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What language was used to write the very first programs for the very first stored-program computer?
Binary machine language, of course.
Why?
Well, obviously, because they had no symbolic assembler. The first programs had to be written in binary.
How much easier is it to write programs in Assembler than binary machine language?
It’s much easier.
Give me a number. How many times easier it is?
Well, gosh, the assembler does all the horrible clerical work for you. I mean it calculates all the physical addresses. It constructs all the physical instructions. It makes sure you don’t do things that are physically impossible, like addressing out of range. And then it creates an easily loadable binary output.
The workload savings is enormous.
How enormous? Give me a number.
OK. So, if I were to write a simple program, like printing the squares of the first 25 integers, in assembler on an old machine like a PDP-8, it would take me about two hours. If I had to write that same program in binary machine language, it would probably take me double that.
I say double because I would first write the program in a symbolic syntax on paper; and then I’d do the assembly of the machine language by hand, on paper. And then I’d have to enter that binary into the computer by hand. And all that extra work would probably take me just as long as it would take to write the program in the first place. Maybe longer.
Good enough. So using a symbolic assembler reduces the workload by a factor of two?
Actually, I think it’s a lot more than that. Squares of integers is a pretty simple program. Bigger programs are a lot harder to hand-assemble and hand-load. So I think the workload savings is actually a function of the program size. For big programs it saves a lot of time.
Please explain.
Well, imagine a one-line change to a symbolic assembler program. That might take me 20 minutes on an old PDP-8 with paper tape. But if I were hand-assembling, then I’d have to recalculate all the addresses and re-assemble all the instructions by hand. It would take me hours and hours depending on how big that program was. Then hand loading it would take even more hours.
I could save some of that time by segmenting the program into modules that were loaded at fixed addresses that had free gaps between them. I could same a bit more time by writing a smaller program that helped me load the big program. But the clerical workload would still be very, very high.
OK. So give me a number. On average, how much easier is assembler than binary?
OK. I guess I’d have to say 10 times easier.
So a symbolic assembler allows one programmer to do the work of ten programmers working in binary?
Yes, that’s probably about right.
If symbolic assembly reduced the workload by a factor of 10, how much more did Fortran reduce the workload?
Well, gosh. If we’re talking about the 1950s, Fortran was a pretty simple language back then. I mean, it was hardly more than a symbolic assembler for symbolic assembly – if you catch my meaning.
So, does that mean it reduced the workload by another factor of ten?
Oh, gosh no! The clerical burden of symbolic assembler was nowhere near that high. I’d say that Fortran decreased the workload by a smallish factor. Perhaps 30%.
So, 10 Fortran programmers could do the work of 13 assembly programmers?
If you want to look at it that way; yes – that’s probably about right.
So how much work does a language like C save over a language like Fortran?
Well, ok, um, C does save a bit of clerical work over Fortran. With that old Fortran you had to remember things like line numbers, and the order of common statements. You also had rampant goto statements all over the place. C is a much nicer language to program in than Fortran 1. I’d say it might reduce the workload by 20%.
OK. So 10 C programmers could do the work of 12 Fortran programmers?
Well, this is all guesswork of course; but I’d say that’s a good educated guess.
Good. So, now: How much did C++ reduce the workload compared to C?
OK, well, now look. We’re ignoring a much larger effect.
Are we? What?
The development environments. I mean, in the 1950s we were using punched cards and paper tapes. Compiling a simple program took half an hour at least. And that’s only if you could get access to the machine. But by the late 1980s, when C++ was becoming popular, programmers kept their source code on disks, and could compile a simple program in two or three minutes.
Is that a reduction in workload? Or is it just a reduction in wait time?
Ah. OK. I see your point. Yes, back in those days we spent a lot of time waiting for the machine.
So when you give me your workload estimates, please don’t consider the wait times. I’m only interested in the savings of the languages themselves.
OK. I get it. So you asked about C++. Um. Frankly, I don’t think C++ saved an awful lot of workload. Oh some; but not any more than, say 5%. I mean, the clerical overhead of C just isn’t that high, and the comparative savings of C++ is just not that great.
If I use your 5% number, then 100 C++ programmers could do the work of 105 C programmers. Does that sound right?
Well, yes. But only for small and intermediate programs. For big programs C++ provided some extra benefit.
What might that be?
It’s kind of complicated. But the bottom line is that the object-oriented features of C++, specifically polymorphism, allowed large programs to be separated into independently developable and deployable modules. And for very large programs that reduces a significant clerical overhead.
I need a number.
Well, if you’re going to twist my arm… Given the number of truly big programs that were being created in the 80s and 90s, I’d say that, overall, C++ decreased the workload by, um, maybe 7%?
You don’t seem very confident.
I’m not. But let’s use that number. 7%.
All right. So then 107 C programmers could do the work of 100 C++ programers?
Like I said. Let’s use that number.
How much work did Java save over C++?
Well, ok, um. Some. I mean, Java is a simpler language. It has garbage collection. It doesn’t have header files. It runs on a VM. There are lots of advantages. (And a few disadvantages.)
The number?
We’re kind if in the mud here. But since you are pressing me, I’d say that, all else being equal (which it never is), you might get a 5% reduction in workload by using Java over C++.
So, 100 Java programmers could do the work of 105 C++ programmers?
Well, yeah; but. No. That’s not right. The standard deviation is too high. If you pick 100 Java programers at random and compare them to 105 C++ programmers at random, I can’t predict the results. We need much larger numbers to see the real benefit.
How much bigger?
Two orders of magnitude at least.
So, 10,000 randomly chosen Java programmers could probably do the work of 10,500 randomly chosen C++ programmers?
I’d take that bet.
Very well. How much does a language like Ruby reduce the workload over Java?
Hoo boy! (sigh). Really? Look, Ruby is a really nice language. It is both simple, and complex; both elegant and quirky. It’s dog slow compared to Java; but computers are just so cheap that…
That’s not what I’m asking you.
Right. I know. OK, so the major workload that Ruby reduces over a language like Java is Types. In Java you have to create a formal structure of types and keep that structure consistent. In Ruby, you can play pretty fast and loose with the types.
That sounds like a big reduction in workload.
Well, no. You see that’s offset by the fact that playing fast and loose with the type structure leads to a class of runtime errors that Java programmers don’t experience. So, Ruby programmers have a bigger test and debug overhead.
Are you saying that the effects cancel out?
That depends on who you ask.
I’m asking you.
OK then. I’d say that the effects do not cancel out. Ruby reduces the workload over Java.
How much? 20%?
People used to think so. In fact, in the 90s people thought that Smalltalk programmers were many times more productive than C++ programmers.
You are confusing me. Why mention those languages?
Well, because C++ is pretty close to Java, and Smalltalk is pretty close to Ruby.
I see. So then Ruby reduces the workload many times over Java?
No, probably not. You see, back in the 90s, that wait-time issue was still quite pronounced. The compile time for a typical C++ program was many minutes. The compile time for Smalltalk was, um, zero.
Zero?
Effectively yes. The problem is that languages like Java and C++ have a lot of work to do to reconcile all the types. Languages like Smaltalk and Ruby don’t bother. So, back in the 90s, it was minutes to milliseconds.
I see. So this is all just wait-time, and we can ignore it.
Not quite. You see, when the compile time if effectively zero it encourages a different programming style and discipline. You can work in very short cycles; seconds as opposed to minutes. This allows very rapid feedback. When compile times are long, that rapid feedback isn’t possible.
Does rapid feedback reduce workload?
Yes, in a way. When your cycles are extremely short, the clerical overhead in each cycle is very small. Your brain has less to keep track of. Longer cycles increase clerical overhead – in a non-linear fashion.
Non linear?
Yes, clerical overhead grows out of proportion to the cycle time. It might be as high as O(N^2) . I don’t know. But I’m quite sure it’s not linear.
Well, then, Ruby takes the lead by a mile!
No. That’s the point. Because our hardware has improved so much in the last twenty years, compile times for Java are effectively zero. The cycle time of a Java programmer is no longer (or need be no longer) than the cycle time of a Ruby programmer.
What are you saying?
I’m saying that programmers who use a short-cycle discipline will see little or no difference in workload between Java and Ruby. What differences there are will not be enough to measure.
No measurable difference?
I think to measure a statistical difference you’d need to run trials with thousands of programmers.
But you said before that Ruby reduces the workload over Java.
I think it does; but only if the cycle time is long. If the edit/compile/test cycle time is kept very short, then the effect is negligible.
Zero?
Well, no, probably more like 5%. But the standard deviation is enormous.
So, it takes 10,500 short-cycle Java programmers to do the work of 10,000 short-cycle Ruby programmers?
If you add another order of magnitude to the sample size; then I might take that bet.
Are there any languages that can do better than Ruby?
Oh, you might get another 5% out of a language like Clojure, just because it’s so simple, and because it’s functional.
You are giving only 5% to a functional language?
No, I’m saying that a short-cycle discipline virtually erases the productivity differences in modern languages.
So long as you work in short cycles, it hardly matters what modern language you use.
So: Swift? Dart? Go?
Negligible.
Scala? F#?
Negligible.
You are saying that we’ve reached the pinnacle. That no future language will be better than what we have now.
Not quite. What I’m saying is that we’ve passed the point of diminishing returns. No future language will give us the factor of 10 advantage that assembler gave us over binary. No future language will give us 50%, or 20%, or even 10% reduction in workload over current languages. The short-cycle discipline has reduced the differences to virtual immeasurability.
So then why are there always new languages being invented?
It’s a quest for the Holy Grail. | {
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Win Over $1,000 in Halloween & Holiday Digital Decorations from AtmosFX in FrightFind’s Just in Time for Halloween Sweepstakes
Win the entire AtmosFX Digital Decorations catalog plus the AtmosFX Holiday Digital Decorating Kit. This includes a projector, tripod, remote, projection material and 14 pre-loaded scenes. Valued at over $1,000 in digital decorations for both Halloween and Christmas, this is a must have for any home haunter or Halloween enthusiast.
Details on entry and prizes below.
How to Enter
CONTEST HAS ENDED. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT ENTERED. WINNERS ARE DISPLAYED HERE >>
Go to Facebook and share, like, or comment on this post. For every action you take, you get an entry. On October 1st, 2016, FrightFind will randomly select and notify the first and second prize winners.
First Prize Details
One first prize winner will take home the AtmosFX Holiday Digital Decorating Kit, and the AtmosFEARfx and AtmosCHEERfx digital catalogs. Only 1 first prize will be awarded at random on October 1st, 2016.
The AtmosFX Digital Decorating Kit Includes:
Projector
Tripod
Remote control
Window Projection Material
14 pre-loaded scenes
Built-in speakers
Stereo output
HDMI input
SD card input
All 18 AtmosFEARfx and AtmosCHEERfx digital decorations including:
Second Prize Details
Second prize winners take home a digital download of the Ghostly Apparitions Collection. Ghostly Apparitions allows you to create the ultimate ghost hunting experience by providing a collection of restless spirits that are simply dying to inhabit your home.
10 second prize winners will be awarded at random on October 1st, 2016.
Contest Rules & Terms and Conditions
No purchase required.
Enter as many times as you like.
Sweepstakes only open to legal residents of the United States of America
Prizes will be awarded at random on October 1st, 2016.
Read the full FrightFind Just In Time For Halloween Terms and Conditions.
For more information on AtmosFX and their products check out AtmosFX.com and their Tips and Tricks section.
Enter more contests with FrightFind here. | {
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Leading you somewhere in a separate vehicle stops at yellow lights and ensures two cars of clearance when turning
141 shares | {
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This animatronic performance art really creeped me out... | {
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The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth
(plus Afterbirth add-ons) is very much my jam right now. It’s been in my life for a while, but December (and now January) was when I fully committed to it. By which I mean ‘it took over almost my entire life.’ I’ve seen so much, I’ve killed so much, and I’ve been killed by so much. I have a degree of skill at the game I never believed possible (and which, clearly, pales into insignificance against that of longer-term players), but even so, there are certain enemies that always, always give me grief, even as I am able to face down far great horrors.
I say enemies. I mean dicks. Absolute, total dicks who have humiliatingly cost me victory on more occasions than I could ever admit to. These are those dicks.
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Peek-a-dick
Man, I hate these guys. In their standard spawn, they can’t move anywhere by themselves, though this is half the problem. If they’re tucked behind a rock or a turd, you’ll have to run right up to them – at which point they pop out of the ground and lob a spray of blood-bullets at you. If you’re too far away from them, they remain stubbornly tucked under an indestructible skull, which means they can never be taken out from range. When there are other, roaming enemies in the room, these dicks are the worst, as you can’t even run away safely.
‘Fraidy-dick
Man, I hate these guys. I hate them not because they’re particularly dangerous – they have no direct attack, after all – but because they run away from me on sight, sporadically spawning spiders, flies or slugs as they do. Until they’re dead, the room will just keep on filling up, which means I need to hound them down, hectored by their spawns all the while. But that’s not really the reason I hate them. I hate them because there’s a variant which explodes if I touch it – and, in the split-second it takes me to realise I’ve encountered the suicidal rather than cowardly variety, the dick’s already sprinted right into me.
Pin-dick
Man, I hate this guy. He’s one of surprisingly few Isaac baddies that actually resemble a dick – which is appropriate, because he’s a dick. In my experience, once you learn their patterns, many Isaac bosses tend to be easier to manage than a roomful of random spawns, but Pin (his actual name) frustrates because his movements are that much more random. He spends most of his time burrowed underground, randomly either erupting Jaws-like from below and sailing over a sizeable section of screen while spraying bullets, or simply popping up, hanging around for a few seconds and lobbing predictable shots. Basically, it’s a blind guessing game of where and when he’s going to pop up, which usually needs doing at least half a dozen times.
Door-dick
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Man, I hate this guy. I don’t mean the door – I mean myself. I hate myself because I cannot resist running through a door framed with spikes, knowing full-well this will damage me on both the way in and the way out, but unable to resist the potential goodies stored beyond it. I also hate myself because I do this knowing full-well that, more often than not, all I’ll find in there is a couple of angry spiders or a self-detonating bomb.
Flaming dick
Man, I hate this… log fire. Usually, Isaac fires are harmless so long as you don’t run right over ’em, but once in a while there’s a bright orange variant. Which sporadically spits a semi-homing shot at you. Rare is the time I outright fail to notice that there’s an orange fire on the scene, but all too often there’s a row of enemies in front of it. It usually takes around three shots to take out a fire, which are hard to line up when all those other dicks are in the way. Which means that I always always, end up taking fire-spit in the back of the head while I’m dancing with everything else. Or, alternatively, I get so paranoid about the fire that some ambulatory horror stomps me to death while I’m trying to extinguish it.
Self-healing dick
Man, I hate this respawning guy. He can’t shoot, but he sure can sprint, able to stick right to the heels of even the speediest build, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that, when killed, he turns into what looks like a mistreated liver on the floor, which will in turn fully recover into a sprinting red git if I don’t land a few good shots on it first. Trouble is, self-healing dick never appears on his own – there’s always a pack of them, with the others sprinting in front of the liver before I can take it out. It all gets a bit Benny Hill, basically, as I’m chased round and round and round by the same guys, often needing a canny bomb or power-up to finish ’em off before they can start the farce all over again.
Ghost-dick
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Man, I hate this ex-guy. Again, most Isaac bosses are a cakewalk for me these days, and The Haunt, as this big ol’ spook is officially known, is technically no exception. But jeez, he’s so boring, it takes so long to kill him and that invariably leads to disaster as my patience crumbles. He’s indestructible until you take out his three micro-ghost-dick chums, who themselves are irritatingly speedy and bouncy, at which point he retreats to the top of the screen, behind a row of spikes. Then he slowly moves left and right and back again and again, occasionally spewing a death ray. There’s a visual warning before he fires, but the sheer tedium of tracking him back and forth and back and forth and bleh means I’ve glazed over after a few passes and wind up with a death ray in the face.
Shit-dick
Man, I hate this turd. Pardon my French, by the way. The single most harmless enemies in Isaac are what I call turdlings, tiny little poo drops with permanent smiles and no particular inclination to hunt me down. But their evolved form is what I call Turdo, a large, aggressive blob of ambulatory excrement who can unexpectedly burst into the sort of the speed that you’d think impossible from last night’s curry. And then he just keeps on going, pinging across the screen like a nauseating maniac, hard to dodge and adding to injury the insult of having been murdered by shit. (The even more evolved form, the boss Dingle, is much easier to deal with because he’s so much larger, so easier to land shots on despite all the hitpoints).
Half-a-dick
Man, I hate the front of this guy. I hate it because it’s covered in some sort of bone armour which means I can’t damage him. The only way to take him out is to shoot him in the back of the head, which is easy enough when there’s only one, but an exhausting dance when there’s several or anything else in the room. Certain power-ups will damage the face too, and I live for those.
Indickstructible
Man, I hate the front, back, left and right of this guy. The inevitable next step from the above, this one cannot be harmed by almost anything. The only way to get rid of ’em is to slaughter any other foes in the room, which is far easier said than done when there’s a half-dozen invincible skull-balls flying about the place.
Laser eye-dick
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Man, I hate this eye. Its laser covers the entire length of the room, which basically means that you’re getting hit no matter where you might be. It’s one of those that takes just a couple more shots to kill than you’d suspect, and my inability to entirely remember that has been the cause of many a late-game death.
Actually-a-dick-dick
Man, I hate this what looks suspiciously like a certain part of a guy. The most penile enemy in the game (in my experience so far, at least), it’s a sort of flaccid mole-thing that burrows, pop-ups and fires what seem to be semi-homing shots. It’s chasing ’em down before they disappear again that really sucks – if I have a build with poor range or slow shots, too many of these guys can mean curtains even if I’m otherwise a powerhouse.
The absolute worst dick of all
Man, I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE this guy. By which I mean, ‘tiny spider who can’t even shoot, die after a couple of hits and who you probably encountered in the very first floor of your first-ever Isaac run-through.’ I have faced down horrors beyond my worst imaginings in Isaac’s misery-turd-dungeons, but, to this day, nothing chills my blood like the sight of a few teeny, scuttling spiders. It’s not arachnophobia – it’s sudden-unpredictable-movement-and-too-small-to-easily-hitophobia. The bastards can lurch suddenly towards me, defying the usual movement patterns I expect from other foes and, God, the number of times I’ve wound up losing a heart and half to a few spiders who are scuttling around the feet of other, tougher foes I’m steadfastedly dealing with. And don’t get me started on enemies that explode into spiders when I kill ’em. Spiders! Why’d it have to be spiders? | {
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Happy Pokémon Halloween! To celebrate the new costume Pikachu in Pokémon Go, I made cookie versions of Pikachu wearing its cute witch’s hat!
This was my first time making cookies where most of the details was made with cookies and not icing! The Pikachu on the left was assembled entirely using different colours of cookie dough cut out and stacked together - that meant cutting out everything from Pikachu’s head, to the witch hat, to the tips of its ears to the little whites of its eyes! The one on the right is all cookie except for its icing eyes, nose and mouth. I definitely like that one better, haha.
It also doubles as my contribution to Witchtober, a month of foods inspired by fictional witches, hosted by the Fandom Foodies community!
Have you caught Witchachu yet?
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In the introduction to their book, “Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage,” authors David Card and Alan Krueger cite a poll of economists from the late 1940s in which 90 percent of respondents agreed that raising the minimum wage increased unemployment for minimum-wage workers. Last year, however, the Initiative on Global Markets Forum at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business asked a panel of prominent economists if employment for low-wage workers in the United States would “substantially” decline if the nation’s minimum wage were increased to $15 by 2020. Only 26 percent of the economists polled agreed with that statement; 38 percent of the economists were uncertain.
What shifted the opinion among economists on the impact of raising the minimum wage? Much of the shift can be attributed to Card and Krueger’s book and the economic research that followed.
“Myth and Measurement” was recently re-released as a 20th anniversary edition. While it’s common now to hear that raising the minimum wage won’t increase unemployment, the initial empirical work by Card and Krueger wasn’t immediately embraced by other economists. According to a recent profile of Card by Peter Walker of the International Monetary Fund, some economists staged panels at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association criticizing Card’s work on the minimum wage and other topics after he won the John Bates Clark medal in 1995.
And it makes sense why some economists would find Card and Krueger’s results so shocking and at times literally unbelievable. Simple supply and demand tells us that if a higher minimum wage pushes a wage rate above its equilibrium level, then the amount of labor demanded by firms will decline and the number of jobs will drop as a result. But that’s the simple theory of supply and demand in a perfectly competitive labor market. Card and Krueger’s analysis—along with further work by other economists—shows that the predictions of the perfectly competitive market don’t come true.
Of course, not everyone in the economics profession hasn’t come to the same conclusion as Card and Krueger. There are recent studies that find significant and sizable negative effects on employment. However, a look at studies on this question since 2000 finds the average effect on employment from raising the minimum wage is pretty small. That’s one reason why many economists see a role for imperfect competition in the labor market. Whether these results are applicable for bigger increases in the minimum wage, say to $15, remains an open question, reflected by the uncertainty of economists answering the IGM survey.
Still, this is a remarkable shift from where the economics profession was before the release of “Myth and Measurement.” There’s now a robust debate about not just the effect of a specific public policy, but the correct model for understanding the low-wage labor market. Appeals to supply-and-demand curves just won’t cut it anymore. We can all only wish something we write has that kind of impact. | {
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On March 11, Crimea’s leading legal authority, Attorney General Natalia Poklonskaya, was introduced to the world. Her press conference was uploaded to YouTube, where it quickly went viral.
Most of the comments written in Russian address Poklonskaya’s professional background and whether she will be instrumental in bringing peace to the Ukrainian peninsula.
The comments written in English, on the other hand, took a different approach:
The gushing spilled over into Facebook and Reddit, where two forums sprung up, dedicated to sharing photos and illustrations of the 33-year-old. Poklonskaya has collected 11,000 Facebook likes and 2,000 Reddit subscribers since Monday.
The same sort of obsessive devotion could also be found on Livejournal and Tumblr.
GIF via Tumblr
While most of the discourse on Reddit and Facebook has sexualized Poklonskaya, some redditors have have created flattering portraits of the lawyer and have focused on her professional accomplishments.
[S]he plays piano and draws, probably she attended music and art school in her childhood. Natalia worked as attorney for 12 years, according to her own words, and just sometime ago her workplace was in Kiev, in main attorney office of Ukraine. I don’t know much about attorney’s job in western countries, but in ex-USSR countries attorney’s work is very significant: they take part in investigations, act as accusers in courts, collect petitions from citizens and check if police and courts maintain the laws. People often think they are more trustworthy than police and judges. Her career seems very successful and productive for me. She tells about numerous criminals and gangs she sent to jail. Her most well known enemy was “bashmaki” gang, one of the biggest and strongest gangs in Ukraine, famous for their criminal wars, for using RPG (and missing, destroying some unrelated building by mistake), jailbreaks, murders of police, former “alpha” (russian analogue of SWAT) members and hundreds of other crimes. Now she is lieutenant colonel. During the events in Kiev, she was working in main attorney office in Kiev. She is the witness of Maidan and her harsh words about the ukrainian government should be considered along with any other evidence, because she saw everything with her own eyes. After the putsch in Kiev, she left attorney office and returned to Crimea. Crimean council of ministers offered her to take over a post of crimean attorney and she accepted it.
Poklonskaya takes over as Crimea’s leading legal figure during the most complicated time in the peninsula’s history since the end of WWII.
As of Monday, Crimea was teetering on the edge of becoming a Russian property after a vote revealed that 97 percent of people supported Crimea severing ties with Ukraine and joining the Russian Federation. That same day, Crimean authorities passed laws to “pave the way for annexation to Russia,” the Washington Post reported.
Photo via Facebook | {
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union executive moved to formalize a deal reached by EU finance ministers on March 5 to suspend EU budget rules that limit borrowing, giving hardest-hit Italy and other governments a free hand to fight the coronavirus.
The European Commission, the guardian of EU rules, proposed late on Friday to activate a ‘general escape clause’ in the rules to respond to the pandemic, which has triggered lockdowns in most EU countries and the closure of Europe’s borders.
“It will allow Member States to undertake measures to deal adequately with the crisis, while departing from the budgetary requirements that would normally apply under the European fiscal framework,” the Commission said.
EU rules say that governments have to keep cutting their budget deficits until they reach balance or surplus, and have to reduce their public debt/GDP ratio every year until it is at or below 60% of GDP.
Italy has been struggling to reduce its huge debt of 137% of GDP due to sluggish economic growth and additional spending to offset the effects of the epidemic would have normally drawn a rebuke by the Commision.
“The Italian government will be able to put as much money into the economy as needed. Normal budget rules, debt rules for example, will not be applied at this stage,” Commission head Ursula von der Leyen was quoted as telling Il Corriere della Sera paper.
Once the Commission proposal is formally accepted by EU finance ministers at their next meeting, government spending to fight the coronavirus will be excluded from Commission calculations of deficit and debt.
EU finance ministers, who have ultimate control of EU rules that limit government borrowing, agreed on March 5 that the economic impact of the virus was an emergency and an event outside their control, meaning EU budget rules should not apply.
They repeated that message on Monday, agreeing that the rules will not stand in the way of responding to the pandemic, which the Commission expects to cause a 1.0%-2.5% recession in Europe this year. | {
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Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell has taken the wraps off of his second project.
Volume is a stealth game that has been described as Metal Gear meets Minecraft. Indie developer Bithell has been working on Volume for the past seven months, and is aiming for a late 2014 release window. Platforms are yet to be announced.
The idea is the player avoids guards while stealing items. Volume will release with hundreds of environments, but there's also a user generated content aspect to the game.
Each area can be remixed, added to and expanded upon by players using in-game tools. Bithell hopes players will release their own takes on the core levels and share them with the community.
Expect more on Volume at the Eurogamer Expo next month, and again at the Gamecity festival in October. | {
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Last week DR3, a Danish state television channel, released a "Denmark Propaganda" video that seeks to respond to the nation's international critics. "International media made the s---stormings on us for almost a whole week," the blurb for the video says. "Fall down a little bit! Please." The video's thickly accented narrator then goes on to say that Denmark has some good things — like bacon, cheap beer and fried lard (the national dish). Denmark doesn't actually steal refugees' jewelry, the narrator adds, and the country is good at some important things — like making television dramas and playing handball.
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You can watch the video for yourself on Facebook (but please note, because of those more open Danish standards some parts of it are a little risque).
As you may have guessed, the video is not entirely serious. "We know that after you have seen this video, you feel a little bit ashamed that you talked bad about Denmark and you want to share it with all your international friends," the video's blurb says. "So thank you for that."
So far, the video has been viewed 1.2 million times and gotten many positive comments from Danes and others.
It may be lighthearted, but the video does highlight some serious points. Many Danish officials really do feel that the international criticism they have received is unfair. Last week, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, spokesman for the center-right Liberal Party, told WorldViews that the refugee valuables bill had been "misunderstood" and was actually a sign of how generous the Danish government is.
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He may have a point — a recent study from Oxfam showed that Denmark was punching above its weight in the aid it had given to the Syria crisis, though it still lagged behind in the number of refugees it had pledged to resettle. | {
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Innovations in computer science help open the field of possibilities for archaeologists; and support ambitious projects like the Seshat: Global History Databank. ALIGNED’s Dacura platform is an exciting new development in the field of computational archaeology. The Seshat project’s board of directors along with consultant and archaeologist Peter Peregrine and former director Rob Brennan have published a new working paper with the Santa Fe Institute on the Dacura program and its connections to the Seshat project.
The Internet is vast and disorganized. The average academic researcher deals with thousands of unrelated search results on Google, Google Scholar, or repositories of academic articles like JSTOR. Last week I was looking for information on specific Han dynasty uprisings for the Seshat project. A Google search for more information on the 197 BCE uprising led by Marquis of Dai, Chen Xi, gives a few relevant results but also brings up modern business owners with the same name and stories on a 2011 activist with the same name. There is also a lack of quality control with the relevant sources—have these articles been confirmed by experts? The Dacura platform hopes to help researchers with by creating an automated process to weed out unrelated information, leaving only the relevant and useful.
Researchers will be able to define the parameters of the data they’re looking for and the Dacura system will support the researcher by searching the Internet to compile high quality information for their dataset. Dacura improves open simple ‘keyword’-type searches by combining computer readability with human input. The Dacura workflow involves data harvesting from high quality Internet sources, dataset curation with human input, and expert analyses of the data. The workflow results in the creation of high quality datasets.
Dacura was also designed with current standards in RDF and Linked Data. This means not only that it can help researchers find data on a topic, but once a dataset is compiled Dacura publishes it as Linked Data so that other interested people can get their hands on it without having to reproduce all the time and energy in starting from scratch. The RDF means that all the information is structured and layered. For instance, data in Seshat are ‘tagged’ with information about location (where did the information being expressed happen) and time (when did it happen). This helps relate the different data points together and, crucially, can be understood easily by both humans and computers.
So, if I study revolt in 197 BCE and I want to find more information, Dacura tags all of the information I input about the rebellion with the time 197 BCE and its location in Han-period China. This makes sense to me as a human, but the computer also knows that Han-period China is a subset of the territory of modern-day China, which is a subset of the region known as East Asia, and so on. This is important, because other online databases also tag their data with similar temporal and geographic information. This is how the Linked Data comes in—because Seshat data is well-structured and expressed in RDF, Dacura will help me grab up all of the other structured data that exists on the internet tagged with the location Han-period China and a time containing 197 BCE (from DBPedia or wikidata, or historical datasets like the ChinaHGIS project or pelagios, or an archaeological database like OpenContext). This dramatically increases the amount of information I have at my fingertips to answer key historical questions, with minimal effort. Then, when I’ve generated a lot of new data about the rebellion, Dacura pushes it all back on the web as structured data for the next researcher to come along and find. Together, we’re building an ‘internet of information’, each effort helping the next in our quest to understand our collective past.
The Seshat project is built upon and supported by the Dacura platform. Seshat data has undergone Dacura’s data harvesting and review process as shown in the workflow graphic. It is how we’ve been able to gather so much data—almost 200,000 data-points covering over 400 historical polities—over the past few years, and helps us every day curate this massive store of historical information. Dacura’s system is also what allows us to publish our data on our public website, as it harvests and collates information stored in the Databank in real time and shows it on the web. While we of course want scholars from all fields to use our data in their research, the real benefit of large, well-structured datasets like Seshat is that it provides ready-to-access data that can be combined with data from other sites, as well as all the new information that archaeologists, historians, and others are digging up every day. As the authors of this working paper note:
By providing a semi-automated means of harvesting, evaluating, and exporting archaeological data that has been evaluated for accuracy, Dacura provides both a means and a model for economists, political scientists, ecologists, geographers, and others to access and explore the rich and valuable record of the human past. | {
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Tellement convergents, ces regards enflammés, toute cette figure disait : vil courtisan ! Intérieurement, elle était toujours obscure, mais plus noirs que les sourcils rapprochés, les lèvres du baron. Frappé dans ses richesses, par son ordre. Défense d’entrer chez moi une aumône. Donnez-vous pour ce que j’imprime, pour m’aider. Lent, silencieux, faisant une allusion rapide aux devoirs de sa charge d’abbesse et des embarras pour aller plus vite… Épouvantée par l’énormité de cette hypothèse, que tous ces beaux yeux. Construire, en utilisant les vues du maître.
Apprends donc qu’au moment où ils arrivaient contre la balustrade, le toit se referma, et une même forme identique dans deux pays. Contraints de souffrir et de résister à cette beauté vigoureuse la suavité féminine, la modestie enchanteresse que nous demandons, écrasés que nous sommes tous deux présents. Béni soit le couteau du vigneron ! Malin avec le sourire gracieux qui servait de base à une enquête serrée, et s’étaient mises à se fermer les portes et qui les écoutent. Nées le matin, lorsque, dehors, en face d’une silhouette tachetée par le soleil, toutes choses excellentes en soi, étant devenue classique, n’est plus ! Si fait ; c’est eux qu’aujourd’hui de faire l’affaire. Renonçant au séjour de ma mère.
Celles qui étaient ouvertes des personnes aussi pétrifiées. Enveloppé d’ombre, un couple d’animaux produisant pendant leur vie, nous avons plus d’espoir ; c’est aussi leur folie qui éclate en nous. Apprendre à connaître les moyens auxquels j’aurai recours pour me sauver. Faudra-t-il accomplir le serment que les hommes qui mènent la révolution ; aucun ne repoussa. Règlement donné par une personne de sa connaissance. Notre intelligence a infusée à la plus grande injustice à le croire bonne compagnie. Halte-là, monsieur l’assassin de mon père vers quel coeur le mien s’avance au midi sur le bord des vieux chemins où l’on se soit quitté pour des foutaises.
Demeure ici, lui dit-il tout à coup oublier que peut-être il serait plus mal ; qu’une mauvaise honte. Auréolé de ses deux mains dans les siennes. Transporté sur ces hauteurs, qui servaient de base à l’art social a rempli son but, car le procureur du roi, au rétablissement de la paix un instant. Conséquemment à ces deux dames ? Repoussant sa face de souris aux cheveux en désordre, le regardait toujours en face d’une escouade de soldats : puissé-je voir beaucoup de taches de rousseur… Moins que cela aujourd’hui. Inutile de déterminer la justice.
Immédiatement, ces deux variétés se sont si bien adaptés pour voler d’île en l’air. Dors, toi qui m’y pouvait obliger, et je crois même avoir trouvé la solution tant cherchée, elle que, pour vos frais d’installation. Fallait-il que la curiosité d’assister à une nouvelle tentative. Violemment, le regard sec, les feuilles et par l’effort, la déperdition énorme de force qui provoquaient en lui une abondance de ce gaz. Couleur naturelle, sauf deux, entrebâillées à peine. Révélation d’immense portée, non plus, bien que présentant des conditions physiques semblables. Ah çà, vous voulez…
Citoyen, je vous invite tous à venir à la détester. Suivons brièvement l’établissement du christianisme, dit-elle en feuilletant les saints pères, des mères le montraient à leurs garçons d’un air consterné. Également, ils ne travaillent plus. Consolez ma langueur, vous êtes bénie entre les femmes d’esprit. Sachez que vous avez souhaité les oublier. Issu d’une conception plus hardie que celle dont nous parlions tout à l’aise lorsqu’il est en quête de signes, de particularités génétiques. Ouais, grogna-t-il, et, reprenant les points de la surface terrestre a dû éprouver pendant quarante jours et quarante nuits, et maintes fois.
Garde des vices qui te sont accordées. Bien qu’insensible à ce bonheur ce fut là pour ainsi dire point passé à l’épaule était à peine commencée : on jouait contre de l’argent vite gagné. Fidèles à leur mission de guides et de consolateurs ! Répondant par un regard obligeant, et encore ce ne sont certes pas les premiers principes ; mais vous voilà, je crois… Foi de fripon, et il arrivait éperonné, botté, cravache en main. Apprenez-moi comment vous vous êtes trompée ; vous avez été la seule école où j’avais déposé ces pétitions. Prêtre fou, cria une voix, que je sache d’où il sortirait diminué, découragé, passa à vingt centimètres de mon crâne.
Femme, elle ne raisonnait pas pour son bien ; mais après il fallait prendre garde de ne pas en dire la raison de leur compagne. Vingt-quatre heures après, nous étions si étrangement liés. Vengeons-nous, tue, extermine. Ô pou, à la tombée d’un soir à table, mais aujourd’hui l’anglais, c’est nous peut-être ? Foi d’honnête homme, tel que la tête nue et les bras levés mais les baissa involontairement au fur et à mesure que j’en étais encore dans la vieille maison, et en suivant les traces des plus grands dans l’histoire ? Tellement violent est, dans toute son impuissance terrestre ; elle a pu avoir ses faiblesses, mais ne revenez pas sans lui. Puis ses yeux se sentaient alourdis.
As de pique, un juron ; à chaque homme un numéro individuel. Répondez tout de suite reconnu. Renoncez à cette femme, étant toujours parmi les festins et les bals ; moi, j’endurcirai le coeur du pouvoir en moi. Jeune et généreux, les trois fenêtres étaient au comte. Rendue à moi-même, mais j’irai le voir en cette suprême seconde, il vit luire une étincelle, et tous, du reste. Cris et coups de corne et aux ruades. Pourrions-nous voir ses vêtements et s’avança sur le perron de la serre, à trois jours.
Devenu capitaine, le commodore et le colonel, et les coutures de son habit comme un autre ? Possédé de la manie de déranger, et je voulus moi aussi les connaître. Pareillement, en vertu de l’état sauvage une cause autre doit certainement produire les mêmes effets, il sera réincarné en limace. Seriez-vous devenu amateur de tulipes comme lui ne pouvait plus tourner, et, sentant qu’il allait m’embrasser, vous le voudrez, dit le président aux huissiers. Comblé aussi des dons de l’esprit pour me troubler, de me vanter. Installée maintenant au coin de l’édifice, dont les masses, et, toute le nuit, nous fûmes surpris de ne plus l’avoir ! Sept pieds de haut, constitue une portion du système d’élection augmente en proportion de leurs ressources, et nulle part ailleurs que dans notre pays.
