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Ein Bewohner der Erstaufnahmestelle Ellwangen ist nach dem Polizei-Großeinsatz vom 3. Mai 2018 zu sechs Monaten Haft ohne Bewährung verurteilt worden. Am gestrigen Dienstag wurde das Urteil vor dem Amtsgericht Ellwangen gesprochen.
Nach dem Protest mehrere Bewohner der LEA Ellwangen gegen die Abschiebung eines Mitbewohners war die Polizei am 3. Mai frühmorgens mit einem Großaufgebot zurückgekehrt und hatte mehrere Personen festgenommen. Dabei drang die Polizei gewaltsam und überfallartig in mehrere Zimmer gleichzeitig ein. Nun finden Verhandlungen vor dem Amtsgericht Ellwangen statt; allerdings nicht gegen die verantwortlichen Polizisten, sondern gegen Bewohner der LEA.
Der erste Angeklagte, Manadou B., wurde nach übereinstimmenden Zeugenaussagenaus dem Schlaf gerissen, als zwei Polizisten ins Zimmer eindrangen und ihm die Decke wegzogen. Unwidersprochen blieb auch, dass ein Polizist ihn am Arm aus dem Bett zog, obwohl er auf dem oberen Bett eines Stockbetts lag – also offenbar aus erheblicher Höhe. Manadou B. soll einem Polizisten auf den Helm 2-3 mal auf den geschlagen und sich sonst „gesperrt“ bzw. in Panik herumgezappelt haben. Die beiden anwesenden Polizisten gaben selbst an, nicht verletzt worden zu sein. Ein hinzugeilter dritter gab eine leichte Prellung am Ellbogen an, von der er selbst nicht wisse, wie sie entstanden sei. Dennoch reichte dies dem Gericht aus, Manadou B. wegen tätlichen Angriffs auf als solche erkennbare Polizeibeamte, darunter des „zielgerichteten“ Angriffs auf den Helm des einen Polizisten, zu sechs Monaten ohne Bewährung zu verurteilen.
Den Schrecken und die Angst, die der Polizeigroßeinsatz verbreitete hatte, die Provokation von Panikreaktionen sowie die Frage nach der Berechtigung der Festnahme von Manadou B. Und des Einsatzes insgesamt berücksichtigte das Gericht offenbar nicht. | {
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Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (blue) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (red), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Md. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/Handout via Reuters)
When writing the thriller a few years ago, I researched a bit on Turkmenistan, perhaps one of the few regimes and countries in the world that can make North Korea look sane, honest, and well-run. It has become quite stylish to complain that the United States government is handling the coronavirus worse than any other country in the world. (As discussed in today’s Morning Jolt, even the East Asian countries that are handling it well with draconian social monitoring are still facing a growing number of cases.)
No, dear readers, the government that is handling the coronavirus worse than any other country in the world is Turkmenistan, and if the reports out of that country are right, it isn’t even close:
The Central Asian country of Turkmenistan claims it has no coronavirus cases. But if you happen to utter the word “coronavirus” while waiting, say, for the bus in the white-marbled capital Ashgabat, there’s a good chance you’ll be arrested. That’s because the Turkmen government, run since 2006 by the flamboyant dentist-rapper strongman Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has reportedly banned the word, according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Citing reports from Chronicles of Turkmenistan, which RSF describes as a rare independent media outlet in this notoriously secretive and restrictive country, the press freedom organization says Berdymukhamedov’s government has forbidden state-controlled media from writing or uttering the word and has ordered its removal from health brochures distributed at hospitals, schools and workplaces.
Those of us outside Turkmenistan can’t do much about the wildly closed, authoritarian, and isolated country, other than be thankful that we don’t live there. But this extreme example demonstrates a point that is all too easily forgotten in discussions about how countries are responding to the threat of the coronavirus. Leaders in free societies can lie; more often they spin, exaggerate, fudge numbers, make rosy projections, and downplay bad news. And thankfully often in free societies, their lies are exposed, and those leaders suffer the consequences of those lies.
In dictatorships and authoritarian countries, those lies are rarely quickly or widely exposed, and those lies can have much more dire consequences. If the coronavirus gets into Turkmenistan — there are few countries that get fewer tourists or international travelers than the Central Asian dictatorship — the population is toast. They won’t be informed, they won’t be warned, and they won’t be prepared.
Right now, the Chinese government is almost certainly lying about the total number of cases, the total number of deaths, the rate of spread, and almost everything else it is saying about the coronavirus. We should not let them or anyone else convince us that closed societies are somehow better equipped to handle a viral pandemic. Authoritarian countries rarely solve problems; they only replace them with new problems — and when it comes to the worst problems, they usually exacerbate them. | {
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Australian jockey Caboche suspended for punching horse Published duration 9 November 2017
image copyright SEVEN NEWS image caption Dylan Caboche struck his horse, She's Reneldasgirl, in the ribs
A jockey has been suspended for punching his horse before a race in South Australia.
Video of the incident shows Dylan Caboche, 22, mounted on the horse, She's Reneldasgirl, and struggling to guide it to the starting gates.
He then dismounts and hits the horse in the ribs.
Racing authorities handed the apprentice jockey a two-week suspension for misconduct over the incident in Port Lincoln on Wednesday.
Thoroughbred Racing South Australia said it "does not condone and will not tolerate such behaviour".
"It is hoped this penalty - which will remain on the rider's record and will impact his earning ability - will send a strong signal to others," it said in a statement.
However animal welfare groups have criticised the length of the penalty.
"Two weeks suspension. We're meant to believe this is an industry that takes animal welfare seriously," Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses wrote on Facebook.
Concerns about animal rights were also raised this week following Australia's premier horse race, the Melbourne Cup. One horse had to be put down after falling in a separate race at the event.
In September, jockey Davy Russell was given a four-day ban after punching a horse on the back of the head before a race at Tramore in Ireland.
Related Topics Australia
Animal welfare | {
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Mike Pompeo calls for 'restraint' after Pakistan shoots down Indian fighter jets amid rising tensions in Kashmir Tensions continue to rise between the two nuclear powers.
LONDON -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for "restraint" after two Indian jets flying in Pakistani territory were shot down Wednesday morning by the Pakistani military. Tensions continue to rise between the two nuclear powers over the disputed region of Kashmir.
After speaking to both the Indian and Pakistani ministers for foreign affairs earlier in the day, Pompeo said in a statement that he "expressed to both ministers that we encourage India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, and avoid escalation at any cost.”
Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor, a spokesman for Pakistan's military, confirmed on Twitter that Pakistan Air Force's shot down the jets.
One of the aircraft fell inside Pakistani territory and the other was grounded in Indian-controlled territory, Ghafoor said. One Indian pilot was arrested and taken into custody and is "being treated as per norms of military ethics," the military spokesman said.
The Indian aircraft entered Pakistani airspace after the Pakistan Air Force undertook “strikes” across the Line of Control, the border between Pakistani and Indian-controlled Kashmir, according to the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These airstrikes were launched against "non-military" targets, which were mostly empty areas, Asad Ali, a senior analyst for IHS Markit, told ABC News.
Mohammad Faisal of the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on Twitter that the “sole purpose of this action was to demonstrate our right, will and capability for self defence.”
Pakistan’s ministry of information also released a video which appears to show the downed jets and a number of military personnel on the scene.
Conflicting reports
The escalation in tensions comes after the Indian Air Force said it carried out an airstrike on Jaish-e Mohammad militants in Pakistani territory this week. The Indian government has blamed the militant group for a suicide bomb attack that killed 40 Indian security personnel in Kashmir on Feb. 14. India has accused Pakistan of harboring the militant group, a claim Pakistan denies.
In a meeting with the foreign ministers of Russia and China, India's external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, said the airstrike on Monday was carried out “in the light of continuing refusal of Pakistan to acknowledge and act against terror groups on its territory.”
“The Pakistan Air Force was detected and the Indian Air Force responded instantly,” the Indian government said in a statement. “In that aerial engagement, one Pakistan Air Force fighter aircraft was shot down by a MiG 21 Bison of the Indian Air Force. The Pakistani aircraft was seen by ground forces falling from the sky on Pakistan side. In this engagement, we have unfortunately lost one MiG 21. The pilot is missing in action. Pakistan has claimed that he is in their custody. We are ascertaining the facts.”
The conflict between the two sides is characterized by contradictory official reports. On Tuesday, India claimed it had killed a “very large number” of Jaish e-Mohamed militants while the Pakistani military spokesperson said there were no casualties and the jets were successfully scrambled.
“This kind of misinformation, backed up by each country’s noisy media, is a useful strategy that allows both sides to claim victory,” Elizabeth Chatterjee, a lecturer in regional and comparative politics at Queen Mary University in London, told ABC News.
This is the first aerial battle between the two nations since their war of 1971. Since then both Pakistan and India have become nuclear powers.
Pakistan's minister of finance, Asad Umar, accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "a mad attempt to pitch two nuclear nations in a conflict."
"I hope there are no questions left about Pakistan's capability and will to defend itself now," he posted on Twitter. "Hope the sane voices in India will be able to stop narendra modi's mad attempt to pitch two nuclear nations in a conflict that no sane person can want." | {
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Johnson helps No. 11 UNC put away No. 22 UCLA
Brice Johnson scored 27 points, the second straight game he set his career high, and No. 11 North Carolina overcame a horrible game from beyond the 3-point arc to beat No. 22 UCLA 89-76. | {
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared a genetically modified strain of rice to be commercially viable, but the Chinese researchers who developed it say large-scale production is not yet possible due to a lack of policy at home.
In a Jan. 11 email to Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province, the FDA said that Huahui No. 1, a strain of rice genetically engineered by scientists at the university to resist pests, “does not raise issues that would require premarket review of approval by the FDA,” according to a Monday report by state media outlet Science and Technology Daily. The FDA’s announcement was also published on its official website.
To the researchers, this a huge step — but only in theory. “It means that we could now sell this strain of rice on the U.S. market,” Lin Yongjun, a member of the Huazhong Agricultural University research team, told Sixth Tone. But Lin explained that for now at least, the plants cannot be sold to the U.S. because production is impossible in China.
As the world’s largest producer and consumer of rice, China encourages experimentation and innovation when it comes to developing hybrid varieties but blocks commercialization of genetically modified strains. According to Lin, the point of applying for recognition from the FDA is to encourage regulators in China to reconsider policy.
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A surface-to-air missile shot down a U.S. military drone in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official told NBC News Thursday morning.
The U.S. official said a US RQ-4 Global Hawk drone was shot down in international airspace above the Strait of Hormuz. It was not in Iranian airspace. The official said they consider this to be an unprovoked attack.
The recently appointed chief of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General Hossein Salami, told Iranian state TV that the downing was “a clear message” to Washington.
Read more
Footage of what appears to be an Iranian ship approaching an oil tanker in the middle of the night may be just another layer of a Deep State False flag operation against Iran.
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By Anthony Salvanto, Jennifer De Pinto, Kabir Khanna, Fred Backus and Jennie Kamin
Florida
Tight contests dominate the Senate landscape: In Florida, incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott are tied among likely voters, 46 percent to 46 percent including those who have cast ballots already. Scott, the sitting governor, gets positive marks from voters on his handling of the recent hurricane and benefits from Republicans reporting that they're more likely to vote than the Democrats who haven't already.
Nelson's support, meanwhile, is underpinned by voters who place health care atop their issues list. The Republicans have a favorable map in their effort to hold their Senate majority, and winning two or three of these states would probably put them in strong position to hold it. Democrats would probably need wins in all three to have a good shot at taking the Senate.
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Arizona
Health care concerns have helped Democrat Kyrsten Sinema to a slight three-point advantage over Republican Martha McSally, 47 percent to 44 percent. Sinema does well with voters who say health care is a very important concern and is also helped by nine percent of Republicans who say they're backing her — it's hardly an overwhelming number, but it could be essential for a Democrat in a Republican-leaning state like Arizona.
Indiana
But Republican chances of holding on to their Senate majority – or even adding to it – are helped by the prospect of picking up a seat in Indiana, where Republican Mike Braun leads incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly, 46 percent to 43 percent. In Indiana, where many voters say that agriculture plays a role in their economy, three-quarters of Republicans feel that new tariffs will ultimately lead to better trade deals for the U.S.
President Trump appears to be a large factor in these states. In all of them, large majorities say their vote for Senate will be either to support or oppose the president.
The issues
Most voters in all three states rate health care as a very important issue. In particular, views on what could happen to coverage of pre-existing conditions is strongly linked to vote choice. As has long been the case nationally, voters in these states think insurance companies should be required to cover pre-existing issues.
In all these states, big majorities of voters think the Democrats would force that requirement. Also, more think the Republicans would let insurance companies charge more or end requirement than force the requirement. Views of which party is better on Medicare, generally, are strongly correlated with vote.
In a heavily partisan election environment, voters have sharply different views of the groups each party represents. Partisans on each side believe the other party is representing people of fundamentally different culture and values – not simply representing those with policy differences.
Republicans are more likely to be seen as putting interests of wealthy and corporations ahead of working people. Democrats are seen as only mixed in this regard. Democrats are seen, especially by Republicans, as prioritizing the interests of recent immigrants over those of longer-term residents and citizens.
The CBS News 2018 Battleground Tracker is conducted by YouGov, an online polling company. The margin of error in Arizona is 4.1; in Indiana is 3.7; in Florida is 4. The respondents were selected to be representative of likely voters in terms of age, race, gender, and education. The polls were fielded between October 23–26, 2018.
Toplines:
Arizona, Florida, Indiana
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Pictures: New Horned Viper Found in "Secret" Spot
A big, "beautiful" snake with olive-green eyes has been discovered in a remote forest in Tanzania, scientists say. | {
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Confession Bear
since in my head i already won a billion on the powerball
rating every family and friends as to how much i'd share. | {
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18-time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova chimed in on Roger Federer’s shocking Day 5 upset, saying that the Swiss maestro could have used a longer off-season.
More: Federer Vanquished by Italian Seppi on Day 5
Federer, who won his first career Davis Cup in late November before heading for India to take part in the Inaugural IPTL season, started 2015 with six consecutive victories, including the Brisbane title. But he fell on Friday to Italian Andreas Seppi in four sets, snapping his run of eleven consecutive trips to the Australian Open semifinals.
“You have to think that a lack of an off-season had something to do with it,” Navratilova said. “He had to be low on reserves coming into the tournament. As healthy as he was, playing great tennis, the Brisbane match that he beat Raonic in the finals took a lot out of him as well.
“But Davis Cup, and he played the IPTL, traveling all over the place and he had a week of exhibitions in Switzerland, it’s just too much and when you get older it gets hard.”
Navratilova isn’t surprised that Federer is more prone to the occasional off day, but despite the fact that he’ll be 34 by the last major of the year, the Czech legend still--after much unpleasant on-air deliberation--says she thinks he’ll take No. 18 home before he hangs up the stick for good.
“Can he [win a Slam]? Yes. Will he? The problem is when you get older," she said, "it’s not that you’re not consistent enough, it’s when you are a little off you’re more off. You can still win matches like that when you’re 25, 27, but when you’re thirty something, on your bad days you lose. And you can’t afford to have that bad day.”
Then came the aformentioned deliberation, and some good-natured ribbing from her on-air colleagues. Then, finally, the answer we all wanted to hear.
“I still have to say yes he will,” said Navratilova. Then, swiftly and mercifully, the subject changed.
Posted: | {
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Georgina Haig Talks Elsa and the Frozen Storyline's Conclusion
IGN talks to the Once Upon a Time actress about what it's been like playing the beloved Disney character, as the Frozen storyline nears its end. | {
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Cross-Data Photographer Angad Singh Airline India - Air Force Version Dassault Mirage 2000TH Vajra Generic Type Dassault Mirage 2000 Basic Type Dassault Mirage 2000 Manufacturer Dassault Reg. KT212 Location Gwalior - Maharajpur Country India Date Photographed December 6, 2012 Cancel Search
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Wendy's, the restaurant where dreams come true if, in your dreams, burgers are square, has just released an image of its new logo, the first update to the chain's design in almost thirty years.
The familiar, dead-eyed, Children of the Corn-esque rendering of the chain's namesake has been re-imagined as a slightly older-looking redhead whose hair has shading, volume, and sexy body. The angle of her pigtails is less offensive to physics. While the old Wendy was fully contained within her circle, a two-dimensional prisoner cooking up hamburgers all day long for hungry adults even though she's a child, she's just a child, the new Wendy bursts forth from her circle; it literally cannot contain her.
"Heyyyy," this leaning, leering Wendy seems to say, in a voice that is surprisingly deep, "You guys want some hamburgers?"
The yellow/red/random curly-cue/weird shaped background has been cast aside in favor of an expanse of devastating nothingness.
The old font, a wild west throwback, has been swapped out for a more casual type reminiscent of handwriting, as though thoughtless Wendy forgot to have a professional sign made for her new restaurant, and just hand-wrote something herself on white computer paper the day it opened. If you look closely, you'll notice that the red of the apostrophe is a slightly different shade of red than that of the letters, and then never be able to stop noticing that.
(It's been a bad season for Old Western fonts. Earlier is month, Arby's also turned its back on its classic type, in favor of something with no capital letters—capital letters are an old man's game—and nary a serif in sight.)
The logo change is the latest gamble in the restaurant's attempts to rebrand itself as a "top-end" fast food chain.
Renovated locations will soon boast natural lighting, flatscreen televisions, and "cushy chairs in nooks." The company is reportedly considering introducing flatbreads, the fanciest and flattest of the breads, as a menu item. CEO Emil Brolick, forgetting briefly what exactly Wendy's is, explained to the Associated Press "Our goal is to be a five star restaurant at a three star price."
The new logo will begin appearing on newly built and renovated restaurants in March. Instagram images of the old one while you still have time.
[AP // Image via AP/Wendy's] | {
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump held out the possibility on Sunday of using trade as a lever to secure Chinese cooperation against North Korea and suggested Washington might deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs on its own if need be.
The North Korea flag flutters next to concertina wire at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su
The comments, in an interview published on Sunday by the Financial Times, appeared designed to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of his visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this week.
“China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone,” Trump was quoted as saying, according to an edited transcript published by the newspaper.
Asked what incentive the United States had to offer China, Trump replied: “Trade is the incentive. It is all about trade.”
Asked if he would consider a “grand bargain” in which China pressured Pyongyang in return for a guarantee the United States would later remove troops from the Korean peninsula, the newspaper quoted Trump as saying: “Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.”
It is not clear whether Trump’s comments will move China, which has taken steps to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang but has long been unwilling to do anything that may destabilize the North and send millions of refugees across their border.
It is also unclear what the United States might do on its own to deflect North Korea from the expansion of its nuclear capabilities and from the development of missiles with ever-longer ranges and the capacity to deliver atomic warheads.
NORTH KOREA REVIEW COMPLETED
Trump’s national security aides have completed a review of U.S. options to try to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs that includes economic and military measures but leans more toward sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its reclusive neighbor, a U.S. official said.
Although the option of pre-emptive military strikes on North Korea is not off the table, the review prioritizes less-risky steps and “de-emphasizes direct military action,” the official added, saying it was not immediately known if the National Security Council recommendations had made their way to Trump.
The White House declined comment on the recommendations.
Trump and Xi are also expected to discuss Chinese ambitions in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, when they meet on Thursday and Friday. China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the strategic waterway.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke on Sunday with China’s top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, about Xi’s visit “and other issues of bilateral and regional importance,” a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday about the call that Yang had described the meeting between Xi and Trump as being of “great significance” for peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large.
Tillerson told Yang that the United States would do its utmost to ensure that the meeting had “positive results,” the ministry said.
Trump’s deputy national security adviser, K.T. McFarland, said there was a “real possibility” North Korea could be capable of hitting the United States with a nuclear-armed missile by the end of Trump’s four-year term, the Financial Times reported.
McFarland’s estimate appeared more pessimistic than those of many experts.
“The typical estimates are that it will take five years or so,” said Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and a leading expert on North Korea’s nuclear program.
Such estimates are notoriously hard to make both because of the scarcity of intelligence about North Korea and uncertainty about how high a success rate Pyongyang might want for such missiles.
John Schilling, a contributor to the “38 North” North Korea monitoring project, said Pyongyang might have missiles capable of limited strikes on the U.S. mainland by the end of Trump’s term, but “it will most likely be a bit later than that.”
“I doubt that any missile they could put into service by the end of 2020 will be very reliable, but perhaps it doesn’t have to be - one or two successes out of six launches against the U.S. would be a political game-changer to say the least,” Schilling said. | {
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A Bloomberg opinion piece, of all sources, threatened the tech industry by titling the article “Google should be afraid. Very afraid”.
But has the Tech Industry gotten the message?
Replete with all of its hubris and billions flowing in from the Saudis and the Chinese, if Silicon Valley were a Country, it would be one of the richest on Earth.
It might as well be another country, it certainly holds the rights of its host Country in utter contempt which is why the Justice Department is finally doing something about it.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, “The Justice Department is gearing up for an antitrust investigation of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, a move that could present a major new layer of regulatory scrutiny for the search giant, according to people familiar with the matter.”
And REUTERS continued to analyze how the Tech Giants had rigged the game, writing, “One source said the potential investigation, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, focused on accusations that Google gave preference to its own businesses in searches. A spokesman for the Justice Department said he could not confirm or deny that an investigation was being considered. Google declined comment. Early in 2013, the FTC closed a long-running investigation of Google, giving it a slap on the wrist. Under FTC pressure, Google agreed to end the practice of “scraping” reviews and other data from rivals’ websites for its own products, and to let advertisers export data to independently assess campaigns. Google’s search, YouTube, reviews, maps and other businesses, which are largely free to consumers but financed through advertising, have catapulted it from a start-up to one of the world’s richest companies in just two decades.”
And AMAZON with its single-handed decimation of retail outlets is preparing for the worst as SF GATE reports “Amazon could face heightened antitrust scrutiny under a new agreement between U.S. regulators that puts it under closer watch by the Federal Trade Commission, three people familiar with the matter said. The move is the result of the FTC and the Department of Justice, the U.S. government’s leading antitrust enforcement agencies, quietly divvying up competition oversight of two of the country’s top tech companies, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the government’s work is confidential. The Justice Department is set to have more jurisdiction over Google, The Washington Post reported on Friday, paving the way for a potential investigation of the search-and-advertising giant.”
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Bezos’ Amazon, and Youtube’s cannibalistic algorithm are the crazed elephants in the room.
Zuckerberg’s lawyer recently argued that users have no expectation of privacy, which completely contradicts Zuckerberg’s claim that he will be making Facebook more private in the near future.
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(Reuters) - Toymaker Hasbro Inc HAS.O reported a huge profit beat despite a surprise drop in quarterly sales, with the company expected to gain this year from a strong line-up of toys linked to Marvel's movie franchises.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
The company’s shares were up 6 percent at $99.94 by midday on Wednesday, recovering from premarket losses.
The company cited softer demand of Star Wars toys for the drop in sales in the holiday quarter, with some analysts wondering if there was fatigue in the Star Wars brand.
The long gap between the release of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and Force Friday, the day it launches Star Wars toys, hurt sales, Chief Executive Brian Goldner said.
Goldner, however, looked to quell the concern by saying that the company was partnering with Walt Disney Co DIS.N to release toys closer to movie openings.
For example, Disney’s next Star Wars movie, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is slated to be in theaters in May, with toys expected to be on shelves in April.
“I thought the lineup for Marvel was among the strongest we’ve ever seen. And therefore, it really impacts the fact that I think our lineup for the year is among the strongest we’ve ever seen,” Goldner said.
Some of the Marvel releases this year include “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Black Panther”.
Profit during the quarter was boosted as sales at the company’s high-margin entertainment and licensing segment, which licenses out Hasbro characters to movie studios, more than tripled to $56.8 million.
“Profitability was better than expected despite a soft topline because of higher licensing revenue in its high margin entertainment and licensing segment,” UBS analyst Arpine Kocharyan said. “It basically saved the quarter.”
The maker of My Little Pony and Nerf guns earned $2.30 per share excluding items in its fourth quarter, beating the average analyst estimate of $1.80, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue fell 2.1 percent to $1.6 billion, while analysts had expected it to rise to $1.72 billion. Still, Hasbro ended the year with higher sales than rival Mattel MAT.O, the first time since 1993.
Net revenue from the company’s partner brands unit, which includes toys based on movie franchises, fell 21 percent to $342.9 million.
Net loss attributable to the company of $5.3 million, or 4 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, due to a $296.5 million charge related to the U.S. tax overhaul. | {
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In 2007, one Chicago family underwent a nightmare at Northwestern hospital: their newborn son’s circumcision went awry, with a doctor amputating the tip of the boy’s penis. According to a lawyer for the family, Dan Kotin, the doctor missed three safety procedures that should have been followed. According to Kotin, the boy lost “the top 40 percent of the head of his penis.”
The doctor’s attorney argued that this was a predictable complication of circumcision, to which Kotin responded, “If that were a known complication to a circumcision procedure, I suggest to you that nobody would dare have a circumcision done because it would be too risky.”
The jury awarded the family $1.3 million in damages. | {
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Sixteen teenagers have been fined a total £2,500 after they were caught fare-dodging on the Metrolink.
The passengers, all 17 and from Oldham, were taken to court or dealt with by post after failing to pay a standard fare charge.
One boy, who was caught five times, was ordered to cough up £746.
A special youth court was held at Bury Magistrates’ Court, organised by Metrolink operator RATP Dev Ltd, to clampdown on several of the ticket offenders.
The youths were fined a total of £2,629.20.
The court hearings came after Greater Manchester’s Travelsafe Unit (TSU) launched a crackdown on unpaid fines in September this year, which resulted in nine arrests for a variety of offences,
Officers from TSU have been visiting schools across the region to warn youngsters of the consequences of crime, anti-social behaviour and fare evasion on public transport.
TfGM Metrolink Director, Peter Cushing, said: “Tackling fare evasion is extremely important, particularly as it sometimes goes hand-in-hand with other types of anti-social behaviour.
“Progressing these cases to court is not a decision that has been taken lightly, but we need to challenge the mind-set among some people that it is acceptable to try and ride the tram for free, particularly those who fail to engage with us or that fail to pay if caught fare dodging.
“It is a vital responsibility of TfGM as the owner of Metrolink, Metrolink RATP Dev Ltd as the operator and the TSU to change the behaviours and attitudes of these young people now, to prevent them from committing further offences in the future and facing more severe punishments.
“Public transport is a safe way to travel in Greater Manchester but it is important that we continue to work together to help reinforce and maintain that through targeted interventions and proactive operations.”
Carla Taylor, Revenue Recovery Manager at Metrolink RATP Dev, said: “Our figures over the past 12 months show young people under the age of 18 are responsible for 20 per cent of all fare evasion. Of that amount, 64 per cent are aged between 16 and 17 which is what prompted us to tackle the issue head on among this age group.
“Taking anyone to court, especially a young person, is not a priority for us and we view it as a last resort.” | {
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Having failed to win a response with an 18-page letter to President George Bush or to a request to visit the site of the September 11 2001 attack on New York, Ahmadinejad has offered himself as an observer in next year's presidential election.
The proposal came in a speech to volunteers with the Basij, a pro-regime militia. He said he was prompted by a belief that Americans would vote against the current administration in a truly free poll.
However, the terms of Ahmadinejad's offer appeared to betray some confusion about the potential candidates.
"If the White House officials allow us to be present as an observer in their presidential election we will see whether people in their country are going to vote for them again or not," he said. The US constitution prevents Bush from seeking a third consecutive term, while no member of his administration is expected to be in the running in next November's poll.
Bush and international human rights groups voiced doubts about the legitimacy of Iran's 2005 presidential election, which brought Ahmadinejad to power. More than 1,000 potential candidates were disqualified by the guardian council, a powerful body of clerics and judges.
Some domestic critics pointed out yesterday that Ahmadinejad's idea clashed with his government's opposition to allowing independent observers at Iranian elections. The interior ministry, controlled by one of the president's most hard-line allies, has rejected pressure for party representatives to be allowed to oversee proceedings at polling stations for next March's parliamentary poll.
The election is expected to provide a major test of Ahmadinejad's popularity. Leading regime figures, including two former presidents, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, have warned against possible attempts to rig it through mass candidate disqualifications and other measures. | {
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Yesterday I got my first results encrypting and decrypting OpenPGP messages using PGPainless, my fork of bouncy-gpg. There were some interesting hurdles that I want to discuss though.
GnuPG
As a first step towards working encryption and decryption, I obviously needed to create some PGP keys for testing purposes. As a regular user of OpenPGP I knew how to create keys using the command line tool GnuPG, so I started up the key creation by typing “gpg –generate-key”. I chose the key type to be RSA with a length of 2048 bits, as those settings are also the defaults recommended by GnuPG itself. When it came to entering user id information though, things got a little more complicated. GnuPG asks for the name of the user, their email address and a comment. XEP-0373 states, that the user id packet of a PGP key MUST be of the format “xmpp:[email protected]”. My first thing to figure out was, if I should enter that String as the name, email or as a comment. I first tried with the name, upon which GnuPG complained, that neither name, nor comment is allowed to contain an email address. Logically my next step was to enter the String as the users email address. Again, GnuPG complained, this time it stated, that “xmpp:[email protected]” was not a valid Email address. So I got stuck.
Luckily I knew that Philipp Hörist was working on an experimental OX plugin for Gajim. He could hint me to a process of “Unattended Key Generation“, which reads input values from a script file. This input would not be validated by GnuPG as strictly as when using the wizard, so now I was able to successfully create my testing keys. Big thanks for the help 🙂
Update: Apparently GnuPG provides an additional flag “–allow-freeform-uid”, which does exactly that. Allowing uids of any form. Using that flag allows easy generation and editing of keys with freely chosen uids. Thanks to Wiktor from the Conversations.im chat room 🙂
Bouncy-gpg
As a next step, I wrote a little JUnit test which signs and encrypts a little piece of text, followed by decryption and signature validation. Here I came across my next problem.
Bouncy-gpg provides a class called Rfc4880KeySelectionStrategy, which is used to select keys from the users keyring following a certain strategy. In my testing code, I created two keyrings for Romeo and Juliet and added their respective public and private keys like you would do in a real life scenario. The issue I then encountered was, that when I tried to encrypt my message from Juliet for Romeos public key, I got the error, that “no suitable key was found”. How could that be? I did some more debugging and was able to verify that the keys were in fact added to the keyrings just as I intended.
To explain the cause of this issue, I have to explain in a little more depth, how the user id field is formatted in OpenPGP.
RFC4880 states, the following:
A User ID packet consists of UTF-8 text that is intended to represent the name and email address of the key holder. By convention, it includes an RFC 2822 [RFC2822] mail name-addr, but there are no restrictions on its content.
A “mail name-addr” follows this format: “Juliet Capulet (The Juliet from Shakespear’s play) <[email protected]>”.
First there is the name of the key owner, followed by a comment in parentheses, followed by the email address in angle brackets. The usage of brackets makes it unambiguous, which value is which, so all values are optional.
“<[email protected]>” would still be a valid user id for example.
So what was the problem?
The user id of my testing key looked like this: “xmpp:[email protected]”. Note that there are no angle brackets or parentheses around the text, so the string would be interpreted as name.
Bouncy-gpg’s Rfc4880KeySelectionStrategy however contained some code, which would check, whether the query the user entered to search for a key would be enclosed in angle brackets, to follow the email address format. In case it doesn’t, the code would add the angle brackets prior to executing the search. Instead of searching for “xmpp:[email protected]”, the selection strategy would look out for keys with the user id “<xmpp:[email protected]>”.
My solution to the problem was to create my own KeySelectionStrategy, which would leave the query as is, in order for it to match my keys user id. Figuring that out took me quite a while 😀
Conclusions
So what conclusions can I draw from my experiences?
First of all, I’m not sure, if it is a good idea to give the user the ability to import their own PGP keys. GnuPGs behaviour of forbidding the user to add user ids which don’t follow the mail name-addr format will make it very hard for a user to create a key with a valid user id. (Update: Users can use the flag “–allow-freeform-uid” to generate new keys and edit existing ones with unconventional uids.) Philipp Hörist suggested that implementations of XEP-0373 should instead create a key for the user on the first use and I think I aggree with him. As a logical next step I have to figure out, how to create PGP keys using Bouncycastle 😀
I hope you liked my little update post, which grew longer than I expected 😀
Happy Hacking! | {
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2 California judges who had sex in their chambers disciplined
The state's judicial disciplinary commission censured two California judges Tuesday who had sex in their courthouse chambers - one with two of his former law students and the other with a court clerk.
The actions against Orange County Judge Scott Steiner, who had intimate relations with the former law students, and Kern County Judge Cory Woodward, who misled superiors about his 10-month relationship with a court clerk, are the strongest public reprimand the Commission on Judicial Performance can wield against a judge.
But the commission stopped short of its ultimate sanction, removal from the bench. The panel said it would have recommended removing Woodward for his sexual misconduct and deception, but decided against it because he had been cooperative and remorseful and is regarded by colleagues as "respected, hardworking intelligent and conscientious."
Having sex, even consensually, in one's court chambers is "the height of irresponsible and improper behavior by a judge," and shows "an utter disrespect for the dignity and decorum of the court," the commission said.
Woodward, appointed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006 and elected to a six-year term in 2008, was unopposed for another six-year term this year.
Steiner was elected to a six-year term in 2010. Both he and Woodward are former county prosecutors.
Cooperation in probe
Attorney Paul S. Meyer, who represented both judges in separate proceedings, said both men had cooperated in the investigations and had apologized for their behavior.
The commission said Steiner had sex in his chambers in 2012 with one of his interns and with a local attorney, both of whom had been his students at Chapman University.
Around the same time, the commission said, he wrote a letter of recommendation for the intern, who was applying for a job with the district attorney's office. When she did not get called back for a second interview, Steiner telephoned a lawyer at the office and "sounded perplexed and irritated," the commission said.
Steiner disqualified himself from cases handled by the lawyer with whom he was having an affair, but violated other rules by reassigning those cases to specific judges, the commission said.
Notes and nickname
The panel said Woodward had a sexual relationship with his court clerk from approximately July 2012 through mid-May 2013, used the court computer to exchange personal messages with her, passed "notes of a sexual nature" to her during court proceedings, and allowed her to call him by a nickname in the presence of other court staff.
When the court's executive officer and supervising judge confronted Woodward in early 2013, after a complaint from the clerk's husband, the judge failed to disclose the relationship and told them there was no reason to transfer the clerk to another judge, the commission said.
She was transferred in April 2013, over Woodward's protests, and he finally revealed their relationship to the supervising judge a month later, the commission said. | {
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Step 5
Spread glue onto one side of the pink felt oval. Arrange the pink felt oval 1 inch down from the buttons, and press it into the sock to secure the glue. Spread glue onto one side of each of the black circles, and place them horizontally onto the pink oval. These will be the nostrils. Spread glue onto the asymmetrical black shapes, and arrange them onto the body of the sock. | {
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By Daniel Martinez-Krams on May 31, 2019
Taking care of business and sending a message, No. 1 Stanford (42-11, 22-7 Pac-12) rode an excellent start from sophomore RHP Brendan Beck to shut out No. 4 seed Sacramento State (39-24, 18-9 WAC) 11-0 in the opener of the NCAA Regional. The bats came alive for four home runs to ensure the Cardinal left with a crucial Game 1 victory while snapping a six game Hornets win streak.
“Great effort by Brendan on the mound — a Friday night effort that you have to have,” said Stanford head coach David Esquer. “We were able to support him with some runs and some situational hitting.”
Beck (5-3, 3.68 ERA), who faced just five over the minimum through 7.0 three-hit innings, never found himself in much trouble. When he did, help came in the form of a double play and junior catcher Maverick Handley (.294/.393/.433) catching a runner stealing.
The start was Beck’s longest since 7.1 shutout innings in a win over No. 1 UCLA (47-8, 24-5 Pac-12) and the first time he had made it through five innings in his past four starts. Beck began by working around an error in the first, but the Cardinal were unable to capitalize in the bottom half.
“He’s a guy that goes out there and is consistent,” Handley said. “He’s going to make some pitches, and it’s typical at this point.”
The Cardinal threatened Scott Randall (8-2, 2.68 ERA), but a single from sophomore outfielder Kyle Stowers (.304/.370/.513) was erased by a double play on a hit and run. Senior right fielder Brandon Wulff (.269/.388/.581) and junior DH Will Matthiessen (.323/.400/.552) looked poised to start a two-out rally after a wild pitch put both into scoring position, but a diving stop by shortstop Keith Torres stole a hit from junior first baseman Andrew Daschbach (.309/.389/.649).
“Couple early opportunities that we weren’t able to cash in, but we were able to keep the pressure on them,” Esquer said.
Two more Cardinal batters reached in the second inning, but redshirt junior second baseman Duke Kinamon (.319/.354/.497) was caught stealing, and redshirt junior third baseman Nick Bellafronto (.274/.392/.496) was left on base after his single.
“[Kinamon’s] got a pretty good carte blanche to run,” Esquer said. “We wanted to set the tone to be aggressive.”
In the third inning, Handley jump started a rally with a full count walk. After Wulff singled, both advanced on a wild pitch. Matthiessen smacked a sacrifice fly into center field to bring home the first Stanford run.
Kinamon reached on an error for the second time to leadoff the fourth, and this time he was moved over by sophomore shortstop Tim Tawa (.246/.278/.415), who reached first on a bunt. Bellafronto kept a ball fair down the left field line to score both, and he was brought home after a groundout and Stowers’ sacrifice fly. Three pitches later, Handley cleared the left field fence to extend the Cardinal lead to five. Travis Martizia relieved Randall on the mound, and struck out Wulff to begin a streak of three K’s in four at-bats.
It was the shortest start of the year for Randall at 3.2 innings, and the five runs were the most in any of his 15 starts. Of those runs, just two were earned to accompany seven hits, two walks and one strikeout.
The Cardinal flashed the leather behind Beck, beginning in the top of the third when Pac-12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year Handley caught Bronson Grubbs (.227/.336/.265) trying to steal second, his eleventh caught stealing in 27 attempts.
