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Bernie Sanders isn’t done talking about criminal justice reform — in fact, he’s merely getting started. The presidential contender continues to rise in the polls and sensible Drug War reforms will only increase his standing with the Democratic base.
Appearing at a campaign rally in Nevada on Tuesday, the Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate talked at length about the unfairly punitive policies that plague the American justice system and disproportionately affect people of color in the United States. Speaking to the crowd of 4,500 supporters gathered outside the University of Nevada, Sen. Sanders went beyond his previous speeches on the issue, announcing that, come September, he will be introducing federal legislation which would abolish for-profit private prisons.
“When Congress reconvenes in September,” Sanders said, “I will be introducing legislation, which takes corporations out of profiteering from running jails.”
Tackling the problem of for-profit prisons is a bold move for a federal legislator, as the prison industry is a hugely profitable part of the U.S. economy. The top two private prison companies in the country, Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group, have a combined annual revenue of over $3 billion, much of which is spent lobbying elected officials to protect their bottom line. While some states, such as New York and Illinois, have enacted laws to ban the privatization of prisons, for-profit prisons have tragically remained a staple of the American criminal justice system, in large part due to the country’s skyrocketing incarceration rates made possible by the War on Drugs.
Bernie Sanders also indicated that the War on Drugs will be a focus of his campaign. “We want to deal with minimum sentencing,” Sanders said Tuesday, “Too many lives have been destroyed for non-violent issues. People that are sent to jail have police records. We have got to change that. Our job is to keep people out of jail, not in jail.” According to audience members, Bernie Sanders also said that his campaign will be addressing marijuana legalization in the weeks to come:
At NV event just now Bernie Sanders said they’d have something to say about marijuana legalization in a month — Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) August 18, 2015
Sounds like Bernie is gonna put out a marijuana legalization platform which would be good for his campaign’s momentum — Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) August 18, 2015
While we’ll have to wait for the platform’s release to get a clear picture of Bernie’s marijuana agenda, this announcement suggests that Sanders is looking to take the lead on the issue — something that most other presidential hopefuls have neglected to do thus far. Rather than directly discussing marijuana legalization as a policy, the Republican candidates have debated over the role of the federal government in imposing prohibition in states that have legalized the plant. While several GOP contenders, such as Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Carly Fiorina, have come out in favor of states’ right to regulate marijuana, others argue that federal prohibition should be enforced in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. Sanders’ Democratic rivals, on the other hand, have stayed mostly silent on the issue during the course of their presidential campaigns.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons. |
Research shows that people who have blue eyes all come from the same single common ancestor. A research team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation that occurred around 6-10,000 years ago and resulted in all the blue eyed humans that exist in the world today.
Image courtesy of butler.corey
Professor Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine said of the discovery that, “originally, we all had brown eyes but a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a “switch”, which literally “turned off” the ability to produce brown eyes.” The gene code that is referred to as the switch affecting factor, relates to the P protein which is involved with the production of melanin – the pigment that gives color to our hair, eyes and skin. The mutation that occurred centuries ago didn’t turn off the gene completely but limited its action so that the production of melanin in the iris is reduced, resulting in the diluting of brown eyes to blue. If the OCA2 gene has been utterly destroyed or ‘turned off’, all human beings within this generation line would be without melanin in their hair, eyes or skin colours – a condition we know as albinism.
The variation that is found in the color of the eyes from brown to green can all be explained by the amount of melanin that is in the individual’s iris – but blue eyed people have only a small amount of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes. And from this evidence it was concluded that all the modern day blue eyed individuals are lined to the same ancestor, as “they have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA” says Professor Eiberg. The research that led the team to this conclusion was undertaken in countries as diverse as Jordan, Denmark and Turkey, to make sure that each individual studied would be geographically far from other individuals with blue eyes, yet could potentially have similar levels of melanin that would back up Eiberg’s theory. The research took a decade of dedicated genetic study after the Professor first identified the OCA2 gene as potentially being responsible for eye color.
Our genes mutate all the time and often can have neither a negative or positive reaction, it is simply a part of our constant evolution. Although many of these changes will not have an effect on a human’s chance of survival, which is generally why a gene mutates, the discovery of mutations like this allows us to to trace all the way back to a common ancestor who fathered all of the blue eyed humans.
by Ellie Cambridge |
The following post originally appeared here, authored by the Oryx Blog team. It has been expanded and modified with their permission for The Hoplite by Michael Smallwood and Yuri Lyamin.
In a series of photos coming out of Tripoli, Libya, militants are shown using sophisticated guided air-to-surface missiles as unguided surface-to-surface weapons. The missile shown, a Kh-29T, is believed to have been seized from a weapon depot close to Ghardabiya airbase, near Sirte.
The Soviet Kh-29 series of missiles (NATO reporting name AS-14 ‘Kedge’) began development in the 1970s, eventually entering service in 1980. Intended for use on larger targets that lighter missiles like the Kh-23 and Kh-25 were inadequate for, Kh-29 series missiles soon became standard armaments on almost all Soviet and Russian strike planes and multirole fighters. This includes the Su-17M4, MiG-27K, Su-24M, Su-25, Mig-29M, and others.
Featuring a 320 kg high explosive (HE) warhead, Kh-29 missiles are fitted with an impact target sensor, allowing penetration of the exterior of the target prior to detonation. Separated into 5 main sections, the front “seeker” component (see section marked “I” in technical drawing below) has two main guidance variants, with the Kh-29L using semi-active laser guidance, and the Kh-29T and Kh-29TE using passive TV guidance. The Kh-29T has an optimal target detection range of 4 – 5 km and, with ideal weather conditions, is highly accurate, with a 2.2 m circular error probable (CEP).
In Libyan service, the Kh-29T is believed to have been solely used on the Su-24 aircraft delivered from the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Unable to maintain their five Su-24MKs and one Su-24MR internally, due to an imposed arms embargo, Libya turned to both Syria and Iran for assistance in keeping the fleet operational. Syria was subsequently repaid with one Su-24MK fighter-bomber and Libya’s sole Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft. After losing their four remaining Su-24MKs – one during operations early in the Libyan conflict, and 3 to NATO air strikes at Ghardabiya airbase – it appears there are no remaining aircraft in the Libyan inventory capable of carrying some of the extant air-to-surface weaponry, including the Kh-29T.
It now seems efforts have been undertaken to press some of these munitions into service again, albeit in an improvised ground-to-ground role. The Kh-29T shown in the pictures above appears to have modified fins, presumably intended to provide a more stable flight path in this new unguided capacity. The large size of the warhead is assumed to be the reason these missiles were chosen.
Technical Characteristics:
Kh-29T
Missile weight: 680 kg
Length: 3900 mm
Diameter: 400 mm
Wingspan: 1100 mm
Minimum range*: 3 km
Maximum range: 8 – 12 km
Engine: fixed thrust solid, fuel rocket
Fuze type: impact
Guidance system: passive TV
Warhead: high-explosive penetrating
Warhead weight: 320 kg
Kh-29TE
Missile weight: 690 kg
Length: 3900 mm
Diameter: 400 mm
Wingspan: 1100 mm
Minimum range*: 3 km
Maximum range: 20 – 30 km
Engine: fixed thrust, solid fuel rocket
Fuze type: impact
Guidance system: passive TV
Warhead: high-explosive penetrating
Warhead weight: 320 kg
Kh-29L
Missile weight: 660 kg
Length: 3900 mm
Diameter: 400 mm
Wingspan: 1100 mm
Minimum range*: 3 km
Maximum range: 8 – 10 km
Height of launch: 0.2 – 5 km
Engine: fixed thrust, solid fuel rocket
Fuze type: impact
Guidance system: passive TV
Warhead: high-explosive penetrating
Warhead weight: 320 kg
*Minimum range for all systems is given with regards to guidance systems efficacy. These minimums would not apply in the case above, and do not correlate to minimum arming range of the system.
Special thanks to the Oryx Blog team, Yuri Lyamin, and Khaled Ben Alewa for their assistance. Technical characteristics taken from here. Technical drawing from here. Images from here and here. |
Over the next two weeks we'll bringing you our pick of the games of the generation - and today we're starting off with Portal, Valve's exceptionally smart puzzler that was the surprise highlight of The Orange Box when it launched in October 2007.
Few would dispute that, when it comes to video games, this has been the decade of the shooter. Endless racks of guns have passed through our fingers, some based on pristine real world counterparts (Call of Duty, Battlefield), others rickety and unreliable (Far Cry 2), yet more futuristic or fantastical (Halo, Mass Effect). So much effort and iteration has gone into the virtual gun (the way that it bobs in the hand, its irritable kickback when fired, its vocal performance), that this year Infinity Ward - architect of the contemporary shooter in Modern Warfare - resorted to dented sights as notable feature in its next Call of Duty game. It's understandable: once you've delivered perfection where else to go but imperfection?
Jonathan Coulton's song that plays over the game's credits provided another rarely repeated invention: a lyrical song penned specifically for a game.
The gun suits the 3D video game like none other of our species' inventions. There is no tool better suited to giving players the ability to affect objects both near and far in a 3D world, extending the player's reach into the television screen. With a bullet we can take out an enemy standing directly in front of us or just as easily shoot a wall-mounted switch a hundred metres into the distance. Change the breed of gun and you alter a game's entire pace and rhythm, from the slow buckshot suckerpunch of the shotgun to the pitter-patter niggling of a machine gun. What other invention offers the player such scope, flexibility and utility? For this reason the gun has been promoted to a position of ultimate importance in blockbuster video game land. Indeed, viewed with fresh eyes it can look like our medium builds its worlds around the gun, which nods proudly front and centre screen.
Portal is a game built around a gun. Its levels are an extension of the weapon (known as the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device) that its mute protagonist, Chell, grips, their shape and contour defined by its abilities. Remove the weapon and this world no longer makes sense, or is even navigable. It is a game that only the Portal gun can unlock.
And yet, Portal is also the most subversive first person shooter yet made, despite the fact it converses in much the same vocabulary as Call of Duty and its cloud of imitators. Why? Because the Portal gun doesn't fire bullets. Shoot the gun's projectile against a flat surface and you'll open an oval portal door. Shoot a second portal somewhere else in the environment and stepping into one will see Chell emerge from the other. Portal's gun cannot wound and it cannot kill: all it can do is create an exit, an exit that leads away from violence, an exit that leads away from cliché.
Gordon Freeman, the protagonist of Half-Life, the grand first person shooter fantasy in whose underground belly Portal takes place, is the game designer personified as the hero. Bearded and studious, with thick glasses and geek-chic ruffled hair, Freeman is the arch nerd who's stepped from the confines of the computer lab to take on the jock power systems outside. But in Portal we see the personification of a different side to the game designer. GLaDOS, the female AI who guides Chell through a series of 19 tests is the arrogant bully game designer, who teases and mocks the player as they quest through her pre-set puzzles. She lures you through her game, repeating the promise of cake for the successful completion of her set of errands, her tone flitting treacherously between encouragement and cruelty, eventually revealing a sadistic thrill in seeing her player suffer and fail.
You obey, even as GLaDOS shifts in character from kindly guide to abusive tormentor, solving her tests and challenges, attempting to, as GLaDOSs herself remarks "remain resolute in an atmosphere of extreme pessimism". We're used to this sort of thing, of meeting a designer's cruelty with resolution, and the game within a game reflects this relationship between player and designer with sharp insight. But the game's subversion with its tools is later reflected in the game's broader structure. As GLaDOS' vindictiveness is revealed, so you start to turn your weapon against the system, using it to puncture the Apeture Test Facility's artifice and slip behind the pristine scenery, where you are able to view the ropes and pulleys that fire the game, those nooks where the dust accumulates and spiders preen.
Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek, ex-journalists who wrote the essential satirical video game review site, Old Man Murray, wrote the game.
The act of turning your gun against the system that created it is further reflected in your later interactions with the game. A furious GLaDOS sends turrets to destroy you (the only time that the sound and fury of bullets fills the air). But there is no way to shoot back; the Portal gun is a passive tool, unable to injure. Your only choice is to turn the violence back against its perpetrators, as you create a portal through which their bullets pass, and another that sends them right back towards them.
This has been the decade of the shooter, of male fantasies in which erect barrels extend from the player into the centre of the television screen, spitting power and dominance with each squeeze of the hand. Our games have been about an escalation in ability; experience points funnelled into making our characters harder, better, stronger, faster, each new stage unlocking more effective ways to beat our opponents. Portal has none of that. In this game you remain weak and helpless throughout - at least in terms of raw power.
In a game in which your only abilities are to jump and create rips in space, cunning and ingenuity are your only tools to progress. It is no accident that, aside from the bullet-spraying turrets, Portal presents an all-female cast. In this way story and theme are fully aligned: a game that subvert the systems of a genre, the systems of an entire medium and, in its occasional anarchic moments, the systems of power and government (note the achievement awarded for destroying every one of the CCTV cameras bolted onto Aperture's eavesdropping walls).
Released in 2007, Portal was met with unanimous, sustained praise and yet its influence has been almost non-existent. There have been no imitators, no cover versions, no respectful nods from other studios hoping to build upon its lessons and approach. That is, arguably, because it is a complete game, in which story and mechanics elegantly entwine and unfurl towards their natural conclusion. Like a short story that is too rounded to expand into a novel, and too idiosyncratic to birth a genre, Portal sits alone, majestic. It's a game that offered an exit from a cliché, but one through which only it seemed to fit.
Even the sequel, for all its cleverness and expansion, was unable to match its perfectly told story. In video games we are led to believe that a debut is a first swing: sequels, being technological evolutions as much as creative ones, will always curve towards improvement. Portal refuses to adhere to this rule, just as it rebukes the rest of them. It's proof that once you've delivered perfection where else is left to go but imperfection? |
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has a very special place in my heart. It’s much more than a music festival; it’s life’s refilling station. The event has a way of finding you wherever you are in life and helping you to grow in ways that you never thought possible. I’ve seen introverted friends break out of their shells and share hugs and tears of joy with complete strangers. There’s something special about roughing it for four days in 95-degree weather on a 700-acre farm while listening to some of the best acts from both past and present generations. The thing that I’ve found to be the most true about Roo is that whatever you put into it is what you’ll get out of the experience. There was a lot of speculation that Bonnaroo would be just another music festival with no soul run by corporate America now that LiveNation has bought a controlling stake. Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect. I looked at the lineup and saw fewer acts and slightly shorter sets but still… I had faith that the festival’s organizers knew what they were doing. This was my first year on the farm as media which had it’s perks. My week-long break from reality turned out to be everything I wanted from my visit to the farm and more; it was perfect.
I’m sure many can relate to this, but there’s this one specific moment on the farm when you realize and feel that you’re exactly where you’re meant to be. It’s almost spiritual even. I had this moment somewhere on the ride to Bonnaroo. I made the 14-hour trip from Miami, FL to Manchester, TN with two Roo virgins with excellent taste in music whom I had finally convinced to join the fun. The plan was to meet several friends in Atlanta, GA who were also going to the festival. Wednesday morning we drove the rest of the way, admiring Tennessee’s beautiful landscape. I met with my MFN team and picked up our media passes, then made our way to the festival gates. The high fives had already started, and we hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet! We managed to get the best camping spot I’ve ever had since I started attending Bonnaroo 3 years ago. I don’t think that words will do it justice, so instead here is a picture taken at our campsite.
That’s right! We were camped right in front of that glorious multi-colored arch. Our neighbors, Camp Church Boners, were a welcoming group of people. Kyle from Canada was the first from their group to get there and had reserved space for his friends. He was nice enough to move his tarps over to accommodate our group to which we responded by sharing a beer with him. Once the rest of his crew got there, “Church Boners” was screamed at by passersby and responded in the same manner by whoever was at the campsite. It was the new “Butt Scratcha!” and worked like a charm.
At Bonnaroo 2014, a group of strangers gathered on a Facebook page to camp together, creating SooperGroop in Groop Camping; my friends and I were a part of it. Although we did not camp with them this year, my good friend Carlos Castro (Soundcloud) continued the tradition we started by DJing a Wednesday night dance party hosted by SooperGroop. The large tent was jam-packed as Carlos took the crowd on a musical journey. Soopergroop went on to win best group this year and was mentioned in Rolling Stone. After his set, we walked around the campgrounds for a bit and saw a super-cool-looking area with colored lighting, but as we got closer we realized it was just Porta Pottys! Turns out the Porta’s were fake and actually lead to a secret lounge. We ended the night with one of my favorite places to eat, Peace Love Tacos, where I had a “Summer Taco,” a super-secret and super-delicious off-menu taco made with sweet potato. Wednesday night already exceeded previous years, and I had yet to see a musical act.
Thursday morning I was greeted with a beer by my camp mates as I got out of my tent. The shade we set up helped me sleep a full seven hours. Some of our stuff had dirt on it from cars driving by, but that’s the price you pay when you’re camped in front of the arch where cars are constantly going to and fro. It felt great to sit at our campsite in the mornings since it was the best spot on the farm to peoplewatch. After showering and brushing my teeth with a water bottle to rinse, I made my way into Centeroo. One of my biggest gripes was the way that we entered Centeroo. The days of the arch being a gateway to this enchanting place that only exists for four days a year are done. Instead, security guards are strategically placed to ensure that you don’t go near the arch with the middle pathway instead being used for golf carts. My first year at Bonnaroo, the most memorable part was walking through the arch for the first time after high-fiving everyone in line. It saddens me that they’ve taken that away from Bonnaroovians.
Since it was my fourth Bonnaroo, it was finally time to try the Spicy Pie that I’ve heard so much about. It lived up to the hype. Ultimately, it’s just a huge pepperoni and jalapeño pizza, but for $6 it hits the spot. Every. Single. Time. Maybe it’s the seasoning on the crust? Maybe it’s because it’s actually made with love? Who knows? Why was there a wobbly dildo on a stick being held up as a totem? Bonnaroo… that’s why.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”15″ gal_title=”Bonnaroo 2015 Crowd”]
Unlocking The Truth was the first show I planned to attend. I first discovered these teens rocking out on that YouTube video that had gone viral and refused to miss the chance to witness this in person. These three teens performed with a ferocious energy that the crowd responded so well to. A mosh pit started almost immediately and continued throughout their entire set. This genre isn’t normally my cup of tea, but they were a great way to open Centeroo. Seeing this band of young kids perform with such a passion for what they were doing was really inspiring and made me feel hopeful for the future of music. I’ve been following their attempt to severe ties with Sony and hope that they find success and continue to grow as musicians.
After the show, we walked around for a bit before heading to Dopapod‘s set at That Tent. It was my second time seeing this jam band, the first being at AURA. If this show proved anything, it’s that Bonnaroo still has a strong love for jam bands. This was the first show where I was able to enjoy the new screens that Bonnaroo had invested in for the tents. It was a much-needed improvement that Bonnaroovians have suggested for years. Being able to watch Dopapod comfortably and not missing any of the action made for a very pleasant experience. My favorite part of the set was when Rob Compa shared that the band had performed in the campgrounds three years prior and now got the opportunity to actually play Bonnaroo, to which the crowd cheered to show them love.
I separated from my group to refill my CamelBak and get food, but I lost them somewhere along the way. I was rolling solo to the Glass Animals show at The Other Tent and almost settled for a spot in front of the screen. It wasn’t until after the band came on that I realized how weak the sound was and tried to get closer. A $7 mister from Wal-mart sprayed at a hot crowd goes a long way: all the way to the front apparently. Living up to my expectations, Glass Animals played a great set rocking hits from their debut album Zaba. The crowd went wild as they kicked off their set with “Psylla.” Dave Baley embraces the screaming crowd, “Bonnaroo! I heard Thursday was the best day!” which was met with cheers and screams. They played everything you could have wanted them to play, including “Walla Walla”, “Black Mambo“, their single “Gooey” and even covering KanYe West’s “Love Lockdown.” They ended their set on a very high note by closing out with their song “Pools.”
Shortly after they ended, the two people standing between me and the bar left, and I found a comfortable spot front and center. Gramatik, a bucket list artist of mine, was closing out the Other Tent so there was no way I was leaving. Benjamin Booker was on before Gramatik and had a very gentle and kind spirit. He played with so much soul and impressed me with how well he shredded on the guitar. I particularly liked his cover of Otis Redding’s “Shout Bamalama” that he played before getting into the song “Violent Shiver.” Booker and his band members who’ve been performing together for two years now seemed to be having a great time. To close out the show, the crowd sang along with Ben as he performed a rendition of “Li’l Liza Jane.”
Gramatik graced the stage next, accompanied by Gibbz on the guitar and Russ Liquid on the keyboard and horn for one of the funkiest parties the farm saw all weekend. The big LED behind the artists showed a mouth with a tongue that looked like it rolled out of the screen over the crowd with red fabric. Everyone went wild with each song that the DJ/producer dropped on them. The music was really loud, but Dubs hooked us up with some acoustic filter earplugs which worked wonders for my hearing, and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for affordable earplugs. Although Gramatik relies on samples heavily, the live element was present with both people playing instruments having their time to shine with a solo. Cherub made their first appearance on the farm during the set to perform the collaboration “Obviously.”
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”16″ gal_title=”Bonnaroo15: Gramatik”]
I didn’t stay for the entire set because I wanted to catch Quickie Mart at the Silent Disco. If I learned anything from his set at Kalliope last year, it’s that this DJ knows what’s up! There was only so much power you can get in those little headphones, but he threw down a phenomenal set. I could literally hear people screaming even with my own headphones on at full blast. Quickie Mart played three times at Bonnaroo with a set at the Silent Disco, MTV Summer Jam, and Kalliope again on Sunday. What makes the Silent Disco at Bonnaroo so special is the production. I remember my first year it was under a tent with a few lights; now the tent is much bigger and has night club-caliber production.
It was around two in the morning that I turned on my phone hoping to reach one of my friends before the phone died. I met up with Brian Hensley, the founder of this blog, at Kalliope and actually got to get on the amazing 75,000,000 watt car, which is a memory that will live with me forever. Norwegian DJ Matamo, was playing tropical house for a huge crowd still full of energy. Bonnaroo is beautiful in that way. If you are a creature of the night, you will always have a place to dance and people to hang out with regardless of the time. There is no cut-off time for music.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”17″ gal_title=”Bonnaroo15: Kalliope”]
After accepting offers of pizza and shots of fireball whiskey, I retreated to my tent to rest. The first official day of Bonnaroo was over. If some freak accident happened and Bonnaroo had to be shut down after the Thursday that I had, I would have gone home more than satisfied. So far, the experience had already been more than I ever could have anticipated. |
The Marvin-1, a fishing boat, sits on the shore May 16, 2015, in Masinloc, Philippines, unused since the Chinese barred it from Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. (Will Englund/The Washington Post)
When nations duel over reefs, rocks and islets, people are going to get hurt, and in the South China Sea dispute, that means the fishermen here who once wrested a living from the contested waters.
Gunmen in a Chinese speedboat drove Macario Forones, for instance, away from a favorite spot called Scarborough Shoal, and now his boat, the Marvin-1, sits useless in the grass and weeds above the high-tide line, and he sells someone else’s fish from a stall in the local market. Efrim Forones now dives for clams in the bay, making about one-tenth of what he earned when he fished the sea. Viany Mula says he was set upon with a Chinese water cannon when he ventured out to the shoal in his boat, and now he makes deliveries around town on a motorbike, barely earning enough each day, as he puts it, to buy the rice he needs.
“I really want to fish the shoal,” Mula said one recent day. “It’s a very rich fishing ground. But that’s not possible now.”
For generations, the South China Sea was a regional common. Fishing boats from all of the surrounding countries would roam its waters, pausing now and then to trade cigarettes or potatoes or gossip.
But then Vietnam, followed by the Philippines, began staking claims to some of the islands, and now China is moving in, in a big way. Beijing is building up the outposts it has established, enlarging islands that it controls and claiming exclusive rights to fishing grounds.
The smaller, poorer nations can’t put up a real fight for the access to the sea that they long enjoyed.
“That’s not for us,” Mula said. “We have nothing.”
But the Philippines does have the United States behind it, after a fashion. The Americans are making more visits here, and stepping up naval patrols and overflights — and in the process, the South China Sea dispute becomes something bigger than a contest for fish. It looks more and more like a geostrategic confrontation between the two great powers, China and the United States; that’s certainly how the Chinese characterize it.
The U.S. military has long been a source of anguish, self-doubt and defiance for the Philippines, a former U.S. colony. Many Filipinos are encouraged by recent U.S. attention to the maritime dispute, but they wonder whether the Americans give much thought to the Philippines and the people who are paying a price as the dispute deepens.
A third of the residents of Masinloc have depended over the years on fishing for their livelihoods, said Mayor Desiree Edora. Scarborough Shoal, a half-day’s sail from shore, was a refuge from storms, a gathering place for fishermen from all over and a home to abundant grouper and giant clams. Now, the Chinese have barred foreign boats. It is like being thrown out of your own house, she said.
“We can’t replicate what Scarborough Shoal can provide,” she said.
The Philippines took China to court — an international tribunal in The Hague — two years ago over competing claims in the sea. China refused to participate; a decision is expected next year, but it probably will be unenforceable. The Philippine move may have provoked the Chinese into trying to cement their claims by occupying and building up as many spots in the sea as they can, but officials in the Philippines say they had no choice after efforts to negotiate came to nothing.
Viany Mula, 43, once fished the South China Sea and says he was forced off the water by the Chinese. Now he makes deliveries around Masinloc on a motorbike. (Will Englund/The Washington Post)
The governor of Zambales province, Hermogenes E. Ebdane Jr., said he wonders what China’s ultimate goal is. “No one’s going to war over fish,” he said. His constituents, the fishermen, will have to find something else to do. But if this confrontation is about something bigger, Ebdane said, it’s unclear what role the Philippines might have. There’s a new defense agreement with the United States, but, he said, neither side seems to have thought through the implications for the murky weeks and months ahead.
A legacy of ambivalence
At the Defense College in Quezon City, on the outskirts of Manila, an entire wall in the lobby is given over to a painting that depicts the massacre of four dozen U.S. soldiers by Philippine insurgents at Balangiga in 1901. A diorama up a staircase shows Filipinos battling Spanish conquistadors and fighting against the Japanese in World War II — alongside Americans.
The United States seized the Philippines from Spain in 1898 and held it until 1946. The U.S. military continued to keep permanent bases here until 1991.
The legacy is a deep ambivalence toward the United States. But the U.S. Navy is the one force that is willing to challenge the Chinese and keep up regular patrols in the region. An agreement signed last year would allow the U.S. military a standing presence here, rotating forces onto Philippine bases. The agreement is held up by a lawsuit in the Philippine Supreme Court.
Washington has stepped up visits and patrols, and it has made much of joint training exercises and the donation of used military equipment.
“That is not to protect the Philippines but to protect their own turf,” said Roilo Golez, a member of the country’s House of Representatives. U.S. military aid, worth about $40 million a year, is nothing but a token, he said.
The Philippine armed forces, in this nation of 100 million, remain in woeful shape. It is an article of faith that the government was caught napping when China began making its moves in the South China Sea.
“We remain quite dependent on allied help, and that is not good,” said Rafael Alunan III, former secretary of the interior. “The focus of the Philippine government has been on politics, politics, politics, at the expense of national security. China is taking advantage of our inertia and lack of assertiveness. We are presenting ourselves as unworthy before friend and foe.”
Walden Bello, founding director of a group called Focus on the Global South, said his country “is right back to its role in the Cold War, when it played the part of handmaiden to the United States.”
But military officials here say they are unsure of the U.S. commitment if hostilities should break out. The United States and the Philippines have a mutual defense treaty pledging assistance if either is attacked, but Washington doesn’t recognize any nation’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, including the Philippines’. Naval analysts in Washington say the U.S. response to conflict there would depend entirely on the circumstances.
“We may have overestimated how the United States will come to the rescue,” said Chito Santa Romana, an expert on China. “We may have underestimated Chinese resolve.”
Civil disobedience at sea
The two biggest vessels in the Philippine navy are former U.S. Coast Guard cutters, retrofitted with deck guns, and of little use in standing up to the Chinese. The government, in any case, has no desire to provoke China into a military confrontation.
That leaves the fishing fleet as the country’s best means of maintaining a presence in the parts of the South China Sea that Beijing claims. Philippine — and Vietnamese — boats challenge the Chinese when and where they can, until the Chinese coast guard drives them off. It is waterborne civil disobedience.
“These are small, subsistence fishermen,” said Evan P. Garcia, undersecretary for policy in the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs. “They’re not a threat to anybody. And it’s not as if they just went there yesterday.”
The fish they’re after may be the other big casualty of the dispute. The tensions over the years have kept anyone from getting good data on fish stocks or devising a conservation plan. Hundreds of millions of people live around the South China Sea and eat its fish. The Marine Stewardship Council, with an office in Singapore, says that the humpback wrasse and bluefin tuna populations are close to collapse. Edgardo Gomez, a marine biologist in Manila, said that the Chinese have wiped out the giant clams on Scarborough and that their construction work is destroying reefs that support the bottom levels of the sea’s food chain.
“You have tons and tons of marine life in and around those reefs that are now gone,” he said.
The hatch is being shut on a way of life. The United States and China are either pursuing strategic advantage or practicing destructive gamesmanship, depending on the perspective. Filipinos have to live with that — with the “odd detour,” as Garcia put it, that brought them here.
Viany Mula would trade his motorbike in the blink of an eye for a chance to return to sea. But that is not going to happen.
Englund visited the Philippines on a Jefferson Fellowship, supported by the East-West Center.
Read more
Beijing’s power play in the South China Sea may be killing coral reefs
Here’s why some in the Philippines want the U.S. Navy back
Chinese warnings to U.S. plane hint of rising stakes over disputed islands |
A suspect has been charged more than a year after a cyclist was killed in a hit-and-run on a dark, rural road in Abbotsford.
Kerry James Froese, 39, has been charged with failing to remain at the scene of an accident causing death, according to a statement released by Abbotsford police Wednesday morning.
The victim, Ronald James Scott, 61, was struck and killed while riding his bicycle in the 2000 block of Mt. Lehman Road just after 11 p.m. PT on Jan. 29, 2015.
This picture of Ronald James Scott was taken by his brother in-law the day before he was killed in a hit-and-run. (Abbotsford Police Department)
At time police said they believed Scott was travelling south when he was struck by the vehicle. He was found alive by police, but died at the scene shortly afterwards.
In June 2015 police located the suspect vehicle — a grey 2013 Ford Expedition — on a property, and identified a suspect in the case.
Investigators are now asking anyone who might have more information to contact police at 604-859-5225 or to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 if they wish to remain anonymous.
Previous conviction
It's not the first time Froese has been charged following a fatal accident.
In 2008, he was charged with impaired driving causing death and two other related charges, but was eventually convicted in 2011 of driving without due care and attention. He was given a $1,100 fine and six months probation for the 2008 offence. |
America's marvellous Midwest: A finger-lickin' trip down memory lane in Kansas City
I left my heart in Kansas City. That reads like a Tony Bennett song or a film noir. In fact, I left it in Chicago, next door, and it was taken, not left. A younger me followed a damsel across states in pursuit of, well... something.
I lived in Kansas City, Missouri during my undergraduate study and have returned seven years later.
Not in Kansas: Kansas City is actually the largest city in the state of Missouri
The agrarian Midwest with its farms, prairies, parkways and plains; the immeasurable plateau of fields and roads like concrete arteries. In the spring months, the skies sequence downwards like a Rothko, from blazing reds and bruising purples into bronzed and burnished yellows.
All that is good and honest about America grew out of the Midwest. Those middling states are different from the bookend states. Missouri is deep-rooted and to a degree, happily secular. Many who leave eventually return; to settle, raise families and rediscover the bond.
Chow down on authentic KC barbecue: Arthur Bryant's is one of the city's most popular BBQ haunts
I was welcomed into the homes of my old friends and enjoyed rediscovering barbecue, Kansas-City style. The city has over 100 barbecue restaurants, all intestine-busting barbecue benders with good, local Boulevard beer.
The meat is slow-smoked over wood and covered in a thick tomato and molasses-based sauce. It's a plate of bovine delight and being a visitor, I'm removed of all guilt, so can lip-smack, finger-lick and enjoy pulling apart the burnt ends and brisket.
The smokey bouquet of Hickory hangs heavy in the air. Thick cuts of meat are slathered using local 'Midwest tomatoes' to create, in the words of Rich Davis, founder of KC Masterpiece Barbecue Products and owner of KC Masterpiece Barbecue & Grill, 'a sauce that doesn't fall off the meat into the fire.'
Nuts for beer: David and friends hole up in The Peanut, the 'oldest bar and grill in Kansas City'
Henry Perry's restaurant (now the legendary Arthur Bryant's) on 18th and Vine became a cultural point in the 1920s during the heyday of Kansas City jazz. The jazz district today is sadly a shadow of its former self with the majority of musical entertainment uprooting itself downtown to the Sprint Center and Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Culture shell: Architect Moshe Safdie designed the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Designed by architect Moshe Safdie, the Kauffman Center ( www.kauffmancenter.org ) is a striking addition to the downtown Kansas City skyline, it's two slated-shell roofs resembling that of the Sydney Opera House. The inside reveals an expanse of new, shiny whiteness like walking into a sugar cube. The north façade of the building is sheathed in stainless steel and lined with sweeping glass, revealing a 180-degree panoramic view of colourful downtown.
FOOD THOUGHTS: THE BEST PLACES TO EAT AND DRINK
Baristas with style: The Quay coffee house serves up artisan brews Best Burger: Town-Topic
In 1937 Claude Sparks opened a little diner in downtown and began selling hamburgers for 5 cents each. 76 years and Town-Topic are still producing the best burgers in town. The Triple-Cheeseburger and Patty-Melt-on-Rye are worth exploring.
Best BBQ: Arthur Bryant's
There are endless locations where you can find Kansas City-style barbecue, but locals will tell you that the legendary Arthur Bryant's on Brooklyn Avenue is the best. American journalist and food writer Calvin Trillin declared in Playboy magazine that "...the single best restaurant in the world is Arthur Bryant's Barbeque at 18th & Brooklyn in Kansas City. Best Cocktails: Manifesto (downstairs at The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange)
A 48 seat, downstairs speakeasy that takes a labor-intensive approach to making drinks with the finest spirits. Recently earned a spot on Eater magazine's top national 38 cocktail bars. Al Capone once took a wee there! Best Coffee: Quay Coffee
New start-up from young, coffee bean enthusiasts in the River Market district. A long service bar means you can watch the beans being churned and the freshest coffee drip-serve instead of machine-made. Direct trade coffee is roasted through close relationships with their suppliers. Best Bar: Flying Saucer Draught Emporium
Originally founded in Texas in 1995, the Saucer has expanded and its Kansas City branch in the Power & Light District offer 76 brews of tap with hundreds more in bottles. For a more authentic and local-feel to the area, The Peanut on Quality Hill is a beloved KC watering-hole and my favourite bar in the world.
Sporting Options: Sporting Kansas City
In 2010 the Kansas City Wizards soccer team moved to a new stadium in Sporting Park and re-branded themselves as Sporting KC. Last year they won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by beating Seattle Sounders FC. The stadium was renamed in January after the Livestrong Foundation and Sporting KC ended their agreement.
Hidden Gem: River Market Antiques
This 5-floor industrial building on the corner of 5th and Wyandotte is the perfect place to rummage for antiques and relics. Merchandise ranges from 1950s American neon signage to taxidermy, music memorabilia and shelves and shelves of LPs, books and vintage posters.
New restaurants and bars such as The Jacobson and The Reiger Hotel (with its fantastic prohibition basement bar) sit alongside old dining institutions such as Town Topic, Arthur Bryant's and The Peanut in a juxtaposition between twenty-first century bistros and old-school diners and dive-bars.
While The Plaza maintains its status as the high-end eating and shopping district, with eminent thoroughfare Ward Parkway voted in the Top 10 Streets in the country by the American Planning Association, it's Downtown that's seeing a money injection. The Farmers Market, Crossroads Arts District and “First Fridays”, in which art galleries open their doors and offer wine and baked goods to interested stragglers, are all examples of the city's urban maze.
Red mist: The Kansas City Chiefs play at the Arrowhead stadium
The Power and Light District bulges with 'artists' and a younger vibe of voguish hipsters. The area is growing through independent shops and businesses, such as Quay Coffee in the River Market. Old buildings are being reformed into stylish high-rise apartments, art galleries and meet-and-greet lounges and while the city's sports teams, The Chiefs and The Royals, both remain firmly rooted to the foot of their professional tables, college sports thrive and the colours of Mizzou, Jayhawks, Wildcats and The Roos splash across the city in local support.
Kansas City boy: David, pictured, won't leave it so long to return...
Perhaps it's this development and status as a creative and newly thriving location that Google choose to test their new Fiber speed here - a connection 100 times faster than broadband. Out of all the cities in the nation, Google cherry-picked Kansas City, MO, now a super-speed-led Fiber base, allowing you to “Poke” and “Tweet” in a millisecond.
I'll be back, within another seven years. The barbecue is the best in the world and the art and coffee is excellent. The local beer is as good as anything I've had in America and there's a bubbling enthusiasm in the city. Kansas City natives love Kansas City, and I get why.
Travel facts
David travelled to Kansas City with United Airlines (www.united.com) via Washington Dulles. Prices start from £727 per person for return flights (with changeover).
Rooms at the Hotel Phillips in Downtown start from £119, www.hotelphillips.com |
Please pray for my frenz,Bassist Marc Van Wageningen, drummer Dave GARIBALDI for tower power hit by a train in front of Yoshi's in Oakland — SheilaEdrummer (@SheilaEdrummer) January 13, 2017
A Capitol Corridor train hit two musicians just before 8 p.m. on Embarcadero West and Washington Street in Oakland's Jack London Square, right next to Oakland music venue, Yoshi's.According to an Amtrak spokesperson, David Garibaldi and Marc Van Wageningen were not in the designated crosswalk when they were hit.Garibaldi is one of the original members of East Bay R&B group Tower of Power. Van Wageningen was just filling in for their concert Thursday."I'm shook up like all in the industry hearing about it," said friend Victor Pamiroyan. "And I hope the injuries, I don't know what the injuries are."Both men were rushed to Highland Hospital. Meantime, at Yoshi's, Thursday's shows were immediately cancelled as word spread about the tragedy on the train tracks.Friends can't believe what happened. "To study and get to know him was a dream come true," said Ryan Glick. "I though I would never study with the best drummer in the world and I got to.""Good guy," said Jerry Perkins. "Fantastic drummer. I can't believe he'd cross in front of the train. Not like him."Train service resumed quickly through the corridor.Fellow musician Sheila E. took to twitter to ask for prayers for her friends: |
Displays new emails and the sender's contact photo, get notifications or even listen, read or delete them without opening Gmail! Supports multiple accounts plus many options.
• The fastest and easiest way to manage multiple email accounts • One of the highest rated Chrome extensions - featured many times on PCWorld • Trusted developer of many extensions - more than one million satisfied users worldwide • Lots of features, options and updates • Personal tech support from me (the developer) - very fast response times • I'll add your suggestions • Safer - requires less permissions and only access to Google Mail's website Features... • See the people emailing you just like in the Gmail chat notification, with an option to show their contact photos or your assigned photos for them. • Voice notification: If you get an email while you're busy watching a movie or cooking dinner this extension can optionally read it out loud ie. "Jason says, dinner at my place". It's great for the visually impaired. • Option to monitor any Gmail or custom labels • Option to run in background when Google Chrome is closed and still get new email alerts • Popup mail preview window to read, archive, mark as read or delete emails without leaving the current tab (or option to go directly to your Gmail tab) • Desktop sound or voice notifications when new mail arrives (or add your own sounds) • Support for multiple Gmail and Google Apps accounts • Option to open "Mail to" links in your Gmail instead of your regular mail client • This Gmail notifier has more than 10 different icon sets, choose your favorite! • You change the generated voice by adding TTS (text to speech) voice extensions • The fast way to inbox zero. Yes that's a thing. |
Emergency call operators who respond to 999 calls held a second 12-hour strike in a dispute about pay and union recognition.
The stoppage began at 8am this morning and concluded at 8pm.
BT Ireland and Conduit Global, who run the service, said contingency arrangements were put in place to ensure there was no disruption to service and all emergency calls were handled as usual.
A Conduit Global statement said the company "strongly regrets the industrial action that was taken by a small number of members of the Communications Workers Union at one of the Emergency Call Answering Service centres today, in Navan, Co Meath.
"Public safety remained our highest priority and Conduit Global confirms none of the emergency service centres (Navan, Co Meath; Ballyshannon, Co Donegal; Eastpoint, Dublin) closed at any point during the day and that the service was fully operational."
The staff at the Emergency Call Answering Service who belong to the Communications Workers' Union want a basic pay increase in line with the Living Wage of €11.50 per hour, and the right to be represented by their union in negotiations.
The State contract for operating ECAS was awarded to BT Ireland, who in turn outsourced it to Conduit Global.
Both companies have defended the pay rates for staff and their decision not to negotiate with unions.
They have also declined an invitation from the Workplace Relations Commission to talks with the CWU, on the basis that they would prefer to negotiate with their employees directly.
The CWU held the first 12-hour stoppage in the dispute on 25 February with around 15 of the 60 operators joining the picket line at the Navan call centre.
Tomorrow, CWU members will also commence a month-long work to rule, whereby staff will withdraw from extra duties outside their employment contract.
CWU General Secretary Steve Fitzpatrick has accused BT Ireland and Conduit Global of "blatant corporate greed".
He noted that last year BT made a profit of €44 million in Ireland, which is up 42% on the previous year.
He added that Conduit Global had made Irish profits of over €6 million. |
Initially, the modules will be test- flown without a crew, preceded by tests to human-rate the launch vehicle or make sure that it is safe for human flight into space.
TIRUPATI: Isro has put off by four years its first experimental manned mission — from 2020 to 2024 — on board a home-grown GSLV-III rocket.
Speaking on space technology at Indian Science Congress, Mr S. Somanath, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Thiruvananthapuram, said GSLV-III will be designed to hoist a 10-tonne crew module into low earth orbit. Initially, the modules will be test- flown without a crew, preceded by tests to human-rate the launch vehicle or make sure that it is safe for human flight into space.
ISRO to launch 103 satellites
Mr S. Somanath, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Thiruvanan-thapuram, said the the immediate task on hand for Indian space scientists will be the launch of a record 103 satellites by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the first week of February. While more than 100 of these satellites belong to foreign space agencies/ universities, the workhorse rocket will also put into orbit the indigenous CARTOSAT 2-D satellite, with all satellites adding up to about 1,382 kg, he added.
Mr Somnath said during the current fiscal, Isro planned eight PSLV flights, up from six in 2016. “Our aim is to steadily increase the launches between 12 and 20 in phases with creation of necessary infrastructure. And, within the next two to three months, ISRO will carry out the “pad-abort” test to try out the crew escape system,” he said.
Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. |
Call for Artists: Wall Street Occupennial!
Art is mobilizing! The Wall Street Occupennial is gathering proposals, volunteers, and donations in order to hold a series of art events related to Occupy Wall Street. They are currently archiving all occupation-related art projects on the Occupennial’s tumblr page, and apparently an upcoming exhibition will take place outdoors, across from the New York Stock Exchange.
In keeping with the format of Occupy Wall Street, the Occupennial is conceived of as a horizontal power structure in which there are no leaders, just co-organizers. Naturally, with swaths of interested volunteers and evolving, outdoor meetings at Zuccotti Park, it’s still pretty difficult to keep track of meetings and projects: Occupy Wall Street has, like, five twitter accounts and no single spokeman. We’re not sure, for instance, if the twitter feed for “Occupy Art World” and its plans to protest outside New York and San Francisco galleries has any affiliation with the Arts and Culture working group. [Side note: they just tweeted at us that ad sales control our content. It’s true; during a routine blow job last night, Larry Gagosian gave editor Will Brand some excellent suggestions for next week’s news coverage.]
The plan is to fundraise using the successful Occupy Wall Street Kickstarter campaign as a model. It seems there is massive potential for growth; the occupation has already garnered tens of thousands of dollars in a few short weeks. Occupy Wall Street is rapidly expanding, with multiple blogs, powerful new allied organizations, and now an interactive online map of protests that have sprung up across the U.S. As of Saturday, there were 20,000 people on the Occupy Wall Street Livestream page, and there is now an “Occupied Wall Street Journal” (containing a stirring call-to-arms by former NY Times writer Chris Hedges) and a movie project on the horizon.
When Art Fag City took a trip to Zuccotti Park a few days ago, it seemed that the Occupennial will have to sort out some growth-related challenges. Even while we were talking, the circle continued to crowd with people, who every minute or so would interrupt and need to be filled in. The circle steadily expanded. Hand signals were established. Soon we couldn’t hear anyone through the noise; messages traveled by the “people’s mic”, a system of human repeaters something like a mix between a Pentacostal sermon and the beacons of Gondor. Inevitably, the arts and culture co-organizers needed to split off in order to be productive.
Even after reaching the decision-making part of the conversation, general consensus is difficult to reach; the stakes are high when everyone is included. A recent Hyperallergic post noted the movement’s backlash against, for one, “No Comment,” a show that uses the standard “1%” exhibition format and may have included itself in the Occupennial to pay the rent. According to curator Marika Maiorova’s Kickstarter campaign, the previous 9/11 show didn’t get any foot traffic because of the protests and now needs to pay the bills. To be fair, it seems like the logical thing to do, but this is the sort of issue the Occupennial can expect in the future.
Another obvious but unstated challenge is whether the art world and the real world can actually get along. Using the people’s mic, one co-organizer announced, “Making a map [making a map] of artists who are struggling in New York [of artists who are struggling in New York] would be much more revolutionary [would be…] than another show of Kara Walker and friends..” To which another responded, “I’m happy if Kara Walker wants to do something. [I’m happy…] I’m also happy if my next door neighbor wants to do something”- this got a lot of upward-finger-wiggling, which means “I like.” Project proposals range from zombie face paint to what sounded like a high-production-value performance with projections and puppetry. One co-organizer reminded us, though, that this is a movement built by artists. “We all look the same,” he said, and, looking around, it was undeniably true.
Ben Davis published a piece on ArtInfo today on how Adbusters helped create Occupy Wall Street. His conclusion about the media mockery and cynicism directed at protestors was a comparison between The Economist’s practical suggestion of what to do in tough times (stick close to a rich person and hope they’ll take you on as a housekeeper) versus Adbusters’s impassioned-if-somewhat-clumsy climb for better solutions. He asks us,
…when it comes to addressing the reality of actual human beings in 2011, who is really deserving of your scorn? The people with the “reasonable” ideas or the people who have seen how crummy these ideas are, and decided to open a whole new conversation?
This is the spirit of the art movement. The only criterion for a project to pass is that it does not raise any serious ethical conflicts with the movement, and the sole job of the exhibition curator will be to include as broad a scope of work as possible. The point is not to make a show for the canon, though some great work may be enabled, even by academia’s standards. The point is to talk to everyone, which requires all of it – from Kara Walker to zombies. |
A sailor who refused to stand for morning colors may now face administrative action, Military.com reported late Wednesday.
Naval Education and Training Command spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Kate Meadows did not detail the specific actions the Navy is taking against the young, African-American sailor.
The young woman is training at the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Pensacola, Fla., and is expected to continue training with her class.
She sailor posted an eight-minute video to Facebook late last month explaining why she was following in the footsteps of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick by not standing during the national anthem. The woman cited the now-defunct third stanza of the song and instead of stopping in place and standing during the morning command, she took a seat and raised her fist in the air, a symbol of the Black Power movement.
"[The stanza] basically says land of the free, home of the brave, except for hirelings and slaves and I just can't support anything like that," the sailor said. "I think Colin had a really good point when he said we had bodies in the streets."
The sailor said she will not stand for the anthem "until this country shows they've got my back as a black woman." |
Taking RPG to the Next Level #SRPG
Greetings Lords, this is Fantasy War Tactics Support Team!
We are here to announce the Patch note for Aug.24 (Wed).
■ Patch Summary
1. Patch Period: Aug.24.2016 (Wed) 23:00 p.m. ~ Aug.25.2016 (Thu) 02:00 a.m. (Approx. 3 hrs) UTC+0
2. Patch Type: Build Update
3. Version: AOS 534.2 / iOS 0.534
■ Patch Details
[Update Instructions]
1. After the server maintenance, there will be an update related data patch. To avoid unnecessary phone data usage, we recommend you to use the “Wi-Fi”.
2. If the game doesn’t update itself on login, please update the game through the market “Manually”.
3. If you only see [Open] button instead of an [Update] button in Google Play Store, use the “Settings > General > Apps > Play Store > Clear Data Storage” function and try again.
[Added Game Contents]
1. Added September Tower of Dawn
- Period: 09.01(Thu) 00:00 ~ 09.30(Fri) 23:59 (UTC +0)
2. Added attendance reward for September
- Period: 09.01(Thu) 00:00 ~ 10.01(Sat) 04:59 (Local Time)
[Events]
1. [Yeka’s Jewel Box] Package available for purchase
(1) Period: Aug.25.2016 (Thu) After Maintenance ~ Sep.7 (Wed) 13:59 (Local Time)
(2) Purchase Detail: From [Lobby], click [Package] on the top left corner to purchase [Yeka’s Jewel Box]
(3) Please Note: Can be purchased 2 times per account
(4) Package Detail
2. Event Shop: ‘Medal of Passion’ Shop Period will be changed.
[Improvements]
1. Library in the Sky: Defense Mode has been improved.
- Stages have been reduced for the second dungeon from 200 to 50.
- Stage Clear Rewards have been changed according to the stage reduction.
- Movement AI for Heroes in ‘Library in the Sky’ has been improved.
[Changed Details]
1. Seal (Disarm) Immune Effect has been added to the boss monsters in Dark Fortress.
2. Seal (Disarm) Immune Effect has been added to the monsters in Library in the Sky.
[Bug Fix]
1. Gold reward value will be displayed correctly in ‘Dungeon result’ screen. (‘Per grade gold reward’ will no longer be added to the actual amount.)
2. Typos and colors of Xigncode Pop-up message (displayed when incomplete program is detected) have been fixed.
3. ‘Mustache Island’s Completion Rate 100%’ achievement will be completed without an error.
4. Set Item: Persona's Trick set effect will be fixed.
5. ‘Some Heroes not being able to move in Dungeons While in Auto-mode’ error has been fixed.
[iOS – Last week’s AOS Selective Build Update contents are included in this week’s iOS Build]
1. Add BGM for Library in the Sky.
2. Words will be displayed correctly when entering guild raid with only 4 members.
3. 'Library in the Sky' Menus will be displayed correctly for English, Traditional Chinese and Thai users.
Thank you. |
In fact, as the television critic Sina Kologlu pointed out in an interview in Istanbul this week, the trailer bears a striking resemblance to the real-life testimonies of child brides around the country interviewed for a documentary film by women’s rights activists being released next week.
The film, entitled “Child Brides,” is the result of an 18-month information and awareness campaign conducted by the “Flying Broom” women’s rights group, which included seminars, conferences and meetings with local officials and families around the country, as well as a book and an academic research project.
“I was 13 years old when I was married off to a 30-year-old man I had never seen,” a woman, now 37, told campaigners at one of these meetings in the southeastern province of Van. “I always remained afraid of him.”
“I was married at 16,” another recounted at a meeting in Izmir, while other women spoke of violence, abuse and misery in testimonies collected in the campaign’s book. “We have spent 20 years in silence. We are still strangers to each other.”
A national average of 28 percent of Turkish women are married before the age of 18, Yildiz Ecevit, a sociology professor at Middle Eastern Technical University, told a parliamentary committee hearing on child brides in Ankara last month.
But regional differences mean that as many as 40 percent or 50 percent of girls are married off as minors in some parts of the country, particularly in eastern and central Anatolia, she added.
Reliable figures on child brides are hard to come by, a parliamentary commission said in a report last year, because official statistics do not register the unofficial religious marriages still prevalent in much of Anatolia. Childhood marriages are “widely accepted” by Turkish society, the report by the Commission on Equality of Opportunity for Women and Men found.
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Girls are married off early to minimize the economic burden on their family as well as the risk of any sexual contact before marriage, with the bride price that is still paid in many regions as an additional incentive, the commission report revealed.
