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ORLANDO — Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that the company is moving toward one Windows across multiple screens and devices and that a touch-first Office will ultimately get to the iPad when it gets to Windows.
Ballmer, speaking at the Gartner Symposium ITXpo, most likely made one of his final appearances before its core enterprise customers. The CIOs in attendance were all Microsoft customers in some form.
In many respects, Ballmer defended and outlined Microsoft's current approach. He didn't cover a lot of new ground, but was typically animated and had his share of quips. The big takeaway is that Microsoft is aiming to be an integrator on multiple fronts.
"We grew up as a company by dividing things into smaller manageable problems. The number one thing we're hearing from customers is that we want you to put it together," said Ballmer, who said Microsoft has to be an integrator.
For Ballmer, putting it all together means hardware, but the heavy lifting will be on interfaces, developer tools and creating a common Windows platform for a heterogeneous world.
See also: Microsoft talks up single app store at company meeting | Microsoft developer directions: One Windows core doesn't mean one store | Microsoft: 'Metro-Style' Office not due until 2014 | Microsoft working to unify further its Windows and Windows Phone platforms
Ballmer said it's realistic to have one Windows platform across multiple screens. "Sometime in the next short cycle we'll see great progress on that. What it really means common user interface, common programming interface, common security architecture and user interface adaptability and common developer model and key services," said Ballmer.
He noted that a common experience will be coming sooner rather than later, but "I'm not going to give you a schedule."
"We need to build a common operating system as well as a common back end based on what the device knows about you," said Ballmer.
As for other platforms, Ballmer said Microsoft has made Office and terminal services to the iPad. Lync and OneNote are native. Outlook may make sense, but hard to believe Apple will let us make that available, he said. Word and Office are optimized for keyboard and mice. "iPad will be picked up when there's a touch first user interface. That's in progress for Office," said Ballmer.
Here's Ballmer on other key topics:
What's the new dream for Microsoft? "We're talking about a new world and enabling people to achieve what's more valuable in life," said Ballmer. Devices and services are just the "how" behind those personal and professional lives.
Have we completely redone the way people conduct themselves through digital techniques? Ballmer pointed out that the Gartner analysts had notebooks and pens. Paper is failsafe and prove that Microsoft can still add value. "Think about the way we conduct everyday tasks," said Ballmer. "We see a range of activities driven by software activities...that make us stronger."
Partnership strategies. Ballmer said that partnerships with OEMs have changed over the last year. "We've spent a lot of time talking with our key partners about the need to push forward," said Ballmer. "We're pushing through with hardware innovation and we're also licensing. We see a world that's heterogeneous with Windows and things that are easier if we push forward with integration."
Pen systems. "I believe in the power of the pen," said Ballmer. "I think a lot of systems will have a stylus built in. We're going to go all in." Microsoft's approach will be to make the big all-in bets and then give it to the ecosystem.
Design. There's software and hardware design, said Ballmer. User interface is critical and there are a number of people focused on it. On the hardware side, Nokia will bring expertise to the table. Windows does form the center of design and interaction principles. Microsoft also has a design guide that all applications follow, said Ballmer.
Spread too thin? "Our most ambitions competitors are trying to compete in all the same areas that we are," said Ballmer. "We have more success in more areas than anyone else does."
Enterprise customers are asking three questions: How do I manage infrastructure? What will we use for business process? What will be use to empower our workers? "We have a broad footprint," said Ballmer.
Multiple devices. If you're going to be on one screen you need to be on all of them (from a software perspective)," said Ballmer. He dismissed talk that about buying a PC vendor. Ballmer did say that Microsoft is working on an 82-inch screen Windows 8 device. "It looks great on a wall, but isn't very portable," he quipped.
There's no disconnect between designing for consumer and enterprise. "People are people," said Ballmer. "They are people in their work and personal personas. Consumers want to have an integrated life." The biggest consumer businesses are Google, Apple and Microsoft, noted Ballmer. There are connections everywhere. For example, Microsoft needs to make Lync and Skype more interoperable to bridge both communication tools.
Licensing. "What we've learned about licensing is the best thing we can do to make it simpler is not changing it," said Ballmer. About 10 years ago, Ballmer said Microsoft changed licensing and "we made every customer mad." Licensing changes cause more upheaval than wanting to simplify. "What we're doing is looking forward as we add SaaS and cloud options that we're not making things more complicated," said Ballmer.
Developers solve tech problems. Ballmer said every problem in technology is fixed by developers. Developers, however, will operate differently. Deployments will happen more quickly. "The cycle from development, test to deployment will happen much faster," said Ballmer.
Who is the top competitor? Google, Apple or Amazon. "All of the above," said Ballmer. The day you say it's all about one guy the other one emerges, said Ballmer. Apple and Samsung have grown revenue and earnings more than anyone else, he noted. Ballmer said five years ago he wouldn't have projected that outcome.
Future trends. Ballmer was upbeat on the potential for learning machines and 3D printing. "We need to focus on enabling 3D printing," said Ballmer.
What makes a great CIO? "It takes two things. One I do believe CIOs need to understand technology and feel comfortable. On the flip side, all CIOs need to understand the culture, go-to-market processes and the business processes. A lot of CIOs feel divorced from the business of the business," he said.
Best places for tech to make a difference. Ballmer said education, healthcare and communication and making the world feel smaller via real-time translation software and other tools.
Related stories: |
Do the Latest GDP and Profit Data Justify Tax Cuts for ‘Job Creators’?
This week’s second estimate of US GDP shows a disappointing Q2 growth rate of 1.7 percent, just slightly faster than the 1.5 percent of the advance estimate released a month ago (see chart). These latest data ensure that weak GDP growth and what to do about it will remain major issues in the presidential election campaign.
On the GOP side, the leading proposal for getting growth back on track is to cut taxes for ‘job creators,’ to use the favored code word for top income earners. The idea has a certain logic to it. We know that growth comes from investment. We know that profits motivate investment and profits taxes reduce that motivation. It stands to reason, then, that weak profits and high taxes would be likely culprits for slow growth–except for one awkward fact.
The awkward fact is that corporate profits, both before and after taxes, are running at or close to record levels. As the next chart shows, before- and after-tax corporate profits, with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments, hit 30-year highs in the last quarter of 2012 and have stayed above year-earlier levels ever since. In fact, in the past three quarters, corporate profits after taxes, as a percentage of GDP, are higher than they have ever been in the 65 years since the government began reporting the series. Furthermore, when those corporate profits are passed along to individuals in the form of dividends or capital gains, they are taxed at rates much lower than at many periods in the past.
What conclusions should we draw from these data? One, certainly, would be that the ‘job creators’ have pocketed their incentive pay without creating many jobs in return. There is supposed to be a quid pro quo here, but so far all we have seen is the quid, and not much of the quo.
If there is no simple proportionality between profits and growth, or profits taxes and growth, then why not change the policy? A number of possible growth-enhancing reforms come to mind, some of which I have discussed in earlier posts.
One such reform would be to close the loopholes in the corporate tax system that make the burden of corporate taxes wildly different from one firm to another. Because of preferential treatment of foreign source income, accelerated depreciation, and other provisions of the tax code, some of the largest U.S. corporations (including General Electric, Boeing, Verizon, and Mattel, according to one report) pay no profits taxes at all, while others bear the maximum 35 percent rate. There are so many loopholes that the United States, with the highest corporate tax rates in the world, collects less profit tax revenue as a share of GDP than do many countries with lower marginal rates.
Currently, the U.S. corporate tax accounts for only 9 percent of federal tax revenues, compared with a post-World War II high of 30 percent. Eric Toder of the Tax Policy Center estimates that eliminating corporate tax preferences could potentially save $506 billion over five years and make it possible to reduce the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 23 percent without loss of revenue.
Another reform that would be even more effective would be to tax dividends and capital gains as ordinary income. That would make it possible to reduce the corporate tax rates even further. Ideally, reforms would end the double taxation of corporate profits altogether.
And finally as I have argued elsewhere, the current system of taxing capital gains and dividends at lower rates than other forms of income does not encourage investment in general so much as it encourages structuring investment decisions in ways that avoid taxes, even if they are less efficient. Neither is a separate regime for capital gains taxes necessary to compensate for the effect of inflation on effective tax rates. When we consider corporate income taxes and capital gains taxes jointly, a strong case emerges for revenue-neutral reform that taxes capital gains and dividends as ordinary income while lowering or eliminating corporate profit taxes.
What is blocking these reforms? Politics. Every preference and loophole in the tax code is defended by an army of lawyers and lobbyists paid for by the firms that benefit from it. Campaign contributions and super-PACs (corruption American style) reinforce the effect. The only firms and individuals left paying the full statutory tax rates are the politically powerless. Yet office seekers, with complete shamelessness, try to bring them on board, too, by flattering them as ‘job creators’ and promising them unspecified and unaffordable across-the-board rate cuts.
The data don’t support the notion that across-the-board cuts on profits and property income promote growth, but for politicians, there is always the hope that no one will notice the data.
Related posts
Controversy over Romney’s Taxes Underlines the Need for Broad Reform (Discusses in detail the economics of preferential tax treatment for capital income.)
What Happened to Corporate Tax Reform? (Discusses the economics of corporate tax incidence and double taxation.) |
BCCI has issued a clarification regarding the probe on MS Dhoni regarding a conflict of interest issue. Dhoni's alleged involvement with Rhiti Sports Management while being the India captain had been raised in 2013. The firm also manages commercial interests of cricketers like Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja.
In a media release, BCCI President, Jagmohan Dalmiya said he has been misquoted by the press. "It appears I have been misquoted as far as Mr Mahendra Singh Dhoni is concerned."
While it was earlier reported that BCCI was setting up a probe committee to look into the matter and Dhoni specifically, BCCI released a statement saying that Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president, is looking to implement the decision taken by the Working Committee in 2013. The statement also said that BCCI will ask all the players to disclose their involvement in sports management companies, if any.
Dhoni was the subject of much speculation two years ago when it came to light that he held 15% shares in Rhiti Sports Management Pvt Ltd, a company owned by his friend Arun Pandey. The company also manages the marketing of Chennai Super Kings of which Dhoni is the captain.
Pandey later came out with a statement saying that Dhoni held the shares only for a temporary period. However, the issue remained pertinent since Dhoni was closely involved in a number of other firms along with Pandey raising questions of a possible conflict of interest.
With the BCCI statement saying that it will be asking players to disclose their involvement in sports management companies, it is yet to be seen whether an actual probe will be set up to look into Dhoni's alleged conflict of interest. |
The air raid sirens were wailing. Ignoring them, Emperor Hirohito seated himself at the conference table in the shelter adjoining the Imperial Library. The sirens had become a fixture of life in Tokyo. Nearly three weeks ago, on the night of March 10, 1945, American B-29s dropped incendiary bombs on the city. Over 100,000 Japanese perished in the fires, which turned 16 square miles of Japan’s capital into charred rubble. The smoke and stench of the blazes still wafted through the Imperial Palace.
How much longer the reign of Hirohito—or the Empire of Japan—might last was very much on the emperor’s mind. In the past few months Japan had suffered calamitous setbacks at the Battles of the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, and Iwo Jima. Now the Americans were about to invade Okinawa.
At the conference table were the emperor’s military advisors, the chiefs of staff of the army and the navy, and their immediate subordinates. The chiefs had presented to Hirohito the plan for the coming counteroffensive at Okinawa. Occasionally the emperor stopped, squinting through his wire framed spectacles, to ask questions. How many aircraft would be used in the attacks? Two thousand, an admiral told him. Was that enough? the emperor asked. The admiral explained that an additional 1,500 army aircraft would be available.
Hirohito seemed perplexed. Over 100,000 army troops were prepared to die to defend Okinawa, and several thousand kamikaze pilots would be sacrificed. He turned to Admiral Koshiro Oikawa, the navy chief of staff. “And where is the navy?”
Oikawa glanced around him. None of the officers was sure how to answer. Did the emperor understand that the navy had been reduced to a handful of ships? Did he know there was nothing the navy could do to alter the situation at Okinawa?
Perhaps, but it didn’t matter. The emperor’s meaning was clear. It was not acceptable that the army should make so great a sacrifice while the navy’s ships remained clear of the battle for Okinawa. With a single question, the fate of Japan’s greatest warship—and the Imperial Japanese Navy—had been decided.
Its name was Yamato, the mightiest warship yet constructed. Displacing 71,659 tons and capable of 27 knots, the Yamato possessed the greatest firepower ever mounted on a vessel—more than 150 guns, including nine 18.1-inchers that could hurl 3,200-pound armor-piercing shells on a trajectory of 22.5 miles. Its massive armor was the heaviest ever installed on a dreadnought-class battleship, making it virtually impregnable to the guns of any ship in the world. The very name Yamato was a poetic and spiritual term for Japan itself. In its gray, armored magnificence, the great ship symbolized Japan’s dreams of conquest.
On the morning of April 7, 1945, in response to the emperor’s question—and where is the navy?—the Yamato embarked on its last mission. As the flagship of a force of 10 warships, it would head into the East China Sea in an assault against the American fleet off Okinawa. Codenamed Ten-Go, the operation would coincide with a massive aerial kamikaze assault while the Japanese 32nd Army on Okinawa launched a counterattack on the ground. After inflicting maximum damage on the American ships, Yamato would be run aground and serve as a stationary artillery platform until destroyed. Any remaining crew would join the garrison defending Okinawa.
Almost no one aboard the Yamato, including the officer commanding the operation, Vice Admiral Seiichi Ito, believed it would succeed. Ito at first flatly refused to carry out the order. Not until he was informed that the emperor himself expected him to execute the mission did he accept his fate.
A buzz of excitement crackled through the flag bridges of the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Aboard the battleship New Mexico, Admiral Raymond Spruance studied the newly received surveillance reports. The Yamato, the last of Japan’s great battleships, was coming out to fight. Seldom had Spruance’s staff seen their boss’s cold, gimlet-like eyes flash with such emotion.
In the U.S. Navy of 1945, Raymond Spruance was something of an oddity—a nonaviator whose command included the greatest naval air force ever deployed. But Spruance also commanded a task force of battleships and cruisers whose only duty so far had been the bombardment of enemy shore positions on Okinawa. Now Spruance, a normally cool and analytical old battleship sailor, was drawn by the siren song of a last epic surface battle. He signaled Rear Admiral Mort Deyo, who commanded Task Force 54, to prepare his battle line to meet the Yamato task force. If things went according to plan, the prize of sinking the world’s greatest dreadnought would go to the battleship admirals.
But on the eastern side of Okinawa, aboard the carrier Bunker Hill, the commander of Task Force 58—the fast carrier task force—was eyeing the same prize. Vice Admiral Marc “Pete” Mitscher had the gaunt, wizened face of a bird of prey; fittingly, his call sign was “Bald Eagle.” Like most senior naval aviation officers, Mitscher had spent a career fighting the battleship admirals who had steered the navy’s thinking for most of the current century. One of those was his immediate superior, Raymond Spruance.
Mitscher felt a stirring of battleship versus aircraft carrier rivalry. Though the carriers had mostly fought the great battles of the Pacific, whether air power alone could prevail over a surface force had not been proven beyond all doubt. Here was an opportunity to end the debate forever.
Now Mitscher had a problem. Spruance had just transmitted an all-fleet order to allow the enemy task force to proceed southward, where Admiral Deyo’s surface task force would engage it. In the meantime, Mitscher’s orders were “to concentrate the offensive effort of Task Force 58 in combat air patrols to meet enemy air attacks.”
Like a team of sharp-eyed contract lawyers, Mitscher and his staff pored over the order, looking for slack. Mitscher had served under Spruance long enough to know his style, and Spruance’s order had not specifically forbidden Mitscher to go after the enemy. It was as much slack as the Bald Eagle needed.
The trick was in knowing where the enemy fleet was headed and what its objective was. Admiral Deyo’s 6 battleships, 7 cruisers, and 21 destroyers were already headed north to intercept the Japanese force. Mitscher acted on a hunch that the Yamato was feinting northwestward. If he was right, the Japanese would soon make a hard turn south toward Okinawa. He signaled his carrier task groups to prepare for action.
The race to get the Yamato was on.
Through the breaks in the low overcast, Admiral Ito caught glimpses of the enemy. He could see the American reconnaissance planes flitting in and out of the clouds, tracking his task force. As Ito turned the Yamato task force southwestward, racing toward Okinawa, the weather turned increasingly sour. Veils of light rain were descending like curtains from the clouds to the sea.
At 20 minutes past noon on April 7, the first wave appeared on the radar. Hunched over his scope, the young radar officer Mitsuru Yoshida tried to sort them out. On his screen they appeared as three large blobs, one for each formation. Gradually they resolved into groups, then flights, then individual airplanes.
From the bridge came a flurry of orders. Each ship in the task force increased its speed to 25 knots. The entire formation swung together to an easterly heading. The waiting was over; Yamato’s last fight would be a sea-air engagement, not a surface action against other ships.
An entire formation of warplanes emerged from a gap in the clouds. One after another they peeled off in a dive. Yamato’s captain, Rear Admiral Kosaku Ariga, barked “Commence firing!” from his command post atop the bridge tower. In the next instant, 24 antiaircraft guns and 120 machine guns opened fire. Thunder reverberated through the steel decks. From across the water came the echoing gunfire of the screening ships. The gloomy sky turned crimson with the explosions of a thousand shells. Ariga was standing out in the open, shouting commands as the first bombs and machine gun bullets rained down on the Yamato. The battleship’s thick armor plate resisted most of the bombs, but shrapnel and bullets sliced through the gun crews like a scythe.
The dive bombers were the hardest to defend against because they were attacking from almost straight overhead. The gunners were having trouble tracking them until the enemy planes had already released their bombs and were pulling out of their dives. A bomb from an SB2C Helldiver wiped out a five-inch gun turret, shredding the bodies of all the gunners. Another bomb exploded into the radar room, killing everyone inside.
The fighters—F4U Corsairs and F6F Hellcats—were attacking in shallow dives, mainly dropping lighter bombs, but their machine guns were raking the ship with deadly precision. The hellish concussion of gunfire, roaring engines, and rattling machine guns beat like a hammer on the flesh of every man aboard the ships.
Off Yamato’s port beam appeared the torpedo planes, looking dark and ominous in the gray murk. As the TBM Avengers swooped in closer, the smaller guns on Yamato joined in the collective defense. One of the torpedo planes took a hit in the wing, pulled up in flames, then plunged into the sea. The others kept coming. Torpedoes dropped from their bellies, slashing through the water toward Yamato.
Admiral Deyo had just received a cheery send-off from his immediate boss: “We hope you will bring back a nice fish for breakfast.” Deyo was in the act of scribbling his reply when he was interrupted by an incoming report. Mitscher’s planes had just found the Japanese fleet. Deyo tried to swallow his disappointment. He finished the message with, “…if the pelicans haven’t caught them all.” Deyo had been around the navy long enough to know that some things never changed; given the chance, the damned “airedales” would steal the glory.
Pelicans or not, Deyo was sticking to his orders, taking his battlewagons north. If nothing else, he was going to earn himself a footnote in military history. Morton Deyo would be the last naval commander in World War II—perhaps history—to form a battle line against an enemy fleet.
From the cockpit of his F6F-5 Hellcat fighter, Yorktown air group commander Herb Houck was directing the planes of his group. It was 1:14 p.m., over an hour since the first wave located the Japanese force. Houck’s group was in the third wave.
The operation was supposed to be a coordinated strike, with Task Force 58’s task groups supporting each other. The tactic had been used and refined since the first air battles of the South Pacific. In successive waves, strike groups from each carrier would bear down on the Japanese task force. The fighters were supposed to go first, strafing, rocketing, dropping light ordnance, distracting the enemy gunners while the SB2C Helldivers plunged almost straight down with their heavy bombs. They would be closely followed by the TBM Avenger torpedo planes, which needed all the distraction and diversion they could get when they made their dangerous low altitude runs straight at the enemy ships.
At least that was the plan. There was nothing coordinated about the frenzied, disjointed air strike on the Yamato force. Each task group had launched its aircraft without waiting its turn. Each strike leader was trying to be the first to hit the target.
The first to locate the Yamato’s task force had been the planes of Task Group 58.1, from the carriers San Jacinto, Bennington, Hornet, and Belleau Wood. Right behind them came the units from Task Group 58.3 and the carriers Essex, Bunker Hill, Bataan, and Cabot. In the third wave, nearly an hour later, appeared the 106 planes of Task Group 58.4 launched from Intrepid, Yorktown, and Langley. (The only group to miss the show was Task Group 58.2, which Mitscher had detached to protect the kamikaze-damaged carriers Franklin, Enterprise, and Yorktown as they limped to a repair facility at Ulithi.)
As each group arrived over the target, the planes had to jockey for position in the narrow band of sky between the ocean and the lowest deck of clouds at about 1,500 feet. The risk of a midair collision was almost as great as the chance of being hit by the enemy. SB2C Helldivers plummeted through any hole they could find in the overcast, sometimes sharing the space with other planes. Some lost sight of their targets in the clouds, then had to make frantic corrections as they broke clear. Radio discipline had vanished, the tactical frequency was a bedlam of excited chatter, pilots yelling out target locations, calling bomb hits, reporting planes going down.
The Japanese ships were zigzagging across the water like rabbits evading hounds. The destroyers, more nimble than the light cruiser Yahagi and the dreadnought Yamato, were the hardest to hit. They were also the most vulnerable, sinking quickly when they took a bomb or torpedo. The destroyer Hamakaze went down within minutes of the first attack. Two more destroyers were trailing black smoke, moving at only half speed. They were maneuvering in a counterclockwise circle around Yamato, adding their guns to the collective fire.
For most pilots, it was their first look at the San Shiki (“Type three”) shells fired from the massive 18.1-inch guns. They were monsters, each weighing as much as an automobile and filled with incendiary tubes that burst in a cone toward incoming airplanes. And then the pilots noticed something else peculiar: the antiaircraft fire was exploding in multiple colors. It was a Japanese tactic they had heard about but not seen—each ship’s guns fired a different color to assist the gun directors in spotting their fire.
The use of San Shiki and colored gunfire was a good sign: it meant the enemy guns were probably not radar directed. They were using visual aiming and ranging, and doing a bad job of it. Though they were putting up a storm of antiaircraft fire, the gunners were missing with great consistency. A few unlucky planes were hit, but most eluded the gunfire.
The best news for the American airmen was the absence of enemy fighters. For some unfathomable reason, the Japanese had deployed the task force with no air cover; the Americans could concentrate on the targets without constantly checking their six o’clock for enemy fighters.
Air group commander Houck had already assigned his 12 Avenger torpedo planes, led by Lieutenant Commander Tom Stetson, to finish off the Yahagi. But Stetson had just gotten a good look at the Yamato. The ship appeared to be listing badly. He radioed Houck that he wanted to split his group and go after the battleship with six of his Avengers.
Houck concurred, ordering Stetson to change the torpedo running depth from 10 feet to 20. The 10-foot depth had been preset to hit cruisers. Going to 20 feet would put the fish below Yamato’s thicker armor plate, right into its exposed lower hull.
One of the pilots, Lieutenant (junior grade) John Carter, was in the last two-plane section. He watched the first four Avengers go in low and fast, dropping their torpedoes in a spread on Yamato’s beam. “As luck would have it,” he recalled, “the big ship was turning to port, thereby exposing the full broadside expanse of her enormous hull to the converging torpedoes.” Carter saw at least three of the torpedoes explode into Yamato’s hull from amidships to the bow. Two hit so close they looked like a single huge explosion.
As Carter began his own run from aft of the battleship, he could see tracers arcing toward his Avenger. He launched his torpedo across Yamato’s curving wake. Pulling away from the target, he tried to shrink into the metal frame of his seat as the ping and clatter of shrapnel hit the Avenger’s skin. But his torpedo had run true, exploding into Yamato’s port quarter.
Watching the inclinometer at his command post tilting past 20 degrees, Yamato’s captain Ariga reached an agonizing decision. The battleship’s list to port had become critical. The system of pumps and valves that had flooded the stabilizing compartments and corrected the earlier list was no longer working. The all-important aft water control center had taken a torpedo strike and a direct bomb hit. He would have to flood the starboard outer engine room. Flooding the space would help correct the list, but it would reduce Yamato’s available power. It would also mean certain death for the 300 men in the starboard engine compartments.
In a choking voice, Ariga gave the order. The valves were opened. Seconds later the violent implosion of sea water snuffed out the life of every man in the flooded engineering rooms. The desperate tactic worked, but only for a while. At 2:10, Ariga felt another torpedo slam into Yamato’s stern, jamming its big main rudder hard to port.
Yamato’s death was now certain. The ship could not be steered. The list to port quickly worsened, rolling toward 35 degrees. With its port rail nearly submerged, the ship was locked in a counterclockwise turn. The lofty bridge tower was leaning so steeply that the men in the uppermost decks had to cling to rails and stanchions for support. Reluctantly, Ariga gave the order: “Abandon ship!”
On the sixth deck of the bridge tower, the task force commander, Admiral Ito, had already reached the same conclusion. Ito braced himself against the binocular stand and issued his one and only direct command since the battle began: “Stop the operation. Turn back after rescuing the men.” From the beginning Ito had been opposed to what he thought was a senseless sacrifice. Now it was coming to the very end he had predicted. The admiral shook hands with his surviving staff officers, then descended the ladder to his sea cabin one deck below. It was the last anyone saw of Seiichi Ito.
At the captain’s command station, a messenger was helping Ariga tie himself to the compass binnacle. Yamato’s captain intended to go down with his ship, and he was taking no chances that his body would wash to the surface. Meanwhile, the most junior officer on the bridge tower, Ensign Mitsuru Yoshida, was wriggling up through the lookout port toward the top deck. By the time he reached the top, Yamato’s captain had already vanished beneath the water. So had the navigation officer and his assistant, who also tied themselves to their stations. Yoshida could see dozens of crewmen perched like stranded rats on the rust brown belly of the battleship.
The sea rose from beneath them. As water engulfed the ship, men disappeared into the yawning eddies and whirlpools around the sinking hull. Yoshida drew a deep breath and rolled himself up in a ball. For what seemed an eternity, he churned inside the whirlpool, unable to escape, feeling that each of his limbs was being torn from his body.
At that moment—2:23 in the afternoon—the Yamato exploded. The blast rose like a volcanic eruption. As the fireball dissipated, a black mushroom cloud took its place, billowing a mile into the sky. The smoke was seen by coast watchers over a hundred miles away on the shore of Kyushu.
It was later theorized that Yamato’s 90-degree list caused the shells for its main batteries to slide in their magazine, hitting their fuses and exploding. The eruption sent thousands of pieces of shrapnel into the air, and the rain of debris killed most of the unlucky sailors swimming on the surface. The underwater concussion killed those near the submerged main deck. Swimmers unfortunate enough to be near Yamato’s raked smokestack were caught in the massive suction created by the huge open funnel as the ship went under.
Of the ten warships that had set out with the task force, six were still afloat, but barely. The destroyers Isokaze and Kasumi were shattered hulks, adrift in the East China Sea. Over 4,000 men who had sailed aboard Yamato and its escorts were dead. Of Yamato’s 3,000-man crew, only 269 had been saved. One of them was Ensign Yoshida, somehow thrown from the whirlpool. He would spend the rest of his life wondering why.
With an ever-present cigarette dangling from his mouth, Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher peered at the still-wet photographs from the strike. Killing Yamato and five of its screening ships had not come without a price. Ten warplanes—four Helldivers, three Avengers, and three Hellcats—had been lost. Four pilots and eight aircrewmen were missing and presumed dead. Several had been snatched from the sea by daring search and rescue crews. Still, the losses were miniscule when measured against those of the previous great air-sea battles.
The Bald Eagle’s gamble had paid off. It was all there in the grainy photos—conclusive proof of the warplane’s dominance not only of the sky, but of the sea. The age of the battleship was officially over.
The next day Deyo and his beloved battlewagons would go back to their shore bombardment duties off Okinawa, and Spruance would return his attention to the bigger picture. The Yamato encounter was dramatic, satisfying, perhaps even historically significant. But the pragmatic admiral knew the truth: the real battle for Okinawa was just beginning.
In Japan, news of the Yamato disaster was withheld from the public. It fell to Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai to inform the emperor. With downcast eyes, Yonai stood before Hirohito and reported that Operation Ten-Go had failed.
The emperor seemed not to understand. He peered at Yonai through his spectacles. What about the navy? he asked. What was the status of the fleet? The minister spoke the truth. There was no fleet, he told the emperor. The Imperial Japanese Navy had ceased to exist.
Robert Gandt is a former naval officer and aviator. His latest book, The Twilight Warriors (Broadway Books, 2010), covers the Battle of Okinawa, the Pacific War’s deadliest air and sea engagement. Gandt lives with his wife in Daytona Beach, Florida. Visit gandt.com.
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FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law has his skull cap adjusted during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose failure to stop child molesters in the priesthood triggered the worst crisis in American Catholicism, died Wednesday in Rome at age 86.
Law, who spent the final years of his career leading an important basilica in Rome and continued to wield considerable influence inside the Vatican, had been sick and was recently hospitalized.
Law was once one of the most important figures in the U.S. church, serving in one of its most visible and storied posts. From 1984 until he resigned under pressure 18 years later, he was spiritual leader in Boston, the nation’s fourth-largest archdiocese, with 1.8 million Catholics.
In 2002, though, The Boston Globe began a series of stories that revealed that Law and his predecessors had transferred child-molesting priests from parish to parish without alerting parents or police — a scandal later chronicled in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight.”
Within months, Catholics around the country demanded to know whether their bishops had done the same. And the scandal quickly spread overseas, to Ireland, Belgium, Chile, Australia and beyond.
In Boston, Law’s death was met with anger and bitterness among some.
“I hope the gates of hell are swinging wide to allow him entrance,” said Alexa MacPherson, who says she was abused for six years as a child. “I won’t shed a tear for him. I might shed a tear for everyone who’s been a victim under him.”
Robert Costello called Law “a cruel, selfish bastard,” while fellow abuse victim Phil Saviano wondered: “How is he going to explain this when he comes face to face with his maker?”
Law’s successor as archbishop, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, said it was a “sad reality” that Law’s legacy will forever be tied to the abuse scandal, when the church “seriously failed” to care for its flock and protect children.
Pope Francis, who is being watched closely by the faithful over his handling of bishops who shield pedophiles, is set to preside over Law’s funeral rites at a Mass on Thursday at St. Peter’s Basilica, an honor accorded to all Rome-based cardinals.
The pope said nothing about Law’s death during his weekly general audience Wednesday, and in a condolence letter he made no direct mention of the cardinal’s tenure in Boston.
“I raise prayers for the repose of his soul, that the Lord God, who is rich in mercy, may welcome him in His eternal peace, and I send my apostolic blessing to those who share in mourning the passing of the cardinal,” Francis wrote.
Since 1950, more than 6,500 of the nation’s priests, or about 6 percent, have been accused of molesting children, and the American church has paid over $3 billion in settlements, according to news reports and studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops.
As the leader of the archdiocese at the epicenter of the scandal, Law became a powerful symbol of the crisis. His fall from grace was swift.
Law tried to manage the scandal at first by refusing to comment, then by apologizing and promising reform. But the release of thousands more church records exposed additional cases in which Law and others expressed more concern for accused priests than for victims.
Amid a groundswell against him, including rare public rebukes from some of his own priests, Law asked to resign and the pope said yes.
“To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness,” Law said in stepping down in 2002.
Still, Law retained some support in the Vatican. In 2004, he was appointed archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of four principal basilicas in Rome. When Pope John Paul II died the next year, Law was among the bishops who presided at a Mass for the pontiff in St. Peter’s.
Law also continued to serve on Vatican policy-making committees, including one that recommends bishops’ appointments to the pope, before retiring in 2011 from his church assignments.
Victims’ advocates saw his continued influence in Rome as a slap in the face from an unrepentant church.
“Cardinal Law’s soft landing in Rome, after his Boston disgrace, reminds us that prelate privilege remains the rule in Catholicism,” said Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, a database of the global scandal in the church.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has represented dozens of people who say they were abused by priests, said Law “turned his back on innocent children and allowed them to be sexually abused and then received a promotion in Rome.”
Fifteen years after the scandal broke, holding bishops accountable remains a fraught issue for the church. Francis had promised to go after bishops but backed off a proposed Vatican tribunal to prosecute them and opted instead to use existing measures.
SNAP, the main U.S. advocacy group for those who were abused, urged Francis to keep the victims in mind during the funeral and said Law doesn’t deserve the pomp.
“This celebratory focus on abuse enablers like Law must end,” said SNAP’s Joelle Casteix.
Law is expected to be buried in Rome, O’Malley said. The location hasn’t been disclosed, but Law would be entitled to burial at St. Mary Major.
Born Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico, Law was the only child of a U.S. Air Force colonel and a mother who was a Presbyterian convert to Catholicism. He graduated from Harvard University in 1953. He was ordained in 1961 and campaigned for civil rights in Mississippi, sometimes traveling in the trunks of cars for safety.
He was named bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri, then archbishop of Boston, one of the most prominent and important posts in the U.S.
He broadly influenced Vatican appointments to American dioceses, served as a representative of the church to presidents and was favored by Pope John Paul.
Law publicly challenged public officials over their support for abortion rights and joined other bishops in criticizing Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic vice-presidential candidate and a Catholic, over the issue. He was a regular visitor to the White House under President George W. Bush.
He was devoted to building Catholic-Jewish relations, leading a delegation on a 1986 visit to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. He worked closely with church leaders in Latin America, acting as an unofficial envoy of the pope to Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
The scandal in Boston broke when the Globe reported that Law and two predecessors as archbishop had transferred former priest John Geoghan to various assignments despite knowing he molested children.
More than 130 people eventually came forward to say Geoghan abused them. The archdiocese paid $10 million in settlements with 86 of his victims and their relatives as Law clung to his job.
___
Rachel Zoll reported from New York. Rodrique Ngowi in Holbrook, Massachusetts, contributed to this report. |
Snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicament utilizing fat extracted from the Chinese water snake (Enhydris chinensis).[1] It is a rubefacient and/or ointment, and is applied topically to relieve minor physical pain. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for many centuries, and is a relatively common medication prescribed by doctors ascribing the practice of traditional Chinese medicine. Its effectiveness as medicine has been a historical source of controversy in the Western world, where there is much confusion over its origin and constitution due to a U.S. District Court judgment against Clark Stanley.
In Western culture, snake oil is most commonly associated with a placebo, panacea and/or deceptive marketing. Its association in Western culture lies in the fact that many 19th-century United States and 18th-century European entrepreneurs advertised and sold mineral oil (often mixed with various active and inactive household herbs, spices, and compounds, but containing no properties of snakes,) as "snake oil liniment", making frivolous claims about its efficacy as a panacea. Patent medicines that claimed to be a cure-all panacea were extremely common from the 18th until the 20th century, particularly among vendors masking addictive drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, alcohol and opium-based concoctions and/or elixirs, to be sold as medication and/or products promoting health at medicine shows.
Tyrocinium Pharmaceticum), printed in Spain: "The viper oil of Mesues. Take 2 pounds of live snakes and 2 pounds 3 ounces of sesame oil. Cook slowly, covered in a glazed pot, until meat pulls away from bone. Strain and store. Uses: Cleans the skin, removes pimples, impetigo and other defects." A snake oil recipe from 1719/1751 (Juan de Loeches,), printed in Spain: "The viper oil of Mesues. Take 2 pounds of live snakes and 2 pounds 3 ounces of sesame oil. Cook slowly, covered in a glazed pot, until meat pulls away from bone. Strain and store. Uses: Cleans the skin, removes pimples, impetigo and other defects."
History [ edit ]
The use of snake oil long predates the 18th and 19th centuries in China and the Eastern world, where oil made from fat extracted from the Chinese water snake (Enhydris chinensis) is a traditional liniment used for treating joint pain. Chinese water-snake oil contains 20 percent eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which has strong analgetic[citation needed] and anti-inflammatory properties.[2][3]
The marketing concept for snake oil was likely transferred to the US from trade, immigration, and exposure to 18th-century British culture. However, the actual source of its use as a folk remedy was likely introduced, similarly to its introduction in the UK, by Chinese laborers involved in building the First Transcontinental Railroad in the US, and were undoubtedly familiar with Traditional Chinese Medicine, using snake oil to treat joint pain such as arthritis and bursitis, while introducing it to fellow American workers.[2] When rubbed on the skin at the painful site, snake oil was claimed to bring relief. This claim was ridiculed by 19th-century rival medicine salespeople, who competed with snake oil entrepreneurs in peddling other medicines for pain, often offering more hazardous alternatives such as alcohol and/or opium.
Patent medicines originated in England, where a patent was granted to Richard Stoughton's elixir in 1712.[4] There were no federal regulations in the United States concerning safety and effectiveness of drugs until the 1906 Food and Drugs Act.[5] Thus, the widespread marketing and availability of dubiously advertised patent medicines without known properties or origin persisted in the US for a much greater number of years than in Europe.
In 18th-century Europe, especially in the UK, viper oil had been commonly recommended for many afflictions, including the ones for which oil from the rattlesnake (pit viper,) a type of viper native to America, was subsequently favored to treat rheumatism and skin diseases.[6] Though there are accounts of oil obtained from the fat of various vipers in the Western world, the claims of its effectiveness as a medicine have never been thoroughly examined, and its efficacy is unknown. It is also likely that much of the snake oil sold by Western entrepreneurs was illegitimate, and did not contain ingredients derived from any kind of snake. Snake oil in the United Kingdom and United States probably contained modified mineral oil.
In popular culture within the United States, snake oil is particularly renowned to be a commodity peddled at American Old West-themed medicine shows, although the judgment condemning snake oil as medicine took place in Rhode Island, and involved snake oil manufactured in Massachusetts.[7] The snake oil peddler is a stock character in Western movies, depicted as a traveling "doctor" with dubious credentials, selling fake medicines with boisterous marketing hype, often supported by pseudo-scientific evidence. To increase sales, an accomplice in the crowd (a shill) will often attest to the value of the product in an effort to provoke buying enthusiasm. The "doctor" will leave town before his customers realize they have been cheated.[2] This practice has wide-ranging implications, and is known as a confidence trick, a type of fraud. This particular confidence trick is purported to have been a common mechanism utilized by peddlers in order to sell various counterfeit and generic medications at medicine shows.
The drastic amount of fraud extending to the drug epidemic was unfolded, and exposed with a judgment against Clark Stanley, which condemned the patented Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment in US District Court. This minor ruling, much like the process that unfolded in the UK during the previous century, set a precedent for government bureaucracies to exert greater authority over traditional practices in health and medicine. Snake oil has grown to epitomize patent medicine, and represents a healthy act of scapegoating that allowed for government controlled bureaucracy to effectively seize authority over the means to control a drug epidemic involving alcohol and opium during the 19th century in the US. This increased authority led to the evolution and expansion of bureaucracies such as the Food and Drug Administration in the US.
From cure-all to quackery [ edit ]
A report of the 1917 decision of the United States District Court for Rhode Island , fining Clark Stanley $20 for "misbranding" its "Clark Stanley Snake Oil Liniment".
The composition of snake oil medicines varies markedly among products.
Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment – produced by Clark Stanley, the "Rattlesnake King" – was tested by the United States government's Bureau of Chemistry, the precursor to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA,) in 1916.[7] It was found to contain:
Although most snake oil in the Western world was drastically overpriced and falsely advertised it is arguable whether or not it is actually representative of a placebo given that Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment, the only Western produced snake oil known to have been examined, is similar in composition to modern-day capsaicin-based liniments or chest rubs. None of the oil content was found to have been extracted from actual snakes. Nonetheless, the composition of most snake oil is essentially the same as Vicks VapoRub, which contains camphor. Snake oil, and many chest rubs, utilize camphor as an active ingredient. Clark Stanley, the most renowned peddler of snake oil who is popularly known as "The Rattlesnake King," marketed a brand of snake oil containing capsaicin as an active ingredient in addition to camphor. Capsaicin also continues to be commonly used in many non-narcotic pain patches, and is found in many competing brands of chest rubs as well as in pepper spray. A critique of the historical revision giving rise to such a negative connotation for snake oil may argue that its place in English is the product of a cultural dissociation adopted from popular culture.
In 1916, subsequent to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment was examined by the Bureau of Chemistry, and found to be drastically overpriced and of limited value. As a result, Stanley faced federal prosecution for peddling mineral oil in a fraudulent manner as snake oil. In his 1916 civil hearing instigated by federal prosecutors in the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island, Stanley plead no contest to the allegations against him, giving no admission of guilt.[7] His plea of nolo contendere was accepted, and as a result, Stanley was fined $20.00.[7] This amount of money corresponds to roughly $457 in 2018.[8] The term snake oil has since been established in popular culture as a reference to any worthless concoction sold as medicine, and has been extended to describe a widely ranging degree of fraudulent goods, services, ideas, and activities such as worthless rhetoric in politics. By further extension, a snake oil salesman is commonly used in English to describe a quack, huckster, or charlatan. It is also used in a de facto manner to describe the general nature of many modern professions such as a politician or religious leader, most especially Islamic Imams and Christian ministers. It is also commonly used in a quackery sense to describe many present day physicians and doctors associated with medical malpractice, such as an internist, as well as many attorneys filing frivolous lawsuits, and is often used as a broad term to describe anyone in the profession of sales, most commonly car salespeople and pharmaceutical sales representatives.
Modern implications [ edit ]
Fraudulent marketing techniques employed by Western businesspersons producing snake oil are not dissimilar from most advertising campaigns employed in accordance with entrepreneurial business practices today. Such deception is prevalent in storefronts, among retail stores, as well as among peddlers who sell a wide array of products, and is particularly common in services marketing. Examples of modern products alleged to be marketed similarly to snake oil are products of herbalism, dietary supplements, or a Tibetan singing bowl (used for healing.) Common indictments of false advertising for these, and other products marketed similarly to snake oil often materialize in allegations of dubious advertising claims that these products are scientific, healthy, or natural.
Quite unlike snake oil in traditional Chinese medicine, there are quasi-justifiable means to codify snake oil in Western culture as a fraudulent panacea given that there are no known accounts of snake oil peddled in the United States or Europe containing any trace of actual snake extract. Thus, it is generally assumed that any variety of snake oil is in line with most other patent medicine available in the 18th and 19th centuries, although it is generally noted that snake oil is less dangerous than many other patent medicines containing intoxicating, or hazardous ingredients. Nonetheless, snake oil represents a concept for a particular type of fraud that may be extended to many of the same intoxicating drugs once sold at medicine shows that remain widely prescribed and available today. Most of these drugs are now manufactured by pharmaceutical companies, or fall under government control in some form or fashion.
Historical interpreter Ross Nelson as "Professor Thaddeus Schmidlap", resident snake-oil salesman at the Enchanted Springs Ranch and Old West theme park, Boerne, Texas.
See also [ edit ] |
With the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio fast approaching, it is interesting to hear all of the news stories about the state of this Brazilian seaside city and its ability (or possible inability) to properly house such a large sporting event. From ethical concerns pertaining to personal safety in the city to health concerns to all the hubbub surrounding whether or not Russian Olympians will be allowed to participate due to a doping scandal, it really puts a dent on the Olympics this year, which should really be a time for people of the world to come together to participate, and more likely, if your like me, just observe some of the top athletic competitors around the world together in one central location.
For Plant-Smart Living, we have look at a number of vegan Olympians from the past, and I can’t help but avoid looking at this upcoming Olympic sporting event without thinking about the possibility of someone or some organization promoting a plant-based message. After all, it makes a lot of sense to me quite simply because of how it has positively impacted my own life; and based on the reactions from vegan performers, can be considered a perfect source of fuel.
This perspective is let down, then, when I see that Team USA is sponsored by Milk Life as a result of a five-year deal put to paper with the United States Olympic Committee which will cover the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Pyeongchang in 2018, and Tokyo in 2020.
Corporate sponsorship of the Olympics is not a new thing, and I certainly do not have any problems with this per say. After all, the Olympics are extremely expensive to put on for a city, so it only makes sense to try and make some money in the process.
A major reason why it is a coveted position to hold the Olympic Games is because of the recognition and notoriety that comes from having them in a given city, and the boost to the economy it can be expected to bring. Just having so many tourists from around the world engaging with the city by way of purchasing bus and cab fairs, food at local restaurants, etc. can help support a city that may be struggling financially otherwise, as is the case in Rio de Janeiro.
Not to mention, the advertising and brand awareness being a corporate sponsor of the Olympic Games can have a huge impact on getting a company’s message heard.
The problem with a sponsorship by Milk Life, for me, is that their values do not jive with a whole foods, plant-based diet. It has long pervaded thought in the United States that “milk is good for you,” however recent research is beginning to show that this may not be the case. The negative impact of dairy on your body and on the environment as a result of the processes required to generate enough milk to actively support the many consumers in the US (and around the world) is difficult to ignore. Even more important is how producing milk on this level is unhealthy and considered by many animal rights activists to be an inhumane treatment of cattle. Not to mention, it is grotesque to think how by consuming milk, you are consuming the fluid of another living being as a source of food.
By putting pen to paper and signing a contract with Milk Life, the United States Olympic Committee has made a decision that impacts all US athletes whether they are vegan, vegetarian, or otherwise. Given the minority status of vegans in the United States, it probably is not an issue that matters to the majority of people; and moreover is probably not even showing up on anyone’s radar as a potential problem.
The psychological impact is simple: it implies all US Olympic athletes consume milk, and neglects to consider those who adopt a dairy free, vegan lifestyle.
But the core issue runs deeper than just perception by the audience and my personal feelings on the matter.
The larger problem is that through this brand awareness, Milk Life will likely see an international boost in recognition. Do not be surprised if when you tune into the Summer Olympics on the TV that you see a banner ad for Milk Life at some point in the mix of corporate sponsors, or if you happen to be someone going to the physical location, to see these ads and product placements in person.
The result of this recognition, though, is a continuation of the vicious cycle of dairy milk production, inhumane treatment of animals, and the spread of the ‘milk ideology’ that suggests “milk is good for you” without quality scientific research - at least, scientific research not backed by paid off lobbyists and pro-dairy organizations.
What is Milk Life?
One of the most complex things to understand in all of this is what exactly Milk Life provides, or put another way, what their purpose is in the sea of milk-based organizations. Their website leaves a lot to be desired, and on the surface is not exactly representative of an organization I would expect to have enough funding to be a sponsor of a major sporting event like the Olympics.
It would appear that at most, Milk Life exists to provide education regarding dairy milk products as a method of spreading the desire for milk consumption.
What really gets my investigative wheels turning?
The simple, small font note at the bottom of their web page for The Great American Milk Drive (a charity drive oriented towards combating child hunger with milk): “Brought to you by America’s Milk Companies & Farm Families.” |
Short Bytes: MOCAS is the world’s oldest computer program that’s still in active use. It was launched in 1958 by the United States Department of Defense for keeping track of contracts and payments. After 59 long years, MOCAS, pronounced “MOH-cass”, is still used to take care of the records using an IBM 2098 model E-10 mainframe.
C
omputers have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. We use them at work, carry their miniature versions in our pockets, use them to binge watch TV shows, and whatnot. If you’re a programmer or developer, you might be knowing more about computers and programming languages used to write its programs. Some of you might be even knowing about the first programming language for computers
But, do you know which is the world’s oldest programming language that’s still used actively? Don’t worry, we are here to help you out.
MOCAS — Oldest Computer Program That’s Still In Use
Long back in 1958, fifty-nine years ago, the United States Department of Defense launched a computer-based contract management system. It was called Mechanization of Contract Administration Services, or MOCAS. It’s pronounced “MOH-cass”.
Written in COBOL, which wasn’t approved in 1958, one of the world’s most important programming languages, MOCAS is still in use. The original interface of MOCAS was based on keycards or punchcards, according to MIT Tech Review.
In the later years, MOCAS was upgraded to work with green screen access, which is a terminal-like system that was widely used by airlines, banks, telecom companies, etc.
Over the time, new interfaces were created that were able to connect to MOCAS. This allowed it to extend its lifespan. There were efforts to create its complete replacements, which failed due to cost and complexity involved in the transition.
Today, the system manages about $1.3 trillion in obligations and 340,000 contracts. It uses an IBM 2098 model E-10 mainframe. This hardware is able to perform 398 million instructions per second with the help of its 6GB RAM.
MIT Tech Review writes that MOCAS was the oldest computer program they could verify. If you believe that there are other programs that are much older, don’t forget to tell us. Also, do tell us your views and feedback.
Also Read: 5 Easiest Programming Languages For Beginners |
First published Tue May 18, 2004; substantive revision Fri Jul 21, 2017
Throughout history, suicide has evoked an astonishingly wide range of reactions—bafflement, dismissal, heroic glorification, sympathy, anger, moral or religious condemnation—but it is never uncontroversial. Suicide is now an object of multidisciplinary scientific study, with sociology, anthropology, psychology, and psychiatry each providing important insights into suicide. Particularly promising are the significant advances being made in our scientific understanding of the neurological and genetic bases of suicidal behavior (Stoff and Mann 1997, Jamison 2000, Joiner 2010, 228–236) and the mental conditions associated with it. Nonetheless, many of the most controversial questions surrounding suicide are philosophical. For philosophers, suicide raises a host of conceptual, moral, and psychological questions. Among these questions are: What makes a person’s behavior suicidal? What motivates such behavior? Is suicide morally permissible, or even morally required in some extraordinary circumstances? Is suicidal behavior rational? This article will examine the main currents of historical and contemporary Western philosophical thought surrounding these questions.
Surprisingly, philosophical difficulties emerge when we attempt to characterize suicide precisely, and attempts to do so introduce intricate issues about how to describe and explain human action. In particular, identifying a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for suicide that fits well with our typical usage of the term is especially challenging. A further challenge is that due to suicide’s strong negative emotional or moral connotations, efforts to distinguish suicidal behavior from other behavior often clandestinely import moral judgments about the aims or moral worth of such behavior. That is, views about the nature of suicide often incorporate, sometimes unknowingly, views about the prudential or moral justifiability of suicide and are therefore not value-neutral descriptions of suicide (Paterson 2003, 353, Cholbi 2011, 17–20). For example, Hitler, most people contend, was clearly a suicide, but Socrates and Jesus were not (though on Socrates, see Frey 1978). This illustrates that suicide still carries a strongly negative subtext, and on the whole, we exhibit a greater willingness to categorize self-killings intended to avoid one’s just deserts as suicides than self-killings intended to benefit others (Beauchamp & Childress 1983, 93–94).
Such conceptual slipperiness complicates moral arguments about the justifiability of suicide by permitting us to ‘define away’ self-killings we believe are justified as something other than suicide, whereas it would be desirable to identify first a defensible non-normative conception of suicide and then proceed to discuss the moral merits of various acts of suicide (Stern-Gillett 1987, Kupfer 1990). In other words, ‘suicide’ should not be equatable with wrongful self-killing in the way that ‘murder’ is equated with wrongful killing of another, lest we render ourselves unable to refer even to the possibility of a morally justified self-killing.
If a purely descriptive account of suicide is possible, where should it begin? While it is tempting to say that suicide is any self-caused death, this account is vulnerable to obvious counterexamples. An individual who knows the health risks of smoking or of skydiving, but willfully engages in these behaviors and dies as a result, could be said to be causally responsible for her own death but not to have died by suicide. Similarly, an individual who takes a swig of hydrochloric acid, believing it to be lemonade, and subsequently dies causes her own death but does not engage in suicidal behavior. Moreover, not only are there self-caused deaths that are not suicides, but there are behaviors that result in death and are arguably suicidal in which the agent is not the cause of her own death or is so only at one remove. This can occur when an individual arranges the circumstances for her death. A terminally ill patient who requests that another person inject her with a lethal dose of tranquilizers has, intuitively, died by suicide. Though she is not immediately causally responsible for her death, she appears morally responsible for her death, since she initiates a sequence of events which she intended to culminate in her death, a sequence which cannot be explained without reference to her beliefs and desires. (Such a case exemplifies voluntary euthanasia.) Likewise, those who die via ‘suicide by cop,’ where an armed crime is committed in order to provoke police into killing its perpetrator, are responsible for their own deaths despite not being the causes of their deaths. In these kinds of cases, such agents would not die, or would not be at an elevated risk for death, were it not for their initiating such causal sequences. (See Brandt 1975, Tolhurst 1983, Frey 1981, but for a possible objection see Kupfer 1990.)
Furthermore, many philosophers (Fairbairn 1995, chapter 5) doubt whether an act’s actually resulting in death is essential to suicide at all. Just as there can be attempted murders or attempted acts of deception, so too can there be ‘attempted’ suicides, instances where because of agents’ false beliefs (about the lethality of their behavior, for example), unforeseen factual circumstances, others’ interventions, etc., an act which might have resulted in an agent’s death does not.
Hence, suicidal behavior need not result in death, nor must the condition that hastens death be self-caused. Definitions according to which suicide occurs when a person acts knowing that her act will cause her own death (Durkheim (1897)) thus fail to capture how death is in some respect an aim of suicidal behavior. Second, what appears essential for a behavior to count as suicide is that the person in question chooses to die. Suicide is an attempt to inflict death upon oneself and is “intentional rather than consequential in nature” (Fairbairn 1995, 58). These conditions imply that suicide must rest upon an individual’s intentions, where an intention implicates an individual’s beliefs and desires about her action. (See Brandt 1975, Graber 1981 Tolhurst 1983, Frey 1978, O’Keeffe 1981, McMahan 2002, 455, Paterson 2003, Cholbi 2011, 20–31, Hill 2011) An intention-based account of suicide would say, roughly, that
A person S’s behavior B is suicidal iff S believed that B, or some causal consequence of B, would make her death at least highly likely, and S intended to die by engaging in B.
This account renders the notion of suicide as self-inflicted attempted death more precise, but it is not unproblematic.
Condition (a) is a doxastic condition. It is meant to show that deaths (or increased risks for death) resulting from an individual’s act that causes death (or the risk thereof) are not suicides if the individual acts in ignorance of the relevant risks of her behavior (for example, when an individual accidentally takes a lethal dose of a prescription drug). At the same time, (a) accounts for cases such as the aforementioned terminally ill patient whose death is caused only indirectly by her request to die. Condition (a) does not require that S know that B will put her at a significantly greater risk for death, nor even that S’s beliefs about B’s lethality be true or even justified. Suicidal individuals sometimes have false beliefs about the lethality of their chosen suicide methods, greatly overestimating the lethality of over the counter painkillers while underestimating the lethality of handguns, for instance. An individual could believe falsely, or on the basis of inadequate evidence, that placing one’s head in an electric oven significantly increases one’s chances of dying, but that behavior is nonetheless suicidal. The demand that S believe that B makes death highly likely is admittedly inexact, but it permits us to navigate between two extreme and mistaken views. On the one hand, it implies that behavior which is in fact only marginally more likely to cause a person’s death is not suicidal (you are more likely to die driving your car than in your living room, but driving your car hardly qualifies as ‘suicidal’). On the other hand, to demand that S believe that B certainly or almost certainly will cause S’s death is too strict, since it will rarely be the case (given the possibility of intervening conditions, etc.) that B will necessarily cause S’s death, and in fact many suicidal individuals are ambivalent about their actions (Cholbi 2011, 31–35), an ambivalence which is in turn reflected in their selecting suicide methods that are far from certain to cause death. It also allows us to distinguish genuinely suicidal behavior from suicidal gestures, in which individuals engage in behavior they believe is not likely to cause their death but is nonetheless associated with suicide attempts, while in fact having some other intention (e.g., gaining others’ sympathy) in mind.
Condition (b), however, is far more knotty. For what is it to intend that death result from one’s behavior? There are examples in which condition (a) is clearly met, but whether (b) is met is more problematic. For instance, does a soldier who leaps upon a live grenade tossed into a foxhole in order to save his comrades engage in suicidal behavior? Many, especially partisans of the doctrine of double effect would answer ‘no’: Despite the fact that the soldier knew his behavior would likely cause him to die, his intention was to absorb the blast so as to save the other soldiers, whereas his death was only a foreseen outcome of his action. Needless to say, whether a clear divide exists between foreseen and intended outcomes is controversial, and critics raise the worry that almost any outcome can be described as foreseen (Glover 1990, ch. 6). (It is of course possible that whether death is foreseen or intended has no bearing on whether an act counts as suicide but still bears on whether that suicide is justified.) Some would argue that given the near certainty of his dying by jumping on the grenade, his death was intended, for even though death is not the justifying aim of his action and he may prefer not to die, his dying nevertheless has his endorsement in the circumstances in which he acts (Tolhurst 1983, Cholbi 2011, 26–31). A further complication is that current psychological evidence suggests that suicide is often an ambivalent act in which individuals who wish to die must nevertheless overcome the ordinary human fear of death (Cholbi 2011, 31–34, Joiner 2010, 62–70). Given this ambivalence, it may be difficult to determine precisely whether an act that poses an apparently lethal threat to the agent who performs it was in fact an act in which death was intended. When a person dies in such circumstances, it may prove difficult whether to classify the death as resulting from suicide (i.e., intentional self-killing) or as accidental. Such cases might indicate the need for a third category besides intentional suicide and accidental death (Cholbi 2007).
