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Share. Get your first look at the new Power Rangers posters! Get your first look at the new Power Rangers posters!
IGN and Lionsgate have teamed up to debut five new character posters from the new Power Rangers Movie">Power Rangers film. Lionsgate is also bringing the Power Rangers to New York Comic-Con on Saturday, October 8. There will be a Q&A with the cast and producers as well as a first look at footage from the film.
Each of the five character posters show off the Red, Pink, Black, Blue and Yellow Rangers in solo poses, which you can see below.
Check out the official synopsis for the Power Rangers film below.
Saban’s Power Rangers follows five ordinary high school kids who must become something extraordinary when they learn that their small town of Angel Grove – and the world – is on the verge of being obliterated by an alien threat. Chosen by destiny, our heroes quickly discover that they are the only ones who can save the planet. But to do so they will have to overcome their real-life issues and band together as the Power Rangers before it is too late.
Exit Theatre Mode
Directed by Dean Israelite and starring Dacre Montgomery, Becky G, Ludi Lin, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Elizabeth Banks, Bill Hader and Bryan Cranston, the Power Rangers go, go in to theaters on March 24, 2017. |
Hispanics have voted in record numbers in recent years, but their turnout rate continues to lag behind whites and blacks, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census data.
Hispanics today make up 11.3% of all eligible voters. But voter turnout among Hispanics has not kept pace with the growing number of eligible voters in recent national elections. In 2010, Hispanics cast a record 6.6 million ballots out of 21.3 million eligible voters, a turnout rate of 31.2%. But that was still far below the turnout among black voters (44%) and white voters (48.6%).
A record 24.8 million Hispanics are eligible to vote in 2014, according to February Census figures, up from 21.3 million in 2010.
Some suggest that Hispanics might stay home on Election Day this year out of dissatisfaction with the president over immigration policy, while others predict Latinos will turn out in record numbers. As groups push to register Hispanic voters in advance of this fall’s midterm elections, frustration has mounted over stalled immigration reform in Congress and the continued deportation of unauthorized immigrants under President Obama. Support for the president among Hispanics has eroded since September 2013, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
A low voter turnout rate among Hispanics stretches back several midterm elections. Since 1986, the turnout rate has dropped from 38% to 31.2% in 2010. The gap in turnout rates between whites and Hispanics has increased from 12.7 to 17.4 percentage points over the same time period.
Nevertheless, Hispanics made up a larger share of the electorate in 2010 than in any previous midterm election, representing 6.9% of all voters, up from 5.8% in 2006. In 2010 House races, Hispanics favored Democrats over Republicans by 60% to 38%.
Voter turnout rates in 2010 varied among Hispanics. College graduates had the highest turnout rate (50.3%), and young people under 30 were least likely to vote (17.6%). Nearly half (49.3%) of Cuban-origin Hispanics voted, compared with just 28.7% of Mexican-origin Hispanics. Some 800,000 Hispanics—the vast majority U.S. born—turn 18 each year, a demographic wave that’s projected to double the Hispanic electorate by 2030.
The relative youth of the Hispanic electorate has helped drive down the group’s overall turnout. In 2010, 31% of Hispanic eligible voters were under 30. By contrast, 19% of white, 26% of black and 21% of Asian eligible voters were under 30. People give similar reasons for not voting, regardless of race or ethnicity. Among registered voters who didn’t vote in 2010, one-in-four Hispanics chose “too busy, conflicting work or school schedule” as the reason they did not cast a ballot. About the same percentage of non-voters overall chose the same reason. Nearly twice as many Hispanics as non-voters overall said they forgot to vote, 13.3% to 7.5%.
Topics: Hispanic/Latino Vote |
As previously announced, this week’s issue of Weekly Famitsu magazine #1502 includes a feature on the upcoming Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation smartphone title, with the first substantive information on the game.
Developed by Sega and created by Atlus, Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation is planned for a 2017 release for iOS and Android devices, in Japan.
The Famitsu feature will show off original characters in this game, as well as numerous familiar demons from the series. Additionally, game systems are explained with in-game screenshots.
The latter part of the feature includes an interview with Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi (chief creative officer) and Atlus’ Naoto Hiraoka (general manager) about the history behind this project, and what they want to achieve with it.
The September 28, 2017 issue of Famitsu—or issue #1502—will be released in Japan on September 14, 2017.
— Famitsu |
Serena,
Congrats on your engagement!! I grew up watching tennis with my Mom's best friend and why I consider you my all time favorite athlete. She watches every single tennis match she possibly can, scheduling her limited vacation times around tournaments just to be able to watch every match. She dropped out of high school almost 35 years ago to support her family and works 70+ hours a week, sacrificing her health and free time to support them. One year she was lucky enough to win store of the year for the restaurant she manages and got to choose anywhere in the world she wanted to go and she chose the US Open. She had the time of her life getting to watch you and her "boyfriend" Rafa play.
Just this month she lost her dad to a heart attack and her sister to pneumonia. I just got home from her sisters funeral an hour ago. As you can guess it has been an awful Christmas season for her. Is there any way you could either send her a card or tennis ball to cheer her up? She waited for hours at the US Open to try and get her ball signed but couldn't get to you. I hope one day after college I will be able to take her to as many tournaments as I can, I would truly do anything for her. If you need proof of anything I would be more than happy to message you privately.
Thanks for giving me something to bond with her over the years and congrats on your new engagement! I know she'll be happy for you too! |
Russia and Armenia will establish a unified air-defense system in the Caucasus.
© Sputnik / Vitaliy Belousov Russia to Cooperate with Armenia on Nuclear Energy – Rosatom
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to sign an agreement with Armenia on the creation of a joint regional missile defense system in the Caucasus, according to the decree published Wednesday.
“Accept the proposal by the government of the Russian Federation on signing an agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia on creating a Joint Regional System of Anti-Air Defense in the Caucasus region of collective security,” the document reads.
Putin instructed the Russian Defense Ministry to sign the agreement with Armenia on behalf of the Russian Federation.
According to the Council of CIS Defense Ministers, creating joint missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia regions is a key objective for the Commonwealth of Independent States. |
There are three special types of cells that are found only in the bone.
These cell names all start with "OSTEO" because that is the Greek word for bone.
OSTEOCLASTS are large cells that dissolve the bone. They come from the bone marrow and are related to white blood cells. They are formed from two or more cells that fuse together, so the osteoclasts usually have more than one nucleus. They are found on the surface of the bone mineral next to the dissolving bone.
OSTEOBLASTS are the cells that form new bone. They also come from the bone marrow and are related to structural cells. They have only one nucleus. Osteoblasts work in teams to build bone. They produce new bone called "osteoid" which is made of bone collagen and other protein. Then they control calcium and mineral deposition. They are found on the surface of the new bone.
When the team of osteoblasts has finished filling in a cavity, the cells become flat and look like pancakes. They line the surface of the bone. These old osteoblasts are also called LINING CELLS. They regulate passage of calcium into and out of the bone, and they respond to hormones by making special proteins that activate the osteoclasts. |
Page 1 of 3 << [1] [2] [3] >> From: primavera
2012-02-02 10:04 pm (UTC)
Kitties. So lovable. So stand-offish. From: jeffcouturier
2012-02-02 10:09 pm (UTC)
These look so, so good Lucy. Watercoloring hourlies was ambitious, to say the least, and you did such an excellent job. From: corvideye
2012-02-02 10:24 pm (UTC)
Surely you are going to win. Last I voted, you had twice as many votes as anyone else and besides your entry was massively more awesome.
I love how the cat has taken on the internal critical voice... my cats are usually giving me non-critical messages like "take more naps" and "lie on the couch more while petting me". From: milkradio
2012-02-02 10:25 pm (UTC)
Aw, these are really cute. I love them! From: gallo_de_pelea
2012-02-02 10:29 pm (UTC)
Ahhhhh, wonderful! And yay, Kraken! That makes for a badass ginger-pecan rum cake :9 From: cleanskies
2012-02-02 10:35 pm (UTC)
So beautiful! From: taiirei
2012-02-02 10:45 pm (UTC)
CARAMELLO KOALAS!!!! From: gfrancie
2012-02-02 10:47 pm (UTC)
This is why I don't have a cat. I don't want that cat judging me when I look at pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch. From: Ada R
2012-02-02 10:54 pm (UTC)
These are gorgeous - probably my favourite hourly comics so far! Also, I hope you won the shoe contest! From: sockdrawerdemon
2012-02-02 11:18 pm (UTC)
I'm sure you won! Last I voted you were dominating it. You are very good at watercolours, and I am jealous. From: Adam Cirone
2012-02-02 11:25 pm (UTC)
First time commenting here... but I have been enjoying your work on this site since I read "French Milk" about a year ago. I love your style, your colors, your humor.
Anyway, nice set of hourly comics. "Reunited At Last" is a particularly fun panel. From: art_lurker
2012-02-02 11:27 pm (UTC)
Love these - turned out gorgeous! :D From: yaytime
2012-02-02 11:53 pm (UTC)
Great read and fantastic colors! From: anaaki_mlb
2012-02-03 12:45 am (UTC)
Love! Great job :) From: simonleslie
2012-02-03 12:53 am (UTC)
always a pleasure to read your lovely posts :) Page 1 of 3 << [1] [2] [3] >> |
As Silver Hayes, formerly known as Dance Village, announces two additions to the bill, the Guardian Africa network explores the festival's long tradition of supporting African music
Glastonbury Festival will announce two new acts for its 2014 line-up today. DJ Fosta and Thibo Tazz, two artists from Cape Town’s townships, will play Silver Hayes, the area formerly known as the dance village, on Saturday.
Both artists will bring their African-inspired house beats to the blues stage, the first booking of its kind for Silver Hayes.
The pair's trip is funded by the British Council's Connect ZA scheme and The Department of Arts and Culture of South Africa, which aim to build cultural connections between young people in South Africa and the UK, Pioneer DJ are a co-sponsor. Bridges for Music – a charity that works with some of dance music’s biggest stars to support artists in developing countries – has also helped to arrange the pairing between the acts and Glastonbury.
DJ Fosta
Speaking by phone from his studio in his home in Langa township South Africa, DJ Fosta, real name Thulani Headman, said he hadn’t heard of Glastonbury before being asked to play at the festival, but has since done his research.
For him the opportunity has already opened up a wave of possibilities; he nearly gave up on music last year, disillusioned with the scene and struggling to make ends meet.
Headman's music is a combination of deep house beats with live vocals. "It represents my lifestyle, an expression of myself and my surroundings" while growing up in Langa township. He also runs his own label, 021 records, for up-and-coming artists in the area. The label champions house, hip hop and kwaito (hip-hop beats featuring vocals in local languages) which has proved very popular.
Sounds from DJ Fosta and his crew are sometimes referred to as sjoko-jojko, which means the party lifestyle. Whilst Johannesburg is considered a music hub, Headman is passionate about maintaining a Cape Town scene. "My problem is that once people move [away], they don’t enrich the music industry," he says. "Kids in the township get into the wrong type of things, they don’t have local icons, only people they see on TV".
Thibo Tazz, whose real name is Thabo Rasenyalo, lives a 10-minute drive from Headman, describes his sound as a mixture of, deep house, soulful vocals and minimal tech. It's finding its niche in South Africa, where house has been a near-obsession for the past few years.
Rasenyalo says he is not "usually into festivals" but he understands how important they are for the global music scene. "The first thing that caught my attention is that tickets sell out in the first hour, so it must be good".
Headman played Synergy Live for the first time last year, and he regularly appears at picnics in and around Lunga – outdoor events for the community which attract up to 10,000 people. But even in South Africa, he says DJs from the townships can be overlooked.
"The local DJs are still supporting DJs, the fees [for performing] are close to nothing," and there is a general lack of respect from promoters and others in the industry, he says.
Rasenyalo enjoys playing township events the most, where he sees "youngsters getting very excited, they tell you how much how they are enjoying themselves and that they want to get into music." He says that is how he started: "I used to sneak out of school and go to cultural events". He’d take a cricket bat along so his mum thought he was playing sport. At the time he didn’t really know what a DJ did, he was drawn by the sounds and the atmosphere. For Headman, DJing was an avenue out of trouble.
As they talk about their artistic struggles, it seems they have a lot in common with artists around the world. Headman talks about how "major labels make things difficult for independent labels". Whilst they are hindered by a resources and a lack of facilities. Rasenyalo is keen to point to other South African artists like Black Coffee and Culoe de Song, local heroes who’ve made it big.
He says artists like himself "tend to rely on not having resources as our way of saying 'we cannot to get to next level'", but says that is a mindset he says needs to change. He cites workshops hosted by Bridges for Music as critical to shifting thinking.
The DJ have worked Richie Hawtin, Skrillex and Lucanio in South Africa, ambassadors for Bridges for Music, Hawtin said it was "one of the proudest moments in my career". Hawtin and Srillex are both booked for Glastonbury too, and Silver Hayes coordinator Malcolm Haynes says he would love to see another collaboration.
Thibo Tazz
Both Headman and Rasenyalo have a long list of other DJs they want to see and meet. "I am not just there to deliver my set but to learn, I want to go home with something," says Headman.
Neither DJ seem bothered about headliners Metallica, so what else should they do? "Oh my days, where do they start," says Haynes. "I just hope that they take in the sheer enormity of the festival and enjoy their time with us. Glastonbury has so much to offer, not just in music, but culture, and performing arts as well."
Should British festivals be doing more to foster this type of collaboration? "Of course" Haynes says, where possible. "Glastonbury is in a great position to do this, as we don't rely on the line-up in to sell tickets, this gives the festival the opportunity to bring acts and performers to the festival that normally would not get the chance".
It only seems fair that they have been warned about the weather, with a laugh Rasenyalo tells me he heard "it is not to be taken lightly… I’ve seen the pictures and it gets pretty grimy at times". He will use the next few weeks to prepare, he says. Headman who heard "it gets a bit hectic" has started to look for a pair of wellies. Both will be camping.
It's not the first time Glastonbury have partnered with African musicians to promote social causes. Malian singer Rokia Traoré was the first act announced for Glastonbury 2013, speaking at the time Festival organiser Emily Eavis said it was "an act of solidarity", responding to Islamists who had banned music in the north.
Others listed on the official line up include Seun Kuti (youngest son of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti) with Egypt 80, and Toumani and Sidiki Diabat, who will play on the Pyramid on Sunday and Tinariwen, a group of Tuareg-Berber musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. |
We’re starting to get more details about the upcoming Mass Effect 3 DLC: Leviathan. It’s the hunt for a rogue reaper who's
indoctrinated a mining colony. It features difficult combat, pouring rain, and a giant undersea mech. It’s about the size of Lair of the Shadow Broker and takes place in the middle of Mass Effect 3’s story.
And, according to IGN, it’s going to create some new options in the ending. Again.
If I were with Bioware, I’d be trying my best to avoid the words “ending” and “Mass Effect" appearing in the same story ever again, but the urge to tinker can be overpowering. I’ve already ended my Mass Effect experience two different times. The idea of doing it again is a little bit tiring.
The Reapers were always some of my favorite characters in Mass Effect, so it’ll be interesting to see one of the ancient monsters with a different agenda. But mid-story DLC like this is always problematic. The war for the fate of the galaxy already had its conclusion, and it essentially asks the player to play through the entire game again.
As I’ve said before, I haven’t had quite enough of Mass Effect yet. I’d love to play through the adventures of Thane or some kind of wisecracking criminal we’ve yet to meet. Shepard, on the other hand, already finished his or her story. Trying to bloat it out in the middle just feels excessive. |
Similar to real life, Second Life shopping can be quick and easy or time consuming and in depth. You can go to a mall just to window shop, or you can find what you need via the web by browsing the Marketplace and heading right to the location in world. This guide will help you find what you need when shopping in world.
Second Life Shopping In World: The Basics
With the Marketplace as an option it may seem silly to shop in world. Why browse through the game when product searches are more specific on the web? For the exact same reason you’d go to the mall instead of shopping Amazon, of course! You can see how things look in the world instead of just product advertisements. You can watch the people around you to see what they’re interested in is a lot of fun too!
Getting Started
Second Life is a vast world filled with thousands of sims. Knowing how to navigate them is the key to finding what you need in game. After logging in, your first step will be to open the search. I prefer using the Websearch tab for shopping since it’s a lot neater and easier to navigate. Make sure you select Places from the dropdown menu if you’re specifically looking for store locations! Then simply search for what you need (I find the more broad the topic the better), check out descriptions for the results that interest you, and select a place to teleport.
Off To The Shops!
Generally when you first land at a store you’ll be in a welcome area. This area is usually set up as a welcome spot. Many stores offer a map of the location, group/ subscription information, and anything else they feel is important for their visitors. Make sure you read any store notecards that are given to you. They often have in depth information about the store’s policies and any ongoing sales.
You can wander around stores freely and see if any products interest you. Some stores will have employees to greet you and help you as needed. Feel free to see if there is any conversation and learn from the others around you.
Selecting Products
Stores may have their items rezzed in world or modeled on avatars so you can see how the product looks in use. Others will have pictures of the item for sale. Many have a combination of both. Usually information such as price will be located near the rezzed object or on the picture of the object. If not, right clicking can give you more information. If a demo is offered make sure you give it a try before purchasing the full product!
You may have to left click the object for a pay or purchase option to pop up. Sometimes right clicking the object is required instead. Most products will tell you if something else is required. If you’re not sure see if there are employees around or join the store’s group to ask.
Supplementing With The Marketplace
If in world shopping is too broad for you, consider using the Second Life Marketplace as a web based alternative to browse a few items. When you find the quality or style you like you can then visit the stores in world to get a better look. For tips on using the Marketplace check out my in depth guide.
Alternatives to Traditional Shopping
Going store to store to peruse items isn’t the only way you can find good products. Thanks to creative marketing we have a few very fun alternatives that anyone can participate in.
Hunts
Scavenger hunts are a fun and popular way to collect free and low cost items. Hunts usually run from a few days to a few weeks and let you explore new areas to find fun rewards. Visit HUNT SL for the latest hunt info. If you’re interested in being a master of the hunt, check out Isabeal Jupiter’s Hunting Tips.
Gacha
Based on the Japanese machines of the same name, Gacha are low cost vending machines that give a random item. Most have the chance at something rare and/or exclusive. Gacha can be found all over the place, from a few scattered across a sim to giant events spanning multiple sims. HUNT SL lists some gacha events under their Fairs and Events section.
Freebie Groups
If you’re looking for no-cost and low-cost items, freebie groups are one of the best ways to build your collection. One such group, FabFree, shares multiple items a day via its blog and group. Freebie groups tend to share a few different types of low cost items:
Completely free items with no strings attached. Group Gift items that require a group tag to purchase. Midnight Mania boards require a specific amount of users to participate before an item is awarded.
Store VIP Groups
VIP groups are one of the best ways to get high quality items as they are released, sometimes even at a discount! When you find a brand you love, joining their group is a great way to interact with other players and to keep up on all the new products. In addition to representing a store you love, many VIP groups offer other perks such as:
Free products Many groups give members something for no cost on a regular basis. This is especially popular with hair and skin groups. Discounts Plenty of sellers allow group members to take advantage of lower prices than the average buyer. Make sure you’re wearing the group tag at the time of purchase so you don’t miss out! Exclusive Items Some stores offer exclusive products to group members. These items might be made available to the public later, but they may forever be for group members only! Store Credit A few stores offer a credit system if you’re a group member. Members must make their purchase with the group tag on to get a percentage of the cost as an available balance for spending at the store.
Tell me about your favorite way to enjoy Second Life shopping!
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Whitey GZ decided to try to rob the victim instead of filming his music video, police said. View Full Caption NYPD and Instagram/benfranklins
THE BRONX — A videographer who has "Achieve the Impossible" and "Dream for Success" tattooed into his arms decided to rob a musician instead of filming him, police said.
The suspect, who also raps under the name Whitey GZ, met the 19-year-old musician on Dyre Avenue in The Bronx and then went to the 22nd floor of 3419 Irwin Ave., near West 234th Street, to film his music video, NYPD officials said.
The suspect has "Dream for Success" and "Achieve the Impossible" tattooed on his arms, police said. (Instagram/@benfranklins)
But rather than stay behind the camera, Whitey tried to swipe the talent's cellphone and backpack, police said.
The victim resisted so Whitey pulled a gun and shot him in the left thigh before running away, police said.
The victim was treated at St. Barnabas Hospital where he's listed in stable condition, police said.
A third man, 36, saw the shooting, according to an NYPD spokesman. It wasn't immediately clear if he was associated with Whitey or the victim.
Whitey had not been arrested as of Thursday afternoon, police said.
Whitey has "Achieve the Impossible" tattooed on his left arm and "Dream for Success" on his right, police said. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, black pants and white sneakers, police said.
He maintains several social media profiles on which he publishes his own music.
A video posted by MR From The Land Like Tarzan🌴 (@benfranklins) on Aug 25, 2016 at 6:31pm PDT
His latest post, on Instagram, is a plea for a companion.
I JUST NEED A GIRL 😫🤒👫🙄 A photo posted by MR From The Land Like Tarzan🌴 (@benfranklins) on Sep 20, 2016 at 7:59pm PDT
In another Instagram post, he's seen pointing a gun at the camera.
A photo posted by MR From The Land Like Tarzan🌴 (@benfranklins) on Aug 27, 2016 at 11:22pm PDT
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477). |
Straight line out from Reorte to Riedquat takes you out past Heart and Soul Nebulae on the left and NGC 281 to the right and below you.Hypoae Aim sector is the outer edge of the Perseus Arm.Pha Aeb and Hypo Aeb sectors are slam bang middle of the rift between the Perseus and Outer Arms.Dryeae Aeb sector is the far side of the Outer Arm.I'm going to say Pha Aeb / Hypo Aeb sectors in the rift between Perseus and Outer Arms.Bear in mind a sector is a huge cube 1280ly on a side, subdivided into 512 smaller cubes of 160ly on a side.In fact I've had a look around and there is a system that would act like a lighthouse in that dark space...Hypo Aeb AA-A h0It's about 13059ly from Riedquat (yeah, I calculated it) and is a load of O0 and B0 stars. Once you reach the edge of the Perseus Arm, it will shine there like a siren out in the darkness.You will need an Anaconda rigged for exploration to get the maximum 40ly jump range.... In fact, you've probably given me my next expedition once I get back from the core. |
SANTA ROSA (CBS SF) — Two teenagers are conquering traditional homecoming norms at a Santa Rosa high school with the help of their classmates at Maria Carrillo High School.
Juniors Shealynn and Charley were named homecoming royalty Friday evening, becoming the first same-sex couple in the school’s history to win the title.
Two tiaras were placed on the head of the “princesses” during the football halftime celebration. The couple who identify as pansexual — a sexual or emotional attraction toward people of any sex or gender identity — were nominated by an “overwhelming number of votes” for Junior Homecoming Queens, according to Shealynn’s mom Yvonne Stillman.
Stillman said after reading the story about the lesbian couple in Arizona denied to run due to a school practice where homecoming royalty must be made up of a male and female pair, her family wanted to share with the world that change is possible and happening. “I believe our daughter’s story sends a message of hope on the message of gender equality,” Stillman said.
A fellow student suggested to the couple that they should run. The word spread quick, and classmates starting nominating them.
“The way the students and especially staff have behaved has been beyond what we thought was possible,” Stillman said. “They’ve been nothing but supportive.”
Stillman said the 16 year olds were even asked if they preferred to be Duchess and Duchess or King and Queen.
The couple say they are shocked at all the support they’ve received from their student body and teachers.
“I guess they were expecting a little hate and they said they’ve felt zero,” Stillman said. “They said, ‘We hope that this will help others who want to come out, see that it’s OK and safe.'”
The couple recently spent the afternoon looking for dresses just in time for the homecoming ceremonies this Friday.
READ MORE: |
Pregnant Elsa Burger Cooking
Elsa is pregnant and she has a lot of cravings. One of them is a burger, so you can help make a delicious one to satisfy her hunger. First she has to go shopping and buy all the ingredients she needs. Hurry up, because your time is limited. In a bowl, mix oil, salt, pepper, coriander, onion, garlic and chicken meat. Blend them all together well until you get a nice paste. Put oil in a pan and let it get hot, then fry the meat pieces in it. Finally you will have to create the burger. First put a bun on the plate, add a piece of meat, then some fresh tomato slices, coriander, onion slices, another piece of meat and complete with the top bun. The double burger is ready and Elsa is very excited about it! You can create your own and even change the ingredients or add some sauces. Good luck!
Published: May 4, 2015 |
We are FUNDED and TAKING ON stretch goals like a dwarf in a bar fight takes on a dozen drunken hobgoblins! We just unlocked The Genius Guide to the Godling and BATTLE MUSIC FOR BASTARDS!
IMPORTANT INFO:
We're in the FINAL HOURS and there are still some terrific backing options available:
*** Pledge at the $250 level and you could PLAY in the World's Worst Dungeon Crawl at Gen Con! ***
*** There's still ONE $350 pledge available out there. NAME A PC plus all the $250 level rewards! ***
*** Pledge at the $150 level and you might become the game's OFFICIAL DICE FLUFFER! ***
*** We will be making ADD-ONs available AFTER the campaign! ***
UPDATE 11 has more extensive details.
New Reward Reference Chart
We have a great set of rewards for backers. To help you break it down we've put together this handy reference chart.
Hey gamers, over the years I’ve given advice to thousands of players on how to KICK ASS (play a dwarf!) TAKE NAMES (inscribe them on your axe) and CRUSH DUNGEONS IN STYLE (hint: SWEATBANDS) but I’ve largely neglected to help those unfortunate souls sitting on the OTHER side of the screen – the DM.
WHY?
Because being the DM is EASY. You just read some boring boxed text and send a couple of goblins into the room. A SECOND-GRADER COULD DO IT.
Some of my critics disagree. “EASY?” they say, as globules of rage fly across the room. “You think running an inventive, engaging, BADASS RPG adventure is EASY?”
That’s right. And I’m going to PROVE it by taking the World’s WORST Dungeon Crawl and making it AWESOME.
Based on decades of RPG experience, I’ve culled together the most odious PCs, plots, and encounters and built a Frankenstein’s MONSTER of BADASSITUDE. It’s called Flaming Deathpits of the Minotaur Mage: Descent into Doomfire! It has a hackneyed “Save the Princess” plot. It has pyromancer named “Steve.” It has ROLE-PLAYING.
Yeah, you’re right: it sounds like a total train wreck. And I’m going to climb that train, stoke its engines with 200cc’s of pure, undiluted DUNGEON BASTARD GUSTO and CRASH that thing directly into the BIGGEST, most NOTORIOUS gaming convention of them all: GEN CON 2013.
That’s right — I don’t do things HALFWAY, gamers. If I’m going to prove how easy it is to take the World’s Worst Dungeon Crawl and make it TOTALLY AWESOME, I’m going to do it LIVE, in-person, before a crowd of the world’s most hard-core gamers.
I hope to present this “masterpiece” of fantasy adventure not only as a published RPG adventure for you to enjoy with your fellow gamers, but also as a live event at GEN CON immortalized on video to help motivate and inspire your PERSONAL gaming group. Your contributions help create, publish and host the game and document it in the polished, professional style you’ve come to expect from the Dungeon Bastard. The result should be a lot more fun than “The World's WORST Dungeon Crawl” HAS ANY RIGHT TO BE.
The stretch goals continue to tumble like a half-elven thief in a cavern full of storm giants! Here's a snapshot of what we have so far: Fans at the $25+ level will receive PDFS of:
Play Dirty compendium of game mastering advice by John Wick
compendium of game mastering advice by John Wick The ENnie award-winning adventure Pleasure Prison of the B'thuvian Demon Whore from Expeditious Retreat Press.
from Expeditious Retreat Press. Bill Cavalier's Libram of Ineffable BASTARDLINESS . A collection of the Dungeon Bastard's finest wit, wisdom, and advice as seen on the series as well as Facebook & Twitter.
. A collection of the Dungeon Bastard's finest wit, wisdom, and advice as seen on the series as well as Facebook & Twitter. JUST UNLOCKED: The Genius Guide to the Godling by Super Genius Games for all backers $25 and up! We're also upgrading the cover and interior art on the World's Worst Dungeon Crawl PDF to full-color. Backers pledging $50 or more will receive: TWO commentary tracks added to their physical DVD - one track by Bill and one behind-the-scenes creator commentary by writer and lead Tom Lommel.
commentary tracks added to their physical DVD - one track by Bill and one behind-the-scenes creator commentary by writer and lead Tom Lommel. Bill Cavalier's BASTARDLY BATTLE CRIES : twenty individual MP3 tracks you can load on your smartphone and use to berate your DM whenever the game starts to suck or, conversely, YOU are particularly AWESOME (i.e. ALL THE TIME).
: twenty individual MP3 tracks you can load on your smartphone and use to berate your DM whenever the game starts to suck or, conversely, YOU are particularly AWESOME (i.e. ALL THE TIME). Fat Dragon Games Copper Dragon Starter Bundle: a set of high-quality 2D printable terrain for your table top. This set INCLUDES Basic Caverns 1 & 2, Basic Dungeons 1 & 2, and Dungeon Perils!
JUST UNLOCKED: BATTLE MUSIC FOR BASTARDS! Ten ORIGINAL tracks designed to INSPIRE YOUR GAME, directly from the talented hands of Mark Frey, who does ALL of our composing and arrangements for the series -- including the theme song!
Here's a preliminary sample track from BATTLE MUSIC FOR BASTARDS entitled Crossing the Bridge of the Dark Gnome Necromancer We've also promised a Colin McComb VIDEO SMACKDOWN, a BADASS DUNGEON CRUSHER credit for backers $100+ and dedicated funding for 6 more months of Dungeon Bastard! In addition, the BACKERS will VOTE to put the slogan of THEIR CHOICE on Bill's shirt during the live event. Here's just a SAMPLING of the rewards you're getting at the $100 level:
NEXT UP AT $30,000 we unsheath THE VORPAL SWORD! At this level: Everyone backing at $50+ will receive Fat Dragon Games E-Z Dungeons DELUXE EDITION . Over 155 megs of dungeon terrain, tiles, traps, treasures and other items to dress up your game table!
. Over 155 megs of dungeon terrain, tiles, traps, treasures and other items to dress up your game table! Backers at $100+ will receive a personalized MP3 audio eulogy mourning the (clearly UNFAIR) death of your PC or a full-on Dungeon Bastard haranguing mocking your DM for his inability to KILL YOUR CHARACTER.
Also, Bill will go mano-a-jerko with John Wick in a NO HOLDS BARRED wizard duel at Gen Con 2013. If you saw what the Bastard did to Monte Cook LAST year, you know that did not end well. Here's the current stretch list:
What people are saying about my adventure
"I have every confidence that this will be absolutely the most terrible, awful dungeon crawl, ever." ~Monte Cook
"Whoever said playing roleplaying games won't turn you into a Satanist hasn't played D&D with the Dungeon Bastard." ~Kenneth Hite
"Just when you thought he couldn't get any lower, the Dungeon Bastard takes out his +5 Pick of Sucking and starts digging." ~John Wick
"So bad it will have the PCs falling on their swords and the players taking a battering ram to the exit door - which will be chained of course because that's the only way the Bastard will manage to get a group seated at the table." ~Jolly Blackburn
"Black holes don't suck this much. This thing whips out a +5 Vorpal Blade of Awful and slices open a Sphere of Fun Annihilation in the hope of ending its own pathetic universe in a suicidal implosion of stupid — and naturally fumbles at that." ~Matt Forbeck
"Bill Cavalier," a haiku:
The plot is boring.
The players are comatose.
Dungeon Bastard stinks.
~Sean K Reynolds
These guys are DICKS. ~Bill Cavalier
As you see to the right we offer some pretty cool rewards. In addition to the adventure itself and copy of the live Gen Con Indy 2013 event, we have Dungeon Bastard exclusive products like sweatbands and t-shirts and other in-game products with the help of our friends at Dragon Chow Dice Bags, Fat Dragon Games, and Super Genius Games. By contributing to this campaign, not only will you benefit from my ultimate gaming wisdom, you'll receive a BADASS combination of gaming gear that will take your next gaming experience to a whole new level of awesome. For instance:
You or your PC's name on my IMMORTAL WALL OF HEROES!
An HD video download of The World's WORST Dungeon Crawl event (with special content and intro by Bill Cavalier, exclusive to Kickstarter backers*)
B&W PDF of The World's WORST Dungeon Crawl ADVENTURE (with special intro by Stan!)
A Dungeon Bastard exclusive! PDF download of The Genius Guide to Horrifically Overpowered Feats from Super Genius Games.
from Super Genius Games. ENnie award-wining PDF adventure Pleasure Prison of the B'thuvian Demon Whore based on the cult hit Fear of Girls.
based on the cult hit Fear of Girls. Play Dirty a collection of gaming advice from the DIRTIEST Game Master around, John Wick!
a collection of gaming advice from the DIRTIEST Game Master around, John Wick! The Genius Guide to the Godling from Super Genius Games!
from Super Genius Games! Bill Cavalier's Libram of Ineffable BASTARDLINESS a collection of the Dungeon Bastard's finest, most popular gaming wisdom and quotes from Facebook, Twitter, and the series.
Physical DVD of The World's WORST Dungeon Crawl event (with special content and intro by Bill Cavalier, exclusive to Kickstarter backers)
Custom sweat/wristbands (2-pieces) that say “LAWFUL” on the left arm and “BADASS” on the right arm.
Dungeon Bastard Ultimate Dice Tower PDF (from Fat Dragon Games).
Bill Cavalier will follow you on Twitter for 1 year, where you will serve as his special FIELD RESEARCH AMBASSADORS FOR MAXIMUM BADASSERY.
HALF-ELF THIEF rewards.
BONUS: Not one, but TWO commentary tracks added to their physical DVD - one track by Bill and one behind-the-scenes creator commentary by writer and lead Tom Lommel.
Not one, but commentary tracks added to their physical DVD - one track by Bill and one behind-the-scenes creator commentary by writer and lead Tom Lommel. BONUS: Bill Cavalier's BASTARDLY BATTLE CRIES : twenty individual MP3 tracks you can load on your smartphone and use to berate your DM whenever the game starts to suck or, conversely, YOU are particularly AWESOME (i.e. ALL THE TIME).
Bill Cavalier's : twenty individual MP3 tracks you can load on your smartphone and use to berate your DM whenever the game starts to suck or, conversely, YOU are particularly AWESOME (i.e. ALL THE TIME). BONUS: Fat Dragon Games Copper Dragon Starter Bundle: a set of high-quality 2D printable terrain for your table top. This set INCLUDES Basic Caverns 1 & 2, Basic Dungeons 1 & 2, and Dungeon Perils!
Fat Dragon Games Copper Dragon Starter Bundle: a set of high-quality 2D printable terrain for your table top. This set INCLUDES Basic Caverns 1 & 2, Basic Dungeons 1 & 2, and Dungeon Perils! BONUS: BATTLE MUSIC FOR BASTARDS! Ten ORIGINAL tracks designed to INSPIRE YOUR GAME, directly from the talented hands of Mark Frey, who does ALL of our composing and arrangements for the series -- including the theme song!
B&W printed copy of "The World's WORST Dungeon Crawl" adventure book.
Set of 3 Bill Cavalier POWER GAMER d6s (always roll a 6!). |
british muslims turning to isis because they want sex
A former Islamist has said that young British Muslim men are keen on joining terror outfit ISIS because of their urge for sex.
Bradford preacher, Alyas Karmani, said that they feel isolated in 'sexualised' British society and they want sex.
This, he said, because they don't have the same freedom of Western youths to have girlfriends and intimate relationships.
"This is all about sex... These guys just want girls. That's it. My wife said you can't say that because you'll get really lambasted for it, but guys do things for girls - and that's it," he said.
Alyas now tours the country reaching out to young British Muslims to stop them from turning to ISIS.
He said the kids are brought up with value that they cannot have sex before marriage, that you cannot have a girlfriend.
This, he said, is sinful.
"A very big prohibition for an individual and you are growing up in a sexualised society, there's a real sense of hate that you have that I can't do this," he said.
United Nations has revealed what ISIS does to women when it gains control of new territory: rape, slavery, sadism and murder.
The extremists run slave markets for girls they abduct in captured territories.
Kidnapping of teenage girls has become part of ISIS's method to recruit foreign fighters. |
To Anyone Who Thinks They’re Falling Behind
Jamie Varon Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 5, 2016
You don’t need more motivation. You don’t need to be inspired to action. You don’t need to read any more lists and posts about how you’re not doing enough.
We act as if we can read enough articles and enough little Pinterest quotes and suddenly the little switch in our brain will put us into action. But, honestly, here’s the thing that nobody really talks about when it comes to success and motivation and willpower and goals and productivity and all those little buzzwords that have come into popularity: you are as you are until you’re not. You change when you want to change. You put your ideas into action in the timing that is best. That’s just how it happens.
And what I think we all need more than anything is this: permission to be wherever the fuck we are when we’re there.
You’re not a robot. You can’t just conjure up motivation when you don’t have it. Sometimes you’re going through something. Sometimes life has happened. Life! Remember life? Yeah, it teaches you things and sometimes makes you go the long way around for your biggest lessons. You don’t get to control everything. You can wake up at 5am every day until you’re tired and broken, but if the words or the painting or the ideas don’t want to come to fruition, they won’t. You can show up every day to your best intentions, but if it’s not the time, it’s just not the fucking time. You need to give yourself permission to be a human being.
Sometimes the novel is not ready to be written because you haven’t met the inspiration for your main character yet. Sometimes you need two more years of life experience before you can make your masterpiece into something that will feel real and true and raw to other people. Sometimes you’re not falling in love because whatever you need to know about yourself is only knowable through solitude. Sometimes you haven’t met your next collaborator. Sometimes your sadness encircles you because, one day, it will be the opus upon which you build your life.
We all know this: that our experience cannot always be manipulated. Yet, we don’t act as though we know this truth. We try so hard to manipulate and control our lives, to make creativity into a game to win, to shortcut success because others say they have, to process emotions and uncertainty as if these are linear journeys.
You don’t get to game the system of your life. You just don’t. You don’t get to control every outcome and aspect as a way to never give in to the uncertainty and unpredictability of something that’s beyond what you understand. It’s the basis of presence: to show up as you are in this moment and let that be enough.
Yet, we don’t act in a way that supports this lifestyle. We fill every minute with productivity tools and read 30-point lists on how to better drive out natural, human impulse. We often forget that we are as we are until we’re not. We are the same until we’re changed. We can move that a bit further by putting into place healthy habits and to show up to our lives in a way that fosters growth, but we can’t game timing. Timing is the one thing that we often forget to surrender to.
Things are dark until they’re not. Most of our unhappiness stems from the belief that our lives should be different than they are. We believe we have control — and our self-loathing and self-hatred comes from this idea that we should be able to change our circumstances, that we should be richer or hotter or better or happier. While self-responsibility is empowering, it can often lead to this resentment and bitterness that none of us need to be holding within us. We have to put in our best efforts and then give ourselves permission to let whatever happens to happen—and to not feel so directly and vulnerably tied to outcomes. Opportunities often don’t show up in the way we think they will.
You don’t need more motivation or inspiration to create the life you want. You need less shame around the idea that you’re not doing your best. You need to stop listening to people who are in vastly different life circumstances and life stages than you tell you that you’re just not doing or being enough. You need to let timing do what it needs to do. You need to see lessons where you see barriers. You need to understand that what’s right now becomes inspiration later. You need to see that wherever you are now is what becomes your identity later.
Sometimes we’re not yet the people we need to be in order to contain the desires we have. Sometimes we have to let ourselves evolve into the place where we can allow what we want to transpire.
Let’s just say that whatever you want, you want it enough. So much so that you’re making yourself miserable in order to achieve it. What about chilling out? Maybe your motivation isn’t the problem, but that you keep pushing a boulder up a mountain that only grows in size the more you push.
There’s a magic beyond us that works in ways we can’t understand. We can’t game it. We can’t 10-point list it. We can’t control it. We have to just let it be, to take a fucking step back for a moment, stop beating ourselves up into oblivion, and to let the cogs turn as they will. One day, this moment will make sense. Trust that.
Give yourself permission to trust that. |
Welcome to EclipseCrossword!
EclipseCrossword is the fast, easy, free way to create crossword puzzles in minutes.
It's never been simpler: just give EclipseCrossword a list of words and clues, and it does the rest. In seconds, you'll have a crossword puzzle with just the words you want. EclipseCrossword has been downloaded more than six million times by people just like you.
Who can use EclipseCrossword? Teachers and parents: Use crosswords to review vocabulary and lessons for all subjects. Students may actually even enjoy doing the assignment! Crossword puzzles encourage logical thinking and correct spelling. Crosswords can be printed or uploaded to your website.
Use crosswords to review vocabulary and lessons for all subjects. Students may actually even doing the assignment! Crossword puzzles encourage logical thinking and correct spelling. Crosswords can be printed or uploaded to your website. Webmasters: You can easily create interactive crossword puzzle web pages with EclipseCrossword—crossword puzzles are a great way to get people to stay on your site, and come back in the future. Your visitors can play the puzzle right on your website, or you can post a printable version so they can solve it at their leisure.
You can easily create interactive crossword puzzle web pages with EclipseCrossword—crossword puzzles are a great way to get people to stay on your site, and come back in the future. Your visitors can play the puzzle right on your website, or you can post a printable version so they can solve it at their leisure. Newsletter editors: Nobody reads your newsletter? Try adding a crossword puzzle next time, and maybe people will look at it before throwing it away. EclipseCrossword lets you easily save files that can be used in your word processor or publishing software.
Nobody reads your newsletter? Try adding a crossword puzzle next time, and maybe people will look at it before throwing it away. EclipseCrossword lets you easily save files that can be used in your word processor or publishing software. You! Anybody can use EclipseCrossword to produce great-looking crossword puzzles. If you're not sure what you'd make a crossword about, check out these ideas.
Take the EclipseCrossword tour and see what EclipseCrossword has to offer.
New on EclipseCrossword.com We cleaned up a couple of old, crusty links.
Not sure yet? Read what others have said about EclipseCrossword, or check out some projects by other EclipseCrossword users. We're sure you'll be convinced. And remember, EclipseCrossword is free! |
More advanced, potentially costlier robotic prostate cancer surgery may offer no long-term benefit versus traditional procedures, according to a new study. In fact, the outcomes between robotic and traditional prostatectomies were found to be largely the same in the study that involved more than 300 men.
To arrive at their comparative findings, researchers split their study group into two segments. One group of men underwent traditional open surgery. The other group was treated using robotic technology. While the robotic surgery group lost less blood, experienced less pain and had shorter hospital stays, other factors were comparable between the two groups. Researchers found, for example, that both groups of men had to take the same number of days to recover and that rates of complications were similar.
When assessed at the three-month mark, researchers say, men reported similar rates of side effects. There was no significant difference in the rate of sexual dysfunction, urinary problems or infections between the two groups. Although preliminary, the initial findings indicate there may be no significant benefit of choosing robotic surgery versus traditional prostatectomy surgery.
The study, researchers say, will continue with follow-ups at different intervals out from the procedures. In the meantime, they say the findings indicate the importance of carefully weighing the overall benefits, risks and costs of procedures being selected to treat prostate cancer. While robotic prostatectomy may offer enhanced precision, the findings show a skilled surgeon can achieve similar results with a less costly open procedure.
An estimated 161,000 American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in the coming year. Some of these men will find their doctors recommending a radical prostatectomy to treat the disease. If the option is urged, men should discuss the potential benefits of open surgery versus robotic procedures with their healthcare providers. It is also strongly urged that men explore all their treatment options for the disease. In some cases, procedures like brachytherapy, may offer a less invasive way to treat cancerous cells. |
It's almost the exact same article with a slightly better title, I guess. ("Tyrannosaurus Sex?" "JurASSic Park?" "Velocirapture?" I came up with those in like eight seconds, and I don't even write about Stegosaurus dicks professionally.) This article, which was published by a different Daily Mail author back in February, also treats the "dinosaurs had sex like dogs" tidbit like it was some big, new revelation. And because I'm convinced there's some kind of underground committee that gives awards to the laziest journalists, both articles feature the same quote from the same source.
DailyMail
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There's also some mild dinosaur porn in the old version:
DailyMail
Sure, the scientific illustrations weren't as graphic and deeply unsettling in the old article, but finding an illustrator who was the right combination of scientist and pervert isn't reason enough to rewrite the exact same story and pretend it's new news.
Hey, speaking of "new" and "news," there was something else that bothered me about these articles. Specifically, their newness and newsiness ...
The New News Isn't New and Even the Old News Wasn't New News When It Was New
(Jesus. Who am I to criticize people's titling decisions?)
If you're anything like me, then you know that New Jersey State Museum research associate Brian Switek is the closest thing the Internet has to an expert on dinosaur sex. (Spoiler: You are nothing like me, and you never will be.) Switek has a history of writing very thoughtful and informative essays about dinosaur sex, so I naturally assumed that if some clown at the Daily Mail was going to start stepping onto Switek's turf, he'd have something to say about it. I was right. In his essay on Wired, Switek also acknowledges that the July version of this story ripped off the February version, and he goes on to say that, even back in February, there was no reason to write the story in the first place. Even though both Daily Mail articles treat the sex reveal like some big, breaking story, Switek assures us that there hasn't been a new study on the topic in a long time. No new information on dinosaur sex in February or July, but that didn't stop the Daily Mail from getting you to stop what you were doing to pay attention to these dinosaur dicks right this second.
DailyMail
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Also? They're Wrong
According to Switek (the only person in this situation who vaguely resembles an authority), "We really don't have a refined idea of dinosaur sex positions." Daily Mail reports that a T. rex penis is about 12 feet long, even though we've still never found a fossil of a dinosaur penis.
We put a man on the moon and made a cheeseburger entirely out of ground bacon, but I still can't take my nephew to a museum and show him a brontosaurus dick. Life, right?
In Conclusion ...
A crappy British tabloid republishes a bullshit study it published six months ago and the Internet picks it up and runs with it. It's already made its way around the Internet twice, I'd imagine, before Switek's article debunking it could even get its pants on.
I've written about the Internet's total inability to accurately report on news in the past, because it's a subject that completely fascinates me, and because I'd like us to try to be better. Aaron Sorkin's new show, The Newsroom, is about a news anchor who is sick of the modern state of broadcast journalism and longs for "The good ol' days," when real, honest, legitimate news was done by real newsmen.
These are the Internet's good ol' days. We're still so young as a "thing" and we're already spreading lies about T. rex dicks. I am by NO means saying we should stop talking about dinosaur penises. Just that we should be honest about it.
DailyMail
Daniel O'Brien is Cracked.com's senior writer (ladies), and he will be at Comic-Con all weekend long if you want to meet up and talk about dinosaur sex (no other topics will be discussed). Follow him on Twitter to find out about spontaneous San Diego Cracked meet-ups.
For more from Dan, check out 4 Reasons to Hate Comic-Con and Proposed Script for Spider-Man 4: The Grittiest Reboot Ever.
More Blogs |
A Silicon Valley venture capitalist has been sued for $40 million by a woman who claims he used her as a virtual sex slave for 13 years.
Michael Goguen, who had worked for a firm that funded Google and Paypal, “sexually and physically” abused Amber Laurel Baptiste over more than 13 years after picking her up at a Texas strip club, her lawsuit alleges.
Baptiste, who claims she was brought to the United States from Canada by human traffickers at 15, said she endured “countless hours of forced sodomy” from the tech titan.
The former stripper said Goguen made her endure demeaning sexual acts, sodomized her for “six hours at a time,” and forced her to call him “king” and “emperor.”