“The defense made it pretty easy,” Beck said. “You can fill up the zone and rely on guys to make the plays.”
In the fifth, Tawa, Kinamon and Daschbach turned a double play to end the inning. The next inning, Stowers, a Pac-12 All-Defensive Team selection, crashed into the left field wall to rob Torres of a two-run home run and preserve the shut out.
“Great catch, really ignited us, and kept us out of some trouble,” Esquer said. “Our defense has been able to do that a few times this year, to keep the momentum on our side.”
Stowers carried the momentum into the bottom half, doubling home Bellafronto after his walk. After six innings, Stanford led 6-0.
“We’re driven a little bit by our offense,” Esquer said. “At the end of last year, we cooled down right there at the end, at the wrong time.”
Parker Brahms came in for Martizia in the top of seventh inning after 2.1 innings of relief. Martizia allowed just one run on one hit, with five strikeouts and a walk.
“We’re not sitting here if not for the job of Travis Martizia and the job he’s done,” said Sacramento State head coach Reggie Christiansen.
The second pitch of Brahms’ outing was taken deep by Matthiessen, and a batter later Daschbach went back-to-back to the Varsity Turf behind left field for his first hit of the game. With the blast, Daschbach tied Wulff for the team lead and matched his home run total from a season ago.
“I think it’s the furthest I’ve seen hit here in all my years as a player, an assistant coach, and now as a head coach,” Esquer said.
In the bottom half, Beck was relieved by freshman RHP Cody Jensen (1-0, 3.64 ERA) with a final line of five strikeouts, three hits and three walks. Jensen made quick work of the Hornets in a perfect frame.
Senior center fielder Alec Wilson, who entered in the top of the frame as a defensive substitute, doubled off of Sacramento State’s arm out of the bullpen, RHP Evan Gibbons (1-2, 7.80 ERA). With one out, redshirt junior catcher Christian Molfetta pinch hit for Handley, and lined out to center field.
Wulff, however, was able to bring Wilson home with a single into left. Taking advantage of a pinch-hit opportunity, redshirt junior first baseman Nick Oar (.313/.353/.500) hit his first home run of the year for the eleventh and final run.
Jensen scattered a leadoff single in the top of the ninth inning to seal the win for the Cardinal, who were able to save the back end of their bullpen.
“Tip your cap to those guys, they were certainly better today,” Christiansen said.
One of the two junior arms, RHP Will Matthiessen (6-2, 3.91 ERA) or LHP Erik Miller (7-2, 2.91 ERA) will face off against the winner of Friday night’s game between No. 2 seed UC Santa Barbara and No. 3 seed Fresno State. The next game for the Cardinal will be played Saturday with first pitch at 7:05 p.m. PT from Sunken Diamond.
Contact Daniel Martinez-Krams at danielmk ‘at’ stanford.edu.
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A free-roaming monkey in Florida’s Silver Springs Park. It may or may not have herpes B. (Image: AP)
As many as 30 percent of feral rhesus macaque monkeys living in and outside of Florida state parks are infected with a strain of herpes that’s exceptionally dangerous to humans. Wildlife officials are now calling for the total removal of these free-roaming monkeys from the Sunshine State.
It may come as a surprise that Florida has wild monkeys, but it’s true. The rhesus macaques, native to Asia, were introduced to the state in the 1930s during the Tarzan craze as an effort to boost tourism. Today, around 175 of these monkeys roam Silver Springs State Park, but they’ve spread elsewhere, roaming as far as the Ocala, Sarasota, and Tallahassee regions.
New research published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication run by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suggests an alarming number of these monkeys are excreting a form of herpes, called herpes B virus (or macacine herpesvirus 1 (McHV-1)), which can be dangerous to humans—even fatal.
We’re naming this one “Bitey.” (Image: AP)
Researchers from the CDC, the University of Florida, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission analyzed macaque samples (feces and saliva) collected by trappers from 2000 to 2012 in Silver Springs State park and along the Ocklawaha River in central Florida. They also analyzed viral DNA taken from free-ranging monkeys in the park from 2015 to 2016. Collectively, these samples suggested that as many as 30 percent of the animals tested during this period were infected with the virus. The researchers say this represents a serious public health concern, and recommend that the monkeys be removed from the state, though they don’t explain how that should happen.
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Herpes B virus is rare in humans, and only 50 cases have ever been documented worldwide. In these cases, the virus was contracted by humans from macaque bites and scratches while they were working with the animals in laboratories. Of these 50 infections, 21 were fatal. The disease causes severe brain damage or death if the patient isn’t treated immediately.
“No human deaths have been reported from contracting McHV-1 from free-ranging macaques, suggesting the risk for transmission from these animals is low,” write the authors in the new study, “However, immunologic surveillance, reporting, and diagnostic investigations in humans are lacking,” adding that “Human visitors to [Silver Springs State park] are most likely to be exposed through contact with saliva from macaque bites and scratches or from contact with virus shed through urine and feces.”
Speaking to The Associated Press, Emory University biology professor David Civitello, who wasn’t involved in the new study, said more work needs to be done to determine how prominent this virus is among Florida’s monkeys, and how easily it can be transmitted. “It will be important to figure out whether underreporting, low quantities, or low transmissibility would explain why infections in tourists have not been reported,” he told The Guardian.
We obviously need to learn more, but this new study makes a couple of things fairly clear.
First, if you’re in Florida and you encounter a rhesus macaque, stay clear. Second, discussions of removing this invasive species are not outrageous (though the task may be exceptionally difficult given how widespread these monkeys now are; population control may be a more realistic goal than eradication). These monkeys have, in the words of the researchers, “a high reproductive capacity, the ability to spread in geographic distribution, and the potential to threaten native fauna with extinction.” Simply put, they don’t belong in the Sunshine State.
[CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases] | {
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Six F-35A Lightning II belonging to the 34th FS from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, have arrived at RAF Lakenheath.
On Apr. 15, the F-35A 14-5094/HL, 14-5096/HL, 14-5097/HL, 14-5102/HL, 14-5098/HL and 13-5072/HL arrived at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, for the first overseas training deployment to Europe of the U.S. Air Force’s Joint Strike Fighter.
The aircraft belong to the 34th Fighter Squadron, 388th Fighter Wing and the Air Force Reserve’s 466th Fighter Squadron, 419th Fighter Wing, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and will conduct air training over the next several weeks with other Europe-based aircraft in support of the European Reassurance Initiative.
The transatlantic flight was supported by Air Mobility Command and the 100th Air Refueling Wing, from RAF Mildenhall, England. Multiple air refueling aircraft from four different bases offloaded more than 400,000 pounds of fuel during the “tanker bridge” from the United States to Europe, according to the U.S. Air Force. C-17 and C-5 aircraft moved airlift support, moving maintenance equipment and personnel.
“RAF Lakenheath will be the first overseas beddown location for the F-35A, this deployment allows our pilots and maintainers to learn more about the European operating environment and will improve our interoperability with partners in the region” said Gen. Tod D. Wolters, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Air Forces Africa commander in a USAF release.
Interestingly, as done by USAF combat planes deployed to Europe as part of Theater Security Packages (TSPs), the F-35s will forward deploy to NATO nations to maximize training opportunities, build partnerships with allied air forces and gain a broad familiarity of Europe’s diverse operating conditions.
All the photographs in this post were taken at RAF Lakenheath by The Aviationist’s contributor Tony Lovelock.
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Salva
Salva | {
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President Donald Trump unleashed a lengthy tirade against ex-FBI Director James Comey during his Saturday night rally in Washington Township, MI. The crowd erupted in applause as Trump began repeatedly asking “What about James Comey?” several times and “How ’bout this guy Comey?” before condemning the former head of the federal agency and the American press.
“And what about — hey, what about Comey? Have you watched him on the interviews? What about Comey? What about Comey? How about that? So Comey — how about this guy, Comey?” Trump began. “He said the other night the fake dirty dossier, he said the other night on Fox, he said very strongly, ‘No, I didn’t know that it was paid for by the Democrats and Hillary Clinton.’ He didn’t know. He didn’t know. How about that?”
The president was referring to Comey’s wide-ranging interview on Friday with Fox News’ Bret Baier to discuss his new book, A Higher Loyalty, as well as the FBI’s investigations into Trump and Clinton.
“When did you learn that the [Democratic National Committee] DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign had funded Christopher Steele’s work?”
“I still don’t know that for a fact,” Comey replied. “I’ve only seen it in the media. I never knew exactly which Democrats had funded. I knew it was funded first by Republicans.”
Fusion GPS, the firm which produced the dossier, was first funded by the conservative publication The Washington Free Beacon “to provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary,” according to statements representatives from the outlet provided to Congressional investigators last year.
But at Trump’s rally on Saturday, the president decried Comey and the situation surrounding the dossier, describing both as a “disgrace.”
“Comey is a liar and a leaker,” he continued. “You know, I did you a great favor when I fired this guy. I tell you, I did you a great favor. Because when you look at what was going on at the top of the FBI, it is a disgrace and everybody in this room understands it.”
Watch a clip of Trump’s rally via Fox News above.
[image via screengrab]
—
Follow Chris Riotta (@ChrisRiotta) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] | {
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One of the things that I respect most in the world of comics (and anything, really) is effort. Like any other artistic medium, comic books progress as an art form because brave people risk failure. Had nobody tried something new then we’d still be reading Stan Lee’s stilted prose and seeing nothing but stale retreads of Bob Kane’s ghost artists. Often, the grander these experiments are, the more epically they fail. As fans, it can be tempting to simply see these failures as indulgent and pretentious bores, but for me there is something worthy and dignified in a team of artists attempting to push the boundaries of what comics can do, rather than turning in another effort designed purely to separate me from my allowance.
It’s the audacity, I think, that I respond to. And why not? Nothing could be more audacious, more constitutionally designed to fail than Kirby’s New Gods series, for example. These books swung for the fences, adding the real to the surreal, the corny to the melodramatic, the science fictional to the mundane, all in an effort to tell a story that crackled with energy. Taken as a whole, they fail to start, but contained within those brave pages are the seeds of amazing stories yet to come.
One of the more recent noble failures (and yes, I know, it’s more than five years old but for some folks it still stings) was Grant Morrison’s much maligned Final Crisis. In this one book GM tries to collapse the universe, deliver a fitting end(-ish) to his Batman R.I.P. story, resurrect the recently killed New Gods, start a war that spans all of time and most of space, diversify the DC comics universe, and show us what it would look like if evil, true evil, really won. The story’s möbius strip plot structure is a great narrative device which might have worked really well. The most interesting element of the story, though, is Morrison’s plan to have the narrative style match the story’s goal which, as Morrison describes in Supergods was to depict the unraveling of reality itself. Morrison tried to depict evil’s victory as poisoning reality to the extent that the logical structure of the universe cracks and falls apart. To do this Morrison tried to have each page, each panel, reflect a growing disorderliness and narrative disconnection.
That’s a heady goal, admirable in its audacity. Sadly though, like many of Morrison’s experiments (seriously, this guy has more near misses than true hits), it fails and the comic suffers because it just couldn’t hold the content together. So many important story elements were left outside of the main series that the books often seems unintentionally jumbled and poorly thought out. In the end, the book simply wasn’t enjoyable to read and that,more than anything, is what all of this is about.
Final Crisis, like a lot of Morrison’s oeuvre, is worthy of respect for its bold attempt to try and advance what the medium is capable of. For that, I will never regret buying, reading, and even re-reading the series. Compare that to a lazy and ridiculous cash-grab like Ultimatum and you will see the dreadful opposite of the noble failure: the obligatory mega-event. These things are as insulting as noble failures are respectable. They promise thrills and genre-shattering plots, but what they really do is waste your money and your time. Sometimes they even harm a series so irreparably that they might better be conceived as a fatal strain of comic-book cancer. X-Men reaching a fever pitch? Make Cyclops evil. Need an ending for a big series? Kill off a beloved character (it’s okay, they’ll be back). Examples of these kinds of books are so numerous that it is almost pointless to bring them up, and I’m sure you can think of quite a few yourself.
For the life of me I will never understand why some series are so well loved and books like Final Crisis, are so reviled. For all of its myriad flaws, Final Crisis tries to tell a much more interesting, complex, and audacious story in a much more interesting, complex, and audacious way. Comics are supposed to show us a world where anything is possible. This grand a vision means that writers and artists should dare to go big. I, for one, want to reward that kind of vision with my loyalty, rather than acting affronted that someone dared to try. | {
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Der venter et årelangt juridisk slagsmål, inden maskinerne kan begynde at grave ud til den planlagte tunnel mellem Danmark og Tyskland.
Entreprenørarbejdet tager efter planen godt 8 år, og det danske statsselskab Femern A/S og EU har allerede brugt næsten 4 milliarder kroner på forberedelserne.
»Byggeriet kommer tidligst i gang i 2020«, konstaterer transportminister i Slesvig-Holsten Reinhardt Meyer i et svar til Politiken.
Femern A/S afleverede onsdag svar på 12.600 klager, der er rejst i høringsfasen på baggrund af den 14.000 sider lange ansøgning til de tyske delstatsmyndigheder i Kiel om at få tilladelse til at bygge en 18 kilometer lang sænketunnel mellem Rødby og Puttgarden. Svarene skal nu bane vej for den endelige godkendelse af projektet.
Den godkendelse kommer »tidligst i 2018«, oplyser transportministeriet i Kiel. Når tilladelsen er givet, vil det åbne for et årelangt juridisk slagsmål. Tilladelsen kan nemlig indbringes for Forbundsforvaltningsdomstolen i den sydtyske by Leipzig, og det, forventer alle parter, vil ske. Som led i sagen kan domstolen spørge både EU-kommissionen og EU-Domstolen om projektets nødvendighed og virkninger på miljøet.
»Der er allerede bebudet klager mod den kommende tilladelse«, siger Claus F. Baunkjær, adm. direktør i Femern A/S:
»Vi tager hele processen alvorligt og gør alt for, at selv de mindste detaljer er i orden«, betoner han.
Den tyske naturfredningsforening Nabu vil være blandt klagerne. Talsmand for organisationen Malte Siegert forventer, at retssagen vil tage 3-5 år fra det tidspunkt, hvor Femern A/S har fået tilladelse af myndighederne til at grave tunnelen.
Danmark og Tyskland indgik i 2008 en traktat om den faste forbindelse, der skulle åbne i 2018. Det stod dog hurtigt klart, at planen ikke holdt, og efter flere udskydelse er den officielle tidsplan nu at åbne tunnelen tidligst i 2028.
Sag om Elben tog 4 år
Men det storstilede anlægsprojekt vil efter alt at dømme trække yderligere i langdrag. En helt frisk dom fra Forbundsforvaltningsdomstolen om at uddybe sejlrenden i Elben viser ifølge tyske jurister, at dommerne sætter miljøhensyn højere end tidligere.
Bystyret i Hamburg fik sin tilladelse til at grave i Elben, men skal ændre projektet, så det blandt andet tager hensyn til en sjælden vandranunkel, som gror i Elben. De danske tunnelbyggere er foreløbig ikke bekymrede for de kommende retssager:
Vi vil være meget grundigt forberedt
»Vi følger alle afgørelser om infrastrukturprojekter fra Forbundsforvaltningsdomstolen nøje, og når den skriftlige dom foreligger, vil vi studere den nærmere. Projektet vedrørende uddybning af Elben til havnen i Hamburg er ikke sammenligneligt med Femerntunnel-projektet. Vi vil være meget grundigt forberedt på en kommende retssag«, siger Claus F. Baunkjær, som går ud fra, at byggeriet kan begynde i 2020.
Det danske mindretalsrepræsentant i regeringen i Kiel, justitsminister Anke Spoorendonk, advarer dog om, at der er stor forskel på beslutningsprocesser i Danmark og Tyskland. Hun henviser til, at både miljøorganisationer og miljøhensyn har fået en vigtigere stilling i tysk lovgivning:
»Projekter som Femern skal virkelig tage hensyn til flora og fauna – samt naturligvis mere klassiske følger som støj. Det er ikke nok bare at give projekterne en gang miljøfernis. Det fremgår klart af domspraksis. Vi må ikke begå én eneste fodfejl«, siger hun.
Den danske transportminister, Ole Birk Olesen (LA), er utålmodig, men ret sikker på, at tunnelen bliver bygget.
»Nu skal man som bekendt ikke sælge skindet, før bjørnen er skudt, men i Tyskland er der kun meget få eksempler på, at anlægsprojekter ikke er blevet godkendt af domstolene i sidste ende. Og jeg har ikke kendskab til, at Femern Bælt-forbindelsen er stødt på udfordringer, der ikke kan håndteres«, skriver han i en mail. | {
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Of the two alt-rock landmarks produced by Butch Vig in the first half of 1991, only one was destined to change the world. Recorded from May to June and released in September, Nirvana’s Nevermind was muddy Northwestern punk presented as pristinely as possible. Even if you didn’t know what Kurt Cobain was all about, you felt his pain and screamed along with every chorus.
It’s way harder finding a way into Gish, the debut album from The Smashing Pumpkins. Tracked just before Nevermind and released 25 years ago today (May 28, 1991), the album doesn’t have anything even close to a “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It’s filled with menacing rockers and twinkling ballads bearing the influence of '60s psychedelia, '70s arena rock, and '80s goth and shoegaze. With a voice pitched somewhere between choirboy and hellspawn, group mastermind Billy Corgan never resembles any type of weirdo you remember from high school. He’s a six-foot-three space alien whose band throws down like Guns N’ Roses on a My Bloody Valentine trip.
The sound of Gish -- textured yet super direct, with drums that wallop -- is very much a product of Vig’s approach to recording. The then-unknown Wisconsin producer would spend hours fussing with amps and drums, and Corgan would sing take after take of the same song. Before Gish hit, the Pumpkins were still a regional Chicago act used to playing for indifferent audiences on weekday nights. They didn’t yet have the luxury to try anything cute.
Smashing Pumpkins Reunite With Guitarist James Iha at L.A. Concert
“We felt that songwriting-wise, we had a long way to go,” Corgan told Uncut. “But our focus at that time was getting noticed in clubs. A lot of that music had been played for a while before it was recorded, which is why it has a sort of compact density.”
Although Corgan reportedly handled much of the guitar and bass work, Gish features what’s become known as the classic Pumpkins lineup. There was James Iha on rhythm guitar, D’arcy Wretzky on bass, and the incomparable Jimmy Chamberlain on drums. There’s virtually none of the extra instrumentation that would turn up four years later on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the ambitious double LP that established the Pumpkins as one of the decade’s most important groups. Gish is mostly raw materials, a pile of rocks waiting to become a great cathedral. There’s cryptic poetry, jarring dynamic shifts, mammoth riffs, and moments of startling beauty -- everything fans around the world would love about the Pumpkins once they grew into themselves.
Despite its visceral sound and lack of obvious singles, Gish sold more than 100,000 units within the first year, exceeding the expectation of Caroline Records, the Virgin-affiliated indie label that Corgan opted for instead of signing with a major. This music was finding an audience, and Corgan was finding himself as a songwriter. The Pumpkins would reach the Top 10 with their much-improved sophomore set, 1993’s Siamese Dream (also produced by Vig), and then explode in the second half of the decade, when the Nirvana-shaped hole in the alt-universe was very much in need of filling.
Gish is where the story begins. Before Corgan became more famous for his interview sound bites than for his music, he was a true rock 'n' roll misfit who could simultaneously melt your face, squeeze your soul, and boggle your mind. That’s what he does on the best moments of Gish.
Read on for a track-by-track review.
“I Am One”: The Pumpkins begin by taking us down to their version of “Paradise City,” where the riffs are mean and the lyrics are pretty vague. Corgan says the song, co-written by Iha, has something to do with the Holy Trinity. Whatever the theological implications, Billy deserves some worship for the screechy guitar-god solo he unleashes at 2:50. There’s no dogma about disguising your musicianship guiding this band.
“Siva”: Corgan is wounded and confused, and he’s got a couple ways of dealing with it. The first: raging, which he and Chamberlain spend most of the track doing. The hard rock subsides during the two quiet dreamy bits, which another group might have saved for a separate song. Rather than sounding like gimmicks, the Pumpkins’ loud-soft shifts feel like natural fluctuations. Corgan follows his feelings wherever they take him.
“Rhinoceros”: Billy admits he was tripping balls when he wrote this psychedelic goth ballad about a mystery girl, an ice-cream party he’s planning for June, and the “mustard lies” he wishes to reveal. “She knows, she knows, show knows,” he sings over patient jangle that gives way to otherworldly reverb. As long as someone knows what’s up.
“Bury Me”: The lyrics are definitely secondary on this blistering metal shape-shifter. It starts with slithering bass and needling guitar riffage, then goes shoegazer around 3:00. “She will bury me,” Corgan sings rather serenely toward the end, like he’s getting into the idea of being smothered by love.
“Crush”: As the bass tiptoes across the bedroom, trying not to squeak a floorboard, Corgan whispers sweet nothings to his sleeping lover. If he’s paraphrasing the Beatles and the Stones, the gorgeous pond-ripple guitar tone is all his own.
“Suffer”: Chamberlain’s jazzy rhythms combine with Corgan’s warped theremin-esque guitar and what sounds like a pan flute to create a weird lullaby about cleansing yourself to achieve peace of mind. It’s the kind of stuff cult leaders talk about, though most never have theme music this convincing.
“Snail”: On this swirly low-key psych-rock meditation, Corgan compares himself to the titular terrestrial gastropod mollusk. He’s hiding under the covers, wasting his life away. “When you wake up, you’re all weak,” Corgan sings, switching from the airy vocals of the verses to a scratchy delivery he’s dredged up from someplace very real.
“Tristessa”: The string of slow ones comes to an end with this nondescript snarler, named for a Jack Kerouac novella about a Mexican prostitute. Corgan’s hard rock here isn’t a whole lot artsier than what GNR or Motley Crue were doing around the same time, so it’s funny to think this was a Sub Pop single.
“Window Paine”: It’s Link Wray’s classic 1958 rock 'n' roll instrumental “Rumble” tricked out with a soaring guitar solo and lyrics about overcoming darkness and shame. At 4:20, everything drops out, leaving Corgan to look himself in the mirror and brace for a new day.
“Daydream”: The influence of My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins comes to the fore, and so does bassist D’arcy Wretzky, who handles lead vocals. Her flat, earnest singing is just what the song needs, and when the strings seep in beneath the acoustic guitar, the Pumpkins end on a real high note. Or do they? After 10 seconds of silence, Corgan returns with “I’m Going Crazy,” a 30-second restatement of what, by now, is pretty apparent. Fans who felt at this point that Corgan could’ve used an editor were in for years of frustration. | {
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LONDON (Reuters) - British factories enjoyed their strongest growth in nearly seven years in late 2016 and early 2017 and exports rose quickly, data showed on Friday, suggesting a boost for manufacturers from sterling’s fall after the Brexit vote.
Over the November-January period, factory output had its strongest performance since the three months to May 2010, rising 2.1 percent from the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics said.
While factory output slipped 0.9 percent in January, more than predicted in a Reuters poll of economists, that only unwound some of the strong growth in the previous two months.
In another sign of an improvement in Britain’s trade position, volumes of goods exports over the three months to January grew by 8.7 percent, the biggest increase in more a decade, while imports rose by 1.6 percent.
The data suggest Britain’s economy might be starting to reduce its reliance on consumers to drive growth, economists said, something that has eluded policymakers for years.
That challenge has become more urgent as households - whose spending helped the economy withstand the shock of last year’s decision to leave the European Union - are turning more cautious as inflation rises following the Brexit vote hit to sterling.
“The stage is set for the UK’s export-oriented laggard sector to finally make a positive contribution to growth and, possibly, encourage a much needed rebalancing,” said Kallum Pickering, an economist with Berenberg.
Earlier this week, EEF, a group representing manufacturers, said the sector grew at its fastest pace in more than three years in early 2017, helped by the weaker pound and recovery in key European export markets.
However, manufacturing accounts for only 10 percent of Britain’s economy, meaning an improvement for the sector is likely to have a limited impact on overall economic growth, which is expected to slow in early 2017.
EXPORTS RISING
Separate figures from the ONS showed Britain’s goods trade deficit with the rest of the world narrowed slightly in January to 10.833 billion pounds and the trade deficit in the fourth quarter of last year was revised down to 5.0 billion pounds from a previous estimate of 8.6 billion pounds.
An ONS statistician said there was no direct evidence from businesses that the fall in the value of the pound was helping exports but their performance over the last six months suggested an increase in competitiveness in foreign markets.
Samuel Tombs, an economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, warned against reading too much into the better trade data, saying the narrowing of the deficit in recent months reflected a swing in erratic items.
“Huge uncertainty about the UK’s future trade ties also likely will ensure the economy rebalances towards exports only tentatively,” he said.
Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to launch the process for Britain’s departure from the EU this month, raising questions about how much access it will have to the bloc which buys about half the country’s exports.
The ONS also released figures for construction output in January, which fell 0.4 percent on the month and rose 2.0 percent on the year. The Reuters poll had pointed to a fall of 0.2 percent on the month and growth of 0.2 percent on the year. | {
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Hot milf teasing us with her big ass while she's shitting a heavy turd on a bathroom scale.
You must be logged in to post wall comments. Please Login or Signup (free) | {
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A day after on Tuesday President Trump and national security adviser John Bolton publicly contradicted each other over whether Kim Jong Un has "kept his word" on nuclear and missile testing — with Trump affirming that the North Korean leader has indeed adhered to "no nuclear testing" and that "there's no long-range missiles going up" — the US is out with new charges that North Korea has breached a UN sanctions cap on refined petroleum.
The US and allies submitted a formal complaint to the UN Security Council this week, made public Wednesday, accusing Pyongyang of conducting at least 79 illegal deliveries of fuel thus far this year, already surpassing an annual cap of 500,000 barrels. The United Nations in December 2017 imposed tight limits on North Korea's ability to import oil and petroleum products due to its banned nuclear testing and missile program.
Yonhap via Reuters: The Lighthouse Winmore, a Hong Kong-flagged vessel suspected of transferring oil to North Korea in defiance of international sanctions, near Yeosu, South Korea, in late December.
“The restriction on the DPRK’s refined petroleum imports is critical to maintaining pressure on the DPRK, including those parties responsible for its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) program, to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK,” states the formal complaint to the committee, dated Tuesday.
Interestingly, it coincided with Trump announcing he had received a “beautiful” letter from Kim Jong Un at a moment the question of direct talks remains stalled since the failed Hanoi summit between the two leaders in February. "I just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un. I can't show you the letter, obviously, but it was very personal, very warm, very nice letter," Trump told a group of reporters. "North Korea, under his leadership, has great potential."
The White House is reportedly attempting to jump-start momentum for further talks now a year after Trump and Kim's first historic face to face meeting on June 12 last year in Singapore.
Things got further interesting when on Tuesday Bolton told the WSJ that Pyongyang is not complying with the terms agreed upon during the Singapore summit. "What they've said was that they're not going to test ballistic missiles, intercontinental range ballistic missiles, or have nuclear tests. That's continued. They're doing a lot of other things that still indicate that they have not made a strategic decision to give up the pursuit of deliverable weapons, which is why we continue the maximum pressure campaign," Bolton said.
However, hours later Trump contradicted his own adviser (to be sure, nothing new), saying of Kim: "He kept his word. There's no nuclear testing. There's no large, there's no long-range missiles going up. The only things he's set up were very short term, short range. That was just a test of short range. It's a whole different deal, but he's kept his word to me. That's very important," according to CNN.
The north twice tested multiple short-range missiles early last month, which drove speculation over whether it was actually a banned long-range test.
Trump also controversially said this week that he will disallow CIA spying on Pyongyang while he's in power. This after he was asked about a report that Kim Jong Nam, Kim's exiled half brother, was a US intelligence asset who was later executed. "I would tell him [Kim] that would not happen under my auspice that's for sure."
Image source: AP
Concerning this week's accusation before the UN that North Korea has breached its annual 500,000 barrel fuel limit, Pyongyang has long been known to engage in aggressive sanctions thwarting behavior, including conducting ship-to-ship transfers at sea. In response, for over the past year a UN group of countries including the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and France, have patrolled a region in the East China Sea and around China and North Korea covering 700,000 square miles in order to clamp down on sanctions evading.
Recent reports have detailed North Korea's use of increasingly advanced and inventive techniques to evade the oil sanctions, including manipulation of vessel transmission systems, physical disguise of tankers, illegal name-changing and other forms of identity fraud, night transfers, and the use of additional vessels for transshipment.
However, it remains that no nation would go quietly while being choked of its vial fuel and energy supplies, so we don't expect Kim to receive the UN accusation too warmly no matter how much Trump praises his "beautiful" letter — clearly part of the administration's continued carrot and stick approach to get talks going again. | {
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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 and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are planning to meet one-on-one during their summit in Vietnam next week, senior administration officials said Thursday.
Speaking to reporters on a background call ahead of the summit, a senior administration official said more details on the exact format would be forthcoming, but that it would be “similar” to Trump and Kim’s first meeting last year.
“It’s going to be similar in format to what you saw last June 12 in Singapore,” the official said. “There will be an opportunity for the two leaders to see one another one-on-one, to share a meal and engage in expanded meetings of their respective delegations.”
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Trump and Kim are scheduled to hold their second summit Feb. 27 and 28 in Hanoi with a goal of building off the joint statement they signed at their first meeting last year in Singapore.
The Singapore summit, the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader, started with Trump and Kim meeting one-on-one with only their translators in the room. That was followed by lunch and a meeting alongside their aides.
The Singapore summit concluded with a joint statement in which North Korea pledged to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” in exchange for unspecific security guarantees from the U.S.
The Trump administration officials on Thursday’s background call dodged questions on specifics of what might be agreed to during the Vietnam summit, saying negotiations are continuing ahead of the meeting.
“I don’t know if North Korea has made the choice yet to denuclearize, but the reason why we’re engaged in this is because we believe there’s a possibility that North Korea could make the choice to fully denuclearize,” one of the officials said.
One area the official highlighted as a chance for progress is on coming to a shared definition of denuclearization with Pyongyang. But asked whether North Korea has given the United States its definition of denuclearizing, the official demurred.
“We’re in the midst of negotiations with the North Koreans right now, and I’d be loathe to characterize their positions,” he said when asked about Pyongyang's definition of denuclearization.
The official also said the administration is not looking for a step-by-step process for North Korea’s denuclearization, saying “we need to move very quickly” and “in very big bites.”
The United States further needs North Korea to fully declare its nuclear and missile stockpiles, the official added, adding that he “suspect[s] that will come well before the end” of the process.
The officials did appear to rule out the possibility of agreeing to a withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea, with one saying that a withdrawal for an official peace treaty to end the Korean War “is not the subject of discussions” and the other saying, “I’ve never discuss that in any round of negotiations.” | {
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At this point, Donald Trump is living the lyrics of a certain Nine Inch Nails song. That is, nothing can stop him now, and he sort of doesn’t care anymore. Not that he fretted over his controversial ways in the first place. Even his numerous Panama Papers appearances haven’t affected his appeal, which is likely why the Republican Party gave in to the inevitable. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus spent the weekend admitting how “people just don’t care” about Trump’s behavior because he’s “rewritten the playbook.” All of this is true. No matter how much outrage Trump generates, his devoted fanbase rises to greater heights than the fabled Wall.
However, Trump still needs to get his tush in general election mode, which means (sorry, Bernie Sanders fans) that he needs to conquer Hillary Clinton. A New York Times report suggests that Trump doesn’t plan on changing tactics too much. He obliterated his rivals with a constant stream of insults — “Little Marco” and “Lyin’ Ted” among them — and managed to distract everyone from his own shortcomings as a candidate. In this way, he hopes to drive down Clinton’s poll numbers while bamboozling the voting public, and debates are about to become explosive if this report is true. The New York Times calls this Trump’s “psychological warfare” plan:
Donald J. Trump plans to throw Bill Clinton’s infidelities in Hillary Clinton’s face on live television during the presidential debates this fall, questioning whether she enabled his behavior and sought to discredit the women involved. Mr. Trump will try to hold her accountable for security lapses at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and for the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens there.
From there, Trump hopes to dig deeper into Hillary’s history, including her late 1970s cattle futures contracts and her ongoing email scandal. Overall, he reportedly plans to make everyone forget all about his treatment of women because — naturally — bringing in Bill’s adulterous ways should be distracting enough on that issue. And unlike Trump’s Republican rivals, Hillary has several decades of political dirt to mine for scandalous purposes.
The Times also spoke to Trump in a telephone interview, in which he forecast “more strategic” attacks that aren’t simply based upon insults. He aims to question her judgment in the wake of Bill’s exposed affairs:
“Just getting nasty with Hillary won’t work. You really have to get people to look hard at her character, and to get women to ask themselves if Hillary is truly sincere and authentic. Because she has been really ugly in trying to destroy Bill’s mistresses, and she is pandering to women so obviously when she is only interested in getting power.”
Whether this tactic will succeed, Trump surely has his work cut out for him. Hillary Clinton has kept her head high through decades of attacks, and Trump may favor nasty tactics, but she will weather the storm. He won’t break her, but can he possibly sway swing voters? He also has to convince part of the Republican base who has yet to accept him, so this attack plan should contain more nuance than his turn-off tactics so far. However, most folks underestimated Trump from the very beginning, so his general election performance will surely be unpredictable.
(Via the New York Times) | {
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According to the estimates of HASH Crypto Investment Bank, the value of the future Telegram cryptocurrency may reach $29.5 billion by the end of 2019.
According to the report of HASH Crypto Investment Bank, the target cost of Gram cryptocurrency by the end of 2019 is estimated at $5.9 per one token. At this price, the capitalization of the entire cryptocurrency should be $29.5 billion. In addition, the cost of $5.9 Telegram indicated in one of the latest notes for investors, which was provided in January at the @TGram channel.
It should be noted that the assessment of the Gram token of $5.9 is conditional. HASH CIB senior analyst Rustam Botashev clarified: “HASH CIB offers its own assessment methodology, emphasizing that the value obtained in their model is not a target or fair price. Rather, it is a “rational network value,” made up of current and discounted value added over the coming years. But in the note for investors, $5.9 per token is called the target price (target price) ”.
HASH CIB was created by Qiwi Investment Director Jacob Barinsky. One of the co-owners of Qiwi, Sergey Solonin, in the first round of the pre-ICO of Telegram invested $ 17 million in developing the TON blockchain platform. He noted: “Our report was not a suggestion or recommendation for investors. It was intended for qualified investors who had already invested in Telegram or were interested in it. ” The report was prepared in the spring of 2018 and is based on the first whitepaper of the project, which appeared in the network. After launching the testnet of the Telegram blockchain platform, which is expected in the first quarter of this year, HASH CIB will conduct tests and update the actual data, Barinsky promised, after which the estimate of the cost of a single Gram token may change.
The Gram cryptocurrency was supposed to be divided into three parts: 52% – the reserve, 4% – to the developers, 44% – to the investors. The first Gram token costs 10 cents, and each next Gram will be a billionth worth more than the previous one. In total, according to the whitepaper, 5 billion tokens will be released into the main network. As follows from the HASH CIB report, 2.89 billion Gram were sold, that is, one token was worth an average of 59 cents. The target price of $5.9 for one Gram means a rise in the cost of cryptocurrency almost ten times by the end of 2019.
During the ICO Telegram was going to collect $1.2 billion and distribute them in a ratio of 80:20. Most of them had to go for equipment, traffic and user verification, less for administrative expenses and salaries. However, during the two private rounds, $1.7 billion was received from more than a hundred investors. If by October 2019 Durov did not launch the blockchain platform, under the terms of the ICO, he must return the funds to investors.
Although Telegram was going to launch a cryptocurrency in March, the launch may be postponed. During February, Durov had planned to meet with the largest investors in projects, but whether the meeting was held is unknown.
In addition to launching the blockchain platform, Telegram must launch sales of its cryptocurrency and increase its audience. In a letter to investors, the creators of Telegram list the countries where negotiations are being held with crypto exchanges: Japan, China and the United Kingdom. The letter says that Gram usage will start in Asia, most likely in Japan. The Japanese market is also attractive because the local financial regulator has provided the crypto sector with an opportunity for self-regulation.
After the sale of tokens, Telegram intends to spend them on platform services, such as storing data in a decentralized network; DNS to access this data; proxy servers and anonymizers; payments; decentralized applications. Withdrawals will be provided by the crypto exchanges of those regions where Gram will start. | {
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The Raiders had 10 picks in the 2013 draft and now six of them are signed. Those picks now under contract are all players chosen in the sixth round (4) and seventh round (2).
Those rookies signed were sixth-round draft picks Nick Kasa (172nd overall), Latavius Murray (181st), Mychal Rivera (184th), and Stacy McGee (205th), as well as seventh-round choices Brice Butler (209th) and David Bass (233rd).
Here is a brief description of each player per the Raiders press release:
Nick Kasa (6-6, 269), a tight end out of Colorado, played defensive end for his first three seasons before switching to tight end for his final 13 games. As a senior, he led the team with an average of 15.6 yards per reception and finished fourth on the team with 25 catches for 391 yards.
Latavius Murray (6-2, 223), selected out of Central Florida, received an All-Conference-USA first-team selection as a running back and was the first player in school history to have a rushing touchdown in nine straight games. Murray finished his career ranked second in UCF history in overall touchdowns (44), eighth in attempts (453) and sixth in yards (2,424).
Mychal Rivera (6-3, 242), a tight end out of Tennessee, started 10 games as a senior and earned All-SEC second-team honors in addition to coaches' All-SEC first-team honors in 2012. He ranked third on the team in catches (36) and set the Tennessee tight-end record with 562 receiving yards as a senior.
Stacy McGee (6-3, 310) played four years at Oklahoma, seeing action in 35 games with 15 starts during his collegiate career. He played in six games on the defensive line in 2012 and recorded 14 total tackles, including 2.5 tackles for loss.
Brice Butler (6-3, 213) transferred to San Diego State after three years at USC, appearing in 13 games in his sole season with the Aztecs. He ranked second on the team in receptions, totaling 24 catches for 347 yards. His four touchdown receptions also ranked second on the team.
