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Image copyright Martina Gardiner Image caption The Giant's Causeway remains the most popular visitor attraction
Visitor numbers to Northern Ireland hit an all-time high in 2015, according to new tourism statistics.
External overnight trips went up by 5%, reaching 2.3 million, due to a large influx of British people.
However, tourism numbers from the Republic of Ireland continue on a deep downward spiral.
In 2015 they slumped by 18% on the previous year, with the problem now being looked at by a "recovery task force" at Tourism Northern Ireland.
Image copyright Peter Macdiarmid Image caption Titanic Belfast is Northern Ireland's second most visited tourist attraction
Overnight trips by visitors from across the border totalled 320,000 in 2015, while in 2012 there were 430,000 overnight trips made.
In 2014 a report for Stormont said an "image problem" may explain the fall, but the weakness of the Euro last year will not have helped.
The Department for the Economy's new statistics show that the Giant's Causeway remains the most popular visitor attraction.
In 2015 it had over 815,000 visitors. |
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In putting on its front-page, above the fold, and in the right-hand column, a story of almost 5000 words about contributions to US-based non-profits that focus on Israel ( Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank) , thesends a clear message to its readers: this is an important, major story and attention must be paid to the significant news we have uncovered.
In fact, in the article by Ethan Bronner, Jim Rutenberg and Mik McIntire, there is no news, no scoops, no revelations, few facts, and plenty of errors and omissions.
Let’s start with the omissions. In a story on indirect contributions from Americans to Israeli non-profits, there is not one word about the New Israel Fund, by far the largest and most active American organization funneling American contributions to Israeli non-profits. The NIF raised almost $34 million dollars in 2008, and has given more than $200 million in grants since its inception 30 years ago. The New Israel Fund heavily subsidizes radical Israel-based organizations like Adallah, Breaking the Silence, Gisha, B’Tselem and Machsom Watch. These five organizations, together with many similar groups supported by the New Israel Fund, effectively work to undermine Israel’s standing in the world and its ability to defend itself.
Yet among these literally hundreds of organizations funded by the NIF not one is mentioned.The only similar group the Times does mention is Peace Now, though it is termed an “Israeli civil and human rights group,” which the paper allows might be “accused of having a blatant political agenda.”
New York Times itself, such as Gisha, cited in the paper already seven times this year, most recently on Times has cited Gisha a whopping 25 times.) Also unmentioned by the paper is that many of the groups funded by the NIF are key sources foritself, such as Gisha, cited in the paper already seven times this year, most recently on July 5th . (According to a Nexis search, since 2006 thehas cited Gisha a whopping 25 times.)
As CAMERA has previously documented , the Times has habitually taken a protective attitude towards many of these radical groups and their patron, The New Israel Fund. When the organizations’ involvement in the notorious Goldstone Report was widely publicized in Israel in early February, 2010 the Times ignored the exposé for two months before reporting the publicity campaign as an “attack” by an “ultra-Zionist” group against “prominent human rights organizations.”
In addition to this, of course, are tax deductible donations to anti-Israel organizations based outside of Israel. The Times does admit this occurs, in another unintentionally revealing paragraph:
The use of charities to promote a foreign policy goal is neither new nor unique — Americans also take tax breaks in giving to pro-Palestinian groups. But the donations to the settler movement stand out because of the centrality of the settlement issue in the current talks and the fact that Washington has consistently refused to allow Israel to spend American government aid in the settlements.
Certainly the Palestinians would agree to “the centrality of the settlement issue in the current talks,” but for Israel two other issues are central: Palestinian terrorism and one of its root causes, official Palestinian hate indoctrination. So here, as in the rest of this article, and in so much of its coverage, the Times adopts the Palestinian narrative to the exclusion of the Israeli one.
Similarly, in another paragraph, the Times writes of the Israeli group HaYovel that it:
… is one of many groups in the United States using tax-exempt donations to help Jews establish permanence in the Israeli-occupied territories — effectively obstructing the creation of a Palestinian state, widely seen as a necessary condition for Middle East peace.
It may be axiomatic in some circles, such as the newsrooms and boardrooms of the New York Times, that the “creation of a Palestinian state, [is] widely seen as a necessary condition for Middle East peace.” But another widely held view, consistently ignored by the Times, is that ending Palestinian terrorism and incitement to violence is a necessary condition for Middle East peace.
Of course, there are many other specific problems with the article.
Where’s the beef
The Times admits, in multiple places in the article, that it actually didn’t find any smoking guns that might justify the report’s placement or even the decision to publish it. For example, the Times admits that:
The money goes mostly to schools, synagogues, recreation centers and the like, legitimate expenditures under the tax law. But it has also paid for more legally questionable commodities: housing as well as guard dogs, bulletproof vests, rifle scopes and vehicles to secure outposts deep in occupied areas.
Schools, synagogues and recreation centers, of course, would cost far more than a few guard dogs and bulletproof vests. So what the Times has found is that most of the money is spent in accord with our tax laws. Where is the story?
The use of charities to promote a foreign policy goal is neither new nor unique — Americans also take tax breaks in giving to pro-Palestinian groups.
Again, then, where is the story?
Most contributions go to large, established settlements close to the boundary with Israel that would very likely be annexed in any peace deal, in exchange for land elsewhere.
So why the front page story?
As the American government seeks to end the four-decade Jewish settlement enterprise and foster a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the American Treasury helps sustain the settlements through tax breaks on donations to support them… [In the United States] … the tax code encourages citizens to support nonprofit groups that may diverge from official policy, as long as their missions are educational, religious or charitable.
So why the front page story? Does the Times really not realize the contradition in these two sentences?
The Times’s review of pro-settler groups suggests that most generally live within the rules of the American tax code.
So why the front page story? Because there may be a few that don’t?
Errors and Misstatements
Since the premise of the article is based on a strict reading of US tax laws, it is disconcerting that the Times makes a number of material errors regarding those laws.
For example, the Times claims that:
American tax rules prohibit the use of charitable funds for political purposes at home or abroad.
This is not true. Charitable funds can legally be used for certain political purposes. The League of Women Voters, for example, routinely sponsors debates and candidate nights during the campaign season. This is not a violation of the US tax code, nor is putting out voter guides detailing the candidates’ positions on issues of concern to particular groups or the entire community. Nor are educational issue advertisements published by non-profits a violation of the tax code, as long as they don’t endorse a particular position or candidate.
Interestingly enough, the Times quotes in the story a nonprofit tax law expert, Bruce Hopkins, who is indeed a leading specialist on the subject of nonprofit law. (Full disclosure – CAMERA has in the past gotten paid legal advice in the area of nonprofit law from Mr. Hopkins.)
But the Times perhaps didn’t ask him the right questions, since one of his major works is entitled Charity, Advocacy and the Law, with the subtitle How Nonprofit Organizations Can Use Charitable Dollars to Affect Public Policy – Lawfully. The book outlines in great detail why and how what the Times claims to be illegal is, in fact, perfectly legal.
Another false Times claim is that:
Americans cannot claim deductions for direct donations to foreign charities; tax laws allow deductions for domestic giving on the theory that charities ultimately ease pressure on government spending for social programs.
In fact, the US has tax treaties with many countries, including Israel, that permit exactly this, assuming the money was earned in the foreign country. For example, if a US citizen owns an apartment in Israel and rents it out, the money earned can be used for charitable giving in Israel and that will reduce his adjusted US income and taxes.
The Times was also inaccurate in its claim that:
… Israeli-American relations plunged after Israel announced plans for 1,600 new apartments for Jews in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their future capital.
As reported in Ha’aretz, the announcement of plans to build the 1600 apartments had been made a year earlier. What was announced during the visit of VP Joe Biden in March was approval of the building plans by the Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee, one of many such official bodies that must approve the project before building can commence.
The Times, in charging that certain charities did not accurately describe their activities, also misled readers. For example, in recounting a statement by a spokesman for the group Ateret Cohanim, the Times wrote:
Mr. Hoenig said that Ateret Cohanim bought a couple of buildings years ago, but that mostly it helps arrange purchases by other Jewish investors. That is not mentioned, however, on its American affiliate’s tax returns. Rather, they describe its primary charitable purpose as financing “higher educational institutions in Israel,” as well as children’s camps, help for needy families and security for Jews living in East Jerusalem. Indeed, it does all those things. It houses yeshiva students and teachers in properties it helps acquire and places kindergartens and study institutes into other buildings, all of which helps its activities qualify as educational or religious for tax purposes.
But the Friends of Ateret Cohanim IRS return actually describes the group’s mission as:
Provide financial support and other assistance to the Ateret Cohanim institutions and community in Jerusalem, Israel.
This description certainly would not rule out advising what properties its supporters should privately buy, and in any event, if such activities are a small portion of what Ateret Cohanim does, then it would not qualify as sufficiently important to report to the IRS. As the Times should have noticed, the relevant form asks for details of “the exempt purpose achievements for each of the organization’s three largest program services by expenses.” Offering advice to prospective property buyers would hardly seem to qualify.
The bottom line is that the Times put on its front page, above the fold, in the right-hand column, a non-story containing no news, few facts and much misinformation. With the Israeli Prime Minister meeting President Obama that afternoon, and given the chance to bash Israel, ho w could the Times resist? The answer is they couldn’t. |
by Thomas R. Wells
Some countries are assholes. They trample on international norms about human rights, maritime boundaries, climate change conventions, and so on. They repeatedly make and break promises and then complain indignantly and even violently if they are challenged for it. They bully weaker countries shamelessly to get their way, all the while declaring their commitment to the highest ideals of international peace and justice.
You know the kind of country I'm talking about. The kind that believes in its own moral exceptionalism: Not only does it not feel bound by the ordinary rules; it even demands that other countries acknowledge its moral right to set its interests above their own or the international peace. Take Russia. Its behaviour in Ukraine (and elsewhere in recent years) is classic assholism and is systematic and comprehensive enough to warrant the conclusion that Russia is a true asshole nation. I'm sure you can think of others.
I
The term “asshole nation” is inspired by Aaron James's neat little book Assholes: A Theory in which he defines the asshole individual as someone who in interpersonal or cooperative relations,
1. allows himself to enjoy special advantages and does so systematically;
2. does this out of an entrenched sense of entitlement; and
3. is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people. (p.5)
James' theory is directed at the anti-social behaviour of individuals. It covers much of the same ground that organizational psychologists have mapped as the ‘dark triad' of anti-social personality types – narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sub-clinical psychopathy – which will be unfortunately familiar to most people who have worked in any large organization. But James adds two things. First, his account is a thoroughly moral one: the asshole is morally repugnant because of his fundamental lack of respect for the moral status of those he interacts with: He doesn't register other people as morally real. Second, because James' account starts from the moral requirements of participation in cooperative relations rather than from human psychology it is more general than that produced by organisational psychologists. I believe it can also be helpfully applied to non-human agents, such as countries.
Just as some individuals seem to think that every day is their birthday and they deserve special consideration from everyone else – and a general exemption from rules intended for the general benefit which happen to be inconvenient to them, like using their phone in the movie theatre or speeding through school zones when they're running late – so some countries seem to think that their sovereignty is more important than the sovereignty of other nations.
II
Just as with individuals there are different kinds and degrees of asshole nations, not all of which are equally morally condemnable, and which require different handling. A typology of assholishness allows us to distinguish the merely badly behaved from the ugly from the genuinely horrid.
Let's start by considering assholism that is domain specific misbehaviour rather than a dominant moral identity. Japan's support for whaling can certainly be described as assholish. Having voluntarily joined the International Whaling Commission and (eventually) signed up to its moratorium on whaling, Japan's government effectively raises a middle finger to the international community's concern to protect these endangered species by not only issuing fake ‘scientific research' permits to its whaling fleets but also providing them with millions of dollars of subsidies per year.
Yet Japan is generally a pretty well-behaved member of the international community of nations. In many respects, most notably in its commitment to its pacifist constitution and its funding for development aid, it takes care to recognise the moral reality of other nations. Its assholish behaviour is limited to a relatively few areas like whaling (and import tariffs and school history books that gloss over its brutal S. East Asian empire). Japan is not a completely unreasonable country: One doesn't have to worry constantly about what new self-serving stunt it will pull; and one can hope, eventually, to reason with it even on those subjects where it presently refuses to listen to criticism. Like a good many other reasonably normal countries, Japan is only a partial rather than a complete asshole nation.
There is also the incompetent or ‘half-assed' asshole nation, one that aspires to be an asshole but doesn't really have the self-delusion and moral blindness necessary to pull it off. One might place Britain in this category, as a country with an historic sense of its own moral and civilisational superiority, built up over the 19th century to rationalise its global empire, and of independence as an island nation. British governments up to the present have often been eager to play up the theme of British exceptionalism – for example Britain appears proud of its reputation as the asshole of the European project.
And yet, this is mostly political theatre. Britain hasn't seriously attempted to live up to its asshole aspirations since the extraordinary humiliation of Suez in 1956. British governments of whatever party are actually quite aware of the fact of Britain's relative insignificance, that it depends on its cooperative relationships with other nations for its prosperity and to further its international projects. Despite its politicians' posturing for the benefit of Daily Mail readers, Britain is generally pretty well behaved in practice. For instance, notwithstanding its endless vocal complaints about intolerable affronts to its sovereignty, Britain keeps up its treaty obligations as a member of the European Union better than most others. There is something blameworthy of course about wanting to be an asshole, something twisted in one's soul; but curmudgeonly recognition of the moral status of others and one's obligations to them is better than none. One can also take some hope from the fact that Britain appears to be on a trajectory that will eventually bring it to a more civilised ‘normal' state.
III
The defining characteristics of the complete across the board asshole nation are, fortunately enough, exactly what make assholism self-defeating in the long-run: obnoxiousness and unrealisticness. Asshole nations take ruthless and systematic advantage of cooperative norms and institutions intended for the general benefit, as N. Korea takes advantage of conventions such as diplomatic immunity and the freedom of the seas to smuggle drugs, weapons, and counterfeit US currency around the world. In this enterprise the asshole's strongest weapon is his shamelessness, his practised skill in walling off moral complaints in such a way that they never touch his entrenched sense of entitlement. From his moral throne he looks down upon them and laughs them off as beneath his dignity, or treats them as a merely strategic problem to be managed away, or becomes genuinely indignant that his moral superiority has not been respected.
If the infractions are relatively minor – such as Japan's asshole whaling policy – a country can get away with this kind of thing indefinitely. Other countries will generally make the rational decision that the costs and risks of trying to organise themselves to collectively enforce the rules by means other than moral exhortation are greater than the benefits, just as individuals confronted with everyday assholes like queue jumpers often swallow their righteous indignation and move on.
However, the complete asshole nation has a tendency to go too far. For example by threatening so much damage to essential international institutions that they can't function anymore, such as nuclear non-proliferation treaties. Or by threatening to unravel the ethos of international cooperation on which such institutions depend, such as by making other countries reluctant to continue making unreciprocated contributions or making themselves vulnerable to exploitation; or inspiring countries with asshole tendencies (‘realists' in International Relations terminology) of the benefits of the asshole way of life. In such cases there will generally be some collective effort to 'punish' the asshole's misbehaviour (such as by financial and travel sanctions on its elite), or at least to contain the damage it can do by downgrading its privileges as a member of the international community (such as its access to weapons technologies, or its participation in international institutions).
The reason asshole nations go too far relates to the same self-delusions from which their moral blindness springs. Because assholes genuinely and entirely believe that their exceptionalist interpretation of international norms is justified by their moral superiority they are unable to see clearly how they appear to others. For example, they cannot see international sanctions as a legitimate ‘punishment' for their misbehaviour because they acknowledge no moral judgement superior to their own. Sanctions may be successful to the extent that they constrain or reshape asshole nations' political options, but the way they are perceived is as a hostile act, probably motivated by envy and fully deserving of a response in kind.
At the same time, asshole nations' confidence in their own magnificence leads them to make unrealistic demands on other nations. They do not want merely to be allowed to get away with assholishness towards others; they want others to sincerely acknowledge their right to what they take. But even if one has the power to get away with bullying other nations into acquiescing to one's assholishness, like Russia, you will only ever have their fear, not the true respect that you really crave. And if you don't even have the power to frighten, like tinpot N. Korea, you will find yourself tortured by the studious indifference of other countries' to your claims to specialness.
Assholishness in countries, as in individuals, reliably messes up other people's lives but doesn't reliably operate to the advantage of the asshole himself. As the people of Russia will hopefully realise before too long, the complete asshole is as much a curse to himself as to those around him . |
There have been many interesting public revelations domestically in the Mueller investigation lately from the the fact that the Trump campaign was specifically warned during their security briefings that foreign elements may attempt to contact and gain influence over them while in fact George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, Carter Pager, Paul Manafort, Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, Rick Dearborn and Roger Stone had all already made multiple contacts with as many as 19 different Russian operatives — Papadopoulos had been specifically told by one Russian contact that they had “thousands of Hillary’s emails” on April 16th two months before the WaPo first reported the DNC hack and Guccifer 2.0 began releasing materials — and none of them reported it to the FBI as requested and required. Then several of them lied about all this to the FBI and even under oath before Congress.
The fact is that despite all that the FBI, even outside of Mueller’s probe, have been doing their job and they’ve been getting their man. Or rather men. This was posted on the DOJ website in November.
Hacker Karim Baratov pleaded guilty in US Courts to hacking for the FSB Karim Baratov, aka Kay, aka Karim Taloverov, aka Karim Akehmet Tokbergenov, 22, a Canadian national and resident, pleaded guilty today, to charges returned by a grand jury in the Northern District of California in February 2017. Baratov and three other defendants, including two officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s domestic law enforcement and intelligence service, were charged with computer hacking and other criminal offenses in connection with a conspiracy to access Yahoo’s network and the contents of webmail accounts that began in January 2014. Baratov’s co-defendants, all of whom remain at large in Russia, are Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev, 33, a Russian national and resident; Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin, 43, a Russian national and resident; and Alexsey Alexseyevich Belan, aka Magg, 29, a Russian national and resident. The guilty plea was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Dana J. Boente of the National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch for the Northern District of California and Executive Assistant Director Paul Abbate of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch.
There are several interesting names mentioned in this release, the first of which is Assistant AG Dana Boente who according to various reports was the person in charge of the Russia investigation before Special Counsel Mueller was assigned, and frankly if Mueller were removed Boente would in all likelyhood continue doing exactly what he was doing before. [Noted from comments: Dana Boente retired in October, so from what I can tell his duties will have moved on to his deputy as his replacement hasn’t been named yet.]
The other two interesting names are the FSB Officers Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin because they were both also mentioned by Russian Independent Newspaper RBC [Translated via Google]
The US Department of Justice believes that Baratov worked on the orders of FSB officers Dmitry Dokuchaev and his boss Igor Sushchina. Fourth involved in the attack on Yahoo! American law enforcers consider the hacker Alexei Belan, who is among the ten most wanted cybercriminals in the US.
Dokuchaev was also brought up in another hacker case with a guilty plea and a confession, only this one happened in Russia and involved a direct attack against the DNC. As reported by The Bell [Translated from Russian by Google].
As it became known to The Bell, Konstantin Kozlovsky, a hacker from Yekaterinburg, one of the main defendants in the Lurk case , stated about his involvement in the crackdown of the committee of the Democratic Party of the United States . Now Kozlovsky is in custody in SIZO "Matrosskaya Tishina". On August 15, the court considered the extension of the measure of restraint. At this meeting, Kozlovsky said that he "performed various tasks under the supervision of FSB officers, in particular," hacking "of the National Committee of the Democratic Party of the USA and electronic correspondence of Hillary Clinton, and also" hacking "very serious military enterprises of the United States and other organizations." … Judging by the documents published on Kozlovsky's page, he first announced his work for the FSB in a letter of November 1, 2016. In it, he mentions and attacks on the servers of the Democratic Party committee. Kozlovsky writes that he was engaged in them on behalf of an FSB officer, whom he calls "Ilya." Later the hacker began to assert that under the pseudonym "Ilya" he was overseen by FSB major Dmitry Dokuchaev. ... Now Dokuchaev is also in jail and is a suspect in the case of the state treason. Details of this investigation are classified. But, according to the sources of The Bell, Dokuchaev and three other persons involved in the case on state treason, cooperated with the US intelligence services, and passed on to them information, including about the organizers of last year's attacks on the committee of the Democratic Party. With these attacks, a scandal began about Russian interference in the US elections (for more details about this story you can read in our investigation , which was published last week).
[Note: Newsweek also covered this story from The Bell concerning Kozlovsky and his confession that he helped hacked the DNC on orders from the FSB yesterday.]
As The Bell mentions Dokuchaev is himself a former hacker who had been apprehended by the FSB in his 20s, they then put him to work for them where he ultimately rose to the position of deputy chief of their internet and cyber divisions. It’s also true as The Bell mentions that Dokuchaev, his direct superior at FSB Sergei Mikhailov and another Russian employed by Kaspersky Labs Ruslan Stoyanov was arrested last December in Russia on suspicion of giving information on the attack on the U.S. to the CIA. [Via Google Translate]
Colonel of the FSB Sergey Mikhailov was arrested exactly one year ago - December 5, 2016. Employees of the FSB Investigation Department detained Mikhailov in his own office and withdrew from there with a bag on his head. He has a black belt in karate, and his colleagues feared that he would resist, explains one of the Colonel's acquaintances. Sergey Mikhailov and Russian Stoyanov Prior to the arrest, Mikhailov was the head of the 2nd Directorate of the Information Security Center (FSB) of the FSB and was considered one of the key experts in cybercrime in the Russian special services. Now he is accused of state treason. Together with Mikhailov this year in Lefortovo prison, in nine-meter cells without hot water, three of his acquaintances and defendants of the same case conducted. With two of them, Mikhailov was familiar for at least ten years, and worked with the third one: he was a former employee of Kaspersky Lab Ruslan Stoyanov , a little-known Internet entrepreneur Georgy Fomchenkov and FSB major Dmitry Dokuchaev .
Of these three Stoyanov is the most interesting as he didn’t work for FSB, but he has for years worked with them specifically at locating and catching criminal hackers who suddenly and mysteriously turned into FSB assets just as Baratov and Kozlovsky have both alleged in their confessions.
Via Russian Paper RBC [translated from Russian]
The group of hackers, who were detained on Wednesday, June 1, reported by the FSB and the Interior Ministry, for five years, abducted money with the help of the banking virus Trojan Lurk from users' accounts in Russia and CIS countries, the Kaspersky Lab said in a statement. From cybercriminals, banking organizations and their clients suffered, as well as big business, Ruslan Stoyanov, head of the investigation department of computer incidents, told RBC.
... In total, for the entire period of activity, a group of 50 hackers could have stolen more than 3 billion rubles., RBC representative of Kaspersky Lab Julia Krivosheina reported, citing data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to Kaspersky Lab, hackers have been stealing money for the past five years. At the same time, the data about the damage caused by the hackers vary. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the damage from 18 targeted attacks on computers of organizations exceeded 3 billion rubles. from mid-2015 to the present. Also, the police was able to prevent possible damage amounting to 2.2 billion rubles. According to the FSB, with the help of a virus program hackers stole 1.7 billion rubles.
Just a reminder one of the 50 hackers apprehended for stealing from banks using the Lurk Trojan — was Kozlovsky.
As it became known to The Bell, Konstantin Kozlovsky, a hacker from Yekaterinburg, one of the main defendants in the Lurk case , stated about his involvement in the crackdown of the committee of the Democratic Party of the United States .
So we appear to have a pattern in place where hackers identified by FSB using the help of Kaspersky are offered a position to work for the FSB — as Dokuchaev, Baratov and Kozlovsky did — or else go to prison.
Only now the Russian government has decided that Dokuchaev and Stoyanov have betrayed them by sharing information with the CIA — except that their supposed contact with the agency denies any of that happened. [Via RBC Translated]
Employees of the Center for Information Security (FSB) of the FSB, accused of state treason, could transmit classified information to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States through Kimberly Zenz, former senior analyst for cyberthreats of the American company iDefence, the "daughter" of IT company Verisign. A source familiar with the course of the investigation told RBC about this. Kimberly Zenz in a conversation with RBC reported that she was approached by Alexander Gusak, the lawyer of one of the detainees - Ruslan Stoyanov. "He was interested in the details of my life, our communication with Stoyanov and asked if I paid him or someone else for information from the Russian government agencies," Zenz said.
"I never did that. I do not work for the CIA, I never gave them information and was not a government agent of any state. I also stated my readiness to testify to Russian law enforcement agencies, and they know how to contact me, but did not do it, "Zenz noted. Ruslan Stoyanov's lawyer Alexander Gusak confirmed to RBC that Kimberly Zenz gave him written evidence and was transferred to the investigation.
Not that having a lack of a credible witness supporting the theory of prosecution can keep Russia from holding these men for years anyway, the short term result is that their been in custody in Russia keeps them from being apprehended and questioned about Putin’s direct involvement in these plots by the FBI who — as noted on their website — consider these men criminals, not informants or sources. At least not yet.
In addition to these hackers others have been identified and apprehended overseas and the pattern continues. [Via Fox News. Yes, really]
Five Russians accused of being hackers have been arrested in a series of American-led raids over the last nine months – all of them grabbed while on vacation across Europe. ... Russian computer programmer Stanislav Lisov attends a court hearing at the Spanish National Court in Madrid, on extradition request to the U.S. for alleged crimes related to the 'NeverQuest' malicious software, which syphoned 855,000 U.S. dollars (743,000 euros) from bank clients in the country. (AP)
According to Axios, the arrests also come as Russian security services struck a deal with the country’s cybercriminals that allow them to work as long as they also conduct state-ordered missions. The five men have been identified as: Pyotr Levashov, 36; Evgeny Nikulin, 29; Alexander Vinnik, 38; Stanislav Lisov, 31; and Yury Martyshev, 35. They were all grabbed outside of their homeland, which has no extradition agreement with the United States.
Just like Baratov who was apprehended in Canada before being extradited to the U.S. these hackers were captured and could soon be brought back here to stand trial or else be offered a deal to reveal exactly who they worked for and what they did.
However to sum up, the attacks on America didn’t simply involve hacking and stealing information it also involve selective and deceptive decimation of that information not just through Wikileaks but also Russia State operative Media services such as RT and Sputnik News both of whom have been required by the U.S. Government to register as foreign agents.
U.S. employees of Sputnik News have even admitted that they essentially took their direction, even the list of questions they would ask the White House, from the Kremlin. x YouTube Video “Many of the most popular articles about things like Wikileaks and Pizzagate and other conspiracy theories were prominently featured on the Sputnik website,” [Andrew] Feinberg told Melber. Those stories were then picked up by right-wing outlets like Infowars, Breitbart and the Gateway Pundit, he continued. “Sputnik functions as part of this right-wing media ecosystem,” Feinberg said. “There’s a big difference between these sites run by Americans [that] employ Americans exercising their right to freedom of speech and a news site funded by a foreign government with the express purpose of not reporting the news but influencing opinion.” “When the money for that site comes from a foreign government, it’s foreign propaganda,” he concluded. “Not news.” ... In August, Feinberg revealed that Sputnik encouraged him to push the debunked right-wing conspiracy theory that the DNC had former staffer Seth Rich murdered — an assignment that led to him quitting. Yesterday, news broke that Sputnik is under investigation by the FBI and that the DOJ ordered reporters from RT, another Kremlin-backed news organization, to file as foreign agents. Earlier in his interview with Melber, Feinberg said that he too had been interviewed by the FBI, and had mostly been questioned about internal processes and where he got his assignments (and money) from.
So although we may hear a great deal of complaints on Capitol Hill over Mueller’s investigation — the rest of the FBI under Dana Boente has been hard at work arresting and flipping hackers who attempted to infiltrate not just the DNC but our voting systems, investigating RT and Sputnik and also taking aim at the Russian Troll Farm which operated the bots and fake accounts which cause the stories fed by the Kremlin via RT and Sputnik directly into the bloodstream of Right-Wing media just as Feinberg describes.
x x YouTube Video On the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Russia, inside an unassuming office building, people who claim to have worked there say Internet trolls are hard at work, exploiting America's deepest divisions. ... Lyudmila Savchuk, a journalist, told Harris that she'd gone undercover to work in the troll factory for about $700 a month. She said that as part of her job, she'd invent fictional characters and then post under their names with topics carefully selected by her bosses. "Their favorite topics were guns, immigrants and homosexuality," Savchuk said. "The kind of topics that could invoke blind and negative emotions." An independent, liberal Russian TV channel also spoke to a man named Alan Beskaev who said he'd worked in the unit that specifically targeted America. One minute, he said, "you needed to be a redneck from Kentucky and then later you had to be some kind of white dude from Minnesota. ... And then in 15 minutes, you need to be from New York, writing something in black slang." Beskaev said some of his colleagues even traveled to the U.S. to do research. Another former troll said in an interview published on Oct. 16 that he worked in a so-called "troll factory" in St. Petersburg for around 18 months until early 2015. He said that during his time there, trolls were instructed to watch the Netflix series "House of Cards" to improve their English and strengthen their knowledge of U.S. politics.
They had even put together a phony sex-tape using a Hillary Clinton look alike and a black man — who was supposed to be Barack Obama — according to Beskeav.
x x YouTube Video Mr Baskaev, now a teacher in Thailand, appeared in an on-camera interview with independent Russian television station TV Rain. A former employee of a Russian “troll factory” has said that a Hillary Clinton lookalike and black man were hired by his company to make a sex tape during the 2016 US election. The company, according to the first former employee to go on record Alan Baskaev, ran popular Twitter accounts that would promote then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign officials and surrogates. The Internet Research Agency also ran websites in favour of Mr Trump during the election, the Daily Beast reported. … He worked at the company from November 2014 to April 2015 and said he would impersonate “Kentucky rednecks” and African-Americans online on a regular basis.
During the above interview Baskeav mentions a familiar name — Mr. Stoyanov from Kaspersky Labs — who was part of the FSB operation and apparently visited the St. Petersburg troll farm. That potentially ties all elements of this case together as being all part of a coordinated effort.
Trump and GOPs claim either that this didn’t happen despite all the evidence to the contrary or that it didn’t matter in the final vote tally. But here’s the thing: we don't forgive attempted bank robbery or murder if you don’t get away with the money or the victim survives anyway — nor should we ignore political espionage and attempted political sabotage implemented by cyber fraud. It’s all still criminal and any American who aided, abetted, helped pay for or deliberately benefited from and rewarded these crimes need to be taken down as well.
This is an all hands on deck operation for the FBI. Trump is not about to shut it all down. Not hardly. |
BERLIN, Feb 8 (Reuters) - German industrial output plunged unexpectedly in December and exports and imports also fell, data showed on Tuesday, in a sign that Europe’s largest economy ended 2015 on a weak footing.
Industrial output fell by 1.2 percent on the month, the strongest decline since August 2014, data from the Economy Ministry showed. The figure fell short of the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll for a 0.4 percent increase.
“Industrial production went through a dry spell at the end of 2015,” the economy ministry said in a statement, adding, however, that a rise in industrial orders in the fourth quarter pointed to an expansion in production at the start of this year.
Separate data from the Federal Statistics Office showed that seasonally-adjusted exports fell by 1.6 percent in December while imports were also down by 1.6 percent, narrowing the trade surplus to 18.8 billion euros.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected exports to rise by 0.5 percent and imports to go down by 0.5 percent.
For 2015, Germany registered a new record trade surplus of 247.8 billion euros, up from 213.6 billion euros in 2014, the data showed. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Madeline Chambers) |
Schwebebahn stations Alter Markt und Adlerbrücke The Wupper river, betweenstationsund
Painting of Tuffi at a house wall in Wuppertal
Tuffi (born in 1946 in India, died in 1989 in Paris) was a female circus elephant that became famous in Germany during 1950 when she accidentally jumped from the Wuppertal Suspension Railway into the River Wupper underneath.
On 21 July 1950 the circus director Franz Althoff (de) had Tuffi, then four years old, travel on the suspended monorail in Wuppertal, as a marketing gag. The elephant trumpeted wildly and ran through the wagon, broke through a window and fell some 12 metres (39 ft) down into the River Wupper, suffering only minor injuries. A panic had broken out in the wagon and some passengers were injured. Althoff helped the elephant out of the water. Both the circus director and the official who had allowed the ride were fined.
Tuffi was sold to Cirque Alexis Gruss (fr) in 1968; she died there in 1989.
A manipulated picture[1][2][dead link] [3] of the fall still exists and a building near the location of the incident, between the stations Alter Markt and Adlerbrücke, features a painting of Tuffi. A local milk-factory has chosen the name as a brand.
The Wuppertal tourist information keeps an assortment of Tuffi-related souvenirs, local websites show original pictures.
In 1970 Marguerita Eckel and Ernst-Andreas Ziegler published a Children's picture book about the incident, named Tuffi und die Schwebebahn.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Stephan Oettermann: Die Schaulust am Elefanten. Eine Elephantographia curiosa. Syndikat:Frankfurt am Main 1982. Chapter Elefantenkatastrophen und „Wunder der Tierdressur“, S. 69-82; S. 73. ISBN 3-8108-0203-4. (in German)
Coordinates: |
Share. Android smartphone with a 5.7-inch flexible display launches tomorrow. Android smartphone with a 5.7-inch flexible display launches tomorrow.
Exit Theatre Mode
Samsung was one of the first companies to offer curved OLED televisions, and now it can say it's the first to announce a smartphone with a curved OLED display too. Meet the Samsung Galaxy Round, a new Android handset that features a 5.7-inch curved AMOLED screen that is set to launch tomorrow, October 10th, in Korea.
Unlike earlier smartphones from Samsung like the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus—both of which used curved glass—the Galaxy Round is curved along a vertical axis, as pointed out by The Verge. It's not entirely clear what the benefits of such a design are yet, but Samsung has built in a few software features to showcase device's unique hardware.
Users can view notifications and other at-a-glance information while the screen is off by slightly rolling the phone along its curve using what the company calls the Roll Effect, and tilting the device creates a "visual interaction with the screen" with the Gravity Effect feature.
Aside from the flexible display, the Galaxy Round closely resembles the new Galaxy Note 3, sporting a full HD 5.7-inch Super AMOLED screen, a 2.3GHz quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM, Android 4.3, a 13-megapixel rear camera, and a leather rear cover.
Release information beyond Korea has not been announced. The Galaxy Round will be available in Luxury Brown at launch and will sell for 1.09 million won (about $1,013).
Samsung's rival LG has started mass production of its own flexible smartphone displays. A specific device has yet to be revealed, but with Samsung's new phone already out in the open, it wouldn't be surprising if LG makes a similar announcement in the near future.
What do you think of Samsung's Galaxy Round? Let us know in the comments.
Justin is all about his family and his gadgets. Follow him on MyIGN or on Twitter at @ItsTheLingo. |
Rabat - A new video shows Moroccan Jews at dancing and singing at a party while carrying a photo of King Mohammed VI .
Rabat – A new video shows Moroccan Jews at dancing and singing at a party while carrying a photo of King Mohammed VI.
The video was published by the Facebook fan group of the news website Essaouira Alan, and has attracted over 450,000 views in one day. It shows members of the Jewish community dancing in a circle while carrying a huge photo of Mohamed VI, monarch of Morocco.
The video also shows the presence of Muslims in the crowd and government officials, clapping while the Moroccan Jews gather in the center around the photo of the king dancing and hopping.
The song they danced to, ‘Sawt Al Hassan’ (which means “The Call of Hassan” in English), is a particularly important song for Moroccans. It records the memorable historical moment of the ‘Green March’ when King Hassan II inspired Moroccans march to the Moroccan Sahara to free it from the Spanish colonizer. Other songs praising the king were sung as Moroccans Jews wearing the Kappa continued dancing.
The Moroccan Jews have been an important component of the Moroccan population. Moroccan Jews have lived in Morocco for over 2,000 years. Between 1961 and 1964, however, around 97,000 Moroccan Jews immigrated to Israel through Operation Yakhin conducted by the Israeli Mossad. |
New York Comic Con is in full swing, and while announcements haven't been coming in abundance we have gotten a few nuggets. Newsarama sat down with Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada during the Con where he talked about a number of things from splitting his time on the east and west coast, east being the comic book side of his job west being the movie side, to what we can look forward to from Marvel movies. The first thing He talked about was Guardians Of The Galaxy. With Marvel doing their version of a soft reboot, titled Marvel Now, Quesada said you can expect the GOTG comic book to go along with the movie in some ways.He explained. He also went on to say that it is important to make sure that not only is it important to capture what the comic book fans want, but also to make sure general audiences understand what they are seeing in their movies.When asked what his favorite part of The Avengers was, Quesada shook his head and said,After thinking about it for a bit he finally revealed that the first one that came to mind was where Captain America told Hulk to. He also praised Joss Whedon for getting the characters and knowing what to do with them on screen.Quesada also talked about a secret project that he is working on right now. He said the project is on the west coast(mind you that is where he said he works on all the movie stuff)." There are a couple of Marvel movies that have been rumored but haven't been announced yetandcome to mind, so there is a very strong likely hood that one of those is the project that is working on. For the latest on all things Marvel Cinematic Universe make sure you check back here at CBM. |
The encore version of the Summerfest Rock ‘n Sole Run will have a revised set list: an unusual 6.55-mile distance to complement the half marathon, a 5K, and new start and finish areas.
Organizers revealed those changes Thursday morning, and promised the 2012 version of the Rock ‘n Sole would be better than the original.
Specifically, they renewed their promise to have plenty of water and Gatorade for participants.
Problems delivering water to the aid stations on the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge marred the inaugural Rock ‘n Sole and the race organizers have been working to reassure runners still sweating from that misadventure.
The new Rock ‘n Sole Run directors from Vision Event Management, based in Carmel Ind., plan to have 10 aid stations and 700 volunteers on a revised half-marathon course that still includes an over-and-back run on the two-mile bridge.
Other additions include roughly 20 entertainment groups on the course, mile markers with clocks, and a two-day health & fitness expo.
“We want to make this an event that all of Milwaukee can be proud of,” said Don Smiley, president and CEO of Milwaukee World Festival Inc., the corporation that runs Summerfest.
Smiley said the goal is to replicate the success of Summerfest, draw people from around the country and fill hotel rooms and restaurants with visitors.
To lure repeat customers from the ill-fated inaugural outing, the 2012 Rock ‘n Sole offers a 20% discount and two extra tickets to Summerfest for participants from 2011. That deal is good through March 31st.
Online registration opened Thursday, and the initial fees, through Feb. 29, are set at $60 for the half marathon and $40 for the quarter marathon. The 5K run is priced at $25, through April 30.
Details and registration information can be found here.
The date and start time of the race also have been shifted. Instead of closing Summerfest, the runs will be held on June 23, the Saturday leading into the festival opening. The start time will be 7 a.m.
Runners will find slight alterations and improvements on the Rock ‘n Sole courses.
The start line will be shifted from Harbor Dr. to Lincoln Memorial Dr. That change gives runners a straight shot at the Hoan and more room to maneuver on the approach to the bridge.
The turn-around for the half marathon and quarter marathon will be moved onto Carferry Dr.
Runners will then head north of the Hoan and loop along Lincoln Memorial Dr. and through Lake Park.
To provide an expanded finish area, the last mile of the course will extend along Lake Shore State Park, and turn behind the Marcus Amphitheater. The south gate will be used to provide “a massive finish line,” as described by Jeffery Graves, the president of Vision Event.
The 6.55 (quarter marathon) distance replaces the 10K from the original Rock ‘n Sole and came about because of the course changes.
The 5K participants will run to the top of the Hoan, turn around, and return on the northbound traffic lanes.
“I think the 5K is going to be huge,” Graves said.
An events promoter from Indianapolis, Graves created Vision Events in 2006, after directing the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon for eight years. That half marathon drew 35,000 runners.
His company now directs 18 to 20 races each year, including the 13.1 Marathon in Chicago and the Mini-Marathon in Madison.
The Rock ‘n Sole and the Madison Mini-Marathon will be linked in an M2 challenge, with prizes for the top three male and female runners who compete in both events. All participants who double up will receive special medals.
Graves has been meeting with runners and groups in the Milwaukee area and the Rock ‘n Sole will coordinate with the Badgerland Striders, Fit MKE and Performance Running Outfitters. Proceeds from the run will be shared with the Ronald McDonald House Charities Eastern Wisconsin.
“This race has all the components we’re looking for to make a great event,” Graves said. |
Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Leon Hall isn't a guy that you want to count down and out. After he sustained a devastating Achilles injury in the middle of the 2011 season, many wondered if he would be able to come back and continue to play at a high level. Not only did he play well and help lead a dominant defense in 2012, but he played in15 of a total of 17 games, including the season opener.
Hall looked to be on track for another solid campaign in 2013, but his season was cut short once again withanother Achilles injury--this time to the other leg. When you watched that early-season game against the Detroit Lions, you saw a visibly upset Hall who undoubtedly knew what the injury was when he hobbled back into the visiting locker room. A few weeks ago, Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com joined us on the podcast and we asked him about Hall's rehab and his response was positive.
On Monday, Hobson tweeted out more good news on the Leon Hall rehabilitation front:
@Bengals CB Leon Hall rehab now includes all football drills. — Geoff Hobson (@GeoffHobsonCin) April 14, 2014
This is great news for a Bengals defense that is looking for as much able help at corner as possible, especially since this offseason's workout dates are looming. When Hobson joined us on the program a few weeks back, he hinted at the fact that Hall might be able to have another quick turnaround from this go-around with his injury because of the familiarity with the necessary rehab.
We'll see if that's accurate, but don't quite scratch Hall off of the Week One kickoff starters list yet. |
The Air Force says it failed to follow policies for alerting federal law enforcement about Devin P. Kelley’s violent past, enabling the former service member, who killed at least 26 churchgoers Sunday in Sutherland Springs, Tex., to obtain firearms before the shooting rampage.
Kelley should have been barred from purchasing firearms and body armor because of his domestic violence conviction in 2014 while serving at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. He was sentenced to a year in prison and kicked out of the military with a bad conduct discharge following two counts of domestic abuse against his wife and a child, according to Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek.
“Initial information indicates that Kelley’s domestic violence offense was not entered into the National Criminal Information Center database,” Stefanek said in a statement released Monday. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff David Goldfein have directed an investigation of Kelley’s case and “relevant policies and procedures,” she said.
Firearms retailer Academy Sports also confirmed Monday that Kelley purchased two weapons from its stores after passing federal background checks this year and last. It remains unclear whether those were the same weapons used in Sunday’s massacre, but his ability to buy guns at all highlights the Air Force’s failure to follow Pentagon guidelines for ensuring that certain violent offenses are reported to the FBI.
Although military law does not classify crimes as felonies or misdemeanors, Kelley’s sentence was a functional felony conviction, said Geoffrey Corn, a former Army lawyer and professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston. A separate law prohibits violent offenders from purchasing body armor, which Kelley was seen wearing during the rampage.
[Death sweeps across 3 generations of a single family gathered at Texas church]
Authorities say Kelley, dressed in all black and wearing a tactical vest, entered the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church and opened fire with a Ruger semiautomatic rifle. The AR-556 he used is patterned on the ubiquitous AR-15.
An FBI Evidence Response Team sweeps the lot next to the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., on Nov. 6, after a shooting there. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
As news emerged Monday that the Air Force failed to follow notification policies in Kelley’s case, lawmakers called on Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to determine how many former service members who’ve been convicted of violent crimes also have been improperly documented.
“Learning that this senseless act of violence might have been prevented if only the proper form was filled out by military investigators was absolutely devastating,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said on Twitter that he would call on the Pentagon and the Justice Department to “provide a clear picture of where, why and how this process failed.”
Mattis said Tuesday that he has directed the Pentagon’s inspector general to investigate further.
“If the problem is that we didn’t put something out, we’ll correct that,” he said. “There is at least an indication in what I’ve read in the press and what I’m getting through other elements of the government — not the Department of Defense — that the direction is out there. I’ve got to make sure. I don’t want to make assumptions right now.”
Corn said it appears that there is confusion within the Air Force, and other military branches, about reporting only violent crimes that result in dishonorable discharges, which are more severe punishments under military law than the bad conduct discharge Kelley received.
[Read Kelley’s court documents]
“Either the Department of Defense is reporting these convictions, or they’re not,” Corn said. “How is the federal statute going to be effectively implemented if they aren’t reporting these convictions?”
Texas state officials had said previously that Kelley did not meet the requirements for obtaining a concealed handgun license, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle. Kelley also claimed he had no criminal background that would have precluded him from buying firearms, the newspaper reported.
In the initial aftermath of Sunday’s massacre, officials were searching for answers about how Kelley obtained his weapons.
“By all of the facts that we seem to know, he was not supposed to have access to a gun, so how did this happen?” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said in an interview Monday morning on CNN.
[Texas officials say before massacre, gunman had threatened his mother-in-law, who attended the church]
Sky Gerrond, a former Air Force security operations officer who spent seven years in military law enforcement, said a dishonorable discharge may have been a more appropriate punishment for the severity of Kelley’s crime. Had the Air Force court system handed down that punishment, Gerrond said, it is more probable that the details of Kelley’s conviction would have reached the FBI’s database.
The Air Force does not operate prisons and instead sends troops convicted of crimes to Army or Navy jails. Kelley served his sentence at a Navy brig in San Diego. Navy regulations do not require a fingerprint card and conviction summary to be forwarded to the FBI after inmate in-processing.
Corn said inmates are briefed on the specific restrictions they face upon returning to society. Gun ownership, he said, would be at the top of the list for Kelley.
“What do we tell guys like him when they leave?” Corn said.
Dan Lamothe contributed to this report. |
From Quanta Magazine (find original story here).
Modern birds descended from a group of two-legged dinosaurs known as theropods, whose members include the towering Tyrannosaurus rex and the smaller velociraptors. The theropods most closely related to avians generally weighed between 100 and 500 pounds — giants compared to most modern birds — and they had large snouts, big teeth, and not much between the ears. A velociraptor, for example, had a skull like a coyote’s and a brain roughly the size of a pigeon’s.
For decades, paleontologists’ only fossil link between birds and dinosaurs was archaeopteryx, a hybrid creature with feathered wings but with the teeth and long bony tail of a dinosaur. These animals appeared to have acquired their birdlike features — feathers, wings and flight — in just 10 million years, a mere flash in evolutionary time. “Archaeopteryx seemed to emerge fully fledged with the characteristics of modern birds,” said Michael Benton, a paleontologist at the University of Bristol in England.
To explain this miraculous metamorphosis, scientists evoked a theory often referred to as “hopeful monsters.” According to this idea, major evolutionary leaps require large-scale genetic changes that are qualitatively different from the routine modifications within a species. Only such substantial alterations on a short timescale, the story went, could account for the sudden transformation from a 300-pound theropod to the sparrow-size prehistoric bird Iberomesornis.
But it has become increasingly clear that the story of how dinosaurs begat birds is much more subtle. Discoveries have shown that bird-specific features like feathers began to emerge long before the evolution of birds, indicating that birds simply adapted a number of pre-existing features to a new use. And recent research suggests that a few simple change—among them the adoption of a more babylike skull shape into adulthood—likely played essential roles in the final push to bird-hood. Not only are birds much smaller than their dinosaur ancestors, they closely resemble dinosaur embryos. Adaptations such as these may have paved the way for modern birds’ distinguishing features, namely their ability to fly and their remarkably agile beaks. The work demonstrates how huge evolutionary changes can result from a series of small evolutionary steps.
A Phantom Leap
In the 1990s, an influx of new dinosaur fossils from China revealed a feathery surprise. Though many of these fossils lacked wings, they had a panoply of plumage, from fuzzy bristles to fully articulated quills. The discovery of these new intermediary species, which filled in the spotty fossil record, triggered a change in how paleontologists conceived of the dinosaur-to-bird transition. Feathers, once thought unique to birds, must have evolved in dinosaurs long before birds developed.
Sophisticated new analyses of these fossils, which track structural changes and map how the specimens are related to each other, support the idea that avian features evolved over long stretches of time. In research published in Current Biology last fall, Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and collaborators examined fossils from coelurosaurs, the subgroup of theropods that produced archaeopteryx and modern birds. They tracked changes in a number of skeletal properties over time and found that there was no great jump that distinguished birds from other coelurosaurs.
“A bird didn’t just evolve from a T. rex overnight, but rather the classic features of birds evolved one by one; first bipedal locomotion, then feathers, then a wishbone, then more complex feathers that look like quill-pen feathers, then wings,” Brusatte said. “The end result is a relatively seamless transition between dinosaurs and birds, so much so that you can’t just draw an easy line between these two groups.”
Yet once those avian features were in place, birds took off. Brusatte’s study of coelurosaurs found that once archaeopteryx and other ancient birds emerged, they began evolving much more rapidly than other dinosaurs. The hopeful monster theory had it almost exactly backwards: A burst of evolution didn’t produce birds. Rather, birds produced a burst of evolution. “It seems like birds had happened upon a very successful new body plan and new type of ecology—flying at small size—and this led to an evolutionary explosion,” Brusatte said.
The Importance of Being Small
Though most people might name feathers or wings as a key characteristic distinguishing birds from dinosaurs, the group’s small stature is also extremely important. New research suggests that bird ancestors shrank fast, indicating that the diminutive size was an important and advantageous trait, quite possibly an essential component in bird evolution.
Like other bird features, diminishing body size likely began long before the birds themselves evolved. A study published in Science last year found that the miniaturization process began much earlier than scientists had expected. Some coelurosaurs started shrinking as far back as 200 million years ago—50 million years before archaeopteryx emerged. At that time, most other dinosaur lineages were growing larger. “Miniaturization is unusual, especially among dinosaurs,” Benton said.
That shrinkage sped up once bird ancestors grew wings and began experimenting with gliding flight. Last year, Benton’s team showed that this dinosaur lineage, known as paraves, was shrinking 160 times faster than other dinosaur lineages were growing. “Other dinosaurs were getting bigger and uglier while this line was quietly getting smaller and smaller,” Benton said. “We believe that marked an event of intense selection going on at that point.”
The rapid miniaturization suggests that smaller birds must have had a strong advantage over larger ones. “Maybe this decrease was opening up new habitats, new ways of life, or even had something to do with changing physiology and growth,” Brusatte said. Benton speculates that the advantage of being pint-size might have emerged as bird ancestors moved to trees, a useful source of food and shelter.
But whatever the reasons may be, small stature was likely a useful precursor to flight. Though larger animals can glide, true flight powered by beating wings requires a certain ratio of wing size to weight. Birds needed to become smaller before they could ever take to the air for more than a short glide.
Baby Face
In 2008, Arkhat Abzhanov, a biologist at Harvard University, was elbow deep in alligator eggs. Since alligators descend from a common ancestor with dinosaurs, they can provide a useful evolutionary comparison to birds. (Despite their appearance, birds are more closely related to alligators than lizards are.) Abzhanov was studying alligators’ vertebrae, but what struck him most was the birdlike shape of their heads; alligator embryos looked quite similar to chickens. Fossilized skulls of baby dinosaurs show the same pattern—they resemble adult birds. With those two observations in mind, Abzhanov had an idea. Perhaps birds evolved from dinosaurs by arresting their pattern of development early on in life.
To test that theory, Abzhanov, along with Mark Norell, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, then a doctoral student in Abzhanov’s lab, and other colleagues, collected data on fossils from around the globe, including ancient birds, such as archaeopteryx, and fossilized eggs of developing dinosaurs that died in the nest. They tracked how the skull shape changed as dinosaurs morphed into birds.
Over time, they discovered, the face collapsed and the eyes, brain and beak grew. “The first birds were almost identical to the late embryo from velociraptors,” Abzhanov said. “Modern birds became even more babylike and change even less from their embryonic form.” In short, birds resemble tiny, infantile dinosaurs that can reproduce.
This process, known as paedomorphosis, is an efficient evolutionary route. “Rather than coming up with something new, it takes something you already have and extends it,” said Nipam Patel, a developmental biologist at the University of California, Berkeley.
“We’re seeing more and more that evolution operates much more elegantly than we previously appreciated,” said Bhullar, who will start his own lab at Yale University in the fall. “The umpteen changes that go into the bird skull may all owe to paedomorphosis, to one set of molecular changes in the early embryo.”
Why would paedomorphosis be important for the evolution of birds? It might have helped drive miniaturization or vice versa. Changes in size are often linked to changes in development, so selection for small size may have arrested the development of the adult form. “A neat way to cut short a developmental sequence is to stop growing at smaller size,” Benton said. A babylike skull in adults might also help explain birds’ increased brain size, since baby animals generally have larger heads relative to their bodies than adults do. “A great way to improve brain size is to retain child size into adulthood,” he said.
(Indeed, paedomorphosis might underlie a number of major transitions in evolution, perhaps even the development of mammals and humans. Our large skulls relative to those of chimpanzees could be a case of paedomorphosis.)