Filed in San Mateo County, Calif., on March 8, her suit details a life of torture and servitude as she was jetting around the globe to serve as the millionaire’s plaything.
She claims Goguen had promised to save her from human trafficking but instead became an even worse predator himself.
Goguen, who was forced to step down from his position at Sequoia Capital, did not deny that the two had a sexual relationship but insisted the sex was consensual.
He filed a countersuit against Baptiste claiming she is an “exotic dancer . . . looking for a payday.”
The venture capitalist said Baptiste was obsessed with him and sought to extort him because she was jealous of his wife.
In his countersuit, Goguen provides pages of texts and emails in which she apparently refers to him as “Prince Charming,” “My Beautiful Love” and “the sweetest man in the world.”
The suit includes Bapiste’s descriptions of the “amazing sex” the two had together and photos that she allegedly sent him in which she is seen playfully posing in her underwear.
Baptiste is demanding $40 million, saying the two agreed on the amount to compensate her for the horrors she had suffered.
Goguen, who has already paid her $10 million, said she is “a woman scorned” and a victim “of her own delusions.”
He claims that when he tried to end their relationship, Baptiste became bent on vengeance, threatening to ruin his life and reputation.
He said that he had no choice but to pay her the $10 million, but that she refused to relent and demanded more money.
Sequoia Capital released a statement that called Goguen’s departure from the firm the “appropriate course of action.”
A philanthropist, Goguen was lauded for donating $2 million to fight online child pornography and sex trafficking where he lives in Montana.
Goguen is not the only business leader who’s faced backlash over sexually inappropriate behavior. |
Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, reacts during a keynote speech session at the National Automobile Dealer Association (NADA) conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
There is something about today's Republican Party. The grass-roots base -- call it the "tea party" if you must -- simply loves to joust with the party establishment.
And nowhere is that more the case than in the first contest of the 2016 presidential election: the Iowa caucuses.
Witness this new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll of 2016 caucuses. The big takeaway Sunday was that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has taken the lead (a statistically insignificant one, albeit). More specifically, the big takeaway was that the erstwhile front-runners -- Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush -- don't lead. (The survey was conducted before Romney announced Friday that he won't run.)
The reason: The Iowa caucuses just aren't friendly to establishment Republicans.
We noted Friday that Romney's unfavorable rating among likely caucus-goers was 40 percent -- a very high number, given that these are members of Romney's own party.
Well, he's not the only one. While Romney's favorable/unfavorable split is 57/40, Bush's is even worse: 46/43. And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's image is downright bad: 36 percent favorable vs. 54 percent unfavorable. Again, this is among Republicans.
Other, less establishment-oriented Republicans don't have this problem. Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) is at 64/25. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is at 66/28. Walker is an unparalleled 60/12. None of the Democrats have this problem, either; Hillary Rodham Clinton is at 84/15, Vice President Biden is at 78/20, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) is at 58/11.
The reason voters are picking on Romney, Bush and Christie? It's because they are perceived as too moderate. Thirty-seven percent each say Romney and Bush are too moderate, while 46 percent say that about Christie. Nobody else comes close.
This is precisely why the caucuses picked Huckabee in 2008 and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) in 2012. It's why Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) didn't compete in 2008 and why Romney almost didn't in 2012. Establishment support means far less here.
Bush sounds as though he'll compete in Iowa. While he skipped the Iowa Freedom Summit last weekend, he has hired well-known Iowa GOP operative David Kochel as his senior strategist and potential campaign manager.
But if you're Bush -- or Christie -- these numbers have to color your strategy going forward. When about half of likely caucus-goers already have decided that they don't like you a year before the caucuses, getting them to vote for you is going to be exceedingly difficult. |
Hillary Clinton's new book What Happened attempts to explain Trump's upset victory in 2016 through a series of reasons which are not Hillary Clinton. The gambit runs from apathetic white lady voters to Russian meddling to the inscrutable popularity of Donald Trump. When Clinton's focus turns to herself, however, she's light on culpability. She admits she can be guarded, but that admission doesn't encapsulate the relentless political ambition paired with shady financial dealings and a willingness to subvert national security that turned off much of the country.
In the end Clinton was also just a bad candidate.
In the latest Mostly Weekly Andrew Heaton explores Clinton's new book, so you don't have to.
Watch past episodes.
Mostly Weekly is hosted by Andrew Heaton with headwriter Sarah Rose Siskind.
Script by Sarah Rose Siskind with writing assistance from Andrew Heaton and Brian Sack.
Edited by Austin Bragg and Siskind.
Produced by Meredith and Austin Bragg.
Theme Song: Frozen by Surfer Blood.
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What would the 1980s have been without big hair and ice-cold wine coolers?
Luckily no one had to find out: Key substitutions in hairsprays and refrigerants allowed such products to exist without chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were found to be ripping a huge "hole" in Earth's protective ozone layer.
Today the ozone hole, which was first spotted 25 years ago, appears headed for a happy ending, thanks to unprecedented international action.
Could a similar effort rein in climate change? And is the closing ozone hole actually making global warming worse?
Ozone at High Risk From CFCs
The ozone layer lies between about 9.3 and 18.6 miles (15 and 30 kilometers) above Earth's surface. This blanket of ozone, or O3, blocks most of the sun's high-frequency ultraviolet rays.
These UV rays can cause skin cancer and cataracts in humans, as well as reproductive problems in fish, crabs, frogs, and even in the single-celled phytoplankton at the bottom of the ocean food chain.
Ozone is created naturally when oxygen molecules (O2) high in the atmosphere get broken by sunlight into two free oxygen atoms. A free atom can then bond with an unbroken O2 molecule, and ozone is born.
Ozone is unstable, however, and it's easily broken up by trace elements.
Invented in the 1920s, CFCs proved to be an exceptional problem for ozone, because many of these synthetic chemicals can persist for decades, allowing them to make their way into the upper atmosphere. (Related: "Rocket Launches Damage Ozone Layer, Study Says.")
In that rarefied air, ultraviolet light breaks the molecular bonds in CFCs and free chlorine atoms get released. Chlorine then destroys ozone molecules by "stealing" their oxygen atoms.
Ozone Hole a Shocking Surprise
Scientists had theorized since the 1970s about the chemistry that could lead to ozone depletion. But in May 1985 scientists with the British Antarctic Survey shocked the world when they announced the discovery of a huge hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica.
Technically a substantial thinning of the ozone layer, the ozone "hole" has been opening every spring since the 1970s, the scientists reported.
Their data, collected at the Halley Research Station in Antarctica, suggested that CFCs were to blame. That's because atmospheric conditions during the cold, dark, Antarctic winters were building stockpiles of CFCs over the South Pole.
Returning spring sunshine would then spawn an abundance of free chlorine, depleting ozone levels above Antarctica by as much as 65 percent. (Related: "Laughing Gas Biggest Threat to Ozone Layer, Study Says.")
"One lesson is that the planet can change very rapidly in an unexpected way," said Jonathan Shanklin, one of the British scientists who made the ozone hole discovery and co-author of a paper on the ozone hole anniversary appearing in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
"Nobody was expecting to see anything like this in the Antarctic."
Fixing the Ozone Hole a Unanimous Decision
The disturbing discovery set the stage for an environmental triumph: the Montreal Protocol of 1987.
This pact to phase out the use of CFCs and restore the ozone layer was eventually signed by every country in the United Nations—the first UN treaty to achieve universal ratification.
The unparalleled cooperation has had a major impact.
"If we had just kept letting CFCs increase at a pretty nominal rate, characteristic of the 1970s, the decreased ozone levels of the hole would have eventually covered the entire planet," said atmospheric physicist Paul Newman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
"Global ozone dropped a little bit [after CFCs were banned], but the good news is that if we had done nothing, it would have gotten really, really bad."
Now a complete rebound seems imminent. Some scientists project that by 2080 global ozone will return to 1950s levels.
Now How About Global Warming?
As climate scientists around the globe urge action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, might the ozone hole experience provide some useful parallels? Perhaps, experts say—but the situations do have some significant differences.
In the 1980s people were faced with the clear and present health dangers from ozone depletion, leading to widespread public support for CFC bans.
"There was a scary side of the ozone hole, linked to skin cancers and cataracts and so on, which immediately engaged the public," the British Antarctic Survey's Shanklin said. "The real impact of what a rapidly warming world could do is not so obviously intuitive."
Chemical manufacturers were also able to create substitutes for CFCs with little added costs, enabling governments to address the problem without great impacts on the economy or average lifestyle.
Global warming, on the other hand, has become a politically loaded and often divisive topic.
And many potential fixes to the problem—such as alternative energies and reduced consumption—could cause major disruptions to economic and geopolitical norms in a way that replacing CFCs simply did not, Shanklin said.
Ozone Recovery to Warm Antarctica?
Meanwhile, some scientists say the environmental triumph of a recovering ozone layer could have a troubling side effect: boosting global warming, at least in the Antarctic region.
Ozone itself is a greenhouse gas. A thinner ozone layer not only reduced heat trapped over the region, it helped stir circumpolar winds, which in turn created sea spray that formed reflective, cooling clouds.
"It's very difficult to quantify the impact on a global scale, but I think the evidence suggests filling the hole will have a regional effect on the Antarctic, possibly leading to more warming for the bulk of the Antarctic," Shanklin said. "That could drastically change predictions about global sea level change."
Ken Carslaw of the U.K.'s University of Leeds was a co-author on the study that suggested closing the ozone hole would lead to a bump in Antarctic warming. Still, he thinks that any warming mitigation produced by the ozone hole was merely a side effect and not a net gain.
"I wouldn't say that these discoveries [of possible warming] suggest the formation of the ozone hole was a good thing," he said.
NASA's Newman agreed: "The consequences of unabated CFC growth were disastrous for life," he said.
"So at some point you had to act, and fortunately they acted before it became a really severe problem. We never got to the level of an environmental catastrophe. |
Sean Gardner/Reuters
How do pro fans stack up against those who favor the college game on a city-by-city basis?
This weekend is a big one for football fans: it's the start of the NFL's playoff season. One in four Americans — 75 to 80 million of us, according to some surveys — follow football regularly. A 2010 survey found that roughly two-thirds of Americans watch professional football, compared to just over half for college. But which teams and cities have the most fanatical fans? And how do pro fans stack up against those who favor the college game on a city by city basis? To get at these questions, Patrick Adler, a doctoral student in urban planning at UCLA and Martin Prosperity Institute alum, tracked football attendance numbers for 116 metropolitan areas with NFL franchises or bowl-eligible college teams. Adler calculated a simple metric based on average fan attendance for all pro and college football games. To control for substantial differences in population size, he also tallied average attendance as a share of metro population. The data are from the NCAA and ESPN and cover the 2011 season.
These metrics have their caveats, Adler points out. They only account for attendance at games, and do not count those fans who regularly follow teams on television and through other means. But as the New York Times's Nate Silver notes in his analysis of college football, home attendance usually tracks to the most popular teams across multiple dimensions. The Martin Prosperity Institute's Zara Matheson mapped Alder's two key metrics. The map above charts the average attendance by metro. The colors of the icons indicate NFL only (pink), college only (green), or both (blue). The table below lists the top 20 metros by average football attendance for both. Top 20 Metro Areas for Overall Average Attendance in 2011 Rank Metro Average Attendance 1 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 202,222 2 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 166,631 3 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 158,956 4 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL 145,516 5 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 131,450 6 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 128,944 7 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 120,556 8 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro—Franklin, TN 120,423 9 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 120,188 10 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 119,276 11 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 117,218 12 Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI 114,490 13 Ann Arbor, MI 112,179 14 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 110,530 15 Pittsburgh, PA 109,037 16 Baltimore-Towson, MD 105,835 17 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 105,257 18 Columbus, OH 105,231 19 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH 104,465 20 Tuscaloosa, AL 101,821 Table data from NCAA and ESPN as compiled by Patrick Adler
As we would expect, big metros top the list. New York is first, by a substantial margin. But the list follows population size only to an extent. Los Angeles, America's second largest metro, is fifth, and Chicago, the third largest metro, is 12th. San Francisco is second in football attendance, Dallas third, and Miami fourth. Seattle, Houston, Nashville, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C., round out the top 10. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... Most of the top 20 have both pro and college teams. But there are several places on the list that only have college teams — notably, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Columbus, Ohio, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Interestingly, the average attendance in the Ann Arbor metro is greater than in Detroit. The table below shows the top 20 metros for average attendance where only college football is played. Top 20 College-Only Metro Areas for Average Attendance in 2011* Rank Metro Average Attendance 1 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 131,450 2 Ann Arbor, MI 112,179 3 Columbus, OH 105,231 4 Tuscaloosa, AL 101,821 5 State College, PA 101,427 6 Austin-Round Rock, TX 100,524 7 Knoxville, TN 94,642 8 Baton Rouge, LA 92,868 9 Athens-Clarke County, GA 92,613 10 Gainesville, FL 89,061 11 College Station-Bryan, TX 87,183 12 Auburn-Opelika, AL 85,792 13 Lincoln, NE 85,267 14 Oklahoma City, OK 85,161 15 South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI 80,795 16 Madison, WI 79,813 17 Columbia, SC 79,131 18 Greenville-Mauldin-Easley, SC 77,959 19 Tallahassee, FL 77,842 20 Lansing-East Lansing, MI 74,078 Table data from the NCAA as compiled by Patrick Adler After Los Angeles, smaller metros now rise to the top. Ann Arbor is second, followed by Columbus, Ohio and Tuscaloosa, Alabama — all of which also rank among the top 20 for overall attendance, as noted above. State College, Pennsylvania is fifth, and Austin sixth. Rounding out the top 10 are Knoxville, Tennessee; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Athens, Georgia; and Gainesville, Florida.*
The picture is different when we consider football attendance as share of a metro's population. Several caveats are in order, Adler notes. Students, who attend college football games, are typically not included in the population of college towns. Furthermore, some college towns are too small to be considered actual metros, and many fans commute long distances to attend games. The table below lists the top 20 metros with average football attendance as a share of the population across U.S. metros.** Top 20 Metros with the Greatest Percent Share of Football Attendance** Rank Metro Percent of Population 1 Oxford, MS 131% 2 Starkville, MS 128% 3 Stillwater, OK 73% 4 State College, PA 70% 5 Pullman, WA 69% 6 Laramie, WY 67% 7 Auburn-Opelika, AL 66% 8 Ames, IA 63% 9 Corvallis, OR 52% 10 Bowling Green, KY 50% 11 Athens-Clarke County, GA 50% 12 Tuscaloosa, AL 49% 13 Iowa City, IA 48% 14 Morgantown, WV 48% 15 College Station-Bryan, TX 43% 16 Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, VA 42% 17 Manhattan, KS 41% 18 Columbia, MO 38% 19 Lawrence, KS 37% 20 Ruston, LA 37% Table data from the NCAA and ESPN as compiled by Patrick Adler Now much smaller metros rise to the top. Oxford and Starkville, Mississippi rank first and second. Both have attendance that exceeds 100 percent of their population — a figure that is bolstered by students and out of area commuters. Stillwater, Oklahoma, is third (with 73 percent), followed by State College, Pennsylvania (70 percent), and Pullman, Washington (69 percent).**
All but one pro football metro has average home attendance equal to 10 percent or less of their population. The exception is tiny Green Bay, where attendance is equivalent to roughly 23 percent of the population. Large metros — those with more than one million people — rank much further down the list in football attendees as percent of metro population. The figure is roughly eight percent for Nashville and New Orleans, seven percent for Buffalo, five percent for San Francisco (second in average attendance overall), 2.5 percent for Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Boston, and just one percent for Chicago, L.A., and New York (the leader in overall average attendance). Behind these three metros, the San Jose metro, the heart of Silicon Valley and home to Stanford, ranks dead last. In his analysis of the geography of college football fandom, Silver notes a curious pattern. Looking at Google searches for the term "college football" he finds that "on a per-capita basis, there are probably about 5 times as many football fans in Birmingham [Alabama] as there are in New York. So although the New York media market is about 10 times larger, it has fewer than twice as many college football fans as Birmingham." ESPN's Colin Cowherd offers a simple theory to account for the geography of football fandom, where big cities are served by and favored by pro teams while smaller cities favor the college game. It makes sense, actually, that small towns would have a stronger support base for their college teams. Folks in bigger cities and metros have a lot of options for entertainment, but the options in smaller metros and college tons are more limited — making football the biggest game in town. From top: Alabama Crimson Tide running back T.J. Yeldon (4) celebrates after scoring a touchdown late in the fourth quarter against the LSU Tigers during their NCAA football game in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Nov. 3. (Sean Gardner/Reuters); San Francisco 49ers kicker David Akers scores a field goal during the fourth quarter of their NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals in San Francisco, California on Dec. 30. (Beck Diefenbach/Reuters) *Correction: An earlier version of this post failed to include Los Angeles in the college-only attendance table. **Correction: An earlier version of this post mistakenly included Troy, New York and Athens, Ohio in the percent-share attendance table. It also failed to include Bowling Green, Kentucky. The corresponding map has been removed. |
Supersonic jetliner travel, which ended more than a decade ago with the Concorde, is set for a boost after Japan Airlines Co. agreed to invest $10 million (about ¥1.1 billion) in Colorado startup Boom Technology Inc. The deal will give JAL a 1 percent stake in the Denver-based company.
The airline also secured an option to purchase as many as 20 of the aircraft Boom is developing, the two companies said in a statement Tuesday. JAL is the second company to announce an intention to purchase Boom’s supersonic jet, after billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic.
Boom is planning to build a 45-to-55 seat aircraft that cruises at Mach 2.2 (1,451 miles per hour) — capable of whisking passengers between Tokyo and San Francisco in 5½ hours. The Concorde, flown by British Airways and Air France, retired in 2003 after almost three decades in service as customers abandoned the jets amid hefty operating costs.
“It’s a signal to the rest of the ecosystem that the customer interest in this airplane is real,” Boom chief executive officer Blake Scholl said Tuesday in an interview. While the company is well capitalized, “the investment was not about the dollars; it was about the symbolism and the meaning of the dollars” to the aviation industry.
JAL spent more than a year contemplating the aircraft and how it would fit into its fleet and premium service offerings, he said. The carrier said it would work with Boom “to refine the aircraft design and help define the passenger experience for supersonic travel.”
The jet, targeted to enter service in the middle of next decade, will have a range of 4,500 nautical miles (8,334 kilometers), or roughly the distance between Beijing and London.
“The future needs friends,” Scholl said on Twitter ahead of the announcement. “Pioneers who stick their necks out, take a stand, support the new, the half-born, while uncertainty remains and the risk of failure is still quite real.”
Boom had commitments for 75 planes and customers have paid significant deposits, he said at the Paris Air Show in June. Orders were spread across five airlines, not all of which have been publicly disclosed, and more buyers will be revealed in the foreseeable future, Scholl said.
The plane-maker is still studying where it will assemble its supersonic aircraft. It plans to issue a request for proposals in the first quarter for its factory, which will offer “thousands of jobs,” Scholl said. Boom will select a site late next year, with the facility likely to be completed in late 2019 or 2020.
Boom has already struck a deal with Spaceship Co., the manufacturing division of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, to use that company’s engineering, design and flight-test support services.
Engine selection, which is crucial for giving customers real cost and performance data, remains an outstanding issue. Boom is using a General Electric Co. engine for its demonstration aircraft. That plane, which passed a preliminary design review in May, is scheduled to fly next year.
On the Concorde, deep-pocketed passengers could fly the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound from 1976 to 2003. While costs and noise complaints killed off that supersonic jet, GE, Lockheed Martin Corp., the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and startups including Boom are studying new designs and technology that could make supersonic flight a commercial reality.
In November Boom hired Bill James, a former Airbus SE executive who led wing design on the A380 superjumbo, as its vice president of production operations. The company has been in talks with about 20 airlines to sell the plane. |
Miss Arkansas 2016 Savvy Shields is shown after being crowned Miss America 2017 by Miss America 2016 Betty Cantrell at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ, Sunday, September 11, 2016. (Photo11: THOMAS P. COSTELLO, USA TODAY Network)
Miss Arkansas Savvy Shields has claimed the title of 2017's Miss America.
Shields, 21, beat the competition's 51 other contestants to win the title, succeeding the outgoing Miss America Betty Cantrell.
Shields took home the crown with a jazz routine during the talent portion, which won her the preliminary talent competition earlier in the week.
During the question and answer portion, she was asked about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
"If you're trying to be leader of the free world, everything you say and do matters and all of your actions are held to a higher standard," Shields said. "Both of the contestants have done a good job, but they also need to watch what they're doing."
After her run as Miss America, Shields, 21, will return to the University of Arkansas as a senior studying art. “I want to hopefully work in a museum and teach at a collegiate level,” she said about her plans for the future.
Miss South Carolina Rachel Wyatt was the night's first runner-up.
The second runner-up was Miss New York Camille Sims. The third runner-up was Miss Washington Alicia Cooper, and the fourth runner-up was Miss Mississippi Laura Lee Lewis.
Miss Arkansas, Savvy Shields waves during Miss America Pageant arrival ceremonies Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016, in Atlantic City. (Photo11: Mel Evans, AP)
The top 15 finalists were: Kentucky; Washington; Massachusetts; Arkansas; South Carolina; Idaho; Iowa; Texas; California; Oklahoma; Maryland; New York; Tennessee; Louisiana, and Mississippi.
During a press conference after the ceremony, Shields thanked her family and fans, using a question about her Q&A portion to expand on her views about America's political climate.
"Our country was founded on compromise," she said. "I really think we're in a state now where both parties seem to just be yelling at each other. I hope that by the end of my year, we're starting to reward politicians on compromising instead of just defending themselves.
Afterwards, the night's celebrity judges including Mark Cuban, Gabby Douglas and Ciara praised Shields and congratulated her on her win.
"I have two daughters...I think its important for them to have role models who are confident and savvy," Cuban said, as the crowd laughed.
Ciara urged Shields to savor her big night.
"It's awesome as a woman to see you get this moment," she said. "I just encourage you to enjoy this moment, because when great things like this happen, they can sometimes pass you by."
Watch Ciara's and Douglas' full comments below:
Next up at the #MissAmerica press conference: Gabby Douglas pic.twitter.com/eKjGsm8Pbg — Maeve McDermott (@maeve_mcdermott) September 12, 2016
See photos from the evening here:
Contributing: The Associated Press
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The FDA Claims Homeopathic Remedies Need Regulation which would Effectively Outlaw Them
by Brian Shilhavy
Health Impact News
The FDA wrapped up a two-day hearing recently on whether or not homeopathic remedies should be regulated like drugs. Listening to critics of homeopathy try to justify why they don’t think the American public should have free access to homeopathic remedies leaves one wondering just what the real motivation is behind these criticisms.
The two dominant criticisms made against homeopathic remedies are antithetical to each other. Critics complain that due to a lack of regulation homeopathic remedies are dangerous, but then they turn around and say that homeopathic remedies are simply useless sugar pills with no therapeutic effect whatsoever, and no better than a placebo.
Both cannot be true.
Is this the new standard of scientific scrutiny that federal agencies are using to supposedly protect the public?
Are Homeopathic Remedies Dangerous?
The mainstream media is doing its best to comply with the pharmaceutical industry’s desire to paint homeopathic products in a bad light, and doing a very poor job of it. According to the mainstream media, which is obviously being fed statistics from the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government and doing no independent investigations of their own, what is the basis for claiming that homeopathic remedies are “dangerous”?
Here is the official Associated Press version:
A top federal drug regulator says that increased safety problems with homeopathic remedies contributed to the government’s decision to revisit its oversight of the products at a public hearing this week. In perhaps the most serious case, in 2009 the FDA ordered the maker of Zicam to stop marketing three products that contained zinc gluconate. The agency linked those products to 130 reports from consumers who said they lost their sense of smell.
That was the “most serious case” of “increased safety problems” with homeopathic remedies which has prompted an FDA review. 130 people claimed they lost their sense of smell, a claim that the manufacturer says was actually never proven.
Contrast this to consumer reports of adverse effects from FDA approved drugs.
Over 1 million FDA-approved drug side effects are reported each year now, including serious side effects such as death (over 100,000 deaths a year). It is admitted that these voluntary reports do not encompass the totality of all prescription drug side effects.
Drugwatch.com, which is hosted by a Washington D.C. law firm, states:
Each year, about 4.5 million Americans visit their doctor’s office or the emergency room because of adverse prescription drug side effects. A startling 2 million other patients who are already hospitalized suffer the ill effects of prescription medications annually. (Source.)
Clearly safety of non-FDA-approved homeopathic remedies is not the issue here, especially as compared to FDA-approved drug side effects.
FDA approved drugs are dangerous and deadly. Homeopathic remedies are not.
What is the Real Reason the FDA Wants to Eliminate Homeopathic Remedies?
The real reason why the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry want to regulate and eliminate homeopathic remedies is no secret, and we do not even need to speculate about it. They come right out and tell us the reason:
Still, perhaps the greatest harm caused by homeopathy is not necessarily caused by the products themselves—which, when properly prepared, rarely contain anything other than water and inactive ingredients such as sugars and binding agents—but by the fact that people often rely on homeopathic products to the exclusion of proven scientific remedies. (Source.)
Admittedly, homeopathic remedies are not dangerous. “Proven scientific remedies” of course means “FDA-approved” drugs.
Homeopathic remedies present a threat to the marketing of dangerous drugs (not people), as homeopathic product sales in the U.S. have increased 16% over the past 5 years to $6.4 billion annually, with projections to reach $7.5 billion by 2017. (Source.) If a homeopathic remedy is marketed for a specific illness where a FDA-approved pharmaceutical drug already exists, the FDA wants you to choose the drug instead.
But if too many people start making the “wrong choice,” they want to take away your freedom to choose. This kind of action is well documented against other health products, particularly competing “unapproved” cancer remedies which historically are always outlawed to protect the huge cancer drug business. (See: Unapproved but Effective Cancer Cures.)
If the FDA does decide to regulate homeopathic remedies, then only those remedies approved by them will be allowed to be sold, classifying them as drugs. There are only a handful of companies in the United States that the FDA allows to have drugs approved. Homeopathic remedies, and their booming popularity, would become part of Big Pharma.
Worldwide Homeopathy is Growing Rapidly Outside of the U.S.
Homeopathy was one of the most common medical practices in the United States in the 1800s. In 1892, homeopaths in the United Stated controlled about 110 hospitals, 145 dispensaries, 62 orphan asylums and old peoples homes, over 30 nursing homes and sanitaria and 16 insane asylums. However, the pharmaceutical industry did everything it could to stomp out homeopathy, and it is not as widespread in the U.S. today as it once was. (See: American Medical Revolutions: How the AMA Took Over America.)
Worldwide, homeopathy is the second largest system of health care used behind conventional pharmaceutical-based medicine. Dana Ullman, one of America’s leading authorities on homeopathy, writes:
According to recent surveys in France, an astounding 40% of the French public have used homeopathic medicines, and 39% of French physicians have prescribed them. At least six French medical schools offer courses leading to a degree in homeopathy, and homeopathy is taught in all pharmacy schools and in four veterinary schools. In a prominent French news magazine President Francois Mitterand and six medical school deans called for more research on homeopathy. According to an article in the British Medical Journal, 42% of British physicians surveyed refer patients to homeopathic physicians. Another survey of British physicians discovered that 80% of recent graduates wanted training in either homeopathy, acupuncture, or hypnosis. Homeopathic medicine is very popular in Germany as well. One respected author estimated that 20% of German physicians use homeopathic medicines occasionally. At present, the most popular hay fever remedy in Germany is a homeopathic medicine, and other homeopathic medicines for the common cold, sore throats, and circulatory problems are in the top ten of their respective categories. To further aid the growth of homeopathy, the late President of Germany, Karl Karstens, and his wife, Dr. Veronica Carstens, who is a medical doctor and a homeopathic physician, recently started a homeopathic research foundation. Numerous new research efforts in Germany and throughout Europe have begun in the past couple of years. Despite homeopathy’s impressive popularity in Europe, it is even more popular in India. Presently, there are over 100,000 homeopathic doctors and over 100 four- and five-year homeopathic medical colleges in this country. Homeopathy has achieved such respect that in 1987 the government established homeopathic drug detox clinics in six different police stations in New Delhi. A recent conference in India which described impressive results in the homeopathic treatment of drug addiction received accolades from India’s Minister of Health and Family Welfare, the Finance Minister, and the Chief Justice. In addition to the Indian government’s support of homeopathic drug detox clinics, they have also supported various research projects and homeopathic hospitals and clinics. (Source.)
The FDA is clearly not concerned about homeopathic remedies because they are a danger to the public. They are a danger to their monopoly on drugs, due to their growing popularity, and so they clearly want to either eliminate the competition, or get in on the action and take over the market.
Learn more about homeopathy. |
UPDATED: The companies' previous agreement expired Sept. 30, but there has been no progress made in the ongoing negotiations.
DirecTV has told Fox Networks that it will drop the channels Nov. 1 if the two companies don't come to an agreement in the ongoing carriage dispute.
Fox said late Thursday that it has offered an extension during the ongoing negotiations but that DirecTV "has informed us and their customers that unless we agree to their demands, they 'will suspend our networks on Nov. 1.'"
Fox added that DirecTV sent a proposal out Tuesday.
"They have given us no chance to respond before taking an unnecessarily aggressive posture and going public," Fox Networks said in a statement. "It is disappointing that they have chosen bad faith tactics over meaningful negotiation.
"We have proposed to keep the Fox Networks on DirecTV for the same price, and on the same terms as they are currently carried while we attempt to work out a fair agreement. Unfortunately, DirecTV has decided that unless they get their way, they are going to pull the plug on their customers Nov. 1."
Meanwhile, DirecTV issued its own statement late Thursday.
"After months of making little progress in our talks with News Corp and Fox to renew our agreement to carry their regional sports networks and other national channels we’ve regrettably reached a point where we will be forced to suspend the channels as soon as Nov. 1 unless News Corp is willing to move toward a more reasonable price increase," the company said.
According to DirecTV, Fox Networks is seeing a 40% increase in its carriage fees.
"They are currently asking our customers to pay 40% more for the exact same Fox channels that they already receive, and that’s simply unfair and unwarranted," the company said. "We hope to resolve this situation before any action is taken, but we will do what’s necessary to protect our customers from excessive and unwarranted fee increases. We already provide News Corp. nearly a billion dollars a year for their channels, and we have no problem continuing to compensate them fairly."
Fox's carriage agreement with DirecTV expired Sept. 30.
Fox Networks includes FX, National Geographic Channel, 19 regional sports networks, Fox Movie Channel, Speed, Fuel TV, Fox Soccer and Fox Deportes. Fox broadcast stations and Fox News Channel are not involved in the negotiations.
Fox's dispute with DirecTV marks the latest in a series of carriage disagreements for the company. Fox and its parent, News Corp., were engaged in a dispute with Cablevision a year ago, and the Fox channels were blacked out on Dish Network in October 2010 amid a dispute with the satellite TV giant. |
Photo: Play-i Yana and Bo play hide-and-seek.
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These colorful robots are not only fun to play with—they can teach kids computer programming skills. That’s what Play-i, a Silicon Valley startup founded by engineers from Google, Apple, and Symantec, says about its robots, unveiled this week as part of a crowdsourcing campaign.
The idea of using robots to teach kids programming, math concepts, and problem solving is not new. In fact, it’s been more than 40 years since MIT educator Seymour Papert demonstrated the possibilities of hands-on learning with his Logo programming language and mobile machines known as “turtle robots.”
Over the years, numerous robotic toys and kits designed for kids came to market—most famously the LEGO Mindstorms set (trivia: it was named after Papert’s influential book “Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas”). But most of these products present a steep learning curve for kids (and parents!), and few are adequate for very young children.
Play-i, based in Mountain View, Calif., wants to see that change. It says its robots, Bo and Yana, can make programming fun and accessible for kids as young as 5 years old. The robots talk via Bluetooth LE with an iPad or other tablets, which Play-i says are the perfect interface for children to learn programming concepts in an engaging, intuitive way.
“We wanted to create robots so easy to use that kids could take them out of the box and start doing things with them,” cofounder and CEO Vikas Gupta told me when he stopped by IEEE Spectrum a few weeks ago. He said that after a year building prototypes and gathering feedback from kids, teachers, and advisers, they’re ready to get the robots in the hands of lots of people.
Their plan is raising money to produce the robots in volume through a crowdfunding campaign that they launched on Monday. A contribution of US $149 will get you a Bo; $49 will get you a Yana. Or for $189 you can get both. The robots are expected to ship in June. (A reminder: any crowdfunding project has risks.)
The robots Gupta showed me were prototypes, and as such they were still buggy, their movements jerky and their behavior a bit erratic. But I could see the potential. The larger one, Bo, has wheels and can drive around. It's equipped with distance sensors, accelerometer, and gyro. It has attachments on its head and body where you can connect arms or other accessories. This allows the robot do things like playing a xylophone or pushing blocks. The smaller robot, Yana, doesn’t move on its own, using lights and sound for interaction. (Gupta says kids will like it because they can use their imagination and pretend it’s an airplane or animal).
I was surprised that the robots don’t have Wi-Fi capability, and even more surprised that they don’t have cameras. Gupta explained that he didn’t think those things added much to the experience at this point (while adding to cost), though he didn’t exclude the possibility of including them in the future. But my biggest concern is that some Bo models will ship with no arms, which to me reduces its appeal. Gupta disagrees, saying that Bo can still do plenty of things to keep kids interested, and that even without arms, the robot can still push things around with its body.
Gupta said he and his cofounders—all have kids—saw first-hand how children could master an iPad in no time. But at the same time they wanted to let kids use the tablets not only to consume technology but also to create technology. In particular, they wanted them to learn a skill that is becoming more and more valuable: coding.
Play-i is creating a tablet-based visual programming interface that let kids build sequences of actions and learn through play and exploration. The sequences can start simple and get more complex as kids become more familiar with the robot and interface. “You can start with the robot playing music, and then add more actions, like blinking the eyes,” Gupta said. More advanced users will be able to program the robots with languages like Scratch and Blockly.
I asked Gupta why a crowdsourcing project. The founders have an impressive background—Gupta held senior positions at Amazon and Google; Saurabh Gupta ran Apple's iPod software team for six years; Mikal Greaves led the engineering team at industrial design firm Frog Design; and Imran Khan was a senior executive at Symantec—so why not raise capital and create a full-fledged product (as San Francisco startup Anki did with its robotic racing game Anki Drive)?
Gupta says they want to “validate the demand.” Once they can verify that many people are interested in this kind of robot, they can plan their future steps, further refining the product and scaling up manufacturing and distribution. Their crowdsourcing campaign has done extremely well in its first two days and they should reach their target soon, so I’m guessing that demand has been "validated." Now we'll wait and see if Bo and Yana will make kids happy—and smarter.
What do you think? Check out more photos and screenshots of the programming interface below, along with the full technical specs as provided by Play-i. And if you're interested, you can go to the company's website to support the project.
Bo
- Wireless (Bluetooth 4.0) for easy connection to touch devices for programming
- Two motors for driving that provide differential steering for body motion
- Two motors for head pan and tilt
- One programmable eye light-ring to add emotions
- Two programmable full-color ear lights
- One programmable full-color headlight
- One speaker with customizable sounds
- Four programmable buttons
- Four Infrared beacons to advertise location to other robots
- Twelve different sensors to interact with surroundings and other robots
- Three distance sensors to detect obstacles and objects in front and back
- Sound sensor to detect sound gestures like a clap
- Two wheel encoders enable precise body motion control
- Two head encoders enable precise head positioning
- Accelerometer for gesture control and positioning
- Gyroscope to track orientation
- Two Infrared detectors to detect other robots
- Six multi-function attachment points to add accessories
- Rechargeable battery and Micro-B USB connector for charging
Yana
- Wireless (Bluetooth 4.0) for easy connection to touch devices for programming
- One programmable eye light-ring with full-color overlay to add emotions
- Two programmable full-color ear lights
- One programmable button
- One speaker with customizable sounds
- Four Infrared beacons to advertise location to other robots
- Accelerometer for gesture detection
- Three multi-function attachment points to add accessories and bases
- Rechargeable battery and Micro-B USB connector for charging |
Steam, Valve's digital distribution service, rescued PC gaming from its "dark ages," Wasteland 2 developer Brian Fargo told Eurogamer.
Developer InXile Entertainment funded its role-playing game with nearly $3 million on Kickstarter in 2012. Wasteland 2 arrived on Steam Early Access last December.
According to Fargo, that developers can bring the unfinished game directly to interested players is a credit to Valve, a company that "has all this power but they don't wield it. They let us all work in an open system."
PC developers now have more options than they did before Steam launched in 2002, and more freedom than they do on consoles, Fargo said.
"They've been great," he said, referring to Valve. "You think about where we all were, kind of in the dark ages, when there was nothing. There was just Flash. There was no digital distribution. They've opened up a way to get directly to the audience in a way that isn't politicized, or forces us to do exclusives or all the other things the console guys do."
For more on Wasteland 2, which is available for Linux, Mac and Windows PC, you can watch our interview with Fargo from Gamescom 2013 below. |
A JUDGE has blasted a mum-of-twelve for having so many children after she was convicted of benefit fraud.
Melanie Edwards, 40, fraudulently claimed more than £150,000 in benefits between 2009 and 2014 by claiming to be a single parent.
SWNS - Bristol 5 Melanie Edwards claimed to be a single parent while claiming a six-figure sum over five years
But Edwards, of Lamerton near Tavistock, Devon, was in fact living with her husband Brian – while both worked in a factory.
The fraudster claimed in court that she pocketed the six-figure sum in order to support her kids.
But during the five-year period when the fraud took place, the couple continued to have children – adding another four to their growing brood.
Judge Paul Darlow asked the defendant: “Why just not have fewer children?”
Edwards replied: “That would be an option.”
The judge said the impact on the fraudster’s kids – the youngest of which is just 22 months old – was a major consideration when deciding her sentence.
SWNS - Bristol 5 The defence lawyer said Edwards didn't live a luxurious lifestyle, with the family of 14 sharing a three-bed house
SWNS - Bristol 5 Edwards replied that having fewer children 'would be an option'
She was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years.
Judge Darlow told Edwards: “It is only your children who have kept this sentence from being immediate.
“One has to wonder why you have so many children when you cannot support them without the state.”
The mum-of-twelve admitted three counts of benefit fraud at Plymouth Crown Court.
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She claimed £144,113 in tax credits, £9,606 in housing benefits and £988.47 council tax relief.
In addition to the suspended jail term, Edwards has also been ordered to pay back the colossal sum through reductions to her legitimate benefits.
It is not known how long it might take to get close to repaying the money.
According to the Plymouth Herald, Edwards refused to answer questions from reporters as she left the court building after sentencing.
UPPA/Photoshot 5 Judge Paul Darlow asked the mum-of-twelve why she continued having kids if she couldn't afford to support them
Alamy 5 Edwards was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years, at Plymouth Crown Court
But Francesca Whebell, prosecuting, revealed the benefits claims were genuine when the mum began to claim them.
Edwards and her husband were both working alternate shifts at Kensey Foods at Launceston, but she is since thought to have given up working.
William Parkhill, defending, said the amount she claimed was “almost breathtaking”.
But he said she would have been entitled to claim large sums legitimately anyway.
He also added that the family did not have a luxurious lifestyle, with 14 of them sharing a three-bedroom house.
Mr Parkhill said: “She now faces an awkward conversation with her 12 children to explain what she has done.”
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On a brief trip to Spain for yours truly earlier this month, I had the opportunity to catch an in-person glimpse of gritty Spanish guard Sergio Llull for the first time since the 2012 Olympics in London.
Nearly three years later, as you'd imagine, Llull is a much better player than the 23-year-old who served as a seventh or eighth man for the Spaniards in the 2012 gold-medal game against Team USA.
Llull is a combo guard who loves to score first but can do much more when he's on the ball these days for Real Madrid than he did back then for the national team, which for the past several years could always turn to the likes of Jose Calderon, Juan Carlos Navarro and Ricky Rubio for quarterbacking. Llull's role is much bigger with the Spanish club giants in Madrid, who have him under contract through 2018 and to whom Llull (pronounced YOU'LL) has always proclaimed the deepest of affections.
His NBA rights, however, belong to the Houston Rockets, who have been trying for years to convince Llull to make the jump. And there is some fresh talk that next season -- finally -- Llull will give strong consideration to joining the Gasol brothers and the rest of the Spanish armada playing Stateside.
One well-placed source told me in Spain: There's a "pretty decent" chance Llull agrees to sample the NBA next season.
The scouting report on Llull from one Spanish League expert: "He's a really good pick-and-roll player. He takes and makes big shots. He's great in the open floor and very tough. He's a better athlete than you think, too. But he needs to be on an up-tempo team in the NBA -- Houston, Phoenix, Golden State and so forth -- so he can play in the open floor and run pick-and-roll."
The climax of the college season typically gives a hearty nudge to the NBA's offseason coaching carousel. And it's already happening even though the NCAA tournament isn't out of the first round yet.
A few quick dribbles of pertinent coaching gossip:
** There is a growing sense in NBA coaching circles that Florida's Billy Donovan will give renewed consideration to making a move to the pros after a rough (by his standards) season in Gainesville. Although there is no firm indication yet that the Orlando Magic will pursue Donovan again when they ramp up their coaching search in late April, it's a scenario that's bound to be talked about.
** There's been no shortage of buzz among NBA types this week about former DePaul star Ty Corbin, freshly ousted as interim coach of the Sacramento Kings, moving to the college game to fill the fresh opening at his alma mater.
** It is widely -- and I mean widely -- believed throughout the league that Fred Hoiberg, whose Iowa State Cyclones were bounced in the first round of the tournament Thursday by UAB, is the top choice of the Chicago Bulls to replace Tom Thibodeau in the event that the Bulls and Thibs indeed part company at season's end.
A handful of disabled player exceptions quietly expired this month, with the teams that applied to the league to receive them opting to let the money go unspent ... presumably because there were no free agents to chase in-season who could command more than minimum money.
The Pacers received a $5.3 million injury exception in the wake of Paul George's gruesome compound leg fracture last summer. The Lakers were granted two fairly substantial trade exceptions by the league in the wake of season-ending injuries suffered by Steve Nash ($4.85 million) and Julius Randle ($1.5 million). The Heat had one worth $2.7 million, too, after losing Josh McRoberts to a meniscus tear in his right knee.
Yet they all expired March 10 without fanfare.
Last month's trade deadline was a particularly big one for the D-League.
Of the 39 players involved in deals on a frantic deadline day, 16 of them had D-League experience, which equates to a healthy 41 percent. That, of course, includes Detroit's newly acquired Reggie Jackson, who spent some time with the old Tulsa 66ers in his early days in Oklahoma City.
We've also seen a new record this season with more than a third of the NBA possessing D-League experience on their resumes. That figure includes 26 players who were drafted last June, as NBA teams increasingly turn to their D-League affiliates to season young players.
The trade that sent Kevin Garnett back to Minnesota for Thaddeus Young shaved Brooklyn's luxury-tax bill from slightly more than $26 million to $19,687,385. The Nets, you'll recall, paid a whopping $90.57 million in luxury tax after last season's $190 million chase of a championship. ...
We lost out on some good trivia when Ray Allen decided to take this season off. Had Allen signed with a team other than the Boston Celtics, it would have meant that all five starters from the Celts' championship team in 2007-08 would have been active with five new and different teams. Which, according to ESPN's peerless source of NBA goodness Adam Reisinger, hasn't happened since the NBA/ABA merger of 1976-77. |
“NO ONE,” the coach says to a locker room full of determined-looking young American football players, shoulder pads stacked up around their ears, “and I mean no one, comes into our house and pushes us around!” Chelcie Ross’s memorable pre-game pep talk in Rudy, a 1993 Hollywood sports drama, hammered home the principle of home-field advantage in the popular imagination. Defending one’s home turf has become a classic trope in the morality play of team sports, replete with Henry V-esque speeches, rituals, and outlandish displays by fans intended to provide athletes extra motivation when they play in front of a supportive crowd. And sure enough, playing at home confers a substantial edge, ranging from around an eight-percentage-point boost in baseball and ice hockey to a whopping 25 percentage points in international football.
Basketball has historically fit this pattern neatly: over the past 20 years, home teams in North America’s National Basketball Association (NBA) have won about 60% of their games in the regular season. So it came as a shock to statistically minded fans when ESPN.com published a pair of articles by Tom Haberstroh, a basketball writer for the site, and Steve Ilardi, an academic, noting that home teams’ winning percentage had dwindled from 61.2% in 2012-13 to a mere 53.7% through the first three months of the 2014-15 season. The authors assured their readers that the decline was a trend rather than a blip, pointing out that “the recent drop in home-court edge—more than 1.0 points per 100 possessions—is a shift of more than three standard deviations in magnitude, which is an event that occurs by random chance less than 1 in 1,000 times.” The basketball world took this seemingly stunning result as gospel, and it quickly became conventional wisdom. Journalists began theorising about home-court advantage’s cause of death. Blake Griffin, a star player for the Los Angeles Clippers, blamed his team’s lacklustre performance at home on disloyal or bored fans. And some intrepid reporters even went on quixotic internet-quests to discover strange and exotic NBA lands where the home team still rules. But despite rampant speculation, no one could offer a convincing case as to why this phenomenon, one so common across team sports and the NBA’s own history, had suddenly and mysteriously flown the coop.
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With the NBA finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors set to begin on June 4th, punters looking for an edge might be tempted to take the juicy odds bookmakers are offering on away teams. In Britain, Betfair is pricing in a 70% likelihood Golden State wins its games at home, compared with just a 60% chance they prevail on the road. If playing at home really isn’t worth what it used to be, then betting on the visitor in every game should be money in the bank.
But the bookies usually know best, and this series is no exception. The Economist is pleased to report that the Curious Case of the Disappearing Home-Court Advantage has been solved: what looked in January like a vanishing act worthy of Houdini now seems more akin to a brief unexcused absence. According to data provided by David Corby of Basketball-Reference.com, from 1979 to 2014 NBA teams won 62.2% of their regular-season games at home. From January 28th, the day that the first ESPN piece about the decline of home-court advantage appeared, until the end of the regular season on April 15th, home teams won…62.1% of their games (see chart, in which the 2014-15 season has been divided into pre- and post-publication segments). This whiplash-inducing regression to the mean has continued in the playoffs: through the first three rounds, hosts have won precisely 60% of the time. The deviation that was supposed to occur less than once every 1,000 trials by chance turned out to have absolute zero predictive power whatsoever.
Could the authors of the ESPN story have known better? Prediction is difficult, especially about the future, and the evaporation of two-thirds of the historical home-court advantage over a nearly 700-game sample certainly seemed too improbable to ignore. But had they listened to the sage counsel of Nate Silver, their ESPN colleague who wrote a best-seller about how to distinguish true statistical signals from distracting background noise when making forecasts, they could indeed have avoided sending the basketball commentariat on a wild goose chase. Instead, they provided an object lesson in the perils of frequentism, the easily misused approach to statistics that Mr Silver dedicated his book to refuting and which lies at the heart of most of the field’s greatest misses, from medical studies that can’t be replicated to the faulty risk models that brought down the global financial system in 2008.
Frequentism interprets the world through a purely observational lens, basing its confidence in a conclusion on how often events occur and the odds that randomness alone could produce a given result. In the social sciences, a finding is said to be “statistically significant” if this number is below 5% or occasionally 1%; in fields like particle physics, the accepted threshold is one in many millions. There’s nothing wrong with the theory behind frequentism, but the authoritative-sounding heft it offers researchers masks the method’s enormous sensitivity to the parameters they set. It enables statisticians to make virtually anything they want seem mathematically airtight. For example, what were the odds that you would read this article at precisely this minute on this day—one in 525,600 (the number of minutes in a year)? Multiply that by the chances that your parents would meet and get together to create you in the first place—roughly one in three billion—and the event occurring in your life this very second suddenly seems utterly impossible.