David Bass (6-4, 256), a defensive end out of Missouri Western State, started all 14 games as a senior, and was one of eight finalists for the Gene Upshaw Award, presented to the top lineman in NCAA Division II football. He totaled 61 tackles (36 solo), 11.5 sacks and seven passes defensed in his final collegiate season. | {
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Explore all of our interviews, videos, and photos in one place. Hear from the Juno team, learn about Jupiter, the Juno spacecraft and so much more. [call to action here ...] | {
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Eva is the fantastic mature nymph in a harness most sensible and chi chis of fishnet stocking. Cub does not sundress as it should be for her age and right here lamb proves that lamb’s indeed as horny as lamb appears by means of fellating off this junior stud’s trunk. | {
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だから偏食はダメなんだって！
子どものころ、嫌いな野菜を残しては叱られていた皆さん、あまり食べ物の好き嫌いがひどいと、生き残れませんよ〜。そんな大切な教訓を教えてくれるのは、なんと世界最大の体長16mにのぼる巨大サメのメガロドンです。もっとなんでもワガママいわずに食べていたら、いまでも生息できていたかもしれないと指摘する新研究論文をNew Scientistが紹介しています。
まるで映画ジョーズの世界を地でいく、あごの大きさだけで3mはあるというメガロドン。こんなものに一噛みされようものなら、軽自動車だって一瞬にしてグシャグシャにされるであろうといわれていますよ。約1400万年の間、向かうところ敵なしの大繁殖を遂げたものの、いまから260万年ほど前に絶滅にいたったようです。
新論文を発表した、イタリアのピサ大学の研究者たちは、南米のペルーで見つかった、メガロドンの生々しい歯形が残された化石を調査。体長5mに満たない小さなヒゲクジラの祖先｢Piscobalaena nana｣や、アザラシの祖先｢Piscophoca pacifica｣ばかりを狙い、メガロドンが好んで食していた様子がうかがえるそうです。
小さなヒゲクジラの時代が終わり、現代に見る巨大なクジラが主流となる時代を迎えたとき、巨大サメは姿を消していった。
同研究チームを率いたAlberto Collareta氏は、このようなコメントを発表。比較的海水温が暖かかった時代が終わりを迎え、多くのクジラやアザラシが極地帯へと移っていきました。同時に、クジラの巨体化も進みはじめるのですが、メガロドンだけは移動を拒否。いつまでも好物だった小さなヒゲクジラやアザラシに固執し続け、新たな大型のクジラを追わなかったばかりか、別の小動物を狙うわけでもなく、エサの減少とともに種の滅亡にいたったとされていますよ。
世界最大サメとしてのプライドゆえか、進行する環境の変化に応じようとしなかったメガロドン。状況が変わっても生き残るための貴重な教訓を、後代に伝える生き様にはなったかもしれません。なお、メガロドンをめぐっては、ほかのサメやシャチとの抗争に敗れて絶滅した説も唱えられており、まだまだ新発見が飛び出してくるかもしれません。
image by Alberto Gennari/Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
source: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, New Scientist
George Dvorsky - Gizmodo US［原文］
（湯木進悟） | {
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An alleged private conversation between James Franco and a 17-year-old girl visiting New York from Scotland has leaked online, in which the actor appears to try to convince her to meet him at a hotel room.
Photos and screencaps of their alleged conversation were uploaded to Imgur by an unknown source on April 2, but have since been removed from the site.
In their conversation, Franco appears to ask the teen where she's from, if she's single and if she wants to meet up if he gets a hotel room, after being told she's a few days shy of her 18th birthday. Franco and the teenage girl seem to have first crossed paths while the 35-year-old was signing autographs outside the Longacre Theatre, where he's currently performing in "Of Mice and Men." The teen tagged Franco in a photo she shared on Instagram, and it seems they began chatting from there. The girl also posted a video of Franco to her Instagram account, in which he explicitly asks her to tag him in the photo, presumably so they could connect afterward.
During the alleged conversation the teen was doubtful that she was talking to the real James Franco and requested that he write her name on a piece of paper and send her a photo of his face. Franco appears to have complied.
Request for comment from Franco's rep has yet to be returned, however, after the images from the conversation leaked, the actor Instagramed a photo of himself with "WHY ARE YOU SO THIRSTY FOR UNDERAGE ONES," written on it and tweeted, "I'M NOT! I HOPE PARENTS KEEP THEIR TEENS AWAY FROM ME. Thank you." While the Instagram photo has since been deleted, the tweet still remains live on Franco's account.
Given Franco's response to the leaked conversation, it's worth noting that this all seems very strange. We can't help but wonder (and hope) if this could be part of an elaborate promotional campaign for Franco's new movie "Palo Alto," based on his own short stories, in which he plays a high school girls' soccer coach who has an affair with one of his teenage players. | {
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Friday’s New York Times covered the start of the second term of Venezuelan autocrat Nicholas Maduro, but managed to avoid unflattering descriptions like that, in “With Venezuela in Free Fall, Its President Starts New Term,” from Ana Vanessa Herrero and Megan Specia in Caracas. Yet other stories on Friday tossed around the word “autocrat” to complain about President Trump’s embrace of Egypt’s leadership.
Also as usual, the Times’ use of the S-word (socialism) was limited and perhaps even positive, even though socialist economics have ravaged oil-rich Venezuela and rendered it a starving basket case.
The story accurately surmised the plight of the nation, while ignoring the major cause.
When President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was sworn in for his second term on Thursday before the country’s Supreme Court, a small group of supporters standing outside greeted the news by waving tiny flags with little enthusiasm. The huge crowds that gathered to greet him after his first inauguration were nowhere to be seen. In the years since Mr. Maduro first took office, violence and hunger have become emblematic, inflation has skyrocketed, and the migration of Venezuelans out of the country has reached unprecedented levels. Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, presided over the free fall of what was once Latin America’s wealthiest nation. The country’s economy continues to unravel at an alarming rate. And Mr. Maduro’s re-election last year was widely denounced by other countries as fraudulent. .... Despite these denunciations and the humanitarian crisis Venezuela is facing, Mr. Maduro is embarking on a term that extends until 2025. So how did he get here, and how has he managed to hold on? .... He first came to power in a snap vote following Mr. Chávez’s death in 2013, after the former leader had anointed him as successor.
No socialism here:
But by the 2018 election, Venezuela’s economy had plummeted to new lows as a result of mismanagement and corruption, and the country was in the midst of a crisis.
No socialism here either:
International sanctions and plummeting oil production have further weakened the already floundering economy. While the country’s opposition lost much power because of government persecution and the forced exile of some of its most prominent figures, last week’s election of Juan Guaidó as the new president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly has renewed calls to remove Mr. Maduro from power.
At last the S-word and the term “leftist “cropped up, but in neutral fashion.
Mr. Maduro has found some allies in the region, including President Evo Morales of Bolivia, a fellow socialist who attended the inauguration. And Mexico’s new leftist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, invited Mr. Maduro to his own inauguration and has taken a friendlier stance in relations with Venezuela than his predecessor. .... Within Venezuela, loyal “chavista” governors, named for their support of Mr. Chávez and his revolutionary leftist policies, expressed support for Mr. Maduro in a news conference on Wednesday. Héctor Rodríguez, governor of the state of Miranda, denounced Mr. Maduro’s critics and urged the country’s opposition to “reconsider” their criticism of him.
“Socialist policy” in this paragraph is characterized not as a chain on Venezuela’s people but a savior, at least until recently:
Daily life in Venezuela has become unrecognizable from what it was just a few years ago. Where once the government built homes, clinics and schools for the poor as part of its socialist policy, people now find themselves without the most basic necessities.
Meanwhile, there was a stark contrast between treatment of autocrats in Venezuela and ones the Trump administration supposedly supports in Egypt. The same edition featured reporter Mark Landler’s news analysis, “President and Top Diplomat Embrace Autocrats and Excoriate Opponents.” The text box to a related front-page story: “Bolstering alliances with Arab autocrats loyal to Washington.” | {
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20 gifts under $20 that won't get thrown away
You can get great gifts without spending too much. (Photo: Reviewed)
— Our editors review and recommend products to help you buy the stuff you need. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA Today’s newsroom and any business incentives.
Christmas is a week away, which means we're in the final stretch to get those last-minute presents, especially for the people you sort of forgot about. I mean, how awkward would it be if your roommate, coworker, or acquaintance got you a gift and you had to open it while they sit there empty-handed? Very.
Thankfully, you don't have to spend too much to get something anyone would enjoy. Everything on this list is under $20 and filled with some our our favorite, personally tested products as well as some of the more popular products on the market.
1. The car mount they didn't know they needed
Anyone with a car needs this phone mount. (Photo: WizGear)
Many of us use our phones for navigation. So your friends and loved ones aren't constantly looking away from the road to get directions, give them the gift of safety with a super handy car mount. This little gadget from WizGear is magnetic and doesn't take up too much space in the car. You simply mount it to any smooth surface and then put the corresponding magnet sticker on a phone case. It will be a lifesaver all year long.
Get the WizGear Dashboard Magnetic Car Mount on Amazon for $6.99
2. A fun party game for everyone
Mix up game night. (Photo: PlayMonster)
Party games always make a good gift. We've all done Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity, and What Do You Meme, so why not mix things up with 5 Second Rule? It's a great pick for all ages (they suggest 10 and up)! The game is pretty simple: Each person is given a category and has five seconds to name three things in it. It’s fun, addicting, and perfect for groups.
Get the Playmonster Patch 5 Second Rule Game on Amazon for $11.44
3. A journal with a few guidelines
Give the gift of creativity. (Photo: Perigee Trade)
Journaling is a great stress reliever and a way to record down memories. But it can be hard to think about what exactly to write. Wreck This Journal is so popular because it's filled with a variety of fun activities and odd questions that will get the creative juices flowing. It's a great gift for anyone who needs to unwind.
Get Wreck This Journal Everywhere on Amazon for $9
4. PopSockets for the phone obsessed
Something anyone with a phone will appreciate. (Photo: PopSocket)
Phones seem to keep getting bigger and bigger (I'm looking at you, iPhone XR), meaning they're more difficult to hold. PopSockets have been popular for a couple years now because they serve two great purposes: they make it easier to hold your phone and serve as a stand when you watch videos. Plus, they come in loads of fun designs and colors and fold down flat so your phone still fits in your pocket. They make great stocking stuffers or fun gifts for your coworkers.
You can order them on Amazon for faster shipping, but if you want more variety and seasonal designs, we suggest ordering directly from the PopSockets site.
5. The best notebook for bullet journaling
Bullet journalers will agree this is the best notebook. (Photo: Reviewed)
Bullet journaling has become the fun, Instagrammable way to keep your schedule and track other various goals. Hardcore journalers will tell you that the Leuchtturm Hardcover Notebook is the best for bullet journaling. In fact, it has a 4.5 rating on Amazon with more than 2,200 reviews—so you really can't go wrong gifting it to the creative soul in your life. Go above and beyond by pairing it with some fun gel pens for the ultimate bullet journal starter kit.
Get the Leuchtturm Hardcover Bullet Journal on Amazon for $19.95
6. An essential oil diffuser to chill out
Because who doesn't like a good smelling home? (Photo: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar)
We all love candles, but unfortunately, you can't burn them all the time without potentially risking setting a fire. Thankfully, essential oil diffusers exist, so you can get sweet scents throughout the day without unplugging them. The best diffuser we've ever tested is under $20, so you can give the gift of scented bliss without spending too much. We love this diffuser for its colorful glow, large water tank, and locking top cover, which makes it easy to move it from room to room without spilling water.
Get the InnoGear Essential Oil Diffuser on Amazon for $15.99
7. New brews for the coffee lover
Any coffee lover will love getting this on their doorstep. (Photo: MistoBox)
Any true coffee lover can be picky about where they get their beans from—as they should be. So what's a better gift than a monthly, quality coffee subscription? After testing seven different coffee subscription services, MistoBox remained our favorite. It's fast, efficient, and delivers some dang good tasting coffee that your caffeine addict will appreciate. Plus, it was even featured on an episode of Shark Tank (spoiler: they got a deal).
Get a 1-Month Gift Subscription to MistoBox for $20
8. An iced coffee maker for cold brew all year 'round
It's never too cold for cold brew. (Photo: Takeya)
You probably have that friend who will always drink their coffee cold, no matter what the temperature is outside. Give them the gift of easy, at-home coffee with a top-quality cold brew maker. This one from Takeya is the best cold brew coffee maker we've ever tested and it's less than $20. It's easy to use and brews a full quart of concentrated cold brew coffee that can last the week if your loved one doesn't guzzle it all down right away.
Get the Takeya Cold Brew Coffee Maker on Amazon for $19.99
9. Straws for the Earth-conscious sipper
Sustainable and stylish. (Photo: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar)
Reusable straws are having quite the moment right now. When people started talking about banning disposable ones, a cry for change was heard across the country. But whether your recipient is eco-conscious or just loves a nice cocktail, I think we can agree metal reusable straws are both stylish and sustainable. These are our favorite affordable reusable straws, and they come with a pipe cleaner so there's no struggle to get them clean.
Get a SipWell Stainless Steel Drinking Straw 4-Pack on Amazon for $6.89
10. A spiralizer that's perfect for zoodles
Making zoodles has never been easier. (Photo: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar)
I love zoodles. There, I said it. They honestly taste great with any pasta sauce, and they're a great way to reach your health goals in 2019. Any health-conscious recipient would love a spiralizer, and the best spiralizer we've ever tested is only $10. It's called the Veggetti (a name I seriously hate), but it works super well and it's quite portable, so they can keep zoodling wherever they go.
Get the Veggetti Vegetable Spiralizer on Amazon for $9.99
11. The best lipstick for any diva
The best liquid lipstick costs less than $5. (Photo: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar)
Liquid lipstick makes a great stocking stuffer or gift for any glam diva out there. After testing some of the best liquid lipstick out there, the $5 Wet 'n Wild beat out the competition by a large margin (yes, even outperforming Kylie's ever-popular lip kits). It stayed on the longest, was easy to wash off, and didn’t leave marks anywhere. Plus, at this price, you might as well get them several colors or buy one for each of your friends.
Get Wet 'n Wild Liquid Lipstick on Amazon for $3.74
12. An eye mask for anyone stressed this holiday season
Sweet dreams at any time of day. (Photo: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar)
After the holidays, we're all going to need some extra shut-eye. To make it easier to catch up on a few zzz's, gift your particularly stressed friend, coworker, or parents the best eye mask money can buy. The Nidra Deep Rest eye mask has an adjustable velcro strap that keeps the mask secure, is super comfortable, and will leave you well rested—even if you're sleeping in the middle of the day.
Get the Nidra Deep Rest Eye Mask on Amazon for $11.95
13. Socks that everyone needs but never buys
Everyone needs a new pair of socks. (Photo: Loritta)
Socks make the best gifts ever. Case in point: How often do you need socks? Always. How often do you buy socks? Probably not enough. Anyone would be happy to receive fuzzy socks, wool socks, heck even gym socks as a gift. You know they'll definitely use them and they'll think of you every time they put them on.
Get 5 Pairs of Wool Socks on Amazon for $18.99
14. Their favorite magazine subscription
Your recipient will always think of you when they open their mail. (Photo: Getty Images)
Getting mail is always fun, especially when it's not bills or solicitations. Basically, it's only fun when you're getting Christmas cards or a magazine subscription, which makes for a great gift. As long as you pinpoint your recipient's interests, a magazine subscription is sure to be a hit. Food Network magazine is my go-to—who doesn't like food or getting advice from Ina Garten or Guy Fieri each month?
Get a 1-Year Subscription to Food Network Magazine on Amazon for $12
15. Slime that will keep kids of all ages busy
This gift is fun for everyone. (Photo: Ultimate Science)
No matter what a child's age is, they all can agree slime is fun. If you know your kid likes playing with this trendy goop, you'll want to check out this slime kit. There are plenty of unique recipes included, so they can make everything from glow-in-the-dark to color-changing slime. This kit also includes everything you need to make the slime, like measuring cups, wooden sticks, and more all in one package that's impressively under $20.
Get the Ultimate Slime Kit DIY on Amazon for $18.97
16. A book of riddles and puzzles for the problem solver
This book has entertainment for hours. (Photo: Amazon)
Let's admit it: We all love brain teasers. Some people like a challenging Sudoku puzzle and others prefer riddles and crosswords. It's always satisfying to crack the code or riddle, and you feel that much smarter when you do. A brain teaser book is perfect for keeping anyone’s mind sharp, killing time while traveling, or just unwinding at the end of the day.
Get the “Of Course!” Book of Brain Teasers on Amazon for $9.95
17. A stylish blanket scarf for traveling
This scarf is cozy and stylish. (Photo: Amazon)
A blanket scarf automatically upgrades someone's style to (comfortable) diva. When you're all wrapped up, it screams "don't bother me." And these huge scarfs are also quite versatile when traveling. Blanket scarves can function as blanket, pillows, eye masks (in a pinch), or even a cushion for your back. This one is made of super-soft acrylic and is about half the size of a twin blanket, making it the perfect for anyone who likes feeling cozy and looking fabulous.
Get the Dimore Blanket Tartan Scarf on Amazon for $14.99
18. The cookbook by everyone’s favorite HGTV star
Fixer Upper fans will love this. (Photo: Magnolia)
Recently, I was blessed enough to go to Waco, Texas, to check out Magnolia Market (and pick up a few gifts). Unfortunately, when I tried to eat at Magnolia Table, the wait was over three hours long. The next best thing I could do is cook something out of Joanna Gaines's cookbook Magnolia Table. Any Fixer Upper fan would love to have it in their collection, and it looks great as a coffee table book, too.
Get Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering on Amazon for $17.99
19. A sleek travel mug for the coffee or tea lover
Carry coffee in style. (Photo: Contigo)
Anyone who's constantly warming up with coffee or tea shouldn't be without a trusty coffee mug, especially when they're on the go. This one from Contigo is one of our favorite travel mugs because it kept our drinks hot up for to eight hours and it's basically spill-proof with its patented Autoseal technology. Plus, it comes in a variety of luxurious colors to match every style and personality—though the prices vary depending on the color you choose.
Get the Contigo Autoseal West Loop Travel Mug on Amazon starting at $9.99
20. A gift card when all else fails
You can't go wrong with a gift card. (Photo: Amazon)
If you really don't know what to get someone, just send them a gift card. We think Amazon's your best bet since they sell literally everything, and you can get a card in virtually any denomination you want. You really can't go wrong with this gift idea. If you order a physical card before Dec. 18, it'll arrive by Christmas, but digital gift cards can be sent immediately.
Get an Amazon Gift Card on Amazon for $20
The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered this holiday season. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Prices are accurate at the time this article was published, but may change over time.
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/reviewedcom/2018/12/17/20-perfect-last-minute-gifts-under-20/2303391002/ | {
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Tiemoue, welcome to Chelsea! Why did you decide to join?
Thank you! I am very happy to be here. For me this is the biggest English club, and I hope to achieve great things here. I am very proud.
Chelsea is a great club with a great history, and they are the champions of England. My wish was to be at the best English club there is today.
I am very happy and proud for me, my family and the people who have been following me for a very long time. Now the work starts for all of us together to progress.
What have you made of Cobham?
I have got a great reception and I’m very much impressed by the facilities here. Everything is much bigger than I have known, and it seems like the perfect place to play football.
I haven’t been to Stamford Bridge yet but I can’t wait to see this big stadium.
We saw you had a chat with Antonio Conte. What did he say?
We spoke a lot about tactics, and training, and he took the time to talk to me about my game and explain I must be serious-minded and work hard. | {
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Alex Ovechkin's parents spoke exclusively to www.nhl.com/ru and wrote a letter congratulating their son on passing Sergei Fedorov and becoming the leading scorer among Russians in NHL history. The below was translated from its original text in Russian.
Our dear Sasha!
Even though we are on different continents, we try not to miss any of your games. We both watch them religiously, your mama in America and your dad at our dacha (country house) outside of Moscow, because doctors recommend he not fly cross country for health reasons. Since our time zones are so different, your father wakes up in the middle of the night and turns on the TV.
Losing streaks are always hard. But those down swings happen to every team in the course of the season. The most important thing is to continue to believe in yourself. We are glad that you, Sasha, always fight for your teammates and try to do everything to make the team win and play well. This is more valuable to you than breaking Sergei Fedorov's scoring record. Although it is a nice feeling to bypass such a great player, try not to put too much emphasis on this. We know that you want to win another Stanley Cup, and do it more than once. We understand how much you strive for this and we wish you good luck on this journey. The few misfires during the regular season should not discourage you. Without defeats there are no victories.
It is very important, son, that you know how to bring people joy. We felt it ourselves last June. We saw hundreds of thousands of hockey fans taking to the streets in Washington. We know how people in Russia literally cried with happiness when you beat the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final. With your game you are capable of evoking incredibly strong emotions among real fans.
Fedorov is not just another hockey player in our country. It is a big deal that you have overtaken such a great master.
Fedorov was a very good hockey player. He taught organization, understanding of the game, always clearly explained everything, and showed by example what world-class hockey should be. It is indeed a great fortune to overtake such a master. We all respect our great hockey players: Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, Igor Larionov... The fact that you managed to bypass them all in scoring, and even needed 200 fewer games then Sergei to get there is a testament to the great job you have done and your great desire to succeed.
We remember how thrilled you were when Fedorov came to Washington. You were very, very happy about it. As a kid, you loved watching the Detroit Red Wings and the Russian Five play, all of our guys in the NHL. You collected hockey cards. We still have them in our apartment, all six albums of them. They are old and priceless now, that collection you started back in the 90s.
We are looking at your photograph from that time. We think it's from 1993, when Mogilny scored 76 goals in one regular season, setting a Russian record. He, too, was called Alexander the Great. And you are still very young in the picture, smiling and wearing a Buffalo Sabres jacket. Remember, we stopped at a hockey shop, and you really liked this jacket? Lukewarm, beautiful jacket. So we bought it, you would wear it all the time. Fit you perfect.
Dad did not miss your single practice until 2002, when Viktor Vasilyevich Tikhonov already started selecting you for Team Russia. We remember that he invited you to a tournament in Europe and immediately put you on the first line - if memory serves us right, along with Maxim Sushinsky and Valery Zelepukin. You were only 17 years old. Dad even asked Tikhonov permission to accompany the team.
Another memory flash is when you were leaving for the NHL in 2005. We did not cry at the airport. We were sure of you. Firstly, you knew a little bit of English. Secondly, we had talked with the former Dynamo defender Andrei Markov, who then played for Montreal, and he reassured us: "They will treat Sasha well. He won't be abandoned there, they will take care of him in the new city."
And take care of you they did. At first you lived with Capitals General Manager George McPhee. We will always be thankful to him for taking you in. Feels like it was yesterday.
We remember how you took your first steps in hockey, how you graduated from school. Sometimes we sit down at the table, look at each other and feel like we have just gotten married recently, and this is our 49th year together. We had our wedding in September of 1970. And you, too, were born in September, 15 years later.
So we sit opposite each other, saying: "Is our 50th wedding anniversary really coming soon?" Well, at least you finally gave us a grandson. (Sergei) is a great boy, so lively and smiling. He has turned five months old recently. What he becomes - only time will tell. An athlete, maybe? Once he picks up a hockey stick, let's see how he holds it. Or, if he picks up a basketball, let's see what that looks like. So long as he grows up healthy and becomes a good person, for us it would be good enough.
Most important, Sasha, is that you stay healthy. It is also paramount that everything is good in the family. You have a wonderful family. We are so thankful to your wife Nastya for such a precious gift, for our grandson (Sergei). We are so pleased to see how Nastya cares about you, how delicious her cooking is, and how she always supports and helps you with everything. Such support is inspiring, so you can be even more successful in hockey.
In addition, the entire Capitals organization is also your big family. All your teammates, the entire coaching staff, without whom this scoring record would never be possible. Club owner Ted Leonsis, he has always been so attentive to you and has done so much for you. We are very grateful to him. He is the head of this big hockey family. He often comes into the locker room and seemingly knows your every achievement. He congratulated us so warmly on the birth of our grandson. (Sergei) and the Stanley Cup were our two biggest victories in 2018.
We are so proud to see you play the way you have. You glorify Russian sports in North America, and you never forget your homeland. You don't pay much attention to the critics, and they will always be there. Keep going down your own path, do your own thing. You just keep playing hockey, keep having fun doing it, like you did as a boy. This feeling is always with you. The love of for the game, coupled with your hard work. Most others can't perform at this level at 33. But you maintain this highest level and don't ask any less of yourself. And you keep proving that Russian hockey is the best in the world.
We love both of our sons the same way - you and Misha. If the children are happy, then we are happy. We will never get tired of repeating it.
Hugs and kisses.
Your mom and dad. | {
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Харків'янка, учениця 11 класу Харківської гімназії №45 Ольга Шевченко здобула перше місце на щорічній Європейській математичній олімпіаді для дівчат (EGMO-2017) у Цюріху (Швейцарія).
Однакову кількість балів разом з Ольгою отримала американська учасниця, — у підсумку вони набрали по 42 бали.
Про це повідомила старший науковий співробітник Інституту математики Національної академії наук України Ірина Єгорченко на своїй сторінці в Facebook.
«Великий успіх української команди на Європейській математичної олімпіади для дівчат. Перше місце там Штати, але серед європейських країн — Україна. Ось це — світове визнання, великий успіх», — написала Єгорченко.
Зазначається, що перемогу Ольги Шевченко варто вважати абсолютною, адже школярка зі США брала участь у складі команди гостей.
Ще одна учасниця з України — Аліна Гарбузова, посіла п’яте місце, набравши 37 балів. Також, українські школярки Аліна Ян і Юлія Здановскька за результатами конкурсу займають 24 і 27 місця.
Україна прийматиме цю олімпіаду у 2019 році.
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The Padres’ two-year push to contend in the National League West hasn’t panned out as the new ownership and front office groups had hoped, and the Friars have already begun to sell off pieces (James Shields) with plenty of rumors swirling around virtually every other player on the roster. While Tyson Ross and Andrew Cashner were thought to be the team’s top two trade chips in the rotation heading into the season, though, it’s been left-hander Drew Pomeranz that has had generated the most trade buzz as of late. The former No. 5 overall pick is in the midst of a breakout season, having pitched to a 3.00 ERA with 10.7 K/9, 4.2 BB/9 and a 45.6 percent ground-ball rate. His 3.44 FIP and 3.64 xFIP are both within the Top 25 among all MLB starters, and SIERA rates him 31st — just ahead of Zack Greinke and just behind the likes of Masahiro Tanaka, Kenta Maeda and Taijuan Walker.
Suffice it to say, Pomeranz has been one of the better starters in all of baseball this season, and as such the Padres should be able to fetch a much stronger return than the package they parted with to acquire him (Yonder Alonso, Marc Rzepczynski). Still, it’s not entirely clear that the Padres should be open to moving him at all. Let’s look at the issue from both angles.
The Case For Trading Drew Pomeranz
Simply put, the Padres aren’t a good team in 2016. Moreover, they don’t have an especially strong farm system. The Padres added some talent to their ranks with last season’s Craig Kimbrel trade, and they had one of the largest pools in this year’s amateur draft as well. Beyond that, they’re rumored to be gearing up for a hyper-aggressive run on the international prospect scene when the 2016-17 signing period kicks off on July 2. General manager A.J. Preller and his staff are in talent acquisition mode, and marketing Pomeranz — a former top draft pick and top prospect with two years of team control beyond 2016 — could further bolster their minor league system.
Pomeranz, after all, is earning just $1.35MM after his first trip through the arbitration process due to the fact that his pre-arb seasons consisted of struggles with the Rockies at Coors Field and success in a limited role in Oakland, where he served as a swingman. That price means that any team can afford to add him to its books, and it also figures to suppress his earning power for his second and third trips through the arbitration process. Pomeranz’s pedigree, low salary and remaining control should all make him appealing to clubs in search of pitching, and we’ve already seen the Orioles and Marlins linked to him this week alone.
Advocates of a Pomeranz trade for the Padres could consider this to be selling high. He’s already nearly matched his innings total from 2015, he’s spent time on the disabled list in the past with shoulder and biceps problems, and as the team has learned with Ross this season, waiting to move a pitcher with injury concerns can have a disastrous outcome. Ross has still only pitched in one game with the Padres this season. A healthy Ross would be among the most in-demand chips on the summer market, but the Padres would be selling him for pennies on the dollar right now. Cashing in while Pomeranz is healthy and performing well has its merits, to be sure.
The Case Against Trading Drew Pomeranz
Those same concerns surrounding Pomeranz’s injuries and workload could limit other teams’ willingness to part with top-tier talent to acquire him, however. Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune recently spoke to a few scouts about Pomeranz and one NL scout suggested that the lefty would fetch a “limited return” due to skepticism surrounding his lack of a track record. While that’s just one scout’s opinion, of course, it speaks to the fact that there are those in the game that aren’t necessarily sold on Pomeranz as a concrete option to fortify the top half of a rotation.
The fact that he’s controllable through 2018, too, means that the Padres don’t need to be in a rush to trade him. Even if Pomeranz gets hurt in August, he’d have plenty of time to reestablish value in the first half of the 2017 season. And, if he’s able to remain healthy and productive, his value will only grow. There’s a complete dearth of quality arms available in free agency this winter, and it’s certainly not a stretch to say that the Padres could get a greater return if they’re marketing a full season of strong work from Pomeranz in a barren pitching market than they could by marketing half a season of strong innings. Trading him next summer could create even greater value if Pomeranz can sustain his breakout pace, as he’d still come with one and a half years of control at a reasonable salary.
Additionally, the Padres simply need quality arms for the foreseeable future in their rotation. San Diego isn’t teeming with quality rotation options. Ross is a question mark at this point, and lefty Robbie Erlin was lost to Tommy John surgery earlier this year, making him an unknown in 2017 as well. Cashner is a free agent in three months’ time and may or may not return. Beyond Pomeranz and Ross, the Padres’ rotation options in 2017 include Colin Rea, Erik Johnson, Christian Friedrich, Cesar Vargas, Rule 5 pick Luis Perdomo and perhaps Brandon Maurer if San Diego again wants to experiment with him as a starter. There are some additional options at Triple-A (e.g. Michael Kelly, Bryan Rodriguez), as shown on the Padres’ depth chart, but all of the starters ranked among the Padres’ Top 30 prospects at MLB.com come with an ETA of at least 2018 — and many aren’t projected to factor into the Majors until 2019. | {
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The goal, says activists, is to give the students "security, stability and salvation."
The first boarding school for transgender students in India is opening today in Kochi in the southeast part of the subcontinent.
Allison Joyce/Getty Images
The inaugural class at Sahaj International School will have just 10 students, who will study under six trans instructors from the TransIndia Foundation. Activist and artist Kalki Subramaniam will speak at the opening day ceremony.
Students were selected from different areas of society, and include a migrant worker and a disabled person.
“In the beginning, we have a few sponsors supporting us. We are planning to seek financial help from government after proving its worthiness,” school organizer Vijayaraja Mallika told the Indian Express.
The goal, says Mallika, is to give the students “security, stability and salvation.”
Getty Images
Support has come not just from India’s National Open School program but from teachers, social workers and a Christian charity that recognizes the unique hardships faced by trans people. While hijras have been a part of the country’s heritage for centuries, they face discrimination and even violence, and are often forced into begging or sex work to survive.
Since India recriminalized homosexuality in 2013, physical, psychological and sexual violence against the transgender community has increased, though the police frequently don’t investigate charges. In 2014, the country’s Supreme Court legally recognized the identities of transgender citizens, and “affirmed that they should not be discriminated against on the basis of gender identity or expression.”
A bill introduced in India’s Parliament would codify the ruling, with access to financial aid, a prohibition on employment discrimination, and a 2% quota for government and education jobs.
“Though physically fit, transgenders face discrimination at every step of their lives with no job opportunities, access to education or avenues to lead a normal life,” said MP Tiruchi Siva, who sponsored the measure. “This bill seeks to correct this and pave the way for their social acceptance.” | {
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Segundo a OCDE, os impostos que menos criam distorções e desestímulo ao crescimento são os tributos sobre propriedade imobiliária, como o IPTU.
Estudos realizados por pesquisadores da Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE), grupo de países desenvolvidos do qual o Brasil quer fazer parte, apontam que impostos sobre transações financeiras, como o novo tributo que a equipe econômica quer criar sobre meios de pagamento, estão entre os mais prejudiciais para o crescimento da economia.
No topo do ranking da OCDE de impostos mais prejudiciais estão os cobrados sobre a renda das empresas e das pessoas físicas. Em seguida, aparecem tributos sobre transações financeiras – como a extinta CPMF e a novata CP (Contribuição sobre Pagamentos) – e impostos sobre consumo.
A OCDE avalia que os impostos sobre a propriedade e, mais precisamente, aqueles que incidem sobre a propriedade imobiliária residencial, como o IPTU, são considerados os mais eficientes, porque distorcem menos as decisões de produção e de investimento das empresas.
Para chegar à conclusão de que há um ranking de tributos, os pesquisadores da OCDE investigaram o desenho das estruturas tributárias mais propícias para estimular o crescimento econômico.
Opinião da Gazeta: Reforma e justiça tributária
Leia as últimas notícias sobre reforma tributária
Segundo Rodrigo Orair, especialista em tributação da Instituição Fiscal Independente (IFI) do Senado, a principal crítica ao novo tributo sobre meios de pagamento é a de que, em última instância, ele é semelhante à CPMF, extinta em 2007, depois que o Congresso rejeitou a proposta do governo Lula de prorrogar a sua vigência por mais quatro anos. "É a CPMF com algumas mudancinhas pontuais", diz. Ele explica que a maior parte das transações financeiras é feita entre as empresas, e não entre pessoas físicas. "Esse é um tributo necessariamente cumulativo porque não incide só sobre o consumidor final. A empresa vai repassar esse custo", ressalta (leia aqui entrevista com Orair).
De acordo com Orair, a OCDE mostra que o imposto sobre transações tem efeito de distorção nas operações financeiras. "Se for em relação ao que o resto do mundo está fazendo, esse novo imposto é o caminho errado", avalia. Além de financiar as despesas públicas, os sistemas tributários são usados para promover outros objetivos, como a equidade, e abordar preocupações sociais e econômicas.
"Nova CPMF" não tem chance no Congresso, diz presidente da Comissão Especial
Presidente da Comissão Especial sobre reforma tributária na Câmara, o deputado Hildo Rocha (MDB-MA) disse que não há "chance nenhuma" de um novo imposto sobre pagamento ser aprovado no Congresso. "Esse tipo de imposto é um dos mais perversos, porque é cumulativo, aumenta o escambo, desincentiva transações financeiras", afirmou. Segundo ele, uma proposta de reforma tributária só será aprovada por deputados e senadores se houver uma redução no volume de impostos pagos pelos brasileiros.
Na sexta-feira, dia 19, o presidente Jair Bolsonaro afirmou que o governo pretende fundir impostos, mas descartou a volta da CPMF. Apesar da declaração do presidente, o ministro da Economia, Paulo Guedes, já deu sinal verde para a sua equipe concluir o texto de Proposta de Emenda Constitucional (PEC) de reforma tributária que inclui a criação de um novo imposto, nos mesmos moldes operacionais da antiga CPMF, mas com uma base mais ampla sobre todos os meios de pagamento (incluindo até mesmo transações em espécie). A CP, com uma alíquota de 0,6%, bancaria a desoneração da parte que o empregador paga acima do teto do INSS (R$ 5.839,45). Nesse desenho inicial, a contribuição dos empresários e dos empregados seria a mesma, de 8,5%. | {
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A longtime federal tax litigation attorney, Bachmann entered politics in 2000 as a Minnesota state senator. In 2006 she became the first female U.S. representative from Minnesota and in 2010 founded the Tea Party Caucus in Congress.
Romney, a management consultant, served as CEO of Bain & Company and then co-founded a spin-off investment firm, Bain Capital, that quickly made him a multimillionaire. In his first run at politics, Romney lost the 1994 Massachusetts U.S. Senate race to to incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy. Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and did not seek re-election in 2006.
The longest-serving governor in Texas history is a former West Texas cotton farmer who started his political career as a Democrat in the Texas House. After switching to the Republican Party, Perry was elected agriculture commissioner, then lieutenant governor. He succeeded George W. Bush as governor in December 2000 and has since been re-elected three times.
Paul, 76, and his wife Carol have five children, all married with kids of their own. Paul's son, Rand, joined him in Congress in 2010 as a Republican senator from Kentucky.
Bachmann, 55, and her husband, Marcus, a clinical psychologist, have five biological children and have been foster parents to 23 teenage girls.
Romney, 64, and his wife, Ann, have five grown sons, all of whom have joined him on the campaign trail.
Perry, 61, married his childhood sweetheart, Anita, whom he met at age 8 at a piano recital. They have two children, Griffin and Sydney, and a daughter-in-law, Meredith.
Paul graduated from Gettysburg College with a degree in biology. He specialized in obstetrics/gynecology at the Duke University School of Medicine.
Bachmann graduated from Winona State University in Minnesota and received a degree in tax law from Virginia's College of William & Mary. Bachmann also received a law degree from Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma.
Romney has no military experience. He served as a Mormon missionary and was given a military deferment during the Vietnam War. He has said he longed to serve and regrets not having done so.
Paul was raised Lutheran but currently attends a conservative Baptist church. In an article titled "Christmas in Secular America," Paul wrote that "a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers."
The Romney family has practiced Mormonism since the former governor's great-great-grandparents joined the church in 1841 after meeting its founder, Joseph Smith. When he was 19, Romney went on a 30-month mission trip to France.
Raised as a Methodist, Perry now attends an evangelical church in Austin. At the 30,000-strong prayer rally he hosted in Houston in August, Perry told the crowd that God was the "only hope" for a nation in crisis.
Not applicable. Perry entered the presidential race in August, a month after the Federal Election Commission released the most recent campaign finance reports.
Not applicable. Perry entered the presidential race in August, a month after the Federal Election Commission released the most recent campaign finance reports.