As further causes, the report pointed to deeply rooted customs like the exchange of brides between two families, the betrothal of babies at birth, the giving of girls as brides to settle blood feuds, and the continued practice of polygamy in some regions.
In addition, girls who have been raped or molested are quickly married off to the rapist or any other man to preserve family honor, the report noted.
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The commission slammed child marriages as “violations of children’s rights, women’s rights and human rights,” pinpointing the practice as a prime cause of domestic violence, infant mortality and gender inequality.
“State institutions do not yet address this problem sufficiently,” the report found.
Selen Dogan, project coordinator of the “Flying Broom” campaign, agrees.
“Almost all local officials we spoke to at our conferences around the country agreed that this practice is a bad thing, but no one had ever done anything about it,” Ms. Dogan said in an interview.
The campaign had made some inroads, she said, reaching 20,000 people directly and many others via media reports and a hearing in Parliament last month, the culmination of the project.
“This cannot continue. We must do something about this immediately,” Fatma Sahin, the government minister in charge of family affairs, said at the hearing, pointing out that Turkish laws do not even agree on the definition of a child: The civil code defines a person as a child until the age of 17, the criminal code until 15 and the child protection law until 18.
Ms. Sahin announced that her ministry had recently signed an agreement with the Religious Affairs Department, under which the 60,000 imams employed by the department around the country would endeavor to teach their flocks that child marriages have no place in Islam.
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Ms. Dogan, the activist, hopes the television soap opera “Life Goes On” will spread a similarly enlightened message. “It could have a positive effect, but it all depends on the screenplay,” she said.
“Will the girl manage to get out of the marriage, is she strong, can she liberate herself? That would be a good thing. But if it turns out to be just another depiction of a destiny to be borne, then it will be a setback.”
The production company had contacted the “Flying Broom” as a courtesy, but not sought their advice for the screenplay, Ms. Dogan added.
Mr. Kirmizigul, a former crooner from the Kurdish southeast of the country, has directed several movies, including the 2009 film “I Saw the Sun” about the plight of a Kurdish family racked by the armed conflict in southeastern Turkey, which brought the suffering of the region’s population home to a wider Turkish audience.
“Life Goes On” is his first attempt at a television series.
Mr. Kirmizigul, who has not spoken to the press in three years, according to his publicist, declined to be interviewed for this article.
Women’s issues like rape and domestic violence have become an increasingly popular subject of Turkish soap operas over the past two to three years.
While some series initially adopted a chauvinistic point of view, pressure from women’s rights groups had caused a shift in perspective, in some cases even within an ongoing series, Mr. Kologlu, the television critic, said, citing the rape-themed series “What Is Fatmagul Guilty Of?” as an example.
As for “Life Goes On,” expectations are high, Mr. Kologlu said.
“From what I have seen, it will be an ambitious work, technically striking, a very lavish production,” he said. “The question is whether it will fulfill expectations when it comes to the content, the message.” |
WA Labor attacks Dean Nalder's tunnel plan, labels Government transport planning 'chaotic'
Posted
Labor has used the Transport Minister's idea of constructing tunnels under Perth's main roads to ease congestion to paint the Government's transport planning as chaotic.
Transport Minister Dean Nalder believes tunnels constructed beneath existing roads would be part of a long-term solution to manage congestion.
But the Opposition has attacked the Minister in Parliament, accusing the Government of failing to have a clear plan for meeting Perth's transport needs.
"Transport is one of the most important things confronting our city and our state," Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said.
"Transport is a long-term issue for our state.
"There is no integrated or coordinated plan from the Government whatsoever."
WA transport planning 'mayhem'
Mr McGowan described how major transport initiatives like Max Light Rail had been delayed and fundamentally changed, from light rail, to rapid transit buses, and possibly to heavy rail.
He cited the trouble-plagued Perth Freight Link, which had been scaled back from reaching the Fremantle Port, only to be shelved for at least 12 months after the Supreme Court found environmental approvals were invalid.
"I've just given a small snapshot over the past two years of the twisting and turning, of the pandemonium, in transport planning in Western Australia," he said.
"And today's story [on tunnelling] is just another example of that mayhem that is going on in transport planning in Western Australia."
Mr Nalder countered the barrage of Opposition criticism, arguing proof of the Government's plan was in projects already being built, on time and ahead of budget.
"Those opposite would have you believe that we don't have a plan, but I can tell you that when you actually look at what is being delivered, you can actually see these things coming together," he said.
Mr Nalder said even huge projects like the billion-dollar Gateway interchange near Perth Airport had been completed ahead of time and under budget.
He contrasted that with the Opposition's MetroNet plan for building more rail lines, more train stations, and fixing level crossings across the city.
Without costings and deadlines, Mr Nalder does not believe Labor could afford it.
"How? How are they actually going to do it?" he said.
"I believe that the transport plan they have opposite is just not credible at all."
Topics: government-and-politics, transport, perth-6000 |
A couple became a victim of road rage while on their way to Matunga on Sunday afternoon and were assaulted by a group of 15 to 20 men reportedly from the Nagpada Police Lines.Bilal Khan, 31 and his wife Zara, were on a bike at the traffic signal on Shepherd Road on their way to a friend's place in Matunga for a party when a speeding Santro bruised Zara's leg, who was riding pillion.“I stopped the bike and told the car driver not to drive at such a high speed and that it could have been dangerous. The driver stepped out and started abusing me, while his co-passenger ran inside Saboo Siddiqui lane. Suddenly, there were around 15 to 20 men surrounding me. I rushed inside the nearby petrol pump for help,“ said Khan.He added, “I told Zara to stay away while I took hold of the petrol dispensing nozzle and threatened my attackers in a bid to fend them off. During this, a man who introduced himself as a cop from Nagpada police station approached and asked me to turn the nozzle off and took it away from me.“Khan said the moment he gave the nozzle to the cop, the men waiting behind him pounced on him and started assaulting him with whatever they could lay their hands on. “One of them hit me with the cash box of the petrol pump, and I fell to the ground unconscious. They kept hitting me. Zara pleaded with the locals who had gathered to help me, but no one did. After some time, I got up and went to JJ Hospital for treatment,“ he added.Khan, who underwent x-ray scans, suffered internal bleeding in his stomach and back. He had also suffered contusions and an injury to his head. After the medical check-up, the couple approached Nagapada police station.The Nagpada police registered an FIR against 18-20 people. The prime accused is the duo in the car, booked for assault, mischief, causing damage and molestation under IPC sections 324, 427, 354. Police also picked up some of the accused late Sunday night, and some were identified by the complainant. |
Someone writes a memo about his views on gender difference and it kicks off. Apparently women are in tears, too traumatised to go to work. A baker refuses to ice a wedding cake for two guys and my Twitter feed practically bursts into flames. “HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING?!”
But mention the climate crisis, something that is smashing temperature records, raising sea levels, driving diseases into places they’ve not been before, and which may lead, as Professor Stephen Hawking suggests, to a need for the human race to flee the planet, and there’s radio silence. You can almost see the digital tumbleweed.
The year Trump was elected was so hot, it was 1-in-a-million | Dana Nuccitelli Read more
Nearly 30 years after Nasa’s James Hansen testified before a US Senate committee that human activity was warming the planet and must be stopped, it seems the issue does not stir the general population. Partly it’s because of the tens of corporate millions spent by the biggest polluters to create doubt that stalls legislation. That lobbying has worked. Trump said he believes the Chinese made it up, perfectly playing to the right’s paranoia, even as the sand their heads are buried in is getting so hot it would cook an ostrich egg.
But what is surprising is that the left are not more fired up about the climate crisis. In the UK, commentators such as Katie Hopkins imply that the only people who care are hysterical lefty shills. Of course lots of people, on the left and right do care, more than ever. After all, this is an issue of science and survival and we all have the same to lose. But in my experience, many on the left who should care more about climate change just don’t. People who are extremely vocal about homophobia, transphobia, racism and sexism seem to have a blind spot. Which is odd because in the coming decades, all those problems (and more) will be supersized.
Peter Tatchell has long warned that tolerance does not always survive periods of social turbulence. Violent hatred bubbles just under the surface in society. On the day same sex marriage began in the UK, for example, one relatively intelligently argued comment under a newspaper article concluded that what we needed to stop men marrying men and women marrying women was “a civil war”.
Such people are kept at bay – just – by stable societies; by the rule of law; by the fact that the majority of us have a roof over our heads, relative security and three meals a day. But there is plenty of historical evidence to suggest that under stress, civilisation wobbles. Minorities get it harder and sooner. Berlin, infamously, pre-Nazism was a centre of gay freedom. A few years later its gay citizens were in concentration camps. Trump’s transgender military ban comes just six months after the presidency of the most LGBT-friendly commander-in-chief in history.
Does Trump really think trans people shouldn’t serve? Or is he simply cynical and savvy enough to know his base will be appeased, as they always are, by a kick to those on the fringe?
This is not a case of either/or – but for too long, too many progressives have stayed silent over climate change.
People are killed because they are of colour, women, trans, gays or lesbians. These are among the most important issues. But could it be that there are things that we must also raise our voices for, that are more important and on which all other issues rest and rely? The DUP’s position on equal marriage, the BBC gender pay gap, Piers Morgan’s views on non-binary people – all are meaningless if the fight that future generations face is for clean water or surviving wars caused by migration that will make the Syrian crisis, itself partly driven by extreme drought, look like a children’s tea party. We must wake up and take responsibility. This is not a case of either/or – it is possible to campaign on multiple issues at the same time, but for too long, too many progressives have stayed silent over climate change.
We can start to change that by watching Al Gore’s new film An Inconvenient Sequel this weekend. There’s no one left to warn us: scientists and politicians have done so, the Earth itself could not be clearer: this week in Iraq birds are falling from the sky as the country suffers through 50C heat. Spain has just broken its all-time temperature record, hitting a shocking 46C amid a European heatwave named Lucifer. We are on the verge of something literally unimaginable from which scientists say there will be no way back. We have been warned, over and over again. We will only have ourselves to blame.
• Matthew Todd is a former editor of Attitude magazine and the author of Straight Jacket: How to be gay and happy |
"Fair, effective, sex assault investigations take time and cannot be handled by investigators under pressure to rush to a particular conclusion due to financial pressures on the university," writes Boulder DA Stan Garnett. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)
As a person who deals with the issue of sex assault on campus , it seems appropriate for me to offer some opinions in the context of Congressman Polis's remarks and the discussion they have engendered.
First, it is important that we be clear what is being discussed. Sex assault is a very serious crime. Most sex assaults in Colorado are at least class 4 felonies, potentially punishable by many years in prison, mandatory registration as a sex offender, court-ordered sex offender treatment and large fines, as well as the life-changing consequences of a felony conviction.
Our criminal justice system has developed effective protections and strategies to assure fair and honorable investigation, charging and prosecution of sex offenses, carefully balancing the rights of the accused with the rights of a victim. Though law enforcement sometimes fails to act quickly and appropriately (some cite the recent reported problems in Jon Krakauer's book, "Missoula"), a well-run district attorney's office is fully capable of reviewing, investigating, filing and prosecuting cases when a conviction is appropriate. Failure of law enforcement to handle these cases appropriately is normally due to one (or both) of two common problems:
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1. Lack of commitment to sex assault prosecution by a district attorney's office (a problem most often solved through the political process of electing a different DA), or,
2. Lack of expert training in sex assault on the part of investigators and prosecutors.
In Boulder's 20th Judicial District, we have some of the best expert sex assault prosecutors in the USA, led by nationally-recognized Chief Trial Deputy Katharina Booth. Our lawyers, investigators and victim advocates not only receive regular training but help to train others around the country. Their trial record on tough sex assault prosecutions is second to none.
Although universities adjudicate student discipline, it is a serious mistake to equate investigation and resolution of felony sex assault with cheating on a test or drinking or smoking in a dorm room or the other normal fodder of the university discipline process, where due process on some level is important, but of an entirely different quality than the criminal justice system provides.
We should never tolerate the adjudication of serious felony behavior outside the criminal justice system. There are many reasons:
1. The risk of wrongful conviction is too great. The rigorous due process of the criminal justice system exists for mainly one reason: to make sure society can have confidence that one who is found guilty is, in fact, guilty. Relaxing due process, or having investigations not handled by well-trained professionals can lead to wrongful conviction.
2. The risk of traumatizing victims of sex assault. Interview and handling of victims and witnesses in sex crimes requires skill, sensitivity and time. Clumsy or repeated interviews can be traumatic for victims.
3. Those guilty of serious felony behavior present a societal risk, not just a campus risk. To suggest that sex assault on campus is primarily a campus problem is just plain wrong: it is a societal problem and deserves a societal response through the criminal justice system.
4. The criminal justice system is public and the public can observe, evaluate and criticize the proceedings. University conduct investigations carry the inherent secrecy of the discipline process, which can leave the public questioning the fairness of an investigation and the accuracy of the determinations.
The federal government's decision to tie campus funding to a one size fits all investigative approach can interfere with criminal investigations. Fair, effective, sex assault investigations take time and cannot be handled by investigators under pressure to rush to a particular conclusion due to financial pressures on the university. Also, "warning letters" or warning bulletins, or campus-based "stay away from each other" orders can, if issued prematurely, prevent law enforcement from determining the truth of alleged criminal behavior.
Because campus-based sex assaults are a serious problem, communities should demand that their criminal justice systems be up to the task of investigating and prosecuting these cases. It is no solution to put in place a secret, "shadow" adjudication system under the guise of student conduct investigations that does not have the protections and reliability of the American justice system.
Stan Garnett is district attorney of Colorado's 20th Judicial District, headquartered in Boulder. |
BHOPAL: More than six months on, officials of the social justice department are still 'verifying', 4 lakh pensioners who were found untraceable by Samagra (online identity card) scheme."There could be some duplications or some other reasons. We are screening the list and after verification removing duplicates from the list. Screening will be completed by November and only then course of action it any would be decided," commissioner social justice, V S Niranjan told TOI.Government records suggest that 31,62,087 beneficiaries are registered and they receive pension under various scheme including Indira Gandhi national old age pension, Indira Gandhi national widow pension, Indira Gandhi national disability pension, social security pension and financial assistance for mentally retarded and kanya abhibhawak pension . These beneficiaries get a pension amount of Rs 300 and Rs 500 as per monthIt is learnt that on verification of beneficiaries undertaken by the department only 27,44,028 pensioners could be verified. Remaining 4,18,059 could not be traced or contacted.An officer from the Samagra mission said that Samagra is a system and its idea is to create a data base to bring in transparency. Physical verification rests with the concerned departments which are disbursing funds.However, officials of the social justice department claimed there could hardly be any issue with the misappropriation of funds as from last two years funds are being paid directly through the funds transfer scheme.Department has stopped payment of pensions to the beneficiaries who are missing or remained untraceable from May this year. |
This from NOAA, which I missed last week while I was at ICCC6. But wait, there’s more! Have a look at the maps I produced below the “Continue reading>” line using NOAA’s own tools.
Average U.S. temperature increases by 0.5 degrees F
New 1981-2010 ‘normals’ to be released this week
Statewide changes in annual “normal temperatures” (1981 – 2010 compared to 1971 – 2000). Download here. (Credit: NOAA)
According to the 1981-2010 normals to be released by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) on July 1, temperatures across the United States were on average, approximately 0.5 degree F warmer than the 1971-2000 time period.
Normals serve as a 30 year baseline average of important climate variables that are used to understand average climate conditions at any location and serve as a consistent point of reference. The new normals update the 30-year averages of climatological variables, including average temperature and precipitation for more than 7,500 locations across the United States. This once-a-decade update will replace the current 1971–2000 normals.
In the continental United States, every state’s annual maximum and minimum temperature increased on average. “The climate of the 2000s is about 1.5 degree F warmer than the 1970s, so we would expect the updated 30-year normals to be warmer,” said Thomas R. Karl, L.H.D., NCDC director.
Using standards established by the World Meteorological Organization, the 30-year normals are used to compare current climate conditions with recent history. Local weathercasters traditionally use normals for comparisons with the day’s weather conditions.
In addition to their application in the weather sector, normals are used extensively by electric and gas companies for short- and long-term energy use projections. NOAA’s normals are also used by some states as the standard benchmark by which they determine the statewide rate that utilities are allowed to charge their customers.
The agricultural sector also heavily depends on normals. Farmers rely on normals to help make decisions on both crop selection and planting times. Agribusinesses use normals to monitor “departures from normal conditions” throughout the growing season and to assess past and current crop yields.
NCDC made many improvements and additions to the scientific methodology used to calculate the 1981-2010 normals. They include improved scientific quality control and statistical techniques. Comparisons to previous normals take these new techniques into account. The 1981-2010 normals provide a more comprehensive suite of precipitation and snowfall statistics. In addition, NCDC is providing hourly normals for more than 250 stations at the request of users, such as the energy industry.
Some of the key climate normals include: monthly and daily maximum temperature; monthly and daily minimum temperature; daily and monthly precipitation and snowfall statistics; and daily and monthly heating and cooling degree days. The 1981-2010 climate normals is one of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions. NOAA and its predecessor agencies have been providing updated 30-year normals once every decade since the 1921-1950 normals were released in 1956.
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.
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The interesting thing about baselines, is that by choosing your baseline, you can make an anomaly from that baseline look like just about anything you want it to be. For example, at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, they offer a handy dandy map creator for US Climate Divisions that allows you to choose the baseline period (from a predetermined set they offer), including the new 1981-2010 normals released on July 1st.
Here are some examples I get simply by changing the base period.
Here’s the most current (new) base period of 1981-2010. Doesn’t look so bad does it?
Now if we plot the entire period, look out, we are on fire! Global warming is running amok!
Oh, wait, look at the scale. Looks like about 0.08 to 0.13F warming. The ESRL plotting system arbitrarily assigns a range to the scale, based on data magnitude, but keeps the same color range.
The point of this? Temperature anomalies can be anything you want them to be, and by their nature of forcing a choice of baseline, forces you to cherrypick choose periods in your presentation of the data. The choice is up to the publisher.
Now the next question is, with NOAA/NCDC following standard WMO procedure (Roy Spencer at UAH did a few months back also) for a new 30 year base period, will NASA GISS start using a modern normals baseline for their publicly presented default graphs rather than the cooler and long outdated 1951-1980 for the press releases and graphs they foist on the media? Of course for a variety of reasons, they’ll tell you no. But it is interesting to see the rest of the world moving on while GISS remains stoically static. In case you are wondering, here is the offset difference based on the 1951-1990 vs the 1951-1980 base period used. This will of course change again with a more recent baseline, such as NOAA has adopted. While the slope won’t change the magnitude offset will. More here.
The issue is about public presentation of data. I figure if making such a baseline change is something NOAA does, should not NASA follow in the materials they release to the press?
Anomalies – any way you want them:
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The Nature of What Religion Demands
In this post I shall describe the most important and critical demands of religion. Once this has been done one would have little difficulty understanding why fighting religion is a worthy cause.
The religions’ main interest lies in the contents of one’s skull as well as underwear. Religion has great interest in those areas and commands the believer:
THOU SHALT USE NEITHER OF THEM.
( Finding the your way to your place of worship and molesting under age kids are among the few exception that the Gods of desert were kind enough to make)
Religion exclusively relies on faith to justify itself. This means to exempt its claim from being investigated by means of scientific method and philosophical inquiry. Religion demands the believer to believe and not to question. It requires full slavery and submission of one’s faculty of reasoning. It’s impossible for a believer to question any of the claims of his/her religion. The moment that one has dared to question any of the mad claims of religion, is the moment in which one has made himself/herself qualified for eternal damnation. The utter feeling of guilt would dominate one’s mind if one is to commit an act which has some flavours of heresy. This is the key to survival of religion. Once one decides to rationally examine the arrogant, false, absurd, ridiculous and barbaric claims that three monotheistic dogmas make, it’d be inevitable to reach the conclusion that the very fundamental doctrines of these dogmas are nothing but barking mad.
Another major problem with religion is to dress one of the most vicious vices as a virtue, that is to make the false claim that celibacy, or at least chastity, is a virtue. This is because Big Brother wants your love. He wants you to dedicate your entire love to him and not to anyone else. He demands you to be the only thing that is truly loved. As Orwell said, “It’s not enough to obey the Big Brother you must love him” . Religion demands all of one’s love to be dedicated to the blood thirsty God of desert and no one else is to compete for it. This explains religions’ obsession with celibacy and its failure to condemn rape, since rape is a violent act and involves no love, so in the eye of the God of desert it’s the perfect method for reproduction. This is among the many reasons why each time I hear the name of any of the main theistic dogmas I run the risk of choking on my own vomit.
The way that religion has poisoned the attitude of society towards sex is also of great importance. I will, however, refrain from discussing it as it can’t be said better than how Bertrand Russell explains in his “Why I’m not a Christian”.
The price of what religion asks for is simply too high, and we can’t afford paying it. A society in which everyone thinks the same and there is no love for our fellow human beings would be too similar to Orwell’s nightmare vision of “1984” .
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When SpaceCorp was announced on the P500 for GMT Games in November, I immediately added it to my growing list. A Sci-Fi themed game from GMT designed by the great John Butterfield? An easy decision for me as I have played and love some of his other designs, including D-Day at Tarawa from Decision Games. I reached out to John for an interview earlier this year, but due to schedules and other considerations, we just couldn’t get together. But now, we have finally finished up the interview and are ready to share more about the game. All graphics used in the interview are playtest versions. Nothing has been finalized yet.
Grant: You usually design great wargames. What sparked your interest in designing a Sci-Fi themed game like SpaceCorp?
John: I love the subject matter of human expansion out to the stars and have wanted to design a light multi-player space exploration and development game for quite some time. Besides, my game design credits include such science fiction titles as Stargate, Freedom in the Galaxy, Voyage of the Pandora, Universe and Delta Vee.
Grant: What was your inspiration for SpaceCorp?
J ohn: I made a few unsuccessful attempts over the years to design a game on civilization building in the stars, inspired by the Avalon Hill game Civilization. Two years ago, it occurred to me to focus on just the first steps of that story – exploration of the Solar System and the nearby stars. As I developed the idea, I read the book SpaceCorp, the first volume in the Galactican series by Ejner Fulsang, leading me to focus on corporate competition, exotic elements and the search for exo-DNA as driving motivations.
Grant: The game appears to be played over three eras. Why did you design the game with a separate board for each era? What does this element add to the gameplay? What are the changes in game play from Era 1 to 2 and then Era 2 to 3?
John: Three reasons for this approach:
• First is the vast difference in scale between exploring the solar system and the nearby stars, too much difference to depict on one board. The three boards telescope in scale: From Earth to Mars, then the entire solar system, then the stars within 15 light years of Sol.
• Second is inspiration from the game 7 Wonders. That game occurs over three rounds of play each in a different era with its own deck of cards – a simple way to immerse players in cultural and technological advancements. SpaceCorp similarly occurs in three “Acts”.
• Three Eras allow the introduction of more advanced play in stages. The first Era introduces the basic concepts of the game. The second Era adds travel between remote planets, radiation penalties, genetic advancements and tech breakthroughs. The third Era introduces interstellar travel, generational time and colonies.
Grant: What do the regions represent on the game boards?
John: A region represents a large area of space, growing in scale from board to board. A region may have one or more sites. For example, on the Planeteers Board (Era 2) the Jupiter Region has four sites, one for each of Jupiter’s four largest moons; while the Neptune Region has just one site, the moon Triton.
Grant: One thing I’m curious about is why a distance chart showing distance between sites is necessary? Also, how does movement work?
John: Players play movement cards of varying values to move their pieces, called teams, from site to site on the board. The total value of the cards played must equal or exceed the distance of the move, calculated by adding up the values shown on regional borders, plus one for leaving and arriving at a site in a region. The chart on the board shows distances to all sites from the starting site (Earth in Era 1), to save players calculation time. When moving between sites other than Earth, players make the calculations.
Grant: What are the various actions that are available to players? How are Action Cards used?
John: In each of their turns, the player plays cards from their hands to perform one of the following actions: Move a team, explore a site, build a base at an explored site, research (draw new cards), upgrade (place a card on your HQ as infrastructure), produce (gain profit from sites with production capability), genetics (advance your genetics marker toward the goal of gaining adaptations), revelations (toward the goal of gaining tech breakthroughs) and establish a colony (in the Starfarers Era).
Grant: How are discovery tiles used on the game board? What type of discoveries can be found on Discovery Tiles? What type of immediate awards are there?
John: When a player performs the Explore action, they draw a discovery tile and places it on a site occupied by one of their teams. The discovery tiles reveal such finds as exotic elements, water, abundant ores, microbial life and natural wonders. Tiles include benefits such as immediate profit awards, or a modifier to the cost to build a base on the site, advances to genetics or technology, or a production value which the player can convert to profit after building a base on the site.
Grant: Please describe the HQ board and what is tracked on it? What type of technologies are available for players?
John: The primary purpose of these player mats, called HQs, is to hold cards played as infrastructure, infra for short. Certain cards offer an option to be played as an upgrade infra action. When a player does so, they place the card on their HQ instead of playing it as a one-time action. Infra can be used by the player on an ongoing basis whenever performing an action of the type shown on the infra card. Players can play cards as infra to upgrade their move, build and explore actions. For example, a Move 2 card played as infra then gives the player a +2 to every subsequent move action.
Grant: What are Edges and how are they used?
John: Edges are special cards playable at specified times outside the normal action sequence. An Edge may allow you to steal a card, take an extra turn, block another player’s action, or gain extra profit for a contract.
Grant: What is the purpose of bases and how do they boost values of specific actions?
John: Building a base is the third action in the sequence of developing a site in SpaceCorp. First you move a team to a site, such as Phobos, then the team explores the site, revealing discoveries. Finally, you conduct an action to build a base on the explored site. Bases represent your permanent presence on the site and allow you to conduct actions originating at the site such as production (if you discovered resources on the site) or moving your team from there to an unexplored site. The only action a team can perform when on a site without a base is to move back to a site with a base. There are nine different base types players can build, each with prerequisites and additional benefits. For example, you can build a Spaceport base at a site with no gravity. A spaceport adds to the allowed distance of a move action from a site. A refinery base can be built on a site with resources and increases the profit from production performed there.
Grant: I understand that if you use another player’s base they receive rewards. Why was this included in the design?
John: Although the players are in competition with each other, they are also doing business with each other. Players can use other player’s bases and infra. You might need to use another players spaceport to gain the extra move value you need to move your team to a remote site. Or you might use another player’s build infra to amass the build value needed to construct a base. When a player uses your base or infra you are rewarded with a free card draw. Nothing is free.
Grant: How does an Era end and what happens if the game is to continue?
John: Each Era ends when the players have fulfilled six of the seven contracts available in that Era OR when the Era’s card deck runs out, whichever occurs first. When an Era ends, players retain their infrastructure played, their profit, and the production capability of one base per player. Also, players who explored the furthest in the completed Era will begin the next Era with a head start via advantageous placement of their teams. The completed board is then cleared of pieces and the board for the next Era is set up.
Grant: How do players win the game? Are victory points scored throughout or only at the end? What type of goals do they have such as contracts, etc.?
John: The player with the most profit wins the game. There are several ways to gain profit – discoveries, producing resources, being the first to achieve genetic or technological breakthroughs and fulfilling contracts. Each Era has seven contracts offering profit for the first base built on Mars, or bases built in three regions beyond Jupiter, for certain combination of infra upgrades, and various other objectives. In the third Era, interstellar colonies can generate profit, depending on the type of colony established. At the end of the game, players earn additional profit based on the number of colonies established.
Grant: What game variants are included? How does the solo variant work?
John: Players can choose to start and end the game with any of the three Eras. This allows play of short games consisting of a single Era lasting about an hour, or games of two Eras, or the full three Era game, lasting about four hours.
Solo SpaceCorp is played as one continuous game through all three Eras. You play your side exactly as you would in the multi-player game, while the actions of competing organizations are represented by the solo system controlling your aggregated competition. Between your actions you draw cards, referring to the special solo section of the card to reveal where competition teams appear, what they discover, when they build bases, and how much profit they gain. At the end of the Starfarers Era, you win the game if you have more profit than your competition.
Grant: What has been Players response to the game? How has the game changed through playtesting? Please give a few specific examples.
John: At this point (July 2017) we are in late playtesting stages for the multi-player game. Players like the narrative qualities of the game and the wide range of strategy options available over the course of the three Eras. I am very fortunate to be working with Chad and Kai Jensen on the development and refinement of the game. Chad is the designer of Combat Commander, Dominant Species, Urban Sprawl and the upcoming Welcome to Centreville. SpaceCorp has benefited from his considerable experience with multiplayer games. Some discoveries, edges and action effects have been tuned during testing to increase their positive impact while reducing the tendency to pick on a single player.
Thanks for your time in answering our questions John. We appreciate your work and I personally am really looking forward to playing SpaceCorp. If you are interested in ordering the game, it is still on P500 on the GMT Games’ site at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-613-spacecorp.aspx
-Grant |
The KS Experiment series is a new type of blog entry where we feature a different, new, or innovative method for Kickstarter projects to be more attractive to backers and creators. We’re not advocating these ideas–we’re just putting them out there to get feedback in the polls and comments.
I’ve been having some interesting, inspiring conversations with one of the owners of Cool Mini or Not, Chern, today in the comments of this blog entry and this one (his insights are definitely worth reading).
For a while now I’ve been toying around with a new model for Kickstarter projects in terms of early birds, exclusives, premium options, and pricing structures, and Chern’s insights have made me want to delve deeper into them.
I currently don’t have a Kickstarter project in the works, so it seems like a good time to get your thoughts on this model (see polls and comments below). It’s an amalgamation of a bunch of different ideas and mostly applies to board games, but it could work for other project categories too.
Please note that I’m neither for or against any of these ideas–at this point I’m just gauging the wisdom of my readers to see what they think.
Picture this stretch goal chart on a project page (obviously it would be much prettier):
Here’s what’s going on in this chart:
Pricing Based on Current Stretch Goals
Basically, it’s a different type of early bird structure. Instead of being based purely on time, it’s based on stretch goals. Every time you reach a big stretch goal, the Kickstarter price goes up by $2 to both reflect the increase in price and to reward backers who bought into the game when it didn’t include extra stuff (regardless of when you pledge, all KS copies include all stretch goals). I would close the $39 reward level and open a new reward at $41. You could add extra copies of games for the same price as your reward level, so there’s a big benefit to locking in the best price early on.
There is still an element of timing to the pricing structure, but it’s in the hands of the backers (note that I didn’t even consider limiting price to a certain number of backers–I don’t see any reason to do that). As soon as the $30,000 stretch goal is reached, the clock starts ticking for the big stretch goal to follow. And even if you aren’t available to pledge until after a stretch goal is reached and the price goes up, it only goes up by $2. If the project does really well, the price could keep going up, but likely I would cap it at $49 so the reward sidebar doesn’t get too cluttered.
One downside to this reward structure is that it would make my beloved premium option very difficult. I’d like to find a way to include it at $59 (some sort of Collector’s Edition), but the gap between $39 and $59 is pretty big, and I wouldn’t want to change the premium option every time I updated the base reward price.
Post-KS Enhancement Pack
There wouldn’t be any KS exclusives, but all stretch goals would be separated into an “enhancement pack” available for $20-$25 directly from Stonemaier Games post-Kickstarter. Also, there would be one constant group/retail pledge level throughout the project at $350, including shipping (it would be for the full KS game with all stretch goals).
Keep in mind that this is a departure from what we’ve done in the past. Usually our stretch goals make every copy of the game better. In this case, backers would be creating additional stuff, but they get it for free, while non-backers have to add it separately. Now that I’ve written it out, it actually isn’t all that different than what we did with Tuscany–non-backers can get all the stuff, but they have to pay more (they get it all together instead of in two separate boxes).
Separate Shipping
The last detail is that all individual shipping costs would be paid separately post-Kickstarter (as inspired by Zombicide Season 3). There are a few reasons for doing this: I think it offers backers the most accurate portrayal of the product value. I know it’s standard on Kickstarter to include US shipping (and for us, Canada, UK, Germany, China, and Taiwan) in the cost of the reward, but the negative side effect is that backers view the product as a $39 game ($60 MSRP), while really they’re getting a $60 MSRP game for $29, then they’re paying $10 shipping. $29 is not an accurate value for a $60 MSRP game. The alternative is to charge $49, but backers are still comparing that price to the $60 MSRP.
If we tried something like that for shipping, I would include a chart very similar to the one we use now that offers set pricing for the each region–it wouldn’t vary based on weight. And it would be very clearly noted in the reward level that shipping costs would be paid post-project via something like BackerKit.
I have a feeling that idea will meet the most resistance, but keep in mind that the reward price will be lower on Kickstarter as a result–you’re not paying more than you usually would. You’re paying the same amount you normally would on our campaign, but the money will be exchanged after the project instead of during it.
Also, as Itai noted in the comments, this function could be completed on Kickstarter by simply asking all backers to add-on shipping during the project (including US backers). I’ve found that many backers have trouble adding funds to their pledge, though.
These are the three ideas, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments and the polls below. Thanks! |
Quite often when I am interviewed, I get the question: What precisely do you mean by “capitalism”? It’s an excellent question. The great debate among capitalism, fascism, and socialism suffers from a lack of clear language.
For example, the lackluster growth in the United States and Europe has prompted countless pundits to declare a “crisis of capitalism.” Huh? It’s been more than a century since governments let these economies grow on their own without bludgeoning them with regulations, taxing and looting the public, littering financial systems with paper money, cartelizing producers, shoveling welfare, prohibiting and hobbling a huge range of production and consumption, prohibiting labor exchanges, and funding gigantic public works.
The legal and economic arrangements that transformed the U.S. and Europe in the 19th century are long gone, replaced early in the 20th century by large and growing governments that recognize no limits to their power. This is the terrible reality that no remaining candidate for president even dares question.
To be sure, some advocates of market liberty believe that the term “capitalism” should be jettisoned permanently because it causes confusion. People might think that you favor using the state to back big business capital against labor or using public policy in a way that supports prominent producers over consumers.
Some people like to distinguish between capitalism and crony capitalism. For example, many American retailers these days are hoping for an increase in tariffs and import quotas in a way that will protect their products against foreign competition. That is, they want to use government power to guarantee their profits. It seems to me that this is better described as pure cronyism. Leave the capitalism part out of it.
If a term elucidates an idea with accuracy, great. If it causes confusion, change it. Language is constantly evolving. No particular arrangement of letters embeds an immutable meaning. And what is at stake in this debate about market freedom (or capitalism or laissez faire or the free market) is of profound importance.
It’s the substance, not the words, we should care about.
Here are five core elements to this idea of market freedom, or whatever you want to call it. It is my short summary of the classical liberal vision of the free society and its functioning, which isn’t just about economics, but the whole of life itself. Call it capitalism if you want to.
I. Volition. Markets are about human choice at every level of society. These choices extend to every sector and every individual. You can choose your work. No one can force you into labor. At the same time, you can’t impose yourself on any employer. No one can force you to buy anything, but neither can you force someone to sell to you. Choice means agreement between all those parties to the exchange.
This right of choice recognizes the infinite diversity within the human family (whereas state policy has to assume people are interchangeable units). Some people feel a calling to lead lives of prayer and contemplation in a community of religious believers. Others have a talent for managing high-risk hedge funds. Others favor the arts, or accounting, or any profession or calling that you can imagine. Whatever your calling, you are free to pursue “anything peaceful,” as Leonard Read, the founder of FEE, liked to say.
You are the chooser, but in your relations with others, “agreement” is the watchword. This implies maximum freedom for everyone in society. It also implies a maximum role for what are called “civil liberties.” It means freedom of speech, freedom to consume, freedom to buy and sell, freedom to advertise, freedom to hire someone who once lived on the other side of the national border, and so on. No one set of choices is legally privileged over others.
II. Ownership. In a world of infinite abundance, there would be no need for ownership. But as long as we live in the material world, there will be potential conflicts over scarce resources. These conflicts can be resolved through fighting over things or through the recognition of property rights. If we prefer peace over war, volition over violence, productivity over poverty, all scarce resources -- without exception -- need private owners.
Everyone can use his or her property in any peaceful way. There are no accumulation mandates or limits on accumulation. Society cannot declare anyone too rich, nor prohibit voluntary asceticism by declaring anyone too poor. At no point can anyone take what is yours without your permission. You can reassign ownership rights to heirs after you die.
Socialism is not really an option in the material world. There can be no collective ownership of anything materially scarce. One or another faction will assert control in the name of society. Inevitably, the faction will be the most powerful in society -- that is, the state. This is why all attempts to create socialism in scarce goods or services devolve into totalitarian systems of top-down planning (planned chaos, Mises called it).
III. Cooperation. Volition and ownership grant the right to anyone to live in a state of pure autarky. On the other hand, that won’t get you very far. You will be poor, and your life will be short. People need people to obtain a better life. We trade to our mutual betterment. We cooperate in work. We develop every form of association with each other: commercial, familial, fraternal, and religious. The lives of all of us are improved by our capacity to cooperate in some form with other people.
In a society based on volition, ownership, and cooperation, networks of human association develop across time and space (and especially across national borders) to create the complexities of the social and economic order. No one is the master of anyone else. If we want to succeed in life, we come to value serving each other in the best ways we can. Businesses serve consumers. Managers serve employees, just as employees serve businesses.
A free society is a society of extended friendship. It is a society of service and benevolence.
IV. Learning. No one is born into this world knowing much of anything. We learn from our parents and teachers, but more importantly, we learn from the infinite bits of information that come to us every instant of the day all throughout our lives. We observe success and failure in others, and we are free to accept or reject these lessons as we see fit. In a free society, we are free to emulate others, accumulate and apply wisdom, read and absorb ideas, and extract information from any source to adapt for our own uses.
All of the information we come across in our lives, provided it is obtained non-coercively, is a free good, not subject to the limits of scarcity, because it is infinitely copyable. You can own it, and I can own it, and everyone can own it without limit and without depletion.
Here we find the “socialist” side of the capitalist system. The recipes for success and failure are everywhere and available for the taking. This is why the very notion of “intellectual property” is inimical to freedom. It always implies coercing people and thereby violating the principles of volition, authentic ownership, and cooperation.
V. Competition. When people think of capitalism, competition is perhaps the first idea that comes to mind. But the idea is widely misunderstood. It doesn’t mean that there must be several suppliers of every good or service, or that there must be a certain number of producers of anything. It means only that there should be no legal (coercive) limits on the ways in which we are permitted to serve each other. And there really are infinite ways in which this can take place.
In sports, competition has a goal: to win. Competition has a goal in the market economy, too: service to the consumer through ever increasing degrees of excellence. This excellence can come from providing better and cheaper products or services, or from providing innovations that meet people’s needs better than existing products or services. It doesn’t mean “killing” the competition; it means striving to do a better job than anyone else.
Every competitive act is a risk, a leap into an unknown future. Whether the judgment was right or wrong is ratified by the system of profit and loss, which are signals that serve as objective measures of whether resources are being used wisely or not. These signals are derived from prices established freely on the market -- which is to say that they reflect prior agreements among choosing individuals.
Unlike in sports, there is no endpoint to the competition. It is a process that never ends. There is no final winner; there is an ongoing rotation of excellence among the players. And anyone can join the game, provided they go about it peacefully.
Summary. There we have it: volition, ownership, cooperation, learning, and competition. That’s capitalism as I understand it, as described in the liberal tradition improved by many great thinkers in the course of the the 20th and 21st centuries. It is not a system so much as a social setting for all times and places that favor human flourishing.
It’s not hard to discern my political outlook, then: If it fits with these pillars, I’m for it; if it does not, I’m against it. Now, you tell me: Is the crisis in the U.S. and Europe really a crisis of capitalism? On the contrary, an authentic liberalism (capitalism) is the solution to the greatest crises facing the world today. |
After tracking asteroid 99942 Apophis with NASA's giant Goldstone radar dish, astronomers are now certain that the threatening asteroid has essentially no chance of striking Earth in 2036.
Astronomers surely enjoy dramatic stories as much as the rest of us. But today they played spoilers with the welcome announcement that the sizable Earth-crossing asteroid 99942 Apophis will pose no threat when it comes near our planet in 2036.
[fw-embed-media url="https://s22380.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Apophis_encounter_2013.jpg" url_large="" alt="Orbits of Apophis and Earth" caption="The asteroid Apophis passed within 9 million miles of Earth on January 9, 2013 — a preview of a very-much-closer encounter in 2029. Click here for an interactive version of this orbital view." credits="NASA / JPL" width="" height="" align="right"]Right now Apophis is in the midst of a rather distant yet much-awaited pass in Earth's vicinity, coming within 9 million miles (14½ million km) earlier today. It's been tracked for about 2½ weeks by NASA's 230-foot (70-m) Goldstone radio/radar dish in California, and those observations have given astronomers the confidence to issue an "all clear" for the foreseeable future.
"Goldstone single-pixel observations of Apophis have ruled out the potential 2036 Earth impact," says Jon Giorgini, a dynamicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Based on revised orbit calculations, he says Apophis will then come no closer than about 14 million miles — and more likely miss us by something closer to 35 million miles. Moreover, the radar data have improved the asteroid's positional uncertainty so much that dynamicists can now accurately predict its trajectory decades into the future.
"We're observing it at 75-meter resolution, which is better than we expected," notes Lance Benner (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), who's leading the radar effort. "The signal-to-noise ratios [of the radar echoes] are a bit stronger than we thought they'd be, so the radar astrometry is more precise than we expected."
Apophis was discovered in 2004 by observers Roy Tucker, David Tholen, and Fabrizio Bernardi. At first, orbital computations suggested that this near-Earth asteroid, initially designated 2004 MN 4 , had a 3% chance of striking our planet in 2029. About a year later, it was named Apophis, for the Egyptian god of evil and destruction. (An apt name, don't you think?) Fortunately, by then prediscovery observations had led to a revised orbit, which ruled out an impact in 2029.
[fw-embed-media url="https://s22380.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Apophis-2029-flyby.jpg" url_large="" alt="Apophis and Earth in 2029" caption="On Friday the 13th in April 2029, a 1,000-foot-wide asteroid named Apophis will pass close enough to Earth (within 20,000 miles) to briefly appear as a 3rd-magnitude star in the night sky." credits="Dan Durda" width="" height="" align="right"]But we weren't out of danger yet. A collision remained possible in 2036, and the chance of that hinged on the near-miss flyby in 2029, when Apophis will zip by just 20,000 miles (32,000 km) away. Were that to occur at a particular spot in space, what dynamicists call a keyhole, an impact would become very likely on the return visit in 2036. The problem is that the orbital specs of Apophis weren't known accurately enough to predict exactly where it would fly past in 2029.
Adding to the uncertainty is the extent to which a subtle force, known as the Yarkovsky effect, might be altering the asteroid's orbit. This effect is caused by the uneven way that a spinning body absorbs sunlight and then reradiates it back to space. Ground-based observers determined that Apophis rotates in 30½ hours, but it likely has more than one period involving multiple spin axes.
The object's shape and spin orientation are unknown — and might remain open questions until 2029. "We might get coarse-resolution images that barely resolve the object and indicate its orientation," explains Benner, "but even that could be optimistic."
Conceivably, gentle but persistent nudging from the Yarkovsky effect might have pushed Apophis straight through the 2029 keyhole. But again, says Giorgini, there's no longer any chance of that. The Goldstone observations have "shrunk the orbital uncertainties so much that, regardless of what the still-unknown physical parameters of Apophis might be, radiation pressure can't be enough to move the measurement uncertainty region enough to encounter the Earth in 2036."
Were this asteroid to hit us, very bad things would happen. Apophis is an estimated 900 feet (270 m) across, and it would strike with the kinetic-energy equivalent of roughly 500 million tons of TNT.
[fw-embed-media url="https://s22380.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Apophis_Herschel_model.jpg" url_large="" alt="Temperatures on Apophis" caption="Using infrared observations from the Herschel space telescope, astronomers have estimated the range of temperatures on the surface of Apophis (350 Kelvins corresponds to about 170°F). However, the asteroid's shape is most likely elongated, not spherical." credits="ESA / T. M?ºller" width="" height="" align="right"]Just-released infrared observations from the European Space Agency's Herschel spacecraft suggest that the diameter of Apophis might be some 20% larger . "“The 20% increase in diameter, from 270 to 325 m, translates into a 75% increase in our estimates of the asteroid’s volume or mass,” says Thomas Müller (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), who is coordinating the Herschel observations. However, his team's modeling assumes that Apophis is spherical — and the actual shape is thought to be elongated.
We haven't heard the last word on this little interplanetary demon. Goldstone radar observations of Apophis will continue through January 17th, and additional tracking is planned next month with the giant Arecibo radio dish in Puerto Rico. All that pinging should yield super-accurate positional data and, perhaps, reveal the asteroid's shape and spin state.
But the worry about Apophis has only been postponed, not eliminated. Its orbit is not all that different from Earth's, and some day in the distant future the two bodies will either have a catastrophic collision — or an encounter so close that Earth's gravity will yank Apophis onto a new and significantly different interplanetary path.
In fact, "The 2068 impact probability for Apophis is now one in 189,000," notes Rusty Schweickart (cofounder of the asteroid-monitoring B612 Foundation), "which is higher than the 2036 impact probability was." |
The US has just missed a deadline to close the prison camp A task force on the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has advised that 47 inmates should be held indefinitely without trial, officials say. It is thought to be the first time that officials have given a figure for those who might be held without charge. A US civil liberties group has said detainees should not be held without due process in Guantanamo or elsewhere. The news came as the deadline US President Barack Obama had set himself for closing the prison camp passed. The task force, led by the US justice department, recommended that while 35 people could be prosecuted through trials or military tribunals, 110 could be released either now or at a later date, unnamed officials said. The other nearly 50 detainees are considered too dangerous to release, but cannot be tried because the evidence against them is too flimsy or was extracted from them by coercion, so would not hold up in court. 'Dismay' Congress has laid down that only those to be tried can be moved to US soil, so the question of what to do with those to be detained indefinitely without trial has yet to be resolved. Just as important as closing the prison quickly is closing it right
Anthony Romero
American Civil Liberties Union The BBC's Adam Brookes says the outcome will dismay many of Mr Obama's supporters, who had hoped the president would end the practice of detention without trial. The American Civil Liberties Union was quick to react to the task force's reported recommendations. "Just as important as closing the prison quickly is closing it right, and that means putting an end to the illegal policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial," said the group's executive director, Anthony Romero. "This practice was wrong in Cuba and would remain so here [in the US], reducing the closure of Guantanamo to a symbolic gesture." A White House official stressed that this was only a recommendation, which Mr Obama does not have to accept. The task force's findings are subject to review by the National Security Council. More than 40 detainees have been transferred out of the prison under the Obama administration. But diplomatic hurdles and domestic opposition to the government's plan to house suspects on US soil have hampered his plans to close it down completely. Plans to move detainees approved for trial to a prison facility in Illinois remain under consideration. Yemen suspension The task force recommended that among those cleared for release, 80 detainees, including about 30 Yemenis, could be freed immediately, the Washington Post said. The panel said the release of another 30 Yemenis should be contingent on an improved situation in Yemen, the newspaper reported. However, the US recently suspended the repatriation of Yemeni prisoners indefinitely, following an airliner bomb plot that was allegedly planned in Yemen. Yemenis account for approximately half of the inmates at Guantanamo. Mr Obama set himself the 22 January deadline a year ago, shortly after being sworn in. He has subsequently said he wants the camp closed this year, without setting a specific deadline.
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Alex Flanagan, who had been a sideline reporter for NBC’s national broadcast of Notre Dame football games since 2007, is being replaced, sources tell The Big Lead. Flanagan had also been a reporter for NBC’s Sunday Night Football pregame show, and sources say she will no longer appear on the program.
NBC Sports spokesman Chris McCloskey said in a statement to The Big Lead: “We are fine-tuning our Notre Dame coverage and will reveal our new plans closer to the start of the season. Alex will not be with us in South Bend, but she remains in the NBC family.”
It’s unclear who NBC is going to replace Flanagan with on Notre Dame games, but sources at the network say that three of the names that have been discussed are Julie Donaldson (Comcast Mid-Atlantic), Liam McHugh (does a little bit of everything for the network) and Carolyn Manno (NBCSN’s SportsDash and Football Night in America). It is unclear whether or not Notre Dame has to approve the sideline reporter.
Sources say that shifting into Flanagan’s spot on the NFL pregame show – she previously reported from the afternoon games – will be Josh Elliott, who the network hired in March. He’ll be a features reporter.
Flanagan, who will still be working for the NFL Network this Fall, didn’t respond to a text message today seeking comment.
[UPDATE: Flanagan emailed The Big Lead a statement: “I’m grateful for the time I spent on the sideline in South Bend. I will truly miss the Notre Dame community. I’ll still work with NBC Sports on other projects. I’ll have more news about where I’ll be spending my fall weekends soon.” ] |
In this post I’d like to talk about one of the things I love the most in tech, which is my favorite Linux distribution, called Arch Linux and why I chose it as my main OS.
About Arch Linux
Arch was created in 2002 by Judd Vinet in Canada and is now led by Aaron Griffin and other developers. It was inspired by CRUX and aims to be a simple and lightweight distribution with optimized packages for the i686 and x86-64 architectures.
According to the Arch wiki: The design approach of the development team follows the KISS principle (“keep it simple, stupid”) as the general guideline, and focuses on elegance, code correctness, minimalism and simplicity, and expects the user to be willing to make some effort to understand the system’s operation. A package manager written specifically for Arch Linux, pacman, is used to install, remove and update software packages.
Arch Linux uses a rolling release model, such that a regular system update is all that is needed to obtain the latest Arch software; the installation images released by the Arch team are simply up-to-date snapshots of the main system components
A little bit of my history with Linux
My history with Linux started a little bit before December 2006 with a Brazilian distribution based on Debian that no longer exists, called Kurumin. I just knew that I had to learn something different from Windows, because come on, I was about to start my Computer Science course, so I decided I had to know about technology in a deeper level. It should be more than just clicking and dragging a mouse on Windows.
Everybody was using Windows, but this idea of Linux really attracted me. It was an easy migration for me, as KDE doesn’t and didn’t use to look so different from Windows at that time either. After a while I started reading more about Linux distributions and got interested in Debian, as Kurumin was based on Debian. I thought: Why not go for the source, the father (or mother?), instead of using something based on it?
I found Debian harder to install and configure for the beginner that I was at the time, but kept digging deeper and asking questions on forums, slowly learning more about it. The more I learned, the more motivated I’d get to know more about it, because I was not only learning how Linux works, but about Unix and operational systems in general. When I realised I could assemble my own OS with the packages I wanted, curiosity spoke louder and I was already completely involved in it.
It was amazing to discover I could choose among many desktop environments instead of being trapped in just one of them, like I was when using Windows. It was very insteresting to discover too that they were made of packages that would run on the X server, so even if the graphic part would crash, I could just kill it and run it again, unlike MS Windows that doesn’t have that separation between graphic and text mode and I’d have to Ctrl+alt+del it and restart the whole system. Another thing I found really great was the apt package manager. I didn’t need to go to many websites and download the softwares I wanted, because I could just do an ‘apt-get install nameofsoftware’ and it would download and install it for me. No more next next finish, no more clicking and that was so practical. In order to update the whole system, I just needed to use the package manager as well, so that was great.
My curiosity led me to try Slackware for some time, but the lack of a package manager with repositories and automatic dependency solving made me lose so much time that I didn’t stick with it for so long, even though it was interesting to learn about a new distribution and how it worked differently from Debian. I felt it was just not practical, though I could configure it just as I wanted. I learned about the KISS philosophy because of Slackware and started to adopt it.
I went back to Debian and used it as my main distribution until 2008, when I decided to try Arch Linux after reading a lot of good things about it. It was just love at first sight, after I discovered how customizable it is and that I could do anything I’d like to with it in a very simple way. Since 2008, I’ve tried many other distributions, most notably Fedora for some months, but wasn’t able to stay away from Arch Linux for too long. I had already been spoiled by Arch and its simplicity, its KISS philosophy. Fedora just had so many wizards for everything and I understood that those are layers of unnecessary complexity when you can just change some values in a text file to make things work (Arch way) instead. Here are some of the things I love about Arch Linux and that made me choose it and until today not even think about replacing it for any other distribution:
Pacman
This is the name of Arch’s package manager. Since I started using Linux, I’ve used apt (Kurumin, Debian, Ubuntu), yum (Fedora) and others, but by far pacman is the best package manager for me. It’s fast, you need just one command to update the repositories and upgrade de system (pacman -Syu), instead of two (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade), it installs packages that are in the hard drive as well instead of in repositories, no need for a different command for that (like dpkg), and have I mentioned that it’s fast? It also handles dependencies very well and the repositories have a plethora of packages. I broke many things with apt and dpkg, but never with pacman.