So there is reason to be wary when researchers bandy about infinitesimally small probabilities as proof of their findings, and to withhold sympathy when forecasters blame their errors on unprecedented bad luck. In 2007 David Viniar, the former chief financial officer at Goldman Sachs, tried to explain away the poor performance of one of the bank’s hedge funds, saying “we were seeing things that were 25-standard-deviation moves several days in a row”. However, the odds of a 25-standard-deviation event are comparable to winning the lottery 21 or 22 times in a row: the fact that it happened even once proved that the model used to estimate those probabilities was gravely flawed.
Mr Haberstroh and Mr Ilardi seem to have succumbed to a similar fallacy. Although three standard deviations are a far cry from 25, and such events do happen from time to time, they should be extraordinarily rare. In fact, shifts in home-court advantage of the magnitude they identified (about one point per hundred possessions) have occurred multiple times in the past 20 seasons alone. From 1994 to 1995 the home edge fell by 0.9 points per 100 possessions, and from 1997 to 1999 it rose by 1.0 points. By the authors’ interpretation, both of those moves were so unlikely that they almost surely represented a fundamental, enduring change in home teams’ expected win rate. In fact, those fluctuations occurred during the most stable period of home-court advantage in the league’s history: two decades in which a five-year moving average of the home victory rate barely budged.
None of this means that the “true” home-court edge is set in stone, or that all deviations from the prior norm will regress back to the established mean. On the contrary, numerous changes in the ratio over the years have stuck: for example, NBA teams won 65% of their regular-season home games from 1975-1992, compared with just 60% since then. And despite home teams’ strong run during the final months of the season, their overall 57.4% win percentage 2014-15 was indeed the lowest in the league’s history. Is there any reason to believe that some portion of this decline may turn out to be permanent as well?
Answering that question requires moving beyond a pure frequentist analysis of home win percentages alone, and trying to determine whether there are any fundamental changes in the league that might be behind the drop. Mr Haberstroh and Mr Ilardi offer three potential candidates (though they made no effort to test any of them). The first, and probably the weakest, is that teams’ greedy forsaking of rabid working-class fans in order to sell high-priced luxury boxes to big companies has led to a decline in the crowd’s enthusiasm, since corporate suits are too busy toying with their iPhones or hammering out deals to bother cheering. If this effect is real, detecting it would be fairly straightforward. The NBA has historically monitored decibel readings at every game to prevent teams from cranking up the sound system with distracting noise while their opponents have the ball. That data could easily be used to find out whether sound levels have drifted down over time, or whether teams in louder arenas benefit from a bigger home-court advantage than those in quieter ones. However, at the anecdotal level, most noise-related basketball coverage in recent years has focused on the volume being too high, not the other way around.
A potentially more compelling argument is that travel conditions have improved. The last time home-court advantage really did shrink for good, in the early 1990s, it coincided with a league-wide shift from commercial flights—a particular hardship for seven-foot (2.15-metre) tall basketball players—to chartered planes, and from budget hotels with burgers-and-fries room service to palatial suites at five-star properties. Mr Haberstroh and Mr Ilardi note that teams have continued to find ways to improve their players’ performance on the road through biometric methods. If scientifically engineered diets, sleep schedules and training regimens can meaningfully reduce wear and tear, that would indeed level the playing field between home and visiting clubs. But if such gains do exist, they are likely to be both difficult to measure and incremental in pace—a poor match for an abrupt decline in home-court advantage during the past few seasons.
The authors’ most promising hypothesis is that home-court advantage has shrunk because of the changing style of play in the NBA. Fouls are called by referees, and referees in almost every sport have historically demonstrated a notorious home-team bias. As a result, the more that players come into physical contact with each other, the more opportunities referees have to slant their judgment calls to please the crowd.
Those chances have decreased in recent years. As the league has shifted towards a more open game relying on long-distance shooting, players have been increasingly spaced out on the floor, making them less likely to bump into each other. As a result, free throws—the uncontested shots granted to offensive players when opponents make illegal contact with them—have become less important. As recently as 2005-06, 20.2% of points were scored on free throws; last year that figure was 17.1%. Holding all else equal, that shift should lead to a small decrease in home-court advantage.
Sure enough, there has indeed been a moderately strong relationship during the past 30 seasons between successful free throws as a share of total points and home-court advantage. Each additional percentage point of overall scoring that comes at the free-throw line has been associated with an extra 1.85 percentage points of win rate for home teams (a correlation that would occur by chance about once every 3,000 times, in case any frequentists are wondering). The past four seasons have been the four lowest since 1975 in the category of made free throws divided by points scored, and three of the four lowest in home-court advantage. The case is not airtight—in past seasons, referees have granted almost identical numbers of free throws to home and away teams, without a corresponding dip in home-court advantage—but it is at least a credible feather on the scale.
Given this plausible structural explanation, it may well turn out to be true that home-court advantage in the NBA has narrowed slightly, from the 1993-2011 average of 60.3% to a figure around the 2011-15 mean of 58.8%. If nothing else, some reduction is likely in the future simply because of the campaign by Adam Silver, who became the NBA’s commissioner last year, to reduce bias by referees—a problem that has been in the spotlight ever since Tim Donaghy, a former referee, admitted to betting on games in 2007. But even if the 2014-15 numbers are the new normal, a decline of 1.5 percentage points is hardly the “#HomeCourtDisadvantage” that Mr Haberstroh and Mr Ilardi suggested as a Twitter hashtag for discussion of their work. A shift of such modest magnitude will hardly cause teams to reduce their efforts to win in the regular season—among the rewards for clubs with the best regular-season records is home-court advantage in the playoffs—or bettors to adjust their wagers in favour of the visitors.
To their partial credit, the authors did post a third article in early March noting that home teams had performed exceedingly well during the previous month (though unlike the first two, this one was buried behind ESPN’s paywall). Moreover, they anticipated likely criticisms of their findings, writing that “you’re probably thinking that this might be a random blip attributable to statistical noise”. They even linked to a blog post that outlines the pitfalls of odds calculations about seemingly improbable events.
But in the end, Mr Haberstroh and Mr Ilardi still couldn’t resist the temptation to build narratives based on (probably) random numbers, even when doing so required them to contradict directly the thesis they published just one month before. Narrowing down their sample even further to a sub-set of games they deemed to be particularly close within a 30-day window, they wrote that “the recent dramatic increase in clutch winning percentage is statistically significant and highly unlikely to be due to chance variation...The home team’s dominance over the past month was so off-the-charts that almost certainly something has to be driving it.” In other words, they now believe that even though home-court advantage is shrinking overall, it has simultaneously grown stronger than ever in games that happen to conclude within an arbitrary scoring margin.
Goldman Sachs probably has no trouble finding investors to buy into its supposedly unlucky hedge funds. But if any of their salespeople happen to read this piece, we’d like to suggest two writers that might be worth a call. |
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If there were less poverty, would there be less abortion? At first, the answer seems an obvious yes. After all, in 2014, 49 percent of the women who had abortions were poor, and 26 percent were low-income—far more than their proportion in the population at large. In a 2005 survey by Guttmacher Institute researchers, 73 percent of women seeking abortion said they couldn’t afford to raise a child. A 2013 study by M. Antonia Biggs, Heather Gould, and Diana Greene Foster found that 40 percent of women cited “financial reasons” as a reason to have an abortion. Some otherwise progressive anti-choice Catholics—Elizabeth Bruenig and Charlie Camosy, for example—argue that if those women had had more economic support for motherhood, they would have had their babies. Is this correct? Ad Policy
Not necessarily. In both surveys, women could give multiple answers. In the Guttmacher study, 74 percent said that “having a baby would dramatically change my life”; 48 percent said they didn’t want to be a single mother or were having relationship problems; nearly 40 percent said they had finished their childbearing; and almost one-third said they weren’t ready to have a child. In the 2013 study, 36 percent said it was “not the right time for a baby”; 29 percent needed to focus on the children they already had; 14 percent said having a baby now would interfere with their education; 7 percent said they were not independent or mature enough; and 3 percent said they never wanted kids. In both studies, around 12 percent cited health problems, either with themselves or the fetus. As with many other important life decisions, the reasons are intertwined and quite individual—as varied and personal as the reasons women give for having a baby. In the 2013 study, a mere 6 percent gave finances as the only reason for ending their pregnancy. A glance at the social-welfare states of Western Europe shows that when it comes to motherhood, money isn’t everything.
Behind the notion that abortion is mostly due to poverty is the idea that women basically want to have a baby, or at least would prefer it to ending a pregnancy—even if the pregnancy was unplanned, ill-timed, or under personally inauspicious circumstances. Given enough support, who wouldn’t want to have a baby with her freshman-year boyfriend or her stalkerish ex? Raising three, four, or more kids as a single mother, even though you only wanted two? No problem. A glance at the social-welfare states of Western Europe, though, shows that money isn’t everything. These countries offer more support for single parents and families than the United States ever will. In Sweden, besides programs that reduce poverty dramatically, everyone gets nearly free health and childcare, as well as parental and family leave, a monthly allowance that increases with each child, and much more. And yet the rate of abortion in Sweden is higher than in the United States: 17.5 per 1,000 women, to our 13.2. Also, while Sweden’s rate is on the high side, France, Denmark, and even Canada also have higher rates than we do, despite less poverty and more support for families. True, Germany (7.4) and the Netherlands (8.5) have lower rates, but not necessarily because German and Dutch women welcome unplanned children. The Dutch fertility rate of 1.7 children per woman is lower than ours (1.9, same as Sweden’s), and the German rate (1.4) is one of the lowest in the world. In countries where the birth rate and the abortion rate are both low, women must be doing some ferocious contracepting.
For obvious reasons, even progressive Catholics tend not to mention birth control much when they talk about lowering the abortion rate. But as the United Nations Population Fund, among others, has found, widespread effective contraception is the only way to significantly reduce abortion. Those states that reduce poverty also provide ready access to birth control. LIKE THIS? GET MORE OF OUR BEST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
Let’s assume that we want all women, not just mothers, to be less poor. In that case, women would be less likely to get pregnant accidentally. Their lives would be more stable and their healthcare more consistent. That would mean fewer abortions. But by the same token, if they were less poor, they might be more likely to end unintended pregnancies—because they could afford to do so. That would mean more abortions. Right now, restrictive laws can raise the cost of a clinic visit from around $500 to as much as $1,500, and plenty of women can’t put the money together in time. What if they were making $15 an hour? Had paid sick leave? A guaranteed annual income? The abortion researcher Stanley Henshaw found that one in four pregnant women on Medicaid were unable to have an abortion when state Medicaid barred abortion coverage, as in 32 states and the District of Columbia. What if the single-payer insurance that progressives want covered abortion? Family benefits might encourage a woman to keep a pregnancy—or they might encourage her to focus on giving her existing child(ren) the best possible life by finishing school or getting a job. I realize I’m just speculating, but it’s worth noting that while poor women have more abortions than better-off ones, they also have more children. If they were less poor, they might want fewer kids for the same reasons that middle-class women do.
Just to be clear, I completely support government policies that lessen—eradicate!—child poverty and ease the lot of mothers and families. If state benefits meant that more women could keep pregnancies they wanted and avoid abortions they found morally wrong, that would be excellent. But lowering poverty and lowering abortion are two different things for a reason. Being a mother is always going to require an enormous personal investment of money, energy, time, and emotion. It can be a joy—my daughter is my heart’s delight—but there’s a reason the word “sacrifice” comes up a lot when people talk about motherhood. There are reasons, too, why women around the world increasingly want small, planned families that are started later, when the rest of life—education, work, partner, personal well-being—is on track.
Katha Pollitt is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute. |
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Interview with Megan Burton, founder and CEO of CoinX
Early last month, at a Bitcoin pitch contest organized by Ultra Light Startups, the winner, Atlanta-based CoinX, beat the competition by a landslide. To be precise, the show-stealer was actually Megan Burton, its founder and CEO. John Frankel, partner of venture-capital firm ff Venture Capital, one of the three expert judges in the panel, said to me: “It was a strong presentation. She came across as someone who has done her homework and her strategy seems sound.”
Megan, whom I was delighted to meet in person last week at the Inside Bitcoins conference in New York City, has graciously agreed to an interview. Enjoy!
Juan: Please tell us about your background and how you got involved with Bitcoin.
Megan: My background is in internet and payments security. I first came across Bitcoin in the spring of 2012, when reading an article on the BBC website about a foreign currency exchange that had been shut down as a result of a security breach. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that this breach had been due to an encryption vulnerability in a digital currency called Bitcoin, which of course I’d never heard of before. I looked it up online and started reading the wiki and articles about. It immediately grabbed my attention. I opened up an account and played around for a while, and was immediately hooked. What fascinated me were the myriad product ideas it triggered in my mind and the fact that its adoption was in its infancy. I spent the majority of my time researching and analyzing the digital currency marketplace and quickly found out that there wasn’t a platform in place to support mass-adoption – for consumers and merchants. I assembled a team and we spent every waking moment developing what we think will set the industry standard going forward for digital currency.
Juan: What was the Eureka! moment, the spark that eventually led you to found CoinX?
Megan: I was very curious about the uses that could be given to this virtual currency. I started brainstorming with myself and others about who might use Bitcoin, why would they, in what circumstances, for what, etc., etc. Then I decided to give it a try in the real world. I proposed to a vendor in South Africa if he would accept taking the payment of a large invoice in virtual currency. He agreed. We both opened accounts with Mt.Gox. I purchased BTC with US dollars, sent the BTC to his wallet, and then he converted the BTC to rands. The eureka moment for me was finding out that we ended up paying less than 2% for the entire transfer. Together! So I wrote a business plan around September, and at the end of my maternity leave put together a team, and here we are.
“The eureka moment was finding out that we ended up paying less than 2% for the entire transfer.”
Juan: Last month you won the Ultra Light Startups competition without even giving a demo or many details about your platform. Instead, you focused on compliance. What prompted you to lead with compliance, rather than product?
Megan: The format of the contest is two minutes for the pitch, three minutes for Q&A and three minutes for the feedback by the judges. We really didn’t have time for a demo or a detailed slide deck, so I had to be very concise and articulate. We were actually given a sample template, and I focused on following it to a tee. I divided up my two minutes into thirteen points, which I tried to cover as clearly and fast as possible.
Juan: Can you please make the pitch one more time for us?
Megan: Mmmm. I didn’t actually write it out (laughs). I only had a few bullet points jotted down. Let’s see. I said something like this: “My name is Megan Burton, and I’m a serial entrepreneur. There are thirteen virtual currency exchanges in the US and, if the industry is to survive, we all need to focus on four key aspects: legitimacy, compliance, liquidity and security. CoinX’s product advantages are in the speed and mechanisms to get in and out. We are hosted on the New York Stock Exchange, so that takes care of speed, and we offer eight ways to get money in, and seven ways to get money out. Our revenue model is based on sell-side transaction fees. Our most important advantage, however, is our focus on regulatory compliance. We believe that the industry needs legitimacy, and compliance equals legitimacy. In order for a virtual currency to survive, whether the Bitcoin of today or any future evolution, it needs to be legitimate for the market it serves. Embracing compliance will create the legitimacy we need.”
Juan: Well said! I can now at least begin to understand what the impact of those words must have been.
Megan: Thanks. I truly believe that compliance is foundational. Without solid compliance, and for us the strategy is obtaining our own state licenses, banking relationships will not be possible, and without banks we cannot take our product to market.
“The virtual currencies industry needs legitimacy, and compliance equals legitimacy.”
Juan: That’s a good segway to the next topic –banks. The so-called ‘unbanking’ problem –the denial of banking services to MSBs– is a harsh reality that traditional MSBs have lived with for decades, and virtual currency providers are now just beginning to experience first-hand. What does it take to convince traditional financial institutions to partner with Coinx?
Megan: I agree the issue is real. We first attempted to open an account with Silicon Valley Bank, but they put a cap to their virtual currency portfolio, so we were left out. Today, I’m happy to announce that after a three-month onboarding process, a top 10 bank listed in SNL Financials Annual Top 50 Banks (ranked by thrifts and assets) has accepted us as their client. This bank also has a cap on new accounts, but we were able to get in because of a seven-year preexisting relationship in which we demonstrated who we were and built trust. Today there are thirteen to fifteen MSB-friendly banks that I know of in the U.S., and all of them have very strict due diligence processes. Based on the SNL Financial ratings, CoinX is now a client of 3 of the top 10 banks on the list, and in the near future we’ll continue to add additional banks. I must point out that in no way am I complaining about banks being strict. You have to see the world from their vantage point too. Banks are legitimately wary of illicit funds flowing through them, and they too are subject to oversight by their own regulators.
Juan: Congratulations on obtaining the new account! What advice would you give others to earn their banks’ trust? What are a bank’s biggest concerns?
Megan: The first thing everyone should understand is that going through a retail branch does not work. You have to get in, at a minimum, at the VP or similar senior level, and form a relationship with the Compliance Officer. It is fundamental to engage and educate banks about the industry, the technology, the product. A bank’s primary concern is that the funds come from a legitimate source. Where does the money come from on either end of the trade? How do you know that you’re not transmitting illegal money? There are a lot of ‘what-ifs’. They don’t want us to take money from illicit operations. That is a legitimate concern of banks and it must be our concern too. None of us would like that to happen.
Juan: Clearly you consider compliance as a cornerstone of your venture. As a startup founder, do you have a philosophy or approach to doing compliance?
Megan: I do, actually. My philosophy is simple: execution is more important than policy. Having an AML policy is one thing, and a relatively easy one. Executing it is what really matters. Trust is crucial, but equally important is implementing the controls stated in your policy.
Juan: I’m glad to hear that. I’ve been advocating for substance over form for a long time. Many companies have 75-page manuals, but when the time comes to demonstrate the procedure that implements the policy, and the control put in place to ensure that the procedure was executed, they can’t. Policies need procedures, and procedures need controls.
Megan: I agree. You need to build strong customer and source of funds verification procedures. If you have a layered verification system, for instance, where IP addresses are matched, can you demonstrate that the addresses match? It’s all about the ‘procedurization’ of the policy.
“If I cannot get CoinX to market myself I probably don’t deserve to take outside funding.”
Juan: How about insourcing versus outsourcing?
Megan: It all depends on what you’re good at. You have to evaluate your skills and focus on your strengths. For example, I have a strong procedural background, I have ample experience in PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance, which is all about security procedures, and that’s what I exploit. I am well-versed in security and procedure, so I leverage that. We take a hybrid approach: we take care of what we’re good at internally, and then partner with outside experts in what we’re not that good at. Outside assistance helps you keep fresh. They’re supposed to stay abreast of the cutting edge in their particular areas of expertise, and that’s great. They have the luxury of seeing multiple environments, so there’s value in leveraging that.
Juan: What other things keep you awake? What are your top priorities today?
Megan: My priority today is putting everything together and executing. There are so many moving parts, and all are interconnected… I literally sometimes wake up at 2 am in the morning making sure I sent that file here or delivered that piece there. I would say that’s the top priority. Then, of course, I keep working with regulators, trying to ensure that the state applications are moving. We need to get those finalized as soon as possible.
Juan: Do you see any other ways to leverage for the business as a whole the infrastructure, the systems and controls that you’re building for compliance?
Megan: Over the past few months, the whole regulatory compliance situation has been a learning, sobering, experience. Not only for me, but for the entire industry. I think that everything that we’re doing is going to help legitimize us. I confess that the whole thing has given me pause. Entrepreneurs usually go on stealth mode, even after launch. This has put scrutiny on me before the launch in ways I never imagined would be possible. It’s all being a balance test.
Juan: I was actually wondering if you think it’s possible to leverage, for instance, the intensive data analysis that has to happen for money laundering prevention and compliance, to inform business or marketing decisions, but I won’t strike out your answer.
Megan: Oh, yes, absolutely. I agree, and we’re actively working on that.
“If we cannot overcome the compliance hurdle, digital currencies won’t survive.”
Juan: Going to back to this whole thing given you pause and being a test…
Megan: Yes, I’m constantly asking myself: “Am I serving the customer right, but doing this?” What I mean by a test is that the focus today on back-office compliance, rather than product enhancement, is an opportunity to prove that I can execute. We’re not ready for outside investment now. It would be disingenuous to use external funds to build the regulatory infrastructure. I have to build the minimum viable product first, which in this case requires a solid compliance foundation. If I cannot get CoinX to market myself, I probably don’t deserve to take outside funding. I have to earn it and then use it for what it should only be used: product enhancement and growth.
Juan: Any final thoughts?
Megan: It all has been a challenge but not only for us, for the entire industry. This has made us all aware that if we cannot overcome the compliance hurdle, the digital currency won’t survive. Virtual currencies already have a strong enough grass-roots adoption, which suggests the probability of massive adoption is high. It may not be this iteration of Bitcoin; it may be Bitcoin 2.0, but everything points to a high likelihood of success. That’s why our digital currency platform is being built from the ground up to account for all iterations of digital currencies, so we can grow as the market grows. This is too important to not help succeed as an industry. We should all go on and help legitimize the industry.
Smart, mature and wise, Megan embodies much of the overarching message I am trying to convey with my blog –that a venture needs solid foundations, that, being inevitable, regulation must be addressed with an engineering mindset and built into a company’s DNA. For all that, she has earned my deepest respect and I hope she earns yours too.
40.783434 -73.966250
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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Illegally anchored in the Willamette River. Transient boats, many of them releasing raw sewage into the water, have multiplied over the years. Now, two months after some were given trespass notices, they are still out there, waiting to see a judge.
The Department of State Lands has jurisdiction over the river, and the rule is, boats can be anchored in Oregon waters for 30 days. After that, they must move five miles, and can't return to the same spot for a year. If they don't move, officials must follow the legal process, and give them a chance to go to court to be heard.
In May, KGW watched as 13 trespass notices were issued to illegally anchored transient boats, many in the Holgate Slough and near Ross Island. Those boaters had a decision to make: Either comply and move the five miles, or request a court hearing.
We're told nine will have a hearing by an administrative law judge in August, the other four did move their boats and their next 30 day countdown began.
"The boaters themselves are questioning whether or not we have the legal authority," said Lori Warner-Dickason of the Department of State Lands, who's handling the cases. That's because it's the first sweep of its kind for this water rule on the Willamette. The homeless problem on the river started after the recession, Warner-Dickason said, in around 2011.
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Once a judge upholds the department's 30-day rule in court, that will set a precedent. State Lands plans to then go after the rest of the boats you see.
But it's tough. The trespass notices must be served in person, since there's no mailing address. If no one's onboard, they leave the paper, then have to wait for a response and go back again.
Usually the person who is living onboard isn't the boat owner. Some boats don't have any registration markings on them at all.
"It does make it complicated, it requires a lot of tracking," said Warner-Dickason. "There's a balance here that we're trying to implement, and that is the public's ability to use the river for recreational purposes and balance that with folks who are using it on a continual basis."
Bonnie Bruce of Portland is on the river almost every day.
"I've been rowing for 30 years so it's part of my DNA," Bruce said. She loves the calmness in the morning, but lately, that's changed.
"I rowed through human waste," she said. "I'm all for everyone's rights, but at the same time, this is taking forever."
What's even more frustrating for Bruce is that several boaters have told the state they have jobs, and could get housing, they just prefer living this way, tax free.
"I'm not up for anyone losing their boat," she said. "I think nobody is really threatening that. They just have to move it! Just move it and observe the law."
The Department of State Lands says all but one of the boaters going to court will be represented by a public defender. It's not a criminal charge, but if the judge finds them in violation of the rule, they could get a $100 per day fine for every day they've been out of compliance.
We'll stay on this story, and bring you an update when they get in front of a judge in August. |
Rainbow body (Tib. འཇའ་ལུས་, ja lü, Wyl. 'ja' lus) — fully accomplished Dzogchen practitioners can dissolve their body at the time of death.
Through the practice of trekchö, the practitioner can attain the so-called ‘rainbow body’, in which the body becomes smaller and smaller as it dissolves, emanating rainbow light, and finally only the hair and nails are left behind.
Through the practice of tögal, the practitioner can dissolve his or her body into the ‘Light Body’ (Tib. འོད་སྐུ་, ö ku ), where the body transforms into light and disappears completely into space. This was done by Garab Dorje, Manjushrimitra, Shri Singha, Jnanasutra and Vairotsana.
), where the body transforms into light and disappears completely into space. This was done by Garab Dorje, Manjushrimitra, Shri Singha, Jnanasutra and Vairotsana. Another accomplishment of tögal practice is the ‘Rainbow Body of Great Transference’ (Tib. འཇའ་ལུས་འཕོ་བ་ཆེན་པོ་, ja lü phowa chenpo; Wyl. 'ja lus 'pho ba chen po), where the master dissolves his or her body into rainbow light and lives for centuries in order to benefit others. Such was the case with Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo and Chetsün Senge Wangchuk.
Other Recent Examples
Notes
↑ http://www.thenon2.com/lama-achuk-rinpoche The body of Lama Achuk shrunk from a height of 1.8 meters to about 1 inch tall, a sign of achieving the rainbow body. ↑ http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=4849 Information on the passing of Akhyuk Rinpoche.
Further Reading |
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently updated its official fighter rankings to reflect the results of its UFC Fight Night 86 mixed martial arts (MMA) event, which took place last Sunday (April 10, 2016) inside Croatia's Zagreb Arena on FOX Sports 1.
Full results and play-by-play here.
As expected, heavyweight bruiser Ben Rothwell lost some of his momentum following a five-round decision loss to ex-division champion Junior dos Santos (replay), who helped his own cause in the 265-pound title chase. Elsewhere on the card, Derrick Lewis cracked the Top 15 by cracking unranked veteran Gabriel Gonzaga (watch it).
That's not all.
Here's what the latest ranking field looks like courtesy of UFC.com. Note: (+/- = movement in rankings, *NR = Not previously ranked).
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Jon Jones
2 Demetrious Johnson
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Fabricio Werdum
5 Dominick Cruz
6 Rafael Dos Anjos
7 Robbie Lawler
8 Conor McGregor
9 Daniel Cormier
10 Jose Aldo
11 Chris Weidman
12 Frankie Edgar
13 TJ Dillashaw
14 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
15 Miesha Tate
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 John Dodson
4 Jussier Formiga
5 Ian McCall
6 Kyoji Horiguchi
7 John Moraga
8 Zach Makovsky
9 Wilson Reis
10 Dustin Ortiz
11 Ali Bagautinov
12 Justin Scoggins
13 Louis Smolka
14 Ray Borg
15 Sergio Pettis
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Dominick Cruz
1 TJ Dillashaw
2 Renan Barao +2
3 Urijah Faber -1
4 Raphael Assuncao -1
5 Aljamain Sterling -1
6 Michael McDonald
7 Thomas Almeida
8 Bryan Caraway
9 Takeya Mizugaki
10 Johnny Eduardo
11 Frankie Saenz +2
12 John Lineker
13 Jimmie Rivera -2
14 Eddie Wineland
15 Cody Garbrandt
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Chad Mendes
4 Max Holloway
5 Ricardo Lamas
6 Cub Swanson
7 Charles Oliveira
8 Dennis Bermudez
9 Jeremy Stephens
10 Hacran Dias
11 Darren Elkins
12 Brian Ortega
13 Tatsuya Kawajiri
14 Clay Guida +1
15 Mirsad Bektic *NR
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Rafael Dos Anjos
1 Eddie Alvarez
2 Khabib Nurmagomedov
3 Anthony Pettis
4 Tony Ferguson
5 Nate Diaz
6 Donald Cerrone +3
7 Michael Johnson -1
7 Beneil Dariush
9 Edson Barboza -1
10 Dustin Poirier
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Bobby Green
13 Evan Dunham
14 Michael Chiesa
15 Rashid Magomedov
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Robbie Lawler
1 Rory MacDonald
2 Stephen Thompson
3 Tyron Woodley
4 Carlos Condit
5 Johny Hendricks
6 Demian Maia
7 Neil Magny
8 Matt Brown
9 Dong Hyun Kim
10 Tarec Saffiedine
11 Rick Story
12 Kelvin Gastelum
13 Albert Tumenov
14 Hector Lombard
15 Thiago Alves
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Luke Rockhold
1 Chris Weidman
2 Jacare Souza
3 Vitor Belfort
4 Michael Bisping
5 Lyoto Machida
6 Anderson Silva
7 Robert Whittaker
8 Gegard Mousasi
9 Tim Kennedy
10 Uriah Hall
11 Derek Brunson
12 Thales Leites
13 Rafael Natal
14 Dan Henderson
15 CB Dollaway
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Jon Jones
2 Anthony Johnson
3 Alexander Gustafsson
4 Glover Teixeira
5 Ryan Bader
6 Ovince Saint Preux
7 Rashad Evans
8 Mauricio Rua
9 Jimi Manuwa
10 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
11 Patrick Cummins
12 Corey Anderson
13 Ilir Latifi
14 Nikita Krylov
15 Gian Villante
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Fabricio Werdum
1 Cain Velasquez
2 Stipe Miocic
3 Alistair Overeem
4 Junior Dos Santos +1
5 Andrei Arlovski +1
6 Ben Rothwell -2
7 Travis Browne
8 Mark Hunt
9 Josh Barnett
10 Roy Nelson +1
11 Frank Mir -1
12 Antonio Silva
13 Derrick Lewis *NR
14 Ruslan Magomedov -1
15 Alexey Oliynyk -1
WOMEN'S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Carla Esparza
3 Rose Namajunas
4 Tecia Torres
5 Jessica Penne
6 Valerie Letourneau
7 Paige VanZant
8 Maryna Moroz +1
9 Michelle Waterson -1
10 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
11 Joanne Calderwood
12 Randa Markos
13 Jessica Aguilar
14 Juliana Lima
15 Justine Kish
WOMEN'S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Miesha Tate
1 Holly Holm
2 Ronda Rousey
3 Cat Zingano
4 Amanda Nunes
5 Julianna Pena
6 Sara McMann
7 Jessica Eye
8 Bethe Correia
9 Liz Carmouche
10 Valentina Shevchenko +1
11 Raquel Pennington +1
12 Germaine de Randamie +1
13 Lauren Murphy +1
14 Marion Reneau +1
15 Ashlee Evans-Smith *NR
Notes:
--Sarah Kaufman bounced from women's bantamweight rankings (previously No. 10)
--Renan Barao still eligible at bantamweight despite move to featherweight
--Donald Cerrone still eligible at lightweight despite (temporary?) move to welterweight
You can expect these standings to change this weekend -- particularly in the light heavyweight division -- as the UFC on FOX 19 event takes place inside Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, featuring Glover Teixeira vs. Rashad Evans.
Until then, let us know what you think of the latest rankings movement in the comments section below. |
Having stepped away from the dirty fight utilities have picked with the home-solar movement for a couple of weeks, I was able to take a bird’s-eye view of everything we’ve covered. I realized that I’ve flown over this debate before. This isn’t the first time I’ve watched fossil fuel-based, investor-owned utilities get into the pockets, coffers, and heads of black “leaders” and officials to nip the blossom of clean energy.
Back in 2009, when the Waxman-Markey climate bill was moving slowly through Congress, fossil fuel companies were ringing alarms about the rise of renewable energy, sounding like Andre 3 Stacks in UGK’s “International Players Anthem“:
The atmosphere is now ripped,
I’m so like a pimp,
I’m glad it’s night, so the light
from the sun
would not burn me on my bum
When I shoot the moon, high jump the broom,
like a preemie out the womb,
my partner yelling, ‘Too soon!
Don’t do it! Reconsider!
Read some liter-
ature on the subject.
Using black and brown voices to Auto-Tune melodies for communities of color, the fossil fuel and utility companies were singing: It’s “too soon” for solar; Don’t let the sun burn our asses; Reconsider these clean energy proposals; Read this literature from our fossil fuel factory researchers to understand what we’re talking about.
At a July 2009 Senate hearing, National Black Chamber of Commerce President Harry Alford, made the case that the climate bill would cause home heating bills to skyrocket, and for African Americans and Latinos most especially. To back up his claims, he held up a report from CRA International, which represents the interest of electric utilities and gas companies. The report also claimed clean energy would cost the nation jobs. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) challenged Alford’s CRA study, pointing out that it was funded by Exxon Mobil, a fossil fuel giant that was fighting the bill. Alford’s chamber of commerce also was on Exxon’s contribution rolls, having accepted $350,000, at the time, from the oil and gas company since 1998.
Alford wasn’t — isn’t — the only black voice on the take from fossil fuel energy. A few years before the climate bill, a coal lobby group called Center for Energy and Economic Development was gifting groups like the National Institute for Latino Development, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Alford’s Black Chamber of Commerce with studies like this one, saying that the Kyoto Climate Change agreement would threaten the economic well-being of African Americans and Latinos.
Independent studies, including reports from the Congressional Budget Office, had been showing that laws for curbing climate change and boosting renewable energy would actually save families money on their electric bills. But the fossil fuel lobbies made enough of an impression that two members of the Congressional Black Caucus ended up voting against the Waxman-Markey bill, including then-Rep. Artur Davis (Ala.), in one of his earliest signals of his eventual turn toward the GOP. Davis, of course, cited jobs and electric bills in explaining his nay vote.
The players have changed somewhat today, but the game is still the same. The main player these days is Edison Electric Institute, an electric utility lobby that’s been using the voices of African-American and Latino-American elected officials to attack the spread of home-produced solar energy. They’ve zeroed in on net metering policies, which allow solar households to sell excess electricity they generate back to utility companies and roll back their electric bill costs in the process.
Utility companies are concerned that net metering its cutting into profits paid to utility shareholders. Perhaps they underestimated how quickly distributed solar generation would spread — installed solar capacity has grown 418 percent since 2010. They’re now waging war on net metering by convincing some black and brown officials that solar is the exclusive province of white, wealthy households that are being subsidized by non-solar residents, particularly people of color and the low income. Consequently, utility companies will have no alternative, they contend, but to make up for the revenue they’re losing by increasing fees in electric bills, which will disproportionately burden poor households.
Some black elected officials have simply accepted this fate for their constituents instead of challenging the utility companies, and have been echoing the utilities’ calls for increasing fees for electricity. Here’s a passage from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators report on solar net metering policies, commenting on the rise of non-utility generated, rooftop solar, or what’s referred to as “distributive generation”:
We are concerned about the regressive nature of the cost-shifting that results from the net metering policies used to make [distributive generation] appear to be a more attractive financial proposition. … Left unaddressed, policymakers risk the creation of an “energy divide” alongside the already established income gap where low and fixed income consumers and large swaths of minority consumers subsidize new distributed generation services for higher-income customers.
Of course, there’s already an energy divide that’s long been in place under the rule of the current fossil fuel-based utility system. The Black State Legislators report acknowledges the divide, but spends no ink grappling with the utility companies’ culpability in creating it — only that solar distributed generation will make it worse.
The two sources cited in the report to back up its claims come from fossil fuel lobbies: American Electric Power and the American Coalition for Clean Coal and Electricity, a major donor contributor to associations comprised of black elected officials.
The Black State Legislators group’s energy, transportation, and environment committee chair, former Florida state Rep. Joe Gibbons, promoted the report at a briefing for Congressional Black Caucus staffers late last month. Standing by his side was David Owens, an executive for Edison Electric, which has produced its own report on the supposed financial damages solar will bring. Edison’s position on this mirrors that of the notorious lobbying group ALEC, which has found its way into the anti-net metering resolutions of black organizations like the National Policy Alliance.
An attendee of the Congressional Black Caucus briefing told me that Owens and Gibbons claimed solar distributed generation would mean lost job opportunities for African Americans. Bang-up job the utilities are doing on the employment front so far. Here’s a snippet from the American Association of Blacks in Energy 2011 report “Energy, Economics, and the Environment: Effects on African Americans”:
Over the past 20 years there has been a 28% decrease in overall energy sector employment, and an increase of 35% in overall employment. As a consequence, despite the fact that the fraction of energy employees who are black has risen from 6% to 8% over this time period, the total percentage of blacks employed in the U.S. energy sector has fallen from around 1.8% in 1983, to 1.1% today.
That Gibbons is willing to stand alongside utility execs and peddle reports marked exclusively with their imprimatur tells us a lot about what these anti-net metering policies are really about. They’re not about equity or social justice, like the Black State Legislators report purports. It’s just fossil fuel companies singing the same tired songs, this time with new black and brown voices for payola. (I reached Gibbons by phone this week to comment. He said we could talk about next week.)
Fortunately, there are voices of color that have been standing up to the utilities and their front-men-of-color, as was the case in 2009. Back during the Senate hearing when Nation Black Chamber of Commerce President Alford argued against the climate bill on fossil fuel interest’s behalf, Sen. Boxer was able to counter with a pro-climate bill resolution from the NAACP. Today, elected officials and advocates have substantial data from the NAACP’s “Just Energy Policies” report to lean on when the utilities come a-singin’.
Late last month, a coalition of black and Latino organizations wrote a letter to Congressional Black Caucus Chair Marcia Fudge in support of solar, writing, “Rooftop solar and net metering deliver solutions that are vital to our communities, save lives by improving air quality, and provide economic benefits by lowering energy bills and creating jobs. To achieve a cleaner, more equitable approach to energy, we must keep net metering intact.”
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Prominent Latino voices have been speaking out just as loudly against the industry propaganda. Arturo Carmona, the executive director of Presente.org, recently wrote a powerful op-ed in the Sacramento Bee about this, saying that proposals to add fees for solar are “part of an insidious effort by utility companies across the country to keep us tied to their sources of energy.”
In the op-ed, Carmona kills off claims about how net metering is wrecking the economies of communities of color:
Here in California, net metering has brought jobs and clean energy to our communities. Two-thirds of all rooftop solar installations are in middle- and low-income neighborhoods, creating more than 47,000 jobs in our state, 20 percent of them Latino. … Utility companies need to stop using Latinos and other communities of color as pawns in their power grab.
There are also people of color who understand utilities’ motivations and agendas as insiders, and who’ve been calling their bluffs. When Gibbons wrote an op-ed this past summer arguing that net metering policies are financially hampering Florida residents, he was rebuffed by E. Leon Jacobs Jr., a former Florida legislature staffer and public service commissioner. Jacobs reminded Gibbons that “the majority of new installations are for working people of median incomes,” and that it was state legislators that were driving up energy costs by refusing to remove “burdensome” taxes on solar equipment — “at the behest of big utilities.”
Responses like these show that while the utilities might keep singing the same song, people don’t have to believe the hype. |
By Doug Powers • July 21, 2013 03:49 PM
**Written by Doug Powers
What sequester?
From an Illinois Department of Human Services press release:
Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) Secretary Michelle R.B. Saddler today announced that the state was awarded a $4.1 million bonus for its effective administration of the Supplemental Food and Nutrition Program (SNAP). Illinois was recognized for its accuracy rate of 98.3 percent, which ranked sixth in the nation in fiscal year 2012.
What amount of money did taxpayers lose due to ineffective administration?
Just more than 2 million people in the state, or 16 percent of the population, are enrolled in the federally managed SNAP. Washington D.C., sent Illinois $3 billion for SNAP last year. The numbers: 1.74 percent of $3 billion is $52 million. That’s a lot of taxpayer waste.
[…]
Dabrowksi said Illinois saw its food stamp population jump 11.5 percent last year.
In 2011, the Obama administration gave Oregon a $5 million bonus for its efficient and speedy expansion of the food stamp roles.
The national food stamp roles continue to skyrocket as well (click to enlarge):
That’s terrific economic stimulus, according to the Secretary of Agriculture.
Note: I made a correction in the title. The original version said $4.2 million. The correct number is $4.1 million.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe |
Hafez al-Assad (Arabic: حافظ الأسد Ḥāfiẓ al-ʾAsad, Levantine Arabic: [ˈħaːfezˤ elˈʔasad], Modern Standard Arabic: [ħaːfɪðˤ al'ʔasad]; 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian politician who served as President of Syria from 1971 to 2000. He was also Prime Minister from 1970 to 1971, as well as Regional Secretary of the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and Secretary General of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000.
Assad participated in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état which brought the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power, and the new leadership appointed him Commander of the Syrian Air Force. In 1966, Assad participated in a second coup, which toppled the traditional leaders of the Ba'ath Party and brought a radical military faction headed by Salah Jadid to power. Assad was appointed defense minister by the new government. Four years later, Assad initiated a third coup which ousted Jadid, and appointed himself as the undisputed leader of Syria.
Assad de-radicalised the Ba'ath government when he took power by giving more space to private property and by strengthening the country's foreign relations with countries which his predecessor had deemed reactionary. He sided with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in turn for support against Israel, and, while he had forsaken the pan-Arab concept of unifying the Arab world into one Arab nation, he sought to make Syria the defender of Arab interests against Israel. When he came to power, Assad organised state services along sectarian lines (the Sunnis became the heads of political institutions, while the Alawites took control of the military, intelligence, and security apparatuses). The formerly collegial powers of Ba'athist decision-making were curtailed, and were transferred to the Syrian presidency. The Syrian government ceased to be a one-party system in the normal sense of the word, and was turned into a one-party state with a strong presidency. To maintain this system, a cult of personality centered on Assad and his family was created by the president and Ba'ath party.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Having become the main source of initiative inside the Syrian government, Assad began looking for a successor. His first choice was his brother Rifaat, but Rifaat attempted to seize power in 1983–84 when Hafez's health was in doubt. Rifaat was subsequently exiled when Hafez's health recovered. Hafez's next choice of successor was his eldest son, Bassel. However Bassel died in a car accident in 1994, and Hafez turned to his third choice—his younger son Bashar, who at that time had no political experience. This move was met with criticism within some quarters of the Syrian ruling class, but Assad persisted with his plan and demoted several officials who opposed this succession. Hafez died in 2000 and Bashar succeeded him as President.
Early life and education: 1930–1950 [ edit ]
Family [ edit ]
Hafez was born on 6 October 1930 in Qardaha to an Alawite family of the Kalbiyya tribe. His parents were Na'sa and Ali Sulayman al-Assad. Hafez was Ali's ninth son, and the fourth from his second marriage. Sulayman married twice, had eleven children and was known for his strength and shooting abilities; locals nicknamed him Wahhish (wild beast). By the 1920s he was respected locally, and like many others he initially opposed the French Mandate for Syria. Nevertheless, Ali Sulayman later cooperated with the French administration and was appointed to an official post. For his accomplishments he was called "al-Assad" (a lion) by local residents and in 1927 made the nickname his surname. in 1936, he was one of 80 Alawite notables who signed a letter addressed to the French Prime Minister saying that "[the] Alawi people rejected attachment to Syria and wished to stay under French protection."
Education and early political career [ edit ]
Alawites initially opposed a united Syrian state (since they thought their status as a religious minority would endanger them), and Hafez's father shared this belief. As the French left Syria, many Syrians mistrusted Alawites because of their alignment with France. Hafez left his Alawite village, beginning his education at age nine in Sunni-dominated Latakia. He was the first in his family to attend high school, but in Latakia Assad faced Sunni anti-Alawite bias. He was an excellent student, winning several prizes at about age 14. Assad lived in a poor, predominantly Alawite part of Latakia; to fit in, he approached political parties that welcomed Alawites. These parties (which also espoused secularism) were the Syrian Communist Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and the Arab Ba'ath Party; Assad joined the latter in 1946, and some of his friends belonged to the SSNP. The Ba'ath (Renaissance) Party espoused a pan-Arabist, socialist ideology.
Assad was an asset to the party, organizing Ba'ath student cells and carrying the party's message to the poor sections of Latakia and Alawite villages. He was opposed by the Muslim Brotherhood, which was allied with wealthy and conservative Muslim families. His high school accommodated students from rich and poor families, and Assad was joined by poor, anti-establishment Sunni Muslim youth from the Ba'ath Party in confrontations with students from wealthy Brotherhood families. He made many Sunni friends, some of whom later became his political allies. While still a teenager, Assad became increasingly prominent in the party as an organizer and recruiter, head of his school's student-affairs committee from 1949 to 1951 and president of the Union of Syrian Students. During his political activism in school, he met many men who would serve him when he was president.
Air Force career: 1950–1958 [ edit ]
Hafez al-Assad (above) standing on the wing of a Fiat G.46 -4B with fellow cadets at the Syrian AF Academy outside Aleppo , 1951–52
After graduating from high school, Assad aspired to be a medical doctor, but his father could not pay for his study at the Jesuit University of St. Joseph in Beirut. Instead, in 1950 he decided to join the Syrian Armed Forces. Assad entered the military academy in Homs, which offered free food, lodging and a stipend. He wanted to fly, and entered the flying school in Aleppo in 1950. Assad graduated in 1955, after which he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Syrian Air Force. Upon graduation from flying school he won a best-aviator trophy, and shortly afterwards was assigned to the Mezze air base near Damascus. In his early 20s, he married Anisa Makhlouf in 1957, a distant relative of a powerful family.
In 1954, the military split in a revolt against President Adib Shishakli. Hashim al-Atassi, head of the National Bloc and briefly president after Sami al-Hinnawi's coup, returned as president and Syria was again under civilian rule. After 1955, Atassi's hold on the country was increasingly shaky. As a result of the 1955 election Atassi was replaced by Shukri al-Quwatli, who was president before Syria's independence from France. The Ba'ath Party grew closer to the Communist Party not because of shared ideology, but a shared opposition to the West. At the academy Assad met Mustafa Tlass, his future minister of defense. In 1955, Assad was sent to Egypt for a further six months of training. When Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956, Syria feared retaliation from the United Kingdom, and Assad flew in an air-defense mission. He was among the Syrian pilots who flew to Cairo to show Syria's commitment to Egypt. After finishing a course in Egypt the following year, Assad returned to a small air base near Damascus. During the Suez Crisis, he also flew a reconnaissance mission over northern and eastern Syria. In 1957, as squadron commander, Assad was sent to the Soviet Union for training in flying MiG-17s. He spent ten months in the Soviet Union, during which he fathered a daughter (who died as an infant while he was abroad) with his wife.
In 1958 Syria and Egypt formed the United Arab Republic (UAR), separating themselves from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey (who were aligned with the United Kingdom). This pact led to the rejection of Communist influence in favor of Egyptian control over Syria. All Syrian political parties (including the Ba'ath Party) were dissolved, and senior officers—especially those who supported the Communists—were dismissed from the Syrian armed forces. Assad, however, remained in the army and rose quickly through the ranks. After reaching the rank of captain he was transferred to Egypt, continuing his military education with future president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak.
Runup to 1963 coup: 1958–1963 [ edit ]
Assad was not content with a professional military career, regarding it as a gateway to politics. After the creation of the UAR, Ba'ath Party leader Michel Aflaq was forced by Nasser to dissolve the party. During the UAR's existence, the Ba'ath Party experienced a crisis for which several of its members—mostly young—blamed Aflaq. To resurrect the Syrian Regional Branch of the party, Muhammad Umran, Salah Jadid, Assad and others established the Military Committee. In 1957–58 Assad rose to a dominant position in the Military Committee, which mitigated his transfer to Egypt. After Syria left the UAR in September 1961, Assad and other Ba'athist officers were removed from the military by the new government in Damascus, and he was given a minor clerical position at the Ministry of Transport.