What’s more, paedomorphosis helped to make the skull a blank slate on which selection could create new structures. By erasing the snout, it may have paved the way for another of birds’ most important features: the beak.
Birth of the Beak
The problem with studying something that occurred deep in evolutionary time is that it’s impossible to know exactly what happened. Scientists can never precisely decipher how birds evolved from dinosaurs or which set of features was essential for that transformation. But with the intersection of three fields—evolution, genetics and developmental biology—they can now begin to explore how specific features might have come about.
One of Abzhanov’s particular interests is the beak, a remarkable structure that birds use to find food, clean themselves, make nests, and care for their young. He theorizes that birds’ widespread success stems not just from their ability to fly, but from their amazing diversity of beaks. “Modern birds evolved a pair of fingers on the face,” he said.
Armed with their insight into bird evolution, Abzhanov, Bhullar and collaborators have been able to dig into the genetic mechanisms that helped form the beak. In new research, published last month in Evolution, the researchers show that just a few small genetic tweaks can morph a bird face into one that resembles a dinosaur.
While most other dinosaur lineages were growing, the line that gave rise to birds began to shrink nearly 200 million years ago. Olena Shmahalo/Quanta Magazine. Dinosaur silhouettes are based on the following illustrations: Monolophosaurus by Jordan Mallon, Deinonychus by Emily Willoughby, and Velociraptor by Matt Martyniuk.
In modern birds, two bones known as the premaxillary bones fuse to become the beak. That structure is quite distinct from that of dinosaurs, alligators, ancient birds and most other vertebrates, in which these two bones remain separate, shaping the snout. To figure out how that change might have arisen, the researchers mapped out the activity of two genes that are expressed in these bones in a spectrum of animals: alligators, chickens, mice, lizards, turtles and emus, a living species reminiscent of ancient birds.
They found that the reptiles and mammals had two patches of activity, one on either side of the developing nasal cavity. Birds, on the hand, had a much larger single patch spanning the front of the face. The researchers reasoned that the alligator pattern could serve as a proxy for that of dinosaurs, given that they have similar snouts and premaxillary bones. The researchers then undid a bird-specific pattern of gene expression in chicken embryos using chemicals to block the genes in the middle of the face. (For ethical reasons, they did not allow the chickens to hatch.)
The result: The treated embryos developed a more dinosaurlike face. “They basically grew a bird embryo back into something that looked more like the morphology of extinct dinosaurs,” said Timothy Rowe, a paleontologist at the University of Texas, Austin, who has previously collaborated with Abzhanov.
The findings highlight how simple molecular tweaks can trigger major structural changes. Birds “use existing tools in a new way to create a whole new face,” Abzhanov said. “They didn’t evolve a new gene or pathway, they just changed control of an existing gene.”
Like the studies of Brusatte and others, Abzhanov’s work challenges the hopeful monster theory, and it does so on a genetic scale. The creation of the beak didn’t require some special evolutionary jump or large-scale genetic changes. Rather, Abzhanov showed that the same forces that shape microevolution — minor alterations within species — also drive macroevolution, the evolution of whole new features and new groups of species.
Specifically, small changes in how genes are regulated likely drove both the initial creation of the beak, which evolved over millions of years, and the diverse shape of bird beaks, which can change over just a few generations. “We show that simple regulatory changes can have a major impact,” Abzhanov said.
Bhullar and Abzhanov plan to dig deeper into the question of how the beak and bird skull evolved, using the same approach to manipulate different features of skull and brain development. “We have just scratched surface of this work,” Bhullar said. |
The Trump campaign threw their well-known national spokesperson, Katrina Pierson, under a very large bus today, then backed up a few times for good measure.
What brought on the public rebuke of Pierson were some bizarre comments she made a few days ago, and then stuck by, that President Obama and Hillary Clinton were responsible for the death of US Army Capt. Humayun Khan from a car bomb explosion in Iraq in 2004.
At the time, Obama was a state senator from Illinois, and Clinton was the Senator from New York.
Nonetheless, Pierson stuck to her guns, as she does, and insisted that Obama and Clinton were to blame.
Pierson was also wildly off about the number of US troops killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan during Obama’s tenure. She claimed that tens of thousands of Americans were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan under Obama, and that a million were wounded. In fact, fewer than 7,000 Americans died throughout the entire war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some 50,000 were wounded.
Well, the Trump campaign apparently had enough of Pierson, and publicly repudiated her remarks. Trump aide Sam Clovis went on CNN today and blasted Pierson:
“I think we’re fixing it, I guarantee you that won’t happen again with her, that’s for sure. And it won’t likely happen with anybody else,” Sam Clovis told CNN’s “New Day.” “When you do go out, you have a responsibility. … I think it’s important to come on here and have accurate information,” Clovis said. While aides want to be as assertive as possible, he said, “I think facts always help you, the truth always helps you and I think that’s always where we ought to be.” … “I don’t know where Katrina gets her information,” Clovis said. “Facts are important to me and I do my own research.”
Ouch.
Just one more sign of the wheels coming off the Trump bus.
Follow me on Twitter: @aravosis |
(Newser) – Video of a volcano that appears to be smiling has gone viral after Mick Kalber of helicopter tour company Paradise Helicopters happened to be in the right place (Hawaii) at the right time (Wednesday), Mashable reports. ABC 10 reports that the video shows the Kilauea volcano, which is one of the most active in the world. It's been continuously erupting since 1983.
"This is a lava lake that is within the Pu'u 'O'o vent," the tour company says on Facebook. "The vent itself is much, much larger than the lake. The lake is on a raised portion of the bottom of the vent on the western side." As the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports, the cracks in the lake are formed as lava circulates and the surface of the lake pulls apart, allowing the lava to show through the black surface. (Read more viral video stories.) |
OTTAWA–A top adviser to Hillary Clinton arrived by plane in Ottawa to deliver a speech only to be subjected to intensive interrogation about who he was, what he was going to say and what group he was addressing, the American economist said yesterday.
In a private lunch, Gene Sperling complained that he had been pulled aside by a Canadian border official and questioned in more detail than he had ever experienced in his numerous trips to Canada or dozens of other countries, according to those in attendance.
Many in the luncheon group, which included business people, a United States government official, journalists and organizers of the speaking event, said they were shocked by the extent of the grilling reported by Sperling.
But in public later, the former national economic adviser in the Bill Clinton administration refused to discuss the matter in detail. Choosing his words carefully, he appeared to put it all down to an overzealous Canadian border official. |
By Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani
Translated by Dr. Swaleh Siddiqui
Abrogation is translated from the Arabic word naskh which literally means “to erase; to compensate.” Its technical definition is “to repeal a legal order through legal argument”. In other words, sometimes Allah enforces a legal edict that is relevant only to a particular situation. Later, in His infinite wisdom, He annuls the order and enforces a new one in its place. This action is known as “abrogation” (naskh), and the replaced order is then termed “abrogated” (mansukh) while the new replacing order is called the “abrogator” (nasikh).
Prudent and Conventional Proofs of Abrogation
The Jews believed that abrogation was no possible in Allah’s edicts since the concept of abrogation would imply that Allah alters His views (Allah forbid). They stated that the concept would necessitate that at one point Allah had deemed a commandment proper but later on – Allah forbid – He realized His mistake and subsequently withdrew it. This is commonly termed buda’.
But the objection raised by the Jews is quite superficial and were one to ponder over it a little he would quickly realize the mistake. Abrogation, in reality, does not imply a change in views but rather the issuance of orders according to the needs of a particular time. It is not that the abrogator declares the abrogated as wrong, but rather he fixes the time limit for the enforcement of the first order to explain that it was just and proper for the time it remained under the circumstances.
Whoever ponders with a reasonable frame of mind will find no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that this change is exactly in keeping with the infinite wisdom of Allah and cannot be questioned in any way. Truly, he is not a doctor in the true sense who uses the same prescription under all the circumstances and for every disease. An adept physician makes necessary changes in his prescriptions according to the changing condition of the patient.
This rule applies not only to religious injunctions but to the entire corporeal system of the universe as well. Through His expedience, for example, Allah constantly changes weather conditions. We experience all of winter, summer, spring, autumn, rain and drought, and all of these changes are in exact conformity with the expedient measure of Allah. He is a witless person, indeed, who terms it buda’ and contends that it amounts to mutation in divine judgment. He would by that logic be arguing that Allah once preferred winter, then, discovering His mistake, replaced it with summer. That exactly is the case with the abrogation of religious injunctions. Considering it a fault by terming it buda’ would be an extreme degree of short-sightedness and ignorance of facts. Abrogation is not trait-specific only to the followers of the Holy Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) but has remained a regular feature of the religious edicts of other prophets as well. We find several examples in the present day Bible. For example, it is mentioned in the Bible that in the religious system of Yaqub (Jacob) a man could have had two real sisters as his wives at the same time. In fact, it reports that he himself had two wives at the one time, Liyyah and Rahil, who were real sisters. This was forbidden, however, in the religious law of Musa (Moses). Also, every moving animal was permissible as food in the law of Nuh (Noah) yet many of them were prohibited in that of Musa. Divorce was also freely permissible in the law of Musa but in that of ‘Isa (Jesus) divorce was allowed only if a woman had committed adultery. In short, there are several such examples in the New and Old Testaments of the Bible wherein an existing order had been abrogated through a new command.
Differences in the Technical Meaning of Abrogation by Earlier and Later Scholars
The term “abrogation” (naskh) was understood differently by earlier and later scholars of the Quran. In the nomenclature of earlier scholars, the word “abrogation” held a very wide scope of application and included many scenarios that were not regarded as abrogation by later scholars. For example, if the general scope of the meaning of a verse was limited by another verse, these earlier scholars regarded the first verse as being abrogated. Hence, if common words were used in one verse and then specified in a particular manner in another verse, the earlier scholars used to term the former “abrogated” and the latter the “abrogator”. This did not mean that the first commandment had been totally abolished but that the generalization created by the first verse had been removed by the second verse. For example, the Quran says:
And do not marry polytheist women until they believe. [2:221]
Here the word “mushrikat” (polytheist women) is general and apparently implies that marriage is disallowed with all kinds of polytheist women, be they idolaters or People of the Book. In another verse, however, it is stated:
(Lawful to you in marriage) are chaste women from the believers and chaste women from those who were given the Scripture (Jews and Christians) before your time… [Al-Ma’idah 5:5]
This indicates that in the first verse “polytheist women” meant those polytheists that were not from the People of the Book. Thus the second verse limited the universal character of the first verse and told us that women from the People of the Book were lawful to believers in marriage. The earlier scholars, however, regarded this also as an example of abrogation. In other words, the first verse was abrogating and the second was the abrogator.
Contrary to this, the scope of abrogation amongst the later scholars was not so wide. They considered only such ayahs as abrogated in which the previous order was completely abolished. They did not consider limitation of a universal command as abrogation. Thus, in the above example, there was no abrogation according to later scholars, because the real order of prohibition of marrying a polytheist woman existed as such. The second verse had clarified only as to include the women of the People of the Book and that the first verse was limited and specific to women other than those of the People of the Book.
Because of this difference in the scope of application, the number of abrogated verses according to earlier scholars was large. According to later scholars, however, the number of abrogated verses was very limited.
Abrogation in the Quran
It is a universally undisputed fact that abrogation of religious injunctions is not a new concept particular to this Ummah; rather it was applied even in the times of the previous nations.
Several such orders have been abrogated for the people of Muhammad (upon him blessings and peace) as well. For example, a previous injunction was the obligation to face the Bayt al-Maqdis during salat, but later on this was abrogated and Muslims were ordained to face the Ka‘bah. On this issue there is no dispute amongst Muslims.
There is a difference of opinion, however, about whether there had been any abrogation in the Quran. In other words, it is disputed if there is yet any verse in the Quran that is recited although its command is abrogated. The majority of traditionists believe that the Quran does contain such verses whose injunctions are abrogated. But of the Mu‘tazilah, Abu Muslim al-Isfahani maintains that no verse of the Quran has been abrogated; rather, all the verses of the Quran maintain their obligation.
Some other scholars have expressed the same opinion, while a number of modernists in our time also adhere to the same view. Hence, the verses in which abrogation is obvious, they explain them away in a manner that abrogation may not have to be accepted. The fact of the matter, however, is that this viewpoint is weak and to adopt it one would have to draw far-fetched meanings in order to explain some verses, meanings that do not conform to the principles of exegesis (tafsir).
In fact, those who do not believe in abrogation in the Quran suppose that abrogation is a defect of which the Quran should be free. But, as already stated, it is an extremely short-sighted view to consider abrogation as wrong. It is surprising that, unlike the Jews and Christians, Abu Muslim al-Isfahani and his followers do not deny that there had been abrogation in many of the Commandments of Allah, but only say that there is no abrogation in the Quran. If abrogation was a vice, why did it occur in non-Quranic injunctions that also originating from Allah? If something was not a vice for non-Quranic injunctions, how can it then be so for the Quranic injunctions?
It is sometimes argued that it appears against Divine Expediency that a verse of the Quran should remain only as a sacred relic for recital and not be practiced upon. We fail to understand on what grounds this has been considered against Divine Expediency, while there could be several expedient reasons in retaining the verses whose commands are abrogated. For example, we come to know through them of the prudence behind the gradual imposition of religious doctrines, and also of the prudential manner adopted to bind human beings to follow His doctrine. Further, it also serves as a history of these doctrines and their backgrounds. Allah has Himself revealed in the Quran in several places the doctrines and commandments of the previous nations that were abrogated for the people of Muhammad (upon him blessings and peace). For example:
And those who became Jews, We forbade them every animal with claws, and of oxen and sheep, and forbade them the fat thereof, except such as their backs carry or the entrails or what is mixed with the bones. [Surat al-An‘am 6:146]
Obviously, Allah has described an abrogated order as an admonishment for the Muslims. Thus, if some abrogated Quranic verses are retained for this purpose, what is there in it against Divine Expediency? Moreover, can anyone claim that he knows the wisdom behind all actions of Allah or that he understands the expediency behind every Quranic verse and its revelation? If such a claim is not true, and it certainly is not true, how can one deny an order of Allah simply because one does not know the expediency behind it while its enforcement has been justified based upon religious principles?
Thus, the fact is that those who do not believe in abrogation in the Quran have based their opinion on a misconceived idea. They have attached far-fetched meanings to some Quranic verses because they think that abrogation is a fault and they want to see that the Quran is free of it. Once it becomes clear to them that it is in fact not a fault but conforms to the will of Allah, they will adopt the same meanings to such verses as are obvious and commonly adopted. The Quran says:
Whichever revelation We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, we bring one better than it or similar to it. Know you not that Allah has power over everything? [Surat al- Baqarah 2:106]
Whoever studies this verse with an unbiased mind shall deduce that abrogation had continued according to clear injunctions of the Quran itself. But Abu Muslim al-Isfahani and his associates, who willingly or unwillingly considered abrogation a fault, interpret this verse in a far-fetched manner. They say that this verse deals only with a hypothetical situation. They argue that it implies, “if we were to abrogate a verse, we would reveal a like or a better verse” and it does not follow that any verse would actually be abrogated. In proof of this they present another verse:
If the Compassionate had a son, I would be the first of worshippers. [Surat al-Zukhruf, 43:81]
Those who reject the possibility of abrogation say that just as this verse speaks of a hypothetical situation which does not mean that Allah really has a son, so too the former verse of Surat al-Baqarah raises a hypothetical situation not necessitating abrogation of a verse.
But this interpretation is not correct because if there were to be no abrogation Allah would have not mentioned it even as a hypothetical possibility. The Quran does not place a command over anything that may never happen. As for this verse about a son, there is a world of a difference between it and the verse of abrogation.
Hence any reader of this verse would know that this is merely a hypothetical proposition, which means that if at all Allah would bear a son I would have worshipped him before anybody else but since this is an impossible thing to happen, the question of worshipping anybody other than Allah does not arise. Contrary to this, the occurrence of abrogation is not logically impossible even according to Abu Muslim al-Isfahani himself, hence calling it a hypothetical situation is a meaningless proposition.
This becomes all the more apparent from looking at the background of revelation of the verse of abrogation. Some unbelievers had commented that the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) first orders his followers to follow one thing and later on instructs them against it and introduces a new order in place of it. This verse was revealed in answer to their comments. It is clear now that the revelation of this verse seeks to describe the purpose of abrogation rather than negate its occurrence.
Number of Abrogated Verses in the Qur’an
As already mentioned, the understanding of the scope of abrogation was very wide in its interpretation by earlier scholars and hence they have mentioned a large number of abrogated verses. ‘Allamah Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, however, has written that there are only nineteen abrogated verses in the whole of the Quran according to the definition of the later day scholars.
Then, amongst the latest of the scholars, Shah Wali Allah made a detailed analysis of all those nineteen verses and accepted only five of them to be abrogated ones. As for the rest of them, he preferred the commentaries and explanations according to which the verses would not be considered abrogated. The arguments given by Shah Wali Allah about many of these verses are the most appropriate and acceptable, yet some of them may be disputed. However, the five verses that he considers to be abrogated are as follows:
It is prescribed for you, when death approaches anyone of you and if he leaves behind some wealth, to make a bequest to parents and near kindred in an equitable way, it is an obligation on the Allah fearing. [Al-Baqarah, 2:11]
This verse was reveled when the laws of inheritance had not yet been revealed and according to it every person was bound to make a bequest (wasiyyah) before he died about the distribution of his assets among his parents and other relatives. Thereafter, the verse of inheritance was revealed:
Allah enjoins you concerning your children…. [Surat al-Baqarah, 2:11]
The command to make a bequest was thus abrogated by this verse. Allah then Himself fixed a schedule of distribution for the inherited assets, and it was no longer obligatory on anyone to make a will before his death. In Surat al- Anfal, it is stated:
If there be of you twenty persevering they shall overcome two hundred; and if there be of you a hundred, they will overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they are a people who do not understand. [Surat al-Anfal, 8:65]
This verse, despite being apparently simply informative, is essentially a command prohibiting Muslims to retreat while in combat with an enemy ten times their number. This was later on abrogated by the following verse:
(O believers) Now Allah has lightened it for you, for He knew that there is weakness in you. So if there be of you a hundred persevering they will overcome two hundred, and if there be of you a thousand, they will overcome two thousand by Allah’s leave. And Allah is with the persevering. [Surat al-Anfal, 8:66]
This verse lightened the burden imposed by the first command and the limit of tenfold was reduced to twofold. Thus a retreat up to double the enemy strength was not permissible now.
The third verse considered abrogated by Shah Wali Allah is the following verse of Surat al-Ahzab:
(Besides these), it is not lawful for you to take (more) wives after this nor that you should exchange them for other wives even though their beauty may please you….. [Surat al-Ahzab, 33:52]
According to this verse, it was not lawful for the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) to marry any more women. Later, this was abrogated by a verse that fell before it in the present sequence of Quranic surahs and verses:
O Prophet! We have made lawful for you your wives whom you have given their dower…… [Surat al-Ahzab, 33:50]
Shah Wali Allah and others say that the earlier restriction was abrogated through this verse, but in fact abrogation in this verse is not definite. Its explanation as given by Hafiz Ibn Jarir is to a great extent straightforward and simple. He has said that two verses were revealed in their present order; in verse fifteen, “O Prophet, we….”. Allah named some particular categories of women as being lawful for the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) and then in verse 51, (besides these), it was not lawful… It was specified that women belonging to categories other than those were not lawful for him.
The fourth verse that is abrogated according to Shah Wali Allah is:
O you (Muhammad) enfolded in your robes, keep vigil by night, except a little, half of it, or diminish a little. [Surat al-Muzzammil, 73:1-3]
This verse had ordained worship for at least half the night, but later on this was abrogated by a flexibility provided in the verses that follow it:
And He knows that (all of) you cannot keep it up, so He has relented towards you; so recite so as much of the Qur’an as may be easy for you. [Surat al-Muzzammil 73:20]
Shah Wali Allah has stated that although tahajjud (late night salat) was not obligatory even before, but there was a greater emphasis on it and its duration was also longer, yet later both the emphasis on it and the time restriction were relaxed.
These are five verses in which abrogation has occurred. But it must be understood that these five examples are only those wherein the abrogator and abrogated verses can both be found in the Quran. There are many such examples where the abrogator of verses are not found in the Quran, such as those related to the issue of the change of qiblah, etc…
The above discussion was aimed at clarifying that abrogation in Quranic verses is not a defect for which efforts should be made to show the Quran absolved of it. Rather, it is exactly in keeping with the divine scheme of things. Hence the meanings of any verse should not be rejected simply because it affirms abrogation in the Quran. Nothing stands in the way of adopting the meanings or explanations of a verse if they conform to the principles of sound “exegesis”, even if it would mean classifying the verse as abrogated.
This essay was translated by both Dr. Swaleh Siddiqui & Dr. Muhammad Shamim as parts of Mufti Taqi Usmani’s An Approach to the Quranic Sciences and Mufti Shafi‘ Usmani’s Ma‘ariful Qur’an. The two translations were edited and reproduced as a separate article by Bilal Ali. |
Update 1.107
Dear IL-2 Sturmovik players!
Our team is proud to present you the new update 1.107. Preparing it was not an easy task, since it brings three new planes at once: Bf 109 F-2, IL-2 mod.1941 and Pe-2 series 35. In addition, there are many fixes and a number of improvements. Thankfully, we were able to finish it in time, thus delivering three new planes to Battle of Moscow owners in the end of January, as it was promised. You can learn about main features of these planes in our developer diary #117
The work on the remaining Battle of Moscow content continues according to plan and the next update will bring you the final, 10th, aircraft of BoM project: German bomber Ju 88 A-4. Moscow map is closer and closer to its final look and the work on the campaign continues as well. Therefore, we plan to finish the entire project in time and release it to you this spring.
Here is the change list for today patch:
Main changes:
1. Bf 109 F-2, IL-2 mod. 1941 and Pe-2 series 35 are available to players who pre-purchased Battle of Moscow. Those who only have Battle of Stalingrad can set them as AI controlled planes in single player or encounter them in multiplayer.
2. Smoke, tracers and exhausts are now affected bywind.
3. Roadside grass added.
4. Random "Can't load object" error that could pop up in multiplayer when attacking ships fixed. |
Baton Rouge is turning 200 years old in 2017, and city-parish leaders are rolling out events, logos and even a life-size red stick mascot to mark the occasion.
The first known historical record of Baton Rouge being sighted came in 1699, but the city of Baton Rouge was not incorporated until 1817. The first major celebration of the bicentennial will be at the annual Red Stick Revelry party on New Year's Eve in downtown Baton Rouge.
City-parish leaders are asking businesses and community groups to incorporate the logo that they unveiled Thursday and the spirit of the bicentennial into their events for 2017.
"We have seen and we have been through some tough times this year, and they are never far from our minds," said Mayor-President Kip Holden at a news conference Thursday morning. "But it's also important to celebrate the resilience of our people and our city, pause to recognize great milestones and honor those who came before us."
As Holden, Visit Baton Rouge CEO Paul Arrigo and Assistant Library Director Mary Stein announced the plans for 2017, a "red stick" mascot ambled around the North Boulevard Town Square. People will be invited to toss out their naming ideas for the mascot as part of the bicentennial celebrations.
Arrigo tried to sell the bicentennial as the perfect opportunity to draw more tourists to Baton Rouge. He said the bicentennial will not have one major celebration, but several scattered throughout the year.
One of the early events as part of the celebration will be December 8, with a shopping and Champagne stroll around downtown.
People who want to submit ideas for bicentennial celebrations can do so on the new website, www.batonrouge200.com. People can also download the logo on the website for businesses and others to use in their branding.
Holden, who is term-limited, will leave office at the beginning of 2017.
"According to archaeologists, Baton Rouge was first settled as early as 12,000 BC," he said Thursday. "Think of it this way — long before the ancient pyramids of Egypt were built, early Native Americans were hunting along the Mississippi River, just steps from where we stand today." |
There’s a really cool film series taking place in Los Angeles where a rare horror film is screened on 16mm film one Sunday a month at the Jumpcut Cafe (13203 Ventura Blvd, Studio City).
The series is called Secret Sixteen, and true to their name, the programmers keep you guessing by only dropping hints as to what the movie will be, without mentioning the title.
Past secrets revealed themselves to be the Pete Walker cannibal flick Frightmare and the Amicus chiller Deadly Bees. Tomorrow they are teasing a lost ’80s slasher film never available on DVD. We aren’t sure what it is, but can’t wait to find out!
FREE ADMISSION!
Doors at 7pm for FOOD AND DRINK. Screening starts at 8pm. Presented on 16MM FILM.
See you there, Los Angeles! |
By Jack Minor
A Texas atheist may end up unwittingly fulfilling the same prayer he sued a former Navy Chaplain over after a judge dismissed his lawsuit alleging he was damaged by the prayer.
“This has been hanging over my head like a Damocles Sword for the last two and a half years, and now the string has been cut loose,” former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt said.
Last week, when the case finally came to court, Texas Judge Martin Hoffman issued a summary judgment dismissing it as frivolous.
Klingenschmitt had been sued in 2009 by Michael Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, after he posted a prayer on his website asking God to defend him against verbal assaults by Weinstein. In the prayer, he quoted portions of Psalm 109, written by King David, who was asking God to protect him from evil men who wanted to destroy him.
Weinstein is an outspoken critic of Christianity. On the MRFF website he blamed part of the turbulence in Afghanistan on Christians, saying, “The last several days of furious protests in the streets of Afghanistan have been the inevitable outcome of a culture of utter impunity within the U.S. military. This culture of religious bigotry is fueled by militant, unchecked Christian fundamentalism. Its attendant Islamophobic racism is carefully coddled and nurtured. The result is total disdain and denigration of the values of the Afghan nation.”
In 2009, following several verbal assaults by Weinstein, including one to the chief of naval operations, Klingenschmitt posted the following prayer on his website:
Let us pray. Almighty God, today we pray imprecatory prayers from Psalm 109 against the enemies of religious liberty, including Barry Lynn and Mikey Weinstein, who issued press releases this week attacking me personally. God, do not remain silent, for wicked men surround us and tell lies about us. We bless them, but they curse us. Therefore find them guilty, not me. Let their days be few, and replace them with Godly people. Plunder their fields, and seize their assets. Cut off their descendants, and remember their sins, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
An imprecatory prayer is a prayer asking God to protect the weak and faithful from the strong and wicked.
The prayer prompted Weinstein and his wife, Bonnie, to file a lawsuit against not just Klingenschmit but the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches and its founder, Elmer Ammerman. Weinstein claimed the prayer amounted to a “fatwa” against him despite it never mentioning the word death or violence.
“In other words, Klingenschmitt called upon his followers to commit violence against, or even kill, Michael Weinstein, and even his family,” he alleged in his petition.
As evidence of his allegations, Weinstein’s attorney, Randal Mathis, said people had fired shots at the Weinstein’s home, set fire to his lawn and left animal carcasses on the porch.
However, the incidents actually happened between one to three years before Klingenschmitt posted his prayer. Stephen Casey, Klingenschmitt’s attorney noted that “it would require a violation of time-space” for the vandalism to have occurred because of the prayer.
In dismissing the suit, Hoffman noted that Weinstein was unable to provide any evidence the prayers were part of any conspiracy against him or had caused them any harm worthy of damages.
Klingenschmitt said that Weinstein knew the case had no merit, insisting it was an attempt to silence the Christian message in the military.
“Mikey wants to get 500 chaplains kicked out of the military in the way to do that is to sue the organization that sponsors them, in this case the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel churches,” he said.
He noted that often organizations will adopt self-censorship policies to prevent lawsuits such as Weinstein’s.
“This is not the first time Weinstein has lost in court, and it will not be the last. His views of religious belief do not comport with the freedoms our founders enshrined in the Constitution nor the laws that arise from those fundamental rights,” Stephen Casey, Kliingenschmitt’s attorney said. “If the First Amendment doesn’t protect public prayer, what kind of speech is next to fall victim to those who have little respect for free expression?”
In an ironic twist, Klingenschmitt’s prayers apparently are being answered because of Weinstein’s lawsuit against him.
As a result of the judge’s decision, Klingenschmitt is now entitled to attorney’s fees, which are estimated to be in the six-figure amount, and possible damages as well.
“I will now sue Mikey Weinstein for defamation, unless he immediately repents with a public, written apology, admitting he lied, both in court and on national radio,” said Klingenschmitt.
He noted a Google search of the words “Klingenschmitt” and “animal carcasses” returns over 2,000 search results.
Klingenschmitt said the atheist has unwittingly proved that God answers the prayers of his children.
“We never expected to get sued, I was just praying the Psalms and now God is answering the same prayer he sued me over,” he said. “This is like one of those Bible stories like Esther where God turns everything upside down.” |
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Aug. 31, 2017, 5:30 PM GMT / Updated Aug. 31, 2017, 5:30 PM GMT By Ben Popken
This year the supply list for an elementary school student costs about $650, up from an inflation-adjusted $375 in 2006, according to the annual Huntington Bank's Backpack Index, which tracks the change in a representative basket of goods over time.
A middle-school student might run $1,000; up from $525. And sending a fully equipped high-schooler off to class can cost nearly $1,500 — compared to $800 just 10 years ago.
All together that's an average of about $1,000 — nearly the same as the average U.S. monthly mortgage payment.
Strapped and stressed parents are pushing back.
"Just got back from the Walmarts [sic] and spent $350 per child on school supplies," said author Susannah B. Lewis in a Facebook video. "My daughter is 11. She needs two 4-inch binders...You ever seen a 4-inch binder? ...Holds 60,000 sheets of paper. Now what does an 11-year-old need with something that holds 60,000 sheets? All she's going to have is 45 sheets of diagramming sentences in there."
Her sardonic clip struck a chord, racking up more than 5 million views. Though we might have fond memories of a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper or a set of Pee Chee folders or those funny angled pencil toppers, parents and schools are struggling to cover material costs for a child's education.
For families with more than one child, the bills of course multiply. According to a recent survey conducted for the financial literacy nonprofit Junior Achievement, 60 percent of U.S. parents struggle to pay for their school supplies.
Beyond the sticker shock, most galling for parents seems to be requests for basic supplies that seem like they should be provided by the school, like tissues, paper towels, glue sticks, or scissors.
People purchase school supplies at a Wal-Martin Los Angeles in 2015. Patrick Fallon / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
Others are exasperated by seemingly overly specific requests for specific items, hitting multiple stores only to find that the exact kind and color of sticky pads are all sold out. Or having to share their supplies with other families who didn't bring the required amount.
And what does it matter if the pencils are Ticonderogas?
Plenty.
Teachers say they request specific brands to make sure that kids don't get stuck with frustrating brands that don't work as well, which can undermine classroom time. And setting the same brand for everyone helps tamp down on socioeconomic differences between pupils, and reduce bullying.
Meanwhile, the average teacher spends $600 of his or her own cash on school supplies, according to a recent annual survey by the AdoptAClassroom.org non-profit. So if you're not buying that box of Kleenex, your child's teacher is the one reaching into her pocket for it. Most states are now providing less support per student for elementary and secondary schools than before the recession, and some are still cutting, according to a 2016 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report.
Some teachers have resorted to crowdfunding. Stefanie Eskander, a collector of vintage school supplies and other sundry remembers going to kindergarten in the 1950s in a middle-class suburb of Los Angeles.
"At early elementary school we didn't need our own paper; the schools provided wide, lined individual sheets. They also provided crayons, pencils, scissors, and glue," she wrote in an email to NBC News. Students might bring a pencil box with erasers and a small ruler. As they got older, they might have to spring for a protractor or compass.
"I'm sure the teachers provided some things, but I think the school district had the funds," she wrote. "It was certainly a different time!"
As first laid out in Newton's Third Law of the Internet, for every viral rant there is an equal and opposing Facebook video.
In one that's been making the rounds, a mother shops through Target while gladly filling her cart with school supplies, a microwave for a teacher, plus candles and a rug.
“These teachers have been making plans to teach your kids, and you’re all complaining about some pencils?" said Dena Blizzard, a mother from Moorestown, New Jersey.
"Some pencils. Are you kidding me? Do you know how much I would pay them just to get my kids out of my face?"
“I have spent hours of my life teaching my daughter math and history. I don’t know anything about history,” Blizzard said in the comedy video. “And there’s a lady somewhere willing to teach my daughter about some history? And she wants a yellow binder to do it? I’m gonna get that ***** a yellow binder.” |
Linux Foundation is organizing a end user collaboration summit this week. A major topic will be a presentation on the new upcoming filesystems – Ext4 and Btrfs. Ted Tso, who is a Linux kernel filesystem developer on a sabbatical from IBM working for Linux Foundation for a year, has talked about the two-pronged approach for the Linux kernel, taking a incremental approach with Ext4 while simultaneously working on the next generation filesystem called btrfs. Read more for details.
Ext4, a incremental revision of ext3 is built from the same codebase and compatible to it while providing better performance and scalability but there are limitations to what can be done in a compatible manner. Btrfs is now a multi-vendor effort from Red Hat, HP, IBM and Oracle allowing a common pool to save costs of development and will provide a number of additional features which requires a fundamental redesign.
These new features are expected to include storage pools, writeable recursive snapshots, fast file checking and recovery, easy large storage management, proactive error management, better security, large scalability and fast incremental backup. In reality most users don’t have databases large enough to require some of the most advanced functions but like so many technology battles, it comes down to bragging rights and engineering pride.
While Ext4 has long been merged into the Linux kernel as a development filesystem, it is getting closer to being marked as stable and beginning to see adoption from Linux distributions. Fedora 9 already includes ext4 as a technology preview and Fedora 10 will make it simpler for end users to adopt it as well although ext3 remains the default for Fedora and many major distributions.
Andrew Morton, a core Linux developer has indicated that he would like to get btrfs merged as early as 2.6.29 though it will be marked as a development or experimental feature for a while. This will allow btrfs to progress further as part of the Linux kernel development and will likely be the default for major distributions sometime in the future. |
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An 81-year-old granddad has been put under house arrest by his family after a bizarre accident turned him into a sex addict. Frail Angelo De Luca was in a coma for four days after he fell out of a plum tree at the family home in Biasca, Switzerland.
But coming round from an operation his family were horrified to watch their devoted widower dad turn into a randy teenager again.
Sex mad Angelo blew £3,000 of his savings in one session at a local brothel after falling head over heels for a hooker young enough to be his granddaughter.
"Since my wife died a year ago, Leona has been there for me. It's not only that she's good in bed. She gives me new life force and courage. She is my friend, my only confidant," he said.
But his son Daniele has taken control of his dad's two houses and bank accounts after judges ruled that his sex addiction made him unfit to govern his own affairs.
"That woman preyed upon my father like he was a Christmas goose," he said.
Now the family are suing the hospital for medical negligence.
"My father broke seven ribs and his lungs were pierced in the fall. He had to wait for three weeks for surgery.
"He had severe pain and the nurse gave him morphine, maybe too much. My father fell into a coma for four days. That must have wiped out a brain function. The one that inhibits the sex drive," he added.
But hospital chiefs deny any medical blunder. Director Michele Morisoli said: "Our staff acted to the best of their knowledge and conscience."
For more weird stories from around the world, click here . |
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that midfielder Shinji Kagawa could make his long-awaited return for Manchester United at the weekend as they face West Brom on Saturday.
Speaking to the press ahead of the game, Ferguson said
He [Kagawa] wanted to do a warm-up on Wednesday and we will see what he is like. I could put him on the bench tomorrow. It depends who we have available.
Kagawa has been out of action for United since he picked up a knee injury in October. The knee injury, which was described as ‘similar to the one Ashley Young had’ was expected to only keep Kagawa out of action for around three to four weeks however the injury, which was sustained against Braga in the Champions League, turned out to be healing slower than first anticipated.
As reported earlier in the week, Manchester United are set to be without Wayne Rooney for up to three weeks however they hope to welcome back Ashley Young and Phil Jones, with Ferguson adding
Ashley is maybe fit and Danny should be. I will also have to consider people like Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs on age grounds. Wayne will be out for another one or two games at least, although he was a bit better yesterday.
by |
Hello Chillers,
today we would like to share with you other discussion with Birds of Paradise.
Birds of Paradise is California-based producers Torin Goodnight (Bird of Prey) and Tyler Gibson (Gibson). Each has a decade of experience behind him, and has been steadily making waves in the electronic music scene. Having a similar aesthetic but still maintaining an individual approach, they combine forces in a new symbiotic project to work towards a common vision and master the art of collaboration. The duo plays to its strengths- patience, beauty, and depth to offer a truly original sound of rolling percussive breakbeats, progressive melodies, incredible sound design and twisted psychedelic layers. Their fusion of elements, both natural and synthetic, create an engaging bio-digital landscape that leaves little to the imagination. It will take your ears only a moment to realize that you have uncovered something special.
interview taken in February 2015 by Floyd 2.0 and Gagarin
— Hello guys, thanks a lot for finding time to speak with us!
So let’s start with the first question. How long have you guys been involved with music? Did you both start with psychedelic music?
Torin: I first started seriously approaching electronic music production about 15 years ago. I was initially inspired by to create psy trance and that was what I put most of my efforts toward with explorations in alternative downtempo here and there. It was around 2008-2009 when I finally came to the understanding that I just wasn’t able to fully express myself using the psy trance format, so I began combining what I loved about it with other beat styles.
Tyler: I’ve been inspired by electronic music most of my life, and started writing music in 2004. I was mainly focusing on drum and bass, breaks and midtempo as GIBSON until I met Torin in 2008, when we began working together on the larger verity of stuff that would become Birds of Paradise.
— What are your musical influences ? How have they changed over the last 10 years?
Torin: My primary influences are movie soundtracks, 80’s pop music, industrial, world music and I have a deep love for ambient soundscapes. Anything that gives me a sense of depth, adventure or just easy-going fun.
Tyler: 10 years ago ‘breaks’ were pretty popular, and I was really inspired by the music and the scene. Electronic music has changed a lot since then, and so have I. I’ve been inspired by almost all genres of electronic music, and often express those things in my writing style. I am equally as inspired by ‘world’, and ‘indigenous’ music, and blending the two has been an inspiring goal for me with Birds of Paradise.
— Do you guys listen to music of other artists? What are your recent discoveries?
Torin: At this point I let music find me more than pursuing it the way I used to. I find myself inspired quite often by a hybrid of electro/acoustic music, because it gives me a space to relax and daydream in. I’ve somewhat burnt out on listening to exclusively electronic music after studying it meticulously for so long, it just seems to activate my analytical mind which I don’t find to be what I’m looking for anymore. Now I let music be an enhancement to everyday life, rather than it being all consuming as it was. Something I came across that has been in constant circulation is a soundtrack for a video game called Ibb and Obb, composed by Kettel. He has uncanny classical composition skills that he very gracefully combines with electronic production. Beautiful stuff!
Tyler: As far as electronic music goes, i’m honestly mostly inspired by our own friends’ music! It’s been so awesome to meet and collaborate with other amazing musicians from around the world. I am so happy to say that our friends make the most inspiring and awesome electronic music I know.
— What inspires you guys to make the music you do?
To continue our own journey of self-expression and discovery, while being in service to the happiness of others.
— Human beings are very limited expressing some things with the words. Still how would you guys describe Birds of Paradise music with 10 words?
10 words…okay, here we go. ‘The coolest shit we can possibly think of and create’
— What is your workflow to create music together? Do you work mostly together or you are exchanging project files over internet ?
One of us will generally start an idea and shoot it to the other. We continue to make sounds both independently and together depending on whether we’re close enough or not. We now live in the same town again so we are doing most sessions together. One of us will drive for a time while the other dances in the background shooting off ideas. Then we switch it up and continue to push each other until we’ve got what we’re after and are both completely sick of it, heh.
— Do you guys produce your tracks at your home studio or mostly on the road?
We really only work at home in our studio’s. We like the idea of doing stuff on the road and may get into that, more but when we travel we really like to take in the experience.
— What are the most important elements of your studio ?
Probably the Universal Audio powered plugins. We employ them on most everything we do and they contribute a significant character to our sound and quality.
— What analogue equipment do you use?
Torin: At this point it’s all pretty much in the box except for a midi controller, our Apogee and UA Apollo audio interfaces with Dynaudio speakers. I used to own proper analogue synths and a bunch of outboard gear ages ago, but the only one remaining is a Nord Lead 3 rack. We have collaborated with Robert Rich at times who has contributed from his analog modular synth and flutes. We love integrating live instruments and alternative sound sources in our music which we will continue to do more and more.
— How do you guys experience producing? Is it a natural process/flow? Do you guys have any specific rituals?
Yes, it’s a pretty natural flow. We’re constantly discussing what we feel we’d like to explore next, and often one of us will start an idea and then we both get cracking on it. Rituals include yoga, tea, mental and emotional breakdowns which if we’re lucky eventually lead to breakthroughs. We’re quite blessed to feel so aligned with what we’re looking to achieve and what we want things to sound like. We have very similar skill sets and aesthetic preferences so it’s a pretty amazing process, although we do go a bit crazy managing the details and wrastling these beasts in.
— What keeps you guys going? What’s your biggest motivation?
The beautiful places we get to visit, the people we meet who are sincere and devoted to creating magic in this world, and the sense of bringing joy to others are all very important to us. Having each other as partners in this journey is much of what keeps us focused and motivated.
— How would you guys’ say your music has evolved over the years?
Well, we’ve covered a lot of territory in the down to mid tempo ranges, and as of lately we’ve been moving up into faster tempo’s. We continue to allow ourselves to be influenced by what we experience in life, what we feel would be fun to offer to others, and whatever scratches the perpetual itch of our own creative nature.
— Do you associate yourself with Psytrance music scene or Electronic music ?
We’re most interested in hybridizing everything we love about electronic music genre’s, and that definitely includes Psytrance. However, we just don’t see the real value for us in subscribing to any genre fully. In fact, we have trouble making it through a single song without somehow exploring what else can be done with any given style or BPM. We love performing at Psytrance festivals around the world, as well as festivals for bass music and EDM. They all have their strengths and beauty, just as the music does.
— At Boom you played tracks from Symbolico and Land Switcher, have you met those guys ? What do you think about their music ?
Yep, they are friends of ours and we hold them in very high respect. We generally play our own music, but have found it to be very enjoyable to include songs by our friends that are complimentary to our own. Land Switcher, Symbolico, Hedflux, have all made their way into our sets from time to time. We are also stoked to announce that we have an amazing upcoming full length remix release of our Flight Patterns album featuring these artists and more.
— Who are the modern artist that inspire you ?
Our friends. :)
— When you’re not in the studio, what do you like doing? How do you spend your free time?
We do yoga on a daily basis, some disc golf out in nature, go to they gym, watch movies. We like to step away from the computer to be re-energized, so that when it is time we can be fully in it. After staring at a screen for so long we’ve come to realize how important it is to get back into the body, breathe fresh air and pull inspiration from sources other than electronic media. Unless of course we’re talking Donkey Kong Country Returns, heh.
— What do you do for living ?
Torin: We’ve both been blessed to have music be our primary source of income. I am also completing my yoga teacher training this year so I can begin to work with people in new ways, and in new environments. Health and well-being has been a major focus the past few years as I’ve learned to balance my needs with this lifestyle, and it’s very important to me to help others achieve balance in their day to day lives regardless of their profession.
— What’s your favorite drink for a chilled out evening?
We’re both pretty much on the tea these days, with a kombucha here and there.
— Thank you for your time, it is very interesting to discover more of your reality. Would like to use this occasion to invite you to visit newly created forum (forum.psybient.org). Your advises and feedback to young producers will be highly appreciated.
Thank you so much for reaching out to us, we really appreciate the opportunity to share some time and ideas with you. Feedback we can offer is to be patient and diligent in your journey of self-expression. Take it seriously enough to make steady progress, but not so much that you create stress and anxiety in your life. Remember to step away from the computer and gather inspiration from other sources. It’s difficult to come up with something fresh and new if all we do is listen to what’s already out there. Life and nature have a way of speaking through us if we create a healthy channel. Be well and thrive!
https://facebook.com/birdsofparadisemusic
https://soundcloud.com/birdsofparadise
Birds of Paradise-Live at Boom 2014
https://soundcloud.com/boomfestival/boom-festival-2014-alchemy-circle-ep-05-birds-of-paradise
Bird of Prey-Live at Boom 2014
https://soundcloud.com/boomfestival/boom-festival-2014-alchemy-circle-ep-10-bird-of-prey |
Ball State University's president issued a statement today agreeing with the Freedom From Religion Foundation about the inappropriateness of teaching intelligent design in public universities.
FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel first alerted Ball State officials to Professor Eric Hedin's "teaching" style in a May 15 letter, which involved teaching "intelligent design" as a fact and proselytizing Christianity in the classroom. "There is a serious difference between teaching religion and preaching religion," Seidel wrote in his original letter.
Ball State President Jo Ann M. Gora, PhD, released a July 31 statement, attached below, that concurs with the principles FFRF enumerated in its letters, following an investigation by a committee of four professors.
Gora wrote that neither creationism nor any of its derivatives belong in a science classroom. She reiterates that intelligent design is a religious theory and has been rejected by reputable scientists.
Gora stated that academic freedom, while important, is not an issue in this case. "Teaching intelligent design as a scientific theory is not a matter of academic freedom – it is an issue of academic integrity," Gora wrote. "[Academic freedom] cannot be used as a shield to teach theories that have been rejected by the discipline under which a science course is taught."
FFRF raised concerns about academic integrity and a possible state-church violation when the same Ball State department that hired Hedin also hired another prominent creationist. "As long as the principles in Gora's well-written letter guide the curriculum and classes, the constitutional and ethical concerns should be cured," Seidel said.
The only outstanding issue is precisely how Gora's principles will alter Hedin's course, "The Boundaries of Science." FFRF has been told that Ball State is working "to ensure that course content is aligned with curriculum and the best standards of the discipline."
The prominent evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne first alerted FFRF to Hedin's actions, after a non-Christian student reported the proselytizing nature of Hedin's class to Coyne.
FFRF works to enforce a firm separation between state and church, including protecting public school students from being subjected to a teacher's personal religious beliefs in what should be a secular classroom.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., is a national state/church watchdog with 19,000 members across the country including 300 in Indiana.
The statement from Ball State University President Jo-Ann Gora, PhD
Dear Faculty and Staff,
This summer, the university has received significant media attention over the issue of teaching intelligent design in the science classroom. As we turn our attention to final preparations for a new academic year, I want to be clear about the university's position on the questions these stories have raised. Let me emphasize that my comments are focused on what is appropriate in a public university classroom, not on the personal beliefs of faculty members. Intelligent design is overwhelmingly deemed by the scientific community as a religious belief and not a scientific theory. Therefore, intelligent design is not appropriate content for science courses. The gravity of this issue and the level of concern among scientists are demonstrated by more than 80 national and state scientific societies' independent statements that intelligent design and creation science do not qualify as science. The list includes societies such as the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, theAmerican Astronomical Society, and the American Physical Society. Discussions of intelligent design and creation science can have their place at Ball State in humanities or social science courses. However, even in such contexts, faculty must avoid endorsing one point of view over others. The American Academy of Religion draws this distinction most clearly:
Creation science and intelligent design represent worldviews that fall outside of the realm of science that is defined as (and limited to) a method of inquiry based on gathering observable and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. Creation science, intelligent design, and other worldviews that focus on speculation regarding the origins of life represent another important and relevant form of human inquiry that is appropriately studied in literature and social science courses. Such study, however, must include a diversity of worldviews representing a variety of religious and philosophical perspectives and must avoid privileging one view as more legitimate than others.
Teaching religious ideas in a science course is clearly not appropriate. Each professor has the responsibility to assign course materials and teach content in a manner consistent with the course description, curriculum, and relevant discipline. We are compelled to do so not only by the ethics of academic integrity but also by the best standards of our disciplines.
As this coverage has unfolded, some have asked if teaching intelligent design in a science course is a matter of academic freedom. On this point, I want to be very clear. Teaching intelligent design as a scientific theory is not a matter of academic freedom - it is an issue of academic integrity. As I noted, the scientific community has overwhelmingly rejected intelligent design as a scientific theory. Therefore, it does not represent the best standards of the discipline as determined by the scholars of those disciplines. Said simply, to allow intelligent design to be presented to science students as a valid scientific theory would violate the academic integrity of the course as it would fail to accurately represent the consensus of science scholars.
Courts that have considered intelligent design have concurred with the scientific community that it is a religious belief and not a scientific theory. As a public university, we have a constitutional obligation to maintain a clear separation between church and state. It is imperative that even when religious ideas are appropriately taught in humanities and social science courses, they must be discussed in comparison to each other, with no endorsement of one perspective over another.
These are extremely important issues. The trust and confidence of our students, the public, and the broader academic community are at stake. Our commitment to academic freedom is unflinching. However, it cannot be used as a shield to teach theories that have been rejected by the discipline under which a science course is taught. Our commitment to the best standards of each discipline being taught on this campus is equally unwavering. As I have said, this is an issue of academic integrity, not academic freedom. The best academic standards of the discipline must dictate course content.
Thank you for your attention to these important issues. Best wishes in your preparations for a new academic year. I look forward to seeing you at the fall convocation in just a few weeks.
Sincerely,
Jo Ann M. Gora, PhD
President |
Detroit Tigers pitcher Daniel Norris’s thyroid cancer was caught in an early stage and removed last year. Eleven-year-old fan Hunter Bowman wasn’t so lucky.
The Ludington, Michigan, boy’s thyroid cancer spread through his neck, lungs and lymph nodes. Doctors were unable to remove all of it and Bowman’s cancer is now considered to be Stage 4, but stabilized.
Earlier this month, Bowman got to spend time with his hero, Norris – an experience he summed up as “the best day of my life.” The surprise was coordinated by Chevrolet as part of a national social media campaign that encourages people to Day It Forward by using leap day to do something nice for someone else.
The pair initially met up on Feb. 13, when Bowman’s parents told him they wanted to stop by Comerica Park to take a photo while on their way to meet a new specialist. When the young boy got out of his car, Norris was there to meet him – along with a video crew.
“I had no clue what was happening,” Bowman told the Detroit Free Press.
Norris led Bowman on a tour of the stadium and gave him a batting lesson in the batting cages under the stadium. The pair then played MLB 2015 on the stadium’s scoreboard with Bowman playing as his hero. Then, Norris gave Bowman and his family a surprise of a lifetime: an all-expenses-paid trip Florida for spring training, plus tickets to Disney World.
Last week, Chevy flew Bowman’s entire family to Florida, where Norris took time out to play catch with Hunter after practice.
Norris told the paper he was deeply moved by the experience. “It’s tough. The whole time, all day, I felt myself feeling guilty,” he reflected. “I’m so fortunate to be one and done with it. I know he’s still going through with it. I just wanted him to feel special today.”
Norris said he heard Bowman repeat “This is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me,” a few times.
He added that he hopes Bowman was able to take away one thing from their meeting: “Just keep living.”
“I just wanted him to take that to heart,” he continued. “No matter what comes your way, you gotta keep living.” |
The pain, both physical and psychological, of going through a miscarriage, is an experience no-one should have to endure.
However, little did 33-year-old María Teresa Rivera know that the death of her embryo would also be compounded by the loss of her freedom.
In 2011, Rivera was sentenced to 40 years in prison in El Salvador for 'aggravated homicide' following a miscarriage, despite the fact she claims she was unaware she was pregnant.
Four years later, her lawyers were finally able to set her free and, in March this year, the Swedish Migration Agency granted Rivera and her 12-year-old son political asylum after the pair fled the country when a prosecutor tried to appeal the judge's decision to a higher court.
Describing her experience to Splinter in June, Rivera explained she suffered a miscarriage the night before her son's graduation in November 2011, and when she woke up in hospital, she was informed she was under arrest for 'aggravated homicide' and handcuffed to her hospital bed.
'When the judge gave me the sentence, I felt like it was all over. The first thing I thought was, "How old is my seven-year-old son going to be in 2052 when I leave prison?" I did the math and told myself, "He is going to be 47 years old and he's going to hate me. He is going to blame me for missing his life." I thought about all the things that can happen to my child in that amount of time. It was very difficult,' she told the publication.
Getty Images
El Salvador is one of six countries in the world that have a blanket ban on abortions in all circumstances. Most recently, it's criminalisation saw rape victim Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez Cruz sentenced to 30 years in prison for failing to seen antenatal care, resulting in the alleged murder of a foetus.
For Rivera, this is a situation far more common in El Salvador than most people would care to believe.
When the judge gave me the sentence, I felt like it was all over
'It turned out there were a lot more women in prison who were accused of having abortions. Some of them had 30-year sentences, others were sentenced to 35 years. But I got the most severe sentence. I was the first to get a 40-year sentence, so my story made international headlines,' she explained.
