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32C3 — 32. Chaos Communication Congress
27. bis 30. Dezember 2015, CCH, Hamburg
Das Event
Der Chaos Communication Congress ist die jährliche Fachkonferenz und Hackerparty des Chaos Computer Clubs (CCC). An vier Tagen zwischen Weihnachten und Neujahr kommen tausende Hacker, Technikfreaks, Bastler, Künstler und Utopisten in Hamburg zusammen, um sich auszutauschen, voneinander zu lernen und miteinander zu feiern. Wir beschäftigen uns mit Themen rund um Informationstechnologie, Computersicherheit, d er Make- und Break-Szene, de m kritisch-schöpferischen Umgang mit Technologie und deren Auswirkungen auf unsere Gesellschaft.
Wir freuen uns auf Eure Einreichungen in den Tracks:
Failosophy
Art & Culture
Ethics, Society & Politics
Hardware & Making
Security
Science
Jenseits des Konferenzprogramms bietet der Chaos Communication Congress Raum für Community- Assemblies , Entwickler- und Projektgruppentreffen, Installationen, Lightning Talks sowie zahlreiche Workshops.
Tracks
Failosophy
LOLWTF war gestern. Heute lernen wir aus den eigenen und den Fehlern anderer.
Fehler sind verpönt und es wird nicht viel darüber gesprochen: Vertuschen statt teilen. Viele Programmierer – egal unter welcher Lizenz hier entwickelt wird – sprechen nicht über ihre Fehler. Das müssen wir ändern. Insbesondere die Open-Source-Entwickler, die an Projekten mitwirken, die unser aller Leben beeinträchtigen, werden nach Bekanntwerden einer Sicherheitslücke zuverlässig einem Shitstorm ausgesetzt und der Lächerlichkeit preisgegeben. Das schadet der Community und den individuellen Persönlichkeiten, die hinter dem jeweiligen Projekt stehen.
Fehler in Software sind unvermeidbar. In diesem Track dürfen diejenigen zu Wort kommen, die über ihre eigenen Fehler oder Erfahrungen sprechen möchten, damit andere daraus eine Lehre ziehen können. Bitte sprecht über eure misslungenen Projekte und eure Fehler; dann seid ihr mit Abstand die mutigsten Teilnehme nden der gesamten Veranstaltung.
Art & Culture
In diesen Track passen alle Einreichungen für Vorträge, die sich aus der künstlerischen Perspektive oder mittels künstlerischer Ausdrucksformen mit den gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen und Widersprüchen durch Computer, Internet, Roboter oder Digitalisierung auseinander setzen.
Mit dem Computer kann man Kunst und Schönheit schaffen: Auch Vorträge in Verbindung mit Installationen, Performances, Konzerten, Lesungen etc., die mit zeitgenössischen oder zukünftigen Technologien umgesetzt sind, oder sich mit ihnen befassen, sind hier richtig. Wir versuchen e uch organisatorisch so weit wie möglich zu unterstützen.
Ethics, Society & Politics
Hier bitten wir um Einreichungen, die sich mit den gesellschaftlichen, ethischen und politischen Fragen auseinandersetzen, die sich durch die Technisierung und Digitalisierung aller Lebensbereiche ergeben.
Was wird die Zukunft bringen, welche kommerziellen und politischen Interessen stehen einer lebenswerten Utopie im Wege, wie können wir sie überwinden?
Aktivistische, phantastische, solidarische und kommerzfreie Ideen und Konzepte sind hier gern gesehen.
Hardware & Making
Im Hardware & Making Track dreht sich alles um den kreativen Umgang mit, sowie die Entwicklung von Dingen, welche einen physikalischen Eindruck hinterlassen.
Hier sind Einreichungen vom Reverse-Engineerer über den Mircrocrontroller-Bastler bis zum Raktentechniker, Quantenphysiker und Kernschmelzer willkommen. Aufgeschliffene Smartcards, Platinen und Chips , reverse-engineerte Firmwares aber auch der Cocktails mixende 3D-Drucker und heimlich im Keller betriebene Nuklearreaktor sind hier zu Hause. Der Fokus dieses Tracks liegt auf dem Design von Hardware jedweder Art, dem Erweitern bestehender sowie der Befreiung durch den Hersteller verschlossener proprietärer Systeme, schmutzigen Fingern – und natürlich R a ket en !
Security
In diesem Track wünschen wir uns Einreichungen, die zeigen, wie man Software sicherer oder unsicherer machen kann. Wenn Du bereit bist, den Spaß an Deinen Entdeckungen mit tausenden Security-Enthusiasten zu teilen, ist dies Dein Track. Wenn du neue Lösungen für bisher ungelöste Probleme entwickelt hast, ist dies Dein Track. Wenn du neue Probleme entdeckt hast, von denen wir gar nicht wussten, dass es sie gibt, ist dies Dein Track. Aber denk daran: Wer etwas kaputt macht, muss es auch reparieren!
Science
Nicht nur unsere blinkenden Rechner verdanken wir der Wissenschaft – fast jeder Fortschritt in Gesellschaft und Technik kommt auf kleineren oder größeren Umwegen durch Forschung zustande. Egal ob an Forschungszentren, Universitäten oder in der Garage: Wir interessieren uns für Vorträge, die Entwicklungen von einem wissenschaftlichen Standpunkt erkunden, und evaluieren, was sie bewirken können.
Neben gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Exkursen wie der Geschichte von Geheimdiensten, der Erforschung alternativer Koexistenzformen und Wirtschaftssysteme, interessieren uns auch drängende technische Probleme wie der steigende Energiebedarf der Menschheit, resistente Krankheitserreger oder der Zugang zu Trinkwasser. Die großen Fragen bleiben natürlich relevant: Sind wir allein im Universum? Wie funktioniert das Leben? Wie erkenne ich eine Endlosschleife?
Submission Guidelines
Für Vorträge
Bitte schicke uns eine sinnvolle und möglichst komplette Beschreibung Deines Vortragvorschlages. Gerade die Beschreibung hat einen großen Einfluss auf die Auswahl und sollte deswegen sehr aussagekräftig sein. Qualität geht natürlich vor Quantität. Marketing- und Sales-Droiden verschwinden bekanntermaßen von dieser Veranstaltung ohne eine Spur zu hinterlassen. Es ist also nicht sinnvoll, Firmen- oder Produktpropaganda überhaupt einzureichen.
Da die Chance groß ist, dass mehrere Leute einen Talk zum gleichen Thema einreichen, zeige uns bitte ganz genau, warum ausgerechnet Dein Talk dabei sein sollte – denke daran, dass die Teams divers besetzt sind und nicht alle Kuratoren jeden Einreicher und deren Hintergrund kennen. Es kann hilfreich sein, bei der Einreichung etwas über Dich selbst, Dein Umfeld oder Deine Motivation zu schreiben. Es ist uns vollkommen egal, ob der Talk schon einmal auf einer anderen Konferenz irgendwo auf dem Planeten stattgefunden hat. Wir bitten nur darum, dass der Talk aktuell ist.
Vorträge sollten entweder 45 Minuten lang sein plus 15 Minuten für Fragen und Antworten , oder 20 Minuten plus 10 Minuten für Fragen und Antworten . Ausnahmen bestätigen die Regel. Bitte teile uns bei der Einreichung mit, wie lang Dein Vortrag dauern soll.
Für Kurzvorträge
Darüber hinaus gibt es noch fünfminütige Kurzvorträge (sogenannte Lightning Talks) für kleine Ideen, Projekte oder Rants, die erst auf der Veranstaltung koordiniert werden. Eine Einreichung via frab ist nicht nötig, die Kurzvorträge werden wieder in einem Wiki organisiert.
Für Projekte, Installationen, Workshops und andere lustige Sachen
Eine formale Einreichung ist nicht nötig. Wir werden wieder ein Wiki haben, in dem wir den Bedarf an Platz und anderen Dingen sammeln werden. Fange einfach schon einmal an, darüber nachzudenken, was du machen, mitbringen oder zeigen willst, bevor dieses Wiki online geht. W ir sind offen für Verrücktes und Überraschendes.
Für Assemblies
Assemblies sind die Orte, an denen sich die verschiedenen thematischen und sozialen Communities zusammenfinden und den Hauptteil des Congresses ausmachen. Sie sind mit den Villages auf unseren Camps zu vergleichen. Die Assemblies werden im öffentlichen Wiki organisiert.
Sprache der Präsentation
Da d er Chaos Communication Congress eine internationale Konferenz ist, werden viele Inhalte auf Englisch präsentiert. Solltest du Dich in Deinem Englisch aber nicht absolut sicher fühlen, halte den Vortrag bitte auf Deutsch. Wir versuchen, so viele Talks wie möglich simultan zu übersetzen. Bitte verwende die Sprache des Talks auch im Titel, um die anderen Teilnehmer nicht zu verwirren.
Veröffentlichung
Die Audio- und Video-Aufnahmen der Vorträge werden online in verschiedenen Formaten veröffentlicht und unter die CC-Lizenz, Namensnennung 4 .0 Deutschland (CC BY 4 .0 DE) gestellt. Für Medien erlaubt diese Lizenz die kommerzielle Nutzung von Ausschnitten im Rahmen ihrer Berichterstattung. Wenn keine Veröffentlichung oder kein Streaming für Deinen Vortrag stattfinden soll, teile uns d ies bitte bei D einer Einreichung mit.
Eintritt , Fahrtkosten & Visum
Der Chaos Communication Congress ist ein nicht-kommerzielles Event und weder die Macher noch die Vortragenden werden bezahlt. Als Vortragende bekommst du allerdings freien Eintritt. Bei Bedarf ist es möglich, Unterstützung bei Fahrtkosten und Unterkunft zu beantragen. Benötigst Du Hilfe bei der Beantragung eines Visums, zum Beispiel eine offizielle Einladung zur Vorlage bei der Deutschen Botschaft, sage dem Content-Team bitte rechtzeitig bescheid. Bitte berücksichtige, dass die Beantragung eines Visums bis zu sechs Wochen dauern kann.
Termine und Deadlines
30 . September 201 5 (23:59 UTC): Einreichungsende
16. November 201 5 : Mitteilung über die Annahme
27. – 30. Dezember 201 5 : Chaos Communication Congress
Nur Online-Einreichungen
Alle Vortrags v orschläge müssen über unser Konferenz-Planungssystem eingegeben werden, das sich unter folgender Adresse befindet: https://frab.cccv.de/cfp/32c3 |
Food & Drinks
Experience the festive flavors of Italy drawn from menu items of Francesco’s Ristorante Italia. We merge with the depth and character of New Orleans, the home of many jazz greats. Bringing together a menu with southern charm and Italian comfort, we practice the highest caliber of quality and care in preparation. We invite you to experience dining at Blue Martini where the atmosphere is alive with sound.
Martinis are fun. And so is live music. So we felt having a great selection of both was important to consider in building the best place to go in Kitsilano, even if but for a classic cocktail, a glass of hand selected wine, or an inspiring martini before you hit the town… if you even want to leave, that is ;) |
(Reuters) - Target Corp announced an overhaul of its information security practices and the resignation of its chief information officer as the retailer tries to reassure customers and investors after a massive data breach late last year.
A Target employee returns carts to the store in Falls Church, Virginia May 14, 2012. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
CIO Beth Jacob is the first high-level executive to leave the company following the breach, which led to the theft of about 40 million credit and debit card records and 70 million other records of customer details.
Jacob, who comes from a sales background and has been CIO since 2008, will be replaced by an external hire, Target said in an email to Reuters on Wednesday.
“It’s a decision that should have been made by the CEO on January 1, not through the resignation of an employee that overlooked critical weakness in the operating model,” Belus Capital Advisors CEO Brian Sozzi said.
The breach at Target was the second largest at a U.S. retailer, after the theft of more than 90 million credit cards over about 18 months was uncovered in 2007 at TJX Cos Inc, operator of the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls chains.
Hacking has become a major concern for retailers in the United States. In the latest reported breach, beauty products retailer and distributor Sally Beauty Holdings Inc said on Wednesday its network had been hacked but no card or customer data appeared to have been stolen.
Target Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel said the company would elevate the role of chief information security officer as part of its plan to tighten its security.
The company will also look externally to fill that position as well as the new position of chief compliance officer.
Steinhafel said Target would be advised by security consultant Promontory Financial Group as it evaluates its technology, structure, processes and talent.
“I believe this is definitely a measure in restoring faith and really showing that they are taking the breach seriously,” Heather Bearfield, who runs the cybersecurity practice for accounting firm Marcum LLP, told Reuters.
Target, the third-largest U.S. retailer, said last week customer traffic had started to improve this year after falling significantly toward the end of the holiday shopping season when news of the cyber attack spooked shoppers.
Target shares were down 1.2 percent at $60.57 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. |
Things You'll Need:
Getting Started:
Mapping the Buttons:
Joystick 1 and Joystick 2 should be colored if your computer recognized your adapter.
Setting the Controls into Super Smash Flash 2:
-A Windows PC (sorry Mac and Linux users)-Mayflash Adapter ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0089NVTDM/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 -An offline copy of Super Smash Flash 2 (( http://www.mcleodgaming.com/downloads/SSF2DemoV0_9.zip -Joy2Key ( http://joytokey.net/download/JoyToKey_en.zip 1. Plug your Mayflash Adapter and let the drivers install.2. Download the files above if you haven't already.3. Extract the folders (right-click > extract all) and put them somewhere accessible.1. Run Joy2Key.exe and Click "OK" to the message that pops up.2. Right-click (Stick1: Edit button assignment3. Click "Keyboard 2"4. Pick your left key and put it in the top "1" box and "2" box. Then pick your dash key in put it in the second "2" box.5. Check the "Switch depending on analog level" radio button and then Press OK.6. You'll do something similar for the (Stick1: ---->) except instead of "2" for left, I use "3" for right. Notice "1" is still in the same box.7. Bulk Assign the rest of them by pressing the "bulk assing key." Just make sure to skip POV (d-pad) Left, Down, and Right along with Button 9 as they won't be used by pressing the skip button. I just press the keys in order except shift, control, alt, and the windows button.8. Repeat the above for joystick two.1.Open Super Smash Flash 22. Using your mouse press Start > Options > Controls3. Uncheck Autodash and D-Tap to dash.4. You should set the Dash, Right, and Left Buttons right away with the keyboard. After that, you can just use the GameCube controller to set the rest. (Taunt is up on the dpad).5. Repeat for P2.AND YOU'RE DONE. |
Special Report: Light Rail Architects Letter Endorsing Light Rail Transit The Hamilton-Burlington Society of Architects has written a letter explaining why the organization supports the city's LRT plan - and reminding Council why they have supported it as well. By RTH Staff
Published May 30, 2016
The Hamilton-Burlington Society of Architects has written a letter to the City of Hamilton to endorse the city's light rail transit (LRT) plan in the face of a recent upwelling of Council uncertainty about the project, which Council itself has endorsed consistently in dozens of votes since 2008 and for which the Province committed to full capital funding a year ago.
The HBSA letter notes the recent increase in new multi-unit residential projects, which "demonstrate a clear trend toward dense urban living" that LRT will support and make more successful so that the City can meet its intensification goals.
It also notes that both the City and Province have already evaluated the feasabilty of the project and concluded that it will generate the biggest overall benefit for the city and "the best fiscal return for the future".
The letter follows letters supporting LRT last week from property developer Darko Vranich and from construction workers union and propert developer LiUNA Local 837.
May 29, 2016 City of Hamilton Mayor's Office Hamilton City Hall 2nd floor - 71 Main Street West Hamilton, Ontario L8P 4Y5 Attention: Hon Mayor Fred Eisenberger Dear Mr. Eisenberger, This letter is a reconfirmation of endorsement by the Hamilton Burlington Society of Architects (HBSA) for a Light Rail Transit (LRT) line in Hamilton. We as an organization feel that LRT is the right decision with the greatest benefits for our city - this echoes the conclusions of the City of Hamilton's two-phase feasibility study that was unanimously endorsed by our city council. New and projected development leading the way for LRT Currently Hamilton has over 20 new multiple residential developments in construction or planning stages within the city's core, representing approximately 1600 units. This is an unprecedented number not seen in decades. These developments demonstrate a clear trend towards denser urban living - a trend that will be supported and made more successful by the access to expedient and convenient high quality transit afforded by an LRT line. These developments are just the beginning of a projected 100,000 new Hamilton residents over the next 25 years. To accommodate this influx, LRT will encourage development and densification along its route within the city's built-up area, supporting many of the principles laid out in the province's Places to Grow strategy by: Revitalizing our downtown to become vibrant and convenient centres,
Curbing sprawl and protecting farmland and green spaces,
Reducing traffic gridlock by improving access to a greater range of transportation options. Investment in LRT is the best long-term fiscal decision While the upfront costs of LRT are significant, we have a largely unprecedented opportunity to accept full funding from the province. Both the City and the province have concluded it is a worthwhile investment with feasibility and benefits case studies determining that it will generate a large net benefit in increased tax assessment. As LRT encourages concentrated growth within its proximity, the expense of new public infrastructure will be greatly reduced as the need for new greenfield developments will also be reduced. Furthermore, LRT has a lower per-passenger operating cost than alternatives such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or traditional buses. Long term, LRT has been demonstrated to be the investment with the best fiscal return for the future. Hamilton has the commuting habits to support LRT today 70% of Hamiltonians live and work within the city. Among other regional cities provincially, that live-work balance is second only to Toronto at 80%. As an LRT line will run directly through our largest job cluster (the downtown core), many of these intra-city commuters will be given a new commuting option that is fast, reliable, and more environmentally sustainable. LRT will ensure Hamilton remains competitive As Hamilton's economy transitions from its predominantly industrial past, the city is emerging as a leader in healthcare and innovation with a diverse economy. We need to ensure we remain competitive, attracting new businesses and talent to our city and province. An investment in LRT will send a clear message that Hamilton is serious about its future as a livable, sustainable, and economically vibrant centre. It is the hope of the HBSA that you will invest in Hamilton by re-affirming Hamilton's support for LRT, accepting provincial funding of an LRT line. Sincerely, The Hamilton Burlington Society of Architects Graham McNally, Chair Cynthia Zahoruk, Vice - Chair Stephen Blood, Treasurer Christina Karney, Secretary Chrissy Taylor, Secretary Contact Person: Kyle Slote, OAA, [email protected], 905‐297‐0863 ext. 228 CC
City of Hamilton Council Members
Premier Kathleen Wynne
City of Hamilton MPPs
Hon Steven Del Duca, Ontario Minister for Transportation
Please take a few moments to tell Council to take YES for an answer, reaffirm its support for LRT and accept the full capital funding from the Province that Council has consistently voted for since 2008.
You can read about Raise the Hammer.
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OSLO, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Lithuania electricity prices fell to a record low last week as imports from the Nordic countries rose via a new underwater power link to Sweden, the Baltic state’s grid operator Litgrid said on Tuesday.
The average price in Lithuania fell to 27.70 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) last week, down 14 percent on the previous week and 33 percent on the same period last year.
“That was the lowest weekly price in Lithuania since the country joined the Nordic power market (in 2012),” Litgrid said in a statement.
“This was a reaction to the start of trial operations of the Lithuanian-Swedish power link, NordBalt, on Feb. 18.”
Testing of of the 700 MW cable, built with the support of the European Union and expected to reduce Lithuania’s dependence on power imports from Russia, had been delayed by a fire at a converter station in Sweden.
Last week Lithuania imported 81 percent of its electricity, with two thirds of all imports coming from the Nordic countries, where the average price stood at 21 euros/MWh.
More imports from the Nordic countries meant that imports from Russia and Belarus fell, Litgrid added.
In January Lithuania imported 49 percent of its electricity from the Nordic countries, with prices averaging 50.30 euros/MWh in Lithuania and 29.90 euros/MWh in the Nordics. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by David Goodman) |
General Zhang Yang, the former Political Work Department director of the Central Military Commission (CMC), hanged himself at home on November 25, according to a state media announcement in late November. Zhang became the highest-ranking Chinese official to commit suicide since Xi Jinping launched the anti-corruption campaign in 2013. On December 27, the National People’s Congress posthumously terminated Zhang’s membership to the Chinese legislature.
The official acknowledgment of Zhang Yang’s death confirmed earlier reports and information that he was in trouble. In late August, Zhang and former Chief of Joint Staff Fang Fenghui suddenly vanished from public view, and their names were not included in the list of military delegates to the 19th Party Congress. Chinese and Western media outlets later reported that both generals were being investigated for wrongdoing. The downfall of Zhang and Fang shocked many observers, as they were considered favorite candidates for the two CMC vice chair slots. The announcement that Zhang had ended his life solved the mystery of his whereabouts, but cast his and Fang’s earlier disappearance in a grim light.
The Xi administration’s handling of Zhang’s suicide indicates that his case is likely more serious than the terse official announcement lets on. In a 300-character commentary published after the announcement on November 28, China’s military newspaper, the People’s Liberation Army Daily, criticized Zhang for killing himself to escape punishment for breaking national law and Communist Party discipline. The commentary added that Zhang’s case further emphasized the need to “comprehensively purge the pernicious influence of Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou” from the system, advance honest government, and persist with the anti-corruption drive. Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, both fomer CMC vice chairs, are the highest-ranking military officers to date to fall in Xi’s anti-corruption drive.
On November 29, provincial Party committees held meetings to brief cadres about Zhang’s case. A total of 74 senior generals from the CMC and other commands and units were ordered to attend a study session in Beijing between December 4 to December 9, where they were told to “resolutely obey Chairman Xi’s commands, be responsible to Chairman Xi, and let Chairman Xi be at ease.” Around the same period, leading provincial-level officials were also summoned to Beijing to attend the first of seven rounds of “education courses” on Xi Jinping Thought and the spirit of the 19th Party Congress.
Perhaps more troubling than Zhang Yang’s suicide is the absence of follow up reporting in state media and the top military brass’ radio silence on the issue. While overseas Chinese language news outlets carried details of Zhang’s corruption and promiscuity, state media coverage of Zhang’s case was limited to the announcement of his suicide, the short commentary article, and boilerplate critiques of Zhang from over a dozen provincial Party committees and State Council departments. In contrast, state media went all out to expose disgraced CMC vice chairs Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou after they were formally investigated, while senior military leaders censured the purged generals in speeches.
Three perplexing questions arise in considering the Chinese authorities’ statement of Zhang’s suicide together with various intelligence and reports.
Suicide or Forced Suicide?
According to Xinhua’s account of Zhang Yang’s suicide, the authorities launched an investigation into his association with Guo and Xu on August 28. Zhang remained in his home during the entire duration of the probe until he committed suicide on November 23.
Two reasonable hypotheses can be drawn from the official statement. In considering CCP conventions, the authorities must have considered Zhang’s crimes not to be very serious if he was allowed to remain at home while being probed. Thus, Zhang committing suicide suggests that the past three months of investigations could have revealed his crimes to be very severe, and he may have chosen to end his life instead of serving a life prison sentence like Guo Boxiong.
The official narrative, however, appears tenuous when viewed alongside foreign media reports and other channels of information about Zhang and Fang Fenghui’s arrest. A September 1 Sankei Shimbun report notes that Zhang and Fang were subjected to shuanggui (a type of informal detention for CCP cadres) at the CMC headquarters (Bayi Building) in Beijing. Fang may have been probed at around the same time as Zhang as he was removed from his post on August 26. Meanwhile, Chinese overseas media report that military anti-corruption officers “visited” Zhang in the vicinity of his “residence” on the day of his death. Zhang reportedly told the officers that he needed to change clothes before hanging himself.
Juxtaposing official and unofficial information brings up some points for consideration.
It is still unclear where Fang Fenghui is being investigated — at home, in the Bayi Building, or at an undisclosed location. If Fang and Zhang were both investigated at home, then they should only be suspected of minor cases of corruption. If this was indeed the case, however, neither general should have been probed in the first place, given their high office and good chances of being promoted to CMC vice chair at the 19th Congress. (Given the prevalence of corruption in the Chinese officialdom, Xi would find himself with very few officials left to govern China if he purged every single official who engaged in malfeasance.) Instead, both generals vanished towards the end of August and didn’t even make the list of delegates to the Congress, a development which suggests that Fang and Zhang had committed offenses severe enough to doom their political careers.
Zhang being probed at home, as Chinese state media reported, doesn’t make sense given his connection with Guo and Xu. Officially, Guo and Xu stand accused of “political and economic crimes” and for being conspirators who sought to “wreck and split the Party.” The latter charge hints at their involvement in a coup against the Xi administration.
An examination of Zhang and Fang’s careers indicates that they owe their promotions to Guo and Xu. From 2004 to 2007, Fang and Zhang were chief of staff and political commissar, respectively, of the Guangzhou Military Region. In 2012, both generals were elevated to corresponding posts in the CMC. It would be impossible for Fang and Zhang to secure promotion if they only had a shallow relationship with Guo and Xu when the latter two were at the peak of their influence.
Finally, the state account of Zhang’s suicide becomes unpersuasive if the information that anti-corruption officers visited Zhang before his death is accurate.
Officially, Zhang killed himself to escape punishment. So did the anti-corruption officers tell Zhang exactly how he would be punished? If not, why hang himself in November, and not during the three prior months of investigation?
Zhang was investigated for his ties with Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou. Given the gravity of the case, the anti-corruption officers who met with Zhang must be seasoned veterans. So how could the officers be careless enough to give Zhang an opportunity to hang himself?
Even if the anti-corruption officers had let Zhang slip away, the former general would have created a commotion in the process of hanging himself. It is inconceivable that the officers or security agents keeping an eye on Zhang at home would be oblivious to his suicide.
Why Did Military Leaders Stay Silent?
After the announcement of Zhang Yang’s death until November 30, a total of 14 provincial Party committees and three State Council departments condemned Zhang’s suicide and endorsed Xi Jinping’s call to stamp out the “pernicious influence” of Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou. In contrast, no CMC department nor any of the five military theater commands took to state media to comment on Zhang’s case.
The military radio silence is particularly jarring in light of the responses to the purge of Xu and Guo. After Xu was removed in June 2014 and Guo in July 2015, the General Staff Department, Political Work Department, General Logistics Department, General Armaments Department, PLA Navy, Air Force, Ground Force, Second Artillery Corps, and seven military regions all issued public statements condemning the two ex-CMC vice chairmen. Likewise, the various leading generals and official PLA publications censured Xu and Guo while rallying around Xi after the 19th Party Congress. For the military’s top brass to not react at all to the death of Zhang Yang, an official who was investigated for his links with Xu and Guo, is baffling. Did Beijing issue a gag order to the military? Or is the military expressing discontent with Xi over the Zhang issue? It is not easy to discern from the information currently available.
Zhang Yang’s suicide, however, must have shocked Beijing. Just two weeks before Zhang’s death, the central authorities ordered military leaders at all levels to attend study sessions where Xu, Guo, and Zhang‘s corrupt behavior and extravagant lives were exposed, according to intelligence from mainland China.
Was Zhang Involved in a Coup?
After analyzing the curious political and military developments that unfolded between late July to late August — the purge of Xi “successor” Sun Zhengcai, an unusual parade in Zhurihe Training Base, and the vanishing of Fang Fenghui and Zhang Yang — SinoInsider wrote in September that Xi Jinping could have foiled a coup before the 19th Party Congress. Our analysis appeared to be partially corroborated when Liu Shiyu, the China Securities Regulatory Commission chairman, accused Bo Xilai, Zhou Yongkang, Ling Jihua, Xu Caihou, Guo Boxiong, and the recently arrested Sun Zhengcai of “plotting to usurp the Party leadership” during a meeting at the 19th Congress.
Shortly after making our analysis, Hong Kong media reported that Fang and Zhang were arrested for planning a military coup. According to a report, the two generals had been quietly opposing Xi by protecting Guo and Xu’s former associates, and Xi decided that they should go on “early retirement.” With no prospects for career advancement, Fang and Zhang conspired against the Xi leadership but were purged before they could successfully take action, noted the report. The official statement linking Zhang and the two ex-CMC vice chairs, who have been accused of attempting regime change, suggests that there is some basis in the information from Hong Kong. It would not be a stretch to presume that Fang will eventually be accused of collaborating with Zhang or be outed as an associate of Guo and Xu.
In light of the public information currently available, there is a very good chance that Zhang Yang and Fang Fenghui were involved in a failed coup against the Xi administration. And if Zhang and Fang were coup plotters, then they must already have assembled a sizable group of fellow conspirators.
Conclusion
The Political Work Department continues to be an important office in the PLA despite its status being lowered following the reorganization of the CMC. This is because the PLA is the military force of the CCP, and the Party strives to be in command of its “gun” instead of the other way around. Given the prominence of political work in the PLA, Zhang Yang’s death, regardless of whether he committed suicide or was “forced” to kill himself, is a deeply troubling incident for senior Chinese generals and Xi Jinping.
To the military’s senior leadership, Zhang’s arrest underscores Xi’s conviction to clean out corruption or eliminate his opposition. Earlier, they may have felt that the purge of retired generals Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou was an inevitable outcome of the factional struggle between Xi and Jiang since Xi needed to preserve his authority and consolidate power. But for Xi to abruptly remove Zhang, an active-duty senior general who was tipped to become a CMC vice chairman, signals that no one is safe. His suicide may have inspired unease in the top military ranks and prompted them to reevaluate their understanding of Xi.
From Xi’s perspective, Zhang’s suicide may leave him with the impression that the Jiang faction’s remaining influence in the military cannot be underestimated. Xi may also become more vigilant against potential coups. If Zhang was not being held at home and was forced to commit suicide, then the political threat Xi faces is considerable.
Don Tse is the CEO and co-founder of SinoInsider Consulting LLC, a consulting and research company based in New York City.
Translated by Larry Ong. |
People Who Feel They Have A Purpose In Life Live Longer
Enlarge this image Maria Fabrizio for NPR Maria Fabrizio for NPR
We know that happiness and social connection can have positive benefits on health. Now research suggests that having a sense of purpose or direction in life may also be beneficial.
To find out if having a sense of purpose has an effect on aging and adult development, Patrick Hill, an assistant professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, looked at data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, which is funded by the National Institute on Aging.
Hill and his colleague Nicholas Turiano of the University of Rochester Medical Center looked to see how more than 6,000 people answered questions like "Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them," and other questions that gauged positive and negative emotions.
They found that 14 years after those questions were asked, people who had reported a greater sense of purpose and direction in life were more likely to outlive their peers.
In fact, people with a sense of purpose had a 15 percent lower risk of death,compared with those who said they were more or less aimless. And it didn't seem to matter when people found their direction. It could be in their 20s, 50s or 70s.
Hill's analysis controlled for other factors known to affect longevity, things like age, gender and emotional well-being. A sense of purpose trumped all that.
Hill defines it as providing something like a "compass or lighthouse that provides an overarching aim and direction in day-to-day lives."
Of course, purpose means different things to different people. Hill says it could be as simple as making sure one's family is happy. It could be bigger, like contributing to social change. It could be more self-focused, like doing well on the job. Or it could be about creativity.
"Often this is individuals who want to produce something that is appreciated by others in written or artistic form, whether it's music, dance or visual arts," Hill says.
It's not exactly clear how purpose might benefit health. Purposeful individuals may simply lead healthier lives, says Hill, but it also could be that a sense of purpose protects against the harmful effects of stress.
An experiment in Chicago tested this theory. Anthony Burrow, a developmental psychologist at Cornell University, had college student volunteers of different races and ethnicities ride rapid transit through the diverse neighborhoods of Chicago, recording their emotions as individuals of different racial and ethnic groups boarded.
Earlier research has shown that when people are surrounded by people of different ethnic or racial groups than their own, their level of stress increases. Burrow wanted to know if thinking about their sense of purpose might reduce that stress.
He had about half the students write for about 10 minutes about their life's direction. The other half wrote about the last movie they saw. They were all then given packets that listed the name of every stop. When they got to a stop, they were asked to assess how they felt and how much they felt that way by placing an "X" in a box next to negative emotions such as feeling scared, fearful, alone or distressed.
It turned out that the students who wrote about the last movie they saw experienced the expected levels of stress as the percentage of people of different ethnicity increased. But the students who wrote about their sense of purpose reported no feelings of increased stress at all.
More research is needed, but Burrow says his findings suggest that having "a sense of purpose may protect people against stress," with all of its harmful effects, including greater risk of heart disease. And that may explain why people with a sense of purpose live longer. |
Before granting legal status to illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors, President Donald Trump wants to push enhanced border security, interior enforcement, and move toward a merit-based legal immigration system.
At this point, Democrats would be blamed if an amnesty isn’t enacted, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a pro-border security think tank.
“It’s the opening bid, the president is going to aim high, but I’m skeptical of whether Democrats will negotiate and come up with a counteroffer,” Krikorian told The Daily Signal. “They just expected Trump to sign an amnesty bill. The ball is now in the Democrats’ court.”
Trump is working with Congress on a legislative fix to the Obama-era executive action granting temporary legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the country as children, the policy known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
Trump’s letter outlines 70 principles for any immigration legislation. This includes the completion of a border wall, which was the cornerstone of his 2016 presidential campaign. However, he indicated that it would not be part of the deal with Congress on codifying the Obama-era DACA policy.
Trump asked the administration to conduct a review and provide recommendations.
“Rather than asking what policies are supported by special interests, we asked America’s law enforcement professionals to identify reforms that are vital to protect the national interest,” Trump said in the letter. “In response, they identified dangerous loopholes, outdated laws, and easily exploited vulnerabilities in our immigration system—current policies that are harming our country and our communities.”
Trump’s principles on immigration—presented in a letter to Congress Sunday—are solid enough, but this still poses the problem of trading amnesty up front for the promise of stronger enforcement maybe later down the road, said David Inserra, a homeland security policy analyst with The Heritage Foundation.
“Amnesty is one and done, but enforcement measures still require annual appropriation, annual policy, and adjustments to the policy,” Inserra told The Daily Signal. “We should enforce our laws first and foremost.”
Trump’s letter to Congress calls for closing loopholes on illegal immigrants to make deportations easier, and to fund another 370 immigration judges to expedite court cases.
Trump also asserted the need to cut off federal funding to sanctuary states and cities, which are jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. California recently became a sanctuary state. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., denounced Trump’s plans.
Dismantling the #CleanPowerPlan is an assault on our sacred obligation to preserve God’s creation for the future. https://t.co/DLDh7AdQRP — Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) October 10, 2017
Trump also calls for cracking down on visa overstays, which the letter says account for 40 percent of all illegal immigration.
“The administration therefore proposes strengthening the removal processes for those who overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their visas, and implementing measures to prevent future visa overstays which may account for a growing percentage of illegal immigration,” the letter says.
The proposal would also debar any company that doesn’t use E-Verify from qualifying for federal contracts. E-Verify is an electronic system for employers to determine the legal status of employees.
UnidosUS, a Hispanic rights group formerly known as the National Council of La Raza, blasted Trump’s principles.
“President Trump has gone back on a promise to support a clean bill and instead is now seeking to sabotage legislation aimed at giving these young people a chance for a stable and prosperous future by loading the bill with unpopular and controversial measures,” said Janet Murguía, president of UnidosUS, in a statement. “Sending these so-called ‘conditions’ to Congress is simply a way to stop the bipartisan effort behind a clean DREAM bill.” |
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The carmaker from Auburn Hills is launching an Oculus Rift “experience” at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show that will allow patrons to take a virtual factory tour.
It’s an outgrowth of the online factory tour Chrysler recently launched using Google Maps Business View. Through the tour website, you can walk the assembly line at the Sterling Heights (Michigan) assembly plant, or sit inside a 200 chassis as it gets welded together by robots.
To top that, Chrysler will use Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 headsets to give people sitting inside a 200 an exploded view of the car, explaining all of the components. Presumably, the car is stationary during all of this.
The user gets a moment to look at each area, then the “world” shifts to three areas of the Sterling Heights plant – the Metrology Center, Body Shop, and Paint area – viewed from the perspective of a car moving through each stage of assembly.
It sounds like a very mechanistic LSD trip, and might be worth checking out if you find yourself in L.A. this week. It’s a rare opportunity to peek behind the curtain and see the complex assembly process modern cars undergo. |
A group of 23 women have signed on to a class-action lawsuit in the hopes of putting a dent in the practice of "revenge porn" — a rather despicable type of online pornography that consists of user-submitted pictures, usually of an ex-wife or ex-girlfriend and usually without the subject's permission. According to The Houston Chronicle, the suit targets the revenge porn site Texxxan.com as well as its host, GoDaddy.com; it additionally names unidentified defendants including "the persons and/or entities hosting Texxxan.com" and "all subscribing members." "I'm going after the revenge porn industry," attorney John S. Morgan said. "The only way to destroy this industry is to go after the people who fund it."
Taking on this industry has been a challenge. Many victims prefer not to pursue the sites hosting their pictures for fear of having their identities revealed. There's also the constant fear of the offending ex-lover finding more motivation for continued harassment. In the case of the Texxxan.com lawsuit, plaintiff Hollie Toups told BetaBeat that the site said it would remove her pictures after she entered her credit card information — an offense that helped spur Toups to go public with her plight and sign on with the class-action lawsuit. "I went from being depressed and embarrassed to being really pissed off," she said.
"I went from being depressed and embarrassed to being really pissed off."
At the moment, Texxxan.com is running in "members only maintenance mode," due to "extremely large amounts of traffic" — though it wouldn't surprise us if the site was down due to lawsuit-related issues. Unfortunately, taking down GoDaddy.com in this case will likely be a difficult battle — there isn't a lot of precedent for making a site's host responsible for the content of the site itself. And as a "respectable" company, GoDaddy will likely draw a lot less attention than Texxxan.com in this case — though the site seems likely to just argue that it is hosting the pictures, and the real responsibility lies with those who uploaded the pics in the first place. That's exactly the logic that Hunter Moore, the proprietor of revenge porn site "Is Anyone Up" gave to BetaBeat in an interview last month. |
Anger is growing in India that the Mumbai attacks were not prevented Pakistan's president has vowed to take "strong action" against any elements in his country involved in last week's attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai. Asif Ali Zardari made the pledge during a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, his office said. Speaking after the meeting, Ms Rice said she found the Pakistani leadership "focused" and "committed" on the issue. Tensions have risen amid Indian claims of Pakistani links to the attacks, which killed at least 188 people. Islamabad denies any role and has cast doubt on the allegations. I have found a government that is focused on the threat and understands its responsibilities to respond to terrorism and extremism
Condoleezza Rice
US Secretary of State
Pakistan's dilemma But President Zardari, during his meeting with Ms Rice, repeated an earlier promise to help investigate the attacks, his office said. "The government will not only assist in investigation but also take strong action against any Pakistani elements found involved in the attack," he is quoted in an official statement as saying. "Pakistan is determined to ensure that its territory is not used for any act of terrorism," he added. Meanwhile, a Pakistani group has denied any connection with the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is suspected of being behind the Mumbai attacks. A spokesman for Jama'at ud Dawa, Abdullah Muntazir, suggested homegrown Indian militants were involved instead. "I do not believe the attacks in Mumbai could have been carried out by Muslims," he told reporters. 'Robust response' Ms Rice described her talks with Mr Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani and the country's army chief as "quite satisfactory". Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. "I have found a government that is focused on the threat and understands its responsibilities to respond to terrorism and extremism," she told a news conference. She said Pakistan would investigate any links with Mumbai, "because the Pakistani government... does not in any way want to be associated with terrorist elements and is indeed fighting to root them out wherever they find them." Before arriving in Islamabad, she told reporters Pakistan must take a "tough line" on terrorism. Ms Rice travelled to Pakistan from India where she called on both countries to show moderation in their response to the Mumbai attacks. While Pakistan needed "a robust response", India should not take actions that would provoke "unintended consequences", she said. LASHKAR-E-TOIBA Jihadi organisation based in Pakistan Formed towards the end of the Afghan war against the Soviets Blamed for hundreds of attacks in the region since 1990 Listed as a "terrorist group" by the US and UK
Profile: Lashkar-e-Toiba Are attacks a chance for peace? Mumbai comes out to protest US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen has been pushing the same message, in meetings with defence officials in Pakistan on Wednesday and India on Thursday. The pressure from India to take action against militants it claims were involved in the Mumbai attacks puts Pakistan's government in a difficult position, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says. The authorities in Islamabad may doubt the capacity of their own security forces to carry out such orders, he says. And, by acceding to Indian pressure, Pakistan might risk deeper civil strife at home. Overt Indian military action might provoke a new stand-off that would do nothing for Pakistan's stability, which remains an ever shakier corner-stone of US and western efforts to win the war in Afghanistan, our correspondent adds. Last week's attacks at multiple locations in India's financial capital stunned the country, with many describing it as India's 9/11. Three major airports in India are on heightened alert after a threat of more possible attacks by the Deccan Mujahideen, the previously unknown militant group who claimed responsibility for last week's Mumbai attacks. Meanwhile, the resignation of Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of the state of Maharashtra where Mumbai is located, was accepted by the governing Congress Party on Thursday. His was one of a number of resignations in the wake of the attacks amid growing fury over the government's handling of the crisis.
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When Sandro Ramírez finally arrives at Everton, it looks like he won’t be the only arrival up front.
According to the Daily Mirror, Ronald Koeman wants an overhaul of his attack at Goodison Park.
With Romelu Lukaku wanting out and Arouna Kone and Enner Valencia already leaving Everton, it seems normal for Koeman’s priority to be up front.
He has reportedly made Burnley striker Andre Gray, who’s approaching the last 12 months of his contract, an Everton transfer target.
The Toffees reportedly made an initial approach for Gray towards the end of last season and are still believed to be interested in the former non-league hitman.
And if a move for Gray fails, Joshua King of Bournemouth is said to be an alternative target to Gray.
But what would they offer?
Andre Gray
For the most part, Burnley play a 4-4-2 formation and they have at times dabbled with a 4-2-3-1/4-1-4-1 variation but according to WhoScored, Sean Dyche used the former set-up on 29 occasions last season.
Gray is used to playing alongside one of Sam Vokes or Ashley Barnes in attack and his task is to play on the shoulder of the last man, a role he could do in Everton’s 4-3-3.
In a throwback to the little and large partnerships of the 1990s, Gray is the little one.
The aerial duels won per 90 minutes paints a picture – Vokes won 8.89 and Barnes 3.99, whereas Gray was at just the 0.16.
In the stills above, taken from the Burnley match against Leicester City, you see how soon as the ball is played long the striker is on his bike anticipating the flick-on.
He’s quick and he’s got space to attack so more often than not it’s the perfect storm in terms of him being able to showcase his strengths.
Of course, he’d be perfect to play alongside Lukaku, but that is definitely unlikely.
Gray isn’t just the legs man. He’s capable of holding the ball up and bringing others into play. In the pictures above, against champions Chelsea, he drops into a wide area and drags Gary Cahill out with him.
He holds off the former Bolton Wanderers player and draws another of the opposition players to him before playing a pass into the space he had created for one of the on-rushing midfielders.
And it’s skills like that as the hold up man, which could bring other more creative Everton players into play, which would attract Koeman.
Joshua King
Bournemouth played most of 2016/17 with a 4-2-3-1, while King featured largely off the main striker as an attacking midfielder.
According to WhoScored, he featured 16 times in the league as an attacking midfielder and just nine as the main striker.
But this was the best goalscoring season of his career, as he scored 16 times.
He managed six last term, but in four Championship seasons with Blackburn Rovers and Hull City, he hadn’t previously hit the back of the net more than twice.
But that doesn’t mean he’s not a goalscorer, some players develop later than others.
But if you look at five of King’s most recent goals, you can tell he does have a true goalscoring instinct.
Against Sunderland, you can see how he’s only focused on getting free and into an area to score.
When the ball reaches the Bournemouth player in the first still, King heads forward straight away, and by the time of the second picture, he is already free of any defenders and in a position to get a shot off.
While the ball doesn’t come to him straight away, he still stays focused and actually gets himself in a better position once Ryan Fraser has squared it to him.
There’s no doubt he’ll finish past new Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, and he does that calmly.
And that desire to put the ball in the back of the next is also clear above against Middlesbrough.
As all good goalscorers do, he’s on the move as soon as Marc Pugh looks anywhere near like putting a ball in.
He shows Pugh he’s the man he needs to get it to, and he is a step ahead of the defender, and shows good strength to stay upright enough to fire low past Brad Guzan.
If you look at the goal he scored against Chelsea, you can again see something else that he offers.
From a quick break, King uses his pace to ensure no Blues defender can get near him – granted, Cahill isn’t exactly Usain Bolt.
And then when he’s given time on the edge of the penalty area, he does what any good striker does, and gets a shot away.
It may not be the cleanest of shots, but the deflection saw it go past Thibaut Courtois and they all count.
King’s strike against Liverpool showed his strength and nous in the opposition penalty box.
When the long throw came in, he was in the perfect position to attack the ball.
He stays in the middle of the action when it falls out to Charlie Daniels for a shot, and when that’s cleared again, he’s also right there when Harry Arter has an effort.
This hits King, and he shows quick feet to work it onto his right foot, as well as strength to hold off the Liverpool defender to get a shot away.
And his skill for this goal against West Ham United just underlined his class.
Getting the ball in the area on his right foot, he flicks it over the defender onto his left foot before finishing calmly.
That goal enough would have been enough to attract attention from bigger clubs than Everton, like Bournemouth.
Sandro
Probably the most complete of the three, Sandro is not just a goalscorer and has a great eye for a pass too.
But of course, he doesn’t have the Premier League experience the other two have.
Against Granada, as you can see below, he picked the ball up on the left wing before cutting inside, leaving the defender for dead and playing a defence-splitting pass for his team-mate to get the shot away.
This passing was also on show vs Barcelona, as you can see below.
Sandro found himself with the ball on the left with Jony free in the middle.
Despite it being a massive moment in the match, he stayed calm, playing a cheeky lob over Samuel Umtiti into the space behind.
The ball was spot on and Jony was able to control it on his chest and take it past Marc-André ter Stegen and fire into the empty net.
And it just summed up Sandro’s quality.
When he scored against them, as you can see below, it also just showed his goalscoring instinct.
He was playing on the last man, timing his run to perfection to get on the end of a long ball over the defence, using his pace to ensure he would get away from the defenders.
And as he found himself one-on-one with ter Stegen, he was calm enough to send him the wrong way and place his effort low into the back of the net, a composure he has added to his game in his season at Málaga, where he got 14 goals in 28 league games.
Comparing stats
If you compare the 2016/17 league statistics of the trio, plus those of Lukaku, you will see none of them are an out-and-out replacement for the Belgian.
His goalscoring record beats all of them, and although he played the most football out of the quartet, per 90 minutes he still leads the way too with 0.69 goals – Sandro is on 0.54, King on 0.53 and Gray on 0.36.
But you will notice that all but one of his goals were outside the box – Sandro managed five last season, and King was on three.
What’s more, the trio’s passing completion rate is much higher than Lukaku’s – that was at just 66 per cent last season.
The Belgian did create more chances than the others though, although Sandro at 1.25 per 90 minutes was practically the same as the Everton man’s 1.27.
But the biggest change will probably be in the air.
As mentioned above, Gray isn’t the strongest at all, and none of them can compare to Lukaku in that way.
The Belgian wins on average 3.53 aerial duels per 90 minutes, while King is closest to him on 1.06, with Sandro (0.27) and Gray (0.17) on less than one.
In terms of win percentage of aerial duels, it doesn’t read well for the Burnley man either, winning just 12.9 per cent, compared to Lukaku’s 41.16 per cent.
It’s clear Koeman isn’t trying to replicate Lukaku with his targets, and while the Belgian has undoubtedly been great for the Toffees, it looks like it’s a fresh new start in style as they try to beat their seventh-placed finish. |
How I Became a Better Programmer
Several people at React Conf asked me for advice on becoming a better programmer. For some reason, people see me as a pretty advanced programmer worth listening to. I thought it would be worthwhile to write down my "mental model" for how I have approached programming over the years.
Some details about me: I'm 32 years old and have over 10 years of solid experience. It probably wasn't until the last few years until I really felt confident in what I was doing. Even now, though, I continually doubt myself. The point is that this feeling doesn't go away, so just try to ignore it, keep hacking, and keep building experience.
Let me be clear that these are only a few tips for improving your skills. Ultimately you need to figure out what works best for you. These are just things that I have found helpful.
Find people who inspire you, but don't idolize them. Over the years there have been many people that I looked up to and watched for new tech. I learned a lot by simply trusting they were right and digging into things they worked on. These people tend to be very productive, brilliant, and inspiring. Find them and let them inspire and teach you. However, make sure not to idolize them. It's easy to seem intimidating from a twitter feed, but if you look at how they work in real life, you'll see that they aren't that different. Hacks everywhere, etc. We're all just experimenting. Lastly, don't blindly trust them; if you disagree, engage them and learn from it. Some of my most productive conversations happened this way. My Emacs config is a mess. I don't know why my OCaml autocompletion is broken (it's been broken for over a month). I don't automate stuff and have to dig around in my shell history to find commands I need sometimes. I write the ugliest code at first. I stick things on the global object until I know what I'm doing. The most experienced programmer uses hacks all the time; the important part is that you're getting stuff done.
Don't devalue your work. Newer programmers tend to feel like their work isn't worth much because they are new. Or maybe you are an experienced programmer, but working in a new area that makes you uncomfortable. In my opinion, some of the best ideas come from newer programmers who see improvements to existing tech that those who have already-formed opinions don't see. Your work is worthwhile, no matter what. In the worst case, if your idea doesn't work out, the community will have learned better why that approach doesn't make sense. (A note to the community: it's up to us to execute on this and be welcoming to newcomers.)
