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President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE reportedly spoke with Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsGOP set to release controversial Biden report Trump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status MORE’s chief of staff Matthew Whitaker about replacing Sessions in his role, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Sources briefed on the matter told the Post that the conversation was vague and did not specify if Whitaker would take over in an interim or permanent capacity, or how serious the president's proposal was.
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The attorney general and the president have had an embittered relationship since Sessions recused himself from the Justice Department’s (DOJ) investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Rod RosensteinDOJ kept investigators from completing probe of Trump ties to Russia: report Five takeaways from final Senate Intel Russia report FBI officials hid copies of Russia probe documents fearing Trump interference: book MORE appointed special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE to take over the probe after Sessions’s recusal. Mueller and his investigation have been targeted by Trump and his administration, often being denounced as a "witch hunt."
“The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself...I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined … and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!” Trump tweeted in June.
The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself...I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined...and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2018
Rosenstein has also been seen as a top target of Trump's, with reports last month suggesting the president could fire his deputy attorney general. Trump, however, sought to downplay reports, stating Monday that he would not fire Rosenstein.
Trump, last month, escalated his attacks on Sessions, telling Hill.TV, “I don’t have an attorney general.”
Speculation that the president would fire Sessions regained steam after Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamSenate GOP aims to confirm Trump court pick by Oct. 29: report The Hill's Campaign Report: GOP set to ask SCOTUS to limit mail-in voting Senate GOP sees early Supreme Court vote as political booster shot MORE (R-S.C.) said that the attorney general would “very likely” be fired after November’s midterm elections.
“I think there will come a time, sooner rather than later, where it will be time to have a new face and a fresh voice at the Department of Justice,” Graham told Bloomberg News. “Clearly, Attorney General Sessions doesn’t have the confidence of the president.”
White House officials told the Post that they expect Rosenstein and Sessions to remain in their positions until November's midterm elections, fearing that their removal could be a detriment to House and Senate Republican candidates.
Whitaker penned an op-ed for CNN in Aug. 2017 in which he said Mueller would cross a “red line” if he began looking into the finances of Trump and his family.
If Whitaker were to replace Sessions, he could be in a position to supervise the Mueller probe, the Post noted. Ethics officials, however, would first likely review his past statements to explore any potential conflicts of interest, according to the paper.
The White House and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Hill. | {
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GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The head of General Electric told a jobs summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Monday that businesses needed to take the lead on job creation.
At a conference where many of the comments were focused on government barriers to hiring, GE (GE, Fortune 500) Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt acknowledged there needed to be some policy changes by Congress and the Obama administration. But he said that the responsibility for hiring lay with businesses.
"The people who are part of the business sector, the people in this room, have got to stop complaining about government and get some action underway," he told the group. "There's no excuse today for lack of leadership. The truth is we all need to be part of the solution."
Immelt is the chair of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He said the group has made a number of recommendations for changes in government policies that should be able to help job creation, such as the executive order announced Monday asking independent agencies to rid their books of old and outdated regulations.
Immelt said he is committed to working with Obama on other moves that can help hiring, and that he expects to have proposals by the end of the year that should help to create up to 1 million jobs.
But he said that it's important that businesses take action -- like taking some risks, and thinking about bringing back jobs that had been moved overseas.
If companies examine the changing economics of some of those jobs, Immelt said they would find it is beneficial to bring jobs back home, which he said GE has done with some jobs now being moved back to Kentucky and Michigan.
And he said that arguing between business groups and the government isn't in the best interest of the nation's economy.
"We can't always be fighting. We need to act, and the private sector can do more," he said.
The Chamber's jobs summit came in the wake of a disappointing government jobs report that showed hiring ground to a near halt in June. Immelt and other speakers referred to the report as a sign of the serious problems facing the labor market.
"We have a lot of work to do," he said.
Earlier in the day, Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue laid out his group's broad plans to improve hiring, with most of the focus on changes in government policies. Among the changes he called for were the passage of pending free trade agreements, reform of visa rules to allow companies to hire skilled workers and recent graduates from overseas and to boost spending by foreign visitors. He also called for easier permitting of new projects and reform of government regulations.
"Can you blame these businesses? They don't know what's going to hit them next, and that's what worries them the most," said Donohue.
Donohue and Immelt both said it is important that Congress quickly agrees to raise the debt ceiling to remove that uncertainty. Donohue said this should be done in conjunction with a long term plan to cut the deficit, primarily though spending cuts. The Chamber chief also advocated more infrastructure spending on things such as road projects, and he said a higher gas tax is needed to fund those projects.
The Chamber also released a poll of small businesses that showed only 19% of businesses plan to add jobs in the next year, little changed from the 18% that increased their payrolls in the last year. Nearly 40% of those surveyed cited either worries about what the government will do next, the requirements of the new healthcare bill or too much regulation as the number one obstacle to hiring.
But economic uncertainty by itself was the biggest obstacle for 30% of those surveyed, while lack of sales was the biggest problem for 22%. | {
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There is evidence bilingualism can sharpen the brain A project at Bangor University aims to explore the benefit of being bilingual. Researchers will be recruiting 700 people aged between two and 80 to take part in the £750,000 programme. Prof Virginia Gathercole said the obvious benefits included being able to converse and to participate in two cultures. But she said there was also evidence of non-language benefits, such as the ability to protect the brain from ageing. "The very act of being able to speak, listen, and think in two languages and of using two languages on a daily basis appears to sharpen people's abilities to pay close attention to aspects of tasks relevant to good performance," she added. Running two parallel language systems throughout life has had positive benefits in a number of ways
Prof Virginia Gathercole, Bangor University Research carried out already had also shown having two languages helped protect against the decline in the brain's abilities when ageing," she added. "We already know that language processing is one of the most complex activities that our brains carry out. "Running two parallel language systems throughout life has had positive benefits in a number of ways," she added. One multilingualist, Phillip Hughes, 62, travelled widely with his work as a teacher before his retirement. He said he found having two languages handy, especially when he had to learn another one, German while living in Swizerland. Case study - Phillip Hughes, 62
I think being able to speak two languages has been of benefit, especially when I had to learn German when I worked in Switzerland. I learned it quickly and they said my pronunciation was good. At home I spoke English as my mother spoke English, but outside I would speak Welsh (and I also spoke Welsh in my sleep apparently). I want my children to grow up speaking more than one language, and to understand that it is important to speak more than English - especially if you go off the beaten track. He grew up in an English-speaking household, but spoke Welsh to his friends and in the wider community, and was adamant that his children should also have language skills. Dr Enlli Thomas, who is collaborating on the project, said there was evidence from Canada that being bilingual "may provide some protection against age-related memory loss". The Bangor research team are looking for people who are bilingual in Welsh and English and monolinguals - or those who speak only one language - aged over 60 to take part in the research. Participants take part in a set of simple language tests and then carry out on-screen puzzles and tasks, similar to "brain games" played on hand-held games consoles. The researchers are looking for people who grew up in homes where only Welsh was spoken, where both Welsh and English were spoken, and where only English was spoken. The research can be carried out either at the university or a researcher can visit the participant.
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Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton used a second private email address while she was secretary of state, contradicting assertions that the first secret address was the only one she kept from her colleagues in Washington.
The second email address, revealed by the New York Times, is from the same private email server that was uncovered earlier this year. Clinton used the account in exchanges with longtime adviser Sydney Blumenthal about strategies to help rebels oust Muammar Gadhafi in Libya in 2011.
"Fyi. The idea of using private security experts to arm the opposition should be considered," Clinton wrote Blumenthal from the email address [email protected].
Clinton's office insisted just two months ago that the only private email address used by the former secretary of state during her tenure was [email protected].
In a 2015 letter to Congressman Trey Gowdy, Clinton’s lawyer acknowledged that the HRod17 email address existed, but said it was "not an address that existed during Secretary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state."
But the timestamps and content of the messages make clear that this statement was inaccurate, according to the Times report.
The first private email use was seen as a breach of protocol. Clinton's advisers handed over 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department to comply with an investigation. But those emails will not be made public until 2016.
Clinton admitted to deleting thousands of others, claiming they were personal.
In March, she said that she wanted the State Department to release the emails and since then, the State Department has assigned 12 staffers full-time to reviewing the Clinton emails, according to an official who spoke with Politico.
During a campaign stop in Iowa on Monday, Clinton told reporters: "Nobody has a bigger interest in getting them released than I do.
"Anything that they might do to expedite that process I heartily support," she continued. "I want the American people to learn as much as they can about the work I did with our diplomats and our development experts."
She contended she has limited say over the timetable.
"They’re not mine," Clinton said about her emails, which she turned over copies of to her former department last December. "The State Department has to go through its process, but as much as they can expedite the process, that’s what I’m asking them to do."
The State Department on Monday night proposed a deadline of January 2016 to complete its review and publicly release the whole batch of documents, but a federal judge on Tuesday rejected such a plan.
US District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras on Tuesday said the State Department must propose a new schedule that involves disclosures of a batch of the emails "every 60 days."
A State Department spokesman told Politico that it will abide by the judge’s order, and denied that the agency was "slow-rolling" the release of the records in order to benefit Clinton politically. | {
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I received such an awesome set of gifts from my Secret Santa! Boxes and boxes of fun, cute, adorable and AWESOME stuff! Thank you, Secret Santa! Shall I list? I think I shall! Sit tight! We're going to be here awhile!
Guitar ice cube stirrers Cute purse with glasses Mini Camelot figures Swizzle Sticks Evil Devil Duck Oversized lollipop Shakespeare doll Chocolate filled pandas Doctor Who shirt Betseyville luggage tag Ninja Jelly Beans Tic-Tac-Toe
Thanks again, Secret Santa! I loved it all! | {
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In the Novice’s Questions, the most interesting question is the very first: What is one? And the answer is: All beings subsist on food. This is what defines us as beings: the fact that we need food to maintain our existence. And for most of us that’s pretty much all our lives. What we consume is the big issue.
Years back, there was a TV series, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and they didn’t show any rich and famous people making their own things or showing off things that they had produced themselves. It was all about what they had bought, what they were consuming. Our culture is obsessed with consuming. One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons shows a couple sitting in a living room, talking to some friends, and the husband is saying, "Of course, it’s had its ups and downs, but by and large Margaret and I have found the consumer experience to be a rewarding one."
That’s the attitude many of us bring when we come to the Dhamma. We’re used to consuming not only things but also experiences. There’s a huge industry - the experience industry - where they’ll create experiences for you to buy. Remember back a while when they advertized the Ford experience? They weren’t selling you Fords; they were selling you the experience of having a Ford. Park rangers talked about maintaining the Yosemite experience or the Zion experience for people to come and consume. So it’s understandable that when people come to the meditation, they think of the meditation experience as something they can consume as well. We want the bliss; we want the pleasure, the sense of freedom that we’ve heard that will come from mindfulness and concentration. But in order to consume those things, we first have to produce them.
This is why, when the Buddha starts his teachings on the most basic levels, he starts with generosity. It’s the first of the perfections, the first of his teachings in the gradual discourse, when he’s leading people step-by-step up to the four noble truths. He starts with generosity and then moves on to virtue, the rewards of virtue in heaven, then the drawbacks of those rewards, and then finally the value of renunciation. Once the mind can see that renunciation would be a good thing, then it’s ready for the four noble truths. In many ways, renunciation is a continuation of the principle of generosity. You learn that you have to give something away or give it up in order to get something of greater value in return. So instead of encouraging us to come to the meditation as consumers, the Buddha encourages us to come as givers. What are you going to give to the practice?
Some of the famous Ajaans in Thailand talk about how the practice is one thing clear through. In other words, it starts with one principle and just works out the implications of that principle all the way through to the end. And the one thing is this principle of giving. This is what raises us up beyond and above the level of just being beings that have to consume and feed. Remember, the arahant is someone who is no longer defined by any desire and so is no longer defined as a being. Because arahants have fully comprehended food, their path can’t be traced. Even their consuming of food is a gift. Those who give to the arahant get rewarded many times over. That’s why the arahant is the only person who can eat the alms of the countryside and not incur a debt.
So the practice is one of giving from the very beginning. All too often we encounter talks about dana as thinly disguised requests for money, which is why some people have a real aversion to the topic. But the Buddha had an etiquette around this. There’s a story in the Canon of some monks who were building huts. T hey started getting into a contest with one another as to who could build the nicest hut. They were constantly asking for materials and workmen, and the householders were getting harassed with all the begging and requests. When they’d see a monk, they’d turn away, run away, close the door. As the story says, sometimes in the evening they might see a cow coming in the distance and, assuming that it was a monk, they’d run away. Things got that bad.
So the Buddha called the monks together and gave them a series of stories about how people don’t like to be begged from. One story told of two hermits, an older brother and a younger brother, living near a river. A naga, a very beautiful naga, would come up out of the river every day and just show itself to the younger brother. This frightened the younger brother, as he had no idea what the naga’s intentions were, and who knows what the naga might try to do to him. So he went to the older brother and asked him, "What can I do to keep this naga from coming?" So the older brother said, "Does the naga have anything of value?" The younger brother said, "Yes, he’s got a beautiful jewel on his chest." So the older brother said, "Well, the next time you see the naga, ask for the jewel."
So the next day the naga came and as the naga was in front of the younger hermit, the hermit asked for the jewel. So the naga went away. The following day, as the naga was halfway up from the river to the hermit’s cave, the hermit asked for the jewel. So the naga went away. And the third day, as soon as the naga came out of the river, the younger hermit asked for the jewel, and the naga said, "Okay, enough. I’m not coming back. You’re asking for too much." And then of course, after the naga stopped coming back, the younger brother missed him. It was kind of cool seeing a naga in your meditation like that. But by that time he’d driven him away.
So when generosity is presented as part of a begging talk - that’s what those "dana talks" are; they’re begging talks - it’s not really welcome. As a result, we miss the meaning of generosity, and we miss a lot of the other aspects of the practice, too, because the practice has to start with generosity. Generosity is not just a matter of giving things. You learn how to give of your time, to give of your energy, to give of your knowledge, and in doing so you’re changing your whole relationship to the world around you. You’re not just a being who’s eating and eating and consuming things and experiences. You’re finding that you’ve got things inside that you can share, things you can give, and there’s a sense of wealth that comes with that. If all you’re thinking about is consuming - "What can I get out of this? What can I get out of that?" - you’re poor. No matter how much you have, you’re poor - because there’s always a big lack. But if you come to every situation with the question, "What can I give?" you’re coming from a position of wealth. And you find that you do have reserves of energy and knowledge that you can share, and in sharing you gain a lot in return, a lot with more value.
Both generosity and renunciation are forms of trade. There’s a passage where a monk says, "I will trade what dies for the deathless. I’ll trade what is limited for unbinding." You’re trading up. You can’t get the better thing without giving up the lesser thing. When you understand that, you realize that whatever you’re doing in the practice, you want to come with the attitude of What Can I Give. If you don’t have material things to give, how about your time? How about your energy, your knowledge, your skills? When you’re dealing with other people, the question is not so much, "How much are they entertaining me?" or "What can I get out of them?" It’s: "What can I give? What can I give to the situation?" There are times, for instance, when there’s a lot of tension in the room. Can you give some peace? Can you give some humor? Something to make it better.
Virtue is also a gift. As the Buddha said, when you make up your mind not to harm anyone under any circumstances - no killing, no stealing, no illicit sex, no lying, no taking of intoxicants - you’re giving limitless protection to all beings. In other words, at the very least, from your quarter, they have nothing to fear. As you give them limitless protection, you gain a share in that limitless protection as well. So virtue, too, is a gift.
Meditation is a gift. You have to give your energy, you have to give your attention, to develop your mindfulness. When you’re focused on the breath, it’s good not to hold anything back. Just think of yourself plunging into the breath and the body, totally. The reward is that you develop an all-around experience of ease and refreshment. If part of you is pulled back, there’s a part of you that’s not sharing in this, that’s not gaining anything of real value.
So try to come to the practice with the attitude that it’s all about giving. Ultimately, you’ll be giving up your greed, aversion, and delusion, giving up even your sense of self or your many senses of self. First you give up your unskillful selves as you develop the skillful ones, but then after you’ve worked so hard on developing the skillful ones, the Buddha said you’ve got to give those up, too, for the sake of your long-term welfare and happiness. There’s a reward that comes from not hanging on.
You’re always trading up - but you can’t trade up unless you start giving to begin with. Otherwise, if you’re just in consuming mode, you’re living off your old goodness.
One of the Buddha’s foremost disciples was a woman Visakha, whose nickname was Migara’s mother. It wasn’t because she had a son named Migara. Her father was named Migara. The reason she was called his mother was because she saw that he was just living off his old merit. He was just in consuming mode all the time, and she made him realize this. She’d learned the Dhamma from the Buddha and so she taught him, "You’re just living off all your old merit and if you don’t create any new goodness, you’re going to run out." T hat was the teaching that convinced him to change his ways. Because she was his teacher, she was called his mother. She had given him the gift of Dhamma.
So remember, we’re here to go beyond ourselves, to go beyond just being beings that are consuming all the time. We try to redefine ourselves, not by what we eat or what we own or what we consume, but by what we produce, what we can give. Making this switch in the mind changes everything. Difficult patches come up in the meditation and you ask yourself not, "Why is this so bad? Does this mean I’m a miserable meditator?" You say, "No, what can I give to this situation so that it doesn’t snowball? What resources do I still have? What can I draw on to give to the situation to turn it into a different kind of situation?" When things are going well, again, what do you give to make sure that they continue to go well? You don’t just sit there slurping up the pleasure and the rapture. You look after them. You give your energy to protect them - so that as you get more and more into the giving mood, when you finally do have your taste of the deathless, instead of trying to grab onto it or hold onto it, which places a separation between you and the experience, you give up any clinging you might have around it. That’s how you reach the deathless.
So in giving up you’re not being left adrift. You’re giving up things of lesser value for things of greater value. But remember the only way you can trade up is to be willing to give something in the first place. Otherwise there’s no exchange. | {
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Sunday, October 19
By Jane Gardner, president of Quorum of High Priests
…Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
—Matthew 22:21 NRSV
I often get my priorities mixed up. It’s so easy to selfishly place myself first, ahead of faithful discipleship. One Sunday a young, single mother and her two daughters showed up at church. With a judgmental sigh, I thought, “The only time we ever see her is when she needs money.” My attitude lacked grace!
At the end of the service, I happened to be at the coat rack when this young woman was there. As I put my coat on and reached into my pocket for my gloves, I found instead some money. I had no idea where it had come from. I didn’t remember putting the bills in my pocket.
An internal voice prompted, “Give her the money.” I argued back, “I also have two kids, and they have many needs. We don’t have money to spare.” By the time I finished this conversation with myself and came to my senses, the young woman was gone, and the opportunity had passed. To this day, I confess that unchristian behavior.
Prayer for Peace God, forgive us, sinners. All comes from you, generous God. Help us as we strive to place you at the center of our living and our giving. Help us make your mission our top priority!
Spiritual Practice: Growing a Gracious, Generous Heart Open your heart to God’s Grace and Generosity with a “breath prayer.” Let your breathing slow and deepen. Be aware of God’s breath moving in and out of your heart. Spend several minutes focusing on breathing in God’s generosity. With each breath, silently name one gift for which you are thankful. Let your heart expand to contain God’s gracious outpouring of love. With each breath out, name one gift you want to share from the overflow of your heart.
Peace Covenant Today, God, I will remember I am steward over your wealth. | {
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Pääministeri Juha Sipilä (oik.), valtiovarainministeri Petteri Orpo (keskellä) ja urheilu- ja kulttuuriministeri Sampo Terho saapumassa talousarvioneuvottelujen tiedotustilaisuuteen viime elokuussa. | {
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Design and User-Experience
Certainly, your cause for selecting a elite theme is without doubt that your internet site would look spectacular and your model can be displayed in one of the best ways doable. You can discover a theme that fits what you are promoting by following quite couple of steps.
As a begin, seek for the websites the place the best-designed themes are bought. Though this can be apparent, I discover it value mentioning. My private favourite is Theme Forest notwithstandin there are additionally a number of good designs obtainable in Elegant Themes and Studio Press.
Next, commit time to browse the demo. See if the internet site appears easy to make use of. Does it have decent white house? Does it really feel thrilling or does it provide you with a headache? Your bowel feeling performs an important half inside the selections you make.
Lastly, select a cross-browser suitable theme, which has additionally been constructed to be accessible.
Responsiveness
Mobile visitors differs from one trade to a different, notwithstandin many experiences have come to an settlement that on a median, 30% of individuals use their cellphones and tablets in visiting internet sites.Whether or not that is correct, there’s greater than decent cause to make use of a responsive theme.
Nearly all respected themes are suitable with cellular units, so when a theme lacks responsiveness, this can be a trigger for concern. Many theme Peter Sellers help you filter out unresponsive themes. An extra choice is to browse over a curated, responsive theme listing. One of the efficient methods to know if a responsive theme is nice decent is to attempt to run the demo by way of Google’s newest mobile-friendliness software.
SEO
When PhrasePress is furnished with any of the a number of nice SEO plugins, it power be among the many most SEO-friendly CMS obtainable. Yet, quite deal of themes make every rather on-site SEO errors like omitting header and alt tags, duplicating content material and making dynamic URL errors.
In selecting a theme, go for one which mentions “SEO ready” or “SEO optimized” in its description, notwithstandin don’t blindly opinion it. Many builders add this so they may promote their theme. When you already know {that a} designer has at the very to the last-place degree taken SEO into consideration when growing their theme, you get some type of assurance.
You can set up an extension like SEO Site Tools or Mozbar for the Chrome browser to do some quick SEO checks on the demo of a theme.
Easy to Customize
Several themes come normal with a customization dashboard. This approach, you do not have to do direct adjustments to fashion sheets. Furthermore, plugins like Visual Page Editor simplify constructing difficult webpage buildings with out the necessary to contact code. Quite a deal of these WYSIWYG editors are fairly limiting, notwithstandin total, I allow them as very advantageous to creating an net site look spectacular with out exerting a deal effort. If a demo of the developer’s administration panel is offered, I’d recommend you to strive it so you may customise the issues it is well to. | {
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Is Nectar Really The Top Rated Bed For 2019?
Nectar mattresses weren’t the first to make a memory foam mattress, but they make one of the best ones on the market. This mattress has found a way to be a perfect medium when it comes to memory foam mattresses. The 11 inch thick mattress provides just the right amount of support while still providing the comfort you would expect from any high end mattress. Not only that but the price of a Nectar mattress is very affordable and way lower than a comparable one like Temperpedic.
There are many things that make Nectar mattresses one of the best to buy. They are very well constructed, have a lifetime warranty, and Nectar also offers one of the longest sleep trials in the industry. If you are a side sleeper, the firmness of the mattress will be good for you. It will give you enough support while still giving enough pressure relieve. It contours to your body extremely well helping relieve pressure on your shoulders and body. Also, for those of you that are restless sleepers, the mattress does a very good job isolation motion so you won’t disturb the person sleeping with you.
If you are a hot sleeper, the Nectar is a great choice. The material used and how it is constructed is all designed to help transfer heat away from you and keep you cool. No more waking up from a hot mattress in the middle of the night.
How Are Nectar Mattresses Made?
The nectar mattress is made up of 5 different layers. The top layer is a fully removable layer. This quilted layer provides comfort along will helping keep you cool while you sleep. It then has a 1 inch 4lb gel memory foam layer. This layer is designed to distribute heat along with with maintain it’s original shape. After that, there is a medical grade 3 inch 3.5lb memory foam layer . The base layer of the mattress consists of a 2.2lm high density foam. Also, the material making up the bed is bed bug resistant so you don’t have to worry about sleeping in a bed of bugs.
Nector Mattress Layers
Tencel Cooling Cover – This layer is designed to help circulate are and move heat away from you while you sleep. It is also bedbug resistant, so you never have to worry about sleeping in a bed of bugs. Quilted Gel Memory Foam – This quilted layer of gel memory foam provides extra comfort and loft. The nature of the quilting also helps for better breathability in the mattress which in turn help regulate heat. For people that sleep hot, this is definitely an added bonus in keeping you cooler. Gel Memory Foam – Nectar uses their patented Lush Foamtm. This gel memory foam is designed to distribute heat and hold it’s original shape. Adaptive Hi Core Memory Foam – This is a heavier foam designed to give you the support you need. This layer provides what is needed to relieve the pressure points created when sleeping. Breathable Base Layer – This layer is the densest layer providing the majority of support. The foam is rated at 2.2+ ILD while most other mattresses are only rated at 1.5 ILD or less. This base layer is also constructed with special molded channels in it to allow fresh air to flow through it helping with cooling.
How Is The Mattress Support?
Nectar mattresses are a medium firm mattress. Unlike other company, Nectar only has one firmness level for their mattresses. This however, isn’t too much of a negative. The mattress support is a good balance to give your body the right about of support while still molding to your body. Some people may find the bed a little firm but would probably be perfect for heavier people and side sleepers. The mattress is designed to give you long term support and optimum comfort.
What Can I Use This Mattress With?
These mattresses are can be used in almost any type of bed frame including adjustable frames. It is possible to use the mattress directly on the floor but it is not recommended.
Year Long Sleep Trial
One of the greatest things about Nectar mattresses is their sleep trial. You can never know how well a mattress is going to work for you unless you spend the time in it. Shopping in a store doesn’t make this possible because you probably only will lay on a bed for a few minutes. When buying online, there is no way for you to really test the bed. That is why their sleep trial is so great. Nectar offers a 365 day trial which is one of the longest in the industry. What does that mean? That means that you get an entire year to “try” out the mattress. If you don’t like it for whatever reason, they will pick up the mattress from you at no charge and refund your money.
Forever Warranty
Besides the amazing sleep trial, Nectar has one of the best warranties. While most mattress companies only have a 10 – 15 year warranty, Nectar has a lifetime warranty. If your mattress ever breaks from normal use, they will replace it for free. That’s pretty amazing. On top of that, if there are areas that have compressed more than 1.5 inches that are not uncompressing, they will replace the mattress.
Does The Mattress Smell?
One of the biggest questions people have before buying a foam mattress is if it smells. As with any memory foam based mattress, there will initially be a smell. The new mattress smell, kind of like a new car smell. This smell is called off-gassing and is caused by the foam and how it is made. Nectar mattresses don’t have much of a smell due to their high quality construction. If there is any smell coming from the mattress, it should disappear within a few days ones it has a chance to breath.
Don’t Lay On A Bed Of Chemicals
Most people don’t really realize what they are sleeping on. Did you think of how the bed was made before you layed down on it? If you are worried about what you are laying on, nectar mattresses are Certipure certified. This means that they are free from harmful gasses and chemicals. The beds don’t have VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), flame retardants, or heavy metals making it one of the healthier memory foam mattresses to sleep on.
Shipping – How do I get this?
Being an online store, this mattress will be shipped and delivered to your door step. They arrive in a box vacuum sealed and rolled up. You don’t have to worry about trying to strap a bed on top of you car anymore.
Conclusion
Overall, Nectar makes one of the best memory foam mattresses on the market. The overall comfort and support satisfies most everyone. On top of that, the lifetime warranty guarantees you a good mattress. Finally, the year long sleep trial pretty much makes it a no brainer. Try it out and if you don’t like it, you can return it for an entire year. With all of these things, I would put this mattress as one of the best to buy in 2018. | {
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Pure cheese, faux-meat or soya, here are some amazing bites to try in Dubai today | {
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Expression Language injection or EL Injection for short is an attack vector I'd never heard of until recently. However, a few days ago I got a message from one of my good friends (Mantis) asking:
Hey man you ever exploited the JSF-dialect of EL injection?