Read more about it on Arch Wiki
ABS (Arch Build System)
ABS is a ports-like system. Ports is a system used by *BSD to automate the process of building software from source code. So for example, if you don’t wanna use the Firefox binary package that is easily available on Arch’s repositories via pacman because you wanna change something on it to enable or disable a feature, you have access through ABS to the PKGBUILD file with the instructions used for compiling the Firefox package, so you can change them, compile it and install your own Firefox package instead, optimized the way you want. I’ve configured the compiler once to work in an optimized way for my specific CPU, then compiled all the LXDE packages from ABS and installed them. I noticed they were running a little bit faster after that.
AUR (Arch User Repository)
Arch Linux packages are infinite, because if you don’t have a package in the official repositores to install via pacman, you may almost certainly find it in the AUR, which stands for Arch User Repository. Even if you can’t find it there because nobody added it yet, you can do it yourself and become the maintainer for that package. You just need to check other packages and how their PKGBUILD file with instructions was created, then create one for the package you want and upload it in the AUR website. Recently AUR started using git for its packages, so it’s even better now. You just need to push the changes. The packages are usually compiled from source code, so it works similar to ABS in that sense, but in the AUR there are also some proprietary software that don’t have the source code available. In that case, the binary will be downloaded and a package will be created with it.
According to the wiki: A good number of new packages that enter the official repositories start in the AUR. In the AUR, users are able to contribute their own package builds (PKGBUILD and related files). The AUR community has the ability to vote for or against packages in the AUR. If a package becomes popular enough — provided it has a compatible license and good packaging technique — it may be entered into the community repository (directly accessible by pacman or abs).
Read more about it on Arch Wiki
Rolling release
The rolling release model is certainly one of my favorite things about Arch Linux. Instead of having to do an apt-get dist-upgrade or something similar every 6 months or so (and risk breaking everything), in order to get the most recent version of the distribution, Arch just doesn’t release any version. That means that after I update the entire system with one single ‘pacman -Syu’ command, I have the most recent version of Arch. Why not have it this way? It just works and during all these years my system was never left broken after an update, even though the packages are usually the latest available (bleeding edge).
Read more about Arch compared to other distributions
The Arch Wiki
That’s the most complete documentation I’ve ever seen about a distribution. The wiki is so complete that I never had to ask anything in the forums. Whenever the developers decide to change something about how Arch will work, all the steps the user needs to take will be written in the wiki and even the problems that might happen in the process. It’s really complete.
Distros that are based on Arch Linux
Due to the success of the distribution, many based ones started to appear. They usually come with an installer that does everything for the user and also some software by default. That’s useful for when you just wanna install it as fast as possible and already start using it having to configure the least possible. At work for example, I decided to give Manjaro a try instead of using Ubuntu. Besides Manjaro, other ones worth trying are Chackra (heavily geared towards KDE) and more recently Apricity OS, which I still haven’t tried on the date I’m writing this post, but it looks interesting.
Read more about Arch based distributions: |
The new bike path connects the east and west portions of the Santa Clara River Trail, making for a smoother, safer ride. Also note dedicated sidewalk for pedestrians. Photos by Joe Lemon/Metro. Newly widened bridge with dedicated bike path and protected sidewalk. Local officials celebrate the official completion of the McBean Bridge Widening and Bike Path Project.
The city of Santa Clarita held a ribbon cutting ceremony this morning to celebrate the completion of the McBean Bridge Widening and Bike Path Project. The project was funded with $3.775 million through Metro’s 2009 Call for Projects. The city contributed $3.088 million.
The McBean Bridge Widening and Bike Path Project includes the widening of the McBean Parkway Bridge to eight lanes to improve traffic flow, the addition of a raised landscaped median and asphalt improvements.
The project also added a dedicated bike path and protected sidewalk on the bridge to connect the Santa Clara River Trail and the South River Trail. An additional trail connection beneath the north side of the bridge to connect the east and west portions of the Santa Clara River Trail was also built, providing improved connectivity for bicyclists and pedestrians.
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Internationally renowned human rights lawyer Amal Clooney gave an impassioned speech at the United Nations Thursday, urging the organization to investigate crimes committed by ISIS in Iraq.
Yet here's how some news sites chose to cover the event:
Amal Clooney shows off her baby bump at the United Nations https://t.co/0Vkr8aad1D
Rather than highlight the substance of Clooney's speech, multiple news and entertainment publications chose to focus on her "baby bump" instead. Clooney is expecting twins with her husband, actor George Clooney.
Here are some of the headlines that circulated in the days before — and on the day of — Clooney's UN speech:
Remarkably, most of these stories acknowledge that Clooney was indeed visiting the UN, suggesting at least partial awareness that she was on official business. Yet as is often the case with women, these observers seemed more interested in her physical appearance and personal life than her professional accomplishments.
Twitter users were quick to highlight this sexist double standard to Time:
@TIME she was talking about sexual slavery and Isis.
@TIME This is lazy and sexist journalism, period.
@TIME ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??
@TIME @motto wow. I am shocked at how disrespectful that headline is to the critical work she was doing.
TIME updated the post late Thursday morning with a new headline.
Amal Clooney is no stranger to this dynamic. In 2015, the Associated Press drew similar criticism for posting a tweet about the human rights lawyer referring to her as an "actor's wife."
Amal Clooney, actor's wife, representing Al-Jazeera journalist accused in Egypt of ties to extremists http://t.co/i6nQg0xPg3
Yet despite it all, Clooney's dogged efforts to investigate ISIS continue.
"I am speaking to you, the Iraqi government, and to you, U.N. member states, when I ask: Why? Why has nothing been done?" Clooney said to the UN Thursday, according to the Washington Post. "Don't let ISIS get away with genocide."
March 10, 2017, 11:11 a.m.: This post has been updated. |
On the 26th and 27th of June 2015, in Badia Fiesolana, Florenza, Italy, a conference in Italy attempted to answer one complex question: what is the future of Basic Income (BI) research? The conference at the European University Institute approached this question through a variety of lenses, from philosophy to economics, and attempted to intersect these various disciplines.
“Moving away from purely normative justifications, there has been an increasing attention to topics at the intersection of philosophy and economics within the literature”, the event topic summary reported.
The event was organized by Max Weber Fellows Robert Lepenies and Juliana Bidadanure, as well as other professors interested in the BI concept, according to the conference schedule.
Other covered topics included the political feasibility of BI and the implications of BI activism on research about the subject.
The conference included papers that were selected from a competitive call for abstracts. In total, there were 22 papers discussed. An abstract of an accepted paper entitled “Basic Income, Direct Cash and Normative change” argues that the BI model empowers the poor.
“Several studies and experiments show that DC is a cost-efficient way of ensuring long-term improvement of living standards, as the monetary support is invested in housing, health, education, improves employment prospects, and supports positive and peaceful political transformation. The novelty of DC lies however also in the way it treats aid recipients: as autonomous, not passive beneficiaries”, that abstract resumed.
On the second day of the conference Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght’s new book on basic income was discussed.
European University Institute Florence, “The Future of Basic Income Research“, Max Weber Multidisciplinary Conference, June 26-27, 2015. |
Speaking at a press conference attended by some 200 Iranian and foreign reporters in Tehran on Tuesday, President Rouhani pointed to the recent remarks made by US President-elect Donald Trump against the nuclear deal, and stressed that the idea of re-negotiating JCPOA [raised by Trump] is nonsense.
“Negotiations have been aimed at concluding the final deal, and have taken several years to complete,” Rouhani noted in the press conference held on the first anniversary of JCPOA implementation day.
“JCPOA is not such a deal that someone elected somewhere in the world says I don’t like it,” he added, referring to Trump’s opposition to the nuclear accord, according to a report by IFP.
“The US President-elect cannot dislike this deal. As Holy Quran says, you might dislike something while it is in your interest. The new US president doesn’t know that JCPOA benefits him,” Rouhani said, reiterating that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is a win-win deal.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he noted that the historic deal over Iran’s nuclear program and its implementation has belied the claims against the country seeking weapons of mass destruction and demonstrated the honesty and sincerity of the Islamic Republic.
Rouhani further noted that those who claimed that Iran sought to develop nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction were speaking unjustly and unjustifiably and they should be ashamed of themselves now.
“Very few pundits believed that the issue of PMD (Possible Military Dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program) would be resolved, and the International [Atomic Energy] Agency would admit that Iran’s outstanding issues had ended,” the Iranian president said.
Describing the JCPOA as “a great national achievement,” Rouhani said, “The closure of this dossier amounted to a moral victory for the great Iranian nation.”
Rouhani stressed that all nuclear-related sanctions against the Islamic Republic have been removed after implementation of the JCPOA started, adding that there are no more bans in the gas, oil and transport sectors, Press TV reported.
He added that, however, the US, given its hostility toward the Islamic Republic, has been creating obstacles in the banking transactions between Tehran and the rest of the world.
Rouhani said Iran “is standing with great might and powerfully against” the violations of the JCPOA, adding, however, that “we have not acted and will not act hastily, because national interests are a principle for us and we will always bear in mind these interests.” |
Re: Follow up the HRC idea re; foundation
I understand why you guys are eager to do this but I really worry worry about the look of the stake out footage outside a fundraiser. Also, I imagine she will have to answer more questions next week post WJC and post release of the book. Why not wait and try to do just once? Mandy Grunwald Grunwald Communications 202 973-9400 > On Apr 29, 2015, at 11:37 PM, Joel Benenson <[email protected]> wrote: > > Agree with Jen. > Also tend to agree with her going before him. Anything other than her taking quid pro quo of the table, included what would say first, won't take questions about her actions off the table. > > Joel Benenson > Benenson Strategy Group > > On Apr 29, 2015, at 11:15 PM, Mandy Grunwald <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Why do you think she needs to do this before WJC? >> >> Mandy Grunwald >> Grunwald Communications >> 202 973-9400 >> >> >> On Apr 29, 2015, at 11:12 PM, Robby Mook <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Ditto with John. Would need to be prepared for more...but would be fantastic to limit to one. >>> >>>> On Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 11:11 PM, John Podesta <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> Fine with the proposed way of handling what she says, but hard setting to take only one question. >>>> >>>>> On Apr 29, 2015 8:02 PM, "Jennifer Palmieri" <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> First, thanks to all for the marathon session today, I thought we got >>>>> a lot of good work done. >>>>> >>>>> Second, I wanted to follow up on HRC idea of doing the video. Having >>>>> thought about it and talked to Craig and Maura about it - I don't >>>>> think it is good idea for her to do. There aren't great answers and >>>>> in many cases not her place to answer them. >>>>> >>>>> But I think it does make sense for her to publicly state that she >>>>> never did anything at state to help a donor. Philippe has been a >>>>> proponent of this. She could frame it this way: >>>>> >>>>> 1) very proud of Clinton foundation work. >>>>> 2) think people donate to it bc they want to support good works. >>>>> 3) if anyone did ever give money in hopes of influencing something >>>>> State did - they are foolish bc she never did that and never would. >>>>> SOS makes life and death decisions and those kinds of political >>>>> considerations don't come into play. >>>>> >>>>> At least this way she will have taken off the table any notion that >>>>> there was a quid pro quo - even if some donors may have had bad >>>>> intentions. >>>>> >>>>> If we did this, think we should do before WJC interview airs on >>>>> Monday. Which may mean that tomorrow is the last chance we have will >>>>> she will be in front of the press (they wont be at fundraisers but >>>>> will prob be outside them so she could take a q). >>>>> >>>>> What do others think? >>>>> Sent from my iPhone |
Working with the Amazonian plant medicine ayahuasca presents enormous psycho-spiritual challenges. In my experience as a meditator and psychotherapist, no other process comes close to ayahuasca’s power to activate body, psyche, and spirit, releasing that which has been trapped in the unconscious into the light of awareness. Each moment of bliss in ceremony can be offset by an equal amount of terror; it seems the heights to which one journeys are underpinned by the absolute dregs of experience. It requires a great deal of courage and no small amount of savvy to fathom this, to navigate skillfully through the process, and, especially, to apply the fruits of the journey to one’s life.
In certain Amazonian societies, the individual seeking healing would not drink the ayahuasca brew. Only the curandero would, embarking on a visionary journey that would yield the necessary information for treatment. Now we’ve entered a new era, where we sit in ceremony as direct participants. Unlike the indigenous people who have worked with ayahuasca for centuries, we come from a worldview that prizes detachment and devalues direct experience. We tend to be intellectually sharp but emotionally unaware, if not completely out of touch with our bodies and hearts. Many of us are disconnected from our families, ancestral roots, and communities. And now we embark on ritual work with a plant spirit that opens up the gates of the unconscious, the doors of perception? It’s a brave new world for us all.
Much has been written about the experience of drinking ayahuasca—the visions, the purging, the profound understandings that can arise. Not much has been said about the aftermath; in particular, the stage of work called “integration” that follows the ceremony. It’s essential to recognize that the healing ayahuasca initiates does not conclude with the end of ceremony; that, in many ways, the real work begins at this point. How we walk the post-ceremony path, the support we receive, and the tools and perspectives we apply, will determine the ultimate value of our work with the medicine.
Working with ayahuasca is a co-creative process. The medicine interacts synergistically with body, mind, and spirit in ways that are utterly unique to each individual. I am continually amazed by ayahuasca’s ability to pick the lock of the conceptual mind, releasing the contents of the personal unconscious and beyond. It liberates our inner wisdom in ways that are often surprising but always organic to our individual path. Quite often, it must first unearth our essence from the psychic debris of family imprints and unconscious patterning.
Levels of Transformation
At a very basic level, ayahuasca integration means cleaning up your act in support of your newly upgraded self. Job, relationships, diet, habits, mindset—all these are up for transformation in the weeks following ceremony.
A second aspect of integration involves shadow work. Ayahuasca is a potent activator of the unconscious, bringing buried traumas, forgotten experiences, and rejected aspects of self to the light. We need methods for first tolerating, then working with and understanding these. Integration, in large part, is the process of absorbing and digesting this raw material; quite literally, incorporating it into your consciousness. This inevitably changes your perspective on life, self, identity, and purpose.
As we continue, a third level of integration emerges: the task of bringing soul to the world, showing up as our true whole selves. We begin to cultivate a way of being that is in touch with what really matters. Our fractured modern psyches have been disconnected from Nature and one another, with consumerism and digital distraction stuffed into the cracks to assuage the pain of separation. Truly integrating our work with ayahuasca provides an opportunity to heal who we are as individuals, and as a species. As Robert Sardello wrote
We must bring our true selves into the world … The psychic starvation brought about by removing soul from the world produces insatiable greed, for when the world is no longer surrounded with soul a vast emptiness intervenes that must be filled.
At this deepest level, integration demands that we transform our way of being and working with ourselves, our perceptions, and the world. Through this process we move from blame to responsibility, from drama to dignity, from unconsciousness to awareness.
All three of these levels of integration require tools and practices to support transformation—practical ways to work with body, spirit, heart, and mind. At minimum, we need to know how to deal with difficult emotions and destructive mental patterns, and how to sustain a healthy body that is both grounded on Earth and connected with spirit. If we have any insufficiencies in these areas, ayahuasca will expose them. It’s not the medicine’s job to magically remedy these deficits; it’s our work—integration work—to grow into new ways of being.
It might be helpful to recognize that many of us are already walking the path of integration in our lives, and perhaps were long before we ever heard of ayahuasca. A basic definition of integration is “to combine two things so they become a whole.” We naturally integrate as we take in new information and generate new perspectives. Simply put, integration is the process of growth and evolutionary change—and humans have been doing this pretty much forever.
East, West, Indigenous
When we understand that integration is an innately human capacity, not something that’s exclusive to ayahuasca work, we are free to draw in wisdom tools from many cultures and times. We cast our net wide to find the support we need, seeking not as spiritual dilettantes, but as modern explorers pursuing what truly works for us here and now in life. What does integration mean from an Eastern perspective? What are the best integrative tools we can gather from the Western world? And what wisdom do indigenous societies have to offer?
Eastern Spirituality. Eastern spirituality offers many pathways to experience pure consciousness as the love, light, and wisdom of True Self, Buddha Nature, or Atman. The basic view is that our essence is already enlightened, although covered by obscurations. This can be particularly healing for refugees from the Christian mindset of original sin. To accept your starting point as purity, albeit obscured, feels profoundly different than constantly struggling to transcend your defective basic nature.
Eastern religions offer a multitude of practices to dissolve the separation created by the ego and reveal the light of the essential self. Buddhism gives us tools for wisdom and compassion: meditations to open and clarify the mind, and practices to unlock the heart. The wisdom traditions of India offer many meditational and devotional methods, including the incredibly comprehensive practices of yoga in all its forms. Taoism, too, has practices to cultivate subtle energy and align oneself with the cosmos.
All these are based on similar principles: that man, nature, and universe exist in fundamental harmony; that inner and outer, divine and human, are essentially one; that the universe and everything in it are expressions of a single fundamental reality; and that our limited, ego-identified sense of self is merely a contraction, a temporary forgetting, of this basic state. Non-dual traditions, like Advaita, Kashmiri Shaivism, Zen, and Dzogchen may be particularly valuable to Westerners seeking to expand their egocentric worldview. There is much more to glean from Eastern traditions: sophisticated methods of working with the psycho-spiritual body through yoga, tai chi, qigong, and aikido; an understanding of the subtle body and the energies that dance their way through the channels and chakras; mantra and yantra, mandala and mudra, cosmologies that open to other realms and universes; respect for karma, the vast web of cause and effect we are constantly weaving, and the understanding that the “soul,” non-existent though it ultimately is, has more than one life and inhabits more than one body through the spiritual evolution of reincarnation.
Western Viewpoint. From the Western perspective, we draw on depth psychology, with its appreciation of the unconscious and the transpersonal. The work of Carl Jung, James Hillman, and others offers profound wisdom for integrating ayahuasca experiences with insights on the shadow, the psychodynamics of projection and introjection, and the power of archetypes and symbolism.
Jung’s emphasis on wholeness rather than perfection is fundamental to the path of integration; so is Joseph Campbell’s elucidation of the “Hero’s Journey,” which draws on mythology from around the globe to reveal the collective unconscious at work. Depth psychology offers many ways to listen to the language of the soul as it speaks through dreams, images, symbols, and creativity. Journaling, art therapy, active imagination and dreamwork are all channels through which the unconscious can become more conscious; a process that lies at the heart of integration. Further useful perspectives can be gathered from somatic psychology, including the growing understanding of how to work with trauma in an embodied way, as in Somatic Experiencing and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.
More resources come from the many contemporary non-dual spiritual teachers of the West. Adyashanti, A. H. Almaas, Catherine Ingram, Byron Katie, Eckhart Tolle, Matt Kahn, Jeff Foster, and many more, all speak of the direct experience of reality as fundamental wholeness, free of identification and concepts. Rooted in Eastern spiritual traditions, this is wisdom presented in modern form.
Finally, from the West we can draw on the astonishing perspectives revealed by quantum physics. Here, the mechanistic worldview explodes into an understanding of a holographic universe, in which apparently discrete particles are actually streaming waves of probability, and conceptual categorization collapses into a realm where all things are non-locally united in an invisible, indivisible whole.
Indigenous Viewpoints. Indigenous worldviews are embodied by thousands of traditional cultures on every inhabited continent. Even Europe has its indigenous wisdom traditions, though these have been largely destroyed; first, by the Church; then, the modern religion of scientific materialism. Through the indigenous perspective, we come to understand the natural world as sacred and vibrantly alive. Rituals for connecting with nature and ways to heal through it pervade the indigenous practices of shamanism with their spirit journeys, divination, and healing techniques, and animals, protectors, and totems. Here again, there is an appreciation of dreams and an understanding of the fluidity of human identity and our interconnection with the whole.
Indigenous perspectives are not so much religions as ways of perceiving and relating to this Earth, and the worlds beyond. Diverse indigenous cultures—Maori, Shipibo, Yupik, Lakota, and thousands more—are deeply familiar with the unique spirits, plants, and powers of their homelands. The plant spirit of ayahuasca has been collaborating with indigenous peoples of the Upper Amazon for a very, very long time.
One thing indigenous peoples understand very well is how everything is interconnected. This unbroken sense of connection with nature—the recognition that we humans are organically interwoven into the fabric of nature and cosmos—is perhaps the most significant gift. The Quechua people of Peru understand this as ayni, “sacred reciprocity,” a way of honoring the relationship between humans and the larger sentience of the world, and seeking to live in balance with it. Modern culture has lost the sense of reciprocity with nature that infuses traditional cultures, and the ensuing hubris threatens the entire planet.
The indigenous worldview comes surging back in through ayahuasca; part of the healing that reconnects us to a larger matrix. Post-ceremony, it is very common to feel a new sense of belonging to nature, along with a responsibility to protect creation and use its gifts wisely. The understanding that the Earth is alive, that creation is intelligent, and we are part of the web of life: these are some of the many gifts that come from working with ayahuasca.
In this process, we are healing our fragmented modern minds. Ayahuasca’s work takes place on many levels, not least in repairing the Cartesian split of mind/body and man/nature. The medicine reconnects brain with body, a valuable contributor, but no longer the master. In reuniting with nature, we are reweaving ourselves back into the matrix of life in a way that is urgently, desperately needed.
Eastern, Western, or indigenous; all three perspectives provide ways for us to open up to something greater than our conscious minds, be it Self, the unconscious, or the universe. Humans are part of the bigger picture, but only part. From all these perspectives we gain clues as to how to work with integration. We draw in all sorts of possibilities and examine them for what is most useful to our particular situation. There is always room for more on the path of growth. The integration process does not end—ever. It is the ongoing process of life moving into further complexity and deeper simplicity. And it is up to us to live it, to make it real.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Matthew Watherston of The Temple of the Way of Light for seeding the idea for this article and sharing some valuable perspectives.
References |
Prior to the Good Friday service, twenty graduate degree divinity student volunteers from the Boston area were randomly divided into two groups. In a double-blind experiment, half of the students received psilocybin, while a control group received a large dose of niacin. Niacin produces clear physiological changes and thus was used as an active placebo. In at least some cases, those who received the niacin initially believed they had received the psychoactive drug.[3]:5 However, the feeling of face flushing (turning red, feeling hot and tingly) produced by niacin subsided after about an hour after receiving the dose. However, the effects of the psilocybin intensified over the first few hours.
Almost all of the members of the experimental group reported experiencing profound religious experiences, providing empirical support for the notion that psychedelic drugs can facilitate religious experiences. One of the participants in the experiment was religious scholar Huston Smith, who would become an author of several textbooks on comparative religion. He later described his experience as "the most powerful cosmic homecoming I have ever experienced".[4] |
Leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron has pledged to keep Britain in the EU (Picture: Getty)
The Liberal Democrats have pledged to take Britain back into the EU, claiming the Brexit was secured on a campaign of lies.
Voters backed the Leave campaign in a ‘howl of anger’ and should be given the chance to rethink the decision, according to Lib Dem leader Tim Farron.
The party said that ‘cheap’ slogans of Ukip’s Nigel Farage and Tories Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are ‘unravelling’, and the public will feel ‘betrayed’ when promises on the NHS and immigration are not delivered.
Since the referendum result on Friday morning, the Lib Dems claim thousands of voters have signed up to become members.
Farron said he will make the case for the country to rejoin the EU at the next general election.
MORE: EU referendum: What Brexit means for your money
Thousands have signed up to become Lib Dem members (Picture: Getty)
‘For many millions of people, this was not just a vote about Europe,’ he said.
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‘It was a howl of anger at politicians and institutions who they felt they were out of touch and had let them down.
‘The British people deserve the chance not to be stuck with the appalling consequences of a Leave campaign that stoked that anger with the lies of Farage, Johnson and Gove.
‘The Liberal Democrats will fight the next election on a clear and unequivocal promise to restore British prosperity and role in the world, with the United Kingdom in the European Union, not out.
‘If you agree with us, join us to make this happen.’
The next general election is not due until 2020 under current laws but could be staged within months if the next Conservative leader decides to seek a mandate through a national vote.
Lib Dems would have to secure a two-thirds Commons majority, repeal legislation or see a vote of no confidence in the government for the snap poll to go ahead.
A Lib Dem spokesman said: ‘In 24 hours the cheap bus slogans of Farage, Johnson and Gove are unravelling.
‘On £350 million for the NHS, on immigration, it is clear that they will fail to deliver what people thought they had voted for. Once again, people will feel betrayed by out-of-touch politicians.
‘The Liberal Democrats are the only party united behind a future for Britain inside the European Union.’ |
Bristol Beer Festival 21 - 23 March 2019
Tickets now on sale (a processing fee is charged by the ticket company) at:
You can also buy tickets by calling 0333 666 3366. This is a telephone box office service for which there is an additional £1.75 charge to print and post the tickets, so this is more expensive than buying online. It only has access to the same information as customers booking online and is not a beer festival help line.
Sign up to volunteer at the 2019 Bristol Beer Festival
The twenty second annual CAMRA Bristol Beer Festival will run from Thursday 21st to Saturday 23rd March 2019 at Brunel’s Old Station, Temple Meads, Bristol. There will be a carefully chosen selection of around 140 different real ales on sale over the course of the festival as well as a good range of cider and perry. There will also be a variety of food available at all sessions. Demand for festival tickets continues to exceed the capacity of the venue, so we are going to try adding an extra session on Thursday lunchtime from 12 noon until 4:30pm. Tickets for all sessions will be sold online (as was the case for the 2018 festival)
IMPORTANT: If you are a Bristol & District CAMRA branch member and you do not currently receive emails from the branch then please go HERE.
Tickets for all sessions cost £11.50 including £5 worth of beer festival tokens, which customers will receive on entry enabling them to go straight to the bar. Also included are a festival programme and a commemorative half pint glass, marked for third and half-pint measures.On presentation of a current membership card, CAMRA members will also receive a voucher on entry up to the value of £1.80.
Date Session Time Cost Thursday 21 March Lunchtime 12:00pm - 4:30pm £11.50 (incl £5 of tokens) Thursday 21 March Evening 6:30pm - 11pm £11.50 (incl £5 of tokens) Friday 22 March Lunchtime 11:30am - 4pm £11.50 (incl £5 of tokens) Friday 22 March Evening 6:30pm - 11pm £11.50 (incl £5 of tokens) Saturday 23 March Lunchtime 11:30am - 4pm £11.50 (incl £5 of tokens) Saturday 23 March Evening 6:30pm - 11pm £11.50 (incl £5 of tokens)
Tickets for the Friday lunchtime, Friday evening and Saturday lunchtime sessions are now SOLD OUT.
We strongly advise keeping an eye on this website as it will feature further beer festival information including updates about ticket availability (including online sales) and the beer and cider lists as they become available.
Click here to view Bristol Beer Festival 2018 pictures
Click here to view 2017 pictures
Click here to view 2016 pictures
Click here to view 2015 pictures
Click here to view 2014 pictures
Click here to view 2013 pictures
Click here to view 2012 pictures
Click here to view 2011 pictures
Click here for a video of the 2012 ticket sales at the Commercial Rooms |
Coming Soon
The King
Hal, a wayward prince, ascends the English throne upon his father’s death, and must navigate the palace snake pit, and inherited war and chaos.
Guillermo Del Toro Presents 10 After Midnight
Acclaimed Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro curates this collection of sinister stories, each more horrifying than the next.
Locke & Key
After their father's gruesome murder, three siblings move into a house with magical keys that grant them powers. Adapted from the comics by Joe Hill.
Bulbul
A man returns home after years to find his brother’s child bride now grown up and abandoned, and his ancestral village plagued by mysterious deaths.
Escape from Hat
A desperate rabbit rallies an unexpected band of allies to help him escape from inside a magician's hat and return to the human boy he loves.
Rhythm + Flow
Judges Cardi B, Chance the Rapper and T.I. search for the next breakout hip-hop star in this music competition series.
7SEEDS
Natsu awakens to a post-apocalyptic world, only to learn that she’d been cryogenically frozen as part of a program to ensure the survival of humanity.
Hit and Run
In this political espionage thriller series, a man's life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident. |
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish musician and activist Bob Geldof called Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi “a hand maiden to genocide” on Monday as he returned his Freedom of the City of Dublin award in protest over his fellow recipient’s response to the repression of Rohingya Muslims.
“I don’t want to be on a very select roll of wonderful people with a killer,” Geldof told state broadcaster RTE. “Someone who is at best a handmaiden to genocide and an accomplice to murder.”
More than 600,000 Muslims from Myanmar’s Rakhine state have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh after military operations described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing.
Their plight has drawn outrage around the world. But Suu Kyi, long seen as a champion of human rights, has been criticized for failing to speak out against violence. There have been calls for her to be stripped of the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991.
Suu Kyi was given the Freedom of Dublin in 1999 while she was held under house arrest by Mayanmar’s then military government. She received her award at a reception in Ireland in 2012, two years after her release.
“Her association with our city shames us all and we should have no truck with it, even by default. We honored her, now she appals and shames us,” Geldof said in a statement.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Micheal Mac Donncha, said the city council had discussed taking away the honor and the matter was still under review. Last month she was stripped of a similar honor by the British university city of Oxford, where she was an undergraduate.
But Mac Donncha, a councillor for the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, also criticized Geldof’s gesture, saying it was ironic as Geldof held a British knighthood despite “the shameful record of British imperialism across the globe”.
The former Boomtown Rats singer was given an honorary knighted in 1986 in recognition of his charity work, including organizing the 1985 Live Aid concert to help those suffering from starvation and disease in Ethiopia.
Other foreign recipients of the Freedom of Dublin include John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Irish rockers U2, who had campaigned for Suu Kyi’s release while she was a political prisoner, also voiced disappointment and said her silence was “starting to look a lot like assent”.
Slideshow (4 Images)
“Who could have predicted that if more than 600,000 people were fleeing from a brutal army for fear of their lives, the woman who many of us believed would have the clearest and loudest voice on the crisis would go quiet,” the band said in a statement.
“For these atrocities against the Rohingya people to be happening on her watch blows our minds and breaks our hearts.”
The Myanmar military says it launched the crackdown in response to attacks by Rohingya militants. |
The Canadian government abandoned an appeal of a controversial court ruling that let the Catholic Church out of its responsibility to raise millions of dollars for aboriginal healing programs, court documents show.
The appeal was dropped just six days after the Trudeau government took office.
The revelation comes in a week when the Liberal government has repeatedly said that it had no options for appeal. It did not mention, however, that an appeal had been commenced and then withdrawn.
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The abandonment of the appeal means that a major element of Canada's historic 2007 settlement – the contribution of the Catholic churches, which ran most of the residential schools, to the aboriginal community – was brought to an end by a lone Saskatchewan judge, in an informal hearing called a Request for Directions.
The ruling by Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench Justice Neil Gabrielson on July 16 found that the former federal Conservative government had inadvertently released 50 Catholic entities from their contractual responsibility to try to raise up to $25-million for aboriginal healing pro- grams. He ruled that there was a "meeting of the minds" between a federal lawyer, Alexander Gay, and a lawyer for the Catholic entities, Gordon Kuski, on a re-lease from all obligations. He also found that Mr. Gay should be presumed in this dispute to have had the authority to negotiate on be-half of the Canadian government.
Under the former Conservative government, the Justice Department served notice in August that it intended to appeal the ruling. A Liberal government was elected on Oct. 19 and took office on Nov. 4, as the cabinet – including Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould – was sworn in. On Nov. 10, the federal Justice Department formally abandoned the appeal, without giving reasons, in a letter signed by Wayne Schafer, senior counsel for the Attorney-General.
The Liberal government says its Conservative predecessors were the ones who released the church from its obligations under the settlement agreement to try to raise $25-million for healing and reconciliation.
After Justice Gabrielson's decision in July, "officials from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development received a mandate from the former Conservative government to negotiate a settlement with the Catholic entities," a government spokeswoman said in an e-mail on Wednesday evening. "Negotiations began in August 2015 and an agreement of release was signed October 30, 2015. As a result of these negotiations, it was agreed the Protective Notice of Appeal would be withdrawn." In other words, abandoning the appeal was a mere formality.
The Liberal government did not provide The Globe and Mail with a copy of that negotiated agreement of release. Without a copy of that settlement, it is impossible to know if the Liberals were legally able to continue with the appeal, according to Toronto lawyer Kirk Baert, who represented residential school survivors at settlement talks.
"This is an important aspect of the original settlement," he said. "I don't get the logic of withdrawing [the appeal]. They're already at zero in terms of what the Catholics have to do. If you win, you may restore these benefits."
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The Conservatives' justice critic, Rob Nicholson, could not be reached for comment.
The Liberals have made a rapprochement with indigenous peoples a centrepiece of their government. "No relationship is more important to me and to Canada than the one with Indigenous Peoples," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says in the mandate letters given to each of his cabinet ministers.
The 2007 settlement created three obligations for the 50 Catholic entities: pay $29-million in cash to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation; give $25-million in services to aboriginal communities; and use "best efforts" to raise $25-million for additional healing programs. The fundraising fell well short – bringing in just $3.7-million. Justice Gabrielson ruled that, for a payment of $1.2-million, the Catholic entities were to be released from their responsibilities to raise the remainder of the $25-million, and be seen to have completed the other two categories of contributions. (There had been a dispute over deductions from the $29-million that the Catholic entities had been claiming for administrative costs.)
In such a hearing, the judge makes no credibility assessments of witnesses for either side, unlike in a full-blown trial. Appeal courts therefore may find it easier than a trial ruling to overturn. (Appeal courts usually defer to trial judges' credibility assessments.)
Among its grounds for appealing the decision, the federal government said the judge had made an error in law by saying that Mr. Gay had the authority to bind the government to a settlement, and had made "palpable and overriding errors" in assessing the facts relating to the negotiations, public documents on file at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal show.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said this week that the government would pressure the church into resuming its fundraising efforts and rejected suggestions that the government should make up the shortfall.
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University of Alberta law professor Eric Adams, who had no involvement in the case, read the ruling at The Globe's request. He said he was surprised Canada didn't appeal it, because Mr. Gay had indicated throughout his discussions with Mr. Kuski that there were details to be worked out and approvals to be sought before the deal was finalized.
"Part of the calculus in deciding whether to appeal something is the stakes – and the stakes were huge," Prof. Adams added.
Ken Young, a Winnipeg lawyer who spent 10 years in a residential school, has read the ruling of Judge Gabrielson and said he believes the government should have appealed.
Mr. Young said, from his reading of what happened, it does not appear that there was any agreement made by Mr. Gay, on behalf of the government, to allow the Catholic entities to walk away from their fundraising obligations, as found by Judge Gabrielson. "They hung the government lawyer out to dry. I don't know how he is feeling about that."
As for the Catholics making their "best efforts" to raise $25-million for healing and reconciliation, said Mr. Young, the "best efforts" would have meant the Catholic church stepping in and contributing the difference between the $25-million goal and the $3.7-million. "The Catholic Church is a big enough institution to cover what their people and their parishioners couldn't cover."
Grouard-McLennan Archbishop Gérard Pettipas, who chairs the board of the Corporation of Catholic Entities, referred questions Wednesday about whether the church would be willing to do that to Pierre Baribeau, the entities' lawyer.
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When asked Tuesday if the fundraising might resume, Mr. Baribeau suggested it would not happen because the various organizations of the church had already been solicited for funds and many were already near bankruptcy. |
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The banker suicide saga has just reached a new level as a top level JP Morgan attorney has been exterminated in a hit & run incident involving a minivan.
JPM attorney Joseph Giampapa was killed over the weekend when he was struck by a minivan in a hit and run incident.
Giampapa was reportedly hit and thrown 150 ft and was pronounced dead at the scene. No charges have been filed.
It gets better: Giampapa was JP Morgan’s top commercial bankruptcy lawyer (SVP).
Somehow we suspect the incident was not inflicted by a soccer mom.
The JP Morgan outside counsel manual, listing Giampapa as their Commercial Bank Bankruptcy SVP:
Commercial Bank Bankruptcy & Workout
Joseph Giampapa, SVP and Associate General Counsel
(614/248-6056)
http://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Home/document/Annex_I_US_BasedGeneralCounselPracticeGroupsandManagers_7012013.pdf
Giampapa’s legal profile:
http://www.martindale.com/Joseph-A-Giampapa/1445173-lawyer.htm
The Columbus Dispatch’s coverage of the incident:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/03/23/cyclist-56-struck-by-minivan-in-piqua.html
Recall that Jim Willie informed SD readers several weeks ago that international bankers are dropping like flies to prevent details on massive FOREX fraud from reaching investigating authorities, and that European banking source “V” stated that the banker hit list includes top level banking executives, and also stated that suicided JP Morgan bankers Ryan Henry Crane & Gabriel Magee knew each other and had uncovered something.
Perhaps Giampapa had also uncovered too many secrets.
AMTV’s take on the increasing banker deaths:
SEE ALSO:
– 12th banker commits suicide, former JP Morgan employee
– 9th top level banker found dead within weeks
– Why banks are no longer needed
– Economic collapse is inevitable, here’s why…
– 7th top level banker ‘commits suicide’
– The memo that proves the bankers caused the GFC
Source: http://www.silverdoctors.com/another-jpm-banker-dead-in-a-minivan-hit-run/ |
Reaching Beichuan is a long march into hell. When you finally emerge scrabbling through the dirt into the town, what lies before you is a breathtaking vision of horror. Official estimates say China's worst natural disaster in 30 years has claimed 50,000 lives so far, but looking at the devastation here, it is hard not to imagine the final toll will be much, much higher.
Beichuan county in Sichuan province used to be home to 160,000 people, and most of them lived in the now-forsaken town of the same name, nestling in one of the world's most beautiful valleys. But everyone is gone, either dead or having abandoned their flattened home.
Beichuan was too close to the epicentre of this week's earthquake to stand a chance. At least 80 per cent of it is destroyed, with many thousands of bodies still buried in the rubble. It's hard to imagine this place ever functioning as a town again.
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There is still no access by road. People's Liberation Army soldiers rally behind red flags at a rescue station three kilometres away, before starting the trek into the heart of this shattered place.
Our journey to reach Beichuan, which has been almost completely cut off since last Monday's quake, began at a good pace but we were soon forced to slow to a solemn, single-file column as we negotiated the side of the mountain. We stopped to allow soldiers carrying bodies, and occasional survivors to pass, their faces straining with the exertion of carrying their heavy burdens up these steep slopes and across the wreckage of roads and fields.
The narrow access track up to the town is also full of villagers bringing whatever little items they can as they scramble back to the refugee camps in neighbouring towns spared the worst of the quake. These are often old people, who move slowly but steadily, in a way that clearly irritates the fit young teenage troops itching to get past. But who is going to tell a grandmother carrying her life on her back to speed up?
The first sighting of what used to be the town happens about two kilometres away. It now looks like a model railway village that a nasty child has melted and covered with sand. The town was built on the sides of the valley and when the earthquake struck, the buildings slid down on top of others in a sickening concertina, leaving most of the settlement collapsed at the base of the valley. One or two large, newer buildings survived but the other big buildings folded on houses and apartment blocks, leaving mountains of rubble dozens of feet high.
Every day I have reported the story of the Sichuan earthquake it has seemed impossible to imagine things getting worse. Hanwang, with its bodies lying everywhere, was grotesque. Dujiangyan, where hundreds of teenagers were dragged out dead from the mud, was nightmarish. But every day is worse than the next. No one knows what horrors await after Wenchuan, directly above the epicentre, is opened up. At this stage, there can be precious few survivors there. But Beichuan is a truly horrendous sight. The prospect of the death toll reaching beyond 50,000 looks increasingly likely.
Driving up along the valley, along the Chang Jiang, or Long River, which we call the Yangtze, a JCB carrying a mound of corpses wrapped in tarpaulin was an early sign that the scene in Beichuan was going to be harrowing. But it was worse, much worse, than I'd expected.
Shutters are pulled three-quarters of the way down on some shop fronts, and feet are visible beneath them, but the grocer's and fruit shops they are meant to protect are just giant mounds of debris.
At the Middle School, hundreds were buried alive, just as they had been in other schools around Sichuan. The town's prison collapsed, and who knows how many inmates died.
Negotiating the rubble is torturous; finding survivors even worse. Outside a kindergarten, parents went around calling the names of their children. A pile of small bodies had already been recovered and lay on the ground. This earthquake happened during school time, at 2.30pm.
One man found his son's body in the pile, wrapped it carefully in a plastic sheet and carried him away. His wife is a migrant worker who lives elsewhere in China and he tried to call her on his mobile to tell her their child was dead, but there was no signal yet.
"There are people alive in there, and over there, and over there," said one rescuer, outside the ruins of a hairdressing salon. "But we can't get them out; what are we supposed to do."
It's impossible not to get swept up in the relief effort; anyone who is in this town has to help, journalist or not. A crying woman said she could hear cries from beneath the rubble, and I was sent to find a stretcher and workers, but by the time we got back with assistance, the rubble had shifted and there was only a body. People hear things in earthquake zones, mistaking the wailing of the bereaved for the cries of help from their loved ones. Rescuers clamber around the debris shouting "hello" and "anyone there" but only an eerie silence answers.
The rescue effort is centred on one very small section on the edge of town, and only a tiny part of Beichuan has been explored so far. Premier Wen Jiabao, who has flown around from disaster area to disaster area in a helicopter, has visited the town twice so far, but he has been able only to voice words of encouragement to the rescue workers.
China has, cautiously, welcomed some foreign input. When Mr Wen first visited the town he spotted an American doctor, Brian Robinson of the Heart to Heart aid outfit, walking with other volunteers along the road and he ordered the car to stop. He embraced the doctor, thanked him and told him to go to Beichuan and help. An unprecedented action.
It is still impossible to get through to Beichuan with meaningful assistance and aid: most of the cranes, medical supplies and military personnel are all still back down the valley at the disaster relief headquarters.
Rescuers struggle across a bridge lying on the river bed in large chunks, a smashed car on what was the roadside the only evidence that this was ever a bridge. In the streets, the smell of corpses is accentuated by the searing heat that has replaced the heavy rain of days ago. The dry weather makes rescue work easier, but you cannot help worrying about disease being the next problem here.
At one point yesterday there was a small aftershock, causing brief panic. People are also angry that it has taken so long for the relief effort to make it to Beichuan, saying there were hundreds of people crying and shouting in the rubble even on Wednesday, but that it was too late now. There was little evidence of sniffer dogs, hi-tech equipment, and not too many helicopters around either; you would expect to see choppers ferrying supplies and people.
What they have is primitive relief work: manpower and womanpower. Thousands of soldiers and volunteers have arrived in the area, some from as far away as the provincial capital and other parts of China.
Anger, too, is growing about the poor quality of buildings. In Mianzhu, an apartment block collapsed on itself. The flats had been built using contributions from a local work unit, a group of workers organised by the Communist Party at a factory or office. Residents searching for survivors said it was because corrupt officials had demanded so much in kickbacks that the building fell. The neighbouring buildings had not collapsed, including one which housed cadres from the Communist Party. "Show me the structural steel in that building," said one woman, whose mother is missing in the rubble. "It all went into some official's pocket," she spat.
The foreign media have a poor image in China because most people now believe the international community does not want China to host the Olympics and is planning a boycott. This makes reporting the disaster difficult; before the anti-Chinese riots in Tibet, and the sympathetic view of Tibetans in the Western media, foreign journalists were popular. Now we are seen as a threat. But the soldiers are still helpful, even offering to lift us over the worst of the holes.
All privately owned cars are stopped at a roadblock 20 kilometres from the town to give better access to emergency vehicles. We leave our car and start to walk, but we are picked up by a trio of relief workers in a blue CDW truck, laden with baskets for carrying debris. For the first time in four days of reporting the Sichuan earthquake, I see the classic quake image, the fissure stretching the length of a road, made by tectonic plates shifting and tearing the Tarmac apart.
Later even this truck is stopped and we walk the remaining three kilometres with volunteers from nearby Mianyang, bringing money, clothes, food and water. "We are all one family and one nation and when our friend suffers, it's our duty to help," says Lu Fushan, 49, a farmer. His truck was stopped, as were many of the volunteers, because there is not enough room for the material to get through.
Dotted along the narrow mountainside road are smashed cars and rocks the size of lorries, which limit traffic to one lane. There are hundreds of military vehicles along the roadside.
Back along the valley, a couple sit clinging to each other on a bench, looking at the wreckage of their house. "Our house is smashed, broken," says Fu Youjun, 34, a farmer. "My father is in the hospital. We felt the quake, we were terribly scared and we rushed out. When we came out we just saw white smoke and dust.
"My brother is in town, but I can't reach him. Lots of friends and relatives. We can't get in touch with them, we tried to get through to them but there's no road. And the water is rising, there could be flooding too. I don't know what we'll do next,"
His wife, Wang Hongmei, 30, says: "The house is slipped, subsided. My nephew is in there, over there in Beichuan. What are we going go do? We just got married this year."
But even amid the heartbreak of Beichuan there is an occasional story of hope. "Don't help me, help the others, they need it more," one woman said, as soldiers bore her on a stretcher into a makeshift first-aid centre, seconds after pulling her from the wreckage. She had lived through 72 almost unbelievable hours under the rubble.
At the first-aid station, there is no time for medics to find the woman's name. She looks a youthful 40, wearing a pale blue top and smart trousers. She is weak and delirious, but so far she is alive. The woman is carried on a stretcher back across the mountains by eight strong, sure-footed young PLA soldiers.
Back at the rescue station, rescuers form a cordon for the returning stretchers. When a survivor is brought through, the soldiers cheer, and when yet another stretcher comes through with a corpse there are disappointed murmurs and sad comments.
The woman is brought through on the stretcher, a scarf covering her face, and the response is at first muted, depressed. Then, she raises her hand and waves; the scarf is there to protect her from the hot sun. Some of the PLA's most hardened troops laugh and cheer like schoolboys. This one is alive.
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Chang and Eng Bunker
Surry County’s Original Siamese Twins
By Dr. Annette Ayers *
Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel Junior Historian, Fall 2008.
Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History
Chang and Eng Bunker were born in 1811 in Siam, a country in Asia now known as Thailand. These twins were conjoined (born with their bodies joined together)—attached by a four-inch-wide band of flesh they eventually stretched to five inches so they could stand beside each other. Their names, Chang and Eng, meant left and right. They were given the label “original Siamese twins” because they were the first conjoined twins to be described in that way and the first conjoined twins ever seen by a lot of people. Siamese twins remain rare today; they must be identical and of the same gender, and only 30 percent are male. It is rare for conjoined twins to live to adulthood. Chang and Eng were unique because they lived to be more than sixty years old, and they are the only Siamese twins known to have married and had children.
The twins’ father died when they were about eight years old. Young Chang and Eng helped provide for their mother, brothers, and sisters by selling duck eggs in their village. (Throughout their lives, they would be known as successful businessmen.) When they were thirteen, a Scottish merchant named Robert Hunter noticed the unique twins and asked the king of Siam for permission to take them to Europe. The king refused because he did not like Hunter. Hunter and a friend, Captain Abel Coffin, offered the twins’ mother three thousand dollars. They paid her only five hundred dollars and would never return Chang and Eng to Siam as they promised to do. But since the king liked Coffin, he finally gave the man his permission to take the twins out of the country.
The eighteen-year-old twins signed a contract with Coffin. This written contract has been passed down through the Bunker family and is preserved in Surry County today. In the United States and Europe, the twins went on display for curiosity seekers to view, in exchange for a fee. Chang and Eng toured with Coffin for three years but did not get a fair share of the profits. He paid them ten dollars a month plus expenses, then later fifty dollars a month. The tours usually earned one thousand dollars a month.
The twins were very intelligent and quickly learned to speak English, improved their education, and became more and more interested in the world. Chang and Eng never traveled as part of a circus but held many exhibitions in public buildings—giving lectures, performing acrobatic stunts, and demonstrating their physical strength. In 1832 the twins stopped touring with Coffin so they could make more money. They began to manage their own affairs and schedule their own tours throughout the United States and Canada. Everywhere they traveled, local doctors examined Chang and Eng. These examinations satisfied the doctors’ curiosity, proved the twins’ bodies were attached, and provided publicity for their shows.
While touring in New York, the twins met and became friends with Dr. James Callaway from Wilkesboro. Callaway invited Chang and Eng to visit his home and go hunting and fishing. Tired and needing a vacation in 1839, the twins did just that. They liked the quiet and peaceful area, decided to purchase land nearby, and moved to Wilkes County, where they became naturalized American citizens on October 12, 1839. Naturalized citizens had to have a surname (last name), and Chang and Eng had never had one. They chose the name of an American friend from New York: Bunker.
As wealthy landowners, the Bunkers participated in local social events. They soon met Adelaide and Sarah Yates, daughters of a wealthy farmer. Chang fell in love with seventeen-year-old Adelaide, and they wanted to marry. Eighteen-year-old Sarah eventually agreed to marry Eng. The sisters’ parents and neighbors immediately objected. Chang and Eng traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to consult a surgeon about being separated. The surgeon refused, describing such surgery as too dangerous. The parents of Adelaide and Sarah finally agreed to the marriages, which took place April 13, 1843, at the Yates family home in Wilkes County. The two couples began their married lives in a house in the Trap Hill community.
The twins prospered and moved to Surry County, where they came to own more than one thousand acres of land and twenty-eight enslaved people. They lived together in one house for nine years, but their wives began to quarrel. Starting in 1852, Sarah and Adelaide lived in separate houses. Chang and Eng agreed to reside in one house for three days, in which that brother made all the decisions without question. They spent the next three days at the other twin’s house, where he made all the decisions. The Bunkers faithfully held to this arrangement the rest of their lives.
The twins returned to touring between 1849 and 1870 to support their large families. Chang and Adelaide had ten children, and Eng and Sarah had eleven children. The twins met many important people, including President Andrew Johnson and Queen Victoria of England.
Throughout their lives, Chang and Eng consulted various surgeons in America, England, and Scotland, to determine if they might be separated. All the surgeons agreed the risk was too great. Returning home from the 1870 tour, Chang suffered a stroke that left his right side partially paralyzed. As the brothers grew older, their health began to decline, they quarreled more often, and they demanded that the local doctor perform surgery to separate them. He refused. Even today, doctors are not sure Chang and Eng would have lived if separated.
Chang died suddenly in January 1873, and Eng died several hours later. Their wives allowed surgeons in Philadelphia to autopsy the bodies. They discovered the twins had connected livers. Chang suffered a blood clot to the brain, but doctors could not determine the cause of death for Eng. It may have been shock. Fearing someone would steal the bodies, the family buried the twins in the basement of Chang’s house, and later, in the front yard. When Adelaide died in 1917, the twins were reburied next to her at White Plains Baptist Church near Mount Airy. Sarah is buried at Eng’s farm, although her name is included on the church tombstone.
Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum—which features medical rarities—has a display of Chang’s and Eng’s connected livers, castings of their joined torsos, and a special chair built for them. More than a thousand descendants of the Bunker twins live in Surry County, where the family hosts a yearly reunion, and numerous descendants live across the country.
Dr. Annette Ayers is a part-time instructor at Surry Community College and an educational consultant. A member of the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association Advisory Board, she is a retired history teacher and served as the director of education and programs at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History (2004–2007). |
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J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for forty-eight years, was one of the most feared men in Washington, D.C. while he was alive because of his extensive files into the private lives of the rich and the famous and the powerful. Hoover was also feared because of his violent responses to those he considered threats.
In the late 1960's, Hoover declared a clandestine war on the Black Panthers and other "black nationalist" groups as part of Operation COINTELPRO. A secret directive dated August 25, 1967 both authorized and mandated illegal harassment and targeting of domestic groups and U.S. citizens deemed a racial or political threat by Hoover.
In Omaha, the war on the Panthers was directed at a chapter of the party called the Nebraska Committee to Combat Fascism headed by Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (then-David Rice). The attack on the two activists was personally directed by Hoover and his inner circle at the top of the FBI command structure.
