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Our surveys indicate that Apple’s last iMac model, released at end-2012 with an all-new-design, shipped fewer-than-expected units in the worldwide market. We think the price was set too high and the model failed to make an impact in critical foreign markets like China. We thus think Apple may offer a budget iMac model to push shipments among non-US markets in the face of solid competition from Levono (CN), HP (US) and other rivals.
Intel may release an update to its desktop Haswell processors in May, according to a report in TechPowerUp that cites Hermitage Akihabara as its source. The report claims Intel will launch its new processors, including its flagship Core i7-4790K, on May 10th in most markets. These next generation Haswell chips will include Intel's Z97 chipset, which provides support for faster and larger M.2 SATA Express drives.The new Haswell desktop processors will offer a 100 MHz bump in clock speeds and will be a direct successor to most of the chips currently used in the iMac, with the exception of the low-end 21.5-inch iMac, which uses a special i5-4570R chip enhanced with Intel's Iris 5200 integrated graphics. Intel may have a compatible replacement processor under development, but leaked information has not yet revealed this corresponding model.These chips may lay the groundwork for an iMac refresh that Apple is planning in 2014. Apple allegedly has a low-priced iMac model in the works, claims KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a research note published this week. This less expensive model may be Apple's first major product launch in 2014 and could boost iMac shipments by up to 30 percent.Though Intel's desktop processors may be slated for a refresh as early as next month, the timing for the release of the mobile processors used in Apple's MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are not yet known. The latest information leaked earlier this year by VR-Zone suggests low-end models of Intel's next-generation Broadwell processor may debut in Q3 2014, with the roadmap for high-end processors compatible with Apple's MacBook line still up in the air.Speed bumped versions of the current Haswell chips in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro may appear at the end of 2014, but that release date still is uncertain at this point and would only provide a small upgrade heading into Broadwell next year. |
Wester Ross (Scottish Gaelic: Taobh Siar Rois) is an area of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland in the council area of Highland. The area is loosely defined, and has never been used as a formal administrative region in its own right,[2] but is generally regarded as lying to the west of the main watershed of Ross (the eastern part of Ross being Easter Ross), thus forming the western half of the county of Ross and Cromarty. The southernmost-part of western Ross and Cromarty, Lochalsh, is excluded from the definition of Wester Ross by the local tourist organisation, Visit Wester Ross,[3] but included within the definition used by the Wester Ross Biosphere Reserve.[4]
Wester Ross is renowned for the scenic splendour of its mountains and coastline,[5] and the range of wildlife that can be seen.[6] The area is a popular tourist destination, receiving around 70,000 visitors each year.[7] Tourism forms a major part of the economic activity of the area, accounting for 35 % of all employment.[7] Other major economic activities in the area include commercial fishing, renewable energy, agriculture and fish farming.[7][8][9]
The area gives its name to the Wester Ross National Scenic Area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland, which are defined so as to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure their protection from inappropriate development.[10] Scenic spots including Loch Maree, Inverewe Garden, Corrieshalloch Gorge, Glen Docherty and the Bealach na Bà. Wester Ross was designated as a Biosphere Reserve in April 2016.[11]
Geology [ edit ]
The geology of Wester Ross consists predominantly of Torridonian sandstone and Lewisian gneiss. The latter was formed during the Precambrian period, and is the oldest rock type found in Scotland;[12] indeed the rocks around Gruinard Bay are, at 2.5 billion years old, amongst the oldest rocks in the world.[5] The Torridonian sandstone was formed by the deposition of sediment on top of the gneiss around 750 million years ago. The linear geological feature of Moine Thrust Belt runs northeast across the area from near Kyle of Lochalsh. The area was heavily glaciated during the ice age, with all but the highest peaks being covered by glaciers, leading to the steep-sided glens and deep sea lochs that characterise the area today.[12]
Geography [ edit ]
Location of Wester Ross and Easter Ross within Scotland.
Wester Ross is well known for its spectacular mountain scenery, especially the Torridon Hills which includes such peaks as Beinn Eighe and Liathach.[5] Although many peaks in the Northwest highlands exhibit Torridonian geology, the Torridon Hills are generally considered only to be those in the Torridon Forest to the north of Glen Torridon: the Munros of Liathach, Beinn Eighe, and Beinn Alligin; and the Corbetts of Beinn Dearg, Baosbheinn and Beinn an Eoin.[13][14] Other notable "Torridonian" peaks in Wester Ross include An Teallach and Slioch,[5] in the Dundonnell and Fisherfield Forest in the north of the area, and the hills of the Coulin Forest between Glen Torridon and Strathcarron.[13][14] Torridonian hills exhibit some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the British Isles, surpassed in grandeur probably only by the Cuillin of Skye. The hills sit apart from each other, and are often likened to castles. They have steep terraced sides, and broken summit crests, riven into many pinnacles. There are many steep gullies running down the terraced sides. The summit ridges provide excellent scrambling, and are popular with hill walkers and mountaineers. However, like many ridge routes, there are few escape points, so once committed, the scrambler or hillwalker must complete the entire ridge before descent. Under winter conditions, many walking routes in Wester Ross become serious expeditions.[13]
In contrast to the isolated Torridonian peaks that characterise much of Wester Ross, the mountains of Kintail in the south of the area take the form of peaks linked by ridges that rise steeply from narrow glens and the sea.[15]
Most of the major roads in the area radiate out from the more populated areas of Easter Ross, and link the settlements on the western coast to Inverness. Less major roads link these east-west routes to form a north-south route along the coast between Kyle of Lochalsh and Ullapool. This route has been marketed to tourists as the Wester Ross Coastal Trail,[16][17] and also forms part of the North Coast 500 tourist route.[18] The only railway line in Wester Ross is the Kyle of Lochalsh line, which is operated by ScotRail and provides a link between the southern part of the region and Inverness. Four services a day operate on the line, calling at stations at Achnasheen, Achnashellach, Strathcarron, Attadale, Stromeferry, Duncraig, Plockton and Duirinish, terminating at Kyle of Lochalsh.[19]
Climate [ edit ]
Wester Ross experiences a relatively mild maritime climate (Köppen Cfb) despite being located at a latitude of between 57.2° and 58.0° North due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The tables below provide data for three locations within the area: Aultbea, located on the coast near Poolewe; Kinlochewe, located in a more inland position at the head of Loch Maree; and the summit of the Bealach na Bà, located 600 m above sea level in a coastal location.
Climate data for Aultbea Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Average high °C (°F) 7.6
(45.7) 7.6
(45.7) 8.8
(47.8) 11.0
(51.8) 13.8
(56.8) 15.6
(60.1) 17.2
(63.0) 16.9
(62.4) 15.2
(59.4) 12.5
(54.5) 9.8
(49.6) 8.0
(46.4) 12.0
(53.6) Average low °C (°F) 2.7
(36.9) 2.5
(36.5) 3.5
(38.3) 4.6
(40.3) 6.7
(44.1) 9.2
(48.6) 11.4
(52.5) 11.3
(52.3) 9.6
(49.3) 7.5
(45.5) 5.0
(41.0) 3.0
(37.4) 6.4
(43.5) Average rainfall mm (inches) 170.4
(6.71) 129.4
(5.09) 133.8
(5.27) 74.9
(2.95) 70.5
(2.78) 77.4
(3.05) 74.8
(2.94) 97.3
(3.83) 141.3
(5.56) 164.7
(6.48) 172.3
(6.78) 160.8
(6.33) 1,467.6
(57.78) Source: [20]
Climate data for Kinlochewe Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Average high °C (°F) 7.1
(44.8) 7.5
(45.5) 9.1
(48.4) 11.8
(53.2) 15.0
(59.0) 16.8
(62.2) 18.4
(65.1) 18.0
(64.4) 15.8
(60.4) 12.5
(54.5) 9.4
(48.9) 7.1
(44.8) 12.4
(54.3) Average low °C (°F) 0.9
(33.6) 0.9
(33.6) 2.2
(36.0) 3.5
(38.3) 5.7
(42.3) 8.6
(47.5) 10.8
(51.4) 10.5
(50.9) 8.4
(47.1) 5.7
(42.3) 3.1
(37.6) 0.9
(33.6) 5.1
(41.2) Average rainfall mm (inches) 309.3
(12.18) 238.0
(9.37) 236.6
(9.31) 117.5
(4.63) 98.5
(3.88) 100.0
(3.94) 101.5
(4.00) 135.0
(5.31) 191.3
(7.53) 239.2
(9.42) 252.0
(9.92) 263.7
(10.38) 2,282.6
(89.87) Mean monthly sunshine hours 18.0 41.7 67.2 111.1 152.2 123.9 111.3 104.7 80.4 49.4 23.5 14.6 898.0 Source: [21]
Climate data for the summit of the Bealach na Bà Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Average high °C (°F) 1.6
(34.9) 1.2
(34.2) 2.2
(36.0) 3.6
(38.5) 6.9
(44.4) 9.1
(48.4) 10.5
(50.9) 10.5
(50.9) 8.7
(47.7) 6.0
(42.8) 3.5
(38.3) 2.3
(36.1) 5.5
(41.9) Average low °C (°F) −2.1
(28.2) −2.4
(27.7) −1.5
(29.3) −0.4
(31.3) 2.1
(35.8) 4.7
(40.5) 6.6
(43.9) 6.7
(44.1) 5.1
(41.2) 2.9
(37.2) 0.1
(32.2) −1.2
(29.8) 1.7
(35.1) Source: [22]
History [ edit ]
Ullapool , founded as a fishing village in 1789.
There are traces of Mesolithic occupation at several sites in Wester Ross, including at Redpoint and Shieldaig. Excavations of a Mesolithic rock shelter and shell midden at Sand on the Applecross peninsula revealed a variety of tools made from bone, stone and antler, together with waste from tool manufacture and food processing.[23] The Mesolithic people were largely nomadic, and permanent settlements were first built during the Neolithic era, when trees were felled to create land for farming.[24]
The area was inhabited by Picts in late antiquity, and was largely Christian by the 7th Century.[25] From the 8th Century Wester Ross, along with much of the western seaboard of Scotland, came under Norse domination, and placename evidence suggests that the Pictish language seems to have been entirely replaced wherever the Norsemen encountered it, with most names considered likely to be of Medieval rather than pre-Norse origin.[26] Following the decline of Norse power in western Scotland after their defeat at the Battle of Largs the semi-independent Lords of the Isles came to dominate the western coast until the 15th century, when Scottish Crown was able to cement its control over the region.[25]
The 16th century marked the height of the Clan structure in the Highlands, and Wester Ross was occupied by different clans, chiefly the Mackenzies and the Macdonalds.[25] Historically the chiefs of the Clan Donald held the title of Lord of the Isles until 1493 and two of those chiefs also held the title of Earl of Ross until 1476.[citation needed] During this period the area was farmed under the communal run-rig system, with people living in small townships, growing oats, bere (barley), and later potatoes. Cattle rearing was the chief economic activity, with cattle being raised in the glens and then driven to market. This trade expanded during the early 19th Century, due to the demands of the new industrial cities and the British armed forces for cattle for beef.[27]
The clan structure began to break down in 18th Century, as clan chiefs came to see themselves as landlords, and the small tenant farmers had no legal answer to a landlord who wished to have them removed. During the late 18th and 19th Centuries, the Highland Clearances saw tenants being forcibly moved to become crofters, a system under which their labour would be available when required by their landlords: they would be workers first and farmers second. Crofters were employed in enterprises such as fishing (Ullapool in the north of Wester Ross was built by the British Fishing Society in the 1780-90s) and kelping (the collection and processing of kelp to create products such as soda ash).[28] In the later stages of the clearances the driver ceased to be industrial enterprises, but simply to clear the land for sheep faming, and later deer forests. At this point emigration was often the only option to those removed from their homes.
Under pressure from the Highland Land League and public opinion a series of inquiries were held into the situation, leading to the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 which put an end to the clearances by granting security of tenure to crofters.[29] However the act did not break up large estates, and Wester Ross continues to consist chiefly of large single-owner estates.[30]
Environment [ edit ]
There are many different habitats in Wester Ross, ranging from the marine and coastal environment to mountain summits over 1000 m above sea level. The area forms one of the Watsonian vice-counties, geographical divisions of the British Isles used for the purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering.[31]
The coastline is mostly formed of cliffs and rocky shores covered with barnacles and seaweed. These cliffs are home to large numbers of seabirds such as puffins, fulmars, kittiwakes, razorbills , guillemots, black guillemots, cormorants and shags, whilst the rocky islets and skerries are important for harbour seals.[32][33] There are also beaches and sand dunes: the dunes at Achnahaird in particular support three plant species (petalworts, dune slack mosses matted bryum and sea bryum) that occur nowhere else in Scotland.[32] There is relatively little machair in Wester Ross compared to other parts of western Scotland.[32]
Whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals area frequently seen in the outer lochs and open waters, whilst the more sheltered sea lochs contain rocky reefs, maerl beds and deep mud banks.[34] Loch Carron is home to the world's largest flame shell beds.[35]
The rivers and lochs of Wester Ross support important populations of Atlantic salmon and sea trout, although numbers of adult fish have declined in recent years.[36] Freshwater pearl mussels live in the gravel beds of clean, fast flowing rivers: the population had declined across Europe as a result of pollution, habitat changes and pearl fishing, and the Wester Ross population is now of international importance.[36] Otters and water voles are both present in strong numbers in the rivers of Wester Ross:[36] water voles populations have been in decline across Great Britain due to predation by non-native American mink, which have only recently been recorded in Wester Ross.[37] The lochs also support internationally important concentrations of breeding black-throated divers, which is at the southern edge of its range in Wester Ross. Besides salmon and trout, Arctic charr can be found in many of the lochs.[37]
There are areas of Caledonian pinewood at Shieldaig, Coulin, Torridon, Beinn Eighe, Rhidorroch, Achnashellach and the islands on Loch Maree. Though small in terms of area, these pinewoods (which are composed chiefly of Scots pine, alongside deciduous species such as birch and rowan) are an internationally important habitat. These woods are genetically distinct from the pinewoods of central and eastern Scotland, and support a highly specialised flora and fauna including rare mosses and lichens, and insects such as the Scottish wood ant. The pinewoods are also habitats for red squirrel and black grouse.[38]
Moorland habitats, which are rare globally, are quite common in Wester Ross. The moors are characterised by blanket bogs composed of sphagnum mosses, and host breeding birds such as golden plover, greenshank and dunlin, along with a resident population of red grouse.[39] The summits of Wester Ross host alpine and sub-alpine heaths comprising mosses, liverworts and lichens, and dwarf shrubs such as alpine bearberry, juniper, crowberry, and cowberry. Beinn Eighe is the only known site for the Northern prongwort in the UK, and represents 75 % of the known world population.[40] Bird species in the montane areas of Wester Ross include ptarmigan, dotterel and snow bunting, along with raptor species such as golden eagle and merlin.
White-tailed eagles were reintroduced into Wester Ross during the 1990s, with 58 birds being released between 1993 and 1998. This was the second phase of the reintroduction of white-tailed eagles into Scotland, following on from the release of 82 birds on Rùm between 1975 and 1985. As of 2014, it was estimated that there were 98 breeding pairs living along the west coast of Scotland.[41]
Conservation designations [ edit ]
The Wester Ross National Scenic Area covers 1635 km2 of countryside and seascape, and is the largest of the national scenic areas in terms of land area (1439km2).[1] It extends from Loch Kishorn in the south to Little Loch Broom in the north.[42] There are two further national scenic areas (NSA) that include parts of Wester Ross: the Kintail NSA and the Coigach portion of the Assynt-Coigach NSA.[43]
Wester Ross was designated as a Biosphere Reserve in April 2016.[11] The designated area is subdivided into three zones:[44]
Approximately 20 % of Wester Ross is legally protected via the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) designation.[45]
National Trust for Scotland properties [ edit ]
Inverewe Garden
The National Trust for Scotland, a charity that cares for sites of historic or natural significance, owns seven properties in Wester Ross:
Demographics [ edit ]
The population of Wester Ross[note 1] was 8701 according the 2011 census of Scotland,[55] showing a slight increase compared to 8491 in 1991.[56] The population is generally older than Scotland as a whole, with 22.1 % being aged 65 or older, compared to 16.8 % for Scotland as a whole.[57]
Wester Ross has historically been a Gaelic speaking area, however the language suffered from persecution for many years, and its decline was hastened when schooling became compulsory in the late 19th Century. In the 2011 census 10.6 % of the population reported being able to speak the language, compared to only 1.1 % of the population of Scotland as whole.[58][59]
Government and politics [ edit ]
Wester Ross is part of the registration county of Ross and Cromarty.[60] The counties of Scotland are now used only for statistical purposes, and for local government purposes the whole of Ross and Cromarty is part of the council area of Highland. Wester Ross is united with Strathpeffer in Easter Ross to form a single ward entitled Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh,[61] which elects 4 councilors to Highland Council under the single transferable vote electoral system.[62] Some local decisions are delegated to the Ross and Cromarty Committee, which consists of all councilors representing this ward and the four neighbouring wards that cover Easter Ross and Cromarty.[63][64]
In the Scottish Parliament most of Wester Ross lies within the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross constituency,[65] however the Lochalsh area in the south of the region forms part of the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency.[66] Each constituency elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election; a further seven additional members are elected from the Highlands and Islands electoral region (in addition to the eight constituency MSPs), to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.[67]
At Westminster Wester Ross is represented as part of the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency, which elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.[68]
In popular culture [ edit ]
Wester Ross is featured in the lyrics to the song Letter from America by The Proclaimers, and Kishorn Commandos by North Sea Gas, which relate the wild lifestyle of construction workers on the Ninian Central Platform in Kishorn.[69][70] Many other songs refer to or are named after areas, geographical features and villages of Wester Ross, notably Loch Maree Islands, which has been recorded by many artists including Calum Kennedy.[citation needed]
Major outdoor scenes in the films Stardust and The Eagle (based on Rosemary Sutcliff's book The Eagle of the Ninth) were shot in Wester Ross. Plockton was used for shots showing Sergeant Neil Howie's arrival at Summerisle in The Wicker Man.[71]
Wester Ross is the location for the adventures of John Macnab in the book by John Buchan.[citation needed]
Places in Wester Ross [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bilbliography [ edit ] |
Trump budget expected to seek historic contraction of federal workforce
Damian Paletta
Washington Post
March 12, 2017
President Trump’s budget proposal this week would shake the federal government to its core if enacted, culling back numerous programs and expediting a historic contraction of the federal workforce.
…
The spending budget Trump is set to release Thursday will offer the clearest snapshot of his vision for the size and role of government. Aides say that the president sees a new Washington emerging from the budget process, one that prioritizes the military and homeland security while slashing many other areas, including housing, foreign assistance, environmental programs, public broadcasting and research. Simply put, government would be smaller and less involved in regulating life in America, with private companies and states playing a much bigger role.
…
“Unfortunately, we have no alternative but to reinvest in our military and make ourselves a military power once again,” National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“If you’re doing that in an area where you have to balance the budget and you cannot create a further deficit, you have to make cuts. It’s no different than every other family in America that has to make the tough decisions when they need to spend money somewhere, they have to cut it from somewhere else.”
The federal government is projected to spend $4.091 trillion next year, with roughly two-thirds of that going mostly toward Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, poverty assistance and interest payments on the government debt. This spending is expected to be left untouched in the budget proposal next week.
What Trump will propose changing is the rest of the budget, known as discretionary spending, which is authorized each year by Congress. Slightly more than half of this remaining money goes to the military, and the rest is spread across agencies that operate things like education, diplomacy, housing, transportation and law enforcement.
Among Trump’s expected proposals are an increase in military spending of $54 billion, more money to start building a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico, and the creation of new initiatives that expand access to charter schools and other educational programs.
…
Trump and his advisers have said that they believe the federal workforce is too big, and that the federal government spends — and wastes — too much money. They have said that Washington — the federal workers and contractors, among others — has benefited from government largesse while many other Americans have suffered. Federal spending, they have argued, crowds the private sector and piles regulations and bureaucracy onto companies.
Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, has said Trump will lead a “deconstruction of the administrative state.” On Friday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Obama loyalists had “burrowed into government.” Last month, Trump said the government would have to “do more with less.”
Trump’s proposal comes at a time when the federal budget is facing massive structural shifts in society and the economy. Aging baby boomers are swelling the number of Americans collecting Social Security and Medicare benefits, and the costs of these programs will continue to grow faster for more than a decade, budget experts said. In addition, the expected rise in borrowing rates and the growing national debt are expected to push interest payments on the debt from $270 billion this year to $768 billion in 2027, outpacing any growth in tax revenue.
…
Mick Mulvaney, head of the Office of Management and Budget, said on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program last week that it was important for the administration to change how Washington thinks.
“We don’t solve problems by simply throwing money at them,” he said.
Read the entire article here. |
Awww, don’t you just love the Biebs? Justin sold his sweet ride at auction recently and netted a cool $434,500 — but he’s not going to fritter away the proceeds on sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll. Instead, the kindhearted singer is giving all the moolah to charity!
Everyone loves to hate on Justin Bieber, but turns out he’s nowhere near as bad as people like to make him out to be! In fact, the 22-year-old has “a heart of gold” and according to a source, the singer “never stops giving.” Case in point: the Biebs is donating all of the money he got from his recent car auction to charity! Yep, you better Belieb it!
“Justin is going to donate the proceeds from the auction to charity. He hasn’t decided which one yet, but it will likely be either Pencils of Promise, City of Hope or Children’s Miracle Network — maybe even a combination of the three,” a source tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “Justin gets such a bad rap but he has a heart of gold. He does so much to give back, and to help those in need, but people never care about that, all they focus on is the times he messes up.”
As previously reported, the Canadian recently auctioned off his beloved blue 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia at Barrett Jackson auto auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to AZCentral. After three and a half minutes of super hot bidding – which even included Justin throwing in tickets to a U.S. show AND backstage passes – the ride sold for a world-record-breaking $434,500. The car was originally valued between $250-$300,000! Quite a tidy profit, right?
However, Justin already has more money in the bank than any of us could possibly ever imagine — how about $244 MILLION?!! So, yeah, it’s not like he needs the cash, right? Meanwhile, turns out the Biebs is a big fan of spreading his wealth, and loves nothing more than splashing the cash in the name of a good cause. “Honestly, people have no idea how much Justin does for various different charities,” the source says. “He has a huge heart and never stops giving.”
HollywoodLifers, what do you think about Justin Bieber? Sound off in the comments below! |
While public health advocates have sung the praises of tap water for years, Coca-Cola has been focusing on its own covert assault on the affordable, healthful, and refreshing beverage.
Unbeknownst to many in the nutrition and public health world, the soft drink giant launched a "Cap the Tap" program -- aimed at restaurants -- in 2010, described in the following manner on the Coke Solutions website:
Capture Lost Revenue By Turning Off the Tap Every time your business fills a cup or glass with tap water, it pours potential profits down the drain. The good news: Cap the Tap -- a program available through your Coca-Cola representative -- changes these dynamics by teaching crew members or wait staff suggestive selling techniques to convert requests for tap water into orders for revenue-generating beverages.
Coca-Cola cites a 2006 tap water usage study to point out the obvious -- that consumers drink tap water because of habit, health concerns or price sensitivity.
In response to that, Coca-Cola suggests restaurant waitstaff "turn off the tap" and offers to teach servers how to suggest "profitable beverages" to consumers, citing free refills. For those who truly want tap water, Coca-Cola suggests that servers push bottled water (don't forget that Coke owns the bottled water brand Dasani), diet sodas, iced teas, and smoothies.
Interestingly -- and, most likely, strategically -- information about the program is not as easy to come across online as the many health initiatives Coca-Cola eagerly announces with self-congratulatory press releases. "Cap the Tap" includes a manager's guide, a back room poster (which "educates crew and reminds them when and how to suggestively sell beverages") and a participants' guide, which "offers insights to help servers remember the facts and impact of suggestive selling."
All this from a company with its own "Health and Wellness Institute" and whose CEO, Muhtar Kent, has gone on record to say that "obesity is today's most challenging health issue [and] it is a global societal problem which will take all of us working together and doing our part."
It's hard to understand how incentivizing restaurant employees to push empty calories on restaurant patrons fits into the "working together" model. Herein lies the inherent problem that accompanies "working with" Big Food: Most health advocates' suggested changes and policies pose a threat to its profits.
"Cap the Tap" is just one of a few similar campaigns. Pen Williamson, a graphic designer and illustrator who did some work for Coca-Cola while at creative agency BFG Communications, has posted design templates of different campaigns he helped design, including "Cap the Tap," "Get Your Fill," and "Suggest More and Score." (The latter two were also "suggestive selling" campaigns that tried to get restaurant waitstaff to compete to see who could essentially push the most Coca-Cola products; alas, they no longer appear on the Coke Solutions website).
It's no wonder Coca-Cola was so willing to join the First Lady's "Drink Up" campaign, which recommended that Americans drink more water (sadly not "less soda," though), but did not specify or prioritize tap water.
It should not come as a surprise that the food and beverage industry will do whatever it can to maximize profits. However, a significant problem arises when this sort of campaign is created by a company that talks about its "commitments" to health and enjoys positive publicity from its partnerships with (or support of) health organizations, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Society of Nutrition, and The Obesity Society.
"Cap the Tap" is a perfect example of the doublespeak that Big Food and Big Soda often employ. The carefully calculated veneer of wanting to be "part of the solution" and "offering choices" to consumers is negated by efforts like this one, which basically paints tap water as an enemy to be defeated. Of course, the health-conscious facade has some benefits (one perk of partnering with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is that Coca-Cola can teach continuing education webinars to dietitians).
Remember that while Coca-Cola likes to point to its health-oriented initiatives, some of its executives have publicly stated they don't believe in empty calories, that much of the population "relies" on the carbohydrates (aka sugar) in soda, and that a 32-ounce Powerade after lacrosse practice is a perfectly fine beverage for a teenager.
It is crucial for health advocates to remain vigilant to the food and beverage industry's full array of tactics, not just the seemingly agreeable and "health-conscious" front that is employed by necessity. Otherwise, we risk having our efforts be stampeded by an industry that prioritizes profits over health. |
New research from the Institute For Truth In '90s Pop Songs finds that a dude driving an expensive car will, in fact, not impress us much. The study found men who are conspicuous spenders are driven by a desire for uncommitted romantic rendezvous, and they aren't fooling anyone.
One thousand subjects participated in the research conducted by faculty at Rice University, the University of Texas - San Antonio, and the University of Minnesota. The study found that men who were mainly interested in hooking up use big ticket items much like peacock feathers. Obviously women are fond of pricey wares as well, but they don't spend to attract mates. These men believe they're luring women by sending the signal that they're good providers who are proficient with a caveman club.
In reality, women understand their intentions. Ladies said they were more interested in dating a guy who drives a Porsche than a man who owns a Honda Civic. However when it came to a long-term relationship, there was no advantage to owning a sports car. Daniel Beal, assistant professor of psychology at Rice, says, "People may feel that owning flashy things makes them more attractive as a relationship partner, but in truth, many men might be sending women the wrong message."
Well, unless all parties are interested in a glamourous and short-lived encounter. In that case, it seems the Porche serves its function. If the researchers are taking suggestions for their next study on crossover country hits, I've always wondered if letting Jesus take the wheel is an effective driving strategy.
Does Driving A Porsche Make A Man More Desirable To Women? [EurekAlert] |
This list ranks military generals according to their brilliance in executing successful maneuvers on the field; legacy; win/loss record, etc. This list was difficult to write succinctly, and has left off quite a few military masters who deserve mention. Thus, there are several honorables at the end.
10 Genghis Khan
The entire Mongol Empire, at its peak, covered some 12.7 million square miles, which is 22% of all the land area on Earth. The tactics that enabled such conquests can be traced primarily to Genghis, the empire’s founder and first Khan. His birth name was Borjigin Temujin, and he devised a versatile attacking style, that of missile cavalries: his best archers were not trained merely to shoot, but to shoot accurately while riding horses at full gallop. They could even shoot accurately directly behind the horse at full gallop. No infantry force in the world at that time could have withstood such soldiers, and all the nations the Mongols invaded were overwhelmed very quickly.
Genghis’s legacy has been cemented by his conquest of Khwarezmia, which is most of modern Iran, along with parts of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Genghis originally respected the leader, Ala ad-Din Muhammad II, as another conqueror, but when Genghis sent emissaries to strike up commerce with Ala ad-Din, the latter killed the diplomats and sent the rest back with shaved heads as an insult. First rule of Genghis Khan: don’t insult Genghis Khan.
He invaded Khwarezmia with 200,000 men, as many as half of these mounted archers, and split his army into smaller forces designed to conquer more territory faster. In military schools, this is always advised against, but Genghis’s scouts indicated that Ala ad-din was waiting with stronghold defenses, which suited Genghis’s desire for maneuvering room. His armies surrounded the walled cities of Samarkand, Urgench and Bukhara, and utterly destroyed them, one after another. On the third day of siege at Burkhara, the Turkish generals inside decided that they did not have the food and water to outlast Genghis, and so sallied a force of 20,000 cavalrymen and infantrymen, who attacked in the open steppe outside the city. Genghis’s army slaughtered them, to the last man.
Then he finished the siege within another 2 weeks, killed the Turkish soldiers who survived, sent the rest of the population’s youth into slavery, and executed everyone else, men and women deemed inefficient for labor. Seeing that the Turkish attempt to free itself from siege failed so well, Genghis next besieged Samarkand, whose garrison sent 50,000 veteran troops against Genghis’s army when it pretended to withdraw piecemeal. This was a simple plot that worked magnificently. His men retaliated, flanked on both sides, enveloped, and shot the Turks down in a massive pile of human and horse carcasses. He saw no need to preserve their horses since his did not seem to be at risk. Ala ad-Din arrived with a relief force of several tens of thousands, but could not approach because of Genghis’s mounted archers. The other 50,000 or so defenders of the city were executed to the last man, as was every single civilian, whose heads were arranged into a giant pyramid outside the walls.
Urgench was not so easy to attack, since it was built on swamp land around Amu Darya River. Genghis sent his men in without fear, and they lost significantly more men than usual due to the urban street fighting. The high end estimate of Turkish deaths, both civilian and military, in Urgench is 1,200,000, but much more plausible is 250,000 to 500,000. The rest were enslaved. This was one of the bloodiest genocides in history.
9 Julius Caesar
The politics involved in the opening of hostilities between Caesar’s legions and Vercingetorix’s armies are very complicated, and Rome and Gaul are both to blame. But Caesar considered and announced that Gaul had become a serious threat to Roman safety by 58 BC, and so he invaded with the intent to destroy and annex the entire territory. What happened next is famously recorded by Caesar himself, in his own hand, in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Assuming he told the truth, and he was remarkably honest and respectful of fine opponents, Vercingetorix, the primary leader of Gaul, has been given a well-deserved honorable mention below.
He beat Caesar fair and square at the siege of Gergovia, and the stage was set, after some 7 years of pitched battles, long marches and sieges, for the Battle of Alesia, in 52 BC. Caesar besieged the Gauls there with 12 legions, plus cavalry: at least 60,000 men. The Gauls had a garrison of 80,000, supplemented in a timely manner by at least 100,000 more troops under Commius, Vercingetorix’s ablest ally. He may have arrived with 250,000. Caesar had intended to starve the garrison into submission by building a circumvallation around the entire fort, but Vercingetorix managed to send a cavalry detachment through a gap in the wall as it was being constructed. Once it got away, Caesar anticipated a relief force arriving, and thus had a second wall built, called a contravallation, around the first, trapping themselves inside for protection. Now the besiegers were besieged and Caesar was in quite dire straits.
The weakest part of his wall was over a natural break in the northwestern area of the mountainous ground, and Vercingetorix desperately attacked in all directions from the inside, especially here, timing his action with an attempt by the relief force on the other side of the fort. Caesar’s army was flagging badly against both inner and outer assaults, and he inspired his men to redouble their efforts by personally leading a 6,000-horse cavalry charge around the Gallic relief force’s flank into its rear, and there was no mistaking the one and only great, crimson cape visible for miles on the battlefield. He had picked up a spear and shield, and was killing Gauls himself. Everyone on both sides knew to whom the cape belonged, and his men “burst frenzious with the joy of war,” as he wrote, and finally routed the relief army.
Once they began retreating in disarray, they were cut down by the thousands. Vercingetorix witnessed all this and surrendered the next morning.
8 George S. Patton
He is now famous for using the Nazis’ own patented tactic against them: blitzkrieg. A “lightning war” is generally thought of as one which concentrates all available men and material into the enemy lines, breaking them, then pressing forward without first defending one’s flanks. To defend one’s flanks gives the enemy valuable time to bring up reserves or prepare its own defenses.
Germany most infamously used this tactic to great effect in France and Russia. The idea was proposed by the next entry, who can be considered the author of the Battle of France. Patton understood blitzkrieg warfare, the fast mobilization of armor to overwhelm the enemy to be successful in almost all cases. It relied on air supremacy but, after 1940, the Allies permanently had this in Europe. Patton first rose to prominence in North Africa, outmaneuvering the German tanks at El Guettar, and winning a fine victory over #5, though #5 was not present.
After North Africa fell to the Allies, Patton was transferred to Sicily and always pressed forward with every available man, using the very same style of fighting against the Germans for which the latter had become legendary. After the Allied conquest of Italy, Patton was given command of the U. S. Third Army, and bashed right through the German lines in France. He was the only Allied general whose army was referred to by the Germans by name, rather than number. When he was on the move, the Wehrmacht did not report that the Third Army was coming, but, “Patton’s Army is coming.”
He only stopped once, near Metz, France, when his entire army ran out of gas. He had intended to conquer Germany on his own. Once resupplied, he relieved the Americans in Bastogne and joined in the Battle of the Bulge. This logistical achievement is particularly impressive and well studied in military schools today. Patton was not in position to relieve Bastogne, but when asked, he immediately accepted the task. His men did not particularly like the freezing cold march, but Bastogne’s defenders were saved.
7 Erich von Manstein
Manstein makes the list largely for his masterful defense of Kharkov, the third battle for this city, in modern Ukraine. The Soviets were fresh off a monumental victory at Stalingrad, and the Germans had lost the initiative. Manstein very nearly got it back by holding the Soviet advance to a standstill around Kharkov, though faced with 350,000 men against his 70,000. His task was to cut off and destroy the Soviet armored spearheads, which had advanced too far from their own lines. Then he would have to recapture Kharkov and hold the Soviets back. He succeeded with both objectives.
The Soviets attacked as expected, and were held to a draw in the center, and beaten back on both flanks, whereupon the Soviet center had to withdraw or be surrounded. Manstein had his men storm into Kharkov in pursuit, and the battle became one of street fighting and house-to-house close combat. This should have favored the Soviets, who had more men, many of whom were fresh from the very same fighting in Stalingrad. But the city had not been bombed into rubble as at Stalingrad, and Manstein’s tanks were consequently able to maneuver without much difficulty, taking the city in about a week. Manstein then arranged a defensive line on the eastern side of the city to prevent its recapture. He had killed or captured 52 Soviet divisions, of about 80,000 men, losing only about 10,000 himself.
Hitler, in a feat of mental brilliance, fired Manstein in 1944, for persistently arguing with Hitler on military objectives, tactics, strategy, etc. Manstein’s theory was of mobile defense along the entire Eastern Front, allowing the Soviets to take ground here and there, then cut them off and chew them up. This would probably have worked, given the bloodlust the Soviets had for taking Germany.
6 Scipio Africanus
Scipio’s proper name is Publius Cornelius Scipio. He achieved the nickname “Africanus” after defeating #3 on the plains of Zama in Carthage (modern North Africa). He managed this victory against a substantial numerical superiority: 43,000 Romans versus 64,000 Carthaginians (and allies) supplemented by 80 war elephants. #3 ordered the elephants to charge first, then intended his infantry to follow them into the holes they trampled in the Roman lines.
Scipio countered this by arranging his infantry in vertical lines, instead of the usual horizontal, which is to say vertical perpendicular to the Carthaginians. The elephants charged headlong into clever traps of javelins, spears, bows and arrows, etc., which caused them to panic and trample back into their own lines. Meanwhile, Scipio’s cavalries charged on both flanks against the enemy cavalries, managed to rout them, then doubled back and smashed into the rear of the Carthaginian infantry. Shades of #3’s finest hour. But Scipio’s finest hour was at Ilipa, in Hispania (Spain). It would take too long to describe here, but Wikipedia has a fine article on it. Scipio was outnumbered here as well, by 43,000 to some 70,000, but he outmanouevered the 3 enemy generals every step of the way (#3 was not there). A sudden rainstorm was all that spared the Carthaginians from annihilation.
5 Erwin Rommel
Rommel is remembered today as the man who nearly stopped the Allied offensive in its fledgling tracks in North Africa. He was up against Bernard Montgomery of Great Britain, and later, General Patton. After showing himself magnificently in the Axis push through Belgium and France, he was promoted to Generall der Panzertruppe, commander of the 5th Light Division, which became the 21st Panzer Division, and transferred to North Africa. His orders were to hold the Nazi foothold in the Saharan Desert until Hitler had conquered Britain or, despairing of this, conquered Russia, whereupon Hitler would certainly have transferred all the necessary manpower and machinery to Rommel, and prepared an all-out offensive against Britain and across the Atlantic against the United States of America (or sued for peace depending on his nerve).
Rommel very nearly lasted as long as this would have taken. Hitler lost the air battle for Britain, after which Rommel was never going to get the material he needed, and he only lost the Nazis’ foothold in Africa because he ran out of fuel. Hitler refused to transfer any more to him because he considered it more necessary for the Eastern Front. Not only did Hitler repeatedly refuse Rommel’s pleas for material, but after Montgomery repeatedly threw in reserves after reserves until Rommel had run out of tanks and fuel, Hitler refused to allow Rommel to retreat. Hitler later changed his mind as Rommel had 20 tanks facing an onslaught of 500 tanks from Montgomery, but by then, there weren’t many Germans left to retreat.
In the interim, however, Rommel showed himself to be a master for the ages, inflicting massive defeat upon defeat against the British and Americans. Because of bad intelligence, he could not break the fortifications of Tobruk, Libya, and would not have bothered trying had he known they were so staunch. When a British relief force en masse arrived through Egypt, codenamed Operation Crusader, Rommel turned his army from the siege to open battle and, though outnumbered, surrounded the British tank army and destroyed or captured two-thirds of it in the open desert. He pursued them to the Battle of Gazala, on May 26, 1942, and for the next month, one of the largest armored engagements in history to that date played out. Both sides suffered terrible losses, but Rommel won in the end, taking the ground, losing 114 tanks, destroying 540, and all while suffering a numerical inferiority of 80,000 to 175,000, with 560 tanks to 843.
After flanking the entire British army and driving it to the coast, he surrounded and took Tobruk. He had no intention of resting on his laurels, but advanced into Egypt to take as much ground from the retreating Allies as he could, and met them at El Alamein. This was a stalemate which halted Rommel’s drive through Egypt, and both sides dug in. During the summer, while they rested, the British received steady supplies and Montgomery as their new Field Marshal. He renewed the attack on Rommel at El Alamein, and Rommel was finally defeated because he had no supplies coming from Europe. Hitler deemed them more critical for the push into Russia. Rommel had only half the material, and 116,000 men to 195,000, and he still managed to hold Monty to a tactical draw, refusing to be outflanked and giving no ground until Monty received even more material.
4 Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
The greatest general of American military history (a long history) only lost one battle in his career, at Kernstown, VA, on March 23, 1862. This loss has been attributed to bad intelligence: Jackson was told that there was only about one regiment of Union soldiers in the area, but encountered a full division of 8,500 men, confronting his 3,800. He attempted to turn the Union right flank, but was beaten back, and the North held the field. The result, however, proved more complex.
The North discovered that its intent to reinforce its armies marching on Richmond would be fought by Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, the only feasible route the North could take to its army quickly. This valley is some 150 miles long by about 50 miles wide, and comprises the northwestern border of Virginia with West Virginia. To combat Jackson’s army of 17,000 men, President Lincoln dispatched no less than three separate armies, totaling 52,000 men, led primarily by Gens. Fremont, Banks, Schenck and Shields.
After his first defeat, Jackson never lost again, and defeated the combined Union offensive in no less than 5 battles throughout May to early June of 1862. These battles ranged all over the Shenandoah Valley, as the Union pressed as hard as it could to break through and reinforce the assault on Richmond. Jackson forced his men to march some 650 miles in 48 days, and whenever the armies met, Jackson’s flanks could not be turned from their anchor points on steep ridges before Jackson sent in reserves. At Front Royal, Jackson had 3,000 men to Kenly’s 1,000, and broke his lines with hard cavalry charges. Jackson’s method was to anticipate his enemy’s movements based on the terrain (the path of least resistance, usually), and attack one army at a time, never all three at once.
He made a fairly poor showing at the Seven Days’ Battles around Richmond, but cemented his legacy at Chancellorsville, on May 2, 1863, two months before Gettysburg. Gen. R. E. Lee risked splitting his army in two, giving Jackson the left to turn the right flank of Hooker’s army. Jackson succeeded in doing so, routing Hooker’s entire right flank into utter disorder, forcing it onto a permanent defensive, and enabling Lee to split the enemy army in two, and arrange a pincer movement around this larger section of it.
Jackson was accidentally shot by his own men that night while scouting the lines, and had to have his left arm amputated. He then contracted pneumonia and died 8 days later. Many historians like to say that if there is a God, he must be opposed to slavery because he took General “Stonewall” Jackson away to enable its eradication.
3 Hannibal Barca
Hannibal oversaw the most truculent devastation in a single battle in the history of ancient warfare. It is cemented in history as the Battle of Cannae, in southeast Italy, just above the heel of the boot. Hannibal’s intent was utter conquest of the Roman Empire, and he came closer than anyone else in history to pulling it off. He had already defeated the Romans twice at Trebia and Lake Trasimene, inflicting tens of thousands of casualties and, in response, Rome gave dictatorial power to Fabius Maximus, who waged attrition warfare against him, refusing to fight him, and denying his army access to farmlands and food.
At Cannae, the Roman public demanded a victory, and the generals assigned to deliver it were Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paulus. They fearlessly and foolishly assailed Hannibal’s center, where they saw his troops to be weakest. Hannibal intended this as deception, and they fell for the trap: the center engaged in a very organized retreat in the face of superior numbers of Roman phalanges. This phalanx formation adopted from the Ancient Greeks and employed almost exclusively ever since, was thought unbreakable. This is true if the enemy attacks it from the front. But Hannibal saw its severe Achilles’s Heel: once in phalanx formation, the entire Roman mass of soldiers could not maneuver to protect itself from cavalry flanking or encirclement.
Hannibal allowed the Romans to advance and push his men back, whereupon he ordered his flanks, where all his very best soldiers waited, to close in from the sides. Meanwhile, he ordered his cavalry to outflank the Roman cavalry on the extreme right, then circle round behind the Romans, shut them in and lay waste to them entirely. And it worked. Paulus was killed in the atrocious carnage, and by the end of the day the Carthaginians were so exhausted from slaughtering every single man they could swing their swords and thrust their spears at that their hands seized to their weapons and they could not discard them. The Romans could not flank the Carthaginians’ left flank because of the Aufidus River.
Near nightfall, with the dust so badly obscuring everyone’s vision, about 14,000 Romans, including Varro, finally cut through a weak section of the lines and escaped to Canusium. Some 600 Roman soldiers were cut to pieces every minute for the better part of the day. Thousands of them dug little pits and buried their faces in them, suffocating rather than face the oncoming butchery. This may have been history’s first use of the pincer maneuver. The entire Roman army was obliterated.
2 Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon did something which, at the time, no one on Earth thought possible: he conquered almost all of Europe. He was quite full of himself, and that may have had something to do with his 5’2″ height, or his 1″ penis (look it up). But what he lacked in physicality, he more than made up for in daring and brilliance. When it became evident that he wanted Europe to be entirely French, all of Europe banded together against him. This coalition was comprised of The United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden and a host of others.
Napoleon singlehandedly led his Grande Armee to victory after victory, his most impressive occurring at Austerlitz and Ulm, among many others. His victory at Austerlitz is still regarded with awe in military universities around the world. Napoleon was outnumbered 72,000 to 92,000, but he knew that the Russian-Austrian coalition (the third coalition) was eager to attack and crush him, and he furthered their desire by feigning a weak appearance in his soldiers while on the field the day before the battle began. Then he deliberately thinned out his right flank to weaken it, and the coalition took the bait, attacking there the next morning. In doing so, the coalition depleted the forces in its center, and this is where Napoleon intended to strike at the right time. It worked.
There was more to it than that, of course, but Napoleon owed a large part of his success to his modernization of artillery tactics: the cannon had been used for centuries as simple supporting fire for the infantry. Napoleon used them as their own, mobile attack units, striking in small groups of 10 to 20, firing for up to 30 minutes, then displacing to another position on the field. He loses points, of course, for invading Russia. He fell victim to one of the classic blunders: never get involved in a land war in Asia. The Russians had lost enough battles to him, and simply retreated deeper and deeper into Russia, praying for Generals January and February, which arrived as timely as ever, and froze Napoleon in his tracks. The Russians burned absolutely everything in his path, including Moscow, and an army of some 600,000 men (maybe 690,000) needs a lot of food, especially for its horses. Only 180,000 made it back to France. Hitler deserves lowest mention on a list of the worst military strategists for attempting the very same invasion 200 years later.
Many experts believe that Napoleon had lost his edge by his return to Europe in 1815. He raised another army and fought the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo. Napoleon may have waited too long in the morning for the ground to dry out before commencing. This gave Wellington’s badly needed reinforcements, 50,000 men under Field Marshal Blucher, the time to get there and save the day. Napoleon nearly broke through the lines.
1 Alexander III of Macedon
The Greeks call him “Μέγας Ἀλέξανδρος,” that is, “Alexander the Great,” and he truly remains so, because he fought a total of 17 major battles, and won every single one of them. He was severely outnumbered in most of them, but by his generalship his men never lost more than 16% of their army in any one battle. That 16% death rate occurred only once, at Issus, in 333 BC, at which battle Alexander lost 6500 to 7000 men out of 40,000. His enemy, Darius III of Persia, lost 20,000 to 30,000 dead.
At Gaugamela, two years after Issus, he lost only 2.5% of his army, or about 1,100 men dead out of 47,000. He defeated the Persians spectacularly and his men killed at least 40,000, and as many as 90,000. The Persian army was comprised of at least 100,000 men, and may have had as many as 1,000,000. Darius was finally able to use his entire army at once without terrain restrictions, since at Issus Alexander fought him in a fairly narrow mountain pass.
Alexander surveyed the Persian army the night before, and decided to shift his army to the Persian left. Darius could not force his entire army to displace because the logistics were impossible. He did not want to present Alexander with his left flank, so he lengthened his lines, covering more ground with the same men, thus thinning their lines considerably. This had the effect Alexander wanted: his breakthrough on the Persian left was easier to achieve, and with his extraordinarily well trained cavalry (the Companions), he flanked the Persians, nearly speared Darius himself, and caused the Persians to panic and flee.
This was his typical strategy on the field, and it required his own left flank to be unbelievably tough, since the enemy army charged full force into it and attempted to flank it. Unfortunately for his enemies, you simply cannot break a Greek phalanx in the front. It is designed to withstand such assaults, and Alexander’s primary captain, Parmenion, deserves a lot of the glory for maintaining the army’s formation throughout all Alexander’s battles. Horses are very intelligent animals and will not charge into a line of spear points, however vehemently they are made to run.
Darius solved this problem by blindfolding his horses and harnessing them to chariots with sword blades attached to the wheel hubs. These would cut men’s legs off at the shins. Alexander solved this problem by training his men to separate their phalanges to half their depth, allow the horses and chariots into a three-sided pocket, kneel with their shields to the ground, and then swarm onto the charioteers. The scythed wheels rattled harmlessly across the shields. Today this tactic is called “Alexander’s Mousetrap.”
Notable omissions: Cyrus the Great, Pyrrhus of Epirus, Vercingetorix, Saladin, George Washington, Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington), Red Cloud, Aleksei Brusilov. |
rx_tools: command-line SDR tools for RTL-SDR, bladeRF, HackRF, and more (rx_fm, rx_sdr, rx_power) — ported from librtlsdr
R. X. Seger Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 19, 2016
rx_power showing ~5 GHz captured on a HackRF over 9 hours
librtlsdr provides quite a few useful command-line tools for RTL-SDR dongles (including rtl_fm, rtl_sdr, and rtl_power). rx_tools is derived from these popular tools, but adds support for other more powerful SDR hardware, including the bladeRF and HackRF, thanks to the SoapySDR abstraction layer.
As they are intended to be a mostly drop-in replacement for librtlsdr’s tools:
rtl_fm → rx_fm
rtl_sdr → rx_sdr
rtl_power → rx_power
…existing documentation and guides on using rtl_* should be still useful when using rx_*, but with added hardware compatibility and other enhancements. In this article I’ll provide some background and motivation for these tools, and at the end demonstrate a couple interesting use cases.
If you just want to try out the new tools now, check out https://github.com/rxseger/rx_tools or skip to the end for examples, otherwise if you’re interested in more context, read on.
Background
The Pioneers: GNU Radio, USRP
GNU Radio was founded in 2001, and one of it first developers created Ettus Research and USRP. Featured in Wired in 2006, GNU Radio Opens an Unseen World, although software-defined radio has arguably existed in some form since the 1970s, GNU Radio and the USRP were clearly breaking new ground in building the foundation of modern software-defined radio:
An early Universal Software Radio Peripheral (photo from Wired)
Their original goal was to receive digital television (something I also experimented with, with some success: Receiving ATSC digital television with an SDR), they succeeded and then some. However, the USRP is quite an expensive device, prices ranging in the $1000's of dollars, out of the range of casual hobbyists.