Don't feel pressured to work all the time. With new tech coming out every day, it can feel like the world will move on without you if you take a night off. That's not true. In fact, you will do better work if you disengage a lot. Your perspective will be fresh, and I find myself subconsciously coming up with new ideas when I'm not working. The majority of the stuff being released every day is just a rehash of the same ideas. Truly revolutionary stuff only happens every few years. A good talk to watch on this subject is Hammock Driven Development.
Ignore fluff. One of the biggest ways you can objectively get better faster is by ignoring "fluff" that won't actually improve your skills very much. Another way to say this is "use your time wisely". You only have so many hours in the day and if you spend it on deeper things you will see a big difference over time. So what is "fluff"? It's up to you, but I can give you some examples of what I consider fluff: language syntax, library APIs, and configuring build tooling. Learning a new ES7 JS syntax won't make you a better programmer nearly as much as learning how compilers work, for example. Adopting a new library that implements the same idea but with a new API isn't that interesting. All of those things are important, of course, but I recommend spending more time learning deeper concepts that will reward you for years. Here's a question I like to ask: do you spend most of your time making your code look "nice"? If so, I recommend not focusing on it so much. Your code is going to change a lot over time anyway. It's better to focus hard on the core problems you're trying to solve and think hard about your layers of abstractions. After you've nailed all of that you can spend a little time polishing your code. (This also applies to the DRY principle. Don't worry about it so much. Feel free to duplicate.)
Dig into past research. If you're excited about an idea, it's super tempting to sit down an immediately get going. But you shouldn't do that until you've done some cursory research about how people have solved it before. Spending a few days researching the topic always completely changes how I am going to solve it. It's valuable to learn how to read academic papers. I don't know anything about denotational/operational/etc semantics so there are a lot of papers I can't read. But there are many that use code instead of math and aren't too hard to read. There is a huge amount of knowledge sitting in papers from the last 30 years. If you get good at extracting this, you'll be a thought-leader in no time. Prettier is a perfect example of this. I knew what I wanted but I had no idea how to implement it. After a little research I found this paper and after a few days I knew exactly what I needed to do. I had something basic working in a week. If I ignored previous research it would have taken a lot longer. If you're looking for papers, the Papers We Love GitHub repo is a great place to start. |
Toyota had publicly defended its global communications chief and acknowledged it must do a better job of helping foreign executives integrate into Japan.
Julie Hamp, an American, was arrested two weeks ago after authorities allegedly discovered 57 oxycodone pills in a package she shipped to herself. (Photo11: Tsutomu Agechi, AP)
TOKYO — Two weeks after her arrest on suspicion of illegally importing prescription drugs into Japan, Toyota's global communications chief is still in jail — and out of a job.
American Julie Hamp, the highest-ranking female executive at the Japanese automaker, relinquished her role after authorities allegedly discovered oxycodone pills in a package she shipped to herself.
Toyota said in a statement that it "accepted her resignation after considering the concerns and inconvenience that recent events have caused our stakeholders."
The move comes amid speculation that Hamp may face prison time in Japan, where stiff drug laws prohibit foreigners from importing prescription drugs without significant documentation.
Her resignation may have been inevitable, said Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, at Temple University's Japan Campus.
"In most (Japanese) companies, executives who are arrested will resign, or at least go on leave until the case is resolved," Dujarric said.
Hamp remains in custody in Japan, where prosecutors have a high rate of successful prosecution and can retain suspects for up to 23 days without bail or formal charges. Depending on the charges, Hamp could face up to 10 years in prison.
Toyota had publicly defended Hamp, with President Akio Toyoda holding a televised press conference in June to declare her "a close friend" and an "invaluable" part of the company. He apologized for "the confusion surrounding recent events" but said he believed that she had not knowingly broken Japanese law.
The company acknowledged that it did not do enough to help foreigners integrate into Japan.
"Because the investigation of Ms. Hamp is ongoing, there is little Toyota can say at this time," the company said. "However, we intend to learn from this incident to help ensure a secure working environment for everyone at Toyota around the world as we continue to take the steps necessary to become a truly global company."
Police raided Toyota offices in Japan after they allegedly discovered 57 pills of the powerful painkiller tucked away in a package Hamp sent to herself while moving from the U.S. to Japan.
The incident embroiled Toyota in controversy just months after the 55-year-old Hamp was appointed to the role as the automaker's global communications chief, the first woman to fill that role. Her elevation was viewed as a significant step in Toyota's halting bid to diversify its leadership ranks.
On Thursday, Toyota said it remains committed to that goal. "We remain firmly committed to putting the right people in the right places, regardless of nationality, gender, age and other factors," the company said.
Hamp told police that she had mailed a package containing the painkillers from the U.S. to her hotel in Japan, but had not intended to break Japanese law, according to Japanese media reports. Police said the tablets were not listed on the package's Customs declaration form and were placed in several parcels, including an accessory case and paper bag.
Oxycodone is a widely prescribed painkiller in the United States. But possession is illegal in Japan without a prescription and special permission is required to bring it into the country.
Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.
Bomey reported from McLean, Va.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Given the relative obscurity of tabletop role-playing games, I have been fortunate enough to be introduced to the genre as early as middle school. A friend of mine invited me to check out D&D after I had mistakenly bought Legend of the Five Rings, 3rd ed. thinking that it was some sort of fantasy novel or fictional encyclopedia. We ended up finding others who played tabletop games in high school and played a lot of D&D 3.5 over those years. Only after college had split the party did I start growing curious of that L5R book I’ve kept untouched in my library for so long.
As a bunch of high-schoolers playing D&D, we spent many campaigns wandering random dungeons, slaying endless waves of monsters in search of more powerful loot. I do not mean this as a critique of my old dungeon masters—they made tabletop gaming so fun that it has become a major component of my free time—but either the eternal will of D&D creator Gary Gygax or our immaturity made our old campaigns more of an action/battle puzzle than a story-driven experience. Hell, it was a great time.
But it did not help me when I decided to pick up GMing L5R. I open up the book and it’s full of pages upon pages of Rokugan’s history, clan relations among the eight different major clans and dozen or so minor clans, and other bits that I passed off as meaningless filler. And one of the three possible classes was a courtier, some politician or diplomatic figure! That was one way to die in a dungeon crawl.
As with most things, however, I was wrong to dismiss intrigue as a way to play an RPG. I promise that with a prepared GM and some captivated players, an intrigue campaign can have the thrill, affection, suspense, wonder, hatred, and betrayal rivaling a blockbuster movie or open-world video game. Intrigue is now the only way I run my games. So for those of you who are as clueless as I was and want to figure out how to create an intrigue-heavy game, here are some considerations I have picked up along the way:
Establish preferences. This is the golden rule to not only intrigue games but to any tabletop RPG campaign you wish to establish. Make sure your players actually want to play the type of game you are running. Everyone has different tastes and preferences and that means that an intrigue game might not be for them. Don’t be sure that you will win everyone over if your GMing ability is good enough or if you put enough time perfecting your story. Have a time to meet up and discuss what you all want to do. And make sure to spell out what is on the table. Give an idea of what you think certain classes or groups should act with maybe a couple pop culture references as examples. A lot about intrigue lends itself to playstyles of role-playing what a character would do over performing the mechanically optimal action, which can be very frustrating for some. If you know your group loves maximizing their +1 damage bonuses but hate talking (nicely) to NPCs, maybe rethink that 3 year intrigue campaign.
Themes. It is viable to play an entirely sandbox experience where the universe is in equilibrium and every corner has its own ecosystem with its own sets of local problems. Eh, maybe I’m old fashioned or lack the creativity but I have found that a really—ahem—intriguing story has a universe that’s tied around a theme. A brewing galactic civil war? A wandering clan’s diaspora? Each quest will be unique to the questgiver and the location but it is nice to see many of them connect to the same global issues that stricken your setting.
The dynamic world. A story-driven game requires a living world. Tying back to themes, every quest or adventure will be a reflection of needs and wills of the NPCs in your world. How is it related to the local needs of the questgiver? How might it be related to the global narrative of your setting? Does the quest naturally follow into a larger arc tackling the problems of the region? A good story will be more than just one session of slaying the goblins and saving the village from attacks. A good story is multilayered. That village may be chronically undermanned and defenseless… because the village depended on the protection from their lord’s armies… who conscripted all of their strongest villagers but left the village to die to the greenskin hordes… for the general to usurp power through fear of invasion. A humble request can unravel an intricate storyline that adds depth to your setting.
Carve depth in NPCs. A jaw-dropping intrigue game is not possible without its share of multilayered characters the party comes across. Every NPC, from the most powerful ruler to the most mundane guard, should have some personality. This is easier than it sounds; you can find a list of personality traits all over the web and just assign an arbitrary trait or two to them as they are generated. If an NPC becomes an important character to the party—and I mean become, not that you planned it—then start really fleshing out the character. Provide him or her a backstory that may be revealed over time and think about evolving the character’s personality or opinion of the party the more he or she becomes a persistent entity. A really juicy backstab is a friendship built over many sessions, not a helper that attacks them before the end of their introductory session.
Establish cultural norms. Especially if a norm in the setting seems counterintuitive to the players—removing armor and weapons in a city—it is important to reinforce conformity to those norms. It is supposed to feel… normal. Reward players who follow those norms with friendlier NPC interactions. It is a wonderful immersive experience when players play to the societal standards of the world and get a sense of what is safe and what isn’t. They really feel like they understand the society they live in. The drama comes when those assumptions of safety are broken. Just be wary, setting up these norms takes a long time, so don’t break them until they become solidly engrained in the setting. You can’t blame the players for not removing their weapons when entering a home if they keep getting ambushed afterwards.
Adapt to the players.* It may be fun to plan out an elaborate mapping where X event must lead players to Y location which activates Z trigger but no one will have fun being pushed into your Rube Goldberg machine. The players must decide what they are going to do. This includes both their desired goals and their approach to doing it. All you need is a feel for your antagonists—their goals, personality, and competence—and possibly some potential avenues those antagonists can influence your players’ interactions with the world. That empty space between the opportunity and the resolution is an empty space where your party can take the initiative and navigate through the complex web of connections they have at their disposal.
Illusion of Transparency.* Shamelessly stolen from Peter McIntyre’s Cognitive Toolkit which you can find here, this concept is why players never seem to find those important clues or read your NPC’s intentions. As a GM, that moment when the party enters a new area is when your brain rushes together a vibrant portrait of the scratching of hardwood floors on bare feet, the lights dimming behind dull white rice paper walls, and the faint smell of green tea as the players step into a samurai lord’s estate. You can see every petal of the vased flowers and every pebble in the adjacent rock garden but as you try to describe your own vivid imagination, you can barely mention that Lord Shimazu’s estate is fairly regal. And the worst issue is not even realizing the ambiguity of the narration. The solution: recognize that the players will think differently from you and only take your literal description for granted as the image the players can conjure. One can either choose to make their descriptions longer or leave them as blank space and fill them in as the party asks about it. Just make a particular detail very clear if you wish to hide specific clues in the location.
*I will write about positive and negative space in running a game in a later post.
Let them metagame: It is incredibly tempting to stop a player from using out-of-game knowledge to reach a conclusion their character may not necessarily be able to ascertain. It may seem strange to let players use prior knowledge to navigate through a game based around public and hidden social dynamics. Just take a deep breath and hear me out. Much in the same way railroads are often not fun, GM policing is not either. It can get very frustrating contributing to the problem solving and discussion and being constantly interrupted by a GM for using information they may have read about on a certain kingdom or profession. There are players who are self-policing and try their best to limit their comments to only character knowledge and that is great. But for the others, their metagaming is harmless. Navigating a complex intrigue game through a collective imagination is already difficult and the players have a lot of fun figuring out the connections steadily hinted at them. Of course, at a certain point the metagame can become borderline cheating but try to draw the line there and not every time a piece of information may not befit the character.
If there are any other major considerations I have missed, I will update this post with more topics. Intrigue campaigns are what I like to do so I’ll to use this post as a framework for more in-depth discussion on specific aspects of the intrigue campaign.
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Transcript for House GOP unveils new health care plan; still no evidence to support Trump's wiretap accusation
Is this week president trump's moment of truth? 50 days in, he's smashed convention, shocked official Washington, and created a chaotic new Normal in the white house. This week, official Washington poised to strike back. It has been eight days now since the president leveled the explosive charge against president Obama, accusing him of ordering illegal wiretaps against the trump campaign. A claim that president Obama and numerous government officials call flat out untrue. In the eight days, trump has offered zero evidence and refused to answer questions like these from Jonathan Karl. Any proof on the wiretapping? Thank you, press. Thank you, thank you, press. Thank you. Thank you. Please head out behind you. Are you going to provide any proof? Please head out. Now, they've asked trump's justice department to put up the evidence or shoot it down. Deadline, tomorrow. And tomorrow, a key day for president trump's promise to repeal Obama care and replace it with something better. Obamacare is a disaster. We're doing to repeal it and replace it. We're going repeal it and replace it. With something great. Less expensive and far better. We're going have great health care. The amazing thing, it's going to cost, very amazing. It's going to cost the country less and it's going to cost the people less. I mean, how good is that? Better care, lower costs, everyone covered. That is trump's promise. Tomorrow, the independent congressional budget office expected to go public with its assessment on whether the legislation president trump is backing now will meet the promises he made during the
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. |
Greetings adventurers!
We hope everyone is enjoying their time in the Forgotten Realms so far. We appreciate all of the feedback you’ve given us over this first week and are actively working to ensure Neverwinter is the best experience possible. We’ve noticed a few common threads the community has brought up that we’d like to address heading into week two.
Why am I experiencing lag?
The short answer is several factors determine network conditions on an individual basis, and since Neverwinter is a living online world, we're still forging the best experience possible to accomodate all of our new players. We ask you to bear with us while we work on lag issues, and appreciate your continued feedback.
What are the steps to creating a Guild?
Your entire party of five must be level 15 or above and in the same instance of Protector’s Enclave. Once those requirements are met, the leader will name the guild and all players will enjoy guild privileges including guild bank slots*, a guild tag, and guild chat.
*Only allow your most trusted guild members access to your guild’s bank as they will have complete control of its contents after access is granted.
What is invoking and how do I do it?
Invoke early, invoke often. Invoking allows players to earn a small bonus of experience, consumables, and Astral Diamonds every hour. While near a campfire or after using a portable altar, press LB + right on the d-pad to gain this hourly bonus.
Will there be maintenance every week? What occurs during maintenance?
Every Tuesday, Neverwinter will close its gates to all users for a brief period of time; usually around two hours. During maintenance, the team at Cryptic Studios applies game patches, optimizes backend processes, and ensures that nothing has gone wrong since the last week’s maintenance period. Watch our @NeverwinterGame for the latest maintenance updates.
I want to focus on Dungeons & Skirmishes, I don’t want to wait in a queue. What’s the best way to prioritize them?
In game, pull up chat using LB + down on the d-pad. Once chat is open, change your channel with RB & LB to [Looking For Group]. Now just type your next objective into chat with your controller, keyboard, or Smart Glass and you'll surely find a group of goal-oriented adventurers in no time. You can also try using the hashtag #NWXboxLFG on Twitter or use our forums http://bit.ly/1HIyTxD to build a party for maximum skirmishing/dungeoneering efficiency!
How does the Astral Diamond Exchange work?
Neverwinter’s Astral Diamond Exchange allows players to exchange Zen with Astral Diamonds and vice versa. Players have a range of top currency exchange rates to choose from exchange the currencies, or they may determine their own amount. These player determined exchanges cause game-wide rates to fluctuate. The best way to maximize your currency exchange is by watching for in-game economy trends and keeping an eye on the rates. The exchange can be found by pressing the Menu button, selecting the Store tab, then choosing Astral Diamond Exchange. Some exchanges may not happen instantly, so please be patient while the exchange occurs.
I’m level 60, or will be soon; what now?
Tyranny of Dragons is a huge campaign and includes a ton of highly replayable content. Once your adventurer reaches level 26, simply select "Campaign" under the Start menu's Quests tab to begin the Tyranny of Dragons. Players can look forward to half a dozen deadly encounters with dragons including a showdown in the Lair of Lostmauth; unique, class-specific Draconic gear and Infernal armor that provides magical bonuses when worn as a full set; as well as rare artifacts and weapons only available by completing Tyranny of Dragon content. For a more in-depth breakdown of the Tyranny of Dragons loot and content check out the Neverwinter wiki.
Further optimize your endgame experience by visiting Rhix and the Dungeon Key Master before tackling any quests each day. Also, don’t forget to invoke! Before you depart Protector’s Enclave, party up with some friends or Guildmates, then select your favorite Epic Dungeon, Skirmish, or Heroic/Daily for a chance at Tyranny of Dragons loot, the highest tiered loot currently available in Neverwinter!
Why can’t I stop playing Neverwinter?
Evil doesn’t rest, so neither should you! Please, adventure responsibly. |
Disgraced former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber isn’t the only big name caught up in the emerging green energy scandal in the Pacific Northwest: SolarCity, the brainchild of billionaire corporate welfare queen Elon Musk, was also heavily involved in some of Kitzhaber’s shady schemes. According to an extensive investigation by The Oregonian, a local paper, this particular scheme had it all: political corruption, broken deal terms, and $0.93/hour prison labor.
According to The Oregonian’s investigation, it all started with a $27 million solar array project for the Oregon Institute of Technology and Oregon State University. The project brought with it $12 million in tax credits. After the first vendor brought in by the state filed for bankruptcy, Oregon turned to two companies for help — SolarWorld and its bitter rival, Elon Musk’s SolarCity. SolarCity would oversee the project and do the local engineering and installation work. The two firms were expected to buy and hire locally in order to goose the regional economy and create high-paying area jobs.
But that’s not what happened.
SolarWorld, which made a name for itself by manufacturing its products in the U.S. instead of using cheap, overseas labor like SolarCity did, was unable to handle the scope of work (UPDATE: a SolarWorld rep e-mailed The Federalist after this article was initially published and took issue with this characterization, claiming that rather than SolarWorld being unable to handle the project, SolarCity canceled the contract in retaliation for SolarWorld winning a high-profile trade case against SolarCity). In order to save the project, and its $12 million in tax credits, Elon Musk’s SolarCity stepped in to complete the project by itself. And how did SolarCity go about its work? By hiring prison labor at the rate of $0.93 per hour, roughly one-tenth of the state’s current minimum wage in 2013 of $8.95 per hour:
Firing SolarWorld was just business, said Will Craven, SolarCity spokesman.
But if workers in Hillsboro weren’t going to make the state’s panels, who would?
Shain assured state officials that SolarCity had found “alternative modules of U.S. manufacture, and very possible Oregon manufacture.”
SolarCity’s alternative: Prison labor.
SolarCity told government officials it would use local labor, but it never informed them that it would be using incarcerated local labor instead of trained technicians who generally earn upwards of $11 per hour:
According to The Oregonian:
Under a subcontractor, Norcross, Georgia-based Suniva, the panel work went behind the walls at the Federal Correctional Institute in Sheridan. Inmates paid 93 cents an hour assembled the panels. That was in contrast to SolarWorld factory pay — $11 an hour to start.
Craven acknowledged that using inmate labor “may not have been in the spirit” of the tax credit program. He said state officials knew prisoners were involved.
State officials said they were unaware of the inmate component until questioned recently by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
“They used inmates?” Simonton asked. “That’s unfortunate.”
While it may be unfortunate, it is not even remotely surprising given the involvement of an Elon Musk company. Yes, he is remarkably successful. He’s built a huge car company, a huge space company, and a huge solar energy company. What he hasn’t done is build any of those companies without massive taxpayer subsidies.
Tesla depends on federal electric car subsidies, to the tune of $7,500 per vehicle, as well as government-enabled zero emission vehicle credits. SpaceX depends on large government procurement contracts. And SolarCity depends on renewable energy mandates that force states to go in search of “alternative” energy sources that are expensive and economically unsustainable. But that’s not enough, apparently. Elon Musk’s SolarCity also felt compelled to use $0.93/hour government jail jobs for its labor needs.
And even with all that — the subsidies, the mandates, the contracts, and the cut-rate prison labor — Elon Musk’s companies still can’t consistently make money. Tesla has never turned an annual profit, but it had racked up an accumulated $1.4 billion in losses by the end of 2014. The same goes for SolarCity, which had generated more than a quarter billion dollars in accumulated losses through the end of last year. While SpaceX is rumored to be profitable, it’s hard to believe it got there without tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in the form of Pentagon and NASA procurement contracts (because SpaceX is a private company and is not required to publicly release its financials, its profitability claim cannot be independently verified).
There’s nothing inherently wrong with using prison labor, but there’s something super sketchy about a billionaire corporate welfare queen using incarcerated contractors in order to skirt the local hiring requirements of a lucrative taxpayer-funded project. Elon Musk may be a huge fan of hiring taxpayer subsidies, but it turns that at least one of his companies is not so keen on hiring actual taxpayers. |
In a report for Thursday’s NBC Today about Bill Clinton saying he would stop giving paid speeches if Hillary was elected president, correspondent Andrea Mitchell lamented: “The charity has been lauded for its good works but both Clintons are being hounded by questions about potential conflicts of interest from donors and high-dollar speeches.”
Mitchell touted the former President’s denials of corruption: “Clinton also denied doing favors for foreign governments or other donors to the foundation, telling CNN, ‘No one has ever asked me for anything. And I don't think Hillary would know either. I never saw her study a list of my contributors, and I had no idea who was doing business before the State Department.’”
Mitchell then wondered: “Will that be enough to quiet critics?” A soundbite followed of former Obama adviser and NBC New senior political analyst David Axelrod declaring: “This issue won't go away because the Republican Party won't allow it to go away. And I suspect we'll be hearing about it from now until the election.”
The implication being that the issue was merely a partisan attack rather than a legitimate controversy that journalists should keep investigating. No Republicans were featured in the segment.
Wrapping up the report, Mitchell gushed: “Bill Clinton will be a key surrogate for his wife, who has yet to do an interview since declaring her candidacy. In his interview with CNN, Bill Clinton described Hillary Clinton warmly, saying, ‘Whenever I had trouble she was the rock in the family.’” Co-host Savannah Guthrie added: “Alright, well she's got his vote, that’s for sure.”
ABC’s Good Morning America completely ignored Bill Clinton’s comments about the Clinton Foundation. CBS This Morning only briefly noted the development and touted the former President “defending his family’s foundation.”
Here is a full transcript of the June 11 segment: |
.- The cardinals and bishops who attended Pope Benedict XVI’s last big public appearance made sure to show him their love and respect, but it was a hard moment as well.
“There was a touch of sadness as when one sees a person for the very last time,” said Archbishop Rino Fisichella after the Pope’s last general audience.
“Bishops and cardinals have shown a lot of respect, love and affection towards him here today,” he told CNA Feb. 27.
Around 200,000 people from all over the world came to St. Peter’s Square to see Pope Benedict for the last time before he steps down as Pope tomorrow evening.
Archbishop Fisichella, who is president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelization, said that the audience was important in two ways.
“The first is the great humanity of the Holy Father because he has spoken about his suffering in taking this decision, but it has also been a big experience of faith,” the archbishop observed.
“The living Church embraces the Holy Father and manifests its love, but it’s an experience of faith.
“We have the certainty that the Holy Spirit is with us, and so is the Holy Father with his resignation, but he is present among us with his prayer and his presence.
Archbishop Fisichella sees Pope Benedict has given “a testimony of faith and big hope to the whole Church” during his papacy.
“With his testimony and his teaching, which has a very rich deepness, and with his live presence, prayer, and silence – which talks about true prayer that we need to give to God – he will continue to help the Year of Faith,” he affirmed. |
The Arizona Cardinals will see some movement in practice on the offensive line this week. With right tackle Bobby Massie's status still unknown for the start of the season, the team is giving a couple of players the chance to compete for playing time while he is out.
Bradley Sowell worked on the first team all last week and started at right tackle. This week, Earl Watford is getting time at right tackle to compete for the starting spot in Massie's absence.
"I want Earl to get a bunch of snaps this week at right tackle and battle for the job," Arians said. "He's earned the right to battle for a starting job." Watford practiced for the last week or so on a bad ankle, so Arians had not opened up that job. Watford had an ankle injection and sat out practice Monday. With a day off Tuesday, the coaching staff will get to see him and whether he can overtake Sowell.
First round pick D.J. Humphries, who has been working at right tackle all offseason, is moving over to left tackle on the second team to work. "He hasn't had any work (at LT) since he's been here," said Arians, who wanted him to get some time there, "in case he ends up being a swing tackle for us."
Arians said it shouldn't take long for Humphries to get acclimated to the left side again, as it is his natural position.
As for what the situation is with Massie and where he stands in terms of the job at right tackle, Arians made it clear on the radio on Monday Massie is the starter once he is back from whatever discipline the league gives him. The team has not yet heard exactly what that will be. It is reportedly three games, but Massie has appealed it. |
Rocker Gary Glitter Jailed For 16 Years For Child Sex Abuse
Enlarge this image toggle caption Elizabeth Cook /PA Photos/Landov Elizabeth Cook /PA Photos/Landov
Rocker Gary Glitter, best known for the stadium rock anthem "Rock & Roll (Part 2)," was sentenced to 16 years in prison for sex offenses during the 1970s and '80s against three girls between the ages of 8 and 13.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was sentenced today for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13, the BBC reports. A jury found the 70-year-old guilty of the charges on Feb. 5, and Judge Alistair McCreath said then that Glitter would remain jailed until his sentencing.
"You did all of them real and lasting damage, and you did so for no other reason than to obtain sexual gratification for yourself of a wholly improper kind," McCreath said today.
The judge said that despite the seriousness of the crimes, he was permitted to use only the more lenient guidelines of the '70s and '80s while sentencing Glitter. For example, the charge of having sex with a child under 13 carries a life sentence today, but carried a seven-year sentence at that time.
Glitter, 70, showed no emotion as he left the dock, the BBC noted. As we have previously reported, Glitter had denied the allegations.
He was convicted of child sex abuse in 2006 in Vietnam and sentenced to three years in prison. In 1999, he was convicted of possessing as many as 4,000 images of child abuse and jailed for four months.
Glitter was the first person to be arrested as part of the British investigation into allegations of child abuse against the late BBC television host Jimmy Savile. |
In my preview for the Battery’s match against Toronto FC II last weekend, I said that the magic number was five… and I was off by one. TFC II had only scored 5 goals all season and the Battery ended up tying their goal total for the entire season in one night with 6 total goals (TFCII scored one to take their total to six).
This was a spectacular game for the Battery for many reasons. They stayed on top of the USL Eastern Conference and, with Louisville and Rochester pressing, Charleston put distance between other teams who have played less games passing them in the standings.
Also the Battery now leads the league in scoring with 34 goals (Real Monarchs sit in 2nd with 33). Super Romario Williams jumped to the top of the individual scoring list with his 12th and 13th goals of the season, and with Dante Marini scoring, the Battery have seen eight different players score this season, six scoring more than once.
The Game
To be honest, Toronto FC II should have never stepped on the same field Saturday night. They did have a few chances in the early going, but they were outplayed for the majority of the match and looked more like a JV squad then a Division II professional squad.
The skill level and physical play of the Battery were way too much for TFC II to handle.
The Battery found the back of the net in the 31st minute when Maikel Chang’s corner found its way to Super Romario Williams, and he finished his 12th goal of the season.
11 minutes later, my Player to Watch Forrest Lasso scored his 6th goal of the season and proved once again that on a set piece against the Battery, you have to find a way to try and shut down Lasso.
Many teams have tried but most have failed and when TFCII couldn’t shut him down they found themselves down 2–0 going into the half.
A Second Half Slaughter
When the second half started, I thought TFC II would come out quickly and try to find a way back into the game, but even if that was the plan, it was not going to happen.
The Battery ended up having one of their best halves of the entire season.
It all started when Super Romario scored his 2nd of the night and league leading 13th for the season in the 51st.
He would end up taking a spot in the USL Team of the Week for the 3rd time this season.
Seven minutes later outside midfielder Dante Marini scored his first goal of the season.
The goal is up for USL Goal of the Week and you can vote HERE and help Dante win!
TFCII would get one goal back in the 68th minute from a beautiful diving header on the back post but it would be the only bright spot on the night for the boys from Canada.
Charleston did not wait long to dash any hopes of a crazy come back. Six minutes after TFCII scored Marini put away his second goal of the night.
This time Super Romario found him for Williams’ 2nd assist of the season. Battery supporters, myself included, are hopeful that Williams’ assist numbers will start to grow quickly as many clubs are starting to double team him in the box. This should open some players up the passing lanes for Williams.
The final nail in the coffin was a beauty! Set piece specialist Justin Portillo stepped up and put away another free kick in stoppage time and when the final whistle blew, the Battery won 6–1.
This was a game every Battery supporter will remember for a while. It is not everyday you go to a soccer match and see seven goals scored. |
While left-wing bloggers insist the next Supreme Court justice should be an atheist and Psychology Today publishes an article on “Why Atheists Are More Intelligent than the Religious,” occupying anti-religion’s center stage today are best-selling authors Richard Dawkins (“The God Delusion”) and Christopher Hitchens (“God Is Not Great”).
The world’s two most well-known atheists are seriously calling for the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI “for crimes against humanity” for what they allege is his complicity in covering up sexual abuse on the part of Catholic clergymen.
They’ve retained top U.K. lawyers Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens to cook up a legal process enabling British authorities “to initiate criminal proceedings against the pope, launch their own civil action against him or refer his case to the International Criminal Court,” the Times of London tells us.
No question about it, atheism is rapidly undergoing a remarkable transformation right before our eyes.
Somehow, in recent years, atheists have gone from being a near-invisible pariah class on the fringe of civilized society to a confident, unapologetic and increasingly vocal minority, publishing best-seller after best-seller condemning and mocking religion. To give you a taste, here’s the opening sentence of chapter two of Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”:
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
That’s just the beginning. Atheism is currently coalescing into a genuine political force, its adherents comparing their “plight” to that of gays combating “discrimination.” The evidence is hard to miss:
Atheism, just like homosexuality – once considered shameful by the larger culture – is now becoming hip, sophisticated, even a badge of honor.
Exit-polling data clearly indicate atheists’ numbers are growing dramatically. “The bloc of voters identifying themselves as religiously unaffiliated – which does not directly translate into nonbelievers but includes their ranks – has risen in every presidential election since 1988: from 5.3 percent that year to 12 percent in 2008,” writes Paul Starobin in the non-partisan National Journal. “That 12 percent share amounts to 15 million voters – a bigger bloc than the Hispanic vote (9 percent), the gay vote (4 percent), and the Jewish vote (2 percent), and just a notch smaller than the African-American vote (13 percent).”
Even more impressive is the data compiled by Roger Finke, a Pennsylvania State University professor who directs the Association of Religion Data Archives:
The share of Americans who report no religious preference hovered around the 5-to-6 percent level from the early 1970s through the 1980s, jumped to 9 percent in 1993, rose to 14 percent in 1998, and is now about 16 percent. … By that count, the no-preference bloc is nearly equal to the share of mainline Protestant churches, from which it is probably poaching members.
Until recently, atheists had zero political clout, having to content themselves with being more of an “intellectual club,” the Journal report says, “reflecting on the meaning of a life without God (and the patent absurdity, as many of these folks think, of a life with God). But those days are over.”
Now the Godless are making a crucial transformation toward the status of a my-time-has-come movement with a political and legislative agenda to enact – and with this shift, a host of contentious national issues is being engaged, with the potential to ignite a new round of culture wars in American society.
Today’s atheist activists “liken their strategy to that of the gay-rights movement,” adds the New York Times, “which lifted off when closeted members of a scorned minority decided to go public.”
“It’s not about carrying banners or protesting,” said Herb Silverman, a math professor at the College of Charleston who founded the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, which has about 150 members on the coast of the Carolinas. “The most important thing is coming out of the closet.”
In fact, just as homosexuals co-opted the word “gay” to facilitate their cultural and political mainstreaming, atheists have adopted their own euphemistic label, many now calling themselves “brights.”
And how, exactly, do atheists want to change American society and government?
“The end result,” atheists claim, would be “a more peaceful and modern society,” reports the National Journal, since presumably our nation would be “less willing to embark on violent conflicts of a religious character” such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Euthanasia would be widely permitted – no ethical problems there. Pharmacists couldn’t legally refuse to fulfill birth-control prescriptions (or, presumably, chemical abortion prescriptions either) as a matter of conscience or religious faith. School science classes would be prohibited from teaching anything about the origins of life except evolution – no mention of “intelligent design” allowed. And “the Boy Scouts would lose all forms of federal support for teaching that a good Scout has a ‘duty to God.'”
It gets even more controversial. At least some influential atheists reportedly want to clone humans. “In a sign of the culture warfare to come,” reports Starobin, atheists are “emerging as an enthusiastic voice on behalf of scientific efforts to clone human beings, a technology with the potential to ‘conquer mortality.'” Seeing themselves as very pro-science, atheists “tend to think that mindless religious scruples prevent the development of such techniques as cloning that could extend the boundaries of human life.”
As I explain in my new book “How Evil Works,” the astonishing spectacle we are witnessing today – from the upsurge in militant atheism and pagan religions, to the overflowing toxic sewer of popular culture, to the attempted socialist coup d’etat in Washington, D.C. – is the utterly predictable, inevitable result of abandoning our nation’s core principles, otherwise known as Judeo-Christian values.
A couple of generations ago, almost all of America believed a few basic things: that there is a God, that He’s the God of the Bible, and that the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are the basis for a good life and a great society; that human beings are made in God’s image (so we don’t kill little babies before they’re born); that sex is sacred and reserved only for marriage. These and a few other common values, which formed the moral foundation of Western civilization for millennia and American civilization for centuries, gave life and strength to our nation and unity to our people.
Then, we were seduced into abandoning those few, innocent, shining truths. We were persuaded and intimidated into thinking they were old-fashioned, superstitious and repressive. Remember how Barack Obama referred to the Bible’s censure of homosexuality, dismissing the moral principles held as sacred by virtually all of America’s founders as “worn arguments and old attitudes”?
As most readers already recognize, America as we know it is being destroyed – or as Obama put it five days before the 2008 election, “fundamentally transformed.” But this didn’t start with Obama, his regime being just the latest phase of a long-term assault on the transcendent moral foundation of America. The termites have been voraciously boring at our ground floor, largely out of view, for decades.
There is unquestionably a way back, which I explore in-depth in “How Evil Works.” It will not be easy, but it can be done. However, if I may offer a friendly warning, there are also many ways of fighting back that, while making us feel good and righteous, serve only to make things worse, perhaps much worse. I spent a very long time sorting all this out and translating it into plain, simple English in “How Evil Works,” and I sincerely commend it to you. |
Turn 10 turns a new leaf
Although I used to play racing games for hundreds of hours, it really takes something special to get me hooked again. Recently, after the somewhat rushed release of Forza 5, I naturally gravitated toward other racers, including the Horizon series.
But even still, I wasn't crazy about them. That is, until I played Forza Motorsport 6.
Forza Motorsport 6 (Xbox One)
Developer: Turn 10 Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Release Date: September 15, 2015
MSRP: $59.99
After a few minutes with the 2017 Ford GT in the tutorial (which is actually rather affordable in-game), you'll kick off three qualifying matches, which subsequently unlock the rest of the game. I started with a modest '97 Mazda RX7, with a small degree of CPU assistance to get my bearings again.
This is probably my favorite part of Forza -- yes, it's a simulator, but you can fine-tune the experience to cater to your needs. If you haven't touched a racer in years, the game can show you exactly where to take turns with arrow paths on the ground that change colors based on the appropriate speed. You can also have Forza operate your braking procedures for you, so you won't fly off course or crash into walls all that often. Of course, the excellent rewind feature is back, so you can re-do a fateful turn that may have cost you the race.
If you disable all of these options though, it's probably the most advanced racing simulator yet. The Xbox One controller is still by far the best standard controller for racers, with the nuanced haptic feedback system actually providing kickback. I also had an opportunity to play Forza 6 with the Logitech's G29 Driving Force, and my experience far surpassed that of its PS4 counterparts. If you've been waiting to pick up a wheel, this is probably the game to do it with.
The Drivatar system also returns, which, as we know at this point, is less a gimmick and more of a proven idea. What's amazing about this mechanic is that we've had data collected for years from Forza 5 and Horizon 2, so when I jumped into Forza 6, I was immediately greeted by these AI/player combo drivers. They're still just as fun to race against as they were in the past, mostly because of erratic behavior that separates them from the orderly AI.
The visual enhancements of Forza 5 have been perfected, up to and including the working odometer for each car interior. The game is still 1080p60, but the level of detail on tracks (which Forza 6 has a lot more of) is insane. This is heightened by the research Turn 10 did on the effect of rain on each track, and as a result, puddles form exactly where they would in real life. It really forces you to know (and trust) your vehicle, and you'll have to not only learn each track's ins and outs, but the rain element as well. Sometimes I found that I could sprint over it at certain angles, and in other instances, I hydroplaned the crap out of my car. Sim fans will love that they have to master yet another element of each track, even if they're already familiar.
The flow of Forza 6 involves a career mode, separated by street, sport, touring, pro, and ultimate tiers. The concept here to break up the relatively standard career is "Stories of Motorsport," a loving tribute to historical races mixed in with other gamey challenges. I'm talking showcase events like racing an IndyCar at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway taking curves at over 200 mph, reliving the birth of Grand Prix racing, bowling for pins, or going up against The Stig from Top Gear. Speaking of Top Gear, it does return in a minimal capacity, but the lack of Jeremy Clarkson stings a bit.
Although I had limited access to multiplayer, there is support for up to 24 players across seven modes, including your standard race setting and tag. There's also league support and a free-play mode that supports split-screen play. If you're interested in trying out any car you want, you can rent it without a charge to in-game currency -- you just won't get any experience for that race.
So let's talk cars and tracks. Straight-up, Forza 6 feels like a more complete game, hosting over 450 vehicles at launch (without paid DLC), as opposed to Forza 5's roughly 200. You can still tune them up, customize their look, and download/upload new patterns -- of which there are hundreds, spanning multiple games at this point. The running theme with Forza 6 is that it's very easy to pick up for newcomers, since it basically functions as a new game and a "GOTY" edition of sorts, sporting tons of content from past titles without resorting to add-ons. This is partially because Turn 10 brought back the prize wheel from Horizon 2, which allows players to randomly earn a prize after leveling up, up to and including million-credit cars.
Even though I only earned a supercar once, the other rewards are generally pretty great, so I still felt like I was progressing credits-wise. And this leads into another important element of Forza 6 -- there are no microtransactions to speak of, at least at launch. If you can't buy a car with your credits, tough, you'll have to earn them. This also goes for the new "mod" system, which kind of plays out like Titanfall's Burn Cards. You can activate one-use mods to better your handling or grip after buying packs of mods, or take "dares," which are like challenges of sorts, which provide their own rewards. Again, this thankfully doesn't feel necessary (it isn't even enabled online), and it's not linked to a microtransaction system...yet.
There are also 25 tracks, each with multiple variations, which kicks Forza 5's 14 to the curb. With the aforementioned new details (especially with refreshing levels like Rio de Janeiro, which hasn't appeared since the first game) and the new rain, even the old ones feel new. Despite a lot of these upgrades, Forza 6 does feel somewhat like an apology letter for the last main iteration. It's important to note that if you don't really love the idea of reworked rain effects, you probably won't find a whole lot that's fundamentally new outside of the fact that there's just more to do in general.
For me though, it was enough to outright bring me back into the racing fold. I found myself racing for hours, racking up credits, ferociously buying new cars to add to my garage, and cursing at my friend's Drivatars. Forza 6 is the new king of simulation racing.
[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]
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Forza Motorsport 6 reviewed by Chris Carter |
The year the world changed forever was the year the foxes changed colour. Well, it didn’t happen as quickly as that, within a single season, but it might as well have. One year they were white, the next they were red. Bigger too, and bolder. Out on the tundra she called home, a long way from any other living soul, the old woman known as Aapia found a red fox carcass, its belly slashed and open to the cold skies. She took the carcass home and made a coat from its fur. In the old days, its russet blaze would have been fatal for hunting, but the snow had gone along with the white foxes.
The last white fox was shot as a pest by a man from the concrete town to the south. The old woman was out gathering fernweed when she sensed the fatal shot. She felt the frantic pulse of the fox’s heart as it lay in the mud, its fur turning slowly red and then black. Her fury rose at this witless slaughter. She reached out across the plains, inside the bloody bower of the fox’s ribcage and she scooped up its spirit and brought it back to her house. The spirit shivered, frail and confused to find itself within four walls. Seeing its terror, Aapia thought about killing the man. But he was far away. Instead, she sent a battalion of snow geese. The geese took up her anger. They pursued the man across the concrete town, diving and swiping at his head, screeching the old woman’s rage.
That same spring, the camera people returned.
* * *
They had first appeared ten years before. Aapia was younger then, although age was beginning to make itself felt, and she had the dogs. They were a pack of six, grey and tan and white, with powerful torsos and eager tongues. They bundled about her, barking excitedly as she listened to the camera people’s spiel. They wanted to make a documentary. It was to do with the ice, they said. It was to do with the oil. They were looking for personal stories - only that could make a difference to the collective global mindset. Could they have her personal story?
Aapia was not convinced they knew much about stories, and asked why they wanted hers.
She was the last, they said. Genealogically. They had done studies. Her voice would be valuable.
But Aapia did not wish to be in a documentary, and the camera people went away disappointed, to search the tundra for other tales.
* * *
Ten years on, the mission of the camera people had not changed. They spoke earnestly about their cause. They asked about Aapia’s dogs. What had happened to them. She told them the dogs were gone. Without snow, there was no sled, and without sled, there was no purpose for the dogs. She had buried them one by one, their howls cast to the winds, their meat wasted to bone in the unyielding earth. She had hoped that the dogs’ spirits would stay with her, although she did not tell the camera people that. How she missed their warmth. Their solidity. The dogs had gone wandering in search of their ancestors, or so she guessed.
The camera people wanted to photograph the sled, unaware that the white fox’s spirit was perched on the runners, watching them suspiciously. The white fox was suspicious of all people now, except for the old woman. Even with Aapia it was prone to melancholy, having realized that none other of its kindred were trapped in the hinterland between life and what lay beyond it. The camera people said the sled was an iconic example of how rising temperatures had wiped out indigenous culture. They wanted to know the word for sled. For the dogs. For snow. Oh, I don’t speak that old language, she told them. They looked mournful then.
They would be back again next year, they said, and they left on a quest to find white hares. The old woman could have told them this was a fool’s errand, but they would not have listened.
* * *
The spirit of the white fox was good company for Aapia. During the day the white fox curled up in the embers of the stove, and at night it went out through the chimney in a silken whisper, to run among the stars. It was not a dog, but it was somewhere close. But then something happened to upset their balance.
The man from the town had not learned his lesson. The following spring he shot another fox, a red one. Once again Aapia reached out over the plains to collect the fox’s spirit and bring it home. Once again, she sent the geese to punish the murderer. This time she dispatched a goshawk alongside them, although the geese did not appreciate this intervention as much as she had intended.
The old woman thought the red fox would be a companion to the white, but her second rescue was not so successful as the first. The white fox was aggrieved to find itself billeted with its genocidal cousin, and the red fox proved unruly. It tumbled through the house, causing disturbances in the air and sudden breezes that knocked the old woman’s possessions from shelves and made the windows rattle in their frames. The white fox, convinced that the red fox had eaten her brother during their time amongst the living, fell into a terrible depression and refused to come out from behind the stove. In the end Aapia was forced to banish the red fox from the house. The red fox, not particularly upset, took up residence in the sled outside.
One morning, not long after the cotton grass had flowered, the old woman woke up to find a dozen foxes outside her door. They had come to complain about the antics of the red fox spirit. The red fox had been playing tricks on its living brethren, swooping into burrows to tickle the paws of terrified kits, conjuring winds to scare rodents at the moment of the pounce, and stealing slivers of the northern lights to disorientate migrating birds. As the sun rose higher, the number of complainants grew. The white fox spirit sat beside the old woman, grooming its beautiful tail. I told you it was trouble, said the white fox. There was a certain smugness to the white fox now.
Other animals joined the congregation. Aapia began to feel guilty. Perhaps she should not have brought the fox spirits home. But she had been lonely.
The camera people arrived next, drawn by the spectacle of hundreds of foxes. Where had they come from? Why were they flocking to the old woman? A great grey owl landed in a flurry, furious because the red fox spirit had been singing to its embryo chicks in their eggs, describing how it would eat them when they hatched.
The camera people went crazy when they saw the owl. Abroad in daylight! What a thing! Well, the old woman could hardly tell them that this was a parliament. They would never understand. She went inside and shut the door. The red fox spirit danced gleefully on the roof of the house and the fox parliament began to yip in an angry chorus. The camera people filmed the scene, but after a while the yipping and the stink of a hundred foxes was too much even in the pursuit of science. When the great grey owl raised its wings and lofted into the air, they sent a drone in its wake, running clumsily after it on foot.
* * *
With the onset of winter, the red fox calmed. The cold made it drowsy, and docile. The white fox patrolled the skies at night in search of snow to roll in. Finding none, it returned to the house. An uneasy truce settled between the two foxes. They lay at the feet of the old woman as she made cowberry jam, and Aapia felt the shiver of their spirits against her calves.
The last spring that the camera people came, they brought news. A mine was to be built, and around it a town. It would be much nearer than the concrete town to the south, and larger too. Industry was coming to the region. Hearing this, the old woman felt suddenly very tired. She thought of the man who had shot the two foxes, and imagined him multiplied a thousand fold.
The camera people asked once again if they could have her story. She was the last, they reminded her. They were obsessed with this idea, the last of things. And yet they could not see that the last of the white foxes was right under their noses, sitting in the embers of the stove, surveying them quietly. The white fox, hearing talk of the mine, gave a mournful yip. It did not like change. It was already in a gloomy state, having tried switching its coat to all manner of colours in an attempt to keep up with the changing tundra, but without success.
The camera people pleaded with the old woman. In the end she consented to be filmed. The camera people were delighted. They set up their tripod and boom, trained their lenses upon her. But when the time came to speak, Aapia found she had nothing to say. What words could she offer? How could she describe the sadness of the white fox spirit when it could not find snow, or the feckless glee of the red? She sat, and the camera people filmed, and she said nothing. She thought they would be disappointed, but found that nothing could disappoint them now. Silence, they agreed, was the most eloquent weapon. Her silence spoke for millions.
After they had left she sat down in her chair in front of the stove. The white fox shook ash from its paws and stretched out on the rug. The red fox slunk inside, seeking warmth. The old woman let her hand drop, wishing to feel the life-force of pumping blood, the cold press of a canine nose. But they were only ever whispers.
The old woman did not bother to light a lamp. She let the darkness of the night wrap around her. When it was fully dark, she went outside. Something was being stolen, something other than the breath from her lungs or the steady beat of a heart. Aapia looked upon her country and found she did not recognize it. Dizziness took her. The white fox and the red flanked her on either side, sensing her uncertainty. Then she nodded, suddenly resolute. She went inside and got into bed and vowed she would never leave it again.
The fox spirits did their best. They brought her the intestines of rabbits and goose feathers for her thin white hair. They consulted with the terns and the great grey owl. They caught rodents and brewed clumsy pots of labrador tea. Nothing tempted her.
* * *
Days slipped by. The old woman could feel her heart winding down. The cotton grass flowered, but even in the snow-free land she felt a chill that would not abate. The geese brought news; there was a great scar in the land where the mine was being blasted. The town was advancing. Lying in her bed, the old woman’s breathing became shallower and shallower, until one day her chest dipped, and did not rise again.
The two foxes were ready. They worked together, gently lifting the old woman’s spirit from the cage of her body, and up through the roof of her house into the crisp starlit air beyond. They held her tightly, lest she become overwhelmed by the vastness of the celestial world. Then they opened her eyes, and showed her the tundra spread out below. They began to run. Aapia ran with them. She could not believe how light she was, how fleet of foot. She could run faster than when she was a girl. In the distance, she heard something, a familiar sound, beloved. It was the howl of a pack. The old woman ran.
---
E.J. Swift is the author of Osiris, Cataveiro and Tamaruq, a series set in a world radically altered by climate change, comprising. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies including The Best British Fantasy and the digital book Strata. Swift was shortlisted for a 2013 BSFA Award for “Saga’s Children” (The Lowest Heaven) and was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award for “The Spiders of Stockholm” (Irregularity).
Art by 12 Orchards. |
Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney have each missed penalties for Manchester United in recent games
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has stripped Robin van Persie of penalty duties after Saturday's miss cost his side against West Brom.
Asked if Van Persie would continue as first-choice penalty taker, Van Gaal said: "No. He is now at the end of the road."
"It is always [the same]," he added. "Wayne Rooney has missed also, so when you miss, you are at the bottom again."
West Brom's 1-0 victory was United's third league defeat in succession.
Van Persie struck his penalty firmly but keeper Boaz Myhill saved to his left
Van Persie, 31, had the opportunity to equalise Chris Brunt's 63rd-minute opener from the spot after referee Anthony Taylor ruled Saido Berahino had handled in the box.