The essential logical difficulty here resides in the notion of intending to die, for acting so as to produce one’s death nearly always has some other aim or justification. That is, death is generally not chosen for its own sake, or is not the end of suicidal behavior. Suicidal behavior can have any number of objectives: the relief of physical pain, the relief of psychological anguish, martyrdom in the service of a moral cause, the fulfillment of perceived societal duties (e.g., suttee and seppuku), the avoidance of judicial execution, revenge on others, protection of others’ interests or well-being. (See Fairbairn 1995, ch. 9, for a taxonomy of the varieties of suicide.) Therefore, it is not the case that suicidal individuals intend death per se, but rather that death is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a means for the fulfillment of another of the agent’s aims (Graber 1981, 56). In short, there do not appear to be any compelling examples of “noninstrumental” self-killings in which “the overriding intention is simply to end one’s life and there is no further independent objective involved in the action” (O’Keeffe 1981, 357). Nor does requiring that the individual wish to be dead (Fairbairn 1995, ch. 6) address this issue, since again, what one wishes is presumably not death itself but some outcome of death. Both the grenade-jumping soldier and the depressed individual may wish not to die insofar as they might prefer that their desires could be satisfied without dying or without putting themselves at the risk thereof. However, this is consistent with their willingly choosing to die in order to satisfy their aims.
Some (e.g., Beauchamp 1992, Cholbi 2011, 35–37) might wish to add a further condition to (a) and (b) above:
S was not coerced into B-ing.
Yet again, both the concept of coercion and its applicability to instances of risky or self-harming behavior is unclear. Typically, coercion denotes interference by others. So, according to condition (c), a spy threatened with torture lest he relinquish crucial military secrets who then poisons himself did not die by suicide, some would contend, since the spy’s captors compelled him to take his life. However, one can imagine a similar situation in which the agent of “coercion” is not another person. An extremely ill patient may opt to take his own life rather than face a future fraught with physical pain. But why should we not say that this patient was ‘coerced’ by his situation and therefore did not die by suicide? Because of their desires, loyalties, and values, both the spy and the ill patient saw themselves as having no other alternative, given their ends, but to cause their own deaths. In both instances, what the individual has reason to do was modified by circumstances outside their control so as to make death a rational option where it previously was not. Thus, there does not appear to be grounds for restricting coercion only to interference by other people, since factual circumstances can be similarly coercive. Either any factor, natural, human, or otherwise, that influences an individual’s reasoning so as to make death the most rational option counts as coercion, at which point condition (c) hardly functions as a restriction at all, or cases such as the spy facing torture are suicides too and (c) is unnecessary. (See Tolhurst 1983, 113–115.) Nor is it obvious that coercion necessarily changes the nature of a coerced act. A person coerced into singing is nevertheless singing. Hence, an act that is otherwise suicidal remains suicidal even if it is coerced (Paterson 2003).
This brief attempt at conceptual analysis of suicide illustrates the frustrations of such a project, as the unclear notion of suicide is apparently replaced by equally unclear notions such as intention and coercion. We may be attracted to increasingly convoluted analyses of suicide (Donnelly 1998, 20) or accept that suicide is an ‘open textured’ concept instances of which are bound together only by weak Wittgensteinian family resemblance and hence resistant to analysis in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions (Windt 1981).
An alternative to providing necessary and sufficient conditions for suicidal behavior is to view it along a continuum. In the psychological sciences, many suicidologists view suicide not as an either/or notion but as a gradient notion, admitting of degrees based on individuals’ beliefs, strength of intentions, and attitudes. The Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation is perhaps the best example of this approach. (See Beck 1979.)
This section outlines the main currents of historical philosophical thought about suicide in ‘the West’ (Europe, the Middle East, and North America). Such an emphasis should not obscure the rich traditions of thought originating outside those geographical confines, however. Important thinkers from Africa, Asia, and the indigenous populations of the Western hemisphere took a philosophical interest in suicide. Little appears to unite philosophical thinking about suicide from these traditions aside from the fact that they are far less influenced by monotheism than is the Western tradition. Some of the ethical considerations concerning suicide raised in these traditions are also found in Western thought. For instance, the claim that suicide may violate ethical duties to others is addressed by Confucius, who primarily views the matter through the lens of filial piety (Confucius 2003). Others, for example the Jain practice of, a type of spiritual fasting intended to hasten death, do not seem to have correlates in the Western tradition (Umaswati 1992). Unfortunately, the diversity of positions within the non-Western traditions preclude easy summation. Those interested in these traditions are urged to consult Battin (2015). (The online archive of Battin (2015) is particularly useful in this regard; users can search for philosophical writings on suicide based on geographic origin and intellectual tradition.)
Western philosophical discourse about suicide stretches back at least to the time of Plato. Still, prior to the Stoics at least, suicide tended to get sporadic rather than systematic attention from philosophers in the ancient Mediterranean world. As John Cooper has noted (Cooper 1989, 10), neither ancient Greek nor Latin had a single word that aptly translates our ‘suicide,’ even though most of the ancient city-states criminalized self-killing.
Plato explicitly discussed suicide in two works. First, in Phaedo, Socrates expresses guarded enthusiasm for the thesis, associated with the Pythagoreans, that suicide is always wrong because it represents our releasing ourselves (i.e., our souls) from a “guard-post” (i.e., our bodies) the gods have placed us in as a form of punishment (Phaedo 61b-62c). Later, in the Laws, Plato claimed that suicide is disgraceful and its perpetrators should be buried in unmarked graves. However, Plato recognized four exceptions to this principle: (1) when one’s mind is morally corrupted and one’s character can therefore not be salvaged (Laws IX 854a3–5), (2) when the self-killing is done by judicial order, as in the case of Socrates, (3) when the self-killing is compelled by extreme and unavoidable personal misfortune, and (4) when the self-killing results from shame at having participated in grossly unjust actions (Laws IX 873c-d). Suicide under these circumstances can be excused, but, according to Plato, it is otherwise an act of cowardice or laziness undertaken by individuals too delicate to manage life’s vicissitudes. Aristotle’s only discussion of suicide (Nicomachean Ethics 1138a5–14) occurs in the midst of a discussion of the possibility of treating oneself unjustly. Aristotle concludes that self-killing does not treat oneself unjustly so long as it is done voluntarily because the harm done to oneself is consensual. He concludes that suicide is somehow a wrong to the state or the community, though he does not outline the nature of this wrong or the specific vices that suicidal individuals exhibit.
To contemporary readers, the most striking feature of Plato’s and Aristotle’s texts on suicide is their relative absence of concern for individual well-being or rights. Both limit the justifications for suicide largely to considerations about an individual’s social roles and obligations. In contrast, the Stoics held that whenever the means to living a naturally flourishing life are not available to us, suicide may be justified, regardless of the character or virtue of the individual in question. Our natures require certain “natural advantages” (e.g., physical health) in order for us to be happy, and a wise person who recognizes that such advantages may be lacking in her life sees that ending her life neither enhances nor diminishes her moral virtue.
When a man’s circumstances contain a preponderance of things in accordance with nature, it is appropriate for him to remain alive; when he possesses or sees in prospect a majority of the contrary things, it is appropriate for him to depart from life…. Even for the foolish, who are also miserable, it is appropriate for them to remain alive if they possess a predominance of those things which we pronounce to be in accordance with nature (Cicero, III, 60–61).
Hence, not only may concerns related to one’s obligations to others justify suicide, but one’s own private good is relevant too. The Roman Stoic Seneca, who was himself compelled to engage in suicide, was even bolder, claiming that since “mere living is not a good, but living well”, a wise person “lives as long as he ought, not as long as he can.” For Seneca, it is the quality, not the quantity, of one’s life that matters.
The advent of institutional Christianity was perhaps the most important event in the philosophical history of suicide, for Christian doctrine has by and large held that suicide is morally wrong, despite the absence of clear Scriptural guidance regarding suicide. Although the early church fathers opposed suicide, St. Augustine is generally credited with offering the first justification of the Christian prohibition on suicide (Amundsen 1989). He saw the prohibition as a natural extension of the fifth commandment:
God’s command ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ is to be taken as forbidding self-destruction, especially as it does not add ‘thy neighbor’, as it does when it forbids false witness, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’ (Augustine, book I, chapter 20)
Suicide, Augustine determined, was an unrepentable sin. St. Thomas Aquinas later defended this prohibition on three grounds. (1) Suicide is contrary to natural self-love, whose aim is to preserve us. (2) Suicide injures the community of which an individual is a part. (3) Suicide violates our duty to God because God has given us life as a gift and in taking our lives we violate His right to determine the duration of our earthly existence (Aquinas 1271, part II, Q64, A5). This conclusion was codified in the medieval doctrine that suicide nullified human beings’ relationship to God, for our control over our body was limited to usus (possession, employment) where God retained dominium (dominion, authority). Law and popular practice in the Middle Ages sanctioned the desecration of the suicidal corpse, along with confiscation of the individual’s property and denial of Christian burial.
The rediscovery of numerous texts of classical antiquity was one of the spurs of the Renaissance, but for the most part, Renaissance intellectuals generally affirmed the Church’s opposition to suicide and were not sympathetic to the more permissive attitudes toward suicide found among the ancient pagans. Two intriguing sixteenth century exceptions were Thomas More and Michel de Montaigne. In his Utopia, More appears to recommend voluntary suicide for those suffering from painful and incurable diseases, though the satirical and fantastical tone of that work makes it doubtful that More supported this proposal in reality. In his Essais, Montaigne relates several anecdotes of individuals taking their own lives and intersperses these anecdotes with quotations from Roman writers praising suicide. While his general skepticism prevented Montaigne from staking out a firm moral position on suicide, he gives only a nod to the orthodox Christian position and conceptualizes the issue not in traditional theological terms but as a matter of personal judgment or conscience (Minois 1999, 89–92).
The Protestant Reformers, including Calvin, condemned suicide as roundly as did the established Church, but held out the possibility of God treating suicide mercifully and permitting repentance. Interest in moral questions concerning suicide was particularly strong in this period among England’s Protestants, notably the Puritans (Sprott 1961). Nonetheless, the traditional Christian view prevailed well into the late seventeenth century, where even an otherwise liberal thinker such as John Locke echoed earlier Thomistic arguments, claiming that though God bestowed upon us our natural personal liberty, that liberty does not include the liberty to destroy oneself (Locke 1690, ch. 2, para. 6).
In all likelihood, the first comprehensive modern defense of suicide was John Donne’s Biathanatos (c. 1607). Not intended for publication, Biathanatos drew upon an array of classical and modern legal and theological sources to argue that Christian doctrine should not hold that suicide is necessarily sinful. His critique is in effect internal, drawing upon the logic of Christian thought itself to suggest that suicide is not contrary to the laws of nature, of reason, or of God. Were it contrary to the law of nature mandating self-preservation, all acts of self-denial or privation would be similarly unlawful. Moreover, there may be circumstances in which reason might recommend suicide. Finally, Donne observes, not only does Biblical Scripture lack a clear condemnation of suicide, Christian doctrine has permitted other forms of killing such as martyrdom, capital punishment and killing in wartime (Minois 1999, 20–21).
Donne’s casuistical treatise was an early example of the liberalized Enlightenment attitudes of the 1700s. The Thomistic natural-law stance on suicide came under increasing attack as suicide was examined through the lens of science and psychology. Where Christian theology has understood suicide as “an affair between the devil and the individual sinner” (Minois 1999, 300), Enlightenment philosophers tended to conceive of suicide in secular terms, as resulting from facts about individuals, their natural psychologies, and their particular social settings. David Hume gave voice to this new approach with a direct assault on the Thomistic position in his unpublished essay “Of suicide” (1783). Hume saw traditional attitudes toward suicide as muddled and superstitious. According to the Thomistic argument, suicide violates the order God established for the world and usurps God’s prerogative in determining when we shall die. Hume’s argument against this thesis is intricate and rests on the following considerations:
If by the ‘divine order’ is meant the causal laws created by God, then it would always be wrong to contravene these laws for the sake of our own happiness. But clearly it is not wrong, since God frequently permits us to contravene these laws, for he does not expect us not to respond to disease or other calamities. Therefore, there is not apparent justification, as Hume put it, for God’s permitting us to disturb nature in some circumstances but not in others. Just as God permits us to divert rivers for irrigation, so too ought he permit us to divert blood from our veins. If by ‘divine order’ is meant the natural laws God has willed for us, which are (a) discerned by reason, (b) such that adherence to them will produce our happiness, then why should not suicide conform to such laws when it appears rational to us that the balance of our happiness is best served by dying? Finally if by ‘divine order’ is meant simply that which occurs according to God’s consent, then God appears to consent to all our actions (since an omnipotent God can presumably intervene in our acts at any point) and no distinction exists between those of our actions to which God consents and those to which He does not. If God has placed us upon the Earth like a “sentinel,” then our choosing to leave this post and take our lives occurs as much with his cooperation as with any other act we perform.
Furthermore, suicide does not necessarily violate any duties toward other people, according to Hume. Reciprocity may require that we benefit society in exchange for the benefits it provides, but surely such reciprocity reaches its limit when by living we provide only a “frivolous advantage” to society at the expense of significant harm or suffering for ourselves. In more extreme situations, we are actually burdens to others, in which case our deaths are not only “innocent, but laudable.”
Finally, Hume rejects the thesis that suicide violates our duties to self. Sickness, old age, and other misfortunes can make life sufficiently miserable that continued existence is worse than death. As to worries that people are likely to attempt to take their lives capriciously, Hume replies that our natural fear of death ensures that only after careful deliberation and assessment of our future prospects will we have the courage and clarity of mind to kill ourselves.
In the end, Hume concludes that suicide “may be free of imputation of guilt and blame.” His position is largely utilitarian, allied with a strong presumption of personal liberty. The Enlightenment was of course not univocal in its comparatively permissive attitudes toward suicide. The most noteworthy opponent of suicide in this period was Immanuel Kant. Kant’s arguments, though they reflect earlier natural law arguments, draw upon his view of moral worth as emanating from the autonomous rational wills of individuals (Cholbi 2000, 2010). For Kant, our rational wills are the source of our moral duty, and it is therefore a kind of practical contradiction to suppose that the same will can permissibly destroy the very body that carries out its volitions and choices. Given the distinctive worth of an autonomous rational will, suicide is an attack on the very source of moral authority.
To annihilate the subject of morality in one’s person is to root out the existence of morality itself from the world as far as one can, even though morality is an end in itself. Consequently, disposing of oneself as a mere means to some discretionary end is debasing humanity in one’s person… (Kant 423)
(For a contemporary expression of this Kantian view of suicide, see Velleman 1999.)
The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought several developments that, while not explicitly philosophical, have shaped philosophical thought about suicide. The first was the emergence, in novels by Rousseau, Goethe, and Flaubert, of a Romantic idealized ‘script’ for suicide, according to which suicide was the inevitable response of a misunderstood and anguished soul jilted by love or shunned by society (Lieberman 2003). The second was the emergence of psychiatry as an autonomous discipline, populated by experts capable of diagnosing and treating melancholy, hysteria and other ailments responsible for suicide. Lastly, largely thanks to the work of sociologists such as Durkheim and Laplace, suicide was increasingly viewed as a social ill reflecting widespread alienation, anomie, and other attitudinal byproducts of modernity. In many European nations, the rise in suicide rates was thought to signal a cultural decline. These latter two developments made suicide prevention a bureaucratic and medical preoccupation, leading to a wave of institutionalization for suicidal persons. All three conspired to suggest that suicide is caused by impersonal social or psychological forces rather than by the agency of individuals.
The principal moral issue surrounding suicide has been
Are there conditions under which suicide is morally justified, and if so, which conditions?
Several important historical answers to (1) have already been mentioned.
This question should be distinguished from three others:
Should other individuals attempt to prevent suicide? Should the state criminalize suicide or attempt to prevent it? Is suicide ever rational or prudent?
Obviously, answers to any one of these four questions will bear on how the other three ought to be answered. For instance, it might be assumed that if suicide is morally permissible in some circumstances, then neither other individuals nor the state should interfere with suicidal behavior (in those same circumstances). However, this conclusion might not follow if those same suicidal individuals are irrational and interference is required in order to prevent them from taking their lives, an outcome they would regret were they more fully rational. Furthermore, for those moral theories that emphasize rational autonomy, whether an individual has rationally chosen to take her own life may settle all four questions. In any event, the interrelationships among suicide’s moral permissibility, its rationality, and the duties of others and of society as a whole is complex, and we should be wary of assuming that an answer to any one of these four questions decisively settles the other three.
The simplest moral outlook on suicide holds that it is necessarily wrong because human life is sacred. Though this position is often associated with religious thinkers, especially Catholics, Ronald Dworkin (1993) points out that atheists may appeal to this claim as well. According to this ‘sanctity of life’ view, human life is inherently valuable and precious, demanding respect from others and reverence for oneself. Hence, suicide is wrong because it violates our moral duty to honor the inherent value of human life, regardless of the value of that life to others or to the person whose life it is. The sanctity of life view is thus a deontological position on suicide.
The great merit of the sanctity of life position is that it reflects a common moral sentiment, namely, that killing is wrong in itself. The chief difficulties for the sanctity of life position are these:
First, its proponents must be willing to apply the position consistently, which would also morally forbid controversial forms of killing such as capital punishment or killing in wartime. But it would also forbid forms of killing that seem intuitively reasonable, such as killing in self-defense. To accept the sanctity of life argument seems to require endorsing a thoroughgoing pacifism. Secondly, the sanctity of life view must hold that life itself, wholly independent of the happiness of the individual whose life it is, is valuable. Many philosophers reject the notion that life is intrinsically valuable, since it suggests, e.g., that there is value in keeping alive an individual in a persistent vegetative state simply because she is biologically alive. It would also suggest that a life certain to be filled with limitless suffering and anguish is valuable just by virtue of being a human life. Peter Singer (1994) and others have argued against the sanctity of life position on the grounds that the value of a continuing life is not intrinsic but extrinsic, to be judged on the basis of the individual’s likely future quality of life. If the value of a person’s continued life is measured by its likely quality, then suicide may be permissible when that quality is low (see section 3.5) (This is not to suggest that quality of life assessments are straightforward or uncontroversial. See Hayry 1991 for discussion). Finally, it is not obvious that adequate respect for the sanctity of human life prohibits ending a life, whether by suicide or other means. Those who engage in suicidal behavior when their future promises to be extraordinarily bleak do not necessarily exhibit insufficient regard for the sanctity of life (Dworkin 1993, 238). To end one’s life before its natural end is not necessarily an insult to the value of life. Indeed, it may be argued that suicide may be life-affirming in those circumstances where medical or psychological conditions reduce individuals to shadows of their former fully capable selves (Cholbi 2002).
Two general categories of arguments for the moral impermissibility of suicide have emerged from the Christian religious tradition. The first of these is the aforementioned Thomistic natural law position, critiqued by Hume (see section 2.3) According to this tradition, suicide violates the natural law God has created to govern the natural world and human existence. This natural law can be conceived of in terms of (a) natural causal laws, such that suicide violates this causal order, (b) teleological laws, according to which all natural beings seek to preserve themselves, or (c) the laws governing human nature, from which it follows that suicide is ‘unnatural’ (Pabst Battin 1996, 41–48). These natural law arguments are no longer the main focus of philosophical discussion, as they have been subjected to strenuous criticism by Hume and others (though see Gay-Williams 1996). These criticisms include the following: (1) the natural law arguments cannot be disentangled from a highly speculative theistic metaphysics; (2) the claims of natural law are confuted by observations of human nature (e.g., the existence of self-destructive human behaviors casts doubt on the claim that we “naturally” preserve ourselves); and (3) other acts (e.g., religious martyrdom) which God is assumed not to condemn, also violate these natural laws, making the prohibition on suicide appear arbitrary.
The second general category of religious arguments rest on analogies concerning the relationship between God and humanity. For the most part, these arguments aim to establish that God, and not human individuals, has the proper moral authority to determine the circumstances of their deaths. One historically prominent analogy (suggested by Aquinas and Locke) states that we are God’s property and so suicide is a wrong to God akin to theft or destruction of property. This analogy seems weak on several fronts. First, if we are God’s property, we are an odd sort of property, in that God apparently bestowed upon us free will that permits us to act in ways that are inconsistent with God’s wishes or intentions. It is difficult to see how an autonomous entity with free will can be subject to the kind of control or dominion to which other sorts of property are subject. Second, the argument appears to rest on the assumption that God does not wish his property destroyed. Yet given the traditional theistic conception of God as not lacking in any way, how could the destruction of something God owns (a human life) be a harm to God or to his interests (Holley 1989, 105)? Third, it is difficult to reconcile this argument with the claim that God is all-loving. If a person’s life is sufficiently bad, an all-loving God might permit his property to be destroyed through suicide. Finally, some have questioned the extent of the duties imposed by God’s property right in us by arguing that the destruction of property might be morally justified in order to prevent significant harm to oneself. If the only available means to saving myself from a ticking bomb is to stash it in the trunk of the nearest car to dampen the blast, and the nearest car belongs to my neighbor, then destroying his property appears justified in order to avoid serious harm to myself. Likewise, if only by killing myself can I avoid a serious future harm to myself, I appear justified in destroying my life even if it is God’s property.
Another common analogy asserts that God bestows life upon us as a gift, and it would be a mark of ingratitude or neglect to reject that gift by taking our lives. The obvious weakness with this “gift analogy” is that a gift, genuinely given, does not come with conditions such as that suggested by the analogy, i.e., once given, a gift becomes the property of its recipient and its giver no longer has any claim on what the recipient does with this gift. It may perhaps be imprudent to waste an especially valuable gift, but it does not appear to be unjust to a gift giver to do so. As Kluge (1975, 124) put it, “a gift we cannot reject is not a gift”. A variation of this line of argument holds that we owe God a debt of gratitude for our lives, and so to kill ourselves would be disrespectful or even insulting to God, (Ramsey 1978, 146) or would amount to an irresponsible use of this gift. Yet this variation does not really evade the criticism directed at the first version: Even if we owe God a debt of gratitude, disposing of our lives does not seem inconsistent with our expressing gratitude for having lived at all (Beauchamp 1992). Furthermore, if a person’s life is rife with misery and unhappiness, it is far from clear that she owes God much in the way of gratitude for this apparently ill-chosen “gift” of life. Defenders of the gift analogy must therefore defend the claim that life, simply because it is given to us by a loving God, is an expression of God’s benevolent nature and is therefore necessarily a benefit to us (Holley 1989, 113–114).
In addition, there is a less recognized undercurrent of religious thought that favors suicide. For example, suicide permits us to reunite with deceased loved ones, allows those who have been absolved of sin to assure their entrance to heaven, and releases the soul from the bondage of the body. In both Christian and Asian religious traditions, suicide holds the promise of a vision of, or union with, the divine (Pabst Battin 1996, 53–64).
For libertarians, suicide is morally permissible because individuals enjoy a right to suicide. (It does not of course follow that suicide is necessarily rational or prudent.) Libertarianism, which has historical precedent in the Stoics and in Schopenhauer, is strongly associated with the ‘anti-psychiatry’ movement of the last half century. According to that movement, attempts by the state or by the medical profession to interfere with suicidal behavior are essentially coercive attempts to pathologize morally permissible exercises of individual freedom (Szasz 2002).
Libertarianism typically asserts that the right to suicide is a right of noninterference, to wit, that others are morally barred from interfering with suicidal behavior. Some assert the stronger claim that the right to suicide is a liberty right, such that individuals have no duty to forego suicide (i.e., that suicide violates no moral duties), or a claim right, according to which other individuals may be morally obliged not only not to interfere with a person’s suicidal behavior but to assist in that behavior. (See the entry on rights.) Our having a claim right to suicide implies that we also have rights of noninterference and of liberty and is a central worry about physician-assisted suicide (Pabst Battin 1996, 163–164). Since whether we have a liberty right to suicide concerns whether it violates other moral obligations, including obligations to other people, I shall leave discussion of that issue to section 3.5 and focus here on whether there is a right of noninterference. (Whether suicidal individuals have a claim right to others’ assistance is addressed in section 3.8.)
A popular basis supporting a right to suicide is the idea that we own our bodies and hence are morally permitted to dispose of them as we wish. (Recall from section 3.3 that some religious arguments for the impermissibility of suicide depend on God’s ownership of our bodies.) On this view, our relationship to our bodies is like that of our relationship to other items over which we enjoy property rights: Just as our having a right to a wristwatch permits us to use, improve, and dispose of it as we wish, so too does our having a right to our bodies permit us to dispose of them as we see fit. Consequently, since property rights are exclusive (i.e., our having property rights to a thing prohibits others from interfering with it), others may not interfere with our efforts to end our lives. The notion of self-ownership invoked in this argument is quite murky though. What enables us to own ordinary material items is their metaphysical distinctness from us (Cholbi 2011, 84–86). We can own a wristwatch only because it is distinct from us. Materialist philosophers, who hold that we are identical to our bodies, would deny that our bodies are distinct from ourselves, and even under the most dualistic views of human nature, our selves are sufficiently dependent upon our bodies to make ownership of the body by the self an implausible notion. Indeed, the fact that certain ways of treating ordinary property are not available to us as ways of treating our bodies (we cannot give away or sell our bodies in any literal sense) suggests that self-ownership may be only a metaphor meant to capture a deeper moral relationship (Kluge 1975, 119). In addition, uses of one’s property, including its destruction, can be harmful to others. Thus, in cases where suicide may harm others, we may be morally required to refrain from suicide. (See section 3.5 for arguments concerning duties to others.)
Another rationale for a right of noninterference is the claim that we have a general right to decide those matters that are most intimately connected to our well-being, including the duration of our lives and the circumstances of our deaths. On this view, the right to suicide follows from a deeper right to self-determination, a right to shape the circumstances of our lives so long as we do not harm or imperil others (Cholbi 2011, 88–89). As presented in the “death with dignity” movement, the right to suicide is the natural corollary of the right to life. That is, because individuals have the right not to be killed by others, the only person with the moral right to determine the circumstances of a person’s death is that person herself and others are therefore barred from trying to prevent a person’s efforts at self-inflicted death.
This position is open to at least two objections. First, it does not seem to follow from having a right to life that a person has a right to death, i.e., a right to take her own life. Because others are morally prohibited from killing me, it does not follow that I am permitted to kill me. This conclusion is made stronger if the right to life is inalienable, since in order for me to kill myself, I must first renounce my inalienable right to life, which I cannot do (Feinberg 1978). It is at least possible that no one has the right to determine the circumstances of a person’s death! Furthermore, as with the property-based argument, the right to self-determination is presumably circumscribed by the possibility of harm to others.
A fourth approach to the question of suicide’s permissibility asks not whether others may interfere with suicidal behavior but whether we have a liberty right to suicide, whether, that is, suicide violates any moral duties to others. Those who argue that suicide can violate our duties to others generally claim that suicide can harm either specific others (family, friends, etc.) or is a harm to the community as a whole.
No doubt the suicide of a family member or loved one produces a number of harmful psychological and economic effects. In addition to the usual grief, suicide “survivors” confront a complex array of feelings. Various forms of guilt are quite common, such as that arising from (a) the belief that one contributed to the suicidal person’s anguish, or (b) the failure to recognize that anguish, or (c) the inability to prevent the suicidal act itself. Suicide also leads to rage, loneliness, and awareness of vulnerability in those left behind. Indeed, the sense that suicide is an essentially selfish act dominates many popular perceptions of suicide (Fedden 1938, 209). Still, some of these reactions may be due to the strong stigma and shame associated with suicide, in which case these reactions cannot, without logical circularity, be invoked in arguments that suicide is wrong because it produces these psychological reactions (Pabst Battin 1996, 68–69). Suicide can also cause clear economic or material harm, as when the suicidal person leaves behind dependents unable to support themselves financially. Suicide can therefore be understood as a violation of the distinctive “role obligations” applicable to spouses, parents, caretakers, and loved ones. However, even if suicide is harmful to family members or loved ones, this does not support an absolute prohibition on suicide, since some suicides will not leave survivors, and among those that do, the extent of these harms is likely to differ such that the stronger these relationships are, the more harmful suicide is and the more likely it is to be morally wrong. Besides, from a utilitarian perspective, these harms would have to be weighed against the harms done to the would-be suicide by continuing to live a difficult or painful life. At most, the argument that suicide is a harm to family and to loved ones establishes that it is sometimes wrong (Cholbi 2011, 62–64).
A second brand of social argument echoes Aristotle in asserting that suicide is a harm to the community or the state. One general form such arguments take is that because a community depends on the economic and social productivity of its members, its members have an obligation to contribute to their society, an obligation clearly violated by suicide (Pabst Battin 1996, 70–78, Cholbi 2011, 58–60). For example, suicide denies a society the labor provided by its members, or in the case of those with irreplaceable talents such as medicine, art, or political leadership, the crucial goods their talents enable them to provide. Another version states that suicide deprives society of whatever individuals might contribute to society morally (by way of charity, beneficence, moral example, etc.) Still, it is difficult to show that a society has a moral claim on its members’ labor, talents, or virtue that compels its members to contribute to societal well-being no matter what. After all, individuals often fail to contribute as much as they might in terms of their labor or special talents without incurring moral blame. It does not therefore seem to be the case that individuals are morally required to benefit society in whatever way they are capable, regardless of the harms to themselves. Again, this line of argument appears to show at most only that suicide is sometimes wrong, namely, when the benefit (in terms of future harm not suffered) the individual gains by dying is less than the benefits she would deny to society by dying.
A modification of this argument claims that suicide violates a person’s duty of reciprocity to society (Cholbi 2011, 60–62). On this view, an individual and the society in which she lives stand in a reciprocal relationship such that in exchange for the goods the society has provided to the individual, the individual must continue to live in order to provide her society with the goods that relationship demands. Yet in envisioning the relationship between society and the individual as quasi-contractual in nature, the reciprocity argument reveals its principal flaw: The conditions of this “contract” may not be met, and also, once met, impose no further obligations upon the parties. As Baron d’Holbach (1970, 136–137) pointed out, the contract between an individual and her society is a conditional one, presupposing “mutual advantages between the contracting parties.” Hence, if a society fails to fulfill its obligations under the contract, namely to provide individuals with the goods needed for a decent quality of life, then the individual is not morally required to live in order to reciprocate an arrangement that society has already reneged on. Moreover, once an individual has discharged her obligations under this societal contract, she no longer is under an obligation to continue her life. Hence, the aged or others who have already made substantial contributions to societal welfare would be morally permitted to engage in suicide under this argument.
To this point, we have addressed arguments that concern whether a moral permission to engage in suicidal behavior exists, and indeed, it is this question that has dominated ethical discussion of suicide. Yet the social arguments against suicide are fundamentally consequentialist, and some act-utilitarians have discussed the correlative possibility that the good consequences of suicide might so outweigh its bad consequences as to render suicide admirable or even morally obligatory (Cosculluela 1995, 76–81). In fact, in some cases, suicide may be honorable. Suicides that are clearly other-regarding, aiming at protecting the lives or well-being of others, or at political protest, may fall into this category (Kupfer 1990, 73–74). Examples of this might include the grenade-jumping soldier mentioned earlier, or the spy who takes his life in order not to be subjected to torture that will lead to his revealing vital military secrets. Utilitarians have given particular attention to the question of end-of-life euthanasia, suggesting that at the very least, those with painful terminal illnesses have a right to voluntary euthanasia (Glover 1990, chs. 14–15, Singer 1993, ch. 7). Yet utilitarian views hold that we have a moral duty to maximize happiness, from which it follows that when an act of suicide will produce more happiness than will remaining alive, then that suicide is not only morally permitted, but morally required.
However, the thesis that there may exist a “duty to die” need not be defended by appeal to overtly consequentialist or utilitarian reasoning. In the course of articulating what he terms a “family-centered” approach to bioethics, the philosopher John Hardwig (1996, 1997) has argued that sometimes the burdens that a person imposes on others, particularly family members or loved ones, by continuing to live are sufficiently great that one may have a duty to die in order to relieve them of these burdens. Hardwig’s argument thus seems to turn not on the overall balance of costs and benefits that result from a person living or dying, but on the fairness of the burdens that a person imposes on others by continuing to live.
While generally acknowledging Hardwig’s suggestion that duties to others have been neglected in discussion of the ethics of suicide, critics of morally required suicide raise a number of objections to his proposal. (See Hardwig et al. 2000, Humber & Almeder 2000.) Some doubt that the duty of beneficence to which Hardwig appeals justifies anything stronger than a permission to take one’s own life when continuing to live is burdensome to others (Cholbi 2010b). Others worry that a moral requirement to engage in suicide raises the sinister and totalitarian prospect that individuals may be obliged to engage in suicide against their wishes (Moreland & Geisler 1990, 94, Pabst Battin 1996, 94–95). This worry may reflect an implicit acceptance of a variation of the sanctity of life view (see section 3.2) or may reflect concerns about infringements upon individual’s autonomy (see section 3.6). Other critics suggest that even if there is a duty to die, this duty should not be understood as a duty that entails that others may compel those with such a duty to take their lives (Menzel 2000, Narveson 2000). Questions about social justice and equality (whether, for example, especially vulnerable populations such as women or the poor might be more likely to act on such a duty) are also raised. One utilitarian response to these objections is to reject a duty to die on rule utilitarian grounds: Suicide would be morally forbidden because general adherence to a rule prohibiting suicide would produce better overall consequences than would general adherence to a rule permitting suicide (Brandt 1975, Pabst Battin 1996, 96–98).
A more restricted version of the claim that we have a right to noninterference regarding suicide holds that suicide is permitted so long as—leaving aside questions of duties to others—it is rationally chosen. In a similar vein, Kantians might claim that suicidal choices must be respected if those choices are autonomous, that is, if an individual chooses to end her life on the basis of reasons that she acknowledges as relevant to her situation. Such positions are narrower than the libertarian view, in that they permit suicide only when it is performed on a rational basis (or a rational basis that the individual acknowledges as relevant to her situation) and permits others to interfere only when it is not performed on that basis.
One initial challenge to the possibility of rational suicide rests on the notion that suicide, being a choice to end one’s life, is necessarily irrational. The thought here is that any coherent judgment of suicide’s rationality requires comparing the state of being alive (or continuing to live) with being dead. But either because no one has sufficient knowledge of the state of being dead (Devine 1978) or because suicide ensures that the suicidal person has no future to look forward to (Cowley 2006), judgments that ending one’s life is rational are incoherent or misplaced.
In recent years, this ‘two-state’ requirement (that death can only be judged rational or irrational if it is possible to compare the state of being alive with the state of being dead) has been widely rejected. In particular, the rationality of the decision to end one’s life need not be construed in terms of the value of being alive versus the value of being dead (Luper 2009, 82–88). What those contemplating ending their lives are considering are different durations of their lives, or as Richard Brandt put it:
The person who is contemplating suicide is obviously making a choice between future world-courses: the world-course that includes his demise, say, an hour from now, and several possible ones that contain his demise at a later point… The basic question a person must answer in order to determine which world-course is best or rational for him to choose, is which he would choose under conditions of optimal use of information, when all of his desires are taken into account. (Brandt 1975)
Hence, on this view, a rational judgment about one’s own death requires a comparison between the overall goodness of one’s life as it would be if it continued on its present course and the overall goodness of one’s life if that life ended before its present course. This view has given rise to a rich philosophical literature trying to identify the conditions under which a person’s decision to die is rational. For the most part, this literature divides the conditions for rational suicide into cognitive conditions, conditions ensuring that individuals’ appraisals of their situation are rational and well-informed, and interest conditions, conditions ensuring that suicide in fact accords with individuals’ considered interests.
Examples of this approach include Glenn Graber, who states that a suicide is rationally justified “if a reasonable appraisal of the situation reveals that one is better off dead.” (Graber 1981, 65). An appraisal is reasonable, according to Graber, if it results from a clearheaded assessment of how suicide would further or impede one’s overall interests, including one’s present and probable future values and preferences. Margaret Battin identifies three cognitive conditions for rational suicide (a facility for causal and inferential reasoning, possession of a realistic world view, and adequacy of information relevant to one’s decision), along with two interest conditions (that dying enables one to avoid future harms, and that dying accords with one’s most fundamental interests and commitments) (Pabst Battin 1996, 115).
For the most part, suicidal individuals do not manifest signs of systemic irrationality, much less the signs of legally definable insanity, (Radden 1982) and engage in suicidal conduct voluntarily. However, these facts are consistent with the choice to engage in suicidal behavior being irrational, and serious questions can be raised about just how often the conditions for rational suicide are met in actual cases of self-inflicted death. Indeed, the possibility of rational suicide requires that certain assumptions about suicidal individuals’ rational autonomy be true which may not be in many cases. A person’s choice to undertake suicidal behavior may not be a reflection of her considered interests and her self-inflicted death could be an act that she would, in calmer and clearer moments, recoil at. In other words, even if there is a right to suicide rooted in the value of rational autonomy, it seems to imply a right to suicide only when one makes that determination on minimally rational grounds, and there are numerous factors that may compromise a person’s rational autonomy and hence make the decision to engage in suicidal behavior not a reflection of one’s considered values or aims. Some of these factors cognitively distort agents’ deliberation about whether to engage in suicide. Though many suicidal persons engage in extensive planning for their own deaths, the final determination to end one’s life is often impulsive, reflecting the intense psychological vulnerability of suicidal persons and their proclivity toward volatility and agitation (Cholbi 2002, Joiner 2010, 70–84). Suicidal persons can also have difficulty fully acknowledging the finality of their death, believing that (assuming there is no afterlife) they will somehow continue to be subjects of conscious experience after they die.
Particularly worrisome is the evident link between suicidal thoughts and mental illnesses such as depression. While disagreement continues about the strength of this link (Pabst Battin 1996, 5) little doubt exists that the presence of depression or other mood disorders greatly increases the likelihood of suicidal behavior. Some studies of suicide indicate that over 90% of suicidal persons displayed symptoms of depression before death, while others estimate that suicide is at least 20 times more common among those with clinical depression than in the general population. In cases of suicide linked with depression, individuals’ attitudes toward their own death are colored by strongly negative and occasionally distorted beliefs about their life situations (career prospects, relationships, etc.). As Brandt (1975) observed, depression can “primitivize one’s intellectual processes,” leading to poor estimation of probabilities and an irrational focus on present suffering rather than on possible good future states of affairs. The suicidally depressed can also exhibit romanticized and grandiose beliefs about the likely effects of their deaths (delusions of martyrdom, revenge, etc.) Furthermore, suicidal persons are often hesitant about their own actions, hoping that others will intervene and signaling to others the hope that they will intervene (Shneidman 1985). Finally, although repeated suicide attempts by the same individual are common, the impulse to suicidal behavior is often transient and dissipates of its own accord (Blauner 2003). Taken together, these considerations indicate that the scope of suicidal conduct that genuinely manifests fully informed and rational self-evaluation may be rare and so only occasionally will suicide be rational or morally permissible. Moreover, if suicide is frequently not an expression of individuals’ rational appraisal of their own well-being, that suggests that others may have a prima facie reason to interfere with suicidal behavior and so is there is no general right to noninterference. (See section 3.7.)
With the exception of the libertarian position that each person has a right against others that they not interfere with her suicidal intentions (Szasz 2002) each of the moral positions on suicide we have addressed so far would appear to justify others intervening in suicidal plans, at least on some occasions. Little justification is necessary for actions that aim to prevent another’s suicide but are non-coercive. Pleading with a suicidal individual, trying to convince her of the value of continued life, recommending counseling, etc. are morally unproblematic, since they do not interfere with the individual’s conduct or plans except by engaging her rational capacities (Cosculluela 1994, 35; Cholbi 2002, 252). The more challenging moral question is whether more coercive measures such as physical restraint, medication, deception, or institutionalization are ever justified to prevent suicide and when. In short, the question of suicide intervention is a question of how to justify paternalistic interference (Kleinig 1983, 96–104).
As mentioned in section 3.6, the impulse toward suicide is often sporadic, ambivalent, and influenced by mental illnesses such as depression, all indicators that suicide may be undertaken with less than full rationality. And while individuals usually have the right to make bad or irrational decisions on their own behalf, these indicators, when juxtaposed with the stakes of the decision to end one’s life (that death is irreversible, that continued life is a condition of all other goods, etc.), justify intervention in others’ suicidal plans on the ‘soft’ paternalist grounds that suicide is not in the individual’s interests as they would rationally conceive those interests. We might call this the ‘no regrets’ or ‘err on the side of life’ approach to suicide intervention (Martin 1980; Pabst Battin 1996, 141; Cholbi 2002). Since most situations in which another person intends to kill herself will be ones where we are unsure of whether she is rationally choosing to die, it is better to temporarily prevent “an informed person who is in control of himself from committing suicide” than to do “nothing while, say, a confused person kills himself, especially since, in all likelihood, the would-be suicide could make another attempt if this one were prevented and since the suicidal option is irreversible if successful” (Cosculluela 1994, 40). Further psychiatric or medical examinations may settle the matter regarding the rationality of the suicidal individual’s decision. The coerciveness of the measures used should be proportional to the apparent seriousness of the suicidal person’s intention to die (Cholbi 2011, 122–129).
Lastly, if there is sometimes a duty to prevent acts of suicide, is it ever morally permissible, or even morally obligatory, to aid others in ending their lives? (This possibility is directly related to physician-assisted suicide and the larger question of whether the right to suicide is a claim right.) If there are circumstances that justify our intervening to prevent suicide undertaken irrationally or contrary to a person’s self-interest, then the same paternalistic rationale would justify our helping to promote or enable those suicides that are rational and in accordance with a person’s self-interest.
Critics of a duty to assist in suicide assert that the widespread moral acceptance of aiding others in suicide invites the prospect of a ‘slippery slope,’ wherein assisted suicide becomes so commonplace that individuals (particularly members of vulnerable populations such as the aged, the disabled, or socially marginalized populations) for whom suicide is not rational could nevertheless be susceptible to various forms of abuse, manipulation, or undue pressure, By giving license for others to assist in suicides, critics allege, we may unwittingly permit them to encourage suicides not because those suicides are in fact in the best interests of the individual in question, but because those suicides advance the interests of other people or of institutions.(Pabst Battin 1996, 145–157). Whether such ‘slippery slope’ worries are warranted is an empirical matter, and existing studies of societies that have legalized assisted suicide by medical personnel do not provide unequivocal support for these worries (Cholbi 2011, 148–157).
Sections 3.1-3.8 largely address suicide as a question of interpersonal morality, that is, as a question about our duties to one another (though it should be noted that Kant’s opposition to suicide was rooted in his belief that it violates duties we owe to ourselves rather than duties we owe to others). However, suicide also raises what might be termed ethical questions, such as whether suicide exemplifies virtue. Bogen (1980) observes that even when we have adequately determined that a given act of suicide is morally permissible, questions remain about whether that act represents “the best way to live and to end one’s life.” A full normative account of suicide may thus require us to supplement the language of interpersonal obligation and rights with the language of virtues and vices: Under what conditions does an act of suicide exhibit such virtues as courage, generosity, or justice? Conversely, under what conditions does an act of suicide exhibit such vices as cowardice, selfishness, or rashness? While such questions are germane to whether suicide is defensible all things considered, they are infrequently addressed in the philosophical literature (though see van Zyl 2000; Hardwig 1997 can plausibly be read as claiming that continuing to live is sometimes selfish).
Suicide also raises other normative questions that are not obviously moral, such as how suicide may contribute to or detract from the meaningfulness of an individual’s life. For the twentieth century existentialists, suicide was not a choice to be made mainly by appeal to moral considerations but by analyzing whether suicide is an appropriate response to the absurdity or meaninglessness of the world and of human endeavor. Albert Camus illustrated this absurdity in his philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus. For Camus, Sisyphus heroically does not try to escape his absurd task of endlessly and futilely pushing a rock up a mountain, but instead perseveres and in so doing resists the lure of suicide. Suicide, Camus contends, tempts us with the promise of an illusory freedom from the absurdity of our existence, but is in the end an abdication of our responsibility to confront or defy that absurdity head on (Campbell and Collinson 1988, 61–70). Jean-Paul Sartre was likewise struck by the possibility of suicide as an assertion of authentic human will in the face of absurdity. Suicide represents, according to Sartre, an opportunity to stake out our understanding of our essence as individuals in a godless world. Questions of whether a life saturated with pain or suffering can be meaningful have also played a part in recent debates about the justification of assisted suicide (Little 1999, Varelius 2013).
As the foregoing discussion indicates, suicide has been and continues to be a rich field of philosophical investigation. Recent advances in medical technology are responsible for the extensive philosophical attention paid to one kind of suicide, euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide (PAS), while more “run-of-the-mill” suicide motivated by psychological anguish is somewhat overlooked. This is somewhat unfortunate: Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide raise issues beyond those associated with other suicides, including the allocation of health care resources, the nature of the medical profession, the patient-physician relationship, and the prospect that allowing relatively benign forms of killing such as voluntary euthanasia of PAS will lead down a “slippery slope” to more morally worrisome killings. However, many of the same issues and concerns that surround PAS and euthanasia also surround run-of-the mill suicide, and many writers who address the former often disregard the vast literature on the latter. (In addition to the entry on voluntary euthanasia, Dworkin et al. 1998, Barry 2007, Pabst Battin 2003, and Cholbi 2011, 139–61, provide overviews of the moral debates surrounding euthanasia and PAS.)
Not only is suicide worthy of philosophical investigation in its own right, it is a source of insight for various philosophical subdisciplines: moral psychology, ethical theory, social and political philosophy, the metaphysics of personhood, and action theory. Suicide is also an area where philosophical interests intersect with those of the empirical sciences. The collective efforts of philosophers and others continue to illuminate one of the most enigmatic of human behaviors. |
FANTASY BASEBALL 2016
PARRA YOUR WORLD
(Gerardo Parra)
*FROM MUNTRADAMUS*
Josh Hillinger has been part of the BEAST DOME NATION before BEAST DOME was BEAST DOME. He is an avid Fantasy Player and has been learning under my wing since the 2011 Fantasy Sports Season. Many of the VIPs know him as J-Hill or J-Hillionare. He expressed to me he was applying to write for other Fantasy Sites, so instead of letting him go to the jungle with my playbook on his mind, he is now one of the lead writers for BEAST DOME.
Enjoy the article.
FANTASY BASEBALL 2016
PARRA YOUR WORLD
By Josh Hillinger
There’s a potential 20/20 candidate.
He’s batting fifth for the Colorado Rockies.
The players in front of him are on base a third of the time.
And he could be yours for a 9th or 10th round pick.
TAP THE ROCKIES
A rule of thumb: draft Colorado Rockies.
If you don’t already know, the Rockies play in Coors Field. Coors Field is at a high altitude – 5280 feet above sea level. Higher altitudes have thinner air, which means there is less friction.
Translation: The ball goes farther when it’s hit.
from the Colorado Rockies website*:
It is estimated that a home run hit 400 feet in sea-level Yankee Stadium would travel about 408 feet in Atlanta and as far as 440 feet in the Mile High City.
Throw in an average tailwind and line drives turn into home runs.
In 1995, the Montreal Expos (remember them) let Larry Walker walk. He signed Colorado Rockies, took the average amount of steroids for 1995, and went from hitting a homerun every 20 plate appearances to crushing a long bomb every 13th at bat.
Todd Helton, a contact hitter first, averaging .316 in 17 years with the Rockies, had 8 seasons with 20 or more home runs, because just making contact with the ball in Coors Field can take it over the fence. Even in his final season Helton took the ball yard 15 times when he batted only .249.
Now let’s take a look at the 2016 Rockies Batting Order …
Charlie Blackmon OF DJ LeMaieu 2B Carlos González OF Nolan Arenado 3B Gerardo Parra OF
The first 4 in that lineup are in the exact same position they were last year, minus a little toggling between 3 and 4 from when Tulo was still in the lineup. By the end of the year, they put up these numbers:
Charlie Blackmon OF – BA .287 – OBP .347– SB 43 DJ LeMaieu 2B – BA .301 – OBP .358 – SB 23 Carlos González OF – BA .271 – OBP .325 – SB 2 Nolan Arenado 3B – BA .287 – OBP .323 – SB 2
I did not include runs scored and RBI because with those numbers, you can assume they came in at an average rate.
These are four players who GET ON BASE.
Batting 4th is Arenado, who hit 42 HRs last season. Batting 5th is Gerardo Parra, the sleeper outfielder in YOUR fantasy baseball lineup.
PARRA-M PUM PUM PUM
In 36 at bats at Spring Training, Parra is batting .306 with 1 HR, 7 RBI, and 3 stolen bases.
Okay, 1 home run every 36 bats. Multiplied by the number of at bats he had last season, Parra would be on pace to hit between 14-15 home runs, the same as he had last season. Hmm, 14 home runs, good speed, ADP of 195 … yeah, this guy has sleeper potential.
But wait a minute … Spring Training isn’t at Coors Field … it’s in Arizona.
So the HR numbers could go up … he’s already swiping bags … and … what else … I’m forgetting something … oh that’s right…
HE’S BATTING FIFTH FOR THE COLORADO ROCKIES!
Let’s look at a few scenarios.
Senario 1: Arenado blasts one before Parra comes to the plate. Lets say this happens 30-45 times this season. Parra is told to get on base and steal another.
Scenario 2: Arenado gets intentionally walked. Parra is told to swing away, a ‘la Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Signs.’
Scenario Math: There’s a 1/3 chance Parra comes to the plate with men on base. Parra has a 1/3 chance of getting a hit. Parra has a chance for a hit and an 1/6 plate appearances.
Facts
Parra went 14/14 in 155 games last season. He was one of only 19 players to hit that mark.
He’s a lifetime .277 hitter and should get plenty of at bats with men on base.
He’s going to play. The Rockies are giving him almost $10 mil a year to play. He’s not the best against lefties, but the only other outfielder who could make a stab for some at bats is also not so good against lefties.
Conclusion
Ok. I’m not going to say BEAST. You’re picking him up for VALUE.
I’ve been monitoring him for a while.
On Yahoo, he’s ranked 119 but going off the board at 200. Two weeks ago he was going in the 19th round. Last week, the 13th round. This week he’s been going in the 10th. Just FYI.
On ESPN, he’s ranked at 249, and going off the board at 213.
Start him against righties. Monitor him against lefties. |
A Michigan woman who said that four black men kidnapped, raped and beat her for two days will spend a year behind bars for making the incident up, MLive.com reports.
Leiha Ann-Sue Artman, 25, pleaded guilty to making a false report of a felony, a crime punishable by up to four years. MLive reports that even though Artman has a considerable rap sheet, the judge did not send her to prison, so she will do her year in the county jail.
Artman told investigators that she had been kidnapped March 27, when four black men snatched her from her driveway and threw her in the trunk of their car. She claimed that the foursome drove her to an unknown location, where they repeatedly raped and beat her.
The Fruitland Township, Mich., woman kept the farce going by sending her boyfriend text messages that included selfies of herself bound, gagged and bleeding from the head. She begged the boyfriend to pay the “ransom” the kidnappers were asking for.
Artman eventually called the boyfriend to say that her abductors had dropped her near her home. He drove her to a hospital, where she told police of the fabricated kidnapping. She later admitted that she had made the entire story up.
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Artman is the not the first white person who accused black men of some heinous harm or crime and turned out to be lying. From Susan Smith and Charles Stuart to the Emmett Till and Scottsboro Boys cases, this country’s history is littered with these notorious and fabricated situations, sometimes leading to death for the falsely accused.
In addition to jail, Artman will be placed on probation for two years and will pay a fine of $1,158.
Read more at MLive.com. |
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Two Republicans vying to become their party’s nominee for Missouri attorney general are waging one of the state’s most hotly-contested primary campaigns, slamming each other with attack ads in a race that also includes lawsuits and ethics complaints.
The slugfest between state Sen. Kurt Schaefer and political novice Josh Hawley, a University of Missouri law professor on leave to campaign, has become expensive, bankrolled by mega-donors. Hawley’s bid has received more than $2.2 million from southwestern Missouri businessman David Humphreys and his family, while retired St. Louis investor Rex Sinquefield has given more than $750,000 directly to Schaefer’s campaign after he announced plans to run for the office in 2013. Political action committees financially supported by Sinquefield have given Schaefer more than $2 million in cash and in-kind contributions.
Voters will decide between the two during the Aug. 2 primary, with the winner advancing to face either former Cass County prosecutor Teresa Hensley or St. Louis County Assessor Jake Zimmerman, both Democrats, in the Nov. 8 general election. Republicans hope to seize the office for the first time in more than two decades. If elected, Hensley would be Missouri’s first female to hold the job, which pays $116,000 per year job.
The current attorney general, Democrat Chris Koster, is running to replace Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, who is barred by term limits from running.
The attorney general prosecutes consumer fraud, is a watchdog for nursing homes, handles appeals of felony criminal cases and defends against challenges to state laws, among other duties.
The race has featured months of rancor between Hawley, in his first run for public office, and former Missouri assistant attorney general Schaefer.
The Missouri Ethics Commission is investigating a nonprofit foundation’s complaint alleging that Schaefer, using his position as the Senate Appropriations Committee’s chairman, pressured University of Missouri system administrators to prevent Hawley from opposing him. Schaefer has denied that.
In May, Schaefer supporter and former GOP state lawmaker Kevin Elmer sued in hopes of getting University of Missouri emails by Hawley to examine whether university officials improperly helped Hawley’s campaign and whether Hawley used university computers for campaign business. Hawley’s campaign has called the lawsuit “frivolous” and a distraction from Schaefer’s “serious legal and ethical problems.”
More recently, a Schaefer attack ad accused Hawley of working for terrorists, citing Hawley’s work in representing the Iranian group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq in its efforts to get off the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. The group carried out a series of bombings and assassinations against Iran’s clerical regime in the 1980s and fought alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces in the Iran-Iraq war, but renounced violence in 2001 and was removed from the U.S. list in 2012.
Former U.S. attorney general Michael Mukasey and John Bolton, a former United Nations ambassador and an assistant U.S. attorney general, have called the ad untrue.
In his own ads, Hawley uses old footage of Schaefer describing himself as moderate, something Schaefer now denies. A super PAC ad that separately accuses Schaefer of backing legislation that allowed Chinese ownership of Missouri farmland ends with the announcer asking, “Whose side is he on?” Schaefer calls that ad “ridiculous,” adding that the change in state law to allow pork interest Smithfield Foods to sell its 42,000 Missouri acres to a Hong Kong-based enterprise “wasn’t even my bill, and it passed overwhelmingly.”
Schaefer argues that unlike Hawley, he has prosecuted cases, saying his rival “doesn’t really have any relevant experience.” Hawley counters that no prosecutorial background is required because the attorney general serves as an appellate lawyer, and he has appeals experience.
To Hawley, Schaefer’s campaign is “scurrilous,” ”in the gutter” and “the sleaziest in Missouri politics.”
Zimmerman, the Democrat, said he finds it “awfully disappointing that the folks on the other side argue about who loves terrorists more, who’s more American and whatever other nonsense.”
“What this office is not about is a platform for partisan mudslinging and ideological warfare,” said Zimmerman, a former state lawmaker and assistant attorney general who, if elected, expects to weed out corruption and strongly advocate for senior citizens and other vulnerable Missouri residents.
Hensley, Cass County’s prosecutor from 2005 until losing her re-election bid in November 2014, ran unsuccessfully for state representative in 2002 and a congressional seat in 2012.
Likening the GOP sparring to “3-year-old tantrums,” she said the only elected prosecutor running for attorney general, having obtained convictions in all of her 21 murder cases and prosecuted hundreds of cases involving child abuse and sexual assault. As attorney general, she said she would press for special courts statewide with alternative sentencing programs “so we’re not filling the jails with folks who have mental health and drug issues.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. |
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has pulled ahead of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by a statistically significant five percentage point margin in the popular vote, according to a nationwide poll by Rasmussen Reports released on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — In recent months, dozens of nationwide polls have shown a double-digit lead by Clinton gradually shrinking, with Trump having eliminated rival candidates for the Republican nomination.
"Trump earns 42 percent support to Clinton’s 37 percent when likely US voters are asked whom they would vote for if the presidential election were held today," Rasmussen said in a press release accompanying the telephone survey results.
© REUTERS / Carlos Barria Trump's Longtime Butler Asks For Obama to be Killed
At the same time, a raucous battle between Clinton and Democratic rival, US Senator Bernie Sanders, continues to distract attempts by Democrats to focus the attention of voters on efforts to defeat Trump, political analysts say.
At the beginning of May, Rasmussen reported that Trump led Clinton by 41 percent to 39 percent, within that poll’s margin of error and therefor considered statistically insignificant. |
The future of a downtown elementary school that was built over hundreds — possibly thousands — of buried bodies was on the agenda at a special meeting of the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) Wednesday evening.
The meeting was called so parents could air their views about a plan to amalgamate schools in several parts of the city, because of changing enrolment numbers.
