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Liberstad: Norway’s First Private City Where You Can Pay Using Bitcoin
A non-profit organization, Liberstad Drift AS, has launched a tax-free private city named Liberstad. Located in Tjelland, which is part of the Municipality of Marnardal in rural Norway, the city is based on Libertarian principles and highly encourages the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Liberstad Drift AS is composed of a small team headed by John Toralf Holmesland. The purpose of the non-profit is to establish and develop Norway’s first private city; Liberstad Drift will function as the initial operator of the city, as well as provide and facilitate public service. Holmesland explained the motivation behind building a private city stating:
“We want a society where people decide over themselves and can live together without government authorities. We want a society without government coercion, blackmail, surveillance or unnecessary violence.”
City development was launched on June 1 prior to which parcels of land had been sold to willing participants through its website. The sale of land within Liberstad was facilitated through bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as the Norwegian Krone.
The city is based on the principles of natural rights, private property, self-ownership, the principle of non-aggression, anarcho-capitalism, voluntaryism, and free market capitalism. These principles are meant to govern interactions between members as well as provide direction when it comes to dealing with differences. In addition, these principles are also intended to govern the provision of public services by both individuals and businesses.
In order to conduct business within the private city, members are required to register on the Liberstad internal-market business registry (LIMBR) after which they can provide goods and services. However, to avoid dealing with the Norwegian commerce rules, business must be conducted in currencies other than national currencies. To conduct business using national currencies, members must register with the Norwegian government; this is where cryptocurrencies come into play.
Liberstad’s founders believe cryptocurrencies are a way to ensure the growth of a strong free market within the city. In order to encourage the use of bitcoin, the team will provide discounts to members who use the cryptocurrency to pay for goods and services. In addition, the city-operator plans to use blockchain technology to securely store information pertaining to the city, its members, and commerce such as IDs, title deeds, and contracts.
The team is also considering developing its own cryptocurrency in order to facilitate faster transactions. This local coin would be tied to the value of bitcoin and will be for use within the Liberstad community. |
Picture this: A thin little girl—freckled, pigtails askew, barefoot—wearing a nightgown, holding a pistol in one hand and brandishing a sword with the other. No, it’s not Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz‘s character in Kick Ass), nor an infant Lisbeth Salander. It’s how you first meet Pippi Longstocking, on the title page of Astrid Lindgren’s first Pippi Longstocking novel, illustrated by Louis S. Glanzman. Pippi is where Grrrl Power got its start, and if you’re interested in the ancestral line of “grrls” like Lisbeth Salander, Hit Girl, The Hunger Games‘ Katniss Everdeen, or the slew of other gritty girls from the past year in film and fiction, Pippi Longstocking is grandmother of them all.
In Lindgren’s children’s novels, first published in her native Sweden from 1945-48 and the US from 1950-57, and their Swedish film adaptations, starring the superb Inger Nilsson (1969-70), Pippi is a nine-year-old girl with superhuman strength, ingenuity, and self confidence, an endless supply of gold (from her pirate Papa), and a beautiful, shambly house named Villa Villekulla, where she lives by herself with her horse and Mr. Nilsson, a spider monkey (her mother is dead and her pirate father’s at sea). Like her most notable descendent, Lisbeth Salander, of Steig Larsson‘s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo franchise, Pippi is most easily recognized by her distinctive personal style: Pippi’s hair is the color of a carrot, and usually done in two braids that stick out on either side of her head; she wears patch-worked dresses of her own devising, mismatched stockings, a giant hat, and men’s boots twice the length of her feet. And her motto, which promises and delivers a happy ending in all of her adventures, is “I’ll always come out on top.” In both attitude and fashion sense, Pippi’s nearest American relation is the spunky 1980’s television character Punky Brewster (same wild pigtails, freckles, animal friends, outlandish clothes; a plucky can-do motto: “Punky Power!”).
Lindgren’s Pippi lives a child’s wonderland life: no school, no rules, no bedtime, animals in the house, as many sweets as she can eat, victorious encounters with bullies, burglars, police, and pirates, homemade aeroplanes and air-balloon beds that actually fly. Pippi is invincible, irrepressible, fearless: What she sets out to do, she achieves. She’s generous even in triumphing over the numerous bad men who think they can best her (her preferred method of dealing with the inevitably farcical villains who take her on is hanging them on walls or in trees). And she always wins: even when she—a puny-looking girl—is faced with a man-sized job, rescuing her father from a slew of pirates or wrestling the world’s strongest man.
If any of this triggers a twinge of familiarity, it may be because Stieg Larsson modeled Lisbeth Salander on Pippi Longstocking. According to Larsson’s Swedish publisher, Eva Gedin, Larsson imagined Lisbeth as a grown-up, darker version of Pippi. Of course, there are tonal differences: Though Lindgren’s Pippi never quite breaks the laws of physics, she’s an impossible creature, a fantasy of empowerment: rich, self-confident, unnaturally strong, perpetually delighted, never compromising, never defeated. Larsson’s plots may have their fantastic and implausible qualities–Salander is a fantasy of empowerment too, if a grittier one than Pippi–but Larsson’s books do aspire to a certain realism and are particularly interested in the reality that the best and the strongest, the most strong-willed, don’t win every battle (even if they win in the end). While Salander is locked in mental hospitals and children’s homes against her will, turned over to a monstrous guardian whose abuses she cannot thwart, Pippi informs the police officers who’ve come to take her as a ward, “You’ll have to get kids for your children’s home somewhere else. I certainly don’t intend to move there,” and uses a lively game of tag to strand them on her roof. She then carries the officers out of the yard by their belts, giving them cookies as a no-hard-feelings parting gift.
Pippi’s endlessly obliging world certainly isn’t Salander’s; Pippi is a children’s book heroine, after all. But Pippi and Salander do share a fundamental character trait: a deep sense of justice and courage in the pursuit of justice—very real, if increasingly rare, human qualities. In one of Pippi’s first adventures, she stands up to five boys bullying a younger boy. She interrupts the bullies’ taunting of the little boy and brings their taunts on herself. The bullies tease Pippi about her red hair and her clown shoes, but Pippi just smiles her friendliest smile and seems not to hear their taunts. This enrages the ringleader and he shoves her. So, Pippi calmly lifts the bully up and hangs him on a high tree branch, telling him, “I don’t think you have a very nice way with the ladies.”
Pippi is, here and elsewhere, Lisbeth Light (or perhaps the other way round: Lisbeth is Pippi R or X). Both heroines are good at putting dangerous men in their places and both feel a deep sympathy for underdogs and innocents. Pippi’s bully-hanging is the child’s version of Lisbeth’s often much more gruesome acts of justice: Lighting her father on fire in an attempt to protect her mother from him; Taking on the Harriet Vanger case, not for personal gain, but out of a deep hatred of violence against women, a desire to see justice served—and, like Pippi, Lisbeth serves her justice by herself. But with Lindgren’s books—if you’ve got children to read to or if you can still muster a child’s delighted sense of limitless possibility—there’s a purer, simpler pleasure to be had in Pippi than in Lisbeth. This goes without saying, maybe: There are no atrocities in Pippi Longstocking, no dead and mutilated women, no chance of feeling like a sadistic voyeur or that the book’s nominal feminism is actually a slick form of misogyny. But it’s more than that: Pippi is a breathtaking vision of boundless, uninhibited possibility, and pretty funny while she’s at it (so is the dubbing in the movies: Pippi’s friend Annika has a NY/NJ accent that’s to die for). Pippi’s impossible, yes, a fantasy, but she might help you remember what it was like to believe in possibility, in unlikely powers and triumphs. She might also help you imagine a world yet to come of little girls who aren’t Ophelias in need of reviving.
“I can,” says Pippi, when a circus ringleader asks for a volunteer who thinks he can beat a towering, hulking strongman in a wrestling contest. “Oh, no, you couldn’t,” Pippi’s practical, goody-two-shoes friend Annika tells her, “he’s the strongest man in the world.” And Pippi cooly replies: “Man, yes, but I am the strongest girl in the world, remember that,” and climbs into the ring.
Guess who wins. |
Forbes is among a select group of websites that is actively forcing visitors to their websites to turn off their ad blockers. As it turned out, a security researcher visiting the website with his adblocking solution switched off, was redirected to a web page serving malware.
When Forbes detects users are accessing its website with ad-blockers, the website denies access to its content until users disable their ad-blockers. Being the popular news outlet that it clearly is, plenty of visitors to the website are understandably not too pleased.
The irony in this report is that Forbes inadvertently served malware to a security researcher visiting the website, to look into an article featuring a cybersecurity researcher. “The Forbes 30 under 30” article includes a security researcher under the age of 30. When the researcher disabled his ad-blocker to view the website, he was immediately served with a pop-up window (also routinely blocked by an ad-blocker) that instructed the researcher to download malware.
Brian Baskin, the security researcher immediately revealed it via a screen grab on his Twitter page.
The @Forbes website held content until I disabled Ad Blocker. I did so and was immediately given pop-under malware. pic.twitter.com/eDVRAA9ZSu
— Brian Baskin (@bbaskin) January 4, 2016
Baskin added that although the malware pages occur in a small proportion of the ads, disabling an ad blocker can open an entire attack vector.
Despite the barrage of headlines that predictably followed, including the one mentioned on this very article, the fault doesn’t lie with Forbes. Not entirely, anyway. Forbes has clearly trusted its ad provider to keep their ad networking solutions clean of malware.
However, the very fact that Forbes is actively forcing visitors to turn-off their ad-blockers should have the publication being doubly certain of the fact that the website is safe for all visitors.
Ultimately, this proves that adblockers are necessary in this day and age. They aren’t merely beneficial to block advertisements to drain system resources and internet bandwidth anymore. Malware authors have clearly targeted advertisements as their trigger mechanism. The payload is also included in video ads that still use the notorious vulnerable Flash plugin.
Image credit: Wikimedia. |
It has been 15 years since the series premiere of "The West Wing," which means it has been 15 years since viewers first discovered the palpable onscreen chemistry of characters Josh Lyman and Donnatella Moss. In honor of the anniversary, and the new generation of viewers recently discovering "The West Wing" for the first time on Netflix, we've compiled a list of the 15 most notable moments in Josh-Donna history, ranked from our least to most favorite.
15. Donna brings Josh a cup of coffee, "Pilot," Season 1
The scene that started it all! Janel Moloney was famously only hired for a small part in the pilot episode, which mainly featured a scene in which she brings Josh a cup of coffee for the first time in their relationship. The show producers saw so much chemistry between her and Bradley Whitford in their brief banter-filled exchange that Moloney secured herself a regular role.
"I had a real feel for this part that I felt very strongly about," she told Backstage in 2006. "I felt integral to the show. Part of my personality is just overestimating my importance to all things that I'm a part of. I think I wanted so badly to be a part of it that I was determined somehow. I was like, "No, I'm not leaving. Find a place for me."
14. Josh and Donna spend the night together, "Election Day" Season 7
Aaand, we jump seven seasons down the line to "Election Day," in which Donna finally puts the back and forth charade to an end. She makes her intentions clear, and Josh for once doesn't shoot himself in the foot and follows her upstairs. This moment has got to make the list, as it is pretty straightforwardly pushes Josh and Donna's relationship into forever-altered territory. But in the context of the couple's long list of emotionally charged moments, it's actually pretty boring. In early seasons, the rush and extreme chemistry between Josh and Donna is larger-than-life romantic. Unfortunately, as you'll notice from the low ranking of many of the technically major moments in their relationship, the arc that brings them together is ultimately lackluster.
13. Josh and Donna wake up together, "Tomorrow," Season 7
This very brief moment in the series finale is basically an exhale for long term Josh-Donna fans. In earlier Season 7 episode "Transition," Donna lays out a four-week window for the two to figure out their feelings for each other or abandon their relationship altogether. The fact that they wake up together in this episode, which takes place after that four-week period is over, signals to viewers that Josh and Donna did indeed, finally, end up together.
12. Josh and Donna Kiss, "The Cold," Season 7
After new polling data shows Santos has tied up the race with Vinick, Donna busts into Josh's room to share the good news. Excitement leads to an "excitement kiss," which ultimately leads to a real kiss. This is the moment where Josh-Donna tension officially crosses the line to Josh-Donna actually happening, and is the first element of the arc that eventually brings them together as a couple.
11. Josh refuses to hire Donna on the Santos campaign, "The Ticket," Season 7
This moment in Josh-Donna history is notable mostly for its extreme painfulness. After Santos beats Russell in the Democratic primary, Donna goes to Josh to ask for a job on the continued Presidential campaign. Josh says no, citing the negative comments she made against the congressman while working for Russell, but not before getting inappropriately personal: "I've got an airplane hanger out there filled with 500 strangers looking to me for direction. I've got a candidate who doesn't trust any of them, and frankly neither do I. And if you think I don't miss you every day ..."
Donna is upset, rightfully, because how dare he continually try to guilt her over leaving his side for a job in which she can actually have real authority, and leaves the office before they resolve anything.
10. Josh tends to Donna in Gaza, "NSF Thurmont," Season 6
When Donna is injured in an attack on Americans in Gaza at the end of Season 5, Josh flies to the hospital in Germany where she's being treated to sit by her side. After she develops a blood clot and has to undergo emergency surgery, Josh comes into the ER before the procedure and assures her with a convincing false confidence that it's all going to be okay. This is one of the more tender Josh-Donna moments in the post-Sorkin era of the TV show.
9. Jack Reese wants to know Josh and Donna's deal, "Arctic Radar," Season 4
So many gems of moments in this episode, which features Donna asking Josh for help getting a date with newly White House assigned naval officer Jack Reese. After having two Donna-centric conversations with Josh, Jack says he doesn't want to get "in between anything" by asking Donna out. Off of Josh's confusion, he says: "I have an aide, who in my life, I haven't talked about as much as you've talked about Donna in our entire relationship, yours and mine, which is a cumulative total of seven minutes old." Josh assures Jack he's not, but we're not convinced. Later, explaining to Donna why he shared what she finds to be embarrassing stories about her in his attempts to spark Jack's interest, he says "Those are good stories about you, though. Those stories would make me like you." (And by would, he means, did/does. He likes her.)
This episode is also notable in its marking of a slight shift in the dynamics of the Josh-Donna relationship. At this point in the series, we've seen much more of Donna yearning for Josh as he dates others (and Amy seriously), but haven't really seen the tables turned. After Josh delivers that heartbreaker of a line, Donna does not react like a woman in love, as she does to similar comments in early episodes, because she's distracted and genuinely excited to go out with Jack. How's that for a change, Lyman?
8. Josh gets flustered when Donna leaves on a romantic getaway, "Holy Night," Season 4
Donna's plans to spend Christmas away with her boyfriend are thwarted when the president decides to make last-minute adjustments to the Federal Budget. Josh apologizes for delaying her trip, but promises to get her drunk when they're done working -- a prospect which he seems to be pretty into. After Leo calls off the plan, and tells Josh he set Donna up with a news helicopter landing near her destination, Josh gets noticeably flustered. "Oh, get it together, would you please?" Leo says to him. Josh replies, "I'm trying." (And, may we note, failing.)
7. Josh tells Donna she looks great in the "stolen" dress, "The Portland Trip," Season 2
Excellent banter opens up this exchange when Donna puts on a red dress she bought for a date. Josh insists it's stolen, because she plans to return it the next day, but Donna insists she's just being thrifty. The date's a bust, and Donna returns to the White House to help Josh with a late meeting because DEVOTION. On her way out, Josh stops and tells her, "You look really great in that dress tonight, Donna. You should buy it for yourself."
She melts, obviously, and so do viewers at home.
6. Josh gives Donna a heartfelt Christmas gift, "In Excelsis Deo," Season 1
A classic build-up moment. In this Christmas episode, Donna issues repeated pleas for Josh to buy her various items of ski equipment as her gift. He appears playfully disinterested until episode's end when he gifts her a rare book on alpine skiing with a personal note inside. It makes her cry, and he tells her he "meant it." After he goes back into his office, he watches her unseen as she rereads the note and smiles.
5. The Post-Rosslyn Stories, "In The Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part 1," "The Midterms, "Noel," Season 2
For the purposes of this ranking, we'll group a few moments together that all showcase Donna's devotion to Josh in the aftermath of the harrowing Rosslyn shooting. Viewers will firstly remember the moment in "In The Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part 1," when Toby tells Donna that Josh has been shot. It's a brilliant moment of acting from Moloney, whose devastated reaction could not possibly feel more real. In "The Midterms," Donna takes charge of Josh's recovery-work balance, creating a set of rules dictating how the other Senior Staffers are allowed to interact with him. And lastly, in "Noel," we find out after Josh has been officially diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that Donna was the one to first notice his symptoms. Josh has a related hand injury, and at episode's end, Donna gently leads him to the car to take him to the emergency room.
4. Joey Lucas tells Josh that Donna is into it, "The War At Home," Season 2
Joey Lucas is in town and Donna is determined to get Josh to ask her out. Josh tells Sam he think it's puzzling that Donna is the one pushing the union -- it's not that he gets jealous when she goes out with other guys, but he does "do everything within [his] considerable capabilities to sabotage it." Toward the end of the episode, Joey explains why Josh is misinterpreting the latest polling data with this stunner of a speech:
"If you polled a hundred Donnas and asked them if they think we should go out, you'd get a high positive response. But, the poll wouldn't tell you it's because she likes you, and she knows it's beginning to show, and she needs to cover herself with misdirection."
To which Josh replies:
"Believe me when I tell you that's not true."
Except nobody does, because it is!
3. "Are you in love with Josh?," "Commencement," Season 4
A lot is going on in the final moments of Season 4's penultimate episode "Commencement." There is a national security threat involving a possible attack on American soil, and first daughter Zoey Bartlet has gone missing with a dead Secret Service agent found at the scene. Yet the interaction that sticks out most in our mind is between Amy and Donna, safe in the White House late at night. After Amy makes repeated unsuccessful attempts to try to enlist Donna's help in understanding why a comment she'd made earlier had offended Josh, Donna finally breaks and says "You have to get Josh." Amy prods further at her insinuation that she doesn't get him, eventually prompting her to flat out ask Donna: "Are you in love with Josh?" We see Donna's face for a few seconds before the camera cuts from the scene.
After four full seasons of rising tension without a single overt mention of Josh and Donna's "love" from within the show, this scene was, to put it simply, huge. Even though we don't hear Donna respond, the fact that she says nothing as opposed to some kind of quick deflection a la Josh to Joey Lucas in Season 2 is extremely telling. The scene is also notable as the last Josh-Donna nod written by series creator Aaron Sorkin before his departure at the end of season 4. It stands as a little RIP to Aaron Sorkin era of this romance, and of the show.
2. Josh throws snowballs at Donna's window, "Inauguration Part 2: Over There," Season 4
A very close runner up to the number one spot! What Josh-Donna supporter does not melt when Josh pauses his big good-cop speech in this episode to look at Donna longingly and say "You look amazing"? Leading up to the moment had been an emotionally tumultuous storyline for fans: Donna takes credit for an anonymous quote published about the White House being disloyal to military officers, which strains her relationship with Josh. He later figures out that she was covering for Jack (her boyfriend at this time), who actually made the comment. He shows up at her apartment, gang of "West Wing" boys in tow, and throws snowballs at her window until she comes downstairs. He immediately gives her his coat and a big long speech, marvels at her beauty, and says she has to sit on "somebody's" lap on the way back in the car. Josh-Donna fans everywhere basically fainted.
1. "If you were in an accident, I wouldn't stop for red lights," "Seventeen People," Season 2
We would be shocked to discover a true "West Wing" fan that wouldn't consider this the hands down top Josh-Donna exchange of all time. Josh gives Donna flowers to honor the anniversary of her starting to work for him, which she refuses to accept on the basis that his calculation discounts the time she put in before briefly leaving to go back to her ex-boyfriend. In a grounded moment toward the end of the episode, Donna explains that she came back after her ex stopped for a beer on the way to pick her up from the hospital after a car accident. The exchange ends with Josh saying that if Donna were in an accident he wouldn't "stop for a beer," to which Donna replies: "If you were in an accident, I wouldn't stop for red lights." She then walks confidently out of the office and down the hall, leaving Josh flattened against the doorway.
Happy anniversary, Josh and Donna (sort of)! We hope you're off living a happy life together somewhere in the fictional universe. |
Paul Farhi, The Washington Post's media reporter, explains why Gawker Media Group, the parent of the news and gossip site Gawker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)
Paul Farhi, The Washington Post's media reporter, explains why Gawker Media Group, the parent of the news and gossip site Gawker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)
Gawker Media Group, the parent of the news and gossip site Gawker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday and put itself up for sale, two moves designed to limit the financial fallout since losing a $140.1 million privacy-invasion lawsuit to professional wrestler Hulk Hogan in March.
Gawker has appealed the judgment against the company, its chief executive, Nick Denton, and its former editor, A.J. Daulerio, and had asked that it be reduced or stayed while its appeal is pending.
But on Friday, the judge in the case, Pamela Campbell, denied Gawker’s request for a stay, triggering Gawker’s bankruptcy-protection filing and its auction plans. It has no plans to cease operations while it appeals.
[Sullivan: Free speech is precious. What’s happening with Gawker and Facebook threaten it.]
In addition to Gawker, Gawker Media owns six other Web brands, including the sports site Deadspin and the tech blog Gizmodo. It was founded in 2002 by Denton, a former staffer at the Financial Times.
Peter Thiel, tech billionaire and co-founder of PayPal, spent $10 million dollars helping Hulk Hogan win his case against Gawker Media. (Daron Taylor,Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)
Gawker identified Ziff Davis, an all- digital media company, as the first bidder for its assets; people close to the company said Ziff has offered $90 million. But Ziff Davis’s bid isn’t final: Under a court-supervised auction, Gawker would be free to accept higher offers.
Like all publishers, Ziff Davis, perhaps best known as the publisher of PC Magazine, has been hurt by the decline in print advertising, and it has attempted to recast itself on the Web through such sites as AskMen.com, Computer Shopper and ExtremeTech.
“We are encouraged by the agreement with Ziff Davis, one of the most rigorously managed and profitable companies in digital media,” Denton said, in a statement. “A combination would marry Ziff Davis’ strength in e-commerce, licensing and video with [Gawker Media’s] premium media brands.”
A Chapter 11 filing, which requires the approval of a bankruptcy court, protects a company’s assets from creditors and enables it to reorganize its finances under the court’s supervision. Many companies, including General Motors, have survived after filing under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code.
Gawker’s largest unsecured creditor is Hogan.
Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, sued Gawker in 2012 after it posted excerpts of a sex tape featuring him and Heather Clem, the wife of a friend. After a two-week trial, a Tampa jury awarded Hogan a total of $140.1 million in general and punitive damages.
The legal dispute took on a new coloration last month when billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel — a target of Gawker stories — revealed that he had bankrolled Hogan’s suit. The revelation suggested that Thiel was intent on financially crippling the company as payback for its reporting on him.
Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and a Facebook board member, has long been upset with the site’s coverage of him, particularly a 2007 story by a now-defunct Gawker-owned site that disclosed he is gay.
Thiel said he has spent as much as $10 million to secretly support Hogan’s lawsuit. In an interview with the New York Times, he said Gawker published articles that were “very painful and paralyzing for people who were targeted,” adding: “I thought it was worth fighting back.”
The bankruptcy filing won’t prevent Gawker from appealing the Hogan verdict, said Christopher Ward, vice chairman of the bankruptcy practice at the Polsinelli law firm in Wilmington, Del. However, the filing will give Gawker the opportunity to argue that it isn’t required to post the $50 million bond that Campbell, the judge, ordered while Gawker’s appeal moves forward, he said. Gawker’s attorneys have already sought relief from the bond from an appeals court.
Ward also said the bankruptcy code allows Gawker to change course and forgo a sale if “circumstances warranted,” such as winning the Hogan case on appeal.
As a practical matter for the news media, the bankruptcy filing “intensifies what’s been the message of the Hogan case all along — that in this day and age, the media can’t necessarily be as confident as they once were that they can publish with impunity,” said Samantha Barbas, an associate professor at the University of Buffalo’s law school.
Over the past four decades, she said, the Supreme Court has gradually extended greater liability protection to media organizations. But Gawker’s legal ordeals suggest that “freedom of the press and the First Amendment may no longer be near-absolute shields for the media. . . . The Hogan episode indicates that the tide may be beginning to turn” in law and public opinion. |
Conversation Prisms Through the Years
When Brian Solis introduced the first Conversation Prism in 2008, the world was a seemingly simpler place. There were 22 social media categories, each of which had just a handful of brands. ("Video agreggation" had only one brand: Magnify.)
Flash forward to 2013, and the latest Conversation Prism (click here for the high-res downloadable version) has four additional categories with at least six brands in each. Like other Conversation Prisms, the data visualization attempts to illustrate the array of social media choices available to marketers. Various channels are classified by their function to the end user (i.e. "photos," "music" and "social curation."
SEE ALSO: 10 Creative Social Media Resumes To Learn From
The net effect: While the 2008 chart looked like a flower, the latest one resembles a kaleidoscope. Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group and a prominent social media marketing expert, says redoing the chart this time around has been instructive. "Things are changing so fast," he says. "We don't even realize [the landscape] is shifting."
The chart also points out that, for many, membership in the social media ecosystem is fleeting. While some brands like Xanga, Kyte and Utterz have disappeared, others that weren't around five years ago — like Path and Banjo — are now among category leaders.
Images courtesy of Brian Solis, Jess3 |
MANILA, Philippines - President Duterte wants the country to enter into joint exploration with China in both disputed and undisputed areas in the West Philippine Sea, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said yesterday.
He also said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is verifying the information of Rep. Gary Alejano of party-list group Magdalo about Chinese vessels massing near Pag-asa Island off Palawan, which is occupied by Filipino soldiers and civilians.
“There is communication, I can tell you, but I cannot go into details,” he told reporters at the House of Representatives, where he was scheduled to brief the special committee on West Philippine Sea chaired by Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
“We communicate with them quietly and ask them, ‘why are you there?’ In the past, we confronted them at every opportunity by filing a diplomatic protest. That tack didn’t work. Now, we are trying to establish peace and stability,” he said.
DFA spokesman Robespierre Bolivar said the incident should be verified and proven first before the Philippines could file a diplomatic protest.
“No official reports from security agencies on these alleged sightings as of yesterday,” Bolivar said in an interview on News To Go.
Regarding the joint exploration activities, Cayetano assured the nation that these would “conform with our national laws, the Constitution and Supreme Court cases and rulings on the matter.”
“No national territory or sovereignty will be lost. We will not give even an inch of territory to them,” he said.
He said the joint exploration and development projects could be for oil, natural gas, marine life and other natural resources. “We will come up with a doable, legal framework,” he said.
He added that he has already asked for the help of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and his lawyers to draft such legal framework.
The government had allowed a private company identified with businessman Manny Pangilinan to explore Recto (Reed) Bank for oil and gas.
However, the Aquino administration suspended the activity when the country filed its case with the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration, which has ruled in favor of Manila by invalidating China’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea).
However, Beijing does not recognize the ruling, which states that Recto Bank is part of the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
There have been reports that Chinese Coast Guard vessels were patrolling the Recto Bank area. – With Pia Lee-Brago, Jaime Laude |
Raw Story
“Are you joking?”
That was one of Sen. Joe Biden’s responses during an interview with a Florida news station that the Obama campaign said was so “unprofessional” it canceled another planned interview with his wife, Jill Biden.
Barbara West conducted the interview for WFTV-Channel 9 and asked the Democratic vice presidential candidate if Sen. Barack Obama was a “Marxist,” referenced a recent statement Obama made in Ohio to Joe the Plumber about “spreading the wealth around,” and was Biden “embarassed” about Obama’s alleged ties to ACORN.
“You may recognize this famous quote,” West said. “‘From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs.’ That’s from Karl Marx. How is Sen. Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?”
Biden did not immediately take the question seriously.
“Are you joking? Is this a joke or is that a real question?“ Biden said. “It’s a ridiculous comparison with all due respect.”
For her final question, West asked Biden what he would say to the people “who are concerned that Barack Obama will want to turn American into a socialist country, much like Sweden?”
Read the rest… |
WAILUKU, Hawaii – A man surfing with his three young sons used his fist and surfboard to fend off a weekend shark attack in waters off Maui.
That encounter and another one Monday prompted state officials to again warn people to stay out of murky water after a hurricane that churned past the state.
Kaleo Roberson of Haiku was among a group of about 20 people surfing Saturday at a site known as Freight Trains, off Maalaea, in waves that were 3 to 4 feet high, the Maui News reported. He was holding one of his 8-year-old twins when a 12- to 14-foot tiger shark appeared.
Roberson said he saw a massive open mouth and teeth a few feet from him.
“It was something you dream of on ’Shark Week,”’ he said. “It was so close to me, and the mouth was so open when it came up. It was in pure attack mode, and it was just right there. I was basically in its mouth.”
Roberson slid off his board to put it between him and the shark. He then punched and kicked the predator.
“Right then, I realized I was fighting for my life, and I had my sons with me so I took my board, and I started swinging it,” he said.
His other two sons also were within 10 feet of the shark. Roberson said he was thinking of them as he swung his board.
“I don’t care if this thing bites me, but if my pride and joys are making it to the beach safe, then I’ll feed this thing my leg if I have to,” he said.
A friend, John Patao, was about 5 feet away taking pictures of his son and other surfers when he saw Roberson fighting off the shark.
“Everyone went into survival mode,” Patao said. “The shark was attacking him and bit his board one time, and after that the shark was circling him.”
Patao said he helped Roberson get his sons to safety, and then he and Roberson swam to shore together.
“We were yelling for everybody to get in because we were worried about the kids,” Patao said.
No one was injured, but the shark left a 14-inch bite mark on Roberson’s board.
Police, lifeguards and state Department of Land and Natural Resources officials cleared other people out of the water. The department temporarily closed 3 to 4 miles of nearby beaches.
On Monday, a standup paddle boarder reported that a hard bump on the back of his board knocked him into the water at Maui’s Kahului Harbor. When the 58-year-old man surfaced, he saw a dorsal fin about 6 feet away. There were bite marks on the board.
The encounters happened in water that was murky from Hurricane Ana, which missed directly hitting Hawaii over the weekend but still delivered heavy rain, high surf and strong winds. Officials asked people to stay out of the ocean, saying brown water from runoff could attract sharks.
Kahului Harbor waters and waters a mile in each direction will be closed until at least Tuesday, the natural resources department said in a statement.
The agency also issued a reminder: “Again, please follow the strong warnings not to enter the ocean for any reason when the water is brown or murky.” |
My new book, Ron Paul's Revolution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired, published by Broadside Books (a HarperCollins imprint) will be officially released next week.
The book is the culmination of 24 years of following Ron Paul's career. I first met him in January 1988, when he spoke at an event organized by a group I was part of, the University of Florida College Libertarians. Paul was then running for president as the candidate of the Libertarian Party.
He drew 100 or so people, mostly there to witness a political curiosity, not yet dedicated fans. We got him a good write-up in the school paper, the Independent Florida Alligator. It was exciting that, through the vehicle of someone running for president, we got our then-utterly-ignored libertarian ideas widely read about in the paper.
It seemed nearly like a dream to me, 24 years later, at another big state school, UCLA, to see a Paul speaking appearance drawing an overflow crowd of 7,000, filling a stadium, taking to the trees, cheering liberty and booing the National Defense Authorization Act. These thousands were not just there to learn about strange ideas, but to cheer on a champion of what they already knew and believed--and to hang out afterward plotting and planning their multileveled attempts, from campus activism to online agitation to running for office, to further the cause of liberty that Ron Paul represents.
Paul was when I met him in 1988 a former Republican congressman, and in 1996 he once again ran for, and won, a federal congressional seat from Texas. This launched a long career for him as a outlying congressional gadfly. I first wrote about him as such in a national magazine in a 1999 profile for the American Spectator.
Ever since I've kept my eye on him as a journalist covering the libertarian movement, and a sympathetic admirer of his libertarian stances and goals. I interviewed him for and wrote about him in my 2007 book Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement.
I was among the first national journalists to cover his burgeoning presidential campaign in January 2007, and have written about him extensively here at Reason magazine and Reason Online ever since, including cover stories on his 2008 ("Scenes from the Ron Paul Revolution") and 2012 ("The Ron Paul Moment") campaigns.
From January 2007 on, I have been amazed, as a longtime watcher of the libertarian movement, to see how Paul was creating and energizing a mass movement of active, intelligent, dedicated, giving, organized devotees for liberty, young and old, most of whom had never thought of themselves as libertarians before. I watched as his career-long call to audit and curb the Federal Reserve became a mass movement.
I thought back in 2008 that it was time for a book telling the full story of the man, his ideas, and the movement he inspired. By 2011, it had become obvious that Paul and his people were no flash in the pan. His son Rand Paul had been elected U.S. Senator from Kentucky in 2010 as a Tea Party standardbearer. Despite his electoral failure in 2008, the Paul Revolution rose again, more energetic than before, to push Paul's campaign to the point where now he is the last opposition standing to current frontrunner Mitt Romney. He's now actually racking up control of state delegations and parties. The time to write a book introducing and explaining this phenomenon to the non-libertarian world was clearly here.
To read the rest, please visit the new dedicated web site for Ron Paul's Revolution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired, where you can follow both my ongoing reporting, writing, and talking on the still-very-alive story of Ron Paul, as well as follow news about events and media relating specifically to the book itself. |
(Image: © Samir Hussein/Getty Images)
As the primary songwriter in Oasis, he was responsible for such Nineties mega-hits as “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova,” and occasionally had violent, public fights with his singer brother Liam. But what Guitar World readers really want to know is…
You produced the new Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds album, Chasing Yesterday, by yourself. It’s the first time you’ve ever done that. Why did you go that route, and what was the experience like? —Dating a Weirdo
Because my producer that I’ve used for the last 10 years, Dave Sardy, has decided to get into the film industry, so he’s not doing records anymore. At least that’s what he told me. He probably thought the demos were shit. [laughs] I found it very fulfilling. I also found it very easy, and I’ve come to the conclusion that producers actually might be the biggest batch of fucking chancers in all of musical history.
What gear are you using on your current tour? —Robert Nivelle
Amp-wise, I’m using a very special-edition Hiwatt Custom 100 combo that was made as a prototype for me in the late Nineties and was never put into production. I have the only one, and it’s fucking amazing. For just my own stage sound, not in the mix, I use a Fender Blues Jr.
My guitars consist of a 1960 Gibson ES-355, two 1960s Gibson ES-345s, a Nash Guitars ’72 Tele-style, plus a Martin D-28 and Gibson J-150. I had a very expensive 1963 off-white Strat stolen from me about three years ago. It was the best Strat I’d ever played. And I thought, I’m not fucking spending that much money to replace it, so I bought a Nash copy of it, and it’s the best guitar I’ve ever owned. Ever. And the Nash Tele is astonishing. I use them both all over my new record.
I haven’t been hearing a lot of guitar on your recent albums. Any plans on getting back into guitar in the near future? —John Jellicoe
Well, on my previous record [2011’s Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds] there was one guitar solo. On this record, there are nine. So, fuck you [laughs]. It’s not something that was thought out in advance; it just depends on the songs I’m working on. These songs have guitar solos in them. The next album I make, if I do make another one, might have no guitars on it whatsoever. I don’t know. I’ll decide when I decide to make a record.
What do you listen to at home and in the car? —J. Algernon Hawthorne
I listen to pretty much everything apart from heavy metal. There’s no one particular music I prefer. I mean, I guess I prefer Sixties guitar pop above all else, but I listen to all sorts: dance music, jazz, punk…well, maybe not punk. But I listen to everything. That’s why my record’s so good.
Do you think popular music can ever be as important as it was in previous decades? —Damien Linotte
Clearly, the answer is no. There’s a new generation being born who were born in the modern age. I have a 15-year-old daughter, and the most important thing in her life is her fucking telephone, which just happens to have music on it. When I was growing up, the most important thing was music and television shows that had music in them, and the radio and shit like that. The modern world has a place for music, but it’s not the life-changing force it once was. There’ll never be another John Lennon, let’s put it that way.
How’s your relationship with your brother Liam these days, and what would it take to get Oasis back together? —John Thomas
Our relationship is as good or as bad as it ever was, depending on how you perceive it. As for Oasis, it would take half a billion dollars. None of that Canadian shit. American dollars. Half a billion. Not million. Billion, with a B.
Do you have any plans for releasing a signature guitar through Gibson or Epiphone? —Trevor French
I’ve been asked and I kinda can’t be fucking bothered, do you know what I mean? It’s a funny thing, designing guitars. Because, let’s face it, somebody got it right in about 1956. What’s the point? You can do them in funky colors with funky switches and blah, blah, blah, this, that and the other.
But really, if I was to sit down and design a guitar, it would be exactly the same as the one I fucking play. My main guitar, my 355, is in no way unique. It hasn’t got any unique, specific features on it. It’s just a fucking great guitar. It sounds great, has great pickups. I mean, what more could you do to a guitar? The guitar itself is really not important. It’s the fucking player, isn’t it?
If there were a fire at your house and you could save only one piece of gear, what would it be? —Luis Diaz
My white Nash Strat, considering it’s the only guitar I’ve got at my house. [laughs] But I’d probably regret not saving my big plastic bowl of plectrums. Because really, what the fuck is a guitar without a plectrum?
Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr appears on “Ballad of the Mighty I” on your new album. Do you think there’s a chance you’ll ever make a full album together? —Gus Bates
Let’s just say I could close my eyes and have a wild dream, and it would be for Johnny to be in my band. That would be amazing. But as he’s a solo artist and I’m a solo artist, it’s hardly likely to happen. But I would definitely be up for doing something with him, but a full-length record might be a bit too much.
What’s it like when thousands of people, in some cases hundreds of thousands, sing along to “Don’t Look Back in Anger” at your shows? —Leslie Castle
You kind of have to detach yourself from it. It’s been that way since the day that record came out [1996]. It’s such an extraordinary song. Not that my part in it was extraordinary in any way, and not that the component parts are extraordinary. They’re not extraordinary chords or lyrics, and there’s not an extraordinary melody or arrangement or anything like that. But for some reason, it’s become this extraordinary piece of music that people…they took it, and it means so much to them, and I don’t know why.
I’m just the guy playing the guitar while they’re singing their hearts out. It’s crazy. The song just arrived. Fuck knows why I played those chords or why they came in that order or who the fuck Sally is. Or where she’s going or why she was watching everybody walking on by. It was just a song that was in the air, and I’m glad I was around to write it. Because in the wrong hands, it could be a bit shit, do you know what I mean?
What do you think about the current state of rock? —Joe Lee Jr.
Oh, it’s dead, no matter what anybody fucking says. There are great bands—U2 and Coldplay and Kasabian and Arctic Monkeys and all that—but all those guys have been going for such a long time. If you’re talking about new rock music…people are going on about Royal Blood, but I’m like, “Really?” I don’t fucking get it. Show me the tunes. Rock has left the building.
Is it still easy for you to write songs in 2015? —John Babcock
I find it easy to start them, but it’s difficult to finish the bastards off. I could start a thousand songs a week and finish maybe one a month. But I’d rather have 75 songs that are in need of a second verse and an arrangement than finish one shit song. There’s many stages to what I do. There’s the writing, the recording, the mixing, the rehearsing, the gigs and all that. But my favorite thing to do is catch a bit out of the air and develop it into a song that didn’t exist, and a great song that’s gonna mean something to someone. That’s a great thing to be involved in.
Do you still hate the guys in Blur? —Damiano Sciancalepore
No, no, no. [laughs] Too old for hate now. To be quite honest, I don’t think anybody really hated each other anyway. It was just a very competitive time. Most of us in both bands were either drunk or high when we were doing it. In my case, I was both. When you’re young, you’re full of energy and spunk and you’re up for it. It turns out they’re lovely guys.
If you had to choose a single song that best represents your new album, what would it be? —Doyle Barr
Ah, this is why it’s a good album. There isn’t one song that really is representative. You could take any two songs; play “Riverman” and “The Right Stuff” to people and they’d think, This is kind of like a groovy, psychedelic jazz album.
Then take “Ballad of the Mighty I” and “In the Heat of the Moment” and you’d think it’s like a disco record. You could take “Lock All the Doors” and “The Dying of the Light” and you’d think this is a classic example of what he does. But if I were to choose one track to play to some person who’s not into what I do, let’s call him a fucking square, I’d play them “Riverman.”
Some journalist said “Riverman” sounds like a bit like “Wonderwall.” What are your thoughts on that? —Albert Woolson
What the fuck? [laughs] I mean, honest to God, it just goes to prove that the internet has given a voice to every fucking bozo on the planet. I mean, 99.9 percent of people on this planet are fucking dumbasses. And then there’s the 1 percent of the rest of us that are kind of discerning. You read stuff by people and you think, “You fucking morons.” Idiots. There’s only two things that connect that song to “Wonderwall.” One of them is me. The other one is the fact that I’m singing it. That’s it. Other than that, it bears no resemblance to it whatsoever. Oh, hang on a minute: It’s got an acoustic guitar on it, so it must be like fucking “Wonderwall.”
Will you be working on a box set anytime soon? —Fred Upham
No. I don’t like box sets. They’re too long. You lay all the shit out and you think, Will I ever live long enough to actually fucking listen to all this? Are there enough days in the rest of my life to get through this? But they do look good. I’ve got Pink Floyd box sets, and they look great on a shelf, and they’re great artifacts. But does anybody really listen to them?
You used to say you weren’t too fond of Oasis’ Be Here Now [1997]. Has your opinion of that album changed over the years? —Meg Matthews
It’s my least favorite of the albums I wrote, for sure. But I won’t take away anybody’s right to like it. I meet people regularly who say, “That’s your best album.” And I say, “Really?” but I think, You fucking moron, you don’t know what you’re talking about. If people like it, that’s great. Don’t expect me to play any of it. |
Allo, everyone. I’m the GM for my D&D group and I enjoy using different storytelling styles and techniques. I’ve had this particular one rattling around in my head for about a year and finally got the chance to use it over the weekend. I’ll share the general idea followed by how I did it in this instance.
HOW TO DO IT
The idea is to get a major shock out of the players by introducing a villian thought defeated or the power behind major events in the campaign without involving the PCs. Essentially think of it as a vignette.
First, decide how you want to introduce the shock element. Perhaps you want the reveal to be a defeated adventuring party being brought before some tribunal being headed by the aforementioned defeated villian. Maybe the characters finally get to see who is really running the slaving operation in the country by having contractors deliver fresh ‘goods’ to the villian. Don’t worry if you have to stage it a bit; this is meant to be dramatic. It isn’t going to directly affect your PCs, anyway, so feel free to play a bit dirty.
Next, make a party that would be working with the villian in question or trying to take it down. Flesh the characters out with a general group dynamic and basic group backstory that works into your vignette. Share this info with the players about a week in advance to give them a chance to be familiar with the material.
On the day of the vignette, hand your players the characters you sent them earlier in the week, with some modifications if necessary.
-If the party you created is trying to take the villian down, wreck them up before handing the sheets over: spend dailies, willpower, etc. Fill the players in on what has been going on to mess the characters up, then drop them into mid-combat with a mob that is wiping the floor with them. One by one, the party will fall. Before the final blows are struck, have the mob called off by the villian as she makes a dramatic entrance to finish the job herself.