But Baggies keeper Boaz Myhill guessed right and palmed the Dutchman's effort to safety, helping West Brom to a second straight win at Old Trafford. |
Filibuster reform is desperately needed, but not the kind of reform that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are sparring about. What is needed is a return to the filibuster of Senate tradition as depicted by Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” — and as so aptly demonstrated this summer by Wendy Davis in the Texas state Senate.
I’m referring to actually talking. The filibuster as structured today in the U.S. Senate has careened so far from that original tradition that it is not even recognizable. Richard A. Arenberg warns against using the “nuclear option” by quoting Lyndon Johnson’s defense of unlimited debate (“Filibuster go boom? Not a smart move,” July 15).
Seriously? What debate? The filibuster has devolved to the point where the minority kills a bill simply by announcing an intention to filibuster. There is no debate.
Until recently, the purpose of the filibuster was to give voice to the minority in a dramatic way. A senator could passionately call attention to his or her position. That was a good thing. Wendy Davis was not able to kill the anti-abortion legislation before the Texas Senate, but she was able to bring it to the attention of the entire nation and to inspire tens of thousands of Texans to raise their voices against it.
So it should be again. It should not be possible to kill a bill by means of filibuster. Senators should be required to hold the floor and talk themselves hoarse in front of the entire nation. (C-SPAN would have a field day.) The effect would be a much-needed two-edged sword, because the people would be watching. A senator who would stand against an unpopular or ill-conceived bill, as Bernie Sanders did, would come out all the more popular — while a senator who dared to block a popular and needed measure such as a jobs bill would only, in the end, subject himself to ridicule.
The Reid-McConnell discussion on “Meet the Press” last Sunday did not even come close to the real problem. Neither has any comment in the newspaper or anywhere else. Reid is pussyfooting around a minuscule change that would merely allow the president to make some appointments, and McConnell is talking about a “tradition” that never existed.
Serious change is needed, and as ironic as it is, that change is not really change at all. It is merely a return to what always was.
David M. Perlman
The writer lives in New Hope. |
Image copyright EVN Image caption Emergency staff were seen inspecting the plane after the blast
An explosion on the tarmac at Sabiha Gokcen airport in the Turkish city of Istanbul has killed a female cleaner.
The woman who died was working on a Pegasus airlines plane overnight when the blast took place. A colleague who was with her was wounded.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation, the airport says.
Armed police imposed tight security at the airport's entrance, Turkish media report, but flights appear to be running normally.
The woman killed, 30-year-old Zeyhra Yamac, died of head injuries.
No passengers were on the plane or nearby at the time, Pegasus said in a statement.
It said the explosion had happened at 02:05 (00:05 GMT) on Wednesday. Although the cause of the blast was unknown, police were investigating whether it was a bomb, Dogan news agency reports.
Fragments from the blast damaged five other planes, Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said.
"[A] weakness in the airport's security is out of the question," he added.
Some witnesses claimed to have heard three consecutive explosions.
Located on the Asian facing side of Istanbul, Sabiha Gokcen is the city's second-largest airport after Ataturk airport on the European side of the city. |
Oh, you wacky Internet.
“Hi interwebs! I spent years writing a deeply-researched book that puts the Neopagan movement in a new historical and spiritual context!”
“Yawn,” says the interwebs.
“Hi again! I wrote a piece on theology and ontology that tries to close the gap between atheism and religion. Some cool people have said it’s not bad!”
“Lol wot? Tl;dr.”
“Hey! I took a go at rebutting Plato’s Cave. And argued with a Zen priest about psychedelics in Buddhism. And I wrote a sort of humanistic Pagan funeral ritual.”
“Yawn. Zzzzzz.” The interwebs are all but comatose.
“I think the idea of ‘cultural appropriation’ isn’t a useful way to talk about thorny issues regarding the cross-cultural movement of ideas.”
“***OMG!!!1!*** Everyone look at this! YES! NO! YES!!! NO!!! Agree! Disagree! Shame on you! No, shame on YOU! **** BLOGFIGHT!!! **** Fire up the outrage machine!”
<facepalm>
Oh, you wacky Internet.
And thus I find myself in the center of a whirlwind of compliments and insults over that post. I actually got an e-mail this morning from a total stranger saying “I really think people are on a witch hunt here, pun intended…I hope you are holding up well.”
Thanks for the concern, stranger. When faced with baseless accusations (and for my sins, I’ve been in enough Pagan politics to have dealt with them before) I try to remember Dr. McCoy’s excellent reply to some bullshit in the Star Trek episode “Friday’s Child”: “What the Klingon has said is unimportant, and we do not hear his words.”
Two other relevant quotations come to mind:
“This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing. As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse.” — “Politics and the English Language”, George Orwell
“A person belonging to one of more Order [of Discordia] is just as likely to carry a flag of the counter-establishment as the flag of the establishment–just as long as it is a flag.” — Principia Discordia
Anyway. I guess I ought to say a few words of my own about all this.
But first: anyone who somehow read into that article some justification of bigotry, anyone saying “See? Racism isn’t really a problem!” — you’re being an idiot, and you may please leave now. (Imagine me pointing to a door off to the right somewhere.)
And on the other hand, anyone who thinks it’s acceptable to throw around baseless charges of racism? Anyone who thinks that if someone questions the best way to understand and fight the problem of racism and comes up with a different answer than you, they must be racist? You are also being an idiot, and you may please leave now. (Imagine me pointing to a door off to the left somewhere. Separate exits. Don’t want you running into each other in the Patheos lobby and fighting it out.)
Okay. Now that we’re left only with those interested in an adult conversation (only a handful of us, I fear, but so it goes), perhaps some additional context might help.
I have to admit that I wasn’t writing that post for an audience of tens of thousands of strangers, but assuming my usual 100-300 hits from folks with a nodding acquaintance with my writing. So, mea culpa for maybe not being as complete as I should have been. If you read the post in question, you noticed a reference to “the broken idea of ‘intellectual property'” and a link that…yeah, you probably didn’t click, and so I might have given some clarity by summarizing it.
The founder of the “Free Software” movement, Richard M. Stallman, has written how the idea of “intellectual property” is “distorting and confusing”:
It has become fashionable to toss copyright, patents, and trademarks—three separate and different entities involving three separate and different sets of laws—plus a dozen other laws into one pot and call it “intellectual property”. The distorting and confusing term did not become common by accident. Companies that gain from the confusion promoted it. The clearest way out of the confusion is to reject the term entirely. … The term “intellectual property” is at best a catch-all to lump together disparate laws. Nonlawyers who hear one term applied to these various laws tend to assume they are based on a common principle and function similarly. Nothing could be further from the case. These laws originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues.
This idea is fairly well-known the tech and free culture communities. And you won’t just find it on TechDirt and in the IEEE’s collection of papers; famed film director Jean-Luc Godard has said that “intellectual property” does not exist.
There is copyright, there are patents, there are trademarks, but they are distinct things. There is not a valid and useful merelogical sum, no separate and more general phenomenon “intellectual property”, even though that term is in wide political use. The term carries inaccurate (or at least very questionable) assumptions about the specific cases involved, and using it causes us to take on those assumptions and so distorts our thinking. We’d be well-served to drop it and use only the more specific terms so that we can think more clearly about the issues involved.
And as I watched another thread of poorly-informed vitriol against white folks with dreadlocks go by, and tried to separate legitimate complaints about racism and colonialism from valuable cross-cultural exchanges from pointless or silly complaints about other people’s personal choices, it struck me that there was a parallelism to Stallman’s argument.
There is misrepresentation of other cultures, there is plagiarism, and there is insult — let’s call this the “MPI model”. We can empirically observe unquestionable instances of each of these. But there is not a valid and useful merelogical sum, no separate and more general phenomenon “cultural appropriation”, even though that term is in wide political use. The term carries inaccurate (or at least very questionable) assumptions about the specific cases involved, and using it causes us to take on those assumptions and so distorts our thinking. We’d be well-served to drop it and use only the more specific terms so that we can think more clearly about the issues involved.
And that’s the idea at the heart of the post that launched a thousand social media shares.
You may, of course, disagree in part or in whole with this conclusion. You can argue that I’ve made an error in reasoning, or have overlooked important cases. Heck, you can even call me hardheaded or dim-witted and I won’t call that out-of-bounds in a spirited debate.
But if you’re leveling charges of racism over it, as some are, that is so baseless that it strongly suggests that your interest isn’t entirely about fighting racism, but at least in part is about experiencing the warm glow of self-righteousness — even as you damage the cause you say you’re fighting for.
There have been far more comments and replies than I’ve been able to keep up with. I will try over the next few days to dig through and see what valid criticisms and questions have been raised. But there are two points I’d like to make now.
First, putting aside the ontological question as to the existence of “cultural appropriation”, this flamewar is evidence that it’s not a rhetorically useful construct. If you want to change people’s behaviors and opinions you have to communicate in a common language, and this brouhaha shows that “cultural appropriation” is not part of that language. Even among those championing the idea that the concept is useful I see significant differences in claims about just what it’s supposed to mean.
If we want to speak about against misrepresentation of other cultures, plagiarism and failure to credit, and insults, it would be more effective to speak specifically in well-understood terms than to tell someone, “I can explain your sin to you after you go read this article.”
Second, a few folks have pointed up the issue of unequal power. While I used the examples of colonial powers misrepresenting colonized peoples and of music publishers exploiting African-American musicians in the early 20th century, examples where there was obviously unequal power, I wasn’t explicit about that dynamic.
So let me state it more clearly: cross-cultural misrepresentation, plagiarism, and insults are problems mostly when the perpetrator is in a position of power. In the U.S. that usually means a white perpetrator. (If we looked long enough I’m sure we could find a handful of exceptions and edge cases, but the general rule holds.)
But — to bring it back to the case that started this all — a person styling their hair into matted locks is not thereby exercising power over anyone. It’s very much an example of “my body, my choice”.
There are some interesting power dynamics around hair. People may have to choose their hairstyle to deal with others exercising socio-economic or political power over them, from African-American woman feeling forced to straighten their hair to Japanese boys legally forced to cut off their top-knots in the Meiji restoration. We see kids getting suspended from schools for having the wrong haircut; we see Chelsea Manning being forced to adhere to hair standards for male prisoners (and I would assume she is not the only trans woman to be so treated); we see Sikh and Rastafarian prisoners being forcibly shorn of their locks.
And that’s bad and sad. But telling someone that they can’t style their hair in a certain way because “cultural appropriation! Shame on you!” doesn’t make any of those people more free.
If you’ve decided that rather than calling for my head on a pike you’d like to keep reading my posts, you can keep up with “The Zen Pagan” by subscribing via RSS or e-mail.
If you do Facebook, you might choose to join a group on “Zen Paganism” I’ve set up there. And don’t forget to “like” Patheos Pagan and/or The Zen Pagan over there,
too.
Postscript: For a fuller reply to the controversy, please see The Cultural Appropriation Controversy: A Summary Reply. |
The administration already has hammered out a number of compromises with key Democrats in Congress, in hopes of creating a proposal that can survive the challenge from competing interests such as hedge funds hoping to avoid regulation and consumer groups seeking even greater protections. But while the proposals sharpen the discussion about reform, they don't end it.
"With their proposals today, the administration has moved this critical debate from broad discussion to specific action," said Timothy Ryan of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
The administration's plan leans heavily on the Fed, expanding its role as the regulator of the nation's largest banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to include other giant financial firms, such as the insurance companies American International Group and MetLife. The agency, which has greater independence from the political process than other regulators, would have broad authority to impose special requirements on those companies, such as mandating that they set aside a larger percentage of their assets against possible losses than smaller firms. Such a requirement could limit large companies' appetite for risk, but also their profit and growth.
The plan calls for a council of regulators to consult with the Fed, including the Treasury secretary and the heads of the other financial regulatory agencies: The Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the agencies that regulate banks. A primary task of the council would be to recommend which large, globally interconnected firms are too big to fail and should be subject to more rigorous oversight. But the council will not have the authority to oppose decisions made by the central bank.
Agencies other than the Fed pressed for the creation of such a council, but its limited role is likely to disappoint them. Prominent Democrats and Republicans in Congress also have signaled that they are reluctant to increase the Fed's powers without imposing stronger limitations.
A second element likely to provoke fierce debate is the establishment of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
The agency would have broad authority to overhaul a tangled mess of federal regulations, such as the various laws that compel lenders to give mortgage borrowers a massive stack of paperwork at closing that includes several calculations of the true cost of the loan itself.
"Consumers should have clear disclosure regarding the consequences of their financial decisions," the plan states.
The agency also would have the authority to change the way that loans are sold. One idea highlighted by the administration is to require that lenders offer all customers standard "plain vanilla" loans, such as 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages with streamlined pricing. The sale of loans with more complicated terms would be subjected to greater scrutiny by the agency. It could even require that customers who take more complicated loans sign a waiver.
And the agency would have a mandate to increase the availability of financial products in lower-income communities and other underserved areas, in part by enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to make loans everywhere that they collect deposits.
To carry out these responsibilities, the agency would be granted the same powers as the regulators charged with keeping banks healthy, including the ability to write rules, conduct examinations, and impose fines and other penalties.
Regulatory agencies and industry groups acknowledge failures in recent years. But they say the existing model remains the best way to protect consumers, arguing that the agencies can identify problems more easily because of their close engagement with firms. They also are concerned that a consumer agency could be overly restrictive, limiting access to loans and constraining the development of new types of accounts, loans and other financial services.
"This consumer protection agency would be deciding how people get to live as opposed to people getting to decide for themselves," said Kelly King, chief executive of BB&T, a large commercial bank based in North Carolina.
Consumer advocates say the current financial crisis is ample evidence of the need for a new approach.
"We've tried it the other way for years, and obviously it didn't work. That's how we got here," said John Taylor of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
Several ideas have been dropped as the administration picks its battles. The plan will not include a new way of regulating insurance companies at the federal level. The insurance industry, which is regulated at the state level, is deeply divided, and the White House anticipated a distracting fight. The administration instead plans to create an office in the Treasury Department to monitor the insurance industry.
Some of the largest insurance companies could still fall under the scrutiny of the Federal Reserve in its new role as a systemic risk regulator.
The administration had earlier backed away from a proposal to merge the two agencies that oversee financial markets, and to merge the four agencies that regulate banks. It still will seek to merge the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to create a single agency to oversee banks with national charters. It also will propose eliminating the regulatory category for thrifts, traditionally defined as banks that focus on mortgage lending.
Steve Adamske, spokesman for the House Financial Services Committee, said committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) plans to launch hearings on the specific proposals next week, and to hold votes on pieces of the legislation as soon as July.
"We've been waiting for this for a long time," Adamske said.
The Senate is not expected to begin work on the reforms until fall.
Staff writers Brady Dennis and Zachary A. Goldfarb contributed to this report. |
THE Scottish Government would financially support failed asylum seekers if Scotland was handed control over immigration, social justice secretary Alex Neil has said.
Mr Neil attacked the UK government’s proposal to cut financial support for those who are refused asylum in the UK, saying it will leave traumatised men, women and children “destitute”.
Many people are simply unable to return to their home country
In a letter to UK government immigration minister James Brokenshire, Mr Neil said: “The proposals will cut support to some of the most vulnerable people in our society, who only receive that support because they would otherwise be destitute.
“The Scottish Government believes that the proposals, which seem designed to shift responsibility and cost onto other bodies, particularly local authorities, are wrong in principle.
“It is highly unlikely they will achieve their objective, and they will fundamentally undermine our efforts to create a fairer Scotland.”
Going to the Edinburgh Festival? Find out which shows to see on our dedicated site >>
He added: “Destitution should never be an outcome of the asylum system.
“When we talk about asylum seekers, we are not talking about objects.
“We are first and foremost talking about vulnerable people, families, men, women and their children – people who have often been through great trauma and who deserve to be treated fairly and equally and with dignity and respect.” Mr Neil pointed to a previous pilot project which tried to stop support for families who had reached the end of the asylum process and criticised the timing of the consultation on the proposals.
The Scottish Government has said that if it had control over immigration it would adopt a more “humane approach” to asylum seekers and refugees.
Mr Neil said: “We strongly believe that those refused asylum for whatever reason should be treated with fairness and compassion. We will continue to do all we can to campaign against these unfair and inhumane proposals.”
Gary Christie, head of policy and communications at the Scottish Refugee Council, said: “This attack on those whose claims are turned down, including many families already on the breadline, is unfair and dangerous.
“It is unfair because thousands of Home Office decisions on people’s asylum claims later turn out to be incorrect.
“We know that around 30 per cent of appeals against refusals are successful, a huge figure that affects many individuals and families.
“It is also unfair because many people are simply unable to return to their home country. They may be expected to return to a war zone or to a country whose government refuses to accept them.”
Mr Christie added: “The proposal is dangerous as it will force people into abject destitution, leaving them exposed to an increased risk of violence and exploitation on the streets.” |
AARP has literally made billions of dollars by imposing its own ‘tax’ on seniors buying health insurance policies, not to mention denying care to individuals with disabilities.
Over the past few weeks, AARP—an organization that purportedly advocates on behalf of seniors—has been running advertisements claiming that the House health-care bill would impose an “age tax” on seniors by allowing for greater variation in premiums. It knows of which it speaks: AARP has literally made billions of dollars by imposing its own “tax” on seniors buying health insurance policies, not to mention denying care to individuals with disabilities.
While the public may think of AARP as a membership organization that advocates for liberal causes or gives seniors discounts at restaurants and hotels, most of its money comes from selling the AARP name. In 2015, the organization received nearly three times as much revenue from “royalty fees” than it did from member dues. Most of those royalty fees come from selling insurance products issued by UnitedHealthGroup.
Only We Can Profit On the Elderly
As documented on its tax returns and in congressional oversight reports, AARP royalty fees from UnitedHealthGroup come largely from the sale of Medigap supplemental insurance plans. As the House Ways and Means Committee noted in 2011, while AARP receives a flat-sum licensing fee for branding its Medicare Advantage plans, the organization has a much sweeter deal with respect to Medigap: “State insurance rate filings show that, in 2010, AARP retained 4.95% of seniors’ premiums for every Medigap policy sold under its name. Therefore, the more seniors enroll in the AARP-branded Medigap plan, the more money AARP receives from United.”
So in the sale of Medigap plans, AARP imposes—you guessed it!—a 4.95 percent age tax on seniors. AARP not only makes more money the more people enroll in its Medigap plans, it makes more money if individuals buy more expensive insurance.
Even worse, AARP refused good governance practices that would disclose the existence of that tax to seniors at the time they apply for Medigap insurance. While working for Sen. Jim DeMint in 2012, I helped write a letter to AARP that referenced the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Producer Model Licensing Act.
Specifically, Section 18 of that act recommends that states require explicit disclosure to consumers of percentage-based compensation arrangements at the time of sale, due to the potential for abuse. DeMint’s letter asked AARP to “outline the steps [it] has taken to ensure that your Medigap percentage-based compensation model is in full compliance with the letter and spirit of” those requirements. AARP never gave a substantive reply to this congressional oversight request.
Don’t Screw With Obamacare, It’s Making Us Billions
AARP’s silence might stem from the fact that its hidden taxes have made the organization billions. Between 2010—the year Obamacare was signed into law—and 2015, the most recent year for which financial information is available, AARP received $2.96 billion in “royalty fees” from UnitedHealthGroup. During that same period, AARP made an additional $195.6 million in investment income from its grantor trust.
Essentially, AARP makes money off other people’s money—perhaps receiving insurance premium payments on the 1st of the month, transferring them to UnitedHealth or its other insurance affiliates on the 15th of the month, and pocketing the interest accrued over the intervening two weeks. That’s nearly $3.2 billion in profit over six years, just from selling insurance plans. AARP received much of that $3.2 billion in part because Medigap coverage received multiple exemptions in Obamacare. The law exempted Medigap plans from the health insurer tax, and medical loss ratio requirements.
Most importantly, Medigap plans are exempt from the law’s myriad insurance regulations, including Obamacare’s pre-existing condition exclusions—which means AARP can continue its prior practice of imposing waiting periods on Medigap applicants. You read that right: Not only did Obamacare not end the denial of care for pre-existing conditions, the law allowed AARP to continue to deny care for individuals with disabilities, as insurers can and do reject Medigap applications when individuals qualify for Medicare early due to a disability.
The Obama administration helped AARP in other important ways. Regulators at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) exempted Medigap policies from insurance rate review of “excessive” premium increases, an exemption that particularly benefited AARP. Because the organization imposes its 4.95 percent “age tax” on individuals applying for coverage, AARP has a clear financial incentive to raise premiums, sell seniors more insurance than they require, and sell seniors policies that they don’t need. Yet rather than addressing these inherent conflicts, HHS decided to look the other way and allow AARP to continue its shady practices.
The Cronyism Stinks to High Heaven
Obama administration officials not only did not scrutinize AARP’s insurance abuses, they praised the organization as a model corporate citizen. Then-HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, when speaking to its 2010 convention, called AARP the “gold standard” in providing seniors with “accurate information”—even though the organization declined requests to disclose the conflicts arising from its percentage-based Medigap “royalties.” However, Sebelius’ tone is perhaps not surprising from an administration whose officials plotted with AARP executives to enact Obamacare over AARP members’ strong objections.
AARP will claim in its defense that it’s not an insurance company, which is true. Insurance companies must risk capital to pay claims, and face losses if claims exceed premiums charged. By contrast, AARP need never risk one dime. It can just sit back, license its brand, and watch the profits roll in. Its $561.9 million received from UnitedHealthGroup in 2015 exceeded the profits of many large insurers that year, including multi-billion dollar carriers like Centene, Health Net, and Molina Healthcare.
But if the AARP now suddenly cares about “taxing” the aged so much, Washington should grant them their wish. The Trump administration and Congress should investigate and crack down on AARP’s insurance shenanigans. Congress should subpoena Sebelius and Sylvia Mathews Burwell, her successor, and ask why each turned a blind eye to its sordid business practices. HHS should write to state insurance commissioners, and ask them to enforce existing best practices that require greater disclosure from entities (like AARP) operating on a percentage-based commission.
And both Congress and the administration should ask why, if AARP cares about its members as much as it claims, the organization somehow “forgot” to lobby for Medigap reforms—not just prior to Obamacare’s passage, but now. AARP’s fourth quarter lobbying report showed that the organization contacted Congress on 77 separate bills, including issues as minor as the cost of lifetime National Parks passes, yet failed to discuss Medigap reform at all.
Given that AARP made more than $3 billion in profits from the status quo—denying care to individuals with pre-existing conditions, and earning more money by generating more, and higher, premiums—its silence makes sense on one level. But if AARP really wants to make insurance markets fair, and stop “taxing” the aged, all it has to do is look in the mirror. |
'I was lucky to live through this' man said after being gored by shot animal.
Bobby Neames of Clinton, La., said he was fighting for his life when a large whitetail buck attacked him on Christmas Eve in 2013. (Photo: Provided to The Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger) Story Highlights Bobby Neames shot the deer in the neck and went to check on it after hearing it crash in the woods
The deer, with a gun wound in it neck, lunged at Neames and his antler lodged in the hunter's thigh
Hunting experts hadn't heard of such a vicious attack by a wounded deer
The hunter became the hunted when a Clinton, La., man was attacked by a massive deer he had wounded on his property.
According to Bayou Bucks magazine, Bobby Neames was airlifted to a Baton Rouge hospital and nearly bled to death after the buck gored him through his left thigh on Christmas Eve.
Neames, a veteran hunter who also hunts near Brookhaven, told Bayou Bucks that when he arrived at his deer stand overlooking a shooting lane, he saw a large buck standing near the end that he had captured images of on his trail cameras. Neames then set up for the shot and sent a bullet downrange, striking the deer in the neck. The deer ran into the woods, and Neames said he heard it crash shortly after.
Neames began trailing the animal about 15 minutes later and didn't get far before he found it. It was still alive and only feet away.
Neames said the deer was facing him and had a gaping wound in its neck. When their eyes met, the hunter became the prey.
"It happened so fast. I was 20 feet away when he lunged up from a squatted position, and within one-tenth of a second, he'd hit me," Neames said.
With an antler lodged in Neames' thigh, the buck tossed him to the ground about 8 feet away. "I knew I was in trouble then," Neames said. "Before I could even get to my feet, he was down on me attacking me again.
"I was lucky enough to grab his horns when he come down on me because he's just trying to ram them through my chest. I knew I had to protect my heart and lung area and my face."
As the struggle continued, Neames' rifle strap became entangled in the buck's antlers and to make matters worse, it was loaded with the safety off.
"I got to worrying then, thinking maybe the gun was going to go off," Neames said. "The deer ain't going to kill me, but the gun's going to go off and kill me."
After several more charges, Neames said, the deer gave pause long enough for him to regain composure and on the next charge, he took control.
"When he come at me one time, I twisted his neck trying to choke him or do anything — just trying to get him off — and he actually did a complete flip over me and his horns stuck in the ground, in the dirt, for just a few seconds," Neames said.
That was the break Neames needed to put some distance between himself and the would-be killer, which looked back at him then ran into the woods toting Neames' rifle.
While the rifle was later found by Neames' son, it was the last anyone would see of the buck.
Soaked in blood, Neames struggled to walk the 400 yards to his home. From there, he was flown to Baton Rouge and underwent surgery. Neames said he had more than 13 inches of tears in his flesh from the buck's antlers that took 25 staples and an unknown number of stitches to close.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries could not be reached for comment, but Lann Wilf, deer program leader for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks said, "I've heard stories about wounded deer attacking hunters forever, since I was a kid."
While he has heard those stories, Wilf said few involved injuries. "Most of the stories I've heard about were folks getting chased."
Wilf warned about getting near an injured buck, particularly during the breeding season when they are highly aggressive.
"These bucks are extremely dangerous. Certain individuals are very tenacious," Wilf said. "They are a whole lot stronger than any man."
Jason Aycock, publisher and owner of the Hammond, La.-based Bayou Bucks, said he's never encountered an attack like this either.
"No, I've never heard of anything to this extent before," Aycock said. "I've never heard of a buck trying to outright gore someone with their antlers."
Aycock said that because the deer was wounded and had a high testosterone level, it was a fight-or-flight situation for him when he saw Neames. Because the deer was facing Neames, Aycock said he chose to fight.
While it has been five weeks since Neames suffered the attack, it still haunts him.
"I was lucky to live through this," Neames said. "It was a terrifying experience, and I still have nightmares over it."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1bGyPgY |
Confirmed to be coming in an update last month, that also saw the head-mounted display (HMD) announce a number of updates including the significant addition of dual screens giving a total resolution of 2160×1200. The Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) platform’s Hardware Development Kit 2 (HDK 2) PC-based HMD is now available to order. Razer – one of the biggest names behind the technology – has announced.
Running an 110 degree field-of-view at 90Hz with a shipping date of July 29th and at a cost of $399.99 (USD), £399.99 (GBP) or 499,99€ (EUR) interested parties can, so long as they order before July 28th and whilst stocks last, get both Descent: Underground and Radial G: Racing Revolved as pre-order bonuses.
Descent: Underground is a classic 6-DOF space shooter set in a claustrophobic subterranean world of high speeds and dangerous rocky mazes. Radial G: Racing Revolved on the other hand is a fast-paced futuristic racer that sees you tear up, down and all around an array of gravity-defying racecourses.
For a limited time the Razer store is also offering free shipping to orders over a minimum spend in certain regions, including the US, UK and parts of mainland Europe.
VRFocus will bring you more news and updates on OSVR related projects as we get them. |
Fister, Dirks named Gold Glove finalists
MLB.com/blogs Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 25, 2013
By Jason Beck
Rawlings has released its list of three finalists at each position for the Gold Glove awards. The Tigers have two — one probably expected, one probably not.
Doug Fister joins Blue Jays hurlers Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey as the Gold Glove finalists at pitcher. Buehrle has dominated this award, winning four in a row (2009–2011 AL, 2012 NL), but his defensive stats took a little bit of a dip this season (TWO errors!!!) on the artificial surface in Toronto. Fister had an errorless season with an AL-best 2.29 Range Factor, and he turned five double plays — tied for most among AL pitchers with Justin Verlander and Lucas Harrell.
In past years, those defensive stats would be relatively meaningless, since the Gold Gloves have been decided exclusively on voting from managers and coaches. This summer, however, Rawlings and SABR announced a Defensive Index statistic derived from Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Runs Effectively Defended, which was sent to managers and coaches as a statistical resource guide to go with the ballots. Of course, there’s no guarantee how much they’ll take stats into account.
The plan, according to Rawlings and SABR, is to also have the SABR Defensive Index complement the judgement by the managers and coaches. The SDI will account for 30 total votes — or approximately 25 percent — of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award selection process, and will be added to the votes from the managers and coaches.
The other Tigers Gold Glove finalist is left fielder Andy Dirks — yes, Dirks. He finished second in Ultimate Zone Rating among AL left fielders with enough innings to qualify (though the leader, Texas’ David Murphy, isn’t among the finalists) and led the group in Range Factor (putouts plus assists per game). He had seven outfield assists and two errors.
The finalists in left include Kansas City’s Alex Gordon, who has won back-to-back Gold Gloves, and Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes. Gordon had another very good year, and he would seem to be a favorite here.
Among those Tigers who didn’t get consideration this year were shortstop Jose Iglesias, center fielder Austin Jackson and right fielder Torii Hunter. Iglesias, though he certainly had some defensive gems after becoming the Tigers’ everyday shortstop in August, made just 67 starts at short this season. Jackson faced a statistically strong group of AL center fielders and didn’t make the cut statistically (neither did Mike Trout). Hunter tied for the AL lead in assists among right fielders but didn’t rank high on other statistical levels.
The Gold Glove winners will be announced Tuesday night at 8pm ET on ESPN2. |
A Tauranga Police officer has been subject to disciplinary proceedings following the release of an Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report which found the officer had used excessive force on a 14 year old boy.
Two Ambulance Officers filed the complaint claiming the Police used excessive force on the boy while trying to restrain him.
According to the statement released by the IPCA, “on 25 August 2013 Police were notified that a 14-year-old boy had run away from Tauranga hospital. This was the second time the boy had run from the hospital that evening after he was admitted earlier that day following a suicide attempt that had caused injury to his wrist. The same Police officers who had located the boy earlier in the day were assigned to find him a second time. Just before 8pm the officers found the boy collapsed on Cameron Road. As a precaution they called an ambulance so the boy could be assessed before he was taken back to hospital. The two ambulance officers arrived and the Police officers accompanied the boy into the back of the ambulance for treatment. The ambulance officers complained to the Authority that excessive force was used by Police in restraining the boy.”
Independent Police Conduct Authority Chair, Judge Sir David Carruthers said, “under the Mental Health Act the officers were justified in apprehending and detaining the boy. However, the actions of one of the Police officers escalated an already volatile situation and did not accord with good policing practice.”
According to the statement, the Authority noted that as a result of the Police investigation into this incident, the officer involved has been subject to disciplinary proceedings. However, due to the conflicting evidence the high threshold required for criminal prosecution was not met in this case. |
Six new books on democratic eco-socialism, war and the environment, genes and intelligence, climate change and the Roman Empire, the little ice age in North America, and views of the Anthropocene
Ecosocialist Bookshelf is an occasional feature. We can’t review every book we receive, but we will list and link to any that seem relevant to Climate & Capitalism’s mission, along with brief descriptions. Titles listed here may be reviewed in future.
Please note: Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement, or that we agree with everything (or even anything!) the book says.
Hans A. Baer
DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALISM AS A REAL UTOPIA
Transitioning to an Alternative World System
Berghahn Books, 2017
Critical anthropologist Hans Baer argues that the left must re-evaluate historical definitions of socialism, commit to social equality and justice, and prioritize environmental sustainability. He describes democratic eco-socialism as a system capable of mobilizing people around the world, albeit in different ways, to prevent on-going human socio-economic and environmental degradation, and anthropogenic climate change.
Gar Smith, editor
THE WAR AND ENVIRONMENT READER
Just World Books, 2017
While many books have examined the broader topic of military conflict, most neglect to focus on damage military violence inflicts on regional — and global — ecosystems. The War and Environment Reader provides a critical analysis of the devastating environmental consequences of war. A wide array of diverse voices and global perspectives discuss the historical, political and psychological roots of war, the business of war, the environmental and social consequences of war, and the alternatives.
Ken Richardson
GENES, BRAINS, AND HUMAN POTENTIAL
The Science and Ideology of Intelligence
Columbia University Press, 2017
Bio-deterministic ideology, a shallow nature-versus-nurture debate, and the overhyped claims of genome reductionists have encouraged fatalism about the development of human intelligence among individuals and societies. Building on new work in molecular biology, epigenetics, dynamical systems, evolution theory, and complexity theory, Richardson maps a fresh understanding of intelligence and the development of human potential.
Kyle Harper
THE FATE OF ROME
Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire
Princeton University Press, 2017
The fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. The Romans were resilient in the face of enormous environmental stress, until the besieged empire could no longer withstand the combined challenges of a “little ice age” and recurrent outbreaks of bubonic plague.
Sam White
A COLD WELCOME
The Little Ice Age and Europe’s Encounter with North America
Harvard University Press, 2017
When Europeans first arrived in North America, the average global temperature had dropped to lows unseen in millennia, and its effects were stark and unpredictable. Blizzards and deep freezes, droughts and famines, and winters so cold that even the Rio Grande froze. Wholly unprepared for such harsh conditions, Europeans suffered life-threatening privation, and their desperation precipitated violent conflict with Native Americans.
John W. Kress and Jeffrey K. Stine, editors
LIVING IN THE ANTHROPOCENE
Earth in the Age of Humans
Smithsonian Books, 2017
An anthology of views on the causes of the Anthropocene, the environmental and biological systems that have been changed and affected, how societies are responding and adapting to these changes, how these changes have been represented in art, film, television, and literature. |
As of noon today my house has been powered primarily by my off-grid solar setup for one full year (a leap year, too). In celebration, I figured I would share some aggregate stats from the past 366 days.
43,929 kWh generated by solar array and utilized (Average 120 kWh/day, usable AC power)
20,576 kWh discharged from the batteries
114 equivalent cycles on the storage batteries
11,259 kWh used for Tesla Model S charging (over 33,000 miles)
Best production day: 2016-03-21 @ 260.7 kWh (Charged three Model S that day)
Worst production day: 2016-01-22 @ 0.02 kWh (All panels covered in several inches of snow)
On 222 out of 366 days (60.7%) the storage batteries reached full capacity before sunset and some amount of incoming power was wasted.
703 kWh bought from the grid (1.6% of total usage) Some reasoning behind the switch-to-grid events:
November 2015 - First shortage due to 9 straight days of bad weather. Power needed for driving.
December 2015 - Two grid usage events needed for driving power. Cold weather caused significant power usage.
January 2016 - Snow and bad weather caused little to no generation for an extended period. Preemptively switched to grid power for a couple of days to keep reserve in battery bank in case of grid outage.
February 2016 - Above average driving power needs during moderate bad weather period.
May 2016 - Error in custom predictive algorithm caused a switch to grid power with 25% SoC remaining, resulting in about 40 kWh of unneeded grid use.
July 2016 - Error in custom predictive algorithm caused a switch to grid power with 25% SoC remaining, resulting in about 30 kWh of unneeded grid use.
Suffice it to say, it's been a great year.
Something to keep in mind is that my generation numbers can not take into account power that would have been generated on the 222 days where the storage batteries reached full capacity and all incoming power was not utilized. A goal for this year is to put that excess/wasted power to better use. Rough estimates would say that I've wasted somewhere around 15 MWh of power over the last year due to this. This is not a bad thing, generally, since it means I've made enough power for my needs and is part of having an off-grid system. Would be nice to do something productive with that power, though.
The cycle wear on my storage batteries comes out to the equivalent of about ~29,000 miles of driving in a Model S. It worked out to a bit more cycling than I would have preferred. Some of this is due to needing to charge one or both of my household's Model S in the morning before sunrise in order to have power for driving during the day when the car isn't going to be at the house to charge. Also, some of the cycling happened prior to the creation of my interface that keeps the Model S charge rate equal to incoming solar power when a fast charge is not required... resulting in no cycling of the home storage pack. Overall, I expect the next 12 months to have less cycling.
Also, my home is fully electric. Electric heating and cooling (air source heat pumps). Electric cooking. Electric vehicles. No natural gas, oil, etc.
For year one, I think having 98.4% of my power come from my own little power plant definitely makes it a successful year. |
(WJLA) - One of the biggest winners in Canadian lottery history is giving his entire jackpot away.
The CBC reports that Tom Crist, a former electrical wholesale executive who lives in Calgary, won $40 million in a Western Canada Lottery drawing last year. He kept it a secret until very recently, when he announced that the entire prize was going to charity.
Crist's longtime wife died of Cancer in 2011, and the CBC says Crist plans to leave the enormous jackpot to a pair of Alberta cancer centers and charities.
"I was hoping that I could just somehow move it from the lotto corporation into my trust account and not have the media," Crist said.
On Tuesday, in America, Mega Millions will draw for one of the largest prizes in United States history. It currently sits at $586 million.
READ MORE at cbc.ca. |
Monique Braxton explains how members of City Council will meet to discuss decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana (Published Thursday, June 19, 2014)
The Philadelphia City Council voted 13-3 to pass a bill Thursday that would decriminalize carrying small amounts of marijuana.
The ordinance, sponsored by Councilman Jim Kenney, would make possession of 30 grams or 1 ounce of the drug a civil penalty.
Currently, possession of that amount or less requires an arrest by police. Should the law be enacted, officers would confiscate the marijuana and issue a $25 fine, which could be paid right there online or by mail. If paid, the incident would be removed from the person's record.
Kenney told NBC10.com in May that Ordinance 140377 could cut down 17,000 hours of police time and save $3 million in booking and jail costs. The councilman added that it could take up to a year for a minor marijuana arrest to clear the city's criminal justice system.
Philadelphia's District Attorney, Seth Williams, has since 2010 sent those arrested for carrying 1 ounce or less of marijuana to a lower court without jail time.
Mayor Michael Nutter is not in favor of the proposal. His press secretary, Mark McDonald, said Nutter will consider the legislation and "will respond before the session in mid-September."
Approximately 4,000 people are arrested each year in Philadelphia for possessing small amounts of non-medical marijuana.
Representatives for the Philadelphia Prison System say the bill is unlikely to have a major impact on its inmate population. They estimate that fewer than 100 people in the Philadelphia Prison System are currently being held for simple possession.
If approved by Nutter, Philadelphia would join cities and states like Chicago, and Washington, DC who, in recent years, passed similar laws to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Kenney says he'll be sending a letter to Nutter urging him to sign the bill. Nutter could choose to sign or veto the bill at any time between now and Sept. 11 when the next city council session begins. |
This September holds some very big plans for Jonny Greenwood. The guitarist/composer will not only hit the studio with Radiohead, but finally perform his Grammy-nominated score for There Will Be Blood for U.S. audiences. Even with such important projects down the pipeline, Greenwood has still somehow found the time to work on his own solo material.
Earlier this year, we heard one of those new songs, tentatively titled “Loop”. During a show in London on Monday night, Greenwood debuted another previously unheard composition called “Skip Loop”. Although guitar-driven like its predecessor, the new track is not as frazzled and busy. Instead, Greenwood utilizes a much more quiet and therapeutic approach. Check out fan-shot footage of “Skip Loop” below.
It’s unclear whether Greenwood’s solo work will influence Radiohead’s new album, but he’s certainly been busy e-mailing Thom Yorke with his plentiful ideas. |
Report removed from HuffPo over the Weekend; Clinton Foundation "Racketeering."
Update, 6/9/2016: President Obama today whole heartedly endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. This seems to create a conflict of interest for the Dept. of Justice, which has announced publicly that they are investigating her for violations of several statutes. It seems to require the appointment of an independent counsel prosecutor under statutes enacted in response to Nixon's transgressions. Stay tuned.
Last Saturday, a journalist employed by liberal Huffington Post reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) will recommend that the Department of Justice file a Federal criminal complaint, indicting U.S. Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Frank Hugenard is a political scientist, public speaker and freelance contributor to the Huffington Post. He had his story removed by HuffPo editors and his account disabled without explanation. His article bore the title: ""Hillary Clinton to be Indicted On Federal Racketeering Charges" It quickly went viral before being removed.
FBI Director James Comey will present a recommendation to Loretta Lynch, Attorney General and head of the U.S. Department of Justice, that includes a compelling argument that the Clinton Foundation is an ongoing criminal enterprise engaged in money laundering and soliciting bribes in exchange for political, policy and legislative favors to individuals, corporations and even governments both foreign and domestic.
Huguenard, a Bernie Sanders supporter, says that he has sources within the FBI. They say the Bureau will recommend that the DOJ file Racketeering charges against Mrs. Clinton.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a United States Federal Law passed in 1970 that was designed to provide a tool for law enforcement agencies to fight organized crime. RICO allows prosecution and punishment for alleged racketeering activity that has been executed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.
Attorneys regard the RICO statute as unduly broad, and in the past it has been used to indict even legitimate businessmen for legitimate activities.
Hillary Clinton admits using her own server to send classified e-mails, which was against State Department policy at the time.
Activity considered to be racketeering may include bribery, counterfeiting, money laundering, embezzlement, illegal gambling, kidnapping, murder, drug trafficking, slavery, and a host of other nefarious business practices.
Huffington Post Politics senior editor Sam Stein claims to have no idea why the post was removed, and refused to give further comment when contacted by Breitbart News. Stein opined, "Sorry. I don't know. I'd direct your question to a blog editor."
A controversy arose in March 2015, when it was revealed by the State Department's inspector general that Clinton had exclusively used personal email accounts on a non-government, privately maintained server-in lieu of email accounts maintained on federal government servers-when conducting official business during her tenure as Secretary of State. Some experts, officials, members of Congress, and political opponents, contended that her use of private messaging system software and a private server violated State Department protocols and procedures, and federal laws and regulations governing record keeping requirements.
Nearly 2,100 emails contained in Clinton's server were retroactively marked classified by the State Department, though none of the emails were marked classified at the time they were sent. 65 were later classified as "secret", more than 20 were designated "top secret", and the rest were later designated as "confidential".
However, the intelligence community's inspector general wrote Congress to say that some of the emails "contained classified State Department information when originated."
In a joint statement released on July 15, 2015, the inspector general of the State Department and the inspector general of the intelligence community said that through their review of the emails, they found information that was classified when sent, remained so as of their inspection, and "never should have been transmitted via an unclassified personal system." They also stated unequivocally that those secrets never should have been stored outside of secure government computer systems. Mrs. Clinton had stated over a period of months that she kept no classified information on the private server that she set up in her house.
Government policy, reiterated in the nondisclosure agreement signed by Clinton as part of gaining her security clearance, is that sensitive information can be considered as classified even if not marked as such.[394] After allegations were raised that some of the emails in question fell into the so-called "born classified" category, an FBI probe was initiated regarding how classified information was handled on the Clinton server. In May 2016, the inspector general of the state department criticized her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state stating that she had not requested permission to use it and even if she had, she would not have been given permission.
The controversy occurred against the backdrop of Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign and hearings by the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
Perhaps the plan is to quietly indict Mrs. Clinton, have her plead guilty to violation of email regulations, pay a $10,000 fine, and then move on with the presidential race. Bill Clinton was actually impeached for committing perjury in 1998, but simply went on with his presidency. He was disbarred by the Supreme Court, but that didn't really matter either.
Update: 06/07--It seems Hillary Rodham Clinton has wrapped up the Democratic nomination. It's the best possible time for FBI Dir. Comey and the DOJ to indict Mrs. Clinton, without affecting the primary (it's in the past), or the general election (it's as far into the future now, as it's ever going to be). Assuming the DOJ's goal is not to affect America's presidential selection process.
Update: 6/08: Donald Halper from the Weekly Standard, says Donald Trump will deliver a major speech on Monday, in which he will say Secretary of State Clinton turned the State Department into her own private hedge fund. She collected money from the Chinese, the Russians, the Saudis, in the form of donations to the Clinton foundation, which employed her husband former President Bill Clinton. "The Clinton's left the White House broke. The Clinton foundation made them wealthy."
Smug or indicted? You decide
He says he doesn't know whether any government agency has investigated this, but that it probably constitutes a violation of American law.
See also
No Defeat, No Surrender for Bernie Sanders. http://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/06/08/news/no-surrender-sanders-vows-to-continue-campaign-will-not-drop-out-wont-concede-nomination/1374.html
Clueless Thugs: Bernie Sanders Supporters beat other Sanders supporters in error. http://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/06/08/news/bernie-supporters-beat-other-bernie-supporters-by-mistake-youtube/1379.html
Republican Ballots apparently not counted in Santa Monica, http://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/06/08/news/become-a-republican-in-santa-monica-and-have-your-vote-demoted/1377.html |
by Frank Scholten
MiniMesos 0.4.0 has been released today and is available via Jitpack. MiniMesos is part of our work on Mantl, the Microservices Infrastructure platform from Cisco Cloud. The goal of minimesos is to make it really easy to test Mesos frameworks and Mesos in general. The main new feature in this release is Marathon support. When starting minimesos a separate Marathon container is started which connects to the existing Zookeeper container. This blog shows how this feature is used and how it’s implemented.
The Marathon container
To try out the new release run the install script through curl. It installs the minimesos jar into /usr/local/share/minimesos and minimesos cli interface into /usr/local/bin.
$ sudo curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ContainerSolutions/minimesos/master/bin/install | bash 1 $ sudo curl https : //raw.githubusercontent.com/ContainerSolutions/minimesos/master/bin/install | bash
Now launch a new minimesos cluster with
$ minimesos up http://172.17.1.65:5050 1 2 $ minimesos up http : //172.17.1.65:5050
When you list the running containers you can see all containers in the cluster, including the new Marathon container. Note that the container name always has a minimesos prefix, the name of the role, the cluster ID and finally a random ID that is assigned to each container before start.
$ docker ps CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 5e59dce1dc1b mesosphere/marathon:v0.8.1 "./bin/start --maste 8 minutes ago Up 8 minutes minimesos-marathon-4167781031-239566274 ed153377e3ff mesosphere/mesos-slave:0.22.1-1.0.ubuntu1404 "mesos-slave" 8 minutes ago Up 8 minutes 5051/tcp, 9200/tcp, 9300/tcp minimesos-agent-4167781031-2797405641 9b2562ea8518 mesosphere/mesos-master:0.22.1-1.0.ubuntu1404 "mesos-master --regi 8 minutes ago Up 8 minutes 5050/tcp minimesos-master-4167781031-3857686719 50af12b5c274 jplock/zookeeper:latest "/opt/zookeeper/bin/ 8 minutes ago Up 8 minutes 2181/tcp, 2888/tcp, 3888/tcp minimesos-zookeeper-4167781031-1783494468 1 2 3 4 5 6 $ docker ps CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES 5e59dce1dc1b mesosphere / marathon : v0 . 8.1 "./bin/start --maste 8 minutes ago Up 8 minutes minimesos-marathon-4167781031-239566274 ed153377e3ff mesosphere/mesos-slave:0.22.1-1.0.ubuntu1404 " mesos - slave " 8 minutes ago Up 8 minutes 5051/tcp, 9200/tcp, 9300/tcp minimesos-agent-4167781031-2797405641 9b2562ea8518 mesosphere/mesos-master:0.22.1-1.0.ubuntu1404 " mesos - master -- regi 8 minutes ago Up 8 minutes 5050 / tcp minimesos - master - 4167781031 - 3857686719 50af12b5c274 jplock / zookeeper : latest " / opt / zookeeper / bin / 8 minutes ago Up 8 minutes 2181 / tcp , 2888 / tcp , 3888 / tcp minimesos - zookeeper - 4167781031 - 1783494468
The Marathon container is connected to the existing Zookeeper instance in the minimesos cluster.
$ docker inspect 5e59 ... "Cmd": [ "--master", "zk://minimesos-zookeeper:2181/mesos", "--zk", "zk://minimesos-zookeeper:2181/marathon" ], ... 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 $ docker inspect 5e59 . . . "Cmd" : [ "--master" , "zk://minimesos-zookeeper:2181/mesos" , "--zk" , "zk://minimesos-zookeeper:2181/marathon" ] , . . .
Running a task on Marathon
From here we can navigate to the Marathon endpoint. First we have to determine Marathon’s IP
$ docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' 5e59 172.17.1.74 1 2 $ docker inspect -- format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' 5e59 172.17.1.74
and then we can open http://172.17.1.74 in the browser. Let’s add an app called ‘testapp’ which echoes hello world.
Once it is running we can inspect the Marathon logs to see it is being run continuously.