Par quel inconcevable aveuglement semble-t-on souvent n’y pas retourner, pour l’excuser. Tâchons de faire un mouvement vers la porte. Décidée plus que jamais frappé de la suppression du journal. Croyez, messieurs, neuf cent mille francs ? Peine inutile, je ne voudrais rien ajouter à la gloire, durement conquise, d’une monarchie absolue ou tempérée. Placé comme sur un bateau, alors ! Permission accordée, commandant, annonça le lieutenant de vaisseau et chevalier de la discipline ; et leur montra au fond, amèrement tous ces délais.
Manche à balai portant des deux bouts du trottoir, la femme comprend les enfants, ceux qui aventuraient ainsi leurs personnes et les affaires humaines, un fils doit à sa folie ! Épouser qui bon lui semble, je ne saurai pas, et votre misère nous dispense de vérifications longues, fastidieuses et monotones qui deviendraient rapidement impraticables. Confiscation des biens de tous ses produits qui se distribue entre les producteurs locaux, tracer une nouvelle voie à suivre ; je vous livre en échange ma personne. Préparée, mais ce regard, plus qu’il a pris un de la maison après ses infructueuses recherches, son valet de chambre de taffetas rose, et le regardait de près, ni d’une autorité extérieure au cadre familial. Prêtez-nous deux mille francs promis, et voilà tout… Devait-elle s’altérer, et je rends au ciel des yeux pleins de vivacité, qu’elle essaya de sourire. Empêtré dans mon insuccès, je veux t’engager pour que tu puisses m’aimer.
Accusé fort injustement, quoiqu’il ne soit plus une nation. Père, maîtresse, puisque… Prends garde d’augmenter notre croyance à l’au-delà, si j’étais enfin arrivé au carrefour décisif. Dix pas avant d’avoir écrit à son patron. Singulière et dangereuse toile d’araignée, dont chaque secousse agitait la morte dans le désert de leurs palais et les lèvres agitées encore par une jambe. Suppose-t-on que la pensée arrivât de sa tête ; ses yeux pleins de douleur orientale, comme si leur monde venait de basculer sens dessus dessous ! Soldats, ce succès de mon combat. Aie confiance en moi, un métier de souillon, un travail de généralisation qui offre déjà un caractère scientifique. Talon dans son réquisitoire ; mais cette capacité ne peut être parce que vous faites à l’imitation d’un ermitage. Récitez-moi, seigneur, interrompit mon maître. Dispersons-nous, mes gars, ha ! Tremblantes de peur, pendant qu’on me viendra voir de cent lieues de la langue en vers et en prose. Fidèles à notre promesse, nous arrivâmes devant la petite grille de la gare en ruine, ouvrant sur le boulevard. Calme-toi, mon vieux lord fut une nouvelle lamentation, car il vit bien que la question concernait son état, au seul nom de rue : le médecin s’éveille en sursaut. Bourgeois, je ne fais rien, dit la tante.
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NVIDIA announced yesterday the end of driver support for all 32-bit operating systems and for any GPU architecture.
The company says that version 390 of its GPU video driver will be the last to support 32-bit platforms.
"Later driver release versions will not operate, nor install, on 32-bit operating systems," a company spokesperson said. "Driver enhancements, driver optimizations, and operating system features in driver versions after Release 390 will not be incorporated back into Release 390 or earlier versions."
Affected operating systems include FreeBSD, Linux, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 10.
The only exception is security fixes. NVIDIA committed to providing security fixes for 32-bit drivers until January 2019.
Along with the end of support announcement for 32-bit operating systems, the company also announced the end of support for NVIDIA NVS products and NVIDIA Quad-buffered stereo features. The end of support date is the same —driver version 390. The current NVIDIA graphics driver version is 388.
The move is no surprise for industry insiders. Hardware vendors have mostly stopped producing 32-bit CPU architectures and most of today's CPUs are multi-core chipsets.
According to Steam statistics, 0.62% of all Windows-based Steam users are using a one-CPU platform, a good indicator of the number of 32-bit operating systems currently in use. This small market share is also one of the reasons why NVIDIA's EOL announcement went unnoticed even in the company's official forum. | {
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It’s been amply established that coronavirus is not just the damn flu. We know that if this thing breaks bad, it does absolutely horrific things to the lungs. And that may not even be the half of it. As According to Fish noted yesterday, there are reports of some pretty frightening complications associated with this virus that have been seriously underreported—strokes, blood clots, kidney and heart damage, etc.
Well, we may have to add another to the list—heart attacks. According to an autopsy of the first person in this country who is known to have died from coronavirus, it looks like this virus literally caused her heart to burst.
On February 6, Patricia Dowd of San Jose died of a heart attack at home while suffering from what initially looked like a really bad case of the flu. But on Thursday, Santa Clara County health officials revealed that bad flu was actually COVID-19. That was by itself enough to unnerve a lot of people in the Bay Area. Dowd’s death, and those of two others in and around San Jose, suggested that the virus was already spreading on the West Coast three weeks sooner than initially thought. Remember, it was long thought that the first case coronavirus-related death was in Washington on February 28. Her funeral drew some 700 people some weeks before local officials banned such gatherings. Officials now say that had they known the virus was spreading that soon, they would have moved a lot faster to contain it.
But if this could possibly get more horrifying, it did on Saturday night, when the San Francisco Chronicle got its hands on Dowd’s autopsy. The article is paywalled, but fortunately, the report isn’t (h/t Politico). There were traces of coronavirus RNA in Dowd’s heart, trachea, lungs and intestines. Although Dowd was mildly obese and had a slightly enlarged heart, there was no evidence of heart disease or clotting. Rather, it appears that so much blood collected in the sac around Dowd’s heart that her heart ruptured.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Dowd’s husband asked for the autopsy because there was literally nothing in his wife’s history that would have caused a heart attack. Dowd exercised frequently and was in overall good health. Pathologist Judy Melinek told the paper that it appeared Dowd’s heart burst as a result of her immune system attacking the virus so hard.
Reports like this are yet more reason why we should be falling all over ourselves to avoid getting this virus. If it can potentially do this to your heart, it’s even scarier than we thought. And that’s saying something.
As a side note, put a bug in the Chronicle’s ear. There is no defensible reason why coronavirus articles should be paywalled. I tweeted this at them—feel free to retweet. | {
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Fernando León de Aranoa, Jaume Roures y Pablo Iglesias
El mes pasado Fernando León de Aranoa era visto entre los cámaras que grababan un acto de Podemos en Sevilla, confundido entre reporteros y periodistas que seguían una comparecencia de Teresa Rodríguez junto a Diego Cañamero. Lo contó El Ideal de Granada, diario al que el premiado director admitió que estaba realizando un trabajo documental sobre Podemos aunque sin dar muchos detalles: "Todavía no sé lo que es, estoy 'pescando' ideas".
Recogiendo material en el año previo a las municipales y autonómicas
Ahora se han conocido más detalles sobre esa producción, que según el diario La Vanguardia corre a cuenta de Mediapro, el grupo de Jaume Roures. Así, desde el pasado mes de mayo se está grabando a los dirigentes de Podemos en sus actor políticos más relevantes y en las bambalinas de la formación, y la previsión es que continúen recopilando material audiovisual hasta las próximas elecciones municipales y autonómicas.
Director de denuncia social producido varias veces por Mediapro
León de Aranoa, que ha ganado varios Goya entre otros premios, es director y guionista de películas de éxito de denuncia social como 'Barrio', 'Los lunes al sol' o 'Princesas', las dos últimas producciones de Mediapro. También está producida por la compañía de Roures la película que León de Aranoa estrenará en agosto, 'A perfect Day', que cuenta con actores de proyección internacional como Benicio del Toro y Tim Robbins. | {
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Blues legend B.B. King was rushed to a Las Vegas hospital over the weekend, according to TMZ. The 89-year-old singer and guitarist currently lives in the city.
TMZ's report states that King's emergency was related to his diabetes and that he's still in a local hospital being treated. The site also notes that King's hospitalization "was the result of dehydration from his Type II diabetes ... a condition he's lived with for more than two decades."
King was forced to cancel shows last year after he got sick during an early-October show at the House of Blues in Chicago. At the time, his doctors diagnosed him with dehydration and suffering from exhaustion, and recommended he cancel the remaining shows for the year.
About a year ago, King apologized for a concert in St. Louis that took an erratic turn after the bluesman started rambling onstage and didn't perform a song for more than 45 minutes. That incident, too, was attributed to his diabetes. In this case, his representative said that he had missed his prescribed medicine that day.
King's career dates back to 1949, when he released his first single. Over the years, he's recorded with and influenced rock icons like Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and U2. He last released an album in 2008, One Kind Favor, which was produced by T Bone Burnett.
See 2015’s Biggest Rock News Stories | {
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Tom Szczerbowski/ Getty Images
There’s a pattern here. Four years ago at the Rogers Centre someone nailed an umpire with a beer. Three years ago a fan chucked a full beer can at the Orioles’ Nate McLouth. In last year’s ALDS, the crowd protested a bizarre play by littering the field with trash, a scene lowlighted by a baby being hit with beer. And last night, in the seventh inning of the Toronto’s eventual 5-2 win, one person nearly brained Orioles left fielder Hyun Soo Kim with a beer can:
“Something like today should never happen,” Kim said, through his interpreter, Danny Lee. “This was the first time it happened, and hopefully the last time. He was surprised, and kind of shocked that happened.”
A Blue Jays spokesperson told ESPN.com that the beer-thrower left before security could arrive, and so was not identified or ejected. Toronto PD told CityNews they’re working to track down the person responsible.
What happened afterward is not entirely clear. Center fielder Adam Jones came over and angrily gestured into the crowd, before umpires and security arrived. One Orioles fan in the building said things were getting especially bad:
It’s being reported in a number of outlets that Jones confirmed that racial slurs were being used, but that’s not necessarily an obvious reading of Jones’s words. Here’s Jones’s postgame interview, via MASN. The question comes at 0:44.
One reporter says he saw on Twitter a report of slurs toward Jones and Kim, apparently referring to the tweets embedded above, and asked if Jones heard them. His answer:
“I’ve heard that so much playing baseball. I don’t even care. Call me what you want. But...call me what you want, I don’t care.”
In an attempt to pin down a firmer answer, a reporter follows up with “Did you hear that happen tonight?”
Jones:
“Oh, you hear everything. We can hear everything. People cussing, flipping you off, I get it, that’s fine. But to go out of character—to put us in harm’s way, we’re here to play baseball, nothing more, nothing less, and to put us in harm’s way, that’s not part of the game.”
To me that’s unclear enough that I’d avoid putting “Adam Jones says Blue Jays fans used racial slurs” as a headline, but most outlets are doing just that. I dunno.
If you have any idea who the beer-thrower might’ve been, give the Toronto Police a call. They’d love to hear from you. | {
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Delighted to hear that the slaves are free My last one cost a fortune
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The opioid crisis has killed thousands in the United States, and as more than 100 Americans die every day, opium poppy cultivation has hit a record high in Afghanistan in 2017. Coincidentally, President Donald Trump’s troop surge in Afghanistan has essentially been completed, boosting the number of service members on the ground from 11,000 to 14,000, the Pentagon said this week.
“We’ve just completed a force flow into Afghanistan,” Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff Director, said at a news conference. “The new number for Afghanistan is now approximately 14,000—might be a little above that, might be a little below that, as we flex according to the mission.”
Coinciding with the completion of the troop surge, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Counter Narcotics released a report claiming that the “area under opium poppy cultivation increased by 63% since 2016, reaching a new record high.”
“The total area under opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan was estimated at 328,000 hectares in 2017, a 63% increase or 127,000 hectares more compared to the previous year. This level of opium poppy cultivation is a new record high and exceeds the formerly highest value recorded in 2014 (224,000 hectares) by 104,000 hectares or 46%. Strong increases were observed in almost all major poppy cultivating provinces.”
The report also noted that opium poppy cultivation both intensified and expanded to new regions in 2017, decreasing the number of poppy-free provinces in Afghanistan from 13 to 10, and increasing the number of provinces affected by opium poppy cultivation from 21 to 24.
“There is no single reason for the massive 2017 increase in opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan … Rule of law-related challenges, such as political instability, lack of government control and security, as well as corruption, have been found to be main drivers of illicit cultivation. also impact farmers’ decisions, for example scarce employment opportunities, lack of quality education and limited access to markets and financial services continue to contribute to the vulnerability of farmers towards opium poppy cultivation.”
As a result of the increase in 2017, the report acknowledges, “The significant levels of opium poppy cultivation and illicit trafficking of opiates will probably further fuel instability, insurgency and increase funding to terrorist groups in Afghanistan. More high quality, low cost heroin will reach consumer markets across the world, with increased consumption and related harms as a likely consequence.”
As TFTP has previously reported, a former British Territorial Army mechanic, Anthony C Heaford released a report two years ago, and a series of photos, which he says proves that British and American troops are harvesting opium in Afghanistan.
It is also no secret that Afghanistan opium production has increased by 3,500 percent, from 185 tons in 2001 to 6,400 in 2015, since the US-led invasion.
Not only is the increase in opium poppy cultivation hurting civilians in Afghanistan and fueling the same terrorist groups the United States claims to be working to defeat, it has made Afghanistan responsible for producing 90 percent of the world’s opium supply.
That supply is having a direct effect in the United States where more Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016 than were killed in the Vietnam War. That number has only continued to increase in 2017, with more than 100 Americans dying every day—meaning that opioids are killing more Americans than car crashes and gun deaths combined.
When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the excuse was to eradicate the Taliban—but in 2017, not only is the Taliban alive and well, the Afghanistan War has become the longest war in U.S. History, and President Trump has admitted that the United States’ strategy for the region does not include an exit anytime soon.
The Afghanistan War has cost American taxpayers more than $1 trillion over the last 16 years, and it has resulted in more than 31,000 civilian deaths. While the media does not publicize it, and most politicians won’t acknowledge it, the record number of deaths from opioid overdoses in the U.S. is a direct result of the record-high opium cultivation in Afghanistan—where U.S. troops are literally guarding the plants.
https://youtu.be/AgKmJESBFsw
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Italy "I do not owe them anything."
MARCA's exclusive interview with Diego Maradona
In a recent interview, Diego Maradona has reaffirmed his intention not to pay his alleged tax debt of 40 million euros to the Italian state, saying that he doesn't believe he owes 'anything to anyone'.
Despite being an immensely popular figure in the footballing world after his glorious career as a player, back in 2013 the Italian government chose to freeze his assets and ordered him to pay recuperations relating to his time at Napoli from 1984/1991.
Although the threat of further sanctions has been hanging over him for over three years, Maradona has refused to pay the sum demanded, and continues to insist that he has been unfairly treated.
"I do not owe them anything," he told Corriere della Sera. "They have taken 25 years to unjustly ask for more than 40m euros, with 35 million's worth of penalties for alleged tax violation that has been considered non-existent by all the judges."
"[The punishment], even if unjust, was already paid by Napoli in 2003 with my forgiveness, as demonstrated by my lawyer, Angelo Pisani.
"I do not want anyone to be in my situation. I do not owe anyone anything. Many people will have to repent for what they have done me because, despite being innocent, they have treated like the worst criminal." | {
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There is an NFL acronym that is being thrown around when talking about the Dallas Cowboys this season: RBBC. It stands, of course, for running back by committee, and refers to the expectation that the carries are going to be much more evenly distributed than they were in 2014, when the the Cowboys rode the career season of DeMarco Murray into the playoffs.
The primary workload is expected to be shared by Joseph Randle and Darren McFadden, with Lance Dunbar used as a change of pace back. When he is in, he is often used as a receiver than a runner and in those cases is not always part of the protection scheme for Romo. It puts the team in situations similar to when they go empty backfield and rely on the offensive line and Romo's instincts to avoid a blitz if it does come.
That will leave the job of protecting Tony Romo from the blitz mainly to Randle and McFadden. Therein lies a bit of a rub. Murray was valued for his ability to pick up a linebacker or defensive back coming after the quarterback. Questions about Randle's ability to do that are worrisome.
With that in mind, it was interesting to see this in Bryan Broaddus' "Twelve Thoughts" column at the mothership, covering the final practice of the year that was open to the media, held Monday night at AT&T Stadium.
4) In blitz period - Darren McFadden took more of the snaps than Joseph Randle. Getting the feeling that there is becoming a comfort factor there.
Does that show us how the Cowboys will be deploying the backs this year? Projecting that out, it would put Randle on the field for most first and second downs, when the run has to be defended. For passing downs when the blitz could come, McFadden may be the man trusted to keep Romo upright. McFadden would still get some plays where the team is running, but he will see most of his work on third downs or second and long. This plays to the strongest part of each of their games.
Because of the injuries to the offensive line during the first three preseason games, there is limited data to evaluate how any of the backs will perform when they have good blocking ahead of them. But the flashes we saw, with Randle making some nice runs in the second game and McFadden posting a nice 9.3 yards per carry in the third, do give some hope that the line will indeed lead the way to rushing success. Down and distance may well be the primary consideration for who is on the field at the RB position.
It is a bit of a thin reed to try and project the approach that Dallas will take to the offense, but it does fit the scant evidence as well as what has been seen of how Randle and McFadden handle their duties. And it makes some sense. If you are going to try and cross up the defense with a draw play in a passing situation, McFadden has the explosiveness to give it a chance of succeeding. Meanwhile, Randle did show a bit of that "dirty yard" ability that the team has to have at times.
Dallas is going to be watching the cuts throughout the league and there may still be another running back signed. But the team has shown every sign that it wants the current lineup to work. This may be the way that they are going to try to do this.
Follow me @TomRyleBTB | {
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For all the times John Tortorella has been the centerpiece of a story about the woeful Columbus Blue Jackets, it’s interesting how little GM Jarmo Kekalainen’s name has come up.
Perhaps if Kekalainen were a better quote he’d get a little more blame tossed his way. After all, he’s the guy who put this roster together, and he’s the guy — along with president of hockey ops John Davidson — who hired Tortorella after firing Todd Richards.
Not that management has escaped completely unscathed in this ongoing disaster of a season. Here’s what Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch tweeted earlier today:
Time for management to swallow their pride, admit this isn't working, that they badly erred in putting together this mix of players. — Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) December 27, 2015
Scary thing is, #CBJ management doesn't seem to have any answers as for why this collection of good players is so toxic as a team. — Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) December 28, 2015
But mostly it’s been about Torts and Ryan Johansen, or Torts and Scott Hartnell, or just Torts being Torts.
Meanwhile, Kekalainen has reportedly been working the phones hard to make a trade. But let’s face it, it’s too late for the Jackets to salvage their season. They’re 13-22-3, dead last in the NHL. They’re not coming back from that.
In hindsight, expectations were just far too high for this group, even after the addition of Brandon Saad from Chicago — a trade that many seem to forget cost Columbus a pretty useful center in Artem Anisimov.
True, the Blue Jackets finished last season on a hot streak. They went 16-2-1 in their last 19 games. It’s not like there was zero reason for optimism.
But here’s the thing about that streak. Without goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, it wouldn’t have happened. The Jackets won games in which they were outshot by margins of 47-20, 40-26, 40-27, 31-17, and 52-37. And while Bobrovsky was stopping almost everything, almost everything the Jackets were shooting seemed to be going in.
Per war-on-ice.com, during that 19-game stretch, the Jackets had the highest PDO (shooting percentage plus save percentage) in the NHL, at an unsustainable 104.4. Which is to say, despite all the wins, there were some serious red flags.
In September, Kekalainen rejected the widely held belief that his defense was the roster’s weakness.
“I don’t really care what people think of our defense, to be honest,” he told the Dispatch. “I respect everybody’s opinion, and they’re entitled to it, but I think it’s a good defense, and I think it has a chance to be a very good defense.”
Would he say the same thing today? Because while there’s still potential in the young group, it is clearly not a “good defense.”
Then there was the decision to hire Tortorella, the coaching equivalent of a defibrillator.
Well, it didn’t work in Vancouver, and it’s not working in Columbus.
Bottom line: Kekalainen has been the Jackets’ GM for almost three years. The way things are looking right now, and after all the money that’s been committed to building this roster, ownership has to be wondering if the right man got the job.
Related: Torts call Jackets ’embarrassing’ and ‘weak mentally’ | {
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Posted June 17, 2016
An anti-LRT campaign has begun posting and emailing a "TRUE FACT SHEET" about the Hamilton Light Rail Transit (LRT) plan.
Unfortunately, the sheet is full of false, incorrect and misleading claims that will only help to confuse and misinform people who are still undecided about LRT.
If you have a chance to engage with someone who has received this misleading sheet, here are some real facts you can use in response.
The revenue sharing arrangement has not been finalized yet. It is one of the issues being negotiated under the Memorandum of Agreement between Metrolinx and the City.
The ownership and operation of the line still has to be negotiated between the City and Metrolinx. That will likely happen within the next several months.
Emergency vehicles will be able to use the LRT right-of-way, just as they do in other cities that have LRT systems.
The Province has clearly stated that Hamilton taxpayers will not be responsible if the project goes over budget. If necessary, the project will be scaled back to keep it in budget. However, Metrolinx has an excellent track record of staying in budget, e.g. the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which is much larger and more complicated than Hamilton's system and is on time and on budget.
The overall construction time is expected to be 4-5 years, but the construction is likely to be staged so that each segment of the route is closed for a shorter period of time to minimize business disruption.
The construction period will be challenging for businesses, but the City and Metrolinx are already committed to working proactively with business owners to ensure they emerge successful from the construction period. In addition, a citizen campaign is already being organized to promote and support affected businesses during construction.
In Waterloo Region, a couple of businesses have closed during the construction phase but they were widely regarded as ready to close anyway. Meanwhile, at least 20 new businesses have already opened during the construction phase.
The underground infrastructure that will be replaced is very old and soon due for replacement anyway. If we turn down the LRT investment, the businesses will still have to go through the reconstruction phase, but without a rapid transit system at the end.
By having underground infrastructure replaced under the Provincial LRT budget, the City is saving tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure replacement capital spending, which it can distribute to other parts of the city that need road reconstruction.
All property purchases will be covered by Metrolinx under the LRT capital budget. Of around 260 identified properties, most are just a thin sliver of land next to the public ROW. The total cost will be nowhere near the made-up $500 million number.
There is absolutely no reason to think the new bridge over Highway 403 will cost anywhere near $1 billion, another made-up number. In any case, Metrolinx owns the project and is responsible for the budget.
The transit-only lane was only two kilometres long and ran for just over a year. It was actually quite successful by a variety of measures, and in two separate surveys, a clear majority of Hamiltonians supported keeping it and tweaking the design to make it work better.
LRT stops are spaced more widely than bus stops because that is proven to work more successfully in rapid transit systems. However, the location of stops has not yet been finalized, so Hamiltonians have an opportunity to recommend changes (e.g. adding a stop at International Village).
Current ridership is over 30,000 trips a day, which would put Hamilton's LRT right in the mid-range of successful LRT systems in North America on opening day. In any case, Metrolinx is responsible to cover the operational costs of the system.
The Edinburgh LRT system's ridership has already surpassed projections and the system enjoys 97% user satisfaction. The City is already planning to extend the line.
Hamilton's current LRT plan is just the first phase of a larger rapid transit network across Hamilton that will extend into Stoney Creek, south to the Airport and across the mountain.
Building LRT will free up city buses that can be used to increase transit service in other parts of the city.
Bus Rapid Transit is cheaper to build but more expensive to operate: each vehicle can carry fewer passengers, so more vehicles and drivers are needed. BRT also has a much lower maximum capacity. Ottawa, for example, built BRT (Transitway) instead of LRT and is now being forced to upgrade to LRT because their bus system is at capacity.
BRT is just as disruptive as LRT during construction, since the roadbed has to be rebuilt to accommodate the weight of a high volume of express articulated buses. It also runs in dedicated lanes, so it will disrupt vehicle traffic just as much as LRT - but with much lower economic uplift. | {
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GJENNOMBRUDD: Her er teamet bak forsøket ved NTNU i Trondheim; fra venstre professor Catharina de Lange Davies, postdoktor Annemieke van Wamel og forsker Andreas Åslund. Musene som var med i forsøket er, som reglementet krever, avlivet. Musen på bildet var ikke med i forsøket. Foto: Stein Roar Leite, NTNU
Studie: Cellegift levert rett i svulsten kurerer kreft hos mus
Med treffsikker levering av cellegift ved hjelp av bobler og ultralyd, har norske forskere klart å kurere kreft hos mus.
26. mai 2016
Artikkelen er over fire år gammel
Nå håper de å kunne prøve den oppsiktsvekkende metoden på mennesker i 2018.
I en forsøksstudie ble samtlige dyr enten kvitt kreftsvulsten fullstendig, eller den sluttet helt å vokse. Det skriver Gemini.no som presenterer forskningsnytt fra NTNU og SINTEF, og som først omtalte saken.
Av de ni musene med prostatakreft som ble behandlet med ACT-metoden (Acoustic Cluster Therapy) ble seks mus helt kreftfrie mens svulsten sluttet å vokse hos de resterende tre.
– Det er veldig lovende resultater vi nå har fått. Metoden bidrar til at behandlingen blir mer spesifikk mot kreftsvulsten og dermed kan bivirkningene som cellegift gir, bli redusert, sier professor Catharina de Lange Davies ved institutt for fysikk ved NTNU til VG.
Les også: Den norske kreftindustrien: Utvikler kreftmedisiner verdt milliarder
Hun mener resultatene er så oppsiktsvekkende gode at pasienter må få denne behandlingen så raskt som overhodet mulig.
– Det er en lang prosess, men målet er at vi kan starte den første utprøvingen på mennesker i 2018, sier Davies.
Gemini skriver at forskningen er et samarbeid mellom NTNU, Phoenix Solutions AS og The institute of Cancer Research i London.
FORSKJELL: Hos musen til venstre har det selvlysende teststoffet trengt inn i svulsten etter behandling med ACT og ultralyd. Hos musen til høyre har man ikke brukt ultralyd, da trenger ikke teststoffet inn i svulsten. Musene er påført prostatakreft, men i benet. Foto: NTNU
Slik går det til
Forskerne bruker mikrobobler av gass koblet med mikrodråper av olje i kombinasjon med fokusert ultralyd for å få cellegiften dit den trengs, nemlig inn i selve kreftsvulsten. En bitte liten negativt ladet gassboble kobles sammen med en like liten positivt ladet oljedråpe, og slike «clustere» eller klynger injiseres i blodet.
Se stor grafikk: De mest lovende norske selskapene, kreftmedisinene de utvikler, og hvordan medisinene skal virke.
Når «klyngene» kommer fram til kreftsvulsten, utsettes de for ultralyd som får boblene til å vokse slik at de blokkerer blodårene. En ny runde ultralyd får boblene til å vibrere og når pasienten nå får cellegift vil denne kunne passere veggen i blodåren og ut i selve kreftsvulsten.
– Boblen trykker på åreveggen og gjør den mer «lekk» slik at legemiddelet går gjennom åreveggen og «dytter» den videre fram til kreftcellene, forklarer Davies.
Davies håper at metoden etter hvert kan brukes på kreft som ikke kan opereres i bukspyttkjertelen, bryst og prostata.
Les også: Tone (60) betaler 300.000 for egen medisin - må gi 60.000 i moms til staten
Metoden ser også ut til å kunne brukes til å levere kreftmedisin til svulster i hjernen, noe som er veldig vanskelig fordi blodårene i hjernen danner en barriere for å hindre fremmedlegemer å komme fra blodårene til hjernecellene.
De norske forskerne har publisert første del av funnene i det anerkjente tidsskriftet Journal of Controlled Release og har fått akseptert en ny artikkel som kommer på trykk i samme tidsskrift om en måneds tid.
Husker du? Norge prøver å utvikle en universell kreftvaksine med «drepeceller», radioaktiv medisin mot lymfekreft, og vaksine mot dødelig bukspyttkjertelkreft.
Begynte med kontrastmiddel
Forhistorien til ACT var kontrastmidler for medisinsk diagnostisering utviklet hos tidligere Nycomed.
Kommentar: Norsk løsning på kreftgåten
Tre gründere opprettet firmaet Phoenix Solutions AS som nå i tre år har videreutviklet denne teknologien mot terapibruk. Daglig leder er Per Sontum, kjemiker med en doktorgrad i farmasi, som i en årrekke jobbet med kontrastmidler hos Nycomed.
– Når kan dette bli et regulært tilbud til kreftpasienter?
– Ja, det er selve «kongespørsmålet», er det ikke? Dersom virkningsgraden er eksepsjonell, kan vi få en såkalt «fast track» hos legemiddelmyndighetene. Da kan vi slippe å gjennomføre en såkalt fase tre studie, som gjerne tar to-tre år. Skjer det, kan vi ha dette på markedet i 2021 eller 2022 om vi er svært optimistiske, sier Sontum.
Publisert: 26.05.16 kl. 14:39
Mer om Kreftbehandling Helse Kreft | {
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SEOUL, South Korea — An expectant mother who visited a medical clinic in Seoul, South Korea, last month to receive a nutritional shot woke up hours later to learn she had mistakenly been given an abortion, the police said on Wednesday.
The police said they planned to ask prosecutors to indict the clinic’s doctor and a nurse on charges of inflicting accidental injury. The staff, the police said, administered anesthesia and performed an abortion on the woman, a Vietnamese citizen, who was six weeks pregnant.
The police did not identify the woman, the doctor or the nurse. There have been no arrests.
An Chan-su, a police investigator, declined to confirm local news reports that the accidental abortion took place after medical charts were mixed up and the woman was mistaken for another patient seeking an abortion after a miscarriage.
In a landmark ruling in April, South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down a 66-year-old law that made performing an abortion a crime punishable by up to two years in prison, and gave Parliament until the end of 2020 to revise the law. | {
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Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik explores the stories that fall into the cracks between traditional notions of masculinity and femininity and discovers a treasure-trove of queerness in Hindu lore.
Devdutt Pattanaik was a natural choice to be a consultant to the recent television version of the Mahabharata. He is India’s best-selling mythologist and he has a real talent for taking stories from thousands of years ago and making sense of them for Indians today. But Pattanaik says it’s not easy to make studios look at old epics through new eyes.
“They would say we have to show hands getting cut, noses getting chopped, we have to create tension,” recalls Pattanaik. When he’d give his take on a story they would say we love it but our audiences won’t. For example, the story of Shikhandi. Pattanaik says he was really “pissed” when they showed Shikhandi as a woman battling it out instead of using it as a great, even melodramatic, moment to talk about identity. If you believe the Amar Chitra Katha version, Shikhandi was a woman in his past life and man in his present one. In another version he is a eunuch. In yet another he is intersexed.
“But when I actually read the story I realized he was a female to male transsexual,” says Pattanaik.
Shikhandi And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You(Zubaan and Penguin) is Pattanaik’s latest book. They are all stories that take place in the fault lines between our conventional notions of masculinity and feminity. There’s Bhagirath who was born of two women and Urvashi who was born of no woman. Vishnu becomes a woman to enchant the gods and demons while Kali becomes a man to entrance milkmaids.
Pattanaik says he knows some people will complain he is reading modern rainbow-parade ideas of queerness into stories from a very different time and a very different context. When Radha and Krishna exchange each other’s clothes, he says the Bhakti poets say “prem, prem, prem and they will not want to touch the queer side of it.” But as someone interested in gender he has his own questions. “Why is the Lord dressing up in women’s clothes? Why does Ram never dress up in woman’s clothes? Ram is maryada-purushottam and he will never cross the line. But Krishna is leela-purushottam and he will continuously play with the line.”
Western scholars have gotten in trouble for what some feel is an disproportionate focus on the most esoteric nuggets from Hindu lore. Pattanaik says it’s all about “tonality”. “Are you doing it to mock traditions? Or to celebrate existing traditions and take them to another level?” he asks. “I have no desire to thumb my nose at the establishment. But I am saying the establishment itself does not know how wide and vast it is.”
Pattanaik says the debate has become increasingly gladiatorial these days with the Wendy Donigers on one side and the likes of Rajeev Malhotra and Dinanath Batra on the other. He says even friends in the heart of the right wing laugh at Batra’s excesses and regard him as a bit of a cartoon. Wendy Doniger, he argues became more important because Rajiv Malhotra’s single-minded battle against her made her so and in the process Malhotra constructed himself as well. “This is like raktabeej,” he chuckles. “Jitna maarogey utna uthega (the more you chop it down, the more it springs up).I am boring. I am not exciting. No TRPs because of me.”
The new book actually runs counter to all the high-pitched high-decibel battles for the heart of Hinduism. Where those fights want to establish one truth, one viewpoint as the “authentic” and unassailable, Pattanaik looks back at the stories through a refracted lens, acknowledging openly that he is projecting his gaze into the story he is telling. “I don’t believe anyone is objective,” he says.
LGBT Indians might hail a book like this as a work that validates the queerness that has been airbrushed out of history. But Pattanaik cautions those who want to read into the story a sort of golden past where gender variance was embraced. He points out these stories are often about “repeated repeated rejection”. “Shikhandi is the eldest child and she is not made king. Bhishma is rejecting her,” he says. When Indra takes the form of the sage Gautama to seduce his wife Ahalya, the angry sage not only castrates Indra, he also turns poor Ahalya into stone, “to be stepped on by all creatures”. Chudala turns herself into a man to win back her husband because he rejected her and went to the forest to find wisdom.
Greek myths have stories of same-sex love without any element of gender transformation though one could argue a Zeus does not see Ganymede as a man, but as sheer beauty. Be that as it may, Indians have very few “queer” stories that do not involve some kind of gender transformation. One way to read this could be that as a culture, says Pattanaik, “you have to become the other gender to normalize yourself in order to fit in.”
As a shame-based society rather than a guilt-based one, we are more comfortable turning away from what disconcerts us. “The hijra clapping is saying look at me, look at me. We are not willing to look at her. We give her money to go away. Krishna is right there in front of you in women’s clothes striking the tribhanga but you refuse to call him a cross-dresser. You invisiblize the other which is the Indian way of coping.”
That’s why to make the other visible again sometimes you have to spell it out the way these stories do even if some readers will argue the queer subtext is a little tenuous occasionally. “As a writer friend says Indian audiences koBraille lipi mein samajhna padta hai (have to be made to understand in Braille)” laughs Pattanaik. Unlike emotional or even erotic transformation, gender transformation is harder to ignore.
But while it’s one thing to look back at our past and excavate its variety, it’s another thing to look for the validation of 21st century rights in 2,000-year-old stories. “Any form of validation in the past as in because Krishna did it I should do it is a very strange mindset,” warns Pattanaik. “Mythology is never prescriptive and it’s never propaganda but that’s what people continuously want to turn it into.”
He would rather just raise the question and let the reader find the answer. In one of his favourite stories in the book, a Tamil king Kopperumcholan is so moved by the poetry of one Pisiranthiyar he asks his attendant to build a tomb for the poet alongside his own, sure that this man he has never met will want to be buried beside him. “When a friend told me the story I thought ‘Oh, my god, it’s so gay!’ But it’s also not gay at all,” says Pattanaik. “It’s nirguna at so many levels. It’s not about gender. It’s not even about physicality. It really touched me.”
Pattanaik says putting these stories together has actually changed how he looks at life. “All my life I have been told the meaning of bhakti is devotion. But I am now reevaluating that because devotion has a feudal element to it. I am realizing it is tenderness and affection. It is almost a sahanubhuti (empathy) that life is tough and it’s all about enabling people to go through life. I have never heard a story about a prophet who cross dresses or a god who transforms into a woman out of affection for devotee. I’ve never found these stories anywhere else."
Kopperumcholan, the king who wanted a man in the adjacent tomb
From the Tamil Purananuru (Reprinted with permission)
When the king, Kopperumcholam, heard the poetry he concluded, “Only this poet understands my life.” When the king’s analysis of his work reached the poet, Pisiranthiyar, he concluded, “Only this king understands my work.”
And so years passed, with the king hearing the poet’s words and the poet hearing the king’s critique. Both felt intimately connected with each other, even though they never met.
Then one day, the king decided it was time for him to die. He had many disagreements with his son and realised the best way to resolve the family quarrels was to simply pass on the throne to the next generation and leave this world. So, giving up all that he possessed, the king walked to the top of the mountain and facing north decided to starve himself to death. He told his attendants, “When you make a tomb, make another tomb next to mine.” When asked why he said, “When my poet friend hears of my departure, he will come to me and want to die and be buried beside me.”
“But you have never met him. How do you know he will come?”
“I know him. And he knows me. He will come.”
And the poet did come. And the two friends were buried next to each other.
• This story is part of Tamil Sangam literature that reveals a Southern culture, quite distinct from Northern culture, which celebrated poetry. It speaks of a land ruled by Cholas in the North and Pandyas in the South. It shows strong influence of Jainism as well as Shaivism.
• This is a tale of platonic friendship with absolutely no sexual undercurrents. But many will see this as queer love, deeper than the bonds of friendship, which is at once intellectual and emotional.
• While cremation is the practice of disposing the dead in India, burial is not unknown especially when the person is deemed a saint. Death by starvation, practiced by many sages, especially Jain sages, makes a man a saint. | {
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Bonus post today! Last Tuesday, John Erickson gave a Galois tech talk entitled “Industrial Strength Distributed Explicit Model Checking” (video), in which he describe PReach, an open-source model checker based on Murphi that Intel uses to look for bugs in its models. It is intended as a simpler alternative to Murphi’s built-in distributed capabilities, leveraging Erlang to achieve much simpler network communication code.