The Affordable: RTL-SDR, librtlsdr
Then came an unexpected development: the RTL-SDR. The designers of the Realtek RTL2832U, primarily used as an inexpensive ($5–20) DVB-T television tuner, built-in a software-defined radio mode originally for receiving FM and DAB radio broadcasts. When developing a Linux driver for this chip, Eric Fry discovered the SDR mode and the rest is history.
librtlsdr was born, unlocking the true potential of the device, and bringing SDR into the hands of even the most casual hobbyist. Although more limited than say the USRP in many ways, the RTL-SDR is quite a powerful peripheral, a good start for those new to SDR. For more background and a more comprehensive introduction, see Luaradio’s New to SDR?.
Intel Atom N270, 1.60 GHz (from Flickr), a low-power CPU
As a low-cost device, the RTL-SDR is commonly used on low-cost single-board computers especially the Raspberry Pi, also priced in the tens of dollars, or personal computers built on the Intel Atom. With not much computing power to spare, command-line tools are preferred, hence librtlsdr ships with several, most usefully: rtl_fm, rtl_sdr, and rtl_power.
The Mid-Range
You may have noticed a glaring gap in cost, orders of magnitude, of the these two SDRs discussed above:
$1000’s: USRP
$100’s: ???
$10's: RTL-SDR
What lies in between? There are several products, ranging from the low to high hundreds of dollars. The two I am familiar with and will be using in this article are the Great Scott Gadget’s HackRF One and Nuand’s bladeRF x40 (brief comparison of the two here: Upgrading from HackRF One to bladeRF x40), but this is an interesting emerging area, expect more developments as the high-end and low-end SDRs converge.
Yet there is one problem: software.
A Survey of SDR Interfacing Libraries
The great promise of SDR is “it’s just software” — with sufficiently capable hardware, you can write radio software to do practically anything. However, not all software is made equal.
SDR applications must interface with the hardware by some mechanism. Software built on GNU Radio, such as gqrx, commonly uses the gr-osmosdr osmocom abstraction layer, supporting a multitude of devices. RTL-SDR, HackRF, bladeRF, you name it.
Not all software is as compatible, some is written hardcoded to use libraries from specific SDR vendors. If you’re lucky there might be a fork for your SDR. As I covered in SDR calibration via GSM FCCH using Kalibrate and LTE-Cell-Scanner on RTL-SDR and HackRF, the “kalibrate” GSM frequency calibration tool has at least four separate forks: kalibrate for USRP, kalibrate-rtl, kalibrate-hackrf, and kalibrate-bladeRF — one for each SDR.
JiaoXianjun/LTE-Cell-Scanner has support for all of RTL-SDR, HackRF, and bladeRF, but it accomplished this feat by linking against all three libraries: librtlsdr, libhackrf, libbladerf. The developer had to specifically code for each device individually, a lot of work and not scalable to new devices.
The excellent dump1090-mutability ADS-B receiver uses librtlsdr directly (just like rtl_fm/rtl_sdr/rtl_power), so it only supports RTL-SDR. More details in Flight tracking with ADS-B using dump1090-mutability and HackRF One on OS X, but there’s also SDRplay/dump1090 for the SDRplay RSP, and dump1090_sdrplus for the RTL-SDR, HackRF, AirSpy, and SDRplay (but not the bladeRF).
Not compatible with your SDR
Messy, isn’t it?
There have been efforts to improve this situation. spcutler/SDRIO was announced March 2014 in SDRIO: A hardware abstraction layer for SDR devices, but it has been inactive for two years. gr-osmosdr is a pretty good abstraction layer, but focused on GNU Radio.
Even within the librtlsdr library there is fragmentation: ostensibly git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git is the official version, but I also found and submitted pull requests to https://github.com/librtlsdr/librtlsdr (note master vs development branch), not to mention https://github.com/keenerd/rtl-sdr/, which has many tool enhancements from the original author of rtl_fm and rtl_power, Kyle Keen.
Aside: Better Compatibility through Unix Pipes
The power of Unix pipes can help improve the SDR interfacing compatibility situation (indeed, csdr is solely focused on piping). dump1090 can read from stdin using “--ifile -” arguments, from any source. It can be piped from HackRF ‘-’ stdin/stdout using hackrf_transfer, with PR-261 Add support for transmitting/receiving from stdin/stdout.
rtl_tcp can listen on a TCP port, gr-osmosdr device flags rtl_tcp=127.0.0.1:1234 can connect to to it; rtl_sdr ‘-’ pipes to stdout, rtl_fm (see rtl_fm guide) can pipe sox for playing the demodulated audio, or multimon-ng for digital signal decoding.
Pipes are a powerful abstraction, but a full compatibility API offers more flexibility. For example, you may want a scanning tool to tune to various frequencies, which wouldn’t be possible over a Unix pipe dumping raw I/Q samples. A proper clean abstracted API is desired, fortunately there is one:
SoapySDR: a clean interface
Announced in November 2014 (Announcing the SoapySDR project), pothosware SoapySDR is under active development and I believe to be currently the best SDR abstraction layer.
It provides a vendor-neutral interface, including to librtlsdr, libhackrf, libbladerf, uhd, and even gr-osmosdr. Whatever SDR you have, it is most likely supported, or if not it support could be added by a plugin. SDRplay, Red Pitaya, S9C-ExtIO, EVB7, NovenaRF, Lime Suite LimeSDR, …
Existing usage
I first discovered SoapySDR through the great CubicSDR, the Cross-Platform Software-Defined Radio Application, which began using it in 2015.
It turns out I was already using SoapySDR via gqrx, presumably through gr-sdr (the stack trace for HackRF showed SoapyHackRF).
The up-and-coming LuaRadio embeddable flow graph signal processing framework is planning on adding SoapySDR support.
Porting notes: rtl_fm, rtl_sdr, rtl_power
All said and done, I set out to port a subset of librtlsdr tools to SoapySDR in order to add support for additional devices, expanding compatibility beyond the fabled RTL-SDR to at least the bladeRF and HackRF.
My inital port to SoapySDR was relatively straightforward, making the appropriate API changes, such as:
rtlsdr_read_async() on a different thread was replaced with:
SoapySDRDevice_setupStream
SoapySDRDevice_activateStream
SoapySDRDevice_readStream
An RX port, on the bladeRF
Then I renamed rtl_* to rx_*, since the tools are no longer tied to RTL-SDRs.
Supporting the HackRF out-of-the-box required tweaking the default gain settings. HackRF has three gain components, which can be set individually, or with setGain() distributed amongst all of them. TODO: cli flag to set gain components, rtl auto-gain
Supporting the bladeRF required switching to the CS16 format, from CU8/CS8, to support the 12-bit ADC. This is a good idea regardless, because both rtl_fm and rtl_power internally converted from 8-bit unsigned to 16-bit signed integers. Complex = pairs of I/Q values, each 16-bit or 8-bit (or …):
CS16 = complex signed 16-bit
CS8 = complex signed 8-bit (+127 to convert from CU8; HackRF native)
CU8 = complex unsigned 8-bit (native RTL-SDR)
To allow the tools full use of stdout — for rx_fm, the demodulated FM audio, for rx_sdr, the raw I/Q samples, for rx_power, the CSV logging — I redirect stdout to stderr, so any log messages from SoapySDR or drivers will not interfere with the output.
Another tweak for bladeRF: continue on overflows, seen at startup with bladeRF but quickly recovers.
Electromagnetic radiation frequencies (from Wikipedia)
For rx_power supporting HackRF, a more drastic change was needed: 64-bit frequencies. rtl_power used 32-bit signed integers (uint32_t, or int on my system) for frequency calculations, which were limited to 2³¹ GHz (~2.1 GHz). Expanding to 64-bit signed allows 2⁶⁴ = ~9 exahertz, should be enough for anyone unless you are using software-defined x-rays or gamma rays.
Not ported, other rtl_* tools & alternatives
librtlsdr includes a handful of other tools, which I did not port:
rtl_tcp, rtl_rpcd — allow using a remote RTL-SDR. This functionality is provided by SoapyRemote, for all SDRs.
rtl_adsb — haven’t tested, seems that dump1090 is more popular (although it also uses librtlsdr, could be worth porting as well).
rtl_ir, rtl_eeprom, rtl_test —are RTL-SDR specific.
Now that the porting is out of the way, and we have these shiny new rx_fm/rx_sdr/rx_power tools, what can we do with them?
Example Usage
rx_fm + bladeRF: police scanner for UHF
kmkeen’s rtl_fm guide describes a number of use cases for the tool, also applicable to rx_fm. As a simple test, I used rx_fm with a bladeRF as a police scanner for the UHF band.
This use case admittedly does not showcase the advantages of bladeRF very well (12-bit ADC, full duplex TX/RX, FPGA, etc.) but it’s a decent example of the device-independent compatibilities of rx_fm.
Based on the rtl_fm example, I also merged the ‘-E wav’ support from keenerd/rtl-sdr. This adds a .wav (RIFF) file header, obviating the need to pass the audio format details to sox. uhf_scan_b.sh is simply:
./rx_fm -E wav -M fm -s 12k -l 25 -f … | play -t wav -
Frequencies omitted here, but they are passed in as multiple -f arguments. Use a site such as RadioReference to find the FM public safety frequencies available in your area. Scan results after a period of multiple hours:
Public safety (UHF) audio captured using rx_fm on a bladeRF
rx_sdr: raw I/Q data for processing in GNU Radio or other tools
I haven’t seen many use cases for rtl_sdr, but it can be useful to capture raw samples for later analysis; rx_sdr is now the device-independent analogue. Instead of using e.g. hackrf_transfer, you can use rx_sdr, for any SDR.
The new ‘-F’ option specifies the output format, currently: CU8, CS8, CS16 (described above), or CF32. rx_sdr defaults to CU8 for drop-in compatibility with rtl_sdr. GNU Radio’s native format is CF32, complex float 32-bit. So to capture an FM broadcast station, you could run:
./rx_sdr -f 97.7M -F CF32 /tmp/fm
then use the “File Source” in GNU Radio (type “Complex”):
GNU Radio demodulating FM captured with rx_fm, flowgraph from SDR first project: initial setup, node-hackrf, GNU Radio on Linux, OS X, RPi 3 w/ FM tuner
and the samples captured through rx_sdr are processed by GNU Radio.
rx_power + HackRF: scanning the spectrum up to 6 GHz
At last, we arrive at what I wanted to do all along, which initated this porting project: scan the full 6 GHz spectrum with a HackRF using rtl_power. With rx_power, this is finally possible.
To scan a large range of spectrum, generating CSV output:
./rx_power -f 0.1M:6G:1M -e 24h hackrf-power-1m.csv
Then convert to a .png using rtl-sdr-misc/heatmap.py:
python ~/rf/rtl-sdr-misc/heatmap hackrf-power-1m.csv hackrf-1m.png
Here’s what we see:
rx_power from 0.1 MHz — 6 GHz, bin size 1 MHz, over 9 hour period with HackRF
The image is super wide, but zooming in some interesting emissions can be found. 6 GHz is a significant expansion of the range observed with an RTL-SDR dongle up to about 1.7 GHz in Finding interesting signals: heat maps and callsigns. Some highlights:
The 2.4 GHz ISM band, including 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi:
2.4–2.5 GHz ISM band, captured with rx_power on HackRF
The (noise?) on the right extends to about 2.75 GHz. There is a regular repeating pattern 3.5–3.6 GHz, possibly interference?
WiMax can operate at 3.5 GHz, but the regular pattern may suggest something else, unclear. If anyone has any ideas let me know. Then there’s this above 4 GHz, in the IEEE C-Band (4–8 GHz), possibly satellites?
The shifting frequency suggests Doppler shift (but at a 1 MHz scale? maybe something else). There are various bands with weaker power at 4.72 GHz, 4.9 GHz, 5.2 GHz, 5.1 GHz (two strong bands), 5.16 GHz, 5.23 GHz:
What are these? Harmonics, artifacts, nonsense? Or something real?
It takes until 5.660 GHz to reach a known signal, faint but noticeable:
This is 802.11ac Wi-Fi, operating on channel 132, in the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) 5 GHz World band.
If anyone wants to run rx_power with their SDR and post their resulting heatmap, feel free to, I’d be interested particularly in the GHz range.
Future Directions
rx_tools building on SoapySDR for bladeRF and HackRF and RTL-SDR support is only the beginning, other SDRs ought to be supported, possibly requiring small tweaks, or they may already work — I’ve only tested with these three devices, but welcome bug reports from users using others.
Another benefit of rx_tools is that it is separated from the librtlsdr library, allowing it evolve independently. I have merged several patches from various librtlsdr forks, including my own small fixes/enhancements, and welcome any pull requests for anyone who wants to contribute further, making the command-line tool suite even better.
Even if you only have an RTL-SDR, you can still use rx_tools and benefit from the continued development, and continue using them once/if you decide to upgrade to a more powerful and sophisticated SDR device. |
Collar City Brewing is beginning work to convert the former Mount Ida Community Baptist Church building at 560 Congress St. in Troy into a brew pub. Louis Emory, one of five partners in the $1 million project, tells me the team is hoping for an opening in May.
Bill Newman, forefather of today’s Capital Region brewing scene, is working with Collar City Brewing as a consultant and will be aboard at least until until an opening brewmaster is hired. Emory says his brother Rob Emory will apprentice with the brewmaster and expects to take over brewing operations.
The brew pub will seat about 100 in the church’s former sanctuary, with a private-event space downstairs to accommodate another 100 or so. Emory says the business will have two kitchens, one dedicated to preparing food for those with allergies or sensitivities to dairy and/or gluten or other dietary restrictions. A head chef has not yet been hired.
Collar City’s seven-barrel brewing system is being designed and built by Portland Kettle Works, a company chosen in part because it uses American steel, Emory says. |
Ross Taylor-Douglas is leaving the Michigan program, and will look to transfer to another school. Taylor-Douglas will graduate this spring, and be eligible to play immediately per NCAA rules.
The former three-star recruit from Avon (OH) obtained his release from Michigan after meeting with head coach Jim Harbaugh Tuesday morning. Taylor-Douglas played runningback and cornerback for the Wolverines.
"I will be leaving Michigan and looking to transfer to another school," Taylor-Douglas reported. "I loved my time at Michigan, and my degree will benefit me the rest of my life."
"I appreciate Coach Harbaugh, and know he's going to do great things at Michigan," he added. "I just want to play football the next two years, so that's why this decision was made."
"I wish nothing but the best for my teammates and the coaching staff at Michigan," he concluded.
Scout will continue to track Taylor-Douglas over the coming months, and will report on any visits he takes. He is looking to play cornerback at his next school. |
Killing a spider is not a very difficult thing to do. A newspaper works well, so does a glass and sheet of paper if you instead decide to spare the arachnid and relocate it outside. But as one man found out this week, choosing fire to kill the critter is not advisable, especially if you value your home.
A man living in West Seattle noticed there was a spider in his laundry room and wanted to kill it. Apparently it was trying to escape into the wall, so he acted quickly by picking up a can of spray paint and a lighter. Yes ladies and gentlemen, he decided to create a makeshift flamethrower to kill a defenseless spider.
The plan completely backfired when the man sprayed the combustible can contents through the flame. The wall immediately caught fire and the flames started to spread throughout the room. In fact, he made it worse by throwing water on to the wall, which did nothing to halt its progression. The fire soon spread to the attic and quickly took hold of the house.
The Seattle Fire Department was called and they managed to put the fire out before it consumed the entire house. However, the man, who by the way rents the home, has been left with a $60,000 repair bill. As for the spider, we don’t know if its life was also taken in the fire, but I’d like to think it managed to escape outside and enjoyed the show. |
Double Dragon (ダブルドラゴン, Double Dragon) is a 1987 beat 'em up developed by Technos Japan and distributed in North America and Europe by Taito Corporation. The game is a spiritual and technological successor to Technos' earlier beat 'em up, Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (released outside of Japan by Taito as Renegade), but introduced several additions such as two-player cooperative gameplay and the ability to arm oneself with an enemy's weapon after disarming them. Double Dragon is considered to be one of the first successful examples of the genre, resulting in the creation of two arcade sequels and several spinoffs, as well as inspiring other companies in creating their own beat 'em ups.
The player takes control of martial artist Billy Lee, or his twin brother Jimmy, as they fight their way into the turf of the Black Warriors gang in order to rescue Marian. The player character has a repertoire of martial art techniques which range from basic punches and kicks, to more elaborate maneuvers like hair grabbing moves and elbow strikes. There is a small variety of enemy characters that the player will face thorough the course of the game. Certain enemies will carry a melee weapon which the player can use by disarming the enemy carrying it and then retrieving the item from the floor. The game is divided into four different stages or "missions". The game normally ends if a single player defeats the final boss alone. However, if two players manage to complete the game together then the two will be forced to fight each other in order to determine who will win Marian's affections.
Home versions of the game were released for the NES, Sega Master System, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, Game Boy, Genesis/Mega Drive and Atari Lynx, among other platforms during the series's height of popularity. A remake titled Double Dragon Advance was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. The NES version was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on April 28, 2008 at a cost of 500 Wii Points. Nintendo also released the Game Boy version on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2011. Another remake has been released for the iPod Touch/iPhone mobile devices, which features brand new gameplay, sprites and animations, and music.
Japanese flyer
Title screen
Story [ edit ]
The game follows the story of Billy and Jimmy Lee, twin brothers who learned to fight on the cold, tough streets of their city. Their expert knowledge of the martial art Sou-Setsu-Ken, combined with their streetwise outlook, means that they're two of the most formidable combatants ever to walk the streets.
But now Billy and Jimmy are faced with the greatest challenge they're encountered. Billy's girlfriend, Marian, has been kidnapped by the Black Warriors, a barbaric street gang headed up by Big Boss Willy.
Use whatever weapons come to hand - knives, whips, bats, rocks, oil drums, even dynamite! Take control of Billy and Jimmy as they pursue the gang through the slums, factories, and outskirts of the city to reach the gangs hideout for their final confrontation with Willy. |
news that people like to go out at weekends, I hope you're sitting down for this one: people who aren't good at numbers tend to be bad at looking after their money. " data-share-img="" data-share="twitter,facebook,linkedin,reddit,google,mail" data-share-count="false">
After shocking you this morning with the news that people like to go out at weekends, I hope you’re sitting down for this one: people who aren’t good at numbers tend to be bad at looking after their money.
My professional life is largely spent in a world of highly-numerate and highly-intelligent people, many of whom blow up spectacularly in the financial markets. And looking at hedge funds in particular, it’s very easy to find genius-level investors who have lost astonishing amounts of money: there’s clearly more to getting and holding on to vast sums than simply being off-the-charts smart. But the fact is that if you zoom out from the tiny group at the top, there’s a very strong correlation between numeracy, or intelligence, or financial literacy, on the one hand, and having a solid financial footing, on the other.
Bear with me here, for a minute, because it’s worth reviewing the literature. Financially literate people are more likely to plan for retirement. And if you plan for retirement, you have more wealth: a 2006 paper showed the median person who was planning for retirement as being worth between $307,750 and $410,000, while the median person who isn’t planning for retirement was worth just $122,000.
IQ also helps. Check out this chart, for instance, from a very long and detailed paper about the likelihood that a person of given intelligence will be invested in the stock market.
The distribution is clear: the smarter you are (as measured by IQ), the more likely you are to be invested in the stock market. And this distribution is independent of wealth: it applies to the rich as much as it does to the poor. Or, as the paper puts it, “IQ’s role in the participation decisions of the affluent is about the same as it is for the less affluent. The definition of affluence—net worth or income—does not affect this finding.”
Most impressively, check out this paper from 2007. It asked just three “simple mathematical questions” of couples to judge the numeracy of each one. If neither got any questions right, the total wealth of the couple, on average, was $202,000. If they both got one question right, it was $505,000. If they both got two questions right, it was $853,000. And if they both got all three questions right, their average wealth on average was a whopping $1.7 million. (If they got different scores from each other, the wealth ended up somewhere in between.)
And similarly, at the other end of the spectrum, there’s huge amounts of research showing that if you’re particularly financially illiterate, or you’re not good at numbers, then you’re much more likely to be ripped off by predatory lenders or other scams, be they legal or otherwise.
There are various conclusions to be drawn here, one of which is that if we do a better job of financial education, then Americans as a whole will be better off. That’s true. But at the same time, financial illiteracy, and general innumeracy, and low IQs, are all perfectly common things which are never going to go away. It’s idiotic to try to blame people for having a low IQ: that’s not something people can control. And so it stands to reason that any fair society should look after people who are at such a natural disadvantage in life.
Which brings me to Nina Easton’s horrible new cover story for Fortune. Online, the headline is “Stop beating up the Rich”: even the capitalization grovels to the overclass. The magazine coverline is even worse: “In this political season,” it says, “the rich are an easy punching bag”.
But over the course of the story’s 2,700 words, Easton never really manages to give any examples of “people beating up the Rich”: she’s incredibly vague about the behavior she wants to stop. There’s a graphic, under the cute headline “Public Enemy No. 1%”, listing historical examples of Americans “taking shots at the wealthy”: it features things like the debut of Mr Burns in The Simpsons, and Enron’s Jeff Skilling getting pied.
By Easton’s own lights, that kind of thing is fair enough: there’s always a handful of evil rich people worthy of opprobrium. Her argument, quite explicitly, is that we shouldn’t tar all the rich with the same brush — but it’s precisely that kind of broad-based tarring which Easton has clearly failed to find. Yes, there are lots of impassioned pleas against rising inequality, but complaining about inequality is not at all the same thing as beating up on the rich.
So when Easton says that “it’s wrong to lump the 1% into a monolithic group of greedy, tax-avoiding, selfish capitalists”; when she complains of “diatribes against the 1%”; when she says those people are being vilified — what she’s actually doing is carefully constructing a straw man. She simply assumes that every time anybody stands up for the 99%, or complains that they’re not fully partaking in the fruits of America’s economic growth, that they’re vilifying the 1% who do partake in those fruits at the same time.
She’s also capable of writing highly mendacious stuff like this:
Obama’s tax proposal labels as “wealthy” households making more than $250,000 a year — a comfortable income in Indianapolis (where the median home price is $102,000) but barely enough to afford a studio apartment in Manhattan, where tax rates easily hit 50%.
This completely ignores how marginal tax rates work: to a first approximation, there are roughly zero people in Manhattan who pay 50% of their total income in taxes. It’s possible that marginal income ends up being taxed at that rate — but if you’re earning $250,000 a year, you’re not paying anything near $10,000 a month in taxes.
Even if you were having to suffer through life in New York on a post-tax income of a mere $125,000, you could still, quite easily, rent pretty much any studio apartment you wanted, with money to spare for nice meals and international holidays and the like. In Manhattan, the average studio apartment rents for $2,261 per month in non-doorman buildings, and $2,677 per month in doorman buildings. That’s just over $32,000 a year, or 12.8% of a $250,000 salary. I’d say that falls into the “easily afford” bucket, rather than the “barely afford” one.
The point here is that an income of $250,000 does, in fact, make you rich — and that if you increase marginal tax rates on people making more than that, then you’re only raising taxes on the income they make over and above a pretty hefty amount.
But Easton is too busy throwing out red herrings to notice: for instance, she says that “over the past four decades the global economy has left many behind, but it has also lifted tens of millions out of poverty”. Actually, the number of people lifted out of poverty, globally, over the past four decades is much bigger than that — but the number of Americans lifted out of poverty has been shamefully low for basically all this century.
“Raising taxes definitely won’t cure inequality,” says Easton, weirdly — if that’s the case, then the 1% really shouldn’t worry about higher taxes at all, since they’ll still be sitting happy, relatively super-rich, above everybody else.
In any case, the deep underlying problem with Easton’s article is the way in which she essentially says that the way to fix what ails us is for everybody to become intelligent and numerate and so on.
“Even if Occupy Wall Street’s wish came true and all the gains of the top 1% since 1979 were confiscated and redistributed to the 99%,” writes Easton, “household incomes would go up by less than half of what they would if everyone had a college degree.” She continues:
There’s a limit to what policymakers can do about the ravages on a middle-aged man’s job prospects after three decades’ worth of technological advances and global competition. But we can talk about education: College degrees, while not a panacea, not only carry huge salary premiums but also offer a measure of job protection.
This is true, but it also misses the crucial fact that not everybody can extract good value from college. There’s a reason that not everybody goes to college, and if you look at the predatory for-profit colleges pushing people into courses which they’re not remotely suitable for, it’s easy to see that the outcomes for people who do go to college are in large part a function of the fact that there’s a lot of self-selecting going on. The people who go to college are the literate and numerate and intelligent ones, and many of them would do well for themselves even if they had no college degree at all. Meanwhile, many of the people who don’t go to college would find it little more than a waste of time and money.
It seems to me that the current election campaign comes down in large part to a simple question: “who do you care about”? Do you care about the 1%, on the grounds that they are “job creators”? Or do you care about the bottom 40% — the people who have been left behind by US economic policy and who desperately need help and support? The Republicans clearly are the party of the 1%, and the Democrats are trying to paint themselves as the party of the middle class — of the 59%, you might say. But no one is standing up for the bottom 40%, the invisible poor, partly because they have a distressing tendency not to vote.
Easton concludes by saying that “mobility, in the form of equal opportunity rather than equal outcomes, is rooted in the very idea of America”. That’s true — and it’s also true that America has less equality of opportunity today than at any point in living memory. Once Easton has managed to provide the poor the same level of education afforded to the rich, then she can start talking about the open road to riches. But at that point, you might have a genuinely mobile society, where the people at the top know what it’s like to be at the bottom, and know that they might end up back down there themselves at some point. And in those societies, you tend to find much stronger safety nets, much more concern for people at the bottom, and many fewer tears shed for the plight of the 1%. |
Ed Smith, 16, Daisy Abraham, 16, and Rose MacKenzie, 15, pictured in the new gender-neutral toilets.
For a transgender teenager, something as simple as going to the loo at school can be a huge stress.
So two Wellington schools are leading a dunny revolution: fitting gender-neutral bathrooms for students who feel uncomfortable using 'male' or 'female' bathrooms.
Wellington High School has transformed its level 4 boys' bathroom into, well, just a bathroom.
And Onslow College is soon to follow suit, spending tens of thousands converting an old block of girls' toilets into gender-neutral facilities.
READ MORE:
* Farmers stores plan gender neutral changing rooms
* Gender neutral toilets a sign of the times says Professor
* Opinion: New Zealand needs gender-neutral loos and changing rooms
* American school adopts gender-neutral bathrooms
The schools join a global trend of schools and cities moving towards bathrooms that are not set up specifically for men or women.
"Some people don't identify with male or female fully, so it's hard for those people not feeling they can go into one of those bathrooms," said Wellington High School student Rose MacKenzie.
The 15-year-old said she had sometimes avoided using bathrooms in public, not knowing which to choose
"If I go into one I know I'll be told this is the female bathroom, but if I go into the other I might receive threats because of, you know, what I look like," she said.
MacKenzie is a member of Wellington High's UltraViolet club, representing LGBTQI+ students, which - led by student Ed Smith, 16 - raised the issue with the school board.
Deputy principal Andrew Savage said UltraViolet put together a comprehensive proposal on how the urinals could be converted, with sanitary bins put in each cubicle, and the sign outside changed to simply read 'bathroom'.
"The board of trustees listened to what the need was and within a short amount of time it was all done and dusted. It's kind of a boring story, in a good way," he laughed.
"The sky didn't fall in, there was no Erin Brockovich moment, it was very straight-forward."
Onslow College is also about to convert one block of girls' toilets into gender-neutral stalls, after its LGBTQI+ group Club Sandwich took the idea to staff.
"It's all about respecting diversity and meeting the needs of diversity, and I think it is the way to go," principal Peter Leggat said.
RainbowYOUTH national communication manager Toni Duder said Onslow and Wellington High were the first schools she had heard of taking the lead on gender-neutral bathrooms.
"It's phenomenal, and it's inspiring to see students doing it," she said.
Opposition against unisex bathrooms was often raised by people who thought women could be put in unsafe situations with men in shared loos, she said.
"But shouldn't we be addressing why women don't feel safe around men, not why they should have different bathrooms?"
Others argued that once the transgender community got the bathrooms, they might want more.
"But if you couldn't pee without feeling like you were going to get beaten up or teased, wouldn't you want that, too?" she said.
While Secondary Principals' Association of NZ president Sandy Pasley hadn't heard of any other schools fitting full gender-neutral bathroom stalls, she said many were installing individual unisex toilets.
She said some schools were being more flexible with their uniforms to be more inclusive, too.
WHAT IS LGBTIQ+?
LGBTQI stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, and Intersex.
The + stands for other marginalised genders and identities not covered by the LGBTQI acronym. |
Image copyright AFP Image caption Fogging is being carried out across the city-state
Singapore is advising all pregnant women with symptoms associated with Zika, to be tested for the virus.
The city-state has now confirmed 82 locally transmitted cases of Zika, a mosquito-borne virus linked to severe birth defects.
It has initiated a drive to wipe out mosquitoes in affected areas.
On Tuesday, the US joined Australia, Taiwan and South Korea in advising pregnant women against non-essential travel to Singapore.
The latest global Zika outbreak originated in Brazil last year, but has since spread across the Americas.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Workers are also spraying insecticide in areas vulnerable to mosquitoes
Dozens of cases have been confirmed in Singapore over the past week, some outside the original cluster amongst migrant construction workers in the Aljuneid district in the south-east.
This has sparked concern that the numbers could escalate sharply.
The health ministry has advised pregnant women with symptoms such as fever, rash, red eyes and joint pain, to get tested.
It also said women with male partners who are Zika-positive, should be tested "regardless of whether they have been to Zika-affected areas" and even if they have no symptoms themselves.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The government has also advised the public to use insecticide and repellents against mosquitoes
Testing for such women will be provided free, but it "is not routinely recommended for other pregnant women".
Meanwhile workers have been fumigating public areas across the country and existing home inspections for possible mosquito infestation have been stepped up. Sales of insect repellent and insecticide are reported to have increased.
While Zika mostly causes relatively mild symptoms, it is particularly dangerous for pregnant women because it is thought it can cause microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is advising pregnant women not to travel to areas with ongoing Zika virus outbreaks.
However, many governments, including the UK's, are advising women who are pregnant or planning to be, to speak to their doctors about any plans to go to Zika-affected areas, and take precautions against being bitten by mosquitoes once there. |
If there’s one message both Republican and Democratic voters sent to their elected representatives in last year’s primary and general elections, it was this: we are tired of political gridlock. Do something useful!
But while most Republican lawmakers are getting ready, with varying degrees of enthusiasm and trepidation, for Donald Trump’s presidency, some Democrats are lost in a foggy swamp of denial, and seem determined to impede the incoming administration by whatever means necessary. What voice of the electorate? How soon they forget!
Let’s look at what stunts have been pulled on Capitol Hill since last November’s election, but before Trump even takes office:
Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee tried to object to the ratification of the Electoral College results, claiming that voter suppression might have invalidated the election.
Democrats pulled an all-night talkathon on the Senate floor, illegal under that body’s rules, to block the repeal of Obamacare.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer presided over a “Make America Sick Again” photo-op, to denounce the Republican plan to scrap the Affordable Care Act.
Sen. Schumer promised to fight “tooth and nail” against Trump’s first appointee to the Supreme Court, to replace Antonin Scalia, before Trump becomes president and well in advance of his submission of a nominee.
Several Democratic members of congress took pictures of themselves on the floor of the House to protest a new rule that will fine selfie-snappers up to $2,500.
What is the point of these diversions? Is it to make government more efficient? Hardly.
It’s just more of the hold-my-breath-til-I-turn-(Democrat)-blue hysterics that began the day after the election, when universities around the country (including my alma mater, Cornell) held cry-ins and brought in grief counsellors for stricken students who could not accept the results. To see elected members of congress acting in the manner of whining college kids is simply sad.
Both parties claim they want to represent the people who sent them to Washington. So, what do the people want?
A Fox News poll last month left little doubt: They want their elected representatives to stop quibbling and relearn the lost art of problem-solving. Sixty-two percent of the people polled by Fox said the country was seriously off track. And when asked who they trusted to fix important problems, the most common response was “market forces and business.” Fewer than half as many people said they trusted government to make their lives better.
Nowhere in the poll do respondents say they want the loyal opposition to engage in gimmicks and obstructionism. To be fair, the new president’s aggressive Twitter habit doesn’t help concentrate the nation’s attention on things that matter, either.
The childish displays of pique that have marked the interregnum between Barack Obama’s administration and the beginning of the Donald Trump era indicate that those Democrats acting out, despite claiming to be listening to the people, have little interest in any opinions but their own. |
Oscar Pistorius is due to be sentenced for the 2013 Valentine’s Day murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp - facing a minimum of 15 years in prison.
The Olympic and Paralympic athlete’s previous sentence for culpable homicide, South Africa’s equivalent of manslaughter, carried a five-year sentence, but the conviction was later upgraded to murder after an appeal heard by the Supreme Court.
Judge Thokozile Masipa, who presided over Pistorius’s original 50-day trial in 2014, will begin hearing pre-sentencing arguments at Pretoria High Court on Monday, with Pistorius expected to learn the length of his jail term by the end of the week.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
South Africa’s legal system recommends a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 20 years in jail “unless there are substantive and compelling” reasons for a reduced sentence.
The former paralympian’s legal team is expected to call witnesses who ask for a lenient sentence due to the former athlete’s mental fragility, physical disability, and good behaviour in jail since his manslaughter conviction.
The 29-year-old was released from a maximum security hospital cell last October after almost a year behind bars, before being released to continue his sentence under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria.
He has been denied the right to appeal the murder conviction after the Supreme Court ruled that he had exhausted all his legal options.
Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Oscar Pistorius trial evidence Show all 10 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Oscar Pistorius trial evidence 1/10 Trial evidence A mobile telephone, firearm and blood splatter in Pistorius's house 2/10 Trial evidence A gun in Pistorius's house where his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 3/10 Trial evidence A mobile telephone and blood splatter in Oscar Pistorius's house 4/10 Trial evidence The bathroom in Pistorius's house where his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 5/10 Trial evidence The bathroom in Pistorius's house where he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp 6/10 Trial evidence The bathroom in Pistorius's house where his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 7/10 Trial evidence Oscar Pistorius covered in blood splatter after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 8/10 Trial evidence Oscar Pistorius covered in blood splatter after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 9/10 Trial evidence Oscar Pistorius covered in blood splatter after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 10/10 Trial evidence Oscar Pistorius's artificial legs covered in blood splatter after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 1/10 Trial evidence A mobile telephone, firearm and blood splatter in Pistorius's house 2/10 Trial evidence A gun in Pistorius's house where his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 3/10 Trial evidence A mobile telephone and blood splatter in Oscar Pistorius's house 4/10 Trial evidence The bathroom in Pistorius's house where his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 5/10 Trial evidence The bathroom in Pistorius's house where he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp 6/10 Trial evidence The bathroom in Pistorius's house where his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 7/10 Trial evidence Oscar Pistorius covered in blood splatter after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 8/10 Trial evidence Oscar Pistorius covered in blood splatter after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 9/10 Trial evidence Oscar Pistorius covered in blood splatter after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot 10/10 Trial evidence Oscar Pistorius's artificial legs covered in blood splatter after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot
Pistorius himself may be called to the witness stand to give evidence. However, an appearance is viewed as unlikely as it would expose him to potentially damaging cross-examination by prosecuting lawyers.
There is also the suggestion that Barry Steenkamp, Reeva’s father, may also give evidence, after suffering poor health as a result of his daughter’s death and the subsequent trial.
Pistorius denies deliberately killing model and law graduate Steenkamp, saying he mistook her for an intruder when he fired four shots through the locked door of a toilet in his house.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
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There are no two wrestlers in sports entertainment history who are more beloved than Hulk Hogan and John Cena, both of whom have been heroes to children and adults for many years. But kids may be terrified of their latest toys, as the WWE superstars are getting the zombie treatment.
Mattel is showing off a slew of upcoming toys at Comic-Con this weekend, and though we didn’t expect to find any Dread-worthy offerings at their booth, we couldn’t have been more wrong. And whether you’re a wrestling fan or not, we feel you’re going to appreciate these bad boys.
With his eyes whited out and a hunk of muscle ripped off his chest, John Cena is looking a little worse for wear as a zombie, while Hulk Hogan is literally tearing his own flesh off his torso. The Hulkster is known for ripping shirts off his body, but apparently he dug a little too deep this time.
Check out the Hulk Hogan and John Cena zombie action figures below, and we thank Ringside Collectibles for bringing them to our attention. No word yet on a release date, but we encourage you to keep your eyes locked on their site for more information in the very near future. |
For the world, as for his family, the birth of Adnan Nevic was cause for celebration. No less an eminence than the secretary-general of the United Nations attended his arrival, posing with the swaddled child as camera strobes lit a maternity room in central Sarajevo. He was born four minutes past midnight on October 12, 1999, and Kofi Annan had made his way to the hospital like a wise man following a star. There were 5.999999999 billion people on the face of the planet, depending on whose “population clock” you went by. The time had come to designate a six billionth.
The challenges that lay before this infant reflected those of human populations around the globe. His parents, Jasmin and Fatima, were poor. The family lived cheek by jowl in a bleak apartment. His father needed work. Ethnic conflict remained a dormant but ever-present threat to their country. The UN chief offered words of hope, saying this “beautiful boy in a city returning to life should light a path of tolerance and understanding for all people.” But a long and happy life? For that, Adnan Nevic would need a few breaks.
Today, as demographers look ahead to a 10-billion-strong global population, the future of No. 6,000,000,000 is no less clouded. By day, he is an apple-cheeked sixth-grader who loves dogs and cheers on the fabled Spanish soccer team, Real Madrid. At night, he watches over a father stricken by bowel cancer, and sleeps in the same bedroom as his parents in their two-room flat in Visoko, a run-down town 28 km outside Sarajevo. Adnan’s plight could never really stand in for that of all humanity. But it does, to borrow the UN boss’s trope, illuminate the road we will travel over the course of his life.
By 2050, according to the UN’s mid-range estimates, Adnan will count among some 9.3 billion people on the face of the Earth, and 10.1 billion if he lives to see the turn of the next century. Each new addition will pose the same challenges he does. Can we feed, clothe and house them? School them? Provide them with health care and drinkable water? Encoded within these questions are broader ones that speak to our capacity to co-operate, perhaps even to our fate as a species. Will we devise a means to share land and resources? To bring wealth to the planet’s most deprived places? Or will we succumb to the inevitable competition for space and commodities, consigning ourselves to endless wars and humanitarian crises?
In some places, the challenges are so vast as to steal one’s breath. Within two decades, the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is expected to balloon to 148.5 million, up from 66 million today. Congo and other poverty-stricken African countries, where fertility rates remain high, will produce much of the world’s future population growth: Germany and Ethiopia now have comparable populations (82 and 83 million people respectively), a UN report notes, but by 2050, Germany’s population is expected to decline to 75 million people, while Ethiopia’s will hit 145 million. It makes the problems of one child in Visoko, Bosnia, look eminently solvable—though even there our best intentions don’t add up to much. Despite brave promises of lifelong financial support at the time of his birth, Adnan’s family now survives on about 250 euros per month. “Had I known back then what I know today, I would never have allowed the UN to declare him the six-billionth person,” Fatima Nevic recently told Maclean’s. “Basically, everyone forgot about us.”
Yet speak to experts whose careers revolve around the population equation, and you’ll also hear notes of surprising optimism—in part because population growth is moderating toward a more manageable pace. With fertility levels slipping in many parts of the world, it will take an estimated 14 years, from 2011 to 2025, for the world to add its eight-billionth person, and another 18 years to add its ninth. Adding number 10 billion won’t happen until 2083, a full 40 years after the nine billionth is born. These forecasts are based on the UN Population Division’s “medium-variant” scenarios, which are considered the most likely to come to pass. The bureau’s highest possible projection puts the world population at an appalling 15.8 billion in 2100, but its lowest would have us at 6.2 billion. That latter figure bears repeating: the human race might actually shrink.
In the meantime, confidence in our capacity to adapt is growing, easing primordial fears about the consequences of unchecked procreation. The debate is increasingly framed by thinkers who view population growth as an expansion of human capital, rather than simply a drain on resources. “Ten billion people is only about one-third more than we already have, and we have plenty of land and activities to occupy them,” says Robert Fogel, Nobel laureate in economics and head of the Center for Population Economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. “We’re not going to run out of food, and we won’t run out of factories to employ them. I’m very optimistic that progress will not only continue, but accelerate.”
The cost to the environment remains a key concern, Fogel acknowledges. Global warming, deforestation and the steady extinction of species all speak undeniably to the damage humankind does as it grows. So too does disparity. Countries like Canada and the United States remain disproportionate beneficiaries of human development, while the likes of Somalia and Zimbabwe remain afflicted by misrule, virtually untouched by the transformative forces of women’s education, maternal health programs and contraception. Change must come fast to these places if we are to avert the proliferation of human misery their population curves would suggest. But it will come, say optimists, as surely as it has to parts of the planet once thought impervious to hope.
Last year, Indian entrepreneur Mukesh Ambani and his family moved into the world’s first billion-dollar home. At 27 stories, it boasts a yoga studio, a cinema, and reportedly has an “ice room” with man-made snow flurries to cool off its guests. There are three helipads, and parking spots for 160 vehicles underground. The rooftop offers a view all the way to the Arabian Sea.
The notion of such an extravagant home towering over Mumbai—a city where eight million live in slums—would strike many as crass. But it’s also a sign of the incredible growth India has experienced over the last few decades, a story reflected in the arc of Ambani’s own company, Reliance Industries Ltd., which his father started back in the 1950s; it’s now the largest private sector company in India. At the forefront of the country’s breathtaking economic expansion, observers say, is its demography. India’s population is young and growing: in 2010, the median age in India was about 25, UN figures show (in Canada, the median age last year was 40). In Mumbai, sprawling slums are slowly—and often painfully—making way for strip malls, condos and residential complexes.
This isn’t the traditional portrait of population growth. From 1960 to 2000, the world’s population doubled from three to six billion people, a change that University of Michigan economist David Lam calls “absolutely, historically unprecedented.” Observers were worried we’d run out of resources and room for everybody, yet people are wealthier, healthier and better fed than ever—and it wasn’t just oligarchs like Ambani who benefited. In fact, “the biggest improvements were in the poorest countries, with the exception of Africa,” says Lam, president of the Population Association of America, a professional organization for those who study population issues. In developing regions, the number of people living on less than $1.25 per day dropped from 46 per cent in 1990 to 27 per cent in 2005, according to UN figures. Although the absolute number of hungry people has climbed since 1990 (from 815 million to 925 million) due to population growth, the proportion of them has actually gone down. In the developing world, about one in four children under age five was underweight in 2005, the UN says, down from almost one in three in 1990. And as India’s population more than doubled from 1960 to 2000, Lam says, its food production more than kept up: it tripled.
This did not come as a surprise to academics delving into the relationship between wealth and population enlargement. Every new wave of humanity, reasoned the American economist Julian Simon in 1981, makes more resources available, because “productive and inventive minds help find creative solutions to man’s problems.” Simply put: there are more people with big brains around, hatching ever more ingenious ideas.
Larger populations also mean bigger markets, which allow for mass production and greater specialization of skill. “Consider an assembly line in a car factory,” says Walter Williams, an economics professor at George Mason University in Fairfax County, Va. “You have many individuals, each performing very specialized tasks. If there were only 100 people to buy the cars, why would you do it?” The result, adds Williams, manifests itself at the other end of the production chain, in the form of lower priced goods available to more people. Specialization has proven particularly important in keeping food prices low, as technology and mechanization allow for mass harvesting and processing.
More people speak to the value of big cities, which concentrate labour and talent, while permitting efficient movement of goods and services. The virtues of high population density can seem hard to believe when confronted with the masses of humanity in, say, the shanties around Dhaka. But it is central to the story of Asia’s economic rise. Yes, the number of people living in India’s slums has grown. But so too has the life expectancy of its people, from 44 in 1960 to 66 today. Similarly in China, where cities have been the engine of its three-fold GDP growth over the past decade—so much so that they are draining the countryside of peasant farmers.
What these numbers don’t show is the toll all this activity takes on the planet, and that’s where human-capital theory starts to wobble: our company of 10 billion people won’t be much fun if we’re all living on a barren, overheated planet. If the big brains of the future are half as smart as these economists say, they will weigh the benefit of every new strip mall, coal mine and billion-dollar house against increases in the Earth’s temperature, decimation of farmland, or fish species lost.
Growing up in Colombia, Camilo Mora recalls seeing an ad about population growth on television. “It showed a small aquarium,” he says, “with two fish, then four, then eight, then 16. Eventually, you couldn’t fit any more in there, and it said, ‘Start thinking.’ ” Now a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Mora studies the impact of human population on coral reefs, Earth’s most diverse ecosystems. In a new study, he and colleagues found that a reef’s biomass (its amount of living matter) was directly impacted by human density, since nearby populations bring overfishing, land use and coastal development. It’s potentially very bad news, since 75 per cent of the world’s coral reefs are near human settlements, and 82 per cent of countries with coral reefs are expected to double their populations within the next century.
Scientists believe our planet could be entering its sixth mass extinction—one comparable to the asteroid impact that may have killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago—largely propelled by human activity. (A mass extinction occurs when Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short period.) Beyond countless plants and animals that may be wiped off the planet, other resources are under strain. Per capita water consumption is rising twice as fast as the global population, and over the next two decades our need for fresh water will be 40 per cent greater than today’s, the UN predicts. By 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water-stressed conditions (when demand can’t be fully satisfied). Dwindling oil reserves have many worried about an impending energy crisis. Climate change threatens to destroy crop yields through drought and storms. With the planet already under such pressure, many question if we can support another three billion people—let alone the nearly seven billion we’ve got.
Over-consumption is a rich-world problem, and the world is getting richer. Canadians consume about 25 tonnes of four important resources (minerals, fossil fuels, ore and biomass) per year, according to a new report from the UN Environment Programme, compared to four tonnes for the average Indian. And one American’s carbon dioxide emissions are equal to those of about 250 Ethiopians. As the standard of living rises in developing countries, people there are also consuming more: humanity is set to eat up three times more resources by 2050, driven largely by increasing population and prosperity, the UN Environment Programme says.
Even given these challenges, Charles Kenny, a development economist in Washington, believes we can sustainably support 10 billion people. “It will take political action and big dollar amounts,” he says, “but amounts we can afford.” Whether governments and voters will agree, though, is another question. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently reported that renewable energy sources—like solar and wind power—could meet as much as 77 per cent of global energy demands by the year 2050, but it will cost $5.1 trillion up to 2020, and another $7.2 trillion from then to 2030.
While Kenny admits he gets “depressed” at the state of global agreements on climate change, there is some precedent for success. The Montreal Protocol, an international treaty signed in 1987 with the aim of reducing the hole in the ozone layer, put controls on the use of ozone-thinning chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs) and has been called a resounding success: experts now say the ozone layer should return to its pre-1980 levels by mid-century (repairing the hole over Antarctica will take a bit longer). Addressing environmental concerns “will get easier as technology improves,” Kenny says, and with some of the world’s greatest minds turned to solving this problem, we might actually be able to figure it out. Whether we’ll have the political and personal will to reconsider energy policy, water use—even our commute to work, or red meat intake—is a more immediately pressing question.
It is a query properly directed at the G20 countries, because the part of the world where the population is growing fastest remains, developmentally speaking, stranded at the roadside. Sub-Saharan Africans use less power, water and food than anyone on Earth, but they’re the first to feel the effects of consumption in other parts of the world. In 2008, for example, while North Americans were complaining about a surge in the price of barbecue steaks—a direct result of growing global demand for grain and energy—families in Mauritania stopped sending their children to school so they could afford to buy bread.
On its face, the band of despair reaching from Benin to Africa’s eastern horn would seem to contradict any theories suggesting that humanity is, in fact, a resource. This region is home to the world’s worst levels of life expectancy, education, disease and poverty, despite runaway fertility rates. A woman in Rwanda has, on average, 6.4 children in her life; in Mali, the rate is even higher (compare that to Canada, where it is below the replacement level of 2.1). Each year, more of these children pour into cities, crowding slums in places like Bulawayo, Kinshasa, or Nairobi. Reducing birth rates would, at first glance, seem a solution to these scenes of despair.
Not so, argue free-market thinkers like Walter Williams, the George Mason University economist. Sub-Saharan Africa might have high birth rates, he points out, but its population per hectare of land is relatively low, suggesting these countries are not overcrowded. What they are is crooked: 16 central African countries rank in the bottom quartile of Transparency International’s most recent annual corruption list—Somalia and Sudan chief among them. As Williams notes, corruption and privation go hand in hand. Development money gets embezzled or stolen. Food shipments get commandeered and sold on black markets. “Africa’s problem is not population growth,” he says. “It’s bad government.”
There are potential remedies to the region’s problems any good politician would try. One is improved farming practices—a long-standing goal of agronomists who have watched in despair as crop yields in African countries stagnated. “We don’t have to do new research to make gains in productivity,” says Ryan Cardwell, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Manitoba. “There is still a lot of arable land available in some of these countries.” But the proper use of resources to make that happen—from seed stock to chemical fertilizer to irrigation equipment—requires reliable local governments on board with the project.
Another step is investing in education, which would carry the added benefit of pushing down fertility rates. Schooling girls, in particular, leads to sustainable populations, notes Lam, because better-schooled women tend to have fewer children, and invest more in their kids. Yet in 19 African countries, fewer than five per cent of girls finish secondary school. “The 20th century began with very few people completing primary education, and ended with almost everyone doing it,” observes Joel E. Cohen, head of the Laboratory of Populations at Rockefeller University and Columbia University, who notes that some areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia remain the exception. “I believe we will see, by the middle of the next century, a universal acceptance that every child should have a good secondary education, too.” All sorts of societal advantages would flow from this. “Educated people demand a more responsive government,” he says. “They have a better understanding of their bodies, a better capacity for work, and a preference for children of quality, rather than quantity of children.”