A plaque on the side of St. Paul Catholic School on Sackville Street commemorates the Irish immigrants who died and were later buried on the school site. (CBC News)
One of those areas is the Corktown - Regent Park neighbourhood, where St. Michael Catholic School is so desperately overcrowded that some children are taught in renovated squash courts leased from a neighbouring community centre.
Just blocks away is St. Paul Catholic School, designed to hold 447 students, but currently less than half full.
However, board staff are against moving students from the overcrowded facility into St. Paul because, among other reasons, the school would have to be renovated.
The cemetery that was adjacent to St. Paul's Basilica, on Queen Street East, was the destination for thousands of disease victims in the 1800s. (CBC News)
And before that work could take place, the board would have to overcome, in the words of the board's associate director of planning and facilities Angelo Sangiorgio, "a complication."
St. Paul school was built over the old burial ground, decommissioned in 1857, that served adjacent St. Paul's Basilica. That cemetery is the final resting place for thousands of Catholics, mostly Irish immigrants, who died during cholera and typhus outbreaks in the mid-1850s, according to Ron Williamson, chief archeologist at ASI Heritage, an archeological consulting firm based in Toronto.
Archeologist Ron Williamson says Irish immigrants who died of disease were often taken by cart from the so-called "fever sheds" for burial at what is now the site of St. Paul Catholic School. (CBC News)
And provincial regulations say to excavate a burial site, the owner has to first try to contact descendants of those buried there.
"Ideally, that's not a complication we want to deal with," Sangiorgio said.
Even if board staff did decide to satisfy the province's rules regarding building on burial sites, the St. Paul property would probably be too small to accept the students from St. Michael, said John Yan, the board's head of communications, who's also a graduate of St. Paul.
Although there's enough classroom space at St. Paul to accommodate students from both schools, Yan said the size of the land the school sits on is too small to satisfy the latest rules from the Ministry of Education. Those guidelines dictate that a school of 400-plus students should sit on about 1.6 hectares of land — three times the size of St. Paul's lot.
Instead, staff are recommending that the board agree to build a new school, on the site of the old Duke of York public school in nearby Regent Park.
John Yan, head of communications for the Toronto Catholic District School Board, attended St. Paul Catholic School as a boy. (CBC News)
The TCDSB bought that site and demolished the school some time ago. It still needs provincial approval before a new school can be built there, according to board documents.
"The realization that the [St. Paul} site is on sacred property is unique and that's one of the reasons why, as students here, we always believed it was a special place to begin with," Yan said.
TCDSB trustees will take into consideration Wednesday night's input from parents before making a final decision on the future of the two schools at its meeting on Feb. 23, Yan said. |
So I wonder which one of those McCrory staffers got the job to remodel his bathrooms? At $230,000, it must have been somebody on the Republican pay scale. It certainly wasn’t any of the rest of us because we wouldn’t just be fixing the toilet. We’d be buying a whole new house.
Really, though, I shouldn’t be criticizing the governor. I should be submitting a bid. I’m only qualified to do three things: raise kids, provide political advice and fix houses. Lord knows, I’ve done enough of each.
You can gut and replace a bathroom in an average house for around $25,000 using relatively high-grade materials. I get that the Mansion is a fine old lady and she deserves fine fixtures and materials but it’s hard to see how you spend $50,000 for a master bathroom that belongs to a bunch of people who aren’t even going to get a chance to use it. And it’s not like all the bathrooms are master baths.
But really, the inflated cost is a minor point, though it fits right in with the narrative about overpaid, under-qualified political cronies populating the McCrory administration. The problem, as usual, is the optics. This administration has poor mouthed since they arrived in Raleigh. They don’t have enough money for teacher raises They don’t have enough for universities and community colleges. They tried not to have enough money for pregnant women, infants and small children but Art Pope was smart enough to head that one off before it caught fire.
And yet they have enough money to improve the governor’s creature comforts to the tune of $230,000 in bathroom renovations. They have enough to pay the former State Auditor $312,000 as a consultant to the Department of Health and Human Services (that’s 2.5 times his salary as State Auditor, by the way). And they have enough to pay a 24 year old English major $87,000 to serve as the chief policy advisor on policy issues he quite clearly knows nothing about.
I’ve got an idea, Governor. I’ll stop giving you shit about your renovations if you hire me to help you with your optics. I’ll even give you my services on the Democratic pay scale, also known as market rate. You just tell me what you are planning to do, and then I’ll tell you whether or not it looks stupid to the rest of the state. I’ll bet I can save you a whole bunch of headaches.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more > |
The defense industry this year abandoned its decade-long commitment to the Republican Party, funneling the lion share of its contributions to Democratic presidential candidates, especially to Hillary Clinton who far out-paced all her competitors.
An examination of contributions of $500 or more, using the Huffington Post's Fundrace website, shows that employees of the top five arms makers - Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics -- gave Democratic presidential candidates $103,900, with only $86,800 going to Republicans.
Senator Clinton took in $52,600, more than half of the total going to all Democrats, and a figure equaling 60 percent of the sum going to the entire GOP field. Her closest competitor for defense industry money is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R.), who raised $32,000.
Insofar as defense workers making political donations reflect the interests of their employers, the contributions clearly suggest that the arms industry has reach the conclusion that Democratic prospects for 2008 are very good indeed. Since their profits are so heavily dependent on government contracts, companies in this field want to be sure they do not have hostile relations with the White House.
The strong support for Clinton indicates that a majority of defense industry executives currently believe Clinton is a favorite to win the Democratic nomination and, in November, 2008, the general election.
In the 2004 presidential race, defense company workers, almost all of them upper-level employees, gave George W. Bush $819,358, more than twice the $366,870 received by John Kerry. Similarly, in House and Senate races over the past 10 years, the defense industry has favored Republicans over Democrats by a 3-2 margin.
Republicans holding public office almost always provide much stronger support for weapons programs and other Pentagon spending than do Democrats.
In an unexpected development, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee and a decorated Vietnam War veteran, raised just $19,200, barely more than the $18,500 collected by Texas Representative Ron Paul (R.).
No other Democrat came near Clinton's totals. Running second to her in the competition for Pentagon contractors' cash was Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn), who raised $13,200, almost all from executives of General Dynamics which has a major submarine building facility in Groton, Conn.
Former Senator John Edwards (D-N. Car.) raised $12,200 and Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) took in $10,000.
Clinton's major industry benefactors - donors who gave the $4,600 maximum allowed by law -- include Roger A. Crone, Boeing's president of Network and Space Systems; Stanley Roth, Boeing's Vice President for Asia, International Relations, $4,600; Anne Sullivan, a Raytheon attorney; William Lynn, Raytheon's Senior Vice President for Government Relations; and Michele Kang, Northrop Grumman Vice President for health science solutions. |
I don’t want you to join a fraternity or sorority.
If you’re reading this and you’re not already affiliated with a fraternity or sorority, please know that you’ve probably made the right decision. While I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the fraternity experience has done wonders for me, I want you to know what you’d be getting yourself into. The years of bickering and arguing about the importance of “traditions.” The mandatory events and meetings conveniently scheduled to overtake half of your week. The expenses that somehow seem to rise exponentially each semester. Seriously, if these things sound daunting to you then you shouldn’t join a fraternity or sorority.
Sure, you could make lifelong friends. But is it worth the effort? You’d have to actually take out your earbuds, stop snapchatting your high school friends, and put your phone away to engage in a good conversation with a fraternity man or sorority woman. That is probably too hard for you. It is so much easier to blend into the crowd, have one or two buddies you’ll meet in your residence hall, and throw back some Natty Light with them until graduation. There’s really no need to step outside of your comfort zone, meet new and diverse people, and bond over shared values and beliefs. You’d be much better off staying out of the Greek system, sticking with your old friends and old habits.
If you were to join, you’d have even more opportunities to excel scholastically. But do you want to try that hard? Who needs the support of other students who have experienced the same classes, professors, and programs? I have been out of school a while, but I bet that ratemyprofessor.com still has the same benefit for way less money. If you fall behind in a class or have a rough semester, you’d be able to get along just fine without a fraternity or sorority to provide support. One meeting with an academic advisor and a quick skim of a BuzzFeed article on study skills will have you on your way to a 4.0 before you know it! Honestly, I know too many members of fraternities and sororities who have failed out of school because they decided to major in drinking, drugs, and one-night-stands instead of keeping focus in their major. It would be too much work for you to balance your social schedule and your academics. Who came to college for a challenge?
Of course the skills you’ll gain as a leader could be useful someday. But wouldn’t you rather find other ways to beef up your résumé? There’s plenty of other ways to build leadership experience. Why pick a one-stop shop for leadership opportunities with access to amazing nationally-recognized programs when you can pick up a few books or maybe join a student organization or two? Never mind that most fraternity and sorority members are encouraged (or required) to join another student organization. You don’t need anyone telling you what to do. College isn’t about rules or accountability, and there will be plenty of time to develop leadership skills later.
A benefit of being part of a fraternity or sorority is definitely being able to give back to important causes. But don’t you have your own expenses to take care of? College is expensive. Your bills could include rent, groceries, cell phone, utilities, beer, car insurance, gas, clothes, and spring break. Would you even want to try to give ten extra bucks to help find a cure for cancer? And who wants to give up precious weekend hours for community service? Someone else can build that Habitat home. Obviously you don’t need to even be in a fraternity or sorority to perform service or philanthropy. Plenty of college students do it. But I’m sure you’ve got other things on your plate.
If I’m being blunt, here’s why I really don’t want you to join a fraternity or sorority: I’ve worked too hard to let someone like you be part of the problem. We’ve got enough members who decide to quit two years after they’ve taken their “lifelong” oath, or who join for the toga parties and “funny” hazing. I don’t want you to join if you’re not willing to be part of the solution.
What solution am I talking about? I’m not talking about values congruence, which is a term we’ve coined to describe an expectation that today’s college students sit around and discuss ways to make values statements from the 1800s applicable today. Instead, I’m talking about just being a decent and responsible adult and student. That means wanting to build new friendships and striving to be the brightest student in the classroom. It also means wanting to challenge yourself to be a better leader on campus and in your community. This is a lifestyle your fraternity or sorority expects you to adopt for more than just the four or five years you’re in college. We want you to be a change agent. We want you to redefine the way the world views North American college fraternities and sororities. Can’t commit? Then I wish you luck. I don’t want you to join a fraternity.
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Highway Map by
Ir0n byIr0n
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Highway is a 400km² map which is placed in north Sweden. It´s a fictional map on the idea of the Wargame map "Highway to Hell". But only the name is the same. I´m aiming to replace all those Arma 2 objects, so A3MP/AiA will no longer be a requirement. But this is a long way, but I hope you have fun with the map at the current stage :) ir0nIt´s not a map of Bohemia Interactive, IceBreakr, M1lkm8n, SmokeDog3 or one of these other awesome mapmaker. But I hope you like it.- 20x20km Map = 400km²- Cellsize of 10 (Guide On Installing Mods highway.pbombg_buildings_3.pboMore images can be found here: http://www.ir0n.de/hwpics.html This is a WIP never forget that!- There a at the moment only 10 "citys"Please report bugs here:v0.1: create Terrian & Satmap/Masklayerv0.2: Forest, Citys, Villagesv0.3: Private Testing and more Detailsv0.4: Powernet & better streetsv0.5: Public Release (BETA)v0.6-v0.9: Community wishes and more detailsv1.0: Finish the mapv1.1-v1.5: start to replace the Arma 2 objectsv1.6: replace the MBG BuildingsI dont recommend playing the map at the moment, but you can play missions in some parts of the map! If you hate using WIP work just dont use it!Highway is Alpha at the moment and it will take quiet a time, when it will be finished.Bak0, Barandur, MiLC0RE, Greenman and mondkalb.Also big thank to: Bohemia Interactive, PlaywithSix, Foxhound (Armaholic) and all those great people on the BI & Armaholic Forums.I take no responsibility for (im)possible damage to your game/system that may be causedby installation of this Addon. This Addon is also prohibited to be used in any commercial product.This addon is not related with BIS or BISim in any way!v0.3 alpha- first public releasev0.2.11 alpha- internal release MBG Buildings 3 - European Theatre (included) |
Canadian taxpayers spent $172,500 for consultations on a controversial war memorial ordered by the Harper government and cancelled by the Trudeau government — consultations that will never be made public.
According to an Access to Information document, Parks Canada spent the money on a Detailed Impact Analysis (DIA) on the “Mother Canada” statue that was planned for the Cape Breton highlands. Parks Canada said it spent the money between fall 2013 and summer 2015.
The ATI request was sent to Heritage Canada, which worked closely with Parks Canada and Veterans Affairs on the design and construction of the memorial.
The controversial war memorial was initiated by Toronto businessman Tony Trigiani, president of Norstar Corporation. Trigiani headed the Never Forgotten National Memorial Foundation, the group proposing the construction of the monument.
In February, Daniel Watson, CEO of Parks Canada, said a review of the project had concluded that too many key elements “remain outstanding for the project to be achieved by the planned date of July 1, 2017.”
Those elements included the Foundation lacking sufficient funding, disagreement over the funding for construction and maintenance, and the lack of a “definitive final design plan.”
“As a result, the project will not be moving forward on Parks Canada land,” Watson said.
The Foundation had planned to raise a necessary $25 million to build the memorial. The previous Conservative government had awarded it a grant of $100,000.
Parks Canada says that the environmental assessment was still in the process of being completed when the decision to withdraw from the memorandum of understanding was made. As a result, the DIA will not be completed and input provided by the public on the environmental assessment will not be released.
“In light of the fact that comments made by the public were made specifically to provide input on the environmental assessment process, Parks Canada will not be posting those comments,” says a Park Canada statement.
The document shows that Parks Canada provided $100,000 “through contribution agreements to develop a visitation analysis to inform the proposal as well as to support a website to maximize public engagement and information sharing.” Also, “Parks Canada incurred expenses related to the Agency’s legislative requirements.”
“Expenses related to the environmental assessment included a $42,000 Mi’kmaq Ecological Knowledge Study and a $20,000 land survey,” says the document, adding that Parks Canada required that information as part of its due diligence as the owner of the land and in light of the environmental assessment process.
“In addition, $10,500 was incurred to hire a consultant required to facilitate meetings, including the public information session in Ingonish.”
In a statement emailed to iPolitics, Parks Canada echoed its earlier statement and said that the public feedback “sought on the draft Detailed Impact Analysis was specifically to provide input into the environmental assessment process. Because the environmental assessment for the project was never finalized, a summary was not completed for public release.”
Aaron Wudrick of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said it’s hard to determine whether $172,000 is a reasonable amount to pay for the consultation because Parks Canada refuses to release the details of the consultations.
“Barring exceptional circumstances, the results of these types of consultations should be made public since it is the only way Canadians can have any confidence their money is being spent effectively,” wrote Wudrick in an email.
“When taxpayers have to pay the bill, it’s not unreasonable for them to ask what they’re paying for and the vague term “consultations” is not good enough.”
The Mother Canada project was criticized over concerns ranging from the environmental to the aesthetic. A local environmental group, Friends of Green Cove, led the charge against the monument. Upon learning that the project was not going ahead, Sean Howard of Friends of Green Cove said it was a victory for the cause of protecting national parks. He also called the news “bittersweet” because the project had become such a divisive issue in the community.
Cape Bretoners were divided on the project’s merits. Hector Murphy of Ingonish told the Globe and Mail in 2014 that the ocean-facing monument would distract from the area’s pristine beauty.
“If they put it down at Green Cove, all you’re going to see is her arse,” he told the Globe.
Meanwhile, Liberal MP Mark Eyking, who represents the riding that would have been home to the monument, maintained all along that the statue could be good for the area.
“My position has always been that I supported the idea of the project as long as it met all the criteria, and the private funding needed was in place,” Eyking said in February after the project was cancelled. |
Laurens De Plus (Quick-Step Floors) has said that he was fortunate not to have sustained more serious injuries in his crash on the descent of the Sormano during Il Lombardia on Saturday. Related Articles De Plus cameo hints at future as leading man
De Plus escapes serious injury in dramatic Il Lombardia crash
De Plus diagnosed with knee fracture from Il Lombardia crash
Petilli still in hospital after Il Lombardia crash
Laurens De Plus is looking for a plus-size career in the mountains
The Belgian was the first of four riders to crash on the same bend, and he sustained a small fracture to his right knee when he plunged into a ravine on the roadside while chasing lone leader Mickael Chérel (AG2R La Mondiale).
De Plus' fellow countryman Jan Bakelants (AG2R La Mondiale) suffered seven broken ribs and two fractured vertebrae in his crash, while Simone Petilli (UAE-Team Emirates) broke his collarbone, shoulder blade, two vertebrae and suffered a concussion.
"I was very lucky," De Plus said, according to Belga. "After my crash, I was looked after very quickly and very well by the race doctors. They did their job well in a very professional way."
De Plus endured an ordeal of a different kind that evening, however, due to a shortage of hospital beds in the vicinity.
"At first, they wanted to transport me to the same hospital as Bakelants, but it was full, so I was brought to Cantù but that was full too. I had to sleep in the corridor because the rooms were full," De Plus said. "I arrived at around 5pm after a long journey by ambulance, and I wasn't taken care of until 8.30pm. I was in a lot of pain. I spent three and a half hours on a stretcher. It was terrible, I was counting every minute."
Preliminary X-rays in Italy did not reveal any fractures but the pain in De Plus' knee was such that he feared he had sustained ligament damage. On arriving in Belgium on Sunday afternoon, De Plus travelled immediately for further examination in hospital in Herentals. It subsequently emerged that De Plus had sustained a small avulsion fracture to the tibial plateau inside his knee, where the tendon pulled away a piece of the tibia in his right knee.
"An operation won't be necessary, it will heal by itself. I'll have to use crutches for 10 to 14 days, but within three weeks, I should be walking normally again," De Plus said.
De Plus has a clear memory of his crash, and said that he feared the worst as the incident unfolded. Although he was aware of the perils of the descent from his pre-race reconnaissance, he pointed out that in a race, "the situation is different".
"It was like a film in slow motion. I realised I was falling and time stopped, everything went very slowly," De Plus said. "I was worried it was going to be a very heavy blow, the end of my career. I even thought that I might die, really. Fortunately, I landed on my legs in the undergrowth. It could have been a lot worse: I could have fallen more heavily, or landed further down." |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Catherine Tate said David Tennant called her and asked her to join him in the production
David Tennant and Catherine Tate are to appear together on stage in a new West End production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
The stars will portray reluctant lovers and constant sparring partners Beatrice and Benedick in the Bard's comedy.
It will be Tate and Tennant's first appearance together since starring in BBC One's Doctor Who.
The play, directed by Josie Rourke, will open at Wyndham's Theatre on 1 June and run until 3 September.
Producers said further casting would be announced shortly.
Tennant is no stranger to the Bard's works, having worked extensively for the Royal Shakespeare Company with appearances in As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
He most recently appeared in Love Labour's Lost and Hamlet in 2008.
His portrayal of the tragic character saw him win the Critics' Circle Award for Best Shakespearean Performance.
But he is best known for playing the 10th incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who.
Tate also starred as his companion in the fourth series of the show.
She is currently appearing in Alan Ayckbourn's Season's Greetings at the National Theatre and was last in the West End in David Eldridge's Under the Blue Sky.
She is also currently seen on the big screen in Jack Black film Gulliver's Travels. |
Here we describe new cranial material referable to R. sakalavae and consisting of an almost complete right premaxilla, the rostral half of a left dentary, a maxillary fragment with diagnostic teeth, and a very large isolated tooth crown. In addition, we tentatively refer to the same taxon five cranial fragments that were likely collected at the same locality. This new material greatly improves our knowledge on the cranial anatomy of this species, permitting us to: (1) clarify some previously uncertain features of the holotype due to its fragmentary nature; (2) make more in-depth anatomical comparisons with members of Crocodylomorpha and Theropoda, definitely ruling out it pertaining to the latter group; (3) test the phylogenetic relationships of the species and shed light on the evolutionary history and paleobiogeography of Notosuchia; (4) attempt a cranial reconstruction; and (5) confirm previous remarks on its paleobiology.
A decade ago, Maganuco, Dal Sasso & Pasini (2006) described the fragmentary remains of a very large predatory archosaur from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of the Mahajanga Basin, Madagascar. The material included a fragmentary right maxilla bearing three teeth, and seven peculiar isolated teeth clearly belonging to the same taxon. In spite of the scanty remains, the presence of a unique combination of features, which included a well-developed bony palate on the maxilla, mesial and lateral teeth respectively U-shaped and sub-oval in cross-section, and very large tooth denticles (1 per mm) on the carinae, allowed the authors to erect the new taxon Razanandrongobe sakalavae Maganuco, Dal Sasso & Pasini, 2006 . However, the systematic position of the new species remained uncertain: indeed, besides the autapomorphic denticle size, R. sakalavae shared a mix of potential autapomorphic, synapomorphic, and homoplasic features with crocodylomorphs and theropods. Therefore, the species was referred to Archosauria incertae sedis .
Remarks — R. sakalavae differs from other known crocodyliforms in the following combination of characters: large predatory mesoeucrocodylian with oreinirostral snout; premaxillae taller than long, bearing five teeth and having aperturae nasi osseae facing rostrally, confluent medially, and bordered by smooth perinarial fossae; lateral edge of aperturae nasi osseae without notch on the premaxilla; very large incisive foramen, with length slightly more than half the greatest width of the premaxilla; premaxillary bony palate ( sensu Kley et al., 2010 ) with subcircular paramedian depressions, located rostrally on the premaxilla; paradental shelf of the premaxilla and maxilla with a surface texture consisting of marked ridges and furrows, in the maxilla extending for a short distance also above the medial neurovascular groove; deep robust maxilla, bearing at least ten teeth and a stout maxillary bony palate ( sensu Kley et al., 2010 ) located well above the level of the alveolar row; deep robust dentary, bearing at least eight teeth, the largest of which are the first three (fourth hypertrophied caniniform tooth absent); preserved part of the dentary with a convexity followed by a concavity along the dorsal edge; splenial contributing to the mandibular symphysis for at least 20% of the whole symphyseal length; dental implantation in separate alveoli; alveolar channels nearly straight in the sagittal plane; alveoli subrectangular to subcircular in occlusal view, with the former located on the paradental wall of the maxilla and on the rostralmost portion of the dentary; dentition heterodont and pachydont ( sensu Hendrickx, Mateus & Araújo, 2015 ); lateral teeth ( sensu Farlow et al., 1991 ) stout, suboval to salinon-shaped in cross-section; mid-lateral tooth crowns not compressed, subcircular in cross section; smallest lateral teeth globe-shaped.
Emended diagnosis — The following characters are synapomorphic to R. sakalavae : tip of dentary edentulous, for a length surpassing the diameter of the first alveolus; alveoli with labiolingual diameter larger than mesiodistal diameter; mesial teeth incisiform, U-shaped in cross-section, with both carinae facing the lingual side; denticles present on both carinae in all teeth, homogeneous, symmetrically convex, and very large (0.8–1.4 per mm).
Identical counterlateral copies, 3-D printed from CT data, of the left dentary (MHNT.PAL.2012.6.1) and right premaxilla (MHNT.PAL.2012.6.2) herein described, rearticulated with the original specimens. The perfect occlusion of the two bones, in medial (A) as well as in ventral (B) views, unequivocally demonstrates that MHNT.PAL.2012.6.1 and MHNT.PAL.2012.6.2 pertain to the same individual. Scale bar = 5 cm. Abbreviations: see text.
Computed tomography (CT) of the two most important referred specimens was performed at the Radiology Department, Spedali Civili di Brescia, Italy, with a Siemens Dual Source Scanner SOMATOM Definition Flash CT. Analysis and post-processing were performed at Siemens Milano, Italy, with a SyngoVia post-processing system using the Region Growing Algorithm to segment volumes and visualize internal anatomical structures. The CT data of the right premaxilla and left dentary were also used to print life-size identical counterlateral bones in 3-D, permitting us to rearticulate them and verify their juxtaposition at jaws closed ( Fig. 2 ). This revealed that the labial margin of the dentary perfectly fits the rim of the medial neurovascular groove of the premaxilla, and that the rostral tip of the dentary symphysis fits the descending margin of the interpremaxillary suture. Moreover, the premaxilla has a bony palate overhanging the edentulous tip of the dentary, leaving no space for any teeth, and two large notches just in front of the first and second dentary alveolus, which accommodated enormous teeth erupting from the dentary. In ventral view, the curvature of the labial sides of the two bones are identical. Moreover, the sutures of the counterlateral bones are correctly aligned along the medial sagittal plane. The perfect occlusion of the two bones demonstrates unequivocally that MHNT.PAL.2012.6.1 and MHNT.PAL.2012.6.2 pertain to the same individual.
The matrix encrusting the nasal attachment of the premaxilla was removed, analyzed, and compared to the matrix of the holotype maxilla. They were found to be similar in aspect and mineralogical composition, supporting the hypothesis that the three specimens came from the same geological age [i.e., Middle Jurassic, Bathonian,167.7–164.7 MA ( Cohen et al., 2013 )] and stratigraphic horizon [Sakaraha Formation sensu Geiger, Clark & Mette (2004) , formerly mentioned in the literature as the Isalo IIIb subunit,‘Faciès Mixte Dinosauriens’ ( Besairie, 1972 )].
The very large isolated tooth crown (catalogue n. MSNM V7144) is part of the fossil vertebrate collection at the Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano. This specimen was collected several years ago in the Mahajanga Basin by G Cortenova, an Italian agronomist living in Madagascar. Before his death, Cortenova gave it to G Colombo, an amateur entomologist, who eventually donated the specimen to the museum.
Map depicting the Triassic and Jurassic outcrops of the Mahajanga Basin (black areas on the left), and geological map of the surroundings of Ambondromamy, highlighting the Sakaraha Fm. (light blue). Part of the material described herein (the premaxilla and the dentary) comes from the area marked by the blue asterisk. Based on Besairie (1968–1969)
The most relevant material described here consists of an almost complete right premaxilla, the rostral half of a left dentary, and a very large isolated tooth crown. The first two specimens belong to the same individual (see below) and are deposited at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse under catalogue numbers MHNT.PAL.2012.6.1 (dentary) and MHNT.PAL.2012.6.2 (premaxilla). They were collected by the assistant director of technical services of Société Sucrière de la Mahavavy (D Descouens, pers. comm., 2012) between 1972 and 1974 in the surroundings of Ambondromamy ( Fig. 1 ), the same locality of the Mahajanga Basin that yielded the holotype of R. sakalavae ( Maganuco, Dal Sasso & Pasini, 2006 ) and the sauropod Archaeodontosaurus ( Buffetaut, 2005 ). The specimens were exported from Madagascar under authorization No. 1702 and 2547 of the Mines and Energy Directorate, Ministry of Economy and Finance. Recent careful preparation allowed the specimens to be recognized as belonging to the enigmatic species Razanandrongobe sakalavae . In April 2012, they were acquired by the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse from the private collection of D Descouens, together with six other cranial fragments anatomically reminiscent of R. sakalavae (catalogued as MHNT.PAL.2012.6.3 to 8) that were collected from an indeterminate Malagasy locality. Of the latter, the largest bone pieces are spongier and more friable, with residual patches of smoothed matrix (possibly due to recent chemical preparation); the smallest pieces are proportionally heavier, denser, whitish, and polished (which suggests prolonged exposure to air and sunlight).
Description
Premaxilla, MHNT.PAL.2012.6.2 (Fig. 3 and Table 1). The almost complete right premaxilla is taller than long (16 vs 13.5 cm), with the premaxillary symphysis straight in rostral and ventral views. This indicates that the rostrum was rostrocaudally short, dorsoventrally deep, mediolaterally wide, and not pointed. The premaxilla bears five teeth that are sub-vertical and only slightly curved lingually.
Specimen TCH labial margin FABL BW FABL /BW FABL/TCH serr. per 5 mm mesial carina serr. per 5mm distal carina DSDI PAL.2012.6.2 pm1 (repl. tooth) – – – – – 5 5 1.00 PAL.2012.6.2 pm2 (41) (24) (24) (1.00) (0.58) – 4.5 – PAL.2012.6.2 pm3 (59) 31 29 1.07 (0.52) – – – PAL.2012.6.2 pm4 (56) 31 27 1.15 (0.55) 4 4 1.00 PAL.2012.6.2 pm5 (51) (30) 28 (1.07) (0.59) 4 – – PAL.2012.6.2 pm5 (repl. tooth) – – – – – 4 – – PAL.2012.6.1 d1 – – – – – – – – PAL.2012.6.1 d2 – [28] [27] [1.04] – – – – PAL.2012.6.1 d3 (48) 27 28 0.96 (0.56) 5 4.5 1.11 PAL.2012.6.1 d4 (23) (27) (26) (1.04) (1.17) – – – PAL.2012.6.1 d5 16 (20) (21) (0.95) (1.25) 6 5.5 1.09 PAL.2012.6.1 d6 (repl. tooth) – – – – – 5 5 1.00 PAL.2012.6.1 d7 (23) 18 16 1.12 (0.78) – – – PAL.2012.6.1 d8 – [19] [19] [1.00] – – – – MSNM V7144 Isolated ?m tooth (67) 35 31 1.13 (0.52) – – – DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3481/table-1
In medial and ventral views, two subcircular paramedian depressions are visible, corresponding to the tip of the mesialmost dentary tooth crowns at jaws closed. The bone wall at one depression is damaged, revealing a well-developed replacement tooth. Dorsal to these depressions is the surface for contact with the palatal portion of the maxilla, namely the rostral portion of the maxillary bony palate. Rostrally, this palatal shelf did not reach the symphysis between the two premaxillae, but instead left an open space in the palate (the incisive foramen) bordered rostrally and laterally by the premaxillae. A subtriangular notch for the premaxillary peg of the maxilla is visible dorsal to the depression hosting the dentary teeth. The rest of the premaxillomaxillary suture is almost flat. There is no lateral groove in the premaxilla for reception of a hypertrophied lower caniniform tooth.
The apertura nasi ossea (often improperly called the external naris, which instead refers to the fleshy nostril) is bordered caudolaterally and ventrally by the premaxilla, and dorsally—in all likelihood—by the nasal, whereas rostromedially it clearly lacks any trace of a dorsally directed nasal process along the medial sagittal plane. Therefore, the left and right aperturae nasi osseae did not only face rostrally, but were also confluent medially.
The surface of the perinarial fossa is smooth and lateromedially wide, and extends from the caudoventral margin of the apertura nasi ossea to the alveolar margins of premaxillary teeth 1–3 ventrally, and to the ornamented facial portion of the premaxilla caudally. The premaxilla is also dorsolaterally rough and ornamented with small crests, pits, and fine grooves. Near the alveolar margin, the ornamented palatal surface, visible in medial view, is pitted by small neurovascular foramina, which are more abundant in a groove delimiting the dorsal end of the paradental shelf. Dorsally, the walls of the premaxilla taper up to form an extended (80 mm long) attachment area for the nasal.
The premaxilla bears four erupted teeth implanted in alveolar positions 2–5. The tooth replacement process is described in detail for the holotype maxilla in Maganuco, Dal Sasso & Pasini (2006). However, CT of the new specimen has provided the following additional information on this process. Resorption of the roots is apparent at positions 2 and 5, in correspondence with the growing replacement teeth, but the roots are still firmly developed and the replacement teeth are growing mostly medial/mesiomedial to the roots. The tips of the replacement teeth are 36 mm from the ventral surface of the premaxilla. At position 3, resorption of the root is more advanced: the tip of the replacement tooth is 22 mm away from the ventral surface of the premaxilla, and is aligned with the erupted tooth. The first alveolus is occupied by a large unerupted replacement tooth. The limited depth of the tooth-bearing portion of the premaxilla in correspondence with the first alveolus (i.e., below the apertura nasi ossea) and the diameter of the alveolus itself indicate that the first premaxillary tooth, even when completely grown, was less than 80% the height of the other premaxillary teeth. Moreover, CT scanning revealed that the roots are straighter mesially than distally when seen in lateral view.
Dentary, MHNT.PAL.2012.6.1 (Fig. 4 and Table 1). The left dentary is incomplete caudally. In lateral view, its maximum dorsoventral depth/height (13 cm) is at the level of alveolus 3. The bone then tapers caudally up to the level of alveolus 6, where the dorsal and ventral margins become almost parallel. There is no constriction at or near the mandibular symphysis along the lateral margin. The rostral edge of the symphysis forms an angle of about 50° with the ventral margin of the dentary. The preserved portion of the dentary bears eight large mandibular teeth; however, none can be considered a hypertrophied caniniform tooth. The size of the alveoli varies along the tooth row. Based on alveolar diameter, the mesial teeth are the largest, numbers 4 and 5 slightly decreasing in size; from 6 onward, their size is constantly half the diameter of alveoli 2 and 3. The position of the first alveolus indicates that the tip of the lower jaw is edentulous. Of the eight tooth positions, number 1 is represented by an empty alveolus, number 6 by a replacement tooth erupting from its alveolus, number 7 by a longitudinally broken and empty crown, numbers 2, 4, and 6 by broken crowns without apex, and only numbers 3 and 5 by almost complete crowns.
The mandibular symphysis with the counterlateral element is 16 cm long and extends caudally to the level of the third tooth, but considering also the estimated contribution of the splenial, it probably extended posteriorly to the level of the fourth tooth. The splenial itself is not preserved, and is represented by a scar; its apex terminated rostrally in a squared peg at the level of the third tooth, as indicated by rostrocaudally elongate sutural marks on the dentary; it contributed to at least 20% of the length of the mandibular symphysis. Caudal to the symphysis, the splenial formed the medioventral portion of the mandibular ramus, resulting visible also in lateral view. The Meckelian groove is exposed in medial view: rostrally, it reaches the mandibular symphysis; caudally, it fades into the contact surface for the splenial.
The lateral surface of the dentary is as well-ornamented as the lateral surface of the premaxilla, and is densely sulcated by rostrocaudally oriented zigzagging vascular canals. Dorsomedially, the bone bears one row of neurovascular foramina parallel to the alveolar margins; internal nutritive foramina bordering alveoli 1–3; and foramina caudal to alveolus 3 aligned in a grooved row closely flanking the lingual margin of the remaining alveoli.
Maxillary fragment, MHNT.PAL.2012.6.3 (Figs. 5A–5D). This incomplete maxillary ramus has six incomplete, straight to slightly curved alveoli, as well as two tooth roots and at least one unerupted tooth. The curvature of the bone, the shape of the roots in lateral and medial views, and the position of the replacement tooth with respect to the alveoli indicate that this specimen is part of the right side of the skull. Moreover, the increasing curvature of the rostral portion of the specimen is suggestive of close proximity to the premaxillary contact, permitting us to designate the alveoli as belonging to teeth 1–6 or 2–7. Of note, the interior of the mesialmost tooth has been replaced by a cast made from a coarse-grained, pale-brownish calcite nodule of alabastrine appearance (F Pezzotta, pers. comm., 2016). Position 4 (or 5) still houses the fossilized root dentine of a slightly larger tooth and, mesiomedially, the tip of a replacement tooth protruding vertically down and exposing the large denticles that are diagnostic of R. sakalavae. A small portion of the lateral (external) maxillary wall is preserved caudodorsally to this tooth position, showing the rugose texture seen in the caudal portion of the premaxilla MHNT.PAL.2012.6.2. In rostral view, a triradiate-shaped broken section of the bone marks the remains of the maxillary bony palate, at mid-height of the preserved alveolar height. Dorsal to the shelf, the medial (internal) wall of the maxilla shows a wide concave surface, relatively smooth where the bone is not broken; ventral to the shelf, the bone of the palate is even smoother, with larger nutritive foramina, but is much more concave (this is the transition point from the palate to the dentigerous margin).
Premaxillary fragment, MHNT.PAL.2012.6.4 (Figs. 5I–5J). This is a small fragment of bone with three half-sections of alveoli, the middle one still housing a tooth root, broken longitudinally and with the pulp cavity exposed. Orienting the alveoli vertically, the external wall can be seen divided into a rugose dorsal portion and a smoother ventral portion; the latter continues caudodorsally, curving inward into a concave area. By comparison with specimen MHNT.PAL.2012.6.3, we interpret this concave area as a caudolateral tract of the apertura nasi ossea, and the smooth ventral portion as part of the perinarial fossa. Therefore, this bone fragment likely comes from a left premaxilla.
Maxillary fragment, MHNT.PAL.2012.6.5 (Figs. 5E–5H). This is a trapezoidal fragment of ornamented bone. The internal wall is traversed by a large, smooth, concave groove. Parallel to one margin of the groove is a long, exposed longitudinal suture. We tentatively refer this fragment to a mediodorsal portion of the ?left maxilla likely contacting the nasal via the aforementioned suture. If the fragment has been correctly placed, the ornamentationwould represent transverse ridges and the groove might be part of a pneumatic space of the maxilla, parallel to the internal choanae, which in mesoeucrocodylians run more medially, below the nasals (e.g., Alligator, Brochu, 1999).
Indeterminate fragments, MHNT.PAL.2012.6.6–8. These three specimens are so fragmentary that it is impossible to determine their anatomical positions. However, we tentatively propose cranial or mandibular origins for MHNT.PAL.2012.6.6 and MHNT.PAL.2012.6.8, for the former because of the presence of a heavily rugose and sulcate ?external surface that fades to a smooth texture ?internally via a convex, U-shaped margin, and for the latter because it has a zigzagging suture mark and a possible internal concavity somewhat reminiscent of a cranial opening. MHNT.PAL.2012.6.7 remains totally indeterminate, and is mentioned here only because it is associated with the other fragments.
New remarks on the holotype maxilla, MSNM V5770 (Maganuco, Dal Sasso & Pasini, 2006: figs. 3–7). The holotypic cranial fragment of R. sakalavae consists of a portion of right maxilla bearing a markedly rugose paradental shelf, a robust sub-horizontal maxillary bony palate positioned definitely higher (dorsal) to the row of alveoli, five large subvertical alveoli, and three unerupted teeth that illuminate the process of tooth replacement (see Maganuco, Dal Sasso & Pasini, 2006 for details). Thanks to the new material described here, the phylogenetic affinities of R. sakalavae have become clearer. Moreover, they have shed light on some previously uncertain features of the holotype maxilla, such as its position in the skull, some doubtful attachment areas (palatine or ectopterygoid; jugal or lacrimal), the presence/absence of the antorbital fenestra, and the margin of the suborbital fenestra. MSNM V5770 bears the caudal portion of the maxillary tooth row, as indicated by the tapering of the paradental shelf, the ending of the maxillary bony palate, and by the scar on the medial surface of the caudalmost portion of the bone that represents the attachment area for the ectopterygoid. Therefore, the rostralmost portion of the ectopterygoid is rostral to the distal alveoli. The thickest part of the maxillary bony palate is confirmed to be the attachment area for the palatine (Kley et al., 2010: figs. 7D, 7E), as previously suggested by Maganuco, Dal Sasso & Pasini (2006), and participates to the rostral margin of the suborbital fenestra. These features render the palate of Razanandrongobe sakalavae quite basal-ziphosuchian-like [e.g., Araripesuchus (Pol & Apesteguía, 2005)], and not at all baurusuchian-like [e.g., Pissarrachampsa (Montefeltro, Larsson & Langer, 2011)] or peirosaurid-like [e.g., Hamadasuchus (Larsson & Sues, 2007)]. It is impossible to estimate how long the missing rostral portion of the maxilla was, but we have at least some indication of the minimum length thanks to the new specimens (see, Cranial reconstruction and size). The caudolateral surface visible in dorsal view most likely represents the remaining portion of the attachment area for the jugal (e.g., Larsson & Sues, 2007: fig. 2) rather than the pavement of the antorbital fenestra. |
If you follow the GameMarx podcast, you know I’m pretty big on watching Kickstarter projects. You might also know I like to play with data. So it should come as no surprise I’ve built a database of Kickstarter project stats – 58,671 projects to be exact.
I recently gave a presentation using this data at the Technology Cooperative and will probably be doing this talk a few more times (it’s more than just stats). Initially I planned on keeping the data semi-private out of concerns on how Kickstarter might react. Recent articles such as this infographic and sites like KickTraq have so far been left alone by Kickstarter, so I feel comfortable in publishing my own efforts.
Kickstarter’s Hidden Data Before I get to the details I need to point out that Kickstarter does not make it easy to get a complete picture. Search results and project listings on Kickstarter are biased toward live and successful projects. Some projects will not turn up in Kickstarter search results at all – for example no combination of keywords will reveal this project. Further, liberal use of meta “no index” tags on the site tell honest webcrawlers (like Google) not to index their content. What does this mean? It means while I know about 58K of the 64K projects on Kickstarter, my results are biased to the positive. The net effect is I show 48% of projects are successful, while the true rate published by Kickstarter is 44%. The charts below are not exact, but can be used to get a general idea of what is a “best practice” for a Kickstarter project.
My efforts so far have been focused on how someone should structure a Kickstarter project to increase the chances for success. The basic approach is to take a question, like “does a video improve the chance of being funded?”, and compare it to the average success rate (in my case, 48%). If the new success rate is above 48%, then we have a winner! So the video question above looks like:
Projects with a video have a 52% success rate, while those without have a 35% success rate. Compared to the baseline 48%, I’d say you want to have video. Keep in mind this does not account for the subjective quality of the video, just if the project has a video or not.
The next question is “Does Project Length have an effect on success rate?”. When you launch a project you can choose to keep it open as long as 90 days. Here are the results:
There is clearly a trend in project length. After 45 days or so you start to do worse than the baseline, but there is a real sweet spot in the 8 – 34 day range. You may note I‘ve used a polynomial regression here instead of the more common linear. Everyone has the preferences, and I like a poly in this case to highlight the sweet spot that would be lost in a straight line. I use a linear when I want to forecast new values along the Y or X axis – and that doesn’t make sense in this case.
Next question: “Does Funding Goal have an effect on success rate?”
This is almost a perfect linear relationship – the more you ask for, the less likely you are to get it. Note on this chart I did my own amount grouping, as I wanted to see more detail in the lower goal tiers. Below 5,000 is grouped by 500, 5,000 – 10,000 by 1,000, 10K – 30K by 5K, etc. I played with a few other patterens, but the overall shape never changed. Bottom line, asking for more that $5,000 drops you below the baseline.
Next Question: “Do the number of Reward Levels have an effect on success rate?”
I was surprised by this one – I didn’t expect such a strong relationship. The take home here is you want to have 7 or more reward levels!
Next Question: “Does Description Length have an effect on success rate?”
I expected to see projects with short descriptions do poorly, but I was curious if long descriptions hurt a project. I’m glad to see they don’t, so be verbose! The counts are not character counts, but rather HTML counts, so they are a little inflated. The crossover point is 2000 HTML characters (let’s say 1500 real characters) or a few paragraphs.
Next Question: “Does FAQ Length have an effect on success rate?”
Kickstarter has an option for a project FAQ at the bottom of the description. The chart shows just having an FAQ helps, but most (48K) projects have no FAQ at all. Because of this, I’m going to say while it’s good to put some content in FAQ form, I’m not going to count it in my stats.
Okay, now to the real question based on the above – What is the success rate of a project that has a video, is 8 – 34 days in length, has a goal of $5,000 or less, has at least 7 reward levels, and contains at least 2,000 HTML characters in the description (again,keep in mind the positive bias)? 73%!
Now some caveats! These stats are for all project categories. I’ve already played with the data enough to know that the sweet spots will vary between categories, and between subcategories. As mentioned several times before, the dataset is biased and it’s not looking likely that will change unless Kickstarter releases the data themselves. Finally there are several ways to slice the data and while I feel pretty good in my approach others will disagree.
If you are planning to launch a project my advice is to consider the data above, but to then do your own reasearch. Find similar projects and get a feel for why some worked and others didn’t. Many aspects of a successful project cannot be queried easily from website data, so this is just one bit of information to consider and all of this is probably trumped by a good social media campaign promoting the project.
Oh, one bonus chart below. Here are the funding levels for the successful “ideal” projects as defined above:
Most of those projects raised 150% of their goal (I left off the sub $500 level because the numbers are wacky when you have a $20 goal). It’s not a guarantee, but it’s nice to know when you’re loved, you’re really loved.
Finally, if you wish to take a crack at analyzing the data (or verifying this post!) please contact me (you can find my contact info on the site). The data format is an MS SQL database (works with the free Express edition) and sorry, I’m not going to convert it for you, it’s a lot of data. I ask that you be willing to share anything you find, and I’ll update this post with a link to yours below.
Update: I’ve posted a Video Game specific version of these stats over on GameMarx. |
Mikey Musumeci Jiu Jitsu Study
Notable Study Stats:
92% win rate
Scored first in 100% of wins
Submitted his opponent in 54% of wins
Takes his opponents back in 50% of all matches
83% of submissions were chokes from the back
Only passed the guard in 17% of matches
Average match length was 6:33
Abstract: All matches observed of Mikey Musumeci used in this small sample occurred at major jiu jitsu events in the years 2015-2017. Only techniques, occurrences, and outcomes that were recorded are displayed in the data below (i.e. if no butterfly sweeps occurred, there will not be a representation of that in the sample data charts). Matches were selected at random based on freely available matches.
The Mikey Musumeci jiu jitsu breakdown
Mikey Musumeci is quietly becoming one of the most accomplished gi jiu Jitsu competitors on the scene today Not only is he one of America’s top talents, he’s often recognized as one of Jiu Jitsu’s brightest minds. Known for his dynamic berimbolo and pliable physique, Musumeci has become one of the most consistent competitors of the modern era. In our study, we see just why he’s become such a tough opponent for many to overcome.
The study results
Mikey Musumeci was an ascending name in Jiu Jitsu long before he got his black belt. Known for having a complex and innovative guard game, Mikey was a multiple time world champion at the lower belts. However, as we’ve seen in the past, this does not always translate to black belt level competition. In Musumeci’s case, his talent has transitioned almost seamlessly to black belt.
The first thing people think of when they think of Mikey Musumeci is likely his guard game. This is for a very good reason. While you may notice that his sweep percentage is extremely low for a guard player – only recording a sweep in 1 of every 3 matches – his back taking ability from the guard is the highest we’ve ever recorded. Musumeci was able to take his opponents back from the guard in approximately 50% of matches.
This provides some deep insight into how Musumeci likes his matches to unfold. In the matches we watched, Musumeci very strategically chased his opponents back from the guard; often passing up opportunities for points to do so. This strategy has proven to pay big dividends for Musumeci; who finished from his opponents back 83% of the time when he was able to capture the position. Furthermore, he actually choked his opponent from the back in 45% of matches he won, and submitted his opponent in 50% in of his total matches (54% of his wins).
This is such a dynamic and successful strategy for Musumeci, it explains why we rarely find in him positions to pass guard. In fact, in our study we only observed him passing the guard twice. That means he has one of the lowest pass percentages we’ve ever recorded in the study (17%).
The stats around Musumeci’s success taking and finishing the back, and his lack of metrics in many other areas very neatly summarize the approach the Musumeci has applied to competition that has allowed him to quickly rise to the top of his weight division (regardless of the ruleset). He is incredibly hard to score against. Recording a submission – or the first points – in 100% of his wins.
Mikey Musumeci’s strategy is easy to draw out in a statistical format, but don’t mistake the simplicity of his approach to a simplicity in his technique. Musumeci has a very articulate guard game with specific answers to every problem that his opponent presents him with. His technique is likely underrated; as he can probably be considered in that upper echelon of top guard players.
Ultimately, Musumeci is an ascending talent. He is one of America’s greatest talents and is still at the very beginning of his career. It’s likely that we still haven’t seen the best of what he has to offer. |
A woman searches for water after Israel bombed her home during its 2014 attack on Gaza. Ezz Zanoun APA images
At first glance, the nature of the water crises in Gaza and Michigan look very different. Gaza’s water infrastructure has been bombed repeatedly by Israel. Despite their many problems, the people of Flint and Detroit have been spared such overt brutality.
So why did women in Gaza send a message of compassion to women in Flint earlier this month?
The answer is simple: both are striving to hold the powerful to account for how the water on which they and their families depend has been contaminated.
The letter from Gaza to Flint — signed by various activists, including the prominent doctor Mona el-Farra — notes that Israel controls Palestinian water. The Israeli occupation steals from the coastal aquifer that is Gaza’s main source of water, prevents Palestinians from building sewage treatment facilities and forces them to buy water at prices they cannot afford.
Ordinary people in Flint do not enjoy any sovereignty when it comes to water, either.
Over the past few years, Rick Snyder, Michigan’s governor, has appointed a series of “emergency managers” — unelected technocrats, with powers to sell off public assets, invalidate union contracts and to undermine local democracy.
In 2014, Darnell Earley, one of these emergency managers, decided that Flint should begin using water from Flint River. That was despite how the Michigan authorities deemed water from the river to be unsafe for drinking.
Blood poisoning
The decision had rapid effects. Locals complained that the water from their faucets was discolored and unpalatable. A research team at Virginia Tech confirmed that the water in Flint was poisoned.
The level of lead detected, for example, in some samples was 13,000 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends that lead in water should be no higher than 15 parts per billion.
Across Flint, the number of children with above average levels of lead in their blood has almost doubled. In “high risk” areas, it has tripled.
The people of Gaza are grappling with similar problems.
During 2014, it was reported that 90 to 95 percent of Gaza’s water supply was unfit for drinking. The Palestinian Water Authority found that the aquifer on which Gaza depends was highly polluted with pesticides and untreated sewage.
Symptom of racism
Palestinians live under an apartheid system. And the impacts of apartheid are especially pronounced when it comes to water.
While Israeli settlers in the arid West Bank can enjoy the sight of well-irrigated floral displays and dips in swimming pools all year round, Palestinians have access to considerably less drinking water than the levels recommended by the World Health Organization.
Michigan’s water crisis is also a symptom of institutionalized racism.
Snyder and his predecessors have imposed emergency managers mainly on towns and cities with large Black populations, including Detroit and Flint.
In 2013, The Atlantic reported that the five cities in Michigan then under economic management contained just 9 percent of the state’s inhabitants. Yet about half of all Black people in Michigan lived in those cities.
Writing in The Nation last month, Juan Cole argued that just as Flint’s residents “had their access to a basic staple like clean water denied by decisions made by bureaucrats they did not elect, so the Palestinians of Gaza lack the basic rights of citizenship.”
The right to water has been recognized by the United Nations. Yet the dominant ideology treats water as a commodity.
It is only natural that alliances should be formed between defenders of the right to water in different cities and countries.
The government in my native Ireland, under pressure from its masters in Brussels and other EU capitals, has been trying to put control of water in the hands of a private company in recent years. The battle for the abolition of Irish Water, as the firm is called, has received support from activists in Michigan, Bolivia and Spain.
More than a few of Ireland’s right to water campaigners are also part of the Palestine solidarity movement. One such campaigner, Gino Kenny, has been elected to Dáil Eireann, the lower house in the national parliament. When his election was announced in late February, he celebrated by waving a Palestinian flag.
The gesture was appreciated by Palestinians — not surprisingly so. Struggles for justice will always be intertwined.
Additional research by Jimmy Johnson. |
Those of us, who've known Linus Torvalds over the years, like yours truly, know that Linux's inventor, Mr. Penguin if you will, is a quiet gentle soul who never raises his voice when something bothers him. Ahem. I lie like a rug. While I have known Torvalds for decades, he's anything but shy and he never suffers fools gladly. So, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that when Torvalds decided he didn't like the new version of the GNOME desktop, he didn't mince any words about it.
It all started in a public Google+ posting by Dave Jones, a Red Hat engineer and one of the maintainers of Fedora Linux, where Jones announced some minor Linux kernel news for a Fedora update. As the discussion continued, Torvalds joined in and remarked, "Could you also fork gnome, and support a gnome-2 environment? I want my sane interfaces back. I have yet to meet anybody who likes the unholy mess that is gnome-3."
He's not the only one. I also don't like GNOME 3 either. I much prefer the last version of GNOME 2.x: GNOME 2.32. It may be "out of date," but it's the default desktop for my current favorite desktop Linux: Mint 11.
Why? Well, I'll let Mr. Torvalds tell you:
it's not that I have rendering problems with gnome3 (although I do have those too), it's that the user experience of Gnome3 even without rendering problems is unacceptable. Why can't I have shortcuts on my desktop? Why can't I have the expose functionality? Wobbly windows? Why does anybody sane think that it's a good idea to have that "go to the crazy 'activities'" menu mode? I used to be upset when gnome developers decided it was "too complicated" for the user to remap some mouse buttons. In gnome3, the developers have apparently decided that it's "too complicated" to actually do real work on your desktop, and have decided to make it really annoying to do. Here's an example of "the crazy": you want a new terminal window. So you go to "activities" and press the "terminal" thing that you've made part of your normal desktop thing (but why can't I just have it on the desktop, instead of in that insane "activities" mode?). What happens? Nothing. It brings your existing terminal to the forefront. That's just crazy crap. Now I need to use Shift-Control-N in an old terminal to bring up a new one. Yeah, that's a real user experience improvement. Sure. I'm sure there are other ways, but that's just an example of the kind of "head up the arse" behavior of gnome3. Seriously. I have been asking other developers about gnome3, they all think it's crazy. I'm using Xfce [a lightweight Unix/Linux desktop). I think it's a step down from gnome2, but it's a huge step up from gnome3. Really.
As you can see, Torvalds is far from shy about voicing his opinion about GNOME. He wasn't the only one. Dirk Hohndel, Intel's chief Linux and open-source technologist, said in the same thread, "Gnome 3 is just completely unusable as far as I'm concerned."
Since then, Hohndel's been giving GNOME another try, but, "It's still not exactly what I'm used to, but getting closer." That said, Hohndel observed later in his discussion, after some especially trying times with a large display, "Does it worry you that I need a dozen Gnome lovers to help me just to do fairly regular things with my computer? Things that all used to work just fine with Gnome2?"
It should worry them. It should worry them a lot.
Long time readers of mine know that I was really unhappy when KDE, the other major Linux desktop, decided to go in a new direction with KDE 4. As KDE 4 matured, I eventually started to like it.
I'm not sure that's going to happen with GNOME 3.x. With KDE 4, I saw where they wanted to go, I just didn't think it was a great idea. With GNOME... I really don't know what they're trying to do. It looks to me like change just for the sake of change, and that's pointless.
Of course, it's one thing when just a technology journalist, like me, doesn't like what you're doing. But, when leading Linux developers dislike a desktop this much, and one major Linux distribution, Ubuntu, dislikes it so much that they decided to replace the GNOME 3 shell with an entirely different desktop approach, Unity, I think it's time for GNOME's developers to sit down and seriously consider whether they've should backtrack to the GNOME 2 architecture.
If they don't? Well this is open source. Someone could always fork the project. If things don't start changing for the better, maybe someone should.
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Sulmona is a quaint medieval city with cobblestone streets in the Abruzzo region of Italy. (Photo: Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press)
There’s a place in the world, about two hours northeast of Rome, where a fountain of red wine flows continuously, beckoning all who want a free taste.
What is this magical place? The under-the-radar Italian region of Abruzzo, where even intrepid Americans can still get a taste of the real sepia-toned Italian life we all picture in our daydreams.
For much of its history, Abruzzo has been sheltered from the rest of Italy and the throngs of tourists who trample its great cities. Bordered by the Adriatic Sea on one side and the Apennine Mountains on the other, the region has spent thousands of years steeping in its own traditions.
Today, life here is as rhythmic as the sea, the tides marked by three-hour lunches (pranzo) and "La Passeggiata,” an evening pre-dinner stroll through town to catch up with friends and to strut your sprezzatura — the Italian art of studied effortlessness.
And while Abruzzo may not have the name recognition of Tuscany or even Umbria, that hasn’t stopped it from earning a reputation as one of the best regions in the country for its culinary offerings, famous for Montepulciano and Trebbiano wines, chitarra pasta, grilled lamb skewers (arrosticini), porchetta and a surfeit of cheeses, charcuterie, desserts and digestifs.
With airfare to Rome more affordable than it has been in years, coupled with a strong dollar (and that aforementioned wine fountain), now is as good a time as any to head for the hills of Abruzzo for a culinary tour of Italy’s best-kept secret.
A tale of two cities
There’s a duality to the Abruzzese experience that includes the salt-of-the-earth mountainous inland as well as the laid-back seaside. Any trip to the region should include both.
Consider splitting your time between two locales: the quaint inland town of Sulmona and the cosmopolitan seaside city of Pescara, separated by 45 minutes of smoothly paved toll road or an hour-long train ride.
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo grapes on the vine at Marramiero Winery in Italy's Pescara valley. (Photo: Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press)
Sulmona
Sulmona is a medieval walled city of about 25,000 people located on a plateau surrounded by majestic rolling mountains. In the ancient period, it was known as the birthplace and home of the Roman poet Ovid, a statue of whom still stands in the central piazza.
Children ride their bikes down a street in the old city of Sulmona, a quaint medieval town in the Abruzzo region of Italy. (Photo: Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press)
Today, this quaint town with cobblestone streets and a 760-year-old aqueduct is best known for its confetti — brightly colored sugar-coated almonds often arranged as floral bouquets and other whimsical figures. You'll see the colorful arrangements overflowing from numerous shops in town.