So using the #{} syntax instead of the ${} one
I hadn't but it got me thinking how to exploit it and got me reading the Java EE docs into how it all worked. He had found an interesting bug where if you injected some EL syntax into the user agent the application would return varying degrees of info.
We spent ages looking into it trying to better exploit it, before diving into the journey here's a quick explanation of what expression language actually is and how it can be identified.
WTF is an Expression Language(EL)?
You may have heard or seen the notation before in languages like angular JS and other template injection attacks where the common payload is to get the application to evaluate maths such as 9*9 and it will return 81 . HAX! Well in this case the application was evaluating Java Server Faces (JSF), here is a quick TL;DR on the lowdown of JSF and EL.
JSF uses the EL for the following functions when evaluating code:
Deferred and immediate evaluation of expressions
The ability to set as well as get data
The ability to invoke methods
With JSF, EL supports both immediate and deferred evaluation of expressions. Immediate evaluation means that the expression is evaluated and the result returned as soon as the page is first rendered. Deferred evaluation means that the technology using the expression language can use its own libraries and support to evaluate the expression sometime later during the page, whenever it is appropriate to do so.
Those expressions that are evaluated immediately use the ${} syntax which is most commonly found on other expression language injection posts. Expressions whose evaluation is deferred use the #{} syntax which is what this injection post is about.
The injection side of things is essentially server-side code injection, they occur when an application takes user input and passes it to a string that is dynamically executed on the back end usually by some form of language, be it angular, Java(*shivers*) or something else. If the user input is not properly sanitized before hitting the back end, an attacker can leverage crafted input to modify the code being run, and inject arbitrary code that will be executed by the server.
The risk of this type of vulnerability is usually pretty high as it can lead to an attacker compromising the entire application and thus gaining access to underlying data and functionality. By leveraging this an attacker may be able to pivot off of the application onto the infrastructure supporting the stack.
Why is this post different from others?
When you Google Expression Language injection, you typically get blog posts explaining how to exploit it when the notation is ${} but hardly ever when it's #{} also referred to as Deferred Evaluation.
This case was deferred evaluation which got Mantis and I thinking on how to exploit, the request was similar to:
GET /login/success?rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fdomain.com HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: #{class} Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-GB,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Connection: close Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1 Host: blah.domain.com
Notice the user agent is #{class} this is where our injection point was, by supplying content inside the curly braces the application would evaluate the code in the response however it was error based. If the evaluation was successful the code would return a 404 with UserAgent: VALUE where value was the output from whatever was fed in.
We spent ages messing around with this reading the docs and understanding how JSF works with EL. Eventually coming to the conclusion that the following server side variables returned valid data:
#{empty}
#{class}
#{request}
#{java}
Moving from this we attempted to get code execution as we had proven that the app was evaluating expressions, it just didn't like quotes which limited our input. Expressions like isEmpty() and #{1==1} both returned true which helped in enumerating information from the back-end.
After further reading we found that Java has a .toString() method which led to more enumeration and getting the app returning different output/evaluating statements then converting them to a string to output, an example of this was:
#{ T(java.lang.Math).random() * 10.0}
Which utilized the Maths function picked a random number and multiplied this by 10.0 , at this stage we reported it to the affected program who accepted it, triaged and paid out inside of 12 hours!
All in a good evening, where we both learned a lot and found out about EL, how there's a lack of info out there directly related and led me to writing this short post! | {
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Economic advisor Gary Cohn said Thursday that an American family could save $1,000 under the Republicans' proposed tax reform plan, and it could use that money to pay for a new car or a kitchen.
"If we allow a family to keep another thousand dollars of their income, what does that mean? They can renovate their kitchen, they can buy a new car, they can take their family on vacation, they can increase their lifestyle," he said. "That's what our tax plan has to do."
Some critics are seizing on Cohn's assertion.
TWEET
TWEET 2
Cohn is also under fire for acknowledging that he "can't guarantee" taxes wouldn't go up for some middle-class families.
The advisor said that "a typical family earning $100,000 with two children that has been a standard deductor ... can expect a tax cut of about $1,000."
The average American family makes $74,000 a year before taxes, or about $26,000 less than that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median American family income is only about $55,000.
The GOP plan is expected to primarily benefit corporations as well as the wealthiest Americans, which includes various members of the White House and the Cabinet. The estate tax repeal alone would save Donald Trump $564 million, Wilbur Ross $545 million, Betsy DeVos' father-in-law Richard $900 million, and Linda McMahon $250 million, reports Bloomberg.
In fact, in several ways, the president himself stands to benefit tremendously.
Correction: This story revises a previous version to delete the incorrect assertion that Cohn said the typical American family earns $100,000 a year. He actually said a typical American family that earns $100,000 would get $1,000 under the GOP tax proposal.
Don't miss: | {
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Nearly 40,000 people in the United States died by guns last year, marking the highest number of gun deaths in decades, according to a new analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's WONDER database.
A similar analysis was first conducted by the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence , a non-profit gun policy advocacy group.
CNN replicated that analysis and found that 39,773 people died by guns in 2017, which is an increase of more than 10,000 deaths from the 28,874 in 1999. The age-adjusted rate of firearm deaths per 100,000 people rose from 10.3 per 100,000 in 1999 to 12 per 100,000 in 2017.
CDC statisticians confirmed with CNN on Thursday that these numbers are correct and they show gun deaths have reached a record-high going back to at least 1979 , which was the year firearm deaths started to be coded in mortality data
CNN's analysis also showed that, within the total number of deaths, 23,854 people died from suicide by guns in 2017, the highest number in 18 years. That's a difference of more than 7,000 deaths compared with 16,599 suicide deaths by guns in 1999.
The age-adjusted rate of suicide deaths by firearm rose from 6.0 in 1999 to 6.9 in 2017.
Firearm deaths in the data include gun deaths by homicide and suicide, unintentional deaths, deaths in war or legal interventions, and deaths that are undetermined.
When the data are analyzed by race and gender, they show that white men made up 23,927 of the total 39,773 firearm deaths last year, including suicides.
In 2017, the age-adjusted rate of suicide deaths by firearm was highest among white men at 14 per 100,000 -- compared with:
2.2 among white women
6.1 among black men
0.7 among black women
3.0 among Asian men
0.5 among Asian women
9.3 among American Indian or Alaska Native men
1.4 among American Indian or Alaska Native women
That same year, the age-adjusted rate of homicide deaths by firearm was highest among black men at 33 per 100,000 -- compared with:
3.5 among white men
1.1 among white women
3.5 among black women
1.4 among Asian men
0.5 among Asian women
4.8 among American Indian or Alaska Native men
1.2 among American Indian or Alaska Native women
Also in 2017, the age-adjusted rate of firearm deaths in legal interventions or war was highest among American Indian or Alaska Native men at 1.1 per 100,000 -- compared with:
0.3 among white men
0.0 among white women
0.5 among black men
Rates for all other groups were either unreliable or not recorded
Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.
"In 2017, nearly 109 people died every single day from gun violence. Gun violence is a public health epidemic that requires a public health solution, which is why we must immediately enact and implement evidence-based interventions -- like permit-to-purchase policies and extreme risk laws," Adelyn Allchin, the director of public health research for the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, said in a written statement released last week.
"Gun violence has been part of our day-to-day lives for far too long. It is way past time that elected leaders at every level of government work together to make gun violence rare and abnormal." | {
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A 2,100-year-old clockwork machine whose remains were retrieved from a shipwreck more than a century ago has turned out to be the celestial super-computer of the ancient world.
Enigma of ancient computer solved
PARIS: A 2,100-year-old clockwork machine whose remains were retrieved from a shipwreck more than a century ago has turned out to be the celestial super-computer of the ancient world.
Using 21st-century technology to peer beneath the surface of the encrusted gearwheels, stunned scientists say the so-called Antikythera Mechanism could predict the ballet of the Sun and Moon over decades and calculate a lunar anomaly that would bedevil Isaac Newton himself.
Built in Greece around 150 to 100 BC and possibly linked to the astronomer and mathematician Hipparchos, its complexity was probably unrivalled for at least a thousand years, they say.
“It’s beautifully designed. Your jaw drops when you work out what they did and what they put into this,” said astronomer Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University in Wales. “It implies the Greeks had great technical sophistication.”
The Antikythera Mechanism is named after its place of discovery, where Greek divers, exploring a Roman shipwreck at a depth of 42 metres in 1901, came across 82 curious bronze fragments.
At first, these pieces, thickly encrusted and jammed together after lying more two millennia on the sea floor, lay forgotten. But a closer look showed them to be exquisitely made, hand-cut, toothed gearwheels.
It was clear that, within this find, 29 gearwheels fitted together, possibly making some sort of astronomical calendar. But of what, exactly? For a quarter of a century, the textbook on the strange find was a work written by a historian of science and technology, Derek de Solla Price.
He hypothesised that the Mechanism in fact had 31 gearwheels, and did something pretty astonishing – it linked the solar year with a 19-year cycle in the phases of the Moon. This is the so-called Metonic cycle, which takes the Moon 235 lunar months to the same phase on the same date in the year.
Edmunds’ team, gathering experts from Britain, Greece and the United States, has now taken the tale several chapters forward.
In a paper published today in the British journal Nature, they describe how they used three-dimensional X-ray computation tomography and high-resolution surface imaging to peek beneath the Mechanism’s surface without damaging the priceless artefact.
There, they read inscriptions on the bronze cogs that had been unseen by human eye since that Roman ship came to grief aeons before.
The original device, they believe, is likely to have comprised 37 gear-wheels and comprised two clock-like faces, one front and one back, which would have fitted into a slim wooden box measuring 31.5 by 19 cm and a thickness of 10 cm.
The machine was a 365-day calendar, which ingeniously factored in the leap year every four years. And it not only provided the Metonic cycle, which was known to the Babylonians, it also gave the so-called Callippic cycle, which is four Metonic cycles minus one day and reconciles the solar year with the lunar calendar.
It could also predict lunar and solar eclipses under the Saros cycle, a 223-month repetitive interplay of the Sun, Earth and Moon. This function, presumably, would been useful for religious purposes, given that eclipses are traditionally taken as omens.
The Machine was also a star almanac, showing the times when the major stars and constellations of the Greek zodiac would rise or set and, speculatively, may also have shown the positions of the planets.
But even more impressive is a tiny pin-and-slot device that factors in a movement of the Moon that, for centuries, puzzled sky-watchers. In this so-called main lunar anomaly, the Moon appears to move across the heavens at different speeds at different times – the reason being its elliptical orbit around Earth.
“Newton used to say he would think about this until his head hurt,” notes Edmunds.
This latter discovery prompts the scientists to wonder if the great Hipparchos, who drew up the first catalogue of the stars and wrote about the lunar anomaly in the 2nd century BC, may have had a hand in designing the Mechanism. Adding circumstantial evidence to this theory is that the shipwreck was found to have jars and coins from Rhodes, where Hipparchos lived.
The computer is so advanced in its mathematics and technology that the history of ancient Greece may have to be rewritten, contends Edmunds. “We now must ask: What else could they do? That’s a difficult thing, because this is really the only surviving metallic artefact of its kind. Who knows what else may be lost?”
It was not until the end of the first millennium AD and the golden age of Islamic science that anything so technologically wondrous surfaced again, if the archaeological evidence is a guide. This was an eight-geared astrolabe, depicting the movements of the Sun and Earth, by the Islamic astronomer al-Biruni in AD 996.
Had the Greeks’ knowledge somehow survived and been transmitted across the centuries, to inspire al-Biruni? Or had it withered away and disappeared, leaving Islamic scholars with the task of rediscovering what had been known a thousand years before? | {
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About This Game
Over 100 Levels of Puzzle Platforming Fun
simple to learn, hard to master
Ready for a new Challenge?
Over 100 challenging and unique levels
Original platformer mechanics
Automatic Steam friend integration shows you friends' times for each level
11 distinct worlds
44 Steam achievements
Over 20 unlockable egg skins
Fully configurable controls, camera modes, and graphics settings (including FPS cap and FOV).
is. The aim of the game is simple: Tilt the platforms to roll your lizard egg from the start point to the finishing bell at the end of the level., things are never as simple as they seem! Soon you'll need to master hopping, world-flipping, and other gameplay mechanics (all fully tutorialized) over increasingly complex and tricky challenges!Using, you'll guide your precious egg over ramps, slopes, twists and turns to get to hit the finishing bell across even the most trecherous of levels. As you improve, you'll progress through the worlds and be able to complete harder challenges and tougher puzzles. As well as simply manipulating gravity, you'll use a plethora of secondary abilities to complete levels, such as hopping and world rotations, all tutorialized. Each level also has hidden vulture eggs to knock-off on the way too, allowing you to unlock over 20 new skins for the lizard egg.Whether you're looking for a new challenge or simply want a game that won't back down from turning up the heat, Escape Lizards has what you're looking for! | {
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Dear OpenLedger DEX users,
We are glad to inform you that we’ve regained access to the GoDaddy’s account. Now we control all the OpenLedger domains. The domains are going through a standard process of verification and testing. The process will take 24 hours to complete.
We will enable asset trading, withdrawals, deposits, and transfers as soon verification and testing are over.
!Attention!
Please don’t access OpenLedger.io, OpenLedger.info, and Bitshares.openledger.info domains until further notice, as we cannot guarantee that these domains are entirely secure and are working as intended.
If you suspect that your OpenLedger DEX account is not secure, you can create a new one at https://wallet.bitshares.org and transfer all your funds to this account once we enable withdrawals/transfers.
To ensure higher security of your accounts in case you visited any of the above-mentioned domains from June 1 to June 3, change your BitShares keys taking steps described in the following tutorial:
https://steemit.com/bitshares/@sschiessl/how-to-change-your-bitshares-keys-for-local-wallet-and-cloud-login
If you suspect that your account isn’t safe, please create a support ticket at www.openledger.freshdesk.com.
Please stay tuned to our blog and social media channels for the announcement.
Follow OpenLedger on social channels
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All the best,
The OpenLedger DEX Team | {
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Avec en tête le Finlandais Jesperi Kotkaniemi, le responsable du recrutement chez le Canadien Trevor Timmins a regarni la banque d'espoirs de l'équipe.
Pas de fleurs pour Timmins, et pourtant...
Le rôle de directeur du recrutement amateur est ingrat. Surtout à Montréal.
Quand l'équipe perd, la meute aboie et réclame votre congédiement. Quand l'équipe gagne, on se tient coi.
Trevor Timmins a connu une période moins fructueuse entre 2008 et 2014. Mais Marc Bergevin lui est resté fidèle. Ses dernières cuvées ont contribué à relancer le Canadien.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi n'était pas nécessairement le choix logique au troisième rang en juin. Du moins le disait-on trop frêle pour jouer dans la LNH ces prochaines années.
À la surprise générale, le jeune homme a un impact certain sur le CH. Seulement cinq joueurs repêchés cette année jouent dans la LNH cette saison.
Kotkaniemi a 10 points en 20 matchs. Le défenseur Rasmus Dahlin, repêché au premier rang, en a 10 lui aussi. Andrei Svechnikov, deuxième choix au total, a 8 points en 20 matchs en Caroline. Brady Tkachuk, des Sénateurs, a neuf points en autant de rencontres.
Mais il y a beaucoup plus que Kotkaniemi. Il faut aussi mesurer la valeur du travail d'un recruteur aux joueurs qu'il rapportent dans les échanges.
Si Max Domi illumine l'attaque du Canadien avec 24 points en 20 matchs, c'est qu'on avait Alex Galchenyuk, troisième choix au total en 2012, à offrir en retour. Si Timmins repêche Derrick Pouliot ou Mikhail Grigorenko au troisième rang, il n'y a pas de Domi.
Le taux de succès est évidemment plus élevé avec un choix dans le top 5. Mais les bourdes ne manquent pas non plus. À preuve, Nail Yakupov et Ryan Murray ont été repêchés avant Galchenyuk en 2012.
L'autre gros attaquant de talent du Canadien, Jonathan Drouin, a été acquis en retour du jeune Mikhail Sergachev, neuvième choix au total en 2016. Si les recruteurs du Canadien optent pour Logan Brown, Michael McLeod ou Jake Bean à cette position, il n'y a pas de Drouin.
On pourrait dire la même chose du surprenant Tomas Tatar, deuxième compteur de l'équipe sur un pied d'égalité avec Drouin. Tatar s'est amené à Montréal avec l'espoir Nick Suzuki et un choix de deuxième ronde pour Max Pacioretty, un choix de première ronde, 22e au total en 2007.
Si on fait le décompte, six des neuf premiers attaquants de l'équipe sont le fruit direct ou indirect du repêchage. Le meilleur buteur de l'équipe l'an dernier, Brendan Gallagher, est un choix de cinquième ronde en 2010. Artturi Lekhkonen a été repêché en deuxième ronde en 2013.
En défense, par contre, l'équation n'est pas la même. On en compte trois sur neuf. Shea Weber a été obtenu pour le choix de deuxième ronde en 2007, P.K. Subban. Victor Mete et Noah Juulsen sont des choix du Canadien.
Devant, le filet, Carey Price est bien sûr un produit du repêchage, le cinquième choix au total en 2005.
Évidemment, le Canadien n'aurait pas eu à entrer dans une phase de reconstruction, ou de réinitialisation, si l'équipe n'avait pas mieux repêché entre 2008 et 2014.
À la défense de Timmins, il n'avait pas de choix de première ronde en 2008. Il m'a admis dans une interview l'an dernier qu'il aurait repêché John Carlson au 25e rang si Bob Gainey n'avait pas cédé ce choix aux Flames pour obtenir Alex Tanguay.
Il affirme avoir subi une pression énorme pour repêcher Louis Leblanc en 2009. Je crois néanmoins qu'il aimait beaucoup Leblanc quoi qu'on en dise.
Le taux de succès des choix de première ronde chute dramatiquement à compter du 20e rang. Il faut du flair et un peu de chance. Jarred Tinordi (22e en 2010), Michael McCarron (25e en 2013) et Nikita Scherbak (26e en 2014) ont constitué des échecs. Et en 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 et 2016, le CH n'a pas eu de choix de deuxième ronde pour se rattraper.
Le faible gain d'espoirs dans les rondes ultérieures au cours de cette période a fait mal. Seuls Charles Hudon, Gallagher et Sven Andrighetto ont percé.
Timmins, il faut lui donner ce mérite, n'a jamais raté son coup quand on a lui donné la chance de repêcher dans le top 12 depuis 2005: Carey Price (5e), Ryan McDonagh (12e), Alex Galchenyuk (3e), Mikhail Sergachev (9e), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (3e).
Des exemples répétés d'échecs avec de hauts choix au cours de cette même période?
Edmonton: Magnus Paajarvi (10e), Nail Yakupov (1er).
Long Island: Ryan Strome (5e), Michael Dal Colle (5e), Griffin Reinhart (4e) - au moins les Oilers ont été assez fous pour leur offrir des choix de première et deuxième ronde pour le récupérer-
Floride: Lawson Crouse (11e), Erik Gudbranson (3e).
Arizona: Mikkel Boedker (8e), Brendan Perlini (12e), Dylan Strome (3e).
Dallas: Scott Glennie (8e), Jack Campbell (11e), Valeri Nichushkin (10e).
Un directeur du recrutement ne peut frapper pour mille. Même les meilleurs se trompent. Les Ducks peuvent repêcher Rickard Rakell, John Gibson et William Karlsson entre les 30e et 53e rangs en 2011, mais préférer Peter Holland à Chris Kreider en 2009, ou Logan McMillan à Max Pacioretty en 2007.
Chicago a eu le génie de repêcher Alex DeBrincat en deuxième ronde en 2016 et Nick Schmatlz au 20e rang en 2014, mais ils ont aussi pris Kyle Beach au 11e rang devant Erik Karlsson, Jake Gardiner et John Carlson en 2008, et Dylan Olsen devant Ryan O'Reilly l'année suivante.
Dans une entrevue qu'il m'a accordée ces derniers jours, Timmins raconte le match qui l'a convaincu de repêcher Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
* * *
À LIRE
Je suis très curieux de savoir quelle sera la solution du Canadien au surplus de défenseurs lorsque Shea Weber reviendra au jeu. Le collègue Jean-François Tremblay nous dresse un portrait de la situation, à la suite de l'information lancée par Elliott Friedman ce weekend. Marc Bergevin pourrait en effet être tenté de se défaire d'un vétéran pour s'assurer de garder ses jeunes défenseurs à Montréal. Karl Alzner sera impossible à échanger. David Schlemko peut-être. Ou encore Jordie Benn, le seul défenseur avec Jeff Petry à avoir disputé tous les matchs de l'équipe? J'opterais plutôt pour Schlemko. | {
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As taxas de juros das operações de crédito caíram pelo segundo mês seguido em janeiro, na esteira da redução dos juros básicos (Selic), segundo a Associação Nacional dos Executivos de Finanças, Administração e Contabilidade (Anefac).
No caso do cartão de crédito, a taxa média caiu de 453,74% ao ano em dezembro, para 441,76%, em janeiro. A taxa deste mês é a menor desde abril de 2016, de acordo com o levantamento. Também foram reduzidos os juros do cheque especial, de 314,51% ao ano para 309,24%, e do comércio, de 98,50% ao ano para 97,61%.
Considerando todas as linhas de crédito para a pessoa física, a taxa de juros média geral passou de 8,16% ao mês (156,33% ao ano) em dezembro de 2016 para 8,12% ao mês (155,20% ao ano) em janeiro de 2017 - a menor desde julho de 2016.
No caso das linhas para pessoa jurídica, a taxa de juros média geral também caiu, de 74,32% ao ano em dezembro de 2016 para 73,92% ao ano, em janeiro de 2017 - a menor taxa de juros desde junho de 2016.
Das três linhas de crédito pesquisadas, duas tiveram suas taxas de juros reduzidas no mês (capital de giro e desconto de duplicatas) e uma teve sua taxa de juros elevada no mês (conta garantida).
Restrição do uso do rotativo
No final de janeiro, o Conselho Monetário Nacional (CMN) aprovou a norma que restringe o prazo do crédito rotativo do cartão de crédito.
Segundo a norma, o rotativo só poderá ser usado até o vencimento da fatura seguinte. Se na data do vencimento o cliente não tiver feito o pagamento total do valor da fatura, o restante terá que ser parcelado ou quitado.
O Banco Central informou que a medida tem como objetivo tornar o uso do cartão de crédito mais eficiente e mais barato. A expectativa é que as mudanças ajudem a reduzir a taxa de juros do crédito.
Segundo o Banco Central, o parcelamento terá que ser “financiado em condições mais vantajosas ou liquidado imediatamente pelo cliente”. | {
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“The raging element was soon beyond the reach of the efforts made to subdue it, and the attention of the firemen was turned to the American, in an endeavor to save this noble structure—but in vain. The wind blew a gale, and it was intensely cold, which added fuel to the flames. Soon the roof of the American caught in an inaccessible point. The fire spread rapidly, and in a few minutes the dome was wrapped in flames, and not long after the entire roof of the main building was a sheet of liquid fire. It spread downwards and along the wing extending towards Pearl Street, until the whole building was on fire throughout, and amid the crackling of the flames and the falling of the walls, it presented a grand as well as melancholy spectacle. Ere long the whole was a mass of smoldering ruins, except the front wall which stood solitary and alone.” - Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, March 11, 1850
The American Hotel, on the west side of Main Street between Court and Eagle streets, was destroyed by fire on March 10, 1850. It was one of 99 buildings constructed by Benjamin Rathbun from 1835 to 1836, and five stories tall, of cut brown stones, and surmounted by a cupola. This daguerreotype of the American Hotel ruins, snapped by Donald McDonnell the morning after the fire, is the earliest known photograph ever taken of Buffalo. To the left of the hotel ruins, the Bonnet Store, J. Griffith provision store, and Van Velsor’s bakery are visible. To the right is the Globe Hotel, where the fire started, and the Eagle Tavern. Writing in 1837, Gideon Miner Davison wrote that the American Hotel was “probably not surpassed by any in the United States, either as to size, furniture, or the style in which it is kept.” Rebuilt, it burned again on January 25, 1865. The site is now occupied by the Main Place Mall.
Image courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum. Used by permission. | {
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Animal shelter plans tag days, adoption event
On Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 22-23, volunteers from South Elgin's Anderson Animal Shelter will be at Geneva Commons seeking donations. Weather permitting, they will also bring some pets available for adoption. To see all pets currently available, visit petfinder.com and search for "Anderson Animal Shelter." Courtesy of Anderson Animal Shelter
On Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 22-23, volunteers from Anderson Animal Shelter will be at Geneva Commons, and other areas around the Fox Valley, seeking donations. Courtesy of Anderson Animal Shelter
You'll find more than clothes, jewelry and household items at Geneva Commons later this month.
The folks from Anderson Animal Shelter in South Elgin will be at the Randall Road outdoor mall on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 22 and 23, collecting donations to help them care for the rescues they house.
If the weather cooperates, they'll also have some of the animals available for adoption out there at the mall with them.
The volunteers like to take the opportunity to be at the mall, where there are hundreds and hundreds of shoppers each weekend, to highlight some of the animals they have for adoption, and hopefully find homes for some of them.
The fundraising event is part of the shelter's tag days, which it holds throughout the year to collect donations, and to raise awareness about the shelter, said Lisa Forret, a development assistant with the Anderson Animal Shelter.
In addition to the Geneva Commons Randall Road spot, the volunteers also will be at Advanced Auto Parts on Randall in Batavia. You may also spot them at the Blue Goose in St. Charles, the Geneva French Market, the Dundee Farmers Market and the Jewel on Summit in Elgin hoping to collect monetary donations.
Forrest said the chance to be at Geneva Commons also will give volunteers an opportunity to inform the public about the shelter.
"When we're out there, we're collecting donations from the public, and we engage them. Sometimes they'll have questions on what supplies they can donate. It's an opportunity to meet them, say thank you and tell them how they can get involved with the shelter," Forret said.
"We also often hear lots of happy stories from people who've adopted from us," she said.
To find the pets at Geneva Commons, you'll want to head to the mall's bell tower between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Library card fun: In celebration of National Library Card Month, Algonquin Commons is hosting a special event from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Randall Road area mall.
Folks from the Huntley Area Public Library, the Algonquin Area Public Library and the Fox River Valley Public Library will be on hand to sign customers up for library cards.
You can go to the mall's courtyard, near Aeropostale, to sign up for a card, and also to enter a drawing for one of three free Kindle eReaders.
There also will be a free craft for kids.
For anyone who gets a new library card, or who bring their library card from one of those three libraries, the mall is offering discounts at various stores.
Show your card from one of the libraries, and you can get discounts throughout September on food, haircuts and other purchases at the mall.
For even more savings, you may want to head to the mall between 2 and 4 p.m. to hear from Jill Cataldo, who will talk about super couponing.
Amy Williams' column covers all the news of business along the Randall Road corridor from South Elgin to Batavia. Contact her at [email protected] or at (847) 894-5036. | {
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Programa "Pressão Alta" deixa de ser transmitido pela SportingTV.
O Sporting deu por terminada a transmissão do "Pressão Alta" no canal do clube, no âmbito da remodelação de conteúdos que está a ser levada a cabo. O programa, que comentava a atualidade do clube leonino com a participação de Rui Calafate e Samuel Almeida, apresentado por Rui Miguel Mendonça, termina, tal como o programa Senadores.