-If the party you created is working for the villian, simply drop the characters into a job for the villian. Be sure to have the villian in question in question just go by ‘boss’ or somesuch until the end of the vignette. Have a minor encounter with some guards on the way to deliver some ill-gotten goods, or even have the characters perform the job in question. Once the characters make the delivery, have the villian receive the delivery directly through a dramatic reveal; possibly even killing said agents to leave no witnesses.
HOW IT WORKED FOR ME
In my campaign, the characters had just reached level 11 and helped rout an army led by a vampire. I created a party of 17-20th level characters and sent them to my players:
-Sung, doppelganger artifacer and party leader; Glutha Eyepoke, goblin sorceress; Dak Minerift, dwarf barbarian; Claskl Clawsnap, kobald cleric; and OSx, warforged fighter.
The group had been on the job of eliminating Vampire Vassels and tracking down the Vampire Lord that had created them. The group’s hunt led them through leagues of war-torn territory until they finally tracked down the Vampire Lord…
I handed out all of the wrecked character sheets (except Sung) and had gave a brief prologue of Sung’s thoughts…
“We’ve planned this for months. Every angle, every detail, every contingency. We had this bastard cold. So why can I not figure out why this is happening?!”
I then revealed the battle layout of a badly outmatched party facing a Vampire Lord, a few death knights, and a mess of zombies. The party played for a couple of rounds, and characters started to fall.
After the first character was taken down, Sung, (controlled by me), started reading a modified scroll of Teleport to get everyone out. In the same round, everyone save Sung and OSx had died. Just as the spell was about to complete, a death knight “interrupted” the spell and caused it to misfire, instead severing OSx’s head and teleporting it away to… someplace.
After that occured, the Vampire Lord finally spoke: “Ah ha ha ha! Did you really think you could storm Castle Ravenloft and live?! I, Strahd von Zarovich, have repeatedly destroyed those far greater than you. However, seeing as I am now lacking in Vassels to run my kingdom, perhaps you’ll do…” Fade to black.
Jaws hit the floor. It was awesome.
Keep on designing, yo!
Phil
[tags]Gming,Dungeons and Dragons,Game Mastering,D&D,Role Playing Games,rpg,rpgs,Storytelling Techniques[/tags] |
Egyptian security forces have been caught trying to loot priceless artifacts from the museum in Cairo and commit other acts of violence “in an attempt to stoke fear of instability,” a rights group claimed Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch emergency director Peter Bouckaert told The Washington Post that police identification cards were found on several wounded looters that broke in to Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.
Soon after the Egyptian police forces withdrew from the streets Friday, “people began to enter the museum,” Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities department, told Time Magazine.
Police identification cards were also found on other looters around Cairo and Egypt. Bouckaert implied that police forces may have been responsible for the escape of thousands of prisoners, describing it as “unexplainable.”
Over the past few days, Egyptians all around the country reported to Human Rights Watch that police were responsible for much the looting.
“The locals say the only people with weapons are police who’ve taken off their uniforms and are responsible for most of the looting and crime,” Human Rights Watch deputy director for Middle East and North Africa Division Joe Stork wrote from Suez Sunday.
“Mubarak’s mantra to his own people was that he was the guarantor of the nation’s stability,” Bouckaert said. “It would make sense that he would want to send the message that without him, there is no safety.”
“Over the past three days, state television has been reporting alarmist news about violence and criminals among the demonstrations in an attempt to discredit the democratic movement,” the Post noted.
As up to a million Egyptians marched Tuesday, ordinary citizens set up checkpoints to keep undercover police from bringing in weapons and perpetrating violence.
“We want to show the world that we can take care of our country, and we are doing it without the government or police,” Khalid Toufik, a 40-year-old dentist, told The New York Times.
This video is from Reuters, broadcast Jan. 30, 2011. |
Donald Trump and The Definition of Insanity 58,000 mental health professionals say Donald Trump is too unstable to be president. Here’s a deep dive into the diagnosis and what could happen because of it. (tl;dr here) Shane Snow Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 15, 2017 Albert Einstein is famously quoted: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting something to change.” This is not, of course, the actual definition of insanity. It also turns out Einstein never said this. It actually comes from an Alcoholics Anonymous pamphlet from the 1980s. Which is apropos, because nearly 60,000 mental health professionals have diagnosed President Donald Trump with a type of insanity that is often compared to an alcoholic’s lack of honesty and impulse control. Sparked by Change.org petitions by a top former Johns Hopkins professor and a California congresswoman, the psychiatric community has declared that Trump suffers from “Malignant Narcissism.” What is that exactly? Does Trump actually suffer from it? If so, what does that mean? With the help of some concerned psychologists, we’ve broken the answers down.
Psychologists say that Trump’s condition is a combination of mental disorders that cause one to distort reality and make violent, impulsive decisions. These disorders form, according to the doctor who coined the term Malignant Narcissism in the 1960s, “the most severe pathology and the root of the most vicious destructiveness.” (Full criteria below.) This is the first time in history that so many mental health professionals have collectively diagnosed a living individual. Their conclusion, based on the hundreds of hours of Trump’s on-camera dialogue and off-the-cuff public speaking, is alarming because it says that our current president is too mentally disturbed to fulfill his office. To be clear: Being a standard deviation or two away from the norm when it comes to one’s psychology does not automatically make a person dangerous, bad, or unable to do a job. Millions of people have depression, anxiety, or mild mania and still function well. Abraham Lincoln went through depression, after all. Unfortunately, unlike many other mental disorders, Malignant Narcissism makes its sufferers actively dangerous to other people. It’s more akin to delusional schizophrenia than it is to anxiousness. In diagnosing Donald trump, mental health pros are breaking with a decades-old precedent. After Barry Goldwater won a 1969 defamation lawsuit when psychiatrists called him crazy in Fact magazine, the psychiatric community put in place a “Goldwater Rule” in their ethics handbook that forbids diagnosing public figures. So why are psychologists breaking with tradition now? A big problem during the Goldwater scenario was that there weren’t objective criteria for diagnosing mental health conditions at the time. Therapists used all sorts of jargon and their best judgment—but they were all over the place. Since then, however, the community has put in place official, objective standards in their bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM for short). This makes it possible to unanimously agree on diagnoses. The real reason for breaking with the code, however, is principle. Someone in power with Malignant Narcissism is likely to get people killed, and psychologists who know this feel morally obligated to speak up. This has legal precedent in a court case called Tarasoff vs Regents, in which the murder of a woman could have been prevented if the killer’s psychotherapist had warned her or police that the man might kill her. This resulted in The Tarasoff Rule: “When a therapist determines, or pursuant to the standards of his profession, should determine, that his patient presents a serious danger of violence to another, he incurs an obligation to use reasonable care to protect the intended victim against such danger.” In Judaism, there is a principle called “Pikuach Nefesh” which says that it’s okay to break a rule in order to save a human life. Many in the mental health community believe that Donald Trump’s psychosis is that kind of a life-or-death situation, and that since he sees no mental health doctor, the Tarasoff Rule should supersede the Goldwater Rule. Thousands of psychologists feel morally justified in this. (And some even are saying it is immoral to not speak up.) In addition to the mental health community, senators and congresspeople from both parties have expressed concern about Trump’s mental health. Whether they are right or not has enormous implications. “I genuinely do not think this is a mentally healthy president.” — Eliot Cohen, US State Department under George W. Bush Decoding Donald Trump’s Mental Condition Malignant Narcissism, according to John D. Gartner, one of the country’s top psychologists, is basically a combination of three mental illnesses — Anti-social Personality Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder — plus sadism, or the enjoyment of inflicting pain. “The concept was developed by a famed psychologist named Erich Fromm, who escaped Nazi Germany, as a way to describe evil,” Gartner says. “He used it to describe Hitler.” That’s pretty scary. And unfortunately, the assertion that Trump has it is not something that can be chalked up to politics. “Even though I disagree with everything he stands for, I would be immensely relieved to have a president Pence. He’s conservative; he’s not crazy,” Gartner told me. Paul Ryan? He’d be great, too. “Martin Luther King famously said the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. If we hit a traffic jam on the way to social progress, we’ll still get there,” Gartner said. “But if we’re all dead from a nuclear war, we won’t.” Which is exactly what someone with Malignant Narcissism might start. Gartner, who taught personality disorders at Johns Hopkins University for 28 years and explained Bill Clinton’s mental issues in the book In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography, says Trump’s illness might be called “Dictator Personality Disorder.” Malignant Narcissism often coincides with mild mania — the ability to consistently stay up all night obsessing on a project — which helps sufferers achieve high career status despite their cruel tendencies. Trump exhibits this, too. “I’ve been a specialist in personality disorders for 35 years,” Gartner says. “Trump is the most severe case I’ve seen in my career.” The DSM is clear about what constitutes the three personality disorders that add up to Malignant Narcissism. Here they are broken down: Now let’s take a look at Donald Trump’s behavior — from the public record — against the criteria: Antisocial Personality Disorder
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition |
As House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are working to pass a GOP establishment healthcare bill, a recent focus group of President Donald Trump’s core supporters in Michigan shows how dangerous it could be for Trump to align himself and be associated with Messrs. Ryan and McConnell.
Stanley Greenberg, former President Bill Clinton’s top pollster, recently went to Macomb County, Michigan—where Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by 12 percentage points in 2016—to interview white working-class voters who supported President Barack Obama before voting for Trump. These “Reagan Democrats” represent the heart and soul of Trump’s coalition, and Franklin Foer, who accompanied Greenberg on the trip, details some of his observations from Greenberg’s focus group in this month’s Atlantic magazine.
What stood out to Foer was how much voters in Macomb County hated Ryan and McConnell and worried that Trump might align with establishment Republicans:
Concerns about Trump’s temperament did nothing to dislodge the participants’ support—the connection these voters felt with Trump was personal and deep—but the fact that he might align with traditional Republicans annoyed them to no end. (The groups reacted angrily when shown photos of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. People described them as “shifty” and “for the upper class.”) What many Macomb voters value about Trump is that he represents an unaligned force in American politics. That’s the very quality that in earlier election cycles led them to Obama.
Read Foer’s piece here. |
If you thought Sharp’s 4K TV we’ve shown you last week is impressive, think again. Toshiba today unveiled a 55-inch LCD that boasts the same resolution (3,840×2,160 pixels, 4x full HD) but can also display pictures in 3D – no glasses required. The TV will be shown starting tomorrow during the CEATEC Japan 2011 exhibition near Tokyo.
Needless to say, the REGZA 55X3 [JP] is the first TV of its kind. Unfortunately, the resolution stands at “just” 1,280×720 in 3D mode.
The TV features 5,000:1 contrast ratio, LED backlight, a new processor called “REGZA Engine CEVO Duo”, a face-tracking function to enable high-quality 3D pictures for viewers, REGZA LINK, five digital tuners, 10W×2ch+10W speakers, four HDMI ports, and two USB ports.
Toshiba plans to start selling this beast in Japan in December (price: US$11,730).
Via AV Watch [JP] |
Fundamentalism claims to be traditionalist, and opposed to modernity. It is actually modernist, and opposed to tradition—and to postmodernity.
Fundamentalism remade hundreds of millions of people’s mode of relating to meaning when it exploded out of obscurity four decades ago. Any account of the future of meaningness must, at minimum, understand fundamentalism as background. The Christian version is still hugely influential in America, although waning. Islamic fundamentalism is the worst memetic threat the world faces currently—although I will suggest it too is on its way out.
Misunderstanding fundamentalisms as “traditional” and “anti-modern” makes it impossible to respond coherently. Recognizing them as modern, anti-traditional, and anti-postmodern is the necessary starting point for understanding.
This page explains how fundamentalist movements:
are modern in the sense of “recently invented”
are modernist in the sense of providing a systematic structure of justification
arise because traditions can’t defend against “why?”; only modernist systems can
are anti-traditional in rejecting cultural specificity in favor of abstract universalism
are anti-traditional in rejecting complex customary beliefs, practices, and institutions in favor of someone’s new and radical explanation of a supposed clear and simple Ultimate Truth
are countercultural: “new, alternative, universalist, eternalist, anti-rational systems”
originally opposed rational modernity but now mainly oppose postmodernity, i.e. the end of the possibility of systematic eternalism
require extremism because modernity is over and eternalism can no longer work
are failing, and being replaced with atomized postmodern alternatives.
I sympathize with fundamentalists: postmodernity has frightening defects and dangers. I end the page by recommending that religious people find other, more effective strategies than fundamentalism for opposing postmodern threats to meaning.
Fundamentalism is modern
Fundamentalism is just over a century old. The word “fundamentalism” itself was coined only in the 1920s. It was also only in the 1920s that fundamentalism became a significant force—and then only for a few years, before going underground for decades.
World War I (1914-18) was a profound shock for eternalist certainty in meanings. Social, cultural, and psychological systems began to disintegrate. Fundamentalism seemed to promise their restoration; and this accounts for its 1920s popularity.
However, the movement began just before WWI, as a reaction against “modernist” theology. This explains why it still claims to be anti-modern, although that was (we will see) not exactly true in the 1920s, and became altogether untrue in fundamentalism’s second phase, beginning in the 1970s.
Modernist theology developed in the late Victorian era as a response to the twin challenges posed to Christianity by Darwinism and historical criticism of the Bible. The modernists’ goal was to adapt Christianity to the new scientific and historical consensus, and to maintain the relevance of faith in an intellectual climate suddenly grown dismissive of the authority of Scripture. To this end, they stressed ethics rather than eschatology; social reform rather than confessional debate; symbolic and allegorical interpretations of the Bible rather than more literal readings.
The 1920s fundamentalists rightly recognized that Christian modernism was a slippery slope to humanism, secularism, atheism, and nihilism. Half a century later, starting in the late 1960s, the modernist Mainline Protestant denominations imploded. They had eliminated nearly everything from religion except ethics, and then adopted mainstream secular ethics, and so had nothing distinctive to offer anyone.
Fundamentalism suffered a grievous blow in 1925 when its prosecution of the Scopes “monkey trial” (over the teaching of evolution) made it look ridiculous to most Americans. It retreated into a marginal subculture for many decades.
A second wave of fundamentalism emerged in the 1970s, as the innovative memetic core of one of the two great countercultures. This was another period of visible shakiness in the systematic mode of meaningness. The “hippie” monist counterculture challenged mainstream systems, with surprising success. It was also a time of rapid cultural globalization; the mass media suddenly exposed Americans to unfamiliar images and ideas from afar. Within the West, the postmodern era was just beginning—“postmodern” here meaning the condition in which all systems have been discredited. Fundamentalism again offered a bulwark of certainty against the disintegration of meaning.
Islamic fundamentalism has a similar history. Although it has roots in 1700s Wahhabism, the movement began only in the early 20th century, and remained mainly marginal until the 1970s, when it formed the innovative memetic core of the Islamist counterculture. The same pattern holds true for Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist fundamentalisms.
Fundamentalism is modernist
Fundamentalism describes itself as traditional and anti-modern. This is inaccurate. Early fundamentalism was anti-modernist, in the special sense of “modernist theology,” but it was itself modernist in a broad sense. Systems of justifications are the defining feature of “modernity,” as I (and many historians) use the term.
The defining feature of actual tradition—“the choiceless mode”—is the absence of a system of justifications: chains of “therefore” and “because” that explain why you have to do what you have to do. In a traditional culture, you just do it, and there is no abstract “because.” How-things-are-done is immanent in concrete customs, not theorized in transcendent explanations.
Genuine traditions have no defense against modernity. Modernity asks “Why should anyone believe this? Why should anyone do that?” and tradition has no answer. (Beyond, perhaps, “we always have.”) Modernity says “If you believe and act differently, you can have 200 channels of cable TV, and you can eat fajitas and pad thai and sushi instead of boiled taro every day”; and every genuinely traditional person says “hell yeah!” Because why not? Choice is great! (And sushi is better than boiled taro.)
Fundamentalisms try to defend traditions by building a system of justification that supplies the missing “becauses.” You can’t eat sushi because God hates shrimp. How do we know? Because it says so here in Leviticus 11:10-11.
Secular modernism tries to answer every “why” question with a chain of “becauses” that eventually ends in “rationality,” which magically reveals Ultimate Truth. Fundamentalist modernism tries to answer every “why” with a chain that eventually ends in “God said so right here in this magic book which contains the Ultimate Truth.”
The attempt to defend tradition can be noble; tradition is often profoundly good in ways modernity can never be. Unfortunately, fundamentalism, by taking up modernity’s weapons, transforms a traditional culture into a modern one. “Modern,” that is, in having a system of justification, founded on a transcendent eternal ordering principle. And once you have that, much of what is good about tradition is lost.
This is currently easier to see in Islamic than in Christian fundamentalism. Islamism is widely viewed as “the modern Islam” by young people. That is one of its main attractions: it can explain itself, where traditional Islam cannot. Sophisticated urban Muslims reject their grandparents’ traditional religion as a jumble of pointless, outmoded village customs with no basis in the Koran. Many consider fundamentalism the forward-looking, global, intellectually coherent religion that makes sense of everyday life and of world politics.
Fundamentalism is anti-traditional
Traditional culture is a colorful muddle of customary, local beliefs and practices. The diverse styles of traditional women’s clothing from different Muslim societies, in the illustration at the top of this page, is a fine example. Lacking a system of justification, there is no basis for arguing that other people’s customs are wrong.
Fundamentalism rejects cultural specificity in favor of abstract universalism. There can only be One Ultimate Truth, which must be the same everywhere, so women everywhere must wear the same clothes. Fundamentalism dismisses actual traditions as “inauthentic” on the pretext that they are degenerations from the authentic, original religion, which fundamentalism claims to represent—thereby inverting the actual order of history.
Traditional cultures have a structure of authority: if you want to know what God wants, you ask a priest; and he knows because he was told by an older or superior priest. There are sometimes quarrels over who gets what position in the hierarchy, but the structure itself is unquestioned and so requires no justification.
Fundamentalism rejects customary authorities in favor of a supposed clear and simple Ultimate Truth. It says the traditional hierarchy is “corrupt” and must be swept away. The structure of justification should replace the structure of institutional authority. Fundamentalism is hostile to ritual, because that reinforces traditional authority rather than simply expressing the Truth.
Sayyid Qutb’s 1964 manifesto Milestones founded modern Islamic fundamentalism. The book’s central claim was that Islam had been entirely extinct for several centuries. All existing “Islam” was actually Jahiliyyah, “paganism,” because (he said) it was not based on Shariah. Or at least not the true Shariah, which only he could discern. All existing fake-Islamic institutions must be destroyed by violent jihad. Somewhat less dramatically, “the absence of strong traditions and institutional ties in [American] Evangelicalism, and its high level of organizational mobility, made it a distinctly modern phenomenon.”
The Ultimate Truth is to be found in the scriptures, supposedly. But the scriptures are pervasively vague, self-contradictory, and say lots of things fundamentalists want to ignore. So fundamentalists claim special interpretive insight that gives them the authority to determine what scripture really means. But “this is where the basic contradiction between fundamentalism and true tradition lies. There is no tradition that permits the individual or group, solely on the basis of its own assertion, to proclaim its own knowledge to be infallible and absolute.”
Fundamentalism is countercultural
Fundamentalism, everywhere, became a significant cultural force only during the countercultural era (1960s-80s). In America, 1970s fundamentalism claimed to be a reaction to the hippie/monist counterculture, which was partly true. However, there was no monist counterculture in the other places where fundamentalisms burst forth, at about the same time. In fact, modern fundamentalism is mainly a reaction to the disintegration of secular systematicity. Each second-wave fundamentalism arose as a desperate, last-ditch attempt to hold meaning together in the face of postmodern nihilism.
Recall that I defined a counterculture as a “new, alternative, universalist, eternalist, anti-rational system.” I’ve explained how the American “Moral Majority” counterculture of the 1970s-80s fit this definition. Here I’ll briefly point out how fundamentalisms in general are countercultural.
Fundamentalisms are new (and anti-traditional) because they are recent and innovative. I’ve described American fundamentalist innovations in “Rejecting rationality, reinventing religion, reconfiguring the self” and “Countercultures: modern mythologies.” I gather the fundamentalists of other religions are similarly inventive, but don’t know details.
Fundamentalisms are all oppositional (alternative) by nature. The early-20th-century ones opposed modernist branches of their religions. The post-1970 ones originated as political responses to secular political authorities. Recently, fundamentalists have taken control of some states; but they continue their oppositional attitude even when they exert totalitarian power. Having vanquished the internal enemy, they organize their rule—rhetorically, at least—around jihad against religious enemies outside their state.
Fundamentalisms are all universalist, claiming that their Truth applies equally to everyone, and so everyone must behave the same way. Fundamentalisms are all eternalist: they claim every tiny thing has a definite meaning, given by the Cosmic Plan, of which they have unquestionable knowledge and understanding. Fundamentalisms are all anti-rational: they oppose secular rationality, and claim to ground all meaning in non-rational transcendent revelation, as given in scripture. They are all systems, in the sense of networks of justifications.
Fundamentalism is losing to postmodernity
Fundamentalism was originally devised as a weapon against liberal Christian modernism: one system of meanings to fight another system of meanings. In the mid-1970s, it was re-deployed as a weapon against two other systems of meanings: the anti-rational monist counterculture and secular rationalist modernism. But, by that point, all three enemies were already dying at the hands of a fourth, more powerful force: postmodernity.
“Postmodernity” means simply that no eternalist system can work any longer. Starting from about 1980, we live in a shattered world: navigating storm-tossed seas among fragments of meaning, mixed up flotsam and jetsam of numerous broken systems. All eternalisms are defenseless against postmodern skepticism.
So, we need to find ways to live without them. Some people built new, smaller, sea-worthy boats—the post-eternalist subcultures—and adapted to postmodernity reasonably well. (At least until atomization hit.) Others—those who found postmodernity most difficult—turned to fundamentalism, for its promise of certainty, of solid dry land. They hoped to preserve a world that makes sense, against the firehose torrent of jagged insanity spewed by the media, and now the internet.
If you understand the defects and dangers of postmodernity, you can sympathize, even if not actually agreeing. Unfortunately, fundamentalism doesn’t work; it can’t work. The deluge is global, and there is no terra firma anywhere.
Most fundamentalists don’t understand the difference between secular modernism and postmodernity. Mostly, they are stuck fighting the last war, with the wrong weapons, against a dead horse. In America, it is way too late to oppose evolution, or sex violence and nasty noises in music, or liberal bias on broadcast TV, or even abortion. Postmodernity doesn’t care about any of that. (Increasingly, conservative Millennial voters say that they don’t consider abortion an important issue.) In fact, polls in the past few years show a sharp decline in fundamentalism, especially among younger, more-atomized, generations. Older fundamentalists recognize, resentfully, that they have lost the culture war.
Third-world fundamentalisms think they are fighting “Western influence,” “neo-colonialism,” or even “Christian crusaders”; but actually the enemy is the atomized global culture, which is as much Asian as Western, and far more capitalist than colonial or Christian. The West can adapt to the breakdown of systems of meaning because we had well-functioning systems for a couple centuries, and spent the twentieth century figuring out why they can’t work anymore. Left behind by modernity, and then by postmodernity, much of the third world never had a working systematic mode, and so now doesn’t understand why that can’t work. As in the West in the 1930s, the obvious response is to try to make eternalism work by force. Fundamentalism and totalitarian nationalism—fused in every third-world version—are attempts. As these fail, they become ever more desperate, and therefore ever more extreme and violent.
Islamic extremism—originally devised as a coherent system—is atomizing. The things young Islamists say and do make no sense in any conceptual framework, traditional or modern, Islamic or Western. Many Millennial-generation Islamists know the global internet culture better than they know Islam. They are not fundamentalists—following a religion based on scripture—just extremists.
In an upcoming page, I’ll explain how ISIS, the “alt-right,” and “tumblr SJW” all promote politics in the atomized mode—just as the Yippies and the Taliban both pursued politics in the countercultural mode. Since ISIS is pretty much the worst thing in the world now, understanding how this works may be important to fighting it. I’ll suggest strategies for memetic warfare.
My advice to fundamentalists (and others)
As a highly religious person, although not a fundamentalist, I share your concern. The atomization of meaning could result in complete cultural and social collapse.
I suggest that you identify your enemy clearly. If you want to preserve your meanings, you need to come to grips with atomizing postmodernity, which is the current reality, instead of wasting your effort fighting obsolete modernisms.
I suggest that it is more important to find ways of preserving some coherent meanings than fussing about details. I would rather see a competent fundamentalist theocracy that kept civilization running than an anti-systematic social collapse—even though you would burn me as a witch in the first week after you took power. I hope you would prefer living in a competent atheist rationalist state that kept civilization running than see an anti-systematic social collapse—even if it banned all public practice of religion.
“How do we rescue meaning from nihilistic atomization?” is a more urgent question than whether God exists. Scriptural literalism has definitively failed. You and your former secularist enemies might do well to join forces. I realize a fundamentalist-atheist alliance sounds implausible—but before Francis Shaeffer united them in the 1970s, the idea that fundamentalist Protestants, conservative Catholics, and Orthodox Jews would join to fight secularism sounded absurd.
Ross Douthat, a conservative but not fundamentalist Christian, sees a “postmodern opportunity.” |
UPDATE: Scalise tweeted a picture of himself at the Capitol, with the caption "I'm back."
Scalise's first interview since the shooting will air this Sunday on 60 Minutes.
Welcome back, Representative Scalise.
---Original Post---
Some wonderful news to kick off Thursday morning: More than three months after being nearly assassinated while at practice for the Congressional Baseball Game, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) is back at work. Scalise's office made the announcement just after 10 a.m.
#BREAKING House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) returns to the Capitol today for the first time since the June shooting — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) September 28, 2017
NEWS! Scalise's office announces "he's back" - will be in House floor today — Deirdre Walsh (@deirdrewalshcnn) September 28, 2017
Starting today, Whip Scalise will be resuming his work at the Capitol, his office says. — Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 28, 2017
Scalise had quite the difficult road to recovery after being shot in the pelvis. He was the worst injured in the shooting, and spent more than a month in and out of the intensive care unit at MedStar Washington Hospital Center before being discharged to rehabilitation at the end of July. Scalise underwent numerous surgeries and blood transfusions, and battled infections as well.
In the aftermath of the shooting, there was an impressive display of bipartisanship among Congress. The Congressional Baseball Game raised a record amount of money for its charities.
This post has been updated. |
Image caption Millions of Adobe users picked easy-to-guess passwords, suggests analysis
"123456" was the most popular password among the millions of Adobe users whose details were stolen during an attack on the company.
About 1.9 million people used the sequence, according to analysis of data lost in the leak.
Online copies of the data have let security researchers find out more about users' password-creating habits.
The analysis suggests that many people are making it easy for attackers by using easy-to-guess passwords.
Word games
On 4 October, Adobe reported that its systems had been penetrated by attackers who had stolen the online credentials for millions of its users.
Early reports suggested about 2.9 million records had been compromised.
Top 20 passwords 123456
123456789
password
adobe123
12345678
qwerty
1234567
111111
photoshop
123123
1234567890
000000
abc123
1234
adobe1
macromedia
azerty
iloveyou
aaaaaa
654321
On 30 October, this figure was revised, with Adobe saying information about 38 million active users had gone astray.
In total, information about more than 150 million accounts was stolen - but many of the other accounts were disused, abandoned or duplicates.
Adobe has now shut down all the compromised accounts, saying it will only reopen them once passwords have been changed.
Copies of the data that was exposed by the breach have begun circulating online and inspired security researcher Jeremi Gosney to go through it working out which password was most popular.
Top of the list, with 1.9 million entries, was the "123456" string of numbers. Second was the slightly longer "123456789" sequence.
Other popular easy-to-guess passwords included "adobe123", "qwerty" and "password".
Mr Gosney said the results of the analysis should be treated with caution because, so far, no-one had access to the keys that Adobe used to encrypt the data.
However, he added, flaws in the way Adobe had stored and encrypted passwords along with clues in the giant file of data had made it possible to draw up a list that he was "fairly confident" was accurate.
Computer security researchers who study password-creating habits have also seized on the data dump as a way to refine the word lists they use to attack login systems in a bid to make them more secure.
Lists of passwords and email addresses are a boon to attackers not just because they can be used to get access to the systems they were supposed to secure. Many people re-use the same password for different services potentially giving attackers a way into other networks. |
Illustration by Pradeep Yadav.
When it comes to the India-Pakistan border, even an avian is not above suspicion.
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Security agencies are in a flutter over a pigeon with “Pakistani markings” that was “caught” on the border in Pathankot district of Punjab on Wednesday.
The “suspect”, now in police custody, was nabbed by villagers in the Bamial sector of Pathankot district, which is just a few kilometres away from the Pakistan border. Accoring to reports, it was injured after villagers tore off one of its wings.
The bird has “Shakargarh” and “Narowal” written on its body in English, along with some numbers and words in Urdu. Shakargarh tehsil is a sub-divison of Narowal district in Pakistan’s Punjab province close to the border.
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“We are investigating the matter and have alerted the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Border Security Force (BSF),” said SSP, Pathankot, R K Kaushal.
The district police have left nothing to chance, even getting the bird scanned to check if there was something hidden inside it. “But we did not find anything in the scan,” said the SSP.
He added that there was something written on the pigeon in Urdu and that efforts were being made to get that read. “It may be harmless but we cannot take any chances,” he added.
BSF DIG R S Kataria, based at the BSF Punjab Frontier headquarters in Jalandhar, said the pigeon was “inspected” by senior officials including the commanding officer of the BSF battalion based in the area.
“Nothing suspicious has been found as yet but we are not taking any chances,” said Kataria. He said the bird could have been used to send across a message or a SIM card to a contact across the border.
He said that recently, another pigeon was found on the Indo-Pak border in another state with something tagged on its body.
This is not the first time that a pigeon has flown across the border and got caught. Five years back, in May 2010, another pigeon with Pakistani markings was “apprehended” near the border in Amritsar sector. It was then alleged that it was a “spy pigeon”.
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The bird was later handed over to wildlife authorities after being “cleared” in investigations. |
Some blacks are angry that South African whites, indifferent about their plight, are planning to march for the removal of President Jacob Zuma.
As a friend of mine said, “Before I shut down South Africa… for those who want to preserve wealth and privilege, disguised as legitimate concerns… I need answers to the following; currency manipulation by the banks, jobs for whites, indifference to poverty, etc. etc.” From over there in the townships our #SaveSA marches look a little elitist and far too pale. “Where were the whites when we were protesting for water and shelter and service delivery?” he asks.
My brother, you are right. We were nowhere.
Max Du Preez is irritating but he is right
This week Max wrote on Twitter, “Imagine what could have been if we white South Africans were as outraged at apartheid, torture & death squads as we are at Zuma right now”. This is an irritating question to ask the white middle class who have “moved on” from apartheid and now agree that the system was evil. How dare Max question white apathy now that we have all buried the hatchet? It’s irritating, but Max is right. Whites were not outraged at apartheid – they were the beneficiaries of the system. Sure, there were the Helen Suzmans and the Derek Hanekoms and the Beyers Naudes, but they were few and far between. Whites baked bread in their neatly trimmed suburban bubbles while the townships burned and black bodies bore the brunt of an oppressive police state. There is no excuse.
Fast forward to 2017 and these same white people continue to enjoy benefits that accrued to them from historic injustice. Their children stand on their shoulders and enjoy higher education rates, higher employment rates and higher nutrition levels than that of black children. This is the “legacy” that we have discussed so often that it is at risk of becoming a cliché. It also happens to be the thorn in the side of our black compatriots.
Martin Luther King Jr. foresaw, that, ”In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Black people remember our silence, and it obviously hurts. Sadly, that pain sometimes surfaces as an irrational anger that says, “How dare you protest now?” It becomes a blinding resentment that says, “you are willing to fight for your privilege but you are not willing to work or sacrifice for justice!”
Whites are angry at President Zuma
As exasperating as it might be for many black South Africans, most white South Africans have put apartheid behind them and are looking to the future, with self-interest. We are a materialist nation. We borrow, we spend, we brag and we post selfies with our BMWs and our Bentleys.
For every black South African who dreams of driving their new imported car into their old township, as a symbol of affluence, there is a white person who dreams of a bigger house, in a better suburb. These aspirational citizens want the country to work, for them, and in an impersonal way, for “the masses”. Confronted with poverty, they say, “I pay my taxes”. The truth is, they mostly do. Confronted with inequality, they say, “education is the solution”. The truth is, it is. But they also understand that corruption, mismanagement of public funds and crony capitalism will hurt the poor more than it hurts them. These white people are angry with President Jacob Zuma.
The corrupt record of many in the ANC and the clouds of abuse of power that have surrounded the president, has shattered their Madiba-inspired honeymoon. To these whites, the Rainbow Nation was more than a promise or a goal, it was a new beginning. To suggest that they are now somehow guilty of perpetuating our societal challenges is to pull away their comfort blanket.
Even more complicated, is the relationship, of young whites who grew up after 1994, with the idea of “collective guilt”. How can they be guilty of the evils of a system they did not create, did not participate in and did not vote for? Some have even voted for the ANC. What these whites miss of course is that the Rainbow Nation dream required collective responsibility, not merely in the form of tax transfers via the state, but in every walk of life.
Confronted with the failure to fix the country, they blame the ANC and more recently, blame the president. Rightly so, the ANC is now a weakening party fraught with factionalism, corruption, nepotism and tribalism.
Colour doesn’t matter, democracy does
To my angry friends, we whites look like ignorant brats fighting over our many toys. Unfortunately, this view is misinformed.
As difficult as it is for South Africans to leave “race” behind, our country has reached a moment in time where our enemies cannot be neatly identified in terms such as race-relations. Sure, racism is rife, but our new enemies are socio-economic evils such as endemic drug addiction, teen pregnancies, state failure and economic stagnation. Even if every white racist woke up a changed person tomorrow, our nation would still reel under societal breakdown and deprivation.
To fix these systemic problems requires that the environment is stable, rule-based and fair. This is why democracy matters. The most affluent and prosperous nations have become so during times of great stability, when productive citizens were able to lay one stone upon another and forge ahead in innovation and creativity. You simply cannot queue your way to progress as you do to collect a social grant.
So, dear black people, forgive us as we march for privileges that you don’t yet have. We are also marching for our institutions, for the rule of law and for your future.
Learn from history and don’t be fooled by black nationalism
The Afrikaner nationalists cooked up a muti of culture, patriotism and religion to provide the rationale for exploitation and oppression. It was a successful system, if you measure the progress of white boers from their days as “Bywooners”, poor stragglers seeking a living in the shadow of colonial masters, to their unveiling of the Voortrekker Monument in 1949. By the 1980s they had amassed wealth, power and pride. Too much pride. But their rise was off the backs of millions of black workers, oiling the wheels of progress with black sweat. Their whitewashed supremacist facade was a thin veneer that masked deep and tragic injustice for millions. The same Afrikaner heroes who led the white flock to the height of their power, would turn out to be dehumanising monsters, no different to history’s worst examples of inhuman oppression through torture, imprisonment and arbitrary exclusion.
Black nationalists are at risk of giving birth to their own apartheid, conceived out of their rage and greed. Another of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s great insights was that, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Just as the Afrikaner remade himself after the image of his colonial oppressor, once he had shrugged off the Union Jack, rolled back the 1822 decree by the British, that English was the only language to be used in the schools, churches and government, so the black nationalists are charming the cobra of hate and supremacy. The venom of their anger convinces them that Jacob Zuma is an imperfect hero, their very own PW Botha, one of their own.
What they fail to see is that we cannot equalise our society through another round of criminality. If we undermine the rule of law now, our society will never recover. When Madiba gave us the dream of “reconciliation”, he actually gave us something far more valuable. He gave us a framework within which we can build peacefully and fairly towards the future we desire. Along with the genius of Albie Sachs, Kader Asmal, Frene Ginwala and many others, he gave us a constitutional democracy. This is what we are now at risk of losing. We are at risk of losing the table at which all South Africans are meant to come and sup.
So, my black brother and sister, instead of ridiculing our belated anger, come teach us how to march. Teach us how to have solidarity. Teach us how to be South Africans. Thank you for bringing us a democratic South Africa through your patient endurance and your forgiving spirit. Now help us save it.
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Toronto Hydro vehicle.
Toronto Hydro is the second-largest municipal electricity distribution company in Canada, serving approximately 769,000 customers[6] in the city of Toronto, Ontario. It distributes approximately 18%[7] of the electricity consumed in the Province of Ontario.
History [ edit ]
Toronto Hydro has been serving the City of Toronto for over a century.
1910s: Electricity first came to Toronto in the late 1880s. A number of private companies were formed to meet demand. In 1908, Torontonians voted overwhelmingly for the formation of a municipal electricity company. Toronto Hydro-Electric System was introduced on May 2, 1911 at Old City Hall.
1920s: Toronto Hydro merged with the private electricity companies in the 1920s, leading to a 95 per cent increase in the number of meters and a 200 per cent increase in the kilowatt-hours sold. Further demand came from an approximate 50 per cent rise in appliance sales.
1930s: Demand for electricity decreased for the first time during the Depression. In order to protect jobs, unionized workers agreed to reduce their work hours to 40 hours per week. While some layoffs were necessary, those jobs were offered back to employees when electricity consumption picked up in 1940.
By Toronto’s centennial in 1934, Toronto had approximately 920 kilometres (km) of paved streets, 880 km of which were lit by electricity. In 1937, Toronto Hydro sold more than 1 billion kWh for the first time in its history.
1940s: Toronto Hydro appealed to customers to conserve energy during World War II. Electricity consumption for signs, show-windows, displays and advertising was banned. Street lighting was reduced by approximately 20 per cent and daylight saving time was extended throughout winter to reduce the afternoon peak electrical load. The increased efficiency created a profit that Toronto Hydro passed down to its customers in temporary rate reductions.
1950s: Between 1945 and 1955, Toronto’s kilowatt-hour consumption increased by 75 per cent. This was due to the post-war baby boom and increased immigration. Toronto Hydro raced to keep up, building 12 new electrical substations throughout the city. The electrical system was converted from 25 Hertz (cycles per second) to 60 Hertz and over 200,000 meters were replaced.
1960s: The convenience of electricity was heavily promoted. As a result, electricity use grew at home and in the workplace. Between 1964 and 1974, Toronto Hydro spent more than $31 million to put overhead wires and transformers underground.
1970s: As environmentalism grew, Toronto Hydro introduced a variety of energy conservation programs and incentives to customers.
The building boom of the late 1960s meant that in 1970, Toronto Hydro’s peak load increased 5.6 per cent over the previous year. New additions to the Toronto skyline including CN Tower, First Canadian Place, the Royal Bank Plaza and Hydro Place added over 44,500 kW of demand to the grid.
1980s: In the 1980s, Toronto Hydro became the largest municipal electricity distribution utility in Canada. The organization introduced a customized Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA), which enabled operators to accurately and remotely monitor the distribution system.
As Toronto Hydro moved to digital, other organizations followed suit. The introduction of desktop computers, printers, networks and photocopiers meant additional demand.
1990s: On January 1, 1998, Bill 103 amalgamated six municipal electric utilities into one, nearly tripling Toronto Hydro’s customer base to approximately 650,000 customers.
Approximately 350 employees helped restore power following the ice storm in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec in January 1998. Crews worked 12 to 20 hours a day, coped with harsh conditions and unfamiliar equipment. In 1999, the City of Toronto became Toronto Hydro’s sole shareholder when the utility incorporated.
2000s: In 2001, Toronto Hydro began powering 100 vehicles with low-sulphur diesel and soy-based biodiesel fuel.
In December 2002, Toronto Hydro built a 65-metre tall wind turbine at Exhibition Place in partnership with the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative (TREC). Toronto Hydro launched its first smart meter projects in 2005 to approximately 500 customers and in 2010 started transitioning customers to Time-of-Use rates to help them better manage their electricity bills.
2010s: In 2011, Toronto Hydro launched various social media channels, which has given its customers the ability to interact with the organization in a variety of convenient ways.
In 2013, Toronto Hydro started construction on the new Clare R. Copeland Transformer Station, the first underground station in downtown Toronto.
In 2015, Toronto Hydro unveiled Hydrostor, the world’s first underwater compressed air energy storage system, located three kilometres off Toronto Island. This “underwater battery” stores electricity when the demand is low and can be released when the grid needs a boost.
In 2016, Toronto Hydro installed the world's first pole-top energy storage unit. The unit's lithium-ion batteries charge during off-peak hours and then discharge energy to Toronto Hydro's grid during peak hours.
In 2017, Toronto Hydro launched the PowerLens® portal, an online platform allowing customers to view how their homes use electricity so that they can take steps towards conservation and saving.
The Ontario Energy Board approved Toronto Hydro’s 2015-2019 rates application. Over this five-year period, Toronto Hydro has secured more than $2 billion in capital funding that it will use to meet the growing demand for electricity, to safeguard against extreme weather events and upgrade aging infrastructure.
Awards [ edit ]
Toronto Hydro has received the following prestigious awards:
2013 Canada’s Top 100 Employers [8]
2013 Greater Toronto's Top Employers [9]
2013 Canada’s Top Family-Friendly Employers [10]
2013 Canada's Greenest Employers [11]
2014 Greater Toronto's Top Employers [9]
2014 Canada's Greenest Employers [12]
Recognized as a Sustainable Electricity Company™, a designation by the Canadian Electricity Association [13]
2016 Integrated Approach to Sustainability Award from the Canadian Electricity Association [14]
2017 Canadian Electricity Association President's Award for excellence for employee Safety [15]
2017 Customer Service award by the Ontario Energy Association[16]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ] |
EU research chief Carlos Moedas meets the Israeli prime minister during a May visit to celebrate Israel’s role in Horizon 2020, an EU research program that funds torturers. (via European Union in Israel)
The European Union is illegally funding Israeli torturers and must stop, a group of prominent international legal experts has concluded.
They say that the LAW-TRAIN program violates EU regulations and international law because one of the participants, Israel’s public security ministry, “is responsible for or complicit in torture, other crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
LAW-TRAIN began in May 2015 with the ostensible aim of “harmonizing and sharing interrogation techniques between the countries involved in order to face the new challenges in transnational criminality.”
It is funded through an EU research program called Horizon 2020, which has also channeled millions of dollars to Israel’s arms industry.
Extensive use of torture
LAW-TRAIN involves Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, the Israeli public security ministry, Belgium’s Catholic University of Leuven, the Belgian justice ministry, Spain’s Civil Guard paramilitary police and the Romanian police. Its advisory board includes Cornelia Geldermans, a prosecutor in the Netherlands.
Portugal was originally involved, but pulled out last year in the face of mounting public opposition to Israel’s role in the EU program.
LAW-TRAIN is scheduled to run until April 2018 and half of its nearly $6 million budget will go to the Israeli participants.
“The use of torture by Israeli interrogators has been extensively documented in the international and Israeli press and confirmed by international investigators and by Israeli interrogators themselves,” Michel Waelbroeck, the author of the legal opinion and a member of the Institute of International Law, stated. “In June 2016, the UN Committee against Torture denounced Israel’s use of torture and its illegal, abusive techniques during interrogations by its police and prison staff.”
The opinion is endorsed by 25 international legal experts and jurists, including former UN human rights investigators Richard Falk and John Dugard, and Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, a former Dutch deputy prime minister and former director general at the European Commission.
Israel has a well-documented record of torture, including against children, and has systematically failed to investigate complaints of abuse.
Illegal funding
In February, hundreds of Belgian academics and artists urged their government to end its support for LAW-TRAIN, and questions have been raised about the project in the European Parliament.
Human rights organizations from Palestine, Belgium and Spain have also written to EU officials expressing concern about the support for Israeli entities engaged in torture.