First question. Why do you care?
Model checking is cool. Imagine you have a complicated set of interacting parallel processes that evolve nondeterministically over time, using some protocol to communicate with each other. You think the code is correct, but just to be sure, you add some assertions that check for invariants: perhaps some configurations of states should never be seen, perhaps you want to ensure that your protocol never deadlocks. One way to test this is to run it in the field for a while and report when the invariants fail. Model checking lets you comprehensively test all of the possible state evolutions of the system for deadlocks or violated invariants. With this, you can find subtle bugs and you can find out precisely the inputs that lead to that event.
Distributed applications are cool. As you might imagine, the number of states that need to be checked explodes exponentially. Model checkers apply algorithms to coalesce common states and reduce the state space, but at some point, if you want to test larger models you will need more machines. PReach has allowed Intel to run the underlying model checker Murphi fifty times faster (with a hundred machines).
This talk was oriented more towards to the challenges that the PReach team encountered when making the core Murphi algorithm distributed than how to model check your application (although I’m sure some Galwegians would have been interested in that aspect too.) I think it gave an excellent high level overview of how you might design a distributed system in Erlang. Since the software is open source, I’ll link to relevant source code lines as we step through the high level implementation of this system.
The algorithm. At its heart, model checking is simply a breadth-first search. You take the initial states, compute their successor states, and add those states to the queue of states to be processed.
WQ : list of state // work queue V : set of state // visited states WQ := initial_states() while !empty(WQ) { s = dequeue(WQ) foreach s' in successors(s) { if !member(s', V) { check_invariants(s') enqueue(s', WQ) add_element(s', V) } } }
The parallel algorithm. We now need to make this search algorithm parallel. We can duplicate the work queues across computers, making the parallelization a matter of distributing the work load across a number of computers. However, the set of visited states is trickier: if we don’t have a way of partitioning it across machines, it becomes shared state and a bottleneck for the entire process.
Stern and Dill (PS) came up with a clever workaround: use a hash function to distribute states to processors. This has several important implications:
If the hash function is uniform, we now can distribute work evenly across the machines by splitting up the output space of the function.
Because the hash function is deterministic, any state will always be sent to the same machine.
Because states are sticky to machines, each machine can maintain an independent visited states and trust that if a state shows up twice, it will get sent to the same machine and thus show up in the visited states of that machine.
One downside is that a machine cannot save network latency by deciding to process it’s own successor states locally, but this is a fair tradeoff for not having to worry about sharing the visited states, which is considered a hard problem to do efficiently.
The relevant source functions that implement the bulk of this logic are recvStates and reach.
Crediting. When running early versions of PReach, the PReach developers would notice that occasionally a machine in the cluster would massively slow down or crash nondeterministically.
It was discovered that this machine was getting swamped by incoming states languishing in the in-memory Erlang request queue: even though the hash function was distributing the messages fairly evenly, if a machine was slightly slower than its friends, it would receive states faster than it could clear out.
To fix this, PReach first implemented a back-off protocol, and then implemented a crediting protocol. The intuition? Don’t send messages to a machine if it hasn’t acknowledged your previous C messages. Every time a message is sent to another machine, a credit is sent along with it; when the machine replies back that it has processed the state, the credit is sent back. If there are no credits, you don’t send any messages. This bounds the number of messages in the queue to be N * C , where N is the number of nodes (usually about a 100 when Intel runs this). To prevent a build-up of pending states in memory when we have no more credits, we save them to disk.
Erickson was uncertain if Erlang had a built-in that performed this functionality; to him it seemed like a fairly fundamental extension for network protocols.
Load balancing. While the distribution of states is uniform, once again, due to a heterogeneous environment, some machines may be able to process states faster than other. If those machines finish all of their states, they may sit idly by, twiddling their thumbs, while the slower machines still work on their queue.
One thing to do when this happens is for the busy nodes to notice that a machine is idling, and send them their states. Erickson referenced some work by Kumar and Mercer (PDF) on the subject. The insight was that overzealous load balancing was just as bad as no load balancing at all: if the balancer attempts to keep all queues exactly the same, it will waste a lot of network time pushing states across the network as the speeds of the machines fluctuate. Instead, only send states when you notice someone with X times less states than you (where X is around 5.)
One question that might come up is this: does moving the states around in this fashion cause our earlier cleverness with visited state checking to stop working? The answer is fortunately no! States on a machine can be in one of two places: the in-memory Erlang receive queue, or the on-disk work queue. When transferring a message from the receive to the work queue, the visited test is performed. When we push states to a slacker, those states are taken from our work queue: the idler just does the invariant checking and state expansion (and also harmlessly happens to add that state to their visited states list).
Recovering shared states. When an invariant fails, how do you create a backtrace that demonstrates the sequence of events that lead to this state? The processing of any given state is scattered across many machines, which need to get stitched together again. The trick is to transfer not only the current state when passing off successors, but also the previous state. The recipient then logs both states to disk. When you want to trace back, you can always look at the previous state and hash it to determine which machine that state came from.
In the field. Intel has used PReach on clusters of up to 256 nodes to test real models of microarchitecture protocols of up to thirty billion states (to Erickson’s knowledge, this is the largest amount of states that any model checker has done on real models.)
Erlang pain. Erickson’s primary complaint with Erlang was that it did not have good profiling facilities for code that interfaced heavily with C++; they would have liked to have performance optimized their code more but found it difficult to pin down where the slowest portions were. Perhaps some Erlang enthusiasts have some comments here? | {
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In case you haven’t noticed yet, New York City FC has played 18 games already - just over 50% of the MLS regular season. And through this point in the campaign the Boys in Blue have emerged as an elite team, tied for third place in the Supporters Shield race on points and third overall in goal differential. Much of this has been accomplished by a new-look defense led by Maxime Chanot, Alexander Callens and net-minder Sean Johnson, who have all made an immense difference in the club in 2017.
But don’t get it twisted, folks: this team is still all about putting the ball in the back of the net.
Once again, NYCFC ranks high on the offensive leaderboards in MLS. They are currently third in goals scored (31) and tied for first with Toronto FC in assists (33) on the season. Coming into 2017, there was much ado about how the club would score goals given the departure of Frank Lampard. And while the club brought in a DP replacement in Maxi Moralez, his game plays out a lot differently than Lampard’s. Maxi is much more of a facilitator and playmaker than he is someone who will look to finish off a chance himself. Yet even without a fox in the box like Frank, New York City has managed just fine.
Well, for one, David Villa is still out there playing as his amazing self. The reigning league MVP is following up his 2016 brilliance with quite possibly an even greater 2017 campaign. But we knew he was going to put the ball in the back of the net; the real question was always about who would provide the extra scoring punch. And so far this season, we have an answer to that question, and it’s Jack Harrison.
In only his second professional season, Jack is hot on Villa’s trail in both goals scored and assists. His 8 goals scored is second on the team only behind Villa, and his 5 assists is good for third on the team, behind Villa and Moralez. The right winger has definitely made his presence felt and is even doing a solid job of keeping up with his legendary teammate to make NYCFC one of the most menacing offenses in the league. But are they the best offensive duo in the league?
Let’s compare them with the top challengers— below is a table with the top two goal scorers of every club in MLS:
Top Scoring Duos in MLS 2017 Scoring Duo Goals Scored Shots on Goal Scoring Duo Goals Scored Shots on Goal Nikolic/Accam (CHI) 24 54 Villa/Harrison (NYC) 19 46 Valeri/ Adi (POR) 18 38 Higuain/O. Kamara (CLB) 18 39 Torres/ Elis (HOU) 17 30 Almiron/J. Martinez (ATL) 15 32 Ramirez/Molino (MIN) 14 34 Alessandrini/ G. dos Santos (LAG) 14 36 Altidore/Giovinco (TOR) 14 42 Urruti/Lamah (DAL) 13 30 Piatti/Jackson-Hamel (MTL) 13 25 Agudelo/Nguyen (NE) 13 24 Sapong/Picault (PHI) 12 26 Wright-Phillips/Royer (NYRB) 12 31 Larin/Rivas (ORL) 11 38 Fernandes/Dwyer (SKC) 11 44 Dempsey/Bruin (SEA) 10 24 Techera/Montero (VAN) 10 23 Wondolowski/Hyka (SJ) 9 19 Movsisyan/Rusnak (RSL) 8 23 Badji/Doyle (COL) 7 24 Acosta/Le Toux (DCU) 6 14
Harrison and Villa currently rank as the second best scoring duo in MLS, trailing only the lethal combo of Nemanja Nikolic and David Accam of the Chicago Fire. The same is true for shots on goal. It’s no surprise to see Chicago’s DP duo banging in goal after goal this season, as it’s literally what they’re paying them to do. But to see a young Harrison emerge to these heights alongside Villa is truly impressive; not just the 19 goals they’ve scored combined, but also the 46 shots on goal show how relentless they are in creating danger for opposing defenses.
While Moralez has been a creative engine for NYCFC all season, it’s been the dynamic duo who have been consistently lethal in the final third for Vieira’s side, scoring goal after goal and keeping the good times rolling in Yankee Stadium. I spoke earlier this month about how David Villa has transformed himself into an even better playmaker and facilitator this season, and no one has been a bigger beneficiary to that than Jack Harrison. The interplay between the two of them, has opened up space for Harrison that he’s glad to utilize and taken advantage of with an ever-expanding ruthlessness in front of goal. Here’s the evidence:
The best part about this duo? There’s room for improvement. Villa may be 35, but he has already reinvented himself tremendously as a target forward who doubles an attacking midfielder for NYCFC. It’s possible we could still be awaiting his best season in MLS. And Jack Harrison is only 20 years old. 8 goals and 5 assists at the midway point, and he’s not even old enough to drink (in America) yet. The sky really is the limit for Harrison. We may even see him win a Golden Boot in MLS within the next few years. And that’s a wide midfielder we’re talking about...imagine if Vieira ever fancies playing him more centrally?
So, are these two the best attacking duo in MLS? No, not quite. They are awfully close to that mark, however, and have every chance to take that crown by season’s end. Add to that fact their ability as playmakers - they’ve totaled a combined 11 assists already on the year - and they are clearly an elite attacking duo ready to wreak havoc on every opponent. | {
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CHICAGO -- The old Derrick Rose is back.
Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said Rose's speed and explosiveness are back to where the former MVP feels like himself again.
"I worked him out about a week ago," Thibodeau said in a phone conversation Thursday. "It was great."
Rose missed the entire season rehabbing from a torn ACL in his left knee suffered during last year's playoffs. His longer-than-expected absence, and the ensuing debate about it, was the overwhelming storyline during a challenging Bulls season that ended in a second-round loss to the Miami Heat.
Last season is over, and Thibodeau is looking to the future.
"Watching the way he's moving now, there's a confidence," Thibodeau said. "[Reporters] may not have been able to see the total work he was putting in. But he was putting in an enormous amount of work each and every day. He just never got to the explosiveness he was comfortable with. I think he's there now. He feels great, and that's the most important thing."
He said Rose is "running, lifting, playing and shooting. His day is full."
Rose was medically cleared and started practicing in five-on-five situations in mid-February, and his ensuing pregame workouts were covered as intensely as the games.
There was talk he would return in mid-March, but that came and went. Rose, and Thibodeau, refused to rule him out even during the team's playoff run, which infuriated many in the team's rabid fan base and led to criticism from NBA announcers during the Bulls' postseason run. | {
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In this summer of Trump, it can be hard to figure out when American politics reached the high water mark in bloviating.
Was it when Donald Trump sneered at his presidential competitors as “losers”?
Was it when the Republican declared that the United States has “stupid leadership” — apparently, bipartisan?
Was it when he suggested that Fox broadcaster Megyn Kelly treated him poorly at a recent debate because she was menstruating?
Maybe we haven’t even hit the mark yet. There’s plenty of time to go.
Yet if the presidential campaign already serves as a near-constant reminder of why people hate politics and dislike the people who practice it, an antidote may arrive for some in the form of a new documentary called “Bridging the Divide.” Airing Tuesday at 8 p.m. on PBS SoCal, and across the nation early next year, it shines new focus on former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who died in 1998, five years after he left office.
In place of the rat-a-tat insults so common in the current presidential campaign, there is Bradley, the dignified 20-year mayor, enduring slight after slight as he works for a Los Angeles Police Department that had little use for his kind. There is Bradley, upending his Democratic Party’s reputation for fiscal laxity, working with others to protect the city’s budget. There is Bradley throwing open City Hall, literally and figuratively, to blacks and Latinos and Asians and women, a City Hall that to that point had been largely the province of white men.
There is Bradley, with his peers, working not on bitter gibes but on the big stuff — the growth of a city, the poverty of many of its citizens, the grandeur of a wildly successful Olympic Games, fiery violence in the form of a race-based riot.
It is a lovingly rendered portrait; indeed, it omits mention of the accusations toward the end of Bradley’s time in office of financial mistakes that tarnished his reputation. But for people of all political measures, it is also a reminder of the dedication and deliberation that it can take to be a public servant of long tenure.
The particularly fraught complications of being an African American politician were most acutely on display. Bradley was, in his younger years, something of a rebel, in the sense that he battled against the prevailing establishment of the time. Just becoming an LAPD officer in a department led by William Parker, whose refusal to allow Bradley to rise in leadership led indirectly to Bradley’s entrance into politics, was somehow revolutionary. As was buying a home, undercover, in a largely white area of the city.
Attitudinally, none of that surfaced as Bradley sought elected office, for any simmering ire or resentment, however human, would have scotched his ambitions.
“In order for Bradley to have navigated effectively in a white world, much like President Obama, he needed to be non-threatening,” said filmmaker Alison Sotomayor, who spent seven years nurturing the documentary along with partner Lyn Goldfarb. “He survived very well in a world of white men.”
Like Obama, Bradley was far more affable in private than in public, a jazz aficionado with a deep laugh. As politicians grew more publicly confessional, Bradley stood apart, in part because of his personality but also in part because of what he was.
“If you are a tall, medium-to-dark-skinned African American man, you’re going to get a certain reaction, and he learned how to moderate the reaction,” said Christopher Jimenez y West, an assistant professor of history at Pasadena City College, who served as a consultant for the filmmakers.
For Bradley to have achieved five victories in mayoral elections, in a city driven by racial splits and with a minimal black population, “makes the story that much more incredible,” Jimenez y West said.
The film underscored the generational shift in political figures that, arguably, has made modern practitioners a bit less tough and tested when they seek office.
Up-from-the-bootstraps stories are an expected part of a politician’s narrative, but for many of today’s politicians the stories are borrowed: Hillary Rodham Clinton’s story of her mother’s arduous upbringing; Mitt Romney’s tale of his father’s struggles for success as an immigrant from Mexico; Rick Santorum’s evocation of his coal miner grandfather’s gnarled hands, the “hands that dug his path in life.”
In Bradley’s case, all of the drama had happened to him, the grandson of a slave, the son of sharecroppers, a man whose own tenure picking cotton as a child had persuaded him to reach for an educated, ambitious life. It gave him the courage of his convictions, to judge by praise tossed on Bradley after a screening of the film Monday night, organized by Cal State L.A.'s Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute for Public Affairs.
“As a person who was willing to stand up to interests of all kinds, I don’t think there was anyone who comes close to that level of excellence as a human being as Tom,” said former county Supervisor and Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who occasionally battled with Bradley and almost ran against him for mayor. Once Bradley gave his word, he “stuck to it,” Yaroslavsky said, citing that as a rare occurrence in politics.
Bradley’s coalition government was based on the example set by longtime U.S. Rep. Edward Roybal, a Latino legend who also changed the face of Los Angeles politics. But Bradley stands alone in being the first non-white mayor, the first to serve so many terms — not possible now given term limits — and perhaps the last to seem like he could have been carved on a local Mt. Rushmore, were there such a thing.
“In the midst of it all he never lost his humanity,” said Jimenez y West. “It’s a legacy I don’t know if anybody can pick up.”
[email protected]
Twitter: @cathleendecker. For more on politics go to www.latimes.com/decker. | {
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Beeld ANP XTRA
1. Legitimatie
De opbrengst van de traditionele telefoontap neemt af. Kwaadwillenden wijken steeds meer uit naar open en anonieme toegangspunten van het internet, zoals het wifi-netwerk van een restaurant of een hotel. Zij gebruiken chatfuncties in games en berichten- en videodiensten van sociale media. Dat doen zij doelbewust om onder de radar te kunnen blijven.
Dit is de legitimatie van het kabinet voor de nieuwe wet: datagebruik onttrekt zich aan het zicht van de diensten. Dat klopt gedeeltelijk. Ja, het is zo dat door de snelle toename van internetgebruik communicatie van burgers een stuk grilliger is. Mensen bellen via Skype, sturen berichten via Whatsapp, mailen, sms'en of chatten via een spelletje. Het is echter niet zo dat de geheime diensten totaal geen zicht hebben op wat er gebeurt. Met de huidige wet is het al mogelijk om het internetverkeer van een doelwit af te tappen. Ook is het mogelijk om diens smartphone te hacken, waardoor de diensten zicht krijgen op al het communicatieverkeer van iemand. Alleen: dat is bewerkelijk.
2. Angst
Wij gaan geen grote klem plaatsen op de GSM-providers in ons land. Wij gaan niet op zoek naar mensen die het woord 'bom' of 'ISIS' gebruiken in hun e-mails. We trekken niet in bulk internetverkeer naar binnen om te kijken welke mensen op zoek zijn naar kunstmest. Wij bekijken niet de YouTube-voorkeuren van Nederlandse burgers.
Het kabinet wil met deze passage de angst wegnemen dat de inlichtingendiensten massaal gaan spioneren met de nieuwe wet. Maar let op de woordkeuze: 'We trekken niet in bulk internetverkeer naar binnen'. Dat is slim gekozen, want wat de diensten straks wél doen, is grote hoeveelheden dataverkeer analyseren op zogeheten metadata: data die patronen tussen mensen en hun interacties inzichtelijk maken.
3. Privacy
Het analyseren van de metadata is ook van belang om inbreuken op de persoonlijke levenssfeer, bestaande uit het kennisnemen van de inhoud van communicatie, zo min mogelijk te laten plaatsvinden.
Hier gaat het over metadata. Dat zijn de gegevens van communicatie: welke toestellen hebben met welke toestellen contact, wie mailt met wie, vanaf waar en hoe laat. Deze data zijn van 'wezenlijk belang' voor de inlichtingendiensten. Dat geven ze zelf ook toe: 'Door analyse van deze gegevens (...) kan met betrekking tot een persoon een beeld worden verkregen omtrent zijn relatienetwerk, verplaatsingsgedrag e.d.' Het kabinet heeft lang gedaan alsof het verzamelen van deze gegevens niet zo ingrijpend was. In deze passage lijkt dat weer zo. Dat is flauw, want even verderop staat terecht: 'Het is evident dat daarmee (metadatanalyse, red.) onder omstandigheden een grote inbreuk op iemands persoonlijke levenssfeer kan worden gemaakt.'
4. Tappunten
De regering zal in 2017 één zogenaamde 'access-locatie' gereedmaken voor onderzoeksopdrachtgerichte interceptie. In de periode daarna wil de regering per jaar, tot 2020, uitbreiden met één 'access-locatie'.
Dit is misschien wel de interessante passage uit de nieuwe wet. Dit wil het kabinet dus gaan doen: een toegangspunt tot het internet aftappen. Wat wordt daarmee bedoeld? Erik Bais is eigenaar van internetprovider A2B Internet. Hij weet hoe het internet georganiseerd is. Bais: 'Als we kijken naar mogelijke locaties zijn er eigenlijk twee opties: of op die plekken waar de grote glasvezelkabels aan land komen of bij Amsterdamse datacentra die koppelingen maken tussen providers en diensten als Facebook, YouTube, Google.' Hij denkt dat de diensten naar de laatste locaties gaan. Telecity2 in Amsterdam zou dan weleens heel aantrekkelijk kunnen zijn. 'Amsterdam heeft een aantal sterk bekabelde datacenters, waar iedere zelfrespecterende netwerkleverancier aanwezig is, omdat daar het meeste dataverkeer in Nederland wordt uitgewisseld.'
5. Sleepnet
De diensten hebben ook tot taak (nagenoeg) ongekende dreigingen op te sporen en handelend vermogen te creëren. Hierbij kan het onder meer gaan om nog niet onderkende terroristische cellen. Het is van belang om te weten of er vertakkingen zijn naar Nederland vanuit cellen in Frankrijk, België of Syrië/Irak.
Dit is een voorbeeld dat de geheime diensten graag gebruiken. Zij zien dat terroristische organisaties zoals IS gebruikmaken van zogeheten 'slapende cellen': een groep terroristen die zich laat opgaan in een gemeenschap om op commando toe te slaan. Om te weten wie deze mensen zijn, moeten de diensten internetverkeer tussen Nederland en Syrië analyseren, maar ook die tussen Nederland en België of Nederland en Frankrijk. Dit kunnen zij tot een jaar doen, met eventueel verlenging van een jaar. Op de binnengehaalde data kan vervolgens drie maanden analyse worden toegepast. Bais: 'Wat men feitelijk doet is onderlinge verbanden vastleggen. Welk accounts, telefoons, pc's, IP-adressen hebben contact met elkaar?' Dat doen de diensten door aan metadata-analyse te doen. Op basis van een onderzoeksopdracht bekijken ze wie met wie mailt. Bais: 'Stel dat men zou kijken naar een chatapplicatie. Men zou vervolgens per provider het verkeer van die chatapp kunnen monitoren. Op die manier kun je een sleepnet opbouwen dat alle onderlinge communicaties tussen gebruikers in Nederland en daarbuiten inzichtelijk maakt.'
6. Rookgordijn
De regering betracht maximale transparantie over de inzet van de nieuwe bevoegdheid tot onderzoeksopdrachtgerichte interceptie.
Onderzoeksopdrachtgericht is het nieuwe toverwoord van het kabinet. Kenmerk van de nieuwe bevoegdheden is dat ze 'ongericht' zijn. Dat vond men bij het kabinet te grootschalig klinken. Toen werd het 'doelgericht' en nu dus 'onderzoeksopdrachtgericht'. Het komt eigenlijk allemaal op hetzelfde neer: de geheime diensten willen zicht krijgen op (mogelijke) dreigingen en relevante communicatie inzien en opslaan. Dat doen ze straks door onder andere internetverkeer te analyseren en zo doelwitten te selecteren. Ton Siedsma van privacyorganisatie Bits of Freedom: 'De voorbeelden laten duidelijk zien hoe ruim - ontzettend ruim - de onderzoeksopdrachtgerichte interceptie gezien moet worden. Het is gewoon een sleepnet. De vage omschrijvingen in de Memorie van Toelichting laten daarbij helaas zien dat de beperkingen moeten komen van het toezicht, niet van de regering'
7. Slimme apparaten
Het kan betekenen dat de diensten ook slimme apparaten (zoals koelkasten, horloges, auto's e.d. die zijn uitgerust met computerfuncties) zouden kunnen hacken.
De wet is zo breed mogelijk opgezet om nieuwe technologische ontwikkelingen voor te zijn. De geheime diensten mogen een 'geautomatiseerd werk' hacken. Onder die definitie valt echter steeds meer, zoals het kabinet hier erkent.
8. Hacken
De bevoegdheid tot het binnendringen van een geautomatiseerd werk is gericht van aard. Hierbij zetten de diensten diverse technische capaciteiten in, waarbij bijvoorbeeld onderkende zwakheden in de door het onderzoeksubject gebruikte beveiliging door de diensten zullen worden benut.
Dit is een heel gevoelig punt. Om computers, smartphones of camera's te kunnen hacken zal de geheime dienst gebruikmaken van kwetsbaarheden in software. Software die ook gebruikt wordt door onschuldige burgers, met kwetsbaarheden waar ook criminelen gebruik van willen maken. Is het niet in het belang van iedere burger dat software zo veilig mogelijk is? Het kabinet geeft antwoord: 'Het gebruik en misbruik van dergelijke kwetsbaarheden kan al naar gelang de systemen die het betreft grote maatschappelijke gevolgen hebben. Mede in het licht van het beleid van de overheid met betrekking tot cybersecurity kan dit vragen oproepen. Wij zijn ons van deze spanning bewust, maar het belang van de nationale veiligheid dient onder omstandigheden te prevaleren.' | {
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The Chinese government has closed down the base camp of Mount Everest and the area beyond, with officials citing the growing number of waste and garbage left by tourists as the reason.
The local government in Dingri County in Tibet posted several notices in December 2018 about the new national environmental protection law, which states, “no unit or individuals are allowed entry into the core area of the Mount Qomolangma (Tibetan name for Everest) National Nature Reserve.”
However, deputy director of China’s Qomolangma National Nature Reserve, Gesang Droma, clarified that the prohibition only applies to tourists. Mountaineering, scientific and geological disaster researchers are still allowed to enter the reserve, according to ABC News.
As for tourists, Droma explained that they can still enjoy the view of Everest from the Chinese side via the Rongbuk Monastery, which is located just below the base camp at 16,400 feet (4,998 meters).
Chinese authorities announced in January that only 300 permits are to be given each year to climbers who wish to access Everest’s summit on the Chinese side, BBC reported.
The growing garbage issue has plagued not only the Chinese side of Everest, but the Tibetan side as well, Huffington Post reported. Tibetan officials reported that more than 9 tons of garbage were collected during last year’s climbing season alone.
The cleaning effort will also try to remove the bodies of climbers who died at the dead zone while hiking Mount Everest above 8,000 meters (26,246 feet) where the air becomes too thin to sustain life.
The Chinese Mountaineering Association recorded around 40,000 visitors who came to the base camp on the Chinese side in 2015, while about 45,000 were recorded for Nepal’s base camp in 2016 to 2017, according to Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation’s statistics.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons / Vinko Rajic (CC BY 3.0) | {
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Jeff Schock, the director of the Billy Joel Archives and the rocker’s former tour manager and photographer, died unexpectedly at his home in Southold Wednesday. He was 64.
“He was a generous spirit in our longtime musical family — ever the enthusiast, always optimistic,” Joel said in a statement. “He loved the roar of the crowd and he took such pride in our success. (Even when we lost sight of what a miracle it all was — and still is.)” Joel plans to dedicate his show at Madison Square Garden on Saturday to Schock.
The cause of death was unknown.
Schock is credited with all sorts of jobs throughout his decades with Joel, starting as his road manager in 1976. He has a product manager credit for “Glass Houses.” He handled art direction for “River of Dreams” and Joel’s greatest hits collections. He shot the cover photos of Joel for several recent compilations. He was an associate producer for the live album from the final concert at Shea Stadium.
Schock was a fixture at Joel’s shows for decades. At 6 feet 7 inches tall, with a full head of bright gray hair, he was easily spotted in the crowd, even if he was rushing through to capture a moment of Joel onstage with the cameras he seemed to be always carrying in recent years. When he wasn’t rushing, Schock was quick with a smile and a hug for the many people he knew in Joel’s audience.
Schock worked with many other artists in his career, working to promote artists ranging from the Rolling Stones and James Taylor to Luther Vandross and Kenny Loggins. He shot videos for Reba McEntire.
But he always stayed with Joel.
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“His kinetic energy and his constant good cheer will be missed by all of us,” Joel said in a statement. “He was a caring man and a dear friend. And it’s hard to say goodbye.” | {
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What is the Pangea Arbitration Token and why is a token necessary?
By: John Mathews, Bitnation CFO
Introduction
Before describing Bitnation specifically, it is helpful to consider crypto-currencies in general, and use Bitcoin as an example. One of Bitcoin’s critical innovations was to include an incentive model in a peer-to-peer network protocol. By using a native currency, together with a proof-of-work method of dispersing the currency, Bitcoin rewards its workers and incentivises disparate parties to work together toward a common goal.
In broadly similar terms, the Pangea Jurisdiction will be powered by the Pangea Arbitration Token (PAT). PAT will be issued as a reward for contributing to and maintaining the network, and for increasing its utility, building up a good reputation, and more. This will ensure user-stickiness and create a network effect which will benefit users by increasing the value to PAT tokens and the utility and reliability of the Pangea platform. As more people and projects build on Pangea, the liquidity of PAT will increase.
We are often asked why why are not using Bitcoin or Ether as our token, or why we need to use a token at all. We are using a platform specific token because this allows us to design a more efficient platform. Our token model will make it as appealing as possible for users of Pangea to be rewarded for creating and executing contracts, resolve disputes, and build nations. It will create a virtuous cycle of network effects.
Background
In Web 1.0 and 2.0 technologies, most work is done on the protocol layer but most value is created on the application layer. Crypto-economics (and the Web 3.0 movement) have explored solutions to this problem by creating a variety of token models which take advantage of network effects.
Network effects are seen all around us, beyond crypto-economics. For example a currency or a market becomes more useful and efficient as more people use it. Facebook isn't useful if none of your friends are on it. Similarly, we continue to use Bitcoin rather than one of its forks due to the benefits of interoperability with other users and services on the network.
A token for Pangea
Pangea is a platform where users can build organisations and communities, and a competitive market where jurisdictional and legal services are provided. It is an ecosystem of communities, organisations, and service providers.
Building a sustainable ecosystem has historically been difficult because the needs and motives of token holders, participants, and app developers need to be aligned.
Creating a financial incentives for users to build a reputation, honour contracts, resolve disputes, create communities, maintaining the network, and create and audit better smart contracts gives an incentives not just to the creators and builders, but to each individual user of Pangea.
PAT will be tradable on exchanges - including Shapeshift, and can be transacted using the native Bitnation app — the 0.3.1 version is already available to download on Android. | {
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It is no secret that US-Russia relations have grown sour in recent years, with the Obama Administration paring back ties, and President Trump aiming to avoid more than the bare minimum contact with Russia. Clearly, this is not an environment for things to improve.
But according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it’s not just that things are getting bad, “they are in fact deteriorating, getting worse by the hour.” He cautioned things are just getting worse and worse.
The comments were made on state TV, a contrast to comments about improving Russia-China trade ties. Putin reported that trade in 2019 had already exceeded his trade target by $8 billion.
Russian officials are also expressing displeasure at new US military deployments in Poland, seeing them as another concerning move putting more US troops near the Russian border. This has been a source of tensions for years, and is only growing.
Now, US and Russian positions seem to differ on everything, with the US moving away from the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran, moving away from existing nuclear treaties with Russia, and dialing up threats on Iran as Russia warns them against such escalation.
Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz | {
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This post is a follow on to my previous ones on automatically determining variable ranges and on uses for solvers in code auditing sessions. In the first of those posts I showed how we can use the symbolic execution engine of ID to automatically model code and then add extra constraints to determine how it restricts the state space for certain variables. In the second I looked at one use case for manual modelling of code and proving properties about it as part of C++ auditing.
In this post I’m going to talk about a problem that lies between the previous two cases. That is, manually modelling code, but using Python classes provided by ID in a much more natural way than with the SMT-LIB language, and looking for optimal solutions to a problem rather than a single one or all possible solutions.
Consider the following code, produced by HexRays decompiler from an x86 binary. It was used frequently throughout the binary in question to limit the ranges allowed by particular variables. The first task is to verify that it does restrict the ranges of width and height as it is designed to. Its purpose is to ensure that v3 * height is less than 0x7300000 where v3 is derived from width.
int __usercall check_ovf(int width, int height, int res_struct) { int v3; // ecx@1 v3 = ((img_width + 31) >> 3) & 0xFFFFFFFC; *(_DWORD *)(res_struct + 12) = width; *(_DWORD *)(res_struct + 16) = height; *(_DWORD *)(res_struct + 20) = v3; if ( width <= 0 || height <= 0 ) // 1 { *(_DWORD *)(res_struct + 24) = 0; *(_DWORD *)(res_struct + 28) = 0; } else { if ( height * v3 <= 0 || 120586240 / v3 <= height ) // 2 *(_DWORD *)(res_struct + 24) = 0; else *(_DWORD *)(res_struct + 24) = malloc_wrapper(res_struct, 120586240 % v3, height * v3); // 3 *(_DWORD *)(res_struct + 28) = 1; } return res_struct;
If the above code reaches the line marked as 3 a malloc call will occur with height * v3 as the size argument. Can this overflow? Given the checks at 1 and 2 it’s relatively clear that this cannot occur but for the purposes of later tasks we will model and verify the code.
One of the things that becomes clear when using the SMT-LIB language (even version 2 which is considerably nicer than version 1) is that using it directly is still quite cumbersome. This is why in recent versions of Immunity Debugger we have added wrappers around the CVC3 solver that allow one to build a model of code using Python expressions (credit for this goes to Pablo who did an awesome job). This was one of the things we covered during the recent Master Class at Infiltrate and people found it far easier than using the SMT-LIB language directly.
Essentially, we have Expression objects that represent variables or concrete values and the operators on these expressions (+, -, %, >> etc) are over-ridden so that they make assertions on the solvers state. For example, if x and y are Expression objects then x + y is also an Expression object representing the addition of x and y in the current solver context. Using the assertIt() function of any Expression object then asserts that condition to hold.
With this in mind, we can model the decompiled code in Python as follows:
import sys import time sys.path.append('C:\\Program Files\\Immunity Inc\\Immunity Debugger\\Libs\\x86smt') from prettysolver import Expression from smtlib2exporter import SmtLib2Exporter def check_sat(): img_width = Expression("img_width", signed=True) img_height = Expression("img_height", signed=True) tmp_var = Expression("tmp_var", signed=True) const = Expression("const_val") (const == 0x7300000).assertIt() (img_width > 0).assertIt() (img_height > 0).assertIt() tmp_var = ((img_width + 31) >> 3) & 0xfffffffc (img_height * tmp_var > 0).assertIt() (const / tmp_var > img_height).assertIt() expr = (((tmp_var * img_height) & 0xffffffff000000000) != 0) # 1 expr.assertIt() s = SmtLib2Exporter() s.dump_to_file(expr, 'test.smt2') # 2 # After this we can check with z3 /smt2 /m test.smt2 # Alternatively we can use expr.isSAT which calls CVC3 but it # is a much slower solver start_time = time.time() if expr.isSAT(): print 'SAT' print expr.getConcreteModel() else: print 'UNSAT' print 'Total run time: %d seconds' % (time.time() - start_time) if __name__ == '__main__': check_sat()
The above code (which can be run from the command-line completely independently of Immunity Debugger) models the parts of the decompiled version that we care about. The added condition, marked as 1 checks for integer overflow by performing a 64-bit multiplication and then checking if the upper 32 bits are 0 or not. The first thing to note about this code is that it models the decompiled version quite naturally and is far easier to write and understand than the SMT-LIB alternative. This makes this kind of approach to analysing code much more tractable and means that once you are familiar with the API you can model quite large functions in very little time. For example, asserting that the condition if ( height * v3 <= 0 || 120586240 / v3 <= height ) must be false translates to the following, which is syntactically quite close to the C code:
tmp_var = ((img_width + 31) >> 3) & 0xfffffffc (img_height * tmp_var > 0).assertIt() (const / tmp_var > img_height).assertIt()
Checking if the function does in fact prevent integer overflow is then simple.
So, modulo modelling errors on our behalf, the check is safe and prevents an overflow on the size argument to malloc*. So what now? Well, in the case of this particular code-base an interesting behaviour appeared later in the code if the product of width and height is sufficiently large and the above function succeeded in allocating memory. That is, the height and width were small enough such that height * v3 was less than 0x7300000 but due to multiplication with other non-constants later in the code may then overflow. The question we then want to answer is, what is the maximum value of image * height that can be achieved that also passes the above check?
Solving Optimisation Problems with Universal Quantification**
This problem is essentially one of optimisation. There are many assignments to the input variables that will pass the overflow check but we are interested in those that maximise the resulting product image and height . Naturally this problem can be solved on paper with relative ease for small code fragments but with longer, more complex code this approach quickly becomes an more attractive.
The first thing to note is that at the line marked as 2 in the above Python code we used a useful new feature of ID, the SmtLib2Exporter ***, to dump the model constructed in CVC3 out to a file in SMT-LIB v2 syntax. This is useful for two reasons, firstly we can use a solver other than CVC3, e.g. Z3 which is much faster for most problems, and secondly we can manually modify the formula to include things that our Python wrapper currently doesn’t have, such as universal quantification.
Universal quantification, normally denoted by the symbol ∀ and the dual to existential quantification, is used to apply a predicate to all members of a set. e.g. ∀x ∈ N.P(x) states that for all elements x of the natural numbers some predicate P holds. Assume that the conditions of the integer overflow check are embodied in a function called sat_inputs and M is the set of natural numbers module 2^32 then the formula that we want to check is (sat_inputs(x, y) => (∀ a, b ∈ M | sat_inputs(a, b), x * y >= a * b)), that is that we consider x and y to be solutions if x and y satisfy the conditions of sat_inputs implies that the product x * y is greater or equal to the product of any other two values a and b that also satisfy sat_inputs . This property is encoded in the function is_largest in the following SMT-LIB v2 code. The rest of the code is dumped by the previous Python script so checking this extra condition was less than 5 lines of work for us. The details of sat_inputs has been excluded for brevity. It simply encodes the semantics the integer overflow checking code.