Segundo confiou Rui Miguel Mendonça a O JOGO, o final dos programas deve-se à sua saída da estação leonina para passar assumir funções na Sporting Comunicação e Plataformas. | {
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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Has a job that requires no actual work or effort complains about small paychecks | {
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Franklin Foer — former editor of the New Republic, now with The Atlantic — is out today with a book on the dark side of Silicon Valley, "World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech":
"[T]he Big One, the inevitable mega-hack that will rumble society to its core[,] ... might be an exposed cache of intimate information that disrupts marital relations en masse ... It might disrupt our financial system, so that fortunes disappear in an unrecoverable flash. Or it might trigger an actual explosion of infrastructure that kills."
"The tech companies can see the Big One coming ... Their companies have created devices and code that enable omnipresent surveillance; their pack-rat servers hoard personal data."
"The best analogy is the financial crisis of 2008. There was nothing that the banks could do to gain political traction in the face of the catastrophe that they unleashed. When the Big One arrives, the tech companies will be vulnerable to the regulation that they have skillfully avoided."
"Just as the financial crisis triggered the creation of Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the rare launch of a new agency — the Big One has the potential for creating a sizable regulatory infrastructure."
"Silicon Valley routinely trashes cultural and economic gatekeepers — while its own companies are the most imposing gatekeepers in human history."
Frank's big 💡: "We have deluded ourselves into caring more deeply about convenience and efficiency than about the things that last. Compared to the sustaining nourishment of the contemplative life and the deep commitment to text, many of the promiscuous pleasures of the Web are vanishing." | {
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Cape Town – Nine platforms at Cape Town railway station will be closed to the public for a week to allow for a signal system’s upgrade.
Metrorail spokesperson Riana Scott said the upgrade from January 26 until January 30 involves replacing the old heavily copper-reliant signalling system with a new electronic type of system.
Scott said the installation of the new resignalling project was vital to address obsolescence in the rail network because the current signalling system was old, heavily copper-reliant and prone to copper theft and vandalism.
The fire-damaged platforms, numbers 17, 18 and 19, were still under repair and would also be commissioned for the signalling upgrade after their completion, she said.
The upgrades formed part of completing the second-phase commissioning (3.1) at the station. | {
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The Latest: Russian MPs patrolling near Kurd-held Manbij Russian military police have started patrolling the surroundings of the northern Syrian Kurdish-held town of Manbij
ANKARA, Turkey -- The Latest on White House national security adviser John Bolton's Mideast trip (all times local):
7:10 p.m.
Russian military police have started patrolling the surroundings of the northern Syrian Kurdish-held town of Manbij.
A representative for the military police told reporters Tuesday that Russia's mission is to ensure safety in the Manbij area, and monitor moves of militant groups.
The area near Manbij was previously occupied by U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces, who were forced to appeal to Syria and Russia amid fears of a Turkish attack.
Russia's move came after U.S. President Donald Trump in December unexpectedly announced he would pull out 2,000 U.S. troops leaving strategic areas near Turkey's border up for grabs.
On Sunday, a top White House aide said American troops will not leave northeastern Syria until Islamic State militants are defeated and American-allied Kurdish fighters are protected, signaling a slowdown in the withdrawal.
———
4:50 p.m.
A top Turkish official says Turkey will not seek permission from allies to conduct a military offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters but is willing to coordinate operations.
Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also told reporters following talks with White House national security adviser John Bolton that there is no slowdown in the timetable for a U.S. withdrawal from Syria, adding that U.S. officials have said during their discussions that the withdrawal could take place within "120 days."
Kaliln said their talks on Tuesday focused on how the United States would collect the weapons that were given to Kurdish militia fighting the Islamic State group as well as the future of U.S. bases in Syria.
Bolton met with Kalin and other senior officials on the safety of Syrian Kurdish allies — a condition of President Donald Trump's planned withdrawal of U.S. troops but got no assurances.
Kalin said he handed over two dossiers to Bolton — one on Turkish help to Kurdish populations in Iraq and Syria, the other on the Kurdish militias' "criminal activities and human rights violations."
———
2:45 p.m.
A top Syrian Kurdish official says his fighters are prepared to confront Turkish forces if they enter northeastern Syria.
Shahoz Hasan, co-chair of the largest Kurdish group in Syria the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, says it's clear from Ankara's latest statements that Turkey has a plan to enter northeastern Syria.
He says: "We will be ready." he says.
Hasan spoke on Tuesday to The Associated Press as White House national security adviser John Bolton was in Turkey to negotiate the fate of America's Kurdish allies amid a planned U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria.
Shortly after Bolton's meetings and in an apparent snub to the U.S. diplomatic push, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara's preparations for a new military offensive against terror groups in Syria are "to a large extent" complete.
———
2:30 p.m.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggests that officials within the U.S. administration may be trying to obstruct a "clear agreement" that he and President Donald Trump reached during a Dec. 14 telephone conversation.
Erdogan said that during the call — which he described as a "historic turning point" — Turkey pledged to take on the fight against remaining Islamic State militants when the U.S. troops withdraw from Syria.
He made no mention of Syrian Kurdish militiamen — U.S. allies in the fight against IS — whom Ankara considers terrorists. Erdogan was addressing legislators from his ruling party on Tuesday in Parliament.
Erdogan said that "despite the fact that we reached a clear agreement with Mr. Trump, different voices have been raised from different echelons of the U.S. administration."
But he added that "Mr. Trump's views on Syria and his determination to pull out remain our point of reference."
When reporters asked Erdogan why he did not meet Trump's aide John Bolton who was in Ankara on Tuesday, Erdogan said Bolton met with his Turkish counterpart. He said however, that he could soon hold a telephone conversation with Trump.
———
1:25 p.m.
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is set to depart Turkey without meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an apparent snub over disagreements about Kurdish fighters in Syria.
A U.S. official had said over the weekend that the two were expected to have consultations on Tuesday about the fate of Kurds allied with the United States in Syria as part of discussions about President Donald Trump's troop draw-down from the country.
National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said U.S. officials were told Erdogan cited local election season and a speech to parliament for not meeting with Bolton.
In the speech to parliament Tuesday, Erdogan criticized the U.S. position that the Kurds must be protected, reiterating his government's position that they are a terrorist group.
———
1:20 p.m.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey's preparations for a new military offensive against terror groups in Syria are "to a large extent" complete.
Erdogan made the comments on Tuesday, just hours after U.S. national security adviser John Bolton met with Turkish officials seeking assurances that Turkey won't attack U.S-allied Kurdish militia in Syria.
Erdogan says that Ankara "cannot make any concessions. Those involved in a terror corridor (in Syria) will receive the necessary punishment."
In his speech, Erdogan also slammed Bolton over comments suggesting the United States would prevent attacks on Kurds.
Turkish insists its military actions are aimed at Kurdish fighters in Syria whom it regards as terrorists and not against the Kurdish people.
———
11:45 a.m.
U.S. national security adviser John Bolton has met with senior Turkish officials in Ankara to discuss the fate of Syria's Kurds.
Bolton left the two-hour meeting on Tuesday morning at the presidency complex in Ankara exchanging pleasantries with Ibrahim Kalin, the senior adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Bolton has said he is seeking assurances that Turkey won't attack the Kurdish militia in Syria that's allied with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State. He says it's a "condition" for President Donald Trump's planned withdrawal of American forces in northeastern Syria.
The success of that effort was not immediately clear. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group.
Bolton had been expected to meet with Erdogan though it remains uncertain if they will meet Tuesday.
———
8 a.m.
President Donald Trump's shifting timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Syria has left allies and other players in the region confused and jockeying for influence over a withdrawal strategy that appeared to be a work in progress.
One day after White House national security adviser John Bolton announced the U.S. pullout would not be as immediate as Trump had initially declared, U.S. allies on Monday sought clarification from American diplomats. The Kurds, who have fought alongside U.S. forces against the Islamic State group and fear an assault by Turkey if the United States withdraws, were still asking publicly for an explanation from Washington.
Bolton said the U.S. would first seek assurances from Turkey that it would not harm the Kurds — for the first time adding a "condition" to the withdrawal.
He arrived Monday in Turkey to seek those guarantees from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but there was little reason for optimism. | {
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Former Super Bowl-winning coach Mike McCarthy is preparing in earnest for a return to the NFL in 2020, sources said, well at work reviewing film each week and lining up potential staff. The longtime Green Bay coach was blindsided by his in-season firing last year, and while he did interview for a few jobs, he was inclined to spend 2019 with his family and mulling his options.
McCarthy is all-in on head coaching next season and has been mostly in Green Bay breaking down the league on film with potential staff members and preparing for interview options. With fewer "hot coordinators" than usual, and with most of this year's rookie head coaches struggling mightily, some execs believe that established former head coaches are going to be in higher demand in 2020.
There could be multiple one-and-done scenarios unfolding around the league, given the state of many franchises one year after making a coaching change, and McCarthy's resume of winning football and consistent playoff appearances is going to carry considerable appeal with owners trying to keep a window of contending football (at least in their minds) open with veteran quarterbacks still making big money.
We have just reached November, but Falcons coach Dan Quinn is under fire and not expected back in 2020, Washington already fired Jay Gruden and the Chargers fired offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt last week after a poor start. There were not many situations open a year ago that had strong appeal to McCarthy, and while the Jets pursued him in earnest, he had differences of opinion on several issues with team officials at the time, making that job not a fit. | {
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Athens (AFP) - Renewed tensions emerged Thursday between Greece and Germany as attention turned to Athens's huge debt load two days after the stricken eurozone country secured an extension of its bailout.
The new left-wing government experienced its first opposition protest, meantime, with several hundred anti-capitalists and anarchists marching against the agreement with eurozone partners.
Greece, whose economy has shrunk by a quarter in six of its annual economic output.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who swept to power last month on a wave of anger over years of austerity cuts, wants to use the four-month bailout extension secured on Tuesday to renegotiate that mountain of debt.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, the frank-talking economics professor hired by Tsipras to reach a better deal with Greece's creditors, called Wednesday to "begin immediately" discussions to bring that about.
But with Greece having already secured a 100-billion-euro write-down of its debt to private creditors, and two bailouts of 240 billion euros, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble expressed Thursday his "disbelief" at the very idea.
"I can't see anything in what Varoufakis is doing that makes life easier for us," the veteran German minister was quoted as telling a parliamentary group meeting.
"No more billions for the greedy Greeks!" screamed mass daily Bild Thursday under a huge "Nein!" ("No!") headline.
In Athens on Thursday, a small anti-capitalist party organised a demonstration against the agreement.
Some 200 people attended that protest, and another 300 black-clad anarchists followed in their wake, police said.
A couple of shops had their windows broken with hammers, AFP reporters said, and Greek TV showed footage of bus stops and pay phones similarly vandalised.
- Confidence returning -
The extension to Greece's lifeline still needs approval from the German parliament and possibly that of Greece, but passage should be a formality despite unease among some lawmakers in both countries.
Story continues
The German lawmakers are expected to approve Greece's hard-won bailout extension in a parliament vote on Friday, a key hurdle for keeping the crucial international aid flowing to Athens.
To secure the lifeline, Tsipras's new hard-left government published a six-page list of proposed reforms focused on boosting tax receipts and cutting spending through improved efficiencies.
But Tsipras, 40, had to temper campaign promises to hike the minimum wage, reinstate laid-off civil servants and alleviate poverty by vowing that this would be done only in consultation with Greece's creditors.
Varoufakis meanwhile told Bloomberg TV that 700 million euros was deposited at Greek banks on Tuesday.
That is a fraction of the 20 billion euros withdrawn in panic when elections were called and Greece lurched into a new crisis in December, but Varoufakis said this showed confidence was returning.
"There was a deposit flight back into the Greek banking sector," the fluent English-speaker told Bloomberg. "It's a question of direction. Once you turn the tide, you hope."
- Doubts in Deutschland -
But Greece, which has been in almost constant crisis mode since 2010 as it fights to stay in the single currency zone, is by no means out of the woods.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that the extension was just a "starting point," and that Berlin was under "no illusions" about the challenges ahead.
Schaeuble went further, saying that there was a "lot of doubt in Germany" about whether Athens will stick to the commitments.
"The question now is whether one can believe the assurances of the Greek government or not," Schaeuble said.
According to a survey published on Wednesday, only 21 percent of Germans are in favour of extending the bailout.
The International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, which together with the eurozone states hold most of Greece's debts, have also expressed misgivings.
Over the coming four months Greece needs to firm up its reform plans and prove by the end of April that they are bearing fruit before receiving a final bailout disbursement of 7.2 billion euros.
In the meantime Greece has to repay several billion euros' in maturing debts, including some two billion euros to the IMF in March, and April and 6.7 billion euros in ECB bonds maturing in July and August.
In 2015 Greece has to pay back around 19 billion euros.
"We are going to have problems repaying IMF debts and the ECB in July," Varoufakis told Alpha Radio, while denying that this would give the government liquidity problems.
In the Bloomberg interview, Varoufakis suggested that the ECB could settle Greece's debts with the IMF using around two billion euros in bond profits that he said Athens is due.
"This is money we are owed," he said. "I find it very hard to imagine that Europe and the IMF will allow us to trip over what is a relatively small cash problem." | {
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A culture of violence, the foundational text of which commands men to beat women from whom they “fear disobedience” (Qur’an 4:34), is going to give rise to this sort of thing, just as that same foundational text’s calls for violence against unbelievers (2:191, 4:89, 9:5, 9:29, 47:4, etc.) are going to give rise to jihad violence.
An update on this story. “Soldier charged with murder of nine-year-old daughter,” Malaysiakini, February 12, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
A soldier was charged in the Port Dickson Magistrate’s Court today with the murder of his nine-year-old daughter last month.
According to Bernama, Mohammad Abdullah Mohamed, 35, nodded after the charge was read out before magistrate Siti Khariah Abdul Razak, but no plea was recorded.
Mohammad Abdullah is accused of murdering Nur Aina Nabihah at Taman Vista Jaya in Lukut, Port Dickson, between 8.30pm and 11.30pm on Jan 31 this year….
According to reports, police detained the suspect and the child’s 34-year-old stepmother on Feb 1, after the girl died in the Seremban Hospital after being found unconscious at home. The woman has since been released on bond.
The child had various injuries on her body, including a punctured intestine, damaged liver and broken ribs.
Some reports stated that Nur Aina was subjected to a commando-like routine by the suspect, who is her biological father.
This included doing push-ups, sit-ups, rollovers and squats. She was also reportedly beaten, among others, with a plastic chair and belt, slapped, kicked and even stomped on.
The child was made to undergo these “punishments” because Nur Aina did not recite prayers before bedtime, made mistakes while reciting the Quran, or did not obey the man’s instructions, reports said. | {
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The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday suggested that President Barack Obama had personally authorized recent intelligence leaks.
On Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed two U.S. attorneys to investigate leaks about details of drone attacks and special forces strikes. Critics have claimed that the White House disclosed the information to bolster the president's re-election chances.
"The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive," Obama told reporters during Friday press conference. "And people I think need to have a better sense of how I approach this office and how the people around me here approach this office."
But Liz Cheney on Sunday insisted that the president himself could be the one behind the leaks.
"I'd like to see an independent investigation," she told Fox News host Chris Wallace. "If you've got members of the national security team -- which is what we know from reading [New York Times reporter] David Sanger's piece, that's what he says -- giving him chapter and verse of what went on in these National Security Council meetings then somebody's got to be held accountable for, you know, what is a betrayal to the nation."
"I do think that it's important -- as Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intel committee, has said -- that whoever is looking at this needs to be outside the chain of command so that you can be absolutely sure that it is followed to it's conclusion," she added. "And that may well be the president of the United States."
"If the president of the United States has been authorizing people on his national security team to brief The New York Times about one of our most highly classified programs, the American people have a right to know."
Former Vice President Dick Cheney's then-chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators in the probe of who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. The vice president pushed for a full pardon and then-President George W. Bush eventually commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence before he ever served a day in jail.
Many have assumed that Dick Cheney masterminded outing Plame to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, because he had cast doubt on the Bush administration's rationale for war with Iraq. But the the vice president told prosecutors that "I don't recall" telling Libby about Plame's identity. | {
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Video obtained Monday by KWTX shows the misdemeanor marijuana arrest following a late-night traffic stop that led to the resignation of Waco ISD Superintendent Marcus Nelson
He was arrested late on the night of March 6 after a Department of Public Safety trooper on routine patrol spotted a 2007 GMC Yukon traveling north on U.S. 190 south of Hearne in the left lane and not passing.
The trooper pulled the Yukon over, smelled marijuana, searched the vehicle, seized a small quantity of the drug and seized it, authorities said.
On the video Nelson tells the trooper he was returning from Houston and initially says “No sir” when the trooper asks if there was anything illegal in the vehicle.
“You sure?” the trooper asks, “Because it smells like weed.”
Nelson asks the trooper to cut him a break as he’s ordered to step out of the vehicle and tells him he’s going to search the vehicle.
“You got something in the car, don’t you?” the trooper asks.
“Yeah,” Nelson replies, “and I can’t get ruined over this.”
“You’re not going to get ruined,” the trooper says.
“Yeah,” Nelson said, “my career is going to be over.”
"But that's a decision that you made, okay?" the trooper responds. "I've got a job to do, alright?"
After the trooper tells Nelson he was making him nervous by not answering his questions, Nelson admits "It's just a blunt."
As he's detained on the side of the highway, Nelson continues to plead with the trooper as he's searching the vehicle, saying he has a family and doesn't have a record.
It takes the trooper about eight minutes to find the drugs in a plastic bag in the vehicle.
Nelson was charged with possession of marijuana less than 2 ounces and was released 12 hours later, on his own recognizance, according to online records.
Following a statewide DPS directive in June, three months after Nelson's arrest, troopers were instructed to no longer arrest, but instead cite and release suspects in drug cases involving less than four ounces.
Although Nelson had less than two ounces, he would likely still have been arrested because one of the stipulations of the new policy is troopers can "cite and release" only in the county where the crime happened: Nelson lives and works in Waco and told the trooper that night he was coming from Houston.
"Mr. Nelson, we're not in Harris County, alright?" the trooper says in the 56-minute long video. "You're going to be placed under arrest for possession of marijuana."
In a statement Monday, Nelson again expressed remorse over the incident.
”I deeply regret my actions of six months ago, and it’s my sincere prayer that others can learn from my experience. I’ve lost a job I love and the respect of my colleagues and peers. I look forward to putting this behind me and growing from this and returning to serving the children of our state and creating opportunities through education.”
On March 15 Nelson agreed to a plea deal with Robertson County prosecutors under the terms of which the drug possession charge will be dismissed if he completes a 90-day diversion program.
Nelson was also ordered to pay a $500 fine as part of the deal.
Six days later, on March 21, the Waco School Board unexpectedly announced that Nelson had submitted his resignation effective at midnight.
As part of the separation agreement unanimously approved by board members, Waco ISD agreed to pay Nelson $96,000 over a period of four months.
A week later, on March 28, the board named retired educator Dr. Hazel Rowe as interim superintendent.
She served as the district’s interim superintendent during the 2000-2001 school year and was a member of the board of Transformation Waco, the in-district charter created to oversee five struggling Waco schools.
On Aug 8, the Waco School Board named Belton ISD Superintendent Dr. Susan Kincannon as the lone finalist for the superintendent’s job Wednesday evening.
Kincannon was selected from among 84 applicants.
Kincannon's start date with Waco will be set when contract negotiations are finalized Aug. 29--nine days into the school year.
(Rissa Shaw contributed to this story) | {
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Jackie Chan didn’t always play the lead role, especially in the beginning of his career.
He started out as a stuntman and often played one of the bad guys that the main character would knock out with a single punch or kick, and most of the time, had little to no lines in the film.
In one of his earliest roles, he played a corpse on set. Jackie was so good at holding his breath and not moving that the director pointed at him and announced “That guy is the best corpse, make sure we get him in tomorrow as well.”
No matter how big or small the role, Jackie would always give his best because he knew that although he wasn’t the best actor around, he would at least be the hardest working one.
Jackie writes that he became known “as the first to arrive on set and the last to leave. My attitude was enthusiastic and committed. I got into the habit of volunteering to do the most difficult or dangerous jobs...and never let on about how much pain I was in.”
It didn’t matter whether the pay was low or none at all, nor did the size of the role matter, Jackie was determined to get as much experience under his belt as possible and each gig got him one step closer to becoming a global movie star.
Even when things got difficult and Jackie had to move back in with his parents, who lived in Australia, and work construction, he didn’t give up on his dream. When the opportunity arose to play a lead character in a small movie, he decided to go back to China and continue to pursue his dream.
Years of hard work and commitment soon paid off, as Jackie writes, “After fifteen years of hard training, I was an overnight success.”
3) Jackie Sacrifices Himself For His Art | {
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After a period of lacking results, Flash has decided to move two of their players to backup positions, and will be using WeiJia 'INNOPY' Guo and Zhe "Ayeon" Yang for the time being.
Flash, a team that was propped up as a potential super team when it came together, hasn't been able to make a big mark on the Asian scene. After missing out on the Major Qualifier spot, losing to TYLOO in the deciding game, Flash was hit by another disappointment last week.
At the CS:GO Super League 2017 LAN Finals in Chengde, China, Andrew "Kaze" Khong and co. lost their first game to Eclipse, finishing in the last place of the domestic competition.
LOVEYY will no longer be on the starting roster of the team
Now, the Chinese side has decided to change two of their players, with QiFang "Karsa" Su, who is known to struggle individually, leaving the active lineup together with KunHua "LOVEYY" Bai.
Coming in to replace them, at least for now, are WeiJia "INNOPY" Guo—who played for the team in the past, but currently acts as their manager—, as well as a yet unproven player Zhe "Ayeon" Yang, who will be trialed by YuLun "Summer" Cai and co.
Flash is now: | {
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European Council president Charles Michel | Oliver Hoslet/EPA-EFE Charles Michel reaches for his peak Council president calls an EU-Sahel summit to be held in Brussels in March.
All hail Charles Michel, master EU summiteer!
He's been in office only a month and a half, but the European Council president has already mastered the No. 1 responsibility of his job: calling summits.
Michel, a former Belgian prime minister, used a summit on Monday evening of the five African countries that make up the G5 Sahel coalition, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Pau, France, to call his own EU-Sahel summit, to be conjoined with the Council's own next regularly scheduled summit in late March.
The meeting in Pau stretched past midnight — often the mark of a fruitful summit in Brussels because it demonstrates EU leaders' commitment to talk purposefully with each other about purposeful things, and also because contentious decisions prove easier to take when the last holdouts are not just mentally drained, but also physically exhausted.
Michel's spokesman confirmed on Tuesday morning that the five African nations — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger — had accepted the Council president's invitation, and that the Council chief's proposal "is validated."
What senior EU leader doesn't crave validation?
In all seriousness, the Sahel is becoming a major priority in Brussels, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that she will make a priority of strengthening the EU's ties to all of Africa.
The EU is increasingly worried that the dangerous situation in the Sahel could spiral out of control. Jihadist terrorists have mounted an increasing number of attacks in the region, where the French military has long led counterterrorism operations. The U.S., which also has a military presence there, is considering reducing its forces in Africa.
Michel led his first regular European Council summit in December and managed to find a way to get new climate targets approved — claiming the required unanimity by getting all the other EU countries to grant an exception to Poland, which opposed the new goals. At times, summit success is more art than science.
With EU leaders needing to negotiate a new long-term budget, Michel could end up presiding over a marathon of summits this year. A first special meeting on the budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework, is expected to be held in late February but has not yet been confirmed.
In Pau, Macron seemed to achieve his goal with agreement on a concluding statement, in which the leaders all expressed a wish for continuing French military involvement in the Sahel. And Michel achieved his goal, demonstrating that special EU skill of using a meeting to plan and win agreement on another meeting.
After all, talking is better than fighting. And in the EU, not talking is not an option. | {
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The parents of a girl sexually assaulted at the age of six by boys in her school playground have won compensation from the local authority.
The council has not accepted liability but the undisclosed five-figure settlement could set a precedent.
The BBC understands this is the first time the High Court has approved a settlement in a case of sexual assaults involving primary school pupils.
The child's mother says she now has "a broken little girl".
The girl, called Bella to protect her true identity, disclosed the repeated sexual assaults to her mother only when she could no longer sit down because of the discomfort.
In the following days and months, her parents found there was no help available for their daughter, although steps had been taken to support the boys.
Speaking exclusively to BBC News, her mother said: "We had a broken little girl who had been seriously sexually assaulted repeatedly over a number of weeks in school, feeling unsafe in school and she had nothing."
Bella's parents had to pay for her to have the counselling she needed.
Since the assaults, she has had nightmares, become extremely anxious and is afraid of leaving her home.
In their court action, Bella's parents argued the school had failed to prevent the assaults, or to adequately train staff to recognise the warning signs.
A member of staff had seen their daughter with her underwear partly removed, one of the boys standing behind her.
The local authority has not admitted any liability but has paid a five-figure sum, which will be used to help Bella now and in the future.
Her parents have been told she may need further counselling as she goes through puberty and has her first boyfriend.
Bella's mother said pursuing the legal action was partly about creating a precedent but most of all so that Bella had some tangible redress.
"It matters for her I think when she's older. She can make some sense of how she could be so seriously sexually assaulted so many times in a place where she should have been safe."
She hopes it will give her daughter a sense that some action was taken.
"When she finds out that not only were the boys not prosecuted, not punished, but also the people who were responsible for keeping her safe didn't even write an apology to say yes, we know we got it wrong and we're sorry."
The family hopes by talking about the court action they will draw attention to the lack of support for children sexually assaulted by other pupils at school.
Records not recorded consistently
Where an assault is carried out by a child younger than 10 years old, they cannot be held criminally responsible and in the past the police have often been reluctant to record incidents.
Figures for peer-on-peer assaults involving children on school premises are not recorded consistently by the 43 police forces in England and Wales.
Fifteen forces told BBC News they had recorded a total of 593 allegations of sex offences on school premises last year involving under-18-year-olds as both perpetrator and victim.
This included 71 allegations of rape.
Among the allegations, were 203 offences where the victim was under the age of 13.
Just 13 forces could provide specific information about alleged sex assaults by children aged 10 or under. They recorded 54 last year.
Solicitor Andrew Lord, from Leigh Day, says several other families are actively considering legal action.
"In my experience, I've had a dozen families coming forward, a number of those involving primary school age children.
"It's not a problem going away any time soon and it does need more recognition."
Since BBC News first highlighted the scale of sexual assaults, including rape, in England's schools, some things have changed.
The government has updated the guidelines for schools in England on keeping children safe.
For the first time, these include specific reference to peer-on-peer sex abuse.
Ministers also point to £8m of funding for the counselling service Childline over four years, although that covers all issues troubling children.
Rachel Krys, from the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said Bella's case showed more still needed to be done not just to prevent sexual violence but to respond adequately when it happened.
"Girls have a right to be safe in school and parents rightly expect that policies are in place and staff are trained to recognise when a girl is being sexually assaulted and move quickly to stop it.
"Safeguarding girls from anyone who hurts them, including other children, has to be a priority.
"Schools can't continue to turn a blind eye or minimise the harm done like they did in Bella's case."
