must respond and claim their prize by April 7th 2015 at 5pm Eastern Standard Time. If winners aren’t able to be contact by Sponsor by then, the Prize may, in Sponsor’s sole and absolute discretion, be forfeited and/or awarded to an alternate winner.
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a. Grand Prize. Subject to verification of eligibility and compliance with these Official Rules, three (3) Grand Prize winners will receive a prize that includes: Pebble Time. The total approximate retail value (ARV) of the Grand Prize is $160. The odds of winning will depend on the number of eligible Entries received during the applicable Promotional Period. Taxes related to this prize, if any, are the sole responsibility of the Winner.
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In no event shall Sponsor be liable to a winner or entrant for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages of any kind, whether in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, statutory or any other theory of liability arising from or related to the Promotion, or any aspect of winner’s or entrant’s participation in or termination from the Promotion as provided herein, even if Sponsor has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall Sponsor be liable to a winner or entrant for any amount with respect to winner’s or entrant’s participation in or disqualification from the Promotion, or from the termination or cancellation of the Promotion. To the extent permitted by law, the rights to litigate, seek injunctive relief or to any other recourse to judicial or any other procedure in case of disputes or claims resulting from or related to the Promotion are hereby excluded, and you expressly waive any and all such rights.
If any section, provision, term or clause shall be held or found to be unenforceable or invalid by a court decision, statute, rule or otherwise, the remaining provisions shall not be affected thereby and shall continue in full force and effect and such provision may be modified or severed from these Rules to the extent necessary to make such provision enforceable and consistent with the remainder of these Rules. | {
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FLORENCE, Ky. (AP) – The young man accused of plowing a car into a crowd of people protesting a white supremacist rally was fascinated with Nazism, idolized Adolf Hitler, and had been singled out by school officials in the 9th grade for his “deeply held, radical” convictions on race, a former high school teacher said Sunday.
James Alex Fields Jr. also confided that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was younger and had been prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, Derek Weimer said in an interview with The Associated Press.
In high school, Fields was an “average” student, but with a keen interest in military history, Hitler, and Nazi Germany, said Weimer, who said he was Fields’ social studies teacher at Randall K. Cooper high school in Union, Kentucky, in Fields’ junior and senior years.
“Once you talked to James for a while, you would start to see that sympathy towards Nazism, that idolization of Hitler, that belief in white supremacy,” Weimer said. “It would start to creep out.”
RELATED: Family, friends mourn 3 dead in Virginia rally violence
Police charged Fields with second-degree murder and other counts for allegedly driving his silver Dodge Challenger through a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, killing a 32-year-old woman and wounding at least 19 other people. A Virginia State Police helicopter deployed in a large-scale police response to the violence then crashed into the woods outside of town and both troopers on board died.
The 20-year-old Fields had been photographed hours earlier carrying the emblem of Vanguard America, one of the hate groups that organized the “take America back” campaign in protest of the removal of a Confederate statue. The group on Sunday denied any association with the suspect, even as a separate hate group that organized Saturday’s rally pledged on social media to organize future events that would be “bigger than Charlottesville.”
The mayor of Charlottesville, political leaders of all political stripes, and activists and community organizers around the country planned rallies, vigils and education campaigns to combat the hate groups. They also urged President Donald Trump to forcefully denounce the organizations, some of which specifically cited Trump’s election after a campaign of racially charged rhetoric as validation of their beliefs. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced late Saturday that federal authorities would pursue a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Weimer recalled that school officials had singled out Fields when he was in 9th grade for his political beliefs and “deeply held, radical” convictions on race and Nazism.
“It was a known issue,” he said.
Weimer said Fields left school for a while, and when he came back he was quieter about politics until his senior year, when politicians started to declare their candidacy for the 2016 presidential race. Weimer said Fields was a big Trump supporter because of what he believed to be Trump’s views on race. Trump’s proposal to build a border wall with Mexico was particularly appealing to Fields, Weimer said. Fields also admired the Confederacy for its military prowess, he said, though they never spoke about slavery.
As a senior, Fields wanted to join the army, and Weimer, a former officer in the Ohio National Guard, guided him through the process of applying, he said, believing that the military would expose Fields to people of different races and backgrounds and help him dispel his white supremacist views. But Fields was ultimately turned down, which was a big blow, Weimer said. Weimer said he lost contact with Fields after he graduated and was surprised to hear reports that Fields had enlisted in the army.
RELATED: Protests, vigils around US decry white supremacist rally
“The Army can confirm that James Alex Fields reported for basic military training in August of 2015, said Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson. “He was, however, released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015,” she said.
Fields’ mother, Samantha Bloom, told the AP late Saturday that she knew her son was going to Virginia for a political rally, but she had no idea it involved white supremacists.