Describing the abuse and death threats she received in prison, with her fellow female inmates calling her 'mata niños' ('the baby killer'), Rivera revealed she also met women as young as 18-years-old who were imprisoned for having abortions.
'All of them were poor. The women who have money pay private doctors for the procedures or they fly out of the country for an abortion.
'Women would come to me and tell me they were in there for an abortion. I'd get their names and share them with my lawyer,' she added.
Advocacy group Agrupación Ciudadana por la Despenalización del Aborto (Citizens' Coalition for the Decriminalisation of Abortion) which helped fight Rivera's case found that at least 129 women were prosecuted for abortion-related crimes in El Salvador between 2000 and 2011, while 21 women in prison are currently serving time for abortion-related charges.
Rex
'I met 11 of these women during my four years in prison. We all had similar stories. We came from poor and working-class families. Some of them had little schooling. Some of the women were raped. There were cases of incest and miscarriages.
'We all lived through this very difficult experience and only we know how we feel,' she added.
Having promised each other that the first woman to be free was to fight for their freedom, Rivera never expected she'd be group's shining beacon of hope.
'Now I have that responsibility, and I cannot break that commitment. I don't speak out so people know who I am—I speak out so that people learn what's going on. My commitment to the women who are still incarcerated are what give me power to keep going now,' she explained.
When the judge annulled her sentence, ruling there was insufficient evidence to prove the changes against her and demanded the State pay her damages, she claims several news outlets focussed the possible appeal and used graphic details about her miscarriage, rather than focussing on the judge's decision.
We all lived through this very difficult experience and only we know how we feel
As a result, Rivera's new-found freedom felt anything but.
'I tried to get work immediately but I quickly realised I wasn't really free. I've had to work since I was a young girl. I'm a hard worker and willing to do anything so I could provide for my own son. I've never had fear of any work. In prison I would stick my hands in toilets to clear them up. I'm not afraid of an honest job.
'But I'd walk into businesses that had hiring signs on their windows and they'd look at me and tell me the position has been filled. People recognised me and didn't want to hire me.
Getty Images
'I told myself I wouldn't speak to reporters again. The media in my country only used my story against me. They never printed anything in my favour.
'Then officials announced they were going to appeal the judge's decision to annul my case. That's when I knew I had to leave,' she added.
When she was asked to speak at a conference in Stockholm last year, the mother-of-one knew Europe would be her only place of freedom from her past.
People recognised me and didn't want to hire me
'I feared they wouldn't let me fly out of the country because the prosecutor was after my case. I knew my sentence was annulled and felt more secure when I was able to get a passport without any issues. But at the airport I was still anxious. I was shaking when they scanned my boarding pass to enter the plane. In the end we didn't have any problems getting out of the country,' she added.
Having received asylum for herself and her son, she has now been given immigration housing provided by the Swedish government and is learning Swedish online in the hope to integrate herself into her new way of life.
While she's yet to receive a work permit and admitted to finding it difficult to build a new life so far away from El Salvador, Rivera is on a mission to speak out about the injustices facing women in her home country.
'I've told my son that when the time is right I want to him to share his story with reporters, too. I want the world to know what these laws and the stigma are doing to the families of these women.
'I'm not afraid to speak out anymore. I don't care what people say about me. I'm going to speak and talk about the lives that Salvadoran women are living,' she concluded. |
Note that the public pool facility has the word "family" in it. Ironic, considering their behavior in the pool was nowhere near something that can be considered family-friendly.
Apparently, Helms and his lovebird (identified as Victoria Cross, 40) were having some adult play time at the Roberts Park Family Aquatic Center, reports WLWT-TV.
Myron Helms is a reserve officer with the Laurel Police Department. Now, to add to his list of accomplishments, he has been arrested for having sex with a woman in a public pool in Connersville, Indiana.
Helms and Cross actually went at it for a good thirty minutes before pool patrons complained to the manager, WLWT-TV reports.
Witnesses, including children, were there to view the provocative show.
The manager went over to tell the pair to stop their lovemaking. At that point, Cross moved away from Helms, and the manager could see Helms' "private area," The Daily Mail reports.
Police were called, and Helms and Cross were given no-trespass orders. These orders would have essentially barred the two from returning to pool property.
Responding police said that the people near the pool were "visibly disturbed by the incident."
The pool's cleanup crew was probably also disturbed, and disturbed enough to make the pool go through some extra vigorous cleaning, including recycling the "whole water" system and putting in new chemicals, reports The Daily Mail.
Prosecutors have responded by filing public indecency charges against both Helms and Cross, WLWT-TV reports. In Indiana, a person who knowingly or intentionally engages in sexual intercourse in a public place is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
The Laurel Police Department has since placed Myron Helms on unpaid leave, WLWT-TV reports. Though, the next time you visit a pool in Connersville, Indiana - or any pool for that matter - you might want to remember public pool water may be murkier than you think.
Related Resources: |
[Update below] New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, fresh off of a triumphant appearance at an otherwise empty Island Beach State Park at a time when New Jersey state parks were closed due to a budget dispute, will be filling in for New York's Numbah One drivetime sports radio voice, Mike Francesa, on WFAN on Monday and Tuesday.
The news of Christie's afternoon radio appearances was tweeted by WNYC's Matt Katz, who noticed that New Jersey's governor will share the 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. with Evan Roberts on Monday, July 10th and Tuesday, July 11th.
.@GovChristie with a big audition next week! Filling in for retiring sports host Mike Francesa on @WFAN660. He's a candidate to take over. pic.twitter.com/jsmIlczETC — Matt Katz (@mattkatz00) July 6, 2017
While Christie has been a fixture in the sports yak world for years, and has appeared on and guest-hosted WFAN's Boomer and Carton in the past, this is his most high-profile sports talk radio gig to date. It also will do nothing to diminish rumors that he's in line to take over for Mike Francesa when the Sports Pope retires at the end of 2017.
Francesa himself has talked up the idea of Christie replacing him when we head into a Mike Francesa-less world next year, and Tri-State area's most famous Cowboys fan also got a boost of sorts from the New York Times op-ed page last weekend. In an editorial (that hilariously took Francesa's derisive "Sports Pope" nickname at face value), The Federalist's David Marcus suggested The Fan was a not-so-secret bastion of conservative thought in liberal New York City:
WFAN does much better with 35- to 55-year-olds than it does with 18- to 35-year-olds. Older listeners mean two things: They are more conservative and have more spending power. They are also more likely parents, mostly fathers, and more likely to have jobs. ... But as they listen to the Fan during their workday, they know somebody gets it. Not just the station itself, or its hosts, but also their fellow conservative-leaning listeners and callers. That is a reason to tune in, and a reason for WFAN to continue its unlikely role as a home for right-of-center talk in New York City.
To be sure, WFAN call screeners will still have to work overtime to keep the whole show from being flooded with questions like "Hey Governor, what do you think the Mets could get for Jay Bruce before the deadline—also you got any beach read recommendations for me?" because a 15 percent approval rating is still a 15 percent approval rating
Christie has also been given kudos, of sorts, for his sports shouting from David Roth of ViceSports, who wrote that Christie's previous WFAN appearances showed that he's "fundamentally too pompous to be very interesting, and he doesn't really know that much about the things he so righteously holds forth about. But it's no exaggeration to say that he's a natural."
As mentioned, Christie will be joined in his possible tryout by Evan Roberts. Whether WFAN officials want to eventually give Christie Francesa's full, solo time slot to scream about Fernando Salas's ballooning ERA is yet to be seen, but if they feel the governor needs a partner, the terrifically shrill Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, a former Francesa partner, has at least feigned some interest in returning to New York radio.
[Update 3:30 p.m.] A WFAN spokesperson has confirmed that Christie is in fact trying out for Francesa's afternoon slot, telling NorthJersey.com that the two days Christie sits on Francesa's throne will be "audition days." Still, Christie will have competition from five other people/pairings, including WFAN's own Joe Beningo and Evan Roberts as well as Kim Jones, and former NFL quarterback Chris Simms. |
The wife of the Malaysia Airlines captain in command of flight MH370 has confirmed that he spoke the final words received from the aircraft, as it emerged that he is now the chief suspect in its disappearance.
The airline had initially stated that the co-pilot had made the last broadcast from the cockpit, which gave no hint of any problems on board the aircraft, but Captain Zaharie Shah's wife told the Waikato Times in New Zealand that he was the one who said "good night, Malaysian 370" shortly before the plane changed course.
According to recent reports, investigators have shifted their attention to Zaharie after discovering that he had used a flight simulator he had at home to rehearse a landing on a short island runway in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean.
Although he had deleted the drills before taking command of flight MH370, The Sunday Times reports that computer experts were able to retrieve them.
Police have so far failed to turn up any hard evidence against the pilot, but he is now the prime focus of the criminal investigation after intelligence checks cleared all other passengers and crew.
"Investigators have previously refused to 'clear' the captain’s flight simulator of suspicious activity," The Independent reports. "It now appears they found evidence of routes programmed to take a plane far out into the Indian Ocean and practising landing using a short runway on an island."
Detectives, who have conducted over 170 interviews, also found that Zaharie had made no social or professional commitments beyond the date of the missing flight, in contrast to his co-pilot and the rest of the flight’s crew.
The investigation has not ruled out the possibility that flight MH370 was lost due to mechanical failure or terrorism, but the police view is that if it was the result of human action, the captain is the most likely perpetrator.
Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, gave the first hint about the government’s suspicions of "deliberate action by someone on the plane" on March 15.
Zaharie's relatives have defended him against any suggestion of wrongdoing and Malaysian police have refused to confirm the contents of their interim report.
"The police investigation is still ongoing," they told The Sunday Times. "To date no conclusions can be made as to the contributor to the incident."
The country's acting transport minister has dismissed the claims.
Nevertheless, the newspaper says that initial findings from the investigation have been sent to foreign governments and investigators.
US-based specialist Robert Mark, a pilot and editor ofmagazine, said Sunday: “This certainly points a few fingers at the captain.”There are rumors of undisclosed "sealed evidence" circulated weeks after the plane went missing expanding theories of conspiracy and cover-ups, and the latest news, leaked by aviation industry sources and officials in south-east Asia, has left the public wondering if the authorities know that the plane was deliberately hijacked.As well, The Malaysian government deliberately concealed the captain's association with Anwar Ibrahim, the country’s main opposition leader who was jailed on charges of homosexual behavior just hours before the plane took off.Are we looking at another 'red herring?'I still contend that there are political implications involved with this disappearance.On April 9th, 5 weeks after Malaysia Flight MH370 disappeared, I speculated on available information and additional knowledge from private sources. NBC News posted an update to this mystery at Flight MH370: What Do We Know About the Missing Malaysian Jet? Malaysia Airlines' commercial director Hugh Dunleavy recently stated that the MH370 hunt will take 'decades' in an interview withAdding to the speculation is a recent report from the Phukett Gazette that states that crowd-sourced research plotting the projected flight path of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 by using data from Inmarsat satellites may have confirmed that a British woman sailing from India to Phuket spotted the ill-fated flight over the Andaman Sea. But was the airliner's course changed after that supposed sighting?At this point, I believe there is a strong possibility of deliberate distraction in order to sway the public's attention away from plane's actual fate...whatever that may be. Lon |
A new paper in the journal npj Microgravity explores the options for astronauts who want to prevent menstrual bleeding during their space missions. The paper, written by authors at King's College London and Baylor College of Medicine, reviews contraceptive devices available including those already used by military and aviation personnel, and calls for more research into the effect of hormone treatments on bone mineral loss in space.
Although full amenities are available should astronauts choose to menstruate in space, the practicalities of menstruating during pre-flight training or spaceflight can be challenging. For short duration missions, menstrual cycles can to be timed according to mission dates but for longer hauls, menstrual suppression is often preferred.
During long duration missions, astronauts have traditionally continuously taken the combined oral contraceptive (COC) pill to prevent menstrual flow. A three-year exploration class mission is predicted to require approximately 1,100 pills, whose packaging would add mass and disposal requirements for the flight.
Long acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) such as IUDs and subdermal (beneath-the-skin) implants are also safe and reliable methods for this purpose but as of yet, have not been extensively used by astronauts. Opting for a LARC would however remove the upmass, packaging, waste and stability issues as a device could be inserted prior to a mission and replacement would not be required in-flight.
It is up to individuals to choose which method to use but LARCS appear to have a number of advantages for spaceflight, according to the paper's authors.
From an operational perspective, LARCs would not be expected to interfere with the ability of the astronaut to perform her tasks. There are no reports in the scientific literature suggesting high G loading experienced during launch or landing would damage a subdermal implant or shift the position of an IUD. However, consideration may need to be given as to whether the implant could rub or catch on specialist equipment or attire such as a diving suit or extra-vehicular activity suit.
The effect of hormone treatments on bone mineral density (BMD) is another issue for spaceflight, where astronauts lose bone at a much higher rate than on Earth. Previous studies have found a reduction in BMD with some contraception choices, namely the progestin only injection (DMPA), and whilst on earth these reductions are temporary, due to irreversible spaceflight related bone changes a treatment option which may impact BMD may not be advised. It is unknown whether taking the pill continuously would help protect against bone mineral loss. The authors call for further research to understand the impact of the COC in combination with microgravity, on bone mass density in women.
The paper concludes that astronauts should be provided with up-to-date, evidence-based information to make informed decisions about menstrual suppression if it is desired.
The uniqueness of spaceflight provides many challenges in conducting research, as the number of subjects required for clinical studies cannot be matched by the number of current active female astronauts. The authors suggest that combining pharmacological data from spaceflights with equivalent ground-based studies investigating menstrual suppression might provide the evidence required to trial LARCs during spaceflight.
Dr Varsha Jain, Visiting Researcher at the Centre of Human and Aerospace Physiological Sciences (CHAPS) at King's College London and NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said:
"Studies of women in the military have shown that many would like to suppress their menstrual flow during deployment, but only a proportion of them use the pill to do so; the majority of women surveyed also wanted more advice from the military to help them make the right choice.
"With more women going into space, we need to ensure they also have the most up-to-date information on reliable contraception and means of menstrual suppression. It is ultimately the woman's choice to suppress, but options should be available to her should she decide to do so."?
Dr Virginia Wotring, Assistant Professor at the Center for Space Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, said:
"For any woman, choice of a contraceptive requires careful consideration of benefits and risks with respect to her lifestyle and needs. The spaceflight environment adds some extra complexity to the overall equation, and we want female crewmembers to be able to make well-informed choices for their missions. Because loss of bone mineral density is known to occur on spaceflight missions, we need more data regarding health effects, including bone health, with long-term use of hormone treatments not just for contraception (as most women use them), but also for the less-common use to suppress menses." |
This is Isla Vista: surf and salt air, students on bikes, dogs on skateboards, swimmers on rafts, and across the Channel, the dazzling island view that gives this beach-bluff community its name. And this is Isla Vista: mega-parties with beer kegs and live bands on the weekend, and thousands of people in the streets, leading to brawls, break-ins, and worse. Isla Vista has always been a tolerant place. But in the wake of the murder of six UCSB students by a deranged young man last May, the mood is no longer so laid-back. “Party houses” are increasingly under scrutiny as the No. 1 public safety problem in the overcrowded community, and residents want landlords to be part of the solution. “If the owners of the big party houses would take responsibility for their tenants, they could turn this all around,” said Sue Whisenand, a retired principal who holds neighborhood meetings on public safety at her home in Isla Vista. “They shouldn’t turn a blind eye to what goes on.” That’s the message that Lieutenant Rob Plastino, head of the Isla Vista Foot Patrol, hopes to convey every week by emailing a log of arrests, citations, and detentions, grouped by address, to property owners and management companies that sign up for it. Isla Vista, the long-neglected stepchild of the county, has been under a microscope since last year’s murders, Plastino said, and landlords are no exception. After a slow start 18 months ago, he said, 70 property owners and managers are now signed up to receive the weekly logs. A few have come in to watch videos of parties at their buildings. “It has definitely ramped up,” Plastino said of his email campaign. “I haven’t seen it manifest itself in real evictions until recently. Landlords are now working toward making Isla Vista a better place. They’re thriving in this community and should have some stake in its well-being.” To help spread the word, the Isla Vista Property Owners Association sent out a bulletin aimed at 1,000 owners and managers titled “The Foot Patrol Needs Our Help.” The bulletin advised landlords to ban live music and “loud, unruly, or disturbing partying,” send notices of violations to parents, and be prepared to evict tenants, if necessary. Along the same lines, Santa Barbara City College held a large meeting in April with landlords and property managers, including many from Isla Vista, asking them to include a code of tenant conduct in their lease agreements with City College students. By signing, tenants agree that landlords may report violations to college administrators. But sometimes the trouble spills over from next door. Peter Neushul, a UCSB graduate, UCSB history teacher, and longtime Isla Vista resident, recently watched a Foot Patrol video of a live band party at 6614 Del Playa that overflowed onto his rental property. His tenants called the police, Neushul said. “There was a live band playing, and a large group of people were on the roof of my house jumping up and down to the music, and it was disturbing,” he said. “We are a very forgiving place, but there need to be limits. I.V. has always been a bohemian, exciting town, a wild place — but did the parties involve 500 people and the kinds of arrests we’re seeing now?” By Paul Wellman
Desperate for a Fix
It’s not that all parties should be banned, Isla Vistans say: They “get” that they live in a college town. Of 15,000 residents, nearly 13,000 are students. But in the absence of a local government and regulations that are enforced, residents say, the mega-party culture is self-perpetuating and violence will find a channel.
“The people in I.V. are desperate for fixing, for a safer, more sustainable community,” said Cameron Schunk, a UCSB senior and the external vice president for local affairs for the university’s Associated Students. “This is a place you can call home. It is more than a student free-for-all. Even the students feel that way. We’re all kind of in this together.”
The county’s 2014-2015 property tax roll for Isla Vista lists 920 properties, most of them owned by investors who live elsewhere on the South Coast. Only 34 are listed on the Foot Patrol arrest logs for February and March weekends on average, but the list is different every week. Addresses on Del Playa Drive, Sabado Tarde Road, and Trigo Road figure prominently. The properties in the log are not necessarily party houses, Plastino said: Most arrests and citations occur in the street.
On a typical Friday or Saturday night, though, the Foot Patrol may shut down as many as five parties, Plastino said. The logs for February and March show an average of 66 arrests, citations, and detentions per weekend on charges ranging from underage drinking and loud music to burglary and battery. Isla Vista has only 7 percent of the county’s population but accounts for 25 percent of the county’s serious crime.
Bev Hills and Bart Nelson of Goleta pride themselves on keeping close tabs on their rental properties by day, but they don’t go there at night. So they were shocked when they watched a Foot Patrol video earlier this year of their tenants hosting Red Bull parties on the rooftops of their duplexes at 6680 and 6684 Sabado Tarde Road.
“I was furious,” Hills said. “It was like the roof was a wave. It was moving!”
Hills and Nelson put their tenants on notice for violating their lease, which allows no more than 10 people for parties in each unit and bars tenants from climbing onto the roof. The lease also allows the couple to fine tenants $500 per unit for playing live amplified music, Hills said.
“It will never be under control anywhere out there,” she said. “I don’t care if you spend the night on the property.”
VIDEO: This Isla Vista Foot Patrol footage shows a live band party at 6614 Del Playa that is spilling over onto the roof of 6610 Del Playa and the garage at 6611 Sabado Tarde Road.
Chronic Offenders
Party houses change location from one weekend to the next, like shifting sand. But there are some chronic party houses, including the OK Chalet, a six-bedroom apartment building at 6789 Sabado Tarde Road, which Plastino says has been a problem off and on for years. Jessie Jay Benenati, a Santa Barbara realtor, bought it in 2003 and sold it last year to a Los Angeles investor for more than $1.3 million, court records show.
“I wanted out,” Benenati said. “The students drove me nuts. Until the cops really do something about it, Isla Vista is going to be degrading year after year.”
Another chronic party house, the Foot Patrol said, is a 15-bedroom apartment building at 6777 Del Playa Drive, one of four Isla Vista properties owned by Alta Community Investment VIII LLC of Westlake Village. The total assessed value of these properties is $7.4 million. Todd Kaufman, one of the owners, said the group had spent “a ton of money” renovating 6777 Del Playa “to make it one of the nicest on the strand there.” But he said the tenants were being treated “too much like clients and not enough like kids,” so the company evicted a few of them and switched property managers.
“I don’t think we were fully aware of what was going on,” Kaufman said. From now on, he said, parents will be asked to cosign all lease agreements.
James Gelb of Montecito, one of Isla Vista’s biggest landlords, said the real problem is that most owners do not manage their properties themselves. Gelb owns and manages 29 properties on Del Playa (DP), more than any other landlord on the street. The Foot Patrol says it has shut down many parties in Gelb’s apartments. But Gelb has not signed up for the weekly log. He said he can’t be expected to “be a police officer” for his 600 tenants. It’s enough, he said, that he walks the street during weekdays and picks up bottles and cans.
Gelb owns a total of 32 properties in Isla Vista with an assessed value of $39 million on the county property tax roll.
“I can’t hire security guards,” he said. “I have limited resources. Everybody has party houses on DP. Who am I to go out there on the weekends and risk my life to go break up a party? There are adults there, and if they want to be stupid, they’re stupid. It’s not my fault, and there’s not a lot I can do.
“I take a lot of crap out there,” he went on. “I’m 57, and the students make fun of me. I have high blood pressure from these people. I do the best I can.” |
HOBART, Ind. (CBS) A northwest Indiana couple claims several officers roughed them up in their own front yard, and they say it was all captured on this surveillance video.CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones reports in surveillance video, a woman's head can be seen snapping back. Her attorneys say a police officer punched her, then took her down in her front yard."I was shocked when I saw this. And I grew up in Hobart," attorney Ron Layer said. "I can't imagine what any woman could say to a police officer to cause him to take his gun out and point it in her face."There's no audio in the surveillance footage, but the Olig family's own surveillance camera perched outside captured police arresting the mother, father and two sons August 30, 2007.The Oligs' attorneys say those arrests were unprovoked"There's no assertive moves by any of the Oligs against any of the officers before there's this punch by one of the police officers into Candace," said attorney Michael Babcock. "It actually knocks her to the ground."Police reports the attorneys gave us tell it a little differently.Corporal Paul Oliver states the wife, Candace Olig, came at him with a closed fist and hit him on the head three times, that he pushed her backwards in the chest, and that he pulled his handgun and pointed it towards her.Attorneys say the video disproves those actions."Even once the melee kind of starts, with the officers grabbing each one of the Olig families, throwing them to the ground, you still at no point do you see them resisting at all," Babcock said.Hobart police tell CBS 2 they've been called to the house on numerous occasions, and some neighbors say domestic turbulence inside often spills out onto the street."It's all the time; always got the Hobart police over there," said one neighbor.But this time, attorneys say the police were causing the turmoil, even when the husband, David Olig, tried to lead his family to back away.The Hobart city attorney said an independent investigation is being conducted by the Lake County Sheriff's Department. |
By Leo Babauta
Every problem you or I have (and they are many, small and large), is rooted in fear.
For some, that might seem obvious: the question is how to beat the fears. For others, it’s not so self-evident: why are my financial or relationship or procrastination problems caused by fear?
Let’s tackle both questions — the Why and the How.
First the Why: think about each problem you have, and then think about why you have the problem. Or why you aren’t able to solve it.
A few examples:
Procrastination : you probably fear failure, or the discomfort of doing something hard, or your fear missing out on something important (why you check email & social media instead of doing the hard task).
: you probably fear failure, or the discomfort of doing something hard, or your fear missing out on something important (why you check email & social media instead of doing the hard task). Debt : There are many possible causes, but often you’re spending more than you make because of a shopping habit, or a fear of letting go of some of the comforts you’re used to. The shopping habit might be caused by anxiety (fear that something you want isn’t going to happen) or loneliness (fear that you’re not good enough) or wanting your life to be better than it is (fear that you’re not OK as you are). Letting go of comforts (like your morning Starbucks, or your nice house or car) can be difficult if you fear discomfort, fear that you won’t be OK if your life is less comfortable, fear that others will judge you if your house/car/clothes aren’t as nice.
: There are many possible causes, but often you’re spending more than you make because of a shopping habit, or a fear of letting go of some of the comforts you’re used to. The shopping habit might be caused by anxiety (fear that something you want isn’t going to happen) or loneliness (fear that you’re not good enough) or wanting your life to be better than it is (fear that you’re not OK as you are). Letting go of comforts (like your morning Starbucks, or your nice house or car) can be difficult if you fear discomfort, fear that you won’t be OK if your life is less comfortable, fear that others will judge you if your house/car/clothes aren’t as nice. Relationship problems : There are obviously lots of possible causes (including that the other person has major problems, though you should always look at yourself as well) … but some fears that cause relationship problems include fear of letting go of control (causing you to want to control the other person), fear that you’re not good enough, fear of abandonment and other trust issues, fear of not being accepted, fear of accepting the other person (actually this is a fear of control problem).
: There are obviously lots of possible causes (including that the other person has major problems, though you should always look at yourself as well) … but some fears that cause relationship problems include fear of letting go of control (causing you to want to control the other person), fear that you’re not good enough, fear of abandonment and other trust issues, fear of not being accepted, fear of accepting the other person (actually this is a fear of control problem). Can’t exercise : Again, lots of causes, but some of them include: not enough time (fear of letting go of something else that you’re used to doing), exercise is too hard (fear of discomfort), distractions like TV and the Internet (fear of missing out, fear of discomfort).
: Again, lots of causes, but some of them include: not enough time (fear of letting go of something else that you’re used to doing), exercise is too hard (fear of discomfort), distractions like TV and the Internet (fear of missing out, fear of discomfort). Can’t change diet : Same as exercise really. Although there are also often emotional issues, in which case the fears can be very similar to the ones that lead to the shopping habit and financial problems.
: Same as exercise really. Although there are also often emotional issues, in which case the fears can be very similar to the ones that lead to the shopping habit and financial problems. Aren’t doing work you love : You maybe don’t know what you want to do, which means you haven’t committed to really exploring (fear of failing), or you know but haven’t taken the plunge (fear of failure), or fear that you’re not good enough.
: You maybe don’t know what you want to do, which means you haven’t committed to really exploring (fear of failing), or you know but haven’t taken the plunge (fear of failure), or fear that you’re not good enough. Stressed about work/school: You have lots to do, but the amount isn’t the problem. The problem is you’re worried about getting it all done, which means you have an ideal (I’m going to get it all done on time, and it’ll be done perfectly) and you fear that this ideal won’t come true. So the fear is based on an ideal, but the ideal isn’t realistic. You won’t get it all done perfectly and on time. No one does. Accept the reality, that you’ll get some done, to the best of your ability, and if you fail you’ll learn from that, and that’s how the world works. No one is perfect. The ideal doesn’t exist.
And so on. All other problems are some manifestation of what’s going on in the above examples.
Fear of failure, fear of not being good enough, fear of letting go of control, fear of being alone, fear of abandonment, fear of discomfort, fear of missing out, fear that you’re not OK as you are or your life isn’t OK as it is, fear that some ideal won’t come true.
And these all boil down to the same fear: fear that you won’t be OK, that you’re not good enough. A lack of trust in yourself, and in the present moment.
So what do we do about it?
How to Deal with the Fear
I originally titled this section, “How to Conquer the Fear”, but this is the problem. We see fear as an enemy, to be defeated or it will defeat us.
It’s not. Fear is us. We are human beings in a world of constant change, and this is scary. We are afraid that we won’t be OK in the chaos of change, that we will fail, that we will be judged, that life won’t turn out OK.
The fear is a part of us, and therefore we shouldn’t try to “destroy” it. It can’t be destroyed, because while we can dissipate one particular fear in one particular moment, we’ll still have fears after that. All our lives. It’s not something that can be eradicated — it’s a basic part of life.
So what can we do?
We can be aware of the fear. When we are struggling, suffering in some way, be aware that fear is stopping us. Look into what the fear might be. Then we can accept the fear. Don’t feel bad about it, don’t try to crush it, don’t wish it weren’t there. It’s a part of you. It’s a part of life. Accept it. Then we can see how the fear is hurting us. And see how that hurt is self-caused. How we can let go of the suffering by letting go of the fear. We can think rationally about the fear. Actually give it a little space, and consider it. What’s the worst-case scenario? Would you basically be OK? (The answer is almost invariably yes — maybe life wouldn’t meet your “ideal”, but you’d find a way and be OK.) We can be grateful for who we are, and what life actually is (as opposed to what it’s not, or what we’re not). Appreciate ourselves, and others, and life at this moment. We can be grateful for the opportunities that this moment has brought, rather than fearing the change it represents. For example, a loss is an opportunity for reinvention, doing something hard is an opportunity to create or do good in the world, and change is always an opportunity for learning and growth. We can return to this moment, and see that it is perfectly fine as is. There is no ideal when we’re seeing this actual moment and accepting it for what it is. If there’s no ideal, there’s no fear. If we don’t have an ideal of some kind of success, we don’t fear failure. If we don’t have an ideal of what we should be, we don’t fear that we’re not good enough. If we don’t have an ideal of what someone else should be, we don’t get angry at them.
This is a process of awareness, acceptance, seeing the pain, finding gratitude, and being in the moment without an ideal.
It can be done. And then soon after, another fear will appear. And we practice again.
With this practice, we can work with the fear that’s causing our problems. We can accept it without letting it stop us. And this practice, because we are alleviating our own suffering, is an act of self-compassion. |
How to be a better NodeJS Module Maintainer
This post will share with you some of the lessons I’ve learned as a developer and maintainer of some NodeJS modules available on NPM, and from watching what others do with their projects. Naturally, this is just going to be the way that I do things. Others may have completely different ways, some of which I might find a lot better. This blog post is adapted from a talk I gave at LNUG in London, which you can watch here if you’re not in a reading mood.
I’ve written my Node module. Now what?
Congratulations, you’ve finished a fine piece of work. Your hypothetical example module, blogPostGenerator , is going to make it easy for hypothetical example blog authors to write new hypothetical example articles with minimal effort.
But they can’t benefit from your excellent work unless they know:
✓ How to use it ✓ That it does what it says it does ✓ Whether it’s going to be maintained and kept up-to-date ✓ Whether it’s reliable enough to use in production ✓ That is exists
Let’s look at some of the things we can do to ensure your module is as inclusive and accessible as we can reasonably make it. Just so you know, most of the examples I give here are for some kind of command-line and generally use globally installed NodeJS modules, so they should work the same regardless of your operating system.
Target Everyone
Examine your dependencies. Are any of them unsuitable for or incompatible with a web browser? If they’re all compatible with a JavaScript browser runtime, there’s no reason why your targeted set of users shouldn’t include front-end developers.
By using a tool like Browserify you can compile your code into a single JavaScript file to be used in front-end projects. Stick this in a /bin or /dist folder, and don’t forget to ugilify it too!
browserify index.js > blogPostGenerator.js # see http://browserify.org uglify blogPostGenerator.js > blogPostGenerator.min.js # see https://github.com/mishoo/UglifyJS
The Art of a good README
In case you’ve never noticed before, the README is a file in the root of a program’s source code directory structure which should be read before using that program. Someone looking at your project for the first time should be given all the information they need to get started with it.
That doesn’t mean it needs to include comprehensive documentation, but for simple modules that don’t do many things, you might as well put it all in there.
Simply writing down how to use your API is not enough. Include examples. This is a very important rule. Think of some common use cases for your code and show people how your module can solve their problem in that use case.
Simply writing down how to use your API is not enough.
Include examples. This is a very important rule.
As for how to write it, you should definitely use Markdown rather than plain text. Markdown is much easier to read on GitHub or npm.org (which is where most people will be reading it) because it will be rendered as HTML. It’s easy to get started with Markdown - simply using headers (e.g. ### for H3) is enough to make a big difference.
You should also include a change history/log, instructions on how to test your module, how to compile and/or install it, and, importantly, how to contribute to it.
There are many ways to specify this information. For how to install or compile you could use an INSTALL.md file, and for how to contribute you could use CONTRIBUTING.md . I would recommend this for larger, more mature projects, but when you’re just starting out a README on its own is good.
The Importance of Good Dependency Management
We’re probably all familiar with npm install and npm install --save to install and save dependencies, but here are some other commands which are helpful for making sure your dependencies are properly managed.
npm version
This is pretty cool: not only will npm version update the version code in package.json , it’ll also create a new git commit for the version, and a new git tag at that commit that looks like v1.3.2 . This tag structure is a common convention for version tags on GitHub. This version should follow the Semantic Versioning system, which npm expects modules to use in order to ensure compatibility with dependencies.
npm version takes an option to specify what type of a version bump this is: Major, meaning a change which alters existing APIs in some way; Minor, meaning an addition or change which does not modify existing APIs; and patch, usually meaning a bug fix, or some refactoring which does not affect behaviour. For example, if you’ve added some new config options you might use npm version minor - but if you change the generateBlogPost function to be called writeBrilliantBlogPost , then it’s a major change because it changes an existing API.
Since npm version creates a git commit, you can specify a commit message. Just like with git commit , you can do this with the -m flag:
npm version minor -m "Up to version 3.4.3, yay!"
npm shrinkwrap
What does it do? It will create a file called npm-shrinkwrap.json which will contain all the dependencies of your project, their dependencies, and so on, at specific versions - the versions you currently have in your project.
Why is this important? It’s important because not everybody respects the rules of semantic versioning, and because even when people do respect the rules of semantic versioning, problems can still arise between minor “non-breaking” versions.
This means that whenever anybody installs your module or clones your project and runs npm install , the dependency versions they get will be exactly the same as the ones you had when you ran npm shrinkwrap .
You can also specify to shrinkwrap the devDependencies , which will be useful for people cloning your project from its source. Do that using npm shrinkwrap --dev . I would recommend this most of the time.
npm prune
This is a useful command if you’re using npm shrinkwrap , because it will remove any installed modules which are not added as dependencies, perhaps because you were trying them out temporarily, or something. If you have un-saved dependencies, and you try to run npm shrinkwrap , you’ll get an error to do with extraneous dependencies . At this point you should run npm prune , and try npm shrinkwrap again.
A pre-publish checklist
Let’s go through a quick checklist of what to do when you’ve got a new version of your module that you’d like to publish.
What’s the next version?
If you’re currently on 0.23.3 and it’s a bugfix/patch, it’ll be 0.23.4 next. Update the changelog either in README.md or CHANGELOG.md . Add an entry for the day you’re publishing, saying what the change was. Make sure your dependencies are locked down to certain. Run npm prune then npm shrinkwrap --dev . If you’re targeting the front-end, compile your code using browserify Commit these changes, you don’t need to mention the version code yet… Run npm version with major , minor , or patch and a message, using -m - this will be your commit message. Do a quick git push You’re done! npm publish will push changes to npm. Well done!
Interacting with your community
Not specifically to do with Node modules, this is some general advice for open-source projects. Once you start open-sourcing your work and people start opening issues and pull requests, you’ve created a small community. Remember that in this community are real people with real feelings, who put real time into making your project a little bit better.
With that in mind, I think it is of huge importance to publicly recognise contributions. I normally make either a contributors.md file or put a list of contributors directly in the README with links to GitHub profiles so that they get a little bit of exposure for their projects when people see their names on yours. Also, whenever a new version is cut, if someone’s hard work contributed to the completion of that version, I like to recognise them in the Changelog too.
Your community of contributors is made up of real people with real feelings, who put real time into making your project a little bit better.
I guarantee you that if you do this, not only will you encourage more contributors, you’ll get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, and so will your new open-source-co-workers.
People also need to be responded to as quickly as possible. If someone opens an issue or a pull request, you shouldn’t put it off for weeks. I think it’s safe to say that because you’re doing this work for free, nobody expects you to treat it like a full-time job. But if you get a second simply to tell someone that their issue or PR has been seen, it’s a nice thing to do. Nobody likes to be ignored! And if someone’s PR isn’t going to be merged, you should be honest: tell them so, and why it isn’t going to happen. Perhaps they can fix a couple of things in their fork and then try again.
Is it done?
Let’s revisit our checklist from the beginning. How did we check off each of the points?
✓ How to use it – You’ve written documentation and examples too. That should do it! ✓ It does what it says it does – The examples should cover this, too. ✓ Whether it’s going to be maintained and kept up-to-date – Having a changelog, and responding quickly and usefully to issues and PRs should reassure people. ✓ Whether it’s reliable enough to use in production – You’ve told them how to compile and test it, so now your users can figure out how it does what it does. ✓ That is exists – it’s published, so if people search for it on npm, they’ll find it!
I hope this has been helpful to some folks out there. If you have any more tips to share, leave them in the comments or drop me a line! 😀
Thanks to: Jon Kelly for his comprehensive and feedback about content and language, and Orlando Kalossakas for his feedback about layout and readability.
Heckle me on Twitter @basicallydan. |
New Delhi: In a bid to exceed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s climate pledges, India announced that it will tender enough renewable energy projects over the next three years to surpass 200 gigawatts of green capacity build by 2022.
India declared a three-year program towards tenders for renewable energy projects that will meet its original target of 175 gigawatts of clean-energy capacity within five years, in addition to plans to spur local solar equipment manufacturing that will help push past the goal. It’s also looking at ways to export more wind turbines, a measure that may benefit Suzlon Energy Ltd.
“Our renewable road-map doesn’t include plans for floating solar projects and offshore wind installations, and we will comfortable exceed 200 gigawatts by 2022," power minister R.K. Singh said in New Delhi.
With renewable energy targets second only to those set by the government of China, India has a long way to go from a current base of 60 gigawatts to reach its ambition of 175 gigawatts in five years. The South Asian nations needs to expand its current solar capacity seven-fold to reach the 100 gigawatts by 2022. It would have to double wind installations to touch 60 gigawatts over the same period.
The plan to exceed these targets will see tenders of more than 80 gigawatts of solar projects and 30 gigawatts for wind by the 2020 financial year, Anand Kumar, secretary at the new and renewable energy ministry, said in New Delhi.
India is also considering getting export-import bank support to help wind turbine makers increase exports, Kumar added. Bloomberg |
The directions below detail construction of the hive’s base and inner and outer covers, plus five supers for collecting honey. Come springtime, you’ll begin with two honey supers (each outfitted with 10 waxed frames), adding the remaining supers and frames as necessary to accommodate your bees’ rising comb production. Though optional, one coat each of primer and exterior paint will help your handiwork weather the elements. Just be sure to use a no-VOC formula and limit it to exterior surfaces only.
Tools and Materials
One 4′ Á— 2′ sheet of ¾”-thick plywood
One 2′ Á— 2′ sheet of ¼”-thick plywood
Four 8′-long pine 1Á—12s (¾” Á— 11¼”)
Tape measure
Table saw*
Chop saw*
Power drill with ³â„₃₂ and âµâ„₃₂” bits
Hammer
1 lb. 2″ 6D galvanized nails
1 lb. 1¼” hardened trim nails
Waterproof wood glue
Jigsaw
40 #12 Á— 1¼” Phillipshead wood screws
Fifty 6¼” hive frames with wax foundation (from a beekeeping supplier such as dadant.com)
10-frame entrance reducer (from a beekeeping supplier such as dadant.com)
Cutting the Lumber
Use the table saw* to:
1. Cut the ¾”-thick plywood sheet into two pieces: one measuring 21¾” Á— 18¼” for the telescoping cover (T3), the other 22″ Á— 16¼” for the bottom board (B5).
2. Cut the ¼”-thick plywood sheet to 19â…›” Á— 15½” for the inner cover (I3).
3. Rip (cut lengthwise) each of the pine 1Á—12s into two pieces: one measuring 6â…” wide, the other 4½” wide.
4. Rip one of the resulting 4½”-wide pine boards into three pieces: one measuring 2¼” wide, and two measuring ¾” wide. From each of the three remaining 4½”-wide pine boards, rip one 2″-wide board. (Discard scrap or save for later beekeeping projects.)
Use the chop saw* to:
1. Cut the 2¼”-wide pine board into two 21¾”-long pieces (T1) and two 16¾”-long pieces (T2).
2. Cut the ¾”-wide pine boards into two 19â…ž”-long pieces (I1), two 14¾”-long pieces (I2), two 19â…›”-long pieces (B3), and one 16¼”-long piece (B4).
3. Cut the 6â…”-wide pine boards into ten 19â…ž”-long pieces (H1) and ten 14¾”-long pieces (H2).
4. Cut the 2″-wide pine boards into ten 16¼”-long pieces (H3), two 22″-long pieces (B1), and two 14¾”-long pieces (B2).
Instructions
Make the telescoping cover. Align the T1 and T2 pieces specified in “Cutting the Lumber” to form a rectangle, sandwiching the shorter pieces (T2) inside the longer ones (T1). Using the power drill fitted with the ³â„₃₂” bit, drill 2 holes along the edges of the T1 pieces (as shown). Nail together using 8 of the galvanized nails. Attach the plywood telescoping cover (T3) to the top, using 20 of the trim nails.
Make the inner cover. Use the table saw* to make a 3/8“-deep by 1/4“-wide groove in the I1 and I2 pieces specified in “Cutting the Lumber.” Slide the 1/4“-thick plywood (I3) into that groove (as you would fit a pane of glass into a window). Ensure that I3 fits properly with the I1 and I2 pieces to form a perfectly flush frame. Then disassemble, glue the grooves, insert the plywood, and reassemble. Nail together using 8 of the trim nails, as shown. Using the jigsaw, cut a 31/4” by 11/4” oval in the center of the inner cover (for ventilation).
Make each honey super. Use the table saw* to cut a 5/8“-deep by 3/8“-wide notch out of 1 short side of each of the H2 pieces specified in “Cutting the Lumber.” (Ten hive frames will rest atop these notches inside each super when the hive is assembled.) Using the power drill fitted with the ³â„₃₂” bit, drill 5 holes along the edges of the specified H1 pine pieces (as shown). Create a box by sandwiching the shorter pieces (H2) inside the longer pieces (H1). Glue the joints, then hammer a galvanized nail into each pre-drilled hole. Using the power drill fitted with the âµâ„₃₂” bit, drill 4 holes along the length of each handle piece (H3), and attach to the supers using 4 of the screws on each side (as shown). Repeat these steps with the remaining specified pine pieces to make 4 more supers.
Make the bottom board. Align the B1 and B2 pieces specified in “Cutting the Lumber” to form a rectangle (as shown), sandwiching the shorter pieces (B2) inside the longer ones (B1). Using the power drill fitted with the 3/32” bit, drill 2 holes along the edges of the B1 pieces (as shown). Nail together using 8 of the galvanized nails. Attach the remaining 3/4” plywood piece (B5) to the top, using 20 of the trim nails (as shown). Align the B3 and B4 pine pieces atop the plywood and nail in place using 15 of the trim nails (as shown). This U-shaped platform will create a gap at the front of the hive, allowing bees to enter.
Assemble the hive. In each super, hang 10 frames with wax foundation from the notches you made. Stack the bottom board, 2 of the supers, the inner cover, and the telescoping cover. Insert the entrance reducer into the gap between the bottom board and the adjacent super (to discourage robbing by other bees and to control ventilation). As the season progresses, add more supers to the hive.
*Power saws can cause serious injury; please follow the safety instructions in your owner’s manual. Make sure to wear protective eyewear. |
[gdm_video source=”youtube” video_id=”3XWviildjmU” url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XWviildjmU&sns=tw”]
Lady Gaga filmed a lyric music video for her new song “Applause” at Mickys in West Hollywood last night, and she got some help with some very lucky, and familiar, gals — Detox, Raven, Shannel, Shangela and Morgan McMichaels.
Ok so the fight scene from orange is the new black that @TheOnlyDetox and I did to @ladygaga was all in fun, a part of the skit !!! — morgan mcmichaels (@morganmcmichael) August 13, 2013
The girls were all doing their thing at Showgirls Monday Nights when Miss Gaga decided to go by and film, as you can see above. One lady who is not so happy however is Vivienne Pinay, who cancelled her appearance at the last second.
@HauteSpencer @ladygaga the one and only day I canceled! — Vivienne Pinay (@ViviennePinay) August 13, 2013
The lyric video will be released next week. |
Booming turbine noise, kerosene smells in the air while constant change and new challenges present themselves: The daily life of a large airport is perfectly presented and is a particular challenge in professional and economic Airport Simulator 2014.
Whether refueling super jumbos, or coordinating air traffic controllers and technical staff, or even organizing perfect catering: The management of this airport will always have new challenges for you!
The game offers most detailed and comprehensive simulation of the events at an international airport . Many management and business options for the expansion of terminals and extension of runways + countless missions and tasks that the player has to fulfill in order to guarantee a successful airport should keep you pinned to this game for a while.
Grab the Airport Simulator 2014 here.
How to redeem:
Head to the site above and add the game to your cart. (The site is in German so you may need the help from someone experienced with the language)
Login or create an account
Use the voucher code “ CHIP-FLUG2014 “
“ The price in your basket should be reduced to zero. |
NEW YORK, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A homeless New York man said he used his Twitter account to reconnect with the daughter he hasn't had contact with in 11 years.
Daniel Morales, 58, said he got a Twitter account about three weeks ago with a cellphone donated by Underheard in New York, a project started by advertising interns at Bartle Bogle Hegarty to have four homeless New Yorkers share their experiences on Twitter, the New York Daily News reported Friday.
Morales said his number of followers grew to more than 3,000 people and he decided to use the social networking site to try to find his 27-year-old daughter, who he had not seen in 11 years.
He said he posted his daughter's name, Sarah Rivera, along with his cellphone number and a picture of what the girl looked like at age 16. Morales said his search finally came to an end Thursday when he got a phone call from his daughter.
"She lives in Brooklyn!" Morales said. "We are going to get together tomorrow, but we don't know where yet. I didn't even recognize her voice, but it turns out she is so close. It's too much, too much."
Rosemary Melchior, one of the people behind the Underheard in New York project, said the team "didn't expect this, but it's these unexpected results that are the most rewarding." |
With the national football team still unable to make the top 100 in the world, there appears to be a big question mark hanging over the rapid growth that the Thai Premier League has enjoyed in recent years.
A strong domestic league is a foundation for a successful national team, according to one of the sport’s oldest cliches. However, that doesn’t apply to the Thai case. While the TPL, the country’s top-flight division, has continued to grow by leaps and bounds, the national team is languishing in 135th with no hope of breaking into the top 100.
A quick glance at the Fifa rankings shows that Thailand have been slipping down the chart since 2009 when the TPL underwent a major overhaul that sparked an upsurge in its popularity among local fans.
Figures for the Thai team’s success on the international stage over the same period make for even more unpleasant reading since the boom in domestic football coincides with the national side’s long title drought.
For a country once regarded as the region’s top dog, Thailand have failed to claim a title since the revamping of the TPL, though they came close to ending the drought in December when they fell at the last hurdle in the Asean Championship, going down 2-3 on aggregate against Singapore in the final.
Gone are the days when that trophy was clinched almost on a regular basis by the Thais, whose last taste of regional glory was in 2007 when they won the SEA Games for the eighth time running. It came as no surprise that they lost their status as the region’s No 1, with Vietnam sitting six ranks above them at 129th.
Despite the massive growth the TPL has enjoyed of late, Thai clubs have fared little better than other teams from Asean countries in the continent’s elite club competition, the AFC Champions League. The fact that no Thai side has survived beyond the group stage since BEC Tero Sasana reached the final in 2003 makes a mockery of Thai football authorities’ claims that the TPL is among the top five on the continent.
Many probably wonder why the TPL’s growth has failed to yield the outcome seen in traditional powerhouses Japan and South Korea, whose club sides have won six of the last seven Asian Champions League titles since 2006.
A close look at the TPL exposes the brutal fact that, while the league has grown – especially in financial value thanks to cash flowing in – still lacking is proper management, which is the fundamental problem when it comes to league development.
Appointed as head of the TPL company to organise the league in 2009 when the Thai FA implemented professional standards for domestic football along with the AFC’s “Vision Asia” strategy, Vichit Yamboonrueng reckons institutional problems remain a major issue.
“There’s no doubt our league is now No 1 in Southeast Asia even though we still have far fewer spectators than Indonesia. Overall, the TPL’s image is good despite some complaints about refereeing standards.
“We have started improving, which has made our league more interesting. But we still trail far behind Japan’s J-League. We’re on the right track but we still have problems in management. There’s no way we can develop if we manage things poorly.
“We need to create more good things than bad. Ideally, we all want to see only the good things. If we don’t start correcting the problems we’ll never solve them. But we’re now unable to tackle problems due to a lack of resources, most of which belong to the Thai FA.
“What the association needs to do is open up more competition, internally. The problem is the institution is weak and that’s why we cannot progress. Power is monopolised by a single group of people and there is vested interest inside the association,” Vichit told The Nation.
Newin Chidchob, president of Buriram United, believes the league would improve if there were an overhaul of management not only of the Football Association of Thailand but also in the TPL company.
“While players and football clubs have improved, management of the two organisations remains unprofessional and there is no transparency. All decisions [to manage the league] should come from club members, not from the FAT or a few people.
“Thai football does not progress as it could because there are two kinds of people in the sport. One that only wants to take credit but do nothing and another that wants to seek benefits but does nothing to develop football,” he said.
Pinit Ngarmpring, president of fan group Cheer Thai Power, agreed good governance was the most important thing for league management. There’s a need to restructure the TPL company to make it more transparent by welcoming outsiders to take part in management.
“Many people want to invest Bt1 billion-Bt2 billion in the TPL but are not confident that their money will be safe. They think they are not part of the inner circle. Decisions often depend on only one person,” Pinit said, without mentioning a name. |
HTOMario Profile Blog Joined March 2012 United States 439 Posts Last Edited: 2013-06-06 19:03:42 #1 Under no terms by making this guide do I do it because mech is the "best" way to play. I do believe that mech has so much more potential than players would have you believe and actually is incredibly viable in any league including Grandmaster. It might not make you the next flash but it is an alternative in enjoying the Terran race. Also excuse my english, I am not a native speaker.
Some things to know.
I have been working on this build order / style of mech since about February, this is an evolved version of my previous guides / replays. The most up to date way on how I play TvP mech.
You can see the previous build order here.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=398500
my new and improved version of mech has had several Top 30 GM's on NA / EU help me build through advice or facing them. I have played hundreds of hours and gone through even more watching replays, I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labor!
The first thing I want to cover is the build order.
I have been working on this build order / style of mech since about February, this is an evolved version of my previous guides / replays. The most up to date way on how I play TvP mech.my new and improved version of mech has had several Top 30 GM's on NA / EU help me build through advice or facing them. I have played hundreds of hours and gone through even more watching replays, I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labor!The first thing I want to cover is the build order.
(build order)
Replay:
10 depo
12 barracks
15 gas
15 orbital
17 depo
1-3 marines, reactor
first 400 minerals CC
first 100 gas factory.
When factory finishes get 1 refinery 1 armory, 1 widow mine.
After 1 widow mine get a supply depo and a tech lab on the factory.
React as scouted.
Video annotations:
Rally point on 9 Supply to build your supply depo at the wall on time.
You always want your barracks in a position that if you had to make bunkers infront of it, you only need a few to protect your Command center. With this positioning I can easily defend 1 gas and all my buildings with 3 bunkers split up infront of my buildings. With the exception of my frontal supply depo. A great defense for blink stalkers.
14 supply, rally your next worker to the gas geyser. Have another SCV qued up and you will be taking your gas at 15 supply right away. use the barracks scv and 1 scv from the command center to take this geyser.
Scout anytime after your gas geyser and barracks are already producing. Produce 1-3 marines depending on what you scout and how safe you feel before the reactor. I prefer to make 2-3 by default as they help stop a zealot.
Command center at 400 minerals. This will be delayed or faster by your reactor timing. remember that if you get a reactor before your second marine. You are vulnerable to chrono zealot however stronger against zealot stalker mothership core.
Your first 100 gas after the reactor, make a factory.
Don't forget this third supply depo right after or before you make your 2 marines at a time. Any supply depo after your first should go behind your mineral line, to help prevent cheeses from sniping them.
When your factory finishes take a second gas and an armory.
With your first widow mine ready you should be starting another supply depo and then a techlab. We want 1 widow mine to stop oracles and the ability to get siege tanks right after. This makes it so we can get enough to stop blink stalkers. Which usually hits at the 8 minute mark.
If you haven't scouted blink stalkers or a heavy gateway all in with proxy immortals. Get widow mines and the burrowing claws. We can use these defensively and aggressively vs stargate and only gateway play.
Once you have drilling claws on the way drop a starport. This times out that you can have your medivac flying to his base with 4 widow mines and have drilling claws finish on the way. Take your expansion when comfortable in doing so.