It’s the sort of transformation that can take hold when long-held precepts are set aside, when authorities stop treating population growth itself as the root of all evil. If that sounds naive, consider the crisis unfolding in Russia, where—far from enhancing life—population shrinkage has unleashed a cascade of economic and social ills. The country’s population is expected to shrink from 142.9 million people today to 111 million by 2100, with one in five people projected to be over the age of 65 by 2025. With the country’s economic growth in peril, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced plans to invest billions in baby bonuses and health initiatives aimed at boosting the average life expectancy. Yet the obvious remedy of mass immigration remains off the table. The perceived threat to Russian identity has triggered a wave of nationalist xenophobia that has discouraged newcomers and limited the options of political leaders.
Here is where nations like Canada enjoy a huge advantage. This country welcomes more immigrants per capita than any other in the developed world (about 250,000 each year), and our immigration system increasingly targets the world’s best and brightest. We are also comparatively open to the movement of labour, and with some 13 per cent of us expected to be age 80 or older by the year 2100, we will need all of the newcomers we can get. But unlike Russia, we hold the remedy in our hands: we are, and always have been, a country geared to maximize human capital.
For those in less blessed corners of the world, this is a familiar story. Rich countries get richer; the poor trudge on. Our test lies in our capacity to help those whose lives are comprised of equal parts promise and struggle. People like Adnan Nevic, who boasts an 80 per cent average in school, yet lives in a world circumscribed by poverty. Back in 1999, the UN helped find his father a job as boiler operator at Visoko’s main cinema. But Jasmin is now too sick to work. Private “donors” who seized on the occasion of Adnan’s birth to gain a bit of publicity promised money to help buy the family a house—then gave less than half what they pledged. Even with 100 euros per month committed by the City of Sarajevo to celebrate Adnan’s birth, the Nevics can’t afford to enroll him in organized soccer.
Each year on his birthday, friends, family and the occasional government official stop by to wish Adnan happy returns. “They stroke my head,” he tells Maclean’s, “and then they disappear.” This October, the UN Population Fund plans to mark the next billion-person milestone with an international campaign around themes like poverty reduction and educating girls. It will not, however, include the ceremonial designation of a seven-billionth person, say officials, and that’s probably just as well. The measure of humanity, after all, lies not in the number of people we can cram onto the face of the planet, but how we treat the ones already here. |
How big a role did the guns 'n' ammo crowd play in the defeat Calgary West MP Rob Anders by former Alberta PC cabinet minister Ron Liepert for the Conservative Party nomination in the new Calgary Signal Hill riding?
It's impossible to say with any certainty, of course, because there were a bazillion and one perfectly good reasons for the Conservative Party members who got to vote in the intramural nomination election to dislike Anders or find him an embarrassment to their party.
It was not for nothing that Anders was known as "Canada's worst MP" -- a sobriquet he was stuck with not by some mere blogger like the author of this post, but one of the most conservative columnists in Canada writing for one of the country's most avowedly conservative newspapers, the candidate's own home town Calgary Herald.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Anders demonstrated for many years he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer on many topics, ranging from his opinions about Nelson Mandela, to his weird conspiracy theory about the circumstances surrounding Jack Layton's death, to his choice of locations to catch forty winks.
Moreover, to confuse matters further, the voter pool in the Calgary Signal Hill Constituency Association nomination vote was small, and not necessarily all that representative of the overall electorate. Plus, the man who beat him, Liepert, is no dummy, whatever you may think of his past performance as Alberta's health minister, and also not exactly a raging liberal by anyone's lights.
So there were lots of fine reasons for Anders to be spent packing without any help from his pals in the oxymoronic sounding "firearms community."
Just the same, it's said here, it sure didn't help when someone leaked -- presumably as part of an effort to help the candidate -- a photo of Anders packin' heat and smiling idiotically at the anonymous cameraperson.
In the photo, he is shown in a Charlie's Angels pose with a like minded hoplophilic hopeful from another Conservative nomination race in a nearby Southern Alberta riding. As was observed in this space at the time the photo first surfaced, it wasn't just Anders' butchy pose in a 4.5-litre hat with what appeared to be like a .44 calibre revolver that initially caused the stuff to hit the fan, but the fact one of the targets in the background, a poor quality drawing of a bearded man in a turban, provided an opportunity for the politician's opponents to accuse him of setting up an entire minority group for hatred, contempt and violence.
Unsurprisingly, this observation sent the often-xenophobic guns 'n' ammo crowd into a paroxysm of hysteria and paranoia. The caricature, they quite rightly pointed out tirelessly and repeatedly, was a zombie Osama bin Laden. Therefore, only a limp-wristed, self-hating liberal would have objected, just the kind of snivelling hoplophobic who wouldn't have said a thing if the poster had shown a blond-headed German… Yadda-yadda-yadda.
As readers can see, I've received so many of these repetitive little billets-doux that I am now able to write them myself for entertainment!
But the appearance of the image on the target is really a side issue. The point is that the gun crowd has been passionate, well organized and effective in the support of their cause -- which is entirely to their credit and, along with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's utterly cynical commitment to the use of wedge issues, no matter how harmful or divisive, part of the reason for their success.
But this has led over time to a significant portion of this group becoming, repetitive, obsessive, boring, hysterical, extremely angry, paranoid and unable to hold back when their own cause would be manifestly assisted by their silence.
In fact, saying something like this makes them so angry that it is likely to prompt a flood of abuse that responds, not to the point being made, but to what its ditto-head authors understand or imagine the author's gun-grabbing motivation might be for even thinking about the issue.
In other words, this vocal, well-organized … and relatively small … minority has through its own actions tipped for the Conservative party from being an asset column to being a serious liability.
Firearms enthusiasts may not recognize this -- indeed, they are almost certain to deny it vociferously, as is their right. The Harper Conservative Party, given its addiction to wedge issues and enthusiasm for fundraising from fringe groups affiliated with its "base," may not be ready to believe it either.
Still, even with the vast majority of voters and political watchers having any idea what Liepert's position on firearms ownership may be -- for all I know, he may be as enthusiastic a shooter as Anders -- it seems likely the support of this group hurt Anders more than it helped him in an urban riding like Calgary Signal Hill.
What works in a place like the mainly rural Macleod riding was the wrong message entirely in a venue like Signal Hill, where an awful lot of voters either don't care about guns or find them both threatening and more than a little déclassé.
In other words, even without any concerns whatsoever about the image on the targets in the background, Anders was sending a wrong message by appearing in a photo wearing a cowboy hat and holding a big pistol when it wasn't Stampede Week.
In that regard, the outcome in Signal Hill may well have tested and established the limits of the American-style right-to-keep-and-bear-arms strategy that has worked well for the Conservatives up to now.
In future, as a result, it may behoove Conservative politicians who stand foursquare for wide open gun ownership to keep their own counsel about this opinion, lest they suffer a similar fate to Anders.
Indeed, what the gun-nutz faction of the gun-owning population may have proved with their contribution to Anders' unsuccessful nomination battle is that their caterwauling has started to really hurt the party that's been their best friend in recent years. And it didn't just hurt them in Quebec, but even out here in the supposedly wide-open and gun-totin' West.
For this reason, it might be nice if Anders had the chance to run again in another riding -- and lost again -- just to make the point crystal clear.
With friends like these, maybe the Harper Conservatives don't really need enemies. But then -- as restaurant owners who use foreign labour to boost their profits have just found out -- having friends like the Conservatives isn't always the best deal either.
Dumber than a sack of Anders? Count on it that this group of Anders supporters will neither recognize this possibility nor conduct themselves accordingly.
This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, Alberta Diary. |
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Might cord cutters represent those with more discerning taste when it comes to programming? If Amazon’s latest move is any indication, this may very well be the case. The company has dropped several reality TV programs from its latest licensing deal with Viacom for its Instant Video platform, including Mob Wives and Teen Mom, reports Bloomberg.
It makes sense – cord cutters often want to get away from not only the high prices of traditional linear TV packages, but also having to pay for, and scroll through, tons of content in which they have no interest in viewing. And a lot of that content consists of what is often considered to be low-brow reality shows that are often labeled “guilty pleasures,” like watching middle-aged wealthy women pull each other’s hair and fight like dogs, or unfit 16-year-olds popping out babies that their parents will inevitably take care of. It doesn’t exactly sound like “Prime” content.
Related: Amazon Prime Instant Video finally comes to Android tablets
The move comes, according to Bloomberg, at a time when reality TV for online audiences is causing “viewer fatigue.” The deal also serves as an indication about the differences in online platforms and traditional TV when it comes to content acquisition.
Cable networks have a lot of airtime to fill, and need content to sell advertising. That’s why they’re hesitant to cut reality shows, which offer low-production cost, and relatively high returns when it comes to revenue. Streaming services like Amazon Instant Video and Netflix, on the other hand, have more freedom than cable networks as their revenue is based on subscriptions, not ad sales. That allows them to option highly-rated original series, popular specialty network television shows, library title sitcoms, movies, and kids’ programming, without consideration about programming with low-production cost that brings in big ad dollars.
Amazon will reportedly be taking the money it saves from opting out of these shows to invest in more original programming, and acquiring content from other suppliers that my better suit its subscribers.
This isn’t the first such move by Amazon. Earlier this year, the company also decided not to renew a deal with A+E to offer shows like Pawn Stars and Storage Wars. It seems such reality TV shows that typically skew towards either primarily male audiences or female audiences don’t quite fit in with the streaming TV mold.
This is good news for those who seek a reprieve from the talking heads of reality TV — i.e. viewers that often fall under the cord-cutter banner. While many refer to today as the golden age of television, with stellar programming that has taken big Hollywood stars onto the small screen, it’s also an era of television that falls at the other end of the spectrum, full of competition and reality shows which many viewers flee from when unconstrained by the bounds of cable bundles.
That said, for those who love to dive into a guilty reality pleasure once and awhile it seems that — when it comes to Amazon, anyway — a line is being drawn that conveys a distinct message: Love reality TV? Stick with cable. |
Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2009 January 16
ISS: Reflections of Earth
Credit & Copyright: Ralf Vandebergh
Explanation: Remarkable details are visible in this view of the orbiting International Space Station (ISS), recorded with a small telescope on planet Earth through a clear twilight sky. Seen on December 27th at about 75 degrees elevation and some 350 kilometers above the planet's surface, parts of the station, including the Kibo and Columbus science modules, even seem to reflect the Earth's lovely bluish colors. The image also shows off large power generating solar arrays on the station's 90 meter long integrated truss structure Just put your cursor over the picture to identify some of the major parts of the ISS. |
WHEN THE RIGHT’S RHETORIC TURNS VIOLENT…. In the wake of last month’s shootings in Tucson, it was common for folks on the left to suggest the right relied too often on violent rhetoric. Conservatives, invariably, were outraged.
There is, however, a rationale behind the assumptions. For example, incidents like these come up from time to time.
If there’s a compelling defense for a state deputy attorney general to recommend use of “live ammunition” and “deadly force” against pro-labor protestors, I can’t think of it.
On a related note, Jay Bookman reports this morning that the Service Employees International Union will hold a rally in Atlanta today, at Georgia’s state capitol. Conservative activists have been encouraged to attend — with firearms.
Update: The Indiana deputy A.G. has reportedly been fired. |
Not much would change the fact that America is Iran’s enemy – not even the eagerly awaited 5+1 nuclear deal, a senior Iranian military official has said. Meanwhile Tehran and world powers are edging closer towards a final deal in Vienna.
“The US might arrive at some agreements with us within the framework of the Group 5+1, but we should never hold a positive view over the enemy,” Iran’s Fars News Agency quoted the Ground Force Commander Brigadier General Ahmad Raza Pourdastan as saying on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Tuesday deadline to ink the deal draws ever closer.
“Our enmity with them is over the principles and is rooted because we are after the truth and nations' freedom, but they seek exploiting nations and putting them in chains,” the Brigadier General continued.
Tehran and six powers – Russia, Germany, China, France, the US and Britain – are making their last ditch attempts in Vienna to end the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, which continues to induce fear in the West about Iran’s nuclear warfare capabilities. Iran, for its part, maintains the program is peaceful.
The Islamic Republic is being asked to curtail the program for at least a decade, and is being promised a relaxation of sanctions which have been hitting the economy hard.
While the US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters he still hopes to make the Tuesday deadline, one Iranian official told the semi-official Tasnim agency that the talks could last into Thursday, July 9, The previous deadline of June 30 was missed.
Kerry and Iran’s Foreign Minister and top negotiator Javad Zarif were still busy ironing out various differences on Sunday, such as what type of research Iran may pursue if the United Nations lifts the sanctions.
Despite Kerry saying a final agreement “has never been closer,” he warned that at this point “this negotiation could go either way” unless Iran makes some very “hard choices”. But according to Zarif, it is the “Western countries” who need to make a “decision if they are looking for an agreement or continuing pressures.”
READ MORE: Iran deploys new long-range radar days ahead of nuclear talks deadline
Zarif stresses the US can’t do both. “We have heard them many times that they are looking for an agreement…”, he told reporters.
According to the Iranian side, a number of issues have already been resolved in Vienna, but a consensus still needs to be reached on other key topics.
“There are four or five issues that remain including the important topic of ensuring both sides’ steps correspond to each other and happen at the same time,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was quoted as saying by the ISNA agency.
Meanwhile, in the space of this week, Iran has gone ahead and deployed a long-range radar, part of an integrated air defense system the country is setting up.
Israel has been the most riled with Iran out of the countries in the region, and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has even said that a nuclear Iran is a greater threat to the world than ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
“The Iran deal will alter the US relationship with the Gulf region,” Jonathan Steele, former Chief Foreign Correspondent for The Guardian, told RT. “There is obviously rivalry between US allies in the region. The Iranian issue is not just about the Nuclear Program, but more about opening the door for a real change in the Middle East,” he added |
Voters in France are vying for Barack Obama to become their next President, in a wild bid to bring about a “sixth Republic” in the French presidential elections this year.
A website and poster campaign launched on Monday, titled “Obama17”, calls on French people to make the "radical choice" of signing a petition asking that the former US President to run for the position of 25th head of state in the 2017 leadership race.
More than 30,000 people have so far signed the petition, and photos of posters mounted around Paris have been widely shared on social media.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
The creators of the campaign, four Parisians in their thirties who have decided to remain anonymous, said the idea arose from growing discontentment with the choice of candidates, and a desire to "make people smile" amid "repeated scandals" coming out of the approaching election.
One of them, who simply called himself "Barack", told The Independent: "It arose from a conversation with friends. We decided that we didn't want to vote for any of the candidates in this election, and that it has been the same for the last few elections. We are fed up of voting against people rather than for someone we actually support every time.
"So we thought it would be ingenious to give the power to Obama, since he's now available."
Asked whether they were serious in their endeavour, Barack said: "It is ultimately a joke. We want people to wake up in the morning and, rather than have to see our usual candidates, rejoice in seeing Obama's face on the 500 posters we put up on the streets of Paris, and get away from the repeated scandals we are hearing about.
"The reaction from people has been brilliant. It's what they want. The funniest thing is when people first thing it's totally crazy, but then ask themselves: 'Actually, why not?'"
Barack said the group behind "Barack2017" did not express politcial views, but that it was "certain" that they wouldn't be voting for Marine Le Pen.
The approaching French election, for which the first round of voting begins in April, has caused concern among many French people due to a number of scandals that have emerged about candidates and the prominence in the polls of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
The "Obama2017" website's homepage cites the "inevitable failure of the next presidential election" and call on voters to sign the petition to "get France out of its lethargy".
“The French are ready to make radical choices. That is good because we have a radical idea to propose to them," it states.
“After a phantom five-year-term and faced with the announced failure of the next presidential election, we think it is time to move to the sixth Republic to get France out of its lethargy.
“To launch this sixth Republic, we wish to strike a blow by electing a foreign president as the head of our beautiful country.
“Barack Obama completed his second term as President of the United States on January 21, now why not hire him as President for France?”
The site proceeds to list several reasons why people should sign the petition, including a claim that Mr Obama “has the best CV for the job”, and a rallying cry that voters must "teach the world a lesson in democracy [...] at a time when France is about to vote for the extreme right.”
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
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GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - A rebel spokesman in eastern Congo said on Friday that his movement intended to march across the country to the capital Kinshasa to depose President Joseph Kabila, who refused to quit power at the end of his mandate last year.
Led by self-proclaimed ‘general’ William Yakutumba, the rebel force, calling itself the National People’s Coalition for the Sovereignty of Congo (CNPSC), has emerged as one of the strongest groups in Democratic Republic of Congo’s lawless eastern borderlands since its formation in June.
Analysts doubt that the CNPSC has the capacity to make a move on the capital. However it briefly captured some strategic towns in June and advanced this week to within a few kilometers of the city of Uvira along Lake Tanganyika, forcing U.N. helicopters to intervene to help Congolese troops drive them back.
Congo has been beset by a wave of prison breaks, rebellions and lawlessness since Kabila’s refusal to step down in December.
“We are even going to reach Kinshasa,” Dalton Waubwela Mwila, secretary-general of the CNPSC, told Reuters in a telephone interview. “Our ultimate objective is to be in Kinshasa.”
Kabila’s father, Laurent, came to power in 1997 on the back of a rebellion that started in eastern Congo, marching the more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) to the capital, but he crucially received backing from the armies of neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda.
“FLASH IN THE PAN”
Waubwela said that the CNPSC includes a number of armed groups in eastern Congo, including in its home province of South Kivu and the neighbouring provinces of North Kivu, Tanganyika and Maniema, where heavy fighting was also reported this week.
Yakutumba formed a militia bearing his name in 2007 and established himself as a warlord, gold smuggler and arms trafficker in South Kivu’s Fizi territory, but looks to be trying to raise an insurrection with nationwide support.
Regional wars in eastern Congo, which holds vast reserves of gold, tin, coltan and other minerals, between 1996-2003 killed millions and spawned dozens of armed groups that continue to exploit natural resources and prey on local populations.
Waubwela claimed that the coalition includes more than 10,000 men, but analysts estimate the size of the militia at closer to 300-450, and say it would require significant foreign backing or fresh alliances to be able to occupy much territory, let alone threaten Kabila in Kinshasa.
Waubwela said the rebels have armed themselves with weapons captured from Congolese forces.
Speaking to reporters in the eastern city of Goma on Thursday, the army’s top general, Didier Etumba, dismissed the CNPSC as a “flash in the pan” that the army would “put out”.
But the rebellion is yet another security headache for Kabila, who is also trying to tame a brutal insurgency in central Congo’s Kasai region, which has killed up to 5,000 people and displaced 1.4 million more in the past year. |
(UPDATE 8/27: Fixed one grammatical and one consistency error. Watch revised version here.)
I’m happy to present my latest mini-project, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien: Drama Theater vol. 3 – Suzumiya Akane. This is an audio drama CD that’s set in a period of the KimiNozo timeline we don’t see much of anywhere else – the first year after the accident. From Akane’s perspective, we get glimpses of her first days at Hakuryo, her budding friendship with Sakaki Chizuru, and her conflicting feelings towards Takayuki during the height of his PTSD. It is separated into eight chapters, and finishes with karaoke subs for Rumbling Hearts – Acoustic Ver.
To answer a couple of questions:
Why volume 3? Why did you skip 1, and 2? Why not 4?
The short answer is: volumes 1 and 2 are both reader’s digest rehashes of Haruka and Mitsuki Routes, respectively. Volume 3 is entirely fresh content, not found anywhere else, and contains no spoilers for Akane’s VN route whatsoever. It gives us some more insight into and justification for her three-year personality shift. I really enjoy it.
Will you do the other volumes, as well?
Not until the VN is released in some capacity, at least, for the reasons stated above. Volume 4 is just comedy content, but it’s probably better saved for later.
This was a bit more involved than my previous mini-projects, and while I realize an hour is a long time commitment, I highly recommend it to any curious KimiNozo fan looking to delve deeper into the franchise. Please do leave a comment and let me know if you like what you see, or have any thoughts to share. My entire goal with this series is to start up a dialogue about the franchise, and I’d love to hear what you have to say.
Thanks so much for your time. I hope you enjoy it.
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In the last few years, teams have spoken of Scotland as potential dark horses for the Six Nations Championship.
This year, after losses to New Zealand, South Africa and Tonga in November, no-one is giving us a hope.
Ah, we love the underdog status and what better way to start the campaign with a game against a confident England side at Twickenham?
Wet weather; a strong kicking game; good goal-kicker; strong line-out and defending like your lives depend on it: you start to see a picture that the English won't relish.
For the campaign as a whole, let's take the weather out of the equation and control the "controllables" - put those other facets together and you're going to have a chance to win every game you play.
To win at Test level, we need 10 players playing to their full potential and the others to have good games.
That's the reality of rugby at this level: too often we have had most players having OK games.
There are genuine match-winners in the squad in the form of Greig Laidlaw, David Denton, Johnnie Beattie, Richie Gray, Stuart Hogg, Max Evans and Tim Visser.
On paper, this side looks exciting: there seems to be a good balance and it'll be able to play in a variety of ways
What needs to change for Scotland to get some wins?
Composure is key: When the opposition are under pressure, keep them under pressure and don't let them off the hook easily. When we get into the 'red zone', come out with points - three, five, seven - anything will do.
Discipline has to be a priority. Two yellows against Wales last year and one against Italy proved to be key in defeat. These cards were awarded in positions where we were under no pressure and there was no need to offend. Teams will always give away penalties but make them 'good penalties'.
Confidence is the last aspect. We have a good squad with players who have been to a Heineken Cup semi-final, Pro12 play-offs and beaten Australia. Have the confidence in the players around you and play with that confidence.
With the team selection having been made, an interesting question to ask Scott Johnson would be whether he chose the game-plan or the team first: did he pick players to fit his game-plan or choose these players and then work out his strategy?
With his selection, especially in the back three, it seems like he has chosen a team to play some rugby.
However, this doesn't mean the ball will be thrown around Barbarians style. I would expect the wingers working off their wings and trying to isolate the 'heavier' English players.
On paper, this side looks exciting: there seems to be a good balance and will be able to play in a variety of ways: Laidlaw probing the corners from nine with pressure coming from a well-organised defensive line-out, or Ruaridh Jackson attacking the line and playing tight through Sean Lamont and Beattie.
Maitland, Visser and Hogg are all dangerous broken-field runners and, with centre Matt Scott playing the role of ball player, they should get opportunities.
The front five will be facing a big day at the office at the set-piece against England but have size and experience, and the bare stats should mean we're not too disadvantaged here.
It's also worth mentioning that there is some real fire-power available off the bench if we can be within touch at 60 minutes.
I'd like to see this team relatively unchanged and given an opportunity over the next three games to build and grow together.
Look at the list of Scotland's fixtures and they'll be pleased.
Find a good performance in a win or loss at Twickenham, followed by three home games and suddenly we, as a nation, start to get optimistic again…
Mike will be writing a column for BBC Scotland throughout the Six Nations campaign. |
FORGET football and leave the cricket bat and ball at home, because the frisbee is making a comeback.
The favourite airborne toy of the 1970s is not only making a triumphant return but is soaring to new heights in Wyong shire which became home to the Coast’s first disc golf course on Friday.
Wyong Council has installed nine chain wire baskets at Koala Park at Lake Munmorah to create a disc golf course which was officially opened last week.
media_camera Emilie Cameron, four time Australian champion, plays a game of Koala Park Disc Golf, at Doyalson. Picture:Peter Clark
The council’s parks and sports fields section manager Keith Ollier said disc golf was just like traditional golf but instead of hitting a tiny ball, you throw a flying disc, or frisbee.
“We heard about this sport and thought we have to bring it to Wyong Shire,” Mr Ollier said.
“After some research, Koala Park proved to be the perfect spot and we worked with professional Australian disc golfers to make sure our course is one of the best.
“This new recreation activity is free and is set up for those keen to take up a new sport or families and friends looking for something different to do on a weekend.
“Koala Park already boasts a sports field, tennis courts and full amenities including a kitchen and this new course will certainly increase the range of recreation options available.”
There are already more than 700 registered disc golf players in Australia and interest in the sport is growing each year.
Australian Disc Golf president Neil Roberts said Disc Golf was a simple sport anyone can play.
“Disc Golf can be played as a competitive sport or as a social pastime,” Mr Roberts said.
“It shares the same joys and frustrations of traditional golf, whether it’s sinking a long putt or hitting a tree halfway down the fairway. I’ve been competing since 2010 and it can be quite technical because it’s more than just throwing a frisbee.
“Just like ball golf, there are putters, mid-range discs and drivers as well as ones that throw to the left, right or roll along the ground.
“I was happy to work with the council to develop a course.
“I’m hoping to bring one of the Women’s Global events to Koala Park this May.”
Find out more on the Koala Park course at wyong.nsw.gov.au/discgolf |
A prominent Muslim scholar in Saudi Arabia has warned that those using alcohol-based biofuels in their cars could be committing a sin.
The warning was issued by Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi, a member of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, an institute that studies Islamic jurisprudence for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, an international group with a permanent delegation to the United Nations. According to the Al Arabiya News Channel, an international news outlet based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Mr. Najim directed his warning to Saudi youths studying abroad.
Al Arabiya notes that Najimi stressed that this warning was not an official fatwa, or religious edict, just his personal opinion. Najimi added that the issue "needs to be studied by the relevant religious bodies."
Ethanol, a common type of biofuel, is made of the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, and its production is similar to that of hard liquor. Plant matter is fermented using yeast, and the result is distilled to increase the concentration of alcohol.
Fuels with high concentrations of ethanol – the most common being E85, a gasoline blend with 85 percent ethanol – can be used in flex-fuel vehicles, which make up more than seven million of the roughly 250 million passenger cars and trucks on America’s roads. Most gasoline sold in the United States contains about 10 percent ethanol. The fuel is more common in many Latin American countries, particularly Brazil.
In addition to beverages and biofuels, ethanol is a widely used in industry for its properties as a solvent and an antiseptic. It's a common component of perfumes and paints. The chemical is also necessary in the production of vinegar – one of the Prophet Muhammad's favorite seasonings.
The Koran prohibits consumption of alcohol in three separate verses that were written over a period of several years. The first mention occurs in 4:43, in which Muslims are told that they must not pray while intoxicated. A verse written later – 2:219 – says that in wine and gambling "is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit." Finally, in 5:90-91, intoxicants and gambling are called "an abomination" and "Satan's handiwork":
Satan's plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?
This admonition is waived in the hereafter, apparently: Many passages in the Islamic holy book describe heaven as having rivers of wine.
Ironically, it was Muslim chemists who introduced distillation to the West. The process of distilling pure ethanol from wine was perfected by 8th- and 9th-century Persian chemists, who used it to create perfumes and eyeliner. Their writings were translated by European scholars in the 12th century, and the process was used to make potable spirits. The word "alcohol" is itself of Arabic origin. |
When your freezer breaks down, you might lose some leftovers or a box of your favorite popsicles. But when a scientist's freezer malfunctions, the world stands to lose thousands of years’ worth of stored history. That’s what happened last week, when an equipment failure at the University of Alberta (UAB) melted ancient samples of Arctic ice.
An ice core is kind of like the vertical equivalent of a tree’s rings. The gas bubbles, sediment, and chemicals trapped in each of its many layers tell a story about the world at that particular moment in time.
UAB’s Canadian Ice Core Archive holds 12 cores—nearly 1 mile of ice—representing roughly 80,000 years of our planet’s history. Some of the samples have been in storage since the 1970s. Many of them are now considerably smaller than they were a few weeks ago.
Each long, cylindrical core is stored in segments, a space-saving measure that may have been the collection’s salvation. The segments were divided between two freezers, one of which shut down over the weekend when the temperature-control system failed. In trying to correct the issue, the system made things worse, blowing hot air over the samples, turning the ancient ice back into water for the first time in millennia.
Glaciologist Martin Sharp rushed into the archive to find steaming puddles all over the floor. “It was more like a changing room in a swimming pool than a freezer,” he told The Guardian. “I’ve had better days. Let’s say that.”
The archive lost 12.8 percent of its total sample mass, including about 22,000 years’ worth from the Penny Ice Cap on Baffin Island. Some of the samples are “clearly toast,” Sharp told The Guardian, while others were barely affected.
The samples have been moved into more secure storage, and Sharp and his team plan to drill new samples to replace what they’ve lost. But the ice covering some of the original sampling sites is melting, too.
“Some of these ice caps are disappearing,” Sharp told The New York Times, “and we’re going to lose this record, in some cases sooner rather than later.” |
Bitcoin Breaking News Brief Apple Responds to FBI Backdoor Order in Effort to Save PR
February 17, 2016 — Apple is no stranger to handing over its users’ sensitive data to government – they went live on the NSA’s PRISM program back in late 2012, stated in their TOS and EULA documents that there should be expectation of privacy while using their services, and follow the common industry practice of handing over sensitive information they have on file with the issuance of a warrant. So the decision to reject a court ordered backdoor that would allow brute force decryption of their phones, accompanied by an open letter to Apple customers from CEO Tim Cook explaining their stance on the matter, has come as a surprise to many.
Also read: itBit to Expand Blockchain Operations Abroad
Apple’s Long History of Giving up User Data
The order arrives in the aftermath of the San Bernadino Shootings. Many thought initially that the court was asking Apple to do the impossible: pull private keys out of thin air to give investigators access to the Shooters’ encrypted data, which would have demonstrated a laughable lack of understanding of the data encryption process on the FBI’s part. The open letter from Cook indicates that the government request is much more competent and insidious, though:
“Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several key security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.”
Essentially, the court order mandates that Apple cooperates in assisting in the creation of a backdoor that would allow brute force decryption of any iPhone, which would be a disaster for Apple customers everywhere. It’s easy to see why Apple seems to have shifted its stance on privacy in this case: cooperation would, in addition to being a PR nightmare, but be setting a disturbing precedent that would allow law enforcement to circumvent 4th amendment rights even further, with corporate assistance. The FBI is citing the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify this court order, contending that the software backdoor is somehow a necessary act in analyzing their evidence.
Secure data, something that has been traditionally protected by 4th and 5th amendment rights, has been accessed previously through use of this law, including one case involving an iPhone 5s in 2014. Since that time, Apple has shifted its stance on personal information handoffs, and this is the first example where they’ve followed through on their new stated policies. While it is refreshing to see a multinational corporation defend it’s customers’ privacy, this protection of individual data may seem counter-intuitive to those who follow Apple’s data collection and analysis practices.
Remember: Apple is an information broker as much as they are a hardware and software company. They do sell their users’ data and metrics, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The problem here is that they lose their information collection capability if people stop using their phones because anyone can crack the built-in encryption. If people perceive your product as insecure and fundamentally flawed, they move away from your ecosystem, and if anyone has access to the information you’re trying to sell, it becomes much less valuable. The move to protect user data, in this case, makes as much sense for their data collection infrastructure as it does from a PR and best practices standpoint.
While it is nice to see Apple stand up to government pressures to invalidate user privacy, know that it is only because it serves Apple’s interests. They have a far from stellar track record when it comes to user data protection. For now, their goals dictate keeping strong encryption on their devices, but that has not and will not always be the case. Their policy on encryption will likely change with their corporate interest as it has several times in the past. Of course, this shifting stance on consumer rights is not unique to Apple, but in recent times, they’ve had the most extreme turnabout.
What do you think about this letter from Apple? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Apple |
Reincarnation—The Soul’s Journey on the Wheel of Birth and Death
“I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was twenty-six.” Henry Ford said that in the San Francisco Examiner on August 26, 1928. This surprising announcement put him in the ranks of a select group of Americans—Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Tom Paine, and of course Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman—who believed that the soul goes on to a new body when the present body dies. We tend to think of reincarnation, or transmigration of the soul, as a recent import from India, but actually the concept of reincarnation plays an important role in the philosophical and theological tradition of the West. Plato, who lived in Greece during the fourth century B.C. and who helped lay the foundations of Western philosophy, held that “a soul is allied with different bodies at different times.” (Laws, 10.903) And in the third century A.D., Origen, one of the fathers of the Christian Church, wrote in his book First Principles:
By some inclination towards evil [certain] souls lose their wings and come into bodies, first of men; then through their association with the irrational passions, after the allotted span of human life they are changed into beasts, from which they sink to the level…of plants. From this condition they rise again to the same stages and are restored to their heavenly place.
However, as Christian theology solidified over the centuries, this view became decidedly heretical, and in A.D. 553, Emperor Justinian issued his Anathemas Against Origen: “If anyone assert the fabulous pre-existence of souls and the monstrous restoration which follows from it, let him be anathema [cursed].” This edict snuffed out almost all talk of transmigration throughout Christendom.
Was Justinian right to condemn the idea of reincarnation as “fabulous” and “monstrous,” or is the soul actually “allied with different bodies at different times,” as Plato thought? The best way to settle the matter is to go directly to the source—the earliest mention of reincarnation. Fortunately, the earliest records of transmigration are also the most philosophically complete. They’re found in the Vedic Sanskrit literature written around 3,000 B.C. In India.
The Vedic view of reincarnation is clearly explained in the Bhagavad-gita, which is universally accepted as the essence of Vedic spiritual knowledge. In the Gita, the Supreme Lord Krishna enlightens His student and friend Arjuna in the science of self-realization, beginning with a lucid presentation of the process of reincarnation.
The Soul Within the Body
Right at the beginning of His instruction to Arjuna, Lord Krishna declares that transmigration of the soul is a fact: “As the embodied soul passes, in this body, from boyhood, to youth, to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death.”(Bg. 2.13) The existence of the soul—an unchanging conscious principle within an ever-changing material body—is implied by the recent findings of modern science. In The Human Brain, Professor John Pfeiffer points out that “your body does not contain a single one of the molecules that it contained seven years ago.” He compares the living body to a whirlpool. The form doesn’t change, but all the ingredients stream through at a dizzying pace. In his Foundations of Biology, L. L. Woodruff gives another apt analogy:
…The old saying that the materials forming the human body change completely every seven years is a tacit recognition that lifeless material, in the form of food, is gradually transformed into similar living matter under the influence of the body. Indeed, just as a geyser retains its individuality from moment to moment, though it is at no two instants composed of the same two molecules of water identically placed, so the living individual is a focus into which materials enter, play a part for some time, and then emerge to become dissipated in the environment.
So, during the seventy-year lifetime of an average American, he has “died” and been “reborn” ten times. Of course, unlike the body’s ultimate demise, when personal identity seems to end, these intermediate “deaths” don’t destroy the body’s structure and personal characteristics. Be that as it may, however, the physical substances of a seventy-year-old person’s body have actually changed ten times over. Has he been ten different people? Of course not. But then what exactly do we mean by the word “person”?
The best way to answer this question is to contemplate the person we know best—ourselves—through a simple exercise in memory. For instance, the farthest back I can remember is a day when I was about one-and-a-half years old. I was asking my mother if she could understand what I had been saying to her. I didn’t know the right words, though, and I became very frustrated. In my mind this incident sticks out vividly—what it was like physically and psychologically. Through such memories I can directly experience the continuity of my existence over the years. I can recall millions of things I did, saw, heard and felt. No one else enjoyed or suffered all these things—only I did. Thus I as a person am continuous, despite the discontinuity of my body.
Going further, I can become aware that my emotions, thoughts and memories are also ever-changing. I’m actually an observer of even these mental phenomena. They are flowing by me in the same way that the molecules of my physical body are flowing by me. My body is a gross form made of gross particles, and my mind is a subtle form made of subtle particles. But I’m neither one of them. The person I call myself is in reality a continuity of consciousness—an eternal spiritual soul.
The question now arises, “Why haven’t the scientists found the soul?” The simple answer is that an empirical scientist observes everything through his material senses and mind, which are too gross to perceive the subtle spiritual soul. There are some scientists, however, who do understand something of the existence of the person beyond the mind and body. For example, physicist Irwin Schroedinger, who in 1933 won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work in wave mechanics, wrote in What Is Life?: “Even if a skilled hypnotist succeeded in blotting out all your earlier reminiscences, you would not find that he had killed you. In no case is there a loss of personal existence to deplore. Nor will there ever be.” Of course, the most definitive statement on this subject is given by Lord Krishna Himself: “For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Bg. 2.20)
The Sojourn of the Soul
How you (the soul) pass from one body to another is explained by Lord Krishna through a striking analogy: “Just as a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.” (Bg. 2.22) Lord Krishna explains that the mind is the mechanism behind these transmigrations: “Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail [in his next life].” (Bg. 8.6) Everything we’ve thought and done during our life makes an impression on our mind, and the sum total of all these impressions determines our final thoughts at death, According to the quality of these thoughts, we are awarded a suitable new body after death.
I remember that when I was ten or twelve, back in the early fifties, we used to jokingly say things like “Don’t kill that fly! It may be your great-grandfather!” That wasn’t too far off, but we missed the real point of transmigration, which is that our next body after this one is better or worse according to the quality of our activities in this life. If we’re saintly, we’ll get a saintly body next time, but if we’re doggish, we’d better prepare ourselves for a dog’s life after this one. This is the law of karma, which states that for every action we perform, either good or bad, there is an appropriate reaction to be reaped either in this life or in a future life.
So the millionaire and the genius are reaping the benefits of good karma, and the pauper and the dunce, having committed sinful activities, are getting their just deserts. Perhaps we would like the system better if everyone became a millionaire or a genius, but the purpose of the law of karma is not to provide us a cozy homestead in the material world. The purpose is to bring us to the point of asking the all-important question: “How can I escape from the painful cycle of birth and death?”
And a tediously painful cycle it is. According to the Vedas, the vast cosmic wheel of birth and death rolls through 8,400,000 species of life: 900,000 aquatics, 2,000,000 plants, 1,100,000 insects, 1,000,000 birds, 3,000,000 quadrupeds, and 400,000 humans. If you start at the lowest level, you first have to pass through the very simplest one-celled organisms before reaching those with sense perception. Finally, you evolve through all the mammals up to the human stage. Krishna explains that after death “the living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of eye, ear, tongue, nose, and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects.” (Bg. 15.9) Therefore the type of body we have now is an expression of our consciousness at the time of our last death.
As Origen guessed back in the third century, the path of karma doesn’t always lead uphill. Once having reached the human stage, we can fall back down into lower forms of life if we misuse the facilities of the human body. The human form is special because only human beings have sufficient intelligence to inquire into the means for getting out of the cycle of birth and death. Only in the human form can we stop identifying ourselves with the bodies we are passing through and learn to see our spiritual identity within. Once we realize our eternal, indestructible spiritual nature, we are free from the vicious cycle of birth and death.
The Soul and the Supersoul
To actually establish ourselves on the spiritual platform, not only must we know ourselves (spirit) and matter (our bodies, minds and the world around us), but we must know the controller of both (God) as well. We know that God exists because there’s no other sensible explanation for the design of the universe. A story about Isaac Newton illustrates this point well. The famous British scientist once made an intricate model of the solar system. Somehow he’d figured out how to gear miniature planets to revolve around a miniature sun in a facsimile of their observed orbits. One day an acquaintance, an atheist, dropped by his house and was astonished by the ingenious machine.
“Who made this wonderful machine?” he asked. “Nobody,” Newton replied. “It just happened.” “Oh come now, stop teasing me. Who put together this machine?”
“Well,” said Newton, “you’re convinced that some person constructed this machine. But when you confront the entire universe, which is manufactured with a degree of precision far beyond that of this model, and on a scale infinitely greater, then you say it just happened by chance. Why is that? Only because you don’t want to admit there’s a person so great he could do such a thing. But there is, and He is God.”
What role God plays in our sojourn throughout the many species of life in the material world is explained by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita: “The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart…and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine made of the material energy.” (Bg. 18.61) When we transmigrate from one body to another, we forget all our past activities and unfulfilled desires. But the omniscient Lord, the eternal witness within our heart, knows all these things, and He fashions another body just suitable for us to try to satisfy our unfulfilled desires.
Thus the only way to escape from the chained victimization of repeated birth and death in this material world is to transform our mentality in such a way that at the moment of death we’ll be completely free of all material desires. It’s not necessary, or even possible, to stop desiring altogether; rather, it is the quality of our desires that must change—from material to spiritual. Material desires we’re familiar with—we’ve been cultivating them all our lives. But what are spiritual desires, and how can we cultivate them? Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gita: “Engage your mind always in thinking of Me and become My devotee. Offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me.” (Bg. 9.34)
At present we are always absorbed in thoughts of material well-being. As we have seen, however, this mentality inevitably leads to the misery and frustration of repeated birth and death. To be released from this painful wheel of karma, we need only transfer our thoughts to the Supreme Lord, Krishna. Then, at the time of death, He will award us a spiritual body to enjoy eternal, blissful association with Him.
The easiest way to absorb our mind in thoughts of Krishna is to hear and chant His glories, beginning with the maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. In addition, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has written many books describing the activities, qualities and words of Lord Krishna. By sincerely trying to follow the instructions found in these books, all of which contain the highest Vedic wisdom, one can cultivate loving devotion to Krishna and go back home, back to Godhead at the end of this lifetime. |
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[UPDATE] Sega has released a new statement and confirmed that the original quotes should be attributed to Haruki Satomi, CEO of SEGA Games, not Sega Sammy Holdings CEO Hajime Satomi.
"Seeing our fans across the world respond to our recent interview with Famitsu lets us know we've made the right first step in acknowledging who we are and where we want to be," Haruki Satomi said. "Sega is dedicated to bringing you quality gaming experiences and becoming a brand you love and trust again."
The original story is below.
Sega CEO Hajime Satomi has said he believes the company betrayed the trust fans put in it over the last few years, and added it is now aiming to improving the quality of its games in hopes of re-establishing itself as a valuable brand.
Speaking in an interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, which has been translated by Siliconera, Satomi said he has been discussing strategies to improve the quality of its games with employees.
"I've been talking to employees about how [Sega] should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on," he said. "Particularly in North America and Europe, where it's always been more of a focus on schedules."
"I believe that if we can't maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all."
Continuing, Satomi said he feels the company did its best to build strong connections with fans of Sega, but admitted that the games it released may have betrayed that faith.
"We did our best to build a relationship of mutual trust with older fans of Sega but, looking back, there have been some titles that have partially betrayed that [trust] in the past 10 years," he said.
"Sega in the 90s was known for its brand, but after that, we've lost trust, and we're left with nothing but reputation ... We'd like to win back the trust and become a brand once again."
Looking forward, the exec said Sega is planning to "announce something for home consoles at Tokyo Game Show."
In September 2013, Sega acquired bankrupted publisher Index Corporation, parent company of Persona 4 developer Atlus. A year later, Index Corporation was separated from Atlus.
The studio was tasked with continuing it game projects, one of which is Persona 5, with a team of 121 employees. Index's 166 employees, meanwhile, would focus on distribution, systems development, and advertisements.
Sega seemed to be transitioning away from console games and toward the PC and mobile markets, having invested in three Western developers, the most notable of which is Boston-based firm Demiurge Studios.
Demiurge, which was bought outright by Sega, worked with Harmonix, Gearbox, Irrational, and BioWare. The studio contributed to multiple Rock Band track packs, built the PC edition of Mass Effect, assisted with art design on the original BioShock, and worked on the ultimately canceled Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Its most recent release was mobile game Marvel Puzzle Quest, which it continues to support. |
U.S. taxpayers spent $150 million building fancy, hotel-like "villas" staffed with private security for government employees working in Afghanistan rather than having them live on U.S. military bases at a fraction of the cost, according to the top government watchdog charged with monitoring wartime waste.
The lead oversight team auditing U.S. spending in Afghanistan said Thursday the Pentagon's Task Force for Stability and Business Operations spent 20 percent of its budget on private housing and security guards for a "handful" of employees who could have lived on U.S. military bases for little or no extra charge.
"We are concerned that this may be another example of U.S. government officials not looking out for American taxpayers' dollars." — John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction
"We are concerned that this may be another example of U.S. government officials not looking out for American taxpayers' dollars," John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), told FoxNews.com.
The Department of Defense employees worked for the now-defunct Task Force for Stability and Business Operations, known as TFBSO or the Task Force -- the DOD's premiere program to kick-start the Afghan economy. The $150 million spent on the villas and private security supported "only a handful" and "no more than 5 to 10" TFBSO staff members the majority of the time, according to Sopko.
In a Nov. 25 letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, Sopko requested information on the Task Force's decision to spend nearly a fifth of its budget on the villas and security. From 2010 through 2014, Congress appropriated approximately $822 million to TFBSO for Afghanistan, of which the Task Force spent approximately $766 million.
"SIGAR's preliminary review indicates that TFBSO leadership rented specially furnished, privately owned 'villas' and hired contractors to provide 24-hour building security, food services, and bodyguards for TFBSO staff and visitors traveling in the country," Sopko wrote. "If TFBSO employees had instead lived at DOD facilities in Afghanistan, where housing, security, and food service are routinely provided at little or no extra charge to DOD organizations, it appears the taxpayers would have saved tens of millions of dollars."
Sopko's latest inquiry comes as part of a broader investigation into allegations of financial misuse and criminal activity within the Task Force, which ended in March 2015. In a report published last month, SIGAR found the DOD spent $43 million to build a gas station in Afghanistan that should have cost roughly $500,000.
According to SIGAR, each room at the villas was equipped with luxuries, including a flat screen TV, a DVD player and mini refrigerator. An "investor villa" with "upgraded furniture" and "western-style hotel accommodations" was also provided to TFBSO personnel, SIGAR noted.
While SIGAR said it could not determine what it would have cost for TFBSO employees to live at the U.S. Embassy, it estimated that for 2014 a staff of 10 would have paid roughly $1.8 million to live there.
Sopko said the decision to build the costly villas appears to have been made by Paul Brinkley, former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense and the Task Force's first director. Sopko said Brinkley has not cooperated with his office's request for information.
Brinkley, who now runs a private Dubai-based business development firm, disputed Sopko's claim, saying in an e-mail to FoxNews.com, "I have not been contacted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction regarding the questions raised in the letter to the Department of Defense since I departed government service almost five years ago, but would be happy to meet and discuss these topics."
"The Task Force for Business and Stability Operations operated under the authority and oversight of the Secretary of Defense and ISAF command during my tenure," said Brinkley, who left TFBSO in June 2011. "Its unique operating posture -- operating outside of military or diplomatic installations -- was elemental to its successes and was clearly sanctioned by Pentagon leadership as well as the Congress, and covered in a variety of media reports, GAO assessments, and think-tank studies."
"When I ran the task force, we had one mission: help bring normalcy to Afghanistan by encouraging sustained economic growth and employment for the Afghan people and the creation of an Afghan middle class,"he said. "Everything we did was focused on that goal, which is critical to Afghanistan’s ability to someday finance its own security and development needs without US taxpayer support."
Department of Defense spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Joe Sowers, acknowledged receipt of Sopko's Nov. 25 letter to Carter but he declined to comment further about the matter.
"We have received the recent letter from SIGAR and will respond," Sowers told FoxNews.com.
The TFBSO was originally created by the DOD to revitalize Iraq's economy after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The program was redirected to Afghanistan in 2009 to lead projects supporting economic development.
A former TFBSO official, speaking on background, said many of the locations where Task Force employees worked in Afghanistan lacked any U.S. military of civilian installations.
"Where appropriate or necessary we did operate on military installations, including Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province and at Kandahar Air Field," the former official told FoxNews.com. "Our operational construct was approved by the entire chain of command, from the secretary of defense to the combatant commander."
In an interview last month, Sopko told FoxNews.com his office has received "numerous allegations" of criminal activity by the Task Force from former employees as well as "current and former uniformed officers who worked over there, other agencies and contractors." He declined to elaborate on the specifics of the accusations.
A former TFBSO employee, who spoke to FoxNews.com on condition of anonymity, described the villas as hangouts for senior DOD officials who traveled to Afghanistan, "simply to accumulate flying miles."
"They just came in and didn’t do anything but hang out in the villa," the source said.
Cristina Corbin is a reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaCorbin. |
Florida Atlantic University's lifelong education program, already the largest of its kind in the country, keeps growing, with enrollment climbing more than 20 percent in four years.
The Lifelong Learning Society has about 16,000 paid members between its two locations in Boca Raton and Jupiter, mostly seniors who want to learn for the sake of learning. Thousands more attend occasional lectures on politics, religion, world affairs, the arts, and this year, sports.
The enormous growth of FAU's program, which started in the early 1980s, has attracted attention around the country.
"We all look at FAU and go, 'Holy cow,'" said Kali Lightfoot, executive director of the Osher Lifelong Institute Resource Center, which supports 117 programs in the country.
FAU is not a member of the Osher network, whose largest program is the University of Delaware, at about 3,000 students.
One obvious reason for FAU's popularity is the demographics of South Florida, which has one of the largest and most active senior communities in the United States. Buses from retirement communities drop off their residents to attend the classes.
Some students take one or two classes a year, while others, including Boca Raton resident Phyllis Novetsky, take more than 50.
"The subject matter is far different than I would imagine, and the quality is top notch," said Novetsky, 80, who recently relocated from Michigan. "It's a lot better way for me to spend my retirement than going to the casino."
Novetsky has plenty of company.
"We have people who register for thousands of dollars' worth of programs," said Herbert Shapiro, assistant provost for lifelong learning at FAU. "They're here all the time."
In Broward County, Nova Southeastern University offers a much smaller lifelong learning program, but it, too, is growing, from about 110 members in 2007 to more than 225 this year, program director Linda Maurice said.
FAU's Jupiter program has pretty much taken over that campus. While the regular student population in Jupiter is about 900, half what it was a decade ago, the Lifelong Learning population has more than tripled during that time, with about 7,000 members now.
In Boca Raton, more than 700 people signed up for an eight-week series on Islam taught by Robert Rabil, an associate professor of political science. That's 200 more than could fit in the program's Barry and Florence Friedberg Lifelong Learning Auditorium. So a second class was added.
The 108-page catalog for the Boca Raton campus includes classes on weighty subjects such as terrorism, United States and Israeli relations, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as more lighthearted fare, such as the music of Rogers and Hammerstein and the life of television pioneer Sid Caesar.