Paul has said that "true conservatives and libertarians should understand that the solution to our moral and cultural decline does not lie in a strong centralized government."
As a constitutional conservative, Bachmann says she believes "in the founding fathers' vision of a limited government that trusts in and perceives the unlimited potential of you, the American people."
Romney has invoked the 10th Amendment to defend his health reform plan for Massachusetts, which some Republican opponents have compared to the federal reform they revile: “One thing I’d never do, by the way," Romney says, "is impose a one-size-fits-all policy on the nation.”
From his lawsuits challenging federal health care reform and environmental programs to his suggestions that Texans were so angry with Washington that they might consider secession, Perry has repeatedly invoked the 10th Amendment. He promises to "stop the federal intrusion upon states by runaway agencies like the EPA" and he wrote his book Fed Up! to "rally Americans to restore the proper, constitutional balance between the federal government and the states."
Cut taxes and spending, eliminate regulations imposed by the "job-killing" EPA and stop cap-and-trade practices. “There are over 600 American companies that have gone to Ireland because of the tax rate,” Bachmann said.
Paul opposes federal health care reform and believes the U.S. should encourage free-market competition by putting "pressure on the providers" and forcing them to lower their costs to remain in business. He also supports allowing tax deductions for all health care costs.
Romney believes states should implement their own health care plans, like Massachusetts did when he was governor. Though his state's individual mandate has drawn comparisons to "Obamacare," 98 percent of Massachusetts residents now have health insurance at a cost of $350 million a year, or 1 percent of the state budget.
Perry's first order of business would be to repeal "Obamacare," then "start over" by freeing states of federal mandates and giving local governments more control over Medicaid and other social programs. Texas has been good fodder for Democrats: It has country's highest rate of uninsured individuals.
Paul is "strongly pro-life" and has said abortion could lead the country toward legalizing euthanasia, but he believes legalization of the practice should be left to individual states, not to the federal government.
Bachmann and her husband, a psychiatrist, who staunchly oppose abortion rights, have repeatedly counseled women against having abortions. "We would take them in. We would drive them over to pro-life centers. ... It was a privilege to be a part of bringing new life into the world.”
Romney believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned so states can independently decide whether to outlaw abortion. He has angered some conservatives by not signing a pledge to appoint anti-abortion advocates to top federal positions. Romney campaigned in 1994 and 2002 as an abortion rights supporter but has since switched positions.
An ardent abortion opponent, Perry signed a pledge to use his federal power, if elected, to appoint anti-abortion advocates to top positions and to work to defund Planned Parenthood.
In 2007 Paul said he no longer believes in capital punishment because it "has been issued unjustly," even in cases with DNA evidence.
Bachmann's position on the death penalty is unclear. She has never had to vote on the matter or oversee an execution, and there is no capital punishment in Minnesota.
During Perry's tenure, 233 convicted criminals have been executed, more than any U.S. governor in modern history. He has commuted the death sentences of 31 inmates, including 28 who the U.S. Supreme Court said could no longer be executed because they were juveniles at the time of their crime.
Paul backed tax incentives for clean energy development but wants environmental disputes settled by the states or the courts. He has supported Arctic drilling to increase U.S. energy independence but has opposed tax incentives for oil and gas drilling.
It'll be lights out for the EPA if Bachmann is elected, as she has vowed to shut down the agency and end its environmental regulations. "The radical environmentalists have demanded that we lock up all our energy resources," she has said.
Romney says he believes the world is getting hotter but doesn't know "if it's mostly caused by humans." He opposes increasing regulations on emissions. "What I'm not willing to do is spend trillions of dollars on something I don't know the answer to," he has said.
Texas currently has seven lawsuits filed against the EPA challenging regulations that limit emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. In his book Fed Up!, Perry calls global warming “one contrived phony mess."
Paul voted in favor of building a border fence to keep out immigrants from Mexico and has proposed a constitutional amendment to remove birthright citizenship. In 2007 Paul said he sees the "immigration problem as a consequence of our welfare state."
Although she advocated to bring orphaned children to the U.S. after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Bachmann strongly opposes illegal immigration.
Romney has said the U.S. ought to build a border fence, outlaw "sanctuary cities" and keep employers from hiring illegal immigrants. He's in favor of creating an employment-verification system.
Perry made outlawing "sanctuary cities" a priority during the last legislative session. He has increased funding for border security in Texas and recently asked the federal government to reimburse Texas for the cost of imprisoning illegal aliens.
Bachmann supports teaching intelligent design in schools. She says curriculum should be set at the local level, because government shouldn't decide on a scientific issue "when there is reasonable doubt on both sides."
Romney has said he believes God created the universe and that “evolution is most likely the process he used to create the human body.”
Perry says evolution is a theory "with some gaps." On the campaign trail, he inaccurately told a child that "in Texas, we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools. Because I figure you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right.”
Same Sex Marriage
Rick Perry Perry has backtracked on a claim made in his book Fed Up! that states should decide whether to sanction same-sex marriage. He now says he supports a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. "Obviously gay marriage is not fine with me. My stance hasn't changed. I believe marriage is a union between one man and one woman," he said.
Mitt Romney Although same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Romney signed a pledge to appoint officials, particularly judges, who oppose same-sex marriage. He has said he would defend the Defense of Marriage Act and has signed a pledge to support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Michele Bachmann Although Minnesota has a law on the books banning same-sex marriage, Bachmann proposed a state constitutional amendment in 2003 to prohibit it. She characterized homosexuality as "part of Satan" in a speech reposted by CBS. "Any of you who have members of your family that are in the lifestyle — we have a member of our family that is — this is not funny. It's a very sad life." | {
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The Odd, Odd Case Of Alvin Greene Gets Even More Odd
Alvin Greene is running a political campaign, but it's unlike anything anyone has ever seen before.
Doug Mataconis · · 24 comments
When we last left Alvin Greene, he had survived an attempt by South Carolina Democrats to remove him from the ballot, since then his campaign, such as it is, has taken a very odd turn. For one thing, he’s apparently figured out that talking to the press may not be the best thing to do:
After dozens of interviews, the candidate has begun to shun reporters, wearily asking what the story is going to be about and sometimes refusing to talk. Two weeks ago, Greene asked the same AP reporter he’d welcomed into his home to leave, saying he was “a busy man” and repeating “Go! Go! Go! Go!” while avoiding eye contact. A phone call to arrange an interview later that day was met with a gruff request to return a week later at 1:30. When the appointment arrived, Greene wasn’t there. Greene answered another request for a long interview Monday by telling the reporter to call back in a couple of weeks.
He did, however, given an extended interview to London’s Guardian, where he unveiled his plan to revive South Carolina’s economy:
It becomes clear fairly early in our conversation that Greene is not the greatest orator. He is not in the mould, say, of one of his heroes, Barack Obama. When I ask him whether Obama, as a fellow African-American, had been an inspiration behind his own decision to enter politics, he says, “Yes, I mean there’s something that, you know, I knew so I just knew that. It was in my mind, I knew that, that, that, that the voters really, they really, that they really, erm, followed the candidate. That they really wanted substance in a candidate . . . ” It is clear, too, in the course of the two hours I spend with Greene that he has some pretty wacky ideas that, were he to win in November, would put him among the more unpredictable members of the senate. At one point, he lurches off on his big idea for how to create jobs in South Carolina. “Another thing we can do for jobs is make toys of me, especially for the holidays. Little dolls. Me. Like maybe little action dolls. Me in an army uniform, air force uniform, and me in my suit. They can make toys of me and my vehicle, especially for the holidays and Christmas for the kids. That’s something that would create jobs. So you see I think out of the box like that. It’s not something a typical person would bring up. That’s something that could happen, that makes sense. It’s not a joke.”
You heard it here first kids. The Alvin Green action figure. Better get your letters out to Santa now before supply runs out !
Since the primary, I’ve vacillated between the idea that Alvin Greene is pulling off some kind of enormous practical joke and the idea that he’s just, well, totally nuts. After reading that Guardian interview, I’m as confused as ever. | {
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Books and video games. Once thought mortal enemies now the strangest of bedfellows. Decried in the 1980s as literacy kryptonite (“That Pac Man Invader Kong will rot your brain!”), it’s now common for libraries to check video games and books out alongside one another and for literature to find new life rendered in pixels and boss fights.
Of course some contemporary best-sellers seem practically written to pirouette easily into games (Katniss Everdeen did not fight in The Hunger Meditations), but how about novels written decades before Pong? How about novels with the cultural baggage and crappy memories of being forced on you in 10th-grade English?
They’ve got game too. Here are our favorite video game adaptations of works of classic literature. We may still be waiting to play I Know Why The Caged Bird Kills Zombies or Waiting For Godot: The First Person Shooter. But in the meantime, we’ve got gems by Fitzgerald, Hugo, Bradbury, and Austen.
Ready, player one? | {
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Στο νέο κείμενό του μέσα από τις φυλακές, ο Νίκος Ρωμανός δεν περιγράφει μόνο τη νύχτα της δολοφονίας του Αλέξανδρου Γρηγορόπουλου, αλλά μιλά και για τη γνωριμία τους, την κοινή τους πορεία και εξηγεί πώς οι δυο τους προσχώρησαν στον αντιεξουσιαστικό χώρο.
«Με τον Αλέξανδρο γνωρίστηκα στο σχολείο, αρχίσαμε να κάνουμε πολύ παρέα καθώς μέναμε σχετικά κοντά. Ήταν ένας άνθρωπος που σιχαίνονταν τους καθωσπρεπισμούς και την υποκρισία που επικρατούσε στο σχολικό μας περιβάλλον. Πάντα έψαχνε να βρει διεξόδους απέναντι σε αυτή την συνθήκη και κάπου εκεί ταίριαξαν τα χνώτα μας. Γνωριστήκαμε καλά μέσα από τις κοπάνες που κάναμε δραπετεύοντας από την ρουτίνα της σχολικής πλήξης, τους ατελείωτους περιπάτους μας εξερευνώντας άγνωστα για εμάς σημεία της πόλης , τις καθημερινές μας κουβέντες και τις συζητήσεις μας για όλα όσα μας προβλημάτιζαν. Ο καιρός περνούσε και εμείς συνεχίζαμε να βαδίζουμε σε μονοπάτια διευρυμένων αναζητήσεων και έντονων αμφισβητήσεων για τον κόσμο που μας περιτριγύριζε», γράφει μεταξύ άλλων.
Μάλιστα προσθέτει ότι «γύρω στα 14 είχαμε την πρώτη μας επαφή με τους αναρχικούς, μας άρεσε όταν βλέπαμε στην τηλεόραση εικόνες από συγκρούσεις μεταξύ διαδηλωτών και αστυνομίας. Εξάλλου για εμάς που όλη την ημέρα αλητεύαμε σε πάρκα και πλατείες δεν ήταν και δύσκολο να αντιπαθήσουμε την αστυνομία».
Ολόκληρο το νέο κείμενο του Νίκου Ρωμανού έχει ως εξής:
«Σήμερα θα ξεκινήσω να μιλάω για να πω αυτά που πρέπει να αποτυπωθούν ως μια αυθεντική κατάθεση ψυχής στην επαναστατική μνήμη. Την δική μου κατάθεση ψυχής για ένα γεγονός το οποίο αποτέλεσε τον πυροκροτητή για την εντατικοποίηση της ένοπλης εφόδου στα χειμερινά ανάκτορα της εξουσίας. Ένα γεγονός το οποίο συνέβαλε αποφασιστικά στην δημιουργία ενός σημείου χωρίς επιστροφή για όσους οπλίστηκαν και φόρτωσαν στις βαλίτσες τους όνειρα και ελπίδες για έναν κόσμο ελευθερίας, σε μια τέτοια βαλίτσα φόρτωσα και εγώ το μίσος μου μαζί με ρούχα και μερικά ενθύμια και έφυγα οριστικά από το σπίτι μου μια μέρα πριν η αστυνομία εισβάλει για να με εντοπίσει και να με πάει σιδηροδέσμιο να καταθέσω στο δικαστήριο των μπάτσων- δολοφόνων. Έβαλα φωτιά στις γέφυρες της παρελθοντικής μου ζωής και πέρασα στις γραμμές του παράνομου αναρχικού αγώνα. Παρότι ήμουν δεκαέξι χρονών είχα πλήρη επίγνωση των πράξεων μου και γνώριζα ότι αν και είχα πολύ μεγαλύτερο ηθικό ανάστημα από ότι όλα αυτά τα γελοία ανθρωπάκια που βρισκόντουσαν σε αυτή την αίθουσα, δεν είχε έρθει ακόμα η ώρα να ειπωθούν όλα όσα πρέπει, δεν ήταν ούτε ο κατάλληλος χρόνος, ούτε εγώ ήμουν πραγματικά έτοιμος συνειδησιακά να σηκώσω ένα τέτοιο ιστορικό βάρος. Για αυτό και προτίμησα να σιωπήσω και να αφοσιωθώ στον πόλεμο εναντίων της εξουσίας, στον ίδιο πόλεμο που εφτά χρόνια μετά βρίσκομαι στην ίδια θέση μάχης ως αιχμάλωτος. Ένα ιστορικό βάρος που απέφυγα προσωρινά αλλά ποτέ δεν αποποιήθηκα και θα το σηκώσω τώρα.
Το δικαστήριο στο οποίο αρνήθηκα να παρευρεθώ αλλά και αυτό που θα ακολουθήσει επιχειρούν να βάλουν ένα τέλος με την μορφή της θεσμικής επικύρωσης σε μια πτυχή της ανατρεπτικής ιστορίας, μια πτυχή που ντρόπιασε την δημοκρατία καθώς ανέδειξε το άρωμα του θανάτου που σέρνει πίσω της. Η συγκεκριμένη πτυχή, αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι μιας ιστορίας που θα υπάρχει όσο οι καταπιεσμένοι θα εξεγείρονται ενάντια στους καταπιεστές τους, διαδραματίστηκε ένα βράδυ της 6ης Δεκεμβρίου του 2008 στην συμβολή των οδών Μεσολογγίου και Τζαβέλα στα Εξάρχεια.
Αυτά που θα πω σε καμία περίπτωση δεν λέγονται ώστε να διευκολύνουν τους δικαστικούς μηχανισμούς να εκδώσουν μια μελλοντική δίκαιη ετυμηγορία. Δεν πιστεύω ούτε στους νόμους, ούτε στα δικαστήρια, ούτε στις φυλακές που υψώνονται απειλητικές για να πειθαρχήσουν όσους αποκλίνουν από την έννομη τάξη θάβοντας τους ζωντανούς ανάμεσα σε τσιμέντο και κάγκελα.
Έχω το θάρρος να πιστεύω στην δύναμη του ελεύθερου ανθρώπου, στην δυνατότητα του αυτοκαθορισμού του μέσα σε έναν κόσμο καθολικής υποταγής, στην προοπτική της αναρχικής επανάστασης και στην πρακτική της διαρκούς αναρχικής εξέγερσης.
Θα ξεκινήσω την αφήγηση μου με γνώμονα να απευθυνθώ στην ιστορία, να σταθώ αντάξιος απέναντι της, να συμβάλω στην δημιουργία μιας καθαρής παρακαταθήκης που δεν θα λερώνει την μνήμη των νεκρών μας, να στείλω ένα αντάρτικο σινιάλο σε εκείνους που ενδιαφέρονται να γίνουν οι δράστες που θα διαμορφώσουν την εξέλιξη της όπως της αρμόζει. Με συνεχή αγώνα, με όλα τα μέσα, με πάθος για την ελευθερία και μίσος για όσους συντηρούν την νέα τάξη πραγμάτων βαμμένη στο αίμα όσων αντιστάθηκαν στην παντοδυναμία της.
Το κύκνειο άσμα για την φιλία μου με τον Αλέξανδρο ξεκινάει...
Με τον Αλέξανδρο γνωρίστηκα στο σχολείο, αρχίσαμε να κάνουμε πολύ παρέα καθώς μέναμε σχετικά κοντά. Ήταν ένας άνθρωπος που σιχαίνονταν τους καθωσπρεπισμούς και την υποκρισία που επικρατούσε στο σχολικό μας περιβάλλον. Πάντα έψαχνε να βρει διεξόδους απέναντι σε αυτή την συνθήκη και κάπου εκεί ταίριαξαν τα χνώτα μας. Γνωριστήκαμε καλά μέσα από τις κοπάνες που κάναμε δραπετεύοντας από την ρουτίνα της σχολικής πλήξης, τους ατελείωτους περιπάτους μας εξερευνώντας άγνωστα για εμάς σημεία της πόλης , τις καθημερινές μας κουβέντες και τις συζητήσεις μας για όλα όσα μας προβλημάτιζαν. Ο καιρός περνούσε και εμείς συνεχίζαμε να βαδίζουμε σε μονοπάτια διευρυμένων αναζητήσεων και έντονων αμφισβητήσεων για τον κόσμο που μας περιτριγύριζε.
Γύρω στα 14 είχαμε την πρώτη μας επαφή με τους αναρχικούς, μας άρεσε όταν βλέπαμε στην τηλεόραση εικόνες από συγκρούσεις μεταξύ διαδηλωτών και αστυνομίας, ήταν κάτι που με τις άγουρες αντιλήψεις μας που είχαμε αρχίσει να σχηματίζουμε το θεωρούσαμε ως έναν τρόπο αντίστασης στην καθημερινή αδικία των κοινωνικών ανισοτήτων. Εξάλλου για εμάς που όλη την ημέρα αλητεύαμε σε πάρκα και πλατείες δεν ήταν και δύσκολο να αντιπαθήσουμε την αστυνομία ακόμα και από ένστικτο μπορούμε να πούμε. Είχαμε δει τους μπάτσους να ξεφτιλίζουν μετανάστες στο κέντρο της Αθήνας, είχαμε δει τον τρόπο με τον οποίο συμπεριφερόντουσαν στους τοξικό-εξαρτημένους και στους άστεγους προσβάλλοντας τους. Αυτά βέβαια είναι πράγματα που με μερικές βόλτες στο κέντρο της Αθήνας μπορεί να δει ο καθένας. Η αντίφαση που βιώναμε όμως ήταν όταν τους βλέπαμε να υποκλίνονται και να γλύφουν τους πλούσιους εκεί που μέναμε. Εκεί καταλάβαμε πραγματικά τι διπρόσωπα σκουλήκια και θρασύδειλοι είναι αυτή η σιχαμένη φάρα.
Έτσι πήραμε την απόφαση να κατέβουμε μαζί σε μια πορεία να δούμε από κοντά όλα αυτά τα οποία παρατηρούσαμε και για τα οποία είχαμε αναπτύξει ένα έντονο ενδιαφέρον. Έτσι και έγινε θυμάμαι ακόμα η πρώτη πορεία που είχαμε κατέβει ήταν εκείνη της 17ης Νοεμβρίου το 2007. Τότε είχαν υπάρξει συγκρούσεις με τους μπάτσους στις οποίες είχαμε συμμετάσχει και εμείς. Βέβαια τότε είμασταν πολύ διστακτικοί, απλός ακολουθούσαμε και αντιγράφαμε τις κινήσεις των ανθρώπων που συγκρούονταν με την αστυνομία. Είδαμε από κοντά άσχετους ανθρώπους να τσακίζονται στο ξύλο από τους ΜΑΤατζίδες, νιώσαμε την ασφυξία που προκαλούν τα δακρυγόνα και βιώσαμε για πρώτη φορά την αστυνομική καταστολή των διαδηλώσεων. Μόλις τελείωσε η πορεία κατεβήκαμε στα Εξάρχεια όπου καθίσαμε μέχρι αργά το βράδυ συζητώντας τα γεγονότα με έναν ενθουσιασμό για αυτό που μόλις είχε γίνει. Τον ενθουσιασμό που νιώθουν όλοι οι άνθρωποι όταν αρχίζουν να έρχονται σε επαφή με την αυθεντική πλευρά της ζωής.
Ένα σημαντικό σημείο αναφοράς υπήρξε για εμάς η αντιφασιστική πορεία στις 2 Φεβρουαρίου του 2008, τότε είχε καλεστεί συγκέντρωση από την Χρυσή Αυγή για τα Ίμια και οι αναρχικοί είχαν καλέσει σε αντισυγκέντρωση με στόχο να συγκρουστούν με τους φασίστες.
Είμασταν και εμείς εκεί και είδαμε τους φασίστες να βγαίνουν πίσω από τις γραμμές των ΜΑΤ για να μαχαιρώσουν συντρόφους, είδαμε τα γουρούνια της αστυνομίας να συντονίζουν τις εφόδους τους μαζί τους. Είδαμε συντρόφους να μαχαιρώνονται και φασίστες να τσακίζονται από τα τσεκούρια και τα παλούκια των συντρόφων. Και για να μην ξεχνιόμαστε οι άνθρωποι που βρισκόντουσαν στην εμπροσθοφυλακή των φασιστών είναι τώρα βουλευτές του ελληνικού κοινοβουλίου, αναφέρομαι στον Ηλία Παναγιώταρο, τον Γιάννη Λαγό και τον Ηλία Κασιδιάρη πριν αποκηρύξουν το παρελθόν τους και επικαλεστούν την νομιμότητα και την δημοκρατία.
Μόλις τελείωσε η συμπλοκή με τους φασίστες και τους μπάτσους κλειστήκαμε στην Πρυτανεία και περιμέναμε μέχρι το βράδυ όπου και αποχωρήσαμε συντεταγμένα με πορεία. Η πορεία τότε είχε χτυπηθεί από την πρώτη στιγμή που στάθηκε στον δρόμο από τους μπάτσους και είχαν υπάρξει προσαγωγές, συλλήψεις και τραυματισμοί.
Από τότε σχεδόν σε καθημερινή βάση κατεβαίναμε στα Εξάρχεια και αρχίσαμε να έχουμε επαφές με ανθρώπους που σύχναζαν και αυτοί εκεί. Ξεκινήσαμε να διαβάζουμε αναρχικά έντυπα, να ενημερωνόμαστε από σελίδες αντιπληροφόρησης, να συχνάζουμε σε καταλήψεις όπως η Βίλα Αμαλίας και Πραποπούλου. Ταυτόχρονα συμμετείχαμε και σε όλες τις διαδηλώσεις εκείνης της περιόδου που αφορούσαν τις μεταρρυθμίσεις στο ασφαλιστικό και τα φοιτητικά ενάντια στον γνωστό νόμο πλαίσιο με μοναδικό κίνητρο τις συγκρούσεις και τις αναταραχές στον δρόμο στις οποίες συμμετείχαμε κάθε φορά με μεγαλύτερη θέληση και αποφασιστικότητα.
Την ίδια περίοδο μαζί με κάποιους άλλους μαθητές δημιουργήσαμε μια αναρχική συλλογικότητα με το όνομα αναρχική επίθεση μαθητών και κάναμε και κάποιες συνελεύσεις με θέμα τα σχολεία και τον ρόλο της εκπαίδευσης στην λειτουργία της κοινωνικής μηχανής.
Θυμάμαι επίσης λίγες μέρες πριν την 17η Νοεμβρίου του 2008 είχαμε συμμετάσχει στην επίθεση στην νεολαία του ΠΑΣΟΚ που τότε είχε τα γραφεία της στα Εξάρχεια. Το περιστατικό είχε διαρκέσει αρκετή ώρα γιατί οι ΠΑΣΠΙΤΕΣ είχαν προσλάβει κάτι μπράβους για να τους προστατεύουν όπως είχαν κάνει και τα προηγούμενα χρόνια στις πορείες της 17Ν όπου μάλιστα οι μπράβοι τους είχαν επιτεθεί σε αναρχικά μπλοκ και ουσιαστικά η αντιπαράθεση δεν ήταν με την νεολαία του ΠΑΣΟΚ αλλά με τους μπράβους που φύλαγαν τα γραφεία τους. Στο τέλος καταφέραμε να φτάσουμε μέχρι τα γραφεία τους και όσοι δεν πρόλαβαν να κλειδωθούν μέσα δέχθηκαν την περιποίηση που τους αναλογούσε με αποτέλεσμα την επόμενη μέρα ο φοιτητής της ΠΑΣΠ που κρατούσε την σημαία του Πολυτεχνείου να είναι με σπασμένο χέρι σε όλες τις φωτογραφίες που κοσμούσαν τα πρωτοσέλιδα των εφημερίδων.
Το επόμενο γεγονός που ανασύρω από την μνήμη μου είναι στην συγκέντρωση αλληλεγγύης στα δικαστήρια της Ευελπίδων για τους τότε φυλακισμένους αναρχικούς Τσουραπά και Κοντορεβυθάκη που δικαζόντουσαν για εμπρηστική επίθεση σε γραφεία της δημοτικής αστυνομίας, μόλις τελείωσε το δικαστήριο οι αλληλέγγυοι που βρισκόμασταν εκεί φύγαμε πεζοί προς τα Εξάρχεια, στο ύψος του Πεδίον του Άρεως έγινε συμπλοκή με δυο μπάτσους από την ομάδα Ζ από τους οποίους πάρθηκαν και τα κράνη που είχαν αφήσει πάνω στις μηχανές τους, κατά την διάρκεια της συμπλοκής τότε οι μπάτσοι είχαν τραβήξει όπλα και πυροβόλησαν αρκετές φορές όχι μόνο στον αέρα αλλά και σημαδεύοντας κόσμο για να μας τρέψουν σε φυγή.
Επόμενο καρέ σε αυτή την αφήγηση είναι εκείνη η καταραμένη νύχτα της 6ης Δεκεμβρίου. Καθόμουν εγώ, ο Αλέξανδρος και κάποια άλλα παιδιά στον πεζόδρομο της Μεσολογγίου όπως κάναμε σχεδόν σε καθημερινή βάση.
Μετά από λίγη ώρα ήρθε ένας σύντροφος και μας πρότεινε να πάμε στην Χαριλάου Τρικούπη να περιμένουμε να περάσει κάποιο περιπολικό για να του πετάξουμε κάτι πέτρες που είχε μαζέψει. Όντως λοιπόν πήγαμε και περιμέναμε ενώ ο Αλέξανδρος καθόταν πιο πίσω. Μετά από λίγη ώρα πέρασε το περιπολικό με τον Κορκονέα και τον Σαραλιότη.
Χωρίς να το ξέρω το πλήρωμα του χρόνου είχε φτάσει για όλους μας, ήταν η στιγμή που θα άλλαζε τα πάντα. Η κλεψύδρα της ζωής γύρισε την στιγμή που η πέτρα έπεφτε πάνω στο περιπολικό του Κορκονέα. Στην συνέχεια γυρίσαμε και καθίσαμε στον πεζόδρομο μαζί με τα υπόλοιπα παιδιά ενώ ο Κορκονέας με τον Σαραλιώτη πέρασαν με το περιπολικό από την Ζωοδόχου Πηγής για να δουν ποιοι τους επιτέθηκαν εκεί ξαναπετάχτηκαν από μας προς το περιπολικό κάποια μικροαντικείμενα, αφού λοιπόν είδαν την παρέα μας πήγαν πάρκαραν το περιπολικό στην διμοιρία των ΜΑΤ που φυλούσε τα γραφεία του ΠΑΣΟΚ και κατέβηκαν πεζοί στην συμβολή των οδών Τζαβέλα και Ζωοδόχου Πηγής.
Μόλις είδαμε τους μπάτσους σηκωθήκαμε για να φύγουμε καθώς πιστέψαμε ότι μαζί με αυτούς θα είχε έρθει και η διμοιρία των ΜΑΤ όπως γίνετε συνήθως σε τέτοιες περιπτώσεις. Εκείνη την στιγμή οι δυο μπάτσοι άρχισαν να βρίζουν και τότε παρατηρήσαμε ότι είχαν έρθει μόνοι τους χωρίς κάποια υποστηρικτική αστυνομική δύναμη. Έτσι κάποιοι από εμάς κινήθηκαν προς το μέρος τους και ο Αλέξανδρος ο οποίος είχε πάει πιο μπροστά τους πέταξε κάτι μπουκάλια μπύρας από αυτά που πίναμε. Μετά από ελάχιστα δευτερόλεπτα ο Κορκονέας έβγαλε το όπλο του και ολοκλήρωσε με σφαίρες την συγκεκριμένη αντιπαράθεση που είχε ξεκινήσει πριν λίγη ώρα.
Μια σφαίρα στην καρδιά του Αλέξανδρου για να κλείσει ο κύκλος της παντοδυναμίας της κρατικής μηχανής. Μια κηλίδα από αίμα στον πεζόδρομο της Μεσολογγίου για να ανοίξει ο κύκλος της εξέγερσης που έκανε συντρίμμια την έννομη τάξη και έσπειρε το χάος και την αναρχία σε όλες τις πόλεις της Ελλάδας.
Όπως είναι λογικό οι συνήγοροι υπεράσπισης προσπάθησαν και θα προσπαθήσουν να ισχυριστούν ότι ήταν μια κακιά στιγμή, ένας εξοστρακισμός, ένα μεμονωμένο περιστατικό. Από την δική μου οπτική όσο αντιφατικό και αν ακούγετε σε δικαστικό και όχι φυσικά σε πολιτικό επίπεδο κάτι τέτοιο εξυπηρετεί και τις δικές μου επιθυμίες. Δεν πιστεύω στον θεσμό του εγκλεισμού καθώς τον θεωρώ ένα από τα εργαλεία της δημοκρατικά χορηγούμενης με δόσεις φρίκης που έχει στο οπλοστάσιο της η κυριαρχία για να εξασφαλίζει την ομαλή αναπαραγωγή της.
Πιστεύω στην επαναστατική αυτοδικία και στην προσπάθεια του κάθε ανθρώπου να λύνει μόνος του τους λογαριασμούς του μακριά από την διαμεσολάβηση των μπάτσων, των δικαστών, των νόμων, των φυλακών, της επιστημονικά μελετημένης καταστολής, της τεχνοκρατικής ασχήμιας που λερώνει την ομορφιά των άγριων ενστίκτων και της ελεύθερης βούλησης. Κατά συνέπεια για μένα στους μπάτσους-δολοφόνους αξίζει μια χαοτική πιθανότητα μιας προοπτικής να παρθεί εκδίκηση για όλες τις χαμένες ψυχές που αναζητούν την δική τους βίαιη λύτρωση. Αυτό είναι το μόνο δίκαιο στο δικό μου σύστημα αξιών.
Εξάλλου εμείς δεν βασανίζουμε ανθρώπους όπως κάνει συστηματικά ο σύγχρονος εξουσιαστικός πολιτισμός, το μεγαλύτερο τερατούργημα στην ιστορία του ανθρώπινου γένους, που έχει καταφέρει να κανονικοποιήσει ακόμα και τον θάνατο και να θέσει στην υπηρεσία της κυριαρχίας του τις λέξεις και τα νοήματα μέσα από τους μηχανισμούς προπαγάνδας των πάντοτε αντικειμενικών παγκόσμιων ενημερωτικών κέντρων.
Γιατί όλοι εμείς οι εχθροί της εξουσίας μπορεί να έχουμε συμβιβαστεί με την φυλακή ή ακόμα και τον θάνατο ως ένα πιθανό ενδεχόμενο όμως ποτέ δεν έχουμε αποδεχτεί την ύπαρξη του ως μια είδηση στην κατασκευασμένη εικονική πραγματικότητα από την οποία βομβαρδιζόμαστε.
Το πιο γελοίο της υπόθεσης είναι η προσπάθεια που γίνετε από τους προπαγανδιστικούς μηχανισμούς της κυριαρχίας να προβληθούν οι δολοφονίες που διαπράττουν οι μπάτσοι ως μεμονωμένα περιστατικά από διαταραγμένες προσωπικότητες, ως ατυχήματα που πάντοτε συμβαίνουν από αμέλεια.
Οι δολοφονίες των μπάτσων δεν είναι ούτε μεμονωμένα περιστατικά ούτε ελληνικό φαινόμενο. Είναι η ακραία έκφραση της δημοκρατικής επιβολής ενάντια στο κοινωνικό περιθώριο, στους φτωχοδιάβολους, τους παραβατικούς, τους ανυπότακτους, τους μετανάστες, είναι η επιβεβαίωση της ύπαρξης του απελευθερωτικού πολέμου όταν αυτές οι δολοφονίες εφαρμόζονται στοχευμένα εναντίων όσων εξεγερμένων μάχονται ένοπλα την κυριαρχία με την φλόγα της ελευθερίας να καίει στην καρδιά τους.
Είναι η λογική συνέπεια των αντιλήψεων γύρω από τον ρόλο τους με τις οποίες αυτά τα άτομα γαλουχούνται για να στελεχώσουν τις κατασταλτικές μηχανές που θωρακίζουν την εύρυθμη λειτουργία της κοινωνικής μηχανής.
Τα όπλα των μπάτσων λοιπόν δεν εκπυρσοκροτούν με δολοφονικές προθέσεις μόνο στην Ελλάδα, δολοφονούν 15χρονους στην Τουρκία επειδή συμμετείχαν σε αντικυβερνητικές διαδηλώσεις, δολοφονούν 16χρονους στην Ιταλία επειδή δεν σταμάτησαν σε τροχαίο σήμα της αστυνομίας, δολοφονούν μητέρες και παιδιά στην Παλαιστίνη, δολοφονούν δεκάδες αφροαμερικανούς στις ΗΠΑ με καθαρά ρατσιστικά κίνητρα, δολοφονούν μετανάστες στα προάστια της Σουηδίας, δολοφονούν νεαρούς στις φτωχογειτονιές της Αγγλίας, δολοφονούν κατ' εξακολούθηση και κατά συρροή σε όλες τις γωνιές του πλανήτη για να επιβάλλουν την κοινωνική ειρήνη.
Και αν τα παραδείγματα που έφερα είναι γνωστά καθώς έχουν συνδυαστεί με μικρές και μεγάλες εξεγέρσεις ως αντίδραση στις κρατικές δολοφονίες δεν παύουν να αποτελούν μια απλή σταγόνα σε σχέση με την καταιγίδα των δολοφονικών πογκρόμ που εξαπολύουν τα σώματα ασφαλείας για να υπερασπιστούν την καπιταλιστική κυριαρχία.
Αν κλείσουμε τα αυτιά μας και τα μάτια μας στην ακατάπαυστη ροή της κυρίαρχης προπαγάνδας μπορούμε να αφουγκραστούμε τους χιλιάδες ανώνυμους θανάτους στα αστυνομικά τμήματα, στα χερσαία και θαλάσσια σύνορα, στα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης, στα ψυχιατρεία και τις φυλακές, στις εμπόλεμες ζώνες της Μέσης Ανατολής, στα εργασιακά κάτεργα εξόντωσης των σύγχρονων σκλάβων. Μπορεί ο καθένας να ακούσει τις κραυγές των ανθρώπων που βασανίζονται μέσα στα κρατητήρια των αστυνομικών τμημάτων, που αυτοκτονούν από απελπισία μέσα σε κάποιο χώρο εγκλεισμού, που θαλασσοπνίγονται στα παγωμένα νερά της Μεσογείου από τους λιμενικούς, που τσακίζουν τα σώματα τους στις μηχανές παραγωγής των πολυεθνικών στις χώρες του τρίτου κόσμου, που ισοπεδώνονται κάτω από τα χαλάσματα των τυφλών βομβαρδισμών των καπιταλιστικών αυτοκρατοριών.
Κατά συνέπεια όλη η κουβέντα που ανοίγει γύρω από την αξία της ανθρώπινης ζωής είναι στην ρίζα της υποκριτική και βαθειά προσβλητική.
Εμείς από την δική μας πλευρά έχουμε μια πολύ διαφορετική προσέγγιση γύρω από την έννοια του φυσιολογικού και την αξίας της ανθρώπινης ζωής σε σχέση με το πως αυτά καθορίζονται από τις κυρίαρχες νόρμες.
Δεν θεωρούμε φυσιολογικό που οι άνθρωποι των δυτικών κοινωνιών τρώνε με απάθεια το φαγητό τους μπροστά στην τηλεόραση και παρακολουθούν πολεμικά αεροσκάφη να βομβαρδίζουν τυφλά τα εδάφη του τρίτου κόσμου. Αντίθετα θεωρούμε φυσιολογικό την μεταφορά αυτού του πολέμου στο εσωτερικό των αστικών κέντρων δημιουργώντας ένα πολιτικό κόστος στις δολοφονικές επεμβάσεις των κυρίαρχων υπερδυνάμεων.
Δεν θεωρούμε φυσιολογικό να βομβαρδίζονται άμαχοι ως μια πολεμική στρατηγική των κρατών για να τσακιστεί το ηθικό των των αντιστεκόμενων λαών όπως αυτός της Παλαιστίνης. Αντίθετα θεωρούμε φυσιολογικό να χτυπιούνται με κάθε μέσο όσοι χαμηλόβαθμοι ή υψηλόβαθμοι στρατιώτες επανδρώνουν στρατιωτικές επιχειρήσεις εναντίων αμάχων.
Δεν θεωρούμε φυσιολογικό το να παρουσιάζονται όλα αυτά ως ανθρωπιστικές επεμβάσεις των κυρίαρχων υπερδυνάμεων για την εξασφάλιση της ειρήνης. Δεν θεωρούμε φυσιολογικό που όλος ο πολιτισμένος κόσμος χύνει κροκοδείλια δάκρυα για τους νεκρούς στην Γαλλία ενώ τα ίδια κράτη και οι μυστικές τους υπηρεσίες που επεμβαίνουν πνίγοντας στο αίμα ολόκληρους πληθυσμούς είναι αυτά τα οποία αποδεδειγμένα εκπαίδευσαν, εξόπλισαν και χρηματοδότησαν το τέρας του ισλαμοφασισμού για να εξυπηρετήσουν τα συμφέροντα τους, τέρας το οποίο όπως έχει συμβεί επανειλημμένα όταν αποκτάει δύναμη αυτονομείται και στρέφονται ενάντια στους ευεργέτες του.
Δεν θεωρούμε φυσιολογικό τα κοράκια των οικονομικών λόμπι να λεηλατούν τις πλουτοπαραγωγικές πηγές των αποσταθεροποιημένων χωρών στο όνομα της ειρήνης και της ανάπτυξης.