Assad played a minor role in the failed 1962 military coup, for which he was jailed in Lebanon and later repatriated. That year, Aflaq convened the 5th National Congress of the Ba'ath Party (where he was reelected as the Secretary General of the National Command) and ordered the re-establishment of the party's Syrian Regional Branch. At the Congress, the Military Committee (through Umran) established contacts with Aflaq and the civilian leadership. The committee requested permission to seize power by force, and Aflaq agreed to the conspiracy. After the success of the Iraqi coup d'état led by the Ba'ath Party's Iraqi Regional Branch, the Military Committee hastily convened to launch a Ba'athist military coup in March 1963 against President Nazim al-Kudsi (which Assad helped plan). The coup was scheduled for 7 March, but he announced a postponement (until the next day) to the other units. During the coup Assad led a small group to capture the Dumayr air base, 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Damascus. His group was the only one that encountered resistance. Some planes at the base were ordered to bomb the conspirators, and because of this Assad hurried to reach the base before dawn. Because the 70th Armored Brigade's surrender took longer than anticipated, however, he arrived in broad daylight. When Assad threatened the base commander with shelling, the commander negotiated a surrender; Assad later claimed that the base could have withstood his forces.
Early Ba'ath Party rule: 1963–1970 [ edit ]
Aflaqite leadership: 1963–1966 [ edit ]
Military work [ edit ]
Not long after Assad's election to the Regional Command, the Military Committee ordered him to strengthen the committee's position in the military establishment. Assad may have received the most important job of all, since his primary goal was to end factionalism in the Syrian military and make it a Ba'ath monopoly; as he said, he had to create an "ideological army". To help with this task Assad recruited Zaki al-Arsuzi, who indirectly (through Wahib al-Ghanim) inspired him to join the Ba'ath Party when he was young. Arsuzi accompanied Assad on tours of military camps, where Arsuzi lectured the soldiers on Ba'athist thought. In gratitude for his work, Assad gave Arsuzi a government pension. Assad continued his Ba'athification of the military by appointing loyal officers to key positions and ensuring that the "political education of the troops was not neglected". He demonstrated his skill as a patient planner during this period. As Patrick Seale wrote, Assad's mastery of detail "suggested the mind of an intelligence officer".
Assad was promoted to major and then to lieutenant colonel, and by the end of 1963 was in charge of the Syrian Air Force. By the end of 1964 he was named commander of the Air Force, with the rank of major general. Assad gave privileges to Air Force officers, appointed his confidants to senior and sensitive positions and established an efficient intelligence network. Air Force Intelligence, under the command of Muhammad al-Khuli, became independent of Syria's other intelligence organizations and received assignments beyond Air Force jurisdiction. Assad prepared himself for an active role in the power struggles that lay ahead.
Power struggle and 1966 coup [ edit ]
In the aftermath of the 1963 coup, at the First Regional Congress (held 5 September 1963) Assad was elected to the Syrian Regional Command (the highest decision-making body in the Syrian Regional Branch). While not a leadership role, it was Assad's first appearance in national politics; in retrospect, he said he positioned himself "on the left" in the Regional Command. Khalid al-Falhum, a Palestinian who would later work for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), met Assad in 1963; he noted that Assad was a strong leftist "but was clearly not a communist", committed instead to Arab nationalism.
During the 1964 Hama riot, Assad voted to suppress the uprising violently if needed. The decision to suppress the Hama riot led to a schism in the Military Committee between Umran and Jadid. Umran opposed force, instead wanting the Ba'ath Party to create a coalition with other pan-Arab forces. Jadid desired a strong one-party state, similar to those in the communist countries of Europe. Assad, as junior partner, kept quiet at first but eventually allied himself with Jadid. Why Assad chose to side with him has been widely discussed; he probably shared Jadid's radical ideological outlook. Having lost his footing on the Military Committee, Umran aligned himself with Aflaq and the National Command; he told them that the Military Committee was planning to seize power in the party by ousting them. Because of Umran's defection, Rifaat al-Assad (Assad's brother) succeeded Umran as commander of a secret military force tasked with protecting Military Committee loyalists.
In its bid to seize power the Military Committee allied themselves with the regionalists, a group of cells in the Syrian Regional Branch that refused to disband in 1958 when ordered to do so. Although Aflaq considered these cells traitors, Assad called them the "true cells of the party"; this again highlighted differences between the Military Committee and the National Command headed by Aflaq. At the Eighth National Congress in 1965 Assad was elected to the National Command, the party's highest decision-making body. From his position as part of the National Command, Assad informed Jadid on its activities. After the congress, the National Command dissolved the Syrian Regional Command; Aflaq proposed Salah al-Din al-Bitar as prime minister, but Assad and Brahim Makhous opposed Bitar's nomination. According to Seale, Assad abhorred Aflaq; he considered him an autocrat and a rightist, accusing him of "ditching" the party by ordering the dissolution of the Syrian Regional Branch in 1958. Assad, who also disliked Aflaq's supporters, nevertheless opposed a show of force against the Aflaqites. In response to the imminent coup Assad, Naji Jamil, Husayn Mulhim and Yusuf Sayigh left for London.
In the 1966 Syrian coup d'état, the Military Committee overthrew the National Command. The coup led to a permanent schism in the Ba'ath movement, the advent of neo-Ba'athism and the establishment of two centers of the international Ba'athist movement: one Iraqi- and the other Syrian-dominated.
Jadid as strongman: 1966–1970 [ edit ]
Beginning [ edit ]
After the coup, Assad was appointed Minister of Defense. This was his first cabinet post, and through his position he would be thrust into the forefront of the Syrian–Israeli conflict. His government was radically socialist, and sought to remake society from top to bottom. Although Assad was a radical, he opposed the headlong rush for change. Despite his title, he had little power in the government and took more orders than he issued. Jadid was the undisputed leader at the time, opting to remain in the office of Assistant Regional Secretary of the Syrian Regional Command instead of taking executive office (which had historically been held by Sunnis). Nureddin al-Atassi was given three of the four top executive positions in the country: President, Secretary-General of the National Command and Regional Secretary of the Syrian Regional Command. The post of prime minister was given to Yusuf Zu'ayyin. Jadid (who was establishing his authority) focused on civilian issues and gave Assad de facto control of the Syrian military, considering him no threat.
During the failed coup d'état of late 1966, Salim Hatum tried to overthrow Jadid's government. Hatum (who felt snubbed when he was not appointed to the Regional Command after the February 1966 coup d'état) sought revenge and the return to power of Hammud al-Shufi, the first Regional Secretary of the Regional Command after the Syrian Regional Branch's re-establishment in 1963. When Jadid, Atassi and Regional Command member Jamil Shayya visited Suwayda, forces loyal to Hatum surrounded the city and captured them. In a twist of fate, the city's Druze elders forbade the murder of their guests and demanded that Hatum wait. Jadid and the others were placed under house arrest, with Hatum planning to kill them at his first opportunity. When word of the mutiny spread to the Ministry of Defense, Assad ordered the 70th Armored Brigade to the city. By this time Hatum, a Druze, knew that Assad would order the bombardment of Suwayda (a Druze-dominated city) if Hatum did not accede to his demands. Hatum and his supporters fled to Jordan, where they were given asylum. How Assad learned about the conspiracy is unknown, but Mustafa al-Hajj Ali (head of Military Intelligence) may have telephoned the Ministry of Defense. Due to his prompt action, Assad earned Jadid's gratitude.
In the aftermath of the attempted coup Assad and Jadid purged the party's military organization, removing 89 officers; Assad removed an estimated 400 officers, Syria's largest military purge to date. The purges, which began when the Ba'ath Party took power in 1963, had left the military weak. As a result, when the Six-Day War broke out, Syria had no chance of victory.
Seizing power [ edit ]
The Arab defeat in the Six-Day War, in which Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria, provoked a furious quarrel among Syria's leadership. The civilian leadership blamed military incompetence, and the military responded by criticizing the civilian leadership (led by Jadid). Several high-ranking party members demanded Assad's resignation, and an attempt was made to vote him out of the Regional Command, the party's highest decision-making body. The motion was defeated by one vote, with Abd al-Karim al-Jundi (who the anti-Assad members hoped would succeed Assad as defense minister) voting, as Patrick Seale put it, "in a comradely gesture" to retain him. During the end of the war, the party leadership freed Aflaqites Umran, Amin al-Hafiz and Mansur al-Atrash from prison. Shortly after his release, Hafiz was approached by dissident Syrian military officers to oust the government; he refused, believing that a coup at that time would have helped Israel, but not Syria.
The war was a turning point for Assad (and Ba'athist Syria in general), and his attempted ouster began a power struggle with Jadid for control of the country. Until then Assad had not shown ambition for high office, arousing little suspicion in others. From the 1963 Syrian coup d'état to the Six-Day War in 1967, Assad did not play a leading role in politics and was usually overshadowed by his contemporaries. As Patrick Seale wrote, he was "apparently content to be a solid member of the team without the aspiration to become number one". Although Jadid was slow to see Assad's threat, shortly after the war Assad began developing a network in the military and promoted friends and close relatives to high positions.
Differences with Jadid [ edit ]
Assad believed that Syria's defeat in the Six-Day War was Jadid's fault, and the accusations against himself were unjust. By this time Jadid had total control of the Regional Command, whose members supported his policies. Assad and Jadid began to differ on policy; Assad believed that Jadid's policy of a people's war (an armed-guerrilla strategy) and class struggle had failed Syria, undermining its position. Although Jadid continued to champion the concept of a people's war even after the Six-Day War, Assad opposed it. He felt that the Palestinian guerrilla fighters had been given too much autonomy and had raided Israel constantly, which in turn sparked the war. Jadid had broken diplomatic relations with countries he deemed reactionary, such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Because of this, Syria did not receive aid from other Arab countries. Egypt and Jordan, who participated in the war, received £135 million per year for an undisclosed period.
While Jadid and his supporters prioritised socialism and the "internal revolution", Assad wanted the leadership to focus on foreign policy and the containment of Israel. The Ba'ath Party was divided over several issues, such as how the government could best use Syria's limited resources, the ideal relationship between the party and the people, the organization of the party and whether the class struggle should end. These subjects were discussed heatedly in Ba'ath Party conclaves, and when they reached the Fourth Regional Congress the two sides were irreconcilable.
Assad wanted to "democratize" the party by making it easier for people to join. Jadid was wary of too large a membership, believing that the majority of those who joined were opportunists. Assad, in an interview with Patrick Seale in the 1980s, stated that such a policy would make Party members believe they were a privileged class. Another problem, Assad believed, was the lack of local-government institutions. Under Jadid, there was no governmental level below the Council of Ministers (the Syrian government). When the Ba'athist Iraqi Regional Branch (which continued to support the Aflaqite leadership) took control of Iraq in the 17 July Revolution, Assad was one of the few high-level politicians wishing to reconcile with them; he called for the establishment of an "Eastern Front" with Iraq against Israel in 1968. Jadid's foreign policy towards the Soviet Union was also criticised by Assad, who believed it had failed. In many ways the relationship between the countries was poor, with the Soviets refusing to acknowledge Jadid's scientific socialism and Soviet newspapers calling him a "hothead". Assad, on the contrary, called for greater pragmatism in decision-making.
"Duality of power" [ edit ]
At a meeting someone raised the case of X. Should he not be brought back? Asad gave the questioner a hard look but said nothing. A little later the subject came up again and this time Asad said: I've heard something disagreeable about this officer. When he was on a course in England in 1954, his brother wrote asking for help for their sick mother. X took a £5 note out of his pocket, held it up and said he wouldn't part with it to save her life. Anyone who can't be loyal to his mother is not going to be loyal to the air force. —General Fu'ad Kallas on the importance in which Assad laid on personal loyalty
The conflict between Assad and Jadid became the talk of the army and the party, with a "duality of power" noted between them. Shortly after the failed attempt to expel Assad from the Regional Command, he began to consolidate his position in the military establishment —for example, by replacing Chief of Staff Ahmad al-Suwaydani with his friend Mustafa Tlass. Although Suwaydani's relationship with Jadid had deteriorated, he was removed because of his complaints about "Alawi influence in the army". Tlass was later appointed Assad's Deputy Minister of Defense (his second-in-command). Others removed from their positions were Ahmad al-Mir (a founder and former member of the Military Committee, and former commander of the Golan Front) and Izzat Jadid (a close supporter of Jadid and commander of the 70th Armoured Brigade).
By the Fourth Regional Congress and Tenth National Congress in September and October 1968, Assad had extended his grip on the army, and Jadid still controlled the party. At both congresses, Assad was outvoted on most issues, and his arguments were firmly rejected. While he failed in most of his attempts, he had enough support to remove two socialist theoreticians (Prime Minister Yusuf Zu'ayyin and Minister of Foreign Affairs Brahim Makhous) from the Regional Command. However, the military's involvement in party politics was unpopular with the rank and file; as the gulf between Assad and Jadid widened, the civilian and military party bodies were forbidden to contact each other. Despite this, Assad was winning the race to accumulate power. As Munif al-Razzaz (ousted in the 1966 Syrian coup d'état) noted, "Jadid's fatal mistake was to attempt to govern the army through the party".
While Assad had taken control of the armed forces through his position as Minister of Defense, Jadid still controlled the security and intelligence sectors through Abd al-Karim al-Jundi (head of the National Security Bureau). Jundi—a paranoid, cruel man—was feared throughout Syria. In February 1969, the Assad-Jadid conflict erupted in violent clashes through their respective proteges: Rifaat al-Assad (Assad's brother and a high-ranking military commander) and Jundi. The reason for the violence was Rifaat al-Assad's suspicion that Jundi was planning an attempt on Assad's life. The suspected assassin was interrogated and confessed under torture. Acting on this information, Rifaat al-Assad argued that unless Jundi was removed from his post he and his brother were in danger.
From 25 to 28 February 1969, the Assad brothers initiated "something just short of a coup". Under Assad's authority, tanks were moved into Damascus and the staffs of al-Ba'ath and al-Thawra (two party newspapers) and radio stations in Damascus and Aleppo were replaced with Assad loyalists. Latakia and Tartus, two Alawite-dominated cities, saw "fierce scuffles" ending with the overthrow of Jadid's supporters from local posts. Shortly afterwards, a wave of arrests of Jundi loyalists began. On 2 March, after a telephone argument with head of military intelligence Ali Dhadha, Jundi committed suicide. When Zu'ayyin heard the news he wept, saying "we are all orphaned now" (referring to his and Jadid's loss of their protector). Despite his rivalry with Jundi, Assad is said to have also wept when he heard the news.
Assad was now in control, but he hesitated to push his advantage. Jadid continued to rule Syria, and the Regional Command was unchanged. However, Assad influenced Jadid to moderate his policies. Class struggle was muted, criticism of reactionary tendencies of other Arab states ceased, some political prisoners were freed, a coalition government was formed (with the Ba'ath Party in control) and the Eastern Front—espoused by Assad—was formed with Iraq and Jordan. Jadid's isolationist policies were curtailed, and Syria reestablished diplomatic relations with many of its foes. Around this time, Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt, Houari Boumediene's Algeria and Ba'athist Iraq began sending emissaries to reconcile Assad and Jadid.
1970 coup d'état [ edit ]
Assad began planning to seize power shortly after the failed Syrian military intervention in the Jordanian Black September crisis, a power struggle between the PLO and the Hashemite monarchy. While Assad had been in de facto command of Syrian politics since 1969, Jadid and his supporters still held the trappings of power. After attending Nasser's funeral, Assad returned to Syria for the Emergency National Congress (held on 30 October). At the congress Assad was condemned by Jadid and his supporters, the majority of the party's delegates. However, before attending the congress Assad ordered his loyal troops to surround the building housing the meeting. Criticism of Assad's political position continued in a defeatist tone, with the majority of delegates believing that they had lost the battle. Assad and Tlass were stripped of their government posts at the congress; these acts had little practical significance.
When the National Congress ended on 12 November 1970, Assad ordered loyalists to arrest leading members of Jadid's government. Although many mid-level officials were offered posts in Syrian embassies abroad, Jadid refused: "If I ever take power, you will be dragged through the streets until you die." Assad imprisoned him in Mezze prison until his death. The coup was calm and bloodless; the only evidence of change to the outside world was the disappearance of newspapers, radio and television stations. A Temporary Regional Command was soon established, and on 16 November the new government published its first decree.
Domestic events and policies [ edit ]
Consolidating power [ edit ]
Assad in November 1970, shortly after seizing power
According to Patrick Seale, Assad's rule "began with an immediate and considerable advantage: the government he displaced was so detested that any alternative came as a relief". He first tried to establish national unity, which he felt had been lost under the leadership of Aflaq and Jadid. Assad differed from his predecessor at the outset, visiting local villages and hearing citizen complaints. The Syrian people felt that Assad's rise to power would lead to change; one of his first acts as ruler was to visit Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, father of the Aflaqite Ba'athist Mansur al-Atrash, to honor his efforts during the Great Arab Revolution. He made overtures to the Writers' Union, rehabilitating those who had been forced underground, jailed or sent into exile for representing what radical Ba'athists called the reactionary classes: "I am determined that you shall no longer feel strangers in your own country." Although Assad did not democratize the country, he eased the government's repressive policies.
He cut prices for basic foodstuffs 15 percent, which won him support from ordinary citizens. Jadid's security services were purged, some military criminal investigative powers were transferred to the police, and the confiscation of goods under Jadid was reversed. Restrictions on travel to and trade with Lebanon were eased, and Assad encouraged growth in the private sector. While Assad supported most of Jadid's policies, he proved more pragmatic after he came to power.
Most of Jadid's supporters faced a choice: continue working for the Ba'ath government under Assad, or face repression. Assad made it clear from the beginning "that there would be no second chances". However, later in 1970 he recruited support from the Ba'athist old guard who had supported Aflaq's leadership during the 1963–1966 power struggle. An estimated 2,000 former Ba'athists rejoined the party after hearing Assad's appeal, among them party ideologist Georges Saddiqni and Shakir al-Fahham, a secretary of the founding, 1st National Congress of the Ba'ath Party in 1947. Assad ensured that they would not defect to the pro-Aflaqite Ba'ath Party in Iraq with the Treason Trials in 1971, in which he prosecuted Aflaq, Amin al-Hafiz and nearly 100 followers (most in absentia). The few who were convicted were not imprisoned long, and the trials were primarily symbolic.
At the 11th National Congress Assad assured party members that his leadership was a radical change from that of Jadid, and he would implement a "corrective movement" to return Syria to the true "nationalist socialist line". Unlike Jadid, Assad emphasised "the advancement of which all resources and manpower [would be] mobilised [was to be] the liberation of the occupied territories". This would mark a major break with his predecessors and would, according to Raymond Hinnebusch, dictate "major alterations in the course of the Ba'thist state".
Institutionalization [ edit ]
Assad turned the presidency, which had been known simply as "head of state" under Jadid, into a position of power during his rule. In many ways, the presidential authority replaced the Ba'ath Party's failed experiment with organised, military Leninism; Syria became a hybrid of Leninism and Gaullist constitutionalism. According to Raymond Hinnebusch, "as the president became the main source of initiative in the government, his personality, values, strengths and weaknesses became decisive for its direction and stability. Arguably Assad's leadership gave the government an enhanced combination of consistency and flexibility which it hitherto lacked."
Assad institutionalised a system where he had the final say, which weakened the powers of the collegial institutions of the state and party. As fidelity to the leader replaced ideological conviction later in his presidency, corruption became widespread. The state-sponsored cult of personality became pervasive; as Assad's authority strengthened at his colleagues' expense, he became the sole symbol of the government. Because Assad wanted to become an Arab leader, he considered himself a successor to Nasser since he rose to power in November 1970 (a few weeks after Nasser's death). He modeled his presidential system on Nasser's, hailed Nasser for his pan-Arabic leadership and publicly displayed photographs of Nasser with posters of himself. Pictures of Assad—often engaged in heroic activities—were ubiquitous in public places. He named a number of locations and institutions after himself and family members. In schools, children were taught songs praising Assad. Teachers began each lesson with the song "Our Eternal Leader, Hafez al-Assad", and he was sometimes portrayed with seemingly divine attributes. Sculptures and portraits depicted him with the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, and after his mother's death the government produced portraits of her with a halo. Syrian officials were compelled to call Assad "the sanctified one" ("al-Muqaddas"). This strategy was also pursued by his son, Bashar al-Assad.
While Assad did not rule alone, he increasingly had the last word; those with whom he worked eventually became lieutenants, rather than colleagues. None of the political elite would question a decision of his, and those who did were dismissed. General Naji Jamil is an example, being dismissed after he disagreed with Assad's handling of the Islamic uprising. The two highest decision-making bodies were the Regional Command and the National Command, both part of the Ba'ath Party. Joint sessions of these bodies resembled politburos in socialist states which espoused communism. Assad headed the National Command and the Regional Command as Secretary General and Regional Secretary, respectively. The Regional Command was the highest decision-making body in Syria, appointing the president and (through him) the cabinet. As presidential authority strengthened, the power of the Regional Command and its members evaporated. The Regional and National Commands were nominally responsible to the Regional Congress and the National Congress—with the National Congress the de jure superior body—but the Regional Congress had de facto authority. The National Congress, which included delegates from Ba'athist Regional Branches in other countries, has been compared to the Comintern. It functioned as a session of the Regional Congress focusing on Syria's foreign policy and party ideology. The Regional Congress had limited accountability until the 1985 Eighth Regional Congress, the last under Assad. In 1985, responsibility for leadership accountability was transferred from the Regional Congress to the weaker National Progressive Front.
Sectarianism [ edit ]
Assad with Sunni members of the political elite: (L–R) Ahmad al-Khatib, Assad, Abdullah al-Ahmar and Mustafa Tlass
When Assad came to power, he increased Alawite dominance of the security and intelligence sectors to a near-monopoly. The coercive framework was under his control, weakening the state and party. According to Hinnebusch, the Alawite officers around Assad "were pivotal because as personal kinsmen or clients of the president, they combined privileged access to him with positions in the party and control of the levers of coercion. They were, therefore, in an unrivalled position to act as political brokers and, especially in times of crisis, were uniquely placed to shape outcomes". The leading figures in the Alawite-dominated security system had family connections; Rifaat al-Assad controlled the Struggle Companies, and Assad's son-in-law Adnan Makhluf was his second-in-command as Commander of the Presidential Guard. Other prominent figures were Ali Haydar (special-forces head), Ibrahim al-Ali (Popular Army head), Muhammad al-Khuli (head of Assad's intelligence-coordination committee) and Military Intelligence head Ali Duba. Assad controlled the military through Alawites such as Generals Shafiq Fayyad (commander of the 3rd Division), Ibrahim Safi (commander of the 1st Division) and Adnan Badr Hasan (commander of the 9th Division). During the 1990s, Assad further strengthened Alawite dominance by replacing Sunni General Hikmat al-Shihabi with General Ali Aslan as chief of staff. The Alawites, with their high status, appointed and promoted based on kinship and favor rather than professional respect. Therefore, an Alawite elite emerged from these policies. Assad's elite was non-sectarian; prominent Sunni figures at the beginning of his rule were Abdul Halim Khaddam, Shihabi, Naji Jamil, Abdullah al-Ahmar and Mustafa Tlass.
However, none of these people had a distinct power base from that of Assad. Although Sunnis held the positions of Air Force Commander from 1971 to 1994 (Jamil, Subhi Haddad and Ali Malahafji), General Intelligence head from 1970 to 2000 (Adnan Dabbagh, Ali al-Madani, Nazih Zuhayr, Fuad al-Absi and Bashir an-Najjar), Chief of Staff of the Syrian Army from 1974 to 1998 (Shihabi) and defense minister from 1972 until after Assad's death (Tlass), none had power separate from Assad or the Alawite-dominated security system. When Jamil headed the Air Force, he could not issue orders without the knowledge of Khuli (the Alawite head of Air Force Intelligence). After the failed Islamic uprising, Assad's reliance on his relatives intensified; before that, his Sunni colleagues had some autonomy. A defector from Assad's government said, "Tlass is in the army but at the same time seems as if he is not of the army; he neither binds nor loosens and has no role other than that of the tail in the beast." Another example was Shihabi, who occasionally represented Assad. However, he had no control in the Syrian military; Ali Aslan, First Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations during most of his tenure, was responsible for troop maneuvers. Although the Sunnis were in the forefront, the Alawites had the power.
Islamist uprising [ edit ]
Background [ edit ]
Assad's pragmatic policies indirectly led to the establishment of a "new class", and he accepted this while it furthered his aims against Israel. When Assad began pursuing a policy of economic liberalization, the state bureaucracy began using their positions for personal gain. The state gave implementation rights to "much of its development program to foreign firms and contractors, fueling a growing linkage between the state and private capital". What ensued was a spike in corruption, which led the political class to be "thoroughly embourgeoised". The channeling of external money through the state to private enterprises "created growing opportunities for state elites' self-enrichment through corrupt manipulation of state-market interchanges. Besides outright embezzlement, webs of shared interests in commissions and kickbacks grew up between high officials, politicians, and business interests". The Alawite military-security establishment got the greatest share of the money; the Ba'ath Party and its leaders ruled a new class, defending their interests instead of those of peasants and workers (whom they were supposed to represent). This, coupled with growing Sunni disillusionment with what Hinnebusch calls "the regime's mixture of statism, rural and sectarian favouritism, corruption and new inequalities", fueled the growth of the Islamic movement. Because of this, the Muslim Brotherhood of Syria became the vanguard of anti-Ba'athist forces.
The Brotherhood had historically been a vehicle for moderate Islam during its introduction to the Syrian political scene during the 1960s under the leadership of Mustafa al-Siba'i. After Siba'i's imprisonment, under Isam al-Attar's leadership the Brotherhood developed into the ideological antithesis of Ba'athist rule. However, the Ba'ath Party's organizational superiority worked in its favor; with Attar's enforced exile, the Muslim Brotherhood was in disarray. It was not until the 1970s that the Muslim Brotherhood established a clear, central collective authority for its organization under Adnan Saad ad-Din, Sa'id Hawwa, Ali Sadr al-Din al-Bayanuni and Husni Abu. Because of their organizational capabilities, the Muslim Brotherhood grew tenfold from 1975 to 1978 (from 500–700 in Aleppo); nationwide, by 1978 it had 30,000 followers.
Events [ edit ]
The Islamic uprising began in the mid-to-late 1970s, with attacks on prominent members of the Ba'ath Alawite elite. As the conflict worsened, a debate in the party between hard-liners (represented by Rifaat al-Assad) and Ba'ath liberals (represented by Mahmoud al-Ayyubi) began. The Seventh Regional Congress, in 1980, was held in an atmosphere of crisis. The party leadership—with the exception of Assad and his proteges—were criticised severely by party delegates, who called for an anti-corruption campaign, a new, clean government, curtailing the powers of the military-security apparatus and political liberalization. With Assad's consent, a new government (headed by the presumably clean Abdul Rauf al-Kasm) was established with new, young technocrats. The new government failed to assuage critics, and the Sunni middle class and the radical left (believing that Ba'athist rule could be overthrown with an uprising) began collaborating with the Islamists.
Section of Hama after attack by government forces
Believing they had the upper hand in the conflict, beginning in 1980 the Islamists began a series of campaigns against government installations in Aleppo; the attacks became urban guerilla warfare. The government began to lose control in the city and, inspired by events, similar disturbances spread to Hama, Homs, Idlib, Latakia, Deir ez-Zor, Maaret-en-Namen and Jisr esh-Shagour. Those affected by Ba'athist repression began to rally behind the insurgents; Ba'ath Party co-founder Bitar supported the uprising, rallying the old, anti-military Ba'athists. The increasing threat to the government's survival strengthened the hard-liners, who favored repression over concessions. Security forces began to purge all state, party and social institutions in Syria, and were sent to the northern provinces to quell the uprising. When this failed, the hard-liners began accusing the United States of fomenting the uprising and called for the reinstatement of "revolutionary vigilance". The hard-liners won the debate after a failed attempt on Assad's life in June 1980, and began responding to the uprising with state terrorism later that year. Under Rifaat al-Assad Islamic prisoners at the Tadmur prison were massacred, membership in the Muslim Brotherhood became a capital offence and the government sent a death squad to kill Bitar and Attar's former wife. The military court began condemning captured militants, which "sometimes degenerated into indiscriminate killings". Little care was taken to distinguish Muslim Brotherhood hard-liners from their passive supporters, and violence was met with violence.
The final showdown, the Hama massacre, took place in February 1982 when the government crushed the uprising. Helicopter gunships, bulldozers and artillery bombardment razed the city, killing thousands of people. The Ba'ath government withstood the uprising not because of popular support, but because the opposition was disorganised and had little urban support. Throughout the uprising, the Sunni middle class continued to support the Ba'ath Party because of its dislike of political Islam. After the uprising the government resumed its version of militaristic Leninism, reverting the liberalization introduced when Assad came to power. The Ba'ath Party was weakened by the uprising; democratic elections for delegates to the Regional and National Congresses were halted, and open discussion within the party ended. The uprising made Syria more totalitarian than ever, and strengthened Assad's position as undisputed leader of Syria.
1983–1984 succession crisis [ edit ]
In November 1983 Assad, a diabetic, had a major heart attack complicated by phlebitis;[106] this triggered a succession crisis. On 13 November, after visiting his brother in the hospital, Rifaat al-Assad reportedly announced his candidacy for president; he did not believe Assad would be able to continue ruling the country. When he did not receive support from Assad's inner circle, he made, in the words of historian Hanna Batatu, "abominably lavish" promises to win them over.
Until his 1985 ouster, Rifaat al-Assad was considered the face of corruption by the Syrian people. Although highly paid as Commander of Defense Companies, he accumulated unexplained wealth. According to Hanna Batatu, "there is no way that he could have permissibly accumulated the vast sums needed for the investments he made in real estate in Syria, Europe and the United States".
Although it is unclear if any top officials supported Rifaat al-Assad, most did not. He lacked his brother's stature and charisma, and was vulnerable to charges of corruption. His 50,000-strong Defense Companies were viewed with suspicion by the upper leadership and throughout society; they were considered corrupt, poorly disciplined and indifferent to human suffering. Rifaat al-Assad also lacked military support; officers and soldiers resented the Defense Companies' monopoly of Damascus' security, their separate intelligence services and prisons and their higher pay. He did not abandon the hope of succeeding his brother, opting to take control of the country through his post as Commander of Defense Companies. In what became known as the "poster war", personnel from the Defense Companies replaced posters of Assad in Damascus with those of Rifaat al-Assad. The security service, still loyal to Assad, responded by replacing Rifaat al-Assad's posters with Assad's. The poster war lasted for a week, until Assad's health improved.
Shortly after the poster war, all Rifaat al-Assad's proteges were removed from positions of power. This decree nearly sparked a clash between the Defense Companies and the Republican Guard on 27 February 1984, but conflict was avoided by Rifaat al-Assad's appointment as one of three Vice Presidents on 11 March. He acquired this post by surrendering his position as Commander of Defense Companies to an Assad supporter. Rifaat al-Assad was succeeded as Defense Companies head by his son-in-law. During the night of 30 March, he ordered Defense Company loyalists to seal Damascus off and advance to the city. The Republican Guard was put on alert in Damascus, and 3rd Armored Division commander Shafiq Fayyad ordered troops outside Damascus to encircle the Defense Companies blocking the roads into the city. Rifaat al-Assad's plan might have succeeded if Special Forces commander Ali Haydar supported him, but Haydar sided with the president. Assad punished Rifaat al-Assad with exile, allowing him to return in later years without a political role. The Defense Companies were reduced by 30,000–35,000 people, and their role was assumed by the Republican Guard. Makhluf, the Republican Guard commander, was promoted to major general, and Bassel al-Assad (Assad's son, an army major) became influential in the guard.
Autocracy, succession and death [ edit ]
Mausoleum of Hafez al-Assad in Qardaha
Assad's first choice of successor was his brother Rifaat al-Assad, an idea he broached as early as 1980, and his brother's coup attempt weakened the institutionalised power structure on which he based his rule. Instead of changing his policy, Assad tried to protect his power by honing his governmental model. He gave a larger role to Bassel al-Assad, who was rumored to be his father's planned successor; this kindled jealousy within the government. At a 1994 military meeting, Chief of Staff Shihabi said that since Assad wanted to normalize relations with Israel, the Syrian military had to withdraw its troops from the Golan Heights. Haydar replied angrily, "We have become nonentities. We were not even consulted." When he heard about Haydar's outburst, Assad replaced Haydar as Commander of Special Forces with the Alawite Major General Ali Habib. Haydar also reportedly opposed dynastic succession, keeping his views secret until after Bassel's death in 1994 (when Assad chose Bashar al-Assad to succeed him); he then openly criticised Assad's succession plans.
Bassel al-Assad became a security officer at the Presidential Palace in 1986, and a year later he was appointed Commander of the Defense Companies. About this time, rumors spread that Assad planned to make Bassel his successor. Bassel al-Assad continued his climb to the top; at the time of the 1991 presidential referendum, citizens were ordered to sing songs praising him. Vehicles belonging to the military and the secret police began bearing images of Bassel, and Assad began to be called the "Father of Bassel" in official media. Bassel al-Assad went on his first foreign mission representing his country, traveling to Saudi Arabia to visit King Fahd. Shortly before his death, he represented his absent father at an official event. On 21 January 1994, Bassel al-Assad died in a car accident. In his eulogy, Assad called his son's death a "national loss". Bassel al-Assad, in death, played as great a role in his country's life as he did alive: his picture appeared on walls, cars, stores, dishes, clothing and watches. The Syrian Regional Branch of the Ba'ath Party began indoctrinating youths with a Bassel al-Assad course. Almost immediately after Bassel's death, Assad began to groom his 29-year-old son Bashar al-Assad for succession.
Abdul Halim Khaddam, Syria's foreign minister from 1970 to 1984, opposed dynastic succession on the grounds that it was not socialist. Khaddam has said that Assad never discussed his intentions about succession with members of the Regional Command. By the 1990s, the Sunni faction of the leadership was aging; the Alawites, with Assad's help, had received new blood. The Sunnis were at a disadvantage, since many were opposed to any kind of dynastic succession.
After [Assad's] illness [in 1983] this matter was too sensitive to be discussed. His love for the family was even stronger than his duty as president. The decision was very wrong. This decision was in total contradiction to all laws and regulations in Syria. In the late 1990s, when he was becoming more and more sick, this sentiment grew stronger and stronger. —Abdul Halim Khaddam, on Assad's succession plans
When he returned to Syria, Bashar al-Assad enrolled in the Homs Military Academy. He was quickly promoted to Brigadier Commander, and served for a time in the Republican Guard. He studied most military subjects, "including tank battalion commander, command and staff" (the latter two of which were required for a senior command in the Syrian army). Bashar al-Assad was promoted to lieutenant general in July 1997, and to colonel in January 1999. Official sources ascribe Bashar's rapid promotion to his "overall excellence in the staff officers' course, and in the outstanding final project he submitted as part of the course for command and staff". With Bashar's training, Assad appointed a new generation of Alawite security officers to secure his succession plans. Shihabi's replacement by Aslan as Chief of Staff on 1 July 1998—Shihabi was considered a potential successor by the outside world—marked the end of the long security-apparatus overhaul. Skepticism of Assad's dynastic-succession plan was widespread within and outside the government, with critics noting that Syria was not a monarchy. By 1998 Bashar al-Assad had made inroads into the Ba'ath Party, taking over Khaddam's Lebanon portfolio (a post he had held since the 1970s). By December 1998 Bashar al-Assad had replaced Rafiq al-Hariri, Prime Minister of Lebanon and one of Khaddam's proteges, with Selim Hoss.
Several Assad proteges, who had served since 1970 or earlier, were dismissed from office between 1998 and 2000. They were sacked not because of disloyalty to Assad, but because Assad thought they would not fully support Bashar al-Assad's succession. "Retirees" included Muhammad al-Khuli, Nassir Khayr Bek and Ali Duba. Among the new appointees (Bashar loyalists) were Bahjat Sulayman, Major General Halan Khalil and Major General Asaf Shawkat (Assad's son-in-law).
By the late 1990s, Assad's health had deteriorated. American diplomats said Assad had difficulty staying focused and seemed tired during their meetings; he was seen as incapable of functioning for more than two hours a day. His spokesperson ignored the speculation, and Assad's official routine in 1999 was basically unchanged from the previous decade. Assad continued to conduct meetings, traveling abroad occasionally; he visited Moscow in July 1999. Because of his increasing seclusion from state affairs, the government became accustomed to working without his involvement in day-to-day affairs. On 10 June 2000, at the age of 69, Hafez al-Assad died of a heart attack while on the telephone with Lebanese prime minister Hoss. 40 days of mourning was declared in Syria and 7 days in Lebanon thereafter.[131] His funeral was held three days later. Assad is buried with his son, Bassel al-Assad, in a mausoleum in his hometown of Qardaha.
Economy [ edit ]
Tabqa Dam (center), built in 1974
Assad called his domestic reforms a corrective movement, and it achieved some results. He tried to modernize Syria's agricultural and industrial sectors; one of his main achievements was the completion of the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates River in 1974. One of the world's largest dams, its reservoir was called Lake Assad. The reservoir increased irrigation of arable land, provided electricity, and encouraged industrial and technical development in Syria. Many peasants and workers received increased income, social security, and better health and educational services. The urban middle class, which had been hurt by the Jadid government's policy, had new economic opportunities.
By 1977 it was apparent that despite some success, Assad's political reforms had largely failed. This was partly due to Assad's foreign policy, failed policies, natural phenomena and corruption. Chronic socioeconomic difficulties remained, and new ones appeared. Inefficiency, mismanagement, and corruption in the government, public, and private sectors, illiteracy, poor education (particularly in rural areas), increasing emigration by professionals, inflation, a growing trade deficit, a high cost of living and shortages of consumer goods were among problems faced by the country. The financial burden of Syria's involvement in Lebanon since 1976 contributed to worsening economic problems, encouraging corruption and a black market. The emerging class of entrepreneurs and brokers became involved with senior military officers—including Assad's brother Rifaat—in smuggling from Lebanon, which affected government revenue and encouraged corruption among senior governmental officials.
During the early 1980s, Syria's economy worsened; by mid-1984, the food crisis was severe, and the press was full of complaints. Assad's government sought a solution, arguing that food shortages could be avoided with careful economic planning. The food crisis continued through August, despite government measures. Syria lacked sugar, bread, flour, wood, iron and construction equipment; this resulted in soaring prices, long queues and rampant black marketeering. Smuggling goods from Lebanon became common. Assad's government tried to combat the smuggling, encountering difficulties due to the involvement of his brother Rifaat in the corruption. In July 1984, the government formed an effective anti-smuggling squad to control the Lebanon–Syria borders. The Defense Detachment commanded by Rifaat al-Assad played a leading role in the smuggling, importing $400,000 worth of goods a day. The anti-smuggling squad seized $3.8 million in goods during its first week.
The Syrian economy grew five to seven percent during the early 1990s; exports increased, the balance of trade improved, inflation remained moderate (15–18 percent) and oil exports increased. In May 1991 Assad's government liberalised the Syrian economy, which stimulated domestic and foreign private investment. Most foreign investors were Arab states around the Persian Gulf, since Western countries still had political and economic issues with the country. The Gulf states invested in infrastructure and development projects; because of the Ba'ath Party's socialist ideology, Assad's government did not privatize state-owned companies.
Syria fell into recession during the mid-1990s. Several years later, its economic growth was about 1.5 percent. This was insufficient, since population growth was between 3 and 3.5 percent. Another symptom of the crisis was statism in foreign trade. Syria's economic crisis coincided with recession in world markets. A 1998 drop in oil prices dealt a major blow to Syria's economy; when oil prices rose the following year, the Syrian economy partially recovered. In 1999, one of the worst droughts in a century caused a drop of 25–30 percent in crop yields compared with 1997 and 1998. Assad's government implemented emergency measures, including loans and compensation to farmers and the distribution of free fodder to save sheep and cattle. However, those steps were limited and had no measurable effect on the economy.
Assad's government tried to decrease population growth, but this was only marginally successful. One sign of economic stagnation was Syria's lack of progress in talks with the EU on an agreement. The main cause of this failure was the country's difficulty in meeting EU demands to open the economy and introduce reforms. Marc Pierini, head of the EU delegation in Damascus, said that if the Syrian economy was not modernised it would not benefit from closer ties to the EU. Assad's government gave civil servants a 20-percent pay raise on the anniversary of the corrective movement that brought him to power. Although the foreign press criticised Syria's reluctance to liberalize its economy, Assad's government refused to modernize the bank system, permit private banks and open a stock exchange.
Foreign policy [ edit ]
Yom Kippur War [ edit ]
Planning [ edit ]
Since the Arab defeat in the Six-Day War, Assad was convinced that the Israelis had won the war by subterfuge; after gaining power, his top foreign-policy priority was to regain the Arab territory lost in the war. Assad reaffirmed Syria's rejection of the 1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242 because he believed it stood for the "liquidation of the Palestine question". He believed, and continued to believe until long into his rule, that the only way to get Israel to negotiate with the Arabs was through war.
When Assad took power, Syria was isolated; planning an attack on Israel, he sought allies and war material. Ten weeks after gaining power, Assad visited the Soviet Union. The Soviet leadership was wary of supplying the Syrian government, viewing Assad's rise to power with reserve and believing him to lean further West than Jadid did. While he soon understood that the Soviet relationship with the Arabs would never be as deep as the United States' relationship with Israel, he needed its weapons. Unlike his predecessors (who tried to win Soviet support with socialist policies), Assad was willing to give the Soviets a stable presence in the Middle East through Syria, access to Syrian naval bases (giving them a role in the peace process) and help in curtailing American influence in the region. The Soviets responded by sending arms to Syria. The new relationship bore fruit, and between February 1971 and October 1973 Assad met several times with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Assad believed that Syria would have no chance in a war against Israel without Egyptian participation. He believed that if the United Arab Republic had not collapsed, the Arabs would already have liberated Palestine. For a war against Israel, Syria needed to establish another front. However, by this time Syria's relations with Egypt and Jordan were shaky at best. Planning for war began in 1971 with an agreement between Assad and Anwar Sadat. At the beginning, the renewed Egyptian–Syrian alliance was based upon the proposed Federation of Arab Republics (FAR), a federation initially encompassing Egypt, Libya, Sudan (which left soon after FAR's first summit) and Syria. Assad and Sadat used the FAR summits to plan war strategy, and by 1971 they had appointed Egyptian General Muhammad Sadiq supreme commander of both armies. From 1972 to 1973, the countries filled their arsenals and trained their armies. In a secret meeting of the Egyptian–Syrian Military Council from 21 to 23 August 1973, the two chiefs of staff (Syrian Yusuf Shakkur and Egyptian Sad al-Shazly) signed a document declaring their intention to go to war against Israel. During a meeting of Assad, Sadat and their respective defense ministers (Tlass and Hosni Mubarak) on 26–27 August, the two leaders decided to go to war together.
Egypt went to war for a different reason than Syria did. While Assad wanted to regain lost Arab territory, Sadat wished to strengthen Egypt's position in its peace policy toward Israel. The Syrians were deceived by Sadat and the Egyptians, which would play a major role in the Arab defeat. Egyptian Chief of Staff Shazly was convinced from the beginning that Egypt could not mount a successful full-scale offensive against Israel; therefore, he campaigned for a limited war. Sadat knew that Assad would not participate in the war if he knew his real intentions. Since the collapse of the UAR, the Egyptians were critical of the Ba'athist government; they saw it as an untrustworthy ally.
The war [ edit ]
Assad and Mustafa Tlass on the Golan front
At 14:05 on 6 October 1973, Egyptian forces (attacking through the Sinai desert) and Syrian forces (attacking the Golan Heights) crossed the border into Israel and penetrated the Israeli defense lines. The Syrian forces on the Golan Heights met with more intense fighting than their Egyptian counterparts, but by 8 October had broken through the Israeli defenses. The early successes of the Syrian army were due to its officer corps (where officers were promoted because of merit and not politics) and its ability to handle advanced Soviet weaponry: tanks, artillery batteries, aircraft, man-portable missiles, the Sagger anti-tank weapon and the 2K12 Kub anti-aircraft system on mobile launchers. With the help of these weapons, Egypt and Syria defeated Israel's armor and air supremacy. Egypt and Syria announced the war to the world first, accusing Israel of starting it, mindful of the importance of avoiding appearing as the aggressor (Israel accused the Arab powers of starting the Six-Day War when they launched Operation Focus). In any case, early Syrian successes helped rectify the loss of face they had suffered following the Six-Day War.
The main reason for the reversal of fortune was Egypt's operational pause from 7 to 14 October. After capturing parts of the Sinai, the Egyptian campaign halted and the Syrians were left fighting the Israelis alone. The Egyptian leaders, believing their war aims accomplished, dug in. While their early successes in the war had surprised them, War Minister General Ahmad Ismail Ali advised caution. In Syria, Assad and his generals waited for the Egyptians to move. When the Israeli government learned of Egypt's modest war strategy, it ordered an "immediate continuous action" against the Syrian military. According to Patrick Seale, "For three days, 7, 8, and 9 October, Syrian troops on the Golan faced the full fury of the Israeli air force as, from first light to nightfall, wave after wave of aircraft swooped down to bomb, strafe and napalm their tank concentration and their fuel and ammunition carriers right back to the Purple Line." By 9 October, the Syrians were retreating behind the Purple Line (the Israeli–Syrian border since the Six-Day War). By 13 October the war was lost, but (in contrast to the Six-Day War) the Syrians were not crushed; this earned Assad respect in Syria and abroad.
On 14 October, Egypt began a limited offensive against Israel for political reasons. Sadat needed Assad on his side for his peace policy with Israel to succeed, and military action was a means to an end. The renewed Egyptian military offensive was ill-conceived. A week later, due to Egyptian inactivity, the Israelis had organised and the Arabs had lost their most important advantage. While the military offensive gave Assad hope, this was an illusion; the Arabs had already lost the war militarily. Egypt's behavior during the war caused friction between Assad and Sadat. Assad, still inexperienced in foreign policy, believed that the Egyptian–Syrian alliance was based on trust and failed to understand Egypt's duplicity. Although it was not until after the war that Assad would learn that Sadat was in contact with American National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger almost daily during the war, the seeds of distrust had been sown. Around this time, Sadat called for an American-led ceasefire agreement between Egypt, Syria and Israel; however, he was unaware that under Kissinger's tenure the United States had become a staunch supporter of Israel.
Assad in a rage after Sadat visits Israel, 1977
On 16 October, Sadat—without telling Assad—called for a ceasefire in a speech to the People's Assembly, the Egyptian legislative body. Assad was not only surprised, but could not comprehend why Sadat trusted "American goodwill for a satisfactory result". Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin visited Cairo, urging Sadat to accept a ceasefire without the condition of Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. While Sadat was reluctant at first, Kosygin returned on 18 October with satellite images showing 300 Israeli tanks in Egyptian territory. The blow to Sadat's morale was such that he sent a cable to Assad, obliquely saying that all hope was lost. Assad, who was in a better position, was still optimistic. Under Soviet influence Egypt called for a ceasefire on 22 October 1973, direct negotiations between the warring parties and the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 242. The ceasefire resolution did not call for Israeli withdrawal from its occupied territories. Assad was annoyed, since he had not been informed beforehand of Sadat's change in policy (which affected them both). On 23 October the Syrian government accepted the ceasefire, spelling out its understanding of UN Resolution 338 (withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied territories and the safeguarding of Palestinian rights).