[2015-10-15 13:27:54,661] INFO Need to scale /testapp from 0 up to 1 instances (mesosphere.marathon.SchedulerActions:530) [2015-10-15 13:27:54,662] INFO Queueing 1 new tasks for /testapp (0 queued) (mesosphere.marathon.SchedulerActions:536) [2015-10-15 13:27:55,509] INFO Received status update for task testapp.8b2c37a8-7340-11e5-b30e-0242ac11014a: TASK_RUNNING () (mesosphere.marathon.MarathonScheduler:149) [2015-10-15 13:27:55,521] INFO Sending event notification. (mesosphere.marathon.MarathonScheduler:263) [2015-10-15 13:27:55,609] INFO Received status update for task testapp.8b2c37a8-7340-11e5-b30e-0242ac11014a: TASK_FINISHED (Command exited with status 0) (mesosphere.marathon.MarathonScheduler:149) [2015-10-15 13:27:55,611] INFO Task testapp.8b2c37a8-7340-11e5-b30e-0242ac11014a expunged and removed from TaskTracker (mesosphere.marathon.tasks.TaskTracker:107) 1 2 3 4 5 6 [ 2015 - 10 - 15 13 : 27 : 54 , 661 ] INFO Need to scale / testapp from 0 up to 1 instances ( mesosphere . marathon . SchedulerActions : 530 ) [ 2015 - 10 - 15 13 : 27 : 54 , 662 ] INFO Queueing 1 new tasks for / testapp ( 0 queued ) ( mesosphere . marathon . SchedulerActions : 536 ) [ 2015 - 10 - 15 13 : 27 : 55 , 509 ] INFO Received status update for task testapp . 8b2c37a8 - 7340 - 11e5 - b30e - 0242ac11014a : TASK_RUNNING ( ) ( mesosphere . marathon . MarathonScheduler : 149 ) [ 2015 - 10 - 15 13 : 27 : 55 , 521 ] INFO Sending event notification . ( mesosphere . marathon . MarathonScheduler : 263 ) [ 2015 - 10 - 15 13 : 27 : 55 , 609 ] INFO Received status update for task testapp . 8b2c37a8 - 7340 - 11e5 - b30e - 0242ac11014a : TASK_FINISHED ( Command exited with status 0 ) ( mesosphere . marathon . MarathonScheduler : 149 ) [ 2015 - 10 - 15 13 : 27 : 55 , 611 ] INFO Task testapp . 8b2c37a8 - 7340 - 11e5 - b30e - 0242ac11014a expunged and removed from TaskTracker ( mesosphere . marathon . tasks . TaskTracker : 107 )
As you can see it’s quite easy to try out Marathon from minimesos.
Minor changes in 0.4.0
Usage and help feature
If you don’t have a cluster running minimesos prints the help feature showing the up and destroy commands. We have used the excellent JCommander library to implement the cli commands and help feature.
$ minimesos help Usage: minimesos [options] [command] [command options] Commands: up Create a mini mesos cluster Usage: up [options] Options: --mesosImageTag The tag of the Mesos master and agent Docker images. Default: 0.22.1-1.0.ubuntu1404 destroy Destroy a mini mesos cluster Usage: destroy [options] help Display help Usage: help [options] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 $ minimesos help Usage : minimesos [ options ] [ command ] [ command options ] Commands : up Create a mini mesos cluster Usage : up [ options ] Options : -- mesosImageTag The tag of the Mesos master and agent Docker images . Default : 0.22.1 - 1.0.ubuntu1404 destroy Destroy a mini mesos cluster Usage : destroy [ options ] help Display help Usage : help [ options ]
Testing different Mesos versions
Mesos has a frequent release cycle and it is useful to be able to test newer version. To support this we made the image tag
configurable by specifying one of the Mesosphere Docker hub tags to the –mesosImageTag flag.
What’s next?
Testing Mesos versions will be made more user friendly
More minimesos cli commands
Config refactoring. A few parameters should be merged into MesosClusterConfig
Keep in touch
Thanks for reading! Keep in touch by commenting on the blog or talk to us on @minimesos and @ContainerSoluti. Check out the open issues on Github. Do you have an idea on how to improve minimesos? Please open an issue or add a PR at the minimesos Github repo. We hope you find minimesos useful. See you next time! |
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September 16th — 20th, 2013 Fox News, CNN and MSNBC air video of a Senator dancing at a strip club for campaign cash! It’s a bold statement about how disgusting American politics have become — and it was paid for by hundreds of members of the RepresentUs community
We created this video because 87% of Americans think political corruption is a serious problem, but most don’t believe there’s a solution. That’s why we need to be bold and cut through the noise. Because we can beat corruption if we can get millions of people to join our movement and demand reform.
This video can do that… so we ran it on Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN during the week members of Congress return from recess and head back to DC.
Randy Hackett, the advertising guru who donated this ad to RepresentUs is one of the more than 360,000 people in the RepresentUs community who are stepping up in a big way. Sure, we might offend a few politicians, but it’s time to show the money-in-politics problem for what it is. It’s corruption. It’s disgusting, and it’s slowly killing the American dream. It’s time to fight back.
SENATOR STRIPS ON AIR!
Below is a partial listing of dates, times and channels from the crowdfunded ad buy.
Comcast:
9/16/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 6:20:00 PM
9/16/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 9:15:00 PM
9/16/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 11:48:00 PM
9/17/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 8:48:00 PM
9/17/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 9:50:00 PM
9/17/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 11:15:00 PM
9/18/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 5:48:00 PM
9/18/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 8:31:00 PM
9/18/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 10:31:00 PM
9/19/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 6:48:00 PM
9/19/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 9:31:00 PM
9/19/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 9:48:00 PM
9/20/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 8:15:00 PM
9/20/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 9:20:00 PM
9/20/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 10:48:00 PM
9/20/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 11:15:00 PM
9/21/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 9:31:00 PM
9/21/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 10:20:00 PM
9/21/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 10:50:00 PM
9/22/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 4:48:00 PM
9/22/2013 WASHINGTON FXNC- 9:20:00 PM
9/22/2013 WASHINGTON CNN-E 11:50:00 PM
Viamedia:
FXNC Sep 17, 2013 22:48 Tue
FXNC Sep 21, 2013 00:20 Sat
HLN Sep 18, 2013 01:31 Wed
MNBC Sep 18, 2013 23:29 Wed
MNBC Sep 19, 2013 20:29 Thu
MNBC Sep 22, 2013 01:29 Sun
HLN Sep 19, 2013 01:31 Thu
HLN Sep 21, 2013 01:31 Sat
MNBC Sep 17, 2013 00:29 Tue |
BEIRUT – The head of Syria’s Special Forces has died from injuries sustained in the fierce fighting between regime troops and rebels in the northwestern Idlib province.
“A funeral service was held in Syria’s Tartous Governorate on Thursday for the commander of the Syrian Special Forces, Major General Muhyiddin Mansour,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
According to the Observatory, Mansour died after “being injured in clashes with Islamist factions and the Al-Nusra Front in Idlib [province’s] Jisr al-Shughur.”
The top Syrian general’s death comes amid the major military campaign launched by the Army of Conquest rebel coalition in the area.
On April 25, the wide ranging offensive saw allied armed opposition groups seize the town of Jisr al-Shughur, which lies on the highway linking Idlib to Latakia.
The circumstances of Mansour’s fate remain shrouded in mystery, with a number of contradictory reports emerging on the location and date of his death.
The pro-opposition All4Syria news cited sources as saying that Mansour was killed in the Jisr al-Shughur National hospital, where hundreds of regime fighters and figures have holed themselves up following the fall of the town.
Rebels have conducted a number of fierce attacks on the facility, which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed to rescue in a rare public appearance on May 6.
All4Syria added that other sources claimed Mansour was killed in the fighting raging outside the hospital.
Dozens have been killed in the fighting around the hospital, where the beseiged regime troops have managed to turn back the rebel attacks.
The date on which Mansour was killed has also been a subject of controversy—although some pro-regime sources announced his death on Wednesday, some media outlets claim he was killed two weeks ago.
Sources told All4Syria that around one year ago Mansour was transferred, along with most members of the Syrian Army’s 15th Special Forces division, from its permanent headquarters in the Daraa Governorate to the city of Idlib and its surroundings.
Syrian ARA News described Mansour as “one of the top ranked and [most] experienced leading commanders” in the Syrian army.
Syria's Special Forces, which consists of the 14th and 15th divisions of the army as well as a number of seperate regiments, acts as light infantry fighting force made up of approximately 9000 troops.
Mansour hails from the town of Safita, some 25 km to the west of Tartous.
So far, there has been no official Syrian government statement regarding his death. |
Local government area in Queensland, Australia
The City of Townsville is an Australian local government area (LGA) located in North Queensland, Australia. It encompasses the city of Townsville, together with the surrounding rural areas, to the south are the communities of Alligator Creek, Woodstock and Reid River, and to the north are Northern Beaches and Paluma, and also included is Magnetic Island. It currently has a population of 186,757 residents,[1] and is the 28th-largest LGA in Australia.
History [ edit ]
Prior to 2008, the new City of Townsville was an entire area of two previous and distinct local government areas:
the former City of Townsville ;
; and the City of Thuringowa.
Townsville's Town Hall 1895 with, from left to right, Aldermen T. Enright, E.J. Forrest, D.F. Treehy (Townclerk), P. Lillis (Rate Receiver), J. N. Parkes, B.P. McDougall (Accountant)
The City of Townsville was first established as the Borough of Townsville under the Municipal Institutions Act 1864 on 15 February 1866. The surrounding rural area, which was given the name Thuringowa Division, was established on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879. On 31 March 1903, Thuringowa Division became the Shire of Thuringowa and Townsville was granted city status under the Local Authorities Act 1902, the ancestor of the current Local Government Act 1993.
The borders of the Townsville municipality were expanded to keep pace with urban growth in 1882, 1918, 1936, 1958 and 1964 – the purpose of expanding the borders was to keep urban and rural administrations separate.[3] This state government convention changed under the Bjelke-Peterson government and the borders between the two local governments became static. By 1986 the Shire of Thuringowa had grown to a population of 27,000 and was declared a city.[3]
In 1939, Fred Paterson stood successfully as an alderman for the Townsville City Council, becoming the first member of the Communist Party to win such an office in Australia. He was then re-elected in 1943. The same year, he stood for the federal seat of Herbert, but was narrowly defeated. He then contested and won the Bowen seat in the Queensland Parliament, holding it from 1944 until 1950.
A succession of endorsed Labor Party mayors and majority councillors held a continuous civic government from 1976–2008, this was the longest continuous Labor administration in the country until Tony Mooney was defeated in 2008.
Following local government reform undertaken by the State Government of Queensland, the City of Townsville and the City of Thuringowa were amalgamated in 2008.[4] The process of amalgamation was completed on the election of a new combined council on 15 March 2008.
Mayors [ edit ]
Other notable aldermen include:
Townsville City Council [ edit ]
Townsville City Council is the Local Government Authority that services the Local Government Area of Townsville. The council is represented by 10 councillors and the mayor, who have been elected by the whole city. The current mayor is Cr Jenny Hill,[13] who was formerly the deputy mayor of the pre-amalgamation City of Townsville in 2007 and early 2008.
The council provides many services to residents of the city of Townsville, including infrastructure, water, garbage, public works, and entertainment and leisure i.e. parks, theatres, events etc.
In 2006 the council had an operating expenditure of $201.3M and a capital works budget of $103.3M[15]
Civic cabinet [ edit ]
The current civic cabinet consists of one mayor, elected at large, and 10 councillors, elected from 10 individual divisions. At the last Queensland Local Government election, held on 19 March 2016, Jenny Hill from the centre-left Team Jenny Hill was elected mayor of Townsville, along with 10 other councillors from the same team.[16] No councillors were elected from the rival centre-right Jayne Arlett's team, nor were any independents, effectively creating an undivided council. Les Walker, from Team Jenny Hill, was elected as deputy mayor.[17]
Councillor Declared political membership Election Group Term Constituency Cr. Jenny Hill ALP Team Jenny Hill 2012–present Mayor Cr. Margie Ryder Independent Team Jenny Hill 2016–present Division 1 Cr. Paul Jacob ALP Team Jenny Hill 2016–present Division 2 Cr. Ann-Maree Greaney Independent Team Jenny Hill 2016–present Division 3 Cr. Mark Molachino ALP Team Jenny Hill 2016–present Division 4 Cr. Russ Cook Independent Team Jenny Hill 2016–present Division 5 Cr. Verena Coombe Independent Team Jenny Hill 2016–present Division 6 Cr. Kurt Rehbein ALP Team Jenny Hill 2016–present Division 7 Cr. Maurie Soars Australian Labor Party Team Jenny Hill 2016–present Division 8 Cr. Colleen Doyle Independent Team Jenny Hill 2012–present Division 9 Cr. Les Walker ALP Team Jenny Hill 2012–present Division 10
Towns and localities [ edit ]
Population [ edit ]
The populations given relate to the component entities prior to 2008. The 2011 census was the first for the new City.
Year Population
(City total) Population
(Townsville) Population
(Thuringowa) 1911 15,731 10,636 5,095 1921 23,690 21,353 2,337 1933 29,300 25,876 3,424 1947 36,436 34,109 2,327 1954 43,098 40,471 2,627 1961 53,715 51,143 2,572 1966 65,303 62,403 2,900 1971 72,023 68,591 3,432 1976 91,279 80,365 10,914 1981 98,900 81,172 17,728 1986 112,917 82,809 30,108 1991 125,010 87,288 37,722 1996 131,371 87,052 44,319 2001 143,841 92,701 51,140 2006 158,647 99,483 59,164 2011 174,462 2016 186,757
Amenities [ edit ]
The Townsville City Council operates libraries at Aitkenvale, Townsville City and Thuringowa Central.[18] It also operates a mobile library service, serving the following suburbs on a regular schedule:[19]
Sister cities [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Coordinates: |
Facebook, Netflix, YouTube and the German state broadcaster ZDF are very different businesses. But they may soon all have to abide by the same rule book.
A controversial overhaul of the EU’s rules on video content will sprawl across sectors, dragging everyone from public broadcasters to social media into the same regulatory framework, according to draft proposals being negotiated.
For supporters of the move, the law would end a regulatory no man’s land for the likes of YouTube and Facebook, obliging them to follow the same rules as normal broadcasters on issues such as hate speech.
Critics argue that it is a misguided attempt to rope internet companies into inappropriate rules – potentially throwing media diversity and even freedom of speech into doubt.
Internet streaming services such as Netflix, which are already regulated as video providers, will be affected by new rules that dictate that 30 per cent of content on the platforms needs to be European.
“Quotas are frustrating for us because there is no real evidence to show that they work,” said Colin Bortner, Netflix’s director of global public policy. “[They] divert investment away from high-quality European films and series that can attract a global audience.”
Levies
The company also faces paying levies of up to 26 per cent of revenues on its business in France, which it says will decrease the amount it invests in individual European works and distort how much it invests in individual member countries.
Mr Bortner says the proposed rate “is fantastically high”, saying that it would mean consumers in one market subsidising those in another. “Ultimately, Spanish consumers would be paying a higher price to meet our levy obligations in France. That’s because we don’t have 28 individual businesses; we are producing content on a pan-European and global basis and what happens in one member state impacts investments and prices in another.”
Technology companies that offer video such as Facebook, YouTube and Amazon are also facing an overhaul.
All three companies declined to comment.
Last-minute change
But a last-minute change to draft version being worked on by ministers means that for a platform that uses video content as an “essential” part of the service must abide by rules laid down in the EU’s audiovisual media services directive.
“It used to be a directive for sector-specific issue,” says one diplomat who opposed the measure. “It will now police any moving picture on any screen.”
The consequences for the world’s biggest technology companies that have put video at the heart of their business strategies – including Google, which owns YouTube, Facebook and Amazon – are likely to be significant.
For the first time, the businesses would be legally obliged to come up with measures to ferret out videos that contain hate speech, incitement to terrorism or simply harm the “moral development” of children.
John Carr, an adviser to the UK government on online child safety, says: “Social media platforms – especially Facebook – must be feeling under siege at the moment. [This directive] is just another trebuchet.”
YouTube and Facebook already have some measures in place. Users on established services can flag content as inappropriate, while security services have heaped pressure on social networks to do more to combat use by terrorist groups.
Facebook’s own, detailed guidelines on moderating content that ranged from self-harm to Nazi imagery were revealed last week. The measures are generally undertaken on a voluntary basis but these groups now face strict legal obligations – and potential sanctions if they are deemed to be not doing enough.
Take more responsibility
Because the new rule is a directive, individual countries will have to transpose it into national law, leaving scope for countries who want the big platforms to take more responsibility – such as France, Germany and Italy – to introduce stricter rules and sanctions.
A minister in Germany, for instance, has already mooted fines of €50 million if a social network fails to take down hate speech. France is considering applying a European content quota of 50 per cent for all video services.
“The country-of-origin principle is definitely under threat. The EU is moving in a different direction,” says Mr Bortner.
Critics argue that the new rules could encourage self-censorship. “You defend yourself with excessively broad terms of service that allow you to delete whatever you want whenever you need it,” said Joe McNamee, executive director of EDRI, a group that promotes digital rights.
This leaves internet companies as judge, jury and executioner when it comes to determining whether content is appropriate. “You are outsourcing your law enforcement to private actors,” says one EU diplomat.
– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017) |
Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino | Healthy Copycat Recipe
From the day it opened its doors, the Starbucks located one block from my high school has had a steady drive-thru line of suburbans wrapped around its exterior and a hoard of high school girls sipping whipped-cream-topped Frappuccinos on its interior. My junior and senior year, my girlfriends and I would meet weekly before class to sip Frapps and discuss the issues of the day (boys). Today’s Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino recipe is my healthy, copycat version of the mocha Frappuccino I ordered every Friday.
This recipe is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill.
To this day, coffee Frappuccinos still make me nostalgic for those green couches and early mornings in our school uniforms. I think I arrived late to my first class 65% of the time, telltale green cup in hand. The extra tardy on my “demerit card” (<—do high schools still have those?) was more than worth finding out who was asking whom to prom.
Back then, I didn’t give a second thought to the nutritional value of what I was eating or drinking. The fact that a grande Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino with extra whipped cream (my standard order) has more calories and sugar than two full-sized Snickers bars didn’t occur to me when I was 17.
As an adult, I am more aware of the ingredients I put into my body. A few weeks ago on an especially hot day, I caught myself craving a mocha Frappuccino. Rather than hitting the drive-thru, I decided to see if I could come up with my own healthy Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino recipe that would please both my high school Frappuccino-loving self and my adult real-ingredient-loving self.
The results of my coffee Frappuccino experiment: success! This healthy copycat recipe is as richly chocolaty and refreshing as the original but made of wholesome ingredients, so you can feel great drinking it too.
Reimagining the Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino
In place of the sugar cocktail used to make Frappuccinos, I used a frozen banana, which, despite its simplicity, does a remarkable job making the Frappuccino thick, frothy, and naturally sweet. The coffee portion is nothing fancier than strong coffee that I brewed in my regular coffee pot then chilled in the refrigerator. The chocolate is unsweetened cocoa powder…and any chocolate chips you feel inclined to sprinkle on top.
To give the Mocha Frappuccino an extra boost, I also added one of my favorite superfoods, Bob’s Red Mill Chia Seeds. While they might not look like much, these little black seeds are nutritional powerhouses.
Chia seeds contain a whopping 5 grams of fiber per tablespoon, and their mild, nutty flavor makes them easy to add to just about anything. Try sprinkling them over salads or bowls of cereal, stirred into yogurt or oatmeal, and blended into smoothies.
I couldn’t resist adding a few tablespoons of chia seeds to this copycat Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino recipe, and I am so glad I did! I could hardly detect them, and I loved knowing that I was enjoying an extra nutritional boost with my sweet treat. In less than two seconds, I’d added some serious healthy fuel to my day.
My enjoyment of this healthy Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino recipe has reached the point where I’ve started brewing a little extra coffee in the morning to make sure I have extra on hand for when my next Frapp craving strikes.
As written, the recipe is perfect for a cool midday pick-me-up or late-night treat (use decaf coffee if you need to avoid caffeine), and it’s also easy to tweak to be even more substantial. After a long workout, I’ll often add a scoop of chocolate protein powder and a handful of spinach to turn it into a recovery smoothie. Try it both ways and let me know what you think!
Print 5 from 3 votes Leave a Review » Starbucks Mocha Frappucino | Healthy Copycat Recipe Yield : 1 drink Prep Time: 3 mins Total Time: 3 mins An easy copycat Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino recipe, made with real ingredients. Simple, homemade version that's low calorie but so rich and chocolaty! Ingredients 1 cup strong black coffee — chilled
1/2 medium banana — cut into chunks and frozen
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons Bob’s Red Mill Chia Seeds
1 tablespoon light agave — plus additional to taste
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Ice
Optional for serving: whipped cream — whipped coconut cream, chocolate shavings, chocolate syrup or mini chocolate chips Instructions Combine the coffee, banana, cocoa powder, chia seeds, agave, and vanilla extract in the bottom of a blender. Blend until smooth, about 30 or so seconds depending upon your blender, then add a small handful of ice cubes, blending until the mixture becomes thick. Continue adding ice cubes until you reach your desired consistency (I like mine fairly thick). Pour into a glass. Garnish as desired and enjoy immediately. Recipe Notes This Mocha Frappuccino is best enjoyed immediately after its made. For a head start on the recipe, brew your coffee up to 1 day in advance and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Course: Dessert, Drinks Cuisine: American Keyword: Easy Dessert Recipe, Starbucks Mocha Frappucino | Healthy Copycat Recipe Nutrition Information Amount per serving (1 drink, without toppings) — Calories: 262, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 3mg, Carbohydrates: 46g, Fiber: 15g, Sugar: 23g, Protein: 9g Did you try this recipe? I want to see! Follow Well Plated on Instagram, snap a photo, and tag it #wellplated. I love to know what you are making!
I am sharing this post in partnership with Bob’s Red Mill. As always, all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands and companies that make it possible for me to continue to create quality content for you! For more healthy recipe inspiration, coupons, or to find a store that carries Bob’s Red Mill products near you, visit bobsredmill.com.
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that I make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you. |
Clear your calendar for 12/23 at 5 pm, well . . . then you might as well clear your calendar for Christmas Eve, too, because you’re going to need some serious recovery time after you see what Gerard Robertson at Coalhouse Pizza in Stamford has planned for you.
Yes, it’s true: some of New England Brewing’s best beers will be on tap for this special night (we’ll update with the time when we get it). Think of it as Gerard’s Christmas present to you.
First of all, Fuzzy Baby Ducks will be on tap! You’ve probably heard about it, and you’ve probably seen that it’s been popping up here and there at great bars and restaurants that love good, craft beer. So, whether this is is your first time or 12th time having FBD, you’ll want to see what the #5 ranked IPA in the COUNTRY by Beer Advocate tastes like! Yes, #5.
Secondly, Gerard (that lucky fuzzy duck) was able to snag some Zapata Bot! This beer was released in bottles in a very limited batch (only 1,000), but he’s got it pouring for you on 12/23. Why Zapata? They age their DIPA Gandhi-Bot in tequila barrels! We’ve been dreaming about trying this, so now we get to!
Thirdly, you’ll have to come and see what mysterious cask that NEBCO is giving to Coalhouse. We don’t know, you don’t know, but we’re sure that we’re going to love it! What would you want it to be?
Lastly, their classic brews will be pouring out too:
668 Neighbor of the Beast
Elm City Lager
Ghost Pigeon Porter
Imperial Stout Trooper
Sea Hag
See you there, people and seriously consider hiring an Uber, this is gonna get messy! |
news
・2016.02.08 This site opened .
・We love the dillinger escape plan
movie
■ Panasonic Youth / DEP LAB @2015.01.10 soundstone at Tokorosawa Saitama Japan
■ Setting fire to sleepin' giants / DEP LAB@ 2016.07.30 soundstone at Tokorosawa Saitama Japan
■ Setting fire to sleepin' giants / DEP [email protected] stdio NOAH
■ Panasonic Youth / DEP [email protected] stdio NOAH
■ Baby's First Coffin' / DEP [email protected] stdio NOAH
about
LtoR:
uchida(Gt)
適切な音の解析と立ち上がりがゆっくりした感情的なギタープレイが得意。あまり歪ませたギタープレイは苦手。DEP LABでは氏の良さがつぶされてしまっている！ He is good at the analysis of the appropriate sound and the emotional guitar play that a start was slow. He is weak in the guitar play of the sound distorted.His good point is lost in DEP LAB！
yohsuke(Vo)
抜群の歌唱力でメロディを歌い上げることが得意。シャウトやデス声は苦手。DEP LABでは氏の良さがつぶされてしまっている！ He is good at singing a melody in a loud voice by outstanding singing ability. He is weak in a shout and the death voice. His good point is lost in DEP LAB！
noriaki(Dr)
変拍子かつ手数が多くても正確に叩ける高い演奏能力を持つ。解析の精度も高い。ただ、アラフィフ迎えてのDEPLABでの激しいドラムプレイは体力的にキツそう！ He has high performance ability to be able to beat strange time and the small beat exactly. And he has high analysis precision of the performance, too. But It seems to be physically severe on the intense drum play in DEPLAB because He reached age of around 50!
asami(Gt)
ザ・ハードロック大好き人間で単音リフが得意。テンションコードやクロマチックスケールは苦手。テンションコードやクロマチックスケールが多用されているDEP LABでは氏の良さがつぶされてしまっている！ He is good at a single sound riff in the hard rock addicts. He is weak in a tension cord and the chromatic scale.His good point is lost in DEP LAB where a tension cord and chromatic scale are used many for!
koh(Ba)
丁寧・的確な歌うベースプレイでポップな音楽が得意。DEPLABはポップな音楽ではないので氏の良さがつぶされてしまっている！ The base that you seem to sing is the characteristic of his performance. And he is good at pop music.because DEPLAB is not pop music,his good point is lost!
band
2005年結成。初めてカバーできた曲はbaby's first coffin'、バンドで演奏できるようになるまで1年半かかりました。何しろコピーバンドをやりたかったので、どうせ組むなら誰もやらないようなコピーバンドを組もうと思ってD.E.P.のコピーをやっています。 We have formed in 2005. The music that We was able to cover for the first time is baby's first coffin'. It took one and a half years until We became able to play it in a band.Anyway we wanted to form a cover band. Therefore we thought to form the cover band which nobody form if we do it at all. So we continue covering D.E.P.
links
We Love
The Dillinger Escape Plan ： It is the band of the origin of cover.
MORE BANDS WITH DEPLAB MEMBERS
Re-NacL ： official site. The band which Asami(Gt.) participates in.
mugbum ： official site. The band which Asami(Gt.) participates in as a bassist.
Connect
DEPLAB−Facebook ： Facebook Page |
This article is over 2 years old
Muslim women can wear the hijab instead of Mountie headgear, a government spokesman said – a measure to encourage diversity and inclusion in the force
Canada’s national police force has permitted its women officers to wear the hijab.
The commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police recently approved the addition to the uniform to allow Muslim women to wear the hijab, public safety minister Ralph Goodale’s spokesman said Wednesday.
Scott Bardsley said it is intended to better reflect the diversity of Canada and to encourage more Muslim women to consider a career with the force.
The Mounties faced a public backlash more than 25 years ago when a Sikh man took the government to court and won the right to wear his traditional turban instead of the usual Mountie headgear. Canadians have long since accepted the change.
Bardsley noted police services in the cities of Toronto and Edmonton and those across the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway, as well as some US states, have adopted similar policies.
“The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a progressive and inclusive police service that values and respects persons of all cultural and religious backgrounds,” Bardsley said in an email.
The change in Canada is in contrast to France where at least a dozen towns have banned body-covering burkini swimwear favored by some Muslim women, the latest skirmish in a long-running duel between some members of France’s large Muslim population and the secular establishment. |
..We are the Waterway Stewards of Durbin Creek and The Historic Bartram Canoe Trail...
..volunteer citizens making a difference by keeping the creek open for everyone to enjoy...
We are the recipients of the prestigious "2012 Green Paddle Award for Waterway Conservation" Presented by The American Canoe Association for outstanding contribution to paddlesport by protecting America's Waterways.
..for contact information about this, donation based, conservation, restoration and clean-up non-profit organization, The Clean Waterway Society, Inc email: [email protected] We are the recipients of the 2013 "In The Trenches Award" presented by The Public Trust Environmental Legal Institute of Florida. Our award was given during the 22nd annual Mayors Environmental Awards luncheon with this years theme, Advancing Environmental Stewardship.
..with our Sincere Thanks!....
..Donations can be mailed to The Clean Waterway Society 1212 Ribbon Road, St. Johns Florida 32259..with our Sincere Thanks!.... ..while viewing our blog..note there are several pages of "older posts" to check out..... ...Click on each photo for "the gallery view" ...
This project began May 1st, 2011 when Eric Bersinger and Josh Woods paddled The Bartram Canoe Trail on Durbin Creek. What we found that day was the launch area full of illegally dumped trash and a creek that had been ignored for years. Fallen trees and log jams made this beautiful creek impossible to paddle. On this day we made our pledge, on this day "The Durbin Creek Wilderness Society" was born.....and on this day we went to work.... |
The nation's first federal regulations on fracking, unveiled by the Obama administration last week, sparked immediate criticism from leading anti-fracking activists.
Americans Against Fracking, a coalition of 250 environmental and liberal groups that includes Greenpeace, 350.org, MoveOn.org, CREDO, Food & Water Watch, Rainforest Action Network and Friends of the Earth, issued a statement characterizing the new rules—meant chiefly to reduce the threat of fracking-related water contamination—as "toothless."
Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo, who serves on the Americans Against Fracking advisory board, said that Obama's fracking regulations "are nothing more than a giveaway to the oil and gas industry." The group's goal is a complete fracking ban on federal land, where as many as 100,00 oil and gas wells have been drilled.
The new rules apply only to oil and gas drilling on federal lands, which represent about 25 percent of the national fossil fuel output and only some 10 percent of the nation's fracking. The rules don't apply to drilling on private or state-owned land. Currently, fracking occurs in 22 states.
Since states are responsible for regulating most of the fracking in the U.S., the anti-fracking battlefield—a patchwork of communities around the nation taking a stand to protect their air, water and soil–is understandably a bit fractured. With that in mind, here's a brief look around the country at some recent fracktivist highlights at the state and local level.
California
SPONSORED
February 6. Over 8,000 activists gathered in Oakland for the March for Real Climate Leadership, the largest anti-fracking demonstration in U.S. history.
February 24. Bolstered by an admission by California state regulators that oil companies are disposing toxic waste into protected aquifers in violation of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, more than 150 environmental and community groups filed a legal petition urging the governor to use his emergency powers to place a moratorium on fracking.
March 20. California state Senator Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) and other lawmakers sent a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown urging him to "stop illegal injection into non-exempt aquifers" to protect the state's water from oil waste.
Colorado
February 24. Coloradans Against Fracking activists crashed a state oil and gas task force meeting, launching a campaign for a statewide fracking ban. "Our primary goal is to convince Governor Hickenlooper to ban fracking," said Karen Dike, a member of the new coalition. He can do that with an executive order."
March 18. WildEarth Guardians filed an appeal to halt plans by the Bureau of Land Management to open up 36,000 acres of public lands along the Front Range of Colorado to fracking.
"Climate denial at the Interior Department is fueling a fracking rush on our public lands and undermining our nation's efforts to rein in carbon pollution," said Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians.
Maryland
March 24. Maryland's House of Delegates passed a bill to ban fracking for three years by a veto-proof 94 to 45. However, it's unclear whether HB 449, currently under review in the state's Senate Committee on Education, Health and Environmental Affairs, has enough support in the Senate to become a law.
March 24. The Senate voted 29 to 17 in favor of a bill holding energy companies financially liable for injury, death or property laws caused by their fracking activities.
Together these measures mark the legislature's most aggressive action to curb fracking in the state.
New Mexico
December 30. The BLM announced it was deferring the issuance of five Navajo allotment parcels for fracking near Chaco Canyon, a World Heritage site, in response to a protest filed by a coalition of environmentalists and watchdog groups demanding a suspension of fracking on public lands in the northwest region of the state.
"Deferring these parcels was the right, and indeed, only legally defensible decision," said Kyle Tisdel, a program director for Western Environmental Law Center (WELC). "Necessary safeguards and analysis must be completed before any further leasing and development of the areas treasured landscapes can continue in compliance with the law."
March 11. A coalition of environmental groups including WELC, WildEarth Guardians and the Navajo organization Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (Diné CARE) filed suit against the BLM and the U.S. Department of the Interior to prevent fracking from harming Chaco Canyon, the site of numerous ancestral Puebloan ruins and Navajo communities.
New York
December 17. About a month after his re-election, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo imposed a statewide ban on fracking, citing health risks. The announcement made New York the second state in the country after Vermont to ban fracking. The decision, which ended years of debate in the Empire State, was by most accounts the biggest environmental story in the United States in 2014, and puts pressure on other states to consider similar bans.
"I've never had anyone say to me, I believe fracking is great," said Cuomo. "Not a single person in those communities. What I get is, I have no alternative but fracking."
Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, called the move "a vindication for communities around the country that have been hit hard by unconventional natural gas production."
North Carolina
March 17. On the first day natural gas drilling permits could have been legally accepted in North Carolina, a group of anti-fracking state legislators called for a moratorium.
"We’ve been promised over the last five years that North Carolina would have the nation’s toughest fracking rules, and here we are at zero hour, and we do not have those rules," said Senator Mike Woodard (D-Durham). "The rules are simply insufficient for us to move forward with the issuing of permits."
Ohio
March 18. In a rare moment of bipartisanship, Ohio's normally polarized House of Representatives voted unanimously to ban fracking in state parks. While activists applauded the move, Ohio Sierra Club director Jen Miller said her group "will continue to work tirelessly to defend all state lands from industrial activities like fracking until they are set aside for generations to come, which starts with repealing bills like HB 133 altogether."
Oregon
March 12. The Oregon Community Rights Network (OCRN) launched a campaign to put a constitutional amendment on the November 2016 ballot that will affirm the right to local self-government in a move that would help anti-fracking activists in the state. If ratified, the amendment would grant legal rights to communities and even natural environments that can be violated.
The initiative is joins a growing local-rights movement around the country that is frustrating oil and gas companies. Mary Geddry, a representative with OCRN, noted that more than 200 communities across the U.S. have passed ordinances protecting local rights. "Only nine have been challenged in court," she said.
Pennsylvania
January 29. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf fulfilled a campaign promise and signed an executive order reinstating a moratorium on fracking in the state's public lands, protecting about a million acres that sit on the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation.
Texas
December 25. Anti-fracking activist Cathy McMullen, who started the nonprofit Denton Drilling Awareness Group that launched a petition to enact a citywide fracking ban, was named a finalist for the 2014 Texan of the Year Award by Dallas Morning News. This followed an Election Day in which voters passed a ballot initiative making Denton, located near the birthplace of fracking, the first city in Texas to pass a fracking ban.
March 23. Documentary filmmaker and Denton resident Garrett Graham released a new trailer for Don't Frack with Denton, his forthcoming film that tells the story of "how one tenacious Texas town managed to upstage the oil and gas industry with the power of music and community organizing."
Utah
March 18. WildEarth Guardians filed an appeal challenging BLM's plan to auction off more than 15,000 acres of public land in southern Utah to fracking companies. A 2014 report by WildEarth Guardians found that the carbon emission cost from oil and gas produced from public lands could exceed $50 billion.
Looking Ahead
While local fracking battles continue to rage around the nation, there has been interesting activity on the federal level, beyond the recent announcement from the White House.
House bill H.R. 5844, the Protect Our Public Lands Act seeks to amend the Mineral Leasing Act to prohibit a lessee from conducting any activity under the lease for fracking purposes. It was introduced in early December by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) during the last session of Congress and there are plans to reintroduce the bill in the current session.
On March 18, representatives Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Chris Gibson (R-NY), Jared Polis (D-CO) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced the so-called Frack Pack, a set of five bills that aim to close loopholes in environmental laws that have been used by oil and gas companies to frack without proper oversight.
While state and local anti-fracking measures and federal bills to curb fracking have been making headlines, for fracktivists the big enchilada is a national ban.
"Communities that have already suffered from fracking, like Longmont, Colorado, are rising up to pass local bans," said Miranda Carter, a spokesperson at Food & Water Watch. "But we need to protect every community in the country by calling for a national ban on fracking: to slow or stop the process where it's already happening, and elsewhere, to prevent it before it starts." |
Most photos taken of the negotiators seeking to reach an agreement over Iran's nuclear programme have EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini standing in the middle.
In a way, this is a victory in itself for the EU, demonstrating its ability to be a credible and respected party in what are arguably the most important diplomatic negotiations since the Camp David summit back in 1978.
However, the centrality of the EU in these negotiations does not necessarily mean that it will also reap the biggest rewards.
Russia, China, and the US are possibly more eager to get a share of the spoils and could push EU countries aside in what may be the biggest prize in a new “Great Game”.
This is why what happens following an agreement with Iran will likely have a great impact on the EU's diplomatic and geopolitical leverage in the years, if not decades, to come.
21st century Fashoda
European countries used to have much more clout in the Middle East.
In fact, just over a hundred years ago, in 1907, Britain and Russia even managed to agree on a partition of Persia into spheres of influence which effectively nullified the country's sovereignty.
In today's Iran, this is unlikely to be repeated, but the struggle to consolidate influence in the country will be just as fierce, turning Tehran into a 21st century Fashoda.
Instead of European countries calling the tune, today it is the US, Russia and China that appear to have the biggest stakes in Iran's future orientation.
For the US, achieving a breakthrough with Tehran will be a game-changer in addressing the multiple crises in the Middle East and should be seen in the wider context of America’s “pivot to Asia”.
This is because for China, Iran is important not just for its vast oil and gas supplies, but also because it is to be a lynchpin in its New Silk Road project.
Meanwhile, with Chinese influence extending into Siberia and across the plains of Central Asia, Russia does not want to see an overt Chinese presence in Iran that could extend into Turkey -another country with which Russia is seeking to develop better relations.
What's more, if Iranian oil makes it back to world markets, Russia stands to lose significantly owing to the similarity of both countries' chief export blends.
This is why Moscow is already jockeying for influence in Tehran, intending to unlock the sale of its S-300 missile system, and is seeking co-operation rather than confrontation with Beijing by pushing for Iranian membership of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation.
Will Europe be heard?
None of this is to say that Europe does not have geopolitical stakes in Iran's future.
After all, it has great interest in cultivating Iran as a stabilising force in the Middle East, and relying on its influence in the region to address the war in Syria and Iraq. In addition, Iranian gas could have a significant impact on Europe's energy security in the long term, enabling it to diversify its imports and to lessen its dependence on Russian gas.
However, it is not evident that Iranians will prefer dealing with Europeans over the Chinese, the Russians, or even the Americans.
So far, Chinese and Russian businesses have been the true beneficiaries of Western-imposed sanctions regimes, and enjoy a first-mover benefit of sorts.
US companies will have to start from square one. But the fact that many Iranians have maintained strong ties with America since the 1979 revolution means US businesses could soon eclipse European interests.
Delicate dance
It is not a foregone conclusion that European countries will lose out when Iran opens up.
For starters, both China and the US will have to contend with the fact that cozying up to Iran will leave Saudi Arabia very unhappy, putting their ties with the kingdom in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, Israel is expected to give both the US and Russia a hard time following through on a possible agreement with Iran.
In the end, Iran itself may have second thoughts about getting itself entangled in a delicate dance trying to soothe Beijing, Moscow, and Washington all at the same time.
This makes it easier for European countries and businesses to strike up relations with Tehran, which are likely perceived as less threatening and bringing fewer diplomatic headaches.
It could be that standing in the middle of the photograph does pay off for Mogherini and for Europe, but only if she carefully watches what happens on her left and her right.
Willem Th. Oosterveld and Sijbren de Jong are analysts at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies in the Netherlands |
Kadeem Allen went coast-to-coast for a game-winning layup as the No. 10 Arizona Wildcats beat the No. 12 Michigan State Spartans 65-63 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In a game that featured six second-half lead changes, it was Allen’s go-ahead bucket that finally put Arizona ahead for good with 1.9 seconds left.
"He is the guy that every coach in the country would love to have on their team because he only cares about winning," Arizona head coach Sean Miller told ESPN after the game. "It's incredible to watch him make the shot and get the steal, it's what should happen."
Arizona trailed 60-59 with three minutes left after Miles Bridges put the Spartans up, but Lauri Markkanen gave the Wildcats the lead, hitting a jumper in the paint to put Arizona up 61-60.
Parker Jackson-Cartwright — after fighting an MSU big man for a rebound — hit a floater to make it 63-60.
However, Tum Tum Nairn Jr. hit a 3 with 7.5 seconds left to tie things up at 63-63.
Arizona inbounded the ball to Allen, and nobody got in his way as he went the distance, kissing the ball off the glass to send the Wildcats to victory.
"Putting the ball in (Allen's) hands in that situation was I think the smart move, and he did a great job finishing," Miller said.
Early on, you wouldn’t have guessed that Arizona would win this game.
Michigan State jumped out to a 17-2 lead in the first six minutes with the help from Miles Bridges, who scored seven of MSU’s first 12 points.
But Arizona’s defense tightened and it went on a 22-4 run, with Kobi Simmons hitting a 3-pointer to put the Wildcats up 24-21 with 5:24 left in the half.
Simmons had 15 points in the first half off the bench, helping Arizona end the half up 34-30.
"We just got off to a terrible start, but a lot of times when you're not at home and you get off to a slow start, you don’t necessarily put it behind you, but we did and I credit our team for being able to do that." Miller said.
Arizona took a 43-34 lead early in the second half, but MSU quickly countered, and a 3-pointer by Alvin Ellis III put the Spartans up 51-46 with 10:43 left in regulation.
Arizona would re-take a 57-56 lead with 4:58 left after a layup by Parker Jackson-Cartwright.
There would be three more lead changes, but the Wildcats were able to escape Honolulu with the victory, starting the season with a huge win.
Here some other takeaways:
Dusan Ristic struggles
Arizona’s starting center was a non-existent against the Spartans, as he missed his first five shots and didn’t get on the board until there was roughly seven minutes left in the game.
He couldn’t establish deep post position, and looked uncomfortable when he did get the ball on the block. Ristic finished with two points on 1-6 shooting.
He didn’t make an impact defensively or the glass either, finishing with just three rebounds.
Sean Miller understandably went with Chance Comanche at center down the stretch, and Comanche was an improvement, scoring eight points and grabbing five boards in 18 minutes.
Neither Ristic nor Comanche had a block.
Simmons sparks offense
Arizona’s offense struggled to get going at the start, as it took them more than four minutes to get their first points. Who scored the first basket? Kobi Simmons, and it was just the beginning of a terrific first half performance.
Simmons scored 15 first half points, and needed just six shots to do it. He hit two 3s and made 5 of 6 of his free throw attempts.
“I want to enter a game always with confidence,” Simmons said. “I always have confidence and I just have to bring that spark, and I did that.”
He was quiet in the second half, scoring just three points before leaving the game at the 2:27 mark after rolling his ankle.
He finished with 18 points, but didn’t record an assist or a rebound. Still, it was a strong — and much-needed — performance by Simmons in his debut.
“He stepped up big time,” Allen said of Simmons. “He really carried the team on his back...We fed off his energy.”
Simmons’ 18 points were the most by an Arizona freshman in his debut since Jerryd Bayless posted 18 points in 2007-08.
“Kobi Simmons for a freshman showed a lot of ability,” Miller said. “At halftime, he had 15 of our 34 points, and that’s a big reason we were able to get back in the game. He was outstanding. He has a lot of talent. We watch him everyday and I think the best has yet to come from him too.”
Allen makes amends
Kadeem Allen had a rough night, shooting 3-11 from the field with zero assists and two turnovers, but all can be forgotten after he sank the game-winner.
Plus, he had three steals and a block to help offset his struggles offensively.
Jackson-Cartwright contributes in other ways
From a box score perspective, Parker Jackson-Cartwright’s numbers don’t stand out.
He scored nine points on 4-11 shooting, plus shot just 1-6 from 3 with his only make being a desperation 3 on a broken play.
He also had just three turnovers to two assists.
Still, he made two of the biggest plays of the game.
After Markkanen put Arizona up 61-60, Jackson-Cartwright outfought a Michigan State big man for a rebound, then scored on the other end to extend Arizona’s lead to 63-60. It might have been the most important sequence of the game.
PJC did have three steals too. As a whole, you’d like to see his offensive output become more efficient, but even when it wasn’t, he managed to make a positive impact.
Markkanen makes impact
Lauri Markkanen didn’t get as many touches as he probably should have, but when he did he made them count. He shot 2-3 from 3, hit 3-4 from the line and had a couple clutch baskets late in the second half.
He was also tied for the team lead in rebounds with six, with Keanu Pinder being the other player with half a dozen. Pinder helped turn Arizona’s defense around in the first half, as he had a team-best +11 plus-minus in the period.
Here was Arizona’s full box score:
Arizona returns to action Tuesday when it hosts CSU Bakersfield. Tip off is scheduled for 8 p.m. The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
You can follow this author on Twitter at @RKelapire. All quotes were transcribed from ArizonaWildcats.com, unless specified otherwise. |
Brussels were finally breathing easy after both the Dutch and French elections this year passed without deeply eurosceptic Geert Wilders or Marine Le Pen securing victory. EU officials warned a win for populism could put the entire union at threat, and the bloc be torn apart if countries follow in Britain’s footsteps with Brexit. But now a new threat is looming following the dramatic collapse of Austria’s government.
GETTY EU officials warned a win for populism could put the entire union at threat
GETTY Norbert Hofer will be attempting to snatch more votes in the early election
The Freedom Party is riding high in the polls - and could take power if it forms a coalition after elections on October 15. Dutch, French, British and German general elections have already battered the Brussels elite with the European Union being forced to row back on some of its most outlandish ideas. Now the Alpine republic, one of the first to erect a razor wire fence during the migrant crisis, will decide its future course on immigration, labour and social policy this October. The next election was originally due to be held in autumn 2018, but the government collapsed after months of statements disagreements over reform policies.
Geert Wilders: These are the Party for Freedom leader's policies Wed, February 8, 2017 Noteworthy policies that Geert Wilders mentions in his party program. Play slideshow 1 of 14
And the Freedom Party, founded in 1955 by former Nazis amongst other, hope to take advantage of the chaos. According to a poll from Neuwal, the party previously had polling highs of almost 35 per cent at the end of last year, although has since dropped to just above 25 point. The Social Democrats party are just a point ahead, tied with the rival People’s party, in a sign Austria will need to form a coalition government to rule.
GETTY Both Geert Wilders or Marine Le Pen failed to secure victory
GETTY Eurosceptic Norbert Hofer has caused controversy in Austria |
Every Torontonian has a TTC horror story: trapped on an overflowing platform unable to board an already full train, packed tight in a stationary car for a delay to clear, paying a fare only to find the line is out. I could go on, but you already know how it goes.
After finally getting released from a queue behind a disabled train only to be stymied a few moments later by a passenger assistance alarm, I thought it worthwhile to dig into the TTC's official records on outages - technical faults, track fires, belligerent riders, weather, the whole lot - in the hope of getting a bigger picture of what a year of problems looks like on paper.
It turns out, maybe not surprisingly, that passenger assistance alarms were most common type of stoppage. The yellow buttons inside the cars were pressed 1,459 times in 2012, an average of almost 4 per day. The lost time over the course of the year added up to 118 hours and 14 minutes. Each time TTC staff were forced to respond it took an average of 4 minutes 51 seconds to get things moving again.
The TTC counts incidents that involve the police separately, labeling them "security incidents."
Just behind passenger alerts was the TTC's own train problems. The rolling stock - a technical name for the trains - needed emergency repairs 1,323 times in 2012, causing 109 hours and 49 minutes of delays.
Frustratingly, the problem that created the worst wait times is almost entirely preventable. 330 small fires, litter problems, and unauthorized people at track level stopped the subway for a total of 106 hours and 37 minutes in 2012. Each incident took an average of 19 minutes to resolve - longer than breakdowns and assistance alarms.
In total there were 4,842 outages on the subway in 2012 that caused more than three weeks of delays (509 hours and 35 minutes to be precise.) The average delay across all types took 6 minutes and 31 seconds to clear, which is longer than the 4-minute average headway between trains. Normal scheduled service often takes longer to resume.
Are you surprised by these figures or do they match your experience of using the subway? Could the TTC do more to prevent track fires or is it up to the rider to use the garbage cans? Sound off below.
Note: The average wait time listed in the last chart was calculated across all lines from the most recent service summary report between March 31 and May 11, 2013. The delay data is from 2012.
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: tapesonthefloor/blogTO Flickr pool. |
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my high school freshman english teacher had us read ayn rand's "anthem" and i fell in love. over the next few years i bought or was given several of her books.however, any time i'd start reading one of them, my mom would say that i was acting like an asshole. i had to assume that there was some correlation.now, i sorta consider myself an anti-capitalist anarchist. if you have to put a label on it.but i still have all these ayn rand books.perhaps you have a similar yet opposite story and we can respectfully trade off the errors of our youth.the books that i have and their condition are the following:**atlas shrugged--bought new, but well worn. i actually read this book a few times**we the living--bought used, so it's got that used book aging yellow musty-ness to it; never fully read by me.**the fountainhead--ok i'm actually not entirely sure that i have this one still. but i know that i did at some point. so this book may not be included. however, if it is it was bought used; never fully read by me.**capitalism:the unknown ideal--bought new. prolly some creases is the binding**the virtue of selfishness--bought now. prolly some creases in the bindingand because, dear reader, i am feeling especially giving, i will also include ayn rand's interview with playboy. unfortunately, just the transcripts. no nudie shots.i'm looking for anarcy books, commie books, um...pretty much anything else.and in case any of you randroids might not have something suitable on your shelves, i'll of course accept cold hard cash.(due to the harm that this caused in my relationship with my mother, i am trying not to give these books to minors.) |
It’s about 5:00 in the afternoon, it’s been raining all day and now into the night, and the radio says it’ll keep raining well into tomorrow. The phone rings. It’s my arts editor at the Baltimore City Paper. He sounds like he’s ready to go home. “I’ve got a play for you,” he says. The rain is beating against the windows. “Hapgood,” he says. “By Tom Stoppard. You good with it?” Before I can think of an excuse not do it, he thanks me. I pop a burrito in the microwave and watch it expand slowly. Then I find my green notebook, call and cancel on my girlfriend, and grab the car keys. I head out into the cold, wet Sunday night. This will be my 123rd night of Baltimore community theater. But who’s counting?