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Poindexter and Langa had been targets of COINTELPRO for their leadership roles in the Black Panther affiliate and were disliked by most local police for their sharp criticism of the shooting death of 14 year-old Vivian Strong by police in the summer of 1969. Both men further inflamed police hostility by their repeated use of the word "pig" to describe police officers.
On August 17, 1970 at 2:07 a.m. a powerful blast killed patrolman Larry Minard and injured seven others officers at a vacant house the police had been called to investigate. While uniform officers ran a dragnet arresting dozens of people in the hours and days following the bombing, the man in charge of the investigation, Asst. Chief Glen W. Gates, was meeting with the FBI to hatch a plot to convict Poindexter and Langa rather than find Minard's actual killers, betraying his fallen fellow officer.
Two days after the bombing, before Larry Minard's body was even buried, Hoover gave a command to drop the search for Minard's killers and instead make a case against the NCCF leaders, a plan agreed to by Gates. Hoover's verbal directive to rig the investigation was recorded by Ivan W. Conrad, the Asst. Director of the FBI Laboratory, on a COINTELPRO memo issued the day of the bombing. Conrad called Hoover to discuss the recommendation of the Omaha Special-Agent-in-Charge that police be only provided an informal, oral report on the lab's vocal analysis of the deadly phone call rather than a full investigatory report.
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The voice of a killer, whose identity was unknown, presented a problem to what was now a police conspiracy. The headline in the Omaha World-Herald blared out "Voiceprint in Bombing to FBI Lab". According to the newspaper an Omaha Police spokesman said the voiceprint would be a "good investigative tool" to identify the man who made the call luring police to the deadly ambush.
Conrad, who apparently understood the implications of not issuing a formal lab report, asked Hoover about the Omaha SAC recommendation that, "an exception should be made in this case in order to assist the Omaha Police in developing investigative leads." The exception Conrad asked Hoover about was, "The results of an examination will not be furnished directly to the Police but orally conveyed through the SAC of Omaha."
Conrad scrawled on his copy of the COINTELPRO memo, "Dir advised telephonically & said OK to do" followed by his initials. Hoover gave approval to withhold the FBI Laboratory analysis and the lab director was able to keep the results permanently hidden. However, Conrad did keep up his end of the plot and gave the results to the Omaha SAC who in turn shared them with Gates.
Ultimately, 15 year-old Duane Peak confessed to planting the bomb that took Minard's life. Peak also claimed he made the emergency call and that Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa helped him build the bomb. Peak was offered a deal and became the state's chief witness against the two Panther leaders in exchange for a short sentence and his freedom. To keep the case from unraveling it was necessary for Peak to have been the caller as he claimed. However, there was one catch, the voice on the tape did not sound like Duane Peak but rather that of an older man.
On October 13, 1970, the Omaha SAC sent a memo directly to Hoover: "Assistant COP GLENN GATES, Omaha PD, advised that he feels that any use of this call might be prejudicial to the police murder trial against two accomplices of PEAK and, therefore, has advised that he wishes no use of this tape until after the murder trials of PEAK and the two accomplices have been completed."
Mondo we Langa says, "This is pretty clear indication of cloak and dagger stuff. We want you to do the analysis but we don't want you to put the results in writing. Communicate to us this way. So I suspect that somewhere between that memo and the prior one, the decision was made that the tape would not be part of the trial. A vital issue, a critical issue."
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The tape recording was successfully kept from the defense and the jury that convicted Poindexter and Langa never got to hear the voice that made the fatal call. The original recording was destroyed several years after the trial and then in 1980 a reel-to-reel copy of the tape was found, quietly made by a dispatcher. In 2006, the recording was submitted to modern vocal analysis. Expert Tom Owens determined the voice on the tape was not that of Duane Peak, a conclusion apparently also reached by Conrad's technicians at the FBI Laboratory back in 1970 when the tape was withheld.
Peak served several years of juvenile detention and then gained his freedom. The unknown caller whose voice was captured on tape was never identified or brought to justice. Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa are serving life sentences at the maximum-security Nebraska State Penitentiary. Both men deny any involvement in Minard's murder.
Poindexter has an appeal pending before the Nebraska Supreme Court. Oral argument is scheduled for October. No date for a decision has been announced. |
Amitabha Ghosh , Chairman, Science Operations Working Group -- Mission Operations at the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Mission, has worked on Vesta -- an asteroid whose geological processes uncannily resemble those of Earth's -- and several generations of Mars missions, starting with the Pathfinder in 1997 and most recently, the Curiosity Rover. The NASA geologist speaks to ET in San Francisco about Mars, the future of space explorations out of India and the US, the debate over manned missions and about his Indian roots. Edited excerpts:
What's next after the Curiosity mission? Where will it eventually lead us to?
Can life survive on Mars? That's what we want to know. Water sustains life on Earth. And this decade, we have already verified the presence of water on Mars. Life on Earth is made of carbon and all life is made of organic compounds. This mission will verify if there are organic compounds on Mars or not. If there are, then the next step would be a biological mission to determine whether this Martian organic compound is animate or not.
What are the technical and financial challenges facing expensive government missions?
Whenever you go to another planet, you have to take into account engineering constraints, which are enormous and vary from case to case. For instance, where do you deliver the spacecraft? Suppose if Curiosity had landed on a rocky bed with boulders, it could have toppled: there could have been inherent risks to the spacecraft. Then there are atmospheric constraints like what is the atmospheric speeds. The landing site is chosen on many such parameters.
When it comes to sending humans to Mars though, it's not a technology issue. We have the technology. What we don't have is the money. Sure there's tremendous national pride. But can any country spend a trillion dollars to send its people to Mars? Even if we weren't in an economic recession, it's a hell lot of money!
What then is the long-term future of space explorations?
Any frontier explodes only when there is a commercial reason to do it. Look at the Internet: when it happened in a lab, nobody cared. But when cloud computing came up, it exploded.
The fundamental cost of getting out of orbit is enormous! And while a private company like SpaceX might take care of some parts, we are at a stage when we need to make a plausible business case to a venture capitalist. For instance, there are diamonds in space and so I'll go and get it. Therefore, the Google Lunar X Prize model, while commendable, might not be a valid business model. There isn't a compelling financial case for it. Even if you look at SpaceX, who is the primary customer? It's the government, which is certainly not a very good place to be at.
And if you look at startups wanting to fetch moon rocks, it's a niche market. Diamonds aren't that rare but De Beers sold a campaign, "A diamond is forever". Will a rich trader from China or India want to give a moon rock to their wife or girlfriend and pay a ton of money for it? Does the market want what you're bringing? Space exploration is yet to build a market and a fundamental business case and I'm afraid we aren't there yet.
Another huge thing is the advent of robotic space exploration. We have just sent three generations of rovers to Mars. Not only is it cheaper it's a lot easier than a human mission. And we will see a lot more countries get into it. You don't have to support life systems. You also forgo huge technical and financial challenges of the launch factor involved in a human mission: you have to launch from the gravity of not just your own planet, but also the other planet, because you have to bring these humans back to Earth.
If there was a specific economic reason it might still be possible. For instance, we can get iron ore and other geological resources (that we could run out of on Earth in 65 years or so) from other planets and asteroids. At some point, there will be a major geological resource scarcity. But even then, will we be able to justify the cost of a human mission? After all, we use robots for anything that's dangerous, dull or dirty. And this is dangerous. So, why take the risk of sending humans when robots can do the job better and cheaper? The only case for a human mission would be public fascination.
What about NASA? Are its golden days truly over, as believed?
First, it's not true that budget cuts have crippled NASA. Budget cuts have happened across all US government agencies and NASA can still deliver on tough projects. For some reason s-- perhaps a fascination for space -- the best people still come to work for NASA. So, unless the budget cuts get really drastic, NASA will do innovative projects. It already has a very aggressive portfolio of missions like a Mars Orbitter planned in 2013, and missions to Vesta and Pluto. Not all space agencies are as successful in attracting talent as NASA. And as long as it can, it will do just fine.
How does this compare with India's own space programme?
India is at a very interesting crossroads in space. Space is bipartisan. Everybody supports it, the BJP, the Congress, the public. Nobody is opposed to it. Chandrayaan was almost a matter of national pride. It's similar to the US space scene in the 1960s and the 1970s. ISRO's budget too has gone by almost seven times in the last few decades. And India has the public and political mandate to move ahead. But it does not yet have the technology heritage; this is something it has to build. For instance, it is nowhere near sending a human to space like say, China which is much ahead and has already sent a human to space.
The only caveat is that people in India need to understand that there will be frequent failures and you should be able to move ahead and go on in spite of them. Space -- and especially Mars, which India seems to be planning for -- is after all a risky business and everybody, including NASA have had very public failures. |
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7:00 – 9:00pm
THE CLASSIC – The Glenlivet
Founded in 1824, The Glenlivet has been making great whisky for a very long time. There are many factors that help make The Glenlivet whiskies special, from the natural spring water from Josie’s Well to the altitude and weather conditions.
Come on by and go on a tasting tour of The Glenlivet – it’s a lot easier than taking a trip to Scotland!
WHISKEY TASTING
MONDAY, MARCH 31
7:00 – 9:00pm
CRAFT WHISKEY FROM UTAH – High West Whiskey
American Whiskey distilled at the first distillery in Utah since the 1870’s.
High West Distillery and Saloon started with one man’s passion to make a great Rocky Mountain Whiskey. Proprietor and distiller David Perkins married his background as a biochemist, his love of bourbon and cooking, and his passion for the American West to bring the craft of small- batch distilling back to Utah, of all places. |
POLICE were called to Portobello High Street after a member of the public complained about political comments on a board outside a sweet shop.
The board – which belongs to Portobello Alliance, a group of Yes campaigners from the independence referendum – had a message attacking Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and made reference to her predecessor Jim Murphy.
The board outside Favers in Portobello. Picture: Porty People/Facebook
The board accused Ms Dugdale of supporting cuts and added: “Kez backed Creepy Jim Murphy - the right-winger - and was anti-Jeremy Corbyn until recently.”
Mark Dempsey from Portobello Alliance said: “The police said someone had complained there was something slightly offensive on the board. But they had a look, shrugged their shoulder and went off.
“I think people are getting a bit over-excited because of the election – you wouldn’t ordinarily call the police about a message you didn’t like.”
He said the group had been using the board for a couple of years, changing the message regularly. “We thought it would put a smile on people’s faces. We should all be allowed to express ourselves. It would be great if other organisations stuck boards out to get their message across.”
A police spokesman said: “We received a complaint on Saturday in relation to the content on a sandwich board outside a business. Officers attended and established that no offence had been committed and no further police action was required.” |
Why investing crypto in a piece of Picasso makes sense.
Maecenas Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 8, 2017
At a time of mounting regulatory pressure on the crypto finance, the fine art market can provide a safe storage of value. Maecenas connects the two worlds and simultaneously makes fine art personally accessible to the people.
The crypto world has been recently subject to increasing regulation, especially the parts that provide liquidity to the market. Putting a lid on the source of liquidity in this market means increased volatility, in an already extremely volatile world, and price instability. Art is different. That’s why Maecenas is providing a bridge between the unstable but expanding crypto financial world and the safe haven of art.
Safer than stocks
Fine art is one of the most stable and profitable investments by far, even compared to the historically lucrative S&P 500 stock index, as can be plainly seen from the chart below.
Contemporary art has outperformed stocks in the last decade. A large majority of collectors buy art for investment.
Unlike in traditional art trading, buying a share in paintings on a Maecenas’ platform brings with it high liquidity. You can switch from a Picasso to a Monet in hours instead of months, with small shares being treated the same as large. By using the power of blockchain, you also get the peace of mind that the artwork you own is truly authentic and well-protected, at no additional costs to you.
Your contribution will also help small art galleries in your city to gain access to classical masterpieces, so you can be amazed by a Salvador Dalí in person and tell your friends you own a piece of the most famous paintings ever created. Maecenas will deliver transparency in the opaque world of art trading and enable small communities to disrupt a monopolised world that has been historically dominated only by well-heeled customers.
Simply put, the more people get involved in buying smaller pieces of art, the easier it will be to bring art back to the people. Where it belongs.
If you want to help make fine art accessible to everyone, contribute to Maecenas now to bring the best fine art masterpieces to the blockchain community, and tell your art-loving friends about Maecenas. |
Sadly it turned out to be no more than a seven-day wonder. On April 20 Vera Baird, the solicitor general, appeared entirely definite. The assumption in our law of succession that a man trumps a woman, that a younger son should take the throne ahead of an older sister, was a "load of rubbish", and the government was about to sweep it away.
Few declarations by a minister in the course of Gordon Brown's premiership can have commanded such backing. A poll for the Daily Telegraph found 78% in favour of change and a mere 12% defending the present arrangements - arrangements which may have made sense in times when Henry V stiffened English sinews on the eve of Harfleur, but today are simply a picturesque but indefensible hangover. It is even known that the Queen is sympathetic - this was ascertained when the Conservative peer Jeffrey Archer introduced a bill to just this effect a decade ago. It is hardly surprising that the Queen should approve of such a move. She is no second-best monarch. Even open-minded republicans acknowledge she has served Britain well. Yet had she had a brother, she would not have been permitted to do so.
Just as a man trumps a woman in the law of succession, so an attorney general trumps a solicitor general, and last week Ms Baird's superior, Baroness Scotland, ruled out any immediate change. There will still be a single equality bill drafted this year, but this reform won't be in it. Not that Lady Scotland ruled out reform altogether; it was the timescale that worried her. Changing the law would be complex; it would mean the repeal or amendment of much other legislation. And the Commonwealth would have to be asked. All of which may be true, but one might have thought that only a government exclusively manned by reactionary Tories would have left it at that. The arguments marshalled against this change endearingly echo those summoned up by diehards in the face of other necessary, belated and soon uncontroversial reforms, from the 1832 reform bill through the battles over votes for women to the end of the all-hereditary and almost all-male House of Lords. Tamper at your peril, they say. You risk disturbing that delicate balance on which our national welfare depends.
There are factors here that go beyond the mere dictates of logic. Warning against such a change, the historian Andrew Roberts quoted Bagehot's warning against letting daylight in upon magic. Perhaps that is why such a necessary and healthful change is so feared in such quarters: the more you let in the daylight, they calculate with a shudder, the more people may wonder what logical case can be made for keeping kings and queens in the 21st century. |
Upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive The Order: 1886 does not feature multiplayer, its developer has confirmed.
Responding to a question on Twitter, Ready At Dawn chief technical officer and co-founder Andrea Pessino described The Order as a "single-player, third-person action adventure game".
"No multiplayer," he said.
The comment sparked a number of replies questioning the value of the game.
"Better to do one thing well than a whole bunch half-assed," Pessino replied. "We are trying to make a SP experience you will enjoy."
@TheRazorRex @elcuco786 Correct. No multiplayer, it is a single player, third person action adventure game. :) — Andrea Pessino (@AndreaPessino) February 6, 2014
The news comes as some surprise given some had expected The Order to feature Gears of War-style co-op.
The Order was announced during Sony's E3 2013 press conference with a cinematic that told us little about the game, save it was set in a Steampunk London alternate history 40 years after the Industrial Revolution.
According to the official blurb: "Man uses advanced technology to battle a powerful and ancient foe." You play as a member of an elite order of knights, joining a centuries-old war that will determine the course of history forever.
It's in development at Ready at Dawn, the studio behind the PlayStation Portable God of War games. Ready at Dawn co-founder Ru Weerasuriya has described The Order as a linear, story-based third-person action adventure with shooting mechanics and moment-to-moment gameplay that's "really not what you might expect".
Weerasuriya has also mentioned The Order having a "filmic" look due to the way Ready at Dawn is "shooting" the game. For more on that, and how Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2 influenced the game, check out our The Order interview from Gamescom 2013. |
This is the Grandfather of Every German Sports Sedan
Photography by John Whitney Jr.
Ask any owner of a modern high-performance luxury sedan–a BMW M5, a Mercedes E63 AMG–what the grandfather of the high-performance luxury sedan is, and you’re sure to get the same answer: cars don’t have grandfathers. That’s because M5 and E63 owners can’t be bothered with frivolous things like riddles and hypothetical questions. They’re too busy talking on their phone at stoplights.
But if you want the answer to this question, I’m here to deliver it to you. You can trace the lineage of all of these cars, cars that have for years captivated the minds of drivers interested in combining high-performance and practicality, to the 1968-1972 Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the 300SEL 6.3, a little background. To start this venture, Mercedes engineer Erich Waxenberger–reportedly after being told by a German car journalist that he was building “granny cars”–took an S-Class and shoved in the 6.3-liter V8 from the 600, a limousine that was, at the time, the largest Mercedes in production.
Now, by modern standards, a 6.3-liter V8 in an S-Class doesn’t seem so crazy. But back then, the S-Class only came with 6-cylinder engines. And they were slow, even by the standard of the time, with base-level 250S models offering just 130 horsepower and a 0-to-60 time of around 13 seconds.
So now imagine taking that car and shoehorning a powerful limousine engine under the hood. And I mean powerful: it made around 250 horsepower and–wait for it–369 pound-feet of torque. Inside, the SEL 6.3 was a staid, traditional-looking Mercedes sedan that might be purchased by your grandfather, who would promptly place a box of tissues on the parcel shelf. Same thing with the exterior. But under the hood, there was a monstrous V8 capable of sending the car to 60 mph in around 6.5 seconds and gluing the tissues to the rear window. It was Mercedes’ version of the muscle car.
So exciting was the 6.3 that famed Mercedes engineer Rudolph Uhlenhaut caught wind of the project and insisted on driving the car. As Waxenberger tells the story, Uhlenhaut drove the car for only a few minutes before getting out at a traffic light. There, he opened the hood, just to see what the hell was making this car go so fast – and how they were able to squeeze the huge motor into the engine compartment.
Given its unprecedented status, sales expectations for the 6.3 were low. In a 1999 article from Classic & Sports Car, Waxenberger recalls that the Mercedes-Benz sales department never expected to sell even 50 units. But, says Waxenbrger, “in the end, they sold so fast I couldn’t get one for my own test department.” Mercedes ultimately built more than 6,500 examples of the 300 SEL 6.3.
If you want to own a 6.3 now–and who doesn’t?–be forewarned that the sedan has a lot of potential issues that might throw off a casual buyer. Every single unit left the factory with air suspension, and–given that these cars were made from December 1967 to September 1972–even the newest ones are more than 40 years old, which might mean trouble. I’d be happy if the air suspension in my Land Rover lasted ten years, let alone forty. Beyond the suspension, the 6.3’s heating/air conditioning system is notoriously complicated. And, of course, the 300SEL includes a wide variety of other age-related issues likely to affect an older car.
But mark my words: one day, the 300SEL 6.3 will find its rightful place on Concours lawns as the performance sedan that started it all. And owners of M5s and E63s will likely walk right by, phone glued to their ear, searching for something flashier, unaware that they’ve just crossed paths with a legend: the grandfather of the performance sedan.
Join the Conversation |
Paramedics push a stretcher at Turkey's largest airport, Istanbul Ataturk. REUTERS/Osman Orsal
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday it believed that the recent attack on Istanbul airport could be a result of Turkish and European security services ignoring Moscow’s signals about suspected “terrorists” hiding in Turkey and Europe.
“Over the past many years, the Russian side ... has informed our Turkish and European colleagues that persons suspected of being linked to terrorism ... find shelter both in Turkey and in a number of other European countries,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with journalists.
“In most cases such signals from the Russian side have not been given proper attention or any reaction by our colleagues. To our regret, these (Istanbul attacks) can be a consequence of such disregard.” |
For thanks to the detailed wording of F1's Sporting Regulations, removing the uncertainty about Austin on the eve of the new season will mean teams are on course to get another engine for the season ahead.
Four engine limit
F1 had long been set on a plan to reduce power unit usage over the duration of the turbo hybrid era.
Having originally started with five power units for the first year with the new engines in 2014, the rules allowed teams to use just four power units from last season.
However, on the back of struggles that Honda faced in its first year, a mid-season rule change meant new manufacturers would be given an extra unit for their debut campaigns.
The four engine plan fitted perfectly with a 20-race schedule, but it was clear that stretching the units if the calendar expanded would perhaps be a step too far.
That is why from the off, there was always a concession in the regulations that if there were more than 20 races then an extra engine would be allowed.
Korea conundrum
Back in December 2014, the surprise inclusion of the Korean Grand Prix on a late 2015 21-race provisional calendar prompted speculation of a secret plan by Bernie Ecclestone to give teams a fifth engine.
It related to the original wording of the sporting regulations that stated: "This number [of engines] will be increased to five if the number of Events in the Championship, as originally scheduled, exceeds 20."
Korea's presence in a late draft of the calendar did not budge the FIA though on its stance that the first engine limit stood.
For its view was that the 'original' 20-race provisional calendar was the one that would be taken in to account, meaning four engines whatever the fate of the extra race.
In light of that situation, the rules regarding the number of engines was subsequently revised to make it clear that what mattered going forward was the state of the calendar when the season actually began.
Article 23.4 c) of F1's Sporting Regulations now states that the limit of four engines will: "be increased by one if the number of Events, as scheduled at the start of the first Event of the Championship, exceeds 20."
Australian confirmation
With the official classification of an Event beginning with final free practice, it means that on Saturday morning in Australia there will be 100 percent confirmation that it is five engines this year.
However, with there being no immediate doubt about other events – and Austin now having its future sorted – there is almost no chance of there being a change of plans within the next week.
Strategic options
Teams have so far been planning their equipment on the prospect of using four engines, so the addition of a fifth will open up some tactical options.
Some may choose to spread their mileage throughout the campaign, some may elect to hold back on the fifth as an end-of-season special, or some may simply stick to four and keep hold of the fifth as an emergency measure.
Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell said at pre-season testing. "Our plans were all based on their being 20 races and there being four power units.
"Depending how the next two or three weeks go, it will determine how aggressive we are with running from Melbourne onwards.
"That will determine if we plan to use just four, and have that bonus engine which might help us out if we have a quality issue. Or it might help us out if we want to play a performance special.
"But we will work all that out in the days before Melbourne." |
Credit: Marvel Comics
Horror fiction icon R.L. Stine makes his comic book writing debut this week with Man-Thing #1. Working with artist German Peralta, Stine has revitalized the character of Man-Thing, making him a sardonic, sarcastic, self-aware swamp monster on a mission - in Hollywood, no less.
But jumping into comic books wasn’t a huge leap for Stine – the writer says his lifelong love of comic books began with E.C. horror titles and Mad Magazine, and that he once even harbored aspirations to be a cartoonist.
Newsarama spoke to Stine about Man-Thing, including the difference between prose and comic books, his history with the character, and why horror and humor matter in equal measure.
This article also contains new pages from Man-Thing #2.
Credit: Marvel Comics
Nrama: R.L., your writing has often been comic book adjacent – you’ve even included superhero-type elements in Goosebumps books - but Man-Thing is your first actual comic book work. What made Man-Thing the right opportunity to finally get into writing comic books?
R.L. Stine: They called me! [laughs] That’s it. No one had ever asked me to do a comic book before.
And I’ve always been a comic book fan, especially when I was a kid. I don’t read a lot now, not really, but I was a comic book freak when I was a kid. So this is really full circle for me. When I was in fourth grade, about nine years old, I started doing these little comic books, drawing the characters and passing them around in school.
Everyone told me “You can’t draw at all! This sucks!” and they were right, I couldn’t draw at all. But that’s really what I started out wanting to do, but I had no talent at all so I knew I had to be a writer. So this is kind of coming full circle for me
Nrama: There’s an old comic book saying that inside every failed artist is a great writer.
Stine: I failed right from the beginning! [laughs]
Nrama: Did you have any history with Man-Thing before taking on this title?
Stine: No, not really, but I have an affinity for swamp monsters! I did a Goosebumps book last year called “Here Comes the Shaggedy” that was a swamp monster story. It’s just very basic horror. It’s a frightening atmosphere, the whole environment. All these living things in the swamp, and it’s dark, and it’s wet - and then you have this beast, this caricature that is mostly not human. It’s very basic horror, I guess that’s why I’m drawn to it.
Nrama: The tone of Man-Thing #1 feels like a throwback to the days of Stan Lee and E.C. Horror comics. Knowing that you loved comics as a kid, and even had aspirations to draw them, what are the comic books that really struck you as a developing reader?
Stine: I’m old! When I was kid, those E.C. Comics were around. I’m ten years old and here’s Tales From the Crypt, and The Vault of Horror, and The Witch’s Cauldron. All those great E.C. books that were just terrifying, with this fabulous art. Those guys all went on to do Mad comics and Mad Magazine. And I was drawn to them because they were gruesome, horrible comics, but they always had a funny twist ending.
And the Crypt Keeper was always funny, he was always making puns. So I think it was this combination of humor and horror, that I think was just an enormous influence on me.
Credit: Marvel Comics
Nrama: Despite that more classic tone, there are some really deep, modern metatextual elements to Man-Thing #1. Is that something you saw in the character before taking this job?
Stine: No. You know, I don’t know. To me, I’m focused on the plot, I’m trying to be funny, I don’t think about things like that. I’m just a plot-driven guy, really. And then I thought I’d get it off to a funny start and show how Man-Thing is different by setting it in a studio in Burbank. He’s trying for a film career, but tests badly – he’s too ugly, he’s too scary for kids. So they kick him out - they don’t even fly him home – and I thought that was funny.
Nrama: You’re working with artist German Peralta.
Stine: Yes! He’s wonderful.
Nrama: Has writing for an artist changed your style at all?
Stine: No, not really. When I write a Goosebumps book, and I start a scene in the basement, you’ve gotta figure out what the basement looks like. The water’s leaking, the furnace comes on, there are spiderwebs. So even though I can’t draw, I’m thinking visually all the time while writing. It wasn’t really a very different process for me – in fact, it might have been a little easier. I didn’t have to write a description, I knew the artist could create that for me. I just concentrated on the story and the dialog.
Nrama: What’s your favorite thing German’s drawn for Man-Thing so far?
Stine: I love the scene where Ted Sallis’s car goes down into the water, and he’s down there, and he becomes Man-Thing, and rises up as Man-Thing. That’s my favorite thing from Man-Thing #1.
Nrama: There are also back-up stories in each issue of Man-Thing. What can you tell us about those?
Stine: That’s going back to my childhood, that goes back to Tales From the Crypt, those old fashioned horror comics. I collect those, I have a lot of those. So I thought maybe people would expect a horror story from me in the back of the book, so I’m doing these five short horror things.
Nrama: Are there any other Marvel characters you want to bring in, or cameos you’d like to do?
Credit: Marvel Comics
Stine: No, I haven’t done that yet. I’m writing the fifth one now, but it’s hard for a relative outsider, because I don’t really know the Marvel Universe that well. That’s one of the reasons I was drawn to Man-Thing, is that he’s mostly on his own so I didn’t have to worry about that. I’m kind of afraid if I really got into it, I wouldn’t know enough to be able to write stuff because the universe has so much history. So I picked Man-Thing because he’s in the swamp, he’s gone. So I haven’t used any Marvel characters.
I made up a few characters. There’s a character coming up - I don’t want to spoil everything - when Man-Thing goes back to the swamp, his old self drags himself back to the swamp, he finds it in chaos. There are strange animals that don’t belong there, and giant pythons, and everything is out of order. So he goes to see this character, an ancient character, named Oldfather, who controls the order of the swamp. And he finds that Oldfather has been kidnapped, and that chaos will spread all over the world until he brings Oldfather back. That’s what his mission will be.
Nrama: So now that you’ve taken the plunge into comic books, can we expect more comic book work for you in the future?
Stine: I don’t know. If people like it, if they enjoy it. I had a lot of fun doing it. It was like a whole new process for me.
You know, this is a big Goosebumps year for me. This is the 25th anniversary of Goosebumps. Can you believe that?
Nrama: That makes me feel old!
Stine: [laughs] How do you think I feel? 25 years of this stuff! So I’m doing a lot of Goosebumps stuff. I’m doing a new Goosebumps series, running around like a fool. But yeah, I would hope to do more comic books. It’s been fun.
Nrama: What do you want to say to readers of Man-Thing?
Stine: I hope they enjoy the new version of him. I made him sarcastic. He has a sense of humor, he comments on things more. I tried to come up with a really good story. I always care about twists and surprises, so I hope people enjoy that. |
by
On both sides of the Atlantic, the sirens of social democracy have sounded. In the United Kingdom, it has reappeared in the body of left-leaning politician Jeremy Corbyn’s challenge to the Labour Party leadership. In the United States, it has emerged as democratic socialist Bernie Sanders makes his appearance as a strong contender for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. In Canada, the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) Thomas Mulcair holds the lead in the federal elections due on October 19. It is likely that the NDP, which already swept the provincial elections in Alberta, could defeat the Conservatives. Buried languages against income inequality and social fragmentation can be heard once more in the mainstream press. These are traditions that had been cremated in the 1980s. In the rubble of the financial crisis, social democracy has begun to smoulder.
In the U.K., the emergence of Corbyn in the Labour Party leadership contest has set off alarms. Corbyn is an old-style socialist—uncomfortable in the boardroom and glad to be on the streets. He is not forged in the smithy of New Labour, the “third way” of Tony Blair. Indeed, Blair has frontally attacked Corbyn as a throwback to the 1980s. “Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t offer anything new,” Blair wrote. “Those of us who lived through the turmoil of the 80s know every line of this script.”
Corbyn’s script is written in large part by the social democratic tradition—government intervention to deliver public services, an end to muscular military intervention, and higher taxes on the wealthy. Little here sets Corbyn apart from Michael Foot and Tony Benn, both standard-bearers of social democracy in Labour’s past. Corbyn’s rise threatens the Third Way. He wants to recommit Labour to socialism, which is anathema to Blair.
In the U.S., Sanders has once more recovered long-forgotten lineages in the Democratic Party—one not seen on the political circuit since Jesse Jackson’s campaigns of 1984 and 1988 for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders has taken hold of the popular sentiment against what the Occupy Movement called the 1 per cent. He routinely uses that kind of imagery to talk about income inequality in the U.S. In a speech in Wisconsin, before over 10,000 people, Sanders said, “The issue of wealth and income inequality, to my mind, is the great moral issue of our time…. There is something profoundly wrong when today, the top one-tenth of 1 per cent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 per cent.”
Sanders’ strong push against income inequality has moved his rival for the Democratic ticket, Hillary Clinton, to make her own, less populist gestures. Hillary Clinton has pledged to increase spending for education and infrastructure as an antidote to income inequality. Sanders digs deep into the vault of social democracy—he wants to tax the rich, break up the banks, make college education free, raise the minimum wage and redo trade agreements that helped haemorrhage U.S. industry.
Mulcair’s NDP broke its links with Canadian socialism in the 1990s under the leadership of Audrey McLaughlin. While Audrey McLaughlin adopted the “Third Way” thinking of Tony Blair, she could not replicate his electoral successes. Under her leadership, the NDP shrank as Canada moved rightward. None of the capitulations of the NDP in that period worked to its benefit. The NDP, by validating many conservative principles, delivered the country to the Conservatives. In the midst of the election campaign of 2004, NDP leader Jack Layton swung his party leftward by force of will and in the slough of desperation.
A combination of trade union support and nativist populism allows the NDP to draw voters from a range of backgrounds. There is a great deal that links the prairie populism of the NDP with the New England populism of Sanders. Both are robust critics of Big Money, but neither is able to offer a significantly different path out of the present difficulties. Even if the NDP wins the elections, it will not be able to govern far to the left of the Conservatives. Mulcair’s pledge to increase spending for the police is an early indication of his party’s capitulation.
Neoliberal socialism
One of the problems shared by Corbyn, Sanders and Mulcair is that all three are social democrats in an adverse climate. Social democracy of the early 20th century relied upon the theories of John Maynard Keynes and the liberal socialist traditions of Eduard Bernstein and the Fabian Society. Capitalism, this tradition argued, had softened since its harsh beginnings. There was no possibility of breaking with capitalism—only of producing capitalism with a human face.
What the governments of this tradition were tasked to do was to intervene in the economy through planning and social welfare to ameliorate the unequal outcomes of capitalism. The German Social Democratic Party’s 1959 Godesberg Programme broke with the SPD’s heritage in Marxism. Its new goal was Freiheitlicher Sozialismus (liberal socialism). Three years
earlier, British Labour Party’s Anthony Crosland’s The Future of Socialism had argued that his party must fight to “equalise the distribution of rewards and privileges so as to diminish the degree of class stratification, the injustices of large inequalities and the collective discontents”. This was the limit of 20th century social democracy. Between 1945 and 1979, there was a broad consensus around this path. Conservative ideas had been largely discredited. In 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon, a conservative, nonetheless said, “I am now a Keynesian in economics.”
By the late 1970s, the context of social democracy changed dramatically. The rich (and corporations) in North America and the U.K. went on a general strike against taxes. Revenue for social welfare schemes began to dry up.
New theories for balanced budget amendments stayed the hands of governments from being able to borrow for social expenditure.
With finance untethered from state control, governments had an impossible time raising funds. New technologies such as computers, satellites and container ships alongside lower fuel costs and less powerful governments in the Third World allowed firms to break up production across the world. No longer were commodities made in single factories.
This meant that governments lost the power of nationalisation. Faced with increased unemployment and decreased ability for social welfare payments, conservative and Third Way governments expanded security forces for overseas wars and domestic social control. The essence of social democracy withered.
Nothing in the programmes of Corbyn, the NDP and Sanders announces an acknowledgment of this new and adverse context. Their hands are tied by the immense political power accrued by the wealthy to drive policy agendas to their benefit. What Corbyn and Sanders have suggested is that their campaigns are neither about winning governmental power nor about being able to change the policy direction in the U.K. and the U.S. In Iowa, Sanders came out with plain truth: “No matter who is elected to be President,” he said, “that person will not be able to address the enormous problems facing the working families of our country.” Why is this so? “The power of corporate America, the power of Wall Street, the power of campaign donors is so great,” said Sanders, “that no President alone can stand up to them. That is the truth. It is not just about electing Bernie Sanders for President. It is about creating a grass-roots political movement in this country.” Much the same kind of sentiment has come from Corbyn, a movement man more than a government man.
Attracting the dispossessed
Corbyn, Sanders and Mulcair have attracted the dispossessed in much the same way as Syriza and Podemos drew from the excluded of southern Europe. One problem with Corbyn’s run in the Labour Party and Sanders’ run in the Democratic Party is that they are also drawing energy into political formations that are committed to the Third Way, to free-market liberalism. Corbyn’s anti-austerity agenda has drawn back voters in Scotland who had given their votes to the genuinely anti-austerity Scottish National Party.
Sanders is drawing voters from among the catchment area of the Green Party. There is little expectation that either campaign will be able to transform its own parties. On the other hand, the landscape in the U.S. and the U.K. is so bleak that people who are disaffected with the status quo have few other places to turn toward. Small left-wing groups have been unable to break out of their decades-long isolation, and issue-based mobilisation (against police brutality or for immigrant rights) has been unable to shape a mass political force.
In such a benighted political environment, it is hard to begrudge the return of these standards of social democracy. They recognize that their policy slates are anachronistic as long as the propertied have a monopoly over the political and cultural process.
This column originally appeared in Frontline (India). |
The black Audio-Technica ATH-M40X Monitor Headphones and C01U USB Microphone Kit from B&H features a pair of Audio-Technica professional stereo monitor headphones and a Samson CO1U Pro-Black USB studio condenser microphone. Accessories include two 9.8' headphone cables, a screw-on adapter, a desktop stand, a mic clip, a USB cable, and two carry pouches. This kit can be used to make high-quality audio recordings on Mac or Windows computers without the need of any additional gear or cabling.
The C01U USB condenser microphone is compatible with most DAW software programs and comes with Cakewalk's Sonar LE workstation software to get you started right away. It captures 16-bit audio up to a 48 kHz sampling rate, and delivers accurate, high-quality audio reproduction.
Furthermore, the ATH-M40x monitor headphones are designed for use in studio tracking and mixing as well as for DJ monitoring applications. The headphones have a detachable single-sided cable system, and both coiled and straight cables are included. When not in use, the ATH-M40x can be folded down and stored in the included carry pouch. |
It's a sore point for progressives that President Obama and the national Democratic Party turned a blind eye to Wisconsin during the massive protests against Governor Scott Walker in 2011, did not do much to help during the failed effort to recall the governor in 2012, and even now, during Walker's campaign for re-election, are biding their time waiting to see what the polls show before they get too involved.
Although Wisconsin went for Obama in 2008 and 2012, and elected Tammy Baldwin--one of the most progressive members of the U.S. Senate--that same year, Democrats and many liberal pundits began writing off Wisconsin even as the battle here reached historic proportions, galvanizing citizens and making news around the world. Wisconsin suffered through an egregious round of redistricting by the Republicans who control the state legislature, has a Supreme Court that has been captured by big money, and is led by a Governor with major support from the Koch Brothers and other rightwing billionaires. Strategically, from a national perspective, it is not a safe bet. All the more reason for citizens here to feel what it happening is particularly important.
The organized forces of the right have been busy dismantling the Wisconsin's progressive tradition, its public employee unions, its model environmental protections, its open-meetings laws, and funding for its great university system, technical colleges, and public schools. Citizens are fighting in scattershot, grassroots campaigns against all of these assaults.
If ordinary people are going to overcome the organized forces of greed, they are going to need to work together to develop a smart, winning strategy.
With that in mind, last year a group of progressive activists decided they needed help getting organized.
"We thought the perfect person to talk to would be George Lakoff," says Scott Wittkopf, chair of the Forward Institute, a public policy think tank. Lakoff, author of the best-selling books Don’t Think of an Elephant!; The Political Mind; and Whose Freedom? is the nation's leading expert on linguistic "framing" in politics and on how the left can recapture the rhetorical high ground, by speaking in the emotionally resonant language of values.
Wittkopf's group, along with a handful of other environmental, labor, and civil rights organizations, including the Wisconsin Grassroots Network, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the Milwaukee Interfaith Coalition, teachers unions in Madison and Milwaukee, and United Wisconsin (the group that led the recall drive against Governor Walker) contacted Lakoff and began a series of trainings under his tutelage.
This weekend Lakoff, a distinguished professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley, will deliver a series of public lectures, including a keynote address to the Wisconsin Grassroots Festival in Mazomanie on Saturday, March 22
Lakoff took a keen interest in the uprising against Scott Walker, writing about how the labor and recall fights should be framed on his blog.
"I’ve followed Wisconsin politics for many, many years, beginning in my teen years when a friend of my brother’s worked with Gaylord Nelson," Lakoff said in a phone interview from his home in California. "I was really inspired by the protest movement at the statehouse. I wrote a piece about it and apparently it was printed out and posted on the statehouse wall, which won my heart."
Governor Scott Walker and the Republican legislature in Wisconsin are deploying what Lakoff calls "the conservative communication system."
"I’ve been fighting that system for fifteen years," he says. "Most people don’t even know that it exists."
Democrats, meanwhile, have failed to set up an effective communications system of their own, Lakoff says.
"So when I was approached by Scott about what could be done in Wisconsin, I said here is what the Republicans have done, It is very smart. . . .When Republicans went to college and studied business, they took a course in marketing and found out how people really think."
Progressives need to learn from that, Lakoff says.
Working with the network of grassroots activists from around the state, Lakoff helped set up trainings in framing a progressive message.
"No matter what issue you're passionate about, his research gives us a foundation to unify everybody because it's about values--morals and values," says Wittkopf.
Pointing to all of the battles in Wisconsin, from education to voting rights to the expansion of lobbyist influence and campaign finance reform, Wittkopf says, "you have all these really core democratic issues at stake. As progressives we make this fatal mistake that each group does its own messaging . . . creating silos."
With Lakoff, the grassroots activists developed the "Wisconsin Progressive Freedom Campaign," to connect all of those issues. At two early meetings, Lakoff joined the activists on a in a video conference to talk about how they could unite around a progressive definition of freedom.
So far the activists have conducted four trainings in Western Wisconsin, the Fox Cities, Milwaukee, and Madison, building on this core notion of a definition of freedom that is not about the conservative idea of freedom, which Wittkopf describes as self-centered and serving the interests of business, but a more expansive notion of human freedom, that comes out of America's progressive roots--extending access to democracy for as many people as possible.
"We have had some little successes," says Wittkopf, who attributes "values-based messaging" to popular campaigns to pass school spending referenda in Appleton, despite a well-financed ad campaign by Americans for Prosperity, as well as organizing against sand mining and against school privatization at the state level.
Lakoff would like to see Wisconsin progressives raise enough money to set up a speakers bureau for ordinary citizens throughout the state, conduct more trainings, and solidify a single framing structure.
"You learn how to respond to conservatives, and not just to respond but to go on the offensive and get the message out in every possible way," he says. "That takes organization and will." "You never speak to conservatives using conservative language," he adds. "'The issue is jobs'—No. Freedom is an issue. Freedom from wage slavery is an example. To get that we need good paying union jobs, where you get paid fairly, and you are treated like a human being, where you get not “benefits” but health care that is part of your salary. That’s good for everybody—it’s good not to have employees that are sick, its good to have a population that is healthy . . . this is not rocket science. Everything I say is what you already know. My job is to tell you what you already know but are not saying." Wittkopf is energized by Lakoff's work in Wisconsin. "We have never had collaborative messaging before," he says. "That's where the conservatives are really beating us up." "Wisconsin is the laboratory" Wittkopf adds--for progressive politics starting a century ago, and for the rightwing takeover of civil society, which gained traction with Scott Walker's attack on public employee unions, voter I.D., the privatization of public schools, and the rest of the attacks on basic democratic freedoms. "That's why Lakoff took an interest in Wisconsin," says Wittkopf. "We are at the center of it." Plus, Wittkopf adds, "Any scientist will tell you that it is a life goal to see your work put into practice. Lakoff's work has not generally been put into practice by a lot of progressives or Democrats." That's another area where Wisconsin could lead the way, as a laboratory for resurgent progressive politics. —Ruth Conniff George Lakoff's public schedule for this weekend includes: Saturday, March 22 8:30-4:14 pm--Wisconsin Grassroots Festival at Mazomanie High School Sunday, March 23 2:30-4:30 pm--Lecture workshop at the Pyle Center 702 Langdon Street, Madison, Wisconsin Monday, March 24 7:00-9:00 pm--Lecture hosted by the Havens Center at the Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin-Madison Here is a complete schedule of George Lakoff's public events: George Lakoff Public Schedule in Madison Saturday, March 22 Wisconsin Grassroots Festival at Mazomanie High School (8:30–4:15) – Register at http://www.wisconsingrassroots.net/2014_festival - Professor Lakoff to lead two breakout sessions and give opening keynote remarks at the event. Grassroots dinner with George Lakoff at The Feed Mill restaurant in Mazomanie (5:30 – 6:00pm approximate start time) http://oldfeedmill.com/. **Reservations required through the Wisconsin Grassroots Network ($30/person, capacity is approximately 70) http://www.wisconsingrassroots.net/ Sunday, March 23 Lecture workshop, “Reframing and Reclaiming the Three ‘E’s – Economics, Education, Environment”: 2:30 – 4:30pm – Pyle Center, Vandenberg Auditorium (Rm. 121), 702 Langdon St., Madison WI (http://conferencing.uwex.edu/). Registration: http://forwardinstitutewi.org/george-lakoff-seminars-registration/ Intimate dinner reception/fundraiser with George Lakoff : 7:00pm at The Heritage Tavern, 131 E. Mifflin St, Madison and special guests WI State Reps Melissa Agard Sargent and Terese Berceau. http://www.heritagetavern.com/. $150 per person includes food and house red or white wine (cash bar available). Net proceeds used to pay Professor Lakoff’s travel expenses. Advance reservations and full payment required to secure a spot for this once-in-a-lifetime event. Reservation form at: http://forwardinstitutewi.org/george-lakoff-madison-dinner-reception-reservation-form/. Monday, March 24 Lecture workshop on organizing and communications based on framing the message. 9:30am – 11:30am - Pyle Center, Room 225, 702 Langdon St., Madison WI (http://conferencing.uwex.edu/). Session registration available at http://forwardinstitutewi.org/george-lakoff-seminars-registration/ “Neural Politics: Cognitive and Material Power” (7:00 – 9:00pm) – Lecture hosted by The Havens Center (http://www.havenscenter.org/) at the UW – Madison Memorial Union, see TITU for room number. George Lakoff’s visit is made possible by Forward Institute, Partner Organizations of the Wisconsin Progressive Freedom Campaign, and The Havens Center. Information Contact: Scott Wittkopf (608)628-8535 [email protected] |
Friday night at the new yard was not just about Friday night, or just about the new yard.
From the Hamilton Tiger-Cat experience last year we already knew that Tim Hortons Field is going to make a difference, and when it temporarily becomes CIBC Hamilton Pan Am Stadium next week, it will make a difference, too.
Friday was a stepping stone — more like a segue, actually — to July's Pan Am Games, but also to a host of other things between now and 2030.
Why pick that far-off date, you might ask? Because that's the centennial of the first Commonwealth Games (nee British Empire Games) which were held in Hamilton on the very site that Friday night's game was played, but in a stadium facing the other direction.
And, yes, there is already talk in some Hamilton quarters that we should be bidding for those Games. Besides the historical symmetry, we have to get a pool and a track somewhere, and there's plenty of time to financially plan.
With the new joint sold out for Canada vs. England Friday night, and the old joint downtown setting North American attendance records last month for synchronized skating, this city has its sports-host groove back.
Back in the late 1980s and for all of the '90s, Hamilton was the go-to place for almost all of the major national and international sports events — Canada Cup, Memorial Cup, Leafs and Sabres exhibition games, Figure Skating's Grand Prix, three national figure skating championships et al. — and that was without the Tiger-Cats being anywhere close to what they are today.
And what they are today is not just a sports franchise but a very successful business franchise, with many arms looking for more places to reach into.
They'll have a soccer team soon, and therefore will get as well-versed in the business of that football as they are of their own brand of football. If the city is looking to become an international player again, and we are, the Ticats will always be involved.
The Cats, with their last two crazy years and undefeated record on the coffee grounds, have created a feeling about the east-end stadium that was continued by Canada's favourite soccer team Friday night. The place was sold out, and we're guessing that fewer than half the tickets went to people who live here and in Burlington. |
Composting can seem daunting to a newbie. That’s why we’ve created this comprehensive, yet simple guide to composting for beginners.
What exactly is composting?
In simple terms, composting is a process that results in having nutrient-rich humus to apply to soils wherever you like. This nutrient-rich mix restores vitality and fuels vigorous growth in plants when applied. You think of compost in terms of a conditioner for soils. It provides nutrients for the lawn or garden and also helps the soil to retain more moisture.
Composting also introduces beneficial microscopic organisms to the soil. This process of breaking down the organic material helps to aerate the soil. Compost is an environmentally friendly alternative to using toxic chemical fertilizers. Importantly composting at home also frees up larger municipal landfills. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A), composting can put more than 30% of household waste to good use.
How To Start Composting
Before you start composting, you have to know what materials to compost and what not to compost. Generally, materials that make good composite are rich in nitrogen and carbon. They include:
Eggshells
Table scraps
Leaves
Fruit and vegetable scraps
Grass clippings
Garden plants
Flower cuttings
Seaweed and kelp
Wood ash
Chicken manure
Dryer lint
Cardboard
Shredded paper
You also use your existing garden soil because the microorganisms contained help to accelerate the entire process. Materials to avoid throwing into the compost pit include diseased plants ( you may encourage the disease), perennial weeds ( the seeds will propagate), meat, bones and fish scraps( make the compost very smelly). Others include black walnut leaves ( contain toxins), all citrus rinds, peach peels, and banana peels.
Make sure to reduce larger pieces of the compost pit material to fast track the composting process, it’s even quite good to have a few scattered around.
Composting Process
The process of composting consists of seven simple steps. These are:
Start by laying the compost pile on bare earth. This is critical if worms and other helpful organism are to aerate the pile.
This is critical if worms and other helpful organism are to aerate the pile. Lay straw or twigs first. The layer should be no more than a few inches thick. This helps in compost pile aeration and drainage.
The layer should be no more than a few inches thick. This helps in compost pile aeration and drainage. Add the material in small layers making sure to alternate between dry (leaves, wood ash, and straw) and moist layers (seaweed, food scraps and tea bags).
making sure to alternate between dry (leaves, wood ash, and straw) and moist layers (seaweed, food scraps and tea bags). Add some chicken manure or any other livestock manure . This is rich in nitrogen and helps speed the composting process.
or any other . This is rich in nitrogen and helps speed the composting process. Water the compost regularly to keep it moist.
to keep it moist. Cover with carpet scraps , plastic sheeting or wood. This helps retain heat and moisture- two essentials of composting. This also keeps excess rainwater out.
, plastic sheeting or wood. This helps retain heat and moisture- two essentials of composting. This also keeps excess rainwater out. Turn the pile every few weeks using a shovel or pitchfork. This helps in aeration. In order for the process to be effective, there has to be a steady supply of oxygen.
Worm Composting Bin
Worm composting makes use of worms to recycle organic materials such as food scraps into worm compost or vermicompost, which is a helpful soil amendment.
Basically, worms consume nutrient-rich vegetable scraps and fruit and convert it into nutrient-rich compost. The best materials for worm composting are vegetable scraps and raw fruit, not citrus. A worm bin is easy to set up. All you need is a box (glass, wooden or plastic), worms (red wrigglers or red worms) and newspaper strips.
Compost making is ideal for making nutrient-rich humus, for garden or lawn use. With good maintenance a compost pile can be ready in a few months to spread across your garden as fertilizer.
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Hillary Clinton can add a new name to her list of endorsements – a prominent Ku Klux Klan member who says he likes her because of her “hidden agenda.”
Will Quigg, a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan’s California chapter, told the Telegraph Monday that he would be switching his support from Donald Trump to Clinton.
Quigg had endorsed Trump on Twitter in September:
Now, though, he says he’s changing his tune.
“We want Hillary Clinton to win,” he said. “She is telling everybody one thing, but she has a hidden agenda. She’s telling everybody what they want to hear so she can get elected, because she’s Bill Clinton’s wife, she’s close to the Bushes. Once she’s in the presidency, she’s going to come out and her true colors are going to show. Border policies are going to be put in place. Our second amendment rights that she’s saying she’s against now, she’s not against. She’s just our choice for the presidency.”
Archive.
Let’s not forget this one either. Hillary Clinton with former Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a former Ku Klux Klan member. |
Recently, Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) released an article explaining that they’re going to make more conscious efforts to add more LGBTQ characters to their written adventures. The effort is being pioneered by actual gay employees (it’s crazy that this even needs to be mentioned) who are making sure that the content is realistic and tasteful. Upon release, the article riled up the usual suspects: those who see no issue with the change and those who think that expanding representation into their fictional landscape is a horrible idea.
The battle being waged is an important one, and of course it was contention that WOTC expected. They’re firmly planting their feet on one side of an issue, as they have in the past with similar topics. The D&D Players Handbook sprinkles in some support to the historically disenfranchised by mentioning gender fluidity at one point and by portraying the “Human” racial choice with a fully clothed black woman. They clearly have good intentions. But honestly, much like most straight white culture businesses, WOTC misses the mark by a mile.
Dungeons and Dragons is set in a world of fantasy based in and around the world of Lord of the Rings. A classic title in the world of western fantasy that is also heavily rooted in sexism and racism. Although D&D has changed small features throughout the years to change or eliminate those aspects, the core of those principles are set in the European fantasy setting.
“So this game has knights and castles and dragons and elves in it, like King Arthur or something?”
“Yeah like that, but with more gay people.”
The method taken results in underrepresented groups seeming like an afterthought, instead of a core value of the world itself. Although it’s a move of good faith by WOTC, it feels the same way J.K. Rowling makes us feel when she “peppers in” new liberal-friendly facts about characters she wrote 15 years ago.
“Dumbledore was gay y’all! There’s nothing in the story making that an open fact, so it didn’t matter until I said it, but he’s super gay! Support my work forever! Maybe one day I’ll retroactively fix Cho Chang!”