Situated on the northern edge of the historic town, the Hotel Santacroce Ovidius offers a great jumping-off point for a stroll through the city and offers well-appointed rooms for around 100 euros ($110) a night. There’s also a restaurant on site and a coffee counter (or “bar,” as they’re called in Italy) for your morning cappuccino and cornetto — the traditional Italian breakfast.
Stewed lamb with onion and zucchini flowers and a bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine is a typical Abruzzese meal served at La Locanda di Bruno in Sulmona, Italy. (Photo: Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press)
For the best meal in town, head to La Locanda di Gino for lunch at the white-tablecloth restaurant on the main floor. Gino is a quaint four-room hotel (80-100 euro/night; $88-$110) but the family-run restaurant downstairs is good enough to be featured in the Michelin guide.
The restaurant offers a daily changing degustation menu for 30 euro ($33), featuring well-made dishes typical of the region: crusty bread with smoked slices of fatty pork cheek, tangy red garlic scapes preserved in oil, stuffed zucchini flower with prized Navelli saffron and the ubiquitous Abruzzese lamb stew.
As in the rest of Italy, lunch is the most important meal of the day in Sulmona and wouldn’t be complete without a bottle of Montepulciano (red) or Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (white) wine. Most restaurants in town carry nothing else.
After lunch, hit any of the cafe bars for a pour of local amaro, the Italian digestif that ranges in taste from bitter as truth to syrupy sweet depending on the blend of herbs and botanicals used. The locals will likely try to push genziana, a biting straw-colored digestif made from wild gentian root that settles the stomach but can be a bit potent for the uninitiated.
If you find yourself hungry later in the day or at odd hours, stop by the shoebox-sized Pizza e Sfizi Sulmona for a delicious thin-crust wood-fired pie. The dough here is slapped out on the counter rather than tossed, creating a delicate, chewy crust. An entire margherita pizza here will set yoeuu back just 3.50 euro ($3.80).
A margherita pizza from Pizza e Sfizi Sulmona in Sulmona, Italy, will set you back just 3.50 euro. (Photo: Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press)
There’s also plenty to see and do in and around town, including the local market in the main square held on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. The old town boasts some beautiful historic churches and fountains, and if you want to explore the vast wilderness of Abruzzo, a few national parks are just a short drive away. Welcometosulmona.com is an English-language guide to the city and a great resource for planning your trip.
Pescara
During the summer months, Abruzzo’s most populous city overflows with vacationing Italians who make good use of Pescara’s 10-mile-long Adriatic coastline. But even in the shoulder season, the salt-flecked city thumps with an energy that belies its 120,000 inhabitants, as throngs of shoppers and families stroll the old city's main artery in search of fashion deals and good eats.
A one-way ticket on the frequent train from Sulmona to Pescara will set you back less than 6 euro ($6.60) and from the train station in Pescara, it’s a 15-minute walk to the seaside promenade lined with classic Abruzzese seafood joints.
A good option is Marechiaro da Bruno — a white-tablecloth seafood restaurant by day and casual pizzeria by night. One of the two Brunos that owned this restaurant died in July, leaving it in the hands of Bruno Micominico, who, like his late partner, started working at the historic seafood restaurant 30-some years ago as a server. Bruno will tell you the whole story if you ask for him.
Seafood chitarra, a traditional Abruzzese pasta, from Ristorante Pizzeria Marechiaro da Bruno in Pescara, Italy. (Photo: Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press)
Settle in with a bottle of Pecorino, the third and least common Abruzzese wine grape (not to be confused with the cheese), brought back from near extinction. Its tart acidity pairs well with Bruno's seafood-focused fare. Try the mixed seafood chitarra, a spaghetti-like Abruzzese pasta that gets its name from the stringed instrument used to shape its strands.
The city of Pescara shines brightest during the hot summer months. In the off-season, consider renting a car in town to explore the inland Pescara province, home to some of Abruzzo's most coveted wines.
Two of the Detroit area's top chefs — Mabel Gray's James Rigato and Bacco's Luciano DelSignore — recently staged a pop-up dinner at Marramiero Winery just outside the small town of Rosciano. The winery produces some excellent Montepulciano, Trebbiano and Pecorino wines, but also breaks from tradition. For its "Inferi" wine, Montepulciano is aged in French oak barrels for 14-18 months, as opposed to the more traditional "Incanto," which is aged in stainless steel tanks. Marramiero also offers a brilliant brut rose made from pinot noir that you can't find anywhere in the U.S.
Montepulciano vineyards at Marramiero Winery in the Pescara province of Abruzzo, Italy. (Photo: Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press)
For dinner, make a reservation at the Michelin-starred La Bandiera, a family-run culinary oasis tucked away deep into Pescara province's winding hillsides. (It's about a 25-minute drive from Marramiero.)
Michelin-starred restaurants have a reputation for being pricey, but diners at La Bandiera can easily enjoy a multicourse meal and wine for a very reasonable price. A five-course chef's degustation menu, for example, is just 45 euro ($49); add 18 euro ($19.70) for four glasses of paired wine.
The kitchen here draws inspiration from traditional Abruzzese cuisine but adds whimsical twists and a level of finesse uncommon to the region, resulting in dishes like a superspaghettino (similar to angel hair) served cold and topped with basil, capers, smoked ricotta and tomato sorbet — a delightful riff on pasta pomodoro.
If you want to avoid driving back to civilization in the dark, La Bandiera offers four highly rated suites above the restaurant for less than 100 euro ($110) a night. No need to rush, you can head home in the morning.
And if after eating and drinking your way through Abruzzo, you find that you still haven't had enough, you can always find the free wine fountain at the Dora Sarchese vineyard near Ortona in the Chieti province. You can fill your cup with free Montepulciano all you want, so long as you drink it there.
Locals of Sulmona, a medieval walled city in Abruzzo, Italy, still drink from La Fontana del Vecchio, which supplies fresh water from the surrounding mountains via a 760-year-old aqueduct. (Photo: Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press)
One cautionary note for travelers to Abruzzo: If you go, you might never leave.
Getting there
Nonstop flights on Delta Airlines from Detroit to Rome run May-October. During the off-season, multiple airlines fly the route with layovers in airports both in the U.S. and in Europe.
You’ll have the most flexibility if you rent a car at the airport in Rome, but be forewarned that Italian city driving is not for the timid or the faint of heart. Sulmona is mostly a pedestrian city with special rules for cars, and the traffic in Pescara can be nightmarish. The toll road, known as the autostrada, runs through both. (Sulmona is less than two hours by car from either one of the two international airports in Rome.)
For a more relaxed approach, consider the Trenitalia train or a shuttle bus. For less than 25 euro, ProntoBus runs routes multiple times a day from both Rome airports to various stops in Abruzzo, terminating in Pescara. (Note: The Sulmona stop is in a barren parking lot off the side of the autostrada; it’s best to have a ride from there arranged ahead of time or phone numbers for local taxi companies handy. Same goes for the train station.)
Follow @mkurlyandchik on Twitter.
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DC Comics will publish a new origin story for Wonder Woman this January, two months ahead of her first appearance in a DC Universe film in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
A dozen different men have portrayed Batman or Superman in a major, official theatrical release, while in the 74 years of her existence Wonder Woman's official cinematic existence is entirely encompassed by a cameo in The Lego Movie. One of the sillier excuses that has been raised to explain that is the idea that her origin story isn't as "iconic" as her counterparts. To which one might say that it's easy enough to have an "iconic" backstory if Hollywood has been starting and restarting movie franchises about the character since the 1940s.
Regardless, as The Hollywood Reporter points out, The Legend of Wonder Woman, written and drawn by Renae De Liz, will "fill the current gap in DC's back catalog for a standalone "origin" story for the character." De Liz is an artist/writer with a number of best selling projects under her belt, including a graphic novel adaptation of The Last Unicorn and the wildly successful crowd-funded comics anthology Womanthology. It's unknown whether the new origin will be considered canon with the movie universe, or simply serve as a go-to book for the theoretical new readers brought in by the films.
Historically, Wonder Woman's origin is as the only daughter of Queen Hippolyta of Themyscira, a hidden island ruled by the immortal, all-female Amazons of Greek mythology. As the story goes, Hippolyta desired a child so strongly that the goddesses of the Greek pantheon took pity on her, and brought the clay child she had crafted to life. The child, Diana, was raised by the Amazons and eventually left Themyscira to guide Man's World to a better way.
More recently in the DC Universe, Wonder Woman's origin has been altered. The story about the clay and the goddesses was revealed to have been a lie Hippolyta told to conceal the truth: Diana did have a father, and he was Zeus, the king of the gods. This plot line, which was greeted with a certain amount of disapproval from fans, also revealed that the Amazons had been systemically capturing, breeding with and murdering sailors (and then murdering or enslaving any male babies produced by those unions) for centuries.
Hopefully, De Liz's story will hew closer to Wonder Woman's old origin. The Legend of Wonder Woman will run for nine issues as a digital-first series debuting in January 2016. |
About selling on eBay
Selling your items online is a great way to clear space taken up by things you don’t need and make money at the same time. You can transform your used items into money with just a few words, pictures, and clicks of your mouse. Selling is all about making connections, and by using online selling sites like eBay, you can make more connections from the comfort of your own home than you could in person. When you sell stuff online you aren't limited by time or distance; you can put your things up for sale on your schedule and let buyers bid on theirs. All you need is an Internet connection and you're instantly in touch with a whole world of people who are actively looking for what you're selling. With a yard sale you might be lucky to get a few dozen people; when you sell on eBay you can reach over a hundred million. To succeed at selling, it takes a little more than just a quick description and post. You need to capture your audience's attention, and that takes communication. Start with the description; it's a great way to clarify things like size and technical specifications. Don't forget the pictures; they are key for how to sell online. Good pictures show potential buyers exactly what you have to offer, not the general details but the specifics of the one you're selling. Photographs bring your item's history to life and let bidders see exactly what you're selling. This works whether you are selling clothes or electronics because people want to see what they're getting. Let them see the shoes, the tablet, or the sparkle in that ring. Your words may provide the details, but your choice of pictures is the tool you can use to capture their attention. Happy Selling. |
'Previously, existence was about going to the pub, meeting women and working to pay for the above. Now I work to support my partner and child, and it's awful'
When a friend gave me her newborn baby to hold, my only thought was when it was acceptable to hand it back and go out and have a cigarette. I wasn't what they nauseatingly call "broody". So when I met my new partner, having children was not a consideration. We were too busy having sex. Unfortunately, she became pregnant. Condoms are so annoying. She was pretty erratic about taking the pill. How ironic that phrase "family planning" sounds now. Not for us the happy tears when the blue line appeared on the testing kit. Instead, I hoped she would have a termination; previous girlfriends had. She didn't want to, so I had to make the best of it.
Fast-forward one year and we now have a son and I don't have a life any more. Previously, existence was about going to the pub, meeting women and working to pay for the above. Now I work to support my partner and child, and it's awful. Perhaps the cruellest part of it is that if my son wasn't around, my partner wouldn't be in the picture either. I would have left her ages ago. We weren't particularly compatible, except in bed, and now even that has dried up. I was attracted to her because she was young and silly and carefree. Now she's young and resentful and a nag. We're still together because I would feel like a bastard if I left her.
They say you look at your parents in a new light when you become a father yourself, and I certainly do. I look at my dad and feel apologetic.
• Tell us what you're really thinking at [email protected] |
CLOSE Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk was among three NFL Network analysts suspended. USA TODAY Sports
Donovan McNabb currently works for ESPN. (Photo11: Ethan Miller, Getty Images for New Era)
Former NFL players Donovan McNabb and Eric Davis will not appear on ESPN as the company investigates allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior while they were at NFL Network.
"We are investigating, and McNabb and Davis will not appear on our networks as that investigation proceeds," ESPN vice president of communications Josh Krulewitz told USA TODAY Sports in a statement Tuesday morning.
McNabb co-hosts a show on ESPN Radio and also occasionally appears on First Take, while Davis co-hosts a show on ESPN Radio from Los Angeles.
McNabb and Davis are two of several players-turned-commentators named in a new filing in a lawsuit brought by a former wardrobe stylist at NFL Network, a group that also includes current employees Marshall Faulk, Heath Evans and Ike Taylor. The suit also names Warren Sapp and Eric Weinberger, a top executive at Bill Simmons’ media group.
MORE: NFL Network suspends Marshall Faulk, Ike Taylor and Heath Evans over sexual harassment allegations
MORE: After shocking loss, Patriots in search of answers heading into Pittsburgh
In the lawsuit, Jami Cantor, who worked at NFL Network for a decade, claims that McNabb made sexually inappropriate comments to her in text messages, asking repeatedly about a specific sex act.
Davis allegedly told Cantor, “You look like a woman who knows what to do in bed."
"Mr. Davis also asked Plaintiff to have rough sex with him, and said that he wanted to choke Plaintiff from behind until Plaintiff begged him to stop," the complaint alleges.
Evans, Faulk and Taylor have been suspended by NFL Network, while a spokesman for Simmons' The Ringer told USA TODAY Sports in a statement that Weinberger has been placed on leave pending an investigation.
Contributing: A.J. Perez
Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.
GALLERY: NFL Week 15 power rankings |
Sebastián Driussi 09/02/1996 Zenit St. Petersburg Striker From his River Plate debut at the age of 17 to his status now as a €15 million striker with Zenit Saint Petersburg, Sebastián Driussi has already been through a number of peaks and troughs in his young career. The prolific youngster’s exploits within River’s illustrious academy and for various Argentina youth sides had always earmarked Driussi for greatness but failing to break into the first team as Marcelo Gallardo’s versatile squad forward almost saw El León shipped out on loan before things fell into place. Paired up front with Lucas Alario, five goals from his first 63 appearances suddenly transformed into a sensational 20 in 35 during the 2016/17 season and this prompted big spending Zenit to swoop. Tasked to study Luis Suárez by Gallardo his tigerish appetite for the ball, positional awareness, intelligent movement and goal scoring instincts often exhibited shades of the Uruguayan and while Russia hasn’t proved an easy place to settle, Driussi remains a great talent. #argentina #football #futbol #soccer #footballplayer #footballteam #instagood #instapic #golazopic #golazo50 #footballfans
Santiago Cáseres 25/02/1997 Villarreal Defensive midfield Cáseres was quietly one of the breakthrough players in last season’s Primera and was astutely snapped up by Villarreal in the summer for a fee in the region of €8.5 million. A promising start to life in Spain was brought to a halt with an injury against Girona but the 21-year-old defensive midfielder has bounced back strongly to pick up where he left off. A number 5 in the classic Argentinian mould, Cáseres is strong in the tackle and boasts great defensive positioning but also uses the ball extremely well at the base of midfield. In a struggling Vélez side he averaged 87.6% pass completion and has improved further on that since his move with 91% in La Liga and 95% in the Europa League. Had it not been for his untimely injury he surely would have been in the running for a national team call up and is certainly seen as someone who should be challenging for a place anchoring the Selección midfield in the near future. #argentina #football #futbol #soccer #footballplayer #footballteam #instagood #instapic #golazopic #golazo50 #footballfans
Ezequiel Barco 29/03/1999 Atlanta United Attacking midfield Atlanta United supporters might still be wondering what all the fuss was about after the ambitious MLS club pulled off an astonishing coup to sign Ezequiel Barco from Independiente for a record breaking $15 million fee. But there should be no doubt that the Five Stripes signed one of South American football’s most exciting prospects. Injury and rumoured off-field problems have made a first season in Atlanta a testing one for Barco but the youngster still played a part in Tata Martino’s side lifting the title. Now with Miguel Almirón gone, the 19-year-old will be aiming to step into the spotlight and produce the level of performances that made him a star at Independiente. Quick feet, incisive passing, a penchant for nutmegs and a strong mentality as proven by the teenager slotting away the decisive penalty at the Maracaná when Independiente won the Copa Sudamericana, Barco’s impact for El Rojo from the moment Diego Milito handed him his debut was immediate. Inconsistency, a lack of end product and at times guilty of over complicating things, it’s easy to be critical of Barco but still only 19, there remains huge potential. #argentina #football #futbol #soccer #footballplayer #footballteam #instagood #instapic #golazopic #golazo50 #footballfans
Nicolás González 06/04/1998 VfB Stuttgart Forward Coming from the club that produced the likes of Fernando Redondo and Diego Maradona, for Nicolás González to fetch Argentinos Juniors a club record transfer fee of €8.5 million when VfB Stuttgart swooped last summer suggests the 20-year-old is a genuine talent. Having joined Los Bichos at under-15 level, González worked his way up and was handed a senior debut by Gabriel Heinze in 2016, scoring the decisive goal against Gimnasia de Jujuy to seal promotion back to the top flight. Seven goals on that return to the Superliga proved to be a breakthrough for the forward and as Argentinos finished a comfortable twelfth. Since the sale of González, the Paternal club have struggled and the youngsters ability to stretch play and get behind has certainly been missed. Quick, alert in the penalty area and flexible enough to play across the frontline, González has all the attributes to make it in one of Europe’s top leagues. #argentina #football #futbol #soccer #footballplayer #footballteam #instagood #instapic #golazopic #golazo50 #footballfans
Alan Franco 11/10/1996 Independiente Centre back Already an Argentina international after a debut against Guatemala in September only a broken metatarsal spoiled the end of 2018 for Alan Franco. The Independiente defender emerged as one of the Superliga’s top centre backs and with good reason El Rojo tied Franco down to a new deal complete with a $20 million release clause as European clubs circled. Originally a defensive midfielder, Independiente snapped up the teenager from lower league Buenos Aires outfit San Telmo in 2016 and it was here that Franco was converted to his current position. Few would have expected such a quick rise to one of Ariel Holan’s key first team players but after Nicolás Figal was hit with a doping suspension, Franco came into the side and has never looked back. Dominant aerially and quick in the tackle, Franco is a reliable first pass out from the back in Holan’s attractive Independiente side and with the youngster in the back line it was no surprise to see El Rojo lift the Copa Sudamericana last year. #argentina #football #futbol #soccer #footballplayer #footballteam #instagood #instapic #golazopic #golazo50 #footballfans |
The Pittsburgh Penguins went into the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs riding the recent return of Sidney Crosby and a high-flying offense, and were the consensus favorite to at least reach the Final, if not win the championship.
But there were cracks in the Penguins armor, specifically their ability to prevent goals. Last season, Pittsburgh had a 14-game streak of gaining at least one point in the standings, but after that won just four of eight to finish the season and yielded 37 goals in those eight contests.
The lesson learned from last season -- when the Penguins crashed out of the playoffs in a flurry of goals against Philadelphia in the first round -- is the biggest reason they will claim the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in franchise history.
Sure, the Penguins have the most-talented roster in the League, especially after general manager Ray Shero added Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow, Jussi Jokinen and Douglas Murray before the NHL Trade Deadline. Yes, they won 22 of 24 games to wrap up the top seed in the Eastern Conference and cement their place as clear favorites in what appears to be the weaker conference.
But, it is how the Penguins have finished this season -- with a much greater commitment to supporting their goaltenders -- that has this team in an entirely different place as the postseason begins. Since a two-game wobble shortly after Sidney Crosby was injured (10 goals allowed in two games), the Penguins have allowed more than three goals just once since April 3, and that string of stinginess was accomplished without several key players in the lineup.
Marc-Andre Fleury has bounced back from a nightmare playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers, and Pittsburgh has one of the top Plan B’s in the NHL in Tomas Vokoun. There have been injuries to nearly all of their star players, but the new guys have filled the void, and the stars are starting to return to good health.
While the Penguins will likely be the pick of most pundits to win the East, they are not the overwhelming favorite to lift the Cup. They might have been had there not been so many injuries, but that could be a blessing in disguise.
This team will do a better job of committing to defense in the playoffs, because obviously there is offensive firepower up and down the lineup and the goals will come. After a disaster in the first round in 2012, the Penguins will reach the pinnacle of the sport again in 2013. |
AKB48 Team B member and self-professed anime fan Mayu Watanabe (nicknamed "Mayuyu") will stream a live performance of her solo debut single "Synchro Tokimeki" on Ustream on February 29 at 6:45 p.m. in Japan (4:45 a.m. EST). Watanabe will hold a press conference starting at 6:45 p.m. where she will reveal another song, and the solo debut program, "Dokidoki Jōtō. Synchro Shiyō Ze!," will start at 8:30 p.m. (6:30 a.m. EST). Watanabe's solo debut single will be released on the same day.
Watanabe will star as 13-year-old Chieri Sono in AKB0048, the spring television anime series inspired by the all-female idol group AKB48. Watanabe was one of nine winners chosen from 200 members of AKB48 and its sister groups: SKE48, NMB48, and HKT48 to star in the anime series.
[Via Ota-Suke] |
PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) - A heavily armed border crossing between North and South Korea that allows the North access to $2 billion in trade a year, one of its few avenues to foreign currency, remained open on Thursday despite Pyongyang’s move to cut communications.
A South Korean soldier (top R) stands to check vehicles heading to the inter-Korean industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, at the CIQ (Customs, Immigration and Quarantine) office, south of the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, north of Seoul March 28, 2013. REUTERS/Lim Byeong-sik/Yonhap
North Korea on Wednesday severed the last of three telephone hotlines with South Korea as it readied its troops to face what it believes to be “hostile” action from Seoul and Washington. The phone line is used to regulate access to the Kaesong industrial park on the North Korean side of the border as well as for military communications with the South.
Nearly 200 South Koreans and 166 vehicles carrying oil and materials drove into the park just inside the North early on Thursday after North Korean authorities used a separate phone line from the park’s management office to allow access, South Korean officials said.
The North has already cut a direct hotline to U.S. military forces stationed in South Korea and a Red Cross line that had been used by the governments on both sides.
Severing hotlines is one of the least threatening but symbolic things Pyongyang can do to raise tensions and at the same time pressure Seoul and Washington to restart dialogue, said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
North Korea periodically cuts the lines. Its latest moves follow U.N. sanctions imposed for its February 12 nuclear test and routine drills by South Korean and U.S. forces. Pyongyang has also scrapped an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
“What else can they do? Actually start a war?” said Yang.
“Not answering the phone and saying the armistice is not valid any more, that’s what they can do and they’ve done this before.”
NORTH STILL ACCEPTING US DOLLARS
Workers and traders crossing the world’s most heavily militarized border made sure they had U.S. dollar bills for the trip, some borrowing from a co-worker so they had enough of the zone’s officially accepted currency.
Pyongyang’s rhetoric against Washington including a vow to attack its military bases in the Pacific and to stage a nuclear strike has not yet extended to its willingness to accept dollars, which South Koreans said they had to use to buy cigarettes and other goods in the zone.
“I am a bit nervous but it looked the same as before when I went in there yesterday,” truck driver Park Chul-hee, 44, told Reuters outside the Paju customs office. North Korean soldiers in and around Kaesong had been wearing combat fatigues recently, he added.
The North-South military hotline was used on a daily basis to process South Koreans and vehicles across the border and in and out of the Kaesong project, where 123 South Korean firms employ more than 50,000 North Koreans to make household goods.
About 120 South Koreans remain in the park on an average day. The presence of South Koreans at Kaesong poses a potentially serious political risk for Seoul given they could be trapped if Pyongyang sealed the border.
The first of the 511 people and 398 vehicles who were scheduled to return from the zone on Thursday began crossing the border into the South, indicating the crossing was operating normally in both directions.
“I think the third nuclear test is the last tipping point. I was worried so I came out,” said one South Korean who has been running a factory in Kaesong for six years and who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Few people believe the North will shut down the project.
The $2 billion a year it generates reduces Pyongyang’s dependency on China, which accounted for almost $6 billion in trade in 2012, according to South Korean government estimates.
Kaesong also generates more than $80 million a year in cash in wages. This is paid to the state rather than to workers. |
By design the porn industry is often to be found at the extremes of the human race's moral compass. So recently, when one industry man began a campaign with a stated aim of bringing the cyberlocker market to its knees, one might expect things to have gotten a little dirty. Well they have - absolutely filthy - just ask Putlocker, ExtaBit, TurboBit and a growing list of others, all victims of a concerted operation to strangle their finances and put them out of business.
The mainstream music and movie industries have their own preferred techniques to make life difficult for cyberlocker services. From the wholesale destruction method employed against Megaupload, to the more subtle inclusion of sites such as RapidShare in government-directed reports, there are a number of strategies employed to put sites under pressure.
At times, the MPAA and RIAA are accused of using dirty tricks, but their outright denials and favorable framing of controversial issues means that the mud often fails to fully stick. But compare that to the action currently being taken by elements of the adult industry against a wide range of file-hosters, and we have a veritable mudbath in which the players not only relish the dirty tricks, but cheerfully admit to them at every turn.
For the past couple of weeks, Australian-born adult industry businessman Robert King (known online as AdultKing) has been doing everything in his power to screw up the lives of what he calls the “bad players” of the cyberlocker market. The 45-year-old has no qualms about his mission, or the methods he’s employing to complete it.
“What I hope to achieve is very simple. I want to tear apart the illegal file locker industry by removing its supply of funds and then ultimately removing its supply of network connectivity,” King told TorrentFreak.
King’s tactics focus on sites that sell premium subscriptions in order to provide users with improved access to user-uploaded content even though, importantly, those sites have no part in providing it. Secondly, he’s aiming for sites that pay members cash for uploading content that achieves many downloads.
“I decided to take this action because I was fed up with watching businesses profiting from stolen content and illegal content while doing so under the guise of ‘user uploaded’ or ‘internet freedom’,” King adds.
And the Internet, King says, is something he feels strongly about. Not only does he claim to be a vocal opponent of Australia’s proposed Internet censorship laws, he says he also played a part in building it.
“I was involved in the embryonic stages of the Internet in Australia having a role within APANA which provided network access when almost nobody could get it unless they were in University. Julian Assange was also one of many Australians involved in APANA and most of us ran APANA nodes which let people dial in and connect to the Internet all connected to central hubs.”
But ‘internet freedom’ and what some file-hosters and their users are doing couldn’t be further apart, King insists.
“In the main file lockers are simply modern-day ‘fences’ of stolen goods. Just like a thief would take a stolen television or car radio to the pub and sell it for a few dollars, there are thousands of people around the world who take copyright content, upload it to an incentivized file locker, then get a few dollars to as much as $30 for 1000 downloads of that content.”
In an attempt to bring these sites down, King has been utilizing a hugely controversial approach. One by one, King has waded through a laundry list of sites, searching their indexes for files that appear to contain not only regular copyright-infringing material, but also animal and child pornography. He then reports his findings to PayPal and other payment processors.
“Not content with merely hosting child porn, many file locker sites also host bestiality,” King explained at the start of his campaign. “Our friends at PayPal make money from each premium sale of this material to people who download it.”
At first, King got nowhere with PayPal, but through persistence something changed recently. During the last week or so King says that PayPal has been cutting off services and freezing the funds of a wide range of file-hosting sites including Putlocker, ExtaBit, TurboBit, UptoBox, Cloudnator, RYUShare, BulletUpload, BackUpload, RGHost, NitroBits, FireGet, FileMates….and the list goes on and on.
Also raising eyebrows is the impression that King appears to have detailed, presumably private, information on the nature of measures taken by PayPal against the sites in question. For example, against PutLocker, the 346th most popular site in the world.
“PutLocker have had their Paypal accounts terminated. All funds have been frozen for 180 days and in that time they cannot withdraw or transfer funds. They may no longer process any payments through Paypal,” King reported today. So how is he getting information like this?
“I worked hard to develop relationships with people from all sectors of the payment processing sector. Initially I had no luck reaching anyone at PayPal who could help me, however I persevered until I was placed into contact with the right person and now have ongoing dialog with them. I have also established dialog with several other credit card companies and 3rd party payment processing services,” King explains.
“Unfortunately I cannot go into how information is exchanged or shared as I do not wish to give the targets of my campaign any insight into the methods or strategies we employ to remove their payment processing ability. Suffice to say, these companies do their own independent investigations and do not solely rely on our information.”
But a nagging question remains, and it’s raised time and again by King’s reports on his campaign site StopFileLockers. What real proof does he have that the files he’s finding on these file-hosting sites do indeed contain the content that their titles suggest, especially when there is reference to children and animals?
The answer, it seems, is none whatsoever. Nevertheless, King insists that’s irrelevant.
“Personally I don’t know whether a file entitled ’12yogirlraped.avi’ actually contains a movie of a 12-year-old girl being raped or a legal adult video being named a misleading file name. It would be stupid of anyone to download it to find out unless they were involved in law enforcement in that field.
“However the mere connotation that there are files named this way is, in itself, unconscionable. Where we find a systematic pattern of what appears to be child pornography based upon file names we refer the matters where possible. We are not about to download the material ourselves to find out what the file actually contains. This is a job for policing and child protection agencies,” King notes.
King’s activities are causing fury among both users and the file-hosting companies themselves but none approached by TorrentFreak would comment on the record. However, some appear to be taking their own action in response. One locker, NitroBits, has threatened to sue King.
“If this is how you want to destroy our legal business you are wrong,” the company told King. “We do not allow any kind of illegal material, and if you have uploaded illegal material to NitroBits, and reported it to PayPal I will make sure I will take you to the European Supreme Court!”
Others are less straightforward. King says he’s been DDoS’d and has received threats against his life, but he doesn’t appear to be taking them too seriously. With the help of a team of volunteers he says he will continue and at the moment envisages a three month campaign – which he is funding – to achieve his goals.
So should other file-lockers be concerned at the prospect of having their PayPal and other payment processing facilities withdrawn too? King says he’s pushing hard for all file-hosting sites to be an unacceptable use of PayPal but currently the processor isn’t going that far, instead preferring to move on a case-by-case basis.
And that case-by-case basis, once PayPal have been informed that a problem even exists, raises an interesting point.
King says that PayPal are doing a “fairly good” job in their response considering the millions of accounts and transactions they have to process – after all, they can’t monitor everything that goes on via their service.
So, applying the same reasoning, the vast majority of file-lockers will not have anything to do with the content being uploaded and, once they are alerted to a problem, will take action as the law requires. However, rather than being given the benefit of the doubt and the same room to move as PayPal, they’re finding their finances strangled instead.
For King, it sounds like a no-brainer. Why bother with a million DMCA notices when a concerted effort can cut off a company’s ability to do business in one swoop? Filth sticks, it seems, and the adult industry has that – and determination – in spades. |
With the new firmware 2.0 update, the Panasonic GH5 becomes the first 5K 10bit H.265 mirrorless camera, and you don’t even need an anamorphic lens to join the party.
5K anyone? Well, Panasonic have delivered and it is in H.265.
Until now we have had cameras that do a 5K or even 6K sensor readout but never one that writes such high resolution directly to the memory card.
On the Panasonic GH5 the new firmware update 2.0 gives us the use of the very efficient H.265 codec for this. They did not scrimp on the bitrate either, which is a very nice 200Mbit/s and 10bit.
Open gate 4:3 aspect ratio
Cropped to 16×9
The key to all this is the new anamorphic “Open Gate” mode. This uses the entire sensor with no crop. You get a 4:3 image as if shooting a still. An anamorphic lens can be used to stretch this to a cinema-friendly aspect ratio. However…
The great thing about this is that you just turn on crop marks for 16:9 and use it like a normal video mode.
Because the recordings are 4992 x 3744, this gives you some interesting possibilities compared to Ultra HD at 3840 x 2160…
Placed on a 16:9 timeline in Adobe Premiere, I got 4992 x 2808 10bit with fine detail that had me rubbing my eyes in disbelief. The cherry on top? I could reframe the shot vertically to get rid of unwanted objects at the top or bottom of the original frame, or to improve the positioning of the camera.
Here is a full 4992 x 2808 frame grab from one of my files (click for full size version) –
I can do vertical pan-and-scans in post as well and re-frame to the cows come home. For the first time I have the ability to re-frame without ever dropping below 4K resolution, to cut things out of the shot that you don’t want like markers in a VFX shot or the occasional boom mic!
We call this kind of recording mode “Open gate” like on the Alexa XT, because it exposes the entire surface area of the imager. That’s 18MP in total, up from 8MP in Ultra HD 4K mode, that is a very significant opening up of the sensor. It is absolutely at full throttle. Even just taken horizontally, 5K is a nice upgrade from 4K in terms of resolution and you can oversample a 4K image from the 5K files in post for the ultimate in fine detail and minimised noise grain.
Horizontally you have an extra 1152 pixels to play with over Ultra HD for re-framing and cropping. Vertically you have an extra 1584, because the open gate recording uses the entire Micro Four Thirds sensor from top to bottom.
To use this high resolution anamorphic 4:3 mode as a normal 16:9 video mode, simply use a normal lens, keep the anamorphic de-squeeze display off and turn on the crop marks for 16×9, as shown below…
A range of frame rates are offered in this mode too… but the ones you will see in the anamorphic menu depends on the System Frequency you set the camera to. In 24hz (Cinema) mode, you get 5K at 24p. Switch to 50hz (PAL) and you get 25p. Go 60hz NTSC and you get 29.97p and 23.98p respectively. So remember to go into the System Frequency menu to get the frame rate you need. 60p and 50p are available in anamorphic mode as well, but only at the lower resolution and bit-depth (3328 x 2496 8bit).
The 5K is full on 10bit!
So to wrap up, the 4:3 mode can be used as a legitimate 5K 16×9 video mode with continuous recording and I didn’t experience any over heating problems on the first day of shooting with it. The H.265 codec also seems to hold up incredibly well. It’s easy to convert the files to 5K 10bit ProRes for smooth editing, by using EditReady 2 just as with the Samsung NX1 and I had no compatibility problems in post, apart from VLC Player struggling to preview the H.265 files directly from the SD card. A standard UHS-I 95MB/s SanDisk card was used without issues, as the data rate in H.265 is quite a bit more relaxed compared to 400Mbit/s ALL-I.
A great feature and I am going to bring you some actual 5K footage soon, once I’ve finished on the edit!
(Please note, this is still pre-release firmware and might not be 100% representative of the final image quality). |
CompTIA unveiled a vendor-neutral certification, CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CSA+), the first of its kind to bring behavioral analytics to the forefront of assessing cyber threats.
The CompTIA CSA+ certification will offer broad-spectrum validation of knowledge and skills required to configure and use cyber-threat detection tools, perform data analysis and interpret the results to identify vulnerabilities, threats and risks to an organization. It certifies knowledge of a data-driven approach to information security.
"The Internet of Things is not only bringing greatly expanded capability to homes and businesses, it's also opening up potentially billons of new points of vulnerability that need to be secured," said CompTIA President and CEO Todd Thibodeaux. "It's an economic and societal imperative to train and certify hundreds of thousands of IT professionals with the analytical skills they need to address the complexity and diversity of threats as they multiply."
"By placing greater emphasis on data analytics, we get a real-time, holistic view of the behavior of the network, its users and their devices to identify potential vulnerabilities and strengthen them before an intrusion happens," explained CompTIA's Senior Director for Products Dr. James Stanger.
"Armed with this information, cybersecurity professionals can more precisely identify potential risks and vulnerabilities so that resources can be allocated where they're most needed."
The demand for cybersecurity analysts is strong. The Bureau of Labor Statistics project growth of 18 percent from 2014 to 2024, making it the fastest growing job roles in the U.S. workforce -- not just in technology but across all categories.
"Data analytics is key," states Jim Lucari, Senior Manager of Certification at HP Enterprise. "Everybody in technology should have this CSA+. It should be mandatory if you're going to stay in IT over the coming decade."
The new CSA+ certification strengthens CompTIA's portfolio of security credentials. It bridges the skills gap between CompTIA Security+ and the CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP) exam to create a vendor-neutral cybersecurity career pathway.
CompTIA Security+ is the benchmark for best practices in IT security, covering essential principles for network security and risk management.
CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst+ focuses on skills associated with the use of threat detection tools, data analysis and the interpretation of results to identify vulnerabilities, threats and risks.
CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner certifies critical thinking and judgment across a broad spectrum of security disciplines.
CompTIA certifications validate proficiency in cloud computing, mobility, Linux, networking, security, storage and other mission-critical technologies.
CompTIA CSA+ has received a Certificate of Accreditation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), signifying that it meets ISO/IEC 17024:2012 general requirements for personnel certifications.
www.comptia.org |
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On Tuesday, Betsy DeVos was confirmed as secretary of education after a lengthy Democratic filibuster, a 50-50 Senate vote, and Mike Pence’s historic tiebreaking vote. Senator Al Franken, who participated in the filibuster, is absolutely disgusted that only two Republicans crossed party lines to vote against DeVos after she may have plagiarized quotes for her Senate questionnaire — a process that was prompted by worries that she didn’t properly grasp the key duties of the cabinet position.
DeVos’ ascension easily qualifies her as one of the most controversial additions to the Trump cabinet, and Franken is irate that his fellow Senators didn’t stand up against her lack of qualifications. He penned a fiery statement, which calls out Republicans for confirming someone who has donated vast sums to many of their campaigns. Franken really lets loose:
“It’s not a job for amateurs who don’t know the first thing about education. I voted against the nomination of Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor, because she is the most incompetent cabinet-level nominee I have ever seen. Last night, I urged my Republican colleagues to oppose her nomination, because if we cannot set party loyalty aside long enough to perform the essential duty of vetting the President’s nominees, then I don’t know what we are even doing here. Betsy DeVos has demonstrated that she is fundamentally unqualified to lead the Education Department, and it’s a shame that Republicans voted to confirm one of their major donors instead of looking out for our children.”
As the Washington Post points out, DeVos and other members of her family (all Amway heirs) have donated over $800,000 to current Republican senators. Over the decades, the family’s donations have totaled over $20 million, which was brought up by Bernie Sanders during DeVos’ confirmation hearing. Alas, neither that nor her strange statement about bears attacking schools was enough to keep DeVos out of Trump’s cabinet.
Franken’s totally going there with accusations that these senators allowed an unqualified person to essentially purchase a cabinet spot. For reference’s sake, here’s a handy listing of what the DeVos family has donated to currently sitting senators.
She literally paid everyone in the room
#noDevos pic.twitter.com/mFJnOaBHue — George D. (@xdelmar59) February 7, 2017
(Via Senate.gov) |
(Optional Musical Accompaniment To This Post)
The remarkable story of how we have come to privatize political corruption in this country reached another milestone today as the Supreme Court, John Roberts presiding, handed down its decision in McCutcheon v. FEC, effectively demolishing the aggregate, two-year limit on contributions by individuals, and taking a big chunk out of Buckley v. Valeo, the misbegotten 1976 decision that got the ball rolling in the first place. It was a 5-4 vote, with the court split exactly as it had in the Citizens United case. In writing the opinion for the court, Roberts further emphasized the equation of money with speech, and also seemed to agree with Anthony Kennedy's famous assertion in Citizens United that the ability of megadonors to shovel gobs of money into the election process,"We now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption." Roberts writes:
Significant First Amendment interests are implicated here. Contributing money to a candidate is an exercise of an individual'sright to participate in the electoral process through both political ex-pression and political association. A restriction on how many candi-dates and committees an individual may support is hardly a "modestrestraint" on those rights. The Government may no more restrict how many candidates or causes a donor may support than it may tella newspaper how many candidates it may endorse. In its simplest terms, the aggregate limits prohibit an individual from fully contrib-uting to the primary and general election campaigns of ten or more candidates, even if all contributions fall within the base limits. And it is no response to say that the individual can simply contribute lessthan the base limits permit: To require one person to contribute atlower levels because he wants to support more candidates or causesis to penalize that individual for "robustly exercis[ing]" his FirstAmendment rights. (Davis v. Federal Election Comm'n, 554 U. S. 724, 739.) In assessing the First Amendment interests at stake, the proper fo-cus is on an individual's right to engage in political speech, not a col-lective conception of the public good. The whole point of the FirstAmendment is to protect individual speech that the majority might prefer to restrict, or that legislators or judges might not view as use-ful to the democratic process. The aggregate limits do not further the permissible governmental interest in preventing quid pro quo corruption or its appearance.
What's good for Koch Industries is good for Sheldon Adelson, I guess. Roberts goes on.
This Court has identified only one legitimate governmental interest for restricting campaign finances: preventing corruption or the appearance of corruption. See Davis, supra, at 741. Moreover, the only type of corruption that Congress may target is quid pro quo corruption. Spending large sums of money in connection with elec-tions, but not in connection with an effort to control the exercise of an officeholder's official duties, does not give rise to quid pro quo corrup-tion. Nor does the possibility that an individual who spends large sums may garner "influence over or access to" elected officials or political parties.
And John Roberts apparently resides on Neptune. And, in case you didn't get the point.
Finally, disclosure of contributions minimizes the potential for abuse of the campaign finance system. Disclosure requirements are in part "justified based on a governmental interest in 'provid[ing] the electorate with information' about the sources of election-related spending." Citizens United, 558 U. S., at 367 (quoting Buckley, supra, at 66).They may also "deter actual corruption and avoid theappearance of corruption by exposing large contributionsand expenditures to the light of publicity." Disclosure requirements burden speech, but, unlike the aggregate limits, they do not impose a ceiling on speech.
Having earlier argued that there was a First Amendment issue to be found in the aggregate limits because they hindered an individual's right to participate in the political process -- It is here helpful to note the everlasting irony of Antonin Scalia's view of Bush v. Gore. There is no individual right to vote, but an individual's right to purchase a candidate must be untrammeled -- but here, Roberts is saying it plain. To restrict money is to restrict speech. Period. And the only real legal restraint on the wholesale subletting of American democracy is John Roberts's strange devotion to "disclosure" as some sort of shaming mechanism within the electorate. Good luck with that one.
Justice Stephen Breyer takes up a lot of these points in his dissent, most notably, the majority's laughably narrow definition of what political corruption actually is -- that political corruption exists only if you buy a specific result from a specific legislator. But it hardly matters. The five-vote majority in favor of virtually unlimited corporate and individual spending in our elections is a rock solid one. Four days after almost every Republican candidate danced the hootchie-koo in Vegas to try and gain the support of a single, skeevy casino gazillionnaire, the majority tells us that there is no "appearance of corruption" in this unless somebody gets caught putting a slot machine in the Lincoln Bedroom on behalf of Sheldon Adelson. Money talks. Big money repeats itself, over and over, age after age. |
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Krauthammer called out Chuck Schumer for remarking “making America great again” requires more than a tweet from President-elect Trump.
Krauthammer said, “Sore loser. The tweets are working. I mean if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be using them. As Chuck [Lane] indicated, Trump has used it on North Korea, he’s used it on Ford, on General Motors, on this issue, which he won within hours. It works. It has a lot of effect. And he’s not even in office…”
He continued, “What Trump is doing is wielding a two-by-four. And he certainly had to do it in the case of the House because these guys are mules. That was about the dumbest first step you could ever make. Particularly because as we just heard this is an issue on which Democrats agree there are real problems with this office they wanted to abolish.”
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By TMZ Sports
Multiple sources tell TMZ Sports ... Nike is preparing to cut ties with boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao after his latest round of anti-gay comments.
The two sides have had a relationship since at least 2006 -- but we're told Nike is particularly disturbed after Pacquiao said gay people are "worse than animals" ... and intend to drop the boxer for good.
We're told the move is not official yet -- but there have been multiple discussions and we're told it appears to be heading that direction.
We reached out to Manny's rep -- so far, no comment.
Pacquiao, an evangelical Protestant, also apologized via social media on Tuesday for those statements while discussing his position on gay marriage.
"It's common sense. Do you see animals mating with the same sex? Animals are better because they can distinguish male from female," Pacquiao told television station TV5.
After a barrage of criticism, Pacquiao asked for forgiveness.
"I'm sorry for comparing homosexuals to animals. Please forgive me for those I've hurt," he said in a video post on Instagram.
Pacquiao returns to the ring for what he says is the final time on April 9th, in a trilogy bout with Timothy Bradley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. |
PEMBERTON, B.C. — Three people are dead after a man, who police believe was impaired, drove into a group of cyclists out for a weekend ride on the Sea-to-Sky Highway about 60 kilometres northeast of Whistler.
Pemberton RCMP said they received a call from a witness about a driver crashing into three people cycling along Highway 99 around noon on Sunday, killing two members of the Whistler Cycling Club, along with the vehicle’s sole passenger.
The condition of the third cyclist was unknown, said RCMP Staff Sgt. Steve LeClair.
The president of a Whistler, B.C., cycling club says two of three people killed in a weekend crash were active members of his group with a lot of experience on the road.
Frank Savage of the Whistler Cycling Club says the group was apparently wheeling down a steep and challenging area when the accident happened.
Savage says the two dead cyclists were prominent riders in the resort municipality and his group is devastated, however both he and police are withholding their identities.
One officer accompanied the driver as he was airlifted to a hospital in Vancouver.
LeClair said reports that the driver was impaired at the time of the crash are based on observations from witnesses and police officers at the scene.
“According to witnesses, (the driver) was allegedly driving impaired,” he said.
The families of the two cyclists who were killed have been notified, said LeClair, but the identity of the deceased passenger has yet to be confirmed.
“It’s a very serious case,” said LeClair. “It’s concerning when something like this happens and we want to work to make sure that all the evidence is collected and processed properly.
Highway 99 was closed while police investigated. DriveBC estimated it would reopen by 11:30 p.m.
In the meantime, DriveBC has been directing motorists to take an alternative route of Highway 12.
However, some have been making other plans to stay overnight in the area while waiting for the road to clear, said Janice Lee at the front desk of Pemberton Valley Lodge, which is about a half hour away from the site of the accident.
Around 4 p.m., Lee said she started seeing the first of stranded travellers stream in to check in for the night at the small lodge, including a mother and daughter who “were three cars behind the accident. They were headed back to Kamloops, but decided to stay the night.”
“I asked if they had been able to help the cyclists, but they said they were gone. They had died,” said Lee, recounting her conversation with the eyewitnesses.
“They said an ambulance arrived about an hour later and they stayed for a couple of hours to help (out on scene)."
She said the driver of the vehicle was described as a “middle-aged man.
Whistler Pemberton RCMP are asking any witnesses to this incident to call Pemberton RCMP at (604) 894-6634.
With files from Canadian Press
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There’s no better sign that spring has sprung than the return of baseball, yet, I’m conflicted about heading out to the ballpark this season since apparently baseball is a symbol of white privilege.
When asked why neither he nor any other black baseball player had pulled an anthem stunt like San Francisco 49ers Colin Kaepernick, all-star centre fielder for the Baltimore Orioles Adam Jones said:
“Baseball is a white man’s sport.”
ESPN columnist Howard Bryant chimed in, noting: “Baseball is a white man’s game and is so by the specific design of the people who run it.”
I thought the colour barrier in baseball was broken by Jackie Robinson in 1947 but Bryant implies Major League Baseball, which is 30% Latino and openly welcomes players of all colours from the world over, is somehow racist toward black Americans.
While it’s factually true that the number of blacks in baseball has declined over the years, I don’t believe it’s anti-black racism that’s driving the downward spiral.
Watch as I offer a more likely explanation for the decline and apply Adam Jones’ logic to the NBA where the numbers would indicate the NBA is being racist toward Caucasians.
Speaking of Mr. Jones, in 2012, he signed a six-year contract extension with the Orioles for $85.5M. Boy, old whitey sure screwed him over, didn’t he now? |
Islamophobia is a real problem that needs to be considered in the same light as racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism, says Nathan Lean, the author of ‘The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims’
What is Islamophobia? Who is promoting it? And, how is it a poisonous force in the world today? Nathan Lean answers these questions in his excellent new book, The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims (Pluto Books/Macmillan, 2012).
Nathan Lean is Editor-in-Chief of Aslan Media, one of the best American sources for news, commentary, and analysis of issues in the Middle East. He is the co-author of Iran, Israel, and the United States: Regime Security vs Political Legitimacy (Praeger, 2011). Lean earned his Master’s degree in International Studies at East Carolina University in Greenville, in the US state of North Carolina. He is currently in graduate school at Georgetown University’s Center for Arab American Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington DC.
In The Islamophobia Industry, Lean illuminates the shadowy underworld inhabited by bigots united against Muslims and Islam. It is a meticulous investigation of the disturbing global phenomenon of ‘Islamophobia’. His book will shape our understanding of this subject for a long time to come. Lean discusses his new book in this exclusive interview.
What was the inspiration for your new book?
I was interested in the way in which the controversy over the Park51 Islamic Community Center, dubbed by ‘Islamophobes’ as the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’, mushroomed into a national hysteria almost overnight.
It occurred to me that the people heralding the opposition to Park51 were the same people behind the push for anti-sharia laws, the scare over the Muslim Brotherhood, and the virulent and nasty protests over the construction of mosques from California to Tennessee. I saw that there were dots that needed to be connected, and that this tight-knit, well-funded network needed to be exposed.
Who are the captains of the Islamophobia industry?
There are several. But two in particular have had more influence than other, at least as of late: Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. These are two American bloggers who prey on Muslims and who use the power of the Internet to drum up hate.
Spencer and Geller were not only the leaders of the Park51 protest, but their lawyer authored the blueprint legislation for the anti-Sharia bills circulated throughout American legislatures. Recently, their metro ads in New York and California were met with backlash, and now we know that they are both connected to the filmmaker and producer of the anti-Muslim flick Innocence of Muslims that set off protests in the Middle East. Both Spencer and Geller were listed as inspirations by
Anders Breivik, the Norway killer who, in July of 2010, murdered 77 youth that he blamed for the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe.
How profitable is their industry?
The Islamophobia industry is very profitable. We know, thanks to the Center for American Progress, that over the past decade, seven different organisations have funnelled US$42mn to groups that support the work of these Islamophobes. But that’s not all.
Millions of dollars have also come from other sources, individuals who donate substantially to these projects, wealthy Israelis connected to or living in the Occupied Territories, and sadly, much money has come via political donations that are made to candidates who take up a particular anti-Muslim platform.
Beyond just donations, though, the key players in this industry have created careers peddling this type of hate - careers that bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries each year. They sell books, have provided training for law enforcement officials, and charge astronomical fees for speaking engagements.
How deep is Islamophobia in America?
Islamophobia in America is a real problem. Polls show that today, nearly half of all Americans report that Muslims make them feel ‘uncomfortable’. Mosque burnings, assaults, Congressional witch-hunts and hearings, racial and ethnic profiling, illegal surveillance programmes - all of these things are evidence of a social cancer that is festering within our society.
Violence carried out by Muslims inside the US is at extremely low levels. Between 2001 and 2010, 33 terrorist attacks were successfully carried out. Certainly that’s 33 too many, but compare that to the 150,000 murders that took place in the same period of time and a clearer picture emerges about where - and who - the real threat is.
How has Islamophobia infected Europe?
Islamophobia has affected Europe so greatly because it has been institutionalised. In essence, what you have is a cadre of state governments that officially adopt policies discriminatory to Muslims. In Belgium, citizens were paid money to go around town and capture women wearing burqas - which were banned - and report them to the police.
It sounds too absurd to be true.
There is also a growing and dangerous right-wing nationalism in Europe that, in addition to being neo-Nazis and supporting only the advancement of the white race, have zeroed in on Muslims. The English Defence League (EDL) is a classic example of one such football hooligan group.
They storm the streets of various cities, beat up Muslims, break into restaurants and, with their fists pumped and their jugular veins popping from their necks, proclaim that Europe won’t tolerate the infiltration of ‘outsiders’. That is what’s happening in Europe.
What is the antidote to Islamophobia?
First, relationships. Then, more speech. Getting to know Muslims - neighbours, co-workers, etc - and developing friendships with them is a positive step in this direction. That doesn’t mean that we work to change their ideas, nor does it mean that they change ours. We have to move the Overton window to a place that excludes the rhetoric of the Islamophobes in our society and emphasises our common humanity.
What that means is agreeing, as a society, that Islamophobia is first a real problem that needs to be considered in the same light as racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, etc. We can accomplish that by constantly dragging the people who spout anti-Muslim sentiment out into the light and exposing their hate.
We must also reject that hate, not just in private but vocally – in op-eds, in articles, in the media, in church pulpits, in schools and universities, in workplaces. It’s not an easy task. But I am certain that one day, the Islamophobes will be swept under the rug of history along with the other racists in our society whose rhetoric was at one time acceptable, but now is considered disgusting and taboo.
How can all of us challenge Islamophobia in our own communities?
By not being afraid to speak out every time we witness an injustice. By getting involved in interfaith groups. By learning about Islam and getting to know our Muslim neighbours. An important part of this is using the word ‘Islamophobia’. If it doesn’t have a name, it doesn’t exist.
And when we reach a point in our society where we begin to describe this illness with consistent terminology, we will reach a real tipping point. Think about it - we have ‘anti-Semites’ and ‘racists’ and no one wants to be labelled as one of those. Everyone knows that these are bad things. The same must be true about Islamophobia and the Islamophobes that seek to fracture our society.
[Joseph Richard Preville is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia] |
Today’s distributed denial of service attacks are different than the kinds that we saw at the dawn of the millennium when the threat emerged. They’re becoming more nuanced, and subtle – and they could result in a lot more than a downed web server.
In the early days of DDoS, volumetric attacks were all the rage. Politically or financially motivated attackers would launch thousands of clients against a particular target, overwhelming their servers. Such attacks are still common, but increasingly they’re giving way to another kind of more sophisticated DDoS attack: "dark" DDoS, or as Andy Shoemaker likes to call them, smokescreen attacks.
“This is where the attacker is using the denial of service as a way to distract the IT administrators from the real attack, which is really trying to steal data,” said Shoemaker, who runs Nimbus DDoS, a consulting firm that researches and simulates DDoS attacks for clients.
In this model, attackers don’t use the denial of service traffic to extort or to take revenge on their targets. Instead, it is simply a means to an end. The attacker launches the attack for two reasons. Firstly, they can misdirect the target’s administrative staff, taking up valuable time and resources and blinding them to other events occurring inside their network.
“It’s an attack on people rather than infrastructure,” said Nathan Dornbrook, the chief technology officer at ECS, an IT and security consulting firm in the UK, who cut his teeth experimenting with DDoS mitigation techniques. The point is to tie up the target’s people for as long as possible, which is a great way of neutralising competent staff in a security operations centre, he said.
Dark DDoS attacks will often be just severe enough to knock out a target’s network visibility, Shoemaker explained. “A lot of times, the overwhelming traffic on the network equipment will make it so that of the tools that detect the other bad behaviour might not work as effectively, or at all,” he said. “Sometimes those devices have thresholds where if there’s too much traffic they can’t handle it, so their default behaviour is to pass traffic through unfiltered.”
Dark skills
Ian Trump, security Lead at global cloud-based IT service management firm LOGICNow, said that a dark DDoS attack is often the hallmark of a more sophisticated criminal. It takes some knowledge to engineer one attack while misdirecting the target with another. If performed well, it can yield impressive results by forcing administrators at the target company to alter their infrastructure as they struggle to address the traffic problem. “In some cases network operations personnel or security personnel will actually degrade their security in the process,” he said.
Unlike traditional attacks, the dark DDoS attacker is unlikely to try and bring the target down altogether in a catastrophic flood of traffic. Taking it offline would work against the attack. Instead, the characteristics of dark DDoS attacks often differ from the big-splash volumetric attacks that we sometimes see hitting companies, warned Bogdan Botezatu, senior e-threat analyst at Bitdefender. They are often sub-1Gbit/sec attacks, he said, designed to generate a large number of events and effectively masking a breach.
This is leading to a gradual change in the way that DDoS attacks operate. We still see attacks in the hundreds of Gbits/sec, but increasingly they’re far smaller, more targeted, and last for shorter periods. DDoS mitigation firm Corero Network Security said that the vast majority of DDoS attacks it saw on its customers last year were under 1 Gbit/sec. More than 95% of the attacks lasted for 30 minutes or less, it said.
"The danger in partial link saturation attacks is not the ‘denial of service’ as the acronym describes, but the attack itself," according Dave Larson, COO Corero Network Security. “The attack is designed to leave just enough bandwidth available for other sophisticated multi-vector attacks with data exfiltration as the main objective, to fly in under the radar, while the distracting DDoS attack consumes resources."
“Considering that this technique dodges common DDoS mitigation techniques that are designed to deal with volumetric traffic, it’s safe to assume that Dark DDoS should be considered a serious threat,” Botezatu said.
Inside a dark DDoS attack
What do these attacks look like in practice? Most attempts to compromise a system start with scanning of the entire network to find potential ingress points. That scanning behaviour is pretty obvious, so the smokescreen attack can be used to obscure it, said Shoemaker.
The attacker will also use the smokescreen to obscure their activities once inside the network, he explained. “The attacker doesn’t truly know what the exact imprint on the target environment is. They’re making a guess.” A criminal can make themselves conspicuous if they try to extract customer databases and other large pieces of intellectual property from a target’s network. A blanket of obfuscating traffic can help.
Even then, you’ll find that attackers will switch techniques while inside a target’s network, he warned. “They’re trying to find out what’s most effective in an environment, but also keep shifting the behaviour so that it’s harder for the people protecting the system to mitigate against it.”