As opposition to LAW-TRAIN grew, the European Commission, the EU’s executive bureaucracy, conducted an evaluation by an “independent expert panel” that concluded the program had “Good to excellent compliance” with EU laws, including the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
But the legal experts say that the review ignored key EU regulations that ban funding to individuals or organizations that engage in “grave professional misconduct” such as torture.
The legal experts conclude that because Israel’s public security ministry is “guilty of grave and continuing breaches” of European and international prohibitions on torture, the EU funding is illegal.
But far from taking action to hold Israel accountable for torture, Carlos Moedas, the EU’s head of research, recently visited Israel to celebrate its involvement in Horizon 2020.
Protest in France
While top EU officials tighten their embrace of Israel’s regime of occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism over Palestinians, European citizens are continuing to urge an end to such complicity.
Activists from BDS France held this protest outside the pavilion of the Israeli arms maker Elbit Systems at the Paris Air Show on Saturday.
The protesters can be seen in the video staging a “die-in” and holding a banner denouncing Israel for testing its weapons on Palestinians.
The protesters called for an arms embargo, an end to military cooperation with Israel and support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign.
Elbit is a major manufacturer of drones that Israel has used to kill Palestinian civilians. It was contracted by the Obama administration to provide surveillance technology along the US-Mexico border.
Elbit has also been a big recipient of European Union funds. |
Overview (3)
Mini Bio (1)
Spouse (1)
Trade Mark (1)
Chubby, but athletic
Trivia (25)
April 2000 - lives in an L.A. bachelor pad with his older brother, Gary Valentine , who is also a stand-up comedian.
He was raised in Stony Brook, NY, and graduated from Ward Melville High School (Long Island, New York) in 1983. One of his wrestling teammates at Ward Melville High School was future WWE star and author Mick Foley ("Mankind"). He also attended Cortland University with Mick Foley
His big break came in 1996 when he won at the "Just for Laughs" Montreal Comedy Festival.
In June 1999 and 2000, he hosted the Florida Sports Awards, the official sports award show for the state of Florida, in Jacksonville, Fla. This event raises funds for the Otis F. Smith Foundation.
He met his wife on a blind date arranged by his interior decorator.
19 June 2004 - He married his longtime girlfriend, model Steffiana De La Cruz , before 180 friends - including Ray Romano - and family members in Dana Point, California.
Is a New York Jets and a New York Mets fan.
His wife, Steffiana De La Cruz , gave birth to their first child, daughter Sienna-Marie James, on Friday September 30, 2005.
Is an avid golfer and fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Attended Cortland University, along with former wrestler and current best selling author Mick Foley (with whom he also attended high school).
One of his teammates on the wrestling team at Ward Melville High School was future WWE star and author Mick Foley
Born to Janet and Joseph Valentine Knipfing.
Kevin and Steffiana De La Cruz , became the parents of a second girl, Shea Joelle James, on June 14, 2007, in Los Angeles. Was named after New York's Shea Stadium.
Close friends with Ray Romano . They met while doing stand-up comedy, on the comedy circuit.
Is a member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity.
Claims to have run a 4.6 sec. 40-yard dash in high school.
Helped corner Bas Rutten for his comeback fight (win by KO -- Leg Kicks) vs. Ruben Villareal at an MMA event ( Inside MMA (2007)) held on July 22, 2006.
His wife, Steffiana De La Cruz , gave birth to their third child, a boy named Kannon Valentine James, on April 24, 2011 (Easter Sunday).
His father was of German descent.
Is a Republican.
His wife, Steffiana De La Cruz , gave birth to their fourth child, a daughter named Sistine Sabella James in late January 2015 weighed in at 9 lbs., 8 oz.
In the King of Queens, Doug Heffernan's parents are named Janet and Joe, which are also Kevin James' parents' names.
The number "9" is a staple among his television career: Everybody Loves Raymond (1996) (the series in which his character Doug Heffernan originated from) ran for nine years, his spin-off series The King of Queens (1998) ran for nine years, and the pilot episode of his new series Kevin Can Wait (2016) premiered nine years after the series finale of his spin-off.
Personal Quotes (34)
It was fun because, after shooting, Will and I would eat a jar of pickles and tell each other secrets. It was so much fun! - On Hitch (2005).
There's no better feeling in the world than a warm pizza box on your lap.
Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.
I had many teachers that were great, positive role models and taught me to be a good person and stand up and be a good man. A lot of the principles they taught me still affect how I act sometimes and it's 30 years later.
I just want to put some positive stuff out there. If it works, great. If it doesn't, no problem.
A song can take you to a special time in your life.
Back in '93 I saw my first UFC fight and just became enamored by it then.
Every few months I'll pop into a comedy club or go to Vegas.
Every time I do a movie where it gets physical, I say never again.
For some reason and I don't know why, but I don't think that I'm funny in California. So I always want to do my movies east somewhere.
From there, I tried out for a community theatre play, joined an improv group... it all started opening up.
I could never be James Bond.
I don't want to be known as this goody-two-shoes who can only do comedies where puppies are licking peanut butter off my face.
I had my boy in Boston on Easter Sunday. That kills me, from a sports perspective. He's a Boston baby and I'm a New York guy.
I never played a musical instrument growing up but I knew kids who did and took it very seriously.
I never played music, but it's an important thing ... the studying, the inspiration.
I really wasn't a class clown.
I think I invented the phrase 'Don't overdo it.'
I took a public speaking class in college and managed to make the class laugh a little bit.
I try to connect with the everyday, every guy.
I would always love to be an athlete, but it's got to be a tough day when you have to hang up those cleats.
I'm not a Hollywood guy.
I've always had something in my heart where I root for guys who struggle with women.
If I do a movie where I have to have a son and it's a chubby kid, my mother is always like, 'You were never like that.' She gets so upset about it.
It's always cool to meet people who can do things that you have no capacity to do.
Just me onstage with a mike having an intimate relationship with the audience. I don't get nervous for that. I just get excited.
My favorite movie of all time is 'Rocky.'
Now I'm starting to jog. But every time I do jog I have 9-1 pressed into my phone, with the next '1' ready to be launched in case I drop.
Teachers have a chance to mold someone, inspire them. I hope all teachers realize that.
You think school ends when it ends, but it doesn't.
As American as an apple is and as American as baseball is, they don't go together. You can't be chewing an apple at a baseball game. You've got to let go of the diet that day.
I want to do movies that I'm proud of where my kids, at some point, can see and I can feel comfortable sitting there watching it with them. And just that move people. That make people feel a little bit better about themselves when they leave the theatre.
I've always been the guy who doesn't necessarily get it with women. A woman would have to say, 'I like you, I want to go out with you, you can ask me.' And still I would question it. Did she mean it?
Once a year my back will go out and it'll be... it's like a sciatic thing and it's the smallest thing. Like I could be leaning over the sink to brush my teeth in a weird way and it happens.
Salary (1) |
Joseph has suffered at least 2 concussions which severely limited his playing time, and at least a wrist injury that left him sidelined yet again. The concussions might hinder the output of a guy a bit, but if the Phillies are calling him up to fill in their holes, I expect that he's overcome whatever might be ailing him.
Now for his playing time at the big league level and how it might work out: He's in a platoon with Ryan Howard at the moment, so his ABs are going to be on the low side. With that said, starting next Monday Joseph will be playing a few games in Detroit, where Howard will likely be shoved in to the DH spot, freeing up some time at First. This is where Joseph really has an opportunity to earn himself more regular time when they get back to National League parks, and force himself ahead of Ryan Howard's gargantuan contract.
Currently sitting at 12% owned in CBS leagues, and qualifying at Catcher as well, Joseph is a diamond in the rough who as a chance to really break out over the next month. If he can keep up a strong average and high slugging percentage the Phillies are going to be forced to get him in the lineup to compete in the (now very competitive) NL East pennant race. Aside from this, Howard is old (in baseball circles). Any injury that keeps him out for more than a week could spell his demise. If this were to happen I see Joseph's value skyrocketing.
Add In: 12+ team leagues with multiple catcher spots (for leagues where he qualifies), all 14+ team leagues. |
Just as no one could predict on December 17, 2010, or on January 25, 2011, that protests in Tunis and Cairo would topple governments and change the course of Arab - and world - history, it's still too early to make predictions about what, if any, real political change the present protests in Turkey might produce.
Turkey under Tayyip Erdogan is not Tunis under Ben Ali, Egypt under Mubarak, or Libya under Gaddafi. Yet it is undeniable that, despite the unprecedented level of formal democracy and freedoms that have grown under AKP rule in the past decade, Erdogan has in fact moved towards more conservative - even authoritarian - rule in the past few years, just at the time the Arab uprisings showed the moral and political bankruptcy of such policies.
Perhaps the most important question that will determine how these protests play out is how robust Turkey's democratic institutions - the parliament, the press and broader media, and civil society - will prove to be against a state that is exercising age-old reflexes to use excessive violence against any challenge to its authority. Such reflexes are, of course, not unique to Turkey; the global crackdowns on the Occupy movement, including in Europe and the United States, testify to the fact that, as neoliberal states feel their hold on power under threat, they will ramp up the "firm domination over peoples" that has long defined the ultimate goal of the modern state to protect its power and interests.
Yet however the protests will play out in Turkey, they will have one immediate impact if they are not soon resolved: they will complete the discrediting of the "Turkish model" that, since the rise of post-revolutionary Islamist parties, has been touted as a viable political future for the countries of the Arab world.
It was never a surprise that Islamist parties would take the lead in the wake of the opening of the political processes in Tunisia and Egypt. In both countries, they had the organisational experience, size and muscle, and the allegiance of a huge base that no other social group could match, either individually or as a coalition with like-minded forces. Erdogan and the AKP's rule in Turkey, which for more than half a decade seemed to mark a decisive break with the military authoritarianism of the past, offered a powerful model for the Arab world to follow. Islamist (or at least religiously inspired), yes; but solidly democratic and, to a certain degree, even liberal - or at least "neo-liberal", in a not-completely-pejorative sense. Just as important, Turkey had one of the fastest, and healthiest, growing economies in the world - the perfect model, or so it seemed, for a similarly sized country such as Egypt, with a strong Islamist political base in the Muslim Brotherhood, to follow.
But Turkey was never an appropriate model for the Arab world. As I explained in a column almost two years ago, when the "Turkey model" was at its most hyped, issues such as the ongoing Kurdish tensions and conflict, the routine violations of human rights and press freedoms, the lack of full accountability for the Armenian genocide, and the authoritarian tendencies that were then already being exhibited by the AKP, coupled with Turkey's unique economic assets - its strategic position between Europe and Central Asia, its strong local manufacturing base and the economic role of Islamist actors vis-a-vis a heavy state-centric system - together meant Turkey represented a model that neither could, nor should, be copied.
But with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and Ennahda to political power in Egypt and Tunisia, the model has stuck. For those worried about an Islamist-equals-authoritarian future, the relatively liberal policies of the Erdogan government suggested that this equation didn't have to hold. Turkey wasn't perfect, but it was a whole lot better than pre-revolutionary Egypt and Tunisia, never mind Libya, Syria, Yemen, or most other Arab autocracies.
Now, however, this fantasy is gone. It turns out that Turkey's government has similar, if not the same, authoritarian tendencies as the Muslim Brotherhood. The "economic miracle" that Turkey has experienced during the past decade had, for years, shielded it from the kind of protests we're now seeing - but in the end, it turns out that the very complacency such successes breed led it to overstep - pushing for greater bans on alcohol and prohibiting public kissing, to cite the two most recent examples of trying to legislate morality. And, on top of this, the attempt to remove one of Istanbul's few remaining green spaces, in a manner that reeked of corruption, cronyism and lack of concern for citizen's views, created the perfect pretext for tens of thousands of Istanbulians, and many more disgruntled citizens across the country, to launch a largely peaceful attack on state authority and legitimacy.
When the government over-reacted with a massive police presence and violence against peaceful protesters, it confirmed every fear the still large secular and oppositional publics had developed about the Erdogan government; fears justified by its increasing crackdowns on academic and press freedoms, and the attempts to completely decapitate the country's once vaunted military leadership. Indeed, Erdogan's accusations that the protests are not about ripped up trees, but rather about "ideology" entirely miss the point. His development policies are equally as "ideological", and far more modernist than Islamist. As the great modernist planner Le Corbusier once bragged: "There is an old Turkish proverb: 'Where one builds, one plants trees. We uproot them'." Such cavalier destruction in the name of "progress" may have been considered legitimate in decades past, but it has long ago lost its ideological grounding - even if governments and businesses are still enthralled by the ideas of "creative destruction".
It could well turn out that some or many of the claims of the protesters - from the more basic claim that the government was planning to build a shopping mall on the disputed land, to accusations that police are using banned chemical weapons such as Agent Orange against protesters - turn out to be wrong. But the veracity of any one claim or argument was never the point here. The government has clearly lost the trust of a large section of the population, who, like their counterparts across Europe and the Arab world, have responded by going "to the barricades", demonstrating a willingness directly to take on police - and through it, governmental power - a willingness that neither Erdogan nor the political establishment appears ready to answer in any way that doesn't further reinforce the protesters' fears for their country's future.
In the Arab world, what is playing out in Turkey should put to rest any lingering visions of something approaching "liberal" Islamist governments - that is, governments that, whatever their ideological foundations, respect the rule of law and the rights of those with opposing views, and work to ensure the most robust public sphere and personal and media freedoms possible, even if they come at the expense of its power or agenda.
However, Erdogan could yet surprise everyone. The Turkish model can still be saved. But only if Erdogan quickly understands that this is about far more than a park or local politics. It's about citizens losing faith in the state to serve and represent their most fundamental interests. It might still be a minority of Turks who support the protests, but if they succeed in forcing the government to become even more regressive and repressive - and Erdogan's speech in which he declared the government would push ahead with the proposed construction despite the protests betrayed precisely the arrogance against which protesters took to the streets - the movement will spread, and even Turks who have heretofore supported the AKP will begin to lose faith in its ability to maintain a civil government.
If that happens, Turkey could in fact have a very hot spring and summer. Regardless of what happens, citizens and rulers across the Arab world will be watching with interest and concern, to see if there is in fact a hope for a religiously grounded liberal body politic, or whether, as with most other types of politics today, power breeds arrogance, violence and corruption regardless of its ideological underpinnings. That might be the most important lesson of the still uncertain Turkish uprising.
Mark LeVine is professor of Middle Eastern history at UC Irvine and distinguished visiting professor at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden and the author of the forthcoming book about the revolutions in the Arab world, The Five Year Old Who Toppled a Pharaoh. His book, Heavy Metal Islam, which focused on 'rock and resistance and the struggle for soul' in the evolving music scene of the Middle East and North Africa, was published in 2008.
Follow him on Twitter: @culturejamming |
Meet the Fascinating Folks at Mountain Crossings at Georgia's Neel Gap
Home Places Meet the Fascinating Folks at Mountain Crossings at Georgia's Neel Gap
Georganna and Logan Seamon have breathed new life into Blood Mountain and Neel Gap -- mile 31.7 on the Appalachian Trail for northbound adventurers -- as the owners of Mountain Crossings at Walasi-Yi.
This vivacious couple and their lively crew have renovated the hiker hostel, restored portions of the historic building that houses Mountain Crossings outfitters and made Neel Gap even more of a destination than it has been in the past.
The Outdoor USA Magazine recently named Mountain Crossings one of the Top 100 Independent Outdoor Retailers in America. I am biased, but I think is the best outdoors store this side of The Mountain Shop in Skagway, Alaska, another winner.
On Saturday, September 27, 2014, "George" and Logan threw a Fall Family Fun Fest.
They brought in the Barker Brothers Band to keep even the heaviest hiking boot tapping to their songs and tunes.
We had to wait for a lull in the action to get a portrait of them, but nobody wanted them to stop playing long enough for a pose.
They were fiddling again in no time.
I had heard of Richard Judy, the man who wrote the book Thru -- An Appalachian Trail Love Story.
Thru is a novel about a thru-hike on the AT. Richard is up to the task. He hiked the entire Trail in 1973. It's more than a great read.
Richard donates all the proceeds from Thru to the Appalachian Trail Museum in Pennsylvania.
No, he's not a millionaire (that I know of, at least) but he has a heart to tell his tales and help build the storehouse of AT treasures at the museum.
You can often find Richard at the Len Foote Hike Inn at Amicalola Falls State Park, not far from Blood Mountain.
Richard's book would be a terrific gift for a friend or nine who might be interested in the Appalachian Trail. It's a nice way of helping the museum too.
After a while, you don't need to be a brain surgeon to recognize thru-hikers, even if you've lost your sense of smell.
Aaron "Gilligan" Becker wasn't at Mountain Crossings just to attend the fall festival. He was just passing through on his way southbound to grasp the riches and glory all thru-hikers receive when they finish their 2,185.3 mile quest.
Please Note: Some restrictions apply to the promise of riches and glory. Thank you.
Gilligan cranked out the miles, evidently, hitting Neel Gap on September 29th after leaving Mt. Katahdin on June 13th.
So maybe Gilligan didn't have a marching band waiting for him at Blood Mountain. The Barker Brothers Band runs a pretty close second, in my humble opinion.
Plus, Gilligan's parents were there to greet him. Richard, Gilligan's dad, hiked some of the final miles too.
S'mores, hot dogs, dandy Trail conversation, pottery demonstrations and cool stuff on sale made the day just about perfect at Mountain Crossings.
We're already looking forward to the next event with our friends at the only spot anywhere along the Appalachian Trail that has a roof over it: Mountain Crossings.
Tags: Attractions, Events, Appalachian Trail, Hiking Gear, News, Festivals, Appalachian Trail Museum, Entertainment, Books, and Robert Sutherland Travel Writer |
Polish game development studio CD Projekt RED has had more than 1.8 million user credentials stolen from its online forum, according to data breach notification website 'Have I Been Pwned?'.
The studio, which is famous for developing the highly successful Witcher franchise, was breached in March 2016 when hackers targeted its online forum, leading to a leak of usernames, passwords and email addresses.
Those signed up to notifications through Have I Been Pwned? were alerted to the breach by email this morning, with users recommended to change their passwords "immediately".
"Whilst the breach occurred in March 2016, sometimes there can be a lengthy lead time of months or even years before the data is disclosed publicly," the message stated, in an email seen by IT Pro. "Have I Been Pwned? will always attempt to alert you ASAP, it's just a question of how readily available the data is."
According to the site's creator, security researcher Troy Hunt, a total of 8,110 individual subscribers received breach alerts, considered a high rate for notifications.
New breach: The CD Projekt RED forum had 1.9m accounts exposed in 2016. 67% were already in @haveibeenpwned https://t.co/LGaAniJH32 — Have I been pwned? (@haveibeenpwned) January 31, 2017
The forum, which is hosted on CD Projekt RED's main website, acts as a news and discussions hub, providing users with gameplay advice and technical support.
The sheer number of affected accounts represents one of the most significant data breaches to have affected a gaming community. Hackers also targeted development studio Epic Games in August 2016, when 800,000 account details were stolen from its gaming forums, although that number is now dwarfed by the latest breach.
E-sports organiser ESEA, which coordinates events for the massively popular Counter Strike, also suffered from a botched ransomware attack in December, which ultimately led to 1.5 million accounts being leaked online as a result.
IT Pro has approached CD Projekt RED for comment but did not receive a reply in time for publication. We will update this story when we hear more.
Main image credit: Thomas McMullan |
New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo has some beef with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
While discussing the Giants' 10-7 win over the Dallas Cowboys on WFAN's "Boomer & Carton" show Tuesday morning, Christie, a Cowboys fan, took a shot at McAdoo's hair.
"So do you think Ben McAdoo will actually get a real haircut if they make the playoffs?" Christie quipped, adding that McAdoo has a "cheesy mustache."
McAdoo's response?
"He just walked in with a shirt that said, 'Benny With The Good Hair.' It had a picture of his face on it with good hair," an unnamed Giants player told the New York Post following Wednesday's team meeting.
The shirt, which is a reference to the line "Becky with the good hair" from Beyonce's song "Sorry," is sold by Barstool Sports.
"If you guys watched the news, you probably heard this thing," McAdoo told his players, according to the Post. "This is what I think of it." |
By Robert Waldmann. Originally published at Angry Bear
Via Steve Benen and Greg Sargent.
The Washington Post/ABC News pollsters asked “Do you think the federal government should or should not pursue policies that try to reduce the gap between wealthy and less well-off Americans?”. 62% of respondents answered yes. This should be very unsurprising as it is roughly the same as the fraction who have been telling Gallup that high income people pay less than their fair of taxes for two decades now. It is also similar to the number who support higher taxes on high incomes to pay for the ACA and (in another poll) to prevent exaustion of the social security trust fund.
I have been, partly ironically, referring to this solid majority opinion as “class war” but Benen mentioned something which tends to unermine the class war interpretation/joke
What’s more, support for action in this area is quite broad. A majority of Americans regardless of race, for example, support actions to reduce the wealth gap. A majority of Americans regardless of age agree. Indeed, across the board – gender, level of education, household income, geographic region – there’s a broad consensus that this is an issue worthy of national action.
Wait a majority in the highest income sub group (income over $ 100 thousand a year) answered yes ? That sure doesn’t sound like class war does it ?
In fact, 63% of those respondents answered yes which is actually a tiny insignificant 1% higher than the overall fraction 62%.
Now I think the class war hypothesis can be saved if the vast majority of even the highest income subset don’t consider themselves “wealthy”. I sure wouldn’t consider a family of 5 with income of $101,000 and a mortgage wealthy (even though they are by world standards and very wealthy by the standards of almost all of human history). The class interest based struggle could be between the bottom 99% and the top 1% who are too few to show up noticeably in polls.
update: the vast majority of households with income over $ 100K are not in the top 1%. In fact almost 22% of US households had income over $ 100K back in 2012. What I meant to type is that the results of the poll can be reconciled with the idea that we are all selfish if the vast majority of houeholds with income over 100K don’t think they are “wealthy” but rather think the wealthy are the top 1%. To get in the top 1% a family needed $388,905 already in 2011. The idea I was trying to present is that someone struggling along with $ 120k might want to take from the wealth with $ 400k per year. I’d rather think that people who consider themselves wealthy are willing to share their wealth with the rest of the US (provided other wealthy people do too).
end update
Still the result is nice and potentially very useful to Democratic candidates who can argue that they are not advocating class warfare but proposing that we deal with a national problem as a majority of Americans regardless of their income think we should.
The strategy has the additional advantage that Republican candidates and operatives will have trouble resisting the argument that the poll is meaningless because many people with income over $ 100K* are absurdly poor takers and not like the job creators at all. Some will not hide the fact that families with income of $110,000 per year are much too poor to be in the class whose interests they serve. |
We know very little about our atmosphere’s outermost layer, but that is about to change as Engineers are working towards launching 50 mini-satellites to study it.
Engineers from 28 countries, including Europe, Japan, the US, and Australia are working on an international project called QB-50. This will see 50 CubeSats (tiny satellites measuring 10cm on each side, and weighing only 1kg each) launched from the International Space Station (ISS) to study Earths thermosphere.
The thermosphere is crucial to us as we rely on it to protect us from cosmic radiation. It exists between 200-380kms above Earth’s surface. The CubeSats will feed back data on how it functions. Once launched from ISS 380km orbit they will drift down the lower regions of the thermosphere
Andrew Dempster, part of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) team explains the thermosphere “is a region poorly understood and hard to measure. And yet, it’s the interface between our planet and space[.] It’s where much of the ultraviolet and X-ray radiation from the Sun collides with Earth, and generates auroras and potential hazards that can affect power grids and communications”
The UNSW team will produce two CubeSats; UNSW-Ec0, INSPIRE-2w. These will study the atomic composition of the thermosphere. A wider joint project between University of Sydney, UNSW, and the Australian National University called INSPIRE-2 will measure the electron temperature and density of plasma in the region.
A render of how the CubeSats will look
As CubeSats are so small they are a lot cheaper to launch than large satellites. This means researchers are able to get a lot more data for their money. However, each satellite will still cost around $750,000 USD to produce.
The launch date is now set for December. The satellites will be sent to ISS on an Orbital ATK Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia then deployed over the next month.
Interested in finding out more about CubeSats?
CubeSats, the type of miniaturised satellite that will be used for this study could revolutionise space science due to their low cost and (comparatively) easy production using off-the-shelf components. Find out more about them in this video by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Published Dec 2015
A full list of all 50 CubeSats and their institutions is below. More information of Frequencies can be found @ne.jp
Satellite Country Supporting Organisation 14-BISAT Brasil Instituto Federal Fluminense Aalto 2 Finland Aalto University ANUSAT 2 India Anna University Aoxiang 1 China Shaanxi Engineering Laboratory for Microsatellites BeEagleSat Turkey Istanbul Technical University BUSAT 1 China School of Astronautics – Beihang University DelFFi-Delta/Phi Netherlands Delft University of Technology DeltaDsat UK Cranfield University DragSail-CubeSat Germany FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences DUTHSAT Greece Democritus University of Thrace EntrySat France ISAE Institut Superieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace ExAlta 1 Canada University of Alberta GAMASAT Portugal Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto HAVELSAT Turkey Havelsan & Istanbul Technical University Hoopoe Israel Herzliya Science Center i-INSPIRE II Australia University of Sydney InflateSail UK Surrey Space Centre KPI-SAU 1 Ukraine National Technical University of Ukraine – Kiev Polytechnic Institute LilacSat 1 China Harbin Institute of Technology LINK Korea Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology LituanicaSAT 2 Lithuania NPO Innovative Engineering Projects Nano-JASMINE Japan University of Tokyo NJUST 1 China Nanjing University of Science and Technology NUDTSat China National University of Defense Technology OGMS-SA France Universite Paris-Est Creteil Pegasus Germany Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt PHOENIX Taiwan National Cheng Kung University PICASSO Belgium Belgian Institute of Space Aeronomy QARMAN Belgium Von Karmin Institute for Fluid Dynamics QB-Colombia Colombia Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas QBITO Spain Universidad Politecnica de Madrid QBUS 1 USA University of Colorado Boulder QBUS 2 USA University of Michigan QBUS 3 USA Stanford University QBUS 4 USA Universidad del Turabo RIOSAT Austria Graz University of Technology RoBiSAT 1/2 Romania Institute of Space Science SamSat Russia Samara State Aerospace University SAT_IP2 France INSSET Institut superieur des sciences et techniques SIMBA Belgium Royal Meteorological Institute SNUSAT 1 South Korea Seoul National University SOMP2 Germany DresdenTechnische University SpaceCube France Mines Paristech STU 1 China ShanghaiTech University SUSat Australia University of Adelaide UCLSat UK MSSL University College London UNSW-EC0 Australia University of New South Wales UPSat Greece University of Patras URSA MAJOR Italy University of Rome VZLUsat 1 Tschechien Aerospace Research and Test Establishment X-CubeSat France Ecole Polytechnique YUsend-QB50 Kanada York University Toronto ZA-AeroSat South Africa Stellenbosch University ZJU CubeSat China Zhejiang-Universitat |
Story highlights Second source confirms terms of the proposed sale
Donald Sterling's lawyer earlier said he would have to consent to a sale
Sterling is upset because NBA knows 'he is not a racist," attorney says
Board of Governors would have to approve sale of team
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has signed a binding agreement to buy the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion from the Sterling family trust, a source familiar with the situation told CNN on Thursday night.
A second source, who was familiar with the negotiations, confirmed the terms to CNN.
The sale, negotiated by Shelly Sterling -- co-owner with estranged husband Donald Sterling -- will have to be approved at a NBA Board of Governors meeting. It was unclear whether a meeting set for Tuesday will go on, given Thursday's developments.
And the sale still may have to be approved by Donald Sterling, according to earlier comments by his attorney.
Maxwell Blecher told CNN earlier that his client would have to consent to a sale and wants to be vindicated by the NBA, which is in the process of terminating the Sterlings' ownership in the team for racist remarks Sterling made in an audio recording released online in April.
The NBA has damaged Sterling's reputation, Blecher claimed in a lengthy interview with CNN's "The Situation Room."
Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, appears set to buy the L.A. Clippers. Ballmer, seen here at a NBA playoff game on April 29, is not one to hide his emotions. Rather, he is known for his exuberant persona at tech events. Here's a look at some of his many mugs: Hide Caption 1 of 10 Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – Here Ballmer responds during an interview at a 2000 tech conference in Florida. If only we knew what the question was. Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – "Don't ask me again about Windows Vista." Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – Oh, this is a caption contest waiting to happen. Here Ballmer speaks at the Web. 2.0 Summit in 2011 in San Francisco. Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – Here Ballmer (pick one: 1. grimaces 2. grins 3. remembers he left the stove on) while talking about Windows 7 during a 2009 appearance in Munich, Germany. Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – "I'll shout louder so you guys in the back can hear me." Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – If this Microsoft thing hadn't worked out, Ballmer might have made a fearsome football coach. Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – "Well, Apple has had some success, sure. And Facebook is big. Don't get me started on Google. ... What was the question again?" Hide Caption 8 of 10 Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – Please don't make Steve Ballmer angry. Just don't. Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: The many faces of Steve Ballmer The many faces of Steve Ballmer – Ballmer speaks, or perhaps yells excitedly, during the 2013 opening of a Microsoft store in Troy, Michigan. Hide Caption 10 of 10
JUST WATCHED Blecher: Sterling wants to be vindicated Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Blecher: Sterling wants to be vindicated 03:34
JUST WATCHED Lemon: He's an 8-track in an iTunes era Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Lemon: He's an 8-track in an iTunes era 02:56
JUST WATCHED Sterling to 'fight to the bloody end' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Sterling to 'fight to the bloody end' 02:30
"They know he is not a racist," he said.
Blecher said Sterling is troubled by the charges of racism. He thinks of himself as an exemplary owner with a 33-year history of supporting the African-American community, Blecher said.
"He wants to be vindicated. He doesn't want his tombstone to say, 'Here lies Donald Sterling, racist.' And the NBA has the power to make that right," Blecher said, without saying what Sterling wants the league to do.
CNN reached out to Blecher for comment on news of the sale, but didn't immediately hear back.
Blecher said earlier that Sterling had no interest in selling the team, rather than passing it down to his heirs. When reminded that Sterling would make a huge profit on a sale, even after capital gains taxes, Blecher it should have been the billionaire businessman's decision when to part with the team. It's not about money, he said.
In April, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling, fined him $2.5 million and prompted the league's other 29 owners to begin proceeding to strip the longtime owner and his wife of the team.
Sterling is considering suing the NBA if he doesn't get the resolution he wants. Blecher said they weren't in a rush to file the lawsuit and were waiting in part in deference to Shelly Sterling as she negotiated the sale.
Biggest NBA deal ever
Ballmer is worth $20 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Another source said Ballmer's offer earlier Thursday was $1.8 billion and Shelly Sterling was hoping to get a price that "started with a two."
A group that included media moguls David Geffen and Oprah Winfrey also made a bid of $1.6 billion, the source told CNN.
If the deal goes through, it would be the largest sum paid for an NBA franchise. Last month, the Milwaukee Bucks, a bad team in a small television market, sold for $550 million.
But the Clippers are in the second-largest market in the league, albeit one they share with the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most popular teams in professional sports.
The Clippers, however, have been more successful in recent seasons, including this one that ended in the second round of the NBA playoffs. They also have stars Blake Griffin and Chris Paul. And their TV contract reportedly will expire in 2016 and could mean billions to the owner.
The purchase would have to be approved by 75% of the NBA's 30 owners. Last year they denied a sale to a group that included Ballmer that would have resulted in the Kings moving to Seattle, after the league's relocation committee recommended keeping the team in Sacramento.
Ballmer, who attended several Clippers playoff games, told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month he would not move the team from Los Angeles.
Donald Sterling has been the controlling owner of the Clippers since buying the team in 1981 for $12 million. |
A Calgary-based oil company says it is in danger of defaulting on some of its debts by the end of June, but is working with its lenders to ensure that doesn't happen.
Penn West Petroleum Ltd. said in its quarterly earnings on Monday that it is considering selling assets and raising capital via other means in order to pay its debts and stay in business.
"If the current low commodity price environment continues, the company anticipates it will not be in compliance with certain of its existing financial covenants by the end of the second quarter of 2016," Penn West said.
"The company is engaged in negotiations with its lenders to amend these financial covenants prior to the end of the second quarter of 2016, which if successful will mitigate the risk of default in 2016 and further into the future at prevailing commodity price levels."
Martin Pelletier, portfolio manager and OCIO at TriVest Wealth Counsel says that's a warning to the company's lenders that if ongoing negotiations to restructure the company's debt don't go well, the alternative could be much worse for them.
"To me it looks like a warning flare — if we don't get this thing settled, the alternative is zero: default," he said in an interview. "It's getting that message across to the lenders. But unfortunately it's also going to the shareholders."
Penn West shares fell 21 per cent on the TSX on Monday, closing at 82 cents. They have fallen by 67 per cent in the past year.
During the recently completed quarter, Penn West posted a loss of $100 million in the first three months of the year, and pumped out just over 77,000 barrels of oil per day during the quarter — down from 94,000 during the same time last year.
The numbers also show the company has $1.86 billion in long term debt. That's almost four times as much as what the company is worth on the TSX.
The company recently sold its oil and gas interests in the Slave Point area, which produce almost 4,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, to raise $148 million.
Pelletier said Penn West is not the only company in the oil patch to have too much debt on their books, and could be a sign of things to come.
"Are there other companies facing such a crunch?" he said. "For some, the current rebound in oil prices is not enough, it's too late.
"The next six months are crucial." |
Valtteri Bottas will join the team for Wednesday’s running, after Lewis Hamilton spent the day on Tuesday focusing on some new parts evaluation and tyre runs.
With Mercedes adamant that unlocking stronger pace in the race is key to it beating Ferrari, Hamilton had hinted at some promise after his first day of running
“Our focus was on advancing our understanding of the tyres and also the rear of the car so that we can improve our long runs – particularly during the race and on the supersoft compound,” said Hamilton after his test came to an end. “We came here with a specific goal, so it was positive to get on top of that with the team.”
World championship leader Sebastian Vettel will return to normal testing duties for Ferrari on Wednesday, having spent Tuesday working on Pirelli’s 2018 evaluation project.
The German knows that Ferrari’s challenge is slightly different from Mercedes, in that his team is on top of its race performance but needs to make good gains with its single-lap pace.
The team may well choose to concentrate on that because, with overtaking more difficult in 2017, not being able to control the race from the front is a disadvantage.
Pierre Gasly is taking over for Red Bull, with Daniel Ricciardo’s running on Tuesday having been cut short by an engine failure.
Force India will split running between Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez as it continues work on evaluation of new parts, while Kevin Magnussen will be tasked with further work on Haas’ brakes.
McLaren will also be hoping for a better day than Tuesday, when an engine change prompted by an ERS water leak cost it hours of running and left it behind in its test programme. Stoffel Vandoorne is taking over from Oliver Turvey.
Test line-up |
Amazon may not have impressed with its first slate of pilots, but the retail giant's original content arm is continuing its efforts to turn Prime Instant Video into a destination for exclusive television and film programming. Amazon Studios has ordered three more comedy pilots, and these projects have some significant writing talent attached to them.
"Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music."
Perhaps most promising is Mozart in the Jungle, written by Roman Coppola (co-writer of The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom), Jason Schwartzman (best known for his starring role in Rushmore), and Alex Timbers (who has directing and writing credits on theater productions). Schwartzman only has one writing credit to his name — he worked alongside Coppola and Wes Anderson on the script for The Darjeeling Limited — but the project certainly has some notable names. Coppola describes the show as taking place in "two worlds fused together." He says in a press release that "On one side is the high-level skill and sophistication that comes with classical music, and at the same time it’s a story that includes people rising up from the bottom, trying to make it in the big world." It's based on a 2005 book of the same name (subtitled "Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music") that offered a behind-the-scenes look at the classical music business.
Amazon Studios has also greenlit a pilot for The Outlaws, written by Jeremy Garelick (co-writer of The Break-Up) and Jon Weinbach. Former New York Giant Michael Strahan is connected to the show, which is "all about the ins and outs of a professional football team from the perspective of both the players and the back office." Last is Transparent, directed and written by Jill Soloway, who has a number of writing credits for Six Feet Under. It's said to be a "darkly comedic story about an LA family with serious boundary issues," and Jeffrey Tambor of Arrested Development fame is in the pilot.
The pilots come after Amazon encouraged writers to submit scripts for comedy shows last year, and they'll follow the same "crowdsourced" test as the rest of the studio's pilots. When the pilots air on Prime Instant Video and Lovefilm (in the UK) early next year, viewers will get to vote to help choose which shows get developed into a full series. A number of shows have already been selected. |
Being John Malkovich is a 1999 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, both making their feature film debut. The film stars John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener, with John Malkovich and Charlie Sheen as themselves. The film follows a puppeteer who finds a portal that leads into Malkovich's mind.
Released by USA Films, the film was nominated in three categories at the 72nd Academy Awards: Best Director for Jonze, Best Original Screenplay for Kaufman, and Best Supporting Actress for Keener.
Plot [ edit ]
Craig Schwartz is an unemployed puppeteer in a forlorn marriage with his pet-obsessed wife Lotte. After being hired as a file clerk for LesterCorp, in the strange Floor 7 1⁄ 2 low-ceiling offices of the Mertin-Flemmer Building in New York City, he develops an attraction to his coworker Maxine Lund, who does not return his affections. Craig discovers and enters a small door hidden behind a filing cabinet, and crawls down a tunnel. Suddenly he is quickly drawn into the opposite end of the tunnel, and finds himself in the mind of actor John Malkovich.
Craig is able to observe and sense whatever Malkovich does for fifteen minutes before he is ejected and dropped into a ditch near the New Jersey Turnpike. He reveals the portal to Maxine, who sees the profit in it, and they let others use it for $200 a turn.
Craig tells Lotte, who becomes obsessed with the experience, which had allowed her to live out her transgender desires. Lotte becomes attracted to Maxine when she is experiencing Malkovich, and she and Malkovich begin a sexual relationship with Lotte inside Malkovich's head while Maxine and Malkovich have sex. Craig, forsaken by both women, binds and gags Lotte and locks her in a cage with her pet chimpanzee, then enters Malkovich's mind and has sex with Maxine.
Soon Craig, with his expert puppeteer skills, discovers that he is able to control Malkovich's actions while in his head. This causes the actor to feel paranoid that he is being controlled by someone else. After Malkovich consults with his friend Charlie Sheen, Malkovich trails Maxine to the Mertin-Flemmer building, where he himself tries the portal into his own head. He finds himself in a world where everyone has his face and they only say "Malkovich", and views his own lifetime history. He is then ejected and meets Craig by the turnpike. Malkovich demands that the portal be closed, but Craig refuses.
Lotte escapes with the help of her chimpanzee, who learned how to untie knots in Africa during a zoological capture, which is shown viewed from the chimpanzee's point of view. Lotte phones Maxine, revealing that it was Craig having sex with her while inside Malkovich. Maxine is annoyed but accepts it, because she enjoyed the experience.
Seeking help, Lotte finds Lester, who reveals himself to be Captain Mertin, the original founder of LesterCorp. Lester is aware of the portal, and has a room dedicated to Malkovich's life. Lester explains that the person who is connected to the portal becomes "ripe" for lasting occupation by others on the eve of their 44th birthday. However, when the host turns 44, the portal immediately moves to its next host, an unborn child.
If it is possible for a person to take advantage of the "ripe" host and enter the portal then, one can greatly increase one's lifespan, and then one can eventually move on to another host. However, if one misses the brief window of "ripeness", and enters the portal even a minute too late, one will find oneself trapped within the unborn child who will be the next host. Lester, who has been using the portal in order to prolong his life, reveals his plan to use Malkovich when "ripe" as the host for him and several of his elderly friends. Offered the chance to join Lester's group, Lotte warns him that Craig currently has control of Malkovich.
Craig finds he is able to remain in Malkovich indefinitely. He spends the next eight months in Malkovich's body, and using his puppeteer's control, he is able to turn Malkovich into a world-class puppeteer. Malkovich marries Maxine. He learns that she is pregnant as their relationship grows distant.
As Malkovich's 44th birthday approaches, Lester and his friends cut a deal with Maxine, and fake her kidnapping. They call up Craig, threatening to kill her if Craig does not leave Malkovich. Craig ends the call, causing Lester to think that he is calling their bluff. Lotte loses hope and attempts to kill Maxine, but they end up at the turnpike after falling through the portal and through Malkovich's shame-ridden subconscious. Maxine reveals to Lotte that Maxine conceived when Lotte was inside Malkovich's body, and she kept the child because it is "theirs". The revelation cements their love for each other.
Craig calls Lester back, thinking Maxine is still in danger. Realizing his opportunity, Lester continues his bluff, convincing Craig to leave Malkovich's body. Lester and his friends enter the portal, taking control of Malkovich. Craig, discovering that Lotte and Maxine are together again, decides to enter the portal to become Malkovich and regain Maxine, however he has unknowingly missed the deadline for getting into Malkovich. Seven years later, an aging Malkovich, containing the collective mind of Lester and his friends, reveals to Sheen a plan to prolong their lives via Maxine's daughter Emily, within whom Craig is now permanently trapped. Through Emily's eyes Craig is forced to watch Maxine and Lotte living happily together as he futilely pleads that Emily look away.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Development [ edit ]
Kaufman's idea of Being John Malkovich originated simply as "a story about a man who falls in love with someone who is not his wife." Gradually he added further elements to the story which he found entertaining, such as floor 7 1⁄ 2 of the Mertin Flemmer building; among his first ideas, Malkovich was "nowhere to be seen".[2] He wrote the script on spec in 1994 and though it was widely read by production company and film studio executives, all turned it down.[3] Hoping to find a producer, Kaufman sent the script to Francis Ford Coppola, who passed it on to his then-son-in-law Spike Jonze.[4]
Jonze first read the script in 1996 and had agreed to direct the film by 1997.[3][5] Jonze brought the script to Propaganda Films, which agreed to produce the film in partnership with production company Single Cell Pictures.[3][5] Single Cell producers Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern pitched the film to numerous studios, including New Line Cinema, who dropped the project after chairman Robert Shaye asked: "Why the fuck can't it be Being Tom Cruise?".[6] Jonze revealed in a September 2013 interview that Malkovich asked him the same question during their first meeting and also relayed Malkovich's attitude after filming commenced:
Either the movie's a bomb and it's got not only my name above the title but my name in the title, so I'm fucked that way; or it does well and I'm just forever associated with this character.[7]
Jonze explained in the same interview that he didn't realize how brave Malkovich's performance in the film was.[7]
With a budget of $10 million,[8] principal photography of Being John Malkovich began on July 20, 1998, and continued through August.[5][9] Filming took place primarily in Los Angeles;[9] specific locations included the University of Southern California campus and the Observation Bar on board the RMS Queen Mary.[10][11]
The puppets in the film were created by Kamela Portuges and Images in Motion. Phillip Huber animated the puppets.[12]
Casting [ edit ]
Diaz's make-up artist Gucci Westman described styling Diaz in the role as "a challenge, to make her look homely."[13] The script included minimal physical descriptions of characters, and thus when Diaz took up the role she did not know that "people weren't going to recognize me."[14]
Cusack read the film's script after he had asked his agent to present him with the "craziest, most unproduceable script you can find." Impressed with the script, he asked his agent to follow its progress and book him an audition, with which he won the role.[15]
Keener cited Being John Malkovich as an instance of her taking up a role based on the director's previous work. She had heard about Jonze's experience with music videos and took up the part of Maxine although she initially disliked the character and did not feel that she was right for the part.[16] [17] She was subsequently nominated for an Oscar.