And new this year, both programs will offer multi-week sessions on sports. A four-week series titled "First Pitch to Sliding Home: A Beginner's Guide to Baseball History" starts Feb. 7 in Boca Raton. In Jupiter, a four-week series called "Sports in Society," presented by retired New York Times sportswriter Ira Berkow, started Jan. 14. Sportscaster Brent Musburger is scheduled to speak Tuesday.
"The series has been very well received with about 300 people attending," said Rene Friedman, director of the Jupiter program. "We've even had people in their 20s show up."
Most lectures are taught by faculty from FAU and other nearby colleges and universities, although a growing number of out-of-town speakers are participating when they're in the area, Shapiro said.
Prices at FAU's classes tend to range from about $25 for single lectures to about $70 for multi-session classes, plus a membership fee. Nonmembers can pay a higher per-class fee.
NSU's program attracts people who want to attend a lot of classes. The cost is about $500 a year for unlimited classes four days a week, with a prorated charge for a partial year and free offerings in the summer.
Many of NSU's programs focus on the arts, including classes on opera, French literature and singer Tony Bennett as well as sessions on politics, history and the law.
Florida International University and the University of Miami also offer lifetime learning programs, and the sessions also can be found in a number of community centers, libraries, synagogues, churches and condos.
NSU's Maurice said she's trying to secure money to do programs in community centers and condos, especially ones that serve diverse populations, including seniors who are black, Hispanic or lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
The long-term health of lifelong learning programs looks good, as more people in their 50s and 60s are joining, Shapiro said.
"We have people still working part-time, not fully retired yet. It's amazing to me," Shapiro said. "I thought the Florida retirement boom was waning, but we just continue to be incredibly successful."
[email protected] or 561-243-6637 or 954-425-1421
For more information
Lifelong learning programs are available in several locations in South Florida, including:
Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton: 561-297-3171 or 561-297-3185;
http://www.fau.edu/lls
Florida Atlantic University Jupiter: 561-799-8547 or 561-799-8667; http://www.fau.edu/lls
Nova Southeastern University: 954-262-8471;
Florida International University: 305-919-5910;
University of Miami: 305-284-4000; http://www.miami.edu/ollihttp://www.miami.edu/olli
Lifelong Learning Classes
Here are some new and popular classes at FAU's Boca Raton campus.
Five most popular classes
The Reel 1940s: Using Film to Explore a Pivotal Decade of the 20th-Century
Change in The Middle East 21st Century
F. Scott and Ernest: Friends and American Literature At Its Best
U.S. National Security, Islamism and Globalized Conflicts |
In February this year Zenimax Media Inc. announced the acquisition of virtual reality (VR) content developer Escalation Studios (Please, Don’t Touch Anything, Herobound Gladiators) to help with various projects. Now it’s been revealed that Escalation Studios has lent its talents to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, which is due for release on PlayStation VR this Friday, 17th November.
During an on-stage interview with Bethesda Softworks, Content Manager, Anne Lewis, she asked Andrew Scharf, Lead Producer, Bethesda Game Studios if the team had been working with anyone else to make The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR a reality, to which he responded: “We’re working with a great team at Escalation Studios. They recently joined the Zenimax family and we’re really happy to have them. They’ve been on the forefront of VR, they’re one of the best VR developers in the industry.”
Scharf went on to reveal Escalation Studios played a part in another of its big franchises coming to VR, Fallout 4 VR. “They’ve helped us hit the ground running with both Fallout and Skyrim VR,” he continued. “Helping us come up with smart solutions to some of the considerations you need to make when you’re developing a title for VR and redesigning games systems to work for VR.”
While both titles maybe several years old, the launch of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR this week for PlayStation VR and Fallout 4 VR in December for HTC Vive, are hotly anticipated, offering players a new way to immerse themselves in these fantasy/sci-fi universes. And let’s not forget about DOOM VFR which is coming to both aforementioned headsets on 1st December.
For The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR fans looking for more info prior to launch then there’s always today’s livestream event to see the videogame in action, or read VRFocus’ most recent preview from Gamescom.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR will come complete with all the downloadable content (DLC) previously released for the videogame, Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn, but there won’t be mod support. Last week also saw Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announce the PlayStation VR Skyrim VR Bundle featuring the title and the latest version of the headset.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, reporting back with any further updates. |
Obama’s mercantilist State of the Union address
Like other wonks, I watched last night’s State of the Union address with a mixture of curiosity and whiskey. As I noted a few days ago, each State of the Union address contains some statements that history will judge rather harshly. Initially that was my focus in listening to last night’s speech. That was quickly supplanted by a more interesting undercurrent to Obama’s text, however.
Foreign policy wonks like Fred Kaplan have argued that there wasn’t much foreign policy content in the speech. That’s true only if one has a rather narrow definition of foreign policy. What was striking to me was Obama’s global justifications for a lot of his economic policy. Throughout his speech, he used the specter of foreign economic threats to prod Congress into action. Consider the following:
Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs?…. After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. After locating plants in other countries like China, Intel is opening its most advanced plant right here at home. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again. There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend…. After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our own energy future. We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years…. Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. We’ve begun to change that. Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let’s drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we….. America’s energy sector is just one part of an aging infrastructure badly in need of repair. Ask any CEO where they’d rather locate and hire: a country with deteriorating roads and bridges, or one with high-speed rail and internet; high-tech schools and self-healing power grids. The CEO of Siemens America – a company that brought hundreds of new jobs to North Carolina – has said that if we upgrade our infrastructure, they’ll bring even more jobs…. Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job….
In each of these passages, Obama was using comparative language to contrast the United States with other countries — or, as he would put it, other magnets for jobs. The explicit thesis is that unless the United States makes the necessary investments, scarce jobs will leave American shores.
Obama has used this kind of rhetoric on the campaign trail and in previous SOTUs. It reveals a somewhat mercantiilist worldview, one in which jobs and economic growth have a zero-sum, relative gains quality to it.
[So, what, Dan? Most Americans see the world through a mercantilist lens as well. Will this kind of rhetoric matter?–ed.] I’m honestly not sure. Here’s the foreign economic policy component of the SOTU:
Even as we protect our people, we should remember that today’s world presents not only dangers, but opportunities. To boost American exports, support American jobs, and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership. And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.
Now on the one hand, announcing the formal start of negotiations with the EU on a trade deal augurs well for my prediction last year about foreign economic policy playing a big role in Obama’s second term. On the other hand, viewing trade through a mercantilist lens will make tough negotiations even tougher … which means I might owe Phil Levy an expensive DC dinner.
In a speech in which traditional security threats seemed very much on the wane in terms of actual threat as well as political salience, it would be a cruel twist of fate to ratchet up ill-conceived foreign economic threats as a substitute.
Developing… |
The Supreme Court upheld a key part of Arizona's tough anti-illegal immigration law in a 5-3 decision on Monday that allows police officers to ask about immigration status during stops. That part of the law, which never went into effect because of court challenges, will now immediately be enforced in Arizona. Other parts of the law, including a provision that made it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek work, will remain blocked, as the justices affirmed the federal government's supremacy over immigration policy.
[Yahoo News reporter Liz Goodwin will be answering your questions about the Supreme Court's immigration ruling today at 4 p.m. ET on Facebook.]
Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's swing vote, wrote the opinion, and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Conservative Justices Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas partially dissented, saying the entire law or most of the law should have been upheld.
In the opinion, Justice Kennedy wrote that the federal government's "power to determine immigration policy is well settled." But he also showed concern for what he described as Arizona's outsize burden in dealing with illegal immigration, seeming to sympathize with the state's decision to butt in on immigration enforcement. "Arizona bears many of the consequences of unlawful immigration," he wrote. "Hundreds of thousands of deportable aliens are apprehended in Arizona each year." But, ultimately, the justices found that Arizona cannot mete out its own state punishments for federal immigration crimes.
"Arizona may have understandable frustrations with the problems caused by illegal immigration while that process continues, but the State may not pursue policies that undermine federal law," Kennedy wrote in the opinion's conclusion.
The police immigration checks are allowed, however, because state police would simply flag federal authorities if they found an illegal immigrant. The federal government would then decide if they wanted to try to deport the suspect, or let him or her go. Kennedy did not rule out that these checks may be implemented in an illegal way, which means more lawsuits may be forthcoming.
Nevertheless, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer cast the decision as a "victory" for the state. "I am confident our officers are prepared to carry out this law responsibly and lawfully. Nothing less is acceptable," she said in a statement, adding that officers have been trained not to racially profile in their stops.
Erika Andiola, an activist and undocumented immigrant in Arizona, said that the Latino community will not be happy with the decision, as the immigration checks portion of the law was most unpopular with them. "It's another message to the Latino community that if you look brown you're a perfect target for the police," she said.
The Obama administration sued to block Arizona's law, called SB1070, shortly after it passed two years ago, saying it interfered with federal authority over immigration. The law made it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek work or fail to carry proper immigration papers. It also requires police officers to check immigration status and make warrantless arrests for immigration crimes in some cases. A federal judge prevented those aspects of the law from going into effect, but the law became a lightning rod around the country, sparking boycotts and counterboycotts and opening up a debate about the nation's illegal immigrant population.
In oral arguments in April, many of the justices seemed deeply skeptical of the government's argument that local police officers would interfere with federal authority over immigration law if they began asking people about their immigration status during stops. Though much of the debate around the law has focused on "racial profiling"—whether Hispanic people would be stopped and questioned by police based on their ethnicity—the government did not even mention those words in its case against the law, instead focusing on the federal government's supremacy in immigration matters. Justices repeatedly criticized the government's argument against immigration checks. Even Sotomayor, part of the court's liberal wing, said she was "terribly confused" by the government's argument against the checks. |
Taxpayers face an even greater slug for Barnaby Joyce's relocation of a Canberra public service agency to the heart of his own electorate, with desperate bosses at the pesticides authority considering pay rises of up to 15 per cent in order to convince staff not to quit.
The pay rises would come on top of a 1.5 per cent retention bonus for workers still with the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority in December 2017, a 3 per cent bonus if they remain on the books until December 2018 and a 10 per cent if they are still around when the Canberra office shuts in mid-2019.
Up to 12 free return flights a year between Canberra and Armidale are also being considered as an inducement for workers at the APVMA if they agree to make the move from their homes in and around the capital, 800 kilometres north to the northern NSW town.
Fairfax revealed this month that only 10, at most, of the APVMA's regulatory scientists were prepared to make the move to New England, the electorate of Deputy Prime Minister Mr Joyce, who is also Agriculture Minister. |
The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere – an underwater wilderness stretching over 700 miles along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.
One of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the Americas, the reef is home to a dazzling variety of coral and more than 500 species of fish, and provides a livelihood for more than a million people. But now, a combination of mass tourism and poor waste management has left the reef increasingly vulnerable to climate change, placing this natural wonder in serious trouble.
“Throughout the Caribbean, we have seen a massive decrease in coral coverage,” says Michael Webster, executive director of the Coral Reef Alliance, a nonprofit organisation that works on reef conservation in Honduras. “Whereas we might have had 60-70% coral coverage in the past, now it’s down to 5-10% in places.”
Now, the rapidly changing climate could make the damage even worse. “We’re seeing these huge variations in rainfall, temperature, weather,” says Amanda Acosta, executive director of the Belize Audubon Society, a nonprofit responsible for managing reefs off the coast of Belize. “In 2012, we had massive rainfall,” she says. “Last year, we had no rain at all. And in the summer, the sea was as warm as a bath pan.”
The impacts of these rapid weather changes are already being witnessed across the reef system. Jesús Arias-González, a researcher at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico, conducted a study of the entire region last year and found 22% of the coral colonies presented signs of bleaching from elevated sea temperatures. The bleaching could soon get worse: in September the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began issuing coral bleaching alerts all along the Mesoamerican Reef. While cooler winter waters have since decreased alert levels, such warming events will likely increase as global weather patterns change.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Corals reefs along the southern region were hit the hardest with up to 80% of corals showing signs of bleaching in Roatan and Utila. Photograph: Courtesy of Bleach Watch Roatan
But although this level of damage is concerning, for many scientists who spoke to the Guardian the more pressing threat is mass tourism. “Climate change happens long term,” Arias-González says. “The massive development happening right now is much more dangerous.”
Spectacular rebirth of Belize's coral reefs threatened by tourism and development Read more
“The bleaching is certainly getting worse every year,” says Vanessa Francisco, a field officer with Resiliencia, a collaboration between the United Nations Development Program and the Mexican government to strengthen natural protected areas against the effects of climate change. “But the biggest problem we have is pollution.”
The growth of mass tourism as well as farming has resulted in an increase of untreated waste and agricultural runoff on to the reef; a 2010 study found traces of raw sewage, pesticides and illicit drugs in the underground river system of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, groundwater that would “eventually discharge into Caribbean coastal ecosystems”. A 2013 study concluded that “domestic waste management and final disposal in Belize, Guatemala and Honduras is a critical problem that needs to be addressed urgently”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest On Yucatán peninsula in Mexico, the government is planning to create a marine reserve that would extend 200 miles out from the coast. Photograph: Klaus Thymann
The increase in waste acts as a fertiliser to macroalgae, a kind of fleshy algae that can compete with and eventually smother or kill the corals. According to the Healthy Reef Initiative (HRI), an alliance of more than 30 organisations that monitors the Mesoamerican Reef, macroalgae cover has nearly doubled in the last 10 years across the region. This poses a serious problem because, as Francisco explains, a reef which is in a poor condition due to algae blooms is much less likely to withstand the effects of climate change: “It’s like getting a cold if you have HIV,” she says. “It reduces the reef’s resilience.”
According to Webster, from the Coral Reef Alliance, these underwater ecosystems are highly adaptable under normal circumstances, constantly subjected to the eroding forces of storms and ocean currents. “Reefs are in a perpetual state of recovery,” he says. “A healthy reef is one that’s growing faster than it’s eroding.” A reef that is ravaged by macroalgae, however, will have a harder time bouncing back from an unseasonably warm current or a severe storm.
Mary Peter, 35, is a diving instructor in the tiny town of Xcalak, on the border between Mexico and Belize. Last year, Xcalak was hit by tropical storm Earl, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane to hit Mexico in 10 years. “It left a lot of devastation,” says Peter. “It destroyed a lot of the top reef structure. Everything was broken off; we were swimming through debris.” Six months on, however, Peter says “the reef is recovering nicely. Those chunks of coral that broke off are integrating back into the ecosystem.”
The increase in waste acts as a fertiliser to macroalgae, a fleshy algae that competes with and kills the corals
This kind of destruction and recovery is part of the reef’s natural ebb and flow: However, with hurricanes and storms likely to increase in frequency and severity because of climate change, the recovery process will become more difficult. When you add overfishing and pollution, the result could be devastating. “The future is going to be warmer, more disturbed, more acidic,” says Webster. “Corals are going to have to adapt. But what if they can’t? If you’re protecting the forest and you lose all the trees, it’s not a forest anymore.”
To stave off damage, scientists and nonprofit groups across the region are working with local communities to reduce overfishing, minimise pollution and strengthen the reef. “Climate change is a world issue,” says Webster. “We’re working to solve problems at a community level so we can give the reef a better chance to adapt to those global problems.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A coral reef at Banco Chinchorro Photograph: Alamy
Miguel Jarillo is a fisherman in Mexico’s Banco Chinchorro, the largest atoll in the northern hemisphere and a Unesco biosphere reserve. Ten years ago, he was trained by the World Wildlife Foundation to monitor the reef, something he has been doing ever since, providing data on the reef’s health for a number of different NGOs and conservation groups, as well as maintaining a more sustainable fishing practice. “It’s become a vice,” he says. “Going out into the sea and looking after my own resource. Because if I don’t look after it, no one else will.”
Oceans under greatest threat in history, warns Sir David Attenborough Read more
In Belize, too, there is an increasing awareness of the reef as a vital economic resource, generating 15% of the country’s GDP. When the government began seismic tests for offshore oil near the reef last year, the outcry from the community in the tourist town of San Pedro was such that authorities shut the operation down after one day. “Without this reef, we’re just like any other Central American country,” says Elis Mei, 34, a tour operator in San Pedro. “This reef keeps our economy going. Without it, we’re done.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nurse sharks at the Hol Chan marine reserve off Ambergris Caye, Belize. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
There are signs that conservation efforts are paying off, albeit extremely slowly. According to HRI’s latest survey, coral cover has increased from 10% to 17.5% over the last 10 years. Herbivorous fish, which can help reduce macroalgae cover, have also increased. Five new Marine Protected Areas have been designated since 2011, meaning that the four countries now protect 20% of their territorial sea. Last year the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, designated the Mexican Caribbean biosphere reserve, a 5.75m-hectare reserve off the Yucatán peninsula.
But designating marine-protected zones only achieves so much. “Up to now, the decree is just on paper,” says HRI’s Marisol Rueda Flores, pointing out that the Mexican government has simultaneously cut funding from the body that oversees marine parks. “Mexico has some of the best laws for protecting coastal areas – the problem is no one follows them. The government has barely begun to realise the urgency of this situation.”
• Reporting for this story was supported by the Fund for Environmental Journalism |
WASHINGTON -- A batch of new polls from two key battleground states produced some of the largest leads yet for President Barack Obama, drawing criticism from the campaign of Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
In Ohio and Florida, the new surveys from The Washington Post and the polling partnership of CBS News, The New York Times and Quinnipiac University show Obama leading by margins approaching double-digits.
While the margins produced by these and other surveys vary, they collectively point to a consistent underlying trend: Big gains in enthusiasm among Democratic partisans have helped boost Obama since the party conventions.
In Florida, a state widely considered a must-win for Romney, results ranged from a whopping 9 point Obama lead (53 to 43 percent) on the new CBS/Times/Quinnipiac poll, to a 4 point Obama advantage on the Washington Post poll (51 to 47 percent), to a much narrower 1 point edge for Obama (48 to 47 percent) on a Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Mason Dixon poll.
Most of the other polls have been closer to the Post and Mason-Dixon results. The HuffPost Pollster tracking model, which combines results from all public polls -- national and statewide -- to produce an estimate for each state shows Obama leading in Florida by just over five percentage points.
In Ohio, the two new live interviewer surveys both give Obama wide leads. The CBS/Times/Quinnipiac poll shows him leading by 10 percentage points (53 to 43 percent), while the Washington Post poll has Obama ahead of Romney by 8 (52 to 44 percent).
A third survey conducted by Gravis Marketing, a call center whose automated surveys do not sample cell phones and that consistently produces more Republican-leaning results, found a smaller lead for Obama (45 to 44 percent). The Gravis numbers were the closest margin for Romney among the recent polls. Three other Ohio polls released in the last week gave Obama leads varying between 3 and 7 percentage points.
The HuffPost Pollster tracking model, which also corrects for pollster "house effects" -- consistent differences across polling firms -- currently gives Obama an advantage of just over six percentage points.
On Monday, Romney campaign pollster Neil Newhouse joined a chorus of conservative pundits in questioning the partisan and demographic composition of recent polls in battleground states. "I don't think [the polls] reflect the composition of what 2012 is going to look like," Newhouse told the Hill.
Both the CBS/Times/Quinnipiac and Washington Post polls reported the partisan composition of their samples, the percentages of likely voters who said they think of themselves as Democrats, Republicans or independents. Conservative critics have been comparing the party identification results from recent polls to the partisanship expressed by voters surveyed by exit pollsters in 2008, typically focusing on the margins separating Democrats and Republicans. In both Ohio and Florida, the Washington Post poll found the Democratic advantage to be slightly narrower than 2008, while the new CBS/Times/Quinnipiac polls show it to be slightly wider in Ohio and considerably wider in Florida.
The most notable difference, however, is that all of the current polls are showing more independents among likely voters than exit polls found had voted four years ago. So in absolute terms, the percentages of both Democrats and Republicans fall short of the exit poll estimates from four years ago. That difference is not surprising. Voters typically express a slightly greater sense of partisanship moments after voting than they do weeks or months before voting.
Contrary to the assertions of some commentators, the pollsters who conduct the CBS/Times/Quinnipiac and Washington Post surveys do not directly set the partisanship or the demographics of their likely voter samples. They first sample all adults in each state, weighting the demographics of the full adult sample (for characteristics such as gender, age, race and education) to match Census estimates for the full population.
They then use different methods to select "likely voters" -- those who indicate they are likely to vote -- without further adjusting their characteristics. If the partisanship or demographics of the likely voters changes, it tells us something about the attitudes that will drive voter turnout.
The means used to select those likely voters vary across polls, and are arguably as much art as science, but the most recent results provide an important measure of rising Democratic enthusiasm. "Nearly half of Florida Democrats now say they are more enthusiastic about voting than in the past," CBS News reports, "up from 24 percent at the start of August." National surveys like Gallup and the Pew Research Center have tracked similar trends.
No measure of voting intention is perfect and, as CBS also reports, Romney retains some key advantages among other cuts of the most engaged voters. "The race is far closer," they add, "among voters who say they are paying a lot of attention to the campaign - it's a tie among that group in Ohio, and Mr. Obama's lead in Florida shrinks to four among this subset." |
CLOSE The NCAA made the move in reaction to the state's HB2 law, emphasizing that events must promote an "inclusive atmosphere." USA TODAY Sports
General view of a basketball on the court before the game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and North Carolina Tar Heels during the second round of the women's NCAA tournament at Carmichael Arena. (Photo11: Rob Kinnan, USA TODAY Sports)
The NCAA announced on Monday the relocation of seven previously awarded championship events — including NCAA tournament games in Greensboro — from the state of North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year as a result of the state's controversial House Bill 2.
The law prevents cities and counties from passing protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And public schools must require bathrooms or locker rooms be designated for use only by people based on their biological sex. The NCAA sent a questionnaire in July concerning discrimination issues to the local organizing groups in cities that have been named to host any NCAA event in any of its three competitive divisions or are interested in staging them.
The NBA moved its the All-Star game in Charlotte for the same reasons in July and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called the law "embarrassing" in an interview with USA TODAY Sports.
The NCAA cited "state laws that limit civil rights protections" and emphasized that its championship events must promote an "inclusive atmosphere for all college athletes, coaches, administrators and fans."
“Fairness is about more than the opportunity to participate in college sports, or even compete for championships,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement. “We believe in providing a safe and respectful environment at our events and are committed to providing the best experience possible for college athletes, fans and everyone taking part in our championships."
Cyd Zeigler, LGBT activist and co-founder of Outsports, said the move is a big step in the right direction but still felt there was more work to be done on the NCAA's behalf.
"I'm surprised and encouraged by the NCAA's announcement," Zeigler said. "They have previously fallen back on the idea that the national office has limited power and bureaucratic hurdles to affect change like this. Now that they've taken this step, they need to further protect student-athletes and coaches and ban all members with specific anti-LGBT policies. Removing events from North Carolina is nice, but the association continues to have members that discriminate against LGBT people. What they do with those members in the next year will tell us how serious they are, or if this was just a P.R. move."
HB2 was signed into law by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory earlier this year. A spokesman with McCrory’s office couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Monday evening by the Associated Press, but a spokeswoman with the state Republican party blasted the decision in statement, saying it is “so absurd it’s almost comical.”
“I wish the NCAA was this concerned about the women who were raped at Baylor,” spokeswoman Kami Mueller said Monday night.
Here's the NC GOP's response to the NCAA. I made sure it was not a parody account. pic.twitter.com/BD8Ak8Rx0q — Andrew Carter (@_andrewcarter) September 13, 2016
The seven events that will be relocated are:
► 2016 Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, College Cup (Cary), Dec. 2 and 4.
► 2016 Division III Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championships (Greensboro), Dec. 2 and 3.
► 2017 Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, first/second rounds (Greensboro), March 17 and 19.
► 2017 Division I Women’s Golf Championships, regional (Greenville), May 8-10.
► 2017 Division III Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships (Cary), May 22-27.
► 2017 Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship (Cary), May 26 and 28.
► 2017 Division II Baseball Championship (Cary), May 27-June 3.
New locations for the championship events are expected soon.
The NCAA Board of Governors stressed in its announcement that "North Carolina has the only statewide law that makes it unlawful to use a restroom different from the gender of one's birth certificate, regardless of gender identity."
Contributing: The Associated Press |
The United States condemns in the strongest terms the deadly terrorist attack today against a military checkpoint in southeastern Turkey that left many dead, including civilians, and scores more wounded. We also condemn the senseless motorcycle bomb attack near a police station in Istanbul on Thursday that was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, the PKK's urban terrorist unit. This attack is just the latest in a deeply concerning trend of increasing violence by the PKK, which has killed both security personnel and civilians throughout Turkey. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of those killed, and we wish a speedy recovery to those injured. We remain steadfast in our support for our NATO ally, Turkey, and reaffirm our commitment to continue working together to defeat all forms of terrorism.
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An Emirati man has taken a brave first step this week and has applied to the courts for a sex reassignment surgery. He is the first to do so in the country, soon after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) passed a bill allowing the surgical procedure in their country.
This bill recognizes gender dysphoria as a medical condition which allows doctors in the UAE to perform sex reassignment surgeries if (1) the individual’s sex is unclear or (2) if the person’s sex does not match their physiological and psychological gender.
The Emirati man’s lawyer told Gulf News, “ever since she was three, the woman felt instead that she is actually a male. She would have an intense desire to have a male body and to be accepted by others as a male and feels her true identity is male.” The article also mentioned that this turmoil in his mind and body caused him a lot of depression and anxiety.
His case will be heard on September 28, 2016. People are hopeful that similar cases in the future will not need legal approval for sex reassignment surgeries after this precedent, but only medical approval.
The man, who chose not to be named, spoke with 7days UAE about his upcoming sex reassignment. He said, “I spoke to my family and described how I felt. I showed them all the medical documents that I had got from medical centers and doctors. However, they didn’t accept what I was dealing with at all.”
Soon after, he left his family home and has lived on his own. He also said he had felt suicidal for a while, but since he considered himself devout, he prayed. “I found a number of muftis who said this operation is allowed for people with specific medical conditions. And I have been undergoing psychological treatment since 2012.”
He knows he will go abroad for the surgery, but wants to be approved by Abu Dhabi courts first as he will need a new passport and hopes to marry a woman some day.
“I found a number of muftis who said this operation is allowed for people with specific medical conditions. And I have been undergoing psychological treatment since 2012.” tweet
This law comes just a few months after the detainment of the transgender actress, Gigi Gorgeous, at Dubai airport. The law is a part of an effort to modernize medical laws in UAE.
Iran has provided this surgical procedure for decades
Iran holds the rank for the second highest number of sex reassignment surgeries in the world. People from all over the Middle East, and even Europe, come to Iran for the procedure. In fact, a fatwa, or religious decree, was established first by their Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1987. Following suit, prominent Shia religious leaders all have fatwas surrounding the topic and legality of transgenders, gender dysphoria and gender confirmation surgery.
Iran holds the rank for the second highest number of sex reassignment surgeries in the world. tweet
Although the stigma is still present, in a government and legal aspect, Iran’s progressive attitude towards their transgender citizens, includes full coverage of the surgeries by insurance. They also provide all legal documents without classifying any behavioral or sexual disorders.
According to a report by gender theorist, Afsaneh Najmabadi, “For legal and medical authorities, sex change surgeries are explicitly framed as the cure for a diseased abnormality, and on occasion they are proposed as a religiously sanctioned option for heteronormalizing people with same-sex desires or practices.” As homosexuality is a crime in Iran, many LGB individuals find that sex reassignment surgeries are their only option.
In the documentary “Be Like Others” by Tanaz Esghanian, a Muslim cleric explains why homosexuality is forbidden and sex reassignment is not: “An action is allowed unless it states specifically in the Qur’an that an act is a sin.”
As homosexuality is a crime in Iran, many LGB individuals find that sex reassignment surgeries are their only option. tweet
He goes on by stating the following: “Why is adultery one of the seven deadly sins? Because it specifically says so in the Qur’an. Because it does not specifically state that sex change is a sin, therefore, we cannot call it a sin.”
Some Pakistani Muslim clerics recognize transgender rights
Earlier this year, 50 Pakistani Muslim clerics declared a fatwa stating that transgenders may legally marry. Although this is not through the government or through any political organization, the group of clerics called Tanzeem Ittehad-i-Ummat has over tens of thousands of followers throughout the country.
There are drawbacks however. To qualify one must be fully male or fully female and possess an ID that states their gender. Many are calling on the Pakistani government to include a transgender option on their national ID.
Parveen, who is a transgender activist, stated, “I want to marry a male transgender, but to register a marriage I need a national identity card with mention of my gender, which is not available.” She went on to state, “I was kicked out from my family in my childhood. Now authorities are asking for my father’s card number for my ID, but my family refuse to even see my face.”
The group of clerics also called for an end of discrimination against transgender members of the society, especially after the attacks earlier this year against the community.
When people speak up against the discrimination and fight for the rights of the marginalized members of their society, that is when progress occurs. There is still a long way to go for equal rights, but these three countries have taken their first step in the right direction. Protecting and respecting our neighbors and those around us is a part of Islam that should be practiced. |
You may have noticed that there were commercials during Wizards and Capitals games on Comcast SportsNet Mid Atlantic last weekend telling Dish Network subscribers to call the network and tell them not to remove the channel from the lineup. If you were wondering when this started, Capitals play-by-play announcer Joe Beninati announced it Thursday during their 3-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche.
The commercials, and play-by-play announcers' messages about the issue are part of a marketing campaign by the channel to get fans to voice their displeasure to Dish, and ensure that there is no interrupted coverage. According to Multichannel News, Dish Network's current contract with CSN Mid Atlantic expires on December 2, which is next Tuesday.
As you might have guessed, the reason why these commercials are going on is because of a stall in negotiations between NBC Sports Group (CSN's parent), and Dish Network, which currently airs the CSN affiliates for the Mid Atlantic (the channel we watch in the D.C. area), Chicago, Bay Area, and California (Sacramento area) regions. In short, NBC Sports Group wants to get paid fairly by Dish Network for the regional sports channels. Dish Network claims that NBC Sports Group is demanding a "20 percent price increase for more than 90 percent of Dish customers ... when only a small fraction of those consumers actually watch the channels," per the Multichannel report.
While it may not be uncommon to see cable television providers get in disputes with television channel providers, Dish Network's dispute with NBC Sports Group runs pretty deep. Dish recently let CSN New England go off its airwaves in August, and they also don't air other NBC regional networks like SNY (New York City), CSN Philadelphia, or CSN Northwest (Portland, Oregon), so Dish Network subscribers in those areas can't watch the teams that are broadcast on those networks.
I am not a Dish Network subscriber, so I will still get my Wizards and Capitals games aired on my television set after December 2. But I hope that this dispute gets resolved soon, because many sports fans who have Dish Network could be in the dark if this does follow through.
If you are a Dish Network subscriber and wish to get your voice heard, call 1-844-I-WANT-CSN, or click here to get to CSN's special site. |
It is Skywalker’s latest masterpiece that acts as long-rang cruise professional aerial survey aircraft.
WALL-E 2000 has three active canopy hatches that made of translucent frosted sheet. It is not only have beautiful appearance, but also very convenient and practical. The inner space of cabin adopts lamination processing that increases one times of available area on the condition that original volume are the same. Electric accessories can be placed and fixed well in this inner space.
It is equipped with strong double front engines that can control aerial vehicle flexibly. Through a large number of optimization design and repeated flying testing, it can complete high quality flying, aerial shots and aerial mission in complex environment with real-time dynamic control system on the fuselage.
Specifications:
Motor: 2815KV 650*2pcs
Wing span: 2030mm
Propeller: (9*6/10*6 )*2pcs
Fuselage length: 1120mm
Servo: 12g*4pcs
Wing area: 48dm^2
Flying weight: 2500g-3000g
Battery: 4S 10000-16000mah
C.G.: 80-85mm behind the leading edge
Takeoff: Hand cast, catapult shot
Landing: Parachute landing
Air speed: 60-80km/h
Maximum of flying time: 60-120min
Maximum of flight level: 6000m
http://www.fpvmodel.com/skywalker-wall-e2000-2030mm-wingspan-fpv-rc-airplane_g1192.html |
ON THE NIGHT before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling Monday in Montgomery v. Louisiana, giving new hope for release to prisoners serving life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles, Sister Alison McCrary received a collect call from the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. It came from a man she had met during her 10 years visiting the prison as a spiritual adviser to those on death row. Nicknamed “Reverend Joe,” he did not face execution, but like most of Angola’s residents, nonetheless confronted the prospect of dying in prison.
“He usually calls me wanting to talk about scripture,” McCrary told me over the phone from New Orleans. “He’ll want to make sure he’s got the right interpretation.” But on Sunday night, he was calling because he was anxious. Convicted of murder in Shreveport in the early 1960s, Reverend Joe was one of hundreds of Louisiana prisoners anxiously awaiting the decision in Montgomery, which would determine whether an earlier Supreme Court ban on mandatory life without parole for juveniles should apply retroactively to people like him. In 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, the justices had declared such sentences unconstitutional for people who committed their crimes when they were younger than 18. But Louisiana, among other states, refused to apply the ruling to people already behind bars. A different Angola prisoner, Henry Montgomery, appealed his sentence all the way to the Supreme Court. Following oral arguments held last fall, it would be up to the justices to tell Louisiana whether or not it was breaking the law by forcing people like Montgomery and Reverend Joe to keep serving a sentence the Court had previously declared unconstitutional.
When he called McCrary, Reverend Joe had no idea that the Court would be ruling the very next day. Nor were his hopes vested solely in Montgomery — he was seeking other avenues to challenge his sentence. But if the justices were to rule in his favor, McCrary said, “that’s when he would know for sure” he had a shot at release. After a life spent in prison, for the first time Reverend Joe could catch a glimpse of freedom. And it scared him.
“Reverend Joe is well-respected at Angola,” McCrary explained. “He has community there.” Now in his 70s, he is active in the prison’s many religious activities and he works as a trustee, bringing food to death row visitors like McCrary. Outside the prison gates, however, he knows almost no one. While he has family in Louisiana and Texas, McCrary believes he has not been in touch with them for 50 years.
In addition to the obvious challenges of finding a home or a job, the question of health care will be serious and immediate for a man his age. For McCrary, who along with a community of activists in New Orleans took in Louisiana exoneree Glenn Ford after his release in 2014, caring for him before he died of cancer last June, the challenges that accompany the victory in Montgomery are familiar.
“Folks are really celebrating now,” she said on Monday, “but there’s also lots of concern.” For those who get out after decades behind bars, “What’s it going to be like in the free world?”
SUCH A QUESTION might feel premature to those who followed the long road to Montgomery. After all, it took three-and-a-half years and much litigation for the Supreme Court to force the states to apply Miller retroactively. Even now, the Montgomery ruling is no guarantee for release. “Today’s decision simply provides an opportunity for review,” Mark Plaisance, the Louisiana attorney who argued the case before the Court last fall, reminded reporters on Monday. The ruling is “just the first step in a long process for Mr. Montgomery.”
At 69, Henry Montgomery does not have the luxury of time. Yet he is among the lucky ones — at least he has representation. For other prisoners, finding a lawyer to challenge their continued incarceration is the first in a daunting series of hurdles. According to McCrary, word at Angola is that local attorneys will soon be visiting the prison to instruct “offender counsel substitutes” — jailhouse lawyers — on how to begin filing petitions on behalf of fellow inmates. But juvenile lifers must also wait for the state to decide on the legal venue for such a challenge. Then, ultimately, they must convince the state’s chosen decision-makers that they are worthy of early release.
From state to state, the question of who will make these decisions is still up in the air. After Miller, several states simply abolished juvenile life without parole, restoring parole eligibility or imposing lesser determinate sentences on those already imprisoned. Other states opted for resentencing hearings, putting individual prisoners’ fates in the hands of a judge. For those recalcitrant states that refused to do either, Justice Kennedy sought to provide reassurance in Montgomery that the 6-3 ruling “does not require States to relitigate sentences, let alone convictions, in every case where a juvenile offender received mandatory life without parole.” Instead, he suggested, writing for the majority, states can give a chance for such prisoners “to be considered for parole.”
In New Orleans, the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights was quick to embrace this suggestion. The state “has a choice to make,” the legal nonprofit explained on its website following Monday’s ruling. It can offer prisoners “costly, lengthy, substantive hearings” to the tune of $3 million to fund the first year of defense attorneys alone, according to an estimate by the Louisiana Public Defender Board. Or it can grant juvenile lifers some shot at release by allowing them to go before a parole board — an option the group’s director argues saves money, preserves public safety (“by ensuring that nobody is released without review”), and is “fairer for victims, because it will mean that they do not have to go through the difficulties of a new court hearing.”
For lifers in Louisiana, the prospect of going before a parole board is practically unthinkable — a dream come true. Unlike in other states that retain as a sentencing option life with the possibility of parole, until very recently, all life sentences in Louisiana were death-in-prison sentences. This has begun to change: In 2012, following a campaign by the American Civil Liberties Union and others, Gov. Bobby Jindal signed legislation to grant parole eligibility to lifers convicted of certain nonviolent crimes.
Still, as in most states, winning parole in Louisiana is exceedingly difficult. Last summer, following a thorough review of the state of parole across the country, the Marshall Project found parole boards nationwide to be secretive, driven by politics, and “vested with almost unlimited discretion to make decisions on almost any basis. Hearsay, rumor and instinct are all fair game.”
Louisiana is no exception — although modest reforms have recently sought to make parole decisions more informed and less arbitrary. Nevertheless, the odds are stacked against prisoners. Both prosecutors and crime victims play a role in parole hearings, and eligible prisoners do not even meet with board members in person, but rather by videoconference. And, perhaps most importantly, decisions often come down to “the nature of the crime” rather than any proof of rehabilitation — the one thing a prisoner cannot change, even if he or she has.
Yet, such a venue is still a better option than what Louisiana lifers have relied upon to date: seeking mercy in a state so famous for its high incarceration rate it has been dubbed the prison capital of the world. Among those who did not live to see the ruling in Montgomery this week was a man named Robert Howard, sent to Angola as a teenager in 1967, and known to many for his writing and counseling to youth. A Facebook page created by one of his supporters tracks years of denied clemency requests dating back to the 1970s. Some years, board members recommended commutations only to see them denied by the governor. Most recently, in March 2015, Gov. Jindal denied a unanimous clemency request for Howard by the Board of Pardons and Parole. Soon after that, Howard was diagnosed with liver cancer. In August, he died at the prison hospice at Angola.
AS LAWYERS AND SCHOLARS continue to parse the ruling in Montgomery, the broader implications are yet to be seen. For now, although it continues to chip away at the harshest sentences for youth, with Montgomery, the Supreme Court has decided once more to preserve the option of juvenile life without parole, meaning that defendants will continue to be sent to die behind bars for crimes they committed as children. There is good reason to think such sentences will be rare — existing data after Miller shows a large drop in new sentences of life without parole for juvenile crimes across the country. And some legal experts have interpreted Montgomery to mean that a prosecutor pursuing such a punishment will now have to somehow “prove to a judge that a particular youth is beyond saving as a reformed person” — a dubious proposition that should be burdensome in theory.
Yet, it is not hard to imagine that in such cases, the “nature of the crime” will continue to have the final say. After all, even as it seeks to narrow life without parole sentences for youth offenders, Montgomery keeps intact the same assumption that set the stage for them in the first place. “Miller drew a line between children whose crimes reflect transient immaturity and those rare children whose crimes reflect irreparable corruption,” Kennedy wrote in Montgomery. It remains possible that a court “might encounter the rare juvenile offender who exhibits such irretrievable depravity that rehabilitation is impossible and life without parole is justified.”
It was this image of irredeemably bad youth — applied along starkly racist lines — that created the superpredator myth, fueling the very sentences states are now being forced to reconsider. After all, while it may be easy to accept that, as an old man, Henry Montgomery is not the same person he was in 1963, it is difficult to imagine such sober perspective governing the fate of a 17-year-old who today committed the same crime — the fatal shooting of a police officer. These are the very crimes for which mandatory sentencing was invented — and for which parole will be routinely denied.
It is this enduring idea — that a crime tells us everything we need to know about the person who committed it — that must be overcome, by parole boards, by judges, and by the legions of people who now claim the broader mantle of criminal justice reform. The Supreme Court has taken another important step in recognizing that people in prison can change. It is up to the states to give juvenile lifers a meaningful chance to go home — before prison becomes the only home they know.
Top photo: Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans currently houses about 23 juvenile boys. Photo from juvenile-in-justic.com. |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Brexit: Theresa May says agreement is "important step" on the road to Brexit
EU leaders have agreed to move Brexit talks on to the second phase but called for "further clarity" from the UK about the future relationship it wants.
The first issue to be discussed, early next year, will be the details of an expected two-year transition period after the UK's exit in March 2019.
Talks on trade and security co-operation are set to follow in March.
Theresa May hailed an "important step" on the road but Germany's Angela Merkel said it would get "even tougher".
Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, broke the news that the 27 EU leaders were happy to move on to phase two after they met in Brussels.
He congratulated Mrs May on reaching this stage and said the EU would begin internal preparations for the next phase right now as well as "exploratory contacts with the UK to get more clarity on their vision".
While securing a deal in time for the UK's exit in March 2019 was realistic, he suggested that the next phase would be "more challenging and more demanding".
Mrs May said the two sides would begin discussions on future relations straight away and hoped for "rapid progress" on a transitional phase to "give certainty" to business.
"This is an important step on the road to delivering the smooth and orderly Brexit that people voted for in June 2016," she said.
"The UK and EU have shown what can be achieved with commitment and perseverance on both sides."
Labour's international trade spokesman, Barry Gardiner, welcomed the move forward, but said it would be a "real problem" for business if the EU didn't start talking trade for a further three months.
He also said his party would not put a time limit on a post-Brexit transition phase, as the expected two-year period would be "extremely tight".
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel held a joint news conference at the end of the summit
The EU has published its guidelines for phase two of the negotiations, with discussions on future economic co-operation not likely to begin until March.
The three-page document says the UK will remain under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and be required to permit freedom of movement during any transition period.
And agreements on the Irish border, the so-called divorce bill and the rights of EU and UK citizens, agreed by Mrs May last Friday, must be "respected in full and translated faithfully into legal terms as quickly as possible".
The document says: "As the UK will continue to participate in the customs union and the single market during the transition, it will have to continue to comply with EU trade policy."
While the EU is willing to engage in "preliminary and preparatory discussions" on trade as part of building a "close partnership" after the UK's departure, this means any formal agreement "can only be finalised and concluded once the UK has become a third country".
Phew for PM
Image copyright Reuters
By the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg
After the six months she has had, Theresa May might be entitled to breathe a sigh of relief, as the European Council officially declared that the first phase of our long goodbye from the European Union is over.
Stand back from the daily dramas and perhaps it was always bound to happen.
Both sides are committed to getting an agreement.
The EU and the UK both want a deal to be done, and while there has, inevitably, been grumpiness on both sides, they have, in the main, dealt with each other in good faith.
The document "calls on the UK to provide further clarity on its position on the framework for the future relationship".
But in a passage added during the past week, it invites the EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier to "continue internal preparatory discussions" on future relations rather than having to wait until March to do so.
Another rebellion headed off?
Image copyright House of Commons Image caption Tory rebels defeated the government on Wednesday
Sources have told the BBC that the government is highly likely to accept an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill next week to see off another potential Commons defeat for Theresa May.
Conservative rebels have been concerned about plans to put the Brexit date and time - 11pm on 29 March 2019 - into law.
Backbenchers, including former minister Oliver Letwin, have tabled an amendment, suggesting a change to the legislation.
Ministers are likely to accept their plan, which is a change that some of the potential rebels have been asking for, the BBC understands.
Senior sources are confident they can see off a defeat, after No 10 said there were no plans to take the date out of the bill.
Responding to the reports, Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer wrote on Twitter: "After a car-crash defeat on Brexit vote, rumours that PM will now U-turn on gimmick exit day amendment: forced to get a Tory MP to amend her own amendment before its put to the vote!"
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU's initial priority was to "formalise the agreement" that had already been reached before moving forward, adding "the second phase will be significantly harder and the first was very difficult".
Praising Mrs May as a "tough, smart and polite" negotiator, he said he was "entirely convinced" that the final agreement reached would be approved by the UK and European Parliaments.
Giving his response, French President Emmanuel Macron said that in moving forward the EU had maintained its unity, protected the integrity of the single market and ensured "compliance with our own rules".
Mrs May is set to discuss her vision of the "end state" for the UK outside the EU at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, having suffered her first Commons Brexit defeat earlier this week. |
Voters are in a bad mood. Again. We are routinely (and justifiably) frustrated with our politicians, but “throwing the bums out” doesn’t seem to change much. And we are all bracing for another anger-pageant that will stomp through American life for the next 13 months until election day.
A forgotten moment in our history suggests that the way out of a bad political mood is not more rage, but a new political perspective. Around 1900, after years of anger at “vulgar” politicians, a young journalist pushed voters to resist the impulse “to go out with the crowd and ‘smash something.’”
It was too easy, the muckraker Lincoln Steffens began to argue, to believe that bad politicians were just immoral people. Instead he asked his massive readership to look at the structure rather than the individual, to think about the warped systems that enabled political corruption, and to consider the ways angry voters inadvertently encouraged behavior they condemned.
Steffens was the perfect man for the job. The young writer had bounced from California to Europe to Manhattan, driven by wanderlust, contrarianism and a preference for the sleazy over the respectable. He honed his scorching prose, and learned about New York’s “low-life,” as a crime reporter in rough-and-tumble Manhattan in the 1890s. There was something feisty about Steffens. Over his long career, he was often wrong, sometimes a sucker, but rarely a coward. One politico called him “a born crook that’s gone straight.”
Like many Americans, Steffens grew up cursing his leaders. Between 1865 and 1900, frustrated citizens pointed to the never-ending string of political scandals and stolen elections, as leaders failed to address the massive traumas of the Gilded Age. Citizens often looked down on the parties, like the wealthy young man who wrote that all politicians were a “shifty-eyed lot, dribbling tobacco juice, badly dressed, never prosperous and self-respecting…a degraded caste.”
Attacking leaders was an easy route to becoming one. Self-impressed tycoons, high-toned editors and rising politicians “greedy for power” all insisted that they knew how to clean up politics. Replace bad, immoral men with “the best men”—wealthy, God-fearing, respectable—and the democracy would fix itself. And by “the best men,” they meant themselves.
Again and again, angry voters tried this approach, throwing the bums out in election after election. In major cities, “reformers” applied the same formula, winning the mayor’s office periodically, but falling out of power just as quickly. And control of Congress changed hands with dizzying speed in the 1880s and 1890s, yet politics only grew more corrupt.
But as a crime reporter who befriended crooked cops and scheming politicos, Steffens stumbled onto a new approach to journalism. Instead of moralizing, he listened. People would talk, he found, if you let them. Steffens hung around police stations and pool halls, absorbing everything he could. He even tolerated the ceaseless lectures of a young police commissioner named Teddy Roosevelt (though Steffens devised ways to shut his new friend up). And he refused to sit, isolated, in New York, setting out across the country to study dirty tricks from Boston to San Francisco.
Steffens introduced American readers to corrupt bosses who make today’s most obnoxious candidates look timid. He befriended characters with nicknames like “Hinky Dink” and “Bathhouse John.” Taciturn party thugs opened up to Steffens, analyzing their best tricks like fans of the same sport. By humanizing election-buyers, union-busters, accused murderers, and confirmed murderers, he helped explain why America’s leadership problem persisted.
Steffens came away with two major insights. Bad politicians were not necessarily bad people, and society, as a whole, encouraged their sins.
He learned the most from Israel Durham, boss of the Philadelphia political machine, an organization so rotten that Ben Franklin and George Washington’s names often showed up on voting rolls. (People in Philly joked: “The founders voted here once, and they vote here yet.”)
But Steffens liked Iz’ Durham. He concluded that Durham was not a bad man, but merely a successful man, trapped at the head of a system beyond his control. Durham was certainly guilty of tremendous crimes, but society kept rewarding him for them. Among other things, Durham explained that regular campaign donations, coming from upstanding citizens, did more to buy influence than any illegal kickback. Such contributions, the boss shouted, were “worse than bribes!”
Conversations with Durham and other bosses led Steffens to conclude that the angry public was focused on the wrong problem. Political dirty tricks were not “exceptional, local, and criminal…not an accidental consequence of the wickedness of bad men, but the impersonal effect of natural causes.” Americans—obsessed with individualism—liked to rage against immoral men, but really it was big, impersonal structures—like the steady drip of campaign contributions—that did more to buy power and harm the democracy.
Steffens began to write, furiously, publishing his “dawning theory” in his famous “Shame of the Cities” series in McClure’s Magazine between 1901 and 1904. Politicians were not a special caste of wicked men; they were no more immoral than bribing businessmen or lazy cops or short-sighted voters. Often, angry middle-class citizens, looking for someone to blame, perpetuated the pointless cycle of reform and relapse, throwing out individuals but failing to make real change.
Their outrage at the “bad men” in government was really just a “thought-saver of the educated who think that they think,” Steffens declared, a way to avoid considering the deeper problems with their political system.
Steffens was the most articulate voice of the new burst of reform remaking American democracy after 1900. American voters began to see that the country’s political problems were, really, social problems. Instead of hollering about immoral bosses, reformers simply went around them, introducing primary elections, ballot initiatives, recall votes, and eventually the direct election of senators. Progressive activists focused on improving political structures, not what they labeled electoral “lynchings” of the bad guys.
Some clever bosses jumped on the bandwagon. Tammany Hall cleverly recast itself as a reform organization. But this was fine; it meant that voters were rewarding reform over corruption. By 1910, journalist William Allen White imagined the sleaziest bosses of the 19th century observing the new, cleaner elections, “cackling in derision until they were black in the face” at neutered politicians forced to play by the fairer rules.
These changes marked the greatest moment of political reform, not sparked by a major crisis like a war or depression, in American history.