The campaign is calling for a national strategy on sexual violence in schools. | {
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We bought this as a little stocking gift for my 7 year old son this Christmas on the basis of the excellent reviews and the fact that my son likes computer games but really doesn't like schoolwork. To be honest I wasn't even expecting it to be touched for several weeks due to the large "Think it, WRITE it, Solve it" on the front of the box. But ... he has spent an hour on it this evening and had to be prised off it for his bedtime story (which he normally is racing to). We have heard nothing from him but little giggles, oohs and ahhs, or the occasional "Mum what's another word for ...?" or "How do you spell ...?" .
My only concern has been the 12 rating on it and the fact that the majority of the words he's asking about are violent (explosives, weapons etc..) but the little characters look so cute that I'm not sure the violence is that serious (but he has just started playing).
When I asked him he said he loves it with the biggest, happiest grin.
Okay it's only one hour of gameplay so far, but honestly it's the best fiver we've spent on him this Christmas! | {
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Regrets, she has a few,… but then again, too few to mention...
The Clinton Campaign is attempting to clean up Hillary’s flubbed Alinsky narrative to divide, isolate, ridicule and marginalize Donald Trump’s supporters. Releasing the following statement:
Just to be clear. Hillary Clinton calling half of Donald Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorable Americans” was not some off-the-cuff comment. It was written into her teleprompter, and it was also evidenced a week earlier when the approach was first tested out.
Watch the first run:
The goal of the “basket” narrative was to divide Trump supporters and create a toxic image. It was simply a campaign strategy, and Hillary Clinton screwed up the approach by quantifying the basket as “half” of Trump supporters.
At its political core, the advancement of liberalism is based on division. Alinsky Rules for Radicals: Isolate, Ridicule, Marginalize.
Hillary Clinton is not apologizing for dividing and labeling millions of Americans; she simply regrets screwing up a well-planned strategy by her campaign team with her flubbed delivery therein. Nothing more.
Secretary Clinton only regrets screwing up the intended plan, and now the Clinton campaign is trying to figure out if they can recover the original intent of the scheme, by parsing out the “grossly generalistic” aspect.
The campaign, and the entire media apparatus who were previewed on the campaign strategy (evidenced by their being allowed to film the fundraiser commentary), want to push a narrative that Trump supporters are: “racist, nativist, homophobic, Islamaphobic, bigoted etc. They had it all set up:
This approach was all pre-scripted. The entire design was planned well in advance, and scheduled for a Friday delivery to give the media all weekend to discuss. The media was there at the fundraiser to film the event and have the captured soundbite for the use by the campaign advocates.
She blew it. It backfired.
Secretary Clinton and her campaign come across as what they are: elitist ideologues dependent on retention of power by dividing Americans.
Bigly.
“Isn’t it disgraceful that Hillary Clinton makes the worst mistake of the political season and instead of owning up to this grotesque attack on American voters, she tries to turn it around with a pathetic rehash of the words and insults used in her failing campaign? For the first time in a long while, her true feelings came out, showing bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans. How can she be President of our country when she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans? Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of herself, and this proves beyond a doubt that she is unfit and incapable to serve as President of the United States. I will be President for all of the people, and together we will Make America Great Again.” ~ Donald J. Trump | {
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webinar
How We Bypassed All NTLM Relay Mitigations — And How To Ensure You’re Protected
Active Directory has always been a popular target for attackers — and one of the weakest spots in Active Directory environments lies in the design of one of the oldest authentication protocols, NTLM. From CVE-2015-0005 to the recent LDAPS Relay vulnerability, it is clear why this protocol is one of attackers’ favorites. Although there are mitigations such as server signing, protecting the entire domain from NTLM relay is virtually impossible.
In an encore presentation of one of Black Hat 2019’s and DEFCON27’s most popular talks, members of our research team will:
Alert you to several new ways to abuse NTLM, including a critical zero-day vulnerability we have discovered which enables attackers to perform NTLM Relay and take over any machine in the domain, even with the strictest security configuration, while bypassing all of today’s offered mitigations.
Tell you why the risks of this protocol are not limited to the boundaries of the on-premises environment, and show another vulnerability which allows to bypass various AD-FS restrictions in order to take over cloud resources as well.
Download this on-demand webinar today! –> | {
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El Atlético de Madrid se ha despedido de la Champions League tras caer ante el Real Madrid en los cuartos de final del torneo, pero el club rojiblanco ingresará un buen pellizco por su participación en la máxima competición.
Por resultados deportivos, la entidad colchonera se embolsará más de 20 millones de euros (20,5 exactamente). 8,6 por jugar la fase de grupos, 4,5 por los resultados obtenidos en esta ronda, 3,5 por jugar los octavos de final y 3,9 más por disputar los octavos.
A esta cantidad hay que sumar el llamado ‘market pool’, cantidad que aún está por determinar pero que se estima será ligeramente superior a los 20 ‘kilos’. El año pasado fue de más de 17 millones de euros. Aquí entran una serie de variables como el resultado del curso anterior en la Liga de cada país, el número de partidos jugados en esta edición de la Champions, un porcentaje de los derechos de televisión, que varía en función de cada país, etc. En ese mismo curso, el Atlético ganó 33 ‘kilos’ por los resultados deportivos, dejando la cifra total en algo más de 50 millones de euros.
Ahora, la cantidad será inferior, pero superará los 40 millones. Un ingreso fundamental para el club rojiblanco, que con 20,5 ya ganados, se ha marcado como objetivo fundamental disputar esta competición de forma permanente para seguir creciendo.
El propio Simeone admitió en el acto que sirvió para escenificar su ampliación de contrato con el Atlético que la meta prioritaria para el cuadro colchonero era la de ser tercero las próximas temporadas para asentarse en la Champions, lo que otorga una estabilidad económica necesaria para poder continuar compitiendo con los más grandes del continente. | {
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A heartless crook swiped a $20 bill from an 84-year-old woman inside of a Bronx bodega last Friday, police said.
The suspect was caught on surveillance camera committing the brazen act inside the store on Saint Ann’s Avenue near Linda Ballou Way in Mott Haven about 10:10 a.m. Friday, cops said.
The victim, Shirley Weston, was standing at the counter, holding the bill in her right hand, when the suspect walked in and snatched it, according to ABC 7 NY.
Weston, who was with her daughter, told the outlet she was confused, thinking the suspect “knows both of us” or “was playing around.”
But the bill-snatcher, according to Weston, barked, “’This is my money,'” and “‘I ain’t giving nothing back.'”
Weston’s daughter, Deborah, then confronted the woman, the report said.
“She put the money in my hand,” the daughter told the network, “and when I looked, it was a dollar.”
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Realizing it was not her mother’s $20 bill, Deborah chased after the woman, and engaged in a brief scuffle before the suspect fled, the report said.
Click here for more from the New York Post | {
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Steven Wilson
Intervista Milano 06/06/2017
Coma Divine: Ciò che applichi alla tua musica è una ricerca musicale e intima allo stesso tempo. In che fase sei della tua ricerca e quali riflessioni e intenti comunicativi hai affidato a To the Bone?
Steven Wilson: Fasi è la parola giusta: vado attraverso delle fasi e, prendendo in considerazione quello che stavate dicendo prima (dellintervista), ovvero che il disco è molto diverso dallultimo, penso sia importante per me sentire sempre che ci sia unevoluzione da album ad album, e che ogni album abbia una ragione di esistere. Perché, ammettiamolo, ci sono tantissimi artisti i cui lavori diventano praticamente invariati. Effettivamente è una sorta di norma: gran parte degli artisti trova una formula che funziona e, in maniera maggiore o minore, il resto della loro carriera consiste nel ripetersi e dare ai fan ciò che hanno già amato. Ma io non sono mai stato così e questo, dal punto di vista della carriera, è stato un problema e mi ha reso le cose difficili. Per quanto riguarda questalbum, tornando alla vostra domanda, credo di essere in quella fase in cui voglio focalizzarmi sulle grandi melodie e sullarte del songwriting, con il lato rock più complesso e concettuale che ora si sta un attimo mettendo da parte. E penso che sia qualcosa (le grandi melodie e larte del songwriting) che cè sempre stata (nella mia musica). Potete ascoltare molti dei miei dischi e spero possiate sentire belle melodie e ritornelli forti e orecchiabili, ma forse ora potete dire che mai come adesso - di sicuro nella mia carriera solista e forse sempre - sono focalizzato nellarte di scrivere pezzi diretti, accessibili ma non meno sofisticati. Ovvero, penso che siano ancora pezzi sofisticati, ma sono canzoni, e penso che hanno unimmediatezza e unaccessibilità che forse non avete mai sentito in nessuno dei miei dischi precedenti, o comunque da molto tempo.
Coma Divine: Nella presentazione di To The Bone hai scritto che lalbum è ispirato dagli artisti progressive-pop che ascoltavi negli anni 80. In che modo questi artisti sono entrati nel tuo dna musicale e come hanno influenzato la composizione dellalbum?
Steven Wilson: Sono gli album con cui sono cresciuto, perché sono stato adolescente negli anni 80. Ed è divertente perché, ovviamente, tutti credono che sia in qualche modo associato con il decennio precedente, gli anni 70, quando invece ero un teenager negli anni 80! Quindi ricordo che i dischi che tutti i miei amici ascoltavano e che erano esposti nel mainstream, che sia con i video, Top of the Pops e tutta quella roba là, erano quei lavori grandi, ambiziosi, quegli album che definisco dischi pop veramente sofisticati. Uso la parola pop con un pizzico di esitazione, perché ho capito, venendo intervistato nelle ultime settimane, che per qualcuno pop è una brutta parola, quando invece non dovrebbe esserlo. Quei ragazzi (indicando una foto dei Beatles) erano il gruppo pop quintessenziale, oltre che il gruppo pop più famoso di tutti i tempi. Tuttavia penso che la gente abbia questidea che quando viene usata la parola pop' si parli di Miley Cyrus. Ma io uso la parola pop nel senso più ampio, quando pop era tutto! E quei dischi degli anni 80, quegli album di cui sto parlando, da una parte erano molto semplici da apprezzare come insieme di canzoni pop con melodie orecchiabili che potevi canticchiare in bus, molto memorabili, dallaltra compravi lalbum con lidea di poterti immergere completamente in tutti questi altri strati, come la produzione, la musicalità, i testi. Cera molta carne al fuoco. Erano semplicemente tanto ambiziosi e sofisticati quanto gli album degli anni 70, ma forse in modo più accessibile. Sono cresciuto con quei dischi e mi mancano lavori di quel tipo, perché non ne trovo più. Sapete, intendo che oggi - penso - ci sia il pop più mainstream da una parte - boy girl boy girl - e dallaltra parte ci sia la musica underground che sia extreme metal o jazz o industrial o hip-pop, e non cè niente nel mezzo! Non ci sono dischi che siano sia intelligenti sia accessibili. Una volta avevi Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, i Tears for Fears, The Talking Heads, gruppi come i Police, i dischi che faceva Prince, persino Michael Jackson! Se Michael Jackson rilasciasse Thriller oggi farebbe fatica ad entrare nel mainstream perché sarebbe visto come troppo strano. Ed è qui che siamo arrivati, purtroppo. Quindi la mia ambizione era di provare a penetrare nel mio amore per quel tipo di approccio nel fare i dischi.
Coma Divine: Cosa ci puoi dire dellartwork di To The Bone"? Come è nata lidea dei colori sul corpo?
Steven Wilson: È stata unidea di Lasse. Abbiamo scattato molte foto diverse. Il motivo per cui lo dico è che non voglio che pensiate che io abbia avuto questa visione che sarei apparso nella copertina del disco in rosso e blu. Non è proprio andata così. Avevamo tante idee e abbiamo scattato diverse foto e quando abbiamo visto il risultato finale, quella era la cover giusta.
Coma Divine: Quella che vi piaceva.
Steven Wilson: Beh, non era proprio questione di Ti piace, semplicemente sembrava essere la copertina di un disco! Sapete, ha quel tocco di Bowie, quel Bowie un po alieno, ed è molto diretta artisticamente. In questi giorni bisogna pensare allartwork come a qualcosa che deve apparire grande sul telefono di una persona, su Spotify. Ed è il motivo per cui i giorni in cui avresti potuto fare una copertina come Sgt. Pepper se ne sono completamente andati, perché tutta la complessità andrebbe persa. Quindi devi pensare a qualcosa di molto semplice, veramente diretto e iconico. E volevo qualcosa che riflettesse al meglio il titolo To the Bone, che ha diversi significati su più livelli. I due livelli più importanti sono: prima di tutto è un commento sulla natura della verità nellera post Donald Trump. È lidea di voler arrivare al vero nocciolo di ciò che effettivamente è la realtà e non riuscirci. Daltra parte To the Bone riflette anche il fatto che lalbum è uno dei più personali e diretti che abbia mai fatto, e la mia missione era quella di riflettere il titolo e per questo motivo sembrava naturale, per la prima volta nella mia carriera, di mettere me stesso nella copertina - o, meglio, mettere me stesso senza una maschera anti gas - e dire: Questo sono io. Questo sono io nudo. Questo sono io che presento me stesso. Penso di essere arrivato alla conclusione di avere unimmagine molto forte. Quando ho cominciato non avevo la confidenza con me stesso che ho ora, e vedo che anche la gente ha unidea su di me. Vedo, in giro sul web, molte persone fare battute, in modo simpatico, sugli occhiali e sui capelli. Forse ora ho unimmagine iconica che la gente può associare e connettere con la mia musica. Quindi questo è un modo molto veloce - che ci crediate o meno - di dire tutto ciò di cui ho discusso con la casa discografica, con il mio management e con Lasse. E alla fine abbiamo deciso di provare per questalbum qualcosa di molto artistico ma allo stesso tempo una foto di me molto intima.
Coma Divine: ( Alessandro ): E non è un mistero che mia figlia Viola ti chiami Mr. Cool, ricordi?
Steven Wilson: Ah, ok, giusto! Mi domando cosa ha detto quando ha visto questa foto, se lha vista! Oh, ok, limportante è questo! Sai, mettere te stesso nella copertina di un disco non è qualcosa che di nuovo, la gente ha questa idea che io faccia progressive rock, ok? Che va bene, non ho nulla da obiettare al termine, per quanto io di mio non ne faccia uso. Ma mettere te stesso nella copertina di un disco non è qualcosa che tradizionalmente fai se suoni quel genere di musica. Ed è proprio questo il motivo per cui mi piace farlo! Quando crescevo i miei idoli erano Prince e Bowie, e loro apparivano sempre sulle copertine dei loro dischi. Erano popstar, e una piccola parte di me vuole ancora essere una popstar. Perché quando avevo quindici anni volevo essere Prince - sapete, totalmente irrealistico! - ma una piccola parte di me ancora ci spera. Ancora amo lidea della magia di essere una popstar!
Coma Divine: La title-track parla del concetto di verità come realtà sempre meno universale e sempre più vincolata alle convinzioni personali. Cosè secondo te la verità e perché hai sentito la necessità di scriverci una canzone?
Steven Wilson: È proprio una domanda da un milione di dollari! Cosè la verità in questi giorni? È una parte dellintero messaggio del dialogo di apertura, pronunciato da uninsegnante di colore del Texas che è una mia cara amica. E potreste dire: Wow, tra tutte le persone che potrebbero sapere qualcosa sui pregiudizi e la natura della verità hai scelto proprio uninsegnante di colore che insegna in una scuola del Texas! Quindi sì, sa di cosa parla, è stata una scelta facile! Ma è impossibile arrivare alla vera natura della verità in qualsiasi modo Penso tu possa avere la tua propria verità personale ma questo a sua volta è un paradosso, perché la verità dovrebbe essere un assoluto. Quindi la mia verità dovrebbe essere la stessa tua. Ma non lo è, giusto? Perché tutti noi abbiamo i nostri ideali, che siano religiosi, politici, i nostri gusti musicali e cinematografici, la politica con la p minuscola e quella con la P maiuscola. E la verità oggi è qualcosa che è proprio impossibile da reggere, è in uno stato di flusso continuo. Potresti argomentare che questo è uno dei motivi per cui la razza umana è così insicura, perché noi come specie siamo molto insicuri e lo stiamo diventando sempre di più, di settimana in settimana, di anno in anno. E parte del problema è che i media, i politici e i terroristi stanno facendo un ottimo lavoro per confonderci, e mi sembra che confusione e paura siano presenti nella società ogni giorno sempre di più. Quindi credo che To the Bone sia come una richiesta. Non so se abbiate unespressione simile in italiano. Avete espressioni simili? Arrivare al nocciolo di qualcosa (letteralmente allosso)? Arrivare allanima, al centro. Sapete, la richiesta: Possiamo semplicemente arrivarci (alla verità)? Possiamo mettere da parte tutte queste stronzate e arrivare alla verità assoluta, alla realtà assoluta? Certo, è completamente irrealistico, ma
Coma Divine: Pariah, in duetto con Ninet Tayeb, sembra voler essere, anche per le tematiche trattate, una versione del 21esimo secolo di Dont Give Up di Peter Gabriel e Kate Bush. Nasce proprio da qui lispirazione per il brano?
Steven Wilson: Non in maniera consapevole, ma lo riconosco, è chiaro, ha qualcosa del pezzo di Peter Gabriel. È una canzone riguardo un ragazzo e una ragazza e il ragazzo sta dicendo Che senso ha (vivere)? e la ragazza Hai ancora molto da scoprire. Quindi il sentimento è molto simile alla canzone di Peter Gabriel. È stata una cosa casuale, non consapevole, ma certamente, allo stesso tempo, So era uno di quegli album che avevo bene in mente come modello guida per quello che volevo fare. Quindi non posso di certo nascondermi (ride ndr)! Quello che voglio intendere è che non cè nulla di nuovo nel mondo della musica in questi giorni e sì, è stata una cosa fortuita ma ovviamente posso vedere il parallelo.
Coma Divine: Due brani del nuovo disco sono scritti assieme ad Andy Partridge degli XTC, band alla quale sappiamo sei molto affezionato. Come è nata questa collaborazione?
Steven Wilson: Ho lavorato con Andy negli ultimi anni per i remix in surround del suo catalogo ed è diventato un amico. È un ragazzo simpatico, affascinante, carismatico e veramente intelligente e non fa più dischi per conto suo, sebbene sia qualcuno della cui abilità di scrivere canzoni ho ancora grandissima ammirazione. E quando ho scritto la canzone To the Bone - e unaltra canzone intitolata How Big Is This Space? che non è nellalbum ma uscirà più avanti - io stesso non avevo unidea forte per i testi. Quindi ho chiamato Andy e gli ho detto Hey Andy, sei abbastanza bravo a scrivere testi sai, questa è una canzone che voglio sia sulla natura della verità, ma non ho nessun testo. Ed è stato straordinario, ha preso il compito molto seriamente, mi chiamava sempre e mi diceva: Ho una riga, cosa ne pensi? e io Sì, ok, fammi controllare. Si è preso la responsabilità molto, molto seriamente e ne è venuto fuori con questi testi che racchiudono del tutto ciò che volevo intendere.
Coma Divine: Qual è stato il ruolo di Paul Stacey nella registrazione di To The Bone?
Steven Wilson: Volevo che questalbum fosse diverso dai precedenti. Uno dei modi per rendere un disco diverso è cambiare le persone con cui lavori. E se cè una cosa che ho scoperto, essendo un musicista che ha sempre voglia di evolvere e cambiare, è che puoi cambiare tutto tranne te stesso! Lunica cosa che non puoi cambiare sei tu. Per questo potrei facilmente annoiarmi da solo con ciò che faccio, sai, la sensazione che qualcosa suoni come materiale che ho già scritto. Ma se cè una cosa che ti può ispirare è avere qualcuno che ti spinga oltre. Paul ha cominciato come semplice ingegnere del suono, ma ben presto ci siamo resi conto che era incline per natura ad essere anche un co-produttore, perché stava facendo qualcosa in più dellingegnere, stava avendo opinioni. Ed è una persona con molte idee, il che è ottimo perché era ciò di cui avevo bisogno, qualcuno che mi dicesse No, potresti farlo meglio, Potresti farlo in questo modo, Hai pensato a questo?. E la cosa principale che ha fatto, la cosa più importante che ha fatto per me, è farmi pensare da cantante. Ora, il motivo per cui dico questo è che quando sei lautore di tutte le canzoni, non pensi effettivamente a te stesso come ad un interprete, e in ogni caso di mio non sono il cantante più confidente che esista. Ma lui mi ha fatto pensare come un cantante e mi ha fatto esibire in studio. E ciò che mi ha fatto fare, probabilmente lavete visto nella clip, è cantare effettivamente con Ninet. Abbiamo cantato le due canzoni (Pariah e Blank Tapes) guardandoci in faccia. Ed è terrificante per me, perché lei è una cantate straordinaria e io faccio quello che faccio, ma Paul diceva: No, dovreste farlo come un duetto, assieme. E mi ha dato la confidenza di pensare a me non solo come lautore che di conseguenza cantava, ma effettivamente come un cantante, qualcuno che interpreta il materiale. Abbiamo lavorato molto su quel lato dellalbum, i cori, le voci. Quindi è qualcuno che mi ha spinto oltre, qualcuno che mi ha dato la confidenza come cantante e qualcuno che ha avuto molte opinioni e mi ha fatto pensare di fare le cose in modi diversi, modi che non avrei pensato, esattamente come dovrebbe fare un produttore.
Coma Divine: Oltre ai già noti Craig Blundell, Nick Beggs, Adam Holzman e Ninet Tayeb, nel nuovo album ti avvali dellaiuto di alcune facce nuove come il chitarrista David Kollar, il leggendario Mark Feltham, Jeremy Stacey alla batteria e la cantante Sophie Hunger. Puoi parlarci brevemente del loro contributo alla tua musica?
Steven Wilson: La risposta sarebbe diversa per ogni caso, e non ho tempo a sufficienza per parlare di tutti. Ma, per esempio, Mark Feltham, larmonicista, è un musicista presente su molti dei dischi a cui mi sono riferito. Il suo sound può essere sentito negli album degli anni 80 dei Talk Talk, nei dischi dei The The, un altro gruppo di cui ero un grande fan, e quel tipo di armonica un po sporca, blues, è un tipo di suono caratteristico in molti di quei dischi: Undusk, Mind Bomb, Spirit of Eden, Colour of Spring e volevo quel sound, molto semplicemente. Mark è arrivato al termine del processo di registrazione, ed è entrato con questo bellissimo completo di velluto con una cravatta mentre noi eravamo in studio già da due mesi ed eravamo completamente esausti. Quindi lui è arrivato ed era decisamente il più elegante, e ha suonato in maniera meravigliosa. Quando abbiamo sentito per la prima volta quel sound, Lasse, che era in studio e stava filmando per un documentario, si è messo a piangere, perché è un tipo di sound così potente che quando qualcuno lo sente ne rimane colpito. In un certo senso Mark fa quello che normalmente potresti ottenere da un chitarrista, ma se lo sentissi fatto da un chitarrista diresti Mah, è qualcosa che ho già sentito. Però quel tipo di sound è così fresco, soprattutto oggi, perché è da un po che non ne sentiamo di simili. Jeremy invece è il fratello di Paul, che me lha raccomandato. Jeremy è un tipo di batterista molto diverso stilisticamente dagli altri con cui ho lavorato, molto più incline al groove e allatmosfera.
Coma Divine: To The Bone contiene alcuni dei pezzi più gioiosi della tua carriera. Pezzi come Nowhere Now, The Same Asylum as Before e, soprattutto, Permaneting sono nati come sfida o spontaneamente?
Steven Wilson: Penso fossi consapevole che, a causa degli argomenti di cui stavo trattando, i terroristi, i fondamentalisti religiosi, i rifugiati, sarebbe potuto essere lalbum più deprimente di sempre. E credo che ad un certo punto mi sono addirittura detto Marco: Devo scrivere canzoni felici! SW: Sì! Ho bisogno di presentare anche laltro lato delle cose, perché la gente ha questa idea che io sia una persona depressa e malinconica, ma non lo sono affatto! Tuttavia capisco perché lo pensi, a causa della musica che sono solito fare. Quindi credo che questa volta fosse una scelta ponderata cercare di iniettare nellalbum un po di positività, gioia, euforia e, allo stesso tempo, coesione. E credo che lalbum termini in un bel modo: Song of Unborn è una ballata malinconica, ma ha unenergia molto positiva. Quindi forse è stato una diretta conseguenza del fatto che stessi scrivendo cose molto cupe.
Coma Divine: Il tema principale di People Who Eat Darkness è il terrorismo. Cosa ne pensi, da musicista, degli attentati avvenuti al Bataclan due anni fa e a Manchester e Londra pochi giorni fa? Cosa puoi pensare?
Steven Wilson: Che sarò terrorizzato, e sfortunatamente salirò sul palco a febbraio con, nel retro della mia mente, una paura che non ho mai avuto prima, e questo non è un bello stato danimo. E penso che ognuno di noi oggi abbia questa paura ogni qual volta si trova in uno spazio pubblico, che sia sul treno o in una fermata del bus. Sfortunatamente è proprio quello che vogliono e vogliono ottenere, e lhanno ottenuto. Questo è il mondo in cui viviamo oggi. Sono sorpreso da come il mondo sia cambiato in un lasso di tempo relativamente breve da quando ho scritto Hand.Cannot.Erase. tre anni fa. Il mondo è diventato un posto completamente diverso, e non per il meglio. Cosa si può dire se non che ci sia un piccolissimo lato positivo in tutta questa faccenda, che credo essere in qualche modo collegato a quanto dicevamo prima? Il pop degli ultimi anni per molto tempo è stato banale, conservativo, noioso - boy girl boy girl - e ora, dal concerto di Ariana Grande a Manchester, quel mondo si è scontrato con quellaltro e mi domando se ora, finalmente, alcune di quelle popstar mainstream dovranno affrontare la realtà del mondo in cui stanno vivendo. Molto semplicemente non possono continuare a scrivere quelle cazzate evasive e ignorare il resto. Una delle cose positive riguardo la musica pop e rock è che molto spesso si sviluppa in periodi di crisi politica e guerra, basta pensare alla musica psichedelica nata durante la Guerra del Vietnam o il punk dallInverno dei discontenti in Inghilterra. Forse ora ci sarà un maggiore scontro tra la generazione più giovane e i musicisti pop che scrivono per loro e il mondo in cui vivono, perché fino ad ora si sono accontentati di esistere. È un peccato debbano farlo, ma penso sia necessario. | {
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He made his girlfriend swallow his cum
03:28 /
/ Updated 1 week, 2 days ago on tube8 shuffle | {
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Bitcoin Regulation Iran Gives Nod to Cryptocurrency Mining
Iran’s government has given the green light to a cryptocurrency mining mechanism, thus recognizing the Bitcoin and crypto industry, local media portal TehranTimes reported on Monday, citing news agency Mehr.
Crypto Mining Has Legal Grounds in Iran
It’s official – the Iranian governments’ economic committee on Sunday said yes to a cryptocurrency mining mechanism. The decision is a natural result of Iran’s plans to frame the rapidly expanding mining farms into its legal system.
Abdolnaser Hemmati, Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI), stated:
The government’s economic committee has approved a mechanism for mining digital coins and it will later be put to discussion at a cabinet meeting.
Besides approving a crypto mining approach, the economic committee officially recognized the crypto industry. The committee’s head Elyas Hazrati commented:
We do believe that cryptocurrency industry should be recognized as an official industry in Iran to let the country take advantage of its tax and customs revenues.
Iran Elaborates Electricity Pricing Scheme for Miners
The crypto mining industry has been surrounded by uncertainties for months, as the government couldn’t decide whether to approve the industry or not. Due to the low-priced electricity in the country, many crypto mining farms have expanded at a fast pace.