Charlie Kaufman said that there was never another actor in Malkovich's place in the script: "The screenplay was always "Being John Malkovich", even before I had any expectation that John Malkovich would even read the script."[5] He chose Malkovich because he believed there to be "an enigmatic quality about him that works",[18] though Malkovich was partly chosen because of the sound of his name in repetition. Kaufman explained that "When we were thinking of alternatives, we found that a lot of them weren't fun to say."[2] Jonze's then-father-in-law Francis Ford Coppola was able to contact Malkovich,[3] and Jonze flew with producer Sandy Stern to Malkovich's home in France. Stern said that Malkovich was "half intrigued and half horrified" when he first read the script, but he eventually agreed to star in the film.[6]
Spike Jonze makes a cameo appearance as Derek Mantini's assistant; Mantini is billed in the story as the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world and arouses Schwartz's envy. Brad Pitt also has a half-second-long cameo, as a miffed star in the documentary on Malkovich's career, who seems to be on the verge of saying something before the shot ends. Sean Penn appears as a fictionalized version of himself and a fan of Malkovich's puppeteer work. Film director David Fincher makes an uncredited appearance as Christopher Bing in the American Arts & Culture pseudo-documentary on John Malkovich. Winona Ryder, Andy Dick, and the members of Hanson can be seen in the audience of a Malkovich puppet show.[19]
Distribution [ edit ]
Theatrical release [ edit ]
Being John Malkovich was given limited release in the United States theatres on October 22, 1999, and opened across 25 screens. On its opening weekend, the film grossed US$637,731 across 25 screens with a per-screen average of $25,495.[20] It expanded to another 150 screens the following week,[20] bringing in $1.9 million with a per-screen average of $10,857.[21] In its third week, the film's release widened to 467 locations and grossed $2.4 million, averaging a lower $5,041 per screen with a cumulative gross of $6.1 million.[22] It moved into a wide release the next week, expanding to 591 screens, and grossed $1.9 million with a 20% drop in ticket sales.[23] Its fifth week brought in $2.2 million with a 17% increase in ticket sales,[24] which dropped a further 33% the following week despite further expansion to 624 screens.[25] It finished its theatrical run after 26 weeks with a total gross of $22,863,596.[26]
The film opened in the United Kingdom in March 2000, earning £296,282 in its debut week[27] and closing after fifteen weeks with a total gross of £1,098,927.[28] In France, the film opened in December 1999 with a gross of US$546,000 from 94 venues and went on to further success due to positive reviews and word of mouth.[29][30] It grossed $205,100 from 109 screens on its opening weekend in Italy and ticket sales dropped by 37% the following week with a cumulative gross of $480,000 from 82 screens.[29][31] Its German release brought in a total of $243,071.[32] Being John Malkovich had a total foreign gross of $9,523,455, combined with its domestic gross to give an international total of over $32 million.[1]
Home media [ edit ]
Being John Malkovich was initially released in 2000 on VHS, both as a regular edition and a limited edition collector's set,[33][34] and on DVD, with special features including a theatrical trailer, TV spots, cast and crew biographies, the director's photo album and featurettes on floor 7½ and puppeteering.[35] A special edition DVD, released later the same year, included the aforementioned features, an interview with Jonze and two behind-the-scenes featurettes.[36] It was released on HD DVD in 2008. The Criterion Collection released a special edition of the film on Blu-ray and DVD in 2012.[37]
Soundtrack [ edit ]
Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Allmusic [38]
Track listing [ edit ]
All tracks written by Carter Burwell, except where noted.
Critical response [ edit ]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 93% "Certified Fresh" rating, based on 126 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Being John Malkovich is both funny and smart, featuring a highly original script."[39] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 90 out of 100, based on 36 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."[40] The film ranked 441st on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest films of all time.[41]
In his review, Roger Ebert awarded the film a full four stars; he would later name it the best film of 1999.[42] His comments of praise included: "Rare is the movie where the last half hour surprises you just as much as the first, and in ways you're not expecting. The movie has ideas enough for half a dozen films, but Jonze and his cast handle them so surely that we never feel hard-pressed; we're enchanted by one development after the next" and he also felt that "Either Being John Malkovich gets nominated for best picture, or the members of the Academy need portals into their brains."[43] Another top critic Peter Rainer, writing for New York, commented that "dazzlingly singular movies aren't often this much fun" in his review,[44] and Owen Gleiberman, writing for Entertainment Weekly, called it "the most excitingly original movie of the year."[45]
John Malkovich's performance as himself in Being John Malkovich is ranked No. 90 on Premiere magazine's '100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time'.[46]
Connection to Get Out [ edit ]
Following the financial and critical success of the 2017 film Get Out, varying fan theories arose delving into the social horror themes of the film. In December of that year, the film's writer/director/producer Jordan Peele had an interview with Vanity Fair in which he discussed the major fan theories surrounding the film, confirming which of the most popular were true and false. Peele stated that he and Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze had discussed the theory that Get Out was a secret stand-alone sequel to Being John Malkovich, and, although admitting that Get Out was never conceived as a sequel to Being John Malkovich or thought of as such until after the film was released, Peele stated that since hearing the theory both himself and Jonze viewed the connection as both films being set in the same continuity, saying that "as far as I'm concerned, it's true".[47]
The theory states that Catherine Keener's "Maxine" in Being John Malkovich is the same character as "Missy" in Get Out; Being John Malkovich concludes with Maxine and Lotte raising a child fathered by John Malkovich, but unbeknownst to them, the spirit of Craig is trapped inside the child's mind. With the portal to Malkovich's mind officially closed, they sought out other avenues for mind-transplant experimentation, eventually coming across Roman Armitage (Richard Herd), a neurosurgeon. Lotte entered the body of Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford), Roman's son, and Emily, combined with the spirit of Craig, living in his own "Sunken Place", grows up to become the malevolent sociopath that is Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), all completely complicit in the scheme.[48][49][50] Regarding his video about the theory in the January 2018 issue of Empire, Peele expressed interest in casting John Malkovich in a Get Out sequel, stating that it would be "cool" to "do the full trilogy".[51] |
Dr. Amaryllis Sanchez’s last patient on Friday was an elderly man who had lost everything back home in Puerto Rico, now living alone here in a hotel room and in need of medical care.
“I know I’m going to cry in the car all the way home,” said the teary-eyed Sanchez, who grew up on the island and has been a longtime volunteer primary care physician at Grace Medical Home, a free and charitable clinic in Orlando.
The clinic’s patients are typically low-income and uninsured Orange County residents, but for the past two weeks, the staff has been dedicating Friday mornings to the care of displaced Puerto Rican patients who suddenly find themselves without jobs and health insurance here.
That has local leaders worried that in the long run, this wave of uninsured individuals will overextend Central Florida’s already-stretched safety net system.
Displaced Puerto Ricans face health insurance confusion »
“I’m concerned about an epidemic from the standpoint of residents who are really sick and are now being forced to evacuate,” said Marni Stahlman, CEO of Shepherd’s Hope, another free clinic in Central Florida. “We’re not prepared. Our system is fragile in Florida and here in Central Florida, and I’m concerned about caring for people who have catastrophic diagnoses.”
Across Central Florida, health providers — from small practices and urgent care centers like Night Lite Pediatrics to Planned Parenthood, safety net clinics and hospitals — are pitching in to care for evacuees from Puerto Rico.
Insurance counselors, marketplace navigators and Medicare volunteers at various locations in Central Florida have been busy helping the new arrivals find some form of insurance coverage.
All of them have left someone behind. Health care is last thing on their mind. — Vilma Quintana, a community educator and liaison for Florida Blue insurance provider
And under emergency orders, Florida officials and the federal government have provided some relief and exemptions to help people switch plans and gain Medicare and Medicaid coverage quickly. But for people who are planning to stay, that’s a short-term fix.
More than 250 displaced Puerto Rican have visited Orlando Health emergency rooms in the past month, said Bridget Walters, who oversees enrollment and financial counselors at the health system.
And if the patient trends at Shepherd’s Hope are any indication, this could be just tip of the iceberg.
The free clinic began its outreach at the airport in early October and has cared for at least 200 displaced individuals and families in the past month at its five locations in Central Florida. But the cases are getting more complex as people leave the island because their serious medical condition can’t be treated on the island because of lack of resources.
Kids from Puerto Rico head to Central Florida »
“At first people needed prescription medication or had needed some mild management of chronic diseases,” Stahlman said. “But we’ve started seeing more patients with drastic acute conditions related to cancer,” she said. That includes patients who were diagnosed with cancer before they had to evacuate or patients who got the surgery part of their cancer treatment and not the chemotherapy.
And for those who have made it here and don’t have immediate medical needs, health insurance is not a top priority — until an emergency arises.
“They have to adapt to a new way of life. They’ve gone through so much, and even with all the resources at the airport, they’re in shock. All of them have left someone behind. Health care is last thing on their mind,” said Vilma Quintana, a community educator and liaison for Florida Blue insurance provider.
It’s been nearly two months since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico and many areas are still without food and water. Last week, a major blackout once again darkened the island.
“My mom still has no electricity,” said Quintana. “Many people who were not thinking about coming are starting to think about it now, because they don’t know how quickly it’s going to get better there.”
Between Oct. 3 and Nov. 9, more than 143,000 people had arrived in Florida, according to the latest state figures.
It’s not the first time that a state has become a destination for other Americans who have been displaced by a natural disaster, but the case for Puerto Rico is different.
“It’s a very unique situation,” said Stephanie Garris, CEO of Grace.
Even though Puerto Ricans are Americans, their health insurance coverage is starkly different from the mainland. Most have to sign up for new plans when they arrive here.
“We haven’t seen any insurances from Puerto Rico that we’re able to take because we don’t have contracts with the [insurance companies],” said Donna Parker, the managed care administrator of Osceola Community Health Services, a federally-qualified health center in Osceola County.
Of the island’s 3.5 million residents, about 36 percent have commercial insurance, according to a Jan. 2017 report by the nonprofit think tank Urban Institute. Less than a quarter is covered by Medicare, majority of whom have Medicare Advantage, and about 40 percent are covered by Puerto Rico’s Medicaid.
“My big concern is that so many people are coming with Medicaid who don’t qualify here,” said Sanchez. “A lot of them end up in the ER with simple problems.”
Medicaid eligibility requirements in Puerto Rico are more liberal than the states, including Florida. That means some displaced individuals won’t qualify for Medicaid in Florida, while they can’t afford to pay for private health insurance. Some earn too little to qualify for the subsidized health plans on the exchange.
Sanchez’s patient on Friday morning fell in Medicaid gap on the island and most likely here, too.
After she finished the exam, she stepped out and asked Marcelo Baradona, a local pastor who was volunteering at Grace that morning, to go in and pray with the patient.
“It’s truly a disaster,” she said. “Some people have lost everything and for many, families are being fractured.”
[email protected], 407-420-5158, @naseemmiller
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Gurgaon will soon get a full-scale smart grid system for traffic management. Shortage of traffic cops and an increasing number of vehicles in the city results in heavy traffic jams at all major crossings during peak hours every day. To avoid such chock-a-block situations, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) will partner with a Japanese firm, which will install an Integrated Intelligent Traffic System (IITS) at various crossings.
The system intends to control traffic by forewarning drivers and changing signals according to the traffic volume.
The project is likely to commence by the end of this month and intelligent signals will be installed at three crossings in the pilot phase. These include the Genpact crossing on the Golf Course road, Ghata crossing and Kachra Chowk on the Gurgaon-Faridabad road.
The routes will have induction loops, which are coils of ropes embedded under the roads. Whenever a vehicle will pass over the loop, it will induce a current based on the speed of the vehicle, which will further send a pulse to the traffic signal controller to show the presence of an approaching vehicle. And this will initiate a traffic signal change process.
Additionally, LED screens will be installed at a distance of about 400 metres from each crossing to avoid bumper-to-bumper traffic. Infrared camera sensors with WiFi connections will be installed with the streetlights, which will relay live traffic information to control rooms. The controller will then flash traffic information on the LED screens with messages like — ‘Please take a diversion, heavy traffic ahead’.
“For three months, traffic at these three crossings will be managed through IITS, by tweaking time intervals of traffic signals to predict best possible routes, and by modelling optimal traffic flows,” a senior MCG official told The Times of India.
Here’s hoping that this innovative transport infrastructure will help Gurgaon residents save time and maintain a stress-free routine for their daily commutes.
Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: [email protected], or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter (@thebetterindia). |
A woman in a burqa in Paris. Senegal announced a ban on burqas this week, citing anti-terrorism as its motivation. Photo by David Silpa/UPI | License Photo
DAKAR, Senegal, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Senegal announced plans this week to ban women from wearing the burqa to stop Islamic terrorists from using the full-face veil as a disguise.
The heavily Muslim country follows Chad, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville and Cameroon in ordering the ban on the face covering that leaves only the eyes exposed. All, including Senegal, are former French colonies in western and central Africa.
Interior Minister Abdoulaye Daouda referred to the proposed ban as an anti-terrorist, and not anti-Islamic, action. Senegal practices a relatively tolerant form of Islam; and few women wear the burqa, but fears that Islamic extremists may soon target the country surfaced after five people suspected of ties to Boko Haram, including at least two religious leaders, were arrested in a nationwide crackdown.
A burqa ban did not stop violence in Chad earlier this year. Two days after a ban was announced, two suicide bombers in burqas killed at least 27 people in the capital, N'Djamena.
Senegal also announced a Nov. 30 deadline to register all sim cards, the identity module in cellphones, to reduce the number of illegally used phones. Officials believe Boko Haram uses unregistered cellphones to carry out its activities, and all cards not registered will be deactivated. |
I'm back!
Jets Tweets
My take on Simms vs. Boyd is that the Jets like Simms' arm a lot, and he has a chance to show Jets he has more long-term upside. We'll see — J.P. Pelzman (@JPPelzman) June 8, 2014
Jets had Weeb, Babe & Boozer. Could be names of Bo & Luke's extended family. RT @KeithBrownx: @Dameshek one of the dukes of hazzard won mvp? — Dave Dameshek (@Dameshek) June 8, 2014
The Jets have been part of stories involving quarantines, wisdom-teeth and the CMT Awards. And that's just in the month of June. — Bart Hubbuch (@HubbuchNYP) June 8, 2014
One more thing - if Vick starts - Enunwa comes back to the passer really well on scrambles. #Jets — Connor Rogers (@CRogers_NFL) June 9, 2014
*faints* RT @SocialRMadrid: Cristiano Ronaldo received a New York Jets’ helmet from NYJ’s president Woody Johnson. pic.twitter.com/o6L2FfyHda — Deb (@LilMissNYJet) June 9, 2014
Really funny how inaccurate a lot of these stories are out there. — David Nelson (@DavidNelson86) June 9, 2014
He didn't provide anymore context to this tweet as far as I know. I'd guess he's referring to his "quarantine" story.
This will make some of you laugh, but the KC Chiefs are very high on Joe McKnight. They say he looks great and has been humbled. — Lance Zierlein (@LanceZierlein) June 9, 2014
NY Jets may have a find in UDFA Terrence Miller/Arizona...better version of Jeff Cumberland at comparative points in career... — Tony Pauline (@TonyPauline) June 9, 2014
Last year #Jets QB Geno Smith had more rushing TD's than Doug Martin, Arian Foster, Vick Ballard, Bilal Powell & C.J. Spiller... combined. — Fantasy Football (@FantasyFootball) June 9, 2014
FTR, only 8 teams have ever scored 35+ points in one quarter in NFL history (none in 4Q). — Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) June 9, 2014
@LastWordKinsley Patriots did it in 09 (Titans) and 12 (Jets, buttfumble). — Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) June 9, 2014
I'm pretty sure the opponent has to play terrible & offer up Butt-fumble gifts for a team to score 35+ that fast. @LastWordKinsley — Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) June 9, 2014
I'm told that based on what he's done to THIS point in off-season, #Jets SAF Calvin Pryor has been "special". Pads should confirm in camp. — Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) June 9, 2014
@N0samples I know where it came from for me...from watching what he was asked to do,how much he was asked to do it, & how good he was at it. — Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) June 9, 2014
Futbol meets football- Trying to teach @cristiano how to throw a football. Good Luck in Brazil! #JetLife pic.twitter.com/wzQdG7mEib — David Nelson (@DavidNelson86) June 9, 2014
You’ve seen the photos, now here’s a look at @Cristiano’s actual throw - http://t.co/cTNz5ea2kt pic.twitter.com/KDX0puj4B4 — New York Jets (@nyjets) June 10, 2014
Wow!Former Jets Joe Namath, Wayne Chrebet honor firefighter who became surrogate dad to late friend's kids after 9/11 http://t.co/UjeSFuV0rm — Connie Carberg (@ConnieScouts) June 11, 2014
85 days ‘til 2014 #NFL Week 1. And # of #Jets WR Wesley Walker; 438 rec, 8,306 rec yds, 71 TD rec in 13 seasons, 2-tm #ProBowler — Russell S. Baxter (@BaxFootballGuru) June 11, 2014
Absent on Day 8 of Jets OTAs: Jeremy Kerley, Mike Goodson, Willie Colon (knee), Shaq Evans (school). Dexter McDougle out of red jersey. — Darryl Slater (@DarrylSlater) June 11, 2014
Breno looked great in first team set of 11-on-11's. Locked up Mo twice and Sheldon once #Jets — Chris Nimbley (@Cnimbley) June 11, 2014
Eric Decker dominating in a red-zone drill. Jets had only 8 red-zone TD catches last season; Decker had 7 with the Peytons. #nyj — Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) June 11, 2014
Sentence you will never read about Emmanuel Sanders RT @RichCimini: Eric Decker dominating in a red-zone drill. — Chris Wesseling (@ChrisWesseling) June 11, 2014
Jets are doing penalty pushups again. Everyone involved. Except PR czar Bruce Speight. #nyj — Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) June 11, 2014
Jets using newly-signed WR Eric Decker on punt returns. Fallback option behind Jeremy Kerley, who is not here today. — Bob Glauber (@BobGlauber) June 11, 2014
I asked Eric Decker if he still would've gone to CMT Awards if the Jets had objected. He said he would've "discussed it, found a solution." — Bart Hubbuch (@HubbuchNYP) June 11, 2014
Rex says on defense they have 80 something plays in, over 100 on offense. Way ahead of the pace from last year #Jets — Chris Nimbley (@Cnimbley) June 11, 2014
Ticket prices for Jets/Broncos have fallen 6% this week. Get in for $69 or go Field Level from $148 here: http://t.co/Hv7wLVczNa #Jets — Erik from @JetsTwit (@e_man) June 11, 2014
Shocker @HubbuchNYP: Jets WR Jacoby Ford is sidelined by a foot injury. #evergreentweet" — John Middlekauff (@JohnMiddlekauff) June 11, 2014
In past 2 seasons, Jets have 1 more red zone TD catch than WR Eric Decker. Chart/story on Decker's return to OTAs: http://t.co/2o9kQ2hVIR — Randy Lange (@rlangejets) June 11, 2014
Days after Texans' Bill O'Brien intimated he'll take 3 QBs to training camp, Rex Ryan made it clear Jets will have 4 QBs in Cortland #nyj — Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) June 11, 2014
Takeaway from Jets OTA: Brian Winters could transition from LG to RG if Colon biceps/knee rehab lingers. Aboushi has opened eyes at LG #nyj — Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) June 11, 2014
.@MoWilkerson is No. 42 on #NFLTop100 list (voted by players). He's the 2nd Jets D-lineman on list (Sheldon Richardson was No. 94) #nyj — Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) June 12, 2014
"Warren Sapp had a lot of bad stuff to say about me, so you just can’t listen to what people say," ~ Sheldon Richardson #Jets — Erik from @JetsTwit (@e_man) June 12, 2014
Jets WRs coach on Stephen Hill: "It's a little early to label him as a bust." #nyj Story: http://t.co/MSLrO633zp — Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) June 12, 2014
Woody Johnson added the previous tweet to his favorites. I found that to be funny for whatever reason.
Jets making a mistake if they cut Hill. Two years of experience, averages 3.4/45.5 when involved, younger than half the rookies. — Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) June 12, 2014
Despite poor quarterback play in all three years of his #NFL career, Jeremy Kerley has caught 60% of his targeted passes (128/214) #Jets — Joe Caporoso (@TurnOnTheJets) June 12, 2014
Of the locals I've watched this spring, Jets have been much more impressive. Giants look like a foal with all the new faces and new offense. — Bart Hubbuch (@HubbuchNYP) June 12, 2014
There are jets special teams assistants with more personality than anyone on the falcons — King Quick (@Ryan_Alfieri) June 12, 2014
One reality nobody can deny, no season of Hard Knocks will ever come close to topping the #Jets season — Joe Caporoso (@TurnOnTheJets) June 12, 2014
#Jets are basically Game of Thrones and everybody else is Big Love or John From Cincinnati @HBO — Joe Caporoso (@TurnOnTheJets) June 12, 2014
@Brozknee He's poison. Jets teammates, coaches couldn't stand him. Made history by getting kicked out of his own huddle. — Chris Wesseling (@ChrisWesseling) June 12, 2014
Jets went bowling on final day of OTAs. Not unusual for a team to have an activity instead of practice on last day. #nyj — Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) June 12, 2014
@judybattista @Giants And two were briefly the head coach of the Jets! — Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) June 13, 2014
@JetNation Week 17 2008 Jets v. Dolphins. Cost Patriots the division and what would have been a historical playoff run. — PatriotsSB49 (@PatriotsSB49) June 13, 2014
#Jets have one of THE BEST cap & cash situations (#Jaguars have best) in the league. No reason not to secure DL M. Wilkerson long term. — Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) June 13, 2014
@AaronNagler No doubt. Has them set up going forward. #Jets — Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) June 13, 2014
@tacowrecker Tearing down a roster takes far less skill and competency than building one. We'll see just how good Idzik is going forward.. — Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) June 13, 2014
@FLEXercisING it would be smart because he is still just 24, plays a premium position, and is one of your best/most versatile players. #Jets — Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) June 13, 2014
Brandon Flowers available. @PFF says 87th corner overall and 103 rating allowed on 96 targets. I was excited for #jets for a second. — Michael Salfino (@MichaelSalfino) June 13, 2014
Initial take on B Flowers: W/b surprised if Jets pursue. Played poorly last yr in similar scheme. Jets like their CBs, esp w McDougle back. — Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) June 13, 2014
The Jets have already reached out to Brandon Flowers, per local source. Chiefs - Jets tried to work out a trade in May but Idzik said no. — Erika Esola (@emesola) June 14, 2014
So from what I have gathered, expect Flowers to work out with the Jets this week. Also heard the Dolphins are interested in bringing him in. — Erika Esola (@emesola) June 14, 2014
if the jets bring in flowers without cutting patterson it says a lot about what they think of Milliner/McDougle’s health — King Quick (@Ryan_Alfieri) June 14, 2014
Re: Flowers to Jets RT @PFF: @TheFatRexRyan not as great in press man as he is in off coverage, so not ideal — Pete Damilatis (@PFF_Pete) June 14, 2014
Re: Brandon Flowers: As of now, Jets haven't expressed interest. Still early, but as I said yesterday, I'd be surprised if they do. #nyj — Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) June 14, 2014
Mark Sanchez has more #NFL playoff wins in the past decade than KC, Cle, Det, Buf, Mia, Was, Oak and Dal ...combined. — Fantasy Football (@FantasyFootball) June 14, 2014
In ABS mode (anything but soccer) and watching Jets-Bengals 1983 playoffs on Chromecast. Bengals just converted a 3rd & 29 to Collinsworth. — Michael Salfino (@MichaelSalfino) June 15, 2014
Jets down 14-3 and blew the Bengals out. Freeman was huge. Waiting for something. Anderson picking them apart. His 95 rating was a record. — Michael Salfino (@MichaelSalfino) June 15, 2014 |
One 7-year-old who suffered his whole life from sickle cell disease now has a second chance thanks to his older sister's selfless donation.
"They are super close," mom Tanya James of Conyers, Georgia, told ABC News. "I don't think Kyle understood the magnitude of what she was doing. One day, he had an 'ah-ha' moment and he came to my room and said, 'Kendall saved my life.' He asked if we could give her a trophy because she's a 'superhero.'"
Retired Teacher Gives Her Former Student Gift of Life
13-Year-Old Twins Honored With '911 Hero Awards' for Helping Mom Deliver Baby Sister at Home
9-Year-Old Twin Sisters Dance With Bone Marrow Donor Who Saved Them
Two weeks after he was born, Kyle James, 7, was diagnosed with sickle cell disease, a hereditary form of anemia. He was tested at birth and the results arrived later, his mother said.
Because of his sickness, Kyle struggled to be as active as other children his age.
"If he was at the park running, he would get dehydrated or tired within a few minutes and be out of breath," James said. "He would get a cold that would linger for two or three weeks. When he'd get a low-grade fever, he'd instantly have to go to the ER because it could mean a blood infection.
"He began having chronic blood transfusions to kind of lower those numbers and decrease the risk of stroke," she added. "In general, kids with sickle cell have pain throughout their lives. A lot of kids unfortunately don't make it. ... You just don't know what could happen."
While receiving blood transfusions, James said Kyle, 5 years old at the time, remained "strong and courageous" throughout.
"I was explaining to him that people donate blood to help others in the future and to save people who need it," James said, "[Kyle] said, 'Oh, they're like superheroes.' Instead of being upset about a blood transfusion, he'd say, 'Today I get to get my superhero blood.' He was excited about it, so it made it a lot easier for the family to walk through the journey with him."
In 2014, a friend introduced James to the Lydia Smith Sickle Cell Foundation, where a representative suggested she have her daughter Kendall tested to be a potential match for Kyle's bone marrow transplant.
Because Kyle's parents were not perfect matches, they could not be donors, James said.
"If a sibling has a sickle cell trait, then we might use that sibling potentially as the donor but ideally, a sibling that neither has sickle cell disease, nor the sickle cell trait, that's the best-case scenario," said Dr. Connie Piccone, pediatric hematology and oncology specialist at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. "In general, the best match for a child with any kind of disease is a brother or a sister. They're matched better genetically than we even have the capability of testing for."
In December 2014, James learned that her daughter Kendall, now 8, was a perfect match for the bone marrow transplant.
James said she explained the procedure in a "7-year-old's terms" and what it would mean for Kyle.
"Because she was with me a lot of times we had to go to the ER and she would see him getting hooked up to IVs and not feeling well, it would scare her," James said. "She was scared that she would lose her brother. Just being in the hospital would scare her. She asked, 'Will this stop him from going to the hospital so much?'
"I made it clear that it wasn't for sure, that it was something we would pray for and hope it would work out," she added. "And if it did, it would change his life completely. She was very excited to help her brother."
On Sept. 30, 2015, Kyle and Kendall underwent the transplant at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Egelston in Druid Hills, Georgia.
Two months later, doctors informed James that Kyle was cured and officially sickle cell-free.
The family is currently celebrating Kyle being off his medications by vacationing in Mexico.
"He is doing amazingly well," James said. "Bouncing off the walls, we're at the park for hours ... it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. He's just happy. He's happy about life. Every time you turn around, he's saying it's his first time doing something sickle cell-free."
Kyle is now enjoying his karate lessons, and thanks to his clear bill of health, he now hopes to become a black belt, his mother said. |
Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy is paying tribute to someone, or something, very special for this week's game against the Denver Broncos. Hardy will play this week's game with a painted face and black contacts, reports ESPN's Rachel Nichols. And just what is Hardy trying to do here?
Hardy is calling himself the Kraken, of course, a fearsome sea monster known to take apart weary sailors and their ships.
Carolina's third-year defensive end has been one of the few bright spots on a defense that has been thoroughly underwhelming this year. Hardy has 32 tackles and 6.5 sacks on the season. The Panthers beat the Washington Redskins last week for a desperately needed win, moving the team to 2-6 on the season.
This week's game marks the first time John Fox has been back to Carolina since being fired as that team's head coach following the 2010 season, which was also Hardy's rookie year. |
INDONESIA'S ambassador in Canberra will immediately return to Jakarta following claims Australia had tapped the phone of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa announced on Monday afternoon the ambassador would be recalled.
"It's nothing less than an unfriendly act," Dr Natalegawa said of the spying claims.
Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Legal, Political and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto earlier said he would demand Australia make a public explanation about the claims and make a commitment that it would not monitor the phones again.
Top secret documents from Australia's Defence Signals Directorate, leaked by fugitive US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden and published by the ABC and The Guardian, list 10 officials and their phone details - beginning with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and wife Ani.
Air Marshal Suyanto also said Indonesia would review the exchange of information with Australia and "all other cooperation".
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will be told the issue will have a negative impact on the countries' bilateral relationship.
Dr Natalegawa emphatically condemned Australia's alleged actions.
"It is, I want to make it absolutely clear, an unfriendly act unbecoming of relations between strategic partners," he said.
"It violates every single decent and legal instrument I can think of; national in Indonesia, national in Australia, international as well.
"It is nothing less than an unfriendly act which is already having a very serious impact on bilateral relations."
Originally published as Indonesia recalls Aust ambassador |
This is a list of the most common surnames in Oceania.
Australia [ edit ]
Statistics are drawn from Australian government records of 2007.[1]
No. Name Number of people Origin 1 Smith 114,997 English 2 Jones 55,679 English, Welsh 3 Williams 55,555 English, Welsh 4 Brown 54,896 English 5 Wilson 46,961 English, Scottish 6 Taylor 45,328 English 7 Johnson 33,435 English 8 White 31,099 English 9 Martin 31,058 English 10 Anderson 30,910 English, Scottish 11 Thompson 29,931 English, Scottish 12 Nguyen 29,798 Vietnamese 13 Turner 27,276 English 14 Walker 26,688 English 15 Harris 26,025 English, Scottish 16 Lee 25,612 English, Chinese, Korean 17 Ryan 25,526 Irish 18 Robinson 25,168 English 19 Kelly 25,014 Irish 20 King 24,870 English
New Zealand [ edit ]
Statistics are based on the 58,297 births registered in New Zealand during 2013.[2]
No. Name Origin 1 Smith English 2 Wilson English, Scottish 3 Williams English, Welsh 4 Brown English 5 Taylor English 6 Jones English, Welsh 7 Singh Punjabi 8 Wang Chinese 9 Anderson English, Scottish 10 Li Chinese 11 Thompson English, Scottish 12 Walker English 13 Lee English, Chinese, Korean 14 Chen Chinese 15 Patel Gujarati 16 Zhang Chinese 17 Martin English 18 King English 19 Harris English, Scottish 20 Kumar Hindi
See also [ edit ]
Lists of most common surnames, for other continents |
The Official Fantasy Bundesliga is here! Think you have what it takes to win? bundesliga.com takes a look over the top points scorers in each position to lend you a helping hand. First up, the goalkeepers…
Perhaps unsurprisingly, FC Bayern München and Germany number one Manuel Neuer was the Bundesliga's strongest goalkeeper in the 2015/16 season, but who else should you look out for next term?
All statistics given are from the 2015/16 season, unless otherwise stated.
1) Manuel Neuer (Bayern), In-game fantasy value: 15m
Germany's number oneBundesliga record 21 clean sheets
2) Bernd Leno (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), In-game fantasy value: 13m
Neuer's long-term successor?Bundesliga-record nine penalties saved
3) Roman Bürki (Borussia Dortmund), In-game fantasy value: 12m
Displaced Roman Weidenfeller at BVBLeague second-best 34 goals conceded
5) Timo Horn (1. FC Köln), In-game fantasy value: 11m
Germany's Olympic choice119 saves (Neuer and Bürki put together saved 138)
6) Yann Sommer (Borussia Mönchengladbach), In-game fantasy value: 11m
Resurgent Switzerland number oneBlocked 83 percent of shots in 14/15
7) Oliver Baumann (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim), In-game fantasy value: 10m
Lynchpin of club's great escapeLeague-high 150 saves
9) Rene Adler (Hamburger SV), In-game fantasy value: 10m
Top-flight stalwart back to his bestHSV tenth, but Adler fifth for goals conceded
10) Fabio Coltorti (RB Leipzig), In-game fantasy value: 10m
Old head behind youthful RBLOnly conceded every 102 minutes in promotion campaign
Watch: The top 10 saves from the 2015/16 season: |
LIFE MATTERS MEDIA STAFF
Extremis, a powerful documentary exploring end of life-decision-making, has been nominated for Best Documentary Short by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Directed by Academy Award and Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker Dan Krauss, it focuses on the “harrowing decisions” that doctors, families and seriously ill patients often face at the end of life. Krauss was granted extraordinary access to the intensive care unit of an Oakland, Calif., hospital, where most of the film takes place.
“I strive to explore weighty ethical and moral questions through my films,” said Krauss in a statement following its release. “Doctors today can sustain life in ways once thought impossible, ushering in new and extremely complex questions about what it means for critically ill people to be kept alive. I hope audiences will take courage from the incredible dignity and compassion that the film’s subjects displayed amidst the most challenging circumstances.”
The film lasts only 25 minutes, about the time it takes to be admitted to the hospital for an unexpected health emergency. It was released Sept. 13 on Netflix, after making the rounds at film festivals across the U.S.
On Twitter, the film’s producers said they were “Overjoyed at this incredible recognition – especially for the courageous people who shared their stories with us.” The Oscars will be broadcast February 26. |
Huzzah to the temporary defeat of this guy's effort to cut off Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood.
Huzzah to the temporary defeat of this guy's effort to cut off Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood.
Texas moved to cut off Medicaid funding on Monday for clinics in the state affiliated with Planned Parenthood. The state had previously removed the organization from most family planning funding, but had left the Medicaid payments in place.
The Texas Office of the Inspector General justified the cuts by citing undercover videos purporting to show that Planned Parenthood has been profiting off transfers of fetal tissue for research purposes. The videos are known to have been altered to make their case, private researchers have discovered.
Planned Parenthood officials have denied any law-breaking. Since the editing became known, some prominent national politicians have retreated from their original statements expressing shock and dismay over what they thought the videos showed.
In announcing the cut-off, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott offered up the usual crocodile lies about the state's "unyielding commitment to both protecting life and providing women's health services:"
"Ending the Medicaid participation of Planned Parenthood affiliates in the State of Texas is another step in providing greater access to safe healthcare for women while protecting our most vulnerable—the unborn," he said.
Lawyers for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, the Planned Parenthood arm that provides medical services in Louisiana, argued that Jindal's fight to cut funding for its non-abortion-related services is politically motivated. "In fact, uncontradicted evidence in the record at this time is that PPGC does not perform abortions in Louisiana, is not involved in the sale of fetal tissue and none of the conduct in question occurred at the PPGC's two Louisiana facilities," [U.S. District Judge John] deGravelles wrote in his 59-page ruling. He said it appears likely Planned Parenthood will be able to prove that the funding cutoff was being attempted for reasons unrelated to the organization's competence.
Meanwhile, in Louisiana, a federal judge has temporarily blocked Gov. Bobby Jindal's attempt to cut off Planned Parenthood funds beginning Monday:There are big differences between the two states. In most cases, federal and state monies are combined to cover Medicaid reimbursements. But two years ago, Texas lawmakers axed family planning providers having anything to do with abortion (even if they didn't directly provide the procedure) from the Medicaid Women's Health Program. Consequently, the federal government pulled its funding for the service, and it now costs Texans $36 million annually for the state-funded program.
There's more below. |
Last Saturday we revealed the Top 10 Best-Dressed Men of Windsor and Essex County nominated by our readers and chosen by our esteemed panel of judges. This week we’re revealing the Top 10-Best-Dressed Women.
Just like the men, it was difficult to make our final selection based on our loosely structured criteria. Quirky, chic, avant garde, classic … It didn’t matter what kind of style our winners had. It only mattered that they owned it.
To recap the rules: The identity of our judges was kept a closely guarded secret, because in this tight-knit community, everyone knows everyone. You sent in your entries, we went through them, and if there was a chance someone turned out to be a friend or relative, we politely excused ourselves from the vote.
Our judges were picked because of their own personal style and fashion expertise. I got to be head judge, because it’s my contest. Ari Freed, co-owner of Freeds and the most impeccable dresser I know, agreed to join the team. So did the stylish Anne Waters, president and CEO of Anne’s on the Avenue and the glamorous Houida Kassem of Houida and Friends on Cogeco 11.
For this shoot, Anne Waters was wearing a wrap-tie top in a blue museum print with matching pants by Rock N Karma. It was designed in Toronto, and it’s available at Anne’s on the Avenue. The blue patent shoes are by Nine West.
Anne’s philosophy of fashion is this: She believes a woman’s wardrobe is the outward expression of how she sees herself. “A great wardrobe can empower her, make her feel beautiful, reflect her self-image and bolster her self-esteem,” she says. Anne’s been helping women do that for more than 25 years, first on Ouellette Avenue and now at her Manning Road boutique.
Ari Freed was wearing a 100 per cent linen jacket made to measure in Canada by Coppley for our shoot. The pant is also by Coppley, made in a wrinkle-resistant wool and Lycra stretch fabric by Scabal. The dress shirt is by Eton, the tie from Canali. Ari’s colourful socks are from Bugatchi, and his Mezlan dress shoes were handmade in Spain of natural linen and burnished calfskin. It’s all available at Freeds of Windsor, of course.
Houida Kassem isn’t a fashion retailer, but she definitely has an eye for fashion. She calls her style “all over the map. I don’t favour one designer over another, as it’s more about a look than a label on an outfit. I do, however, love my 7 For All Mankind jeans simply because they make my butt look smaller.”
Houida shops locally and if something makes her feel and look good “it’s found a new home in my closet and it’s a best friend for life . . . or at least a season.”
Some of the following winners are names you’d expect to see on a best-dressed list. Others will surprise you.
Here, in alphabetical order, are the females nominated by our readers and selected by our judges as the Top 10 Best-Dressed Women in Windsor and Essex County:
Zita Bobbie, Diane Bertolin, Sophia Chisholm, Kim Dendiuk, Christina Fanelli, Maria Farah, Melanie Gardin, Jasmine Jasey, Doris Lapico, Diane Saba.
Zita Bobbie has been considered one of Windsor’s most beautiful women since she began modelling as a teenager. Ralph Lauren is her favourite designer, and she was wearing one of his tunics for our shoot, along with leggings by HUE. Zita’s hat and wedges were by Aldo. Her style is eclectic and elegant, and she favours a turquoise/western vibe. Married to David Zultek, she loves to fish and boat and volunteers with WETRA. Zita’s brother Brian, by the way, was named one of the Top 10 Best-Dressed Men last week. Must be those good genes.
Diane Bertolin is the owner of The Collective Publishing Company Inc. In her business, she says “it’s all about presentation. I work primarily with creative people who are in the fashion industry, so the style I present is bold and colourful.” Diane’s favourite designers include Coral Turner, Frank Lyman, Franco Mirabelli and Samuel Dong, who designed the coat she wore for the shoot. She loves rings in unusual shapes and stones like amethyst and turquoise, and says for her, style isn’t about the trends, it’s about quality and fit. Her partner in life is Charles Mady.
Sophia Chisholm describes her style as classic with a twist. “I’m not a fan of following the lastest fashion fads,” she says. Sophia enjoys classic designs, but in unique patterns and bright colours, and prefers tailored and fitted pieces over slouchy or baggy. Her favourite designers are Milly, Trina Turk, Jovani and Luisa Spagnoli. For our shoot, Sophia wore a silk day dress by Kay Unger New York and shoes by Prada. For casual events, she loves Lululemon clothing, Miss Me and True Religion jeans.Her favourite purses are by Harvey’s Seatbelt Bags. Sophia is secretary-treasurer of Rose City Ford and married to John Chisholm, who was named one of the best-dressed men last week. They have two daughters.
Kim Dendiuk is a business development, fundraising and event production professional. She says she has a “passion for fashion,” and loves to model for area boutiques and charity fashion shows. Her local fashion inspirations are Janis Miller and Elaine Chatwood, and she shops at Franco Angileri and Chatty Collection. Her historical fashion icons are Princess Diana and Jackie O. For our shoot, Kim wore an outfit by Fever of London, England, sold exclusively at Chatty Collection. She describes her style as “chic fashionista.” Kim and Joe Malec have two young sons.
Christina Fanelli works for Mastercraft Homes Windsor Inc., and describes her sense of style as “very feminine, polished and sophisticated.” She says her outfits are always chosen and put together well, but she always wants the effect to look “effortless as opposed to being too contrived.” She loves designers like Alice+Olivia, Nha Khanh, Black Halo and Halston Heritage. Her favourite accessory? Shoes and lots of them. Christina is married to Dave Schild and they have one child.
Maria Farah moved to Windsor five years ago to study biological sciences at the University of Windsor and wants to get her MBA in health care management. She currently works at Accucaps. Her favourite fashion quote comes from the legendary Coco Chanel, who said “A woman can be overdressed, but never over elegant.” Maria believes it isn’t about what brand a woman wears, but how she wears it that reflects her style and personality. “I like to have fun with my style and switch it up every now and then, but most importantly I have to feel comfortable and confident in what I’m wearing,” she says. Maria is a former Miss Lebanon Emigrant winner and placed in the Top 15 in the Miss International pageant in 2011.
Melanie Gardin has been fashion conscious since she was little girl. She says she drove her poor mother crazy when she was in kindergarten, because she refused to wear any outfit that came in contact with paint at the classroom’s art station. As a partner at Chapman Gordon Gardin Stewart law firm, her Monday to Friday look is suits and heels. In fact, she has about 40 suits in different colours and styles. When the work day ends, she goes for a classy, chic and feminine look. Melanie would rather hunt for rare and unique pieces than go for designer labels. She does have a bit of a shoe fetish, and her prized possession is a pair of Figgie hand-painted black high heels.Her pet peeves: Bunny slippers and PJs in public.
Jasmine Jasey thinks fashion should first and foremost be all about fun. She likes to shop at places like Savvy Boutique, Freeds of Windsor and Victoria Boutique for her dresses. Her one rule for buying a dress? It has to give her an OMG feeling. As a busy mom on the run, Lululemon fits the bill for casual attire. Jasmine thinks her hair is very important to her look, and she goes to Salon Utopia forcolour and cut. She takes ballroom dancing with her two children, and loves shoes by Kenneth Cole, Nine West and Ferragamo. Jasmine trained as a registered practical nurse and has been married to Dr. Gregory Jasey for 10 years.
Doris Lapico was born in Switzerland and studied in Perugia, Italy during the punk era. That was her first fashion influence. She moved here, completed her studies at the University of Windsor, co-founded Transition to Betterness and now works as a realtor. Her fashion icons include Sienna Miller, Kate Moss and Sophia Loren. Doris describes her style as having a “minimalist approach, filled with contrast and a love for current trends.” This season, she’s smitten by the shorts she sees on the runways, and she’s incorporated them into her wardrobe. An “independent fashionista,” she favours street wear and rock-inspired, edgy looks by Blondie and Gwen Stafani. Doris is married to Anthony Lapico and they have a son and a daughter.