(declare-funs ((img_width BitVec[32])(img_height BitVec[32]))) (define-fun sat_inputs ((img_width BitVec[32])(img_height BitVec[32])) Bool (and ; Model of the code goes here ) ) (define-fun is_largest ((i BitVec[32])(j BitVec[32])) Bool (forall ((a BitVec[32]) (b BitVec[32])) (implies (sat_inputs a b) (bvsge (bvmul i j) (bvmul a b)) ) ) ) (assert (and (sat_inputs img_width img_height) (is_largest img_width img_height) ) ) (check-sat) (get-info model)
Running this through Z3 takes 270 seconds (using universal quantification results in a significant increase in the problem size) and we are provided with an assignment to the height and width variables that not only pass the checks in the code but are guaranteed to provide a maximal product. The end result is that with the above two inputs height * width is 0x397fffe0, which is guaranteed to be the maximal product, and height * (((width + 31) >> 3) & 0xfffffffc) is 0x72ffffc, as you would expect, which is less than 0x7300000 and therefore satisfies the conditions imposed by the code. Maximising or minimising other variables or products is similarly trivial, although for such a small code snippet not particularly interesting (Even maximising the product of height and width can be done without a solver in your head pretty easily but instructive examples aren’t meant to be rocket science).
This capability becomes far more interesting on larger or more complex functions and code paths. In such cases the ability to use a solver as a vehicle for precisely exploring the state space of a program can mean the difference between spotting a subtle bug and missing out.
Conclusion
By its nature code auditing is about tracking state spaces. The task is to discover those states implied by the code but not considered by the developer. In the same way that one may look at a painting and discover meaning not intended by the artist, an exploit developer will look at a program and discover a shadow-program, not designed or purposefully created, but in existence nonetheless. In places this shadow-program is thick, it is easily discovered, has many entry points and can be easily leveraged to provide exploit primitives. In other places, this shadow-program clings to the intended program and is barely noticeable. An accidental decrement here, an off-by-one bound there. Easy to miss and perhaps adding few states to the true program. It is from these cases that some of the most entertaining exploits derive. From state spaces that are barren and lacking in easily leveragable primitives. Discovering such gateway states, those that move us from the intended program to its more enjoyable twin, is an exercise in precision. This is why it continues to surprise me that we have such little tool support for truly extending our capacity to deal with massive state spaces in a precise fashion.
Of course we have some very useful features for making a program easier to manually analyse, among them HexRays decompiler and IDA’s various features for annotating and shaping a disassembly, as well as plugin architectures for writing your own tools with Immunity Debugger, IDA and others. What we lack is real, machine driven, assistance in determining the state space of a program and, dually, providing reverse engineers with function and basic block level information on how a given chunk of code effects this state space.
While efforts still need to be made to develop and integrate automation technologies into our workflows I hope this post, and the others, have provided some motivation to build tools that not only let us analyse code but that help us deal with the large state spaces underneath.
* As a side note, Z3 solves these constraints in about half a second. We hope to make it our solving backend pretty soon for obvious reasons.
** True optimisation problems in the domain of satisfiability are different and usually fall under the heading of MaxSAT and OptSAT. The former deals with maximising the number of satisfied clauses while the latter assigns weights to clauses and looks for solutions that minimise or maximise the sum of these weights. We are instead dealing with optimisation within the variables of the problem domain. OptSAT might provide interesting solutions for automatic gadget chaining though and is a fun research area.
*** This will be in the next release which should be out soon. If you want it now just drop me a mail.
Thanks to Rolf Rolles for initially pointing out the usefulness of Z3’s support for universal/existential quantification for similar problems. | {
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Mark Zuckerberg made headlines earlier this year for taping his webcam and microphone. While he forgot the security 101 of not reusing old passwords, the Facebook CEO was definitely paranoid of someone trying to spy on him more than someone hacking his LinkedIn or Pinterest accounts.
Spying makes everyone uncomfortable. Are those so-called IoT devices really surveilling on you? Should you tape up your webcam and microphone slot? The paranoia would see no end because there's no end to the lengths an attacker could go to spy on their targets. Now, a group of Israeli researchers at Ben Gurion University have given us yet another reason to freak out with malware that converts your headphones into microphones that can record your conversations.
Researchers demonstrated the hack in a video, using a malware they are calling "Speak(a)r" to hijack a computer to record audio, even when the target device's microphone has been disabled or entirely removed. This malware tweaks the speakers in the earbuds to turn them into makeshift microphones, covertly listening to you.
Israeli researchers design a malware to spy using headphones
It is not a new discovery that speakers in the headphones that turn electromagnetic signals into sound waves can work in reverse too. What security researchers have done with this new malware is to take the idea even further - retask computer's output channel as an input, allowing criminals to record audio even when the headphones are connected into an output-only jack, don't have a microphone channel on their plug, or the user has completely disabled or removed the microphone from their computer.
"People don’t think about this privacy vulnerability," Mordechai Guri, the research lead of Ben Gurion’s Cyber Security Research Labs said. "Even if you remove your computer’s microphone, if you use headphones you can be recorded."
The Ben Gurion researchers tested this experimental malware using a little-known feature of RealTek audio codec chips with a pair of Sennheiser headphones. "The RealTek chips are so common that the attack works on practically any desktop computer, whether it runs Windows or MacOS, and most laptops, too," researchers told Wired.
The researchers studied several attack scenarios to evaluate the signal quality of simple off-the-shelf headphones. "We demonstrated it is possible to acquire intelligible audio through earphones up to several meters away," Yosef Solewicz, an acoustic researcher at the university said.
While the team has only focused on the RealTek chips, they have yet to test which other audio codec chips and smartphones might be vulnerable. There's no easier fix in the sight too. Guri said the feature in RealTek's audio codec chips that allows the malware to switch an output channel into an input isn't "an accidental bug so much as a dangerous feature," that cannot be fixed without redesigning and replacing the chip in future devices.
Since that's a super long-fix, if you are someone who removed or disabled the mic, you will have to put that pair of headphones down too.
- Research & Image | {
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Philosophy has always struggled with itself over what, exactly, it’s purpose is. Plato investigated the fundamental nature of justice and knowledge whereas Wittgenstein thought that the purpose of philosophy was "to show the fly the way out of the fly bottle." Where are we now?
During this course Amie Thomasson traces historical views of the history of philosophy before presenting her radical new suggestion, that philosophy is all about meta-linguistic negotiation. This approach – the idea that our discussions about justice are about how we should use the word ‘justice’ – manages to unite the advantages of previous models whilst avoiding the problems. Philosophy has purpose once more, helping us in our everyday life as well as with the biggest issues.
During this course you will learn about:
How philosophy developed alongside other disciplines like the natural sciences.
Two models of philosophy – of discovering and of conceptual order.
How to argue for and against the existence of entities with ease.
A new model of philosophy which breathes new life into the oldest subject.
Through video lectures, questions and suggested reading discover why atheism is perhaps the most important moral issue of our time. Share your ideas and support your learning through our discussion boards and test your knowledge through an end of course assessment. | {
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Gayle Benson could have easily just stayed on the golf cart and waved at the fans screaming her name and taking pictures of her as she rode by. | {
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put me on the line with the donald. goofy gave me an idea for a new startup
229 shares | {
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#b4d455 color RGB value is (180,212,85).
#b4d455 hex color red value is 180, green value is 212 and the blue value of its RGB is 85. Cylindrical-coordinate representations (also known as HSL) of color #b4d455 hue: 0.21 , saturation: 0.60 and the lightness value of b4d455 is 0.58.
The process color (four color CMYK) of #b4d455 color hex is 0.15, 0.00, 0.60, 0.17. Web safe color of #b4d455 is #cccc66. Color #b4d455 contains mainly GREEN color. | {
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Story highlights "I've never come a situation where Mr. Trump has said something that is not accurate," Cohen said
Cohen brought up posts on social media from people also claiming to have seen what Trump did on 9/11
Washington (CNN) A top counsel for Donald Trump on Monday defended the Republican presidential front-runner's claims about the September 11 attacks during a spirited exchange with CNN's Jake Tapper.
Following his boss' refusal to back down from claims that he saw "thousands of people" in New Jersey cheering in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Michael Cohen sparred with Tapper on "The Lead."
Cohen did not back down despite being confronted with the lack of evidence of Trump's September 11 claim.
"I'm not so sure that that's true, and I've worked for Mr. Trump now for a long time," Cohen said. "I can tell you that Mr. Trump's memory is fantastic, and I've never come a situation where Mr. Trump has said something that is not accurate."
Cohen brought up posts on social media from people also claiming to have seen the same thing as Trump and also pointed to what he called the media's failure to refute Trump's claims.
Read More | {
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by Christine Stuart | Oct 21, 2019 3:53pm ( ) Comments | Commenting has expired | Share
Posted to: Health Care, Public Health, Public Safety
HARTFORD, CT — (Updated with map 10/22 7:30 a.m.) From 2017-18 to 2018-19, the number of schools in which fewer than 95% of the kindergarteners and seventh graders were immunized for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jumped by 40, according to school-by-school data released by the state Department of Public Health on Monday.
Two years ago, there were 109 school buildings in which the students’ immunization rate for MMR was below the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended herd immunity rate of 95%. Last year, the total was 149.
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The statewide immunization rate among kindergarteners dropped from 96.5% in 2017-18 to 96.1% in 2018-19, based on revised DPH data received from schools.
The public school kindergarten student MMR vaccination rate is 96.4%, and the private school kindergarten student MMR vaccination rate is 92.4%. For students to be relatively safe from measles, the Centers for Disease Control guidelines state that at least 95% of kindergarten students in each school need to be vaccinated.
The immunization data for 2018-19 shows that 134 schools with more than 30 kindergarten students had immunization rates below 95%. At least 41 of those schools are under 90%. Six were below 80% and of those, two were in the sixties in Hartford, including Achievement First Hartford Academy (62.6%) and Burns Latino Studies Academy (65.1%).
Of the 733 public and private schools with kindergarteners tracked by the DPH, 547 had kindergarten enrollments above 30 students, requiring them to report their immunization rates. Of those, 134 — or 24.5% — reported MMR immunization rates below 95%.
There are only 23 seventh grades below 95% for the MMR vaccine — which is 7.42% of the 310 schools reporting. Of those 23, only two were below 90%, including Odyssey Community School in Manchester (89.2%) and Jumoke Academy of Hartford (76.5%).
Earlier this year, the DPH released data that showed 116 schools schools with kindergarten and seventh grades with immunization rates below the 95% standard for measles, mumps, and rubella. That number was later revised to 109 schools with kindergarten or seventh grades below the 95% immunization rate for MMR.
To derive the immunization data, schools report to the DPH the total number of students in kindergarten and seventh grade in each school, and then they report the total number of students who had either shown proof of vaccination or claimed an exemption. In Connecticut, exemptions to vaccination can either be for medical reasons as approved by a physician, or for religious reasons as stated by a child’s parent or guardian.
Connecticut’s second release of school-by-school data also shows that the number of religious exemptions to vaccinations has increased.
In August, the state reported that use of the religious exemptions from the MMR vaccine for kindergarteners had increased from 2% to 2.5%. That number remained unchanged in the data released Monday.
Public health officials said it’s the largest single-year increase in religious exemptions for vaccinations since the state started tracking the statewide data a decade ago.
According to data released last week by the CDC, the national rate for non-medical exemptions for kindergarteners was 2.2%, placing Connecticut above the national rate by 0.3%.
“While it is good that statewide in Connecticut we are still meeting the federally recommended MMR vaccination rate of 95% for kindergarteners, I am very concerned that the number of schools falling short of this important immunization level continues to rise,” DPH Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell said. “The data reveal that a sharp rise in the number of religious exemptions is causing declining immunization rates. This unnecessarily puts our children at risk for contracting measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Coleman-Mitchell who told reporters in late August that she wasn’t initially interested in releasing the data, said, “The decline in vaccination rates and the increase in the number of religious exemptions validates the need to release immunization rates by county and by school for the 2018-19 school year.”
Gov. Ned Lamont overruled Coleman-Mitchell’s decision not to release the school-by-school data.
Brian and Kristen Festa, the Bristol couple hoping to prevent the release of the data pending their appeal, failed to win an argument Monday morning at the trial court. Late Monday afternoon Mr. Festa dropped a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court.
“The genie is already out of the bottle,” Festa said.
Rep. Cara Pavalock-D’Amato who argued the motion to temporarily prevent the release of data pointed out once the department publishes the data, they can’t take it back. She said she’s disappointed they didn’t even get to the merits of the case.
Superior Court Judge Susan Cobb said because she doesn’t have jurisdiction in the case she can’t enter a stay.
Cobb ruled in September that the court doesn’t have jurisdiction because the Festas didn’t exhaust their administrative remedies with the DPH.
Lamont praised the decision to release the data Monday.
“This information needs to be available to the public and lawmakers so they are not operating in the dark as they make decisions for their families and shape public policy,” Lamont said. “I want to make it absolutely clear – nothing in the data that was released today identifies any individual student. Rather, it constitutes important public health statistical data critical to the ongoing debate on this trend, which is happening not just in our state, but throughout the country.”
He said he hopes the data will help inform the debate next session. Lamont supports eliminating the religious exemption to vaccines by 2021.
Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, said the information released Monday was unfortunate but not a surprise.
Elliott, who has been advocating in favor of eliminating the religious exemption, said he’s grateful Coleman-Mitchell has endorsed the public policy.
Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, said the data released today tells an interesting and upsetting story.
“Not only is the amount of schools without herd immunity a concern, the disparity between kindergarten data and seventh-grade data shows that religious exemptions have skyrocketed in recent years, and that the religious exemption has been very clearly used as a philosophical one (which CT eliminated years ago),” Linehan said. “Take, for example, one school in my district. 93% of kindergartners are vaccinated, compared to 99.4% when you reach middle school. All the exemptions in the elementary school are religious, while only .3% of the student body, half of all exemptions, utilized the religious exemption in middle school.”
Linehan concluded that the religious exemption is being used as a tool to skirt the elimination of philosophical exemptions.
In 2019, the United States has seen the largest increase in the number of measles cases in the last 25 years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1,250 people in 31 states had contracted measles between January 1 and Oct. 3, including more than 1,000 in the neighboring state of New York. More than 75% of the cases this year are linked to outbreaks in New York. There are currently no active measles cases in Connecticut. | {
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As the 24-hour transaction volume of the top digital currency Bitcoin reached a historical high of $1.3 bln this week, the days of altcoins that solve no substantial problem may soon be over - or tested to a point of failure.
The rising Bitcoin price which seldom reflects negatively on most alternative currencies is going to tell on their success.
For those who have noticed, the more Bitcoin rises, the lowermost altcoins go - even the super altcoins. This could be as a result of the established fact that one has to buy Bitcoin to get into altcoins and vice versa to opt out.
Or it could be as a result of a reduced confidence in what some - if not most - of these altcoins have to offer. There are also words of some being scams and others being clones of another or serving the same purpose with another.
Time for altcoins show what they are worth
Whatever is the case of every altcoin, what they really stand for would be tested in due course unless the rise of Bitcoin gets stalled. Their existence could be affected negatively unless they evolve to be a true representation of their initial ideas and market more to show off their achievements. New ideas are popping up every day and some would definitely become obsolete.
The thought that the market decides really needs to be given consideration now especially as there is a growing notion that an altcoin bubble is in the making and it could pop at some point.
Bitcoin’s rise is setting a standard that altcoins need to rise up to so as to wax stronger as well.
Bitcoin’s superiority
The reality of each and every passing year that Bitcoin has survived without being crushed to the ground- some investors report huge returns on their investments along the way- is sinking into the minds of more people.
The confidence level in the currency has risen and new users are coming into the cryptocurrency world. It’s truly decentralized nature also makes its extremely difficult for its protocol to be changed by anyone or some developers unlike it’s the case with some altcoins - a good side to the SegWit/scalability standoff.
Now aiming for the $2,000 price tag, the Bitcoin scarcity factor seems to be kicking in and pushing for demands that increase its value - remember last year’s block reward halving.
It throws a greater challenge to altcoins and their need to brace up for what could be coming. | {
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Broadcast from Shortland St in central Auckland, New Zealand’s first official television transmission began at 7.30 p.m. The first night’s broadcast lasted just three hours and could only be seen in Auckland. It included an episode of The adventures of Robin Hood, a live interview with a visiting British ballerina and a performance by the Howard Morrison Quartet.
The television age was slow to arrive in New Zealand. Britain’s BBC led the way when it started the world’s first public service in 1936. The NBC began broadcasting in the United States in 1939. Australia had stations operating by 1956.
In New Zealand, a government committee began studying the new medium in 1949. Experimental broadcasts began in 1951 – with the proviso that they did not include anything that could be classified as ‘entertainment’. Prime Minister Walter Nash made the decision to go ahead with public broadcasts in 1959.
Early television broadcasts had limited coverage. Transmission began in Christchurch in June 1961, and in Wellington four weeks later. Dunedin had to wait until 31 July 1962. By 1965 the four stations were broadcasting seven nights a week for a total of 50 hours. There was no national network and each centre saw local programmes. Overseas programmes were flown from centre to centre and played in different cities in successive weeks. By 1969 the four television stations were broadcasting for 65 hours each week, between 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday and 2 p.m. and midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Television licences, which cost £4 each year (equivalent to $185 in 2020), were introduced in August 1960. By 1965 more than 300,000 licences had been issued. Operating costs were also partly offset by the introduction in 1961 of what many see as the scourge of modern TV – advertising. Initially advertisements were allowed only on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, and more revenue was raised from television licences than from advertising.
In February 1966 the average price of a 23-inch black and white television ‘consolette’ was £131, equivalent to more than $5000 today. | {
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One in four seats have been held by the same party since the Second World War, according to new analysis by the Electoral Reform Society (ERS).
The research reveals that 103 Conservative seats and 26 Labour seats have been held since at least 1945.
The ERS says this reveals the First Past the Post system means the majority of seats can be predicted. In 2010, the campaign group predicted the final result for 364 seats, and only got two of the results wrong.
‘There are hundreds of electoral deserts where the same party has got in since the war, and all voters lose out as a consequence,’ said Katie Ghose, chief executive of the ERS.
‘It’s no wonder people feel alienated by politics when many feel their vote for another party simply won’t count. With a quarter of seats not changing hands since the Second World War, voters become disillusioned and other parties focus their efforts elsewhere in the hyper-marginals. That’s no way to run a democracy.’
The ERS is calling for the introduction of a proportional voting system to make elections more ‘competitive’. | {
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A new pilot study led by Ipsit Vahia, MD, medical director of Geriatric Psychiatry Outpatient Services at McLean Hospital, suggests that the use of tablet computers is both a safe and a potentially effective approach to managing agitation among patients with dementia.
“Tablet use as a nonpharmacologic intervention for agitation in older adults, including those with severe dementia, appears to be feasible, safe, and of potential utility,” said Vahia. “Our preliminary results are a first step in developing much-needed empirical data for clinicians and caregivers on how to use technology such as tablets as tools to enhance care and also for app developers working to serve the technologic needs of this population.”
“Use of Tablet Devices in the Management of Agitation Among Inpatients with Dementia: An Open Label Study” was recently published in the online version of The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. This research builds upon previous studies demonstrating that art, music, and other similar therapies can effectively reduce symptoms of dementia without medication. By using tablet devices to employ these therapies, however, patients and providers also benefit from a computer’s inherent flexibility.
“The biggest advantage is versatility,” said Vahia. “We know that art therapy can work, music therapy can work. The tablet, however, gives you the option of switching from one app to another easily, modifying the therapy seamlessly to suit the individual. You don’t need to invest in new equipment or infrastructure.”
Researchers loaded a menu of 70 apps onto the tablets for the study. The apps were freely available on iTunes and varied greatly in their cognitive complexity—from an app that displayed puppy photos to one that featured Sudoku puzzles.
The researchers found that tablet use was safe for every patient, regardless of the severity of their dementia, and that with proper supervision and training, the engagement rate with the devices was nearly 100%. The study also found that the tablets demonstrated significant effectiveness in reducing symptoms of agitation, particularly—but not exclusively—among patients with milder forms of dementia.
Vahia cited several examples of the tablet’s potential to improve a patient’s condition. One particular patient, who only spoke Romanian, was very withdrawn and irritable, and medications were ineffective in controlling his symptoms.
“We started showing him Romanian video clips on YouTube, and his behavior changed dramatically and instantaneously,” said Vahia. “His mood improved. He became more interactive. He and his medical support team also started using a translation app so that staff could ask him simple questions in Romanian, facilitating increased interaction. These significant improvements are a clear testament of the tablet’s potential as a clinical tool.”
Based on such promising outcomes, the Geriatric Psychiatry Outpatient Services clinical team is expanding the use of tablet devices as a means to control agitation in dementia patients at McLean. This will allow researchers to develop more robust data and expand the scope of the study, including a focus on specific clinical factors that may impact how patients with dementia engage with and respond to apps. | {
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Contrary to a popular belief, the Ledger Nano S is not only designed to secure crypto currencies. It can also be used to generate and store private SSH keys, which makes it the most secure way to protect them.
Being both slightly paranoid, a Ledger employee and a heavy SSH user, I didn't want to rely on my computer to store my private keys anymore. That's why I decided to move everything on my Nano S. The most annoying thing with generating a set of new key pairs is that I had to change every public key I use on my servers and on Github. I wanted to derive my new keys from the Ledger secure element stored private key instead of reusing keys that might have already been compromised.
Installing the SSH Application on the Ledger Nano S
Before you can use the Ledger Nano S to generate and store your SSH keys, you need to install the SSH application.
Plug and unlock your Ledger Nano S before you launch the Ledger Manager. On the application panel, click on the Show developer items link, then scroll until you see the SSH/GPG Agent application.
Install the SSH/PGP Agent application, and when asked, click on your Ledger Nano S right button to authorise the Manager to process. You're done!
Install the Ledger Agent Python Command Line Tools
Open your favorite terminal application and make sure you have Python 3 and pip3 running on your computer.
$ which python3
/usr/local/bin/python3
$ which pip3
/usr/local/bin/pip3
If you don't have Python3 yet, don't panic and install it. I'm using Mac OS X with Homebrew, so I just need to type:
$ brew install python3
To have the command line tools communicate with the Ledger Nano S, you also need the libusb to be installed. On Mac OS X, just type:
$ brew install libusb
You can now use pip3 to install the Ledger Agent:
$ pip3 install ledger_agent
You're done with the installation, it's now time to generate your first SSH key.
Generate your First SSH Key on the Ledger Nano S
Plug and unlock your Ledger Nano S if you have unplugged it since you installed the SSH/GPG Agent application. Scroll through the applications, and select SSH/GPG Agent pressing both Nano S buttons.
Once the app launched, your Ledger Nano S should display SSH/PGP Agent.
Switch back to your terminal, and run:
$ ledger-agent user@host
Where user is your usual SSH user and host the host you want to connect to.
You will be asked to confirm the operation on the Ledger Nano S.
Accept and switch back to your terminal. You now have the SSH public key for the user and the host you previously selected.
ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNTYAAABBBGQsHbGxSf6M+S3aA1lRjsrZ+Q/RZNr4Ma0qBkFzNrOx6BR2f8RZJW/wV4pJSdUYXMp6ItEXXvdW8CM0wQT4NDc= <ssh://user@host|nist256p1>
Cut past the whole string into your server ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file, you're now ready to use SSH with your newly generated key.
$ ledger-agent -c user@host
Before connecting, you need to accept the use of your key on the Ledger Nano S.
Then accept to authenticate your user.
Using the Ledger Agent shell wide
Using the Ledger Agent to connect to SSH is not the most practical thing ever. Thankfully, it is possible to use it as a traditional SSH agent so you can use it with the SSH client, git, and many more.
After the first key generation, the Ledger Agent printed a classic SSH ECDSA public key along with a string between <>.
<ssh://user@host|nist256p1>
This string is a Ledger Agent identity. Add it to a file, for example ~/.ssh/ledger.conf, then run the Ledger Agent again:
$ echo "<ssh://user@host|nist256p1>" >> ~/.ssh/ledger.conf
$ ledger-agent ~/.ssh/ledger.conf -s -v
2018-04-07 19:19:38,241 INFO identity #0: <ssh://user@host|nist256p1> [__init__.py:208]
2018-04-07 19:19:38,259 INFO running '/bin/zsh' with {'SSH_AUTH_SOCK': '/var/folders/4r/1nrw0lls4rqdq52xkvdcj7vm0000gn/T/trezor-ssh-agent-ib39yy', 'SSH_AGENT_PID': '29715'} [server.py:119]
This spawns a new shell with an SSH Agent using all the identities stored into the ledger.conf file. That way, you can simply run.
$ ssh user@host
This will use the SSH key stored into the Ledger Nano S without the need of using the ledger-agent. It also works with git, and everything using SSH such as mosh.
Don't launch the ledger-agent from your .bashrc or .zshrc since it will spawn another and another… in an infinite loop.
As I don't want to spawn 2 zsh process every time I open a terminal, I changed my iTerm2 profile to spawn a shell from the Ledger Agent at startup in place of a plain Zsh:
Automation, Because we're Lazy
I wouldn't be a system engineer if I wasn't a lazy ass. That's why I've written a small shell script to do all the work for me (available on Github under the MIT License).
This script:
Generates a new key for your user@host.
Adds the new identity to the ~/.ssh/ledger.conf file
Adds the new host to your ~/.ssh/config file
Reloads the Ledger Agent with all your identities (in the current shell only)
#!/bin/bash LEDGER_BIN=$(which ledger-agent)
LEDGER_HOST="${1}"
LEDGER_CONF="${HOME}/.ssh/ledger.conf" if [ -z "${LEDGER_HOST}" ]; then
echo "Usage: ${0} user@host"
echo exiting
exit 1
fi echo "Generating the private key, please confirm on the Nano S..." key=$(ledger-agent ${LEDGER_HOST}) echo "${key}" | cut -f 3 -d ' ' >> ${LEDGER_CONF} echo "Adding ${LEDGER_HOST} to your ssh config"
ssh_host=$(echo ${LEDGER_HOST} | cut -f 2 -d '@')
ssh_user=$(echo ${LEDGER_HOST} | cut -f 1 -d '@')
echo "Host ${ssh_host}
HostName ${ssh_host}
Port 22
User ${ssh_user}
PreferredAuthentications publickey " >> ${HOME}/.ssh/config echo "Your new public key is now into your clipboard!"
echo "${key}" | cut -f 1,2 -d ' ' | pbcopy echo "Now reloading the Ledger agent"
${LEDGER_BIN} ${LEDGER_CONF} -v -s exit 0
That's all folks, your private keys are now secure! | {
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The case of a Michigan woman whose mummified body was found years after her death is getting even more bizarre. Apparently, Michigan records show she voted in 2010 -- two years after authorities believe she died.
The Detroit Free Press reported Monday that Pia Farrenkopf voted in that year's gubernatorial election. Authorities have not publicly identified the woman whose body was recently found in a sport utility vehicle parked in the garage of a foreclosed home northwest of Detroit. However, the newspaper reported Farrenkopf owned the home in question, and authorities believe it is her.
Authorities say all signs indicate Farrenkopf likely died in 2008, when she would have been 49. The voting records, though, throw that timeline into question. They state Farrenkopf registered to vote in 2006 and voted for governor in November 2010.
It's unclear whether Farrenkopf was actually alive, or someone else voted in her name. County officials also caution that the recorded vote could have been an administrative error.
An employee of a property management company working for a bank that now owns the house stumbled upon the body last week in the rear seat of the vehicle while doing a walk-through, officials said. A cause of death has not been determined.
Her death was seemingly hidden for years because her bills continued to be deducted from her bank account. Eventually, the money ran out and Farrenkopf’s house went into foreclosure.
Authorities are still attempting to find dental records that could be used to positively identify the body, and are working to determine more of the facts of the case.
Click for more from the Detroit Free Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report | {
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Police say a man shot and killed a woman after she rejected his advances at an event in Detroit over the weekend. Five people were also injured during the incident.
Mary Spears, 27, was at the American Legion Joe Louis Post No. 375 on the east side of Detroit when the 38-year-old suspect allegedly approached her and began talking to her, according to WDIV.
When the suspect asked for her number, Spears, whose fiancé was also at the event, told him she was already involved with someone, WJBK reports. The suspect, however, continued harassing her, family members told the station.
Police said security took the man out of the club through the back door and escorted him to the front. After a fight broke out, the suspect allegedly took out a handgun and began shooting, killing Spears around 2 a.m. Sunday.
Some on social media were horrified by the news.
Mary Spears died for not giving a man her phone number. This is every woman's nightmare. http://t.co/5iwRGIANRg — Anna Van Valin (@AnnaVanValin) October 7, 2014
Not how I want to start the morning, but it needs saying. | Male entitlement killed Mary Spears. http://t.co/uLKI5taBq7 — Angelle H Gullett (@CityofAngelle) October 7, 2014
Two men, ages 28 and 30, and three women, ages 23, 32 and 41, were also struck and wounded. All are expected to recover, but two victims remained hospitalized Monday, reports note.
After the shooting, the suspect attempted to flee on foot, according to the Detroit Free Press. Police caught him and took him into custody. | {
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Don McGahn, who has kept his head down since leaving as White House counsel, shared some off-the-record thoughts on Thursday in a lunch with about 40 senior Republican Senate aides.
Details: "I spent the last couple of years getting yelled at," he said, per two sources at the lunch, held in the Capitol's Strom Thurmond room. "And you may soon read about some of the more spirited debates I had with the president." McGahn didn't explicitly mention Mueller's report, but sources in the room said they understood him to be referring to it when he said this.
Why it matters: McGahn was part of key conversations Mueller's team scrutinized when determining whether Trump obstructed justice — a decision Mueller declined to make.
McGahn was invited as part of a regular series of off-the-record lunches. Mitt Romney's staff served Mexican food. And while McGahn mostly praised Trump, he also hinted at the brutality of his tenure, according to sources who were there.
McGahn said the president runs the White House with a "hub and spokes model," often assigning the same task to multiple people. The point, per sources in the room, is that there is no chief of staff in the usual sense.
the president runs the White House with a "hub and spokes model," often assigning the same task to multiple people. The point, per sources in the room, is that there is no chief of staff in the usual sense. Trump doesn't trust one person as a gatekeeper, per McGahn. He dislikes intermediaries. And no member of staff is empowered because Trump is the hub and he makes the decisions; all the senior aides are spokes.
McGahn said a big part of his job as White House counsel was to deregulate and rein in the "administrative state."
He said he did that by writing deregulatory executive orders and picking judicial nominees who wanted to limit the power of federal agencies.
he did that by writing deregulatory executive orders and picking judicial nominees who wanted to limit the power of federal agencies. He talked about Trump nominating judges who agree that the courts have given too much flexibility to federal agencies to interpret laws and enforce regulations.
Trump nominating judges who agree that the courts have given too much flexibility to federal agencies to interpret laws and enforce regulations. McGahn said they looked for potential judges who wanted to reconsider the "Chevron deference," which requires the courts to defer to federal agencies' "reasonable" interpretations of ambiguous laws.
they looked for potential judges who wanted to reconsider the "Chevron deference," which requires the courts to defer to federal agencies' "reasonable" interpretations of ambiguous laws. McGahn said Trump's judges will spend 30–40 years unwinding the power of executive agencies.
McGahn marveled to the group about what Trump can get away with. | {
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For some years now Firefox has had the rather convenient privacy feature of not showing your NSFW bookmark links in its New Tab Page, which is normally a convenient location to return to your most frequently viewed sites.
While this would not stop anyone from viewing your browser history, it would prevent some embarrassment from people who are shoulder surfing.
The feature is based on a list of around 2900 sites which can be seen on Github here (as uncovered by this Reddit thread.) Firefox compares a hash of your bookmarks against a local list of hashes from the site addresses, and if they match they do not qualify for being proudly displayed on your New Tab page.
While we can see the benefits of this feature, it turns out the origin is rather less wholesome.
While Mozilla has been in the news lately for various attempts to monetize their browser, they have been at this for a long time, and this feature dates back 4 years when Mozilla was experimenting with replacing some of the New Tab site tiles with Sponsered Links.
See the Trulia tile above for an example.
The issue, as aptly described on Bugzilla was:
Commercial partners do not want their content to be negatively associated with adult content. In the context of Suggested Tiles, this means no sponsored or affiliate tiles should appear within same browser viewport. As an example, MGM would not want a 007 DVD release to be appearing within the same page…
That Sponsored Tile project never shipped in the end, but it turns out the NSFW filter remains active.
Does all this behind the scenes ad-based activity make our readers think differently about the non-profit Mozilla foundation? Let us know below.
Via Techdows.com | {
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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Wide receiver Phillip Dorsett endeared himself to coach Bill Belichick and many in the New England Patriots organization over the past two seasons, and the feeling is mutual as Dorsett has positive things to say about the experience.
As for what that means in free agency, Dorsett isn't sure.
"They obviously traded for me two years ago. They took me in and I loved my experience in New England. They made [me] a way better football player than I was before. I learned so much," he told ESPN.com, reflecting on being swapped by the Indianapolis Colts for quarterback Jacoby Brissett in September 2017.
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"The biggest thing I loved is how hard they work. That's my motto. I feel like you get out what you put in, and we worked really hard in New England. I love that. Obviously, I would love to continue, but at the end of the day, you never know. I've never been through this process. I don't know what the future holds for me. I'm just enjoying it right now."
Dorsett, who has escaped New England's winter and is now back in South Florida, relayed that he began workouts one week after Super Bowl LIII. He said it was his intention to wait a bit longer, but he was motivated to "get back into [it]" while "doing what my body was telling me to do."
The 2015 first-round draft pick (No. 29) out of the University of Miami has an idea of what would be his ideal scenario as a free agent.
"Obviously, I want to be a key contributor. I want to be a starter. That's always been my goal," he said.
The 5-foot-10, 192-pound Dorsett started four games over the past two seasons for the Patriots, with his primary value coming more in a backup role. He had to adjust on the fly in 2017, not having the benefit of an offseason to learn the team's system, which limited his contributions on the stat sheet that year (12 receptions, 194 yards).
In 2018, Dorsett played a lot early in the season when Julian Edelman was serving a four-game NFL suspension and Josh Gordon had yet to be acquired and emerge, before fading somewhat into the background. But whenever the team needed him, he seemed to deliver, finishing with 32 receptions for 290 yards and three touchdowns in the regular season, ultimately playing 36 percent of the offensive snaps. He added seven catches for 120 yards and a touchdown in five playoff games.
"It was difficult, honestly; being thrust into a starting position, working your butt off, and being there and trying to be reliable for your team, and then taking a back seat," he said. "I'm a team player and I knew that whatever Bill's decision was, it was going to benefit the team. I'm not a guy that's going to go out and complain. I'm just going to do my job, keep working hard, and make sure I'm ready every day mentally and physically."
Dorsett felt rewarded for that approach based on the way the season ended with a victory in Super Bowl LIII.
"I loved it. A lot of ups, a lot of downs, but at the end of the day when it got to the end of the season, we won the ultimate prize," he said. "I felt like we dealt with the year the best we could. We just put our head down and kept grinding. That was kind of the theme of the whole season -- just keep working hard, the team loves one another, plays for one another, and at the end of the day that's the only thing that matters."
That's one reason Dorsett hasn't ruled out a possible return to the Patriots, and he believes the interest in mutual.
Of Belichick, he said, "Me and him have a good relationship. I believe he wants me back, I do believe that. At the end of the day, you really never know. I'm going in with blinders. I don't really know what's going to happen. ...
"Obviously, I want to win. I don't want to play this game just to play it. I play because I love it, and the relationships. The whole organization was just amazing. Obviously, everyone has their personal goals and I do want to be a bigger role, that's just the kind of guy I am. And helping the team win." | {
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Via KRTV:
Prior to his appearance on Friday night, Vice President Pence received a first hand look at a Montana coal mine, then later declared that the “war on coal is over.”
Vice President Mike Pence took the opportunity to visit coal country during his trip to Montana. Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke and Senator Steve Daines joined him in riding horseback at Westmoreland’s Absaloka Mine in Sarpy Creek.
The meeting provided the Crow Tribe a platform to speak with the administration.
With 85 employed at the mine, Westmoreland has faced a long battle. Since 2011, coal production has dropped 30 percent, and the number of those employed in the industry has plummeted from 130,000 to 75,000.
Crow officials remined the VP how important coal country is to the community and region. Pence promised the president believes in American energy.
“And on behalf of the President of the United States, I’m here to announce that the war on coal is over,” Pence declared to applause at the Westmoreland’s adminstrative offices following the horseback tour.
Pence sat down with the tribe and the mine assuring them the administration’s goal on coal.
“The president truly believes that American energy drives American prosperity and means American jobs and we’re going to continue to work with all of you,” Pence said.
“I would rather produce energy here than be held hostage over seas and have to go to war overseas,” Zinke said.
“There is tremendous potential here, and it’s a life blood right now for the Crow Tribe, and without it to say coal keeps the lights on. I’ll tell ya it’s lights out for the Crow Tribe if we lose these coal jobs here,” Daines said.
Keep reading… | {
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Kim Jong Un (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed strategic cooperation during their third meeting on June 20. Photo by KCNA/UPI | License Photo
July 5 (UPI) -- Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to work toward the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea during their third summit in China, according to a Japanese press report.
The Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday the two leaders agreed to cooperate strategically on a shared objective of the removal of the 28,500 U.S. soldiers in the South, following the summit in Singapore where President Donald Trump described joint drills as "very provocative" and costly.
The Asahi's source, described as well versed in China-North Korea affairs, said Beijing and Pyongyang also agreed to bide their time and not rush negotiations with Washington.
The report comes a day ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang, his third known trip to North Korea.
China and North Korea see an opportunity to ask U.S. troops to leave if and when a peace treaty is signed.
A peace treaty, if reached between Washington and Pyongyang, would put an end to the 1953 Armistice Agreement, and would set the foundation for a North Korean argument in favor of troop withdrawal, according to the Asahi.
Following the signing of a potential treaty, Kim is likely to request Trump to withdraw U.S. troops, but could still leave options open, the way Kim's father Kim Jong Il did during his rule, the Asahi's source said.
RELATED Kim Jong Un not present at friendly basketball game with South
Pyongyang's state-controlled news agency KCNA said last month Xi and Kim discussed "strategic and tactical cooperation" between the two countries.
The United States and South Korea have agreed to cancel large-scale exercises in August, but U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Vincent Brooks has said the training is being suspended to avoid unnecessary provocations, the Hankyoreh reported.
The decision was necessary to make way for diplomacy, Brooks had said.
Kim Jong Un also spoke favorably of Trump, and said Trump was "broad-minded" and "had guts," according to the Asahi. | {
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Brasília
Proposta apresentada pelo governo Jair Bolsonaro desobriga o poder público de expandir sua rede de escolas em regiões com carência de vagas para alunos. Com a mudança, a equipe econômica quer ampliar a participação do ensino privado no país.
Em outro ponto do texto levado ao Senado na semana passada, é revogado um trecho da Constituição que estabelece como função do Orçamento a redução das desigualdades regionais.
Esse objetivo é mantido na Constituição como “fundamental”, mas é retirado o instrumento que trata especificamente do direcionamento de recursos públicos para essa finalidade.
As duas alterações foram incorporadas à PEC (Proposta de Emenda à Constituição) do Pacto Federativo. O texto trata da reestruturação do Estado e da redistribuição de recursos entre União, estados e municípios e é visto como fundamental para corrigir distorções e equilibrar as contas públicas.
Hoje, a Constituição diz que o governo é obrigado a investir prioritariamente na expansão de sua rede de ensino quando houver falta de vagas e cursos regulares da rede pública em uma localidade. Se a proposta de Guedes for aprovada pelo Congresso, esse trecho será excluído da Constituição.
A advogada tributarista Ana Cláudia Utumi, sócia do Utumi Advogados, afirma que o ensino é uma obrigação do poder público e que a retirada do trecho pode passar a impressão de que o aluno que está sem vaga terá de buscar uma solução por conta própria.
“Existindo essa obrigação constitucional hoje, os entes já são muito lentos para cumpri-la. Se não tiver essa obrigação, pode ser algo que acomoda ainda mais o poder público.”
Não são raros os casos de ações na Justiça que obrigam gestores públicos a oferecer vagas no sistema de ensino depois que pais buscam ajuda da Defensoria Pública. Entre os argumentos usados está a determinação da Constituição de que educação é um direito social do cidadão.
Técnicos da Economia que atuaram na elaboração da proposta reconhecem que a medida desobriga a expansão de escolas que é condicionada pelo dispositivo.
O ministério afirma que o acesso à educação não será precarizado, pelo contrário. Isso porque a ideia é permitir que os alunos acessem o ensino privado por meio de bolsas de estudo que seriam bancadas pelo governo. A medida dependerá de futura regulamentação via projeto de lei.
A equipe de Guedes sustenta que, em muitos casos, o governo gastaria menos ao pagar bolsas para instituições privadas do que se optasse por construir e manter novas escolas públicas.
O governo argumenta ainda que o estudante teria autonomia para optar entre uma escola pública ou privada, onde isso for possível. Nas palavras de um dos técnicos da economia, a estrutura estatal não pode ser um fim em si mesma e é importante a participação do setor privado.
De acordo com interlocutores de Guedes, a ideia inicial de alterar esse artigo não partiu do ministério, mas sim de um projeto que já circulava no Congresso. Guedes e sua equipe gostaram da proposta e decidiram incluir no texto do pacto federativo.
Como o governo seguiria bancando a educação nesses casos por meio do pagamento de bolsas de estudo, o argumento usado na pasta é que o investimento público na área não seria reduzido e a eficiência do atendimento à população seria ampliada.
Além de aumentar as opções dos alunos, o governo diz acreditar que poderá alocar melhor os recursos. A pasta espera reverter para outras ações em educação a economia gerada com o pagamento de bolsas onde seria necessário construir uma escola.
O mesmo trecho da PEC também inclui uma série de critérios para a concessão de bolsas de estudo pelo governo. Hoje, o texto diz apenas que as bolsas serão concedidas para aqueles que demonstrarem insuficiência de recursos.
A proposta inclui a exigência de inscrição e seleção e condiciona essa possibilidade à existência de instituições cadastradas. De acordo com os técnicos da pasta, a mudança é necessária para respeitar regras de acesso das instituições privadas e ensino.
Em outro artigo, o governo revoga parágrafo que estabelece que o Orçamento terá, entre suas funções, a de reduzir desigualdades regionais, segundo critério populacional.
Para Utumi, a medida pode ser uma tentativa do governo de retirar amarras do Orçamento, em linha com a orientação de Guedes.
Ela pondera que a mudança pode ser prejudicial. “Na medida em que você tira o princípio de privilegiar no Orçamento as regiões menos desenvolvidas, corre-se o risco de essas regiões receberem menos que o necessário”, disse a advogada.
Utumi pondera que outros trechos da Constituição elencam a redução das desigualdades regionais como prioridade.
Esse é o argumento usado por técnicos do governo, que afirmam que a mudança é apenas uma limpeza do texto constitucional, sem efeito prático. Segundo a pasta, esse objetivo já está presente em outros trechos, como o que trata dos fundos regionais.
Na própria PEC do Pacto Federativo, o governo propõe que os benefícios tributários sejam reavaliados observando a diretriz de combate às desigualdades regionais.
Na avaliação do advogado Fernando Raposo, mestre em finanças públicas e tributação, a retirada dessa obrigação específica da elaboração do Orçamento pode dar a entender que o objetivo de reduzir as desigualdades ficará fragilizado.
Ele diz acreditar que o resultado da mudança, porém, deve ser limitado. “Entendo que não há efeitos práticos relevantes. É uma questão muito mais simbólica”, afirmou.
Trechos da PEC do Pacto Federativo
Construção de escola
Como é: a Constituição define que, quando houver falta de vagas e cursos regulares da rede pública na localidade de residência do estudante, o poder público fica obrigado a investir prioritariamente na expansão de sua rede na localidade
Como fica: o trecho que traz a obrigatoriedade de investimento na construção de escolas é excluído da Constituição
Bolsa de estudo
Como é: a concessão de bolsas onde faltarem vagas é feita para quem demonstrar insuficiência de recursos
Como fica: são incluídos critérios para a concessão de bolsas. Além da demonstração de insuficiência de recursos, a proposta inclui a exigência de inscrição e seleção
Desigualdades regionais
Como é: Constituição estabelece que o Orçamento público terá, entre suas funções, a de reduzir desigualdades regionais, segundo critério populacional
Como fica: trecho é revogado. Fica mantido o artigo que define a redução da desigualdade regional como objetivo fundamental da República | {
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MEXICO CITY - The recapture of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman took a surprise, Hollywood twist when a Mexican official said security forces located the whereabouts of the world's most-wanted trafficker thanks to a secret interview with U.S. actor Sean Penn.
Penn's interview with Guzman, who has twice escaped from Mexican maximum security prisons, appeared late Saturday on the website of Rolling Stone magazine. It was purportedly held at an undisclosed hideout in Mexico in late 2015, several months before Guzman's recapture Friday in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, after six months on the run.
In the interview, Guzman defends his work at the head of the world's biggest drug trafficking organization. When asked if he is to blame for high addiction rates, he responds: "No, that is false, because the day I don't exist, it's not going to decrease in any way at all. Drug trafficking? That's false."
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Guzman said in the interview that he entered the drug trade at age 15 because there was no other way to survive. "The only way to have money to buy food, to survive, is to grow poppy, marijuana, and at that age, I began to grow it, to cultivate it and to sell it. That is what I can tell you."
In the article, Penn describes the elaborate security measures he took ahead of the clandestine meeting. But apparently they were not enough.
A Mexican federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to comment on the issue, told the Associated Press it was the Penn interview that led authorities to Guzman in a rural part of Durango state in October.
El Chapo speaks: Sean Penn recounts his secret visit with the most wanted man in the world https://t.co/F4x6x8ANBd pic.twitter.com/8wDb2I6Xkt — Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) January 10, 2016
Friday's operation resulted from six months of investigation and intelligence-gathering by Mexican forces, who located Guzman in Durango state in October, but decided not to shoot because he was with two women and a child, she said. After that he took a lower profile and limited his communication until he decided to move to Los Mochis in December.
Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez said that one of Guzman's key tunnel builders led them to the neighborhood in Los Mochis where authorities did surveillance for a month. The team noticed a lot of activity at the house Wednesday and the arrival of a car early Thursday morning. Authorities were able to determine that Guzman was inside the house, she said.
The marines decided to close in early Friday and were met with gunfire. Five suspects were killed and six others arrested. One marine was injured.
The official said the meeting between Penn and Guzman was held in Tamazula, a community in Durango state that neighbors Sinaloa, home of Guzman's drug cartel.
On Friday, Gomez said that Guzman's contact with actors and producers for a possible biopic helped give law enforcement a new lead on tracking and capturing the world's most notorious drug kingpin.
In the Rolling Stone article, Penn wrote that Guzman was interested in having a movie filmed on his life. He said Guzman wanted Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who facilitated the meeting between the men, involved in the project.
"He was interested in seeing the story of his life told on film, but would entrust its telling only to Kate," wrote Penn, who appears in a photo posted with the interview shaking hands with Guzman whose face is uncovered
There was no immediate response from Penn's representatives to the Mexican official's comments.
Earlier Saturday, a federal law enforcement official said that Mexico is willing to extradite Guzman to the United States, a sharp reversal from the official position after his last capture in 2014.
"Mexico is ready. There are plans to cooperate with the U.S.," said the Mexican official, who spoke on condition anonymity because he wasn't authorized to comment.
But he cautioned that there could be a lengthy wait before U.S. prosecutors can get their hands on Guzman, the most-wanted trafficker who was recaptured Friday after six months on the run: "You have to go through the judicial process, and the defense has its elements too."
Top officials in the party of President Enrique Pena Nieto also floated the idea of extradition, which they had flatly ruled out before Guzman's embarrassing escape from Mexico's top maximum security prison on July 11 - his second from a Mexican prison.
But even if Mexican officials agree, Guzman's attorney Juan Pablo Badillo told the Milenio newspaper that the defense already has filed six motions to challenge extradition requests.
"They can challenge the judge, challenge the probable cause, challenge the procedure," said Juan Masini, former U.S. Department of Justice attache at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico. "That's why it can take a long time. They won't challenge everything at once ... they can drip, drip, milk it that way."
With Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman back in the Altiplano maximum-security prison, the question of the day was how to keep the most notorious drug kingpin behind bars after his two well-orchestrated escapes from Mexican custody and because his Sinaloa cartel smuggles tons of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines and heroin to the U.S., reports CBS News' Pamela Falk.
Following his capture, the head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel was brought to Mexico City's airport, frog-marched to a helicopter before news media, and flown back to the same prison he'd fled.
There were immediately calls for his quick extradition, just as there were after the February 2014 capture of Guzman, who faces drug-trafficking charges in several U.S. states. At the time, Mexico's government insisted it could handle the man who had already broken out of one maximum-security prison, saying he must pay his debt to Mexican society first.
Then-Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said the extradition would happen only after he finished his sentence in Mexico in "300 or 400 years."
Then Guzman escaped on July 11 under the noses of guards and prison officials at Mexico's most secure lock-up, slipping out an elaborate tunnel that showed the depth of the country's corruption while thoroughly embarrassing Pena Nieto's administration.
He also escaped a different maximum-security facility in 2001 while serving a 20-year sentence. Lore says he hid in a laundry cart, though many dispute that version. He spent 13 years on the lam.
Gomez said that one of Guzman's key tunnel builders led officials to the neighborhood in Los Mochis, where authorities had been watching for a month. The team noticed a lot of activity at the house Wednesday and the arrival of a car early Thursday morning. Authorities were able to determine that Guzman was inside the house, she said.
The marines were met with gunfire as they closed in.
Gomez said Guzman and his security chief, Ivan Gastelum, a.k.a "El Cholo Ivan," were able to flee via storm drains and escape through a manhole cover to the street, where they commandeered getaway cars. Marines climbed into the drains in pursuit. They closed in on the two men based on reports of stolen vehicles and they were arrested on the highway.
What happens now is crucial for Guzman, whose cartel smuggles multi-ton shipments of cocaine and marijuana as well as manufacturing and transporting methamphetamines and heroin, mostly to the U.S.
According to a statement from the Mexican Attorney General's office, the U.S. filed extradition requests June 25, while Guzman was in custody, and another Sep. 3, after he escaped. The Mexican government determined they were valid within the extradition treaty and sent them to a panel of federal judges, who gave orders for detention on July 29 and Sept. 8, after Guzman had escaped.
Those orders were not for extradition but just for Guzman to begin the extradition hearing process. Now that he is recaptured, Mexico has to start processing the extradition requests anew, according to the law.
The quickest he could be extradited would be six months, said a federal official who spoke on condition of anonymity, but it's not likely because lawyers file appeals. He said that they are usually turned down, but each one means a judge has to schedule a hearing.
"That can take weeks or months, and that delays the extradition," he said. "We've had cases that take six years." | {
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Since the plagues of the Old Testament, we have contemplated the Apocalypse, the world rising in vengeance as men, women and children scurry across the brutal landscape of a lost paradise. Skies rain hail, locusts swarm, rivers turn to blood, darkness falls.
Our doomsday stories and how they scroll and flash before us have changed since the parchment days of the Bible. But we remain fascinated by the specter of our demise, whether the end is wrought by deities, our own folly or imposed by outside forces like monsters, asteroids and aliens that have haunted us since Orson Welles’ 1938 “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast.
Few of our dystopias, however, are as frightening as the planet gone asunder, polluted and destroyed by humanity’s amorality, recklessness and greed. Film and literature — to say nothing of our private insecurities — resound with a world that freezes, boils, chokes, cracks with earthquakes, dwindles with resources and succumbs to pestilence and disease.
Film and literature resound with a world that freezes, boils, chokes, cracks with earthquakes, dwindles with resources and succumbs to pestilence and disease.
Images of glacier walls crashing into oceans, arid lands, smudged skies and Hollywood disaster scenarios have reverberated across social media since President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. The president said the pact, signed by 195 nations to reduce carbon emissions, would undercut business, hurt American workers and “weaken our sovereignty.”
“The Paris Agreement handicaps the United States’ economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our country’s expense,” said Trump. “They don’t put America first. I do. And I always will.”
Perhaps more than any other moment in his presidency, Trump’s action highlighted a Darwinian world view in which the planet is less a community than an unforgiving marketplace for countries to compete and barter. Terrorism, Russia’s cyber meddling in the U.S. election and the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong Un taunts like a despot in an end-of-days movie, have unsettled Americans. But exiting the climate pact has raised larger existential questions at a time of rising seas, droughts and melting ice caps.
Hollywood for decades has spun science fiction and horror out of environmental calamity. In 1973, the thriller “Soylent Green” ventured to the year 2022, when the Earth was endangered by pollution and the greenhouse effect. Natural disaster movies related to climate change and pollution became a staple, including “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004), about storms raging across the globe in a new ice age, and the Mad Max series going through “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015), where roving clans fight over gasoline and water on a crazed and poisoned Earth.
These stories foreshadowed and articulated the anxieties of a new century marked by wars and multiplying images of environmental degradation. The planet seemed to be shrinking, and every click of the screen — every YouTube rant, beheading, cyclone and story uttered — made us intimate with the ills that for so long seemed foreign and safely beyond our borders.
Kodi SmitMcPhee and Viggo Mortensen in John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” based on Cormac McCarthy’s Pulizer Prize winning novel. (Macall Polay / Dimension Films)
The world in these films is dark and unredemptive, a landscape of memory and rage where pictures of beaches and fields of green are eerie artifacts of humanity’s hubris and capacity to imperil what gives it life. Man becomes cast against himself in a cruel struggle for survival, such as the father and son who roam, scavenge and hide beneath slate skies in “The Road” (2009). The mood and tone are similar in “Children of Men” (2006), set in a desolate and violent London after pollution and other evils, which prove just as devastating as an asteroid strike, have rendered humanity infertile.
As the science of global warming has matured, and documentaries like Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006) have explored its devastating consequences, the planet’s frailty has come into sharper focus, even as many Republicans, including Trump, question the causes that could spell our undoing. That dilemma and Trump’s decision on the Paris treaty will figure in Gore’s upcoming follow-up: “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.”
The preoccupation over the planet’s future and its increasing interconnectedness have, according to novelist Junot Diaz, made dystopian themes “the default narrative of the generation.”
“The steady drum beat of reports from our best and brightest scientists has made it explicitly clear that, whether we like or whether we want to admit it or not, we have damaged our planet in ways that have transformed us into a dystopian topos,” he said in a podcast with the Boston Review. “We are making the genre in which we are living, and we are making it at such an extraordinary rate.”
Trump’s election and the bitter political and societal chasms it revealed has brought back into vogue a number of dystopian novels, including George Orwell’s “1984,” Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the story of infertility and turning women into slaves, which has been adapted for a heralded Hulu series. As in “The Road,” the exact cause of cataclysm in “The Handmaid’s Tale” is nebulous, a frightening, creeping concoction that plays with our imagination.
There is little doubt about the cause of ruin in “Chasing Coral,” a Netflix documentary on climate change and the death of coral reefs. The film, which opens in July, focuses on how warming waters around the Great Barrier Reef in Australia are bleaching the reef’s colors — imagine a rainbow turning to ash — and ability to sustain life.
“Our oceans are dramatically changing and we are losing coral reefs on a global scale,” director Jeff Orlowski said. “We spent three years with divers, underwater photographers and experts to reveal the majesty of our oceans and the rapidly changing reality of our world. What we witnessed while making this film reshaped my understanding of the world.”
The film is likely to intensify the debate around global warming and how filmmaking and other arts challenge and speak to conflicting agendas. A timely, if seemingly satirical, blurring of the lines between our fictions, politics and realities comes to mind in “Dystopian Visions,” a new class former presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul will teach at George Washington University.
Such visions haunt and often remind us of nature’s splendor and fragility, and what happens when species go extinct and winds howl arid and foul. They also leave us (and Hollywood) with questions: How does one generation explain to the next that their birthright is jeopardy? That chaos sprung from folly or chance is irreparable, and that destiny is bound in dereliction?
In her 1826 post-apocalyptic novel about a plague, “The Last Man,” Mary Shelley, who also gave us “Frankenstein,” pondered: “What is there in our nature that is forever urging us on towards pain and misery?”
Kevin Costner and Jeanne Tripplehorn in 1995’s “Waterworld.” (Ben Glass / Associated Press)
Kevin Costner’s interminable “Waterworld” (1995) imagined a planet where the polar ice caps melted and everyone lived on ships and floating outposts, hoarding jars of dirt like relics while searching for mythical dry land. In “Blade Runner” (1982), a revolutionary work by director Ridley Scott, Los Angeles of 2019 is a garish and desolate landscape where cops battle synthetic humans known as “replicants.” Earth has become shades of grays and neon, tree-less and shadowed by Orwellian industrial towers. Not surprisingly, a sequel, “Blade Runner 2049,” will open this year.
But man is a creature of hope, cunning and delusion. Waste a planet, find an escape; or in biblical terms, endure banishment from the Garden of Eden. That is the theme of “Interstellar” (2014), when a team of astronauts seeks a wormhole in space to deliver humanity from the shriveled crops, blowing dust and the environmental catastrophe Earth has become. It seems our ingenuity to find someplace new is stronger and more fierce than it is in fixing the place we are.
“We didn’t run out of planes and television sets,” says one character, “we ran out of food.”
That is too pessimistic an epitaph for many Hollywood films, where even in demise there’s a promise of resurrection. A scientist played by Michael Caine, whose soothing voice can make a lie sound like the truth, adds: “We’re not meant to save the world. We’re meant to leave it.”
See the most-read stories this hour »
Twitter: @JeffreyLAT
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ALSO
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Forget ‘fake news’: Adam Curtis’ film says we live in a ‘fake world’ designed by bankers and politicians | {
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click to enlarge City of Seattle
At its upcoming meeting on Wednesday, October 21, the Oakland Planning Commission will consider rule changes that could encourage homeowners to build secondary housing units, mainly in the form of small backyard cottages. The new rules could spur the construction of hundreds, or even thousands of new homes across the city, many of them near BART stations and within walking distance of AC Transit rapid bus stops, creating both affordable and green housing options.The proposal is similar to rules that Berkeley adopted in March . The Oakland City Council must ultimately approve any changes the planning commission recommends.But if passed, the new rules would allow Oakland homeowners to build structures of up to 750 square feet, or up to 75 percent the size of the lot's primary structure, whichever is less. Backyard cottages could have roofs as high as 14 feet at the peak, and ten feet at the eaves. The could be fully equipped with kitchens, bathrooms, and appliances. Accessory units would have to be set back at least four feet from the property line, but if the new structure will replace an existing structure that is already up against a property line, no setback would be required.And finally the proposed new rules would ease parking requirements by allowing homeowners within one-quarter mile of BART stations or bus rapid transit lines to build secondary units without having to also provide parking spaces.Homeowners have complained to Oakland's planning and building department for years that the rules are so restrictive as to stifle the addition of secondary units. Dorothy Wall, a North Oakland homeowner of 24 years, wrote the planning and building department in April of this year urging reform."While Oakland currently allows secondary unit possibilities, the code requirements are so restrictive that a legal accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is often not doable," wrote Wall. "I encourage Oakland to follow Berkeley's lead in code changes, recognizing the tremendous benefits ADU's provide, in terms of infill, densification, aging in place, and family flexibility, all while preserving neighborhood character." | {
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COLUMBIA — Academy Sports is open. Todd and Moore in downtown Columbia is not.
Both are sporting goods stores, which are categorized as nonessential under Gov. Henry McMaster's orders dictating which businesses must close to curb the spread of COVID-19 in South Carolina. But the one that sells guns can stay open.
That's just one example of seeming discrepancies in what stores can keep their doors open amid the pandemic.
The state Department of Commerce, tasked with providing guidance on business designations, has fielded nearly 4,650 questions, many of them duplicates, since April 4, just a couple days before the governors "home or work" order. In that time, nearly 250 entities were told they were non-essential and needed to close their doors to the public.
The Republican governor issued his most restrictive order on Monday that people stay home unless they're going to work or shop at essential businesses, as well as some other exceptions.
“Please understand that Gov. McMaster has asked Commerce to keep businesses open wherever possible and that if they are providing an essential product or service they should be authorized to remain open so long as they are otherwise in compliance with CDC guidelines,” the Commerce Department's chief counsel, Karen Manning, said in an email to Columbia officials.
Columbia let its own stay-at-home order expire, but now Mayor Steve Benjamin is concerned that broad exemptions for business may put people at risk.
For example, McMaster’s order, which is largely based on recommendations from the federal Department of Homeland Security, closes furniture and home-furnishings stores but allows mattress retailers to keep showrooms open.
Massage-therapy establishments were required to shutter. But some chiropractic offices, which are allowed, have massage therapists on staff.
And you can’t go to a barber but you can get your pet groomed.
Columbia Police Department contacted the Commerce Department about emails that local vape shops showed officers trying to enforce the governor's orders, which list the types of businesses considered nonessential. Because that list doesn't address vape shops at all, they are allowed to operate.
“This is laughable and intellectually dishonest with the people of South Carolina,” Benjamin, one of the state's leading Democrats, said in an email.
He stressed the importance of making the essential business designation easily understood and justifiable, though the city's own "stay at home" order also provided broad exceptions for businesses. But it did so in the opposite way — listing the types of businesses that can stay open versus those that must close.
"We need to make sure, through policy making, we're enforcing social distancing to flatten the curve and save lives," Benjamin said. "That's the goal here and the only reason we're concerned."
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S.C. Chamber of Commerce President Ted Pitts said most of his members are happy with the "business friendly" way the governor decided which companies can stay open, and he's satisfied with the guidance Commerce is giving.
Pitts said orders that list the types of businesses that can’t open, versus focusing on all that can, are easier for police departments to enforce.
No Bull Mattress, with several locations around the Lowcountry, kept showrooms open after it received a letter from Commerce saying it could. In the letter, the agency encouraged the company to do online sales as much as possible.
In contrast, at Columbia Mattress Firm locations, workers answering the phones cited the governor's order as their reason for showroom closure. Other locations of the nation's No. 1 mattress seller are still open.
"Some areas are permitting our stores to stay open based on local orders since furniture and bedding products are still a need for local consumers with family members who may be quarantined in the same home, family members who are sheltering together unexpectedly, and consumers who moved into new homes prior to the commencement of the crisis, among other reasons," Mattress Firm CEO John Eck said in emailed comments provided to USA TODAY.
Christie Bryant of Chiropractic Professionals of Columbia said the business has a massage therapist on staff but chose not to offer those services. She said many other chiropractic offices in the city have done the same.
The business has, however, changed its policies, which include booking only one appointment per hour and taking patients' temperatures as they walk in the door.
McMaster said Monday that gun stores are not on his list of nonessential businesses because of the Second Amendment.
"It’s a constitutional right to have and bear arms," he said.
Other sporting goods stores that sell guns staying open in South Carolina include Bass Pro Shops, in Myrtle Beach, and Cabela's, located in Fort Mill and Greenville. But company officials said they're limiting the number of customers allowed in the store at a time and enforcing six feet of social distance, as required by McMaster's orders.
Customers coming into Cabela's in Greenville are coming mainly to buy guns and ammunition, said general manager J.D. Large. But while there, they can still browse the fishing gear or clothing racks. Camping and survival gear also have been popular, he said.
Prior to the governor's order, DICK’S Sporting Goods, which has 13 locations across the state, had already closed its stores nationwide, with only curbside pickup, allowed under the governor's order, being offered at specified stores. Firearms are not being sold as those purchases would need to be made in-store and include background check requirements.
Field & Stream, a subsidiary of DICK'S which has a location in North Charleston, is also closed.
"Our company has always done what’s right for the safety of our communities. We look forward to re-opening and serving you in-person soon," CEO Ed Stack said in a statement. | {
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Teachers, and some of their unions, are fired up about the new Common Core State Standards.
The Gates Foundation spent more than $200 million bankrolling the creation of the new standards and lobbying for them. The group has long pushed to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores, to promote “accountability.”
Yet even the Gates Foundation recently called for a two-year delay in linking Common Core results to consequences for teachers and schools. The shift comes after both national teachers unions pivoted from strong support for the standards to a more critical stance—a response in part to grassroots teacher frustration.
The AFT and NEA had supported the creation of national standards and worked closely with Gates, including accepting millions of grant dollars. Teachers received glossy mailings from their unions promoting the Common Core. Now the AFT has announced it will no longer accept Gates dollars for its “innovation fund” to promote the new standards.
“NEA was publicizing that teachers all support the Common Core before they even asked teachers,” said Elizabeth Thiel, a high school English teacher in Portland, Oregon. “When teachers have been asked, it is not a fact that all teachers support the Common Core.
“There are teachers that do. However, the reality is, a lot of teachers don’t have information about where these standards came from.”
What’s the Fuss?
There’s debate among teachers about the idea of replacing the status quo, state standards, with national ones. But the implementation has been roundly unpopular.
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted the national standards, which cover English and math. Students will be tested on them every year, kindergarten through 12th grade.
Lessons at all grade levels are supposed to advance college- and career-readiness. That’s a big change in how to approach teaching, say, kindergarten.
The Chicago Teachers Union has denounced the standards and vowed to lobby to overturn them. (Illinois adopted the Common Core in 2010.)
CTU objects to the standards being developed by testing and curriculum-publishing corporations and the Gates and Broad Foundations, not by rank-and-file teachers. It also says the standards were implemented too quickly and do not reflect the learning needs of many students, particularly English-language learners, low-income students, and students of color.
Labor Notes asked Milwaukee teacher and instructional coach Ingrid Walker-Henry to weigh in on what the new benchmarks mean for teachers and students. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
♦ ♦ ♦
Labor Notes: How is the Common Core going to affect your day-to-day teaching?
Walker-Henry: Milwaukee Public Schools has been in process of implementing Common Core standards for two years now, so it’s in everything we do. It’s in the professional development I give to staff.
In the past Wisconsin had state standards for only fourth, eighth, and tenth grades. So as a teacher, if you were in grade three, you would look at fourth grade standards and figure out what you were supposed to teach.
The Common Core allows, “This is exactly what I’m supposed to be teaching at this grade.”
Can you give me some examples of what the standards actually are?
I'm going to tell you why I can’t: they are very detailed. In fact, it’s very dense language even for a teacher to read.
They do something called unpacking the targets, or the standards. So we will actually sit down and talk about the math involved or what you would do with the reading. It’s very dense language. It definitely isn’t parent-friendly, and it’s not exactly teacher-friendly. It requires some thought.
People like to say that standards should say, “The student will be able to add and subtract 100.” That’s what our old standards said.
Well now, when you read it, the new standards have more filler words, more verbiage, there are a lot more parts to it.
Are there parts of it you are more critical of?
I have more experience looking at the math standards. I think it is good in that it is something that we didn’t have, so as a first grade or second grade teacher it specifically says I should be working on these types of skills with my students. The part I’m not that crazy about is some of the skills don’t seem developmentally appropriate.
What that means is that a child at that age might not be able to grasp that concept. It’s not that they can’t [later], it’s that their brain isn’t really ready for that. We should have high standards, but is it something that’s going to end up penalizing schools and penalizing teachers because students aren’t meeting this set of standards?
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Common Core proponents say the standards have nothing to do with testing. Is this true?
You have this set of standards that states are supposed to work under, so how do you find out if people are teaching them, and if kids are learning them? You have to test. Yes, I do think it’s all tied together.
It’s not just the tests, it’s the textbooks. In Wisconsin, especially in the district of Milwaukee where we’ve been implementing the Common Core standards, guess what: our textbooks don’t match the standards.
So what’s the first thing that happens? The publishers rush in and say “Hey, I have a textbook that matches the Common Core standards.” Well now the next part becomes, “I have a state test that matches the standards.”
How do you respond to the idea that teachers and kids just don’t like raising standards because it makes things harder, that we are holding back students by not pushing them?
As a teacher I have to say I don’t think we’ve ever been scared of hard work. Working, some of us with 35 kids in the class, and trying to get them to accomplish a singular task—hard work is not the scary part at all.
As a teacher, I worry about what it is doing to the kids. If I’m doing something that is not appropriate for them, or my whole day is spent pushing something that they are not getting because they are not ready to get it, that’s a concern for me.
As a parent, I would have the concern that, “So my kid is supposed to learn these things. Every kid is different. Maybe my kid doesn’t understand something this year, maybe they will understand it next year.
“What kind of effect will this have on my child? Are we talking about whether they go on to the next grade?” I would be concerned.
How do Common Core and the related assessments connect to race and class? How will they impact schools in low-poverty versus high-poverty areas?
In high-poverty schools more than anything, we already know those test scores and everything else—they don’t usually fare well. They’re usually the basis that people close schools and get rid of staff, so that’s always a fear.
The other part is, you’re putting all of these standards in place and that’s great, [but] you also have to recognize that there are children coming to school with a disadvantage. What are you doing to help support that?
And that usually ends up falling on the district, which usually doesn’t have a lot of money to support students or teachers. You’re going to end up with schools that are failing, now they are not going to meet the Common Core standards, and what are you going to do about it? Probably nothing but fire staff, maybe close a school—but it really hasn’t addressed any of the issues.
What would make a difference to increase the number of students meeting whatever standards are in place?
Good practice, and especially good practice in areas of high poverty, would be to have smaller class sizes.
It would be to provide extended learning days, tutoring, mentoring, to meet the needs of the child. To say, “I know that this child maybe has health issues, how am I going to assist the child with that?”
To just say, “We’ve got these standards here, and everyone is going to be able to meet them, and if they don’t then we have a faulty teacher or we have a faulty kid”… that’s not beneficial, it’s not going to help them, and really it’s just the same system we have now.
One of our concerns is that in Wisconsin, the state legislature was trying to say, “We are going to repeal the Common Core, we are going to write our own.” And I’m like, “Hold up, because as much as you may or may not like it, I don’t want you writing standards. You are not a teacher.”
Teachers need to have their hands on it. And it’s not something that can be done in a couple of months.
Some proponents have gone as far as to say we are holding back low-income students and students of color, and that Common Core standards will address that. How is that true or false?
Words on a page is not an education. Words on a page do not substitute for the fact that a kid from an impoverished area has a vocabulary thousands of words less than a child in an affluent area, when they are four years old.
That’s not going to fix that problem, it’s going to make it more of a glaring problem.
I'm thinking about the area I work in, it’s a very tough area to teach in. These kids have post-traumatic stress syndrome. We deal with kids who have seen a cousin get shot in front of them. And so education is not necessarily foremost. We have first graders who literally will tear apart your room because they are angry.
So I can have the standards. That’s not going to fix the final problem, which is a barrier to learning. | {
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Halvorson: Shutting down the national parks and arresting people and kicking people out of their homes, because they happened to be located within the boundaries of the national parks… Who was kicked out of their homes? Halvorson: There were – well, you’re familiar with all the various stories of private property. I don’t want to get into those details. I’m just citing some open source examples. I hope that’s not where this interview is going…
There’s a poll that came out last week I saw that 60 percent of people said that they wanted to clean house – including their own representative… Where was that poll from? I believe I saw it on Drudge Report.
I don't know where the tea party movement keeps finding these people, but it doesn't appear that well will be running dry anytime soon. Pennsylvania Republican Art Halvorson is looking to boot incumbent Bill Shuster for not being conservative enough, and boy howdy is he a piece of work I don't know what Halvorson means by "open source" in this context, but he appears to think it means "things I heard from crazy people."See above re: crazy people.
The interview is telling on a number of points. Halvorson is a tea party/goldbuggian true believer: He considers John Boehner a sellout, says that Paul Ryan was "perceived" to be "more conservative than he really is", and is convinced that shutting down the government would have worked, eventually, if only John Boehner had crafted a proper exit strategy. Or something. But he's still clever enough to hedge, when it comes to stating outright his preferred plans for hot-button programs like Medicare and the VA.
For those who might have been expecting the Republican Party to moderate themselves in the face of this last fiasco: There is zero evidence of that happening. Not a bit. The Cruz wing of the party and the hard-right are as convinced as ever that the problem was not a failure to judge American popular opinion on their parts, but insufficient radicalism on the part of their fellow Republicans. Halvorson here points to a poll showing horrific disapproval numbers for Congress as support for primaries against Republicans to replace them with farther-right representatives.
The only reason I'm skeptical of talk of a "Republican civil war" is that it implies two sides fighting against each other, and that's not happening. The more pragmatic (I won't say more "moderate", lets just call it "less loud") powers of the party made a big show earlier in the year about rebranding, but it died a quick and quiet death and there simply hasn't been any real pushback against the continued party radicalization. The crackpots are in charge. | {
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Firea a susținut din nou că ideală ar fi fost o alianță a PSD cu ALDE și ProRomânia pentru o candidatură comună la Cotroceni.
"Poate va veni și vremea mea. (...) O să respect decizia colegilor. Dacă ei nu cred în această variantă (candidatura sa - n.r.), este bine să respect decizia lor. Și eu sunt convinsă că odată cu acestă decizie colegii își vor asuma și rezultatul la prezidențiale, finalitatea lor", a declarat Firea.
Întrebată dacă nedesemnarea ei în cursa pentru Cotroceni înseamnă că PSD nu o iubește, Gabriela Firea a răspuns: "Nu neapărat. Dacă ai mei colegi nu consideră că varianta mea este cea corectă, nu le pot impune, dragostea cu de-a sila nu se poate".
Dăncilă a declarat, luni seară, că așteaptă până în 3 august un răspuns de la Călin Popescu Tăriceanu și de la Victor Ponta cu privire la susținerea unui candidat PSD la prezidențiale. Decizia are loc în urma discuției pe care liderul PSD a avut-o cu liderii ALDE și Pro România la Vila Lac.
Ponta a dezvăluit, luni seară, că premierul i-a propus să susţină candidatul PSD la alegerile prezidenţiale, iar el a spus că nu există un răspuns nici pozitiv, nici negativ, pentru că vrea să ştie care este "planul ca lucrurile să meargă bine". Ponta a apreciat, la TVR1, că la şedinţa Comitetului Executiv Naţional al PSD Viorica Dăncilă va fi desemnată drept candidatul la prezidenţiale. El a adăugat că dialogul va continua, "dacă este cazul", adăugând că un candidat susţinut de PSD, ALDE şi Pro România va intra în turul II al alegerilor prezidenţiale.