In our own era of intense skepticism towards the media, it’s important to remember how much we owe muckrakers like Steffens. And in our time of anger at politicians, it’s important to consider where bad leaders come from. Those today who call politicians “losers” are no better than phony Gilded Age moralists, who condemned the “bad men” in Washington while trying to join them. Their rhetoric turns every campaign into a contest that rewards anger, providing a smokescreen behind which elites masquerade as outsiders.
And it confuses the issue: politicians are, as a group, no better or worse than the rest of us. If they stink, something’s rotten with the system that feeds them.
Yet anger at our leaders is the political cliché of our day. As long as we see politics as a war between good and bad individuals, ignoring the structures that reward or punish them, this will continue. America’s stalled democracy is not our leaders’ fault alone, but ours as well, for treating all political problems as personnel problems. |
The government Tuesday lifted a three-year moratorium on funding for research into ways that certain viruses can be made more virulent and transmissible, announcing a new plan for assessing applications to study these and other dangerous pathogens.
The new policy for pathogens capable of creating a pandemic will allow researchers who want to study them to apply for funding through the new process outlined by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The end of the moratorium applies to research on the SARS, MERS, influenza and other dangerous viruses. The October 2014 pause was put in place after researchers in Wisconsin and the Netherlands sparked a debate by announcing in 2011 that they had made the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus more contagious in ferrets, which are used as a model for how disease might spread among humans. This kind of research is known as "gain of function" because it introduces new abilities into existing germs.
Shortly before the ban, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that lab workers had been exposed to anthrax and that a lethal avian flu virus had been sent to a lab that had asked for a less deadly strain.
In a briefing for reporters Monday, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, the main government funder for biological research, estimated that only a "handful" of facilities would qualify to conduct this kind of research, which is generally aimed at understanding how viruses mutate and developing vaccines.
"This kind of research can only be conducted in a very few places that have the highest level of containment," Collins said.
Collins also disclosed that during the moratorium, 10 of the 21 research efforts that had been stopped obtained waivers to resume their work. Those waivers applied to five MERS and five flu experiments, he said.
With the new policy in place, the government is able to lift the moratorium, Collins said. The new policy for "potential pandemic pathogens" would apply to the three viruses and others that researchers may want to investigate, such as Ebola. New requirements include that the potential risks of the research be justified by the potential benefits; that there is no other feasible way to answer the same question that poses less risk; and that the proposed experiment be reviewed by an independent expert panel.
"This is a way of regularizing a rigorous process that we really want to make sure we are doing right," Collins said.
Other pathogens are covered under the government's policy for Dual Use Research of Concern, which covers life sciences research that, if misused, might threaten public health, national security and the environment.
Beth Cameron, vice president for global biological policy and programs at the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, called having a plan in place "a step in the right direction." But she emphasized that safety would still depend largely on strong security measures at each lab to protect against an accidental release and govern who is allowed to work on the experiments.
Mitigating risk requires "knowing what you're doing, why you're doing it, what the benefits of the research are," she said. "And it means understanding the risk to the public while you're doing it."
Still, Cameron said, the United States now becomes what she thinks may be the only nation in the world with such a plan, which highlights the need for international discussion of this issue.
She said she is concerned about the "increased ability to use tools in order to create viruses and bacteria that can evade countermeasures."
Andrew C. Weber, a former assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs during the Obama administration, said the new criteria are strict enough that "it is difficult to imagine any research proposal that would meet these sensible criteria." He says the new policy should make it difficult to get approval for gain-of-function research. "The risks to the public of deliberately enhancing pandemic pathogens are too grave to justify the modest potential benefits."
Read more:
Decades old smallpox vials found in NIH storage room
About 75 CDC scientists exposed to anthrax
CDC chief admits mishandling of anthrax, other pathogens |
Sherlock (sher·lock): -verb (used with object): 1. to create an in-house product that clearly and obviously seems to replace a product created by a third party for that platform, thereby destroying that third party's ecosystem.
E.g., Apple totally Sherlocked Instapaper on Monday by introducing Reading List.
During the 2011 WWDC keynote, Instapaper developer Marco Arment appeared to be sure that he had just been stomped on by Apple's decision to integrate a new Instapaper-like feature, Reading List, into Safari for Lion and iOS 5. And he's not the only one by far—there are plenty of small- and big-name indie developers whose products seemingly became unnecessary thanks to Apple, which did not pay them for the privilege of using their ideas.
But after taking a few days to mull it over, Arment's attitude sounds like a complete reversal of that apocalyptic tweet that he sent during the keynote. "The more I think about it, the more optimistic I am," Arment told Ars. "I keep playing back the scenarios of what might happen here; I try to be rational and not emotional about it. The two most likely outcomes are that nothing changes or my sales go up."
"I think the tech press loves to use the word 'kill,' but it's very short sighted," he continued. "From my perspective, Apple could take 99.7 percent of the market and I could take 0.3 percent of the market, which would double my market share."
Arment wrote a blog post to this effect immediately following the keynote on Monday in order to quell the fears of his developer peers, who were loudly concerned for his livelihood. But according to Arment, Apple is actually doing him a favor: "Before, my competitor was ignorance of this problem of how to save articles to read later or elsewhere." Now, he believes a huge swath of users who were not previously aware of Instapaper will be exposed to Apple's Reading List feature, and some of them may eventually begin searching for more full-featured alternatives. That's where Instapaper will come in, and Arment will hopefully profit.
Arment isn't the only one who feels this way either. Chairman and CEO of The Omni Group, Ken Case, also expressed optimism at Apple's decision to roll out a task management feature called Reminders in iOS 5, strikingly similar to many of OmniFocus' own task management capabilities—right down to the location associations.
"I'm really glad to see Apple setting a good baseline for what task management ought to be on the iPhone," Case told Ars. "It's great that Apple is educating people and is validating what we've already done."
Just speaking with Arment and Case, it's clear that they (now, if not earlier) are quite confident that their products can stand on their own and will continue to be successful, regardless of Apple's new features.
"I don't think much differentiation is needed when it comes to OmniFocus. Apple's Reminders aren't really something you can organize into any sort of dependent relationships or actions that are blocked by other actions, or an outline hierarchy, or add attachments," Case said, listing out the many features that come as part of OmniFocus. "We don't have to differentiate so much as make sure we're not at all deficient. One way where we're deficient is having those geofences, which we are working on now."
Arment agreed. "As far as I can tell there's no offline storage in Apple's Reading List function, which Instapaper has. Reading List is just a bookmark folder with special rendering. In fact, I don't think anybody really needs to be worried about Apple stepping on them with features of this sort," Arment said. "I'm confident there's enough of a market in alternatives in general."
He went on: "If you look at categories of apps, Apple has provided a Notes app since the very beginning, before the App Store. It's good for well over 99 percent of iPhone owners, yet this is a category that is doing very well in the App Store. Even the people who make shitty ones don't have to worry. People use alternative products for lots of reasons; we're talking about a huge market."
Still, both developers agreed that they can't rest on their laurels just because Apple hasn't yet added all of their features to Reminders and Reading List. "You can't just assume Apple won't do anything. It's important to not rely on feature differentiation alone," Arment said. The two—and undoubtedly plenty of other developers—have already begun working on what's next. Case said that he and the Omni team were already full-speed ahead on OmniFocus 2 for the Mac and were looking forward to bringing some of their lessons from the iPad back to the desktop, while Arment showed Ars a preview of the next major release of Instapaper for iPad, which looks promising.
"What it comes down to is this: I need Apple to advance themselves, or else they won't stay competitive in their own market. I am somewhat dependent upon their success," Arment said. "If they step on me a little in the process, that's the risk I took by developing for the platform. They're giving me new APIs to make my own product better, so it works out for me." |
Today at church was somewhat unsatisfying for several reasons, most of which I will not go into.Sandwiched between Frustrating Forum and Missed Meeting was about an hour and a half as a nursery volunteer. I once told the Director of Religious Education that I had "totsophobia," because while I do not dislike children at all, I feel very awkward around them. The only kid I ever felt completely at ease with was my own. Those years went by much too quickly and did absolutely nothing to help me relax around anyone else's kids. The problem has nothing whatsoever to do with the fear that a child will hurt me, it's the fear that I will fail in some way to properly care for someone else's little one. The responsibility scares the daylights out of me. I will never hold anyone's baby, at least if the baby is too young to crawl. For one thing, I've never gotten the hang of that casual manner that most mothers seem to instinctively know when it comes to holding a baby. I always held my son something like the way I hold my cat -- with his little head tucked right up under my chin. He never seemed to mind it, but it must look really strange. And of course, I worry that I will drop the baby.But -- I'm all too aware of a chronic problem in our church: People don't volunteer, especially with kids' classes. This generally shocks me: I figure 1) I'm the only person in the church who would rather not be around kids and 2) not only does everyone else like to interact with kids, the parentsnothing better. Well, it turns out that the parents want to do something adult-oriented for an hour or two on Sunday, which is not the least bit unreasonable. The problem is, the non-parents want the same thing. Which means, in short, that it takes very little to leave the kids high and dry when someone isn't making sure that the classes are adequately staffed. So today I was asked to help out in the nursery.Today's nursery census was the regular nanny, five little folks, and me. I knew three of the kids well, since I work fairly closely with their parents. The smallest came last, spent a few minutes crying after Daddy left her with us, but then settled down and did the usual things that a child with a pacifier is wont to do. The last child, a boy, was slightly older than the rest, probably about the age of starting kindergarten in the fall.Margaret, the nursery nanny, hails from the same neighborhood as the iconic umbrella-bearing lady pictured above. Her ethnicity and her occupation are where the similarities end. Within five minutes, I heard her assessment of the children. She liked the girls and little Henry, the toddler boy, but did not like the older boy, Richard. "He's an only child," she said, in a disapproving tone, "so he doesn't know anything about playing with others or sharing." I didn't especially appreciate that -- as an only child myself, I remember quite vividly how teachers often characterized me as spoiled and selfish with little more to go on than my non-sibling status. Margaret either ignored Richard or confined the conversation to words such as "No," or "Stop." When she used his name, it was never followed by anything especially good. Richard did seem to prefer independent play, though he showed me the pretend breakfast he'd put together, and let me listen to his heart with a toy stethoscope.Toward the end of the session, little Henry climbed on a low stepstool and Richard decided to remove him by seizing him around the waist. Both boys went down in a heap, with Henry uninjured but making a significant racket. This seemed to confirm Margaret's opinion of Richard. While she ran to comfort Henry, she instructed me to take Richard and "put him in time-out." But Richard was every bit as upset as Henry, if not more so. He cried and wailed and his hands fluttered like little wings, so instead of putting him in time-out, I patted his shoulders, told him I knew he felt bad, but that Henry was all right. He calmed down just before his mother (and Henry's) arrived.After everyone had left, Margaret gave me the sign-in book and told me to log my hours. "What time did you arrive?" she asked. I told her eleven o'clock, since I'd been in the discussion forum from 9:30 until just before 11:00. "Put down 10:30," she said "and they'll pay you for two hours." I didn't argue, just signed my name and was done with it. I have no expectation of being paid -- I'm a volunteer -- but she knew perfectly well I didn't work two full hours. Her willingness to fudge on time, even though she probably thought she was doing me a favor, added to my overall negative impression of her.The realization that I could, perhaps, do as good a job as a paid nursery nanny, if not a better one, came as something of a shock. It's given me a fresh perspective on the whole issue of childcare, both in our modest-sized church and everywhere else. |
(CNN) — Until 1996, two of Egypt's greatest cities were missing. Then along came French archeologist Franck Goddio, who made an extraordinary discovery underwater.
For 1,000 years, Thonis-Heracleion was completely submerged. Fish made their homes among the rubble of mighty temples; hieroglyphs gathered algae. Gods and kings sat in stasis, powerless, their statues slowly withdrawing from the world, one inch of sand at a time. Goddio spent years surveying this find, as well as neighboring Canopus, which was rediscovered by a British RAF pilot in 1933 who noticed ruins leading into the waters.
Thanks to a new exhibition at the British Museum, Goddio's incredible finds will soon be open to the public.
Sunken Cities: Egypt's Lost Worlds opens May 19, and according to museum curator, Aurelia Masson-Berghoff, the exhibition pulls back the curtain on what was once one of archeology's greatest mysteries.
"(Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus) were known from Greek mythology, Greek historians and Egyptian decrees, and now we know where they were."
Objects discovered in the Mediterranean Sea are helping archaeologists uncover the history of two Egyptian lost cities.
Related content Did ancient Egypt suffer from climate change?
Why did they sink?
Likely founded in the 7th century BC, Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus acted as major trade hubs between ancient Egypt, Greece and the wider Mediterranean, located as they were at a handy intersection. But circumstances ultimately conspired against them, explains Masson-Berghoff.
"Several natural phenomenon caused these cities to sink by a maximum of (32 feet) below the sea," she says, noting that a naturally rising sea level, subsidence and earthquakes (which ultimately triggered tidal waves) all played a hand.
Revealing excavations in the north of Egypt show how Greeks and Egyptians lived together thousands of years ago.
Gods of yester-millennium
Masson-Berghoff explains they also learned a lot from the form taken by the religious statues dug up from their watery grave. The statues were mainly of Ptolemaic gods with human features that represented the same qualities Egyptians prescribed to animals
"The Greeks were not exactly into animal-shaped gods nor into animal worship," she explains. "The Ptolemies, the Greco-Macedonian rulers of Egypt after Alexander the Great, created a human-shaped version of a very old Egyptian god, the sacred bull Osiris-Apis. In its 'Greek' form, he became Serapis, combining the aspects and functions of major Greek gods."
CNN gets a special tour of the "Sunken cities: Egypt's lost worlds" exhibition at the British Museum in London.
One of the statues was that of a colossal head representing the god Serapis, a Greek human-shaped version of the Egyptian god Osiris-Apis.
"We will show in 'Sunken Cities' a variety of sculptures depicting these Greco-Macedonian rulers as Egyptian Pharaohs, wearing Egyptian crowns and acting as if they were Egyptian Pharaohs," the curator says.
It was not vanity that prompted their change in style, but shrewd political maneuvering. "The Ptolemies really understood that they needed the support of the local priesthood and population, to legitimize their rule," Masson-Berghoff argues. "To achieve this, they adopted Egyptian beliefs, rituals and iconography."
Colossal statue of Hapy, made from pink granite and over five meters high. Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio / Hilti Foundation
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The largest item on display is a statue of Hapy, ironically the god of flooding. Over 16-feet tall and weighing 12,000 pounds, the pink granite sculpture dates from the fourth century BC, long before Thonis-Heracleion disappeared into the sea.
Also worth noting is what Goddio's team left on the seabed. The archeologist discovered 69 ships: "the largest assemblage of boats ever discovered," Masson-Berghoff claims -- one of them likely used on a Grand Canal which linked Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion, upon which a sacred barge made of sycamore would travel during the Mysteries of Osiris, a celebration of the god of the underworld.
All of this, however, is just a drop in the bucket. |
Psychiatry (Edgmont) . 2007 Oct; 4(10): 40–47. PMCID: PMC2860525 PMID: 20428310 Psychotherapy with a Narcissistic Patient Using Kohut's Self Psychology Model , MD Jamie McLean Drs. McLean and Gillig are from the Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio Find articles by Jamie McLean Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer Jamie McLean, Drs. McLean and Gillig are from the Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio; Corresponding author. Corresponding author. ADDRESS CORRESPONDENCE TO: Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, P.O. 927, Dayton, Ohio 45401; Department of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, P.O. 927, Dayton, Ohio 45401; [email protected] :liam-E EDITOR NOTE: All cases presented in the series “Psychotherapy Rounds” are composites constructed to illustrate teaching and learning points, and are not meant to represent actual persons in treatment Copyright notice
Abstract According to Kohut's self psychology model, narcissistic psychopathology is a result of parental lack of empathy during development. Consequently, the individual does not develop full capacity to regulate self esteem. The narcissistic adult, according to Kohut's concepts, vacillates between an irrational overestimation of the self and irrational feelings of inferiority, and relies on others to regulate his self esteem and give him a sense of value. In treatment, Kohut recommends helping the patient develop these missing functions. Kohut proposes that the therapist should empathically experience the world from the patient's point of view (temporary indwelling) so that the patient feels understood. Interpretations are used when they can help the patient understand his sometimes intense feelings about any empathic failure on the part of the therapist, and understand why he (the patient) needs to restore solidity and comfort after being injured by any failed empathic (self object) ties. As insight develops, the patient begins to understand why he might experience these apparently small empathic failures so deeply. In this article, therapy with a narcissistic patient is approached from the point of view of Kohut's self psychology theory, and the successes and problems that were encountered with this approach are described and discussed. Keywords: Kohut, self-psychology, narcissistic personality disorder, temporary indwelling, self object, empathy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, mirroring transference, idealizing transference, transmuting internalization
Introduction Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is one of the least diagnosed of the personality disorders. However, it is estimated that the disorder, or narcissistic traits, are present in a large number of patients presenting to a psychiatrist's office with complaints of depression or other mood symptoms. Approximately 18 percent of males and six percent of females have narcissistic traits.1 The prevalence of the full-blown NPD in the clinical population ranges from 2 to 16 percent and exists in the general population at a rate of less than one percent.2 This disorder tends to be more predominant in male subjects with 50 to 75 percent of NPD cases being male.2 The main characteristics of NPD are grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy ( ). These characteristic behavior patterns can affect a patient's interpersonal relationships and life in a profoundly negative manner. Often these patients will outwardly behave with a sense of entitlement and superiority, be dismissive of others, and often display disdainful or patronizing attitudes. However, behind these attitudes, and central to this personality disorder, are low self esteem and feelings of inadequacy. Although many patients accomplish high achievements, eventually the characteristics of this disorder interfere with both the patient's occupation and his or her personal relationships. This is because the patient often is unable to recover from criticism or rejection and also because he or she has behaved in an unempathic manner with overall disregard for others. Table 1 Grandiose sense of self-importance Preoccupation with fantasies of success, power, brilliance, beauty Belief that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people Requires excessive admiration Has a sense of entitlement Is interpersonally exploitative Lacks empathy Is often envious of others and believes that others are envious of him or her Displays arrogant and haughty behaviors Open in a separate window There are many theories about the causes of NPD. Often certain childhood developmental and parental factors have been implicated. An example of a developmental factor includes a postulated innate oversensitive temperament in the child; parental factors include excessive admiration by parents, lack of realistic feedback from parents during development, unreliable parental caregiving, and/or emotional abuse during childhood.3 Heinz Kohut proposes that in order to understand the narcissistic patient, the therapist must assume an empathic-introspective observational stance. By doing so, the therapist can understand the complex, inner world of the patient and the patient's inner subjective experience. The patient can then communicate freely, and the analyst becomes privy to what is being repressed or warded off by the patient. Self psychology, like object-relations theory, emerged out of an effort to treat patients who were not responding to ego psychology therapies constructed around the analysis of psychological defenses.4 Heinz Kohut asserts that adult narcissistic psychopathology is a result of parental lack of empathy during development. By failing to provide appropriate empathic feedback during critical times in a child's development, the child does not develop the ability to regulate self esteem, and so the adult vacillates between an irrational overestimation of the self and feelings of inferiority. Furthermore, the adult relies on others to regulate his self esteem and give him a sense of value, essentially looking for empathic feedback not received during development. Kohut believes that under normal circumstances, the developing infant has two important psychological constructs: the grandiose-exhibitionistic self (normally evolving into self-assertive ambitions) and the idealized parental imago (normally evolving into internalized values and ideals). Pathology in the first area results in fixation on grandiosity, and pathology in the latter area results in deficits, where the psychopathology is rooted in fixations on archaic idealizations ( and ).4 Open in a separate window Open in a separate window In Kohut's self psychology model, the dyad occurring between a child and his parents is a continually evolving process (via the formation of self objects). In Kohut's theory, a self object consists of the developing child plus each of those people who give the child the abilities to maintain self structure and firmness and a sense of cohesion and steadiness.5 They are self objects because, according to Kohut, the infant is unaware that they are not part of his- or herself and that they are providing functions the infant will later learn to do on his or her own as these functions are incorporated into his or her psychic structure. In Kohut's model, when certain self object needs are not met empathically, a developmental arrest occurs and pathologic narcissism can occur. Kohut describes three reasons for this relative lack of parental empathy to occur: 1) A poor fit between the child and parents in regards to the disposition of both; 2) the parent(s) is unable to react to and nurture the child, which can often be secondary to physical or mental limitations; and/or 3) the child has unusually great self object needs.6 Whatever the reason, the earlier and more pervasive the failures occur, the more severe the developmental arrest and the degree of narcissistic pathology in the adult.
Case Presentation (Composite Case) Michael was a 38-year-old man who presented with complaints that he lacked the ability to develop and maintain friendships. He spent most of his adult life employed as a police officer but had made few friendships with his coworkers. He attributed this to their jealously of his intelligence and overall better skill, but also felt that it was also due to his inability to make small talk with people. He desired therapy because in one month he would be switching careers from law enforcement to fire fighting. He said that he wanted a quick fix in order to have an easier time making friends with his new coworkers. Furthermore, he said he was depressed, with low energy, poor focus and concentration, early morning awakening, decreased interest and motivation, and feelings of guilt and shame. Most of the stressors in his life were due to the fact that he did not have many friends or family in his life. In fact, he hoped that by learning to make friends he would also be able to form relationships with his children, with whom he had not had much contact in at least a year. Michael was born an only child. His parents divorced while his mother was pregnant with him, and after his birth, his mother was left to raise him without the help or support of his father (His father left town never to be heard from again except on a few occasions in Michael's life). Consequently, Michael's mother worked two jobs in order to financially support herself and her son. This left Michael to be raised by various relatives in many different homes, as his mother would ask relatives if they could temporarily adopt Michael for short periods of time. Consequently, he lived in 11 different homes, many in different states, and attended nine different schools from kindergarten through high school. During his last years of high school, he lived with his mother and her boyfriend and was verbally abused by both. After high school graduation, he left his mother's home and married soon after. He and his wife had two children. They divorced after six years of marriage because “I just didn't love her anymore. She wasn't doing anything for me.” He remarried approximately three years later and had two more children. This marriage lasted nine years. Michael reports that his second wife “became too demanding and needy,” which he had difficulty tolerating. Michael's children were all living in his current town, yet he did not have a close relationship with any of them. Michael named this as one of his sources of sadness and stated that more recently, as he was aging, he was starting to feel that they should want a closer relationship with him. He was able to admit that he was not a good father to them and was “emotionally not there.” Despite wanting a closer relationship with them, he felt that he had gone out of his way to communicate with them by e-mailing each of them and stating that he was not to blame for being a poor father since he was only parenting the best way he knew how. To do more, he stated, would “be letting them walk all over me.” He felt there was nothing more he could do and that they should voluntarily come to him.
Self Psychology By describing the quest for a narcissistic individual to fulfill unmet self object needs, Kohut describes a certain aspect of narcissism inherent in all of us. Kohut describes the self as “the center of the psychological universe” and believes we spend our entire lives trying to build and maintain our self esteem through the use of self objects.7 However, in contrast to other theorists, Kohut does not believe this type of narcissism to be pathologic and argues for continuity between normal infantile narcissism and pathologic narcissism. Kohut argues that pathologic narcissism occurs only with early self object failures. When these failures occur, these patients search for gratification of missing childhood self object needs in their adult lives. They also are fearful of encountering, or repeating, earlier past failures. Therefore, they may present with an attitude of superiority or haughtiness, reflecting anxiety they feel over encountering further self object failures.7 This fear may also manifest itself in relationships. Patients with NPD may have a history of many failed relationships secondary to disappointment that the relationship is not giving them the longed-for childhood gratification and their missing self object needs.7 In the case presented in this article, Michael's perceptions of his current interpersonal relationships reflect this need for gratification, fearfulness, disguised as haughtiness, of encountering earlier past failures, and disappointment in current relationships causing him to abandon them.
Case Presentation, Continued Michael's concerns over his children were soon placed on a backburner when his new career began. Instead of mentioning his children, every session focused on peer relationships with his coworkers and how he was feeling left out. He complained that he was never included in card games played during down times at the firehouse and that no one seemed to like him. He could not understand why this was happening to him again as it did with the police force. He said that he was “…someone they should all like. I mean, I'm cooler than most of them.” He also struggled with learning that he was not the most skilled among his peers. During his training, all of his evaluations from his supervisors indicated that his physical fitness and knowledge of firefighting were average. They also indicated that he needed to listen better to suggestions provided by his more experienced peers. One supervisor said that it would serve Michael well to learn to better accept criticism.
Self Psychology, Continued Kohut emphasizes that we all desire to be perfect, that all of us think of ourselves in a grandiose manner, and that these desires and thoughts are not initially subject to reality testing in the infant. However, with adequate parenting, these ideas are gradually lessened over time (although never entirely destroyed) through inevitable minor self object failures or optimal frustrations. These minor frustrations are necessary for shaping a child's sense of self but are not psychologically traumatic.7 Kohut points out that it would be erroneous to believe parents can (or should) at all times meet the self object needs of a child as parents themselves are human and are not with the child at all times. Kohut believes these failures are necessary to alter the innate grandiose delusional ideas with which we are born because they require the child to learn internal mechanisms to self sooth and maintain his or her self esteem, despite not being perfect. Once these mechanisms are in place, the child relies less on self objects for appreciation and praise to regulate self esteem because the child can regulate it himself. In the narcissistic patient, self object needs were not met during childhood, and so these mechanisms never develop and he or she will continually look to others (self objects) for buttressing self esteem. Therefore, the narcissistic individual is very sensitive to any criticism or apparent rejection.
Case Presentation, Continued Michael understood that he had a difficult time interpreting social cues and felt that this was the reason for his inability to make small talk or feel comfortable with making conversation. He would openly ask at almost every session what the therapist thought of his social skills. Later, he began directly asking how the therapist perceived him and how his coworkers might perceive him. He would often ask for the therapist's opinion on his appearance and the rightness and wrongness of his actions, and seek the therapist's advice on major and minor decisions. However, he only seemed to tolerate positive feedback and would become enraged if he received anything that he interpreted as criticism. Whenever offended, he would respond with such statements as, “Well how would it make you feel? You haven't had much experience as a therapist, have you?”
Practice Points Parents normally meet self object needs of a child largely through two processes: The parent reflects back to the child the feelings and thoughts that the child is experiencing to give the child a sense of being validated and understood (mirroring transference), and the parent accepts that the child wants to view the parent as his or her protector and feel a sense of strength and comfort from doing so (idealizing transference).In the course of therapy with a narcissistic patient, these self object needs can emerge and are referred to as self object transferences. The two transferences that most often surface in therapy are the mirroring and idealizing transferences.6 Mirroring transference.The mirroring transference occurs when the analyst is experienced in fulfilling a structure-building function, a function the patient cannot yet perform for himself.4 A simple example of mirroring might occur when a parent shows a sense of delight with the child and conveys a sense of value and respect. A narcissistic patient may need the therapist to provide the mirroring he never received in order to build a missing structural part of the self. In this simple case, any feedback deemed non-praising may leave the patient feeling worthless and not valuable. At times, unempathic interventions of the therapist may inadvertently repeat earlier similar trauma, easily injure the self, and result in anxiety with temporary fragmentation of the cohesion of the transference. Narcissistic rage may occur at times, which Kohut believes is caused by a deflation of one's archaic grandiosity or to a traumatic disappointment in an idealized figure (see 'Idealizing transference” next), and this rage can evoke intense and violent destructive responses. As such, it is a reactive aggression and is present as long as the self remains seriously vulnerable and prone to fragmentation. Idealizing transference. A developing child needs to rely on the parent for safety, comfort, and calmness. In a normal child's development, the need for comfort from the external self object (parent) decreases as the child's internal means of self soothing increase. The narcissistic patient may need to use the therapist for self soothing as this capacity was never fully developed. In doing so, the patient might assign his or her therapist imagined characteristics, such as strength, high intelligence, or beauty, in order to feel a greater sense of safety and calmness.6
Case Presentation, Continued Michael seemed to have much difficulty with being the patient in the doctor-patient relationship. He also did not seem to tolerate the one-sided nature of psychotherapy and eventually said, “I think I'll go and see a different therapist, one who doesn't pretend to be perfect. I've been to better shrinks than you and they didn't just listen, they also shared about themselves. You act like you're a princess and like you don't have any problems. In fact, they say that shrinks are the most mentally ill people out there. You act like I'm the mentally ill one. I'm not mentally ill.” Michael also had difficulty in a social skills group, which was affiliated with a local hospital program and something he learned about through an advertisement on the radio. Even though joining the group was Michael's idea, he was reluctant to go because he was not convinced that he truly needed help with his social skills. Once in the group, he became more distressed and complained that he did not belong there. He became blameful and complained, “I can't believe you thought that the group would be a good idea for me. I can't believe you think I'm like them. They all have big problems...they're really messed up and I'm not at all. This makes me think that you don't know what you're doing.” He attended several more sessions with the therapist's encouragement, but reported that the other group members didn't like him. Eventually, the other group members told Michael that he acted as though he was “better than all of us.” Michael told them that he essentially felt that this was true and that he was leaving the group. The other group members did not seem upset by this news or ask him to stay. Following his exit from the group, he continually sought an apology from the therapist for thinking “that I was all screwed up like them.”
Teaching Point In addition to self object transferences, defenses may also develop during the course of psychotherapy. These defenses are used as protection against the possibility of re-experiencing self object failures in the therapy that were experienced in the patient's past. There are three major defenses, all fairly primitive and available early in life, used by patients with NPD. These are projection, denial, and distortion.8 Projection is defined as reacting to unacceptable inner feelings as if they were happening outside of one's body. Often these unacceptable inner feelings are attributed to or projected onto another person.8 A patient with NPD will often feel uncomfortable with being the patient and feeling that he or she might have a mental illness. Projection was evident when Michael spoke of “shrinks” being mentally ill. In reality, it was too painful for Michael to face his fear that he might be mentally ill. Denial is defined as completely ignoring awareness of painful stimuli or facts.8 Denial differs from repression in that it does not just defend against effects, it ignores external reality. In NPD, denial is used as a means of maintaining self esteem in addition to avoiding painful aspects of life that might shed a negative light on the patient's behavior. Michael had a difficult time reviewing his parenting skills and thus denied the fact that he was almost entirely responsible for the lack of relationship with his children. Instead, it seemed easier for him to focus on how they were mean and cold children for not wanting him in their lives. Distortion is defined as largely changing and transforming external realities to fit the person's internal needs.8 Patients with NPD will use this defense so that reality meets his or her sense of entitlement. Michael distorted the reasons why his co-workers did not include him in their friendships, transforming those reasons into jealous ones. Believing that jealously was the reason they did not like him was a better fit for Michael's overall psyche.
Treatment Using Heinz Kohut's self psychology model, the goal of therapy is to allow the patient to incorporate the missing self object functions that he needs into his internal psychic structure. Kohut calls this process transmuting internalization. In this sense, these patients' psyches are “under construction” and therapy is a building time. In order to achieve this goal, a therapist does not just try to imagine what feelings a certain situation might evoke, but rather can feel what the patient felt in that situation. This has been referred to as “temporary indwelling.”4,9 This empathy has been credited with being one of the vehicles for making lasting changes in therapy. Without it, the patient, whose self is too weak to tolerate more aggressive interpretation, would not benefit from therapy and in fact may suffer more damage. In accordance with providing continued empathic acceptance to what is transpiring in therapy, self psychology asserts it is not wise to agree, disagree, or gratify wishes of the patient or provide advice. To do so would change the therapeutic environment from one of empathy to one of judgment.4,6 Self psychology does not endorse using interpretations early in the therapy. Instead, self psychology asserts that allowing the transferences to unfold completely is the vehicle to helping the patient gain insight. When interpretations are called for, it is best to provide interpretations that focus on the patient's need to restore solidity and comfort after being injured by broken or failed self object ties ( ).4 Table 2 Separate developmental line of narcissism/new model of personality development and of the mind Reconceptualization of empathy Reexamination of transference (mirroring, idealizing and twinship) Deficit vs. conflict psychopathology Reformulation of drive theory Therapist's contribution to psychotherapy Nature of cure: transmuting internalization Reconceptualization of idealization Open in a separate window
Presentation, Continued Toward the end of therapy, Michael began to notice how “prickly” he could be with people and would comment on this. He began to notice that his frustration with people over their common mistakes or not living up to his expectations was excessive. Michael was also able to see that these expectations were too high, and consequently, his tolerance rose. In fact, Michael became noticeably more tolerant in therapy and less defensive. At one point, he stated, “You know, I'm constantly thinking about the reasons I'm angry when I get upset with people. You've made me stop and think if I'm out of line.” Likewise, Michael reported that he was feeling more comfortable at the firehouse. He even had a “buddy” who seemed to include Michael in the social aspects of the firehouse group.
Discussion Self psychology has both critics and supporters. Critics have likened self psychology to nothing more than supportive psychotherapy and have doubted its ability to make lasting changes in patients. Some have stated that is too supporting of these pathologic patients, which allows them to bypass any responsibility for their conflicts.10 Other critics have stated that although the theory of self psychology has broadened our views of narcissism and its development, it is incomplete and does not address some of the unconscious introjects of a patient's psyche. In other words, self psychology can adequately account for some of the pathogenesis of narcissism, but self psychology cannot be a “one size fits all” label applied to all narcissism. Instead, some think it better to think of narcissism as a behavioral syndrome with a number of different pathways of pathogenesis. Supporters state that self psychology is a form of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. They argue that empathy, one of the crucial elements of self psychology, is comparable to interpretations in making lasting changes. In fact, supporters of self psychology feel that narcissistic patients have such fragmented selves that they are unable to tolerate interpretations at an early point in therapy. Empathy, one of the primary tools in self psychology, allows first for a therapeutic alliance to form. Then, the patient is able to fill in developmental voids by processing the positive experiences happening between him and the therapist through transmuting internalization. As therapy progresses, empathy allows the patient, who now trusts the therapist as a positive self object, to look beyond what the therapist can offer in the way of mirroring or an idealizable self object. Instead, the patient is now able to examine his own perceptions of situations. Once this happens, the patient discovers further repressed conflicts and developmental needs and is now able to tolerate interpretations that focus on these repressed needs. Empirical studies directly comparing self psychology techniques to other forms of psychotherapy are rare. One randomized, controlled study found self psychology to be more effective than cognitive orientation treatment in treating eating disorders.13 The patients treated with self psychology had significant improvements while those treated with cognitive orientation did not. The process of uncovering the patients' underlying conflicts, which were not necessarily directly related to food intake, was proposed by the authors as the explanation for the success of the self psychology approach in contrast to cognitive therapy.13 On the other hand, Adler10 mentions several limitations of self psychology. According to Adler, one of these limitations is that self psychology overlooks guilt as important in the psychopathology of narcissism. He contends that Kohut dismisses guilt because it is more likely an “intrapsychic phenomenon” rather than something that occurs as a result of interpersonal conflict, situations happening between two individuals, or empathic failures. This, as Adler points out, also lends credit to the critics that say Kohut's self psychology does not address unconscious or intrapsychic phenomena. Furthermore, Adler believes that a patient's guilt can be the cause for certain negative reactions in therapy, rather than always being reactions to empathic failures on the part of the therapist. Kernberg has some similar criticisms.11 As self psychology evolves, it continues to be in a state of flux.14 Some may always argue that self psychology is nothing more than warmth and empathy and that most patients, to some degree, will have mirroring and idealizing transferences in the course of therapy as this is something we all desire. Despite this, there does seem some lasting contributions of self psychology to the psychoanalytic field. It is unclear whether self psychology will remain a singular form of therapy or rather be broken apart into contributing pieces.14 These contributions include the fact that self psychology provides a new developmental pathway of narcissism. Narcissism is less a “dirty” word since the advent of self psychology. Second, self psychology emphasizes the importance of empathy and how this tool may advance treatment. Third, self psychology very clearly elucidates the self object transferences. And fourth, self psychology brings to the forefront the therapist's contribution to therapy and the idea of intersubjectivity.15 This intersubjectivity can be described as an interplay between the subjective experiences of both the therapist and patient and their “reactions to one another.”15 The patient's psychology is understood only through the analyst's subjective lenses, so to speak.15 In fact, a new relational perspective of therapy is beginning to gain ground.15 In this perspective, facets of self psychology and intersubjectivity are combined along with facets from many other psychoanalytic theories.15 This relational perspective focuses more on the two-person nature of therapy than that of classical analysis.15
Conclusion Patients with NPD suffer a great deal. Kohut describes the depression and anxiety that a narcissistic patient may feel as “the deepest anxiety a man can experience.”6 NPD has also been described to be as overwhelming as the fear of death.6 The torment narcissistic patients suffer should never be discounted. Furthermore, these patients can and do present a risk. They feel less than human when they encounter even minor failures and, in order to regain a sense of unity within themselves, they act in ways that seem narcissistic to others, including suicide. In formulating Michael's treatment program, the developmental model of self psychology was used to explain the pathogenesis of Michael's narcissism. His self object needs clearly were not met empathically by his over extended mother. As therapy progressed, however, it became clear that there might be other factors to consider in the development of Michael's narcissism, especially that of his basic biological and psychological temperament. As treatment unfolded, the neutral and empathic stance, which according to self psychology the therapist should always maintain, became a difficult task. Michael's rage and sarcastic defenses were, at times, triggers for negative countertransference. In self psychology, it is the job of the psychiatrist to help these patients build for themselves the lattice of self object experiences in order to thrive beyond the therapy. However, narcissistic patients, such as Michael, can bring about quite a bit of countertransference in the psychiatrist, and at times, this may be overwhelming. In order to appropriately treat these patients, the psychiatrist must understand and be fully aware of these countertransferential feelings so that they do not interfere in therapy. Empathy has been referred to as crucial to the curative process in self psychology.9 Countertransference can interfere with empathy, and without empathy, the tone of therapy will not allow for the patient's full elaboration of his self object needs. This was difficult to achieve during Michael's therapy. Although providing therapy to a patient such as Michael who has NPD can prove challenging, it is also rewarding. Through growth in therapy, Michael ultimately found some relief, fleeting at first, from his depression and anxiety and learned ways to change some of his behaviors in a lasting way. As therapy progressed, Michael began to find some sense of unity, giving him a more durable peace within himself that was usually able to sustain him. |
Iraq’s religious and cultural heritage is currently under attack from the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), report sources including Newsweek and Hyperallergic. The group has bulldozed, blown up, or otherwise destroyed churches, shrines, and mosques across the country, as well as ancient statues, artifacts, and archeological sites.
Using Twitter, ISIS and its operatives have posted multiple photos of religious buildings being demolished, including the Shia Saad bin Aqeel Husseiniya shrine in Tal Afar and Mosul’s al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque. The group is also occupying the Chaldean cathedral and the Syrian Orthodox cathedral, both in Mosul, and has replaced crosses on the building spires with the Islamic State’s black flag.
Made up of ardent followers of the Sunni strain of Islam, ISIS has predictably focused much of its destructive energies on holy sites for the Shia sect. This is hardly surprising, given the long history of violence and conflict between the rival factions, but even Sunni religious buildings are not safe. This is due to the group’s strictly conservative interpretation of the faith, which permits only the worship of Allah. Several Sunni mosques in Nineveh have been destroyed due to purported instances of idolatry, such as visiting tombs.
According to the Daily Mail and a YouTube video attributed to ISIS, the tomb of Jonah, the biblical prophet most famous for having been temporarily swallowed by a great fish, has also been destroyed. ISIS has also desecrated the Mosul grave of Abu al-Hassan al-Jazari, a 12th- and 13th-century historiographer, known as ibn al-Athir.
The group, which recently declared itself a caliphate, is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who claims to be a descendent of Muhammad. Its activities endanger all religious minorities, including non-fundamentalist Sunnis, as well as important cultural, religious, and archeological sites.
According to the Guardian, Isis “was also known to have reaped windfalls from smuggling all manner of raw materials pillaged from the crumbling state, as well as priceless antiquities from archaeological digs.”
Reports based on the group’s social media activites speculate that ISIS plans to target Mecca, the all-important, obligatory pilgrimage site for Muslims. The holy city is home to the Al-Masjid al-Haram mosque, held by Muslims to be the most sacred mosque in the world. It includes a granite and marble building called the Kaaba, believed to contain a footprint from Abraham and a cornerstone laid by Muhammad himself.
“If Allah wills, we will kill those who worship stones in Mecca and destroy the Kaaba. People go to Mecca to touch the stones, not for Allah,” said ISIS member Abu Turab Al Mugaddasi, reports APA based on a Turkish news article.
UPDATE: According to a report from the Conflict Antiquities blog, the site in the video purportedly showing the destruction of the tomb of the prophet Jonah does not match known photos of the tomb. A comparison of video footage also rule out the possibility that the tombs in the video included the final resting place of the prophet Seth, which has also been mentioned in reports.
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Cleveland Cavaliers’ Lebron James may have healthy relationship with members of the Kardashian-Jenner family, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he loves their reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
James took to Snapchat to record a TV crew that visited the Cavaliers’ training facility. Although the star forward made no mention of the show’s name, it was presumed to be for Keeping Up With The Kardashians due to Khloe Kardashian’s relationship with James’ teammate, Tristan Thompson.
“The sh*t show is here today” Lebron James posted on his Snapchat story. “Look at the sh*t show gang,” he added, panning his cellphone around members of the film crew, BET reported.
It’s likely the KUWTK crew was there to get footage of Thompson for the show, especially after it was reported that he is expecting his first child with girlfriend Khloe Kardashian.
The video, however, was all made in good fun. James and Kardashian are good friends, and they were spotted sharing a hug after they hung out with Thompson and other members of the team, Hollywood Life wrote.
Although things appear to be well with the team, fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t too keen on having Kardashian on board. After the reality show star’s pregnancy announcement, fans expressed their concern about the “Kardashian curse” on Twitter.
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Meanwhile, Kardashian’s ex-husband, Lamar Odom, recently opened up about their current relationship. In an episode of Complex’s Everyday Struggle, Odom said they’re “still cool” and that he wishes her well, People reported. Although he didn’t particularly mention the pregnancy, the retired NBA player said he “still got love for her.”
Kardashian is reportedly three months pregnant. She’s reportedly due to give birth around February next year. Although the baby’s gender hasn’t been revealed yet, a source previously said that she wants a baby girl. Since Thompson is a “total momma’s boy” who grew up with all boys in the family, she feels that having a baby girl would “give him an amazing, new experience.”
As for the kid’s name, it’s possible Kardashian will choose a name that starts with a “K” to keep the family tradition. But an insider also said that she’s considering naming a baby girl Andrea after Thompson’s mother.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians Season 14 airs every Sunday on E!
[Featured Image by Jason Miller/Getty Images] |
Hopefully the fad will evaporate and they will think of something else
Man Utd manager Sir Alex Ferguson
Ferguson is convinced the blades are responsible for the broken foot bone which will sideline skipper Roy Keane for two months.
He said: "The shot of the injury shows the shape of a blade stud on Roy's foot. The bladed studs are a danger.
"We have strong views about this, we don't allow our players to wear them as they can cause serious injuries."
Ferguson branded bladed boots as a dangerous fad and has approached United's kit providers Nike, who are one of the manufacturers of such boots.
He said: "It's one of those gimmicks that come along. They're trying to sell them to kids, that's the problem with them.
"We have not spoken to the Football Association as I am not sure they can do much.
"It's up to the clubs but I know a lot of them are refusing to allow players to wear them.
"We have photographs in the dressing room of some of the injuries caused by blades. Some of our academy boys had bad injuries, including some terrible facial injuries.
"We have spoken with Nike about it. Hopefully the fad will evaporate and they will think of something else." |
Richard Drew/Associated Press
Three and a half years have passed since the onset of the financial crisis, and the public hasn’t changed the way it talks about Wall Street and its future. Journalists, politicians and even the Occupy movement have shaped our discussion by analyzing — and often attacking — the bankers at the helm.
Again and again we read about the forces driving the industry today, when we should be looking to the people who will lead Wall Street tomorrow.
Though recent media reports suggest that elite students are growing disillusioned by Wall Street, the numbers are unconvincing. Among the class of 2011, the financial industry was the top employer of graduates of Harvard, Duke, Columbia and even the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering school.
To claim the infatuation with Wall Street has come to an end is to disregard the forces underlying this phenomenon. Until we address what is drawing students to investment banking — and what is driving them once they get there — the brain drain to Wall Street won’t change, and Wall Street won’t, either.
Two years ago, I graduated from Duke, one of many elite colleges that function as a farm team for Wall Street. Four years before then, I had never heard of Goldman Sachs. A bank had always been that one-story building across from a gas station where my mom deposited checks and I took more lollipops than I was supposed to. But at Duke, I was quickly seduced by a Wall Street recruiting machine that is reshaping the culture of higher education and diverting the career paths of our best and brightest.
My generation has come of age in a society that tells its youth that we can do or be anything, but never mentions the suffocating price tag attached to our dreams. Like many of my peers, I entered college with unbridled ambition, only to confront a harsh economic reality: undergraduate loans, costly post-graduate degrees and high unemployment. In 2010, the average college student graduated with $25,000 in loans, the highest tally on record. Student loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. No wonder our priorities are skewed.
The financial pressures manifest themselves in different ways on different campuses, but at the country’s most-esteemed schools, the economy has precipitated Wall Street’s recruiting supremacy. When a six-figure income, including bonus, is dangled in front of a 22-year-old’s nose, it’s tough to stomach the thought of taking on the average $158,000 debt-load of today’s medical student, or shelling out $50,000 a year for a master’s degree.
So we head to Wall Street, rationalizing that we will stay for “just a year or two.” Once there, it’s tough to leave. A 2011 Bloomberg article reported that a banker with 10 years’ experience specializing in mergers will earn $2 million a year — more than 10 times the salary of an equally experienced cancer researcher or aerospace engineer.
But to attribute the industry’s appeal solely to our financial predicament is simplistic. We’ve been deemed the “Me Generation” for good reason. And Wall Street recruiters are more than happy to cater to our sense of entitlement.
They and their Ivy-pedigreed employees bombard campuses for weeks to shower us with fancy dinners, lavish trips to Manhattan and promises of a challenging, rewarding career. They tap into our competitiveness, so their internship programs begin recruiting us as sophomores, knowing that if we are offered opportunities to build our résumés, we won’t just apply, but we’ll commit ourselves so fully that we’ll mistake our desire to win the race with a desire for what it is we’re chasing.
I navigated a salacious recruiting process. I watched ruthless and cunning peers excel, and the more good-hearted crumble. I saw that being popular, good-looking and able to drink hard seemed to matter more than being smart. And as I began my internship search in the midst of the financial crisis, while the industry and our economy crumbled around us, not a single banker I met acknowledged blame on Wall Street’s part.
In the end, I landed a coveted offer, then turned it down because I had grown disillusioned by a toxic culture. Yet my classmates flocked to finance in astounding numbers, and continue to do so — not because they expect the industry to change but because they hope it will not.
It’s time to stop talking about Lloyd Blankfein, Greg Smith and Jamie Dimon. Instead of criticizing the decisions made in the executive suite, we need to focus on reforming the training grounds.
Unless universities re-examine their role in enabling Wall Street’s recruiting dominance, the next generation will be just like mine — primed for success, but lacking purpose. And unless our policy makers provide incentives to students to pursue more productive careers, Wall Street’s cachet will continue to highlight one of society’s ills: we charge heftily for an education, and then foolishly expect the educated to use their diplomas for the benefit of society.
Laura Newland, a 2010 graduate of Duke University, is a management consultant in Philadelphia. She is writing a book about college life and the influence of Wall Street on today’s campuses. |
Guns n’ more guns 3
by Max Stainkamph | @maxstainkamph
It’s not an easy place to find. The sign is like any other on the highway from Shepparton to Benalla. It’s old, a bit rusty and that pale, faded off-white that just belongs in the country.
You hear the popping as you wind your way to the clubhouse. It’s a strange cross between throwing loose bits of gravel onto a corrugated iron roof and popcorn in the microwave. You can hear it from the road. As I turn in, a massive BOOM is let off.
I instinctively duck behind the wheel, and hit the brakes. I pause, breathing. I then realised the popping was rifle fire. The boom was something much bigger.
What have I got myself into? I ask myself as I drive up to the Shepparton branch of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA).
It’s not easy to get your hands on a gun in Victoria. To buy yourself one, you need a Gun License, and a License to Acquire a firearm – which is different for different types of guns.
If you want to try outside of this, you need to be at a registered gun club, like I am, or on private property.
All in all, it takes most people a few months to actually go from deciding they want a gun to getting one.
A gun license is difficult. There is a lot of mucking around with ensuring you have “genuine reasons” for wanting a gun, which range from sporting, to hunting to commercial.
These ‘reasons’ are thoroughly checked out, crossing with gun clubs and the type of license you are applying for. You need a medical test, fingerprints, an identification reference, attendance at a safety course and that weird 100-point ID system Victoria has.
28 days of twiddling your thumbs later, and your licence arrives.
To describe a License to Acquire is difficult. Basically, it needs a whole bunch of information from what sort of gun you’re after, a whole swathe of personal details and more complex details if you’re a collector or getting higher category guns.
Another 28 days pass, and your permit arrives.
All in all, it takes most people a few months to actually go from deciding they want a gun to getting one. Once you’ve got it, you need to store it in a safe, and ammunition in a separate safe. You need to have the keys to both safes on you at all times.
None of this is incredibly difficult to do, Shepparton SSAA range officer Andrew Gibb tells me. It’s just slightly irritating and very time consuming.
He also speaks about how safe shooting is. I nearly laugh at what appears to be an oxymoron, but he shows me.
“It’s not too hard, but I think [the restrictions] are like that for a reason,” he tells me. Andrew lives in town, and hasn’t had a gun license long. He says the change in the laws “definitely got rid of the rednecks and jokers from the sport.”
He also speaks about how safe shooting is. I nearly laugh at what appears to be an oxymoron, but he shows me. The range is sort of like a golf driving range. You aim your gun through a hoop which restrict its movement.