Make sure to have scans at 7:30 for DT's drop an engineering bay around 7:30, once they finish feel free to mule again. The build becomes scout dependant from here. However your focus is to get to 3-4 factories 1 barracks getting ghosts and 1 starport with tech lab for medivacs for drops, vikings for collosai or ravens.
make sure you reach 3 bases shortly after dropping your production. You want the gas to be able to support your high tech units. Just like a protoss is limited to collosai or storm on 2 base, you cannot get raven and ghost until you are at 3.
Defending all ins:
Defending any all in that comes in through your front is relatively easy, all you have to do is drop a bunker or two and crank out a siege tank after your first widow mine while delaying your drilling claws until after you are safe. Then simply continue with the build. The bunker doesn't have to be at your ramp, it can be 5 yards away so that most things can't fire on it. Even 6 or 7 works since then any unit that comes up the ramp will then be hit with tanks and will funnel through bunkers to get there. Bunkers that can only be reached through the high ground.
Oracles: Your first widow mine should always go in your mineral line, once you scout stargate just drop an earlier engineering bay and drop 1 turret in each mineral line. Then continue with your normal build, try to avoid any pheonix he might make when you are dropping.
Dark templar: Save your scans starting 7:00, make sure you have 1 nearly 2 by the 7:30 mark. Once your ebay is finished feel free to spend some and always leave 1 until you have proper dark templar defense like a turret at your front.
Blink stalker: Make sure you have proper building placement in every game, you want your production facilities near your main, defending 1 gas and away from the edges. It allows for easier bunker placements like the pictures below. Producing 2 marines at a time and 1 siege tank you'll be able to take your expo in no time.
Production facility goals
4-7 factories, 1-3 barracks, 1-3 starports. It all depends on your economy.
Don't be afraid to grab your third with proper bunker positoning.
Ideal composition: Thor / raven / ghost / X [X?] Nothing changes on thor ghost raven, no matter what you want them. If there is an air army you add viking and if there is a ground army you add hellbats. You can however use widow mines for either one depending on if you snipe their AOE.
The rest of the things to know are my little rules. I follow these rules down to a T and very rarely change them. They are rules i've developed playing hundreds of games of mech at GM level. I have faced many top 16 GMs, ranging to high masters the last few months and the build before you has been my 1 strategy i've focused on perfecting. Many players knew what they were facing and I practice this build many times a day against team mates. I haven't found anything that hard counters this build or can't be stopped.
1) Scout blink? Get an engineering bay after your 3 bunkers and save a scan or two.
2) When dropping against pheonix try to stay near edges where you can drop, this allows you to drop your units while moving and burrow fast to kill pheonix. It isn't an auto loss of everything inside if he finds your dropship.
3) The less AOE (collosai / templar) the stronger widow mines are.
4) You can continue widow mine production and do a 15 minute timing attack if you have the counter to his army. Vikings / ghosts.
5) Always have a buffer for your siege tanks.
6) The closer to 200 army you are the better thors are over siege tanks.
7) Never go above 170 supply without scanning his army and counter comping appropriately.
8) Your goal is 15 ravens, 15 ghosts and the rest thor + filler units.
9) The less zealots the more thors.
10) The more zealots the more hellbats
11) have a third? Drop a turret ring in your main.
12) Sensor tower near your main defense line, even on 2 base.
13) Emp'ing immortals is more important then Emp'ing high templar when you have a ground army.
14) Emp'ing high templar is more important then Emp'ing any other unit when you have an air army.
15) The longer the game goes on the more missile turrets you add. You don't want anything reaching your production.
16) Planetary fortresses are great ways to close off attack paths with missile turrets.
17) Past your 3rd base you may want to use building armor + 2 planetaries depending on the distance from your main to your new expo.
18) no less then 2 turrets at each base
19) If zealot heavy upgrade armor first.
20) if scouting tempest favor viking upgrades
21) If they have an air army and no aoe mass widow mine thor viking
22) Always strive to your 15 / 15 raven ghost army.
23) You don't have to have even half his bases as long as you are maxed and have an income.
24) Always trade efficiently
25) Any unit can be dropped and harass
26) Widow mines gives less warning then hellbats on dropping.
27) Use Shift + D to drop widow mines while flying over and burrowing mines when flying right to left or from bottem to top.
28) When flying left to right or top to bottom use Control + E on the first widow mine that drops each time you drop another using the shift D method. This will keep targeting all widow mines in the area and burrowing them.
29) When using the raven only use 1-2 point defense drones at a time, be patient so he you don't lose all your energy if he retreats.
30) Once you snipe the templar (or emp) the mass tempests are incredibly weak to any anti air that reaches them since you can freely point defense drone and engage without needing to split or pull away in fear of storm.
31) Never hunter seeker tempest.
32) Widow mines are best against voidrays.
33) Thors should use splash mode against any air unit but the tempest or collosai
34) If the opponent can't kill the widow mines before they drop, feel free to drop his army.
35) It can never hurt to have 1 nuke available.
36) The farther spaced out you are the more sensor towers you need.
37) a busy protoss has a hard time stopping sensor towers being built around the map. Use this right before you engage to easily see counter attacks or retreat paths.
38) It's best to prevent blink stalker from moving past widow mines then to chase them with widow mines.
39) Never lose your patience as mech, you will most likely die the moment you do.
40) The better your economy, the more scvs you must lose through repairing your main army or sacrificing.
41) Orbitals are more important then a 5th base as long as you are mining from 6 gas geysers.
42) Don't bother splitting the map, only attack where you can easily defend or plan to attack.
43) a floating orbital and dropping mules in random locations is always usefull.
44) have raven out of main control group and following thors.
45) With critical viking counts make sure they follow a thor with the raven. You don't want them flying ahead into storm. Only engage them through PDD and snipe if you can.
46) All though you don't need to harass to win, it sure as hell helps a lot when you do.
47) harass is viable at any stage of the game.
48) If he has voidray and tempest make sure to have 5 thors in AOE mode.
49) If he doesn't have any AOE or blink and you have widow mines, you are currently ahead.
50) If he has little anti air before an attack, try to snipe the collosai before the fight.
51) Always knew where and what his army is.
52) always be ready for a fight to engage you, before it engages you. It will make you a shit ton stronger.
53) Always have thors when fighting tempest, a ground remax is always possible.
54) Unless you are sure you can win the game with your push, always re treat to defend counter attacks that need your main army.
Frequent stream questions:
Why drilling claws so early?
In the early phase drilling claws are really hard to stop if you can kill observers, without AOE they are the most powerful unit against protoss that aren't going mass zealot. You also have the claws earlier allowing faster harass drops with less time to respond increasing it's potency. You have drilling claws already so if you scout an air transition you can crank those bastards out and still be useful. You can do many mid game timing attacks with widow mines as long as you have vikings to kill his collosai or obs and ghost to kill his templar. (only needed to advance, if you're split up and burrowed templar aren't really useful to attack into defended positions.
Aren't immortals a hard counter?
No, a thor trades equal to an immortal and you can produce more. Once the immortals shields are gone they are incredibly vulnerable. Widow mines, hunter seeker, emp and hellbats are pretty good at removing the shields. EMP being the best of course.
Isn't tempest a hard counter?
Nah, ravens stop them hard core. As long as you have enough anti air and can snipe his templar you should always win the fight. The truth is that it comes down to a micro battle and the superior player will win. It is slightly harder for the terran however since he has to use ravens, ghosts and his army compared to tempest and templar. However since you build these units early on you can already have a critical mass and exploit any ground to air transitions and just win the game.
Why ravens and ghosts?
The power of the mech army has always been heavy splash through siege tanks and space control. We're taking that theory and incorporating it into mass EMP which is disastrous against protoss and combined with point defense drone against projectiles or hunter seeker againt void rays, immortals, clumped up units you already have a lot of splash that is just energy. Making you very effective, imagine 2 different forms of high templar. Combine this with the raw power and survivability that mech has through HP and armor.
You mentioned timing attacks with widow mines?
It's very simple, if you can kill the observer through scans + viking or raven + viking, he simply can't move where widow mines are. Not to mention that if he can't kill them before they burrow under his army or keep them away. He just loses everything. There are a few ways to exploit that however that is for another guide and at another time. You'll see me use this often on yotuube or stream though.
Pro players are saying mech isn't viable?
It has lots of potential and the raven, ghost and widow mine are the key to it. In reality it hasn't been explored nearly as much as bio since WOL and hots just has so much more to offer to the mech Terran. I can't prove it works at GSL level because well I am not GSL level. I have proven it works in grandmaster though, this means anyone grandmaster and below could still use this strategy to win games. You've seen a few terrans pull out a mech strategy and win which means it is possible in some form. I'm simply trying to kick it up a notch
The truth is that the lower of a league you are, the better mech is for you. Until players start figuring out how to not engage your army you will always be stronger. This doesn't even come until master league players for a lot of people. You could easily get to masters using this strategy. It's just easier to control if you don't have to deal with constant harass. Sure it gets to be a lot harder in high masters / GM but it's still really hard to pick apart a well defended mech Terran.
Do you use this strategy every TvP?
Pretty much, I have a few more I can pull out that I am tinkering with but this is my baby. I've played this for hours to hours, to days, to weeks against the same friends practicing every which way to break me. None of them can find a way that is stable. There simply is no hard counter that I have found. You could lose because of a few mistakes building up but there isn't a hard counter to my knowledge.
Have any replays to share with us?
Sure, I got some GM and high master ones. I just played, I'll share the last 5 or so. Pick them straight out of my recent matches. I don't think i've lost a tvp in a few days so I am pretty sure they are all wins. Not trying to cocky or ego or anything. Just saying that I am very confident in my TvP at the moment over the other races.
What is your ultimate army that you strive for?
15 ghosts, 15 raven, and 5-10 thors. Sprinkle in hellbats for gateway units, vikings for air or widow mine for either as long as he isn't zealot heavy. The only thing that really changes is the buffer. Everything else you get the same past the first 4-5 tanks for defense.
Why not mass siege tank, does it not work?
It works, it just isn't as strong or robust or mobile. All though I do use mass siege tanks from time to time for aesthetics it's just not as powerful.
How come there is no mention of Carriers?
I guess I forgot about that unit, I never have a problem against them thors splashing them, ghosts hitting them and vikings / mines supporting, carriers aren't really a problem unless he gets a shit ton of them.
in fact once you see a carrier transition you can just make a turret / army push. Interceptors actually take a while to build and the moment his carriers lose momentum it's a full on re treat for him. Since you end up getting building armor and range anyway turrets are pretty handy at killing interceptors. Minerals are very rarely a problem in mech.
So basically my question is what do you do against the lategame composition of mostly carrier, just a few voidray/tempest and some immortals and possibly templar. I feel it's pretty easy to transition into this as protoss and I don't think carriers have a good answer for T. Vikings and thors do 'ok' but I feel it's pretty easy for P to force a nearly even trade with this and then just win with the remax. Especially since T is forced into lot's of starports which are useless if P goes for a ground remax.
Classic mistakes P seem to make agianst mech is going for a timing to try and kill them (this rarely works), focussing too much on zealot/archon (sucks because of the high zealot count being dominated by hellbats) and going too tempest focussed imo (easily countered by PDD).
I don't need to deviate my composition at all for this army, in fact I spend the whole game building the units that crush this. voidray intercepts and high templar are very weak to thor / ghost, PDD for tempests. Immortals are nice but you can just fill in some mines or hellbats as a buffer, since they usually stack under voidrays and carriers the emps almost always hit his whole army, voidrays and carriers have a slow acceleration. On top of this you can always force a retreat with a nuke.
As carriers if you are forced to retreat your interceptors still take damage. If you drop a nuke everytime you engage you will whittle down his interceptors relatively fast. Don't forget hunter seeker as well. You can use emp / hunter seeker on immortals and you will have plenty since you build them really early on. Hell you will usually have 4-5 tanks as well from your mid game to only hit the immortals who are emp'd. They will drop fast.
Replays:
http://drop.sc/340226
http://drop.sc/340227
http://drop.sc/340228
http://drop.sc/339353
http://drop.sc/340229
http://drop.sc/340230
http://drop.sc/340212
6.5.213 replay:
http://drop.sc/340363
http://drop.sc/340364
Twitter: @hfmario
Youtube: /sc2yosho
Twitch: /HTOMario
http://echogaming.eu/
Redit post: Replay: http://drop.sc/340183 10 depo12 barracks15 gas15 orbital17 depo1-3 marines, reactorfirst 400 minerals CCfirst 100 gas factory.When factory finishes get 1 refinery 1 armory, 1 widow mine.After 1 widow mine get a supply depo and a tech lab on the factory.React as scouted.Rally point on 9 Supply to build your supply depo at the wall on time.You always want your barracks in a position that if you had to make bunkers infront of it, you only need a few to protect your Command center. With this positioning I can easily defend 1 gas and all my buildings with 3 bunkers split up infront of my buildings. With the exception of my frontal supply depo. A great defense for blink stalkers.14 supply, rally your next worker to the gas geyser. Have another SCV qued up and you will be taking your gas at 15 supply right away. use the barracks scv and 1 scv from the command center to take this geyser.Scout anytime after your gas geyser and barracks are already producing. Produce 1-3 marines depending on what you scout and how safe you feel before the reactor. I prefer to make 2-3 by default as they help stop a zealot.Command center at 400 minerals. This will be delayed or faster by your reactor timing. remember that if you get a reactor before your second marine. You are vulnerable to chrono zealot however stronger against zealot stalker mothership core.Your first 100 gas after the reactor, make a factory.Don't forget this third supply depo right after or before you make your 2 marines at a time. Any supply depo after your first should go behind your mineral line, to help prevent cheeses from sniping them.When your factory finishes take a second gas and an armory.With your first widow mine ready you should be starting another supply depo and then a techlab. We want 1 widow mine to stop oracles and the ability to get siege tanks right after. This makes it so we can get enough to stop blink stalkers. Which usually hits at the 8 minute mark.If you haven't scouted blink stalkers or a heavy gateway all in with proxy immortals. Get widow mines and the burrowing claws. We can use these defensively and aggressively vs stargate and only gateway play.Once you have drilling claws on the way drop a starport. This times out that you can have your medivac flying to his base with 4 widow mines and have drilling claws finish on the way. Take your expansion when comfortable in doing so.Make sure to have scans at 7:30 for DT's drop an engineering bay around 7:30, once they finish feel free to mule again. The build becomes scout dependant from here. However your focus is to get to 3-4 factories 1 barracks getting ghosts and 1 starport with tech lab for medivacs for drops, vikings for collosai or ravens.make sure you reach 3 bases shortly after dropping your production. You want the gas to be able to support your high tech units. Just like a protoss is limited to collosai or storm on 2 base, you cannot get raven and ghost until you are at 3.Defending any all in that comes in through your front is relatively easy, all you have to do is drop a bunker or two and crank out a siege tank after your first widow mine while delaying your drilling claws until after you are safe. Then simply continue with the build. The bunker doesn't have to be at your ramp, it can be 5 yards away so that most things can't fire on it. Even 6 or 7 works since then any unit that comes up the ramp will then be hit with tanks and will funnel through bunkers to get there. Bunkers that can only be reached through the high ground.: Your first widow mine should always go in your mineral line, once you scout stargate just drop an earlier engineering bay and drop 1 turret in each mineral line. Then continue with your normal build, try to avoid any pheonix he might make when you are dropping.: Save your scans starting 7:00, make sure you have 1 nearly 2 by the 7:30 mark. Once your ebay is finished feel free to spend some and always leave 1 until you have proper dark templar defense like a turret at your front.: Make sure you have proper building placement in every game, you want your production facilities near your main, defending 1 gas and away from the edges. It allows for easier bunker placements like the pictures below. Producing 2 marines at a time and 1 siege tank you'll be able to take your expo in no time.4-7 factories, 1-3 barracks, 1-3 starports. It all depends on your economy.Don't be afraid to grab your third with proper bunker positoning.1) Scout blink? Get an engineering bay after your 3 bunkers and save a scan or two.2) When dropping against pheonix try to stay near edges where you can drop, this allows you to drop your units while moving and burrow fast to kill pheonix. It isn't an auto loss of everything inside if he finds your dropship.3) The less AOE (collosai / templar) the stronger widow mines are.4) You can continue widow mine production and do a 15 minute timing attack if you have the counter to his army. Vikings / ghosts.5) Always have a buffer for your siege tanks.6) The closer to 200 army you are the better thors are over siege tanks.7) Never go above 170 supply without scanning his army and counter comping appropriately.8) Your goal is 15 ravens, 15 ghosts and the rest thor + filler units.9) The less zealots the more thors.10) The more zealots the more hellbats11) have a third? Drop a turret ring in your main.12) Sensor tower near your main defense line, even on 2 base.13) Emp'ing immortals is more important then Emp'ing high templar when you have a ground army.14) Emp'ing high templar is more important then Emp'ing any other unit when you have an air army.15) The longer the game goes on the more missile turrets you add. You don't want anything reaching your production.16) Planetary fortresses are great ways to close off attack paths with missile turrets.17) Past your 3rd base you may want to use building armor + 2 planetaries depending on the distance from your main to your new expo.18) no less then 2 turrets at each base19) If zealot heavy upgrade armor first.20) if scouting tempest favor viking upgrades21) If they have an air army and no aoe mass widow mine thor viking22) Always strive to your 15 / 15 raven ghost army.23) You don't have to have even half his bases as long as you are maxed and have an income.24) Always trade efficiently25) Any unit can be dropped and harass26) Widow mines gives less warning then hellbats on dropping.27) Use Shift + D to drop widow mines while flying over and burrowing mines when flying right to left or from bottem to top.28) When flying left to right or top to bottom use Control + E on the first widow mine that drops each time you drop another using the shift D method. This will keep targeting all widow mines in the area and burrowing them.29) When using the raven only use 1-2 point defense drones at a time, be patient so he you don't lose all your energy if he retreats.30) Once you snipe the templar (or emp) the mass tempests are incredibly weak to any anti air that reaches them since you can freely point defense drone and engage without needing to split or pull away in fear of storm.31) Never hunter seeker tempest.32) Widow mines are best against voidrays.33) Thors should use splash mode against any air unit but the tempest or collosai34) If the opponent can't kill the widow mines before they drop, feel free to drop his army.35) It can never hurt to have 1 nuke available.36) The farther spaced out you are the more sensor towers you need.37) a busy protoss has a hard time stopping sensor towers being built around the map. Use this right before you engage to easily see counter attacks or retreat paths.38) It's best to prevent blink stalker from moving past widow mines then to chase them with widow mines.39) Never lose your patience as mech, you will most likely die the moment you do.40) The better your economy, the more scvs you must lose through repairing your main army or sacrificing.41) Orbitals are more important then a 5th base as long as you are mining from 6 gas geysers.42) Don't bother splitting the map, only attack where you can easily defend or plan to attack.43) a floating orbital and dropping mules in random locations is always usefull.44) have raven out of main control group and following thors.45) With critical viking counts make sure they follow a thor with the raven. You don't want them flying ahead into storm. Only engage them through PDD and snipe if you can.46) All though you don't need to harass to win, it sure as hell helps a lot when you do.47) harass is viable at any stage of the game.48) If he has voidray and tempest make sure to have 5 thors in AOE mode.49) If he doesn't have any AOE or blink and you have widow mines, you are currently ahead.50) If he has little anti air before an attack, try to snipe the collosai before the fight.51) Always knew where and what his army is.52) always be ready for a fight to engage you, before it engages you. It will make you a shit ton stronger.53) Always have thors when fighting tempest, a ground remax is always possible.54) Unless you are sure you can win the game with your push, always re treat to defend counter attacks that need your main army.In the early phase drilling claws are really hard to stop if you can kill observers, without AOE they are the most powerful unit against protoss that aren't going mass zealot. You also have the claws earlier allowing faster harass drops with less time to respond increasing it's potency. You have drilling claws already so if you scout an air transition you can crank those bastards out and still be useful. You can do many mid game timing attacks with widow mines as long as you have vikings to kill his collosai or obs and ghost to kill his templar. (only needed to advance, if you're split up and burrowed templar aren't really useful to attack into defended positions.No, a thor trades equal to an immortal and you can produce more. Once the immortals shields are gone they are incredibly vulnerable. Widow mines, hunter seeker, emp and hellbats are pretty good at removing the shields. EMP being the best of course.Nah, ravens stop them hard core. As long as you have enough anti air and can snipe his templar you should always win the fight. The truth is that it comes down to a micro battle and the superior player will win. It is slightly harder for the terran however since he has to use ravens, ghosts and his army compared to tempest and templar. However since you build these units early on you can already have a critical mass and exploit any ground to air transitions and just win the game.The power of the mech army has always been heavy splash through siege tanks and space control. We're taking that theory and incorporating it into mass EMP which is disastrous against protoss and combined with point defense drone against projectiles or hunter seeker againt void rays, immortals, clumped up units you already have a lot of splash that is just energy. Making you very effective, imagine 2 different forms of high templar. Combine this with the raw power and survivability that mech has through HP and armor.It's very simple, if you can kill the observer through scans + viking or raven + viking, he simply can't move where widow mines are. Not to mention that if he can't kill them before they burrow under his army or keep them away. He just loses everything. There are a few ways to exploit that however that is for another guide and at another time. You'll see me use this often on yotuube or stream though.It has lots of potential and the raven, ghost and widow mine are the key to it. In reality it hasn't been explored nearly as much as bio since WOL and hots just has so much more to offer to the mech Terran. I can't prove it works at GSL level because well I am not GSL level. I have proven it works in grandmaster though, this means anyone grandmaster and below could still use this strategy to win games. You've seen a few terrans pull out a mech strategy and win which means it is possible in some form. I'm simply trying to kick it up a notchThe truth is that the lower of a league you are, the better mech is for you. Until players start figuring out how to not engage your army you will always be stronger. This doesn't even come until master league players for a lot of people. You could easily get to masters using this strategy. It's just easier to control if you don't have to deal with constant harass. Sure it gets to be a lot harder in high masters / GM but it's still really hard to pick apart a well defended mech Terran.Pretty much, I have a few more I can pull out that I am tinkering with but this is my baby. I've played this for hours to hours, to days, to weeks against the same friends practicing every which way to break me. None of them can find a way that is stable. There simply is no hard counter that I have found. You could lose because of a few mistakes building up but there isn't a hard counter to my knowledge.Sure, I got some GM and high master ones. I just played, I'll share the last 5 or so. Pick them straight out of my recent matches. I don't think i've lost a tvp in a few days so I am pretty sure they are all wins. Not trying to cocky or ego or anything. Just saying that I am very confident in my TvP at the moment over the other races.15 ghosts, 15 raven, and 5-10 thors. Sprinkle in hellbats for gateway units, vikings for air or widow mine for either as long as he isn't zealot heavy. The only thing that really changes is the buffer. Everything else you get the same past the first 4-5 tanks for defense.It works, it just isn't as strong or robust or mobile. All though I do use mass siege tanks from time to time for aesthetics it's just not as powerful.I guess I forgot about that unit, I never have a problem against them thors splashing them, ghosts hitting them and vikings / mines supporting, carriers aren't really a problem unless he gets a shit ton of them.in fact once you see a carrier transition you can just make a turret / army push. Interceptors actually take a while to build and the moment his carriers lose momentum it's a full on re treat for him. Since you end up getting building armor and range anyway turrets are pretty handy at killing interceptors. Minerals are very rarely a problem in mech.I don't need to deviate my composition at all for this army, in fact I spend the whole game building the units that crush this. voidray intercepts and high templar are very weak to thor / ghost, PDD for tempests. Immortals are nice but you can just fill in some mines or hellbats as a buffer, since they usually stack under voidrays and carriers the emps almost always hit his whole army, voidrays and carriers have a slow acceleration. On top of this you can always force a retreat with a nuke.As carriers if you are forced to retreat your interceptors still take damage. If you drop a nuke everytime you engage you will whittle down his interceptors relatively fast. Don't forget hunter seeker as well. You can use emp / hunter seeker on immortals and you will have plenty since you build them really early on. Hell you will usually have 4-5 tanks as well from your mid game to only hit the immortals who are emp'd. They will drop fast.Twitter: @hfmarioYoutube: /sc2yoshoTwitch: /HTOMarioRedit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1forjx/back_to_aiur_a_tvp_mech_production/ GM Mech T |
How do you make drones safer? The answer to that question, if you’re this group of researchers from Virginia Tech, is on the other side of a few blunt crashes between commercial drones and a crash test dummy…’s face.
Current FAA regulations prohibit drone flights over people unless a special permit has been granted; the testing researchers at Virginia Tech are doing will help determine what risk drones pose to unsuspecting crash victims on the ground, and then design solutions that help mitigate that risk. If you ever want to receive your Amazon Prime order by drone or, more pertinent to PetaPixel readers, perform legal photojournalism from above, you ought to be rooting for this research.
“The majority of applications would be much more effective if they weren’t restricted from operating over people, but you have to demonstrate that it can be done safely,” Mark Blanks, the director of the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, which runs Virginia Tech’s test site, tells VT News. “The risk of injury is very low, particularly with small aircraft. This research can mitigate those risks further. And we have the world’s best team doing it.”
Step one of this process: fly some drones into a crash test dummy’s face and record as much data as possible. Once you’ve collected data from both the drone and the crash test dummy’s sensors, you can begin to offer suggestions, make modifications, and establish standards that will make the drones safer in the event a pilot loses control and it comes crashing down on a person’s head.
For now, they’re flying the drones into the dummy, but future test will include drop tests and lab simulations; all together, this will give researchers the data they need to inform the drone engineers of tomorrow.
Of course, it also makes for an entertaining video you can watch today. Knock yourself out…
(via Fstoppers) |
In 2015, documented cases of sexually transmitted diseases in the US hit the highest number ever in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s records going back to 1941, according to a new report by the agency. It’s the second year in a row with historically high STD levels. However, because only three STDs are routinely reported to the CDC—chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis—the new data may be just a glimpse of the nationwide problem.
Among the three nationally reported STDs, chlamydia had the highest total number of cases, hitting more than 1.5 million in 2015. That total is a 5.9 percent increase from that of 2014. Syphilis saw the largest jump, with a 19 percent increase from 2014 cases, bringing the 2015 total to nearly 24,000. Gonorrhea followed with a 12.8 percent increase, reaching nearly 400,000 cases.
Americans most affected by the STD rise are young people and gay and bisexual men, the agency found. Two-thirds of chlamydia cases and half of gonorrhea cases were among Americans aged 15 to 24. Men who have sex with men were largely behind the rises in gonorrhea and syphilis.
States in the Western region of the country saw some of the biggest jumps in STD rates, but the Southern states still held on to the highest overall rates for all three diseases.
The CDC blamed the historic levels on budget cuts to STD prevention programs as well as clinic closures across the country.
“We have reached a decisive moment for the nation,” Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, said in a statement. “STD rates are rising, and many of the country’s systems for preventing STDs have eroded. We must mobilize, rebuild and expand services—or the human and economic burden will continue to grow.”
While the overall picture is concerning, the data doesn’t capture the prevalence and trends of some other common sexually transmitted infections, namely herpes and human papillomavirus (the most common). According to estimates by the CDC, 79 million Americans are currently infected with HPV and about 14 million get infected each year. While 90 percent of those infections are asymptomatic and clear up on their own within two years, lingering infections can lead to genital warts and cancer. According to physician visit records, the prevalence of these two STIs may be on the rise as well and hitting record levels.
For the three nationally monitored STDs, a course of antibiotics can generally clear the infection, though health officials have raised alarm about gonorrhea cases that are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. If left untreated, all three STDs can develop into long-term health problems. Ongoing syphilis can surface years later as an infection of the central nervous system, leading to dementia, among other problems. Chlamydia and gonorrhea can develop into pelvic inflammatory disease in women, which can result in chronic pain, infertility, and ectopic pregnancies. |
Pray that ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ stays fiction. Because a world where women are denied their humanity isn’t worth living in.
Whenever I buy a book, I have this (good?) habit of writing my name and the date on the flyleaf. In the case of The Handmaid’s Tale, the fading scrawl on the yellowing pages in my copy tells me I bought it in February, 2003, and I clearly remember reading it with due alacrity, for I was told by people more well-read and aware than I that it was a must-read, science fiction or otherwise. A dystopian classic that’s spoken of in the same breath as Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, but with a predominant feminist theme.
And I was hooked from the first page, and horrified as that bleak and terrifying world revealed itself, page by page.
A world where women are denied their humanity, and their bodies are merely vessels for reproduction. Consent doesn’t come into the picture. A world where selective reading of holy books guides the government, and patriarchy is at the root of all laws.
And that’s just the beginning. It’s a truly harrowing world that Atwood has created.
I finished the book but it stayed with me, at least in its broad contours, as the years rolled by. Events took place in our world that kept taking me back to the world of The Handmaid’s Tale. The rise of the Taliban and their restrictions on women. Global warming, rapid climate change and toxic pollution. The Fukushima nuclear disaster. The death of Savita Halappanavar in the Republic of Ireland because she was denied an abortion under Catholic laws. The rise and rise of Islamophobia. The weaponisation of religion and misogyny. The fight for equal rights for women and marches for women’s rights. And more recently, the meteoric rise of conservatism in the West and Americans talking about fleeing to Canada.
That’s why, for a book written in 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale feels eerily contemporary; nay, all too real and very ‘today’ (with my memory refreshed by a re-read this week). Perhaps not surprising when you come to know that while writing the book, Atwood made it a rule for herself to only include events that have happened in history and could — very plausibly — happen overnight within the ambit of existing laws and social mores, and for which the technology did not already exist. And this is what happens in the book (no spoilers!)
An attack on the US government is conveniently blamed on Muslims and, almost overnight, constitutional rights are abolished. Because, terrorism. Immediately thereafter, women holding jobs is outlawed and the bank accounts of all women are frozen, rendering them penniless and financially dependent (cashless, digital economy anyone?). The elected government of the US is replaced by a theocratic dictatorship called the Republic of Gilead. All of this just when women are on the verge of gaining equal rights. They are denied everything, forbidden even to read and considered inferior, second-class citizens, and given limited roles with absolutely no freedom of choice.
In this world, ravaged by toxic pollution and because of it, falling birth-rates and increasing sterility, the best that the women of Gilead can hope for — provided they can bear children — is to become part of the household of a man in power and whose only duty is to bear him children, with the copulation a humiliating ceremony which the man’s wife is also apart of.
These women are called Handmaids — from a Biblical reference and precedent — and it is one such Handmaid who is the narrator and whose tale we hear. Stripped of even her name, our narrator is only known to us as Offred (Of Fred, as in the possession of Fred, the Commander whose household she is a part of, like a tool or an appliance, strictly supposed to serve a functional purpose). Through her, we know of the Republic of Gilead, of its policies based on narrow interpretations of the Bible, of its inhuman treatment of minorities, of babies divided into ‘shredders’ and ‘keepers’, of segregation by a strict dress code and clothing.
Also read: A Splendid Revenge: A badass Bengali feminist from 116 years ago, and a land without women
In the years since the book was published, The Handmaid’s Tale has come to be considered as a seminal piece of feminist literature, a classic of dystopian fiction and landmark in SF (irrespective of whether that stands for science fiction or speculative fiction).
Atwood herself, however, doesn’t consider the Republic of Gilead a pure feminist dystopia, as not all men have better or more rights than women, and where women connected to people in power have more power and freedom than men in the lower ranks. Some have argued that Atwood subverts then-prevalent and typical notions of feminism in the book, especially drawing focus to the ‘women hating women’ strain of misogyny, while others have suggested that seen in the light of her other works, a case for the perils of ‘excessive feminism’ could be made.
But then, to turn to Atwood’s own opinion, the observations that inform The Handmaid’s Tale are feminist, but it’s not a book that’s supposed to convey ‘one message to one person’. But one thing all agree is that it is essential reading for feminists of all genders, and for anyone who believes that women’s rights are human rights.
Little wonder that the title of the book has become some kind of a shorthand against governments and regimes that are misogynistic and repressive of women. The book’s title itself, and phrases and quotes culled from it, are seen at women’s rights marches across the western world.
Today, The Handmaid’s Tale — along with 1984 — is back on the list of bestsellers in the US and elsewhere because of a renewed interest in dystopian literature — driven in no little part by a sense of unease about the future. While 1984 has gained currency for its depiction of a dystopian totalitarian surveillance state and its ideas of ‘newspeak’ and ‘doublethink’, The Handmaid’s Tale is creating fresh buzz because of its upcoming adaptation as a TV series starring Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss as Offred and Joseph Fiennes as Commander Fred.
Apart from shooting a cameo, Atwood serves as the consulting producer for the show, so we can expect the adaptation to be faithful, or at the very least, to the author’s satisfaction.
So now that we’ve had a glimpse into the dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale, what are the lessons we can take from it, so that it stays fiction? When asked if the novel is a prediction of times to come, Atwood replied that it is in fact anti-prediction, because she hopes that the Republic of Gilead won’t come to pass precisely because The Handmaid’s Tale was written.
Some of the lessons that seem most significant to me:
1. Never take rights for granted or think they are here for perpetuity — unthreatened and absolute. What’s there today could be gone tomorrow.
2. Never look at bad things happening elsewhere and think “it couldn’t happen here.”
3. Never be ignorant of what’s happening around you. Gather information, share. Read more.
4. Never flag in the fight for women’s rights and equality. Never stop resisting attempts to dilute them.
And most importantly, as the mock-Latin phrase from the book goes,
5. NOLITE TE BASTARDES CARBORUNDORUM. Never let the bastards grind you down.
But don’t take my word for it. This is what I learnt, in brief — just the top five, so to speak. Read The Handmaid’s Tale, draw your own lessons and share them with us all. And to make it a little easy for you to do so, dear reader, we’re giving away three (yes, three!) copies of The Handmaid’s Tale.
All you have to do is create a mock-Latin message or protest slogan of your own — along the lines of Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum — and tweet it to us (with its meaning in English). Just remember to hashtag it with #NWWonFD. You can submit your entries — yes, multiple entries are allowed — as a comment on the FactorDaily Facebook page by Thursday, April 20, 2017.
On that note, I bid you goodbye until next week. Let us all live long and prosper. Equally. |
Television is traditionally a writer's medium. It is a writer-showrunner who helms the show, with different directors coming in to take on one episode at a time.
Because of this structure, directors, while vital to the TV craft, don't tend to have as much of a consistent influence on TV shows. Sure, you've got the director who films the pilot and, therefore, helps set the visual tone and language of the series. But, past that, directors come and go, and are often left out of the TV criticism conversation.
While directors might not often get recogized for their role in TV (especially outside of the prestige TV model), Steven Moffat emphasizes just vital they are to delivering a good episode of Doctor Who.
"The director’s influence is massive," Moffat told Den of Geek at San Diego Comic Con. "These shows are all but impossible to make, and we're making it for an audience that will then watch a Marvel film immediately afterwards. And there is no way we can keep up with that, but we have to pretend we can."
One who does a better job than most in making viewers forget that an episode of Doctor Who does not, in fact, have the same budget as a Marvel movie, is Rachel Talalay. She is one of those TV directors who has transcended the business model to make a lasting, notable mark on a TV show.
With Steven Moffat and Peter Capaldi's time on Doctor Who soon coming to an end, it's time to talk about how Talalay has helped shape this era of the iconic British program.
Video of Visualising Heaven Sent - Doctor Who: Series 9 (2015) - BBC
Doctor Who: The Rachel Talalay Episodes
If you're not familiar with which episodes of Doctor Who has Rachel Talalay directed, prepare for your mind to be blown. The American director first appeared on the Doctor Who scene (as a director at least — she is a longtime fan of the show) for the Season 8 two-part finale ("Dark Water" and "Death in Heaven"), becoming the first female director in Doctor Who history to direct a finale.
Talalay would then go on to direct the Season 9 two-part finale (the Hugo-nominated "Heaven Sent" and "Hell Bent") and the Season 10 two-part finale ("World Enough and Time" and "The Doctor Falls"). She will be returning for the 2017 Christmas special "Twice Upon a Time."
Those are some memorable episodes, and it's not hard to see why Moffat and co. asked Talalay to come back to direct the most important episodes of the Capaldi era. While the direction on NuWho is consistently good, Talalay's episodes are notable for their visual ambition.
"She's an artist," Capaldi told Den of Geek at San Diego Comic Con. "She pushed Doctor Who, our Doctor Who, into a different league visually and aesthetically and intellectually."
Directing an episode of television is an incredibly fast-paced effort, one that doesn't leave a lot of time for artistry. Somehow, against all odds, Talalay finds that time.
"[In] the world of episodic television," Capaldi continues, "it's very easy to just deliver the material, or to just have a wide shot or a closeup, and some directors do that. And that works, but it's better to have someone who is an artist and has a visual understanding and a cinematic understanding."
Video of Breaking The Wall - Heaven Sent - Doctor Who - BBC
Every episode, a new world.
For Talalay, each episode of Doctor Who is an opportunity to create something visually and narratively unique. "Doctor Who creates a new world every episode, be it comedy, horror, past or future," Talalay told Den of Geek via email. "Doctor Who excels in variety. As a director, the variety makes returning more exciting."
I have tried to give each episode a different style that worked with the script. For instance, the Doctor Who episode 'Heaven Sent' was Citizen Kane meets German Expressionism ... In Harry Potter, 'the Wand chooses the Wizard;' in Doctor Who, the 'words and worlds choose the style.'
For Moffat, this ability to create new worlds is one of the reasons why Talalay makes such a good Doctor Who director.
"She's a very fluid director, and she's somebody who can direct in any style," Moffat said. "She doesn't have a particular style; you don't look at her and say, we'll do a horror episode, and we'll get Rachel. You can actually say to Rachel anything, she's an absolutely amazing director."
Of course, the end of Capaldi's era as the Doctor will also mark the end of Moffat's era as showrunner. Moffat has been a somewhat divisive amongst the fanbase, but those who have worked with the Doctor Who and Sherlock scribe have only good things to say...
"Steven is a genius," Talalay told us. "You hear that a lot, but you need to experience it too. I was so in awe, I was tongue-tied around him for the first three episodes I worked with him."
What is it about Moffat's writing that Talalay most admires?
Steven's writing — human and humane — understanding of the world, of kindness, mixed with unexpected twists and insane creativity (a 400-mile spaceship escaping from a black hole as an excuse to make time run at different speed?! I’m there) ... He has made me a better director.
The Doctor Who cast on working with Talalay.
"Missy wouldn’t be Missy if it hadn't been for Rachel," Michelle Gomez told Den of Geek at San Diego Comic Con. "Peter, Rachel, and I all started together in that first run, and I'm very, very grateful to her. She gave me my confidence."
Talalay called Gomez "just brilliant" and said that she and Gomez "created a bond" back in Season 8.
We have a shorthand, which includes her raising her hand, which means 'let me do it again because I know what it needs.' And then she hits every beat that I was going to speak to her about. But if I want her to try other things, she will and that will blow my mind as well. That's awe.
Pearl Mackie, who plays Bill Potts, called working with Talalay "a dream," describing her directorial style like this:
She always asks an actual question. She's like, 'What do you think of this? Have you thought of that. What about this?' And it’s never a, 'I’m telling you to do it like this.' It’s an, 'I’m asking you what you think about it.' And, sometimes, you're like, 'Yes, exactly.' And, sometimes, you're like, 'No.' It’s never wrong.
Gomez echoed Mackie's sentiment: "She's very generous as a director, so at the beginning of the day, she really talks out, fleshes out as to what that day's gonna look like and what do you as a character want to achieve in that day."
"For me, it means I'm with someone I can trust," said Capaldi of working with Talalay. "I don't have to ask Rachel why, she tells me to do something and I don't ask, I just do it. She's just brilliant."
How does Talalay describe her own directorial style? "I don't even like the word 'Director," said Talalay, "because that implies that I am telling the actor what to do and that seems anti-creative and not safe for them. I'm like a chief creative officer, trying to support their best work."
Talalay elaborates:
By approaching direction as a question, I am inviting the actor to think through the role at that point and see if there is another color or texture or idea. I will be quite specific with directions if I need to be, but the caliber of actors on Doctor Who, it’s much more about painting with soft strokes.
"She should be directing Star Wars."
Both Gomez and Matt Lucas, who plays Nardole, praised Talalay's ability to do so much with such a relatively small budget. "The end product looks incredibly expensive and it's not," said Gomez. "It's sticky-back plastic and a lot of imagination."
"She should be directing Star Wars," said Lucas. "She's that good. And it's time. I know they often don't have women directors doing sci-fi in Hollywood. It's not really a thing, but, it should be, because she's one of the best directors I've ever worked with."
"Matt knows I want to do a mega-action film," said Talalay in response. "I love Fury Road. And Force Awakens. I want to be able to do what I do on Who — but on 70mm with major stunts and visual effects and an explosive Dolby atmos soundtrack." (Can someone please give Rachel Talalay a big-budget action film? Thank you.)
Though Talalay has directed eight movies, including 1995's ahead-of-its-time cult hit Tank Girl, Talalay has not yet been given the kinds of opportunities awarded to many of her male colleagues with similar experience. Talalay said:
People think it should be easier for me because I do so much for so little in the Whoniverse. But nothing is easy. I still have to work to get meetings on these types of movies and have yet to make it up the rungs of the ladder. I keep kicking the glass ceiling.
Though Talalay notes that there is a lot of talk behind-the-scenes about making Hollywood a more inclusive place behind-the-camera as well as in front of it, "dialogue isn't action" and "statistics don't show improvement at the moment."
What has tended to happen is a series of initiatives that include 'training programs' and 'shadowing.' These mostly end up diverting attention from the need for actual hiring. It’s particularly hard for women crew members ... And it does matter. Diverse voices matter and need to be heard.
Video of Twice Upon A Time - Official Doctor Who 2017 Christmas Teaser | SDCC 2017 | BBC America
On coming back to direct Peter Capaldi's final episode.
Talalay came back to direct Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat's final (at least for now) episode of Doctor Who: "Twice Upon a Time," the 2017 Christmas special.
"I asked her to come and do my last [episode]," says Capaldi, "and I'm grateful she agreed, because I wanted it to be in the hands of somebody who was a visionary and who has a cinematic thing about her."
For Talalay, the decision to return was a tough one because it meant being away from her family for another three months and "mothering-by-Skype," as she puts it.
"I sometimes Facetime them on set so they can say hey to the people they know, see new locations, feel involved while thousands of miles away," Talalay said of how she handles being away for longer lengths of time. "And they will speak to me from school and walk me around the class or the doctor’s office. Here, modern technology is a life-saver, but it's not the same as a hug."
What eventually helped her make the decision?
We had a family pow-wow. I read out the emails Steven and Peter wrote me when they knew I was equivocating — flattering, persuasive and also hilarious. Part of the notes had to do with the importance of this episode to both them. And so it became a no-brainer.
It seems fitting that Talalay would return for Capaldi's final episode of Doctor Who, as she has been one of the chief storytelling forces of his era. When asked what she thinks makes Peter Capaldi's Doctor so popular amongst fans, Talalay said:
The finest of acting mixed with the rock star and the comic. Utter commitment. Never boring, never predictable, always magnificent. You can't keep your eyes off him. No matter how brilliant everyone around him is, he is still the center of your attention. His peerless speeches, proclaiming kindness and good. And carrying that out into the real world. So many acts of charity outside. His ability to joke and make you cry in the same breath. Now that's a choking hazard. He is The Doctor. Always.
As for her own influence on the legacy of Doctor Who, Talalay has an understandably less verbose perspective. "I can't really talk about how I will be remembered," says Talalay on her Doctor Who legacy. "I want to do a great job and make inspiring episodes."
Mission accomplished, Rachel Talalay.
Read our full interview with Rachel Talalay here.
Read and download the full Den of Geek Special Edition magazine here! |
A decade after the release of the final Harry Potter book, the series remains a global phenomenon. Though the movie franchise has been recently surpassed by the MCU in terms of box office, the book series remains the best-selling of all time, and the saga is still breaking records to this day, with Fantastic Beasts recently becoming the first Potter film to take home an Academy Award.
JK Rowling’s Wizarding World has opened the minds of kids and adults across the globe, but her characters are a major factor in Harry Potter having stood the test of time, and we’re counting down the very best of them. Though the movies will come into play, we’re looking more specifically at the books, ranking on development, backstories, entertainment value, and general importance to the series and its audience.
Unfortunately, that means leaving off a whole bunch of our favorite characters. There’s no place for Bellatrix Lestrange, or indeed Molly Weasley, whose defeat of Bellatrix is one of the single greatest Harry Potter moments. Professor Umbridge, though despicably compelling, doesn’t hold up to some of the series’ regulars, while the Dursleys’ change of heart came just too late.
Here are the 16 Greatest Harry Potter Characters.
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16 Hagrid
“No good sittin’ worryin’ abou’ it. What’s comin’ will come, an’ we’ll meet it when it does.”
There was no way we were ever going to leave Rubeus Hagrid out of a Harry Potter "best of" list. The BFHG (Big Friendly Half-Giant) is there for Harry from the very beginning, introducing him to magic, Diagon Alley, and the Wizarding World. Who can forget "Yer a wizard, Harry!"?
Even when things are rough for Hagrid, he never wavers in his support for Harry, going so far as to openly throw a “Support Harry Potter” party in the midst of Voldemort’s invasion of Hogwarts. Though he has the physical strength to back it up, Hagrid wears his heart on his sleeve perhaps more than any other character in the franchise, going against all the giant stereotypes in the book (though, admittedly, he tends to direct his many of his warm emotions toward highly dangerous creatures).
15 The Weasley Twins
“Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother?”
Fred and George Weasley barely change at all through the series, but what they lack in development, they more than make up for in entertainment value. From the very first book to (most of the way through) the very last, the twins spend their Hogwarts years pulling stunts and pranks, occasionally taking some downtime to mercilessly rile Percy for taking his prefect duties far too seriously, or Ron, who is pretty much just an easy target.
Humor aside, their roles in introducing Harry to the Marauder’s Map are vital to his various investigations in the later books, and Fred’s death plays an important role in the finale of The Deathly Hallows. By killing off one half of the few comic relief characters (and one we had been invested in from book one), Rowling sets the stakes for the final few chapters at an all-time high.
14 Remus Lupin
“That suggests that what you fear most of all is – fear. Very wise, Harry.”
In The Prisoner of Azkaban, Lupin not only proves himself as the most competent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to ever grace Hogwarts, he also offers an insight into Harry’s past. Through his friendship with James, Lupin forms a bond with Harry that would last the remainder of the series, providing a cool head under increasingly dark circumstances.
That Lupin is so calm and collected is essential in keeping the mystery of his frequent disappearances under wraps, and when it is finally revealed that he’s a werewolf, it adds a layer of depth to Lupin by brilliantly juxtaposing his usual demeanour.
Though he appears less frequently as the story develops, Lupin works behind the scenes for the Order of the Phoenix, fighting for Harry at the Ministry and otherwise using his position to spy on the underground werewolf community. By the time of his death in The Deathly Hallows, Lupin has learned to accept his status in the world, and allows himself to fall in love with and eventually marry Tonks.
13 Dobby (& Kreacher)
“Yes, Harry Potter! And if Dobby does it wrong, Dobby will throw himself off the topmost tower!”
It goes without saying that anyone left unaffected by Dobby’s sacrifice is dead inside. Dobby is a regular feature through the books, but even in the film series, where he had not appeared since The Chamber of Secrets, his death in The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is a tough moment to watch.
His death came after he had only just learned what it meant to be free. Dobby worked for the Malfoys when he first visited Harry, receiving death threats up to five times a day, but Dobby was the one house-elf with the courage to do what was right, even if it meant disobeying direct orders.
When it comes to courage and house-elves, Kreacher also deserves a mention here. Regulus Black’s loyal servant, Kreacher also finds the strength to stand up to his oppressors in The Deathly Hallows. After a few choice words from Harry and Hermione, Kreacher sets an example for house-elves by fighting evil in the name of his former master.
12 Voldemort
“There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.”
With every good story comes an equally good villain, and you know you’ve got that box ticked when some of the most powerful sorcerers in existence refuse to even speak his name. Voldemort may come across as your one-note, generic bad guy, but it’s the fact that he is so unwavering in his pure evil that makes him so iconic. Even from childhood, we see Tom Riddle display no sense of remorse as he terrorizes various orphans and his own, disappointing (by his standards) family.
Moreover, Voldemort is legitimately terrifying. From his high-pitched hiss to his pet snake, Voldemort has us fearing to turn the page, but what scares us most in his raw power. Over their multiple encounters, Harry survives through courage and pure luck, and we simply don’t see a way that he could ever get the better of Voldemort in a straight duel.
11 Minerva McGonagall
“We teachers are rather good at magic, you know.”
You’re unlikely to find a stricter disciplinarian than Professor McGonagall, but where she differs from the likes of Snape and Umbridge is in the fact that she and Harry share an unspoken – and actually quite touching – mutual respect for one another. This is most evident in The Deathly Hallows, in which Harry only perfects the Cruciatus Curse after McGonagall is spat on, and McGonagall’s cry upon learning Harry is “dead” is the loudest of them all.
She comes into her own in the final book, taking the lead in the defense of Hogwarts and battling Voldemort at one point, but she has her moments even before that. In The Order of the Phoenix, McGonagall proceeds to repeatedly demolish Professor Umbridge with a series of one-liners, and she objects to leaving Harry at the Dursleys’ back in the opening pages of The Sorcerer’s Stone.
The bottom line is that she will take any step necessary to do what is right, even if it means actively encouraging Peeves to destroy the castle under Umbridge’s reign. Also she really hates Umbridge.
10 Ginny Weasley
“It’s for some stupid, noble reason, isn’t it?”
She doesn’t get anywhere near the attention she deserves in the movies, but book Ginny is a force to be reckoned with. After going through hell (almost literally) in The Chamber of Secrets, Ginny emerges not as the bumbling mess she had been early on in the story (specifically around Harry), but as a powerful witch, Harry’s magical and intellectual equal, and later a leader of the resistance.
Her relationship with Harry appears to come out of nowhere, but it’s actually set up at the very beginning. Ginny is infatuated with Harry from the first time they meet, and given her newfound confidence after book two and Harry’s utter cluelessness where girls are concerned, Ginny undergoes an incredible off-screen development that leads her to get what she wants.
But even then, the most impressive thing about Ginny is that she’s entirely independent and self-aware. She knows who she’s dating, and she encourages Harry wherever necessary to do what he needs to do, rather than settle down in the midst of a war.
9 Ron Weasley
“Don’t let it worry you. It’s me. I’m extremely famous.”
Ironically, what’s so special about Ron is that there’s nothing special about Ron. He’s an average-level student, your typical jealous teenager type, our voice of reason as ridiculous things unfold all around him. But just the fact that he’s just so normal is the reason he works so well as part of the trio.
Ron is the underdog – the last boy born to parents who wanted a girl. His family’s lack of money is a source of constant embarrassment, and almost everything he owns is second-hand. As a result, he feels unloved by his parents, intimidated by his brothers, and overshadowed by his best friend.
Essentially, Ron has no business being a hero. A chance meeting with Harry on the Hogwarts Express sees Ron propelled into a life he is thoroughly unprepared for, but through sheer determination and immense loyalty, he sets out to prove everyone wrong, and powers through to the very end.
8 Luna Lovegood
“Don’t worry. You’re just as sane as I am.”
Few characters are more compelling than Luna Lovegood, whose introduction in The Order of the Phoenix injects new life into the series. She immediately comes across as an oddball, out of touch with everything that’s going on around her, and almost a comic relief character. But we soon learn that she is a lot deeper than her obsession with Crumple-Horned Snorkacks would have us believe.
Luna is not only picked on relentlessly by her classmates; she witnessed her mother’s death as a young girl, and her only remaining parent is a social outcast. The fact that she is able to rise above it all and remain frustratingly naive is exactly the perspective Harry and the gang need in their fifth year at school.
After meeting Harry and joining Dumbledore’s Army, Luna’s sharp mind and magical power blossom through her eccentricities, and she goes on to play a pivotal role in the discovery of Ravenclaw’s lost diadem.
7 Sirius Black
“What’s life without a little risk?”
Sirius Black arrives on the scene as potentially the most dangerous threat Harry has faced in his school years so far. Sirius spends most of The Prisoner of Azkaban being talked about in hushed undertones, while the mystery of his escape from the wizard prison grows ever more fascinating that our interest is peaked right from the off.
That he turns out to be innocent, and Harry’s godfather to boot, provides the series with one of its biggest twists, and it says a lot about Sirius that he remains a fan favorite after only a book-and-a-half to develop a relationship with Harry.
Through The Goblet of Fire and especially the opening of Phoenix, Sirius is the father figure Harry desperately needs. In such a short space of time, he gets some of the best lines in the series through his bitter relationships with Snape, Kreacher and his mother’s portrait, and his untethered recklessness keeps the reader on their toes at all times.
6 Draco Malfoy
“No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood.”