Θεωρούμε όμως φυσιολογικό να επιτεθούμε με κάθε διαθέσιμο μέσο στα αφεντικά, στους κρατικούς αξιωματούχους, στους τραπεζίτες, σε όσους κατέχουν θέσεις πολιτικής και οικονομικής εξουσίας, σε όσους προστατεύουν με τα όπλα την δολοφονική κοινωνική ειρήνη, στους εκπροσώπους της δικαιοσύνης, στα στελέχη των πολυεθνικών εταιριών, σε όλα τα πρόσωπα και τις υποδομές που συντηρούν και αναπαράγουν ένα σύστημα που ευθύνεται για όλη την ασχήμια που υπάρχει σε αυτόν τον πλανήτη.
Αυτές είναι διαφορές που δεν θα μπορέσουν ποτέ να γεφυρωθούν μεταξύ τους παρά μόνο να συγκρουστούν μέχρι τέλους, είναι η εξέλιξη της εξέγερσης και της αντιεξέγερσης και η προωθημένη διαλεκτική που αναπτύσσετε μέσα σε κάθε στρατόπεδο.
Όσον αφορά την δική μας πλευρά με αυτό τον τρόπο δημιουργείτε ένα κενό ανάμεσα στα πεδία όπου οργανώνεται ο κοινωνικός έλεγχος και ανθίζουν τα ματωμένα λουλούδια της απάθειας, ένα επικίνδυνο κενό που στοχεύει να τσακίσει την οργανωμένη καταπίεση και την βία της εξουσίας, ο απρόβλεπτος παράγοντας, το στατιστικό λάθος στα διαγράμματα των τεχνοκρατών, ο απρόσκλητος καλεσμένος με την μορφή του εσωτερικοί εχθρού που οργανώνεται, οπλίζεται και χτυπάει τους εχθρούς της ελευθερίας.
Αυτή είναι η διαρκής αναρχική εξέγερση και η φιλοσοφία της που μολύνει τον εξουσιαστικό ιστό εξαπλώνοντας την αναρχία στις μητροπόλεις του καπιταλισμού. Και είναι σαφές ότι ούτε συνθηκολογεί, ούτε υποχωρεί παρά μονάχα αναδιπλώνετε για να επιτεθεί ξανά και ξανά. Γιατί το όλα για όλα δεν είναι μια ακίνδυνη φράση γραμμένη σε έναν τοίχο, είναι το νόημα που συμπυκνώνει την ζωή εκείνων των συντρόφων αυτών και άλλων εποχών που έπεσαν μαχόμενοι τον εχθρό. Για αυτό και η διαρκής αναρχική εξέγερση θα συνεχίσει να πολιορκεί την κυριαρχία μέχρι ο τελευταίος εξουσιαστής να κρεμαστεί από τα έντερα του τελευταίου γραφειοκράτη.
Ξαναβρισκόμαστε λοιπόν στο σημείο όπου οι μαχόμενες μειοψηφίες ανατρέπουν την μαζική παραγωγή νομοτελειακών συμπερασμάτων, εκεί που όλα είναι εφικτά, εκεί που αιφνιδιαστικές εισβολές στο κατειλημμένο από την εξουσία έδαφος πλήττουν την στρατιωτική και πολιτική υπεροχή της.
Γιατί δεν αρκεί να μιλάς για αναρχία αν δεν εξασφαλίσεις την επιβίωση της μέσα από πράξεις ενάντια στο κράτος, το κεφάλαιο, την κοινωνία και τον πολιτισμό τους, γιατί η αναρχία πάντα θα είναι ένας πόλεμος χωρίς όρια κόντρα στις πιθανότητες των “ειδικών”.
Αυτό ήταν για μένα πάντα το διακύβευμα της σύγκρουσης, αυτή ήταν, είναι και θα είναι η μόνη σταθερή πηγή ανάλυσης της ιστορίας.
Ο Αλέξανδρος λοιπόν είναι πλέον αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι αυτής της ιστορίας, δεν ξέρω να πω τι θα γινότανε αν είχαν εξελιχτεί αλλιώς τα γεγονότα, εξάλλου το αν δεν είναι τίποτα παραπάνω από τον εσωτερικό δαίμονα του πληγωμένου. Μπορώ όμως να πω για αυτό που ήταν ο Αλέξανδρος μέχρι να πέσει νεκρός από τις σφαίρες του μπάτσου. Στην μικρή μα περιπετειώδη ζωή του έζησε αυθεντικά, ήταν ένας νεαρός εξεγερμένος γοητευμένος με την ιδέα της αναρχίας σαν αυτούς που τώρα καταλαμβάνουν τα στενά της πόλης εκτοξεύουν μολότοφ στους μπάτσους και καίνε περιπολικά της αστυνομίας, ήταν ανυπότακτος και πεισματάρης, ήταν ένας άνθρωπος ειλικρινής με ευγενική ψυχή και ανιδιοτελή κίνητρα σε ότι και αν έκανε. Ήταν ένας άνθρωπος που ζούσε με ένταση τα πάθη του και τις απογοητεύσεις του.
Αγάπησε και αγαπήθηκε από πολλούς συντρόφους και θα είναι πάντα ένα σημείο αναφοράς για πολλούς ανθρώπους οι περισσότεροι από τους οποίους βρίσκονται αιχμάλωτοι στις φυλακές της δημοκρατίας. Και μπορεί να λείπει από κοντά μας αλλά ξέρω ότι συνεχίζει να καταστρώνει μικρές και μεγάλες ανταρσίες με τους δικούς μας νεκρούς, τον Μαουρίτσιο, τον Κάρλος, τον Σεμπαστιάν, τον Μιχάλη, τον Λάμπρο, τον Χρήστο και δεκάδες άλλους υπέροχους ανθρώπους που έφυγαν αφήνοντας ανεκπλήρωτα τα όνειρα τους.
Στο ερώτημα που ευλόγως διατυπώνετε γιατί πρέπει να ειπωθούν τώρα όλα αυτά η απάντηση είναι απλή.
Στο σύγχρονο περιβάλλον, όπου η ταχύτητα του ιστορικού χρόνου έχει εκτροχιαστεί, όπου τα γεγονότα αποσυνδέονται με ευκολία από τις συνθήκες που τα γέννησαν, όπου η πραγματικότητα αλλοιώνετε από τους παραμορφωτικούς φακούς δημοσιολόγων κάθε απόχρωσης, όπου η καθημερινότητα διαμορφώνετε ανάλογα με την εικόνα που πέφτει από τον ψηφιακό κόσμο μέσα στα κεφάλια των ανθρώπων, είναι αναγκαιότητα να κρατήσουμε ζωντανή την επαναστατική μνήμη, να γίνουν γνωστές όλες οι πτυχές της χωρίς να αφήνονται στην λήθη σημεία που θα βοηθήσουν στην διαστρέβλωση της.
Καθώς νέοι κύκλοι ριζοσπαστικών εμπειριών ανοίγονται δεν υπάρχει καλύτερος τρόπος για την επανεκκίνηση της αναρχικής εξέγερσης από την σύνδεση της με το σημείο αναζωπύρωσης της. Γιατί είναι κοινή παραδοχή ότι ένα κομμάτι της γενιάς των αναρχικών με τις μικρές και μεγάλες διαφωνίες τους που οπλίστηκε μετά την εξέγερση του Δεκέμβρη του 2008 και τώρα βρίσκετε κλειδωμένο στα κελιά των ελληνικών φυλακών είχε ως σημείο αφετηρίας της τις νύχτες όπου οι εξεγερμένοι βρισκόντουσαν πίσω από τα οδοφράγματα και η αναρχία ανέπνεε ζωντανή ανάμεσα στα κατεστραμμένα σύμβολα της εξουσίας.
Καθώς οι δικές μας ανατρεπτικές εμπειρίες απομακρύνονται από το πεδίο των καθημερινών μας βιωμάτων μέσα στην αιχμάλωτη καθημερινότητα που ζούμε, επιχειρούμε να δημιουργήσουμε ένα σημείο σύνδεσης και ταυτόχρονα μια νέα αφετηρία. Ένα σημείο σύνδεσης με τις ιστορικές και πολιτικές μας καταβολές, μια νέα αφετηρία που θα αποτελέσει το πεδίο συνάντησης εξεγερμένων που δεν θα κατέβει ευκαιριακά στον δρόμο αλλά θα συμβάλει στην δημιουργία μιας άτυπης πλατφόρμας συντονισμού και δράσης της αναρχίας, εκεί που η στρατηγική επιβάλει την μονιμοποίηση της οργής, εκεί που η επαναστατική διαλεκτική επιβάλει την ολόψυχη στράτευση στον απελευθερωτικό αγώνα.
Γιατί ο Μαύρος Δεκέμβρης δεν αποτελεί μια σκηνοθετική επανάληψη προηγούμενων εξεγερτικών γεγονότων αλλά ένα κύκλο αγώνα που συνδέει το παρελθόν με το παρόν αναζητώντας ένα μέλλον όπου η καθημερινότητα μας θα κατακλύζετε από πράξεις επίθεσης και ανταρσίας ενάντια στην εξουσία.
Γιατί αν και τα σώματα μας βρίσκονται έγκλειστα ανάμεσα σε τείχους και κάγκελα οι ψυχές μας βρίσκονται σε κάθε σημείο του πλανήτη που υψώνονται οι σημαίες της αντίστασης για έναν κόσμο ελευθερίας. Γιατί οι καρδιές μας εξακολουθούν πεισματικά να χτυπάνε στους ρυθμούς της άγριας ελευθερίας, δίπλα στους συντρόφους του αναρχικού αντάρτικου κινήματος στην Βραζιλία που πυρπόλησαν τραπεζικά υποκαταστήματα καλώντας και αυτοί με την σειρά τους σε έναν Μαύρο Δεκέμβρη, στους πυρήνες της FAI και στις αντάρτικες συντροφιές που περνάνε στην επίθεση, στους μαχητές της ελευθερίας που πολεμάνε τους ισλαμοφασίστες στα εδάφη της Ροζάβα, στους αναρχικούς συντρόφους που με ρίσκο και αυταπάρνηση βοηθάνε στην ανοικοδόμηση του Κομπάνι, στους ταραχοποιούς της Μεγάλης Βρετανίας που εκδηλώνουν την οργή τους βίαια σπάζοντας τον ασφυκτικό κοινωνικό έλεγχο, στους αναρχικούς στην Ισπανία που χτυπιούνται από τις αντιαναρχικές επιχειρήσεις του ισπανικού κράτους, στους δρόμους της Χιλής όπου οι εξεγερμένοι συγκρούονται με τους μπάτσους και ανατινάζουν αστυνομικά τμήματα, στις πλατείες τις Τουρκίας όπου οι σύντροφοι μας έχουν πληρώσει με την ζωή τους την αντιπαράθεση με το κράτος μαφία του Ερντογάν, στους συντρόφους που ανάψανε τις φωτιές της καταστροφής στους δρόμους των Βρυξελλών στο Βέλγιο. Παρ' όλες τις χιλιομετρικές αποστάσεις ο αγώνας μας είναι κοινός και μοιραζόμαστε την ίδια χαρά και τους ίδιους πόνους με όλους αυτούς τους ανθρώπους που διαχέουν το δηλητήριο της ελευθερίας στον εξουσιαστικό κοινωνικό ιστό.
Κάπου εδώ φτάνω στο τέλος αυτής της αφήγησης.
Αυτός ήταν ο Αλέξανδρος και αυτός είμαι εγώ. Δεν μετανιώνω για κάτι και εξακολουθώ να πιστεύω ότι η μόνη αξιοπρεπής επιλογή στις μέρες μας είναι αυτή του πολύμορφου ανατρεπτικού αγώνα για την αναρχία. Για όλους τους λόγους του κόσμου η αναμέτρηση μεταξύ του κόσμου της ελευθερίας και του κόσμου της υποδούλωσης θα συνεχιστεί μέχρις εσχάτων.
Τιμή για πάντα σε όλους τους νεκρούς του απελευθερωτικού αγώνα!
Για έναν Μαύρο Δεκέμβρη!
Για την αναρχική αντεπίθεση στον κόσμο της εξουσίας!
Αλληλεγγύη και δύναμη σε όλους τους αναρχικούς αιχμαλώτους!
Ζήτω η Αναρχία!
Νίκος Ρωμανός
Υ.Γ Για να τελειώσει η κοροϊδία των τελευταίων ημερών με την υποτιθέμενη “φωτογραφική” τροπολογία της συμμορίας παλιάτσων του Σύριζα για τις εκπαιδευτικές άδειες, ας ξεκαθαριστεί ότι εδώ και τρία χρόνια που είμαι φυλακή δεν έχω πατήσει ποτέ το πόδι μου εκτός και ούτε προβλέπεται κάτι τέτοιο, αφού είναι φανερό ότι δεν υπάρχει περίπτωση να μου δοθεί άδεια από κανέναν εισαγγελέα είτε λέγεται Νικόπουλος είτε Περιμένη. Οπότε τα επικοινωνιακά τρικ του Σύριζα είναι κινήσεις εκ του πονηρού για την καλλιέργεια θετικών εντυπώσεων σε όσους αριστερούς ψηφοφόρους τού έχουν απομείνει και εκ του ασφαλούς αφού έτσι και αλλιώς σε ένα μήνα τελειώνει το δικαστήριο που με κρατάει υπόδικο και μου έχει γίνει πολύ ξεκάθαρο από την υπηρεσία της φυλακής ότι όσο συνεχίζω να βγάζω κείμενα και να “ενοχλώ” μέσα από την φυλακή –πράγμα που θα συνεχίσω να κάνω γιατί δεν σκοπεύω να κάνω εκπτώσεις στην στάση μου– το αποτέλεσμα θα παραμένει μονίμως αρνητικό». | {
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The most magical place on earth is turning 60 years old.
After spending $17 million on the park, hiring 2,500 laborers to quickly meet construction deadlines and twenty years of dreaming, Walt Disney's Disneyland in Anaheim, California was made a reality.
About 22,000 people—officials, educational leaders, and actors—were invited to the iconic theme park's opening day in 1955, , an Associated Press reporter and the author of a Walt Disney biography.
While preparations for the opening were somewhat hurried, no detail was spared.
"Disney is a great stickler for detail…The 72 horses on the $102,000 King Arthur's carousel were rebuilt so they would appear to be leaping instead of merely galloping," Thomas wrote in 1955, on the day before the park's opening.
The highly publicized opening ceremonies were telecast by ABC with Walt Disney, Davy Crockett and others.
A one-day ticket to Disneyland in 1955 cost $1 for adults and 50 cents for children. In addition to the price of entry, each of the park's 35 rides had a fee. Many of the attractions cost around 25 to 35 cents for adults and 10 to 25 cents for children. "If you are a glutton and try everything, it could cost you $8.70 for yourself and $5.15 for each tot," Thomas wrote.
A trip around the entire park on a miniature train cost 50 cents for an adult and 25 cents for a child.
Today? Those above the age of 10 will pay $99 for a one day pass, while children ages three to nine cost $93—with an additional $40 fee if your family wants to experience the two parks that now make up Disneyland.
Take a look at what opening day at Disneyland looked like: | {
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Barack Obama has negotiated deals with the Republicans four times since they won the House in the 2010 midterms. In late 2010, he extended the Bush tax cuts in exchange for extended unemployment benefits and aid to cash-strapped states; in early 2011 they haggled over a threatened government shut-down; that summer we had the first round of debt ceiling shenanigans and this month over the phony “fiscal cliff” that came out of those earlier negotitations. We'll have another round – or rounds — in the next few months as the budget resolution expires, the debt limit comes up again and the automatic budget cuts known as a sequester looms.
For the most part, progressives have not been terribly happy with the results of these negotiations. Few doubt the president's political acumen, but the conventional wisdom has become that while he can win elections, he tends to get rolled by the GOP. And there are a number of theories for why that is — and there are also people who argue that it's simply not true.
We rounded up some of the possibilities progressive analysts have offered to explain this dynamic.
1. Obama Hasn't Been Rolled Because He's Really a Closet Republican
According to this line of thinking, Obama has only been thwarted in the sense that he hasn't been able to realize his deeply held ambition of gutting the social safety net. FireDogLake's Jane Hamsher is one of the proponents of this theory, pleading last December for progressives to "please stop pretending Obama is 'capitulating' on Social Security.”
Everywhere you look, the media narrative is that President Obama is “capitulating” to Republicans by agreeing to cuts in Social Security benefits. And I have to ask, where is this collective political amnesia coming from? Obama has made a deliberate and concerted effort to cut Social Security benefits since the time he took office.
Hamsher offers into evidence a paper laying out possible cuts to “entitlements” that was co-authored by former OMB director Peter Orszag when he was at the Brookings Institution, Obama's creation of the Simpson-Bowles commission, and statements like this one, from a report in the Washington Post:
Obama said that he has made clear to his advisers that some of the difficult choices–particularly in regards to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare – should be made on his watch. “We’ve kicked this can down the road and now we are at the end of the road,” he said.
Hamsher concludes:
But it’s clear that he did not arrive at the decision to “reform” Social Security and cut benefits because he is a poor negotiator, or because of Republican arm twisting. It defies all logic and reason to look at his actions over the years and think that the President is now “capitulating” on Social Security.
2. Say What You Like About the Tenets of National Socialism, Dude, At Least It's an Ethos
Another theory is that the White House recognizes that House Republicans aren't bound by ordinary usual political constraints. Many lawmakers in the Republican party's tea party wing come from safe districts and worry more about a primary from their right than what the polls say Americans want to see happen.
Jonathan Chait likens it to the nihilists in the Coen brothers' classic film, The Big Lebowski. After the latest deal was struck, Chait wrote: “The big reveal from the negotiations is that, as the clock ticked down, the administration feared the consequences of a stalemate and feared the power of nihilistic House Republicans.”
The basic text for understanding this situation, as with so many situations, is The Big Lebowski. A woman has allegedly been taken hostage by nihilists (nihilists conveniently being a common point of comparison with the House Republican caucus.) Jeffrey Lebowski, the Jeff Bridges character, fears they will kill her. Walter, the John Goodman character, has already figured out that there is no hostage. Lebowski here is Obama, and Walter is Harry Reid. Walter is right. There is no hostage. The Republican Party was actually terrified of the no-deal scenario… Obama grasped the basic leverage over the Republicans. But he also fears the sheer nihilism of the crazy House wing, members so fanatical they cannot even seem to grasp their own political self-interest and vote coherently.
3. Obama Doesn't Seem to Grasp That Republicans Aren't Negotiating in Good Faith
Some hold the opposite view: that Obama simply doesn't realize his opponents across the aisle aren't negotiating in good faith.
In 2011, DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas greeted a report that the White House believed Republicans would appoint moderates to the Simpson-Bowles commission in order to assure its success with disbelief. “The White House still has no idea what they face across the aisle,” he wrote. “None.”
At least in this instance, Kos was demonstrably right, as the Republicans did indeed pack the commission with movement conservatives and it did in fact fail to agree on a set of recommendations.
4. Obama Hasn't Been Rolled Because He Keeps Winning!
In this view, Obama is a master negotiator who keeps extracting concessions from the Republicans, but liberals are never satisfied and won't acknowledge the fact.
It's a popular view. In a piece titled, “The Myth of the Obama Cave-In,” David Corn noted that in the first negotiation over the Bush tax cuts in 2010, Obama “won $238 billion of stimulus in return for yielding on $114 billion in high-income tax cuts.”
After the most recent deal, Mike Tomasky of the Daily Beast wrote a column titled, “Dear Liberals: Stop Complaining,” in which he argued that dissatisfied progressives don't grasp that Obama has an obligation to govern, rather than champion liberal ideology. (Tomasky and I debated this topic here).
And Time magazine's Micheal Grunwald created a taxonomy of impossible-to-please liberals, which includes “Ivory Soap” liberals who aren't satisfied getting 99.44 percent of what they want; “Choose Your Own Adventure” liberals, who believe we'd be living in Sweden if only Obama had taken their preferred course of action; and “Heighten the Contradictions” liberals who are certain that if Obama called Republicans' bluffs and forced them to follow through on their threats to drive the economy over a cliff the American people would finally see their extremism and reject them once and for all.
5. Consensus-Building Is In His Blood
Another theory holds that Obama puts a great deal of emphasis on cutting deals at least in part because he learned to value consensus-building as a community organizer. My colleague Steve Rosenfeld came away with that impression after reading Obama's memoir, Dreams of My Father.
6. Clearing the Deck for Other Items on the Agenda
This theory holds that Obama desperately wants to cut a grand bargain in order to move the conversation beyond taxes and spending and deficits and tackle other issues like immigration reform and climate change.
And, as John Heileman argued in the New Yorker, the White House sees getting a big deficit reduction package passed as “essential to the country’s economic health, and not just in terms of taming our deficit, but in freeing up resources for the kinds of investment in human capital and infrastructure that are critical to America’s global competitiveness and domestic prosperity….”
7. Obama Wants a Big Deal to Assure His 'Legacy'
Last month, Ezra Klein reported that in the White House, “a big budget deal is seen as a key element of the president’s legacy.” He added that Obama's team “don’t want a deal so badly that they’ll accept one that doesn’t raise tax rates, or that leaves another debt-ceiling crisis around the corner,” which turned out to be half right.
So, who's right? Who knows! But it's worth noting that not all of these theories are mutually exclusive. | {
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El precio del petróleo venezolano continúo su tendencia a la baja y tanto el gobierno como la empresa estatal Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) mostraron su preocupación, pues el barril alcanzó el preocupante precio de «Mierda nos jodimos.»
Nos conformábamos con precios como ‘¡Coño, coño!’ o ‘Que suba porfitas vale’ pero no a ‘Mierda nos jodimos.’ –Eulogio del Pino
El Presidente de PDVSA, Eulogio del Pino, declaró ante los medios en una rueda de prensa sobre el descalabro del precio del barril petrolero: «Tenemos una gran preocupación por la caída de los precios. Hoy el petróleo amaneció en un precio escandalosamente bajo, la guerra petrolera contra Venezuela arreció. Nosotros (PDVSA) nos conformábamos con precios como ‘¡Coño, coño!’ o ‘Que suba porfitas vale’ pero no a ‘Mierda nos jodimos.’ Esperemos que el Presidente Maduro traiga buenas noticias, nosotros esperamos que el precio vuelva a colocarse en «Tenemos plata que jode vamos a gastar como locos’.» aseguró del Pino quién temía por un recorte de gastos que limitara sus viajes en jet, almuerzos de alta cocina y papel higiénico hecho con dólares.
Por su parte, el analista petrolero Ángel Hernández, explicó que los precios del petróleo mantendrán su tendencia a la baja pudiendo inclusive alcanzar precios sumamente dañinos para la economía venezolana como ‘sonido de grito de mujer en película de terror’ o ‘un bolívar el barril’. «Si se mantiene la situación actual, un barril de petróleo podría costar un bolívar. Ahí podríamos despedirnos del país y convertir a Venezuela en un terreno baldío donde venden conservas de guayaba y dulcitos de leche.» | {
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ノリのいいカラオケ店員のセフレと掲示板で知り合ってホテルに行く
出合い系で知り合ったのは千葉のカラオケ屋のセフレ
小生の場合は出合い系でも比較的優良掲示板と言われるPCMAXという出会い系掲示板を利用しています。
過去に実際に数人の女性と良い仲になりましたが、今回は二週間ばかり前に知り合った、千葉に住む20代半ばのカラオケ屋の店員の女の子・M子とでした。
見た目は金髪とうか巻き髪の女の子で、出会い系でないと中々出会う機会がないようなひとでした。
初めて逢ったところも千葉市内のカラオケ屋であったが、勿論、自分が務めているところではなかったですが、歌も上手でお酒も好きであり、話の仕方もノリのよい女の子であった。
M子が歌いながら、飲みから横に座っていて感じるところは、ミニスカートで太股があらわになっていて実に色っぽく、その太股を触りながらキスを求めると「いやーん」とわ言いながら受け入れてくれたのだ。
耳元でコッソリと「ホテルへいこうか」と誘うと、「フクロちゃんと持っているの」と聞くので、「そんなもの無いけど、大丈夫なようにるすからさ」というと、安心したように承知してくれた。
総武線の千葉駅前から栄町方面は時折風俗でも遊んだところでも有り、良く知ってはいたので、其の一角の安いラブホテルへ案内した。
お互い裸同然になると、セフレの形のいい胸の乳房が溢れそうで目が吸い付く、シャワーを浴びる前にもう此方の息子はギンギンになってしまい、早速ながら女は知ったように優しくマスをしてくれる。
抱っこしながらシャワーから出てベッドイン、もうすっかり興奮の坩堝、小生のテンションも上がる一方です。
そして、遂にフィニッシュした時にはセフレのお腹の上にタップリと出しました。
彼女も満足そうでした。
千葉市稲毛31歳男性飲食店勤務 | {
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Life in the wild can be so brutal, that sometimes animals are forced to do terrible things to ensure survival. Cannibalism and infanticide are well known in many species, but perhaps the most disturbing cases are those of baby animals killing their siblings, sometimes moments after they are born! This is a list of ten species that start their lives as ruthless fratricides.
10 Golden eagle
Like most large birds of prey, Golden Eagles breed rarely, and usually lay only two eggs per nest. Often, one of the eggs hatches with a few days of advantage, and the firstborn chick starts being fed before its sibling is even born. Due to this, the firstborn grows bigger and stronger than the younger chick, and usually wins most squabbles for food. If food is very scarce, the younger chick can eventually become weak and is likely to die because of malnutrition.
But that’s not all; if food is extremely scarce, the ever-hungry firstborn will actively kill and devour its younger sibling in the nest, without its parents doing anything to prevent the fratricide.
This provides a valuable meal for the stronger chick, as well as reducing the workload for the adult eagles (it is always easier to feed one single chick than two). Scientists believe that up to 80% of all second born Golden Eagle chicks die like this. Fratricide has been reported in other kinds of raptors, such as the Bald Eagle, but it doesn’t seem to be as frequent as in Golden Eagles.
9 Spotted hyena
Most large predatory mammals, such as big cats, are born with eyes closed and toothless; in other words, completely harmless. However, that’s not the case with African spotted hyenas. They are born with eyes open, alert and armed with sharp teeth, and start fighting each other at a surprisingly early age to establish their dominance; the larger cubs bite their weaker siblings brutally, and although adult hyenas may try to separate them, as soon as the babies are left alone in the communal burrows, they continue with their fighting; battles between hyena cubs can last for weeks.
Baby hyenas have even been known to dig smaller tunnels inside the burrow, and fight inside these tunnels, where their mother couldn’t possibly reach them.
In some cases, the weaker cubs die because of their injuries, but usually their fate is even worst; after being bullied so ruthlessly by the stronger cubs, they become so shy that they won’t even dare leave the burrow when their mother comes home to feed them. Eventually, they die of starvation inside the burrow.
Besides being a strategy for the stronger cubs (the future leaders of the hyena clan) to eliminate potential competitors, fratricide is also a natural way to regulate the population. Indeed, hyenas are the most abundant large predators in Africa, and other than lions, which kill some of them occasionally, they have no natural enemies at all.
8 Praying mantis
These predatory insects are famous because of their nightmarish sexual habits; the female often eats the male after sex, or even during sex, usually starting by biting off the unfortunate lover’s head. But these cannibalistic tendencies are not just an adult thing. Usually, a female mantis lays its eggs in a special egg case, and attaches it to a stem, leaf or branch. All 100 to 200 baby mantises hatch at the same time, and often their first meal is one of their siblings. This is more common when other small insects are scarce around the area where the baby mantises where born.
These insects are not the only fratricide invertebrates; baby spiders and scorpions have also been known to eat each other on occasion, and in the case of spiders, even the mother may join her babies for a same species snack, particularly if, as is often the case, she has fasted while guarding her eggs.
7 Snowy Egret
Snowy egrets are noted for their beautiful, elegant appearance and flight, and they are seldom thought of as brutal animals. However, they are actually among the most prone to fratricide. Usually, female snowy egrets lay three eggs. However, there is a difference between the two first eggs and the third one; the first egg usually gets a high dose of hormones during development inside the mother’s body, and the same happens with the second egg. However, the third egg only gets half the dose of hormones, which leads to less aggressive behavior.
When food is scarce, the two older egret chicks often harass their younger sibling, which, being more passive, usually can’t defend itself and is eventually killed, either stabbed by the sharp bills of its siblings, or thrown out of the nest. This means more food for the murderous chicks.
It may seem strange that Snowy Egrets lay three eggs if only two chicks are to survive, but there is an explanation for this; if something happened to the two first eggs, or to the first born chicks during the first days, the third chick would serve as a replacement. As cruel as it may sound, the third Snowy Egret chick is just a spare.
6 Tiger salamander
As do most amphibians, Tiger Salamanders start their lives as aquatic larvae or “tadpoles”. But they are unusual because their eggs can develop into two different kinds of tadpole. These are the so called “normal morph” and the “cannibal morph”. The cannibal morph has a larger head, bigger mouth and more developed teeth, and is larger than its normal siblings; usually, the cannibal morph appears only when the pond where the eggs were laid starts to dry up, or when food is scarce. They eat smaller tadpoles and develop more quickly as a result, metamorphosing earlier into adults. This clever, if brutal survival strategy allows Tiger Salamanders to successfully breed even when the circumstances are not the most idoneous.
The most amazing thing about these cannibalistic tiger salamanders is that they seem to recognize their siblings and will usually avoid killing them; instead, they go after unrelated tadpoles born in the same pond. They can even recognize their first cousins and avoid eating them as well! But if food is too scarce, they don’t mind gulping a few brothers or sisters, hence their inclusion in this list.
5 Common Cuckoo
Common Cuckoos are easily the most famous fratricides in the Animal Kingdom. However, they are special because they usually don’t kill their actual siblings, but rather their foster siblings. Adult female Cuckoos look a lot like Sparrowhawks (small but ferocious raptors that hunt smaller birds), which comes in handy to scare other birds away from their nest. While the nest is abandoned, the female Cuckoo quickly eats one of the eggs and replaces it with one of her own, then she flies away.
When the nest owners return, they don’t notice anything different and continue to care for their brood. But the baby Cuckoo will usually be born before the nest owner’s chicks do, and (still blind and featherless) it will immediately start pushing all other eggs or chicks out of the nest and into their death; this murderous behavior is seemingly not conscious, but rather caused by the Cuckoo’s sensitive skin which can’t bare contact with other objects in the nest.
If there are two Cuckoo chicks in one same nest, eventually one of them eliminates the other, but this is very rare.
Eventually, the foster parents, which can’t do anything to prevent the “crime”, have no choice but to start feeding the only remaining chick in the nest… the Cuckoo. It seems that the baby Cuckoo’s begging calls mimic those of a nest full of chicks of whatever species the host parents are; this makes the adult birds behave as if they were actually feeding many of their actual chicks, bringing plenty of food to feed the impostor, which soon grows to a monstrous size compared to its foster parents. And they keep feeding the Cuckoo until its ready to leave, and, if it’s a female, mate and continue the cycle.
4 Great spotted cuckoo
If you think the Common Cuckoo is bad, wait until you meet its slightly larger cousin, the Great Spotted Cuckoo, found in parts of Europe and Asia. The female Great Spotted Cuckoo often lays her egg (usually one but sometimes two) into a magpie’s nest. The baby Spotted Cuckoos don’t have the impulse to throw the other eggs and chicks out of the nest, but they usually develop faster than their unfortunate foster siblings, and they have huge, brightly colored gaping mouths which seem to be irresistible to the adult magpies. The result is that the magpies feed them more frequently than their own chicks. Eventually, the fast-growing Spotted Cuckoos leave the nest, but still demand to be fed by the magpies. This spells doom for the magpie chicks, which often die of starvation, abandoned in their own nest.
Why do magpies accept the Great Spotted Cuckoo’s eggs instead of just throwing them away? Scientists have discovered, much to their surprise, that adult Great Spotted Cuckoos will ruthlessly destroy all eggs or chicks of any magpie nest where the parents have thrown the Cuckoo egg away. In other words, it’s a Mafia-like system; the unfortunate magpies have no choice but to raise the Cuckoo chicks as their own if they don’t want all of their offspring to die. Although cruel, this is Nature’s way of controlling the magpie population, since magpies themselves often raid the nests of other birds and if they become too numerous, can cause great damage to other species.
3 Queen Honey Bee
As everyone knows, Honey Bees live in colonies composed of one Queen, a few Drones (male bees whose only function is to fertilize the Queen), and Workers, which are sterile females and do basically all the hard work in the colony, from finding food, to producing honey, wax and a special substance called Royal Jelly which is produced by a special gland in the Worker’s head.
Royal Jelly is a highly nutritious food and is fed to the Queen and to all developing larvae in the colony. However, when the Queen starts growing old and its reproductive power diminishes, the Workers select a few larvae, take them to special cells away from the others and start feeding them with huge amounts of Royal Jelly. This causes them to develop into fertile Queen Bees. Once they reach a certain age, the future Queen Bees pupate (they build themselves a cocoon and undergo a metamorphosis into an adult bee).
However, there can only be one Queen in the colony, so the first Queen Bee to be born immediately finds the other Queens and stings them to death before they emerge. If two or more Queens emerge at the same time, there will be a vicious battle between them until one has killed all others. When this happens, the Worker bees will kill the old, original Queen and the new, young one will take its place. Life is not so sweet for a bee after all, is it? All bees in a colony are born from the same Queen and therefore siblings; that’s why they occupy #3 in this list.
2 Copidomopsis floridanum
Copidomopsis floridanum is a parasitoid wasp, one of the most extreme examples of fratricide in the world. The adult wasp first finds a caterpillar and stings it, causing it to become completely paralyzed. Then, it injects two eggs into the caterpillar’s body; one of the eggs is male and one of the eggs female. But they don’t give rise to one brother and one sister. Instead, the eggs quickly “clone” themselves, in a process known as polyembryony, and soon the caterpillar is the still living, but completely impotent nursery to 200 male larvae, and over 1,200 female larvae.
Out of these females, around fifty grow larger than their siblings, developing huge jaws but no sexual organs. It was once thought that these “monster larvae” were supposed to be the guardians of their smaller, fertile siblings, which would eat the eggs of any other wasp that could try to inject its brood into the already occupied caterpillar.
However, it is now known that this is not the case; they actually seek and devour as many of their brothers as they can find. The reason they do this is because the male larvae will actually fertilize their sisters while inside the caterpillar, and only one or two males are enough to fertilize all the females. Therefore, by eliminating the surplus of males, the cannibalistic larvae ensure that there will be more food (the unfortunate caterpillar’s body tissues) for their fertile sisters, boosting their chances of survival. This is the only function of the cannibalistic larvae, since they are sterile and will never reproduce themselves.
1 Sand tiger shark
Known in Australia as Grey Nurse Sharks, these fierce-looking (if usually harmless to man) predators are #1 in this list with very good reason. Female Sand Tiger Sharks have two wombs, and each of them produces many eggs. The eggs hatch while still inside the womb, and the Sand Tiger embryos soon develop sharp teeth and start killing and eating their brothers and sisters and any unfertilized eggs in the womb, until there is only one embryo left alive in each womb.
As a result, the mother only gives birth to two pups (the last survivor of each womb), and since they fed abundantly in the womb, they are already quite big when they are born, around one meter long!
The Sand Tiger shark is therefore the only fratricide in this list that starts killing their siblings before being born; at the moment of its birth, it is already an experienced killer. This brutal survival strategy is known as intrauterine cannibalism, and was discovered in 1948 when a scientist, who was probing the womb of a Sand Tiger Shark, was bitten in one hand by one of the embryos! Although intrauterine cannibalism has been reported in other species of sharks, including the Great White Shark and even the Basking Shark (a placid, harmless plankton-eater as an adult), these feed only on unfertilized eggs while in the womb. The Sand Tiger Shark is the only shark known to cannibalize other embryos in the womb. | {
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Python Course Training Institute in Ameerpet Hyderabad
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We Happy Few, is a Dystopian, Utopian 1960s-era styled horror video game which will follow the character Arthur in an alternate England where people are coercively brought under the influence of mood changing drugs called ‘joy pills’ to keep them from experiencing the real image of the world.
Developer Compulsion Games had earlier said that they “wanted to rebuild the first few hours of the game” (Thanks Polygon). This move warranted that the release date be pushed further back to the summer of 2018 to achieve the desired level of quality.
Three days ago, the developers dropped a teaser video manifesting some of the finest cutscenes from the game. This teaser being released at such an unexpected date has generated a lot of speculations and debates on the internet. According to the YouTube description by IGN, the game is going to get a worldwide reveal on the E3 stage very soon, which proves that the rumours were indeed right.
In addition Compulsion games have also announced, “A release date will be announced very soon, we really appreciate your patience and support! The song is from our original soundtrack which will also be revealed soon!”, which adds unmitigated surety and supports the claims by IGN.
Looks like it’s going to be a great E3 this year.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our push-notification and never miss an update on We Happy Few. Until next time, Happy Gaming! | {
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Yikes:
Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — decreased at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.1 percent. The Bureau emphasized that the fourth-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 4 and the “Comparisons of Revisions to GDP” on page 5). The “second” estimate for the fourth quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on February 28, 2013. The decrease in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from private inventory investment, federal government spending, and exports that were partly offset by positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), nonresidential fixed investment, and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
Most economists predicted that the economy slowed in Q4, but I don’t know that anyone expected a negative number. Business Insider notes that the expectations were around 1.1% for Q4, which would have been a big drop in itself from Q3’s 3.1%. However, they point to the contraction in federal spending as the main culprit:
Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 15.0 percent in the fourth quarter, in contrast to an increase of 9.5 percent in the third. National defense decreased 22.2 percent, in contrast to an increase of 12.9 percent. Nondefense increased 1.4 percent, compared with an increase of 3.0 percent. Real state and local government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 0.7 percent, in contrast to an increase of 0.3 percent.
Well, it’s true that government spending dropped in Q4, but it’s equally true that it spiked in Q3. That’s a decrease from the spike, which makes it a lot less dramatic when put in context. Exports took a beating, too, and that has nothing to do with government spending:
Real exports of goods and services decreased 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, in contrast to an increase of 1.9 percent in the third. Real imports of goods and services decreased 3.2 percent, compared with a decrease of 0.6 percent.