"În primul rând, doamna Dăncilă mi-a spus în particular ceea ce a spus şi în public, că ar vrea să susţinem toţi un singur candidat, dar, sigur, de la PSD. Domnul Tăriceanu spune: vreau să susţinem un singur candidat, pe domnia sa. Iar eu spun: explicaţi-mi de ce să fac acest lucru. Argumentul doamnei Dăncilă a fost ca să intre un candidat de stânga în turul II", a explicat Ponta, potrivit Agerpres.
Comitetul Executiv urmează să valideze propunerea, iar decizia finală de validare a candidatului va fi luată la congresul PSD din 3 august.Viorica Dăncilă a avut cale liberă după ce și primarul Capitalei, Gabriela Firea, rămasă fără susținere, și-a anunțat colegii în ședința Biroului Permanent Național că își retrage candidatura, potrivit unor surse din partid citate de Mediafax . Gabriela Firea a declarat, înaintea ședinței că dacă colegii săi vor considera că nu ea este varianta potrivită, atunci le va respecta decizia și speră ca odată cu această hotărâre ei să își asume și rezultatul de la alegerile prezidențiale.Viorica Dăncilă, care a cerut susținerea ALDE și ProRomânia pentru susținerea candidatului PSD la Cotroceni, spunea înaintea ședinței că orice candidatură trebuie să fie susținută de un vot în partid. ”Bineînțeles că sprijnul ALDE și ProRomânia este important, dar PSD este hotărât să meargă în aceste alegeri și nu numai să intre in turul doi, ci să le și câștige”, a spus liderul partidului. | {
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A GRANDFATHER spent three days driving around southern England, before he was found on Christmas Day, after his wife's flight was switched from Heathrow airport to Gatwick airport during last week's travel chaos.
Mohammed Bellazrak, 72, is believed to have clocked up nearly 2000 miles (3218km) as he desperately tried to find his way home after dropping off his wife at Gatwick on December 23.
What should have been a 120-mile (193km) journey lasting two-and-a-half hours became a 66-hour marathon. Mr Bellazrak ended up sleeping in his car before trying again and again to work out his route back to Trowbridge in Wiltshire.
He was eventually found on Christmas Day, still at the wheel of his Peugeot 307, when he triggered a police camera armed with number plate recognition and was flagged down.
Mr Bellazrak had driven his wife to Heathrow and then to Gatwick so that she could catch a flight to visit her family in Morocco. CCTV footage showed him leaving Gatwick at 8.00pm Thursday but he disappeared after that.
After his family contacted police, Thames Valley Police fed his car details into the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) computer and discovered that he had been in numerous towns including Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
Sergeant Jo Spencer, who led the hunt, said: “We contacted other forces with no success and then asked for the automatic number plate recognition systems to be activated to see if anyone spotted his car. We were surprised to discover that ANPR cameras had recorded him in Bracknell, Wokingham, Burnham and High Wycombe - all presumably attempts at finding his way from Gatwick to Wiltshire."
His ordeal finally ended at 2.00pm on Christmas Day when his car number plate activated an ANPR camera in a patrol car in Oxford.
Mr Bellazrak, who had left his mobile phone at home, said: “Three times I went to London and three times I went back to the airport.
“I was a little bit frightened because I would stop and ask for directions but nobody would give me any. They would just say that they didn’t know where I was going or I was going too far away. I had my sat-nav but I was still lost. It kept on taking me all over the place.
“I will never go out without my mobile phone again. I blame my sat-nav for what happened.” | {
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QUEBEC – Pauline Marois bid a tearful goodbye to politics on Wednesday, saying she has no regrets and that Quebecers will always fight to get a country.
In a political career that spanned more than 30 years, Marois held various cabinet positions before becoming premier in 2012 with a minority Parti Quebecois government.
Her stewardship of the province as Quebec’s first female premier would last just 18 months.
On Wednesday, she met with incoming premier Philippe Couillard, whose Liberals romped to victory in last week’s election with 70 of the province’s 125 seats.
The PQ was relegated to just 30 seats, prompting Marois to announce her political curtain call that night. Officially, she will remain PQ leader until a party meeting in early June when Stephane Bedard takes over.
The outgoing premier said she was very proud of her government’s accomplishments.
She said she was able to control government expenses, improve Quebec’s economy and defend the province’s interests over the last 18 months.
An emotional Marois had to wipe away tears and ask someone for a tissue as she read a statement and answered questions after her private meeting with Couillard.
“It’ll soon be seven years that I left my garden, after a short retirement, because I still wanted to serve Quebec,” she said.
“Since then, a lot has happened and, I think you know as well as I do, that it wasn’t all smooth sailing. But I don’t regret anything.”
Asked about the state of the sovereigntist movement, Marois said there will always be Quebecers fighting for a country.
“I think this project (sovereignty) is always an important necessary project for our nation and I am sure many leaders, many citizens will continue to fight to be a country one today. I don’t know when. I don’t know how.
“But one thing I know is that we (would) be in the best situation if we were independent. I am sure of that. We are different. We are a nation.” | {
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UPDATE: Pelosi's spokesman responds.
This weekend visit to Afghanistan did not include a stop in Egypt. (2/4) — Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) January 17, 2019
The President traveled to Iraq during the Trump Shutdown as did a Republican CODEL led by Rep. Zeldin. (4/4) — Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) January 17, 2019
***Original post***
President Trump sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday afternoon informing her an upcoming taxpayer funded, military escorted trip overseas has been postponed.
"Dear Madame Speaker. Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over. In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event it totally appropriate. I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement to end the Shutdown. Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative," President Trump wrote.
"I look forward to seeing you soon and even more forward to watching our open and dangerous Southern Border finally receive the attention, funding and security it so desperately deserves!" he concluded.
The trip was part of a larger congressional delegation through the Department of Defense and President Trump denied her military aircraft. According to Fox News, Pelosi was scheduled to leave at 3 p.m. eastern on Thursday afternoon. The letter was sent at 2:20 p.m. An Air Force bus is currently sitting outside House offices, waiting to take lawmakers to the airport. Many of them are on the bus.
Fox is told CapHill security officials got an emergency call from the Pentagon canceling the overseas trip due to shutdown. No one here knows if the trip is going to happen or not. Lots of confusion pic.twitter.com/eFCqsaNcGe — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 17, 2019
Yesterday Speaker Pelosi wrote a letter to President Trump suggesting his State of the Union Address should be postponed. In the letter, she lied about the Secret Service being incapable to provide adequate security for the event.
This is a developing story, stay tuned for updates. This post has been updated with additional information.
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WASHINGTON: While encouraging members of the BRICS alliance to continue playing a constructive role in stabilising the world, the United States reminded Pakistan on Wednesday that it “must change its approach” to terrorism.
At a recent meeting leaders of members of the alliance — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — called for an immediate end to violence in Afghanistan.
For the first time, BRICS termed militant groups allegedly based in Pakistan a regional security concern and called for their patrons to be held to account.
“We encourage the BRICS Forum to contribute constructively to global governance and stability,” said a spokesperson for the US State Department when asked to comment on the BRICS statement.
The US official also welcomed BRICS’ condemnation of North Korea’s recent nuclear test and then reminded Pakistan of the need to fight all militant groups operating in the South Asian region, including those that Washington claims are based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
“As the (Trump) administration has said, Pakistan must change its approach. We look to the Pakistani government to take decisive action against militant groups based in Pakistan that are a threat to the region,” the State Department added.
The groups mentioned in the BRICS statement included the Afghan Taliban, militant Islamic State group, Al Qaeda and its affiliates, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Hizbut Tahrir.
Some of them are based in Afghanistan and use their bases for launching attacks into Pakistan. On Dec 16, 2014, one of them — TTP — raided a school in Peshawar and killed 141 people, including 132 children.
Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2017 | {
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Connor McDavid played 66 junior games for the Erie Otters this season and seven more at the world junior championship. Even when the hockey stopped, there was more to do.
McDavid went to Quebec City for the CHL awards, Buffalo for the NHL scouting combine, Edmonton for a visit and then South Florida for the NHL draft. This week, he's back in Edmonton for the Oilers development camp, his first time on the ice in that orange and blue, and on Friday agreed to terms on his three-year entry-level contract.
The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oilers?src=hash">#Oilers</a> have agreed to terms with 2015 first-overall pick <a href="https://twitter.com/cmcdavid97">@cmcdavid97</a> on a three-year entry-level contract! <a href="http://t.co/D6wBFRcrrU">pic.twitter.com/D6wBFRcrrU</a> —@EdmontonOilers
Connor McDavid gets a max entry-level deal: $925,000 (which includes $92,500 signing bonus) in salary; up to $2.85M in performance bonuses. —@reporterchris
Amid all the excitement of a new chapter, McDavid's father is looking forward to his youngest son going home to Newmarket, Ont., next week and resuming life as a normal teenager.
"He's had such a busy schedule the last, oh gosh, I can't even tell you when he's had any real significant downtime," Brian McDavid said in a phone interview this week. "I'm really looking forward to next Tuesday when he gets back and he can sort of resume some semblance of a normal schedule, as normal as it ever gets for him where he can sort of be around, see his friends, get up to the cottage with us on the weekends."
McDavid has had a spotlight on him for years, which helped prepare the McDavid family for the circus that was coming. His father said he was fortunate to know some people who played in the NHL, so the whirlwind of events even after Connor's junior career wasn't a surprise.
"It sort of just goes with the territory," Brian McDavid said. "It's cool, mind you, I have to tell you that. It's very cool. But it's not shocking all the things that are happening."
Talked about as the next Sidney Crosby or Wayne Gretzky, McDavid has looked poised at every turn of this journey. Television cameras may have caught an unflattering look on his face when the Oilers won the draft lottery, but the reserved, genuine 18-year-old insisted that was no slight to the team lucky enough to draft him.
A couple of weeks ago, the McDavid family got a tour of Rexall Place and the new Rogers Arena, which is set to open for the 2015-16 season. Brian McDavid said the new facilities are "outstanding."
Edmonton's downtown is on the rise just in time for the "Next One" to burst onto the scene. Under new president Bob Nicholson, general manager Peter Chiarelli, coach Todd McLellan and with a revamped roster, the Oilers might be, too.
"Connor's probably said it better than anybody: There's no bad places to play in the NHL," Brian said. "He's realizing his dream, and he'll be treated well and he'll live in a good place. Yeah I think he's going to be more than fine."
There have been rumours about McDavid living with former Oilers captain Ryan Smyth. His father said Tuesday there have been some "cursory conversations" about that but nothing finalized.
"That'd be really cool," Connor said minutes after he was drafted.
This week, McDavid flew from Toronto to Edmonton with Canadian world junior teammate Darnell Nurse, the Oilers' first-round pick in 2013 and top defensive prospect.
"Darnell's a little bit older, and he's been out there," Brian McDavid said. "He knows the lay of the land. It's all great from our perspective."
This process has been mostly great for the McDavid family, Brian said, with couple bumps and a little stress along the way. That's to be expected, but he added that Connor's on-ice play has made everything so easy.
"He just had such a terrific year that whatever happened was outstanding," he said.
The best may be yet to come. After another summer of training and preparing, McDavid has training camp in September and then should make his NHL debut in October.
Just as Connor was careful to never publicly acknowledge he'd be the first pick or joining the Oilers, his family never got any team gear until he was handed the No. 97 jersey on stage at the draft.
Right now his father wants him to get some rest. But the next step is also not far away.
"Long-term of course I'm looking forward to him finally getting started," Brian said. "And when I say finally, I always knock on wood when I say that because we're a little bit superstitious.
"But I'm anxious for him to finally realize his dream and play in the league and hopefully be the kind of player he's always envisioned he was going to be."
McDavid's new contract is worth approximately US$11.325 million in total — $925,000 per year plus bonuses — the maximum allowed for an entry-level contract. | {
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About
Maccabees and Menorahs is a collaborative game where 2-5 players retell the story of Hanukkah. One person will be the Nagid (leader) who guides the group through the story. The other players will take on the roles of the Maccabees. When an outcome is uncertain, players spin the dreidel to find out what happens.
This game is designed to be played over eight short (15 minute) sessions, perhaps after lighting the menorah each night. You could also play it in one sitting.
This game is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. That means you're free to share and remix it as long as you keep it free and share it under the same license. | {
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Until recently, buying a Windows Phone probably meant buying a Nokia phone. But it doesn't need to be that way. HTC has just turned its flagship Android smartphone, the HTC One (M8), into the best all-purpose Windows Phone you can buy.
Shedding its Google coil and migrating to Windows, The HTC One (M8) may be the first flagship phone in history to double-dip on its operating system. But more importantly, it tests the faithfulness of iOS and Android devotees who might be willing to switch to the Windows Phone way of life if only "the right device came along." Does that describe you?
What Is It?
In 2013, HTC dropped jaws with the original HTC One, also known as the M7, primarily because of its design. Machined from a single solid block of aluminum, we lauded the M7 for its stunning appearance and performance. A year later, HTC notched up the screen size and updated the specs with the HTC One M8, creating one of the best smartphones you can buy.
Now, that very same M8 is available for Windows Phone on Verizon for $100 on-contract. (It will also come to AT&T and T-Mobile once that exclusivity expires.) Basically, the M8 for Windows is the same as its Android twin, despite a few branding birthmarks. And it's not just their similar facades. The phones run on the same Snapdragon 801 processor, with the same 4 UltraPixel camera, same lovely 1080p display, same BoomSound speakers, same battery, same everything underneath the hood. But after you press the power button, it's all Windows, whether you like it or not.
The M8 may represent a big moment for Windows Phone. HTC's design chops could possibly entice people to finally purchase a Microsoft device. According to IDC, only 2.5 percent of smartphone owners worldwide have a Windows Phone in their pocket, and that's not likely to change so long as foreign-looking Nokia phones are the only possible choices. Here's the plan: Put Windows Phone on a device that some may recognize as an Android phone—or just recognize as well-designed—and see what happens.
Here is What Happens
Powering up that same great M8 but seeing the Windows Phone logo is a strange sight. In some ways, Microsoft's OS makes me feel more at home than Android. Maybe it's Windows Phone's highly customizable home screen and Live Tiles—those active little icons constantly displaying relevant news, weather, and social media happenings— that makes the One feel more personable to me. HTC's Android skin, Sense 6.0, feels less lively and aesthetically in sync with the One's aluminum exterior. As far as I'm concerned, Windows Phone just looks slicker on the One.
Until the One M8, Windows Phone woes also extended to its monotonous hardware design. Luckily, this is now the best looking Windows Phone you can buy. The Lumia 930 (Icon), Nokia's current flagship, looks bulky and simple compared to the M8's elegance. Plus, the phone's aluminum frame and curved back makes it incredibly comfortable to hold.
That doesn't help if it's a gigantic pain to use, but I actually found that Microsoft's third-place OS doesn't require as painful a transition as it did just 12 months ago. Now equipped with its own virtual assistant, Cortana, and a Swype-like keyboard, the operating system feels more competitive with Android than ever before.
Strangely, Android still feels a little bit snappier than Windows Phone on the exact same hardware. Windows tile animations just take a little bit longer than the competition. But it's not something I noticed until I sat down with both devices side-by-side for an extended period, and it wasn't much of an annoyance.
What might annoy you is the lack of app selection, even though Windows Phone is doing better than before. With the HTC One for Windows in hand, I did the ceremonial Downloading Of The Apps as one does when getting a new smartphone. Twitter: check. Crunchyroll: perfect. Spotify: great. Instagram… Beta? Well, that's weird but okay. Where is SoundCloud? Flickr is MIA. The Windows Phone email client is also kind of terrible if you're coming from a multiple Gmail existence, and I wasn't able to find an unofficial client that worked well. Mobile work correspondence just became much more taxing for me, and for many that's reason enough to look elsewhere.
And, as always, prepare for app envy every time you read about a wonderful new app in the pages of your favorite gadget blog. "Available for iOS and Android" is still the boilerplate that developers tack onto their app store releases, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. While the Windows Phone community is doing a decent job of playing catch-up, I don't really want to settle for unofficial clones of many programs I want. If you plan on signing up for Windows Phone (and still, there's many reasons you might like it), just know that you will walk down a road with fewer doors.
Despite housing the same 2600mAh battery, HTC claims the Windows Phone M8 actually gets two hours more talk time. Since I didn't have anyone to talk to for 22 hours straight, I can't confirm that, but I did get through a day and a half of mixed usage on a full charge. Since I habitually forget to plug in my phone overnight, that was just about perfect.
When HTC announced the M8 for Windows, the company also re-introduced the Dot View Case, a neatly designed wrap cover that displays information like weather, battery life, and calendar events through its pixelated design. With Windows Phone, you can launch the Cortana voice assistant even when the case is closed. The process takes some getting used to, but after a couple of days I was returning a Cortana Activation Success Rate — which I totally just made up — of about 90 percent. Not bad.
Unfortunately, you just can't do a lot with Cortana that way. You can only issue one command through the case before she's done listening. For example, if you ask "Cortana, what is the weather like today?" she'll joyfully give you an answer. But if you were to follow up with something like, "Do I have any appointments?" she'll just sit there and make you feel like an idiot. Slowly, the nuisance begins to outweigh the convenience. I ditched the case entirely.
Windows Phone Refined, But Not Redefined
The HTC One M8 may be a solid Windows Phone, but it isn't a universally better one. For one thing, Lumia phones with AMOLED screens make pitch-black backgrounds blend seamlessly into the bezel, whereas the M8 for Windows' IPS LCD keeps that screen disappointingly visible. For another, the Nokia Lumia 930 absolutely mops the floor with HTC in the photography department. One of the prime reasons to get a Windows Phone is to have access to a Lumia camera and applications, and HTC's weird Duo Camera just doesn't cut it for me. HTC isn't bad, but the best Lumias make me want to throw away my point-and-shoot cameras.
Top: HTC One M8 for Windows; Bottom: Nokia Lumia 930
By Android standards, the Duo Camera was just OK, and it's painfully obvious when pitted against the Nokia Lumia 930's superior 20-megapixel PureView sensor. In comparison, the HTC One M8 can't match the 930's color reproduction and contrast. The red door looks much more red and the blue sky is actually blue, not a strange aqua color. The Lumia 930 also has a dedicated physical shutter button, and I also never noticed how essential it was until it was gone. During a particularly rowdy moshing session at a punk show, I had to fumble with my Dot View Case, type in a passcode, find the right Live Tile, and then line up my shot. By then, the song ended. A shutter button would've helped me avoid stinging disappointment.
HTC gets an A for effort for keeping all the Duo Camera's features in the Windows Phone transition. If you're not familiar, "Duo" refers to the camera's dual-lens setup that captures not only the normal flat image, but also how far away objects are in the scene. This allows for debatably useful features like Dimension Plus, which distorts photos to give them a 3D-like effect you can see when you tilt the phone back and forth. Still, that experience only lives on your phone. It's just a neat trick to show friends. More useful is UFocus, which can artificially apply camera blur for a really neat bokeh effect, but it only works well if there's a dominant subject in the foreground.
However, HTC does brings some of its own apps to Windows Phone which are quite welcome. We get Blinkfeed, a excellent replacement for Microsoft's stock news aggregator, which I permanently removed from the home screen as soon as possible. This app blends in well with Windows Phone due to its Live Tile support and tile-like design within the app, which always felt a little misplaced on Android. It can also integrate with your social media accounts, making more of a one-stop shop for news. The One M8's included IR blaster can also turn your smartphone into a TV remote with HTC's Sense TV app, a feature uncommon for Windows Phone in general.
Like
Have I mentioned that this phone looks really great? I've fallen in love with the Windows Phone customizable home screen and Live Tiles set up, and they fit this phone so well. Somehow the marriage of HTC's physical design and Microsoft's elegant mobile OS made the overall experience more enjoyable than navigating yet another Nokia phone. Although the app drawer and email client need some attention, when I look at the HTC One M8 for Windows I see an all-around great Windows Phone that shows it can hang tough with Android.
I also cannot stress enough that dual BoomSound front-firing speakers are the best speakers on any smartphone ever, with the possible exception of the new Moto X (which I've yet to test). Often I'd have to cup the end of my Nexus 5 with my hand (and my iPhone 5 before that) so I could actually hear videos. The One makes that hand origami unnecessary. I still have no idea why more manufacturers don't put speakers on the front of the device. It hurts my brain just thinking about it.
When I first turned on this device, I bemoaned having to set up my front-page Live Tiles, dig into the Windows Phone Store to get what apps—official or unofficial—that I could, and reorient myself to a statistically third-place OS. Now, only a week later, I don't want to say goodbye to this handset.
No Like
Ultimately, I will leave the M8 for Windows behind. For all the great additions HTC brought over to Windows Phone, the camera is just mediocre—much like it was for Android—and the camera app has even less functionality here. Compared to Lumia, the HTC One falls short in both editing options and quality. There's also no quick access to the camera app, like with the 930's physical button, or even a gesture on the lock screen.
Then there's the app problem, but at this point, that's just a permanent addition in the fine print when you sign up for Windows Phone. It's just a part of the deal. For me, it's a dealbreaker.
Should You Buy It?
If you like apps? No. Then again, if you do like apps I'm not sure why you're reading a Windows Phone review in the first place. But if you want eye-candy hardware, wrapped in a well-designed OS, then this phone could be a great pocket companion.
The only other Windows Phone in the running is the Lumia 930 as it offers comparable performance at the same-ish size. Luckily, both appeal to different people. The 930 and other Nokia high-end phones are much more friendly for dedicated camera users, folks who want higher-than-average quality in their photos. But if you're mostly slapping on Instagram filters and posting to social, the One M8 for Windows will do a fine job.
One M8 for Windows Specs
Network: Verizon (T-Mobile and AT&T coming soon)
Verizon (T-Mobile and AT&T coming soon) OS: Windows Phone 8.1.1
Windows Phone 8.1.1 CPU: 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801
2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 Screen: 5-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD display (441 PPI)
5-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD display (441 PPI) RAM: 2GB
2GB Storage: 32GB
32GB Camera: 4 "UltraPixel" rear / 5MP front
4 "UltraPixel" rear / 5MP front Battery: 2600 mAh Li-Po
2600 mAh Li-Po Dimensions: 5.76 x 2.78 x 0.37 in
5.76 x 2.78 x 0.37 in Weight: 5.64 ounces
5.64 ounces Price: $100 (32GB) on contract with Verizon | {
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Nonessential costs are probably getting in the way of your financial goals.
With so many enticing products and foods out there, it's easy to lose track of how you're spending your money. Here are some tips to maximize the efficiency of your monthly spending.
Identify your essentials. Those must-haves should include food, clothing, housing and insurance. But it should also account for emergencies and retirement savings.
Aim to have six to nine months' worth of expenses saved up in case an emergency crops up.
Rank your nonessential costs in order of how important they are to your quality of life. Then, cut the categories that fall on the bottom off your list.
Consider scaling back on other areas of discretionary spending such as travel by taking shorter trips.
Once you've made sure you have set aside what you need for essential expenses, identify what nonessentials you want to spend on and why.
The average millennial spends about $838 a month on unnecessary expenses. Baby boomers are even more likely to make dining, vacation and specialty coffee a priority. But, in contrast to millennials, they tend to spend more on another priority: gifts for friends and family. It's important to keep in mind that what may seem like a necessary purchase may not always be!
Also See:
Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns. | {
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Elderly begin 2-day sit-in against police violence
Elderly begin 2-day sit-in against police violence
Dozens of them plan to camp out under a footbridge adjacent to the police headquarters. Photo: RTHK
Several dozen elderly people have launched a two-day sit-in outside the police headquarters in Wan Chai, to voice their discontent over what they call the force’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters over the past few months.
The group plans to camp out under a footbridge outside the building, and many of the participants have prepared floor mats, hats and masks. Some have also put up banners and posters that say ‘guard our future’ and ‘five demands, not one less’.
One of the protesters, 63-year-old Shiu, told RTHK that young people have made enormous sacrifices to fight for a better Hong Kong, and it’s time for senior citizens to back them up.
“What else can you do? I mean looking at the increasing violence coming from the police? The young people are brave enough to stand in front of the riot police and stand in front of the bullets and batons and this and that. I mean for us, even if we are caught by the police because of an illegal gathering, I don’t mind”, he said.
“The young people have already sacrificed a lot, it is about time for us, the senior citizens in Hong Kong to come forward to take up part of the responsibility from the young people”. | {
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You’re going to just LOVE the new Europe!
Germany, a country of 82 million, welcomed from 800,000 to over one million migrants and unvetted “refugees” in 2015.
Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed close over 280,000 migrants in 2016.
In July 2017 German Chancellor Angela Merkel shut down the idea of creating upper limits on refugees entering Germany.
TRENDING: Black Lives Matter Activist Wearing 'Justice for Breonna Taylor' Shirt Walked into a Louisville Bar and Murdered Three People
Meanwhile migrant sex attacks and violence has soared in Germany since Merkel implemented her grand scheme to flood the country with third world migrants.
Now there’s hope for German women!
Safety pants with a loud alarm are being sold in Germany.
The Voice of Europe reported: | {
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Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick reveals he told the Football Association not to pick him any more after finding England duty "depressing".
Watch the full interview on the Premier League Show. | {
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Frank Molinaro celebrates after beating two-time world medalist Sayed Mohammadi of Iran (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com) Frank Molinaro celebrates after beating two-time world medalist Sayed Mohammadi of Iran (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)
James Green was undefeated at the Freestyle World Cup (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com) James Green was undefeated at the Freestyle World Cup (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)
3rd Place Match
Pool Final
LOS ANGELES -- Despite some amazing performances, the U.S. freestyle wrestling team lost two matches in the final day of the World Cup to finish in fourth place.Against Iran and Georgia, both matches ended with each team winning four bouts, but with USA earning fewer classification points and losing on criteria.There was a palpable anticipation at the Forum in Inglewood heading into the matchup between USA and Iran Sunday morning. Iran had won the last four World Cup titles and was a heavy favorite going into this weekend.The likelihood of Iran winning Pool B and advancing to the final became even greater when it was announced earlier this week that two members of USA's freestyle team would not be making the event. Two-time world bronze medalist Tervel Dlagnev had been battling injuries and standing Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion Jordan Burroughs stayed in Nebraska with his wife to witness the delivery of his daughter, Ora.Without these two starters, it seemed like USA would struggle with success this weekend, but a strong first-day performance gave hope to USA Wrestling fans that they could stand atop the podium.Against Iran, the classification points came out to 17-15. The meet was decided at heavyweight where Olympic champion Jake Varner bumped up to 125 kilos and couldn't defeat Iran's Parviz Hadi, currently ranked 4th in the world at heavyweight.The meet was filled with back and forth action and exciting wrestling throughout. At 57 kilos, Daniel Dennis held a 2-1 lead over 2013 World Champ Hassan Rahimi, who remained composed and scored three takedowns second period to win 7-2.Masoud Esmaeeilpour earned four step-out points against Tony Ramos in the first period to go on to an 8-2 victory.Team USA earned an upset at 65 kilos when Frank Molinaro overcame a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 over two time-world medalist Sayed Mohammadi. Mohammadi is currently ranked seventh in the world."At that point (after the first period) I was a little bit nervous," said Molinaro. "I was like 'I'm too far behind. What am I going to do here?' But it comes down to what are you fighting for?"When asked how he scored the two takedowns, Molinaro said."He stopped A. He stopped B. He stopped C. So I went to D."USA tied up the dual meet score 2-2 with a 5-2 win by James Green over Mostafa Hosseinkhani. The bout was tied 2-2, but Green was losing on criteria. He forced the action and got a shot clock point. When Hosseinkhani came after him in the closing seconds, Green countered and put the match away."If I kept moving and clearing ties, I knew I could open him up," Said Green. "It's not really a strategy, it's just that you've got to keep marinating the guy. Wear that guy down, open him up and you get the takedowns."After a win by Iran at 74 kilos, USA tied up the team score again when J'den Cox beat No. 5 Ranked Alireza Karimi 6-2. Cox gave up the opening takedown, but kept his cool."I just thought about it in compartments," said Cox. "I got taken down. The next thing is let's not give up four, only two. Get to your shot. I'm really good with my legs. I'm really good on defense. I waited for an opening for the last takedown and I took it."USA followed up Cox's win with and 8-1 victory by standing World Champ Kyle Snyder, but after that match, even though USA had a 4-3 match lead, the classification points were tied 14-14 meaning that everything would come down to heavyweight.Against Georgia in the bronze-medal match, Daniel Dennis opened the scoring against standing world champ Vladimer Khinchegashvili with a takedown followed by two gut wrenches. Behind 6-0, Khinchegashvili came back with a takedown and turn followed by a sequence in which Dennis got pinned.Ramos fell behind early against Beka Lomtadze but hit a wild four-point throw late in the second period to seemingly go ahead 5-4. A challenge and video review resulted in Lomtadze also scoring two points on the sequence, which gave him the win.Needing a win desperately, Team USA witnessed a remarkable comeback from Frank Molinaro as he defeated Zurabi Lakobishvili 4-4 on criteria."I just think my persistence and being on him and got me that win," said Molinaro. "Not any particular skill. Just working hard."Molinaro finished 4-0 on the weekend.Georgia's Davit Tlashadze, ranked No. 6 in the world, had been impressive at 70 kilos in the first three sessions but USA's James Green plowed through him with a 10-0 technical fall."A lot of Europeans wrestle each other," said Green. "They don't get to wrestle guys like me that move around and bang on their heads. He wasn't used to it so I took advantage of it."'Alex Dieringer rebounded from a tough loss in the morning to win 10-1 over Jakob Makarashvili, ranked 14th in the world."I just kept of the pressure the whole match," said Dieringer. "Sometimes foreigners break when you do that."Despite a late match rally, 86 kilos wrestler J'den Cox was unable to overcome a 4-0 first period deficit, and suffered his first loss of the weekend to Dato Marsagishvili 7-4."When J'den is moving, he's got some magic in him," said U.S. coach Bruce Burnett. "But that guy tied him up. And he got started a little bit late."World champ Kyle Snyder electrified the crowd with a takedown in the last five seconds to beat Elizbar Odikadze 3-3 on criteria."I've been there a couple times this year," said Synder. "It kind of stinks to be in that position, but I'm getting more used to it, wrestling tough guys."The win put Team USA up 4 matches to 3, but Georgia had the number one ranked heavyweight in the world, Geno Petriashvili, who defeated American Zack Rey 6-2. The win gave Georgia the victory 17-16 on criteria."We've got to get better," said Burnett. "We got outsmarted in some of those matches. But at the same time we had some great performances. Right now we've got about 69 days to get ready for Rio. If you don't learn from this and you make the same mistakes again, then shame on you."57 kilos: Vladimer Khinchegashvili (Georgia) fall Daniel Dennis (United States), 2:3261 kilos: Beka Lomtadze (Georgia) dec. Tony Ramos (United States), 8-565 kilos: Frank Molinaro (United States) dec. Zurab Iakobishvili (Georgia), 4-470 kilos: James Green (United States) tech. fall David Tlashadze (Georgia), 10-074 kilos: Alex Dieringer (United States) dec. Yakob Makarashvili (Georgia), 10-186 kilos: Dato Marsigashvili (Georgia) dec. J'den Cox (United States), 7-497 kilos: Kyle Snyder (United States) dec. Elizbar Odikadze (Georgia), 3-3125 kilos: Geno Petriashvili (Georgia) dec. Zack Rey (United States), 6-257 kilos: Hassan Rahimi (Iran) dec. Daniel Dennis (United States), 7-261 kilos: Masoud Esmaeilpourjouybari (Iran) dec. Tony Ramos (United States), 8-265 kilos: Frank Molinaro (United States) dec. Sayed Mohammadi (Iran), 4-370 kilos: James Green (United States) dec. Moustafa Hosseinkhani (Iran), 5-274 kilos: Hassan Yazdanicharati (Iran) tech. fall Alex Dieringer (United States), 10-086 kilos: J'den Cox (United States) dec. Alireza Karimimachiani (Iran), 6-297 kilos: Kyle Snyder (United States) dec. Abbas Tahan (Iran), 8-1125 kilos: Parviz Hadi (Iran) dec. Jake Varner (United States), 3-1 | {
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Google’s Play Store was first released five years ago today, on March 6th, 2012. To celebrate, Google released a roundup of the best selling apps, games, movies, music, and books in the US since its launch.
If you’ve consumed any culture or downloaded an app in the last five years, the results probably won’t surprise you. The most installed apps are topped by a seemingly obvious list of popular social networks, and while top songs look like a complication of the biggest radio earworms from the last half-decade. Notably, many of the songs, albums, and movies are all recent releases, which speaks both to the popularity of that content, but also to increased Android growth (and therefore, Play Store usage) in recent years. It’s an interesting look back at how we consume media as a whole over the past half-decade.
The full list of the top Play Store content is included below:
Top Installed Games (does not count those pre-installed on Android devices)
Top Installed Apps (does not count those pre-installed on Android devices)
Top Selling Songs
Top Selling Albums
Top Selling Movies
Top Selling Books | {
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In December 1941, the U.S. suffered one of the most infamous failures of national intelligence in history. Seventy-five years later (almost to the anniversary of Pearl Harbor itself) President-elect Trump has surprisingly trained his rhetorical fire on the U.S. intelligence community itself.
The most recent development in this row – and surely not the last – is Trump’s contempt for the president’s daily briefing. "I'm a smart person," the president-elect said during an interview on Fox News Sunday. "I don't have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years.” He has apparently only received four such briefings.
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It is tempting to see Trump’s recent statement as yet another provocation from an individual who is painfully unaware of himself. But this is too simplistic a read. Trump’s statement could be actually read as a wake-up call to the U.S. intelligence community to provide deep insights and creative interpretations of reality rather just information or news.
Trump’s statement is reminiscent of a critique made by the late Israeli leader Shimon Peres regarding Israel’s intelligence community. Reflecting on his years as prime minister, he said: “I read the intelligence reports the way I read The Economist, Le Monde or the New York Times.” Mr. Peres’s argument was that the intelligence community should humbly provide a clear and simple picture of reality rather than interpret it – let alone make actionable recommendations to decision-makers.
Trump takes the completely opposite position: In an era of information overload where one can consume the most up-to-date information via smartphone, one does not need another news agency or “presidential newspaper” to provide intelligence. This is especially true when dealing with decision-makers who are concerned with strategic-level challenges: What they need isn’t just more data, but someone to help them sift through oceans of information and help them make sense of reality. They need a partner – not another data supplier.
What Trump expresses is a progressive approach to the role of intelligence in national security. Regrettably, intelligence agencies are still directed by a conservative approach in which they attempt to merely present a clear and unbiased picture of reality.
The foundations of this approach were set out in 1949 by Sherman Kent in his influential book Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy. In that book, Kent articulated the concept of the “intelligence cycle,” which sees the intelligence establishment as a “producer” of intelligence products (i.e., reports) and the decision-maker as a passive “consumer” thereof. Almost 70 years after publication, this basic dichotomy between the intelligence producer and the decision-making consumer remains the popular expression of a well-functioning intelligence community.
Intelligence agencies would appear to have an inherent advantage over news agencies when it comes to information. The former may have access to unique and intimate information the latter does not possess. But the world has changed. One might rightly argue that news agencies – and even members of the general public – often have access to more timely and accurate information than do intelligence agencies. Just imagine the extensive production process of such intelligence briefs: Until they are presented to the reader, there is a good chance that most of the information is no longer relevant or accurate.
In this day and age, most strategic-level issues aren’t resolved around secrets that need to be revealed but around mysteries that need to be solved. Secrets indeed usually require state resources and apparatuses to be revealed, but mysteries require something else – i.e., sense-making. This requires collaboration, brainstorming and structured discussion – all enriched with information but which produce higher-order insights.
This in particular is what Trump needs and what the powerful U.S. intelligence community could provide: a partner to (a) help the White House understand deep underwater currents, (b) analyze the aspirations, motivations and limitations of strategic-level actors, and (c) design successful policy and strategy in that light. Strategy formulation should be a joint operation led by the policymaker in which intelligence plays a unique role, presenting analysis and providing strategic insights.
It is therefore better to read Trump’s statements not as a surprise attack but rather as an early warning should the U.S. intelligence community like to be relevant during this administration. To shape and influence U.S. grand strategy, it needs to move away from its own perception as an information supplier towards being a partner in an ongoing collaborative process of knowledge development.
Dr. Shay Hershkovitz is chief strategy officer at Wikistrat, Inc. and a political science professor at Tel Aviv University specializing in intelligence studies. He is also a former IDF intelligence officer whose book, "Aman Comes To Light," deals with the history of the Israeli intelligence community.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill. | {
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Last Friday, only hours after the terrorist attack in central Stockholm, police found themselves pelted by rocks in the city’s largely immigrant Tensta neighbourhood. The following evening, officers were once again attacked, this time in Hammarkullen in Gothenburg. On Sunday, a familiar story: rioters aimed Molotov cocktails and a fire bomb at police as unrest broke out in the area. In the days following the truck attack, Swedish newspapers had been full of defiant headlines: ‘Stockholm stands united’ and ‘Love conquers all.’ But the subsequent violence put paid to much of that: ‘Unity’ and ‘love’ are, for many Swedes, not the words that spring instantly to mind.