Lebanese Civil War [ edit ]
We did not go into Lebanon to achieve any regional ambitions, nor for any selfish or opportunistic motives. On the contrary, it was at the expense of our economy and our daily bread. —Assad, reviewing Syria's intervention in Lebanon
Syria intervened in Lebanon in 1976 during the civil war which began in 1975. With the establishment of an Egyptian–Israeli alliance, Syria was the only neighboring state which threatened Israel. Syria initially tried to mediate the conflict; when that failed, Assad ordered the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA), a regular force based in Syria with Syrian officers, troops into Lebanon to restore order. Around this time, the Israeli government opened its borders to Maronite refugees in Lebanon to strengthen its regional influence. Clashes between the Syria-loyal PLA and militants occurred throughout the country. Despite Syrian support and Khaddam's mediation, Rashid Karami (the Sunni Muslim Prime Minister of Lebanon) did not have enough support to appoint a cabinet.
In early 1976 Assad was approached by Lebanese politicians for help in forcing the resignation of Suleiman Frangieh, the Christian President of Lebanon. Although Assad was open to change, he resisted attempts by some Lebanese politicians to enlist him in Frangieh's ouster; when General Abdul Aziz al-Ahdāb attempted to seize power, Syrian troops stopped him. In the meantime, radical Lebanese leftists were gaining the upper hand in the military conflict. Kamal Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM), believed that his strong military position would compel Frangieh's resignation. Assad did not wish a leftist victory in Lebanon which would strengthen the position of the Palestinians. He did not want a rightist victory either, instead seeking a middle-ground solution which would safeguard Lebanon and the region. When Jumblatt met with Assad on 27 March 1976, he tried to persuade him to let him "win" the war; Assad replied that a ceasefire should be in effect to ensure the 1976 presidential elections. Meanwhile, on Assad's orders Syria sent troops into Lebanon without international approval.
While Yasser Arafat and the PLO had not officially taken a side in the conflict, several PLO members were fighting with the LNM. Assad attempted to steer Arafat and the PLO away from Lebanon, threatening him with a cutoff of Syrian aid. The two sides were unable to reach an agreement. When Frangieh stepped down in 1976, Syria pressured Lebanese members of parliament to elect Elias Sarkis president. One-third of the Lebanese members of parliament (primarily supporters of Raymond Edde) boycotted the election to protest American and Syrian interference.
On 31 May 1976, Syria began a full-scale intervention in Lebanon to (according to the official Syrian account) end bombardment of the Maronite cities of Qubayat and Aandqat. Before the intervention, Assad and the Syrian government were one of several interests in Lebanon; afterwards, they were the controlling factors in Lebanese politics. On Assad's orders, the Syrian troop presence slowly increased to 30,000. Syria received approval for the intervention from the United States and Israel to help them defeat Palestinian forces in Lebanon. The Ba'athist group As-Sa'iqa and the PLA's Hittīn brigade fought Palestinians who sided with the LNM.
Within a week of the Syrian intervention, Christian leaders issued a statement of support. In a 1976 diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, a US diplomat stated "if I got nothing else from my meeting with Frangie, Chamoun and Gemayel, it is their clear, unequivocal and unmistakable belief that their principal hope for saving Christian necks is Syria. They sound like Assad is the latest incarnation of the Crusaders."[177]
Muslim leaders established a joint command of all Palestinian groups except As-Sa'iqa, which was driven by the PLO to its stronghold near the main airport. Shortly afterwards, As-Sa'iqa and other leftist Damascus forces were absorbed by the Syrian military. On 8 June 1976 Syrian forces were pushed back from Sidon, encountering stiff resistance in Beirut from the LNM. Assad's actions angered much of the Arab world however and the sight of Syria trying to eliminate the PLO brought criticism upon him. There was considerable hostility to Assad's alliance with the Maronites in Syria. As a result, the Syrian government asked the Arab League to assist in the conflict. The Arab League began to mediate, establishing the Arab Deterrent Force (ADF) for peacekeeping. Syrian strategy at this point was to gradually weaken the LNM and its Palestinian collaborators, continuing to support the Christian militia. However, the Syrians were unable to capture the LNM's stronghold of Aley before the Arab League called for a ceasefire on 17 October. The Arab League strengthened the ADF to 30,000 troops, most Syrian. While some heavy fighting continued, by December 1976 and January 1977 most Palestinian and Lebanese groups had disposed of their heavy weaponry. According to Charles Winslow, the "main phase" of the Lebanese Civil War had ended by 1977; until the early 1990s most violence was attributed to turf, proxy, inter-communal and state wars. Assad used terrorism and intimidation to extend his control over Lebanon. Jumblatt died in a 1977 assassination allegedly ordered by Syria; in 1982, Syrian agents assassinated Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel (who was helped to power by the Israelis during the 1982 Lebanon War). Jumblatt and Gemayel had resisted Assad's attempts to dominate Lebanon. Assad caused the failure of the 1983 Lebanon–Israel agreement, and by proxy guerrilla warfare forced the Israeli Defense Forces to withdraw to southern Lebanon in 1985. Terrorism against Palestinians and Jordanian targets during the mid-1980s thwarted the rapprochement between King Hussein of Jordan and the PLO, slowing Jordanian–Israeli cooperation in the West Bank.
References [ edit ]
Citations |
Ads are part and parcel of being online, but they can be particularly annoying for mobile users. When playing games on a phone or tablet, it's all too easy to accidentally tap an ad you have absolutely no interest in, pulling you out of the game you were playing or the site you were reading. If you've cursed when this happened to you, Google hears you.
The company is taking steps to make the "user experience" of ads a little better. It recognizes that advertisements that get clicked accidentally don't benefit anybody. They end up irritating the clicker, and are unlikely to be of value to the company that placed the ad. With around half of ad clicks being made by mistake, Google is now taking steps to stop this from happening -- great news for users and advertisers alike.
In all, Google is making three key changes to ads that appear on smartphones and tablets, starting off by adding an unclickable border to the outer edges of advertisements. This should help to eliminate clicks that are made by mistake when trying to scroll through a page or click something else near an ad. To ensure that a tap was made on purpose, it needs to be made nearer the center of it.
Some ads can appear on screen unexpectedly -- perhaps on a popup screen. To prevent these from being accidentally clicked, Google is introducing a time delay so that ads are inactive and unclickable for a short time after they first appear.
The final changes tackles problems with in-app popup ads for other apps and games. In the past such an ad feature a clickable app icon which led to the relevant Google Play entry. Unfortunately the "close ad" cross button was part of this icon, making it incredibly easy to interact with the ad when trying to close it. From now on, the app icon will be inactive and a separate button will need to be hit to grab a copy.
Introducing the changes, Google says:
These latest click quality enhancements improve the user experience by keeping them within their desired website or app and not involuntarily taking them to another page. They also benefit advertisers by reducing costs from accidental clicks and improving conversion rates. To date, we’ve seen a 15% average conversion rate lift on display ads by driving more qualified clicks with these updates.
Photo credit: Syda Productions / Shutterstock |
How Contrarian is the Hansonian View of Medicine? By Bryan Caplan
To be honest, when Robin Hanson first told me his views on health care, I thought he was a lone nut. A brilliant lone nut, but a lone nut nonetheless. Still, my conversations with Robin inspired me to grill every health expert I came across, and with time I came to realize the Shocking Truth: Robin’s views on the health benefits of medicine were quite mainstream. Robin’s unique contribution was not in his beliefs, but in the fact that he thought that his beliefs mattered for health policy.
Don’t believe me? Here’s Dr. Mainstream, David Cutler of Harvard, responding to Robin on Cato Unbound:
If one takes the 25 percent of care that needn’t be provided and 10 percent in unnecessary administrative expense, that’s 35 percent of the nation’s medical bill that could be eliminated without loss. Allow for further savings from information technology, reduced errors, investment in disease management, or generation of comparative effectiveness information, and the savings could approach 50 percent. The potential savings are as high as Hanson guesses. As a sociological observation, I am surprised by Hanson’s argument that this hasn’t been much noted. The work of the Dartmouth team has received enormous media attention, including front page coverage in the New York Times, for example. My book suggests large possible savings as well. And the knowledge that non-medical factors are important for health has been amply documented in many contexts. If Hanson wants to add his agreement to this array of research, I’m all for it. [emphasis added]
Thus, Cutler’s response to Robin practically amounts to “Oh, everyone knows this stuff already.” But if that’s true, why aren’t there any presidential candidates eager to shout: “We need to drastically cut health care spending; half of it doesn’t do any good anyway”? The answer’s obvious: Their candidacies would go down in flames. Almost everyone who has looked at the data knows this stuff. But experts are tiny minority – and only a tiny minority of this tiny minority is eager to emphasize lessons that the world doesn’t want to hear. |
THE French presidential campaign is in full swing, with the first round scheduled for April 23rd and a likely run-off between the top two finishers on May 7th. The election has received an unusual amount of international attention because Marine Le Pen, the National Front candidate, has consistently led the polls. Her success or failure will be widely interpreted as a measure of the continued strength of nationalist populist movements, which enjoyed two triumphs last year in the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump′s election.
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The first few months of the race have been highly volatile. The stunningly unpopular incumbent president, François Hollande of the Socialist Party, chose not to stand for reelection rather than face certain defeat. François Fillon, the conservative standard-bearer of the other mainstream party, has seen his chances sink after a French newspaper revealed an ill-timed scandal involving payments to his wife.
Given the large number of candidates and the complexity of the two-stage vote, figuring out where the race stands is deceptively difficult. To provide readers with a clearer sense of what to expect, The Economist has built a statistical model to predict the outcome. First, in order to measure how accurate public surveys have been in the past, we consulted a database compiled by two political scientists, Will Jennings and Christopher Wlezien, of 642 French presidential polls taken since 1965—the first direct election during the Fifth Republic. Next, we aggregate all public polls taken during this year′s campaign, to produce a snapshot of the current state of the race. Finally, we conduct 10,000 random simulations of the election every day, each one representing a single plausible scenario given the latest polling averages, and see how often each candidate wins. Readers interested in learning more about the statistical minutiae of our efforts are invited to read the meaty technical appendix to this post.
A run-off is seen as all but certain, since polls give the leaders merely half of the majority of the first-round vote necessary to avoid one. Indeed, no candidate in French history has ever won a first-round victory. During the two weeks between ballots, the two finalists will vie to win over the supporters of their eliminated rivals. In previous elections, supporters of the mainstream left- and right-wing parties have created an informal alliance, the “front républicain”, to keep the xenophobic National Front out of office. In 2002, when Ms Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie led the National Front into the second round against the conservative Jacques Chirac, Libération, a centre-left newspaper, urged readers to “vote for the crook [meaning Mr Chirac], not the fascist [meaning Le Pen père]”. They did: Mr Chirac won more than 80% of votes. Polling suggests Ms Le Pen is a heavy favourite to reach the second round this year. The front républicain seems likely to hold, but just how likely may depend on her opponent. |
Update: FAQ Video
Osborn Brewing is a homebrew shop in Monroe, Ohio. As brewers know, having fresh ingredients is one of the most important factors in making beer. Unfortunately, right now there aren't a lot of hop options for local brewers.
Until now.
We are in the process of turning 86 acres of land into a hop farm. This will provide locally sourced hops to area brewers from the hobby to professional scale. This also means that when it comes time to harvest, brewers will have a source of fresh "wet hops" to use in their seasonal brews. Part of the money raised by your backing will go towards making this a reality. By backing this project, you will help bring us closer to having 100% locally made beers in our area.
Custom brew stand: |
About this mod replica of the 9/11 memorial near the ant mound by camp Mccarren. Permissions and credits Credits and distribution permission Other user's assets Some assets in this file belong to other authors. You will need to seek permission from these authors before you can use their assets
Upload permission You can upload this file to other sites but you must credit me as the creator of the file
Modification permission You must get permission from me before you are allowed to modify my files to improve it
Conversion permission You can convert this file to work with other games as long as you credit me as the creator of the file
Asset use permission You must get permission from me before you are allowed to use any of the assets in this file
Asset use permission in mods/files that are being sold You are not allowed to use assets from this file in any mods/files that are being sold, for money, on Steam Workshop or other platforms
Asset use permission in mods/files that earn donation points You must get permission to earn Donation Points for your mods if they use my assets Author notes ask me. File credits Bethesda and obsidian. Donation Points system This mod is not opted-in to receive Donation Points
Update to V6 for main memorial
Meshes and textures now included for main
Update to V3 for special edition
Meshes and textures now included.
NPC’s set to player faction and tied to an X marker. Depending on your aliment, if your enemies attack the civilians will run and hide and the soldiers will attack with you. After all is clear they will return to their places
==================================
Name: 9.11 Memorial
Version: V1
Date: 2.09.2011
Category: Buildings
Author: agoon69
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A fallout version of the 9/11 memorial in New York for the people who lost their lives that tragic day in 2001. This mod is dedicated to the people who died in the attack and to the family members who lost one of their own that day.
Like all things it's not perfect but it's the thought that counts so enjoy and God Bless America!
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Special Edition:
Add a ceremony to the memorial, with NPC’s, soldiers, and artifacts.
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Install Instructions:
Drag and drop .esp meshes and textures to your FNV data folder and allow for over write
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Uninstall Instructions:
Remove .esp meshes and textures
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Requirements :
Honest Hearts DLC.
Credits:
Bond123: for the animated flag, from his mod Bond’s Animated Flag found hear:
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12927
Clintster74: for the Navy SEAL power armor, from his mod Clintster74 Navy SEAL T51B Power Armor. Found hear
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=41643
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Tools Used:
G.E.C.K.
=================================
Thank You:
Bethesda for the G.E.C.K. and game
OBSIDIAN for the game
Nexus for a place to post and down load mods
====================================
Legal and Licensing:
Bonds123’s animated flag is free to use just give him credit
You must get permission from Clintster74 to use the Navy SEAL power armor
You may not Modify, Edit or Alter this mod for upload. |
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0385509480, Hardcover)
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is a novel made up of stories: Twenty-three of them, to be precise. Twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you’ll ever encounter—sometimes all at once. They are told by people who have answered an ad headlined “Writers’ Retreat: Abandon Your Life for Three Months,” and who are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of “real life” that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But “here” turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world—and where heat and power and, most important, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more extreme the stories they tell—and the more devious their machinations become to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/nonfiction blockbuster that will surely be made from their plight.
Haunted is on one level a satire of reality television—The Real World meets Alive. It draws from a great literary tradition—The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, the English storytellers in the Villa Diodati who produced, among other works, Frankenstein—to tell an utterly contemporary tale of people desperate that their story be told at any cost. Appallingly entertaining, Haunted is Chuck Palahniuk at his finest—which means his most extreme and his most provocative. |
This is a masterpost for my transcriptions of Baccano!’s Funimation dub commentary as heard on my copy of the 2007 anime adaptation’s DVD release. I’d like to thank @toushindai for her kind input when I needed a second ear now and then for hard to make out words.
FOLDER LINK
Below are links to the individual transcripts, with the relevant voice actors listed below each one. All four files should always be found in the folder linked above.
Episode 04
Tyler Walker (ADR Director; Line Producer; Vicky; Jack)
Bryan Massey (Ladd Russo)
J. Michael Tatum (Isaac Dian)
Caitlin Glass (Miria Harvent; Assistant ADR Director for eps 5-8)
Episode 07
Tyler Walker
Chuck Huber (Ronny Schiatto; Assistant ADR Director for eps 5-8; Script Writer for eps 4-16)
R Bruce Elliott (Szilard Quates)
Episode 09
Tyler Walker
Ian Sinclair (Dallas Genoard; Assistant ADR Director for eps 5-6 and 8-12)
Jerry Jewell (Claire Stanfield/Vino)
Episode 15
Tyler Walker
Joel McDonald (Jacuzzi Splot)
Chris Patton (Graham Specter)
All transcriptions and footnotes were done to the best of my ability, but occasionally reflect instances in which I was unable to make out certain words or could not confidently identify a speaker. Any and all corrections of errors or speaker identifications are gladly welcome, and will be incorporated accordingly into the files.
The links should stay the same through any and all file replacements in the future, so this masterpost should never necessitate a replacement. If the links at any time cease to work or otherwise have problems - I would be very grateful if you could report such instances to me so I can fix them promptly. |
- There was a moving tribute Wednesday morning to a young woman who died while serving her country.
Members of the "Military Escort Team" led the procession as the casket carrying 23-year-old Danyelle Luckey arrived at Solomon Temple Missionary Baptist Church.
A couple hundred people were on hand for her funeral saying goodbye to the Pittsburg native who joined the Navy to make a better life for herself and her family. She was planning to save money to send her young nephew to college.
As the family arrived at the church, Luckey's father was in uniform. Not his - he had on his daughter's fatigues as a touching way to honor her service.
Luckey died while serving on board an aircraft carrier -- traveling through the Philippine Sea.
She started feeling sick one day, went to rest in her bunk, and never woke up.
The Navy says she suffered cardiac arrest, but her death is still under investigation.
The family says an autopsy is being performed on Luckey and the results should be available in two to three weeks. |
The Tanzanian prosecutor investigating worldwide misconduct by BAE, Britain's biggest arms company, confided to US diplomats that "his life may be in danger" and senior politicians in his small African country were "untouchable".
A leaked account of what the head of Tanzania's anti-corruption bureau, Edward Hoseah, termed the "dirty deal" by BAE to sell Tanzania an overpriced radar system, is revealed in the US embassy cables.
BAE is to appear in court in London tomorrow, when their system of making secret payments to secure arms contracts, exposed by the Guardian, will be officially detailed for the first time.
Every individual involved in the BAE scandal in Britain and Tanzania has escaped prosecution.
But the arms giant agreed with the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to pay £30m in corporate reparations and fines, provided the word "corruption" did not appear on the indictment. A corruption conviction would debar the company from EU contracts.
The former overseas development secretary, Clare Short, said at the time: "It was always obvious that this useless project was corrupt."
Hoseah met a US diplomat, Purnell Delly, in Dar es Salaam in July 2007, and claimed (unrealistically it turned out) he would be able to prosecute guilty individuals in the BAE case. The US cable reports: "He called the deal 'dirty' and said it involved officials from the Ministry of Defence and at least one or two senior level military officers."
Hoseah spoke gloomily about the prospects for Tanzania's anti-corruption struggle and his original hopes to prosecute the "big fish" of corruption.
"He told us point blank ... that cases against the prime minister or the president were off the table ..." The cable then details allegations against former leaders and their inner circles, saying they would be "untouchable".
"He noted that President Kikwete does not appear comfortable letting the law handle corruption cases which might implicate top-level officials." The cable then says Kwitke "does not want to set a precedent" by going after any of his predecessors.
There were "widespread rumours of corruption within the Bank of Tanzania", Hoseah said, and the island region of Zanzibar was also "rife with corruption".
The diplomat noted: "Hoseah reiterated concern for his personal security ... saying he believed his life may be in danger ... He had received threatening text messages and letters and was reminded every day that he was fighting the 'rich and powerful'."
He might have to flee the country. He warned: "He said quietly: 'If you attend meetings of the inner-circle, people want you to feel as if they have put you there. If they see that you are uncompromising, there is a risk.' "
The US embassy noted in a "cynical" aside, that probably the only reason Hoseah felt obliged to attempt a BAE prosecution was because the SFO had presented him with "a fully developed case file, brimming with detailed evidence".
Today's court appearance by BAE is the culmination of lengthy attempts to bring the company to justice since the Guardian exposed its worldwide secret payment system.
The prime minister at the time, Tony Blair, intervened in 2006 to halt an SFO investigation into payments to members of the Saudi royal family.
The US department of justice has had more success than the SFO, forcing BAE to pay $400m (£260m) in penalties under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
£28m radar deal 'stank'
Tanzania, on Africa's east coast, is one of the poorest states in the world, formerly controlled in turn by Arab slavers, German colonists and the British.
At the time of the radar deal, life expectancy was 45.
Tanzania was forced to apply for debt relief from the west and was heavily dependent on aid. It is ravaged by HIV/Aids and its GDP per head is just $723 (£465).
President Benjamin Mkapa, whose regime did the deal, was succeeded in 2004 by his political colleague Jakaya Kikwete.
Tanzania, which has no air force, bought the military air defence radar from BAE in 2001 for £28m.
It was claimed the Commander system, which was portable and festooned with anti-jamming devices, could also be used for civilian air traffic control.
The country borrowed the cost from Barclays, adding to its debt burden. Both the World Bank and the International Civil Aviation Organisation called the purchase unnecessary and overpriced.
In London, the then development secretary, Clare Short, temporarily blocked aid payments in protest. "It stank," she now says of the sale.
She urged an export licence be withheld, but was overruled by Tony Blair himself. Robin Cook, then foreign secretary, recorded bitterly in his diary that Dick Evans [of BAE] seemed to have "the key to the garden door of No 10 [Downing St]".
In January 2007 the Guardian disclosed that BAE had used an offshore front company, Red Diamond, to secretly pay £8.4m, 30% of the radar's ostensible price, into a Swiss account.
The account was controlled by Tanzanian middleman Sailesh Vithlani. His "consultancy" agreement was, it is alleged, formally signed off in London by Evans. |
A Bombers fan was fatally struck by a car as he rode his bicycle to Monday’s game.
Police are now looking for the driver involved in the fatal crash.
The 69-year-old man was cycling near Bishop Grandin Boulevard and Pembina Highway around 5:30 p.m. when he was struck by a car.
Emergency crews found the man seriously injured and rushed him to hospital in unstable condition.
He has since succumbed to those injuries.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers issued a statement on the death Wednesday.
"The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are shocked and extremely saddened to hear of the tragic death of long-time fan, Dick Stevenson, while cycling to the pre-season game this past Monday. The thoughts and prayers of our entire organization are with Mr. Stevenson’s family as they mourn this tremendous loss," the statement read.
Police are now asking anyone who saw the collision or knows who was in the vehicle to contact investigators at (204) 986-6271 or Crime Stoppers at (204) 786-TIPS (8477). |
Image copyright Glenturret Image caption The discovery came during an excavation for a new resort
A Perthshire distillery said it was "baffled" after construction workers in China uncovered a large rock with its name engraved on it.
Glenturret has appealed for information after the carving was unearthed during an excavation for a new holiday resort.
Developers said some of the property belonged to a Scottish missionary doctor who worked in the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The find was made at Moganshan, two hours from Shanghai.
It is understood Dr Duncan Main had a castle on the land, built in 1910, that was used as a summer retreat.
The castle passed into the hands of the government of Zhejiang during China's nationalisation, before being handed back to Dr Main's son.
It was then sold to a car company and opened as an inn before being torn down in the 1960s.
The distillery's general manager Stuart Cassells said: "We have yet to find a link between Dr. Main and our own region of Crieff.
"We're wondering if perhaps Dr. Main was such a fan of his native drink that he was one of the first importers of Glenturret whisky to China.
"Another possibility is that the rock has uncovered a link not to Glenturret distillery but to a British steamship called Glenturret that we also know existed." |
One hundred fifteen years ago, an archeologist was sifting through objects found in the wreck of a 2,000-year-old vessel off the Greek island Antikythera. Among the wreck’s treasures — beautiful vases and pots, jewelry, a bronze statue of an ancient philosopher — was the most peculiar thing: a series of brass gears and dials mounted in a case the size of a mantel clock. Archeologists dubbed the instrument the Antikythera mechanism. The genius — and mystery — of this piece of ancient Greek technology, arguably the world’s first computer, is why Google is highlighting it today in a Google Doodle.
What is the Antikythera mechanism?
At first glance, the piece of brass found near the wreck looks like something you might find in a junkyard or hanging on the wall of a maritime-themed dive bar. What remains of the mechanism is a set of rusted brass gears sandwiched into a rotting wooden box.
But if you look into the machine, you see evidence of at least two dozen gears, laid neatly on top of one another, calibrated with the precision of a master-crafted Swiss watch. This was a level of technology that archeologists would usually date to the 16th century, not well before the first.
But a mystery remained: What was this contraption used for?
The world’s first mechanical computer?
To archeologists, it was immediately apparent that the mechanism was some sort of clock, calendar, or calculating device. But they had no idea what it was for. For decades, they debated: Was the Antikythera a toy model of the planets? Or perhaps it was an early astrolabe (a device to calculate latitude)?
In 1959, Princeton science historian Derek J. de Solla Price provided the most thorough scientific analysis of the contraption to date. After a careful study of the gears, he deduced that the mechanism was used to predict the position of the planets and stars in the sky depending on the calendar month. A main gear would move to represent the calendar year, and would, in turn, move many separate smaller gears to represent the motions of the planets, sun, and moon.
So you could set the main gear to the calendar date and get approximations for where those celestial objects would be in the sky on that date.
And Price declared in the pages of Scientific American that it was a computer: “The mechanism is like a great astronomical clock ... or like a modern analogue computer which uses mechanical parts to save tedious calculation.”
It was a computer in the sense that you, as a user, could input a few simple variables and it would yield a flurry of complicated mathematical calculations. Today the programming of computers is written in digital code — series of ones and zeros. This ancient clock had its code written into the mathematical ratios of its gears. All the user had to do was enter the main date on one gear, and through a series of subsequent gear turns, the mechanism could calculate things like the angle of the sun crossing the sky. (For some reference, mechanical calculators — which used gear ratios to add and subtract — didn’t arrive in Europe until the 1600s.)
Scientists have learned even more about how the Antikythera mechanism works
Since Price’s assessment, modern X-ray and 3D mapping technology have allowed scientists to peer deeper into the remains of the mechanism and learn even more of its secrets.
In the 2000s, researchers revealed text — a kind of instruction manual — inscribed on parts of the mechanism that had never been seen before.
The text — written in tiny typeface but legible ancient Greek — helped them complete the puzzle of what the machine did and how it was operated. In all, it’s astounding.
The mechanism had several dials and clock faces, each which served a different function for measuring movements of the sun, moon, stars, and planets, but they were all operated by one main crank:
Little stone or glass orbs that would have moved across the machine’s face to show the motion of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter in the night sky
The position of the sun and moon, relative to the 12 constellations of the zodiac
Another dial forecasting solar and lunar eclipses — and, oddly, predictions about their color. (Researchers guess that different colored eclipses were considered omens of the future. The ancient Greeks were a little superstitious.)
A solar calendar, charting the 365 days of the year
A lunar calendar, counting a 19-year lunar cycle
A tiny pearl-size ball that rotated to show you the phase of the moon
And this is pretty neat: another dial of the mechanism that counted down the days to regularly scheduled sporting events around the Greek isles, like the Olympics
Again, the mechanics of this are absurdly complicated. A 2006 Nature paper plotted out a schematic of the mechanics that connect all the gears. It looks like this. Not simple.
Researchers are still not sure who, exactly, used it. Did scientists build it to aid their calculations? Or was it a type of a teaching tool, to show students the math that held the cosmos together? Was it unique? Or are there more similar devices yet to be discovered?
Its assembly remains another mystery. How the ancient Greeks accomplished this feat is unknown to this day.
Whatever it was used for and however it was built, we know this: Its discovery changed our understanding of human history, and reminds us that flashes of genius are possible in every human age.
"Nothing like this instrument is preserved elsewhere. Nothing comparable to it is known from any ancient scientific text or literary allusion,” Price wrote in 1959. “It is a bit frightening, to know that just before the fall of their great civilization the ancient Greeks had come so close to our age, not only in their thought, but also in their scientific technology.”
Check out a modern reconstruction of the mechanism in the video below.
Correction: The article originally misstated the timeline of events that led to the discovery of the mechanism. The wreck off the coast of Antikythera was discovered in 1900 by a group of fishermen. It wasn’t until May 1902 that the Antikythera mechanism was identified by an archeologist (today is the anniversary). |
Saracens' Tim Streather tackles Dion Jones of Scarlets
Anglo-Welsh Cup Scarlets (0) 17 Tries: Allen, McBryde Cons: Maynard, McBryde Pen: Maynard Saracens (18) 32 Tries: Tompkins, Gallagher, Ellery, Whiteley Cons: Malins, Whiteley 2 Pens: Malins
Saracens all-but ended Scarlets Anglo-Welsh Cup hopes with a bonus-point win in Llanelli.
The visitors were 18-0 up at the break with Nick Tompins and Matt Gallagher going over.
Morgan Allen struck back for the hosts, but Mike Ellery's touchdown kept the hosts at bay.
Billy McBryde came on to score as Scarlets again threatened, but Tom Whiteley sealed the bonus point with Saracens' fourth try.
Saracens rose to the top of Pool One while Scarlets remained third in Pool Four.
Scarlets: Dion Jones; Tom Williams, Steff Hughes, Gareth Owen, Corey Baldwin; Jack Maynard, Declan Smith; Dylan Evans, Emyr Phillips (capt), Nicky Thomas, Josh Helps, Rynier Bernardo, Jack Condy, Josh Macleod, Morgan Allen
Replacements: Torin Myhill, Gethin Robinson, Peter Edwards, Phil Day, Tom Phillips, Connor Lloyd, Billy McBryde, Richard Smith.
Saracens: Matt Gallagher; Mike Ellery, Tim Streather (capt), Nick Tompkins, Rotimi Segun; Max Malins, Henry Taylor; Titi Lamositele, Scott Spurling, Petrus Du Plessis, Nick Isiekwe, Mark Flanagan, Joel Conlon, Will Fraser, Samu Vunisa.
Replacements: Jared Saunders, Jack Culverhouse, Billy Walker, Kyle Baillie, Ben Earl, Neil De Kock, Tom Whiteley, Dominic Morris. |
Matt Priddis with Sam Mitchell - two Eagles who could retire at the end of the season. Credit:Graham Denholm Priddis already holds the record for best tackle average in the game of 6.69 - ahead of North Melbourne captain Andrew Swallow (6.61) and Essendon's Ben Howlett (6.22) - and needs to lay just 31 tackles to break Hayes' mark. His record-breaking run is even more remarkable given Priddis was picked up by West Coast as a 21-year-old mature-aged player in the 2005 rookie draft after being overlooked for the national draft twice. In his first season, back in 2006, Priddis laid nine tackles in two games but, since then his ability to put the gripe on oppositions players has been nothing short of phenomenal. The West Coast ball-magnet has been in the top 15 in the AFL for total tackles laid from 2007-2016, has finished in the top five most prolific tacklers on five occasions and led the league for tackles in each of the last two seasons.
Priddis is set to create a new benchmark for total tackles in the AFL. Credit:Paul Kane In 2015, Priddis laid 176 tackles, 12 more than second placed Swallow, while last year he wrapped up a player 188 times - 18 more tackles than Swans midfielder Luke Parker. If he keeps up his average of 145 tackles per season over the last 10 years, and 6.69 tackles per game, Priddis will smash Hayes' record by the end of Round 5 and if he plays on in 2018 he could break the 1750 mark. Priddis leads the competition for average tackles and handballs per game. Credit:Morne de Klerk Matt Priddis' tackle numbers by year (number of games played in brackets)
2006: 9 (2)
2007: 128 (24)
2008: 103 (18)
2009: 127 (20)
2010: 130 (19)
2011: 193 (25)
2012: 122 (22)
2013: 129 (21)
2014: 160 (22)
2015: 176 (24)
2016: 188 (22) Career average: 6.69 tackles per game. Most tackles (number of games played in brackets): Lenny Hayes (STK) - 1496 (297) Jude Bolton (SYD) - 1490 (325) Matt Priddis (WC) - 1466 (219) Scott Thompson (ADE) - 1405 (307) Andrew Swallow (NM) - 1374 (208) However, Priddis isn't the only Eagle eyeing with an AFL record in his sights this season.
Prized West Coast recruit Sam Mitchell is on track to break three separate records in 2017 following his outstanding 15-year career at Hawthorn. Mitchell needs to dish off 242 handballs to eclipse Western Bulldogs midfielder Scott West's all-time mark of 4093 which looks a distinct possibility after he racked up more than 300 handballs in each of his last two seasons at Hawthorn. Sam Mitchell is on track to break three AFL records in 2017. Credit:Getty Images. However, despite his prolificacy, the 2012 Brownlow medallist doesn't have the competition's highest handball average - that honour belongs to the aforementioned Priddis whose remarkable average of 15.87 is well clear of new Sydney skipper Josh Kennedy (15.21). Priddis sits an impressive ninth in the all-time handballs table. Most handballs (number of games played in brackets):
Scott West (WB) - 4093 (324) Robert Harvey (STK) - 4008 (383) Sam Mitchell (HAW/WC) - 3852 (307) Simon Black (BL) - 3781 (322) Daniel Cross (WB/MEL) - 3687 (249) Mitchell is also just 15 clearances behind Brisbane Lions star Simon Black's benchmark of 1715 and given he looks likely to start in the middle for West Coast in Round 1, that appears another milestone he could surpass. Priddis also appears in the top five on this list, behind Black, Mitchell, ex-Eagles champion Chris Judd and Adelaide's Scott Thompson. Priddis is a much-maligned player on the east coast because some commentators claim he "doesn't hurt" oppositions teams with his disposal, but the stats don't lie and it puts the 31-year-old in the top bracket of players in the AFL over the last decade. Most clearances (number of games played in brackets): Simon Black (BL) - 1715 (322)
Sam Mitchell (HAW/WC) - 1700 (307)
Chris Judd (WC/CAR) - 1499 (279)
Scott Thompson (ADE) - 1422 (307)
Matt Priddis (WC) - 1359 (219)
Matt Priddis handballs to Sam MItchell during the JLT Community Series, Credit:Getty Images The final record in the ex-Hawks sights is a sign of his consistency, with Mitchell only three 30-disposal games away from beating St Kilda's Robert Harvey's mark of 118 games where he racked up 30 possessions or higher. Given Mitchell had 10 games with 30 more more possessions in 2016 and as well as a remarkable 16 times in 2015 (including in all four Hawthorn finals), this seems like another record he could own come season's end. Especially if his dazzling 39-possession, seven clearance game against Melbourne in the Eagles final pre-season game is anything to go by. Most instances of 30 disposals or more in a match (number of games played in brackets): |
This two-part article explains five tips to make a fixed-point PI controller work well. I am not going to talk about loop tuning -- there are hundreds of articles and books about that; any control-systems course will go over loop tuning enough to help you understand the fundamentals. There will always be some differences for each system you have to control, but the goals are the same: drive the average error to zero, keep the system stable, and maximize performance (keep overshoot and delay low). Save your questions about stability and performance for someone else, and let's focus on implementation details.
Let's start with the basics. You have some quantity y(t) you'd like to control to match a command signal u(t). You can sense y(t) with a sensor. In order to control y(t), you have an actuator that you send a signal x(t).
(Diagram from the Wikipedia entry on PID controllers. Actuator signal = output of the rightmost summing block = input to plant/process is not labeled, but corresponds to x(t).)
The way to do this with a PI controller is to calculate the error e(t) = u(t)-y(t), then calculate x(t) = Kp * e(t) + Ki * integral(e(t)). (We're not going to include a D term in the controller; most systems don't need one, which is something I'll discuss in Part II. The integral term is important because it lets you reach equilibrium with zero steady-state error; the integrator output is what's able to drive the output with zero error, since at that point the proportional term is zero.)
Or at least that's the textbook approach.
1. Canonical discrete-time form: a PI controller in the digital world
Analog systems can implement the PI controller directly, but digital systems have to restate the problem slightly.
In a digital PI controller, you will almost always have a controller that executes at a fixed timestep dt, and instead of continuous-time signals, you have discrete variables that are updated at that fixed timestep. The usual method, at least conceptually, is to number the timesteps 1, 2, 3, 4, ... n. This doesn't mean you need to make an array in your program, just that for analysis purposes you can think of it as an array with an index that increments for each timestep.
The PI controller can be analyzed using z-transforms if it's put into a canonical form:
x[n] = x[n-1] + a*e[n] + b*e[n-1]
In other words, the actuator control signal is equal to its old value plus some gains times the previous and current error terms.
You can relate a and b to the proportional gain Kp and integral gain Ki as follows:
x(t) = Ki*integral(e(t)) + Kp*e(t)
dx/dt = Ki*e(t) + Kp*de/dt
(x[n]-x[n-1])/dt = Ki*e[n] + Kp*(e[n]-e[n-1])/dt (approximating derivatives with discrete differences)
x[n] - x[n-1] = Ki*e[n]*dt + Kp*(e[n]-e[n-1])
and therefore, by matching terms, get a = (Ki*dt + Kp), b = -Kp.
To implement this in a program, the PI controller becomes:
e_prev = e;
e = u - y;
x_prev = x;
x = x_prev + a*e + b*e_prev;
And to analyze with MATLAB or another numerical toolset, the controller can be written in terms of z-transforms:
(1 - z-1)x = (a + bz-1)e
x = e * (a + bz-1)/(1 - z-1)
Got it?
Good. Now throw it out, because although this form may be useful for modeling in numerical analysis software, it has problems in real systems.
Why?
Well, for one thing, the canonical form gains a and b have indirect significance: you'd like to tune proportional and integral gains directly, or maybe proportional gain and time constant (= Kp/Ki) directly, and instead you're forced to deal with this a and b nonsense. If I use a and b and someone asks me what the integral gain is, or I want to double the integral gain, I have to get out my calculator and figure it out.
The other two reasons have to do with nonlinearity. In linear systems, you can prove that this canonical form is equivalent to one of several other possible implementations of a PI controller. I'm going to come back to this issue a little bit later, as it's rather subtle, and instead will talk about an aspect of PI loop implementation that's a bit easier to understand.
2. Which comes first, the integrator or the gain?
Let's look at the integral term of the controller, Ki*integrator(e(t)).
Integration and scaling are two linear operations, and that means in a perfect linear system,
Ki*integrator(e(t)) = integrator(Ki*e(t))
In a digital controller, you could implement this in one of the following ways:
// option A: integrate, then scale
e_integral = e_integral + e*dt;
x = Kp*e + Ki*e_integral;
// option B: scale, then integrate
x_integral = x_integral + Ki*e*dt;
x = Kp*e + x_integral ;
In a linear system, the two are exactly equivalent.
But there are five reasons to choose option B over option A. Two of these reasons are related to nonlinearity, and one reason is related to time-varying systems, and we'll talk about those in a little bit, but the remaining two are a bit more straightforward.
Reason #1: integrator unit significance
Let's talk about a typical example. You've got a current controller based on an actuator (perhaps a switching circuit) with a voltage command. The sensor y, the command u, and the error term e, are all currents measured in amperes. The actuator command x is a voltage measured in volts.
Now what about the integral terms? In option A, the integral term e_integral is ampere-seconds = coulombs. In option B, the integral term x_integral is a voltage measured in volts.
Here's the lesson I want you to learn:
If you integrate and then scale, the integrator is measured in units of the integrated input unit.
If you scale and then integrate, the integrator is measured in the same units as the output.
If you choose option B, the integrator's significance is more directly related to the controller output. It's a subtle difference, but one that in my experience is very important.
Reason #2: folding the timestep into the integrator implementation
There's a related reason that has to do with this timestep value dt. If you choose option B, you can fold the timestep into the integral gain, and make Ki2 = Ki * dt:
// option B2: scale, then integrate; Ki2 = Ki*dt
x_integral = x_integral + Ki2*e;
x = Kp*e + x_integral ;
This saves you a multiply step, requiring less time to execute in a processor. If you try to do this with option A, it looks like this:
// option A2: integrate, then scale; Ki2 = Ki*dt
e_integral = e_integral + e;
x = Kp*e + Ki2*e_integral ;
This will work just as well as option B2, saving a multiply step, but now the units of the variable e_integral are kind of weird. Dimensional analysis tells us they're the same units as the input value: if e is measured in amperes and you add it to a variable, then that variable must also be measured in amperes. But on the other hand, you're summing a variable over time, so the real units of e_integral are coulombs scaled by 1/dt. That's right, the units of the integrator now depend on the timestep value, and are a numerically-scaled integral of the input unit. Ick. This makes my head hurt.
Reason #3: time-varying gain
Here's a thought experiment. Let's say I've got two controllers. One is option A (integrate, then scale), and the other is option B (scale, then integrate). The system is stable, and the output has reached equilibrium.
Now all of a sudden I decide to double the integral gain. (Assume the new gain would still keep the system stable.) What happens?
In option A, the integrator's output value doubles, so my output suddenly jumps and presents a disturbance to the system, which will decrease as the system regains equilibrium.
In option B, the integrator's output value remains essentially the same. The output doesn't jump and the system remains at equilibrium.
Got that? If you change the integral gain suddenly with option A, your controller will see a glitch; with option B, it won't.
It's that simple.
One corollary or side-effect of this is when you set the integral gain to zero. With scale-then-integrate, you have an integrator that will keep its output constant, and you can use it as an offset that you can manually adjust. With integrate-then-scale, the integrator's effect on the output is zero. I prefer an offset that I can adjust.
Reasons #4 and #5: nonlinearities
So far, we've talked only about linear systems. It's time to start talking about nonlinearities, and to do so we'll skip ahead to the third important concept I want to bring up, and come back to the integrate-then-scale vs. scale-then-integrate debate in a bit.
3. Integrator windup
Let's go back to our example of a current controller.
Suppose we command u = 1A of current, and it takes a command to our output actuator x = 7.2V to reach equilibrium. Great.
Now suppose we want u = 2A of current. To do this x = 14.4V.
Now suppose we want u = 10A of current. To do this x = 72V.
Now suppose we want u = 1000A of current. To do this x = 7200V.
Now suppose we want u = 1,000,000A of current... what? You're telling me we're not going to be able to get a million amperes of current out of our system?
Linear systems have the wonderful property that their output scales identically to their input. But no real system that I know of is perfectly linear: at some point we run into some physical limit that prevents us from exceeding a maximum, or we run into a phenomenon that is negligible at small values of input/output values, but starts to grow faster than linearly as the amplitude increases. An example of the former is op-amp saturation (an op-amp cannot output more than its supply rails); an example of the latter is mechanical vibrations -- at small amplitudes, most materials have a linear stress-strain relationship, but at larger amplitudes, you can run into buckling or plasticity.
Suppose we have a current controller that has an actuator supplied by a 14.4V power supply, and we can get up to 2A of current out of it.
Now we increase the commanded current to 2.1A, a 5% increase. The error is 0.1A; the proportional term will jump 5% immediately, and the integral term will gradually increase. But our actuator is only able to deliver 14.4V, and the 0.1A error persists as long as we wait. We'll soon ask for 15V, 20V, 30V, 50V... supposing we wait until our controller output is 100V, and we decide to set the commanded current to 0.
What's our output current? Well, the error will be 0A command - 2A current = -2A until the actuator command drops below 14.4V, but it's going to take a while for the integrator to decrease down to the point where the output decreases below 14.4V. In the meantime the output current will still be 2A.
This phenomenon is called integrator windup, and it's present in all real systems with an actuator saturation limit where the controller that doesn't take this into account somehow.
There are many ways to prevent integrator windup (look up "anti-windup" and you'll find lots of articles), but the two most common are the following:
limit the integrator output
add another feedback term that represents the error due to windup
The first approach, which I've used extensively in motor controllers, is to disallow integrating in the direction the actuator has saturated, but allow integration in the other direction, which would bring the integrator away from saturation. Here's a sample program implementation, which I'll call my Preferred Implementation, because it's the one I generally use in most control systems:
if ((sat < 0 && e < 0) || (sat > 0 && e > 0))
;
/* do nothing if there is saturation, and error is in the same direction;
* if you're careful you can implement as "if (sat*e > 0)"
*/
else
x_integral = x_integral + Ki2*e;
(x_integral,sat) = satlimit(x_integral, x_minimum, x_maximum);
x = limit(Kp*e + x_integral, x_minimum, x_maximum) ;
/* satlimit(x, min, max) does the following:
* if x is between min and max, return (x,0)
* if x < min, return (min, -1)
* if x > max, return (max, +1)
*
* limit(x, min, max) does the following:
* if x is between min and max, return x
* if x < min, return min
* if x > max, return max
*/
The second approach, which I'll call the "shortcoming-feedback" anti-windup approach, is less familiar to me, but I've seen it in many papers:
x_integral = x_integral + Ki2*(e - Ks*x_shortcoming);
x_ideal = Kp*e + x_integral;
x = limit(x_ideal, x_minimum, x_maximum);
x_shortcoming = x_ideal - x;
The idea here is that you integrate normally, but as soon as you have to limit the output, take the discrepancy between the limited output and the ideal output, and feed it back into the integrator. If the output hasn't reached the limit, the integrator behaves normally, but if it has reached the limit, it will stop integrating because this discrepancy will balance out the error.
There are lots of subtleties about anti-windup compensation that I won't get into here -- I just wanted to bring the issue to your attention, and you can read more about it on your own. (For an interesting reference, see this short paper from Warsaw Polytechnic which presents 11 different variants on anti-windup PI controllers; the two I've mentioned are in figures #10 and #7)
Consequences of integrator windup in PI controller structure
If you use the stop-integrating-when-the-integrator-reaches-the-saturation-limit approach, you have to know what the saturation limit is. That seems kind of obvious, but let's go back and look at some of our implementation alternatives:
Canonical form:
x[n] = x[n-1] + a*e[n] + b*e[n-1]
e_prev = e;
e = u - y;
x_prev = x;
x = x_prev + a*e + b*e_prev;
Where's the integrator? Well, it's buried in this equation and combined with the proportional term. But you can try to take the same approach with the output x:
e_prev = e;
e = u - y;
x_prev = x;
dx = a*e + b*e_prev;
if ((dx > 0 && sat > 0) || (dx < 0 && sat < 0))
;
/* do nothing if there's saturation and we would otherwise increase the output
* in the same direction
*/
else
x = x_prev + dx;
(x,sat) = limit(x, x_minimum, x_maximum);
This looks like it might work, and if you try it in your system, it might appear to work.
But it has a little problem.
Suppose we have a noisy sensor, which isn't that out of the ordinary. Instead of the error being a nice smooth input that gradually decays down to zero, the error will be bouncing around, sometimes a small negative amount and sometimes a small positive amount.
Let's say we're exactly at the upper saturation limit for our output actuator. In our noisy system, the output change dx will sometimes be positive and sometimes negative, but its average value will be zero, since both e and e_prev have average values of zero. The proper behavior for a controller is to keep the controller output at that limit when the error is at or above zero.
The problem is that positive values of dx will be added in and then limited, but negative values of dx will reduce the output. What you'll find is that the controller's output value will bounce around near but slightly below its upper limit, effectively giving up some saturation range. (Let's call this phenomenon "limit hesitation" since I don't think it has a name.)
We can get around this problem by raising the controller's saturation limit above its physical limit (e.g. in our example, if the current controller's voltage limit has a real saturation point of 14.4V, then our controller's output limit could be set slightly above this point, perhaps to 15V or 16V) and then we'll still be able to reach the actuator's physical limit.
But that's kind of a hack.
The implementation I gave when I introduced the anti-windup section (my "Preferred Implementation") doesn't have this problem to the same degree, because unlike the canonical-form implementation, it keeps the integrator and proportional terms separate. In the presence of noise, if you look at the integrator term and proportional term, noise will show up in the proportional term just as much as in the input term, but it will be diminished in the integrator term, because the integrator term's transfer function lets low-frequency components through but attentuates high-frequency content. The "limit hesitation" is therefore much smaller when you keep integrator and proportional terms separate, and that's a major reason why I don't use the canonical-form implementation (aside from the conceptual opaqueness).
The "shortcoming-feedback" anti-windup controller appears to have a similar problem when used with canonical-form implementation as well, because the integrator and proportional terms are combined. Again, I'm not as familiar with this type of anti-windup controller, so I can't tell you whether limit hesitation can be overcome with shortcoming-feedback.
Integrate-then-scale implementation (reason #4 not to use it):
This approach allows you to use anti-windup almost as easily as the scale-then-integrate implementation, but there's a problem with that too:
// option A2: integrate, then scale; Ki2 = Ki*dt
e_integral = e_integral + e;
x = Kp*e + Ki2*e_integral ;
Here's the problem: what's the saturation limit for the integral term? You have to calculate it as a function of the integral gain: e_integral_limit = x_limit / Ki2.