The Reg explored a dark DDoS attack a couple of years ago, in which attackers launched a DDoS attack on a bank to distract admins as they pilfered money from compromised accounts using fraudulent ACH transfers.
Keeping a watchful eye
Dark DDoS attacks are detectable if you know what to look for, explained Dornbrook.
“The truth is that if you understand your network service, you’ll understand what normal traffic looks like,” he said, adding that IT staff can be trained to spot a low-bandwidth DDoS attack, and use it as a flag to check for suspicious activity.
Financial institutions are taking the brunt of these dark DDoS attacks, Shoemaker warned. They’re typically the most capable customers, having sunk significant resources into protecting lots of personal information. However, this isn’t the only industry to reportedly suffer significantly at the hands of shadowy DDoS attackers.
One of the most public examples of a dark DDoS attack was the October 2015 TalkTalk breach, in which the telecommunications company, in a confusing series of statements, claimed that attackers flooded the company’s website with traffic to render it unusable. This then made it more vulnerable to an attack that enabled criminals to steal customer data. A few months earlier in August, Carphone Warehouse lost the personal details of 2.4 million customers after attackers inundated it with traffic.
DDoS attacks are growing up, and whereas before they were an end in themselves, now they’re merely one step toward a bigger goal. Companies must prepare themselves to be extra watchful when they see DDoS activity. Simply kyboshing the corporate network may not be the attacker’s only goal: it may simply be the sign of something far nastier and more damaging lurking underneath. |
Dear #GamerGate supporter, this is not a post primarily about #GamerGate, but is tangentially related to it.
To be completely up-front about this, My ‘end game’ is that I’d like you to become radicalized. What I mean by that should become clear over the course of this post. For now, all I want is to present you with one claim, with a bit of preamble. It’s a claim that I believe cannot honestly be denied. One that was very important to me in forming my current socio-political beliefs.
But first I’m going to flatter you. Your support of #GamerGate tells me that you have the presence of mind not to be cowed into submission by social pressure, slander, and name-calling. You are immune to that kind of bullying. The truth is important to you. You have demonstrated a capacity and willingness to use critical thought even when it leads to taking a position that a large group of people honestly, and mistakenly, believe is synonymous with woman-hating. If you’re like most of the #GamerGate people I’ve read, you also manage to resist the temptation to demonize everyone who disagrees with you, despite some extremely vitriolic rhetoric from people on the other side. You also know first-hand that widespread stigmatization of a label is not an adequate reason to dismiss the arguments forwarded by those who identify with it out of hand. Taken all together I believe these things mean you’re more willing than 'the person on the street’ to reevaluate your pre-existing beliefs. That’s why I’m addressing this post to you.
I’ve seen #GamerGate people reliably condemn all threats of violence, no matter who their target. I’d like to see a broadening of the context to which this noble impulse is applied.
I’ll be happy if all you do is read the claim I’m about to make and think about it for a few days, even if you ultimately decide that it has no merit. Here it comes.
The continued existence of the state (or government) depends on this entity maintaining credible threats of violence against peaceful people.
That might sound surprising or even outrageous. You might feel a pang reading it and a desire to respond at once with a dismissal or rebuttal. If so please hold that thought. I made an animation called You Can Always Leave. I hope it adequately answers the replies I hear most often to this claim. Perhaps the animation already addresses what you have in mind. I’m embedding it in a player further down this page.
Before you watch the video, if you decide to, notice that on its own, acceptance of the claim I made above does not establish that these threats are illegitimate (though I believe they are). Nor does it rule out the possibility that the state is a 'necessary evil’ (though I believe it is unnecessary). Here’s the animation. It’s just over eleven minutes long, but if I’ve done my job well you might end up accepting the claim long before it’s ended.
Please carry this idea in the back of your head for a couple of days. If you find that you want to look into it some more, there’s a rich tradition of thought that’s well represented online that I hope you take a look at. Here’s one YouTube playlist compiled by user PeaceRequiresAnarchy that does a great job of hitting the most important ideas.
And if you’d like to read a fantastic book about this stuff then I strongly recommend The Problem of Political Authority by Micheal Huemer. It’s the best summary and distillation of market anarchism I’ve seen, and a much more accessible read than the formal-sounding title might suggest.
Whether or not any of this ends up making a difference to your view of the world, thanks for reading. My gratitude for the important work you’re doing with #GamerGate. |
If the Chicago Bulls allow their season to end 11 days from now, they’ll only have themselves to blame.
They've completed the "contenders" portion of their schedule and all that remains is the "Waiting on Secaucus" segment, as every team left is lottery bound, throwing out and trying out different lineups for the rest of the season to give young players time to play and explore—similar to when the Bulls trotted out every available player for a stretch and looked like a mess a couple weeks back.
All the Bulls have to do is take care of business, but if they conducted their business the right way for most parts of the season, they wouldn’t be in this spot, scratching and clawing with a handful of games left.
A scary proposition indeed: 28 quarters to relevance and a new life or 28 quarters to another offseason where leadership and competence and direction is questioned.
Not many pictured this after Taj Gibson was traded at the deadline and certainly when Dwyane Wade’s elbow went "pop-pop" a few games back, the playoffs seemed like a Vegas mirage.
But through the ineptitude of the East and a couple unexpected wins, the Bulls are in the driver's seat. Jimmy Butler's play has risen from "Huh?" to "Wow!" and with it, expectations have to be raised.
They don't want to say it aloud, because acknowledgement means there will have to be some serious accountability on the back end if they come up short, but they know what's in front of them.
"We're not looking at it that way, we're taking it day by day," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. "We have a great challenge in front of us. This was an emotional game."
Such an emotional game that Hoiberg couldn't remember if the Bulls were traveling to New Orleans or Sacramento for a game on Sunday, having to be corrected by the all-knowing media members—as all have one thing in common: Not having a single clue where things are going from here as the Bulls try to clinch a playoff berth following a one-year sabbatical.
Six games remaining, with five of them against the four worst teams in a bad Eastern Conference and another against a New Orleans Pelicans team that hasn't yet figured out how to use Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins to full efficiency.
But because these are the Bulls, no game can be penciled in as an easy win. Against the Knicks, Nets, Magic and 76ers, the Bulls are a combined 6-4—and if not for a Jimmy Butler buzzer-beater against the Nets in late December, that record would be an even .500.
The combined teams have a winning percentage of .331, making it by far the easiest schedule of the teams vying for a playoff spot.
Short of the Nets, the Bulls have lost to the bottom feeders in the East—as those individual instances are chief reasons why the Bulls sit two games below .500 and needing the back end of their schedule to help push them to the postseason—along with timely collapses from the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons to move things along.
Only Rajon Rondo would acknowledge the opportunity in front of his team, that the Bulls control their destiny. Ever the one who zigs when everyone else zags, Rondo has his sights set a bit higher than being tied for seventh seed in the East—which would put them in danger of playing a motivated Cleveland Cavaliers team in the first round.
"We’re not stopping at seven. We've got a nice schedule ahead of us," Rondo said. "(If) we take care of what we need to take care of, we can move up even more. I think other teams have a tougher schedule than us, but it's one game at a time."
Rondo having a hand in the Bulls being a more cohesive unit certainly elevates his level of confidence and the fact the Bulls beat the Bucks and Hawks—the teams occupying fifth and sixth seeds, respectively—gives credence to his beliefs.
"I always look at it like nobody picked us to be in the playoffs, nobody picked us to win, anyway," Butler said.
But expectations can be recalibrated and the Bulls must face the reality of what they've created and walked into: They should be somewhere when the playoffs begin two weekends from now, and it's not Bora Bora. |
They're an experienced team, the three of them. The driver has barely stopped, and already the security guard has grabbed a child from the crowd on the left and is holding it up for the pope. The pontiff bends over, kisses the child -- and then it's over.
The whole thing takes mere seconds and repeats itself several times during the pope's Wednesday lap of honor before the general audience on St. Peter's Square starts. If there are any larger groups he can see -- Boy Scouts, for example, or wheelchair-users -- then Christ's representative on Earth briefly taps the Popemobile-driver on the shoulder to get him to stop.
When observed from up close, Pope Francis comes across as a stately man. The white cassocks strain at his midsection, his pronounced chin is elongated and his eyes look searchingly into those of the people surrounding him. Compared to his predecessor, the almost otherworldly smiling Benedict XVI, the Argentinian comes across as downright earthly. As though there were no distance at all.
He hugs and he pats. He kisses small children and cardinals. He does it without warning and enthusiastically. It's almost as if he's using bodily contact to console himself for the burden of his position. He is the highest-ranking person of faith and a role model for the 1.3 billion Catholics around the world.
When Pope Francis, otherwise known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, entered St. Peter's Basilica at 10 a.m. on Pentecost Sunday for the Holy Mass, he had been in office for 797 days. Seven-hundred-ninety-seven days in which he has divided the Catholic rank-and-file into admirers and critics. At time during which more and more people have begun to wonder if he can live up to what he seems to have promised: renewal, reform and a more contemporary Catholic Church.
Francis has had showers for homeless people erected near St. Peter's Square, but has at the same time also spent millions on international consultants. He brought the Vatican Bank's finances into order, but created confusion in the Curia. He has negotiated between Cuba and the United States, but also scared the Israelis by calling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an "angel of peace."
This pope is much more enigmatic than his predecessor -- and that is becoming a problem. Right up to this day, many people have been trying to determine Francis' true intentions. If you ask cardinals and bishops, or the pope's advisors and colleagues, or veteran Vatican observers about his possible strategy these days -- the Pope's overarching plan -- they seem to agree on one point: The man who sits on the Chair of St. Peter is a notorious troublemaker.
Like a billiard player who nudges the balls and calmly studies the collisions during training, Francis is getting things rolling in the Vatican. His interest in experimentation may stem from his past as a chemical engineer. He makes decisions like Jesuit leaders -- after thorough consultation, but ultimately on his own.
The Francis principle has a workshop character to it, with processes more important than positions. Traditional Catholics see things exactly the other way around from Bergoglio, the Jesuit, and this is creating confusion right up to the highest circles of the Vatican. People want to know where the pope is heading.
The Pope's Empire
To get a better idea of the place from which Francis is declaring war on the Vatican's ossified system, a good way to start is to ride the elevator up from San Damaso Square in the world's smallest country. Upstairs, in the second Loggia of the Apostolic Palace, the door opens to the pope's empire.
Members of the Swiss Guard bang their heels and stand watch here in the half-darkness. Visitors pass through arcade passages decorated with masterpieces by Renaissance master Raphael and his students, before entering the heart of Catholic power -- the Clementine Hall, where Polish Pope John Paul II lay in state. It is the hall which houses the sedan chair Pope John XXIII used to get around, and the death chamber of Leo XIII.
Amidst all of this pomp and patina, Bergoglio, an Argentinian, still seems strangely alien to this day -- like a big, exotic bird beating its wings in a golden cage. When he's sitting at his desk in the Apostolic Palace, the pope -- a man who has assiduously dedicated his church to serving the poor -- only needs to push a golden button to set off a ring tone and summon a servant from the neighboring room.
If it weren't for the recently installed statue of the Madonna of Luján, the patron saint of Argentina, in the pope's library, everything at Catholic Church headquarters would look like it did when Benedict XVI was still in office. This despite the fact that, since the latter's resignation on Shrove Monday 2013, an experiment with an uncertain outcome has been carried out in the Vatican, instigated in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. In the process, Pope Francis is simultaneously fighting on three fronts: against the claims to power of his council, the Curia; against ostentation and pomp in the clergy; and for a radical return to the Gospel.
When Bergoglio announced the beginning of a new era on March 13, 2013, with a subtle "buona sera" from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, things were going badly for the Catholic Church. In the past several years, its image had been shaped by scandals involving child abuse, corruption and money laundering, document theft in the papal apartments and intrigue in the Curia. If nothing else, the Cardinals chose Bergoglio to be the successor to Ratzinger for this reason: The unblemished "Pope from the end of the world" was supposed to clean up shop.
A Pope and His Predecessor
There's one person with an up-front view who should know what's changed: Archbishop Georg Gänswein, known as "Don Giorgio." Still Ratzinger's private secretary, he also serves as the chief of protocol, the top person in the Apostolic Palace under Francis. His title: prefect of the papal household. As a servant of two masters, and a man who navigates between two worlds, Gänswein is emblematic of a situation that has never before occurred: A pope and his predecessor living as neighbors in the Vatican.
On this particular morning, Gänswein is wearing cassocks made by Gammarelli, the Vatican's court tailor. He's also wearing shiny cufflinks and a massive golden cross around his neck. Described as the "George Clooney of the Vatican" by journalists, he doesn't think he should have to slip into prayer robes simply because of the sudden enthusiasm for modesty that has taken hold under Francis. "No," says Gänswein, who is open about the fact that he considers fellow clergymen, "not excluding" cardinals, to be cowards for recently exchanging their golden crosses for tin ones at Porta Sant'Anna, near the entry to the Vatican.
He claims that the many subjects on which the two popes agree are lost in all the excitement over Francis and his warning against "spiritual worldliness" -- meaning the devotion to the profane. "His successor is now honoring what Benedict XVI called for," Gänswein says. "The only difference is that Francis is celebrated instead of being criticized for his appeals."
Indeed, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first non-European on the papal throne in over one thousand years, has quickly become a favorite of Catholics -- and even more so of non-believers and the media. In his first year, Francis appeared on the covers of both Time and Rolling Stone. Business magazine Fortune named him the world's greatest leader. The Economist raved that Francis was on the verge of reinventing "the world's oldest multinational."
Undoing the Fetters
Almost 6 million faithful attended audiences in 2014. According to many observers, this says a lot for the pope -- Francis is breaking with tradition, and thus is undoing the fetters. He is letting outside experts reorganize the scandal-rocked Vatican Bank. He is having the reform of the Curia pushed through by cardinals who previously had little to do with the governing body. He encourages the church to talk about family, about marriage, about sexuality, and doesn't get tired of arguing for more compassion and solidarity for the poor and the marginalized, whether he's in Lampedusa or Copacabana.
And this pope is political. He takes positions, including uncomfortable ones. He doesn't dodge, he gets involved. Before negotiating rapprochement between Cuba and the United States, he held a four-hour prayer vigil for peace in Syria. He scandalized Turkey by describing the Armenian genocide as just that, and provoked Israel by acknowledging Palestine as an independent state.
Not surprisingly, critics within the church have begun quietly grumbling in the pontiff's third year, but it is becoming increasingly audible. There are various reasons why they feel uneasy about the man from Buenos Aires: His leadership style is supposedly too authoritarian, his self-marketing is too sophisticated, he doesn't know enough about matters of doctrine. Prominent German novelist Martin Mosebach even openly claims that this pope is making his mark "at the expense of the church." He argues that Francis "throws around snazzy sayings" and gets attention by fitting in with the zeitgeist, but that he cares little about tradition.
As it turns out, it's not just Bergoglio's theological side that perplexes people, it's also the man himself. His always soft voice obscures his word choices and contradictions. He has accused his cardinals of suffering from "spiritual Alzheimer's" and warned believers not to breed like "rabbits." At the same time, and in front of thousands of listeners, he praised a father who smacks his child, but never in the face. "How beautiful! He knows the sense of dignity," he said.
Bergoglio is a surprising pope in every sense of the word. But what does he want? Does he have a plan for his church, or is he simply content turning everything in this small, walled Kremlin-like state in the middle of Rome on its head? Francis' plan is actually for a church in which the power rises from the bottom to the top -- but that also seems like an unspoken declaration of war, especially against the Vatican Curia.
Others expect a lot from the pope -- but he also expects a great deal of himself. The light in apartment 201, in the third story of the Santa Marta guest house, goes on at around 4 a.m. The area is still quiet at that time. Only a few hours later, shortly before the beginning of the early mass, do things start coming to life in the Vatican's alleys and gardens, as well as in St. Peter's Basilica and further down, in the Campo Santo Teutonico, a bastion of German residents in the city-state. Up in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, former Pope Benedict XVI conducts mass with Archbishop Gänswein and four nuns.
Francis celebrates mass down below, in the simple Santa Marta chapel where, in front of handpicked visitors, he gives the message of the day, which will later be passed on by the media. The Catholic Church, his sermons argue, needs to get closer to the people; a spiritual leader needs to be a shepherd living with the smell of the sheep, the pope is fond of saying.
It makes sense then, that the pope doesn't like being protected in the Apostolic Palace -- a "funnel," he claims, that only allows visitors in "drop by drop" -- and instead resides in the Santa Marta guest house. He has moved his control center here, and he and his employees occupy an entire floor -- a plan that raised both costs and hackles. Francis, however, lives modestly in a three-room mini-apartment, between statues of the Virgin Mary, crucifixes and a coffer with eight bone fragments of the Apostle Peter.
If the pope looks out his window, he can glimpse impressive history. On the left, in the Palazzo San Carlo, former Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, the strongman of the Ratzinger era, looks out of his roomy residence. Bertone's predecessor, Angelo Sodano, lives in the Ethiopian College. Former Pope Benedict XVI lives in an apartment up on a hill that he shares with Georg Gänswein. And there's also Cardinal Walter Brandmüller -- 86 years old, former chief historian of the Vatican and one of the leaders of the conservative Bergoglio critics. He lives just above the vestry of St. Peter's Basilica.
Doubts
Sometimes, while Francis is still busy preparing for his Sunday Angelus prayer, Brandmüller is already sermonizing in the heart of St. Peter's Basilica -- and directing caustic questions at the pope and his "public relations strategies": "Will the clattering of the church apparatuses wake up the sleeping? Bring the attention of the masses to the Christian message?"
Brandmüller isn't the only person to have his doubts. Meanwhile, Francis works restlessly, like someone who doesn't have much time left to implement his plan. After morning mass he eats breakfast with the faithful. Then, in the morning, he makes his way through administrative meetings with Gänswein in the palace, and after a brief afternoon break, dedicates himself to the truly revolutionary part of his daily routine: his off-the-record meetings with the public, which he organizes by circumventing the Curia, using his phone, pen and paper himself.
In these hours, the doors to the papal apartments stand open: for victims of abuse, transsexuals, admitted agnostics, longtime confidants and bishops on a mandatory visit to the Vatican, whom the pope invites to "the fireside," as he calls the shared discussions. Not everything discussed there stays secret -- thanks to the more talkative members of those meetings, Francis' thoughts about this and that in the Vatican emerge.
Critics argue that a pope should have the last word, and not utter the first thing that comes to mind. Chatter isn't part of his job. Supporters counter: Francis is searching for dialogue, and that already speaks in his favor.
The best symbol of the Vatican's new style isn't the forgoing of the red shoes and the ermine-trimmed mozetta, but rather the renunciation of strict guidelines in general. Suddenly, meetings with high-ranking members of the Curia that used to be regularly scheduled are no longer take place. On Tuesday mornings, Francis no longer sermonizes for the general audience, instead doing whatever he wants to. In Albania, his prepared and already translated speech, was interrupted when two victims of Stalinism move the pope to tears.
Whenever Francis goes off-script, the Vatican's press department prepares for the worst. This pope keeps everyone on their toes, says one high-ranking member of the Curia: "With him, you can even imagine him selling Michelangelo's Pietà and giving the money to the poor."
When he's in a rush, Bergoglio picks up the phone himself. "I find this uncomplicated way of doing things very positive," says powerful Swiss Curia Cardinal Kurt Koch in his reception room. Koch is the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and a member of five congregations. He was even considered a pope-candidate, or "papabile," before the 2013 Conclave.
'Francis Has a Clear Goal'
The humble former Bishop of Basel, who wears a silver cross around his neck, regularly meets his boss for a meal or a glass of wine. "I thoroughly believe," Koch says, "that Francis has a clear goal, which is that the church needs to become more missionary and not revolve around itself." But it is questionable, he argues, how much this pope can ultimately change: "There is a lot of excitement about him, but as one can certainly see, in the people leaving the church in many countries, you can't really detect a Francis effect."
The pope can fill the squares with his sermons, but not the churches or the priest seminars, at least not in Europe. It's still unclear what he stands for -- except for a church that is looking for its flock on the edges of society. A more decisive agenda is expected to be set by the Synod of Bishops in October. At that point, a discussion is to take place about the future of the family, positions towards homosexuals and the question of whether divorced people who have remarried should be allowed to receive communion. At the heart of the raging quarrel over the church's direction is a single question: In the 21st century, who needs to move towards whom -- the modern person towards the Catholic Church and all of its iron-clad requirements and prohibitions? Or the church towards the people and today's diverse forms of modern partnership?
In the Palace of the Holy Office, in which Galileo was once imprisoned, Cardinal Müller, the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, represents the immovable standpoint: namely that the fundamentals of the faith -- those laid down in writing and tradition, in dogmas, encyclicals and papal writings -- are not to be shaken. In a recent interview for a Polish Catholic newspaper, Müller warned that even high-ranking clergy have allowed themselves to be so "dazzled by secular society" that they have lost sight of the important teachings of the church.
Francis' motto, on the contrary, is: "Reality stands above the idea." Instead of withdrawing in the name of pure teachings, he claims it is better to "allow oneself to be surprised by the Holy Spirit."
However, when it comes to doctrine, Francis has shown himself to be a proponent of the traditional family. He says he doesn't have any interest in constantly "addressing abortion, homosexual marriage, contraception." But he also knows: It will not suffice to criticize the dispute as one between "hostile torpor" on the right-hand side and "destructive do-gooder-ness" on the left, as he has in the past.
In his programmatic treatise "Evangelii gaudium," from November 2013, Francis emphasized joy in the proclamation of the Gospel over an uncompromising adherence to the teachings. It is an approach that excites simple worshippers and faraway observers of the church in particular, but less so the dignitaries and trustees of the Catholic Church.
For others, especially Germans, the Pope is still a disappointment: too conservative for progressives, and too noncommittal for conservatives.
In the "Evangelii gaudium," Francis wrote he did not "believe that the papal magisterium should be expected to offer a definitive or complete word on every question which affects the Church and the world." On the other hand, he warned priests not to talk 10 times about sexual abstinence and only two or three times about love. And again and again he has brought up the dignity of man and the right to work. A system that excludes many from wages and bread, he has written, is unacceptable: "Such an economy kills."
The Latin-American Pope
His word choice reveals that the man on the Chair of St. Peter has less experience with Western-style social economics and social encyclicals in the Catholic Church than he does with poor Latin American neighborhoods. When he was elected pope, Bergoglio was 76 years old -- and had previously spent almost his entire life in Argentina. That might best explain why this pope is so different.
"Jorge, don't change." Bergoglio told his biographer Elisabetta Piqué that he had made this resolution right after his election in Rome. He has taken into consideration that there is a danger that he will repeat the "old mistakes" in his new position. But a man of his age makes himself look silly, he argued, if he tries to reinvent himself. In Rome, consequently, he now acts according to a model that harkens back to his time in Argentina: The Francis principle.
Bergoglio himself claims that even when he was a Jesuit Provincial Superior he made "decisions in very abrupt and personal ways." Back then, at the age of 36, he had been named the highest-ranking Jesuit in the country. As Jesuit priest Carlos Carranza stated for the record, Bergoglio's strict rules meant that despite his selfless mission, "he and his way of leading the province" encountered hostility.
It's been documented that in 1986, in a time of "great inner crisis," as Bergoglio describes it, he was transferred for disciplinary reasons to the city of Córdoba. The exact reasons have remained secret. Another witness of the period claimed that some Jesuit monks considered Bergoglio to be crazy. Even his mail and his phone were monitored.
His reputation for being pious, uncomfortable and inscrutable remained when he became the rector of a theological college and the archbishop of Buenos Aires. Argentinian Nobel Prize winner Pérez Esquivel publicly pleaded to the Holy Spirit that the "ambiguous" and politically hard-to-categorize Bergoglio should not become pope. Eight years later, it happened anyway.
'Create Confusion'
Since then, Bergoglio has continued to follow his old principle: "Hagamos lio" -- "create confusion" -- and trusts that the processes that he puts into motion will spur positive changes. "He himself doesn't know where they will lead, he trusts the Holy Ghost," suspects Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi. For Francis, he claims, what counts is a "church in movement."
Conservative US Cardinal Raymond Burke, the head of the top Vatican jurisdiction, has been witness to this movement firsthand. A week after Burke criticized his church as a "ship without a rudder" in an interview, Francis pushed him into a post with the Order of the Knights of St. John. When it became known shortly thereafter that the commander of the Swiss Guard was also being pushed out, Vatican insiders reacted with outrage: "This is worse than in the Islamic State," one of them reportedly said.
The clean-up work in the Vatican is a long way from being finished -- the fundamental reform of the Curia is still ongoing. A committee -- which also includes German Cardinal Reinhard Max, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising -- is considering suggestions. In Francis' eyes, he and the other eight members share one main advantage: They are outsiders, they barely know the Curia and act as foreign invaders disturbing the court's immune system.
Francis' opinions about the Curia became clear on Dec. 22. A storm was unleashed in Clementine Hall, emptying itself over dozens of moiré-silk-clad skullcap-wearing cardinals, as well as the bishops cowering behind them. In any normal business, it would have been considered a vote of no-confidence against its leaders.
Not so in the Vatican, where Francis first complained about "spiritual petrification" and "existential schizophrenia" in the Curia -- then made a smiling round and received loyal addresses of discipline. And this from all those who voted for him in the 2013 Conclave so that he may bring order to things with a strong hand.
In the meantime, the angry whispering in the church has grown. Even lower-ranking Curia colleagues complain of a lack of sensitivity -- especially toward the low-earners in the Vatican who had their overtime hours cut, and this by a pope who sermonizes about charity. They must now survive on wages of around 1,000 ($1,094) a month.
The experts from renowned consulting companies -- like KPMG, Deloitte & Touch or Ernst & Young -- who Francis brought in make similar amounts of money in just a few hours. They audit the books of the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), the Vatican Bank, or the economic plans of the Holy See -- with success. The Vatican's finances and properties, which are estimated to be worth several billion euros, are no longer in the permanent sights of the public prosecutors.
Neither Conservative nor Progressive
But Francis' radical approach isn't appreciated by all Catholics. One German cleric says that the transgressions of individuals in the past in no way justify the way the current pope is cursing his staff. "Any tree can produce rotten fruit, but does that mean you automatically take the axe to the trunk?" he asks.
"Francis isn't just a very free man, he's also a bubbling volcano," says Sicilian Jesuit priest Antonio Spadaro, editor in chief of the Jesuit newspaper Civiltà Cattolica, which has been considered the unofficial central organ of the Vatican since Francis took office.
Spadaro conducted the very first interview with Bergoglio after his election as pope in 2013. Even then, Spadaro says in his office, you could recognize that this man was "more of a shepherd than an ideologist," that he was "full of ideas" but nevertheless realistic when it came to what he might be able to achieve. "I don't believe that Francis seriously expects that he will be able to complete the processes that he has initiated," he says.
The editor says the question of where to steer the church is not the pope's top priority. "It's very possible that he himself doesn't even know," he adds, saying that a man like Francis can't easily be squeezed into established patterns of thinking. "He is neither conservative nor progressive, he's not an ideologist -- he's more radical in the literal sense -- a person searching for roots." Spadaro also says, with a smile, that the Argentinian's tendency, like that of all Jesuits, to "think in a processual, open-minded way" makes him come across as erratic, but that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. "The Lord God is also unpredictable," he says.
Francis is free of fear and he's curious. "The shepherd who locks himself in is not a true pastor for his sheep, but just a 'hairdresser' for sheep, putting in their curlers, instead of going out to seek others," Francis has said. That's why he often has a chauffeur drive him outside of the Vatican into worldly Rome in a modest Ford Focus. The first time he went to visit the Jesuit Curia, he called on his own to announce himself and say he would be making a whistle-stop visit. The receptionist on the other end of the line asked, "With whom am I speaking?" Francis answered, "The Pope." The man in turn said, "Yeah, and I'm Napoleon," before hanging up.
Word has since gotten around that Francis is often out and about. After trips abroad, he kneels down to pray at Rome's Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and he visits jails during his free time. He's also already made three visits to a soup kitchen run by the Jesuits in the city.
A Slice of Home
The Jesuits and their possessions in Rome are a slice of home for Bergoglio, who isn't fond of traveling and has done as little of it as possible all his life. In addition to the Jesuits, the pope is also surrounded by longtime confidants who give him a sense of being at home. They include his secretary, Fabian Pedacchio from Buenos Aires, who lives on the same floor as Francis. And Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, a rector of the Papal Catholic University in Buenos Aires who is considered a progressive on moral issues, serves as an important advisor to Francis and flies in to visit him at the Vatican on a regular basis.
Another friend of Francis', Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Honduras, known for his critiques of capitalism, coordinates the Council of Cardinal Advisors. Meanwhile, Argentinian Jesuit Miguel Yáñez Molina has been dispatched to head the sensitive Commission for Safeguarding Minors, which has been set up to combat pedophilia in the church. Molina has been a confidant of Francis for 40 years. Finally, Brazilian Bishop Erwin Kräutler has been a major contributor to the pope's encyclical on the subject of ecology, which is set to be released soon.
The clout of the Latin American wing of the church is growing within the Vatican. When it comes to issues like marriage and family, that branch has to set different priorities than the European one, which is something Francis recognized early on. For a long time, the American and European wings of the church were dominant in the Vatican, but their power is eroding under Francis. This is not without logic, either, given that more than half of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics live in the southern hemisphere. Francis has taken this into account and has made the church more international. In February, for the first time in Vatican history, the church appointed cardinals in Myanmar and Tonga.
In Germany, the Catholic Church is continuing its decline, losing members by the year. Does this mean that Francis has as few answers to the Western world's questions of faith as his predecessor did? Archbishop Gänswein makes an effort not to come across as partisan on this question. He says Francis does a good job of communicating in the media and that he has a "seventh sense" for it. He says the pope is talented when it comes to reaching people's "hearts and minds." But after the headlines in recent years about child abuse and slush funds, even that isn't enough to suddenly make the church attractive again.
Gänswein himself doesn't believe that one man's charisma alone can foster a shift in the thinking of the entire church. He also deplores the submission many of his colleagues have demonstrated toward this modest pope. "Many are no longer objecting just because they have a guilty conscience," he says.
Connected By Fate
Now Gänswein has to go -- from the new pope up to the old pope. It takes seven minutes on foot and a hike of 30 vertical meters through the Vatican gardens to reach the Mater Ecclesiae monastery.
At Ratzinger's place there is still a strict regimen. Lunch with the nuns at 1:30 p.m. is followed by a walk and a siesta. Afterwards, Gänswein returns to work with the new pope. Later, he returns to the old pope for dinner at 7:30 p.m. where, of course, Francis is a topic of discussion. "I don't know what Benedict XVI thinks about the individual decisions or sermons," Gänswein says. "We discuss that in a very reserved way."
With the exception of Gänswein, who had been privy to Benedict's plan to step down, no one had any clue at the beginning of 2013 that it would one day be possible for two popes to run into each other inside the Vatican walls. The two have been connected by fate since then -- or at the very least since the March day in 2013 when Francis returned by helicopter from a meeting with Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo with a large box in his baggage. It contained the investigative report on Vatileaks -- documents about corruption and mismanagement surrounding the Vatican, replete with machinations and gay saunas. Since then the former pope's legacy has been a burden for Francis.
Benedict XVI and Francis do meet up from time to time, dining together or exchanging thoughts. They call each other on the phone and exchange letters. Reports about differences between the two are officially denied. Publicly, the pope speaks only positively about his predecessor. He says having Benedict XVI is like having "a wise grandfather at home."
Still, rumors about Ratzinger having an adjunct papal role and making well-timed theological interventions persist. "It's all made up," Gänswein says. "It is being spread by interested parties." Others within the Vatican say the differences between the popes are much less significant than they may appear to be from the outside. After all, Pope Benedict XVI also preached modesty, ate lasagna with homeless people and visited jails. But even that didn't help the German thinker and theorist. Francis, on the other hand, has had little trouble winning over hearts.
The Anti-Pope
He has already created considerable momentum. He has involved himself to a high degree in foreign policy, positioning himself much more clearly than his predecessor. Meanwhile, his fight to bring transparency to the Vatican's coffers has also been successful. Most criticism of him so far has come from within the global Catholic Church. Indeed, the enthusiasm of millions is countered by growing antagonism within the Catholic establishment. The recurring complaint is that Francis blabbers a lot but is doing too little to clarify the direction in which he wants to steer the church.
If there's one thing he's succeeded in maintaining, it's the lightness, the serenity and the cheerfulness with which he serves, and with which he breaks conventions and muddles up Catholic institutions. Francis is an anti-pope, one like no other who preceded him. He excommunicated mafia bosses, for example. And he does things that weren't even intended as his duties. He occasionally calls people up: Obama, Putin, ordinary believers. There's a revolutionary air to it all.
Still, this isn't a revolution. This pope may be a free spirit, but he's also conservative and doesn't appear to be poised or able to change much of the church's fundamentals. That, indeed, may be the source from the very beginning of one of the greatest misconceptions about Francis: the fact that he tries to be close to the church's followers and keep a distance from its apparatus doesn't necessarily mean he'll stray far from its doctrine and dogmas.
This year will be a decisive one for the pope. On Dec. 8, exactly 50 years after the closing of the Second Vatican Council -- which focused on the relationship between the Catholic Church and the modern world -- an extraordinary Holy Year will begin. With this scheduling, Francis wants to convey the message that he does, in fact, want to be a reformer. But in the process, he will have to battle the somnambulistic pace of the Catholic Church apparatus. Effecting change to the spirit of the Vatican requires years in office, the appointment of new cardinals and reforms. Francis may not have that much time. So far, the pope has only appointed 31 of the 120 cardinals entitled to vote for a successor.
Much will now hinge on how the pope continues to endure his 18-hour days. Francis is 78 years old and has lived for decades without part of his right lung. He also struggles with back pain. When he climbs up to the altar in front of St. Peter's Basilica, he sometimes starts wheezing heavily. It appears that Francis often thinks about throwing in the towel, and he's even open about it. He has publicly stated that "my pontificate will be a short one." But even if that turns out to be the case, there is one thing people will be able to say about his pontificate: that he has shown that the church can have a different feel to it than many people who had given up on it thought.
"Morto un Papa, se ne fa un altro" -- is a common saying in Rome that means, literally translated, if a pope dies, then the next one comes. It's as flippant as it is pious. When people first came up with the saying, nobody would have thought there could ever be two living popes, let alone three. |
Jesse Jackson, Jr. is seen as a potential successor to Barack Obama in the Senate. Should Obama's replacement be black?
Although Barack Obama’s historic election will place an African-American in the White House, it will reduce the number of African-Americans in the Senate to zero.
That’s an even lonelier number than one, and it is not a number that this nation should be proud of. So the question is: Does Obama’s replacement in the Senate have to be black?
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Some would argue yes. And Jesse Jackson Jr., a member of the House since 1995, began campaigning for the slot even before Obama won the presidency. Jackson, son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, was one of Obama’s national co-chairmen and says he would be “honored and humbled” to replace Obama.
So he’s an easy choice, a shoo-in for the job, right? Well, no.
The politics of Illinois is not quite that simple. And the top contenders for the job have a tangled web of relationships with the people who will have a voice in Obama’s replacement, including Obama himself; Dick Durbin, the other Democratic senator from Illinois; Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, who officially will make the choice, and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, now in his sixth term, who has, to put it mildly, a certain amount of influence in the state.
Rep. Jackson does not have a good relationship with Mayor Daley. They disagree on a huge local issue — whether to build a new airport south of Chicago near Jackson’s district or expand O’Hare — and Jackson also toyed with the idea of running against Daley for mayor in 2007. At that time, Jackson brought up the touchy subject of fathers, saying that perhaps Mayor Daley was not proud of everything his father, the late Richard J. Daley, had done.
“His father was responsible for segregated policies of the city,” Rep. Jackson said. “I’m sure the mayor is not excited about the shoot-to-kill order, the protests or how Dr. King was treated. I’m sure he is not proud of that.”
Political attacks are one thing, but attacks on family are another, and in Chicago, neither is forgiven. (Jackson decided not to run against Daley, who was easily reelected.)
Gov. Blagojevich is not a fan of Jackson’s either, and, personalities and feuds aside, the argument used against Jackson is that he would “lack appeal downstate” when he had to run for election to the Senate seat in 2010. Lacking appeal downstate is code for, “White people won’t vote for him.”
A Chicago political insider whom I trust says that Jackson is on a list of possible replacements for Obama but that Jackson has only an outside chance.
One intriguing name on the shortlist is that of Emil Jones, 73, currently president of the Illinois Senate. He was one of Obama’s political patrons, is close to the governor and is an African-American, yet I got snorts of derision when I ran his name past some other Illinois sources of mine. That’s because Jones is from the old school — he started out as a sewer inspector, which is not bad training for a life in politics — and is not a modern, ready-for-TV candidate, possessing an orator’s tongue. He is a Chicago pol — the ring tone on his cell phone is the theme from “The Godfather” — but he would be a “place holder” only and would not run in 2010. He would fill the seat with an African-American and give the other contenders plenty of time to start their campaigns. |
Basically it's a normal restaurant - except the waiters are nice, a woman said.
ROME: It was another busy night for the staff with Down syndrome at the Girasoli restaurant in Rome, which serves up traditional pizza and pasta dishes along with a new way of looking at disability in the workplace.
The neon-signed restaurant was set up in a suburb southeast of the Italian capital by the parents of children with disabilities, and it functions just like any other eatery – except 13 of its 18 employees are handicapped.
“I love this room, monitoring it, making myself available, being in contact with people,” said Simone, a 24-year-old who after a paid internship of 600 hours now has a permanent contract with Girasoli (Sunflowers).
“And above all I just love being here,” he said.
When a group of women came in Simone deftly showed them to a table, clutching a few menus in his hand.
“We heard good things about it so we wanted to come,” said one woman, while her friend added: “Basically it’s a normal restaurant – except the waiters are nice.”
As he tucked into an amatriciana pasta dish, 64-year-old teacher Giuseppe said: “When you come here for the first time, you have certain expectations but you quickly realise that there is no need to have them.”
The restaurant was set up in 2000 and is aimed at offering work to people with Down syndrome – a genetic disorder usually associated with physical growth delays and intellectual disability.
“My waiters do their job and do it very well,” said chief waiter Ugo Menghini, who is not handicapped, praising the efficiency and speed of his staff.
“If I was to set up my own business, I wouldn’t hesitate, I would hire people with Down syndrome.”
Like many businesses in Italy, the restaurant has been hit by the recession and was forced to shut for several months last year for restructuring and renovation.
It is now being run by Consorzio Sintesi, a social co-operative association which specialises in giving jobs to disabled people and also manages three call-centres for the Italian mobile phone operator Wind.
“The state pushes for assistance but we prefer professional training. Everything here is self-financed with no subsidies from the state,” Enzo Rimicci, the head of the association, told AFP.
“Every employee here manages to find their place based on their skills,” Rimicci said, explaining for example how one staffer, Marco, was too shy to work with customers but proved to be “a real machine” in the kitchen.
“Seen close up, no one is normal.” he said, repeating an old Roman proverb that he likes.
The restaurant’s training is rigorous and out of the 13 employees with Down syndrome, nine are interns.
When Girasoli is closed in the morning, another team comes in to make cookies and cakes for the evening customers.
Anna, a 22-year-old waitress, came in even on her night off to have dinner with her parents.
“For us, for her it’s a great victory,” said her father, Carlo, tearing up as he described his daughter’s transformation since she started work.
“Our daughter has gained autonomy. When she comes home from work, she is happy, proud of what she’s done,” he said, adding that Anna had also made progress “in how she relates to other people, in her language”.
A further sign of the restaurant’s success is that another one is in the works.
A new one is expected to open soon in Palermo in Sicily and Rimicci said there were even plans to turn the idea into a franchise and create many more outlets.
Read full story |
To achieve an exact replica of what my actual status bar looked like, I opened Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and copied the BatteryMeterView, deleting anything that was not do with drawing the battery showing 100% charge. Similarly, I ensured the clock display matched AOSPs. Initially I was aiming to get the the status bar pixel perfect for my own phone (a Nexus 4 running KitKat). Generally I was aiming to support Google’s Nexus devices — that’s what I had and knew, and really that was all that was interesting for me. Other manufacturers mess around with the appearance of many things, the status bar being one of them, and trying to get all of those accurate was not a challenge I was interested in taking on.
Initially, the app just had a single button, letting the user toggle the black background with clock at 12:00 and battery 100% charged on and off — when pressed, the button started a Service which created the fake status bar. Drawing over other apps is done with a permission called SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW , which I first encountered using Link Bubble .
Hiding the real status bar is not possible, so the app just draws a black rectangle over it — the time and icons shown in the top, right corner can be configured by the user.
The idea came about after I had to produce a large number of screenshots for a client project: 8 screenshots of the app, showing 3 different currencies (GBP, EUR and USD), timed by 3 different screen sizes (phone, 7" and 10" tablets). It took forever — I painstakingly photoshopped the status bar of each screenshot to be clean and without the distractions of low/charging battery, notifications or poor WiFi/data connection. There has to be a better way!
Clean Status Bar is an app I created in September 2014 to try and make taking nice screenshots for the Google Play Store easy and fast. Ugly screenshots are a distraction from the app you’re trying to show off, and have become somewhat of a pet peeve of mine. When I’m looking at an app on the Play Store and wondering whether it’s worth downloading or not, the first thing I look at is the screenshots. Why wouldn’t you show your app off at its best?
Incidentally, there don’t seem to be any guidelines around what the time should be on Android screenshots, unlike on iOS where the convention is 9:41. Personally I still like 12:00, but for some brands/apps it can makes sense to be something else.
Slowly, over time, other Android versions and capabilities were added — from full battery and 12:00 only came the ability to manually change the time and toggle different icons for the top right of the status bar — e.g. WiFi, network and GPS. Ensuring that the spacing, fonts, icons and assets had the correct colour and size for each platform took a fair amount of time to get right and test — Jelly Bean has blue icons, KitKat can have a coloured gradient background, Lollipop introduced new icons and the ability to have a solid coloured background and more recently, Marshmallow brought the light status bar.
I had a number of feature requests to let people take screenshots with a transparent status bar, e.g. as you would see on the lock screen. Unfortunately because of how it works, by drawing over the existing status bar, transparency is not possible.
Reception, feedback and the Google Play Store
I’m very proud of the app — it was featured in Android Weekly twice and some of the 5 star reviews on the Play Store have been lovely (saving people’s time is awesome!). It was also used in the demo videos in the 2014 Droidcon NYC keynote.
However: the app continually receives 1 star reviews on the Play Store.
These are not reviews by those actually using it as intended — the feedback I’ve had from developers has been phenomenally good. But for some reason, the app gets downloaded by loads of non-developers, who seem to be generally very confused about what it is and does. Overwhelmingly, those reviews state that “the time does not update”.
I have no idea why it’s so well downloaded by non-developers — perhaps there is a real need for a customisable status bar? Perhaps I should have given it a different name, to focus less on the status bar but more on its usage for taking screenshots? I did try a number of things, but nothing seemed to make much difference.
Putting it on the Play Store in the first place was probably a mistake — it could have remained solely an APK for download from GitHub. My curiosity of seeing how many downloads it would get is partially to blame (currently 70k), and I thought that the convenience of the store would help developers find it.
Thinking about this more, a possible solution to this could be to have a new category of developer focused apps on the Play Store, which are only visible if you have ‘Developer Tools’ enabled on your phone.
Things I learnt about Open Source
This was my first open source repository that has had much use by people other than me — and I learned a lot from it. It had a number of contributions:
Issues filed and fixed that I hadn’t noticed
Features suggestions with awesome ideas (such as using Intent to configure it, for use in a CI environment for automated testing or to add the APK to the ‘releases’ part of the repo)
Translations in to other languages — French, Italian, German, Slovak and US English
I had a hilarious contribution from an American adding US localisation, who raised a pull request (PR) detailing the discovery of America and how the lack of the “u” character in the spelling of some words came to be — which still remains one of my favourite PRs of all time (also because the branch name was called ‘USA_USA_USA’).
Someone else opened a PR renaming the project to ‘Clean System Bars’ and including the navigation bar — I felt terrible declining something someone had clearly put some time into, but I wanted the app to remain focused on only the status bar.
Feedback from users
One user was using it for a use case I’d never have thought of — he wasn’t allowed to use his work’s WiFi, but he was doing it anyway and used the app to hide the fact he was connected to it.
Another was a particularly nice email from a Russian speaker who had noticed all the 1 star reviews in Russian on the Play Store — they included a couple of Russian sentences which I could add to the description, to try and explain better the app’s purpose to those who don’t speak English.
What’s next
Slowly but surely, Clean Status Bar is becoming obsolete.
There are two reasons for this: firstly, Android Marshmallow provides official support for what it does in the ‘demo mode’ feature.
Secondly, Marshmallow introduced a change in how the permission to draw over other apps works: you now have to explicitly allow the app to draw over other apps in Settings. Whilst this in itself isn’t a huge problem for an app that targets developers, it’s an extra hurdle — and coupled with the ability to use demo mode instead, I don’t see a good reason to target SDK 23 or higher.
I’m not too sad about it though — it was a fun project but it’s better that Android itself has added a way to keep those screenshots clean.
Special thanks to everyone who’s contributed to the project, and to Robbie Vanbrabant for reading a draft of this post. If you enjoyed reading this post, you can find me on twitter @emmaguy |
Jim Jarmusch fans rejoice, as the hipster indie filmmaker is back after a five-year hiatus from the big screen with "Only Lovers Left Alive," a vampire movie starring Loki, Alice in Wonderland and what might very well be Tilda Swinton playing herself.
This exclusive new trailer introduces us to Adam ("Thor" star and internet sensation Tom Hiddleston), a reclusive musician living in a run-down house in Detroit. Like Loki, Adam is pale with long black hair and an even longer lifespan. But the vampire has grown bored with his eternal life and pessimistic about the future.
Adam's life (undeath?) takes a sudden turn when he's reunited with his longtime off-and-on lover, Eve (Swinton), and her wild card sister, Ava (Mia Wasikowska), paying a visit. They implement various schemes necessary for survival in a world in which humans have managed to taint their own blood, a sad state of affairs that requires working with a shady doctor (Jeffrey Wright) to get the supply they need to hang out for another millennium or two.
Tom Hiddleston in 'Only Lovers Left Alive' (Gordon A. Timpen/Sony Pictures Classics) More
It sounds like mopey melodrama, but the trailer showcases Jarmusch's wry humor, from Adam's disguises as he infiltrates a hospital (he has a nametag that reads "Dr. Faust" and later "Dr. Caligari") to Jarmusch regular John Hurt as the immortal Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe himself, musing as to how he wished he'd met Adam "before I wrote 'Hamlet.'"
"Only Lovers Left Alive" is Jarmusch's first feature film since "The Limits of Control" (2009), a stark and spare exercise in mood and form that divided even the most dedicated Jarmusch fans. "Only Lovers" looks to be more of a companion piece to "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" (1999) with its out-of-time characters negotiating a fringe existence parallel to the modern world and all of its corruption and limitations ... and looking really cool with their sunglasses and chic wardrobes while doing so.
Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston in 'Only Lovers Left Alive' (Gordon A. Timpen/Sony Pictures Classics) More
Speaking of fringe, "Only Lovers" has been lurking around the film festival circuit for almost a year, making its debut at Cannes last May and following up with screenings at last fall's Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, among several others. Critics have been digging it as it currently holds an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter claiming it's Jarmusch's "best work in many years, probably since 1995's 'Dead Man'" and Jordan Hoffman of Film.com heralding it as "the next great midnight classic."
"Only Lovers Left Alive" hits theaters on April 11. |
Officials with the district attorney’s office acknowledged that older cases going to Justice DiMango’s court, called the “blockbuster part,” required a less rigid approach. But they said that defendants, too, were taking pleas they might have refused in the past, knowing the court would brook no more delays — which typically favor the defense — and they would face immediate trial.
Justice DiMango’s straightforward discussions with defendants, detailing their options and what a jury might do, have brought many to face reality, said Robert Dreher, executive assistant district attorney for the Bronx. “Everyone is saying the D.A. is giving these cases away,” he said. “But what makes this work is her conversations with the defendants.”
Justice DiMango’s success has caused some Bronx judges to privately complain that she was presiding over a “fire sale,” to borrow the words of one judge, that had benefited potentially dangerous defendants.
But an analysis by The Times of the first three months of dispositions in her courtroom found that in the most common charges to come before her, robbery in the first degree and attempted murder, defendants pleaded to the top charge more frequently than they had in the five years before she arrived.
Several defense lawyers praised Justice DiMango for pressing both sides to reach deals. “She pushes them,” said Harvey Slovis, who has represented several clients in the blockbuster court. “She wears them down. She’ll say: ‘I don’t think this is worth five years, I think it’s worth two and a half. Now go back to your bosses and tell them what I want, and they come back with these plea offers.’ ”
The cases show the hard compromises involved in rapidly clearing the backlog.
Troy Archibald and four of his friends were charged with multiple felonies for attacking two men walking along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx in 2010 in what prosecutors described as a vicious gang attack. After the case languished for three years, prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor. Justice DiMango sentenced him to one year in jail. Two of the others also pleaded to misdemeanors, another received the equivalent of a ticket, and the last was told his case would be dismissed if he was not rearrested.
“When you go into Justice DiMango’s courtroom, you get pleas that other judges might not consent to,” Mr. Archibald’s defense lawyer, Anthony N. Iannarelli Jr., said. |
As the Roman Empire collapsed and slowly became obsolete, its components became increasingly independent of each other and fractured. In the large scheme of things, the exit of Britain from the European Union is beginning to look like one of the final blows to the old British Empire, which had regained some momentum as English became a dominant second language in Europe in recent decades. Brexit now leaves Europe with less than one percent of English speakers, and feels like a huge chuck of ice breaking off and leaving Greenland or Antarctica: it’s an event that triggers a long-term paradigm shift that is not immediately evident.
Northern Ireland and Scotland, two of the constituent countries of what is now the United Kingdom, voted to remain within the European Union and now have a tough decision to make. Independence movements in both countries are beginning to prepare platforms that would lead to their secession. Nativism and isolationism appear to be winning again in Europe. As in the days of the late Roman Empire.
Together with the possibility of a Trump presidency–which, if it materializes, would in all likelihood make the world far more dangerous and hostile than it’s ever been for Americans, their culture, their language, and the neoliberal ideology that is associated with both Wall Street and London–these events may signal the decadence of the English language in coming years.
Like tectonic plates, cultural changes come slowly, but the tendencies are clear: over the long term, English will be slowly replaced by a new cyber-Babel, and in the lands conquered by England–where English is spoken mainly as a second language–many speak dialects so unintelligible that they’re likely to evolve into entirely new languages. Singaporean English is one example.
It is true that mass media aids in standardization and preservation of English (and other languages). However, the prediction by Nicholas Ostler and echoed by the Economist seems to ring true:
English is expanding as a lingua-franca but not as a mother tongue. More than 1 billion people speak English worldwide but only about 330m of them as a first language, and this population is not spreading. The future of English is in the hands of countries outside the core Anglophone group. Will they always learn English? … Several of Britain’s ex-colonies once did so but only because English was a neutral language among competing native tongues. English has been rejected in other ex-colonies, such as Sri Lanka and Tanzania, where Anglophone elites gave way to Sinhala- and Swahili-speaking nationalists. English will fade as a lingua-franca, Mr Ostler argues, but not because some other language will take its place … Rather, English will have no successor because none will be needed. Technology, Mr Ostler believes, will fill the need. This argument relies on huge advances in computer translation and speech recognition … If he is right about the technology too, future generations will come to see English as something like calligraphy or Latin: prestigious and traditional, but increasingly dispensable.
The mythical Tower of Babel is becoming a relevant narrative of globalization. But there is a man who challenged Babel: Doctor Zamenhof, who invented the artificial international language Esperanto in the 1800s. Translation devices are not the only threat to the comfortable hegemony of the English language.
Lately, Esperanto has become a cool learning adventure, now that it has been turned into a game-like experience by duolingo. Within months of being made available on duolingo for English speakers, the Esperanto language course has hundreds of thousands of learners and has gone viral online, also multiplying traffic to sites like lernu.net. Esperanto for Spanish speakers will become available soon. There are an estimated less than five million speakers worldwide of Esperanto, and countries like Poland and Hungary (which are near the epicenter of where Esperanto was born) have each tens of thousands of speakers. Poland is the birthplace of the language and has hundreds of monuments to Doctor Zamenhof. The headquarters of the Universala Esperanto Asocio is in the Netherlands, which also has a sizable community of speakers, and where the language even once had its own currency known as the stelo.
Immediately after Brexit, Esperanto speakers in Europe became activists. The announcement was made on the inauguration of Eŭropa konversacio (an European conversation), a webpage in the international language featuring news and cultural notes related to the continent and helping to forge a continental identity in the neutral, auxiliary language. A group of Esperantists have purchased the site europano.info and are raising funds on patreon so that their project may materialize. Unlike all other “official” European Union webpages, which spend millions of dollars and employ hundreds of translators in order to make their content available in dozens of languages, europano.info will test the usefulness of Esperanto as the single, auxiliary, second language for an increasing number of people, removing the many middle-persons in the process of translation between people from dozens of countries and ethnicities, and simplifying international communication for everyone. What better place than the European Union to test Esperanto?
Esperanto was scientifically created in order to serve as the easiest to learn language on Earth, as a politically neutral, auxiliary second language. It only has sixteen grammar rules, there are never any irregularities or exceptions to the rules, and most of the root words come from Romance languages and English. The number of Esperanto-speaking youtubers has increased recently, and some (like the moderator of the Language Stuff channel) learned conversational Esperanto within a matter of weeks. Considering how fast it can be learned and how easy it is for content to go viral on the internet, for the first time in history, Esperanto is beginning to have a real chance to slowly become the tool for international communication it was meant to be, not as a result of governmental policy, but as a grassroots egalitarian movement. Do, konsideru lerni la internacian lingvon! (So consider learning the international language!)
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Washington (CNN) The U.S. Department of Transportation has just launched an investigation into whether Alabama is discriminating against African-American residents after announcing plans to shut down or reduce service at 34 state drivers license offices.
Voting rights advocates say the move will disenfranchise lower income, African-American voters in rural communities who wish to vote. Alabama Gov. Bob Bentley dismissed the investigation as politically motivated.
In 2014, Alabama passed a law requiring valid photo ID in order to vote at the polls.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says his agency is specifically looking into whether the closures violate the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin on programs and activities receiving federal assistance.
"Driver license offices offer essential services to the American people, including providing thousands in Alabama with a method of identification. It is critical that these services be free of discrimination, and serve the people of the state fairly and equally," Foxx said.
On September 30, Alabama announced the closure and reduction in services at 34 drivers licensing offices throughout the state. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency has said an $11 million cut in the budget forced the closing of the DMV offices at which residents can obtain or renew their licenses. The state expects some of the needs of those who would have used such offices to be met online.
Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – The Voting Rights Act is often called the crown jewel of the civil rights movement, yet many Americans do not know why or how it was passed. Pictured, NAACP Field Director Charles White speaks on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, June 25, 2013, after the court limited use of a major part of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, in effect invalidating a key enforcement provision. Here are some key moments and characters in the voting rights saga. Hide Caption 1 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – Three young civil rights workers were murdered in 1964 in Mississippi while trying to register black voters. The infamous murders showed that segregationists were willing to kill to keep African-Americans from voting. Hide Caption 2 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – John Lewis, a young activist who later became a congressman of Georgia, heads to a fateful encounter on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama during a 1965 march. Lewis was brutally assaulted by state troopers during the "Bloody Sunday" march that made voting rights a national issue. Hide Caption 3 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – Marchers during the 1965 voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama gather for a rally on March 26, 1965, a few weeks after "Bloody Sunday." Black residents were beaten, fired from their jobs and imprisoned trying to vote. Hide Caption 4 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – Viola Liuzzo, a Detroit housewife, was murdered while participating in the voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. Her death outraged the nation and helped spur passage of the Voting Rights Act. Hide Caption 5 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – President Lyndon Johnson, pictured here discussing the act with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965, went on national television to call for passage of the Voting Rights Act. He ended his speech by saying, "And we shall overcome." Hide Caption 6 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – Rep. John Lewis speaks after bipartisan House and Senate officials met to voice support for reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act for an additional 25 years on May 2, 2006. From left, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other officials listen during the media conference. Hide Caption 7 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – President George W. Bush signs reauthorization of the act on July 27, 2006. From left, Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, look on. Hide Caption 8 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – President Barack Obama marches with civil right veterans during a commemoration march in 2007. Hide Caption 9 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – A conservative judge called the Voting Rights Act a racial entitlement but supporters of the act say it is the crowning victory of the civil rights movement. Pictured, people gather for a post-march rally after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the "Bloody Sunday" anniversary, March 4, 2012. Hide Caption 10 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Executive Director Barbara Arnwine speaks during a news conference to voice opposition to state photo ID voter laws with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and members of Congress at the U.S. Capitol July 13, 2011. Hide Caption 11 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – A supporter of the Voting Rights Act rallies in the South Carolina State House in Columbia on February 26, 2013, the day before oral hearings at the Supreme Court. Hide Caption 12 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – The Rev. Jesse Jackson, at the microphone, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, left, deliver remarks during a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on February 27, 2013, as the court prepared to hear oral arguments in Shelby County v. Holder, the legal challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Hide Caption 13 of 14 Photos: Photos: The Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act – Supporters of the Voting Rights Act listen to speakers discussing the rulings outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Hide Caption 14 of 14
"It is our obligation to ensure that recipients of federal funding are in compliance with federal laws that guarantee equal access and opportunity for all," said Stephanie Jones, the U.S. Department of Transportation's civil rights acting director.