On Sunday, the government established an electricity pricing scheme for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners, though we don’t know the exact prices as stipulated in the scheme. Also, the cabinet will have the last word on the pricing plan.
Deputy Minister of Energy Homayun Haeri said:
A plan to apply the exported electricity rate for mining farms was approved by the government’s economic committee and will soon be discussed and voted on by the cabinet.
Meanwhile, Elyas Hazrati explained the benefits of endorsing crypto miners. He said that the gained income might be used for buying foreign currencies under US sanctions and minimize their negative consequences.
Step-by-step, Iran’s stance on cryptocurrencies makes a u-turn. At the beginning of the year, the country lifted the ban on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
A Good Example for India
Iran’s approach might be a good example for other countries that cannot decide on how to regulate the crypto industry. For instance, India is currently working on a regulatory scheme related to Bitcoin and its brethren. However, it seems that the final decision might be a total ban on Bitcoin and crypto trading.
If India follows in the footsteps of China by cracking down on Bitcoin operations, it might lose many great benefits. Regulating the industry might be a win-win for both the government and the market participants.
Do you think India will ban Bitcoin operations indeed? Share your thoughts in the comments section!
Images via Shutterstock | {
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Published by Sierra Monica P. on May 25, 2011 under Decor
Author: Elena Opris
Don’t miss out on these handcrafted, multipurpose lamps that can be placed in your pool (you’ll think that giant fireflies light it up). Impress your friends and gain admiration with this cool item.
Made of white polyethylene, the waterproof lamps provide vivid illumination and they can be used inside your home or out. Each one has a 22-inch height and 9-inch diameter. Chargers are plugged into wall outlets and each one gives four hours of lighting. Includes a one unit charger or a three unit charger.
One lamp is $450 (a three unit charger costs an additional $20). At Opulent Items.
Tags: lamp, pool | {
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Beijing: Taxis queue up outside the city's main railway station. Beijing's Olympic organizers plan to reduce the number of taxis from its roads by 50,000 as a way to combat air pollution
Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP | {
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"They are extraordinary creatures," said one of the policemen at the scene. "They are working as hard as anyone on the site and, at day's end, you can see they are totally exhausted. But you can bet they'll be back 12 hours later, raring to go again." | {
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Records were shattered as Perth’s temperature reached a glorious 30C just after 2pm this afternoon.
It is the hottest winter day ever recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology, beating the previous mark of 28.1C set on June 5, 1965.
The scorcher tops the average maximum temperature for this time of year by around 9 degrees and comes after Australia recorded its hottest-ever month in January.
The late-winter temperature surge should also have all those people who fled Perth for the warm European summer thinking twice, with similar temperatures forecast: London 24C, Rome 31C and Paris 29C.
But get out and enjoy the sunshine while you can because the great weather is not sticking around.
The bureau is predicting showers and a possible late storm to on Thursday, followed by five days straight of rain.
PERTH FORECAST
Wednesday: 28C - Sunny.
Thursday: Min 13C, Max 22C - Showers. Possible late storm, 10-20mm.
Friday: Min 12C, Max 19C - Showers, 10-15mm.
Saturday: Min 11C, Max 19C - Showers easing. 4-8mm.
Sunday: Min 11C, Max 20C - Showers. Possible afternoon storm, 10-15mm.
Monday: Min 9C, Max 20C - Shower or two. Possible storm, 1-8mm.
Tuesday: Min 11C, Max 19C - Showers. Possible storm, 4-10mm. | {
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The Australian Government today announced they would contribute $4m for Danish climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg to establish a new “consensus centre” at the University of Western Australia.
In the face of deep cuts to the CSIRO and other scientific research organisations, it’s an insult to Australia’s scientific community.
As the Climate Commission, we were abolished by the Abbott Government in 2013 on the basis that our $1.5 million annual operating costs were too expensive. We relaunched as the Climate Council after thousands of Australians chipped in to the nation’s biggest crowd-funding campaign – remember this video?
It seems extraordinary that the Climate Commission, which was composed of Australia’s best climate scientists, economists and energy experts, was abolished on the basis of a lack of funding and yet here we are three years later and the money has become available to import a politically-motivated think tank to work in the same space.
This is why the work of the Climate Council is so important – to counter this continuing ideological attempt at deceiving the Australian public.
Mr Lomborg’s views have no credibility in the scientific community. His message hasn’t varied at all in the last decade and he still believes we shouldn’t take any steps to mitigate climate change. When someone is unwilling to adapt their view on the basis of new science or information, it’s usually a sign those views are politically motivated.
We’re already flat out responding to misinformation in the media. We just called out The Australian for deliberately misinterpreting the science and the Prime Ministers Business Advisor Maurice Newman for getting his facts wrong.
And with your support we will continue to fight back and reach millions of Australians with information that is based on the best science available.
Please consider chipping in a few dollars a week to help us stay independent and continue to fight the rising tide of misinformation. | {
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We depend on your support. Any donation allows us to keep reporting on New Mexico politics.
A Buzzfeed investigation found that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security flew spy planes over cities throughout the country—including Albuquerque.
The investigation found that the planes were equipped with high-resolution cameras and occasionally devices that could track cell phones below. The FBI preferred small aircraft, mostly Cessnas. Many were ”fitted with exhaust mufflers to reduce engine noise,” according to Buzzfeed.
The data on the flights themselves came from Flightradar24, a flight-tracking website.
What data the government planes collected and for what reason is still not known.
While FAA data shows flights over Albuquerque from planes known to be owned by the FBI, DHS flights were limited to a small area of southern New Mexico.
The flight data tracked flights from mid-August to December of 2015 and showed FBI planes circled different areas of the state’s largest city.
Buzzfeed notes that the data may not collect all planes owned and operated by the government.
Some two dozen planes operated by the FBI and more than 130 registered to the DHS never appeared on Flightradar24, suggesting that some surveillance planes may be hidden from public view on plane-tracking websites.
Nearly all of the FBI flights over Albuquerque took place east of the Rio Grande. The heaviest concentrations ranged from Paseo del Norte in the north to just northwest of the airport in the South.
The only other heavy concentrations of FBI flights in New Mexico, from the data obtained by Buzzfeed, appears to be flights to other cities, like Phoenix, Arizona or Los Angeles, California.
While there were not heavy concentrations of DHS flights in specific paths in New Mexico, flights occurred throughout the area where New Mexico, Texas and Mexico come together.
The DHS planes did not circle over specific locations in New Mexico, though did in other cities, such as Los Angeles.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico responded to the report in a statement to NM Political Report on Friday.
“The routine aerial surveillance of our communities by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies should be deep concern to any American who values their privacy,” ACLU-NM communications director Micah McCoy said. “It is especially chilling that the data reveals that law enforcement may be targeting communities based upon their religion or ethnicity. We need to impose rules, limits and regulations on aerial surveillance, both manned and unmanned, in order to preserve the privacy Americans have always expected and enjoyed.”
Larger cities had higher concentrations of flights.
While the FBI cannot start investigations based on race, ethnicity or religion, Buzzfeed found that in some cases, the planes circled areas with heavy Muslim populations, such as “Little Kabul” in Fremont, California and “Little Mogadishu” in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
There was, however, no patterns of nationwide, widespread surveillance of mosques.
The Associated Press linked many planes to the FBI last year. This investigation built upon that data, which found more than 100 flights in 11 states in one month. The Buzzfeed investigation found 200 federal aircraft between the FBI and DHS that made more than 1,950 flights over the four-month period.
Many of the DHS aircraft were helicopters, while the FBI aircraft were fixed-wing aircraft. | {
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Has fond memories of his childhood doesn't whore them out for karma
6,090 shares | {
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Please log in to watch this conference skillscast.
Android N brings a plethora of security enhancements to the platform and the SDK. Including Network Layer Security, Hardware-backed Keystore, APK Signing v2, Scoped Directory Access and Direct Boot.
Network security has seen a huge update in terms of securing HTTPS/TLS connections safely. Without the need for code changes you can use the new Network Security Config to prevent accidental clear text communications, limit who you trust and more.
There’s also a new method to verify the presence and contents of a hardware-backed Keystore, which is the prefered way to create, store, and use cryptographic keys on Android devices. The hardware KeyStore is useful as it guards against extraction on rooted devices.
Are your .apk files going to be more secure with apk signing schema v2? Scott will explore what this is and what it means for your existing apps.
Device storage permission gets more granular with scoped directory access. Also starting in Android N, when the device is powered on it can boot into a new mode called Direct Boot. Do you need to make your app Direct Boot aware? What’s the difference between credential protected storage and device protected storage?
But what if your minSDK isn't 24? Come to this talk to get a concise update on the new features, practical tips and examples of how to implement in your app today!
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: | {
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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a Dante? Nope, it’s a Nero.
You might have been a little confused about who the leading man was in the Devil May Cry 5 debut trailer (I definitely wasn’t, but you might have been) – especially since he looked so similar to Dante in his DmC incarnation.
It turns out it’s not, though – it’s yer boy Nero, Dante’s nephew from Devil May Cry 4. If you had watched the trailer carefully instead of rushing to write words on the internet, you would have realised this because of his signature weapon and the fact his arm wasn’t an actual arm. You idiots.
So why did Capcom give Nero a haircut and a redesign? “Nero’s redesign came from a want to show Nero at his prime,” producer Matt Walker tells me.
Game director Hideaki Itsuno wanted Nero to look like a “sports star at the top of their game, someone at their physical peak, who could seemingly take on anything” – that was the direction he gave to the team.
“The change in colour palette for his costume actually comes from the way colours read in the game – both in DMC4 and for DMC5 Itsuno-san wanted Nero to be wearing black (since ‘Nero’ means black in Italian, after all) but in both games we found that a black costume wouldn’t read very well,” Walker explains.
“For DMC5, our solution was to pick a colour that we felt was the next closest thing – a dark, navy blue.”
Elsewhere, Nero is rocking some other visible differences from his DMC4 incarnation. As well as the haircut and the wardrobe change, Nero’s demon arm has been replaced with a mechanical limb of some sort. This isn’t just an aesthetic decision, however.
“You’ll find that there are both gameplay and story reasons for why Nero’s Devil Bringer has now been replaced by Nico’s patented Devil Breakers – you’ll get a chance to see more of that at Gamescom,” Walker says.
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As for the people who got confused when Nero appeared on the screen during the reveal, how does Capcom feel about those guys?
“I’d like to say that I understand how people can have different interpretations of things, and as producer I’m really grateful that fans have been so overwhelmingly excited for what we’ve been making,” Walker says. “As such, one of my personal goals is to continue to involve myself with that shared excitement we all have, and hopefully contribute to keeping that atmosphere positive and understanding. In the end, it’s all video games – which should be fun!
“If you didn’t know who Nero was, or if there’s someone that doesn’t like some aspect of the game, I’m hoping that we can all accept each other and focus on the things we have in common – that we love video games and are excited for DMC5.” | {
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Syrian government officials could face war crimes charges in the light of a huge cache of evidence smuggled out of the country showing the “systematic killing” of about 11,000 detainees, according to three eminent international lawyers.
Syria's civil war: five years of Guardian reporting Read more
The three, former prosecutors at the criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, examined thousands of Syrian government photographs and files recording deaths in the custody of regime security forces from March 2011 to last August.
Most of the victims were young men and many corpses were emaciated, bloodstained and bore signs of torture. Some had no eyes; others showed signs of strangulation or electrocution.
The UN and independent human rights groups have documented abuses by both Bashar al-Assad’s government and rebels, but experts say this evidence is more detailed and on a far larger scale than anything else that has yet emerged from the 34-month crisis.
One of the images contained in the report, purportedly showing ligature marks across the neck of a prisoner. Photograph: The report
The three lawyers interviewed the source, a military policeman who worked secretly with a Syrian opposition group and later defected and fled the country. In three sessions in the last 10 days they found him credible and truthful and his account “most compelling”.
They put all evidence under rigorous scrutiny, says their report, which has been obtained by the Guardian and CNN.
The authors are Sir Desmond de Silva QC, former chief prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the former lead prosecutor of former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, and Professor David Crane, who indicted President Charles Taylor of Liberia at the Sierra Leone court.
The defector, who for security reasons is identified only as Caesar, was a photographer with the Syrian military police. He smuggled the images out of the country on memory sticks to a contact in the Syrian National Movement, which is supported by the Gulf state of Qatar. Qatar, which has financed and armed rebel groups, has called for the overthrow of Assad and demanded his prosecution.
The 31-page report, which was commissioned by a leading firm of London solicitors acting for Qatar, is being made available to the UN, governments and human rights groups. Its publication appears deliberately timed to coincide with this week’s UN-organised Geneva II peace conference, which is designed to negotiate a way out of the Syrian crisis by creating a transitional government.
Caesar told the investigators his job was “taking pictures of killed detainees”. He did not claim to have witnessed executions or torture. But he did describe a highly bureaucratic system.
“The procedure was that when detainees were killed at their places of detention their bodies would be taken to a military hospital to which he would be sent with a doctor and a member of the judiciary, Caesar’s function being to photograph the corpses … There could be as many as 50 bodies a day to photograph which require 15 to 30 minutes of work per corpse,” the report says.
“The reason for photographing executed persons was twofold. First to permit a death certificate to be produced without families requiring to see the body, thereby avoiding the authorities having to give a truthful account of their deaths; second to confirm that orders to execute individuals had been carried out.”
Families were told that the cause of death was either a “heart attack” or “breathing problems”, it added. “The procedure for documentation was that when a detainee was killed each body was given a reference number which related to that branch of the security service responsible for his detention and death.
“When the corpse was taken to the military hospital it was given a further number so as to document, falsely, that death had occurred in the hospital. Once the bodies were photographed, they were taken for burial in a rural area.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A man reacts as he looks at a gruesome collection of images of dead bodies in Syria taken by the photographer, who has been identified by the code name “Caesar,” at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Three experienced forensic science experts examined and authenticated samples of 55,000 digital images, comprising about 11,000 victims. “Overall there was evidence that a significant number of the deceased were emaciated and a significant minority had been bound and/or beaten with rod-like objects,” the report says.
“In only a minority of the cases … could a convincing injury that would account for death be seen, but any fatal injury to the back of the body would not be represented in the images …
“The forensics team make clear that there are many ways in which an individual may be killed with minimal or even absent external evidence of the mechanism.”
The inquiry team said it was satisfied there was “clear evidence, capable of being believed by a tribunal of fact in a court of law, of systematic torture and killing of detained persons by the agents of the Syrian government. It would support findings of crimes against humanity and could also support findings of war crimes against the current Syrian regime.”
De Silva told the Guardian that the evidence “documented industrial-scale killing”. He added: “This is a smoking gun of a kind we didn’t have before. It makes a very strong case indeed.”
Calls for Assad or others to face justice at the international criminal court in The Hague have foundered on the problems that Syria is not a member of the court, and that the required referral by the UN security council might not be supported by the US and UK or would be blocked by Russia, Syria’s close ally.
Nice said: “It would not necessarily be possible to track back with any degree of certainty to the head of state. Ultimately, in any war crimes trial you can imagine a prosecutor arguing that the overall quantity of evidence meant that the pattern of behaviour would have been approved at a high level.
“But whether you can go beyond that and say it must be head of state-approved is rather more difficult. But ‘widespread and systematic’ does betoken government control.”
Crane said: “Now we have direct evidence of what was happening to people who had disappeared. This is the first provable, direct evidence of what has happened to at least 11,000 human beings who have been tortured and executed and apparently disposed of.
“This is amazing. This is the type of evidence a prosecutor looks for and hopes for. We have pictures, with numbers that marry up with papers with identical numbers – official governmentdocuments. We have the person who took those pictures. That’s beyond-reasonable-doubt-type evidence.”
A US administration official told the Guardian on Monday: “We stand with the rest of the world in horror at these images which have come to light. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions of the regime and call on it to adhere to international obligations with respect to the treatment of prisoners.
“We have long spoken out about mistreatment and deteriorating prison conditions in Syria. These latest reports, and the photographs that support them, demonstrate just how far the regime is willing to go to not only deny freedom and dignity to the Syrian people, but to inflict significant emotional and physical pain in the process. To be sure, these reports suggest widespread and apparently systematic violations of international humanitarian law.
“The regime has the ability to improve the atmosphere for negotiations in Geneva by making progress in several areas. However, this latest report of horrific and inhumane prison conditions/actions further underscores that if anything, it is tarnishing the environment for the talks.
“As we have for over two years, and again today, we call on the Syrian government to grant immediate and unfettered access to all their detention facilities by international documentation bodies, including the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.
“We have long said that those responsible for atrocities in Syria must be held accountable for their gross violations of human rights. The United States continues to support efforts to promote accountability and transitional justice, and we call on the international community to do the same.”
William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, said: “This report offers further evidence of the systematic violence and brutality being visited upon the people of Syria by the Assad regime. We will continue to press for action on all human rights violations in Syria, and for accountability for those who perpetrate them.”
Nadim Houry of Human Rights Watch said his organisation had not had the opportunity to authenticate the images. But he added: “We have documented repeatedly how Syria’s security services regularly torture – sometimes to death – detainees in their custody.
“These photos – if authentic – suggest that we may have only scratched the surface of the horrific extent of torture in Syria’s notorious dungeons. There is only one way to get to the bottom of this and that is for the negotiating parties at Geneva II to grant unhindered access to Syria’s detention facilities to independent monitors.” | {
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The shooting is still under investigation by the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and the Arkansas State Police, and no arrests have been made. | {
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May I please put this on Tumblr and credit you? This is too awesome not to share with the world!
But of course, if you'd rather I not, I can always just link people to it. I have this powerful urge to share anything I really like. | {
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n. fear or phobia of palindromes . Etymology: palindromic form of "phobia" - "palindrome" itself from Greek παλινδρώμοσ meaning "back-running", ie. "a running back or recurrence ". In Greek -φοβία (from φόβοσ meaning "fear") the emphasis is on the "i"; in English usage on the "o". Pronunciation in IPA: {aibofob'i:a} (international) or { aibo (ü)f'oübia} (English).
Scene: caféDate: 1 February 2010Context: we enter in the middle of a conversation between two people who do not know each other very wellEve: (hesitantly) I should mention - I am aibhophobic. Aibohphobia !? With a name like that?! Are you on the level, madam?!?Eve: *coughs* *eyes bulge*Otis: (mischievously) kinda reminds of the time some guy kissed me off with "Sit on a potato pan, Otis!".Eve: *scratches head uncontrollably*Otis: (rubbing chin thoughtfully) still, that wasn't nearly as bad as when Delia failed to borrow or rob the Evil Olive.Eve: *now very agitated, punches Otis accidentally*Otis: wtf?! Dammit I'm mad!!!Eve: I'm sorry, this date really isn't working out for me *leaves*Otis: (to self) somehow I just knew we shoulda rescheduled. | {
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Condividi
Non è un segreto ormai, che per migliorare la nostra forma fisica, e rispettivamente la nostra salute, dobbiamo cambiare stile di vita e alimentazione. Ma come fare per cambiare le proprie abitudini alimentari senza troppi sacrifici? Domandona, vero?
La verità è che questa cosa ci fa molta paura, ci sembra un cambiamento talmente radicale, che tendiamo a rimandare sempre al lunedì successivo.
Il cibo è conforto, è una fonte di piacere e spesso anche di autogratificazione, e cambiare abitudini alimentari sembra un modo per privarci di quel poco entusiasmo che abbiamo nei confronti della vita di tutti i giorni.
Forse è proprio la parola “cambiare” che ci spaventa. È piuttosto un trasformare. Trasformare ciò che intendiamo come un gesto di amore verso noi stessi (gratificarci con cibi poco salutari) in una sincera e vera manifestazione di amore (nutrire il nostro corpo con cibi ricchi di benessere).
Dobbiamo imparare ad amarci invece di cercare di domare il nostro io con il cibo.
Ma come fare per cambiare le proprie abitudini alimentari senza soffrire troppo? Il segreto per rendere il tutto più indolore possibile, è iniziare a piccoli passi.
Alcuni trucchi e consigli per cambiare le proprie abitudini alimentari:
1 – La regola dei 20 minuti
È stato dimostrato, che il senso di sazietà arriva nel giro di più o meno 20 minuti da quando ingeriamo il cibo, perciò dovremmo attendere almeno 20 minuti dopo aver finito il pasto prima di decidere se mangiare dell’altro. Non dovremmo nemmeno bere, perché l’acqua può fare rallentare la digestione.
Se dopo i 20 minuti avvertiamo ancora un po’ di fame, possiamo concederci un dessert leggero e/o una tisana.
2 – Meno sale, più spezie
È risaputo ormai, che un eccesso di sale può provocare numerosi problemi di salute, ed è anche un nemico della linea. Il problema è, che quando il cibo ci sembra poco saporito aggiungiamo sempre più sale. Il trucco è sostituirlo con un mix di erbe e spezie. Un’ottima idea è riempire con questo mix il portasale. Il nostro palato e la nostra salute ringrazieranno.
3 – Prima le verdure
I contorni di verdure vengono digeriti più velocemente e fanno in modo che il senso di sazietà arrivi prima. Le verdure inoltre sono ricche di enzimi utili per la digestione delle proteine.
4 – Niente distrazioni
A tavola dovremmo concentrarci solamente sul cibo, masticando bene ogni boccone e cercando di rilassarci. I cellulari, i tablet o la TV ci distraggono e ci fanno mangiare di più.
5 – Fare la spesa con anticipo
Avere sempre gli ingredienti giusti a portata di mano, è un ottimo modo per evitare di comprare o ordinare cibo già pronto e spesso poco salutare. Cercare di programmare i pasti può essere d’aiuto. Stilare un menù settimanale è molto utile, quando si desidera cambiare le proprie abitudini alimentari. Ci costringe a fare la spesa in anticipo, a comprare alimenti salutari e freschi, in modo da non avere scuse per mangiare cibi precotti o già pronti.
6 – Cercare le giuste alternative
In tanti pensano, che per cambiare le proprie abitudini alimentari bisogna per forza essere drastici e rinunciare a TUTTO ciò che ci piace mangiare. Non è vero. È possibile (e necessario) cercare delle alternative salutari ai piatti o ai cibi che ci piacciono tanto. Ad esempio, se amate i dolci, cercate di sostituire i classici dolci da pasticceria con dei dessert preparati in casa, utilizzando ingredienti più salutari e meno calorici.
7 – Preferire cibi genuini
Anziché comprare yogurt alla frutta (ricchi di zuccheri e additivi alimentari), provate ad aggiungere allo yogurt bianco o greco della frutta e del miele. Otterrete un doppio beneficio in termini di piacere e di salute. Un altro esempio e preparare un decotto ai frutti rossi freschi o surgelati, piuttosto che comprare le bustine di tisana aromatizzate ai frutti rossi.
8 – Far godere il palato
Rinunciare ai nostri comfort food è difficile, ma mangiare sano può essere altrettanto gratificante. E poi non è detto, che bisogna rinunciare proprio a tutto. Concederci ogni tanto un boccone “proibito” può aiutare ad affrontare al meglio la transizione. È importante anche conoscere meglio ed imparare a utilizzare gli ingredienti sani in modo da poter creare dei piatti deliziosi senza mettere a rischio la nostra linea e la nostra salute. Se siete alla ricerca di idee e ricette sfiziose e salutari, seguite la rubrica del blog RICETTE DEL BENESSERE, che viene aggiornata con cadenza settimanale.
Cambiare le proprie abitudini alimentari non deve diventare soltanto un percorso fatto di rinunce. Il cibo è pur sempre un piacere e può diventare anche un ottimo alleato della nostra linea e della nostra salute.
Consigli di lettura:
Se hai trovato utile questo articolo, condividilo con i tuoi amici e lasciami un commento.
Grazie di cuore!
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For our money, and pretty much everyone else’s, this is the chart that best explains the parlous state of global financial markets.
Money poured into the emerging markets over the last three decades. Now, like a nasty riptide, it’s pulling out.
Numbers released this week from Institute for International Finance show net capital outflows of roughly $735 billion in 2015, including the group’s best guess for so called “unrecorded outflows.”
That follows the more than $111 billion in outflows registered in 2014. The 2015 total also far exceeded an October estimate from the trade group for international bankers. The IIF’s October forecast called for an already impressive $540 billion in outflows, illustrating how quickly things deteriorated in the year’s final months.
(What are “unrecorded outflows”? Many emerging market countries such as China closely control the flow of the money into and out of their economies, leading those looking to get their cash out of one of those countries to turn to, say, unconventional methods that often aren’t registered in official accounts.)
Unsurprisingly, much of money running for the exits is in China, where increasingly slow growth radically reshaped investor expectations over the last year. The IIF estimates that some $676 billion of capital—both officially and through unrecorded channels—fled the People’s Republic last year.
This is at the heart of every question investors have right now. It explains why the yuan, ruble, and Brazilian real are so weak. It explains why the Chinese stock market is plunging. Likewise, it helps explain why the US dollar is strong and bond yields are diving there, even as the Federal Reserve tries to raise interest rates. (All this money is looking for safety and there’s no safer place than the US government.)
So it’s clear that this chart is where the global markets’ troubles started. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near as clear where those troubles will end. | {
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The Houston Rockets are in the midst of a mini-slide, having lost their last two games. Nothing really to worry about, but just in case, the team is set to receive a reinforcement. According to Shams Charania of The Vertical, the Rockets plan to sign 2017 D-League Dunk Contest champion Troy Williams to a 10-day contract.
The 6-foot-7 swingman played 24 games with the Grizzlies earlier this year, but has since been plying his trade in the D-League with the Iowa Energy. In 23 games in Iowa, Williams put up 12.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, while shooting a decent 31.5 percent from behind the arc.
While Williams likely won’t see a ton of court time for the Rockets, it’s not a bad idea for the team to take a chance on him. After trading Corey Brewer to Los Angeles in exchange for Lou Williams, the team is thin on the wing. Sam Dekker is really the only option behind Trevor Ariza at the 3, and the second-year player has been struggling recently, averaging just 3.2 points on 33.3 percent shooting over his last five games.
Lanky and athletic, Williams seems a perfect fit for the Rockets up-tempo style.
Oh, and he’s really good at dunking. Let’s watch Troy Williams dunk:
If Williams does see the floor for Houston, it might be something you don’t want to miss. | {
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Outbound Rule
Press WIN+R to open the run box.1. Type and enter: WF.msc2. Select 'Outbound Rules' from the left panel, then click 'New Rule' from the options panel on the right. 3. Select 'Custom' for the Rule Type, then Next. 4. Select apply to 'All programs', then Next. 5. Leave the Protocol type as 'Any', click Next. 6. For local IP, select 'Any IP address'.7. For remote IP, select 'These IP addresses:', click Add. 8. Select 'This IP address range' e.g. from: 46.102.86.0, to: 46.102.86.255. (so this means you block all servers hosting on the same machine using 46.102.86.xxx) 9. Next, select 'Block the connection', then continue to the end. | {
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The United States and Canada share the longest unprotected border in the world, and Toronto's Globe and Mail has a story illustrating why that is so dangerous:
Aw, look at the cute little Canadian babies! It's all very sweet and innocuous, right?
Don't believe it. Read between the lines, and you realize this is a sinister Canadian plot to... | {
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View slideshow of invasive species.
Gray squirrel may look cute and harmless with their twitchy noses, piercing peepers and oh-so-bushy tails. But an international team of scientists recently named the furry beasties one of Europe's 100 worst environmental offenders. Their crime? Driving the equally adorable European red squirrel toward extinction.