No-one loads their gun until it is in position, and then they shoot out into the range. After a while, the Range Officer takes out a big flag, hangs it up and declares the range closed. Then everyone heads out to have a look at how they did. They return, have a moment to ensure everyone is accounted for, and continue shooting.
Andrew doesn’t see a huge amount of appeal in hunting, although he has gone out – without luck – once or twice. He introduces me to Mal, who has done a lot of hunting in his native state of Tasmania, his new home of Victoria and big game hunting overseas. “I eat all I kill,” Mal says.
“I don’t believe in waste. I don’t like to shoot things I don’t eat.” He has wallabies in the freezer at home from his last trip to Tassie, and he tells me similarly to home-grown vegetables, the meat you’ve taken yourself tastes better than out of a butcher.
Andrew disagrees, saying he doesn’t like killing things for the sake of killing them, even for meat, but nearly all the game shot in Australia aren’t native. The only natives that do get shot are kangaroos, which can considered to be pests too.
“If a mob of roos come through it’ll ruin your crop,” Mal says. “They’ve just got to be taken care of sometimes.”
I want to ask him about the suffering animals go through when being shot, and if he thinks about when eating game, but pause. It seems like a stupid question. Do I think about the meat I eat and how it died?
John Howard is revered for two things by our generation: DJing like a mad cunt, and ridding Australia of guns.
I have more on my conscience. I don’t know if the animal I ate died well, or if it spent its life in a tiny paddock before being bustled into a crowded truck and then a blood-soaked abattoir. But, I don’t think about that. Mal’s wallabies were in their habitat, wild and carefree but not for those final seconds.
Young Australians have a peculiar relationship with guns – especially young city folk. We’re terrified of them. I’d never seen a gun held by someone who wasn’t a police officer or in the armed forces before. Most friends I’ve spoken to are the same.
During my time at the Shepparton SSAA, I continue flinching as some of the bigger rifles go off. It’s instinctive and I can’t help it. The sounds of unexpected gunshots are a sound of terror, projected through the scariest bits of the nightly news.
Every time anyone suggests loosening gun laws, like David Leyonhjelm – the Liberal Democrats Senator from NSW did in the wake of the Sydney siege – they get slammed.
John Howard is revered for two things by our generation: DJing like a mad cunt, and ridding Australia of guns.
We don’t shake our heads at America’s inability to rid itself of guns, but their lack of any basic controls over who can buy one.
A climate of fear has been built around guns as Australians decided they didn’t want them in their society. Any step in America’s direction in terms of gun control is now almost un-Australian.
In the country, it’s different. It’s just a culture thing. People don’t think about it. On the range, I meet a sixteen year-old. He has one of those big-arse BOOM guns. I ask him what got him into shooting, expecting him to point to his father behind him.
“All my friends are doing it,” he says. “I’ve been hunting for rabbits and foxes, but I’ve upgraded to a deer rifle.” He gestures to the one in his arms, “today’s the first time I’ve shot it.”
Guns are like the estranged lovechild of a chainsaw and a cricket bat. On one hand, they’re tools. They get used only on very specific occasions, for very specific jobs, and take care when using them.
But they also have a sporting edge; there is an art in what sort of gun you have and what it is for. A bolt rifle might be for clay targets at 100 yards, a bigger rifle for shooting 500 yards or more. But they’re spoken about in the same way cricketers speak about their bats.
It’s the first time the phrase “it’s not the gun, but the person behind the gun” has sounded rational.
And that was the thing that really stood out. I’m not entirely sure what I expected – but it certainly wasn’t to find an ordinary sporting club.
Guns are like the estranged lovechild of a chainsaw and a cricket bat.
They show me how the guns work, talk me through what ammunition is what, what different guns are used for, and give me a shot. I start off with a small bolt-action rifle, one of the ones making the popcorn noise as I arrived.
I shoot clay targets sitting on a mount. Once I figure out I’m a left-hand shooter, I find it more relaxing than archery or golf. You sit there, move the rifle a bit, take a shot and watch the clay target explode into a puff of clay on the odd occasion you hit.
Later in the day, when only Andrew and Brent, another range officer, are still around, Andrew pulls out a big gun, the sort of one that had me ducking for cover as I entered. It makes the one I used seem like a pea shooter.
He offers to let me try it. I line it up, bracing it on my shoulder.The gun I used before didn’t have kickback, but this one definitely did. It was like getting punched. The pile of dust kicked up – a mile from what I was aiming at – is huge.
My heart races and my ears ring. I decide to call it a day. The road is silent as I drive out. It’s the warm, faded sort of silence that just belongs in the country. |
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Visitors to Cardiff will be able to experience forest life through the eyes of the creatures who live there, thanks to a new virtual reality project.
In the Eyes of the Animal is a new free-to-use experience in the city's Bute Park that immerses users so fully they can see, hear and feel the natural habitat of woodland creatures.
Through the perspective of a mosquito, dragonfly, frog and owl, users are transported into a simulated version of their forest surroundings.
Users wear a virtual reality headset that is textured with bark and moss to reflect the natural environment and which gives them a 360° view of the forest floor and canopy when they move their heads.
A pack strapped on to backs enables them to feel the beating wings of a dragonfly and experience the forest in a unique way in an environment where nature meets technology.
Who is behind the project?
In the Eyes of the Animal was created by Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) who are pioneers in the virtual-meets-real-world arena and the project is a partnership between Cardiff City Council, Migrations and RSPB Cymru.
They were also behind last year's hugely successful spider's web which saw more than 10,000 visitors crawl through the hanging art work in Bute Park that was made entirely out of sticky tape.
How does it work?
In the Eyes of the Animal is filmed using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and bespoke 360º cameras, and set to a binaural soundtrack using audio recordings sourced from the forest.
Via sculptural virtual reality headsets, users enter an environment where nature and technology collide and where they gave a unique insight into a simulated forest world.
Do I need a ticket?
No tickets are required and the experience is free to use. Four people will be able to use the headsets at any one time and there will be other organised park activities available for you while you wait.
When is it open?
In the Eyes of the Animal is open from July 15 to August 4 and from 8am to 7pm daily. If it's raining, it will not be open.
It is not suitable for children under five and children under 13 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. The virtual reality section lasts 10 minutes but allow around 30 minutes for the experience in total. |
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Gunnar Pippel / Getty Images
1. "My mind forgets to remind me that you're a bad idea." - "Sparks Fly" 2. "You searched the world for something else to make you feel like what we had." - "Wonderland" 3. "You call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest." - "All Too Well" 4. "I can't say hello to you and risk another goodbye." - "I Almost Do." 5. "The flowers that we'd grown together died of thirst." - "Clean" 6. "Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it." - "All Too Well" 7. "When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe." - "Clean" 8. "People are people and sometimes we change our minds." - "Breathe"
Fesus Robert / Getty Images
9. "I don't know how to be something you miss." - "Last Kiss" 10. "All we are is skin and bone, trained to get along." - "Treacherous" 11. "You're still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can't wear any more." - "Clean" 12. "What a rainy ending given to a perfect day." - "Cold As You" 13. "Words, how little they mean, when you're a little too late." - "Sad Beautiful Tragic" 14. "Today is never too late to be brand new." - "Innocent" 15. "You wear your best apology, but I was there to watch you leave." - "The Last Time" 16. "Faster than the wind, passionate as sin." - "Red"
Andrea Carolina Sanchez Gonzalez / Getty Images
17. "You come away with a great little story, of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you." - "Cold As You" 18. "When you're young, you just run, but you come back to what you need." - "This Love" 19. "I can't decide if it's a choice, getting swept away." - "Treacherous" 20. "We learn to live with the pain, mosaic broken hearts." - "State of Grace' 21. "It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you." - "Back To December" 22. "The way you move is like a full-on rainstorm." - "Sparks Fly" 23. "I'll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep." - "Last Kiss" 24. "Maybe this thing was a masterpiece until you tore it all up." - "All Too Well" 25. "We were built to fall apart and fall back together." - "Out of the Woods" 26. "My thoughts will echo your name until I see you again." - "Enchanted" 27. "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter" - "Mine" 28. "We need love but all we want is danger." - "New Romantics" 29. "You've got your demons and darling they all look like me." - "Sad Beautiful Tragic"
Ingram Publishing / Getty Images
30. "Your eyes looked like coming home." - "Everything Has Changed" 31. "The story's got dust on every page." - "Holy Ground" 32. "Someday when you leave me, I bet these memories follow you around." - "Wildest Dreams" 33. "We're happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time." - "22" 34. "I lived in your chess game but you changed the rules every day." - "Dear John" 35. "He's the only one who's got enough of me to break my heart." - "Teardrops on my Guitar" 36. "Untouchable like a distant diamond sky." - "Untouchable" 37. "Don't you dream impossible things?" - "Starlight"
J_w_p / Getty Images |
New Skins
Heartseeker Varus
1350 RP
Here's Galetta with a Heartseeker Varus!
"Love wounds and inflames the heart! Love is in the air as Heartseeker Varus flutters onto the PBE! Surrender to love or feel the sting of his arrow! This skin includes: New model and texture! With the addition of white angelic wings!
With the addition of white angelic wings! New particles! Hearts! Glitter! Pink ribbons! Rose petals!
Hearts! Glitter! Pink ribbons! Rose petals! New recall animation!
New SFX on his spells and his recall! This skin will be 1350rp!
Your feedback and bug reports are extremely helpful to us, so please check out Heartseeker Varus and let us know what you think! Feel free to drop any bugs you find in this thread as well! See you on the Rift! Note: The SFX are still a work in progress so some spells may not have the updated sounds!" Note: Heartseeker Varus also now uses the
Here'swith a bugs and feedback thread forNote:also now uses the same voiceover as Arclight Varus , which takes away the extra filter effects of his base voiceover.
Marauder Ashe
750 RP
[Video outdated as of 1/28]
Marauder Warwick
750 RP [Video outdated as of 1/28]
KateyKhaos with a Marauder Ashe and Marauder Warwick! Here'swith a bugs and feedback thread forand "NOTE: 1/27: We're aware of an issue where Marauder Warwick's VO isn't playing. We're working on a fix! Victory by destruction! Decimate any enemy who gets in your way on the Rift with Marauder Ashe and Marauder Warwick! Marauder Ashe and will be Marauder Warwick 750 RP each and include:
All new model and texture (complete with shiny new armor)! Marauder Ashe and Marauder Warwick are now available to play on PBE! We always find bug reports and feedback super helpful, so feel free to comment in the thread below! Likewise, if you've got any questions, post 'em here, and we'll do our best to answer them!"
Warden Nautilus
750 RP [Video outdated as of 1/28]
Warden Sivir
750 RP
New Summoner Icons
New Ward Skin Riot has also added a new Heartseeker Ward skin!
Heartseeker Ward 640 RP
Here's Riot KateyKhaos with aHeartseeker Ward!
"See your enemy's love (or gank) coming from a mile away with the Heartseeker Ward! The Heartseeker Ward is 640 RP each and includes: All new model and texture !
! New particles ! (Oooh, pink sparkles!)
! (Oooh, pink sparkles!) New animations !
! New sounds! The Heartseeker Ward is now available to play on PBE! We always find bug reports and feedback super helpful, so feel free to comment in the thread below! Likewise, if you've got any questions, post 'em here, and we'll do our test to answer them!" Here'swith a bugs and feedback thread for the
Symbols added to Summoner's Rift
A set of strange symbols have been added various places on Summoner's Rift.
Texture Rebalances
Kennen
Deadly Kennen
Swamp Master Kennen
Karate Kennen
Kennen M. D.
Arctic Ops Kennen
Infernal Mordekaiser
Lord Mordekaiser
Veigar
White Mage Veigar
Curling Veigar
Veigar Greybeard
Leprechaun Veigar
Baron Von Veigar
Superb Villian Veigar
Fiddlesticks
Spectral Fiddlesticks
Union Jack Fiddlesticks
Bandito Fiddlesticks
Pumpkinhead Fiddlesticks
Fiddle Me Timbers
Surprise Party Fiddlesticks
Here's a video compare for the Fiddlesticks texture update and his skins:
Incoming Update for Match History in the Client
MattEnth
"Hey everyone,
Last year, we introduced Match History to the web and soon we’re bringing a good chunk of that functionality to the client. While the web experience will remain the place to go for shareable (show-offable?) links, runes, masteries and item build orders, we’re bringing the lion’s share of Match History to the client:
20 viewable matches, up from the previous 10
A more complete scoreboard that now shows trinket, creep score, and total kill and gold breakdowns per team
Match timelines with timestamped neutral objectives, tower falls, and kills
Gold advantage graphs
Kill maps that show the location of each and every kill for each player This update shifts what types of matches will show up in the client. As a reminder, we believe competitive matches should be open information, so everyone’s ranked games (even Bjergsen 's) will be up for analysis through Match History. Your less tryhard normal queue matches will only be viewable by you and your friends, just like Match History on the web
We still have a few minor changes to make before going to live and don’t expect this to make it into 5.3. We just wanted to put it on the PBE early to hear your thoughts.
MattEnth "
Camera Lock Mode Option
Fixed Offsetvs Per-Side Offseton Blue
Fixed Offset vs Per-Side Offset on Red
In the set of screenshots above, my character is standing in the same place but notice the "Fixed Offset" option has them centered (how it works now) and the "Per-Side Offset" shifts the camera slightly depending on which side you are on.
Battle Boosts up for testing in Nemesis Draft on PBE
L4T3NCY
"Heya guys,
For our upcoming Featured Game Mode, Nemesis Draft, we're looking to re-activate 'Battle Boosts' which saw their first outing back in One For All: Mirror Mode.For those of you who might not remember, Battle Boosts let you temporarily unlock all currently available skins for yourself and your allies. The purchaser of a Battle Boost will now also get a one game 200 IP boost, while the rest of the team receives a 100 IP boost.
For testing purposes on the PBE, we've left the price at 1RP. When Nemesis Draft goes live, Battle Boosts will be available for 125RP (down from the original OFA:MM price of 150RP). Of course, on PBE, everyone has almost everything unlocked already, so the impact will certainly feel diluted, but we're looking to catch any bugs before we roll it out.
Feedback welcome on both this version of Battle Boosts or other features you'd like to see added!"
Friends List Improvements
Miscellaneous
The default ward skin now has a spawn animation - it "wiggles" when you put it down! Thedefault wards, that were originally added in the The new spawn and death animations for thewards, that were originally added in the 1/29 PBE update , have been removed.
Balance Changes * Remember *: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, and sometimes radical changes. The changes you see below may be lacking context or other accompanying changes that didn't make it in - don't freak out! These are not official notes.
* Remember *: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, and sometimes radical changes. The changes you see below may be lacking context or other accompanying changes that didn't make it in - don't freak out! These areofficial notes.
Champions Ahri
Orb of Deception (Q) mana cost increased to 60/70/80/90/100 from 55/60/65/70/75
Orb of Deception (Q ) mana cost [lowered] to 65/70/75/80/85 from 60/70/80/90/100
) mana cost [lowered] to 65/70/75/80/85 from 60/70/80/90/100 [ Note : This is still a change vs her current live value, which is 55/60/65/70/75 mana ]
: This is still a change vs her current live value, which is 55/60/65/70/75 mana ] Fox Fire (W) damage decreased to 40/65/90/115/140 from 50/80/110/140/170
damage decreased to 40/65/90/115/140 from 50/80/110/140/170 Fox Fire (W) cooldown lowered to 8/7/6/5/4 from 9/8/7/6/5 [Reverted]
[Reverted] Fox Fire (W) Range decreased to 600 from 750.
Azir
Base AD increased to 52 from 49
increased to 52 from 49 [Soldier autoattack range reduced to 325 from 400 ]
reduced to 325 from 400 Conquering Sands ( Q ) damage lowered to 65/85/105/125/145 from 75/105/135/165/195
damage lowered to 65/85/105/125/145 from 75/105/135/165/195 Arise (W) damage to towers lowered to 60+10 per level (+.4 AP) from 90 +15 per level (+.6 AP)
Diana
Moonsilver Blade (passive) now has an buff bar indicator Pale Cascade (W) [now spins around Diana much faster]
Gnar
The time in which you can not gain rage after transforming from Mega to Mini increased to 15 seconds from 13 seconds.
[ Total transform time reduced? While the tooltip on live says "15 seconds" is actually lasting around ~20 seconds. This has been reduced down to ~15 seconds on PBE.]
Gragas
Barrel Roll (Q) movement speed slow increased to 40/45/50/55/60% from 30/35/40/45/50%
Kassadin
Null Sphere (Q) damage reduced to 70/95/120/145/170 from 80/105/130/155/180
damage reduced to 70/95/120/145/170 from 80/105/130/155/180 Nether Blade (W ) passive damage changed to 10/15/20/25/30 from 20 at all ranks
Kennen
Electrical Surge ( W ) tool tip now includes it can be used on targets "caught in Slicing Maelstrom or afflicted by Mark of the Storm" rather than just afflicted by MotS
Sona
Base HP increased to 497.6 from 482.36
increased to 497.6 from 482.36 HP Per Level decreased to 70 from 77
decreased to 70 from 77 Base attack damage increased to 52.04 from 50.04
increased to 52.04 from 50.04 Movement Speed increased to 330 from 325
increased to 330 from 325 Base mana regen reduced to 1.6184 from 1.8
reduced to 1.6184 from 1.8 Mana regen per second per level increased .13 from .08
Varus
Chain of Corruption (R) missile width increased to 120 from 100.
Zyra
[Tooltip] Deadly Bloom (Q) now notes Thorn Spitter has 750 range. [Tooltip] Grasping Roots (E) now notes Vine Laster has 400 range. To go along with this, her plants now also show a range indicator! Zyra and her allies can see them, enemies can NOT see them.
Items Greater Stealth Totem
Now has charges and stores a charge of every 60 seconds, up to a total of two.
[Rengar's Bonetooth Necklace variant has also been updated to include this effect. Upgrades at 20 trophies.]
Farsight Orb
Tooltip update to includes "Also places a visible ward in the area that lasts 60 seconds." This ward has 1 HP and takes 1 hit to kill. [Note: This change does not seem to be functioning in-game yet! They did add a new icon for the Farsight Orb's ward though.]
This change is now hooked up and working on the PBE!
Oracle's Lens
Upgrade Price reduced to 250 from 475
Spectre's Cowl
Unique Passive changed to 150% base HP regen for up to 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion from 100%
To kick off the 5.3 PBE cycle we have total of five new skins, including the lovely, Marauder skins for, and Inquisitor skins forandToday's update includes a new summoner icon to go along with our other upcoming Valentine's Day themed content,and Sweetheart Annie We also have two new summoner icons featuring a masked Teemo! No details yet but these icons heavily resemble the Masquerade icons we saw last year We also have a new Ziggs themed summoner icon, likely for the upcomingmode.There are a total of five of them placed around the map - one near mid, two at top and bottom.They also light up! When mousing over them, they emit a little swirl of light, grows bright, then fades away.Going away then back will make it just sort of simmer, leaving it less bright then the first time.After that it just fades back to no glow until you come back around it.Here's a video of the symbols lighting up in spectator mode.Uncertain what they are for. I can not get them to trigger in-game organically, only in spectator mode. If you walk beside one in game and switch your environment settings around, they will trigger and stay on (although this is probably not intended).The files are named "MM_". There is also a reference to "Bard_Symbol",Here's a preview video for thetexture rebalances:Here's a video compare for thetexture update and his skins:No texture rebalances fororNo texture rebalances forHere's with info on the update to Match History in the client:Here's a look at the update, which allows you to click into each match within the client:There also a new "" in the option menu.This change is only when you play with your cameraor when you recenter your camera using the space bar.Here are some examples of the "" vs "" on each side:Here'swith information on the return of, which will available for the upcomingfeatured game mode:: As of the 2/4 PBE Update, these have been.]When you hover over a friend on your friend list or in a chat room, there is now a pop up window that tells you their current status, their last played champion, and "playstyle".The "" option has been split into mouse and keyboard options.The HUD files were updated to include a music note and a crossed out music note. They don't appear to be enabled anywhere in-game yet. [UPDATE: These are for's Q sound effects, which are bugged on live/5.2, have been fixed. |
The phrase "shark attack" is sensationalist and damaging – bites by sharks are often investigatory or defensive
I HAVE seen a shark attack, and it is dramatic. On a recent trip to Cape Town, South Africa, I watched great whites breaching from beneath seals in successful and unsuccessful predations. These are attempts to kill. Shark predations on seals are attacks, because the intent is clear.
However, to suggest that shark-on-human encounters should be called predations would be wrong. The way sharks encounter seals is fundamentally different from how they treat humans.
I believe the time is right for science to reconsider its use of the phrase “shark attack” on humans. Such language creates a one-dimensional perception of these events and makes protecting threatened shark species more difficult. After all, why care about an animal that wants to eat us?
Historically, the language has been less emotive. Cases of “shark bite” were noted by doctors in 1899 and “shark accident” was an accepted term until the 1930s, even if it was fatal.
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This faded when Australian surgeon Victor Coppleson concluded in a 1933 article in the Medical Journal of Australia that “the evidence sharks will attack man is complete”. The first New Orleans Shark Symposium in 1958 cemented “attack” language in the scientific community.
The argument for change is compelling. Modern research has shown that bites by sharks are often investigatory or defensive, taking place in cloudy water and out of curiosity.
Human-shark encounters are always called attacks even when there is no contact, artificially amplifying the numbers. What’s more, no distinction is made for minor bites from non-threatening species. In Australia, 13 per cent of all “attacks” come from small wobbegong sharks, which bite when stepped on. Under the existing system, the public is unable to tell scratches from fatalities, boats from people or wobbegongs from great whites.
Finally, “attack” terminology creates an inappropriate connection between scientific reasoning and tabloid journalism. If there is no separation between science and sensationalism, then educating the public about true shark behaviour is more difficult.
Changing terminology is not simple. I use the phrase “shark bite incidents” but the transition cannot be unilateral. This norm-setting task is the responsibility of the whole scientific community. |
The $195 million deal contains a provision for Steinway to pack up the pianos and move out if the buyer — who has not been identified — or Steinway itself gave 12 months’ notice. “There’s a chance we’d stay and a chance we won’t,” Ms. Theriault said. “It’s potentially our decision, but it’s potentially the buyer’s.”
Steinway, which owns the building but not the land beneath it, said its share of the sale would total $56 million. But the company said $20 million would go into escrow for as long as it remained in the building. Mr. Sweeney, the chief executive, did not say how long that might be or how much rent Steinway would have to pay if it stayed on.
At one time or another, the building housed offices of the New York Philharmonic, Columbia Artists Management and Musical America magazine. In the 1990s, the nameplate above the large front window was replaced with one that said “The Economist” when the British magazine became a tenant. The Economist moved out in 2010.
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For many New Yorkers, it was the showroom that was, and is, captivating. Dr. JoAnn Difede, a psychologist on the faculty of Weill Cornell Medical College, rented an upright piano there several years ago — a Boston, one of Steinway’s two lower-priced brands. Her son Hal Rives showed promise, she said. After six months of renting, they bought it. And last summer Hal, now 14, took a teenage friend who was visiting from Los Angeles to Steinway Hall.
“They went and played the pianos for an hour until someone threw them out,” she said. “It’s an icon. It may not be up there with the Apple store in touristy, but it gets some people there. And it’s a similar concept, the design of a perfect product and the place in which they’re selling it.
“That’s what Steve Jobs understood better than anybody in modern corporate America, and that Steinway got right. The environment in which it’s sold matters.”
But it is an environment on a block that is changing. There was a time when its stretch of West 57th Street “evoked comparison to the elegant Rue de la Paix in Paris,” in the words of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. But now a 1,004-foot-high tower is going up a few doors away from the Steinway building.
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That new structure, known as One57, will be one of the city’s tallest. Its prices are high, too: Two duplexes are said to be under contract for more than $90 million apiece. And it was the scene of high drama during Hurricane Sandy when a construction crane snapped and dangled over the street.
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The Steinway building, designated a city landmark in 2001, opened in October 1925 with a performance by 35 players from the New York Philharmonic. In the invitation-only audience, The New York Times reported, were “more persons of note in society and music, perhaps, than New York’s greatest concert halls often shelter in a day.” Among them were the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff; George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak; the mining mogul and art collector Solomon R. Guggenheim; and John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Over the years, generations of piano teachers scheduled recitals in the rotunda, with its 60-foot-high domed ceiling and elaborate marble columns, and generations of beginners labored through Beethoven’s “Für Elise” or Chopin’s “Minute” Waltz. And the basement, a workaday space with factory-style fluorescent lights, became a haunt for famous pianists with a recital or a concert on the calendar. There they could choose from among the instruments in Steinway’s concert fleet, a bank of pianos that could be delivered to concert halls or recording studios.
Rachmaninoff was introduced, so the story goes, to Vladimir Horowitz in the basement in the 1920s. After they worked their way through Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3, Rachmaninoff is said to have declared, “That’s the way it should be played.”
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Steinway occupied four floors and the basement when the building was new. But in the 1950s, the company moved most of its administrative operations to its factory in Astoria, Queens. In 1958, it became a tenant in its own building, which it sold to the Manhattan Life Insurance Company. Steinway bought back the building in 1999 for $62 million.
Virginia Gambale, a technology strategist from Greenwich, Conn., said she remembered when she first saw the Steinway building. It was in 1970. She was a 10-year-old pianist who arrived to play in a competition there.
She also remembered the first time her 8-year-old daughter, Olivia, saw the Steinway building. It was last spring, for a piano recital. “She knew the story of Mommy,” Ms. Gambale said. “I was so excited, and so was she. You couldn’t put this same experience in a different building. You stand there and you look at the columns. You look at the architecture. In a regular modern building, it would not have the same experience.” |
NewsCatholic Church
ROME, February 26, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) -- Bishop Athanasius Schneider, a prelate known for his outspoken defense of the Catholic faith, is raising concern about a recent Vatican conference that focused on how to help children become “agents of change” in the fight against “man-made climate change.”
Titled “Children and Sustainable Development: A Challenge for Education,” the conference took place last November under the auspieces of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS), whose chancellor is Archbishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo.
Among the most controversial presenters was UN advisor Jeffrey Sachs, who has called for the birth rate in Africa to be drastically reduced through government programs aimed at increased use of contraception, and who has championed abortion as a way to reduce fertility. The Vatican also partnered with Sachs last April, asking him to moderate and co-host a conference on climate change.
Bishop Schneider, who is auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, said that faithful Catholics should be shocked that “enemies of the Catholic Faith” are involved in such a conference.
“One can realize here with shock the extent to which the declared enemies of the Catholic Faith are given scope for their activities at such an event in the Vatican. One has to protest against it. With the help of these speakers whose publications clearly oppose the Faith, the Faith itself and the natural moral law are being mocked in a subtle way.”
“God does not allow His Being mocked. At some point, He will intervene and one has to have compassion with those persons who are responsible for such a conference because they will one day answer for this before the Judgment Seat of God.”
“People who at such a conference sell the Holy Faith so cheaply – also when they are priests or bishops – should not forget this warning of Holy Scripture: ‘It is terrible to fall into the hands of the Living God’ (Hebrews 10:31). We have to wish it for those so-called Catholics, priests and bishops, and say: ‘Convert from your hearts to Our Lord, as long as there is time left!’” he said.
The event’s honorary President was Mrs. Courtney Sale Ross, founder of the Ross School in East Hampton, New York, and widow of Steve Ross, the owner of Hollywood's Warner Brothers Studios and also the founder of the promiscuity-laden music channel MTV. A number of Ross School students made presentations at the conference, in particular on climate change.
One Ross student made the case that world leaders should tap into students from private upperclass schools and “use them as agents of change” because they’ve had a “better” life and education.
“[They should] ask them to use what they’ve had in their life to make other people’s lives better,” the student said.
The conference’s final declaration notes the importance of turning young people into “agents of change” regarding the fight against climate change.
“Children and teenagers are not just recipients of knowledge: they must be inspired to act in their local contexts, and design sustainability initiatives in their schools and communities,” the document states.
Turning the traditional order upside down, where adults are the formative teachers of the young, the document continues: “Youth can encourage change through constructive interaction not only with other young people, but by positively influencing adults. Social media and social networks can be an asset. The education and empowerment of girls is essential to serve as agents of change.”
A connection is purportedly established in the document’s conclusion between environmental issues and moral and social issues. Educators are urged to stress to students “connections and mental habits that are open and flexible, fostering new thinking models that erode a tendency toward fixed beliefs.”
When LifeSiteNews reached out to the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, to ask about Pope Francis' own position on the use of children as “agents of change,” no response was given. Archbishop Sànchez Sorondo also did not respond to LifeSiteNews' request for comment.
See related stories:
Indur Goklany: The great carbon boom
Amazing video: Ted Cruz demolishes Sierra Club president on Climate Change
Vatican bishop: Pope’s view on global warming is as authoritative as the condemnation of abortion
Laudato Si’ ignores real gains for the environment and the poor
Why the Catholic Church should be opposing the Paris climate agreement
African bishops beware: Here comes ‘sustainable development’
Are the UN’s sustainable development goals about eliminating poverty – or children?
Vatican endorsement of UN development goals threatens unborn children
Maurice Strong, father of the globalist eco-control movement, dies |
SAN JOSE — A popular online safe-search filter is ending its practice of blocking links to mainstream gay and lesbian advocacy groups for users hoping to avoid obscene sites.
For several years, top Web-filtering services have been resolving a security over-reach that conflated gay rights websites with child porn, blocking both from web surfers using safe-search software. Now Symantec, one of a handful of key players in the content-filtering market, is joining the push.
Online security firm Symantec told The Associated Press that while customers can still set their search to block offensive websites, there will no longer be an option to block websites just because they relate to sexual orientation.
“Making this change was not only the right thing to do, it was a good business decision,” said Fran Rosch, executive vice president, Norton Business Unit, Symantec in a Tuesday announcement. “Having a category in place that could be used to filter out all LGBT-oriented sites was inconsistent with Symantec’s values and the mission of our software.”
Symantec’s shift, which came after customers at an Au Bon Pain cafe and bakery blogged in January that the free Wi-Fi was blocking access to advocacy groups, is the latest in a series of Internet-filter revamps prompted after frustrated Web searchers found human rights campaigns and gay advocacy groups were being grouped together with child porn sites by some Web-content monitors, which then prevented users from clicking on them.
Internet filters are mandatory in most public schools and libraries, and they are frequently used as well by anyone offering Wi-Fi, from airports to cafes. They can limit students and patrons from browsing obscene or inappropriate content. But many of those filters have blocked appropriate and important content.
In 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union launched a “Don’t Filter Me” campaign specifically aimed at getting public schools to allow students to look at non-sexual websites about LGBT issues and organizations. ACLU attorney Joshua Block said that at the time, they had “a gazillion complaints” about Internet filters, but in recent months, as many software firms have revised their systems, they’ve heard few grievances.
“Symantec is a little bit behind the curve on this,” said Block, who helped lead that campaign. “Most of the leading Internet-filtering companies have already eliminated these sorts of filters from their own systems.”
Analyst Bryan Fischer at the conservative American Family Association said some people consider websites advocating gay rights as dangerous propaganda and should be allowed to block them.
“Symantec is simply wrong to deny their customers this option,” he said.
GLAAD, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender media advocacy organization, along with The Trevor Project, a youth suicide prevention program, were among those that until now were blocked by Symantec’s software, and they are still blocked by several major systems.
GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said the change shows that “Symantec gets it.”
“It’s time that our software reflects our values, and that means filtering out discrimination,” she said Monday in advance of the announcement.
Web-filtering systems, including McAfee, Blue Coat, Websense and Netsweeper, divide millions of Web addresses into categories like nudity, marijuana, cults or war games and then allow the network owner to select what categories they want blocked from their systems.
Symantec’s Web-content database, which is used by its Web-content filtering and parental-control programs, dates to 1996 and is one of the largest in the industry, including billions of Web pages from around the world.
Symantec, the fourth-largest software company in the world, said the lifestyle-sexual orientation category has been removed from its databases, but that it’s still being implemented in some products. The Mountain View, California-based firm said it’s also taking a broader look at all of the categories in this database, and it will be eliminating any others that are similarly outdated. |
Estimating Individual Ambiguity Aversion: A Simple Approach
NBER Working Paper No. 20982
Issued in February 2015
NBER Program(s):Environment and Energy Economics, Public Economics
We introduce a simple, easy to implement instrument for jointly eliciting risk and ambiguity attitudes. Using this instrument, we structurally estimate a two-parameter model of preferences. Our findings indicate that ambiguity aversion is significantly overstated when risk neutrality is assumed. This highlights the interplay between risk and ambiguity attitudes as well as the importance of joint estimation. In addition, over our stakes levels we find no difference in the estimated parameters when incentives are real or hypothetical, raising the possibility that a simple hypothetical question can provide insights into an individuals preferences over ambiguity in such economic environments.
Acknowledgments
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w20982
Users who downloaded this paper also downloaded* these: |
Seattle, Washington is the latest city to consider a tax on sugary beverages. In his February 21 State of the City address, Mayor Ed Murray proposed a tax of 2 cents per ounce on the distribution of sugary drinks (i.e., energy drinks, juice, soda, and sweetened teas). If approved, the tax could generate as much as $16 million annually, which would go towards improving education in the city.
Specifically, the funds would be earmarked for the Education Action Agenda, which has a mission to “eliminate the opportunity gap between white students and African American/Black students and other historically underrepresented students of color.” The city would use the revenue to expand Birth-to-Five programs as well as before and after school programs, support educator workforce diversity, reduce disproportionality in discipline, and more.
Mayor Murray emphasized the amount of revenue a soda tax could generate, as the city desperately needs more money for education. That’s true for the state of Washington, too. Education has been underfunded in the state for decades, meaning that “Washington is failing to meet its constitutional obligations for fully funding K-12 basic education.” Governor Jay Inslee (D) hasn’t called for a statewide tax on sugary beverages, but his proposed budget for 2017–19 includes repealing the sales and use tax exemption for bottle water.
The proposed Seattle soda tax is about money. But it’s also about health. The mayor pointed out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds soda taxes to be “the single most effective remedy to reverse the obesity epidemic” because they help decrease consumption. The health benefits of taxing sugary beverages have been part of tax debates in other parts of the country as well. |
Pereira, however, says the legal battles won't deter him from pursuing this business opportunity.
"They could go after me but I'm about pushing public transportation," he said.
Several Chinese factories pump out thousands of units a day under various names including Oxboard, Cyboard, Future Foot, Monorover, Airboard, Freego, Esway and Overoad.
The Üüboard sells for $949 and comes with a one-year warranty, but rival products are available for between about $600 and $1,800 US. Hüüver's Chinese supplier, Cube Electronics Tech, said on its website they can be purchased directly for up to $200 US.
While the various models look alike and carry similar features, Pereira said they're not identical. Some are a little slower, sluggish and less durable, he said.
Pereira said the Üüboard can work up to nine hours on a 135-minute charge. Weighing 22 pounds, it can carry people between 50 and 350 pounds.
The hoverboards can be used on urban bike lanes and sidewalks, but Pereira said he's been asked to put it away at a Blue Jays game and in some shopping malls.
Despite its $1,800 US price tag, the IO Hawk has had trouble keeping up with demand since it entered the U.S. market in February and attracted the attention of celebrities and athletes.
Justin Bieber, NBA all-star Stephen Curry, actor Jamie Foxx and Kendall Jenner have all been seen using the device or a slightly cheaper brand, PhunkeeDuck.
Rapper Wiz Khalifa was in the news recently when he claimed to be arrested at the Los Angeles airport for riding the device he called a "hoverboard" even though it has wheels that firmly touched the ground.
The Canadian Press |
Whether or not the U.S. is declining is the wrong question
As co-chair of the editorial board of the journal International Security, I couldn’t be more delighted by the attention that Michael Beckley’s article questioning China’s rise (and America’s supposed decline) is getting. See here, here, and here. But I fear that people who are seizing on Beckley’s article to pooh-pooh fears of U.S. decline — including our own Daniel Drezner — are mostly asking the wrong question.
As I’ve noted elsewhere, the issue isn’t whether the United States is about to fall the from the ranks of the great powers, or even be equaled (let alone surpassed) by a rising China. The world may be evolving toward a more multipolar structure, for example, but the United States is going to be one of those poles, and almost certainly the strongest of them, for many years to come.
Instead, the real issue is whether developments at home and overseas are making it harder for the United States to exercise the kind of dominant influence that it did for much of the latter half of the 20th century. The United States had a larger share of global GDP in the 1940s and 1950s, and it wasn’t running enormous budget deficits. The United States was seen as a reliable defender of human rights, and its support for decolonization after World War II had won it many friends in the developing world. It also had good relations with a variety of monarchies and dictatorships, which it justified as part of the struggle against communism. These features allowed the United States to create and lead combined economic, security and political orders in virtually every corner of the world, except for the portions directly controlled by our communist rivals. And the U.S. and its allies eventually won that struggle too, driving the USSR into exhaustion and watching the triumph of market economies and more participatory forms of government throughout the former communist world.
The United States remains very powerful — especially when compared with some putative opponents like Iran — but its capacity to lead security and economic orders in every corner of the world has been diminished by failures in Iraq (and eventually, Afghanistan), by the burden of debt accumulated over the past decade, by the economic melt-down in 2007-2008, and by the emergence of somewhat stronger and independent actors in Brazil, Turkey, India, and elsewhere. One might also point to eroding national infrastructure and an educational system that impresses hardly anyone. Moreover, five decades of misguided policies have badly tarnished America’s image in many parts of the world, and especially in the Middle East and Central Asia. The erosion of authoritarian rule in the Arab world will force new governments to pay more attention to popular sentiment — which is generally hostile to the broad thrust of U.S. policy in the region — and the United States will be less able to rely on close relations with tame monarchs or military dictators henceforth. If it the United States remains far and away the world’s strongest state, its ability to get its way in world affairs is declining.
All this may seem like a hair-splitting, but there’s an important issue at stake. Posing the question in the usual way ("Is the U.S. Still #1?", "Who’s bigger?", "Is China Catching Up?" etc.,) focuses attention primarily on bilateral comparisons and distracts us from thinking about the broader environment in which both the United States and China will have to operate. The danger, of course, is that repeated assurances that America is still on top will encourage foreign policy mandarins to believe that they can continue to make the same blunders they have in the recent past, and discourage them from making the strategic choices that will preserve U.S. primacy, enhance U.S. influence, and incidentally, produce a healthier society here at home. |
The Total War™: ROME II Collector’s Edition will be produced in a single, extremely limited run; only 22,000 individually numbered copies will be manufactured.
The CE contains a wealth of bespoke, Roman-themed games and items, bound in a leather-effect presentation box, complete with gold logo and magnetic closure; including:
Numbered copy of Total War™: ROME II The most ambitious and expansive game in the Total War™ series to date, ROME II brings the statecraft, politics, intrigue, diplomacy and epic battles of the ancient world to life in thrilling detail. This version comes in a debossed Steelbook™ case, laser-etched with your unique collector’s number in Roman numerals.
Tabula set The Roman forerunner to Backgammon, this Tabula set comprises 30 bone-effect game-pieces supplied in their own burlap drawstring bag, while the board is built into the base of the Collector’s Edition box.
Tesserae Dice Three replica bone-effect dice for use in a variety of games. The design is based on original Roman Tesserae, found at the archaeological site of Herculaneum.
Total War Cards™: Punic Wars Designed from the ground up to echo elements from ROME II, Total War Cards is a game of skill and luck for two players. Involving combat, territorial control, resource management and technological development, PUNIC WARS consists of 58 high-quality playing cards and a game-board printed with the PUNIC WARS tech-tree.
Canvas Campaign Map A reminder of the worlds you must conquer, this ribbon-tied canvas map depicts each of the 57 provinces of the ROME II campaign.
Roman Onager A complete, fully-functional Onager, or Roman siege catapult. This easy-to-assemble kit is constructed from weathered wood and steel, measures 26cm x 12cm x 12cm, and is capable of unleashing mall projectiles at a variety of inanimate objects which may have affronted the glory of your empire.
A remarkable way to mark over 10 years of Total War games and Creative Assembly’s 25th Anniversary, the Total War™: ROME II Collector’s Edition is only available through selected retailers.
We will endevor to keep this page up to date with availbility listed, but please bear in mind we will only be doing a single run of these and once they are sold out we will not be making anymore.
US [SEGA Store]
Spain [Xtralife] [Gameshop] [TUTIENDADEVIDEOJUEGOS] [FNAC]
Belgium [Smartoys] [Playerone]
Sweden [CDON] [Game] [Discshop] [Webhallen]
Finland [Verkkokauppa] [Discshop] [CDON] [VPD]
Norwary [Gamezone] [Spaceworld] [CDON]
Denmark [CDON]
Head to the Pre-orders page for more infomation on the Greek States & where to get a standard copy.
Total War Cards: Punic Wars |
Diaspora is a hard science fiction novel by the Australian writer Greg Egan which first appeared in print in 1997. It originated as the short story "Wang's Carpets" which originally appeared in the Greg Bear-edited anthology New Legends (Legend, London, 1995). The story appears as a chapter of the novel.
Setting and premise [ edit ]
An appended glossary explains many of the specialist terms in the novel. Egan invents several new theories of physics, beginning with Kozuch Theory, the dominant physics paradigm for nearly nine hundred years before the beginning of the novel. Kozuch Theory treats elementary particles as semi-point-like wormholes, whose properties can be explained entirely in terms of their geometries in six dimensions. Certain assumptions common to Egan's works inform the plot.
This novel's setting is a posthuman future, in which transhumanism long ago (during the mid 21st century) became the default philosophy embraced by the vast majority of human cultures.
Most of the characters choose a neutral gender; Keri Hulme's gender-neutral pronouns "ve", "vis", and "ver" are used for them.
By 2975 CE (Universal Time), the year in which the novel begins, humanity has "speciated" into three distinct groupings:
fleshers , biological societies consisting of statics , the original, naturally-evolving race of Homo sapiens , and a wide variety of exuberant derivatives, who have modified their genes beyond the static baseline. These include enhancements such as disease-resistance, life-extension, intelligence-amplification, and the ability to allow selected transhumans to thrive in new environments, such as the sea. There even exists a subculture (the dream apes) whose ancestors bred out the capacity for speech and some of the higher brain-functions, apparently in order to attain a primal innocence and rapport with nature. In contrast to 21st-century society prior to the novel's "Introdus" event, the vast profusion of qualitatively different types of fleshers has made any sort of global civilisation impossible. This divergence has prompted the development of a culture of "Bridgers" who modify their own minds to form a chain of intermediates between exuberant strains.
, biological societies consisting of , the original, naturally-evolving race of , and a wide variety of derivatives, who have modified their genes beyond the static baseline. These include enhancements such as disease-resistance, life-extension, intelligence-amplification, and the ability to allow selected transhumans to thrive in new environments, such as the sea. There even exists a subculture (the dream apes) whose ancestors bred out the capacity for speech and some of the higher brain-functions, apparently in order to attain a primal innocence and rapport with nature. In contrast to 21st-century society prior to the novel's "Introdus" event, the vast profusion of qualitatively different types of fleshers has made any sort of global civilisation impossible. This divergence has prompted the development of a culture of "Bridgers" who modify their own minds to form a chain of intermediates between exuberant strains. gleisner robots , individual software-based intelligences housed inside artificial anthropoid, or flesher-shaped, physical bodies (from a design by a corporation named Gleisner [1] ) who interact with the world in flesher-paced "real time," a trait which they regard as important, as they consider the polis citizens too remote and solipsistic. The gleisners live in space, mostly in the asteroid belt, and in various other places in the Solar System; Egan implies that they long ago agreed to leave Earth to the fleshers to avoid conflict. They eventually implement a program of interstellar exploration using a fleet of 63 ships, targeting the nearest 21 stars.
, individual software-based intelligences housed inside artificial anthropoid, or flesher-shaped, physical bodies (from a design by a corporation named Gleisner ) who interact with the world in flesher-paced "real time," a trait which they regard as important, as they consider the polis citizens too remote and solipsistic. The gleisners live in space, mostly in the asteroid belt, and in various other places in the Solar System; Egan implies that they long ago agreed to leave Earth to the fleshers to avoid conflict. They eventually implement a program of interstellar exploration using a fleet of 63 ships, targeting the nearest 21 stars. the citizens,[2] intelligence as disembodied computer software running entirely within simulated reality-based communities known as polises.[3] These represent the majority by far of "humanity" in the novel, followed in a distant second place by the gleisners. Together with vast networks of sensors, probes, drones and satellites throughout the Solar system, they collectively make up the Coalition of Polises, the backbone and bulk of human civilisation. They interact primarily in virtual environments called scapes, through the use of avatars or icons. The citizens of the Coalition view the gleisners and their colonial aspirations as puerile and ultimately futile, believing that only "bacteria with spaceships. . . knowing no better and having no choice" would attempt to deface the galaxy with mass colonisation, especially if virtual realities afford limitless possibilities at a small fraction of the total resource-consumption.
Diaspora focuses in large part on the nature of life and intelligence in a post-human context, and questions the meaning of life and the meaning of desires. If, for instance, the meaning of human life and human desires is bound up with ancestral human biology ("to spread one's genes"), then what meaning do lives and desires have, and what serves as the basis of values when biology no longer forms a part of life?
Plot summary [ edit ]
Diaspora begins with a description of "orphanogenesis", the birthing of a citizen without any ancestors (the majority of citizens descend from fleshers uploaded at some point), and the subsequent upbringing of the newborn Yatima within Konishi polis. Yatima matures within a few real-time days, because citizens' subjective time runs about 800 times as rapidly as flesher and gleisner time. Early on, Yatima and a friend, Inoshiro, use abandoned gleisner bodies to visit a Bridger colony near the ruins of Atlanta on Earth.
Years later, the gleisner Karpal, using a gravitational-wave detector, determines that a binary neutron star system in the constellation of Lacerta has collapsed, releasing a huge burst of energy. Previous predictions portrayed the system's stable orbit as likely to last for another seven million years. By analysing irregularities in the orbit, Karpal discovers that the devastating burst of energy will reach Earth within the next four days. Yatima and Inoshiro return to Earth to urge the fleshers—gathered in a conference—either to migrate to the polises or at least to shelter themselves. Many fleshers reject this advice, or fail fully to appreciate its urgency quickly enough. Stirred up by a paranoid Static diplomat, many fleshers suspect that Yatima and Inoshiro have come to trick or coerce them into "Introdus", or mass-migration into the polises, involving masses of virus-sized nanomachines that dismantle a human body and record the brain's information states as it is chemically converted into a crystalline computer. The gamma ray burst reaches Earth shortly after the conference, destroying the atmosphere and causing a mass extinction. The gleisners and the Coalition of Polises survive the burst, thanks to cosmic radiation hardening. Over the next few years, Yatima and other citizens and gleisners attempt to rescue any surviving fleshers from slow suffocation, starvation, or poisoning by offering to upload them into the polises.
The novel's title itself refers to a quest undertaken by most of the inhabitants of Carter-Zimmerman ("C-Z"), a polis devoted to physics and understanding the cosmos, along with volunteers from throughout the Coalition of Polises. The Diaspora consists of a collection of one thousand clones (digital copies) of C-Z polis, deployed toward stars in all directions in the hope of gathering as much data as possible in order to revise the long-held classical understanding of Kozuch Theory, which had failed to predict the Lacerta event. The bulk of the novel follows this expedition, rotating back and forth between different cloned instances of the same cast of main characters as different C-Z clones make discoveries along the way, relaying information to one another over hundreds of light years—and finally between universes.
Characters [ edit ]
Yatima [4] appears as an Orphan, a being formed by the Konishi polis conceptory rather than by a parent or parents. A central character in the novel, ve usually takes the iconic form of an African herdsman in a purple robe. Yatima exhibits a deep love of mathematics and a desire to explore the unknown.
appears as an Orphan, a being formed by the Konishi polis rather than by a parent or parents. A central character in the novel, ve usually takes the iconic form of an African herdsman in a purple robe. Yatima exhibits a deep love of mathematics and a desire to explore the unknown. Blanca , who habitually uses the icon of a featureless black silhouette, also inhabits the Konishi polis. One of the first three people that Yatima meets and a physicist and scape-architect, Blanca has a reputation as an acknowledged expert on Kozuch Theory throughout the Coalition of Polises.
, who habitually uses the icon of a featureless black silhouette, also inhabits the Konishi polis. One of the first three people that Yatima meets and a physicist and scape-architect, Blanca has a reputation as an acknowledged expert on Kozuch Theory throughout the Coalition of Polises. Inoshiro , another of Yatima's earliest friends, uses an icon featuring metallic, pewter-grey skin. A native of Konishi but a frequenter of Ashton-Laval, a polis of great artistic merit, ve proudly considers verself delinquent. Inoshiro frequently attempts to attract Yatima away from philosophical Konishi and into more aesthetic and avant-garde pursuits. Inoshiro originates the idea of visiting the fleshers of Atlanta in ancient gleisner bodies.
, another of Yatima's earliest friends, uses an icon featuring metallic, pewter-grey skin. A native of Konishi but a frequenter of Ashton-Laval, a polis of great artistic merit, ve proudly considers verself delinquent. Inoshiro frequently attempts to attract Yatima away from philosophical Konishi and into more aesthetic and pursuits. Inoshiro originates the idea of visiting the fleshers of Atlanta in ancient gleisner bodies. Gabriel , Yatima's third early friend, has an icon covered in short, golden-brown fur. Gabriel, Blanca's lover and another great physicist, differs from most polis citizens in having chosen for himself a specific (though non-functional) gender, a trait considered eccentric and perhaps perverted by many citizens of the Coalition.
, Yatima's third early friend, has an icon covered in short, golden-brown fur. Gabriel, Blanca's lover and another great physicist, differs from most polis citizens in having chosen for himself a specific (though non-functional) gender, a trait considered eccentric and perhaps perverted by many citizens of the Coalition. Karpal , a gleisner astronomer who lives on the surface of the Moon, first discovers the collapse of Lac G-1 in Lacerta. He later leaves his robotic body and gleisner society to transmigrate to the Carter-Zimmerman polis, seeking a more profound understanding of physics, unavailable to creatures whose minds remain programmed to think of things in terms of their bodies.