Speaking of, the same issue exists with race. A group of white kids can gather around the table, see that the staple human used in the PHB is a black woman and tote her around for a few games, but it helps nothing. It’s a pat on the back for the player, but it doesn’t actually do any justice for the people you’re trying to market to. It’s a “hey look, we know black women exist,” head nod. Meanwhile:
Tieflings feel like a poor attempt at WOTC giving players a chance to feel like a disenfranchised PoC.
“To be greeted with stares and whispers, to suffer violence and insult on the street, to see mistrust and fear in every eye: this is the lot of the tiefling. And to twist the knife, tieflings know that this is because a pact struck generations ago infused the essence of Asmodeus—overlord of the Nine Hells—into their bloodline. Their appearance and their nature are not their fault but the result of an ancient sin, for which they and their children and their children’s children will always beheld accountable.”
Choose this, and be judged by society for the history of your lineage and physical appearance!
It would take a very skilled DM to make that choice something informative, accurate, and fun for the party at large, without pandering to some liberal white savior fantasies. I would pay good money to watch someone pull that off. But I digress.
Wizards of the Coast make some of the coolest bits of fantasy I have ever seen. And watching people play the game and use the tools given to them in such creative bursts of genius… it’s one of my favorite things in the world. I’ve written before about how tabletop RPGs have this unique power to bring people together, and to deal with real life issues through the depth of real conversation and conflict. But I hear diversity and see very little.
I go from Twitch channel to Twitch channel to watch games run by WOTC staff, Geek and Sundry, and many others, only to find a group of white folks playing out a white culture fantasy. I check out the pictures of production staff, writers, conventions, and gatherings, and I see the same thing. The lists of guest stars on these shows are fairly expansive, but follow the same trend.
They make some of my favorite content, ever. But as I wander through the D&D community, both in person and online, I see PoC waiting in the wings. We nod to each other and maybe geek out together for a while, but many have the same feeling:
This wasn’t made for us, and although we are free to join in, why does it also feel not-so-welcoming? If there aren’t already people like me there, there must be a reason.
The D&D community is playing out a living fantasy. One where white men (and thankfully women) can have games, a few incredible shows, and tons of convention space to be themselves. And a great deal of them are totally okay with any other type of person coming in and joining their adventure. It’s a welcome space, where they feel that anyone can feel comfortable and accepted.
But Matthew Colville once said, as advice to DMs out there, “Think about your campaign setting. What does it say to players who aren’t like you. Your fantasy is in there. Is theirs?”
Editor-In-Chief
David “DC” Collins
@bukowskionice
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Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera chases a Porsche 911 GT3 through Paris – Click above to watch video after the jump
Before we go salivating all over the thought of two of Europe's best and brightest going the distance through the City of Lights, we should probably start off with an obligatory "don't try this at home." The kids you see sliding around the Parisian streets in the video after the jump are trained professionals working in a semi-controlled environment, so do us all a favor and keep your reenactments confined to your Need For Speed marathons.That said, the video is a well-shot interpretation of what a full lap of Paris might look like as a Porsche 911 GT3 and a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera go fender-to-fender. Our early money was on the Raging Bull strolling away with the checkered flag, but Stuttgart's finest seemed to have no problem keeping the big bad Italian behind its winged tail-end as the two snake around the French capitol. Hit the jump to see the action for yourself.[Source: YouTube |
MIAMI — It almost seems impossible, but it's tragically true. [artist id="1330195"]Scott Storch[/artist] squandered $30 million. Not only that, he did it in less than six months.
"[It was] unlike anything I've ever seen in my entire life," the producer's manager, Derek Jackson, told MTV News of his friend of almost two decade's monumental fall. "Historical! It was historical without question."
Storch's decline started in 2006, which was arguably his most successful year creatively and definitely his most fruitful year financially. He was one of the top producers in the business, having worked on hits by Beyoncé, 50 Cent, the Game, T.I., Chris Brown, Christina Aguilera, Dr. Dre, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Pink and many others. He had a long way to fall.
"Honestly, about three years ago, he got really shady," said Jackson, sitting just a few feet away from Storch at Miami's Hit Factory studios. "And that's the best term I could use. He went from what his normal vices were to suddenly becoming a person who was infatuated with the drug, and I saw it constantly."
Storch's drug was cocaine. The abuse of the narcotic almost cost him his career — and his life. Earlier this year, he was arrested for grand theft auto
for allegedly failing to return a Bentley he'd leased in 2006. And last year, Storch hit legal trouble after reportedly falling behind on both his child-support payments and his property taxes.
"A lot of the work that we would do and how much we would do of it, that started to scale back. I have to say the magic month was August of 2006," Jackson continued. "I will never forget it. It will be something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. You know, '06 for us was the magic year; we hit Lotto. Everything worked. I mean, there was nothing that we did that did not work. I gotta honestly say, outside of my kids, it was the greatest year of my life. It was so many [hit records] I can't even tell you. That was the year he won [ASCAP's] Songwriter of the Year [award]. We broke records — lots of [chart] records we broke and he did them quick. It was just a wonderful year, but I think it was defined by that magic month of August. He ran into the Hollywood class — and when he went to Hollywood, all things changed."
Most notably, Storch went on vacation.
"It was the first time he took off in, I would say, the duration of his career. I've been with him since he was 17 years old. I found Scott [playing keyboards with] the Roots in 1992, so for the duration of that, he's always been a worker bee, that's just his spirit. But in August of 06', we took a month off. It was over. Never came back."
Literally. Storch got addicted to drugs and just stopped caring about his career.
"Scott, I have to be real because, once again, it's about a story that has to be told," Jackson said. "We made a lot of money — I mean a lot of money that year [2006]. And Scott — in all honesty — he was broke by January. It was the quickest [loss] of money that I've ever seen in my entire life."
"The cost of the drug didn't effect my life," Storch weighed in. "It was the poor decisions I made, that were so poor financially, that caused me to go into this situation where I was forced to change my lifestyle ... forced to change a lot of things.
"[I had] 15 to 20 cars at all times," he continued." That's not smart. I would take one of 15 half-million-dollar cars I owned and go to the mall and spend that much money. Stupid, stupid stuff. It's like it didn't make a difference. They were ego investments. I would have been great with three or four cars! I didn't need a 117-foot boat."
"Cars!," Jackson explained of how Storch lost his fortune so quickly. "Private jets are expensive — please leave them alone if you can't afford them. Trips to the Riviera on a private jet is $250,000 one way. I'm talking about, it was a routine [with Scott]. Spending on others — if you can't take care of yourself, how you gonna take care of everybody else? And it got out of control."
Storch weighed in, "I watched my own father, he went bankrupt and had problems with the IRS. He was living beyond his means, and I guess I was doing the same thing and not even realizing it."
As much as he was making, Storch was spending double on drugs and overly luxurious living. He was out of control, and Jackson takes some of the blame for not intervening sooner.
"I was an enabler, I was an enabler," Jackson admits. "And it wasn't until I got a phone call — rest in peace [former Def Jam Records President Shakir Stewart, who died of an apparent suicide last year]. My man, one of my closest and dearest friends in the music business, said, 'D, what are you doing? Scott has Janet Jackson sitting in his studio and it's going on five hours. Where is he at? What are you doing, D? What are you doing?' And I knew the routine started to become like that. We did it to a lot of people in '07. It's when it all went bad. We had people sit in the studio for upwards of 10 hours at a time. And I would never be real to [Scotty]. I guess I got to a point where I stopped caring. We made money, I watched him blow it, I didn't care anymore. But then I watched that phone call come from Shakir."
Eventually Jackson would exhaust himself trying to get his friend to clean up, so he resigned as Storch's manager. Scott still didn't get point: His addiction had tapped his inspiration to make music.
"It started affecting me where my own son would be like, 'Dad, what's up? When's the next hit record coming up?' " Storch recalled. "I didn't have a answer for him."
It wasn't until 18 months later that Storch and Jackson would see each other again. Storch had decided he needed help.
"[It was] probably in the worst state I've seen [anyone] in my life," Jackson said of Storch. "Somebody that you knew when they were young and full of zest and fire and excitable — the spirit that the kid had was incredible. But to come back to black eyes, bloodied and bowed and unlike the person you knew. To be quite frank, he was a junkie. He was a junkie. And it was unlike anything I had seen in him, ever. Ever."
Jackson checked Storch into a rehab facility called Recovery First. Thomas Trevino, a mental health tech and a three-quarter-way manager at Recovery First has been working with Storch for the past few months.
"I can clearly remember the first day he came in," Trevino recalled. "The guy just looked like many others clients we've got: emotionally, physically and spiritually broken. Throughout the time, he resided in our in-patient program and he eventually graduated into an out-patient program; he was then taken into our three-quarter way house.
"I have seen him change," Trevino continued. "I've seen his mind is totally opposite from day one. The guy couldn't even carry on a clear conversation when he first came in. And now I have been having the honor and privilege to come with him to the studio a couple times and check him out, see what he's doing. And it seems like he's back on track, man. He's a great inspiration for many out there who are trying to do this line of work — and at the same time he's a great inspiration for many drug addicts out there who want to stay clean and live this way of life."
"It's just that type of deal," Storch — who is still under treatment — said of his fall and his climb back to the top. "I've lived it, done it. I've been around a lot of greats I seen in this industry that have problems, but the comeback can be that much greater. It's a well of creativity in my mind right now; it's not being hindered and being in love with the music again — seeing the day and taking advantage of the opportunities I've been afforded."
Storch is back at work, and says he's better than ever. He's in the studio with the Game for three days, and next week goes to Orlando to work with Chris Brown. There's also a track in the works involving him, Quincy Jones and Jennifer Hudson, as well as Kat DeLuna's potential first single. Outside of music, he's been shooting a reality show and has guest appearances from the Kardashians.
"This is God's work," Jackson opined. "So he has to respect that. I just hope that the people out there that watch this take the time to understand that even in the lowest of moments — because it was low for me, it took a year out of my life, it destroyed my life because I was so in tune to him — to always remember you can come back, you can clean your life up. You can be the same again. It's never too late. Never too late — never! So hopefully from this, people will understand that there's always a tomorrow." |
Posted on July 24, 2017 by The VRG Blog Editor
By Davin Cheyenne
Food is one of the few items that connects humans together. It feeds the soul and nourishes the body. When a person lacks that source of energy, discouragement and pain soon follow. To not know where your next meal is coming from or when it will be served is fear in itself. However, I do believe it goes deeper than this. Lack of food is a cut into one’s soul. Without the proper nourishment, one feels deprived deep within. Unfortunately this is not just the case for one or two people in the city of Baltimore.
One in four Baltimoreans are living in poverty according to the U.S. Census. Poverty in Baltimore has increased a whopping 20% since 1981. However with an increase of poverty and homelessness, a helping hand has been there to touch the lives of Baltimore’s most neglected. Since 1981, Our Daily Bread has existed as an employment center which provides help to thousands of people every single day, from hunger, homelessness, and unemployment. It is the place people of Baltimore seek for help and support.
I was very excited to find out that The Vegetarian Resource Group would be giving us interns the opportunity to help prepare and donate vegan casseroles to Our Daily Bread. For many people the idea of donating means to give money, which in many ways is a helpful contribution. However, I feel as though to really connect with those who you’re helping is to visit, and volunteer, and to take a few moments out of our day to prepare food or goodies for those in need.
For me, buying the ingredients, and preparing the casserole in my own home, made me appreciate being able to buy these ingredients because there are those who don’t have a dollar to their name. Preparing the casserole on my table, in my home, made an even meaningful impact on my heart because I know that there are many who eat outside near a trash can with fire in it trying to stay warm. As I finished wrapping the casserole and opened the freezer to let it freeze, the chill made me think of those who had to survive the summer’s humidity. The physical experience of making this casserole was only 30 minutes, but it was more than making food for those in need, it was feeding souls, of humans just like me while feeding my soul as well.
Casey and I chose to make the creamy bean and potato casserole!
As our group of interns stepped into Our Daily Bread the morning of June 27th, we had the pleasure of knowing that many of the staff that provide the food are volunteers, and that over 700 mouths are fed every day! Another thing that caught me off guard was that Our Daily Bread served many vegetarian meals, which included a source of protein, 2 sides of veggies, and one side of fruit, and a dessert.
The Our Daily Bread Employment Center is a lifeline for those in need. To know that I helped contribute to an organization that helps serve meals to Maryland’s hungry, assists homeless men to make the transition to employment, stable housing, and self-sufficiency through the Christopher Place Employment Academy makes me a lifelong supporter, and advocate to encourage all of us to help donate vegan casseroles to Our Daily Bread, or any food center in your community.
If you are in the Baltimore area and would like to volunteer, or even cater vegan casseroles to our Daily Bread, the location is 725 Fallsway, Baltimore, MD, 21202, and they can be reached by telephone at (443) 986-9000. You can also visit their website for vegan recipe options (last three) (created by VRG’s Foodservice Advisor Nancy Berkoff) at http://www.catholiccharities-md.org/our-daily-bread/odb-food-service/favorite-casserole-recipes.html
I hope that by reading this you are encouraged to donate, volunteer, or spend a few moments at Our Daily Bread to really know why making these casseroles really is a life changing experience. If you don’t live in Maryland, please prepare and donate these casseroles to your local nonprofit, which feeds the needy. |
All days are not created equal. Some don't just seem longer than others -- they are.
A classic movie about World War II's D-Day was called "The Longest Day." However, scientifically, that title was not correct. That was not the longest day. Nor is a summer solstice, June 21, when the period between sunrise and sunset is the longest in the northern hemisphere.
The longest day in the past century occurred sometime during 1912, according to JPL geophysicist Dr. Richard Gross. The shortest day in the past 100 years was August 2, 2001, when the length of time that it took Earth to make one complete turn on its axis actually dipped below 24 hours by about one-thousandth of a second.
Gross studies Earth's rotation. As it turns out, Earth doesn't rotate like clockwork. In a recent paper in the journal Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Gross combined several series of length-of-day measurements into one that spans from 1832 to 1997 and smoothed out some of the error with a sophisticated mathematical formula.
"The length of the day changes about a millisecond over the course of a year," says Gross. "It gradually increases in the winter, when Earth rotates more slowly, and decreases in the summer. There are also longer patterns of changes in the length of day that last decades, even centuries."
Since there are 86,400 seconds in a 24-hour day, a few thousandths of a second might not seem to make much difference, but they do. Knowing exactly when and how much Earth's rotation varies may lead to better models of the atmosphere and oceans, improved weather prediction and a greater understanding of the planet's inner workings.
In addition to his research, Gross works with a group at JPL that uses the global positioning system to measure Earth's rotation very precisely, to about one-hundredth of a millisecond. "JPL is one of the few places in the world that has an application for this kind of work," says Gross, "and that's spacecraft navigation."
"If, say, you want to send a lander to Mars," says Gross, "you can track the spacecraft with respect to Earth. So you need to know exactly how Earth is oriented in order to make the right course maneuvers to target a particular landing site on Mars."
"If Earth rotated uniformly, you would know how it is oriented at any particular time in relation to Mars or any other place," says Gross, "but Earth doesn't rotate uniformly."
Gross tries to understand these changes and how to predict them.
"Variations in the length of day were first noted by Edmond Halley in 1695," says Gross. "He was looking at the Moon's motion and thought he saw it accelerating. What he really saw was the Earth slowing down."
Since Halley's time, scientists have used a variety of techniques to measure Earth's rate of rotation. First they used astronomical methods. Now they use lunar and satellite laser ranging; a technique called very long baseline interferometry; and the global positioning system.
The length of the day--how fast or slow the Earth rotates--depends on how Earth's mass is distributed. Its mass includes the atmosphere, the solid Earth and its fluid core. When the distribution of Earth's mass changes, as during a major earthquake, for example, so does the speed of its rotation. "It's like an ice skater," says Gross, "who spins faster as she brings in her arms. She is changing her mass distribution."
"The annual changes in the length of the day," says Gross, "are caused mostly by the atmosphere -- changes in the strength and direction of the winds, especially the jet stream. The Sun warms the equator more than the poles. That temperature difference is largely responsible for the jet stream. Seasonal changes in that temperature difference cause changes in the winds and, hence, the length of the day."
The longer patterns in changes of the length of the day can last for decades. "These are caused by processes within Earth's core," says Gross. "The core is a fluid. Its motion generates Earth's magnetic field. Changes in its motion can change the rotation of solid Earth. Observing the magnetic field at the surface gives us an idea of how fluid is moving within the core. These changes in the fluid motion inferred from the magnetic field match the longer period changes we see in the length of the day."
We happen to be in the midst of one of these long-term patterns now. Annually, the length of the day has been getting shorter since 1992 . If the trend continues, says Gross, the shortest day may well appear this summer. |
On Tuesday, Sandy Rios of the American Family Association denounced the nomination of Wilhelmina Wright for a seat on the federal district court in Minnesota, urging Senate Republicans to not only oppose Wright but also to block every single one of President Obama’s remaining judicial nominees.
The Senate confirmed Wright’s nomination yesterday, angering Rios, who invited right-wing activist Phillip Jauregui of the Judicial Action Group on to her radio show this morning to talk about the importance of judicial nominations.
Rios told Jauregui that the Senate must stop even holding a vote for President Obama’s judicial nominees because “when you put judges on the court who do not respect the Constitution or are not really loyal to American values as expressed in the Constitution, there is no justice.”
The two moved on to discuss the Supreme Court’s decision to take up a case on the legality of Obama’s executive actions on immigration, which Rios found “tremendously concerning because that court is out of control itself and is not delivering justice, they’re delivering their own personal opinions.”
She cited the Obergefell decision, which struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, as one such ruling, saying she was “just devastated” upon hearing about the “absolutely irrational” decision. “It made no sense whatsoever and I don’t trust them anymore,” she said.
Jauregui, criticizing Justice Kennedy’s “horrendous” opinion in Obergefell, said that the justice is “horrible and he’s honestly a judge that ought to be impeached”
Later, Jauregui claimed that members of Congress would never block the president’s executive actions, giving him a reason to issue further ones of questionable legality. “This is not far from an imperial dictator we’re talking about,” he said.
Rios urged congressional Republicans to “find their spine” and stop spending time hating on Ted Cruz. |
Hey everyone! This is the second post in my new node.js modules you should know about article series.
The first post was about dnode - the freestyle rpc library for node.
This time I'll introduce you to node-optimist - the lightweight options parser library. This library is also written by James Halliday (SubStack), my co-founder of Browserling and Testling.
Wonder how lightweight an options parser can be? Check this out:
var argv = require('optimist').argv;
And you're done! All options have been parsed for you and have been put in argv .
Here are various use cases. First off, it supports long arguments:
#!/usr/bin/env node var argv = require('optimist').argv; if (argv.rif - 5 * argv.xup > 7.138) { console.log('Buy more riffiwobbles'); } else { console.log('Sell the xupptumblers'); }
Now you can run this script with --rif and --xup arguments like this:
$ ./xup.js --rif=55 --xup=9.52 Buy more riffiwobbles $ ./xup.js --rif 12 --xup 8.1 Sell the xupptumblers
I know you want to buy more riffiwobbles and sell your xupptumblers.
Next, it supports short args:
#!/usr/bin/env node var argv = require('optimist').argv; console.log('(%d,%d)', argv.x, argv.y);
You can use -x and -y as arguments:
$ ./short.js -x 10 -y 21 (10,21)
Then node-optimist supports boolean arguments, both short, long and grouped:
#!/usr/bin/env node var argv = require('optimist').argv; if (argv.s) { console.log(argv.fr ? 'Le chat dit: ' : 'The cat says: '); } console.log( (argv.fr ? 'miaou' : 'meow') + (argv.p ? '.' : '') );
And now you can invoke the script with various options:
$ ./bool.js -s The cat says: meow $ ./bool.js -sp The cat says: meow. $ ./bool.js -sp --fr Le chat dit: miaou.
Next, you can easily get to non-hypenated options via argv._ :
#!/usr/bin/env node var argv = require('optimist').argv; console.log('(%d,%d)', argv.x, argv.y); console.log(argv._);
Here are use cases for non-hypenated options:
$ ./nonopt.js -x 6.82 -y 3.35 moo (6.82,3.35) [ 'moo' ] $ ./nonopt.js foo -x 0.54 bar -y 1.12 baz (0.54,1.12) [ 'foo', 'bar', 'baz' ]
Optimist also comes with .usage() and .demand() functions:
#!/usr/bin/env node var argv = require('optimist') .usage('Usage: $0 -x [num] -y [num]') .demand(['x','y']) .argv; console.log(argv.x / argv.y);
Here arguments x and y are required and if they are not passed, the usage will be printed automatically:
$ ./divide.js -x 55 -y 11 5 $ node ./divide.js -x 4.91 -z 2.51 Usage: node ./divide.js -x [num] -y [num] Options: -x [required] -y [required] Missing required arguments: y
Optimist also supports default arguments via .default() :
#!/usr/bin/env node var argv = require('optimist') .default('x', 10) .default('y', 10) .argv ; console.log(argv.x + argv.y);
Here x and y default to 10:
$ ./default_singles.js -x 5 15
Enjoy this stranger:
Alternatively you can use isaacs's nopt that can enforce data types on arguments and can be used to easily handle a lot of arguments. Or you can use nomnom that noms your args and gives them back to you in a hash. |
Day Five of the Trump vs. Khan saga just received a heavy oxygen blast, as President Barack Obama declared this morning that the GOP nominee is "unfit to serve as president," and reckoned that Republicans should be asking themselves, "if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?"
One Republican still endorsing Donald Trump—and not condemning the Khan comments, as far as I can ascertain—is the libertarianish former presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky). Paul, who skipped the Republican National Convention to perform pro bono surgeries curing the blind, has kept a low profile on Twitter aside from highlighting his re-election swing through the Bluegrass State, and had a spokesman respond to a Wall Street Journal query on Khan thusly: "Senator Rand Paul is focused solely on Kentucky and won't be weighing in on the presidential race at this time."
However, when asked last week about Trump by Louisville's WDRB, Paul said "it's clear" that the Republican nominee would be better than Hillary Clinton on manufacturing, taxes, and regulations, then characterized Trump's loose tongue like so: "Will people sometimes say things that are untoward or not what we wish them to say? Yes, that happens of every candidate….I always tell people the only perfect candidate is if you get to be the candidate or I get to be the candidate, then we agree with ourselves 100 percent of the time."
But Sen. Paul sounded some different and more Libertarian-friendly notes two weeks ago at FreedomFest, when asked by an audience member "What would you say to someone who says that voting for Gary Johnson is the same as voting for Hillary?" His answer, in full:
You know, (four second pause) they aren't the same. I mean, everybody has their decision to make on how they will vote. Some people are very practical minded, and they say "In all likelihood it's going to be Trump or Clinton. Which is the least bad?" And many will vote that way. And some will say, "No but I truly believe in limited government, the Constitution and a non-interventionist foreign policy, and I have a consistent philosophy. I want a candidate more of my liking." And they may well vote for, you know, a third party at that point. So the debate has to be [with] each individual. All I can tell you is from my point of view, I've made my complaints about our nominee quite explicit. I continue to do so, but also don't see it as my job now—the thing is, is: I do think that my word is important. I signed a document, not under duress, but I signed a document saying I wouldn't run as a third party [candidate] and I will support the nominee. And I've supported nominees I haven't been perfectly happy with. I wasn't perfectly happy in 2012; I knew a guy that would have been a lot better in 2012.
After the jump, some other interesting tidbits about the presidential campaign and executive power from Rand Paul's FreedomFest speech.
Have you heard any of the candidates saying…that there is too much power that has gravitated to the presidency? I'm hearing the opposite. I'm hearing people say "Give me more power, and I'll fix it! We'll be great again if you can give me power! By the sheer might of my will we will make things better!" But really there's a lesson of history that we don't want to forget. The lesson of history is that power corrupts, that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and we don't want to fool ourselves into thinking it just means we've got to give the power to our guy, or our girl.
In other Paul/Johnson news, Rand Paul's dad still hasn't decided which third-party candidate he'll vote for. |
legal concept
This article is about the legal right. For the symbol, see Copyright symbol . For the Wikipedia policy about copyright issues, see Wikipedia:Copyrights
Not to be confused with Copywriting
Copyright is a legal right, existing in many countries, that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to determine whether, and under what conditions, this original work may be used by others.[1][2] This is usually only for a limited time. Copyright is one of two types of intellectual property rights, the other is industrial property rights.[3][4][5] The exclusive rights are not absolute but limited by limitations and exceptions to copyright law, including fair use. A major limitation on copyright on ideas is that copyright protects only the original expression of ideas, and not the underlying ideas themselves.[citation needed] [6][7]
Copyright is applicable to certain forms of creative work. Some, but not all jurisdictions require "fixing" copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][8][9][10][11] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution. [12]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered "territorial rights". This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works "cross" national borders or national rights are inconsistent.[13]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 50 to 100 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without formal registration. Generally, copyright is enforced as a civil matter, though some jurisdictions do apply criminal sanctions.
Most jurisdictions recognize copyright limitations, allowing "fair" exceptions to the creator's exclusivity of copyright and giving users certain rights. The development of digital media and computer network technologies have prompted reinterpretation of these exceptions, introduced new difficulties in enforcing copyright, and inspired additional challenges to the philosophical basis of copyright law.[citation needed] Simultaneously, businesses with great economic dependence upon copyright, such as those in the music business, have advocated the extension and expansion of copyright and sought additional legal and technological enforcement.[14][additional citation(s) needed]
Copyright licenses can also be granted by those deputized by the original claimant, and private companies may request this as a condition of doing business with them. Services of internet platform providers like YouTube, Facebook, GitHub, Hotmail, DropBox, Instagram, WhatsApp or Twitter only can be used when users grant the platform provider beforehand the right to co-use all uploaded content, including all material exchanged per email, chat or cloud-storage. These copyrights only apply for the firm that operates such a platform, no matter in what jurisdiction the platform-services are being offered. Private companies in general do not recognize exceptions or give users more rights than the right to use the platform according certain rules.[15][better source needed][additional citation(s) needed]
History [ edit ]
Background [ edit ]
Copyright came about with the invention of the printing press and with wider literacy. As a legal concept, its origins in Britain were from a reaction to printers' monopolies at the beginning of the 18th century. The English Parliament was concerned about the unregulated copying of books and passed the Licensing of the Press Act 1662,[16] which established a register of licensed books and required a copy to be deposited with the Stationers' Company, essentially continuing the licensing of material that had long been in effect.
Copyright laws allow products of creative human activities, such as literary and artistic production, to be preferentially exploited and thus incentivized. Different cultural attitudes, social organizations, economic models and legal frameworks are seen to account for why copyright emerged in Europe and not, for example, in Asia. In the Middle Ages in Europe, there was generally a lack of any concept of literary property due to the general relations of production, the specific organization of literary production and the role of culture in society. The latter refers to the tendency of oral societies, such as that of Europe in the medieval period, to view knowledge as the product and expression of the collective, rather than to see it as individual property. However, with copyright laws, intellectual production comes to be seen as a product of an individual, with attendant rights. The most significant point is that patent and copyright laws support the expansion of the range of creative human activities that can be commodified. This parallels the ways in which capitalism led to the commodification of many aspects of social life that earlier had no monetary or economic value per se.[17]
Copyright has grown from a legal concept regulating copying rights in the publishing of books and maps to one with a significant effect on nearly every modern industry, covering such items as sound recordings, films, photographs, software, and architectural works.
National copyrights [ edit ]
Often seen as the first real copyright law, the 1709 British Statute of Anne gave the publishers rights for a fixed period, after which the copyright expired.[18] The act also alluded to individual rights of the artist. It began, "Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and other Persons, have of late frequently taken the Liberty of Printing ... Books, and other Writings, without the Consent of the Authors ... to their very great Detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families:".[19] A right to benefit financially from the work is articulated, and court rulings and legislation have recognized a right to control the work, such as ensuring that the integrity of it is preserved. An irrevocable right to be recognized as the work's creator appears in some countries' copyright laws.
The Copyright Clause of the United States, Constitution (1787) authorized copyright legislation: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." That is, by guaranteeing them a period of time in which they alone could profit from their works, they would be enabled and encouraged to invest the time required to create them, and this would be good for society as a whole. A right to profit from the work has been the philosophical underpinning for much legislation extending the duration of copyright, to the life of the creator and beyond, to their heirs.
The original length of copyright in the United States was 14 years, and it had to be explicitly applied for. If the author wished, they could apply for a second 14‑year monopoly grant, but after that the work entered the public domain, so it could be used and built upon by others.
Copyright law was enacted rather late in German states, and the historian Eckhard Höffner argues that the absence of copyright laws in the early 19th century encouraged publishing, was profitable for authors, led to a proliferation of books, enhanced knowledge, and was ultimately an important factor in the ascendency of Germany as a power during that century.[20]
International copyright treaties [ edit ]
The Pirate Publisher—An International Burlesque that has the Longest Run on Record, from Puck, 1886, satirizes the then-existing situation where a publisher could profit by simply stealing newly published works from one country, and publishing them in another, and vice versa. , from, 1886, satirizes the then-existing situation where a publisher could profit by simply stealing newly published works from one country, and publishing them in another, and vice versa.
The 1886 Berne Convention first established recognition of copyrights among sovereign nations, rather than merely bilaterally. Under the Berne Convention, copyrights for creative works do not have to be asserted or declared, as they are automatically in force at creation: an author need not "register" or "apply for" a copyright in countries adhering to the Berne Convention.[21] As soon as a work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work, and to any derivative works unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them, or until the copyright expires. The Berne Convention also resulted in foreign authors being treated equivalently to domestic authors, in any country signed onto the Convention. The UK signed the Berne Convention in 1887 but did not implement large parts of it until 100 years later with the passage of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Specially, for educational and scientific research purposes, the Berne Convention provides the developing countries issue compulsory licenses for the translation or reproduction of copyrighted works within the limits prescribed by the Convention. This was a special provision that had been added at the time of 1971 revision of the Convention, because of the strong demands of the developing countries. The United States did not sign the Berne Convention until 1989.[22]
The United States and most Latin American countries instead entered into the Buenos Aires Convention in 1910, which required a copyright notice on the work (such as all rights reserved), and permitted signatory nations to limit the duration of copyrights to shorter and renewable terms.[23][24][25] The Universal Copyright Convention was drafted in 1952 as another less demanding alternative to the Berne Convention, and ratified by nations such as the Soviet Union and developing nations.
The regulations of the Berne Convention are incorporated into the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement (1995), thus giving the Berne Convention effectively near-global application.[26]
In 1961, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property signed the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations. In 1996, this organization was succeeded by the founding of the World Intellectual Property Organization, which launched the 1996 WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty and the 2002 WIPO Copyright Treaty, which enacted greater restrictions on the use of technology to copy works in the nations that ratified it. The Trans-Pacific Partnership includes intellectual Property Provisions relating to copyright.
Copyright laws are standardized somewhat through these international conventions such as the Berne Convention and Universal Copyright Convention. These multilateral treaties have been ratified by nearly all countries, and international organizations such as the European Union or World Trade Organization require their member states to comply with them.
Obtaining protection [ edit ]
Ownership [ edit ]
The original holder of the copyright may be the employer of the author rather than the author himself if the work is a "work for hire".[27] For example, in English law the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 provides that if a copyrighted work is made by an employee in the course of that employment, the copyright is automatically owned by the employer which would be a "Work for Hire". Typically, the first owner of a copyright is the person who created the work i.e. the author.[28][28] But when more than one person creates the work, then a case of joint authorship can be made provided some criteria are met.
Eligible works [ edit ]
Copyright may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms, or "works". Specifics vary by jurisdiction, but these can include poems, theses, fictional characters plays and other literary works, motion pictures, choreography, musical compositions, sound recordings, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, computer software, radio and television broadcasts, and industrial designs. Graphic designs and industrial designs may have separate or overlapping laws applied to them in some jurisdictions.[29][30]
Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed.[31] For example, the copyright to a Mickey Mouse cartoon restricts others from making copies of the cartoon or creating derivative works based on Disney's particular anthropomorphic mouse, but does not prohibit the creation of other works about anthropomorphic mice in general, so long as they are different enough to not be judged copies of Disney's.[31] Note additionally that Mickey Mouse is not copyrighted because characters cannot be copyrighted; rather, Steamboat Willie is copyrighted and Mickey Mouse, as a character in that copyrighted work, is afforded protection.
Originality [ edit ]
Typically, a work must meet minimal standards of originality in order to qualify for copyright, and the copyright expires after a set period of time (some jurisdictions may allow this to be extended). Different countries impose different tests, although generally the requirements are low; in the United Kingdom there has to be some "skill, labour, and judgment" that has gone into it.[32] In Australia and the United Kingdom it has been held that a single word is insufficient to comprise a copyright work. However, single words or a short string of words can sometimes be registered as a trademark instead.
Copyright law recognizes the right of an author based on whether the work actually is an original creation, rather than based on whether it is unique; two authors may own copyright on two substantially identical works, if it is determined that the duplication was coincidental, and neither was copied from the other.
Registration [ edit ]
A copyright certificate for proof of the Fermat's Last Theorem , issued by the State Department of Intellectual Property of Ukraine.
In all countries where the Berne Convention standards apply, copyright is automatic, and need not be obtained through official registration with any government office. Once an idea has been reduced to tangible form, for example by securing it in a fixed medium (such as a drawing, sheet music, photograph, a videotape, or a computer file), the copyright holder is entitled to enforce his or her exclusive rights.[21] However, while registration isn't needed to exercise copyright, in jurisdictions where the laws provide for registration, it serves as prima facie evidence of a valid copyright and enables the copyright holder to seek statutory damages and attorney's fees.[33] (In the US, registering after an infringement only enables one to receive actual damages and lost profits.)
A widely circulated strategy to avoid the cost of copyright registration is referred to as the poor man's copyright. It proposes that the creator send the work to himself in a sealed envelope by registered mail, using the postmark to establish the date. This technique has not been recognized in any published opinions of the United States courts. The United States Copyright Office says the technique is not a substitute for actual registration.[34] The United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office discusses the technique and notes that the technique (as well as commercial registries) does not constitute dispositive proof that the work is original or establish who created the work.[35][36]
Fixing [ edit ]
The Berne Convention allows member countries to decide whether creative works must be "fixed" to enjoy copyright. Article 2, Section 2 of the Berne Convention states: "It shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to prescribe that works in general or any specified categories of works shall not be protected unless they have been fixed in some material form." Some countries do not require that a work be produced in a particular form to obtain copyright protection. For instance, Spain, France, and Australia do not require fixation for copyright protection. The United States and Canada, on the other hand, require that most works must be "fixed in a tangible medium of expression" to obtain copyright protection.[37] U.S. law requires that the fixation be stable and permanent enough to be "perceived, reproduced or communicated for a period of more than transitory duration." Similarly, Canadian courts consider fixation to require that the work be "expressed to some extent at least in some material form, capable of identification and having a more or less permanent endurance."[37]
Copyright notice [ edit ]
A copyright symbol used in copyright notice
Before 1989, United States law required the use of a copyright notice, consisting of the copyright symbol (©, the letter C inside a circle), the abbreviation "Copr.", or the word "Copyright", followed by the year of the first publication of the work and the name of the copyright holder.[38][39] Several years may be noted if the work has gone through substantial revisions. The proper copyright notice for sound recordings of musical or other audio works is a sound recording copyright symbol (℗, the letter P inside a circle), which indicates a sound recording copyright, with the letter P indicating a "phonorecord". In addition, the phrase All rights reserved was once required to assert copyright, but that phrase is now legally obsolete. Almost everything on the Internet has some sort of copyright attached to it. Whether these things are watermarked, signed, or have any other sort of indication of the copyright is a different story however.[40]
In 1989 the United States enacted the Berne Convention Implementation Act, amending the 1976 Copyright Act to conform to most of the provisions of the Berne Convention. As a result, the use of copyright notices has become optional to claim copyright, because the Berne Convention makes copyright automatic.[41] However, the lack of notice of copyright using these marks may have consequences in terms of reduced damages in an infringement lawsuit – using notices of this form may reduce the likelihood of a defense of "innocent infringement" being successful.[42]
Enforcement [ edit ]
Copyrights are generally enforced by the holder in a civil law court, but there are also criminal infringement statutes in some jurisdictions. While central registries are kept in some countries which aid in proving claims of ownership, registering does not necessarily prove ownership, nor does the fact of copying (even without permission) necessarily prove that copyright was infringed. Criminal sanctions are generally aimed at serious counterfeiting activity, but are now becoming more commonplace as copyright collectives such as the RIAA are increasingly targeting the file sharing home Internet user. Thus far, however, most such cases against file sharers have been settled out of court. (See: Legal aspects of file sharing)
In most jurisdictions the copyright holder must bear the cost of enforcing copyright. This will usually involve engaging legal representation, administrative or court costs. In light of this, many copyright disputes are settled by a direct approach to the infringing party in order to settle the dispute out of court.
"...by 1978, the scope was expanded to apply to any 'expression' that has been 'fixed' in any medium, this protection granted automatically whether the maker wants it or not, no registration required."[43]
Copyright infringement [ edit ]
For a work to be considered to infringe upon copyright, its use must have occurred in a nation that has domestic copyright laws or adheres to a bilateral treaty or established international convention such as the Berne Convention or WIPO Copyright Treaty. Improper use of materials outside of legislation is deemed "unauthorized edition", not copyright infringement.[44]
Statistics regarding the effects of copyright infringement are difficult to determine. Studies have attempted to determine whether there is a monetary loss for industries affected by copyright infringement by predicting what portion of pirated works would have been formally purchased if they had not been freely available.[45] Other reports indicate that copyright infringement does not have an adverse effect on the entertainment industry, and can have a positive effect.[46] In particular, a 2014 university study concluded that free music content, accessed on YouTube, does not necessarily hurt sales, instead has the potential to increase sales.[47]
Rights granted [ edit ]
Exclusive rights [ edit ]
Several exclusive rights typically attach to the holder of a copyright:
protection of the work
to determine and decide how, and under what conditions, the work may be marketed, publicly displayed, reproduced, distributed etc.
to produce copies or reproductions of the work and to sell those copies (including, typically, electronic copies)
to import or export the work
to create derivative works (works that adapt the original work)
to perform or display the work publicly
to sell or cede these rights to others
to transmit or display by radio, video or internet.[48]
The basic right when a work is protected by copyright is that the holder may determine and decide how and under what conditions the protected work may be used by others. This includes the right to decide to distribute the work for free. This part of copyright is often overseen. The phrase "exclusive right" means that only the copyright holder is free to exercise those rights, and others are prohibited from using the work without the holder's permission. Copyright is sometimes called a "negative right", as it serves to prohibit certain people (e.g., readers, viewers, or listeners, and primarily publishers and would be publishers) from doing something they would otherwise be able to do, rather than permitting people (e.g., authors) to do something they would otherwise be unable to do. In this way it is similar to the unregistered design right in English law and European law. The rights of the copyright holder also permit him/her to not use or exploit their copyright, for some or all of the term. There is, however, a critique which rejects this assertion as being based on a philosophical interpretation of copyright law that is not universally shared. There is also debate on whether copyright should be considered a property right or a moral right.[49]
Duration [ edit ]
Expansion of U.S. copyright law (currently based on the date of creation or publication).
Copyright subsists for a variety of lengths in different jurisdictions. The length of the term can depend on several factors, including the type of work (e.g. musical composition, novel), whether the work has been published, and whether the work was created by an individual or a corporation. In most of the world, the default length of copyright is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years. In the United States, the term for most existing works is a fixed number of years after the date of creation or publication. Under most countries' laws (for example, the United States[50] and the United Kingdom[51]), copyrights expire at the end of the calendar year in question.
The length and requirements for copyright duration are subject to change by legislation, and since the early 20th century there have been a number of adjustments made in various countries, which can make determining the duration of a given copyright somewhat difficult. For example, the United States used to require copyrights to be renewed after 28 years to stay in force, and formerly required a copyright notice upon first publication to gain coverage. In Italy and France, there were post-wartime extensions that could increase the term by approximately 6 years in Italy and up to about 14 in France. Many countries have extended the length of their copyright terms (sometimes retroactively). International treaties establish minimum terms for copyrights, but individual countries may enforce longer terms than those.[52]
In the United States, all books and other works published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain.[53] In addition, works published before 1964 that did not have their copyrights renewed 28 years after first publication year also are in the public domain. Hirtle points out that the great majority of these works (including 93% of the books) were not renewed after 28 years and are in the public domain.[54] Books originally published outside the US by non-Americans are exempt from this renewal requirement, if they are still under copyright in their home country.
But if the intended exploitation of the work includes publication (or distribution of derivative work, such as a film based on a book protected by copyright) outside the U.S., the terms of copyright around the world must be considered. If the author has been dead more than 70 years, the work is in the public domain in most, but not all, countries.
In 1998, the length of a copyright in the United States was increased by 20 years under the Copyright Term Extension Act. This legislation was strongly promoted by corporations which had valuable copyrights which otherwise would have expired, and has been the subject of substantial criticism on this point.[55]
Limitations and exceptions [ edit ]
In many jurisdictions, copyright law makes exceptions to these restrictions when the work is copied for the purpose of commentary or other related uses. US copyright does NOT cover names, title, short phrases or Listings (such as ingredients, recipes, labels, or formulas).[56] However, there are protections available for those areas copyright does not cover – such as trademarks and patents.
There are some exceptions to what copyright will protect. Copyright will not protect:
Names of products
Names of businesses, organizations, or groups
Pseudonyms of individuals
Titles of works
Catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans, or short advertising expressions
Listings of ingredients in recipes, labels, and formulas, though the directions can be copyrighted
Idea–expression dichotomy and the merger doctrine [ edit ]
The idea–expression divide differentiates between ideas and expression, and states that copyright protects only the original expression of ideas, and not the ideas themselves. This principle, first clarified in the 1879 case of Baker v. Selden, has since been codified by the Copyright Act of 1976 at 17 U.S.C. § 102(b).
The first-sale doctrine and exhaustion of rights [ edit ]
Copyright law does not restrict the owner of a copy from reselling legitimately obtained copies of copyrighted works, provided that those copies were originally produced by or with the permission of the copyright holder. It is therefore legal, for example, to resell a copyrighted book or CD. In the United States this is known as the first-sale doctrine, and was established by the courts to clarify the legality of reselling books in second-hand bookstores.
Some countries may have parallel importation restrictions that allow the copyright holder to control the aftermarket. This may mean for example that a copy of a book that does not infringe copyright in the country where it was printed does infringe copyright in a country into which it is imported for retailing. The first-sale doctrine is known as exhaustion of rights in other countries and is a principle which also applies, though somewhat differently, to patent and trademark rights. It is important to note that the first-sale doctrine permits the transfer of the particular legitimate copy involved. It does not permit making or distributing additional copies.
In Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,[57] in 2013, the United States Supreme Court held in a 6-3 decision that the first-sale doctrine applies to goods manufactured abroad with the copyright owner's permission and then imported into the US without such permission. The case involved a plaintiff who imported Asian editions of textbooks that had been manufactured abroad with the publisher-plaintiff's permission. The defendant, without permission from the publisher, imported the textbooks and resold on eBay. The Supreme Court's holding severely limits the ability of copyright holders to prevent such importation.
In addition, copyright, in most cases, does not prohibit one from acts such as modifying, defacing, or destroying his or her own legitimately obtained copy of a copyrighted work, so long as duplication is not involved. However, in countries that implement moral rights, a copyright holder can in some cases successfully prevent the mutilation or destruction of a work that is publicly visible.
Fair use and fair dealing [ edit ]
Copyright does not prohibit all copying or replication. In the United States, the fair use doctrine, codified by the Copyright Act of 1976 as 17 U.S.C. Section 107, permits some copying and distribution without permission of the copyright holder or payment to same. The statute does not clearly define fair use, but instead gives four non-exclusive factors to consider in a fair use analysis. Those factors are:
the purpose and character of one's use the nature of the copyrighted work what amount and proportion of the whole work was taken, and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.[58]
In the United Kingdom and many other Commonwealth countries, a similar notion of fair dealing was established by the courts or through legislation. The concept is sometimes not well defined; however in Canada, private copying for personal use has been expressly permitted by statute since 1999. In Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright), 2012 SCC 37, the Supreme Court of Canada concluded that limited copying for educational purposes could also be justified under the fair dealing exemption. In Australia, the fair dealing exceptions under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) are a limited set of circumstances under which copyrighted material can be legally copied or adapted without the copyright holder's consent. Fair dealing uses are research and study; review and critique; news reportage and the giving of professional advice (i.e. legal advice). Under current Australian law, although it is still a breach of copyright to copy, reproduce or adapt copyright material for personal or private use without permission from the copyright owner, owners of a legitimate copy are permitted to “format shift” that work from one medium to another for personal, private use, or to “time shift” a broadcast work for later, once and only once, viewing or listening. Other technical exemptions from infringement may also apply, such as the temporary reproduction of a work in machine readable form for a computer.
In the United States the AHRA (Audio Home Recording Act Codified in Section 10, 1992) prohibits action against consumers making noncommercial recordings of music, in return for royalties on both media and devices plus mandatory copy-control mechanisms on recorders.
Section 1008. Prohibition on certain infringement actions
No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.
Later acts amended US Copyright law so that for certain purposes making 10 copies or more is construed to be commercial, but there is no general rule permitting such copying. Indeed, making one complete copy of a work, or in many cases using a portion of it, for commercial purposes will not be considered fair use. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits the manufacture, importation, or distribution of devices whose intended use, or only significant commercial use, is to bypass an access or copy control put in place by a copyright owner.[29] An appellate court has held that fair use is not a defense to engaging in such distribution.
The copyright directive allows EU member states to implement a set of exceptions to copyright. Examples of those exceptions are:
photographic reproductions on paper or any similar medium of works (excluding sheet music) provided that the rightholders receives fair compensation,
reproduction made by libraries, educational establishments, museums or archives, which are non-commercial
archival reproductions of broadcasts,
uses for the benefit of people with a disability,
for demonstration or repair of equipment,
for non-commercial research or private study
when used in parody
Accessible copies [ edit ]
It is legal in several countries including the United Kingdom and the United States to produce alternative versions (for example, in large print or braille) of a copyrighted work to provide improved access to a work for blind and visually impaired persons without permission from the copyright holder.[59][60]
Transfer, assignment and licensing [ edit ]
A copyright, or aspects of it (e.g. reproduction alone, all but moral rights), may be assigned or transferred from one party to another.[61] For example, a musician who records an album will often sign an agreement with a record company in which the musician agrees to transfer all copyright in the recordings in exchange for royalties and other considerations. The creator (and original copyright holder) benefits, or expects to, from production and marketing capabilities far beyond those of the author. In the digital age of music, music may be copied and distributed at minimal cost through the Internet; however, the record industry attempts to provide promotion and marketing for the artist and his or her work so it can reach a much larger audience. A copyright holder need not transfer all rights completely, though many publishers will insist. Some of the rights may be transferred, or else the copyright holder may grant another party a non-exclusive license to copy or distribute the work in a particular region or for a specified period of time.
A transfer or licence may have to meet particular formal requirements in order to be effective,[62] for example under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 the copyright itself must be expressly transferred in writing. Under the U.S. Copyright Act, a transfer of ownership in copyright must be memorialized in a writing signed by the transferor. For that purpose, ownership in copyright includes exclusive licenses of rights. Thus exclusive licenses, to be effective, must be granted in a written instrument signed by the grantor. No special form of transfer or grant is required. A simple document that identifies the work involved and the rights being granted is sufficient. Non-exclusive grants (often called non-exclusive licenses) need not be in writing under U.S. law. They can be oral or even implied by the behavior of the parties. Transfers of copyright ownership, including exclusive licenses, may and should be recorded in the U.S. Copyright Office. (Information on recording transfers is available on the Office's web site.) While recording is not required to make the grant effective, it offers important benefits, much like those obtained by recording a deed in a real estate transaction.
Copyright may also be licensed.[61] Some jurisdictions may provide that certain classes of copyrighted works be made available under a prescribed statutory license (e.g. musical works in the United States used for radio broadcast or performance). This is also called a compulsory license, because under this scheme, anyone who wishes to copy a covered work does not need the permission of the copyright holder, but instead merely files the proper notice and pays a set fee established by statute (or by an agency decision under statutory guidance) for every copy made.[63] Failure to follow the proper procedures would place the copier at risk of an infringement suit. Because of the difficulty of following every individual work, copyright collectives or collecting societies and performing rights organizations (such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC) have been formed to collect royalties for hundreds (thousands and more) works at once. Though this market solution bypasses the statutory license, the availability of the statutory fee still helps dictate the price per work collective rights organizations charge, driving it down to what avoidance of procedural hassle would justify.
Free licenses [ edit ]
Copyright licenses known as open or free licenses seek to grant several rights to licensees, either for a fee or not. Free in this context is not as much of a reference to price as it is to freedom. What constitutes free licensing has been characterised in a number of similar definitions, including by order of longevity the Free Software Definition, the Debian Free Software Guidelines, the Open Source Definition and the Definition of Free Cultural Works. Further refinements to these definitions have resulted in categories such as copyleft and permissive. Common examples of free licences are the GNU General Public License, BSD licenses and some Creative Commons licenses.
Founded in 2001 by James Boyle, Lawrence Lessig, and Hal Abelson, the Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization[64] which aims to facilitate the legal sharing of creative works. To this end, the organization provides a number of generic copyright license options to the public, gratis. These licenses allow copyright holders to define conditions under which others may use a work and to specify what types of use are acceptable.[64]
Terms of use have traditionally been negotiated on an individual basis between copyright holder and potential licensee. Therefore, a general CC license outlining which rights the copyright holder is willing to waive enables the general public to use such works more freely. Six general types of CC licenses are available (although some of them are not properly free per the above definitions and per Creative Commons' own advice). These are based upon copyright-holder stipulations such as whether he or she is willing to allow modifications to the work, whether he or she permits the creation of derivative works and whether he or she is willing to permit commercial use of the work.[65] As of 2009 approximately 130 million individuals had received such licenses.[65]
Criticism [ edit ]
Some sources are critical of particular aspects of the copyright system. This is known as a debate over copynorms. Particularly to the background of uploading content to internet platforms and the digital exchange of original work, there is discussion about the copyright aspects of downloading and streaming, the copyright aspects of hyperlinking and framing.
The interests of big internet platform service providers like Google, Amazon, Facebook or Microsoft, partly depending on users uploading content for free to their servers, collide with those of original content creators and right holders, both big, like Sony, Getty Images, Warner Bros, Elsevier, Springer and small, like local bands, national newspapers and TV-channels. In Germany the national public organisation GEMA, that collects copyright fees for composers, copywriters and music-publishers, won a juridical fight with Google over payment for songs published on YouTube.[66]
Concerns are often couched in the language of digital rights, digital freedom, database rights, open data or censorship.[67] Discussions include Free Culture, a 2004 book by Lawrence Lessig. Lessig coined the term permission culture to describe a worst-case system. Good Copy Bad Copy (documentary) and RiP!: A Remix Manifesto, discuss copyright. Some suggest an alternative compensation system. In Europe consumers are acting up against the raising costs of music, film and books, a political party has been grown out of it, The Pirates. Some groups reject copyright altogether, taking an anti-copyright stance. The perceived inability to enforce copyright online leads some to advocate ignoring legal statutes when on the web.
Public domain [ edit ]
Copyright, like other intellectual property rights, is subject to a statutorily determined term. Once the term of a copyright has expired, the formerly copyrighted work enters the public domain and may be used or exploited by anyone without obtaining permission, and normally without payment. However, in paying public domain regimes the user may still have to pay royalties to the state or to an authors' association. Courts in common law countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, have rejected the doctrine of a common law copyright. Public domain works should not be confused with works that are publicly available. Works posted in the internet, for example, are publicly available, but are not generally in the public domain. Copying such works may therefore violate the author's copyright.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ] |
The Chinese government announced today that it will lift a longtime ban on sales of video game consoles, opening up the market to foreign companies in Shanghai's new free trade zone. China's State Council announced the decision in a statement issued Friday, saying foreign companies will be able to sell consoles across the entire country as long as they have established production and sales operations in the free trade zone. Each console will also have to be approved by China's Ministry of Culture before going on the market.
China banned consoles in 2000 over fears that video games may have a detrimental effect on the mental and physical development of children. Reports earlier this year suggested that Beijing was considering relaxing its policy, though officials later disputed such claims. Consoles have been available on the black market in China, though most gamers use PCs or mobile devices.