However, there is a mild bright spot in inventories:
Real final sales of domestic product — GDP less change in private inventories — increased 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in the third.
In other words, much of this drop seems to be a lack of inventory expansion. Real final sales to end purchasers rose, even if it didn’t go up by much. That would indicate that inventory expansion in Q3 and prior periods was based on overly-optimistic views of the economy.
The New York Times breaks out the U-word in its headline, although at this point they don’t have a story to go along with it. The Associated Press says, “Surprise!”:
The U.S. economy posted a stunning drop of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus. The economy shrank from October through December for the first time since the recession ended, hurt by the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter. That’s a sharp slowdown from the 3.1 percent growth rate in the July-September quarter. The surprise contraction could raise fears about the economy’s ability to handle tax increases that took effect in January and looming spending cuts.
What’s perhaps more stunning is the idea that the so-called recovery in its fourth year still cannot stand on its own legs without massive government stimulus. After all, federal spending has remained at the $3.8 trillion level for four years, with its percentage of GDP around 25%, far above the 20% post-1960s norm. Perhaps that’s part of the reason that the economy is still stagnating, rather than a reason to expect recovery.
Update: Here’s a couple of good questions:
GDP Fell .1% In 4th Qtr 2012: Will Obama Blame Fox or Bush?: Is this the start of a recession… goo.gl/fb/NDBuB — Jeff Dunetz (@yidwithlid) January 30, 2013
A recession is defined by two success quarters of contraction, and we should remember that this is the advance estimate of Q4. These numbers go through two more iterations; the final number will come out in March. I’d guess based on the real final sales numbers that we aren’t going to see two negative quarters in a row, but it’s possible — and the tax hikes won’t help. To answer the other question, another recession will be squarely blamed on the White House, especially after all the bragging they did about winning the fiscal-cliff standoff.
Update II: The year-end GDP number was 2.2%, assuming no further adjustments in Q4 GDP. That’s better than 2011’s 1.8% GDP growth … but not by much. | {
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Despite a spirited fightback, Derby County’s Under 18s were unable to hold on as they fell to narrow 2-1 defeat to unbeaten Manchester City on Saturday afternoon.
Jordan Brown scored for the Rams in the second half to cancel out Fuseine Rashid’s fifth minute own goal, but an 81st minute penalty conversion from Lorenzo Jose Gonzalez saw the Citizens seal all three points in an exciting early-afternoon encounter.Looking back at this Premier League North fixture, it was one that the visitors, unbeaten all season, began brightly – causing the Rams a lot of problems with their vicious looking counter attacking play.After a number of attempts to get the ball in the box, on five minutes City did manage to get their reward after Luke Bolton’s dangerous cross from the right was sliced into his own net by Rashid as he went to clear the danger.Eager to make up for difficult start, the Rams persevered, and as the game matured, it was Justin Walker’s and Rory Delap’s side that began to take control.With nothing of note to report until the first half’s latter stages, Jahvan Davidson-Miller broke away at pace in the 36th minute with Cameron Cresswell to the left of him – however, a heavy pass saw the attacking move break down.Just before the interval, Derby were presented with their best opportunity of the game, coming from Jayden Mitchell-Lawson’s excellent corner-kick delivery. The chance fell to Rashid and he very nearly scored to cancel out his earlier own-goal, but he was denied by Arijanet Muric who threw his body behind the ball.After the restart, Derby picked up where they left off and almost had the ball in the back of the net with just 10 seconds on the clock after a defensive error saw Muric chasing a ball, which was heading towards his own net.As the Rams battled on, two separate chances from long range fell the way of Micah Edwards and Brown but both were unable to test the ‘keeper significantly enough.On 68 minutes, though, Derby’s persistence paid off as Brown did make the most of an opportunity on the edge of the box – blasting the ball to the right of the goal to the despair of Muric.With the score back on level terms, and all still to play for, both sides worked hard to take all three points – but a late penalty in the visitors’ favour ultimately decided the game after Joe Fryatt brought down Jose Gonzalez in the box.Unfortunately for the Rams, who also finished with ten men after Davidson-Miller was sent off for a rash challenge, it was an opportunity that Jose Gonzalez comfortably made the most of to secure all three points for his side in a game that Derby’s performance warranted more.Fryatt, Bogle, Mills, Magno, Rashid, C.Thomas, Mitchell-Lawson, Edwards (C), Davidson-Miller, Brown, CresswellWhittaker, Trialist, Dixon, Davie, GoodeMuric, Frimpong, Latibeaudiere (C), Rosler, Wilson, Smith, Bolton, Dele-Bashiru, Jose Gonzalez, Foden, PovedaOgbeta, Scott, Iker Pozo, Richards, HardyTweets by @ dcfcofficial | {
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The Abbott government should draw up national rules restricting how wind farms are built and operated and punish states that do not accept them, a Senate committee has urged.
In its final report published on Monday evening, the committee puts forward a range a measures to curb wind farms, including recommendations to reduce support for projects under the national renewable energy target.
The Capital Wind Farm near Canberra. Credit:Jamila Toderas
The inquiry's recommendations were backed by government and crossbench senators on the committee. But Labor members wrote a dissenting report rejecting the proposals as expensive, duplicative and unworkable.
The report comes at a sensitive time for the Australian wind industry, which has seen investment dry up over the past 18 months on the back of uncertainty surrounding government support. | {
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ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando City B announced on Tuesday it had acquired Brazilian center back Léo Pereira on loan from official partner Clube Atlético Paranaense. The move is the first player transaction between the two clubs since announcing a partnership in November, 2016.
“We're really pleased to capture a player of Leo's quality. He can operate as a center back or left back and has great pedigree having played at a good level in Brazil and for the Brazil youth national teams,” OCB Head Coach Anthony Pulis said. “He's aggressive, reads the game well and is very comfortable in possession. We're really excited to welcome him to our group and start working with him.”
Pereira joins the Lions after playing most of the 2016 Série B season with Clube Náutico Capibaribe. The 21-year-old made five appearances for Capibaribe while on loan from Paranaense. In 2015, Pereira made eight appearances with Brazilian side Guaratinguetá while on loan from Paranaense. | {
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Two weeks ago, Utah Transit Authority bus driver Shelly Monson was late returning to Ogden after delivering a bus to Salt Lake City. But she had a good excuse: she was busy stopping a suicidal teenager from jumping off a bridge.
The UTA Board honored her Wednesday as a hero, and she jokingly thanked board members for not being upset that she was delayed that day or that she took some chances in traffic.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone walking on I-15” near a bridge in Kaysville, she recounted. “Then I saw a leg go up on the barrier. So I flew across traffic and and I parked the [UTA] car.
“I ran and it felt like my feet weighed 5,000 pounds. I ran as fast as I could screaming, ‘Please don’t, please don’t,” Monson said. “When I got to her, I hooked her arm and her leg. And I held her.”
She said the 15-year-old girl let out a sigh as Monson pulled her back over the bridge railing, and then she started crying for her mother. “I just held her and let her cry on my chest, because I have children that age."
Another motorist also stopped, and summoned police. When they arrived, Monson turned over the girl and started to walk away — when a Highway Patrol officer ran after her to get her contact information and story.
Monson said she hasn’t been the same emotionally since, in part because it happened near the fourth anniversary of a nephew who died by suicide.
She told reporters Wednesday that she has a message for people struggling with suicidal thoughts.
“Find someone to talk to. Get it out. Don’t hold it inside because that’s where it eats at you,” she said. “If you can’t find anybody, look me up on Facebook because I will talk to you.”
She was a bit astonished at being honored as a hero.
“It’s a big wow for me, because I don’t do things for recognition. I just do it because it is what God would want us to do. You should just be a good person to everyone, because everyone is important,” she said.
Eddy Cummins, UTA chief operations officer, said Monson met with a counselor as required by UTA rules after a traumatic experience, but then quickly returned to work. “All in a day’s work? Not hardly, we don’t think so,” Cummins said about her actions.
“We know a hero when we see one" he said before presenting the award. "And we recognize her for going above and beyond the call of duty.” | {
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Documents, images and videoclips obtained by NHJournal appear to back claims made in a lawsuit against Republican state rep and House Speaker candidate Frank Sapareto of Derry, claiming he was involved in a video project to produce porn–and that the male lead in the movie was the Republican legislator himself.
“Yes, I have seen the video. There’s hours and hours of it,” Eric Dubin told NHJournal. Dubin is representing Jonathan Carter, the plaintiff in a lawsuit claiming that Sapareto assaulted him due to the representative’s displeasure over the quality of the filming.
“My client lost consciousness. He was treated for a concussion in the emergency room,” Dubin said. “The idea that an elected official would completely lie about this is very disturbing. I’m not judging anyone’s personal behavior, but there are jobs that require public confidence.”
Dubin supplied NHJournal with images and a video clip to support his client’s claims.
NOTE: THE FOLLOWING CLIP CONTAINS NUDITY:
Dubin also provided an extensive email chain of communications between his client, Rep. Sapareto and at least on other person involved in the porn project. Many of the communications involve potential female performers and their willingness/availability to participate in the movie.
As of late Tuesday morning, Rep. Sapareto was assuring NHJournal that he was the victim of a “scam.”
“The guy [Jonathan Carter] is a dirtbag. He’s making a living off scams like this,” Sapareto told NHJournal. “This is a political hit job. He said he would kill my political career unless I paid him $5,000. And now he’s keeping his word,” Saparto said.
According to email correspondence between Sapareto and another person involved in the project, possible titles considered for the porn film—based on the premise of Rep. Sapareto playing the last male on Earth available to continue the human race after a horrific disaster—were:
Last Sperm on Earth
Armageddon Sperm Donor
Doomsday Babymaker
Rep. Sapareto’s choice: Creampie Apocalypse. | {
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The "Fox and Friends" presenter apologized to viewers after referring to the leaders as "two dictators" ahead of their historic meeting in Singapore Tuesday .
The hashtag #TwoDictators erupted on Twitter after Fox News host Abby Huntsman on Sunday mistakenly used the term to describe President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un .
"Regardless of what happens in that meeting, between the two dictators, what we are seeing right now, this is history," Huntsman said.
Speaking on "Fox and Friends Weekend," Huntsman mistakenly suggested to former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci that the upcoming summit would be a historic moment for two autocratic powers.
The slip-up appeared to go unnoticed by Scaramucci, who responded "yeah" and went on to describe Trump as a "disruptive risk-taker."
"[Trump] is a disruptive risk-taker, he's willing to break the usual bonds ... because he knows that if he goes to a meeting like this, he increases the chance of peace and prosperity," said Scaramucci.
Huntsman, who is the daughter of U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr., later apologized on the show.
"I do want to point out that earlier, as you know sometimes on live TV sometimes you don't always say things perfectly," said Huntsman. "I called both President Trump and Kim Jong Un a dictator. I did not mean that, my mistake, so I apologize for that."
Abby Huntsman tweet: Apologized on the show. I'll never claim to be a perfect human being. We all have slip ups in life, I have many :) now let's all move on to things that actually matter.
However, netizens quickly picked up on the gaffe, spawning a stream of memes and prompting the hashtag #TwoDictators to trend on Twitter.
Trump, a regular proponent of Fox News, had not responded to the error at the time of publishing.
Trump is due to meet with Kim on Singapore's Sentosa Island Tuesday to push for a denuclearization plan for North Korea.
It will be the first-ever meeting between sitting U.S. and North Korean leaders. | {
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Thanks to Red Ant Liberation Army blog for sharing.
Maoist guerrillas praised for aiding calamity victims
MANILA, Philippines- The fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday welcomed the decision of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) for directing members of the New People’s Army (NPA) to assist victims of mass flooding in Eastern Visayas and other calamity disaster areas in Caraga and Bicol regions due to non-stop rain since the Christmas holidays last year.
In a press statement, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap the decision of the CPP leadership to prioritize disaster and relief operations in calamity stricken areas is highly commendable given the severity of the damage wrought by recent disasters on the masses, particularly the farmers and small fisherfolk in affected regions all over the country.
“In behalf of the national leadership and mass membership of our organization, we send this note of gratitude and thanks to the CPP and NPA leadership for mobilizing their Red fighters and mass organizations in assisting victims of heavy rains and mass flooding over the last three weeks. We hope the reactionary government and reactionary army of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III will do the same in the interest of 95 million Filipinos,” Hicap said.
The Pamalakaya leader said while the CPP and its armed wing are expected to help in assisting victims of calamities, it is politically, objectively and morally correct to recognize their efforts.
In an emailed statement sent to media last week, the CPP had called the NPAs and mass organizations to give priority in giving priority to provide assistance in disaster relief operations in areas affected by floods and landslides.
In an e-mailed press statement issued by CPP information bureau last week, it was learned that the members of the New People’s Army and its mass organizations were directed to give priority to providing assistance in disaster relief operations in areas affected by floods and landslides.
“Given the severity of the damage wrought by these recent disasters upon the masses, the revolutionary forces in flood- and landslide-affected areas are prioritizing disaster and relief operations in order to ensure the safety of communities and help affected families recover from the calamities,” the CPP said in a statement.
“We hope the AFP will do the same. It should allow disaster relief operations in flood ravaged areas to proceed instead of exploiting the situation to attack the people and launch unjust war under Oplan Bayanihan,” said Pamalakaya.
P 21-B cash transfer
Last week Pamalakaya urged President Aquino to immediately re-channel the P 21-B Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) fund to regions hardly affected by heavy rains and floods that had spread to Western Visayas region.
Pamalakaya said the P 21-B CCT fund should be used to address the immediate and rehabilitation needs of farmers, fisherfolk and other rural people in affected areasin Caraga, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Bicol and 5 more regions all over the country.
“The P 21-B alloted for CCT projects can be used to fund relief and rehabilitation efforts in 9 regions and 23 provinces hardly hit by heavy rains and floods over the last three weeks since December last year and the oversight committee created by Congress should monitor and supervise the disbursement of these funds to frustrate corrupt government officials from exploiting this misery and make money for themselves,” the group said.
The group said the P 21-B CCT fund can be allocated for quick relief operations and rehabilitation projects to enable devastated farms and fishing communities to immediately recover and resume the wheel of production in ravaged areas.
“We are running out of time. There is a strong sense of urgency here and Aquino cannot dilly dally or play it by ear. He should mobilize all available state resources to make sure all concerns are addressed properly and appropriately,” added Pamalakaya.
Quoting the latest bulletin from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), Pamalakaya said the misery brought by heavy rains had engulfed the provinces of Samar and Negros Occidental raising the death toll to 40 beginning the Christmas season last year.
1 million people
Pamalakaya said more than 1 million people have been affected by floods and landslides caused by heavy rains and mass flooding in three regions. The NDRRMC said landslides and floods affected 213,264 families or 1,120, 685 people mostly farmers and small rural producers. Of the eight affect regions, Caraga is the most affected with 112,096 families or 601,804 people. The impact of heavy rains and mass flooding in Negros Occidental and Samar provinces has yet to be accounted.
In Eastern Visayas, floods and landslides took their tolls on 35, 463 families or 185,675 people, while in Bicol region, the disaster agency said 37,514 families or 191,777 people were affected.
The NDRRMC said damage to property estimates stood at P747 million, including P174 million in agriculture, P574 million in infrastructure, and P31,300 in private property. It said damage to agriculture posted in Eastern Visayas — Southern Leyte, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, and Leyte was pegged at P46.230 million, while agricultural damage in Albay and Sorsogon totaled P17.408 million. | {
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Wendy Davis says it would take a ‘lobotomy’ for her to run for governor in 2018
File - In this March 4, 2014 file photo, Texas Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, speaks to supporters at her campaign headquarters, in Fort Worth, Texas. Davis' compelling personal story of rising from a trailer park to Harvard Law has reeled in donors. She now has financial backers in every U.S. state. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File) less File - In this March 4, 2014 file photo, Texas Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, speaks to supporters at her campaign headquarters, in Fort Worth, Texas. Davis' compelling personal story of rising from a trailer ... more Photo: LM Otero, STF / AP Photo: LM Otero, STF / AP Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Wendy Davis says it would take a ‘lobotomy’ for her to run for governor in 2018 1 / 27 Back to Gallery
AUSTIN — Wendy Davis slammed the door on the idea that she might make another run for governor in 2018 in an interview Tuesday with the San Antonio Express-News.
She earlier had offered a slight chance she might run again, saying she would rule it out “99 percent” but not entirely since no other major Democratic candidate has stepped forward.
Davis followed that up last week by saying it would take “a brainwash, maybe,” for her to run.
On Tuesday, she told the Express-News, “I probably should have said it might take a lobotomy.”
The former Fort Worth senator got national attention with her 2013 filibuster against tighter abortion laws.
The effort launched her 2014 race for governor, which she lost by more than 20 percentage points to Republican Greg Abbott. He is running for re-election with a campaign war chest topping $40 million.
“I love this state so much, and I am still working really hard to try to help move things forward and to grow the voices of the progressive community, but I’ve also given a lot to trying to do my part in the face of a lot of criticism upon failing to realize that goal,” Davis said.
Asked whether she’s ruling out a run in 2018, Davis said she is.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not going to put myself back out there again. I am. I have no doubt about that,” she said. “I just — I’m not ready to do it for 2018.
“It would be a much better time for me to run than 2014,” she allowed, “but I know how much energy it takes, and unless I feel like I’m fully ready to give it that kind of energy, I don’t think it’s fair to me and my family, and I don’t think it’s fair to the state, either.”
Her filibuster has received renewed attention with the news that Sandra Bullock is ready to play Davis in a proposed movie project based on the event, entitled, “Let Her Speak.”
[email protected] | Twitter: @pfikac | {
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California marijuana delivery drivers and dispensaries will now require a QR code readable by the public to show that products came from a legally licensed source. Photo courtesy of the California Department of Consumer Affairs
Jan. 23 (UPI) -- California residents who have marijuana delivered will be able to verify through their cell phone that the product is from a state-licensed source, officials said Thursday.
A new emergency rule announced by California's Bureau of Cannabis Control said the state's licensed marijuana businesses must display a cell phone-readable code that links to information about the source of their products.
"Consumers will be able to ask a delivery driver to scan their QR code," said Alex Traverso, spokesperson for the state bureau, in an email.
The QR code will link to online information about the cannabis seller, including the state license number, license status, licensee's name, licensed premises address, business contact information and owner, the bureau said.
The state bureau cited the national vaping crisis as the rationale for the emergency ruling.
Federal investigators have pointed the finger at illicit or counterfeit THC vapes for a national vaping-related lung illness outbreak that has killed 60 people and hospitalized more than 2,600.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that vitamin E acetate, a vape liquid thickening agent that appeared in spring 2019, is likely the culprit for the outbreak that has spread to all 50 states.
More than 190 people have been hospitalized with vaping-related lung illness in California, and four people have died, the California Department of Public Health reported on their website this week.
In recent months, California's state cannabis bureau has cracked down on illicit pop-up cannabis shops and sellers of counterfeit vape cartridges, many tainted with vitamin E acetate.
"Often, illegal retail commercial cannabis businesses visibly resemble or have names that sound similar to legal cannabis businesses," the bureau said in a press release.
Previously, licensed cannabis retailers only were encouraged to display their state license, but now they must display the QR code in a place that the customer can see upon entering the store.
The new rules for delivery services also will help law enforcement determine whether delivery drivers are legitimate, officials said.
Under the rule, police will have another tool to identify vehicles carrying illegal cannabis goods to "prevent these potentially harmful products from reaching illegal retailers, who will ultimately sell them to consumers," the bureau said Thursday.
California was the first state to permit delivery of recreational cannabis products and has the most developed delivery network of states where cannabis is legal. | {
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Um piloto da companhia aérea China Airlines foi filmado dormindo enquanto sobrevoava Taiwan. O vídeo foi divulgado pelo canal de TV EBC News.
Nas imagens, o piloto do voo CAL 747, devidamente uniformizado, é visto de olhos fechados, com a cabeça jogada para frente e sem reação, claramente dormindo.
Pilotos até podem dormir na cabine em voos mais longos, no que é conhecido como "descanso controlado". Mesmo assim, o assento deve ser puxado para trás e o piloto deve ficar longe dos controles.
O piloto foi identificado como sendo o capitão-chefe de treinamentos para voos com Boeing 747. Ele foi duramente criticado por não dar o exemplo e por não seguir o procedimento operacional padrão como comandante.
De acordo com uma fonte, o piloto foi punido pelo incidente. Além disso, a China Airlines foi multada e o responsável pelo vídeo --também um piloto da mesma companhia aérea-- foi repreendido por não acordar o comandante.
O capitão-chefe de treinamento tem quase 20 anos de experiência e costuma pilotar rotas para Tóquio, Okinawa, Seul e Hong Kong. Ele também serve como instrutor e é responsável pelos exames do simulador.
A EBC News conversou com um outro piloto da China Airlines que afirmou ser normal sofrer de cansaço durante os voos. No entanto, neste caso, o piloto filmado dormindo deveria "dar o exemplo" e passar o comando para outro.
O vídeo foi publicado cinco dias depois de uma greve de mais de 600 pilotos da China Airlines que reclamam justamente do excesso de trabalho e do cansaço.
O Departamento de Aviação Civil de Taiwan afirma que se os pilotos voarem por mais de 12 horas, eles devem receber pelo menos 24 horas de folga. | {
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Ex-mayor Mike Bloomberg tried hard not to criticize his successor during a 34-minute interview with Katie Couric — but he just couldn’t help it.
Without calling out Mayor Bill de Blasio by name, Bloomberg said it was a mistake to boycott the St. Patrick’s Day Parade for not allowing gays to march openly, saying that isn’t an effective way to change people’s minds.
De Blasio and other prominent elected officials have said that they’re not marching in Monday’s parade up Fifth Avenue.
“I think by boycotting, it doesn’t get it done. If anything, it hardens the views,” he told Couric at her new Yahoo News post. “It makes it harder for anybody to change if you force them into a corner. That’s just not the way I would do it.”
When Couric pressed Bloomberg on whether that meant he disagrees with de Blasio’s decision not to march, he wouldn’t criticize the current mayor directly.
“Bill de Blasio’s gotta make his decision, and I respect his decision — he’s the mayor,” said Bloomberg.
But he added, “Generally speaking, I think when you force people in corners, it isn’t as useful.”
Despite insisting he’s supportive of de Blasio, Bloomberg also challenged his plans to tax the wealthy and to oppose charter schools.
“Trying to tax people and having them move or companies do their business elsewhere. It sounds good, it’s great populist rhetoric — but it’s a disaster,” said Bloomberg.
He said charter schools generally provide students — mostly low-income and minority kids — with a great education. But he didn’t hesitate to call the the UFT’s low-performing East New York charter school a “disgrace.”
He also suggested the battle over space-sharing arrangements between traditional public and charter schools was misguided.
“The thing with charter schools is they’re public schools … and they act as a role model for other public schools,” said the former mayor. “Every school takes away space that somebody else could use — by definition what we’re supposed to do in school buildings is put schools,” he said of the current battles over classroom space. “I mean, it’s a nonsensical thing if you think about it.”
On homelessness, which rose to unprecedented levels under his tenure, Bloomberg insisted he wouldn’t have done anything differently.
He also repeated a much-criticized claim that part of the increase in homelessness was attributable to the more attractive shelter system his administration put in place.
“You can literally come, fly first-class to Kennedy Airport and say to the taxi driver, ‘Take me to the shelter system.’ And we have to provide shelter,” he said.
“Do you really think people do that?” asked Couric.
“There’s a handful. There’s no question there’s a handful — it’s not a lot of people,” he answered.
Now serving as the United Nations’ special envoy for cities and climate change, Bloomberg vowed to continue his national lobbying on gun control, obesity and limiting the size of sugary drinks.
As one of the world’s wealthiest people, he said it would be a “shame” if he didn’t continue his ways on philanthropic and social issues.
Asked at the end of the interview what he wanted his tombstone to read, Bloomberg answered: “I guess maybe something cute like ‘Made a difference.'” | {
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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Posts Imminent Ned meme so you know what to expect | {
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August 1st, 1993
Duarte let out a slow approving whistle as he stared at the nearly two meter tall brute, height made more impressive by the lack of hair to aid it. His bald head reflected most of the shaft of the afternoon light streaking in through the bar window. The man was dressed in a simple black T-shirt and jeans, and kept his eyes locked on Duarte. The man's physique looked natural, not like one of those American movie stars who spent hours in the gym.
Duarte nodded. "Yes, the boss will like you. A bruiser everyone can fear without shame. Very intimidating. What's your name?"
The man stared at him, gaze hard, for several seconds before finally saying, "Alexio."
Duarte raised an eyebrow and slid his gaze back to Tomas. "Well, Alexio, I need to confer with friend here," and he stepped over to the other side of the bar.
"Where did you find this one, Tomas? Is he trying to pull some tough guy routine on us? Not that he doesn't look it, but does he know who we are?" Duarte nodded over to the bartender who poured out a shot of bourbon - the good stuff - and took a drink. "Or is he on drugs, and has to work off a debt?
"No drugs, just an idiot. He's slow to answer, barely says anything, but if you put him in a scrape he's fine. Not a great fighter, but does he have to be? We can do the talking, he can tag along and look scary..."
Draco had christened himself Alexio, and refused to think of himself by any other name. Until he learned Occlumency, it was too dangerous. Alexio watched Tomas talk conspiratorially with the new man, the shorter one who hadn't mentioned his name. Tomas was more of a middle man, but the short one worried Draco. He looked dangerous, like he'd had to compensate for his size to demonstrate his value. He'd probably even been boasting about how the big ones are usually not so tough, but Alexio hadn't understood much. Even the simple question, one on the first page of any language book, had taken him precious seconds to work out. It wasn't like a classroom or tutoring - everyone spoke fast.
Tomas and the short man had moved over to the other side of the bar to conspire about him. Hopefully they hadn't realized how little he grasped. But this was easier, now he didn't have to focus on the words. Alexio could read the obvious greed in their faces. They'd dump their work on him and pay him too little. Alexio walked a dangerous path, but not in the sense that he'd be in much physical danger. Even a typical second year could deal with muggles, if they put their mind to it, and Alexio was in no way typical. He'd been practising a few wandless stunning hexes, typically targeting obnoxious passersby late at night. They shouldn't have worked, but they did. Perhaps his earlier tutoring paid off, or perhaps it was the physical age of the body. It was an interesting theoretical question, but he didn't have time to experiment.
Navigating the muggle world had dangers, and so he'd tested his skills, but he hoped to mostly hide them for the next year and practice alone, at his hideout. Casting spells in public risked alerting the local aurors while he clearly would be pegged as an outsider. Hiding had the less obvious (but much more important) risk - Harry would be actively consolidating power while Alexio waited in safety. No, Alexio knew he needed to start now. Because at some point, he would have enough power to be a threat to Harry Potter, and Alexio needed to make absolutely sure that his backstory did not simply start in 1993, with him as a newcomer who didn't speak the language. He needed to be someone who always spoke eloquently, but had chosen not to. Someone that had stories about him that easily predated his arrival.
Luckily Alexio had Vincent's example as a prototype. Be big, act stupid, speak only when absolutely necessary. Never break eye contact first, no matter how much you were afraid. Knowing he didn't need a wand in his hand helped calm his nerves. Alexio glanced over at the two, who were laughing now. They had made their decision. He turned his gaze to the television. The announcers still spoke too quickly (except for the news announcers) but they tended to have clear diction and usually never said anything complicated.
Tomas saw Alexio, sitting on the other side of the bar and watching them impassively for a few seconds before his eyes flickered over to the television and started watching the random trash it played. He and Duarte walked back over to Alexio, and Duarte slapped the big man on the back.
"Well, Alexio, it appears we will be working together. The only thing you should know is, I prefer redheads. So no making moves on any of them. Got it?" Duarte said.
Alexio just let out an amused snort, shrugging his shoulders. Tomas laughed.
"And how are you feeling tonight, little one?" Afonso Farias asked as he gently kissed his daughter's forehead. He could feel the slight fever in his lips, still there, but much reduced from the summer, when things had looked bleak. The doctors couldn't explain it, one had simply said it was a miracle but the others just quietly admitted that there was still a lot to learn about human physiology, and the body had defenses they didn't understand.
"I feel good, Father," Ana said. "Nanny read to me after lunch. We had soup for lunch," she added.
"That's good," Afonso added. He'd of course gotten a detailed update from Ana's nanny when he'd arrived home, and he knew that his daughter still slept about half the day. Her strength was returning slowly, but it was better than the alternative. It was barely sunset, and already her eyelids were drooping. "Perhaps you should get some sleep, my sweet," he said.
"You also, Father. You look very tired," she said, but her voice was already fading. Afonso nodded. He'd felt tired for the last year, strained by the experience of caring for his late wife and his recovering daughter. He watched her fall into a peaceful slumber for a few minutes, then went into the kitchen and prepared a small dinner and ate in front of the television, watching Baovista's latest match. They'd just been promoted to the second division, so they were getting thrashed. The score was still nil-nil, but it was only a matter of time. Afonso sighed as he cleaned up the dishes. No point in watching, he was tired. A small noise startled him and he turned to see a large looming figure in the kitchen point a stick and say a word. Afonso froze, muscles locked, and crashed into the floor. The man - nearly two meters tall and with curly black hair and a hardened jaw, looked unkempt, like he hadn't shaved in days, but he easily picked up Afonso and through him over his shoulder, saying nothing.
Afonso panicked, unable to move. Why am I frozen? And what did the man say? It wasn't Portuguese, it sounded vaguely like English. Or corrupted Latin, perhaps. Playing the scene back in his mind, Afonso was startled to see he was being carried up the attic ladder and started to whisper a prayer.
As he finished, the figured deposited him into a comfortable leather chair. The attic wasn't like he'd left it, full of boxes. The clutter had been replaced by a reasonable (if spartan) set of furniture. Afonso's eye's glanced around and saw a desk, bookshelf, chair, and a small mattress on the floor. The figure walked over to the small television placed in the center of his view and turned it on, pushing a VCR tape into the machine. He then simply went back down the ladder.
The tv screen flickered for a moment, and then Afonso saw ... himself.
"Do not be afraid, little conqueror," he said. Little conqueror was a nickname Afonso's father had bestowed on him when he was eight. "The man who did this to you is our guest. He is a warlock, or some such. He asked us for help with learning the language and the city, and to hide him. In exchange, he is helping Ana. He cannot cure her, that is beyond his power, but you've seen he does have power. But he is helping. And he has promised that once he is fluent in Portuguese he will find someone who can cure her. Perhaps we should not believe him. But what can we do? A few hours of lessons most nights, and then we forget about him. Perhaps in a year, he will be gone. It is a fair deal."
While listening with growing confusion, Afonso could hear the man downstairs, making a plate of food for himself. By the time the tape ended, the heavy footsteps climbed back up the ladder. The man set down a rather large sandwich on his writing desk and then took out his wand and said a few words. Prepared this time, Afonso recognized the words. Finite Incantatem.
"Good evening, Professor Farias, and my apologies," the man said. He spoke slowly and carefully, as if following the carpenter's adage to measure twice and cut only once. When he finished speaking he set down his wand and picked up the sandwich, then took a bite. Afonso stood up slowly and cautiously. He started to say something, then paused. The man - the warlock, Afonso had said on the tape - stopped chewing and swallowed.
"I know what you are thinking. About the police," the man said, then took another bite, then picked up a sheet of paper and walked over and deposited it on the tray table besides the leather chair. Afonso picked it up. The handwriting's elegance didn't hide the clumsiness of the language, but clearly the man had a much better grasp of written Portuguese than spoken. Or perhaps just had more time to compose his thoughts.
Apart from the fact that you trust your words on the television, I am helping your daughter's recovery. Private tutoring is a small price to pay for that, even if it must be clumsy because you do not remember each session. And since you always ask each night, removing your memories is as much for your safety as mine, as I have powerful enemies who are hunting for me. And you know the police would laugh at you, or much worse.
As for my name, we've generally gone with Orpheus. Please critique the writing on this letter while I finish eating. Also, can you tell where I am from?
"You are English, Orpheus," Afonso said, voice steadying after a few words.
"How do you know?" asked Orpheus, before taking another bite.
"Your accent is good, but your sentence construction betrays you. And in any case, no native would consider going to the police a serious threat. At least, not from someone who wasn't wealthy." Afonso spoke slowly, but Orpheus repeated the sentence back, emphasizing a few words, which Afonso translated into English. It took several repetitions, but Orpheus grasped it. He is, actually, a surprisingly attentive student.
Orpheus nodded at the sentence, one he grasped its meaning, and chuckled at the last part before swallowing the last of the sandwich.
Afonso looked up. "That is it, isn't it? You will consider yourself fluent when I cannot guess your accent?" While Orpheus struggled with that sentence, particularly with the word fluent, Afonso walked over to the bookshelf and read the titles. An entire row of books on elementary Portuguese, and some tourist guides for Brazil and also Portugal. More interesting were the scrolls and ancient looking tomes that could have been pulled from a movie or child's fairy tale. English books with bizarre yet somehow mundane sounding names, Intermediate Transfigurations, Practical Divinations for Everyone, Runic Lore, and seven volumes of Miranda Grawshank's Standard Book of Spells. Names that implied that 'wizard' might simply be another trade, like professor, lawyer, mechanic or scientist. Beside the bookshelf a small cauldron bubbled quietly.
"Yes," Orpheus said. "You said another year to be fluent. Ana should be fine within a few months. I cannot cure her. Healing magics are not ... mine. I can brew palliative formulas."
"A surprisingly complex word, palliative," Afonso said.
"Which you taught me. Now, the letter? I've written more, Correct them for mistakes. Formal language for writing, common language for speaking. Correct anything I say. We have ninety minutes left, to work. Then we both sleep."
Author's Note - The final chapter will be posted on Christmas Eve. | {
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Image copyright PA Image caption The Labour leader insisted his party would not obstruct the process of leaving the EU
Jeremy Corbyn says he understands the lack of trust in politicians and the EU that led to the Brexit vote.
In his New Year message, the Labour leader said 2016 would "live long in all our memories" and would be defined by the EU referendum.
The UK now had "the chance to do things differently" after the vote, he said.
He said Labour would not block Brexit but would not support a deal with the EU which merely "protects the bankers in the City".
In his own end of year message to activists, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has appealed to disenchanted Labour supporters to join his party saying they are the "voice of optimism" in British politics.
Mr Corbyn began 2016 saying it would be "the start of a journey to elect a Labour government in 2020".
But he had to contend with a leadership challenge in the summer, which came after mass resignations from his front bench who were unhappy about his EU referendum campaign performance.
'Do things differently'
His New Year's message says 2017 offers everyone the chance to "start afresh", saying: "2016 will be defined in history by the referendum on our EU membership.
"People didn't trust politicians and they didn't trust the European Union. I understand that.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Farron said many people felt "anxious" about the way things were going
"I've spent over 40 years in politics campaigning for a better way of doing things, standing up for people, taking on the establishment, and opposing decisions that would make us worse off.
"We now have the chance to do things differently. To build an economy that invests and works for everyone across all our nations and regions."
Mr Corbyn has said his party will try to amend legislation if the government is forced to consult Parliament before triggering Brexit, but has said this will not mean the process being delayed.
He said Labour "accepts and respects" the referendum result, adding: "We won't be blocking our leaving the European Union, but we won't stand by.
"A Brexit that protects the bankers in the City and continues to give corporate handouts to the biggest companies is not good enough."
'Open and tolerant'
Mr Corbyn said the UK's political system was "letting down the people of this country", urging action on social care, homelessness, job security and education.
Reflecting on the challenges ahead in 2017, Mr Farron said the UK faced an "uncertain" future, with "widespread" economic insecurity, no plan for leaving the EU and an NHS and social care system was in crisis.
Mr Farron, whose Lib Dems ended the year on a high by winning the Richmond Park by-election, said his party would continue to fight for a Britain that was "open, tolerant and united".
"If you worry that the government is embarking on the most extreme, divisive version of Brexit possible, ripping us out of the single market with no regard for the impact on the lives and livelihoods of millions of our fellow citizens," he said.
"If you are fed up with a Labour Party that would rather fight with itself than hold the Conservatives to account. Then join the real voice of opposition.
"Don't shrug your shoulders. Don't look the other way. Get involved... and together we can make 2017 a year for optimism." | {
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by Sunny Hundal
Post updated
Courtesy of someone at Sky News, I’ve now managed to get an extended version of the audio of Rebekah Brooks facing angry News of the World staff.
Highlights
– Staff accuse Rebekah Brooks “of calling our newspaper toxic”
– She is also accused of “making the whole News International toxic”
– Whatever she says ends up at the Guardian website, she claims
– “No one wanted to be in it” – she admits with regards to advertisers.
– She admits lots of advertisers were pulling out
– She says there is more to come and it will then be “another very difficult moment for this company”.
– Staff member says: “a lot of people think you should resign”.
Listen to part 1
LC EXCL: Rebekah Brooks faces angry NotW staff pt1 (mp3)
Listen to part 2
LC EXCL: Rebekah Brooks faces angry NotW staff pt.2 (mp3)
Listen to part 3
LC Excl: Rebekah Brooks faces angry NotW staff pt.3 (mp3)
Partial transcript (courtesy of yerialc)
Rebekah Brooks: …and I remember the team spirit of the paper where you all, who were there came alongside me and we fought for something we believed in, and I remember when we saw all the news headlines that came in the next day – we were rubbished everywhere and there was an opinion poll that said “ninety-seven percent of the British public agree with you”.
And we were like “right, here we are, we’re up and running”. And so I feel very strongly exactly the same as you, and that’s why I said “mounting anger”. And you know, I’m not saying- you know, this is not exactly the best time in my life, but I’m determined to get vindication for this paper. And for people like you.
Staff member: Will the paper come out again once you’ve got vindication for it? What I don’t understand is, can’t you see that by your actions yesterday, you’re calling our newspaper toxic, right? We’re all contaminated by that toxicity, by the way we’ve been treated. But can’t you see the bigger picture? You’re making the whole of News International toxic, and the arrogance there that you think we’re going to work here again.