"Our concern rests in the possibility that the state's closure of driver license offices disproportionately constrains the ability of some residents to secure driving privileges, register personal and commercial vehicles, and obtain proper identification a critical requirement for access to essential activities such as opening a bank account and voting," she said.
Bentley said "opportunistic politicians such as Hillary Clinton" have politicized his state's budgeting decisions.
"This U.S. DOT investigation is nothing more than a weak attempt to embarrass the people of Alabama and exploit our state in the name of a political agend," he said in a statement issued Wednesday . "I am confident that the U.S. DOT investigation will find no basis for the claims of discrimination. It is time for the Obama administration and aspiring national politicians to listen to facts, stop wasting taxpayers' dollars and put the political agendas away."
The agency will be requesting all documents and information that explains why these specific 34 DMV locations were picked for closure or reduced service "and why not others," Foxx said.
DOT says it has not reached any conclusions but if it finds these closures are discriminatory, the agency will first allow the state to come into compliance by making those services available once again. If Alabama does not comply, the Department of Transportation says it could strip the state of millions of dollars in federal funding that's used towards DMV programs.
Questioned whether stripping the state of federal funding would only further negatively impact the communities DOT is trying to protect Foxx said the agency is still gathering information "I don't want to presuppose the outcome at this point, we need to go and get the facts but I think that the recourse we have is fairly effective we've seen it work in previous cases. Hopefully we won't get there but if we do we will be very aggressive."
In October, Rep. Terri Sewell, the only African-American in the state's congressional delegation, asked the Justice Department to launch an investigation.
It's unclear when the DOT will complete its investigation or whether it will be done before the November 2016 election, though Foxx said the agency is working to get it done as soon as possible. |
SCP-1789
Item #: SCP-1789
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1789 is contained in Storage Chamber 34, located in Site 17. Storage Chamber 34 is to be equipped with audio and video monitoring devices. SCP-1789 is to be suspended via harness above a collection trough at all times. Collected samples of SCP-1789-1 are to be disposed of within three hours as a biohazard, unless samples are required for testing purposes.
Any personnel found to be engaging in unauthorized communication with SCP-1789 are to be given a formal reprimand. Any personnel found to be attempting to carry out one of SCP-1789’s commands are to be terminated. All changes in SCP-1789-1's flow rate are to be monitored and recorded.
SCP-1789 is to be subject to regularly scheduled interrogation. Mentions of the “Cradle for the Kings” are to be immediately forwarded to the overseeing Level 4 researcher.
Description: SCP-1789 is an enlarged humanoid finger, approximately one meter long and severed at the base. It is sapient and capable of telepathic communication. In interviews, SCP-1789 has demonstrated megalomania and a general hostility towards Foundation personnel. It is capable, through unknown means, of movement but not locomotion, and convulses rapidly when agitated.
SCP-1789-1 is a golden liquid of unidentified composition hemorrhaged from SCP-1789 at a variable rate. The current flow rate is approximately one liter every thirteen days. Chemical analysis of SCP-1789-1 remains non-conclusive.
SCP-1789-1 is a powerful hallucinogen. It is not addictive and has no side-effects. Upon consumption, users begin to experience hallucinations which often include the empowerment of the user, approval from the user’s peers, and success in all undertakings.
When SCP-1789 communicates, any demands it makes have anomalous compulsory properties. This compulsion is weak and can be resisted with extremely minor concentration. Common demands include:
the furnishing of ceremonial incense inside its containment chamber.
the provision of a trough, with measurements of two by two cubits (approximately one by one meters), filled with the blood of cattle.
the provision of a ceremonial piece of gold jewelry to decorate its fingernail.
the provision of ceremonial rings of varying composition, usually the spinal vertebrae or rib cages of household animals, to decorate it.
to be bathed in a mixture of sea salt and SCP-1789-1.
to be transported to a non-specific location, described as a “Cradle for the Kings". SCP-1789 expressed the desire to be reunited with what it described as “the multitudes of flesh ascendant, where the scattered remains of the King shall once again establish their domain over the beasts of this Earth.” The initial hypothesis that SCP-1789 was referring to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt was disproven when a covert Foundation archeological expedition to the region found no anomalous activity. However, due to the size of the target area and the ambiguity of SCP-1789's statements, it has been deemed impossible to determine the veracity of SCP-1789's claims. Furthermore, the same archaeological team discovered [DATA EXPUNGED] with outstretched finger [DATA EXPUNGED] near the original dig site. All of SCP-1789’s statements regarding the “Cradle for the Kings” have been recorded in Document-1789-19c (Level 4 Clearance required to access.)
Of particular note is that SCP-1789’s demands commonly necessitate the slaughter of various domesticated animals.
While the compulsory properties of SCP-1789’s demands are ordinarily extremely weak, consuming SCP-1789-1 drastically increases the potency of the compulsions. After consuming a cumulative volume of approximately six liters of SCP-1789-1, the consumer’s autonomy becomes irreparably compromised when subjected to SCP-1789’s demands.
Addendum-1789-A: SCP-1789 was initially retrieved on ██/██/2012, from the residence of ██████ █████ in ███ ████, ██. Local law enforcement had been investigating an abnormal increase in missing dog reports. After tracing the disappearances to █████, police presumably discovered SCP-1789 and brought █████ into their custody. The situation came to the Foundation’s attention during a regular radio scan of North American law enforcement. All involved police personnel were given Class A Amnestics. After interrogation, █████ was given a Class A Amnestic and subsequently entered Foundation employment as a D Class personnel.
SCP-1789 was found in █████’s basement. SCP-1789-1’s flow rate was measured at approximately one liter per twelve hours. The remains of several domesticated dogs were found scattered throughout the basement (pictures and after-action reports can be found in Document-1789-2b). The dogs’ bones had been first splintered with a butcher knife, and then strung together with twine to form a crude ring, which was found decorating SCP-1789. SCP-1789 was resting on the minimally-decayed body of one of the slaughtered dogs.
After SCP-1789 was contained in Foundation custody, the flow rate of SCP-1789-1 dramatically decreased, and SCP-1789 began to undergo superficial necrosis. The remains found in █████’s basement have not displayed any anomalous properties. The O5 council has elected not to reintroduce the remains recovered from █████'s basement or any previously constructed ornaments to SCP-1789’s environment. |
(CNN) Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Thursday defended his past use of tissue from aborted fetuses for medical research even as he continued to criticize Planned Parenthood.
The retired neurosurgeon said his research, which took place in 1992, does not conflict with his call to defund Planned Parenthood after several undercover videos surfaced that purportedly show officials with the organization working with research companies using tissue from aborted fetuses.
Jen Gunter, an obstetrician-gynecologist, wrote on her blog that Carson had co-authored an academic paper published in Hum Pathol , in which he described working with material "from two fetuses aborted in the ninth and 17th week of gestation."
In her blog post, Gunter sharply criticized the GOP presidential candidate.
"As a neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson knows full well that fetal tissue is essential for medical research," wrote Gunter, author of "The Preemie Primer," a guide for parents of premature babies.
"His discipline would have a hard time being where it is today without that kind of work. What is even more egregious than dismissing the multitude of researchers whose work allowed him to become a neurosurgeon is the hypocrisy of actually having done that research himself while spouting off about its supposed worthlessness."
Gunter wrote that fetal tissue research has recently helped develop a vaccine against Ebola and is currently being used to develop treatments for blindness, HIV and other illnesses.
Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Ben Carson attends the National Action Network (NAN) national convention at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel on April 8, 2015, in New York City. Hide Caption 1 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Carson speaks during the 41st annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord International Hotel and Conference Center on March 8, 2014, in National Harbor, Maryland. Hide Caption 2 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Carson speaks to guests at the Iowa Freedom Summit on January 24, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Hide Caption 3 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Carson is surrounded by supporters as he waits to be interviewed at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington on February 26, 2015. Hide Caption 4 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Carson speaks at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition convention on January 18, 2015, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A variety of conservative presidential hopefuls spoke at the gathering on the second day of a three-day event. Hide Caption 5 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Carson delivers the keynote address at the Wake Up America gala event on September 5, 2014, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hide Caption 6 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Carson speaks during the 41st annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord International Hotel and Conference Center on March 8, 2014, in National Harbor, Maryland. Hide Caption 7 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Carson speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton on February 7, 2013, in Washington. Hide Caption 8 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Honoree and director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University, Carson poses with actor James Pickens Jr. at the Jackie Robinson Foundation Annual Awards Dinner on March 16, 2009, in New York City. Hide Caption 9 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Before his jump into conservative politics, Carson was known for his work as a neurosurgeon. Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President George W. Bush on June 19, 2008. At that time, he was the director of pediatric surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Hide Caption 10 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics In a story that garnered international attention, Carson was ready to separate a pair of 10-year-old Indian girls, Saba and Farah Shakeel, who are joined at the head in New Delhi, India. Here, he addresses a press conference at the Indraprashtra Apollo Hospital on October 4, 2005. Hide Caption 11 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Carson and a team of 20 specialists approved the procedure after studying the girls' brains; however, their parents were worried about their daughters' lives and did not give doctors permission to operate. The surgery did not happen. Hide Caption 12 of 13 Photos: Ben Carson's career in politics Carson observes the start of neurosurgery proceedings at the Raffles Hospital in Singapore on July 6, 2003. Carson and Dr. Keith Goh, left, performed a complex operation that was unsuccessful to separate 29-year-old twins Ladan And Laleh Bijani, who were joined at the head. Hide Caption 13 of 13
On the campaign trail in Manchester, New Hampshire, Carson told CNN his research simply used the tissue from aborted fetuses that was made available to him.
"We have banked material in the pathology lab from people from every age -- from day 1 of concept to 120 years told. Those specimens are available for people who want to do comparisons," Carson said. "To not use the tissue that is in a tissue bank, regardless of where it comes from, would be foolish. Why would anybody not do that?"
Carson also issued a statement, saying, "There is absolutely no contradiction between the research I worked on in 1992 and my pro-life views. The issue of fetal tissue has everything to do with how the tissue is acquired. My primary responsibility in that research was operating on people to obtain diseased tissue for comparison to banked tissue samples. Killing babies and harvesting tissue for sale is very different than taking a dead specimen and keeping a record of it, which is exactly the source of the tissue used in our research."
And later Thursday, Carson went on Facebook to further defend his work.
"I, nor any of the doctors involved with this study, had anything to do with abortion or what Planned Parenthood has been doing," he said in a post. "Research hospitals across the country have microscope slides of all kinds of tissue to compare and contrast. The fetal tissue that was viewed in this study by others was not collected for this study."
Carson had previously told CNN that organs and tissue from aborted fetuses aren't needed for medical research.
"Virtually everything that can be attributed to progress by using fetal tissue can also use other types of tissue," he said. "If it were the only way to do something and there was no other way, there might be an argument. But under these circumstances, there isn't a legitimate argument."
Planned Parenthood has denied that it has broken any laws and said that it donates the tissue for medical research. |
A report in Finland's Turun Sanomat said the 2007 world champion's current deal expires at the end of the year, with a double-sided option to extend into 2016.
Manager Steve Robertson said: "Above all, he has to enjoy the driving."
Raikkonen, 35 and now father to a newborn son, struggled notably in 2014 alongside Fernando Alonso.
Robertson added: "If he is doing well, and he has the feeling that everything is working, the enthusiasm infects the entire team.
"If that happens, I believe it is possible that Kimi could stay longer."
Vettel and Raikkonen should work well together
At the very least, Robertson is expecting Raikkonen to work well alongside his new teammate and friend, Sebastian Vettel.
"At the beginning of his career, Sebastian travelled with Kimi and that's where it started to develop.
"Sebastian saw how straightforward Kimi is and that he could be trusted without reservation. They seem to have a lot in common.
"Sometimes it happens in motor racing that drivers can have good relationships and still the competition between them remains tough," Robertson added.
"I think the direction of the team will now be better -- Sebastian and Kimi are the right combination for Ferrari," he said. |
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Editor’s Note: Relevant financial details in blue, folks.
Coming into Day 2 of the largest (466 players) Pro Tour field of all time, the field has proved to be a mix of the expected and a plethora of attempts to get ahead of the metagame with cards previously thought to be nearly unplayable in constructed Magic.
Aetherworks Marvel decks were the archtype that showed up in the greatest numbers, constituting nearly 18% of the total field on Day 1. When they work, the various flavors of Marvel decks can drop a gigantic threat such as Ulamog or Emrakul into play as early as Turn 4. They have also generated some truly embarrassing moments for their pilots however, with too many of their top end threats stuck in hand resulting in fail to find adventures when activating the Marvel. Heading into Day 2 it will be important to identify whether a proportional number of these decks have made it through to Day 2, or whether the group think on going big was off the mark. The spike has already taken place however, with the card pushing from $10 to $20 early Friday evening. It will need to make Top 8 to avoid a wholescale sell off by the speculators come Monday.
Coming out of a highly aggressive first couple of weeks in the new Standard, many wondered aloud whether a control deck could be configured to beat the variety of aggressive and combo strategies in the meta. So far it has been Grixis Control in the hands of Hall of Famer Shoota Yasooka that has been most impressive in controlling the field.
Shoota’s deck has put both Thing in the Ice and Torrential Gearhulk back in the spotlight on the financial front, with Gearhulk spiking Friday night up toward $20 before fading back a bit to $18 on significantly lowered inventory.
Heading into the weekend, Smuggler’s Copter was the card that seemed to define the format, but we haven’t seen a lot of the card so far on camera, and it is unclear how many Copter decks have made it into Day 2. Metalwork Colossus decks were sprinkled through the field, and a couple of them may be doing well enough to make a bid for Top 8. Consequently the card has moved from $1.50 to $5 overnight. Dynavolt Tower, as seen in the Travis Woo championed Jeskai Control build (with three players over 50% Day 1) and the Degan UR build, is also on the move. The card is currently available around $2, but inventory is draining and this card can easily top $5 if it makes Top 8.
The RG Double Strike aggro deck hasn’t had a good showing so far, with Brian Kibler looking fairly foolish with a few obvious misplays during his feature match with the deck. Electrostatic Pummeler may still end up a popular card at the LGS level however, as the deck is fairly cheap and easy to play.
As I expected, Chandra, Torch of Defiance has not made it on camera as of yet, and by all accounts she is essentially absent in the format. Look for this Planeswalker to crash hard heading out of the weekend. Panharmonicon spiked earlier this week on the back of a prominent video series by Saffron Olive, but the card is not in the field this weekend, and seems likely to slide back toward $5 from $10. Foils on the other hand, propped up by EDH demand, are likely to hold their current plateau a bit better.
Day 2 Meta looks as follows as reported by coverage staff:
Temur Aetherworks holding steady, 1.17% up to 18.77% of the total field
BG Delirium down 1.5% to 10.24%
BR Aggro steady at 8%
RW Vehicles steady at 7%
RG Energy steady at 6.5%
Ten other decks between 2-5%.
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Worth noting that no one deck has gotten blown out of the format thus far, nor have any of the newer decks proven to be true solutions to the format. Meta is looking wide open at present. The continued prevelance of the Aetherworks decks may indicate upward pressure forthcoming on Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Emrakul, the Promised End.
Follow along with us as we track the final 5 rounds of constructed play before the cut to Top 8 and the establishment of the new Standard metagame.
Round 9 (6th Standard Round): Lee Shi Tian (Mardu Vehicles) vs. Kentaro Yamamoto (Grixis Emerge)
The Tian deck is splashing black for Unlicensed Disintegration. Yamamoto’s deck leverages the Prized Amalgram/Scrapheap Scrounger engine via Perpetual Timepiece instead of the red discard spells favored by other pilots. In Game 1, Tian overruns Kentaro, essentially unopposed, within the first five turns. In Game 2, Tian comes out to another aggressive start but this time Yamamoto is able to stabilize with a Kozilek’s Return and turn the corner to put it away. Game 3, a key Ceremonious Rejection off a freshly played Cultivator’s Caravan allows Shi Tian to brush past a Kozilek’s Return and put the match away.
Round 9 (6th Standard Round): Matt Nass (Temur Aetherworks) vs. Shota Yasooka (Grixis Control)
Matt Nass concedes Game 1 after being unable to ruin Nass with an Emerakul trigger.
Round 9 (6th Standard Round): Makis Matsoukas (R/W Tokens) vs Rich Hoaen (Temur Aetherworks)
We come into this match with the players tied one game a piece. In Game 3 we quickly see Hoaen spin his Aetherworks Marvel, only to whiff on a solution to the quick RW clock from the Greek player, and Makis takes it.
Round 9 (6th Standard Round): Steve Rubin (BR Aggro) vs. Mike Hron (Mardu Vehicles)
These players split the first two games before we check in as well. The weakness of aggro decks in this tourney is looking to be premature. There are plenty of aggro decks keeping the combo and control players honest in the top ranks.
Deck Tech #5: Zac Elsik (UR Control), 5-1 in Standard so far
4x Torrential Gearhulk
2x Nahiri, the Harbinger
3x Dynavolt Tower
4x Galvanic Bombardment
4x Incendiary Flow
4x Harnessed Lightning
2x Void Shatter
1x Spell Shrivel
2x Negate
4x Glimmer of Genius
4x Anticipate
Dynavolt Tower has moved up to $3.00 online, but vendors are adding copies as low as $.50. One of these decks needs to Top 8 to avoid a backslide.
Cut for Top 8 is being reported as likely to extend only to 13-3.
Ben Weitz is talking to Marshall Sutcliffe about his White/Colorless Eldrazi brew, which went 5-1 on day 1.
Round 13 (7th Round of Standard): Oliver Polak-Rottman (Temur Colossus) vs. Pierre Dagen (UR Spells)
Both players come into the round at 10-3, needing to win to stay live for Top 8. Oliver takes Game 1 by repeatedly bashing in with 10/10s artifact creatures. In Game 2, he manages to get three copies of his signature beatstick into play and Dagen is forced to lean heavily on Niblis of Frost activations to hold off the metallic offensive. One stunning turn later however, Dagen pushes the match into a tie-breaker, by eeking through eleven damage between prowess triggers on both Niblis of Frost and the activation of a Dynavolt Tower.
Plenty of Metalwork Colossus inventory now posted in the $3.50-$4 range. Deck feels a bit niche to me, and I don’t see it taking more than 10% of the meta moving forward.
In Game 3, a Confiscation Coup from Oliver is met by Void Shatter, but it is countered by Ceremonious Rejection and Oliver manages to steal a Dynavolt Tower, leaving another on Dagen’s side of the board. Oliver is then able to get a Metalwork Colossus into play on the back of the extra non-creature artifact now in play on his side.
Dagen however, has a super-powered Harnessed Lightning to take down the first Colossus, with Oliver quickly following up with another from his yard. LSV calls out Niblis of Frost as doing amazing work out of the board, especially when opponents take out their removal. Indeed, Dagen uses the Niblis to hold back the remaining Colossus, gets a Torrential Gearhulk down and starts rolling a train of instants and energy generation to take control of the game. Dagen takes the match and stays live with his innovative UR Dynavolt Tower deck.
Reid Duke (RW Vehicles) vs. Kenji Tsumura (BG Delirium)
We come in on this and Duke finally puts Chandra, Torch of Defiance on camera out of his sideboard. The beleagured planeswalker is quickly killed however, and the match is split, heading to a third game after a key Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet makes combat too tricky for Reid. Off camera a bit later however, Reid is able to take the match.
Deck Tech #5: Frank Karsten (Mardu Zoo)
4x Inventor’s Apprentice
4x Toolcraft Exemplar
4x Thraben Inspector
1x Depala, Pilot Exemplar
3x Pia Nalar
3x Veteran Motorist
4x Scrapheap Scrounger
4x Smuggler’s Copter
2x Fleetwheel Cruiser
1x Incendiary Flow
1x Declaration in Stone
4x Fiery Temper
1x Key to the City
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Franks mentions that he found that the other aggro decks were step behind this build in presenting early game pressure.
Standings after this round look like this:
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Decks in contention are all over the map so far, with no clear theme. RB and RW Aggro, Grixis Control, Aetherworks Combo, Colossus, UR Control and UR Emerge are all live.
Round 14 (Standard Round 8): Lee Shi Tian (Mardu Vehicles) vs. Raphael Levy (UR Emerge)
Lee Shi Tian’s consistent aggro plan plays out as per normal again this round, allowing him to claim first blood yet again. In Game 2 Levy is forced to mulligan on the play against the last deck you want to stumble against. Levy is running a copy of Nahiri’s Wrath out of the board, which boasts nice synergy with Stitchwing Skaab and Prized Amalgam. He puts the power to use to clear the early assault cluster from Lee.
Round 14 (Standard Round 8): Makis Matsoukas (R/W Tokens) vs. Rob Pisano (Temur Aetherworks)
Matsoukas has Reckless Bushwacker in his deck to assist in the go wide plan and he makes great use of it in Game 2 to take down the match in record time when he applies it to five attackers.
Round 14 (Standard Round 8): Shota Yasooka (Grixis Control) vs. Rich Hoaen (Temur Aetherworks)
The control is real as Yasooka takes this down without a lot of trouble. Counterspells are showing their value every round, but this one has a truly great sequence at the end.
Yasooka is at four cards in library and has a Thing in the Ice with two counters. He casts Painful Truths for three, and then Negates it, flipping his Horror and drawing a concession. Hoaen was stuck with multiple not-yet-castable Eldrazi in hand, later versions of this deck may adjust the threats. More Gearhulks anyone?
The final Feature Match of the round doesn’t have more to add, except to show us how bad Chandra is against Vehicles. Her price is still on the decline until she’s able to stay in play.
Round 15 (Standard Round 9): Shota Yasooka (Grixis Control) vs. Reid Duke (RW Vehicles)
Game 1 felt over after two early Galvanic Bombardment from Yasooka blunted Duke’s early creatures, but aggro takes it down anyway.
Game 2 shows us the spell-Negate my spell trick to flip Thing in the Ice again, and only a couple of attacks are needed to win it. Yasooka is still playing Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, which seems amazing. If Duke attacks it, Jace has replaced himself and gained some nice life. If he doesn’t, the card advantage is real. It’s only a two-of, though, so big movement is probably unlikely.
Game 3 is a clinic, as the control deck uses life totals and Weaver of Lightning triggers very well, even managing to fire off a Jace ultimate! A late Chandra, Torch of Defiance just isn’t enough and Duke picks up his fourth loss. Will we get to see Chandra be good on camera as these rounds progress?
Jun Ishihara (Temur Emerge) vs. Tyler Hill (BG Delirium)
This games ends up in a draw after an epic Game 2 with multiple Emrakul’s in play between the two players.
Matt Nass is in with Temur Emerge, so is Makis Matsoukas (R/W Tokens).
Deck Tech #6: Oliver Polak-Rottman (Temur Colossus)
Oliver describes how Sanctum of Ugin allows you to chain Metalwork Colossus, with the dream draw leading to four copies on Turn 4. It’s a combo deck and Sylvan Scrying adds consistency by finding the Sanctum of Ugins. More reliable than Aetherworks in his opinion. Colossus is pushing $4 at this point.
4 Sanctum of Ugin
2 Inventor’s Fair
4 Sylvan Scrying
4 Metalwork Colossus
4 Hedron Archive
4 Prophetic Prison
3 Deadlock Trap
4 Woodweaver’s Puzzleknot
3 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
3 Cultivator’s Caravan
4 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Elder Deep-Fiend
2 Select for Inspection (Oliver says he’d replace these with more artifacts)
1 Hanweir Battlements
Pierre Dagen manages a tough match win against Ondrej Strasky, to keep his Top 8 hopes alive, making UR Control live for Top 8. Predicting Top 8 to include: Grixis Control, UR Control, Temur Emerge, R/W Tokens so far. This format is wide open.
My gut says that Temur Aetherworks is going to be dust binned after this tournament as a strategy that is simply too inconsistent. Need to see the win %s on this deck on Day 2.
Round 16 (Final Round of Standard): Tyler Hill (BG Delirium) vs. Carlos Romao (Jeskai Control)
Both of these players are playing for access to the Top 8, at 11-3-1. Hill’s delirium deck isn’t much different than versions from a month ago. Romao is running Dovin Baan, Torrential Gearhulk, and many of the UR control components we’ve seen all weekend.
Game 1 Carlos gets off a two target Quarantine Field on Kalitas and Mindwrack Demon to empty the board. This opens up a sequence a few turns later where Carlos finds himself with a pair of Torrential Gearhulks in play, and the onslaught is too much for Hill to deflect. Romao is now a game away from making Top 8 of the Pro Tour only a week after winning his 2nd GP of the season. Impressive!
In Game 2, Romao gets a Dovin Baan out onto an empty board, but it gets answered quickly by Hissing Quagmire. Hill then answers with Liliana, the Last Hope, only to have it countered. Another Liliana is answered just as quickly by a Torrential Gearhulk into Harness Lightning. A late Quarantine Field later takes out three threats on Hill’s side, and the board opens up for aggression by the Jeskai player and Romao pulls another control deck into the Top 8.
Round 16: Matt Nass (Temur Aetheworks) vs. Pierre Dagen (UR Control)
Dagen has taken the first game off camera. Pierre takes the match as well, and clinches Top 8 for both players.
Joey Manner is ghosting into Top 8 with a UW Flash Spirits deck, running Archangel Avacyn, Smuggler’s Copter, Spell Queller and co, knocking a Temur Emerge deck out of the final day.
James Chillcott is the CEO of ShelfLife.net, The Future of Collecting, Senior Partner at Advoca, a designer, adventurer, toy fanatic and an avid Magic player and collector since 1994.
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A group of over 200 retired Israeli military and intelligence officials have offered a detailed plan of action to reach a settlement of the conflict with the Palestinians, criticizing the far-right government for not making any progress to that end.
The proposal in particular pushes for an immediate, full freeze in settlement expansion to “preserve conditions” that might lead to future Palestinian statehood, along with a formal recognition that occupied East Jerusalem will inevitably be part of a future independent Palestine.
As to the process for negotiating statehood, the plan recommends accepting the Arab Peace Initiative, a plan which offers Israel normalized ties with the entire Arab world in return for a withdraw from the occupied territories and a negotiated settlement of the Palestinian refugee problem.
All of these ideas are non-starters for the current far-right government, with even preliminary measures like a settlement freeze being loudly and repeated repudiated by virtually all of the top officials in the current government. After 14 solid years of ignoring the Arab Peace Initiative, the new proposal reveals that Israel’s security establishment doesn’t think it’s a bad bargain in the first place, and it is the political leadership that is keeping peace from being realized.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz |
Oded Balilty / AP A man flies a kite at Tiananmen Square on a heavily polluted day in Beijing, Dec. 27, 2007
While Steven Spielberg's withdrawal from his role as an artistic adviser was a public relations blow to the Beijing Olympics, the announcement this week that Haile Gebrselassie would not run in the marathon at this summer's Games hints at a more serious challenge facing the organizers. Unlike Spielberg's, the decision of the Ethiopian world record holder in the marathon has nothing to do with politics: Gebrselassie is asthmatic, and he is concerned that Beijing's polluted air could damage his health over the 42-kilometer race. (He still plans to run the far shorter 10,000-meter event.) And the Ethiopian's concern has underscored the stakes in a showdown between city officials and an 26-year-old American environmental consultant who has raised serious questions about Beijing's official air pollution statistics.
Steven Q. Andrews has written two op-eds for the Asian version of the Wall Street Journal, in which he accuses Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau of tweaking its method of calculating the city's air pollution index. That index is critical, because it is used to tabulate "blue sky days," which are the chief measure of Beijing's ability to control air pollution. When the blue-sky program was launched in 1998, there were just 100 days; last year the city recorded 246. But Andrews alleges that by changing the makeup of Beijing's air-pollution index, and dropping monitoring sites in areas with poor air quality, the city has been able to show improvements that don't match the reality of its smoggy skies.
Andrews first encountered bureaucratic evasion on environmental issues while doing research in 2003-04 on coal fires in China that became part of his senior thesis at Princeton. Such fires, which can occur naturally or are ignited by mining operations, are found worldwide and can burn for years, causing heavy environmental damage. In China's western Xinjiang province, Andrews visited a site where authorities had claimed a long-burning fire had been put out. "I decided go to see how it was extinguished, and flames were visible and the entire thing was still burning," he says. "They said it was put out, and who is to say otherwise?"
On returning to China after a stint doing humanitarian work in Africa, his experience at the Xinjiang coal fire prompted him to research Beijing's air-pollution reports. In 2006 and 2007 Andrews worked at the Natural Resources Defense Council's office in Beijing while on a fellowship with the Princeton In Asia program. But Andrews stresses that he did the research that has put him at loggerheads with the authorities independently of the NRDC, which has posted a statement on its website dissociating itself from Andrews' air pollution study.
Using only the data that had been officially released by the State Environmental Protection Bureau and the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, Andrews has raised questions about just how Beijing managed to meet its blue-sky targets. In 2000, the city stopped including measurements of nitrogen oxides in its tabulations of the air pollution index, and instead measured nitrogen dioxide. While switching the pollutant measured isn't necessarily a problem, Andrews claims, nitrogen dioxide was a smaller contributor to the overall air pollution index score.
Similarly, two monitoring stations located in high transportation areas that had consistently contributed to high API scores were dropped out of the tabulations in 2006. Had those stations not been dropped from the equation, Beijing would have had 38 fewer blue sky days in 2006 and 55 fewer last year, which would have made for total lower than that in 2002, Andrews says. He also noted that in 2006 and 2007, there was a concentration of days with API levels at or below the 100-point cut off, but few just above. That imbalance began after the city began setting targets for individual monitoring stations, he says.
The response from the government has come from Du Shaozhong, the deputy head of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau. He was named one of China's top "green personalities" in 2006 for his work in reducing pollution, including program to urge Beijing car owners to give up driving one day a month. When asked at a press conference last month about Andrews' allegations that the city that the city stopped including the results from certain air monitoring stations to increase blue-sky days, Du responded, "This phenomenon does not exist." He said that the placement of Beijing's air pollution monitors met national regulations, and that concentrations of pollutants had further improved in January and February.
Beijing has spent nearly $17 billion to improve its environment ahead of the Olympics. The government plans to limit car traffic during the event, and is continuing a program of closing and moving the most polluted factories away from the city. This week plans were announced to suspend all construction projects between July 21 and September 20. And observers believe the authorities will take even more extreme measures, such as extending the car reduction plan to weeks before the Aug. 8 Olympic start date if it appears that pollution targets won't be met.
Andrews is more concerned about what will happen after this summer's games. "There are legitimate concerns about air quality during the Games," he says. "But there's a bigger question: is there a sustainable legacy?" |
Two faith-based hospitals in Winnipeg say they will not be providing doctor-assisted deaths to their patients.
Both Concordia Hospital (Anabaptist-Mennonite) and St. Boniface Hospital (Catholic) say they will not offer the legal service to patients.
In June, the federal government amended the criminal code with Bill C-14 to allow doctors and nurse practitioners to help patients with "grievous and irremediable" illnesses to die. Manitoba introduced its own policy to implement medical assistance in dying, commonly called MAID, that same month.
In an advertisement published in The Herald, a community paper in Winnipeg, Concordia Hospital's board of directors said it had created a policy to ban medical assistance in dying after receiving input from the professional bodies and consulting with Concordia doctors and staff. The ad also includes a form to make financial donations to the hospital.
The ad which appeared in Wednesday edition of The Herald. (Canstar Community News/Winnipeg Free Press)
The advertisement states hospital board members and Concordia's spiritual care manager attended Mennonite and other faith-based sessions on assisted dying.
"Concordia believes that providing health care is a ministry assigned to us by Christ and is expressive of our Anabaptist faith, values and ethics," the advertisement reads.
"As such, our opposition to the practice of MAID based on our ethical and moral beliefs needs have been recognized and honoured by the WRHA, and Concordia Hospital and Concordia Place will not offer the service of MAID."
Arthur Schafer, director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba, said it is "disturbing" that a publicly funded hospital wouldn't offer the full range of health services to patients who want and need them.
"The idea that patients who live in Concordia Place for example — that's their home — and if they wish to die at home, the fact that the church with whom the hospital is affiliated doesn't approve of that, shouldn't limit [the patient's] fundamental right."
"No patient should be denied their wish to die at home, to die where they're living."
Hospitals don't have the right: Schafer
Schafer said while doctors and nurses are entitled to conscientiously object from administering a medically assisted death, a hospital or institution does not have the same right. The federal legislation acknowledges personal beliefs and does not force any person or health care worker to provide medical assistance in dying.
University of Manitoba ethics professor Arthur Schafer argues hospitals do not have a right to impose their beliefs about assisted deaths on health care workers, patients or the general public. (CBC)
"The people who work within those institutions have a conscience, the institution doesn't," he said. "Their belief, which is a legitimate religious conviction they have, shouldn't be imposed on patients, doctors, nurses or the general public."
A spokesperson for St. Boniface Hospital said while the institution is not participating in MAID, it will work with patients to facilitate a transfer.
Concordia Hospital said it will treat patients requesting MAID with "compassion" and connect them with the provincial medical assistance in dying clinical team.
The WRHA told CBC it has accommodations for patients who live at or are being treated in a faith-based facility to receive MAID at another facility.
Assessments by the MAID clinical team can be done either at the faith-based institution or outside, depending on the preference of the hospital. The clinical team would then help facilitate the death outside the faith-based institution.
"This ensures people from across the province can access the service, while respecting our commitment to the faith-based facilities," said a WHRA spokesperson.
In Canada there are two legal forms of medically assisted death: the first involves a health practitioner injecting a drug, called voluntary euthanasia. In the second, a health practitioner provides or prescribes a drug that is self-administered to cause death, known as medically assisted suicide. |
(TNS) -- The U.S. Senate has crowned the Federal Aviation Administration the nation’s drone regulator, saying federal laws covering everything from safety to design pre-empt any enacted by states and localities.
Though the FAA controls all U.S. airspace from the ground up, some local governments around the nation have passed their own drone restrictions to protect privacy and safety.
The Senate bill approved Tuesday says no state could enact a law about the “design, manufacture, testing, licensing, registration, certification, operation, or maintenance of an unmanned aircraft system, including airspace, altitude, flight paths, equipment or technology requirements, purpose of operations, and pilot, operator, and observer qualifications, training, and certification.”
The bill must be reconciled with a House measure, which does not pre-empt local and state laws. The FAA is currently working to complete its first drone regulations.
Noting a drone earlier this week is believed to have hit a British Airways plane headed to London Heathrow airport, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that he inserted a tech-enabled safety provision in the Senate bill.
“Geo-fencing drone technology could soon be installed on every new drone, helping to stop them from flying near airports and other sensitive areas, while still allowing hobbyists to fly them in safe places,” Schumer said in a statement.
Using GPS, geo-fencing would block drones from “No Fly” areas, such as the White House, major parades and sporting events.
The FAA also should explore the use anti-drone technology at airports and on aircraft, Schumer’s office said.
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According to multiple witnesses, as well as the victim of the ugly episode, the leading Democrat in the Senate, New York's own Chuck Schumer, lost it at a swanky Manhattan restaurant on Sunday after he learned that a well-connected woman had voted for Donald Trump. After making a scene inside by declaring "She voted for Trump!" Schumer allegedly followed the woman and her well-known Democrat husband outside, repeatedly screaming, "He's a liar!"
The alleged incident took place on Sunday night at Upper East Side restaurant Sette Mezzo, where according to witnesses who spoke with Page Six, Schumer was dining with friends when he encountered long-time Democrat Joseph A. Califano Jr., a member of the board of directors at CBS who "served as the United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1977 to 1979, and he served as President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Assistant for Domestic Affairs from 1965 to 1969."
Califano was accompanied by his "wealthy and well-connected" wife, Hillary, who is the daughter of CBS founder William S. Paley. According to witnesses, Hillary and Joseph were sharing a "quiet dinner" until Schumer went off:
Onlookers said Schumer was incensed that Hilary — the daughter of William S. Paley, the founder and chairman of CBS — had voted for Trump, even though her husband, Joseph, is a well-known Democrat. One witness said of the restaurant rant, “They are a highly respected couple, and Schumer made a scene, yelling, ‘She voted for Trump!’ The Califanos left the restaurant, but Schumer followed them outside.” On the sidewalk, Schumer carried on with his fantastical filibuster: “ ‘How could you vote for Trump? He’s a liar!’ He kept repeating, ‘He’s a liar!’ ”
Page Six reached out to Hillary, who confirmed the story.
"Sen. Schumer was really rude," she said, adding, "He’s our senator, and I don’t really like him. Yes, I voted for Trump. Schumer joined us outside and he told me Trump was a liar. I should have told him that Hillary Clinton was a liar, but I was so surprised I didn’t say anything."
For those concerned about Schumer's impeccable reputation for equanimity and professional comportment, not to worry. Clearly, Schumer, like his fellow Democratic colleagues (including the fair and balanced Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters), is a victim of the "climate of hatred" promoted by Donald Trump. Meanwhile, if you see Schumer out and you happened to have voted for Trump, you might want to avoid mentioning that fact. |
EPA accidentally quotes senator who rails against Trump's executive order
President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 9, 2017. Before most people are out of bed, Trump is watching cable news. Indeed, with Twitter app at the ready, the man who condemns the media as �the enemy of the people� may be the most voracious consumer of news in modern presidential history. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) less President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 9, 2017. Before most people are out of bed, Trump is watching cable news. Indeed, with ... more Photo: Evan Vucci, Associated Press Photo: Evan Vucci, Associated Press Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close EPA accidentally quotes senator who rails against Trump's executive order 1 / 25 Back to Gallery
The Environmental Protection Agency is doing some damage control after mistakenly including a quote critical of President Donald Trump's rollback of Barack Obama's climate change policies in an otherwise praising press release.
The quote, which was misattributed to a coal industry-friendly Republican and West Virginia senator Shelley Moore Capito, actually came from Democratic Delaware senator Tom Carper.
In it, Carper says that Trump has "chosen to recklessly bury his head in the sand."
"Walking away from the Clean Power Plan and other climate initiatives... is not just irresponsible — it is irrational," Carper said. "With the world watching, President Trump and Administrator (Scott) Pruitt have chosen to shirk our responsibility, disregard clear science, and undo the significant progress our country has made to ensure we leave a better, more sustainable planet for generations to come."
This morning @EPA sent out a press release highlighting reaction to Trump's climate Executive Order...this first quote seems off message: pic.twitter.com/Na2EWCrBzj — Patrick Ambrosio (@Pat_Ambrosio) March 30, 2017
Trump has repeatedly called global warming and climate change a "hoax," "fictional," and "bulls***." EPA Chief Pruitt has also publicly rejected science demonstrating climate change.
Following the discovery of the error on the release, the EPA apologized and sent a correction, providing the intended quote from Senator Capito voicing support for Trump's rollback of the Clean Power Plan.
"President Trump kept his promise to roll back one of the most harmful acts of overreach by the Obama administration — the so-called Clean Power Plan," she said. "I was honored to join the President for the signing of this Executive Order, and I look forward to continuing working with the Trump administration to advance environmentally responsible policies that grow the economy — not kill jobs." |
If you thought you heard The Tragically Hip playing in Hamilton on Saturday night, your ears weren't playing tricks on you.
The Hip took to the stage for a private backyard party on Auchmar Road on the west Mountain, near Garth Street by the escarpment. Social media posts called the party "Silvana's birthday."
Two neighbours said the home where the bash took place was that of Silvana DiCenzo, who is part of the family that operates DiCenzo Homes. A man tidying up the driveway of the home Sunday said he did not live there, but he confirmed the concert was The Tragically Hip. He said those at the home declined comment.
The music started around 9 p.m., with the band playing for just under two hours.
The concert could be heard over the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, giving a treat to Hip fans in the lower city as well as those in the neighbourhood.
Dave Reed lives less than a kilometre away, below the Mountain near Beulah Park, and said he enjoyed the music with his wife.
"We heard a party from the Mountain, and the band started into a Tragically Hip song. We figured it must have been a cover band, but they were doing an amazing job."
After seeing reaction from others online and hearing that the band was apparently checked into the Sheraton Hotel earlier that day Reed sat on his front porch to take it all in.
"My wife and I chilled out with our drinks, enjoying the live show. What a treat!"
Partygoers took to social media to share photos and videos of the concert. Videos showed the set list included "My Music at Work" and "New Orleans is Sinking." |
Federal authorities arrested 50 people for violating immigration laws in Detroit Saturday as part of an investigation into an alleged cockfighting and illegal gambling ring.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Khaalid Walls told the Detroit Free Press that 86 people were found inside an abandoned building. He added that those arrested will be held in ICE custody “pending removal proceedings.”
Walls said the building was raided in part of an investigation that had been going on for several months, the paper reported. Officials said they found more than 100 birds in the building.
Nearly 140 federal, state and local law enforcement officials were involved in the raid, which was led by Homeland Security Investigations. The Free Press reported that the U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Agriculture Department and Detroit police assisted.
One person was arrest on a criminal charge. The details of the arrests were not immediately available.
Click for more from the Detroit Free Press. |
MADISON, Wis. - Scott Resnick conceded the mayoral election to incumbent Paul Soglin Tuesday night.
Resnick told News 3 he was calling Soglin to concede around 9:15 p.m. As of 9:30 p.m., Soglin had 72 percent of the votes with 71 percent of precincts reporting.
"We knew we had an uphill battle," Resnick said Tuesday night. "Soglin had strong name recognition and showed he was favored by Madison residents."
Soglin said his first priority is following through on housing and job commitments he's made, especially jobs for youth.
Resnick, who currently holds a spot on Madison's common council and started his own business in his UW dorm, put equality gaps and fair Internet access at the top of his priority list during his campaign. Soglin said his chief goal for the next four years is to eliminate poverty in Madison.
Soglin and Resnick faced off in multiple community debates, and addressed topics ranging from race and issues facing youth to affordable day care and body cameras. |
Armed gangs in Syria are conspiring to stage a chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs in order to later lay the blame on the Bashar Assad’s government, Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari has warned the Security Council.
“Competent Syrian authorities intercepted a wireless communication between two terrorists in the Jawbar area of the Damascus governorate,” Jaafari said in a letter addressed to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council. The letter was published on Tuesday on the UN website.
In that communication, the diplomat said, one “of the terrorists said that another terrorist named Abu Nadir was covertly distributing gas masks.”
The Syrian security services, Jaafari said, also intercepted another communication between militants one of whom was called Abu Jihad. During that conversation, the latter indicated that toxic gas would be used and “asked those who are working with him to supply protective masks.”
Back in March, Jaafari informed the Security Council that a person named Haytham Salahuddin Qassab “transported chemical substances from Turkey on behalf of the terrorist organization known as Ahrar al-Sham.” He allegedly purchased the chemical agents from Turkey’s Dharwa Import and Export Company.
The substances reportedly included among others white phosphorous and isopropyl hydroxylamine. It was alleged, Jaafari said, that militants planned to use them to produce white smoke in certain areas and later claim that Syrian planes had bombed them.
“However, the primary reason for requesting those substances was to use them as chemical weapons,” the Syrian diplomat warned.
The information in the previous letter along with new details obtained from the intercepted communications confirm “that armed terrorist groups are preparing to use toxic gas in the Jawbar quarter and other areas, in order to accuse the Syrian Government of having committed such an act of terrorism,” Jaafari said.
Syria’s UN Ambassador confirmed his concerns to RT Arabic. He said that militants had earlier followed a similar scenario in the chemical attacks in Allepo and in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, when they blamed Assad’s forces for the deadly incidents. Jaafari said that the UN is currently considering the issue. The Secretary General as well as the Coordinator of the UN-OPCW joint mission to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons program, Sigrid Kaag, are also being kept up to speed with developments.
Syria agreed to the destruction of its chemical weapons arsenal through a deal brokered largely by Russia, after the US threatened to use military force against the country. That followed a deadly chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in August, 2013. The Syrian government and the opposition have pointed the finger of blame at each other over the incident that killed hundreds, and both have denied their involvement.
So far, 49 percent of the raw materials for Syria's poison gas and nerve agent program scheduled for destruction have been shipped overseas, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said last week.
The rest is expected to leave the country by the end of April, the global chemical weapons watchdog added in a report to the UN, reported AP. The total amount of chemicals either removed or already destroyed inside Syria is 53.6 percent.
According to the OPCW, Damascus pledged to remove all chemicals by April 13, except for those in areas “that are presently inaccessible,” which face an April-27 deadline. But so far the deadlines have not been met, with the Syrian government blaming the unstable situation inside the country.
Under the deal, some chemicals are to be destroyed at facilities in the US and Europe, while a large part of the toxic material is to be eliminated on board a ship at sea. Syria has declared around 700 tons of the most-dangerous chemicals, 500 tons of less-dangerous precursor chemicals and 122 tons of isopropanol – an active ingredient in sarin gas production. The deadline for the mission’s completion is June 30. |
Due to popular request from backers, we have added stretch goals! We will post them one by one; as soon as one goal is hit, we will reveal the next!
Note that these stretch goals will be added post-release, in a free patch.
$10,000 (REACHED!) - Arena Mode! Fight against incoming waves of randomized monsters , eventually leading to a slew of bosses . Items will be randomly distributed around the arena. Hitting certain rounds of the arena will also allow you to unlock a variety of content!
- Fight against incoming waves of , eventually leading to a . Items will be randomly distributed around the arena. Hitting certain rounds of the arena will also allow you to $15,000 (REACHED)- Game Mutators! By finding hidden mutators inside the game, you will unlock the option to customize the game as you see fit! Enable mutators like:
Double Spawn: While monsters will have 30% less health, they will now spawn twice as frequently. Monster Affinity: Only one kind of monster can spawn, randomly chosen at the beginning of every level. Top 1%: Every monster will spawn as an elite with elemental properties. Shell Shock: Dropping below 50% health replaces all your items with another item from the same tier. And many, many more!
By finding hidden mutators inside the game, you will unlock the option to customize the game as you see fit! Enable mutators like: $15,000+ At this point, we have jam-packed our game with as much content as possible. We promise to keep updating the game into the foreseeable future. Thank you very much guys; to think we ever hit $15,000!
Games with roguelike elements have recently had a large jump in popularity. However, most players find these games hard to get into: they are usually exceedingly complex in UI and game rules. Risk of Rain is an action platformer with roguelike elements aimed to revitalize the genre with stylized graphics and an intuitive gameplay scheme that teaches itself, rather than having to be taught.
The three main goals for our game are simple:
1. Design a game that is randomly generated every play-through, to keep replayability high and fresh.
2. Time = difficulty. The longer you play, the harder the game gets. Keeping a sense of urgency keeps the game exciting!
3. Be enjoyable, regardless of whether you win or lose. No more fussing with complex and non-intuitive gameplay patterns. Players should not blame the game for their loss!
Want to try the game NOW? Download the Demo for Risk of Rain, free!
"..feels polished and raw even in its current form, perfectly capable of drawing you back again and again." - Chris Priestman via IndieStatik
Features
Play as 10 different characters , from the Commando to the Miner to the Engineer.
, from the Commando to the Miner to the Engineer. Fight over 20 different enemies and over 10 bosses , randomly chosen by the game with random abilities and powers.
and , randomly chosen by the game with random abilities and powers. Acquire 100+ items through unique chests and shrines, all with their own risks and rewards.
through unique chests and shrines, all with their own Discover 13+ levels with different enemies, shrines, and chests on each one!
with different enemies, shrines, and chests on each one! Recruit the help of 10+ drones , from missile drones to healing drones!
, from missile drones to healing drones! Unlock the lore of the game through the item and monster log!
through the item and monster log! Get new items and characters through achievements
Save your best highscores!
As I'm sure most of you know, college students aren't known for their large amounts of pocket change. While we have gone this far on a personal fund of $100.00, we simply aren't talented enough to make our own music! When we contacted the very talented Chris Christodoulou and he wanted to be on the project, we knew that we had to have him!. In general, your pledge money will go towards:
Paying for music . With quite a few different stages planned, we will need lots of unique music to fit the quality of our game.
. With quite a few different stages planned, we will need lots of unique music to fit the quality of our game. Upgrading GameMaker . While we have gone off an older version, purchasing either GM Studio or GM 8.1 will allow us to not only have increased performance, but possibly Mac, Linux, and other platform support as well!
. While we have gone off an older version, purchasing either GM Studio or GM 8.1 will allow us to not only have increased performance, but Quality assurance! Any left over money will be spent on improving and refining the game to be as good as possible.
We have two members on the team; Duncan is the programmer and artist while Paul handles public relations and helps with game design. Both attend University of Washington! Helping us with music is Chris.
The game began as sketches on the back of scrap paper. As we kept brainstorming, the game we were talking about sounded.. fun! We have been working on Risk of Rain for about 5 months, and the feedback we have received so far is incredible. Having never released any games to the public, it's exciting to see that we can make something that many people enjoy.
Thanks to many of our fans, we now have a working demo version of Risk of Rain, free to download. For those who want to see the game in action, the demo is for you!
While the demo has quite a few features, the final game will have a lot more for the player! In short,
More items! While the demo has only 13 items, the final release will have over 100!
While the demo has only 13 items, the final release will have More classes! The final game is planned on having 10 playable classes.
The final game is planned on having 10 playable classes. Monster Log and Highscores. The monster log is a bestiary where you can learn about the stats of monsters and their lore and history in the universe. Highscores allow you to compete with friends and yourself, along with seeing which achievements you have to unlock!
The monster log is a bestiary where you can learn about the stats of monsters and their lore and history in the universe. Highscores allow you to compete with friends and yourself, along with seeing which achievements you have to unlock! More stages! The full game will feature a variety of different stages for the game to choose from, making each run different and exciting.
The full game will feature a variety of different stages for the game to choose from, making each run different and exciting. More gamemodes! While the final game will have an ending, modes like survival mode are in the works.
While the final game will have an ending, modes like survival mode are in the works. Generally speaking, more content.
Fans who pledge $25 or more will gain access to the closed beta. Being in the closed beta will allow you to play the game while it's in development. This also gives you the opportunity to help shape and give valuable feedback. Not only that, but you get to play with new content before everyone else!
The closed beta will start as soon as possible, with the latest being at the end of our 30 day Kickstarter. Please remember that PC is the only platform supported for the closed beta!
Want to stay up-to-date with all Risk of Rain News?
Thank you to all of the fans who have followed us in development so far. Your feedback on the alpha versions of the game were priceless, and your praise kept us going. It's amazing that we have a fanbase of people who enjoy our hobby; gamemaking. We truly hope that we can meet and surpass all of your expectations, regardless of the pledge amount. Thank you to all our fans on AGDG, tumblr, indiedb, and everywhere else. Thank you so much. |
Well, you've been teased and tortured with a plethora of images and even video but now OS 10.3.0.296 has leaked. At this point, some of the stuff we've seen teased is in the OS and some of it is not, you'll just have to go through it all to find out what's there and what's not. Also of note, it's not available for all devices but if you have a BlackBerry Z10 STL100-3 then you can go ahead and give it a go and I'm sure some autoloaders will get made for other devices eventually.
You're on your own for a full change log, we dunno how the battery life is and we're not entirely too sure if all your apps will work as expected or if it'll turn your device into a Decepticon and destroy your whole city. If you're not down with that then let some other folks run through it first. Eventually a thread will be created in the forums with the all the different changes this OS brings so if you're not willing to risk loading the OS, just hang tight and see how others like it. It should be noted, this is an older build than some of what has been shown off recently.
Of course, standard disclaimer applies. Be sure to perform a full backup using BlackBerry Link before you install any OS and don't hold us responsible should anything go bad — though you can always reload your OS. In fact, if you load this there's a good chance you're gonna wipe it anyway and go back to something more stable.
Source: ZonaBB |
PoliZette Ted Cruz: Catch and Release of Illegal Immigrants Is ‘Troubling’ The Obama-era practice of turning aliens loose and asking them to return for a court hearing has not stopped
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sounded an alarm this week that the infamous “catch-and-release” policies of Barack Obama’s administration have not fully ended.
Cruz questioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions about it during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
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[lz_jwplayer video=DLGgNw3s]
“That is highly troubling,” Cruz said. “When I heard those reports in January and February, I told them, ‘Give the administration some time to get their team in place to change policy. Because you can’t turn a battleship overnight.’ It’s now October.”
Sessions said President Donald Trump has tried to change the practice but has run up against roadblocks. He noted that a backlog in immigration court cases roughly doubled from about 300,000 in 2011 to more than 600,000 last year.
He said about 5,000 illegal immigrants in 2009 claimed they had a “credible fear” of returning to their homeland, triggering an asylum process. That ballooned to 94,000 last year, he said.
“It’s not the policy. It’s just the reality that there are so many people claiming and being entitled to hearings that we don’t have the ability to provide those hearings,” Sessions said. “And they are being released into the community and they’re not coming back for their hearings. It’s still unacceptable.”
Sessions said 50 new immigration judges have been hired this year and that he expected 40 more to come on board by January. He said this would help whittle down the case backlog, but he called on Congress to expedite the asylum process.
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“Those people are basically entitled to hearings. And this is a loophole that’s too big. And we need to create some sort of control over it,” he said. “We are looking at if there are any things that we can do effectively, short of legislation. But there’s no doubt, Mr. Chairman, we need legislation on this subject and several others.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) representatives could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
[lz_table title=”‘Credible Fear Scrutiny'” source=”U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services”]Percentage of “credible fear” claims approved
|Month,Fear Found
October,76.3%
November,80.8%
December,74.8%
January,80.7%
February,78.1%
March,71.2%
April,73.3%
May,70.2%
June,68.1%
[/lz_table]
Brandon Judd, president of the union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents, said his agency has returned to pre-Obama practices. Under Obama, Border Patrol agents were under orders to release anyone claiming to have been in the United States since before Jan. 1, 2014, as long as they did not pop up during a criminal background check.
The agency also released other illegal immigrants caught near the border after issuing notices for them to appear for immigration court hearings. But a large percentage of them never appeared for those hearings.
“Under the Obama administration, it got almost to the point where we were releasing everybody,” he said.
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That has changed, Judd said. Now, border agents transfer apprehended illegal immigrants to ICE. But he said some ICE offices are still releasing people with instructions to return to court, particularly youths coming from Central America and adults traveling with them.
Judd said it is contrary to the spirit of Trump’s policy and one of the reasons why border crossings have been rising for months after sharp declines that initially occurred after Trump took office.
“It is something that upsets our agents because that sort of thing gets back to other countries,” he said. “People know that we’re still releasing people … We’re not carrying out the rhetoric the way I believe it was intended to.”
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the rising border crossings are a signal that lawmakers need to act with urgency.
“It is important for Congress to get to work for more judges, more detention spaces, all of the things that expedite the process,” he said.
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Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said she believes a lack of detention space plays a role in some cases. So, too, does a 2015 ruling by a federal judge in California ordering the release of minors and their mothers who had been caught crossing the border without permission, she said.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July upheld U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee’s ruling.
When illegal immigrants tell Customs and Border Protection officials that they fear persecution if they are returned home, it triggers what can be a long process. First, a customs officer makes an initial determination and then schedules the person for a hearing to determine if asylum will be granted. If the illegal immigrant loses, he or she can appeal to an immigration judge.
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Vaughan said that under lax standards during the Obama administration, the government accepted the vast majority of “credible fear” claims. Statistics published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services indicate the new administration has applied a bit more scrutiny. During the first four months of fiscal year 2017 — during Obama’s presidency — the government found credible fear had been established in 79 percent of cases. That dropped to 73 percent during the next month months under Trump.
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Vaughan said illegal immigrants who come to the border should be directed to Mexico City to apply for asylum at the U.S. embassy. If they have to wait in Mexico for an extended period of time, she said, it likely would serve as a deterrent.
Vaughan said the eighteenfold increase in “credible fear” claims since 2009 is the result of coaching by smuggling organizations and not an increase in oppression in Central and South America.
“The conditions are the same,” she said. “This is the result of people realizing if they make it to the border, they will be let in and allowed to stay for an indefinite period of time — years at a minimum.” |
The meat industry has fallen on hard times. After a steady decline in meat consumption in past years, it took a couple of hard hits last month, with the breaking of the pink slime scandal, followed a week later by the publication of a Harvard study linking red meat to a higher mortality risk. If you’re feeling a little less hungry for a burger these days, it’s no wonder.
Pink slime aside, does red meat really deserve such a bad name? Or is it what’s added to red meat that’s to blame? The Harvard study was not the first to suggest that red meat is bad for us, but it was the first to differentiate unprocessed and processed red meat and identify a relatively greater risk involved when eating a processed product than, say, pure, unadulterated steak. What makes processed meat worse? The study authors surmise it’s the additives and preservatives.