For five whole books, Draco Malfoy is the worst of the worst. Born into money and raised by Death Eaters, Draco was only ever heading in one direction. It’s not that he’s necessarily a bad character – every fictional school needs a bully, and some of the most memorable moments in the books occur at Draco’s expense (“the amazing, bouncing ferret,” anyone?) – but it’s difficult to sympathize with him at first.
But as The Half-Blood Prince opens the door on his inner conflict, we find ourselves in the awkward position of caring about Draco Malfoy. Tasked with killing Dumbledore, we come to realize that Draco isn’t a murderer at all, as he falls further out of his depth.
We won’t go so far as to call it a straight redemption arc, but without Draco – Harry wouldn't have defeated Voldemort. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a character whose destiny seemed so assured, and who could so easily have faded into obscurity. It’s just a shame we had to wait so long for Draco to come into his own.
5 Severus Snape
“Always…”
Like Draco, Snape is unlikable from the moment he and Harry first meet eyes, but there are flashes all through the story that there is more to the Potions master than you might realize. Love him or loathe him, you never quite know which way Snape is going to lean next, but he reaches a seemingly unforgivable low when he kills Dumbledore atop the Astronomy tower.
Ultimately, Snape is forgiven for that particular crime by some meticulous planning on Rowling’s part, but whether he actually redeems himself is, again, up for debate. Depending on how you want to look at it, Snape is either a bitter and flawed hero, or a villain overwhelmed by love (though both have the makings of a great character).
Either way, the fact that there is even a debate at all is down to Rowling. Snape has less time to recover than Draco, and from a far bigger crime, and that the author turns it around over the course of one Deathly Hallows chapter is an incredible feat by any standard, and the lone reason Snape has become one of the most iconic Harry Potter characters.
4 Harry Potter
“There’s no need to call me ‘sir’, Professor.”
Harry is the hero who never asked to be. He is doubted, bullied, and publicly ridiculed, but his ability to keep a cool head amid mounting pressure, and to throw himself headfirst into danger even if it means saving those who mocked him, is the reason he is as famous in the real world as he is in the Wizarding World.
He’s far from perfect, but that in itself is one of his most endearing traits. As if growing up isn’t already stressful enough, Harry has to do it with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and so his occasional temper tantrums are wholly understandable. In fact, that’s what makes him a three-dimensional, and ultimately believable, protagonist.
Our narrator through the story, we read as Harry grows and develops on every page. It’s through his eyes that we are able to experience the books’ most exciting moments, and the films don’t quite do justice to how quick-witted he is in his own right. As evidenced by the above quote, Harry is as sassy as he is brave, and a source of entertainment through the series.
3 Hermione Granger
“We could all have been killed – or worse, expelled.”
Hermione is first introduced as a thorn in Harry and Ron’s side, but where the boys round out the books as grown-up versions of themselves, Hermione is a different character altogether by The Deathly Hallows.
She remains the same, hyper-intelligent know-it-all, and comfortably the most capable of the trio, but having suffered through severe prejudice and various projections of love triangles, Hermione learns that there’s more to the world than book smarts. In the midst of a war, she finds time to give credit where it’s due, fight for those less fortunate than her (without sparing a thought for her own sufferings), and even break the rules for the greater good.
Along the same lines, she goes so far as to wipe her parents’ memories, ensuring their happiness in the full knowledge that she might not make it through the war. Even after everything she has gone through, she remains loyal to her muggle heritage, and in doing so, represents the entire non-magical audience.
2 Neville Longbottom
“No! I won’t let you! You’ll get Gryffindor into trouble again! I-I’ll fight you!”
Neville might not have the page time of his Gryffindor housemates, but going by our own criteria, Neville has all the boxes firmly ticked. Neville’s clumsiness is a source of great entertainment in the first two or three books, before it’s revealed that his insecurities stem from a tragic place, but even then, his blunt, awkward sincerity is a driving force in the later novels.
A whole new light is shone on Neville in The Order of the Phoenix, when Harry learns of his backstory entirely by accident. The fact that Neville has been holding these emotions in, and putting on a brave face even as he is mentally tortured by Snape and the Slytherins, is a huge credit to his character. As explained by Dumbledore, he could have been the Chosen One in Harry’s place, and rather than scoff at the idea, Neville has come so far even by Phoenix that we can almost believe him in that role.
And finally, no character in Harry Potter develops more than Neville. The nervous wreck turned hero may be cliché, but it’s an effective tool in storytelling, and few do it better than Rowling. Neville’s journey from “Why is it always me?” to leader of the Hogwarts resistance and destroyer of the final horcrux is by far the biggest character shift through the series.
1 Albus Dumbledore
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
Not be confused with Michael Gambon’s unnecessarily aggressive version of the character, book Dumbledore is up there alongside some of the great mentors in fiction. His death at Snape’s hands leaves a hole in Harry’s life equal to that of his parents and godfather, but just like the Gandalfs and Yodas of old, Dumbledore remains a looming presence even after his death.
Harry’s glimpse into his past, which shows us a Dumbledore blinded by love, opens his eyes to a character not only flawed, but not far from villainy. His post-death development, brilliantly juxtaposed with Harry’s, adds a layer to Dumbledore we would never have believed possible in such a short space of time.
But even before we know anything of Grindelwald or Ariana, Dumbledore stamps his authority on his every appearance. In his downtime, Dumbledore is the carrier of information, the deliverer of one-liners and the personification of cool and collected, which makes it all the more remarkable when the occasion requires him to step up.
Dumbledore goes head-to-head with Voldemort, holds off an army of inferi in a weakened state, and knocks out several Ministry officials in a split second. Whether you’re reading or watching, it’s hard to take your eyes off Dumbledore, and his childhood missteps only humanize a character who was already an iconic figure in literature.
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Who did we miss? Leave your favorite Harry Potter characters in the comments! |
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Prime Minister David Cameron quipped today that he would try and get his rich Arab friends to make a bid for his beloved Aston Villa.
On a flying visit to the Bimingham Mail's Fort Dunlop offices today he took time to share his thoughts on what Aston Villa needed to do to get back on track.
See the moment below where he offered to find Villa a new megabucks backer while talking to Birmingham Mail Editor Dave Brookes and Online Sports Writer Gregg Evans.
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Mr Cameron added that what the club needs is long-term investment regardless of the nationality of the owner.
Looking ahead to the Hull match he said: "It will be a nervous day, we’re a little too close to the bottom, I hope it will be alright in the end.”
Asked if he had any advice for Randy Lerner or Paul Lambert he said: “I’ll pick the cabinet, I’ll let the manager pick the team. That’s the right way round.
“The frustrating thing is we’ve beaten some of the good sides, most recently Chelsea, but we’ve lost against some of the teams near the bottom of the league.
“The thing I’m kicking myself about this year is having taken my son to the 8-0 spanking we got from Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, not going the game where we won 1-0. That must have been a happy day in an otherwise difficult season.
“I watched it on the telly with my son and my brother-in-law who are both Chelsea fans and that was a happy day.” |
Samsung ChromeBook 11.6" Exynos 5 Dual-Core 1.7 GH 2 G 16GB Laptop w. Hex Case
Arrived two days earlier than estimated. Packaged securely in plain brown box. Chromebook in lightly used condition as described. Works as it should. Only things I noticed are the sd card slot cover is missing and the power supply port plastic is slightly cracked. Neither of these two things interfere with functionality. I am delighted with my $80 deal! The Hex case was an added plus! If you are expecting pristine buy new. If all you want to do is surf the web, listen to music, watch vids, save some $ and a few little imperfections won't bother you then get one of these units. NOTE: Chromebooks are not for someone who needs a full blown laptop.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Refurbished |
Preface: With this post, our goal is to identify the top ten best places in the solar system for humanity to colonize in the near future. While these celestial bodies will be selected based off of our personal expectations for how the future may play out, we will do our best to support each choice with some facts. Also, keep in mind that we will be focusing on answering “where” and “why” with this list; we may explore the actual “how” more in the future, but that will not be discussed here for brevity’s sake. The main criteria for these selections are resources, location, gravity, and radiation level, although some other aspects of each site may also be considered. If you have some additional thoughts about why our choices may be faulted, if you think we have left something off the list which should have made the top ten, or if you personally would have switched up some of these rankings, leave a comment below. We’re interested to hear everyone’s rationales.
10) Eris ~ Eris is a dwarf planet in the far reaches of the known solar system. With a small size and mass, the gravity on the surface would be low, likely less than 10% of Earth’s. This could be partially resolved by creating a large, rotating habitat on the surface or simply ignoring habitation of the surface altogether and settling people in a rotating artificial habitat inserted into an Eris orbit instead. The planet would also be extremely cold and has no atmosphere to protect colonists from radiation, but this can be resolved by building thick walls and having good heating.
The main reason to settle Eris, strangely enough, is its location. With an eccentric orbit bringing it as near as 38 AU (astronomical units, with 1 being the average distance from Earth to the Sun) and as far as 98 AU, Eris seems like a decent place to set up an interstellar gas station of sorts. Most icy bodies have the materials available to manufacture rocket fuel, and there’s no reason to believe Eris is any different. Additionally, Eris is in a prime location to construct an observatory to explore the Oort Cloud and beyond since it has no atmosphere and is far away from the Sun’s light.
9) Triton ~ As the largest moon of Neptune, Triton is the prime place to make a base of operations around the furthest (known) planet. Thought to be a captured Kuiper Belt Object, Triton is the only sizable rocky object in the Neptunian system. As such, Triton is the only place with a colonizable surface in the system. Current understanding of the moon also indicates that there is ample water ice on the surface, and as humanity extends its reach out into the solar system and beyond, water will likely be a valuable resource. Triton would also be another nice stopping point for interstellar transit. In the distant future, it is feasible that raw goods (likely just precious metals) will be transported between star systems. If that becomes the case, most large, rocky bodies in the outer solar system may be turned into refueling stations or interstellar shipyards.
8) Europa ~ Europa is an interesting place to consider colonizing. As one of Jupiter’s Jovian moons, it is located relatively close to the Earth, and that would make colonizing it a bit more manageable than colonizing anything in the far outer solar system. However, it is also subjected to high levels of radiation emanating from Jupiter. The main point of interest which works in Europa’s favor is the presumed presence of a liquid ocean. The surface is composed mainly of water ice which may be more than enough to fuel humanity for a great number of years, but the liquid ocean underneath is the more intriguing feature since it could potentially be harboring life. NASA has taken great interest in Europa. It is currently developing the Europa Clipper mission which is set to launch sometime in the 2020s.
7) Pluto ~ Once a planet, a planet no more. Pluto is more-or-less tied with Eris as the largest known object residing primarily beyond Neptune, and this makes it another attractive place to set up an interstellar pit-stop. We previously published a post with a more in-depth discussion of Pluto’s habitability, and you may find that post here. Pluto could serve some of the same purposes as Eris in terms of colonization, but since it has already been visited by NASA’s New Horizons mission in July of 2015, it is feasible that the system will get a human presence sooner than other Kuiper Belt Objects.
6) Callisto ~ Callisto, like Europa, is another one of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons. The moon is geologically inert, so any settlers on Callisto would never have to worry about anything like cryovolcanism. The main unique purpose in colonizing Europa would be to use it as a base to explore the rest of the Jovian system. As the furthest Galilean moon from Jupiter, Callisto is the best site because it receives the least amount of radiation. This fact actually led NASA to choose Callisto as the prime site for a mock-up manned mission to the outer solar system, although the mission was never meant to be put into development.
5) Venus ~ Depending on how technology progresses, Venus might actually be the best place to colonize in the solar system. PBS Space Time had a nice little video about this, but the basic idea is that if you are able to substantially elevate a habitat into Venus’ atmosphere, you will be able to get a temperature that is much more bearable than the excruciating heat felt at Venus’ surface elevations. It’s also important to note that Venus is very similar in size to Earth, so we can be fairly confident that its surface gravity (90.4% of Earth’s) is strong enough to pose no significant human health concerns.
Venus also has the benefit of being in close proximity to Earth, so communications ought to be quite easy. Sadly, due to the harsh conditions on the surface, the floating or raised colonies on Venus would not have as much industrial potential as other colonies in the solar system. Robots could be used to mine materials from the surface, but the human population would almost certainly be confined to their cities.
4) Titan ~ Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and the second-largest moon in the solar system. It is also the only moon in the solar system boasting a dense atmosphere, and that dense atmosphere’s ability to block radiation is one of the main reasons it is this high on our list. Titan also has lakes made of liquid hydrocarbons. The unique geology of Titan makes it an interesting place to set up a science-minded colony to study how active processes can occur outside Earth. It would be a fantastic opportunity to prepare scientists for the exploration of other interstellar solar systems in the more distant future. However, Titan also suffers from the common problem on this list: low gravity. We still don’t know how low gravity affects humans in the long term, and Titan’s surface gravity is only 14% of Earth’s. It’s also in a somewhat-distant location, although by the time humanity is ready to colonize Titan, there will likely be well-established colonies on Mars which could provide a nearer source of communication and supplies.
For a more detailed musing into the colonization of Titan, I highly recommend checking out this Youtube video by Isaac Arthur.
3) Ceres/The Asteroid Belt ~ With the value of the asteroid belt being seemingly limitless (in the quintillions of dollars), it’s an almost assured bet that humanity will try to exploit it as a natural resource. With Ceres being the largest object in our solar system’s asteroid belt, it’s reasonable to believe that humanity will eventually set up some sort of asteroid mining colony there.
Asteroids are actually some of the best places to build a colony. Smaller asteroids, while not giving colonists much space to build, can be manually rotated through heating in a way that produces artificial gravity. These miner-colonists could then hollow out the asteroid and live comfortably within it while mining from the outside of nearby asteroids. The asteroid itself would be able to provide sufficient protection from radiation, so colonies inside asteroids would really only need to worry about heating, power, and water. The heat could be held inside by tightly sealing the internal manmade structures, and water could either be shipped into the colony and recycled or found in the form of ice somewhere nearby.
2) The Moon ~ Most people already know all they need to know about the Moon, and really it only has one glaring benefit that makes it a great site to colonize: it’s nearby. All of these other sites take months or even years to get to from Earth using current technology. Getting to the Moon takes mere days.
Although the gravity is low and any habitation structures would need to be under the surface to protect settlers from radiation, the Moon is close enough to the Earth that the colony could be built rapidly since materials may be shipped in from Earth with relative ease.
In the long term, the purpose of a lunar colony would likely be to act as a propellant factory. Spaceships in the future will likely be manufactured in-orbit around either the Earth or the Moon to reduce launch costs, but rocket propellant will almost certainly be manufactured on the moon since it could be transported to the spaceships in-orbit at a much lower cost since less fuel would be initially expended on launch due to the lower gravity and lack of an atmosphere on the Moon.
1) Mars ~ Without a doubt, Mars will be colonized by humanity in the near future, likely before the end of the 21st Century. Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX are hell-bent in striving towards this goal, and they have already made extensive plans for initially getting to Mars and starting a new colony there. Additionally, Boeing has risen up and issued a challenge to SpaceX as to which company will reach Mars first, and Lockheed Martin even has plans to construct a space station which will orbit around Mars.
Why is Mars such an attractive destination? Why does a Martian colony top our list of the “top ten best places to colonize” in the entire solar system? For starters, it’s the third-nearest spot on this list. It’s also well-explored at this point, so colonists will have to deal with less unforeseen circumstances than they may encounter in places like Europa or Titan. Mars’ axial tilt and day length are very similar to Earth’s, so any biological changes that have to do with day length or seasons will be minimal. Water ice is also present on Mars, so colonists will not have to import water from elsewhere and should be able to have a self-sustaining resource system once enough flora and fauna are brought in from Earth and adjusted to the Martian environment.
However, Mars is not perfect. With a force of only 38% of Earth’s surface gravity, it is not clear if Martian gravity is significant enough to offset the negative health effects of weightlessness on the human body. Also, Mars’ atmosphere is too thin to provide significant protection from radiation, so Martian habitats will need to be built underground or have very thick coverings if built on the surface.
Among all places on this list, I think it’s safe and exciting to say that most of us will see the founding of a Martian colony in our lifetimes. The first few attempts at colonization may not work out how we hope, but humanity is resilient, innovative, and persistent. We’ll figure it out eventually. |
I had the privilege of receiving a university education and it’s one of the reasons why I am able to be in the position I am today, seeking re-election as First Minister. Dodgy hairstyles and questionable fashion choices aside, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.
Having benefitted from a free education, I have no right to pull up the ladder of opportunity for the next generation of young people. That’s why if I am re-elected as First Minister, and for as long as I have the honour of holding that office, I will not impose university tuition fees on Scottish students.
But I want to go further still. In the next parliament, we will take action to ensure that by 2030, at least 20 per cent of university entrants come from the 20 per cent most deprived communities. I am also proud that we will guarantee a place at university and a full bursary for every care experienced young person who meet the minimum entry requirements.
I want every young person to reach their full potential. That’s why we’ll will also continue to maintain full-time college places and will protect the Educational Maintenance Allowance for nearly 60,000 school and college students. And we’ll increase the number of Modern Apprentices to 30,000 every year by 2020.
The SNP understands the importance and value of a good education, here’s what education has meant to some other SNP candidates.
John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and candidate for Perthshire North:
“I had the benefit of an excellent school education and the advantage of a free higher education. I want to make sure every young person secures the education they require.”
Angela Constance, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning and candidate for Almond Valley:
“My education has given me choices and opportunities, is the reason my working life has been different to my mother’s and had enabled me to plough my own furrow in life.”
Alasdair Allan, Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages and candidate for Na h-Eileanan an Iar:
“Education gives people choices in life and allows them to reach their full potential. I enjoyed being a student and made sure I was one for some time.”
Aileen Campbell, Minister for Children and Young People and candidate for Clydesdale:
“My wee rural school nestled in Perthshire’s Sidlaw Hills might’ve been small in size but our inspirational teachers made us dream big and aim high. Mrs Cummings and Mrs Stewart instilled in each of us a sense of confidence, curiosity and wonderment about the world around us. They laid strong foundations for all the children in their care giving each of us our chance to flourish.”
Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health and candidate for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth:
“I believe it is so important to ensure that more people are able to reach their potential through educational attainment by expanding early years childcare, a well-supported school system, targeted support to reduce the attainment gap and the continuance of free higher education in Scotland.”
Jenny Gilruth, candidate for Mid-Fife and Glenrothes:
“As a former Modern Studies teacher I am proud of our record on votes for 16 and 17 year olds. We’ve given a voice to the next generation, allowing them their say in how Scotland is run.”
Christina McKelvie, candidate for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse:
“The photo is my graduation from Anniesland College when I achieved an HNC in social care. If I did not have access to these types of professional courses I would not have been able to advance my career and become a social care training officer. I also would not have had such a fulfilling and interesting 19 year career in social care.” |
Thanyarat Doksone, The Associated Press
HAT YAI, Thailand - Thai police arrested three local officials and a Myanmar national they alleged on Monday were involved in trafficking and holding Rohingya Muslims for ransom at a jungle camp where 26 bodies were dug up from shallow graves last week in southern Thailand.
National police chief Gen. Somyot Poompanmoung said the suspects - including two deputy village chiefs and a municipal councillor - were believed to be part of a “transnational crime network” that included people from Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia and had been operating for three or four years.
Friday's discovery of the clandestine camp in southern Thailand, long considered a trafficking hub for migrants seeking a better life in third countries, was a sharp reminder that little has changed despite repeated assurances by authorities that they are addressing the root causes.
It was also the latest blow to Thailand's image, following a run of disclosures about human trafficking that rights groups say is fueled by the involvement of corrupt Thai officials.
Last June, the United States put Thailand in its lowest category - Tier 3 - in an annual assessment of how governments around the world have performed in fighting human trafficking.
Thailand has promised action in order to get off the blacklist, but its reputation suffered following recent revelations by the AP that some Thai fishing vessels kept men from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos on board as forced labour or slaves.
Somyot said police were trying to confirm reports that many more camps run by traffickers could be hidden in the mountainous jungles of southern Thailand. Police were combing Khao Kaew mountain in Songkla province, where the camp was located close to the border with Malaysia, and planned to expand their search to other areas where dense jungle obscures the land.
“We are not stopping here. We will search in the widest area and do it until we are certain that there are no other camps left,” Somyot told reporters. “We will find out if there are more.”
A lone survivor from the camp, now hospitalized with severe malnutrition, has told authorities that the smugglers had escaped earlier last week with around 100 Rohingya.
Members of the religious minority have for decades suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination in Myanmar, which is predominantly Buddhist. Mob attacks in the last three years have left up to 280 people dead, sparking one of the biggest exoduses since the Vietnam War. |
Bad Python Electricity Calculator a guest Jun 19th, 2015 1,426 Never a guest1,426Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint Python 4.85 KB ''' Created on Apr 25, 2-114 @author: ;) ''' ''' ToDo Change program so that it takes the variables the user has and calculates as many values as possible Could possibly do this by having program try every formula it has values for; determining whether or not it has a value by if the value equals to -1; (which would be set by default) Setup loop so that user can exit out of it ''' # Converts between common electricity formulas and variables print "Common Electricity Formulae Conversion Alpha
Note this program does not handle significant figures!" looptrue = True while ( looptrue == True ) : # Give user options and ask what they want to do or (NOT IMPLEMENTED: if they want to quit), bad input = ask again def main ( ) : # The variables used in input/calculation current = float ( - 1 ) # Variable is I, formula I=q/t, unit Amperes (A) charge = float ( - 1 ) # Variable is q, formula q=t(I), unit Coulombs (C) time = float ( - 1 ) # Variable is t, formula t=q/I, unit Seconds (S) voltage = float ( - 1 ) # Variable is V, formula V=E/q, unit Volts (V) energy = float ( - 1 ) # Variable is E, E=V(q), unit Joules (J) resistance = float ( - 1 ) # Variable is R, formula R=V/I, unit Ohms (Greek letter omega) power = float ( - 1 ) # Variable is P, formula P=E/t, unit Watts (W) sigfigs = int ( - 1 ) # Variable used to control significant figures, not currently implemented # Strings used to quickly print often used phrases currentstr = "Current(I), measured in Amperes(A) " chargestr = "Charge(q), measured in Coulombs (C) " timestr = "Time (t), measured in Seconds (S) " voltagestr = "Voltage (V), measured in Volts(V) " energystr = "Energy, (E), measured in Joules(J) " resistancestr = "Resistance (R), measured in Ohms (Omega) " powerstr = "Power (P), measured in Watts (W) " valuefor = "Enter the value for " print "
Enter the values you know from the following list
\t " , currentstr , "
\t " , chargestr , "
\t " , timestr , print "
\t " , voltagestr , "
\t " , energystr , "
\t " , resistancestr , "
\t " , powerstr runchoice = str ( raw_input ( "" ) ) if "current" in runchoice. lower ( ) : #forgot about my commonly used strings when writing this part current = float ( raw_input ( "Enter the value for current, measured in Amperes (A)" ) ) if "charge" in runchoice. lower ( ) : charge = float ( raw_input ( "Enter the value for charge, measured in Coulombs (C)" ) ) if "time" in runchoice. lower ( ) : time = float ( raw_input ( "Enter the value for time, measured in Seconds (S)" ) ) if "voltage" in runchoice. lower ( ) : voltage = float ( raw_input ( "Enter the value for voltage, measured in Volts (V)" ) ) if "energy" in runchoice. lower ( ) : energy = float ( raw_input ( "Enter the value for energy, measured in Joules (J)" ) ) if "resistance" in runchoice. lower ( ) : resistance = float ( raw_input ( "Enter the value for resistance, measured in Ohms (Omega)" ) ) if "power" in runchoice. lower ( ) : power = float ( raw_input ( "Enter the value for power, measured in Watts (W)" ) ) for i in range ( 5 ) : #go through all the solving equations 5 times to make really sure we have everything we can get #could probably simplify this a bit by having a couple of tiers for the ifs, like especially for a variable like power... if charge != - 1 and time != - 1 : current = charge/ time if time != - 1 and current != - 1 : charge = time *current if charge != - 1 and current != - 1 : time = charge/current if energy != - 1 and charge != - 1 : voltage = energy/charge if voltage != - 1 and charge != - 1 : energy = voltage*charge if energy != - 1 and voltage != - 1 : charge = energy/voltage if voltage != - 1 and current != - 1 : resistance = voltage/current power = voltage*current if resistance != - 1 and current != - 1 : voltage = resistance*current power = resistance*current** 2 if voltage != - 1 and resistance != - 1 : current = voltage/resistance power = voltage** 2 /resistance if energy != - 1 and time != - 1 : power = energy/ time if power != - 1 and time != - 1 : energy = power* time if energy != - 1 and power != - 1 : time = energy/power if power != - 1 and voltage != - 1 : current = power/voltage resistance = voltage** 2 /power if power != - 1 and resistance != - 1 : current = ( power/resistance ) ** 0.5 voltage = ( power*resistance ) ** 0.5 if power != - 1 and current != - 1 : resistance = power/current** 2 results = "
" + currentstr + str ( current ) + "
" + chargestr + str ( charge ) + "
" + timestr + str ( time ) + "
" + voltagestr + str ( voltage ) + "
" + energystr + str ( energy ) + "
" + resistancestr + str ( resistance ) + "
" + powerstr + str ( power ) + "
" print "Results of the calculation, a value of -1 means there was insufficient data to calculate:" , results , "
" main ( ) # Starts program
RAW Paste Data
''' Created on Apr 25, 2-114 @author: ;) ''' ''' ToDo Change program so that it takes the variables the user has and calculates as many values as possible Could possibly do this by having program try every formula it has values for; determining whether or not it has a value by if the value equals to -1; (which would be set by default) Setup loop so that user can exit out of it ''' # Converts between common electricity formulas and variables print "Common Electricity Formulae Conversion Alpha
Note this program does not handle significant figures!" looptrue = True while(looptrue == True): # Give user options and ask what they want to do or (NOT IMPLEMENTED: if they want to quit), bad input = ask again def main(): # The variables used in input/calculation current = float(-1) # Variable is I, formula I=q/t, unit Amperes (A) charge = float(-1) # Variable is q, formula q=t(I), unit Coulombs (C) time = float(-1) # Variable is t, formula t=q/I, unit Seconds (S) voltage = float(-1) # Variable is V, formula V=E/q, unit Volts (V) energy = float(-1) # Variable is E, E=V(q), unit Joules (J) resistance = float(-1) # Variable is R, formula R=V/I, unit Ohms (Greek letter omega) power = float(-1) # Variable is P, formula P=E/t, unit Watts (W) sigfigs = int(-1) # Variable used to control significant figures, not currently implemented # Strings used to quickly print often used phrases currentstr = "Current(I), measured in Amperes(A) " chargestr = "Charge(q), measured in Coulombs (C) " timestr = "Time (t), measured in Seconds (S) " voltagestr = "Voltage (V), measured in Volts(V) " energystr = "Energy, (E), measured in Joules(J) " resistancestr = "Resistance (R), measured in Ohms (Omega) " powerstr = "Power (P), measured in Watts (W) " valuefor = "Enter the value for " print "
Enter the values you know from the following list
\t", currentstr,"
\t", chargestr, "
\t", timestr, print "
\t", voltagestr, "
\t", energystr, "
\t", resistancestr, "
\t", powerstr runchoice = str(raw_input("")) if "current" in runchoice.lower(): #forgot about my commonly used strings when writing this part current = float(raw_input("Enter the value for current, measured in Amperes (A)")) if "charge" in runchoice.lower(): charge = float(raw_input("Enter the value for charge, measured in Coulombs (C)")) if "time" in runchoice.lower(): time = float(raw_input("Enter the value for time, measured in Seconds (S)")) if "voltage" in runchoice.lower(): voltage = float(raw_input("Enter the value for voltage, measured in Volts (V)")) if "energy" in runchoice.lower(): energy = float(raw_input("Enter the value for energy, measured in Joules (J)")) if "resistance" in runchoice.lower(): resistance = float(raw_input("Enter the value for resistance, measured in Ohms (Omega)")) if "power" in runchoice.lower(): power = float(raw_input("Enter the value for power, measured in Watts (W)")) for i in range(5): #go through all the solving equations 5 times to make really sure we have everything we can get #could probably simplify this a bit by having a couple of tiers for the ifs, like especially for a variable like power... if charge != -1 and time != -1: current = charge/time if time != -1 and current != -1: charge = time*current if charge != -1 and current != -1: time = charge/current if energy != -1 and charge != -1: voltage = energy/charge if voltage != -1 and charge != -1: energy = voltage*charge if energy != -1 and voltage != -1: charge = energy/voltage if voltage != -1 and current != -1: resistance = voltage/current power = voltage*current if resistance != -1 and current != -1: voltage = resistance*current power = resistance*current**2 if voltage != -1 and resistance != -1: current = voltage/resistance power = voltage**2/resistance if energy != -1 and time != -1: power = energy/time if power != -1 and time != -1: energy = power*time if energy != -1 and power != -1: time = energy/power if power != -1 and voltage != -1: current = power/voltage resistance = voltage**2/power if power != -1 and resistance != -1: current = (power/resistance)**0.5 voltage = (power*resistance)**0.5 if power != -1 and current != -1: resistance = power/current**2 results = "
" + currentstr + str(current) + "
" + chargestr + str(charge) + "
" + timestr + str(time) + "
" + voltagestr + str(voltage) + "
" + energystr + str(energy) + "
" + resistancestr + str(resistance) + "
" + powerstr + str(power) + "
" print "Results of the calculation, a value of -1 means there was insufficient data to calculate:", results, "
" main() # Starts program |
Scientists looking for habitable worlds to photograph could have better luck searching for moons than for alien planets, scientists say. A moon heated by the pull of its parent planet could be visible even when the planet is hidden from view.
Powered by gravitational tugging from a planet, these exomoons would remain bright throughout their lifetimes, not just in their youth. This means stars of various ages could be hosting planets with photogenic moons.
"Unlike traditional direct imaging, there's no star that would be a bad candidate," researcher Mary Anne Peters told SPACE.com.
If a distant moon were larger than Jupiter's tidally heated volcanic moon Io (seen here), it could be large enough to image from Earth, scientists say. (Image: © NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
Kneading alien moons
As a moon travels around its planet, the larger body tries to circularize the orbit of the smaller. But if the planet hosts more than one moon, a power struggle may ensue as the smaller bodies tug at one another. The resulting heat radiates from the moon, making it bright enough to show up in a visual image. [9 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life]
Planets emit heat for only a short time after their formation, limiting how long they can be directly imaged. But tidally heated moons would continue to give off heat throughout their lifetimes.
How much heating a moon undergoes would depend on its location. A tighter orbit results in stronger gravitational tugs and a brighter image. But too close would be fatal.
"If it gets too close, it would be torn into a ring, such as the one around Saturn," Peters said.
On the other hand, too far away would leave the moon too cool and dim to be imaged.
Just how common are such tidally heated moons? Of the 146 moons in the Earth's solar system, four are tidally locked.
Io, Europa, and Ganymede orbit Jupiter. Their tugs on one another counteract the attempts of the gas giant to circularize their orbit. All three experience some form of tidal heating, with the closest, Io, feeling the strongest effects.
"Jupiter basically kneads Io and heats the interior by deforming it," Phillips said.
This excess energy radiates from Io, making it brighter. Saturn's moon Enceladus also experiences similar pressure as it interacts with the planet and other moons.
No such moons have been discovered outside the solar system, though Kepler, the space observatory orbiting the sun, should be sensitive enough to spot exomoons.
"There has to be at least two moons there, or the tidal heating will go away on very short times, so it only lasts a very small fraction of the lifetime of that system," Peters said.
In most cases, only the closest moons would be hot and bright enough to be imaged.
But they also would have to be big enough. Io, for example, is less than a third as wide as Earth ― too small to image from afar. If it were Earth-size, it would be bright enough to detect with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, according to Peters.
Alien Worlds Infographic 20"x60" Poster. Buy Here (Image: © Space.com Store)
Imaging hot moons doesn't depend on a new space telescope, however.
"As far as current instrumentation, I think Spitzer would have the best chance of seeing these things," Peters said. Kepler should also be able to register a distant moon. But she emphasized that the James Webb telescope would be the best possible tool.
The research was presented at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, California last month.
The new habitable zone
Warmed by their planet rather than their star, tidally heated moons could also shift the definition of the habitable zone, the region where liquid water could exist on a body, making it ideal for the generation of life. For water to exist, the planet — or moon — must be not too hot and not too cold. Traditionally, the region is defined by the distance from the star, but a tidally heated planet doesn’t rely on its sun.
"You could have this [heating] occur at any distance, the distance of Mars or the distance of Pluto," Peters said.
When it comes to imaging, the long range is a plus. A planet in its sun's habitable zone can find itself drowned out by the light from its star. But a distantly orbiting exomoon wouldn't have that complication.
Like Io and Enceladus, tidally heated exomoons would be more likely to be volcanically active, Peters said. Such volcanism could aid in the creation of an atmosphere on the moon, another helpful ingredient when it comes to the evolution of life.
Io has a very thin atmosphere, but Peters explained that has more to do with its small size. Io lacks the gravity to hold onto a significant atmosphere. But things could be different with a larger moon.
"There's no reason why these tidally heated objects could not be habitable," Peters said. |
Kotaku East East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.
Earlier this year, AKB48—Japan's biggest girl group—released a candy commercial that grossed out pretty much the entire country. This year, AKB48 is back with a new ad that won't gross everyone out. It'll freak them out instead. Progress!
In the commercial, the members' heads were superimposed on the bodies of six-year-old children. The concept behind the commercial is that it's supposed to be like the NHK kiddy shows that feature adults singing and dancing with children. Here, AKB48 member Yuko Oshima is the "big sister" type character.
Online the reaction in Japan is ranging from, "This is creepy" to "Holy crap, this is creepy."
You can watch the commercial in the above TV clip. It starts about 26 seconds in; there's also a making-of.
AKB48の「ぷっちょ」新CMが気持ち悪すぎると話題 / ネットユーザー「吐きそうになった」「生理的嫌悪感を抱く」「口移しよりダメ」 [ロケットニュース]
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. |
Indie RPG Earthlock: Festival of Magic Resurfaces After A Brief Silence
By Ishaan . March 6, 2014 . 4:32pm
Earthlock: Festival of Magic is an upcoming indie RPG in development for PC, Wii U, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game has been in development since 2011, and is being worked on by Snowcastle Games. Unity will be showcasing the game at their stand at GDC this year, where the game’s alpha build will be featured.
Earthlock: Festival of Magic is a game set on a planet that mysteriously stopped spinning years ago, and where a war is now brewing. You play as Amon, a “demon scavenger,” and are attempting to prevent an ancient cult from seizing power.
The game uses a turn-based battle system and includes a crafting & harvesting system. It also has a demo available for download, which you can find on its Kickstarter page.
Back in December 2013, Snowcastle launched a Kickstarter campaign for Earthlock, but due to unfortunate timing—right around the time when new consoles were launching and the holiday season was in full swing—they pulled their campaign with the intent to come back at a later date.
The campaign is now live once again, and can be accessed at the link above. Snowcastle hope to acquire $150,000 in funding and have Earthlock: Festival of Magic out on PC and Mac during the first half of 2015. The Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One versions will follow “as soon as possible” after that. |
Free samples by mail 2018 without Surveys – Top List of free stuff
We provide the best available free samples and trials offers on the market at Rcrddeals.com . The list is updated daily with fresh offers.
Before getting to know more about free product samples by mail, having a good product or service is just one part of the story. There is a need to market and sell it efficiently. Without this it is quite likely that even the best products and services will fail to reach its potential over a period of time. Therefore advertising and marketing are important components for the success of a product. There are many mediums of advertising including print electronic, outdoor and direct marketing. Each one has its own unique advantages and drawbacks. But on the whole there is no doubt that without advertising and planned marketing it would be difficult to reach the desired levels of success for any businesses. Cost is also another important factor to be kept in mind when it comes to advertising and marketing.
Free stuff by mail– Understanding More About It
Many startup organizations may not have the desired budgets and financial strength to spend thousands or perhaps even millions of dollars in conventional advertising involve print, electronic and other mediums. Hence they choose direct marketing as a way out to reach their products and service directly. Though not much is known about this form of marketing, it is today able to generate sales running into billions of dollars.
Sending Free Samples By Mail 2018
Whenever there is a need to directly reach out to customers, the best way that one can do it is by finding out ways by which they can get a chance to interact with them personally. Sending free samples by mail is something which has been around for many decades. There are clearly two opinions about it. On the one hand there are groups of people who believe that it is a wasteful investment because you cannot be sure about the return in most cases. They believe that there is no guarantee whether the product in question will be liked by the people to whom it is being sampled. However, there are many others who believe that it is an important and useful form of marketing. It is about raising product and brand awareness without having to spend thousands of dollars in conventional advertising like print, electronic and outdoor adverting. According to many experts, it is a fantastic way of advertising and reaching out to thousands of potential customers. For new startups without millions of dollars in advertising budgets, this certainly is a great way forward.
Quite A Few Other Advantages on testing free product samples by mail without buying
Sending free samples by mail also is great way to spread the message around. It gets lot of attention and people talk about it. Hence it is a great way of indirect advertising. Secondly it enhances the reputation and prestige of the organization concerned and shows you in a high pedestal. You will also as a marketer of products and services be able to honest and correct feedback directly from the customers. It is a good way to build brand loyalty if you give these samples to existing customers. Giving away samples would certainly mean that as a manufacturer and marketer you are confident about the quality of the product and this in itself will be a positive way to start your marketing campaign. Hence when all the above factors are taken into account, there are reasons to believe that giving products by sample without any doubt would be a great way to increase sales by spending much less on advertising then what you normally would have spent.
Choosing The Right free Products Is Important
While there is no doubt that it is a great way to improve sales, you must be aware of the products which you wish to market through this mode. Not all products work and therefore you must be sure that you choose the right group of product to advertise and sample through this mode. Generally it has been found that magazines, health products, food supplements, health supplements, soaps, toiletries, beauty products and other such allied groups of products are best suited for this mode of advertising. This is a fact which should also be understood by customers and those who look forward to such sampling by mail.
How free stuff by mail Are Sampled
If you are a customer who would like to try out these samples and perhaps even make it a regular habit, there are quite a few such options available. If you are all eyes and ears you can be in a position to identify at least a few dozen such companies who offer the above categories of products by on a regular basis. However, they will not send the products directly to your home or through some random selection of addresses and prospective customers. It is therefore important for you to be aware of the various ways and means by which you will be able to get access to these regular free products sampling by mail.
You Must Be Registered
The first starting point is to be sure that as a prospective customer you register yourselves for such campaigns. If you look around the internet and spend some time in it, you will be able to come across dozens of such companies who are ready to give out generous quantities of samples. However, to become eligible prima-facie for such products, you must be in a position to meet some basic requirements which these companies expect. You must therefore begin the process by registering name and other details on the websites of these companies. This is a simple job and the process of registration should not take more than a few minutes. They may ask you for details pertaining to your name, age, gender, income, and other demographic details. They might also ask for some information about your personal preferences, likes and dislikes. These details are asked because it will help the advertisers to be sure that you belong to the target groups which they are aiming at. Not all products can be samples to everybody and therefore they spend time and do quite a bit of research and classify and segment customers so that they are able to identify those groups who could be their targets.
The Importance Of Surveys
It also would be pertinent to mention here that many companies offer surveys to potential customers and this certainly is a great way to get a regular supply of samples of products which people require on daily basis. This again calls for being in touch with the right sources of information and then moving forward. If you look up the internet and then act, it will not be long before you come across scores of companies, some of the very big multinationals, offering generous samples if you are able to complete the survey satisfactorily. However, this might not be open to all age groups and therefore you will have to be sure that you are eligible for participation in such surveys. Filling up the survey forms could take anything from 15 minutes to even one full hour. This would depend on the type of products which you are choosing and the details which the company is expecting from you.
Points To Bear In Mind
It is however important it keeps certain things in mind when it comes to mail order sampling. First and foremost you must identify the right company for taking part in survey and other such activities. The internet is full of dubious companies who get personal information about customers and do not honor their commitment of sending samples as promised. Further they also misuse the personal information and the safety and well being of many customers could be compromised. These details are used to extort money from unsuspecting customers. Therefore you must exercise caution and care and be sure that you are dealing with the best companies. It would be always a better option to associate with transnational companies and big corporate houses. They are well known for their goodwill and reputation. They would never do anything which could damage their brand and corporate image. Here are few points which should be considered carefully before signing up for surveys and also for other means which could enable you to get free samples by mail.
Always be associated with reputed companies. It is better to stay away from small names and startups if you are not sure about their credentials and goodwill.
Be choosy and careful about the kind of information you would like to share. While simple details like name, age, gender, profession, likes and dislikes can be shared, there are some information which you should share only if you are 100% sure about the company and its reputation.
There are many false and dubious websites which replicate well known corporate brand names. You must be wary about such false websites. There are ways and means by which you can find more about the genuineness of the organizations. Only when you are extremely sure you must part with your location and address details.
You must never divulge bank account details and other sensitive information without identifying the originality and honesty of the information seeker.
Hence as a person looking for free samples you must not be overcome with greed and end up losing big in the bargain. There are many instances where people have lost money and also their peace of mind by giving out sensitive and confidential information to bogus entities and trouble mongers.
Choose The Right Product
When you are planning to have a big list of companies who are ready offer samples you must do your homework properly. Not all products are sampled by companies across the board. For example if you are looking to get some magazines as free sample you must be sure that you belong to the right age group and social structure. Magazines which talk about health and fitness are usually distributed free to those who belongs a certain age group. In the normal circumstances you cannot expect an eighty-year-old man or woman to be very conscious about their physical fitness. They might be concerned about their overall well being and state of health.
It Is All About Trial And Error
It would be pertinent to mention here that there are many people who get free samples by mail free shipping worth hundreds and even thousands of dollars. However they have not succeeded overnight. They have gone through the learning process and must have committed quite a few mistakes and errors. Choosing a genuine reliable and honest mail order sampling company is not easy. You may have to go through dozens or even scores of such companies and only then be able to identify a few genuine ones. It is pure and simple a number game and you must be aware of this. Patience and perseverance pays a lot and you must follow this in the right sense of the term.
It Does Not End With Receipt Of Samples
If you wish to really succeed as a prospective free mail sample receiving individual there are a few more points which you must keep in mind. You must understand that there is a process expected from you by those who are sending these samples. You must follow the same as much as possible. For example most of these companies expect timely and accurate feedback from you. This is critical because it enables these companies to plan their marketing and sales strategies. Many companies also may changes to their products based on such feedback. Therefore you must be a responsible person and ensure that you send feedback regularly and within the prescribed time limit. This will enhance your reputation as an end user of the samples. It will help the companies to gain trust and confidence on you. Therefore you will continue to receive many more free mail sample consignments and that too on a continuous basis.
You also must know that you cannot depend just on a few companies for getting free samples of cosmetics, toiletries, magazines, food supplements and host of other such products. As a rule of a thumb you must have at least twelve or fifteen such free sampling companies so that you continue to get a regular flow of samples. It is a big advertising model for many companies and therefore it will continue to grow. |
At the softball Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, Washington beats third-ranked Oregon. Taran Alvelo pitched a great game. Now UW faces Oklahoma at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
OKLAHOMA CITY — You could see the narrative being written.
Before the Washington Huskies (49-12) completed their 3-1 Women’s College World Series opening win over conference foe Oregon (52-7), the stage was being set for a different kind of show.
“We can outscore someone,” Huskies head coach Heather Tarr said of her team on Wednesday.
Friday Women’s College World Series, UW vs. Oklahoma, 6:30 p.m., ESPN
The Huskies’ road to Oklahoma City was largely paved by a red-hot offense that ranked at or near the top of the Pac-12 in almost every batting statistic. But, as was the case in the Huskies’ 2-1 Super Regional victory over Utah, Tarr knew these next wins would need to come from someplace else.
“At the end of the day, at the championship level, most likely it’s going to come down to who can pitch, play defense and score the couple runs that you need,” she said.
On this day, against the Ducks, that statement was a prophecy.
Washington was hitless through the first two innings, but a double from freshman Sis Bates provided the Huskies’ first run.
“Big key that we scored first,” Tarr said.
Washington registered just one hit over the next three innings. Instead, the Huskies relied on their defense.
Sophomore pitcher Taran Alvelo went the distance — a complete game of work — and struck out three. In the third, and again in the fifth, Alvelo registered a strikeout to end the inning while an Oregon runner was waiting in scoring position.
“Taran’s a pitcher that has special stuff inside of her,” Tarr said.
When Alvelo wasn’t striking out Oregon batters, she was forcing them to reach, forcing them to swing at unfavorable pitches that made for easy outs from her defense. Tarr praised the mental fortitude of a young pitcher that’s come a long way from her freshman season.
“It’s just a matter of being in shape mentally,” Tarr said. “She’s put the work in and now she’s able to really take off with it and really work the process and have the stuff to be able to stay pitch to pitch.”
Pitch to pitch, play to play, out to out, Alvelo and her teammates were focused on keeping their minds in the present.
“We have this saying: ‘So what, next pitch,’ ” Alvelo said. “So yeah, there’s runners on, runners in scoring position, but all that matters is that moment and that pitch I’m about to throw. I know if I can execute the next one, then those runners aren’t going to pose a threat to our team.”
When Alvelo fell into holes in the third, fifth and sixth innings, she remained calm, in the moment and she executed.
When the offense finally broke through in the seventh and junior Kirstyn Thomas gave the Huskies some breathing room with a two-run homer to stretch the lead to 3-0, the defense and Alvelo were again put to the test.
“Our team is really big on three outs only,” Bates said.
But the start to the seventh gave Oregon life. The Ducks opened with a double and after Alvelo hit Ducks freshman Jenna Lilley with a pitch, the tying run stepped to the plate.
“After those first few pitches the inning kind of got away from me,” Alvelo said. “But I was able to bring it back in and do what I needed to do for my teammates.”
Alvelo said she looked at her shortstop, senior Ali Aguilar, and tried to center herself. “You’ve got this, I’ve got you, let’s do it,” Aguilar said back at her. Then Alvelo took a breath and fired.
Oregon’s Danica Mercado made contact and sent the ball back up the middle. Just like she’d said, Aguilar had her pitcher’s back. She made a diving grab and backhanded a flip to Bates at second base for a force out. Any momentum that had been built by Oregon’s first two at-bats had been blunted.
Then a ground out, and another to end the game. It didn’t matter that Oregon was able to push a run across, it wasn’t enough.
“Just super-proud of our ability to stay in the moment and do what we do: pitch well, play our butts off on defense and find a way to score a couple runs,” Tarr said. “It’s tough to win that first game, tough to play in that environment for kids that haven’t done it before but have only dreamed about it their whole lives. Now it’s not a dream, it’s reality, and we’re ready for the next one.”
With the win, the Huskies will face No. 10 seed Oklahoma, which beat Baylor 6-3, Friday at 6:30 p.m. PT. |
By pre-ordering Black Ops II early, you will gain access to Modern Warfare 3 perks.
You will also get a poster, but the more interesting pre-order bonus is the instantly redeemable prestige token for Modern Warfare 3 if you reserve Black Ops II by June 30, and are a PowerUp rewards member. GameStop has plans to announce additional pre-order bonuses as the release date of Black Ops II gets closer. The pre-order bonuses will be announced in waves, and depending in when you reserved the game will dictate what you bonuses you are able to access. If you reserve now, you get them all, but if you wait, you may only get the last few bonuses.
We posted all kinds of Black Ops II coverage yesterday, so click here to check out the launch trailer, and click here to read Dan Ryckert's first impressions of the single-player campaign.
Disclaimer: Game Informer is owned by GameStop. |
MythBusters is easily one of my favorite shows on TV. If you've never seen it, hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman use their years of special effects experience to scientifically put urban legends to the test-- and blow up a lot of stuff in the process.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Maker of Things and Buster of Myths: Adam Savage. We covered lots of ground including the birth of the show, feeling famous, gay fan mail and lots more...
The following is Part One of our talk...
Adam, why is it so entertaining to watch you get hurt?
(LAUGHING) Well, I think it's a function of exactly why the show is entertaining. Jamie and I are not scientists. We're not experts in any field. But we have a lot of curiosity, and an uncommon ability to really throw ourselves in just about any corner of science, and really seek out what's going on. And when I get hurt, I think people like to watch it because they identify with us. We're not white lab coats, we're not, you know, boring doctors, we're just like anybody else, maybe with a few more skills.
And everyone get hurts when they're building stuff. Even Jamie occasionally. Although, that never ends up on camera.
I think on some perverse level you kind of enjoy it.
Of course! I learned very early on, there's no dignity if you want to be funny on television. Your dignity and your sense of humor are mutually exclusive.
You have a pretty eclectic resume. You've worked in the toy industry and in special effects for TV and film for years. Is hosting MythBusters your full-time job now?
Absolutely. Without a doubt it's my full-time job. Jamie still keeps his shop running while we're shooting, but it's pretty all-absorbing. We're shooting currently about 51 weeks a year.
Actually, this summer break we're having is the first break we've had in a couple of years. So it's a pretty slam-bang schedule. And between doing the show, and being newly married and having a couple of kids at home, I don't have much time for anything else.
Do you miss working in special effects?
You know, it's funny. The last place I worked in special effects was Industrial, Light & Magic, George Lucas's studio. And getting up there in 1998 was like going to heaven. I mean, this was the best place I ever imagined working and I had so much fun. But after about 3 years there I started to get restless, and to think about what's next. It's a function of working free-lance for 15 years. Where you really never knew more than a couple of weeks in advance what the hell you'd be doing. It's just always "What's next?" What's next? What's next?"
Then MythBusters fell into my lap. And it is without a doubt the next level of intensity of making things and problem solving and also it's funny to have that commensurate with the performance aspect. Because I actually started out as a child actor. I started out doing commercials in my late teens. And voice over work, and radio stuff, so I wouldn't choose anything else right now.
It's the most fun, and the hardest work I've ever done. But nonetheless, there are days, and I think everybody has them, no matter how much you love your job, when I see some carpenter sitting outside his shop with a cigarette and his morning coffee, and I think-- "Wow, the idea of just going into work where someone hands you some plans to go build something, sounds like heaven on earth."
How did you and Jamie come to be the hosts of the show?
Well, Jamie and I have known each other since about 1993 or 1994. And Jamie actually gave me my first job in the film industry... my first real job doing model making.
I had spent about 3 years with him, cutting my teeth on commercials. We probably did about 120 commercials while I was working for him. And somewhere in the middle there I helped him build a robot that became a very legendary robot in the original Battlebots-- the precursor to Robot Wars- and this robot was called Blendo. An Australian film crew sent out a team to interview us about Robot Wars, and the producer of that segment was named Peter Rees.
Cut to: 2002, Peter Rees comes up with the idea for MythBusters in Australia. And they cast about for talent for about 6 months. And he remembers Jamie Hyneman from the interview he did 5 years before. He called up Jamie and said "Would you be interested in hosting this show? Busting myths with science?"
And Jamie said (ADAM DOING HIS JAMIE IMPRESSION) "Well, uh.... it sounds like fun, but I'm really not sure I'm interesting enough to host a show on my own..."
Are you actually using your fingers as Jamie's mustache right now?
Exactly - I have my hand over my mouth! (LAUGHING)
When you're imitating Jamie, I especially love that you make the finger mustache move as you talk.
(LAUGHING) Actually, that is a touch that I learned from Grant Imahara, long before we were on the show, that was Grant's imitation of Jamie at ILM. And I totally have to credit him for coming up with the move. He's the one that invented the finger twitching while talking.
How did you and Jamie meet?
I had been doing theater stuff for about 5 years before that, and I got the reputation for being able to build weird props no one else could figure out. So I started to get some really interesting fun jobs in theater, building remote control easy chairs, and random weird mechanical props, and several people that I would work with, would find themselves working with Jamie, and tell him "You gotta call this guy, Adam Savage."
And eventually he called me in to show my stuff, and I brought him in a whole bunch of toys that I built, and we just got along really well right off the bat.
But anyway, Jamie said he didn't think he was dynamic enough to host a show, but he thought he had this friend, Adam, and together they might make a good team. And he called me and asked if I'd be interested, and I was like "Um... YEAH! Of course!"
It's funny because I was freelancing at the time, and I was bouncing back and forth to New York a lot, trying to develop a kid's television show with a producer back there. A friend of mine who's a writer. And you know, the producer talked a really good story, so that seemed like a much more feasible project than MythBusters. And I also thought the name was really stupid.
So I didn't think anything of it for about 2 months, and then Jamie called me up and said they just contacted us and they want us to send them a demo reel.
And I said, "Well, I can come in next week and do it." And he said, "No, actually it's Tuesday and they want it by Friday."