, a gleisner astronomer who lives on the surface of the Moon, first discovers the collapse of Lac G-1 in Lacerta. He later leaves his robotic body and gleisner society to transmigrate to the Carter-Zimmerman polis, seeking a more profound understanding of physics, unavailable to creatures whose minds remain programmed to think of things in terms of their bodies. Orlando Venetti , originally a leader of the Bridger colony of Atlanta; he and his mate Liana Zabini first welcome Inoshiro and Yatima upon their arrival in gleisner form. In the Lacerta Event, Liana dies but the visitors from Konishi rescue Orlando and bring him into the polis; he joins the Diaspora, and thanks to his Bridger training he makes the first interactive contact with an alien intelligence. Before joining the Diaspora he creates a son, Paolo, who ultimately joins Yatima in exploring higher-dimensional spacetime on the trail of the "Transmuters".
, originally a leader of the Bridger colony of Atlanta; he and his mate Liana Zabini first welcome Inoshiro and Yatima upon their arrival in gleisner form. In the Lacerta Event, Liana dies but the visitors from Konishi rescue Orlando and bring him into the polis; he joins the Diaspora, and thanks to his Bridger training he makes the first interactive contact with an alien intelligence. Before joining the Diaspora he creates a son, Paolo, who ultimately joins Yatima in exploring higher-dimensional spacetime on the trail of the "Transmuters". Radiya is Yatima's first mentor in abstract mathematics and in exploration of the "Truth Mines", Konishi’s metaphoric representation of the world of mathematical theorems. Vis icon is a fleshless skeleton made of twigs and branches, with a skull carved from a knotted stump.
is Yatima's first mentor in abstract mathematics and in exploration of the "Truth Mines", Konishi’s metaphoric representation of the world of mathematical theorems. Vis icon is a fleshless skeleton made of twigs and branches, with a skull carved from a knotted stump. Hermann , an extremely eccentric member of the Diaspora, often appears as a segmented worm with six flesher-shaped feet attached to elbow-jointed legs, based on the curl-up from the work of M. C. Escher. Very old (a member of the original 21st-century Introdus), Hermann describes verself as vis own great-great-grandchild because ve has reinvented vis own personality so many times during vis long life.
, an extremely eccentric member of the Diaspora, often appears as a segmented worm with six flesher-shaped feet attached to elbow-jointed legs, based on the from the work of M. C. Escher. Very old (a member of the original 21st-century Introdus), Hermann describes verself as vis own great-great-grandchild because ve has reinvented vis own personality so many times during vis long life. The Star Puppies, a group of Carter-Zimmerman citizens, elect to stay conscious, in real time, for the duration of their spaceflight in the Diaspora (most others enter a state of suspension). The Puppies take the form of space-evolved creatures dwelling in a scape representing the hull of the spacecraft, employing personality outlooks (software which accentuates specific moods & values) to ensure they feel constant joy in, and at, the universe around them and retain their sanity.
The Polises [ edit ]
Humanity began transferring itself into the polises (the Introdus) in the late 21st century UT, when the technology became feasible to effect the nanoscale transmutation of human brains into functionally indistinguishable molecular computer systems.
Many polises exist, though the novel mentions only a few. Though their physical infrastructure is not described, they apparently exist as hardware-based supercomputers of unknown size and computational ability, all probably hidden in safe places. Konishi polis, at least, lies buried deep beneath the Siberian tundra, and is multiply backed up throughout the solar system.
Each polis has its own unique character, encapsulated in a "charter" which defines its goals, philosophies, and attitudes to other polises and to the external world. Citizens are expected to heed the charter of the polis they "live" in; should they begin to disagree with the charter, they can always migrate to a polis which appears more amenable to them.
The most prominent differences between the various polises, at least in the novel, involves their attitudes toward the physical world. Polis societies range from those who wish to experience the real world of normal time and space to the wholly solipsistic who live their entire lives in esoteric, isolated virtuality.
The citizens of Konishi polis seem to concern themselves mostly with abstract mathematics and esoteric philosophical pursuits, and generally show little interest in the physical world. They use visual icons for social purposes, but regard simulated physical interaction as a violation of individual autonomy.
After the Lacerta Event, Yatima emigrates from Konishi to Carter-Zimmerman polis, which rejects the solipsism exemplified by Konishi and embraces the study of the physical universe as of paramount importance. Given the Lacerta Event, which suggests that the universe has the capability of unleashing unknown extreme dangers, Yatima has begun to share this viewpoint.
Polis time, delta, and perception [ edit ]
For internal dating and time standards the polises use CST (Coalition Standard Time), measured in tau elapsed since the adoption of the system on January 1, 2065 (UT). The novel begins at CST date 23 387 025 000 000. CST defines one tau as the amount of time in which a polis citizen can experience the passage of one second of subjective time; this elastic value changes with improvements in polis hardware. In the period of the novel a polis citizen's mind can operate at a maximum speed of about eight hundred times that of a flesher's mind, so 1 tau equals approximately 1/800 s. By the beginning of the novel, the Coalition of Polises has had just over 741,597 years of recorded history, amounting to 910 years of flesher history; almost all of the Coalition's history, about 98.3% of it, has occurred (from the flesher's perspective) within the very recent past, since the last major Coalition-wide polis hardware upgrade in UT 2750.
Nothing compels citizens to experience time at such a high rate; they can equally choose to "rush", meaning to experience consciousness at a speed slower than the maximum the polis hardware can maintain. Citizens could therefore experience consciousness at the same speed as a human flesher would, or slower, or even freeze their conscious state for a set time or until a previously determined event occurs. Citizens in Lokhande Polis have opted to experience consciousness so slowly that they can witness continental drift and geological erosion.
The polises measure distance, an arbitrary value within their virtual scapes, in "delta", which Egan does not fully explain, although the glossary indicates that citizens' icons are generally about 2 delta high, implying that one delta represents (roughly) one meter. Delta may also be fractionalised, and there is no largest or smallest distance as defined in delta.
Almost all polis citizens, except for those who specifically elect otherwise, experience the world through two sensory modalities: Linear and Gestalt, which Egan describes as distant descendants of hearing and seeing, respectively. Linear conveys information quantitatively, as a string or strings of information formulated with a language hardwired into the mind of almost all Citizens. Citizens may "speak" to one another in Linear by sending streams of data back and forth, from mind to mind — either private conversations carried on between a specific subset of intended participants, or public announcements accessible to all involved in a conversation or otherwise "listening in".
Gestalt conveys information qualitatively, and data sent or received about anything arrives all at once for interpretation by the mind of the Citizen in all its aspects simultaneously, resulting in an experience of immediacy. A citizen need not consciously consider the information sent (as in Linear): Gestalt operates rather entirely or almost entirely subconsciously. Citizens use Gestalt to create icons for themselves — "visual" representations within Scapes (Gestalt "areas" or "spaces"). Citizens also use Gestalt to convey Tags: packages of information described as like an odour or essence, which any other Citizens within a range of several delta (or who happen to "read" for specific Tags) can gather. Each Citizen has a unique Tag which identifies them as a particular person, regardless of their other appearances, and citizens may emit Tags for other purposes as well, as when Citizens need to convey and understand arbitrary information instantly. Early in the novel, for instance, Yatima learns about an asteroid in the real world by reading its tags subconsciously, which precisely inform ver about its properties such as mass, velocity, rotation, composition, emission spectra, and other such data discernible to the Coalition's satellite network. Later on on Earth, however, when ve and Inoshiro inhabit derelict Gleisner bodies, Yatima must remind verself that Fleshers are real people, even though they lack tags identifying themselves as such.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
^ Luminous mentions the corporation Egan's short story "Transition Dreams" in the collectionmentions the corporation ^ Disembodied minds, sometimes referred to generally as infomorphs within the genre. ^ Polis in in Greek means " city state ". ^ yatima in "yatima". Internet Living Swahili Dictionary. The Kamusi Project. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20 . The wordin Swahili means "orphan"; see |
Grand Central Dispatch Crash Course for Swift 3
Yogev Sitton Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 20, 2017
This post is based on a short talk I gave about using GCD with Swift 3.
We have been pretty bad with using the full capabilities of GCD - using only the main serial queue and the global background queue. Hopefully this will help you learn from our lesson.
What is GCD?
Grand Central Dispatch was developed by Apple in order to simplify work with systems with multi-core processors and released with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and iOS 4.
GCD’s task parallelism is based on the thread pool pattern. Multiple threads are always available — waiting for tasks to be executed concurrently.
Since we don’t need to keep creating and destroying threads we get great performance and low execution latency.
Dispatch Queues
Dispatch queues manages tasks in FIFO order. Tasks run in the order in which they are added to the queue — the first task in the queue will be the first to start.
There are two types of dispatch queues:
Serial Queues
Execute one task at a time
Can be used to synchronize access to a specific resource
Concurrent Queues
Execute one or more tasks concurrently
Tasks are completed according to complexity and not by the order in the queue
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous
When using dispatch queues you can choose to execute your code synchronously or asynchronously.
With synchronous execution the program waits for the work to finish before returning.
With asynchronous execution the program returns immediately without waiting for the work to complete.
Thread Safety
Dispatch queues are thread safe. They can be accessed from different threads simultaneously without locking. Developers can use dispatch queues to make their own code thread safe.
Types of Dispatch Queues
Main Queue
When your app launches, the system automatically creates a serial queue and binds it to the application’s main thread. All UI tasks have to be run on the main thread.
Global Queues
There are four global concurrent queues which are provided and shared by the system.
Quality of Service attribute indicates the priority of the tasks in the queue:
User-interactive: update the UI or other small tasks that should occur instantly. Tasks in this queue are the highest priority tasks and they will run on the main thread.
User-initiated: tasks in this queue are tasks that should run immediately -like opening documents or react to user actions. Tasks should complete in a few seconds or less. Will be mapped to High priority queue.
Utility: this queue is for longer tasks that should complete immediately (think tasks with a loading bar such as downloading or importing). Tasks should complete in seconds or minutes. Will be mapped to Low priority queue.
Background: tasks that takes minutes to hours to complete — indexing, syncing, etc… This queue is energy optimized and any disk I/O actions are throttled. Will be mapped to Background priority queue.
Custom Queues
Serial queues must be created and managed by the developer. You can also create custom concurrent queues but it is encouraged to use one of the global queues instead.
Code examples
Working with system queues
Working with custom queues/
Performing background tasks and then updating the UI
Beware of deadlocks with serial queues
Beware of Synchronously running on the main thread from a synchronous background thread
Where to go from here? |
Newspaper reporter is the ‘worst job,’ study says. Do you agree?
Coming in one spot below logger this year, newspaper reporter has again been ranked the worst of the worst jobs in Career Cast’s 2016 Jobs Rated report. The explanation from the report will look familiar to many reporters: fewer available jobs, a worsening industry forecast and paltry pay.
A gradual decline in print publications at the turn of the century became a steep downturn for the past decade. Publications folding mean far fewer job prospects, and declining ad revenue means unfavorable pay for those in the Fourth Estate.
Broadcaster was rated the third-worst job, finishing behind disc jockey, military personnel and pest control worker, according to the report:
Employment of broadcasters is expected to decline by 9%, or 4,800 total positions, by 2024. Broadcasters seeking a job transition can parlay their skills into a career as a podcaster, online news producer, or data journalist. Print newspaper reporters can transfer their skills to writing for online mediums, public relations, or corporate communications jobs.
Career Cast comes up with its annual ranking by looking at the workplace environment, salary and outlook of the various jobs on its list. If you’re a print or broadcast journalist, do you agree with this year’s ranking? Why or why not? What (if anything) can individual journalists do to get off this list? Would you be slightly better off as a logger? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below, on Facebook, Twitter or email and we’ll include them here.
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WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama and Harry Reid needed to clear the air. The relationship between the president and the Senate majority leader had been deteriorating since 2011, with Reid losing respect for Obama's ability to negotiate with Republicans and Obama unsure if Reid had as much control over his Senate Democratic caucus as he liked to say.
So at the White House's invitation, the two met in the Oval Office on July 9, with no staff, to talk one on one. It was a cathartic moment, one in which long-buried tensions were fully aired. Aides to the two men tell a similar story: Their boss had been losing confidence in his counterpart and wanted the meeting as a way to buck up the other.
Reid (D-Nev.) pressed the president hard on the 2011 debt ceiling compromise that the White House had cut with the GOP, which ultimately gave the country sequestration. He complained that Vice President Joe Biden had undercut fiscal cliff negotiations at the end of 2012, when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was offered a more generous deal on tax revenue and sequester spending than Reid felt he could have crafted.
It didn't escape his notice, Reid said, that the deal Biden made conveniently postponed the budget cuts two months, or just long enough to allow the Inauguration and the State of the Union address to pass without the sequester's shadow. Senate Democrats had been pushing for a two-year delay and had been prepared to settle for just one.
Now, in July of this year, the country was feeling sequestration's effects. Head Start classes were shuttered, scientific research imperiled, cancer treatments hampered, and the broad concept of functioning government was under assault.
The president said that he, of course, was unhappy with the various outcomes, but had to deal with different political realities. The message of the 2010 midterm elections had been that the country wanted him to work more closely with Republicans. And when it came to the ending of the Bush-era taxes, he had to uphold his pledge that the middle class would not see a hike. More generally, he worried that the Senate Democratic caucus would end up fractured if the party pushed too hard, leading the administration to cut deals directly with McConnell.
It was a painful jab at Reid, who takes pride in his ability to hold his broad caucus together on even the most fraught legislative battles. "If you're ever wondering if I can hold my caucus, just ask me," he told Obama.
The Huffington Post put together the story of that critical meeting and the subsequent standoff negotiations through interviews with Reid, White House advisers and congressional leadership aides.
Asked about the meeting the day after the 16-day government showdown was resolved, Reid acknowledged the disagreement over the 2011 debt ceiling strategy. Pausing for a few seconds, he reflected on how his relationship with the president has evolved.
"President Obama is such a nice man, just a nice person. And he became president during an awful time," Reid told HuffPost, measuring each word. "It is easy to look back and say, 'Oh, he shouldn't have done that, or he shouldn't have renewed the payroll tax.' That's all then, this is now. A different environment. I don't want to sound like a cheerleader for Obama. He can get others to do that. But he's a good person."
That July meeting ended up being just what the two needed. "That was good," Reid would tell his chief of staff, David Krone, who'd been waiting outside with top White House aide Rob Nabors. It helped lay the groundwork for what would be a critical -- and fruitful -- political partnership during the high-stakes budget fights this fall.
Each more mindful of the other's strategic vision, Reid and Obama made a mutual commitment to legislative stubbornness. A week after the meeting, Reid threatened to gut the filibuster if Republicans didn't let through a slate of executive nominees. Republicans caved. Looking forward, the two vowed to steadfastly oppose any effort to tinker with the president's health care law as part of a continuing resolution to keep the government running. And when it came time to raise the debt ceiling weeks later, they would refuse to negotiate altogether.
Through the first government shutdown in 17 years and a near-breach of the nation's debt limit, they followed this playbook until it ultimately resulted in a Republican collapse.
"We just both came to the conclusion that the time had ended to be taken in by these crazy people," Reid said. "The president said, 'I'm not going to negotiate.' I said, 'I'm not going to negotiate.' And we didn't."
*****
During the late summer and early fall, the durability of the Obama-Reid pact would be repeatedly tested. Toward the end of August, the two men checked in again on a conference call. With the showdown over the debt ceiling and budget visible on the horizon, Reid wanted to know just how far he and his caucus should go. The daunting responsibility not to default rested with the president, Reid said, but if the president was willing to fight to the end, so were Senate Democrats.
I'm all in, the president assured him.
As the October deadline to fund the government approached, both sides momentarily assumed that fight would be avoided altogether. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had made an informal agreement with Reid to accept a funding level of $988 billion, which would extend only for a matter of weeks. All indications suggested that Boehner would follow through, with only a ceremonial vote to defund Obamacare. In fact, one senior administration official told The Huffington Post that their main concern in the days leading up to the end of September was that McConnell, not Boehner, would buckle under pressure from his caucus.
But as the weeks counted down, the White House grew convinced that the deal would blow up, as Boehner looked to be caving in to demands to defund Obamacare.
On Oct. 1, the initial day of the shutdown, the scene inside the White House was chaotic. While the entire staff came in that morning, a sizable chunk were forced to leave hours later -- BlackBerrys turned off -- as "non-essential employees." Normal operations were upended. But the administration assured Hill Democrats that the political message remained the same: They weren't budging.
In fact, the White House was so concerned with getting the message across that a meeting was called with McConnell, Reid, Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Oct. 2, after aides privately heard from reporters that Republicans thought the president was bluffing. During that session, the president assured the speaker that his intransigence was sincere. A sullen Boehner, leaving the meeting before anyone else, complained to the waiting press corps that Obama was being unreasonable.
"It was basically all of them saying over and over again that they were not going to negotiate," a top Republican House aide briefed on the meeting told The Huffington Post. "The speaker didn't have to say a whole lot."
By that point, both Hill Democrats and White House aides had grown convinced that the shutdown would last as long as it took to raise the debt limit. Boehner couldn't capitulate two times in three weeks, their theory went, so he would combine the two together.
On Oct. 10, the president held a meeting with Senate Democrats to discuss the state of play. No one in the room questioned Reid and Obama's decision to draw hard lines over the continuing resolution and debt limit. Obama, in return, assured the caucus that he had told Boehner in previous gatherings that the $988 billion price tag to fund the government was "a floor, not a ceiling."
But concerns were creeping in that the standoff could actually lead to a debt default. The president was pressed by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to reconsider the so-called constitutional option, which would have him invoke the 14th Amendment as a way to unilaterally raise the debt limit. Obama called it unworkable. He then made light of a second escape-hatch proposal -- the idea that he could mint a trillion-dollar coin -- before reminding attendees that the Federal Reserve had ruled that one out, too. The Treasury Department had explored every creative option conceivable, he added, and some were better than others. But all of them were bad, and he was declining to talk about the possibilities in the hopes they could all be avoided.
Obama tried to buck up Democrats by spinning the 2011 debt ceiling deal as a victory. "Jack and Rob took them to the cleaners," he said, according to a source in the meeting, referring to then-presidential advisers Jack Lew and Rob Nabors. "We let them say they had a victory, but Democrats also believed it."
For his own part, Obama was not completely confident that calamity would be averted. He confided to the senators that he was taken aback at comments from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) downplaying the significance of blowing through the debt limit. He expected that from the real ideologues like Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), he said, but not from a Republican who represents North Carolina, where Bank of America is headquartered. Later, he would note the oddity that one party could house both financier Warren Buffett, who called defaulting on the debt "a pure act of idiocy," and freshman Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), who had declared days earlier that not raising the debt ceiling "would bring stability to the world markets." (Just how Republican Buffett actually is remains a matter of debate.)
Behind the scenes, administration officials were pulling any lever they could. They called business leaders, Republican lobbyists and GOP wise men to solicit ideas on how to move Boehner. They pleaded with them to call Republican congressional offices as well. (Obama told the Senate Democrats that one CEO, who went unnamed, was refusing to return Boehner's calls, angry at his alliance with the tea party.) The president recognized that the GOP wanted what he called "a bloody shirt" in exchange for funding the government and raising the debt limit. But their demands were outlandish to the point of being laughable: At a meeting with House Democrats, Obama joked that the Republican ransom list was so long, the only thing it didn't include was his resignation. And even if the demands had been reasonable, he had resolved on principle not to meet them.
Then, a glimmer of hope. The same day that he sat down with Senate Democrats, the president held a meeting with top House Republicans.
According to interviews with aides from both camps, the gathering started off like the prior ones. As Republican after Republican suggested possible outlines for a deal, the president offered the same rejoinder: "I don't understand why the government needs to stay shut while we do these negotiations," he would say. "Tell me why the government needs to stay shut."
At one point, a frustrated Boehner shot back, "Your position is risking default." But eventually, the two sides began talking shop. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) floated the possibility of raising the debt ceiling for six weeks and then quickly crafting an agreement to reopen the government. The administration thought it was a trap and grew even more suspicious when Ryan let slip that during those six weeks the two parties would negotiate over raising the debt limit once again. But the administration agreed to entertain offers from Ryan and others over how to get the government reopened.
Later that night, in staff-level discussions, the sides began considering a trade. In exchange for further means-testing of Medicare benefits, as well as reform of federal workers' pensions and Tricare health benefits for veterans, House Republicans would give Democrats $100 billion in sequestration relief over two years and open the government that Monday.
Nabors was intrigued that sequestration relief was on the table. But he thought the price tag was too high. Republicans, too, weren't sure that they could sell it to their caucus and suggested that they'd need to add some "sweeteners" to the package. They came back with two: a provision allowing private insurers and employers to not cover contraception in the health plans they offered and a pause on all new federal regulations.
"That's not happening," Nabors replied.
The next morning, nevertheless, he took the basic outline of the negotiations to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Burwell and top presidential adviser Dan Pfeiffer. The three of them briefed the president at around 11 am. Obama considered it a good faith offer but not one he could accept. After federal workers had been forced off the job, it would be particularly cruel to find a resolution to the shutdown in the form of decreasing their pensions. Moreover, he was concerned about any trade of permanent entitlement reform for temporary spending bumps. Even if he did like the offer, however, he couldn't sell a package like that to congressional Democrats unless it included a revenue increase.
"Harry and Nancy will need revenues," Obama told Boehner during a call on the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 11. He added that he wouldn't send a counteroffer -- after all, his principle was not to negotiate -- but he'd look at any revamped ideas that the speaker had.
Nothing ever came.
*****
On Reid's front, meanwhile, things were buzzing. Senate Republicans had been privately coming to him expressing interest in crafting a deal. As the deadline neared, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) took the lead in finding a way through the impasse.
Behind the scenes, the White House and Reid grew anxious that lawmakers would jump at the opportunity to play doomsday savior. Administration officials thought the Collins plan was actually a worse offer than the one Ryan had floated days earlier, because it locked in sequester-level spending for half-a-year. Nabors and McDonough began calling moderate Democrats, urging them to get "back in the box."
Collins' lead negotiations partner, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), continued making noise about forging ahead despite the leadership rejection. But the other Democrats working with Manchin kept their involvement largely private. It was a reminder that the new Senate Democratic caucus is easier for Reid to control, which he did, easily.
"My goal was to maintain cohesion with my caucus and the White House," Reid said. "That was my goal, and I'm sure that was the president's goal. Now my caucus is just as varied as a caucus could be. I have Bernie Sanders, I have Mary Landrieu. I mean, they have different interests in the world. But they had had enough of this."
Eventually, Reid put a public dagger in the Collins talks, declaring that her deal was "not going to anyplace at this stage." But the emergence of a bipartisan way out of the impasse -- the type of plot development beloved by the political press -- had tested the Reid-White House alliance. Senior staff began whispering doubts about the other side's fortitude.
"I do fear the White House is up to something bad. [Obama] says over and over, 'I won't negotiate,' but we know he loves to cave," one Senate leadership aide told HuffPost, sparking an angry White House reply. "One of the rituals of these fiscal showdowns is the practice of some anonymous Senate staff suggesting that the White House is getting soft," said a White House staffer.
Reid, during the post-crisis interview, said he had been aware of the staff tensions. "My staff, his staff were not working together -- not on purpose, but, you know, people just get carried away with what they do," Reid said.
Anonymous quipping between Reid and Obama's teams had occurred during tense legislative standoffs in the past. During the crafting of health care reform in 2010 and the debt ceiling standoff in 2011, top aides launched repeated barbs at the other through a readily compliant press. (Then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once flipped off then-Reid spokesman Jim Manley in 2010.) But those battles also hardened each camp. As they entered round three this time, the bickering stayed largely in check.
"The fact is that Senator Reid was more than a little upset in 2011 when the president and his team kept on trying against all odds to cut a deal on a so-called grand bargain," said Manley, Reid's former top spokesman. "But that was then and this is now … The interests of both Senator Reid and the president were perfectly in sync this time."
Time was still running short. With no plan coming from the House and with the Collins option tabled, talks began picking up between Reid and McConnell. A week before the debt limit deadline, the two leaders deputized Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to chart a legislative path forward. They chatted three times the next day. At one point, Alexander approached Schumer in the Senate gym. Working out on an exercise bike, Schumer told him that Democrats simply could not agree to a bill that extended sequestration funding past Jan. 15. Alexander agreed to trim down the length of the continuing resolution.
On Oct. 12, the Saturday before the deadline hit, the four senators met at 9 a.m. According to a Senate Democratic aide, McConnell was "very engaged" during the meeting, clearly wanting to get the standoff behind him. By Sunday, the "nucleus" -- as their staff called them -- had a framework in place. Throughout the next day, staff began hammering out the bill's details. The president placed a call to McConnell to keep abreast of the progress.
And then, everything stopped. Worried that his House caucus would get jammed by the Senate, Boehner pressed McConnell for time to try his hand once again. The speaker was juggling the demands of multiple factions. His moderate members had been complaining in private that the standoff was crushing them. But they hadn't bolted, much to the delight of the conservative wing. "At one point," a senior House GOP aide said of one caucus meeting, "Michele Bachmann stood up and thanked the moderates for standing with us."
With the sense that he had his full caucus' backing, Boehner put together a final offer that funded the government and lifted the debt ceiling, while ending the federal health care contributions for members of Congress and delaying Obamacare's medical device tax.
It was another bit of defiance against Obama's demand that reform of his health care law was off the table, and despair began to set in at both Reid's office and the White House. One senior administration official said concerns heightened that Tuesday that the country would default. Reid shared the fear.
"Oh, yeah," he said when asked if there were moments he thought the country would hit the debt limit. "Oh, yes. Absolutely, absolutely. People were giving speeches that it wouldn't hurt anything. Of course there was worry. I was trying to be logical and rational dealing with illogical and irrational people. I was damned scared."
But Democrats held firm. With Pelosi denying Boehner a single vote from her caucus and too many conservatives defecting, the speaker's last-ditch gambit didn't even reach the floor. He agreed to let the House vote on whatever the Senate came up with. “You gave everybody a shot," Pelosi told Boehner over the phone, referring to his efforts to try every plan the tea party proposed. "Now, you’re going to give Congress a shot."
It was an embarrassing setback in a standoff filled with them. And it left McConnell with no leverage at all. The minority leader gamely tried to pull a concession out of Reid, presenting an offer on Tuesday night that would raise the debt ceiling and fund the government in exchange for a delay in the medical device tax, an end of the Treasury Department's use of extraordinary measures to stave off default, and income verification for Obamacare subsidy recipients.
Reid dismissed it out of hand.
Ten minutes later, McConnell called back asking only for income verification. The deal was done. The pact of obstinacy that Reid and Obama struck had paid off. |
Here at the Good Men Project Magazine, we’ve talked a lot about what it means to be a good man. But let’s face it: most of the time we’re talking about what it means to be a good man in a first-world country. (And moreover, what it means to be a good white man in a first-world country.)
So we wanted to take it to the next level. We spoke to Nick Aldridge, the Cape Town–based photographer behind these photos, who describes his hometown like this:
I live in a society that’s really, really screwed up. There’s an incredible amount of violence and domestic violence and rape and child abuse … and as African and South African culture has been eroded, it’s gotten worse. Men have less of an idea of where they fit in society, and that aggression too often gets misplaced.
12 Good Men is a photo essay that depicts 12 workers from the I&J fish-processing factory in Cape Town.
What’s lovely about the men’s hands that we photographed in the factory was that just by looking at their hands you had some insight into their natures. These really felt like they were full portraits. You can see the cocky guy with the pole over his shoulder, the James Dean swagger … just see hands. Then there’s the naughty guy with the screw drive in his back pocket. You know, the slightly weaselly one who will try and get away with stuff. And the conscientious electrician who made notes on the palms of his hands that he had to scrub off before entering.
The men were participants in a program started by the “5-in-6” initiative which drew its name from the macabre statistic that a shocking one out of six men were guilty of domestic violence. 5-in-6 came from the idea that the other five were the uncelebrated good men who could do something about it. The initiative offered workshops at corporations, on farms, and in government to help men understand their power relations with women, build self-esteem, and to deal constructively with difficult domestic situations. The initiative also launched an ad campaign to prevent domestic violence against women.
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By the bizarre logic of the White House, the nuns are part of the “war on women.”
It takes some doing to get embroiled in a court fight with nuns who provide hospice care for the indigent. Amazingly, the Obama administration has managed it.
Its legal battle with the Little Sisters of the Poor is the logical consequence of Obamacare’s conscience-trampling contraception mandate. The requirement went into effect January 1, but Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a New Year’s Eve injunction against enforcing it on the Little Sisters.
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They are Catholic nuns who follow the doctrinal teachings of the church and therefore oppose contraceptive and abortive drugs and sterilization, all of which Obamacare mandates that employers cover in their insurance plans. Given the ongoing delays, waivers, and exemptions associated with the law, it would seem natural simply to let the Little Sisters go about their business of pouring out their hearts for the sick and dying.
#ad#But this is a fight the administration won’t walk away from. For this White House, it is a matter of principle. And the principle is that the state trumps the convictions of people with deep-held religious beliefs.
When the contraception mandate first caused an uproar, the administration contrived a so-called accommodation for religiously oriented groups (actual churches have always been exempt). But whoever crafted it had a sick sense of humor. The very same document by which a group registers its moral objection to contraceptives and abortifacients also authorizes the insurer to cover them for the group’s employees. What the accommodation gives with one hand, it takes away with the other.
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The Little Sisters refuse to sign such a document. They happen to be in an unusual situation because they get their insurance from another religiously affiliated organization opposed to contraceptives and abortifacients, so it may be that these drugs don’t get covered no matter what. But the Little Sisters can’t be sure of this — the regulations are complicated and subject to change.
Regardless, they don’t want to sign. They want no part in authorizing coverage of contraceptive or abortive drugs. Enthusiasts for the mandate scoff. What the nuns are objecting to, they insist, is just a piece of paper.
Just a piece of paper? So is a mortgage. So is a wedding certificate. So is a will. How would the board of directors of NARAL react if the government forced them to sign a “piece of paper” tacitly condemning contraception or abortion? Would they shrug it off as a mere formality?
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The Little Sisters deserve deference. Their religious sensibility is different from — and, one hazards to say, more finely tuned than — that of the mandarins of President Barack Obama’s administrative state. In a dispute over what their conscience tells them to do or not to do, the Little Sisters are better positioned to know than anyone else.
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Besides, who is harmed if the Little Sisters don’t provide contraception coverage? They are a voluntary organization. They aren’t imposing their views on anyone. Who, for that matter, is harmed if a secular organization run by people with moral objections to contraceptives and abortifacients refuses to cover them? Employees are still free to go out on their own and get contraceptives, which are widely available. If this sounds like an outlandish imposition, it is what people managed to do throughout American history all the way up to last week.
The contraception mandate has always had a strong ideological impetus. Opponents of the mandate “want to roll back the last 50 years in progress women have made in comprehensive health care in America,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius notoriously declared in 2011. “We’ve come a long way in women’s health over the last few decades, but we are in a war.” By this bizarre way of thinking, a small congregation of nuns that cares for the most vulnerable is somehow complicit in a war on women’s health.
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Instead of respecting the moral views of the Little Sisters, the administration hopes to grind them under foot by force of law. For shame.
— Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review. He can be reached via e-mail: [email protected]. © 2014 King Features Syndicate |
How do you define a real programmer? There are many facets that you can use to judge someone’s skill as a programmer: ability, experience, enthusiasm, dedication, etc. But I recently read an article by RethinkDB blogger Slava, and he boils all of these points down to one item, memorization. Some people agree with this idea, but I do not, at all.
I have heard several companies bragging about having interview scripts like this, saying that this kind of testing is the most effective way to filter out unqualified applicants. However I think that the post by Slava perfectly demonstrates just how flawed this concept is. If there is one thing you should have learned in school, it’s that standardized tests are a terrible metric for gauging skill or intelligence.
But more to the point, I think that this is the wrong way to define a real programmer. Allow me to present you with my definition of a real programmer.
What is a real programmer?
This comes from one of my favorite quotes in all of history:
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance” – Confucius
Having an encyclopedic knowledge of a college curriculum is not required to be a great programmer. Real world software development isn’t about memorizing low-level programming techniques, or math formulas. These are great tools to have at your disposal, but are certainly not the end-all-be-all of development. It’s all about problem solving, in the most efficient and elegant way that circumstances allow.
As a programmer you will be supplied with problems every day, and it’s your job to figure out how to solve these problems. To do this you need to know what your language of choice is capable of, this comes with experience. You will also need to be able to look at the possible solutions and pick the best one for the situation at hand.
Now here’s the fact that breaks the machine, you do not know every possible solution for every problem, and you never will. I don’t care how experienced you are, how much education you have had, or how many millions of lines of code you have written, because there are so many possible ways to approach the practical problems you find in software development that it is literally impossible to know everything. So you need to have a mix of creativity and resources that let you learn how to solve new problems.
Real programmers are the ones who can learn fast, and learn by doing. These are the people who constantly strive to keep up with the technology they love. They have ample real world experience building, learning and growing their craft, but know that they still don’t know everything.
In short the defining characteristic of real programmers is that they never stop learning.
My experience with real programmers
I’ve worked as a peon coder, link-in-the-chain guy, I’ve worked as a manager who did the hiring and firing, I’ve worked as a one-man-shop serving milti-billion dollar corporations, and I’ve worked as a solo freelancer. This experience has taught me two things:
I am not the greatest programmer in the world, despite what my website says, and That you can rarely tell a good programmer from a bad one by the resume, or the interview.
I’ve seen guys with terrible resumes turn out to be so far above my level that I still have them on my guru list, and I’ve seen guys with amazing resumes who couldn’t grasp even the most basic concepts.
How to find a real programmer
It is true that there is often a gap between what candidates say they can do and what they’re really capable of. That is why testing candidates is still a very good idea, but you need to test for higher level skills and abilities. Testing a candidate’s knowledge on obscure techniques and patterns means passing off great people for not remembering stuff that they simply do not need to be top notch coders.
In my experience, it is very easy to separate the wheat from the chaff: go through the normal interview process to see if this is a person you can work with (and let’s face it, that’s all that the interview is really for). Then give them a small project, something realistic that resembles what their real work would be like, and send them home. Not a knowledge test, but a real “build something that does this” task.
When you get the finished result of their labor you will know if you’ve got the real deal. Is it done the way you would have expected (or better)? Is it high quality, showing some love some thought? Did they get it back to you reasonably quickly? Did they do anything cool to show off? If so, congratulations! You’ve just found a great programmer!
code_by_google != bad_programmer
Yes, they could have just coded by Google. But you know what? That shows they can learn and adapt. I have plenty of respect for a person who doesn’t immediately know how to accomplish a complex task, but can quickly find out how and do it on their own without bothering the other programmers on your team.
Remember the key point of my real programmers definition, they never stop learning. Google is the greatest programming resource that has ever existed. You cannot look down on someone for using the most powerful learning tool computer science has ever known. I would go so far as to say knowing how to code by Google is the single most important skill in a programmers tool box, because if you want to grow as a programmer this is going to be the tool to use.
Someone who knows how to search for code examples and how to learn from the work of others will be more or less self-sufficient. They can learn and grow their skills on their own without needing someone else to do it for them. The ability to learn and grow your knowledge is the single most important skill for any developer. Without the ability to grow you will find yourself quickly deprecated.
I do expect people to know how to use the language and/or framework they were hired to work in, but I judge them primarily based on the work they submit. A guy who can figure out how to do things that he doesn’t know how to do, on his own, on the fly, is a real programmer.
The catch-22 of impossibly high standards
Of course it’s pretty absurd to require knowledge that 99% of programmers have absolutely no need for in real life. But perhaps you don’t entirely know why. If you have very strict hiring standards then you are only going to find people who match your specific model, and your code will suffer because of this.
Computer science grows at a fantastical rate, every day there is another small innovation that someone came up with. This small innovation will slowly propegate out to the rest of the programming community and become part of everyone’s toolbox. This happens because some creative programmer tried some alternative idea and found a new way to solve a problem.
If your team consists entirely of people with the same background, skills and knowledge then your creativity bucket will be quite small. This means you will not see as much innovation as a varied team with people asking questions that wouldn’t normally be asked, and people offering solutions that wouldn’t normally be offered.
Most alternative idea’s will, of course, be immediately shot down. But that one in a hundred that actually sticks will give your team an advantage. This alternative idea has given a level of innovation to your project that would not have existed if you didn’t have a radical element thinking in a unique way.
Get real
This was a rather long-winded rant, but let me sum it up in a few nice bullet points.
People who are more interested in the buzz words and CS theory than actual experience and a history of practical application of skills are a perpetual thorn in the side of the programming industry.
Don’t look down on other programmers because they don’t fit your model definition of a programmer, they just might be better than you.
If 99 out of 100 candidates fail your interview then you are looking for something that doesn’t exist.
Without a varied group of developers in your team you will suffer from a lack of creativity.
Don’t test a CS curriculum, test the ability to create.
If you ever finish learning, then your career as a programmer is over. Go study law.
In short
Look for someone who truly understand the concepts, who can offer creative and alternative ideas, and who shows the ability to grow as a programmer. Then you will finally find a real programmer. |
Those emotions you felt earlier this week when you found out Facebook possibly ran a psychological experiment on you are about to make their return. As has been pointed out, one of the researchers who ran the study was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense to look into the contagion of ideas.
When Facebook stopped working for a little while this past week, most blamed it on the site's usual hiccups. However, it was later revealed that it was due to a psychological experiment that the company conducted in order to learn about people's emotions on social media. Six hundred thousand users unwillingly fell subject to manipulated content on their personal news feeds in order to measure how it impacted their behavior.
The study received instant backlash the moment it was revealed, and at the time we didn't even know the full scope. The most disturbing part of the story turns out to be that it is connected to a Department of Defense study called the Minerva Initiative. The initiative funds universities to model the dynamics, risks, and tipping points for large-scale civil unrest across the world.
This isn’t the first time Facebook dabbled in issues of privacy with its users. Facebook also provides user communications to the NSA’s PRISM program. Also, it is widely known that the government uses social networking sites such as Facebook to investigate the opinions people post on social media.
POST CONTINUES BELOW
Essentially what is going on here is the federal government using social networking tools to get a better understanding of its citizens and whether or not someone can pose a threat. On the one hand, knowing a person's intentions may help us in the long run. However, how much is too much when it comes to such invasions of privacy?
[via SCGNews] |
Posted November 27, 2010 by William Angus in Advice, Discussion and observation, Getting Grub in Jersey. Tagged: chicken, mre, rations, survival food, zombies. 4 Comments
I used to go urban exploring. A lot. Ever since I bought a house… not so much. Back when I did go out a lot I worried about possibly getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. I’ve actually been stuck in the sands of the Pine Barrens and if it weren’t for a very helpful Wrangler owner, I would’ve been stuck for a while as I was far from the main road at the time. Combine my outdoor exploits with my fear of a zombie apacolypse and it would make sense to be prepared to survive on your own for at least a few days. I stocked up my car with food, water, first aid supplies, emergency blankets and the like. This was 5 years ago.
I remembered I still had this food in my trunk. I started thinking about expiration dates. Most of the food fit into one of two catagories. Military MRE’s and food stuffs that you mix with water. That and dried fruit like raisins. I figured that the food was maybe 5 years old but there were no expiration dates listed on the MRE’s. Were they still safe to eat? I’ve heard MRE’s aren’t terribly good to start with, but after 5 years? In a car that’s gone thru hundred degree summers and 10 degree winters?
I decided to open one up. I would start with the grilled chicken since it sounded the most appetizing of all the ones I’d bought. (the others were meatloaf, beef ravioli, vegetarian and spaghetti and meat sauce) I had bought these from a military store near me. Apparently these are honest to goodness MRE that would be served to our troops as it says “manufactured for US Government, Resale is unlawful”.
Whoops.
When i opened up the sealed pouch the entire inside seemed… dusty. Turns out there was a package of M&M’s, just like you would buy in the store and it had cracked open, spilling M&M’s everywhere. in the 5 years since purchase they had been ground to pieces and there was chocolate dust everywhere. I had to clean the powder off everything before I continued.
Here is what’s in the MRE:
one cardboard box containing grilled chicken in a vacupouch
one cardboard box containing minestrone soup in in a vacupouch
2 packets of apple jelly
wheat snack bread in a vacupouch
one brownie in a vacupouch
the heater pack
cocoa beverage powder
one spoon
a packet of supplies including
moist towlette
napkins
matches
iodized salt
breath mints
spiced cider apple flavor drink
instant iced tea power drink
salt free seasoning blend
Now, first off, I heard every MRE comes with a tiny packet of tabasco to help with the taste. WHERES MY TABASCO? As it happens, it would’ve helped greatly. I read the directions on the heater pack and was confused. The way it reads it heats one item. But there are two things that need to be heated, the chicken and the soup. i tried to stick both in the heater pack but then it wouldn’t close. I removed the soup, poured in water and waited 15 minutes after placing it up against *some thing*, in this case, a water bottle.
While I waited for my chicken to heat, I examined the rest of the items.
Next up: the fudge brownie. It had dried out, and was one step shy of being crumbly. I took a bite. It was barely edible. I threw the rest away.
Next up: the wheat bread snack and apple jelly. First of all the apple jelly was practically pure corn syrup. I spread some on the bread. The bread was in excellent shape. It looked like hard tack, the stuff they gave WWI soldiers, except that stuff is hard as a rock. This wasn’t exactly moist, but it was quite tasty actually. It was markedly better when I added butter, which is technically cheating, but IDGAF. I ate it all.
Next up: powdered iced tea drink. I had a half empty water bottle so I poured the powder in there and shook it up. It tasted better then snapple in a can. I drank it all. I normally am not a fan of powdered drinks because they usually have an aftertaste. As powdered beverages go, it was pretty good.
Next up: the chicken. The way the heater pack works is you stick the vacupouch in the heater bag and add about an inch of water. You fold the top of the bag over and wait about a minute till the packet starts warming. You then stick it in the cardboard box for 15 minutes. I was unsure about the process, but it worked. I removed the vacupouch and debated how I was supposed to heat the minsetrone soup. I decided jsut to add more water and do the process again as instructed.
I tore off the top of the chicken pouch. Since there’s no knife or fork, jsut a spoon, I broke off a piece of the chicken. I know they sell chicken in a vacupouch in the grocery stores and this was pretty similar. It smelled more like tuna then chicken, and texture wise it reminded me of tuna as well. if you’ve ever had chunk tuna that was large pieces and didn’t eant to flake apart, this was the same deal. The chicken was rather bland, but for a 5 y.o. MRE it was… acceptable.
My cat was intrigued though.
Last up: the minsetrone soup. The process for heating it didn’t really work. I emptied the soup into a bowl and microwaved it. Let me first say I’m not a fan of minestrone soup. I took a bite. Let me say again, WHERE’S MY *)@#)@! TABASCO! I could’ve eaten the rest of it I suppose. If I was stuck in the wilderness and had nothing else to eat. Maybe. or if my alternative was go cannibal on the body of my friend who died yesterday. Needless to say, neither was the case here, so it went in the garbage.
Overall opinion:
For a 5 y.o. MRE, the contents were edible. I didn’t get the runs or get violently ill. It’s purpose in my life would be emergency rations if i was stranded somewhere. It would fulfill that role but barely. I would say that if I had any other options, I would go with them first though. You can see all the photos here Also, after I went thru this process I examined some other food items that had been stored in ym trunk. They expired in 2005 and 2006. That means these MRE’s are probably 7 years old.
I decided to try the other MRE’s and I posted what it was like here
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The X-Files creator Chris Carter was directing the finale of the veteran sci-fi drama’s upcoming season when The New York Times published its startling scoop on Sunday that read like something straight out of his show: The government recently had a five-year secret program investigating UFOs. Moreover, some of those involved in the program who were interviewed are fairly convinced extraterrestrial life has visited Earth (“there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone,” as one former Pentagon official put it). Plus, there was a video (below) released of an unidentifiable object sighting that was backed up by interviews with U.S. Navy pilots. And like the cliffhanger of a proper serialized sci-fi mystery, the reports stopped just shy of saying anything conclusive on the key question of whether intelligent extraterrestrial life exists.
Carter, who has been rather knee-deep in this subject matter for quite some time, wasn’t exactly surprised by the headlines. Below the writer-producer took a break from his directorial duties to chat exclusively with EW.com about this new truth which is now out there.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Obviously there were government UFO studies in the past, like Project Blue Book, which ended in 1970. But this must be surreal for you — after 25 years of telling an ongoing fictional story about a group within the government that secretly investigates UFOs … to find out there’s a group within the government that’s been secretly investigating UFOs.
CHRIS CARTER: Right, yeah, there have been projects before — Project Blue Book was a real thing. So while you call [the show’s basis] fiction, it wasn’t science fiction. Now that this story has come out, it is some validation. But I still say it’s being treated like it’s tabloid news.
You think news organizations aren’t taking the revelations as seriously as they deserve?
One of the problems is that until UFOs become IFOs [Identified Flying Objects], so to speak, people are going to take it all with some level of suspicion.
Still, the Times story was probably the closest I’ve seen a credible journalistic organization tiptoe up to saying “hey, aliens are real” without actually doing that. What were your thoughts reading the reports?
Well, when you see the Defense Department has a secret program that’s funded to the tune of $22 million dollars by politicians that are supposed to represent our public interest, and doing it in secret, you gotta report on these things. And when you have videotape of pilots looking at things that are undeniably unidentifiable, you have to report that as news.
You’ve always presented the show as entertainment but along the way did you ever hear of things backchannel that credibly suggested there might be some reality to UFO reports?
Yes. I visited the Pentagon several years ago and it was clear something else was going on there. I met with somebody whose job was part of a group that was roughly in the same area as described as the fifth floor of the C Ring [where the recent UFO project was run]. Their job is to think about the future and where the U.S. will be in the future, what its interests will be, and what they’ll need to defend — and everything had to do with space and off-planet. Without them actually saying “aliens,” there was a suggestion that they were more than earthbound researchers.
On this subject there are always two questions, right? Does intelligent extraterrestrial life exist? And if they do exist, have they ever visited Earth? What’s your take?
I’m a skeptic by nature. I’ve never seen a UFO. I’ve never seen an alien. But I’ve talked to way too many people I consider honest and credible who have. I just spoke to somebody in the last couple months who has seen [UFOs] twice in Mexico. And he says they move too fast and they are too otherworldly to call aircraft of this world.
I suppose another question moving forward is: Are we now caught up to speed on what the government knows about UFOs? Or is there more come beyond these reports?
The New York Times piece hinted that they actually have recovered materials. So when those facts might spill out, we might get material confirmation there’s something going on. Until that time, until we have credible scientists telling us this material is otherworldly, I think short of aliens visiting us, that will be the next revelation.
How would people react I wonder? I suspect a large percentage still wouldn’t believe it without a UFO landing in Central Park.
Yes. Imagine the impact on religion. On belief. You can throw so many things out. Certainly our anthropocentric view of the world.
You frequently use real-life news footage and headlines in the show. Will any of this make it into the new season?
This revelation is coming a bit late for this season. But this is something that’s been part of the series from the beginning. And in the last event series [in 2016] and in this one we touch on many things directly that are now being reported as news.
Do you mean there are things within last season and the new one that are part of these current reports that you had previously heard about?
Yes. I’ve attended conferences. People would consider them to be conspiracy-minded folk. But there’s idea that there’s a secret space program — which is another thing the Times piece hinted at — that NASA and this guy Robert Bigalow are working on space systems that might take people into outer space. Now why those programs are secret and are being pursued is of great interest to me and we touch on it this season. But I still think our first contact with something extra-planetary and microscopic and perhaps even lethal. Bioterrorism is something no one talks about when people talk about terrorism and that’s also something we dive into this season.
The X-Files returns to Fox for 10 new episodes starting Jan. 3. |
According to Latino-Review , tomorrow's Captain America: Civil War trailer will indeed feature an appearance from Spider-Man. While it's not clear whether he'll be suited up alongside Team Iron Man or if Marvel are just going to tease us with an appearance from Peter Parker, it definitely sounds like they have a plan in place to steal the spotlight from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.Sounds awesome, right?It remains to be seen whether or not Spidey will appear of course, but it would make sense for Marvel to show him off at last in this trailer. After all, keeping him under wraps may get fans excited, but it's not going to bring more people to the theater if they know nothing about the wall-crawler being in the movie! What are you most excited to see in the trailer tomorrow? Sound off below. |
Vine
Oh, those crazy Sacramento Kings.
On Saturday, head coach George Karl raised some eyebrows by saying guard Seth Curry would only last in the NBA for "a couple years," per Blake Ellington of Sactown Royalty.
According to Ellington, Curry posted (and deleted) this tweet:
Look familiar?
A day later, the 25-year-old started and knocked down four of seven shots from the field en route to a 14-point performance in a 133-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks. During Curry’s postgame interview, DeMarcus Cousins—rocking a sweet towel around his head—chimed in.
"You gon’ be in the league a long time, boy," the big fella said emphatically. "Remember that. A long time."
Maybe it's a coincidence, and the All-Star was simply supporting a teammate who's been struggling.
But Cousins and Karl’s relationship has been volatile ever since the 64-year-old took the Kings job in 2014-15.
Snake emoji, indeed.
Update
Regardless of the reason for Cousins' support, big brother Stephen Curry approved, reacting to the incident with a 100-laden tweet:
[Vine] |
Debian Installer 6.0 Beta2 release
December 8th, 2010
The Debian Installer team is pleased to announce the second beta release of the installer for Debian GNU/Linux Squeeze.
This release is dedicated to Frans Pop, who worked as Debian Installer Release Manager for several years. Even after he stepped out from this responsibility in 2007, Frans continued to be heavily involved in several aspects of D-I until he passed away.
Frans played a key role in ensuring that D-I was constantly maintained at the high quality level that had been set by its original developers. In particular, Frans kept the Installation Guide in very good shape throughout the period that he was involved in D-I.