If you don't mind doing that divide, this approach will work; it should perform just as well in the presence of noise (with respect to limit hesitation) as the scale-then-integrate implementation.
Of course, I prefer to just use the scale-then-integrate approach.
4. Fixed-point scaling issues
So far, everything we've talked about applies to both floating-point and fixed-point control loops. In fixed-point controllers, numbers are stored as integers rather than floating-point values, and for each quantity you must select a scaling factor that relates integer counts to the engineering value they represent. You have to deal with overflow and resolution issues: if the scaling factor is too small, the integer count will overflow, but if the scaling factor is too large, the resolution will be poor.
We'll talk about the subtleties of this issue in part II of this article. |
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We prefer to carry the latter.
Plastic and nylon parts are durable for a while and they satisfy price sensitive shoppers. Their production, however, creates numerous toxins, and eventually enough sunshine or stress will cause them to break.
Chrome, nickel, and zinc plating can protect metal surfaces for years, but their initial production, especially in third-world countries can cause devastating harm.
Painted parts are effective for a while, but paint production is usually nasty, and as it chips and goes over the side, paint carries its own poisons along.
At greenboatstuff.com we choose to carry aluminum, brass, bronze, stainless steel, and occasionally wood hardware.
In an imperfect world we know these choices are not entirely without their faults.
In our opinion, however, they satisfy our criteria for high quality, long lasting products that do the job well while inflicting minimal, if any, harm.
Another important green aspect to our hardware offerings is our lack of a minimum order policy.
Unlike most hardware suppliers that force you to purchase in bulk, at greenboatstuff we try to avoid such restrictive policies.
After all, if a customer only needs a certain quantity of an item, why force them to pay for something that will sit on a shelf for years or be discarded?
Sure, this might sound like a little thing, but if we can discourage waste, especially of products like hardware that are made almost exclusively from natural resources, we believe it is both good business and good for the Planet.
Product Reviews for Stainless Steel Fender Washer ( #6 to 5/8" Sizes ) |
A little stray cat walked up to a soldier and demanded that he be his forever human. Ever since then, the kitty has been his most loyal friend, following him around.
Meet Salem the cat.
Courtesy: Justin W.
While Justin was on duty in Romania, he came across a friendly black cat who stepped out of the brushes and started following him around.
After a few pets, Salem seemed to have his mind set up to be with his new friend and even waited for him every morning. The adorable black kitty became Justin's little shadow.
Every time Salem saw his human friend, he would hop on his lap and curl up for a nap. When Justin's lap wasn't available, he would slip into his helmet for a quick snooze.
The affectionate kitty gave Justin the comfort that reminded him of his home. It didn't take long for the little feline buddy to creep his way into his human's heart…
Courtesy: Justin W.
"There is a huge problem with strays in this country. There are everywhere. This little guy just took a liking to me," Justin told Love Meow.
With only a month and a half left in the country, Justin began looking into ways to safely bring Salem to his home in El Paso, Texas.
Courtesy: Justin W.
A kind woman, animal rescuer and founder of Oana's Homeless Street Paws, offered to help.
"Oana is the woman that took Salem in for me. She took care of everything when it came to getting Salem home," Justin told Love Meow.
Courtesy: Justin W.
Oana takes in abused, abandoned cats and kittens, nurses them back to health and finds them good homes. "Oana is one of the most passionate and inspiring people I have ever met. Romania would be served well with more people like her," Justin said.
Courtesy: Justin W.
Two months after Justin found Salem, the little kitty traveled thousands of miles to his forever home in the US. He was welcomed by his new human mom and a feline friend, Cheddar.
Salem found a new toy in his new home.
Courtesy: Justin W.
When Justin returned to the US, Salem gave him the warmest homecoming.
"When I came home he instantly recognized me, and he's always following me around the house. He adapted to the home life very easily," Justin told Love Meow.
Courtesy: Justin W.
Salem claiming the kitchen as his little kingdom.
Courtesy: Justin W.
Happy and loved!
Courtesy: Justin W.
What a handsome boy!
Courtesy: Justin W.
Share this story with your friends.
Related story: Soldier Refuses to Leave Special Needs Kitten Behind |
The deadly train collision in Wenzhou last month may put a dent in the ‘China model’ of economic growth, but the concept itself is likely to be enduring for two reasons – China’s remarkable achievements since the late 1970s, and the financial crisis that continues to ravage the West. Indeed, if Beijing handles the aftermath of Wenzhou properly, the tragedy may come to be seen as an example of Beijing’s ability to fix shortcomings in its own growth model.
The term ‘China model’ is a Western invention, but has gained currency over the last half dozen years, both in China and overseas. Premier Wen Jiabao has actually said that China doesn’t see China’s development as a model for anyone, saying that all countries should choose paths that suit their particular national conditions.
However, since the West has been laid low by financial crises in the United States and Europe, and with the Japanese economy stagnant for two decades, the so-called Washington Consensus of combining market economics with democracy has lost much of its appeal in many parts of the world, especially among countries with non-democratic governments.
In addition, Beijing’s good relations with developing countries in general means that they will inevitably look to China – and its authoritarian government able to make decisions without interference from an elected legislature, opposition political parties or a free press – as part of their own modernization efforts.
And, despite Wen’s reticence, other Chinese officials haven’t been slow to contrast China’s rapid development with the problems in the democratic West. Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying, in a recent interview with Der Spiegel, pointed out that ‘at the moment it is the Western governments that are having problems.’ Why, she asked, have so many governments made so many mistakes? Why have political parties made commitments they can’t fulfil? And why do they spend so much more than they have? Democracy alone, she said, can’t put food on the table.
She went on to indicate that democracy shouldn’t be necessarily be equated with a multiparty election system, a position shared by other proponents of the China model. It’s a view echoed by Thus Han Zhu, a research fellow at the Sinologizing Research Center, who says that the emphasis should be on good governance, not democracy.
In an article in China Daily he wrote: ‘In the West, democracy is reflected only at the time of elections, but in China democracy has to navigate the entire process of administration, which puts enormous pressure on the government.’ He said polls conducted by the Pew Research Center and others reflect ‘the degree of satisfaction of Chinese people toward the speed and direction of the current development process.’
Another commentary published this month in China Daily, meanwhile, took direct aim at the United States. ‘The debt crisis has exposed the defects rather than the advantages of its system,’ the commentary said. ‘Even many US citizens have appealed for introspection and reform of the country’s political system.’
‘Democracy cannot solve every problem. It is not the be all and end all of political structures, and it should learn from the experiences and advantages of other political systems,’ it concluded.
Yet while Chinese commentators have been scathing of the United States, and keen to talk up China’s achievements, they generally concede that the China model can’t simply be copied by other countries. Zhang Weiwei of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, for example, describes China as a ‘civilization-state,’ a status that can be claimed by few, if any, other countries. Still, he argues that ‘as China rises, the influence of the Chinese Model on the outside world will likely be greater and greater.’
How? Zhang says that some concepts, such as the idea that ‘good versus poor governance is far more important than democratic versus authoritarian government,’ might resonate overseas. And, on the face of it, this is an attractive idea – China certainly boasts a government capable of making major decisions that are frequently in the interests of the people. |
Jose Aldo broke his silence.
The former UFC featherweight king suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time in his 30-fight mixed martial arts career, and released a statement three days after his third-round TKO defeat to Max Holloway at UFC 218 in Detroit.
Aldo, who replaced injured Frankie Edgar against “Blessed” in the main event on Dec. 2, in a rematch of their UFC 212 title bout in June, thanked his teammates and fans in a post on his social media.
“I only have to thank my family that I love for everything, and my team Nova Uniao, the best in the world, for making me great and champion, and [thank] my friends and fans that are always with me. Thank you all! I will be always optimistic because believing is the first step to making it happen."
Aldo (26-4) lost three of his last four fights inside the Octagon, snapping a perfect 15-0 run under the UFC and WEC banners. |
Trading in local currencies has already started — and lays the groundwork for facilitating BRICS transactions in gold
Recent progress made in streamlining trade in local currencies has brought Moscow and Beijing closer to creating a financial architecture that could facilitate transactions in gold.
As we reported last week, Moscow and Beijing took another step towards de-dollarization with the opening of a yuan clearing bank in Russia. And earlier this month Russia's Central Bank opened its first-ever foreign branch in Beijing to allow for better communication between Russian and Chinese financial authorities.
"In China, gold is traded in Shanghai, in Russia, Moscow. Our idea is to create a link between these sites in order to intensify trade between our marketplaces."
According to an article published yesterday by Sputnik, progress made in promoting bilateral trade in yuan is the first step towards an even more ambitions plan — using gold to make transactions:
The clearing center is one of a range of measures the People's Bank of China and the Russian Central Bank have been looking at to deepen their co-operation. [...] One measure under consideration is the joint organization of trade in gold. In recent years, China and Russia have been the world's most active buyers of the precious metal. On a visit to China last year, deputy head of the Russian Central Bank Sergey Shvetsov said that the two countries want to facilitate more transactions in gold between the two countries.
The possibility of trading in gold has been discussed by Russian officials over the last year. Last April, First Deputy Governor of the Russian Central Bank Sergey Shvetsov told TASS:
“BRICS countries are large economies with large reserves of gold and an impressive volume of production and consumption of this precious metal. In China, the gold trade is conducted in Shanghai, in Russia it is in Moscow. Our idea is to create a link between the two cities in order to increase trade between the two markets."
Future plans to facilitate transactions between Moscow and Beijing in gold would certainly explain why the two countries are leading gold producers and buyers.
Creating a BRICS "gold marketplace" would be an excellent way of bypassing the dollar while also using a "currency" that could be easily recycled for trade with other member nations.
And while trading in gold won't happen overnight, BRICS states have already moved towards creating a "new financial architecture" that "tackles the dominance of the U.S. dollar in global finance":
The initiatives taken by the member nations of BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) to set up a new financial architecture at its eighth summit held in October 2016 in India have recently been under the spotlight. In order to avoid the International Monetary Fund (IMF) type of loan conditionalities and tackle the dominance of the United States (US) dollar in global finance, the new institutions set up by the BRICs are expected to provide a much needed change in the global financial architecture. These institutions include the New Development Bank (NDB), the BRICS-led Contingency Reserve Fund (CRF), and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
As one financial expert noted recently:
In recent years, the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have been taking small steps to reduce the primacy of the dollar in international trade. China has been leading this effort in recent years. I recently came across this headline published by the South China Morning Post: “Moscow and Beijing join forces to bypass U.S. dollar in world money market.” You see, Russia and China have been working towards stronger economic ties for years. The latest sign of this cooperation happened March 16, when the Central Bank of Russia opened its first overseas office in Beijing. The local news called this “a small step forward in forging a Beijing-Moscow alliance to bypass the U.S. dollar in the global monetary system.”
Trading in yuan is just the first step.
There are much bigger plans in the works. |
A West Virginia man was sentenced to five years of probation and 50 years of supervision after being convicted of impregnating his 11-year-old daughter and forcing her to get abortions.
Michael Adkins was arrested in March 2014 after he and his wife arranged for two abortions for his 11-year-old daughter within 15 days, WSAZ reports.
Adkins was initially charged with sexual assault, incest, sexual battery, child neglect, intimidation by a witness and conspiracy. In September 2015, he pleaded guilty to incest as part of a plea deal and the other charges were dropped.
He withdrew his plea in March 2016 after learning that he may have to spend time in jail for the charges. Adkins believed he would be sentenced to home confinement, but Judge Al Ferguson refused to accept home confinement as a sentence or any plea deal that withdrew the possibility of prison time.
“I’m not going to put him on home confinement in this case. I don’t know what status that puts you in but after doing a pre-sentence investigation and everything that’s not a proper disposition in this matter.”
On November 16, Adkins received the sentence of probation and supervision after the case was transferred to a new judge. Under Cabell County Judge Paul Farrell’s orders, Adkins is also required to undergo therapy and register as a sex offender.
His wife, Amanda Adkins, the girl’s step-mother, was also arrested in March 2014. Adkins said she arranged the abortions without his knowledge. After pleading guilty to child neglect in 2015, her other charges – intimidation of a witness, obstructing an officer, and conspiracy – were dropped.
She was sentenced to 18 months of probation and 10 years of supervised release.
[Feature Photo: Michael Joe Adkins/West Virginia State Police] |
GRAND CHUTE , Wisc. ( ) -- More than 40,000 pounds of stolen cheese, valued at $90,000, was recovered at a facility in Grand Chute Thursday.
On Jan. 15, 41,000 pounds of Le Sueur Parmesan cheese was reported missing by WOW logistics in the City of Marshfield after the shipping company was notified that the cheese did not arrive at its intended destination in Elgin, IL.
The Marshfield Police Department said they received a tip Thursday morning indicating the missing cheese was being stored at a facility in Grand Chute.
According to the Marshfield Police Department, Grand Chute police confirmed the entire shipment of missing cheese was located and recovered.
Marshfield Police did not name the facility.
This incident remains under investigation. Marshfield Police believe this is a organized crime operation.
On Tuesday, Milwaukee police recovered about from a suburban Milwaukee trucking company. |
When From Software announced Dark Souls II, it dared to utter the most damning words possible--streamlined, accessibility, mainstream--causing those invested in scouring the treacherous underbelly of gaming's unforgiving realm to rankle like an abused dog. Trying to draw in a wide audience has caused many developers to remove difficulty from their offerings, subsequently squashing the feeling of conquest that comes from rising above seemingly insurmountable challenges. So the thought that Dark Souls II would travel down that same sanitized path burned with the ferocity of a drake's flaming breath. Would Dark Souls II stoop to the level of so many of its casualized peers, or would it stay true to its own stubborn beliefs?
In an unassuming conference room in New York City, director Yui Tanimura answered the question that has been swirling around Dark Souls II ever since it was announced late last year. There would be no easy mode. After allaying our fears with those simple words, the feeling of unavoidable doom lifted like a passing fog. The game is built upon the satisfaction of completing difficult challenges, he explained, so undermining the joy that encompasses a well-fought victory would cause Dark Souls II to topple from the delicate precipice it's built on.
The importance of those words cannot be overstated. The Souls games are a relic from a time when games demanded serious investment to complete. An era where nothing is handed to you; where the scars of failure chronicle the difficult path you traveled before reaching the summit. The threat that Dark Souls II would wrap a protective arm around anyone who wished to inhabit its crumbling castles and murky swamps, ensuring that even those with only a passing interest could explore the eerie confines was too much to bear. Dark Souls II should offer an inhospitable respite for those who fear being made soft by the failure-free experience offered by so many other games. And it's an incredible feeling when the director of Dark Souls II recognizes the place this franchise holds, and doesn't taint its unrepentant appeal.
The Souls games are a relic from a time when games demanded serious investment to complete.
So what did From Software mean when it said that Dark Souls II would be more accessible than its hard-hearted predecessors? Tanimura talked about removing the "tedious" aspects so you can focus on what makes Souls so eminently engaging. For instance, it wasn't until halfway through Dark Souls that you unlocked the ability to warp between bonfires. In the sequel, you will be able to perform this vanishing feat from the beginning. This ties in to the less-restrictive level design as well. Dark Souls II will once again take place in an open world in which each section is ostensibly a level in itself. However, the order in which you progress is more flexible than before. With more choices, you can forge your own path through the decimated world, so having warp points should limit needless backtracking.
It will be interesting to see how more freedom affects progression. In Dark Souls, although you could often choose which section to attempt, the game made it clear when you chose one beyond your means. If you entered the graveyard instead of climbing the mountain path at the outset, for example, you would meet a quick end from a deadly gang of skeletons. Without so much as uttering a word, Dark Souls nudged you in the right direction, burning a memory of failure in your mind so you would revisit the most dangerous parts when you became stronger. However, with more areas open at once, it's unclear how Dark Souls II will maintain its razor-sharp edge throughout. In games such as The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, enemies level up alongside you, so they always offer the same relative challenge. Will Dark Souls II have to concoct a similar system? Or will From Software find another way to keep the difficulty high no matter which path you take?
The only other "tedious" aspect that Tanimura was willing to talk about pertained to weapon upgrades. This process will be made more straightforward in Dark Souls II. He didn't go into detail on what changes would be implemented, but he did say that grinding would be reduced. This may mean that you no longer have to procure rare items to infuse your weapons with more power. Although such a shift would keep you progressing, it might not be the clear gain that Tanimura envisions. Repeatedly slaying groups of enemies to gain precious shards provided a vacation from the unnerving tension that is such a frequent aspect of Dark Souls. You could cut enemies to shreds without your heart beating through you chest, which let you exist in this dreary world without the accompanying dread. If Dark Souls II lessens the perks of demon slaughter, it could make an already terrifying adventure even tougher to bear.
Dark Souls nudged you in the right direction, burning a memory of failure in your mind so you would revisit the most dangerous parts when you became stronger.
It doesn't appear as if Tanimura has any sympathy for hesitant players. From the 20 or so minutes of action From Software showed, Dark Souls II may be even more difficult than its infamous predecessor. What's interesting is how the difficulty will be implemented. In Dark Souls, combat served as the backbone for every encounter. Ready your shield, steady your sword, and patiently march through the punishing lands, always on the lookout for enemies waiting to attack. Such is the case with Dark Souls II as well; however, there are puzzle aspects too. In one scene, wyverns flood the skies as you attempt to cross a feeble rope bridge. As you're halfway across, high above a canyon, a wyvern lands on the bridge, snapping the ropes holding it, and you, aloft. You fall to your death. Clearly, there is a way to cross the bridge, but you need to exercise your brain rather than your brawn to accomplish that.
In another area, a silver chariot barrels toward you. Though you see it coming from a distance, its speed is incredible, and even rolling out of the way doesn't clear you from its rampaging path. Once again, the person playing the demo died. However, this encounter, too, can be overcome with quick thinking, though the developers didn't reveal how to stay alive. Puzzle solving looks like it will be a bigger element of Dark Souls II than its predecessor, which should mix the difficulty up in interesting ways. That runaway chariot had one other important element as well: it's a boss fight. Bosses no longer stay at the end of levels, waiting for you to end their lives. They set out to hunt you, and fight you, when you least expect it, forcing you to stay alert lest you die from an unexpected strike.
Elsewhere, this is the same Dark Souls that you remember. The story unfolds in vague whispers and hints, forcing you to piece together the expansive history that ties this broken world together. Silent areas stretch on endlessly, racking your nerves as you wait for an enemy to leap from the shadows, ending the terrifying wait. One enemy tempts you to walk behind it, and when you face its barrel-plated backside, it crushes you with a backward splash. Another one hides behind a locked door. Lodge an arrow in its peering eyes, and it will break down the door, and the wall, to come after you. A knight waits on a narrow bridge, slinging axes your way. With a well-timed swing of your sword, you can repel his attacks. But if you miss, your life ends in a flash. This is the Dark Souls you remember, where death lurks around every corner, but you continually push forward to prove your worth.
Many times, when a sequel debuts, it bears such a striking resemblance to its predecessor that it's difficult to get excited. Dark Souls II is able to avoid this trap because of its very nature. There is nothing like Dark Souls out there now, no game dredged so clearly from the ashes of gaming's cold and forgotten past. That Dark Souls II is more of the same is a good thing because what it is, what it represents, is the antithesis of what modern game design has become. It is a cruel, unforgiving beast that relishes in doling out hellacious punishment. It's the furthest thing possible from mainstream. Its obstinate nature burns at its core, forcing novices and experts alike to move slowly through environs with steely determination. It is the great equalizer. This is the Dark Souls you remember, where death lurks around every corner, but you already knew that. You're already dead. |
Hollywood has taught us that some deaths are tragic, some are deserved, and some just make you go "OH, MY GOD HOLY SHIT, YES." These are the ways we would go, if given the choice. Dying in a blaze of glory may be cool and all, but these folks prove it's always better to die in a blaze of awesome. Advertisement
7 Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) in Deep Blue Sea In an effort to cure Alzheimer's, scientists in an underwater lab inject science directly into the brains of regular sharks. In a twist that for some reason was unexpected by the scientists, the sharks become super smart. They use their new skills to terrorize the research team, who for some reason refuse to let the sharks just escape into the open ocean. After several reasonably standard shark deaths, including a shark destroying a helicopter, Samuel L. Jackson takes stock of the situation, tells everyone to calm down, and provides an awe-inspiring rallying speeches in the face of disastrous adversity. He spends so much time going face-to-face with adversity, that he neglects to guard his back, which is aimed at the only giant hole in the lab where a super shark may be expected to hang out. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Not surprisingly, he gets his ass eaten by a super shark. Why it's awesome
If we can't have this exact death (and our line of work makes it unlikely) then we want one in the same category. By that, we mean a death where one glance at the tombstone lets the world know that you were the only person to ever, ever die that way. |
A shipwreck discovered by a diver on the Goodwin Sands near Deal will be at the centre of an urgent archaeological project this summer.
Dutch East Indiaman the Rooswijk will be researched and partially excavated by an international team based in Ramsgate from July to October.
The ship had been on its way to the East Indies with valuable cargo including silver ingots and coinage when it sank on the sandbank on January 8, 1740.
Spectacles recovered in 2005 from the Rooswijk
There were no survivors.
The wreck is now at risk from currents and shifting sands.
The project, run by the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency in partnership with Historic England, involves mapping the ship and securing any archaeological material.
Spanish coins found in the Rooswijk wreck from 2005
Heritage minister Tracey Crouch says the excavation project will safeguard important material for future generations, develop underwater research and support the new Ramsgate Heritage Action Zone initiative, which looks to attract investment to the area using local heritage.
She said: “The shipwrecks that dot the British coast are unique pieces of maritime heritage and windows into Europe’s seafaring history.”
The wreck is of enormous value to archaeologists to help them better understand that period of seafaring history.
A drawing of a ship similar to the Rooswijk by Adolf van der Laan in 1716. Picture: Collection of the Fries Scheepvaart Museum
There are a total of 250 Dutch East India Company shipwrecks, of which only a third have been located, and never before has such a wreck been researched or excavated scientifically on this scale.
Dutch minister Jet Bussemaker says the information the team can gather will be valuable in describing that period in history. |
Phil Baroni circled left and pawed out his jab. He promised himself he'd stay calm, patient, but that's easier said than done when your lifelong dream is staring you straight in the eye, so close you could reach out and snatch it.
All Baroni ever wanted was to win a world championship. To feel the belt hugging around his waist, his arms outstretched to the heavens. He had and lost so many chances before, back when fighting was a second priority to the vices of the night. But now, this was different. He was a changed man, and this was his moment to seize.
Nobutatsu Suzuki bulled forward, muscling Baroni against the fence. And then it happened.
"I knew right away," Baroni sighs.
"I was so close. I could taste it. I knew if I beat that guy, I was getting the fight. I've been dreaming my whole career for that fight."
Baroni was promised a shot at the inaugural ONE FC welterweight title if he defeated Suzuki on May 31. Instead, his ankle snagged in the cage, and the next thing Baroni knew, arena officials were trying to wheel him out on a stretcher, his right foot twisted the opposite way like a grotesque action figure. The bone, dislocated. The ligament, torn. Baroni's storybook ending had just become a nightmare.
Baroni traveled 12 days with the pain untreated, flying from Manila to San Francisco, driving to Santa Fe to pick up his belongings, then flying back to Las Vegas to finally undergo surgery. All the while, his mind raced. Was this it? Is this really how things would end? He'd dominated Suzuki for four minutes. Why couldn't he have just sealed the deal earlier?
Then came the diagnosis. First doctors said Baroni would be out of the gym at least a year. For a 13-year veteran who's fast approaching the big 4-0, that was precious time Baroni didn't have. He panicked, did some digging, asked a few acquaintances and discovered an experimental stem cell treatment available in Jamaica. An NFL player with a similar, but more severe, ankle injury vouched for Baroni on its effectiveness. If the procedure works, and Baroni catches a few breaks along the way, he may find himself back in the gym within six to nine months.
The thing is, Baroni is a fighter. It's what he does best. Treatment costs money -- a lot of money -- and if Baroni can't walk, he can't fight. If he can't fight, well, that income is a bit harder to come by.
"It worries me a lot. I'm not rich or making big bucks," Baroni sighs deeper.
"I could easily fall off the wagon right now on one leg. Roll up in my wheel, roll my ass into a casino, put the little money I won down on a f--kin' blackjack table and drinks. It'd be pretty easy. Maybe the old me would've done that, but I can't afford to do that. I need to save money and hopefully find some work."
Baroni knows he'll figure something out. He always does. Honestly, what's more frustrating is all the chatter, the incessant background noise. The crowd that just see the result of his fight -- a first round TKO loss -- scoff to themselves, then tell Baroni to hang up his gloves. They don't know what this meant to him; what it still does mean to him.
"A lot of people think I'm done," Baroni says. "I ain't going out like this, dude. I ain't going out breaking my ankle, getting carried out of the ring. The whole argument while I was on the ground, however long I was left in the ring, was because they brought out a stretcher. Motherf--kers, stand me up and carry me the f--k out. I ain't going out of the ring on a f--king stretcher. They're like, ‘But your ankle.' They wouldn't f--king do it. That's what took so long to get me out of the ring, because I was arguing with them. The last time I'm going out of a ring isn't going to be on no f--king stretcher. There's no f--king way. I'm not going out like that. I gave my life to this sport. I made a lot of sacrifices. I beat up my body and punished myself, but the last time I leave the cage is not going to be on a f--king stretcher with my foot twisted off. I had to walk out under my own power."
Last August I spoke with Baroni after he inked his deal to fight for ONE FC. That same deal guaranteed him a title shot if he won his first two bouts, and the thought of redeeming his career consumed him. It was all he talked about. He'd reshaped his life to fulfill this one goal. Gone were the neon succubi of Las Vegas nightlife, the backdoor poker games and four a.m. bingers. Baroni didn't want to become a forgotten man, one of the names we look back on and say, ‘He could've done so much more.'
A ONE FC title may seem trite to some, but in his eyes, it represented something far greater. Validation, in a sense. Validation that he still managed to get it done, even if it was in his eleventh hour.
Baroni said it himself back then, he just needed "a different ending to this f--king story." Now that mantra means more than it ever has before.
"This is the worst ending that I could ever imagine," Baroni says, dolefully eyeing the casted foot that rests on his living room table. "But it's just not going to be. I'm not going to let it be. I'm not even entertaining that. I know a lot of people are already counting me out. I know a lot of people think that's it. But that's not it. That's not it. I'm going to f--king get better and get back in there.
"The first day I put on a pair of boxing gloves, I wanted that fight. A world championship fight. I fought the Pride Grand Prix twice, I didn't win. I fought (Frank) Shamrock for the Strikeforce title, I didn't win. I was one fight away two times in the UFC to get a title shot. And f--k man, I still haven't gotten it. I still haven't won that world championship. I was right there. I felt great. I could almost taste it.
"It's not going to end this way," Baroni vows to himself. "I'm not going to let it end this way." |
Joey Davidson | Gaming Reviews & News Gallery by The Xbox One will finally see the New Xbox Experience launch tomorrow to the general public. This dashboard redesign will bring with it faster speeds, backwards compatibility and a, hopefully, better sense of organization. Looking back, the Xbox has absolutely changed over the years when its come to the dashboard. The menus have gone from simple to complex and clunky. Occasionally, they’ve even been well thought out. As we near the next iteration of the Xbox One’s dashboard, let’s take a look at how far we’ve come. The Original Xbox – 2001
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The first Xbox’s dashboard never really changed all that much. It introduced the Xbox LIVE tab, let gamers user it as a CD player (those were the days) and offered sub menus to manage game memory and settings. It boasted iconic sounds and that classic green look, but it was a pretty barren experience otherwise. The Xbox 360 Blades – 2005 through 2008
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If you ask most Xbox 360 fans, they’ll point to the original Blades dashboard as being one of their favorites. Sure, it screamed “Early 2000s” in its design, but it actually boasted a lot of information in a really easy to understand space. The swooshing of the blades as you switched between Xbox Live, Games, Media and System (Marketplace wasn’t added until later) is something a lot of us can still hear in our brains to this very day. This dashboard also introduced Achievements and interesting gamer profiles, something the Xbox brand probably doesn’t get enough recognition for today. The best part about this dashboard, though, was the introduction of the Xbox Button menu. This let you immediately open a smaller menu for fast navigation while playing games. You could change the song you were listening to, access your friends list or quickly hop to specific menus without breaking gameplay. This was a game changer back in 2005, and it was pretty awesome stuff. The Xbox 360 NXE – 2008 through 2011
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And here’s where we start the bad stuff. The NXE (called the New Xbox Experience, much like what we’re getting tomorrow) introduced Avatars and really crazy dashboard themes. Its theme was based on the Zune and Windows Media Center, and the Guide button was now a bit more robust. The dashboard allowed for disc installation, too. Fans hated it because it simply didn’t display enough information at once, often wasting screen space. This dashboard only made it three years before being replaced. It was updated in 2010 to include Kinect support, though that update wasn’t a complete overhaul. The Xbox 360 Metro Design – 2011 through Today
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What we have on the Xbox 360 now was introduced in 2011, back when Windows Metro was a thing. Microsoft went for a clean and modern approach, and this is probably closest to what we see on the Xbox One currently. The dashboard placed a huge emphasis on applications like Netflix, Microsoft’s own video service, the marketplace and, yes, ads. This dashboard had tons of ads. Welcome to the future, friends. At least it looks nice. This dashboard made use of the Kinect, too. That fact played a large role in its big design scheme. The Current Xbox One Dashboard – 2013 through 2015
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The Xbox One’s current dashboard is a lot like what users see with Windows 8’s start menu. It’s a pile of pins and applications in square design over several swipes of information. Quite honestly, it’s not very good. This interface has undergone constant small tweaks since its introduction, including stuff like a battery life indicator and a better snapping system. The UI made way for some unique features, but what it boasts in additions and loses in speed. The Xbox One’s current dash is slow, and that’s a big reason why Microsoft is dropping the New Xbox One Experience. The New Xbox One Experience – 2015 and beyond
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments will this week question how to best use their economic ties with Egypt to pressure Cairo’s army-backed rulers into finding a peaceful compromise with supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.
President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy listens to Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's reply to his address to the Maltese parliament in Valletta July 11, 2013. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
At stake could be a 5 billion euro ($6.7 billion) package of grants and loans promised by the EU, its member governments and international financial institutions last year, as well as various trade incentives, EU officials and experts say.
The EU’s ability to exert immediate economic pressure on Cairo is limited - much of its current aid is already stopped because of inadequate democratic reforms.
But the hope is that such a signal could help end a bloody crackdown by the government against Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, in which around 800 people have died, and prevent further bloodshed between the two sides.
President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, two of the most senior EU officials, said in a statement on Sunday the 28-member bloc should “urgently review” its relations with Cairo to try to end the violence.
Senior EU diplomats will meet in Brussels on Monday to decide which areas of economic cooperation could be targeted and prepare a possible meeting of EU foreign ministers to be held in the next two weeks.
“Egypt is a key partner of the European Union,” the two officials said. “Further escalation must be prevented. It could have unpredictable consequences for Egypt and for its broader neighborhood.”
In the past days, a host of European foreign ministers have raised the specter of suspending economic aid.
France’s Laurent Fabius has said “nothing could be ruled out” in terms of aid policy.
“What is evident is that we must quickly stop the bloodshed and reach an inter-Egyptian dialogue. It is not easy of course. We have to mobilize all our energies so that a solution is found by Egyptians,” he told reporters on Sunday.
Austria’s Michael Spindelegger called on the EU to withhold its main aid deal.
“This is my demand: The 5 billion have to be held back until the process returns to democracy,” he said in an interview with the newspaper Kurier published on Sunday.
Experts and officials said Brussels could also threaten to suspend a broad deal dating back to 2001, which includes provisions for free trade in industrial goods and concessionary arrangements for trade in agricultural products, as well as broader political cooperation and a cultural exchange.
TREADING CAREFULLY
The United States and the European Union have tried jointly to facilitate a peaceful, political solution to the stand-off between the army and the Muslim Brotherhood of Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected president.
But since the army crackdown on pro-Mursi protests started on Wednesday, the focus of international involvement has shifted. In choosing its next steps, the EU will have to tread carefully in who it targets with any new measures.
Along with Washington, it needs to balance the need to support democratic principles with a vital interest in the stability in the Arab world’s most populous nation.
Cutting off aid completely could damage support to the civil society which now benefits from the vast majority of EU cash. Since 2012, no new funds have been approved for direct budget support in Cairo, because of a lack of reforms.
It could also damage Europe’s ability to mediate between the two sides in the future. European commercial interests could weigh, as well.
“Some will say ... Why do want to push the Egyptian market into the hands of Chinese,” said Daniel Levy, Middle East director of the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.
On the other hand, he said, the specter of severing broader commercial ties could, in time, push the Egyptian business elites to pressure the army into political dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“(They) ... will also be uncomfortable and they will start sending internal signals,” he said. ($1 = 0.7500 euros)
(Corrects date of EU deal with Egypt in par 13) |
The New York Court of Appeals will hear arguments against recognition of same-sex marriage today, City Room reports:
"The judges of the state’s Court of Appeals will consider two cases [pdf] brought by opponents of same-sex marriage.
In one case, the opponents are challenging a 2007 policy, adopted by the State Department of Civil Service, that extended health insurance benefits to the same-sex partners of state and local government employees who married out of state.
In the other case, the opponents are seeking to overturn a similar administrative order, issued in 2006 by Andrew J. Spano, the Westchester County executive, directing county officials to recognize same-sex unions performed elsewhere.
The opponents are represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., which argues that both orders were 'illegal, unconstitutional, and resulted in the unlawful disbursement of public funds,' according to a summary of the cases provided by the Court of Appeals.
In both cases, trial and midlevel appellate courts have found that recognition of same-sex marriages by Mr. Spano and the Department of Civil Service were 'valid exercises of their authority,' the summary noted."
In related news, State Senator Tom Duane is saying a marriage equality vote could come before election day. |
The life of a pop act can be pretty tough, and no one probably knows that more than Brit/Irish pop sensation, One Direction. In the span of four years, the quintet has secured a heavy fan base, sold-out stadiums and arenas all around the world, and have had all three of their albums; Up All Night, Take Me Home and Midnight Memories, debut at the top of the charts. Just days ago, it was announced that they would be headlining another tour in Australia for 2015, interestingly titled On The Road Again Tour. It should be noted that the band has just started a tour; the Where We Are Tour, in support of Midnight Memories. On top of that, One Direction is currently recording the follow up to Midnight Memories, although that album was just released back in November, only six months ago. Also, a rumored sequel has been planned for their documentary/concert film, This Is Us. Pop acts can be fickle and they always have to evolve in some way, but are the boys of One Direction going in too many directions too quickly?
Coming together on the UK version of the X-Factor back in 2010, group members Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson received an early warning from their soon-to-be-manager, Simon Cowell, on just how crazy things would get if they succeeded in winning the competition. Although they did not (they placed third), they were still propelled into the spotlight, partially due to being signed by Cowell. It seems as if they have not had time to look back since. In their movie This Is Us, Karen Payne, the mother of Liam, wistfully looks upon a cardboard cut out of him while mentioning that her young son has not had much downtime since One Direction came into fruition.
“I always knew he would make it big”, she says, “but never like this.” Her smile in that moment holds momentarily before she breaks down in tears. “He goes away for so long.” The sentiment is repeated seconds later by Robin Twist, the stepfather to Harry Styles. “Harry went to an audition and he never came home again,” he admitted.
While the boys may be living grand lives that have taken them in so many directions, it has also reaped many rewards for them. Just recently, the Sunday Times exposed that One Direction has become the richest boy band in British history, taking in around £70 million (or $118 million, in American currency). Their fan base, affectionately called “Directioners,” have helped the young men along a high-powered journey and stronger still, they have been instrumental, and sometimes, not so instrumental, in allowing the group to have lives that most could only dream of.
Along with the second movie and their fourth album, the band recently signed a contract in 2013 to extend their deal with Syco Entertainment, a joint production company owned by Cowell and Sony Music. The details state that over the next three years, the group will release three more albums – two of original material and one compilation album. However, there is also a clause that expresses that if one member chooses to walk away at any time, the pockets of all five members will suffer. “If one of them walks away before [the contract expires], then all five miss out on the money,” an insider revealed to The Sun.
The “on” button seems to be stuck in its position when it comes to the group. While other artists take breaks with no excuse needed or required, it is easy to realize why it was such a surprise when Liam Payne revealed at the 2014 BRIT Awards that he had not been around the other members in nearly three months. Rumors began to swirl that the group was on the verge of a break-up when truthfully, they only had some time off. Be that as it may, there are some very obvious cracks beginning to show in the foundation of One Direction.
In early April, the fivesome released the video for their current single, You and I. Although it was simplistic at best, it was hard to ignore that some of the young members of the group looked a bit haggard in their personal appearances. In some behind-the-scenes clips of the video shoot, the location where the video was filmed, Clevedon Pier in Sommerset, England, as well as the cold weather, is blamed for the shoot being uncomfortable. Also, the boys are aging and one would not expect them to look the same way they did around four years ago. However, the change has been so drastic, it is almost a bit frightening to truly take hold of.
It is probably the very first view that things in the world of One Direction are turning a bit manic. Although the group has always seemed grateful with the success they have obtained, it is questionable if that success would continue if they took some much needed downtime that lasted longer than a few months. Of course, it makes sense that it would, so there should be no issue if the boys had somewhat of a break, right? Sadly, probably not.
The world is a place where the faces and popularity of pop acts change at a heavy pace. Just last year, the Aussie pop-rock group, 5 Seconds of Summer, were nearly unknown to the public outside of their home continent. Now, following their roles as the opening act in One Direction’s Where We Are Tour, they are poised to have a major breakthrough of their own with their first studio album being set for release in late June.
In truth, musicians who have so much against them must work even harder than most to even get to play a little. But how much work can five young men go through without being able to take a much needed rest? It is easy to see One Direction are going in too many directions for the sake of remaining popular. However, the scary notion is that one day, they may actually burn up as opposed to burning out.
Opinion by Jonathan Brown
Idolator
Metro
Guardian Liberty Voice |
New signing Philippe Gilbert could link up with Tom Boonen for the Tour of Flanders, says Etixx Quickstep directeur sportif, Wilfried Peeters. The Belgian team signed Gilbert on a one-year contract for 2017, and with Boonen set to race his final season in the pro-ranks, the veteran pair will race on the same trade team for the first time. Related Articles Gilbert signs with Etixx-QuickStep
Gilbert says goodbye to BMC at Il Lombardia
Boonen not expecting any special birthday presents at World Championships
Lefevere: I've never seen Boonen so disappointed
Gilbert ordered to repay Omega Pharma-Lotto 300,000 Euros
"We've spoken with Tom about the programme for next year and things look good but we still need to make the final decisions at the next training camp," Peeters told Cyclingnews.
"At the moment Tom is on track. He's doing some mountain biking and some cyclo-cross to keep fit over the winter and we're just treating it like any other off-season. We don't yet know about his first race. It could be Qatar but again we don’t know the final plans until we have our camp in December."
Although Boonen and Gilbert have a combined age of 70 they have amassed two world road racing titles and ten Monuments between them. Along with riders such as Niki Terpstra they will provide formidable firepower in next year's Classics campaign. For now though, Peeters believes that the team must plan thoroughly and keep their focus.
"With Gilbert and Tom they know each other well and that means they can help each other win. For a race like Flanders we always have a plan and Gilbert is, like Tom, also one of the guys who can win a race like that. It's possible that they race together there but again nothing is confirmed yet, we still need to make things certain at our camp.
"We don't know yet Philippe's programme. It's an option that he does some races like Flanders. We will have a meeting with him soon and then plan for the season."
Much of next spring will been dominated by Boonen's final outings in the classics. He is set to retire after Paris-Roubaix and Peeters is keen for both his rider and the team to treat the circumstances as they would any other season.
"You can't think too much about Tom stopping. What Tom needs to do is have a good winter and keep his focus, which I'm sure he will. When it comes to racing he can't think about the end, he and the rest of the team just needs to concentrate on the next race coming up.
"When I retired my last race was Paris-Tours and we won that race with Richard Virenque. I made the decision to stop during the season, so it's not quite the same scenario for Tom because at the start of that year I didn't know if I would continue or not but I had a good final race in Roubaix and during Suisse I decided to stop. I kept me race head on for the rest of the year though." |
George R.R. Martin is once again assuring fans that he will finish the A Song of Ice and Fire series in seven books and that the HBO show Game of Thrones won't catch up to him. He might be the only one who still believes this.
Martin spoke to Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday to respond to the growing sense that his ever-expansive fantasy series won't be finished in seven books. "My plan is to finish in seven," Martin said. "But my original plan was to finish in three. I write the stories and they grow." That's not exactly a confidence-inspiring statement.
Martin's comments come after Martin's editor Anne Groell answered a question about the series' length and said she was starting to "wonder" if seven would be enough, and hinted about "maybe eight books."
I begin to wonder—though 7 is what we currently have under contract. I remember when he called me, years and years back, to confess that his little trilogy was…well…no longer a trilogy. He predicted four books. I said Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Then he said five books. I said Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Then he went to six. I said… Well, you get it. Finally, we were on the same page. Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Good. Only, as I recently learned while editing THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE (another awesome thing you must buy when it comes out!), there are really technically eight kingdoms, all having to do with who has annexed what when Aegon the Conqueror landed in Westeros. So, maybe eight books for Seven Kingdoms would be okay.
Groell has worked with Martin from the beginning of the book series and has been saying there would be seven books since early on in the writing process. So she certainly is an expert on Martin's abilities and tendencies. Each book has taken longer and longer to write, with a five-year period to write book four and six years to finish book five, which came out in 2011.
In the Entertainment Weekly interview, Martin again emphasized his hopes that he would finish the series before the HBO show. The show-runners have said they will finish in seven or eight seasons, or about three-to-four years from now. Martin finishing two more books in that short period already seemed unlikely; the possibility of an eighth book would rule it out entirely.
But Martin is sticking to his belief that the show won't actually finish in seven or eight seasons. "I don’t think it will be enough to tell the story we’re telling in the books," he said. He advocates that HBO avoid passing the show by making staggered feature films. But HBO — a television subscription channel first and foremost — hasn't really warmed to that idea of stopping the show for a movie.
Martin is definitely still in control of the book series and the Thrones canon. But with both his editor and the show doubting his espoused plan, Martin's credibility on the series' future is just sinking lower and lower. |
Claim: Orthodox jews engage in marital relations through a hole in a sheet.
FALSE
Origins: Common to the human experience is the desire to bask in the sure and certain knowledge those who adhere to different practices have it much worse than we do. Part of belonging to any group is the need to believe it’s the best of its kind, and that holds true even when the groups in question are different religions, or even sects within the same religion. One needs to feel comforted one has made the right choice and is indeed upon the
right path, after all. Consequently, bits of wild misinformation about what goes on in the other camp often get circulated as truth because these tales serve to confirm the rightness of one’s own choice.
Such is the case with the “sex through a hole in the sheet” rumor. None of the three branches of Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform) require this of their adherents, and indeed taking the joy out of marital sex in such a fashion runs directly counter to all things Jewish. Whereas in some branches of religion sex within marriage is supposed to be primarily for the purposes of procreation, throughout Judaism it’s viewed as a celebration of couplehood — man and wife are supposed to enjoy each other, whether kids are the goal of the encounter or not.
Indeed, not making love to your wife can call rabbinical sanction down upon the head of a Jewish man or even provide grounds for divorce.
The times for conjugal duty prescribed in the Torah are: for men of independence, every day; for laborers, twice a week; for ass-drivers, once a week; for camel-drivers, once in thirty days; for sailors, once in six months. These are the rulings of Rabbi Eliezer.
In a world that made sense, this rumor about joyless sex would better adhere to just about anyone other than Jews. Ah, but sometimes things just aren’t logical.
Interestingly enough, a 1995 article in the Jerusalem Post said about modesty practices in other cultures, “[I]n Catholic Mexico of yore with the use of modesty bed sheets with carefully stitched and positioned holes in them.” Looks like its writer confused a scene from the 1992 film Like Water For Chocolate with reality. (See the Sightings section at the end of this page for more about that film.)
One guess as to the origin of the slit sheet belief postulates it as a joking reference to ultra-Orthodox weddings, where men and women are said to attend separate receptions by way of dividing the hall with a curtain. Through a hole in the curtain, the children can pass through, but no one else.
However, according to the soc.culture.jewish FAQ:
We don’t know what you’ve heard, but what we’ve heard is that when it comes time for three men to “witness” a woman’s conversion [involving nude immersion], what’s commonly done is for the water’s surface to be covered with a thick, opaque sheet with a hole in it, just big enough to let her head through while discreetly shielding the rest of her body. We don’t know what you’ve heard, but what we’ve heard is that when it comes time for three men to “witness” a woman’s conversion [involving nude immersion], what’s commonly done is for the water’s surface to be covered with a thick, opaque sheet with a hole in it, just big enough to let her head through while discreetly shielding the rest of her body. According to a Jewish “urban legend,” the myth derives from seeing Jews in religious neighborhoods hanging their “talitot katan” out to dry. This poncho-like garment is about two feet by four feet, has a fringe on each corner, and a hole in the center for the wearer’s head, and it looks somewhat like a small sheet with a hole, and many people have vivid and warped imaginations.
This rumor spreads chiefly among non-Orthodox Jews and is not often heard from those of other faiths. Whatever this snippet of misinformation’s beginnings, the whisper about holes in sheets has become a part of Jewish lore that reflects attitudes towards the fabled strictness of Orthodox practices. To even hint sexuality between man and wife — a vibrant part of Judaism — has been squelched to this degree within the Orthodox branch is to strike at the heart of all things Jewish. Nothing could better capture the presumption about how joyless life must be within the Orthodox faith.
But that’s not the way of it at all. Shmuel Boteach, author of the acclaimed Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy labels the sheet rumor as utterly false. “Judaism,” he says, “is the one religion that not only allows sex for pleasure but sees sex as the holiest of all acts because it brings life into the world — and even when it doesn’t, it sews two people together as one flesh, one soul.” This tenet of the religion holds true across all branches of Judaism, including the heavily-governed Orthodox.
Barbara “short sheeted” Mikkelson
Sightings: This belief turns up as a scene in the 1992 film Como agua para chocolate (Like Water For Chocolate), which is set in the late 1800s. After the wedding of a young Mexican couple, a scene from the wedding night shows the new wife nervously arranging a sheet over herself. Also, Simon Louvish’s 1986 book The Death of Moishe-Ganef uses the sheet belief as a plot point.
Last updated: 8 February 2015
Sources: |
The Knesset passed Monday a law penalizing persons or organizations that boycott Israel or the settlements, by a vote of 47 to 38.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not present during the vote. MK Zeev Elkin (Likud), who proposed the law, said the law is not meant to silence people, but "to protect the citizens of Israel."
Members of the Knesset voting on a bill, July 11, 2011 Michal Fattal
According to the law, a person or an organization calling for the boycott of Israel, including the settlements, can be sued by the boycott's targets without having to prove that they sustained damage. The court will then decide how much compensation is to be paid. The second part of the law says a person or a company that declare a boycott of Israel or the settlements will not be able to bid in government tenders.
MK Nitzan Horowitz from Meretz blasted the law, calling it outrageous and shameful. "We are dealing with a legislation that is an embarrassment to Israeli democracy and makes people around the world wonder if there is actually a democracy here," he said. Ilan Gilon, another Meretz MK, said the law would further delegitimize Israel.