The problem of invasive alien species is not unique to Europe. From reindeer on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia to mouflon sheep in Hawaii and cane toads in Australia, biological invaders are flourishing around the globe, devastating native plants and animals in their wakes. Often, they deliver multiple punches, as in the case of the U.K.'s gray squirrels. They not only sap resources from the native reds, but carry and spread squirrel pox—a disease that is decimating their red cousins.
Initiatives, such as the European Commission's Delivering Alien Invasive Species In Europe (DAISIE) project, which seeks to identify species wreaking havoc on ecosystems across Europe, and Aliens in Antarctica, an International Polar Year (2007–2008) project, are attempting to further the understanding of biological invasions to eliminate current problems as well as prevent future ones.
Needless to say, species movements from one location to another are nothing new—the terrestrial flora and fauna on volcanic islands that rose out of the sea, like Hawaii and the Galapagos, had to come from somewhere. The difference between the natural spread of species and today's invasions is how far—and fast—species are traveling.
"The natural process happens over slow time periods," says Barry Rice, an invasive species specialist with The Nature Conservancy. "When you have human-augmented invasions, these things happen at rates that are thousands of times faster than natural processes."
Many invasive species were released intentionally, like the South Georgia reindeer that were intended to provide meat to whalers in the early 1900s. Now they have overgrazed the native plants, which serve as nesting areas for seabirds and did not evolve to protect themselves against large herbivores. Others, like the Eurasian zebra mussels that invaded the Great Lakes in the 1980s, were stowaways, using oceangoing ships to taxi to a new environment. Years later, the voracious interlopers are continuing their steady march across the nation's waterways and are overwhelming native freshwater mollusks.
Global climate change is adding other dimensions to the problem.
"South Georgia is undergoing reasonably rapid climate change and retreat of glaciers, and it's hard to say what will happen in the future," says Kevin Hughes, the British Antarctic Survey's environmental research and monitoring manager. "One of the problems with the melting of some of the glaciers is that the reindeer might be able to extend their range and get to parts of the island they're not currently able to access."
The interplay of climate change and biological invasions is not only a concern in the polar regions. Wherever more severe and frequent weather events occur, there will be an increasing number of disturbed habitats, which may be ideal for nonnative species.
"This is all unknown, but invasive species may be able to take advantage of disturbances and move into these habitats much more quickly than native species," says Steven Hess, a wildlife research biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center's Kilauea Field Station in Hawaii National Park.
Native species accustomed to a particular environment have a tough time coping when conditions change, the Conservancy's Rice says. In contrast, many of the most successful invasive species are organisms like rats that easily adapt to various environments.
The best way to limit damage from invasive species? Prevent them from getting a foot in the door. "A really good analogy is to think about invasive species [as you would] wildfires," Rice says. "You can control a small fire when all you have to do is step on it, but once it's a large blaze, the logistics are much more complicated."
The first line of defense, he says, is to take appropriate biosecurity measures whenever possible. For example, many of the sub-Antarctic islands have implemented simple procedures, such as requiring visitors to dip their shoes in biocide (a chemical that kills microbes and plants) before disembarking onto the islands to prevent seeds or new pathogens from being introduced.
But it is impossible to prevent all invasions, which is why Rice stresses the importance of a network of experts who can immediately identify new threats and nip them in the bud. The Invasive Plant Atlas of New England project is doing just that, using trained volunteers to inventory habitats and document the arrival and spread of invasive species.
Once intrusive populations become established, it can be almost impossible to get rid of them. Often, as is the case with rats, feral pigs and many plant species, they have extraordinarily high reproductive rates.
Rice says that efforts to control invasive species should be tailored to each situation. Called adaptive management, this practice takes into consideration the characteristics of each site, goals, the manpower required and financial resources.
Economics almost always figures into decisions about managing invasive species, given limited conservation budgets and the tremendous damages inflicted by invaders on ecosystems. According to The Nature Conservancy, invasive species are estimated to cause $120 billion in damages each year in the U.S. alone. The worldwide toll is hundreds of billions of dollars greater, not to mention the human health and environmental costs.
"If I'm a preserve manager and I decide to wipe out every nonnative species, I will drive myself crazy and break my budget," Rice says. "I have to look at the site and ask myself, 'What is important? What am I trying to protect?' Then I ask myself which invasive species are causing damage to that purpose and how to deal with those on a local level."
For instance, officials would not waste time or resources trying to remove wild grass from a stopover for migrating birds unless it was interfering with their efforts to, say, drink from ponds there.
Management decisions to eradicate populations of introduced species, especially mammals, can be fraught with emotion and regret. In 2005, for instance, The Nature Conservancy killed 5,000 wild pigs on Santa Cruz Island to save the isle's endangered foxes and plants.
According to The Conservancy, the action was taken only after extensive consideration of other options. In the end, officials concluded that transporting pigs to the mainland carried too great a risk of disease.
"When we find ourselves in a situation [in which] we have to kill some organisms because we introduced them and they're damaging native organisms, ultimately this is a tragedy," Rice says. "We should take responsibility for that tragedy and we should channel that energy into avoiding introducing such organisms in the future."
Still, he says, although problems associated with invasive species may be pervasive and complicated, they are not insurmountable.
"You can define successes on a regional level—they're not measured only by whether the organism has been eradicated," he says. "Keep your eye on what you're there to protect and not what you're there to control. The goal is protecting native biodiversity. The goal is not to kill nonnative species."
View slideshow of invasive species. | {
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Washington (CNN) The Trump administration Thursday announced plans to roll back a ban on new offshore drilling off the coasts of Florida and California and is considering more than 40 sites for leasing of natural gas and oil production.
The proposal is yet another blow to the Obama-era environmental agenda, and it has the potential to open up nearly all US federal waters that were previously protected.
It comes just after Interior issued a stop-work order on a National Academy of Sciences study reviewing the offshore oil and gas operations inspection program to enhance safety.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said that 47 proposed leasing areas could increase federal revenue by $15 billion.
"It's better to produce energy here and never be held hostage by foreign enemy needs," Zinke said, adding it's a "clear difference between energy weakness and energy dominance."
Read More | {
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The Trump administration re-nominated Kathleen Hartnett White on Monday to be chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) after she failed to secure a Senate confirmation last year.
The CEQ chair oversees environmental policy across all federal agencies. But during Senate hearings in November, White struggled to answer basic questions about the CEQ's role and whether she would use facts in environmental recommendations to the president. She continues to deny that carbon dioxide is harmful to the planet.
"White is a disastrous candidate who will have a profoundly destructive effect on our climate and wildlife if given this job in the Trump administration," said Stephanie Kurose, endangered species policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Her extreme views and disturbing record should disqualify her from this crucial leadership position."
White has previously argued there is a "moral case" for expanding fossil fuel development regardless of carbon dioxide emissions. She also claimed there is a "connection between the abolition of slavery and humanity's first widespread use of energy from fossil fuels."
In her current position at the Texas Public Policy Foundation—a conservative think tank that has received huge donations from fossil fuel interests that include Koch Industries, ExxonMobil and Chevron—White has worked to undermine the Endangered Species Act.
Nearly 50 organizations sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works opposing White's nomination. The letter expressed support for the Endangered Species Act, which has saved more than 99 percent of species under its protection from extinction and put hundreds of species on the path to recovery.
"White is yet another Trump appointee picked to lead an agency whose conservation mission she fundamentally rejects," said Kurose. "Confirming her to this powerful position would be shortsighted and deeply irresponsible."
The Trump administration also re-nominated Susan Combs to be assistant secretary of policy management and budget within the U.S. Department of the Interior. Combs—an outspoken opponent of federal endangered species protection—built her career by favoring big corporations and special interests over the needs and survival of imperiled species. | {
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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.
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CRIPPLE CREEK, Colo. -- Patrick Frazee, the man accused of killing his fiancee Kelsey Berreth, was charged with five felony counts on Monday morning by Teller County prosecutors.
Frazee, 32, was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder and three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
The solicitation chargers suggest to investigators that Frazee conspired with at least one other person to kill Berreth.
Frazee learned of the charges during a court appearance on Monday in Cripple Creek. He was not asked to enter a plea and did not speak at the hearing.
Prosecutors filed two murder charges because they have different theories. One is that he acted alone to kill Berreth, the other, he alone or with other people killed her during a robbery on November 22nd.
“Felony murder in this case is when you rob someone, and they die during the robbery that is also first degree murder,” 4th Judicial District Attorney, Dan May said.
Berreth was last seen shopping with her daughter at a Safeway store in Woodland Park on Thanksgiving.
Berreth's body has not been found but police believe she is dead. Investigators have not said what led to Frazee's arrest, only saying they believe the killing happened inside her home in Woodland Park northwest of Colorado Springs.
The cellphone of Berreth, a flight instructor, was tracked to Idaho three days after Thanksgiving.
A charging document says Frazee is accused of working to find someone to kill Berreth between September and November and causing her death on or about Thanksgiving.
Frazee has said the two met at that time to exchange their 1-year-old daughter.
No other details were provided and the document laying out the evidence against Frazee remains sealed.
"The reason why the affidavits are sealed at this point is because this is an ongoing criminal investigation," Teller County Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Vemen said. "There are multiple leads that law enforcement needs to follow up on and it's extensive."
A consumptive testing hearing was scheduled for Friday and a preliminary hearing for Jan. 29.
At a hearing last week, a judge handed custody of the couple's 1-year-old daughter Kaylee to Berreth's parents.
Until his arrest on Dec. 21 on suspicion of murder and solicitation of murder, the girl had been staying with Frazee. | {
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Sustainable Practices
To keep the monastery as valuable to future generations as it is to us, we have incorporated a number of sustainability features into the design, construction, and operation of the brewery.
Learn About our Practices | {
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Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev denounced Russia's Vladimir Putin as an aggressive leader with a 19th-century empire-building style, in comments to be published Saturday.
"Russia is a nationalistic and aggressive state," Plevneliev told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"In President Putin's world, it is still the 19th century when there were the great powers and then their smaller neighbors which had to submit," he said.
Plevneliev, who holds an honorific post with diplomatic duties, said that Bulgaria's former Soviet master Russia "needs to learn to have partners, not vassals and subjects."
Many former communist states once under Moscow's control have criticized Russia for its role in the Ukraine conflict, accusing it of supporting rebels fighting for independence in the east.
Voters in Bulgaria are expected to return right-wing former premier Boyko Borisov to power a year and a half after he was forced to resign amid mass protests over corruption and economic stagnation in the European Union's poorest member state. | {
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After a man posing as a FedEx deliveryman forced his way into her family’s house and fatally shot her parents and four siblings, 15-year-old Cassidy Stay played dead until the killer fled the scene.
Bleeding from a wound on her head where a bullet grazed her, Cassidy managed to call 911.
“It was my Uncle Ronnie. He has been stalking my family for three weeks,” she told paramedics when they arrived at the Spring-area house, according to court documents. “He said he would shoot us and kill us.”
Cassidy would be the lone survivor of the July 2014 massacre, which Harris County prosecutors say unfolded in a moment of rage as Ronald Haskell hunted for his ex-wife, Melannie Lyon. Cassidy’s parents had been providing support to Lyon, the sister of Katie Stay, Cassidy’s mother. Ronald Haskell didn’t find his intended target, prosecutors said, but opened fire on the entire Stay family.
Cassidy’s phone call is believed to have prevented more violence, as Haskell was captured on the way to Lyon’s parents’ nearby home, police said.
Much has happened since that windy afternoon on July 9, 2014; Cassidy Stay is now 19, engaged, and attending Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
About 1,400 miles away in a Houston courtroom, Haskell will go on trial in the six killings on Monday, his 39th birthday.
Court filings show defense attorney Douglas Durham intends to present an insanity defense in the case, which has been rescheduled 20 times.
The start of the trial will end a long wait for friends, neighbors and relatives of the Stays.
“This man taking this family from us has hurt so many people,” said Moriah Davis, a close friend of Katie Stay’s. “I’m excited that this trial is finally happening so everyone can move forward.”
The Crime
The slayings reverberated around the nation, recalling the chilling murders of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959, which was immortalized by Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood.”
In the case of the Stay family murders, police said Haskell had come to Texas from California in search of his ex-wife, who had recently divorced him after years of sustained domestic abuse, court filings show. They had lived together in Utah before Melannie Lyon escaped. Haskell had moved to California. where a restraining order was issued against him after he allegedly duct-taped his mother to a chair and choked her because she had spoken to Lyon.
But Lyon wasn’t at her sister’s home in the suburban Spring neighborhood that Wednesday afternoon.
Police gave the following account: Dressed as a FedEx deliveryman, Haskell knocked on the door, then went away. When he came back and knocked on the door again, Cassidy quickly realized something was not right, especially when he mentioned his name. Cassidy tried to close the door, but the burly Haskell forced his way inside, brandishing a 9mm pistol and holding Cassidy and the rest of the children hostage until their parents, Stephen and Katie Stay, returned home. Upon their return, Haskell demanded to know where his ex-wife was, but either no one knew or would say.
Initial police reports were that Haskell had tied up members of the family before shooting them, but court documents say he only threatened to do so. Katie Stay tried to stop him, and he opened fire on the entire family, killing Stephen, 39; Katie, 34; and Bryan, 13; Emily, 9; Rebecca, 7; and Zach, 4. Cassidy lay motionless until Haskell fled in the Stays’ Honda sedan, reportedly continuing his search for his ex-wife.
Cassidy's 911 call saved her grandparents’ lives, officials said after the slayings. Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constables intercepted Haskell just seconds before he arrived at Lyon’s parents’ home, then chased him into a nearby cul-de-sac. After a long standoff, Haskell surrendered hours later.
“These people were seconds away from getting killed,” said Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman, then the assistant chief deputy of the agency.
A community in mourning
The Stays had moved to their home on Leaflet Lane, a short distance from Interstate 45 north of downtown Houston, just a few years before the shootings. They were active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Stephen Stay, a real estate broker, had started his own business just a year earlier. Katie Stay juggled taking care of their five children and trying to help her sister escape her dangerous marriage.
The massacre left friends and neighbors — and even community members who had never met them — reeling.
“I was so mad when it happened,” said Sylvia Collier, 72, who lives down the street from the Stays’ former home. “I was furious. How dare him come into our nice neighborhood ... and do that to this wonderful family?”
“It was a huge shock,” said Rebecca Taylor, a friend of Katie’s. The mass murder was one of three in greater Houston in 2014, claiming a total of 18 lives.
Relatives have generally declined to comment since the shootings, eager to shield Cassidy from the glare of publicity.
Cassidy’s paternal grandparents in California declined to speak ahead of the trial. They, along with the Stays’ neighbors and other relatives, banded together in the aftermath to grieve, remember the victims and support each other.
They organized a fundraiser to help pay for Cassidy’s future schooling — raising more than $300,000 in days. And hundreds more attended a vigil at Lemm Elementary when Cassidy was released from the hospital two days later.
About 1,500 people attended the family’s funeral.
And, Taylor said, those who knew the Stays try to maintain the enthusiasm and positivity that they always showed,
“Katie was a very positive and uplifting person,” she said. “One thing that has come from this — at this time of year, when it’s relatively close to the time it passed — a lot of her friends try and live kind of like Katie did: to be looking out for other people, and for those that need it.”
“Her motto was every day is a good day — to have a good day. To be happy, and not to sweat the small stuff. To enjoy your life and share that happiness with others.”
A long road to trial
As loved ones mourned and lawyers sparred in court, Haskell sat in a high-security wing of the Harris County Jail. The case was slowed by Hurricane Harvey’s damage to the courthouse in 2017, the election of a wave of new judges, and a defense attorney’s medical emergency.
Lawyers wrestled over Haskell’s mental health records, fought over motions to move the proceedings outside Harris County, and spent weeks reviewing more than 380 potential jurors.
If convicted of capital murder, Haskell could face the death penalty.
In court filings, Durham, the defense attorney, argued that his client was severely mentally ill on the day of the murders and didn’t know his conduct was wrong.
“The healthcare system does a very poor job of identifying and treating people with mental illness,” he said. “I think the evidence in this case will bear that out.”
But experts say Haskell’s defense team will face an extraordinarily high bar just to keep him from being executed, particularly given the apparent pre-planned nature of the crime.
“It’s a horrific case, and it’s just one of those ones where as a defense attorney, you’re basically facing an uphill battle to save your client’s life,” said Murray Newman, a former Harris County prosecutor who now works in private practice.
Mitchel P. Roth, a professor of criminal justice and criminology at Sam Houston State University, said the passage of time could benefit the alleged mass shooter, whom he classified as a “family annihilator.” But the defense will need to humanize Haskell to spare him from the death penalty, Roth said.
Court records detail numerous allegations against the California native. Starting in 2002, prosecutors say, he began a pattern of abuse that targeted his wife, sometimes spilling over to his children, parents and siblings.
He isolated his wife, moving to Utah to keep her from her family. He physically abused Lyon, sometimes in front of their children, and he sexually abused her, even while she was pregnant, according to prosecutors.
“What kind of sensitive portrait can they make of this guy?” Roth asked. “Who’s going to be rooting for him?”
Prosecutors plan to present reams of evidence, including 911 calls, on-scene recordings and autopsy photos of the slain parents and children. They have surveillance video of Haskell in the hours prior to the killings, as well as his bank information, hotel records, and police offense reports from three different states.
“Prosecutors remain steadfast in their duty to seek justice for the Stay family and our entire community,” said Dane Schiller, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. “Jurors will hear what happened and render their verdict.”
The trial could last more than two months, state District Judge George Powell has said.
‘You don’t get to kill six people and live’
On the idyllic street where the Stays once lived, few of their old neighbors remain.
Harvey inundated the neighborhood, causing turnover in a city where everyone seems a newcomer.
Tyler Torkelson, 25, remembers the event; the swarm of cops, the whir of the helicopters overhead, the rallying behind Cassidy Stay, the grotesque audacity of a man willing to snuff out a family to palliate his ego.
He’ll be following the trial closely. And he isn’t sure he can stomach the idea of forgiveness.
“You don’t kill six people and get to live,” Torkelson said. “At least not in Texas.”
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct Ronald Haskell's birthplace.
[email protected] | {
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india
Updated: Oct 11, 2019 08:41 IST
Seven pilgrims sleeping on a pavement in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr were killed Friday morning after a bus ran over them. The accident happened near Gandhi ghat close to river Ganga.
The dead, including four women and 3 minor girls, were returning to Hathras Janpad after a pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir.
The pilgrims were from a group of 56 that had started from their village Mohanpura on October 3. On their way back, the driver stopped the bus at Gandhi ghat near Agra-Moradabad highway around 2.50 am Friday morning to take rest.
The deceased got off the bus to sleep on the pavement and at around 4 am a speeding bus crushed them. All seven died on the spot, say police. Among the dead were three members of family. The bodies have been sent for post mortem and probe has started, cops said. | {
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The general stifling of academic freedom reared its ugly head again this week, as reports from NJ.com and News12 New Jersey detailed the story of a New Jersey high schooler who was suspended for his participation in a gun-related school assignment. According to the reports, Frank Harvey, a junior at Manville High School in Manville, N.J. was removed from school after creating a video that advocated against gun control.
According to an account Harvey gave News 12, last year Harvey’s teacher for his College and Career Readiness class tasked him with creating an anti-gun-control video. Harvey’s video, supplied to NJ.com, correctly identified one of the chief problems with gun control; that criminals by definition do not obey the law, and therefore firearms restrictions merely encumber the law-abiding. The video also includes a story of an armed citizen defending his family from home invaders and two political cartoons making light of “gun free” zones. According to Harvey, he completed the assignment without incident and received an “A.”
However, according to NJ.com, on Monday, Harvey left a flash drive containing the video in a school computer lab, where it was discovered by an individual who reported the contents to school administrators. The incident prompted an investigation by the Manville Police Department, who, according to Harvey’s mother Mary Vervan, “looked at his presentation and found nothing wrong.”
The school was less understanding. School administrators suspended Harvey and mandated that he undergo a psychological examination before being permitted to return to school.
Complicating matters for Harvey, his College and Career Readiness teacher has claimed that she never gave him the assignment. Refuting this claim, Harvey told NJ.com, “She said my project would be perfectly fine…I presented the video to the class and took a few questions from my classmates. My presentation went over well. The whole idea of the assignment was to expose students to an idea they hadn’t considered before.”
Rather than submit to the school’s mandate for a psychological evaluation, Harvey withdrew from Manville High School and now plans to obtain his GED. Vervan is reportedly exploring the family’s options for removing this incident from Harvey’s school records. Suggesting that the potential consequences of this episode go beyond Harvey’s enrollment at Manville High, Vervan told NJ.com, “If the police doesn’t [sic] think there was a problem, why is the school taking these extreme actions and harassing us with child services?”
For their part, Manville school administrators contend that Harvey and his mother are lying about the nature of this incident. Superintendent Anne R. Facendo told the media that Harvey and his mother are using student privacy laws “to publicize a blatantly false, one-sided account of what occurred.” Now that Harvey has withdrawn from Manville High School, it is unclear whether any additional information regarding this case will be made public.
Whatever the precise facts surrounding this incident, the ongoing harsh public response against the Manville school administrators shows that the general public has no difficulty believing that public school officials would punish a student for benign gun-related conduct. Following incidents where students have been punished for toy guns, drawing pictures of guns, pictures of guns on their clothing, and even chewing their food into the shape of a gun, the public is likely prepared to believe that the anti-gun prejudice of some school administrators is limitless.
Of course, if the facts of this latest incident are as Harvey and his mother contend, the Manville school administrators’ conduct would be particularly reprehensible. The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that the First Amendment protects students from viewpoint-based restrictions on their speech. In the landmark Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Court famously noted, “In order for the State in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint.”
As noted, there are conflicting sides to this story, and any final conclusions should be reserved until more facts are made available. However, thanks to the actions of some of their more feckless colleagues throughout the country, public school administrators no longer enjoy the benefit of the doubt.
Know your gun laws. Click here to see them. | {
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[Stephen] Bannon allies are bitter about the role they believe economic adviser Gary Cohn has played in undercutting their guy to POTUS. In private conversations, they call him “Globalist Gary.” In text messages, the shorthand is CTC (Carbon Tax Cohn) or one simple emoji:
That is an amazing anecdote. And it comes just days after The Washington Post reported on some other nicknames in the Bannon vs. Jared Kushner battle and CNN first reported the “Globalist Gary” epithet. So we thought it high time they be ranked.
As always, these rankings are from worst to best and are not to be questioned.
AD
Lazy alliteration. Not that I'm above lazy alliteration. But this is lazy alliteration.
We get it; they are from New York, where Wall Street is. Guess what? So is President Trump.
AD
It's not a good derogatory nickname if the other side would gladly use it for itself.
It's succinct and reminds me of all those 1990s-era sports franchises who decided nicknames ending in “s” were no longer preferable: the Orlando Magic, the Miami Heat, the Colorado Avalanche, the Minnesota Wild and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The ’90s were fun.
This is the Bannon side's answer to “Breitbart.” It's also nice and succinct and not overly pluralistic. But some have also noted that it could be seen as having anti-Semitic undertones. Oh, and Bannon himself used to work for Goldman Sachs (albeit a long time ago), so … not quite ideal.
AD
4. “CTC” (Carbon Tax Cohn)
This, of course, refers to Cohn having met with former secretary of state James Baker and others about a carbon tax proposal. It's insider-y, yes, but it's so obscure that it's memorable. I've already begun employing it in my everyday life.
AD
No points for creativity here, but this nickname epitomizes the disdain in this internal White House battle. The opponents of Bannon aren't just “cucks” or “RINOs;” they're simply “the Democrats.”
This has the benefit of rolling off the tongue, and the "-ite” suffix sounds vaguely religious — which is kind of the point.
” 1. “ | {
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【11月30日 AFP】北朝鮮は30日、同国による「超大型ロケット砲」の試射をめぐり、近いうちに安倍晋三（Shinzo Abe）首相が「本物の弾道ミサイル」を間近で目にすることになり得ると警告し、「歴史上最もばかな男」だと非難した。
【写真特集】視察する北朝鮮の指導者、金正恩氏
北朝鮮は、金正恩（キム・ジョンウン、Kim Jong-un）朝鮮労働党委員長が視察する中、28日に「超大型多連装ロケット砲」を試射を実施したとする一方、韓国は北朝鮮が発射した飛翔（ひしょう）体2発が日本海（Sea of Japan、韓国では東海 East Sea）に落下したと発表。安倍首相は飛翔体を「弾道ミサイル」だとし、国連安全保障理事会（UN Security Council）の決議に違反していると述べていた。
これに対して北朝鮮の国営朝鮮中央通信（KCNA）は、同国の外交当局者の発言として、「多連装ロケットシステムとミサイルの区別もつかないとは、安倍は世界で唯一無二の白痴（知的障害）、史上最もばかな人間だと言い得る」と報道。
「安倍は本物の弾道ミサイルというものを遠くない将来、それも間近で目にすることになるだろう…安倍はとんでもない大ばか者だ」と伝えている。(c)AFP | {
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The Totem Vaporizer is virtually indestructible, splash proof and for the first time ever, stackable! making it ideal for anyone on the go. It uses both conduction and convection heating to help cook your material more evenly. Alone the Totem employs conduction heating but when you implement Totem mode by conjoining 2 Totems it instantly becomes Hybrid. This leads to a wonderfully flavourful hit!
The incredible durability of the Totem makes it an ideal choice for so many different vapers. Thanks to its shock-proof outer coating and splash proof construction, the Totem is the perfect vaping choice for hikers, adventurers, and party animals alike. With less than two hours to achieve a full charge via USB and up to one hour of continuous battery life, the Totem is the perfect vape to keep the party going. Its sleek design makes for a comfortable and easy grip in the palm of your hand, and it’s easily transportable. | {
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Find one harmless bug before bed. Can't sleep. May have laid eggs. May have cockroach friends.
240 shares | {
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In this article, we will see how to customize our terminal prompt and add a random emoji in it.
This is my terminal prompt:
If I could have a penny every time somebody asked me how did I put a random emoji in there, well… I wouldn’t probably be a millionaire, but I would definitely be able to afford few more coffees every day and be less sleepy 😴!
In this article I’ll explain how I emojified my terminal and, since it is very simple stuff, I’ll also try to explore some extra details on how to customize your bash experience.
Bash config
Bash customizations are generally made in a file saved in the user home directory. This file is generally called .bashrc (more common on Linux systems) or .bash_profile (more common on MacOS) .
UPDATE: .bash_profile is executed for login shells, and .bashrc is executed for non-login shells. (Thanks to @colonelpanic for the correction here).
This file is essentially a Bash script file that gets loaded every single time you open a terminal session.
Here’s an example of a possible .bashrc file:
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ] ; then . /etc/bashrc fi alias og = 'ls -ogrt' alias ll = 'ls -al' alias lc = 'ls -C' alias dir = 'ls -lrt' alias h = 'history' alias p = 'pwd -P' alias et = 'emacs-tty' alias python = python2.7 export PS1 = '[\ [email protected] \h \W]$ ' export HOST = ` uname -n ` export EDITOR = vim export PATH = $HOME /bin/: $PATH
As you can see, this script has the only goal of setting up your bash environment. For instance, you can load other configuration files (here we load a global configuration if it is available). You can define shortcuts and aliases for common commands. Finally, you can export environment variables, for instance to define your default text editor or to modify/extend your PATH (a list of directories where to look for executable commands).