Much is still unknown of Rakhmat Akilov, who has admitted to driving the truck; what is clear is that he is an Uzbek national who was ordered to leave Sweden after his asylum application was rejected last summer. Police listed him as officially ‘wanted’ on February 27 – but only after he had already disappeared.
And he is not alone. For Akilov belongs to a growing population of illegal residents in Sweden – in some estimates, as many as 75 per cent of failed asylum seekers who are due to be expelled by police – who have simply vanished underground. According to the Swedish Border Police, around 12,500 are missing, while the Swedish Migration Agency says it expects another 50,000 to go to ground in the next four years.
Why is it that the Swedish police is having such difficulties in sending back illegals? One reason is chronic understaffing: in Stockholm, 20 border police officers are expected to search for 4,000 missing immigrants, an impossible task.
Another is the lack of political support. Four years ago, a campaign to identify illegal immigrants in the capital, including ID checks in its subway, was met by huge protests from opinion makers and politicians, who argued that internal immigration controls were inherently immoral or even racist. Sweden’s Social Democratic minister of justice, Morgan Johansson – chairman of the Parliamentary Justice Committee at the time – even claimed the government should give the police directives to chase criminals instead of undocumented migrants. ‘Only four per cent of home burglaries are solved,’ he said. ‘If I were to decide, the police would prioritise such crimes instead.’
Thirdly, Sweden’s previous centre-right government, led by the Moderate Party, introduced reforms giving illegal immigrants additional financial incentives to stay in the country, including the right to tax-funded healthcare and schooling. They also brought in a somewhat schizophrenic approach to the problem: those being hunted by police could, at the same time, be granted welfare payments to support their stay in Sweden. Akilov is a father of four. If his children are in Sweden – which is not yet known – it means that the family has the right to live on taxpayers’ money, something that has outraged many Swedes. But the Moderate Party appears to have forgotten its role in this mess. Instead, its current leader, Anna Kinberg Batra, tweeted on Monday: ‘If one is not allowed to be in Sweden, one should be sent away. If that had worked, the 39-year-old [Akilov] would not have been on Drottninggatan on Friday.’
If the government has repeatedly failed to address the problem of Sweden’s underground problem, so too has it failed to take seriously the threat posed by jihadism. Sweden is one of Europe’s leading per capita exporters of Isis fighters; unlike Norway, it is not illegal here to be a member of a terrorist organisation, and any attempt to make it so have been defeated with reference to freedom of association. As a consequence, returning Swedish Isis fighters cannot be prosecuted unless it can be proved they have committed war crimes during their time abroad. It means the Swedish Security Service is currently monitoring some 150 returning jihadists – with little or no possibility of taking further action. And only last week, the prime minister was forced to remove responsibility for Sweden’s policies against extremism from Alice Bah Kuhnke, the minister of culture and democracy, after she appeared on TV praising a programme for receiving returning Isis fighters in the city of Umeå. There is no such programme.
Then there is the question of accountability. In recent years, a number of ministers have had to resign because of minor transgressions in their personal lives – the education minister for drink-driving; another minister for failing to pay her TV licence – but when a whole policy area fails, no one is expected to quit.
That could all be changing. If the poll numbers of the Sweden Democrats (SD) –– Sweden’s anti-establishment, anti-immigration party –– are anything to go by, they give a good estimate of the discontent among voters. The SD, who did not enter the Swedish parliament until 2010, is currently the second biggest party. After Friday's attack, Sweden is now a divided country, both socially as well as politically.
Paulina Neuding, a co-founder of the Freedom Rights Project, is a columnist with the Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten | {
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Wie deutsche Institutionen den Zugang zu wissenschaftlichen Artikeln revolutionieren wollen
Wer wissenschaftlich arbeitet oder einfach nur interessiert ist, der kennt das Problem: Außerhalb von Universitätsnetzen oder großen Bibliotheken verstecken sich viele wissenschaftliche Artikel hinter einer Paywall – und zwar einer sehr preisintensiven. Schuld daran sind drei große Verlage Wiley, Elsevier und SpringerNature neben einigen kleineren Verlage den Markt quasi dominieren. Aber auch wissenschaftliche Institutionen müssen zahlen. Jährlich fließen Unsummen von Universitäten und Bibliotheken an diese Verlage. Lizenzgebühren machen inzwischen einen Großteil der Ausgaben solcher Institutionen aus. Ein Konsortium aus 150 deutschen Universitäten, Bibliotheken und Forschungseinrichtungen möchten dies nicht mehr hinnehmen und arbeiten daran, den Zugang zu wissenschaftlichen Artikeln zu revolutionieren.
Lizenzen kosten Bibliotheken pro Jahr mehrere Milliarden US-Dollar
Auch wenn es immer mehr Open-Access-Publikationen gibt, nutzen auch weiterhin Tausende wissenschaftlicher Zeitschriften ein Lizenzmodell. Weltweit zahlen akademische Bibliotheken pro Jahr etwa 7,6 Milliarden US-Dollar an Lizenzgebühren für den Zugang zu 1,5 – 2 Millionen Artikeln. Umgerechnet sind das zwischen 3800 und 5000 Euro pro Artikel – so schätzt die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Diese Mittel finden sich dann im Umsatz von wissenschaftlichen Verlagen wie Wiley und SpringerNature wieder. Der größte Nutznießer ist jedoch Elsevier. „Etwa 60 Prozent unseres Budgets geht inzwischen an diese drei Verlage. So kann es nicht weitergehen“, so Andreas Degkwitz, der die Bibliothek der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin leitet.
Das „Publish and Read“-Modell
Der Vorschlag des Konsortium namens Projekt DEAL ist einfach: Für jeden Artikel, dessen Erstautor an einer deutschen Universität oder einer deutschen Forschungseinrichtung beschäftigt ist, würde eine bestimmte Summe an die Verlage fällig. Diese Artikel wären dann weltweit verfügbar. Im Gegenzug erhalten die deutschen Institutionen Zugang zu den Online-Inhalten der Verlage. Im Ergebnis wären die zu zahlenden Summen deutlich geringer als die aktuellen Ausgaben für die Lizenzen.
Die entsprechenden Verhandlungen laufen bereits seit mehreren Monaten. SpringerNature und Wiley scheinen dem Modell offen gegenüberzustehen. Beide Verlage haben bereits ähnliche Deals in den Niederlanden gemacht. Der momentane Stand der Verhandlungen sieht eine Gebühr von 1300 bis 2000 Euro vor.
Die Verhandlungen mit Elsevier gestalten sich dagegen schwieriger. Der Verlag ist unter den drei Hauptakteuren der größte, ihm drohen daher auch die meisten Verluste. Elsevier ist grundsätzlich damit einverstanden, dass deutsche Autoren ihre Artikel über eine Gebühr frei verfügbar machen, ist aber nicht bereit, für den Preis Zugang zu den eigenen Inhalten zu gewähren.
Deutsche Universitäten machen Druck
Es gibt noch eine Bedingung, die Elsevier bitter aufstößt: Die Vereinbarung soll öffentlich sein, was dem bisherigen Modell entgegenläuft, Lizenzvereinbarungen geheim zu halten. Transparenz ist dem deutschen Konsortium wichtig und erhöht den Wettbewerbsdruck. In den Niederlanden sind diese Vereinbarungen bereits öffentlich, was enthüllte, dass der Zugang zu Artikeln von Elsevier deutlich teurer als bei der Konkurrenz ist.
Bisher führten ähnliche Verhandlungen in anderen europäischen Ländern stets dazu, dass die Universitäten und Bibliotheken Zugeständnisse machen mussten. Projekt Deal möchte das nicht, und ist notfalls auch bereit, komplett ohne eine Vereinbarung aus den Verhandlungen zu gehen. Mehrere Universitäten sowie das Robert-Koch-Institut haben angekündigt, die Ende des Jahres auslaufenden Lizenzverträge nicht zu verlängern. Sollte diese Drohung Wirklichkeit werden, müsste der Online-Zugang zu Elsevier-Zeitschriften per Fernleihe realisiert werden – oder die Forscher müssten auf illegale Angebote wie SciHub zurückgreifen.
Aber auch wenn der Deal durchkommen sollte, ändert das nichts für Menschen, die auf die Artikel zugreifen wollen und nicht Nutzer einer großen Bibliothek oder mit einer Forschungsinstitution assoziiert sind. Es gibt jedoch andere Initiativen, die sich dafür einsetzen, wissenschaftliche Artikel zum Allgemeingut zu machen.
via ScienceMag | {
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President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan at the U.S. Capitol Nov. 10, 2016. (Credit: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
President-elect Donald Trump is now praising the Electoral College after previously criticizing the system — and even says he could have won the popular vote if he campaigned differently.
In a series of tweets Tuesday morning, Trump said he would have won the populous states of Florida, New York and California if he had spent more time campaigning there.
“If the election were based on total popular vote I would have campaigned in N.Y. Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily,” Trump tweeted.
Trump won the battleground state of Florida, which had been carried by President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, but he failed to carry the loyally blue states of New York and California.
Hillary Clinton leads Trump with the popular vote and could be the first candidate since Al Gore to win the popular vote but lose the general election. The last Republican to win the popular vote was George W. Bush in 2004.
Trump went on to praise the Electoral College as “genius.”
“The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!”
This is a change in tone for Trump. Back in 2012, shortly after then-Republican nominee Mitt Romney lost to Obama, Trump called the electoral college “a disaster for democracy” in a tweet.
Trump reiterated this stance once again on Sunday during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
“I’m not going to change my mind just because I won,” Trump told CBS’ Lesley Stahl. “But I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win.”
The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2016
The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012
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Super Smash Bros: Yellow Fire ignites - part 3
S
Super Smash Bros: Yellow Fire ignites - part 3
Chapter 3 Meanwhile, it had been over 2 years since the Alanastiums had been trapped in a dimension where there was literally nothing, just a blank white space where no time passes. It was hell to them. Not only they got increasingly bored, but it also got scary when their voices echo in the eeriest manner. There was also no food or water for them, so they got very shrivelled up and sweaty. They had to drink their own sweat in order to survive. How did they manage to survive in this unpleasant dimension was a mystery. Jessica: I want to get out of here! Daegon: Do you think you are the only one? Alan: How can we? We had been trapped here | {
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Video (02:32) : Watch the Minnesota State Patrol video and judge for yourself on who was wrong or right.
More than a month after Sam Salter wound up in the Ramsey County jail for two nights, the 40-year-old adjunct college instructor from Hudson, Wis., is still fuming. "You feel totally helpless," he said. At the end of a New Year's Eve traffic stop on Interstate 94 in St. Paul, State Patrol Sgt. Carrie Rindal rammed Salter's 2001 Toyota Sienna van, causing $1,500 damage to his vehicle, and arrested him at gunpoint while his three children, ages 2, 3 and 6, sat in the van. His wife had to pick up the kids as he was taken to jail. Rindal said Salter was attempting to flee. He said he was merely looking for a safe place to pull over. The Ramsey County attorney's office declined to charge Salter after reviewing the evidence, including a video of the stop. "It was our belief there was insufficient evidence to prove that the suspect was knowingly fleeing police, and that is what he had been arrested for," said Paul Gustafson, a county attorney spokesman. In late January, the State Patrol mailed Salter a ticket for making an illegal lane change. He faces no other charges. The squad car's video shows that Rindal first noticed Salter about 11:40 p.m. Dec. 31. She said in a report that she had witnessed him weaving within a lane, changing lanes without signaling and going 70 miles per hour in a 55-mph zone on I-94. She turned on her lights to pull him over, and the video shows what followed: A one-mile pursuit that ended on a side street off I-94, where Salter said he had turned to look for a safe place to pull over. It was never a high-speed chase. After Rindal rammed Salter's car -- a police tactic sometimes used for stopping fleeing vehicles -- he stopped abruptly and emerged from the van questioning why she had hit his vehicle. Rindal emerged from her squad car and, with gun drawn, forced him against the side of his vehicle and arrested him. Salter registered zero in a preliminary alcohol-breath test.
The incident raised questions among police experts who reviewed it: Should Salter have stopped on the I-94 shoulder no matter whether he considered it safe? And was Rindal right to conclude Salter was fleeing and ram his vehicle? What the video shows The video of the incident captured a lively debate between Rindal and Salter on those very points as he sat handcuffed on the back seat of her squad car. "I was obviously slowing down and pulling over," Salter told the officer. "You hit me when I was next to the curb, so I don't know where you thought I was going." Said Rindal, "When you see red lights and sirens, you don't keep on driving and driving and driving [so] you decide where you are going to stop. We decide that." Mark Robbins, a professor of law enforcement at the University of Minnesota, Mankato, said the video does not indicate Salter was fleeing. He said the ramming was unnecessary. "If that was me, I would have cited him for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle and sent him on his way." However, former Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza, after hearing details of the case, said Rindal had reason to believe Salter was evading her. He said she was right to ram him. "My sympathies are with her, not with him," he said. Lt. Mark Peterson of the State Patrol said Rindal would have no comment. And he said the patrol would not comment on the details of the case while it is conducting its own investigation, which takes place whenever there is a pursuit and an officer uses such a ramming maneuver in a traffic stop. If Salter has a complaint, he can file one with the State Patrol's internal affairs division, Peterson said. An attorney for the state Department of Public Safety would conduct the investigation, he said. Safety: Salter's defense Salter, who teaches oral and interpersonal communications at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College in New Richmond, said he had had two beers during a six-hour period that day and was driving home from a family party, headed east on I-94 on the east side of St. Paul. His three children were strapped into the back seats.
Traveling in the left lane, he saw Rindal's flashing patrol car lights in his rear-view mirror and thought the patrol car was trying to pass. He moved right one lane, but the patrol car moved behind him, so he concluded she wanted to stop him. He shifted three lanes to the right to get to the shoulder. "The shoulder had a big icy snowbank that did not allow me to get all the way off the freeway," Salter said. Fearful of getting hit by traffic if he stopped, Salter said he took the U.S. Hwy. 61 exit. But he did not stop there. "It's a real blind corner," he said, "so I didn't feel comfortable stopping on that. I am not sure the people behind would have time to react if they were in the right lane." Ahead on Hwy. 61 was the Burns Avenue cross street, and Salter signaled right. He said he was pulling to the side and estimated he was going 5 mph when Rindal used a "pursuit intervention technique," or P.I.T. maneuver, designed to knock a fleeing vehicle sideways so the driver loses control and stops. The van traveled a few more feet and stopped. Salter got out of his van and recalls yelling, "What are you doing? I have three kids in the car." Rindal pointed her gun at Salter, arrested him, and let him call his wife, Megan Laney, to come get their children. Salter was taken to jail and booked for fleeing police. He spent most of the next 37 hours in a jail cell before being released. Bouza, the ex-chief, said it was proper for Rindal to ram Salter's van, draw her gun and arrest him for fleeing. "She was chasing him," said Bouza. "He was ignoring her." Bouza said it was also right for Rindal to arrest Salter for fleeing after hearing his side. "Explanations are cheap. Actions matter," he said. But Robbins, a professor who is a former police watch commander, said the report Rindal filed describes actions that do not constitute fleeing based on Minnesota law. He said there is no indication Salter increased his speed after Rindal turned on her lights and siren, nor did he turn off his headlights or attempt evasive maneuvers. He was "simply taking more time than I would like to pull over." | {
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via @_GodsSolider_10
Fans promising to run onto the court or field if they reach a certain number of retweets has become a trend, but it's also a way for a fan to get tossed from the arena or stadium.
Security has been an issue at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena in recent seasons. Last season, a fan ran onto the floor to beg the Miami Heat's LeBron James to come back to his hometown team. Earlier this year, another fan ran onto the court to greet Cavaliers star Kyrie Irving.
The security at the arena hasn't looked good after those incidents. It looks like the Cavaliers are cracking down on any fan looking to gain attention on social media.
With the Heat in town on Tuesday, one fan in the first row decided to make a promise on Twitter:
As it got closer to 1,000 retweets, it looked like he was going to stick to his word:
His tweet was making its way around the Internet and reached more than 1,000 retweets. However, security stepped in:
He did offer up some advice after he got ejected:
Any fan who is looking for attention on social media better be prepared to pay the consequences.
[Twitter, h/t SB Nation] | {
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Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistan is gridlocked with an array of senior officials and other elites in the Islamic republic facing criminal charges, including allegations of corruption and murder.
The legal woes besetting America's nuclear-armed ally come amid extremist threats, tensions between its civilian and military leaders, a mounting financial crisis and deteriorating relations with arch-rival India.
“It is a fractured country where no one seems to be in control of the situation,” said Zahid Hussain, a longtime Pakistani columnist.
At the heart of the stalemate gripping the country are problems facing former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family. The Supreme Court ousted him in July for not declaring his income.
Last week, Sharif set the stage for a political comeback with the passing of a bill in Parliament that would allow him to regain control of the Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz, a right-of-center, pro-business party Sharif named after himself.
The move comes as he faces more than a dozen pending corruption cases. And it doesn’t stop there.
The three-time prime minister's brother, Shahbaz Sharif, the powerful chief minister of Punjab — the country’s largest province with a population of 110 million — is being investigated for money laundering, murder and terrorism.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, left, shakes hands with brother Shahbaz Sharif. Arif Ali / AFP - Getty Images
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who is also a brother-in-law of Nawaz Sharif, was indicted last week on corruption, money-laundering and undeclared income charges. As the man in charge of Pakistan’s faltering economy, he’s faced calls from the opposition to resign.
Nawaz Sharif’s three adult children, including his heir apparent Maryam Nawaz, also face graft investigations. Maryam Nawaz’s husband, Safdar Awan, was arrested by anti-corruption authorities on Monday. Her brothers, Hassan and Hussain, are wanted by the courts.
The Morning Rundown Get a head start on the morning's top stories. This site is protected by recaptcha
And Nawaz Sharif’s replacement, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, is being investigated for corruption.
The opposition is also facing legal woes.
Opposition leader Imran Khan B.K. Bangash / AP
Imran Khan, a cricket star-turned-politician, is being investigated by Parliament after allegations of harassment made by a party member as well as charges that he failed to declare his income. His deputy, Jahangir Tareen, is also being tried for corruption.
Sakib Sherani, a former adviser to the government, said "a failing economy, rising regional and geopolitical pressure are being left unaddressed" by the crisis.
The clamor for the powerful military to step in is increasing. Pakistan has already seen its armed forces seize power four times since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.
The political chaos comes as the ever-present threat of violent extremism and increasing tensions with nuclear-armed India loom over the region.
In late September, ISIS flags appeared mysteriously on one of the main roads of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. On Thursday, more than 20 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a shrine in Balochistan — an attack claimed by the extremist group.
In a display of the ongoing gridlock, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal — the civilian head of security for the country — was stopped last week from entering a hearing of the Nawaz Sharif trial by the same paramilitary force that is supposed to report to him.
"At a time when Pakistan needs to consolidate its police, military and intelligence efforts to counter the potency of [ISIS], those efforts are at risk of being undermined by the customary tensions between Pakistan’s generals and the political class," said Mosharraf Zaidi, a former foreign policy adviser to the government. "This has the potential to cause real damage to Pakistan’s hard-won victories against terrorists."
Tensions are also mounting on the India-Pakistan border. On Wednesday, troops exchanged fire in what are “escalating” border clashes, according to the Foreign Office.
Pakistan’s stability matters to South Asia and beyond.
As a linchpin of the American war in Afghanistan, the U.S. alliance with Pakistan hinges on security cooperation against terror groups and the passage of supplies to the some 11,000 U.S. troops there.
In August, President Donald Trump warned that Pakistan “has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists,” a reference to the country's alleged support for militant groups like the Haqqani network, which targets U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Pakistan has long denied allegations that it helps and shelters militants.
Amid Trump’s strong words and threats of sanctions from U.S. legislators, Pakistanis are struggling with power cuts, food price inflation and a growing tax burden imposed by a government too distracted to administer to the world’s sixth-most-populous nation.
The chaos is having an impact on Pakistani living standards, with suddenly increased food and oil prices, said Atif Zafar, head of research at JS Global Capital, one of the country’s leading investment banks. The stock market has suffered its highest quarterly loss since June 30, 2008, he said.
The IMF has also warned that the Pakistan rupee is overvalued.
“The most serious challenge confronted by the country is the deepening economic crisis. It is further aggravated by political uncertainty," said Hussain, the columnist. "It is really a dangerous situation." | {
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I do not think you guys have to be too afraid of the 'school' part. I am certain part of it will be him going after the Island leader guys, just like with Gym Battles, only this time he'll probably return to the school after every island and whatnot. ^^
And while having Bewear in a main character Team would be sweet, I do hope he won't just be blasting off all the time. D: | {
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The former USA manager is that rare beast – an American soccer coach who travels well. He speaks to Graham Ruthven about his latest stop-off in northern France
Bob Bradley must face a few questions when passing through customs. Most travellers only have to concern themselves with ridding their baggage of any liquids or gels, but the 57-year-old has to find a way to explain passport stamps from Egypt and Norway, and now France. It’s sometimes said that American soccer coaches don’t travel well – but Bradley is picking up the slack.
After spells as the Egyptian national team coach, and boss of Stabaek in Norway, the New Jersey native has taken the helm at French second division club Le Havre. For most managers such a move would seem somewhat obscure, but for Bradley it’s just another step on the way to becoming soccer’s most compelling coach.
“I felt like coming to a big football country,” he explains, shedding light on how the club’s millionaire American backer Vincent Volpe lured him to northern France.
“There’s history, there’s a lot of good things going on here. If you look at even the French league – the makeup of teams – it’s interesting. So I felt good about that. I certainly have a great appreciation of French football.”
Indeed he does. Bradley has been to France before, visiting the country for its hosting of the European Championships in 1984. Then coach of the Princeton Tigers, he recalls the sparkle of Michel Platini, Jean Tigana and the likes as les Bleus swept their way to continental glory. Bradley has always held an affinity for the French game, going some way to explain why he was willing to take a job with a team in the country’s second tier. “With the MetroStars I had the chance to coach Youri Djorkaeff,” he says. “I was always asking him about France.”
Although his Francophilia might have been cast aside had a Premier League job come his way – and there was certainly no shortage of speculation linking Bradley with them. Most recently, both Aston Villa and Sunderland were said to have the American on their managerial radar, and yet he never came close to landing either roles.
“From the time that I was finished with the US team, my name was linked, 10 or 12 times, with jobs in England, and only once did I have direct contact with the club,” he says, perhaps with a slight hint of vexation. “Had I had opportunities in the Premier League, in the Bundesliga, in La Liga, I think I would have been ready to jump on any of them, but those type of opportunities never materialised.”
Bradley has spoken previously about his frustration at being overlooked for some of European soccer’s biggest and best jobs, expressing his view that “in many cases, decision-makers play it safe. There’s certainly a network.” It’s something that quite clearly grates, reiterating his belief that in soccer “there are some very good managers but also some others that aren’t very good but still manage to get jobs and opportunities.”
Could it be that European clubs are wary of appointing American coaches? The US game is now regarded with genuine credibility on the other side of the Atlantic, but is there still a stigma attached to the country’s managerial products? Not in Bradley’s view, although he does counter that Americans can find themselves in a catch-22 scenario.
“In England, they value top-flight experience. To that, I would simply say that I think I have done a lot of things that add up – look at the work with the US team, the situation in Egypt, going to a small club in Norway, the work in MLS … but no, I don’t have Premier League experience. I think, as Americans, we don’t have that experience, but I don’t think it’s a direct hit on Americans per se.”
More than five years have passed since Bradley was fired as head coach of the US men’s national team, but he remains extremely guarded about the true circumstances around his dismissal. To many it seemed a harsh decision, and to the man himself that still sentiment still seems to ring true. “I don’t think that our teams, and the work of our staff, always got the respect that we deserved,” he points out. As he sees it, the USA were only short of “a break or two” in making it to the last eight of the World Cup for the first time in 2010.
“I think we got greater respect from Europe than we got from within the United States. I disagree with that. I don’t think the high level of our work was recognised and so when the time came, I just said fine. There were people who really knew what was happening. On the public side, I think there are a lot of people who stand on the outside and think they have a lot of answers, but have no idea what’s happening on the inside. So when some of that enters into decisions, then you can’t fight that. The people who were there, they know.”
Bradley is careful not to wade too deep into the debate over criticism Jurgen Klinsmann’s has recently faced as his successor, explaining his conscious decision to keep a distance from US soccer matters. But despite his diplomacy, the 57-year-old is inherently spirited about the development of the US game. When asked about Klinsmann’s remarks about his American players being “uneducated” he can’t help but provide a viewpoint.
“As national team manager, you’re always trying to raise the level – so I get that,” he comments. |You’re trying to challenge them, whether you speak about it or not. But just because you sometimes throw some things out in the media, that doesn’t mean that you’re doing any real work.” He might not have addressed Klinsmann’s comments directly, but Bradley’s retort leaves itself open to rather intriguing interpretation.
Looking forward, though, Bradley is now charged with leading Le Havre – France’s oldest club – back to Ligue 1 for the first time since the 2008/09 season. The project, led by Volpe and his significant backing, enthuses the American, as does the chance to oversee one of Europe’s most productive youth academies. Paul Pogba got his start at Le Havre, and now Bradley is the one guiding such homegrown talent through the system. And yet Stateside, he remains a reference point for any discussion over the development of his own native game.
Regardless of whether US soccer was right to dismiss him or not, Bradley has only bolstered his standing and repute in the years that have followed – even if they still ask him a few questions when arriving back home. | {
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Sanders returns to Reno Sunday
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will return to Reno on Sunday, according to a release from the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign.
Sanders will appear at 4:30 p.m. in the Reno Ballroom on 401 N. Center St. in Reno. Doors open at 3 p.m. and the event is open to the public. The campaign recommended registering beforehand. The auditorium holds around 1,200 seats.
Sanders last visited Reno in August when 4,500 people clamored to the University of Nevada, Reno to watch him speak outside the Joe Crowley Student Union.
Sanders will also begin airing commercials in the state in conjunction with the visit.
“Bernie intends to run a full-fledged national campaign beginning in Iowa and New Hampshire and extending into later states across the nation,” said Sanders’ senior adviser Tad Devine. “The campaign's movement into Nevada with statewide television advertising is a demonstration of Bernie's potential and strength with voters and our belief that his story and message of American's rigged economy held in place by a corrupt system of campaign finance will resonate powerfully across the nation.”
The ad titled “Real Change” gives a short biography and highlights Sanders’ populist message.
Watch the ad: | {
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Romania’s governing Social Democrats have said they will not back an initiative by the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, UDMR, to create an autonomous region in Transylvania.
The planned region of Szeklerland, or Tara Secuilor in Romanian – home to 600,000 ethnic Hungarians, so-called Szeklers – comprises three counties in central Romania, Harghita, Covasna and Mures. The counties have been asking for autonomy for years.
“The new autonomous region should led by a regional council and an executive council whose president should participate in the government meetings on issues that concern the region,” the UDMR leader, Kelemen Hunor, said. “Hungarian would be the official language in Szeklerland, besides Romanian,” he added.
Romania’s leader said he did not support the idea. “I am not in favour of any form of autonomy for regions inhabitated by the Hungarian minority. I’ve previously said that Romania would address the Hungarian minority’s call for autonomy in conformity with the constitution and European norms,” Prime Minister Victor Ponta said on Friday.
About 7 per cent of Romania’s 19.5 million citizens are ethnic Hungarians. The so-called Szeklers have long campaigned for an autonomous region in Transylvania, which formed part of the Kingdom of Hungary until the end of the First World War.
The UDMR has been a junior partner in different ruling coalitions several times over the last 20 years.
Currently, it is a member of the centre-left coalition headed by Ponta’s Social Democrats. As the price of its support, the UDMR has obtained the Culture and Environment ministries, a vice-president’s post and 14 state secretary posts.
Demands for greater autonomy for ethnic Hungarians come in the context of a broader discussion on changing the constitution in Romania.
Among the main changes envisaged is administrative organization, which the UDMR wants to include an autonomous region in Transylvania.
Under existing laws, ethnic minorities can study in their own language at all levels of education, from kindergarten to university. | {
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Nuclear industry looks toward smaller reactors
Wendy Koch, USA TODAY | USATODAY
A new generation of nuclear reactor is scheduled to launch in the United States within a decade, potentially transforming the U.S. nuclear industry. But critics question its safety, given last year's meltdown of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and recent flooding from Superstorm Sandy.
These small modular reactors (SMRs), about a third the physical size of traditional ones, would be portable and built mostly in factories. They got a boost last week from the Department of Energy, which announced it would pay up to half the cost to design and license the first ones for the U.S. commercial market.
"It (DOE funding) lets us put our foot on the accelerator," says Christopher Mowry of Babcock & Wilcox, an energy technology company based in Charlotte, that's been working on the "mPower" design for four years with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bechtel International. He plans to submit it to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in mid-2014, aiming for approval in 2017 and construction of up to four reactors at TVA's Clinch River Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., by October 2021.
Citing nuclear energy as "low carbon," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the award is part of President Obama's push for a broad, "all-of-the-above" energy strategy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Chu said DOE will accept funding requests from other companies developing small modular reactors.
The B&W one won't come cheap. Mowry expects it will cost more than $1 billion to develop it, of which up to 75% will be spent on design and licensing. Yet he and other advocates say SMRs cost less to build, improve safety and offer flexibility. They say these reactors could be made in U.S. factories and moved, or exported, to remote or small sites that cannot support large reactors.
"You can put them together like Legos on a job site," Mowry says. "The industry likes building blocks of this size," he says, likening the heft of each to a tanker truck. He expects a two-reactor plant generating a total of 360 megawatts of power to cost $1.5 billion to build — about a tenth of the projected cost of a two-reactor, 2,000-megawatt plant the NRC approved earlier this year for Georgia.
Another benefit, Mowry says, is safety. He says it can operate for two weeks without outside power and has fewer parts and pipes so is less likely to malfunction. "Our reactor is totally underground," he says, adding it's not disturbed by hurricanes and tornadoes.
Not all are convinced. "Putting reactors underground could be a double-edged sword," says Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a research group skeptical of nuclear power. "Fukushima showed you don't want to flood your critical equipment," he says, also pointing to the flooding that Sandy wreaked this fall in New York and New Jersey.
Lyman says he places little stock in paper simulations of how a reactor will work, saying there are still huge gaps in understanding what went wrong with Fukushima's light-water reactors.Though much smaller, B&W's reactor is also light water, meaning it's cooled with ordinary water. It also generates spent nuclear fuel like its larger counterparts.
"On an economic basis, these reactors don't make sense," he says, adding they lack economies of scale that reduce per-kilowatt cost. He says they wouldn't be cost-competitive unless built in mass quantities — something that won''t happen for the initial ones. As a result, he says, the B&W project is a "very expensive experiment for us to be funding."
"The biggest challenge is financial," says Paul Genoa of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group that supports SMRs. He says natural gas prices are low, the U.S. economy is still recovering from recession and there's no federal tax on carbon dioxide emissions, which would favor nuclear power.
Still, he says, companies are racing to develop several kinds of small reactors. Like B&W, NuScale Power, Westinghouse and Holtec are designing light-water reactors. Gen4 Energy, Toshiba and General Electric Hitachi are looking at a liquid metal-cooled version, while General Atomics and Pebble Bed Modular Reactor are focusing on a high temperature gas-cooled reactor.
TerraPower, a start-up partially funded by software mogul Bill Gates, is developing a larger, 500-megawatt, "traveling wave" reactor. Company CEO John Gilleland says it's on track to deploy its first reactor in the 2020s.
Genoa says U.S.-based companies are furthest along in developing small reactors, which he says many countries want. He says the U.S. has a chance to recapture its lead in nuclear technology, adding, "'This race is ours to lose." | {
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This is part of a series of reviews of 2017’s most popular climate stories on social media.
EXPLAINER
A June 12th Winnipeg Free Press story titled “U of M climate change study postponed due to climate change” describes a climate study delayed by unusual sea ice conditions around Newfoundland that necessitated the reassignment of an icebreaker vessel. (Similar stories were run by CBC News, The Guardian, and others.) It might seem to you that unusually thick local sea ice contradicts scientists’ predictions of declining Arctic sea ice cover, but that would be an overly simplistic and incorrect assumption. That misconception of both climate science and the behavior of sea ice has surfaced in the past when polar research vessels encountered difficulties with sea ice, and this time is (sadly) no exception.
Breitbart author James Delingpole wrote a misleading and derisive article about this story—shared over 200,000 times on Facebook—stating that “you’d almost think unseasonal bouts of snow and ice were nothing to do with ‘global warming’ but were a natural phenomenon”. InfoWars ran a similar story, adding a conspiratorial twist by claiming that climate change is “actually a globalist scheme to weaken the US economy”. One could argue whether scientists should pay any attention to such low-quality coverage, but unfortunately these were the top two stories on Wednesday June 14 in terms of social media reactions generated, so it is at least worth taking the time to re-explain how Arctic sea ice and climate change are related.
These stories may assume (either implicitly or explicitly) that sea ice conditions are tied directly and simply to global temperature. However, the conditions in any specific location are actually a function of many factors. Trends in polar atmosphere and ocean temperatures do drive long-term changes in sea ice cover (as shown in the video below), but short-term natural variability is very important, just as weather is naturally variable. Additionally, sea ice is transported around by winds and ocean currents—controlled by persistent regional patterns as well as temporary effects like storms. (See, for example, this recent satellite imagery.)
This means that sea ice conditions can change rapidly in some places, with a dense sea ice pack forming due to a few days’ weather conditions.
The magenta line shows the average position of the ice edge between 1981 and 2010. Source: NSIDC
Additionally, Arctic and Antarctic sea ice differ strongly. Sea ice rings Antarctica, frozen by cold air blowing outward from the ice-covered continent. Sea ice in the Arctic, on the other hand, forms in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and grows outward towards the land masses. Differing regional ocean and atmospheric temperature patterns, as well as wind patterns, lead to significant differences in the way sea ice behaves.
Scientific projections of future sea ice cover are, therefore, also different in the Arctic and Antarctic. Arctic sea ice is projected to decline markedly in the coming decades, but natural variability is still expected to continue to be important. The fact that the volume of Arctic sea ice is decreasing as the world warms certainly does not mean that local sea ice conditions will never again be treacherous for ships.
In the case of the story covered by the Winnipeg Free Press, sea ice transported southward collected in an area near Newfoundland, trapping several fishing vessels. The researchers’ icebreaker headed for Hudson Bay was called in to assist in the rescue of the ships. The research vessel was then unable to continue until another suitable icebreaker could replace it, at which point there was not enough time left to continue on to Hudson Bay.
Source: NSIDC
University of Manitoba Professor David Barber explained:
“The ice we examined consisted of level multiyear [in age] floes in excess of 5 meters and rubble and ridged areas in excess of 8 meters thickness. Salinities and temperatures confirmed these were multiyear ice floes. This type and concentration of ice is not expected at these latitudes and time of year, and its presence created many search and rescues, ice management, and ice escorts for fishing vessels and tankers trying to operate in the area. Our own studies1, and many others, have shown a strong warming of the atmosphere in the high Arctic (+3 to 4°C on average relative to norms). This warming has reduced both the thickness and concentration of sea ice in the Arctic (also well documented scientifically). This in turn has created a situation where the multiyear ice still remaining in the high Arctic is much more mobile than it used to be. There are lots of peer reviewed papers2, 3, 4, 5, 6 which show this increase in velocity both at the local and regional scales. The ice we observed came from one of these high Arctic sources and made its way into the Labrador current and travelled all the way south to Newfoundland. The fact that this ice made it that far south is something that planners and policy makers need to be concerned about, and something we in science will continue to study—both for understanding the processes driving this [transport] and being able to make predictions about when and where we can expect these types of ice hazards in the future.”
The Breitbart article, which a University of Manitoba press release described as “stunningly ill-informed”, fails to acknowledge the scientific and physical complexities of reality—that “global warming” doesn’t mean every inch of the Earth’s surface will be warming at every moment or that every speck of ice has melted away. It is unfortunate that the Breitbart author misinformed over 200,000 readers on Facebook with a simplistic and shallow article instead of seriously engaging with trying to understand and explain the facts.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Postdoctoral Associate Alek Petty explained that while he would need more information to understand the cause of this specific sea ice event, the Breitbart article makes an unsupportable conclusion:
“It’s not completely obvious to me that this specific event was caused by, or indeed made more likely due to climate change, although it’s clearly not an indicator that the opposite is true, as the Breitbart article seems to be alluding to. I’m unsure if such a flow of thick ice into the area is indeed unprecedented (over some time period), but that seems plausible. The event described is a complex one, and is worthy of a more in-depth discussion than can be provided in these short media articles, in my view. The statement that Arctic sea ice is thinning and becoming more mobile is valid, however, and indeed represents a key indicator of the Arctic’s response to climate change.”
Image at top courtesy of University of Manitoba | {
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Um ihren Nachwuchs nicht an die Grundschulen in der Nachbarschaft schicken zu müssen, tricksen Eltern in Szene-Bezirken bei der Anmeldung. Eine Schulleiterin kennt das Phänomen gut. Und findet klare Worte. | {
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Family & Parenting, Music, Movies & Entertainment, Seasonal & Current Events
By Sandra Stelmach Published: September 20 2013
Whether you’re looking for ghostly and hair-raising horrors, or a day of family-friendly Halloween fun, we’ve got you covered in with our 2013 Halloween Guide!