No timeline for sales to begin
Today's announcement follows earlier reports that China may be relaxing its longstanding bans on Facebook and Twitter within the forthcoming free zone. The People's Daily, a state-run newspaper, later refuted the reports, saying current "internet management measures" will remain in place in Shanghai.
It is not clear when sales of video game consoles will begin, as policymakers continue to draft new rules for the free trade zone. The government released a list of key principles governing the zone on Friday, though changes will be implemented over the course of the next three years. The new zone, located in the eastern suburbs of Shanghai, is seen as a promising sign that China may be loosening restrictions for foreign investors. It also comes at a crucial time for China, which has seen its economy slow in some key sectors after decades of rapid growth.
Update: In addition to lifting the console ban, a Wall Street Journal report says that China will be allowing foreign companies to "directly allow some internet services" in Shanghai; however, it's not clear whether the overall restrictions will be appreciably loosened. |
The Food and Drug Administration issued a recall for the baby formula Sammy's Milk because the California-based company did not test for the presence of a potentially deadly bacteria. Photo courtesy FDA
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration has issued a recall for all baby formula sold by California-based retailer Sammy's Milk because it could possess a potentially deadly bacteria.
The FDA said Graceleigh, Inc., the company that manufactures Sammy's Milk, did not perform the required test to guard against the bacteria Cronobacter, which can cause blood infections or meningitis in infants.
The formula also may have insufficient amounts of iron for some babies and does not carry the required warning to supplement a child's diet, the FDA said.
No illnesses have been reported.
Sammy's Milk, which markets itself as a GMO- and gluten-free baby formula, is distributed in California at Mother's Market retail outlets and ships directly through its website, SammysMilk.com.
The recall covers all lot numbers with the expiration dates from November, 2016 to August, 2018.
Consumers who purchased Sammy's Milk are entitled to a refund and can contact the company by phone at (949) 646-4628, or email at [email protected]. |
By Steven Maxwell
Do you water your vegetable garden with recycled city water? If so, you may be eating pharmaceutical contaminants that accumulate in your food.
A recent study by the American Chemical Society published by Chemistry and Engineering News shows that “eating vegetables grown using reclaimed water boosts urine levels of carbamazepine, an anti-epileptic drug commonly detected in wastewater” meaning that anyone who consumes this produce is exposed to the carbamazepine drug in detectable dosages.
The drug can enter waterways in a multitude of ways, from drain disposal of unused medication, excretion through the urinary tract of those who consume it, and even water that is disposed of by facilities that produce drugs. Since the carbamazepine drug is transmittable through the waterway, this has sparked the attention of agricultural workers who utilize large amounts of water for their crop irrigation systems.
The study utilized “34 healthy volunteers” in Israel where much of the water is recycled. The volunteers were instructed to eat their normal amounts and types of vegetation that are normally consumed on a daily basis. For the first week, they were given produce grown using organic water. The second week, they ate food grown with the treated wastewater. Those who were exposed to the repurposed water had higher carbamazepine levels in their urine as opposed to those who were exposed to produce grown with organic water.
The idea of drug consumption, of any degree, showing up in urine tests is something that alarms many people. For those who do not directly use the drug, the fact that carbamazepine (a mood stabilizer) shows up in their urine is something concerning, especially with the amount of corporations and businesses that implement mandatory drug tests into their hiring and housekeeping processes. Though any level of drugs in the body must be assessed, the amount that shows on the urine test report is, “four orders of magnitude away from levels of if you were taking the drug.”
Since there are still reports and tests being performed to understand long-term effects in groups such as women, children, the elderly, and vegetarians, the findings have caused some discomfort. It should be noted that carbamazepine is not the only rogue drug found in city water. A host of other pharmaceuticals, and even narcotics like cocaine, are routinely detected in public water supplies. But this is one of the first studies to show that these trace chemicals get into our food supply.
Between studies like these and the news that aging water systems like in Flint, Michigan contain dangerous levels of lead, Americans have been looking for ways to use water that has been untampered with by chemicals and drugs. A recent poll showed that half of all Americans do not trust their tap water.
What can be done to lessen the exposure to contaminants in water?
American Natural Superfood - Free Sample Gardeners who live in cities where water is recycled would be safer relying on rainwater as much as possible. Applying heavy mulch to gardens will retain much of the natural rainfall for longer periods of time. Additionally, collecting rainwater in barrels at the end of downspouts from roofs is another great option to trap feral water for future use. The decision to continue to consume water and vegetation exposed to drugs such as carbamazepine and other substances depends upon the individual and the degree of the toll you believe it will take on your health. For drinking water, it’s best to use a high-quality water filter. Bathing is another issue altogether. You may consider installing a whole house filter or at least a shower unit. Natural and Non-Toxic Products. Up to 50% Off – Every Day (Ad) Steven Maxwell writes for ActivistPost.com where this article first appeared. You may share or repost in full with attribution and source link. |
Updated at 8.35pm
TWO MEN USED fake weapons to hijack a Libyan plane with 117 people on board and divert it to Malta, before releasing everyone and surrendering.
The Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A320 was en route from Sabha in southern Libya to the capital Tripoli when it was taken over and forced to fly to Malta earlier today, sparking a four-hour runway standoff.
While they were initially thought to have used a real grenade and at least one pistol to stage the hijacking, it later emerged that the pair used fake weapons, a Maltese government statement said.
The men had claimed to have a grenade when they took over the plane. It was diverted to Malta where everyone on board was released and the hijackers surrendered to authorities, officials have said.
“Final crew members leaving aircraft with hijackers,” Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Twitter.
Minutes later he added: “Hijackers surrendered, searched and taken in custody.”
Libyan Foreign Minister Taher Siala said the two hijackers were supporters of slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi and had requested political asylum in Malta.
Siala, from Libya’s internationally backed Government of National Accord, said the hijackers also said they want to set up a pro-Gaddafi political party.
The plane landed in Malta just after 10.30am Irish time.
After more than an hour on the tarmac, the door of the Airbus A320 opened and the first group of women and children were seen descending a mobile staircase.
Dozens more passengers were released minutes later following negotiations that Maltese government sources said were led by the head of Malta’s military.
In all there were 111 passengers, including 28 women and a baby, on board, as well as seven crew members.
Source: TVM Malta
The Libyan government confirmed the plane was diverted after leaving from Sabha in southern Libya.
Malta state TV earlier reported that the hijackers had hand grenades and were threatening to blow up the aircraft.
MIA confirms there is an unlawful interference at the airport.Emergency teams dispatched.Visit https://t.co/Lf8i8e8s6L for flight info. — Maltairport (@Maltairport) December 23, 2016 Source: Maltairport /Twitter
Chaos
Libya has been in a state of chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Gaddafi left warring militias battling for control of different parts of the country.
Forces loyal to a fledgling national unity government recently took control of the coastal city of Sirte, which had been a bastion for the so-called Islamic State group since June 2015.
Source: TVM Malta
Western powers have pinned their hopes of containing jihadism in the energy-rich North African state on the government, but it has failed to establish its authority over all of the country.
A rival authority rules the country’s far east, backed by the forces under military strongman Marshal Khalifa Haftar. They have been battling jihadists in second city Benghazi.
- With reporting from Associated Press, AFP and Órla Ryan |
Meet the new boss….
It was announced over the weekend that on June 7 John Dickerson will replace Bob Schieffer as the host of CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” CBS News president David Rhodes — whose brother Ben is a top Obama official most famous for editing the truth out of the infamous Benghazi talking points — said of Dickerson, “John is first and foremost a reporter — and that’s what he’ll be as anchor of ‘Face the Nation.’ “His work in the studio will always be informed by what he’s learned in Iowa, in New Hampshire, on Capitol Hill — anywhere there’s news.”
Here’s what the brother of a top Obama official did not tell you about Dickerson: that in a column for Slate published in the days leading up to President Obama’s second inauguration, Dickerson demanded Obama stop working with Republicans and declare war.
Why if he wants to transform American politics, Obama must declare war on the Republican Party…. The challenge for President Obama’s speech is the challenge of his second term: how to be great when the environment stinks. Enhancing the president’s legacy requires something more than simply the clever application of predictable stratagems. Washington’s partisan rancor, the size of the problems facing government, and the limited amount of time before Obama is a lame duck all point to a single conclusion: The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat. … Obama’s only remaining option is to pulverize. Whether he succeeds in passing legislation or not, given his ambitions, his goal should be to delegitimize his opponents. Through a series of clarifying fights over controversial issues, he can force Republicans to either side with their coalition’s most extreme elements or cause a rift in the party that will leave it, at least temporarily, in disarray.
Naturally, one of the Obama opponents Dickerson wants DestroyedPulverizedDelegitimized is the NRA:
Republicans who want to oppose the president on policy grounds now have to make a decision: Do they want to be associated with a group that opposes, in such impolitic ways, measures like universal background checks that 70 to 80 percent of the public supports? Polling also suggests that women are more open to gun control measures than men. The NRA, by close association, risks further defining the Republican Party as the party of angry, white Southern men.
Dickerson closed his screed by warning Obama that he “has no time to waste.”
This isn’t a column. This isn’t analysis. It is a strategy memo — a half-time speech; equal parts pep talk and tactical session.
In summary:
— Benghazi threatens to engulf Hillary Clinton.
— The brother of Obama’s Benghazi spin-doctor runs CBS News.
— The brother of Obama’s Benghazi spin-doctor chose John Dickerson to host one the top Sunday talk shows on the same weekend Hillary announced her candidacy.
— The new host of this top Sunday talk show has publicly pleaded with President Obama to go to “war” with, “pulverize … destroy … and delegitimize” the GOP as a whole, and the NRA specifically.
– -As host of “Face the Nation,” Dickerson will now be in a better position to do this himself.
— This is the same CBS News that parted ways with Sharyl Attkisson — a 20 year veteran, and one of the few reporters in America who actually did pressure and question the Obama administration.
But I’m sure this is all coincidence. The media is not prepping the battlefield for Hillary, or anything. I’m paranoid, seeing things, blinded by sexism…
I mean, come on, it’s not like the media coordinates putting former-Democrat operatives in charge of its Sunday shows!
UPDATE: Oh, yeah.
2ND UPDATE: And yeah.
3rd UPDATE: Uhm...
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC |
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Those TV shows where assertive cleaners wade into houses full of junk and throw everyone’s anxiously amassed possessions in the skip - do they leave you crying or clapping?
Me, crying. And Clint Boon, too - the self confessed stockpiler of Stockport. Still, he’s the one laughing now because his inability to chuck things away resulted in one of the most sought after LPs on Record Store Day - the Inspiral Carpets’ Dung 4, the album they recorded 27 years ago with original singer Stephen Holt.
“I’m the biggest hoarder in the world,” Clint laughs. “I knew the tape was in there somewhere and it literally took me weeks and weeks of looking.
“Eventually I came across a Betamax tape, a digital master from 1987. So I got a Betamax machine, played it, and it sounded amazing. My wife has been giving it me in the neck for years, and I was like, ‘Now who’s the king hoarder, hey?’.”
Within a year of recording Dung 4, Stephen had left the band - impending marriage and mortgage requiring him to quit the music biz - and beyond a handful of cassettes produced to combat the bootleggers and sold in the small ads at the back of music magazines, the album got left on the shelf. Finally, on Monday, it gets an overdue full release on Cherry Red Records.
“Stephen left, and suddenly we got famous and travelled the world,” says Clint about the Inspirals’ heyday with Tom Hingley on vocals, during which the band scored four Top 20 albums, including debut Life, and many hit singles. “But 20 years later, Stephen steps back in and he’s warming up in Argentina to 8,000 people - it was just incredible, what a fairy tale.”
Holt’s return wasn’t without criticism despite the fact that he, with old pal Graham Lambert (guitar) and then 14-year-old drummer Craig Gill, laid the foundations for the band, beginning in 1983. Clint came on board some years later (bassist Martyn Walsh too, in 1989) after the band came to his Ashton-under-Lyne studio, at Guide Mill on South Street, to record a demo.
“I’d never heard of them, they were just some lads from Oldham, and we recorded three or four songs that became a demo they’d send out to pubs to get gigs,” Clint recalls.
“By the third session, I’d joined the band because I had the electric organ and it fitted in with the punkiness of their garage sound.”
(Image: Ian Rook 2014)
We’re revisiting those days because its the rawness of that garage rock sound they say they’ve recaptured on their forthcoming, currently eponymous new album - their first in two decades, due for release in September. “The Inspirals moved on massively, doing all these big hits,” Stephen reflects, “but the way we’re playing, rehearsing and recording is very much in the vein of Dung 4.
“It’s weird talking about all the time away - it’s felt so natural coming back in that it’s almost like it is just 1988. It’s almost odd that I wasn’t around for 20 or more years.”
Clint agrees. “The moment Stephen rejoined the band I was aware we were that garage band again. The new album sounds exactly like that band 27 years after, like the big brother of Dung 4.
“We can also say there’s a collaboration we’ve done that when people hear about it they’ll be knocked out by who it is and how good it is. It’s not an obvious one. Watch this space - cos it’s an exciting one.
“There’s a lot of optimism and looking forward to the future on the record,” Clint adds. “I’ve only written one song on it, Craig’s written his first song, Martin’s done a few and Stephen’s done a few. It’s forward thinking and full of confidence... although there probably are a few ‘upset with your wife’ love songs.”
Stephen laughs. “We’ve got a few darker edges.”
Highlighting that will be a video they’re filming for album’s first single at Gorton Monastery (“It’ll just be live, we’re not going to pretend to be monks or owt like that,” Clint laughs). And after that, a gig at Band On The Wall on June 6, already sold out in a record 15 minutes and a special one for Clint who went to his first Manchester gigs there - “aged 17, coming down from Oldham, lining up outside a bit nervous because I’d told my mum and dad I was going somewhere safe and I’d actually gone to Manchester to watch some punk bands, school blazer turned inside out with all the safety pins on the inside” - but has never played the venue.
Tours of the UK, and possibly America, will follow - two shows at The Ritz look likely. “I can’t say this is the best album we’ve ever made, but I can say it’s the best album we can make at this point: bearing in mind how old we are, how many kids we’ve got, what other careers we’ve got outside of it, nobody throwing loads of money at it,” Clint enthuses. “I defy anyone to write a better album.” |
One of the most common questions I get from people is whether a card that is not currently in Standard would be too strong. Usually these are people's pet cards, or cards that look like another card in a set but are slightly more efficient.
The answer to most of these is actually no—though maybe not for the reasons people might expect.
While there certainly are cards that are too powerful for Standard without any context, most of the time the cards in question would be fine, except that the interactions with other existing cards in Standard would make it too strong. One of the problems with reprints is that we don't get to tweak the numbers.
For example, we tried Liliana of the Veil in Magic 2015 and found her to be too strong for Standard. Some of that was because the mono-black decks were already very strong, but some of it was that the card is just very efficient. It does see play in both Legacy and Modern, after all. And while the card wasn't oppressive in its first time in Standard, we generally don't want to intentionally reprint something that we believe might be the strongest card in the format. It just leads to things being stale and prevents new things from flourishing. You will see cards in Standard in the future that are as strong as or stronger than Liliana of the Veil, but it's likely that we misevaluated just how strong they were in development.
Liliana came close to haunting your nightmares in Standard again. Or dreams. I don't know how you roll.
And that's fine. I think making those mistakes in power level (as long as they aren't off by too much) is a lot of what makes Magic fun. Often these mistakes happen because one block did a very poor job of supporting a strategy, so we find that a card isn't too powerful, and then when we print cards in the future that are at a normal level for that strategy, the net result is something being too strong.
There are plenty of cards that are too strong for Standard without context—it's just that they are above the bar we like to set for cards. Chances are, if a card is banned in Modern or Legacy—and not simply because of some weird combo (see Punishing Fire, Sword of the Meek, et al.)—it will be too strong for Standard.
At the same time, many of the top cards in Modern are also likely to be too strong for Standard. I hear a lot of claims that Tarmogoyf wasn't that good in Standard, but it did win both Pro Tour Valencia and the 2007 World Championship—the only two Pro-level Standard tournaments when it was legal. I don't foresee us reprinting Tarmogoyf for Standard any time soon, but stranger things have happened. I mean, Australia once went to war against a herd of emus and lost. Kind of.
Force of Will is in a similar spot, where many people believe it is only good in degenerate formats where the card disadvantage is less important. That really isn't true. Putting a card like that in Standard, when you can tap out for a planeswalker, rest assured you have a free way to protect it, and then be able to untap and protect it further, is incredibly powerful. This is just not a card that we are willing to put into Standard, since it would require us warping the entire format around the card—something that I don't think is worthwhile for any one card. I wouldn't expect this to be in a Standard-legal set any time in the near future, barring wayward buses or a radical shift in the direction we want to move Standard toward.
What Defines a Format
In most cases, a format is defined by its most powerful cards. That should seem obvious, though often the individual cards that are the strongest may not be readily apparent. It's easy to look at the strong and splashy ones that have a high correlation between "casting it" and "winning the game," but harder to evaluate are the support cards that let those splashy ones work.
A prime example of a format-defining card that needed support was Stoneforge Mystic. It is perfectly fine if, like in its first year in Standard, you're fetching up Trusty Machetes and Basilisk Collars. It's when you are hitting Swords and Batterskulls that you run into a problem. So, the card only defines the format if it has the support. Stoneforge isn't the best example, though, because the Swords and Batterskull are obviously very powerful cards in their own right. It's when the secondary cards are innocuous, or things that seem like they have been around forever and are evergreen staples of the format, that they are easy to miss.
When Delver was the top deck in Standard, I saw a lot of people complaining about Delver of Secrets and going as far as to ask for its banning—without realizing that it wasn't the actual problem card in the deck. It was the card that was often winning the game, sometimes on a frustrating turn-two blind flip, but I think it was Ponder (and to a lesser extent Gitaxian Probe and Mana Leak) that turned Delver of Secrets from a pretty strong card into a defining part of the format. When Ponder rotated out and there was no particularly good way to set up your draws, Delver totally fell off the radar for the Innistrad-Return to Ravnica year, despite taking up its role as a Legacy superstar. If we had left Ponder in Magic 2013, or given another effect that let you easily stack the top card of your library, it is possible that the year would've had similar Insectile infestations.
This was the worst of the plagues visited upon Egy...er, Standard.
The challenge for development that might not be obvious, therefore, is making sure that as many cards as possible have the right amount of support necessary to work, but not so much that it makes it dumb to do other things. As it turns out, the splashy, high-powered cards are usually the easier ones to get right because they are easier to identify. The real challenge is trying to make sure the format has the right number and kinds of support cards to make it so our new themes can show up without being overpowered, and that they all work for Limited.
Looking at current Standard, it would be easy to say that either Siege Rhino or Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is the defining element, but neither truly is—it's the mana base. The reason you are seeing so much of Khans continue to dominate, and so many four-color decks, is that we experimented with having a very strong mana base in Standard using fetches and duals, and it ended up exceeding even our expectations for power.
Looking back at the battle land/fetch land mana base in Standard, I think it's looking very unlikely that we will have fetch lands and lands with basic land types in Standard for a while, and certainly not at a time when we aren't pushing a multicolor-heavy set. It was something we tried, and ultimately it made Standard less fun and less accessible for many players. That isn't to say it was exactly a failed experiment—it showed us some pretty good data, and it will lead us to making better sets in the future. Standard is still diverse, and I think it's pretty fun, but I for one am excited to see Shadows over Innistrad come out, with rotation bringing a change in the mana base as well as the opportunity for more new decks in Standard.
Moving Standard Staples
There are cards that aren't necessarily too strong, but we don't want them in Standard at a given time for a variety of reasons. Often this is because we don't think they make things more fun, or they make Standard feel less different as new sets are released.
In Magic 2014 and Theros, we added Mutavault and Thoughtseize to Standard. We knew they were popular Modern cards and wanted to try them out in Standard. I think, in the end, both of those cards were incredibly powerful (and ubiquitous) and they made Standard less fun. It was much harder to do cool things in Standard when those cards were floating around. This had the upside of letting people play with the powerful cards (and powerful cards are frequently fun), but the downside was that they made it harder to do quirky or interesting things. A goal of Standard is for the games to come down much more to the new and unique things as opposed to the vanilla powerful effects, which I think does a reasonable job of describing both Mutavault and Thoughtseize. On the plus side, they did have a huge part to play in making Pack Rat a Standard all-star in its second year of life, so they have that going for them.
It's Judgment Day for Day of Judgment!
As we continue to try to make new and diverse Standard formats that feel unique, we do have to change what the staples of the format look like from time to time. Day of Judgment as the vanilla Wrath had a real problem in that it meant that as long as it was in Standard, people would only play four-mana Wraths. It meant that we had to balance the aggro decks around that, and that we didn't have much ability to make things that felt new. By moving unconditional Wraths to five mana but letting you cast cards like Languish at four mana, we have greatly improved our ability to create interesting Wraths for a variety of decks and allow people to play End Hostilities one week and Planar Outburst the next.
Likewise, Elvish Mystic wasn't taken out of Standard because it was too strong. Not exactly. I would say that when Elvish Mystic was in Standard, it was secretly one of the strongest cards in the format. It was the defining characteristic for green decks, and many of those decks were defined by the difference in power between games where it played a turn-one Elvish Mystic and the ones where it didn't. A card like Birds of Paradise has the same problem, but worse, since it can mean the difference between a turn-two gold card or not. We are currently taking a break from one-mana accelerators in Standard, much in the way we have moved away from doing two-mana mana stones. Part of the reason is the belief that this lets us create a wider range of cards that can see play (since we can actually put meaningful riders on two-mana mana Elves), and to allow for strong green two- and three-drops to see play without having to balance them around Elvish Mystic.
Elvish Mystic and Lightning Strike, we hardly knew ye. Wait, scratch that. We knew ye well. Like, really well.
Lightning Strike wasn't taken out because it was too strong. Lightning Bolt...well, I wouldn't say never, but don't be surprised if the most-played card in Modern doesn't hit Standard any time soon. It is the most-played card in Modern, which means that it would likely be the most-played in Standard, to the point of warping the metagame around it.
Lightning Strike is the right power level for Standard, but it is pretty boring. And any time we take a card that is pretty boring but a four-of in a ton of decks and add extra text onto it, we aren't allowing for future sets to print cards that might be an option to play instead. Much like we have been experimenting with differences in mana accelerators in Standard, we are entering an era of experimentation on how to move the suite of burn spells around such that there is a lot of choice while ensuring you can't just put them all in a deck and end up with a Modern burn deck.
Although none of these cards are in Standard now, I don't think they will be out forever. As we make green more about two- and three-drops for the time being, while we have more two-mana mana Elves, I can see a point where we want to shake things up and go back to using one-mana mana Elves for some period of time. It lets players who have only been playing for a few years experience something new and acts as nostalgia for older players. The design of Standard is cyclical, and many things that leave will probably not stay gone forever.
Providing a Standard Experience
After 23 years of making Magic, it should be clear we can't just play around with improving everything to make new cards. There just aren't enough costs that can go down. We may not be able to make as many cards for Vintage every year, since the bar that a card has to cross to be better than another card there is absurdly high. But we can control the kinds of cards we make for Standard. And as we make those, many of them will be at the right power level for Modern, helping to add to that format. And then some of them will end up trickling down to Legacy, and even a few per year to Vintage.
If you want to play with the most powerful cards, it's hard to argue against Eternal formats, since Standard can't compete there. The goal of Standard is to allow for new experiences, and to let each set's themes and mechanics shine. Part of that means that, over time, we need to kill a few sacred cows and change up what we think the baseline is for some effects, so that we can introduce new ones.
Imagine that you are working on Sixth Edition for Magic. You are discussing which cards to not reprint, and the decision comes down to leave out Dark Ritual. It would be easy to say, "Yeah, but without Dark Ritual, black will be too weak! Dark Ritual is a huge part of black's staple kit, and without it, it can't compete." Well, that may have been true of sets before then, but once you have taken the card out of the format, you get to open up a lot of design space. While a lot of black's power was in a turn-one Dark Ritual into a three-drop (or three one-drops), that also meant that you had to balance all of the three-drops as if they would be out on the first turn. We took Dark Ritual out of Sixth Edition, and black ended up being fine over time—much in the same way we removed Counterspell from blue, Lightning Bolt from red, and Swords to Plowshares from white. Once those cards were out of the colors for Standard, it increased the range of cards that could see play in all the colors.
That isn't to say that we've been 100% right on changes to the kinds of cards we put into Standard in the past, or that we will be in the future. We do a lot of testing internally, find what we like, and release it to the world. We can generally figure out what is powerful enough for Standard, but it's harder for us to gauge what people will like. Sometimes we are wrong because we misevaluated the power, and sometimes we realize that people will forgo decks that are strong enough because they just don't like the play style. By comparing our Future Future League decklists to how those decks played out in the real world and how strong they ended up being, we can try to figure out areas where we are repeatedly over- and undervaluing cards and tweak those in upcoming sets. When we try something and it ends up being stronger than we expected, we look at those results and make sure to test those kinds of cards more in the future, so we can continue making the kinds of cards that people will enjoy playing.
That's it for this week. Join me next week when I delve further into these topics and talk about exactly how we use real-world data to inform our decisions on balancing card sets.
Until next time,
Sam (@samstod) |
Get ready for the reunion of your slumber party dreams. On September 26th in Los Angeles, we're teaming up with Alamo Drafthouse and Birth.Movies.Death. to celebrate a new vinyl reissue of the JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by getting the band back to together. And we do mean literally.
The epic reunion screening tailor-made for superfans of the smart, funny and legitimately rocking 2001 film will unspool at LA’s famed Ace Hotel. In person, it’s the film’s brilliant co-directors/writers Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, along with Josie and Alan M. themselves, stars Rachael Leigh Cook and Gabriel Mann. PLUS singer Kay Hanley, front woman of ‘90s band Letters to Cleo and Josie’s singing voice in the film (no wonder that soundtrack is so killer).
Before the film, Kay and the band will *actually* rock the house with a set of JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS songs. You read that right. Yes, this is real life. And, after the credits roll that night, the whole gang will be live on stage answering your burning questions.
Tragically under-appreciated on its original release, JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS was dismissed as just another lame comic-to-screen cash-in aimed squarely at teens (who couldn’t have cared less). But the film was actually a cinematic Trojan horse, a scathing satire on consumerism, pop music and the very genre of comic-to-screen teen movies. And, thanks to a cracking script, an all-star cast giving it their all, and a soundtrack that’s way more rocking than it had any right to be, JOSIE is an enduring big screen pleasure.
And of course, our vinyl edition of the soundtrack will be available for purchase at the theater.
“Re-issuing the soundtrack to JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS has been a holy grail for us,” says Mo Shafeek, Mondo Record Label Manager. “Even though the band doesn't technically exist, it falls on our list of essential debut albums and deserves to be treated as such. It is an absolute honor to reissue it on vinyl for the first time ever.”
So what are you waiting for? Grab your tickets to this totally jerkin’ night. Cat ears optional, but entirely encouraged.
Tickets to JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS at the Ace Hotel are on sale now. Get yours here. |
NEW HAMPSHIRE (The Borowitz Report)—With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, there is a deep divide among Republican leaders over whether to emphasize misogyny or racism as the campaign’s closing theme.
In one camp is the Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who says that his view that God is sometimes O.K. with rape is “gaining real traction with a key demographic: men who don’t like women very much.”
“I can’t tell you how many misogynists have come up to me at my rallies and said, ‘Thank you for saying what you said,’ ” he told reporters today. “I think they’re like, finally, someone’s taking a more nuanced position on rape.”
But in the other camp is the former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, who worries that the Republican Party’s emphasis on misogyny is threatening to drown out its “winning message of racism.”
“I understand the appeal of Mourdock’s anti-woman theme, but I worry that it’s going to overshadow our core value of racism, which is still our best shot at winning this thing,” he said. “In politics, you’ve got to dance with the one who brung you.”
Hoping to heal a possible rift with so little time left until Election Day, the R.N.C. chairman Reince Priebus said today that there is room for both views in today’s Republican Party: “Our ‘big tent’ message to voters should be this: come for the misogyny, stay for the racism.”
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Photograph by Michael Conroy/AP. |
If you want your pet black hole to be visible, you must feed it regularly. Only when a black hole gorges on a steady diet of gas or other matter does it shine. The disk of matter that orbits it heats up and emits large amounts of light, especially in X-rays. If you have one of the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, feeding it matter can create one of the brightest objects in the Universe.
But the smaller ones should also be pretty visible. And while astronomers expect and have observed black holes comparable in mass to stars, their numbers are fewer than expected, even after decades of searching. Perhaps, as a new paper suggests, this is because many black holes are hidden by an opaque, donut-shaped disk of matter.
J. M. Corral-Santana and colleagues based this hypothesis on a detailed study of a relatively faint, fluctuating X-ray source in the Milky Way. Their observations in X-ray and visible light revealed the signs of a binary system: an ordinary star in orbit around a black hole, similar to other systems, but with some key differences. For one, the star and black hole were so close together that the orbital period of the system was only 2.8 hours. For another, the matter being drawn off the star was obscuring the black hole when viewed from Earth. The authors hypothesized that many other black holes may be similarly hidden, and future searches should take that possibility into account.
Stellar-mass black holes are the remnants of the cores of stars which exploded in supernovae and are at least 20 times the mass of the Sun. Black holes in this mass range have been discovered in binary systems, where their companion is an ordinary star. The transfer of mass from the companion onto the black hole creates an accretion disk: a hot, rapidly rotating platter that emits a great deal of X-ray light. The first black hole discovered, Cygnus X-1, was found through these emissions.
However, in nearly 50 years of X-ray observations, only about 50 black holes candidates have been known in the Milky Way, of which only 18 are confirmed. None of them exhibit eclipses, where the companion star or accretion disk block the X-ray emission. That's a somewhat surprising result, as it may imply we're only identifying systems we see from a privileged angle, one where our telescopes peer "down" onto the system. Since a bright black hole system that undergoes eclipses was identified in the M33 (Triangulum) galaxy, astronomers know it does happen.
But if the orientation of the binaries was random, we would expect about 1/5 of all systems to exhibit strong eclipses. We've seen nothing like that number, so obviously something is amiss.
The current paper examined a faint X-ray source, Swift J1357.2-093313, discovered by the orbiting Swift observatory in 2011. This object was not obviously a black hole from its X-ray signal, but the authors followed up in visible light using the Isaac Newton and William Herschel Telescopes. They found the telltale signs of an accretion disk: two strong peaks of light representing the portions of the disk moving toward us and away from us. (This is due to the Doppler effect: light emitted from material moving toward the telescope will have a shorter wavelength, while material moving away will have longer wavelength.)
Studying the orbital properties of the system, the researchers concluded that the disk rotates around the binary system's shared center of mass once every 2.8 hours, indicating the star's partner is an object about 3 times the mass of the Sun. That relatively large mass rules out other candidates like white dwarfs or neutron stars. The astronomers also identified strong regular variations in the accretion disk's visible light output, with no corresponding X-ray variation. That indicated ripples in the disk, with matter moving inward toward the black hole.
Together, this data strongly indicated a thick, donut-shaped accretion disk that hides the black hole by keeping most of its X-ray emissions from reaching our telescopes. Since the X-ray signature was so weak, the system could only be seen because it is relatively close to Earth. That means astronomers should pay greater attention to other weak X-ray emitters. But it also indicates that many black holes may be too faint to see or may be obscured by other gas in the galaxy.
Nevertheless, the implication is clear: if other black holes are obscured by their accretion disks, it would explain why astronomers have failed to find more stellar-mass black holes in the galaxy, and it could give us a better idea of how many are truly out there.
And now I want a donut.
Science, 2013. DOI: 10.1126/science.1228222 (About DOIs). |
DOVER, Del. - A police officer-involved shooting in Dover caused tensions to rise Friday afternoon mainly because of where the shooting happened. Witnesses told WBOC that the shooting occurred very close to a daycare center with young children inside.
During a press conference, Police Chief Paul Bernat identified the man who was shot as 21-year-old Terrence Fletcher. Chief Bernat said Fletcher was shot in the thigh by a Dover Police officer following a brief police chase in the area of South Governors Avenue and South New Street. Chief Bernat said Fletcher was armed with a handgun at the time, and that weapon was later recovered. Fletcher was treated at Kent General Hospital with a gunshot wound to the thigh that police described as a "flesh wound." At the time of the news conference, Chief Bernat added that Fletcher was in good condition.
Police say they responded to the area around 1 p.m. Friday after they received a tip of a suspect with a handgun in the area of the 100 block of South New Street, which is near a daycare and its outside playground. When officers arrived on scene, police say they saw the suspect, later identified as Fletcher, as being the person in possession of a firearm. As officers approached him, they say he took off through a narrow alleyway towards Governors Avenue, where other officers were located as a staging area. As Fletcher ran towards the officers on Governors Avenue, that’s when police say a Dover Police officer fired his weapon, striking Fletcher in the upper thigh.
Fletcher was charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, according to police. He is being held on $20,000 cash bond.
Chief Bernat said the officer involved in the shooting is a three year veteran of the Dover Police Department and a member of the Street Crimes Unit. Bernat added that the officer, who has not been identified, is on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation, which is department protocol.
WBOC on the scene reported a large crowd in the area following the incident. Police officers from Smyrna, Milford, Capitol, and Delaware State Police Departments responded to assist with the crowd. Police say two people were arrested for disorderly conduct and other charges as a result. The majority of the crowd dispersed peacefully a short time later.
WBOC spoke with Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen who said he told people that violence in response to this event will not be tolerated. He added the city is working with the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the leaders of churches in the African-American community, to help calm the community's reaction.
The leaders say they are hosting a meeting Saturday for the community to express concerns and thoughts about violence, jobs, resources and other issues in the neighborhood. The meeting will be held at the Center of Faith church on New St. at 6pm on Saturday Aug. 29. |
South Korea's finance minister on Wednesday said the government will vigorously argue Korea's case should the U.S. make any unreasonable trade demands.
"We will actively promote our stance on any irrational demands from the U.S., and use any rational demands (on trade) to improve our regulations to remove any impediments to the fourth industrial revolution," Yoo Il-ho said in a meeting with ministers in Seoul.
He said the government would strengthen its communications when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month, and will meet with global investors next week in New York to promote the economy.
A U.S. and South Korea free trade agreement came into effect on March 15, 2012. It was hailed at the time as the model for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which President-elect Donald Trump has sharply criticized as flawed, making approval by the U.S. Congress on an agreement reached this year by leaders and negotiators of the dozen nations involved unlikely.
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What is going through the mind of the world’s most powerful man, that is the question we all want answered.
It looks like we might have had an insight into just that this morning with a rather confused tweet.
Girl, 6, begged babysitter to ask her pedophile husband to stop kissing her
Donaldy Trump posted at 5.06am (12.06am in Washington DC) a tweet that said: ‘despite the constant negative covfefe’.
An hour after this was written, it was still live.
We have no evidence to say that he was drunk while tweeting (he always says he’s teetotal), we don’t even know what he wanted to actually say, but some people seem to think that may have been the case.
He could have just been sleep tweeting.
Or it could be Russian…
Despite the constant negative press covfefe — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017
BenDavid Grabinkski messaged to say: ‘OH MY GOD YOU DUMB DRUNK IDIOT. Didn’t they say your lawyers were handling all your tweets now. We’re minutes away from “I’m not fat!” or “I’m not lonely!” tweets aren’t we.
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’13 minutes and the tweet is still up. Are you barricaded in your room with several bags of McDonalds and self-loathing.’
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He then goes on to ask ‘at what point are you going to accidentally tweet a pornhub link with golden showers?’
Andy Juett asks: ‘I mean. This is some good shit right here. We’re at 15 minutes. How long til ANYONE on his staff has the balls to knock on his door in bed?’
We're having fun with #covfefe and poor Trump is asleep with his iPhone stuck to the side of his face. — Travis Keys (@thewritetbkeys) May 31, 2017
The Pope to Trump: "Do you have any sins you would like to #covfefe?" pic.twitter.com/Q38m64UqWo — Lisa❄️ (@lisadw323) May 31, 2017
Here’s a screengrab of the tweet in case it gets taken down. |
Over the years I’ve used polls on the PFRE blog to better understand and illustrate the trends that are going in real estate photography. The poll I have on the PFRE poll page on photo-editing is very old (8/2007). And although it’s been up for almost 5 years the results are fuzzy because practices have changed substantially over the time it’s been up. Also, the questions are too simplistic to reflect all the options in post-processing out there today. For this reason I’ve created the four different polls on the subject of post-processing below.
My perception is there is a shift going on away from using just Photoshop to using Lightroom plus a collection of plug-ins that help you do things that Lightroom doesn’t do. Of course there are still things like sky replacement that Lightroom can’t do. But over the last several years Photoshop Elements has increased in functionality so it can many, but not all of what full Photoshop can do. My perception is that many real estate photographers are not choosing to purchase the full version of Photoshop any more.
The results of these polls always amaze me because it is a way of tapping into the collective wisdom of all the readers as a whole. One can easily get a false impression of what’s going from the comments of a vocal few or talking to a handful of readers but polls give a much broader and accurate look at the collective wisdom of a large group. Even though not everyone takes the polls, over time the number that do take the polls make the results statistically significant. The polls are just below. Thanks for your participation. |
I got into a few fights as a kid. I saw many, many more. Kids fight. It’s part of growing up. I don’t recall a single incident in which the school, a parent, or any other adult decided it was necessary to get the police involved. And I’d imagine that if anyone had tried, unless some kid had been severely injured, our local police would have thought better of turning kids’ fisticuffs into a criminal incident.
But we’re living in an age in which we use the criminal justice system to address a multitude of problems once handled by parents, schools, religious institutions, and communities. And so we get stories like the one currently inspiring outrage in Portland, in which police came to the home of a nine-year-old girl, arrested her, handcuffed her and carted her off to booking because of her alleged involvement in a fight at a Boys & Girls Club six days earlier.*
The accusations against the girl really deserve a point-by-point response. From the Oregonian.
Harris’ 9-year-old daughter, witnesses told police, got in the middle of a dispute between two other girls who had been arguing because one told on the other in school earlier in the day for drawing on a desk.
Kid sometimes draw on desks. Other kids will sometimes tell on those kids. That can lead to altercations. These kids were nine.
The 9-year-old ended up in a fistfight with one of the other girls outside the club, according to a police report. A staff member broke the fight up, but said Harris’ daughter continued to try to strike and kick the other girl before they were separated in different rooms.
These would be serious accusations if the girl was, say, 25 and armed. But she was unarmed. And she was nine.
Both girls apologized to each other. Staff members found no obvious injuries on any of the girls, they told police.
It isn’t surprising that the girls weren’t able to seriously injure one another. (The unarrested girl apparently had a bruised cheek.) Because they were nine.
The 9-year-old was sent home and suspended from the club for one week.
That seems like a reasonable punishment, given that the girl was nine.
But later that day, the mother of one of the girls called Portland police to report the fight. The mother accused Harris’ daughter of striking her child in the face and bashing her head against a brick wall, and told police she wanted an arrest made.
An appropriate police response here might have been to talk to the parents of the offending girl. Perhaps they talk to the club. But they also should have told the angry parent that they aren’t going to arrest a kid who is just nine years old based on secondhand information about a fight that resulted in no injuries. Because she’s nine.
Portland Officers David McCarthy and Officer Matthew Huspek returned to the Harris home six days later on May 2 to question the girl. McCarthy wrote in his report that the 9-year-old gave “vague answers” and appeared to get angry when pressed for more details.
Cops had just shown up at her house to interrogate her. She was nine years old at the time. They were surprised that she seemed upset? Or that she gave “vague” answers?
“I observed (her) breathing speed up, she looked down at the ground … crossed her arms and would eventually answer my questions,” McCarthy wrote.
Her breathing sped up? As she faced accusatory questioning from cops who had come to her home? She was nine.
Finding the 9-year-old’s statements “inconsistent” with witnesses who described her as the aggressor, the officers took her into custody, accusing her of fourth-degree assault, the police report said.
Reminder: She was nine years old.
“Officer Huspek and I handcuffed (her) and no inventory was performed due to the tight clothing (the girl) wore,” McCarthy wrote.
Of course they handcuffed her. Officer safety and all. You can’t be too careful with a nine year old.
Harris said the officers aggressively questioned her daughter. “They repeatedly asked her, ‘Why don’t you tell me what really happened?'”
Because she’s nine.
When they led her daughter to the patrol car, Harris asked to go with them, but said the officers wouldn’t let her. They did offer to drive the 9-year-old girl back home after she was fingerprinted and photographed.
I mean, I really don’t want to believe this actually happened. The poor kid was nine years old.
The girl was photographed and fingerprinted on the 12th floor of the Justice Center at the police Forensic Service Division and held in a holding area for just over an hour until her mother arrived.
A nine-year-old was cuffed, photographed, and fingerprinted. For a fight with a friend of about the same age. A nine-year-old.
A year later, Harris said, her daughter “is a different child.” The girl, now 10, had been a talented and gifted student at Rosa Parks Elementary, but transferred in October to another school because of teasing and has been in counseling since June, Harris said. The district attorney’s office never brought charges against the girl, and Harris filed a complaint.
The arrest probably derailed the kid’s life. Hopefully not permanently. I wonder if the complaining parent feels satisfied that justice was done, here — to this nine-year-old.
The Independent Police Review Division, under oversight of Portland’s auditor, found officers violated no Police Bureau policies, and forwarded the complaint to the officers’ supervisors at North Precinct for a “service improvement opportunity,” essentially a debriefing.
Just to reiterate, here, the Portland Police Department has no policy against arresting, cuffing, booking, and dumping into a holding area a nine-year-old accused of fighting with another nine-year-old.
Police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said officers use handcuffs as a safeguard, and acted according to bureau policy.
Officer safety is paramount. There are no exceptions for nine-year-olds. She’s lucky she wasn’t tasered.
The policy (PPB Directive 640.70) says juveniles taken into custody for any felony or Class A misdemeanor “shall” be fingerprinted and photographed at the forensics division, while juveniles taken into custody for Class B and C misdemeanors “may” be fingerprinted and photographed. It makes no age distinctions. Police consider those under age 18 as juveniles. Fourth-degree assault is a Class A misdemeanor.
When it comes to the rigid adherence to procedure, there is no difference between a 17-year-old and a nine-year-old. There will be no exercise of officer discretion, good judgment, or common sense when it comes to nine-year-olds. Or, presumably, seven-year-olds. Or five-year-olds. All are juveniles.
I’m not trying to be flip here. It’s just that there isn’t much else to say. We arrest nine-year-olds now. For scuffling with other kids. And then we point to policies, procedures, and rulebooks when someone quite correctly asks what the hell is going on. The utter insanity of all of this ought to be self-evident. But one more time: She was nine.
(*This post has been corrected. It initially stated that the police responded on the same day.) |
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Republicans are expected to fiercely oppose President Barack Obama’s nomination of Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights and one of the more prominent progressives in his administration, to head the Labor Department. Already, Perez’s GOP foes have accused him of corruption concerning a deal he helped forge in the Justice Department. This agreement prevented an unusual Minnesota housing discrimination case from going to the Supreme Court, and the full backstory—which Perez’s critics haven’t acknowledged—is a bizarre tale of legal complexities in which landlords tried to use a major civil rights law to protect themselves from city regulations meant to improve living conditions for low-income residents.
It all began in the early 2000s, when the city of St. Paul—after finding that many homes in low-income neighborhoods lacked heat or locks on the doors—kicked off an aggressive campaign of housing code enforcement. A group of landlords retaliated, brandishing an unexpected weapon: the 1968 Fair Housing Act. This law bars practices that adversely affect minorities, whether those practices were designed to discriminate or not—a legal standard known as disparate impact. The landlords alleged that the city’s actions would force them out of business and harm their minority tenants whose access to affordable housing would be affected. The landlords were essentially arguing that by aggressively enforcing basic housing standards St. Paul was discriminating against low-income minorities, hoping to replace them with wealthier homeowners.
Much of the evidence in the case did not cast the landlords in the most sympathetic light. A police report described one landlord, Frank Steinhauser, threatening to evict one of his tenants, a mother of two children, for taking him to court because the residence he rented her had rotten floors, no heat, and so many rats she had unsuccessfully tried using duct tape to seal off the rat holes in the walls. (At one point, one tenant in the building found a rat in the bed where her two-year-old child slept.) According to this police report, Steinhauser told the woman (whose name was redacted), “Why are you doing this you black bitch? Why do you have the state on my ass? Bitch you’re gonna to lose in fucking court. You’re going to be out on the street.” Several years later, in 2008, Steinhauser was one of the landlords suing St. Paul for enforcing the housing code and supposedly discriminating against their tenants on the basis of race. After St. Paul lost in federal court, the city appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. (There was originally more than one lawsuit over the same issue; they were ultimately linked together.)
“Why are you doing this you black bitch? Why do you have the state on my ass? Bitch you’re going to lose in fucking court. You’re going to be out on the street.”
For civil rights advocates, who supported using the Fair Housing Act to protect minorities from real discrimination, this case posed a dilemma. It looked to many of them as if a group of landlords was cynically embracing a landmark civil rights law in order to keep exploiting their minority tenants. Conversely, conservatives could argue that poor minorities in this case would be protected by weakening a civil rights law which conservatives have long opposed (the American Bankers Association also weighed in against the law as currently enforced). It was complicated.
Civil rights groups filed briefs in support of preserving the legal concept of disparate impact, without backing the landlords’ claims that St. Paul’s housing enforcement actions had been discriminatory. “There was a fair amount of nose-holding about this,” says one longtime civil rights attorney, who adds that it looked as if the landlords were arguing for a “fundamental right under the Fair Housing Act to put minorities in crappy housing.” Civil rights advocates were worried that if this case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts, who as part of the Reagan Justice Department in the early 1980s had opposed using a disparate impact standard to enforcing the Voting Rights Act, would have another chance to unravel another hard-won civil rights law.
Enter Thomas Perez. According to the Justice Department, in December 2011, Perez, worried that the St. Paul’s lawsuit could undermine the Fair Housing Act, reached out to attorneys for the city, who could win their case but end up undercutting this major civil rights law. Those lawyers were worried, too. “We were very concerned about the collateral damage we were going to cause if we won, ” says one St. Paul city official familiar with the case. “This case was an anomaly where these landlords tried to use civil rights law to their benefit.”
At this time, the city was facing another pending lawsuit. A St. Paul resident named Fredrick Newell had spent years doggedly compiling evidence that St. Paul had not complied with its obligation to use more than $180 million in federal money to help lower-income residents acquire jobs and city contracts. Newell sued in 2009 under the False Claims Act, alleging that St. Paul knew for years it hadn’t been meet its federal obligations. Because of the particulars of Newell’s case and the way the False Claims Act is written, without Justice Department intervention Newell’s case would collapse.
In talks with Perez, St. Paul’s attorneys proposed a trade. They would withdraw their request to the Supreme Court to hear the Fair Housing case, and in exchange the Justice Department would agree not to intervene in Newell’s case. Republicans have accused Perez of offering the deal, and they have likened this to bribery, but the St. Paul city official tells Mother Jones that the city does not dispute the Justice Department account that St. Paul tendered the offer first.
Shortly after a December 2011 meeting with St. Paul officials, according to a response sent by the Department of Justice to Republican legislators, Perez consulted with the ethics officer in the civil rights division to ensure that the deal, if made, wouldn’t violate any conflict-of-interest rules. Next, Perez asked the Professional Responsibility Advisory Office whether the deal would be kosher. Perez was told that it was okay, as long as the person at the head of the department’s civil division, which has authority over False Claims Act cases, blessed the arrangement.
According to the Department of Justice, the lead expert on the False Claims Act in the civil division, a career attorney named Michael Hertz, later recommended against joining the Newell case, even though federal attorneys in Minnesota had originally wanted to intervene. Tony West, then the head of the civil division, signed the memo declining to get involved in the Newell case, which noted the deal with St. Paul. As a result the city withdrew its appeal to the Supreme Court, and the Newell case was dismissed by a judge. The city didn’t get off scot-free: Based on the allegations in Newell’s case, St. Paul entered into an agreement with Housing and Urban Development in 2010 to monitor their compliance with the grant requirements. St. Paul officials say the city has met all its obligations under the agreement and HUD says they have no evidence to the contrary. Newell, however, was upset about being cut out of the deal after all his hard work documenting St. Paul’s not complying with its grant obligations, and is currently appealing the decision.
The deal Perez helped cut likely prevented a landmark civil rights law from being struck down by the Roberts court. Perez’s civil rights division later used this law to secure record financial settlements against banks that discriminated against minority borrowers during the financial crisis. And Republicans were very angry about it.
The St. Paul deal is now the focus of an investigation by congressional Republicans, who allege that Perez behaved improperly. In September 2012, congressional Republicans sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder alleging that the Justice Department had engaged in a “quid pro quo” and had “bargained away a valid case of fraud against American taxpayers in order to shield a questionable legal theory from Supreme Court scrutiny in order to keep on using it.” The letter was signed by, among others, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member on the judiciary committee. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House government oversight committee, has accused Perez of having “paid a $180 million bribe” to the city of St. Paul in exchange for withdrawing their request to the Supreme Court.
Based on the information publicly available, the allegations that Perez behaved unethically or corruptly don’t withstand scrutiny.
“They’re making, in my view, rather outrageous, essentially defamatory allegations against Perez, and I don’t see what their support is,” says Kathleen Clark, a professor at Washington University School of Law and an expert in legal ethics. “They are attempting to recharacterize a policy disagreement about two cases into something unethical.” Moreover, while conservatives are entitled to the opinion disparate impact is a “dubious legal theory,” courts have upheld its use under the Fair Housing Act for decades.
Republicans have accused Perez of overruling the career attorneys in Minnesota who wanted to pursue the False Claims Act case. But according to the Justice Department, it was the civil division’s top legal expert on the False Claims Act who believed the case wasn’t worth following through on. Despite the heavy implication of corruption in the language used by GOP legislators, when Mother Jones asked whether Perez had violated any specific ethics rules, a GOP Senate aide said that Grassley “is not focusing specifically on a Justice Department ethics rule, but instead is focusing on whether the quid pro quo decision was in the best interest of the American taxpayers as a matter of policy.”
Because both the civil rights division and the civil division represent the same client, the United States, Clark says it’s entirely ethical for officials in these divisions to decide not to pursue a case due to competing priorities. For example, a homeowner can sue a neighbor for accidentally crashing a car into his home. But he might opt not to, because he wants to preserve his friendship with that neighbor. Just because the Justice Department can sue doesn’t mean it has to sue. “When cases settle, there generally are quids pro quo. That’s what happens with any negotiation—quids pro quo are not necessarily corrupt,” Clark says. “It just looks to me like these members of Congress are alleging ethical misconduct based on their policy disagreement with the Justice Department.”