Diane Saba is president of D. Saba & Associates Insurance and Financial Services. Her signature style is timeless and classic and her favourite designers are Donna Karan, Escada, Vince and St. John. In fact, she’s wearing an outfit by St. John Knits in this photo. But Diane also likes current trends. For her, it’s mixing the two to find the right balance. She loves travelling with family, entertaining, golf, theatre and the cinema. A founding board member of the Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital Foundation, Diane thinks giving back to the community is important. She has two daughters and one pet peeve: Tardiness. |
The Islamic State reportedly keeps meticulous records of its jihadi warriors on file with some of the information ranging from country of origin to blood type to the amount of slave girls each fighter has.
Documents obtained by the Washington Post show the different informational categories the terror group keeps on its fighters. An illustration from the newspaper showed that one Frenchman who joined ISIS in 2015 had a B+ blood type and didn’t have any slave girls or children from slave goals. The file also shows that the man didn’t have any children or wives in so-called “infidel countries.”
Reuters reported last November that men caught in the ISIS terror network must obey decisions of a senior cleric over how to share their sex slaves. One pamphlet included a question-and-answer section on women and girls held as ISIS captives. It stated: “Non-Muslim women can be taken as concubines.”
It reportedly added that terrorists could keep two sisters as concubines, but could have sex with only one of them. In addition, each woman could sleep with only one man.
The Washington Post obtained more than dozen documents on “problem fighters” from the Tariq Bin Ziyad battalion. Some recruits reportedly had medical notes saying that they wouldn’t join battle and others requested transfers from Iraq to Syria. Others just wouldn’t fight.
“He doesn’t want to fight, wants to return to France,” notes on one of the France-native fighters read. “Claims his will is a martyrdom operation in France. Claims sick but doesn’t have a medical report.”
Iraqi counterterrorism forces found the files in a Mosul house that was being used by the Tariq Bin Ziyad battalion as an administrative base, according to The Washington Post.
Click for more form The Washington Post. |
Superstition is a fascinating thing. It tends to arise in times of turmoil or uncertainty, and it gives us a way to feel like we're in control of a situation. But it can also be a great window into the way people think. Here are 15 surprising historical good-luck theories from around the world.
1. WEAR YOUR UNDERPANTS INSIDE OUT.
If you want to guarantee yourself a good year, you’ll need to do as Colombian people do and put on a pair of yellow underpants, inside out, on December 31. At midnight, reverse your undies and sail smoothly on into a new year full of luck, love, and prosperity. A similar tradition exists in Spain, with one key difference: lucky underpants are red, not yellow.
2. CALL YOUR BABY RUDE NAMES.
iStock
The first few years of life have historically been pretty risky, and babies really were lucky if they survived. This precarious time spawned all kinds of baby-protecting superstitions, many of which seem kind of counter-intuitive. In China, for example, it’s best to shower a beloved baby with verbal abuse, calling it names like “dog fart” and “stinky pig.” This performance tells any hovering malevolent spirits that the baby isn’t wanted, which might make them lose interest.
3. KEEP A RACCOON PENIS BONE IN YOUR POCKET.
Many male mammals have a bone called a baculum in their penis. For reasons we have yet to understand, these penis bones have become popular lucky charms in the southern United States. People keep them in their pockets, wear them around their necks, and even incorporate them into bridal bouquets.
4. MAKE A GROANING CHEESE.
Jon Sullivan via Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain
During the super-perilous 16th century, expectant fathers would make a special “groaning cheese,” named for their partners’ labor pains. Once the child was born, a father’s job was to cut the cheese (pretty sure we’ve found the source of dad jokes!) from the center outward and distribute pieces to everyone in the house. The circular rind was saved for the baptism, at which time the baby would be passed through the hoop as additional insurance against bad luck.
5. GRAB YOUR PACKAGE.
It’s common knowledge that bad luck is contagious. But if you’re near someone who’s been jinxed or cursed, what can you do? If you’re an Argentinean or Uruguayan man, you grab your genitals, specifically the left testicle. No testicles? Don’t feel left out: touching your left boob should have the same protective effect.
6. SAVE YOUR BUNS.
Man vyi via Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain
The story of Jesus’s resurrection at Easter gave rise (heyooo) to all kinds of death- and decay-defying superstitions. For example: an old British legend said that hot cross buns baked on Good Friday would never go bad, and that keeping those buns around until next Easter would ensure a year of good fortune.
7. STEER CLEAR OF EMPTY BUCKETS.
Back to Russia, where it’s very bad luck to encounter a woman carrying empty buckets, or empty anything, for that matter. To prevent the spread of bad luck, Russian street cleaners are careful to leave at least one mop or broom in their carts at all times.
8. DON’T EAT PEANUTS AT A NASCAR EVENT.
ruurmo via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0
Here’s a weird one. There were two major racecar accidents in 1937, neither of which involved peanuts. Yet a NASCAR superstition claims that peanut shells were found in both wrecks, and that the mere presence of peanuts in the shell is enough to doom a driver to crash.
9. STAND UNDER A BIRD.
It may ruin your suit or stain your shoes, but being pooped on by a bird is a very good omen according to Russian superstition.
10. EAT 12 GRAPES AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT ON NEW YEAR’S EVE.
To ensure a good year, people in Spain eat 12 grapes at midnight, racing to swallow each one before the next chime of the clock. If they can force down the entire dozen uvas de la suerte (lucky grapes), they can expect fortune in the coming months. If they can’t, they may need a hospital trip. To make this physical challenge easier, Spanish companies have started selling individual cans of 12 grapes with easy-to-swallow thin skins.
11. GET SOMEONE TO SPILL WATER FOR YOU.
Going to a job interview or on a long journey? In Serbia, if your friends really care about you, they’ll spill water as you pass. The water is said to represent fluidity and smooth travels.
12. NEVER BRING BANANAS ABOARD.
American sport fishers believe that having bananas on board can keep fish from biting, or even cause a boat to break down in the middle of the ocean. Captain Rick Etzel told The New York Times that the superstition may not be real, “…but some people take the banana thing very seriously. A few years back, a guy on one of my charters showed up wearing a Banana Republic T-shirt. Another guy in the group went up to him with a knife and slashed the logo."
13. WEAR A WOODEN PENIS AROUND YOUR NECK.
kallerna via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0
In Thailand, the palad khik, or “deputy penis,” can bring all kinds of good luck and protection. These amulets, inspired by the sacred phallus of the Hindu god Shiva, are often blessed by monks and may be inscribed with prayers or adorned with lucky animals. It’s said that they can keep away disease, muggers, and water ghosts, and even give gamblers an edge.
14. HIDE A SHOE.
The British, and, later, British emigrants to Australia, would hide children’s clothes, shoes, and other small personal possessions in the walls of houses in order to fend off evil spirits. The idea was that the children’s youth and innocence would protect the house.
15. LOOK FOR SPIDERS WHEN YOU WAKE UP.
Having bug-eating spiders in your house is good news anyway, but in the Netherlands it’s considered especially auspicious to see a spider in the morning. In the afternoon … less so. So plan your spider hunts accordingly. |
The Problem of the Commons: Still Unsettled After 100 Years
NBER Working Paper No. 16403
Issued in September 2010
NBER Program(s):Environment and Energy Economics
The problem of the commons is more important to our lives and thus more central to economics than a century ago when Katharine Coman led off the first issue of the American Economic Review. As the U.S. and other economies have grown, the carrying-capacity of the planet -- in regard to natural resources and environmental quality -- has become a greater concern, particularly for common-property and open-access resources. The focus of this article is on some important, unsettled problems of the commons. Within the realm of natural resources, there are special challenges associated with renewable resources, which are frequently characterized by open-access. An important example is the degradation of open-access fisheries. Critical commons problems are also associated with environmental quality. A key contribution of economics has been the development of market-based approaches to environmental protection. These instruments are key to addressing the ultimate commons problem of the twenty-first century -- global climate change
Acknowledgments
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w16403
Published: Robert N. Stavins, 2011. "The Problem of the Commons: Still Unsettled after 100 Years," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 81-108, February. citation courtesy of
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I don't think there's a better example of good, clean, wholesome fun than driving around an empty parking lot at speed. You can do it in any kind of car, and you can even get your friends and family involved for extra good times.
But sometimes, light poles tend to jump out of nowhere and ruin that fun. That's exactly what happened one hapless E30 driver who was recently victimized by a phantom pole popping out of the shadows to wreck his Bimmer. Bunch of haters, those light poles!
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And the best part is that it caught on video by an incredulous friend who can't believe what he's just seen.
"There is no way that you just did that!" the cameraman exclaims. YES THERE IS, BRO!
Update: According to these posts in VW Vortex, this wreck went down a few weeks ago in Cincinnati. Here are some photos from the disaster. It's already got some great memes attached to it. Let's see if you guys can do better!
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Photo credit Karl Holland
Hat tip to McMike!
Hat tip to Viper Is scared to drive a reliant robin! |
On Sunday, September 18, 2016, the LA Galaxy will play Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City. The game starts at 11 a.m. PT and will be aired on KCOP in Los Angeles. This is the third and final matchup of the season for these two teams. During each of their two previous encounters, the game resulted in a draw (on May 1 at Children’s Mercy Park and on June 2 at the StubHub Center).
LA Galaxy faithful will be hoping to see the Galaxy in fighting form in light of the fact that the 2016 Playoffs are right around the corner. To that end, Giovani dos Santos has chosen an opportune time to round into the best form he has enjoyed since joining MLS. Dos Santos scored a brace and added a pair of assists in the Galaxy’s game against Orlando City SC – the intrepid Mexican international has had a goal and/or an assist in eight of his last ten games for the Galaxy.
The Galaxy’s performance last weekend was also bolstered by Jelle Van Damme’s return to the fold. Despite the rash of late injuries that sidelined Robbie Keane, Gyasi Zardes, Steven Gerrard and Jelle Van Damme and the loss of Nigel de Jong to Galatasaray, it was Van Damme’s return last Saturday that proved critical to the win.
Robbie Keane is back, everyone. Wonderful team goal from the Galaxy. #LAvORL https://t.co/kcLRiAwP9u — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) September 12, 2016
The game against Orlando extended the Galaxy’s unbeaten streak to five games (D-L-D-D-W-D-W). Questions remain regarding whether the Galaxy are optimizing their resources by devoting two Designated Player slots to Robbie Keane and Giovani dos Santos. Nonetheless, that Robbie Keane’s goal against Orlando came courtesy of a dos Santos pass should alleviate concerns that the two are incapable of playing together.
Dos Santos w/o Keane: 13g, 4a in 14 games
Dos Santos w/ Keane: 1g, 6 a in 11 games#LAvORL — Matthew Doyle (@MLSAnalyst) September 12, 2016
Sunday’s match will be SKC’s third game in ten days. On Friday, September 9, Sporting Kansas City played to a 3-3 draw versus the Houston Dynamo during a wild game that saw a late equalizer from the Dynamo’s Raul Rodriguez.
FT: That was wild. Raul Rodriguez's last second header ties the game 3-3. #SKCvHOU https://t.co/WpsfDkbVPa — Major League Soccer (@MLS) September 10, 2016
Kansas City also played midweek against the Vancouver Whitecaps in the CONCACAF Champions League, which resulted in a late 2-1 Vancouver victory. However, SKC fielded a lineup consisting mostly of reserve players in the Tuesday matchup against Vancouver, opting to keep Dom Dwyer, Matt Besler, Graham Zusi and Benny Feilhaber out of the CCL game, which means SKC’s most potent players will all have fresh legs for Sunday’s game. Gyasi Zardes will be out for Sunday’s game and Steven Gerrard may also be out with a pulled hamstring. In terms of absences for SKC, Jimmy Medranda will sit out the game against the LA Galaxy after receiving a red card from the MLS Disciplinary Committee for the game against Houston.
Kansas City is currently fifth in the Western Conference (11-12-6, 39 points) three spots behind the LA Galaxy in the rankings. Kansas City’s recent record in all competitions is decidedly mixed (D-D-W-L-L-D-L) but its record at home includes only one loss in the past seven matches at Children’s Mercy Park. Further, the Galaxy’s record in Kansas City is poor – the Galaxy have not won in Kansas City since 2007.
The game begins on Sunday at 11 a.m. and will be aired on KCOP in Los Angeles.
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It's impossible to talk about streetwear without discussing designer Hiroshi Fujiwara. In the late ’80s, Hiroshi made a name for himself in Japan as one of Tokyo's first hip-hop DJs and with his clothing label, Goodenough, and then went on to mentor kids who became fashion legends in their own right, like Nigo (Bape) and Jun Takahashi (Undercover). Today, he's churning out collaborations via his brand Fragment Design, which currently has ongoing relationships with Apple, Nike, Off-White, and even Starbucks (seriously, check it out for yourself). Anything the man touches becomes a must-have to fans of streetwear, because he practically invented the culture itself. Line-ups, quickstrike sneaker releases, and even higher-priced T-shirts can in some way all be credited to the man many call the "Godfather of Streetwear" (though, as we found out, it's a nickname he doesn't much like). We caught up with Hiroshi at NikeLab in New York City, where he was celebrating the release of his latest Nike collab, the Air Trainer 1, to talk music, sneakers, and his opinion on the world of hype he helped create.
I recently watched a video of you performing "Thinking About You" by Sister Sledge on Japanese television. How did that performance come about, and why that song?
They asked me to perform a few songs, one of which was my original song, and the other was supposed to be a cover. I always loved that song, even when it came out in 1977. I was in high school, and I bought the album.
People always call you the "Godfather of Streetwear" or "Godfather of Harajuku." How do you feel about that title? Does it come with certain responsibilities?
I think it's just hype. There are no godfathers. Streetwear was happening everywhere at the same time, in New York, London, Tokyo...so it's not only me.
Who else would you consider your peers as far as seminal streetwear designers?
I think Shawn Stussy is the main guy. He's from surf culture, but I kind of mix up surf culture and fashion and music. I'm good at mixing the cultures in my designs, too, I think.
Is there new music that inspires you when designing new products?
I don't listen to many new things, mostly old things. I don't really listen to music that much. I listen to it in the car, or on an airplane, but not at the office so much. But it's kind of random what I listen to; I just have all my music, and the songs just select randomly.
You've collaborated with so many great brands over the years. What do you love about collaboration so much?
I always try to collaborate person-to-person, not with brands. So I have a few guys at Nike I like working with. I like mixing my ideas with their ideas, not from the brand's ideas, but from personal ideas. I will work with anyone at any brand if I like them, whether young or old. I love working with Tinker [Hatfield, Nike sneaker designer] and Mark Parker [CEO of Nike] because they are older and have a lot of knowledge.
How do you feel about high-fashion sneakers, particular ones that copy iconic Nike styles?
I think they are not sneakers. I think there is a big gap between sneakers, trainers, and designer silhouettes. I don't call these styles sneakers, I call them designer shoes that look like sneakers. I don't really wear them, but I understand why people would want to wear them. Sometimes, design, they are really good.
Your sneakers, especially your recent Air Jordan 1 collaboration, are often hard to get. How do you feel about the limited-edition nature of sneaker releases these days? Is it still as necessary as it once was?
I don't really make sneakers to make them limited. It's up to Nike to determine how much they want to make. And the thing about the Air Jordan 1 is that it's not too small; I think it was a somewhat larger release. Sometimes they're hard to get, but when I was young, it was more difficult to get what I wanted [than it is for kids today]. There was no Internet. If I saw something in a magazine, I had to call them or actually go there. Many young kids complain, "Oh, I won't be able to get this sneaker again." But you can, if you're lucky. There's many shoes out there. I want everyone to have it who wants to have it. But it's hard because so many people buy them just to make money. And I don't like that. And sometimes it's good to work hard to get a sneaker, because otherwise you won't buy it. |
Opportunities abound in Tea Retail
Charles Cain - May 14th 2011
I’ve received dozens of emails and requests for comment in the wake of Teavana’s announcement late last month that they are planning a $100 million IPO to fund 350 new stores in the coming years. I’m hearing two basic questions: What does this mean for the tea industry, and how can a small tea business compete?
The questions used to be, how can Teavana afford the high rents in premium malls, and are they really profitable? The IPO filing (summary here) answers that pretty emphatically. Teavana boasts 146 US stores AVERAGING $826,000 in sales and $162,000 in profits per store. There is obviously a lot we can learn from a company this successful. There are a lot of doubters out there that need to eat a little humble pie and recognize that you don’t accomplish this kind of growth and success without making a lot of real customers very happy.
In answer to the first question, what does this mean for the tea industry, I firmly believe that Teavana's IPO is VERY good news. While they do a lot of things right, are a formidable competitor, and have a significant lead, they are not and cannot be all things to all people. There is plenty of room for additional players in this field. Teavana has demonstrated that real money can be made if you run a solid business. My hope is that the evidence of their success may help smaller companies and entrepreneurs (who have the vision but lack the capital and the experience) to convince experienced investors to get into the game.
In answer to the second question, how can a small tea business compete, I’d like to suggest five key strategies.
1. Create a rich customer experience. The average Teavana store is 915 square feet, including the back storage room. This leaves little space for browsing teaware much less smelling or cupping teas. The tight quarters and operational design requires a customer to interact with a sales person in order to even look at any of the teas hidden behind the counter. On a busy day, customers have to wait even to shop, much less buy. It takes a little more space, but there is definitely an opportunity to create a richer, more engaging experience around the tea itself.
2. Tell a story. Teavana has a great corporate story, but I don’t often hear about the gardens they buy from and they certainly don’t have the luxury of putting the owner behind the counter greeting customers. Customers love a personal touch and a feeling of connectivity with the history, culture and tradition of tea. It’s very hard for a big company to do that using part time labor in a shopping mall environment. Tell the story of the tea, of your staff, and of the dream that attracted you to the tea industry.
3. Pricing. An independent tea retailer may have some trouble competing with Teavana on margin (given the company’s volume), but competing on price should be no problem. Rooibos is as close to a commodity as you get in this business, and even the smallest independent retailer should be able to buy Rooibos (plain or flavored) on the US wholesale market, match Teavana’s pricing, and still get margins of better than 80%. Margins on teaware will be a lot tighter (closer to 50%) but Teavana is no discounter so independents should have no trouble competing on price. (More on pricing and margins here)
4. Volume. While low volumes make it harder for independent tea retailers to get great wholesale pricing, they also make it much easier to experiment and adjust to your local market and customer base. While Teavana will only buy a tea if they can get enough for all 161 stores (US and Mexico), independent retailers have the luxury of buying small lots, testing new flavors, or even carrying teaware made by local artisans. There is an automatic cache tied to any product that is available in limited quantity, ESPECIALLY if it has a great story!
5. Community involvement. From what I’ve been told by current and former employees, Teavana managers are prohibited from engaging with their local community. No products at the farmer’s market, no samples at the bank down the street, and no talks at the local yoga studio. I’ve had great success over the years working with local bakeries, restaurants and chocolatiers to create tea infused products to sell both in my store and through their establishments. There are all sorts of ways for an independent retailer to engage the community and get the word out.
At the end of the day, every other successful consumer product is sold through a dizzying array of channels, and tea will be no different. Teavana is the first tea retailer to really break out in the US, but they won’t be the last. Opportunity abounds for entrepreneurs with the passion and creativity to capitalize on strategies that cannot be easily copied by a chain, no matter how successful they are.
Adagio Teas
Twitter: @AdagioRetail |
Ricciardo finished second in Melbourne, but was disqualified after the race when the stewards ruled that his RB10 had repeatedly exceeded the fuel flow limit of 100kg/h.
Red Bull immediately announced that they would appeal the decision and the FIA's International Court of Appeal will hear the case on April 14.
"We are appealing on the grounds that we do not believe, we are extremely confident, that we have not broken the rules, that we haven't exceeded the 100kg/h of fuel that is permitted to be utilised by the car and the engine," Horner told Sky Sports News' Rachel Brookes.
"So that was the reason for our appeal, we feel we have a strong case and it will be down to the appeal court to ultimately decide."
The World Champions argument centres on the wording of the FIA's Technical Regulations with Article 5.1.4 stating "Fuel mass flow must not exceed 100kg/h". However, as it does not say that this reading has to come from the FIA's sensor Red Bull feel they can use their own measurements to prove they did not breach the regulations.
"Our whole case is on the fact of which reading is correct," the Team Principal added.
"We have a sensor that is drifting and isn't reading correctly versus a fuel rail that we know is calibrated and we know that hasn't varied throughout the weekend and has subsequently been checked and found to be not faulty and hasn't moved or varied at all since it was installed on the car prior to the weekend.
"Our argument is very simple - that we haven't broken the Technical Regulations. That we haven't exceeded the fuel flow limit and that the sensor, which hopefully we will be able to demonstrate in the appeal, is erroneous.
"I think the problem with the Technical Directive is that as we have seen in the Pirelli tyre case or the double diffuser days, that the directive, as it now states on the bottom of the directive, is the opinion of the Technical Delegate - it is not a regulation, it is not regulatory, it is purely an opinion.
"We are bound by the Technical and Sporting Regulations. 5.1.4 of the Technical Regulations says you must not exceed 100kg/h of fuel usage - we haven't done that. Therefore our view is we haven't broken the regulations and Technical Directives are of non-regulatory value."
Red Bull will contest both the Malaysia and Bahrain grands prix before their case is heard and Horner refused to reveal what system they will use to measure their fuel flow in those races.
"Hopefully we will have a sensor that works and works in line with the fuel rail and there isn't this discrepancy," he said.
"Fundamentally that is the most important thing and if there is a variance or a drift it is something that we will obviously have to discuss with the FIA and we probably won't be alone in that." |
Adil Charkaoui (in Arabic عادل الشرقاوي born 1974) is a Morocco-born Canadian citizen who was arrested by the Canadian government under a security certificate in May 2003.[1]
Before issuing the certificate, evidence was submitted that he had trained in an anti-Soviet Jihadist camp in Afghanistan. The court was also not satisfied with his reasons for visiting Pakistan for six months in 1990. Evidence that he practiced Karate was also among the submissions. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) testimonies included opinions that he would also "have been trained in such areas as: operating rocket-propelled grenade-launchers, sabotage, urban and assassination." CSIS also alleged that "[i]t was noteworthy that one of those who participated in the hijacking of [the September 11 attacks in 2001] had taken martial arts training in preparation..." and suggested that Charkaoui represented a sleeper agent.[2] This led to the issuance of the security certificate by the two responsible government ministers after which he was detained, and such evidence was also enough to uphold the certificate by Federal Court upon review.
Personal history [ edit ]
Born in Morocco in 1973, Charkaoui joined his sister and parents in moving to Montreal, Quebec in 1995.[3] He has been a Canadian citizen since July 2014.[4][5]
Charkaoui graduated with an MA from Université de Montréal and is an Arabic-language teacher, who now styles himself as a sheik,[6] and an imam.[7] He is married and has three children, and is a combat sport group leader, as well as a skilled backwoodsman.[7] He is also the director at the Centre communautaire islamique Assahaba.[3][7] Charkaoui is the President of the Quebec Collective Against Islamophobia,[8][9][10] an advocacy rights group he established in 2013.
In the late 1990s, Charkaoui associated with hard-line Montreal Muslims who had turned up in Bosnia, Afghanistan, the Sudan, and other violence-prone areas.[11]
In 1998, he flew to Pakistan to study religion for a book he was hoping to write;[12] the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) believes he slipped across the border into Afghanistan and attended Khalden training camp under the name Zubeir Al-Magrebi, although he denies the allegation.[13] According to friends, he knew Raouf Hannachi well enough that the two would "shake hands when they crossed paths".[13]
The government later stated that he had not accounted for "a period of his life, from 1992 to the end of that decade".[2]
Arrest and release [ edit ]
Adil Charkaoui is represented in a 2004 protest outside the Toronto office of CSIS.
From 2001 to 2003, Charkaoui operated a Montreal pizzeria, where the CSIS first approached him in the wake of 9/11. He refused to account for his whereabouts or reason for travel to Pakistan. Moroccan authorities stated that Charkaoui provided funds and resources to an Islamic insurgent group.[11]
Charkaoui was arrested under a security certificate in May 2003, which was co-signed by Solicitor General Wayne Easter, and Immigration Minister Denis Coderre.[14] He was detained without charge or trial in Rivière des prairies Detention Centre. The Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui was formed in defense of his rights, with Coalition launching a campaign for his release.
He was released from prison on C$50,000 bail on 18 February 2005. His bail conditions included a curfew, electronic monitoring, designated chaperones for leaving his home, restriction to the island of Montreal, 24-hour police access to his home without warrant, and a prohibition on access to the internet, on the use of cell phones and on the use of any telephone except the one in his home.
Not long after his release, Charkaoui unsuccessfully tried to help Bloc Quebecois candidate Apraham Niziblian defeat Coderre in the Canadian federal election, 2006, saying:[15]
“ It's not a question of being anti-Coderre. We are citizens before anything, we have the right to have political ideas and to have choice. Gone is the time when the Liberals could take the ethnic vote for granted. ”
Restrictions on his conditional release were gradually lifted to be cancelled in September 2009.[9] A helpful timeline of his arrest and events subsequent was produced by The Globe and Mail,[16] on his final release order by Federal Court Judge Danièle Tremblay-Lamer: "There will be an order all conditions be revoked immediately."[11]
Charkaoui opened on 22 February 2010 a $24.5 million lawsuit against the Canadian government in Quebec Superior Court in which he demanded compensation for wrongful arrest and detention. He sent a letter asking for an apology, Canadian citizenship and compensation for lost income and legal fees after a federal judge quashed a security certificate against him. Past federal ministers Denis Coderre and Wayne Easter, Diane Finley and Stockwell Day were named in the suit.[17][18]
Defender of unpopular causes [ edit ]
In August 2013, Charkaoui defended the right of two foreign Islamic hate-preachers to spread their message in Montreal, even if they held sexist and misogynist views of women in society. Citing security concerns, the event was cancelled by the convention centre where it was supposed to be held. Charkaoui maintained that it was Islamophobia to ban their visit to Canada.[5]
Activities at Collège de Maisonneuve [ edit ]
For a time prior to 2015, Charkaoui rented classroom space every Sunday from Collège de Maisonneuve, a Montreal Cegep near the Olympic Stadium, for Muslim education and Arabic language studies,[6] which he calls l'École des compagnons.[7] Charkaoui also rented classroom space at the nearby Collège de Rosemont, also a Cegep.[7] It was reported in February 2015 that six of his young students had absconded to Syria, allegedly with intent to join an Islamic terrorist group, either ISIS or the Nusra Front.[6] Of these, four students were following his guidance at the de Maisonneuve location, and at least one teenager, Mohammed Rifaat, he knew through the Rosemont location.[7]
Before the week was out, Charkaoui threatened to sue both Colleges because they had terminated the arrangements under which he leased the classroom spaces.[7][10] At a press conference, he deemed the termination unacceptable and dishonest.[10]
An interview of Charkaoui by ICI RDI's Anne-Marie Dussault sparked quite a bit of controversy the following week.[19] Dressed in a djellaba, Charkaoui presented himself as a victim and rejected calls for him to condemn violent jihadism and the Islamist project.[20] Instead he accused occidental politicians of promoting violence against Muslims in a degenerate, Islamophobic culture.[20] Charkaoui maintained that ISIS was a creature of the US government, and on his website he hyperlinks to other websites that offer praise of Osama bin Laden.[20] He rejects any interference of the wider community in which he lives on his religious rights; he finds this argument to be nefarious.[20] One commentator was shocked because of what his position meant in the context of his pedagogical pursuits.[20]
Court challenges to security certificate [ edit ]
Charkaoui has consistently denied the allegations against him and has challenged the legitimacy of the security certificate regime. Canadian authorities and the Federal Court have refused to disclose the case against Charkaoui, relying on provisions in the security certificate process that allow evidence to be kept from the defence and the public.
Charkaoui's certificate has not undergone a court review and thus has not been upheld. The case has been suspended since March 2005, pending a new decision on protection by the Minister of Immigration.
Charkaoui has been at the centre of a public campaign against the extension of state power in the name of the "war on terror". In February 2006, Amnesty International reminded Canada, "His fundamental right to liberty and security of the person accords him the right to due process or release from the restrictive bail conditions that have been imposed on him."
In February 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision of Charkaoui v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) on the appeals Charkaoui, Hassan Almrei, and Mohamed Harkat. The Court ruled that the certificate process violated sections 7, 9 and 10 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and struck down the security certificate legislation (sections 33 and 77 to 85 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act). However, the judgment will not take effect for one year.
In March 2007, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a second challenge by Charkaoui, this time relating to the destruction of evidence in Charkaoui's case. Government lawyers revealed in January 2005 that CSIS had destroyed evidence in Charkaoui's file. The situation raised concerns about the accuracy of the secret evidence before the court. The Supreme Court will hear the challenge in January 2008.
In April 2007, Charkaoui submitted a leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in a third challenge; in this instance to the law permitting deportation of non-citizens when there is a risk of torture. The Canadian government's position is that legal safeguards against being sent to torture do not apply to people who are subject to a security certificate, basing this policy on their interpretation of the 2002 Supreme Court Suresh decision. Charkaoui is challenging the legal framework permitting deportation to torture, the lack of due process, as well as the fact of being subject to the threat of deportation to torture and excessive procedural delays.
A CSIS agent identified only as J.P., the Deputy Chief of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation in the Ottawa Regional Office as of 2005, testified against the petitions for release by Hassan Almrei, Mahmoud Jaballah and Charkaoui.[21]
In June 2008, Charkaoui managed to have the Supreme Court of Canada overturn as unconstitutional the security certificate. The ruling is known as Charkaoui v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) 2008 SCC 38. CSIS was ordered by the SCC to stop destroying its tapes and notes in terrorism investigations. For the previous 25 years CSIS had interpreted their constitutional law as obliging the destruction of such records - a procedure that largely kept CSIS intelligence out of open court - but this was ruled by the SCC a fundamental mistake. Given spies were becoming closer to police in the post-9/11 world, they had to disclose their investigations just like police do. The judges ruled "The only appropriate remedy is to confirm the duty to disclose Charkaoui's entire file to the designated judge and, after the judge has filtered it, to Charkaoui and his counsel."[11]
In motions filed the next summer in Federal Court, lawyers arguing for CSIS said it could not abide by such vast disclosure without jeopardizing its source and methods, which CSIS considers the lifeblood of national security. The Crown pulled all of the wiretaps it used against Charkaoui, and half of its human sources, leaving it with insufficient evidence to meet the security certificate's test that there is a "reasonable suspicion" that Charkaoui is a threat to Canadian national-security. The judgment proceeded accordingly in September 2009.[11]
In May 2013 federal prosecutors produced evidence that Charkaoui may have been plotting a terrorist attack in the Montreal metro in 2002. The memo also mentions CSIS surveillance where Charkaoui was spotted stealing valuables from parked cars.[22]
Ahmed Ressam withdraws his allegations [ edit ]
Fabrice de Pierrebourg of the Journal de Montreal testified in Federal Court on 22 August 2007 that, in correspondence, Ahmed Ressam had withdrawn his allegations against Adil Charkaoui;[23] the former had written to the latter, who is also known as the Millennium Bomber for his failed plot to bomb LAX airport,[11] in the course of writing a book about terrorism in Montreal.
Ressam was convicted in the United States and held under an unusual arrangement whereby he was offered a reduced sentence in exchange for information. Under this arrangement, over a period of some years, he fingered 130 people as "members" of the "extremist Islamist network linked to Bin Laden". Two cases in the United States were dismissed after Ressam's evidence proved worthless. Earlier in Charkaoui's case, Charkaoui's lawyer introduced an arrest warrant for Ahmed Ressam for an incident that occurred in Montreal at a time when Ressam claimed, under oath in another case, to have been in a training camp in Afghanistan. Ressam is known to have suffered a mental breakdown while in prison.
After learning that Mr. Ressam was supposed to have named him, Charkaoui repeatedly asked to be able to cross-examine him in court, but the motion was not granted.
In the original charges against Charkaoui, two government ministers mistakenly referred to martial arts having been used by a hijacker aboard "American Airlines Flight 93", a mistaken reference likely meant to refer to United Airlines 93 or American Airlines Flight 11.[2] |
Image copyright PA Image caption Clockwise from top left: Matthew Lucas, Lee Walls, Malcolm Reeves and Matthew Loosemore
A police helicopter was used to film two people "brazenly" having sex in their garden, a court heard.
The trial of two South Yorkshire Police officers and two pilots has begun at Sheffield Crown Court.
Matthew Lucas, 42, Lee Walls, 47, Matthew Loosemore, 45, and Malcolm Reeves, 64, all deny misconduct in a public office.
On other occasions people sunbathing naked and naturists at a campsite were filmed, the court was told.
Live updates on this story and others from across South Yorkshire
Richard Wright QC prosecuting, said the crew used their "unique viewing position [and] powerful video camera" to film people "in a gross violation of privacy."
The court heard that five people were filmed sunbathing naked, as well as naturists on a campsite, and a couple having sex in their garden.
Image copyright PA Image caption Former police officer Adrian Pogmore has previously admitted four charges of misconduct in a public office
Pilots Mr Reeves, of Farfield Avenue, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, denies two counts of misconduct in a public office, and Mr Loosemore, of Briar Close, Auckley, Doncaster, denies one count.
Police officers Mr Walls, of Southlands Way, Aston, Sheffield, denies one count, and Mr Lucas, of Coppice Rise, Chapeltown, Sheffield, denies three counts.
A fifth man, former police officer Adrian Pogmore, 50, of Whiston in Rotherham, has admitted four charges of misconduct in a public office.
Footage showed a couple having sex on their patio in July 2008 and at one point the naked woman waves at the aircraft.
Image caption The court was told the crew used a powerful video camera to film people
Mr Wright said the couple shared Pogmore's interest in swinging and added it was "no coincidence" that the helicopter flew above "while they brazenly put on a show."
The accused deny the charges and, "in short", blame Pogmore for what happened, Mr Wright said.
A couple sitting naked by a caravan were also filmed unawares in July 2008, and the aircraft filmed a garden where a woman was sunbathing naked with her daughters in 2007.
The court heard the woman felt the filming was "a complete and utter violation of my privacy" and added: "It makes me feel sick to think that this took place."
In 2012 other naked sunbathers were filmed, the jury were told.
Statements from all except the couple filmed having sex on the patio - who did not make a statement to police - said their privacy had been invaded.
Mr Wright told the court it was a "gross waste of valuable resource".
The trial continues and is expected to last three weeks. |
The man selected to welcome the professional wrestler turned professional fighter CM Punk to the octagon at UFC 203 is the 2-0 New Jersey native Mickey Gall. Gall was discovered on the show Dana White: Lookin' for a Fight as he won by first round Rear-Naked-Choke and immediately put his name in the hat to face the WWE superstar in Punk. Mickey Gall vs. Phil Brooks, or CM Punk, will take place at UFC 203 on September 10, 2016 and air live on PPV. Bloody Elbow's Eddie Mercado caught up with Mickey Gall to discuss his UFC career and his thoughts on opponent CM Punk.
Interview: Mickey Gall on CM Punk UFC 203
Mickey Gall provided his earnest opinion on fighting a professional debuting CM Punk in a UFC Pay-Per-View:
"It's a big jump. We're probably not deserving of being on the Pay-Per-View. It's hard to say because he's a superstar, made himself a superstar in his sport. Between us, he has no fights, I have two professional fights and three amateur fights. There's not going to be anyone else on any Pay-Per-View probably this year with 5 fights or less combined. So it's a little funky but I'm grateful for the opportunity and I'm very excited to fight in front of the big crowd under the lights. I can't wait man. That's why I got into this sport."
The New Jersey native Gall gave his thoughts on the added media obligations:
"I'm talking to people who love fighting just like I do. They want to talk to me about stuff that I love to do. It's all good man. I really enjoy it. Some people complain and this and that; I truly enjoy it. I like talking about it."
Gall spoke to the stigma associated with being the guy that is fighting CM Punk:
"Right now I'm that CM Punk guy and that's cool. That's helping me get to where I want to be but I guarantee in my next fights after this, I won't be known as that anymore. That'll just be just like a footnote. I have big plans in fighting so it's just a launching pad."
Tune in to UFC 203 to catch Mickey Gall welcoming CM Punk to the world of professional mixed martial arts, live on Pay-Per-View on September 10, 2016. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for all of your event coverage including interviews, results, highlights, and more! The full interview can be seen at the top of the page.
Twitter:
@BloodyElbow
@theeddiemercado
@mickeygall |
Scorching sun. Vomit. The thud of plastic.
Football training camps mean pain, which has long been held as a good thing for the guys sweating through this annual rite of passage in the weeks before the season kicks off. And here, in this particular culture, no suffering gets more love than that which comes at the end of brutal back-to-back practice sessions. For decades, college coaches believed so-called “two-a-days” were essential to whipping players into shape after long summer layoffs. They were, according to theory, crucibles from which the strongest of camaraderies emerged. Indeed, in the 20th century many coaches deemed three-a-days and even four-a-days—sometimes on consecutive days—as essential conditioning hacks.
But the professionalization of major college football over the last couple decades, combined with increasing awareness of health risks correlating with overexertion in the heat, is rendering this tradition obsolete. This August, many teams scheduled a total of three days of two-a-days—one usually held in the morning, the other at night—during their entire preseason camp. Some, like Georgia and Georgia Southern, intended to scale back to a single two-a-day and Arkansas might have become the first major program to do away with the practice altogether. In preparation for next Saturday’s season opener, Razorback coaches had four opportunities for a two-a-day but didn’t use a single one.
Signs of its demise are unmistakable. Consider the NFL had already jettisoned the tradition in 2011 thanks to collective bargaining agreement demands by the NFL Players Association. On the college level, it now looks like no such union for the players will emerge after a recent National Labor Relations Board decision. Still, the NCAA itself has already pushed toward goals such a players’ union would support by banning two-a-days on consecutive days. It allows teams a max of 12 “live” contact practices (i.e. involving live tackling to the ground and/or full-speed blocking while wearing pads) with no more than four in a given week.
Barry Lunney Jr., Arkansas’s tight end coach, points out today’s players don’t need “a true old-school two-a-day grind” like they did when he played quarterback for the Hogs in the early 1990s. He recalls football summer training was then “semi-optional, and you never saw your coaches. When you got back to football, you needed two-a-days to get everything installed and to get back to optimal shape.” But since the 1990s, major college football has become a more intensive sport and players today enter training camp already near prime condition.
Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema believes his 2015 team is experienced enough to not need two hitting sessions a day. Based on his own research and experience, he thinks saving players from those collisions will on the whole keep them fresher during the regular season. This August, he opted to use the time that would have gone toward a second same-day practice for film study or a walkthrough instead. While the Hogs did lose star senior running back Jonathan Williams to a torn foot ligament in a scrimmage two weekends ago, Bielema believes the tact has worked so far. He cited he had a single player on the injured practice list as of Wednesday compared to 17 injured players listed around this time last year. “The benefit of it has definitely been a lack of injuries,” he told the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club.
Another benefit, in theory, is the extra time can be used for more intensive individual training for newcomers and younger players. In the old days, those newcomers might not have arrived on campus until August, but today’s freshmen and transfers begin acclimating to the system months before. Lunney Jr. estimates, for instance, about 90% of current Razorback freshmen had been on campus since May 25. Most big conference football players, regardless of class, also take summer school classes.
Another major shift came last year after the NCAA allowed coaches to mandate their players spend eight hours a week on conditioning, weight training, and film study during the summer. Before that point, coaches couldn’t directly supervise their players in that time of year. They are supervising them more in the cold months, too, on account of a ceaselessly expanding spate of conference championships and bowl games. The College Football Playoff, capped at four teams for now but likely to balloon to eight or more teams, also demands more time. This means while college players are now getting fewer dings from two-a-days, they also sustain increasingly more hits from practices and games that wouldn’t have existed decades ago.
“While I applaud coaches who are taking steps to safeguard player health and safety, the reality is that college football players in Division I are training more than ever—and even year-round,” says Sathya Gosselin, a Hausfeld LLP attorney who has served as trial counsel in the landmark O’Bannon v. NCAA litigation. “Whether supervised by the athletic department or not, intensive off-season training is expected at every top college football program, and that requirement, spoken or unspoken, has significant implications for the education of college athletes and their pre-professional training.”
Many former football players, perhaps good enough to play a few years in the NFL or CFL—but not good enough to make a living in the pros—feel the sheer number of hours they poured into college football hurt their long-term job prospects.
Take Sam Olajubutu, a former All-SEC linebacker at Arkansas, who took classes every summer in college but has struggled to develop a non-football career after a cup of coffee in the pros. “Once you play college football for four or five years, and then you play pros for two or three years and then you get out into the real world, you’re already behind the eight ball as far as job experience and those kinds of things,” he told SYNC magazine. While a few major college players still work summer jobs (e.g. one Hog worked as a greeter at a restaurant, another reportedly as a security guard), mandated summer football hours on top of class hours make it even harder to squeeze in the kind of internships that would better prepare them for careers outside of football.
These are not the kind of issues, though, SEC football players tend to publicly discuss. For the most part, they talk about preparing their bodies and sharpening their skills for the season opener. To this end, Razorback coaches didn’t employ two-a-days as a conditioning hack but rather as a motivational one. They used the threat of them to coax more overall effort out of their players. Had the Hogs ever slacked off in practice for too long, two-a-days would have been punishment. Starting quarterback Brandon Allen said in early August it didn’t matter either way to him: “It all comes down to how we practice. If we don’t practice the way we need to practice we may as well throw two-a-days in there.”
Not all SEC programs share Bielema’s doubt in the practice’s intrinsic worth. Take Tennessee, the Hogs’ October 3 opponent. In early August its athletic department published a video trumpeting the belief “the grit and grind of Tennessee’s two-a-days are crucial come game time.”
Even though Tennessee had only scheduled three two-a-days in the middle of its training camp, Jones had no doubt the old tradition can still help add up to new winning ways: “We talk about being 1 percent better everyday,” he says. “Now, you have an opportunity to get 2 percent better with two practices.”
Top college coaches are quick to tout the benefits their players reap from all the time they spend studying football, training for football, and playing the game itself.
The costs, though, aren’t so readily calculated. |
“They threatened to kill peaceful protesters and (Anonymous members) in the Ferguson protest,” the organizer said.
“We want the KKK gone, forever. And that’s what we try to achieve by this. We want race equality,” another #OpKKK organizer, identified on Twitter as @encrypted_six, told Al Jazeera.
Anonymous has taken action on a variety of social justice issues. In 2012 it exposed the names and personal details of people allegedly involved in covering up the rape of a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio. This summer, the group took down the Royal Canadian Mounted Police website after an RCMP officer shot and killed a protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask — a well-known symbol of Anonymous that has been used by the Occupy movement. Because of the group's decentralized nature, there have also been a number of false leaks by individuals posing as members of Anonymous.
On Thursday, Anonymous members with #OpKKK plan to expose the names and other personal details of at least 1,000 people the group says are members of the KKK. The organizer identified as @Anon6k said he was holding part of the list.
Another organizer, @encrypted_six, said, “I have seen the list and I’ve seen a lot more. Some of it does not just contain a simple phone number or an email. Some of the lists contain way more — payment information, family, jobs, addresses.”
“We use cross-point referencing to make sure it’s the right person and that we don’t get the wrong information out in public,” as well as other verification techniques, @encrypted_six said.
It is not illegal to be a member of the KKK or similar groups, and there are no laws preventing KKK members from holding public office or serving as police officers. That lack of screening has been controversial. A police department fired two officers after the FBI linked them to the KKK last year in Fruitland Park, Florida.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups in the United States, expressed some skepticism about OperationKKK. Mark Potok, senior fellow at the center, said it was “incredibly dubious” that a high-level public official might be an official member of the KKK. “If a U.S. senator was sympathetic to the views of the Klan, would that person really join, knowing if his membership was exposed it would be instantaneous political death?” Potok said.