[applause]
Rebekah Brooks: You know what there’s not an arrogance about wanting you to work for us again at all and I’m sorry that came across. All I meant was that if any of you did want to, that I was going to try and find opportunities, but please believe me, there’s no arrogance coming from this standpoint. On your point about- you know, you said will the paper come out again? We have a belief in journalism, we have invested in journalism throughout our history, yes we’re in a very bad moment, but we will continue to invest in journalism. And we haven’t made a decision on any new publications, or existi- strengthening or expanding existing ones yet.
It’s too soon, we just don’t know what to do. But in those circumstances – I don’t see there’s any of you in this room here looking at me now – that we wouldn’t want to work because we know there’s no toxicity attached to you guys in the room and that’s the sadness. It wouldn’t be sad, we wouldn’t all be feeling like this if you guys were up to your neck in it like previous colleagues. We wouldn’t be feeling like this would we?
Staff clap in response. | {
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President Donald Trump has a new idea to win over Hispanic voters in Florida in time for the 2020 election.
According to a Politico report Monday, Trump is considering shielding Venezuelan immigrants from deportation after Florida leaders assured him that the move would help him win the battleground state in 2020.
Despite how the President has pushed to end the temporary legal status of other migrant groups in the U.S., Trump views the idea as a way to boost his 2020 chances as he works to oust Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro — one of his top foreign policy proposals.
Trump reportedly sees the prospect as a two-for-one deal — not only would the move play well with Florida’s sizable Venezuelan population, but like-minded Cuban Americans as well. Trump is particularly concerned with his declining approval rating in Florida since narrowly winning the state in 2016.
“You can’t win if you’re a Republican without Florida,” a Republican close to Trump told Politico. “And I think the campaign knows it.”
Politico, citing six sources, reported that Trump officials are receptive to the idea and are discussing allowing Venezuelans to live and work legally in the U.S. through one of two existing programs used to protect immigrants who come from nations that are devastated by war or natural disasters.
“There’s obviously a significant Venezuelan population and the President’s strong positions against those dictatorships in Cuba and Venezuela resonate tremendously with those populations, so we think we’ll do very well there,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Politico.
Politico reported that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have spoken directly to Trump about the issue. Scott added that he had spoken to acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli and one of the President’s top advisers on immigration.
However, Rubio and Scott denied that political considerations have entered any discussions regarding the potential Venezuelan protections. But two people familiar with the administration’s discussions told Politico that some officials have tried to persuade Trump by pointing out the political benefits in the possible move.
Read Politico’s report here. | {
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&feature=channel_video_title
Edit: Sadly the Blip and YouTube versions were taken down, so here’s the heavily edited version for your pleasure (Thanks once again to TableofJapan for editing and uploading this)
Unedited version available here on Dailymotion!
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Posted 02 February 2013 - 03:57 PM
We wanted to address the community in regards to what has been going on, and what is being planned. It turned into a long enough post that it is on the blog, and reposted below.For anyone that was concerned about my seeming disappearance, rest assured I'm still here, but more importantly the team is still here ramping up a ton of stuff for 2013!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Greetings Ragnarok Fans!2013 has launched and we’ve not yet put up a kind of all encompassing “Here is what is going on post”, yet. I do apologize for that, things have been hectic with making our 2013 schedules and getting all our updates lined up.This year is going to be very hectic for our Ragnarok Team here, not only with our continued support for multi-monthly quests and events, but also with a large list of updates planned this year for both our Renewal and Classic servers.Near the end of 2012 we did our 3 way merger of the Renewal servers, that went about as smoothly as can be expected, we also updated the way God items are used to keep scamming and RMT at bay. The usual amount of confusion was had with that update but I think the guild leaders know what to expect now. Please don’t worry about how many times you can get the 1 month “ephemeral God item” currently a limit has not been established, so just keep getting them when you are allowed to God item owners.The WoE scene is MUCH busier that it has been in many years, so much so that we have needed to increase the server cap to well beyond spec to try and cut down player load latency. Every week we try to diagnose and tweak a bit more, but it isn’t fixed yet, please do understand that it is a work in progress. It may come down to there is an inefficiency in the client or other software that is “capping” the performance beyond what we can immediately fix, but we are working on it from every angle.With all those ‘meh’ tidings already talked about, we can now talk about what is in the future for RO this year in general, and what to expect in the more immediate term.- Kagerou and Oboro Ninja update is coming to Renewal on February 5th, that will add some very interesting game play options for all you enjoyers of the obscure.- Late February or Early March we should be updating our software and game systems to the latest “skill bug fixed version”, this version is a collection of small fixes over the last year that addresses many skill issues we’ve had reported. Once this update is done we will certainly monitor any change in game performance, especially regarding WoE.- We will be having high level Eden Group quests and Item updates within the first few months, these are relatively small content updates but it will help smooth out gear and leveling tiers.- 14.2 is planned to launch in the first half of this year!- For the remainder of the year we have several large content updates of new dungeons, new Quest system and starting player help systems and tentatively the 14.3 update, and this is all just for Renewal.On Classic server we also have a pretty aggressive plans too!- Thanatos dungeon and the opening of ALL the hugel and Yuno outdoor maps will occur on February 5th.- Battle Grounds is in need of being reworked to keep exploitative point acquisition from happening. We know many players want BG already, but we want to put it in 1 time and make it right rather than have to redo it later. We are begining the rebuild of that system in February with the hope of launching it in February.- Post BG we will make the Seal quest available, probably at the 50 seal quest requirement, but we need to redo the gear gifting of the seals to be more in-line with where the server is at. Otherwise I suppose everyone will just make a lot of assassins- Overall plan is to have Arunafeltz in-game by April-ish.- WoE 2 will be next on the update list.on top of these direct Ragnarok service updates we are ramping up for our RO2 launch now, I can’t give a launch date right now, but it is near enough that it is starting to occupy my time in planning out its launch necessities. This is one of a few reasons why I am a ghost on the forums, I am doing the things that make schedules happen rather than the more public things like being in-game and on forums, but rest assured we are all working hard to keep things going in the good direction.We also have Ragnarok Valkyrie : Uprising the mobile game coming out soon, you can sign up for the launch and get some RO swag too! This game is fully networked to play in a persistent world it isn’t the RO world, but you will definitely see the resemblance, and if you like the chibi art style you will be right at home!This year has more Ragnarok stuff happening than any year in my memory, so please grace us with your support and have a great time everyone!Jason “Heimdallr”Ragnarok Online Producer | {
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Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images
From their strongholds on the American West Coast, companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon have used the Great Recession as an opportunity to think big, invest and take the world by storm with their products and services. All four of these firms’ success is obviously and irrevocably linked to technology. But one of these companies — Amazon — is a tech company that is firmly rooted in the age-old industry of retail, in the quotidian business of getting the products from the people who make them to the people who want them. And because of this — and Amazon’s ceaseless innovation — it is perhaps the most disruptive company of the four, and it’s poised to integrate itself in Americans’ lives in ways that no other company is capable of.
Amazon is already a behemoth of American business. It’s the 56th largest company in America by market capitalization. It’s the 15th biggest retailer in America by revenue and by far the largest Internet retailer. And in a country that seems already dominated by e-commerce, the company has a lot of room to grow. After stripping out things like gasoline sales that can’t migrate to the Web, Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler estimates that e-commerce represents roughly 12% of retail sales overall, and that that figure could double in the next 10 years. And Amazon is not just growing along with Internet retailing. It’s actually gaining market share in that category — by growing at three times the rate of e-commerce overall.
(MORE: The Amazon Store of My Dreams)
And the stock market seems to think that Amazon will continue its headlong march toward retail hegemony. Amazon’s stock is priced at a whopping 180 times its earnings — far more than Facebook, Google or Apple, suggesting that investors believe its earnings have a lot of room to grow. So where will this growth come from — and what, if anything, will stop this behemoth?
Re-establishing the Retail Relationship
Back when mom-and-pop retailers ruled the land, one-on-one relationships between purveyors and customers were easy to foster. Business owners knew their customers well — understood their tastes, how they shopped and what they needed. As chain stores began to dominate, however, this one-on-one relationship was lost. There was no way for people running a national retail operation to understand their customers on such an individual basis.
But Amazon changed that. According to Greg Girard, an analyst for IDC Retail Insights, Amazon’s greatest strength is that “its customer relationships are inherently one-to-one, more akin to what telecoms and banks have with their customers.” While brick-and-mortar stores are black boxes — customer behavior inside the store is effectively invisible to managers — Amazon is able to collect endlessly useful information about shoppers and use it to sell more stuff by targeting customers through e-mail and the website itself. Says Girard:
“Whenever a customer buys something from Amazon or logs in without buying something, Amazon is collecting all kinds of information about that person. There’s a lot of data that can be mined about how they peruse the website, what they put in the cart, what they abandon and how the customer actually goes about searching for a product.”
This relationship, and what Amazon can do with it, is invaluable and puts Amazon in a prime position to turn the growing role of e-commerce into revenue growth for itself.
The Kindle Universe
But Amazon was also quick to realize that e-commerce would migrate from traditional computers to mobile. Amazon’s development of first the Kindle and then the Kindle Fire was a series of daring and imaginative coups. For an Internet bookseller to bet the farm on making the kind of hardware that would be more likely to come from Microsoft or Apple is a testament to founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’ vision, and to his resolve.
(VIDEO: How to Choose a Kindle)
But the development of the Kindle and the Kindle Fire isn’t just a quixotic attempt to poke its tech rivals in the eye. Bezos realized that these products were necessary to maintain Amazon’s strong presence in the digital-media business. While books, movies and music don’t account for nearly as much of Amazon’s revenue as they once did, they still account for 37% of it — and a high-margin slice of it at that. Kessler estimates that in the long run, upwards of 90% of all media sales will be digital, and if Amazon wants to maintain those revenues, it had to get into the tablet game, where it could much more easily divert sales to its own website and away from competitors like Apple.
The Infrastructure of Commerce
Amazon’s most daring gambit, and the one that may position the company for the kind of earnings growth that the stock market expects, is its foray into business-to-business services. In recent years, Amazon has ramped up its “cloud computing” services, or its business of leasing out of server space in its large data centers around the world so that small businesses don’t have to risk such up-front capital investment. It has also greatly expanded its third-party marketplace, where merchants all over the world can set up their own virtual stores on Amazon.com and sell their products alongside Amazon’s — all the while leveraging Amazon’s large customer base and credit-card-processing services.
In fact, retailers who use Amazon’s third-party marketplace now account for 35% to 40% of all units that Amazon sells per year. Amazon takes a healthy commission off each sale it makes — making third-party sales a higher-margin venture than its core retail business — without having the risk of developing those products or holding the inventory. And the sellers get the advantage of Amazon’s vast distribution network and built-in customer base. Amazon’s reach into third-party businesses has become so great that the Financial Times wrote last week:
“This has lifted Amazon’s economic influence beyond its tech peers Apple, Google and Facebook and taken it into the realm of network businesses such as stock exchanges, power grid operators, credit-card processors and shipping lines.”
This new development has exponentially extended Amazon’s retail-industry influence in ways that a company like Walmart — whose revenues far outstrip Amazon’s — could never dream of.
(MORE: Amazon Backs Away from Discounts for Moms)
Can Anything Stop Amazon?
Of course, there are land mines in the path to Walmartesque hegemony. It was reported this week that Amazon is making a strong push to offer same-day delivery for many of its products. According to Slate, such an initiative would “destroy local retail.” But as Amazon invests in the kind of infrastructure necessary to reach this level of service, its own fixed costs will increase, and this is a dangerous tightrope for Amazon to walk if it wants to continue to undercut its competitors on price.
In addition, as Amazon invests to give customers the kind of instant gratification that until now only brick-and-mortar retail could provide, traditional retailers are investing heavily to achieve the kind of selection and convenience that Amazon provides. Firms like Macy’s and Nordstrom are investing hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years to beef up their e-commerce operations and integrate their in-store and online inventories.
Indeed, traditional retailers do not see their obsolescence as inevitable and are doing all they can to leverage their main strength: their brick-and-mortar stores. And there is reason to believe that many will have success with this strategy. Consumers still want the social experience of in-store shopping. They want knowledgeable and attentive service, and they want to test, touch and try on products before they buy them. So while Amazon’s strengths are manifold, the competition is fierce — and not giving up. Amazon will probably not continue to grow its revenues at 50% a year, but whatever the future of retail is, Amazon will surely play a huge role.
This is the second in a series of articles on the future of retailing. You can read the first installment here.
MORE: Amazon Prime Loses $11 Annually per Member … and It’s a Huge Success | {
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Halo anti-hero character Arbiter is coming to Microsoft's fighting game Killer Instinct for its upcoming third season next month. This much was confirmed earlier this month. Now, as part of a blog post published Saturday, 343 Industries shared new details about the character's weapons, armor, stage, and more. Among other things, it is mentioned that Arbiter's stage pushes the game's scripting "to the limit." More details follow below.
First, his weapons and items. These include his trademark energy sword, as well as a Type-51 Carbine, and plasma grenades. Below is a full rundown of these, as written by 343.
Type-51 Carbine
The Type-51 Carbine holds 18 rounds of radioactive ammo and fires three-shot bursts. Once the magazine has been emptied, gunshots are replaced by melee attacks.
Plasma Grenade
Sticky anti-personnel plasma grenade that detonates after a three-second delay. Throwing distance can be changed by pressing Forward or Backwards. Grenade blast can harm both players. The Arbiter carries three grenades, replacement grenades are salvaged over time.
Energy Sword
The Arbiter carries a master-crafted Covenant Energy Sword or Thel 'Vadam's personal blade--the vicious Prophets' Bane.
Combat Evolved
Arbiter can tack on a Plasma Grenade or fire his Type-51 Carbine to deal additional damage after performing a Throw, Energy Sword strike, or any Ender.
343 went on to say that the team at Killer Instinct developer Iron Galaxy did an "incredible job" bringing Arbiter to life in the fighting game--not such a simple task.
"One of the most important aspects of making the Killer Instinct Arbiter 'feel' right is by ensuring his move-set and combat style make sense for a warrior of his caliber, his size, and his weapons," 343 said. "Special care was taken by all parties involved to make sure that everything from the Energy Sword swings and Carbine shots, to the Plasma Grenades and cloaked assaults, felt like you were controlling an Elite."
In terms of armor, Arbiter will by default wear his Kaidon armor, as seen in Halo 5: Guardians (above). This showcases a "classic Sangheili design," but players can also unlock new color combinations.
Other Arbiter armor includes:
Halo 2 Arbiter
Combat
Storm
Ranger
Commander
Zealot
Ascetic
Finally, 343 also showed off concept art for Arbiter's awesome-looking Killer Instinct stage, which was seen seen in a recent trailer. The stage is called Arena of Judgment and it is set near the ruins of Nuusra.
"In the distant past it was a place of discussion and debates on matters of Sangheili honor, hosting Kaidons and Arbiters competing in a battleground of ideas and philosophy. But time is cruel, and now this forum hosts a different kind of judgment," reads a line from the description.
The stage is dynamic, with the war between the Swords of Sanghelios and Covenant playing out in the background as you play your own match. According to 343's Kenneth Peters, the stage pushes Killer Instinct's scripting capabilities "to the limit."
"Pushing the scripting capabilities of Killer Instinct to the limit we see Elites fighting and dying, war engines spending their last energies, and fierce battles for aerial dominance that end in vanquished craft careering out-of-control," Peters explained.
Its color scheme, vehicles, and sound effects should feel familiar to Halo fans, Peters said. Additionally, 343 teased that this stage contains "more than a couple" Halo Easter eggs to be discovered.
Arbiter will be available as part of Killer Instinct's third season, which will kick off in March. The character was first teased in January, during the Killer Instinct World Cup at PAX South. Arbiter will be joined in Season 3 by Kim Wu, Rash from Battletoads, and another mystery character, believed to be Tusk.
343 teased that more details on Killer Instinct's Arbiter will be shared during the Halo World Championship finals during the weekend of March 18-20.
The new season will also bring with it numerous character tweaks and rebalances, as well as some visual improvements. Killer Instinct was first released in 2013 on Xbox One, and is scheduled to be released for PC this March. The PC version of the game will be exclusive to Windows 10.
For more on Killer Instinct, check out GameSpot's review. | {
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Members of London’s Muslim community joined together outside Victoria Park Saturday for the first Meet a Muslim event.
“I decided to hold this event to help educate the community, reaching out to the community by educating them and spreading awareness to stop Islamophobia,” said organizer Tamara Elsayed, 28.
Sparked by the recent incidents of Islamophobia in London and Donald Trump’s comments about banning Muslims from entering the United States, Elsayed encouraged Londoners to ask any questions they had about Islam.
More than 100 people came by, said Elsayed, with more than 50 taking the time to chat with the Muslim women who offered brownies, cookies and free bottled water.
“We saw this and decided to stop by, had some treats, learned a little bit. It was good, win-win,” said Marlon Brown, who stopped by after brunch downtown with his friends.
“Groups and groups of people were coming to speak with us to thank us,” said Elsayed, “I even had a police officer pull up and come to thank us because he thought it was fantastic.”
Some of the questions people asked were whether Muslims believe in Jesus (they do), what jihad is and what does Allah mean in English (it means God).
Though the event was a success, said Elsayed, it was marred by one unfortunate incident of Islamophobia when a man walked by them yelling profanities.
“He told us to go back where we came from,” said Elsayed, who was born in Windsor. “He used a lot of offensive language that I couldn’t even repeat.”
Though people privately expressed their disgust to Elsayed about the incident, no one spoke up and stood up for her, she noted.
“It would have been nice for someone to speak up,” she said, adding “everybody else was absolutely supportive.”
Elsayed said she plans to host the same event either later this month or in early September.
[email protected]
twitter.com/AzzuraLFPress | {
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If you were standing at the edge of tall building, state 3 ways in which your body would react? eg: looking down or panic attack | {
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Highlighting the NHS’ contribution to global health
By Miski Abdi, Save the Children, UK and member of the Action for Global Health (AfGH) network
At the heart of the NHS is its pioneering belief in Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The rallying call that everyone, everywhere, deserves the right to healthcare. A call that the UK answered in 1948 but remains largely unanswered by other countries, which is why the upcoming Global Symposium on Health Systems is critical in the global push for UHC.
As the oldest universal healthcare system in the world, the NHS’ 70th anniversary celebration would be incomplete without an acknowledgment of its role in global health and international development.
As part of the NHS’ 70th anniversary celebration, the Action for Global Health (AfGH) supported a Parliamentary debate hosted by DUP’s Health Spokesperson Jim Shannon MP on the role of universal health coverage in tackling preventable and treatable diseases. In the run up to the debate, we worked closely with both the Department of Health and the Department for International Development, we also provided parliamentary briefings for MPs.
Jim Shannon MP who lead the debate stated, “the NHS is the type of British export that can help underpin the UK’s global Britain vision” he went on to explore the effects of global inequality on quality and access to health, highlighting the tragedy of vaccine-preventable diseases such as pneumonia.
Jim Shannon and Sharon Hodgson MP spoke about the distressing statistics on pneumonia, the world’s biggest infectious killer of children, taking the lives of two children a minute. Shannon argued “we know that an accessible and freehealthsystem is the most effective way of treating pneumonia. A fully integrated universal healthcare model can care for a child from the moment they are born until they reach adulthood”.
Parliamentarians across party lines united in calling for the UK to champion the NHS’ founding principles of quality and equity globally. Stuart McDonald MP called for the removal of discriminatory barriers that deny marginalised communities access to healthcare. He argued “the goal ofuniversal health coverage will not be realised unless good-quality care is provided without discrimination.” Sharon Hodgson MP emphasised the benefits that UHC can produce. It can “protect countries from epidemics, reduce poverty and the risk of hunger, create jobs — as we know, the NHS is the biggest employer in the country — drive economic growth and enhance gender equality”.
The Minister Steve Brine welcomed their sentiments, declaring: “it is right that we support others who have not yet achieved universal health coverage to do so.” He went on to say, “we are committed to delivering the sustainable development goals…that is crucial to tackling many other health challenges, including the improvement of maternal, newborn and child health and specific diseases such as TB, HIV, malaria and — everyone rightly mentioned this — pneumonia, the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide”.
We were pleased to hear the Minister talk about sustainable financing; “support for UHC must also involve helping countries to achieve sustainable funding mechanisms for their system, whichever they choose” and the need for an across government strategy on health, he assured the MPs that health had to be integrated “my Department, DFID, Public Health England and the Foreign Office in particular take a ‘one HMG’ approach to global health, which was recently praised by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact”.
Despite its inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals, the target for universal health care is way off track. The Fifth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research on 8-12th October in Liverpool is a crucial mechanism in influencing and pushing governmental policies on health for all. The symposium is essential in connecting the latest research and evidence with political advocacy.
Next year at the United Nations General Assembly there will be a High-Level Meeting on UHC. This is a moment for the UK to illustrate its leadership and step up to the table with progressive ideas for sustainable financing for health. We look forward to working with the Minister, the newly appointed Health Secretary Matthew Hancock and parliamentarians to ensure that health for all is globally realised.
As the Minister stated “poorer, marginalised populations must achieve better access to good-quality essential services without the risk of financial hardship”. | {
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Tenía veinticuatro años, volaba a ras del mar y estaba a punto de bombardear un destructor y una fragata misilística.
Le decían Piano porque se llamaba Guillermo Dellepiane, y era alférez en una fuerza que no tenía héroes ni próceres porque jamás había entrado en combate. Se trataba de la primera misión de su vida y acababa de despegar de Río Gallegos. Su padre se había muerto sin poder cumplir el sueño de realizar en el terreno de la realidad lo que a lo largo de toda su carrera había simulado hacer: la guerra del aire.
Tan inquietante como entrar en batalla debe de resultar el hecho de consagrar una vida a un acontecimiento que no ocurrirá. Guerreros de la teoría y el entrenamiento, muchos cazadores se reciben, se desarrollan y se retiran sin haber cazado jamás una presa verdadera. El padre de Piano , cerca de la jubilación, había muerto hacía dos años en un accidente absurdo, cuando se derrumbó un ala del edificio Cóndor. Volando hacia el blanco en un A-4B Skyhawk, el hijo venía a cumplir ahora la escena deseada y urdida por el fantasma de su padre.
Era el 12 de mayo de 1982 y una escuadrilla de ocho aviones argentinos avanzaba en silencio de radio hacia dos barcos británicos. Los cuatro primeros iban adelante y dispararían primero. Los cuatro halcones de atrás, a una distancia prudencial, tendrían una segunda oportunidad o entrarían a rematarlos.
Para Piano , era una misión iniciática, la última lección de un profesional de la guerra: la guerra misma. Hasta entonces todo habían sido aprendizajes y pruebas. Alférez es el primer escalafón de los oficiales, y Dellepiane ni siquiera había experimentado el reabastecimiento en vuelo, una compleja operación que en este caso consistía en acercarse volando a un Hércules, encajar la lanza de la trompa del A-4B en la canasta de combustible y cargar tanques para seguir viaje. Muchos fallaban en ese intento: se ponían nerviosos y no podían meter la lanza. "Mirá si yo no puedo, es una vergüenza", se decía. Estaba más preocupado por ese bochorno que por la muerte. Pero cuando tuvo al Hércules frente a frente no falló, y rápidamente se unió a su jefe, un primer teniente, que ordenó bajar a menos de quince metros de las olas y avanzar a toda máquina. Volaban tan bajo que dejaban estelas en el mar.
Evadiendo misiles
Con el alma en vilo escucharon que, cinco minutos antes de llegar al blanco, los primeros cuatro aviones atacaban. En el horizonte no se veía nada pero Piano se dio cuenta en seguida de que a sus compañeros no les había ido muy bien. En dos minutos supieron que tres aviones habían sido alcanzados por la artillería antiaérea y que habían sido derribados en medio de hongos de fuego y estampidos de agua. El cuarto avión regresaba por las suyas. El sol volvía espléndido un día negro. Negrísimo. Piano vio de repente los buques enemigos. Eran efectivamente dos y les estaban disparando. En ese momento no pensaba en la patria ni en Dios, sólo veía con una cierta incredulidad esa película fantástica y en technicolor. La veía como si él no fuera parte de ella. Era un espectáculo corto y alucinante pero sin ruidos, porque en la cabina no se oía nada. Fueron fracciones de segundos: Piano contuvo el aliento verificando la velocidad y la altura, y en el momento exacto en el que pasaba por encima de uno de los dos barcos, mientras recibía y eludía disparos de todo tipo, apretó el botón y soltó una bomba de mil libras.
Las bombas impactaron en el destructor y le abrieron agujeros horribles y definitivos. Quedó fuera de servicio, pero eso Piano lo supo mucho después porque en ese instante lo único que pudo hacer fue salir rápido de la ratonera evadiendo misiles y huyendo a toda velocidad. Cuando una escuadrilla dispara, los aviones se dispersan y cada uno regresa como puede. El joven alférez se sintió solo unos minutos pero de pronto divisó la nave de su jefe y la alcanzó. No podían hablarse, porque las navegaciones aéreas eran en silencio, pero volaban juntos, como hermanos, a una distancia de doscientos metros uno del otro, con el infierno atrás y el continente adelante. Habían cumplido y volvían con la gloria; era una extraña y grata sensación.
Hasta que de repente un proyectil rasante surgido de la niebla pegó en un alerón del avión del primer teniente. Fue un golpe mortal a velocidad infinita que le hizo dar una vuelta de campana, pegarse contra la superficie del océano y explotar en mil pedazos. Todo en un pestañeo de ojos. Piano lo vio sin poder creerlo pero sin dejar de apretar el acelerador. Descendió todavía más y prácticamente aró el mar con un gusto metálico en la boca. Dependía emocionalmente de su jefe. Había bajado por un momento la guardia, pensando "me va a llevar a casa", pero ahora estaba solo y desesperado. Ahora dependía únicamente de su propia pericia, o de su suerte.
Voló un rato de esa manera, huyendo del diablo, y luego, cuando estuvo seguro de que no lo seguían, avisó al Hércules C-130, que los cazadores le llaman "La Chancha", e inició el ascenso. "La Chancha" puso la canasta y sin perder el pulso el joven alférez empujó la lanza y recargó combustible. Después voló el último tramo casi a ciegas: el mar había formado una gruesa capa de salitre en el parabrisas del avión.
El salitre de la desolación le nublaba a Piano los ojos. Lo más duro era entrar en la habitación de un compañero muerto, juntar su ropa, hacer su valija y dejarla en el vestíbulo del hotel donde pernoctaba su escuadrón. Ese ritual lo esperaba en Río Gallegos al final de aquel día en el que finalmente había tenido su bautismo de fuego en el Atlántico Sur. Los dioses, como decía la vieja sentencia griega, castigan a los hombres cumpliéndoles los sueños.
En los años sucesivos sólo recordaría esa primera misión. Y la última. En el medio únicamente quedaban vuelos de reconocimiento, incursiones en la zona del Fitz Roy, nervios terribles y más caídos y duelos. También el ánimo de los mecánicos, que siempre despedían a los pilotos de combate con banderas y aclamaciones, y el regreso de la base al hotel que, con éxito o sin éxito, con muertos o sin ellos, hacían en un jeep o en una camioneta Ford F100 cantando canciones contra los ingleses.
No tenían, por supuesto, la menor idea de cómo iba la guerra. Y cuando los trasladaron a San Julián sufrieron cierta tristeza: ocuparon una hostería y anduvieron por esa pequeña ciudad en estado de alerta total.
No eran muy supersticiosos, pero tenían cábalas y de hecho no se sacaban fotos entre ellos porque creían instintivamente que eternizarse en esas imágenes significaba un pasaje directo hacia la desgracia.
Nada pensaron, sin embargo, de aquella misión en día 13: estaba nublado y frío, y a Piano y a sus compañeros les ordenaron partir hacia las islas. Decían que los ingleses habían desembarcado y que se luchaba cuerpo a cuerpo en tierra. Los A-4B llevaban bombas, cohetes y cañones. Piano estaba, como siempre, ansioso. Aunque esa ansiedad solía terminarse cuando lo ataban en la cabina y había que salir al ruedo. Los nervios entonces desaparecían, como el torero que siente un nudo en el estómago hasta que baja a la arena y enfrenta con su capote al toro.
Pero el despegue no fue tan fácil. Se rompieron unos caños de líquido hidráulico y hubo que buscar a mil quinientos metros un avión gemelo. Al alférez lo desesperaba que su escuadrilla partiera sin él, de manera que se subió al otro A-4B y empezó el rodaje sin cargar el sistema Omega, que permitía coordinar y volar con precisión. Piano no quería quedarse en San Julián, y como los suyos ya se habían marchado llamó al jefe de la segunda escuadrilla y le pidió permiso para plegarse a su grupo. Le dieron el visto bueno y despegó sin tener bien configurado el avión. Ascendió y buscó entre las nubes el rumbo, y encontró en un momento al Hércules, que llevaba doce hombres y tenía la orden de no entrar en la zona de la batalla ni quedar al alcance de los misiles enemigos por ningún motivo.
Cargó combustible y siguió a su guía por el norte de las islas Malvinas, luego tomó dirección Este a vuelo rasante y hacia el Sur bajo chaparrones. Y se sorprendió al escuchar que el operador de radar de las islas preguntó si había aviones en vuelo. El jefe de la formación le respondió con un pedido, que les proporcionaran las posiciones de las patrullas de Sea Harriers.
Cuando llegó el informe verbal los pilotos argentinos sintieron un escalofrío. Había cuatro patrullas en el aire y una quinta al norte del estrecho de San Carlos. El cielo estaba infestado de aviones ingleses. Era una trampa mortal, y la lógica indicaba regresar de inmediato al continente.
Pero ya estaban a cinco minutos del objetivo y el día se había despejado, y entonces el guía tomó la resolución de seguir. Después descubrirían que estaban atacando un enorme vivac armado por los ingleses en Monte Dos Hermanas. Más de dos manzanas con carpas, containers y helicópteros, un campamento desde donde dirigía la guerra el general Jeremy Moore.
Todo ocurría en el término de minutos. Los A-4B iban a ochocientos kilómetros por hora y a veinte metros de distancia entre unos y otros. Los pilotos temían que una fragata misilística les cortara el paso antes de llegar al blanco. No llevaban armamento para atacar un buque; las bombas tenían espoletas para objetivos terrestres. Por la gran movilización de helicópteros de esa zona los generales de Puerto Argentino habían conjeturado que allí podía estar el mismísimo centro de operaciones de los británicos. Y no se equivocaban.
Las cartas de vuelo decían que el ataque debía hacerse a las 12.15. Y faltaban dos minutos. Los cazadores pasaron por encima de la bahía San Luis y el operador del radar de Malvinas les advirtió que los Harriers los habían detectado y que ya convergían sobre ellos. Cuando faltaban un minuto y veinte segundos la escuadrilla casi despeinó a un soldado inglés que subía una loma. Ahora los aviones, en la corrida final, volaban pegados al suelo. Más allá de la elevación apareció el campamento. Y Jeremy Moore evacuó su carpa un minuto antes de que le cayeran los obuses.
Dellepiane lanzó sus tres bombas de 250 kilos, provocó destrozos, y percibió que les tiraban con todo lo que tenían. Desde misiles y artillería antiaérea hasta con armas de mano. Era un festival de fuegos artificiales. Y casi todos los pilotos se desprendieron de los tanques de reserva y de los portamisiles e hicieron una curva para regresar por el Norte, cada uno librado a su inteligencia.
Piano voló haciendo maniobras de elusión y acrobacias, y sintió impactos en el fuselaje. Era otra vez un espectáculo increíble y aterrador. A la altura de Monte Kent se topó con un helicóptero Sea King en pleno vuelo y le disparó. Salieron dos proyectiles y se le trabó el cañón, pero una bala pegó en las palas y obligó al piloto inglés a un aterrizaje de emergencia.
Enseguida, por la izquierda, vio que pasaban dos bolas de fuego que iban directamente hacia el avión de su teniente, así que le gritó por la radio "Cierre por derecha" y siguió virando hasta ver que los misiles pasaban de largo y se perdían. Más adelante se topó con otro Sea King y volvió a intentar dispararle, pero también fue en vano: el cañón no se destrababa. Así que en el último instante levantó el Skyhawk y pasó a centímetros de las aspas del helicóptero para evitar que el piloto de casco verde lo liquidara con su gatillo.
Fue más o menos en ese instante cuando se dio cuenta de que estaba sucediendo algo inesperado: se estaba quedando sin combustible. Un proyectil le había perforado el tanque, y tenía sólo 2000 libras. Precisaba más del doble para alcanzar la posición de "La Chancha". Pero no pensaba en ese momento crucial en llegar a ningún lado sino en escapar del acoso de los Harriers. Se desprendió entonces de los portamisiles y siguió volando un trecho pidiéndole al radar de Malvinas que le dijera, sin tecnicismos y con precisión, dónde estaban sus verdugos. Los Harriers volaban a una distancia considerable, así que ya sobre el norte del estrecho San Carlos dudó sobre si debía eyectarse en la isla o tratar de llegar al Hércules. Sus maestros, en las lecciones teóricas, le habían recomendado siempre que en una situación semejante intentara regresar. Eyectarse significaba perder el avión y caer prisionero. Cruzar significaba enfrentar el riesgo de no lograrlo y terminar en el mar. Si caía no podría sobrevivir más de quince minutos en las aguas heladas, y no había posibilidades operativas de que ninguna nave pudiera rescatarlo a tiempo.
Sus compañeros, por radio, trataban de darle consejos y sacarlo del dilema. Pero su jefe tronó: "Déjenlo a Piano que decida". Y entonces Piano decidió. Salió a alta mar, se puso en la frecuencia del Hércules y comenzó a conversar con el piloto que lo comandaba. Dos hombres hicieron ese día caso omiso a las órdenes de los altos mandos: el piloto de "La Chancha" salió de su posición de protección, entró en la zona de peligro y avanzó a toda máquina al encuentro del A-4B de Piano , y un oficial de San Julián tuvo un arrebato, se subió a un helicóptero y se metió doscientas millas en el mar a buscarlo, un vuelo completamente irregular y arriesgado que no ayudaba pero que mostró el coraje suicida del piloto y la desesperación con que se seguía en tierra la suerte de aquel cazador herido de combustible que intentaba volver a casa.
El alférez escuchó "Vamos a buscarte" y trató de mantener el optimismo, pero el liquidómetro le indicaba a cada rato que no conseguiría salir vivo de aquel último viaje. "¿A qué distancia están?" -preguntaba cada tres minutos-. "¿A qué distancia están?" La radio se llenaba de voces: "Dale, pendejo, con fe, con fe que llegás". El alférez sacaba cuentas sobre la cantidad de combustible, que se extinguía dramáticamente, y pronosticaba que se vendría abajo. Y sus oyentes redoblaban los gritos de aliento: "¡Tranquilo, pibe, con eso te alcanza y sobra!" Sabía que le estaban mintiendo. Cuando llegó a 200 libras se dio por perdido. De un momento a otro el motor se plantaría y se iría directamente al mar. Comida para peces. Cuando llegó a 150 libras recordó que eso equivalía, más o menos, a dos minutos de vuelo. "¡No me abandonen!" -los puteó, porque había silencio en la línea-. De repente el piloto del Hércules C-130 creyó verlo, pero era un compañero. Piano pasó de la euforia a la depresión en quince segundos.
No rezaba en esas instancias, sólo le venían relámpagos del recuerdo de su padre. El fantasma estaba dentro de aquella cabina, metido en sus auriculares. "Dame una mano, viejo", le pedía guturalmente, con las cuerdas vocales y con los ventrículos del corazón.
El liquidómetro marcó entonces cero, y de pronto Piano escuchó que lo habían divisado y vio por fin a "La Chancha". La vio cruzando el cielo, hacia la derecha y bien abajo. Le pidió al piloto que se pusiera en posición y se largó en picada sin forzar los motores, planeando hacia la canasta salvadora. Cuando la tuvo enfrente le dio máxima potencia con una lágrima de combustible en el tanque y al ponerse a tiro pulsó el freno de vuelo y metió la lanza. Todos atronaban de alegría en la radio y se abrazaban en tierra. Piano también gritaba, pero quería abastecerse rápido, retomar el control y regresar a San Julián por su propia cuenta. Pronto descubrieron que eso no era posible. Todo el combustible que entraba, pasaba al tanque y caía por el orificio. "Quedate enganchado", le dijo el piloto del Hércules. No tenían alternativa. Volaron así acoplados el resto del camino, perdiendo combustible y con el riesgo de una explosión o de no llegar a tiempo.
Fue otra carrera dramática hasta que vieron el golfo y luego la base. Entonces el A-4B se desprendió y chorreando líquido letal buscó la pista. Piano intentó bajar el tren de aterrizaje pero la rueda de nariz se resistía. Estaba todo el personal de la base de San Julián esperando, y él dando vueltas, dejando estelas de combustible de avión y tratando de lograr que esa maldita rueda bajara. Finalmente bajó, y el alférez aterrizó, se desató rápido, se quitó el casco, saltó al asfalto y se alejó corriendo del enorme lago de combustible que se formaba a los pies del A-4B.
Medalla al valor
Hubo fiesta hasta tarde y felicidad desenfrenada en San Julián. Como Piano se consideraba vivo de milagro se tomó muchas copas y tuvieron que acompañarlo hasta su habitación: se durmió con una sonrisa y se despertó muy tarde. Era el 14 de junio de 1982 y sus compañeros le informaron que la Argentina se había rendido.
Gracias a una licencia providencial, dos días después ya estaba en Buenos Aires. La ciudad permanecía hundida en la ira y en la depresión. Y también en la indiferencia. Cualquiera que se cruzaba con Piano se le acercaba con precaución y al rato le pedía que contara todo lo que había vivido. Pero Piano no tenía ganas de contar nada. Durante años soñó con aquellas piruetas mortales, aquellos vuelos rasantes, aquellas muertes: insomnio pertinaz y espectros atemorizantes que lo perseguían como Sea Harriers impiadosos.