So the next morning I went in with my DV camera and we borrowed another one, and shot for 2 hours. I came home, cut together a 14 minute demo reel on my laptop, and it was-- Basically all they said was, "We're thinking about certain kinds of myths, and we just want to get you guys on camera talking about a myth. And what I ended up cutting together is almost exactly what the show is.
Wow.
I mean, from the introductions where Jamie is the straight man, and I'm kinda goofy, to where I was like "You wanna blow something up?" And we got some fireworks and blew something up and we ran away while it burned something down.
And then we spent like 6 or 7 minutes talking about the Lawn Chair Larry Balloon myth. And the people in Australia saw it and they called up and said "We love this! We're putting it forward to Discovery Channel. We think you guys are the guys!"
And I'm still thinking, "Yeah, okay, whatever."
And we heard word from Discovery on Saturday, and that what they said was, "These are just the geeks we were looking for!" But apparently among themselves they wondered if they could do a show with a couple of homosexuals from San Francisco.
Well, I wouldn't be crass enough to ask if Jamie is gay... but luckily a number of Sneeze readers asked me to ask you. So... umm... what's Jamie's deal?
Jamie has been married to a wonderful woman for nearly 20 years now. They met when he owned a sailboat diving charter business in the Virgin Islands.
Does he mind that people are often curious about his orientation?
When the show first started airing, Jamie and I both got a lot of gay fan mail. He got a little upset at first, and his wife pointed out "Jamie, take the compliment! Someone thinks you're really hot! It's okay if it's a man." And he was cool with that, and relaxed about it.
At some point in there, he got an email that said "I want to suck that mustache right off your face!" (LAUGHING)
And I also got what I consider a great piece of writing in addition to the most over the top gay fan mail I got where someone said, "I love you on the show. Your personality is so nutty and sweet. (Like peanut brittle.) And hopefully just as hard." (LAUGHING)
Well, you've dropped hints about your kids and having dates with girls in the show. Jamie doesn't seem to talk much about his personal life like that.
Well, Jamie's personal life is very much his personal life. He's a very private guy. His relationship with his wife is something I know nothing about because they're very private. But she's a great lady. She's really awesome.
So anyway, after Discovery said they liked our tape, the crew showed up to shoot the pilot 3 weeks later. We shot 3 pilot shows in the summer of 2002, I think. And then they spent about 5 months cutting them into the actual pilot that aired in January of 2003. And 2 months later we started shooting the first season.
The guy I was developing the children's show with called me up, he was like "I gotta tell you, first of all, nothing ever happens in television. And second of all, nothing ever gets to pilot. And if it gets to pilot, nothing ever gets picked up. So this is totally amazing!"
Do your kids watch the show?
They have just started watching the show here and there.
What do they make of it?
You know, it's funny. They like the fact that I do these cool things. And often at the dinner table we'll talk about the stuff that I've done, you know... like "We fired off a rocket today," or things like that. But, it really remained pretty much under their radar up until now.
I think what's happening is some kids in school are starting to mention it, because I get recognized at their school. And, the effects are something I wonder about. Like, how is it going to affect them- that everybody knows who their dad is. So to that end, I try to bring them on set, and I've brought them on a press junket we did in San Diego a few weeks ago, just so they can see me working, and see how it goes. And see, that this is just "dad."
So, how famous do you feel now?
Um... that's an interesting question. I read and interview with some famous actor talking about fame, and he was talking about the fact that television people are actually more famous than movie people because they're in somebody's living room every single week. Even though we don't make up that much of "Us" magazine, and those kind of things.
When I go out into the world, I mean, like at this scooter rally I was at, there wasn't a person there who didn't watch the show. And when Jamie and I travel across the country to do speaking engagements, we often can't eat together because we won't actually get to bite any of our food since we spend so much time taking pictures and signing autographs.
So I feel somewhere in the middle. At first I used to joke-- you know Scott Thompson, the guy from Kids in the Hall? He had a very funny line where he said, "My level of fame is somewhere between Pauly Shore and the Maytag Repairman."
I borrowed that line for awhile, but I think we're a little farther up there. A good million and a half people every week are watching the show. And we get stopped a fair bit of the time.
The nice thing about it is, we're not playing characters on the show. So people aren't responding to us weirdly. What we are perceived as being on the show, is pretty much what we are.
Is it strange when people act like they think they know you?
(LAUGHING) There's a lot of that. I've also noticed that it can go through a very strange ladder. Like, most people will look at you with a strange look, like they can't figure out where they know you from.
Then it goes to the level of-- they'll walk up to you and... "Did you go to school with my son?" kind of thing.
Then you get this level where only certain people really know who you are and come up and say "I really like the show."
When it gets a little wider, you get to that area where people start to behave weirdly, like they give you their cell phone to talk to their brother? That's a really strange one. And I had never seen that before. I was at a Disney thing hanging out with Maureen McCormick from Brady Bunch, and she's really cool. We got along fabulously... we spent the whole evening laughing and having a hilarious time with her and her husband. And people kept on coming up and handing her cell phones. And it was such a weird invasive kind of thing.
And then after that actually, I've noticed there's this new one that's been going on where people say "Hey, you're the guy from that show." And we say "Yes." And then they have no idea what to say. And they don't say anything. And you're just standing there, and they're standing there, and what's the etiquette or the protocol here?
And it's actually made me a little bolder about approaching people who I admire, because I realize that I most prefer when someone walks right up and says "Hey, I really like the show." Instead of, you know, starting to talk and then slipping it in, or however people feel strange about approaching someone they see on television.
You know, I've realized that if you're someone in the public eye who gets approached all the time, it's just best if someone gets it out of the way, right away. And then, often I'll end up having a great conversation with them because most of the people who really like the show are garage builders, or makers of things, and they're thrilled by the idea of the show... they've learned a lot from watching it. And there's always a lot to go over.
Part 2 of this interview can be found right here. You can visit the official MythBusters website here.
Posted by Steven | Archive |
"Not thrilled that armor abilities seem to be making a return."
Frank replies
"They aren't. The wording is confusing but it means. "features". Using h2 as an example, new features would have been dual wielding and boarding."
Octavio Clavel likes this
Speculations have been running around for a long time if Armor Abilities will be making a return in Halo 5 and in the Halo 5: Guardians teaser trailer at E3 today it said "All new Spartan Abilities", this lead to further assumption that this caption meant Armor Abilities and therefore they will be returning. But Frank O'Connor (aka Stinkles on Neogaf) responded to a concerned user refarding Armor Abilities.Frank O'connor confirmed that Armor Abilities would not be making a return and that "Spartan Abilities" does not mean Armor Abilities but they are feature like being able to hijack vehicles.So Armor Abilities are not making a return in Halo 5: Guardians, could this be the beginning of Halo going back to it's old roots again? Are you happy or unhappy to hear the confirmation of Armor Abilities not making a return? |
May 28, 2012
David Koch, co-owner of the Koch Industries petrochemical, manufacturing and commodity speculation fortune, hasn’t been shy about supporting Governor Scott Walker (R-WI), whose controversial union-busting agenda has forced a recall election this summer. Earlier this year, Koch told the Palm Beach Post: “We’re helping him, as we should. We’ve gotten pretty good at this over the years. We’ve spent a lot of money in Wisconsin. We’re going to spend more.”
Indeed, Koch has spent millions through the Republic Governors Association, through a network of attack-ad airing front groups, and financed a set of local Wisconsin think tanks to show support for Walker.
Now, it appears, Koch is spending money even in Illinois to help save Walker. Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by the Koch brothers, is advertising bus trips with free food for Illinois residents who commit to traveling to Wisconsin to help Walker:
The buses leave from Chicago, Homer Glen, and Palatine on June 2nd — just days before the Wisconsin recall election.
As Koch mentioned, his political machine has “gotten pretty good at this over the years.” Here’s a video I shot of Koch providing dozens of free buses for anti-health reform protesters back in 2009:
A similar strategy played out back in 1993. As ThinkProgress reported: |
Uber, Silicon Valley’s prized amoral unicorn, is presumed to be a financial titan and a sure-thing IPO in the near future. Which may be true. But one thing that’s frequently missing from the conversation about its inevitable dominance over virtually every facet of our lives is the answer to a fundamental question: Does it make money? According to internal financial documents obtained by Gawker, the answer is a resounding no. Uber has lost tens of millions of dollars since 2012, and the documents suggest that CEO Travis Kalanick’s boasts about the company’s exponential revenue growth may be overblown.
Kalanick rarely skips an opportunity to flog the company’s enormous perceived financial success or herald its meteoric course—in 2012, he told a conference audience “Whenever I have a bad day, I just look at our overall revenue graph.”
In May, the New York Times reported that Uber is in the midst of raising an extra $1.5 billion in venture capital backing—even though it doesn’t really need the money right now—bringing the startup’s paper valuation to a mammoth $50 billion. At the end of July, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company’s valuation had passed the $50 billion mark, matching Facebook as the most valuable venture-backed startup in history. Neither story mentioned how much profit, if any, the company actually books. The Journal noted only that “the company hopes to attract enough drivers and passengers that its business model becomes profitable.” The month before, an undated bonds term sheet viewed by Bloomberg showed operating losses of $415 million.
While it is de rigueur among observers of Silicon Valley’s Game of Thrones to dismiss questions of profitability as short-sighted hand-wringing, the detailed documents obtained by Gawker demonstrate conclusively for the first time that Uber has been financing its astronomic growth by taking staggering losses.
This unaudited revenue and expense breakdown for 2013 and 2014 shows that, though Uber’s net revenue has grown substantially, the company lost more than $56 million in 2013. By the first half of 2014 alone, that number had leapt to more than $160 million.
Another document, laying out quarterly profits and losses in 2012 and part of 2013, shows the same dynamic: healthy growth in revenue coupled with steadily deepening losses. In 2012, Uber’s losses totaled $20.4 million; from the first quarter of 2012 until mid-2013, quarterly losses more than doubled from $3.5 million to $8.1 million.
Mike Dempsey, an analyst at CB Insights who has written extensively on Uber, explained to Gawker that Uber classifies everything it takes in after paying out its drivers as net revenue, and then deducts its other expenses—cost of sales, operations, etc.—to come up with a final (negative) number for profits:
Net revenue would be the revenue for the company minus any discount/rebates/fees etc. So in Uber’s case, their gross revenue would be equivalent to the cost of all Uber rides—however they only get a percentage of Uber ride fares (the rest go to the drivers), thus the net revenue figure is probably somewhere in the range of 20% of all fares (Uber’s fee). In terms of profit, that would be net income or EBIT/EBITDA.
In Uber’s case, he says, “when we get to net loss, that is what the company lost in the given quarter. So yes, they are still losing money.” And lots of it: Losses ballooned from more than $3 million in the first quarter of 2012 to over $8 million in the second quarter of 2013.
As a private company, Uber has been exceedingly selective about the financial-performance details it chooses to release, even as it luxuriates in attention as Tech’s Next Big IPO. Though it has been widely rumored to be taking losses as it rapidly expands in cities around the world (and undercuts local taxi businesses), the company has never confirmed that analysis. What it has confirmed, both through Kalanick’s public statements and unsourced press accounts that appear to have originated with Uber, is that its revenue growth has been exponential.
These numbers are interesting on their own for a company that stays silent on its books unless Kalanick feels like boasting. But we can also now take a more educated look at those boasts. Late last year, Business Insider editor Henry Blodget relayed a feverishly dreamy outlook for Uber, predicting $2 billion in revenue by the end of 2015 “based on what I am hearing about the company’s financial performance.”
Read more:
But in order to hit that much-hyped $2 billion mark, according to the revenue data we’ve obtained, Uber’s growth would have to accelerate rapidly. In the chart below, the modestly curved blue line represents Uber’s actual revenue growth through the middle of last year. The gray line is an extrapolation of that growth rate. And the near-vertical red line is the story Uber—or someone speaking on its behalf—sold to Business Insider.
We can also reexamine Kalanick’s headline-grabbing claim last year that Uber is “at least doubling” its revenue “every six months.” That seems doubtful when you look at the numbers. As shown in the second image above, Uber brought in roughly $32 million in Q1 and Q2 of 2013. The first image shows that Uber’s total 2013 revenue was $104 million, meaning it brought in $72 million in the second half of that year. That’s an impressive jump, but take a look at Q1 and Q2 for 2014: They add up to about $102 million for the first half of that year, meaning Uber’s revenues were more than $40 million short of doubling at that time—as it happened, almost the exact same time Kalanick made his “doubling” remark to the Wall Street Journal. (Kalanick didn’t specify whether he was talking about gross or net revenue, and there is a chance he was talking about the company’s total intake before paying out drivers rather than its net revenue. We don’t have the gross revenue figures.)
We also obtained this Uber balance sheet that shows how the company’s cash trove has ballooned, even as it takes a loss:
In Silicon Valley, after all, the boardroom mandate is to accumulate as much capital as possible, not spend it wisely. Uber did not respond to requests for comment on this data.
Do you have access to financial internals like this from your startup (or someone else’s)? We’d love to see it (especially if that startup is, say, Palantir or Snapchat). You can send me an email (PGP key is below) or use Gawker Media’s SecureDrop system.
Illustration by Jim Cooke. Additional reporting by Tommy Craggs.
Correction: Although net revenue is sometimes used as a synonym for profit, in accounting terms it means simply gross revenue minus the cost of sales. Two sentences that confused this meaning have been removed.
Update: Uber provided a cheeky statement to Business Insider:
“Shock, horror, Uber makes a loss. This is hardly news and old news at that,” Uber told Business Insider in a statement. “It’s the case of business 101: you raise money, you invest money, you grow (hopefully), you make a profit and that generates a return for investors.”
Business 101, dumbasses: you lose a hundred million bucks in a quarter. |
Windows 10 x86
Recently I installed Windows 10 RTM and while I was digging around I happened to notice some changes to the user mode portion of the system call stub: these changes appear to break the current methods of user mode system call hooking on x86 and WOW64 (Recap: here ).
Native functions no longer make a call to ntdll!KiFastSystemCall via the pointer at SharedUserData!SystemCallStub (0x7FFE0300), in fact SharedUserData!SystemCallStub don’t seem to point to anything anymore (This change was originally made in Windows 8, but like most people I’d rather just pretend that OS doesn’t exist).
Now the system call stub is inline with one below each native function (I’m not really sure of the reason for the change but it is now impossible to hook all system calls with a single modification).
Windows 10 x86
Windows 10 x64 (WOW64)
Native function no longer call FS:[0xC0], instead they call a pointer in the same way x86 used to call KiFastSystemCall.
Windows 10 x64 (WOW64)
Wow64SystemServiceCall is not a fixed address like SharedUserData!SystemCallStub, instead it’s the absolute address of a function within the wow64 ntdll.dll.
The code simply checks a flag in the PEB to decide if to use int 2Eh or normal system call, then as before it calls wow64cpu!CpupReturnFromSystemCallStub; however, this is now done by a pointer in the table pointed to by R15, instead of directly.
FS:[0xC0] is still usable for compatibility reasons, by it doesn’t point to Wow64SystemServiceCall, nor does it point to the old code, instead it points to some more complicated version (wow64cpu!KiFastSystemCall) which does the same thing.
x86SwitchTo64BitMode (Pointed to by FS:[0xC0] on pre-Windows 10 systems)
As you can see the original method was just executing a single instruction which did a far jump to wow64cpu!CpupReturnFromSimulatedCode; The new method does exactly the same thing but with more instructions.
wow64cpu!KiFastSystemCall (Pointed to by FS:[0xC0] on Windows 10 x64)
It’s hard to gauge exactly why the old code was replaces, but it may have something to do with the fact there is no longer any pointers to wow64cpu!CpupReturnFromSimulatedCode which can be accessed from 32-bit code, now the only way is to switch into 64-bit mode and retrieve the pointer from r15+0xF8. |
A slim majority of Americans think politics will improve over the next decade. Poll: 77% say D.C. hurting the nation
More than three-quarters of Americans believe the way politics works in Washington, D.C., is actively harming the country, according to a new poll.
Democrats, Republicans and independents all believe politics is causing “serious harm to the country,” according to the Gallup Poll on Monday. The belief is most widespread among the GOP, where 87 percent of Americans believe politics is hurting the United States. Seventy-nine percent of independents and 68 percent of Democrats believe the same. Only 19 percent think the D.C. politics isn’t having a serious effect on the country.
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( PHOTOS: First session of the 113th Congress)
The results that 77 percent see serious harm from the Capitol aren’t surprising — Americans have consistently given Congress approval ratings below 20 percent, and only 23 percent had positive feelings about the federal government in an August poll.
But a slim majority of Americans — 52 percent — think politics will improve over the next decade. Forty-five percent are pessimistic about such changes. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats are optimistic about politics improving, compared with just 47 percent of independents and 44 percent of Republicans. A majority of Republicans — 56 percent — are pessimistic.
Younger generations are also more optimistic than their elders, with 55 percent of those between the ages of 18 to 29 and of those between the ages of 30 and 49 coming in as optimistic.
The poll of 1,025 adults was conducted Dec. 14 to Dec. 17. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. |
You have gathered here for many purposes dear ones, but there is one thing that you all have in common, and that is your eternal quest for finding that inner peace you know reside somewhere, not just in you, but in every single being that inhabit this beautiful planet of yours. For you are indeed those that will serve to open the doors to this peace of mind, this space of tranquility and bliss, this vibrational field that will support all of mankind for eternity. You see, this hunger that has driven mankind closer and closer to the abyss, is the hunger that stems for the inner knowing that there is something else out there, something that will make you all complete. But as we have discussed on many an occasion, this hunger has led mankind on a misguided quest for an external solution to this inner longing. And as you all know so well by now, that gaping void within cannot be filled by anything that is separate from you, it can only be filled by connecting with what is already there.
For in order to become whole, you must relinquish any ideas of any superficial and temporary substitutes, and the reason you are reading these words, is that you have already seen the truth in this, and acted upon this. And so, some time in the past, you all started on this journey that would bring you home to you, in every single aspect of that word, and in every single aspect of your being. And this journey has taken you all through hardships and pains, through exhilaration and joy, and through adversities and successes, but whatever you have encountered on your way, it has all come for one single reason, to help you in this all-important purpose of reconnecting you with you, and through that, reconnect you fully with Source, that eternal guiding light that has been hidden away from most of humanity for such a long time. But you have broken through barrier after barrier, and you have ascended peak after peak, and bit by bit, step by step you have attained such a high level of understanding, you have found much of what you have been looking for. But still, you will feel far from complete, and at times like these, what you still sense as missing will seem to take up an inordinate space within you. But again, you are not missing anything at all, you are simply not fully aware of the full magnificence of your being, and that is why were are here to keep shining that light into your inner sanctum the better for you to be able to discern it through this somewhat befuddling haze you still seem to hover within.
Remember you are still very much in a holding pattern, the one we discussed in our previous message, the preparatory stage that is all important, but also an extremely challenging place to reside. For what you want more than anything at this stage, clarity, is something that will seem to be even more elusive than normal, and so, you will fret and push and strive while at the same time you may feel as if unable to do anything at all. And so, you think you are literally falling back in exhaustion, and you will think that you have lost your grip on it all, and that any previous advancement will be lost and gone with the winds that seem to push you down continuously.
Again, that is definitively not the case, but again, we fully understand your reason for feeling thus. But as you have all managed to lift yourself free from the old yokes that used to keep you tethered to the old, but as yet have not been able to fully savour this with all that you are, you will still have to adjust to these external energetic showers that will impart more and more information into your being. And so, what you crave most of all at the moment is not something that you will be able to access. For you are still very much under the influence of these outside forces that are helping you and your physical body to come together in the very best way, and as such the battle fatigue that many of you are suffering at the moment, may seem to be resting heavily on your shoulders for a little while yet. But fret not, you will all find a way to give yourself a little respite, and some of the clues on just what to do you will find here in this space.
For as we said early on in this missive, there is something that connects you all, and there is something within you that has brought you all together in this space, and the more you manage to tune into this, the more you will feel that peace of mind that you may search for at the moment. Remember, at times, strength does come in numbers, and now, that is indeed true. This does not mean that you have to force yourself to go out into the world and face your compatriots, either directly or through showing yourself in this space. No, this simply means that all you have to do, is to open your heart to your brothers and sisters in any way that feels right for you, and then, you will feel a sense of communion that will better enable you to see your own connection to your core. This may sound confusing, for indeed, we usually ask you to within and seek there, but this time, we ask you to rather open up to what is already created around you, in the form of an energetic layer that was not there before, but that now will serve to connect you all at a deeper level, and one that will also serve to help you see you with a clearer eye.
So again we say know that all is well, and that you are exactly where you are meant to be, and even if this may seem to be a period of solitude and isolation, it is in fact a phase where an even deeper connection between you will begin to crystallize. And remember, this does not mean that you have to push yourself out from that safe space you might find yourself seeking to at the moment, that inner sanctum where you can just be with yourself. For you can still be there, but you can at the same time allow this brand new layer of connectivity to enter your space, in a way that will enable you to find a way to balance yourself better through this rather intense period of seeming disconnect. This may sound very contradictory, for as you all know more than well by now, this feeling of being in a void also implies a heightened sense of disconnection. But now, we want to you try to find that new frequency that is already in place, there for you to connect to any time you feel able to do so. And when you start to tap into this field of magnetics, you will find your own energy starting to flow more in sync with the current that is engendered by all that are already connected to this grid you have created by your very presence in this space that you call your Pond. And we think you will all find that this brand new current will help to buoy you all in a way that will help to lift not only your spirit, but also your physical vehicle so that the remainder of this phase will be lighter on you all.
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Greater Boston public transit officials unanimously approved a system-wide average fare hike of 9.3 percent amid shouts and boos from protesters who plunged the board meeting into chaos.
When members of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s control board gathered Monday to cast their votes, protesters crowded the room to boo and chant phrases like, “fight the hike,’’ and “this board is corrupt,’’ drowning out officials’ proposals. It was difficult to discern what board members were saying through the shouting.
The new fares will take effect July 1. Under the proposal, the cost of a subway ride using a stored-value CharlieCard will increase from $2.10 to $2.25, and bus rides paid for with CharlieCards will rise from $1.60 to $1.70. Monthly passes for bus and subway riders will go from $75 to $84.50. Most commuter rail monthly passes will jump by 10 percent, and the increase for individual commuter rail rides will range from 7.1 to 10 percent depending on distance traveled.
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The board, which was installed in July as part of a T reform effort by Gov. Charlie Baker, had been considering two options: a system-wide average increase of 6.7 percent or a 9.8 percent increase. Each would have raised some individual fares by 10 percent or more.
As officials discussed a new fare hike proposal that looked similar to the previous 9.8 percent increase plan but cut breaks for students, monthly bus passes, and the RIDE (the MBTA’s paratransit system), they were interrupted by Caroline Casey of the T Riders Union, which led the protest.
Casey stood up, megaphone in hand, and announced that protesters would work to block any fare hike, arguing that none were necessary to fund the MBTA. Instead, the group believes the T should rely on other resources such as increased state funding, and not riders.
“This is a people’s takeover,’’ Casey said.
“They say cutback, we say fight back,’’ protesters later chanted.
A few minutes in to the protest, the board announced it would take a recess, but its absence didn’t stop protesters, who had hinted last week that they would publicly object to the hike. Lee Matsueda, a community organizer for Alternatives for Community & Environment, the umbrella organization for the T Riders Union, said that protesters planned to stay until they were arrested.
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However, Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack said the board decided to proceed with the meeting without involving police or changing venues.
“The control board felt it was more in keeping with the open-meeting law to continue the meeting despite the disruption than it would have been to physically remove those folks from the room,’’ she said while speaking with reporters after the meeting.
When board members returned from recess, they were greeted by familiar and deafening boos and chants, but deliberated despite the noise and demonstration in front of them. They eventually cast their votes in support of the new hike as the protest sustained.
Amendments to MBTA fare hike proposed by control board, but good luck hearing them.... pic.twitter.com/sL13tQAqnp — Alison Bauter (@abauter) March 7, 2016
Pollack said she felt it was “a real pity’’ the meeting was interrupted. She said some rider concerns were addressed by inaudible board resolutions during the protest.
For example, she said, the cost for bus rides will actually decrease for riders who do not use a CharlieCard and pay with cash, from $2.10 to $2.
Monthly bus passes, student passes, senior passes, and the RIDE will all see increases, but smaller ones than previously planned.
Monthly student passes will go from $26 to $30, and schools that buy the passes in bulk will pay $29 per pass. The T had previously proposed a $32 price. The pass will also be available to students for 12 months a year. It is currently only available for 10 months a year.
Monthly senior passes will increase from $29 to $30, as opposed to the previous $32 proposal. Prices for the RIDE will go up 15 cents, to $3.15, compared to a prior recommendation of 25 cents. And bus passes will increase from $50 to $55, against a previous proposal of $59.75.
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The board also voted to create a “lockbox’’ where new revenue from the fare increase—projected at $42 million next fiscal year—will go. The money will not be put toward closing the T’s operating budget gap but instead be used for short- or mid-term repair work, and can only be distributed by a board vote, Pollack said.
Pollack said the move was intended to assure riders that new fare revenue “will only be used for service improvements for MBTA riders.’’ Many riders have said they don’t believe the T should increase fares given the T’s poor general performance.
Board members additionally said they backed the idea of keeping the new fares in place until January 2019, which would hold them steady for 2.5 years. (The T is legally allowed to increase fares every two years.) And the board directed staff to produce reports on potential means testing for low-income riders and fare evasion policy.
Following the meeting, board member Brian Lang said the board made “accommodations and mitigations that will affect low-income riders in a positive way.’’
Lang, who in his day job works as president of the UNITE HERE Local 26, said of the protest: “I’m used to that all the time. I’m the president of a union. That doesn’t faze me.’’ He said protesters might approve of the fare hikes once they get a chance to review some of the measures the board passed.
But transit advocates who had urged the T to keep fare increases to 5 percent or lower said they were disappointed in the plan, even with the provisions.
“While we are glad the control board pulled back on some of the most draconian proposals, the adopted fare increase, overall, will hurt families and commuters,’’ Kristina Egan, director of the advocacy group Transportation for Massachusetts, said in a statement. “The burden of rebuilding a broken system must not fall entirely on people who ride the MBTA, or the MBTA risks a downward spiral.’’
Rafael Mares, a vice president at the Conservation Law Foundation, said setting aside fare money for repair work didn’t blunt the impact of the increase.
“They just reached into people’s wallets to set up a reserve fund,’’ he said. “They could have just waited until next year. It seems greedy to me.’’
“The Fiscal and Management Control Board is only seven months into its tenure, but one day, the bean counting will have to give way to a real business strategy,’’ he added. “Today, unfortunately was not that day. A business, let alone a public agency, cannot thrive if it ignores its customers’ financial challenges and legitimate pleas.’’
The fare hike will mark the third since 2012. The protest came on the same day more than 1,000 Boston public school students walked out of class and marched to call for more education funding.
Amanda Hoover contributed to this report. |
Donald Trump gave a press conference Tuesday where he excoriated Hillary and Bill Clinton’s support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, stating it has created billion-dollar trade imbalances and hurt American workers. Oddly enough, the likely Republican nominee found support from libertarian and socialist icons Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders.
In his speech, Trump said that NAFTA was the worst trade agreements in the history of the United States and betrayed American workers. The billionaire said he would renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better deal for workers, and if Canada and Mexico refused, he would have the U.S. pull out of the trade deal.
That statement sent shock waves as economists, pundits, and establishment forces in Washington scrambled to defend NAFTA.
Another anti-establishment former presidential candidate supported Trump’s statements. Paul tweeted that the billionaire was right and the U.S. should abandon the free trade agreement.
Yes Donald Trump, We Should Get Out Of NAFTAhttps://t.co/GrN7tjgFvA — Ron Paul (@RonPaul) June 28, 2016
Paul has said repeatedly in the past that he supports free trade, but NAFTA serves special interests and lobbyists instead.
“Our problem is these managed trade agreements like the WTO, NAFTA, and a plan for a North American Union, these are the kinds of movements that I think are very detrimental to our national sovereignty, I don’t think it helps our workers, and in combination with our monetary policy we are now exporting our jobs,” Paul said on the Lou Dobbs Show in 2008.
On Paul’s website, a staff writer for the former presidential candidate said that libertarians would advise Trump not to renegotiate the terms and just remove America from NAFTA.
Another old, principled, former presidential candidate to agree with Trump is Sen. Sanders (D-Vt.) who wrote in The New York Times on Tuesday that Democrats needed to wake up and abandon these free trade agreements that were hurting workers.
“In the last 15 years, nearly 60,000 factories in this country have closed, and more than 4.8 million well-paid manufacturing jobs have disappeared,” Sanders wrote in The Times. “Much of this is related to disastrous trade agreements that encourage corporations to move to low-wage countries.”
While Sanders is principled in his ideas, he’s still married to the football of politics and took the time to slam Trump even though he agreed with Trump on trade instead of Clinton.
Despite attacking Trump in The Times, he sounded like the Republican frontrunner during several campaign stops in Pennsylvania where he said he would renegotiate NAFTA.
The anti-establishment left, right, and wherever Trump falls have a mission to unravel NAFTA. If only they could put partisan differences aside, they might actually do it.
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Street Fighter (ストリートファイター, Sutorīto Faitā), commonly abbreviated as SF or スト (Suto), is a fighting video game franchise developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by five other main series games, various spin-offs and crossovers, and numerous appearances in various other media. Its best-selling 1991 release Street Fighter II is credited with establishing many of the conventions of the one-on-one fighting genre. Street Fighter is one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time and serves as the company's flagship series.
History [ edit ]
Video games [ edit ]
Street Fighter (1987) [ edit ]
Street Fighter, designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, debuted in arcades in 1987.[2][3] In this game, the player plays as martial artist Ryu, who competes in a worldwide martial arts tournament spanning five countries and 10 opponents. A second player can join in and plays as Ryu's American rival, Ken. The player can perform three punch and kick attacks, each varying in speed and strength, and three special attacks: the Hadouken, Shoryuken, and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, performed by executing special button combinations.[4]
Street Fighter was ported to many popular home computer systems of the time, like the PC. In 1988, it was released on the NEC Avenue TurboGrafx-CD console as Fighting Street.[5] Street Fighter was also later included in Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed for the PlayStation Portable and Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Street Fighter II series (1991) [ edit ]
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was released in 1991 following an unsuccessful attempt to brand the 1989 beat 'em up game Final Fight and the officially commissioned spin-off Human Killing Machine as Street Fighter sequels.[6][7] It was one of the earliest arcade games for Capcom's CP System hardware and was designed by Akira Nishitani and Akira Yasuda, who also made Final Fight and Forgotten Worlds.[8]
Street Fighter II was the first one-on-one fighting game to give players a choice from a variety of player characters with different moves, allowing for more varied matches. Each player character had a unique fighting style with approximately 30 or more moves, including then-new grappling moves and throws, as well as two or three special attacks. In the single-player mode, the player character is pitted sequentially against the seven other main characters before confronting the final four boss opponents, who consist of CPU-controlled characters not selectable by the player. As in the original, a second player could join in at any point during single player mode and compete against the other player in competitive matches.
The original Japanese version of Street Fighter II introduced an African-American boxer boss character that shared the physical characteristics and likeness of real-life boxer Mike Tyson. To avoid a likeness infringement lawsuit, Capcom rotated the names of three of the boss characters for international versions of the game.[9] The final boss, named Vega in the Japanese version, was given the M. Bison name, the talon-wielding Spanish warrior, named Balrog in the Japanese version, was renamed Vega, and the boxer became Balrog.
Street Fighter II eclipsed its predecessor in popularity, eventually turning Street Fighter into a multimedia franchise.[10] The release of the game had an unexpected impact on gaming and was the beginning of a massive phenomenon. Various versions of the game grossed over $10 billion in inflation-adjusted revenue (2017), mostly from arcades,[11] as well as from console ports which sold more than 14 million cartridges for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES) and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.[12]
The first official update to the series was Street Fighter II': Champion Edition, pronounced Street Fighter II Dash in Japan, as noted by the prime notation on the logo. In this game, players can play as the four computer-controlled boss characters and two players can choose the same character, leaving one character with an alternate color pattern. The game also features slightly improved graphics, including differently colored backgrounds and refined gameplay. A second upgrade, titled Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting, called Street Fighter II Dash Turbo in Japan, was produced in response to the various bootleg editions of the game. Hyper Fighting offers faster gameplay than its predecessors, different character costume colors, and new special techniques. Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, the third revision, gives the game a complete graphical and musical overhaul and introduces four new playable characters. It is also the first game for Capcom's CP System II arcade hardware. The fifth arcade installment, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Street Fighter II X in Japan, brings back the faster gameplay of Hyper Fighting, a new type of special techniques known as "Super Combos", and a hidden character, Akuma.
Numerous home versions of the Street Fighter II games have been produced following the release of the original game. The original version, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, was ported to the Super NES in 1992. As of 2008 , the original Super NES game is still Capcom's best-selling game.[12] It was followed by a Japanese-only port of Street Fighter II Dash for the PC Engine in 1993. That year, Hyper Fighting received two different home versions as well: a Super NES version titled Street Fighter II Turbo and a Mega Drive/Genesis counterpart titled Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition, titled Street Fighter II Dash Plus in Japan. The following game, Super Street Fighter II, was also ported to the Super NES and Genesis in 1994. That same year, Super Street Fighter II Turbo was released for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and also appeared in a PC version for Windows, released by the now defunct GameTek.
In 1997, Capcom released the Street Fighter Collection for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. This is a compilation that includes Super and Super Turbo as well as Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, titled Street Fighter Zero 2′ (Dash) in Japan, an updated version of Street Fighter Alpha 2. It was followed by Street Fighter Collection 2, titled Capcom Generation Vol. 5 in Japan, also released for the PlayStation and Saturn, which includes the original Street Fighter II, Champion Edition, and Hyper Fighting. In 2000, Capcom released Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service exclusively in Japan for the Dreamcast. This version of the game features an online two-player versus mode. In 2003, Capcom released Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition for the arcades in Japan and Asia to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the series. As the final arcade installment, the game is a hybrid version of Super Turbo, which allows player to select between versions of characters from all five previous Street Fighter II games. Hyper was released in North America and the PAL region via its ports for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, released as part of the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection along with Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. In 2005, the three games in Street Fighter Collection 2 were included in Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. A version of Super Turbo, along with the original Street Fighter, was later included in the 2007 compilation Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2, also released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II are also available as downloadable games for select cellular phone services.
An updated version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo came to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade services in 2008.[13] The game, titled Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, has fully redrawn artwork, including HD sprites 4.5x the original size, drawn by artists from UDON. This is the first time the Street Fighter characters have had new sprites, drawn by Capcom, since Capcom vs. SNK 2 in 2001. The game has several changes which address character balancing issues, but also features the original arcade version gameplay so that players can choose between the two.[14]
Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers is an updated version of 1994's Super Street Fighter II Turbo for the Nintendo Switch. The game features two graphical styles—classic pixel art and updated high-definition art. New gameplay mechanics and modes have been introduced and tweaks have been made to the game's balance. This game also featured two more characters, who were classic alternate evil form of the classic characters Ryu and Ken, Evil Ryu and Violent Ken, while Akuma is now a regular playable character.
Street Fighter Alpha series (1995) [ edit ]
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams, titled Street Fighter Zero in Japan and Asia, is the next game in the series. The game uses the same art style Capcom previously employed in Darkstalkers and X-Men: Children of the Atom, with settings and character designs heavily influenced by Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Alpha expands on the Super Combo system from Super Turbo by extending Super Combo meter into three levels, allowing for super combos to be stored up, and introducing Alpha Counters and Chain Combos, also from Darkstalkers. The plot of Alpha is set between the first two Street Fighter games and fleshes out the backstories and grudges held by many of the classic Street Fighter II characters.[15] It features a playable roster of ten immediately playable characters and three unlockable fighters, comprising not only younger versions of established characters, but also characters from the original Street Fighter and Final Fight, such as Adon and Guy.
Street Fighter Alpha 2 features all-new stages, music, and endings for some characters, some of which overlap with those from the original Alpha.[16] It also discards the Chain Combo system in favor of Custom Combos, which requires a portion of the Super Combo meter to be used. Alpha 2 retains all 13 characters from the original and adds five new characters to the roster along with hidden versions of returning characters. Alpha 2 is followed by a slightly enhanced arcade release titled Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha and was released in Japan and Brazil, ported to home consoles as Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, and Zero 2′ Dash in Japan.
The third and final Alpha game, Street Fighter Alpha 3, was released in 1998 following the release of the original Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact and Street Fighter EX. Alpha 3 introduces three selectable fighting styles and further expands the playable roster to 28 characters.[17] Console versions of the three games, including the original Alpha 2 and the aforementioned Alpha 2 Gold, were released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, although versions of specific games in the series were also released for the Game Boy Color, Super NES, Dreamcast, and Windows. The home console versions of Alpha 3 further expands the character roster by adding the remaining "New Challengers" from Super Street Fighter II. The Dreamcast version of the game was backported to the arcades in Japan under the title of Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper. A version of Upper, simply titled Alpha 3 outside Japan, was released for the Game Boy Advance and added three characters from Capcom vs. SNK 2. A PlayStation Portable version titled Alpha 3 MAX, or Zero 3 Double Upper in Japan, contains the added characters from the GBA version and Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Jam.
Street Fighter EX series (1996) [ edit ]
In 1996, Capcom co-produced a 3D fighting game Street Fighter EX with Arika, a company founded by Street Fighter II planner Akira Nishitani. It was developed for the PlayStation-based ZN-1 hardware. EX combined the established Street Fighter cast with original characters created and owned by Arika. It was followed by an upgraded version titled Street Fighter EX Plus in 1997, which expanded the character roster. A home version with additional features and characters, Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha, was released for the PlayStation during the same year.
A sequel was released in 1998, titled Street Fighter EX2, developed for the ZN-2 hardware. Custom combos were reintroduced and the character roster was expanded upon even further. In 1999, EX2 also received an upgraded version, Street Fighter EX2 Plus. A port of EX2 Plus was released for the PlayStation in 1999.
The third game in the series, Street Fighter EX3, was released as a launch title for the PlayStation 2 in 2000. This game included a tag team system, a mode that let a single player fight up to three opponents simultaneously, and another mode that allowed players to give the new character, Ace, a selection of special and super moves after purchasing them with experience points. The cast included many characters from the previous game.
Some of the Arika-owned characters from the series were later featured in other games developed by the company. The Namco-distributed arcade game Fighting Layer featured Allen Snider and Blair Dame from the original EX, while Skullomania would reappear in the PlayStation game Fighter Maker. A spiritual successor to Fighting Layer, featuring an initial roster consisting entirely of Arika-owned EX characters, Fighting EX Layer, was released in 2018.[18]
Crossover series (1996) [ edit ]
Capcom has also produced fighting games involving licensed characters from other companies and their own properties. In 1994, Capcom released the Marvel-licensed fighting game X-Men: Children of the Atom, which featured Akuma from Super Turbo as a hidden character. It was followed by Marvel Super Heroes in 1995, which featured Anita from Night Warriors.
Capcom would release a third Marvel-licensed game, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, in 1996, a full-fledged crossover between characters from X-Men and the Street Fighter Alpha games that featured a two-on-two tag team-based system. It was followed by Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter in 1997, which expanded the roster to include characters from Marvel Super Heroes; Marvel vs. Capcom in 1998, which featured not only Street Fighter characters, but also characters from other Capcom properties; and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 in 2000, which was produced from the Dreamcast-based NAOMI hardware.
Capcom also produced a series of similar crossover fighting games with rival fighting game developer SNK Playmore. The games, produced by Capcom, include Capcom vs. SNK in 2000, which features characters primarily from the Street Fighter and King of Fighters series. It was followed by a minor upgrade, Capcom vs. SNK Pro, and a sequel titled Capcom vs. SNK 2, both released in 2001. All three games were produced for the NAOMI hardware as well. The SNK-produced fighting games of this crossover include the Dimps-developed portable fighting game SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium for the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1999 and SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos for the Neo Geo in 2003.
From 2003 to 2008, the Versus series of Capcom fighting games saw no new releases, though Capcom and Namco produced the crossover tactical role-playing game Namco × Capcom for the PlayStation 2 exclusively in Japan in 2005. Ryu and Ken are also among the characters playable in 2012's Project X Zone, a tactical role-playing game that draws characters from various Sega, Namco-Bandai, and Capcom franchises.
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes, released in 2008, features characters from both Tatsunoko Production and Capcom properties, including Street Fighter characters Ryu, Chun-Li, and Alex as well as characters like Ken the Eagle of Gatchaman and Casshern of Neo-Human Casshern on Tatsunoko's side. Initially released only in Japan, the game received an updated international release entitled Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars in 2010 in response to fan demand.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds was released in 2011 and includes Akuma, Chun-Li, Crimson Viper, and Ryu. The game features completely new visuals and audio, three-on-three gameplay, and online play. The game was also intended to have downloadable content, but the content was disrupted due to an earthquake and tsunami in Tōhoku and was released along with additional new content in a separate game titled Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Street Fighter X Tekken was released in 2012, featuring over 50 playable characters from both the Street Fighter and Tekken fighting franchises. While Street Fighter X Tekken was developed by Capcom, Namco is currently developing their own crossover title, Tekken X Street Fighter.[19] Additionally, Akuma made a guest appearance in Tekken 7.[20]
Street Fighter X Mega Man is an all-star (not to be confused with crossovers) platform game that was originally supposed to be a fan game developed by Seow Zong Hui, but Capcom distributed and released the game for the PC in 2012. Based on the classic Mega Man games, the free title has players control Mega Man as he battles against various Street Fighter characters and obtain their techniques.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was released in 2017. Infinite features two-on-two fights, as opposed to the three-on-three format used in its preceding titles. The series' traditional character assists have been removed; instead, the game incorporates a tag-based combo system, which allows players to instantly switch between their two characters to form continuous combos. It also introduces a new gameplay mechanic in the form of the Infinity Stones, which temporarily bestow players with unique abilities and stat boosts depending on the type of stone selected.
Beyond Street Fighter, Capcom franchises have had guest appearances in the 2014 Nintendo crossover-fighting games Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, with protagonist Ryu appearing[21] alongside fellow Capcom representative Mega Man. The Street Fighter content was released as extra in-game downloadable content in 2015 and includes Ryu and Suzaku Castle, a stage inspired by Ryu's stage from the Street Fighter II series. Ryu returned in the following game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Ken joining the roster as his Echo Fighter.
Street Fighter III series (1997) [ edit ]
Street Fighter III: New Generation made its debut in the arcades on the CPS3 hardware in 1997.[22] Street Fighter III discards most of the character roster from previous games, keeping only Ryu and Ken, introducing several new characters in their place. The most notable of these is the grappler Alex, who was designed to be the new lead character of the game, and Gill, who replaced Bison as the game's main antagonist. Street Fighter III introduced the "Super Arts" selection system and the ability to parry an opponent's attack.[23]
Several months after Street Fighter III: New Generation's release, it was followed by Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, which made adjustments to the gameplay, added two new characters, and featured the return of Akuma as a playable character. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, released in 1999 as the third and last iteration of Street Fighter III, brings back Chun-Li and adds four new characters.
The first two Street Fighter III games were ported to the Dreamcast as a compilation titled Double Impact. Ports of 3rd Strike were released for the Dreamcast as a standalone game, then included in the compilation Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Gill also became a playable secret character in the console versions, although he can still be played on the arcade version by using Twelve's X.C.O.P.Y. super art. In 2010, Capcom announced Street Fighter III Third Strike: Online Edition.[24]
Street Fighter IV series (2008) [ edit ]
The original Street Fighter IV game concept, Street Fighter IV Flashback, never made it past the proposal stage.[25] In 2007, more than eight years since the release of Street Fighter III 3rd Strike for the arcades, Capcom unveiled Street Fighter IV at a Capcom Gamers Day event in London. Conceived as a direct sequel to the early Street Fighter II games (particularly Super Street Fighter II Turbo), Street Fighter IV features the return of the original twelve world warriors and recurring hidden character Akuma, along with four new characters (as well as a new boss character) in a storyline chronologically set between Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III. The gameplay, while still 2D, features cel-shaded 3D graphics inspired by Japanese sumi-e paintings. The Super Combo system, a Street Fighter mainstay since Super Turbo, returns along with new counter-attacking techniques called "Focus Attacks" ("Saving Attacks" in Japan), as well as new "Ultra Combo" moves, similar to the Rage Gauge seen in games from SNK Playmore.
The arcade version, which runs on the Taito Type X2 hardware, was distributed in Japan in 2008, with a limited release in North America and the United Kingdom. A home version was released in 2009 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC. This features an expanded character roster, as well as all-new animated segments that show each character's backstory, and a training mode similar to the Expert Challenges in Street Fighter EX. The cast includes six characters new to the Street Fighter series.
Super Street Fighter IV includes ten additional characters including two characters new to the franchise: Juri and Hakan. Capcom implemented character balance adjustments and added second Ultra moves for each character. The game features an improved online experience with new modes of play. The game was released in 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 at a discounted price point.[26] A portable conversion of Super Street Fighter IV for the Nintendo 3DS, Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition, features 3D stereoscopic technology, multiplayer, and all 35 characters from the original Super Street Fighter IV release.[27] Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition was released in 2010, containing all of the content from the console release, and featuring four additional characters: Yun and Yang from Street Fighter III, as well as Evil Ryu and Oni, an alternate version of Ryu and Akuma, respectively.[28]
A new update for Street Fighter IV titled Ultra Street Fighter IV was first released in 2014 as an arcade game, a DLC add-on for existing console versions of Super Street Fighter IV, and as a standalone game containing DLC from previous iterations. Along with various tweaks and additional modes and stages, the update adds five additional characters, consisting of Rolento, Elena, Poison and Hugo, who previously appeared in Street Fighter x Tekken, plus an all-new character, Decapre.[29] The game arrived on next generation consoles with a PlayStation 4 version releasing in 2015.[30]
Street Fighter V (2016) [ edit ]
Street Fighter V was released exclusive to PlayStation 4 and PC,[31] enabling cross platform gameplay.[32][33] in 2016.[34] In 2018, the game received a major update titled Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition.
Other games [ edit ]
Various other games based on the Street Fighter franchise have been produced.
Other media [ edit ]
whac-a-mole Street Fighter II arcade game featuring arcade game featuring Ryu and Chun-Li
Animation [ edit ]
Manga and manhua [ edit ]
Super Street Fighter II Cammy Gaiden (1994) - A manga revolving around Cammy in seven chapters. Originally published in six parts in Japan's Shonen Sunday comic anthology in 1994. Later the same year the six parts were compiled into one volume and in 1997 the compilation was first published in English by Viz Communications as Super Street Fighter II: Cammy. The seventh chapter was printed in September 1994 as a bonus supplement in Takayuki Sakai's comic adaptation of The Animated Movie titled "Gekijouyou Animation Street Fighter II" but was never officially translated. Street Fighter III: Ryu Final (1998) - A manga adaption to the Street Fighter III series in two volumes. In 2008, a translated version was released by UDON. Street Fighter: Sakura Ganbaru! (1996) - The story follows Sakura Kasugano in her quest to become a street fighter and meet Ryu. It has two volumes. Street Fighter Zero (1995) - A manga about the Street Fighter Alpha series. Translated and released in English as Street Fighter Alpha.
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie Official Comic Adaptation is a manga adaptation of the 1994 anime film, authored by Takayuki Sakai and serialized in the monthly CoroCoro Comic in 1994, later republished in a single tankōbon collected edition. An English adaptation of this manga was published by Viz Communications as six issues in 1996.
is a manga adaptation of the 1994 anime film, authored by Takayuki Sakai and serialized in the monthly CoroCoro Comic in 1994, later republished in a single tankōbon collected edition. An English adaptation of this manga was published by Viz Communications as six issues in 1996. There is a broad selection of Street Fighter manhua comics published in Hong Kong and Taiwan in booklet format. The first one, based on Street Fighter II, was released in 1991 by Jade Dynasty.[50] Street Fighter EX 2 Plus is a manhua by a Hong Kong artist who drew the previous Street Fighter II adaptations since 1992. Street Fighter Zero 2 HK is the original comic was only printed in Hong Kong and was prevented by Capcom from being released in Japan.
Comics [ edit ]
Other games [ edit ]
Characters [ edit ]
The main games have introduced a varied cast of around seventy characters into video game lore, plus around another twenty in spin-off games. The games' playable characters originate from different countries around the world, each with a unique fighting style.
Reception [ edit ]
A 2010 graffiti of Vega under a bridge in Marsange, Presles-en-Brie
Since the release of the first Street Fighter game in August 1987, the series has had total home software sales of 35 million units by 2014[65] and over 42 million by 2017,[66] and arcade cabinet sales of over 500,000 units generating more than $1 billion in revenue in video game arcade cabinet sales,[67][68] qualifying it for the list of best-selling video game franchises. Street Fighter has remained Capcom's second-biggest franchise behind Resident Evil as of 2014,[69] and is currently Capcom's third-best-selling software franchise behind Resident Evil and Monster Hunter.
The best-selling game in the series was Street Fighter II. Various versions of the game grossed over $10 billion in inflation-adjusted revenue, mostly from arcades,[11] as well as from the video game console ports which sold more than 14 million cartridges for the Super NES and Mega Drive/Genesis platforms.[12] Individually, Street Fighter II is one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, after Space Invaders and Pac-Man.[11] |
Police say bodies of María José Alvarado and her sister Sofía, who went missing last week, found near river
Police in Honduras have found the bodies of a beauty queen and her sister, six days after the two young women disappeared from a party.
María José Alvarado, 19, had been due to travel to London in preparation for the Miss World pageant in December. Her body was found buried near a river near the northern city of Santa Bárbara, alongside that of her 23-year-old sister Sofía, police said on Wednesday.
“I can confirm that the Alvarado sisters have been found,” Leandro Osorio, head of the criminal investigation unit told Honduran TV.
María José and Sofía went missing on Thursday night after attending Sofía’s boyfriend’s birthday party in a spa on the outskirts of Santa Bárbara, where the family home is also located.
Police said the boyfriend, Plutarco Ruíz, is the prime suspect in the murder and has been arrested along with another man identified as Valentín Maldonado.
“We have the author of this abominable act, Mr Plutarco Ruíz,” Osorio said. “We also have the murder weapon and the vehicle used to transport the victims.”
Local media reported that police had confiscated two pistols from the detainees. There were also reports that they had led police to the graves.
The disappearance and subsequent murder of the Alvarado sisters has shocked Honduras, a country already struggling with a deep security crisis and the worst murder rates in the world for several years.
The national homicide rate in Honduras 2013 stood at 83 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, about double the rates in Venezuela, Belize and El Salvador – Latin America’s other most violent countries.
The murder of the Alvarado sisters stands out both because of María José’s position as a representative of the country, as well as because of the absence of any suggestion that the two women were in any way linked to the turf battles between street gangs that is usually blamed for the majority of the country’s violence. |
Stop doing it.
Usually, the more you try to do it, the less you will succeed. Trying to impress means that you need to get attention and in order to do that you need to get into people’s faces. Everyone wants their share of attention, the need to feel important, meaningful and involved.
Once you try to capture all the attention, it will make them react and reject you. Struggling to get attention is really hard and most times ends up in people considering you as spam, intrusive and eventually end up ignoring you.
On the other hand, if you focus on your art, put in the effort, offer emotional implication and create curiosity, you won’t need to struggle for attention nor will you need to try to impress people.
Once you create something memorable people will know. Focus on doing something worth being remembered. |
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Just in case you need another reason to dislike the thieving Federal Reserve. From Reuters:
(Reuters) – The top 113 earners among staff at the Federal Reserve’s Washington headquarters make an average of $246,506 per year, excluding bonuses and other benefits – more than Fed Chair Janet Yellen and nearly double the normal top government rate.
Don’t worry Janet, once you leave, you can earn $250k per speech like your hero Banana Ben Bernanke.
The details on Fed pay were provided to Reuters in response to a Freedom of Information Act request for data on all employees of the U.S. central bank’s board whose salaries outstrip $130,810, which is the top of the government’s pay scale in most areas. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have sponsored a bill that would require the Fed to divulge that information publicly. “It certainly bolsters the case for more oversight,” said Maggie Seidel, a spokeswoman for New Jersey Republican Scott Garrett, a co-sponsor of the bill. As of July 31, the Fed’s inspector general led the list with an annual salary of $312,000, followed by the central bank’s four division directors, its general counsel and its chief operating officer, who each earn a base of $265,000.
Not a bad gig. All you have to do is be complicit in the destruction of the American middle class. |
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County residents pay hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes to help fund the public school system. They elect the members of the board, too. Given that, it seems clear that the eight-person board owes the public a candid and detailed explanation–right now–about why the guy they brought in as superintendent in July 2011 as the worthy successor to the somewhat legendary Jerry Weast is no longer the right man for the job.