I started counting five years ago, when the editor at City Paper decided he needed someone to cover local theater. That was partly because someone else had gotten sick of doing that, and had started a column on local bars. I was the man for the job: I was a writer in need of some steady work, I hadn’t seen any plays in Baltimore yet, and, maybe most important, I was willing to do anything for very little money.
They eased me gradually into the job. For the first assignment I was sent to Center Stage, Baltimore’s regional theater, to watch Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale. I got free tickets, they gave me press packets and, on opening night, they gave me cheap champagne. I came home, dissected the play, summed it up, listed three good things about the production and one bad thing, and ragged on one actor. I was the Frank Rich of Baltimore, and I hurled my bolts of insight from the mountaintop: If you like your Shakespeare straight up and easily pegged, the Bard’s later plays can be problematic. I could offer veiled criticism: The main characters are a little less fiery than one might expect. And I could always end with a bang: This is the late Shakespeare, who pleases some, tries all, and doesn’t really care if you walk away a little confused.
Just when I thought I had the job down, I ran out of professional theater to review — which, in Baltimore, doesn’t take long. But I kept getting assignments from the City Paper, and I noticed some funny things happening. The ticket prices started plummeting. I didn’t need to make reservations. The audiences were getting smaller. The people in the seats were getting older. The theaters were harder to find. And the actors weren’t necessarily bad, but, well, let’s just say they stuck to their day jobs. I had quickly spiraled down through Baltimore’s few examples of semi-pro theater. And minor-league theater. And, because it was the only place to find more shows, I ended up at theater in the rough.
The people on stage were policemen, computer programmers, starry-eyed sophomores, retired schoolteachers. The plays weren’t classics, but they weren’t exactly cutting-edge: Broadway standbys (Art), comic dramas (Fuddy Meers), zany madcap farces (Lend Me a Tenor!), and musicals, musicals, musicals. And Sondheim.
My readership changed. I was no longer writing for potential theatergoers, people looking for my advice on whether to shell out for tickets. I wasn’t even being read by the actors in the plays. I was being read by their best friends and close relatives. And they knew who I was. They knew where I lived. And they knew when I screwed up the names: Thanks for the review and glad you found the show enjoyable. Just a couple of little points…The “stern taskmaster” you describe is actually Florindo, played by Chris Hickle.
This is not a gig for the weak of heart. It’s for the eternal optimist, the dead-end journalist who doesn’t believe in dead ends. It’s for the tolerant, the cheerful, the brave and gratuitously creative. It’s a job for someone who doesn’t have a lot to do on weekends.
•
Tonight, it’s a job for someone willing to log 30 or 40 miles in the pouring rain for a community theater production of Stoppard. The place is Villa Julie College. I have no idea where the college is, so I call for directions and somehow end up talking to the athletics department. Forty-five minutes later, I’ve done exactly what the guy at the athletics department told me, and I still have no idea where I am. Something’s wrong. There are signs above the highway telling me that if I keep going, I’ll arrive in Philadelphia. Standing at a gas-station phone in the driving rain, I discover I’m so far lost that the call to the college is long-distance — and I don’t have enough change to pay for it. And no, I don’t carry a cell phone. I slam down the receiver so hard that its earpiece breaks. Eventually, at a House of Pancakes, I get change, and I reach the athletics department again, and this time I’m transferred to the school’s arts director. I tell her I’m lost, wet, and, apparently, on the outskirts of Philly. She tells me it’s not that far.
“Try to hurry,” she says. “The play’s scheduled to go up in ten minutes.”
The Villa Julie College Players are waiting for me. I head back along the same highway at about 90 miles per hour—peering through the downpour, avoiding cars on my blind side, trying to make out the exit numbers. Then I exit. Three deer step out in the road in front of me, their red eyes in my headlights. They vanish. And then I see a small white sign for the school. It’s a tiny, dark, nonresidential campus with one athletic center and one arts center, a large, squat, leaning tower of Pisa.
The lobby is deserted. The arts director is sitting at a table; she hands me a carefully prepared press packet like a baton. I apologize for being late. She accepts the apology. They’d held up the play for 15 minutes, she says, and then gone ahead, because the actors have to go home. I’ve missed the opening scene, she tells me. But I know what she’s thinking: If I pan the show, I’m toast, because she’ll write a letter to the editor saying I arrived midway through the first act.
The 400-seat theater is empty except for a few audience members, most of them with flowers. The enormous stage is similarly empty — there’s not much of a set, just a man and woman in dialogue. I can barely hear them in the cavernous hall, but the guy is talking to her in a fake Russian accent about the Heisenberg principle. There’s a little note in the program itself. According to the laws of quantum physics, light is generated not through waves but in particles of matter and antimatter. I don’t know what they’re talking about — I keep forgetting that with Stoppard, there’s a reading list you’re supposed to complete before seeing the play — but I take out my notebook and begin to madly scribble fragments of their lines.
Meanwhile, strange things are happening on stage. A briefcase full of classified information is swapped between two identical-looking figures. I still can’t get their names straight. There’s something about identical twins. British secret agents. Some sort of leak.
I’ll need to show I’ve actually been to see the play. Pastiche, I think. Theatrical montage. Sparse set. Beckettian. Swiftian. Pirandelloesque. I give up. I’m sitting there wedged between chairs, digging my fingernails into my forearm: It’s what I do to stop myself from falling asleep.
During intermission, I ask the acne-riddled undergrad at the urinal next to mine whether he understands what’s going on. I ask the question casually, not letting on that I’m actually a semi-professional theater reviewer. He tells me he hasn’t the faintest idea, just knows the actress. I look at the program. He’s probably the guy she dedicated her performance to, along with William Shakespeare, Bob Dylan, and her family. And he’s probably wondering why an older guy in a raincoat is coming out here on a Sunday night to watch a play his girlfriend is starring in.
I return to my seat, and the characters on stage are talking about quantum theory and how nothing is as it seems. The actors seem as confused as I am. There is a large chubby guy in a poncho. Then there’s a woman with red hair, who looks a little like – who was it, Liv Ullmann? I actually saw Liv Ullmann, years ago, in something by Ibsen. But I can’t hear anything this actress is saying. I am starting to nod off. My pen and notepad fall to the ground.
Then I’m jolted awake by a violent explosion: a gunshot. I remember a note in the program warning me about it. I have no idea who’s shooting whom, or why, but the shots keep coming, one after the other. People are exchanging identities. This is all occurring in the Cold War. Usually, even in the worst case scenario, things start moving toward the end. It’s not happening. The voices all maintain their monotone. One actress, I notice, is walking around on crutches. That doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the play itself.
When I emerge, 40 or 50 minutes later, my ears still ring. A small crowd of kids is congregating in the lobby, waiting for their friends to come out, and I head to the garbage can full of opening-night microbrews. It’s a breach of journalistic integrity to take one, but it was a breach of something — I’m not sure what — to come here in the first place. I drink two beers with strange names. The arts director tells me a little about the college — mostly about how it’s not as far away as everyone thinks it is.
•
It’s 4 a.m., and I’m back home. I got lost again on the way back, plus the car sort of broke down — and now I’m finally sitting down to write the review. I stare at the monitor. Nothing comes to me. The rain has stopped by now, and the rosy-fingered dawn is rising above Baltimore’s skyline. The world — or at least the friends and family of the cast — is waiting to see what the drama critic of the Baltimore City Paper has to say about Hapgood.
And what do I have to say? It was bad? It was so bad it was good? The kids were so bad you couldn’t say they were bad? Or should I just tell the world to stay away from drama students trying to do plays they don’t understand, especially on cold, rainy nights? By 6:30 a.m. I’m tired. My day job looms. I remember the last letter to the editor, written in response to a review I’d spent days agonizing over: This is a harangue by someone who does not like the play or the writer. It gives the reader no sense of the production itself. As such, it is lazy and worthless.
Yes, there’s a little bitterness. I have bigger visions of my role as a critic. But my critics seem to think that somehow it’s my role in life to drive out there, 50 miles or so (including detours and retreads), because they have something special to show me. The world doesn’t care what I write or how I write it; the actors just want the thumbs up. I can’t give it to them every time.
But just as I decide to let the world know that this particular production is a disaster, I remember a 20-year-old college kid who got panned in his college newspaper for his leading role in a Sam Shepherd one-act. John Barry was shameless in his overacting. It’s precisely these people who give contemporary theater a bad name. Two decades later I still remember the name of the guy who wrote that. Alex Lee. I don’t know where he lives, but if he had a less generic name, I’d probably have found his address by now. I remember what he looked like that night, squinting superciliously through his glasses in the front row, passing judgment on me, when all I wanted to do was act. And to be honest, I wasn’t that bad in the play. He just caught me on a bad night.
The rain has stopped, for the moment, at least. I’ve taken slings and arrows in my life, but the ones in print take a lot longer to heal. Okay, it was a crappy production. Tom Stoppard’s going to take the bullet. Not that I have anything against Stoppard. It’s just that if he hadn’t written the play, I wouldn’t have wasted my rainy night trying to squeeze something useful out of an amateur production. I start to type: Stoppard is funny. He’s smart, he makes you think, he makes you drink. The problem is that unless someone puts a cork in the Merlot at some point, he won’t shut up…
That’s it, Tom. Take that cork and shove it. And another thing. If I’m only getting paid $55 for a sidebar review, don’t tell me to bone up on Richard Feynman if I want to get the jokes. And the actors themselves. Think of them. They have day jobs. You know what a day job is? Did they ever teach you that at Oxford?
It happens every time. I can’t slam bad community theater. I want to. I want to be contrarian. I want people to hang on my next word. The dream will never die: getting drunk on martinis at Sardi’s after closing down a Disney-sponsored Broadway production, and possibly, later in life, getting a chance to rant on a weekly basis in the opinion pages of the New York Times.
But when these actors read my reviews, they know I’m one of them. For most of us, cultural Baltimore is a marriage of convenience: We’re stuck with one another. Outside my window, Saint Paul Street is tricking with people who can’t afford to live in DC, artists who never made it big, and lecturers who are desperately juggling four or five courses. Huge swaths of the city to the west and east are stuffed with people whose chances for success are small.
Then there are the shoebox theaters trying to squeeze out a little applause from people willing to watch. That population — people who like to watch plays just for the hell of it — is admittedly getting older and smaller. Now, in a world where it’s constantly pounded in our heads that there’s someone more interesting going on somewhere else, people need to be told why they’re doing it and what they’re going to get out of it. In Baltimore’s community theater, that’s not always clear. There aren’t any big names, and no one’s breaking new ground. It’s not guerilla theater, and it’s not fringe theater. It’s exclusive, durable, conservative, filled with core actors and playwrights who are a little jealous of their turf and a little grumpy with people who wonder why they don’t take a few more risks. You can’t blame them: They’ve created a small comfort zone in a city where theater is underfunded, overlooked, and loved by a shrinking crowd of advocates. Whenever I try to play Frank Rich with them, there’s one question I can’t get out of my head: Does the world need one more unread reviewer telling unseen actors to stick to their day jobs?
After 123 reviews, I don’t know the answer to that question. Meanwhile, it’s 7:55. I’ve still got to give this production a thumbs up or a thumbs down. In one hour, my editor will be sitting there, in his warm office, wondering casually where the hell my 400-word theater sidebar is. And I need the 55 bucks. I head back to the computer and my fingers fly across the keyboard. I start off with a breach of journalistic integrity. I call it cushioning the blow: “The Villa Julie Players offer Tom Stoppard a talented cast…” And now for the nugget of truth: “in Hapgood, they barely get a chance to show it.” • 11 September 2007 |
Public celebration of urban art hits Perth streets
Updated
Stormie Mills has been making his mark on the streets of Perth for 30 years.
Once restricted to working after dark to avoid being caught, today he is a celebrated artist who has travelled the world transforming spaces.
Mr Mills is also a vocal advocate for the controversial street art movement.
"Is it snails or escargot?" he said.
"Some people might call it vandalism and others will call it art, but the important thing is, there's a discussion about it."
This week Mr Mills has been joined by more than 40 artists from Australia and overseas as part of a program called Public.
It is a celebration of urban art run by not-for-profit arts organisation Form.
Form chairman Paul Chamberlain said the event was two years in the making.
"I'm originally from Bristol in the UK and Bristol is one of the centres for urban art," he said.
"On a trip back there a few years ago, we visited a couple of different urban art festivals and one of my daughters mentioned it would be a fantastic thing to have happen in Perth."
'A more vibrant place to live'
Blank walls around the city will now be taken over by renowned street artists.
"We've got 45 artists from all over the world who've come to help us change the fabric here," Mr Chamberlain said.
"This is all part of Perth's growing-up pains and I think that a bit of urban art around the place will make it a much more vibrant place to live."
One of the visiting artists is Gaia, a 25-year-old from Baltimore in the United States.
There's a lot more red tape to navigate and things are a lot more ordered, for better or for worse. Gaia, urban street artist
He will create a giant mural on a wall in an inner-city car park.
"We're utilised for our transformative capacity," he said.
"We do have the ability to completely change a space and completely change how people perceive that space.
"Whether or not that's the proper perception of that space is up to the various communities that invite us to come."
Gaia said he did not think Perth was as open to urban art as other cities he has worked in.
"Perth, and maybe Australia in general, is significantly more controlled than the United States," he said.
"There's a lot more red tape to navigate and things are a lot more ordered, for better or for worse.
"But it is impressive that they would be so trusting as to welcome international street artists to come, with almost no prior experience of the city, and then copy and paste their work into this environment.
"We'll see ultimately what the reception is."
Street art welcome in Fremantle
Attitudes towards street art do appear to be shifting, at least in some parts of Perth.
Last year, the City of Fremantle approved a new graffiti policy that would see works deemed to have cultural merit preserved.
Since then, cases of graffiti have decreased by 63 per cent.
Mr Mills said other councils could take a leaf out of Fremantle's book.
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Street art festival hits Perth (7pm TV News WA)
"I think there's a lot to be said about the care and attention that people put in to creating these works," he said.
"So if they could understand and appreciate that a bit better and perhaps relinquish some of their want to control the way our city grows, I think it would lend to the creativity and vibrancy of our city."
Unlike a lot of similar urban art festivals held around the world, the works created this week will be permanent.
Some of the visiting artists will also visit the Pilbara to take part in community art projects there and organisers are working to continue and expand the program over the next three years to cover other parts of the state.
A street festival will be held in Perth's Wolf Lane on Friday April 11 and Saturday April 12 to showcase some of the works.
Topics: street-art, community-and-society, perth-6000
First posted |
More details emerge of the UK’s illegal mass spying
By Robert Stevens
10 July 2013
UK charity Privacy International has begun a legal case calling for the British government to end the use of data collected by the US National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) mass surveillance system, Prism.
The papers also call for an injunction on the “Tempora” system, used by the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) programme to systematically spy on the entire British population.
GCHQ monitors all outgoing and incoming communications via its access to the fibre-optic cables through which all UK Internet traffic passes. Some 600 million “telephone events” are monitored each day by tapping more than 200 fibre-optic cables, including those that connect the UK to the US.
According to the Guardian, the legal claim was submitted to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT).
The IPT is a tribunal, supposedly tasked with investigating claims regarding the UK’s spy agencies. It was created under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000, meets in secret and is not required to make a determination on a complaint.
On this basis, it is not possible to have a complaint heard before an open public court. Carly Nyst, head of international advocacy at Privacy International, wrote in the Guardian Tuesday, “[W]hen Privacy International informed the foreign secretary that it intended to challenge such practices in the British courts, the government’s lawyers notified us that we could not bring such a claim in the administrative court, which would be the normal route. Rather, we have been forced to take our concerns to the IPT.”
Nyst described the IPT as a “quasi-judicial body that meets and deliberates in secret, the decisions of which are neither public nor appealable to any higher authority.”
Nyst noted that according to the IPT’s 2010 report, in its entire history it had only “ruled in favour of the complainant a total of 10 times, out of more than a thousand cases.” The document revealed that out of 180 cases, none found in favour of the complainant.
Privacy International’s claim states, “Through their access to the US programme, UK authorities are able to obtain private information about UK citizens without having to comply with any requirements of RIPA.”
Under RIPA, there is legal requirement that intelligence officials acquire a warrant from a minister before performing a wiretap.
The claim adds, “If UK authorities are to be permitted to access such information in relation to those located in the UK in secret and without their knowledge or consent, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) requires there to be a legal regime in place which contains sufficient safeguards against abuse of power and arbitrary use. There is no such regime.”
The organisation again cites the convention in its attempt to force an injunction against the operation of Tempora, stating, “Bulk interception of communications and bulk inspection of such data is disproportionate interference with the rights guaranteed by article 8 of the ECHR, and it is not being undertaken pursuant to a legal regime containing sufficient safeguards to render it in accordance with the law.”
It adds that RIPA “does not provide sufficiently specific or clear authorisation for such wide-ranging and universal interception of communications, nor any sufficient or proper safeguards against misuse that are known and available to the public.”
Tempora was originally set up in autumn 2011 after being first trialled by GCHQ in 2008. It was part of a wider GCHQ programme, Mastering the Internet (MTI), set up under the last Labour government, and whose detailed operation was confirmed by former NSA subcontractor Edward Snowden.
From its 2011 launch, the gigantic amounts of data it amassed were shared with the NSA (see “Communications of millions subject to US-UK spying” ). Last year, according to documents seen by the Guardian, 550 analysts from GCHQ and the NSA were employed to filter the contents.
Tempora not only monitors and stores all electronic and phone call data of all British citizens, but those of billions of people internationally. These numbers are constantly increasing as the Internet expands. A June 21 report in the Guardian, based on Snowden’s documents, stated, “For the 2 billion users of the world wide web, Tempora represents a window on to their everyday lives, sucking up every form of communication from the fibre-optic cables that ring the world.”
This capability will be vastly expanded as GCHQ’s capacity is being upgraded to take in data from new super cables carrying data at 100 gigabits a second.
In May 2009, the Sunday Times first drew attention to MTI, noting that its existence only came to light through a GCHQ job advertisement carried in the computer trade press. The article reported MTI was being established at a cost of £1 billion over a three-year period. The Times reported it “will rely on thousands of ‘black box’ probes being covertly inserted across online infrastructure.”
At the time, Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith denied the government had any plans to establish an all-embracing computerised database that would be able to store all communications data in the UK. Making no mention of the already approved MTI, Smith said, “The government recognised the privacy implications of the move [and] therefore does not propose to pursue this move.”
The article revealed Lockheed Martin, the American defence firm, had been given a £200 million contract as part of MTI, and Detica, a British IT firm closely connected to the intelligence agencies, was also enlisted. Describing MTI, the Times explained, “A huge room of supercomputers will help the agency to monitor—and record—data passing through black-box probes placed at critical traffic junctions with internet service providers and telephone companies, allowing GCHQ to spy at will.”
In an interview published Monday in the news magazine Der Speigel, Snowden gave further details of Tempora. The interview was held via encrypted e-mail with encryption specialist Jacob Appelbaum and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras before Snowden left the US for Hong Kong and began making public his revelations.
Asked what were some of the “big surveillance programs that are active today and how do international partners aid the NSA?” he stated, “Tempora is the signals intelligence community’s first ‘full-take’ Internet buffer that doesn’t care about content type and pays only marginal attention to the Human Rights Act. It snarfs everything, in a rolling buffer to allow retroactive investigation without missing a single bit. Right now the buffer can hold three days of traffic, but that’s being improved. Three days may not sound like much, but remember that that’s not metadata.
“ ‘Full-take’ means it doesn’t miss anything, and ingests the entirety of each circuits capacity.”
Every piece of data sent and received through the Internet by British Internet users was intercepted, explained Snowden. “If you download something and the CDN (Content Delivery Network) happens to serve from the UK, we get it. If your sick daughter’s medical records get processed at a London call centre…well, you get the idea.”
The British government is imposing unprecedented cuts in public spending, with more than £165 billion being cut from health, education and welfare. The one area where spending is being substantially increased is on the illegal spying network. In his recent Spending Review, Chancellor George Osborne announced a 3.4 percent funding increase to the intelligence services’ £1.9 billion budget. It equates to them receiving another £100 million in funding annually from 2015. |
A/N: side Arkos, Team Sloth, Bumbleby, and arguably Pink Lemonade. agender!Blake and implied ace!Ruby.
Just once Weiss would like to get through a dinner with her seven significant others without arguments, poorly-timed makeouts, or noodles ending up in unfortunate places. This is not one of those times.
“Aw shit, we’ve got a Code Orange.” Yang looked as if she was ready to throw herself in front of Ruby if the situation came to it. “Pyrrha, take your top off. You’re the only one who can save my sister now.”
Finding a restaurant they all enjoyed was always the most challenging aspect of eating out as a group. Back when they first started dating, Weiss made a chart detailing each of her partners’ preferences, but now it had ballooned to the point where she needed a two-page legend to remember what all the different abbreviations meant, and the color coding would give her a headache if she stared at it for too long.
Blake liked poultry and seafood and had an automatic veto if the others decided on a place that might be too vocally anti-Faunus. Nora wouldn’t eat anywhere that didn’t also serve dessert, and both she and Yang couldn’t be trusted within a hundred yards of an enforceable dress code. Too spicy and Jaune would spend the evening locked in the bathroom, crying and running his tongue under cold water.
Pyrrha and Ren were so patiently long-suffering about the whole business that Weiss had them marked down in the light blue ‘permanently undecided unless we need a tiebreaker’ column. Neighboring them in the slightly-darker-blue 'will claim to be undecided but clearly has some preference (see Appendix A for details)’ column with a double asterisk indicating that Weiss needed to grab the check before she could see it and start hyperventilating, was Ruby.
There were few places that could reliably meet all the different criteria, which was the reason why Weiss found herself wedged between Pyrrha and Ruby in the same booth in the same expensive but impeccably discreet restaurant for the third time that month. If they ate here anymore frequently, they’d have to start calling it a tradition, and Weiss wasn’t about to complicate the chart with yet another category.
“I’d like the house salad with salmon, and if it’s not too much trouble could you ask the chef to make certain there aren’t any peppercorns on his steak,” Pyrrha said, collecting all their menus and handing them to the waiter after he was finished scribbling down her order. As soon as he left, her hand returned to its usual position on Weiss’ thigh, calloused thumb stroking absentmindedly over her stockings.
“Wait, that comes with peppercorns?” Jaune preemptively started turning pink in the face, his usual defense mechanism when faced with anything more spicy than ketchup.
Ruby wordlessly passed him her wineglass of milk, still engrossed in Nora’s dramatic retelling of her latest dream. Like Pyrrha, she’d occasionally rest a hand on Weiss’ other thigh, but would never keep it there for longer than a few minutes, soon enough using it to brush her her hair back from her face, or drum her fork on the table, or any one of a dozen different flavors of fidgeting that set Weiss’ teeth on edge during class but she indulged when they went out.
“Of course there are peppercorns on steak au poivre,” Weiss said, “don’t you know what ’au poivre’ means?”
“That it’s a really fancy steak?” he asked. He drained the better part of the glass and handed it back to Ruby with a sigh of relief. “My mom always said that the less you understand what you’re ordering, the fancier it is.”
That bit of homegrown 'wisdom’ would explain why he would point to random bottles on the wine menu whenever they made the mistake of letting him order for the table, though now Weiss had an encyclopedic knowledge of what dessert wines went with fish.
Jaune was the only person at the table Weiss had never imagined herself with prior to the start of this interlocking spiral of a relationship. He thought a sleeveless hooded sweatshirt cowboy boots were the height of fashion, was somehow even more accident prone than Ruby, and she was almost certain he asked his parents for tips before he kissed her for the first time. His mother gave her far too many knowing looks during Beacon’s fortunately infrequent Parent’s Days for it to be anything else.
But when all eight of them gathered as a group to discuss giving their current relationship a try, he hadn’t stuttered or trotted out his arsenal of pickup lines, he spoke calmly and honestly, one hand in Pyrrha’s and a faint blush on his cheeks. It wasn’t until weeks later that Pyrrha told her he’d been sweating so badly they had to towel off their hands after the meeting.
“It’s an easy mistake to make,” Pyrrha said diplomatically.
Blake didn’t look up from reading. “Not really.”
Unless Weiss made a fuss, Blake usually spent most of their meals with a book under the table, but those Faunus ears, left bare in defiance of the restaurant’s unspoken dress code, would always flick from speaker to speaker, betraying an interest in the conversation.
“How would you know? You always get the same thing,” Jaune said, indignant, “poison, medium rare, easy on the sauce, with a lemon wedge. I could order it for you myself.”
Blake licked a fingertip and turned the page. “Poisson.”
“Yes, why don’t we leave the ham-fisted assassination attempts until after dinner, hmm?” Weiss glared at the two of them.
“Hold up.” Across the table from them, Yang held up a finger like she was pressing an imaginary pause button on Nora’s story, who instantly quieted and looked at them expectantly. “I heard 'assassination’, are we in trouble or are we the ones takin’ someone out?”
Nora slammed her fist into the opposite palm, shaking the table so hard her glass of wine would have fallen over if Ren hadn’t been there to steady it. “Ooh, ooh, point out those nasty assassins! I’ll beat 'em up.”
“No, absolutely not,” Weiss said quickly, “no one here is murdering or being murdered. Not now, not ever. I won’t allow it.”
“Aw, you’re so sweet, Weiss.” Before Weiss could protest, Nora leaned over the table and planted a wet kiss right on her cheek, leaving behind a perfect imprint of her lips in bright pink gloss. Settling back down, she pecked Ren and Yang on their cheeks and resumed her story. “Anyway, so I was lying at the bottom of the ravine, both legs shattered–”
“You bruised your toe,” Ren corrected.
“–right, and with an injury like that I knew I didn’t have much time left.”
On cue, both Yang and Ruby gasped, playing the role of live studio audience with every bit of their enthusiasm.
“I limped along until I came to a river of, of…” She looked at Ren.
“Maple syrup.”
“Yeah, a river of maple syrup! There was only one bridge across and it was guarded by an Ursa Major the size of a house–”
Something nudged Weiss’ hand and she looked down to see Ren handing her a napkin. The fabric was a little damp and faintly stained with pink at one corner. He tapped his cheek, now cleaned of any remnants of Nora’s sticky bubblegum-flavored lipgloss, and Weiss gratefully scrubbed off her own lip print. When she passed it back to him, he tucked it up one of the sleeves of his suit jacket in a smooth motion and took Weiss’ hand, loosely lacing their fingers together as he helped Nora with her narrative.
Despite Nora’s repeated attempts to explain the subtle but meaningful differences between being together, being together-together, and being together-together, Weiss wasn’t entirely sure whether Nora and Ren’s relationship with each other was the same as what they both had with her. All that was clear was they were nothing less than inseparable.
By all rights, they shouldn’t have been able to stand being in the same room, their personalities practically designed to grate on each other, but they acted as if they had been married since childhood.
“–so I slid off the pile of Beowolf heads–” Nora paused to clap her hand over Weiss’ and Ren’s, squeezing so tightly Weiss’ knuckles popped. “–and all the villagers hailed me as their true king.”
And somehow, they slotted Weiss right into place in their lives, their affection as strong and as warm as the hands wrapped around her own.
“But what about the cake,” Yang asked, elbow on the table and chin resting in her palm. Though it likely wasn’t intentional, the position would have made it easy for Weiss to stare down the neck of her tight, black dress if she wasn’t a proper young lady who knew how to maintain a modicum of self-control. “Did they ever bake you the reward cake?”
Ruby’s stomach started to rumble and she wrapped both arms around her middle to muffle the sound, looking around nervously to see if anyone heard. Out of all of them, Ruby had the hardest time waiting patiently for their food, always staring at the other patrons while they ate with an expression that wouldn’t have been out of place on a starving puppy.
Weiss sighed. “You had three rolls, can’t you wait another ten minutes?”
“Weiss,” Ruby whined, softly so as not to interrupt Nora, “I didn’t mean to. I’m just really hungry.”
“I think I have some crackers in my bag.” Pyrrha started rummaging through her purse.
“Not the graham crackers,” Jaune said, “those are mine.”
“Ugh, dolts,” Weiss hissed under her breath. “Do I really need to remind you we are in a restaurant? As in, a place that provides food in exchange for legal tender?”
Yang snickered. “Isn’t 'legal tender’ your nickname for my–” She jerked, knees slamming into the underside of the table, rattling the glasses. Across from her, Blake arched a brow. “…I’ll tell you guys later.”
Ignoring her, Weiss extricated herself from Ren and Nora and motioned for a waiter. “We’ll have an order of bread for the table,” she said to him, and added, after Pyrrha gently squeezed her leg, “please.”
“And some sugar packets,” Yang called out as he left.
“Those had better be for your wine,” Weiss said.
Yang made a face. “Ick, no. That sounds really gross, Weiss.”
Weiss clearly remembered having seen her drink far worse on Half-Off Jello Shot Night at the bars, and holding her hair back in the aftermath, but that wasn’t the point. “What a dreadful mistake on my part. I simply assumed that you developed a taste for ruined wine, because I know you’re not planning on trying to flick them down the front of my dress. Again.”
“Me? Nah,” she said, her expression making it clear that Weiss would be fishing scraps of paper and sugar crystals out of her bra as soon as the waiter came back.
Weiss rolled her eyes. “I’m sure.”
“Don’t be like that, princess. I’m only playing. I tell you what, General Xiao Long can find it in her heart to spare the peaceful country of Weiss’ Boobs,” she said, grin widening, “for a price.”
Weiss arched her brow in a silent question. She’d played this game with Yang often enough to know that Yang wouldn’t ask for anything too outrageous in public. Those demands were usually saved for when she caught Weiss in a headlock during their sparring matches or if Weiss had a stubborn jar she needed help opening.
Yang leaned over the table like Nora had done earlier and puckered up. “Gimme a smooch.”
“Honestly.” After a quick check to make certain none of the other patrons were looking at them, Weiss pecked her on the cheek.
“Wow,” Yang said, disappointed, “that was kind of grandma-ish–”
“Oh, hush.” Before Yang could pull away and sulk, Weiss tangled her hands in that golden mane and kissed her deeply.
Yang barely hesitated, tilting her head and cupping Weiss’ jaw to get a better angle, her calloused fingertips rough on Weiss’ skin. Her other hand was resolutely planted on the table, muscles flexing to maintain the awkward position. Tendrils of her hair brushed over Weiss’ face, the same color as sunlight and just as warm, her lips warmer still. No matter how many times they kissed, Yang was never any less eager. She was as greedy as a wildfire, consuming everything Weiss had to offer.
That fire was what had initially drawn her to Yang. A child raised among glass, marble, and cold, sterile spotlights, who couldn’t help but crave the freedom in the curve of Yang’s grin and the scars on her knuckles. She went into their relationship fully anticipating shouting matches and late nights in bed, Yang’s hair sticking to her sweaty skin as she pushed Weiss to the limits of her endurance, dates at some local bar with Yang teaching her to toss back shots and kissing her after she was done coughing and wheezing for breath.
What she hadn’t expected was Yang taking care of her during the first, and worst, hangover of her life, gently running a cool washcloth over her face and helping her limp to and from the bathroom, bearing all of Weiss’ furious accusations the entire time. Despite her temper and rather infuriating way of forcing the rest of her team out of anything resembling a comfort zone, Yang was always by their side, her love enough to make any situation seem just a little bit brighter.
Instead of a shoulder to cry on, Yang was a hand up and a shove forward, and Weiss had spent far too long obsessing over past mistakes to want her any other way. She also had very few complaints about the wonderful, though not exactly chaste, things Yang’s tongue was doing to her mouth. Reluctantly, she was just starting to pull away when Blake pointedly coughed.
Startled, Weiss jerked back as if she’d been burned and glared at the Faunus. Whatever response she might have had died in her throat as she followed the line of Blake’s gaze to where the red-faced waiter was standing, a basket of rolls and small ceramic container of sugar packets clutched in his white-knuckled hands.
“Uh,” he said helplessly, dropping the dishes on the table and hurrying away with an apologetic nod.
The sweat beading at Jaune’s hairline and pink blushes staining the others’ cheeks gave some indication of why no one had noticed the waiter’s return.
Ren had one hand on Nora’s shoulder, tension running through his arm as he struggled to keep in her in her seat. With his other hand, he flicked through the messages on his scroll, searching for something.
He paused on one and opened up the attachment. “This Tuesday,” he murmured to Nora.
Nora pouted, but when she looked at Weiss there was enough hunger in her eyes to terrify any creature of Grimm. “Aw, that’s days and days and days.”
Weiss blushed a brilliant red, recognizing the particular schedule they were talking about.
“Two days-” Ren checked his scroll “-three hours and thirty-four minutes,” he said, his placid smile strained at the corners.
Jaune craned his neck to see the palm-sized screen. “What’s Pyrrha and my–”
“Tomorrow,” Pyrrha interrupted, the hand she had on Weiss’ thigh sliding a half-inch higher.
Ren cocked his head. “Call it a team-building exercise?”
“Sharing!” Nora said excitedly.
“Or that,” he amended.
Yang slammed a hand down on the table. “Hey! You can’t do team stuff and not invite the rest of Team RWBY. Right, sis?”
“Right!” Ruby nodded so hard the hood of her cape, which she insisted on wearing with her evening dress, flopped over her face.
Whether it was Ruby’s age or her preferences, Weiss wasn’t certain, but Ruby never expressed an interest in anything more physical than holding Weiss’ hand or cuddling her close at night. Not that she’d let it stop her from taking Yang’s side in an argument.
“Don’t encourage them,” Weiss hissed, yanking Ruby’s hood down past her chin.
Yang snatched up a roll and chucked it at Weiss’ head, though Pyrrha caught it before it could make contact and set it neatly on the table. “Be nicer to Rubes,” she said. “Tell her, Ruby.”
“How dare you! We’re in public, and that is not appropriate behavior.” Weiss turned to Ruby. “Talk to your sister.”
“Um,” Ruby’s eyes flicked from Weiss to Yang and back again, “um, you see…” She grabbed the roll off the table and jammed it in her mouth, her response muffled in a spray of soggy crumbs, “Mouf full, shorry.”
So much for her fearless leader. Ruby had another roll on standby for as soon as she finished the first one, and the others were already hammering out the logistics. There was only one person she could turn to now.
Still reading in the corner of the booth, Blake was an eye of calm in the center of the hurricane. Only the faint tremble in those broad shoulders as they quaked with silent laughter gave any indication that the Faunus was listening to the conversation.
“Blake,” Weiss said, “do something about these hooligans.”
Blake’s mouth twisted, a smile surfacing for a moment. “Such as?”
“I don’t know. Something! Something…” Weiss paused, listening as Pyrrha and Yang discussed a plan of attack. She shuddered. “Something effective and timely!”
“Can you ask me nicely?” The smile grew a tiny fraction of an inch wider.
Weiss scoffed. “Do it or I’m slashing your fish and book budget in half. Is that what you want, Blake? To go back to store brand canned tuna with the bones left in and bargain bin filth?”
“How terrifying.” Blake addressed the others, voice raising enough to be heard, “We can use Gambol Shroud’s ribbon. I’ll show you how to tie the knots.”
“Like a present,” Nora giggled and licked her lips, “Well, not really a present, because she’ll only be that once we unwrap her, but until then she’s going to be so pretty!”
“You don’t have to unwrap your present to enjoy it,” Blake said.
The color drained out of Weiss’ face even as heat settled deep in her belly. On her best behavior, Nora was exhausting, but with Blake encouraging her, she would be worse than the one time Weiss accidentally gave her regular coffee instead of decaf before bed. It was almost as enticing as it was terrifying.
“Fine,” Weiss said hurriedly, “you win. Please do something.”
Blake’s smile showed teeth. Sharp, white teeth that Weiss couldn’t help but picture scraping over her pulse point, marking her neck for everyone to see. “Alright,” Blake said, sliding a bookmark into the book and putting it aside, “if you’re certain.”
Blake touched Yang’s arm to get her attention. “We still have that group project for Professor Oobleck on Monday.”
“So?” Yang asked, clearly not in the mood to discuss homework when there was a conquest to plan.
“So Weiss has all of our references,” Blake said, “We need her conscious tomorrow.”
“Oh.” Yang frowned. “Maybe next weekend. Abort mission, troops.”
Nora let out a despairing, frustrated sound, but Ren was quick to pass her the sugar packets, her disappointment soon forgotten as she ripped open two and three packets at a time and poured them into her mouth, leaving the discarded wrappers balled up on the table.
“But Pyrrha and I still have our slot, right,” Jaune asked. “Right?”
“I’m instituting a new rule: any groups involving three or more people need to be scheduled four weeks in advance,” Weiss said firmly, “at minimum.”
Yang snorted. “Not gonna ask for a signed permission slip and a doctor’s note? We’re rubbing off on you, Weiss.”
“Or not, in this case.” Blake said, ignoring how Yang giggled and held up a hand for a high five.
“Pyrrha, we’re meeting Weiss tomorrow, right?” Jaune asked. “Pyrrha?”
Ruby reached over the table and slapped Yang’s hand. Laughing, Yang kissed her forehead. “Thanks, sis.”
“Pyrrha? Weiss? I’ll wash my sheets! I’ll buy nice boxers! Come on, please?” Jaune’s voice grew higher in pitch with desperation.
Pyrrha slowly moved her hand down to a more respectable position. “Weiss? We did have a slot. And we can use my bed if his detergent still bothers you.”
“It wasn’t the detergent, it was talking about how his mother used to do his laundry while we were trying to be intimate,” Weiss said, “and yes. We’re on for tomorrow.”
“Yes!” Jaune looked as if he was about to break down in joyous weeping, but after a few sniffles, he rallied and adopted what he probably thought was as a cool, detached pose. “I mean, naturally. Who can resist nabbing a prime spot on Team Jaune’s Manly–”
Weiss promptly stopped listening.
Over in the corner of the booth, Weiss could hear the pages of Blake’s book rustling as the Faunus resumed reading. Blake’s attention was a relatively fickle thing. Weiss would have called it catlike if she didn’t think the comparison would earn her a week of More Silent Than Usual Treatment, or a talking to that could easily rival one of her father’s when she was less than a perfect figurehead at Schnee Dust’s corporate luncheons.
Jaune aside, the others didn’t exactly let her get away with her more 'difficult’ moments. Pyrrha had given her more vaguely disapproving looks than Weiss cared to count, and her and Yang’s arguments were legendary in the dorms for their sheer volume and frequency, but only Blake could make her challenge the foundations on which she’d built her world. It was rarely pleasant at the time, but neither was having a broken bone set, and both were necessary if the wound was to heal properly.
“Blake,” Weiss said, quietly enough that she would have doubted Blake could hear if one velvet-furred ear hadn’t twitched in her direction, “thank you.”
Blake hesitated before responding. “Next Thursday is mine. Thank me then.” For once, Weiss didn’t think she was imagining the blush that darkened Blake’s cheeks.
The conversation soon splintered off, as it usually did. Even with Weiss attempting to direct everyone, it was nearly impossible to keep them on the same topic without the promise of sex or fighting to hold their attention. Ruby, Yang, and Nora took turns making a goal with their fingers while the others tried to flick the sole surviving sugar packet through it. Ren kept score on his napkin, implacable and impartial despite Yang’s demands he count Ruby’s near misses as goals.
Jaune and Pyrrha were making plans for tomorrow, voices hushed and expressions guilty enough that Weiss made a mental note to leave her sources with Blake before she left to meet them. She wasn’t about to take a risk with her grade point average, not for anyone.
It was rare for Weiss to have a moment like this, where she was more of an observer than a sometimes eager, sometimes thoroughly annoyed participant. Petty difficulties and embarrassments aside, Weiss couldn’t remember having felt more happy. Perhaps it was some cosmic joke that just when she resigned herself to loneliness, to the empty chill that clung to the inside of her ribcage like sickness and frost, she was surrounded by enough love she found it difficult to keep an insipid smile off her face at all hours of the day.
The Sugar Packet Semi-finals had reached its instant sudden death round by the time the waiters brought out their food and managed to match each plate to the appropriate person. Just the scent of all the dishes was enough to make Weiss’ mouth water. While she had the good sense not to fill up on bread like the others, now it was difficult to resist diving right in, but somehow she’d manage. They would never know just how many sacrifices she made for them.
Weiss clinked her knife against her glass. “Before you start stuffing your faces, I’d like to say a few words. It’s been nearly a year since we first started this, well, whatever we’re calling our logistical nightmare of a relationship, and I’m happy to announce… I’m happy… I…”
The rest of the speech was neatly written out on note cards in her purse, all three thousand fifty-seven words of it, but what seemed perfectly well-thought out on paper now tasted painfully artificial on her tongue. She might as well have been reading Schnee Dust’s quarterly reports for all the genuine emotion in it.
“Yeah, Weiss?” Ruby said, squeezing her knee encouragingly.
Weiss sighed. “Just thank you. All of you.”
Pyrrha pulled her into a one-armed hug and kissed the top of her head. “We love you too.”
“Lots!” Nora took a bite of her bread pudding, syrup dripping from the corners of her mouth. “Lots and lots and lots and–”
“Yeah, er, you…” Jaune nervously brushed his hair back from his face. “You’re so pretty and smart and really kind of intimidating…” He looked to Pyrrha for support, forehead already starting to glisten with fear-born perspiration. “And I never knew these sorts things existed where you can date more than one person at once but, but, but I’m so happy they do 'cause-you-and-Pyrrha-are-the-best-thing-to-ever-happen-to-me,” he finished in a rush.
“–and lots and lots and lots and lots. How many was that, Ren?”
“Thirty-nine,” he answered. “Sounds accurate.”
Though Blake’s voice was tinged with an overly forced edge of boredom Weiss knew meant there was emotion bubbling just underneath the surface, those amber eyes were anything but cold. “It could use a few more 'lots’.”
“I’ll give the two of you a whole lots more later,” Yang said, grinning, “but seriously, Weiss, you’re not chore to be around most of the time, so don’t thank us or anything.”
Weiss buried her face in Pyrrha’s shoulder, her mouth twisting, unable to settle on a smile or the grimace of someone trying to choke back tears. It wasn’t fair when they all ganged up on her like this. She could bear fractional confessions and implications, but being surrounded on all sides by their affection was like staring into the sun and expecting not to be blinded.
Something brushed over the bare skin of Weiss’ arms, and she didn’t have to look to recognize it was Ruby’s cape. She knew every inch of the red fabric, worn from repeated washings with cheap detergent and smelling faintly of roses, metal, and gunpowder.
“Weiss,” Ruby nuzzled her jaw, bangs tickling Weiss’ cheek, “always and always, okay?”
“Okay,” she mumbled.
“Why don’t we eat now,” Pyrrha suggested and Weiss quickly nodded, grateful for the reprieve.
It was difficult to swallow past the tightness in her throat, but fortunately cobb salad was easier to get down than a half dozen love confessions. She speared leaf after leaf of iceberg lettuce, waiting for her face to return to some semblance of its normal shade of sun-starved white.
“Weiss, this pasta is so good,” Ruby said, her plate nearly half-empty, fork little more than a silver blur as she shoveled noodles into her mouth in between words. Like Nora, she usually ended up wearing as much food as she ate, and red sauce was already smeared around her mouth as if she were some Beowolf devouring a fresh kill. “You’ve got to try some.”
Before Weiss could decline, Ruby held out a forkful, her free hand protectively cupped underneath to keep any sauce from dripping on Weiss’ dress.
“What have I said about talking with your mouth full,” Weiss asked, shying away from the fork and all the potential stains it carried with it. She hadn’t maintained an almost completely white wardrobe since she was seven years old by being careless with her clothing.
“Stop being such a meanie and try it.” Ruby inched the fork closer, making train noises. “If you don’t open up, all these people are gonna miss their connections and that’ll throw the whole pasta train schedule out of whack. Think about it, Weiss. All that planning. Ruined.”
Weiss didn’t think it was physically possible to roll her eyes as hard as that ploy deserved. “Ugh, alright. But only because I expect a few minutes of peace in return.”
Ruby nodded happily and held the fork up to her lips. “Say 'ah’.”
With one last pointed sigh to make it clear that while she might have to conceded to Ruby’s whims, she had no plans to enjoy it, Weiss opened her mouth and let Ruby slide the fork inside. The tomato sauce was heavy and rich on her tongue, her palate not quite sophisticated enough to pick out each spice individually.
“Is it good? Do you like it?” Ruby paused, squinting at her mouth. “Wait, you’ve got some stuff on your face.” Instead of handing her a napkin like any normal person, Ruby licked her thumb and tried to start scrubbing the stray smear of red from the corner of Weiss’ mouth.
“Ruby!” Weiss hissed, scandalized, as she managed to jerk her head back just in time to avoid having saliva rubbed into her skin.
Ruby huffed in frustration and caught Weiss’ face in her hands, kissing her instead. “There, better?”
Weiss swallowed hard, barely resisting the urge to lean into Ruby’s palm. “Perhaps somewhat.”
A faint tingle on the back up of her neck prompted Weiss to glance up only to find that the others were all staring at her, their eyes reflecting a hunger that would have been better directed towards their meals.
“Hey, Weiss, you want to try some steak too?” Jaune asked, breaking the tension with all the grace of someone tossing a bucket of pig blood into shark-infested waters. The way he nervously licked his lips and attempted to subtly cup a hand over his mouth and check his breath left no doubt in Weiss’ mind which aspect he wanted to imitate.
Pyrrha sliced off a bit of salmon with the side of her fork. “Or you could have–”
“Weiss, listen, this pork is unbelievable,” Yang interrupted, indicating her own plate with a jerk of her head. “And it’s not the only thing.”
“That may be so, though the fish is quite grand–” Pyrrha started again.
Jaune stabbed his fork into his steak hard enough to rattle the plate underneath. “But mine’s got au poivre, Weiss. It’s fancy like you.”
Pyrrha’s forehead wrinkled in a frown. “Actually, I asked the chef to make certain it didn’t–”
“This looks like fun!” Nora said, bouncing in place and occasionally into Ren. “Weiss, Weiss, have some of mine too.”
Pyrrha’s hand left her thigh, clenching into a fist. Black light leaked out from between her fingers as her semblance flared, and every bit of metal in the room seemed to move imperceptibly closer to her. Weiss could almost feel some echo of it in herself, as if Pyrrha was calling to the iron in her blood, the trace metals in her bones. With a sharp jerk, Pyrrha wrenched her fist down and everyone’s silverware clattered to the table.
While the others gave up after a few seconds of pointless tugging, Yang tried to pry her fork free with nothing more than brute force. She stood up in order to get better leverage, the hard muscle in her arms rippling and straining, but even her best effort couldn’t move it a fraction of an inch.
Frowning, she flopped back down. “That’s so not fair.”
“I’m sorry.” Pyrrha had the grace to look somewhat embarrassed, not that she let it stop her from offering Weiss the salmon.
Weiss was quick to accept the morsel and the kiss Pyrrha pressed to her lips right after, despite the grumbling from the others. Balancing the wants and needs of seven different partners was a complicated dance that Weiss was only just beginning to master, but that in no way meant she had to say 'no’ to Pyrrha Nikos. Five time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament. Top of her class at Sanctum. Part. Time. Model.
“Does it meet your standards?” Pyrrha asked, fingers still lightly gripping Weiss’ chin. In her tight, red dress with her hair plaited down her back, she looked as if she had just stepped out from some high class photo shoot.
Weiss had always appreciated painting or sculpture more than she did photography, but the way that light and shadow outlined the angles of Pyrrha’s face, limned the heavy shift of muscle in her arms, darkened her normally spring green eyes to emerald, was nothing short of art, and deserved to hang in a museum even if the woman herself couldn’t.
“More than acceptable,” Weiss breathed.
“Splendid.” Pyrrha’s smile could have bankrupted the country if the marketing companies ever decided to slap it on another line of over-priced cereals.
Across the table from them, Jaune made another half-hearted attempt to free his silverware. “Pyrrha, please, I’m so hungry.”
“Oh, sorry.” This time Pyrrha actually sounded genuinely contrite, but instead of releasing her semblance, she speared another piece of salmon on her fork and held it out to him. “Here. As team leader, you really need to keep your strength up.”
Jaune nervously looked at the others before shrugging helplessly and letting Pyrrha feed him. This was one struggle in which he had Weiss’ full sympathy, even if she couldn’t stop the momentary pang of jealousy that losing Pyrrha’s undivided attention provoked.
“What, are we gonna have to eat with our hands now?” Yang asked, prodding her pork chop with a finger.
“It does seem that way,” Pyrrha said lightly. Despite being one of the more unbearably decent people Weiss knew, Pyrrha never lost a competition. Not even one as ridiculous as this was turning out to be. “Or you could all try some salmon. The portions here are far too large, it isn’t very healthy.”
Nora shook her head. “Nope nope nope, I don’t like fish. I don’t even sort of like fish. The only one I liked a little was that fish-shaped Grimm, and he fell apart too quickly to be any fun. And I didn’t get to give Weiss any of my food.” The last bit was said with as close to a pout as Nora’s eternally perky expression could manage.