“I just told him to be careful,” she said, adding she warned him that if there were protests “to make sure he’s doing it peacefully.”
“I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump’s not a white supremacist,” said Bloom, speaking from the condominium in Maumee, Ohio, where she had lived with her son until he moved out a few months ago.
In a photo taken by the New York Daily News, Fields was shown standing Saturday with a half-dozen other men, all wearing the Vanguard America uniform of khakis and white polo shirts. The men held white shields with Vanguard America’s black-and-white logo of two crossed axes. The Confederate statue of Robert E. Lee was in the background.
The Daily News said the photo was taken about 10:30 a.m. Saturday just hours before authorities say Fields crashed his car into the crowd at 1:42 p.m. The Anti-Defamation League says Vanguard America believes the U.S. is an exclusively white nation, and uses propaganda to recruit young white men online and on college campuses.
In a Twitter post, the group said it had handed out the shields “to anyone in attendance who wanted them,” and denied Fields was a member. “All our members are safe an (sic) accounted for, with no arrests or charges.”
In blog posts after the violence, the Daily Stormer, a leading white nationalist website that promoted the Charlottesville event, pledged to hold more events “soon.”
“We are going to start doing this nonstop,” the post said. “We are going to go bigger than Charlottesville. We are going to go huge.”
RELATED: Crowds gather on Boston Common to protest Charlottesville violence
Saturday’s chaos erupted as neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white supremacist groups arrived for the rally. Counter-protesters were also on hand, and the two sides clashed, with people throwing punches, hurling water bottles and unleashing chemical sprays. Officials have not provided a crowd estimate but it appeared to number well over 1,000.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, police in riot gear ordered people out of the streets, and helicopters circled overhead. Then, as the counter-protesters marched a few blocks from the statue, the Dodge Challenger tore into the crowd, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer as she was crossing the street.
Hours later, the helicopter crashed, killing two state police troopers, Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Berke M.M. Bates, one day shy of his 41st birthday.
Trump criticized the violence in a tweet Saturday, followed by a news conference and a call for “a swift restoration of law and order.”
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides,” he said.
The “on many sides” ending of his statement drew the ire of his critics, who said he failed to specifically denounce white supremacy and equated those who came to protest racism with the white supremacists.
Trump “needs to come out stronger” against the actions of white supremacists, McAuliffe told reporters at the First Baptist Church in Charlottesville on Sunday. “They are Nazis and they are here to hurt American citizens, and he needs to call them out for what they are, no question.
(Copyright (c) 2020 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) | {
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The inventor of the guillotine Really got ahead in life.
776 shares | {
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Disgruntled: Glory veteran Jacob Burns was nonplussed when left on the bench for last weekend's match in favour of Edwards' son, Ryan. Credit:Getty Images Edwards was sacked on Tuesday night after the anger of senior players over a number of decisions taken by the coach – a former Socceroo and Perth player – came to a head. Not the least of those was the coach’s decision to sign his two boys, Ryan and Cameron. The former, aged 20, is on a season long-loan from English championship side Reading. He was a member of Australia’s under-20 team at the under-20 World Cup. Edwards snr had been part of the national team coaching staff for two years before he took the Glory job following the sacking of Ian Ferguson and his assistant Stuart Munro in February. Cameron Edwards is 18 months older than his sibling. Like Ryan, he too went to Reading – when they were in the English Premier League – but he was released by the club in May last year. Cameron went to Melbourne Heart and spent last season with the Victorian club’s youth team, but did not play any first-team games. He, too, was signed by his father a couple of months after Edwards senior took over at the Glory.
Now there is nothing intrinsically wrong with a father signing his son. But the player has to be worth his place. Nobody complained when Jason Culina (subsequently a regular with PSV Eindhoven and a Socceroos stalwart for six years) was a teenage prodigy helping Sydney United to National Soccer League success under the coaching of his father, Branko. There will always be issues of perception; unless the player is a standout. And, on what we have seen so far, neither of the Edwards lads are standouts, although anyone who represents their country at junior level and gets signed up by a then-Premier League club clearly has something going for them. But unless they come to the club at which their father is the boss and immediately make a difference, the finger is likely to get pointed – particularly if results have not been good or there is disquiet among the senior players. Edwards snr is a calm, well-spoken man who has also forged a career outside football, having won election to the City of Cockburn Council in Perth between 2002 and 2006. Unusually for a footballer, he also has a degree, having completed an MBA at Perth’s Edith Cowan University. He is widely regarded as thoughtful and analytical, so it is hard to believe he would not have anticipated the sort of problems caused by signing his two boys. Certainly the decline of his relationship with club captain and Jacob Burns, which was shot to pieces after the Glory stalwart was left on the bench for the Victory match in favour of Edwards’s sons, was a significant contributing factor in his sacking.