The KKK has been on the decline for decades, Potok said. The group’s heyday was in the 1920s, when the Klan had about 4 million members including political leaders and professionals. The group had a slight resurgence in the 1960s in response to the civil rights movement, but still only had about 40,000 members.
“Today, there are probably fewer than 4,000 members, divided up into dozens of squabbling groups,” Potok said. “Today the Klan members are almost universally rural, working-class or below. They tend to be very uneducated, and often the groups are made up of a man, his family, and his neighbors.”
Compared to neo-Nazi groups, racist skinheads or groups who believe in a racist theology called Christian Identity, the Klan is “certainly not the most important or vigorous part of the white supremacist world,” Potok said.
#OpKKK organizers agreed that the KKK is not the only racist organization in the U.S., and said they hope to start a larger conversation with a Twitter discussion on Thursday about race, the Internet and freedom of speech.
Among the questions circulating are: How would you define race? What is dehumanization? How do you balance a community’s best interest and an individual’s civil liberties? Is it possible to protect both without infringing upon either?
On Sunday and Monday, individuals purporting to be members of Anonymous published lists with the names, email addresses and phone numbers of people they said were in the KKK. #OpKKK members disavowed that release, and said those behind it were not related to Anonymous. |
The man, who is from Iraq, has been charged with the murder of a 47-year-old Somalian who was found killed at the facility on October 2nd last year, reports news agency Ritzau.
According to the charge sheet, the 35-year-old stabbed the victim “countless” times.
Police have confirmed that the violent attack is likely to have been the result of an altercation between the two men.
Following the discovery of the Somalian man’s body, police went public with the suspect’s name and picture in an effort to track him down.
He was detained in the Netherlands a month later, according to Ritzau’s report.
Extradition of the man to Denmark was then delayed, with the man required to serve an outstanding sentence in the Netherlands. He then refused to be extradited, further delaying the process.
He was eventually handed over to Danish police in February this year.
Police have previously confirmed that the victim was a resident at the Sandholm centre while the suspect was a former resident.
The 35-year-old is also accused with setting fire to the mattress in his cell while detained in March this year.
Court proceedings will take place at Hillerød Court over three days in October and November, reports Ritzau.
READ ALSO: Danish police officer stabbed at asylum centre |
The political appointees tapped by President Donald Trump to oversee federal health care programs — including the potential transition to a new Republican bill to replace the Affordable Care Act — joined the government just after working as lobbyists and attorneys for the largest health care interests in America.
Several senior Health and Human Services Administration appointees previously worked for insurers seeking to influence the consumer regulations mandated by the ACA, according to new political appointee financial disclosures obtained by The Intercept. The appointees work closely under HHS Secretary Tom Price — a former member of Congress and longtime ACA opponent who has pushed his old colleagues on the Hill to repeal the ACA.
Eric Hargan, the nominee for deputy secretary at HHS, and Paula Stannard, Price’s senior counselor, previously worked in the lobbying and government affairs departments of their respective law firms, Greenberg Traurig and Alston & Bird. Hargan and Stannard both disclosed serving health insurance giant UnitedHealth as a client.
UnitedHealth, which prompted worries about the ACA’s tenability when it exited most of the health exchanges that underpin President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform law, has lobbied the federal government on a number of issues. The group targeted its work in Washington at ACA policies dealing with mandating insurers cover a series of basic medical services known as essential health benefits; limits on how much insurance prices can differ between age groups; and the health insurance industry taxes. All these policies are in Republicans’ sights as they move to repeal Obama’s reforms.
Hargan is but one of several top HHS appointees with health insurance industry ties.
HHS Associate Deputy Secretary for Health Reform Randolph Wayne Pate previously worked as the vice president for public policy for Health Care Services Corporation, an insurance company that operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in five states. In recent months, Pate’s previous employer has lobbied on bills to provide waivers for health insurance companies to duck costly consumer mandates, such as prohibiting discrimination over age.
Price’s Chief of Staff Lance Leggitt listed 40 previous health care-related clients as a partner of the law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. Leggitt served as the chair of the federal health care practice of the firm, which lobbies for the insurer Aetna and the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, a trade group. Leggitt disclosed being paid $801,008 in compensation.
Keagan Lenihan, who serves as a senior counselor to Price, previously worked as a top lobbyist for McKesson Specialty Health, the largest distributor of drugs and other health care products in the country. As recently as last year, Lenihan attempted to influence lawmakers on “pharmacy reimbursement issues and implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” according to disclosures.
McKesson has faced accusations that it ignored warning signs and distributed dangerous opioids to pill mills, worsening the drug overdose crisis. In January, the firm paid a record $150 million settlement for failure to report suspicious orders of controlled substances, including oxycodone and hydrocodone pills.
The Intercept reached out to HHS for comment on the appointees’ past ties to health care industries and their lobbying, but did not receive a response.
Private health care interests, particularly health insurers, have worked closely with Republican leaders to shape the next iteration of health reform. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., attended a fundraiser hosted by health insurance lobbyists just before appearing to explain his party’s approach to repealing and replacing the ACA. The major provisions of the plan passed by House Republicans includes a major tax cut for insurers, along with an option for states to opt-out of consumer protections — proposals demanded by health insurance companies. |
A mass shooting at a popular gay club in Orlando, Florida, left 50 people dead early Sunday morning, including the gunman, according to officials. An investigation is ongoing into the reason for the rampage, and authorities are looking into the possibility that it is terrorism-related.
Politicians were quick to offer their somber support for people in Orlando.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton personally took to Twitter to weigh in on the "devastating news" from Florida early Sunday morning.
Woke up to hear the devastating news from FL. As we wait for more information, my thoughts are with those affected by this horrific act. -H — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 12, 2016
After more information of the shooting came out, Clinton issued another statement some hours later, declaring the murders "an act of terror" and "also an act of hate."
"For now, we can say for certain that we need to redouble our efforts to defend our country from threats at home and abroad. That means defeating international terror groups, working with allies and partners to go after them wherever they are, countering their attempts to recruit people here and everywhere, and hardening our defenses at home," she said. The former secretary of state specifically commented on the attack of an LGBT nightclub during Pride Month.
"To the LGBT community: please know that you have millions of allies across our country. I am one of them. We will keep fighting for your right to live freely, openly and without fear. Hate has absolutely no place in America," she said.
She concluded her statement with a call for stricter gun control reforms, saying the incident "reminds us once more that weapons of war have no place on our streets."
According to a campaign press release, Clinton's June 15 campaign event in Green Bay, Wisconsin will be postponed. President Obama was scheduled to attend.
Donald Trump, the Republican party's presumptive nominee, also commented on the "really bad shooting" via the social media platform.
Really bad shooting in Orlando. Police investigating possible terrorism. Many people dead and wounded. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016
A few hours later, Trump sent another message on Twitter asking, "When will we get tough, smart & vigilant?'
Horrific incident in FL. Praying for all the victims & their families. When will this stop? When will we get tough, smart & vigilant? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016
And in another message, Trump touted the "congrats" he had received for "being right on radical Islamic terrorism."
Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016
Just minutes before President Obama was scheduled to address reporters from the White House regarding the Orlando shooting, Trump once again fired off another critical tweet:
Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism? If he doesn't he should immediately resign in disgrace! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016
Trump also tweeted out unconfirmed reports of the shooter declaring "Allah hu Akbar" as he opened fire on the nightclub.
Reporting that Orlando killer shouted "Allah hu Akbar!" as he slaughtered clubgoers. 2nd man arrested in LA with rifles near Gay parade. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016
In a longer statement sent out by his campaign Sunday afternoon, Trump repeated his call for the president to step down, slamming the chief executive for having "disgracefully refused to even say the words 'Radical Islam.'" He called on Clinton to get out of the general election race for the same reason.
"Because our leaders are weak, I said this was going to happen - and it is only going to get worse," he said. "I am trying to save lives and prevent the next terrorist attack. We can't afford to be politically correct anymore."
Trump further implied that he would decrease immigration from the Middle East because "since 9/11, hundreds of migrants and their children have been implicated in terrorism in the United States."
"Hillary Clinton wants to dramatically increase admissions from the Middle East, bringing in many hundreds of thousands during a first term," he charged. "And we will have no way to screen them, pay for them, or prevent the second generation from radicalizing."
Trump further tweeted that he "called" the attack and "asked for the ban" of any Muslims entering the U.S.
What has happened in Orlando is just the beginning. Our leadership is weak and ineffective. I called it and asked for the ban. Must be tough — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016
The suspected shooter, Omar S. Mateen, was an American citizen born in New York to Afghan parents, according to the FBI.
Responding to Trump, Clinton's communication director slammed the billionaire in her own statement Sunday evening.
"Donald Trump put out political attacks, weak platitudes and self-congratulations," Jennifer Palmieri wrote of his response to the Orlando shooting. "Trump has offered no real plans to keep our nation safe and no outreach to the Americans targeted, just insults and attacks. In times of crisis more than ever, Americans are looking for leadership and deserve better."
Speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press" early Sunday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called the murders "horrific" and "unthinkable."
"Our -- just -- hopes go out to all those who were shot that they can recover," Sanders said, before discussing his previous support for bans on selling automatic firearms in the U.S.
"Twenty-five years ago, I believed that in this country that we should not be selling automatic weapons which are designed to kill people," the Vermont senator added. "We have got to do everything that we can on top of that to make sure that guns do not fall into the hands of those who should not have them: criminals, people who are mentally ill. So that struggle continues."
Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party's presidential nominee and a former governor of New Mexico, called the slaughter "both cowardly and infuriating" but warned against politicizing the situation.
"In this immediate aftermath of what is clearly a tragic and despicable attack, our thoughts must be with the victims. Regardless of what the motivation is ultimately found to be, this violence against innocent people simply going about their lives is both cowardly and infuriating," Johnson said in a statement released Sunday afternoon. "We must allow the authorities to do their jobs, understand how this attack came about, and then respond accordingly. It is not a time to either politicize or jump to conclusions."
The Orlando shooter put up a protracted gun battle with police, according to a U.S. intelligence source. He was heavily armed with an assault rifle, a handgun, and a "device" of some kind that officials believed was a threat.
President Obama was briefed Sunday morning by Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism top homeland security officials, according to a statement from the White House press secretary. The president requested to receive regular updates on the situation as the FBI, the Orlando police, and other federal officials continue to carry out their investigation.
Governor Rick Scott speaks on the Orlando nightclub mass shooting
Appearing from the White House Sunday afternoon, the president addressed reporters on the shooting.
"This was an act of terror and an act of hate," Mr. Obama said. "The FBI is appropriately investigating this as an act of terrorism." He acknowledged that it was an "especially heartbreaking day" for the LGBT community.
Of the suspected shooter, the president said that "what is clear is that he was a person filled with hatred." Mr. Obama named the Orlando massacre as "the most deadly shooting in American history" and noted that the killer was armed with at least two guns. He said the day further served as a reminder "of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on" a weapon.
He also seemed to chastise legislators for their inability to agree on passing stricter gun reforms.
"We have to decide if that's the kind of country we want to be -- and to actively do nothing is a decision as well," Mr. Obama said.
The president issued a proclamation Sunday for the American flag to be flow at half-staff at the White House and on all public buildings and grounds (including military posts, naval stations, U.S. embassies and facilities abroad) until sunset of June 16.
Vice President Joe Biden was also briefed Sunday by his national security advisor.
In a statement from the vice president's spokesperson, Biden "offered his prayers for all those killed and injured in the shooting and sends his condolences to all the families and loved ones of the victims."
In a statement from the vice president himself, Biden offered his own prayers and condolences for the Orlando shooting victims but noted that "our prayers are not enough to end these kinds of senseless mass shootings."
"The violence is not normal," he said, "and the targeting of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans is evil and abhorrent."
He is closely monitoring the situation and will continue to receive regular updates as well. The vice president, who was scheduled to attend a fundraiser for Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in Miami Sunday, will instead head to Washington, D.C.
Other local politicians offered up their own prayers for the families of the shooting victims, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who pledged to "devote every resource available" to assist.
My prayers are with the victims' families & all those affected by the shooting in Orlando. We will devote every resource available to assist — Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) June 12, 2016
The Republican governor declared a state of emergency later in the day.
In an extended statement, Scott commented on the "act of terror."
"This is a time of great tragedy, and in every tragedy, there is a flood of sadness, confusion and despair," he said. "But, this is an attack on our people. An attack on Orlando. An attack on Florida. An attack on America. An attack on all of us."
He also issued a warning against those who may try to commit other mass acts of violence: "To the people who did this or may be thinking about doing something similar: you don't want to commit an act of terror in our state. In Florida, our justice system is swift and our penalties are severe. We are at a 45-year crime low and proud to be a safe state for our 20 million residents and 100 million tourists."
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, once a candidate for president, tweeted out his own call for central Florida residents to donate blood after several dozens were rushed to local hospitals.
If you live in Central Florida, blood donations are needed after mass shooting at #PulseNightclub https://t.co/g0Hg5FK1sY — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 12, 2016
Our prayers are with those injured and killed early this morning in horrifying act of terror in Orlando. — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 12, 2016
Rubio, who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released a fuller statement later in the day discussing the threat of domestic terrorism.
"Confronting the threat of violent homegrown radicalization is one of the greatest counterterrorism challenges our law enforcement and intelligence community faces," he said. "We must do more at every level of government and within our own communities to identify and mitigate this cancer on our free society and prevent further loss of innocent life."
Our community experienced a horrific crime today. Our hearts & prayers are with the victims and their families. — Mayor Buddy Dyer (@orlandomayor) June 12, 2016
Despite the fact that tonight's crime will have a lasting effect, we are a strong community. — Mayor Buddy Dyer (@orlandomayor) June 12, 2016 |
Washington (CNN) Billionaire businesswoman Oprah Winfrey has a message for Grammy Award-winning rapper T.I. after he said that neither Hillary Clinton nor Carly Fiorina have what it takes to be president: "Honey child, hush your mouth!"
Winfrey reacted in disbelief when TMZ asked her to react to the rapper's comments, saying, "Nobody said that!"
"I don't buy it, you know it's not true. I think people just like to talk," Winfrey said.
But on Monday, T.I. said, "Not to be sexist, I can't vote for the leader of the free world to be a woman."
"Just because every other position that exists, I think a woman could do well," he said on the "The Whoolywood Shuffle" radio show. "But the president, it's kind of like, I just know that women make rash decisions emotionally -- they make very permanent, cemented decisions -- and then later, it's kind of like it didn't happen or they didn't mean for it to happen."
T.I. also suggested that women are not consistent enough in their decision-making to lead America.
"And I sure would hate to set off a nuke," he said. "You ain't gonna be able to negotiate the right kind of foreign policy. The world ain't ready yet."
T.I. -- born Clifford Harris, Jr. -- said he believes a make believe creature could get to the White House before a woman.
"I think you might be able to get the Loch Ness Monster elected before you could (a woman). It's not right, but I'm just saying I don't think," he said.
T.I.'s wife Tameka Cottle, commonly known as "Tiny," told TMZ that her husband is "sometimes" sexist.
"I think it was not tasteful. I definitely think I'm not disrespected (by his comments) because I know the man he is ... but you know, he just lives, you know, in the old men take care of woman, chivalry type thing," she said.
Tiny added that she hopes her husband was joking.
Shortly after the interview aired, T.I. apologized for his remarks on Twitter.
"My comments about women running for president were unequivocally insensitive and wrong. I sincerely apologize to everyone I offended," he tweeted.
T.I. also said GOP front-runner Donald Trump would be the best candidate to improve the economy.
"I feel he is the best showman of them all," he said. "And I do feel that if he is sincerely concerned about the economy of America and the working public, he would be the best person to flip the money that we have, take it and flip it."
However, T.I. said he can't fully support Trump because of racist remarks.
"His racist remarks, all of his off-color statements, it makes it impossible to be like completely supportive of him," he said. "But just knowing what he's done for business, for himself, if he intends to do that for America, I think it would be beneficial. But I can't cast no vote for him." |
Image caption Ahmadis are despised by many Pakistanis
Police in Pakistan have forced a family of the Ahmadi sect to exhume the body of a relative because it was buried in a Muslim graveyard.
Officials in the Sargodha district of Punjab province say they took the unusual move after anti-Ahmadi Muslim groups threatened peace in the area.
Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims but a 1984 law barred them from identifying themselves as followers of the faith.
The law also put restrictions on their religious practices.
'Law and order situation'
Shehzad Waraich, a farmer in the Bhalwal area of Sargodha district, died on 30 October and was buried in a shared graveyard designated by the government.
"The police approached the relatives of Mr Waraich on 31 October and asked them to remove the body from the Muslim graveyard as this could lead to a law and order situation," Salimuddin, an Ahmadi community spokesman, told the BBC.
"The family complied with the request and exhumed the body. They have now buried it in a different graveyard reserved for the Ahmadis several miles away from the village."
The police said the family was asked to exhume the body because the burial was "illegal".
"They buried Mr Waraich in a Muslim graveyard, which is against the law," Javed Islam, the Sargodha district police chief, told the BBC.
"Members of the Khatm-e-Nabuwat organisation and some local people approached the police and conveyed their objection to the burial. The objection was within the ambit of the law, so we acted accordingly," he said.
WHO ARE THE AHMADIS? A minority Islamic sect founded in 1889, Ahmadis believe their own founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who died in 1908, was a prophet
This is anathema to most Muslims who believe the last prophet was Muhammad, who died in 632
Most Ahmadi followers live in the Asian subcontinent
Ahmadis have been the subject of sectarian attacks and persecution in Pakistan and elsewhere
In 1974 the Pakistani government declared the sect non-Muslim Who are the Ahmadis? Analysis: Soft target for militants
Khatm-e-Nabuwat is an anti-Ahmadi religious organisation that acts as a watchdog on their activities.
Mr Islam said that he was not concerned about the moral aspect of the exhumation of Mr Waraich's body - his job was to enforce the law.
Ahmadis in Pakistan are often mobbed and lynched by extremist elements who critics say are encouraged by favourable laws.
The Ahmadi spokesman, Salimuddin, said it was the 30th incident since 1984 in which an Ahmadi body has been forcefully exhumed by the administration to satisfy the opponents of the community.
"The administration always sides with our opponents, and has a convenient argument that they are trying to maintain peace," he said. |
Want freedom in India, not from India: Kanhaiya Returning to a hero’s welcome in the university after spending three weeks in detention over sedition charges, JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar delivered a powerpacked political speech.
Fresh poster issues death threat to Kanhaiya Kumar The poster has the name of one Balbir Singh Bharatiya who claimed to be a social worker and has been a part of the Anna Hazare-led movement against corruption. The poster also contained a phone number and a passport-size photograph of a man.
Afzal Guru row: ABVP files complaint against JNU associate dean While the associate dean was not available for his comments on the issue, Nivedita Menon, who teaches at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at the School of International Studies in JNU said, "I don't believe anything I said was anti-national".
Sedition case against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in Patna court After being charged with sedition in Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, he has again been charged with sedition and defamation case in a civil court in Patna on Friday.
JNU's Kanhaiya Kumar accused of misbehaving with a female student Kanhaiya Kumar on Thursday landed in another controversy after an alumnus of JNU on Facebook posted a scanned copy of an official letter that found him guilty of "misbehaving" with her last year. JNU administration confirmed the office order of penalizing Kumar.
NEW DELHI: The high level inquiry committee set up by Jawaharlal Nehru University has recommended the expulsion of five students, including JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar who is out on interim bail, and PhD scholars Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, currently in judicial custody on sedition charges, top university sources said.The committee was set up to probe the February 9 event on campus where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.Four other students are likely to face suspension and a few others are to be let off with a fine. In all, 21 students are likely to get show-cause notice as to why action should not be initiated against them.JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar has appraised the dean’s committee of the summary of the report and recommendations, which found these students guilty of violating the university’s rules and norms.According to sources present at the deans’ committee meeting, five students are to face rustication, “which means they will be asked to leave the campus and discontinue their studies. Four other students are to face suspension and could also be asked to leave their hostel.”The final decision on the quantum of punishment will be taken by the VC and chief proctor A Dimri after a scrutiny of the suggestions as well as the replies to the show-cause notices, the sources added.The high level enquiry committee submitted its report on March 11, after two extensions (February 26 and March 3). Following the February 9 protest event against Afzal Guru’s hanging, the vice-chancellor had set up a proctorial enquiry on February 10 and then replaced it with the high level committee on February 11.In its interim report, the committee recommended debarring of eight students from all academic activities but allowed them to stay in hostels as guests.On Monday, the university said the committee had unanimously found some students to have violated the university’s rules. “There are standard provisions in the university rules to take action in such cases. The high level inquiry committee recommendations are based on the rules of discipline and proper conduct of JNU,” the varsity said.The VC, after appraising the dean’s committee of the committee’s recommendations, said, “The office of the chief proctor would take further action by issuing show cause notices to the students who have been found violating the rules and norms of the university.”The university is likely to send out the show-cause late on Monday night or Tuesday morning, along with a summary of the charges against the students.Questions have been raised on the committee right from the beginning of the inquiry, with left-wing student’s groups and teachers slamming the university administration for debarring the students from academic activities even before the report came out.JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid Shora on March 11, the day when the report was submitted, said they would not accept “whatever the report says as the committee has not worked in a transparent manner”.The students under scanner also decided not to depose before the committee and therefore this report has been prepared without hearing the defence of the 21 students. According to sources in the JNU administration, the students will be given three days to reply to the show cause notice as to why no action should be taken against them.JNUSU joint secretary Saurabh Sharma, who belongs to the BJP-aligned ABVP, said the university should release the report in public domain and added that no leniency should be showed on the guilty. |
A few folks online kindly pointed out that I overlooked the fact that two missiles were launched, which does significantly affect my analysis and judgment relating to photomanipulation. Edits have been added in italics, the original text has been left in.
This is part of an ongoing attempt to clearly identify, collect, tabulate, and track missile and rocket launches in the DPRK. This is basically a continuation of a list built for personal research and reference purposes, which will be periodically reformatted for internet consumption and posted here.
The projectiles we will be tracking will be the most obvious ones, the guided missiles, and the unguided Luna/FROG and various MRLS launches when they are covered. Artillery shells will not be covered.
We will start things off with the most recent Hwasong-6 launches. For those looking for the other recent launches, John Grisafi over at NK News has an article up with some interesting new information. For now, we are simply covering the Hwasongs.
The June 29th launch was from the “vicinity of Wonsan” according to Yonhap, which likely means Kittaeryong (Gitdaeryeong, 깃대령, 안변군, 강원도) Anbyeon, Gangwon-do, where short-range ballistic missile tests have frequently occurred in the past. Most outlets are reporting it as an SRBM, specifically a Scud, which would be consistent with Gitdaeryeong’s previous launches. Imagery posted by KCNA (and accessed via KCNAwatch on NK News) appears to be consistent with a Scud, though the launch vehicle is not visible in any imagery. The ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that the range was about 500km, which, out of the DPRK’s SRBM inventory, only fits the Hwasong-6 (Scud-C).
Two images of Kim Jong Un looking over the ‘launch area’ may reveal a photoshop job. While we do not have training or experience in error level analysis, which may yield a clearer answer, it is rather impressive that he moved a few feet from a comfortable standing position into another comfortable standing position while the missile apparently slowly arced through the sky.
Ballistic missiles move fairly quickly, and it would require a bit of footwork to move between two positions and have the launched missile appear in almost the same position. But this may be because there wasn’t a missile in one or both of these images. The missile as seen from the overlook appears to be at almost the exact same angle and position in its arc as this shot, presumably taken several seconds into the flight from below.
Here are the two shots Kim Jong Un is supposed to be looking at, enlarged, with a zoomed-in version of the above shot, as well.
A side by side comparison looks even more similar. The first in this series is the overhead shot, with the following two being the Kim Jong Un shots. Obviously the overhead is significantly better resolution. If these are in fact edited, then the lower resolution helps to not only fit it better into the image, but to obscure artifacts and obvious tells that it is the same image.
In addition, I attempted to lower the resolution of the overhead shot to fit the other two better. Again, the first image in this series is the overhead, the second two are from the Kim Jong Un shots.
We aren’t known for our photomanipulation skills, but it doesn’t seem like it would be that hard for someone with practice and dedication to put that overhead shot into the Kim Jong Un shots and alter the color so that it doesn’t stick out so obviously. We will give credit where credit is due, however. If these are manipulations, the glow of the burn on the clouds looks fairly good.
As well, Korea is known for its coastal mist and fog, but notice how thick the fog is in the Kim Jong Un shots vs. the on the ground missile body shot.
While there does appear to be some grey in the sky, and it is difficult to accurately access the area immediately above the missile due to both angle of view and the incredibly bright light, the stars in the sky in the back seem to indicate a clearer sky than shown elsewhere
This does not necessarily mean that either of these shots is heavily modified (save for the images of the missiles launching above the clouds). However it does seem to note a disconnect between the events, in that either there was significant image modification, or that some of these photos are from different events on different dates and under different conditions.
Since two missiles were tested that day, it would be reasonable to assume that the two images of Kim Jong Un watching are from each of the launches. However, as we mentioned, the actual missile images are strikingly similar, to the point of raising our suspicions. As well, neither quite match the conditions of the close-up imagery, raising additional issues. This could mean that the close-up image is a stock image, though we have thus been unable to locate any previous use of the image, thus explaining the mismatched weather patterns. As well, if anybody has friends in Wonsan, they could ask what the weather conditions were like, since the fog was quite thick from above.
As well, an oddity I haven’t been able to explain is one of the alleged in-flight images of the Hwasong-6, enlarged below.
Even though it is obviously moving very fast and at an angle, there appears to be something odd about the nosecone. John Grisafi from NK News and I had a long personal exchange on these images, because everything looks like a Hwasong-6 except for the nose in this one image, which almost looks more like a Shahab-3/Rodong-1 length nose (the long conic version, at least, since there are multiple options), tacked onto a Hwasong length body, or just a Shaheen-2 labelled as a DPRK test.
There are no absolute markers of length in this image, but the nose:body ratio is significantly off for a Hwasong, as can be seen in the launch pictures. As well, the other flight picture seems to have a normal Hwasong nose:body ratio, though it is quite fuzzy and hard to make out. Below is the normal looking Hwasong followed again by the elongated-appearing image.
We ultimately agreed it was likely a Hwasong-6, as the body, fins, burn color, and other images were consistent with a Hwasong-6 and that my misgivings about its nose were a result of something wonky with how the picture turned out, but I felt it would be worthwhile to post my confusion here as well.
The DPRK and state news agencies in general are known to fudge data upon occasion, and it is certainly not unusual to see altered or photoshopped images show up, especially when dealing with high-value military or propaganda assets.
Either way, this is something we’ll keep and eye on, and will continue updating until we have a detailed and easy-to-access timeline of missile and rocket launches. As well, we are still building our imagery database of Hwasong images, especially of launches, in the hopes of figuring out if these were manipulated or just coincidentally similar.
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'You want to see chaos in China,' a man says. 'No, I don't,' Huntsman answers. Spotted, Huntsman flees China rally
Jon Huntsman was caught on tape at an anti-government protest in China—and quickly left the scene after someone in the crowd noticed the U.S. ambassador's presence and accused him of wanting to see chaos in the country.
Huntsman, who will resign as U.S. ambassador to China on April 30 and who is considering a bid for the Republican nomination in 2012, was with members of his family in a crowd gathered outside a McDonald's in a busy Beijing shopping district in a demonstration designed to coincide with pro-democracy protests sweeping the Arab world.
Story Continued Below
"Hey Mr. Ambassador, what are you doing here?" a member of the crowd asked upon recognizing him, according to a video posted by the China-based blog Shanghiist.
The video is a propaganda-style clip that has been circulating on nationalistic, pro-Chinese government websites and forums.
"I'm just here to look around," said Huntsman, a Mandarin speaker, according to Shanghiist's translation of the video.
"You want to see chaos in China," the man said.
"No, I don't," Huntsman answered.
A U.S. Embassy spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that Huntsman was passing by on his way to a museum near Tiananmen Square with his family. The embassy told the Journal he wanted to see what was going on, and circled back later that day to see if it was still ongoing.
The anti-government gathering was part of a loosely organized protest movement dubbed the “Jasmine Revolution” and linked to pro-democracy protests in the Middle East.
While many generic references to the Jasmine Revolution have been censored in China by the Chinese government, the photos of Huntsman and accounts of his presence have been allowed to circulate, according to the Journal. |
It's not the first time (and it won't be the last), but a recent nationwide audit found some local governments inflated revenue levels and raised debt illegally, once again crushing China's credibility on the global stage when it comes to economic performance.
As Bloomberg reports, ten cities, counties or districts in the Yunnan, Hunan and Jilin provinces, as well as the southwestern city of Chongqing, inflated fiscal revenues by 1.55 billion yuan ($234 million), the National Audit Office said in a statement on its website dated Dec. 8.
The inspection, which covered the third quarter, also found that five cities or counties in the Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hunan and Hainan provinces raised about 6.43 billion yuan in debts by violating rules, such as offering commitment letters. The findings are a blow to China’s bid to rein in data fraud, which has been widespread in some of the poorer provinces where officials were incentivized to inflate the numbers as a way of advancing their careers. Concern from investors wanting to be able to trust data out of the world’s second-largest economy led to the government trying to crack down on the practice, with President Xi Jinping saying in March that data fraud “must be throttled,” according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
While historically investors would rapidly shrug this news off and buy more stocks, with Chinese sovereign bond yields near their Maginot Line of 4.00%, losing credibility could be critical.
A new supervisory body was set up within China’s statistics office in April to bolster and ensure data authenticity and quality.
The country is also shifting to the latest United Nations-based statistical standard and using computers -- rather than local reports -- to calculate provincial gross domestic product, the chief economist said in September. |
SAO PAULO, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Economists raised sharply their forecasts for Brazil's 2015 inflation rate to a level further exceeding the official target, a weekly central bank poll showed on Monday. Inflation is expected to end 2015 at 6.99 percent, up from 6.67 percent in the prior week's survey and 6.53 percent a month ago, according to the median forecast of about 100 market economists. Brazil's government targets an inflation rate of 4.5 percent, with a tolerance margin of two percentage points. The median estimate for economic growth this year dropped to 0.13 percent from 0.38 percent in the previous week's survey and 0.55 percent a month earlier. (pct) 2015 2016 previous new previous new forecast forecast forecast forecast Consumer inflation 6.67 6.99 5.70 5.60 Exchange rate 2.80 2.80 2.85 2.90 (reais per U.S dollar, end-period) Interest rate 12.50 12.50 11.50 11.50 (end-period) GDP growth 0.38 0.13 1.80 1.54 Industrial output 0.71 0.69 2.65 2.50 (Reporting by Asher Levine; Editing by Toby Chopra) |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcZ0TV7rcVY
A few weeks ago, Orbit Concepts teased us with the follow-up of the first JetPack DJ backpack – the JetPack Remixed. For those who aren’t familiar, the first JetPack backpack was introduced over a year ago as an all-in-one backpack designed to endure the rigors of the road, while protecting all of your DJ equipment. Today, we’ve got an exclusive first look at the new JetPack Remixed with the creators Daniel Vinh and Wil An and their ideas behind manufacturing high quality DJ backpacks.
First off, the bag seen in the video is a working prototype and lacks much of the branding. The finalized bag will be introduced in the near future, but we get a first look at all of the features.
First impressions – with the absence of a mixer section, the JetPack Remixed is a much more compact backpack. Retaining all of the essential compartments, the JetPack Remixed was clearly designed to maximize space. The exterior is made of your regular black nylon and appears rather minimal, however, allows for creativity with your personal branding through custom embroidery.
The main compartment was designed to fit what most DJ’s consider a standard set – cables, interfaces, hard drives, and a strategically positioned headphone pouch. I particularly liked this feature intended to keep your headphones away from the rest of the gear and prevent them from being crushed.
For the Digital Vinyl System DJ’s, say goodbye to carrying record sleeves. The JetPack Remixed has built-in record compartment, designed to hold four vinyl records and keeping them flat against your back to prevent any warping. Beneath this compartment has room for an optional battery pack with a slot to charge your mobile devices after a long nights work.
Overall, it is evident that Orbit Concepts has done their research and taken into consideration the DJ’s needs. Have a look at the video, it has some rather unique features and their attention to detail will be greatly appreciated.
As and when the bag is released, Orbit Concepts will run special promotions. Be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook. And to get a feel for who Orbit Concepts are, watch this interview we did with Daniel Vinh and Wil An.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVUXiW7yfss |
Porn star August Ames, who quickly rose to fame after winning two AVN Awards with more than 270 credits since her 2013 debut, has died at the age of 23.
While the cause of her death is yet to be determined, the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s office has confirmed the Canadian native passed away on Tuesday, December 5.
Ames’ husband, director Kevin Moore, released a statement over his wife’s tragic passing: “She was the kindest person I ever knew and she meant the world to me,” he said. “Please leave this as a private family matter in this difficult time.”
PHOTOS: See All Of Charlie Sheen’s Porn Star Girlfriends
The adult star’s death comes just days after she made headlines for being involved in a homophobia scandal.
On December 3, Ames’ caused a stir on social media when she tweeted that she had refused to work with male adult film performers in a shoot for the porn studio EroticaX.
Ames received immediate backlash for her rant, with various gay porn performers accusing her of being homophobic.
She tweeted: “Whichever (lady) performer is replacing me tomorrow for @EroticaXNews, you’re shooting with a guy who has shot gay porn, just to let cha know. BS is all I can say. Do agents really not care about who they’re representing? #LAdirect I do my homework for my body.”
whichever (lady) performer is replacing me tomorrow for @EroticaXNews , you’re shooting with a guy who has shot gay porn, just to let cha know. BS is all I can say🤷🏽♀️ Do agents really not care about who they’re representing? #ladirect I do my homework for my body🤓✏️🔍 — August Ames (@AugustAmesxxx) December 3, 2017
Ames’ page was quickly flooded with criticism over the controversial tweet, but she was quick to shut down her haters, insisting she’s not homophobic. “NOT homophobic,” she said in a tweet, adding, “Most girls don’t shoot with guys who have shot gay porn, for safety. That’s just how it is with me. I’m not putting my body at risk, i don’t know what they do in their private lives.”
“How am I homophobic if I myself am attracted to women? Not wanting to have sex with gay men is not homophobic; they don’t want to have sex with me either so byeeeee”
NOT homophobic. Most girls don’t shoot with guys who have shot gay porn, for safety. That’s just how it is with me. I’m not putting my body at risk, i don’t know what they do in their private lives. https://t.co/MRKt2GrAU4 — August Ames (@AugustAmesxxx) December 3, 2017
How am I homophobic if I myself am attracted to women? Not wanting to have sex with gay men is not homophobic; they don’t want to have sex with me either👋 so byeeeee — August Ames (@AugustAmesxxx) December 3, 2017
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Inside look at the unique life history of the swordfish.
Swordfish develop quickly—within one year, this little guy may be 39 inches.
By Juan C. Levesque
Ph.D. Candidate
As a fishery biologist working aboard commercial fishing vessels back in the 1990s, I can still remember the first broadbill swordfish (Xiphias gladius) I saw captured in the western North Atlantic Ocean. Besides its brilliant, radiant blue color, I remember becoming instantly fascinated by the swordfish’s bill; it’s no wonder why Linnaeus named it after the Latin word for sword, gladius, back in 1758.
From the perspective of a modern sportfisherman, “gladiator of the sea” is a great way to describe the swordfish: a powerful, determined fighter, capable of astonishing runs and leaps. And the fact is, science tells us these fish are fighters from day one.
Swordfish larvae primarily feed on fish larvae, but they also consume zooplankton. In the juvenile stage, swordfish have a diet that is very similar to an adult, which consists of squid, pelagic crustaceans, and a variety of fish. Born with a short snout and prickly scales, swordfish develop rapidly. Researchers in the Mediterranean Sea estimated the average growth rate of post-larvae/juvenile swordfish at somewhere between one-eighth and one-quarter of an inch per day, which is similar to postlarval growth rates reported for blue marlin and bluefin tuna. In the Pacific Ocean, the average size of a one-year-old swordfish is around 39 inches eye-to-fork length; most one-year-old swordfish are still immature—big babies, so to speak.
Considered the most widely distributed billfish, swordfish are found in tropical temperate sections of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans from about 45°N to 45°S latitude. In the western North Atlantic Ocean, swordfish are found from Newfoundland to Argentina; I’ve personally collected data on these fish from the Grand Banks to Brazil. In terms of year-round concentration, I recorded some of the highest catches of swordfish between Miami and Ft. Pierce, Florida between 1995 and 2001. Given their daily movement pattern, swordfish can be found between the surface and as deep as 3,700 feet. As such, they can tolerate wide-ranging water temperatures (41-81°F). In fact, swordfish have been reported to have the widest temperature range of any billfish.
Movement Patterns
Using pop-up satellite tags, researchers have shown that swordfish display a regular daily vertical migration pattern; they are active near the surface at night and in deeper (980 to 2000 feet) waters during the day. However, swordfish are also known to bask near the surface during the day. Like many species, the daily movements coincided with crepuscular (dawn and dusk) periods. These patterns are also affected by the moon phase.
Swordfish are also known to make long seasonal migrations. Although it is presumed there are resident populations in some locations (e.g. South Florida), many swordfish migrate to cooler waters in summer and warmer waters in winter. Satellite tracking data has shown that swordfish are capable of traveling 1,500 miles in just six weeks (about 37 miles per day). Recapturing a swordfish with a tag is quite an experience. I was on several trips where we recaptured several tagged swordfish. Based on my experience, I found that the most successful fishing captains understood this migratory behavior. They planned their trips and strategies by considering various environmental and behavioral factors, such as the moon phase, water temperature, current direction, swordfish movements, location and time of year.
Diet
Examining countless swordfish stomach contents to assess their diet, I found that swordfish are not generally selective predators. Classified as opportunistic feeders, swordfish consume a variety of species, including squid, pelagic crustaceans, and surface and deep dwelling fish. Swordfish pursue prey throughout the water column. Interestingly, research by Tibbo back in the 1960s proved that swordfish used their long bill to slash at larger prey. Although classified as apex predators, marine mammals and sharks have been known to prey on swordfish.
Age and Growth
The age and growth of swordfish has been challenging to estimate given their small otolith (ear bone), so scientists have used other hard parts, such as vertebrae, or dorsal and anal fins. Removing numerous anal fins with a hacksaw, I know that preparing, reading, and interpreting hard parts is quite an art. Despite these challenges, researchers from all over the world have now estimated the age and growth of swordfish from different oceans. For instance, in the Aegean Sea and Indian Ocean, swordfish have been reported to live up to 10 years, but in the Pacific Ocean longevity has been estimated at 12 years. It’s possible that swordfish can live longer, as these studies were based on specimens collected in commercial fisheries, which can sometimes bias age estimates. More recently, Arocha, a colleague of mine, estimated the age of a female swordfish at 16 years and a male at 12 years; these fish were captured off Venezuela.
Overall, swordfish grow rapidly in early years, but then their growth slows with age, which occurs around age 8 or 9. On average, swordfish grow about 14 inches per year, but there are differences between the sexes. Female swordfish grow faster, live longer, and reach a larger size than male swordfish; almost every swordfish I weighed that was heavier than 200 pounds was a female. It has been reported that swordfish can top 14 feet and 1,400 pounds in weight, but these large fish are rare these days. In my 7 years collecting data on commercial fishing vessels, the largest swordfish I ever saw captured was around 500 pounds; it was caught near West Palm Beach, Florida.
Reproduction
Similar to most fish, male swordfish mature at a smaller and younger age than females. According to a study by Taylor and Murphy in 1992, a small percentage of male swordfish begin to mature at age 1, at which time most of them measure about 39 inches from the tip of the lower jaw to the fork of the tail, otherwise known as lower jaw fork length, or LJFL. Females don’t begin maturing until age 4 (63 inches LJFL). By the time they are 5 (male) and 9 (female) years old, all swordfish are mature. In the Florida Straits, and around the world, swordfish display a protracted spawning season. In other words, active spawning occurs year-round. However, off Florida, spawning activity peaks from April to July. Research by Taylor and Murphy showed that gonad (reproductive gland) development for male (testis) and female (ovary) swordfish peaked in June. They also reported that female swordfish are capable of releasing between 1.4 and 4.2 million eggs; more recent research suggests that swordfish are capable of producing up to 8.7 million eggs. Interestingly, Taylor and Murphy did not find any evidence that larger and heavier female swordfish release more eggs than smaller and lighter females, which is sometimes common in other species. Although swordfish can spawn in multiple locations, they found histological evidence that swordfish spawn in the Gulf Stream between the Florida Keys and Cape Canaveral, Florida. In another study, Lee and Arocha, my old boss and colleague, respectively, discovered that swordfish primarily spawn off Florida, but they also spawn in the northern Caribbean Sea. Although I collected biological data on many ripe female swordfish in the Florida Straits, large females always seemed to gather in specific areas of the Caribbean, such the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti during fall through winter. Based on tagging, histological, and larvae abundance data, it’s evident that swordfish spawn in specific areas, such as the Florida Straits.
Fishery Management
In the United States, swordfish are targeted by commercial and recreational fisheries. Given their economic and social importance, management of swordfish and other Highly Migratory Species in the
western North Atlantic Ocean is a multilayered process that involves both domestic and international governing bodies; working as a fishery manager for NMFS in a previous life, I can attest that it’s a complicated process. The primary international governing body is the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. In the United States, swordfish are managed by the NMFS under the authority of several Congressional Acts, such as the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act. The NMFS implements fishery management regulatory measures under the guidance of ICCAT and other advisory groups, such as the HMS Advisory Panel. The latter is a diverse group of stakeholders and experts who are knowledgeable about Atlantic HMS and/or Atlantic HMS fisheries; HMS AP members serve three year terms. Currently, swordfish are managed using catch quotas, size limits, time/ area closures, and gear restrictions.
The commercial fishery began with a few fishermen targeting swordfish during the day with harpoons in the 1920s, but the fishery never fully expanded until the development of specialized commercial fishing gear (i.e., pelagic longline), which occurred in the 1960s. Directed commercial fishing effort continued to increase during the 1970s through 1980s, and by 1987 swordfish landings peaked in the western North Atlantic Ocean. Shortly thereafter, an evaluation of the swordfish stock revealed it had significantly declined and was at the verge of possible collapse. To recover the stock, ICCAT immediately implemented a 10-year rebuilding plan for swordfish in the Atlantic Ocean in 1999, which included reductions in the total allowable catch. In addition, the NMFS instituted a series of time area closures in the Gulf of Mexico and the Southeast region of the United States to prevent the bycatch and discards of HMS species that included juvenile swordfish.
Today, due to the stringent fishery management actions, reduction in commercial fishing effort, and strong recruitment, the most recent stock assessment for swordfish in the Atlantic suggests the stock has recovered and it’s at, or above, maximum sustainable yield. Given this recovery, swordfish once again support a productive recreational fishery.
As the first biologist to document the recovery of the recreational swordfish fishery off South Florida back in the early 2000s, I described the basic gear and techniques anglers used to target this highly migratory species. Today, these tactics have dramatically changed with the development of the daytime deep-drop strategy, which has produced some very large swordfish and helped expand the fishing guide service in South Florida. FS
First Published Florida Sportsman Sept. 2014
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Unrecognized at his time and lived much of his life in poverty, Howard Phillips Lovecraft shaped the horror fiction of a century and had a lasting legacy that still influences the horror genre through various mediums.