“Here,” Ren reached over, grabbed Weiss’ fork, and handed it to Nora. Though it made sense why Pyrrha wouldn’t have pinned her silverware down with the others’, Weiss was more than a little annoyed with herself for not realizing it sooner. Ren’s situational awareness was something she admired and coveted in equal measure.
“Ooh, thanks, Ren!” Nora scooped up a chunk of bread pudding big enough to choke an Ursa and shoved it into Weiss’ mouth. “Eat up!”
Weiss barely managed to swallow, praying the entire time that she wouldn’t be the first huntress to have her cause of death listed as 'confectionery’, when Nora pulled her into a kiss, tongue licking the lingering sweetness from the inside Weiss’ mouth.
“See? Way more fun than fish,” Nora said as if that had somehow proven her point, though Weiss was too stunned to offer any sort of rebuttal.
Pyrrha hummed thoughtfully, turning Weiss’ face towards her and pressing a kiss to the corner of her lips. “Apart from the Pumpkin Pete commercials, I had to maintain a strict diet for my training regimen. I may have lost most of my taste for sweets.” Her thumb traced the heart-shape of Weiss’ mouth. “But there are exceptions.”
“Hbluh,” Weiss added helpfully.
“Weiss? You there?” Ruby waved a hand in front of her face. “I think you guys broke her.”
Blake gave a quiet laugh. “She’s fine. Watch. Weiss, complain once if you’re alright, twice if we need to take you to the hospital.”
“Excuse me?” Weiss sputtered. “For the last time, Blake Belladonna, I don’t complain! Don’t say that about me! If the rest of you would simply do everything right the first time, I wouldn’t need to correct you nearly as often.”
“It was a little long, but I think that counts as one.” The Faunus didn’t even glance at her, responding to Ruby.
“You’re absolutely insufferable, I hope you know that, Blake.” Weiss jabbed a finger at Ruby’s chest. “And don’t smirk. Right now, I’m not so fond of you either.”
“I don’t think you complain a lot, Weiss,” Jaune said, trying to grab Nora’s fork, though her strength and Ren’s reflexes made the task nearly impossible. “I mean, yeah, you like to yell, but yelling can be – c'mon, give it! – good for you. My mom always says that – ow, ow, you’re gonna break my finger! – assertiveness is a really attractive trait in – Nora, stop, please! – a nice girl.” Yelping, he clutched his hand to his chest, a livid red bitemark already bruising on the webbing between his thumb and forefinger. “Pretty please just let me borrow it for a second. I’ll give it back right after.”
Ren shrugged. “He did say 'please’.”
“Well,” Nora drew out the syllable for most of a breath, “okay, sure.”
Face lighting up, Jaune stabbed the fork into one of his pre-cut cubes of steak. No matter how Weiss tried to train him out of it, he always spent the first few minutes of every meal slicing his food into little pieces like he was preparing a plate for a child. The habit might have been endearing if he didn’t do it in public, which frankly was a good summary of most of his personality.
“So, uh,” Jaune puffed out his chest as if he was some victorious warrior returning from the hunt instead of a scraggly, skinny man, practically drowning in the excess material of a suit he borrowed from his father, who Weiss was inexplicably attracted to, “you want to do me the honors, snow angel–”
“Don’t.” Weiss covered his hand with her own and brought it to her mouth. It was crass to pick the most expensive item on the menu simply because it was the most expensive, but she had to admit the steak was worth every last lien, juicy and pink and putting up the perfect amount of resistance before falling apart under her teeth.
Jaune smiled hesitantly. “Good, right? Can I… um, you know… kiss you now?”
“Hmm,” Weiss drummed her fingers on the tabletop, pretending to think it over, “yes, I suppose you may.”
While Jaune had improved significantly with Pyrrha’s help, his kisses were still a little on the unpleasantly damp side for Weiss’ taste. That didn’t stop her from winding one hand in his tie and cupping his jaw with the other, the few spots of stubble he missed shaving that morning rough against her palm.
Just before they parted, he opened his eyes, and Weiss was struck by just how blue they were, deeper and richer than her own as the ocean was to a glacier. At the moment, Jaune was more of a professional and academic liability than an ally, if she was inclined to think in purely pragmatic terms, but at times she could see the outline of the man he might become, and she looked forward to meeting him someday.
“Alright,” Yang said, holding out a hand to Jaune as he sat back down, “my turn.”
Jaune clutched the fork to his chest. “No way! Besides it’s Nora’s fork, so ask her.”
“As a matter of fact, it’s my fork,” Weiss said, “and while I appreciate the attention, why don’t we quietly finish our own meals before the restaurant closes.”
Rolling her eyes, Yang ripped off an strip of pork with her fingers. “Sure, we’ll call that Plan Boring. Lucky for us, I’ve got a better one.”
Weiss wasn’t entirely certain whether she meant to address the insult of the first part of Yang’s response or thinly veiled threat in the second half, but the moment she opened her mouth Yang reached across the table and popped the pork inside, fingers and all.
Weiss froze, this time stunned from a combination of disbelief and indignity. “Yang,” she said, the words barely intelligible with her mouth as full as it was, “you have three seconds to remove–”
“Sorry, babe, I can’t understand you.” Yang pulled her hand back and wiped it off on the skirt of her dress.
It was difficult to chew furiously, but Weiss thought she managed to get the point across. “I said,” she repeated, enunciating each word with cold precision, “that you had three seconds to get your grimy fingers out of my mouth before I bit them off, which I assure you I’ll do without hesitation if you ever pull that kind of stunt again.”
Ruby gently patted her shoulder, as if she was trying to soothe a wild animal, though she knew better than to open her mouth and make herself a target.
Unlike her sister, Yang did not. “That’s not what you said a few nights ago. Do I get another smooch?”
“I’m not rewarding bad behavior, and you’ve already had plenty of intimate contact this evening.” Weiss held out for about three seconds before she roughly grabbed Yang’s hand and pressed a kiss to her fingertips. “There. I don’t want to hear anymore out of you.”
Yang traced an 'x’ over her heart, which had the almost certainly intended consequence of drawing Weiss’ attention to her chest. Red-faced, Weiss tore her gaze away in time to see Ren hold out a forkful of his eggplant parmesan. Judging by how Jaune glowered at him, he had only just reclaimed the silverware.
Wearily, Weiss opened her mouth. He was being more polite about it than Yang had been, and that deserved some recognition, though she was already beginning to feel uncomfortably full. She barely tasted the food, swallowing quickly and closing the distance between them to kiss him softly on the lips.
Kissing the others was always many things, passionate, awkward, all too often frustrating beyond belief, but it was rarely ever slow. Ren was different, methodical in his approach, until Weiss was the one gasping into his mouth and pulling at his collar, her nails catching on the slick material of his suit jacket.
Nora sighed happily and leaned partway over the table to get a better view. “You two are so cute together,” she said, brushing Weiss’ hair back from her face.
Ren kissed Weiss’ forehead before he sat down, the warmth from his lips lingering much longer than it had any right. “No more than you and her.”
Nora wound her arms around his neck in an embrace that was nearly as much a chokehold as it was a hug, and blew a raspberry on his cheek. “Shush, arguing with the true king of Maple Syrup Village is treason. Or maybe it was Candycane Village. It was the one with the Beowolf pile.”
“Candycane, but it was by the maple syrup river,” he answered, undisturbed by the headlock. “I don’t think they have capital punishment there.”
“Plus,” Ruby said, “good kings can’t execute people. At least, in all the bedtime stories Yang used to read to me, they never did.”
Blake let out a sharp huff of laughter. “There’s a world of difference between can’t and shouldn’t, Ruby. Speaking of which,” the Faunus glanced sidelong at Weiss, “I haven’t had my turn with you.”
“Your turn with me?” Weiss repeated, incredulous. “I’m not some amusement park ride, you dunce. Besides,” she added, seeing Blake’s plate was already scraped clean, “you don’t have anything to offer, do you?”
Instead of responding right away, Blake took a long sip of wine. Though Weiss knew for a fact that they were drinking the exact same vintage, the wine in Blake’s cup seemed darker than hers, bloody crimson without the light shining through it. “We both know that isn’t true.”
Weiss might have snorted if ten years of etiquette schooling hadn’t trained it out of her. “Fine, then,” she said. “Impress me.”
Arching a brow, Blake raised the glass once more. That sort of stalling might have been mildly interesting the first time, but trying it twice only meant Blake had absolutely nothing to back up those words. Weiss would have been happy to say as much, loudly, but Blake leaned over Ruby’s lap and yanked her into a kiss, shadows licking their skin as Blake’s semblance flared.
Nails that were more like claws pricked the skin on Weiss’ cheek and the back of her neck. They hadn’t drawn blood, nor would they without Weiss’ explicit permission, but the quiet threat sent a shiver down the length of her spine. Blake’s hair was slicked back for the night, highlighting the sharply-angled cheekbones and molten amber eyes that never failed to make Weiss’ breath catch. The rest of that ink black mane spilled over the collar of Blake’s suit, nearly indistinguishable from the equally dark fabric.
Blake was half Weiss’ nightmares and half her most private daydreams, so when the Faunus shifted to deepen the kiss, Weiss simply tipped her head back and gave. At first it was nothing more than the hot, gentle pressure of lips against her own, but then Weiss tasted wine, spilling into her mouth from Blake’s.
Or at least she assumed that was the intention. A great more of it ended up dripping down her chin than in mouth. She quickly broke the kiss, scrabbling for her napkin and trying to sop up the mess before it stained her clothing.
“Are you really that dim,” she hissed, napkin clamped firmly over her mouth, “don’t you know that only works in your trashy romance novels? What were you thinking? Or were you even thinking at all?”
Faunus ears pinned flat, Blake answered back, defensively, “It’s not as easy as it looks.”
“I’d give you points for style and take a few back for execution,” Yang said, shrugging.
“Yeah, you were really cool right up until the end,” Ruby agreed. “I could feel Weiss shaking.”
“Excuse me? I was not shaking.” Weiss turned to Pyrrha. “Was I shaking?”
Pyrrha hesitated for a moment. “Perhaps a light tremble?”
Weiss didn’t have to look to know Blake’s expression had settled into something unbearably smug. Luckily for the Faunus, her dress had escaped the debacle unscathed, so Weiss could find it in herself to graciously let the matter rest. “Ugh, I don’t care enough to argue with you. Now that I’ve sampled everyone’s meals and, er… and affections, can we finish our dinner like respectable people?”
Ruby pouted, lower lip quivering in a manner Weiss would have found exasperating on anyone else. “But I didn’t get to go.”
“You can’t possibly be serious. You’re the one who started this!”
“Nope,” Ruby said firmly, shaking her head, “it wasn’t a thing when I did it, but now it’s definitely a thing and I want my turn if that’s a thing you like and are okay with.”
“Wait, you used 'thing’ too many times, I’m confuse–” Weiss started.
“I’ll explain!” Nora interrupted, slamming her palm down on the table to get their attention. “Ruby meant that at first it was only a regular thing, but that when we all started doing it, it became a thing-thing. And since she only got to do the thing and not the thing-thing, Ruby wants to know if you’re okay with her being part of the thing-thing thing.”
Weiss stared blankly at her. “That didn’t help in the slightest.”
“I can draw you a diagram,” Ren said, fishing his scroll out of a sleeve.
“No, no, that’s quite alright,” Weiss said quickly. “If it keeps the explanations to a minimum, then yes, I’m perfectly fine with whatever needs to occur for this to be over.”
“Way to be enthusiastic about it,” Ruby grumbled, already knuckle-deep in pasta. Weiss could feel what little remained of her appetite waning as Ruby picked through the noodles to find one she hadn’t already bitten into tiny fragments. It was all she could do not to mentally list all the things she knew Ruby had touched since she last washed her hands.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Let me try again. Thank you, Ruby, for letting me eat cold pasta out of your grubby hands like I’m a barnyard animal.” The zip of Weiss’ dress. The windows in the limo. Countless doorknobs between Beacon and the restaurant. The menus, and only god knew how many other people had touched those. Ruby’s hands really were filthy. “There, was that better?”
Ruby settled on a noodle and held it up, pinched between her thumb and forefinger, sauce slowly dripping down its length. “Okay, first of all, it’s lukewarm at worst. At worst. And second, you’re way cuter than a donkey or a chicken, so it’s not even a little bit the same.”
Insulting that response would have been giving it far too great an honor. Of course she was more attractive than a chicken. Even Jaune was better looking than that, and he paraded around in footie pajamas with his name written in marker on the collar.
Never breaking eye contact, Weiss opened her mouth and waited. Fortunately, Ruby opted not to waste any more of their time and raised the noodle up high, ready to feed it to Weiss when she lost her grip. The noodle flopped limply on Weiss’ collarbone, clung for a moment, then slithered down between her breasts, warm enough that it nearly felt like a living thing and leaving a watery trail of tomato sauce behind it.
“You– you–” Weiss started, hands frozen in mid air, caught between tearing at her own clothing and tossing the rest of the pasta in Ruby’s face. Grinding her teeth, she fished the noodle out of her bra and dropped it on the table the same way she might handle a pair of Jaune’s boxers.
Ruby wasn’t faring any better, her mouth hanging open in surprise. “That– I–”
“Aw shit, we’ve got a Code Orange.” Yang looked as if she was ready to throw herself in front of Ruby if the situation came to it. “Pyrrha, take your top off. You’re the only one who can save my sister now.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Pyrrha said. Despite her words she still rested a calming hand on Weiss’ shoulder. “After all, mistakes happen and I’m certain Ruby will apologize in a moment.”
“Ruby,” Jaune whispered, “run.”
Ruby swallowed hard and somehow found her voice. “I’m really super sorry, Weiss. It was an accident and it won’t happen again, I promise. Did I mention I’m really, really, really sorry?”
“You. You are going to spend all night scrubbing the stain out of this dress if that’s what it takes. Do you understand me, Ruby Rose?” Weiss was breathing hard by the end of the outburst, the words having come out in a furious rush. When Ruby shakily nodded, her expression softened. “Good,” she said, kissing Ruby’s cheek. “And if it does happen again, you’re done for.”
The rest of the meal passed in relative peace. Between the wine she’d drunk and the heavy weight of food in her stomach, Weiss found it difficult to keep her eyes open. She slumped against Pyrrha’s immovable form, dozing just enough that every jaw-creaking yawn startled her completely awake. Ruby cuddled close on her other side, her cape spread over the both of them like a shabby blanket.
The waiter didn’t get the chance to put the check down before Weiss whipped out her credit card with as much speed and menace as she drew Myrtenaster. Coffee and dessert were out of the question, and with Ruby so close, it would be impossible to keep her from seeing the total if Weiss bothered to glance at the bill. There had already been far too much excitement for the evening.
When the receipt came, Weiss managed to shove Ruby off her just enough to sign her name with a flourish and a generous tip. Discretion deserved a three-figure reward. Her father might tacitly ignore 'youthful indiscretions’, but a scandal would burn through the last grudging shreds of his patience faster than Weiss cared to imagine. In the interests of not testing the restaurant’s patience any further, Weiss herded everyone towards the door the moment the ink was dry on the final 'e’.
The cool night air was refreshing after being cooped up inside for so long. If she didn’t breathe too deeply, the smell of rain and grass almost overpowered the city’s omnipresent tang of car exhaust and people. While the others wandered ahead, moving with no great hurry towards the street corner where the limo would pick them all up, Ruby hung back by Weiss’ side.
Moonlight always tended to steal the color from Weiss’ skin, bleaching her to marble and snow, but the night couldn’t dim the bright crimson of Ruby’s cloak, the silver of her eyes. She was taller now than when they first met, to the point where even Weiss’ most excruciating pair of heels couldn’t compensate for the difference in height. They weren’t children any longer, but Ruby bore the most obvious signs.
“Wanna get some ice cream before we go home?” Ruby held out a hand, grinning hopefully.
Just the thought of eating another bite made Weiss’ stomach heave, though she didn’t let the slightest hint of it show on her face. “Absolutely.”
Ruby had a bad habit of calling any place she lived more than a month 'home’, as if all she needed to feel safe and loved was a roof over her head, enough reception on her scroll to call her father once in a while, and Yang. She’d sown pieces of her life in dorm rooms and apartments across Vale as easily as a gardener planted flowers, while Weiss lived in the same mansion since she was born and couldn’t think of it as anything more than a residence.
But now, she could see it in the way Jaune and Pyrrha held hands as they walked. In how Nora would skip ahead of Ren and then stop every ten yards, patiently waiting for him to catch up. In Blake’s Faunus ears flicking back and forth in the night air, unbound despite the risk. In the curve of Yang’s smile as she watched the others. In the hand Ruby held out to her.
If this wasn’t home, nothing was. |
By David Cromwell and David Edwards
Reports of Washington's anger directed at surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden indicate a basic truth about power. Noam Chomsky has expressed it as the underlying problem for genuine democracy, even in so-called 'free' societies:
'Remember, any state, any state, has a primary enemy: its own population.' (Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power, edited by Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel, The New Press, 2002, p. 70.)
Anyone who steps out of line, especially if they defy authority's attempts to apprehend them, risks severe punishment. All the more so because it is important to publicly discipline miscreants, lest the threat of a 'bad' example become a contagion sweeping through society.
Snowden was denounced by Dick Cheney, the warmongering former US vice-president, as a 'traitor' and a possible spy for China. Senator Dianne Feinsten, chair of the US Senate intelligence committee, told reporters that Snowden had committed an 'act of treason'. There was 'undisguised fury' amongst many US politicians at Snowden's slipping away from Hong Kong and arriving at Moscow airport where he continued to evade detection. General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, complained that Snowden 'is clearly an individual who's betrayed the trust and confidence we had in him. This is an individual who is not acting, in my opinion, with noble intent.'
Given the source of such accusations – largely senior officials in the current and previous US administrations - rational observers will be unimpressed. As Norman Solomon correctly points out:
'The state of surveillance and perpetual war are one and the same. The U.S. government's rationale for pervasive snooping is the "war on terror," the warfare state under whatever name.'
Solomon issues a warning:
'The central issue is our dire shortage of democracy. How can we have real consent of the governed when the government is entrenched with extreme secrecy, surveillance and contempt for privacy?'
Washington and its allies, sold to the public by the media as 'the international community', are well aware of the stakes. The general population must be subdued and kept in its place. Obama and his officials in the government, and the US intelligence community, need to assert strenuously that Snowden's exposure of the massive US secret surveillance programme aids and abets 'the enemy', and damages international relations.
Snowden's revelations were brought to light by US journalist Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian. He correctly noted that a campaign of demonisation would attempt to deflect attention from the substance of Snowden's revelations, and focus instead on Snowden's personal background and any alleged character defects. Indeed, early reports relentlessly described Snowden as 'a high school dropout' or focused on his 'heartbroken' and 'abandoned' 'dancer girlfriend'. On June 24, the first edition of the Independent referred to 'fugitive Snowden' in the headline to an article by Shaun Walker and David Usborne. The 'impartial' BBC also referred to Snowden as a 'fugitive', when 'whistleblower' would be more accurate, and certainly less loaded. Even the Guardian has referred on several occasions to Snowden as a 'fugitive'.
Nick Cohen, a laptop war propagandist not known for any 'Fast and Furious'-style heroics, predictably smeared Snowden as 'a coward':
'If you run, you look like a coward. It may be that you have good reason to be cowardly. It may be that anyone else in your position would run as far and fast as you do. There is nothing wrong with taking the cowardly course, unless like Edward Snowden, you claim to be engaged in civil disobedience.'
What Snowden did, in fact, was immensely brave and a decent journalist would welcome both his actions and his courage. Solomon put Cohen and his ilk to shame:
'Too rarely mentioned is the combination of nonviolence and idealism that has been integral to the courageous whistleblowing by Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. Right now, one is on a perilous journey across the globe in search of political asylum, while the other is locked up in a prison and confined to a military trial excluding the human dimensions of the case.'
An admirable Guardian editorial also defended Snowden, saying:
'Those who leak official information will often be denounced, prosecuted or smeared. The more serious the leak, the fiercer the pursuit and the greater the punishment.'
More to the point, this applies to anyone who challenges power effectively. Ironically, the Guardian is describing exactly what it did to Noam Chomsky in 2005.
The editorial added:
'a debate is only possible because of the facts which have been put into the public domain, not by government but by a whistleblower and a still freeish press.'
True, although that passing reference to 'a still freeish press', where in times gone by it would surely have been simply 'free press', is an intriguing hint that the editors concede much of the public may have seen through the façade of the propaganda system.
Inevitably, attempts are now also being made to smear Greenwald, with both the New York Daily News and New York Times attempting to dredge up dirt on the journalist. In an ad hominem piece about Greenwald published on the BuzzFeed website, and illustrated by somewhat sinister-looking photographs, the journalist was cast as 'a figure long viewed even by many on the left as a difficult eccentric.' The article bizarrely carried a quote from someone who said Greenwald was:
'scary — but then I quickly realized that the scariness probably had to do with his short haircut and his intense stare.'
In a live television interview, Greenwald was even asked by NBC News host David Gregory:
'To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?'
Greenwald responded robustly:
'I think it's pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies. The assumption in your question, David, is completely without evidence, the idea that I've aided and abetted him in any way. [...] If you want to embrace that theory, it means that every investigative journalist in the United States who works with their sources, who receives classified information, is a criminal. And it's precisely those theories and precisely that climate that has become so menacing in the United States. It's why The New Yorker's Jane Mayer said, "Investigative reporting has come to a standstill," her word, as a result of the theories that you just referenced.'
Greenwald reports that his home was burgled and, oddly, only a laptop was stolen. As the journalist himself says:
'I would be shocked if the U.S. government were not trying to access the information on my computer.'
The Primary Function Of The State
As important as the revelations of Edward Snowden are, the bigger picture is the overwhelming drive by state power to pursue its own strategic designs, to promote the corporate and financial interests with which it is in league, and to protect itself from any threat from the general population to make government truly work for the public.
The independent journalist Jonathan Cook makes the same point (via Facebook, June 26, 2013) that this is the real significance of the recent shocking revelations about surveillance:
'I've been saying since the first Snowden revelations about the NSA that the goal of all this mass surveillance is not to foil terrorism; it's to prevent all challenges to, or efforts to hold accountable, the corporate elites who are plundering our communities and the planet to enrich themselves.'
Cook quotes from a Guardian article which reveals that a UK police unit called the National Domestic Extremism Unit is monitoring 9,000 political activists:
'In recent years the unit is known to have focused its resources on spying on environmental campaigners, particularly those engaged in direct action and civil disobedience to protest against climate change.'
Cook concludes:
'The tapping of our phone calls and internet activity is being used for exactly the same nefarious purposes: to ensure we remain either docile or intimidated as our political and financial elites grow ever more ostentatious in their depravity and corruption.'
Historian Mark Curtis, who has extensively analysed formerly secret government records for several groundbreaking books, has noted that the primary function of the British state, 'virtually its raison d'être for several centuries – is to aid British companies in getting their hands on other countries' resources.' The British security services have an important role to play in support of 'the national interest':
'As Lord Mackay, then Lord Chancellor, revealed in the mid-1990s, the role of MI6 is to protect Britain's "economic well-being" by keeping "a particular eye on Britain's access to key commodities, like oil or metals [and] the profits of Britain's myriad of international business interests".' (Mark Curtis, Web of Deceit: Britain's Real Role in the World, Vintage, 2003, pp. 210-211.)
A similar picture could be painted of all the major 'democracies', not least the United States.
The shocking extent of the corruption of democracy by big business and its political allies remains mostly off the corporate media's agenda. And corporate-employed reporters and commentators have mastered the art of not making painful connections; painful for powerful interests, that is. No wonder, too, that our major political parties offer no real choice: they all represent essentially the same interests crushing any moves towards meaningful public participation in the shaping of policy.
Making The Planet Uninhabitable
In the introduction of a new book, Managing Democracy, Managing Dissent, Rebecca Fisher outlines the stranglehold that corporate power, including its mass media sector and political accomplices, has on democracy. Fisher, an activist with Corporate Watch, writes:
'our legal avenues to hold our putative representatives to account, or to persuade them to take heed of our demands, are restricted to actions via pressure groups or tame and largely ineffectual protests about specific, isolated issues. This ensures that the capitalist system is able to reap catastrophic damage upon subject populations and the environment, even to the extent of threatening the habitability of the planet, while remaining, for the most part, insulated from public challenge.' (Rebecca Fisher, editor, Managing Democracy, Managing Dissent: Capitalism, Democracy and the Organisation of Consent, Corporate Watch, London, 2013, p. 2)
The framework of global capitalism – its reigning institutions, policies and practices - tends to be taken for granted in the corporate media. Media academic and activist Robert McChesney points to the 'persistent reluctance' of commentators to 'make a no-holds-barred assessment' of capitalism. He makes a revealing comparison to illustrate this absurdity:
'A scholar studying the Soviet Union would never discount the monopoly of economic and political power held by the Communist Party and the state and then focus on other matters. The political economy would be central to any credible analysis, or the scholar would be dismissed as a charlatan. The same is true of any academic study of any ancient civilization.' (Robert McChesney, Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning The Internet Against Democracy, The New Press, New York, 2013, p. 17)
But on the rare occasion when the system is questioned, notes McChesney, even critical writers feel obliged to provide a 'loyalty oath' to capitalism:
'whenever scholars examine their own society, it is generally taboo to challenge the prerogatives and privileges of those who stand atop it and benefit from the status quo, even in political democracies. This may be nearly as true of the United States as it was of the old Soviet Union.' (Ibid., p. 17)
McChesney's observations about 'scholars' extend to media professionals, as he makes clear in his book. As we have often said, one cannot expect a corporate media system to report honestly or accurately about the corporate world.
Fisher rightly warns that the corporate system 'cannot co-exist with genuine democracy', adding:
'the emergence and predominance of the corporation has facilitated the emergence of a form of democracy – liberal democracy – which, by careful processes of management is made safe for corporations to dominate society, and for the capitalist system to reap enormous human and environmental damage.'
In other words, so-called 'liberal democracy' has become a lethal shield that protects capitalism from the threat of proper democracy based on meaningful participation by the general population. As we have explained in numerous books and media alerts, corporate power has for decades carried out huge campaigns of disinformation - called 'public relations' - and political lobbying to create the illusion of 'consensus' required to pursue its own selfish aims.
Fortunately, there is an inherent weakness here, because the system is maintained only so long as there is large-scale public acceptance of the status quo. Noam Chomsky puts it well when he says that:
'even the most efficient propaganda system is unable to maintain the proper attitudes among the population for long. [...] fundamental social and economic problems cannot be swept under the rug for ever.' (Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy, Vintage, 1993, pp. 134-135)
There is thus plenty to be said about living under a giant system of government surveillance. Just don't expect the corporate media to explore the full extent of what it really all means. |
An anti-LGBTQ group is using Chelsea Manning’s image in an ad campaign that urges lawmakers to vote against allowing openly transgender people to enlist in the military because they would be entitled to medical care.
The Family Research Council, which has been deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), tweeted the ad Thursday. It shows a photo of Manning next to one of a military jet. The ad, which can be viewed below, implies that the cost of providing health care to transgender service members would affect the amount spent on military equipment.
We're running this ad in NY-23 to encourage people to tell @RepTomReed how they want the military to spend their tax $. Call 202-225-3161. pic.twitter.com/j6TjBVAXbC — FRCAction (@FRCAction) July 20, 2017
The photograph appeared to come directly from Manning’s social media accounts. The whistleblower came out as transgender in 2013, while serving prison time for providing WikiLeaks with sensitive government documents. After seven years behind bars, Manning had her prison sentence commuted by former President Barack Obama.
Manning posted the photograph to both her Instagram and Twitter accounts May 18. It was the first photograph of Manning that had been released to the public in years.
Meanwhile, the FRC’s tweet also suggested that the ads will appear in districts represented by Republican House members who voted against a proposal that would have denied medically necessary health care to transgender people in the military. Though the proposal had been expected to pass, the House rejected it, 214 to 209.
The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins doubled down on the sentiments relayed by the ad in a July 20 blog. The FRC, he wrote, had sent a letter to Congress urging them to reconsider allowing openly transgender people to enlist in the military now that their medical care had survived.
“Funding the military should not include funding sex-reassignment surgery or hormone therapy intended to change a person’s gender. Providing sex-reassignment surgery for service members is not a part of providing for the common defense,” the letter to Congress read, according to Perkins’ blog. “Indeed, it undermines the purpose of the military, which is to fight and win wars. In addition, even the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services under [Obama’s] administration admitted that there are not sufficient studies to show that sex-reassignment surgery actually helps the patient.”
Under the Obama administration, the military lifted its longstanding ban on openly transgender service members in June 2016. Though the military had planned to allow recruits who identify as trans to enlist as of July 1, that move has been delayed for six months. A Pentagon spokeswoman told The New York Times that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wanted to allow military service leaders to “review their accession plans and provide input” while considering what effect adding trans recruits would have on “the readiness and lethality of our forces.”
Still, the FRC’s suggestion that the cost of a transgender service member’s healthcare would somehow affect the purchase of military aircraft is particularly ill-conceived. The U.S. has about 13,000 military aircraft. The next-largest aerial powers, China and Russia, have 2,000 to 3,000 military aircraft each, Business Insider reports.
HuffPost has reached out to the National Center for Transgender Equality and a representative of Manning and is awaiting comment. |
OTTAWA — Thomas Mulcair faced the national media Monday, hoping to make his case for why he deserves to stay on as party leader as calls for him to step aside mount.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair speaks to supporters, Monday, Oct. 19, 2015 in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/CP)
Mulcair said he was energized after the Christmas break and excited to get back to work with his colleagues fighting against inequality and injustice. He laid out the NDP’s latest call to arms, the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, a massive free-trade deal among Pacific nations that the Liberal government appears poised to sign, but which, Mulcair suggests, threatens thousands of good jobs in Canada.
Despite wanting to talk about the TPP, the NDP leader faced a barrage of questions over his own leadership after he led the party from first place in polls at the beginning of the campaign in August to a crushing third-place finish that saw half of his caucus members lose their seats, taking the NDP from 103 seats in the 2011 election to 44 seats in 2015.
“It wasn’t there for us this time,” Mulcair told reporters in explaining the Oct. 19 result. “As a team, we haven’t been to the finals very often, and I can tell you that we learned a lot. Next time, we’ll be there to get the cup.”
In April, Mulcair faces a leadership vote at the party’s national convention in Edmonton. He told reporters that he needs 50 per cent plus one vote to avoid a leadership race and that he hopes to get more than that — much more than that — but he refused to set a floor and say how much support he wants in order to remain the party leader.
“I know that that support can be there. I sense it is there, but I’m not taking anything for granted.”
“It’s up to the members to decide that,” he told HuffPost when asked for his desired support base. “I don’t take anything for granted. I’m humbled, before the membership and the extraordinary wave of good ideas that have come forward since the election to correct what they see as being problems. I’m also determined, very proud to lead this party, and I’m going to go before the membership without presuming anything … and ask for their support, and it has to be, of course, beyond 50 per cent.”
What about 60 per cent? Mulcair wouldn’t say.
“I know that that support can be there. I sense it is there, but I’m not taking anything for granted.”
Mulcair said he will continue to work with the parliamentary caucus, plans to meet party officials this weekend and will likely head to a riding in Manitoba to meet with grassroots members.
First, however, Mulcair will meet with his MPs Tuesday for a two-day caucus retreat in Montebello, Que., before the House of Commons returns next week.
Mulcair urged to take responsibility for NDP's defeat
During his press conference, the NDP leader struck a more pensive tone than he has in the past several weeks and months, when he has mostly played down the NDP’s stunning defeat.
After the election, he blamed the niqab issue for the party’s loss of support in Quebec — despite the Liberals’ holding the same position. To the party faithful in Vancouver in November, he praised the party’s election result in the province and reminded volunteers that the party had its second best showing ever.
Since then, several high profile New Democrats have suggested their leader is dreaming in technicolour if he believes he can stay on to fight the next election in 2019. They had hoped Mulcair would take responsibility for some of the NDP campaign’s worst strategic mistakes, pointing to the call for a balanced budget in the midst of a technical recession. So far, Mulcair hasn’t.
“I shared the sadness and the disappointment of many people. But now, I’m encouraged by what I see across the country.”
On Monday, he declined to give a straight answer about whether he believes the federal government should bring in a balanced budget and if he thinks deficits, right now, are necessary because of the declining loonie and the massive drop in oil prices. It was left up to an aide to explain the party leader’s position.
The night of the election, Mulcair said: “I shared the sadness and the disappointment of many people. But now, I’m encouraged by what I see across the country.”
He never thought of resigning. Not once, he said. “It’s not in my nature.”
Toronto MPP calls for new federal leader
The voices who have spoken out against Mulcair have mostly been disgruntled, defeated MPs, speaking confidentially, who felt they had lost through no fault of their own — having raised more money and identified more supporters than ever — but because of a badly run national campaign. The most vocal New Democrat willing to speak on-the-record has been Cheri DiNovo, an MPP for Toronto’s Parkdale–High Park where the former incumbent MP Peggy Nash also lost her seat.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair holds a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Jan 18, 2016. (CP/Sean Kilpatrick)
“He’s got to go,” DiNovo told the Toronto Star’s Thomas Walkom earlier this month.
Monday, DiNovo told The Huffington Post Canada that she doubts Mulcair can stay and that, at a bare minimum, he should want support for his leadership to be in the high 70s.
“Fifty plus one is absurd; it’s absurd to me,” she said, laughing. “Even in the 70s…. For an incumbent leader, you want incredible support behind you, that’s what you need.”
In 2009, the party’s former leader, Jack Layton, received 89.25 per cent of support.
The federal election was “a disaster” for the NDP, DiNovo said.
Whether or not it was Mulcair’s ideas or those of advisers to call for fiscal discipline during a technical recession or rid the party of its socialist label, he agreed to it, she said. “The end result was he said ‘yes’ to that, and we need a leader who second-guesses those folks if that is the direction they are taking us.”
“They need to hear directly that it wasn’t their fault that we lost.”
NDP donors and volunteers, those who gave their time and money, deserve to hear him and the central campaign take responsibility, she added.
“They need to hear directly that it wasn’t their fault that we lost.”
“I need to hear him — and I think many of us do — look at what was said, things like balanced budgets, etc. He needs to take responsibility. The idea of running another campaign with somebody who has lost 50 per cent of our seats doesn’t seem like a realistic option to me. It really doesn’t.”
DiNovo said she has always admired Mulcair for his intellectual abilities and his help for the Quebec breakthrough. But the party should focused now on deep soul-searching and not be consumed with or scared about the idea of finding a new leader.
“The reality is there cannot be another potential leader until space is made for them.”
It’s not just about Mulcair or his capabilities, DiNovo added.
Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo says the federal NDP need a new leader. (Photo: CP)
“It really needs to be not about him right now, quite frankly. It really needs to be about the needs — I would say even greater than the NDP, [of] democratic socialism and that movement in Canada — that we need to be the party that represents that.
“We need to look at how we do things, how we do politics, what kind of politics we represent, who our base is. We need to do all of that work,” she said, referring to how the federal Liberals successfully addressed the same sort of considerations after their disastrous showing in the 2011 election. “We’ve got four years.”
But can Mulcair stay on as leader while the NDP finds itself?
“I’m really dubious that that is a possibility, that we can go forward as a party, you know four years from now with the same leader from this last disastrous election, I’m really dubious about that absolutely.
“If a leader loses half of the seats in the party and struggles to keep his own, that leader is in trouble and should be in trouble, and that’s really all I’m saying,” the Ontario MPP added. “The fact that we continue to deny the obvious seems to me really bizarre and doesn’t help.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair holds a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Jan 18, 2016. (CP/Sean Kilpatrick)
“I'm not alone,” DiNovo added. “I’m expressing what I am hearing from a lot of people who seem to not want to speak out.
She’s speaking out, she said, because she thinks it’s her duty to tell the truth and, because she isn’t tied to the federal party, she doesn’t have to support him and the party can’t fire her.
“Only the electorate can do that, and I’m responsible ultimately to them, and that is who I am listening to and that is who I am speaking for.”
Even if Mulcair “manages” to remain leader after the April convention, DiNovo warned, it doesn’t “necessarily mean that he will be the leader at the time of the next campaign either.”
The NDP asks its members every two years whether they want a leadership race, which means if Mulcair stays on in 2016, he could still be ousted in 2018.
“At the end of the day, he stands for that campaign in the imagination of the Canadian public, and that is a real problem.”
Also on HuffPost |
Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; NBA commissioner Adam Silver addresses the crowd before the start of the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
The Utah Jazz worked out their first group of incoming NBA prospects on Wednesday, trying to find that next diamond in the rough. According to Jazz VP of Player Personnel Walt Perrin, it’s a search that might pervade the entirety of the 2015 NBA Draft.
Jody Genessy of the Deseret News was on hand to witness the proceedings and spoke with Perrin, who told the Jazz beat writer that this summer’s pool of potential draftees may be lacking in marquee-level talent:
“I don’t see a lot of so-called NBA superstars, if any.”
The Jazz currently sit in the 12th position of the first round, pending the results of the NBA Draft Lottery on Wednesday, May 20th. If you’re the masochistic type, head on over to the RealGM Draft Lottery Simulator and see how long it takes you to win a top three pick for the Jazz.
The team will also owns the No. 42 pick of the second round.
Given the cadre of young and developing talent already on the roster, the likelihood that Utah’s pick will fall in the middle of the first round and the opinion of Perrin and others that the draft may be lacking in star potential, it might behoove the Jazz to move their pick.
On the other hand, you never know when a player might exceed his perceived value and bring their game to a higher level. Our own Rudy Gobert was drafted 27th overall in a weak draft class and has evolved into a franchise-changer.
The franchise has also done well to round out its roster with D-League call-ups and undrafted free agents. Jazz point guard Bryce Cotton was discovered during an early workout last summer and eventually signed a multi-year deal with the team.
Perrin on potential sleepers in this year’s draft class:
Perrin continued: "But that's not to say somebody may not jump forward and become the next Stephen Curry or somebody like that." — Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) May 6, 2015
What does this mean for the Jazz and what should they do on draft day? Comment below or hit us up on Twitter with your thoughts! |
Bank of America’s mortgage business has lost more than $50 billion since the Charlotte bank bought Countrywide Financial for $2.5 billion, according to an Observer tally, and more losses are coming in an expected Justice Department settlement.
After announcing the deal for the ailing subprime lender in January 2008, then-Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis called it a rare chance to become No. 1 in home loans. Instead the bank’s shareholders have spent six-plus years paying for Countrywide’s slipshod lending practices.
The disastrous purchase not only harmed investors but also employees, homeowners and the Bank of America headquarter’s city, which had risen to national prominence as its banks spread across the country in the 1980s and 1990s.
“It was a crippling deal for Bank of America,” said Ken Thomas, a Miami-based banking consultant, “and Bank of America is still in recovery mode because of it.”
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Former Bank of America executives say some insiders had concerns about the purchase at the time, but the bank forged ahead. Lewis has said regulators didn’t pressure him to buy Countrywide, but government officials were clearly pleased to check a problem off their list as the financial crisis was emerging.
Since July 1, 2008, when the deal officially closed, the bank’s mortgage business has lost $52.7 billion through the first half of this year, the Observer found. This number – more than double North Carolina’s recently approved annual state budget – includes settlements, payments to investors for soured loans, accounting writedowns, and operating losses and profits. The rest of the bank made about $75 billion over the same period.
The latest Justice Department settlement, which could come within days, would resolve a variety of probes with federal and state authorities, including allegations related to the sale of faulty mortgage-backed bonds. The agreement, not yet finalized, is expected to include roughly $9 billion in cash, plus $7 billion to $8 billion in consumer relief, such as reduced loan balances for struggling mortgage holders.
Bank of America doesn’t disclose the total amount it has set aside for legal reserves, but it has taken $10 billion in litigation expenses in the first half of this year. Some of this has gone toward other settlements, but analyst John McDonald of Sanford C. Bernstein estimates the bank has set aside $5.5 billion for the Justice Department pact. “We believe additional charges could continue to weigh on core earnings going forward,” Paul Miller, a bank analyst with FBR & Co., wrote last month.
It’s not possible to break out exactly how much of the losses in the bank’s mortgage unit came from Countrywide. But the California-based lender was the much larger mortgage company, with about 17 percent market share, compared with Bank of America’s 8 percent, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry publication.
Bonds covered by the latest settlement also show Countrywide’s lopsided role in the losses. Of the loans packaged into securities by Bank of America and companies it later bought from 2004 to 2008, about three-fourths of those that soured were originally issued by Countrywide. Bank of America produced just 4 percent, with Merrill Lynch accounting for most of the rest.
“Clearly, it’s the worst acquisition in history,” said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance. “No one really appreciated the liability that was going to be associated with large lenders from the past. Bank of America paid for it.”
‘What are they thinking?’
The acquisition started as a $2 billion investment by Bank of America in Countrywide in August 2007 at a time when crashing credit markets had spurred rumors that the lender could face bankruptcy.
The bank had a long-standing relationship with Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, helping him start his mortgage company with a $75,000 loan in 1969. Lewis flew to California to meet with his counterpart, known for his year-round tan, to seal the deal.
But as financial markets continued to roil, Bank of America and Countrywide began discussing an acquisition in mid-November 2007, according to securities filings. On Jan. 11, 2008, the bank announced it was buying the company for about $4 billion in stock, a price that would slip to $2.5 billion by the time the deal closed six months later.
“We view this as a onetime opportunity to acquire the best mortgage platform in the business at a time when the value is very attractive,” Lewis told analysts that morning. Less than seven years after succeeding the legendary Hugh McColl Jr. as CEO, the son of a single mother who worked as a nurse had cemented his goal of making the bank a nationwide leader in mortgages, credit cards and deposits.
But some former executives at the bank now say there were doubts internally about the acquisition.
Only a small group of people from Bank of America’s smaller mortgage business were involved in the deal’s “due diligence,” the review of Countrywide’s books and operations, said a former mortgage executive familiar with the deal. Disappointed they had little say in the deal, Bank of America mortgage executives were concerned about the strategic fit and the reputational risk of joining with Countrywide.
In 2001, Bank of America, under Lewis, had exited the business of making subprime mortgages, higher-priced loans to borrowers with riskier credit profiles. And in fall 2007, the bank had stopped selling mortgages through brokers, a major business for Countrywide but one that Lewis had criticized for producing loans he called “toxic waste.”
“It was like, ‘What are they thinking?’ ” said the former mortgage executive, who like other colleagues agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity to protect business relationships. “We are two totally different companies.”
Elsewhere in the bank, other executives were familiar with Countrywide because the bank bought loans from the lender for its own investment portfolio. Some worried about diminishing loan quality and the possibility that investors who had bought securities backed by Countrywide mortgages could some day demand the bank repurchase the loans if they went bad, said a former Bank of America executive. That’s the exact scenario that played out in coming years.
“The people who understood the mortgage business were clearly providing candid and factual feedback to the diligence team,” the executive said. “What they did with that information, there is no way I could answer that question.”
At the time, Lewis said the bank’s “extensive due diligence supports our overall valuation and pricing of the transaction.” The bank got advice on the purchase from its own securities arm and the law firms of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and K&L Gates, according to a news release.
Lewis, who retired in 2009 and still has a home in Charlotte, declined to comment for this story.
To be sure, few inside or outside the bank envisioned the tens of billions of losses that were to come, and the peak of the financial crisis was still months away. Over its history, Bank of America had often profited by buying down-and-out companies at bargain prices.
Unlike the Merrill Lynch purchase forged later in 2008, the government doesn’t appear to have played a major role in the Countrywide acquisition.
In 2010, Lewis told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that regulators were “interested” in the bank’s possible purchase of Countrywide “but no one asked us to do the deal.”
In January 2008, a Treasury spokeswoman, facing an inquiry from a reporter, emailed a colleague that she was going to “kill the idea” that Treasury encouraged the purchase.
“We were aware but that doesn’t mean we were picking up the phone asking for bids,” the spokeswoman wrote, according to emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
From praise to protests
Initially, some advocates for borrowers lauded Bank of America for being a white knight reforming an industry villain. From the outset, the bank pledged to abandon Countrywide’s subprime lending practices.
“Bank of America has the resources and the will to begin cleaning up the subprime mess that Countrywide has played such a large role in creating,” Martin Eakes, chief executive of the Durham-based Center of Responsible Lending, said at the time.
But praise for Bank of America would evaporate as foreclosures mounted in the recession, fueling homeowner anger and protests around the country.
Inside the bank, the criticism wore on some employees.
“I felt like we had done the country a big favor,” said another former Bank of America banker. “If we hadn’t bought Countrywide what would have happened if one of the worst actors went bankrupt?”
By the end of 2009, Lewis had retired, facing intense criticism mostly for his Merrill Lynch deal that had resulted in a government bailout. One of his lieutenants, Brian Moynihan, would replace him and soon discover that cleaning up Countrywide would become a nearly all-consuming task.
Moynihan, a onetime college rugby player, joined the bank in its 2004 FleetBoston Financial acquisition and became head of Bank of America’s corporate and investment bank just weeks before the Countrywide purchase. In four-plus years as CEO, he has wrestled with legal settlements, sold off assets and embarked on a program to cut 30,000 jobs as he sought to create a less risky and more profitable company.
The bank’s stock, which closed Friday at $15.22, has been essentially flat since he took charge.
“Obviously, there aren’t many days when I get up and think positively about the Countrywide transaction,” Moynihan has said.
Mortgage losses began to ratchet up at the end of 2010 and into 2011 as investors began lodging claims asking the bank to buy back defective mortgages. In June 2011, the bank announced an $8.5 billion settlement with private mortgage-bond investors in a sign of the eye-popping payouts to come.
Now, the Justice Department case appears close to resolution. The expected settlement of more than $16 billion would be the largest ever between the U.S. government and a company.
While a huge number, the settlement is likely to leave many unsatisfied. Some critics say Bank of America is getting off light considering the damage it caused in the financial crisis and question why individuals aren’t being prosecuted. Others say the bank is being punished for a deal that saved Washington from a costly bailout.
“Can the government really claim victory for squeezing money out of large banks like Bank of America to pay for the sins of some other lender?” said Cecala, the publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance. “Wouldn’t it be more appropriate if they went after Countrywide officials who were responsible for this kind of thing?”
Since the Countrywide purchase was announced in January 2008, Bank of America’s shares are down more than 60 percent, compared with a 37 percent rise in the S&P 500 index, a broad measure of stocks. Regulators this month allowed the bank to bump its quarterly dividend to 5 cents per share, far short of the 64 cents the bank paid in 2008.
The promise of becoming a dominant mortgage lender with more than a quarter of the market has also fizzled. Bank of America gained ground in the second quarter of this year but still originated less than 5 percent of U.S. home loans.
The damage to the company, however, is defined by more than dollars and cents, said Thomas, the banking consultant.
“It was reputational,” he said. “It has tainted Bank of America probably forever.” |
Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile users who are signed up for the Windows Insider testing program can now select to receive builds from the new Release Preview ring. It joins the previous Fast and Slow ring options.
Windows Insider head Gabriel Aul described the new Release Preview ring in a blog post, along with which ring would work best for Windows Insiders, depending on how often they want new builds, along with the stability of those builds.
Fast – Best for Insiders who enjoy being the first to get access to builds and feature updates, with some risk to their devices in order to identify issues, and provide suggestions and ideas to make Windows software and devices great.
Slow – Best for Insiders who enjoy getting early access to builds and feature updates, with less risk to their devices, and still want to provide feedback to make Windows software and devices great.
Release Preview – Best for Insiders who enjoy getting early access to updates for the Current Branch, Microsoft applications, and drivers, with minimal risk to their devices, and still want to provide feedback to make Windows devices great. |
A group of temporary workers at Microsoft contractor Lionbridge has signed its first union contract, a rare feat in a technology industry typically unfriendly to organized labor. But the deal, sealed after almost two years of contentions talks, comes at a cost.
A group of temporary workers at Microsoft has signed its first union contract with their employer, a rare feat in a technology industry typically unfriendly to organized labor.
But the deal, sealed after almost two years of contentious talks, comes at a cost.
This month more than a third of the union’s 33 members, employed by Lionbridge Technologies in Bellevue, were laid off or agreed to leave voluntarily amid the threat of deeper cuts. Union members say they were told the reduced head count is the result of less work coming from Microsoft, the team’s only client.
For Philippe Boucher, the 66-year-old French immigrant who spearheaded the creation of the independent Temporary Workers of America (TWA), the union drive is evidence that in the technology industry, long viewed as infertile ground for organized labor, temporary workers can organize and win greater benefits.
“It was difficult, but not impossible,” Boucher said. “We just proved that it’s possible.”
Other members of the union, reluctant to speak publicly for fear of jeopardizing future employment opportunities, deferred to Boucher as their spokesman.
The contract with Lionbridge, signed earlier this month, is the latest in a series of victories for workers’ advocates in the Puget Sound area, and comes amid growing concern about income inequality nationwide.
In the last two years, a $15-an-hour minimum wage floor has survived challenges in Seattle and SeaTac, Seattle became the first city in the U.S. to give drivers for Uber and other ride-hailing services the power to unionize, and, more recently, Seattle proposed a law aimed at giving retail workers more predictability in their work schedules.