If Republicans block Perez over his actions in the St. Paul case, it won’t be because of corruption or ethics. It will be because he rescued a civil rights law they oppose from almost certain death at the hands of the Roberts court. |
On an overcast day in November, 2014, just before Thanksgiving, two men dug a rather large hole in a lawn in Central Park. They started at seven-thirty in the morning, and by midday the hole was big enough for them both to stand in. As they dug, they filtered excavated soil through a screen. They found eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Chinese porcelain, blue earthenware fragments, and the rim of a pearlware teacup, as well as the stem of a clay pipe and brown, olive, aqua, and purple glass shards. And they unearthed a roughly three-foot-tall, nine-inch-square white stone, two sides of which were inscribed with numbers. The ceramic and glass remnants were unexceptional, but the white stone was anything but. It was a discovery akin to finding a marble statue submerged in a remote lake or a lamppost in the wild woods of Narnia. Hundreds of stones like this one were fastidiously implanted across the island two centuries ago, but not a single one seemed to have survived, in its original position, amid the construction and endless reconstruction of New York City. The stones were set at the intersection of every street and avenue to chart the bold nineteenth-century plan that gave Manhattan its great grid. The carved marble sign in Central Park marks an intersection that never came to be, one of many spliced out of the grand plan when city residents demanded an antidote to the grid. Central Park has long kept its grid memory secret. But in little more than a year since that November morning, three more marble street monuments have been discovered in the curvaceous green core of the island. A map of the City of New York, from 1811. Photograph by The New-York Historical Society / Getty Photograph by The New-York Historical Society / Getty
In 1807 the Common Council asked the state to appoint three commissioners to plan the city’s development. (The aldermen were hoping to avoid the disagreements and political reversals that occurred at the local level; and they did maintain some say by recommending three men who should serve as the commissioners.) They hired a young Albany native named John Randel, Jr., to survey the island and draft the 1811 Commissioners’ Plan, an eight-foot-long blueprint for the grid, which was to run from North (now Houston) Street to 155th Street. After Randel handed it in, the Common Council hired the exacting surveyor to inscribe the grid in the rural landscape. Randel resurveyed the island with instruments of his own invention, placing wooden stakes or pegs at every one of the more than fifteen hundred planned intersections. Once done with that task, he and the bane of his meticulous existence—his unruly, ever-shifting, drink-loving crew—set about replacing the pegs with less easily vandalized or purloined markers. At some fifteen hundred and fifty intersections, according to Randel’s notes, the men set “monumental stones”; at nearly a hundred others, where they encountered bedrock or boulder, they placed iron bolts. The process took until 1817, with the men carrying or carting monuments to intersections, often working up one avenue and then down another. Sometimes they tried to avoid lugging the heavy stones: “This delay has much the appearance of a determination to get here too late to carry monuments,” Randel wrote in one of his field books. He, too, found the monuments, which were much more expensive to buy, carve, and install than he had anticipated, to be a burden. And although the hefty, largely interred stones were challenging to remove, landowners still occasionally uprooted them. As the city extended up the island, the monuments and bolts seem to have become rubble, dug up and discarded as the terrain was transformed. The sole documented marble monument, for more than a century, from a corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street, survives in the collection of the New-York Historical Society. Construction workers unearthed it in 1890 and it was, for a time, on view in Madison Square Garden. Not too long ago, the Historical Society discovered a second monument in its collection, from Second Avenue and Ninety-second Street. For many years it lay partially buried in the Society’s garden. It was excavated in 2006, mistakenly catalogued as a milestone, and transferred to a warehouse in New Jersey. One well-known bolt endures, embedded in a low rise of gray schist in the park’s southern section. It was discovered and confirmed to be in the right location, in 2004, by Reuben Rose-Redwood, a geographer at the University of Victoria, and Lemuel Morrison, then of Mercator Land Surveying, who hunted for Randel bolts throughout Central Park when Rose-Redwood was conducting research on the 1811 plan for his master’s thesis. “We never looked for monuments,” Morrison said. “We just presumed they were all gone.” As have most people who search for, or are intrigued by, survey markers and a landscape view of New York City history.
The archeologists who excavated the monumental stone that November morning—James Lee of Hunter Research, a Trenton, New Jersey-based company, and Matthew Pihokker, formerly of the same—had been hired the year before by the Central Park Conservancy to study the northern stretch of Central Park following the restoration of the six-acre Fort Landscape, rocky heights where Fort Fish, Fort Clinton, and Nutter’s Battery once stood. They excavated a gatehouse at McGowan’s Pass and found evidence of other defenses hastily built during the War of 1812. They uncovered traces of the Kingsbridge Road, which wound north up the island on its way toward Albany and Boston. One spring day during that project, the president and principal archeologist of the company, Richard Hunter, was strolling to meet his team in the field when he saw a flat white stone embedded in a lawn. The team had with them printouts of several of Randel’s farm maps—a set of ninety-two beautiful, topographically accurate, large-scale maps that the surveyor drafted for the city between 1818 and 1820—which they frequently consulted. One showed the notation “mon,” Randel’s shorthand for marble monument, seemingly near where the flat white stone sat. Although intrigued, the crew was focussed on the Fort Landscape, not on the grid, and returned to their investigation of the northern park. And perhaps the flat white stone Hunter saw that May day would have remained unrevealed, were it not for Richard Garland, a retired software engineer and history maven who regularly runs and walks in Central Park, scanning the landscape with the hawk eyes of a surveyor. After hearing a talk at the Museum of the City of New York, in September, 2014, about the archeological finds in the Fort Landscape, Garland e-mailed Hunter asking if the crew had seen anything resembling a bolt or monument. Hunter recalled the flat white stone, although in his memory it was two to three inches on a side. Garland quickly visited the stone. It seemed to be eight-and-a-half inches to a side, which he identified as the dimension of the monument in the Historical Society’s collection. Garland contacted Morrison—the two had sought Randel survey markers before, in Highbridge Park and Riverside Park—and Morrison toted his G.P.S. equipment to the spot, took readings, and checked them against maps in his office. The stone’s coördinates were within one foot of the expected position: a match for a Randel marker. Garland then catalyzed the official quest by letting Hunter know about Morrison’s measures. Hunter contacted the Central Park Conservancy. A month later, the archeological excavation revealed the flat white stone to be the city’s only known in situ grid monument. A new archeological mission arose for the Conservancy. “We needed to be thorough and look for other ones,” Marie Warsh, director of preservation planning, said. Warsh requested high-resolution copies of the Randel farm maps from the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, where the colorful maps are kept, and had them overlaid on a high-resolution map of Central Park. Last July, she led a small expedition to hunt for more monuments, starting in the northern end of the park. Warsh, a historian with a wonderful wry sense of humor, can read the park’s design history in its rocks and slopes, its soils and vegetation. She reasoned that the area in and around the North Woods had been less highly engineered, partly because the park commissioners had largely run out of money by the time that work there began, in 1863, and partly because surveyors’ notes show that they admired the wild natural topography. “My theory is that they were really enchanted with the northern part of the park,” Warsh said. “It was a kind of template of what they wanted the park to be.” Within minutes of checking their first invisible intersection of the day, Warsh, James Lee, and Evan Mydlowski, also of Hunter Research, found another monument, this one of brownish stone. A feeling of glee seized the group, which I joined on the excursion: the park must be filled with Randel monuments! After several hours hunting on slopes, in thorny thickets, and in beds of poison ivy, the team lost some conviction. (Their woes were those of many who have surveyed the park: “Trouble was experienced with the poisonous ivy, which occurs abundantly in the brush; one member of the party was so badly poisoned with it, as to be confined to his room for a fortnight,” a Central Park surveyor wrote, in 1857.) The summer foliage was too thick to permit accurate G.P.S. readings. “Maybe we should come back in the fall, when the leaves are down?” Lee suggested. The group set aside four days in December to walk from one invisible intersection to another—there were eleven they wanted to check—and I accompanied them most of the days. “I have the sense of city blocks being much shorter when I walk in the park,” Warsh remarked, as they searched along the streets and avenues held at bay by the park’s wall. Just feet from a spot they had searched in July—in an area that seems so “untouched it feels old world,” Lee said—they found another monument under a thick coat of leaves, bringing the total to three. A few hours later, they caught sight of a fourth. The following day, an iron bolt, partially destroyed, but clearly set in a bed of lead, as Randel’s bolts were, surfaced in The Ramble, where, just up a nearby hill, a great horned owl had settled in the barren trees. |
Researchers at the Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Edmonton this week envision a day when robots will be a mainstay in our homes and workplaces — doing daily tasks like cooking, cleaning and even keeping us company.
The AI conference, held at the University of Alberta's Lister Centre, is expected to draw hundreds of academics and industry leaders to Edmonton between May 16 and 19.
"We want computers to be able to be smarter and to be able to understand [a] question, that's the first step," explained Greg Kondrak, a computer science professor at the the University of Alberta.
Upon hearing a question, the smart computer would scan the internet for accurate results and "formulate the answer in a way that we kind of expect from other people."
Kondrak's area of expertise is natural language processing. The technology will enable computers to communicate with people in plain speech and be an alternative to texting and writing emails, he said.
University of Alberta computer science professor Greg Kondrak thinks robots could be good companions for people living alone. Kondrak believes AI and robotics researchers are making progress on programs that can give "acceptable answers to people talking to them."
"I think people are the most comfortable communicating using the language that they know — the human language," he said.
The future of robotics
Malek Mouhoub, a conference co-chair and head of the computer science department at the University of Regina, said AI is gaining importance in certain industries, such as health care.
"Robots can be very precise when conducting surgery," he said. "Also, robots can conduct many surgeries with the same precision while the human being, after a certain time ... might lose precision."
New technologies aren't without their critics, however. From job losses to invasion of privacy, the fear that machines will take over the world while Big Brother monitors our every move isn't all that far-fetched.
"This is a very hot topic," Mouhoub said. "Many researchers are currently working on robust techniques in order to ensure that data are safe and not hacked or stolen for other purposes."
AI conference co-chair Malek Mouhoub says the health-care industry is benefiting from robotic technology. He also thinks artificial intelligence will improve society and create different kinds of work.
"The type of job will shift into jobs for skilled workers. I don't really see losing jobs," he said.
"We need people to maintain these robots — if the robot is broken or something — in addition to those people who write programs to control robots."
Kondrak said robots can also help sick people, seniors and anyone just looking for companionship.
"We know that having a pet is a very good thing for a person who lives alone," Kondrak said.
"And I think these kinds of robots, [if] they are able to process general human language, can provide a better experience than a pet," he added.
"You can talk to your cat but the cat does not talk back to you."
Kondrak believes what is considered "intelligent" has changed over the years. There was a time, for example, when a computer beating a master chess player was impressive.
"Nowadays people kind of expect more," he said. "As we keep achieving those goals, people set the bar higher and higher."
He said people now see creating something unique, like a poem, as a sign of intelligence. |
Ventricular assist devices help failing hearts function by pumping blood but require monitoring and anticoagulant therapy to prevent blood clot formation. Roche et al. created a soft robotic device with material properties similar to those of native heart tissue that sits snugly around the heart and provides ventricular assistance without ever contacting blood. The robotic sleeve uses compressed air to power artificial silicone muscles that compress and twist, mimicking the movements of the normal human heart. The authors show that the artificial muscles could be selectively activated to twist, compress, or simultaneously perform both actions on one side or both sides of the heart. The device increased cardiac ejection volume in vitro and when implanted in adult pigs during drug-induced cardiac arrest.
There is much interest in form-fitting, low-modulus, implantable devices or soft robots that can mimic or assist in complex biological functions such as the contraction of heart muscle. We present a soft robotic sleeve that is implanted around the heart and actively compresses and twists to act as a cardiac ventricular assist device. The sleeve does not contact blood, obviating the need for anticoagulation therapy or blood thinners, and reduces complications with current ventricular assist devices, such as clotting and infection. Our approach used a biologically inspired design to orient individual contracting elements or actuators in a layered helical and circumferential fashion, mimicking the orientation of the outer two muscle layers of the mammalian heart. The resulting implantable soft robot mimicked the form and function of the native heart, with a stiffness value of the same order of magnitude as that of the heart tissue. We demonstrated feasibility of this soft sleeve device for supporting heart function in a porcine model of acute heart failure. The soft robotic sleeve can be customized to patient-specific needs and may have the potential to act as a bridge to transplant for patients with heart failure.
Here, we used soft robotic techniques to develop a tethered implantable sleeve that can provide circulatory support for patients with compromised heart function. The soft robotic sleeve we describe took inspiration from native heart muscle and was designed to augment cardiac function by closely replicating it, instead of disrupting it. Preceding work from our group described the use of soft robotic techniques to replicate the heart’s motion ( 1 ), and here, we present ex vivo and in vivo results in a pig model that builds on this technology to augment heart function.
Although the design improvements implemented with each generation of VADs have helped to reduce prothrombotic components, contact between blood and artificial surfaces remains, necessitating long-term blood-thinning medications for patients with VADs. Despite anticoagulation treatment, the risk of thromboembolic events including stroke may occur in up to 20% of patients ( 19 ). As outlined in previous work ( 20 – 22 ), most external devices invert the normal curvature of the heart and act contrary to the remaining native cardiac contraction mechanics, predisposing these devices to reduced biomimicry and efficiency and highlighting an important shortcoming of existing technologies. As a result, many of these devices do not integrate and synchronize with native cardiac contraction mechanics and direction, and some cannot assist the diastolic (filling) phase of the cardiac cycle.
Heart failure is the inability of the heart to pump sufficient blood to the body, leading to disability or death. Heart failure afflicts 41 million people worldwide including more than 5 million people in the United States ( 15 ), costing the nation an estimated $32 billion each year ( 16 ). Currently, patients with end-stage heart failure refractory to medical treatment alone are often considered for heart transplantation. However, donor organ availability is limited, and many patients die awaiting transplantation. To mechanically assist the failing heart, ventricular assist devices (VADs) are used as a life-prolonging therapy, either as a bridge to transplant or, in some cases, as a “destination therapy,” meaning the device remains implanted for the rest of the patient’s life. Using current VADs, the heart and one or both of the great vessels are cannulated, blood is removed from the heart, and blood is then pumped into the aorta or pulmonary artery. In this scenario, the VAD assumes the function of one or both of the failing ventricles of the heart. The first generation of VADs used a pulsatile pump and valve technology. The second generation of VADs is largely based on a continuous, valveless, axial-flow technology ( 17 , 18 ), and the third generation uses continuous-flow pumps that use magnetic levitation technology and contactless bearings ( 18 ).
Traditionally, robots have been used in situations where they do not interact closely with humans—the classical example being assembly lines where metal cages protect factory workers from rigid robots that are capable of applying very high forces. However, the field is being transformed by a new wave of soft robots that are constructed using a combination of elastomers, fibers, and other filler materials. This approach provides opportunities to create robots that are well suited for intimate interactions with humans and with tunable material properties to match biological tissues. Furthermore, through a combination of elegant design and simple control, these soft robots can be programmed to achieve complex motion mimicking the motions of tissues in the human body ( 1 – 3 ) using specifically designed contractile elements or actuators ( 4 – 13 ). Previously, the benefit of this approach was shown with extracorporeal robots ( 2 , 10 , 14 ); however, an exciting opportunity also exists to create implantable soft robotic structures to restore physiological function to, for example, the failing heart.
Although the device is currently tethered to mainline-compressed air supply, the soft robotic sleeve could be used under a greater range of clinical conditions if it was portable. We therefore compared the effects of mains and portable pump power on aortic flow rates in a porcine model under baseline conditions and saw that there was no difference between the two sources (fig. S10, A and B). A schematic of a portable soft robotic sleeve system is shown in fig. S10C, with portable pump and compressed air supplies worn on a belt or backpack, as for current VADs. The cardiac output with the passive device worn on the heart is similar before and after activation (fig. S10, D and E), indicating that the device could be turned off when cardiac assistance is not required. With the active device, femoral pressures were increased in line with aortic pressures (fig. S10F).
To quantify the effect of the soft robotic sleeve on diastolic function of the heart, we used tissue Doppler echocardiography imaging. The ratio between early mitral inflow velocity and mitral annular early diastolic velocity (E/e′) is a validated method for quantifying diastolic function in clinical practice ( 34 ). Five measurements were taken with device actuation either in a healthy porcine heart or in a failing porcine heart in vivo using the circumferential actuators, twisting actuators, or both. In the healthy heart, the E/e′ ratio was negatively affected by the circumferential actuators but not by the twisting actuators ( Fig. 7E ). In the failing heart, the contribution of the twisting actuators in restoring the ratio to baseline was greater than that of the circumferential actuators ( Fig. 7E ).
( A ) Photographic images of the soft robotic sleeve being used as a cardiac assist device on a porcine heart in vivo. ( B and C ) Aortic flow of one representative animal under the following conditions: baseline, acute heart failure, and ventricular assist conditions (twisting and circumferential actuators). Three to four representative cycles are shown for each condition. Cardiac output for each condition (n = 6 animals). Data are means of 10 cardiac cycles + SD; one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc multiple-comparison test. ( D ) Representative 3D echocardiography (3D echo) image showing left ventricular twist. Five measurements were taken in each condition on one pig. Quantification of left ventricular twist as assessed from 3D echo showing means ± SD; one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc multiple-comparison test. ( E ) Representative 3D echo image showing measurements for the diastolic filling ratio E/e′ calculation. Five measurements were taken in each condition on one pig. Bar graph shows diastolic filling ratio E/e′ (means ± SD). Two-way ANOVA for interaction effect. Interaction, P < 0.0001; heart failure, P < 0.0001; actuation pattern, P = 0.0003.
Cardiac assist to the failing heart was demonstrated in six porcine experiments in vivo ( Fig. 7A ). Acute heart failure was induced in a porcine model by infusing esmolol, a short-acting cardioselective β-blocker that reduced contractility and cardiac output in a dose-dependent fashion, allowing a reproducible induction of heart failure when infused in doses exceeding its therapeutic dose. ECG, blood pressure, and blood flow were recorded after cardiac output had stabilized. Figure 7B shows the results from a representative trial, including the aortic flow rates under three conditions: baseline, acute heart failure, and ventricular assist (three representative cycles for each condition in one animal are shown). Figure 7C shows the average cardiac output for 10 consecutive cycles for each condition in six animals. The cardiac output was reduced to ~45% of baseline when acute heart failure was induced but recovered to ~97% of baseline when active assist was initiated, constituting an augmentation of 113%. The degree of left ventricular twist was quantified in one animal by 3D echocardiography ( Fig. 7D ) by taking five measurements of twist. The twist decreased in the heart failure condition, but when the device was turned on, the twist was increased to baseline levels (P = 0.0019) ( Fig. 7D ).
In anticipation of future chronic device implantation and actuation studies, we developed a hydrogel to use as a protective layer at the device-tissue interface to reduce friction and minimize inflammation when the device is moving over the heart. The hybrid alginate polyacrylamide hydrogel “tough gel” that we used for this purpose was synthesized in a large sheet as previously described ( 32 ) and has been shown to be nontoxic and biocompatible ( 33 ). We evaluated the chronic inflammatory effect of the hydrogel material on the epicardial surface of rat hearts implanted with the device for 14 days ( Fig. 6C ). The hydrogel elicited less of an inflammatory response compared to a control polymer ( Fig. 6 , D and E), although this reduction was not statistically significant (P = 0.1). Finally, we demonstrated in an in vivo porcine model that we could place and actuate the device using the hydrogel at the device-tissue interface ( Fig. 6 , F and G). The gel did not negatively affect device function (fig. S9B).
( A ) Timeline for an acute porcine in vivo study to assess inflammation when the device alone was implanted in contact with the pig heart and actuated for ~2 hours. ( B ) Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)–stained paraffin-embedded sections of portions of the RV, LV, and left atrium (LA) (control). These are representative images of four sections taken from one animal. Epi, epicardium. Scale bars, 125 μm. ( C ) Timeline for a chronic in vivo rodent study where a hydrogel alone or a urethane polymer (control) was implanted. ( D ) Representative image of H&E-stained paraffin-embedded sections of in vivo rodent heart with hydrogel at 2 weeks after implantation. ( E ) Quantification of the degree of inflammation from the control and hydrogel group. 1, no inflammation; 2, mild inflammation; 3, moderate inflammation; 4, severe inflammation. Ratings are 3 for control (n = 3) and 1 and 2 for hydrogel (n = 2). Data are median with range; a Mann-Whitney test was used for comparison (not significant, P = 0.1). ( F and G ) In vivo demonstration of the use of the hydrogel as an intermediate layer at the device-tissue interface in a porcine model (representative of n = 2 pigs). The device (white) is placed over the hydrogel in the image on the right.
To further characterize the effect of device actuation at the device-tissue interface, we conducted histological studies after implanting the device in pigs and rodents in vivo ( Fig. 6 ). Sections of the heart wall were examined after 2 hours of device actuation on an acutely failing heart in the porcine model ( Fig. 6A ). Sections of the left ventricle, right ventricle, and left atrium showed pronounced infiltration by neutrophils, which was confined to the epicardium, as would be expected after removal of the pericardial fluid and exposure of the heart during surgery ( Fig. 6B ). The myocardium and endocardium in these areas showed no inflammatory infiltrate or evidence of myocardial injury. There was no epicardial fibrosis or fibrinous exudate, and the coronary arteries appeared normal. On the basis of qualitative assessment, the immune cell infiltrate was no greater in the left ventricle and right ventricle than in the left atrium (the control nonactuated part of the heart), demonstrating that the infiltrate was not attributable to acute device actuation on the heart (fig. S9A). Histological assessment of the apex of the heart, where a U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved suction device was used for attachment, showed exuberant inflammation through the wall of the heart (see “apex” image in fig. S9A), motivating the exploration of alternative attachment methods for long-term use of the device.
( A ) Aortic flow and cardiac output for design 1 at a maximum operating pressure of 10 psi at 80 bpm for a period of 200 ms per cycle. Three to four representative cycles are shown for aortic flow; data are means of 10 cardiac cycles + SD for cardiac output. ***P < 0.001, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s post hoc test. ( B ) Aortic flow and cardiac output for design 2 at a maximum operating pressure of 21 psi at 80 bpm for a period of 200 ms per cycle. Three to four representative cycles are shown for aortic flow; data are means of 10 cardiac cycles + SD for cardiac output. ***P < 0.001, one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test. ( C ) In vivo demonstration of control capabilities for actuation modes described in Fig. 4 (G and H): actuation of twisting (T) only, circumferential (C) only, and both together (C+T) (design 1). Data are means of 10 cardiac cycles + SD. ***P < 0.001, one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test. ( D and E ) Aortic (or LV) and pulmonary [or right ventricle (RV)] flow and cardiac output when the left or right side of the device is actuated, respectively (design 1). Aortic or pulmonary flow shows three representative cycles; data are means of 10 cardiac cycles + SD for cardiac output. ***P < 0.001, for the right side actuated; P = 0.1326, using unpaired t test. Each panel shows representative graph from n = 2 animals.
Although the envisaged use of the device is for augmenting function of the failing heart, we isolated the hemodynamic effect of the device by actuating it on an acutely arrested pig heart, directly after cardiac arrest. A fully heparinized porcine preclinical model was used (female, 60 to 75 kg; n = 2 pigs). The device was used to temporarily reestablish cardiac output after drug-induced cardiac arrest. Data were collected for at least 15 min for baseline, asystole, and ventricular assist conditions. Ten representative cycles of aortic flow from each condition were converted to cardiac output per cycle and averaged. Design 1 could achieve ~48% restoration of cardiac output when actuated at its maximum operating pressure of 10 psi at 80 beats per minute (bpm) for a period of 200 ms per cycle ( Fig. 5A ). Design 2 could achieve ~88% restoration of cardiac output when actuated at its maximum operating pressure of 21 psi at 80 bpm for a period of 200 ms per cycle ( Fig. 5B ). Representative cycles for baseline function for a healthy adult pig, cardiac asystole, and restoration using ventricular assist are shown in Fig. 5 (A and B), and the average values from 10 representative consecutive cycles are shown in the bar graphs. Movie S3 shows the echocardiographic data from two acutely arrested hearts with the device being active (device on) and passive (device off). The combination of twisting and circumferential actuation resulted in higher aortic flow rates, and thus higher cardiac output, than the independent actuation of either circumferential or twisting elements (P < 0.001) ( Fig. 5C ). Additionally, we compared the aortic flow from the left ventricle and pulmonary flow from the right ventricle while selectively actuating the left side or the right side of the device ( Fig. 5 , D and E), demonstrating the ability to customize assistance to a specific pathology and actuating one ventricle more than the other.
( A ) Illustration of setup in the operating room using epicardial pacing. The user interface allows the user to enter the control scheme and control which actuators are active at which time and at what pressure. It also displays the data from the DAQ (ECG, blood pressure, and flow data). If necessary, a pacemaker (pacer) is used to pace the heart epicardially and to trigger the DAQ. A flow meter with ultrasonic probes records flow. Pneumatic lines exit the control box and are connected to each of the actuators in the device, providing air supply from the source through the regulator and valves to the actuators. A PowerLab data acquisition system was used for data collection for later trials. Circumferential ( B ) and twisting ( C ) actuators on a porcine heart. ( D ) Aortic flow when actuated at 5 and 10 psi (design 1). ( E ) Aortic flow when all actuators are simultaneously actuated or sequentially actuated [as described in (F)] (design 1). ( F ) Illustration of example control strategy: sequential actuation of circumferential actuators, starting at the apex. ( G ) Illustration of example control strategy: actuation of twisting (T) only, circumferential (C) only, and both together (C+T). ( H ) Aortic flow rate for twisting, circumferential, and combined actuations (design 2), representative from two trials on n = 2 cadaver pigs.
As a first-pass evaluation of control schemes and device positioning for each design, we tested the devices using a fully heparinized porcine model (n = 2). Pigs (female adult Yorkshire swine, 60 to 75 kg) were euthanized with sodium pentobarbital before device placement on the heart within the thoracic cavity. We devised a control and data acquisition setup in the operating room to enable recording of aortic blood flow, blood pressure, and ECG and triggering of the device by ECG or pacemaker signal (see Fig. 4A and “In vivo testing” in the Supplementary Materials). A sternotomy was used to open the chest, and the device under evaluation was placed around the heart in the thoracic cavity ( Fig. 4 , B and C). The ejection output was increased by increasing the actuation pressure (design 1; Fig. 4D ). A slightly different waveform for aortic flow could be acquired by varying the actuation pattern (design 1; Fig. 4 , E and F, and movie S1). The combined actuation of the circumferential and twisting actuators increased aortic flow more than did either set independently (design 2; Fig. 4 , G and H).
( A ) The in vitro test setup. A silicone model was mounted onto a test rig, with a latex outflow tube marked with gradations to measure volumetric output. An interventricular pressure transducer measured pressure inside the ventricle. An ultrasonic flow probe was placed on the outflow tube. The model can be exchanged for a univentricular or biventricular model with one or two outflow tubes, respectively. The model was filled with colored water for visualization. ( B ) Models depicting actuation schemes (top) and corresponding images of univentricular volumetric displacements (bottom) measured using circumferential (C) actuators, twisting (T) actuators, twisting and circumferential (C+T) actuators, circumferential actuators inside (T external), and circumferential actuators outside (C external). C, T, and C+T used design 1; T external and C external used design 2. ( C ) Testing with a biventricular model to demonstrate the effect of increasing pressure on output as measured by volume displacement in the test rig setup. ( D ) The effect of selectively actuating left ventricle (LV) or right ventricle (RV) actuators as measured by volume displacement in a biventricular model. Left and right refer to the anatomical left and right of the model, respectively. When the LV actuators were active, there was more output from the left side, and vice versa. Data are means ± SD of n = 3; ***P < 0.001, t test.
To evaluate the performance of design iterations on a bench-top model in vitro, we fabricated a simplified synthetic heart with one or two ventricles from silicone ( Fig. 3A and movie S2). Figure 3 (B to D) shows the results of the in vitro testing. Using a univentricular heart model, volumetric displacements of 38, 22, and 50 ml were achieved for design 1 when the circumferential, twisting, or both layers were actuated, respectively ( Fig. 3B ). We used design 2 to characterize the effect of externally placing the circumferential or twisting actuator layer with respect to the other actuator layer, that is, whether there was a difference in volumetric displacement dependent on which layer was in close approximation to the model heart. A volumetric displacement of 68 ml was achieved when the twisting actuator layer was placed externally, and 84 ml was displaced when the circumferential actuator layer was placed externally ( Fig. 3B ) using the univentricular model. As expected, the output increased with pressure ( Fig. 3C and movie S2) for design 1 in the univentricular model. In a biventricular model with design 1, higher ejection output was achieved on the left or right side by selectively actuating the circumferential PAMs on the desired side ( Fig. 3D and movie S2).
( A ) Overview of system with user interface, data acquisition (DAQ) card, electropneumatic control unit, and pacemaker for pacing the heart where necessary. ( B ) Example actuation scheme with trigger from the R peak (red circle) of an ECG trace, and sequential actuation and relaxation from the apex to the base. Time points T1 to T6 can be input by the user by modifying time delays between trigger and valve opening, time between valve opening, and duration of valve opening. Blue color indicates pressurized PAMs (actuation). ( C ) Example actuation scheme triggered from the start of increase of aortic flow (red dot). The twisting actuators are actuated first and then the circumferential. Time points T1 to T5 can be modified by the user from interface. A blue actuator indicates that it is pressurized (on).
One of the main advantages of using soft robotics for cardiac compression is the ability to implement timing schemes to optimize the actuation sequence. A custom control and instrumentation system ( Fig. 2A ) was developed to program the soft robotic sleeve and to simultaneously monitor and record physiological performance parameters such as heart rate and pulmonary artery and ascending aortic pressure and flow rate. The control system was designed to synchronize with the native cardiac cycle and fine-tune force generation and timing to deliver disease-specific assistance. Two examples of control schemes are depicted in Fig. 2 (B and C), illustrating the triggering of actuation from electrical or hemodynamic parameters of the native cardiac cycle. In Fig. 2B , actuation was triggered from the peak of the QRS complex (R wave) of the electrocardiogram (ECG) trace, and actuators were sequentially pressurized from the apex to the base of the device before sequentially applying vacuum. The time between actuation of individual modules (T1 to T7) could be controlled to allow optimal synchronization with the native cardiac cycle. To allow device triggering before the QRS complex, T1 could also be negative. In Fig. 2C , actuation was triggered from the point of increasing flow rate in the aorta. Any combination of actuators could be pressurized alone, simultaneously, or according to a user-controlled sequence. For example, twisting actuators were pressurized before sequentially pressurizing circumferential actuators ( Fig. 2C ). Times (T1 to T5) could be controlled from the user interface. Alternatively, circumferential or twisting actuators could be selectively or simultaneously actuated. Right-sided or left-sided actuators could be activated alone or together at the same or different pressures.
Device conformability was determined using computed tomography imaging after wrapping the device around an ex vivo porcine heart filled with saline ( Fig. 1E ). Sections of the heart demonstrated excellent apposition of the actuators to the epicardial surface ( Fig. 1E ). A custom-designed flexible sensing sleeve containing an array of pressure sensors colocated with the PAMs could be placed between the epicardium and the device to measure the mechanical interaction between the soft robotic sleeve and heart surface (figs. S5 to S7) ( 31 ). Ex vivo adhesion testing identified a method combining mesh and chemical fixation at the base of the heart capable of adhering the device to the heart tissue (fig. S8). Dynamic conformity was observed visually and with echocardiography (movie S1).
Two generations of fabrication processes are illustrated in Fig. 1 (C and D), with detailed descriptions in the Supplementary Materials. Briefly, for design 1, a silicone casting process was used to fabricate individual actuators (figs. S1 and S2) and to embed these actuators ( Fig. 1C ) into a matrix in two separate layers that could be combined, resulting in a device with an overall thickness of 16 mm. Design 2, the final design ( Fig. 1D ), used a thermoforming process to make the actuators (fig. S3) and combined them into a 2D laminate by selective bonding between thin silicone sheets in a predefined pattern, incorporating circumferentially and helically oriented actuators (referred to as twisting actuators from here on). The resulting device was a thin, flat silicone sleeve about 550 μm thick at the bonded spots between actuators that could be wrapped around the heart and adjusted depending on the size of the heart and the pretensioning required, so that the device could conform to the heart without being overly tight and limiting ventricular filling ( 30 ). A comparison of the actuator types used in design 1 and design 2 is described in fig. S4 (A to D). Like native heart muscle, the properties of the PAMs are dynamic. The actuators stiffen when pressurized in the systolic phase of the cardiac cycle (fig. S4, E and F). The values for their tensile and compressive moduli when pressurized lie within the ranges of those described for myocardial tissue in the systolic phase (fig. S4, G and H).
( A ) The muscle fiber orientations of the outer two layers of the myocardium of the heart inspired the design of the VAD. ( B ) Individual active layers composed of fluidic actuator contractile elements arranged and embedded in soft matrices can compress and decompress, twist and untwist, or simultaneously perform both actions. ( C ) Design 1 was fabricated using a silicone-casting process (shown on the left) to create a bilayer cup-shaped device. Three layers are shown: a circumferential (circ.) layer, a twisting layer, and a combination of circumferential and twisting layers. t, thickness of layer; t total , total thickness of device. ( D ) Design 2 was fabricated by a selective bonding process using a 3D-printed alignment fixture, resulting in a flat monolayer device that can be wrapped around the heart. ( E ) Representative computed tomography images of the posterior view of the heart and transverse (1 and 2) and longitudinal sections (3 and 4) showing both layers of actuators conforming to the heart (design 2).
In the heart, complex motion is achieved through the functional arrangement of multiple linear contractile elements oriented spatially in a soft matrix and actuated synergistically. The muscle layers of the heart are arranged in helical and circumferential patterns ( 23 – 26 ) and simultaneously undergo twisting and compressive motions. The architecture of the native heart was the inspiration for our device, which comprises a fully conformable sleeve with two biomimetic layers of contractile elements embedded in an elastomeric matrix with mechanical properties similar to those of cardiac tissue. Inspired by our previous work on a three-dimensional (3D) structure designed to replicate ventricular twist ( 1 ), we used a multilayer design to simulate the two outer layers of the myocardial fibers of the heart ( Fig. 1 , A and B). To create 3D and conformal devices that could be tested in animal models, we exploited fabrication techniques that allowed the integration of custom-designed soft pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) into a soft matrix that approximated and conformed to the outer surface of the heart. The PAMs’ self-limiting load-length curves ( 27 – 29 ) provide a physiological, atraumatic strategy to assist and increase native cardiac muscle function. We oriented these PAMs in helical and circumferential patterns, similar to the outer two layers of the myocardial fibers of the heart, to replicate cardiac motion while providing synchronized mechanical assistance.
DISCUSSION
Here, we introduced a soft robotic sleeve and demonstrated in vivo recovery of cardiac output from a failing heart in a pig model of acute heart failure. About 5.7 million Americans have heart failure (35), about half of whom have heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; 5% of this subgroup (~142,500) are in functional New York Heart Association class IV heart failure (35). Because there are only about 2100 donor hearts transplanted annually (36), there is a clear need for mechanical circulatory support to extend patients’ lives. The work described here demonstrated the efficacy of an implantable soft robotic sleeve in assisting the heart, with biomimetic motion and materials that have properties similar to cardiac muscle. This approach would not have been possible with traditional rigid robotic components or with soft materials alone but is possible by leveraging soft robotic technologies to allow programming of customized, conformable materials to dynamically change their stiffness in synchrony with native tissue. Unlike VADs currently in clinical use (37), our device restored circulatory function without contacting blood. The soft robotic sleeve, if translated to the clinic, could potentially obviate the need for anticoagulation therapy among patients receiving mechanical circulatory support, thus reducing the risk of complications from clotting, simplifying treatment, and reducing costs. Currently, warfarin, a commonly used blood-thinning medication, requires monitoring of clotting tendency.
Although external cardiac assist devices have been previously explored, many have imposed nonphysiological motions that have failed to mimic the natural motion of the heart, either uniformly squeezing the heart from the outside or using twisting alone to achieve circumferential and longitudinal shortening of the ventricle (21, 22, 38–41). Those devices that twist (38–41) have not been used preclinically (39), report low ejection fractions (40), or twist without compressing (41). Here, we applied soft manufacturing techniques to make a biomimetic device where actuators could be actuated independently at predefined times and pressures to produce efficient cardiac assistance in synchrony with the failing heart’s own inherent, though diminished, motion. Ecoflex 00-30 silicone was selected as the matrix for fabrication of the soft actuated material because it can generate large strains and because its elastic modulus (125 kPa) (14) is within the range of reported values for passive myocardial tissue (42). Because the PAMs change dynamically, the mechanical properties of the pressurized PAMs (modulus of ~560 kPa) are within the ranges of those described for myocardium in the systolic phase (43–46). These dynamic material properties are an inherent advantage of our approach because the soft sleeve can mimic the dynamically changing mechanical properties of the native tissue throughout the cardiac cycle. Through this approach, the actuators could restore cardiac function along the force vectors of the native heart muscle. We achieved independent or simultaneous compression and twisting as desired through the specific arrangement of the contractile elements and their selective actuation. When pressure was applied to the PAMs, they contracted, and when vacuum was applied, they extended, enabling opposing motions of relaxation (filling) and untwisting. This characteristic of the PAM is critical to providing active device assistance during cardiac diastole, which is an active, energy-dependent biologic process.
Chronic heart failure is characterized by the aberrant motion and remodeling of the failing heart. Growth and repair processes of the heart are guided by mechanical stimuli (47, 48). Remodeling can result in increased ventricle size with dilated, thinned walls. Passive restraint devices and strategies to reduce ventricular size or increase wall thickness have been shown to attenuate or reverse adverse remodeling (49–51). Our device could potentially be turned off when no longer required, and clinicians could tailor the device as a passive restraint device, partial support, or full support. Thus, the device provides a versatile platform to manipulate the mechanical environment of the heart to target cardiac rehabilitation or recovery. Furthermore, the addition of twisting actuators assisted with the overall function of the heart and contributed to untwisting as well as twisting, which has the potential to assist with diastolic function.
The modularity of the sleeve allows univentricular or biventricular assistance and customization to the needs of the patient. In terms of safety, mechanisms for detecting any leakage or failure of the actuators can be added into the control system, and an individual actuator could be immediately shut off if necessary. The modularity of the design, coupled with the low profile of the passive actuators, allows redundancy (or excess actuators) to be designed in. If one of the actuators fails, and gets deactivated, another “backup” actuator, previously inactive, can take over its function.
The current version of the device is a tethered implantable system and uses wall-compressed air supply for actuation. Further development will need to miniaturize the entire system, so it can be implanted in the body or have the pump and system controller be worn around the waist of the patient, similar to other devices (18, 52, 53). If a fluidic tether is required to connect an external pump to the soft robotic sleeve, a parallel line could serve as an additional conduit for the delivery of therapeutic agents. Such approach could enable the exciting concept of mechanical biological combination therapy, incorporating reservoirs into the soft robotic sleeve for sustained delivery of small molecules, proteins, or cellular products to promote regeneration or for on-demand antiarrhythmic agents.
Although this study demonstrated proof of concept for this approach, we acknowledge that there are a number of limitations and that further work is required to advance this technology along the translational path. First, the data are from a small number of animals, because the primary goal of the study was to establish feasibility. Second, the studies were acute and therefore not representative of the remodeling or humoral changes that take place during chronic heart failure. Longer-term implantation studies in animals with chronic heart failure will be required to study the long-term effects of this kind of therapy in vivo including remodeling of the heart and long-term perfusion of end organs by measuring parameters such as lactic acidosis. Third, the biocompatibility of all of the materials should be tested and substituted with appropriate materials if necessary. Fourth, the long-term mechanical properties of the hydrogel interface and the effect of the hydrogel on the long-term efficacy of the device were not investigated. Last, the development of a bioadhesive or biointegrating component will be crucial. Here, we used a combination of mechanical, chemical, and suction strategies for acute device attachment. These approaches would not be adequate for long-term implantation. Ongoing efforts should focus on developing more practical alternatives.
In conclusion, we have demonstrated that a biomimetic soft robotic device, whose material properties and architecture mimic that of the native heart, can support cardiac output in an acutely failing pig heart. By addressing a pressing clinical problem with the application of soft robotic technologies for support of cardiac function, we present an active sleeve that is customizable to patient-specific needs and has a potential to bridge a heart failure patient to transplant or to aid in cardiac rehabilitation and recovery. |
Two weeks ago 35 world champions were named. There were tears of joy, tears of disappointment, trainers & parents cheering their hearts out from the stands, and hugs in the middle of the arena before they announced the world champion. The AQHYA World Show can be a defining moment for many kids in the horse world and this past year was no exception.
The Built Ford Tough American Quarter Horse Youth Association World Championship Show is the pinnacle event for American Quarter Horse exhibitors, ages 18 and under, around the world, who must qualify for the event by earning a predetermined number of points to compete in each of the classes representing halter, english and western disciplines.
The AQHYA world show is fueled by the blood, sweat, and tears of youth from around the world, hard working trainers, and the parents that support this life changing, fast paced lifestyle that is showing American Quarter Horses.
Once the process of earning enough points to qualify for the show is done; that is when the real preparation begins. For the youth who show horses it’s all about being the last one standing in the coveted Jim Norick Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (for us has-beens it could be Fort Worth or Tulsa 😉
Parents and their kids spend all year traveling across the country to earn enough points to qualify for the world show. Then spend the summer days traveling to horse shows and their trainer’s houses for “riding boot camps.” All of the efforts these kids make from September to the Next August when the next world show is held, shape the results.
While most sports are based on your personal condition and did you work hard enough, did you train your body enough. When it comes to showing horses not only do you have to work on your riding, you have to prepare a thousand plus pound animal to be in sync with you. For riders to be successful the bond between horse and rider has to be one that can’t be broken. Any has-been youth that has had success will tell you that you have to learn your horses moods and know when and how far you can push them. They will also tell you that once a bond between horse and rider is created….the results are amazing.
Another important element of competing at the AQHYA World Show is the team you have around you. Supportive parents & horse trainers that have been with you every step of the way; pushing both you and your horse to be the best you can be.
At the horse shows there is events all daylong; so the arena’s that the competitors show in are unavailable for practice. This means middle of the night ridding sessions.
Long days and short nights of sleep…that is the name of the game at the AQHYA world show. This is not a sport for lazy workers and there is also more to it than winning world championships.
For the girls, this sport has the potential to earn them a division one athletic scholarship. Consider the amount of money these families put into the sport to compete. The potential to have a college scholarship is an amazing opportunity.
The harsh reality however for the Youth who have spent most of their adolescent career competing around the world is that once the dust settles at your last youth world, you would give just about anything to go back and spend those long hours at the barn.
So we have the brutally honest confessions of the has-beens….
We all yelled at our parents at the stalls…….truth is they were forking out the dough just so we MIGHT have the chance to make the finals. As has-beens we don’t know anyone at the horse shows since we went off to college…..and the new “Youth” have NO IDEA who we are. Don’t take for granted those 3am rides drilling the same pattern over and over again…we would gladly swap places with you. All of your friends back home think we are just at another “race.” And at this point we have all given up trying to explain we DON’T actually race our horses! Best way to get over a bad ride…..a cinnamon roll from the sweet shop. Every has-been has a story from when we got “screwed by the judges” and didn’t get in the finals. It’s a broken record but we have all been there. Use the WHOLE ARENA for your victory lap. Or we will be judging heavily from the stands. Also if you could shed a few tears that would be good to 😉 Competing at the youth world was our glory days.
So whether this is your first youth world or you are going back to visit four years later…these are memories and friends you will have forever and once it’s over you can’t go back. So make it count and ENJOY every minute.
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Update, July 2, 2015: The oil giant BP has agreed to pay nearly $19 billion to settle civil cases brought against it by states and the federal government following its role in the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
The settlement largely puts the legal ordeal of Gulf spill behind the oil company, which has also sought to slim and refocus its operations over the last five years. But its too early to tell whether the company has fundamentally changed its approach to safety. As ProPublica detailed in 2010, BP had faced one disaster after another from the 1990s up until the Deepwater Horizon, many deadly, and often spaced just a few years apart.
Our original investigation was co-produced with PBS "Frontline." Watch the "Frontline" documentary, “The Spill,” drawn from this reporting.
Original story, published Oct. 26, 2010:
Jeanne Pascal turned on her TV April 21 to see a towering spindle of black smoke slithering into the sky from an oil platform on the oceanic expanse of the Gulf of Mexico. For hours she sat, transfixed on an overstuffed couch in her Seattle home, her feelings shifting from shock to anger.
Pascal, a career Environmental Protection Agency attorney only seven weeks into her retirement, knew as much as anyone in the federal government about BP, the company that owned the well. She understood in an instant what it would take others months to grasp: In BP’s 15-year quest to compete with the world’s biggest oil companies, its managers had become deaf to risk and systematically gambled with safety at hundreds of facilities and with thousands of employees’ lives.
“God, they just don’t learn,” she remembers thinking.
Just weeks before the explosion, President Obama had announced a historic expansion of deep-water drilling in the Gulf, where BP held the majority of the drilling leases. The administration considered the environmental record of drilling companies in the Gulf to be excellent. It didn’t ask questions about BP, and it didn’t consider that the company’s long record of safety violations and environmental accidents might be important, according to Carol Browner, the White House environmental adviser.
They could have asked Jeanne Pascal.
Jeanne Pascal was a senior attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency for 26 years. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)
For 12 years, Pascal had wrestled with whether BP’s pattern of misconduct should disqualify it from receiving billions of dollars in government contracts and other benefits. Federal law empowers government officials to “debar”—ban from government business—companies that commit fraud or break the law too many times. Pascal was a senior EPA debarment attorney for the Northwest, and her job was to act as a sort of behind-the-scenes babysitter for companies facing debarment. She worked with their top management, reviewed records and made sure they were good corporate citizens entitled to government contracts.
At first, Pascal thought BP would be another routine assignment. Over the years she’d persuaded hundreds of troubled energy, mining and waste-disposal companies to quickly change their behavior. But BP was in its own league. On her watch she would see BP charged with four federal crimes—more than any other oil company in her experience—and demonstrate what she described as a pattern of disregard for regulations and for the EPA. By late 2009 she was warning the government and BP executives themselves that the company’s approach to safety and environmental issues made another disaster likely.
A close look by ProPublica and PBS FRONTLINE at BP’s explosive growth corroborated and expanded on Pascal’s concerns. The investigation found that as BP transformed itself into the world’s third largest private oil company it methodically emphasized a culture of austerity in pursuit of corporate efficiency, lean budgets and shareholder profits. It acquired large companies that it could not integrate smoothly. Current and former workers and executives said the company repeatedly cut corners, let alarm and safety systems languish and skipped essential maintenance that could have prevented a number of explosions and spills. Internal BP documents support these claims.
A ProPublica analysis of state and federal records revealed that BP has fared far worse in the United States than the rest of the industry in terms of spills and serious safety violations.
In Alaska, home to one of BP’s longest-standing and most important business units, the company produced nearly twice as much oil as ConocoPhillips, the other major company operating there, but since 2000 it has also recorded nearly four times as many large spills of oil, chemicals or waste. In the Gulf of Mexico, BP had more spills than Shell between 2000 and 2009, even though Shell produced more oil there.
BP’s workers also appear to be more at risk. In Alaska, it has had 52 worker-safety violations since 1990, compared with ConocoPhillips’ seven. Nationally, according to an extensive analysis of data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, BP had 518 safety violations over the last two decades, compared with 240 for Chevron and even fewer for its other competitors. Since those statistics were compiled, in 2009, OSHA has announced 745 more violations at two BP refineries, one near Toledo, Ohio, and the other in Texas City, Texas, where 15 people were killed and 170 injured in a 2005 explosion.
BP’s Texas City Refinery is the company’s largest and the third largest in the United States. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)
“They just weren't getting it,” Jordan Barab, OSHA’s deputy assistant secretary of labor, told ProPublica and FRONTLINE. In the last decade, OSHA records show that BP has been levied 300 times more in fines for refinery violations than any other oil company.
“BP's cost-cutting measures had really cut into their plant maintenance, into their training, into their investment in new and safer equipment,” Barab said. “When you start finding the same problems over and over again, I think you are pretty safe in saying they've got a systematic problem.”
According to documents obtained exclusively by ProPublica and FRONTLINE, some of the inspectors BP was using to monitor its pipelines in Alaska, where two serious spills occurred in 2006, weren’t properly certified or trained.
Oil Company Total OSHA violations from Jan. 1, 1990 to June 1, 2009 Total Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Violations Jan. 1, 1990 - June 1, 2009 BP 518 52 Chevron 240 3 ConocoPhillips 193 7 Exxon 108 0 Shell 217 13
Oil Company Total OSHA penalties since 1/1/2000 for Refineries Only BP $108,911,950 Chevron $170,620 ConocoPhillips $200,685 Exxon $359,740 Shell $306,675
Even today, four years after former CEO Tony Hayward pledged to keep a “laser-like” focus on safety, maintenance on the massive turbines that run the company’s Alaska plants has been deferred. Many of these facilities operate without fire and gas detectors, because theirs are outdated and are expensive to replace. Workers in Alaska told ProPublica they fear another deadly BP accident could happen at any moment.
The pattern extended to BP’s Gulf of Mexico operations. BP’s flagship $1 billion Thunder Horse drilling platform nearly sank in 2005 after engineers installed ballast valves backward. And a federal lawsuit over safety concerns on another BP rig, Atlantis, was making its way through the courts even as the Deepwater Horizon exploded.
BP declined repeated requests for comment and for an interview with its new CEO, Robert Dudley. When sent a list of more than 30 questions, it replied with a three-paragraph statement saying that BP will establish a new safety division reporting directly to the CEO. Monday, in a press conference in London, Dudley said that he did not believe that BP is an unsafe company, and warned that the ProPublica and FRONTLINE report would be unflattering.
The Prudhoe Bay drilling field on Alaska’s North Slope covers some 330 square miles. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)
For Pascal, the explosion in the Gulf heightened the frustration she’d felt in the last months of her job. BP’s Prudhoe Bay and Texas City units had been automatically blocked from government work on her watch—that’s the minimum debarment action after a prominent air or water pollution crime in the United States—but she’d never been able get the company to change. She’d used all the normal tools to bring BP into what the government calls “compliance.”
The only thing she hadn’t done was bring down the big hammer: the EPA’s power to ban an entire company from doing business with the federal government.
Many companies have been debarred, but never has one as large as BP, or as important to the U.S. economy and security. Debarment would have severed BP’s contracts with the American military and jeopardized the company’s long-term access to reserves that generated nearly $16 billion in revenue for the company last year. BP’s stock price would likely have gone into a tailspin.
Now, with the Deepwater Horizon disaster unfolding on her TV screen, Pascal believed such a move was finally warranted.
Curious for more news, she called her old office in downtown Seattle. But the EPA was already in lockdown. Just weeks out of a 26-year EPA career, she was told she couldn’t talk to her old team. She’d have to call the public affairs office if she wanted information.
Pascal then dialed another number, for Scott West, a retired EPA criminal investigator who had also worked the BP case. He, too, was enraged by what he saw happening in the Gulf, and reporters were pressing both of them for information. Together they decided they had an obligation to tell people what they knew about the company at the core of this unfolding tragedy. If the public had known sooner, Pascal thought, perhaps the Deepwater Horizon disaster might have been prevented.
BP’s Historic Ambition
BP’s ascent to the top tiers of the oil industry hit full stride in 1995, when John Browne became CEO. The company was founded as the Anglo Persian Oil Company in 1909 but languished after Middle Eastern countries nationalized their oil in the 1970s. By the time Browne took over, it was so far behind Exxon and Shell, the world’s largest independent oil companies, that it could hardly feel their tailwind.
Browne was an engineer who had practically been raised in BP’s business. But with a passion for art and the London Opera, he was hardly a typical oilman. He did, however, have a vision for a bigger, sleeker BP.
In 1998 he put together what was at the time the largest merger in corporate history—the $61 billion buyout of Amoco Corporation. By mid-2001 he had also bought ARCO and four other companies.
Spills greater than 50 barrels in the Gulf of Mexico between 2000 and 2009
Company Volume Spilled (Barrels) Number of Spills Oil Produced (Barrels) BP 8,638.88 23 879,356,448 Shell 5,546.97 21 1,339,203,125 Chevron 3,465.77 19 592,998,061 Noble 1,474.58 8 29,877,928 Apache Corporation 1,118.63 7 144,674,625 Stone 1,192.78 6 40,898,883 Murphy 1,641.60 6 77,618,538 Anadarko 2,107.30 5 93,437,525 Devon Energy 704.20 5 89,445,419 Mariner 2,322.62 5 28,055,560 W & T 1,351.42 5 31,285,206
Alaska Spills of Oil, Chemicals or Waste Greater Than 100 Gallons Between Jan. 1, 2000 and May 31, 2010.
Company Number of Spills Total Volume Spilled (gallons) Oil Production 2000-09 (Barrels) BP 364 1,034,968 1,975,260,738 ConocoPhilips 107 234,403 1,035,279,479 Unocal 21 9,359 55,709,224 XTO 0 0 12,929,192 Pioneer 17 12,908 3,383,798
“We’ll be the largest producer of oil in the non-OPEC world,” Browne said when he announced the ARCO merger.
On paper, the company quadrupled in value and became a huge global competitor overnight. Browne was hailed in Britain as the “Sun King,” and in 1999 BP’s stock soared to what was then an all-time high.
BP’s next challenge was not only to integrate its thousands of new employees and numerous industrial facilities, but to do it without increasing the company’s already-significant debt.
Fadel Gheit, a managing director at the investment bank Oppenheimer, said that during the time of the mergers BP's debt ratio was at least 10 percentage points higher than was normal for the company.