Among many other recurring themes, he mostly wrote about the humanity’s insignificance in the universe, sanity’s fragility, fear of the unknown, limitations and dangers of knowledge and its pursuit. He developed and used a philosophy of “Cosmicism” in his work, and his ideas, writings and further influence grew into a subgenre called after him, namely “Lovecraftian horror”.
His influence on literature can be seen particularly on modern horror and fantasy writers such as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore and Mike Mignola as well as many other authors. Lovecraft’s writing style and themes of his work have been proved to be difficult to adapt on big screen. Many adaptations up to now had a hard time due to various other reasons, but of course there have been some exceptions.
To further remind the readers, this list was meant for Lovecraft inspired films only. Therefore, it excludes adaptations, the films that are in some way based on a story of Lovecraft. There are not many successful adaptations either, but aforementioned choice is the reason that Call of Cthulhu of 2005 does not appear in the list, for example.
Also, the list doesn’t comprise of Lovecraftian films only, as the aim was to put together the most impressive films with Lovecraft influence on them. Hence, below exist some relatively unexpected entries. By any means, it is best to see the list as films that Lovecraft fans would enjoy.
1. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Jack Finney’s novel “The Body Snatchers” has been adapted to film four times and the Invasion of the Body Snatchers of 1978 is the second iteration. It was a box office success and has been mostly revered by the critics not only for being a strong adaptation, but also for being an exceptional remake.
It hosts a trio of actors that will come as familiar to sci-fi and horror fans alike: Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy and Jeff Goldblum. Together with the lead actress Brooke Adams they achieve a charming chemistry and every scene becomes delightful to watch.
In the book The Body Snatchers, we see the Earth under invasion of extraterrestrial seeds. The seeds are parasitic, they duplicate humans in their sleep and replace them, while turning the hosts into dust. Aside from the satirical interpretations of alienation, McCarthyism or that the humans are very much alike the pod people, the story has a terrifying science fiction concept and film serves it nicely.
While it is not a Lovecraftian film most of the time, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about mind possessing alien beings and this idea has been featured in many stories of Lovecraft. The film has a continuous sense of hopelessness, even more so than the original source material. Also, the transformation of Sutherland’s Matthew throughout the film makes him a very Lovecraftian protagonist.
2. Alien (1979)
At first glance Alien may only offer a plot that is reminiscent of “At the Mountains of Madness” and do not show any apparent similarity elsewhere, but most of the Lovecraftian elements in the film are very subtle to catch. That is because Alien is a product of a team that knows and adores the author’s work, so his influence is under the surface, hidden in details.
Writer Dan O’Bannon is a fan of Lovecraft since he was 12 years old and he would later go on to direct The Resurrected, which is a fairly faithful adaptation of the Lovecraft’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”. He attempted to write the script of the Alien in a Lovecraftian manner and although the mood has changed in Hill and Giller’s rewrites, final film retained some of that earlier Lovecraftian atmosphere.
O’Bannon wasn’t the only fan in the set. Swiss artist H.R. Giger says that Lovecraftian ideas had a significant impact on many aspects of his work. His works have always had a very distinct and a certain “biomechanical” style, but Lovecraftian influences are easy to see in his art.
It is especially eminent in his work for Alien, in the complete life cycle of the Xenomorph species. Giger would also go on to show his admiration for Lovecraft by naming his compendium of paintings after Necronomicon, the famous grimoire the author used frequently in his stories.
One of the most prominent films with Lovecraftian influence, Alien is a timeless classic and deserves to be considered one of the greatest films of all time, surpassing the limitations of its genre.
3. The Evil Dead (1981)
Though it may be away from the Lovecraftian tone and themes for the most part of it, The Evil Dead features many Lovecraft references and it is mostly revered as a cult horror movie by fans and non-fans alike. Also, the film marks the beginning of the collaboration between Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. The Evil Dead features a group of teenagers vacationing in a remote and isolated cabin. Unknowingly, they release a powerful evil force through the audiotape they find in the cabin’s cellar.
The tape they find belongs to an archeologist. Just like reading a Lovecraft story, we listen to the tape as the archeologist tells about his findings and how they brought destruction to him. He goes on to recite some incantations through the book he had found. The grimoire named “Naturom Demonto” is an homage to Lovecraft’s Necronomicon and possibly one of its most known appearances in popular culture.
While Sam Raimi was creating his prototype horror film Within the Woods -to attract investors’ interest for his further works- he was studying works of Lovecraft and became fascinated with the concept of Necronomicon. Even the initial name set for the project was “Book of the Dead”.
4. Possession (1981)
Possession brings some of the strongest characteristics of a Lovecraft story together in a well-done manner. The film hosts only a few characters of hazy nature. It begins like an ordinary tale of unfaithfulness but evolves into a much complicated and disturbing experience, sometimes becoming even too hard to watch. Through the eyes of the husband we find ourselves in a detective story, rather cluelessly searching for the answers while uncovering an intriguing backstory of a greater horror.
As a perfect mixture of drama, horror and suspense, Possession is truly a demanding film. We strive to learn more about what’s going on behind all the hassle on screen, but the film carefully hands it over, piece by piece.
At times, this lack of information together with the continuous tension creates a viewpoint that is absolutely paranoid. Most importantly, both the literal and symbolic façades of the story ask you to invest in the relationship of the main characters. We watch their lives very closely and bear witness to every temper tantrum.
It already gained itself a cult status, but late Andrzej Żuławski’s masterpiece needs more appraise for its exhausting camerawork and editing, stunning performances and storytelling techniques.
5. The Thing (1982)
As a part of the Apocalypse Trilogy, as Carpenter calls them, The Thing surely lives up to its name after three decades. From the iconic opening scene to the very end of the film it is simply a lengthy nightmare. “The Thing” is an extraterrestrial lifeform that assimilates and imitates other organisms and we watch a stranded research team’s struggle for survival. Even though it is a faithful adaptation of John W. Campbell’s novella “Who Goes There?”, there is an unmistakable influence of Lovecraft on the film.
As a hallmark of horror genre, it serves whatever one can want from a Lovecraftian film. We feel the heightening paranoia as each researcher suspects another. There is a certain sense of impending doom when we dare to think about the further catastrophes and realize their implications. Antarctica establishes an isolation of unimaginable scale and the constant feeling of claustrophobia and xenophobia don’t go anywhere even when the film is over.
It may be far-fetched to say that the source material “Who Goes There?” is influenced by Lovecraft’s earlier “At the Mountains of Madness”, but it is evident that they bear some similarities. They both detail an ill-fated research expedition to Antarctica. In both novellas, men of science uncover findings that hint to terrifying consequences and they encounter with an archaic alien organism.
Whatever its influences may be, with its unceasing suspense, splendid use of body-horror and realistic performances of its actors, The Thing still holds its place among the best horror movies of all time. |
If Bernie Ecclestone gets his way – and he is not a man particularly at ease with compromise – central London could soon echo with the roar of F1 cars tearing down Piccadilly at speeds previously matched only by midnight minicab drivers bearing peaky-looking fares.
The billionaire Formula One supremo, who has long dreamed of staging the world's biggest grand prix in the capital, has now offered to stump up the £35m needed to pay for the event.
Ecclestone believes that an F1 race in the heart of the city, with cars zooming past landmarks including Nelson's Column and Buckingham Palace, would eclipse the glamour of the Monaco circuit and pay for itself quite comfortably.
According to the Times, plans drawn up for the event – due to be unveiled on Thursday night – suggest it would be watched by 120,000 people in grandstands along a three-mile route and attract a global television audience in the tens of millions, generating as much as £100m for London's economy.
"With the way things are, maybe we would front it and put the money up for it," Ecclestone told the newspaper. "If we got the OK and everything was fine, I think we could do that."
He added that the financial benefits for both the capital and England would far outstrip the money brought in by the events taking place in east London and elsewhere this summer.
"Think what it would do for tourism," he said: "It would be fantastic, good for London, good for England – a lot better than the Olympics."
The proposed route would see cars lining up on the Mall, buzzing the Ritz, skirting Green Park, passing Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament before speeding along the Embankment, and hurtling through Trafalgar Square before nipping under Admiralty Arch and back to the Mall. Each of the 59 laps would take an F1 car a mere 94 seconds, with speeds on the Piccadilly and Birdcage Walk straights reaching 180mph.
Proposed London F1 route
The plans come at a time when governments around the world are queuing up to buy the rights to stage a grand prix for up to £30m per race.
A study by global design practice Populous has examined the feasibility of staging a London grand prix. Assistant principal John Rhodes told the Times the event would not cause major disruption, taking five days to set up equipment and three to dismantle it.
Others believe the revenue generated by an F1 race in London could even exceed Ecclestone's predictions.
Nigel Currie, the director of the leading sports marketing agency brandRapport, said the grand prix could represent a "commercial bonanza" for the capital.
"Maybe it would be two or three times that £100m," he told the Times. "A successful London Olympics will show that there is an appetite for big events and bringing a grand prix to the people on their doorstep will attract massive attention."
Darren Johnson, Green Party member of London Assembly said the F1 proposal was a "terrible idea".
"[It] sends out all the wrong messages about how our streets are used. We should be promoting safer streets by reducing our speeds and encouraging walking and cycling, not championing a high speed race such as this." |
Section 1. Introduction¶
In the fall of 2016, I was a Teaching Fellow (Harvard's version of TA) for the graduate class on "Advanced Topics in Data Science (CS209/109)" at Harvard University. I was in-charge of designing the class project given to the students, and this tutorial has been built on top of the project I designed for the class.
Why write yet another Tutorial on Machine Learning and Deep Learning?¶
As a researcher on Computer Vision, I come across new blogs and tutorials on ML (Machine Learning) every day. However, most of them are just focussing on introducing the syntax and the terminology relavant to the field. For example - a 15 minute tutorial on Tensorflow using MNIST dataset, or a 10 minute intro to Deep Learning in Keras on Imagenet.
While people are able to copy paste and run the code in these tutorials and feel that working in ML is really not that hard, it doesn't help them at all in using ML for their own purposes. For example, they never introduce you to how you can run the same algorithm on your own dataset. Or, how do you get the dataset if you want to solve a problem. Or, which algorithms do you use - Conventional ML, or Deep Learning? How do you evaluate your models performance? How do you write your own model, as opposed to choosing a ready made architecture? All these form fundamental steps in any Machine Learning pipeline, and it is these steps that take most of our time as ML practitioners.
This tutorial breaks down the whole pipeline, and leads the reader through it step by step in an hope to empower you to actually use ML, and not just feel that it was not too hard. Needless to say, this will take much longer than 15-30 minutes. I believe a weekend would be a good enough estimate.
About the Author¶
I am Spandan Madan, a graduate student at Harvard University working on Computer Vision. My research work is supervised collaboratively by Professor Hanspeter Pfister at Harvard, and Professor Aude Oliva at MIT. My current research focusses on using Computer Vision and Natural Language Techniques in tandem to build systems capable of reasoning using text and visual elements simultaneusly. |
Belgium’s Gaming Commission has been investigating whether loot boxes in video games constitute gambling. Today, via VTM News, we can report that the Gaming Commission has decided in the affirmative.
The Gaming Commission declared, “The mixing of money and addiction is gambling.” Belgium’s Minister of Justice Koen Geens added his voice to the decision stating, “Mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child.”
Geens has said that he will work to remove any and all in-game purchases that involve luck, such as loot boxes. Geens isn’t only talking about Belgium either, stating, “But that takes time, because we have to go to Europe. We will certainly try to ban it.”
The news comes after a week of controversy for publisher EA and Star Wars: Battlefront II. |
Manchester United will accelerate contract talks with David de Gea after agreeing an 18-month deal with World Cup winner Victor Valdes.
As revealed by MailOnline, United are set to announce that Valdes, 32, will become the club’s first signing of the transfer window after the out-of-contract goalkeeper came through an extended trial.
The signing of a man who won three Champions League medals at Barcelona and was in Spain’s 2010 World Cup-winning squad has raised questions about De Gea’s future. The 24-year-old has only 18 months left on his contract and is being courted by Real Madrid.
David de Gea has been a rock at the heart of Manchester United's defence and the club will want to keep him
Victor Valdes (left) works out, wearing a Red Devils snood, with United's first-choice keeper De Gea
The Spain keeper has agreed an 18-month deal with United as he bids to return to action after injury
Valdes was recovering from injury and has not played since last March
Former Barcelona keeper Valdes' attitude has impressed staff and players at United
United chief executive Ed Woodward and De Gea’s agent Jorge Mendes plan to move the matter of the player’s contract forward this month in the hope he will agree to stay.
De Gea has not closed his mind to a move back to Spain but he and his parents, who remain influential, are not actively looking to leave Manchester and recently declared themselves happy and settled in the North West.
United manager Louis van Gaal has said little about his plans for Valdes but has been impressed enough in recent weeks to offer him a deal.
Current No 2 Anders Lindegaard is not considered good enough by Van Gaal.
Goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard (left) could be allowed to return to Scandinavia
United say they won't stand in the way of Ben Amos (right) should another club come knocking
Valdes is currently living in the Lowry Hotel in the city centre but is believed to be looking for property in the same area as his compatriots De Gea, Juan Mata and Ander Herrera.
Valdes will also bring his family to live with him in Manchester. |
Joel Wright is a 23 year old student who attends The Pontifical College Josephinum, a seminary school in Columbus, Ohio. He planned on becoming a priest. [+]
On January 29th, 2016, Wright was arrested at San Diego International Airport by agents from Immigration and Custom Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). According to the investigators, Wright posted multiple ads on Craigslist regarding the adoption of infants; After chatting with undercover agents, Wright revealed that he planned on raping the infants. In an email, Wright wrote "I have not gone all the way before but I have made it very close in the past so I do have experience." Wright allegedly wrote that he wanted to adopt a child under 3 years old and have intercourse with the child. Wright was arrested after he landed in San Diego on Jan. 29. Investigators said he was told he would meet the tour guide but instead was arrested by federal agents. [+] |
When it comes to Massachusetts food and drink accolades, bars and restaurants in Boston and Cambridge tend to dominate. But Esquire‘s list of 2017’s best bars in America includes a cocktail bar that’s well outside the downtown bubble.
Baldwin and Sons Trading Co. is an intimate cocktail bar in Woburn from award-winning bartender Ran Duan. The 45-seat bar is located in an old colonial mansion upstairs from Sichuan Garden II, owned by Duan’s parents, and the accompanying Baldwin Bar, which Duan also runs.
Esquire praised Baldwin & Sons Trading Co. for its elaborate drink vessels, citing the “brown and bitter recipes in flasks served in cigar boxes” and “a glass egg filled with Aperol, absinthe, and grapefruit served on a bed of flowers.”
Ran Duan at Baldwin Bar. —Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff
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The publication also made note of the outstanding food menu, which is an abbreviated version of the Sichuan Garden’s menu downstairs.
“Picture the best Chinese-takeout restaurant you’ve been to: dumplings and thick-cut bacon in garlic, ginger, and Sichuan peppers,” writes Esquire‘s Luke O’Neil. “Now put that inside a New England Colonial mansion built in 1661. When you tack on one of the best cocktail bars in Massachusetts, it’s almost an embarrassment of riches.”
If the 25-minute cab ride from downtown Boston to Baldwin & Sons is too much for you, O’Neil also reported that Duan has plans to add a rum-focused cocktail bar to Sichuan Garden I in Brookline at some point. |
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Former Newcastle midfielder Sylvain Marveaux was among four people arrested in France over the £5million football tax probe engulfing British clubs, it has been reported.
Sources close to the investigation that also involves West Ham said the 31-year-old was “answering questions”.
Marveaux signed a five-year deal with Newcastle in June 2011 and was finally released in May 2016.
During this period Marveaux was loaned to French side Guingamp, and is now with League 1 side Lorient.
In its coverage of those arrested in France, today’s Le Parisien newspaper writes: “According to our information, they are three players’ agents, as well as Lorient’s attacking midfielder Sylvain Marveaux, the former Newcastle player.”
The role of agents is the main focus of the investigation, according to sources on both side of the Channel.
Around 180 officers were involved in raids in the UK and France, with Britain’s HMRC saying it had “arrested several men working within the professional football industry for a suspected income tax and national insurance fraud. Investigators have searched a number of premises in the North-East and South-East of England and arrested men and also seized business records, financial records, computers and mobile phones. The French authorities are assisting the UK investigation, and have made arrests and several locations have been searched in France.”
Marveaux played only 38 games for Newcastle in four years, and when signing for Lorient he described his time in the Premier League as “a failure”.
Discussing Newcastle’s former manager Alan Pardew, he said: “I always tried to stay positive and make the maximum impact. At one time, my relationship with the coach was a little tough. So, I had to leave, that’s why I asked to go out on loan, including Guingamp.”
A source at Lorient today said Marveaux was suffering from a hamstring injury picked up two weeks ago during a game against Montpellier.
He said Marveaux was training by cycling indoors and was hoping to get back to full fitness. There was no comment on the legal allegations.
Beyond the four arrests in France, legal sources said there had been “10 raids of various locations” over the past week. In France it is reported that other clubs being investigated include Marseille.
Senior Marseille directors have been charged as part of the probe, with around 800 bank accounts and 110 companies examined.
The deals Marseille have done include several involving West Ham and Newcastle, although it is not known whether any of these are the subject of the current investigation.
Dimitri Payet arrived from the Ligue 1 side for £12m and then returned to Marseille in January for £25m. Midfielder Alou Diarra also made the move from Marseille to West Ham, arriving for £2m in 2012.
Newcastle, meanwhile, bought Florian Thauvin for a reported £15m in 2015 and loaned him back to Marseille for two seasons. He was due to be sold back this summer for £9.8m.
Newcastle also bought Remy Cabella from Marseille in 2014 for a reported £8m. He was also loaned back until the transfer was made permanent last August.
The French inquiry is being run by examining magistrate Guillaume Cotelle. Marseille have the 20th highest wage bill in European football, paying their staff £82m a year.
Meanwhile, West Ham today ruled out any questions to Slaven Bilic about the raid.
Around 50 officers visited the London Stadium and West Ham’s training ground at Rush Green.
Before this morning’s press conference to preview this weekend’s game away to Stoke, the club’s head of media relations, Max Fitzgerald, said no questions about the investigation should be directed to the West Ham manager, particularly since the squad were on a day off and were not at the training ground yesterday.
In a statement yesterday, West Ham said they were “co-operating fully with HMRC to assist their inquiries”.
HMRC officers also visited Chelsea although the club are not implicated in any wrongdoing. |
In 2002, Jenkins and Lisa Miller, her then-partner, had Isabella. But Miller later renounced her lesbianism and moved to Virginia with their daughter. With the help of Liberty Counsel – identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBT hate group – Miller resisted Jenkins’ efforts to maintain a relationship with her daughter, fighting a multi-state custody battle that lasted for years. When it became clear that a Vermont court might award custody to Jenkins, Miller – rather than complying with a court order – fled with Isabella to Nicaragua, where Miller and Isabella apparently remain in hiding to this day.
Jenkins filed a lawsuit in 2012 against Miller and others who had conspired to assist in the kidnapping, but the case was put on hold in favor of criminal prosecutions against some of the conspirators. This fall, Jenkins, represented by Sarah Star, Esq. as well as attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center and Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP, asked the federal court in Vermont to lift the stay, and, in light of new evidence adduced through the criminal prosecutions, to permit them to name Liberty Counsel, Liberty University, as well as Liberty Counsel lawyers Mat Staver and Rena Lindevaldsen, as defendants. On Monday, the court issued a 61-page order granting that request and lifting the stay.
“I’m pleased that the court today expressly confirmed that the kidnapping was an affront to our client’s rights not just as a mother, but also as a former member of a same-sex couple whose rights the Constitution protects,” said Sarah Star, Esq., who also served as Ms. Jenkins' attorney during the custody dispute. “The court acknowledged its obligation to protect those rights and to ensure that we can pursue Ms. Jenkins’ claims expeditiously, which we intend to do.”
“The court has given the green light to a full exploration of Liberty Counsel’s role in the kidnapping of Isabella, as well as the role of the Liberty Counsel lawyers,” said David Dinielli, deputy legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “We are pleased the court recognized that our allegations suggested ‘significant wrongdoing’ by these lawyers, including Mat Staver, and we will move swiftly to learn more about their wrongdoing and to hold everyone involved in the kidnapping to account.”
"We are gratified that we can now move this case forward on behalf of our client Janet,” said Fritz Langrock, partner at Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP. |
Last week marked the end of the nearly 6 months of eruption from the Holuhraun lava field between Barðarbunga and Askja in Iceland. The eruption was the largest in Iceland for over 200 years, dumping more than 1.4 cubic kilometers of basaltic lava over the barren landscape. Along with the lava came unprecedented subsidence of the floor within the Barðarbunga caldera, an event that had never been observed (or measured precisely with GPS) in Iceland. In all senses of the word, this was a historic eruption, both in terms of its volcanic significance and the instant worldwide media sensation the eruption became.
Geologists from the Icelandic Meteorological Office and University of Iceland visited the crater of the Holuhraun eruption only days after the eruption ended. The crater is still a hot place – some of the cracks at the bottom of the crater are still 500-600ºC (which suggests that magma might only be 3-5 meters / 9-15 feet below the surface). There are also still many active vents releasing sulfur dioxide (and more), giving the area a blue haze when the winds are calm. You can pick out some of the zones where hot gases has escaped because they are coated with light colored minerals.
You can see a lot of typical features found in a coalesced vent froma Hawaiian-style eruption in the shot of the Holuhraun crater. The crater walls are mainly made of agglutinate – blebs and bombs of lava that pile up as they erupt from the vent (see image below). The spatter builds up in layers to form the cone and eventually become strong enough to hold in lava flows and lakes. The agglutinate is black but can turn red as it oxidizing hot at the surface after eruption.
A view of the multiple vents from the Holuhraun eruption, seen on September 4, 2014. The lava spraying from the fountains construct the sides of the eventual cones seen in the March 2015 image (top). Peter Hartree/Wikimedia Commons
The interior of the crater once was the home of a small lava lake and you can see some of the evidence of levels of the lava lake in the crater. A "bathtub ring" is left at the high stand of the lake (along with some levels as it drained). The surface of the lake solidified before the interior, so it was somewhat rigid as the lake drained, so the sagged and broken skin of the lake is evident in the shot as well.
The massive lava fountain and lava lake during the 1959 Kilauea Iki eruption. J.P. Eaton/USGS. Click to see larger image.
All of these features reminded me of a spot on Kilauea in Hawaii that experienced a very similar eruption back in the 1959. The Kilauea Iki eruption was a fissure vent that opened in November 1959 and quickly coalesced into a single vent that had an accompanying lava lake (see above). This lava lake was massive, reaching as much as 100 meters / ~300 feet thick (much bigger than Holuhraun's lake)! When we visited Kilauea in March 2013, we hiked through the remnants of Kilauea Iki and could see the same "bathtub rings" and collapsed lava lake surface that are seen in the Holuhraun shot (see below). Like Holuhraun, after the eruption ended, there was still lava cooling under the surface. USGS geologists from the Hawaii Volcano Observatory drilled into the surface of the cooling lava lake and actually hit molten lava over the course of the next decade during repeated drilling.
The Kilauea Iki valley, showing the features created by the 1959 lava fountain and lava lake, photographed March 2013. Erik Klemetti. Click to see larger image.
You can get a sense of the scale of the eruption at Kilauea Iki by comparing the shot I took of the valley in 2013 (with the hiking trail marked) and the USGS image taken in December 1959.
The Holuhraun eruption may be over (but still bubbling not far beneath the surface), but the features that it created across Iceland's landscapes will likely last for thousands and thousands of year ... at least until ice covers the area again or a new eruption buries the evidence of this historic event. |
Posted 03 November 2015 - 03:31 PM
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Edited by PanzerMagier, 03 November 2015 - 04:32 PM. |
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The Starfield revelation: medically caused death in America
by Jon Rappoport
March 6, 2015
NoMoreFakeNews.com
My 2009 interview with Dr. Barbara Starfield, a year and a half before she died, focused on her stunning exposure of medically caused death in America.
Starfield was a revered public health expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her July 26, 2000, review, “Is US health really the best in the world?”, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Starfield paper can be downloaded freely (as a .pdf) from here (via http://www.drug-education.info). The paper is fully cited as Starfield B. Is US health really the best in the world?. JAMA. 2000; 284(4):483-4 . Dr. Barbara Starfield’s wiki page is here.
In other words, this was a mainstream report. There was every reason for it to cause a firestorm in the press, and in the halls of government.
But that’s not what happened.
After a flurry of press stories, intentional amnesia set in.
If you’re looking for evidence that institutionalized American medicine doesn’t care about killing people, here it is.
Medical societies don’t care, most doctors don’t care, medical schools don’t care, public-health agencies don’t care, Congress doesn’t care, the Department of Justice doesn’t care, Presidents don’t care, drug companies don’t care, insurance companies don’t care.
As for major media and medical reporters, they intentionally hide this story and its implications every day of every year.
When people with the power to do something about medically caused death—and I’m talking about huge numbers of victims—know what’s going on and ignore it…what do you call that? Depraved indifference? Negligent homicide?
I call it murder.
Mass murder.
Barack Obama and his allies have done everything they can to bring more people into the US medical system. Changing that system has never occurred to these politicians.
Like much of America, they accept the cliches and slogans about American medicine. “It’s the best in the world.” “People are being denied treatment.” “We must take care of our citizens.”
How about this far more accurate slogan: “Let’s force more Americans to die in the care of doctors.”
The American healthcare system, like clockwork, causes a mind-boggling number of deaths every year.
On July 26, 2000, the US medical community received a titanic shock, when one of its most respected public-health experts, Dr. Barbara Starfield, revealed her findings on healthcare in America. Starfield was associated with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
The Starfield study, “Is US health really the best in the world?”, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, came to the following conclusions:
Every year in the US there are:
* 12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgeries;
* 7,000 deaths from medication errors in hospitals;
* 20,000 deaths from other errors in hospitals;
* 80,000 deaths from infections acquired in hospitals;
* 106,000 deaths from FDA-approved correctly prescribed medicines.
The total of medically-caused deaths in the US every year is 225,000.
That’s 2.25 MILLION deaths per decade.
This makes the medical system the third leading cause of death in the US, behind heart disease and cancer.
The Starfield study is the most disturbing revelation about modern healthcare in America ever published in the mainstream.
On the heels of Starfield’s astonishing findings, media reporting was rather perfunctory, and it soon dwindled. No major newspaper or television network mounted an ongoing “Medicalgate” investigation. Neither the US Department of Justice nor federal health agencies undertook prolonged remedial action.
All in all, those parties who could have taken effective steps to correct this situation preferred to ignore it.
On December 6-7, 2009, I interviewed Dr. Starfield by email. Here are excerpts from that interview.
What has been the level and tenor of the response to your findings, since 2000?
The American public appears to have been hoodwinked into believing that more interventions lead to better health, and most people that I meet are completely unaware that the US does not have the ‘best health in the world’.
In the medical research community, have your medically-caused mortality statistics been debated, or have these figures been accepted, albeit with some degree of shame?
The findings have been accepted by those who study them. There has been only one detractor, a former medical school dean, who has received a lot of attention for claiming that the US health system is the best there is and we need more of it. He has a vested interest in medical schools and teaching hospitals (they are his constituency).
Have health agencies of the federal government consulted with you on ways to mitigate the [devastating] effects of the US medical system?
NO.
Since the FDA approves every medical drug given to the American people, and certifies it as safe and effective, how can that agency remain calm about the fact that these medicines are causing 106,000 deaths per year?
Even though there will always be adverse events that cannot be anticipated, the fact is that more and more unsafe drugs are being approved for use. Many people attribute that to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is (for the past ten years or so) required to pay the FDA for reviews [of its new drugs]—which puts the FDA into an untenable position of working for the industry it is regulating. There is a large literature on this.
Aren’t your 2000 findings a severe indictment of the FDA and its standard practices?
They are an indictment of the US health care industry: insurance companies, specialty and disease-oriented medical academia, the pharmaceutical and device manufacturing industries, all of which contribute heavily to re-election campaigns of members of Congress. The problem is that we do not have a government that is free of influence of vested interests. Alas, [it] is a general problem of our society—which clearly unbalances democracy.
Can you offer an opinion about how the FDA can be so mortally wrong about so many drugs?
Yes, it cannot divest itself from vested interests. (Again, [there is] a large literature about this, mostly unrecognized by the people because the industry-supported media give it no attention.)
Would it be correct to say that, when your JAMA study was published in 2000, it caused a momentary stir and was thereafter ignored by the medical community and by pharmaceutical companies?
Are you sure it was a momentary stir? I still get at least one email a day asking for a reprint—ten years later! The problem is that its message is obscured by those that do not want any change in the US health care system.
Are you aware of any systematic efforts, since your 2000 JAMA study was published, to remedy the main categories of medically caused deaths in the US?
No systematic efforts; however, there have been a lot of studies. Most of them indicate higher rates [of death] than I calculated.
What was your personal reaction when you reached the conclusion that the US medical system was the third leading cause of death in the US?
I had previously done studies on international comparisons and knew that there were serious deficits in the US health care system, most notably in lack of universal coverage and a very poor primary care infrastructure. So I wasn’t surprised.
Did your 2000 JAMA study sail through peer review, or was there some opposition to publishing it?
It was rejected by the first journal that I sent it to, on the grounds that ‘it would not be interesting to readers’!
Do the 106,000 deaths from medical drugs only involve drugs prescribed to patients in hospitals, or does this statistic also cover people prescribed drugs who are not in-patients in hospitals?
I tried to include everything in my estimates. Since the commentary was written, many more dangerous drugs have been added to the marketplace.
INTERVIEWER COMMENTS:
This interview with Dr. Starfield reveals that, even when an author has unassailable credentials within the medical-research establishment, the findings can result in no changes made to the system.
Many persons and organizations within the medical system contribute to the annual death totals of patients, and media silence and public ignorance are certainly major factors, but the FDA is the assigned gatekeeper, when it comes to the safety of medical drugs.
The buck stops there. If those drugs the FDA is certifying as safe are killing, like clockwork, 106,000 people a year, the Agency must be held accountable. The American people must understand that.
As for the other 119,000 people killed every year as a result of hospital treatment, this horror has to be laid at the doors of those institutions. Further, to the degree that hospitals are regulated and financed by state and federal governments, the relevant health agencies assume culpability.
It is astounding, as well, that the US Department of Justice has failed to weigh in on Starfield’s findings. If 225,000 medically caused deaths per year is not a crime by the Dept. of Justice’s standards, then what is?
To my knowledge, not one person in America has been fired from a job or even censured as result of these medically caused deaths.
Dr. Starfield’s findings have been available for 15 years. She has changed the perception of the medical landscape forever. In a half-sane nation, she would be accorded a degree of recognition that would, by comparison, make the considerable list of her awards pale. And significant and swift action would have been taken to punish the perpetrators of these crimes and reform the system from its foundations.
The pharmaceutical giants stand back and carve up the populace into “promising markets.” They seek new disease labels and new profits from more and more toxic drugs. They do whatever they can—legally or illegally—to influence doctors in their prescribing habits. Many studies which show the drugs are dangerous are buried. FDA panels are filled with doctors who have drug-company ties. Legislators are incessantly lobbied and supported with pharma campaign monies.
Nutrition, the cornerstone of good health, is ignored or devalued by most physicians. Meanwhile, the FDA continues to attack nutritional supplements, even though the overall safety record of these nutrients is excellent, whereas, once again, the medical drugs the FDA certifies as safe are killing 106,000 Americans per year.
Physicians are trained to pay exclusive homage to peer-reviewed published drug studies. These doctors unfailingly ignore the fact that, if medical drugs are killing a million Americans per decade, the studies on which those drugs are based must be fraudulent. In other words, the whole literature is suspect, unreliable, and impenetrable.
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at NoMoreFakeNews.com or OutsideTheRealityMachine. |
Ok .. a couple of months ago i decided to make a Zelda fanart. So i thought about the dozens of images that were imprinted in my memory by playing all those games .. and it was a tough choice to decide which way to do.Until i realized what the game was all about, and then my job was pretty easy.I could have chosen a lot of different images ... could have done all those fancy images of combat, flashing things, blur, all that shit .. but i think this one, in it's simplicity, is much better to describe the game. If you take all the locations, all things Link does in all the games, it boils down to this.Courage.I remember the 1st time i played Ocarina of Time in christmas night on the year that it launched. I after a couple of hours exploring the village, figuring out what to do, i got into the 1st dungeon. And that is the image of the final boss of it.Its that simple. You walk into Gohma's Lair, there's no sound besides your footsteps, all is dark and Navi (the fairy) is flying around, until you hear some "cracking sound" from something moving in the room .. you look around until you spot in the ceilling. It's jumps down in front of you .. stare down, Link unsheath his sword and tiny woden shield and get ready ... Navi ready to assist him.This is pretty much what all games from the series are about. A kid (or young guy) simply moving foward by sheer courage to save someone, or everyone .. He's not the badass hero that nearly every game now has .. that kill legions of enemies.He's just this:A kid with his tiny sword and wooden shield.And people wonder why i think they are the best series of all time..ps. The image is sharper on "download"ps2. you can find the videos that cover most of the work done in this one, in here www.youtube.com/user/krysdecke… --------------------------[Facebook] = www.facebook.com/krysdecker --------If you want to get this printed, you can get at www.inprnt.com/gallery/krysdec… |
16. Tyler Deaton and the Cult of Christianity
The early days of college were, for me, the waning days of a once fervent belief in Christianity. Ardent and devoted as a high schooler, my religious faith was, by this point, in splinters from a relentless onslaught of negative experiences within the church, as well as the onslaught of logic, reason, and evidence presented to me at university.
Sophomore year, in one last ditch (but earnest) effort to try once and for all to “make it work” (Christianity is, after all, a very big deal in my family), I decided to join my university’s chapter of the Kappa Chi Men’s Christian fraternity. This was much to the chagrin of one of the other mainstream fraternities who had been hoping I would join them (one of their brothers called me “Jesus Boy” until he graduated).
In Christian terms, my stint in the fraternity proved to be unfruitful. You see, college for me was a time of opening up and experimenting. I was enjoying parties, drinking alcohol, smoking pot, all of the normal college “coming of age” activities that most Americans go through. Whether or not these things were good for my health, or really beneficial in any way, is beside the point. For me the issue was that despite the fact that I did these things, I didn’t become a bad person (which is what I had been taught in my Christian upbringing…that these things were bad and only bad people did them). In fact, quite the opposite happened. I became a better person. I was much less judgmental of others than I had been in high school, where I heaped scorn, ridicule, and shame on the “potheads”, “liberals”, “feminists” and a host of “Others.” So my hope was, despite the change in some aspects of my behavior (which the bible wasn’t all that clear on anyways), I had become a better person, and therefore, my relationship with Christianity might survive in tact.
After all, Jesus was a “partier” wasn’t he? Within Christianity there’s a big debate as to whether or not Jesus drank alcohol. His first miracle was the creation of some ultra-high class wine for a wedding. It’s clear to me that Jesus was a yogi, and therefore probably didn’t drink. I don’t either anymore. But the Pharisees accused him of it. More importantly, they were butt-hurt that he went to parties, and hung out with party people. But Jesus understood what I understood: that parties are where the cool people are. The interesting ones. The open-minded ones. For him, it was where he could find the ones who might actually listen to some of his ideas. For me, at my university, on the weekends you either partied or cloistered yourself in your room studying all night in hopes that you wouldn’t disappoint your Dad by not getting into medical school. So I went to parties. And I hoped, with my last tattered threads of a dying faith, that maybe, just maybe, I could find a group of Christians who cared about more than just superficial notions of “proper behavior.”
Alas, twas not to be. And, to the brothers of Kappa Chi, it didn’t really matter that Jesus made awesome wine. And it didn’t really matter what kind of person I was, or how much I loved people, or why I went to these parties. What mattered was that I didn’t follow their rules. And therefore, I was a bad person. Because good people follow rules, whether or not they are good people.
And so it was that, through a tedious, bureaucratic, and overdrawn process, I was excommunicated from the church of Kappa Chi (and hence, for me, from Christianity in general). By this point, of course, I had seen it coming for a long time, so the final, deftly hammered nail into the coffin of my religious faith wasn’t much of a shock. In the final Chapter Meeting where the proceedings took place, I was stoned. Not stoned like the adulterers and blasphemers of Jesus’ time, but stoned on marijuana. (I had serendipitiously run into some friends smoking in their car near the path where I took my afternoon jog). This only added to the surreal feeling of being somewhat-ceremoniously dumped from a group that I had barely wanted to join. It should be noted that membership of the fraternity dropped to 4 the next year (down from 20 or so the year I had joined, and from 35 or so the year before that). The next year the fraternity president, who had been a pledge brother and was still a friend, sheepishly asked if I might like to join again, to which I gave a hardy “Thanks but no thanks.”
An even more surreal moment came years later, after I had moved to Taiwan, when it came to light that one of the members who had “led the charge” against me had started an End-Times cult in suburban Kansas City, where (apparently, “allegedly”) he had been manipulating “recovering homosexuals” into sleeping with him, had gotten married, was having other members of the cult sleep with his wife (on account of being unable to get a hard-on, on account of being gay and what-not), and had conned one of his members into murdering his wife, making it look like a suicide, in order to cover up the systematic rape being committed by the cult members. And this was only the weird secret stuff. Outwardly they were living together preparing spiritually and militarily for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, who would lead them in a battle against the Antichrist (who is apparently Oprah Winfrey….seriously…..you can’t make this stuff up).
And yet, I was the asshole because sometimes I smoked pot and drank Four Loko at parties in college.
What’s my point in all of this? Is it just to gloat? If I’m being honest, yes, it’s party to gloat. So let me go ahead and gloat for a second.
This is the sound of me gloating.
Did you enjoy that gloat?
I know I did.
My other reason I bring up this story is because, for me, it’s a very real, personal, and tragic experience of the difference between spirituality and religion. You see, I’m fundamentally a spiritual person, meaning that I am guided and motivated by inner sense of love and a desire for Truth. And because of this, religion and I have never gotten along. Ever. Sure, we’ve been able to sit in the same room from time to time, to “keep the peace”, but we’ve never enjoyed each others’ company.
You see, religion is pseudo-spirituality. It promises all of the things that spirituality offers (a never ending source of Truth, Love, and Happiness), but it never delivers. All that it ultimately delivers is dogma and superstition.
What is dogma? Dogma is believing something “just because”. “Because it’s what we’ve always believed.” “Because I want to believe it.” “Because [insert authority here] says so, that’s why!”. This is dogma.
What is superstition? Superstition is believing something, or doing something, or acting in some way because you are afraid of what will happen otherwise. “If we don’t bow to Mecca 5 times a day, Allah will be angry and we won’t get into paradise.” “If we don’t recite the prayers from the Tibetan Book of the Dead the soul will be lost after death and won’t achieve a higher rebirth.” These are all examples of superstition.
And so we can see how these forces are actively at work in Christianity, despite the constant insistence by Christians that it’s “not a religion, it’s a relationship!” Oh really? Because it sure sounds like a religion to me! And how do we know it’s a religion, not a relationship? Because ultimately when it comes down to any question, be it of theology or ethics or anything at all, really, the answer is always going to be “Because the Bible says so.” And if not the Bible, then it’s the Church. Or if it’s not the Church, it’s the Pastor. (You’ll also notice here that doing what Jesus actually says and does, I.e loving your neighbor, giving your things away to the poor, etc. doesn’t feature prominently in mainstream Christian culture).
And what about superstition? How does it factor in? Of course we all know the answer to this one, and the fact is that ultimately all the talk of love, and joy and peace is coupled with the fact that if you don’t choose the right religion (ahem, excuse me, “accept Jesus’ sacrifice”) you will spend an eternity in Hell after you die, which, depending on your flavor, is either an illustriously torturous place with demons and fire and pinecones-in-assholes, or for the more sober-minded Calvinists amongst us, is simply a cold, dark place away from God. “But you can avoid it if you join our religion!” Also, sorry if you happen to be born in the Middle East, or China, or any other place where Christianity isn’t a predominant force and your chances of becoming a Christian (or even hearing about it) are tremendously slim. “But God loves you and so do we! So please join our religion or else enjoy hell! Thanks!”
And of course, hell is a rather childish and simple psychological mechanism of control (that’s still tremendously effective). Other than hell, a more potent and common mechanism of superstition used with Christianity (and many other religions) is the idea that without the religion, life will be meaningless and full of torment and despair. This is the weapon wielded by Mormons (who don’t really believe in hell, per se). But for them it’s also coupled with the very real threat of complete social isolation from the community. This is particularly cruel, as this fear is a very real and deeply rooted fear within the psyche of all human beings, on account of us being social primates and what-not.
The point is, Christianity in all of its forms relies on the use of force, disguised as love. This is like me taking you on a date and saying “Sex with me is so great! It’s so wonderful! And guess what, if you don’t do it, I’ll hurt you!” Nowadays, this pattern of thinking and behavior is commonly known as rape.
Why do I say all this? Do I do this to ridicule what is already so apparently ridiculous (at least to those who have managed to escape its powerful psychological grasp)? Is it because it’s fun? Well, yes, partly. Although making fun of Christianity is a bit like challenging children to a foot-race. It’s fun and easy for a while, but eventually it gets boring and just makes you look like an asshole.
The real reason is to point out how dangerous and harmful fear is. Ultimately, fear is the opposite of love. Those are the two opposing forces of our lives, Fear and Love. In whatever places you have Fear in your heart, it’s impossible to have Love. Keep in mind here that when I say Fear, I’m not talking about “mindfulness” or “caution”. Of course one should mindful and cautious of a hot stove top, but to Fear the stove top means to never go into the kitchen, or to never cook a delicious meal. Fear is the anti-freedom, and Love is the ultimate freedom.
But it is this fear that is bound up in the heart of Christianity. It was this fear that created this end-times cult, that led a group of otherwise rational, intelligent, and fiercely passionate people (again, I knew a lot of these guys) to behave in such a ridiculous, and ultimately dangerous and violent way. Fear was the fly that poisoned the whole ointment.
Fear is at the heart of confinement. And anybody who has ever been locked up in a jail, prison, or psych ward can tell you, there is nothing more humilating, more denigrating, more inhuman than being confined. Religion is nothing more than psychological and intellectual confinement. And this, Mom and Dad, is why I will never go back, despite your ceaseless prodding. You can continue to prod, if it makes you feel better, but you should understand why, once and for all, I will always ignore you.
Lastly, I’d like to say that the ultimate point of all of this is to demonstrate that spirituality is a real force that operates in the world. Indeed, it’s at the heart of Love, or Love is in it’s heart. We in the West, since the ridiculous facade of our religion has come down, have assumed that because our religion was false that it must follow that there is no such thing as spirituality. It’s not surprising really. We’ve been dating a rapist for so long that we’ve forgotten that there is such a thing as making love, so we run from anything that has even a hint of that old relationship. But spirituality, or the power of Love, or as my guru calls it: “Tantra” or “the struggle for liberation” is at the heart of every good thing that has ever happened (yes, even in the many good aspects of Christianity, and there are many).
It was Love that saw me through that ridiculous ordeal. And if you look closely, you’ll see that it’s Love that’s leading you through yours too (at least, if you listen to Love instead of Fear).