Le dieron la Medalla al Valor en Combate, y se mantuvo dentro de la Fuerza Aérea haciendo una callada carrera con foja intachable y mucha capacitación profesional. Hace dos años fue enviado como agregado aeronáutico a Londres. Los ingleses lo recibieron como un gran guerrero. En la misma tradición de Wellington y de Napoleón, los ejércitos europeos aún practican el honor para sus antiguos y respetables enemigos.
Las aspas atravesadas del Sea King que había derribado Piano en Monte Kent están en el Museo de la Royal Navy, y el helicopterista que conducía aquel día está vivo pero retirado. Piano consiguió su teléfono y conversó afectuosamente con él. "Me alegra no haberlo matado", se dijo.
Los veteranos ingleses que lucharon en el Atlántico Sur tienen un enorme respeto por los aviadores argentinos. Y sienten nostalgias por aquellos tiempos: "Fue la última guerra convencional -dicen-. Unos frente a los otros por un territorio concreto. Hoy todo se hace a distancia, metidos en terrenos sin fronteras definidas y por causas borrosas, con terrorismos atomizados y combatientes religiosos eternos. Con esos enemigos al final no podemos juntarnos a tomar una cerveza".
Aquel alférez, convertido en comodoro, fue invitado una tarde a entregar un premio en la escuela de aviación de la RAF. Por la noche, los pilotos de guerra recién recibidos y sus señores oficiales cenaban en un salón majestuoso de mesas larguísimas. Piano ocupó un lugar privilegiado, y el director de la escuela pidió silencio y habló del piloto argentino. Se sabía su currículum bélico de memoria y en su discurso mostraba el orgullo de tener esa noche a un hombre que había luchado de verdad contra ellos.
El jueves pasado Guillermo Dellepiane asumió como director de la Escuela de Guerra Aérea en Buenos Aires. Ocupa un despacho en el Edificio Cóndor, donde murió su padre. Piano es ahora un cincuentón bajo y gordito. Se le cayó el pelo, es sumamente cordial y tiene un pensamiento moderno, y por supuesto en la calle nadie lo reconoce. Nadie sabe que forma parte de la hermandad del honor, y que es un héroe imborrable de una guerra maldita. | {
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Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee handed Chairman Adam Schiff a letter at a Thursday morning hearing demanding he resign from the panel. Despite special counsel Robert Mueller concluding that President Trump did not collude with Russia in the 2016 presidential election, Schiff is holding fast to his belief that it did happen. Russia offering Trump's team dirt on Hillary Clinton's campaign "is corrupt and evidence of collusion," Schiff said at today's hearing.
A few hours later, two more of Schiff's colleagues, Reps. Mark Green (R-TN) and Tim Burchett (R-TN) poked fun at him by making a video announcing they'd found the manila "Schiff Report" folder that proved Trump did collude with Russia after all.
BREAKING: @RepTimBurchett and I found the elusive Schiff Report that allegedly proves the president colluded with Russia! pic.twitter.com/cAvNniVWcV — Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) March 28, 2019
"There's got to be evidence of collusion in here right?" Green asks Burchett. Yet, when they open the folder, nothing spills out. "There's no proof!" they conclude.
Poor guy. Other people were making fun of him too. Donald Trump Jr. labeled Schiff "the leader of the tinfoil hat party," while others took some amusing screenshots of his outburst at today's intelligence committee meeting.
Or moves the guac away from you https://t.co/xVuuuPM6qN — Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 28, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had enough of the bullying. At her weekly press briefing, she said that Republicans who are demanding Schiff resign are "scaredy-cats," while heralding Schiff as a "patriot." | {
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Det var ikke musikk, men politikk som skulle til. For det er Miljøpartiet de grønne som har klart å forene de fire store innenfor norsk rock, som går på scenen for å vise sin støtte til partiet med konserten «Lyden av grønt gjennombrudd».
– Vi ble enige om at ved stortingsvalget 2013, er det miljøsaken som er den aller viktigste. Og det er bare ett parti som skyver alle andre saker til side og skyver miljø foran seg. Derfor sa vi ja, sier Aslak Dørum, bassist i Dumdum boys, til NRK.
– Dette viser at miljøet handler om mer enn politikk, legger han til.
– Betyr mye for oss
Dette er ikke første gangen noen har forsøkt å samle de norske rockerne, som ble store med norskspråklige rockemusikk på 1980-tallet. Noen ti år senere står de endelig sammen, og ingen av bandene vil ta en krone for opptredenen på Sentrum Scenen i Oslo.
Pengene som kommer inn som følge av konserten skal Miljøpartiet de grønne bruke under innspurten av valgkampen.
– Denne konserten har veldig mye å si for oss. Vi er et lite parti, men vokser fort. At så store band innenfor norsk musikk viser at de vil støtte oss så tydelig betyr mye, Une Aina Bastholm i Miljøpartiet de grønne. | {
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Last updated on .From the section FA Cup
Angelo Ogbonna's extra-time header put West Ham into the last 16 of the FA Cup with a dramatic fourth-round replay win against Liverpool.
The Hammers led before half-time when Michail Antonio guided in Enner Valencia's cross at the far post.
Liverpool responded shortly after the restart when Philippe Coutinho's low free-kick sneaked under the home wall.
Both sides hit the woodwork in an open tie, before Ogbonna met Dimitri Payet's free-kick to delight the home fans.
The Hammers will visit Championship side Blackburn in the fifth round on Sunday, 21 February.
Re-live a dramatic night at the Boleyn Ground
Magic of the cup?
Game will go down in history - Bilic
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has said he would rather win the FA Cup than finish in the Premier League top four, and he showed his intent by picking a near full-strength side against an inexperienced Liverpool team.
Reds counterpart Jurgen Klopp, as he had in his previous three FA Cup matches, rang the changes with only goalkeeper Simon Mignolet surviving from Saturday's Premier League draw against Sunderland.
But any worries - for the neutral observer, at least - that the hosts would dominate their youthful opponents proved unfounded.
The two sides were evenly matched throughout the 120 minutes as a high-tempo game, containing plenty of goalscoring chances and drama, provided a sharp contrast to the dour 0-0 draw at Anfield.
Either side could have nicked an extra-time winner, with Christian Benteke missing three clear-cut opportunities for Liverpool.
And former Juventus defender Ogbonna's first Hammers goal provided the perfect finale for the hosts in what might be the final FA Cup tie at the Boleyn Ground before their move to the Olympic Stadium.
Ogbonna scored his first West Ham goal in his 18th appearance for the club
Hammers up for the cup?
West Ham are three-time winners of the FA Cup, but have not lifted the trophy since Trevor Brooking's famous header gave them victory in the 1980 final.
But with Bilic keen to focus on the competition, could he lead the east London club to silverware in his first season as Hammers boss?
The Croat will not publicly admit it, but he must realise his team have a great chance of reaching the last eight as they face a Blackburn side winless in eight league matches and in the lower reaches of the Championship.
France international Dimitri Payet will be central to their ambitions of a possible run to Wembley, with the mercurial midfielder again instrumental in this victory.
The 28-year-old, who the Hammers want to sign an improved deal, outlined his worth by starting the move that led to Antonio's goal and supplying the teasing free-kick that Ogbonna converted.
Benteke to blame?
Since his £32m summer arrival from Aston Villa, Benteke has failed to win over many Liverpool fans, who have questioned the wisdom in spending so much on a striker who has struggled to fit into the Reds' system.
And the Belgian missed the chance to win over the doubters by firing Liverpool, seven-time winners of the FA Cup, past the Hammers.
Benteke put four of his nine shots on target (green arrows), seeing two blocked (yellow) and three missing the home goal (red)
Benteke had nine efforts at goal - three times as many as any other player - but extended his goalless run to 11 matches in 2016.
Hammers keeper Darren Randolph denied him from close range in both halves of normal time, but Benteke should have scored when put clean through in extra time.
However, he could only shoot at the legs of the Republic of Ireland international - a miss which proved costly.
"It's not the nicest moment in his career but he has to work hard," said Klopp.
"He wants to score and we need him to score. We will work on it in the days, weeks and months."
Sturridge return boosts Liverpool
Klopp sees 'lot of good' despite loss
Despite the defeat, there were some positives for Liverpool fans - most notably Daniel Sturridge returning from a hamstring injury to make his first appearance since early December.
Sturridge has spent almost 55% of his time at Anfield injured, but once again showed how important he could be if he manages to stay fit.
The England international gradually grew into the game after arriving as a 59th-minute substitute, showing glimpses of neat footwork and his sharp eye for goal.
His best opportunity came early in the second half of extra time, when he picked the ball up near the halfway line before driving forward unopposed and fizzing a shot inches over the Hammers crossbar.
Too early to start thinking of an England recall?
Man of the match - Michail Antonio (West Ham)
Antonio impressed at both ends of the pitch. The £7m summer signing scored his fourth goal in six home games and was also denied on two other occasions. But he also impressed defensively, making a game-high five successful tackles when he filled in for the injured Joey O'Brien at right-back
What's next?
Back to Premier League action. Sixth-placed West Ham go to relegation battlers Norwich on Saturday, while ninth-placed Liverpool visit bottom side Aston Villa on Sunday.
Stats you need to know
Liverpool played their 40th game in all competitions in 2015-16, more than any other Premier League team
Philippe Coutinho's goal was Liverpool's first in 318 minutes of action against West Ham in all competitions this season
The Hammers have lost just one of their past 11 FA Cup games at home, winning six and drawing four
West Ham's win was their first in eight FA Cup meetings with the Reds, drawing three and losing four
Benteke has gone 11 games without scoring for Liverpool in all competitions, mustering 30 shots in those matches | {
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The Bronx is on the brink of its biggest transformation as millions of investment dollars pour in from Opportunity Zone investors, according to brokers.
With 75 of the more than 300 opportunity zones designated throughout New York City in the Bronx, the level and breadth of interest could portend a type of change relatively unseen in the five boroughs.
“I don’t think it’s a year from now, but in a five to 10 year period you’re going to see a different borough,” said Jason Gold, an investment sales broker with Ariel Property Partners.
“No one really thought it was going to happen, but if you go there, and you’re in it on a day-to-day basis, you’ll see it.”
Ahead of what are being called the final guidelines for the federal Qualified Opportunity Zone program, experts are saying that certainty could create a catalyst for rapid investment.
Jonathan Squires, director of the New York Middle Markets Investment Sales Group at Cushman & Wakefield, is among the believers who say that finality could create an upswing. “Right now you have people that are first-market and I’ve heard them described as guinea pigs,” said Squires. “As soon as everything is clarified, we’ll see a rush.”
While Opportunity Zones were created as a part of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by Congress in 2017, the program, designed to foster investment in low-income communities by reducing investors’ taxes on capital gains, has been shrouded in uncertainty.
Among the concerns from interested parties are how long investors would have to hold money in a fund and how and when investors can sell assets purchased through a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund.
As a result, the Internal Revenue Service, IRS, has begun a public process to clarify and propose a final set of rules on the subject. A February hearing held in Washington D.C. attracted more than 200 investors.
And while the rules are hammered out with final regulations slated to be issued in the months ahead, activity spurred by the prospect of the zones has marched on. At the forefront of that interest in New York has been the Bronx.
Already, Squires, who focuses on the Bronx has completed five opportunity zone transactions this year and is marketing another six properties within designated opportunity zones in the borough.
According to him, the ceiling for opportunity zone-fueled investment is high and getting increasingly higher when it comes to New York City’s fastest growing borough.
“The easy answer is [opportunity zones] are going to add fuel to the fire for areas in which development has taken hold,” said Squires. “Interest is going to be greater and demand will be greater, and it will transform the Bronx quicker than it would have otherwise.”
Likewise, Gold said demand has also helped to raise the value of the properties being sold. Two recent deals in opportunity zones, Gold said, went significantly over asking price — one exceeding 10 percent and the other clocking in at above 20 percent.
Also of note, said Gold, is the diversity of the parties interested in investing in opportunity zones, which include a varied mix that ranges from hospitals, to nonprofits, private investors, and even schools.
Still, even with the so-far strong demand from investors, without a crystalized set of rules, the program may have yet to reach its full potential.
“There’s certainly some reluctance on some segment of this market to commit to anything until they have all their questions answered,” said attorney Edward Renn, a partner at Withers Worldwide, an international law firm. “Some people are waiting for the shoe to drop, the hatch door to open up, and drop three levels and realize they didn’t buy into what they thought they bought into.”
While Renn said he doesn’t anticipate the guidelines to undergo any sort of drastic change, it has still deterred some institutional players from entering the pool. “They need absolute certainty. They need to understand what they’re going into,” said Renn.
In the meantime, early adopters have been undeterred. Once clarity is achieved, Renn said, areas like the Bronx are in a prime vantage to become the most affected by opportunity zone investment.
“If there are a lot of developers in the same opportunity zone trying to do projects, you might significantly change the neighborhood,” said Renn. “If you’re the only guy doing something, it’s harder to understand how you’re going to make a real difference.”
Despite some reticence, Renn whose legal specialties include international tax planning, income maximization and wealth preservation, said that already at least 40 percent of his day is occupied by clients interested in opportunity zones. That too, he said, has room for growth.
“There’s a lot of people that are almost ready, but if everyone who tells me that they’re really close decided to jump in, I’d be doing this 120 percent of my day,” he said.
(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today) | {
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In Functional Mixins, we discussed mixing functionality into JavaScript classes. The act of mixing functionality in changes the class. This approach maps well to idioms from other languages, such as Ruby’s modules. It also helps us decompose classes into smaller entities with focused responsibilities that can be shared between classes as necessary.
That being said, mutation has its drawbacks as well. People say, “it’s hard to reason about code that mutates data,” and when it comes to modifying classes, they are right.
Classes are often global to an entire program. Experience has shown that changing a class in one place can break the functionality of an entirely different part of the program that expects the class to remain unmodified.
Of course, if the modifications are only made as part of building the class in the first place, these concerns really do not apply. But what if we wish to modify a class that was made somewhere else? What if we wish to make modifications in just one place?
extension
Let’s revisit our ridiculously trivial Todo class:
class Todo { constructor ( name ) { this . name = name || ' Untitled ' ; this . done = false ; } do () { this . done = true ; return this ; } undo () { this . done = false ; return this ; } }
Now let us presume that this class is used throughout our application for various purposes. In one section of the code, we want Todo items that are also coloured. As we saw previously, we can accomplish that with a simple mixin like this:
const Coloured = { setColourRGB ({ r , g , b }) { this . colourCode = { r , g , b }; return this ; }, getColourRGB () { return this . colourCode ; } }; Object . assign ( Todo . prototype , Coloured );
While this works just fine for all of the Todos we create in this part of the program, we may accidentally break Todo instances used elsewhere. What we really want is a ColoredTodo in one part of the program, and Todo everywhere else.
The extends keyword solves that problem in the trivial case:
class ColouredTodo extends Todo { setColourRGB ({ r , g , b }) { this . colourCode = { r , g , b }; return this ; } getColourRGB () { return this . colourCode ; } }
A ColouredTodo is just like a Todo , but with added colour.
sharing is caring
One oft-repeated drawback of using extension is that it is difficult to share the “colour” functionality with other classes. Extension forms a strict tree. Another drawback is that the functionality can only be tested in concert with Todo , whereas it is trivial to independently test a well-crafted mixin.
Our problem is that with extension, our colour functionality is coupled to the Todo class. With a mixin, it isn’t. But with a mixin, our Todo class ended up coupled to Coloured . With extension, it wasn’t.
What we want is to decouple Todo from Coloured with extension, and to decouple Coloured from ColouredTodo with a mixin:
class ColouredTodo extends Todo {} const Coloured = { setColourRGB ({ r , g , b }) { this . colourCode = { r , g , b }; return this ; }, getColourRGB () { return this . colourCode ; } }; Object . assign ( ColouredTodo . prototype , Coloured );
We can write a simple function to encapsulate this pattern:
function ComposeWithClass ( clazz , ... mixins ) { const subclazz = class extends clazz {}; for ( let mixin of mixins ) { Object . assign ( subclazz . prototype , mixin ); } return subclazz ; } const ColouredTodo = ComposeWithClass ( Todo , Coloured );
The ComposeWithClass function returns a new class without modifying its arguments. In other words, it’s composing behaviour with a class, not mixing behaviour into a class.
enhance
We can enhance ComposeWithClass to address some of the issues we noticed with mutating mixins, such as making methods non-enumerable:
const shared = Symbol ( " shared " ); function ComposeWithClass ( clazz , ... mixins ) { const subclazz = class extends clazz {}; for ( let mixin of mixins ) { const instanceKeys = Reflect . ownKeys ( mixin ) . filter ( key => key !== shared && key !== Symbol . hasInstance ); const sharedBehaviour = mixin [ shared ] || {}; const sharedKeys = Reflect . ownKeys ( sharedBehaviour ); for ( let property of instanceKeys ) Object . defineProperty ( subclazz . prototype , property , { value : mixin [ property ] }); for ( let property of sharedKeys ) Object . defineProperty ( subclazz , property , { value : sharedBehaviour [ property ], enumerable : sharedBehaviour . propertyIsEnumerable ( property ) }); } return subclazz ; } ComposeWithClass . shared = shared ;
Written like this, it’s up to individual behaviours to sort out instanceof :
const isaColoured = Symbol (); const Coloured = { setColourRGB ({ r , g , b }) { this . colourCode = { r , g , b }; return this ; }, getColourRGB () { return this . colourCode ; }, [ isaColoured ]: true , [ Symbol . hasInstance ] ( instance ) { return instance [ isaColoured ]; } };
And that’s something we can encapsulate, if we wish:
function HasInstances ( behaviour ) { const typeTag = Symbol (); return Object . assign ({}, behaviour , { [ typeTag ]: true , [ Symbol . hasInstance ] ( instance ) { return instance [ typeTag ]; } }) }
the complete composition
class Todo { constructor ( name ) { this . name = name || ' Untitled ' ; this . done = false ; } do () { this . done = true ; return this ; } undo () { this . done = false ; return this ; } } const Coloured = HasInstances ({ setColourRGB ({ r , g , b }) { this . colourCode = { r , g , b }; return this ; }, getColourRGB () { return this . colourCode ; } }); const ColouredTodo = ComposeWithClass ( Todo , Coloured );
summary
A “purely functional” approach to composing functionality is appropriate when we wish to compose behaviour with classes, but do not wish to mutate a class that is used elsewhere. One approach is to extend the class into a subclass, and mix behaviour into the newly created subclass.
(discuss on hacker news)
more reading:
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Turning on us (Image: Morales/age fotostock/SuperStock)
Habitat loss may be to blame for an apparent spate of violent attacks by chimpanzees on humans in the war-torn eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
According to officials at Virunga National Park, located on the border between the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda, at least one person – a child – has been killed in recent months, in a chimpanzee attack just south of the park in the area around the city of Goma.
A woman attempted to scare the chimp away to protect the child, says Alison Mollon of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) in Germany, which works in partnership with the park. Unfortunately, the chimp reacted aggressively. “It generally seems that where people react aggressively, the result is aggressive behaviour in return,” she says.
Mistrust of chimpanzees has been heightened by local media reports, which suggest that as many as 10 people have been killed and 17 injured by chimps, in acts that were reported as “revenge attacks” for people encroaching on their territory.
Such reports highlight the urgent need to defuse the situation – both by educating locals in behaviours that will minimise the chances of violent confrontations, and by habituating chimps to humans. But efforts are being thwarted by the armed conflict between M23 rebels and the DRC government, which began in April.
“As soon as we can return, we will distribute information flyers in Swahili and French,” Mollon says. But putting out clear, useful information becomes more difficult once rumours of violence have spread.
Mistrust and antagonism
Klaus Zuberbuhler, a psychologist at the University of St Andrews in Fife, UK, and scientific director of the Budongo Conservation Field Station in Uganda, says restricting the chimps’ habitat can certainly affect their behaviour, though it is debatable whether the chimps’ aggression towards humans is a form of revenge. “It may be a more general sign of mistrust and antagonism, which is regularly seen in chimp sanctuaries and other captive facilities,” he says.
Reports of the scale and number of attacks are probably exaggerated, says Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, but he concedes that there has been an increase in tension between humans and chimps in that corner of the DRC – although only in areas where chimp habitat has been lost.
“Human-wildlife conflict is an extremely serious issue in Virunga, as it is across Africa and elsewhere,” says Emmanuel de Merode, chief warden at Virunga. There is an ongoing surge in human population in the area, he says, and wherever the park’s land is illegally used for farming, park authorities are obliged to uphold laws to protect it.
Even if the chimp attacks subside, they may well erupt again in future because of the ongoing pressure from humans. Vernon Reynolds, a biological anthropologist at the University of Oxford, and author of The Chimpanzees of Budongo Forest, says he is aware of a few past incidents around Kasowka Forest in Uganda in which chimps have attacked humans after losing much of their food supply to farming.
“There is undoubtedly a lot of exaggeration, and stories abound,” he says. “But the reality is bad enough.” | {
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Men are more susceptible to corona infection than women .. Here is the reason
Men are more susceptible to corona infection than women .. Here is the reason
Bloomberg revealed that the new corona virus affects men more than women. An analysis report showed about 45,000 cases in China, showing that the death rate was 2.8% for men and 1.7% for women. Men constituted a slight majority of the affected people, with 51%.
One theory says that men, especially in China, smoke more cigarettes than women, therefore they have weak lungs, which makes them vulnerable to virus infection.
Also, cardiovascular diseases, which are closely related to deaths due to "Covid-19" are more common in men in general.
But as the virus spreads globally, women seem to bear the brunt of the social and economic turmoil, caused by the pandemic's transition to the pandemic stage, as the World Health Organization recently announced.
Meanwhile, South Korea registered the lowest number of new cases of coronavirus in three weeks, at a time when Ghana and Gabon became the ninth and tenth countries in sub-Saharan Africa to report infections, Kenya also joined the list of countries that announce the presence of people living in it with the virus.
China announced eight new infections, the lowest number in the country since the virus statistics began in mid-January, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 80,813 so far. Among the new cases, five cases were recorded in Wuhan, the Ministry of Health announced seven more deaths, the total deaths is now 3,176.
In South Korea, the authorities announced today, the lowest number of new cases, the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 110 new cases were recorded, bringing the total number of patients in South Korea to 7979 cases, the number of patients who fully recovered and left the hospitals is 177.
Sources:
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While working for an environmental nonprofit organization in India, Namrata Sengupta investigated how poor waste management and sanitation practices can impact the environment and public health. Her work sparked an interest in environmental toxicology and led her to Clemson University in 2011 as a doctoral student in the field.
Sengupta spent her time in graduate school using Daphnia magna, or water fleas, as model organisms for studying environmental health. She started investigating how these organisms respond to different environmental toxicants. The culmination of her research indicates that certain toxicants can disrupt the maturation of Daphnia by altering the level of lipids (fats, waxes and their relatives) present in the species. Published in May 2017 in PLOS ONE, these findings take a step toward understanding how a specific pathway -- one of sphingomyelin metabolism -- affects development.
Sphingomyelin, the key lipid of the study, was first noticed by Sengupta and colleagues because it isn't present in embryonic or in adult Daphnia, but rather in newborns, indicating it plays a significant role in development and progression to reproductive maturity.
"That's actually one of the coolest findings, not even toxicology-related, but a basic biochemical finding," said William Baldwin, Sengupta's adviser and co-author of the study. "Sphingomyelin is very important in the maturation of this species."
This age-specific presence of sphingomyelin is supported by previously published data that implicated sphingomyelin and the alcohol it breaks into, sphingosine, in the reproduction and development in fruit flies, roundworms and mice.
To uncover this role in Daphnia, Sengupta and colleagues first honed in on the HR96 receptor found in cell nuclei that is responsible for a variety of functions, such as sensing foreign chemicals in the body and regulating genes involved in energy metabolism and lipid distribution. They then exposed adult Daphnia to toxicants and fatty acids that either jump-started or inhibited the function of HR96. When exposed to atrazine, one of the most commonly used herbicides in the United States, HR96 activity was activated. Exposure to triclosan, an antibacterial agent found in personal care products, inhibited HR96 activity. The adult Daphnia were then deprived of nutrition to investigate their ability to reproduce or survive under stress conditions.
advertisement
The nutritional-control aspect of the study's design was one variable that separated it from prior studies in Daphnia.
"In toxicology, when you do these tests, you always do them under ideal conditions, but that's not what really happens in the environment. Sometimes there's plenty of food, and sometimes there's not," said Baldwin, a professor of biological sciences in the College of Science. "All of a sudden, triclosan, which looks like it doesn't have much of an effect, might actually have affects depending on the time of year and the food that's available. This indicates an interplay between the natural environment and the toxicant that we don't look at in the laboratory very often."
When stressed with lack of food, the Daphnia showed a number of effects, depending on what toxicant or fatty acid they were treated with. Exposure to triclosan increased the level of lipids in the adult Daphnia, more so than any other treatment, but this resulted in a struggle to reproduce. If triclosan-treated adults did bear offspring, their newborns had very low levels of lipids present, indicating that lipids are not being allocated properly in newborn Daphnia. However, triclosan-newborns saw an increase in the level of sphingomyelin present, again clueing the researchers into sphingomyelin's role in maturation. The triclosan-newborns also exhibited stunted growth and development, though they did survive for a long period of time.
This result might incite a correlation between high sphingomyelin levels and stunted growth, but Baldwin was quick to point out that this isn't necessarily the case. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish, was supplemented to a separate group of nutritionally deprived Daphnia. Like triclosan, DHA is an inhibitor of HR96 activity, though it is naturally occurring in the environment.
"Triclosan was given and it fooled the body to think a fatty acid was there. But it wasn't, causing an increase in survival. DHA, an actual fatty acid, was given, but it did not cause this same survival in newborns," Baldwin said. "Just because you have more sphingomyelin, you'd think you're not going to mature, but that might not be the case if you're getting a good, strong diet and you're able to take that sphingomyelin and turn it over."
Atrazine, the toxicant HR96 activator in the study, was the only treatment that affected reproduction rates under normal conditions. What was poor reproduction before depriving the Daphnia of nutrition was only heightened by forcing them into a starved state. Atrazine-treated Daphnia also bore newborn with decreased levels of sphingomyelin. These results, combined with those of triclosan, suggest that commonly used toxicants can severely alter the allocation of fats in Daphnia magna, thereby causing a disruption in their maturation process. Such a conclusion was further confirmed after Sengupta and colleagues found that most HR96 genes involved in sphingomyelin metabolism were disrupted after toxicant exposure.
Sengupta, now a doctoral graduate of Clemson, emphasized that it's important for the general public to understand that the toxicants humans release into the environment have a lasting effect.
"In a real-world environment, a chemical will not be there by itself. It's going to be there with multiple stressors, like weather conditions and dietary restrictions, and all of this will be acting together to impact us and other species," Sengupta said. "Some chemicals don't have an effect on the immediate generation, but we can pass on some of these not-so-great traits to the next generation. Our research, and that of environmental toxicology, contributes to the understanding of what these chemicals are and what effects they have." | {
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About the show:
We'll tell you how to make the most of your money but also why money is not an end in itself and connecting financial goals to your life goals is really what you should be doing. Of course we will also still continue to provide tips for investors, business ideas for businessmen and comments on the economy, markets, companies, financial products, and trends.
| {
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Two Saudi teachers are standing trial in Saudi Arabia on charges that they have allegedly spied for arch-rival Iran in gathering information about a 5-million-bpd oil pipeline for the purposes of planning to blow it up, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting two Saudi newspapers.
According to the Makkah and Al Weeam newspapers, as carried by Reuters, the two men are charged with collecting information about the East-West Pipeline in Saudi Arabia, known as Petroline, which ships crude oil from the desert Kingdom’s eastern provinces to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, to be exported to North America and Europe. The Petroline can handle up to some 60 percent of Saudi Arabia’s total oil exports.
According to Makkah newspaper, the Public Prosecutor at the Specialized Criminal Court has asked the judge in the trial to issue a verdict, but the judge allowed the defendants to defend themselves in another hearing and gave them three weeks to do that. The charges by the prosecutor include spying for Iran and feeding it secret information about the Petroline to destabilize Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi newspapers.
In February last year, Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia put on trial 32 people—almost all of whom are members of the Shia minority—accused of spying for Iran. In December, a court sentenced 15 of the defendants to death, and another 15 to prison terms of between six months and 25 years. In that case, Saudi prosecutors had charged the defendants with treason, with creating a spy ring, and with providing secret information on military zones. Amnesty International slammed that trial and verdicts, saying that “Saudi Arabia’s sentencing of 15 people to death today after a grossly unfair trial is a travesty of justice.”
“The entire legal proceedings in this case have made a mockery of justice,” Samah Hadid, Deputy Director for Campaigns at Amnesty International’s Beirut office, said back then.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Photo Credit: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority
Archaeological excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the area of the Gihon Spring in the City of David, in the Walls around Jerusalem National Park, have unearthed a layer of rich finds including thousands of broken pottery shards, clay lamps and figurines. Most intriguing is the recent discovery of a ceramic bowl with a partially preserved inscription in ancient Hebrew. While not complete, the inscription presents us with the name of a seventh century BCE figure, which resembles other names known to us from both the Biblical and archaeological record (see examples below) and providing us with a connection to the people living in Jerusalem at the end of the First Temple period.
This fascinating find will be presented at Megalim’s Annual Archaeological Conference which will take place on Thursday, August 29th in the City of David.
The most similar name to our inscription is Zechariah the son of Benaiah, the father of the Prophet Jahaziel. The name Zechariah the son of Benaiah appears in 2 Chronicles 20:14 where it states that Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, prophesized before the Biblical King Jehoshaphat before the nation went off to war against the ancient kingdoms of Ammon and Moab.
Israel Antiquity Authority archaeologists Dr. Joe Uziel and Nahshon Zanton, who discovered the bowl while excavating remains associated with the First Temple period destruction, explained that the letters inscribed on the shard likely date to the 8-7th centuries BCE, placing the production of the bowl sometime between the reign of Hezekiah and the destruction of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah. The archaeologists also explained that the inscription was engraved on the bowl prior to firing, indicating that the inscription originally adorned the rim of the bowl in its entirety, and was not written on a shard after the vessel was broken.
While the purpose of the inscription on the bowl is unclear, archaeologists have posited that the bowl may have contained an offering, likely given by the individual whose name was inscribed on the bowl, or alternatively given to him. Inscription Analysis
The first letter of the ceramic bowl’s partially preserved inscription in ancient Hebrew script is broken and is therefore difficult to read, but appears to be the letter ר. The next three letters יהו constitute the theophoric suffix (the component in which the name of the deity appears as part of the first name, such as Yirme-yahu and Eli-yahu, etc). These letters are followed by בנ (the son of) after which appears the patronymic name composed of the three letters בנה. According to archaeologists Uziel and Zanton, “If we consider the possibility that we are dealing with an unvowelized or ‘defective’ spelling of the name בניה (Benaiah), then what we have before us is the name “…ריהו בן בניה”
Many of the first names mentioned in the Bible contained the theophoric component יהו, as is the case of this inscription from the City of David. Besides the biblical references, other examples of this have also been found in archaeological excavations, written on a variety of objects such as seals, bullae, pottery vessels or even carved on rock. Noteworthy among the many names that end with the theophoric suffix יהו are several prominent examples that were previously discovered in City of David by Professor Yigal Shiloh, such as Gemar-yahu the son of Shaphan, Bena-yahu the son of Hoshayahu, etc. which were also found in the destruction layer and the ruins of the Babylonian conquest. | {
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The business community tends to play percentages and right now they favor the president. Wall Street braces for an Obama win
NEW YORK — Mitt Romney was Wall Street’s dream candidate, a former private equity executive committed to lower taxes and less regulation who would never rip bankers as “fat cats” as President Barack Obama famously did.
But now many masters of the universe concede they may not get their man.
Across Wall Street and the broader landscape of corporate America, even strong supporters of Romney acknowledge that swing state polling numbers and the direction of economic data and markets suggest it’s time to brace for a second Obama term.
“It looks right now like it’s probably going to be Obama, so you have to start planning for that, even if it’s not what you would prefer,” said the chief executive of one of the largest companies in the United States who has criticized the president and spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to give a frank assessment of the state of the race. The executive added that plans were under way to work with a second Obama administration on selling a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff with major tax and entitlement reform that includes some new revenues.
“We don’t really care if our taxes go up a little if we can just get this done and take this threat away from the economy,” the executive said, adding that support from CEOs could give cover to Republicans in Washington concerned about supporting any new taxes and angering tea party hardliners and anti-tax advocates such as Grover Norquist.
They still go to Romney fundraisers, open their wallets and hope for the best, especially in the upcoming debates. It’s just that Wall Street and the business community tend to follow data and play percentages. And right now they favor the president.
It makes for an uncomfortable moment for Wall Street, which came out much more aggressively for Romney than Obama this year, after Obama made significant inroads with the finance sector in 2008.
The shift in tone among executives toward Obama was on display at the Clinton Global Initiative this week, where several CEOs softened their criticism of the president. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein acknowledged there had been widespread “disappointment” with Obama within his firm and across Wall Street.
But he also said that it was time to move on and finally deal with rising debt and unsustainable entitlement programs. “People who have been pouting and holding their breath aren’t going to want to do that for four more years,” he said.
John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems and a strong Romney supporter, spoke of bridging partisan divides on taxes and spending should Obama win a second term. And in an interview with Reuters, Chambers said whoever wins should govern like Bill Clinton. “There’s a lot to learn from President Clinton. It kills me as a strong Republican saying it, but he was the most effective president during my lifetime,” Chambers said.
The Obama administration has already begun laying ground work for improving its soured relationship with corporate America in a possible second term.
To be sure, there are still plenty of Romney partisans across Wall Street and the business community who are far from giving up and dismiss talk that the former Massachusetts governor is fading.
“I don’t think donors are reacting at all,” to the negative poll numbers said Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets. “We had Romney here three weeks ago and had the biggest three events we’ve ever had. We raised $8 million. We had a breakfast where we would normally do $1.5 or $2 million and we did $4 million.”
Johnson added that executives know a campaign ebbs and flows and that there is time for a late comeback win. “They know in business and politics things are very fluid. I’m extremely confident and the people I talk to are cautiously optimistic.”
Privately, executives are a little less sanguine. “There’s still opportunity for Romney to catalyze and shake up the race and break through this narrative,” said one senior executive at a large bank who has supported the Romney campaign and who declined to be identified by name to speak openly. “But he has got to somehow make this a referendum election and not a choice election. And if he doesn’t do that — and I’m not so sure he can at this point — then he is not going to get the golden ticket.”
In large part, the executives are reacting to a growing pile of data suggesting the election is moving away from Romney.
All three so-called prediction markets, in which people bet on the election outcome, give Obama between 70 and 80 percent odds. PredictWise, which averages the three major indices, has Obama at 77.1 percent.
It’s a remarkably large spread according to Justin Wolfers, a University of Pennsylvania Wharton School economics professor who has published research on the subject. “It’s not unusual for the incumbent to be ahead by a few points this far out. What is unusual is the view [reflected in the numbers] that there is unlikely to be any large movement between now and Election Day,” Wolfers said.
He added that the surveys suggest Obama is mostly viewed as a lock by investors with 20 or so percent betting on some major event between now and Nov. 6 destabilizing the race in Romney’s favor.
Romney backers on Wall Street and in corporate America also mostly discount the tight national numbers and obsess over recent polling out of Ohio, Virginia, Florida and other swing states showing a growing Obama advantage and a very challenging road to 270 electoral votes for the GOP nominee. And they point to data showing Obama has drawn even or moved ahead as the candidate most trusted to deal with the economy and jobs as voters grow increasingly confident about their future prospects.
On Tuesday, for instance, the widely followed Conference Board measure of consumer confidence surged to 70.3 from 61.3 last month. House prices are also on the rise again which boosts sentiment. In the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 42 percent said the economy would improve over the next year, the biggest number since 2009.
And the Dow is up nearly 50 percent since Obama took office, meaning workers’ 401(K) statements look better, further negating the so-called grumpy voter effect that was previously seen as likely to push undecided voters Romney’s way.
All these numbers have led to a recalculation in corporate boardrooms and D.C. lobby shops.
Inside the Beltway, financial services lobbyists are starting to hedge their bets. For many in the industry — private equity, hedge funds and investment banks — the ramifications could be huge if Democrats retain the Senate and Obama is leading the effort to a major tax overhaul.
Perennial issues like carried interest, a favorite hobby horse of Senate Democrats, could be on the chopping block. The industry most certainly would be on the defensive, according to several financial services lobbyists. And the optimism that agency heads would change and new rules in the pipeline like the Volcker Rule would vanish or get watered down is no longer the case.
Despite the most recent polls and economic forecasts, not all banking lobbyists are willing to concede the election. “The banking industry knows for them this is by far and away the most important election, bar none,” Consumer Bankers Association President Richard Hunt said, noting the headwinds against banks will be much stronger in a second Obama administration.
So the fight continues. But confidence among corporate executives that they could get one of their own in the White House is clearly ebbing.
“The silver lining is that there is probably going to be a better economy with Obama or without him,” said a forlorn senior Wall Street executive. “It’s just going to be a little slower with him. But people are kind of getting resolved to it.”
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 6:13 a.m. on September 27, 2012.
This article tagged under: Wall Street
Politics | {
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The man, on board a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight, has been identified as Abdul Shahid Shamsudeen (File)
A 24-year-old man from Kerala on board a Saudi Airlines flight from Jeddah to New Delhi unzipped his pants on being stopped by a lady cabin staff from lighting a cigarette.
The man has been identified as Abdul Shahid Shamsudeen, a resident of Kottayam in Kerala.
According to airport sources in Delhi, Shamsudeen first verbally abused the woman crew member and refused to stop from lighting a cigarette.
"The man created a ruckus. When the woman cabin staff called her colleagues for assistance, the man allegedly unzipped his pants and made obscene gestures," a source said.
After the flight landed in Delhi, the crew members reported the incident to the airport operations control centre following which the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel were informed.
The security personnel then detained the accused and took him to the IGI Airport police station. He was handed over to the Delhi Police for further legal action.
The accused has been charged under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). | {
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Thinks America is the worst Doesn't know anything about other countries
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"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
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