"BP has historically maintained higher debt levels and debt ratios than its peers,” he said. “It believed that debt is the cheapest source of capital.” In contrast, he said, “U.S. majors Exxon and Chevron believe in low debt, or even no debt, and investors seem to like that."
Browne, with little wiggle room, brought the companies into the fold by slashing jobs and cutting costs. He squeezed out $2 billion in savings from the Amoco merger alone.
At the same time he steamed ahead with extracurricular projects that Tony Hayward would later describe as distractions. Browne delivered speeches on climate change. He rebranded the company from British Petroleum to BP and added the “Beyond Petroleum” tagline to put it in a more cosmopolitan, ecological light.
But Browne and other senior managers weren’t deeply engaged in the day-to-day operations of their facilities, and the disparate corporations they acquired were never fully integrated. More than a decade later, employees still identified themselves as ARCO, or Amoco, or wherever else they came from. And each of those cultures approached safety and maintenance differently.
“Growth creates challenges to management,” said Ronald Freeman, a former managing director for Salomon Smith Barney. “BP in this case just grows beyond its management ability to watch everything they need to watch when they need to watch it.”
While Browne reveled in the spotlight—he was even knighted by Queen Elizabeth—cracks began to appear in his burgeoning company, cracks that Jeanne Pascal would be among the first to spot.
The Government Was Warned
Pascal was assigned to BP in 1998, when the company’s Alaska division was settling a criminal case involving a contractor who had illegally dumped hundreds of gallons of toxic waste back into a well hole. It was the company’s first federal felony, Pascal’s first assignment to BP and the first dot in a crude portrait of what would shape up to look like a repeat offender.
Pascal was 49 at the time. An affable woman, with carefully coiffed hair and residual southern charm, she grew up in Tennessee and got a law degree from University of Memphis. After graduation she landed a job as a prosecutor in a small town north of Seattle and married a sheriff’s deputy.
But Pascal wanted to “make a difference,” and she decided to move into environmental law. She set her sights on getting a job with the EPA, and after sending her resume to the agency every month for a year, she was finally hired in 1984.
“I actually put the memo of hiring into a scrapbook,” she said.
By the time she was assigned to the BP case, Pascal had handled at least 600 EPA cases against large and small companies, usually juggling 25 to 50 at a time.
Almost any time a company is convicted of a crime it faces the possibility of a ban on federal contracts, or debarment. When debarment kicks in—or in some cases to avoid it in the first place—companies reach a settlement with the EPA that establishes benchmarks they must meet, so the government can eventually lift the sanctions.
In Pascal’s experience, most companies settled quickly and in good faith, and at first BP seemed to be following that path. After pleading guilty to felony charges, it avoided debarment by signing a settlement agreeing to five years of probation and promising to institute a “revised corporate attitude.” It pledged not to punish employees who reported environmental concerns and said it would spend $15 million on an environmental management program for its operations in Alaska, Texas and the Gulf.
As part of the agreement, BP Exploration, the company’s Alaska division, also agreed that its Health, Safety and Environment director would report directly to the division president, so top executives couldn’t avoid hearing about serious safety concerns. The EPA identified this as one of the most important things BP could do to reform its safety culture in Alaska.
For several years, BP appeared to be complying with the agreement.
The monthly reports it sent to Pascal detailed the success of its maintenance and safety programs. Senior managers assured her personally of the company’s progress when they met in the conference room of Seattle’s Fairmont Hotel. There were a couple of accidents, but executives blamed irresponsible employees or assured her the problems had been fixed.
Then, in early 2004, Pascal was sitting at her desk at the EPA when she got a phone call from a BP mechanic who was a member of the United Steelworkers Union on Alaska’s North Slope.
“There are awful things happening on this oilfield,” Marc Kovac told her.
Kovac was referring to the facilities where he was working near the shore of the Arctic Ocean.
He described serious corrosion in some sections of pipeline and said BP was manipulating environmental inspection reports to show that the pipelines were fine. He told her that workers who complained about the problems had been fired. And he said that a leak—or worse, an explosion—could happen any day.
“I’m scared for my life,” Pascal recalls Kovac telling her. “If you have a case against BP Alaska you don’t want to let them go.”
Pascal’s phone kept ringing, and workers began sending her documents and internal company e-mails to support their claims. Among them were documents from the mid 1990s describing BP’s decision to put off or cancel corrosion maintenance in order to save money and meet John Browne’s budget targets. Other documents showed that BP had delayed replacing the gas detectors that warn of a potential explosion.
Oil worker Don Shugak was injured in 2002 when a well blew out in his face. (Kendra Shugak)
Pascal learned that a BP oil worker, Don Shugak, had been severely burned in 2002 after a well exploded in his face—and that BP had misled investigators about the cause of the accident. And she discovered that in 2003 the company had failed to report a small oil spill until after it had begun cleaning it up.
The BP case was turning into a case unlike any other she had handled. “I’d had whistleblowers come forth before, like one or two, maybe three,” she said. “I’ve never had 35 to 40 people come before me.”
Pascal was furious. It appeared that BP had deliberately misled her and had violated its compliance agreement, but she needed an investigation to find out for sure.
“I tend to take people at face value,” she said. “One of the hardest moments of my life with BP was in the first six months of 2004 when I realized that I had been managed, and that I had been so easily manageable. They lied. I had swallowed their line hook, line and sinker.”
Losing trust in BP was a hard lesson for Pascal, and the events of 2004 changed the way she approached the company in the six years that followed. For the first time she thought she might have to actually debar this company.
Pascal demanded that BP investigate the workers’ claims. In a meeting in Seattle in late 2004, the company’s lawyers from the firm Vinson & Elkins showed the EPA an internal investigation that—while critical of BP in some aspects—dismissed many of the concerns.
“We did not find any evidence that the allegations regarding data fraud in the CIC program had merit,” the report stated, referring to the corrosion maintenance program.
Pascal remained convinced that an accident was inevitable. She shared her fears with the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division but said she was told that until an accident occurred, there was nothing to investigate.
Pascal then took her material to the Department of Justice.
“I said I had documents which showed the pipelines were in bad shape and that sooner or later there was going to be some kind of a failure,” she said.
An agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation traveled to the North Slope to poke around but found nothing that could be knitted into a prosecution. The federal government, Pascal was again told, didn’t have jurisdiction to interfere with oil and gas infrastructure unless a crime had been committed or an accident had already happened. In the meantime BP’s five-year probation period had run out, taking most of Pascal’s leverage with it.
“I explored that with all kinds of people and I couldn’t find a jurisdictional way in, other than to let it happen,” she said. “So we had to wait.”
A Deadly Disaster in Texas
It didn’t take long for the disaster to happen—it just happened 4,600 miles from Prudhoe Bay.
On March 23, 2005 a tower used to boil hydrocarbons at BP’s sprawling 1,200-acre Texas City refinery was overfilled as the system was being restarted. Fumes, and then volatile liquid, filled an antiquated “blow down drum” meant to catch the overflow and spewed from the top like a geyser. When the fumes reached the engine of a truck idling nearby, the place blew up.
The blast obliterated a nearby office trailer. Fifteen people died.
That night, in her quiet country home outside Seattle, Jeanne Pascal broke down in tears. This accident could have been avoided, she told her husband, Dallas Swank.
“She was fairly certain that when the dust settled that they were going to find out that this was due to lack of maintenance and all the same things happening in Alaska,” he said.
Pascal was right.
Though Texas City was a refinery, not a production field, the circumstances were nearly identical. The BP executive responsible for refining at the time, John Manzoni, was managing maintenance issues in Alaska in the 1990s, when some of the cost cutting described in the e-mails that workers had sent to Pascal took place.
Texas City had been operating under budget cuts since BP took it over from Amoco in 1999. Workers—including the plant’s manager—had explicitly warned top corporate executives that they didn’t have the equipment or the resources to prevent a deadly explosion.
An internal BP safety report completed just months before the explosion said executives were “not in control of management of major hazards. The cost cutting has gotten to an extremely critical stage … there is not any slack in the system.” It continued: “There is an exceptional degree of fear of catastrophic incidents.”
Manzoni, now the chief executive of Talisman Energy, based in Calgary, Alberta, declined to comment. BP also declined to answer questions.
Investigators later found that Texas City’s isomerization unit—the refining tower that ignited—was relying on what is called a “blow-down drum,” a piece of equipment that was considered state of the art in the 1950s, to catch overflowing fuel. Amoco had been told to replace the drums as far back as 1977 but hadn’t acted. BP considered switching them out in 2002 but held off because of the $150,000 cost.
“Capital expenditure is very tight,” said an internal BP e-mail from management about the decision at the time. “Bank $150k in savings now.”
The Texas City blast was the largest industrial disaster in the United States in decades. Former Secretary of State James Baker, who led an investigation into the accident on BP’s behalf, said: “BP has not adequately established process safety as a core value.”
The explosion knocked BP, and John Browne, off their meteoric trajectory.
“BP gets it, and I get it too,” Browne would later say. “This has happened on my watch, and as chief executive I have a responsibility to learn from what has occurred. I recognize the need for improvement.”
The Largest Spill Ever on Alaska’s North Slope
BP was still coming to terms with what had happened in Texas when disaster struck again, this time in Alaska.
At 5:58 a.m. on March 2, 2006, an Alaskan field operator radioed in an emergency “code black.” He had discovered an oil leak—a melted pool in a drift of pure white snow—near the central pipeline that gathers oil from the western half of the Prudhoe Bay oil field. Some 212,000 gallons—the largest spill ever on the North Slope—had leaked from a dime-sized hole in the line over three days. The pipeline’s spill-detection alarm system had malfunctioned, failing to alert BP.
BP revealed that it had not “pigged” the line—the standard maintenance process, in which a bullet-shaped robot is run through the pipe to clean it and measure corrosion—in eight years, in part to save money.
Congressional investigators turned up a set of e-mails—including some of the same documents Pascal had taken to the Justice Department—explaining that BP had also stopped using chemical corrosion inhibitors on the pipelines, even though it knew that would increase the chance of a spill.
“Due to budget constraints, the decision has been made to discontinue the PW inhibitor,” a manager with BP’s corrosion program wrote in 1999. “The GC2 bulk tank should run out within the next two days and it will not be refilled.”
Three days later, a colleague responded, “I thought the PW lines were the ones in least control and therefore the ones we are most worried about.”
In an April 2005 exchange, BP’s corrosion management team discussed three ways to meet budget cuts: stop pigging, stop using chemicals to control corrosion or cut back inspections.
“We have huge infrastructure that is hanging on with no margin for error,” wrote Kip Sprague, a corrosion manager. “Bitch, bitch, bitch … I will try to wrestle down some middle ground between the reality of the situation and some feel-good placeholders.” Sprague declined to comment on his e-mail.
Experienced oil workers said the Alaska spill was years in the making. Conditions in the 330-square mile drilling field are unusually harsh. Drilling operations are based in the town of Deadhorse, an industrial hashmark scratched out of the barren permafrost. It has an airport and thousands of temporary workers, but almost no year-round residents. In the winter, the sun never rises; in the summer, it never sets.
In the last miles before the shoreline of the Arctic Ocean, roughly 8 percent of America’s oil supply flows through an extraordinary network of oil wells and pipelines and dozens of factory-sized facilities, down through the TransAlaska Pipeline, south to the port of Valdez. From there, it is shipped to California and beyond.
The drilling rigs and pipelines on the North Slope were built in the 1970s, when it was expected the field would last maybe 15 years. But the oil deposits were much larger than expected, and BP has reaped unforeseen profits by pushing existing equipment to handle production for decades longer than was ever intended.
Marc Kovac, one of the mechanics who first complained to Pascal, told ProPublica that the company follows what he called a policy of “run to failure”—minimizing maintenance as it tries to squeeze the maximum possible production from each link in its chain of facilities. Now that the output of the North Slope has peaked, Kovac said BP managers see little incentive to upgrade equipment that will eventually be sold or abandoned.
The March 2006 spill jolted BP into crisis mode. In August Browne flew to Alaska to do damage control, touring the field with reporters and showing them how BP was attending to the mess.
But just two days later, a second smaller leak was discovered in the field’s major eastern oil artery. That pipe hadn’t been pigged since 1991, and an investigation found that 16 miles of it were severely corroded and could leak at any time.
As a precaution, the company cut off the entire flow of oil from the North Slope overnight, sinking BP’s stock and sending oil prices skyward.
“Shutting down the whole oilfield seemed a little extreme,” Browne wrote in Beyond Business, his memoir. “I knew the repercussions would be massive. … I did not think things could get much worse.”
Pascal was horrified—but not surprised—by what was unfolding. She also saw the opportunity she had been waiting for to help the North Slope whistleblowers.
“If a catastrophe has to occur to get others to belly up to the plate, it’s regretful, but it may be necessary before real change will take place,” she had written to Marc Kovac a year earlier. “I think this is win-able—the issue is at what cost.”
Now that a spill had occurred in Alaska, the EPA could formally begin a criminal investigation of the workers’ complaints. With Pascal’s help, Scott West and the EPA’s criminal investigation division quietly began work. Texas City was outside Pascal’s jurisdiction at the time, but a separate criminal investigation had begun there, too.
Bob Malone, the newly appointed president of BP’s American operations, told Congress there were “similarities” between the spills in Alaska and the Baker report on the explosion in Texas City. He acknowledged that the Prudhoe Bay spills were the result of “extreme” budget pressures and cost cutting that had discouraged preventative maintenance. He promised to create an independent ombudsman office so workers throughout the nation could communicate anonymously with management about safety concerns.
By the beginning of 2007, however, BP’s board was growing impatient with Browne’s now-numerous blunders. The scathing Baker report about the Texas City explosion came out just a week after BP learned that Browne had been having an affair with a man. According to news accounts and Browne’s memoir, the company had already decided to replace him the following summer with Tony Hayward, a longtime BP executive who had worked closely with Browne for years. But before the switch could be made, news broke that Browne had lied under oath about meeting his partner through London’s premier male escort service. He resigned the next day.
Years later, Browne wrote in his book that he still couldn’t understand how the Alaskan oil transit lines had deteriorated so badly: “We had inspected the line regularly, so why had the corrosion accelerated so rapidly?”
BP’s Inspectors May Not Have Been Qualified
One answer to Browne’s question might lie in information that BP hadn’t shared with Pascal, the public or congressional panels in 2006 and 2007: The inspection program the company relied on to check its pipelines was in disarray.
E-mails and letters obtained by ProPublica show that the main contractor BP was using to check its facilities, Acuren, employed inspectors who weren’t certified to perform their jobs and may not have been properly trained. The certification issues affected at least 19 inspectors responsible for more than 13,000 locations along the line and were serious enough that they were reported to BP’s board of directors in London.
Concerns about the inspectors were raised in early 2007 by Acuren’s training supervisor, Marty Anderson, according to an e-mail last year from BP’s deputy ombudsman. Acuren had hired Anderson after the 2006 spill, first to oversee the inspection program and later to audit the program’s overall effectiveness.
“He revealed a significant quality control breakdown in everything from the company’s procedures … to inadequate record keeping … to having actually unqualified inspectors in the field performing inspections,” Billie Garde, BP’s deputy ombudsman, wrote to BP’s general counsel. “The concerns were serious, and although people try to downplay the significance of the issues, they reveal a complete breakdown.”
Anderson, who has more than 20 years’ experience and has worked with companies including Shell and Chevron, couldn’t tell ProPublica about his findings because he signed a confidentiality agreement with Acuren. But he confirmed that the company had, indeed, employed uncertified inspectors, and he explained in general terms why this was significant.
“The worst problem is to be certified but not qualified, because that means the person did not meet the qualification standard but yet someone testified that they did,” Anderson said. “To me, that’s fraud and could be a criminal offense.”
BP and Acuren didn’t respond to Anderson’s complaints until he contacted the ombudsman’s office.
“The procedure did not move quickly enough or with enough rigor at the beginning both on our side and on Acuren’s side,” said an internal BP memo.
Pascal also learned of Anderson’s complaint. But since the ombudsman’s office had already taken on the issue, she decided to sit back to observe how BP would respond.
In October 2007—14 months after the shutdown and seven months after Anderson first reported his findings—Doug Suttles, BP Alaska’s president at the time and now the executive responsible for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, began to act. BP hired an independent auditor and launched a three-part review of Acuren’s inspection program that confirmed Anderson’s claims. Acuren re-inspected more than 10,000 locations along the line. It also transferred two senior executives.
BP declined to answer questions about the inspection program, but BP later assured members of Congress that its inspectors were properly certified. Acuren did not respond to calls for comment.
Garde, the BP deputy ombudsman, said Acuren inspectors weren’t responsible for the exact sections of the line that leaked in 2006 and that most of them were competent to perform their jobs. But she was troubled that BP hadn’t uncovered the problems that Anderson found when it vetted the Acuren contract.
“BP has oversight responsibility of all of its contractors, and it should have identified these issues without the need for a worker to come forward and speak about them,” Garde said. “It would be a rare occasion to have another Marty Anderson in other contracts, and you can’t rely upon that.”
Garde was also concerned about how Anderson was treated after he reported the problem. Instead of being praised for his vigilance, he suddenly had trouble finding another job.
“Marty became the subject of both overt and subtle retaliation by Acuren and BPXA personnel,” Garde wrote in a letter to BP’s general counsel. “There is no question that there remains a high degree of hostility toward Marty by Acuren for ‘getting them in trouble.’ ”
BP was “Too Top Down, Too Directive, and Not Good at Listening”
By late 2007, BP’s internal problems were no secret. They had helped push the company’s celebrity CEO out of his job, and Browne’s replacement, Tony Hayward, minced few words about why.
“We diagnosed … a company that was too top down, too directive, and not good at listening,” he said in a speech to business students at Stanford.
“We failed to recognize we're an operating company. We had too many people that were working to save the world,” he continued, in a clear jab at Browne’s speeches on climate change.
Most famously, Hayward promised to turn the company around and to maintain a “laser-like focus” on safety. But it was unclear how he planned to do that.
In fact, soon after Hayward became CEO, BP’s Alaska division made a bold change that deemphasized safety and was a direct affront to Jeanne Pascal and the EPA: It removed the division’s Health, Safety and Environment director from a vice presidential position and dropped it several tiers down in the management hierarchy.
In Pascal’s first settlement with BP Alaska back in 1999, the company had agreed that the HSE director would report directly to the division president. But now HSE was being put into what the company calls a “technical directorate”—a group tasked with corrosion management and balancing maintenance with budget priorities.
“When you have environment and health and safety reporting to a business unit, what do you think gets the first attention?” Pascal said recently. “Business.”
Several former BP executives and managers say the move created a conflict because it meant that the person responsible for raising profits was also responsible for deciding how much to invest in safety. It also sent a clear message to employees that, in practice, safety was less important.
“Symbolism's important. The big stick’s gone,” said a former BP executive. Like other executives and managers interviewed for this story he declined to be named because he did not want to be seen as working against BP.
A spokesman for BP Alaska told ProPublica that the reorganization was meant to clarify leadership authority at the top of the organization, improve efficiency and emphasize safety rather than diminish it.
“For someone to look at a line on an org chart and determine that we had devalued the importance of HSE—that would just be wrongheaded,” said the spokesman, Steve Rinehart. “I don’t think that anybody could spend much time working around BP Alaska and not see pretty clearly how focused that organization is on safety and HSE.”
In an October 2008 letter to BP’s attorneys, Pascal and Carson Hodges, her junior co-counsel on the BP case, demanded that the HSE group be placed back under the president. They also wanted a specific BP staff member selected as their liaison in ensuring that the company complied with an eventual debarment agreement—a guarantee to Pascal that she wouldn’t be duped again.
BP rebuffed the government’s demands.
“BP was very recalcitrant,” Pascal said. “It was turning into a major impasse.”
The HSE issue was critical because the communication gap between BP’s senior executives and its operational managers had caused problems for the company before.
“Good news traveled instantly and bad news didn't travel at all,” Tony Hayward joked in that critical speech at Stanford.
When Bob Malone, the president of BP America, testified before Congress in late 2006, he swore that cost-cutting measures in Alaska hadn’t been a factor in the pipeline spill. He looked sheepish six months later when he testified again and had to admit that he hadn’t been aware of the extent of the cost-cutting program and that budget pressures had indeed compromised the pipeline.
After the Texas City explosion, BP’s head of worldwide refining, John Manzoni, gave a sworn statement that he, too, had been unaware of the cost-cutting pressures on the Texas City refinery and that he hadn’t been informed of the risks.
Pascal was beginning to wonder whether BP could be trusted to do business not just in Alaska but anywhere in the United States. A nationwide debarment had always been a possibility, but now it seemed it might actually be warranted. Such a move would cancel the billions of dollars in fuel contracts BP gets from the Department of Defense and prohibit BP from taking out new leases to drill on federal lands or waters. Since 39 percent of BP’s oil and gas production comes from U.S. territory, a nationwide debarment would have a critical impact on the company.
But Pascal wrestled with the implications. BP paid the federal government more than $674 million in royalties in 2009 for its government leases, and it provides nearly 12 percent of the U.S. military’s fuel supply.
“The question is does the environmental damage outweigh the government’s need for and reliance on BP’s oil and gas?” she said.
BP Focused on Safety but Didn’t Make Things Safe
On the surface, BP appeared to be getting safer in the years leading up to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Signs went up warning workers to hang onto handrails. Employees were forbidden to run in icy conditions. Meetings started with safety sermons. And each time a BP employee parked a pickup truck, he had to place a small yellow raft under the drive train in case a drop of oil fell from the gear box.
The number of recordable safety incidents dropped. Even as its profits increased, BP managed to achieve an exceptional safety record in terms of lost man-hours, said Robert Bea, an industry veteran and engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who is independently investigating the Gulf spill.
But something was missing.
In Alaska, many of the same system-wide maintenance issues the company had been criticized for ignoring in 2001 remained unfixed. The conditions of the pipelines were as much a concern to workers as they were before the Prudhoe Bay spill.
“Everything was around lost work days, or recordables,” said one former senior executive. “That was what the board wanted.”
While BP was focusing on slips, trips and falls it wasn’t paying enough attention to “low-probability, high-consequence systems failures lurking in the background,” Bea said.
Texas City was a good example, said Don Holmstrom, who headed an investigation into the refinery blast for the Chemical Safety Board, a government agency that investigates industrial accidents. In the months before the disaster there—just as on the Deepwater Horizon rig—BP had achieved an excellent safety record as measured by recordable injuries and lost man-hours. But after the blast—and after “safety” became the company’s staple refrain—the dangers persisted at Texas City. Four more workers have died in accidents there since 2005.
“Citing personal safety statistics as an indicator,” Holmstrom said, does “not necessarily speak to how well one is doing.”
If the safety stats touted in annual reports were mostly window dressing, then the maintenance and reinvestment in the performance of BP’s facilities—in what the company calls “operational performance”—were the structural studs holding up the business, and they were neglected.
Former BP executives say the company’s top management made too many maintenance decisions while peering into a spreadsheet and that it was difficult for them to justify to their bosses making long-term, preventative investments.
“It’s been a struggle,” said a former BP executive who asked not to be identified because he still works in the industry. “I’m not going to make more money this quarter, but I have to increase spending in order to have a long-term viable business. That’s hard. I was just always explaining or trying to explain what we were trying to do in a language that is not purely financial.”
Nowhere were the risks created by underinvestment as palpable as at the company’s Prudhoe Bay operations.
In September, 2008, Karl Massera was walking along a high-pressure gas pipeline when it suddenly blew apart. There was no fire, but a 28-foot-long section of steel vaulted through the air, landing with a thud on the Alaskan tundra a fifth of a mile away. Massera hit the ground, expecting to die, as the 10-ton steel pipeline whipped through the air like a wild snake. Shouting over the roar of the leaking gas, he radioed the control center to warn them not to shut down the field’s electricity, because if they did, a spark could kill him. An electrical spark had once ignited an explosion in a similar incident and burned several nearby facilities to the ground.
Just 30 minutes after Massera radioed for help, another unrelated leak occurred on a separate line a couple of miles away.
A little more than a year later, a staging valve stuck closed at a large central compressor plant in Prudhoe Bay. Gas backed up, enveloping the facility in flammable fumes. Although flares had been installed to prevent a disaster like the one in Texas City, they weren’t lit and didn’t function. So the gas built up and spread around the plant. Sleeping barracks were nearby, and just a spark of static electricity in the bone-dry arctic air could have ignited an explosion that could kill hundreds of workers and shut down Alaskan oil production for years. That it never happened was just sheer luck.
Then, in November 2009, ice built up in a 25-year-old pipeline to the Alaska division’s Lisburne Production Center—a facility so large that it dominates the horizon at the edge of the Arctic Ocean. The frozen line eventually split open, dumping nearly 46,000 gallons of crude oil, toxic wastewater and natural gas onto the frozen ground. BP had been warned by workers months before the spill that numerous problems at Lisburne were increasing the risk of such an accident.
The incidents enflamed Pascal’s distrust, and she began to ratchet up her demands that BP agree to a set of rigid checks in order to fend off debarment. BP’s progress reports on its maintenance projects were no longer good enough. Now she demanded receipts.
“I was no longer willing to accept their word,” she said. “Show me, what did you maintain? I want to see what you paid, who you paid. What did you replace? I wanted the details.”
“They did not like that at all,” she added.
ProPublica gave BP a detailed list of questions about each of these incidents and asked for examples of how the company had strengthened operational safety in Alaska since 2001. But BP's response did not address the incidents or the Alaska safety issues.
The End of the Line
By the end of the decade Pascal again began to think that the only way to make the company improve was to debar the entire corporation. “There comes a point where the events conspire to basically show federal regulators that a particular company, for whatever reason, has no intent of complying with U.S. law and regulations,” she said.
The company now had three criminal convictions—in Endicott Bay, Texas City and Prudhoe Bay—and a deferred criminal conviction in a price-fixing scandal. It also had a record of ongoing problems and employee harassment.
Pascal began carrying the completed debarment papers tucked under her arm as she made her way into work. Yet she still held to one last hope that a compromised compliance agreement could be reached.
By 2009 her demands included extra regulations and oversight of BP operations not just in Texas and Alaska, but also in the Gulf. It included moving the HSE group back up in the company command.
Pascal, at this point, was on the verge of retirement—she had promised herself she would leave at the age of 60. But she postponed her departure several times in order to see the BP case through. She said company executives acted confident—“arrogant”—as if they believed BP was so important that the U.S. government would never dare to debar it. “BP told me multiple times that they had direct access to the White House and they would go there.”
In a last-ditch effort, she decided to call the company’s bluff. If BP thought the Defense Department needed it so badly it would never allow debarment, Pascal would show them they were wrong.
In the spring of 2009 she called a meeting with BP’s new general counsel, Jack Lynch, at the Fairmont in Seattle to show him an e-mail her office had received from the Defense Department. In it, an official with the Defense Logistics Agency, the division responsible for BP’s fuel contracts, offered unconditional support for debarment.
“You could do anything you wanted to BP and we could deal with it,” the official, Normand Lussier, wrote, adding that he didn’t think defense concerns should play into Pascal’s judgment.
The message was clear. The government was united in its concern about BP. Now the company needed to act.
Pascal thought she had reached a turning point with BP. Lynch was new to his job, and she said he seemed genuinely intent on a reaching a resolution.
But months passed, and still the agreement wasn’t signed. Pascal began to suspect that BP was waiting her out.
Her concern grew when she learned that Marty Anderson, the inspection supervisor who had raised the alarm about BP’s pipeline inspection program in Alaska, was accusing the company of blacklisting him. Here she was, working out a final agreement that pivoted around open safety communication between workers and their managers, and the company appeared to be punishing the man who had raised a flag about one of its worst spills in a decade.
“It appears that BP, regardless of its code of conduct and statements to the government, will do whatever is necessary to cover up the improper actions of its senior managers,” she and Hodges, her junior co-counsel, wrote in an e-mail to Lynch and BP Alaska’s new president, John Minge, on January 19, 2010. “This promotes intimidation, retaliation, blackballing and unethical behavior in the management ranks, and a culture of fear and lack of ethics in the employee ranks.”
“Nothing has been done in TWO YEARS,” the letter continued. “This is a current graphic example of why EPA does not trust BP.”
When she wrote that letter, Pascal had all but made up her mind. If BP didn’t sign the settlement agreement soon, she would double back on her case, make sure the documents behind her claims were rock solid and send the debarment papers up the flagpole for a final signature from the EPA’s suspension and debarment official.
Two days later, Pascal was walking into the elevator at the EPA’s downtown Seattle offices when her foot caught on an uneven lip at the door. She fell, hard, and was taken to a hospital, her face bruised, her rotator cuff so badly torn that her doctor said it was one of the worst shoulder injuries he’d seen.
For a few weeks, she tried to work from home. But she needed surgery and faced a six-month recovery period before she would be able to resume her full workload. She couldn’t type. She couldn’t drive. She couldn’t even raise her arm to put a dish in the microwave.
On March 1, Jeanne Pascal submitted her retirement papers, leaving the BP case she had worked on for nearly 12 years unresolved.
***
The decision about whether or not to finally debar BP now falls to Carson Hodges, Pascal’s former junior co-counsel. The EPA confirmed to ProPublica that it suspended its settlement negotiations with BP after the Gulf disaster and that it will add whatever findings result from the Gulf investigations to any future settlement. Neither Hodges or the EPA would comment for this story.
Pascal, for what it’s worth, has finally reached her decision.
“I have to conclude that BP has a corrupt culture, and had I arrived at that conclusion while I was handling the case I would have immediately debarred them,” she said last week. “I would have just let the chips fall where they may.”
Contributors to this report include Ryan Knutson, Nicholas Kusnetz, Sasha Chavkin, Sydney Lupkin, Lisa Schwartz, Sabrina Shankman, Marian Wang, and Sheelagh McNeill at ProPublica and Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria at PBS FRONTLINE. |
Why Costa Rica scores well on the happiness index
By James Painter
BBC News
Costa Rica is known for its biological diversity and richness Costa Rica - green and happy? Whatever the outcome of the presidential elections on Sunday, one thing seems certain. The country will continue to break the mould. Central America is a region still associated with coups and civil strife, but Costa Rica has no army. It was abolished in 1949. Successive governments have poured money into books, not bullets. Not even the recent threat of the Mexican drugs war spilling over has led to calls for the army's return. It was also the first developing country to state its aim of being carbon neutral (by 2021), in part through the mass planting of trees. Official figures suggest that it has bucked the trend of losing its forests: more than half its territory is now covered in trees, compared to 20% in the 1980s. And then there's Costa Rica's reputation for being one of the happiest and greenest countries in the world. It regularly appears top - or near the top - of international surveys. It is usually the only developing country to do so. The 2010 Environmental Performance Index was published last month by experts at Yale and Columbia Universities. Using 10 categories and 25 different measurements, Costa Rica was placed third out of 163 countries, up from fifth two years ago. PRESIDENTIAL POLL Voters: Must be 18 or older Winner must get 40%-plus to avoid run-off President elected for four-year term Main candidates: Laura Chinchilla - National Liberation Party
Otto Guevara - Libertarian Movement
Otton Solis - Citizens' Action Party Only Iceland and Switzerland outperformed it. The UK came 14th, the US 61st. "Things aren't perfect in Costa Rica," Christine Kim from Yale University told the BBC. "But basically the country does care about the environment. Other governments shove it down towards the bottom of their priorities." The latest version of the Happy Planet Index compiled by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), placed Costa Rica on top of every country in the world. It makes an explicit link between happiness and the environment, and combines three key variables - what people say about their life satisfaction, their longevity and their ecological footprint. Open cast mining Costa Ricans have a high life expectancy - 78.5 years - and a low ecological footprint, although the NEF says it still needs to do better. Some analysts question the validity of such international surveys, in part because they rely on self-reported happiness. And some non-governmental organisations, like COHA in Washington, question Costa Rica's green credentials when the government recently allowed a Canadian company to start open cast mining for gold. But greenness does seem to permeate both public policy and the private lives of Costa Ricans. The country pioneered a carbon tax in 1997 which is used in part to pay landowners and indigenous communities about $65 (£41) a hectare not to chop down trees. Well over 90% of its energy supply comes from renewable sources. I cannot be happy when the number of poor people is increasing
Bishop Melvin Jimenez Representatives from the business community, churches, diplomats, and farmers say they follow green policies, either voluntarily or because of the law. "Every time I construct any new building, I have to get a certificate from the national environment office that I am not damaging the environment," says Juan Francisco Montealegre, who owns a construction company. "For example, they have to be sure sewage will not contaminate nearby rivers." "I am very aware of my carbon footprint," says Pilar Saborio, Costa Rica's ambassador to the UK. "President (Oscar) Arias has asked cabinet ministers, vice-ministers and heads of government institutions to offset their flights out of their own pocket." If elected, Laura Chinchilla would be the first woman to be president Bishop Melvin Jimenez, from the Lutheran Church, told the BBC it was his church's policy to support a range of green initiatives, including "ecological sanctuaries" where congregations learn to grow crops, including medicinal plants, in an environmentally sound way. "I have my own organic garden where I grow carrots and other vegetables, I recycle and I use the car as little as possible," he says. Ricardo Ulate, a cattle farmer and adviser to the government on climate change, says that in the past 10 years he has planted trees on what was pastureland to improve the biodiversity on his farm, and has given up one of his two cars. Pura vida But does this "greenness" make Costa Ricans happier? "Yes," says Mr Ulate. "Now I have a simpler, less materialistic life, more in tune with nature." "We don't have a sensation of death," says Mr Montealegre. "Nothing is arid here, you can see life everywhere." He points out that Costa Ricans often answer the question 'How are you?' with the phrase "pura vida". It literally translates as "pure life" but roughly means "cool" or "everything's fine". But amid such upbeat views, Bishop Jimenez is more circumspect. "I cannot be happy when the number of poor people is increasing," he says. "And when the government is allowing open pit mining and exercising no control over multinationals growing melons and pineapples. International studies show they are using excessive amounts of agrochemicals." Analysts say that Costa Ricans' apparent happiness could be down to a whole series of factors in addition to greenness: strong social networks of friends, families and neighbours; ubiquitous social and education programmes; and tolerance of social divisions and different opinions. Mr Montealegre says there is another factor. "A popular piece of philosophy in Costa Rica says no argument or quarrel should last more than three days," he says.
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A New Jersey sixth-grader is going before a judge next week after apparently writing her name in wet cement.
Kelly Zierdt, 11, and a group of her friends allegedly etched their names in wet cement outside their Middlesex Township Middle School. Police caught the group in the act as they were driving past.
One of the officers said, "'let’s put these kids in the back of the car; we’re bringing them to headquarters,'" according to Zierdt. "And then me and my friends started crying our eyes out,” My9News reports.
Her dad says the situation "has snowballed into this giant catastrophe."
That’s because police say Kelly’s dad, unlike the other parents, refuses to pay a $250 fine to her middle school to pay for the vandalism and refuses to sign the parent/child and police agreement as punishment.
Lt. Mike Colacci of the Middlesex Police Department says that the parents help to come up with what they believe is a suitable punishment for the action of their children, “like a 5 o’clock curfew, or chores around the house. In this case they had to write an essay as to why they did this,” Colacci told My9News.
But Zierdt's father says his honor student daughter has already learned her lesson and so he will fight in court.
“I feel scared,” Zierdt said when asked about appearing before a judge.
Click here for more on this story from My9News. |
(NaturalNews) A pair of "glitches" that occurred in the IT systems of the New York Stock Exchange and United Airlines Wednesday look an awful lot like a cyber attack, according to some experts and observers, though officially, thus far, the glitches are not being described in that manner.As reported by, the United Airlines snafu Wednesday morning forced the company to ground or delay about 3,500 flights for as long as two hours. Not long after, a "technical glitch" forced the NYSE to halt all trading, with few details being provided.CNN further reported that the Federal Aviation Administration imposed on United what is known as a "ground stop" at 8:26 a.m.; that prevented all United flights from taking off. The news network also reported that the airline's ticket agents were forced to issue tickets by hand at a number of airports."The problem highlights how powerful and delicate these airline computer systems are, which is something to keep in mind as we consider the problem of hacker mischief and cyber-warfare, although there doesn't seem to be any indication of deliberate sabotage in this case,"added.And yet it is hard to imagine that the two incidents were unrelated, especially given that they were both computer-related "glitches." And apparently others think so too; not so ironically, cyber security stocks soared in other markets.Some reports were downplaying the cyber/hacking angle. CNN reported:Onehost even opined that recent IT personnel cutbacks at the NYSE might have been the reason for the glitch. "Do you think they maybe cut costs too much?" he asked a reporter.But such "logic" flies in the face of reality, which is, if the NYSE is so complex and the IT department so understaffed, why haven't there been more of these "glitches"? And what about the occurrence ofsystems glitches just hours apart, one in the U.S. transportation sector and one in the financial sector – two areas of vital infrastructure?Another oddity: As reported by, whose own website (along with that of) was affected Wednesday morning as well (see here ), hackers from China seemed particularly interested in launching distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks on "targets" in and around St. Louis at the time of this writing (monitor cyber attacks in real time here ).It was not immediately clear why the St. Louis region was of particular interest, but, in separate report , noted that a company which tracks cyber attacks in real time and displays them online, Norse, is located in St. Louis. In addition, the report noted, there are several Internet servers for major corporations based in and around the city as well."But the attacks, rudimentary as they are, could easily bring down U.S. corporates [] and government infrastructure which have struggled to keep up with the millions of computers attached to Chinese botnets (networks of 'zombie' computers) which are linked to the attacks,"reported.The report went on to suggest that the upsurge in DDOS attacks could be linked to Greece's financial problems and, in particular, the country's recent referendum in which Greek citizens voted resoundingly to abandon austerity measures imposed on the country by EU financial institutions in exchange for hundreds of millions of euros in bailout funds in 2012 – the "Archduke Franz Ferdinand" moment of our time:Of course, that is all just theory now. But what is clear is that "glitch" isn't an adequate explanation for what occurred on Wednesday. |
In a memo to full-time and part-time staff and volunteers, Jones urged those with a valid Ohio CCW License to carry their weapon within the department’s headquarters at 705 Hanover St. in Hamilton.
He also encouraged employees to carry their weapon while operating any department vehicle away from the headquarters.
The memo — which was directed to office-type personnel, not deputies — came Friday after recent attacks against police officers across the country over the past two weeks.
In the memo, Jones also urged employees to plan their attire appropriately and carry their weapon discreetly when in public view.
Anyone entering the correctional facility must secure their weapon and ammunition in the lock box prior to entering the jail compound, he wrote.
Personnel must adhere to all CCW guidelines when off-premises, including observation of posted signs on any businesses, banks and government buildings prohibiting concealed carry, he wrote.
Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer, 53, who has been in law enforcement for 32 years, said officers are trained to “take an account of what’s around” them when they’re in public. But after years in law enforcement, he said, it’s easy for officers to become complacent.
“It does fade,” he said of the training.
But the recent attacks against police officers has brought that technique “back to the forefront,” Dwyer said.
“You have to pay attention now more so than ever,” he said.
Middletown Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw agreed. He said it’s up to the supervisors, but some officers are riding two to a cruiser during certain shifts.
“They play it by ear,” Muterspaw said of the policy.
He has told his officers to never consider any call “routine.” There are no such calls in the police department, he said.
“You always have to be observant,” he said. “Look and see what’s around that car. You just never know. You have no way of knowing who you are stopping.”
Following the shooting of police officers nationwide, Muterspaw said his department has received tremendous support from the Middletown community. He said residents have delivered food, cards and letters to the police station.
That is the result of community policing, he said.
“I’m really proud of our outreach in the community,” he said. “We have stepped it up. We work with our community. We have gotten to know them. That’s huge. That makes a difference in every town.”
Dwyer and Muterspaw also said social media has changed people’s perspective of law enforcement officers.
They said people are taping interactions with police officers with their cell phones, then broadcasting the videos, sometimes only a few seconds in length, on the Internet. They said those who watch the videos, then react to what they see, sometimes without knowing the entire story.
“Social media has changed everything,” Muterspaw said. “They see five seconds and they’re ready to charge and convict. Everybody is a lawyer because they have a cell phone.”
But Muterspaw realizes there are times when officers are shown acting inappropriately.
“We have to do a better job and if every cop doesn’t believe that, they shouldn’t be in the business,” Muterspaw said. “We don’t always do right. When a bad cop does something wrong, that is negative for every good cop. Good cops shouldn’t mind being under the microscope.” |
Video
The transit of Venus, where the planet Venus passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, will begin just a few minutes after 22:00 GMT (23:00 BST) on Tuesday 5 June and will end just before 04:55GMT (05:55 BST) on Wednesday 6 June.
As it happens, Venus appears as a small black dot moving across the surface of the Sun.
Here, science presenter Liz Bonnin explains how the transit works and why it is such a rare event - the next one will not happen until 2117.
Experts warn never to look directly at the Sun without special eclipse glasses, and not to view it through binoculars or a telescope, which could result in serious injury or blindness
Horizon: The Transit of Venus is broadcast on Tuesday 5 June at 2100 BST on BBC Two in the UK and afterwards on the BBC IPlayer. |
Chuck Steel: Raging Balls of Steel Justice – Interview with creator Mike Mort 18 December 2014 // Featured, Interviews Steve Henderson Editor & Writer - mr_s_henderson
UPDATE: You can now watch the full film in its explosive glory below!
Chuck Steel: Raging Balls of Steel Justice is the testosterone fuelled, madcap adventure from Gogs co-creator Mike Mort. The eponymous Chuck Steel is a fists first, questions later cop who is called on to deal with a hostage situation in a fifteen minute thrill ride that manages to cram every 80’s action movie cliché into a gloriously explosive flick.
What makes this film all the more impressive is that fact that something with such a high production value started life in the basement as a part time project before securing funding after the project had begun. Chuck Steel’s adventures have struck a cord with audiences eager to see more of the high octane adventures and will be pleased to know that the short has spawned a feature film Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires due for release in 2017
Mike Mort
We caught up with Mike Mort to find out how the film was made and what the future has in store for Chuck Steel.
Who is Chuck Steel?
Chuck Steel is a character that has been with me for quite a long time, he is someone that I used to draw in my English book at school, so well over 20 years in the making, the short film, Raging Balls of Steel Justice is the culmination of me finally getting this film made.
Seems like quite a long time in the making then!
The earliest Chuck Steel film I did when I was 15 was a super 8 film called Armageddon Time which was done long before I learned to animate or went to college. That is when the character first appeared apart from the doodles in my schoolbooks. After that I decided to do another super 8 film called Hard as Hell whilst I studied at the Newport film school. The character has been with me a long time so he feels like my alter ego!
The short is clearly influenced by the films of the 1980’s, are you an animator making an 80’s action film or an action filmmaker using animation?
The films I watch now and the films I loved as a kid were the one of the 80s, they got me into filmmaking and although I still watch a lot of fantasy and action film now, after CGI came in I think something got a little lost. I still watch the old films with real fire and real explosions and the features with real prosthetics, animatronics and stop motion creatures. All of those films from the 80s were a big influence of Chuck Steel. When I first made the Super 8 films back in the 80s when this thing was still going on they weren’t so much of a homage but more like a film but because a lot of time as passed all of these ideas I’ve had stuck in my head have come out in one 15 minute film and because they’re all based around that 80’s action vibe it does feel more like a homage – Although its definitely not a spoof!
It difficult to know where the line is drawn really between spoof and homage given the nature of the film.
There was never an intention to make it a big homage, I just wanted to make a film full of the things I loved. Over the years I’ve tried to get the money together to get this project off the ground in various ways and encountered a few false starts and dead ends. Just before I started this short film I thought that I’d never get it made and I was ready to put the film on the shelf forever but something spurred me on, and it might sound ridiculous but it was the first Expendables film! Seeing all those 80’s action heroes getting back together and having another crack at it made me think of giving the film another shot on my own in my basement, like I used to make my old super 8 films. Gradually as I made the puppets and the sets we got some funding from a producer friend of mine Joe D’Morais who got me onto another producer friend of his called Rupert Lywood who happened to be a big fan of Gogs which I did many years ago. Rupert helped me fund the short and is now the key funder on the Chuck Steel feature film.
Where I would expect to see a long list of credits it appears you did the film with a small crew how did the film evolve through its production?
When the film started it was just myself. I had various armatures left over from jobs I’d done over the years so pulled them apart and reconditioned them. I had a friend called Dave Sethi, a model maker who came in to help me with the props and the little robot character. I started building the set after converting my basement into a working studio space and just cracked on with that. I had the shell of the set put together when the funding came through and so I could employ more people to help out.
Do you have any specific heroes of animation or influences?
To be honest, although I like and follow animation , I prefer live action films. I’ve always made my films using animation because making films on a small scale was the only option I had and I’ve continued with that throughout my career. In terms of animation I am a huge fan of the work of Ray Harryhausen and Phil Tippet who are more effects based. The actual claymation side of things I’d say Will Vinton probably is an influence more than any other claymation animator.
Is the entire film stop motion? There is a smooth transformation scene that look live action or puppet based.
Its all stop motion. The way I approached the film was “how would they have approached this in the 80’s if this was a live action film” so we made heads that could stretch using mechanisms inside and filmed that frame by frame.
The short film is a wonderfully condensed view of 80’s action films, what have you have in mind for the feature?
That’s what I wanted to do with it. The feature fim is a standalone story, called Night of the Trampires – you can probably guess what happens with just the title, I don’t only wish to make an action film, I want it to be full of B-movie references and monsters, I don’t see why we should hold back on this we should just go for it!
How do you keep the fluid consistency of the animation do you use replacements?
No all the animation is sculpted, it’s a time consuming and tricky process to keep that consistency.
Would you ever consider using replacements in future or rapid prototyping?
We want to keep as much plasticine in there as possible, we don’t want to go into the rapid prototyping side of things because it is very expensive and a huge management task. I think we will use replacement lip areas but always encourage the animators to sculpt. Luckily the animators on the short had a lot of sculpting experience so we need to find more people like that just to keep the look the same. I really want to keep that plasticine feel where we can.
How are you finding the change of scale from short to feature?
I’m really enjoying it, we’ve got a huge task ahead of us setting up the new studio but moving ahead were due to start building the puppets in January. The process of making a feature film is fine as the idea has been in my head for so long I’m not daunted by it. I wrote the script in 2003, it’s the one I’ve been trying to get off the ground for a while so we’ve come back to it. I’m finally getting it made – its nice to get to that point eventually! Click on the production images below for the bigger picture
You can download the entire film for just 99p over on the Chuck Steel website here or buy a physical copy on DVD by following the link below. Keep up to date with the progress of Night of the Trampires by liking and following Chuck Steel on Facebook and Twitter too.
Items mentioned in this article: |
US President-elect Donald Trump has sparked Israeli concerns following his announcement that he intends to nominate General James Mattis to serve as Secretary of Defense.
The retired US Marine Corps General nicknamed “Mad Dog” served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and has been an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, especially in regards to the policy in the Middle Eastern and North African.
The General, who is known for his hawkish policies is also a heavy critic of the Iran nuclear deal and is vehemently against the closure of Guantanamo Bay. He has previously claimed that Iran “remains the single most belligerent actor in the Middle East.”
Republican Jews Embrace James Mattis as Defense Chief — Despite Israel 'Apartheid' Remarks https://t.co/GsgcU8LOnm via @jdforward — Nathan Guttman (@nathanguttman) December 2, 2016
He has also been condemned by pro-Israel groups for his comments that settlements in the occupied West Bank are leading Israel becoming an “apartheid” state.
“If I’m in Jerusalem and I put 500 Jewish settlers out here to the east and there’s 10,000 Arab settlers in here, if we draw the border to include them, either it ceases to be a Jewish state or you say the Arabs don’t get to vote — apartheid.”
Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported three years ago:
Mattis: I paid a military-security price every day as CentCom cmdr because Americans were seen as biased for Israel https://t.co/vCtCxLEKK7 — Kevin MacDonald (@TOOEdit) December 2, 2016
“A former U.S. general said last week that the United States is paying a military and security price “every day” because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, warning that the continued construction of settlements is liable to turn Israel into an apartheid state. “Gen. (ret.) James Mattis, who until two months ago headed the Central Command of the U.S. Army (CENTCOM) and commanded U.S. forces in the Middle East, made the comments at an Aspen Institute conference last Saturday… “Gen. (ret.) Mattis then sounded a prophecy of doom regarding what is liable to happen if a Palestinian state is not established. “I would tell you that the current situation is unsustainable,” he said, adding, “It’s got to be directly addressed. We have got to find a way to make the two-state solution that Democrat and Republican administrations have supported. We’ve got to get there, and the chances for it are starting to ebb because of the settlements, and where they’re at. [They] are going to make it impossible to maintain the two-state option.””
(MEMO, PC, Social Media) |
Customer Reviews for Curvy Couture Convertible Spacer T-Shirt Bra
Size: 42D Size:
Great quality and perfect fit. I will be purchasing more of this brand. I think it fits true to size. Maria from Kansas City Height: Average Height (5'4"-5'8")
Average Height (5'4"-5'8") Age: 50s
50s Posted: February 8,2018 Great quality and perfect fit. I will be purchasing more of this brand. I think it fits true to size.
Size: 40G Size:
Cups run small. I measure 40/47 (40 D4). Curvy Couture is hit and miss with sizing. This particular style seems to fit small. The cups were very snug, and the elastic upper trim of the cups (the part that form a V from the centerline) digs into my breast, creating the classic quad boob. The cup sizing probably wouldn't be a problem with a different shape. Elastic follows a bad line for my shape. Cups run small. I measure 40/47 (40 D4). Curvy Couture is hit and miss with sizing. This particular style seems to fit small. The cups were very snug, and the elastic upper trim of the cups (the part that form a V from the centerline) digs into my breast, creating the classic quad boob. The cup sizing probably wouldn't be a problem with a different shape. Elastic follows a bad line for my shape. Curvy Couture Response: Spacer Fabric Technology is uniquely designed to conform to your body's shape, which may cause your bra to feel a bit snug at first. The natural give of cups allows for gradual stretch and contouring. We suggest choosing the larger cup size if you’re in between two-cup sizes. If you want to give this bra another chance, we suggest going up a cup size (40H). Jennifer from Phoenix, AZ Height: Average Height (5'4"-5'8")
Average Height (5'4"-5'8") Age: 30s
30s Posted: December 18,2017
Size: 38H Size:
My new favorite bra!! Love ... fits perfectly. Katy from Height: Average Height (5'4"-5'8")
Average Height (5'4"-5'8") Age: 40s
40s Posted: November 13,2017 My new favorite bra!! Love ... fits perfectly.
Size: 44H Size:
Beautiful bra but it lacks support. Beautiful bra but it lacks support. Curvy Couture Response: Since this bra is made with a very different type of fabric than you’re used to wearing, we could see how it “lacks” compared to others. Spacer fabric is lightweight, thin and conforms to your body shape, giving you a second skin fit. You can try to wear it cross back, which would help with giving you more support. If this material does not work for you all together, we suggest trying any of the other molded or unlined bras by Curvy Couture. Bobbie from Los Angeles, CA Height: Average Height (5'4"-5'8")
Average Height (5'4"-5'8") Age: 50s
50s Posted: September 20,2017
Size: 42H Size:
My normal size was a little small, so I returned it and ordered the next larger size and it fit perfectly! Kristy from Height: Petite (5'3" and under)
Petite (5'3" and under) Age: 60s
60s Posted: September 5,2017 My normal size was a little small, so I returned it and ordered the next larger size and it fit perfectly!
Size: 36DDD Size:
Great fit Jenny from LOUISVILLE Height: Petite (5'3" and under)
Petite (5'3" and under) Age: 50s
50s Posted: March 29,2017 Great fit
Size: 40H Size:
I like the style of the bra, but am very disappointed that the adjustable straps constantly slip off my shoulder. I like the style of the bra, but am very disappointed that the adjustable straps constantly slip off my shoulder. HerRoom Response: Thank you for your feedback! We suggest you visit our Bra Fit Center and watch our video over How to Keep Your Bra Straps From Falling Off Your Shoulders. Stephanie from Tustin, CA USA Height: Petite (5'3" and under)
Petite (5'3" and under) Age: 40s
40s Posted: April 11,2016 |
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