You probably noticed the headlines that followed the Harvard study’s publication: “All Red Meat is Risky, a Study finds” and “Eating All Red Meat Increases Death and More Reasons to Never Eat Meat.” And yes, the authors who evaluated the health and diet of over 120,000 health professionals between 1980 and 2006 did find that study participants who ate a daily serving of unprocessed red meat (a three-ounce serving of beef, pork, or lamb as a main dish, mixed dish, or in a sandwich) had a 13 percent greater chance of death during the study.
Part of the issue is quantity. A daily serving of red meat, seven days a week, 365 days a year — not surprising to anyone — is going to be risky. The authors also note that the participants who ate the most red meat were less likely to eat healthier alternatives, such as fish, poultry, and whole grains, which are all foods associated with a reduced risk of death.
“We know that variety is the spice of life,” said Joan Salge Blake, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietics, who was not involved in the study. “A high intake of red meat is going to displace more nutritious foods in the diet that are correlated to reducing disease.”
The source of the meat may be an issue, as the study did not differentiate between grass-fed and free-range meat from industrially produced meat. “This is still an open question,” study co-author and professor of medicine at Harvard, Frank Hu, said in an email. “It is possible that grass-fed and grain-fed beef have different health and environmental effects, but there is no data at this point whether the grass-fed vs. grain-fed beef would have different effects on long-term chronic diseases and mortality. Certainly, more studies are needed to look at this issue.”
On her blog Summer Tomato, scientist and health writer Darya Pino points out that we can probably assume that the participants were eating industrially produced meat. She writes:
Given the time during which the study took place, it’s unlikely that any of the participants were eating non-industrial, grass-fed and pastured meat. I think this is an important point, particularly when considering cancer mortality, since toxic compounds tend to accumulate in the fat of animals.
Considering all this, a more apt headline may have been: “Eating Industrial Meat with No Moderation is Madness.” So it’s possible that lean, grass-fed beef, which has less saturated fat and more omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidant vitamins, may actually have a place (once in a while) in a “heart-healthy diet.”
This may be the type of red meat that An Pan, the study’s lead author and research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, is eating once or twice a week, a frequency he admitted to the Los Angeles Times. Though he did say that he’s forgoing bacon and other processed meats all together.
Based on the study results, it’s not hard to see why. In addition to finding that a daily serving of unprocessed red meat increased participants’ mortality risk by 13 percent, the authors found that those who ate a daily serving of processed red meat (i.e., two slices of bacon, one hot dog, a piece of sausage, salami, bologna, or other cold cut) had an increased risk of death of 20 percent. Furthermore, the study found that hot dogs and bacon are associated with a higher risk than other processed red meats.
So what does “processed” mean as it applies to meat? According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), meat becomes processed when it undergoes a processing technology (grinding and mixing, heat treatments, drying, etc.) as well as treatment (salting, curing with nitrites, etc.) for taste, texture, and preservation. There are all kinds of processed meats, and the FAO groups them into six broad categories according to processing technology. If you look closely at the categories, it’s apparent that some processed meats are more processed than others.
Sausage, which falls into the category of “fresh, processed meat products,” is less processed since it remains “fresh” or raw throughout processing. A hot dog undergoes more processing, as a “raw, cooked-meat product because it undergoes a heat treatment that gives it its “firm-elastic texture.”
Bacon receives more processing as a “cured cooked meat product.” Unlike sausage or hot dogs, bacon is an entire piece of muscle meat. It’s cured with a nitrite solution and then undergoes a heat treatment to reach “the desired palatability.” The most processed meats of all are products that fall into the “pre-cooked, cooked meat product” category, which undergo two heat treatments and include products such as blood sausage, liver pate, and corned beef in cans. (And don’t ask, because I have no idea where pink slime fits into all this.)
Why does processing make red meat worse for us? The study authors point to additives and preservatives as likely suspects for the “additional harm.”
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Suspect No. 1: Nitrites: added for flavor and to preserve meat’s pink color and extend shelf life. The authors cited studies linking blood nitrite levels to a disorder affecting the inner lining of the blood vessels and impaired insulin response. Nitrites can also convert to carcinogens, but the addition of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or ethyorbic acid inhibit their formation. You can find uncured bacon in the grocery store, though these products still contain naturally derived nitrites. And since the carcinogens form during high-temperature cooking, it’s best to avoid charring your hot dogs or eating very well-done or burnt bacon.
Suspect No. 2: Salt (sodium): added to meats as a preservative and as a powerful flavor enhancer. High sodium intake is linked to high blood pressure, which increases the risk for heart disease and stroke. Two slices of bacon can contain as much as 460 milligrams of sodium, 19 percent of the recommended daily intake. A bun-length frank can contain up to 550 milligrams of sodium, amounting to nearly one-quarter of the recommendation. Add a bag of potato chips, and you can easily eat half the sodium you should eat in a day in a single sitting.
With suspects No. 1 and No. 2 operating side-by-side, it’s no wonder they’re exacting a high cost on health. The irony of this bad news about bacon is that sodium and nitrites are industry additives — the meat itself is innocent. (Well, not really: Bacon’s still got ne’er-do-wells saturated fat, cholesterol, and heme iron lurking around.) But what seems clear is that we’re making red meat worse for us by processing it.
So, if you must eat red meat, the latest science says, eat it unprocessed, and in moderation (once or twice a week at most). The healthiest red meat is most likely from the happiest animals — raised outside confined animal feeding operations, and on pasture. And in the mean time: Why not eat more plants? |
For a list of guests, performers, and attending professionals ordered by confirmation date, please click here.
A Jarrod Carl Alberich
Jarrod “The Yard Sale Artist” Alberich is the creator of the comic book, Hamilton vs. Burr: A Werewolf Tale. He is also a trading card artist for Marvel & Upper Deck. He’s currently working for White Rocket Books providing cover art for novels & inking the Cold Lightning comic book.
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson has published 140 books, more than 50 of which have been national or international bestsellers. He has written numerous novels in the Star Wars, X-Files, and Dune universes, as well as a unique steampunk fantasy novel, Clockwork Angels.
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B » Tom Bancroft
Tom Bancroft has 30 years of experience in the animation industry, much of which was for Walt Disney Feature Animation where he was an animator on shorts and feature films of which Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Brother Bear were part of the list.
Drew A Blank
Drew Blank is an artist and writer known for the indie novel Memoirs of an Antihero and his children’s book Aldo Tanners! Where Are Your Manners?! Blank has also developed a huge following with his collection of fake album art, horror children’s art, adult coloring books, and enamel pins.
Patricia Briggs
Patricia is the bestselling author of the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha and Omega series. She has published 26 books and has short stories in several anthologies, as well as a series of comic books and graphic novels based on both of her series.
Ed Brisson
Ed Brisson is a comic book writer who first started to garner attention with his self-published crime series Murder Book and the crime/time-travel thriller series Comeback. He’s written and co-created four other series published by Image: Sheltered, The Field, The Mantle and The Violent.
Jason Bulmahn
Jason Bulmahn is the Director of Game Design at Paizo Inc. He was the creator of the Pathfinder tabletop roleplaying game and the team leader behind the second edition. Over his 20-year career, Jason has written dozens of books and articles for Paizo, Wizards of the Coast, Modiphius, and more.
James Burns
James Burns is a graphic designer, illustrator, and comic artist. He creates autobiographical comics, notably his long-running Grumbles series. In 2002, he was diagnosed with a detached retina, which threatened his eyesight. After recovering, he wrote and drew his first comic book, Detached, about that experience.
Jim Butcher
Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, and a new steampunk series, the Cinder Spires. His resume includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly.
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C Rachel Caine
Rachel Caine is the New York Times, USA Today, Amazon Charts, and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of more than 50 novels, including the internationally bestselling Morganville Vampires, Stillhouse Lake, Weather Warden, and Great Library series. She's written in many genres and categories.
» Jack Campbell
Jack Campbell (John G. Hemry), a retired US Navy officer, writes the New York Times best-selling Lost Fleet series, Genesis Fleet series, Lost Stars series, and "steampunk meets high fantasy" Pillars of Reality series. His most recent books are Triumphant, Pirate Of The Prophecy, and the Corsair comic series.
Cecil Castellucci
Cecil Castellucci is an award-winning author of novels and comics for young people including Shade, The Changing Girl, Boy Proof, The Plain James, Soupy Leaves Home, Don't Cosplay with My Heart, and the New York Times bestselling Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure.
» Ray Chase
Ray Chase is a voice actor most known as Noctis (Final Fantasy XV). You may also know him from Kingdom Hearts (Master of Masters), One-Punch Man (Puri Puri Prisoner), My Hero Academia (David Shield), and Persona 5 (Subway Announcer). He’s also a founding member of Loud, Annoying, and Very Annoying.
Ciruelo
Fantasy artist Ciruelo was born in Argentina and has been living in Spain since 1987. He worked for publishing houses in Europe and in the United States illustrating book covers, prints, calendars and trading cards with dragons as the main subject. He is currently writing and illustrating his own books.
Sean Andrew Copeland
Sean Copeland is the Historian Supervisor of Creative Development at Blizzard Entertainment where he oversees its team of historians. This team enables developers to create with confidence for Blizzard’s blockbuster franchises including World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, StarCraft, Diablo, and Heroes of the Storm.
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D » Robbie Daymond
Robbie Daymond is a voice-actor who has voiced characters such as: Spider-man/Peter Parker in Marvel’s Spider-man, Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon, Prompto in Final Fantasy XV, Akechi in Persona 5, Sorey in Tales of Zestiria, Mumen Rider in One Punch Man, and Raymond in OK-KO among others.
Keith R.A. DeCandido
Keith R.A. DeCandido has written an appalling amount of fiction, both in 30+ media tie-in universes from Alien to Zorro, and in worlds of his own creation in the fictional cities of Cliff's End and Super City and the somewhat real cities of New York and Key West.
Dan dos Santos
Well known for his colorful oil paintings, Dan dos Santos' work includes novels, comics, film, and video games. He has worked for clients such as Disney, Universal Studios, Activision, Boeing Aircraft, Scholastic Books, The Greenwich Workshop, Penguin Books, Random House, UpperDeck, Hasbro, DC Comics, and many more.
Margaret Downey-Schottmiller
Margaret Downey created a character known as The Friggatriskaidekaphobia Treatment Nurse in order to teach critical thinking skills every Friday-the-Thirteenth. Margaret Downey founded the Freethought Society (FS) and the Anti-Discrimination Support Network (ADSN) in 1993. In 1994 Margaret founded the Thomas Paine Memorial Committee.
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E Gigi Edgley
Gigi Edgley is an internationally renowned actress. Edgley has starred in countless film and television series including Farscape, Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge, FX's Feud, USA’s The Starter Wife, Kringle Time, Enuattii, Diminuendo, SyFy’s Showdown at Area 51, Quantum Apocalypse, Peacekeeper Wars, Beastmaster, Lost World, Star Trek Continues, and Nexus.
» Larry Elmore
Larry Elmore is one of the world's leading fantasy artists. His works have graced the covers of National Lampoon, Heavy Metal, and Dragon magazine, among others. He is best known for his covers for the original Dragonlance novels. Elmore makes Dragon Con an annual event.
Joanna Estep
Joanna Estep is the critically acclaimed illustrator of such titles as The Fantastic Four (Marvel Comics), Bitch Planet (Image), Death Head (Dark Horse), and The Thrilling Adventure Hour (Boom!/Archaia). Her work has earned her the S.P.A.C.E. Prize, and nominations for Eisner and Harvey awards.
Kacey Ezell
Kacey Ezell is a USAF helicopter pilot who writes sci-fi/fantasy/alt history. She was a Dragon Award finalist in 2018, and her stories have twice been featured in Baen’s Year’s Best Mil/Adventure SF compilation. In 2018, her story won the 2018 Baen Reader’s Choice Award.
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F Mike Faber
Mike Faber is the founder and CCO of the geeky and ever expanding ESO Network. He hosts The Earth Station One and Earth Station Who podcasts. He teaches and mentors new podcasters on starting and producing new projects. The ESO Network celebrates all things sci-fi, fantasy and much, much more.
Bill Fawcett
Bill Fawcett & Associates has packaged and edited over 400 Science Fiction novels, two Navy SEALs histories and other military titles. He co-authored Mycroft Holmes Mysteries and has written numerous non-fiction books, many on great mistakes in Hhistory. He was a founder of Mayfair Games and still designs board and computer games.
» Esther Friesner
Nebula Award winner Esther Friesner is the author of over 40 novels, 200 short stories, and has edited numerous anthologies. Her best known, most popular works are the Chicks in Chainmail series (Baen Books) and the Princesses of Myth series (YA historical from Random House.)
» Bryan Scott Fyffe
Bryan Fyffe is a commercial illustrator focused on works rich in color and steeped in dark atmosphere. His work has been featured in publications from Dark Horse Comics to the galleries of Disney. He lives and works in Kansas City.
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G Gawki
Gawki is a bold illustrator of fantastical, surreal creatures and characters that spawn only from her brain soup. Ki is known for being in Spectrum 4 times, her interesting use of color, and for establishing the Drawtober art challenge with Vonnart where 2000 artists participated the first year.
Rick John Goldschmidt
Rick Goldschmidt has been the official Rankin/Bass Productions historian/biographer for over 30 years and has authored six books. He worked with producer Arthur Rankin, Jr. who produced Thundercats, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Hobbit, and more! Rick appears around the country at conventions and has done award-winning panels.
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H Scott Hanna
An Eisner Award-winning artist in the graphic novel industry, Scott Hanna has been drawing and inking comic books for over 30 years. His work has been published in over 1,000 comics and graphic novels, and he’s inked over 23,000 pages of comics art.
John G. Hartness
John G. Hartness is an author, publisher, and podcaster from Charlotte, NC. He is the author of multiple novel series, co-founder and publisher of Falstaff Books, and a member of the Authors & Dragons podcast. He spends far too much time and money playing Magic: the Gathering.
Bill Holbrook
Bill Holbrook is the creator of the daily comic strips On the Fastrack, Safe Havens, and Kevin & Kell. The later debuted in 1995 and is the longest continually-running webcomic on the Internet. In 2016 he was nominated by the National Cartoonists Society for Best Webcomic (Short form).
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I Samantha Inoue-harte
Samantha Inoue-Harte is a 20 year veteran in the entertainment industry. She stars in the James Cameron/Robert Rodriguez Alita: Battle Angel movie, is a anime producer with two series on Netflix, and is most known as the voice of Chocobo from Final Fantasy Unlimited in her voice acting career.
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K Bill Keel
Astronomer Bill Keel, author of The Sky at Einstein's Feet and The Road to Galaxy Formation, has appeared at Dragon Con since 2004. He hosts annual overnight Live Astronomy sessions and has spoken on cosmology, extrasolar planets, citizen discovery in astronomy, science in pop-culture universes, spy satellites, and astronomical tourism.
Alethea Kontis
Alethea Kontis is a voice actress and award-winning author of over 20 books. A former student of Jane Yolen, Andre Norton, and Orson Scott Card, Alethea is the host of Princess Alethea’s Traveling Sideshow at Dragon Con. She lives on the Space Coast of Florida with her teddy bear, Charlie.
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L Greg Land
Greg Land has been a professional illustrator for 34 years, the past twenty- something as a comic book artist. Some past projects include The Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, Mighty Avengers and The Ultimate Fantastic Four, The Uncanny X-Men, Monsters Unleashed, Sojurn, and Weapon X, among others.
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M Jonathan Maberry
Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling author, 5-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and comic book writer. He writes the Joe Ledger thrillers, the Rot & Ruin series, the Nightsiders series, the Dead of Night series, as well as standalone novels in multiple genres.
Mari Mancusi
Mari Mancusi is a multiple Emmy award-winning TV producer and author of more than two dozen sci-fi/fantasy books for kids, teens, and adults including Gamer Girl, the Scorched series, The Blood Coven Vampires, and her newest series, The Camelot Code: The Once and Future Geek, published by Disney Books
» Brianne Marie
Brianna Marie is co-owner of the Dungeons and Randomness podcast, as well as co-host on many other podcasts such as Good Morning Theria and The Buffy Breakdown. For the past year she has been handcuffed to her desk writing the setting book for Theria with her partner Jason Massey.
Gail Z. Martin
Gail Z. Martin writes epic fantasy, urban fantasy and steampunk for Solaris Books, Orbit Books, and Falstaff Books. Series include Darkhurst, the Chronicles Of The Necromancer, the Fallen Kings Cycle, the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, the Assassins of Landria, the Night Vigil, and Deadly Curiosities.
Lee Martindale
Lee Martindale is known for teaching writers’ workshops, editing the anthologies Such a Pretty Face and The Ladies Of Trade Town, and stories in anthologies edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Esther Friesner, Diana Paxson and more. Her short fiction currently appears in the collection Bard’s Road.
» Jason Massey
Jason Massey is professional Dungeon Master and a co-owner/host of the Dungeons and Randomness podcast. Since 2012, it has grown into a huge show and his full time profession. He has just finished writing a setting book for his campaign setting in Theria alongside his partner Brianna Marie.
Mika McKinnon
Mika McKinnon is a sci-fi scientist, disaster researcher, geophysicist, journalist, and irrepressibly enthusiastic about doom. Currently, she gleefully interjects truth for far stranger fiction for projects still within the veil of not-yet-aired secrecy and is a science communicator with work on BBC, New Scientist, io9, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, and others.
» Mike McKone
Mike McKone’s first published work was for DC Comics’ Justice League of America and Marvel Comics’ Punisher series. In the years since he has illustrated almost every major character for the big two publishers, including lengthy runs on Teen Titans, Amazing Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four
Mark Meer
Mark Meer stars as the voice of Commander Shepard, Blasto, Niftu Cal, the Vorcha, and more in Bioware's Mass Effect Trilogy. Other voice work includes the Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age series, Hinterland Studio's The Long Dark, 1980's horror homage Slayaway Camp, and Chapterhouse Studio's Captain Canuck animated series.
Sarah Milkovich
Dr. Sarah M. Milkovich is the Science Operations Team Chief for the Mars 2020 Rover at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Sarah specializes in the science operations of robotic spacecraft, bridging the science and engineering teams. She has previously worked on Mars Phoenix, Cassini-Huygens, Mars Science Laboratory, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
» Max Mittelman
Max Mittelman has been entertaining audiences since high school, but you're likely most familiar with his work as the voice of Saitama (One-Punch Man), Ryuji Sakamoto (Persona 5), Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), and King (Seven Deadly Sins). He also voices Harry Osborn (Disney XD's Marvel's Spider-Man) alongside best friend Robbie Daymond.
Rebecca Moesta
Rebecca Moesta has written novels in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Junior Jedi Knights series, and with husband Kevin J. Anderson, she wrote the Crystal Doors trilogy, fourteen Young Jedi Knights novels, six novelizations, lyrics for two rock CDs, graphic novels, and pop-up books.
Jorge Molina
Jorge Molina is a Mexican comic artist and illustrator. He has been working exclusively with Marvel for the past couple of years, drawing titles such as A- Force, Star Wars, X-Men Blue, and many more. He is the current artist for the latest spidey event, Spiddergedon.
James A. Moore
James A. Moore is the bestselling and award-winning author of over 40 novels, thrillers, dark fantasy and horror alike, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, the Serenity Falls, and his most recent novels, The Tides of War series and Avengers: Infinity.
» Sabutai Musashi
Sabutai Musashi is the current Grandmaster of Ninkage ryu bujutsu; a Japanese martial arts system that includes empty-handed study such as Aikijutsu, weapons study, such as Kenjutsu and Iaijutsu, and internal arts. Grandmaster Musashi and his students have provided exciting demonstrations of Ninkage ryu at DragonCon since 2005.
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N Bobby Nash
When not wandering around the con, star struck, award-winning author Bobby Nash writes novels, comic books, short stories, graphic novels, and more. Nash is a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and International Thriller Writers. 2019 will be his 31st Dragon Con.
Jai Nitz
Jai Nitz is a comic book writer of Latino descent who has worked for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Disney, and other publishers. He co-created El Diablo with Phil Hester and he co-created Dream Thief with Greg Smallwood. El Diablo made his big screen debut in 2016's Suicide Squad.
Jody Lynn Nye
Jody Lynn Nye has written dozens of books and over 160 short stories, most of them with a humorous bent. Her latest books are Rhythm of the Imperium (Baen), Moon Tracks (with Travis S. Taylor, Baen), and Myth-Fits (Ace). She also teaches the annual Dragon Con Two-Day Writers Workshop.
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P Dan Parent
Dan Parent is a comic book artist and writer best known for his work for Archie Comics. He has also written and/or illustrated for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Felix the Cat Productions, Mattel, IDW, Boom, Valiant Comics, Chapterhouse comics, and Harpercollins to name a few.
Bob Pendarvis
Bob Pendarvis taught the very first comics and animation illustration classes at the Savannah College of Art and Design, going on to create the school's Sequential Art BFA and MFA programs. He is currently working on a series of art education graphic novels designed to inspire girls to be artists.
Diana Peterfreund
Diana Peterfreund is the author of over two dozen books for adults, teens, and children, including the Omega City series for kids, the Killer Unicorns series for teens, the upcoming Clue novels, and the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion: For Darkness Shows the Stars.
Van Allen Plexico
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Tim Powers
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Cherie Priest
Cherie Priest is the author of two dozen books and novellas, most recently The Agony House, Family Plot, and the hit YA project I Am Princess X. She is perhaps best known for the steampunk pulp adventures of the Clockwork Century, beginning with Boneshaker.
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R » Trina Ray
Trina Ray is an Investigation Scientist for the ice penetrating radar instrument on NASA’s newest flagship mission - Europa Clipper. She worked on the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn (JPL/NASA) for over 20 years, specializing in Titan, and is an active public speaker, invited to give many talks around the nation.
Corinne Roberts
Corinne Roberts writes and illustrates the ongoing web comic series Out and About. She has written/illustrated Trip to Trekka and Imaginary Sea 1,2,3! Along with her books, she illustrated the web comic, Kitty Game and the card game, Unreal Estate. She is releasing/announcing two more comics in 2019.
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S Noel Saabye
With 25 years in the animation industry, Noel Saabye has had the opportunity to work with some exciting companies that include Cartoon Network, Warner Bros., Disney, PBS, Mattel and Activision. Saabye continues to work as an animator and has his hands in several recent independent comic book titles.
Brandon Sanderson
Literary Guest of Honor Brandon Sanderson’s novels are the Mistborn books, The Stormlight Archive, which includes the Dragon Award winning Oathbringer, his most recent bestseller The Rithmatist, and Steelheart, among others. He completed the final volumes of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and is published in 35 languages.
Richard Saunders
Richard Saunders starred as the Skeptical Judge on the TV show The One: The Search for Australia's Most Gifted Psychic. He is the host of the weekly podcast The Skeptic Zone, in its 11th year. An origami expert and children’s author, CSI Fellow, and life member of Australian Skeptics.
Scott Sigler
#1 New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler is the creator of 15 novels, six novellas, and dozens of short stories. He gives away his stories as weekly, serialized, audiobooks, with over 40 million episodes downloaded. Scott launched his career by releasing his novels as author-read podcasts.
Thomas E. Sniegoski
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Anne Sowards
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Eric P. Spana
Eric Spana is a biology professor at Duke University specializing in genetics and molecular biology who explains the unusual and fantastic occurrences in science fiction, fantasy, and video games using the biological mechanisms already identified on Earth. Sometimes he has to point out the really, really bad science, too.
Michael Stackpole
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Kim Steadman
Kim Steadman is a system engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Currently she is a Tactical Uplink Lead for the Curiosity Rover and a Science System Engineer for the Mars 2020 Rover. Her job is to enable science while keeping the rover safe and happy.
E.J. Stevens
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S.M. Stirling
S.M. Stirling was born in France. His latest books are The Sea Peoples (October, 2017), Black Chamber (July 2018) and The Sky-Blue Wolves (October, 2018). His hobbies include history, anthropology, archaeology, and travel. He also pursued the martial arts, until knees.
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T Jonathan Tarbox
Jake Tarbox spent most of his adult life in Japan, working as a media manager and television personality. After working at Coamix Inc. as senior editor of Raijin Comics, he took the position of Group Editor at DC Comics. He now runs Arashi Productions.
Roy Thomas
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Jamie Tyndall
Jamie Tyndall is a penciler, inker, and colorist with over seven years of experience. Tyndall has worked for various publishers including Zenescope , IDW Entertainment, Valiant Entertainment, Lady Death, Contraband, Absolute Comics, and Stan Lee’s POW Entertainment. His newest project is White Widow under Absolute comics.
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W Mark H Wandrey
Bestselling author of military sci-fi and zombie apocalypse, Mark Wandrey has been creating new worlds since he was old enough to hold a pen. Three time Dragon Award finalist as well as author of 16 novels and growing, he’s just getting started.
Jean Marie Ward
Jean Marie Ward writes fiction, nonfiction and everything in between. Her credits include a multi-award nominated novel, two popular art books and editing CrescentBlues.com. Her short stories have appeared in ASIMOV’s and numerous anthologies, and her video interviews are featured on BuzzyMag.com.
Chris Warner
H. C. Warner produced the first install for Dragon Con's Pop Art & Comic show at the Sheraton in 2007. Over the past 20 years, he owned and operated Alcove Gallery, producing monthly shows, designing and building installations in the heart of one of Atlanta’s most art-centric boroughs.
David Weber
David Weber has perpetrated over 60 solo and collaborative novels and an unconscionable number of anthologies upon an innocent and unsuspecting public. He is perhaps best known for his character Honor Harrington, whom he hopes never to meet in a dark alley.
David Thorn Wenzel
David Thorn Wenzel has been part of the fantasy movement since the 1970s. He has continued to work on fantasy projects in the children's book, trade book and graphic novel markets. Wenzel's better known books include The Hobbit graphic novel and the newly released Kingdom of the Dwarfs.
Michael Z. Williamson
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Y Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
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The House Intelligence Committee is slated to interview President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner on Tuesday, according to a committee announcement.
The White House aide's appearance is part of the panel's ongoing probe of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia amid the Kremlin's possible interference in the U.S. election.
Kushner is reportedly also meeting behind closed doors on Monday with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also probing Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign.
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Lawmakers are expected to press Kushner about his attendance at a June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer who was presented as having damaging information on Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE.
Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort have agreed to interviews with the Senate Judiciary Committee, the panel announced Friday, while the committee has sent a subpoena to compel testimony of the co-founder of a firm tied to a controversial research dossier on the president.
Trump Jr. and Manafort, who both attended the meeting with the Russian lawyer last summer, were listed as witnesses for a Judiciary hearing on Wednesday but have not confirmed they will testify, lawmakers have said. |
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Chicago Bulls. All opinions expressed by Sam Smith are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Chicago Bulls or its Basketball Operations staff, parent company, partners, or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Bulls and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.
By Sam Smith | 08.04.2014 | 10:00 a.m. CT | [email protected] | @SamSmithHoops
It was during one of the USA Basketball scrimmages last week with the 20 hopefuls and the Select Team of young NBA players in the role of basketball tackling dummies. Bulls rookie Doug McDermott, who had been impressive with his shooting, was wide open several times as teammates Marcus Smart and Victor Oladipo kept ignoring him.
USA coach Mike Krzyzewski laughed as he saw the young guards missing their shooter and turned to Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, who is a USA assistant.
“You going to let him shoot?” Krzyzewski said with a laugh.
“He’s going to shoot,” responded Thibodeau.
And it could be one of the more intriguing early stories of this Bulls 2014-15 season.
Much of the attention last week at USA Basketball camp in Las Vegas was on the return of Derrick Rose, his play and his health, which seems strong. The offseason Bulls story was Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love, which transitioned to the signings of Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic. Not exactly lost in all of that, but left behind, was the draft day trade to acquire the rights to Creighton shooting forward Doug McDermott for two first round draft picks and two seconds.
The moves once again have imbued the Bulls with impressive depth and perhaps the best front line in the NBA with Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah, Sixth Man runner up Taj Gibson, Gasol, a four-time All Star and Mirotic, the two-time best young player in Europe award winner. There’s the return of MVP Rose with high level backups in Kirk Hinrich and Aaron Brooks.
Of course, the absence of Rose was the principal flaw in the Bulls offense the last two seasons. But even with Rose, there are questions about shooting. In McDermott, the Bulls have potentially one of the best young shooters in the game.
“I think he’s really good,” said Kyle Korver, arguably the game’s best shooter in setting the all-time record for consecutive games with three pointers last season. “He’s got the right temperament and mindset; he’s not going to get down when things don’t go his way, gets pulled out. Has the right head for that situation. He’s got great balance to his shot. He’s got great technique and form. He’s always on balance. To be a great, consistent shooter you have to be sound. His legs are sound under his shot. He’s got a form that can endure. I’ve been really impressed with his shooting. I knew he was a good shooter. I didn’t know he was as good a shooter as he’s shown.”
Which raises an intriguing question for the Bulls this season: Start a rookie?
Most coaches don’t do that with good teams ready to compete, as the Bulls are. Though Rose did pretty well starting. McDermott is no Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, obviously. But as a four-year college player who plays a complementary game and probably is the best shooter on the Bulls roster, it’s hardly a ridiculous notion to have him start with a veteran group with Rose, Noah, Gasol and probably Jimmy Butler at shooting guard. Which probably would benefit someone like McDermott even more.
“He’s on a great team for him to fit in well,” said Korver. “There’s a real need for his skill set. He’s going to learn how to play defense. He’s going to have Jimmy taking the No. 1 (offensive) guy. He’ll get the second guy. There’s no two and three in Thibs’ offense. You’re the guy who’s coming off the doubles [screens]. Or you’re the guy who’s not coming off the doubles almost for the wing. He’s going to be the guy coming off the doubles and he’s going to be able to shoot that thing and put a lot of pressure on the defense. (The Bulls) have added a lot of pieces. He’s got a really good feel for the game. He got the ball a lot at Creighton, but it wasn’t like him getting the ball and holding it, making a one-on-one move. He learned to play without the ball and that’s so important in Thibs’ offense. You can’t have everybody be a drive-and-kick guy. You have to have shooting. You have to have the guy who shoots the ball after the drive and he’s going to be able to do that.”
The view heading into the season is the starting lineup will be Rose, Butler, Mike Dunleavy, Gasol and Noah.
Though the Bulls added players and have enviable depth, the potential weakness remains shooting guard as Butler is more naturally a small forward. It’s why someone like Dunleavy needs to be in the lineup to keep the floor spread for Rose’s drives. But it’s asking a lot after Dunleavy started so many games last season when his role was supposed to be a reserve. After all, with all that depth you should be nursing your players more for the post season. It also doesn’t make a lot of sense to start Rose with Hinrich since Hinrich isn’t a shooter who occupies the defense and then have Butler at small forward.
None of the main front line players are three-point shooters other than Mirotic, who is, at best, a fourth forward.
The ideal would seem to keep Butler at shooting guard, but pair him with McDermott to keep a great shooter on the floor and then have Dunleavy being preserved for the season by coming off the bench. Not that anyone is lobbying at this point. But Rose watched McDermott with the Select Team last week and liked what he saw.
“He rarely messes up,” said Rose. “He never pushes the issue, I would say. He never tries things he can’t do. He knows exactly what type of play he wants. For me, I need him because you can’t leave him. He has a lot of confidence in his shot, and he works on his shot every day. When I was playing with him while we were back in Chicago, I had to tell him whenever he’s open, I’m passing him the ball and he better shoot or I’m going to yell at him every time. If you can shoot, you can fit in.”
It obviously would be a big step for McDermott, but he’s been taking them each year and improving.
“Being a college guy last year (with the Select Team in a USA camp), I don’t think anyone knew who I was,” said McDermott, who headed for rookie orientation from Las Vegas. “I was getting a lot of open looks. I don’t think they knew I was a shooter. This year guys (on defense) are starting to find me more. They are a lot more physical with me. The biggest takeaway for me is how physical it is and how good they really are.
“This year I’m doing a better job rebounding and defending,” McDermott said before leaving camp the end of last week. “Maybe not getting as many open looks as last year, but I am making the most of them, making better reads off screens, trying to improve in different areas. Not just shooting. Whether I’m getting the shot or not, I’m getting a lot of attention on the screens because guys view me as a shooter. It leaves open areas for other guys.
“I feel I can guard a wing fine,” said McDermott. “An undersized four I can also guard because that’s who I guarded in college. It’s going to be a huge adjustment period for me. But having coach Thibodeau and the veterans guys will help. I’ve become good off that floppy action, the down screens, curling. Always watched Kyle. He’s so good at setting his man up. That’s what coach Thibodeau has talked to me about.”
Just then Korver, who also went to Creighton, walked by as McDermott was doing his interviews.
“The real hot sauce,” McDermott said nodding at Korver with a laugh.
Stacey’s got another guy!
“He’s really excited to be there,” said Korver. “He’s going to learn so much from Thibs. Early on in my career, I wish I would have had someone like Thibs to show me how to play really good team defense. That would have helped me a ton in my career. I feel like a lot of the success I’ve had the last couple of years is because of what I learned in Chicago. Being there with Thibs and learning how to play defense and being in an awesome, championship-caliber culture was really big for me. So Doug’s going to get that right now, like right at the very beginning, and it’s only going to do great things for his career. He takes the game very serious. He plays with a chip on his shoulder. He plays with an edge. He wants to be really good and he’s going to work for it. He doesn’t just want it; he wants to work for it. He dealt with every kind of defense. He’s been prepared for the NBA in so many ways, just in how he was guarded all the time, the pressure that was on him in Omaha, at Creighton. He’s a younger guy, but emotionally, he’s very mature.
“The thing I told him is you don’t have to drive that traffic every day,” Korver said with a laugh. “I can go back (to the Bulls) and do either Thibs or the traffic, but I could never do both again. I was like, ‘You don’t know how good you have it.’ I say that in fun, obviously.”
And McDermott seems to be having plenty of fun already.
“I’ve come a long ways,” McDermott conceded. “It’s pretty crazy to be invited here two years in a row. I’m real thankful for that. I don’t want this to be the highlight of my career, though. I want to be back here on a bigger stage. They (Bulls) did a great job putting together a terrific team. Without D. Rose, they struggled to score a little. I feel they added a lot this offseason that can help with Pau and others. So that was huge.”
Asked about what he could bring, McDermott responded: “A great shooter, but not just a shooter. A guy who plays hard every time, has a great motor, great instincts. People have questioned my athleticism, but I think I ‘m a decent athlete as well and can guard different positions.”
And his coach for the Select Team last week, Northwestern’s Chris Collins, agrees.
“I coached J.J, Redick in college and it was all this, the similar critics saying, ‘Who is he going to guard, how’s he going to be a pro?’ Guys like that who have scored 3,000 points in college and every game they played in college they put two guys on him and tried to take him out of everything and they still scored 30 a game, those guys are really good players,” said Collins. “That’s why I know Doug will figure out a way to be a very good pro.
“He hasn’t been intimidated,” Collins added. “That’s the first step. When you are a rookie and get around very good players who have the names: Are you knocked back by the environment? But he’s played with confidence. For him, this is unique. You’re playing against a team with Kevin Durant, Paul George and Anthony Davis together, that length. He’s learning the window to get your shot off is much quicker. How he can get open and what he can do. As the week has gone on he’s gotten better and better. I’m excited to watch him being in Chicago myself. I think he’s the perfect complement to the star pieces they put together.
“He can really come off screens,” Collins added. “He knows how to play off the ball. He’ll be a great spacer. He’s an underrated defender. He knows concepts. He’s more of a three. He doesn’t miss. If he gets his feet set, he doesn’t miss. His stroke is lights out. The NBA three is no problem for him.”
Which is vital since it’s been a big problem for the Bulls.
If McDermott can be that shooter, that floor spacer and that threat, it’s hardly unreasonable to believe he can be the starting small forward. After all, he just played against the best players in the NBA with strong performances.
“He’s a basketball player,” said USA coach Mike Krzyzewski of McDermott. “He’s smart and he can shoot the heck out of the ball. He doesn’t need the ball long, so he’s an easy guy to play with. He can stretch a defense. He knows the game. He doesn’t dominate the ball, so he’s an easy teammate. But because he has that scoring ability, he gives space and the ball to his teammates. Pretty good. Not cocky, a great kid. He’s going to be a good guy for the Bulls.” |
The Chilean earthquake that struck on Feb. 27 changed the country’s landscape by raising the ground by more than 8 feet near the coast and sinking land farther inward, a new study finds.
Chile is situated atop a hotspot for earthquake activity, so learning how this magnitude 8.8 quake moved the land will tell scientists more about what causes large earthquakes.
The massive earthquake struck south-central Chile and was the fifth largest temblor ever recorded by modern seismology. A nearby part of Chile gave birth to the largest earthquake ever recorded — a magnitude 9.5 earthquake that struck in May 1960 and killed 5,700 people. Since 1973, 13 quakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have hit the coastal country, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
IN PICTURES: Earthquake in Chile
Scientists have now confirmed for the first time that the 2010 quake ruptured a long fault along the coast of Chile, and found that it raised land to a higher elevation in the south and sunk the Earth's surface in the North, according to the study.
To the scientists patrolling the coast, the change is obvious.
"You can just see the sea shells and sea weed hanging in the air, about head high," said Michael Bevis, a geophysicist at Ohio State University who was not involved with the study but has conducted his own studies of the Chilean coast. "You see all this stuff that belongs underwater is now up in the rocks."
Researchers found a white fringe formed by a kind of dead algae that is common along the Chilean coast. These normally pink algae are bleached by sunshine, and gave researchers a direct way to measure the grounds' uplift. [See images of Chile's raised coast]
Using the algae as a marker, the research team, led by Marcelo Farias at the University of Chile, found that the largest uplift was roughly 8.2 feet (2.5 meters) at the Arauco Peninsula. The uplift also shifted the coastline in some places 1,640 feet (500 m) toward the ocean.
Measuring how much the land sank was somewhat trickier. The researchers gauged sinking by measuring how high the water had risen on vegetation and manmade constructions like bridges. A 3.3 foot (1 m) drop in land was measured in some parts, but the study acknowledges some uncertainly about the subsidence level because of the difficulty in knowing the water levels before the quake hit, and exactly how these water levels changed after the quake.
Despite this uncertainty, the research team arrived at the site of the quake so quickly — taking measurements within a month of the rupture — that they were able to measure the sudden jump of the land that happens after an earthquake, Bevis said. This is important because the land continues to shift over time. Separating out the various ground movements is one step toward painting a picture of how the land moves during massive quakes.
The new study is just one of many studies currently investigating the Chilean earthquake, which Bevis said "will probably turn out to be one of the most important earthquakes ever in terms of scientific impact."
"We've instrumented the crap out of the fifth biggest quake ever," Bevis told OurAmazingPlanet. "When we put this data together we're going to figure out what happened during and after the earthquake with an impressive level of detail."
Other movements around South America caused by the earthquake include:
The Chilean city of Concepción moved at least 10 feet (3 meters) to the west.
Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina and across the continent from the quake's epicenter, moved about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) to the west.
Chile's capital, Santiago, moved about 11 inches (28 cm) to the west-southwest.
The cities of Valparaiso and Mendoza, Argentina, northeast of Concepción, also moved significantly.
The study is detailed in the July 29 edition of the journal Science.
IN PICTURES: Earthquake in Chile |
As floods triggered by days of heavy rain overwhelm Houston, the city’s Jewish community is scrambling to rescue those stranded by the fast-rising water.
Steven Paletz, 27, had been away for the Jewish holiday this weekend, returning last night to find six feet of water in his Houston home. He then watched his dining room table float away.
“My wife and I went to a sports store and bought a raft,” Paletz told the Forward. “Whoever has a kayak has been going down the street picking people up one by one.”
Houston’s Jewish community numbers about 50,000, according to Lee Wunsch, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston.
“The flooding was very widespread,” Wunsch told the Forward, adding that “the heaviest hit neighborhoods happen to have large Jewish communities.”
Wunsch said that due to the extraordinary paralysis of the city’s infrastructure, the extent of the damage won’t be known for a couple of days.
“There’s flooding like I’ve never seen before, and I’ve been in Houston a long time,” Wunsch added.
At least four people have been killed in weather-related incidents in the Houston area, authorities said. More rain was expected Wednesday.
Paletz lives in Willow Meadows, a Houston neighborhood that is a hive of Jewish life, and is president of the local Civic Association. He also serves on the board of his shul, the United Orthodox Synagogues, which has been inundated with about five feet of water.
For Paletz all of this is new (“I’m from California — we get earthquakes not floods,” he explained). But Houston has been through this before.
After the devastation of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, many people in the area rebuilt their ruined houses at a significant elevation, in compliance with new regulations. That foresight has apparently paid off. This time around, those elevated homes have become a refuge for the displaced and suddenly homeless, hovering safely above incoming waters.
“People whose homes were rebuilt then are now gathering people in,” Paletz said, demonstrating how neighbors were taking care of one another even as the city struggles to deal with the chaos.
“During times of crisis, members of the Jewish community will host one another for weeks,” said Eitan Urkowitz, whose grandfather, Joseph Radinsky, rabbi emeritus of United Orthodox Synagogues, was paddled to safety by a neighbor in a canoe. “After a hurricane a few years back, one family on my side of town had power so they hosted 100 people for lunch and dinner every day for a month.”
This story "Houston Jewish Community Scrambles To Cope With Flooding" was written by Jesse Lempel. |
User Info: Aerosoldier Aerosoldier 5 years ago #1
PS4 -Don't Starve
PS3- Bioshock Infinite - DmC - Brothers
PS Vita- Smart as... - Worms Battle Islands
Best month ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh hypocrisy! A World full of n00bs indeed! Enter the psn store via PS3, go to free games, and in on the last banners a video will charge with a preview of the january free plus games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PS4 -Don't StarvePS3- Bioshock Infinite - DmC - BrothersPS Vita- Smart as... - Worms Battle IslandsBest month ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
User Info: JohnHitman47 JohnHitman47 5 years ago #2 Love good shooters. EU?
User Info: DotsAndLines DotsAndLines 5 years ago #3 WARNING: This post may contain OPINIONS. Opinions that may differ from yours. Do not read if you are unable to handle it with maturity. LOL no one wants to play DmC so now it's free already. More proof that the game is garbage (Even though we don't need any more proof at this point).
User Info: JohnHitman47 JohnHitman47 5 years ago #4 DotsAndLines posted...
LOL no one wants to play DmC so now it's free already. More proof that the game is garbage (Even though we don't need any more proof at this point).
So by that logic every game on Plus its garbage, good to know. Love good shooters. So by that logic every game on Plus its garbage, good to know.
User Info: Snowthaproduct Snowthaproduct 5 years ago #5 JohnHitman47 posted...
EU?
Has to be. Checked both my eu and us accs. Its free for EU I <3 Ke$ha. Uffie best female Rapper.
Ps3 only console I own. Has to be. Checked both my eu and us accs. Its free for EU
User Info: RyuVegas RyuVegas 5 years ago #6 DotsAndLines posted...
LOL no one wants to play DmC so now it's free already. More proof that the game is garbage (Even though we don't need any more proof at this point).
Considering games like Borderlands 2, SOTC and Ico and others were just released last month for free, which are widely considered amazing games, this statement has no merit. Go take your DmC hate somewhere else.
God I will HATE this if this is EU only and us Americans get s*** again. But January is still a full week away so I have that long before I'll probably end up hating how many great games EU gets over US. http://backloggery.com/ryuvega NP- LoZ:ALBW, Borderlands 2, RaC:ItN
'I've seen Ryu on the MtG board so he's already cooler than most of you.' ~ XImperialDragon Considering games like Borderlands 2, SOTC and Ico and others were just released last month for free, which are widely considered amazing games, this statement has no merit. Go take your DmC hate somewhere else.God I will HATE this if this is EU only and us Americans get s*** again. But January is still a full week away so I have that long before I'll probably end up hating how many great games EU gets over US.
User Info: Aerosoldier Aerosoldier (Topic Creator) 5 years ago #7 JohnHitman47 posted...
EU?
USA!!!!! Oh hypocrisy! A World full of n00bs indeed! USA!!!!!
User Info: Aerosoldier Aerosoldier (Topic Creator) 5 years ago #8 RyuVegas posted...
DotsAndLines posted...
LOL no one wants to play DmC so now it's free already. More proof that the game is garbage (Even though we don't need any more proof at this point).
Considering games like Borderlands 2, SOTC and Ico and others were just released last month for free, which are widely considered amazing games, this statement has no merit. Go take your DmC hate somewhere else.
God I will HATE this if this is EU only and us Americans get s*** again. But January is still a full week away so I have that long before I'll probably end up hating how many great games EU gets over US.
January is two weeks away, next tuesday is 31th :( Oh hypocrisy! A World full of n00bs indeed! January is two weeks away, next tuesday is 31th :(
User Info: DotsAndLines DotsAndLines 5 years ago #9 JohnHitman47 posted...
DotsAndLines posted...
LOL no one wants to play DmC so now it's free already. More proof that the game is garbage (Even though we don't need any more proof at this point).
So by that logic every game on Plus its garbage, good to know.
Learn to read.
In any case it's true that Free Plus game are either really old or just crap. They're not gonna make much profit from the game anymore, that's why they put it up for free. WARNING: This post may contain OPINIONS. Opinions that may differ from yours. Do not read if you are unable to handle it with maturity. Learn to read.In any case it's true that Free Plus game are either really old or just crap. They're not gonna make much profit from the game anymore, that's why they put it up for free. |
Coming Soon
Bloodride
A Norwegian anthology series that blends horror with dark Scandinavian humor, setting each distinct story in its own realistic yet weird universe.
Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians
Follow Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians through the 2018 season in this series featuring insider insights and intense cricket action.
Shadow and Bone
Sinister forces plot against a young soldier when she reveals a magical power that might unite her world. Based on Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse novels.
Living with Yourself
A man who's burned out on life and love undergoes a mysterious treatment, only to find that he's been replaced by a better version of himself.
Ultraman
Years after Ultraman disappeared, Shinjiro learns of his connection to the legendary hero and dons the metallic ultra-suit to fight new aliens.
Mixtape
This romantic musical drama follows the love stories connecting an eclectic group of people in modern-day Los Angeles.
Tuca & Bertie
Two bird women -- a carefree toucan and an anxious songbird -- live in the same apartment building and share their lives in this animated comedy.
Baahubali: Before the Beginning
Based on Anand Neelakantan’s book, this prequel series to India’s epic fantasy franchise traces the dramatic rise of Queen Sivagami and her empire. |
Much has been made by the Trump campaign about the 2016 election being rigged . Trump himself exclaimed that "We'd better be careful, because that election is going to be rigged. And I hope the Republicans are watching closely or it's going to be taken away from us."
Four years ago, I argued that rogue electors threaten the integrity of presidential elections . Donald Trump's tumultuous week brought this concern back into the spotlight as a Georgia Republican presidential elector (Baoky Vu) vowed he would not support Trump if he were to carry his state . Within 24 hours, he resigned his position, but concerns over elector faithfulness remain.
Although so-called faithless electors rarely occur, including ninein the last 17 elections, a surprising number of electors consider doing so. Ten percent of electors gave some thought to defecting in 2004, 11.5% in 2008 (including 20% of Republicans), and 7% in 2012 (including 10% of Republicans). As a point reference, 10% of the Electoral College is akin to the entire state of California (the largest prize in the Electoral College). If such an event were to occur, it would trigger a constitutional crisis of epic proportions.
In my investigations, one elector noted that he believed he had a duty to vote his conscience if he were to find out that his party's nominee was a "madman" in the time between the nation votes and the time the Electoral College votes.
There is little to stop electors from asserting their independence . While just over half of the states require pledges from electors, few constitutional law experts believe these pledges could be enforced. A handful of states try and discourage faithless electors by criminalizing the act. Most of these states created these laws after electors cast faithless ballots.
Recent members of the Electoral College have been subjected to intense lobbying campaigns . At least one elector in the 2000 election received a death threat, and many others received computer viruses. Birthers in 2008 contacted nearly 80% of electors and urged them to withhold their vote for Barack Obama because of their concerns over his citizenship.
They called upon electors to exercise their independence as a last defense against an Obama presidency. I am certain members of the 2016 assemblage will also be lobbied -- especially if Trump manages to win.
Given the acrimonious nature of the Republican primaries and his departure from many traditional Republican beliefs, it would appear that Trump would be ripe for elector defections. It is likely that supporters of Cruz, Rubio, Bush, Kasich and Paul will make their way into the Electoral College.
It is also likely they are not big fans of Donald Trump. Those who consider defecting are different from their more committed counterparts. This is particularly true in their support of primary candidates. These "wavering electors" are far more likely to have supported someone other than their party's nominee during their party's primaries.
While they are strong partisans, they are not necessarily attached to the top of their party's ticket. Trump's polarizing nature, not just among Democrats, but also among Republicans, may be just the recipe to stimulate multiple defections among electors -- thereby providing some "proof" of a rigged election to Trump supporters, regardless of whether or not he were to win a majority of the votes in the Electoral College.
As November 8 approaches, much greater attention will be devoted to the Electoral College. Efforts to get Republican electors to abandon Trump will undoubtedly be met with great resistance and inflammatory rhetoric by his campaign. Trump's supporters are particularly ardent and prior to his earning a majority of the delegates, we can recall his own warning about riots in the streets if he did not win the Republican nomination
Former U.S. representative and shooting victim Gabby Giffords stated that Trump's words "may provide inspiration or permission for those bent on bloodshed." Her comments are particularly striking given the warnings of Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser.
Just last week, he said the Trump campaign should prepare for post-election measures , going so far as to suggest a "bloodbath" could occur among Trump supporters. "The government will be shut down if they attempt to steal this and swear Hillary in."
Some are openly advocating for an Electoral College stop-gap in the event that Donald Trump wins the vote on November 8. Many electors believe they should serve as a check in the system. In spite of the fact that the process has evolved, electors will be asked to have a significant part to play in the 2016 campaign.
Those asserting their independence would surely fuel greater cynicism and augment fears about a broken electoral process and in so doing give legitimacy to Trump's claims of a rigged system.
While the likelihood of electors changing the outcome of the general election is extremely remote, the chance that they could feeds into the Trump narrative of a rigged process and encourages additional conspiracy theories among his supporters.
Doing so ensures voters would have no surprises from electors and remove any fears elections could be tampered with by this shadowy body. |
Round 3. Kelly immediately looks to close distance. He eats a knee to the body in the process. They exchange punches with each man landing. Kelly goes for a takedown and it is blocked again. Montgomery's punches are crisper at this point of the fight but Kelly still has good power. Kelly lands his big left hand a couple times and some knees. Kelly gets a takedown with 90 seconds left. Montgomery tries to get up and Kelly takes his back. Kelly looks for a rear naked choke but can't get it. Kelly transitions into an armbar attempt but doesn't get it. He then rolls into side control and then mount. He lands a series of punches, really turning it on late. Kelly looks for an arm triangle choke late but can't get it. 3rd round was close but Kelly definitely pulled it out at the end. 10-9 Kelly, 29-27 Kelly. |
Warriors sweep local TV ratings
Editor’s note: This story is revised from the print edition.
The Golden State Warriors’ march to 73 wins gave them not only a regular-season record for victories this year, but also a triple crown of sorts for local TV ratings: the top average rating among all NBA teams for the season, the biggest year-over-year rating increase, and the largest average viewership per game.
The Golden State Warriors, led by Steph Curry, have seen gains in local viewership six consecutive years.
This marks the sixth consecutive year the Warriors have seen gains in local viewership — the first time any NBA or NHL team has seen six straight years of ratings gains.
Warriors games on CSN Bay Area averaged a 9.76 rating (243,000 homes) this season, a whopping 160 percent increase from last year’s average rating. For their season finale, when they won their league-record 73rd game, the team drew a huge 23.2 rating on CSN Bay Area, a number the RSN said is the highest for any NBA regular-season game across any RSN.
CSN Bay Area’s top three telecasts are now all Warriors games from this season.
“Our market bucks the trends,” said Warriors President and COO Rick Welts. “What is different is beyond the wins and losses is a combination of style and play that attracts people, but also the personalities of the individuals that is bringing people to NBA basketball [in] this market and other markets. There is a certain vibe that this team gives off in how they play.”
The Cleveland Cavaliers (9.31 rating on FS Ohio) and San Antonio Spurs (8.71 rating on FS Southwest) joined the Warriors at the top of the RSN ranking for the season. It’s the first time in at least 10 years that three NBA clubs have posted a season ratings average above an 8.0.
The Cavaliers’ local TV rating is the highest ever recorded for the team.
SportsBusiness Journal analyzed ratings data for teams across the NBA; information for Memphis, Utah and Toronto was not available.
While the stories were strong in Golden State, Cleveland and San Antonio, such was not the case leaguewide. In fact, 17 of the 27 teams measured saw year-over-year declines in their local ratings this season.
The Atlanta Hawks registered the league’s biggest decrease, despite making another playoff run. Hawks games on FS Southeast averaged a 1.2 rating, down 45 percent from last year — though that average is on par with Hawks ratings in recent years. Before their 2.18 average for 2014-15, the Hawks’ average rating in the six seasons prior ranged between a 0.97 and a 1.4.
In Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant’s final season did nothing to help Lakers ratings on TWC SportsNet. The team’s 1.51 rating (83,000 homes) was down 3 percent from 2014-15, setting a historic low for a third consecutive season.
TWC SportsNet launched with Lakers rights for the team’s 2012-13 season.
Brooklyn Nets games on YES Network were the league’s lowest-rated games for the second straight year and seventh time in the last nine years. Nets games averaged a 0.46 rating (34,000 homes).
Meanwhile, Dallas Mavericks games on FS Southwest dropped to their lowest point since the 2008-09 season. This season’s 1.58 average rating for Mavs games was down 35 percent from last year as the team saw its record dip to 42-40 this season compared with 50-32 last year. |
CLOSE USA TODAY Sports' college football writers break down the Big Ten, which is getting two new members this year.
USA TODAY Sports' Paul Myerberg counts down to the start of the college football season team by team from No. 128 to No. 1.
Michael Bennett is an all-America candidate on the nation's best defensive line. (Photo11: Greg Bartram, USA TODAY Sports)
Like a crafty magician, the greatest trick Braxton Miller ever pulled was making the impossible seem probable. The rabbit was always in the hat, just tucked away; the card you were looking for was up your sleeve the whole time; Miller only made things look effortless, thanks to overall athleticism unmatched at the position in college football.
Miller was – is, rather, and will be again, hopefully – the sort of quarterback who could complete all of six passes against rival Michigan yet still account for 275 yards of total offense and four touchdowns. Or, against the Big Ten's second- and third-best pass defenses, complete 39-of-52 attempts for 450 yards and six touchdowns without an interception.
It hurts, it stings and it's totally unprecedented, and Ohio State has to understand that in the history of this sport, no would-be championship contender has lost a Heisman Trophy-caliber quarterback this close to the eve of the regular season.
Ohio State will instead have a redshirt freshman, J.T. Barrett, and history is again not on the Buckeyes' side: Only two freshman quarterbacks in history – Bernie Kosar and Jameis Winston – have started every game for a national champion.
Here's where it hurts: For the Buckeyes, the impossible is no longer probable – it's possible, always possible, but not probable. The Buckeyes no longer have a quarterback capable of pulling single-play victory from the jaws of defeat, for example; Miller made things happen when others would've ducked and covered, unwilling and unable.
And so the offense returns to square one at its most crucial position. Barrett has been described as a "field general," as his high school coach told The Columbus Dispatch. That helps explain a mindset shift: Barrett won't be asked to do the impossible but the mere possible, caretaking an offense with an excess of talent at the skill positions.
This won't hurt Ohio State against Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois and Minnesota, though one can make the simple case of Miller's dynamism holding the key to a win in East Lansing, for example. In short, the team-wide preseason standard has subtly changed: OSU is no longer the favorite in the Big Ten Conference.
At least Urban Meyer has been here before. It's Sept. 6, 2003, and Utah quarterback Brett Elliott breaks his wrist diving to complete a two-point conversion late in a loss to Texas A&M. Gone, done, out for the year – year over. Then comes Elliott's replacement, a lanky and unimposing sophomore named Alex Smith, and the Utes would lose only once for the remainder of Meyer's tenure.
LAST YEAR'S PREDICTION :
OSU will roll from the start, facing little noticeable challenge in non-conference play before turning its gaze to the Big Ten, where Wisconsin, Northwestern and Michigan seen the only teams on the slate capable of knocking the Buckeyes down a peg. Do I think the Buckeyes go undefeated? They should.
2013 RECAP :
In a nutshell: The way last season ended raised eyebrows, obviously, with losses to Michigan State and Clemson ending OSU's title chances and hopes for entering the offseason on a high note, respectively. Meyer's response was to stay the course: He didn't feel the need to reach out to any of his coaching peers and mentors, Meyer said at Big Ten Media Days, because the Buckeyes' mentality – or sense of purpose, or whatever buzzword exemplifies the program's mental fortitude – remained intact. That's a positive, as is the idea that OSU, as a program, needed to taste a little bitter adversity before leaping to the top of the Football Bowl Subdivision. That step takes a hit in 2014, clearly, but the Buckeyes' long-term blueprint will be better off for last year's fall from grace.