If you’re coming to this cold, here’s what’s going on: Four members of the eight-person school board have decided they do not want to give Superintendent Joshua P. Starr a new four-year contract, and it takes five to make it happen. Starr has until Feb. 1 to write the board a letter telling them he wants another term.
Why did the four members apparently come to this decision? Well, they aren’t saying. At least not to the public who elected them. They have decided that Starr’s fate is a “personnel matter” and county residents don’t get to know what’s going on. Why is deliberation about the status of a high-ranking public employee by public officials a secret personnel matter?
Starr was brought to the district at a time of enormous change and was charged with maintaining the luster on the gold-plated brand of the Montgomery County Schools. Demographics were changing–with a growing number of low-income and English-Language Learners (70 percent of whom don’t speak English at home)–and the state was pursuing several major school reform efforts at the same time, including the Common Core State Standards. Anybody who thought that the brand would not collect some tarnish was kidding themselves.
Starr, a believer in addressing the social and emotional needs of children as an integral part of the academic pursuit, took some public stands on issues on which most of his colleagues stood silent: He called for a three-year moratorium on standardized testing, recognizing the corrosive effect that testing was having on teaching and learning, and was opposed to using standardized test scores to evaluate teachers. (Montgomery County is famous for its teacher evaluation system, developed under Weast, that gives no weight to standardized test scores. And for those who believe that adults can’t know how students are doing in school without test results, they can be reassured that Montgomery County students still take a mountain of standardized tests, despite Starr’s view.)
The Washington Post has learned that there are apparently several reasons some of the board members want to replace Starr. One is that they don’t think he has articulated a clear enough vision about how to close the achievement gap between white and minority students.
What that means exactly is unclear. Starr, when asked once in a hearing what he was doing specifically about the achievement gap, responded that everything his administration does is aimed at helping close that gap. What that means is that there is no single thing any superintendent can do to close the gap. There is no silver bullet. When Michelle Rhee became chancellor of Washington, D.C., Public Schools in 2007, she had a very clear vision of how to close the achievement gap–fire teachers and principals, evaluate them by student test scores and give merit pay to those who got high test scores. Today, the achievement gap in the District is as big as in any big city in the country.
The notion that any superintendent can “close the achievement gap” without help from health and counseling professionals outside the system and appropriate social policy is something of a fantasy, which, unfortunately, is one shared by many school reformers around the country today.
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Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time working to meet some goals and have been really exhausted, to the point that I have skipped out on things like sleeping enough and hanging out with friends. Today’s bracelet is one I plan to wear on days when I’m feeling like I need a little extra motivation to keep working toward my goals and staying sane. The outside of the bracelet says “keep your eye on the prize” and the inside is a personal reminder to relax once in awhile.
Supplies
aluminum bracelet blank
Wedding Celebration Design Stamps Pack
Metal Stamping Kit with stamping block, chasing hammer, & newsprint letter stamps
pencil
masking tape
ruler
fine point permanent marker
ultra fine point permanent marker
rubbing alcohol
paper towel
rubber mallet
bracelet mandrel or a round object to shape your cuff on
Directions
Tape your bracelet blank to your stamping block. Mark just past the vertical center of the blank on the masking tape with your ultra fine marker. My blank is 1 inch tall, so I marked my tape 0.6 inches from the top of the blank.
Attach a horizontal piece of tape at the marks you made. Using your ruler as a guide, make tick marks on your tape that mimic the marks on your ruler, and indicate the exact center of your bracelet blank. My blank was 6 inches wide, so my middle point is at 3 inches.
The phrase I used on my bracelet is “keep your eye on the prize”, which is 26 characters long, including spaces. The second e in the word “eye” is the centermost character in my phrase, so I wanted that just to the left of the exact center mark on my tape. In pencil, I worked from the center to write out my phrase on the tape. See the above photo for where I placed my phrase.
Working from the middle, begin stamping your letters onto your bracelet. Don’t know the first thing about metal stamping? Check out my Metal Stamping 101 (which has a video!) and Metal Stamping 201 tutorials.
If you run out of room on your stamping block, carefully shift your tape and bracelet blank as shown to accomodate your stamping.
Carefully peel the ruler tape off of your bracelet and retain it for use in the next phase of the project.
Next, use your fine point marker to color in all of the stamped letters, and use rubbing alcohol to clean off the excess ink. The marker fills in each letter and makes it stand out from the bracelet blank really nicely.
Flip your blank over and spend a couple minutes measuring to find the center of your bracelet blank like you did on the other side. Then, use your fine point marker to write your second phrase on the masking tape right over the pencil letters from the first side. I incorporated a design stamp for a cheeky touch on my bracelet. If you use a design element, you’ll need to count it as an extra character when you count up your phrase characters to find its center.
The back of my bracelet reads “and relax [champagne flute]”, so the center of my back phrase is between the letters r and e of “relax.” I placed the r just to the left of center and the e just to the right. Just like on the first side, I started stamping from the middle and worked my way outward.
If you want to fill in the back with marker, you can do that. Then, flip your bracelet back over and use the rounded end of your chasing hammer to add some texture to the outside of your bracelet by hammering all over the bracelet. Don’t forget to use the stamping block to protect your work surface from the hammering.
Finally, shape your bracelet. Don’t try to simply bend it around your wrist like the first photo below. Doing that will result in a weirdly angular cuff, rather than something shaped more like the letter C.
What you’ll want to do is use a rounded object and rubber mallet to shape your cuff. I don’t own a fancy bracelet mandrel since I’m not a pro jewelry maker, so I grabbed a dusty free weight I had laying around the house. It was almost as big as my wrist and could handle a bit of hammering.
When you’re all done, it should be shaped something like this:
Metal stamping supplies featured in this post were provided by ImpressArt. All opinions are my own. (PS: Regarding the phrase, “keep your eye on the prize”, I’ve always said “eye” and not “eyes,” which a bit of post-project Googling taught me is weird. Whoops! :)) |
For all developers, squashing bugs is one of those unpleasant parts of development that simply cannot be avoided. There are few things more frustrating than being outwitted by a particularly nasty bug, and sometimes the only proper way to fix them is to step away for a day or two, and come back later with fresh eyes.
(...) they appear as bugs in your own code, leading you in directions that will never produce fruit.
Sooner or later, with enough work and time invested, any bug in our code can be squashed. But there is something more insidious that lurks out there: bugs in your tooling. In many cases they appear as bugs in your own code, leading you in directions that will never produce fruit.
Godot is unfortunately no exception.
Understanding the bug
To lay out the bug: if you have a tool script, and call or access any method or variable of a singleton from within that script, any exported variables will fail to export properly, and won't show within the editor, preventing you from setting their value outside of the script. This bug is present for both scripts and scenes used as singletons.
Like most tooling bugs, I initially suspected my own code as the source of the bug, but using the Divide and Conquer method, I narrowed the circumstances in which it occurs, down to the criteria above.
Reproducing the bug
The bug is very easy to reproduce, so I'll detail the steps here:
When testing bugs, it's always best to start with a fresh project if the bug is easily reproducible without much supporting code. In the new project, create two scripts: SingletonScript.gd and TestScene.gd Now create two scenes: SingletonScene.tscn and TestScene.tscn In SingletonScene.tscn , create the root node SingletonObject and attach SingletonScript.gd to it. Go into Project Settings->AutoLoad and add both SingletonScene.tscn and SingletonScript.gd as singletons. Name these SingletonScene and SingletonScript respectively. In TestScene.tscn add a root node TestSceneObject and attach TestScene.gd to it. This is all the setup we require; time to write the actual code that'll trigger the bug.
First we'll write the code for SingletonScript.gd as it's static and won't need to change at all during testing.
# SingletonScript.gd extends Node var uselessVar = 50 var uselessVar2 = 10 func DoNothing(): # We do some useless stuff to avoid the compiler optimizing us out. # Although from what I've seen, I doubt the compiler optimizes anything at all. uselessVar += 60 uselessVar2 = uselessVar / 3.5 return true
Now the last bit of code goes in TestScene.gd ; our tool script where we trigger the bug.
# TestScene.gd tool extends Node # From here down, any commented code is a line that will trigger the bug. export(float) var exportedFloat = 15 # onready var _scriptTest = SingletonScript.DoNothing() # onready var _sceneTest = SingletonScene.DoNothing() # onready var _varScriptTest = SingletonScript.uselessVar # onready var _varSceneTest = SingletonScene.uselessVar func _ready(): # Also breaks when used within a method, instead of using the onready keyword. # var scriptTest = SingletonScript.DoNothing() # var sceneTest = SingletonScene.DoNothing() # var varScriptTest = SingletonScript.uselessVar # var varSceneTest = SingletonScene.uselessVar pass
Uncomment any line of code in that file, and exportedFloat will fail to export properly, which will cause it to disappear from the inspector within the editor, and from then can only be accessed within the script. Commenting the line again will cause exportedFloat to export correctly and reappear.
Keep in mind that Godot has a (minor) bug where the inspector doesn't update properly. To see the changes in the inspector, you need to select another object or resource, and then switch back. |
Earlier tonight, Kim Kardashian West leaked footage on her Snapchat of a phone conversation between Kanye West and Taylor Swift regarding West's lyric, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/I made that bitch famous” from his song “Famous.” In it, Kanye raps the first part of the lyric to Swift over the phone. She thanks him for coming to her in advance and says, “It's just a really cool thing to do, a really good show of friendship.”
Now, Swift has taken to social media with a statement regarding the leaked footage: “Where is the video of Kanye telling me that he was going to call me ‘that bitch’ in his song? It doesn't exist because it never happened. You don't get to control someone else's emotional response to being called ‘that bitch’ in front of the entire world.”
She then says that West promised to play her the whole song but never did, and that she wanted to like the song but could not approve of it as she hadn't heard it. “Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination. I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009.” Read the full note below. |
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The West’s rush to work with radical Shi’ite forces in the war against the Sunni Islamic State organization is a serious mistake, a senior army source warned on Thursday.
In unprecedented criticism from Israel directed against the coalition that has formed against the Islamic State, the source said, “I’m not enthusiastic about the unity against the Islamic State. The West is making a serious mistake by supporting radical Shi’ites.
This is the axis that has Hezbollah, Iran and Assad in it. It doesn’t make sense. The Shi’ite axis is no less extreme. Iran has 11 percent of the world’s oil and 25% of gas supplies. Is this not more dangerous [than the Islamic State]?” The officer also criticized those in the West who he said try to present the Syrian dictator as a moderate element.“Let’s put things in proportion. This is someone who butchers his people,” he said.The Iranian-Hezbollah presence in Syria is still developing, and Iran’s presence in Syria continues to grow, the officer added.In the past year, all terrorism directed against Israel from the Syrian border, every deliberate incident of cross-border fire or bomb attack, was launched by the Shi’ite Hezbollah-Iranian axis, not radical Sunni organizations, the source noted.Yet Israel is not the center of the developing Middle Eastern war, between radical Shi’ite and radical Sunni Islamic forces.“What really keeps Iran’s leaders up at night is not Israel. It’s the possibility that Iraq and Syria will be gobbled up by the Islamic State. This is the real story of what is happening in the Levant,” said the source.Hezbollah, under Iranian directives, is involved “up to its ears” in Lebanon. It has “lost hundreds of fighters. But Hezbollah is not in distress. It’s focusing on its problems in a manner that is certainly remarkable,” the source stated.“Our level of influence on events is Syria is close to zero. We do not want to get involved in the war.”All of the maneuvers taken by the Assad military in Syria are directed by the Iranians, or coordinated with them, the source said.“The same thing is now happening in Iraq, where a new front has been opened against Iran by the Islamic State.”Hezbollah and Iran do not have an interest in starting a war with Israel, the source assessed, but warned that wars can nevertheless start even without prior intentions. Israel must tread with caution in order to avoid upsetting a strategic situation that is basically reasonable for it at this time, he argued.Meanwhile, Hezbollah continues to arm itself and smuggle weapons into Lebanon, though not on a massive scale.In any future war, Hezbollah will be able to shut down Ben-Gurion Airport and Haifa Port due to large-scale projectile attacks, he said. The IDF will have to deploy the full scope of its power against Hezbollah and can’t rely on air power alone to do the job.“It’s clear that Hezbollah won’t shrug its shoulders in the event of an Israeli interception of weapons.... There is a pain threshold for Hezbollah which, if crossed, will cause it to respond.Syria has in the past year destroyed its strategic chemical weapons program, but retains tactical chlorine weapons. This means soldiers in the IDF’s Northern Command must train in chemical gas masks on occasion, he added.Additionally, the threat to offshore gas rigs in Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zone posed by Hezbollah’s surface to sea missiles has grown, and new defenses are needed, the source said.
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An advert for a job with Krispy Kreme in Co Down was "incorrect", the company has confirmed.
Job advertisements marked for the North Down District sparked rumours the US donut chain was preparing to open its first Northern Irish store.
Roles for team members and a shift leader were advertised for Krispy Kreme in the North Down District area with full and part-time roles apparently up for grabs.
But the company has since confirmed they made a mistake and the job had been listed incorrectly.
However, that does not mean hopes for a store opening in Northern Ireland were dashed.
A spokeswoman for Krispy Kreme said: "Last week, a job located in the North Down area was advertised. This advert was incorrect and the job was in fact for a new store in England. This has since been corrected, apologies for the misinformation.
"Do‘nought fear though, we are actively scouting a number of locations to open our first Irish store The specifics are not confirmed at this stage, but we’re very excited to spread the joy of Krispy Kreme across the Irish sea next year – so watch this space!"
Demand is high in Northern Ireland for a Krispy Kreme store to be opened and at the start of this year an online campaign was started to get a Krispy Kreme store in Belfast gained hundreds of supporters.
A fan of the American donut chain started the group on Facebook in a bid to get the company to open its first Northern Irish store.
Currently there are no Krispy Kreme outlets in Northern Ireland, or the Republic. The company also sells its products in certain retail outlets in store cabinets in other parts of the UK.
They can be found in Tesco, Moto, Welcome Break and Roadchef. However, this is not yet the case in Northern Ireland.
Krispy Kreme previously said they want their first Irish Hotlight store to be in and around Dublin, they are also looking for 25-30 sites across the UK for new shops, kiosks and box stores. |
Focus: A Detector to Track Antineutrinos
A proposed detector for low-energy antineutrinos would reveal the particles’ trajectories, potentially allowing more detailed studies of Earth’s radioactivity and of nuclear reactors.
B. R. Safdi and B. Suerfu, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2015) Slicing and dicing. In a proposed detector design, an antineutrino (green track) triggers inverse beta decay in a target layer, creating a neutron (yellow) and a positron (purple) that generate signals in adjacent capture layers. Connecting the dots makes it possible to deduce the antineutrino’s trajectory. Slicing and dicing. In a proposed detector design, an antineutrino (green track) triggers inverse beta decay in a target layer, creating a neutron (yellow) and a positron (purple) that generate signals in adjacent capture layers. Connecting the dots ... Show more
B. R. Safdi and B. Suerfu, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2015) Slicing and dicing. In a proposed detector design, an antineutrino (green track) triggers inverse beta decay in a target layer, creating a neutron (yellow) and a positron (purple) that generate signals in adjacent capture layers. Connecting the dots makes it possible to deduce the antineutrino’s trajectory. ×
Existing detectors for antineutrinos generated by nuclear reactors and by radioactive beta decay are large devices that record only the total number of particles they capture. Now two physicists propose an antineutrino detector that would record the direction in which captured particles were traveling. They hope to build a meter-sized demonstration device that could detect the intense flux of antineutrinos from a nuclear reactor, making it possible to image the reaction’s intensity. A detector able to map the much weaker emission from radioactivity within the Earth would be large but still potentially practical, they say.
The standard method for detecting antineutrinos relies on inverse beta decay: the antineutrino collides with a proton (usually in hydrogen), converting it into a neutron and a positron that fly off at high speed. A typical detector is a large volume of a hydrogen-rich “scintillator” material, loaded with an element, such as boron, that has a propensity for capturing neutrons. The neutron produced by inverse beta decay initially moves roughly in line with the original path of the antineutrino, but it scatters from many nuclei before being captured, erasing its initial direction. The positron slows down roughly in a straight line, within a few centimeters, but the scintillator converts its energy into light that radiates in all directions, obscuring the positron’s path.
Detectors for solar and cosmic neutrinos, such as the gigantic IceCube and Super-Kamiokande installations, can indicate the paths of neutrinos and of high-energy (greater than 100 billion electron volts) antineutrinos. But there are no detectors that provide directional information on antineutrinos with a few million electron volts of energy. Such a detector could image radioactive sources in the Earth or allow detailed studies of nuclear reactors.
Benjamin Safdi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Burkhant Suerfu of Princeton University propose an antineutrino detector with directional capability. They call their design a Segmented AntiNeutrino Tomography Apparatus (SANTA). It divides the detection medium into layers separated by empty space. A neutron created by an antineutrino interaction in the central, “target” layer will escape before scattering—because the layer is thin—preserving its initial direction. Then it will travel through empty space until it hits the thicker “capture” layer, where it generates a reaction that emits a light flash. The neutron’s direction is along a straight line from its capture location back to the antineutrino event (whose location is revealed by the light emission triggered by the positron). The trick is that the neutron travels a long distance through empty space before any interactions.
To test their idea, the team performed simulations in which the target layer was 0 . 5 cm, 1 cm, or 2 cm thick and made of plastic scintillator. The capture layers were one meter away, on both sides of the target layer and made of the same scintillator material but augmented by 5 % by weight of boron. These layers were 6 cm thick, enough to capture almost all the neutrons.
Safdi and Suerfu performed two types of simulations. In one, they took the antineutrino trajectory to be the same as the neutron’s flight path. That inference, they found, was accurate to only about 30 degrees. In the second case, they assumed that the positron’s path could also be measured in events where it escaped the target layer (not before generating some light to reveal its place of origin) and appeared in one of the capture layers. With information on both particles, the inferred antineutrino trajectory was accurate to within about 5 degrees for a 0 . 5 -cm-thick target layer.
A SANTA with layers 2 m on a side could detect a substantial number of events if placed 25 m from a nuclear reactor, Safdi and Suerfu found. They are now working on a proposal to build such a device. Patrick Huber of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg says that the proposed technique is “a very clever idea.” He thinks that a large directional detector to study the Earth’s internal radioactivity would be of great help in understanding where the planet’s heat comes from. Safdi and Suerfu suggest that such a device would be tens of meters across and a kilometer long, but Huber sees no practical reason why it couldn’t be built. “We have the technology,” he says, and “you don’t have to pay for empty space.”
This research is published in Physical Review Letters.
–David Lindley
David Lindley is a freelance writer in Alexandria, Virginia, and author of Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science (Doubleday, 2007). |
Last week Mark Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu Netbook Edition will have a global menu bar — a single menu bar at the top of the screen, instead of separate menu bars inside each window. This seems like a pretty simple change. But like many design changes, it’s more complex than it appears. And we’ll need lots of help in making it awesome.
Why we’re doing this
For 30 years or so, computer programs have often used a hierarchy of menus to provide access to lesser-used functions — functions that aren’t displayed directly in the interface as buttons, checkboxes, and so on. Because of its information density, a menu hierarchy also serves as a quick map of what functions are available in a program, regardless of how frequently they’re used.
There are at least half a dozen approaches to presenting a menu hierarchy on-screen:
A menu bar at the top of the screen. This was the most common early presentation, used in the Lisa, Macintosh, Amiga, and TOS. It has several benefits, most importantly being quick to use because of the large virtual target area, and saving space through showing only one menu bar at a time. Its main disadvantage is that you need to focus a window before using its menus (particularly an issue if you use focus-follows-mouse). In some themes, it is also difficult to tell which window the menu bar applies to.
A menu bar at the top of the window. This approach was popularized by Windows, and is currently copied by Gnome and KDE. Its main advantage is that it is obvious which menus belong to which window. Its main disadvantage is that it is slow to use.
A menu panel at the side of the screen. This was used in Nextstep, and has been continued in Gnustep. It has a speed benefit from the virtual target area off whichever side of the screen the panel is touching, but much less so than a menu bar along the top of the screen (since the target area is based on the title’s height rather than its width). The menu panel can also be dragged close to where you are working, but that movement itself takes time.
A hierarchical menu on secondary click. Gimp and XChat both do this, though both are just duplicating their horizontal main menu bar. This approach provides quick access to the top-level menus, but that’s outweighed by the unpredictable placement of context menus, compounded by the two or often three levels of hierarchy.
Nested pie menus. These are used in several games, and in the Songza Web site. They’re typically invoked by a secondary click, where menus fan out from the cursor position. With simple, icon-based menus the pie arrangement is rapid to use, because menu selection gestures can be learned and repeated. With more complex menus, though, it quickly becomes unworkable to present the text of pie menu items in a compact and readable way. A pie menu based on the one used in Songza.
No menu bar at all. Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome (except on the Mac), and Chrome OS have gone in this direction. It saves the most space, and has the advantage that an individual application can list its functions in a way that best suits its feature set. The disadvantage is that for an application of any complexity, trying to avoid a menu bar just litters pulldown menus throughout the interface, and inconsistency makes the overall mental model more complex. For example, in Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Publisher 2003, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, the “Find” command was in the same menu in all three applications. But in Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Publisher 2007, and Internet Explorer 7 and 8, that same command is in three different menus.
Of these approaches to menus, which is best depends on the device. For example, a gaming console might use pie menus for most commands. And a well-designed touch-screen interface would have no menu bar at all (as both Apple and Microsoft have demonstrated).
But on a netbook, space is at a premium, people use feature-packed applications, and pointing is done with a touchpad or mouse. So it’s pretty clear to us that a single menu bar at the top of the screen is the right choice.
The problem of toolkit proliferation
We face several challenges in implementing the unified menu bar. The biggest of these is toolkit proliferation — the wide variety of toolkits application developers have used in writing applications that run on Ubuntu.
On Windows, there is one prominent toolkit, creatively named the Windows User Interface library. Microsoft and other application developers often use custom controls, but in general, when a new version of Windows comes out with a new theme, most applications inherit the new appearance automatically. The developers of applications that don’t use native controls — such as Firefox and OpenOffice.org — bear the responsibility of keeping up with new Windows versions, or pay the price for looking strange.
On Mac OS X, there are two widely-used toolkits, Cocoa and Carbon, and Apple tries to make them look and behave identically. So when Apple makes a change to the toolkit design — like tweaking the way selection works, or making menus searchable — they can make that change in two places, and it applies automatically to nearly all Mac OS X applications past and future. Again, developers of applications that don’t use native controls — such as Firefox and Skype — have to keep up.
With Ubuntu, we’re at a disadvantage, because we have four prominent toolkits . Prominent in that they’re used by applications that Ubuntu installs by default, or that people often install afterwards. There’s GTK, as used by the Gnome environment and many other applications. XUL, as used by Firefox, Thunderbird, and a few others. VCL, as used by OpenOffice.org. And Qt, as used by KDE applications like Amarok. And those are just the common toolkits!
This mixture has made life difficult for us whenever we’ve tried to implement a consistent Ubuntu theme. But it also means that if we want to do anything cool at the toolkit level, we have to get it implemented four times over — in GTK, in XUL, in VCL, and in Qt.
For the menu bar, Canonical’s Desktop Experience team will be working to ensure it works with GTK and Qt applications. And we’ll be looking for help to make it work with XUL and OpenOffice.org applications. Mozilla and OpenOffice.org applications already use the native menu bar when running on Mac OS X, so it should be possible to adapt some of that code.
Tackling the corner cases
Besides having to implement some of the menu bar several times, there are other tricky issues we need to deal with.
Many windows currently don’t have menus: for example, Open and Save dialogs. For these, we’ll introduce a fallback set of minimal menus so that the menu bar doesn’t look weirdly empty when those windows are focused.
Some windows that don’t have menus would do so, if they knew those menus were going to be presented in a separate menu bar: for example, Chromium browser windows should use the same set of menus on Ubuntu Netbook Edition as they do on Mac OS X. For these, we’ll introduce an API so a program can tell whether a separate menu bar is being used.
Some windows have a “Full Screen” command that expects to hide the panel while still showing its in-window menu bar: for example, Inkscape and Gimp. For these, we need to work out a standard full-screen mechanism that retains access to the menus.
And so that it is obvious which window’s menus are being shown, the Ambiance and Radiance themes will need to do a much better job of distinguishing between focused and unfocused windows.
Most of these issues are covered in our specification for the menu bar. We invite you to review it and post your comments, here or on the Ayatana mailing list.
How you can help
To make the Ubuntu menu bar work well, we’ll need to do lots of testing.
First, we need to check that the menu bar is presenting menus accurately — the right text, the right icons, the right keyboard equivalents, the right sensitive/insensitive states. For this, we’ll provide a way to display menus in the window’s menu bar and in the Ubuntu menu bar simultaneously, so you can compare them.
Next, we need to check that the window is laid out correctly once the menu bar is removed. If a window embeds another control into — or next to — its menu bar, that program may need tweaking. Unlike the notification area transition, though, we shouldn’t need to make many changes. Most applications will just work.
So you can help with this testing, we’ll provide a way for people to install the Ubuntu menu bar on standard Ubuntu, not just on the Netbook Edition. We’ll post here later with advice on how to get involved.
Accept no imitations
Finally, there’s been a bit of eye-rolling lately about how Canonical’s Design team seems to be pushing Ubuntu towards imitating Mac OS X. First the purple background picture, then the window title bar buttons, and now the global menu bar. Whatever next? So, a few words about that.
There are some parts of Ubuntu that are, probably, too much like the Mac. For example, the flow of the login screen is very similar to the Mac equivalent, and could be a bit more efficient. On the other hand, there are other parts of Ubuntu that are probably too much like Windows. For example, many settings windows have two close buttons, like they do in Windows; it would be more sensible if they had just one. As with the title bar buttons, these design details did not originate with Canonical’s Design team; they came from elsewhere. But the purple desktop background? Yep, we’ll take the blame for that one.
Our goal is not to make Ubuntu imitate any other OS; our goal is to make it better than any other OS. As we continue to improve Ubuntu, it will become more like Windows in some respects, and less in others. More like Mac OS X in some ways, less in others. More innovative in some ways, and less in others. We’ll try always to do something not just because others do it, and not just because others don’t do it, but because it’s a good idea. |
Group play is going to be one of the hallmarks of Elder Scrolls Online when One Tamriel goes live later this fall. Dungeons are key to that goal. We had the chance to speak to Rich Lambert about how dungeons fit into One Tamriel and much more.
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MMORPG: One Tamriel is about getting more and more people playing together in ESO. How are the dungeons being changed in order to facilitate this?
Rich Lambert: The biggest change was separating story from difficulty in the dungeons. With One Tamriel, you will be able to play any dungeon on either Normal or Veteran difficulty. In addition dungeons will now always battle-level players to max level, so it doesn’t matter who the leader of the group is, you will always be able to play with your friends and still receive level-appropriate loot/XP in whatever dungeon you choose.
MMORPG: How does scaling work in the dungeons from here on out?
RL: Dungeons and Trials will now always scale the player up to max level instead of the dungeon being scaled to the group leader’s level. (They will now work exactly like zones instead of working differently.) It is required that you’ve unlocked Champion Rank in order to do Veteran difficulty dungeons and Trials.
MMORPG: What work has been done on the LFG tool to ensure people get into dungeon groups quickly?
Prior to Update 12, we made some improvements to the Grouping/Activity Tool to help players more easily form groups for dungeons. We’re currently tracking down a few bugs and fixing them as quickly as we can, and with the most recent fixes we’re seeing the queue move pretty quickly now. We have more updates planned for LFG in future and when we get a bit closer to them, we will start to discuss them in more detail.
MMORPG: Each dungeon now has their own Monster Mask, too right? Can you share a few, and how players can get them?
RL: Monster sets (mask and shoulders) are found by running the Undaunted Daily Pledges and Veteran dungeons. The shoulders are rewards for completing Undaunted Pledges (you get a key and can open a chest at the Undaunted Enclave) and the masks drop 100% of the time off the end boss in Veteran difficulty dungeons. A good example of a monster mask would be the Selene helm from Selene’s Web – the 1-piece bonus adds maximum Stamina and the 2-piece bonus gives a chance to spawn a spirit bear to deal a single high-damage hit to your target.
MMORPG: Dungeons are one of the chief ways players can do PVE together. Yet, new players may not know they exist unless they see others talking about them in-game. Have you thought about directing players to them somehow in-game?
RL: We already guide players to dungeons in a few ways – the Undaunted are scattered around in various towns and they will direct you to the first dungeon in each alliance. We also have quest NPCs outside those dungeons if players happen to find the dungeon out in the world. Also, when the players hit level 45, the Undaunted send the player a mail with an invitation to join the guild in the form of a quest.
MMORPG: Each dungeon has its own set now, too? Can you share a few examples?
RL: Yep, each dungeon has three unique item sets that can only be obtained in them. As an example, in Tempest Island you will find the Overwhelming Surge, Storm Master, and Jolting Arms sets. (Light, Medium, and Heavy, respectively.) And these sets also include jewelry and weapons.
MMORPG: With all of the new sets being added to the game, has the team thought about some sort of gear collection system, or wardrobe system?
RL: Yeah we’ve definitely talked about a feature like that, but don’t have plans in the short-term for it.
MMORPG: In the future, when the Champion Level cap is increased, will this also increase the level of the gear that is dropped from dungeons?
RL: We can increase the Champion Point cap without increasing gear levels – that was the one of the big reasons why we removed Veteran levels in the Dark Brotherhood update. (to separate item level from player level.) When and if we do increase the item level, we will make sure we do it across the board for the game. (i.e. – overland, PVP, dungeons, Trials…etc.)
MMORPG: Are there any stops put in place to prevent a "low level" character joining up with a group of 3 high-level friends and being rushed through the higher level dungeons to speed up levelling?
RL: A huge part of One Tamriel, is enabling players of different levels to play with each other and we don’t put hard stops in the way. That said, there’s more to your character than just hitting level 50. There are lots of Skill Points to collect (questing/Skyshards), skills and skill lines to level, Champion Points to earn and gear to acquire.
MMORPG: For the gear drops, how will the item scaling work? Will it be scale for every level, every other level or something similar?
RL: For levels 1-50, equipment will always drop at exactly your level – for instance, a level 10 player will find level 10 gear, while the level 32 player right next to them will find level 32 gear. Once you hit level 50 and begin accruing Champion Points, gear scales to your Champion Rank. Gear at Champion Ranks only “goes up” in increments of 10, up to the current maximum of Champion 160 – so there’s Champion 10 and Champion 20 gear, but not Champion 13 gear. This means a level 50, Champion Rank 55 character will find Champion Rank 50 gear.
MMORPG: The scaling, does it also affect the Trials? Can a "low level" character create a group of other low levels can do a trail or will they need to be a certain champion level?
RL: As noted above, all dungeons and Trials will scale the same way as the overland zones – players are battle-leveled to max level. Note – you need to be at least Champion Rank to do Veteran difficulty.
MMORPG: What will happen to existing gear from dungeons? If I currently have a bunch of pieces from Fungal Grotto that are level 14 will they scale to my character if I'm level 25 by the time the patch is live?
RL: The gear is scaled to your actual level at the time it drops so no, any gear you already have will be unchanged level-wise. (i.e. You kill the monster at level 10 and get a level 10 piece. If you go back there at level 25 and kill the monster, you will get a level 25 piece.)
MMORPG: One Tamriel will unify the game, creating one world with thousands upon thousands of players adventuring through Tamriel, no alliance restrictions in place, but how will this work for the Cyrodiil dungeons? We can't group with enemy factions in Cyrodiil, will we be able to do these dungeons with players even though they are within Cyrodiil?
RL: Cyrodiil works the same way it always has – it’s a three-alliance war and player characters from other alliances are your enemy. Imperial City Prison and White Gold Tower are group dungeons and have always been accessible from outside of Cyrodiil. That won’t change with One Tamriel, so you will still be able to play those dungeons with anyone. |
If the images above seem completely ordinary to you, then Chrysalis Lingerie has done its job.
The first collection from this new NYC label represents something of a breakthrough in alternative fashions: the perfectly-named Chrysalis is the first lingerie line designed for, and by, transgender women.
For the estimated one million American adults who identify as transgender, this is no small milestone.
“A lot of women have been waiting a long time for something like this,” Chrysalis co-founder Cy Lauz told Lingerie Talk.
“Speaking from personal experience, I found no products that specifically cater to transgender women. There are some things for cross-dressers and drag queens, but they’re all sexually exploitative.
“I wanted a product that actually celebrated who we are, something that made us feel beautiful but is also practical.”
Now, for the curious, let’s get to the big question: What exactly distinguishes lingerie for the TG market?
Chrysalis will launch this spring with a basics collection of bra-and-panty ensembles in five colors. The power-mesh panty is designed to create a seamless look by using a special panel that “tucks us in,” Cy said, while the bra comes with hidden pockets that hold full-cup inserts to create the appearance of a natural bustline.
The result is a product line versatile enough to work with different body shapes and still achieve traditionally feminine lines. (The models used in Chrysalis‘ promotional photos are all TG women.)
The brand is also planning a couture collection that will use its technical innovations in teddies, shapewear, lingerie and even swimwear.
Various studies estimate up to 6% of the adult population identifies as transgender — people who experience some degree of dysphoria related to their birth gender, and who frequently choose to live as a member of the opposite sex. About two-thirds are male-to-female transgenders, which is the audience that Chrysalis was designed for.
Only a small percentage of transgender women are pursuing sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy that can help them develop natural female curves. As a result, finding appropriate undergarments can be a challenge, and shopping for underwear in women’s stores also presents obvious difficulties.
“Chrysalis answers a lot of problems and questions for transgender women regarding their underwear,” Cy said. “It gives them peace of mind. You don’t have to think about it anymore.”
Chrysalis Lingerie is the brainchild of Cy, an interior designer and fashion stylist, and partner Simone Tobias, the creative director of a menswear brand. The company got its first public exposure last fall when it was featured in the Style Network documentary, ‘Born Male, Living Female‘.
For its founders, though, Chrysalis is about a lot more than fashion: it’s about the politics of acceptance for a misunderstood and maligned community.
“Chrysalis wants to change how transgender people are viewed,” Cy said. “We want to make people look at transgender people as human beings.
“We’re done hiding. We’re done keeping quiet. We are a very diverse community, we do exist, and we have explicit needs.”
Although 16 U.S. states have enacted non-discrimination laws that specifically protect transgender people, the TG community still faces widespread discrimination, marginalization and even violence. It is also one of most widely misunderstood groups in society, burdened by stereotypes of flamboyant drag queens and viewed as a kind of sexual deviance. Gender identity disorder is still listed as a mental illness in psychiatric reference texts.
“One of the the things that’s definite in our lives is your gender,” Cy said. “When something blurs that line, I can see how other people would feel threatened by that. It shakes your reality.
“We don’t want to paint a picture of what a transgender woman is supposed to look like,” she added, “but we do want to change how the outside community relates to us.
“We all have one common denominator — we’re all still human beings. And we want to be acknowledged for who and what we are.”
A chrysalis, the cocoon stage in the life cycle of a butterfly, is the perfect symbol for what Chrysalis Lingerie is trying to achieve, she said.
“A chrysalis is also a metaphor of transformation,” she said. “But in order to transition, you need to create a space where you are safe and loved.”
Because their first collection has a traditional, minimalist look that wouldn’t be out of place on the shelves of Armani or even DKNY, Chrysalis risks being accused of trying to make the TG community appear more “normal” as a way of conforming to societal expectations.
The company knows this, and is highly sensitive to the complex politics of identity in the LGBT world, Cy said. Chrysalis isn’t pushing a one-size-fits-all vision of TG life, although it is staying away from explicit fashions that can reinforce stereotypes and further marginalize transgender women.
“I feel there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s really sexually explicit in nature,” she said. “We’re just trying to balance the market.”
And the timing is right for something like Chrysalis, she added. While news events like this weekend’s decision by the Miss Universe Canada pageant to bar a TG competitor still get the most attention, public acceptance of gender-variant people is also growing. Portrayals of TG characters in TV and films is becoming more common, and in 2010 the Obama administration appointed TG activist Amanda Simpson as an advisor to the Commerce Department.
“The whole world is embracing the fact that humanity comes in different forms,” Cy said. “Life is so vast and so glorious there has to be more than two ways of living your life.”
Watch for the first collection from Chrysalis Lingerie to appear on the company website soon. Products will be for sale online and, hopefully, through progressive retail boutiques. |
The Russia Foreign Ministry today issued a statement warning the United States against launching any attacks on the Syrian government, cautioning it would have “terrible, tectonic consequences” not just in Syria but also across the entire Middle East.
Since the collapse of the Syrian ceasefire about two weeks ago, the US has been railing against Russia and Syria, and threatening non-specific “non-diplomatic actions” against them, particularly in the city of Aleppo, where Syrian forces are fighting against the Nusra Front.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in particular cautioned against a US-imposed regime change in Syria, saying it would quickly fill a new government with terrorists of all stripes. Russian officials have repeatedly criticized the US response after the ceasefire, arguing they’re overtly backing terrorist groups like Nusra, which is closely aligned with al-Qaeda.
In the lead-up to the failed ceasefire, the US talked of a seven-day pause on striking Nusra territory, leading to joint US-Russia military operations against Nusra, after they were separated from US-backed “moderates.” Though the ceasefire did last 7 days, Nusra never separated from the other rebels, and the US quickly ditched the joint operations pledge, and started condemning Syria and Russia for their resumption of strikes against Nusra.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz |
Recollections of Spacefest V
“The past is prologue” as I once heard. A once politicised and technology based race to the Moon has yielded innumerable spin-off benefits and technology, but has also served as a prologue to many other events. The birth and rise of the new commercial space industry. International Space Agency cooperation with the construction of the International Space Station. The rising star of the Chinese ambitions to have a presence in orbit and on the Moon. And the benefits of a higher quality life in many ways. I was reminded of all these events in late May when I attended Spacefest V.
Spacefest is THE convention to go to for any “pure stripe, dyed in the wool space enthusiast, astronomy buff” and pretty much anyone who is enthusiastic about space history, exploration and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). There have been 4 of these events held which have attracted luminaries from the world of science, technology, astronomy and astronautics including some of the legendary Apollo astronauts
Organised by the wonderful Kim and Sally Poor of Novaspace, Spacefest V was held in the tranquil Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa in Tucson, Arizona. Known as an astronomy town, there are many side tours to sites of interest such as Kitt Peak Observatory, Pima Air and Space Museum and Biosphere II. The convention itself was held over the 3 day Memorial Day weekend and brought together not only many famous luminaries but a very special group of virtual Facebook friends with whom I had become acquainted over the previous months during planning for this little trip.
The Spacefest V weekend itself opened with a refined VIP reception on Thursday 23rd May, mixing with all the attendees, and old and new friends. Meeting one of the Meteorite Men himself, Geoff Notkin was a joy and a thrill to see an ex-pat Brit pursuing his life’s dream in Arizona so successfully. If you haven’t already seen his excellent series on the Discovery Channel “Meteorite Men” do check it out. Geoff was welcoming and fun straight off the bat, eager and curious to know, answering every question with humour and detail. A pure delight and a very British gentleman like this author.
Entry to view a very special art exhibition was given to appreciate the beautiful and extraordinary space art of such celebrated artists as Lucy West-Binnall, Kim Poor, Pamela Lee and Apollo XII astronaut Alan Bean who is himself a very accomplished artist.
Then came an unexpected surprise; meeting Carolyn Porco, leader of the imaging science team for the Cassini Mission; its namesake probe currently in orbit around Saturn and investigating the Saturnian moons Enceladus and Titan. As a young scientist she also worked with another childhood hero, Carl Sagan on the Voyager missions. She was very keen to get to know our little international army who had travelled so far to come to this event. So much so she even tweeted about us!
Spacefest V: Day 1
The first proper full day on Friday brought a series of highly informative talks from scientists, astronomers and Apollo alumni. A separate dealer hall ran parallel to the talks housing art memorabilia, books and meteorites for sale as well as an opportunity to meet the legends of the Apollo era. Updates on Project DAWN to asteroids Vesta and Ceres and New Horizons to Pluto were given by Marc Rayman and Leslie Young respectively. Both were highly informative and intriguing. The legendary Sy Liebergot gave the crowd an unparalleled view into the inside workings of NASA Mission Control in the 60s during Apollo’s heyday and especially around the mission he was most instrumental in saving; Apollo XIII. As he succinctly put it, it took eight years to make the bomb that blew a hole in the side of Apollo XIII’s service module and almost cost the lives of three good men. However it was, as we all have seen, NASA’s finest hour.
Continuing the tour I finally met two Moonwalking heroes from my childhood, Dave Scott and Al Bean. For Dave, commander of Apollo XV, I had brought a very special memento; a book of Captain Cook’s Journals from his cottage in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne Park Australia. Cook was one of Dave Scott’s key inspirations. Dave was visibly touched by my gesture and we immediately began talking about Cook’s famous voyages rather than his own missions. To say we hit it off would be an understatement as we continued to chat about Cook and then his own lunar experiences at dinner.
Al Bean: One of the nicest men I have ever met, period. So warm open and welcoming with a ready smile, here was an Apollo XII and Skylab III hero without borders or brash ego. At lunch, he correctly surmised that the experience of walking on the Moon simply enhanced the qualities that were already in the men who went there. Whether it was to run for Senate (Jack Schmitt), actively pursue plans for Mars (Buzz Aldrin), find renewed strength and meaning in their religion (Charlie Duke) or enhance an artist’s world (Al Bean himself). Talking to him about his painting experiences we were all surprised at how he has never looked again at the Moon while painting it. It’s all from memory and impressions. Exactness and the pride in a painting well finished is his driver and he could take 4-6 months over perfecting one. To him, it is simply a transfer of exacting rigour from being a navy pilot, to a test pilot, astronaut and now a painter. An inspiring lesson we can apply to our lives. We are never static, we adapt and reinvent ourselves periodically to survive and eventually excel – and if we are lucky become closer to who we truly are. The trick is to instil excellence and exactitude in everything we do and have fun doing it, just like Al Bean said.
The day was rounded off by a remarkable and eminent teaming up of Carolyn Porco and Professor Brian Cox (British astrophysicist and current king of BBC science promotion). Both gave a detailed talk on their respective fields and neither dumbed down for this crowd. Carolyn (as expected) stunned us with the latest images from Cassini’s exploration of the Saturnian system. This is truly where scientific observation comes into play as Saturn is in many ways, a micro solar system in itself, with its proto planetary accretion disk analogue (rings). However there is one further thing Saturn provides; beautiful grandeur. Having gazed upon Voyager’s images as a child and now the remarkable high res Cassini photos as an adult, I can safely say we truly have a Wonder of the Solar System in our “back garden”. Carolyn’s photos of Titan and Enceladus wowed the crowd, including some at the time hitherto unpublished data and unpublished plans. One of which has since come to fruition during the #DayEarthSmiled / #WaveAtSaturn events on Friday 19th July 2013, when for only the 3rd time in history, the Pale Blue Dot of Earth was photographed by Cassini’s cameras from 1.44 billion kilometres away.
Brian Cox stepped up the pace and instead of concentrating on a wonder of our Solar System, spoke about the Wonders of our Universe. Not to be outdone, he told us about his work on the Large Hadron Collider and related complex astrophysics principles with everything that we are and know in nature and cosmology today, from the Big Bang theory to cosmic Inflation, dark energy, dark matter and cosmic microwave background radiation. He finished with a deep and meaningful thought (as he is known to do) quoting the Royal Institution of Great Britain;
“It is an undoubted truth, that the successive improvements in the condition of man, from a state of ignorance and barbarism to that of the highest cultivation and refinement are usually affected by the aid of machinery in procuring the necessaries, the comforts, and the elegancies of life; and that the pre-eminence of any people in civilisation, is and ought ever to be estimated by the state of industry and mechanical improvement among them.”
Spacefest V: Day 2
Day 2’s lectures started off with a bang for me as I sat in on a great talk from one of my literary heroes; Andrew Chaikin. Andrew wrote what is considered to be the cornerstone “go-to” text for anyone who wants to know anything about the US Space Program to the end of the Apollo Program. His book “A Man on the Moon” took 8 years to write with meticulous research from interviews with many involved in that era. Andrew spoke about the political context which fired JFK’s “we choose to go to the Moon” speech. He then spoke about the exciting age we live in and the rise of “commercial” spaceflight enterprises. From its earliest beginnings, commercial spaceflight is rapidly becoming a growing industry with new players arriving on the scene (Virgin Galactic, XCor, SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, Sierra Nevada etc.). Past it seems is indeed prologue.
At lunch, we talked more about Golden Spike and the race back to the Moon. The time is ripe for a commercial return and Andrew outlined his involvement with Golden Spike; a “railroad” firm with the goal of establishing the first commercial transportation service to the surface of the Moon, using existing technology, leveraging Apollo experience and offering these at prices comparable to robotic missions to a wide variety of customers. With the famed Jim Lovell and Gerry Griffin already on board Golden Spike is on course to lay a new railroad for a permanent lunar return.
Phil Plait (@badastronomer) the renowned blogger, astronomer and science author, packed out his room with his usual mix of humour and logical truth deconstructing pseudo-science. He also shared the wonder of science outreach and how the general public can be inspired, as they were during MSL Curiosity’s remarkably successful but dramatic landing on Mars. Who can forget Times Square in New York, filled to the brim with people of all backgrounds watching as a 1 ton NASA rover landed LIVE on TV ON ANOTHER WORLD! And that was but one landing party for Curiosity as there were so many around the world. As Phil rightly said this was one of the most outstanding moments of his and our lives.
Popping back to the dealer room I introduced myself to Fred Haise. Fred was one of the Apollo XIII crew and Enterprise Shuttle commander/ test pilot during the earliest days of the Shuttle program in the late 70s. Here was another man who was still sharp as a tack and energised. His role as a STEM ambassador and educator has inspired many. We talked about his dedication to completing the Infinity Science Centre in Mississippi, a centre of learning with interactive exhibits for children and adults alike. Fred truly understands the need to inspire and educate the children of today to follow STEM subjects. They are the engineers and scientists of tomorrow and without them, our ability to innovate and progress will diminish.
Dan Durda: Another renaissance man who regaled me with talks of his work with XCor Aerospace. He gave a sparkling talk on his flying jets and booking flights on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and XCor’s Lynx as a payload specialist primarily to do science. However the largest portion of his talk was around comets and asteroids. Given the recent pass of Asteroid DA14 and the Chelyabinsk meteorite strike his talk generated much interest. With over 20 years of experience in the field of collisional and dynamical evolution of Near Earth and Kuiper Belt objects, Dan outlined the reason for the Sentinel Mission. The Sentinel Mission is the brainchild of Rusty Schweickart’s B612 Foundation offering the public a chance to fund a privately owned and operated mission to launch an infrared telescope in a solar orbit. This telescope will track and map asteroids and other NEOs (Near Earth Objects) that prove a danger to our planet. Suffice to say the timing of this mission could not be better given rising public awareness that we live in a cosmic shooting gallery. To find out more about B612’s proposal visit http://b612foundation.org/sentinelmission/.
Britney Schmidt: A post-doctoral astrobiologist in the Planetary Science field, Britney gave fascinating insights into a mission to Europa, one of Jupiter’s most exciting satellites with the promise of extremophile life existing there. She spoke about how the orbit of Io and Jupiter’s own immense magnetic field, has huge bearing on Europa itself giving it tidal energy. Understanding Earth’s geological cycles also helps us create an analogue for Europa’s ecosystem too. Britney then laid out a compelling case for visiting Europa; thanks to its warm salty oceans and high energy, the mediums are there for extremophile life to exist, perhaps in a proto state. You can view more about her proposed mission at www.europa.seti.org.
What followed later that evening was quite possibly the most emotional moment of my life, next to being present at the final Shuttle launch. A simple photo opportunity with childhood heroes, many of whose lives and lunar missions through NASA I have followed and read about time after time while growing up. To be sharing a picture with them was the proudest and most epic memory from that event.
The Spacefest V Banquet followed with many of my friends being seated with and chatting away with these legends. My choice; Dave Scott. Dave was most notably Commander of Apollo XV, the first “J” mission and the first to stay on the Moon for 3 days delivering a truly magnificent scientific mission. But that was not his only mission, he flew side seat in the almost disastrous Gemini VIII alongside one Neil Armstrong and was a key part of Apollo X. Dave became the first off world driver on Apollo XV as he demonstrated with the famous lunar rover. He remarked at dinner that “that car kicked like a mule” over the rocks and took forever to come back down, before being bounced up in the air again. We also talked at length about his interest for geology, which under the tutelage of Professor Lee Silver grew into a passion for the benefit of Apollo XV’s mission. Dave actively campaigned against Deke Slayton’s (then head of the Astronaut Office) misgivings to trade abort propellant on the descent stage of the Lunar Module for a telephoto lens! Clearly Dave realised the scientific value of where he was going. He also remembered my gift to him the previous day of Captain Cook’s journals and was already enjoying reading them greatly.
Dave also told my banquet table how he and James Irwin discovered a chunk of the Moon’s original crust. Later called “The Genesis Rock” it helped transform our theoretical understanding of how the Moon was formed. Our table also included a group of Swiss schoolchildren who come to Spacefest every year. They were clearly engaged and asking many intelligent and mature questions of Dave about the nature of the Universe, the Moon, his experiences on it and the Earth itself. It felt like a torch was being passed to the future. What was clear was how engaged Dave was in inspiring children to take up STEM subjects and study hard. Who knows, perhaps among them, and many others like them would be the first human to return to the Moon or set foot on Mars…
During the banquet was perhaps the most touching moment of the night for me. On the 51st anniversary of his Aurora VII Mercury flight, Scott Carpenter was given a rousing dedication and standing ovation. As one of the astronauts left alive today from that pioneering program, he showed true courage as a test pilot during his one and only mission.
Latter day critics have claimed he almost exhausted his propellant forcing an early mission abort and re-entry, but I believe the data from his flight was invaluable and informed every subsequent US mission: that back-up systems (human pilots) could correct and compensate for technological failures.
This was a touching moment for an elderly and frail legend, which brings home how many of these legends are left in the world today.
Spacefest V: Day 3
Feeling the effects of the 2 previous days, many of us “Spacefesters” were flagging but dragged ourselves down for breakfast, sitting with any number of astronauts, scientists and speakers we liked. This was the greatest thing about this event. No egos, no cliques, just people with a passion for space, science and astronomy intermingling and chatting about their favourite passions, whether they are a Moonwalker or a schoolchild.
So straight after breakfast it was onto the Apollo Moon Panel with a full and frank discussion of the Apollo program, its successes and failures and most of all, its legacy. Most of the key astronauts of that era were in attendance. With Professor Brian Cox moderating the Q&A it was clear that he was one of us – giddy with excitement at even spending 5 minutes with these living legends.
The panel included Walt Cunningham (Apollo VII), Jim McDivitt (Gemini IV and Apollo IX), Dick Gordon (Gemini XI and Apollo XII), Fred Haise (Apollo XIII and Shuttle Enterprise ALT) and Bruce McCandless (Shuttle missions STS-41B and STS-31). With such minds on board, it was a glimpse into history and a bygone era where we truly took risks, faced great dangers but also experienced the greatest rewards bestowed upon humanity. There was also a lot of good natured ribbing among the Apollo guys as they reminisced about the heady days of the 60’s but took pains to inspire and encourage the schoolchildren in attendance.
After the panel discussion, a return to the dealer room led to the most momentous meeting with Gene Cernan. As commander of Apollo XVII, LMP on Apollo X and flew the right hand seat on Gemini IX (with Tom Stafford), this man was well trained and a capable scientist on the Moon for 3 full days. Like Dave Scott he is an explorer and it is clear that since his return his fervour for exploration has only increased. Gene is a special man and one of the earliest and most powerful Space and STEM outreach ambassadors. He took time with everyone to meet, greet and talk to them fully. Even for me, an old kid from London he wanted to hear about what drove my passion to be here. He even recorded a unique video message for my three young nephews back home.
Scott Carpenter. I never thought I would get a chance to meet one of the original heroes of the Mercury program. For anyone in love with that era, this was when NASA was in its infancy. Taking teetering steps forward before falling to the ground and picking themselves up again. Everything was new, had to be invented or wasn’t even conceived of yet. Carpenter himself had appeared weak due to age all weekend and his frailty had not escaped me. I was feeling very guilty about asking to meet him. Physical frailty is one thing, mental agility is another. This man is still sharp as a tack. He pronounced my name perfectly, then stopped me dead in my tracks querying if it was of Farsi origin. Not many people would even know of Farsi and while I may not be, the fact that this astronaut from the 60s asked about it astounded me. A well-travelled and learned man.