Loading Burns is a tough, combative, no-nonsense individual who calls a spade a spade. He has a great playing pedigree. He spent three years at Leeds when the club was challenging for the Premier League title and made 11 appearances for the national side. Now 35, Burns’ future is behind him, but he and his senior colleagues still feel he can make a major contribution and lend leadership and drive to a team which is being rebuilt – he is, after all, a player who was awarded the Marston Medal for best afield in a grand final only 20 months ago. Burns and Edwards fell out spectacularly. According to witnesses, Burns was shouting to anyone who would listen on Friday night – as he trooped away an unused substitute after Glory’s loss – that ‘‘the only way I will get a game in this team is if I change my name to Edwards’’. Edwards may have learnt a valuable lesson: that, unless you are successful or your sons are key players, signing them can be more trouble than it’s worth. | {
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Americans who spend more of their day using their strengths to do what they do best are less likely to be stressed, worried, and sad. For example, more than half of those who say they only used their strengths for three hours or less the day before the survey reported feeling stressed compared with 36% of those who reported using their strengths for 10 hours or more. | {
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The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is barrelling ahead with its planned highway expansion of SR-167 and SR-509 where I-5 meets Fife. The project would add five miles of new highways, four new interchanges, reconstruct local roads, and improve a regional trail as part of the nearly $3 billion Puget Sound Gateway boondoggle. Setting aside the agency’s misleading claims that the project is necessary for regional freight mobility and not simply about accommodating far-flung suburban sprawl and ignoring the loss of farmland and impacts to critical areas and the Puyallup Tribe’s reservation, the proposed project design creates serious safety and mobility concerns that must be addressed.
The worst design element is the proposed Single Point Urban Interchange (SPUI) at N Meridian Ave. These types of interchanges are widely known to be incredibly unsafe for non-motorists, which is perhaps why WSDOT neglects to mention safety in respect to the design. Another problematic aspect to the proposed interchange is that it would inherently discourage walking and biking.
SPUIs by their design create a single point of traffic control, which is supposed to allow for efficient traffic movement. The typical SPUI has bidirectional traffic cross above or below a highway horizontally. Right-turning traffic is directed on or off an interchange while left-turning traffic proceeds through the single traffic signal.
Pedestrians and bicyclists lose out in this configuration for differing reasons. Pedestrians must cross three to four intersections, two of which that typically have fast moving vehicles making right-hand turns on and off the highway. Bicyclists are required to either join the same fate as pedestrians or risk the general flow of traffic in normal lanes. It is often difficult for bicyclists to fully pass through the long expanse of the traffic controlled intersection. State transportation officials guess that bicyclists will join pedestrians hopping one island to the next.
In the case of N Meridian Ave, the street is a critically important connection across the Puyallup River. It threads together the communities of Edgewood, Fife, and Puyallup. A SPUI would force pedestrians and most bicyclists to use alternative crossings further east and west, the nearest being Milwaukee Ave E several blocks away. That should not considered sufficient, however, when there are so few river and highway crossings to begin with. WSDOT should be creating more safe facilities for all users of the road, not further degrading options.
In an earlier phase of the planning process, WSDOT had proposed somewhat less concerning designs, but still over-engineered solutions for the interchange. A variety of options were under consideration, such as a half diamond interchange, to move traffic flows on and off SR-167. Under that proposal, highway motorists would be able to continue using SR-167 east of N Meridian Ave, but would not be able to use the interchange to reach I-5 or SR-509. Instead, motorists would need to use the Valley Ave interchange to access those highways. However, the most recent interchange design suggests that concept went out of the window in favor of a full SPUI offering connectivity in both directions.
The project is still early in the planning process though with ample time to revise the interchange design approach before groundbreaking in 2025. WSDOT needs to go back to the drawing board on the interchange to safeguard non-motorists and encourage general mobility. SPUIs–and Diverging Diamond Interchanges for that matter–should never be used where people are expected to walk and bike. They stifle mobility and guarantee road injuries and deaths, which is contrary to the principles of Vision Zero that WSDOT purports to subscribe to.
We hope you loved this article. If so, please consider subscribing or donating. The Urbanist is a non-profit that depends on donations from readers like you.
Ryan Packer Ryan Packer lives in the Summit Slope neighborhood of Capitol Hill & has been writing for the blog since 2015. He reports on multimodal transportation issues, #visionzero, preservation, and local politics. He believes in using Seattle's history to help attain the vibrant, diverse city that we all wish to inhabit. | {
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