High point: Beating Michigan. For a single play, at least, the Buckeyes' defense was all-world.
Low point: Michigan State. And so a rivalry was born.
Tidbit: Last November's win against Michigan marked the Buckeyes' first one-point victory in the history of the rivalry. In only 13 other meetings – 1944, 1958, 1963, 1972, 1974-75, 1979, 1981, 1987, 2001-2, 2005 and 2012 – was OSU's margin of victory less than a touchdown.
Tidbit (consistency edition): Ohio State leads the country with 88 seasons in a row without posting back-to-back losing records. Since the streak began in 1925, OSU has had just six losing seasons altogether: 1943, 1947, 1959, 1966, 1988 and 2011.
ARBITRARY TOP FIVE LIST :
19th century papal bulls
1. Apostolicae Curae
2. Ineffabilis Deus
3. Pastor aeternus
4. Apostolicæ Sedis Moderationi
5. Reversurus
PLAYERS TO WATCH :
Offense: It will be J.T. Barrett against Navy and for every game from that point forward, hinging on production, and the Buckeyes will tweak this entire offense to better suit his skill set. Translated: Run, run, run. For now, it's easy to see Tom Herman trade explosiveness from the position for simple consistency, particularly in the read-option running game. Gone are the Miller-led running plays, replaced by the backfield-led action – basically, a running game that begins with a stable of gifted running backs and then moves to the quarterback rather than vice versa, as was the case throughout Miller's turn in this system. That's not to say Barrett isn't athletic enough to make things happen; he showed some solid burst in the spring game, for example, and will allow the offense to maintain a similar flavor. It'll just be less explosive – but you knew that already.
New Ohio State starting quarterback J.T. Barrett will not be without tools on offense. (Photo11: Andrew Weber, USA TODAY Sports)
Barrett will keep this job if he stays healthy and productive. If not, OSU will turn the offense over to sophomore Cardale Jones, the Buckeyes' sole quarterback with any experience – all three games and two pass attempts of experience, if that means anything. What Jones has is stronger physical gifts, if only by a nose, but I don't think that's so vital to this staff: Herman would rather have a distributor than a scorer, if you'll excuse the mixed-sports metaphor, and Barrett seems to embody the sort of do-the-right-things mindset the Buckeyes' staff desires from the Miller-less position. The bottom line, painful as it may be: OSU isn't winning the national title with Barrett at quarterback. The Buckeyes can still win the Big Ten.
At some point very soon – though perhaps not until the second or third game of the season – OSU will hammer down a rock-solid backfield rotation. Injuries have slowed this process a bit as fall camp comes to a close, but the basic formation seems set: Ezekiel Elliott (262 yards), Rod Smith (117 yards), Dontre Wilson (250 yards), Warren Ball and Curtis Samuel will lead the charge, with Elliott and Smith the favorites to start but all five – with Ball perhaps the odd man out, to a degree – contributing in huge numbers for a reworked running game. Smith's spot is secure thanks to his experience, which can't be overlooked in a unit otherwise loaded with freshmen and sophomores. If used in tandem, Smith's size and Elliott's burst could be electric. The wildcards are Wilson and Samuel, with the former already among the Big Ten's most dangerous backfield-receiver hybrids and the latter, a true freshman, seemingly cut from the same cloth.
Ohio State's Ezekiel Elliott (15) is a key piece of an extremely deep and fast Buckeyes running back corps. (Photo11: Trevor Ruszkowski, USA TODAY Sports)
It's frustrating: Miller goes down just as Meyer and Herman seemed to corral the right mixture of talent at receiver – the weak link in the offensive chain in each of the staff's first two seasons. Though Barrett might struggle getting this group involved, you have to like its overall makeup. Senior Devin Smith (44 receptions for 660 yards) leads the charge, taking on the mantle of go-to target, while Wilson seems more and more likely to spend the majority of his time in the slot. There'll always be a role for senior Evan Spencer (22 for 216), if only thanks to reliability. At tight end, OSU has a clear all-conference pick in senior Jeff Heuerman (26 for 466) and a solid backup in junior Nick Vannett. It's a bit more uncertain from there, though not for a lack of options: Georgia Tech transfer Jeff Greene or sophomore Michael Thomas could start at flanker, for example, giving OSU some major size, and the Buckeyes need to find a way to get speedy underclassmen such as James Clark and Johnnie Dixon involved in multiple-receiver sets. In total, this is the strongest receiver corps of Meyer's tenure.
Quarterback J.T. Barrett would be wise to look often to wide receiver Devin Smith (9), Ohio State's leading returning receiver, this season. (Photo11: Rick Osentoski, USA TODAY Sports)
Defense: So this defense, one that played at a miserable level for much of last season, must take on the challenge on winning games for the Buckeyes. Helping matters are three enormous factors: one, a ridiculously good front four; two, the sense that the entire defense is just scratching the surface of its potential; and three, a very nice offseason hire in new co-coordinator Chris Ash, who should have a positive impact on an underachieving secondary. The pass defense, last year's teeth-gnashing pain, will benefit from one of the nation's best defensive fronts. But the secondary is raw, if blessed with talent, and expecting a wholesale shift from the bottom to the top might be too much to ask. It's safer to ask for the following: improvement.
Only one full-time starter, senior cornerback Doran Grant (58 tackles, 3 interceptions), returns from a season ago – and he'll need to play like a stopper, as he should. The defensive hero of last year's victory against Michigan, sophomore Tyvis Powell (48 tackles), will assume the vacant spot at strong safety; he's a really nice player, one I think will acclimate well to the starting role after spending last season as the Buckeyes' primary nickel back. That leaves OSU will six or seven bodies jostling for two spots, with little separation even as the defense ramps up its preparation for Navy. If push came to shove, I'd put sophomore Vonn Bell at free safety – though he could also set up shop at nickel back – and the combination of junior Armani Reeves and redshirt freshman Eli Apple at cornerback. But it looks very much like a fluid situation. Question how quickly Ash can reach this group, but don't sleep on the overall talent.
Cornerback Doran Grant (12) breaks up the two-point conversion pass attempt to Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd (10) in the second half of the 2014 Orange Bowl. (Photo11: Brad Barr, USA TODAY Sports)
Let's attempt to make the case, however fruitless, that OSU's linebacker corps will thrive even without Ryan Shazier. I'll buy it, in fact, and here's why: Shazier was otherworldly, true, but perhaps the motivation to fill his All-American shoes brings the most out of the five or six linebackers set to top the rotation. Maybe motivation will send senior Curtis Grant off on a high note after three years of frustration; if he's ready, Grant's the guy in the middle – and if not, OSU won't hesitate to hand the job to five-star freshman Raekwon McMillan. There's a little competition underway on the strong side between sophomore Darron Lee and redshirt freshman Chris Worley, which I think will very beneficial for overall depth. And then there's the leader of the group, junior Joshua Perry (64 tackles), and I have a suspicion he's due for an all-conference season on the weak side. Also, keep in mind Ash's simplified scheme when considering OSU's potential on the second level.
When this line plays together – and one starter will miss the first two games of the season – Ohio State's starting foursome will be the best in college football. Forget about the secondary, don't worry about the linebackers, don't lose sleep over the run defense; just focus on this group, which could alone carry OSU through the turmoil and to the top of the Big Ten. Here's one way to think about this quartet: Adolphus Washington (36 tackles, 4.0 for loss) is the weakest link – and he's an absolute specimen. Washington will spend this season inside, where his first step could be deadly, and join senior nose tackle Michael Bennett (42 tackles, 7.0 sacks), a very clear All-American with decidedly disruptive tendencies. It'll be sophomore Joey Bosa (44 tackles, 7.5 sacks) and junior Noah Spence (52 tackles, 8.0 sacks) on the outside, with Rashad Frazier and Steve Miller stepping into the lineup while Spence serves his two-game suspension. Washington, Spence, Bosa and Bennett: scary, scarier, scariest and my goodness, there's another.
Special teams: It's a simple, oft-repeated phrase that bears one more mention, since we may never get another opportunity: In kicking competitions, always bet on the option on scholarship. Take OSU, for instance, where true freshman Sean Nuernberger – he of the scholarship – should beat out senior Kyle Clinton to replace Drew Basil at kicker. Nuernberger would give the Buckeyes two young specialists, joining sophomore punter Cameron Johnson, who is already among the Big Ten's best at the position. If the true freshman delivers on field goals, OSU should have one of the league's top three units – though Maryland's return game is a bit more explosive.
Darryl Baldwin (76) is part of an offensive line in flux. (Photo11: Greg Bartram, USA TODAY Sports)
POSITION(S) TO WATCH :
Offensive line: It's all a little dicey, to be honest, but let's pay some respect to line coach Ed Warinner, who put together one of the program's finest groups in a decade-plus a season ago. He'll eventually get the line moving forward, it's safe to say, but I worry a touch about the unit's general cohesiveness heading into the opener. The anchor will be junior Taylor Decker, who makes the shift from right to left tackle as Jack Mewhort's replacement – and Mewhort was awesome as a senior. Beyond producing at an all-conference clip on the new quarterback's blind side, Decker needs to embrace the leadership mantle shared by three productive seniors a year ago.
Two other spots are settled, both on the strong side. Right guard belongs to Pat Elflein, an impressive third-year sophomore who fared well when given the opportunity a season ago. He'll line up alongside senior Darryl Baldwin, last year's understudy on the blind side; OSU is hopeful he'll be up to the task, even if Chase Farris and Kyle Dodson sit in reserve. That leaves a pair of very intriguing competitions, at center and left guard. It's not a bad situation in the middle: Jacoby Boren and Alabama transfer Chad Lindsay give OSU two nice options, with the potential for one to shift to guard in a pinch – though neither has the size to really excel away from center. But that's on the table, if only slightly, due to the Buckeyes' lack of proven production at left guard. Trust in Warinner and trust in the scheme, yeah, but OSU needs to get on the same page.
GAME(S) TO WATCH :
Michigan: Or Michigan State. One of the two. The Spartans play host, which is cruel, but the Wolverines come to Columbus. The last time Michigan beat OSU on the road: Nov. 18, 2000. Meyer spent that Saturday coaching Notre Dame's wide receivers during a 45-17 win against Rutgers.
SEASON BREAKDOWN & PREDICTION :
In a nutshell: Ohio State had its issues even with Braxton Miller under center, running this offense to a hair shy of perfection and making a charge at the Heisman Trophy; all Miller's departure does is serve to illustrate these concerns, since he had that ability to offset the Buckeyes' weaknesses – on offense, at least. It's time for the next man up: Barrett inherits Miller's position and all of its expectations. Matching those pre-injury goals now seems like a long shot, but to ignore OSU's ability to nonetheless win the Big Ten, charge toward an undefeated season and earn a spot in the playoff would ignore all that this team can achieve despite an unprecedented setback.
But let's touch on where OSU comes up lacking in comparison to the rest of the nation's elite. The first issue is the offensive line, which breaks in four full-time starters – though a few have past starting experience – and has to settle two ongoing competitions along the interior. The unit has a terrific position coach, but the line will need time to develop in advance of the heart of conference play. The second issue is the secondary and this pass defense, which will improve under Ash's tutelage but needs to take two steps forward to merely move toward the national average. Then there's quarterback, obviously, and Barrett simply lacks Miller's ability to make something out of nothing – let alone carry the offense on his own two shoulders, so Meyer and Herman face the biggest test of their turns in Columbus.
OSU can still have a special season. Maybe not special, in the sense that the year ends in Dallas; it can still be special, with a young and underclassmen-heavy roster battling against the stumbling blocks to end the season bruised and beaten yet atop the Big Ten. Without any question, this team's wealth of skill talent, amazing defensive front, speed along the back seven and ever-increasing depth makes it one of the two best teams in the conference. It's not going to be easy; it's going to be hard, in fact, and it's going to take everything OSU has in the tank. It can be done: Ohio State can still do this. It'll just be exponentially harder today than it seemed earlier this week.
Dream season: Even without Miller, the Buckeyes cruise through the Big Ten, win the conference title game and earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Nightmare season: Ohio State goes 8-4, losing to Virginia Tech, Penn State, Michigan State and Michigan.
UP NEXT :
Who's No. 10? This program is 136-39-3 since 1980 in the seasons after winning its bowl game.
RANKING EVERY FBS TEAM FOR 2014 |
The raft was made up of a trampoline, a basketball hoop and an awning.
A lazy day on the Waikato River turned into a schemozzle for police after more than about 20 people ended up in the drink.
Hamilton police sent boats on to the river after the raft briefly capsized, throwing most on board into the water near the Pukete boat ramp on Saturday.
Some were wearing lifejackets, others were not, Waikato police Senior Sergeant Ray Malcomson said.
DOMINICO ZAPATA/FAIRFAX NZ The 20 people were rafting down the Waikato River.
There was no immediate concern for the rafters' safety. They were being monitored by a police officer who got aboard a person's boat, he said.
"Looks like most were drifting towards the bank at the Pukete boat ramp, north of Church Road."
Malcolmson said most if not all of the rafters, aged between 18 and 50, managed to make it to the shore unaided.
They swam to the side and scrambled out of the shallow water on to the riverbank.
"The next thing is to go and rescue the raft," Malcolmson said.
Leaving it posed a hazard to any other river users, he said.
At 4.30pm, police were seen to be towing in a large raft consisting of a trampoline and basketball hoop to the side of the river.
A scattering of people remained on board.
There were a number of smaller rafts attached to the craft by rope. |
Groton, Conn. – While floating partially submerged in icy waters along a dock at a General Dynamics’ Electric Boat facility here, the Navy’s first Block III Virginia-Class attack submarine is being readied for sea-trials, certifications and delivery.
As a key step prior to formally handing the boat over to the Navy to begin service, Electric Boat engineers and Navy professionals are testing the electronics, wiring, missile tubes and propulsion system on-board the submarine, among other things, said Kurt Hesch, vice president of Virginia-Class submarines, Electric Boat.
The USS North Dakota, the first Block III Virginia-Class submarine slated for delivery, is expected to be handed over to the Navy for service by April of this year. An April or May delivery is several months in advance of its contracted arrival in August, Navy and Electric Boat officials said.
“The fact we're delivering early to the contract delivery date demonstrates we did the re-design right, something clearly demonstrated in North Dakota’s bow taking two fewer months and 8,000 fewer mandays to build than the previous ship, USS Minnesota,” Capt. Dave Goggins, program manager, Virginia-Class submarines told Military.com in a written statement.
Christened in November, the USS North Dakota will be the first of eight Block III Virginia-Class boats delivered to the Navy, submarines engineered with a series of technological upgrades and innovations compared to earlier Blocks I and II boats, Navy officials said. Blocks I and II, totaling 10 ships, have already been delivered to the Navy.
All eight Block III boats are being built under a $14 billion Navy deal with General Dynamics’ Electric Boat in December of 2008.
Hesch and Navy officials explained that the sea trials involve three phases. They begin with an alpha-phase which assesses the ship’s ability to dive to depth and conduct emergency surfacing operations. The alpha trials also assess the submarines propulsion plant and many of the technologies.
The bravo-phase tests the acoustics and combat systems and looks to correct any problems, followed by the Navy Board of Inspection and Survey trials where an independent board comes to inspect the boat prior to certification. The idea is to identify and address any potential issues with the boat well before it enters service with the Navy.
“The first trial is very rigorous. We are making sure we understand the water tightness and ensuring we understand the propulsion capabilities and understand the emergency systems are working. We take these incremental steps to make sure it is a fully functional and safe ship,” Hesch said in an interview with Military.com
Sea trials can last anywhere for eight to 12 weeks depending upon what issues are discovered, Hesch said.
There is a lot of testing that can only happen once the ship is underwater, such as an assessment of the nuclear-reactor, propulsion plant and dive and stern planes, Hesch explained.
“You start off going to a shallow depth to make sure everything is good, then you kind of work your way through the systems, making sure the propulsion plant is working the way it should,” he said.
The sea trials will assess everything from the sonar systems and missile tubes to on-board electronics, command and control technologies, navigation systems, sensors and submarine computer systems.
“We know what we want to test. We go out there and it is a very carefully orchestrated agenda that we follow without waiver,” said Michael Nowak, USS North Dakota ship manager, Electric Boat.
Nowak said his crew will assemble the requisite repair materials and mechanics in the event that sea trials reveal the need for changes. Some of the dockside testing includes shooting launch vehicles from torpedo tubes in order to verify that the launch lines are completed and ready, Nowak added.
The Block III subs, now under construction, are being built with new so-called Virginia Payload Tubes designed to lower costs and increase missile-firing payload possibilities, Navy officials explained.
Instead of building what most existing Virginia-class submarines have -- 12 individual 21-inch in diameter vertical launch tubes able to fire Tomahawk missiles -- the Block III submarines are being built with two-larger 87-inch diameter tubes able to house six Tomahawk missiles each.
While primarily done to lower costs for the boat, this technical change will allow the possibility of future missiles and off-board sensors to be launched from the tubes, Navy officials said.
All Virginia-Class submarines are also engineered with a computerized fly-by-wire touchscreen control system wherein boat operators use a joystick to navigate, unlike the mechanical hydraulic controls uses on prior models.
The Block III boats also have a Large Aperture Bow array which places a conformal sonar system in the bow of the boat, Hesch said.
While all Block III submarines are currently under construction, planning for 10 Block IV Virginia Class submarines is already underway. A Navy, General Dynamics’ Electric Boat contract for 10 submarines is currently being finalized and is expected to be finished in coming months, Navy officials said.
General Dynamics’ Electric Boat says they are planning a series of additional innovations for Block IV, such as a new radar and oxygen system. The Block IV deal will span years 2014 to 2018.
Hesch explained that one of the goals with Block IV is to increase the number of deployments for the submarines over their 33-year service life from 14 to 15. This can primarily be accomplished by engineering the boat with longer-lasting parts and increasing the efficiency of the ship’s maintenance availability, Electric Boat officials said.
Also, for Block V construction, the Navy is planning to insert a new 70-foot-long section designed to house additional missile capability. In fact, the Navy's Capabilities Development Document, or CDD, for what's called the Virginia Payload Modules is finished up and approved by the Pentagon’s Joint Requirements Oversight Council, Goggins said.
The Block V Virginia Payload Modules will add a new module or section of the submarine, increasing its Tomahawk missile firing capability from 12 to 40, Navy officials said. The idea is to have additional Tomahawk or other missile capability increased by 2026, when the SSGN Ohio-Class Guided Missile Submarines start retiring, he explained.
Hesch said that General Dynamics’ Electric Boat officials plan to work closely with the Navy to refine and solidify requirements in anticipation of doing early prototyping in 2015 and 2016.
The new module will add 28 missiles to the pressure hull section of the boat, using four large tubes each filled with 7 missiles. This will cause a slight, two-foot-long protrusion on the hull of the submarine to allow for a hatch to open, Hesch said.
In fact, the most recent Congressionally-passed budget deal approves $59 million for the Virginia Payload Modules, money which will move the developmental effort along.
The last six Virginia-class submarines have been delivered ahead of schedule, Navy officials said. The six submarines were Block I and Block II Virginia-class submarines. |
Unprecedented numbers are risking their lives to reach Europe, and local authorities in coastal communities where they land are struggling to cope. Lizzy Davies reports from Catania while photographer Massimo Sestini accompanied the Italian navy on its rescue missions earlier this month, offering a rare up-close glimpse of the men, women and children who make the dangerous trip to start a new life
With a bandana on her head and a three-month-old baby at her feet, Azeb Brahana stands in the gardens of Catania’s train station and looks a little lost. The 25-year-old Eritrean left her country in 2012, aware, she says, that the life she wanted was not possible in a country with mandatory national service. To get here, she says, she worked for a year in Sudan and endured months in a Libyan jail, where the United Nations estimates thousands of refugees and migrants are being held in deplorable conditions. It was in prison that Brahana gave birth to her son, and it is because of him that she is determined to make it, finally, to a place of safety and stability. “Somewhere I can live with my baby, happy,” she says. Somehow, though, despite all that she has been through, that still feels like a very distant dream.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Syrian refugees on an Italian navy ship after being rescued from a fishing vessel carrying 443 Syrian asylum seekers, 5 June. Photograph: Massimo Sestini/eyevine
Like almost 60,000 others this year, Brahana decided to brave the Mediterranean sea in order to reach Italy, and therefore Europe. She paid people-smugglers $1,600 (£950), she says, to board a boat packed with more than 300 people. “It’s really hard with a small baby,” she says stoically of a journey that has proved deadly for thousands over the past 20 years. Her boat was intercepted by an Italian navy ship last week and all its passengers taken to safety. The question for them now is what comes next. Brahana, like many of the refugees and migrants landing in Italy, has not yet requested asylum and is not in the care of an official structure. She is waiting for the bus to Rome, where her aunt lives. And then? “I don’t know,” she admits. “I want to work. I can’t live in my country because of the government. We need help but we don’t know where from.”
Map showing key central Mediterranean migrant routes. Graphic: Guardian/Christine Oliver
According to Italian interior ministry figures given to the Guardian, 59,880 migrants and refugees have landed on the country’s coast this year – almost as many as in the whole of 2011, which holds the record. The situation is unprecedented. Sicily, which has received more than 53,000 of the new arrivals, is bearing the brunt and struggling to cope. And summer – historically the peak time for boat landings – has only just begun. “I’m very afraid that in July, August and September, the situation will grow and grow,” says Rosario Valastro, president of the Italian Red Cross in Sicily. “We have some days where we have the navy arriving in three or four different ports at the same time. My volunteers are really, really tired. I’m very afraid.”
At an EU summit this week, the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, is expected to raise the issue with other leaders, urging them to make a “significant investment” in the bloc’s border control agency, Frontex. Since October, in the aftermath of two disasters in which around 400 people died at sea, the Italian navy has been carrying out a €9m-a-month (£7.2m) operation in the Mediterranean aimed at intercepting rickety migrant boats before they get into trouble. Mare Nostrum (“Our Sea”) is credited by the Italian government and NGOs on the ground with having saved countless lives. But Rome is determined that it should not continue to shoulder the burden alone. On Tuesday, Renzi told parliament: “A Europe that tells the Calabrian fisherman that he must use a certain technique to catch tuna but then turns its back when there are dead bodies in the sea cannot call itself civilised.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest African asylum seekers rescued off boats and taken aboard an Italy navy ship. Photograph: Massimo Sestini/eyevine
All along the Sicilian coastline, in port towns better known for their beaches than for refugee crises, local authorities are begging for help – from Rome, certainly, but also from Brussels. What they need, says Lillo Firetto, mayor of Porto Empedocle, is a “supranational approach” to be taken in conjunction with the United Nations and the EU. Firetto, whose town has seen more than 8,000 arrivals this year, says the local council wants to provide a reception “worthy of its name” – but that is hard to do. “When, in the course of two days, 2,000 people arrive, and you’re forced to send them to sports halls or other makeshift structures, it’s obvious that this is not the kind of reception required,” he says.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A mother and child on a Italian navy ship after being rescued from a fishing vessel carrying 443 Syrian asylum seekers, 5 June. Photograph: Massimo Sestini/eyevine
Sicilian towns from Catania on the eastern coast to Palermo in the north have been transforming sports halls, churches and other buildings into ad-hoc facilities. NGOs say the system, though well-meaning, has often proved chaotic. “The problem was, there wasn’t preparation for tackling these kinds of numbers,” says Alessandra Turri, of Save the Children Italy. “Not preparing the ground and approaching it as an emergency does not allow for organisation.” People have sometimes ended up sleeping in tents, she says, because there is simply no room at the inn.
For those who do end up housed in one of the makeshift centres, the future is not much more certain. In the eastern port of Augusta, which has found itself playing a central role in the Mare Nostrum reception strategy not long after its local council was dissolved for mafia infiltration, a former primary school has been reopened to give basic food and shelter to some of the large numbers of unaccompanied minors who have come into port this year.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest African asylum seekers rescued off boats and taken aboard an Italy navy ship, 8 June. Photograph: Massimo Sestini/eyevine
With its cracked paint, faded children's paintings, and stretched facilities, the ex-scuola Verde, as it is known, has dormitory-style bedrooms- in fact former classrooms- which can house up to 180 minors. At its busiest, however, the school is understood to have held around 267 boys. They slept on camp beds in the corridors and the changing rooms. Some of those currently resident are understood to have been living there since early May.
Many of them have stories of torture and ill-treatment on their epic journeys across Africa. “They threatened you,” says Adama Bah, 16, from Gambia, recalling his time in Libya where he says he earned the money to pay smugglers for the sea crossing to Italy. “I saw many people shot in the leg or dead.” Bah wants to be a footballer when he grows up. “That’s my dream,” he says. But here in a scruffy park in Augusta, it seems remote. “I’m not happy here because I don’t know what’s happening next.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest African asylum seekers rescued off boats and taken aboard an Italy navy ship, 8 June. Photograph: Massimo Sestini/eyevine
According to Save the Children, around 5,840 unaccompanied minors have arrived on the Italian coast this year. Not all of them decide to stay in the system. At a soup kitchen opposite Catania station run by the Catholic charity Caritas, manager Valentina Calí explains that among the people who have called on its services have been “many minors who don’t want to be identified. They avoid being fingerprinted so they don’t have to request asylum in Sicily. They’re running away.”
Outside a soup kitchen opposite Catania station run by the Catholic charity Carita, Teame Habte, 20, from Eritrea, is munching on some bread with some friends, who give their ages as 15 and 16. To travel to Italy, he says, he came through Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya and was taken from the sea to Lampedusa. “My uncle lives in Rome,” he says. “I will work. I will do any work. I need to send money home because my family is very poor.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Refugees on board a fishing vessel carrying 443 Syrian asylum seekers are rescued by the Italian navy. More than 2,000 migrants jammed in 25 boats arrived in Italy, 12 June. Photograph: Massimo Sestini/eyevine
NGOs on the ground say greater coordination is desperately needed in order to facilitate swift transfers to appropriate reception structures throughout Italy. “We continue to talk of an emergency about migrants … It’s not possible to talk about an “emergency” after 20 years,” says Valastro. “So we need to have a plan.” There are concerns that if the ad-hoc strategy continues and worsens through the summer, the social tensions that as yet have remained mild may be exacerbated. In Librino, a neglected part of Catania where a sports hall has been used as a temporary reception centre, the authorities moved the migrants to another hall, reportedly following concern from locals. But, surveying the scene at the Palanitta – a mass of unkempt mattresses, discarded clothes and other detritus lying between two redundant goalposts – one local is still angry. “This is what we’re left with,” he says, declining to give his name. “This is the only place where the children of this neighbourhood can come and play sport; now look at it. OK, there are going to be these boat landings. But there should be proper places for them to go. They can’t just pick a place like this and say: that one.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest African asylum seekers rescued off boats and taken aboard an Italy navy ship. Photograph: Massimo Sestini/eyevine
When Sicily first started to see an increase in the number of arrivals last year, the local community responded well, with donations pouring in and young people working to form a kind of network of solidarity, according to Emiliano Abramo, representative of the Sant’Egidio Christian community in Catania. “Now these things are being felt less,” he says. “In many places we have a generational clash. It seems with the economic crisis there always has to be someone to be angry with. In Augusta, this is what happened. The youngsters play football with the migrants. And their parents circulate petitions to send them away.” |
BAGHDAD -- Ahmed Chalabi, the onetime U.S. ally, is in the limelight again, and his actions are proving no less controversial than they did years ago.
On the eve of Iraq's parliamentary elections, Chalabi is driving an effort aimed at weeding out candidates tied to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. Chalabi is reprising a role he played after the U.S.-led invasion -- which many critics believe he helped facilitate with faulty intelligence -- and, in the process, is infuriating American officials and some Iraqis, who suspect his motive is to bolster his own political bloc.
Chalabi, a Shiite, has defended the work of the commission he is leading as legal and crucial during a period of transition to Iraq's first sovereign government. But his reemergence on the political scene has rankled U.S. officials and fueled concerns that Sunnis and other secular Iraqis will be marginalized.
Some Iraqi and U.S. officials think Chalabi might have his eyes on the ultimate prize, however unlikely he can attain it.
"Even if it kills him, he's going to stay in Iraq to try to become prime minister," said Ezzat Shahbandar, a Shiite lawmaker from a competing slate who has known Chalabi for more than 20 years. "This issue is the only tool he has, because he has nothing else going for him."
Chalabi fell out of favor with the Americans in 2004, after they accused him of spying for Iran. The year before, though, he had been appointed to head a U.S.-formed commission to rid the government of officials tied to Hussein's regime.
The hasty, wholesale purge that the commission conducted is now widely seen as a catalyst of the insurgency and Iraq's sectarian war. Today, however, Chalabi remains at the helm of a similar "de-Baathification" panel, the Justice and Accountability Commission, because parliament has not appointed new members.
When the commission recently announced the disqualification of nearly 500 candidates from the March 7 parliamentary elections, critics noted that candidates from Sunni-led and mixed secular coalitions were disproportionately targeted. Many of those ousted were rivals of Chalabi's bloc.
A court impaneled to review the cases carried out a cursory review behind closed doors. Candidates were allowed to submit written appeals but were never told the specific nature of the allegations against them. The court disqualified 145 candidates; most others dropped out or their parties replaced them.
Now the disqualifications are widening sectarian and religious divides in Iraq, even as it continues to reel from decades of authoritarian rule, occupation and bloodshed. This week, in an apparent attempt to allay some of the bitterness, the government said it would reinstate 20,000 former army officers ousted because of their ties to Hussein.
But the political disqualifications threaten to undermine the elections, overshadowing campaign issues such as security, unemployment and basic services.
At the center of it all is Chalabi. |
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Congress has reintroduced a piece of legislation known as "Kate's Law," which targets undocumented immigrants who illegally return to the U.S. after being deported.
Kate's Law is named after Kate Steinle, who was gunned down in July 2015 in the so-called sanctuary city of San Francisco by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who authorities said had re-entered the country after being deported.
The law would impose a minimum five-year federal prison sentence on those who illegally return after deportation.
Fox News anchor and attorney Gregg Jarrett joined "Happening Now" Monday to discuss this legislation.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) introduced the bill last week. Kate's Law passed last year in the House of Representatives but was filibustered by Senate Democrats.
"This would be an automatic five-year mandatory minimum in federal hard lockup. That is a serious deterrent. ... When somebody stays in another country because they don't want to do hard time here, they're not going to be committing crimes here," Jarrett said.
One of the arguments against the bill is that the U.S. Sentencing Commission estimates it would add 57,000 people to federal prisons at a cost of up to $2 billion annually.
Watch the segment above, and tell us what you think in the comments section.
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Your editorial (2 May) recommending a Labour vote at the general election acknowledges that “it would be good to hear Green voices in Westminster to press further on climate change and sustainability”. I agree - which is why I’d urge your readers to vote Green. The Greens are the only nationwide party to commit to urgent and ambitious action on climate change, and we have been almost alone in championing the very fossil fuel divestment movement the Guardian has acknowledged is so critically important.
Not only that. A group of leading academics, Academics Stand Against Poverty, has analysed the different party manifestos from the perspective of poverty eradication and concluded that “none of the main parties, except the Greens, have an effective strategy to address poverty at this election. The Greens seem to consistently propose innovative policies to address long-standing public policy challenges.”
Moreover, when it comes to safeguarding our precious NHS, I was privileged to be the MP who introduced the NHS reinstatement bill in parliament a few months ago - a bill that goes far further than Labour in not only repealing the government’s Health and Social Care Act 2012, but also in reversing the past 25 years of marketisation in our health service.
And since neither of the bigger parties is on course to win anything like an overall majority, the role of the smaller parties will be more important than ever. Greens have been clear that we would never prop up a Tory government, but that we would support a minority Labour government on a case-by-case basis – and would never support a vote of no confidence in it. If people want to hear to continue to hear Green voices at Westminster, it’s crucial they vote for them on Thursday.
Caroline Lucas
Green candidate, Brighton Pavilion |
I've been really fortunate with exchanges so far, and this was the first exchange I was rematched to someone.
I want to thank all rematch santas, first and foremost - you're all very kind people. However, my rematch Santa in particular was an absolute legend.
Thank you so much for these awesome gifts! Let me start at the top:
1) Some delicious black tea leaves. Let me just say now, that I would have been so happy with this gift alone - because for the first time since we moved into our house 5.5 years ago, I've been able to have a proper cuppa tea. Santa you are amazing. I don't know what is wrong with our house, but I haven't been able to make a good tasting cup of tea, despite buying new tea bags, changing the kettle, trying Evian water instead etc. So THANK YOU so much for allowing me to finally have a good cup of tea.
2) A big bag of coffee beans. I don't have a grinder or cafetière yet to enjoy these - but the husband is buying me some as a gift. I can't wait to try these!
3) I don't know if you have a spy camera on me, but I absolutely LOVE Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and I had no idea you could buy the syrup - so I'm absolutely made up with my big bottle of Pumpkin Spice syrup.
Rematch Santa - thank you so, so much. You're a sweetheart <3 |
Many Native Americans are “extremely proud” that the term “Redskins” is the name of Washington, D.C.’s football team, according to Donald Trump.
In remarks reported by the New York Times on Monday, the Republican presidential candidate said he agreed with his rival Jeb Bush that the NFL team should not change its controversial name, which is a dictionary-defined racial slur.
“Honestly, I don’t think they should change the name, unless the owner wanted to,” he said. “I know Indians that are extremely proud of that name.”
The majority of American Indians find the name “Redskins” offensive, according to the most recent polling. The 2014 poll from California State University, San Bernardino found that 67 percent of American Indians agreed that the term is “a racial or racist word and symbol,” while 12 percent were neutral and 20 percent disagreed.
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Despite this and acts of protest by native groups across the country, team owner Dan Snyder has famously said he’ll never change it.
Trump’s support for the name is not the first time he has clashed with Native Americans.
Last month, the Republican front-runner expressed outrage over President Obama’s decision to restore Mount McKinley’s name back to Denali, its indigenous Alaskan name. Trump promised to reverse that decision if elected president, saying it was a “great insult to Ohio” that the Alaskan Mountain was no longer named after the Ohio-born former president, who had never been to Alaska.
Trump also had a rocky relationship with Native American communities in upstate New York, because of their competing casino businesses. To discourage business in those Native-owned casinos, Trump funded ads that attempted to characterize the community as criminal drug users. “Are these the kind of neighbors we want?” the ads asked, referring to Native Americans.
When those casinos began doing better than Trump’s, he became unhappy, and later accused the casino owners of not being authentic Native Americans during a Congressional Subcommittee Native American Affairs hearing.
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“‘They don’t look like Indians to me,” he said at the time, “and they don’t look like Indians to Indians.”
That comment drew “gasps and puzzled looks of disbelief” from the mostly-Native American audience in 1993. Now, Trump’s relationship with the community does not seem to be doing any better.
“It is hardly surprising that a candidate who labeled Mexican immigrants rapists and calls women ‘pigs’ now says he wants the NFL to continue slurring Native Americans,” said the group Change the Mascot, led by the National Congress of American Indians and the Oneida Indian Nation, in a statement. “Donald Trump joins some of the NFL’s ignoble fraternity of billionaires who sit in their office suites and owners boxes happily spending their fortunes denigrating people of color.” |
Cat steals from everyone in San Mateo neighborhood SAN MATEO
"Dusty" rests among the many items, on Friday June 17, 2011, that he has brought home over the years to his house in San Mateo, Ca. "Dusty" the cat has a habit of stealing and his owners have more than 600 items the cat has acquired over the past three years including, towels, shoes, bras, hats and many more items. less "Dusty" rests among the many items, on Friday June 17, 2011, that he has brought home over the years to his house in San Mateo, Ca. "Dusty" the cat has a habit of stealing and his owners have more than 600 ... more Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Cat steals from everyone in San Mateo neighborhood 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
Lucky for Dusty he's a cat. Otherwise he'd surely be in jail, or at least a 12-step program.
The San Mateo feline has pilfered more than 600 items from neighbors - behavior so odd it's baffled and delighted animal experts and made Dusty a minor celebrity.
"It's extreme, but it's absolutely adorable," said Marilyn Krieger, a cat behavior consultant in Redwood City. "I can't say exactly why he's doing it, except it has to do with mixed-up neurotransmitters. I think it's a form of OCD."
Dusty's nocturnal heists started about four years ago, a year after his owners adopted him as a kitten from the Peninsula Humane Society.
"I noticed a piece of latex glove on the bed one morning and told my husband he should do a better job cleaning up his work stuff," said Jean Chu, a dentist. "He said, 'It wasn't me. I think it was the cat.' "
After that, Chu and her husband, Jim Coleman, were greeted each morning with a tableau of neighborhood detritus on their doorstep: gloves, towels, Crocs, swim trunks, Safeway bags, bubble wrap, a Giants cap and other backyard sundries.
Chu started keeping a log of Dusty's haul, which averages three or four items a night. His record spree is 11 in a 24-hour period.
"It's work. Every time I go out to get the paper in the morning, I have to pick up after him," said Coleman, an artist. "Sometimes he brings things that are sort of expensive. I get a little worried about that."
As for the booty, Chu washes it and hunts for the rightful owner. If she can't find the owner, she stores the loot in boxes in the dining room. The boxes are now piled two deep.
"He stole my bikini," said Kelly McLellan, who lives a few doors up the street. "He did it in two trips. He was very focused on keeping the ensemble. When it went missing I wasn't worried, though. I knew where to go."
McLellan's son, Ethan, 6, lost a Nerf rocket football.
"I looked for it, but I didn't know where it went," he said. "Then I remembered. The cat took it."
Stephanie Somers' family lost six bathing suits and countless shorts, towels and car wash sponges.
"We don't leave anything out anymore," she said. "But we don't mind. We like Dusty."
A year ago Chu contacted People magazine about her kleptomaniac kitty, and a star was born. Dusty has been on the David Letterman show and Animal Planet, and infrared footage of his nighttime antics are a hit on YouTube - there's even video of him dragging home a brassiere. The public can meet Dusty at an adoption event June 25 at the Peninsula Humane Society, where he will be posing for photos and allowing fans to pet him.
Dusty's predilection for theft is rare but not unheard of, animal experts said. Some cats will bring home half-dead mice, acting on their instinct to teach kittens to hunt. Dusty's habit is likely related to that somehow, minus the kittens and mice.
"It's like a predatory instinct gone awry," said Richmond cat consultant Mikel Delgado. "He's obviously very bold."
Anika Liljenwall, behavior associate at the Peninsula Humane Society, said Dusty's predatory instinct has become "crossed in his head."
"In his mind he's caught something and he's bringing it home to share," she said.
Neuroses aside, everyone agrees Dusty seems to be a perfectly happy and healthy cat.
"We always try to find meaning in what animals do," Liljenwall said. "But maybe he just does this because it's fun." |
Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney apologized today after a report from The Washington Post's Jason Horowitz detailed episodes in which Romney bullied high school classmates, including two who later revealed they were gay.
“Back in high school, I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize for that," Romney said during an interview with radio host Brian Kilmeade that was not included on a schedule of Romney's media events distributed to reporters. "I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks during high school and some might have gone too far and for that, I apologize.”
Horowitz describes one incident in which Romney, assisted by classmates, cut off the bleached hair of a younger student who later came out of the closet.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about [John] Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
“I don’t remember that incident,” Romney told Kilmeade, chuckling. “I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s, so that was not the case.” |
Elasticsearch is real-time,distributed,full-text search analytics engine.It is built on top of Apache Lucene™.You can read it more on their website.
It provides a distributed, multitenant-capable full-text search engine with a RESTful web interface and schema-free JSON documents. Elasticsearch is developed in Java and is released as open source under the terms of the Apache License. Elasticsearch is the second most popular enterprise search engine.
In this post we will learn pagination over selected data using Scroll API of elasticsearch .The scenario will be that we will take json data from input file and insert into ES index ,after that we will request a search query through Scroll API and fetch specified size of records from scrolled data.
Now, start with adding dependency of elasticsearch in the project.Here is the snippet in build.sbt file.
name := “ES-Scroll-API”
scalaVersion := “2.11.4”
libraryDependencies ++= {
Seq(
“org.elasticsearch” % “elasticsearch” % “1.5.2”,
“ch.qos.logback” % “logback-classic” % “1.0.13”
)
}
First of all We need to create node in scala using java api which will interact with elasticsearch server running on our machine.I have created method getClient() which returns local node client.
def getClient(): Client = { val node = nodeBuilder().local(true).node() val client = node.client() insertBulkDoc(client) val refresh = new RefreshRequest() client.admin().indices().refresh(refresh) Thread.sleep(2000) client.admin().indices().refresh(refresh) client }
Elasticsearch is schemaless. We can index any json to it. We have a inputJson file, each line is a json. For our implementation: Application reads file line by line and insert json into the elasticsearch index . For this i have created insertBulkDoc() method which is uses bulk api for insert set of documents in elastic search index.
Here is the complete insertBulkDoc() method.
def insertBulkDoc(client: Client) { val sourceBuffer = Source.fromFile("src/main/resources/inputJson.json") val bulkJson = sourceBuffer.getLines().toList val bulkRequest = client.prepareBulk() for (i <- 0 until bulkJson.size) { bulkRequest.add(client.prepareIndex("gnip_index", "twitter", s"${i + 1}").setSource(bulkJson(i))) } bulkRequest.execute().actionGet() sourceBuffer.close() }
After this we will perform fetch chunks of data through scroll api.Scroll api of ES provides effective way to paginate over selected data.Each call to the scroll API returns the next batch of results until there are no more results left to return, ie the hits array is empty.The initial search request and each subsequent scroll request returns a new _scroll_id — only the most recent _scroll_id should be used for retrieve current page data.for this i have created scrollFetch() method.for more information about Scroll API here
Here is the complete scrollFetch() method.
def scrollFetch(client: Client, query: QueryBuilder, indexName: String, outputFileUrl: String, scrollSize: Int = 10, scrollKeepAlive: String = "10m"): Int = { var scrollResp = client.prepareSearch(indexName).setSearchType(SearchType.SCAN). setScroll(scrollKeepAlive).setQuery(query).setSize(scrollSize).execute().actionGet() val totalCount = scrollResp.getHits.getTotalHits log.info("totalhits " + totalCount) var successCount = 0 if (totalCount > 0) { val outputFile = new File(outputFileUrl) val outputFileName = outputFile.getAbsolutePath val outputStream = new FileOutputStream(outputFile) val outputWriter = new OutputStreamWriter(outputStream) @tailrec def fetch() { scrollResp = client.prepareSearchScroll(scrollResp.getScrollId()).setScroll(new TimeValue(60000)).execute().actionGet() log.info("scroll length " + scrollResp.getHits.getHits.length) if (scrollResp.getHits.getHits.length == 0) { try { client.prepareClearScroll().addScrollId(scrollResp.getScrollId).execute().actionGet() return } catch { case ex: Throwable => log.error("we can't more scroll due to " + ex) return } } else { successCount = writeDataOnLocalFile(scrollResp.getHits.getHits, outputWriter, successCount, outputFileName) fetch() } } fetch() outputWriter.flush() outputWriter.close() successCount } else successCount }
Now, for validation we store scrolled records into local file.For this we have a writeDataOnLocalFile() private method which writes fetched records into local file system.
Here is the complete writeDataOnLocalFile() method.
private def writeDataOnLocalFile(searchHit: Array[SearchHit], outputWriter: OutputStreamWriter, successCount: Int, outputFileName: String): Int = { var successCountModified = successCount var badWriter = false for (oneHit <- searchHit) { if (!badWriter) { try { val docId = oneHit.getId val dataSource = oneHit.getSourceAsString val writableDoc = s"""{"_id":${docId},"_source":${dataSource}}
""" outputWriter.write(writableDoc) successCountModified += 1 } catch { case ex: IOException => log.error(s"can't write to the file ${outputFileName} due to ${ex}") badWriter = true } } } successCountModified }
After this we can delete index from our node,for this i have created method deleteIndex() which takes client and index name as argument .
Here is the complete deleteIndex() method.
def deleteIndex(client: Client, indexName: String) { val deleteIndexRequest = new DeleteIndexRequest(indexName) val deleteResponse = client.admin().indices().delete(deleteIndexRequest).actionGet() if (deleteResponse.isAcknowledged()) log.info("index is successfully deleted") else log.warn("index is not deleted ") }
Here is the complete application.
package com.es.narayan import java.io.OutputStreamWriter import org.elasticsearch.search.SearchHit import java.io.FileOutputStream import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchType import scala.annotation.tailrec import java.io.IOException import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilder import java.io.File import org.elasticsearch.client.Client import org.elasticsearch.action.admin.indices.delete.DeleteIndexRequest import scala.io.Source import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory /** * @author narayan * */ trait ESScrollApi { val log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(this.getClass) /** * This is scrollFetch method which provides pagination over selected data * * @param client * @param query * @param indexName * @param outputFileUrl * @param scrollSize * @param scrollKeepAlive * @return */ def scrollFetch(client: Client, query: QueryBuilder, indexName: String, outputFileUrl: String, scrollSize: Int = 10, scrollKeepAlive: String = "10m"): Int = { var scrollResp = client.prepareSearch(indexName).setSearchType(SearchType.SCAN). setScroll(scrollKeepAlive).setQuery(query).setSize(scrollSize).execute().actionGet() val totalCount = scrollResp.getHits.getTotalHits log.info("totalhits " + totalCount) var successCount = 0 if (totalCount > 0) { val outputFile = new File(outputFileUrl) val outputFileName = outputFile.getAbsolutePath val outputStream = new FileOutputStream(outputFile) val outputWriter = new OutputStreamWriter(outputStream) @tailrec def fetch() { scrollResp = client.prepareSearchScroll(scrollResp.getScrollId()).setScroll(new TimeValue(60000)).execute().actionGet() log.info("scroll length " + scrollResp.getHits.getHits.length) if (scrollResp.getHits.getHits.length == 0) { try { client.prepareClearScroll().addScrollId(scrollResp.getScrollId).execute().actionGet() return } catch { case ex: Throwable => log.error("we can't more scroll due to " + ex) return } } else { successCount = writeDataOnLocalFile(scrollResp.getHits.getHits, outputWriter, successCount, outputFileName) fetch() } } fetch() outputWriter.flush() outputWriter.close() successCount } else successCount } /** * writeDataOnLocalFile is private method which is used for write page data into local file * * @param searchHit * @param outputWriter * @param successCount * @param outputFileName * @return */ private def writeDataOnLocalFile(searchHit: Array[SearchHit], outputWriter: OutputStreamWriter, successCount: Int, outputFileName: String): Int = { var successCountModified = successCount var badWriter = false for (oneHit <- searchHit) { if (!badWriter) { try { val docId = oneHit.getId val dataSource = oneHit.getSourceAsString val writableDoc = s"""{"_id":${docId},"_source":${dataSource}}
""" outputWriter.write(writableDoc) successCountModified += 1 } catch { case ex: IOException => log.error(s"can't write to the file ${outputFileName} due to ${ex}") badWriter = true } } } successCountModified } /** * This is insertBulkDoc method which is used for read data from file and write into ES index * * @param client */ def insertBulkDoc(client: Client) { val sourceBuffer = Source.fromFile("src/main/resources/inputJson.json") val bulkJson = sourceBuffer.getLines().toList val bulkRequest = client.prepareBulk() for (i <- 0 until bulkJson.size) { bulkRequest.add(client.prepareIndex("gnip_index", "twitter", s"${i + 1}").setSource(bulkJson(i))) } bulkRequest.execute().actionGet() sourceBuffer.close() } /** * deleteIndex method is used for delete index from ES node * * @param client * @param indexName */ def deleteIndex(client: Client, indexName: String) { val deleteIndexRequest = new DeleteIndexRequest(indexName) val deleteResponse = client.admin().indices().delete(deleteIndexRequest).actionGet() if (deleteResponse.isAcknowledged()) log.info("index is successfully deleted") else log.warn("index is not deleted ") } }
We can run this application by extending ESScrollApi trait in our main object like.
Here is the main object.
package com.es.narayan import org.elasticsearch.action.admin.indices.refresh.RefreshRequest import org.elasticsearch.client.Client import org.elasticsearch.node.NodeBuilder.nodeBuilder import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilders object ESApiObject extends App with ESScrollApi { /** * getClient method returns local node client * * @return */ def getClient(): Client = { val node = nodeBuilder().local(true).node() val client = node.client() insertBulkDoc(client) val refresh = new RefreshRequest() client.admin().indices().refresh(refresh) Thread.sleep(2000) client.admin().indices().refresh(refresh) client } val client = getClient val result = scrollFetch(client, QueryBuilders.matchAllQuery(), "gnip_index", "/tmp/outputJson.json") log.info("total number of scrolled documents is " + result) deleteIndex(client, "gnip_index") client.close() }
After this go to sbt console and type => ‘sbt run’ we will get expected output on console as well as on local file.
Download the source code to check the functionality. GitHub |
Summary: Static vs dynamic typing debates often flounder because the debators see from two different perspectives without knowing it. Learning to identify the two perspectives can calm the discussion. The tension between the two perspectives has led to Gradual Typing and other technologies.
Many discussions about type systems around the internet fail to be interesting because one or both parties are not versed in type theory. There’s a less common (yet related) reason, which I have begun to notice more and more: people who are not familiar with the difference between Church Types and Curry Types. These are also known, respectively, as Intrinsic Types and Extrinsic types. Because the participants are not aware of the two perspectives, they blame the other one for ignorance, when in fact they just have a different perspective.
Church Types are what Haskell has. Church types are named for Alonzo Church, the inventor of the lambda calculus. In a Church-style system, types are an intrinsic part of the semantics of the language. The language would be different without the types–it may even be meaningless. With an intrinsic type system, the meaning of the program is different from the runtime behavior of the program. One way to think of this is that so much of the meaning of the program occurs at compile time that you can begin to think of the program having properties you can reason about even if you never run the program.
The other kind of types are Curry types (aka extrinsic types). They are named for Haskell Curry, the man the Haskell language is named after. Curry-style types is when a system of types is applied that is not part of the semantics of the language. This is what Clojure has in core.typed . The meaning of a Clojure program is not dependent on it passing the type checker–it can be run without it. The type checker simply alerts you to type errors in your code. Note that you could consider your type checker to be your own head, which, as flawed as it may be, is what most Clojure programmers use. The types could be anywhere outside of the language.
Each perspective is valuable and bears its own fruit. Intrinsic types are great because you are guaranteed to have a mathematically-sound safety net at all times. You always have something you can reason about. Such is not guaranteed for extrinsic type checkers. They may not be able to reason about your code at all.
Extrinsic types are useful because you can apply multiple type systems to your code–or even write something that you don’t know how to prove is sound. There are more benefits on both sides, but you get the idea.
We now have a new perspective which is slightly “higher” than either of them. We can now see that both perspectives exist and talk about them as such. What can we see/say now that we couldn’t before?
A famous article by Robert Harper exemplifies the Church perspective very well. It argues that untyped programs are a subset of typed programs. They are programs that have a single type and all values are of that one type. So instead of being liberating, dynamic languages restrict you to one type. Notice the assumption that languages have a type system by default which is typical of the Church-style perspective. We can now say “This reasoning is correct given that perspective.”
On the other side, you’ll often see a dynamic typist say the exact opposite: that well-typed programs are a subset of dynamically typed programs. In other words, well-typed programs are just dynamic programs with fewer errors. Curry-style to the core: static type errors are something that is added onto the semantics of the language. We can now see that they are right, from their perspective.
Here’s a diagram:
Notice how they’re isomorphic? That means something, I just don’t know what 🙂
My ambitious hope is that this perspective will quiet a lot of the fighting as people recognize that they are just perpetuating a rift in the field of mathematics that happened a long time ago. The perspectives are irreconcilable now, but that could change. A paper called Church and Curry: Combining Intrinsic and Extrinsic Typing builds a language with both kinds of types. And Gradual Typing and Blame Calculus are investigating the intersection of static and dynamic typing. Let’s stop fighting, make some cool tools and use them well. |
This is a DISASTER.
Baby Darkseid was the narrative equivalent of the Miracle Machine. You could do anything with him. Baby-shaped tyrant working to enslave the universe? Great! Theological conflict started over a gray toddler who just pooped himself? YES. Child version of the destroyer growing up to struggle against his inherent nature and try heroism for a change? That's basically the plot to Uncanny X-Force. James Robinson, Carlo Pagulayan and Stephen Segovia are foreclosing on that narrative cornucopia, though, in the pages of Wonder Woman.
In all seriousness, what we're seeing from this arc of Wonder Woman is a good thing. Conflict between the varying pantheons is a rich vein to mine in superhero comics - it lets the creators examine the mythological underpinnings of the characters and build a deep world around our heroes, tapping into some of what makes them so cool to follow. This is the kind of conflict that made Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente's Incredible Hercules such a lovely surprise when it came out, and part of what makes Diana so interesting in her best stories. And a re-aged Darkseid fighting Zeus, thanks to Pagulayan and Segovia, looks great. So of course we were excited to get our hands on an exclusive first look at Wonder Woman #37.
Here's what DC has to say about the issue:
WONDER WOMAN #37 Written by JAMES ROBINSON Art by CARLO PAGULAYAN, STEPHEN SEGOVIA and JASON PAZ Cover by BRYAN HITCH Variant cover by JENNY FRISON “CHILDREN OF THE GODS” part five! As a fevered battle with Darkseid rages between Wonder Woman and the dark god, the Amazon warrior must choose between saving the lives that hang in the balance and ending the threat before her forever.
Take a look at these preview pages! |
Flashpoint Could Bring Tommy Merlyn Back To ‘Arrow’
The ‘Flashpoint’ story arc in the comics was a massive universe altering event. The Flash went back in time to save his mother, causing a new timeline where everything had changed. The end of The Flash‘s second season saw the CW’s version of the character do the same thing, using the same ‘Flashpoint’ plot device from the comics. The timeline changing event has the potential to crossover to the other shows in the universe, possibly altering events in Arrow, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. It may change characters stories, erase events entirely, and bring characters back who have already died. With that in mind, could ‘Flashpoint’ possibly bring back Tommy Merlyn to Arrow?
Actor Colin Donnell’s character, Tommy Merlyn, was killed during the first season finale. Since then, he has returned for a cameo during flashback sequences but has remained deceased. Donnell spoke with TVLine about the possibility of bringing Tommy back, thanks to ‘Flashpoint’.
“I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to about the possibility and how it could possibly happen. It’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
Of course nothing has been confirmed, except that it is within possibility. ‘Flashpoint’ does however provide a reasonable opportunity to bring the character back. Tommy was killed with little to no closure, so bringing him back would make sense. Do you think Tommy will make a return to Arrow? Let us know in the comments.
Arrow Season 5: Newly appointed Mayor Oliver Queen finds himself challenged as he fights on two fronts for the future of Star City. With Diggle back in the military and Thea adamant about hanging up her hood as Speedy, Team Green Arrow is down to just Oliver and Felicity – but they’re no longer the only vigilantes in town. Green Arrow’s public defeat of Damien Darhk at the end of Season Four has inspired a new crop of masked heroes to step up and defend the city, though their painful inexperience makes them obstacles, rather than allies, in the field. The arrival of a deadly new adversary will force Oliver to confront questions about his own legacy, both as mayor and as the Green Arrow.
Source: TVLine |
Brian Dozier turned a drag bunt into a leadoff 'home run' for the Twins
Brian Dozier went to the plate with a plan as he led off the Twins' 10-4 victory in Detroit between the Twins and the Tigers. The Twins are in the heat of the WIld Card race, so with every inning of the utmost importance, he decided to try to get them off on the right foot by surprising pitcher Matthew Boyd and his defense with a drag bunt.
It briefly popped in the air, but landed safely in front of third baseman Jeimer Candelario. Although it would have taken a good play to get Dozier, Candelario went for it. His throw went way off line, and Dozier was off to the races:
This might be a fast-motion GIF, but look at Dozier go!
The Tigers didn't have anyone particularly close to the area in right-field foul territory where Candelario's throw went, so thanks to Dozier's hustle, he was able to circle the bases on one of the wackiest leadoff plays you'll ever see. The Twins took a 1-0 lead and ended up winning with an eight-run eighth inning to cut their magic number in the AL Central to 4.
Twins manager Paul Molitor called it "an exciting start," though he had been taken aback by Dozier's strategy. He was happy to see that it worked out. "I told Doz when he scored that it was the first time he led off a game with a bunt all year," he said to MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger. "It kind of caught me by surprise. They threw it away and it ended up in no-man's land and he circled the bases."
Dozier ran a similar route back in April on an inside-the-park homer against James Shields, so that marks the second time this year that he's been able to take advantage of the defense on a strange play.
Whatever works, right Brian?
Andrew Mearns is a writer for Cut4 whose baseball obsession was born from the shattered dreams of Mike Mussina's perfect game attempt in 2001. He has a startling memory of World Series highlights that barely functions as a party trick. |
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