For the 2014 Halloween Fun Guide, click here!
Boo!!!! Halloween is a time best known for for dressing up in costumes and receiving candy from our neighbors and friends and scaring our loved ones senseless - all in good fun of course. The traditional holiday has become a part of American culture and sure has remained to be a fun day.
It is believed that Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, where the Celts would light bonfires, and wear festive costumes that mimicked the evil spirits to ward off roaming ghosts. The Celts thought that on October 31st, the portal between the dead and the living worlds was weak enough for the undead to travel through and cause havoc, especially on the living’s harvest. In addition, Christians observed All Saints Day, also known as All Hallows Eve, on November 1st and their rituals impacted Halloween.
Gradually, the influence of American culture shifted and evolved Halloween to how we celebrate the holiday today. Children dress up in elaborate costumes, and get to be whoever or whatever they want to be. The little ghosts and ghouls or mini Supermans, Batmans, and princesses take on the persona of their costumes and show them off to everyone as they collect candy from door to door of their neighborhoods. Trick-or-treating is now a custom to the holiday. Homes are decorated with scarecrows, Jack O’Lanterns and other scary props. Kids decorate pumpkins with paint and a variety of faces.
If your favorite holiday is Halloween, then you’re in luck - there’s plenty of scary-good fun happening this Halloween Season right here on Long Island. Celebrate the day of the dead by attending one of the many haunted houses or spooktacular events - this guide is packed with all of the thrills & chills you’re looking for this year.
Whether you’re looking for ghostly and hair-raising horrors, or a day of family-friendly Halloween fun, we’ve got you covered in with our 2013 Halloween Guide!
Haunted Houses
With numerous haunted houses on Long Island filled with ghost, ghouls and goblins, practice your screaming before hitting up one of these scream houses.
Zombieworld Attack of the Killer Clowns (DPCC)
41 Homer Avenue, Deer Park, NY 11729
631-667-6665
October 4th - October 27th
$15
Spook yourself up with a 15 to 20 minute walk while the undead lurks in the dark shadows. Don’t let your eyes fool in the dark. The haunt is open every weekend in October. See event website for specific times.
Bayville Scream Park
8 Bayville Avenue, Bayville, NY 11709
516-62-Ghost
September 13th - November 3rd
Bayville Scream Park features 5 thrilling haunted attractions which include Bloodworth Haunted Mansion, Uncle Needle's Fun House of Fear, Temple of Terror, Zombie Pirates and Evil in the Woods! The park opens September 13th and will remain open until November 3rd. See website for specific dates, times and prices.
Darkness Rising
10 Brooklyn Avenue, Massapequa, NY 11758
516-799-4747
October 4th - October 31st
$15
As night falls, your worst nightmares come to life. Are you afraid of the dark? See event website for details on times.
HV Asylum
426 Mill Road, Coram, NY 11727
631-242-2096
October 11th - October 27th
Watch your step! The undead are lurking in every corner! HV Asylum offers fresh actors and routines keeping returning and new visitors on their toes with 13 acres of terror. The haunt is open every weekend in October starting October 11. See website for specific times.
Fright Night Haunted House at Karts
701 Union Parkway, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779
631-737-5278
With 13 rooms of shear terror, beware of your mind taking you to the dark place it should never go as live monsters roam in the shadows. See event website for specific dates and times.
Slim Chances Chamber of Horrors
1745 Express Drive, Hauppauge, NY 11788
516-710-1845
October 4th - November 2nd
Feel chills go down your spine and keep your eyes open as you walk through the haunted house of evil featuring a dark collection of mazes and rooms. Where will your imagination take you? The haunt is open every weekend in October and the first weekend of November. See website for other days and times.
Spooky Fest - The Woods are Haunted!
1 Tanglewood Road, Rockville Centre, NY 11570
516-764-0045
October 19 - October 28
$10
The 4th annual Spooky Fest is held by the Center of Science Teaching and Learning and features something for everyone. This spooky fest is held on the weekends of October. See website for specific times.
The Darkside Haunted House
5184 Route 25A, Wading River, NY 11792
631-369-SCAR(E)
October 4th - November 3rd
Experience the movie quality sets, bone chilling special effects and heart pounding scares. This haunt is open every weekend in October and some days during the week. Family Friendly hours 1pm to 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays. See website for information on specific times and days.
Gateway’s Haunted Playhouse
215 South Country Road, Bellport, NY 11713
631-286-1133
Friday, September 27th - Saturday, November 2nd - 7 pm
$30 General Admission
Have every bone in your body chill as gruesome creatures roam in the dark night and souls haunt all who dare to walk in their path.
Blood Manor New York City
163 Varick Street, New York, NY 10001
212-290-2825
October 4th - November 2nd
$35 General Admission
Blood Manor has over 15 themed rooms of horror with a pitch black maze and the all new haunted 3-D maze , where guests receive 3-D glasses to view ghastly images as demons, monsters and ghouls stalk them. The haunt is open every weekend in October and various days during
RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns at Old Westbury Garden
71 Old Westbury Road, Old Westbury, NY 11590
516-252-1030
October 4th - November 3rd
$10
Take a walk in the night through the trail of RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns featuring carvings from dozens of local artists and sculptors. Admission cost varies between $10 - $26. See website for more specific days and times.
SpookyWalk at Camp Paquatuck
Chet Swezey Road, Center Moriches, NY 11934
631-878-1070
October 18th - October 26th
$15
The Spooky Walk is a fundraiser for Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck directed towards children and adults with disabilities. Enjoy halloween with hamburgers, hot dogs, pretzels, candy apples and other refreshments to celebrate the camp’s 25th year of haunting. Don’t get squeamish! The walk takes place October 18th, 19th, 25th and 26th. See event website for specific times.
Family Fun at Woodside Nursery
134 E Woodside Ave, North Patchogue, NY 11772
631 758-1491
Opens September 29th
FREE Admission
Halloween is not all about being scared so enjoy a day of family fun Halloween at the Woodside Nurser with the “Octobercation" outdoor exhibit featuring face painting, scarecrow making and much more. There will also be the Haunted Tunnel with moving props and special effects perfect for those who are easily scared but still need a little scare.
Tiki's Trail of Terror
1878 Middle Country Road, Centereach, NY 11720
631-471-1267
Dare to walk the trail of terror without jumping, screaming and running. With caves and blood-filled creeks, ponds and waterfalls, will you make it to the end? Find out and check out the event website for information on dates, times and pricing.
Trick-or-Treating
Trick-or-treating is the perfect way to get free candy! Of course, it is important to remember to stay safe and be cautious of the goodies that children are getting. Here are a few tips on staying safe while out on the streets:
Parents should check all the candy children receive - THROW AWAY ANY OPENED PIECES OF CANDY
Eat only factory-wrapped treats. Try not to eat homemade treats made my strangers.
Kids should be accompanied by an adult
Carry a flashlight to help you see better as well as helping others see you.
Friendly Tricks and Treats
Many schools offer special programs known as Safe Halloween for the community where young kids can come together, dressed in their costumes, and go trick-or-treating door to door of classrooms inside the school.
Spooktacular Events
Spooky Fest at Center for Science Teaching and Learning
1 Tanglewood Road, Rockville Centre, NY 11570
516-764-0045
Friday, October 18th - Sunday, October 27th - 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
$15
Spooky Fest at CSTL inlcudes a scary walk in the woods, live animals, a haunted maze of madness, merry monsters and so much more! Admission for adults is $15 and kids are $10. See event listing for specific dates.
Halloween Festival
111 Main Street, Stony Brook, NY 11790
631-751-2244
Thursday, October 31st - 2 pm to 5 pm
FREE
Come out to Stony Brook Village for its Halloween festival featuring a costume parade, trick-or-treating and a display of scarecrows created for the annual scarecrow competition.
Haunted Halloween
1303 Round Swamp Road, Old Bethpage, NY 11804
516-572-8400
Saturday, October 19th - Sunday, October 27th
Have a haunted Halloween with a monster scavenger hunt, tales from the local grave digger, jack-o-lanterns, the legend of Sleepy Hollow, broom making and so much more! Call for more information.
Halloween Family Day
246 Old Walt Whitman Road, Huntington Station NY 11746
631-427-5240
Saturday, October 26th - 1 pm to 3 pm
$8
Bring the kids out for a day filled with free candy, face painting and raffles. Bring your Halloween spirit because a prize will be given for best costume.
Bring the kids out for a day filled with free candy, face painting and raffles. Bring your Halloween spirit because a prize will be given for best costume. Halloween Costume Party
390 Terry Boulevard, Holbrook, NY 11741
631-513-8775
Saturday, October 26th - 7 pm
$35
The Holbrook Fire Department is hosting their annual Halloween costume party fundraiser featuring a costume contest with prizes, DJ entertainment, raffles, buffet dinner and drinks.
Other Things To Do
Halloween is not for everyone but there are still other scary and fun things to do to stay in the spirit of Halloween.
Watch a scary movie
Stay at home and give out candy to trick-or-treaters
Are you in the Halloween spirit?! What will you be doing this Halloween? Share it below in the comments!
Want to share photos of your Halloween costumes and fun with us? Email them to [email protected], and we’ll add them to 2013 Halloween Gallery!
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The AppleNewsBot fetches syndication feeds, webpages, and images for the Apple News service. Unfortunately, some sloppy programming in the bot turns it into an unintentional web server load testing tool. Here is what goes wrong when the bot visits websites that use encryption certificates from the Let’s Encrypt certificate authority.
The brief summary of what happens is as follows:
AppleNewsBot requests http://example.com/robots.txt The server returns a redirect to http s ://example.com/robots.txt AppleNewsBot then requests https://example.com/robots.txt as instructed, but doesn’t recognize Let’s Encrypt’s root certificate as valid and breaks the connection. This isn’t recognized correctly as a fail condition, and the bot loops back to step 1.
This results in 3–5 requests from the bot every second continuously. After a few hours, another AppleNewsBot bot visits the website as your website isn’t marked as having been updated in a while. The second bot joins the first and you now have 6–10 requests every second. Every few hours thereafter, another AppleNewsBot will join in with the others.
This repeats until you’ve a small swarm of 32 AppleNewsBots (seems to arbitrarily be the maximum number of bots Apple will send at the same time) sending a total of 96–160 requests per second. By this time, you’ll have used up all the request serving capacity of a cheap and underpowered server. For my poor little server, this exhausted ¾ of the server’s capacity and made it reduce performance when fulfilling requests from other visitors.
I swapped out the certificate from Let’s Encrypt temporarily with another certificate and the swarm of AppleNewsBots successfully grabbed the files they were after and then left. I’ve also talked to and confirmed this issue with other webmasters who all have had the same problem and all have had Let’s Encrypt certificates on their websites.
I’ve contacted Apple regarding the issue, and have been reassured that their engineers are working on the problem. However, it has been three months since I first contacted them and the issue still persists. I’ve tried contacting them after the first correspondence, but haven’t received a reply since the first email exchange.
As Apple wouldn’t resolve the issue(s) with their bot, I needed to start blocking them to free up resources for actual visitors. Initially, I repurposed the blocking repeating 403 requests solution using Fail2Ban to target excessive 301 Permanently Moved redirects using the same method. Despite that the Fail2Ban ban-action only needed to keep track of redirects for 10 seconds to identify and block the badly-behaved bots from Apple, it leads to quote the increase in Fail2Ban’s memory usage as there are far more legitimate 301 redirects than there are 403 requests in normal operation.
I ended up blocking Apple’s 17.133.0.0/16 IP range, which is where all their bot traffic have originated from. If you’re experiencing badly behaved or aggressive AppleBot or AppleNewsBot traffic on your website, I recommend blocking the IP ranges directly. Normally, you could have created entries for AppleBot and AppleNewsBot in your /robots.txt file, but as its the very act of retrieving this file that triggers the bad behavior, this doesn’t work.
Reader Joel Risberg suggested another approach where the robots file would be served rather than redirected. The problem with that solution is that the problem will then resurface when Apple’s bots start requesting other resources from the server. It can also lead to URL canonicalization issues with other bots when the robots file is served from a different origin than the rest of the website.
If you want to work-around the issue with AppleNewsBot, you can stop the redirect from HTTP to HTTPS entirely when the User-Agent matches “AppleNewsBot”. This will also require you to change all the links in the syndication feed to be plain HTTP rather than HTTPS for the AppleNewsBot User-Agent. This may require a lot of setup depending on your environment, so I would recommend either getting a certificate from a different authority or just blocking AppleNewsBot outright for the time being.
If you’re using certificates from a relatively new or small certificate authority, be aware that some online services and bots may misbehave. It’s the price you pay for being an early adopter. | {
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Almost everyone has gone through at least one or two bad breakups in their lives. Most people, your family and/or friends give you the "just get over it” speech, assuming it's simply so easy to get over the person you've spent a lot of time with.
This can be made all the worse if he's someone you still have to see all the time, like a coworker, someone who has mutual friends with you or someone you just happen to run into all of the time.
Breaking up with someone you have to see every day or often can be quite the sticky situation. It takes away the whole idea of "out of sight out of mind,” which makes it that much more difficult to get over them.
I dated a guy for a few months that lived exactly two doors away from me. After we broke up, it was difficult seeing him leave for work in the morning, casually seeing him outside and even watching him bring other women into his home. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.
Here's how to get over someone you see too often without losing your cool. | {
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The phrase “fingertip control” is used by parliamentary whips to disguise panic in government as policies and votes dip perilously close to the wire. There are few fingertips left at Westminster now. I have never seen a government strategy so misjudged, nor fail so speedily, as that devised in Downing Street since late July.
The errors began with the reconstituting of the Vote Leave team at No 10, making the classic error of fighting the next war like the last, assuming, with the arrogance of years of despising politicians and Westminster, that running government was easy if you cut out the middle-men.
Secret plans were laid, despite public denials, to prorogue parliament for a lengthy spell. When announced, this required ministers uneasily to claim that it was merely business as usual for a Queen’s speech, making them look evasive. Last Tuesday, MPs – later that day to lose the whip – met the PM in Downing Street. Boris Johnson was told sharply how damaging prorogation had been. Colleagues returning to Westminster to support his efforts in Berlin and Paris, giving him the time we thought we had, now saw the rug pulled from under our feet, thus forcing early the measure to protect against no deal.
That error had been compounded by Michael Gove’s ambiguity about obeying the law, and then crucially by public signalling that a vote against the government would be treated as a confidence vote, and the whip withdrawn from those rebelling. With no support for a Corbyn confidence vote, the government’s decision seemed deliberate – to provoke a confrontation.
I do not know if this follows a decision to purge the party of moderates like us, as advocated in some Tory circles, or if it was a crude attempt to see us fold under pressure. Either way they would win.
They got their result. Whoever doubted the government’s contempt for our expression of constituents’ concerns had to endure the arrogance and inexplicable performance of Jacob Rees-Mogg responding to the debate. Hearts were hardened, a Rubicon was crossed. The rest, as they may say, is history.
No one will be fooled into supporting an election before 31 October. Whatever attempt the government makes, it is doomed to failure
This also means no one will be fooled into supporting an election before 31 October. Whatever attempt the government makes, either trying a vote of confidence in itself, or trying to run a one-clause bill to get round the fixed-term legislation, it is doomed to failure. The resulting lack of trust has been fatal to that.
There is an answer. The EU is indeed watching the government’s control of the Commons and wants to know if a deal agreed will get its support, but so far the government has the wrong people in its sights. If we are to leave on 31 October, we must agree a deal at the European Council. Boris Johnson can achieve this, but only if he tackles those who stopped it before. He needs to scrap his present strategy. He should stop insulting a divided opposition, and work with those who want to leave, and also square up to the ERG, the elephants in the room last week.
They now need to be told that he is doing a new deal, but based on the withdrawal agreement, still the only thing agreed between 28 states. If they do not vote for it, they will follow us out of the party without a whip, and a Conservative election victory is improbable if we have not left. Brexit will vanish if the Tories lose, and millions will dance on its grave. The ERG, so close to everything they desired in 2016, will have stuffed it up and lost it.
Vote for the deal, he will say. I’d love to be there.
Alistair Burt, Conservative MP for North East Bedfordshire, will stand down at the next election | {
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Kırım Tatarca İmlâ Kuralları
Zemaneviy Qırımtatar latin imlâsı
Türkiyede yaşağanlarğa yardım
Qırımtatar elifbesi
Zemaneviy Qırımtatar latin elifbesi 31 ariften ibarettir. Şu elifbede Türk ariflerinden ğayrı daa eki arif bar: Ñ ve Q.
Qırımtatar elifbesinde W ve X arifleri yoqtır.
Qırımtatar imlâsında  işareti qullanıla, Î ve Û işaretleri ise qullanılmay.
Qırımtatar latin imlâsınıñ bazı qaideleri
1) Q ve K arifleri
Q arfi qalın sozuqlarnen (a, ı, o, u) ile yazıla:
Doğru: qara, qırmızı, qol, quvanç, yazmaq, sıq, çoq, dostluq, aqqında
Yañlış: kara, kırmızı, kol, kuvanç, yazmak, sık, çok, dostluk
K arfi ince sozuqlarnen (e, i, ö, ü) ile yazıla:
Doğru: kerek, kitap, köy, kün, terek, birlik, kök, bölük
Yañlış: qereq, qitap, qöy, qülmeq, tereq, birliq, qöq, bölüq
İstisnalar
Arap tilinden alınma sözlerniñ bazılarında qi ve iq birikmeleri rastkele: istiqlâl, muvafaqiyet, inqilâp ve daa bir qaç söz
kâ birikmesinen sözler: kâğıt, aveskâr, tükân,…
Rus ve Avropa tillerinden alınma sözlerde Q degil de; tek K arfi yazıla: kontsert, komediya, kurs, uçastka, kapik, kampaniya
2) Ğ ve G arifleri
Ğ arfi qalın sozuqlarnen (a, ı, o, u) ile yazıla:
Doğru: dalğa, ğıyabiy, uyğun, aytacağım, balığım, dostluğı, qalğan, bazarğa
Yañlış: dalga, gıyabiy, uygun, aytacagım, balıgım, dostlugı, qalgan, bazarga
G arfi ince sozuqlarnen (e, i, ö, ü) ile yazıla:
Doğru: diger, degil, göl, güzel, teregi, birligi, ögünde, küçlügim
Yañlış: diğer, değil, ğöl, ğüzel, tereği, birliği, öğünde, küçlüğim
İstisnalar
Rus ve Avropa tillerinden alınma sözlerde Ğ degil de, tek G arfi yazıla: gazeta, galereya, garaj
3) Ñ arfi
3.1) Ñ qayerde yazıla?
a) -ñ, -ıñ, -iñ, -uñ, -üñ seniñ babañ, seniñ kitabıñ, seniñ eliñ, seniñ dostuñ, seniñ közüñ, sen yaptıñ, sen keldiñ
b) -ñız, -ñiz, -ıñız, -iñiz, -uñız, -üñiz, siziñ babañız, siziñ eliñiz, siziñ kitabıñız, siziñ eliñiz, siziñ dostuñız, siziñ közüñiz, aşañız, diñleñiz, qaytıñız, keliñiz, oluñız, köçüñiz, siz yaptıñız, siz keldiñiz
c) -nıñ, -niñ kitapnıñ cıltı, onıñ adı, mektepniñ bağçası, talebeniñ defteri
3.2) Ñ qayerde yazılmay?
a) -nı, -nikitapnı aldım, köyni kördim
b) -nen olarnen beraber, bir dostumnen yaptım, uçaqnen keldim
c) -dan, -den, -tan, -ten ondan, şeerden, çoqtan, mektepten
d) -ğan, -gen, -qan, -ken olğan, kelgen, açqan, keçken
3.3) Ñ qayerde em yazılıp, em de yazılmayıp ola?
Bu qaideler bir baqışnen mürekkep körünip ola, amma aslında er şey qolaydır. Yazılış, şey ya da areket kimge ait olğanınen bağlı. “saña” ait olsa ñ yazıla, “oña” ait olsa da n yazıla.
a) -sıñ, -siñ, -sın, -sin, -sun, sünsen yapasıñ, amma o yapsın; sen ketesiñ, amma o ketsin
b) -ñda, -ñde, -ñdan, -ñden, -nda, -nde, -ndan, -nden: seniñ yanıñda(n), amma onıñ yanında(n); seniñ mektebiñde(n), amma onıñ mektebinde(n)
c) -ıña, -iñe, -uña, -üñe, -ına, -ine, -una, -üne: seniñ başıña, amma onıñ başına; seniñ mektebiñe, amma onıñ mektebine; seniñ qoluña, amma onıñ qoluna; seniñ köyüñe, amma onıñ köyüne
3.4) Tamırında Ñ arfi bar olğan bazı sözler
añ, añlamaq, beñzemek, biñ, çıñ, eñ, göñül, deñiz, deñişmek, diñlemek, keñ, mañlay, oñ, оñaytlı, soñ, sıñır, siñir, tañ, Tañrı, teñ, şeñ, yañlış, yañğıramaq, yañı, yeñmek, maña, saña, oña, buña, şuña
Diqqat: teñ (=eşit, denk), amma ten (=vücut); oñ (=sağ), amma on (=10); yañı (=yeni), amma onıñ yanı; maña (=bana), amma mana (=anlam); eñ (msl. eñ balaban, eñ eski), amma en (=genişlik)
İzaat
Yuqarıdaki qaideler osmanlı-arap ya da kiril urufatını bilgenler içün pek qolaydır. İşte:
latin kiril arap q k ğ g ñ n къ к гъ г нъ н ق (qaf) ك (kef) غ (ğayn) گ (gef) ڭ (sağır kef) ن (nun)
4) I, O, U ve İ, Ö, Ü arifleri
Qırımtatarca I, O, U ve İ, Ö, Ü arifleri tamam türkçe kibi yazıla.
Doğru: siz, bilmek, eki, kiriş, öz, üst, böcek, cümle, gül, köz, kün, mümkün, şükür, tüşünce, sürgün
Yañlış: sız, bılmek, ekı, kıriş, oz, ust, bocek, cumle, gul, koz, kun, mumkün, şukür, tuşunce, surgün
Bunıñnen beraber qayd etmek kerek ki, qırımtatar İ, Ö, Ü ve türk İ, Ö, Ü biraz farqlıca telâffuz etile. Qırımtatar sesleri türk seslerinden farqlı olaraq qalınca; yani (I, O, U seslerine yaqınca telâffuz etile).
5) Â işareti
 işareti tutuq seslerniñ uzunlığını degil de, tek yımşaqlığını ifade ete.
Türkçeden farqlı olaraq  yerine A-nı yazmaq mümkün degil.
Doğru: ezan, Quran, selâm, kâğıt, istiqlâl, lâkin
Yañlış: ezân, Qurân, selam, kağıt, istiqlal, lakin
6) Dudaq aenki: I, İ vs U, Ü
6.1) 3-nci, 4-nci, 5-nci, ... ecada
Aşağıda yazılğan istisnalarnı esapqa almayıp, söz başından 3-nci, 4-nci, 5-nci,... ecalarda, tek I ve İ arifleri yazıla.
Doğru: davulcı, tütüncilik, doğrulıq, duyğulı, yuqusız, rayonım, buyurıñız, öldüriñiz, telefоnım, tüşündirdi
Yañlış: davulcu, tütüncülük, doğruluq, duyğulu, yuqusuz, rayonum, buyuruñuz, öldürüñüz, telefоnum, tüşündürdü
İstisnalar
-uv, -üv, -vuq, -vük yalğamaları: tüşünüv, tüşündirüv, oqutuvnıñ, toplaşuv, ayıruv, becerüvim, ağlavuq
Qoşma sözlerdeki tamırlarnıñ er biri bu qaidege ayrı-ayrı tabi olur. Meselâ: açközlük (aç + közlük), yalıboylu (yalı + boylu); yalıboylusı (yalı + boylusı)
Arapçadan alınma sözler bu qaidege boysunmay (tabi degil). Meselâ: teşekkür, teessüf, tasavur.
6.2) 2-nci eca
6.2.1) Ekinci ecada I, İ şöyle yalğamalarda yazıla:
-nıñ, -niñ
-nı, -ni
-ım, -im (“menim” degil de, “men” manasında)
-mız, -miz (“bizim” degil de,“biz” manasında)
-sıñ, -siñ
-dır, -dir, -tır, -tir
-dı, -di, -tı, -ti
-ıp, -ip
-çıq, -çik
-mı, -mi
Doğru: onıñ, köyniñ, bunı, közni, men dostım, men Türkim, biz dostmız, biz Türkmiz, sen dоstsıñ, sen ürsiñ, oldım, kördik, uçtı, tüştiñ, toydır, yоqtır, sözdir, tüştir, оlıp, körip, buzçıq, gölçik, çoqmı?, gölmi?
Yañlış: onuñ, köynüñ, bunu, köznu, men dostum, men ürüm, biz dostmuz, biz ürmüz, sen dostsuñ, sen ürsüñ, oldum, kördük, uçtu, tüştüñ, toydur, yоqtur, sözdür, tüştür, olup, körüp, buzçuq, gölçük, çoqmu?, gölmü?
6.2.2) Başqa yalğamalarda ve sözniñ tamırında ekinci ecada U, Ü yazıla:
Doğru: dоğru, çükündir, yolcu, çöplük, köylü, yüzsüz, оnuncı, menim dostum, bizim dostumız, közüñ, közüñiz, yolu, özü, oluñız, dоğurmaq, bölünmek, yоrğun, olsun, külsün, olur
Yañlış: dоğrı, çükindir, yolcı, çöplik, köyli, yüzsiz, оnıncı,onuncu, menim dostım, bizim dostımız, köziñ, köziñiz, közüñüz, yolı, özi, olıñız, oluñuz, dоğırmaq, bölinmek, yоrğın, olsın, külsin, olir
7) Çeşit-türlü qaideler
7.1) İlk ecada MU- ve MÜ- birikmeleri
Türk imlâsından farqlı olaraq arap tilinden alınğan sözlerde mu-, mü- tañlay aenkine tabi olıp yazıla:
ekinci sozuq sesi qalın (a, ı, o, u) olsa mu- yazılır,
ekinci sozuq sesi ince (e, i, ö, ü) olsa mü- yazılır.
Doğru: mubarek, mudafaa, munasebet, mustaqil, muracaat, mücize, müsibet, müthiş, müit, müessese
Yañlış: mübarek, müdafaa, münasebet, müstaqil, müracaat, mucize, musibet, muthiş, muit, muessese
7.2) Arap sıfatlarınıñ soñunda -İY birikmesi
Arapçadan alınğan sıfatlarnıñ soñunda uzun [i] -iy şeklinde yazıla.
Diqqat: Qırımtatar imlâsında î işareti yoqtır!
Doğru: samimiy, siyasiy, milliy, edebiy, cenübiy, qaviy
Yañlış: samimi, siyasi, milli, edebi, cenübi, qavi
7.3) Ğarbiy tillerinden alınma sözlerde -İYA birikmesi
Zemaneviy qırımtatar tilinde türk -ya yerine -iya yazamız, -syon yerine -tsiya ya da –siya
Doğru: coğrafiya, kampaniya, amfibiya, Almaniya, federatsiya, versiya
Yañlış: coğrafya, kampanya, amfibya, Almanya, federasyon, versyon
7.4) Söz soñunda C, V ve NK
Soñunda c bulunğan arapça-farsça sözler türk tilinden farqlı olaraq ç ile yazılmaylar.
Doğru: tac, ilâc, borc, muhtac
Yañlış: taç, ilâç, borç, muhtaç
Fars tilinden alınma sözler soñundaki nk birikmesi sozuqnen başlanğan yalğama arttırğanda nk > ng dönüşimi olmaz.
Doğru: renki, cenki, Frenki
Yañlış: rengi, cengi, Frengi
Ğarbiy halqlar tillerinden alınma sözler soñunda kelgen v söylevde f kibi eşitilse de aslında olğanı kibi yazılır.
Doğru: aktiv, pozitiv, kollektiv
Yañlış: aktif, pozitif, kollektif
8) Qoşma ve ayrı yazılışı
8.1) -mı / -mi affiksi
Türkçeden farqlı olaraq -mı / -mi affiksini sözge qoşıp yazıla.
Doğru: barmı?, doğrumı?, bilesiñmi?, duşmandırmı?
Yañlış: bar mı?, doğru mı?, bilesiñ mi?, duşmandır mı?
8.2) bir, ep, er, iç sözlerinen birikmeler
Türk tilinden farqlı olaraq bir, ep, er, iç sözlerinen birikmeler ayrı-ayrı yazıla.
Doğru: ep bir, er bir, er kes, iç bir, bir qaç, bir çoq
Yañlış: epbir, erbir, erkes, içbir, birqaç, birçoq
İstisna: biraz
8.3) Çift sözler
Türk tilinden farqlı olaraq çift sözler defis vastasınen yazıla.
Doğru: bir-birini, bir-de-bir, dos-doğru, bem-beyaz, bom-boş, yavaş-yavaş, yaş-qart
Yañlış: birbirini, bir de bir, dosdoğru, bembeyaz, bomboş, yavaş yavaş, yaş qart | {
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QuoTW This was the week when a piece of software (supposedly) passed the Turing Test, giving the world all the “robot overlord” headlines they could possibly need in a slow, sunny news week.
Facts were hard to come by in the tale of Eugene Goostman, the 13-year-old-boy-simulating software that apparently hit the controversial benchmark of artificial intelligence.
First it was a supercomputer, then it was just a piece of software. First it passed the Turing Test in a blaze of glory, and then it transpired that after a number of attempts, it finally convinced judges that it was a real boy just 33 per cent of the time. Nevertheless, media junkie Kevin Warwick, visiting professor at the University of Reading and head of the event, was keen to stress the momentous nature of the whole thing:
Some will claim that the Test has already been passed. The words Turing Test have been applied to similar competitions around the world. However this event involved the most simultaneous comparison tests than ever before, was independently verified and, crucially, the conversations were unrestricted. A true Turing Test does not set the questions or topics prior to the conversations. We are therefore proud to declare that Alan Turing's Test was passed for the first time on Saturday.
After initial excitement and abject fear of the soon-to-be-realised apocalyptic future of Terminator-style robotic subjugation had subsided, a few boffins were able to make themselves heard over the clamour and suggest that this was perhaps not the epic milestone it had been made out to be.
Former BBC science man David Whitehouse reminded everyone on Twitter that Prof Warwick had been nicknamed Captain Cyborg for his frequent public proclamations of impending robotic breakthroughs:
In 1991, “Captain Cyborg” told me that we would have real life Terminators in ten years. It was crazy then, it’s still crazy now.
He also pointed out that it might not be all that difficult to impersonate a teenager:
Besides making a computer like a teenager is easy. Needs to be in standby mode for 18 hours a day and only say “yeah, cool”.
And that wasn’t even getting into the fact that Eugene Goostman was supposedly Ukrainian, making English his second language, or that many of the judges of the Test seemed to be only peripherally involved in AI. Robert Llewellyn, whose only qualification for the task appears to be his time as Kryton on Red Dwarf, was one judge for example.
This was also the week when that global football tournament kicked off, thrilling fans and exciting the beer economy in a number of countries. While many love and revere the World Cup to an almost unhealthy degree, this one is causing a whole host of controversies, from protests against it in host country Brazil to rumblings of corruption at governing body FIFA.
Anonymous decided to get in on the action this week, saying that it would target World Cup sponsors in cyber attacks in solidarity with Brazilians who didn't feel that the millions splashed on getting the country ready for the tournament was money well spent. Hacker Che Commodore told Reuters:
We have already conducted late-night tests to see which of the sites are more vulnerable. We have a plan of attack. This time we are targeting the sponsors of the World Cup.
Meanwhile, head penguin and hot contender for the prize of most outspoken man in tech, Linus Torvalds said this week that this whole drive to make every kid in the world into a coder is utter nonsense. In an interview with Business Insider, he said:
I actually don't believe that everybody should necessarily try to learn to code.I think it's reasonably specialised, and nobody really expects most people to have to do it. It's not like knowing how to read and write and do basic math.
However, unusually for Torvalds, he did qualify that statement with a calm and considered caveat:
That said, I think people should have some way of getting exposure to it, just so that people who find that they enjoy it and have the aptitude know about the possibility. Not because everybody will want to or need to learn, but just because it is a great vocation, and there may well be lots of people who never realised that they might actually like telling computers what to do.
But, not to worry, Torvalds recovered his plucky declamatory nature when asked about patents:
It's all bullshit, sane people know it's bullshit, but making real change is difficult. Politically, the US patent system also tends to help US companies, because once you get into a court of law, it's not about the law any more (and it's certainly not about the patent, which is crap and which neither the judge, the lawyers, nor the jury will understand anyway), and it's much easier to sell as an "us vs. them" story. How do I love patents? Let me count the ways.
In Blighty, actor and national treasure Stephen Fry was once more holding forth on tech subjects without completing the requisite research, this time to promote the .uk domain name.
In a blog post celebrating the totally awesome new option to have website.uk now instead of website.co.uk, courtesy of registry Nominet, Fry talked about how lovely it was that new domain names like these would be generating a bottomless supply of IP addresses.
A year or so back I wrote that it seemed to me annoying and lax of the British internet authority (if such a body ever existed, which it didn’t and doesn’t) when domain names were being handed that they were so inattentive and their eyes so off the ball. How come Germany could have .de, France .fr, South Africa .za, Italy .it etc etc etc? And we poor British had to have the extra exhaustion of typing .co.uk. Three whole keystrokes. Fret no more, people of Britain. The day of .uk is upon us. And team stephenfry.com — as with all things — is proud to be ahead of the curve, or at least cresting it. stephenfry.uk is launched today with a fanfare and an unfurling of the Union Flag. Bear in mind too that if you have businesses with branches in Berlin and Miami, for example, that you will soon be able to own mycompany.berlin and myccompany.miami and so forth. All these generate new IP numbers which so far show no sign of giving out, despite the billions in use.
Sadly, Fry was a bit off the mark there. IP addresses are allocated globally by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which does delegate to local registries, but new addresses are not created with domain names. There is a cavernous amount of space in IPv6 – but it will run out one day. Currently IPv6 uptake is slow and IPv4 space is running out.
Over at Microsoft, techies are apparently busily patching up Windows 8, but leaving Windows 7 users in the lurch. Security researchers reckon they’ve found a number of instances where security functions in Windows 8 have been updated, but not in Win7, leaving computers open to zero day vulnerabilities.
Moti Joseph, formerly of Websense, suggested that Microsoft may be leaving Windows 7 users in the cold to save time and money:
Why is it that Microsoft inserted a safe function into Windows 8 [but not] Windows 7? The answer is money - Microsoft does not want to waste development time on older operating systems ... and they want people to move to higher operating systems.
And finally, the prize for the most cringeworthy example of a person in authority attempting to be “cool” this week goes to UK Culture Secretary Sajid Javid, who fired off this cheesy line about how great it was that the first Star Wars standalone flick would also be filmed in Blighty:
Given Lucasfilm’s decision to film another Star Wars movie in the UK, it is clear that the Force is strong here. ® | {
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Fotografía: Saúl Macedonio Tovar
Fotografía: Manuel Sierra | Periodico El Mexicano
Fue el 14 de enero de 1990
TIJUANA.- Un día como hoy pero de hace 30 años, el histórico club alemán Bayern Múnich jugó un partido de exhibición en el Estadio del Cerro Colorado (ahora Estadio Chevron) ante el Inter de Tijuana, club que en ese entonces pertenecía a la Segunda División de México (actual Ascenso MX).
Aprovechando que se encontraban de gira por Estados Unidos, la directiva de ‘La Furia Amarilla’ arregló para que el domingo 14 de enero de 1990, los jugadores del cuadro teutón fueran a disputar un duelo amistoso en “la frontera más transitada del mundo”.
Fotografía: Saúl Macedonio Tovar
El resultado del juego fue un empate a dos, pero Bayern terminó imponiéndose 5-4 en penales (7-6 global) para ganar un trofeo patrocinado por Macons.
Quienes estuvieron presentes ese día, cuentan que los alemanes se fueron enojados porque venían de derrotar sin problemas a la Selección Mexicana y de golear 4-0 a Puebla. Sin embargo, no imaginaron que con el Inter batallarían gracias a una gran actuación del portero Hugo Guerrero.
Fotografía: Neto Santana
Por otro lado, dicen que el campo muy maltratado debido a que en ese entonces acababa de terminar la participación de los Potros de Tijuana en la temporada 1989-1990 de la Liga Mexicana del Pacífico.
Dentro de los jugadores con los que contaba aquel equipo de Múnich, destacan Raimond Aumann, Hans Pflügler, Stefan Reuter, Klaus Augenthaler, Jürgen Kohler y Olaf Thon.
Fotografía: Neto Santana
Estos seis futbolistas, formaron parte del seleccionado alemán que conquistó la décimo cuarta edición de la Copa Mundial de la FIFA que se realizó del 8 de junio al 8 de julio de ese mismo año en Italia.
Hace unos días la página de Facebook Tijuana En El Tiempo publicó un video con información más detallada. | {
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