The PS1 variable
We briefly touched on PATH and EDITOR . There are many other special variables in Bash that can be used to customize the look and feel and the behavior of your terminal.
One of those variables (the most important in this article) is called PS1 . If I were a betting man, I would bet that the name stands for Prompt Style 1 (Update 2020-04-18: Rohit Chakraborty actually clarifies in the comments that PS1 stands for Prompt String 1 !). PS1 allows you to define the look and feel of the primary bash prompt format.
In the configuration example above we are defining the PS1 variable as follows:
Which, in my personal laptop, renders like this:
At this point, you are probably already grasping how this works. The PS1 variable acts as a template, where special escape sequences like \u and \h can be used to indicate “replace this with my actual username (and hostname)”.
There are several sets of escape sequences that might be supported on different operative systems and different types of console, but here’s a list of the most common and widely supported escape sequences:
\a : an ASCII bell character (07)
: an ASCII bell character (07) \d the date in “Weekday Month Date” format (e.g., “Tue May 26”)
the date in “Weekday Month Date” format (e.g., “Tue May 26”) \h the hostname up to the first `.’
the hostname up to the first `.’ \H the full hostname
the full hostname
newline
newline \s the name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash)
the name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash) \t the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format
the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format \T the current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format
the current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format \@ the current time in 12-hour am/pm format
the current time in 12-hour am/pm format \u the username of the current user
the username of the current user \w the current working directory
the current working directory \$ if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $ (used to distinguish whether you are root or not)
if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $ (used to distinguish whether you are root or not) \\ a backslash
a backslash \[ begin a sequence of non-printing characters, which could be used to embed a terminal con trol sequence into the prompt
begin a sequence of non-printing characters, which could be used to embed a terminal con trol sequence into the prompt \] end a sequence of non-printing characters
For more comprehensive lists checkout:
👌 Pro tip: There’s also a PS2 variable, which is the secondary prompt displayed when a command needs more input (e.g. a multi-line command). This is generally set as PS2='> ' .
Also PS3 and PS4 exist. Funny enough this is not a pun to PlayStation players… If you are curious to know what they are used for, Archlinux has a great section on terminal prompts.
The RANDOM variable
For our purpose, another useful Bash special variable is RANDOM . Its goal is very simple, as the name suggests, it always evaluate to a different random value.
Try to run the following command multiple times to have a feeling for it:
echo $RANDOM
I just ran this command 5 times and this is the list of outputs I got:
31434
25704
32466
10374
29063
To be more accurate, when using $RANDOM , we are not referencing a constant value or a variable, but an internal Bash function that returns a pseudorandom integer in the range [0-32767] (both values included).
This primitive is generally good enough when you need to do something random, like extracting an arbitrary element from an array.
Be careful though because this technique is not strong enough for security sensitive situations like generating an encryption key.
There are slightly more advanced use cases, for instance you might need to extract a random number over a smaller positive range. In such case you can use the modulo operator and do something like this:
SMALLER_RANDOM = expr $RANDOM % 22 echo $SMALLER_RANDOM
This will print a number between 0 (included) and 22 (excluded).
For other more advanced use cases check out the dedicated $RANDOM section in the Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide.
Bash arrays
In Bash, an array is a variable containing multiple values. Any variable may be used as an array and there is no maximum limit to the size of an array.
You can define an array in several different ways. You can assign the elements of an array one by one over different assignment statements:
A [ 0 ] = 1 A [ 1 ] = 2 A [ 2 ] = 3
In a more generic fashion, you can assign a value in an given array index with the syntax ARRAY[INDEX]=value , where INDEX is an expression that is evaluated to a non-negative integer.
Of course there is a shorter version that allows you to initialize an array with multiple elements with a single assignment instructions:
A = ( 1 2 3 )
When you want to read (dereference) a value out of an array you can do it this way:
echo ${A [ 2 ] }
This will print 3 as Bash arrays are zero-indexed.
If you want to reference all the elements in the array you can do it as follows:
echo ${A [ * ] }
or
echo ${A [ @ ] }
The elements in an array can be also strings and you don’t need to wrap them in quotes (unless a string includes a space in it). For instance you can create the following array:
SPORTS = ( Judo Jiu-jitsu 'Sicilian stick fighting' )
To loop over the elements of an array:
for SPORT in " ${SPORTS [ @ ] } " do echo $SPORT done
Finally, to get the length of an array you can use the following syntax:
echo ${ # SPORTS [ @ ] }
There is a lot more you can do with arrays. This is enough for what we want to achieve in this article, but if you are curious you can checkout the array section in the Bash Beginners Guide.
Putting it all together
Ok, now that we know about Bash config, Bash PS1 variable, Bash RANDOM and Bash arrays, we have enough knowledge to be able to render a random emoji in our terminal prompt.
Let’s try to write a simple .bashrc file that can do that:
This will look as follows in my machine:
Well… as you can see there is something wrong with this… The emoji is always the same!
The problem here is that SELECTED_EMOJI gets computed only once when we open a new terminal window. At that point it behaves like a constant values, so our prompt will always look the same after that.
With this approach we essentially end up with a random emoji per session, not per command!
We can fix this by introducing a Bash function:
EMOJIS = ( 😺 😸 😹 😻 😼 😽 🙀 😿 😾 ) RANDOM_EMOJI ( ) { SELECTED_EMOJI = ${EMOJIS [ $RANDOM % ${ # EMOJIS [ @ ] } ] } ; echo $SELECTED_EMOJI ; } export PS1 = $( RANDOM_EMOJI ) [\ [\ [email protected] \h \W]$ '
Notice that we replaced ${SELECTED_EMOJI} with $(RANDOM_EMOJI) in our terminal prompt template. Previously we were just interpolating a variable in our terminal prompt, now we are actually invoking a function that extracts a random emoji every single time the prompt is rendered.
This is the new result:
Mission complete!
But wait, not so quick! Let’s go over all the code once again to make sure we understand what’s going on behind the scenes.
EMOJIS is just a simple array of strings, where every string is made up by just an emoji.
SELECTED_EMOJI inside our function RANDOM_EMOJI , is a dynamic value that gets initialized to a random emoji from the set of supported emojis ( EMOJIS ). This is the complicated part as it’s a one-liner made up by different expressions on the right-hand side of the assignment. Let’s break it down:
${#EMOJIS[@]} will be evaluated to the length of the EMOJIS array
will be evaluated to the length of the array $RANDOM % ${#EMOJIS[@]} will calculate a random integer and normalize it to the number of elements in the EMOJIS array using the modulo operator, so this is essentially extracting a random index for the EMOJIS array.
will calculate a random integer and normalize it to the number of elements in the array using the modulo operator, so this is essentially extracting a random index for the array. Finally we use the result of this expression to dereference a random element from the array and we assign it to SELECTED_EMOJI .
Pretty neat, right?
Bonus: bash formatting
You probably noticed that my prompt (as well as most people prompt) comes with some fancy colors and other formatting wonders like bold and underlined text.
Most terminals support different formatting options: bold, dim, underlined, blink, hidden, inverted and a number of different colors (for both background and foreground!).
This is done by prefixing the text with some special escape sequences.
To give you an example, let’s have a look at this code:
echo -e \033 [32mLuciano \033 [39m and my twitter handle is \033 [[email protected] \033 [21m" "My name is[32mLuciano[39m and my twitter handle is[21m"
This will render as follows:
The way this works is by using a special escape sequence, the \033[ prefix sequence. This sequence can be parameterized to indicate the start or the end of different formatting options. The generic syntax is \033[_FormatCode_m , where _FormatCode_ will be replaced with some value to indicate different formatting options.
In my previous example:
\033[32m stands for “start color green”
stands for “start color green” \033[39m stands for “start default color (color reset)”
stands for “start default color (color reset)” \033[1m stands for “start emphasis (or bold)”
stands for “start emphasis (or bold)” \033[21m stands for “reset emphasis (or end bold)”
Here is a table with different _FormatCode_ values and their effect.
_FormatCode_ Description 1 Bold 2 Dim 4 Underline 5 Blink 8 Hidden 0 Reset all 21 Reset bold 22 Reset dim 24 Reset underline 25 Reset blink 28 Reset hidden 39 Default color 30 Black 31 Red 32 Green 33 Yellow 34 Blue 35 Magenta 36 Cyan 97 White 49 Default bg color 40 Black bg 41 Red bg 42 Green bg 43 Yellow bg 44 Blue bg 45 Magenta bg 46 Cyan bg 107 White bg
For more information about additional formatting options checkout Bash tips: Colors and formatting.
Other ways to achieve similar formatting are tput and terminfo.
Bonus 2: my actual PS1!
I keep my .bash_profile public on GitHub (not because it’s cool, but because this way I can easily clone it into different machines).
If you are curious you can see how my bash-emojification is actually done or what else I put in my PS1 variable or even some aliases I use.
Feel free to tell me what you think or ask questions about it in the comment box in this article.
Bonus 3: A bash prompt generator
Of course there had to be a service online to help you with this stuff! It turns out there are many! If you want to build your fancy Bash prompt in a drag-and-dropppy or clicky-clicky way, checkout these links:
At this point, you should know enough to be able to build your own PS1 generator website! Maybe that’s an idea for you next hack-weekend!
Bonus 4: Use the return code
This is an amazing snippet from @bdesham on Lobste.rs.
function success_indicator ( ) { if [ $? -eq 0 ] ; then echo "😎" else echo "💩" fi } export PS1 = ' $( success_indicator ) $ '
With this approach you won’t have a random emoji anymore but instead a very deterministic emoji given by the return code of the previous command. If the command exited successfully you will see a cool dude emoji, otherwise a surprised poop will show up on your prompt!
Why all of this?!
In the title of this article I said “how and why”, but if you have been careful you probably noticed I never really explained why you might want to go through all of this stuff!
Well, the real reason why you should care about this is because “why not?!”
Seriously, there isn’t a very strong reason why this stuff is important, it is definitely fun and interesting but you might be a fantastic developer even without having all this knowledge (and without emojis in your terminal)!
Anyway, if this answer is not convincing you, I can actually prove that emojis in your terminal will make you more productive. Try to put a toilet (🚽) or a poop (💩) emoji in your list of supported emojis. Next time you’ll mistype a command and you’ll randomly see a poop emoji, I can assure you that you’ll have a bit of fun, your morale will stay up and you’ll hopefully keep pounding your way on the keyboard enjoying your work 😎.
Whether you believe me or not on this, I hope I’ll see you soon in the next article 😜
Byez!
PS: A special thanks to all the people who contributed to this Lobste.rs thread. A lot of great insights! Also, thanks to @gschizas on Reddit for spotting some errors! 🙏 | {
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Flying is so overrated.
A brave crow has been photographed catching a free ride on the back of a bald eagle 25-feet in the air. The unusual moment lasted only a few seconds and was captured by amateur bird photographer Phoo Chan.
“At first I thought the crow was going to chase away the eagle," Chan says. "I was completely awed to see the crow actually land on the back of the eagle. They both flew in different directions and it looked like they became friends."
We're unsure if the crow genuinely wanted to become friends with the eagle or it took a bet from his bird buddies. Either way, the brave little daredevil has some massive bird cred coming to him when he returns home. Check out Phoo Chan's amazing photos below: | {
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Flickr photo by Tom Hynds
Comic #829 involves a false etymology for the words “pep” and “pepper”. Here are some more surprising etymologies, of various degrees of plausibility.
• Tea gets its name from the abbreviation on tungsten tellurium lanterns (atomic symbol Te), which were used by British soldiers in the Crimea to heat teakettles in the field. The beverage was previously colloquially known as rattle, short for “rattle and clink,” Cockney rhyming slang for “leaf drink.”
• The word sultan comes from the same Latin root as the word consult — in the same way that a president is one who presides, a sultan is one consulted. The title sultan was first assumed by Turkish ruler Fazzad bin Rahib during the thirteenth century in an attempt to emphasize rulership based on the classical qualities of reason and logic.
• The Old French mer is the root for many of our words relating to water, such as marine, maritime and marsupial. But mer was also used more generally as a metaphor for “truth” — the clarity and cleanliness of water representing honesty and sincerity. Thus we get camera, the “capturer of truth”, and mirror, the “twisted truth”. The -or suffix is often found in this context: terror means “the twisted earth”, or something unsettling and otherworldly; horror (using hor- as in horizon) means “twisted boundaries,” or something unreal made real.
• Speaking of fear, the bogeyman feared by children everywhere has its roots in the legend of John Bogieman, a poor farmer said to have given his children away as payment when he couldn’t make the mortgage on his farm. He kept his farm, but his vegetables turned up rotten evermore and he starved to death. Now, he wanders the earth searching for his lost children, and many say his ghostly form cannot tell innocent children from his own, whom he wants to take back with him to the underworld.
• The verbs punch and fart are both onomotopoeias.
Leave your own in the comments!
This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2012 at 2:18 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. | {
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Apple's latest iPhones, the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, are the company's first iPhones that have been advertised as "water and dust resistant" with an official IP67 rating under International Electrotechnical Standards, a uniform way of determining water and resistance ratings across a wide range of devices.
IP67 is actually two numbers, one that refers to the dust resistance rating and one that refers to water resistance. IP6x is the highest dust resistance rating, indicating the iPhone 7 is completely protected against dust.
IPx7, the water resistance rating, means the iPhone 7 can withstand immersion in water to one meter (3.3 feet) for 30 minutes, tested in laboratory conditions. IPx7 is the second-highest rating, below IP8, which indicates an ability to withstand long periods of immersion under pressure. Samsung's devices, by the way, are rated at IP68, suggesting better overall water resistance.
Apple describes the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus as "splash, water, and dust resistant," and it should hold up to accidental drops in the pool, bathtub, or shower or light splashing. It shouldn't be used in high-pressure water conditions, such as in direct shower water, and it shouldn't be kept under water for extended periods of time.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are splash, water, and dust resistant and were tested under controlled laboratory conditions with a rating of IP67 under IEC standard 60529. Splash, water, and dust resistance are not permanent conditions and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear. Do not attempt to charge a wet iPhone; refer to the user guide for cleaning and drying instructions. Liquid damage not covered under warranty.
Apple warns against attempting to charge a wet iPhone, which could result in damage to the device, and it specifies that any liquid damage to the device is not covered under warranty, so it's best to use caution when exposing the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus to water. | {
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FREE SHIPPING in the USA on orders over $49 | {
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Ah, there’s something exciting about getting to a place where you can haggle for your prices. Often this feeling wares off and you start to realize the fine line between getting ripped off and insulting the salespeople by going too low. The art of haggling differs greatly place to place. During my year in Marrakesh I found that I had to haggle for souvenirs, taxis and occasionally food. I basically found that if I really wanted a good deal I’d need to bring a local friend along who knew how to play the game. Of course in many other countries I’ve visited I have had to re-calibrate my haggling skills all over again since each place is different. Luckily www.dealchecker.co.uk put together this handy chart to reference before you get into the art of the deal.
Infographic by: www.dealchecker.co.uk | {
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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — American prosecutors said they believe two suspects in the shooting of the retired Red Sox star David Ortiz are wanted in connection with crimes in the United States, while the father of another suspect said his son belonged to a Dominican gang of drug-dealing hit men.
Ortiz was shot in the back at a bar in the Dominican Republic on Sunday. Dominican officials announced Wednesday that they had detained those suspected of being the gunman and five accomplices. Ortiz is now in a Boston hospital recovering after two operations, one in the Dominican Republic and one in Boston.
Prosecutors in New Jersey said on Thursday that a bench warrant on armed robbery and gun charges had been issued for the man who the authorities in the Dominican Republic say pulled the trigger. Another suspect in the shooting, a Pennsylvania prosecutor said, is believed to be wanted in connection with an attempted homicide in the state.
A grand jury indicted Rolfi Ferreira-Cruz in connection with two armed robberies in Clifton, N.J., in 2017, according to a news release from the Passaic County prosecutor’s office. A 25-year-old from Reading, Pa., Ferreira-Cruz has never been arrested in connection with those charges. | {
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On a recent short break to Portugal I had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful hilltop town of Sintra. It’s an easy day trip from Lisbon, the capital, and was, in days gone by, the summer retreat of the Portuguese royalty.
The old heart of the city is now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s full of pastel-coloured estancias, old churches and grand palaces. The city has captivated writers including Byron, Hans Christian Anderson and, more recently, JK Rowling – who named Salazar Slytherin, founder of Slytherin house in her Harry Potter books, after the former Portuguese dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar.
Sintra is also a popular excursion for cruise ships stopping at Lisbon, and the narrow streets echo with the sounds of sandals on cobblestones and the clicking of cameras. But get there early or late in the day and you’ll miss most of the crowds.
A trip to the Palace of the Pena – a fairytale castle with many turrets, domes, battlements and walls of yellow, pink and blue – was a real highlight.
A short ride on a shuttle bus takes you to the hilltop palace, where you can wander through the royal apartments and take in fabulous views from the battlements of the surrounding park and gardens and the city below.
Like other parts of Portugal, the region is well known for its golf courses. In the forested Sintra Mountains, a short drive from the city, is one of the best in the area. Penha Longa is another historic royal retreat that’s now a spa and golf resort set on the site of a twelfth century Franciscan monastery. It’s a great setting for a round of golf – winding around the old monastery grounds and taking in ocean views from the Atlantic course.
From Sintra it’s just a few kilometres to the windswept and rocky Atlantic coast at Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe. It was from this wild cape that Portuguese explorers set off for the New World. The next landfall from here is somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic, several thousand miles away.
Today, surfers come to tackle the pounding waves on this stretch of the coast, although more sheltered beaches can be reached a few kilometres further around the headland at Cascais and Estoril. Shops, casinos and seaside hotels line the streets behind the small curves of yellow sand. | {
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The number of people in work went up by 9,600 between March and June, according to the Central Statistics Office.
In the year to June, the number of people in employment has risen by 33,800.
Figures from the CSO show a 1.8% increase in the numbers in work, which now stands at 1,869,900.
During the second quarter employment increased by 9,600, seasonally adjusted.
This follows an increase in employment of 9,000 in the first quarter of the year.
There was an increase of 21,600 in the number of people in full-time employment - the first such increase since the first quarter of 2008.
Part-time employment increased by 12,100 or 2.8%
The number of private sector employees was up by 21,400, while the number of public sector employees fell by 5,400.
The number of unemployed has fallen by 22,200 over the same period, leaving 300,700 people unemployed.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 13.7%.
Irish nationals the main driver of emigration
Emigration in the year to April 2013 has stayed broadly unchanged, with a net outward migration of 33,100.
However, the main driver of outward migration is now Irish nationals.
A net 35,200 Irish nationals left the country, compared with 25,900 in the previous year to April 2012.
However, the number of foreign nationals changed from a net outflow of 8,406 to a net inflow of 2,100.
The percentage of Irish nationals in the population has fallen from 88% in 2012 to 87% in 2013.
In the year to April 2013, 89,000 people left the country, while 55,900 moved in, giving a net outflow of 33,100.
There was a natural increase of 40,800 in the population, resulting in a small increase in the total size of the population of 7,700.
This leaves the total population at 4,593,100.
Graphs: Source CSO | {
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There's an old adage in mixed martial arts (MMA) that says "if at first you don't succeed, change weight classes."
That's exactly what Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight Erik Koch is doing after suffering back to back losses. The RoufusSport product has decided to move up to the lightweight division in hopes of getting his MMA career back on track.
The move was rumored following his unanimous decision loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 164. Koch performed well but just didn't seem to be in the same class of fighter as Poirier who was stronger on the feet and on the ground.
Koch's welterweight debut will be against Rafaello Oliveira at UFC 170 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mandalay Bay Events Center according to MMA Fighting. The card is headlined by Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann and also features Rashad Evans vs. Daniel Cormier.
Oliveira is a solid draw for Koch, who was once in line for a featherweight title shot against Jose Aldo before being forced to withdraw due to injury. In his four UFC fights, Oliveira has only been victorious in one of them. He's a good test to see if Koch can find success in a new weight class. | {
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Biroul Permanent al Partidului Romania Unita a decis, sambata, demiterea lui Bogdan Diaconu de la conducerea partidului invocand "nereguli financiare grave" si sustinerea de catre Diaconu a OUG 13/2017. In paralel, gruparea din partid care-l sustine pe Diaconu a convocat un Congres extraordinar al partidului pentru data de 25 martie, transmite News.ro.
"Biroul Permanent National al PRU, intrunit statutar in sedinta convocata in data de 4 februarie 2017, ora 17.00, a decis demiterea din functia de presedinte al PRU a lui Bogdan Diaconu, conform prevederilor art. 30 din Statutul PRU, in principal pentru motivele explicate in motiunea 'PRU incotro?' si pentru pozitia de sprijin a OUG 13/2017 promovate de PSD, dar si pentru nereguli financiare grave, descoperite in ultima saptamana", se arata intr-un comunicat de presa.
Totodata, s-a decis ca prim-vicepresedintele Robert Buga sa indelineasca atributiile de presedinte PRU pana la organizarea Congresului.
Tot sambata, a avut o alta sedinta a conducerii PRU, la care au participat cei care il sustin pe Bogdan Diaconu.
"Sambata, 4 februarie 2017, la sediul din B-dul Nicolae Balcescu, nr 17-19, a avut loc sedinta Biroului Politic National al Partidului Romania Unita, in cadrul careia, presedintele formatiunii, dl Bogdan Diaconu, a convocat, pentru data de 25 martie 2017, Congresul Extraordinar al PRU", a a anuntat Diaconu.
In schimb, cei care au decis demiterea lui Diaconu sustin ca sedinta pe care acesta a convocat-o este nestatutara intrucat au participat doar 9 dintre cei 22 de membri ai conducerii. "Totodata, hotararile luate cu aceasta ocazie de grupul din jurul lui Bogdan Diaconu sunt nule de drept, fiind adoptate cu votul unei persoane condamnate penal definitiv, care nu are dreptul sa fie nici macar simplu membru al partidului", se arata in comunicatul PRU. | {
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By Miguel Rivera
We all know that the main inspiration of Roman 'Chocolatito' Gonzalez (46-0, 38KOs) was to reach the pinnacle of boxing like his idol Alexis Arguello, but he also wants to be paid very well for his performances.
Gonzalez, regarded by many as the best pound for pound fighter in the world, believes he's not being paid what he deserves - and because of that he says it's going be hard to make fights in 2017 with Carlos Cuadras, Naoya Inoue and Juan Francisco Estrada.
While visiting Mexico City to receive the super flyweight championship of the World Boxing Council, the first four division champion in the history of Nicaraguan boxing explained his issues for the coming year.
"For (2017) they are talking about the rematch with Estrada with Inoue too, but there is a lack [of money] in the negotiations, and we are not going to fight for a small purse - we will only fight for a big purse, and I think we deserve it," said Gonzalez to ESPN Deportes.
Roman's manager, Carlos Blandon, said fights with Cuadras, Inoue and Estrada are being eyed for 2017.
"I'll take any of the three fights, but the problem is they do not want to pay us what we deserve. I have no problem fighting with them, the biggest problem is the money and that's what we'll need to work out," said Chocolatito.
Estrada, who Gonzalez won a tough decision over in 2012, has accused the Nicaraguan fighter of running from the rematch. Their fight took place at junior flyweight, and Estrada just moved up to super flyweight last Saturday night in Mexico.
"Everyone has the right to say whatever they want. I respect their opinion. If that's what they think, what are we going to do. That's going to be a tremendous fight. I saw his fight Saturday (against Raymond Tabugon). If we face each other again it's going to be a good fight and we will win," Chocolatito said. | {
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China has vowed to protect its interests and blasted the latest round of tariffs threatened by the US government, describing them as “totally unacceptable”.
On Tuesday, the US trade representative’s office unveiled a $200bn (£151bn) list of Chinese goods earmarked for a 10 per cent levy, including, fish, carrots and nuts.
“It is totally unacceptable for American side to publish a tariff list in a way that is accelerating and escalating,” China’s commerce ministry said.
“To protect the core interests of the nation and its people, the Chinese government will be forced to impose necessary countermeasures.”
Washington said the new list was a response to Beijing’s retaliation over the imposition of US tariffs last week.
On Friday, a 25 per cent charge on a variety of goods worth a total of $34bn, including electronics and medical equipment, took effect.
China responded by imposing similar levies on US imports such as soybeans and orange juice.
Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, said China had acted “without any international legal basis or justification” when it enacted the retaliatory tariffs, and said the US had made an “appropriate response… to obtain the elimination of China’s harmful industrial policies”.
“For over a year, the Trump administration has patiently urged China to stop its unfair practices, open its market, and engage in true market competition. We have been very clear and detailed regarding the specific changes China should undertake,” Mr Lighthizer said.
“Unfortunately, China has not changed its behaviour – behaviour that puts the future of the US economy at risk. Rather than address our legitimate concerns, China has begun to retaliate against US products. There is no justification for such action.
“As in the past, the United States is willing to engage in efforts that could lead to a resolution of our concerns about China’s unfair trade practices and to China opening its market to US goods and services. In the meantime, we will remain vigilant in defending the ability of our workers and businesses to compete on a fair and reciprocal basis.”
The escalation of trade war fears pulled markets down around the world on Wednesday, with the FTSE 100 falling more than 1 per cent, and US markets are also expected to open lower.
Lukman Otunuga, a research analyst at FXTM, said: “With Beijing describing the latest tariff threats as ‘totally unacceptable’ and vowing to fight back, concerns are likely to heighten over a full-scale trade war becoming a reality. | {
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Article content
By Rick Smith
Though the federal election is sucking up a lot of oxygen these days, the developing discussion regarding the modernization of Alberta’s electricity generation is also gaining steam.
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Smith: Alberta can't afford not to phase out coal Back to video
As it should.
Make no mistake — the accelerated phase-out of coal-fired power plants is a historic important opportunity not to be missed.
Yes, such a move would signal to the world an Alberta ready to join the global movement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change. But it would also signal to Albertans that their government takes seriously the province’s poor air quality and the related byproducts of negative health impacts and economic costs.
When the Alberta climate advisory panel meets Tuesday in Calgary to consult with the public and technical stakeholders on “economywide approaches for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” the issue of an accelerated coal-phase out will continue to be a focal point. | {
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[UPDATE] Microsoft has clarified that Ayoub was 343's Studio Head for strategy games. Bonnie Ross is 343's overall leader.
The original story is below.
A big staffing change has taken place at Halo series steward 343 Industries. Studio head Dan Ayoub, who worked on entries in the series dating back to 2009's Halo: Reach, has left the team.
He's leaving gaming altogether, but is staying within Microsoft to work on the Mixed Reality team. There, he will work in an effort for the "empowerment of education through technology."
"Although Dan will be staying in the Microsoft family, and won't be heading too far, our 343 family will miss his wit, wisdom and effort throughout the years," reads a line from 343's statement announcing his departure. "But Halo Wars 2 and its forthcoming DLC are in the safe hands of Dan's team, with some wonderful DLC and other surprises still to come."
The statement continues: "Over the years, Dan has helped us work with amazing studios and partners from literally every corner of the globe. They, like us are going to miss him, and Dan wanted us to express his thanks to both those partners, and to all the Halo fans and community who've been the fuel and fire that have ignited his passion and ambition, throughout the years."
Prior to joining Microsoft, Ayoub worked as a senior producer at Electronic Arts for four years, then was a game director Propaganda Games for two, according to his public LinkedIn profile page. He then spent a year at Ubisoft as an executive producer.