Margaret O’Mara, a history professor at the University of Washington who focuses on the technology industry, said concerns about the place of workers have grown along with the perception of economic instability after the financial crisis.
“You have a destabilization, a lot of people going from feeling somewhat secure, to a feeling that upward mobility has stopped,” she said. “The future is not as bright as it might have seemed a couple of generations earlier.”
Role of contractors
The new union’s effort also casts a spotlight on the shadowy world of temporary workers and contractors that makes the technology economy tick.
Dozens of contracting firms supply Microsoft, Amazon.com and other large companies with everything from developers to graphic artists, software testers and language specialists like those employed by Lionbridge.
In some cases, the work is truly temporary, with employees signing on to six- or 12-month projects pegged to a specific product.
In others, like the now-unionized lab of Lionbridge workers who have reviewed the content of Microsoft Windows applications since 2011, engagements can stretch for years, and take on a quasi-permanent status.
A few groups in the technology contracting world are represented by unions, including the drivers of Microsoft’s Connector shuttles, bus drivers for Silicon Valley giants, and some janitorial and warehouse workers.
The TWA isn’t the first union of temporary workers that formed in Microsoft’s orbit.
The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or WashTech, organized in 1998, just as a class-action lawsuit of temporary workers seeking benefits from Microsoft was making its way through the courts.
Microsoft ultimately settled the case, paying out about $97 million to the employees. WashTech, meanwhile, tried to rally Microsoft’s so-called “temps” and full-time employees for more than a decade, with limited success. The union has since shifted its attention away from Microsoft, focusing on jobs like call-center workers.
The TWA’s unionization drive began in 2013 when a Lionbridge employee was laid off after she had asked management for better benefits.
Over the following year, Boucher and his allies quietly gathered enough signatures to trigger the federally mandated unionization vote that chartered the union.
Boucher and fellow union members, initially with legal help paid for by more established unions, started contract talks with Lionbridge, asking the company for paid time off, parental leave, and a raise.
The company’s initial offers, Boucher said, didn’t contain any benefits beyond their current employment terms for the hourly workers, who earned between $17 and $25 an hour.
Lionbridge, through the Seattle attorney who represented the company in bargaining talks, declined to comment.
New policy
Microsoft was listening to the concerns of the union and other contract employees.
The Redmond company, which has long said it has no direct relationship with workers at Lionbridge and other companies it uses for contract labor, last year introduced a policy requiring its contracting firms to offer employees working on Microsoft tasks in the U.S. a minimum of 15 days of paid time off a year.
The new policy drew widespread praise, even from the White House, which cited the move as an example of companies’ ability to lift working conditions without government mandates.
The policy could have widespread impact: Microsoft at one point last year was using the services of about 81,000 contractors worldwide, according to a person familiar with the figure, though it’s unclear how many are in the U.S. or how many are focused exclusively on Microsoft tasks.
The company has about 114,000 full-time employees, and it declined to comment on its number of contract workers.
Dozens of companies have built their business, in part, on providing services to the company, from janitorial and human resources to core technology roles like hardware and software design, development and testing.
Microsoft has long been Lionbridge’s biggest client, and last year it accounted for 15 percent of the Waltham, Mass., company’s sales.
Landmark ruling
However, Microsoft’s new paid-time-off policy didn’t spur a resolution in talks between Lionbridge and the TWA. The union voted down one proposed contract. Talks then broke down, with the union and Lionbridge both filing unfair labor practices charges.
In late 2015, a landmark ruling by a national labor regulator gave Boucher leverage to try to bring Microsoft into the talks.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) determined that Browning-Ferris Industries, a waste-management company, was a co-employer of the contract workers staffing one of its California facilities. Because Browning-Ferris exerted enough indirect control over the contractors’ working conditions, the company had to be at the bargaining table when they tried to organize.
“Large employer organizations are really fearful about the ramifications of this,” said George Gonos, a professor at Florida International University who has studied the rising use of temporary workers, and co-authored court papers in support of the joint employment finding in Browning-Ferris. “For decades, we’ve seen the spread of ‘permatemping’ in a wide range of industries,” he said. “These companies’ success rests, in some part, on the exploitation of the workers at the bottom of the pyramid.”
Companies, represented by trade groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, supported Browning-Ferris’ appeal of the ruling, arguing it could create chaos and destabilize the labor structure that employers have come to rely on.
“What corporate America is doing is saying, this is the way we do business, and it’s not that we’re trying to avoid” labor laws and worker protections, said Roger King, a senior council of the business-backed HR Policy Association. “These are just basic operational decisions that make good business sense and, if you are a publicly traded company, make good business sense for your shareholders.”
In a joint filing supporting the appeal of Browning-Ferris, Microsoft and the HR Policy Association in June argued that Microsoft’s mandate for 15 days of paid time off and other minimum standards were a good thing for workers, and they shouldn’t be used to determine that the company is a joint employer of its contract workers.
Inquiry resisted
Boucher asked Microsoft to join the TWA’s talks with Lionbridge, citing the precedent established in Browning-Ferris and saying Microsoft’s new paid-time-off rules didn’t go far enough.
When Microsoft refused, saying Lionbridge was the TWA members’ only employer, the union asked the NLRB to investigate whether the company was a joint employer under the Browning-Ferris standard.
Microsoft resisted the NLRB probe in an appeal that stretched for nine months, until a national NLRB panel ruled last month that Microsoft had to cooperate with NLRB information requests.
A week later, Lionbridge approached the TWA with a renewed contract offer. Work on the Windows application project to which the group was assigned had tapered off, union members say they were told, and layoffs were imminent.
Lionbridge’s new contract offer for the first time included some of the provisions the union had been seeking, Boucher said, including a raise and severance payments for those who would be laid off. The union and Lionbridge also agreed to a system tied to performance reviews that would determine which employees would be subject to the cuts.
“It was like, something fell from the sky,” Boucher said of the offer. “I didn’t believe it.”
As a condition of the contract, Lionbridge required the union to drop its joint-employer charge against Microsoft, as well as other pending unfair-labor-practices charges against Lionbridge.
The TWA’s members ratified the agreement in a vote, 30-1.
Microsoft, a company spokesman said, had no role in the talks and didn’t ask Lionbridge to get the union to drop its joint employer charge.
“This was a matter between Lionbridge and its employees, and we are pleased to see they’ve reached an agreement,” he said.
Boucher won’t reap the rewards of the new contract. He left Lionbridge last month after four years of commuting — on ferries, bicycle and bus — from Bainbridge Island to Redmond and Bellevue. He’s looking for a job closer to home.
He plans to stay active in the union, though.
“For a very small team, it’s progress,” Boucher said. “At the same time, I don’t know if it will have any impact” on how companies treat their contract workers.
The technology industry’s workforce, said the UW’s O’Mara, extends far beyond the in-demand software developers who make the headlines.
“We kind of forget about all the other jobs, a lot of companies that are a part of the ecosystem doing things from software testing to building iPhones,” she said. “It really becomes invisible.” |
Donald Trump’s claim that the “crooked media” has it in for him has prompted much soul-searching with the Fourth Estate, and its conclusion appears to be that he's right -- and that's just fine with some news organizations.
“I’m not running against Crooked Hillary,” Trump told a crowd in Fairfield, Conn., last week. “I’m running against the crooked media.”
Lately some, including The New York Times, Vox and Bill Moyers’ website, have not only owned up to Trump's accusation, they've embraced it.
“If you deplore media cowardice, you might think this is a good thing, not because Trump is a mortal danger to this country, although he is, but because it means the press is doing its job,” Neil Gabler wrote on the journalism website of Moyers, the longtime PBS newsman who cut his teeth as a spokesman for Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. “Call it partisan bias if you like. I call it journalism.”
Ezra Klein, the Vox writer who as a Washington Post staffer organized a secret society of left-wing reporters dubbed “JournoList” that was shut down after it was exposed in 2010, acknowledged that the press is not giving Trump traditional treatment.
“The media has felt increasingly free to cover Trump as an alien, dangerous, and dishonest phenomenon,” Klein wrote last week.
New York Times’ media critic Jim Rutenberg wrote that journalists who personally oppose Trump had an obligation to “throw out the textbook” when it came to coverage of The Donald.
“If you’re a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation’s worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him?” Rutenberg wondered in a front-page article earlier this month.
When it comes to covering Trump, it’s only fair to be unfair, according to The Atlantic.
“All things considered, the press has responded defensibly to the unusual challenges of covering a brazen, habitual liar,” Conor Friedersdorf wrote in a recent column titled, “The Exaggerated Claims of Media Bias Against Donald Trump.”
If Trump is confused by the media’s stance that it has been fair by being biased, he can take comfort in a new study on his treatment by the press since he entered the political arena.
Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy tracked his coverage by CBS, Fox, the Los Angeles Times, NBC, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. It concluded that through its coverage of Trump, both good and bad, the media helped him get the Republican nomination. |
President Trump tweeted a garbled late-night message that baffled everyone on Twitter. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
Only President Trump knows what was going through his mind — and his smartphone — when he tapped out a confusing statement containing the non-word “covfefe” just after midnight.
But that didn't stop members of Congress from opining on the definition of the most popular nonsense word of Trump's presidency.
For anybody sleeping or off Twitter at 12:06 a.m., Trump Standard Time, the president tweeted a bizarre sentence fragment that read, in its entirety: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”
He deleted the message early Wednesday morning, then tweeted again, just after 6 a.m., seemingly to make fun of his confounding “covfefe” tweet.
Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ??? Enjoy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017
Enjoy, indeed: As The Washington Post's Travis M. Andrews reported, the original “covfefe” tweet was retweeted more than 127,000 times and “liked” more than 162,000 times within six hours — “making it one of his most popular tweets in months. By then it had become a massive Internet joke.”
Among the people getting in on the action: other politicians in the nation's capital.
It got kind of ugly.
Some not-so-politely pointed out that “covfefe” was not an actual word, although nobody noted it was unbecoming of the president of the United States.
No Mr President covfefe is not a valid word. #POTUSplayingScrabble https://t.co/j89J4IGXUl — US Rep Brendan Boyle (@RepBrendanBoyle) May 31, 2017
Others offered definitions of what they thought the president was trying to convey.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) pointed out that the Twitter faux pas came just hours after the nation learned that Trump's White House communications director had resigned (although Swalwell incorrectly said Mike Dubke was fired).
In other news, today the President fired his communications director. #DIY https://t.co/P5l5rPGXrr — Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) May 31, 2017
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) provided a salty sample definition:
If it was, Mr. President, I'd implore you to "Covfefe, already -- for goodness sake." — Congressman Tim Ryan (@RepTimRyan) May 31, 2017
And Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) took a shot at Trump's ongoing Russia scandal.
"Covfefe" is Russian for "please don't release those Kompromat tapes!" https://t.co/w7D33Nq0Pb — Rep. Jared Huffman (@JaredHuffman) May 31, 2017
Then there was Rep. Ted Lieu, the California Democrat who has become something of a political star by trying to out-tweet Trump.
His 37-character response to the tweet mocked 'round the world:
Yrsvjseubpihfcovswtvnjhgfefesxnklimnq — Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 31, 2017
1 of 58 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × A look at President Trump’s first year in office, so far View Photos Scenes from the Republican’s first months in the White House. Caption Scenes from the Republican’s beginning months in the White House. Jan. 25, 2017 Trump signs an executive order for border security and immigration enforcement improvements at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Pool photo via Bloomberg News Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Read more:
Trump says he may end press briefings — here’s a breakdown of the most memorable moments
Stephen Colbert channels Keyser Söze to blast Trump’s Russia ties
Stephen Colbert calls Donald Trump a liar — over and over and over again |
A weekly examination of the Browns' ESPN.com Power Ranking:
Preseason: 28 | Last Week:: 28 | ESPN.com Power Ranking since 2002
The Cleveland Browns (0-1) dropped two spots after ranking No. 28 in the preseason and in Week 1. The Browns are unfortunately in familiar territory. This is the 13th time Cleveland is ranked 30th or lower in the past 22 Power Rankings.
There's really no argument for the Browns to be higher. Cleveland lost at home by 13 points to the Miami Dolphins. The Chargers (No. 26), Buccaneers (No. 28) and Bills (No. 29) all had better shots at winning their games in the fourth quarter.
The only teams ranked lower than the Browns are the Raiders and Jaguars. It will be difficult for the Browns to move up considering they play the next two games on the road against 2012 playoff teams (Baltimore and Minnesota) and return home to face the Cincinnati Bengals (No. 10). |
In 1901, 20-year-old William S. Harley drew up plans for a small engine with a displacement of 7.07 cubic inches (116 cc) and four-inch (102 mm) flywheels. The engine was designed for use in a regular pedal-bicycle frame. Over the next two years, Harley and his childhood friend Arthur Davidson worked on their motor-bicycle using the northside Milwaukee machine shop at the home of their friend, Henry Melk. It was finished in 1903 with the help of Arthur’s brother, Walter Davidson. Upon testing their power-cycle, Harley, and the Davidson brothers found it unable to climb the hills around Milwaukee without pedal assistance. They quickly wrote off their first motor-bicycle as a valuable learning experiment.Work immediately began on a new and improved second-generation machine. This first “real” Harley-Davidson motorcycle had a bigger engine of 24.74 cubic inches (405 cc) with 9.75 inches (25 cm) flywheels weighing 28 lb (13 kg). The machine’s advanced loop-frame pattern was similar to the 1903 Milwaukee Merkel motorcycle (designed by Joseph Merkel, later of Flying Merkel fame). The bigger engine and loop-frame design took it out of the motorized bicycle category and marked the path to future motorcycle designs. The boys also received help with their bigger engine from outboard motor pioneer Ole Evinrude, who was then building gas engines of his own design for automotive use on Milwaukee’s Lake Street.The prototype of the new loop-frame Harley-Davidson was assembled in a 10 ft × 15 ft (3.0 m × 4.6 m) shed in the Davidson family backyard. Most of the major parts, however, were made elsewhere, including some probably fabricated at the West Milwaukee railshops where oldest brother William A. Davidson was then toolroom foreman. This prototype machine was functional by September 8, 1904, when it competed in a Milwaukee motorcycle race held at State Fair Park. It was ridden by Edward Hildebrand and placed fourth. This is the first documented appearance of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the historical record.In January 1905, small advertisements were placed in the Automobile and Cycle Trade Journal offering bare Harley-Davidson engines to the do-it-yourself trade. By April, complete motorcycles were in production on a very limited basis. That year, the first Harley-Davidson dealer, Carl H. Lang of Chicago, sold three bikes from the five built in the Davidson backyard shed. Years later the original shed was taken to the Juneau Avenue factory where it would stand for many decades as a tribute to the Motor Company’s humble origins until it was accidentally destroyed by contractors cleaning the factory yard in the early 1970s.In 1906, Harley and the Davidson brothers built their first factory on Chestnut Street (later Juneau Avenue), at the current location of Harley-Davidson’s corporate headquarters. The first Juneau Avenue plant was a 40 ft × 60 ft (12 m × 18 m) single-story wooden structure. The company produced about 50 motorcycles that year.Here are some rare photographs from inside the Harley motorcycle factory from the 1910s and 1920s. |
The European Union's competition watchdog on Tuesday imposed a record 2.42-billion-euro ($2.72 billion) fine on technology giant Google, arguing that the company abused its dominance as a search engine by giving illegal advantage to its own shopping service.
"What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate," EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a press release. "And, most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation."
According to EU rules, the company must now end its conduct within 90 days or face additional penalty payments of up to 5 percent of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google's parent company.
Vestager: 'What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules'
Crucially for Google, Brussels has demanded that the US firm change the business model for Google Shopping to meet the EU's concerns.
An elaborate investigation
Speaking to DW's Barbara Wesel after announcing the decision, Vestager said the EC's casework must "rely on facts, evidence and the case law."
"And we have found that we can prove first that Google is a dominant company, and second that it has abused its dominance in the shopping comparison market," she said.
Read: Barbara Wesel's full interview with EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager
Vestager noted that the equivalent of 1.7 billion search queries - or 5.2 terabytes of data - was analyzed as part of the Google investigation.
Investigators found that on average even Google Shopping's most highly-ranked rivals only appeared on page four of Google search results. Vestager said that 90 percent of user-clicks are on page one. "As a result, competitors were much less likely to be clicked on," she said.
More broadly, Vestager said, the probe has established that Google is dominant in general internet search in all 31 countries of the European Economic Area. This will affect other cases the European Commission (EC) might build against the internet giant's various businesses, like Google Images.
She also pointed out that anyone who suffered damages from "Google's illegal behavior can claim compensation in front of national courts."
'Respectfully disagree'
The penalty is likely to leave a bigger dent in Google's pride and reputation than its finances. Alphabet has more than $92 billion in cash, including nearly $56 billion in accounts outside of Europe.
Google maintains that it's just trying to package its search results in a way that makes it easier for consumers to find what they want.
"When you shop online, you want to find the products you're looking for quickly and easily. And advertisers want to promote those same products. That's why Google shows shopping ads, connecting our users with thousands of advertisers, large and small, in ways that are useful for both," Kent Walker, Google's senior vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
Walker added: "We respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today. We will review the commission's decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case."
Despite being an EU record, the fine imposed is below the maximum possible of about 8.0 billion euros or 10 percent of Google's total revenue last year. Still, the EU's latest penalty has broken the previous record of 1.06 billion euros ($1.2 billion) set in 2009 against Intel, the US chipmaker.
Intense pressure
The decision comes a year after Vestager shocked the world and angered Washington with an order that Apple repay 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland.
The Google Shopping case, launched in 2010, is one of three against Google and of several against US companies including Starbucks, Apple, Amazon and McDonald's. The cases have stoked tensions with Washington and Brussels could now face the wrath of US President Donald Trump, who won office on his "America First" slogan.
The EU's decision comes after a long negotiation period with many twists and turns in which the two sides tried to settle the case amicably. Vestager's predecessor, the Spaniard Joaquin Almunia, made three attempts to resolve the dispute but in each case intense pressure by national governments, rivals and privacy advocates scuppered the effort.
When asked about potential retaliation from Washington, Vestager stressed the importance US officials accord to the rule of law. "What we have in common is that we build on the rule of law." She also rejected the talk of a "competition war" between Brussels and Washington, saying that the penalty imposed on Google "has nothing to do with any of that."
"This is case work, this is antitrust, and what we have found is illegal behavior breaching European legislation," she told DW.
The commissioner also noted that regulators are making "good progress" in the EC's other Google probes into Android and search advertising, and that the "preliminary conclusion" is that they breach EU antitrust rules.
sri/rd (Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP) |
Flood Gives Pakistan, U.S. Chance To Build Bridges
The fierce flooding in northwest Pakistan is a catastrophe that's killed more than 1,000 people, left thousands homeless and millions more in desperate need of aid. Does the disaster also create an opportunity for Pakistan and the United States to win hearts and minds with food and assistance? Host Scott Simon talks with Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
The fierce flooding in northwest Pakistan is a catastrophe that's killed more than 1,000 people, left thousands more homeless and hungry, and millions in desperate need of aid. The floods have struck an area that's also been a battleground between the government of Pakistan and the Taliban. Does this disaster also create an opportunity for Pakistan and the United States to win hearts and minds with food and assistance?
In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post this week, Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council, writes about the chances of building trust in Pakistan. Mr. Nawaz joins us in our studio. Thanks so much for being with us.
Mr. SHUJA NAWAZ (South Asia Center, Atlantic Council): Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: Tell us about what you see as a window of opportunity.
Mr. NAWAZ: Well, first I see the tragedy, which is the worst in Pakistan's history and the worst since the last 80 years. But I also see an opportunity because the United States and Pakistan have been on and off allies over the years, and there is still a level of distrust between them that is still deep. And perhaps when Pakistanis see the United States actually on the ground helping ordinary people, there will be the grounds for removing this distrust.
SIMON: You write that the sight of U.S. helicopters, which might alarm some people, is now reassuring in Pakistan.
Mr. NAWAZ: Absolutely. And this harkens back to the U.S. assistance during the 2005 earthquake when the same type of helicopters, the Chinooks, were being referred to as angels of mercy. And they see Americans doling out this assistance, standing side by side with Pakistani soldiers. I think that means a lot to the ordinary people.
SIMON: Recent opinion polls have been cited, a lot in both countries, that show almost 60 percent of the Pakistani public considers the U.S. to be some kind of adversary. But in this welter of polls you have noticed another statistic.
Mr. NAWAZ: Yes. Something like 64 percent of the Pakistanis polled by the Pew Global Attitude survey that was released recently indicates that 64 percent of the people polled actually want to improve relations with the United States. I see that as an opportunity. Not just for the United States but for Pakistan too, because Pakistan needs to be a member of the polity of nations, working with states like the United States and other trading partners.
And if it can build on this kind of collaborative arrangement, rather than simply a kind of patron-client relationship, which has been the characteristic in the past, then perhaps there is some hope.
SIMON: Now, we have also read that the Taliban has been trying to be of assistance.
Mr. NAWAZ: Not the Taliban so much as the Panjabi military groups that are allies of the Taliban. They have been very active through their social services groups. They were active in the earthquake zone too, and in fact in many cases worked in the same areas that the U.S. was providing assistance - very ironic.
They have been active, and that's largely because the government, unfortunately, has been very inept and slow. And when government creates a vacuum, then these groups fill it with social services. So I think this is a warning for the government now that particularly as the aid starts flowing into Pakistan, the government had better get its act together and the government better show its face on a regular basis and not the kind of sporadic hit and run, which government leaders have been doing.
I mean, it was very sad and noticeable that the president of Pakistan was out of the country.
SIMON: He was in London.
Mr. NAWAZ: He was in France and then in the U.K. throughout the period that the flood sort of ravaging his country, came back and went for essentially a photo op into one province in Sinth(ph).
So while these meetings may be important, I think the people would want to see their leaders share their misery in the sense that they can see what the people are going through and see what the government is trying to do to help.
SIMON: Shuja Nawaz is the author of "Pakistan in the Danger Zone: A Tenuous U.S.-Pakistan Relationship." Thanks so much for being with us.
Mr. NAWAZ: My pleasure.
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End-of-term approval ratings for presidents are valuable in forecasting voter preferences in the following election. The higher a president's job approval ratings are at the end of his term, the more likely it is a candidate from his party will succeed him in the White House.
That, of course, is not always the case. Democratic President Bill Clinton left office with a relatively high approval rating in 2000, but his impeachment during a second term harmed the chances that his vice president, Al Gore, would succeed him. Republican George W. Bush narrowly won the White House in the 2000 election, though he lost the popular vote.
President Barack Obama's sound approval rating may not be an indicator of Democrat Hillary Clinton's chances in 2016, either. The last time voters elected a Democrat to the White House after a president from the same party had just served a full term was in 1856, before the Civil War. |
Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid delivers a speech during a joint news conference with Prime Minister of Libya's unity government Fayez Seraj (not pictured) in Tripoli, Libya, May 6, 2016. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny
TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian lawmakers voted on Saturday to dismiss Prime Minister Habib Essid from office during a no-confidence ballot in parliament, clearing the way for a new government that must push through delayed economic reforms.
Essid, a technocrat in office less than two years, had been under fire for a lack of progress on a financial reforms package to create growth and jobs. President Beji Caid Essebsi also called for a new unity government to speed up reforms.
Out of the 191 lawmakers present for the vote, 118 voted to sack Essid. Only three supported him and others abstained.
A new premier will likely be named after negotiations within the ruling coalition of four major parties. That may include a change in cabinet with a new prime minister.
Essid had earlier this year clashed with President Beji Caid Essebsi, who had called for a new unity government to overcome political divisions in the ruling coalition and respond more quickly to economic and security challenges.
Since its 2011 revolution to oust Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has emerged as a democracy praised as a model for the region. But militant attacks have tested the government and political infighting has slowed economic progress.
Essebsi has said the country needs a more dynamic government ready to take audacious decisions to bring about the liberalisation and cost-cutting required for an overhaul of the North African state’s economy.
Three Islamist militant attacks last year - including gun attacks on foreign visitors at a museum and a beach resort - have badly damaged the tourism industry, which makes up around 8 percent of the economy and is a major source of jobs. |
Sebastien Buemi set the fastest time of the day for the second day in a row at Donington Park. His lap time of 1.31.050s is the fastest set by a Formula E racing car to date in testing and breaks his own benchmark lap time from 2014 (1.31.083).
Buemi was driving the blue and yellow Renault e.dams which looks to be a formidable machine. We understand that the car is running a twin speed gearbox supplied by SADEV.
Last summer’s testing showed that Donington Park can be a difficult place to compare teams’ performance, with the street courses used for racing being very different environments and asking very different things from conventional track such as Donington. That means we won’t really know just how competitive the Renault package is until the racing starts in October. However, Buemi and the French squad proved a particularly effective combination last season and it looks as though he is set to mount an even stronger challenge for the drivers’ title in 2015-16.
Meanwhile, the man who beat him to the first season title, Nelson Piquet, had a quiet day as NextEV TCR reportedly shipped equipment to Germany for analysis. |
German police will deploy 1,500 officers to the streets of Cologne on New Year’s Eve and implement a number of increased security plans, aiming to prevent a repeat of the wave of sexual assaults that were reported on the holiday last year.
In addition to federal police officers and city security officials, trained specialists will be available to help women and girls in case of harassment, intimidation, assault, or rape, Deutsche Welle reported.
Read more
Officers will wear reflective vests to make themselves highly visible, police chief Jürgen Mathies said during a presentation of the city's New Year's Eve security plan on Monday.
The city will also limit access to the immediate area around the city's cathedral, the site of many of last year's alleged assaults, which on that day were reported in their hundreds. The church, the adjacent square, and nearby buildings will be illuminated in bright colors.
Bags will be searched, and fireworks will be strictly prohibited in the cordoned off area. Bridges crossing the Rhine will be blocked off at certain times to avoid "unclear situations."
CCTV cameras will film the area in front of the main train station, also a scene of last year's assaults. The area will also be more brightly lit than usual.
The new safety provisions are being seen as a huge improvement from last year, when just 140 officers were deployed to the streets of Cologne on New Year's Eve, a night which resulted in almost 1,200 criminal complaints being made to police – around 500 of which were related to sexual assault.
Read more
Mathies acknowledged last year's violence during his presentation on Monday, saying that "what happened last year can never happen again."
Those thoughts were echoed by Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker.
"After last New Year's Eve's shocking assaults, the city has taken appropriate measures," she told reporters on Monday. "We want people to experience the true Cologne: peaceful, joyful – a city with a sense of community."
Last year's attacks led to public outrage against Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy for refugees, as many of the sexual assaults were allegedly committed by men described as being of North African or Middle Eastern descent.
The incidents also led to widespread criticism of Cologne authorities, who were accused of covering up what truly happened. One report stated that police had been ordered to remove the word “rape” from a memo on the violence. The city’s police chief was forced into early retirement over his handling of the situation.
The reported assaults came in the midst of the largest refugee crisis since World War II, which saw more than 1 million migrants and refugees enter Germany in 2015. |
Canada has fired a dozen staffers at its Haiti embassy and is probing others amid an internal fraud investigation that has resulted in estimated government losses of $1.7 million, an official said Tuesday.
Jocelyn Sweet, a spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada, said the probes that began in 2015 have revealed that locally recruited employees at the Port-au-Prince embassy set up "various fraud schemes" since 2004 that inflated invoices and resulted in the theft of property, among other things.
Canada's international assistance program in Haiti and its humanitarian response to Hurricane Matthew's destruction were not impacted, she stressed.
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Meanwhile, an administrative probe is ongoing to review the behaviour of Canadian staffers at the embassy in Haiti.
There have been no criminal charges filed so far.
Sweet said the Haiti findings have launched audits in other "high fraud risk" locations to determine whether similar cons could be taking place at any of the country's other embassies abroad.
Risk assessments identified Canadian missions in Russia, Nigeria, Kenya, India and Algeria that "could be exposed to the same risk factors that manifested in Haiti," she said. |
CALGARY AB, March 8, 2017 – Today, IBM Canada (NYSE: IBM) and District Ventures have announced the launch of the District Ventures and IBM Innovation Space – Calgary, a new innovation accelerator designed to bring entrepreneurs and big enterprise together to solve some of Canada’s biggest business challenges. Located in Calgary, this unique innovation accelerator will help companies incubate and innovate ideas more rapidly, moving their business plans to commercialization.
The District Ventures and IBM Innovation Space – Calgary will enable entrepreneurs at various stages of their business development to excel through mentorships, exposure to clients, collaboration, and support through the use of powerful technologies such as the IBM Bluemix hybrid cloud development platform and IBM Watson services. Leveraging the success of District Ventures and IBM in accelerating growth stage companies, entrepreneurs will engage with high-level executives, investors, mentors, and each other to further innovate and tackle challenges identified by many of Canada’s leading industries, such as natural resources, healthcare, clean tech, fintech, and agriculture.
“Entrepreneurialism isn’t reserved for start-ups. It should be embraced by companies large and small, by innovators in the smallest of garages to the most sophisticated of laboratories and boardrooms,” said Arlene Dickinson, CEO of District Ventures. “This partnership is a perfect example of what happens when big business and entrepreneurs join forces to do something amazing. Together with IBM, District Ventures is creating a unique accelerator model that matches large enterprises with tenacious innovators who, by using the latest in disruptive technology, can bring real-world solutions to businesses of any size.”
“This Innovation Space is just one more example of IBM’s continued investment in Canadian innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Dino Trevisani, president of IBM Canada. “With District Ventures, IBM will be providing an ecosystem that enables unprecedented agility, value growth, and the capacity to create competitive advantage in the marketplace. This is demand-based innovation at its strongest, leveraging the success of Canadian business and some of the most powerful technologies in the world.”
At the outset, the District Ventures and IBM Innovation Space – Calgary will facilitate approximately 20 entrepreneur and large industry collaborations per year. For more information, visit: dv-ibm-innovation-space.com.
About District Ventures
Founded in October 2015 by Arlene Dickinson, dragon on CBC’s Dragons’ Den and author of best-selling books Persuasion and All In, District Ventures is the first accelerator of its kind in Canada. Located in Calgary, District Ventures connects innovative early-stage entrepreneurs in the food and beverage and health and wellness sectors with a network of peers, investors and business support. Since opening its doors in October 2015, the accelerator has received over 1000 applications from entrepreneurs across the country. It has accepted 30 companies into its program.
About IBM
IBM is one of Canada’s top ten private R&D investors, and in 2016 contributed more than $478million to Canadian research activities. IBM has a unique approach to collaboration that provides academic researchers, small and large business, start-ups and developers with business strategies and computing tools they need to innovate. Areas of focus include health, agile computing, water, energy, cities, mining, advanced manufacturing, digital media and cybersecurity. IBM and its partners have in the past three years helped create more than 240 high-value jobs and launch more than three dozen new businesses. For more information about IBM’s continued investments in Canadian innovation, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ca/en/canadian-innovation.html.
Media Contacts:
Danielle Bartha
Venture Communications
(403) 237-2388 ext. 354
[email protected]
Lorraine Baldwin
IBM
(778) 327-7271
[email protected] |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jodie Patterson’s 3-year-old, Penelope, was brooding and angry until one day she asked her child what was wrong.
Penelope, who was assigned female at birth, was upset “because everyone thinks I’m a girl,” but he said he was really a boy.
“I said, ‘However you feel inside is fine.’” Patterson recalled from their home in Brooklyn, New York. “And then Penelope looked at me and said, ‘No mama, I don’t feel like a boy. I am a boy.’”
Almost immediately, Patterson embraced the reality that Penelope was a transgender boy, and by age 5 he was going to school as a boy. Today, at age 9, Penelope is happy and healthy as a boy who loves karate and super heroes and decided to keep his birth name.
Increasingly across the United States, doctors and parents of transgender children are embracing their identity as soon it starts becoming obvious, sometimes around age 3. Many say they are finding much greater chances of happiness and well-being when children are nurtured in their new gender identity at such a young age.
Although there is not a consensus on the issue, some clinicians who work with transgender children have concluded that when children persistently identify as the nonconforming gender, the best course is to socially transition, or live as the other gender, even at age 3.
Other specialists in the field advocate a more cautious approach because the long-term psychosexual results for young children can vary widely and unpredictably.
In Penelope’s case, his behavioral problems disappeared as soon as his family affirmed his new gender identity, said Patterson, who has five children. “That whole grumpy face became happy face,” Patterson said.
Whatever the age, parental support is crucial.
Fifteen percent of transgender Americans say they ran away from home or were kicked out of the house, according to a survey released on Dec. 8 of nearly 28,000 transgender adults.
The same study, by advocacy group the National Center for Transgender Equality, found transgender adults were nine times more likely than the general population to attempt suicide.
But transgender people with supportive families were far less likely to attempt suicide, be homeless or experience serious psychological distress - by nearly 20-point margins compared with those who lacked family support, the survey said.
With better education, today’s transgender children generally receive much more support than those surveyed adults did in their youth.
The question remains, though, around embracing gender nonconformity: How young is too young?
“WATCHFUL WAITING”
Researchers have long established that children acquire gender identity starting around 3 years old, and for the vast majority who are not transgender, or cisgender, such an identity is unremarkable.
While transgender people may realize their identities at any age, some firmly establish a transgender identity in early childhood, even by age 3.
Some of the pioneering research on transgender issues has come from psychiatrists at VU University Medical Center in the Netherlands, sometimes called “the Dutch group.”
Jodie Patterson (L) and Penelope give an interview at their home in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Advocating “watchful waiting,” the Dutch group urges caution in leading pre-adolescent children into a social transition, in part because a significant though not precisely established percentage will revert back to the natal gender, or gender assigned at birth. Experts say further study is needed to determine how many children make such a reversion in their transgender identity.
The Dutch group sees potential harm in putting a teenager through a second gender transition. They also raise concerns that transition at a young age can distort a child’s sense of reality, requiring later treatment.
But some Americans psychiatrists who work directly with transgender youth have argued that those who are consistent in their gender identity be allowed to transition because they are suffering in the natal gender.
“I support a social transition for a kid who is in distress and needs to live in a different way. And I do so because I am very focused on what the child needs at that time,” said Johanna Olson-Kennedy, medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the largest transgender youth clinic in the United States with some 750 patients.
A social transition to the other gender helps children learn, make friends, and participate in family activities. Some will decide later they are not transgender, but Olson-Kennedy says the potential harm in such cases may be overstated.
Because prepubescent transgender children require no more physical change than a new hairstyle and clothes, the initial transition is completely reversible, Olson-Kennedy said.
Of some 1,000 patients she has dealt with, only one switched back to the natal gender, and without any harm, she said.
David Breland, who works with transgender adolescents as director of the Gender Clinic at Seattle Children’s Hospital, offers simple advice for parents: “Listen to the child.”
“They tell us who they are. We don’t force anything on them,” Breland said. “By affirming who they are, there’s definitely better evidence that they do well mentally and physically. So, how could that be wrong?”
LONG-TERM STUDY
One long-term study under way by the University of Washington’s TransYouth Project is attempting to establish the stability rates of transgender identity among youth and the correlation between family acceptance and well-being.
Led by psychology professor Kristina Olson, the study aims to follow 350 transgender kids for 20 years, starting from the ages of 3 to 12.
So far, her team’s research has found that transgender children who transition at a young age do remarkably well as long as the family is supportive. Transgender children aged 3 to 12 who live as the other gender have shown levels of depression equal to a control group of cisgender children, and the transgender group had only minimally more anxiety.
Moreover, observation of a group of 5- to 12-year-olds who were allowed to transition found that they tended to be clear about their gender identity and maintained it as deeply held. A third look at 9- to 14-year-olds concluded that “We found remarkably good mental health outcomes in socially transitioned children.” The long-term study continues, but Olson’s team has published these initial findings in research papers.
DeShanna Neal, a mother of four from Delaware, can attest to the benefits of embracing her young child’s transgender identity.
Her child Trinity, now 13, was determined to be a boy at birth but began identifying as female by age 3. By 4, Trinity was living as a girl at home, but when she started school she went dressed as a boy.
Still, she identified as a girl at school, troubling her teachers and leading to stress for Trinity. A school psychologist determined she suffered from depression.
Neal found a therapist who told her and her husband to fully embrace Trinity’s female identity. She said that the therapist also gave strikingly blunt advice.
Slideshow (6 Images)
“She said, ‘Your daughter already knows who she is. Now you have to decide. Do you want a happy little girl or a dead little boy?’”
They went straight from the therapist to the store to buy Trinity a dress and pink pajamas, and they noticed an immediate change. Their depressed child became happy.
“She saw her dress and she put it on immediately. And she would not take it off,” Neal said. “We never swayed in our love and support for her.” |
Welcome to the latest installment of “Over 90 Percent of What Planned Parenthood Does,” a series on Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona’s blog that highlights Planned Parenthood’s diverse array of services — the ones Jon Kyl doesn’t know about.
When talking about Pap tests — particularly when discussing abnormal Pap results — one procedure that comes up a lot is the colposcopy.
It can sound intimidating and clinical on its own. And if you’re anything like me, you may have — ahem — occasionally confused it with the significantly more internal colonoscopy. For the sake of everyone’s anxiety levels, it may be best to set the record straight.
What is a colposcopy, and what should you expect from the procedure?
Why am I getting a colposcopy?
The most common reason for undergoing a colposcopy is having an abnormal Pap test result, particularly one that, when tested for DNA of human papillomavirus, yielded a positive result. Effectively, there are some abnormal cervical cells with HPV present. Because this could potentially progress to cervical cancer down the line, this combination makes health care providers want to get a closer look at what’s going on.
That said, colposcopies are sometimes performed for other reasons, such as genital warts on the cervix, cervicitis (inflamed cervix), or benign cervical polyps.
What does a colposcopy do exactly?
A colposcope, used to perform a colposcopy, basically looks like a pair of binoculars on a stand:
A colposcopy, then, uses a colposcope to get a better view of abnormal cervical cells than a health care provider could obtain via unaided visual examination or a Pap test.
Depending on what the provider sees during the colposcopy, a cervical biopsy or endocervical curettage might also be performed. Both procedures involve removing small amounts of potentially abnormal cervical tissue and sending the samples to a pathology lab.
How should I prepare for my colposcopy?
While most colposcopies are done in a standard doctor’s office, you may be referred to another provider — often a specialist who has a colposcope in their office — for the procedure. At present, Planned Parenthood Arizona is able to provide colposcopies at three of its health centers — in Flagstaff, Central Phoenix, and Tucson — with hopes to expand service locations in the coming year.
Planned Parenthood advises scheduling the procedure for a time when the patient isn’t expecting to be on their period. They also recommend that colposcopy patients refrain from douching, using tampons or penetrative sex toys, putting medications in their vaginas, or having vaginal intercourse for at least 24 hours before the procedure. It can also be a good idea to take an over-the-counter pain reliever about an hour prior to the procedure, particularly if a biopsy is scheduled.
What happens during the procedure?
The first part of a colposcopy is similar to a pelvic exam. The patient lies on the examining table, usually with their feet in stirrups or on other supports. A health care provider will insert a speculum into the vagina so that the cervix is easily visible.
Next, the provider applies a solution to the cervix and vaginal walls. This solution both clears away mucus and also turns any abnormal cells white, which makes them easier to see. Some people report a mild burning from this solution.
After that, the provider places the colposcope right next to the vaginal opening — but still outside the vagina. From there, the provider will examine the cervix for any abnormal cells.
At that point, if the procedure will include a biopsy or endocervical curettage, this is the point at which one will be performed. A punch biopsy involves taking a thin sample of cervical tissue about 3 to 4 millimeters in length while an endocervical curettage involves inserting a small scooplike instrument into the cervix to collect some of the cells inside. After the biopsy, the provider may apply a solution to help stop any bleeding.
From start to finish, the procedure usually takes between 10 and 20 minutes.
Will it hurt?
Pain is an individual thing, so the safest answer is — maybe, though most reports of pain or discomfort suggest that, if such pain is felt, it’s usually fairly mild.
As previously mentioned, during a colposcopy, the doctor will probably use a speculum to hold open the vaginal walls. This generally involves a feeling of pressure, which does end up being uncomfortable or painful to some people. Additionally, the vinegarlike solution used to prepare the vagina and cervix may burn or sting a little. Finally, if a biopsy is performed, it may feel like a momentary sharp pinch or menstrual cramp.
What risks are associated with colposcopies?
Overall, colposcopies — with or without biopsies — are very safe procedures, and the risks associated with them are rare. That said, those rare risks include infection and bleeding heavily enough to require treatment. According to Planned Parenthood, symptoms that require a call to a health care provider include:
heavy bleeding (the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists quantifies this as using more than one sanitary pad per hour)
abnormally heavy, yellow, or foul-smelling vaginal discharge (aside from the normal after-colposcopy discharge outlined below)
fever
chills
severe abdominal pain
Aside from that, as with any medical test, there’s a risk that a colposcopy and/or biopsy could yield a false result (either negative or positive).
Though colposcopy during pregnancy is safe, some providers recommend delaying further testing until after the birth, especially if a biopsy is indicated. According to the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, one type of biopsy — endocervical curettage — is considered unacceptable during pregnancy due to the risk of premature membrane rupture.
What side effects can I expect after the procedure?
For a colposcopy without biopsy, there should be little to no discomfort as well as little to no bleeding (spotting only, if anything). Regular activities — including tampon use and all forms of sex, if applicable — can resume right away.
For a colposcopy with biopsy, it’s fairly common to have vaginal pain or soreness lasting for a few days after the procedure, as well as some bleeding for the same amount of time. It’s also normal to have dark vaginal discharge that may look like coffee grounds: This is the solution that was applied to stop the bleeding. It’s advisable to refrain from inserting objects inside the vagina for a few days — including penetrative sex and, depending on the individual provider’s recommendations, tampons — to allow time for the cervix to heal.
I have my colposcopy results. Where do we go from here?
Essentially, this depends on what those results say. For results with lower grade changes — check here for what that means — careful monitoring (such as with repeat Pap tests and/or HPV DNA tests in 6 to 12 months) may be the recommended approach. Other higher grade changes may warrant a procedure, such as cryotherapy or a LEEP, to remove the abnormal cells.
If you have further questions about colposcopies or would like to make an appointment for your own colposcopy, you can contact your nearest Planned Parenthood health center for information about resources in your area. |
Traffic on Capital Blvd diverted while @raleighpolice investigate report of suspicious pkg at Greyhound depot #abc11 pic.twitter.com/AzUfIqcJHF — Anthony Wilson (@AnthonyABC11) September 18, 2016
Part of Capital Boulevard was shut down Sunday while Raleigh police investigated a suspicious package found at the Greyhound bus station.The bus station is back open after being closed for about 4 hours.Police responded to the Greyhound station around noon. The building was evacuated.Our crew was on scene while police suited up in tactical gear.Around 3:40 p.m., police said that nothing hazardous was found when the package was examined. Officials didn't say what kind of package was found or who it may belong to.Capital Boulevard has since reopened. Northbound Capital was closed at Fenton Street, and southbound Capital was closed at Crabtree Boulevard.No additional information was immediately available. |
President Barack Obama will appoint a White House budget officer to the be the new acting Internal Revenue Service commissioner, an announcement made following a fresh declaration from the president that he knew nothing about the inspector general’s report detailing improper IRS actions until it was leaked.
After announcing the resignation of acting IRS Director Steven Miller on Wednesday evening, the president emerged Thursday afternoon to answer questions from the press about actions taken by IRS employees to single out conservative and Tea Party advocacy groups for extra scrutiny in their applications for nonprofit status.
"I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the I.G. report before the I.G. report had been leaked ... through the press," said Obama. "Typically, the I.G. reports are not supposed to be widely distributed or shared. They tend to be, you know, a process that everybody's trying to protect the integrity of. But, what I'm absolutely certain of is that the actions that were described in that I.G. report are unacceptable."
After what's arguably been the president's toughest political week since winning reelection to a second term, Obama named a new head of the IRS and announced a new push for increased security for diplomats abroad. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.
The president declined to endorse appointing an independent counsel to investigate the controversy -- an idea that some Republicans have demanded. The criminal investigation initiated by the Justice Department, combined with the administration's efforts to cooperate with lawmakers in their investigations, Obama argued, should be sufficient.
"I think it's going to be sufficient for us to be working with Congress," he said.
Just hours after that event, the White House said that Daniel Werfel, current controller of the Office of Management and Budget, would be named acting IRS chief, effective May 22.
In a press release, Obama said, "The American people deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to lead the agency at this important time."
Later Thursday, NBC News confirmed that a second top Internal Revenue Service official has announced plans to leave the agency. An internal IRS memo says that Joseph Grant, commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities division, will retire June 3.
Of the three controversies that dominated Washington this week, the IRS issue has proven the most politically noxious for Obama.
The White House has also been besieged by new questions about its response to last year's terrorist attack against a diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya, along with revelations that the Justice Department had monitored Associated Press journalists' phone records.
The IRS and AP cases have been particularly thorny politically for one of Obama's top allies in the cabinet, Attorney General Eric Holder, who on Wednesday faced grilling on Capitol Hill for his role in both controversies. Republicans renewed some of their longstanding demands that Holder resign his position, demands which the president rejected on Thursday.
"I have complete confidence in Eric Holder as attorney general," Obama said.
President Barack Obama talks about the inspector general's report relating to alleged targeting of political groups by the IRS.
After weathering blistering criticism from Republicans, the administration has begun trying to craft its response to all three issues.
To that end, Obama on Thursday announced new measures meant to enhance security for U.S. diplomatic postings abroad as part of the administration's continued reaction to the Benghazi incident.
"I am intent on making sure we do everything we can to prevent another tragedy like this from happening again," Obama said at the White House.
His remarks come amid intensified efforts by Republican members of Congress to probe the Obama administration's reaction to the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks, which left four Americans dead, including U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens.
The administration has sought to turn the narrative on that matter in its favor beginning Wednesday, when it released emails documenting how the administration crafted its first public responses to the attack.
Obama called on members of Congress in both parties to "come together" and work to authorize legislation to help fortify embassies and other diplomatic installations as a tribute to the deceased in Benghazi.
Jason Reed / Reuters President Barack Obamaand Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrive for a joint news conference in the White House Rose Garden in Washington, May 16, 2013.
Still, the controversy involving the AP helped prompt the administration to renew its efforts to have Congress authorize a federal shield law that would protect journalists from having to disclose confidential details of their work in court.
"To the extent that this case has prompted renewed interest with respect to how do we strike that balance properly, I think that now's the time for us to revisit that legislation," Obama said. "I think that's a worthy conversation to have."
Whether any of Obama's actions will placate Republicans, who are eager to use these controversies to gain political traction and slow or halt the president's second-term agenda, remains to be seen.
Lawmakers in both parties plan a series of high-profile hearings, beginning on Friday, on each of the controversies. And Republicans in particular have been eager to make political hay of the administration's recent missteps.
Speaking before the president this morning on Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the controversies were a mark of “remarkable arrogance” by the president and his administration, though Boehner said that the Republican-controlled House was still primarily focused on the business of legislating.
NBC's Peter Alexander and Kelly O'Donnell contributed to this report.
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Former President Jimmy Carter may be on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum from the current leader of the free world, but he’s still offering to help with one of the most pressing issues — the crisis with North Korea.
Carter, 93 told the New York Times he is willing to take the lead on diplomatic efforts with the North Korea government to contain their efforts to amass nuclear weapons , and is even willing to physically travel to North Korea to carry out this objective. “I would go, yes,” he said, noting that he spoke directly with Trump’s National Security Adviser, H. R. McMaster in May, when he saw him at the funeral of his former National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski. “I told him that I was available if they ever need me,” he said.
In 1994, Carter flew to North Korea for a meeting with Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather who was leader of North Korea at the time during a contentious time between the two countries. “After hearing that Washington was also contemplating a buildup in military capability, I decided to go. In the past, I had always refrained from going to a troubled area of the world without approval from the White House or State Department. But I hadn’t been able to get approval. So I finally wrote President Clinton a letter and told him that I had decided to go to North Korea,” Carter told PBS of his decision in 2003.
But even though Carter advocated for diplomatic measures, he still expressed alarm over Kim Jung Un, who he called “unpredictable” and said was capable of conducting a preemptive strike against the United States. “I think he’s now got advanced nuclear weaponry that can destroy the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and some of our outlying territories in the Pacific, maybe even our mainland,” he told the Times.
Write to Alana Abramson at [email protected]. |
After a heated bidding war, Fox Searchlight has walked away with “Patti Cake$” for $9.5 million, Variety has confirmed.
The indie label beat out several other players, including Amazon Studios, Neon and Lionsgate, for the well-reviewed comedy about a rap star from New Jersey.
It’s the second biggest deal of the festival so far, following the $12 million Amazon Studios shelled out for “The Big Sick.” Other bids from Amazon and Neon were higher, in the $10 million range, but the producers opted for Searchlight based on its track record with prestige titles.
Despite the rapturous applause at the movie’s Monday afternoon premiere and positive reviews, “Patti Cake$” still represents a risk for Searchlight. The biggest name in the cast is Cathy Moriarty, a character actress best known for “Raging Bull.” The rest of the ensemble is comprised of unknowns.
Creative marketing and good word of mouth will be needed to convince audiences to turn out. After all, many films that are beloved by the Park City crowd, such as “Dope” and Searchlight’s own “Me and the Earl and the Dying Girl,” have collapsed in wide release.
Newcomer Danielle McDonald, from Australia, plays the title character, who is being billed as the breakout discovery of this year’s festival. First-time feature director Geremy Jasper made “Patti Cake$.”