Kadima opposition party spokesman said the Netanyahu government is damaging Israel. "Netanyahu has crossed a red line of political foolishness today and national irresponsibility, knowing the meaning of the law and it's severity, while giving in to the extreme right that is taking over the Likkud."
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held discussions with Speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin and MK Elkin. The three discussed whether to have the Knesset vote on the law on Monday, a day after MK Dan Meridor warned that approving the law on the same day of the Quartet meeting may cause damage to Israel. Before midnight on Sunday the prime minister's office announced there is no reason to delay the vote.
Before the vote, the Knesset's legal adviser, attorney Eyal Yanon, published a legal assessment saying parts of the law edge towards "illegality and perhaps beyond." He went on to warn that the law "damages the core of freedom of expression in Israel." Yanon's assessment contradicts that of Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, who said the bill is legal.
Peace Now movement announced Monday it opened a Facebook page calling for a boycott of products that come from the settlements. On Tuesday it plans to launch a national campaign, with the aim of convincing tens of thousands of people to support the boycott. |
China’s ruling bodies are said to be reassessing the country’s blanket-ban on videogame consoles, some 13 years after the ruling was first made law.
An anonymous government source is alleged to have said that the seven ministries that imposed the ban on sale and import of game consoles across China are now evaluating the legislation.
The ministry of culture source has stated, “We are reviewing the policy and have conducted some surveys and held discussions with other ministries on the possibility of opening up the game console market. However, since the ban was issued by seven ministries more than a decade ago, we will need approval from all parties to lift it.”
It comes as Sony set up a base in China last year, geared towards training inductees in development practices, and as Microsoft’s Kinect has made its way into several facets of life for educational and practical applications.
Commenting on the rumour via Reuters, SCE rep Yoshiko Uchiyaman simply stated, “China [is] a promising market for our business, and we are always considering and preparing business opportunities and possibilities.”
We’ll have more on the matter as it comes.
Thanks GI.biz. |
An addition to the Analysis of the Garrott
To All
As far as I know, no one has actually challenged what I allege to be proof of the amateurism at the garrote scene. Still, there are those (mostly on other forums) who continue to express or imply that the knots are "complicated," "sophisticated" and "professional." The inference is that no "ordinary folk" are capable of creating this scene. The further inference is that the Ramseys are incapable of this, therefore innocent. If you will bear with on what promises to be a rather long winded analysis, I will try again to lay this "professional" nonsense to rest.
Every scene, crime scene or otherwise, is usually made up of several elements. Being knowledgeable in one or some does not assure being knowledgeable in all. For instance, I am quite knowledgeable about ropes, knots and that sort of thing, but if the area of investigation were about computers, setting up web pages and that sort of thing, I would probably take a back seat to at least 90% of the posters. Forgetting this fact of specific knowledge often leads to the acceptance of "expert opinion" that is in error.
Autopsy report:
"Wrapped around the neck with a double knot in the midline of the posterior neck is a length of white cord similar to that described as being tied around the right wrist. This ligature cord is cut on the right side of the neck and removed. A single black ink mark is placed on the left side of the cut and a double black ink mark on the right side of the cut. The posterior knot is left intact. Extending from the knot on the posterior aspect of the neck are two tails of the knot, one measuring 4 inches in length and having a frayed end, and the other measuring 17 inches in length with the end tied in multiple loops around a length of a round tan-brown wooden stick which measures 4.5 inches in length."
I certainly am not equipped to question Dr. Meyer's medical know how, but he is obviously very unknowledgeable about ropes and knots. The mental picture I got from Dr. Meyers description is far different than the mental picture I get from observing the relevant photos. His description is horribly erroneous.
There is no double knot in this scene, hence no two leads leading away from a double knot. A double knot by definition is two knotting throws. It does not exist here. There is a single knot preceded by two or three turns of the cord around itself, but only one knotting action. The short lead does trail from the knot. The long part to the handle is simply the distance from the small loop to the handle. It is a continuation away from the loop around the neck and is not connected to nor interrupted by any knot.
We shall later look more at the flaws here, but first, let's establish something of a background of realistic professional to use as a reference.
If you have ever seen a calf roping\tying contest in person or on tv, you may have noticed the contestant shaking out the lasso just prior to start. The shaking out it to get the lasso dimensions suitable to the task out hand. This shaking out is possible because the small loop at the end of the rope allows free travel of the main line for the adjustment of size. This small loop is fixed by design so that it will not slip and change size, thus compressing upon the main line and reducing free movement.
Without this fixed small loop and with compression, upon every use, the contestant could not shake out the lasso, but would have to use both hands and considerable time to back off the compressed small loop in order to put the lasso back to the dimensions wanted. Ergo, a small loop that is not fixed and will compress is very unprofessional. This is all basic understanding in the construction and use of a lasso by whatever name and whatever application.
In none of these contests will you ever see a contestant throw a rope over the calf's neck and then construct the lasso. Yes, the image is quite ridiculous. It is just as ridiculous elsewhere, but perhaps not a noticeable to most. By the wildest stretch of imagination, I cannot think of a single instance in which construction of a lasso on the object makes any "professional" sense. It appears that in such a circumstance, the lasso element is more accidental than intended; or the construction was not for use, but for show.
I get the impression that most of you are not all that familiar with garrotes, ropes, knots and that sort of thing. Good. If you will visually go along with me, you can help me make the point that what is found at the crime scene is not professional, but an amateur following intuitive prompts. By intuitive prompts, I mean letting the circumstance dictate the next move as opposed to a knowing operation.
Lets' assume that staging is called for. For various reasons, some options are rejected. The idea settled on is garroting. Your knowledge of garrotes and garroting is limited to knowing it has something to do with strangulation with a rope or something and involves a handle.
You have in your possession a nylon cord about four or five feet long. A paint brush will provide the handle. You start from the basic of straddling the face down victim for comfort of operation. It is noticed that the arms are in the way. They are moved to an overhead position to get them out of the way.
The next move is to take one end of the cord and run it under the throat and around the neck. You see that the circuit must be completed to effect a loop for strangulation. Obviously, this means connecting the cord to itself in something of a circle. This can be done in several ways, but let's look at it from the viewpoint of what is shown in the photo.
You are holding the long part of the cord in your left hand. The shorter part that has been brought around the neck is in your right hand. (Although its all one cord, the long cord refers to the part in the left hand and the short cord refers to the part in the right hand which has traveled around the neck.) You need to make some kind of connection of the short cord to the long cord. Visual dictates the short cord in your right hand over and under (or vise versa) the long cord in your left hand. (Where else could you go other than tying a single or double knot like a shoe string tie, and this would slip?)
You can't just drop it here as it would just fall apart and not create a stable noose. What's next? You need to anchor the completed circuit in some way. How? You need some kind of knotting and holding action. What is the most obvious means? The short cord which has been looped around the long cord is wrapped around itself. What now? There is an opening at the point where the short cord is looped around the long cord. The end of the short cord is put through this opening to create the knotting action. End of story. Real complicated, huh?
The photos shows the short cord wrapped around itself two or three times before the end is passed through the opening and the single knot created. Why two or three times? Amateur again. There is no advantage here any more than there is in the many turns around the handle. In fact, is also detrimental as it creates a bit of a back pressure that tends ever so slightly to undo the single knot.
Complicated? Professional? Hardly. Following the intuitively "obvious" is precisely what resulted in the many flaws. As further illustration, let's correct just one of the flaws.
The finished product in the photo shows the short cord traveling on the left side of the neck in a clockwise direction. It is compressed against the main cord. This means an action to reduce the size of the loop for strangulation would tend to back out the short lead and undo the knot.
Let's go back to the point where the short cord is looped around the long to create the noose. Now we want to anchor it. Let go of the long cord in your left hand and grasp the short cord near where if comes over the long cord. Now take the end of the short cord and run it under the cord across the back of the neck. Bring the end up to your left hand and over where you are holding. Now bring the end through the loop created by this action. This creates a knot that is not affected by the motion of the garrote. A bit more complicated? Sure, but that's what it takes for efficiency. That's the point.
Even thought this design still has the flaw of slipping and compressing the cord restricting travel, it will hold no matter what. The short lead is now going counterclockwise around the neck. Again, this is elementary stuff to any and all with even minimal experience in this area.
What I'm trying to do here is the same as the original analysis. I am trying eliminate all the nonsense about "professional" and see what kind of theory John Ramsey or Lou Smit can come up with without the illusion of "professional."
Needless to say, I am available to respond to any and all questions regarding my analysis. No one is excluded. Ramsey, Smit, "believers", "just curious", or a hundred attorneys. Its all the same to me. [email protected] Copyright at Common Law, Delmar England, 2000. All Rights Reserved. |
For Phantasy Star Online fans, the fact that the only English version of the game belongs to Southeast Asia has always been a bitter pill to swallow. Sure, you could hide your non-SEA IP address behind a proxy or VPN, but to many it seemed unnecessary. It was bad enough that after three years of promises the game was still not (officially) available to Americans and the US version of the game’s website had still not been updated…but to give it to another territory, *in English* even, soured many fan’s attitudes.
Which brings us to today’s news that the IP block for PSO 2’s SEA version has been removed, allowing anyone who wants to play the game’s only English language version to do so without any trickery.
Phantasy Star Online 2 is a free-to-play game and has been critisized by some as being a “play-to-win” experience, so would-be players might want to take that into account before diving in. You can take the plunge yourself by registering for and downloading the game on their official website. |
This conceptual see-through bike by German studio Designaffairs would be made from the same strong and lightweight plastic used in fighter jet canopies.
The frame of the Clarity Bike would be made from a polymer called Trivex, according to Designaffairs. First developed for helicopter windscreens and fighter jet canopies, Trivex is extremely lightweight but can also withstand high impacts.
The polymer is resistant to very hot and cold temperatures and can also be injection moulded, which would enable mass production at an affordable price and in a variety of shapes and colours.
Trivex is one of more than 2000 material samples collected by Designaffairs to provide a resource for manufacturers, designers and engineers. "What sets our library apart from the other material libraries is the fact that all materials and technologies presented are tailored to meet production-processes' needs," explained Designaffairs' Stefan Ulrich.
Lots of bicycles have been published on Dezeen, most recently a bike with a cardboard frame and wheels and a bike that carries heavy loads front and back.
We've also featured a couple of other projects by Designaffairs – a conceptual hearing aid that forms a flesh tunnel through the wearer's earlobe and an inhaler designed for a future scenario where oxygen is scarce.
The images are visualisations by Designaffairs.
Here's some more information from the designers:
No, this bike is not made out of glass. The Clarity Bike is the next project within the material focus of designaffairs studio projects which focus on using amazing materials of our library in new contexts. We believe that the Clarity Bike could be a giant leap forward in bicycle frame engineering and production. The design takes advantage of an advanced polymer which combines high impact resistance, lightweight properties and a gentle flexibility that usually would only be expected on an old Italian steel frame.
The polymer is injection moulded, which allows affordable and precise mass production while enabling unique form factors and a multitude of possible colour combinations. Initially the polymer was used in military applications. Even though the compound has a lower density than polycarbonate & acrylic its advanced performance includes exceptional impact resistance and ultra-lightweight performance. It also offers outstanding chemical resistance and thermal stability as it is virtually unaffected by most organic and inorganic chemicals and withstands very hot and cold temperatures.
In our understanding the perfect material match for creating a low cost bicycle characterised by convenience and an unmatched unique style. |
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April 10, 2015, 1:49 AM GMT / Updated April 11, 2015, 1:06 AM GMT / Source: NBC News By Elizabeth Chuck, Alex Johnson, Elisha Fieldstadt and Alastair Jamieson
The tornado that left two people dead and dozens of homes destroyed in central Illinois Thursday spanned nearly 20 miles and delivered winds of up to 200 mph, the National Weather Service said Friday, classifying it as an EF4 — the second most intense classification on the tornado rating scale.
In central Illinois, residents were carefully sifting through huge piles of debris in the "absolutely devastated" town of Fairdale, the scene of one of two tornadoes late Thursday. Two people were killed there, according to authorities.
One of the victims was identified Friday as Geraldine M. Schultz, 67. Another woman was discovered Friday afternoon, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said Friday, and identified by the county coroner's office as 69-year-old Jacklyn Klosa. The two women lived next door to each other, according to NBC Chicago. The women were friends and Schultz, known as "Geri," would sometimes drive Klosa to medical appointments, according to The Associated Press.
Nearly every structure in the tiny unincorporated town about 80 miles northwest of Chicago was damaged, said Rockland Fire Department Chief Matt Knott. Some homes were leveled "down to the slabs," he said.
"This town is absolutely devastated," Knott said.
The National Weather Service said the destructive tornado, although accompanied by at least two other twisters, was a “single long track tornado.” The half-mile wide tornado, which carried winds between 180 and 200 mph, was classified as an EF4, according the NWS. Mike Bardou, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said EF4 tornadoes only hit the Chicago area about twice a decade.
"We’re very blessed that more people were not hurt," considering the "complete destruction of so many homes with people in them," said Rauner. The governor declared DeKalb and Ogle counties disaster areas Friday. The counties will now receive support from the state.
Ogle County Sheriff Brian Van Vickle said 49 homes in the county had been damaged, including about 30 that had been destroyed. The sheriff's own home was among those that had been completely flattened, he said.
At least 20 people in the community of about 200 residents were taken to the hospital with injuries of various degrees, and six stayed overnight, officials said. One was in serious condition Friday.
Schultz had been in her house, which was "totally destroyed," DeKalb County Coroner Dennis Miller said Friday. The town was not equipped with tornado sirens, he said.
The National Weather Service said Friday that storms damage survey teams “will be deployed to work with emergency management and assess the damage that has occurred.”
Daniel Prothero, who encountered the scene as he was driving through the area, said, "It was horrible."
Power was shut off to Fairdale so search and rescue crews would be safe, said George Gaulrapp, a spokesman for Commonwealth Edison Co., who said, "It looks like a bomb went off."
"It's a tragedy," Gaulrapp said. "We just pray for the families."
Photo Gallery: Survivors Sift Through Tornado Debris
One of the tornadoes destroyed a restaurant and flattened at least four houses in nearby Rochelle, authorities said. About a dozen people who were trapped in the restaurant's basement were believed to have been rescued safely. Any injuries were minor and didn't require ambulances, they said.
Caleb Bryan was driving from his home in Lindenwood to Rochelle when the tornado hit.
"It was a very scary sight, heavy hail beforehand on Route 251 driving to Rochelle," he told NBC News. "As soon as the storm passed, I drove home to make sure it was still there."
RELATED: What's Causing Weird Weather? Blame a Blob of Water
Police told NBC News there was also significant damage in the towns of Kings and Hillcrest. There was no immediate word on injuries there.
More than 900 departures and arrivals were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and more than 950 others were delayed Thursday night.
The tornado was one of several that spun off across Illinois and Iowa on the second day of a monster storm system that peppered a 1,500-mile arc with grapefruit-size hail and winds up to 80 mph from Texas up to the Great Lakes and across to North Carolina.
A separate EF1 tornado hit Summerfield Zoo in Belvidere and killed an emu and a swan, according to the zoo and NWS. Zoo officials said the park sustained $200,000 in damages, but two baby goats were born during the tornado and a swan that survived managed to protect her eggs.
On Friday, the front responsible for the severe weather moved south and east. A funnel cloud was spotted in Charles, Louisiana, on Friday afternoon, and 62 mph winds knocked down trees in Buffalo, New York, according to Weather.com. Maryland and Virginia were at the greatest risk for thunderstorms and possible tornadoes on Friday night, according to the NWS.
NBC News' Emmanuelle Saliba contributed to this report. |
The second U.S. Apple vs. Samsung trial, which is set to start on Monday in San Jose with jury selection, may be even more important for Google than the first case, new reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reveal. Unlike in the first patent fight between the two smartphone makers when Apple said Samsung copied the design of the iPhone with its devices, Apple is now attacking Samsung solely with patents that cover Android software features. Thus, the verdict in this case is all the more important for Google.
Boston University law lecturer James Bessen told the Times that this second fight is about more than money, with Apple having already agreed to settle in case it only sought money from Samsung – even the $930 million Apple win in the first case is seen as pocket change for both Apple and Samsung, the only companies that are actually making money in the smartphone business. However, “to kill Android with a half-dozen patents,” Bessen said, “just seems like a long shot.”
“Google will be a lot more front and center than in previous cases,” Rutgers University law professor and patent expert Michael Carrier told the Journal. “Google vs. Apple makes it more of a clash of the titans on the same turf.” However, Apple has never directly sued Google, with the two having to face each other in courts only while Motorola became a Google property.
Apple is expected to argue that Samsung copied those software features and then sold millions of Galaxy devices, thus harming iPhone sales and profits. The company will also argue that Samsung is not an innovator but a copycat, and show that the two patents Samsung is using against Apple do not describe software inventions created by Samsung employees, but have been purchased by Samsung from third parties. Apple is asking $2 billion in damages in this trial.
Samsung on the other hand will try to invalidate Apple’s patents, by showing that similar features were developed by Google and others before the iPhone was launched. The company is expected to rely on the testimony of several Google employees including former Android chief Andy Rubin and Google vice president on Android engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer. The company is also expected to argue that Apple’s new claims target other companies as well and hurt the entire smartphone ecosystem, as four of the patents Apple chose for this patent fight describe technology that’s part of Android. Samsung is asking only $7 million in damages, in what may be perceived as a move that goes to show Apple’s damage claims are unrealistic.
Apple and Samsung have been forced to drop the number of patents and claims that can be used in the trial, with Apple settling on five patents and Samsung remaining with just two patents, after dropping standard-essential patents. Unlike in the first case that covered older smartphone models, this new lawsuit includes popular devices like the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S3, among others, which sold very well in the U.S. in previous years.
Patent experts believe that while the fight is important for the smartphone business, Apple’s damage claims are exaggerated. According to them, it will be difficult for the company to prove that of the quarter of a million of patents that cover tech offered by a smartphone, its five patents are so important to net it $40 per Samsung phone in damages, in case the South Korean giant is found to be infringing on Apple’s patents. |
Highlights: Seattle 2-0 Vancouver
SEATTLE, WA - Playing their third match in this year’s Cascadia Cup, Vancouver Whitecaps FC (10W-9L-7D) suffered a 2-0 away defeat to Pacific Northwest rivals Seattle Sounders FC (11W-6L-7D) in Major League Soccer on Saturday afternoon.
Second-half goals by substitute Fredy Montero and Eddie Johnson gave the home side the victory in front of 55,718 fans, which included over 1,500 supporters from Vancouver, at CenturyLink Field. Playing with an altered line-up from midweek, the ‘Caps looked solid early on before Seattle took control of proceedings during this 115th all-time competitive meeting between these Interstate 5 adversaries.
Victory for Seattle takes them three points clear of Vancouver and into third place in the MLS Western Conference standings. It also takes Sounders FC level on four points with Portland Timbers at the top of the three-club Cascadia Cup standings.
“I think it was an exciting game. Obviously, not the outcome that we wanted, but overall, I felt like the performance through most of the game was pretty good,” said Whitecaps FC head coach Martin Rennie. “I think for us right now, we've got a little bit of adversity missing a couple of key players and players that have come in aren't really match fit yet. However, for me, there's a lot of positive things from today’s game.” POST MATCH
INTERVIEWS:
Rennie was forced into playing a very different line-up from Wednesday’s home loss to FC Dallas. Though the Scottish tactician had players back from international duty, the late news of Barry Robson’s suspension meant a total of four changes had to be made to his starting XI in The Emerald City.
Despite the changes, Whitecaps FC showed no effects of being overawed by the large crowd, as the visitors imposed themselves on their hosts by creating several chances in the first half.
Fresh back from his senior international debut with Jamaica in midweek, Darren Mattocks caused the Seattle backline problems. The youngster created two fine chances, with his best effort rolling across the face of the Sounders FC goal around the midway point of the opening half.
While Carlyle Mitchell and Andy O’Brien looked assured at the back for Vancouver, Gershon Koffie and Kenny Miller went close to opening up the Rave Green with chances before the break. Though they struggled in spells, Seattle created first-half chances that forced Whitecaps FC goalkeeper Joe Cannon to make saves on strikes from Johnson and midfielder Brad Evans. Then on 38 minutes, Alex Caskey was unable to find the target for the home side.
BLOG: The silver lining of a tough day in Seattle
While the Blue and White would have been pleased with their efforts to halftime, it was Seattle that made the right adjustments and look the stronger side after the break. Osvaldo Alonso had two chances for Sounders FC that Cannon and Mitchell had to block away, while an unmarked Johnson missed the target at close range on 53 minutes.
The turning point of this derby contest arrived after the hour mark when Seattle’s talented Colombian Montero entered the match for Caskey. On 64 minutes, his presence proved decisive, as the South American scored his eighth goal of the season, converting Jeff Parke’s knockdown of a Mauro Rosales’ free kick in the Vancouver box for 1-0.
It was a disappointing goal to concede for Whitecaps FC, and it forced the visitors to press forward in search of an equalizer. Alain Rochat just missed the target with a header from a Young-Pyo Lee cross on 67 minutes, while Mattocks found the back of the Seattle net on 81 minutes. However, the ‘Caps striker was adjudged to have fouled Parke before converting Dane Richards’ fine cross in front of the Sounders FC goal.
Having been in numerous positions to score on Saturday, Johnson eventually found the scoresheet with his club-leading 11th goal of the season on 87 minutes. Alonso found an unmarked Evans on the right flank with a forward ball. His low cross allowed a streaking Johnson to slot home at the far post and secure a two-goal victory for Seattle.
It was a disheartening way for Whitecaps FC to fall to defeat to their arch-rivals in The Emerald City, but they will have the next week to try and end a two-match losing streak when they visit another Cascadia Cup rival in Portland for a second time this season on Saturday night. |
Luis Enrique has reiterated that he wants Pedro to stay at Barcelona but said the decision will be solely down to the player.
Pedro, 28, has been strongly linked with Manchester United and AS has reported that negotiations for the Spain international began on Monday.
While there have been conflicting claims as to whether Pedro's contract contains a clause permitting him to leave for €30 million, it has been widely reported that the Spain international would be allowed to move on if Barca received a bid of that value.
United boss Louis van Gaal has given a strong indication that he wants to sign Pedro, and the forward's mother is said to have told reporters that he is set to leave the Camp Nou for England, but Luis Enrique told a news conference on Tuesday that he would like to keep him if possible.
"Pedro is a world-class player," he said in quotes reported by Marca. "He's shown how good he is for both club and country. Speaking as a coach, I want him to stay. Nothing has changed. Any changes will be dictated by him."
Pedro is expected to join Manchester United this summer.
With Barca unable to register any new signings until January, Pedro's departure could leave the club short of options if they were to suffer injuries or suspensions in attack.
However, the Barca coach said: "I don't like looking at 'what ifs,' especially when they're on a negative note. I prefer to think that things will carry on as usual.
"We're ready to deal with any situation that may arise during the coming season."
He added: "There will be no new signings and players will only leave if they wish to go."
Javier Mascherano has also been linked with a move away from Barca, with Tuttosport reporting that Juventus are keen on the Argentina international and that the player himself is keen on a move to Italy.
However, Mascherano remains a key figure at the Camp Nou and has just been elected Barca's fourth captain by his teammates.
"There are other players who could captain the side, but he was chosen by the players and that's how I like it," Luis Enrique said. "There are other players who, without being captains, have a voice inside the dressing room." |
While Canada holds meetings and talks about it, the EU has officially ended corporate secrecy. The anonymous and numbered companies that facilitate tax evasion and money laundering in Europe will soon have their ownership published in public, online registries for all to see.
The EU declared Friday that member states will have to put the names of those who own companies registered in their countries into a public, searchable, online database — and they have 18 months to do it. ( DMITRY KOSTYUKOV / The New York Times file photo )
Eighteen months after the U.K. established the world’s first public “beneficial ownership” registry, the EU declared on Friday that it will follow suit, citing the Panama Papers leak as having prompted the move. “The EU has made a major breakthrough tonight in the fight against money laundering by getting the beneficial owners of companies out of the shadows,” said Laure Brillaud, the anti-money laundering policy officer at Transparency International EU. EU member states will have to put the names of those who own companies registered in their countries into a public, searchable, online database — and they have 18 months to do it.
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“The new European public registers of company beneficial ownership will set the new global benchmark against which to assess every other country around the world,” Brillaud said. Read more: Canada’s 102 biggest corporations avoid billions in taxes each year, paying far less than the official rate Contacted for comment, the federal finance ministry said it “takes note” of the EU registry. “We will monitor the EU agreement closely as it will inform the ongoing work of the federal, provincial and territorial working group on beneficial ownership,” wrote spokesperson Chloé Luciani-Girouard. “What the EU is doing is a very significant step. This practice has to come to North America,” said Richard Leblanc, a professor of corporate governance at York and Harvard universities. “One should not be able to hide behind a web of numbered companies without disclosing true ownership.”
In last spring’s federal budget, Canada announced that it would put in place a “national strategy to strengthen the transparency” of corporate ownership. After meeting last weekend, federal and provincial finance ministers committed to requiring companies to collect and keep corporate ownership information on hand, but did not say they would establish an ownership registry, let alone make it public.
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“That’s a first step, but it’s wholly inadequate so far as transparency is concerned,” Leblanc said. “What good is compelling disclosure if you can’t access it?” In Canada, secrecy around corporate ownership makes it possible to register a corporation, open a bank account, and send and receive money overseas all without disclosing one’s name — the same kind of secrecy offered by traditional tax havens. A Star/CBC investigation earlier this year showed how this has led some foreigners to use Canada to “snow wash” money that has either been obtained illicitly, or not declared to tax authorities. Earlier this month, the EU also released a blacklist of non-cooperative tax havens, including Barbados, one of the most popular tax havens used by Canadian companies. This diplomatic effort to exert pressure on tax havens to disclose the owners of offshore companies is an international component of the domestic ownership registry, Leblanc said. “Canada will be increasingly anomalous if it doesn’t follow suit,” he said. “We want it to be a race to the top. Canada prides itself on transparency and good governance. We’re slipping behind. We need to catch up.” |
HONG KONG, May 5 (Reuters) - Eleven crew of a Chinese cargo ship are missing following a collision with a large container ship in the waters off Hong Kong on Monday, authorities said.
Hong Kong is one of the world’s busiest shipping channels, although serious accidents are rare.
The cargo ship Zhong Xing 2 sank after the collision with the 300-m- (984-ft-) long Marshall Islands-registered MOL Motivator about two nautical miles southwest of Po Toi Island, a spokeswoman of the Hong Kong Maritime Department said.
“Zhong Xing 2 is suspected to have sunk after the collision, and it is reported there are 12 crew onboard,” said the spokeswoman, who declined to be identified in line with department policy.
“One of them was picked up by a fishing vessel navigating close by,” she added. The remaining 11 crew of the Chinese ship were reported missing.
Rescue efforts were being co-ordinated by the Guangdong Rescue Co-ordination Centre as the incident happened outside Hong Kong waters, the spokeswoman said.
Hong Kong’s Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre is assisting the rescue and has deployed one helicopter, five marine police launches and three fire service department launches.
MOL Motivator, which has a dry weight tonnage of 79,400 tonnes according to Thomson Reuters data, was travelling from Hong Kong to Yantian port in southern China.
Hong Kong is the world’s fourth largest container port, after neighbouring Shenzhen, which occupies third place.
Vessels navigating near the collision site have been warned there may be a sunken ship nearby and have been asked to stay away.
The Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rain warning, signalling expectations of heavy rain in parts of the territory overnight.
Thirty-nine people died in the city’s worst maritime disaster in more than 40 years in October 2012 when a high-speed ferry and a pleasure boat collided. (Reporting by Alice Woodhouse; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) |
It was an impressive effort: a front-page New York Times story about a “new way of war” with the bylines of six reporters, and two more and a team of researchers cited at the end of the piece. “They have plotted deadly missions from secret bases in the badlands of Somalia. In Afghanistan, they have engaged in combat so intimate that they have emerged soaked in blood that was not their own. On clandestine raids in the dead of the night, their weapons of choice have ranged from customized carbines to primeval tomahawks.” So began the Times investigation of SEAL Team 6, its nonstop missions, its weaponry, its culture, the stresses and strains its “warriors” have experienced in recent years, and even some of the accusations leveled against them. (“Afghan villagers and a British commander accused SEALs of indiscriminately killing men in one hamlet.”)
For all the secrecy surrounding SEAL Team 6, it has been the public face of America’s Special Operations forces and so has garnered massive attention, especially, of course, after some of its members killed Osama bin Laden on a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011. It even won a starring role in the Oscar-winning Hollywood film Zero Dark Thirty, produced with CIA help, about the tracking down of bin Laden. As a unit, however, SEAL Team 6 is “roughly 300 assault troops, called operators, and 1,500 support personnel”; in other words, more or less a drop in the bucket when it comes to America’s Special Operations forces. And its story, however nonstop and dramatic, is similarly a drop in the bucket when it comes to the flood of special operations actions in these years.
While SEAL Team 6 has received extensive coverage, what could be considered the military story of the twenty-first century, the massive, ongoing expansion of a secret force (functionally the president’s private army) cocooned inside the U.S. military -- now at almost 70,000 personnel and growing -- has gotten next to none. Keep in mind that such a force is already larger than the active-duty militaries of Australia, Chile, Cuba, Hungary, the Netherlands, Nigeria, and South Africa, among a bevy of other countries. If those 70,000 personnel engaging in operations across the planet -- even their most mundane acts enveloped in a blanket of secrecy -- have created, as the Times suggests, a new way of war in and out of Washington’s war zones, it has gone largely unreported in the American media.
Thanks to Nick Turse (and Andrew Bacevich), however, TomDispatch has been the exception to this seemingly ironclad rule. Since 2011, when he found special operations units deployed to 120 countries annually, Turse has continued to chart their expanding global role in 2012, 2014, and this year. He has also tried, as today, to assess just how successful this new way of war that melds the soldier and the spy, the counterinsurgent and the guerrilla, the drone assassin and the “man-hunter” has been. Imagine for a moment the resources that the media would apply to such an analogous Russian or Chinese force, if its units covertly trained “friendly” militaries or went into action yearly in at least two-thirds of the countries on the planet. Tom
These men -- and they are mostly men -- belong to an exclusive military fraternity that traces its heritage back to the birth of the nation. Typically, they’ve spent the better part of a decade as more conventional soldiers, sailors, marines, or airmen before making the cut. They’ve probably been deployed overseas four to 10 times. The officers are generally approaching their mid-thirties; the enlisted men, their late twenties. They’ve had more schooling than most in the military. They’re likely to be married with a couple of kids. And day after day, they carry out shadowy missions over much of the planet: sometimes covert raids, more often hush-hush training exercises from Chad to Uganda , Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, Albania to Romania, Bangladesh to Sri Lanka, Belize to Uruguay. They belong to the Special Operations forces (SOF), America’s most elite troops -- Army Green Berets and Navy SEALs, among others -- and odds are, if you throw a dart at a world map or stop a spinning globe with your index finger and don’t hit water, they’ve been there sometime in 2015.
You can find them in dusty, sunbaked badlands, moist tropical forests, and the salty spray of third-world littorals. Standing in judgement, buffeted by the rotor wash of a helicopter or sweltering beneath the relentless desert sun, they instruct , yell , and cajole as skinnier men playact under their watchful eyes . In many places, more than their particular brand of camouflage, better boots, and designer gear sets them apart. Their days are scented by stale sweat and gunpowder; their nights are spent in rustic locales or third-world bars .
The Wide World of Special Ops
This year, U.S. Special Operations forces have already deployed to 135 nations, according to Ken McGraw, a spokesman for Special Operations Command (SOCOM). That’s roughly 70% of the countries on the planet. Every day, in fact, America’s most elite troops are carrying out missions in 80 to 90 nations, practicing night raids or sometimes conducting them for real, engaging in sniper training or sometimes actually gunning down enemies from afar. As part of a global engagement strategy of endless hush-hush operations conducted on every continent but Antarctica, they have now eclipsed the number and range of special ops missions undertaken at the height of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the waning days of the Bush administration, Special Operations forces (SOF) were reportedly deployed in only about 60 nations around the world. By 2010, according to the Washington Post, that number had swelled to 75. Three years later, it had jumped to 134 nations, “slipping” to 133 last year, before reaching a new record of 135 this summer. This 80% increase over the last five years is indicative of SOCOM’s exponential expansion which first shifted into high gear following the 9/11 attacks.
Special Operations Command’s funding, for example, has more than tripled from about $3 billion in 2001 to nearly $10 billion in 2014 “constant dollars,” according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). And this doesn’t include funding from the various service branches, which SOCOM estimates at around another $8 billion annually, or other undisclosed sums that the GAO was unable to track. The average number of Special Operations forces deployed overseas has nearly tripled during these same years, while SOCOM more than doubled its personnel from about 33,000 in 2001 to nearly 70,000 now.
Each day, according to SOCOM commander General Joseph Votel, approximately 11,000 special operators are deployed or stationed outside the United States with many more on standby, ready to respond in the event of an overseas crisis. “I think a lot of our resources are focused in Iraq and in the Middle East, in Syria for right now. That's really where our head has been,” Votel told the Aspen Security Forum in July. Still, he insisted his troops were not “doing anything on the ground in Syria” -- even if they had carried out a night raid there a couple of months before and it was later revealed that they are involved in a covert campaign of drone strikes in that country.
“I think we are increasing our focus on Eastern Europe at this time,” he added. “At the same time we continue to provide some level of support on South America for Colombia and the other interests that we have down there. And then of course we're engaged out in the Pacific with a lot of our partners, reassuring them and working those relationships and maintaining our presence out there.”
In reality, the average percentage of Special Operations forces deployed to the Greater Middle East has decreased in recent years. Back in 2006, 85% of special operators were deployed in support of Central Command or CENTCOM, the geographic combatant command (GCC) that oversees operations in the region. By last year, that number had dropped to 69%, according to GAO figures. Over that same span, Northern Command -- devoted to homeland defense -- held steady at 1%, European Command (EUCOM) doubled its percentage, from 3% to 6%, Pacific Command (PACOM) increased from 7% to 10%, and Southern Command, which overseas Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, inched up from 3% to 4%. The largest increase, however, was in a region conspicuously absent from Votel’s rundown of special ops deployments. In 2006, just 1% of the special operators deployed abroad were sent to Africa Command’s area of operations. Last year, it was 10%.
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A member of the U.S. Special Operations forces guides two soldiers from Cameroon’s 3rd Battalion Intervention Rapid (BIR) during a 2013 training event. (Photo by Air Force Master Sgt. Larry W. Carpenter Jr.)
Globetrotting is SOCOM’s stock in trade and, not coincidentally, it’s divided into a collection of planet-girding “sub-unified commands”: the self-explanatory SOCAFRICA; SOCEUR, the European contingent; SOCCENT, the sub-unified command of CENTCOM; SOCKOR, which is devoted strictly to Korea; SOCPAC, which covers the rest of the Asia-Pacific region; SOCSOUTH, which conducts missions in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean; SOCNORTH, which is devoted to “homeland defense”; and the ever-itinerant Joint Special Operations Command or JSOC, a clandestine sub-command (formerly headed by Votel) made up of personnel from each service branch, including SEALs, Air Force special tactics airmen, and the Army's Delta Force that specializes in tracking and killing suspected terrorists.
The elite of the elite in the special ops community, JSOC takes on covert, clandestine, and low-visibility operations in the hottest of hot spots. Some covert ops that have come to light in recent years include a host of Delta Force missions: among them, an operation in May in which members of the elite force killed an Islamic State commander known as Abu Sayyaf during a night raid in Syria; the 2014 release of long-time Taliban prisoner Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl; the capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala, a suspect in 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya; and the 2013 abduction of Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda militant, off a street in that same country. Similarly, Navy SEALs have, among other operations, carried out successful hostage rescue missions in Afghanistan and Somalia in 2012; a disastrous one in Yemen in 2014; a 2013 kidnap raid in Somalia that went awry; and -- that same year -- a failed evacuation mission in South Sudan in which three SEALs were wounded when their aircraft was hit by small arms fire.
SOCOM’s SOF Alphabet Soup
Most deployments have, however, been training missions designed to tutor proxies and forge stronger ties with allies. “Special Operations forces provide individual-level training, unit-level training, and formal classroom training,” explains SOCOM’s Ken McGraw. “Individual training can be in subjects like basic rifle marksmanship, land navigation, airborne operations, and first aid. They provide unit-level training in subjects like small unit tactics, counterterrorism operations and maritime operations. SOF can also provide formal classroom training in subjects like the military decision-making process or staff planning.”
From 2012 to 2014, for instance, Special Operations forces carried out 500 Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) missions in as many as 67 countries each year. JCETs are officially devoted to training U.S. forces, but they nonetheless serve as a key facet of SOCOM’s global engagement strategy. The missions “foster key military partnerships with foreign militaries, enhance partner-nations' capability to provide for their own defense, and build interoperability between U.S. SOF and partner-nation forces,” according to SOCOM’s McGraw.
And JCETs are just a fraction of the story. SOCOM carries out many other multinational overseas training operations. According to data from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), for example, Special Operations forces conducted 75 training exercises in 30 countries in 2014. The numbers were projected to jump to 98 exercises in 34 countries by the end of this year.
“SOCOM places a premium on international partnerships and building their capacity. Today, SOCOM has persistent partnerships with about 60 countries through our Special Operations Forces Liaison Elements and Joint Planning and Advisory Teams,” said SOCOM’s Votel at a conference earlier this year, drawing attention to two of the many types of shadowy Special Ops entities that operate overseas. These SOFLEs and JPATs belong to a mind-bending alphabet soup of special ops entities operating around the globe, a jumble of opaque acronyms and stilted abbreviations masking a secret world of clandestine efforts often conducted in the shadows in impoverished lands ruled by problematic regimes. The proliferation of this bewildering SOCOM shorthand -- SOJTFs and CJSOTFs, SOCCEs and SOLEs -- mirrors the relentless expansion of the command, with its signature brand of military speak or milspeak proving as indecipherable to most Americans as its missions are secret from them.
Around the world, you can find Special Operations Joint Task Forces (SOJTFs), Combined Joint Special Operations Task Forces (CJSOTFs), and Joint Special Operations Task Forces (JSOTFs), Theater Special Operations Commands (TSOCs), as well as Special Operations Command and Control Elements (SOCCEs) and Special Operations Liaison Elements (SOLEs). And that list doesn’t even include Special Operations Command Forward (SOC FWD) elements -- small teams which, according to the military, “shape and coordinate special operations forces security cooperation and engagement in support of theater special operations command, geographic combatant command, and country team goals and objectives.”
Special Operations Command will not divulge the locations or even a simple count of its SOC FWDs for “security reasons.” When asked how releasing only the number could imperil security, SOCOM’s Ken McGraw was typically opaque. “The information is classified,” he responded. “I am not the classification authority for that information so I do not know the specifics of why the information is classified.” Open source data suggests, however, that they are clustered in favored black ops stomping grounds, including SOC FWD Pakistan, SOC FWD Yemen, and SOC FWD Lebanon, as well as SOC FWD East Africa, SOC FWD Central Africa, and SOC FWD West Africa.
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A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier readies himself to jump out of a C-130J Super Hercules over Hurlburt Field, Fla., March 3, 2012. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder)
What’s clear is that SOCOM prefers to operate in the shadows while its personnel and missions expand globally to little notice or attention. “The key thing that SOCOM brings to the table is that we are -- we think of ourselves -- as a global force. We support the geographic combatant commanders, but we are not bound by the artificial boundaries that normally define the regional areas in which they operate. So what we try to do is we try to operate across those boundaries,” SOCOM’s Votel told the Aspen Security Forum.
In one particular blurring of boundaries, Special Operations liaison officers (SOLOs) are embedded in at least 14 key U.S. embassies to assist in advising the special forces of various allied nations. Already operating in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, El Salvador, France, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Poland, Peru, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, the SOLO program is poised, according to Votel, to expand to 40 countries by 2019. The command, and especially JSOC, has also forged close ties with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National Security Agency, among other outfits, through the use of liaison officers and Special Operations Support Teams (SOSTs).
“In today’s environment, our effectiveness is directly tied to our ability to operate with domestic and international partners. We, as a joint force, must continue to institutionalize interoperability, integration, and interdependence between conventional forces and special operations forces through doctrine, training, and operational deployments,” Votel told the Senate Armed Services Committee this spring. “From working with indigenous forces and local governments to improve local security, to high-risk counterterrorism operations -- SOF are in vital roles performing essential tasks.”
SOCOM will not name the 135 countries in which America’s most elite forces were deployed this year, let alone disclose the nature of those operations. Most were, undoubtedly, training efforts. Documents obtained from the Pentagon via the Freedom of Information Act outlining Joint Combined Exchange Training in 2013 offer an indication of what Special Operations forces do on a daily basis and also what skills are deemed necessary for their real-world missions: combat marksmanship, patrolling, weapons training, small unit tactics, special operations in urban terrain, close quarters combat, advanced marksmanship, sniper employment, long-range shooting, deliberate attack, and heavy weapons employment, in addition to combat casualty care, human rights awareness, land navigation, and mission planning, among others.
From Joint Special Operations Task Force-Juniper Shield, which operates in Africa’s Trans-Sahara region, and Special Operations Command and Control Element-Horn of Africa, to Army Special Operations Forces Liaison Element-Korea and Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula, the global growth of SOF missions has been breathtaking. SEALs or Green Berets, Delta Force operators or Air Commandos, they are constantly taking on what Votel likes to call the “nation’s most complex, demanding, and high-risk challenges.”
These forces carry out operations almost entirely unknown to the American taxpayers who fund them, operations conducted far from the scrutiny of the media or meaningful outside oversight of any kind. Everyday, in around 80 or more countries that Special Operations Command will not name, they undertake missions the command refuses to talk about. They exist in a secret world of obtuse acronyms and shadowy efforts, of mystery missions kept secret from the American public, not to mention most of the citizens of the 135 nations where they’ve been deployed this year.
This summer, when Votel commented that more special ops troops are deployed to more locations and are conducting more operations than at the height of the Afghan and Iraq wars, he drew attention to two conflicts in which those forces played major roles that have not turned out well for the United States. Consider that symbolic of what the bulking up of his command has meant in these years.
“Ultimately, the best indicator of our success will be the success of the [geographic combatant commands],” says the special ops chief, but with U.S. setbacks in Africa Command’s area of operations from Mali and Nigeria to Burkina Faso and Cameroon; in Central Command’s bailiwick from Iraq and Afghanistan to Yemen and Syria; in the PACOM region vis-à-vis China; and perhaps even in the EUCOM area of operations due to Russia, it’s far from clear what successes can be attributed to the ever-expanding secret operations of America’s secret military. The special ops commander seems resigned to the very real limitations of what his secretive but much-ballyhooed, highly-trained, well-funded, heavily-armed operators can do.
“We can buy space, we can buy time,” says Votel, stressing that SOCOM can “play a very, very key role” in countering “violent extremism,” but only up to a point -- and that point seems to fall strikingly short of anything resembling victory or even significant foreign policy success. “Ultimately, you know, problems like we see in Iraq and Syria,” he says, “aren't going to be resolved by us.”
Nick Turse is the managing editor of TomDispatch.com and a fellow at the Nation Institute. A 2014 Izzy Award and American Book Award winner for his book Kill Anything That Moves, he has reported from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa and his pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Intercept, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Nation, and regularly at TomDispatch. His latest book is Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Nick Turse’s Tomorrow’s Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa, and Tom Engelhardt's latest book, Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.
Copyright 2015 Nick Turse |
Freed US soldier Bowe Bergdahl developed a love for Afghan green tea, taught his captors badminton, and even celebrated Christmas and Easter with the hardline Islamists, according to a Pakistani militant commander.
Bergdahl, the only US prisoner of war in Afghanistan, was released Saturday in exchange for the freeing of five senior Taliban figures held at Guantanamo Bay, in a dramatic deal brokered by Qatar.
The army sergeant's almost five years in captivity saw him transferred between various militant factions along the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border, finally ending up in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district, according to militant sources.
A commander of the Haqqani network, a militant outfit allied with the Taliban with ties to al-Qaeda, on Sunday painted a picture of a man who adjusted to his new life by engaging with his captors while clinging to aspects of his own identity.
"He was fond of kawa (Afghan green tea). He drank a lot of kawa all day, which he mostly prepared himself," the commander told AFP by phone from an undisclosed location in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Over time, Bergdahl, now 28, grew fluent in Pashto and Dari, he said.
Unlike the militants, who were mainly ethnic Pashtuns known for their voracious appetite for meat, Bergdahl "liked vegetables and asked for meat only once or twice a week", the commander said.
While the militants attempted to teach the soldier about Islam and provided him with religious books, he preferred more earthly pursuits.
"He would spend more time playing badminton or helping with cooking," the militant chief said.
"He loved badminton and always played badminton with his handlers. In fact, he taught many fighters about the game," he added.
And the Idaho native made a point of celebrating the Christian festivals he was accustomed to back home, even inviting his captors to participate.
"He never missed his religious festivals. He used to tell his handlers they were coming up weeks before Christmas and Easter and celebrated it with them," he said.
Imtiaz Gul, a security analyst, said the militants would have regarded Bergdahl as a high-value asset and harming him would have had a negative impact on their propaganda efforts.
"These groups usually treat hostages that way," he said.
The insights into Bergdahl's life are the clearest to emerge since he was captured in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009 and appeared in a Taliban video a month later.
"I was captured outside of the base camp. I was behind a patrol, lagging behind the patrol and I was captured," Bergdahl said in the video, later growing distraught when discussing his family.
According to the commander, Bergdahl then came under the custody of the late Mullah Sangeen Zadran, a key leader in the Haqqani network.
An Afghan Taliban source added that Bergdahl fell into the group's hands after initially being captured by a criminal outfit linked to the Taliban.
Militant sources disagree over the circumstances surrounding his capture, but several - then and now - described him as being "drunk".
The US military has never commented on the issue.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel demurred Sunday when asked by reporters if Bergdahl had gone deserted his post, saying only that "other circumstances that may develop, and questions - those will be dealt with later".
"Sangeen kept him in Paktika, Paktia and parts of Khost before bringing him to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border," the Haqqani commander said, referring to districts located in eastern Afghanistan.
Zadran was killed by a US drone strike in September 2013, after which Bergdahl was sent on to the Pakistani tribal zone of North Waziristan, where the feared Haqqani network - known for their spectacular attacks on foreign forces - are headquartered.
Following his capture, Bergdahl went on to appear in several more videos, sometimes appearing gaunt and taking a hostile line against the US-led war effort.
Attention is now likely to focus on whether he was coerced into making those statements as well as unravelling the mysterious nature of his capture. |
DISCLAIMER: The author of this article really, really, for-realsies didn’t want to write another piece about this overlong debate, but the powers that be just wouldn’t allow for it. So here it is. For your amusement. I guess…
As you get older, some things don’t have the same meaning they once had. Surely I’m not the only adult who has watched childrens cartoons out of nostalgia, only to be flabbergasted by how many creepy sexual innuendos were hidden all along in movies that we loved when we were kids. Even though most of you have probably seen this image before, it helps to illustrate:
Kids see dolphins, adults see a couple making love. Every website on which I’ve seen this picture claims that “research has shown that young children cannot identify the intimate couple because they do not have prior memory associated with such a scenario”, even though none of them bother to source a published scientific study that actually confirms this. Still, you get the idea. Sometimes the same thing can mean different things at different times in your life. Which brings me to the subject everyone seems to love-hate recently: is that Zwarte Piet guy totally racist or not?