By this time only the few dedicated stragglers of Spacefest remained. Wandering around the exhibition hall I couldn’t help but pick out a few giclee art mementoes alongside some other “swag”. Meeting Brian Cox again, we talked about his next BBC show which is starting to take shape. We also discussed at length the state of manned US space program, how we can improve science outreach to the public to make them more aware of the wider world of science and how much their lives depend on space activities. Soon enough, as I knew it would the moment had arrived to bid farewell to a very special group of friends as we parted ways. It was clear that for many of us this had been a life changing experience.
A dash back for the final talk was delivered by good friend Nick Howes, UK’s own outreach dynamo, comet hunter and Faulkes Telescope Pro-AM manager. Nick related how the effect of news reporting over the discovery of Comet C2007Q3 changed his life. The incredible sighting and break-up of the comet while it was being captured led to a media frenzy and brought his work to the attention of many, opening up the chance to work with NASA, ESA, and the LARI program with the famed Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. But the real icing on the cake was his work on Project Snoopy, the on-going hunt for Apollo X’s Lunar Module Ascent Stage, which was sent off into orbit around the sun and is still out there somewhere. Engaging again with school students to look for this speck among the stars is a huge challenge but an exciting one. Even Gene Cernan, LMP of Apollo X is firmly on board with finding his little ship again. Learn more about The Search for Snoopy here! http://www.faulkes-telescope.com/news/2413.
The epiphany moment…
Personally, I had a strong feeling this would happen since having to give up my seat to Spacefest IV last year. Everything since had been building to these 3 days in Tucson. Research, meticulous planning and significant investment had gone into not only getting me here but to make this the most epic space themed holiday ever.
It is sobering to know that we live in an age where soon there will be no more humans who can share the experience of having walked on another world. It is even more saddening to know that there are some who doubt this recent history, and I personally make it my mission to inform and educate others of this, the most remarkable achievement in all of human history. Consider this: there are 7 billion people alive today on our Pale Blue Dot, of which only 12 actually walked on the surface of another world in those heady days of the late 60s and early 70s. Of those 12, only 8 remain alive today to tell the tale which was reminded to us by the early passing of the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong last year.
The unexpected dimension was sharing this all with a wonderful group of global space friends. It’s no surprise then than that this trip has energised us to do more, to reap what has been sown. Having met such legendary people I am firmly of the opinion that it is up to each and every one of us to change the world for the better, through raising awareness of STEM education and space exploration. These impinge on everyone’s lives on a daily basis. We can simply choose to take a passive backseat role in our future and not invest in STEM education, or support it actively, any way we can. Firing children’s and adults imaginations, through education and inspiration, reigniting their natural human curiosity will be the way forward to all our futures. To create the next generation of leaders, scientists, engineers and astronauts of tomorrow. To build a better world for our progeny and finally a move towards being a multi planetary species.
Many of us have now returned back to a life where the vagaries and troubles of an ordinary world await to grasp at our energies. Home. It must take on a new meaning for me. It’s not what I’ve returned to. It’s not a place, city, or date in time. To me, it’s a state of mind. Home is with the friends and “space family” I met and made who share my belief in building a better world; bridging today to tomorrow’s world and humanity’s manifest destiny in space. Home is the journey to that bright tomorrow. Home is with an army of visionaries. We are virtual. We are global. We are legion. And our home is ahead and above us. Humanity’s manifest destiny in space awaits.
It truly does seem that Spacefest has shown us that past is prologue.
This article appeared in the October 2013 issue of RocketSTEM.
You may download the entire issue as a PDF file here, or view the magazine online in a full-screen viewer here. |
Regiment Focus: Mordian
Mordian armies are famed for their supreme discipline, forming unbreakable defensive ranks that can repel even the most dedicated assault. On the tabletop, Mordian armies now play true to their background, capable of waging warfare defensively while making deadly scalpel strikes against characters with a potent new order.
The Regimental Doctrine
Parade Drill adds some much-needed insurance to your units against getting charged, rewarding you for careful positioning of your army. From humble Conscripts to even the Baneblade, there are few units that don’t benefit from this rule.
Best Units
A squadron of Mordian Leman Russ Punishers is going to be a very scary prospect for any would-be unit of tank hunters to charge – particularly when throwing in the Defensive Gunners stratagem – making them a superb screening unit for your squishier infantry. Leman Russes in every regiment have also seen a small points discount and a fantastic new ability designed to do due reverence to the 41st Millennium’s most iconic battle tank.
Grinding Advance now allows any Leman Russ moving at under half its allotted Move value to fire its primary weapon TWICE, while still allowing the unit to fire Heavy weapons without penalty on the move. Armoured regiments – in the Mordians and beyond – are going to be very dangerous indeed in the new codex.
Veterans are a key component in any Astra Militarum list, thanks to a versatile range of equipment and a great Ballistic Skill. In a Mordian list, plasma gun veterans are going to be essential thanks to their unique order, Form Firing Squad!
Being able to pick off key supporting characters and shutting down aura abilities is going to be game-changing for Warhammer 40,000, and will be superb against lists that rely on their characters to survive.
Mordian armies are perfect if you want to punish assault armies, or if you’re just sick of powerful enemy characters. Tomorrow, we’ll be looking at the Vostroyans, an army designed to defeat your enemies by outranging them – find out more tomorrow! |
Sublime Text 2 is one of the fastest and most incredible code editors to be released in a long time! With a community and plugin ecosystem as passionate as this one, it just might be impossible for any other editor to catch up. I'll show you my favorite tips and tricks today.
Sublime Text 2 is currently available for all major platforms: OS X, Linux and Windows.
1 - Bleeding Edge Versions
Sublime is in active development. If, like me, you want to use the latest possible version of the app, you can download the dev build. You'll find that new (auto) updates are available every other day or so.
Download a dev build of Sublime 2 here.
2 - Get a Better Icon
In its defense, Sublime Text 2 is still in a beta state. The official icon will likely/hopefully change with the official release. Until then, Nate Beaty created an alternative icon, if you prefer it.
To integrate it, you need to replace the existing "Sublime Text 2.icns" file with this new one. On a Mac, browse to Sublime 2 in your Applications/ folder, then right-click and "View Package Contents." Lastly, browse to Contents/Resources/ , and drag the new icon in, overwriting the existing one.
Please take note of the fact that, if you're using the frequently updated development version of Sublime Text, with each update, the icon will be removed. With that in mind, don't worry about the icon for the time being.
3 - Access the Command Palette
Similar to TextMate, we can use Sublime's command palette by accessing the Tools menu, or by pressing Shift + Command + P , on the Mac. Whether you need to visit a Preferences page, or paste in a snippet, all of that can be accomplished here.
4 - Lightning-Fast File Switching
Press Control or Command + P , type in the name of the file you wish to access (fuzzy finder), and, without even pressing Enter, you'll instantly be transported to that file. While Vim and apps like PeepOpen offer a similar functionality, they're not nearly as fast as Sublime's implementation.
5 - How Did We Survive Before Multi-Selection?
Editors like TextMate have long offered vertical selection, which is quite neat. But, with multi-selection, you can have multiple cursors on the page. This can drastically reduce the need for using regular expressions, and advanced search and replace queries. Perhaps a quick visual demonstration is in order...
To enable multi-selection, you have several options:
Press Alt or Command and then click in each region where you require a cursor.
or and then click in each region where you require a cursor. Select a block of lines, and then press Shift + Command + L .
. Place the cursor over a particular word, and press Control/Command + D repeatedly to select additional occurrences of that word.
repeatedly to select additional occurrences of that word. Alternatively, add an additional cursor at all occurrences of a word by typing Alt+F3 on Windows, or Ctrl+Command+G on the Mac. Amazing!!
6 - Indent Guides
Update: this feature now comes preinstalled with Sublime Text 2.
It's such a small feature, but I've always loved how Notepad++ on Windows displays indent guides; it makes the page much easier to navigate and format. Sublime Text 2 offers this ability, via a plugin created by Nikolaus Wittenstein.
To integrate this plugin:
Download it
Rename the folder to "Indent Guides" and drag it into the Packages folder. On a Mac, this path would be Application Support/Sublime Text 2/Packages
7 - Package Control
The steps outlined in the previous tip (#6) are a bit tedious, aren't they? Instead, we can install the excellent Sublime Package Control, which streamlines the entire process.
To install "Package Control," open Sublime and press Control + ` . Next, paste the following snippet into the console.
Don't worry if you don't understand the code above; just copy and paste!
Lastly, restart Sublime Text, and browse to Preferences -> Package Settings . If the installation was successful, you'll now see a Package Control item in that list.
With Package Control installed, the process of adding new plugins and functionality becomes incredibly simple!
For a usage example, refer to the next item in this list.
8 - Alignment
If you're the type who prefers to line up your equal signs - for example, in your JavaScript...
...this process can be automated, via the Sublime Alignment plugin. Rather than downloading and installing it manually, let's instead use Package Control (outlined in #7).
Press Shift + Command + P
Type "install," to bring up the "Package Control: Install Package" option, and press Enter
Look for "Alignment," and press Enter to install it.
You're done; so easy! Type Shift + Command + A to auto-align.
This process can be repeated for all of the typical plugins we install, such as Zen Coding.
9 - Vim Fanatic
I'm a huge fan of Vim. The amount of power it provides is insane. The fact that I've switched over to Sublime Text 2 should speak volumes then!
If you're using a dev build of Sublime Text (see #2 in this list), you can enable Vintage mode, which provides support for the Vi commands that we know and love -- okay...some of us love. The rest of you hate it! :)
To enable Vintage mode, browse to Preferences/Global Settings - Default . Once this file opens, browse to the very bottom, and change "ignored_packages": ["Vintage"] to "ignored_packages": [] . Next, restart Sublime, press the Escape key, and, tada: command mode!
Block Cursor
One thing you may notice is that, in command mode, it can be difficult to find the cursor (especially when taking advantage of things like bookmarks). On more than one occasion, I've found myself trying to hunt down its location.
While it's not a perfect solution, a plugin, called "SublimeBlockCursor," attempts to remedy this issue.
Note: While the readme states that SublimeBlockCursor can be installed, via Package Control, I wasn't able to find it. Instead, I had to clone the project manually into the Packages folder.
10 - Distraction Free Editing
Sometimes, we need to filter out all of the additional fluff that gets in the way of our coding. Use "Distraction Free Mode" to take this idea as far as possible. This option is available, via the View menu. Select "Enter Distraction Free Mode," or use the Mac keyboard shortcut, Control + Shift + Command + F .
11 - You Can Still Use TextMate Bundles
TextMate snippets and themes port over nicely to Sublime Text. You only need to drop them in the Packages folder -- .tmbundle extension intact, and Sublime will recognize the files. This means that the entire catalog of TextMate themes will work in Sublime!
For example, I've been working with the (fantastic) Slim templating engine a good bit lately, and needed better syntax highlighting. Fred Wu created a bundle for TextMate, but, tada, it works perfectly in Sublime Text as well! If you're interested, you can download the Slim bundle here; it includes both snippets and syntax highlighting.
12 - Custom Themes
The default theme for Sublime Text is excellent, but I much prefer a custom light and dark theme, Soda, created by Ian Hill.
Installation
As taken from the Github page...
"If you are a git user, the best way to install the theme and keep up to date is to clone the repo directly into your Packages directory in the Sublime Text 2 application settings area."
Using Git
Go to your Sublime Text 2 Packages directory and clone the theme repository using the command below:
Download Manually
Download the files using the GitHub .zip download option.
Unzip the files and rename the folder to Theme - Soda
Copy the folder to your Sublime Text 2 Packages directory
Activating the Theme
To configure Sublime Text 2 to use the theme:
Open your Sublime Text 2 User Global Preferences file: Sublime Text 2 -> Preferences -> User Global Settings
Add (or update) your theme entry to be "theme": "Soda Light.sublime-theme" or "theme": "Soda Dark.sublime-theme"
Example User Global Settings
13 - Page Crawling
Sublime Text provides us with a few different ways to query a page (outside of the standard search functions).
Functions
Need a quick way to browse to a specific function or method?
Type Control/Command + r to reveal a popup that allows for this very thing (notice the @ symbol)! Even better, the search is fuzzy as well, which is particularly helpful for huge classes.
HTML
What if you want to immediately transition to a specific part of an HTML page - say, to the div with a class of container . Type Control/Command + p , then # , and you'll instantly see a tree of your document.
Go to Line Number
To quickly move to a specific line number on the page, you can press Control + g . However, you'll notice that, once again, it's pulling up that palette ( Control/Command + p ), and appending the : symbol. This is adopted from Vim.
This means, in addition to Control + g , you can also type, Control/Command + p , and then :LINE_NUMBER .
14 - Fetch Remote Files With Ease
Let’s say that you’re a fan of Normalize.css. Perhaps, you download it and save it to a snippet, or store the stylesheet, itself, in an assets folder. That way, for future projects, you only need to copy and paste.
The only problem with this method – as we’ve all discovered – is that, if a few months have passed, it’s more than possible that the asset (in this case, Normalize.css) will have been updated by the creator. So your options are to either use the, now, out-dated version of Normalize, or, once again, return to the GitHub page and pull in a fresh copy. This all seems tedious.
Created by Weslly Honorato, Nettuts+ Fetch is the solution to our dilemma. It can be installed, via Package Control.
Usage
You'll only use two commands, when working with Fetch. First, we need to save some file references. Again, bring up the command palette, and search for "Fetch." For now, choose "Manage Remote Files."
What's great about Sublime Text 2 is that configuration is incredibly simple. To assign references to online asset files, we only need to create an object, like so (don't worry; one will be pre-populated for you, after installation):
So, to pull in the latest copy of jQuery (if you don't want to use a CDN):
Learn more about using Nettuts+ Fetch.
15 - Prefixr Plugin
Built by by Will Bond (creator of Package Control), the Nettuts+ Prefixr plugin allows you to automatically update your entire stylesheet to include support for all of the various required CSS3 vendor prefixes. This way, you never have to visit the website itself; you merely type a keyboard command, and:
...will be converted to:
Usage
Once installed (via Package Control), select your stylesheet (or a single block), press ctrl+alt+x on Windows and Linux, or cmd+ctrl+x on OS X, and the code will instantly be run through the Prefixr web service.
16 - Launch Sublime From the Terminal
Sublime Text 2 includes a command line tool, subl, to work with files on the command line."
To use it, create a symlink to the tool.
As long as ~/bin is in your path, that should do the trick!
Refer here for additional instructions.
17 - Autoformat HTML
A bit oddly, the ability to auto-format HTML is not included as part of the default build of Sublime Text. The Tag plugin, among other things, hopes to provide a solution, however, due to a few shortcomings - namely when dealing with HTML comments - it falls short.
The Tag plugin can be installed via Package Control.
To test its auto-formatting skills, the following HTML:
...will be changed to:
Yikes; it looks worse than it is. From my tests, it incorrectly does not place the body tag on its own line, and gets pissy when dealing with HTML comments. Until these issues are fixed (or a native solution is provided), it's best to manually select a block of HTML to reformat, rather than the entire page.
A $200 bonus will be paid to the first Sublime Text plugin developer who creates and submits the definitive "Nettuts+ HTML Formatter" plugin.
18 - Create a Plugin
If you're feeling adventurous, dig into Sublime Text's huge plugin development community, and start contributing. We have an excellent tutorial on the process of building a ST plugin here on Nettuts+. Be sure to check it out if that interests you!
Conclusion
The more I work with Sublime Text 2, the more I realize how incredible it is. But all of this would mean nothing if not for the fact that it's an insanely fast editor, and, even better, it's not finished!
If you want to go even further, check out Snippeter, a code snippets manager that boosts your coding by saving your code snippets online and enabling you to find them easily using an integrated search bar. It also lets you export items as Sublime Text snippets (with tabTrigger support). |
IN AN INCREASINGLY secular Ireland it easy to forget about a time when the Catholic Church in wielded a vast influence over much of the population, and a time when many youth pursuits came under its scrutiny.
In the eighties and nineties the Church had something of a preoccupation with notions of satanic cults among the youth. This may not surprise as the Church in Ireland has a long history of concerns relating to the dark arts and its influence on popular culture. However, what is interesting is the degree of ‘buy-in’ which the press had relating to the occult, music and its detrimental effect upon Irish youth. The degree of clerical and media interest is perhaps indicative of a tightly-knit Irish society.
From the eighties onwards, newspaper coverage of matters of the occult became popular. In an age when much concern was focused upon matters of international significance, such apprehensions seem quaint. That is not to say these international matters were not closely followed, it is more of a case that regional moral panic was given almost equal status in sections of the press.
Or as the Limerick Leader succinctly put it:
In an age of micro-waved noodles, cellular phones and Mutant Ninja Turtles it is hard to imagine witchcraft is surviving.
Not only was it surviving, it was something of a growth industry, with tarot readers, water diviners, witches and strong rumours of Satanism over the city and beyond.
Rural phenomenon
The majority of supposedly satanic practices seemed to be a rural phenomenon. Perhaps easily dismissed as wanton vandalism, nevertheless parents in Galway were urged to ‘be alert to any changes in their children’ who were vulnerable to the influences of Satanism and evil spirits in the wake of a church in Inverin being vandalised in the summer of 1992.
In the same period there were fears that ‘committed Satanists’ were at work in Wicklow after a number of gravestones were vandalised in Blessington. Advice was also sought in the county relating to a girl ‘who had been allegedly affected by heavy metal music’. The same article carried a stark sub-heading warning in no uncertain terms that ‘The Established Churches are worried’!
Ouija Board
If reports were to be believed the Ouija Board was rivalling the Game Boy in the popularity stakes with young people in the early nineties. In Letterkenny clergy called upon young people to refrain from using Ouija boards, following reports that their use was on the increase in the area. This tool of the occult raised the most concerns among clergy members. The Nenagh Guardian warned young people of its dangers, stating that such activity was potentially extremely dangerous especially for young people, with much trauma and even suicide likely to follow.
The Irish Independent reported ‘black magic was widespread’ in Cork, with Ouija board use common throughout the country. Not only that, six black magic groups were active in the Cork area! In the same month The Irish Press reported two individuals who were living in dread of a Satanic cult. Fr Louis Hughes in Montenotte, Cork told that the youths in question suffered hallucinations day and night, and that their Satanic tormentors were ‘working class youths in their late teens or early twenties’ who congregated in groups of 20-25 to worship Satan in a local house, enacting rituals which were the ‘reversal of Christian practices’.
Moral panic
Not all priests bought into the panic. Martin Tierney, Director of the Catholic Communications Institute believed people ‘should have a good laugh’ about reports of on demonic activity. Reports of Satanism were ‘absolute piffle’. Nevertheless, he warned Satan was in the world, he just wasn’t to be found in heavy metal records!
Increasing secularism from the nineties onwards left some within Catholicism at a loss to the decline of traditional religious values. Raising the question, were these warnings the last stance of a once powerful body unable to control its flock? By the middle of the decade the Church was beset with numerous sex and abuse scandals, somewhat relegating the spectre of Satanism to the periphery by both the Church and the media. For a number of years however, Satan and his minions were a clear and present danger to the young of Ireland.
Barry Sheppard is a mature MA history student. A previous winner of the Robert Dudley Edwards History Prize. He has written for various history sites and magazines such as The Irish Story, History is Now Mag, and Scoláire Staire and is interested in the history of rural agrarian colony groups. |
Recent Examples on the Web
Decidedly less elite than the rentiers, they were attracted not by the potential to spend disposable income but by the natural canvas the region presented. James Mcauley, Town & Country, "The Tragic, Fascinating History of Santo Sospir," 13 Aug. 2018
Idealistic token buyers speculated that their contributions represented a down payment on a new world of unfettered interpersonal exchange, one free at last from banks and other rentiers. Gideon Lewis-kraus, WIRED, "The Blockchain: A Love Story—And a Horror Story," 18 June 2018
As with other rentier economies, private-sector activity such as construction depends heavily on public spending. Alex Dziadosz, The Atlantic, "The Economic Case Against an Independent Kurdistan," 26 Sep. 2017
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rentier.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback. |
It seemed so close.
After 12 years of working to improve protections for federal employees who blow the whistle on government waste, fraud and abuse, Congress was on the verge of passing legislation to make that happen.
For whistleblowers and their advocates, those 12 years included compromises with opponents and fights with friends, including a late-breaking one this week.
After the Senate approved the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act on Friday, using a unanimous consent procedure, the greater protections seemed in sight. The House was poised to consider the bill, and advocates could almost taste victory.
Then Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) put up a roadblock that could derail the bill.
Hoekstra has objected because he thinks that, as the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, he had not been properly consulted about the measure, according to congressional sources. Republicans also have decided to link the whistleblower bill to the controversy over the classified information revealed by WikiLeaks.
Calls and e-mails to Hoekstra's office requesting comment were not returned. But Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who had favored the legislation, now thinks it should not be considered during the waning days of the lame-duck session.
Citing "new areas of concern that have been raised by the WikiLeaks" disclosures, Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Issa, said the congressman believes the measure should be considered next year, when Republicans control the House.
The irony here is that as legitimate avenues for exposing not classified information but valid, documented concerns about government operations are blocked, the more attractive routes such as WikiLeaks become.
Issa's conversion from supporting the legislation to wanting it held until next year amounts to a major blow for the bill's immediate prospects.
With so little time left on the congressional calendar, a suspension of the House rules would be required for the measure to pass before members go home. It takes a two-thirds vote to suspend the rules, which means supporters of the legislation would need 40 to 45 Republicans to vote with the Democratic majority in favor of the measure.
Opposition by Issa, who is set to be chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee next year, makes it much more difficult to win the needed GOP support. |
It seemed only fair to Mitt Romney to wait on this one. His share of the popular vote, which stuck around 49 percent on election night, continued to fall as votes came in. Last week Greg Sargent rang the alarm, warning/gloating that Romney might sink below 47.5 percent of the vote. Yesterday, Aaron Blake announced Romney’s arrival at 47.4 percent, and started rounding down. I gave the guy more time. But now, via David Wasserman’s invaluable chart, we can make it official: Romney is down to 47.43 percent of the vote, making it impossible to round up. He is the 47 percent.
Other mostly random factoids:
- Obama’s margin over Romney is up to 4.4 million votes.
- There’s no state where the margin between Romney and Obama could have been erased by a switch of third party votes. Florida comes close, but the margin is about 15,000 votes greater than the total vote for all third parties.
- The effect of GOTV efforts is sizable, worth millions of votes. Overall, in swing states targeted by both campaigns, the raw vote decreased by only 0.22 percent. In other states, it fell by 4.34 percent. (The outlier in this latter group: Utah, up 6.12 percent for the first election with a Mormon candidate.*
*Not counting Joseph Smith’s first campaign. |
FLINT, MI - A Flint city councilman pawned his city-issued laptop for a $100 loan nine times over the course of two years, police say.
Flint police swore out a single misdemeanor warrant against First Ward Councilman Eric Mays over the allegations Wednesday, Aug. 23, before Genesee County District Judge William H. Crawford II.
In court, police said the city councilman began pawning his laptop to Music Man Pawnshop - located across the street from Flint City Hall - on Jan. 15, 2015.
Occasionally, he would pick up the computer from the shop only to pawn it back to Music Man the next day, police said.
After Mays failed to reclaim the laptop from the shop on May 3 - the last day of his loan - the computer was technically owned by the shop, police said.
However, Music Man's owner told officers that he allowed customers a grace period to renew their loans or reclaim their property with interest, and Mays bought the laptop back for $116 on May 23, police said in court.
The charges come three months after an investigation was launched into whether crimes were committed when Mays allegedly pawned the city-issued computer.
Since July, the criminal investigation into Councilman Eric Mays has bounced between Leyton's office and the Flint Police Department as the prosecutor said he needed additional information from police in the case.
Councilman files complaint with Flint police over pawned city-owned laptop "My concern is the misuse of taxpayer-funded equipment," Kincaid said. "Councilman Mays violated a state statute by pawning something that didn't belong to him."
Police began investigating the case in late May after Ninth Ward Councilman Scott Kincaid filed a criminal complaint with the department after learning Music Man Pawnshop -- located within one block of Flint City Hall -- had taken in the laptop issued to Mays.
Mays previously called Kincaid's complaint a "political allegation," as he and his fellow councilman are often at odds. Kincaid previously said his concern in the matter is the "misuse of taxpayer-funded equipment."
"Kincaid is out here making political allegations, but I pray and hope that there are no criminal charges," Mays previously said. "I will say, where is (the laptop) safer? There or City Hall? City Hall has had break-ins. Other than that, I have no further comment."
Despite offers from outside agencies to investigate the case, Flint police said because the claims against Mays were directly related to his official service to the city of Flint, the probe would remain with their department.
Flint police to spearhead probe on councilman's pawned city laptop On Friday, June 9, the department released a statement explaining that because allegations against 1st Ward Councilman Eric Mays directly relate to his official service to the city of Flint, the alleged pawn deal probe will remain within the city.
The police department's internal affairs division - a division assigned both criminal and non-criminal allegations against Flint city employees relating to their official positions - spearheaded the investigation into the allegedly pawned computer.
Mays has neither confirmed nor denied to The Journal that he used the city's computer as collateral at the pawn shop, but said the city of Flint has "fallen on hard times."
However, other publications reported that Mays admitted to pawning the equipment.
"I don't think it's criminal," Mays told FlintBeat.com regarding the allegations. "It just shows I'm poor."
Mays has said since that he has the laptop back in his possession.
The issue is not the councilman's first run-in with the law.
Mays was jailed in January 2016 for 30 days after prosecutors claimed he crashed his vehicle in 2013 near Leith Street and Industrial Avenue in Flint before driving it nearly three miles and ending up facing the wrong way on Interstate 475.
He avoided an additional 90 days in jail after a jury found him guilty of disorderly conduct at a Flint City Council meeting. Mays -- who represented himself in court -- and prosecutors reached an agreement that he would instead pay a $200 fine. |
A senior fellow with the Checks and Balances Project says that the president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce refused to answer questions (Vimeo/Scott Peterson)
A senior fellow with the Checks and Balances Project says that the president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce refused to answer questions (Vimeo/Scott Peterson)
For years, the air over central Pittsburgh has ranked among the country’s dirtiest, with haze and soot that regularly trigger spikes in asthma attacks, especially among the urban poor. So it might have seemed odd that a black business group would choose this spot to denounce proposed restrictions on smog.
But that’s exactly what the head of the National Black Chamber of Commerce did this month. Chamber President Harry C. Alford appeared before some of Pittsburgh’s African American leaders to urge opposition to a White House plan for tougher limits on air pollution. Then he went on radio to deliver the same appeal.
“Why do we impose these massive, arbitrary rules?” Alford asked.
Despite the unlikely venue, the message was anything but unusual for Alford, a veteran of multiple campaigns to quash regulations intended to improve air quality or fight climate change. Since early summer, Alford has delivered the same pitch in multiple cities, blasting a plan to impose limits on ozone, a pollutant that contributes to urban smog and aggravates breathing disorders, particularly among the elderly and very young.
Alford’s message — that the proposed regulations would hurt the economy and stifle job growth — is nearly identical to the one being broadcast widely by the rules’ opponents from business and industry. The National Association of Manufacturers has poured millions of dollars into a television ad campaign criticizing the proposal, which the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to adopt in final form Wednesday.
Coal spills out from a tower into a large pile at an Alpha Natural Resources Inc. coal preparation plant in Logan County near Yolyn, W. Va. (Luke Sharett/Bloomberg)
[EPA draws industry’s ire with proposal to strengthen smog rules.]
But while the TV ads command the most attention, a more subtle effort is underway to reduce support for the regulations among blacks, Latinos and even the elderly — groups not usually regarded as natural allies for corporations fighting air-pollution laws.
The National Black Chamber of Commerce, which acknowledges receiving strong financial backing from Exxon Mobil and other fossil-fuel interests, has specifically tailored its message to African American audiences, drawing anger from environmental and public health groups that say urban blacks would be among the biggest beneficiaries of tighter regulations.
“The dirtiest utility plants pollute and hurt black communities,” said Evlondo Cooper, a researcher for the Checks and Balances Project, a watchdog group that investigates the use of corporate money in anti-clean-energy campaigns. Cooper, whose nonprofit organization has staged videotaped confrontations with Alford at two of his recent speaking events, said groups such as the NBCC have helped foster perceptions of a sharp divide among African Americans over whether stronger air-quality laws are needed.
“He doesn’t speak for black people,” Cooper said, referring to Alford, “and nothing about his support for the fossil-fuel lobby or his attacks on clean energy has been helpful to our community.”
Alford, who has boasted of accepting money from oil and other fossil-fuel companies, declined to respond to repeated requests for comment.
He has argued that environmental regulations often harm minorities by slowing job growth.
“I think you can have a balance,” Alford told a Pittsburgh radio station during his Sept. 2 visit. “What’s unfair is that the rules and targets keep changing.”
‘The strictest ever imposed’
The focus of Alford’s latest attack is an EPA proposal that would lower permissible limits for smog in cities across the country. Agency officials face a court-ordered deadline to promulgate a new ozone standard by Wednesday, but the law gives the agency some discretion in deciding exactly how tough it will be. A preliminary proposal unveiled last year called for changing the ozone limit from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to between 65 and 70.
A lower number could have significant economic consequences: Cities that consistently fail to meet the standard could eventually face restrictions on certain kinds of industrial development.
[Study: Air pollution causes 3 million deaths each year]
Industry trade groups point out that many U.S. cities are still struggling to meet the 75-ppb standard introduced in 2008. Industry-sponsored studies predict widespread economic disruption if the limits are tightened.
“Adding to the absurdity of EPA’s position is the fact that current standards — the strictest ever imposed — are working to improve air quality even though they have not been fully implemented,” said Howard Feldman, senior director of regulatory and scientific affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group. “Further lowering the standard could significantly chill economic investment and activity across the nation.”
The EPA, backed by environmental and public health groups, points to studies identifying smog as a significant contributor to illnesses and premature deaths, particularly among groups living in urban centers or near power plants that burn coal.
EPA Associate Administrator Thomas Reynolds said the current spate of industry attack ads recycles the same dire warnings that critics used the last time the standards were changed. “They routinely trot out the same tired playbook and rhetoric, and every time they’re proven wrong,” he said.
A familiar role
The industry campaign was just beginning to intensify when Alford began his speaking tour. The founder and president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce traveled over the summer to Illinois, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania for a series of events, several of them coordinated or supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, another fierce opponent of the rule.
Attendees at a free luncheon on Aug. 24 in Columbus, Ohio, heard Alford blast the EPA’s ozone proposal as “one of most expensive regulations ever issued” by the U.S. government.
“It would plunge the majority of the country into ‘non-attainment,’ meaning that communities would face enormous regulatory hurdles every time they wanted to build something,” he said.
It was a vintage performance by Alford, the dominant figure behind the NBCC and a staunch opponent of environmental regulations dating back to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The NBCC was established in 1993 and boasts nearly 190 chapters nationwide, but Alford has personally led the group since its founding and has appointed family members, including his wife, to key leadership posts.
[Pope Francis and the case for environmental capitalism]
In his frequent essays and blog postings, Alford has referred to the EPA as “wicked’ and a “monster” that is “out of control.” He flatly dismisses the notion of environmental justice — the idea that minorities suffer unfairly from pollution — as a “farce.”
“Many naive blacks have bought the lie — hook, line and sinker,” he says.
Alford’s organization declines to give detailed information about the NBCC’s membership or sources of income, although records filed by the group show more than $800,000 in contributions over the past decade from Exxon Mobil. At the group’s 2015 national conference in August, a list of sponsors given to attendees included a number of major fossil-fuel interests, including Koch Industries, owned by oil magnates and conservative activists Charles and David Koch.
Such donations make up as much as 80 percent of the group’s revenue in some years, tax records show, and the NBCC has channeled its money into causes that favor fossil-fuel interests. For example, the NBCC, gave $50,000 last year to a Florida organization that sought to impose additional costs and restrictions on homeowners who want to install solar panels on their roofs.
A repeated theme in Alford’s speeches and writings is that excessive regulations have prevented African Americans from achieving their potential. He argued in a 2014 op-ed article that oil, gas and coal were largely responsible for lifting freed slaves out of poverty.
“Fossil fuels have been our economic friend,” he wrote.
Such stances have angered not only environmental groups but also other African American business organizations, which say Alford’s views represent at best a small fraction of black business owners and entrepreneurs. Ron Busby, president of the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce, a rival group, said internal surveys have consistently shown high levels of support among his group’s members for strong environmental regulations.
“As a child I had asthma, and I remember my parents saying it was a black disease, because that’s what we thought, growing up,” Busby said. “Anyone who’s saying it’s not affecting our community isn’t speaking on behalf of black people.” |
TORONTO — Paul Godfrey doesn't need to be prompted to talk about the troubled state of Canada's media industry in the midst of a steady stream of bleak news — the Postmedia CEO raises the topic himself. Just a few minutes after stepping into his office at the company's headquarters in downtown Toronto, Godfrey is already expounding on how he sees an industry in strife.
Godfrey said he's not interested in asking for the government's help at this point. (The Canadian Press)
"There's no doubt the business models for newspapers, magazines and conventional television are all being disrupted," said the 77-year-old executive, stating what's become painfully obvious for Canadian news outlets. Godfrey points to technology giants like Google and Facebook as behemoth competitors who are luring away longtime advertisers by selling audience reach and metrics that traditional media companies simply cannot offer. Canada's media industry is indeed facing widespread turmoil — hundreds of pink slips have been handed out already this year, and two daily newspapers are closing down permanently — but Postmedia is sitting with its own unique timebomb of financial constraints. The country's largest newspaper chain, owner of the National Post and city dailies like the Ottawa Citizen and Vancouver Sun, is operating under debt obligations that come due over the next few years at astronomical amounts. This year, Postmedia owes $25.9 million of long-term debt, and that figure jumps to a stunning $302.7-million in 2017, according to its annual report filed last November.
"Ultimately the buck stops with me, and I recognize that."
If Postmedia is unable to repay those debts, or find a solution to refinance what it owes, the company is almost certain to wind up in bankruptcy. Godfrey stops short of trying predict Postmedia's future, saying that any suggestion its days are numbered is "a guess." But he clearly identifies where the potential pitfalls lie. "We have bills to pay called mortgages — first-lien and second-lien notes," he said. "When you own a house with two mortgages, you're still bringing in income every week, but if your revenue starts to fall and you can't pay off your mortgages, what are you going to do? You're going to keep cutting your costs or someone takes your home away from you," he added.
Disputes over acquisition
Godfrey then explains one of the biggest challenges in repaying those debts. "What's really hurtful to us (is the) second-lien notes are all in U.S. funds," he said. "With the Canadian dollar falling the way it's falling, that's almost like a noose around your neck." Others share those concerns, including Moody's Investors Service, which last week further downgraded its ratings on the company over its refinancing prospects. Some analysts find it surprising Postmedia's newspapers have survived this long after sitting in limbo during the Canwest bankruptcy proceedings before they were bought in 2010 by an investment group backed by New York hedge fund Golden Tree Asset Management for $1.1 billion.
"Our philosophy here is fail fast."
The acquisition was contested by some, including the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, which urged the federal government to reconsider the consolidation of so many newspapers, especially under a U.S. participant. Golden Tree has remained a sticking point for media critics, with some suggesting the firm is sapping Postmedia business — particularly its valuable real estate assets — for as much as it can get. Godfrey disputes those assertions. "Golden Tree is an equity player, not a debt player," he said. "If it wasn't for Golden Tree Asset Management, this chain may not be in existence today because there were no Canadians who stepped up to buy (the papers) .... People should be happy that at least somebody (bought the newspapers) and kept a lot of people employed." In the coming months, Godfrey will reshape Postmedia even further in preparation for lender negotiations he hopes will lead to refinancing the first-lien notes by August 2017.
Godfrey points to technology giants like Google and Facebook as behemoth competitors who are luring away longtime advertisers. (The Canadian Press)
The latest round of cuts are "paramount," he said, to making Postmedia's business model attractive for investors who hold the keys to financial relief. The company recently announced it was merging newsrooms and cutting about 90 jobs as part of a large-scale effort to save $80 million by the middle of next year. The newsroom cuts only get the company "part way" to the goal, Godfrey said. Beyond its journalists, he said executives are considering many avenues of change. Those include whether money can be saved in how the newspapers are laid out each night, whether printing the paper half an hour earlier would be cheaper and if there's a way to have fewer delivery people on the streets each morning. "We're going to do our very best adjusting the cost base so that people who are potential investors in the debt see we are doing everything we can to be able to repay the debt," he said.
"There's no doubt the business models.. are all being disrupted."
"Is it a pleasant thing to do? Obviously it's the most painful thing to do to … disrupt your own company. You know you're hurting certain people's lives." At the same time, executives are on the hunt to create new revenue streams. One of them took shape on Monday when Postmedia announced a three-year partnership with Mogo Finance Technology Inc. that will see it pocket a portion of revenues generated by the short-term loan provider. The partnership is unconventional but comes with a solid upside — if Mogo can find customers in Postmedia's readership, then both companies will reap the rewards. Godfrey said the Mogo agreement is a snapshot of what's to come. "This one area seemed to be a natural," he said. "We have two or three others we are working on." Postmedia has also abandoned ventures it found didn't deliver results — including an evening tablet edition once trumpeted as a major area of growth for the company.
On the tablet's failure
Godfrey said Postmedia bailed on the tablet experiment when it was clear it wasn't going to deliver a profit. He suggested the Toronto Star — which has invested millions of dollars on its Star Touch tablet platform — reconsider its devotion to the tablet as well. "They're way off base and they spent a fortune," he said, pointing to mobile phones as the smartest bet for media companies. "Our philosophy here is fail fast. I don't think they recognize that. You tried it, everybody's got to experiment, but they keep spending and spending like crazy on it." Godfrey is confident owners of the Star will eventually reach the same conclusion his company did: a tablet-specific business model isn't profitable. "They're going to realize it sooner or later," he said. Torstar has said the Star Touch has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, though it also laid off 10 members of the tablet team earlier this month.
Help from the government?
Some media critics have called on the federal government to step in and give the country's newspapers financial assistance that could get them through the next few years. Godfrey said he's not interested in asking for the government's help at this point. "As far as I'm concerned I'm running a business right now," he said. "The preferential route is to explore all options we can do by ourselves first. I haven't even thought about that." In the meantime, the CEO is prepared to endure criticism from outsiders who say his decision repurpose stories for different outlets and merge newsrooms in four cities where it owns two newspapers will affect quality. "Ultimately the buck stops with me, and I recognize that," he said. "Four months from now, you've got every right to dump all over me if the product has decayed. But I'll tell you something, if they haven't decayed, I don't want to hear from them."
Also on HuffPost |
News Release
Art Exhibit Opening and College of Technology Open House
Wilmington University celebrates the talents of its students with the annual Spring Art Show, held jointly with the College of Technology Open House, on Friday, March 8, 2013 from 6-8 p.m.
The annual Art Show, now in its 15th year, will display more than 300 works of student art from the Media Design Program, College of Arts and Sciences art classes, Game Design and Development Program and Video and Motion Graphics Program. Works include paintings, photography, gaming design, printmaking and multimedia. Student artwork can be viewed on the second floor as well as through the hallways and labs of the ground floor of the Peoples Building on the New Castle campus.
The event, which includes live music and refreshments, is open to the public, and students are encouraged to invite family and friends. Faculty will also be available to speak about their programs and students’ artwork.
The exhibit is a partnership of the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Technology in an effort to display the works of students in various creative classes.
For more information contact Susan Gregg via email, [email protected], or phone, (302) 356-6865.
About Wilmington University
Wilmington University is a private, nonprofit university committed to providing flexible, career-oriented traditional and online undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs and offering small class sizes, individualized attention and affordable tuition. For more information, contact Wilmington University at 302-356-INFO (4636), via email at [email protected] or visit our web site at www.wilmu.edu.
Published: Thursday, February 28, 2013 - New Castle, DE |
On November 30th, the UT San Diego published an editorial arguing that after 14 years, it was time for San Diego and the San Diego Chargers to start getting to work on a new stadium.
The editorial makes the case that Qualcomm Stadium is antiquated, briefly endorses a public-private partnership, mentions an examination of different locations, and hints at discussing potential financing options. It's a nice, unobtrusive editorial, which stands in marked contrast to the last attempt the UT San Diego made to move the needle on the stadium issue. The only downside to this editorial seems to be the timing, coming out the evening before the first blacked out NFL game of the 2013 season.
Anyone who's been to a game at Qualcomm Stadium in the last few years would likely agree it is an outdated (if not dilapidated) venue. Just in terms of age and usage, only Lambeau Field has served as the home field for its team for more consecutive years than Qualcomm has for the Chargers. Second, remember that Qualcomm was designed as a multi-purpose facility, which means many seats are either obstructed view or have poor sightlines. Add nearly $80 million worth of deferred maintenance, and you get the idea.
It's probably bad luck this editorial comes on the heels of the first blackout in the NFL this season, after the Chargers were unable to sell approximately 5,300 seats prior to the 72 hour deadline on Thanksgiving afternoon. It's not the local newspaper's fault the NFL maintains its blackout policy for no legitimate reason, or that Qualcomm Stadium exceeds the market size by at least 7,500 seats, or that the Chargers have been especially terrific this year (even by their recent standards) at finding ways to lose games they absolutely should be winning.
Honestly, the gist of the editorial is correct. What everyone should note here is the timing.
Timing Is Everything
Before we start... Everyone should understand that when they're reading a UT San Diego Editorial Board column, they're getting the opinion of Doug Manchester - UT San Diego Publisher (and former owner of the Manchester Grand Hyatt), or John T. Lynch - CEO of the UT San Diego (also owner of XX Sports 1090). It's also no secret that one of the main priorities for Manchester and Lynch, after taking control of the UT San Diego, has been to push for a new stadium.
First... As I mentioned two weeks ago - and was reported in an article by the Voice of San Diego - current City Councilman and Republican candidate Kevin Faulconer entered this mayoral election as the hand-picked Republican candidate of several wealthy Republican boosters (among them Manchester and Lynch) back in August. According to that article, one major source of contention between Manchester and former Mayor Jerry Sanders was the lack of movement on a new stadium. Furthermore, Manchester's preferred candidate was former Mayoral candidate and current Congressional candidate Carl DeMaio.
Second... The UT San Diego editorial comes on the heels of a very recent mayoral election (November 19th - two weeks ago), one which identified Faulconer and Democrat David Alvarez as the two finalists to replace disgraced former Democrat mayor Bob Filner, with the final vote taking place in February. Based on the results of the November election, Faulconer is the clear favorite.
And on Monday, according to a Voice of San Diego Member Report, Manchester and Lynch were scheduled to host a private luncheon with assorted movers and shakers in San Diego, with the express purpose of "strategizing how we can best move San Diego forward in support of Kevin Faulconer as Mayor."
The agenda for this luncheon was as follows:
"We all know the need to preserve and protect San Diego from losing the Chargers, fix the pension system, and create incentives that will allow San Diego to reach its full potential and recover from what we have experienced over these past several years. We also want to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving as we live in the greatest country in the world and with your help will continue to enjoy the finest City in the land."
Notice the focus on the Chargers in this agenda. It seems clear that Manchester's and Lynch's enthusiasm (and possibly a fair share of support from the paper) is directly tied to Faulconer's willingness or ability to get a stadium deal done.
What Happens Next?
Over the next few months, leading up to February's election, you should see a dovetailing of support for Mayoral candidate Kevin Faulconer with UT San Diego editorials and proposals for a new stadium in San Diego. The coming barrage of editorial proposals can't help but be more realistic than the previous plan, which proposed a new stadium, arena, and bayfront park at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal for the cool price of $1.5 billion or more (like another $1.5 billion more).
Faulconer himself has been at least lukewarm in his support for a stadium:
"As mayor, I'm going to work to ensure that we keep the Chargers in San Diego. I'm less concerned about where a stadium may or may not be located. What I'm primarily concerned about is any financing plan has to protect the taxpayers. That'll be my number one, two and three objectives." Faulconer, in an interview with CBS 8 on 11/14/13.
However, if Doug Manchester and John Lynch have anything to say about it, that may change significantly over the coming months. Especially in cases where the potential elected official isn't exactly regarded as a leader. |
BREAKING: Maine Governor GOES OFF on Ted Cruz Camp for Stealing Trump Delegates
Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage endorsed Donald Trump for president in February before the Maine primary caucus.
Cruz won the state with 12 delegates. Trump was second with 9 delegates followed by John Kasich with 2 delegates.
This week the Cruz campaign, like they’ve done is several states, are cheating and stealing delegates from Trump at the state convention.
But this time Governor Paul LePage went off on the Cruz campaign for stealing delegates.
…No doubt the Ted Cruz supporters and FOX News will call this a “good ground game.”
Ted Cruz’s campaign faced more allegations of dirty tricks after the Maine governor, Paul LePage, took to Facebook to condemn the Texas senator’s campaign as being run by “greedy political hooligans.” The fiery and controversial governor claimed on Friday that the Trump and Cruz campaigns had previously reached a “unity deal” to elect delegates to the national convention in proportion to results of the Pine Tree state’s 5 March caucuses. Such an allocation would deliver 12 Cruz delegates, nine for Trump and two for John Kasich, the Ohio governor. However, LePage, a Trump supporter, said on the eve of Maine’s state convention that the Cruz campaign had reneged on the deal, believing they could fill all 20 elected delegate slots on the ballot. “I can’t stand by and watch as Cruz and the Republican establishment forcibly overrule the votes of Mainers who chose Trump and Kasich,” said LePage. While delegates are bound on the first ballot according to the results of state primaries and caucuses, they are unbound on subsequent ballots if a contested convention occurs. Such votes would have nothing to do with the results from the states and be solely decided by the individual delegates. The Guardian can confirm there was discussion of a unity slate in Maine; sources disagree on whether a deal was ever reached.
Here is Governor LePage’s statement on Facebook condemning the Cruz camp’s dirty tricks. |
Ross Marowits, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL -- Valeant Pharmaceuticals is replacing its CEO and blaming its former chief financial officer for misstated earnings, an allegation he rejects.
The embattled Quebec drugmaker announced a shakeup Monday that will see Michael Pearson leave the company following a succession of setbacks that have hammered its reputation and sapped its stock value.
"It's been a privilege to lead Valeant for the past eight years," Pearson said a statement.
"While I regret the controversies that have adversely impacted our business over the past several months, I know that Valeant is a strong and resilient company, and I am committed to doing everything I can to ensure a smooth transition to new leadership."
Once one of Canada's most valuable companies, Valeant has been embroiled in controversy for months.
It is facing allegations of gouging customers on drug prices, accusations it has denied. It is also under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Attorney's offices in Massachusetts and New York, as well as Congress, as part of their probes into price hikes for certain drugs.
Last month, Valeant announced it had to restate its financial results for 2014 and 2015 after discovering that about US$58 million of sales were recognized at the wrong time. It hopes to submit its restated financial statements for 2015 to regulators by April 29.
On Monday, the company assigned some of the fault on Howard Schiller, its former chief financial officer who sits as a board director. Valeant accused Schiller of "improper conduct" in providing incorrect information to an audit and risk committee and the company's auditors, adding that it continues to assess its financial reporting and disclosure procedures.
"In addition, as part of this assessment of internal control over financial reporting, the company has determined that the tone at the top of the organization and the performance-based environment at the company, where challenging targets were set and achieving those targets was a key performance expectation, may have been contributing factors resulting in the company's improper revenue recognition," Valeant said.
Valeant also said an internal committee review concluded that the company's heavily performance-based focus may have affected compensation decisions for some top managers and contributed to the company's improper recognition of revenues.
Valeant's board requested that Schiller tender his resignation as a director, but he refused. It also placed corporate controller Tanya Carro on administrative leave. Carro couldn't be reached for comment.
In a statement, Schiller denied Valeant's allegation that he provided incorrect information. He said the misstated sales figures were the result of "a careful and reasoned accounting decision" by the corporate controller based on what she considered to be complete and accurate facts.
"As a result of the fact that I did not engage in any improper conduct regarding this proposed restatement, I have respectfully declined the request from the company's board to resign from the board," Schiller said.
Schiller filled in for Pearson during a two-month medical leave early this year after resigning as CFO last June. Pearson will leave after his successor is named, the company said.
Valeant also announced that New York-based activist investor Bill Ackman will join its board of directors. Ackman's Pershing Square Capital is a significant shareholder in Valeant (TSX:VRX). The activist investor also partnered with Valeant in a failed hostile bid to acquire Botox maker Allergan Inc.
Industry analysts say Pearson's departure is a positive step, although they are alarmed by new accounting issues raised by the internal review.
Some also question why the board didn't act sooner.
"It's not just the CEO that needs to change here and adding Bill Ackman to the mix," said Vicki Bryan, an analyst with corporate bond research company Gimme Credit.
She said the company is at serious risk and needs to sell assets to severely cut its US$30 billion debt.
"This is a very troubled company that the company's aggressive strategies have been trying to mask for years."
On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Valeant's shares gained more than nine per cent at C$38.20 in afternoon trading. That's still a steep decline from its peak closing stock price of C$346.32 last August. |
Linus Torvalds just can't help but be a thorn in Microsoft's side.
First, he created an open source project that completely upset Microsoft's business model. And now, he has helped shoot down an important Microsoft patent in Redmond's crusade to wring licensing dollars out of Google Android and other versions of Linux.
Microsoft has coerced many Android phone makers into paying licensing fees for various Microsoft patents related to operating system design, and in some cases, it has actually taken legal action against such companies, including smartphone manufacturer Motorola. In October of 2010, it sued Motorola in federal court, and it filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission, or ITC.
Last December, Microsoft scored a victory when the ITC Administrative Law Judge Theodore R. Essex found that Motorola had violated four Microsoft patents. But the ruling could also eliminate an important Microsoft software patent that has been invoked in lawsuits against Barnes & Noble and car navigation device-maker Tom Tom.
According to Linus Torvalds, he was deposed in the case this past fall, and apparently his testimony about a 20-year-old technical discussion – along with a discussion group posting made by an Amiga fan, known only as Natuerlich! – helped convince the Administrative Law Judge that the patent was invalid.
Essex's ruling is merely an initial determination. It is being reviewed and could yet be reversed by the Commission. But if it's upheld, it could work against Microsoft as it continues to fight Android and other Linux-based systems that it believes violate its intellectual property.
Microsoft says that Motorola violated one of its patents, known as the 352 patent. This patent covers a technique for storing filenames with lots of characters in old filesystems such as the Windows FAT (File Allocation Table) filesystem that are designed to use very short filenames. Mobile phone makers use this type of technology so that their devices interoperate with other operating systems, including Windows.
"Motorola had found this posting of mine about long filenames used in a compatible manner with short file names... and it predated the Microsoft patent by three years," says Torvalds.
Torvalds says he did a video deposition last fall with Microsoft's lawyers, who tried to cast doubt on the dates of the newsgroup postings. "It was actually pretty annoying, just because the way they tried to cast doubt on what the date was. The lawyer went on for about five minutes: 'Are you really sure about this date thing?'"
At issue was a stamped newsgroup posting that came two hours after an earlier message on the same subject. Torvalds checked the posting against a second archive to make sure the timestamps were right, but, he says, Microsoft's lawyers kept pressing him. "At some point, I basically said: 'OK stop this stupid argument, can we go on to something else?'" Motorola and Microsoft's lawyers didn't respond to questions about Torvalds' account of the matter. A Microsoft spokeswoman couldn't comment on the case.
The Commission is just winding up the public comment period on its initial determination and a decision is due soon.
However, if the initial ITC finding is upheld, that would be "very serious," according to Eric Schweibenz, a partner with the law firm Oblon, Spivak who blogs about the ITC. The ITC is a trade body, not a court, so federal judges can ignore its findings. However, many of them pay attention to what goes on at the ITC.
An ITC ruling "would not be binding per se, but it would be highly persuasive," Schweibenz says.
That makes what happens at the Commission worth watching, says Keith Bergelt, chief executive officer with the Open Invention Network, a company that provides royalty free patents to Linux companies. "This is a patent that has a long history of concern and this is not just in the open source community, but from anyone," he says. "Because it seems so obvious."
Having the patent ruled invalid could cost Microsoft money, Bergelt says. "If you absolutely know that it's an invalid patent then you're not going to sign up for a license," he says. Existing licensees would also be likely to push for reduced payments.
But according to Florian Mueller another keen observer of software patents and the ITC dispute, Microsoft still has a lot of patents it can use when asking for licensing fees. "The fact that they use these [filesystem] patents a lot when they approach other companies doesn't mean that they don't have other patents to license," he says.
The ITC is expected to issue its final determination on the matter by April 20, but Mueller believes that the case will probably be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Says, Muller: "Even April 20 won't put the ITC case to rest." |
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