CAA and WME handled the deal. |
What makes this Gizmo so good and useful, is that it makes it really easy to move the pivot, re-center orientation, re-center subtools to grid and freely rotate and translate object. Some of the best features of the Gizmo (I think) are theand the(so yeah, no need to use transpose master to move just a couple of subtools together… amazing!).
With the 3D Gizmo selected, you can click on the list icons (far right) to link/unlink the subtools you want to move together. you can simply mask out the ones you don’t want to move. In the example below, I used the selection tools to isolate the little joint, I masked it, then I inverted the mask and position the 3D Gizmo by clicking on the ‘location’ icon (third from the left).
To complete the effect of an ‘opening mechanisms’, I enabled radial symmetry before rotating on the ‘Y’ axis. |
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Show Review
The first thing worth noting is the fact that Polica do not front with a line-up we've ever seen in this interesting little indie-pop universe we bounce around in. There are no guitars, no keyboards...only two drummers, a bass player, and a singer. That's it...though we have read legend of a powerful sonic wizard hiding somewhere behind the curtain, triggering sounds and beats and mist and light. That of course is something we cannot confirm. All we know is, this inventive, somewhat mysterious Minneapolis collective is a self-described, "test-tube group", surgically put together by producer Ryan Olson to achieve a very specific vision.
That vision is dark and stormy. That vision is often sleek and sexy. That vision is dancy. That vision is also ripe with tension, as singer Channy Leaneagh recently told us. "We have this conflict between soft and smooth with obviously very harsh and intense sounds from two drummers and kind of some aggressive tones musically fighting with softer tones, sweeter sounding stuff". That vision is complex.
Back in June we had the chance to witness this cacophonous force when Polica invited us to capture a trio of tracks during a soundcheck held before a sold out performance at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg. In session, the dichotomy Leaneagh describes is easy to hear. The heavy filling, drum and bass are jagged, as Leaneagh's vocals dive bomb in and out like some beautiful attack. Balancing things out are the band's futuristic swells of synth...the man who may or may not be lurking behind the curtain, it seems. Under a haze of red, blue, and violet shadows, Polica bring a unique world of sound to life. Inhabit it for a moment in this, our mystical new session with the group.
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Transcript
That, that, that, that season I want, want only see him
He say no, no he be teasing Then he call back to come and see him
I was ready to die alone I was ready to die alone
I was ready to die alone Are you ready to die alone
That, that, that, that reason Don't go, go, go and see him
But I know, know that I need him And me, you guarantee it
I was ready to die alone I was ready to die alone
I was ready to die alone Are you ready to die alone
When you finally make it home I'll be ready to freak and moan
coming off of the x and o's crawling out of your skin and bones
When you finally make it home I'll be ready to freak and moan
coming off of the x and o's crawling out of your skin and bones
Slay me
That, that, that, that season I want, want only see him
Barely touch, touch and now it's steaming
Think it's dead cold but now it's beating
I was ready to die alone I was ready to die alone
I was ready to die alone Are you ready to die alone
That that, that, that reason Don't go, go, go and see him
Don't talk, talk about cheating It's a hard fall and let me leave it
I was ready to die alone I was ready to die alone
I was ready to die alone Are you ready to die alone
When you finally make it home I'll be ready to freak and moan
coming off of the x and o's crawling out of your skin and bones
When you finally make it home I'll be ready to freak and moan
coming off of the x and o's crawling out of your skin and bones
Slay me, darling, darling, I believe that I, yeah
darling yeah, darling yeah, darling yeah I believe that I am, yeah
darling oh, darling yeah, darling oh, I believe that I am, yeah
darling oh, darling yeah, darling oh, I believe that I'm in love
When you finally make it home I'll be ready to freak and moan
When you finally make it home I'll be ready to freak and moan
coming off of the x and o's crawling out of your skin and bones
Slay me yeah, slay me
aggravated in a positive way, just by the amount of sound coming out of our band, like, two drummers and bass are very stimulating to me as a performer and will get me excited.
We play off of each other and kind of go back and forth. I also come from... before I sang, I did theater, and I like theater.
We all enjoy thinking about the performance as creating a world on stage and kind of making our music come alive is important to all of us and to have fun on stage and to make it worth our time as well.
You know, to get something out of it personally.
Polica's music kind of marries that as well, because we have this conflict between sort of soft and smooth with obviously, very harsh, intense sounds from two drummers and kind of some aggressive tones fighting, musically fighting, with softer tones, sweeter kind of sounding stuff.
- The record, the title of the record and the subject matter of the record is coming from this perspective of, or coming from being a woman or like, the brutality, the kind of gruesomeness of being a woman, the dichotomy between beautification and blood and that carries through a woman's life until she dies, and kind of the conflict between those two.
How my lips been tightly sealed How my hands and feet been bound
Must have liked all your reprimands Look at me cowering now
See I meet a lot of women And they tell me that I'm strong
When I leave the stage to find you Why you make me think they're wrong
Believe me gonna find a man who loves me
like I do, like I did to you
Gonna find a man, who loves me like I do, like I did to you
See I want a friend to be with Well, I like a soul that's true
Sweet words to fill the days and darkness
Loving kindness, loving kindness
How my lips been tightly sealed How my hands and feet been bound
Must have liked all your reprimands Look at me cowering now
See I meet a lot of women And they tell me that I'm strong
When I leave the stage to find you Why you make me think they're wrong
Believe me gonna find a man who loves me
like I do, like I did to you
Gonna find a man, who loves me like I do, like I did to you
Like a man to make me do
And I like a friend to be with And I like a soul that's true
Sweet words to fill the days and darkness, inner weakness
Loving kindness, loving kindness, yeah
We were kind of put together by our producer, Ryan Olson, him and Channy were writing tracks together and they wanted to get a heavy-hitting rhythm team behind them, so they asked me to play bass and Ben and Drew to play the double drum kits.
- He is kind of like the leader, in the sense that he builds the sounds that the rest of us react to.
We're all influenced by, I think, really different music and then we're also very much influenced by each other.
Chris and I play off of each other a lot.
If I lay down a vocal line onto a track and then Chris lays bass over it, it'll often happen that I will re-record vocals based on what the bass and drums do on top of my vocals and I'm kind of reacting back to them.
So we are greatly inspired, I think, or largely inspired by each other and by kind of this assembly line of reaction and kind of a collaging off of each other.
- I think Polica is a band that is a good representation of what goes on in the scene in Minneapolis.
- We all played music in Minneapolis in different bands and saw each other playing in those bands and small scene.
- Because everyone's kind of interested in what everyone else is doing and very supportive really and we like to collaborate, you know, I know so many people who are in four or five bands and so, I mean, when you're kind of spreading yourself out across a bunch of different genres, really exciting things can happen.
I grew out of a noise punk band and now I'm playing electronic double-drum synth stuff.
You hold me like this you hold me like this
Leave the night to the sky Darling, what do you miss
You hold me like this you hold me like this
Darkness, hold me Lightness, fight this
Darkness, hold me Lightness, fight this
Mine's a heart you can't keep Oh no heart can't keep
Mine's a time you can't find All your ways are cheap
You hustled on the wrong street Now we know your true love's greed
Too fine to forget, too fine to forget Too fine to forget me
Too fine to forget, too fine to forget Too fine to forget me
Take hold like you Take hold like you
Take hold like you Like you want this
Darkness, hold me Lightness, fight this
Darkness, won't you hold me Lightness, won't you fight this
Take hold like you Take hold like you
Take hold like you Like you want this
Artist Bio
Minnesota natives Ryan Olson and Channy Leaneagh play dreamy electronica with a penchant for autotune. Founded in 2011, they have released one album, Give Up The Ghost, which was met with critical acclaim.
Editorial |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - Donald Trump made some new promises to New Mexicans at his rally in Albuquerque Sunday night.
Those big promises came just nine days before the election in a state that has voted Democrat in recent Presidential elections. Trump made promises of lower taxes, safety and security and to unleash New Mexico's "vast resources to bring jobs and higher wages to the state."
During his speech Trump touched on the rising costs of health insurance, saying that New Mexico is one of the states hit the hardest by Obamacare. Trump announced he will lower the cost and make it more affordable to families.
Trump also promises massive tax cuts for New Mexico families and his plan to make the state rich by bringing jobs into what he said has already lost 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs.
He then went on to say that if New Mexico wants to be a rich state, it has to be a safe state, citing numbers of a 53 percent increase in crime from last year in Albuquerque. Trump attributed those numbers to drugs pouring in from across the border.
"We're going to stop that. We're going to build a wall, don't worry about it," said Trump. "And Mexico's going to pay for the wall."
Trump also touched on Hillary Clinton's email scandal, saying the FBI just released another 650,000 emails were found. Trump asked the crowd how much time anyone has to send that many emails.
Compared to Trump's rally in May, Sunday's rally was much more peaceful, with only one instance of protesters having to be removed from the crowd.
Related Coverage: |
Critical consensus might be divided, but the fans have spoken — and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice looks to be a solid box-office hit. So, looking forward, what does it mean for the future (and past) of the DC Universe?
Spoilers ahead for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice!
Director Zack Snyder was working to plant a whole lot of stuff into this film, balancing everything from Batfleck’s introduction to nightmarish dreams for future films, all with teases for Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman sprinkled in. But a piece of Batman’s lore was also buried in the background, in the form of a defaced Robin suit on display in the Batcave. The suit doesn’t get any real narrative focus, though Ben Affleck’s Batman does take a moment to brood over it.
So, what’s the story, here? Snyder opened up to IGN about that old Robin suit and confirmed it is from a now-dead Robin (no word on which Boy Wonder it was) who was killed by the Joker about a decade ago. Here’s the choice excerpt:
“In my mind it was that Robin had died about 10 years earlier in some run in with a young Joker. So that was an interesting thing to me. Sorta a fun backstory to play with.”
There’s obviously a lot to unpack here. Context clues pretty much indicated this suit was from a former Robin who was killed by the Joker (thanks to the graffiti) and brooding, but now we know the death happened a full 10 years ago — featuring the Joker when he was apparently just getting his start.
If you’re thinking about future Batman films (which could certainly take the form of a prequel, if Wonder Woman is any indication), it’s interesting to actually put a date on this. Could Ben Affleck’s working script for a Batman solo film focus on this era, following the Joker’s origin as Robin is killed?
What do you want to see from a solo Batman film? Do you like what Snyder is doing with the Dark Knight?
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(Via IGN) |
Occupy Wall Street Arrests Highlight Need for New Media
By rancase
On November 3, 2011, I witnessed the first arrest of Pittsburgh’s Occupy Wall Street movement. After Pittsburgh’s Oakland Solidarity march had concluded and split up, the group of protesters I was with were invited to see speakers at a public Student Justice for Palestine meeting—only to be partially blocked by Pitt police, who told us we weren’t allowed in campus buildings. Some of the group made it in before the block, some made it in as others were arguing with police, and some were snuck in through a back door by event facilitators. Among the latter group was Bud, an Occupy Pittsburgh camp resident and ‘zine writer who’d just told me he had cell phone video of the cops swearing at and threatening him.
At one point those of us still outside thought things were being cleared up. I got a message that the Pitt Police Chief Delaney was inside talking to the group about the “confusion”—and when I turned around a group of cops had Bud bent over the hood of their squad car.
His girlfriend kissed him as they were cuffing him; he told her he loved her, and to tell their son he’d been arrested for a good cause. None of the officers there would tell us why he was being arrested; one mocked the protesters who demanded a reason. Less than ten minutes after he was shoved into the backseat of a squad car and taken away, we were all officially allowed into the building—and when Bud was finally released, he reported the incriminating videos on his phone had all been erased.
But if not for the attention given here, online, the only record of what went on is a line in a police report: a guy cited for trespassing.
A few days later, I discussed this with a friend over tea. Monetarily, he told me, stories like that weren’t worth much for a news organization or site to run. The attention they’d draw would be nominal. To me this sounds like part of the reason it took mainstream media so long to run OWS stories, and why attention to the goings-on has so often been minimal and/or dismissive. This is also why I’ll make a point of writing about what’s happening out there—and why others should do the same. The Occupy Wall Street movement has brought to light any number of unpleasantries: just how ready cities are to use militarized police against their citizens; just how delinquent mainstream media is when it comes to covering social issues and movements; just how bad spin and misinformation can be when those two intersect.
So to whoever’s listening, from indie media to any of you bloggers with revolutionary inclinations or half-considered daydreams of photojournalism: Our media has overwhelmingly become farcical. Far too many news outlets repeat whatever they think will be easiest to digest or whatever they’re told, no matter the reports from people on the ground. Thus the videotaped beatings of UC Berkley students become “nudges” of police batons; the mass arrests of reporters and legal observers and medics and bystanders morphs into the arrest of “anarchists and provocateurs.” For all of our safety, this can not be allowed. You’re the new guard, the ones who’ll not flinch from telling the entire story; the ones who’ll keep the rest of us from being in the dark. You are of dire importance. Our words and our cameras and our share buttons are the only things that can guarantee police accountability. Be there.
[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157627916969933″]
More #OccupyWallStreet coverage and photo galleries on DOOM! Magazine
rancase ( 22 Posts I grew up on the water. I still sometimes feel my visceral, paralogical craving to return to it colors everything I do. I make stuff. I mean well. That'll do for now.
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Wembley will have enhanced security for Saturday's FA Cup final between Arsenal and Chelsea
The Football Association says "enhanced security" will be in place at the FA Cup final in the wake of Monday's Manchester attack.
A terrorist attack at the end of a concert at the Manchester Arena on Monday night left 22 people dead and 59 injured.
And sporting organisations including the FA, the EFL and the International Cricket Council have sought to reassure supporters due to attend upcoming games.
The victims of the attack will be remembered at Saturday's final between Arsenal and Chelsea, and fans have been told to expect extra security checks at Wembley, and similarly at Twickenham where the Exeter Chiefs and Wasps will meet in the Aviva Premiership final.
Extra armed police officers will also be in place at both venues.
"Fan safety is of paramount importance and we have robust security measures in place at Wembley Stadium," an FA statement read.
"In collaboration with the Metropolitan Police and the local authorities there will be an enhanced security operation for all upcoming events.
"All supporters are encouraged to arrive for events at Wembley Stadium as early as possible for security checks and to avoid any delays in entering the stadium."
Wembley also hosts the League Two and Championship play-off finals on Sunday and Monday, and an EFL statement read: "Whilst there have been no specific threats in this country, our Security Advisor will be liaising with Wembley Stadium, the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) and the Metropolitan Police to ensure the arrangements in place provide a safe and secure environment for all supporters attending this weekend's play-off matches.
"The safety of fans remains our highest priority. The EFL takes security issues extremely seriously and we would urge all supporters planning to be at Wembley Stadium to be vigilant of their surroundings at all times, stay alert and not be alarmed."
Manchester United held a minute's silence for the victims and those injured in the Manchester attacks Manchester United held a minute's silence for the victims and those injured in the Manchester attacks
Manchester United held a minute's silence for the victims as they prepared to fly out for Wednesday's Europa League final in Stockholm, where stringent security measures are in place.
The ICC, meanwhile, says security is the "highest priority" ahead of its Champions Trophy and Women's World Cup tournaments in England.
"We operate on advice from our Tournament Security Directorate - in conjunction with the ECB and relevant authorities - to ensure that we have a robust safety and security plan for both tournaments," a statement read.
"We will continue to work with authorities over the coming hours and days and review our security in line with the threat levels.
"The security situation has been very much front and centre of our preparations and we constantly review our procedures to guarantee they are as effective as possible to keep everyone safe."
Tickets for Netball's final four games at Manchester Arena on June 10 have been temporarily been taken off sale after the attack.
An England Netball statement read: "Following the tragic events at Manchester Arena last night, England Netball has chosen to temporarily suspend ticket sales for the Final Four.
"We will release a further update in due course, for now our thoughts and condolences are with those in Manchester." |
As a podcast on iTunes, listenable/downloadable onscreen at Taki’s Magazine, or as a transcript here.
Microaggression of the Week was fallout from the October 16th airing of the late-night TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live!
One recurring feature on the show is a “Kids’ Table,” which spoofs the solemn round-table discussions on weighty topics that you get on Sunday morning TV. Instead of credentialed bigfoot commentators, Kimmel has four second or third graders round the table with him.
One of the kids, a little chap six years old, when asked what he’d do about the fact of America owing China over a trillion dollars, suggested going over there and killing all the Chinese.
Naturally that had race grievance lobbyists shrieking and swooning from coast to coast. I observed:
In San Francisco this Monday, the race creeps held a protest march. The marchers carried pictures showing funnyman Jimmy Kimmel’s face with a Hitler mustache drawn above his lip and a swastika by his side. Hard to beat that for creativity and originality, eh? As I have had occasion to remark before: If there is a prize awarded in Hell for killing Chinese people, the easy winner in the 20th-century division—and in fact, I am pretty sure, the all-time winner—would be Mao Tse-tung. Why not put his face on Jimmy Kimmel, you nitwits? Oh, but then you wouldn’t be getting your checks from the Chinese Consulate, would you? Right.
I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the offending child has been turned over to the authorities in Peking (oh all right: Pei-p’ing) for Thought Correction. He would not be first six-year-old boy to be made a political prisoner by the ChiComs.
The full Radio Derb playbill:
Prisoner of New York (that’s me this week).
Momma's got a brand new bag (from Barneys, Madison Avenue).
Teaching While White (and similar offenses).
Wheels coming off Obamacare (making the case for term limits).
Arming the enemy—dispatches from the War About Nothing.
White man speak with politically incorrect tongue (causing heap plenty offense).
Craving Clintonian honesty (another show where kids comment on the news).
Open borders defeated in New York! (by the doughty Ron Unz).
Niger, the African tiger. (A sad story, of which there will be many more.)
In memoriam Warren Gamaliel Harding (the Great).
It’s all there at Taki’s Magazine.
Just one erratum: In regard to the Intelligence Squared open-borders debate, I said:
Ron has just launched a new website, title The Unz Review: An Alternative Media Selection, subtitle "A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media." I urge you to check it out at www.unz.com.
In fact Ron hasn’t quite finished setting up the website, but he tells us it’ll only be a few days. Keep checking: I’ve seen a pre-version and it’s worth waiting for. |
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2014 – Let’s set the stage. As the politically correct, faux-Marxist college campus environment continues to deteriorate, average American families—and students—are beginning to seriously question just what they’re getting in return for enslaving themselves to increasingly inflated tuition bills.
It’s a big problem for college men in particular. In addition to having to maintain and increase both grade point averages and personal alcohol tolerance in a competitive environment, they also are required to behave like celibate monks when it comes to interacting with the opposite sex.
READ ALSO: Conservatives: The real persecuted minority on campus
That’s because all college men, particularly those of the Caucasian persuasion, are viewed by college administrators and professional campus feminists as feral, potential rapists.
Such idiocy is apparently ready to jump the shark in the People’s Republic of California, as reported by David Bernstein. He’s writing for the Volokh Conspiracy, which now, mirabile dictu, appears online in the Washington Post. We excerpt Bernstein’s opening observations here:
Cathy Young has an excellent column in Reason.com about a bill in California that would require universities in that state to use an “affirmative consent” standard for evaluating sexual assault complaints in the campus disciplinary system for complaints involving students.
READ ALSO: The campus rape culture exists; be ready to fight it
Two obvious questions arise:
(1) Why just on campus? If this is a good idea, why not make it part the tort system? If that’s too drastic, let’s start, with say, members of the California legislature. For internal disciplinary purposes, their sexual activity should be governed by the same standard they want to impose on students. What plausible grounds could they have for rejecting application of a standard they would impose on students to themselves? (2) If we’re limiting things to campus, why just students? Why should students be judged under this standard, but not faculty and administrators? It’s hardly unheard of for professors, administrators, and even law school deans to engage in sexual relationships of dubious morality. The answer is that it’s not a good idea, and it’s a product of the current moral panic over the hookup culture.
Bernstein actually captures the spirit of the lunacy here. Even better, however, is the beyond-funny video-satire he links to at the end of his commentary.
If you think, like we do, that this whole campus dating/hookup issue has gotten way beyond control, this video will provide the appropriate sendup. Watch it all. The fun will sneak up on you. |
Dallas Independent School District included schools named after three of America’s Founding Fathers on a list of schools that the district is exploring renaming.
The DISD administration has already recommended renaming four schools named after Confederate generals, including Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The district is conducting additional research on whether to rename at least 20 other schools named after historical figures. The list of schools, posted by DISD board member Dustin Marshall on Facebook Saturday night, includes schools named after Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
“I will not support a name change for Franklin since Benjamin Franklin clearly had many accomplishments that form the basis for why the school was named after him. I don’t believe this school was named after Franklin to send a signal of oppression and control,” Marshall wrote. (Benjamin Franklin Middle School is the only school on the list that falls within Marshall’s district.)
The district is exploring whether to rename the schools on the list because of their namesake’s ties to slavery or the Confederacy, the Dallas Morning News reported. (RELATED: SPLC Says Army Bases Are Confederate Monuments That Need To Come Down)
The Dallas City Council recently voted to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee located in Dallas. The statue came down on Thursday at a cost of approximately $450,000, CBS DFW reported.
President Trump questioned last month whether the removing of statues of Lee and other Confederate figures would lead to the removal of tributes to slave-owning Founding Fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
“So will George Washington now lose his status?” Trump asked. “Are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson?”
WATCH CNN COMMENTATOR CALL FOR REMOVAL OF WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON STATUES:
AND DON’T MISS ANOTHER CNN COMMENTATOR CALLING TRUMP A WHITE SUPREMACIST: |
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is one of the biggest and most highly anticipated Android devices launching this year. While we are busy digging up something, anything on the phablet, we came across a few interesting leaks.
The first “leak” comes by way of SIM Only Radar who was able to secure some alleged images of the Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900), ripped from the device’s official training manual. You’ll notice a design very similar to what we see from current Galaxy devices, as well as a handful of purported specs. Seems Samsung will emphasize the device’s photo capturing abilities thanks to a 13MP camera with dedicated camera button, and Xenon flash. Where a Xenon flash would eat most other smartphone batteries for lunch, the Galaxy Note 3’s ample 3,000+ mAh battery should suffice.
The second “leak” is brought to us from the boys at TechKiddy nabbed some extremely blurry images of the device, allegedly sent directly from a Samsung testing facility in China. If you squint your eyes real hard, you can see what appears to be a handful of extremely large devices sitting on a table in a room filled with Asian women (lucky, Android). Again, it’s hard to make out, but appears as if Samsung is sticking with the rounded look of the current Galaxy-line, so don’t expect anything too jarring.
Where we are fast nearing a plateau in specs for many devices, the Note 3 still has some wriggle room left over from the Note 2. We’re hoping to learn more about the Note 3 as we approach IFA 2013 in September. Many of you may remember last year when Samsung scheduled an event just before the main show to announce the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. We expect this year to be no different. |
British European Airways Flight 548 was a scheduled passenger flight from London Heathrow to Brussels that crashed near the town of Staines, England, soon after take-off on 18 June 1972, killing all 118 people on board. The accident became known as the Staines air disaster and, as of 2019 , remains the deadliest air accident (as opposed to terrorist incidents) in the United Kingdom and it marks the highest death toll involving a Hawker Siddeley Trident.
The aircraft suffered a deep stall in the third minute of its flight and crashed to the ground, narrowly missing a busy main road. The inquest principally blamed the captain for failing to maintain airspeed and configure the high-lift devices correctly. It also cited the captain's heart condition and the limited experience of the co-pilot, while noting an unspecified "technical problem" that the crew apparently resolved before take-off.
The crash took place against the background of a pilots' strike that had caused bad feelings between crew members. The strike had also disrupted services, causing Flight 548 to be loaded with the maximum weight allowable. Recommendations from the inquiry led to the mandatory installation of cockpit voice recorders in British-registered airliners. Another recommendation was for greater caution before allowing off-duty crew members to occupy flight deck seats. Some observers felt that the inquiry was unduly biased in favour of the aircraft's manufacturers.
Industrial relations background [ edit ]
The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) had declared Monday 19 June 1972 (the day after the accident) as a worldwide protest strike against aircraft hijacking which had become commonplace in the early 1970s. Support was expected, but the British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA) organised a postal ballot to ask members at BEA whether they wanted to strike.[1] Because of the impending strike, travellers had amended their plans to avoid disruption, and as a result flight BE 548 was full, despite Sunday being traditionally a day of light travel.[2][3]
BALPA was also in an industrial dispute with BEA over pay and conditions. The dispute was controversial, those in favour being mainly younger pilots, and those against mostly older. A group of 22 BEA Trident co-pilots known as supervisory first officers (SFOs) were already on strike, citing their low status and high workload.[1] To help train newly qualified co-pilots, SFOs were told to occupy only the third flight deck seat of the Trident as a "P3", operating the aircraft's systems and helping the captain (known as "P1" on the BEA Trident fleet) and the co-pilot ("P2") who handled the aircraft. In other airlines and aircraft, the job of SFO/P3 was usually performed by flight engineers. As a result of being limited to the P3 role, BEA Trident SFOs/P3s were denied experience of aircraft handling, which led to loss of pay, which they resented. In addition, their status led to a regular anomaly: experienced SFO/P3s could only assist while less-experienced co-pilots actually flew the aircraft.[1]
Captain Key's outburst [ edit ]
The flight deck of a Hawker Siddeley Trident.
Tensions came to a head shortly before the accident. On Thursday 15 June a captain complained that his inexperienced co-pilot "would be useless in an emergency". Upset, the co-pilot committed a serious error on departure from Heathrow, setting the flaps fully down instead of up.[4][5] The mistake was noted and remedied by the SFO, who related the event to colleagues as an example of avoidable danger. This became known among BEA pilots as the "Dublin Incident".[5]
An hour and a half before the departure of BE 548, its rostered captain, Stanley Key, a former Royal Air Force pilot who had served during World War II, was involved in a quarrel in the crew room at Heathrow's Queen's Building with a first officer named Flavell. The subject was the threatened strike, which Flavell supported and Key opposed. Both of Key's flight deck crew on BE 548 witnessed the altercation, and another bystander described Key's outburst as "the most violent argument he had ever heard".[6] Shortly afterward Key apologised to Flavell, and the matter seemed closed.[7] Key's anti-strike views had won enemies and graffiti against him had appeared on the flight decks of BEA Tridents, including the incident aircraft, G-ARPI (Papa India).[nb 1] The graffiti on Papa India's flight engineers' desk was analysed by a handwriting expert to identify who had written it, but this could not be determined. The public inquiry found that none of the graffiti had been written by crew members on BE 548 on the day of the accident.[9][10]
Operational background [ edit ]
The aircraft operating Flight BE 548 was a Hawker Siddeley Trident Series 1 short- to medium-range three-engined airliner. This particular Trident (s/n 2109) was one of twenty-four de Havilland D.H.121s (the brand name “Trident” was not introduced until September 1960) ordered by BEA in 1959 and was registered to the corporation in 1961 as G-ARPI.[11][12] By the time of the aircraft's first flight on 14 April 1964, de Havilland had lost their separate identity under Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and Papa India was delivered to BEA on 2 May 1964.[13] The Trident I was equipped with three interconnected high-lift devices on each wing leading edge – two droops outboard and a Krueger flap on the section closest to the fuselage.
Diagrammatic representation of a deep stall
While technically advanced, the Trident (and other aircraft with a T-tail arrangement) had potentially dangerous stalling characteristics. If its airspeed was insufficient, and particularly if its high-lift devices were not extended at the low speeds typical of climbing away after take-off or of approaching to land, it could enter a deep stall (or "superstall") condition, in which the tail control surfaces become ineffective (as they are in the turbulence zone of the stalled main wing) from which recovery was practically impossible.[14]
The danger first came to light in a near-crash during a 1962 test flight when de Havilland pilots Peter Bugge and Ron Clear were testing the Trident's stalling characteristics by pitching its nose progressively higher, thus reducing its airspeed. The Trident entered a deep stall after a critical angle of attack was reached. Eventually, it entered a flat spin, and appeared to be about to crash, but a wing dropped during the stall, and when corrected with rudder the other wing dropped. The aircraft continued rolling left and right until the nose pitched down and the crew were able to recover to normal flight.[15] The incident resulted in the Trident being fitted with an automatic stall warning system known as a "stick shaker", and a stall recovery system known as a "stick pusher" which automatically pitched the aircraft down to build up speed if the crew failed to respond to the warning.[15]
These systems were the subject of a comprehensive stall programme, involving some 3,500 stalls being performed by Hawker Siddeley before the matter was considered resolved by the Air Registration Board.[16] The stall warning and recovery systems tended to over-react:[15] of ten activations between the Trident entering service and June 1972, only half were genuine, although in the previous 6½ years there had been no false activations when an aircraft was actually in the air.[17] When BEA Trident pilots were questioned informally by one captain, over half of the pilots said that they would disable the protection systems on activation rather than let them recover the aircraft to a safe attitude. Random checks carried out by the airline after the accident showed that this was not the case; 21 captains stated that they had witnessed their co-pilots react correctly to any stall warnings.[18]
Felthorpe accident [ edit ]
The aircraft model's potential to enter a deep stall was highlighted in the crash of Trident 1C G-ARPY on 3 June 1966 near Felthorpe in Norfolk during a test flight, with the loss of all four pilots on board. In this accident, the crew had deliberately switched off the stick shaker and stick pusher as required by the stall test schedule, and the probable cause was determined to be the crew's failure to take timely positive recovery action to counter an impending stall.[19] The Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme (CHIRP), an experimental, voluntary, anonymous and informal system of reporting hazardous air events introduced within BEA in the late 1960s (and later adopted by the Civil Aviation Authority and NASA), brought to light two near-accidents, the "Orly" and "Naples" incidents: these involved flight crew error in the first case and suspicion of the Trident's control layout in the second case.[20][21]
Orly (Paris) incident [ edit ]
In December 1968, the captain of a Trident 1C departing Paris-Orly Airport for London tried to improve climb performance by retracting the flaps shortly after take-off. This was a non-standard procedure, and shortly afterward he also retracted the leading-edge droops. This configuration of high-lift devices at a low airspeed would have resulted in a deep stall, but the co-pilot noticed the error, increased airspeed and re-extended the droops, and the flight continued normally. The event became known as the "Paris Incident" or the "Orly Incident" among BEA staff.[22]
Naples incident [ edit ]
G-AVFH Passenger cabin of Trident 2E,
In a further near-accident, a Trident 2E, G-AVFH, climbing away from London Heathrow for Naples in May 1970 experienced what was claimed by its flight crew to have been a spontaneous uncommanded retraction of the leading-edge slats which was initially unnoticed by any of them.[nb 2] The aircraft's automatic systems sensed the loss of airspeed and lift and issued two stall warnings. Since the crew did not initially detect anything amiss, they disabled the automatic system. While doing so, the first officer noted and immediately remedied the problem by re-extending the retracted slats, and the flight continued normally.[23]
Investigations into the event found no mechanical malfunction that could have caused the premature leading-edge device retraction, and stated that the aircraft had "just about managed to stay flying".[23] A possible design fault in the high-lift control interlocks came under suspicion, although this was discounted during the investigation into the crash of Papa India.[24] The event became known as the "Naples Incident" or the "Foxtrot Hotel Incident" (after the registration of the aircraft concerned) at BEA and was examined during the accident inquiry.[25] The forward fuselage of this aircraft is preserved and on public display at the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre, London Colney.[26]
Previous ground accident involving G-ARPI [ edit ]
An accident affecting the particular Trident operating as BE 548 had occurred on 3 July 1968. Due to a control failure, an Airspeed Ambassador freight aircraft, G-AMAD, deviated from the runway on landing at Heathrow and struck G-ARPI and its neighbouring sister aircraft, G-ARPT, while they were parked unoccupied near Terminal 1, resulting in six fatalities from the freighter's eight occupants.[27] G-ARPT was cut in two and was damaged beyond economic repair; G-ARPI lost its tail fin, which was repaired at a cost of £750,000 (£12.8 million today). G-ARPI performed satisfactorily thereafter; the incident is thought to have had no bearing on its subsequent crash.[23][28]
Trident G-ARPI later suffered some minor undercarriage damage as a result of skidding off the runway at Basel during a cross-wind landing on 4 February 1970.[29]
Accident [ edit ]
Note: All timings in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) from the official accident report.
Departure [ edit ]
P3 position of a BEA Hawker Siddeley Trident
The flight crew boarded BE 548 (call sign Bealine 548)[30] at 15:20 to prepare for a 15:45 departure. The crew comprised Captain Stanley Key as P1, Second Officer Jeremy Keighley as P2 and Second Officer Simon Ticehurst as P3. Captain Key was 51 and had 15,000 flying hours experience, including 4,000 on Tridents. Keighley was 22 and had joined line flying a month and a half earlier, with 29 hours as P2. Ticehurst was 24 and had over 1,400 hours, including 750 hours on Tridents.[31]
Among the passengers were 29 Americans, 29 Belgians, 28 Britons, 12 Irish, four South Africans and three Canadians. There was also one passenger from each of French West Africa, India, Jamaica, Latin America, Nigeria and Thailand. The passengers included between 25 and 30 women and several children.[32]
At 15:36, flight dispatcher J. Coleman presented the load sheet to Key whose request for engine start clearance was granted three minutes later. As the doors were about to close, Coleman asked Key to accommodate a BEA flight crew that had to collect a Merchantman aircraft from Brussels. The additional weight of the three crew members necessitated the removal of a quantity of mail and freight from the Trident to ensure its total weight (less fuel) did not exceed the permitted maximum of 41,730 kg. This was exceeded by 24 kg, but as there had been considerable fuel burnoff between startup and takeoff, the total aircraft weight (including fuel) was within the maximum permitted take-off weight.[33][34]
The "deadheading" crew was led by Captain John Collins, an experienced former Trident First Officer, who was allocated the observer's seat on the flight deck. One seat, occupied by a baby, was freed by the mother holding it in her arms.[35]
Flight path of BEA Flight 548, superimposed on a map of present-day Heathrow Airport and surrounding areas; the red numbers are times in seconds from brake release.
The doors closed at 15:58 and at 16:00 Key requested pushback. At 16:03 BE 548 was cleared to taxi to the holding point adjacent to the start of Runway 27 Right. During taxi, at 16:06 the flight received its departure route clearance: a routing known as the "Dover One Standard Instrument Departure". This Standard Instrument Departure involved taking-off to the west over the Instrument Landing System localiser and middle marker beacon of the reciprocal Runway 09 Left, turning left to intercept the 145° bearing to the Epsom Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) (to be passed at 3,000 feet (910 m) or more), and then proceeding to Dover. Key advised the tower that he was ready for take-off and was cleared to do so. He subsequently reported an unspecified technical problem and remained at the holding point for two minutes to resolve it.[36]
At 16:08 Key again requested and received take-off clearance. A cross wind was blowing from 210° at 17 knots (31 km/h). Conditions were turbulent, with driving rain and a low cloud base of 1,000 feet (300 m); broken cloud was also reported at 600 feet (180 m), and the official report says that the crew would have been without any visual reference at "crucial times" during the flight.[37][38] At 16:08:30 BE 548 began its take-off run, which lasted 44 seconds, the aircraft leaving the ground at an indicated airspeed (IAS) of 145 knots (269 km/h). The safe climb speed (V2) of 152 knots (282 km/h) was reached quickly, and the undercarriage was retracted.[36] After 19 seconds in the air the autopilot was engaged at 355 feet (108 m) and 170 knots (310 km/h); the autopilot's airspeed lock was engaged even though the actual required initial climb speed was 177 knots (328 km/h).[36]
At 16:09:44 (74 seconds after the start of the take-off run), passing 690 feet (210 m), Key began the turn towards the Epsom NDB and reported that he was climbing as cleared and the flight entered cloud.[39] At 16:10 (90 seconds), Key commenced a standard noise abatement procedure which involved reducing engine power. As part of this, at 16:10:03 (93 seconds) he retracted the flaps from their take-off setting of 20°. Shortly afterwards, BE 548 reported passing 1,500 feet (460 m) above ground level and was re-cleared to climb to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above sea level.[36] During the turn, the airspeed decreased to 157 knots (291 km/h), 20 knots (37 km/h) below the target speed.[40]
Stall warnings [ edit ]
At 16:10:24 (114 seconds), the leading-edge devices were selected to be retracted at a height above the ground of 1,770 feet (540 m) and a speed of 162 knots (300 km/h),[41] 63 knots (117 km/h) below the safe droop-retraction speed of 225 knots (417 km/h).[37] One second afterwards, visual and audible warnings of a stall activated on the flight deck, followed at 16:10:26 hrs (116 seconds) by a stick shake and at 16:10:27hrs (117 seconds) by a stick push which disconnected the autopilot, in turn activating a loud autopilot disconnect warning horn that continued to sound for the remainder of the flight. Key levelled the wings but held the aircraft's nose up, which kept the angle of attack high, further approaching a stall.[42]
By 16:10:32 (122 seconds), the leading-edge devices had stowed fully into the wing. The speed was 177 knots (328 km/h), and height above the ground was 1,560 feet (480 m), with the aircraft still held into its usual climb attitude. Key continued to hold the nose-up attitude when there was a second stick shake and stick push in the following two seconds. A third stick push followed 127 seconds into the flight but no recovery was attempted. One second later, the stall warning and recovery system was over-ridden by a flight crew member.[43]
At 16:10:39 (129 seconds), the aircraft had descended to 1,275 feet (389 m) and accelerated to 193 knots (357 km/h) as a result of the stall recovery system having pitched the aircraft's nose down to increase airspeed. G-ARPI was in a 16° banked turn to the left, still on course to intercept its assigned route. Key pulled the nose up once more to reduce airspeed slightly, to the normal 'droops extended' climb speed of 177 knots (328 km/h), but this further stalled the aircraft.[43]
At 16:10:43 (133 seconds), the Trident entered a deep stall. It was descending through 1,200 feet (370 m), its nose was pitched up by 31°, and its airspeed had fallen below the minimum indication of 54 knots (100 km/h). At 16:10:47 (137 seconds) and 1,000 feet (300 m), the Trident was descending at 4,500 feet per minute (23 m/s).[43] Impact with the ground came at 16:11, precisely 150 seconds after brake release.[43]
The aircraft just cleared high-tension overhead power lines and came to rest on a narrow strip of land surrounded by tall trees immediately south of the A30 road,[44] and a short distance south of the King George VI Reservoir near the town of Staines-upon-Thames.[45] There was no fire on impact, but one broke out during the rescue effort when cutting apparatus was used.[38]
Eyewitnesses and rescue operations [ edit ]
There were three eyewitnesses; brothers Paul and Trevor Burke, aged 9 and 13, who were walking nearby,[43] and a motorist who called at a house to telephone the airport.[44]
We were out with the dog and I looked up and saw the plane. It was just coming out of the mist when the engines stalled and it seemed it glided down. It was just like a dream. The plane just fell out of the sky. We just about saw it hit the ground ... because it was right in a clump of trees. When it did hit the ground the front bit hit first and the back bit was just blown away. — Trevor Burke, Mayday
Air traffic controllers had not noticed the disappearance from radar. Emergency services only became aware of the accident after 15 minutes and did not know the circumstances for nearly an hour. First on the scene was a nurse living nearby, who had been alerted by the boys, and an ambulance crew that happened to be driving past.[44][45] A male passenger who had survived the accident was discovered in the aircraft cabin, but died on arrival at Ashford Hospital without recovering consciousness.[45] A young girl was also found alive but died at the scene; there were no other survivors.[46] Altogether, 30 ambulances and 25 fire engines attended the accident.[47]
Drivers formed heavy traffic jams and were described by Minister of Aerospace Michael Heseltine on BBC Television that evening as "ghouls, unfortunate ghouls".[48] Reports that the public impeded rescue services were dismissed during the inquiry.[44][45] In addition, some witnesses claimed the traffic jams were the result of the recovery and rescue, during which the police closed the A30 road.[49]
A BEA captain, Eric Pritchard, arrived soon after the bodies had been removed; he noted the condition of the wreckage and drew conclusions:[48]
The aircraft had impacted in a high nose up attitude. The No. 2 engine had dug a considerable crater. The tail section was almost if not completely separated from the rest of the airframe. There was little evidence of any forward movement, in fact, the complete aircraft looked intact though distorted and broken, mainly the fuselage. Both wings suffered not much visible damage. I noticed that the droops and flaps were retracted. — Eric Pritchard, Mayday
The accident was the worst air disaster in the United Kingdom until the Pan Am Flight 103 crash at Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.[50] The crash was the first in the United Kingdom involving the loss of more than 100 lives.[51]
Investigation and public inquiry [ edit ]
This remains the deadliest air accident to take place in the United Kingdom. Pan Am Flight 103, which killed more people, was a terrorist action.
On Monday 19 June 1972 Michael Heseltine told the House of Commons that he had directed a Court of Inquiry, an ad hoc tribunal popularly called a "public inquiry", to investigate and report on the accident.[38] Public inquiries bypassed the usual British practice whereby the Accidents Investigation Branch (AIB) investigated and reported on air crashes, and were held only in cases of acute public interest. On 14 July, the High Court Judge Sir Geoffrey Lane was appointed to preside over the inquiry as Commissioner.[52]
The British aviation community was wary of public inquiries for several reasons.[53] In such inquiries, AIB inspectors were on an equal footing with all other parties, and the ultimate reports were not drafted by them, but by the Commissioner and his or her Assessors. Proceedings were often adversarial, with counsel for victims' families regularly attempting to secure positions for future litigation, and deadlines were frequently imposed on investigators.[54] Pressure of work caused by the Lane Inquiry was blamed for the death of a senior AIB inspector who committed suicide during the inquiry.[55]
AIB investigation and coroner's inquest [ edit ]
The aircraft's two flight data recorders were removed for immediate examination, and investigations at the site of the accident were completed within a week.[38] The wreckage of Papa India was then removed to a hangar at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough, Hampshire, for partial re-assembly aimed at checking the integrity of its flight control systems.[56] An inquest was held into the 118 deaths, opening on 27 June 1972.[57]
The pathologist stated that Captain Key had an existing heart condition, atherosclerosis, and had suffered a potentially distressing arterial event caused by raised blood pressure typical of stress. (This event was popularly interpreted by the public as a heart attack.)[58] It had taken place "not more than two hours before the death and not less than about a minute" according to the pathologist's opinion given as evidence during the public inquiry.[59] In other words, Key could have suffered it at any time between the row in the crewroom and 90 seconds after the start of the take-off run (the instant of commencing noise abatement procedures). The pathologist could not specify the degree of discomfort or incapacitation which Key might have felt. The Captain's medical state continued to be the subject of "conflicting views of medical experts" throughout the inquiry and beyond.[60]
Lane Inquiry [ edit ]
The public inquiry, known as the "Lane Inquiry", opened at the Piccadilly Hotel in London on 20 November 1972, and continued until 25 January 1973, with a break over Christmas,[61] despite expectations that it would end sooner.[62] It was opened by Geoffrey Wilkinson of the AIB with a description of the accident, and counsel for the relatives of the crew members and passengers then presented the results of their private investigations. In particular, Lee Kreindler of the New York City Bar presented claims and arguments that were considered tendentious and inadmissible by pilots and press reporters.[63] They involved hypotheses about the mental state of Captain Key, conjecture about his physical state (Kreindler highlighted disagreements between US and British cardiologists) and allegations about BEA management. The allegations were delivered using tactics considered as "bordering on the unethical".[64][65]
The inquiry also conducted field inspections, flew in real Tridents and "flew" the BEA Trident simulator as well as observing the Hawker Siddeley Trident control systems rig. Its members visited the reassembled wreckage of G-ARPI at Farnborough and were followed by the press throughout their movements. The bare facts being more-or-less uncovered soon after the event, the inquiry was frustrated by the lack of a cockpit voice recorder fitted to the accident aircraft.[66][nb 3]
The stall warning and stall recovery systems were at the centre of the inquiry, which examined in some detail their operation and why the flight crew might have over-ridden them. A three-way air pressure valve (part of the stall recovery system) was found to have been one-sixth of a turn out of position, and the locking wire which secured it was missing.[68] Calculations carried out by Hawker Siddeley determined that if the valve had been in this position during the flight then the reduction in engine power for the noise abatement procedure could have activated the warning light that indicated low air pressure in the system.[68] The failure indications might have appeared just prior to take-off and could have accounted for the two-minute delay at the end of the runway.[55] A captain who had flown Papa India on the morning of the accident flight noted no technical problems, and the public inquiry found that the position of the valve had no significant effect on the system.[68]
Findings and recommendations [ edit ]
The Lane Report was published on 14 April 1973. Speaking in the House of Commons, Minister for Aerospace and Shipping Michael Heseltine paid tribute to the work done by Mr Justice Lane, Sir Morien Morgan and Captain Jessop for the work they had carried out during the inquiry into the accident.[69]
The inquiry's findings as to the main causes of the accident,[70] were that:
The captain failed to maintain the recommended airspeed.
The leading-edge devices were retracted prematurely.
The crew failed to monitor airspeed and aircraft configuration.
The crew failed to recognise the reasons for the stall warnings and stall recovery system operation.
The crew wrongly disabled the stall recovery system.
Underlying causes of the accident were also identified:[70]
That Captain Key was suffering from a heart condition.
The presence of Captain Collins on the flight deck might have been a distraction.
The lack of crew training on how to manage pilot incapacitation.
The low flying-experience level of Second Officer Keighley.
Apparent crew unawareness regarding the effects of an aircraft configuration change.
Crew unawareness regarding the stall protection systems and the cause of the event.
The absence of a baulk mechanism to prevent droop retraction at too low an airspeed.
Recommendations included an urgent call for cockpit voice recorders and for closer co-operation between the Civil Aviation Authority and British airlines.[71] Although the report covered the state of industrial relations at BEA, no mention was made of it in its conclusions, despite the feelings of observers that it intruded directly and comprehensively onto the aircraft's flight deck.[64] BEA ceased to exist as a separate entity in 1974, when it and the British Overseas Airways Corporation merged to form British Airways. A recommendation of the report that all British-registered civil passenger-carrying aircraft of more than 27,000 kg (60,000 lb) all-up weight should be equipped with cockpit voice recorders resulted in their fitting becoming mandatory on larger British-registered airliners from 1973.[72][73]
One issue treated as secondary at the inquiry was the presence in the flight deck observer's seat of Captain Collins. The Lane report recommended greater caution in allowing off-duty flight crew members to occupy flight deck seats, and aired speculation that Collins might have been distracting his colleagues.[70][72] The report noted that Collins' body was found to be holding a can of aerosol air freshener in its right hand.[41] Sources close to the events of the time suggest that Collins played an altogether more positive role by attempting to lower the leading-edge devices in the final seconds of the flight; Eric Pritchard, a Trident captain who happened to be the first airman at the accident site, recalled that a fireman had stated that Collins was lying across the centre pedestal and noted himself that his earphones had fallen into the right-hand-side footwell of the flight deck, diagonally across from the observer's seat, as might be expected if he had attempted to intervene as a last resort.[74]
There were protests at the conduct of the inquiry by BALPA (which likened it to "a lawyers' picnic"), and by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators which condemned the rules of evidence adopted and the adversarial nature of the proceedings. Observers also pointed to an unduly-favourable disposition by the inquiry to Hawker Siddeley, manufacturer of the Trident, and to the makers of the aircraft's systems.[58] Debate about the inquiry continued throughout 1973 and beyond.[75][76]
The accident led to a much greater emphasis on crew resource management training, a system of flight deck safety awareness that remains in use today.[21]
Victims and memorials [ edit ]
The plaque on the Trident air crash memorial in Waters Drive recreation ground
All 118 persons aboard the aircraft were killed: 112 passengers and 6 crew members. Among the passengers were 12 senior businessmen from Ireland, including the head of the Confederation of Irish Industry, who were en route to Brussels for meetings preparatory to Ireland's accession to the European Economic Community.[77]
A group of 16 doctors and senior staff from the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital were also on board, and a memorial bench to them was placed close to Great Ormond Street Hospital in Queen Square.[78]
Former CIA official Carmel Offie, who had been dismissed for homosexuality, considered to be a security risk factor at the time, was also on board.[79]
Two memorials to all the victims were dedicated on 18 June 2004 in the town of Staines. The first is a stained-glass window in St Mary's Church where an annual memorial service is held on 18 June.[80] The second is a garden near the end of Waters Drive in the Moormede Estate, close to the accident site.[81]
Dramatisation [ edit ]
The story of the accident was featured on the thirteenth season of the Canadian television show Mayday in an episode entitled "Fight to the Death" (known as Air Disasters in the US, and as Air Crash Investigation in the UK and the rest of the world). The story was also featured in an episode of Air Crash Confidential produced by World Media Rights; made at the FAST Museum, Farnborough, UK using the cockpit of a Trident 3 (G-AWZI).
See also [ edit ]
Similar accidents
Lists
References [ edit ]
^ Papa India from the [8] The aircraft is commonly referred to asfrom the phonetic spelling of the last two letters of its civil registration, G-ARPI. ^ [22] The Trident 1 featured drooping leading-edge devices, the Trident 2 employed extending slats. Their aerodynamic effect was similar, and both devices were controlled by the same lever on the flight deck. Crews often referred to both types as 'droops'. ^ [67] A full list of inquiry board members, counsel and witnesses is given at Appendix A to the official accident report.
Citations [ edit ] |
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