343's latest game is Halo Wars 2, which came out in February for Xbox One and PC. As the statement mentions, 343 continues to support the RTS with more post-launch content and updates. | {
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Inside the Kriterion cinema in central Amsterdam on a sodden summer evening, a birthday party is getting under way. The music is thudding out, skinny-jeaned students are edging their way on to the dancefloor, and the bar staff are run off their fashionably attired feet. Only one thing is peculiar about this event. The entity whose birthday is being celebrated tonight isn't a person. It's a typeface.
People have been pouring into the building all evening to attend the Dutch premiere of a biopic with a difference, a documentary about the life of a font, Helvetica, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. You may not know the name, but you'll almost certainly know the face: Helvetica, the typographic identity of Orange and Muji, of British Gas and US Mail, of United Van Lines as well as the United Nations, is probably the most popular font in existence. Even so, isn't a special birthday bash in its honour a little, well, extreme?
The film's creator and director Gary Hustwit, a small-set, close-cropped 42-year-old, smiles at my incredulity. "Oh, that was nothing," he grins when we meet for lunch the next day. "In Zurich, which was the European premiere, they brought out a huge cake and 800 people sang happy birthday." Really? "Oh, yeah," he says, chewing thoughtfully on his burger. "And when we showed the film in Philadelphia there was a giant H made out of Swiss cheese."
If Hustwit looks chuffed, it's easy to understand why. His first attempt at a full-length documentary, shot on a credit-card budget and made up of interviews with designers and typographers, has somehow become a global phenomenon. Since March, when the film premiered in Austin, Texas, it has been shown in cities from Auckland to Vancouver, Cologne to Santa Fe, and new dates are being added almost daily. Released in time for Helvetica's 50th anniversary, it's been screened at Zurich's Helvetica50 celebrations and also at a commemorative exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The film will hit Britain at Oxford's Britdoc festival later this month, with a three-week run at London's ICA slated for early September.
On the face of it, such demand seems hard to explain. Typography, the art of crafting letters, numerals and symbols and arranging them in communicable patterns, is among the more recondite and poorly understood aspects of design. Most of us comprehend what it is architects and engineers do each day, just as we're used to grappling with the applied design that rules our daily lives, whether it's the shape of a kettle or the operation of a photocopier. But about typographic design, whether good or bad, we're clueless. Design a building and it's headline news. Design some text and barely anyone notices.
For all that, typography is ubiquitous. We require text, text requires form, form requires design. Since the invention of the printing press, the stuff has been everywhere. The idea for the film came, Hustwit says, when he was wandering the streets of New York, observing the way urban and typographic design collide and collude. "I was walking around, looking at the type and the way people interacted with it, and I just saw the whole film in my head. I wanted to do a documentary about graphic design, and I thought - well, Helvetica is the most ubiquitous typeface in our lives, why not that?"
In one of the film's most brilliant sequences, one of Hustwit's interviewees, the writer Lars Müller, takes a similar stroll around London, a city that, it turns out, is nearly as full of Helvetica as New York. Pointing gleefully at traffic signs, shopfronts and notices that "Posters Will Be Prosecuted," Müller pays tribute to what elsewhere he has called "the shift worker and solo entertainer of typefaces", the font that moonlights on the glossiest of corporate identities as well as the scummiest of homemade signs.
If you can't think what Helvetica looks like, glance around you: chances are it's somewhere in your field of vision, whether whistling past on the television news or staring out at you from the local dry cleaners. (Though no longer does it star on the pages of this newspaper - after 17 years' service, the font was retired in 2005, when the Berliner format was launched, and replaced by Guardian Egyptian.) Nor is Helvetica confined to the western alphabet: a Cyrillic version now exists, as do variants in Greek and Chinese. It is, I am slowly beginning to comprehend, the world's font.
For all that, and as the film reveals, Helvetica is indelibly associated with the country whose Latin name it pays tribute to: Switzerland, where a new movement in graphic design first took root in the 1950s. Energised by advances in typesetting technology, Swiss designers were hungry for typefaces embodying the principles of modernism - clean, crisp, neutral - and type foundries reciprocated with a wave of fresh designs. One of the first was Univers, an austere but elegant sans-serif face drawn up by Adrian Frutiger that appeared in 1956. It became an instant classic, its 14 different weights, ultrathin to über-bold, painstakingly numbered to offer technicians greater flexibility.
Univers was followed just a year later by a rival typeface designed by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman of the Haas foundry in Münchenstein - the working drawings for which, annotated with Hoffman's pencil adjustments, appear in the film. Their new font was initially christened Neue Haas Grotesk but rapidly renamed Helvetica - a last-minute publicity decision that had far-reaching ramifications. Marketed as a symbol of cutting-edge Swiss technology, Helvetica went global almost at once.
One man at the heart of this revolution was Massimo Vignelli, the Italian-American designer who used Helvetica for an iconic American Airlines logo in 1966, distilling the company's forward-looking philosophy so brilliantly that it has remained unchanged ever since. Hustwit managed to interview Vignelli, and like the other typographers and technicians he spoke to, found him passionate about the social significance of his craft. "The life of a designer is a life of fight, fight against ugliness," Vignelli exclaims at one point in the film, "just like a doctor fights against disease." Small wonder that when he came to develop a new identity for the signage of New York's ailing subway system in the early 1970s, Vignelli reached yet again for Helvetica - this time stark white text on an unyielding black background, iconography as bold and brash as the city itself.
Part of the point of making a documentary about all this, Hustwit explains, is to put faces to the names of great designers such as Vignelli whose work surrounds us every day but whose identities remain more or less unknown. "When I started this project," he says, "I couldn't believe that a film like this didn't exist already, because these people are gods and goddesses. What they do is more than just logos and corporate branding - they design the type that we read every day in newspapers and magazines, onscreen and on television. Fonts don't just appear out of Microsoft Word: there are human beings and huge stories behind them."
Microsoft Word and the revolution in desktop publishing are, of course, part of the reason that audiences who wouldn't otherwise know their glyphs from their descenders are flocking to see a documentary devoted to the history of typography. Graphic design is no longer the province of specialists, but available to anyone with a word processor. "All these things that were the realm of professional designers 10 years ago are now being done by eight-year-olds," says Hustwit. "The more people are exposed to graphic design, the more they appreciate it."
· Helvetica is showing at BritDoc, Keble College, Oxford, July 25-27 (details: britdoc.org); and at the ICA, London, from September 7 (details: ica.org.uk/020-7930 3647). 50 Years of Helvetica is at MoMA, New York until March 31 2008. | {
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Late last night, the internet started buzzing with the news that the NSA was collecting phone records of millions of Americans. Regardless of what you may think you know, this is not new news. Listen to the interview with William Binney, whistleblower and former NSA crypto-mathematician who served in the agency for decades, conducted by Russia Today. The interview took place back in December of 2012.
WE WERE WARNED! | {
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Days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bitterly ripped up President Trump’s SOTU speech, DeAnna Lorraine, the leading GOP candidate running against the bitter impeachment queen, contracted a plane to fly around San Francisco with a banner in tow that read “Pelosi For Prison”
Lorraine posted a photo of the airplane flying around the city on her Twitter account early Thursday morning and told this Gateway Pundit reporter that the plane will circle San Fran for several hours.
“I am running for Congress to clean out the corruption that is Nancy Pelosi. Instead of caring for the people of San Francisco and advancing their issues on a national scale, she spends her time conducting asinine impeachments, petulant theatrical tantrums and ripping apart the President’s State of the Union Speech,” said Lorraine.
The banner, which measures a whopping 25×80 feet, promotes pelosiforprison.co, a splash page petition site where the upstart candidate encourages people to put Pelosi in prison for her crimes against America. DeAnna bills the House Speaker as a “known violator” of our Constitution and accuses the pickled partisan of using her political power for personal financial gain.
TRENDING: ANGRY LEFTIST Smacks 84-Year-Old Female Trump Supporter Across the Face at Trump Rally in Aliso Viejo -- Beats Another Senior (VIDEO) | {
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Um vídeo mostra o exato momento em que o policial militar Manoel Landulfo Sampaio Salvador, 36 anos, dispara contra pessoas que estavam reunidas na Barra em comemoção à vitória de Jair Bolsonaro (PSL), eleito Presidente da República no domingo (28). Na imagem, é possível ver com clareza pelo menos dois dos quatro disparos dados pelo policial, que provocaram correria no local.
No total, quatro pessoas foram feridas pelo policial. Ele foi preso no mesmo dia e teve o flagrante convertido para prisão preventiva na tarde de segunda-feira (29).
A filmagem, que tem duração de 29 segundos, foi feita de cima do trio elétrico que comandava festa no local - o veículo estava parado em frente ao Farol da Barra. Manoel aparece com uma camisa branca e uma bolsa transpassada no peito, entre o lado direito do trio e o farol.
As imagens mostram uma discussão entre o PM e um rapaz que está vestido com uma camisa amarela - semelhante à da Seleção Brasileira.
Segundo uma testemunha ouvida pelo CORREIO nesta terça-feira (30), o motivo foi o fato do PM ter agredido fisicamente um ambulante, que aparece nas imagens próximo ao trio com uma camisa escura pendurada no ombro. Em seguida, o soldado dá um tapa no rosto do rapaz de roupa amarela, saca a arma e atira pelo menos duas vezes.
Em versão apresentada à Associação de Policiais e Bombeiros e de seus Familiares (Aspra-BA), o PM disse que atirou porque tentaram tomar sua arma, o que não é possível ver no vídeo.
Depois dos primeiros disparos é possível ver o momento da correria e Manoel parado, olhando em direção ao Farol da Barra. O policial foi preso no mesmo dia.
Relatos de testemunhas
Pouco antes de balear as vítimas, Manoel exibia a arma para a multidão. “O PM já tinha sacado a arma para se exibir. A arma estava na cintura. Mas ele guardou quando viu um ambulante negro caminhando na direção dele, dançando sem isopor. Foi quando ele deu o primeiro tapa”, contou a testemunha, um homem que estava a cinco metros do policial. Ele, a mulher e irmãos presenciaram toda a situação.
“O policial tentou agredir novamente com um soco o ambulante, que perguntou o porquê da agressão gratuita, mas o policial escorregou e caiu. Deu para ver nitidamente que estava sob efeito de alguma droga. O lance dele estava bem nítido. Os olhos estavam esbugalhados e rangia os dentes”, contou a testemunha.
Diante da covardia, as pessoas que estavam no entorno começaram a reclamar da agressividade do policial. “‘O que é isso rapaz?’ ‘Pra que isso?’. É esse o momento em que o vídeo mostra. Então, fui chamar uma viatura que estava atrás do trio. Quando retornei com os policiais, ele já havia efetuados os tiros. Vi um casal ferido”, relatou a fonte.
Manoel foi abordado pelos policiais militares acionados pela testemunha. “Ele (Manoel) se identificou: ‘Sou Papa-Mike (gíria usada por polícias e significa policial militar), sou da casa, sou da casa’. Os policiais não o algemaram e conversavam com ele como se fossem amigos. Foi aí que eu o imobilizei com uma gravata e disse que só o soltaria quando os policiais o colocassem na viatura”, contou a testemunha.
O soldado foi levado pela polícia e, "somente dentro da viatura, a arma dele foi tomada", completou a fonte.
Ambulante
Na segunda-feira (29), o CORREIO também conversou com uma ambulante que foi vítima de um dos tiros do policial. Com medo, ela preferiu não se identificar, mas relatou que "o policial agiu como uma pessoa maluca e desequilibrada". A vítima afirmou ainda que, após atingir as pessoas, ele continuou atirando.
Ela, que foi socorrida para o Hospital Geral do Estado (HGE), teve alta no mesmo dia. Uma segunda vítima baleada, que deu entrada no mesmo local, é Daniel Duarte Weber, 25. Não há informações sobre o estado de saúde dele.
Apesar das acusações, Manoel alega que os quatro tiros que deu foram de forma acidental e já foi ouvido em audiência de custódia na Central de Flagrantes, na Avenida ACM, e transferido para o Complexo Penitenciário da Mata Escura, onde deve aguardar o julgamento. O militar vai responder por tentativa de homicídio qualificado, além de lesões corporais.
As outras duas pessoas, levadas para o Hospital Português, não foram identificadas. O CORREIO procurou a unidade particular, que justificou que não poderia fornecer informações sem os nomes dos feridos. | {
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I like this much more then what we got in the anime. You managed to make something that while still scary, you can still tell that it was once human. Also love the sword. | {
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This is something from my scripture study that I posted on Facebook this morning, and thought might be worth preserving here.
Do you know the “slave Bible”? Published in 1808, it is an expurgated text, leaving only those parts of the Bible that were “safe” to preach to enslaved people. It preserves all of the “submit to authority” verses, deletes any mention of Israel escaping Egyptian slavery, and so on.
I noticed a few days ago that the visit of Nicodemus to Jesus (John 3) is missing, and I’ve been puzzling over why. Then today I found this, by Mary MacLeod Bethune:
“My teacher had a box of Bibles and texts, and she gave me one of each for my very own. That same day the teacher opened the Bible to John 3:16, and read: ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’
“With these words the scales fell from my eyes and the light came flooding in. My sense of inferiority, my fear of handicaps, dropped away. ‘Whosoever,’ it said. No Jew nor Gentile, no Catholic nor Protestant, no black nor white; just ‘whosoever.’ It meant that I, a humble Negro girl, had just as much chance as anybody in the sight and love of God. These words stored up a battery of faith and confidence and determination in my heart, which has not failed me to this day.”
The enslavers had a better grasp of the power of the Bible than I do. | {
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That's an adorable idea. And genuine cute. Somtimes the adults have really problems in some situations. Fillies however do not even know them and step straight forward. Still quite obvious, the little one has some plans for her brother. And even it's a classy move, it looks like it's working. Let's hope he has a flair for big mares. Best part of it: this COULD work.
It's a great idea of using the bolts of honor as Earclips. Would be a bit strange hammering them into the skull like a usual Space marine.
One detail at last: Where hare his ears in the second picture? | {
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Photo: Rick Bowmer, STF / Associated Press Photo: David Zalubowski, STF / Associated Press
Spurs guard and animal lover Lonnie Walker IV couldn’t wait to shoot a video for the animal rights group PETA, especially after he learned he would share the screen with his beloved mastiff Zola.
“That dog is my best friend,” he said. “We share almost every experience together.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals approached Walker to do a spot educating people about the dangers of leaving a dog in a locked car after reading an interview he gave last year with Sports Illustrated before the NBA draft.
In the piece, the former University of Miami star talked about his love of dolphins and his disdain for marine-mammal sea parks, which he likened to prisons.
The story also included information about his dogs, which sparked PETA into action.
“Once we learned he had a dog, we knew he could help save a lot of lives by speaking out about the dangers of leaving them in hot cars, especially since his fan bases in Miami and San Antonio live in some of the hottest parts of the country,” said Moira Colley, PETA’s press outreach manager.
On ExpressNews.com: In a New York state of mind, Morris has Spurs in flux
The video shows Walker locked in an SUV with a window cracked about an inch while a friend and Zola leave him to run an errand at what appears to be a dog friendly establishment. Inside, Zola eyes a cake and plays with a small basketball.
Walker, meanwhile, sits inside the steamy car, where sweat soaks his gray T-shirt. Growing increasingly uncomfortable and fearful, he attempts to release himself from the deathtrap while crying for help.
After 20 minutes, the temperature inside the vehicle soars to 109 degrees and Walker eventually passes out. PETA explains during the video that dogs are at greater risk for suffering heatstroke than humans because they can’t sweat; they only can cool themselves only by panting.
Toward the end of the video, Walker faces the camera outside the car and says: “Every year dogs suffer and die when they are left in parked cars on warm days. Heat strokes can occur quickly, even with the windows partially rolled down. On a 78-degree day, temperatures in a parked car can rapidly increase to 100 degrees. If you see a dog alone in a hot car, take down the car’s information and contact the dog’s guardian or just call the authorities. You can save a life.”
The video was shot in May in San Antonio at the K-9 Café, a spa and boutique for dogs.
“We wanted to come up with something unique for him,” Colley said of Walker. “He is very charismatic, so we tried to highlight his fun personality. We didn’t want a boring talking head video.”
Describing himself as a “huge animal person,” Walker said he had a “wonderful time” shooting the spot despite the sweltering conditions inside the car.
On ExpressNews.com: Growth and growing pains from Samanic at Summer League
“I’ve seen more than enough videos of animals, especially dogs, being locked up inside cars,” he said. “It’s good to see a different perspective. You can see how hot it can really get.”
Unlike several states, including Florida, Texas has no specific laws to protect dogs in hot cars. But Texas Monthly reported in 2017 that a 20-year-old man in Manor was charged with cruelty to nonlivestock animals — a Class A misdemeanor with potential penalties of up to a $4,000 in fines and a year in jail — after police discovered an 8-week-old puppy locked in his car in a Walmart parking lot.
“There are 30 states that have laws either criminalizing the practice, explicitly stating that law enforcement can enter (vehicles) in these situations or provides Good Samaritan exemptions from any kind of prosecution, and Texas is not one of those 30 states,” said Laura Donahue Halloran, executive director of the Texas Humane Legislation Network.
Halloran said bills addressing the issue have failed in the past two sessions of the Texas Legislature.
“I can say without hesitation the entire animal welfare community is incredibly concerned, because obviously we are one of those states that almost year-round has some sort of inclement weather,” Halloran said. “A Good Samaritan law, I think, would be really essential in a state like ours that has such extreme weather.”
Walker joins a long list of athletes who have teamed with PETA to do videos, including Tyrann Mathieu, Chris Harris Jr., Alex Morgan, Christen Press, Metta World Peace, Ty Lawson and Candace Parker.
“We were so pleased,” Colley said of Walker’s performance. “Some athletes can get nervous on camera, and that was so not at all the case here.”
Besides running Walker’s video on the internet, Colley said PETA is working to have it aired on television stations in San Antonio, Miami and Reading, Pa., Walker’s hometown.
“We will be pushing it really heavily on social media,” she said. “He also shot a radio (public service announcement) that will be airing in the market very soon.”
Like Walker, Zola got high marks from PETA for her acting.
“His dog was just lovely to work with, so friendly with all our staff,” Colley said.
Walker agreed, saying Zola is the true thespian in the family.
“She a lot cooler than me, I must say,” he said. “I ask for her autograph almost every day now. It was dope to see her around the cameras to see how she acts. She did a wonderful job.”
[email protected] | {
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Mike Krahulik had tooled around with making a card game for years before he really knew what to call it. "At the time, I was fed up with running Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons," he said. "It had cards, but it wasn't really a card game. I came from Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering." He wanted to build a roleplaying game that was easier to play, quicker, and less preparation intensive for gamemasters and players. The game that finally emerged is being called a "card game adventure", and its name is Thornwatch. It's based on Penny Arcade's popular Eyrewood comics. After years of work, he's begun widely playtesting the game in preparation for a launch in 2015. I caught up with Krahulik at PAX East, where I was able to talk with him about the game and sit down for a few hours of a playtest session.
"Originally the game was just called Card Warriors," said Krahulik, whose alter ego Gabe is the foil for Penny Arcade's Tycho. It was a game where players had characters, each represented by a deck, and fought a Game Master's premade adventure of enemies and monsters. The game didn't have a fictional home for a long time; it was honestly sort of soulless sounding. So it was thematically stagnant until the advent of the idea for the Thornwatch characters. "Once we put it in the Eyrewood and I came up with the idea of the Thornwatch it just started to roll." The Eyrewood, said Krahulik, was perfect for what he and creative partner Jerry Holkins wanted to create. "It's a magical forest, which could be cool, but it's not: It's terrifying. The thing we like about it is that you have the Lookouts, which are little kids in this horrible place doing horrible things. They're being turned to stone by basilisks. But they're still kids... On the other side you have the Thornwatch, which is a much darker take on the whole thing."
Revealed during the playtest session was the idea that the Thornwatch, who have already had several comics written about them, are dead. "They are spirits of the forest, so if you are familiar with them before the playtest we talked about how when someone needs their help there's this ritual that must be done to summon them. That's how they're able to travel through trees magically and shift energy between each other, they're spirits." Going on, Krahulik laid out the dark place that the Thornwatch occupy in the world of the Eyrewood. "We did a comic a while ago that's about the Thornwatch from the lookouts' perspective where the lookouts are being taught never to call the Thornwatch. They actually have a little poem about how horrible it is, and the reason it's looked down upon is because you're summoning ghosts. It's a ritual done with blood." But the Thornwatch, it turns out, are protectors.
When starting the game, then, every mission begins with a magical knot. "A knot gives you clues about what the mission is," said Krahulik, "Jerry has this whole list of knots, and the knots mean something. Like, Wagon-Wise tells you that something is missing." That story plays directly into the design of the game. "The game is focused on: Here's the knot, you guys arrive, let's have fun."
The game will include both a preplanned campaign in the world of the Eyrewood and a stock of quick knots and creatures to draw from for more impromptu adventures. "We want those to take about two hours," said Krahulik, "and we want the campaign games to take about four hours each." The game will include a set of maps for that premade adventure, ready to be re-used for custom ones. Krahulik said he had "about twenty-five" maps drawn up, but wasn't sure how many would be in the final product.
They're being cagey still about what the exact story of that campaign will be, and Krahulik gave only this detail: "I'd say the initial story will give players a new viewpoint into the Eyrewood. You've seen it from the Lookouts perspective but the Thornwatch is very different. There's even a few secrets about the Eyrewood that we're excited to share. In terms of [individual] stories we plan on connecting all these groups. You will meet Lookouts and Daughters for sure." | {
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Fifty years ago this month, evolutionary biologist William Donald Hamilton published a solution to one of biology’s most enduring mysteries: why does altruism exist?
Altruistic behaviours are those where an individual helps others at a personal cost. Altruism is all around us, yet biologists since Charles Darwin had stewed over how such behaviours could ever evolve in the dog-eat-dog world of natural selection.
Hamilton came up with an answer to this quandary, elegantly summarised in the mathematical formula now known as Hamilton’s rule.
So now seems a good time to ask: what did we actually learn from Hamilton, and are his ideas on altruism still relevant half a century on?
The trouble with social insects
The most extreme examples of altruism in nature come from social insects such as bees and ants, in which workers toil endlessly for their colony but don’t reproduce themselves.
Their existence had long puzzled biologists. Darwin considered social insects a potentially “insuperable difficulty” for his theory of natural selection. After all, how can selection work in individuals that are sterile?
Until Hamilton, explanations for the evolution of altruism and cooperation reverted to arguments that it benefited the species. It’s a line still used in third-rate nature documentaries today, and it makes evolutionary biologists cringe. Every single time.
Cooperation may well benefit the species, or even a group, but English biologist Ronald Fisher showed in the 1930s that natural selection doesn’t work like that. When what’s good for the group contradicts what’s best for the individual, the interests of the individual almost always win out.
Nevertheless in the 1960s ideas about group selection were again surfacing, retreading all the old mistakes.
Then in July 1964 Hamilton lopped the wind from their sails with two groundbreaking Journal of Theoretical Biology articles. He described how genes imposing a fitness cost on some individuals (for example sterility in the workers of social insects) can spread, provided they enhance the fitness of relatives that share the same gene.
Hamilton coined the term “inclusive fitness”, which he defined in his own notoriously opaque way:
The social behaviour of a species evolves in such a way that in each distinct behaviour-evoking situation the individual will seem to value his neighbour’s fitness against his own according to the coefficients of relationship appropriate to that situation.
In other words, a worker ant may not have any sons or daughters, but can still produce thousands of brothers and sisters. And in Darwinian terms, that’s just as good as – or even better than – personal reproduction.
Kin selection
Hamilton’s ideas and their subsequent embellishments are now often referred to as “kin selection”, a term coined not by Hamilton but by British evolutionary biologist John Maynard Smith in 1964.
Maynard Smith credited British biologist JBS Haldane as the first to have come up with the notion of kin selection. According to rumour, Haldane declared, in a pub, “I would lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins”, referring to the fact that our siblings on average share 50% of our genes and cousins 12.5%.
Hamilton contested the Haldane quip. In fact, one of the motivations for Hamilton’s work on inclusive fitness was that Haldane’s work had failed to derive altruism from group selection.
The relationship between Hamilton and Maynard Smith – two of the most influential evolutionary biologists of the 20th century – sadly remained strained until Hamilton’s untimely death in March 2000.
So what exactly is Hamilton’s rule?
Hamilton’s rule specifies the conditions under which a gene causing altruism might enjoy an inclusive fitness advantage. This occurs when the benefits, b, to a related individual exceed the costs, c, to the altruist, discounted by the relatedness, r, between the two:
b > c/r
Evolutionary biologists consider this equation every bit as important as Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence equation (E=mc2).
Hamilton used the evolution of alarm calls in birds as an example. A bird that calls in response to danger risks attracting attention and thus losing its life, as opposed to a bird that remains quiet.
But, according to Hamilton’s rule, such self-sacrificing behaviour can evolve if the benefits to relatives who hear the squawk and gain advance warning (summed by the number of relatives and how closely related they are to the squawker) outweigh the risks to the squawker.
In the past 50 years Hamilton’s rule has been used to explain a plethora of otherwise strange animal and human behaviours:
why do we care for our children?
why do lions form coalitions with their brothers?
why do young birds hang around the nest rearing brothers and sisters rather than breeding themselves?
But does kin selection still hold up?
In 2010, a Nature paper by Martin Nowak, Corina Tarnita and Edward O. Wilson – the latter a once-staunch supporter of kin selection and a mentor to Hamilton – rejected kin selection outright.
Nowak and his co-authors claimed kin selection was simply an unnecessary reformulation of natural selection. They argued that altruistic genes can increase in frequency even when givers and receivers of altruism are unrelated, simply because individuals carrying altruism genes preferentially interact with each other.
They failed to note, however, that their “alternative” mechanism for the evolution of altruism had already been identified by Hamilton and immortalised by Richard Dawkins as the “greenbeard effect”.
Imagine a gene that causes its carrier to grow a green beard. Such a gene will spread if those that carry it preferentially show altruism to other individuals with a green beard.
Nowak, Tarnita and Wilson’s attack on Hamilton has been almost universally dismissed by evolutionary biologists. In 2011 more than 100 eminent scientists signed a letter pointing out the conceptual errors in the paper and documenting the extraordinary predictive power of the kin selection paradigm.
A nicer world
Kin selection provides one of the two strong forces that bind all cooperative enterprise. The other is reciprocity. Think of the first as “blood is thicker than water” and the second as “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”.
We rely so much on reciprocity in contemporary society, with reciprocation made liquid by money and other currencies. But kin selection still gives social life much of its shape.
Genetic relatedness infiltrates human affairs to their very root. From childcare to nepotistic corruption, when all else is equal we favour our relatives over those more distantly related.
It also explains food-sharing practices in traditional societies, the way inheritances are passed down in wills and which grandparent children feel closest to.
The most compelling illustration of kin selection in humans is the work of Canadian evolutionary psychologists Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, summarised in their book The Truth About Cinderella: A Darwinian View of Parental Love.
Just as fairytales warned children about the dangers of the stepmother, so modern data on childhood neglect and violence suggest that a parent’s new partner presents a high risk to the child. These are difficult facts to acknowledge because the vast majority of stepparents provide wonderfully supportive homes to children.
But the key here is what relatedness does to parents. Genetic relatedness more often persuades parents to persist with the hard work of child-rearing, prevents them from abandoning their kids and stays their hand from violent overreactions.
The roots for all these ideas were pioneered 50 years ago by Hamilton, whose work continues to illuminate the origins of our own behaviours. | {
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