Rather than dying a quiet death like it has in the last few years, the debate has absolutely exploded this time, with even the United Nations releasing an official statement on the matter. Yesterday, an on-line petition on FaceBook in favor of keeping the Zwarte Piet tradition untouched received a staggering 1,000,000 likes in less than 24 hours (for comparison sake, that’s 25% of all Dutch people who use FaceBook on a regular basis, the on-line petition called “Zwarte Piet Is Racism” has been around for two years and has less than 10,000 likes as of now). This week, a Dutch woman decided to tattoo Zwarte Piet on her back. Has the world gone mad? (The answer is yes, the world has gone mad).
You might suspect from the previous paragraphs about the ambiguity of images that this article is going to promote an anything-goes-nothing-is-objectively-true view on things. Not so much. What I do want to discuss is the Dutch cognitive dissonance that exists on this issue. For those who are unfamiliar with the term: cognitive dissonance is when a person becomes aware that s/he believes in two or more valued convictions that contradict each other (source). Whereas I personally tend to support those who think that the tradition of Zwarte Piet is not racist or intolerant, I also suspect that there often is a double standard at work in defending Zwarte Piet. Moreover, in my opinion, the (non-)racism of Zwarte Piet is more complicated than a simple yes or no.
The punch-line to this article, in advance: Yes, Zwarte Piet is racist (as in: is a racial stereotype), but no, the present tradition is not racist. I know this may make little sense at first, so please bear with me as I try to explain.
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There is a difference between the fact that Zwarte Piet has a history of being a racial stereotype and the fact that: 1) the tradition has changed over the decades into a far more tolerant and accepting version of Zwarte Piet, and 2) in the experience of children, any latent racism doesn’t register. During the Sinterklaas holiday or when it was over, the thought of walking up to a person of African descent and asking for pepernoten never entered my mind. I never thought of Zwarte Piet as a person of a distinct race, he was just the helper of Sinterklaas who wore a silly outfit. Putting a racial label on Zwarte Piet made as little sense to me as putting a racial label on Santa’s elves or reindeer. It was a non-factor. Moreover, Zwarte Piet was not, in my experience, in an inferior position. On the contrary: he was intriguing because he could always do acrobatics (like juggling or climbing on roof-tops). More importantly to my sugar-addicted child-brain: Zwarte Piet was the one who brought you pepernoten and strooigoed, the delicious candy that is only sold and consumed in the last few months of the year. Zwarte Piet could put smile on the face of every child just by entering the room.
I know it can be very annoying when people brush off a sensitive issue with “it’s just your interpretation”, but you can’t factor this out: the exact same visual image is interpreted in different ways. As much a white kid like me couldn’t see the harm in Zwarte Piet, a person of colour rightfully might. Perhaps s/he would feel as if others have gone out of their way to make a black person seem silly, and it is true that Zwarte Piet has often been used as a comic relief, making him do naive and childish things that would cause trouble for Sinterklaas or his fellow Zwarte Pieten. Especially in very old children books centered around the Sinterklaas holiday, Zwarte Piet often spoke in a stereotypical negro fashion, showing very poor vocabulary and often not fully understanding what was going on.
The cognitive dissonance exists in not acknowledging that, yes, Zwarte Piet is a racial stereotype, and yes, in the older tradition, he was often portrayed as a somewhat inferior character. Keep in mind however that when I spoke about my personal experience with Sinterklaas as a child, this took place around the late eighties, and things had changed significantly by then. Still, the resistance to the racist history surrounding Zwarte Piet persists. Sometimes this cognitive dissonance is very open and obvious, just look at an often heard response like “Zwarte Piet is not racist, and if you don’t like it, then you can **** off to your own country!” This becomes even more puzzling when similar things are said by a black person (does that make it less, or more racist? I don’t know).
Regardless of all the social unrest created by this issue, I sincerely doubt that this tradition will change in the near future. Even the aforementioned ‘official’ statement by the UN spokeswoman Verene Shepherd has been denounced by UNESCO due to her not being an official of any importance at the UN. Though there is a lot of debate now in The Netherlands, I don’t think that this tradition will change, nor that it has to. What I would like to see is a more nuanced debate, and sufficient respect to those who genuinely feel offended by the character that is Zwarte Piet.
On a final note, I’ll leave you all with a message of hope: if anything is to be changed and the centuries old tradition of Zwarte Piet must go, then I’ve already got the answer: the Dutch should simply replace Sinterklaas & Zwarte Piet with their brütal HEAVY METAL counterparts: Satanklaas & Corpse Paint Piet! |
A full-time professor on the faculty of the newly-minted Texas A&M University School of Law called for the repeal and replacement of the Second Amendment on Friday.
The professor, Mary Margaret “Meg” Penrose, made her controversial declaration during a day-long panel symposium on gun control and the Second Amendment at the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford.
UConn’s main student-run journal, The Connecticut Law Review, organized the event, according to Connecticut Public Radio. It was well-attended, primarily by law students, law professors and local attorneys.
Penrose was among the speakers, reports CTNewsJunkie, a Connecticut news site.
Penrose cited the Sandy Hook massacre, which occurred in Connecticut, as well as other mass shootings including the 2011 Tucson shooting that left six people dead and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded.
Noting her own outrage that Americans continue to tolerate gun violence, Penrose asked audience members to raise their hands if they thought laws intended to prevent gun violence have been successful. No one raised a hand.
“I think I’m in agreement with you and, unfortunately, drastic times require drastic measures,” the professor said, according to CTNewsJunkie. “I think the Second Amendment is misunderstood and I think it’s time today, in our drastic measures, to repeal and replace that Second Amendment.”
Penrose then proposed a solution that would allow each state to determine its own gun policies.
“The beauty of a ‘states’ rights model’ solution is it allows those of you who want to live in a state with strong restrictions to do so and those who want to live in a state with very loose restrictions to do so,” the professor explained.
Penrose also noted that she tells students in her constitutional law courses that the entire United States Constitution is an obsolete document.
“Why do we keep such an allegiance to a constitution that was driven by 18th Century concerns?” she asked, according to CTNewsJunkie. “How many of you recognize that the main concern of the 18th Century was a standing army? That’s what motivated the Second Amendment: fear of a standing army.”
She described herself as “somewhat agnostic about guns” but “extremely passionate about” the Constitution she calls outdated.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy also spoke at the event, stressing his belief that the Second Amendment offers a limited right and bragging about the strict gun control laws he signed earlier this year.
“In the 1930s, machine guns were the weapon of choice for mobsters,” Malloy said, according to Connecticut Public Radio. “And we collectively decided that machine guns should be illegal for private possession in the United States. We don’t see machine guns being used in the U.S. in crimes. We did for some time after the ban was initially implemented but there’s a reality about what happens to those kinds of weapons once they become illegal.”
At least one symposium speaker wasn’t hell-bent on destroying the Second Amendment.
Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law, observed that gun control laws have a sordid racially-motivated history.
“The first gun control laws were actually meant to subjugate slaves,” Blackman explained, according to CTNewsJunkie. “There has been a very close connection between gun control and racism.”
Penrose’s employer, Texas A&M University School of Law, is located in downtown Fort Worth. Texas A&M acquired the school just this year, reports the TAMUtimes.
Previously, the school had been Texas Wesleyan School of Law. The most recent US News ranking of the best law schools ranks Texas Wesleyan in the dreaded “rank not published” category of law schools. Third Tier Reality, a blog dedicated to hating bad law schools, has described the school as a “dung pit” and “a fourth tier pile of rat droppings.”
Follow Eric on Twitter and on Facebook, and send education-related story tips to [email protected]. |
Tufts University scientists have developed a silk-based bio-ink that could allow for printing tissues that could be loaded with pharmaceuticals, cytokines (for directing stem cell functions), and antibiotics (for controlling infections), for example, or used in biomedical implants and tissue engineering.
Current 3-D printing processes are limited to simple body parts such as bone. And most inks currently being developed for 3-D printing are made of thermoplastics, silicones, collagen, gelatin, or alginate, which have limits. For example, the temperatures, pH changes and crosslinking methods that may be required to toughen some of these materials can damage cells or other biological components that researchers would want to add to the inks.
To address these bio-ink limitations, Tufts Stern Family Professor of Engineering David L. Kaplan and associates combined silk proteins, which are biocompatible, and glycerol, a non-toxic sugar alcohol commonly found in food and pharmaceutical products. The resulting ink was clear, flexible, stable in water, and didn’t require any processing methods, such as high temperatures, that would limit its versatility.
The researchers reported their research findings in the journal ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.
Abstract of Polyol-Silk Bioink Formulations as Two-Part Room-Temperature Curable Materials for 3D Printing
Silk-based bioinks were developed for 2D and 3D printing. By incorporating nontoxic polyols into silk solutions, two-part formulations with self-curing features at room temperature were generated. By varying the formulations the crystallinity of the silk polymer matrix could be controlled to support printing in 2D and 3D formats interfaced with CAD geometry and with good feature resolution. The self-curing phenomenon was tuned and exploited in order to demonstrate the formation of both structural and support materials. Biocompatible aqueous protein inks for printing that avoid the need for chemical or photo initiators and that form aqueous-stable structures with good resolution at ambient temperatures provide useful options for biofunctionalization and a broad range of applications. |
North Texas man's huge catch not an official record because he released it
Johnny D. Anderson caught a record blue catfish, weighing 63.5 pounds and measuring 4 feet and 5 inches, during a typical fishing day at a pier off Lake Pat Cleburne in Cleburne, about 30 miles south of Fort Worth. less Johnny D. Anderson caught a record blue catfish, weighing 63.5 pounds and measuring 4 feet and 5 inches, during a typical fishing day at a pier off Lake Pat Cleburne in Cleburne, about 30 miles south of Fort ... more Photo: Courtesy/Cleburne Times-Review Photo: Courtesy/Cleburne Times-Review Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close North Texas man's huge catch not an official record because he released it 1 / 23 Back to Gallery
A Cleburne man reeled in a blue catfish at a North Texas lake that more than doubled the size of the lake’s record.
Johnny D. Anderson caught the blue catfish, weighing 63.5 pounds and measuring 4 feet and 5 inches, while fishing at a pier off Lake Pat Cleburne, about 30 miles south of Fort Worth.
“I fought with that fish for a long time,” Anderson, a retired Air Force veteran, told the Cleburne Times-Review. “It pulled the line to the end of the reel all the way out about two times. It was a lot of fun.”
RELATED: Fisherman catches enormous 280-pound wels catfish in Italian river
He told the newspaper that he was fishing with a 20-pound test line and wrestled with the fish for about 45 minutes. He added that he called his wife to bring a camera for proof, and then he released it back into the lake.
“When they get over 10 or 12 pounds I release them,” Anderson told the newspaper. “I figure if they survive to get that big, in my opinion, they deserve to live.”
Friday’s catch disrupted an 18-year-old record for Lake Pat Cleburne that was made by Gary Barger, who caught a 30-pounder by a jug line. But, because Anderson released the fish before registering it, his catch will not go into the record books, a Texas Parks and Wildlife official told the newspaper.
Anderson said he did not want to register the catfish because he would’ve had to take it to an office across the lake.
“It would have taken me a long time to get to the other side of the lake,” Anderson said. “And I didn’t want the fish to be out of the water for that long.”
RELATED: 'Gargantuan' wild hog weighing nearly 800 pounds caught in Texas
The biggest blue catfish caught in Texas weighed 121.5 pounds and measured 58 inches, and was caught in Lake Texoma in Jan. 16, 2004. Research shows that the fish was 23 years old.
The world record for blue catfish was a 143-pounder caught in 2011 by Richard Anderson in Kerr Lake in Virginia, according to the International Game and Fish Association.
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The festival is part of preparations by the UAE team’s for the World Endurance Cup, which is scheduled for September in Slovakia.
ABU DHABI // Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, attended on Sunday, along with Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, the first round of the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Endurance Festival, held in Tuscany, Italy.
The round, dubbed the Tuscany Endurance Lifestyle, saw UAE riders dominate.
Sheikh Hamad bin Dalmouk Al Maktoum won the 160-kilometre race, riding Souletoile de Sommant, in 7 hours 14 minutes and 35 seconds. The Italian champion, Costanza Laliscia, riding Za’Amah, finished second, just a few strides behind.
Competing in the round were 150 riders from 14 countries, reported Wam, the state news agency.
The festival is part of preparations by the UAE team’s for the World Endurance Cup, which is scheduled for September in Slovakia.
[email protected] |
If you were to ask us last year if LG was capable of making a Galaxy Note or Galaxy Note II competitor, we probably would have chuckled a little bit and answered with a stern, straight-faced, “No.” But LG is a living, breathing example of how much can change in just a few, short months.
The highest-end smartphones from LG between 2010 and mid-2012 were not exactly memorable. The T-Mobile G2X, for example, was released with a handful of issues and quickly swept under the carpet. The LG Optimus Vu found itself on our Worst Gadgets Ever list, even while it’s still available for purchase.
That should speak volumes.
But LG went back to the drawing board and came back in full force towards the end of 2012, releasing its latest flagship, the Optimus G, and it’s Google-branded smartphone, the Nexus 4. And though its presence at CES in January was focused more on the smart home – integrating mobile technology and home appliances – than any new mobile hardware, LG had a new flagship in tow at Mobile World Congress the following month.
The Optimus G Pro is LG’s third official entry in the so-called phablet market. But it’s the first entry that may actually pose a threat to the Galaxy Note II’s mind share. It’s 2013, the Note II is now an older device with last year’s specifications and a successor is still several months out.
So how does LG’s Note II competitor stack up? Should you buy the Optimus G Pro over, say, the Note II? Or should you wait for the Galaxy Note III? What about some other future phablet? We have used the Optimus G Pro, extensively, for 11 days now. Read on for the full review.
Video Review
Specs
Specifications are undoubtedly the most notable aspect of the Optimus G Pro. LG pulled no punches and made its latest flagship a complete package with as few compromises as possible.
It comes with everything you can shake a stick at out of the box – save for wireless charging. But that can be added through buying an add-on battery door with wireless charging built in.
It boasts the largest 1080p display in a smartphone to date, a 5.5-inch panel, offering a pixel density of 401ppi. And it’s the same display technology as seen in the Optimus G, a True Full HD IPS Plus panel, meaning it offers wide viewing angles, an extremely sharp picture and the colors are quite vivid – super-saturated, but not quite to the extent of a Super AMOLED display by Samsung. The contrast isn’t quite as high as you would find on AMOLED either; blacks are a dark gray, not a true, inky black, and the black trim around the edges of the display only accentuate this.
It’s no S-LCD3, but it’s still among the best displays available on a smartphone, especially at 5.5-inches.
Other specifications include a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 chip, 2GB RAM, 32GB built-in storage with a microSD card slot for up to 64GB additional storage, a 13-megapixel camera, 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera and a 3,140mAh removable battery. Other features include Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and an IR blaster.
The Optimus G Pro model we received was a Korean model, meaning it came with a few functions that we were not able to make use of. The antenna for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB), for example, is effectively useless unless you’re in Korea of the short list of countries that use DMB.
On paper, the Optimus G Pro is among the best smartphones available today. It rivals even the upcoming Galaxy S 4, HTC One and likely many phones that have yet to be announced. In other words, it’s pretty well future-proofed.
As far as specifications go, there is virtually nothing to complain about with the Optimus G Pro.
Index
Hardware
The story of hardware and design of the Optimus G Pro, unfortunately, isn’t quite so positive. It’s not that the build quality is bad, so to speak, or that the phone itself is ugly. It’s not. The phone is built fairly well. However, there is some audible creaking if you firmly grip the phone, and it’s made mostly of lightweight plastics, accented by faux-metal trim.
There is no questioning where LG’s inspiration for the Optimus G Pro came from.
And that’s the problem. It’s difficult to get terribly excited over flimsy plastic, even if it has a sparkly tile pattern on the back. Top to bottom, the Optimus G Pro looks and feels more like something Samsung-made than an LG device. In fact, the Optimus G Pro and Galaxy Note 8.0 look more alike than the Galaxy Note II and Note 8.0.
The face holds a single physical Home button, flanked by a capacitive button for Back and Menu on the left and right, respectively. On the upper portion of the right edge, like most Samsung devices, you will find the power button. The volume rocker sits down from the power button on the left edge. The microUSB port and microphone are on the bottom edge, 3.5mm headphone jack and noise-canceling mic are on top. The camera sits near the top-center of the back face with LED flash to the right and a speaker to the left. Similarities extend to even beneath the battery door with the layout of the SIM tray and microSD card slot.
One hardware advantage of the Optimus G Pro, though, is the Q Button, a physical button located on the upper left edge. This button is a user-defined shortcut button. It can be set to any application – Google+, for instance, or Google Now. If set to be a Camera shortcut, it doubles as a camera shutter button.
Display sensitivity was noticeably higher than normal, as well. When hovering our fingers over the display, either in hesitation or pausing to read something when scrolling, we constantly found ourselves accidentally clicking things on the display … without ever actually touching the display.
We did find the Optimus G Pro much easier to hold than some other larger smartphones (ahem … Galaxy Note II) due to the minimal bezel along the sides of the display. The Optimus G Pro is 76.1mm wide, 4.4mm narrower than the Galaxy Note II. This made the device sit more nicely in the palms of our hands. But make no mistake, this is still a very large device. One-handed use is extremely difficult, and we found ourselves needing a second hand to stabilize the device when stretching all the way across the display with our thumb.
The actual feel of the device in the hand is unmoving. Despite the high-end specifications inside and its large stature, the Optimus G Pro feels unsubstantial in almost every way. The plastic feels cheap and flimsy, and our own Michael Fisher put it perfectly on the Pocketnow Weekly podcast a few weeks back, saying the tiled pattern on the back of the device, unlike the pattern on the glass back of the Optimus G or Nexus 4, looks like “the bathroom floor tile in a budget motel.”
And that single statement pretty much sums up the hardware. No question about it, the Optimus G Pro is a high-end device. But the materials make this flagship feel like a high-end sports car in a Yaris body.
The one redeeming feature of the hardware and design is the physical home button. The click action is … poor. It’s hollow and feels like a toy mechanism. But it’s lined with multi-colored LEDs for a big, highly-customizable notification light. Even when the device is turned face-down, the notification light carries through the glass on the front of the device and lines the outer edges with a dim glow.
Easily, that notification light is the most notable part of the Optimus G Pro’s hardware.
Index
UI
At its core, the Optimus G Pro runs Android 4.1.2. But at the surface, LG was sure to leave no stock Android element unchanged. Meet Optimus UI.
The similarities between Samsung’s thoroughly-developed custom interface, TouchWiz, and LG’s customized UI are unmistakable. Looking throughout the software, nothing is an exact carbon copy. LG has made each of the features its own by slightly tweaking the interface and changing around some colors and shapes. But, once again, LG was shameless in openly showing the source of its inspiration.
From the home screen or lock screen to the notification shade, cues from TouchWiz can be found on the Optimus G Pro. The notification shade, for example, features quick setting toggles at the top with a brightness slider above the actual notifications. Below the toggles is a designated area for LG’s QSlide apps, miniature applications that float freely atop the current application.
The QSlide apps are easily the best part of LG’s software, but with Facebook’s Chat Heads, Samsung’s Popup Note, Popup Browser and Popup Video, they’re not truly unique or differentiating. Not to mention, the selection of free-floating apps is paltry, a total of seven applications: Videos, Internet, Calculator, Calendar, Memo, QVoice and TV. The standout feature here is how they can be made transparent and resized, so that the user can continue working on what’s beneath the maximum of two free-floating QSlide apps.
The unfortunate part of the software is how much bloatware comes pre-installed. On our Korean model of the LG Optimus G Pro, a total of 83 applications come pre-loaded. This number, of course, includes the necessary applications like Camera, Phone, Google Search or Calendar. But the majority of the 83 applications are LG’s own applications, such as SmartWorld, SmartTouch, SmartShare, LG Support, QTranslator or QVoice. Also, many of these applications are fixed in the Korean language, meaning they could not be changed to English, and were effectively useless to us. Only 19 of the pre-installed apps can be uninstalled.
The silver lining is that the global and U.S. models of the Optimus G Pro likely will not come with all this bloatware.
But that doesn’t make LG’s interface any less overbearing. There are tons of in-your-face animations and many things have been changed for the sake of being changed. The Settings app, for example, is tabbed with four sections: Networks, Sound, Display and General. This alone takes some getting used to, and having Sound and Display separated into their own categories doesn’t make a ton of sense. And the notification shade is a total mess.
One of the redeeming parts of the software, though, is the QRemote app. Using the IR blaster, the QRemote application essentially turns the Optimus G Pro into a universal remote for your home entertainment system. Setup was quick and painless (so long as you have a name brand television). QRemote can be accessed from the lock screen (by pressing the home button), from the notification shade (by enabling QRemote in the quick setting toggle) or by the app itself.
There’s something comforting about being able to reach for your phone – instead of remotes and controllers – to control your television or Xbox. And it’s unbelievably convenient.
For what it’s worth, almost every aspect of the interface can be tweaked. LG missed very little when it comes to the intricate details and customization. There are various themes for the home screen, you can edit what toggles are in the quick settings bar in the notification shade, you can even set your favorite function to a hardware key.
In the same respect, though, LG threw user-friendliness and simplicity to the wind. It’s packed to the brim with features, services and customization, which come at the expense of simplicity. The interface – especially the notification shade – is cluttered. If we had to sum up LG’s interface on the Optimus G Pro in a single word, it would most certainly be overwhelming.
Index
Camera
The Optimus G Pro has a 13-megapixel camera around back, and we can’t say we’re terribly impressed or disappointed. We’ve seen better 8-megapixel cameras and better 13-megapixel cameras in recent months. So it’s difficult to be blown away by the shooter on LG’s phablet.
That said, it’s not a bad camera. The software is actually pretty nice. It comes with a user-friendly interface and it’s packed to the brim with useful features. (Unfortunately, we couldn’t screen capture the Camera app, as LG removed that functionality.) It comes with several shooting modes: Intelligent Auto, HDR, Panorama, VR Panorama (think Photosphere), Burst shot and Beauty shot. It also has a time machine mode, which snaps several shots and lets you choose the best. There are also the typical settings for exposure control, white balance, focus mode, ISO, etc.
In perfect lighting, the camera was great. There was plenty of detail, color reproduction was nearly true to life and there was little to complain about. In anything but perfect lighting, the camera’s performance started to slip. Pictures lacked detail, showed noise and artifacts, appeared washed-out and lost their sharpness. Low-light performance was pretty dismal, as well, with massive amounts of noise and very little detail.
Most of the time, the camera was hit or miss. The auto-focus was quick to lock-on, but sometimes completely missed focus, resulting in blurry images. And rapidly pressing the shutter (as to not give the camera time to readjust exposure, focus, etc.), successive shots would turn out completely different – one warm, one cool, one over-exposed, one out of focus.
Video with the Optimus G Pro was quite good. Some same lack of proper detail from stills carried over, but the exposure adjustment was quick and panning was relatively smooth. Also, the audio was somewhat tinny, but not terrible. White balance fell on the warm side and colors were slightly over-saturated. In all, the video quality is certainly the best part of the Optimus G Pro’s camera.
The front-facing shooter is 2.1-megapixels. Colors are rich, though there is a noticeable lack of detail. Of course, you can’t expect amazing stills or video, but the camera will suffice for the occasional selfie or regular video chat.
Index
Performance
The Optimus G Pro certainly delivers in the performance category, thanks to the 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 chip. Its scores in synthetic benchmarks were among the highest we’ve ever seen, only slightly falling short of the HTC One’s benchmark scores.
Despite all the clutter around the interface and tons of bloatware, the Optimus G Pro zips through everyday tasks without skipping a beat. This can be credited to both the powerful chipset and the fact that the device runs Android 4.1.2, Jelly Bean, with Project Butter.
We installed several graphic-intensive games, such as Asphalt 7, and raced our hearts out. The games played perfectly, without the tiniest bit of lag. And n.o amount of multitasking managed to slow the device down. And the only latency when switching between applications, returning to the home screen or opening an application is due to the heavily-laden animations throughout the operating system.
Index
Battery Life
Keeping the show running is a 3,140mAh battery. And for us, the battery life on the Optimus G Pro was great – among the best we’ve experienced in recent years. If we were to compare it to other devices in terms of stamina, the two devices with comparable battery life are the Galaxy Note II and DROID RAZR MAXX HD, both of which also feature batteries larger than 3,000mAh out of the box.
The Korean model we received came with a spare battery and a battery charger in the box. Rather than plug the phone up and charge it overnight, we ran the device until it powered down and switched batteries to immediately pick back up where we left off.
Not once did we need to plug up for a supplementary charge in mid- to late-afternoon to last an entire day. Through heavy text messaging and IMing, playing games, watching videos, social networking, taking dozens of pictures, emailing and other abuse, the device consistently lasted over 24 hours.
Its stamina in standby was great as well, hitting 51 percent after 22 hours and 24 minutes with only 48 minutes of screen-on time. Keep in mind, however, that this is an LTE device and our unit was limited to AT&T 3G. The stamina will likely be different when LTE is in use.
Index
Call Quality/Network Performance
Speaking of being limited to AT&T 3G, the data speeds were obviously not a high point of using the Korean model of the Optimus G Pro on the AT&T network. The fastest downlink we were able to manage in the Charlotte metro area was 3.92Mbps, and the fastest uplink was 1.07Mbps. All things considered, these speeds weren’t terrible. But now that faster technologies are available, it makes using a 3G device reminiscent of old times and can make an over-the-top device like the Optimus G Pro come off as lackluster.
It’s safe to say U.S. and global models will have wider support for HSPA+ and LTE, and speeds will most definitely be better.
The reception, even in problematic areas, was surprisingly strong. And call quality was quite good. The quality of the earpiece speaker is great, producing loud, clean audio for calls. In noisy environments, the earpiece speaker could stand to be a bit louder.
The loud speaker around back wasn’t much help either. It’s very tinny and not very loud, producing little to no bass. It’s sufficient for the occasional speakerphone call and media consumption. But it’s not exceptional in any way.
Index
Pros
+ The display is gorgeous
+ Above average battery life
+ Camera quality is decent
+ The multitasking experience is great
+ Performance is exceptional
+ QButton doubles as a camera shutter
Cons
– Build quality and materials are lackluster
– Comes with tons of bloatware
– The interface is cluttered
– Design is uninspired
Index
Pricing and Availability
Officially, the Optimus G Pro is only currently available in Korea through various network providers. It is expected to launch globally – including the U.S. market – in the not to distant future. (Rumors are pointing towards and early May release, but we’re not holding our breath).
Unfortunately, LG has been mostly mum on the issue, leaving us unsure when, where or for how much we can expect Optimus G Pro once it launches outside Korea.
Index
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the Optimus G Pro is a solid competitor in the ultra-large smartphone category. It, surprisingly, stacks up very well to Samsung’s iconic Galaxy Note series and offers a no-compromise experience in the phablet sector.
A lot can change in a few short months, however. By the time the other variants of the Optimus G Pro arrive, they could look slightly different or feature different specifications. The long antenna is rumored to be replaced by an integrated stylus. Hopefully, the majority of these changes will be limited to software, expunging all the bloatware and clutter of Optimus UI.
As it stands, the Optimus G Pro is a great device. And once it becomes more widely available, it would be difficult not to recommend this over the Galaxy Note II, if only for the quality of the display.
Is it a better phablet? Hardly. It’s evident that Samsung has put a lot of time and thought into what separates a phablet from nothing more than a large smartphone. It seems LG is still learning that while it’s changing all of Samsungs apps and services to its own Q-branded apps.
Index
Scored For Me |
The "Resist March" was inspired by the early pride demonstrations of the 1970s and the nationwide Women's Marches held in January, one day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Christine Kim reports for the NBC4 News at 4 on Sunday, June 11, 2017. (Published Sunday, June 11, 2017)
About 100,000 straight and gay people, minorities and not, stretched from Hollywood to West Hollywood on Sunday, as what used to be an annual, raucous Gay Pride march this year became #ResistMarch to protest politics.
Helicopter video showed a crowd filling sidewalks and six traffic lanes on streets which had been closed to traffic. Trucks were positioned from building to building at cross streets: barricades, apparently to block any would-be assailants in cars.
The event was expected to attract as many as 100,000 people. It began at Hollywood Boulevard at Highland Avenue, then moved to the heart of West Hollywood on Santa Monica Boulevard.
March founder Brian Pendleton said he was inspired by the early pride demonstrations of the 1970s and the nationwide Women's Marches held in January, one day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Pride March Turned Into 'Resist' March
About 100,000 people stretched from Hollywood to West Hollywood, as what used to be an annual, raucous Gay Pride march this year became #ResistMarch to protest politics. Ted Chen reports for the NBC4 News at 4 on Sunday, June 11, 2017. (Published Sunday, June 11, 2017)
"The mission is to march in unity with those who believe that America's strength is its diversity," organizers said in a prepared statement. "Not just LGBTQ people but all Americans and dreamers will be wrapped in the Rainbow Flag with unique, diverse, intersectional voices gathering together.
"We are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. We are people of color. We are people of different faiths. We are people of all genders and no gender. We are immigrants. We are dreamers. We are people with disabilities. We are parents. We are allies."
As usual with West Hollywood street parties, Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards and some side streets were closed in West Hollywood. |
Earlier this year I attended Android Developers Meetup in NYC. The speaker, Instagram Developer, covered their efforts of making the Android app work offline to make it a great experience even for people with low/no network connectivity.
Below I will briefly describe Instagram’s approach and then provide a working example offline app using MVVM, Google’s new Lifecycle Architecture Components, Android Priority Job Queue library, Room, RxJava2, Dagger Android 2.11, Retrofit, ButterKnife.
Why offline mode?
80% of Instagram’s users are outside the US. Many of those live in the developing countries with limited network connectivity or limited data plan. These users primarily use Android devices, and that is why the team at Instagram targeted Android platform first in their efforts to make offline functionality available.
Offline read support
Instagram’s offline users are now able to see their newsfeed by serving previously loaded cached data. The idea is simple: each read request is identified by a Request Task (cache key). Each feed response gets cached on device by Response Store. Subsequently, when the user is offline and requests data for the same Request Task, the request is replayed and response for that cache key is served back by the local Response Store. The UI does not care that the data served is a cached version. When user tries to explicitly refresh their feed, a message informs them that they are currently offline.
Offline write support
Instagram’s offline users can leave comments, like content, follow others, save media, etc. Each of those use cases implements a PendingActionStore and all of the use cases are managed by a Manager that informs them of connectivity changes and lifecycle events. Basically, the idea is each PendingActionStore knows how to manage data locally and sync remotely and goes to work whenever the Manager directs it to do so.
Rolling my own
Let’s look at a sample Offline-First app I created. It may not cover all aspects of an offline app but it does cover the gist of it: save locally first, sync remotely next and reflect the changes in the UI during the process. The app enables users to seamlessly post comments while offline. Feel free to skip reading and jump into the source code directly at http://github.com/jshvarts/OfflineSampleApp
Comments are stored locally and then synced remotely
Workflow
The overall workflow can be summarized using this diagram:
When a new comment is submitted, it gets stored in a local database first. The record is marked with syncPending =true. The comment text color in the UI is displayed in gray.
=true. The comment text color in the UI is displayed in gray. If Internet connection is available, a background job will sync this record with remote repo.
If no connection is available, a background sync job will be queued until the connection becomes available. During this time the user can close the app or even restart the device — the pending sync request is guaranteed to survive and wait for the connection to become available.
Once the connection is restored, a background job will sync the record with remote datastore.
If the record is successfully synced with remote repo, the corresponding local record is updated with syncPending =false. The comment text color in the UI will turn black.
=false. The comment text color in the UI will turn black. If the sync with remote repo failed, the local record gets deleted to provide data integrity. This scenario is an exception rather than the rule. In a real world application, you’d probably want to inform the user about this, possibly by showing a notification.
Your data should be stored locally first and synced remotely second.
Single Source of Truth
In our app, the local database is the single source of truth. Although data is synced with remote (cloud) database, data lookups always happen against the local database. Whenever sync with remote database fails, we delete the local record to guarantee data integrity between local and remote data repositories.
Offline design strategies
Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all solution when it comes to offline app design. My example app shows 2 possible ways to accomplish offline functionality (see below for details). Your milage may vary — it all depends on your particular app requirements.
Do you tell users when the app goes offline? If so, how? Do you inform them when remote sync fails/succeeds? If so, how? How do you tell users they are offline when they try to explicitly refresh content? Do you keep track of the last scroll position when online in order to show only the content they have not seen now that they are offline?
These are just some of the questions you may face when designing offline functionality for your app.
App architecture
MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) pattern using Google’s new Lifecycle Architecture Components such as ViewModel , ViewModelFactory , LiveData , LifecycleObserver .
, , , . Clean-ish Architecture with decent layer isolation and data repositories abstracted via interfaces. This should ease maintenance and testability. There is definitely some room for improvement around Job Queue integration.
Background job for syncing comments with remote service is implemented using Android Priority Job Queue.
RxJava 2, RxRelay are used to communicate between the layers asynchronously.
Local Database is implemented using Google’s new Room Persistence Library.
Remote API calls are implemented using Retrofit and fake remote datasource is done with help of JSONPlaceholder REST API.
New Dagger Android 2.11 Injection API is used for injecting dependencies.
As a bonus, the following quality checks are integrated into the build process: lint, checkstyle, pmd, findbugs.
Android Priority Job Queue
This open-source library is the backbone of our offline app functionality. It is maintained by Googler Yigit Boyar whose name will inevitably come up when you research offline-first app design on Android. This mature library allows you to employ Job Scheduler API from Google on Lollipop and above and fall back on GcmNetworkManager to support API Level 9 and above.
Just like there are multiple ways to design offline apps, there are different ways of using Android Priority Job Queue. http://github.com/jshvarts/OfflineSampleApp contains 2 branches showcasing 2 approaches to using the library:
master: the app has to be open for the data to be synced with remote repo. sync-in-background: the app does not need to be open for the background sync requests to execute. Android Priority Job Queue can wake up the app to perform the background sync jobs in the same process.
The latter approach is my favorite. It allows the application to be woken up on device boot when certain background job conditions are met (e.g. network access is available, WiFi is available, etc.).
Jobs in Android Priority Job Queue are highly configurable. Some of the common configuration parameters are:
custom job priority
network availability
retry and job cancelation logic
job persistence strategy
When Android Framework’s Job Scheduler is used (on Lollipop and above), job scheduling is managed by the OS which optimizes remote calls and conserves battery life. In addition, the scheduler complies with the Doze and Stand By restrictions.
The power of RxJava
While not applicable to offline apps specifically, note how RxJava helps us keep the code concise.
Here the comment is synced remotely upon successful local add comment call.
Once loaded initially, our View data always stays up-to-date by virtue of using Flowable . There are no explicit calls to refresh data. This makes the interaction between our data and UI truly Reactive.
Communicating sync events
Android Priority Job Queue library recommends using EventBus to communicate events from background jobs back to the UI. However, given that 1) the industry trend seems to be to replace EventBus with RxJava and 2) I already use RxJava extensively in the app, I decided to create a custom RxBus solution instead of EventBus:
Here is how our background job posts a sync response event to this bus:
Receiving event emissions from the RxBus is done differently depending on when you choose to process sync requests:
when the app is open when the app is not open.
Let’s look at both scenarios below:
Syncing data when app is open
To receive event emissions when the app is open and when CommentsActivity is resumed, there is a SyncCommentLifecycleObserver . It is registered to observe lifecycle events from our View, CommentsActivity
The lifecycle event Lifecycle.Event.ON_RESUME subscribes to data emissions from our RxBus. This is roughly an equivalent to EventBus.getDefault().register(this)
The lifecycle event Lifecycle.Event.ON_PAUSE triggers unsubscribing (clearing Disposables ) from our RxBus emissions. This is roughly an equivalent to EventBus.getDefault().unregister(this)
The above setup utilizes latest Architecture Components from Google and helps keep our code clean and manageable by adhering to Single Responsibility Principle.
To test this setup, try adding comments while offline. They will be stored locally only — comment text color will be gray. Then, re-enable network connection and observe your background jobs updating remote data store one comment at a time in the order they were added by the user. As comments are synced successfully, the text color will change to black.
Pro-tip: Use ‘elevator test’ to simulate flakey network connection while developing offline functionality. Use the app in an elevator and observe its behavior if the connection is lost and later re-established.
Syncing data when app is not open
To receive event emissions when the app is not open or backgrounded, follow these steps:
Add RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED permission to AndroidManifest.xml so that your application can be woken up by the scheduler after the device is rebooted.
Set batch =false when creating job schedulers:
Make your background job persistent by adding .persist() job config param.
Note, the SyncCommentJob has a single instance variable, comment , which is a simple POJO. This is because by default, job persistence with Android Priority Job Queue is accomplished via Serialization so it’s easiest to construct Jobs with lightweight Serializable POJOs and expose other dependencies as Singletons outside of Dagger (as done with RemoteCommentService.getInstance() ). Alternatively, you can a) use transient dependencies and some Dagger trickery or b) implement custom serialization using libraries such as GSON or Protobuf.
Sync comment response is then observed by SyncCommentResponseObserver which is initialized by our App class when the app is woken up.
To test this setup, try adding comments while offline. The comments will be stored locally as evident by the comment text color in the UI (gray). Try closing the app or restarting the device. Do not open the app yet but do re-enable network connection. Your jobs are now sent to remote data store to be synced. Open the app to confirm that the jobs were already synced as evident by the comment text color (black).
Conclusion
Let’s summarize benefits of offline apps again:
users can continue enjoying the app, even while offline. users no longer get error messages due to network connection problems. users benefit from more responsive apps users benefit from conserving battery life. the need for progress bars, etc. is diminished since users interact with fast local storage only. As a bonus, this simplifies the process of building the UI.
Given the above, apps that value user experience should take offline support seriously. Why make network calls for every UI interaction? I doubt your users enjoy waiting for network responses, seeing progress indicators and being told to ‘try again’ whenever network connection is lost. Let’s put user experience first and make our apps accessible to all users, not just those on blazing fast networks.
P.S. Thanks to AndroidWeekly for featuring this article in their issue #279
Recommended Resources |
Honda has introduced a new Fireblade for the 2017 campaign, but had difficulties preparing the bike in time for the European pre-season tests at Jerez and Portimao, having only received it a few weeks in advance.
While Hayden was just seven tenths off the pace at Jerez, his disadvantage to the pacesetters was 1.6 seconds for Portimao, which he described as "frustrating".
Progress was seemingly made at Phillip Island, with Hayden making it to Superpole 2, but then he only took 11th in that session, a position he could not progress from in Race 1.
Hayden's weekend ended with a retirement caused by a crash in the second race.
When asked to rate the season opener, Hayden admitted it was a tougher round for Honda than expected, and that there were no positives to take away from the weekend.
"I don't know, after the race you're a bit beat down, but the reality is I don't see what we can say what was really positive for us," said Hayden.
"It was a tougher weekend than we expected, and then I made a mistake in the race and crashed, that's my fault.
"Didn't really do a lot different, the speed was about the same, I just had a little bit more rear brake that unloaded the front and folded on me.
"I wouldn't say [there are] too many positives to take from this weekend, I don't want to be too negative but we don't want to come in here and get beaten like we did pretty much both days."
"Tweaked" knee not a worry
Hayden's off-season was hampered by a knee injury, which he sustained during flat-track training in November.
In the second race of the season opener, the 35-year-old fell at Turn 9 and he admitted he "tweaked" his knee.
However, tests and further evaluations with Hayden's surgeon in the USA found no injury, and the American rider is set to race in the next round in Thailand. |
(Reuters) - Kongar-ol Ondar, a Tuvan throat singer credited with popularizing the centuries-old musical tradition of his homeland to Western audiences, died on Thursday after emergency surgery to treat a brain hemorrhage, friends said. He was 51.
Ondar died at a hospital in Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva, a Central Asian republic of Russia that borders Mongolia, said Sean Quirk, a longtime friend of the singer and manager of the Tuvan throat-singing ensemble Alash.
“He is not replaceable,” Quirk told Reuters by phone from his home in Tuva. “There’s so much of Tuvan culture that’s concentrated in him and who he was. He was the ambassador of Tuva.”
Throat singing involves simultaneously vocalizing one or more notes over a fundamental pitch, producing a distinct sound that can take years to attain. It is traditionally done by horse herders on the Tuvan and Mongolian steppes, where the music can carry great distances.
“If it wasn’t for him, two-thirds of the band that I work with might be out in the steppes throat singing and herding horses,” Quirk said. “Throat singing would still be around without him. But it would not be nearly as widespread or as popular in Tuva or the world.”
Ondar first came to the attention of Western audiences in 1993, when he was a last-minute addition to a group of Tuvan throat singers and horse herders invited to participate in that year’s Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.
At the time, Tuvan throat singing was unknown in the United States to all but a tiny group of devoted fans, said Ralph Leighton, founder of the newsletter-turned-website Friends of Tuva, who made the invitation.
On his initial trip to the United States, Leighton said, Ondar performed for Frank Zappa, the Kronos Quartet and Ry Cooder, who was moved to include Tuvan throat singing in his score for the 1993 film “Geronimo.”
“He was a showman but was true to his Tuvan roots,” said Leighton. “He was able to bring Tuvan culture out to a big appreciative audience while also nurturing it at home.”
Ondar was featured in the 1999 documentary film “Genghis Blues,” which told the story of a blind California blues musician who traveled to Tuva to learn about throat singing.
In addition to his exploits abroad, Ondar both trained and paved the way for the next generation of throat singers in Tuva, said Quirk.
“In the 1990s, he was the only one formally teaching throat singing to young people,” Quirk said. “You can see the results of it now. A big chunk of the best singers are his students.” |
At least eight people were killed and nearly a dozen more were injured when a truck driver deliberately mowed down people and targeted a school bus in lower Manhattan. Gus Rosendale reports. (Published Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017)
What to Know Eight people were killed and more were injured when a man in a rented pickup truck rampaged down a popular Manhattan bike path Tuesday
Witnesses described a shocking and gruesome scene along the bike path; the truck then deliberately crashed into a school bus
Sources say the driver, Uzbek national Sayfullo Saipov, who has been living in New Jersey, left a note saying he did it for ISIS
UPDATE: Attack Suspect Left 'ISIS Lives Forever' Note in Truck, Showed No Remorse for Deadly Rampage
At least eight people were killed and nearly a dozen more were injured when a truck driver deliberately mowed down people and targeted a school bus in lower Manhattan Tuesday in what authorities called a "cowardly act of terror."
A 29-year-old Uzbek national living in New Jersey, Sayfullo Saipov, drove a Home Depot rental pickup truck at least 10 blocks down the popular Hudson River Greenway bike path from West Houston to Chambers streets, hitting nearly a dozen pedestrians and bicyclists before crashing into a school bus near Stuyvesant High School and elementary school P.S. 89, just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center, authorities said.
The crash into the school bus appeared to be deliberate; witnesses told police they saw the driver swerve the truck to target the bus, which was carrying children.
Two staff members and two children on the bus were injured, police said.
They said the driver then screamed "Allahu Akbar" in the truck, then emerged carrying what turned out to be a pellet gun and a paint gun and started running around before he was confronted by a nearby uniformed officer on patrol, who shot him in the abdomen.
Law enforcement sources said Tuesday night that authorities found a note inside the man's truck -- rented from a Passaic Home Depot an hour before the rampage -- saying he committed the attack for ISIS.
Watch: Truck Rampage Suspect Runs Through Traffic
Witness video shows the suspect in a Lower Manhattan truck rampage running through traffic with what looks like two weapons. For the latest updates on this story click here. (Published Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017)
One witness told News 4, "A guy got out with a biker jacket with a stripe, and started shooting up the place. All the kids were in the courtyard at P.S. 89 and started running."
Another woman standing at a bus stop nearby said she saw children and teachers from P.S. 89 screaming and running back into the school around dismissal time.
"A man said, 'Run, run for your life,'" said Margaret Yearwood.
The witness who saw the truck driver emerge from the pickup went to go help the school bus driver after the crash.
"I wasn't sure why he was so spaced out and then I went to the other side, it was all caved on. A poor girl was stuck right above the wheel well. There were two kids that were just stuck by the window. It was all blown out," he said.
Another witness described a gruesome scene along the bike path; amid the heaps of twisted metal and mangled bikes, he saw two victims laying unconscious on the ground: "One gentleman’s leg was hanging by skin. Another man had tire marks across his chest. His eyes were open."
Six of the victims were pronounced dead on the scene, according to FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro. They were all male. Two other victims were pronounced dead at local hospitals.
Nearly a dozen people were taken to hospitals, many with serious but non-life threatening injuries. Saipov was also taken to Bellevue Hospital after he was shot by police.
Hear It: Emergency Services Respond to Truck Rampage
Listen as emergency responders react to reports of an out of control box truck in lower Manhattan. For the latest on the deadly incident click here. (Published Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017)
Sources initially said they were responding to a report of at least five people shot; in fact, all the victims in the case appeared to have been injured or killed from the truck crash.
Dramatic Images: Aftermath of Deadly Manhattan Truck Rampage
"There was a loss of innocent life," NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said at a news briefing Tuesday evening. "The dead and injured were just going about their days, heading home from work or from school, or enjoying the afternoon sun on their bicycles. This is a tragedy of the greatest magnitude."
Mayor de Blasio condemned the "particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians" and said it would not break the city's spirit. He urged New Yorkers to be more vigilant, and said police presence would be stepped up across the city, adding, "New Yorkers are resilient; our spirit will never be moved."
'A Particularly Cowardly Act of Terror': De Blasio
Mayor Bill De Blasio speaks out against the 'cowardly act of terror' that killed at least 8 people in lower Manhattan Tuesday afternoon. (Published Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017)
To that end, the NYPD said the famed Village Halloween Parade would proceed Tuesday evening, though with more police officers and resources, including blocker vehicles, sand trucks and weapons teams.
Stuyvesant High School, P.S. 89 and P.S. 289 were put on lockdown in the chaos and confusion after the crash. Stuyvesant High School sophomore Areyan Kayum said he was in class when he heard the crash; students rushed to the window and saw the destroyed school bus below. The school was immediately put into shelter mode.
"I'm just glad I'm safe and everyone in the school is safe," said Kayum.
Parents were seen picking up their children from the elementary schools after the lockdown was lifted; many of the kids were in Halloween costume and makeup.
Schools chancellor Carmen Fariña said, "Today there was an act of terror in close proximity to several schools in lower Manhattan. We stand with the entire city as we mourn this senseless loss of life. We are grateful to the first-responders and school staff who work tirelessly to help keep our schools and communities safe. Ongoing guidance and trauma counselors will be provided across schools to those in need tomorrow."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there was no evidence to suggest the "lone wolf" attack was part of a wider plot. A U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News that the intelligence community is unaware of any claims of responsibility in the attack at this time.
On Twitter, President Donald Trump called it "another attack by a very sick and deranged person" and declared, "NOT IN THE U.S.A."
Tuesday’s attack bears resemblance to several attacks where a vehicle was used as a weapon in recent years.
In 2014, ISIS called on so-called lone wolf attackers to use their cars to kill people if they couldn’t get their hands on weapons. Two years later, an attacker plowed a cargo truck into hundreds of people celebrating Bastille Day on a beachfront promenade in Nice, France, leaving 86 people dead. Since then, there have been at least 11 other instances where attackers used cars to kill dozens and injure many more.
And earlier this year, a driver from the Bronx jumped a curb in Times Square and hit nearly two dozen people as he drove on the sidewalks -- allegedly intoxicated by PCP -- for three blocks.
The NYPD and FBI are asking anyone with information about Tuesday's attack should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS or the FBI's tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI. |
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