And I’d also like to point that Spirituality is not some nebulous, new-age mumbo jumbo that I’m just throwing around. It has been my privilege in the last few years of my life to discover an actual science of spirituality. The fact that I’ve discovered this science (or did it discover me?), is to me, nothing more than further evidence of Divine Love and its grasp on all of us. It’s called Yoga, and it’s much more than just some fancy aerobics that bourgeious people in Austin do (and this is why labels are endlessly frustrating….it’s actually called “Tantric Yoga” so you can guess where everyone’s mind goes here….). The asanas (movements and poses) are just one of 8 limbs of the true spiritual practice of Yoga. I can assure you that if you sincerely follow this practice, this lifestyle of Yoga (which means “Divine Union”, by the way), you can discover true spirituality for yourself in a real way, and in a time when the world desperately needs it. But I’m not here to tout my new beliefs. If you really want to find it, go search (and watch for fake-ass liberal yoga “exercise”….you’ll know based on how much money they charge you…). I guarantee you’ll find it. And it will find you. Also feel free to just ask.
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GETTY EU boss Jean-Claude Juncker and German chancellor Angela Merkel
The leaders of both the remaining europhile movements in the Icelandic parliament, who took a battering in last month’s election, announced they are shelving plans for a vote. Iceland is part of the Single Market through its participation in the European Free Trade Association (Efta), but has control over trade, agriculture and fishing. Before the contest three of the seven parties in the country’s parliament were in favour of joining up as EU members, but that number was slashed to just two out of eight.
Every opinion poll carried out in the country since 2009 has shown a healthy public opposition to joining the bloc, despite the efforts of some politicians to drum up interest. The most recent survey, carried out in February this year, showed that just 25.9 per cent of the population are in favour of EU membership compared to 54 per cent against. And Iceland’s two remaining europhile parties, the Social Democratic Alliance and the Restoration Party, have now admitted the idea is so unpopular it will not feature in their demands, according to Iceland Monitor.
Following last month’s election, which saw a record eight parties join Reykjavik’s parliament, political leaders have been locked in tense coalition talks. Iceland’s centre-left Government applied to join the EU in July 2009 following the banking crisis that hit the country, but the negotiations were then scrapped by its successor in 2015. Public opinion in the tiny country mirrors that in the biggest Single Market state, Norway, where just 16 per cent of people favour EU membership according to a poll last year.
Brussels EU summit in pictures Fri, October 20, 2017 The EU is expected to say that they will start internal preparatory work on a post-Brexit transition period and a future trade deal with Britain Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 44 Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference on the second day of European Council meetings |
Americium-241 (241Am) is an isotope of americium. Like all isotopes of americium, it is radioactive. 241Am is the most common isotope of americium. It is the most prevalent isotope of americium in nuclear waste. Americium-241 has a half-life of 432.2 years. It is commonly found in ionization type smoke detectors. It is a potential fuel for long-lifetime radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Its common parent nuclides are β− from 241Pu, EC from 241Cm and α from 245Bk. 241Am is fissile and the critical mass of a bare sphere is 57.6-75.6 kilograms and a sphere diameter of 19–21 centimeters.[1] Americium-241 has a specific activity of 3.43 Ci/g (curies per gram or 126.9 gigabequerels (GBq) per gram).[2] It is commonly found in the form of americium-241 dioxide (241AmO 2 ). This isotope also has one meta state; 241mAm, with an excitation energy of 2.2 MeV, and a half-life of 1.23 μs. The presence of americium-241 in plutonium is determined by the original concentration of plutonium-241 and the sample age. Because of the low penetration of alpha radiation, americium-241 only poses a health risk when ingested or inhaled. Older samples of plutonium containing plutonium-241 contain a buildup of 241Am. A chemical removal of americium-241 from reworked plutonium (e.g. during reworking of plutonium pits) may be required in some cases.
Nucleosynthesis [ edit ]
Americium-241 has been produced in small quantities in nuclear reactors for decades, and many kilograms of 241Am have been accumulated by now.[3] Nevertheless, since it was first offered for sale in 1962, its price, about US$1,500 per gram of 241Am, remains almost unchanged owing to the very complex separation procedure.[4]
Americium-241 is not synthesized directly from uranium – the most common reactor material – but from the plutonium isotope 239Pu. The latter needs to be produced first, according to the following nuclear process:
92 238 U → ( n , γ ) 92 239 U → 23.5 m i n β − 93 239 N p → 2.3565 d β − 94 239 P u {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{238}_{\ 92}U\ {\xrightarrow {(n,\gamma )}}\ _{\ 92}^{239}U\ {\xrightarrow[{23.5\ min}]{\beta ^{-}}}\ _{\ 93}^{239}Np\ {\xrightarrow[{2.3565\ d}]{\beta ^{-}}}\ _{\ 94}^{239}Pu} }
The capture of two neutrons by 239Pu (a so-called (n,γ) reaction), followed by a β-decay, results in 241Am:
94 239 P u → 2 ( n , γ ) 94 241 P u → 14.35 y r β − 95 241 A m {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{239}_{\ 94}Pu\ {\xrightarrow {2~(n,\gamma )}}\ _{\ 94}^{241}Pu\ {\xrightarrow[{14.35\ yr}]{\beta ^{-}}}\ _{\ 95}^{241}Am} }
The plutonium present in spent nuclear fuel contains about 12% of 241Pu. Because it converts to 241Am, 241Pu can be extracted and may be used to generate further 241Am.[4] However, this process is rather slow: half of the original amount of 241Pu decays to 241Am after about 14 years, and the 241Am amount reaches a maximum after 70 years.[5]
The obtained 241Am can be used for generating heavier americium isotopes by further neutron capture inside a nuclear reactor. In a light water reactor (LWR), 79% of 241Am converts to 242Am and 10% to its nuclear isomer 242mAm:[6]
79%: 95 241 A m → ( n , γ ) 95 242 A m {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{241}_{\ 95}Am\ {\xrightarrow {(n,\gamma )}}\ _{\ 95}^{242}Am} }
Decay [ edit ]
Americium-241 decays mainly via alpha decay, with a weak gamma ray byproduct. The α-decay is shown as follows:
95 241 A m ⟶ 432.2 y 93 237 N p + 2 4 α 2 + + γ 59.5409 k e V {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{241\!\,}_{\ 95}Am\ {\overset {432.2y}{\longrightarrow }}\ _{\ 93}^{237}Np~+~_{2}^{4}\alpha ^{2+}+\gamma ~59.5409~keV} }
The α-decay energies are 5.486 MeV for 85% of the time (the one which is widely accepted for standard α-decay energy), 5.443 MeV for 13% of the time, and 5.388 MeV for the remaining 2%.[7] The γ-ray energy is 59.5409 keV for the most part, with little amounts of other energies such as 13.9 keV, 17.8 keV and 26.4 keV.[8]
The second most common type of decay that americium-241 undergoes is spontaneous fission, with a branching ratio of 3.6×10−12[9] and happening 1.2 times a second per gram of 241Am. It is written as such (the asterisk denotes an excited nucleus):
95 241 A m ⟶ 95 241 A m ∗ ⟶ 3 0 1 n + f i s s i o n p r o d u c t s + e n e r g y ( γ ) {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{241}_{\ 95}Am\longrightarrow ~_{\ 95}^{241}Am^{*}\longrightarrow 3_{0}^{1}n~+~fission~products~+energy~(\gamma )} }
The least common (rarest) type of decay for americium-241 is 34Si cluster decay, with a branching ratio of less than 7.4×10−16.[9] It is written as follows:
95 241 A m ⟶ 81 207 T l + 14 34 S i {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{241\!\,}_{\ 95}Am\longrightarrow _{\ 81}^{207}Tl+_{14}^{34}Si} }
Applications [ edit ]
Ionization-type smoke detector [ edit ]
Americium-241 is the only synthetic isotope to have found its way into the household, where the most common type of smoke detector (the ionization-type) uses 241AmO 2 (americium-241 dioxide) as its source of ionizing radiation.[10] This isotope is preferred over 226Ra as 241Am emits 5 times more alpha particles and also emits relatively little harmful gamma radiation. With its half-life of 432.2 years, the americium in a smoke detector decreases and includes about 3% neptunium after 19 years, and about 5% after 32 years. The amount of americium in a typical new smoke detector is 0.29 microgram (about one-third the weight of a grain of sand) with an activity of 1 microcurie/37 kilobequerels (1.0 μCi/37 kBq). Some old industrial smoke detectors (notably from the Pyrotronics Corporation) can contain up to 80 μCi. The amount of 241Am declines slowly as it decays into neptunium-237, a different transuranic element with a much longer half-life (about 2.14 million years). The radiated alpha-particles pass through an ionization chamber, an air-filled space between two electrodes, which allows a small, constant electric current to pass between the capacitor plates due to the radiation ionizing the air space between. Any smoke that enters the chamber blocks/absorbs some of the alpha particles from freely passing through and reduces the ionization and therefore causes a drop in the current. The alarm's circuitry detects this drop in the current and as a result, triggers the piezoelectric buzzer to sound. Compared to the alternative optical smoke detector, the ionization smoke detector is cheaper and can detect particles which are too small to produce significant light scattering. However, it is more prone to false alarms.[11][12][13][14]
Manufacturing process [ edit ]
The process for making the americium used in the buttons on ionization-type smoke detectors begins with americium dioxide. The AmO 2 is thoroughly mixed with gold, shaped into a briquette, and fused by pressure and heat at over 1470 °F (800 °C). A backing of silver and a front covering of gold (or an alloy of gold or palladium) are applied to the briquette and sealed by hot forging. The briquette is then processed through several stages of cold rolling to achieve the desired thickness and levels of radiation emission. The final thickness is about 0.008 inches (0.2 mm), with the gold cover representing about one percent of the thickness. The resulting foil strip, which is about 0.8 inches (20 mm) wide, is cut into sections 39 inches (1 meter) long. The sources are punched out of the foil strip. Each disc, about 0.2 inches (5 mm) in diameter, is mounted in a metal holder, usually made of aluminium. The holder is the housing, which is the majority of what is seen on the button. The thin rim on the holder is rolled over to completely seal the cut edge around the disc.[15]
RTG power generation [ edit ]
As 241Am has a roughly similar half-life to 238Pu (432.2 years vs. 87 years), it has been proposed as an active isotope of radioisotope thermoelectric generators, for use in spacecraft.[16][17] Even though americium-241 produces less heat and electricity than plutonium-238 (the power yield is 114.7 mW/g for 241Am vs. 390 mW/g for 238Pu)[16] and its radiation poses a greater threat to humans owing to gamma and neutron emission, it has advantages for long duration missions with its significantly longer half-life. The European Space Agency is working on RTGs based on americium-241 for its space probes[18] as a result of the global shortage of plutonium-238 and easy access to americium-241 in Europe from nuclear waste reprocessing.[19][20]
Its shielding requirements in an RTG are the second lowest of all possible isotopes: only 238Pu requires less. An advantage over 238Pu is that it is produced as nuclear waste and is nearly isotopically pure. Prototype designs of 241Am RTGs expect 2-2.2 W e /kg for 5-50 W e RTGs design, putting 241Am RTGs at parity with 238Pu RTGs within that power range.[21]
Neutron source [ edit ]
Oxides of 241Am pressed with beryllium can be very efficient neutron sources, since they emit alpha particles during radioactive decay:
95 241 A m ⟶ 432.2 y 93 237 N p + 2 4 α 2 + + γ 59.5 k e V {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{241\!\,}_{\ 95}Am\ {\overset {432.2y}{\longrightarrow }}\ _{\ 93}^{237}Np\ +\ _{2}^{4}\alpha ^{2+}+\ \gamma ~59.5~keV} }
Here americium acts as the alpha source, and beryllium produces neutrons owing to its large cross-section for the (α,n) nuclear reaction:
4 9 B e + 2 4 α 2 + ⟶ 6 12 C + 0 1 n + γ {\textstyle \mathrm {^{9}_{4}Be\ +\ _{2}^{4}\alpha ^{2+}\longrightarrow \ _{\ 6}^{12}C\ +\ _{0}^{1}n\ +\ \gamma } }
The most widespread use of 241AmBe neutron sources is a neutron probe – a device used to measure the quantity of water present in soil, as well as moisture/density for quality control in highway construction. 241Am neutron sources are also used in well logging applications, as well as in neutron radiography, tomography and other radiochemical investigations. [22]
Production of other elements [ edit ]
Chart displaying actinides and their decays and transmutations.
Americium-241 is sometimes used as a starting material for the production of other transuranic elements and transactinides – for example, neutron bombardment of 241Am yields 242Am:
95 241 A m → ( n , γ ) 95 242 A m {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{241}_{\ 95}Am\ {\xrightarrow {(n,\gamma )}}\ _{\ 95}^{242}Am} }
From there, 82.7% of 242Am decays to 242Cm and 17.3% to 242Pu:
82.7% → 95 241 A m → ( n , γ ) 95 242 A m → 16.02 h β − 96 242 C m {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{241}_{\ 95}Am\ {\xrightarrow {(n,\gamma )}}\ _{\ 95}^{242}Am\ {\xrightarrow[{16.02\ h}]{\beta ^{-}}}\ _{\ 96}^{242}Cm} }
17.3%→ 95 241 A m → ( n , γ ) 95 242 A m → 16.02 h β + 94 242 P u {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{241}_{\ 95}Am\ {\xrightarrow {(n,\gamma )}}\ _{\ 95}^{242}Am\ {\xrightarrow[{16.02\ h}]{\beta ^{+}}}\ _{\ 94}^{242}Pu} }
In the nuclear reactor, 242Am is also up-converted by neutron capture to 243Am and 244Am, which transforms by β-decay to 244Cm:
95 242 A m → ( n , γ ) 95 243 A m → ( n , γ ) 95 244 A m → 10.1 h β − 96 244 C m {\displaystyle \mathrm {^{242}_{\ 95}Am{\xrightarrow {(n,\gamma )}}~_{\ 95}^{243}Am\ {\xrightarrow {(n,\gamma )}}\ _{\ 95}^{244}Am\ {\xrightarrow[{10.1\ h}]{\beta ^{-}}}\ _{\ 96}^{244}Cm} }
Irradiation of 241Am by 12C or 22Ne ions yields the isotopes 253Es (einsteinium) or 263Db (dubnium), respectively.[23] Furthermore, the element berkelium (243Bk isotope) had been first intentionally produced and identified by bombarding 241Am with alpha particles, in 1949, by the same Berkeley group, using the same 60-inch cyclotron that had been used for many previous experiments. Similarly, nobelium was produced at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia, in 1965 in several reactions, one of which included irradiation of 243Am with 15N ions. Besides, one of the synthesis reactions for lawrencium, discovered by scientists at Berkeley and Dubna, included bombardment of 243Am with 18O.[24]
Spectrometer [ edit ]
Americium-241 has been used as a portable source of both gamma rays and alpha particles for a number of medical and industrial uses. The 59.5409 keV gamma ray emissions from 241Am in such sources can be used for indirect analysis of materials in radiography and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, as well as for quality control in fixed nuclear density gauges and nuclear densometers. For example, this isotope has been employed to gauge glass thickness to help create flat glass.[3] Americium-241 is also suitable for calibration of gamma-ray spectrometers in the low-energy range, since its spectrum consists of nearly a single peak and negligible Compton continuum (at least three orders of magnitude lower intensity).[25]
Medicine [ edit ]
Americium-241 gamma rays has been used to provide passive diagnosis of thyroid function. This medical application is now obsolete. Americium-241's gamma rays can provide reasonable quality radiographs, with a 10-minute exposure time. 241Am radiographs have only been taken experimentally due to the long exposure time which increases the effective dose to living tissue. Reducing exposure duration reduces the chance of ionization events causing damage to cells and DNA, and is a critical component in the "time, distance, shielding" maxim used in radiation protection.[26]
Hazards [ edit ]
Americium-241 is a form of americium therefore having the same general hazards. Americium and its isotopes are both extremely toxic and radioactive. Although α-particles can be stopped by a sheet of paper, there are serious health concerns for ingestion of α-emitters. Americium and its isotopes are also very chemically toxic as well, in the form of heavy-metal toxicity. As little as 0.03 μCi (1,110 Bq) is the maximum permissible body burden for 241Am.[27]
Americium-241 is an α-emitter with a weak γ-ray byproduct. Safely handling americium-241 requires knowing and following proper safety precautions, as without them it would be extremely dangerous. Its specific gamma dose constant is 3.14 x 10−1 mR/hr/mCi or 8.48 x10−5 mSv/hr/MBq at 1 meter.[28]
If consumed, americium-241 is excreted within a few days and only 0.05% is absorbed in the blood. From there, roughly 45% of it goes to the liver and 45% to the bones, and the remaining 10% is excreted. The uptake to the liver depends on the individual and increases with age. In the bones, americium is first deposited over cortical and trabecular surfaces and slowly redistributes over the bone with time. The biological half-life of 241Am is 50 years in the bones and 20 years in the liver, whereas in the gonads (testicles and ovaries) it remains permanently; in all these organs, americium promotes formation of cancer cells as a result of its radioactivity.[29]
Americium-241 often enters landfills from discarded smoke detectors. The rules associated with the disposal of smoke detectors are relaxed in most jurisdictions. In the U.S., the "Radioactive Boy Scout" David Hahn was able to concentrate americium-241 from smoke detectors after managing to buy a hundred of them at remainder prices and also stealing a few.[30][31][32][33] There have been a few cases of exposure to americium-241, the worst case being that of Harold McCluskey, who at the age of 64 was exposed to 500 times the occupational standard for americium-241 as a result of an explosion in his lab. McCluskey died at the age of 75, not as a result of exposure, but of a heart disease which he had before the accident.[34][35] |
Wilton man admits to killing his father Thursday
Aaron Ramsey, right, was charged Friday, May 4, with murder, attempted first-degree larceny and attempted first-degree burglary. Aaron Ramsey, right, was charged Friday, May 4, with murder, attempted first-degree larceny and attempted first-degree burglary. Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Wilton man admits to killing his father Thursday 1 / 18 Back to Gallery
WILTON — A 22-year-old man is being held on $1 million bond for murdering his father at their Signal Hill Road home.
Aaron Ramsey, 22, is currently being on held on $1 million bond for murder, attempted first-degree larceny and attempted first-degree burglary. He is expected to be arraigned shortly after 12 p.m. at Norwalk Superior Court.
“This is a sad day for Wilton,” said First Selectman Bill Brennan. “It’s a human tragedy, a tragedy for the family.”
At a press conference Friday, Police Chief Michael Lombardo said 73-year-old Edward Ramsey died of blunt force trauma, and Aaron Ramsey confessed to the murder Thursday night.
Police said that, prior to the discovery of the body, a Cheesespring Road resident called 911 to report that a man was trying to break into her car. Shortly after, another Cheesespring Road resident reported that a man — later identified as Aaron Ramsey — had entered her home, covered in blood, and was refusing to leave.
Paramedics responded to the scene and took Aaron Ramsey to Norwalk Hospital.
Police received another call at 4:24 p.m. reporting that Edward Ramsey was found dead in the lower floor of his Signal Hill Road home. |
Bellman is a Rust-language library for building zk-SNARKs — small, cheap-to-verify zero-knowledge proofs of arbitrary computations. The goal of bellman is to make it easier for the general public to use and experiment with zk-SNARKs, and also as a step forward for improving the security and performance of Zcash’s next major release, Sapling.
Bellman contains an implementation of the BLS12-381 elliptic curve construction that we described a couple weeks ago, which will appear in an upcoming paper by our scientists. This construction was designed specifically for efficiently building zk-SNARKs, while maintaining a high security margin.
This week, I’ve added a primitive implementation of a new zk-SNARK proving system designed by Jens Groth. Secure in the generic group model, the new design produces smaller proofs that can be constructed faster and with less memory.
Overview of zk-SNARKs
If you’re interested in how zk-SNARKs work internally, Ariel Gabizon has been writing a series of blog posts about the underlying math that you should check out! For now, we can understand them on a surface level.
zk-SNARKs are powerful proofs that, unlike other zero-knowledge proving schemes, are very small (a couple hundred bytes) and cheap to verify (several milliseconds), even if the statement being proven is large and complicated. Their zero-knowledge property allows the prover to hide details about the computation from the verifier in the process, and so they are useful for both privacy and performance.
The only such schemes known to be efficient are preprocessing. In a sense, this means that a kind of “environment” must be constructed which allows the prover to evaluate the statement and produce a proof. There is no known way to construct such an environment without necessarily being temporarily in possession of information that would allow you to construct false proofs.
Zcash, which uses zk-SNARKs for its shielded transactions, uses parameters that were constructed in a sophisticated multi-party computation ceremony that you can read about here. zk-SNARKs are also useful in the designated verifier model, where the verifier itself constructs the needed parameters, and so neither the prover nor the verifier are concerned about its integrity.
In many zk-SNARK schemes, the statement being proven is reduced to what is called a rank-1 quadratic constraint system, or R1CS. In this system, the prover is given a system of arithmetic constraints over a set of variables (elements in a large prime field :math:`\mathbb{F}_r`), and asked to produce an assignment to the variables which satisfies the constraints.
Overview of Bellman
Bellman is currently in its infancy, but we can already use it to construct these kinds of proofs. Currently, only a very low level API is available, upon which we can construct DSLs and various abstractions for synthesizing circuits. If you want to experiment with it, grab the bellman crate from crates.io.
All of our circuit abstractions are written generically over an Engine trait that handles the elliptic curve and finite field arithmetic. Central to circuit synthesis is the ConstraintSystem trait:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 pub trait ConstraintSystem < E : Engine > { /// Allocate a private variable in the constraint system, setting it to /// the provided value. fn alloc ( & mut self , value : E :: Fr ) -> Variable ; /// Enforce that `A` * `B` = `C`. fn enforce ( & mut self , a : LinearCombination < E > , b : LinearCombination < E > , c : LinearCombination < E > ); }
There are two important design decisions here:
All variable allocation, assignment, and constraint enforcement is done over the same code path. This differs from the design of libsnark’s gadgetlib, for which it was too easy to potentially forget a constraint or notice bugs in existing abstractions because of the separation. This approach makes it easier to write abstractions and perform code review. All variable allocation and assignment are done simultaneously, and the existing assignments cannot be queried or modified. This encourages better gadget design, and prevents gadgets from accidentally using the assignments to “communicate” with each other. This also has a performance benefit: since all variables are already assigned, constraint enforcement during proving is directly synthesized into the underlying witnesses to avoid having to keep a constraint system in memory at all.
As an example of a kind of gadget implementation, here’s how a boolean constrained variable could be implemented, along with XOR:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 #[derive(Clone)] pub struct Bit { var : Variable , value : bool } impl Bit { pub fn alloc < E , CS > ( e : & E , cs : & mut CS , value : bool ) -> Bit where E : Engine , CS : ConstraintSystem < E > + ? Sized { // Allocate the variable let var = cs . alloc ( if value { E :: Fr :: one ( e ) } else { E :: Fr :: zero () } ); // Enforce (1 - var) * var = 0, which requires // var to be either 0 or 1 cs . enforce ( LinearCombination :: one ( e ) - var , LinearCombination :: zero ( e ) + var , LinearCombination :: zero ( e ) ); Bit { var : var , value : value } } pub fn xor < E , CS > ( & self , e : & E , cs : & mut CS , other : & Bit ) -> Bit where E : Engine , CS : ConstraintSystem < E > { let new_value = self . value ^ other . value ; let new_var = cs . alloc ( if new_value { E :: Fr :: one ( e ) } else { E :: Fr :: zero () } ); // 2a * b = a + b - c cs . enforce ( LinearCombination :: zero ( e ) + self . var + self . var , LinearCombination :: zero ( e ) + other . var , LinearCombination :: zero ( e ) + self . var + other . var - new_var ); Bit { var : new_var , value : new_value } } }
Building a circuit is a matter of implementing the Circuit and Input traits:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 pub trait Circuit < E : Engine > { type InputMap : Input < E > ; fn synthesize < CS : ConstraintSystem < E >> ( self , engine : & E , cs : & mut CS ) -> Self :: InputMap ; } pub trait Input < E : Engine > { fn synthesize < CS : PublicConstraintSystem < E >> ( self , engine : & E , cs : & mut CS ); }
This design splits up circuits into a Circuit implementation, which provers instantiate to construct proofs, and a Input implementation, which provers and verifiers use to perform input allocation and related circuit synthesis. This differs from libsnark, where these code paths are redundant, use different utility functions and require careful code review to ensure consistency.
Once we actually do have an implementation of Circuit and Input , we can use the functions provided in the groth16 module: create a keypair (with some randomly selected trapdoors), construct a proof, and perform verifications:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 // Create a proving key and verifying key let ( pk , vk ) = { let tau = E :: Fr :: random ( e , rng ); let alpha = E :: Fr :: random ( e , rng ); let beta = E :: Fr :: random ( e , rng ); let gamma = E :: Fr :: random ( e , rng ); let delta = E :: Fr :: random ( e , rng ); let c = DummyCircuit ; groth16 :: keypair ( e , c , & tau , & alpha , & beta , & gamma , & delta ) }; // Construct a proof let proof = { let r = E :: Fr :: random ( e , rng ); let s = E :: Fr :: random ( e , rng ); let c = DummyCircuit ; groth16 :: prove ( e , c , & r , & s , & pk ). unwrap () }; // Prepare the verifying key let pvk = groth16 :: prepare_verifying_key ( e , & vk ); // Verify proof assert ! ( groth16 :: verify ( e , | cs | { DummyInput }, & proof , & pvk ));
Future work
These lower level foundations are all that is available in Bellman right now. In the future we will be writing tools which allow us to build things like hash functions and stream ciphers.
Bellman is still under development and shouldn’t be used in production software yet. In fact, its API deliberately does not expose anything that would allow you to actually use it! It currently serves as an excellent learning opportunity for constructing zk-SNARKs safely and efficiently, and the lessons we learn from building it will shape the future of Zcash.
We’re also excited to be writing Bellman in Rust! If you’re a Rustacean and you’re interested in zk-SNARKs or Zcash, we invite you to check out our project, join our community chat or look at some of the various things we’ve written in Rust before, like our multi-party computation ceremony code. |
Brian Mahar
Don’t tell David Guetta or Calvin Harris, but DJs were made to perform. Harris is the 31-year-old Scottish EDM sensation responsible for “Summer” who once defended pre-recorded sets, telling that BBC that he’s “not expecting the DJ to perform music” when he goes to a club. And while he was most likely talking about the subtle nuances and technical issues behind bringing a heavily-produced track to a live club setting, the sentiment is still unsettling.
Thank the Gods of the ones and twos for Red Bull Thre3Style.
The eight-year-old, once-underground DJ competition — which makes competitors spin at least three genres of music into a body-rocking 15-minute set — brings its Southeastern regional qualifiers to Ybor City this Thurs., Feb.19. The winner moves on to the USA Championships in Phoenix and if victorious, to the world finals in Tokyo later this year. Representing Tampa in 2014 is Justin Layman — aka DJ Casper, a founder of Crowbar’s BOTB-winning Ol’ Dirty Sundays party. He’ll be pitted against Obscene, Konflikt and Nikko Calor (all from Miami), Orlando’s DJ Nova, and DJ IV from Atlanta, who were hand-selected by the likes of Jazzy Jeff, DJ Hedspin and Z-Trip. They’ll evaluated on originality, creativity, technicality, stage presence and crowd response by a panel of judges that includes Four Color Zack, DJ M-Squared, and former Thre3style Regional Champion DJ KU.
The event is free with a ticket. Register for yours here. More information on Thre3style can be had here. The competition kicks off at 9 p.m. The Ritz Ybor is located at 1503 E. Seventh Ave. in Ybor City.
Watch last year’s winning routine from ESKEI83 below. |
The new generation of streaming music services like Spotify, Rdio, and MOG have more music than you could consume in a lifetime. But how much of it would you really want to listen to?
There’s no shortage of great roundups and reviews showing the pros and cons of each service, but they rarely talk specifically about the different music you can find on each. They’ve all built impressive catalogs, but it’s nearly impossible to tell from casual browsing which artists and albums are exclusives for each.
Fortunately, both Rdio and Spotify offer powerful developer APIs, making it simple to compare the two. (Sadly, MOG doesn’t offer an API, so isn’t included.)
For this test, I needed a large set of popular, well-loved albums to test. I used the top 5,000 albums from Rate Your Music, the quirky 11-year-old online community dedicated to rating and reviewing music. These albums span all genres, from klezmer to chiptune, with a total of 2,282 different artists across 70 years of recorded music.
I used the Spotify and Rdio search APIs to look up each album, and checked their streaming availability in the United States. (Rdio uses the IP address to determine country of origin, making it impossible to query other countries. Spotify, on the other hand, returns a list of every region the album’s available.)
Note: The results aren’t perfect. Spotify and Rdio often have slight differences between artist and album names, which can deliver false positives. Let me know if you spot anything amiss and I’ll correct it.
Results
Of the top 5,000, about 44% were available on both Spotify and Rdio. 4.8% of the albums were only available on Spotify, while a further 6.8% were only available on Rdio. Overall, 56% of the albums were streamable on at least one of the services.
Labels are still withholding most or all of the albums from many popular artists. The Beatles, King Crimson, AC/DC, The Eagles, Tool, De La Soul, Peter Gabriel, Led Zeppelin, and Metallica are nowhere to be found, as well as most of the best albums by The Kinks. Music geeks will be sad to discover that Frank Zappa, Coil, Spacemen 3, and Joanna Newsom are all missing, as well. This landscape will constantly shift as labels change their minds; Arcade Fire was added to Spotify yesterday, and more than 200 indie labels left the streaming services last month.
But what about albums that are exclusive only to one service? The results surprised me. Spotify has a reputation for having a deeper catalog, but at least for historic critically-regarded albums, Rdio has a better selection of both popular and obscure artists. More albums in the top 5,000 were available on Rdio, and they offer exclusive access in the U.S. to huge acts like Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, the White Stripes, and Queen.
Top Exclusive Artists
Only on Rdio Only on Spotify Bob Dylan (12) My Dying Bride (4) Pink Floyd (8) Miles Davis (4) Bruce Springsteen (7) Candlemass (3) Miles Davis (6) Funkadelic (3) The Gathering (5) The Pretty Things (3) Blind Guardian (4) Current 93 (3) Can (4) Darkthrone (3) William Basinski (4) Underworld (3) Iced Earth (4) Katatonia (3) Stars of the Lid (3) CunninLynguists (3) The White Stripes (3) Charles Mingus (2) John Williams (3) Mahavishnu Orchestra (2) Queen (3) The Jesus Lizard (2) Nevermore (3) The Misfits (2) Thelonious Monk (3) Klaus Schulze (2) Charles Mingus (3) John Coltrane (2) Bill Hicks (3) Galaxie 500 (2) John Coltrane (2) Silvio Rodríguez (2) Camel (2) Secos & Molhados (2) Keith Jarrett (2) maudlin of the Well (2)
Note that artists like Miles Davis and John Coltrane appear on both lists because of how prolific they were. Both are well-represented in Spotify and Rdio, but some critically-adored out-of-print albums are unavailable on both.
Top Exclusive Albums
Only on Rdio Only on Spotify 4. Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon 63. The Zombies – Odessey and Oracle 6. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here 104. Candlemass – Nightfall 7. Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited 231. Funkadelic – Standing on the Verge of Getting… 19. Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde 288. The Jesus Lizard – Goat 25. The Clash – London Calling 290. The Pretty Things – Parachute 29. Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home 326. The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra – The Jazz Comp… 30. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks 362. Klaus Schulze – X 51. Pink Floyd – Animals 428. Sodom – Agent Orange 85. Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan 459. Danny Elfman – Edward Scissorhands 103. Bob Dylan – Another Side of Bob Dylan 472. Galaxie 500 – Today 107. Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin’ 494. Current 93 – All the Pretty Little Horses 121. Dr. Dre – The Chronic 502. Secos & Molhados – Secos & Molhados 149. Stars of the Lid – The Tired Sounds Of 515. maudlin of the Well – Bath 164. Camel – Moonmadness 546. Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway 174. The White Stripes – Elephant 550. Anathema – Alternative 4 175. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago 618. Darkthrone – A Blaze in the Northern Sky 196. John Williams – Raiders of the Lost Ark 666. The Byrds – Fifth Dimension 218. Popol Vuh – Hosianna Mantra 685. The Gun Club – Miami 224. Jethro Tull – Nothing Is Easy: Live at the Is… 751. Autopsy – Severed Survival 246. Albert King – Born Under a Bad Sign 772. My Dying Bride – Turn Loose the Swans 278. Keith Jarrett – Vienna Concert 775. The Jesus Lizard – Liar 304. Dead Kennedys – Plastic Surgery Disasters 785. Vektor – Black Future 320. Thin Lizzy – Black Rose: A Rock Legend 787. maudlin of the Well – Leaving Your Body Map 331. Magic Sam – West Side Soul 790. Jean Michel Jarre – Oxygene 369. Bob Dylan & The Band – The Basement Tapes 797. 16 Horsepower – Secret South 387. Eric Dolphy – Out There 803. Riverside – Out of Myself 393. Blind Guardian – Live 804. Darkthrone – Transilvanian Hunger 425. Devin Townsend – Terria 846. Nino Rota – Amarcord 468. Strapping Young Lad – City 859. Suede – Suede 489. Pretenders – Pretenders 900. Darkthrone – Under a Funeral Moon
The fact is that both services have done a tremendous job of building the celestial jukebox — with a couple of high-profile exceptions, nearly everything you’d ever want to listen to is available at your fingertips.
Now, one huge drawback of using the Rate Your Music list is that it skews towards older album-oriented music geeks. That’s great if you like Ornette Coleman and Galaxie 500, but not so great if you like Drake and Katy Perry.
Next week, we’ll set the controls for the heart of mainstream music: the Billboard charts, analyzing every charted single in the top 100 from 1955 to the present. This will give us a completely different view of their catalogs, focused on pop singles, past and present, instead of classic albums.
Want more? Ed Summers did his own fascinating deep-dive into Spotify and Rdio uses top album lists from Alf Eaton’s Album of the Year list collection, and published the results on Google Fusion Tables. Also, try Matt Montag’s Music Smasher, a tool that searches Rdio, Spotify, and Grooveshark. |
Donald Trump, Jr. attends the 139th White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., April 17, 2017. AFP/Getty Images
High-ranking members of President Donald Trump’s campaign met with a Russian lawyer who has clear ties to the Kremlin merely two weeks after he clinched the Republican nomination for president. The meeting, which was revealed by the New York Times, was organized by Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and was held at Trump Tower in Manhattan with the presence of then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and now senior adviser. The Times summarizes why this previously undisclosed meeting is so significant:
While President Trump has been dogged by revelations of undisclosed meetings between his associates and Russians, this episode at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, is the first confirmed private meeting between a Russian national and members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle during the campaign. It is also the first time that his son Donald J. Trump Jr. is known to have been involved in such a meeting.
The meeting involved Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, whose husband was once a member of the Russian government and is known for opposing the Magnitsky Act, which blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. The law so angered the Russian government that it retaliated by ending American adoptions of Russian children. That was purportedly what the meeting was about, according to Trump Jr.
“It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up,” Trump Jr. said in a statement to the Times. “I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”
That statement marked quite a change in tune from an interview back in March, when Trump Jr. told the Times he hadn’t participated in any meetings with Russian nationals involving the campaign. “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did,” he said at the time. “But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.” |
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The RCMP has found no evidence to substantiate the sexual abuse complaint against John Furlong.
The RCMP investigator sent Furlong a letter in April saying the RCMP has concluded its investigation and as it has found nothing to support the complaint of sexual abuse by Beverly Abraham, it will not be forwarding a report to Crown Counsel.
WATCH: Jill Krop gives us a preview of Furlong’s interview:
Furlong, the former head of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, was accused in an interview in the Georgia Straight last fall of harming aboriginal students when he taught at a Catholic school in Burns Lake over four decades ago.
In July, Abraham and another woman, Grace West, launched a lawsuit against Furlong. In September a third lawsuit was filed against Furlong who has denied all claims of physical and sexual abuse.
WATCH: Furlong responds to allegations of abuse in September 2012:
Furlong has launched his own defamation lawsuits against the Georgia Straight and a journalist.
Abraham says she is disappointed because “the proper investigations hasn’t been done at all.” The RCMP called her a couple of weeks ago and said they had concluded her investigation and that they did not find anything to prove her claim against Furlong.
“My lawyer has taken all the papers of what, he’s investigating the RCMP of what the investigations has been done,” says Abraham.
She says the RCMP has only spoken to her once on the phone and visited her once about the allegation.
Abraham still has a civil suit against Furlong, and says West and an unnamed man, does as well but says the RCMP has not spoken to either of those people.
“I do believe we have a strong case because there is more that is coming out,” says Abraham.
“My heart is just beating so fast, not with anger or anything, but, probably is with anger,” she says, fighting back tears. “I’m just so heartbroken right now because of what [the investigator] is doing and it’s not right for him to do that. He should have done more but he said he concluded it, and it really broke my heart because he didn’t talk to any of them.”
In a statement to Global News, Sgt. Rob Vermeulen with the BC RCMP says:
When a file(s) is concluded our normal course of action would be to notify the complainant(s) and in some cases, where appropriate, the subject(s) of complaint. Due to the serious and sensitive nature of the allegations, earlier this year we asked for an independent review of our complete investigation by major crime investigators from another province. That review resulted in a number of investigative recommendations that we continue to follow up on. Our file remains open at this time.
We also remain mindful that there are multiple civil actions underway as well and as such it would be inappropriate to provide further comment.
For the first time tonight, Furlong speaks with News Hour anchor Chris Gailus, and tells his side of the story.
An extended interview will air at 7 p.m. on BC1. It will also be live streamed on our website. |
As the NFL becomes more and more positionless, trying to project which specific position spots prospects will fill in at becomes more and more of a challenge. Especially at the linebacker spot, I think back to the 2016 draft which saw Akron linebacker Jatavis Brown get drafted at the end of the 5th round by the Chargers; I would have never guessed that going into his second season Brown would be a starting middle linebacker. Draft analysts were wondering if he could even handle the physicality of being a weakside linebacker, becoming a middle linebacker wasn’t part of the discussion. Perhaps a more famous example, look back at the 2014 draft when Anthony Barr was drafted 9th overall by the Vikings. Barr was projected as a prototype 3-4 edge rusher, with his 6’4” 250-pound frame and amazing athleticism. Many analysts thought the Vikings were making a mistake trying to fit Barr into a strong side 4-3 linebacker role. If you can take one thing from these examples, it’s that NFL coaches can mold a special athlete like Barr or Brown into just about anything, and projected position labels are just educated guesses. So here we are with Washington linebacker Azeem Victor who plays in the middle for the Huskies. I don’t know where he’ll play at the next level, but the bottom line is that he’s going to be out there playing somewhere, and that’s what’s ultimately important. So let’s break down Victor’s game by his strengths and weaknesses, and discuss his bright NFL future!
Strengths
Technique: Azeem Victor is about as good a linebacker technique-wise as you’ll come across. Beginning with tackling, Victor is both the sound tackler that coaches like and the big hitter that brings fans to their feet. After his tackling, his body positioning and leverage are very solid. Good linebackers find a way to contort their bodies to get off of and around blocks, that’s exactly what Victor does. Lastly, I liked what I saw in his fluidity with his hips, but unfortunately, in the Washington defense, he didn’t have a lot of opportunities to really show them. Overall there is a lot to be excited about with Victor technique wise!
I love watching Azeem Victor tackle, hard hitting with sound technique!! @AzeemVictor @WriteWhatuLove pic.twitter.com/YBlqgPZbxM — Bradley Ylitalo (@NFL_drafthub) July 11, 2017
Athleticism: Victor is an athlete first and foremost. It will be his calling card and trademark, and it’s what bleeds into every facet of his game. From man and zone coverage to pursuing speed backs to either end of the field, Victor is rarely, if ever, overmatched athletically. Perhaps the best part of his athleticism will be the versatility he will be able to draw upon because of it! Victor truly has the ability to play at any 4-3 linebacker spot (or 3-4 ILB) and in any scheme. His ranginess in coverage would allow him to play the Mike in a “Tampa 2” scheme, while his tackling ability in space fits very well in a Cover 3 or man scheme.
Coverage: My one beef with scouting Washington defensive prospects? The Huskies play almost exclusively zone defense and Cover 3 at that. That’s why I really don’t have much to say about Victor’s man coverage ability. All I can say is that by proxy of his other skills, there’s a lot of hope and promise there. He definitely has the speed and quickness to stick with backs and tight ends; I just don’t know if his hips and man coverage skills are what you look for in coverage linebackers. Anyway, enough complaining, the benefit with scouting these Washington players? You really get to see their zone coverage skills, and from what I saw out of Victor, I’m really excited about this part of his game. Victor plays his zone extremely well while also keeping his eyes on the quarterback. Victor’s quickness and agility really help him out in his “hook/curl” Cover 3 responsibility, and that may just be the perfect fit for him going forward.
Here’s one of the few times Victor was in man coverage.
Victor covering the wheel route, over pursues but improvises and stays with Jones! @AzeemVictor @WriteWhatuLove pic.twitter.com/Aq2f5WmAlX — Bradley Ylitalo (@NFL_drafthub) July 11, 2017
Dealing With Blocks:
How well Victor can deal with NFL blockers will determine how complete of a linebacker he becomes; It’s safe to say he’s dealt with D1 blockers very well so far. As I mentioned earlier, Victor’s ability to leverage his body, and bend himself to fill running lanes is damn impressive. With his ability to deal with blocks, and his sound tackling skills, I like Victor’s future as a run defender.
Here's Victor getting off a block from a guard and helping with the tackle at the goal line! @AzeemVictor @WriteWhatuLove pic.twitter.com/IgrjPeVtG3 — Bradley Ylitalo (@NFL_drafthub) July 11, 2017
Weaknesses
Strength:
How well Victor can play the run is even more impressive considering his lack of great strength. Not to say that Victor isn’t strong, especially for the college game, but I’m not quite sure he’s ready to handle the strongest the National Football League has to offer. Strength may just be the last piece of the puzzle for Victor to be a complete linebacker, and if he does get stronger, becoming a future All Pro player is not out of reach.
Summary
Linebackers are often the apple of IDP players eyes, and Victor should be considered one of the best in this 2018 class. Potential owners should be excited about his three-down ability, and versatility to shine in any system. My one concern, as should also be the concern of potential owners is Victor could end up being used as a more of a coverage linebacker, rather than a run stuffer. At the end of the day, Victor is a tremendous talent who should be dominant for Washington this season. Here we are still very early in the draft process, as of now I have him slotted as a late first/early second round talent!
Arizona
Oregon State
USC |
Story highlights Fire is out, authorities in Dubai say
Building caught fire in February 2015
(CNN) A blaze tore through Dubai's Torch Tower for the second time in two years as firefighters frantically worked to save the 84-story building.
The Dubai Civil Defense said the fire burned for at least two hours early Friday before firefighters started cooling the building.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, the Dubai Media Office tweeted
Video posted on social media showed fire on one side of the building and falling, flaming debris. The Torch Tower is near Dubai Marina.
Please Be Safe Tonight!! BLESS EVERYONE IN THERE ❤ A post shared by Alan J (@alanjamazing) on Aug 3, 2017 at 2:15pm PDT
Witness Samer Fathallah told CNN the fire engulfed 30 to 40 residences. Two cars in the parking deck were set ablaze by falling debris, he said.
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