Frans' name will remain associated with Debian Installer, and his loss is deeply regretted by Debian Installer developers, contributors and translators.
Improvements in this release of the installer
Linux kernel updated to 2.6.32-27 on amd64, i386, powerpc, mipsel, hppa, sparc, s390 and ia64;
Partition detection improved: Windows Vista, Windows Recovery Environment (#589676) and MINIX (#592924);
Improved OS detection in grub-installer (#560027, #567980, #593460);
ZFS support (#595152);
Fixed hibernation with swap on LVM (#568877);
Fixed, on os-prober, data corruption if filesystem is being used by another host (#599203, #556739);
Fixed overwrite MBR of installation medium (#579519);
Improved USB cd-rom devices scan (#597553);
Updated minimal memory values for lowmem installations;
Support added for: more USB keyboards (hid-monterey, hid-sunplus) (#588742, #603318); network on IBM QS20 Cell blade (spidernet) (#602326); input modules on sparc (#602740); sl82c105 support (ide cdrom) to PowerPC (#603533)
Localization: 67 languages activated (included English) For 50 of these, translation is 100% complete
Behavioral changes in this release
Bump minimum root partition size in the standard task and leave room for and extra kernel package in later life of the machine (#528914);
Expand the small gap we leave at the end of the disk to avoid MD superblock ambiguity;
enabled accessibility in potentially-installed gdm when speakup was used during installation.
Known issues in this release
Not yet known issues in this release
Thanks
See the errata for details and a full list of known issues.We do need your help to find bugs and further improve the installer, so please try it. Installer CDs, other media and everything you else you will need are available at our web site The Debian Installer team thanks everybody who has contributed to this release. |
The Uniting Church in Australia was inaugurated on 22 June, 1977 with a public celebration at the Sydney Town Hall.
It was the result of the union of three protestant denominations – Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational – after a long period of negotiation. Many Presbyterian and some Congregational congregations chose not to be part of the union.
People from these three traditions were inspired by the vision expressed in the Basis of Union of a new and uniquely Australian Christian community. They believed that they could better serve God and witness to Jesus Christ by joining together rather than remaining separate.
The Uniting Church is both part of the tradition of the church going back to its beginnings and also a relatively new church. We seek to show the love, justice and peace of God, following Jesus’ example, with those we contact. We strive to be a community where people can find a sense of belonging as they live out their own spiritual journey.
Qualities and Commitments of the Uniting Church
The Uniting Church is committed to serving the mission of God in the world, to help transform lives and communities for wholeness, peace and justice. Our Basis of Union speaks of ‘the reconciliation and renewal of the whole creation’ as God’s purpose in which we share.
In the spirit of uniting we:
affirm the gifts and role of all people in the life of the church;
accept women and men as equals in ministry in all aspects of our church’s life and ordain women;
are concerned about social justice
value our vital relationship with indigenous people, particularly through the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress;
commit to being a multicultural church ministering and serving cross-culturally.
Worship
The Uniting Church has more than 2,000 congregations and faith communities in every part of Australia . These include small rural congregations to large regional churches, gatherings in homes to large urban congregations, from café churches to other ways of worship. A wide variety of music is used.
The Uniting Church celebrates being a multicultural church and on any given Sunday worship will be held using more than 40 different languages including more than a dozen indigenous languages and many others using more than one language. We are committed to building communities of love and hope where individual lives can be transformed as people journey together in faith and are called to make a difference in their wider communities. All who wish to join this journey are welcome.
Community services
The Uniting Church is the largest non-government provider of community services in Australia , providing services to more than 2 million Australians each year, employing 35,000 staff and 24,000 volunteers nationally. UnitingCare agencies and Frontier Services provide services to individuals, families and communities in every state and territory and at all stages of life.
Our services include aged care; children’s services, youth and family support; disability support; patrol ministry; counselling; emergency relief; and housing and employment assistance. The Uniting Church has many chaplains in different contexts. As a church we deliver community services as one way of expressing God’s love for the world, and our care, with God, for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in our communities.
Indigenous relationships
We are committed to partnering with indigenous communities in Australia, recognising the pain and damage caused to our country’s first peoples through European settlement and beyond.
In 1985 the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress was established. Congress is dedicated to seeking the spiritual, physical, social, mental and emotional well-being of indigenous Australians. In 1997 the Uniting Church made a formal apology to the Stolen Generation in recognition of past injustices and in 2010 a new Preamble to the Constitution of the Uniting Church was passed acknowledging indigenous experience.
Justice
In a Statement to the Nation in 1977 the Uniting Church affirmed that a Christian responsibility to society is fundamental to the church.
UnitingJustice resources the Church as it considers its position on issues of national and international importance, such as human rights, refugee policy, peace and the environment. It works collaboratively within the Church and throughout civil society to respond to issues of the day and matters of public policy. UnitingJustice exists as an expression of the Church’s commitment to working toward a just, peaceful and reconciled world, communicating this vision through advocacy with government and activities in the public forum.
Overseas partnerships
The Uniting Church is committed to relationships beyond our national borders.
Through UnitingWorld it has partnerships with churches around the world particularly in the Pacific, Asia and Africa . In long term relationships we contribute to developing transformed local communities where peace and justice reign, poverty is alleviated and assistance is given in times of natural disasters, and we ourselves are transformed. Together we witness to our hope and life in Jesus Christ through the Spirit.
Ecumenical relationships
As part of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, the Uniting Church is active in ecumenical relationships both within Australia such as through the National Council of Churches in Australia and internationally by being involved in the World Council of Churches, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the World Methodist Council.
Our Calling under God
As a people journeying together on the way to God’s promised end we:
preach Christ the crucified and risen one and confess him as Lord; and hear his commission to make disciples of all nations;
bear witness to the unity of faith and life in Christ which transcends cultural, economic, national and racial boundaries;
are a fellowship of reconciliation within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work;
recognise that our response to the Christian gospel will involve us in social, national and international affairs;
uphold basic Christian values and principles, such as the importance of every human being, the need for integrity in public life, the proclamation of truth and justice, the rights for each citizen to participate in decision-making, religious liberty and personal dignity, and a concern for the welfare of the whole human race;
pledge ourselves to seek the correction of injustices wherever they occur; will work for the eradication of poverty and racism; will oppose all forms of discrimination; will challenge values which emphasise acquisitiveness and greed in disregard of the needs of others; are concerned with the basic human rights of future generations and will urge the wise use of energy, the protection of the environment and the replenishment of the earth’s resources;
affirm that the first allegiance of Christians is to God made known in Jesus of Nazareth, the one who gave his life for others. In the Spirit of his self-giving love we seek to go forward.
(Based on the Basis of Union and the Statement to the Nation, 1977) |
Dream Interpretation | Spiders and Webs
Dreams featuring spiders and webs are often creepy like a Halloween movie made by Alfred Hitchcock. Once you understand the symbolism you’ll see that there’s usually nothing to really fear, but there could be something to be wary of or some sort of danger lurking.
To begin understanding what spiders in dreams mean, think about your associations with them. There is no universal interpretation for any creature in your dreams, but there are common associations that form the basis of most symbolism.
A common association with spiders is they weave webs and sit back waiting for victims to get entangled. The spider can then take its merry time wrapping up and eating its prey. Spiders are patient and methodical.
Now compare that to waking life. Have you ever been “entangled” in a situation that was “sticky?” Do you know people who lay traps that ensnare others? These associations are ready-made for dreams about spiders and webs, like this dream about spiders posted at Reddit Dreams.
Looking back on that dream, I wish I would’ve picked up on the obvious: laying in bed with the girl probably symbolizes the dreamer’s attraction to her, since beds are where we dream and “dreams” in one sense can mean the things we wish for. But she has a boyfriend, a friend of the dreamer, and now we start to see a “sticky situation” taking shape. She might be trying to keep the dreamer “in reserve” like a spider’s meal wrapped in webbing so that if something happens with her current boyfriend, she has a guy to fall back on. There might be a subconscious competition between the guys for the girl.
Poor guy doesn’t know he’s being played, but his dreams do.
During my conversation with him at Reddit, he expressed a deep fear of spiders. Here is where personal associations come into play, because if you fear spiders, they can be used by your dreams to symbolize any fear. If you don’t fear spiders, your dreams can’t scare you with them!
Now we get into a deeper lesson about dream symbolism. Dreams have a reason for every detail they provide and every symbol they use. A spider that symbolizes fear is going to somehow be associated with related ideas about spiders, such as fear of entanglement, of being trapped, of loss of control, or of predatory people. A spider is not likely to be used to symbolize, say, fear of water because spiders are usually not found there.
However, a personal association of yours could come into play in a dream if you’ve ever encountered a spider in the water. See how it works? Use the link earlier in this paragraph to explore that idea further.
Spiders have close connection with anxiety because of how they produce anxiety in people who fear them. Just the thought of something lurking beneath your bed covers or in the corner of a room is enough to give some people the creeps. Snakes have a similar association, because even if you are not scared of snakes, you know to be careful around them. Anxiety is more about what could happen than what did or will happen.
Speaking of fear of spiders, this dream about fearing a spider illustrates it for the dreamer and suggests how to get over it. Here is the condensed version:
I’m at work and find a huge, hairy brown spider. I immediately felt a few things: fear, panic, desire to run. In the meantime.. one of the senior techs in my lab who I have the upmost respect for, and a little bit of fear of, caught said spider and placed it in a sort of container that magnified it and made it look even bigger. She kept trying to force the spider on me.
The spider in the jar is magnified so it looks bigger and nastier than it really is. That’s a big clue that the dreamer’s fear of spiders is blown out of proportion. He makes it bigger than it really is. Spiders in general are no threat to humans, but if you fear something you give it power over you.
Since the dreamer admires the co-worker, the co-worker’s presence in the dream is a suggestion. The co-worker doesn’t fear spiders, and the dreamer can use that as an example. We learn from and model ourselves after the people we admire. This dreamer can learn to overcome his fear of spiders by emulating the co-worker.
And this next tidbit is interesting. Turns out, research has shown that the greater a person’s fear of spiders, the bigger spiders appear to them.
Here is a dream featuring an ex girlfriend and spider webs. The intrigue and “tangled web” she weaves….
In this dream about a Black Widow spider, the dreamer is thinking about his ex-girlfriend trying to work her way back into his life. He knows she is scheming, weaving a web of intrigue. The condensed version:
Some kid from the grade above me back in high school is with me in my old town lifting up sewer grates to show me that there are tunnels under them. Suddenly I realize there is a Black Widow on me, no matter what I do I can’t get it off ’cause it crawls somewhere else or its webs are stuck on me. It never bit me though. But I felt uneasy and it made me wake up.
The dreamer associates his ex-girlfriend with a Black Widow. Her schemes are the webs that stick to him. The underground tunnels symbolize the underhanded way she’s trying to tunnel back into his life. He can’t seem to get rid of her. |
Teacher who taught pupil racist 'rape' rhyme so he could remember lesson is guilty of misconduct
A supply teacher who taught a racist rhyme to a pupil - which included the vile phrase 'Black Boys Rape Our Young Girls' - has been found guilty of professional misconduct.
James Hersey, 68, taught the shocking mnemonic to a 16-year-old boy who was revising a wiring colour coding system for electronic resistors.
He taught the boy the ditty: 'Black Boys Rape Our Young Girls, But Virgins Go Without.' Each word represents the first letter of the colours in the code which are; black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, grey and white.
Teacher James Hersey of Hove, East Sussex, holding a circuit board: He claims the rhyme he was taught in the 1950s helps to remember a colour coding system for resistors
When the Year 11 pupil asked for help in remembering the code, Mr Hersey wrote part of the rhyme down on a piece of paper and showed it to him.
Mr Hersey was sacked on the spot after the boy told another teacher what he had been taught.
He was found guilty of unacceptable professional misconduct because of the rhyme's 'racist and sexual content' by a disciplinary hearing of the General Teaching Council (GTC).
He was told the mnemonic was 'inappropriate in more enlightened times' and that it failed to 'demonstrate respect for diversity and promote equality'.
Mr Hersey, who attended the hearing in Birmingham on Thursday, was given a reprimand which will stay on his record for two years.
Chairman of the panel Paul Bird told him: 'Whilst teaching a Year 11 engineering lesson on Thursday 18 March 2010, you communicated a rhyme to Pupil A that was racist and inappropriately sexual.
'I am an old-fashioned teacher and what I told the pupil was a historical fact... Teachers nowadays are not allowed to teach. Political correctness has gone over the top,' said James Hersey
'The words intended to represent the resistor colour code are, on any reading, both racist and inappropriately sexual.
'The committee is concerned that Mr Hersey has demonstrated only partial insight into the inappropriateness of the 'rhyme' in the 21st century.'
The panel heard that Mr Hersey breached the Code of Conduct and Practice for Registered Teachers which states staff must 'demonstrate respect for diversity and promote equality'.
Mr Hersey has 28 days to appeal the ruling.
Speaking from his home in Hove, Brighton, Mr Hersey today defended his teaching method, saying it was 'a naughty saucy rhyme'.
He said: 'I am an old-fashioned teacher and what I told the pupil was a historical fact.
'I am not a racist or a sexist and I have taught pupils of all nationalities.
Supply: James Hersey was working at Oriel High School in Crawley, West Sussex when he taught the racist rhyme to a pupil
'The pupil I was helping with revision asked me how I remembered the code and I told him about a naughty saucy rhyme I was taught when I was at Brighton Polytechnic in the 1950s.
'The fact that the word black is in the rhyme is because that is the first colour in the code.
'I also have an issue with the GTC claiming the rhyme was somehow sexual because rape is not a sexual act.'
Grandfather-of-three Hersey, who worked as a supply teacher for 14 years before he was sacked last March, added: 'Teachers nowadays are not allowed to teach.
'Political correctness has gone over the top. Teachers are also treated like the lowest of the low while the kids can get away with murder.'
Mr Hersey said he had now decided to retire from teaching and had no intention of returning to the classroom. |
When Tony Blair became prime minister in May 1997, he had a landslide majority, an approval rating of 93 per cent, and he went on to become Labour’s longest-serving premier. At his last PMQs he got a standing ovation in the chamber of the House of Commons. How things have changed. Nowadays all we hear about is the accusations of lies, hubris and money-making business deals.
But is this disillusionment justified? To assess the record of this extraordinary politician, Intelligence Squared staged Tony Blair on Trial. Levelling the charges against him was Tom Bower, the investigative journalist who is about to publish his most explosive book yet: Broken Vows: Tony Blair and the Tragedy of Power. Bower admits that he shared the hope and excitement that millions felt when Blair took office promising a New Labour programme of modernisation and reform. But that general optimism was swept away by the controversy over the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, and the ‘dodgy’ dossiers about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. The spin didn’t stop there, Bower argued. Blair’s claims to have improved Britain’s schools, hospitals and welfare services all came under his forensic spotlight. As for Blair’s record since leaving office, how is it, he will ask, that the man who risked his government to destroy Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein has earned a fortune advising leaders of highly dubious regimes?
All this is a travesty, according to David Aaronovitch, award-winning columnist on the Times, who defended Tony Blair in our event. The problem, as Aaronovitch sees it, is that the political classes hate Blair. The Left have never forgiven him for proving them wrong and the Right have never forgiven him for defeating them. But in the country at large, Blair’s legacy is overwhelmingly impressive. Take education. Teaching standards were raised, and flagship programmes such as the academies and Teach First, which fast-tracks bright graduates into London’s toughest schools, were instigated and later embraced by the Coalition. Childcare was provided for millions of working parents for the first time. The same thing happened on health. Without Blair’s NHS reforms it is hard to know how the system would have coped. The minimum wage, equal rights for gay people, a Welsh Assembly, a Scottish Parliament, a London mayor – many of these initiatives were controversial when first proposed but are now part of the political consensus. As for military intervention, Aaronovitch pointed to the success stories of Kosovo and Sierra Leone, and argued that the current crisis in the Middle East is more the result of the West’s refusal to act than any failure of Blair’s.
As Labour’s warring tribes – the Blairites and Corbynites – threaten to tear the party apart, there is no better time to examine the legacy of the man who reinvented Labour and triumphed in three general elections, but who is now one of this country’s most controversial figures. As they slugged it out, Bower and Aaronovitch called upon their specially chosen expert witnesses to bolster their case. |
DUNEDIN, Fla. – By the end of the 2017 season, Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro expects to have plans in place for both a new spring training facility and a Rogers Centre renovation that will run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The two projects remain in the planning stages, with a funding proposal for a revamped stadium and training site in Dunedin, Fla., currently under examination by officials at the Pinellas County level, and themes for what might be done at the dome emerging.
In that vein, the installation of natural grass at Rogers Centre remains a consideration although it may very well be an unlikely one with money instead being focused on a reworking of the seating bowl, expanded concourses and the creation of distinctive areas for different game-watching experiences.
“(Natural grass) is one of the decisions that has to be made in the context of the broader master plan that we’re still considering,” Shapiro says in an interview. “There is never a question of whether grass is preferred to artificial turf – grass is clearly preferred to artificial turf. It’s only going to be a question of what are going to be the one-time costs of retrofitting the entire stadium to do something it’s not equipped to do, which is irrigate, provide drainage, provide sunlight for times when the roof is not open to keep grass alive.
“Then there’s the annual commitment in costs that would create as well, and then weighing that versus how else you could spend that money on other things. By no means have we made that decision, but we’re going to look at that in the context of the other one-time decisions of renovation and on the annual basis of how else we can spend that money to help us win.”
Already the Blue Jays are spending money on the Rogers Centre, with a new $1-million weight room installed over the winter and waterproofing work taking place on the concrete exterior. The retractable roof must also be replaced in the coming years, along with other less exciting upkeep tasks for a stadium that first opened in 1989, which is why Shapiro insists the entire project must be viewed holistically.
The Blue Jays have hired a design firm and at this point, “what we do have is themes that through focus groups and through research and through industry trends and analysis provided clear ideas of what we would be looking to achieve in a re-envisioning – and I call it a re-envisioning rather than a renovation – of the stadium.”
“No. 1,” Shapiro continued, “would be to turn the stadium into a ballpark. Very simply that would be a top priority for us, which means (providing) a modern ballpark experience for our fans. What I would hope is that by mid-summer we have those concepts fully flushed out, a potential set of loose designs, not plans but loose designs along with some costs so I can begin to have those conversations with ownership.”
While coming up with a vision for the dome and obtaining the funding are the primary challenges, a more complicated matter may be how to get the construction done without leaving the Blue Jays homeless.
“How do we play, understanding that we only have 20 weeks a year to do construction, or do we do some construction while we play?” says Shapiro. “I don’t have answers, those are the range of questions that have to be considered, because there’s no place else for us to play.”
The Dunedin project is further along, with concepts for a refurbishment for Florida Auto Exchange Stadium already drawn up although the new facility the Blue Jays want for the Bobby Mattick Training Center remains conceptual.
Architectural drawings won’t be drawn up until the funding is in place.
“We have what I’d call a program,” says Shapiro. “We have, room by room, what the square foot needs are. We haven’t yet laid that into a plan, although we have done a little bit of that and we’ve also thought about from a land-use perspective, this is where we might put a building, this is where we’d put 6½ fields, this is where we’d put a covered half-field, this is where the cages would go, that kind of thing.”
The Blue Jays gained Dunedin’s approval to seek funding for the $81-million project from the county back in September. Under the plan, Pinellas County would contribute about $46 million, the Blue Jays about $15.7 million, the state about $13.6 million and the city $5.6 million.
“The county has a process to walk through that both involves the (Tourist Development Council) and the country commission in determining if they’re going to agree to our funding proposal,” says Shapiro. “By the end of the season we’re going to have a plan in place. That plan might be we have to reconsider where we are from a spring training perspective. I hope not. You’ll seldom hear me say I’m optimistic, but I’m optimistic that’s not the case, I’m optimistic we’ll get something done here. But that’s not assured yet, that’s still very much something that’s being negotiated.”
A new spring facility has been one of Shapiro’s top priorities since taking over the job in November 2015. He had hoped to find a way to bring the Blue Jays’ spring stadium and training facilities together on a single site, but noted the team has “compromised already” by agreeing to an alternative plan in which all the training will be done at Bobby Mattick with the stadium used only for games.
The current separation “is a logistical challenge,” says Shapiro. “There’s not a time that I get in the car it doesn’t irk me a little bit that I’m driving 15 minutes to get to the other side. … It’s a challenge for us, not impossible, but a challenge for us until that happens. In my mind from the time I interviewed here, that is among the highest priorities.” |
This undated booking photo provided by the Copperas Cove Police Department shows Jory Enck. In October, police were called to Enck's Copperas Cove, Texas, apartment on an unrelated disturbance charge, but arrested Enck after finding a past warrant for an unreturned GED study guide. He was released on a $200 bond, then requested time-served. Enck, who has since returned the book, said he couldn’t bring it back initially because he was in prison. He checked it out before beginning a 3-year sentence for robbery. AP Photo/Copperas Cove Police Department Have an overdue library book? It could get you fined — even jailed — in Texas, other states
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Call it throwing the book at the bookworms.
A Texas man who was arrested for failing to return an overdue library book ignited an online flurry of snarky comments and headlines about the Lone Star State extending its tough-on-crime bravado to books. But such cases aren't unheard of, and many communities faced with shrinking budgets and rising costs have ordinances calling for fines or even arrest warrants when library property isn't returned.
In Texas alone, the issue has cost libraries an estimated $18 million.
Jory Enck learned that the hard way. He was arrested for not returning a GED study guide that he checked out three years ago in the Central Texas community of Copperas Cove. Enck declined comment to The Associated Press, but he told the Killeen Daily Herald that he wouldn't set foot in a library again: "I think I will probably just purchase a book from Amazon."
A Texas state law took effect in September that defines the failure to return library books as theft. The law, which doesn't trump stricter community ordinances, mandates up to a $100 fine per offense.
Other states also call for fines or even arrest warrants in such cases, including Iowa — where an overdue-book offender was jailed for a week — Vermont and Maine.
In Copperas Cove, about 70 miles northwest of Austin, a 2002 ordinance mandates a $200 fine for each library item that goes unreturned 20 days after a written notice is sent demanding its return. If the fine isn't paid, the municipal court issues a warrant, city spokesman Kevin Keller said. Keller said he didn't know how many people had been jailed on library-related offenses.
"I was a police officer for 12 years, and while it wasn't a regular daily thing, we had maybe a couple of these a year," he said, adding that he didn't know why Enck's arrest in October got so much attention.
In that case, police were called to the 22-year-old's apartment on an unrelated disturbance charge, but officers arrested him after finding a past warrant for the study guide. Enck was released on a $200 bond, requested time-served — and returned the book. He said he couldn't do it earlier because he checked it out before beginning a three-year prison term for robbery.
Being jailed for absconding with library materials "is an uncommon occurrence, but can happen once in a while," said Mark Gould of the Chicago-based American Library Association. But he said there was no accurate count on how many states and communities issue arrest warrants.
It's an issue that has cost libraries a lot of money. Nearly 150 libraries in Texas participated in a survey earlier this year that found 966,000 items were checked out long enough to be considered lost, with the total cost exceeding $18.2 million, said Gloria Meraz, a spokeswoman for the Texas Library Association.
Among the most notable library-related arrests came in 2011, when a man from Newton, Iowa, served more than a week in jail for failing to return 11 library books and six CDs worth $770. Iowa law classifies failure to return library materials as theft, and the town has a 1993 ordinance, said Sue Padilla, director of the Newton library.
Padilla said she saw a spike in returned overdue materials after the arrest.
"We did notice that some things that had been out for quite a while did suddenly come back," she said.
The library hasn't been back to court since that case, she said. She said going to court was a last resort, but that "we try to be good stewards of those things that were purchased with taxpayer funds."
Other notable cases include police visiting the home of a 5-year-old in Charlton, Mass., last year to collect overdue books. Also last year, police in Freeport, Pa., called the home of a 4-year-old whose family had racked up more than $80 in overdue fines for four books.
Back in Texas, two women in Baytown were arrested following traffic stops in 2006 and 2010, after police discovered they had outstanding warrants for unreturned library books.
Indiana-based Unique Management Services is a collection agency that works with more than 1,600 libraries nationwide to recover overdue materials and administer fines and fees. During sluggish economic times, libraries became more anxious than ever to recover unreturned books, said Kenes Bowling, the agency's customer development manager.
"They feel the budgetary pressure, no doubt," Bowling said. "But what we've seen over the years is that, no matter what the library does, there's still a percentage of folks who need third party encouragement."
That includes a woman whose excuse for unreturned books ranks as Bowling's favorite: He said she claimed the leg on her dining room table had broken "and the stack of books under it were just right."
Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
Ryan Gosling knew this was going to happen. His directorial debut screened in the Un Certain Regarde category of Cannes and, naturally, packed the house as if it was the most highly buzzed Palme D’Or contender of the year. Two hours later the film ended, and people took to Twitter in disbelief, shock, and sarcasm engaged to the max. Yet, the film already began building a loyal fan base who defend its great aesthetics, originality, and the fact that it’s never boring. But getting your teeth pulled out by rusty pliers is probably never boring either. After making whatever Lost River is, there’s no way Gosling didn’t expect exactly that kind of reaction. Is there a point in even laying out the plot here? A mother (Christina Hendricks) works in a seedy bar and has to take care of two boys, one of whom is nicknamed Bones (Iain De Caestecker) and is sort of our protagonist. After getting news that they’re about to get displaced, she takes another job in an ever seedier bar, operated by her banker Dave (Ben Mendelsohn) so that she can pay three months in advance. Meanwhile, Bones attempts to outwit a local gang leader called Bully (Matt Smith) to help with the rent, and gets moral support from a friend called Rat (Saorise Ronan). Yes. Bones, Bully, and Rat.
The actors do a decent enough job and go beyond the call of duty that their names suggest, but it’s Mendelsohn who outshines everyone and truly looks like he belongs in the fucked up world Gosling juke-boxed together. The film spins out of control quite quickly and goes into experimental mode; becoming a lab for Gosling to play around with a Greatest Hits collection of influences (David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Gaspar Noe most notably, though the re-occurring image of burning buildings recalls one of my favorite cinematic shots, possibly ever, from Akira Kurosawa’s Ran) without needing to make much sense. The idea is to evoke a nightmarish atmosphere and make the whole thing into some form of parable for the housing crisis in middle America, or you know, he’s just fucking around. Whatever it is, he’s got me cursing for the first time in a Cannes review and that’s because most of the scenes, as great as they look (an image of a burning bicycle, the macabre bar where Hendricks begins to work, and the images of her in the plastic suit are undeniably striking and get etched into your mind, for better or for worse) don’t amount to anything substantial. This isn’t just style over substance, this is style raping substance.
The music deserves a mention, however, because (and this is a direct Refn influence) the electronic notes work in sinister fashion to help the overall grotesqueness occurring on-screen. If there was a Cannes award for Best Soundtrack, Lost River would be a shoe-in. As it stands, it’s nothing more than a first-time director’s messy homage to some of his favorites. The reason it’s getting so much attention, and will most likely go down as a cult favorite in certain circles, is because the director happens to be Ryan Gosling. Thanks to his name, though, he manages to assemble artists like Mendelsohn, Ronan, cinematographer Benoit Debie, and composer Johnny Jewel who elevate this psychedelic bad trip from complete disaster into a twisted kind of entertainment. |
Maharashtra government’s decision to require only 51% of the members to give their approval for a housing society to be redeveloped is set to boost the housing redevelopment sector in the city. Earlier, 70% approval was needed.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis recently took this decision as the Maharashtra Co-operative Housing Federation was making this demand for many years.
There are many old buildings in Pune, Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and other cities. The buildings, which are more than 30-years-old are being mainly considered for redevelopment. Though most members from these housing societies are in favour of redevelopment, often it becomes difficult to pass the proposal when even a few are opposed to it.
Land is at a premium in terms of availability in the metro cities. Naturally, the future of real estate future is redevelopment. Most factors, like citizens not wanting to shift to other parts of the city, lend to much support for redevelopment.
The benefits of redevelopment are many, including new amenities, better construction and additional facilities like elevators and fire systems.
Maharashtra Co-operative Housing Federation director and Pune District Co-operative Housing Societies president, Suhas Pathwardhan, welcomed chief minister Fadnavis’ decision.
Pathwardhan said, “Many people living in housing societies are willing to do redevelopment as there are many benefits. One thing usually they get is a little more area in the new building, plus new amenities and other facilities linked with technology.”
There still are some members who make it an ego issue and oppose the redevelopment of a society, according to Pathwardhan. Sometimes they move court to oppose the resolution.
However, this latest government decision to bring the number of members needed to clear a redevelopment plan down to 51% from 70% is likely to work in favour of those supporting redevelopment.
Pune District Co-operative Housing Society secretary, Manisha Koshti, said that it is a good decision and housing society will get the benefits of redevelopment.
Gokhale Builders managing director Vishal Gokhale said that redevelopment is the future and this decision will help to boost the housing sector.
Why is redevelopment beneficial?
- Citizens get a new home at the same place they were residing in
- Once a housing society is 30-years-old, it is mandatory to do a structural audit of each building. Old housing societies, therefore, prefer to do a redevelopment
- Citizens get a new drainage system, water system along with other amenities like elevators and fire safety system
- There are many old wadas and old buildings in Pune, Mumbai, Thane and Nashik city which will benefit through this decision
First Published: Aug 08, 2017 12:09 IST |
To some people, the idea for an iPhone app designed to let students record video statements of agreement before engaging in sexual activity sounds like a bad joke. Or perhaps just a well-intended overuse of technology.
But Michael Lissack has come up with a set of such apps, and he defends them as a way to reset the conversation around sex on the campus.
His creation, called We-Consent, is actually three apps — one that lets students document mutual consent to a sexual encounter by video-recording a conversation about it with the cellphone’s camera, and two "no" apps that record an individual watching a message on the phone that clearly states "no," so there is a record of that individual having received the message.
Mr. Lissack, who is executive director of the Institute for the Study of Coherence and Emergence, said the videos are encrypted and unhackable; they don’t save onto a user’s phone, but they are stored in an offline database. The only time the videos can be viewed is when there is a legal reason to disclose them, such as a court proceeding or university adjudication.
Right now, the two "no" apps are available through the App Store on Apple's iTunes, but the yes app is accessible only on the apps’ website. Mr. Lissack said that Apple considered the yes app "icky."
Mr. Lissack said he got the idea for the app last fall, during debates about the new sexual-assault policy at Harvard. For Mr. Lissack, "there had to be a better way" to ensure that both people involved had consented to sexual activity.
He said he hopes the apps will facilitate more open and clear discussion between partners about engaging in sexual activity, and will mitigate any prior confusion.
The Chronicle talked with Mr. Lissack to learn more about the app. An edited and condensed transcript of the conversation follows.
Q. Just asking for consent during sexual activity is difficult enough. Wouldn’t bringing in a phone make things even more complicated?
A. From my perspective it works as follows. The current societal standard is no means no. We are asking for that standard to change. That means, if you’re asking us to put it in computer language, the default assumption is being reset. That requires work. If you merely depend on the conversation itself with no props, that is harder than if you provide a context which makes it easier. The purpose of these apps is to create or help create that context.
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Q. Do you really think that when people are about to become intimate, they’re going to reach for their phone and go through these processes?
A. If both parties agree to have a conversation, then the objective has already been reached. What is it that’s going to cause the conversation to happen? Having it on the phone is a cause for the conversation. Whether or not they actually use the app is not the same as the fact that it’s there, because it’s the fact that it’s on the phone that changes the context.
Q. What do you mean?
A. People [in college] have their phones within two feet of them at all times. Let’s be blunt. If one or both of you know you have this app on your phone and you know that you're supposed to be engaging in this discussion, and you know that unfortunate things may happen after the event that cause people to re-evaluate, which is part of the importance for both sides if they respect each other of actually having the conversation — it’s just easier to know the prop is there.
Q. A lot of the discussion about the app seems to be revolving around legal issues after the fact, after the sexual activity occurs. I am wondering if that’s the main intent of the app, as opposed to preventing sexual assault or harassment?
A. First off, "preventing" is always an interesting word. If someone is intent on doing it, there isn't an app in the world that’s going to prevent them, other than dialing 911 and hoping that the police get there first. So if you have picked an unfortunate partner who is intent on committing violence upon you, the correct app to use is 911, don’t use this thing. On the other hand, that’s not what most of these situations are about. Most of these situations are about, let’s face it, people being sloppy with one another and deciding to engage in activities that have not been fully discussed.
So what’s the main purpose? The main purpose is to change the conversation. If these apps work the way they should, in a year or two if people go to a frat party, instead of the base assumption being everyone in attendance is available for hooking up, the base assumption will be, if you wish to hook up, talk about it first.
Q. Who is going to be using this app?
A. Our target market for the summer is we are marketing this to every coach of a men’s team.
Q. Why that approach?
A. Who seems to be mostly involved with scandals? Athletic teams and fraternities. The fraternities are not around during the summer, but the coaches are. We’re going to start a fund-raising campaign in a couple of weeks to try to get people to provide money so that any coach that requires his or her team to make use of the app might be able to get it free for their athletes.
Q. In what context would athletes be using the app? Would they already be in a relationship? Would it be after a —
A. Put yourself in the role of a coach. … What’s the easier way to make sure that [a sexual-assault scandal] doesn't happen? You tell your athletes that they are required to use the app. You may have to have discussions with them every few weeks to make sure they're doing it, but from the peace-of-mind side of the coach who’s worried about scandals and stuff, [part of the job] is teaching [athletes] about what affirmative consent is, how to be much more respectful of themselves and their partners, and how to make better life choices. So again this becomes a tool in the arsenal.
Q. One big thing we see in the conversation about sexual assault is intoxication. How do you think the app will account for a yes that’s said when somebody is intoxicated?
A. Well, we’re making a video. If you’re noticeably intoxicated, presumably it will show on the video.
Q. Has anyone tested this app yet, and seen if it worked?
A. Have people tried it with each other? Sure.
Q. Do you think it’s been successful?
A. By definition, if you use the app, you are having a conversation. It is very difficult to use the app in the absence of a conversation. I mean, what are you going to do? It triggers the obvious. Why are we recording this? … Why is this voice asking me if we’re going to have sex? It’s a difficult app to use without a conversation. And the point of the app is the conversation. So by me, yes, anytime anyone’s actually used it means that it’s triggered a conversation, and that’s a success. |
The FBI has issued a warning that modern cars are "increasingly vulnerable" to hacking after researchers proved it is possible to disable brakes and manipulate steering remotely.
An official public service announcement released by the FBI on Thursday warned that it is possible for hackers to “gain significant control over vehicle functions remotely by exploiting wireless communications vulnerabilities”.
The announcement explained that new technology designed to enhance safety and improve fuel economy has led to increased connectivity, which has made vehicles more vulnerable to attacks.
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“Modern motor vehicles often include new connected vehicle technologies that aim to provide benefits such as added safety features, improved fuel economy, and greater overall convenience," it read.
“With this increased connectivity, it is important that consumers and manufacturers maintain awareness of potential cyber security threats."
Over the past year researchers have proven it is possible to develop methods of targeting the active cellular wireless and WiFi hotspots in vehicles.
They found that while attacks over WiFi were limited to a distance less than 100 feet from the car, they were able to achieve engine shutdown, disable brakes and manipulate steering when cellular connection was made.
The PSA provided advice on how to avoid remote exploits on vehicles. It stated that it is important to ensure vehicle software is up to date and to be careful when making modifications to vehicle software.
It also warned that drivers should be aware of who has physical access to the vehicle.
“It is important that consumers and manufacturers are aware of the possible threats and how an attacker may seek to remotely exploit vulnerabilities in the future,” the announcement added.
Last year Fiat Chrysler recalled 1.4 million vehicles in the US after security researchers remotely controlled a Jeep. In January 2015 BMW AG said it had fixed a security flaw that could have allowed 2.2 million of vehicle doors to be remotely opened by hackers.
People who suspect their car has been hacked are advised to get in contact with the vehicle manufacturer or authorised dealer. |
Every month, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a flood of data about employment and unemployment in the U.S. And every month, the lion’s share of the attention goes to one figure – the unemployment rate, which was a seasonally adjusted 4.8% in January. (The February report comes out on Friday.)
But the unemployment rate is just one indicator of how the U.S. economy is doing, and it’s not always the best one. Simply being out of work isn’t enough for a person to be counted as unemployed; he or she also has to be available to work and actively looking for work (or on temporary layoff). In any given month, the unemployment rate can rise or fall based not just on how many people find or lose jobs, but on how many join or leave the active labor force.
There are, in fact, five other monthly measures of what the BLS calls “labor underutilization” besides the official unemployment rate, as well as scores of other measurements – labor force participation rates, employment-population ratios, average weekly wages, average hours worked and more. Knowing what those other data points are, where they come from and how they’re calculated is critical in understanding what they do – and don’t – tell us about the nation’s workers.
Take the concept of unemployment. Since U.S. economists first began trying to systematically measure unemployment in the 1870s, one of the main issues has been defining exactly what “being unemployed” means – since many people who don’t have jobs, such as retirees and students, may not actually want paying work. (As the BLS itself noted once upon a time, “Being employed is an observable experience, while being unemployed often lacks that same concreteness.”)
Since 1945, the official definition has been that to be considered unemployed, you must not only not have a job but be available for work (i.e., not too sick to work) and have actively looked for a job in the past four weeks. If you’re neither employed nor, according to the official definition, unemployed, you’re not considered part of the labor force.
The BLS derives its unemployment data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, which interviews about 60,000 people each month (and not, as is sometimes supposed, by counting how many people drew unemployment benefits). The CPS covers the entire civilian non-institutional population ages 16 and older, including self-employed people; prison inmates, residents of mental facilities and homes for the aged, and active-duty military personnel are excluded. (A separate survey of 146,000 private- and public-sector employers produces the monthly nonfarm-payroll numbers.)
Since 1994, no major changes have been made in how unemployment is measured, though there have been some modest updates to the CPS over time. For example, a 2010 change raised the upper limit on reporting how long someone has been jobless from “99 weeks and over” to “260 weeks and over” in order to better track long-term unemployment.
As many observers have pointed out, the official unemployment definition leaves out some significant groups. The underemployed – part-time workers who would prefer to work full-time – are counted among the employed. And discouraged workers – people who’d like a job but have stopped looking because they don’t believe any work is available – aren’t counted as part of the labor force at all.
But the CPS asks people a lot more than whether they are working or searching for work. Questions include how long jobless people have been out of work, how recently they looked for work, why part-timers aren’t working full time, why people choose not to look for work, and even why people with jobs may not have been working during the survey period (for example, if they were sick, on vacation, temporarily laid off or snowed in).
All that extra data enables the BLS to calculate six different measures of labor underutilization, labeled U-1 through U-6, with broader or narrower parameters than the official unemployment rate (which is known as U-3). The broadest, U-6, includes all “marginally attached” workers (including discouraged workers) and involuntary part-time workers. The seasonally adjusted U-6 rate stood at 9.4% in January; since 1994 it has ranged from 6.8% (in October 2000) to 17.1% (most recently in April 2010). While the U-6 typically runs anywhere from 3 to 7 percentage points higher than the regular unemployment rate, with the gap wider during recessions and narrower in good economic times, it tends to follow the same pattern as the official unemployment rate.
Beyond the unemployment rate, a key metric in the monthly jobs report is the labor force participation rate – the share of the 16-and-over civilian non-institutional population either working or looking for work. The participation rate rose for several decades, peaked in early 2000 at 67.3%, then began falling; in January it was 62.9%, about where it was in the late 1970s. Labor economists generally agree that waves of retiring Baby Boomers explain part (but not all) of the decline, which has been especially steep for men in their prime working years.
There’s also the employment-population ratio, which measures employed people as a percentage of the 16-and-over civilian non-institutional population. Though the ratio has some quirks, it’s less affected by seasonal variations or short-term fluctuations in labor-market behavior than the unemployment rate. According to the January jobs report, the seasonally adjusted employment-population ratio was 59.9%, three-tenths of a percentage point higher than it was a year earlier.
Like the labor force participation rate, the employment-population ratio can be affected by more people retiring or deciding to go back to school. That’s why many labor-market economists focus on the 25-to-54 age group, which strips out most students and retirees. In January, the employment-population ratio for that subgroup was a seasonally adjusted 78.2%, a figure that’s been constant for the past four months. While that’s better than it was during the long hangover from the Great Recession (only 75.2% of 25- to 54-year-olds were employed in January 2011), it’s still below the indicator’s pre-recession high (80.3% in January 2007).
It’s also important to remember that not all employment is created equal. Before the Great Recession, fewer than 20% of all part-time workers said they were working less than 35 hours a week for economic reasons, such as slack demand or inability to find full-time work. During the slump, that share jumped to a third of all part-timers; the “involuntary part-time” share has fallen since, to 22.2% of all part-timers in January, but still is above typical pre-recession levels.
Note: This post has been updated with January 2017 unemployment data. It was originally published in June 2013.
Topics: Economic Policy, Business and Labor, Economic and Business News, Work and Employment, National Economy |
Contrary to what some may think, the Top 14 salary cap is rigorously policed and hefty punishments await those who transgress. Nonetheless, that doesn't prevent some French clubs finding innovative ways to reward their very best players. Gavin Mortimer reports.
Among the less interesting pages on the official France Federation website is one entitled ‘DNACG’. I don’t recommend a visit, not unless you’re an insomniac. Let me explain. DNACG stands for Direction Nationale d’Aide et de Contrôle de Gestion and, as one French newspaper recently put it, it’s the “financial gendarme of professional rugby”. In other words, the DNACG’s job is to police the finances of the 30 professional French clubs (the Top 14 and the 16 clubs that comprise the Pro D2). The DNACG is managed by both the FFR and the LNR but answers ultimately to the former.
Why is this relevant? To allay suspicions in some quarters that French clubs have a somewhat laissez-aller attitude when it comes to finance, in particular staying within the €10m salary cap.
Nothing could be further from the truth. As any ex-pat who has lived in France will tell you, the French do many things well – cheese, wine and long lunches – but possibly what they excel in most is bureaucracy. Red Tape is an art form in France, and that applies to their rugby.
The DNACG’s code of practice, as published on the LNR’s website, runs to 24 pages and contains enough clauses and articles to bore all but the most stoic to tears. To cut a long story short: the DNACG has the power to scrutinise the accounts of all 30 clubs whenever it sees fit, and punish accordingly with fines up to a maximum of €2m. And they do.
The DNACG isn’t a toothless body. If it sees financial irregularities it will act. Just ask Grenoble, Bourgoin and Montauban, all of whom have been relegated from the Top 14 in the last decade as punishment for failing to balance their books.
More recently, in the summer of 2013, the DNACG expelled Carcassonne from Pro D2 to Federale 1 (although the club was later reinstated by the FFR after they raised sufficient funds) and also suspended the contracts of four Biarritz and five Perpignan players until they were satisfied the clubs had the finances to fund them. Last season the DNACG dished out heavy fines to Perpignan, Albi, Beziers and Carcassonne and also threatened them with a points reduction if they didn’t get their accounts in order.
“The DNACG has a great deal of power,” explains Jerome Riondet, the former Harlequins and Grenoble three-quarter, and now a rugby consultant for beIN Sports. “Before each season the clubs present their provisional budgets to the DNACG. Let’s say a club gives itself a €20m budget based on money from TV rights and anticipated income from sponsors and also a contribution from the regional council. The TV rights money is the only guaranteed income so if for whatever reason the money from the sponsors and regional council doesn’t all come through there will be a discrepancy in their accounts from their initial budget. If that happens, the DNACG – who can check a club’s budget at any time during a season – will punish them.”
It’s a similar story with the salary cap. Snide comments from across the Channel, in England, that the French ignore the €10m cap imposed by the LNR are dismissed by Riondet. “The clubs definitely respect the cap,” he says.
But while the clubs must stay within the law, there’s nothing that says they can’t show a little innovation. Midi Olympique reported last month that Dan Carter’s salary when he joins Racing Metro after the World Cup will be around €500,000; but on top of that it is alleged the All Blacks fly-half will receive a similar sum from his image rights including an estimated €300,000 from the operating company of Arena 92, Racing’s new home from 2016 that will also host concerts and business conferences.
It’s a strategy long employed by Mourad Boudjellal, the canny president of Toulon, who has made no secret of the fact the club has been imaginative in ensuring its top players receive the sort of sums they deserve for their talent. In an interview last season he explained that Toulon’s total wage bill was €8.55m – well within the €10m salary cap – but that nonetheless a star such as Jonny Wilkinson earned income on top of his salary.
“We’ve created with him a commercial enterprise of products branded ‘10’,” said Boudjellal. “This enterprise, based in France, generates a real turnover on the back of the sales of hats, t-shirts, polo (shirts), etc…should the proceeds from these sales be included in calculating the player’s salary? I don’t believe so.”
Boudjellal – who no longer puts his own money into the club – also dismissed as “fantasy” the rumour that some of the foreign players at Toulon had money paid into bank accounts in Jersey, telling Midi Olympique: “The chief of the DNACG spent two days in Toulon and had nothing to say about our (financial) management.”
Jerome Riondet believes Toulon’s business model, which is based on a wide network of sponsors and commercial partners, is the most stable of all Top 14 clubs. That’s not what many wish to hear, those who regard Toulon as rugby’s bête noire. But doesn’t success often breed envy? |
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday blocked sections of a Texas law intended to punish so-called “sanctuary cities”, regarded as soft on immigration, in a ruling handed down two days before the law was due to come into effect.
FILE PHOTO: A protester against the Texas state law to punish "sanctuary cities" stands outside the U.S. Federal court in San Antonio, Texas, U.S., June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz/File Photo
Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio’s federal court found the Texas legislation was unlikely to withstand constitutional scrutiny.
The judge’s ruling temporarily blocks part of the law that would require local law enforcement agencies in Texas to fulfill requests by U.S. immigration agents to hold immigrants in their jails until they can be picked up for deportation.
It also strikes down a provision that would have prevented local officials from adopting policies that might limit immigration enforcement in the state.
“The court cannot and does not second-guess the legislature, Garcia wrote in a 94-page decision. “However, the state may not exercise its authority in a manner that violates the United States Constitution.”
The decision in Texas could have ramifications nationwide as other Republican-controlled states are looking at legislation targeting sanctuary cities, which they say illegally shield immigrants.
The Texas law, which takes aim at any jurisdiction that refuses to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, is considered one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration efforts in the country.
The ruling will make Texas communities less safe, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said in a statement.
“This decision will be appealed immediately and I am confident Texas’ law will be found constitutional and ultimately be upheld,” he added.
It was the first law of its kind passed since President Donald Trump took office in January, pledging to crack down on illegal immigration.
The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the Texas measure in a lawsuit on behalf of some local jurisdictions in the state.
“The court was right to strike down virtually all of this patently unconstitutional law,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s immigrant rights project, said in a statement.
The impending law added to the anxiety felt by some illegal immigrants forced to evacuate their flooded homes in Houston after Hurricane Harvey struck southeast Texas.
Nevertheless, federal agents are not enforcing immigration law at evacuation sites, shelters or food banks where people affected by flooding are seeking aid, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement on Wednesday.
Some police chiefs have said forcing local police to work with U.S. immigration agents undermines community trust, making immigrants less likely to report crimes.
“This week’s crisis with Hurricane Harvey is just the most recent example why people need to feel safe approaching our local police and support groups, no matter what,” Steve Adler, mayor of Texas’ state capital Austin, said in a statement. |
**I purposefully waited a couple of months before writing this review so I could share my results over a long period**
I bought this mouse as I use audio editing software every day for work (at least 8 hours).
-Comfort
Firstly I wanted a mouse that would be comfortable to use over long periods. What I have found so far is it is a huge improvement over the apple mighty mouse I was using for years previously. My hand sits nicely on the top of the mouse and I don't find myself stretching much at all. I like how you can finely tweak the DPI (sensitivity) of the mouse to ensure minimal hand movement. There is a nice weight to the mouse which also seems to help give smooth tracking. It doesn't seem as heavy as the Razer Naga with 12 buttons which I tried also.
-Functionality
I bought a mouse with extra buttons as I wanted to be able to program useful shortcuts and macros that I use all the time in order to speed up my workflow. I chose this mouse because I think that 7 buttons is about the limit for me to be able to use quickly and still be able to remember what is assigned where. The 12 button mouse seemed far too squared together and I would often hit the wrong button. The 7 side buttons are nicely spaced and the circular pattern makes it easy to recall the macro you want without looking at the mouse.
I find the Razer Synapse software very easy to use and it's super quick to record new macros. I have a couple of profiles at the moment, one dedicated to my pro tools software and a general one for browsing the internet etc. The software automatically switches profile when I go from pro tools to safari for example. |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Steve Evans says that police think other arsonists are still at large
A man has reportedly admitted burning more than 100 luxury cars in the German capital Berlin, in attacks that raised fears of political extremism.
Police say the 27-year-old, who is unemployed and has debts, was motivated by social envy and frustration to set fire to 67 cars over three months.
A further 35 cars parked nearby also went up in flames.
Some 470 cars - mainly BMWs, Mercedes and Audis - have been burnt this year in the city.
Such was the extent of the problem this year, up to 500 police were deployed on the streets at night to look for suspects and a 150-member dedicated squad was set up.
Berlin police also asked the federal authorities for high-tech equipment and helicopters with thermal image cameras.
The suspect was arrested on Sunday and confessed he had torched 67 cars between June and August, admitting that on several occasions the fire had spread to neighbouring cars.
"He wasn't motivated by politics but rather social envy," said senior police official Oliver Stepien. "He said in essence: 'I've got debts, my life stinks and others with fancy cars are better off and they deserve this'."
Earlier this month, the Berlin railway system was hit by arson attacks. Explosive devices were placed in a number of locations, including at least one on a high-speed rail track.
A previously unknown left-wing group, calling itself the Hekla Reception Committee, said it had planted the devices. |
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